Amour in Galar form

29. Cave of crystals

"Mornin' Serena. Did ya sleep well?" asked the yawning Gou as he sat opposite Serena at their portable camping table, and Serena, who had fallen asleep leaning on her right hand, was startled awake.

"Huh? Did you say something?" she asked, yawning wide and stretching her arms. Gou opened his mouth to repeat his question, but didn't have time to say anything, for it was then that the tired-looking Ash, who had given breakfast to his Pokemon, stepped toward them half-asleep.

He sat down next to Serena and now seemed to notice the existence of the whole girl. "Morning, Moonflower," he said a little sleepily to her and yawned wide. Serena blushed when she heard the new nickname that Ash had invented for her, and last night’s events suddenly remembered bright in her mind.

However, Gou didn't know anything about them, so he looked pretty confused when Ash said Serena as the Moonflower.

"Moonflower? Where the hell does that name come from?" he said confused and watched as Ash made himself a sandwich and Serena poured herself a glass of orange juice, yawning wide with her hand in front of her mouth. Neither responded to him at all. "Besides, why do you two look so tired? Just like you've been staying up..."

He interrupted his sentence halfway and suddenly seemed to realize something. "..all night," he ended, and wide, and a little mischievous, grin appeared on his face.

"Right. Of course. Why didn't I realize it right away?" he muttered to himself and there was some intersection of grin and mischief on his face. "I get it now. Though I don't know where the name 'Moonflower' comes from, but maybe I shouldn't even know it. But now, if you will, I have a job to do."

And chuckling to himself, he left to give his Pokemon breakfast, and Ash and Serena stared after him, Ash saying, "What the heck is Gou talking about?" and Serena shrugging and yawning.

****

When they finally got to eat, and Ash and Serena had finally woken up properly, it was time to pack up their belongings and continue their journey to Ballonlea.

Meanwhile, as Ash and Gou unpacked Gou's tent and Lucario, Greninja and Braixen put everything ready outside, Serena packed her bag in her and Ash's tent ready to leave. Yamper and Pancham helped her to the best of their ability, but most of the time they just played some kind of tag on the tent floor.

Serena just put on her nightgown in her bag when something white and small dropped next to her on the tent floor. "Huh?" she said in amazement and picked up the thing from the ground and took it to her face to take a closer look.

She immediately identified the thing as one of the white petals she and Ash had followed last night to the magical square. She turned the petal in front of her face and wondered how it had ended up in the tent. Maybe it had caught on to her nightgown and thus passed into their tent.

Serena herself did not have a completely clear idea of ​​how she had gotten back to camp. She remembered falling asleep in the square, but when she had woken up in the morning, she had found herself sleeping in their tent, Ash snoring beside her. She guessed that Ash had carried her back to camp and she had, with a smile, pressed a small kiss to the boy's forehead. Ash had smiled in his sleep.

When she had sat up yawning to sit down, she had felt something fall from her head. Confused, she lifted it up from the ground and had been amazed when it was a small pink flower. She had then examined more closely and found other flowers and leaves in her hair as well. As she recalled more closely, she remembered making the flowers a wreath, so she guessed they came from it.

To her chagrin, however, the wreath was not visible in the dim tent, so she thought it had fallen somewhere in the woods. It saddened her a little, as it would have been nice for her to wear a wreath on her head today.