sunny-likes-pokemon

[sunny-likes-pokemon]

Not from Zero

What might have been going through Ash's head as he stomped around in the snow after losing to Wulfric.

Ash kept losing. He was desperate, clawing for success that always eluded his grasp. Alain was just so much stronger. Sawyer hadn���t been on his journey for even a year and had beaten him. And Wulfric had just pulverized him in a gym battle. 

Even worse than all that, he was out of sync with Greninja and his other Pokémon, always off-balance, like there was something missing. But what?

He paced around in the snow. What could he do? What should he do? Train harder? But how?! He was putting his all into every training session, every battle, but it wasn’t enough. 

A cold emptiness settled in his chest. He wasn’t enough. 

The log in the clearing was a terrible seat but he sat anyways, almost dizzy. Was that it? Was he just…not a good enough trainer? Not good enough to win, to even qualify for the league championship in Kalos, let alone beat it. Not good enough for Greninja to fully unlock his potential, to fulfill his promises to his Pokémon. 

He was holding his teammates back. 

He heard distant crunches in the snow, footsteps approaching him. He glanced up to see Serena, panting a bit, smiling as she walked into his clearing. 

He was a bit surprised to see her. Then he noticed the sky overhead, the time, and realized he’d been out here much longer than he’d thought. She’d had to come out here to find him. 

Then she started talking and Ash felt something dark and mean seethe in his chest. What was she doing here? Had she come out here to cheer him up? Why? Why wouldn’t she be quiet and let him think?!

He hated her for a moment, as she talked about losing. What did she know? She’d just started her journey and had done phenomenally in her Showcases! What did she know about struggle, about loss? He’d been in more leagues and more regions than anyone he knew of, and he still had yet to even reach the semifinals of a conference. 

When he snapped at her, she snapped back, then when he told her to leave him alone, she pelted him with snowballs and ran off into the woods. “You’re not acting like the Ash I know!” He thought she might have been crying. 

She had quite the throwing arm. He laid in the snow and looked up at the sky and wondered what in the world had just happened. Serena had never been so mad at him before. He’d never been so rude to her, though. 

“You’re not acting like the Ash I know!”

He growled at himself, then cried out in frustration. Then he stared at the sky some more, not seeing much of anything. 

He already felt terrible for what he’d said, what he’d thought. He didn’t hate Serena, not even a little. One, she was a ray of sunshine personified. Hating her would be like hating summer itself. 

Two…she did know about struggle and loss. She had only just found her dream after years of trying to be a Rhyhorn racer to please her mom. After years of not having a dream at all, of being resigned to just…not being happy. 

Serena had been so shy when they met in Santalune City. That timid girl wouldn’t have yelled at him or thrown snowballs at him. She’d gotten braver. She’d always been strong, but she’d found her confidence now, too. 

And she’d never said so, but he was pretty sure she’d been bullied in school and on her dance teams—she hadn’t been in school recently, but she hadn’t started her journey or done anything else. She was an excellent dancer but never talked about how she learned to dance. She never mentioned any old friends, never wanted to visit anyone specific to catch up. And bullying…that killed dreams. It had almost killed Ash’s, when he’d been in school. It was part of why he’d started his journey so early, to get away. 

Serena had been struggling for years, just as he had. She hadn’t just started from zero and zoomed to the top—she’d been practicing dancing, costuming, and baking her whole life. She just had an outlet for it now, a way for people to see and appreciate what she’d been all along. A direction to move forward in. 

“You’re not acting like the Ash I know!”

Full of energy, positive, a leader…and never gave up. He wanted to be those things. He’d tried so hard to become a trainer he could be proud of being, and he’d…thought he’d done alright, here in Kalos. 

He groaned and pushed himself up. What was wrong with him? Laying around, feeling sorry for himself? Nothing was going to change if he just moped about it—he had to do what he always did. He had to get back up and keep going. He couldn’t give up! 

So what if he lost? So what if others surpassed him? It just meant there was more to strive for and stronger trainers to battle. And maybe he would never win a league, but again, so what? That’s not why he battled. He wanted to get stronger with his Pokémon, to become the best him he could be, to see new places and have adventures and make new friends. He wanted to see his friends reach for their dreams and help them however he could. 

So he took a deep breath and got back to his feet. 

