Younger Years (ALTERNATIVE: SAVING HIM)

Red's Secret

As classes finished for the day Serena made her way to the clearing where Red trained. Stalker like as it may seem she had taken to watching him train lately. She wasn't sure whether he knew or not but she wasn't gonna stop, he was a fantastic battler and his Aura powers were crazy awesome in her mind.

Red was meditating in the clearing. his eyes were closed and he could feel his breathing calm from the long day he had experienced. It had been a week since the party and ever since then everyone wanted to battle him. The project had gone well and they got an A, Serena still constantly 'interrogated' him but he was getting used to it. It was hot still since it had been a hot summer it was taking a while to cool down. Standing up, Red peeled off his shirt and began to do laps around the clearing with his pokemon, except for Charizard and his Lycanroc he had caught when he took a vacation to Alola. The two of them were having a battle instead of running.

Serena was hid out in the bushes as she watched Red stand up, then what he did next stunned her. He pulled his shirt off and started running, Serena felt her cheeks blaze up at seeing his bare chest. She ducked her head further into the bushes as she crawled away, and when she was out of sight she ran back home with her cheeks still a flaring red.

Red continued his laps until  it got dark, pulling on his shirt he ran back to his house and opened the door. 

"Ash? is that you?" Delia called out to her son.

"Yeah it's me mom!" Red called back.

"Dinner's in the microwave!" she told him.

After thanking his mother Red grabbed his dinner and ate it quickly before heading to bed. As he laid down though he heard a knock on his window, he walked over to it only to see nothing. He turned around thinking it must have been nothing but as he did it happened again, so once again he turned around. This time he saw Serena leaning against his window, tapping away at it, her face a brilliant red.

Red thought about opening it before closing the curtains and laying down, only to be brought back by her incessant tapping.

"What do you want? We're not friends." Red said blandly as he cracked the window.

"Well if you would have listened to me for the past week you would know. My friends and I wanted to know if you'd like to go to the beach with us this weekend?" Serena suggested to him.

"No." Red said as he closed the window and curtains.

"Well fine then!" Serena said from the other side with a huff.

Red slept peacefully from there on out and when he woke up in the morning he quickly got ready for school. He left his house and walked into the woods, and made his way to school. He had gotten used to Calem, everyday he would try to bother Red. Whether it was trying to punch him or by dumping water on him as he walked into class. Neither thing really bothered Red though, he figured he could just avoid a punch and the water was always cold and refreshing anyway so it didn't matter that much. That and Red had Charizard to dry him off, so it wasn't much of a problem.

The day went on for a while, and eventually it was time for his class with Calem, battling class. He walked to the bleachers and of course Calem dumped water on him. Pikachu's cheeks sparked but Red calmed him quickly.

"Thanks." Red said calmly as he took his seat and called out Charizard.

Before long Red was dry and he returned Charizard only to hear the teacher say, "Today class, we will be having a guest do a battle with one of you, the champion from the Sinnoh Region, Cynthia!"

Red's eyes widened at Cynthia's name but he just hid his face as best he could.

"The best part is, you the students will choose who is battling her! Now you cannot vote for yourself but anyone else in the class is fair game!" the teacher said.