The Only Exception

24.

Okay, I'm really sorry for the late update! I really haven't had any ideas lately so I had to go and rewatch a few Pokémon just to get an idea. So, I hope you bare with me!

Enjoy!

The group were all gathered at the Lagoon Town theatre as they walked inside and sat in their seats at the top row. Awkwardly enough, Ash had sat between Dawn and Serena. He sighed as he looked over at Dawn, who had her eyes glued onto the performance stage. He furrowed his eyebrows at her and began thinking.

I still don't know what that dream was about. Why did I kiss Dawn? Why did she make me feel something more than I ever felt with Serena even in a dream?

Serena noticed Ash staring at Dawn and poked his arm to get his attention. He jumped a bit and looked over at Serena, who was giving him a confused look. "Are you alright?" She asked.

"Huh? Oh, yeah. Sorry, I just thought I.. saw someone I knew." Ash lied.

She raised an eyebrow at him as she turned her attention back to the stage. Pierre, the host, introduced Aria onto the stage. First, Braixen came out and started dancing around making beautiful flames come out of the twig it's holding. Aria then appeared from among the flames and started dancing along with Braixen.

"She's so beautiful!" Dawn smiled as she watched Aria dance around with her Braixen.

"You're beautiful too, Dawn."

Dawn's eyes widened as well as Serena, Clemont, and Bonnie who all turned to look at Ash. Serena furrowed her eyebrows at Ash. Clemont and Bonnie stared at him in shock. Dawn was just speechless, not knowing what to say to the raven haired trainer.

Ash's eyes widened when he realized what he just said as he tried to think of something. "What I meant by that was—"

But, before he could say anything. A wild Pancham caught their attention as they turned towards the stage to see it causing trouble and ruining the performance. The wild pancham then ran out of the theatre, taking some of the props with it.

The group ended up chasing after the wild pancham to get back the theatre props as well as some of their stolen items. They chased it into the forest to find that it was playing around with the stolen props and their things. Ash wanted to battle it but Serena insisted that she battled Pancham. She saw the way Pancham performed on stage and wanted to catch the panda Pokemon for her upcoming showcase.

Ash decided that he'd let Serena battle so the group all watched as Serena battled the wild Pancham with Fennekin. After trying to catch it twice, Serena had caught the wild Pancham the 3rd time. She then let it out of the pokeball and put on a pair on sunglasses on Pancham's head.

"You got a new friend." Ash smiled at her. Serena looked over at him and smiled, "I sure do! I definitely can't wait for the Showcase!" Everyone congratulated Serena on catching Pancham as they all headed back towards Lagoon Town to rest up in the Pokemon center for the night. They would be leaving to Coumarine City the next morning.

Dawn, Clemont, and Bonnie were all eating dinner while Ash and Serena were outside sitting on a nearby bench. Serena was looking down at her pokeball, smiling at the fact that she caught a brand new Pokémon. Ash was still busy thinking about his dream from last night, wondering what it could mean.

"I'm so glad to have you by my side."

His eyes widened when he heard those words and looked over at his side to see Dawn's face. She was smiling at him and he returned her smile. All of a sudden, Dawn's face was replaced with Serena's and Ash found himself back in reality.