It took him a while to get back to his friends, all of them out searching for him. He thanked Serena for finding him, for trying to help him. He apologized as well. He wouldn’t do that again, wouldn’t worry them all again. And he wouldn’t lose sight of his real goals again—the person he wanted to become, the bonds he wanted to strengthen. It would be hard and he’d fall short a lot, but he wouldn’t give up until the end. 

She smiled at him, grabbing the ribbon on her chest, and Ash knew he’d been forgiven. 

[sunny-likes-pokemon]

Performance

Serena is planning her next performance and is completely stuck. Can her friends help her get out of her own head?

AO3 • ff.net

I absolutely love Showcases. They felt like actual dance competitions to me as someone who danced competitively in high school and college. As a performer myself, I related so much to those girls giving their all and improving their routines over their season, the costume troubles, the fun rivals, the weird ones who took everything way too seriously and weren’t fun at all. I’ll be honest, that’s probably why I like the Kalos adventure so much! It was very relevant to my life at the time.

I’ve read criticisms that the routines were “the same every time” and "boring" and I just want to be like—do you have eyes?? Can’t you see the gradual progression??? The growth of personal character and skill???? The changes that make such a big difference, culminating in a final performance reminiscent of and yet entirely evolved from the start????? Bah.

So this piece is dedicated to little me, full of anxiety but dancing her heart out anyways.

Serena sat with her head in her hands, thinking as hard as she could.

She’d gotten notes from the performance judges after her last showcase, but how in the world was she supposed to incorporate them?

One note had said her routine needed more ‘dimensionality,’ that she needed to use all the space available on the stage, including vertically, for the best effect. Another had said the rhythm of the transition during the bridge of the song needed to be improved. 

And, most confusing of all, one note said that she was ‘overthinking’ her routine.

“What does that even mean?!” she screeched, burying her hands in her hair.

The Pokémon gathered nearby to eat lunch startled, Frogadier jumping to his feet with hands raised, Braixen whipping out her branch and looking for enemies.

“Serena?” called Bonnie from the campsite where she was watching Clemont make lunch. “Are you okay?” Ash, who had been watching the Pokémon, and Clemont, busy with cooking, looked at her as well, concern obvious on their faces.

“Oh, yes, just fine!” she called back, embarrassed that everyone witnessed her outburst. She had to leave, just for a bit, and pull herself together. “I’m just going to take a quick walk.” And she stood in a hurry and quickly walked away.

“Stupid, stupid,” she muttered, then took a deep breath. “Okay. One at a time. Timing.”

That just needed more training, right? The more she and her Pokémon worked together, the more in sync they’d be. They would have to practice every day, then practice until they couldn’t mess up. Then they’d be perfectly on beat. 

“Okay, next. Dimensionality.” 

She closed her eyes and imagined she was looking at the stage from the audience, but frowned and stomped her foot when she started mixing up directions in her head. “I need to see it,” she said, marching back to the camp. 

“Clemont!” she shouted when she got close, still marching. 

The inventor jumped and nearly dropped his ladle into the soup. “Y-yes?”

“Did you record my performance?” He hadn’t mentioned anything beforehand, but sometimes he did things like that to be prepared for ‘a situation precisely like this one!’

“Y-yes?”

She nodded and put her hands on her hips. “I need to see it. I need to see what those judges were talking about.”

“I’ll watch the soup, Clemont,” Ash said, standing up and taking the ladle. 

The inventor was so startled that he didn’t even try to show her a ‘Performance Improver Prediction Machine’ or something. He just dug around until he found a tablet, loaded up the video, then handed it to her.

She sat down on the ground and started the video, studying it intently. 

“Um, Serena?” Bonnie asked. 

“Yes, what is it?” she asked, not looking up. There was the starting move from Braixen. Hm, maybe they could use Ancient Power to push it higher? No, that would change the shape of it too much. Could Braixen learn to increase her range?

“Don't you want to sit at the table…?”

Serena hummed absently and nodded. Pancham’s acrobatics were impressive close up, but diminished at a distance. How could he gain altitude? How far could he jump straight up?

“Notebook, notebook,” she muttered, reaching for her backpack. She didn’t find anything and realized she didn’t have it on. 

“Here,” Ash said, handing her her bag. 

Serena dug through the bag for a notebook and pencil, then started taking notes. 

“How to visualize…?” she muttered, then started sketching out the ‘beats’ of the performance, the big moments she really wanted to linger on, as they currently were, then below that, how she could change them to make them more dynamic. 

