Love in the Time of Tenacity

Chapter 4: A Past

Almost done with all the setup here, I promise! But nevertheless, this chapter's a pretty important one. So, that said, time for Chapter 4!

Chapter 4

A Past

Ash genuinely couldn't believe it. For a moment, he thought he was standing in a dream, if it weren't for the warmth of her hand in his. It felt like so long since he'd seen her, maybe even an eternity. That's why, even as she pulled him up, he still couldn't dare to believe it was little more than a figment of his imagination. He blinked a little, removing his hand from inside hers, and then he moved to wipe his face with the handkerchief.

In hindsight, he supposed, that should have been the first clue that she was actually real. Nevertheless, he persisted in using the handkerchief to wipe all the grime off that he had accumulated thanks to the sweat and work for the day. His bruises still stung a little, but there weren't that many left from all of his battles against Kahili; his body had grown much stronger in that regard. When he finally ceased his actions, Ash looked over and saw that she was still standing there, holding on to Pikachu. Since Pikachu had not learned how to float in midair (sure, they had learned a lot of things over the last month, but that wasn't one of those things), he had to come to the easy conclusion that she was real.

"Serena..." he finally breathed. Before he could stop himself, he'd closed the distance between them and managed to surprise her by moving right in for a kiss. She nearly dropped Pikachu, his best buddy squeezed into her chest as he gasped for air. For that moment, Ash didn't care. Serena was real, and she was here, and he'd missed her, and all he wanted to do was... "Wait a sec...why are you here?"

"Today was the rendezvous date," Serena said, gasping for breath as their lips disconnected from one another. Ash offered another blink, staring down at Pikachu (refusing to look anywhere around that area except for his friend's eyes, no matter the sudden difficulty).

"That was today?" he asked. Pikachu just shrugged. "Oh...it was today! Man, I totally forgot!"

"That's so like you," Serena laughed out, affording Ash the chance to step away and look to his Pokémon in trepidation. Now that he was back in firm reality, Ash finally realized how much he smelled...and that a large amount of his clothing, or at least his vest and shorts, were discarded near his backpack.

"Stop freaking out," Kahili called out. Ash looked to her, the woman that had been training him for a whole month, and saw that she looked just as liable to keel over as he was. Battling straight for twenty-four hours could do that to a person, and he suddenly realized his exhaustion factor. "Go wash yourself off in the spring before anything else. I probably should, too."

"You guys bathe in springs...?" Serena asked of him. Ash turned and grinned to her. As he did so, Pikachu wriggled free of her arms and returned to the rest of his Pokémon, all leading their own way towards the small cave that contained the springs in the back.

"Well, there's no other way to take a bath," Ash laughed out and he jerked his head in its direction. He just barely turned his back, when suddenly, he felt something pressing down upon it.

"Twerp!" Whipping his head at the name being used, Ash's eyes widened before he felt himself flattened underneath the combined group that was Team Rocket. "We were almost worried when you and Pikachu didn't show up!"

"I thought you mighta died!" Meowth practically bawled out. Ash struggled to get out from under them, but found he couldn't. Thankfully, Passimian and Kommo-o approached with their second wind, and both used a single arm to take the crying trio off of him.