They had three minutes to perform, starting from the moment their music started, which was a few seconds after they took their starting poses on stage. 

They had to keep the performance escalating through that whole three minutes, starting off interesting and keeping it that way before a finishing move that would be memorable—popular vote deciding the competition meant she had to stick out in some way. 

“Serena, the soup’s getting cold,” Clemont said from nearby. 

She hummed and nodded, then squeaked when someone plucked the pencil and notebook from her hands. “Hey!”

Ash didn’t look impressed. “Seriously, you need to eat. I’ll give them back when you’re done.”

She pouted and pushed herself up, dusting herself off and stomping to the table to sit. There was a bowl of soup waiting there for her, as well as some fruit in the middle to share and her water bottle. 

She quickly shoveled the food into her mouth, grabbing her water bottle and a piece of fruit before standing up. 

“Okay, done! Give them back!”

Ash did, his eyes wide. He gestured at his face. “Um, you’ve got some soup…”

But she had already gone, heading over to the shade of one of the big trees around the campsite and settling down. She had to figure this out. 

—

Ash stood there, staring at Serena as she plopped herself down on the ground again. 

“That…was Serena, right?” Bonnie said, scooting behind Ash and holding Dedenne close as if to keep him safe. “She didn’t get possessed or…or body-swapped?”

Clemont shrugged. “I guess she must be really excited about working on her routine.” He started to clean up from lunch and Ash quickly shook off his confusion and helped. 

Usually, Serena was the last of them to finish eating, taking her time and talking and laughing, and she always helped clean up. 

Ash had hoped to move further that day, closer to his next gym, but Serena didn’t seem to realize anything else was going on, focused entirely on rewatching her performance and taking notes. The day dragged on and on, and Ash eventually had to admit they wouldnt be going any further. “I guess we’re camping here tonight,” he told the others, who looked over at Serena with concern. Camping here was okay with him. It wasn’t like gym battles were on a set schedule like showcases were (even if he did want to get there as soon as possible). He, like Clemont and Bonnie, was kind of worried about Serena, though. 

They set up their tents, the boys helping Bonnie with the girls’ tent, then got ready for bed. Some nights they all played a card game or something before going to sleep, but as one-fourth of their group was so frantically occupied, none of them were really feeling it. So Ash said his final ‘good night’ to his Pokémon and returned them to their Pokéballs to rest (except for Pikachu, who had already snuggled up in his sleeping bag). Then he put his hands on his hips and frowned at Serena, still scribbling away. At least she was sitting at the table now. 

“Serena,” he said, walking over to her, “it’s time for bed.”

“Just gotta…figure this…” she mumbled. 

He sighed. He understood. He did. And he’d had friends have this problem, before, too—hyper-focusing on planning it ‘just right’ and not taking breaks when needed, not doing what they’d planned. 

So he sat across from her and drummed his fingers on the table until she looked up at him, blinking, her eyes bloodshot. 

“Ash?” she asked, her voice a bit rough. “What’s up?”

He raised an eyebrow. “You. It’s bedtime.”

She scoffed. “No, it’s barely even…” She seemed to notice the dark of the sky then, how Ash was in his pajamas and the others already gone to sleep. “Oh. I guess it is.” She bit her lip and looked down at her notes. “But…but I need to…”

Ash sighed and propped his head up on his hand. It looked like a little more help was needed. “What are you struggling with?” She blinked at him in confusion and he waved at her notes. “I’ve had friends compete in things like this before. I have, too, but just for fun.” He scratched his cheek. “Maybe it won’t be the best help, but I’ll help you.”

Serena smiled at him, her shoulders finally relaxing. “Really?” He nodded, preparing himself for a long night. Then Serena yawned, covering it with her hand and then blinking slowly. “Oh, wow, I’m tired. Um, would you be okay to help me tomorrow?”

A bit relieved, he nodded again. “Absolutely.”

He stayed up while Serena got ready for bed, not wanting to leave her alone in case she decided she wanted to work some more. She did go right to bed, though, waving goodnight to him before joining Bonnie in the girls’ tent. 

The next day, Serena seemed to be back to her usual self, helping Clemont with breakfast and making Bonnie laugh with a story about her and Rhyhorn when she was very little. They got back in the road, and then Serena came up to him. 

“Um, are you still okay to help me?” she asked. 

He pumped his fist. “Of course! What do you need?”

She brought out her notebook, but paused and chewed on her lip. “When you said you competed in something like performances, what did you mean?”

So he explained contests to her, how the trainer was called a coordinator and specifically showed off Pokémon moves and the health of the Pokémon themselves, and then battled another Coordinator in a flashy way. Also, all scores were all decided by judges and not the audience. 

“Interesting,” she said softly, tapping her lips with her pencil. “So they don’t do routines?”

Ash frowned. “Well, I mean, kind of, but they’re much shorter and not set to a specific song. Not very many moves, either. Sometimes just one! They also don’t do the same routine, but come up with new ones each time. They weren’t as…it’s like…ah, buddy, what am I not explaining right?”

Pikachu crossed his tiny arms as he thought, then jumped off his shoulder and got into a ready stance, nodding at him. Ash laughed. “Alright, a demonstration it is!” He closed his eyes, remembering the moves he’d used before and what he’d learned since then. Then he shrugged and called out, “Okay, Pikachu, Electro Ball, straight up!” Once it was in the air, he called, “Thunderbolt at it, then smash them both with Iron Tail!” What resulted was an explosion of sparks and energy, and a very charged-up Pikachu. 

“Pika!!” Pikachu cried, eyes wide and grin wider. 

“Wow!!” Bonnie cheered, running up to them. “That was so cool, Pikachu!!” Dedenne cheered as well, scampering around Pikachu. 

Ash laughed at his little electric mouse, all fluffed up and sparking like a very hyper puff-ball. “Pikachu, Thunderbolt to get rid of all that static!” He looked back at Serena as Pikachu fired off a bolt into the sky and shrugged again. “Sorry, contests weren’t my thing. We probably would have gotten points off for all that static build up making Pikachu look silly. Some contests wouldn’t have allowed three moves. And there would have been a bit more planning, but that sort of thing.”

She tilted her head. “So, a coordinator just calls out a couple moves that their Pokémon practiced? They don’t all perform together?”

“Yeah, pretty much. Coordinators kinda just stand there. They usually have nice outfits, but it wasn’t a requirement.” 

She hummed and thought for a moment. “Well, I guess it’s not my part I have questions about.” Then she opened her notebook and showed Ash the drawings she’d made of a stage, tiny figures in various poses with move effects surrounding them. “One of the judges said I needed to use the vertical space more, so I was trying to think of different ways to get everyone’s moves to go farther.” She sighed. “I don’t know if you can train for that, though.”

“Well, you could have them launch themselves off of Pancham’s Stone Edge and then use their moves to get themselves higher into the air,” he said. “They both could do that, right? And then they could do something flashy while they’re up there.”

“Hm, yeah,” she said, turning to a new page and scribbling a few words there. “Maybe Braixen could blast herself up…”

Ash nodded, trying to think of cool moves he’d seen in his various battles. They continued to talk, throwing out ideas of different ways to add to or change Serena’s routine. Once Bonnie figured out what they were doing, she joined in, although she quickly got distracted imagining how Dedenne could perform. (And then Clemont joined in, too, when Bonnie seemed to think Dedenne could learn Flying Type moves.)

They didn’t make it to a Pokémon Center that day, so they found another spot to camp for the night. Serena seemed much more relaxed, actually joining them for dinner and helping set up camp. 

It was only after Bonnie and Clemont had both gone to sleep (Clemont had made a new invention which had exploded spectacularly and then said he was going to bed early) that Ash realized Serena was bent over her notebook again at the table, scribbling away.

He sighed. He’d hoped their planning session would have relaxed her. He was kind of tired…would it be better to let Serena figure out how bad an idea it was to stay up late on her own? Would she even notice, though? 

And then he heard a little sniff and saw Serena rub one eye, then a few more sniffs as she rubbed her arm across her face. She was crying?!

He grabbed his handkerchief from his bag and hurried over to her, sitting beside her and holding out the square of cloth.

“Thanks,” she said in a rough, quiet voice. “Sorry. I’m sorry.” She kept crying. She used the handkerchief to muffle the few sobs that tried to get through.

Ash frowned, trying to think of something to do or say. He shouldn’t just let her cry, right? When he got upset, he stormed off and brooded for a while. Except when he was at home, where his mom wouldn’t let him mope—she’d drag him into making dinner with her or playing a video game or watching a rerun of his favorite Pokémon battles until his problems didn’t seem so big. And if he was really upset, she’d sit with him and hug him until he felt better. There wasn’t exactly a kitchen, game system, or TV around, though, so he couldn’t do those things for Serena (he also didn’t know if she liked video games, and she probably would want to watch something other than battle reruns). He could hug her, though. So he scooted closer and wrapped his arms around her.

She squeaked and went very rigid. “A-Ash?!”

“It’s okay,” he said, patting her back and trying to remember what his mom had said to him in these situations. “It’s going to be okay.”

She slumped against him. “Why can’t I think of anything on my own?” she whispered. “I can’t just use your ideas all the time. Why…?”

Oh. Well, that made sense. “You’re thinking too hard about it.”

A groan was her response. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

“Have you thought about anything else these past couple days?”

“I mean…no, not really.” Then she straightened and narrowed her eyes at him. “And hard to believe you’re telling me that, Mr. Battle-Every-Trainer-That-Makes-Eye-Contact.”

He shrugged. “I know this stuff. Sometimes I use what I know.” Then he frowned. “I don’t battle every trainer.”

“But you want to.”

Well, she wasn’t wrong . “We’re getting off track. You can’t just think about one thing all the time. You’ll paralyze yourself. Do lots of things, think about lots of things.” He sighed and looked around at their little campsite. “That’s one of the reasons I like traveling with people. I get too caught up in my own head otherwise.”

She snorted lightly. “You? Really?”

He smiled wanly. “Yeah, I’m…not the best on my own.” 

She had been smiling as if expecting a joke, but it faded as she seemed to realize he was serious. “But you always come off as so confident and mature…”

Ash barked out a laugh, genuinely surprised. “Really?” He didn’t feel any different than he had when he first set off on his journey years ago, and he knew he’d been a brat back then, all big dreams and desperation to prove he had what it took to be a good trainer. Then again, he’d learned so much since then, met so many people and seen so many things, traveled all around the planet and had more adventures than any kid could ask for. It would have been stranger if he hadn’t changed at least a little bit. “If I’m so wise and mature, then you should listen to me and go to sleep. Sleep isn’t something you can miss and still function normally.”

Rolling her eyes, Serena closed her notebook. “Fine, fine.” She went to stand up, but paused and then sat down again, a small frown on her face as she looked at the handkerchief in her hand. 

“…Serena?”

Her eyes met his briefly, her expression unreadable. Then she smiled, bright as could be, and held the square of cloth out to him. When he went to grab it, she put her hand over his, her gaze practically burning into his. “You’re incredible. You’ll reach your dreams and go even further beyond them. I know you will.” 

Before he could say anything, she walked away and off to her tent. He didn’t move for a while, just sitting there, confused as could be. 

But…it made him really happy that she believed in him. She’d been traveling with him long enough to see the kind of guy he was, and apparently she still thought he could reach his dreams, no matter how big. 

He believed in her, too. Once she stopped worrying so much and found her groove again, he had no doubt she’d go on to be the best performer Kalos had ever seen. He couldn’t wait to see it!

[sunny-likes-pokemon]

Crees que Serena depende mucho de Ash? (Do you think that Serena depends a lot on Ash?). Sorry for my english hehe but you can answer in English because I'll understand.

And I’ll be glad to answer, Anon!

Because she does.

But it might not be as you expect.

Her dependence on Ash isn’t in such a way that she relies on him to do everything for her, or even most things. In the episode depicted above, Serena is the one charging ahead to battle Team Rocket, and Ash is only asked to lend a hand. In fact, most of the episode is Serena’s initiative (though she does get a bit of help from James to understand Braixen’s connection to the stick) as she does what she has to to help her Pokémon.

Serena’s reliance on Ash is different, indirect.

Keep reading

[sunny-likes-pokemon]

Paradox Espeon and Umbreon🌕🌑

Thanks to anonymous for the suggestion!

[sunny-likes-pokemon]

every time i see those posts like ‘what food from a show did YOU always wanna try’ i go lol none? but i just remembered im a liar

i always wanted the fucking soup brock made in the pokemon anime

[sunny-likes-pokemon]

Pokemon now with the mon

[sunny-likes-pokemon]

Chapter 3 of Pokémon Light & Darkness is out! Here are the illustrations for it! As always, by @standreamy

You can find the chapter on Ao3 and Wattpad!

In this chapter, we focus on mother-son bond and an important decision is made regarding Serena's future!

As for why kid Ash has grey eyes and not brown... in the old anime he is described to have black eyes, so adapting it to the new graphic we decided to keep his eyes dark grey as a kid and brown grown up. Many people experience a change in eye color while growing, so this is the case for Ash in our headcanon!

[sunny-likes-pokemon]

redrew some of my Baby Fanart from middle school its crazy how my interests have come full circle

[sunny-likes-pokemon]

💠💙 AmourShipping 💗💠

Final pairing for my 4 Ship Challenge! I'll post the full template on Monday, but if you want to see it now, it's on my Instagram and X/Twitter! (Also all pairings have been posted individually here)

I know extremely little about Pokémon, but for this challenge, I wanted to tackle at least one ship from a media I had never drawn for. Hopefully these two look okay in my style xD

This is dedicated to my friend Angy López, a huge fan of this ship! (I'll add links to her socials later, I kinda gotta go aaaaa)

[sunny-likes-pokemon]

Hello Tumblr I return to thee with two new works of art

[sunny-likes-pokemon]

[sunny-likes-pokemon]

“There’s just one more thing!”

After helping Chloe participate in her first contest, Serena sees Ash once again! But he’s on a ferry, and the ferry starts to leave, and they’ve hardly said anything at all.

Couldn’t they have a bit more time…?

AO3 • ff.net

In this story, Ash and Serena were sixteen at the end of XYZ. It’s been two years, so they’re now eighteen. Goh and Chloe are both ten, maybe eleven—they’ve just started their journeys.  

—

Serena smiled up at Ash as he stood on the ferry. He was leaning on the rail, his arms folded, smiling back at her. It was so good to see him! It was so good to see him happy to see her! He had a new outfit—very sporty looking—and Pikachu was there, as always, perched on his shoulder. 

And Ash’s eyes sparkled with the same passion he brought to everything, so excited to be doing what he loved—the two kids traveling with him were sure to have a fun time. She wondered if there was such a thing as a traveling gym leader, someone who roamed the world helping and teaching people and battling whoever wanted to for a badge. Maybe Ash could make that a thing. He certainly was friends with enough people that were champions and scientists that held some amount of power to make that happen.

“Serena helped me enter a contest,” Chloe was telling him, holding her Eevee close. “It was so fun! And she’s such a great performer!” 

Chloe reminded her of herself a bit, even if Chloe had gotten started on her journey earlier than Serena had. All that meant was that she had some more time to figure herself out, though. It took a lifetime, after all!

Ash laughed and petted Eevee, who barked happily. “Yeah, that sounds about right. I’ve never seen a better performer than her!” 

Her cheeks flushed. It had been almost two years since they’d seen each other in person and she still got flustered if he gave her a compliment. Well, even if she was so pleased that she just wanted to twirl around, there was still so much to say! There would be time for twirling later!

Or not. Then the ferry horn blew, signaling imminent departure. Ash’s smile fell, as did Serena’s. Their journeys weren’t over. There was still more to do—their dreams were within reach. 

But…couldn’t she have just a few more minutes…?

She swallowed and closed her eyes for a moment, then mustered a smile for the young man she still cared for so much and ran to the very edge of the pier. “Good luck, Ash! I’ll see you later!” She tried to pour her whole heart into those words, insufficient as they were.

He looked down at her for a second without doing anything, before grinning and spinning his hat around. Pikachu hopped down from his shoulder, obviously taken by surprise. Then Ash jumped down the stairs and vaulted over the railing! At least he was still holding onto the railing and hadn’t jumped into the sea! 

He was right there in front of her, hanging from the boat, so close that she flushed in surprise. “There’s just one more thing,” he said, brown eyes shining in the light of the setting sun. 

What did he…?

And he reached out and held her chin, and then his lips were pressed against hers for a few seconds. Soft, warm, and he was smiling a bit, she could feel it. 

He pulled away—or rather, the ferry pulled away. Serena was left standing there, blinking in shock, as Ash grinned at her. “You were right, Serena!” he called, still holding the stair railing, braced against the side of the ferry with his legs. “I do like the person you’ve grown into!”

Her whole face burned. He’d—he’d—! Then she laughed and covered her face. He’d kissed her! He’d remembered her kiss from two years ago and he’d kissed her back! So she looked back up and smiled wide and even blew him a kiss. “You can do it, Ash! I believe in you!” she shouted to him, waving and watching until he was out of view. 

“Sylvi?” Sylveon cooed, wrapping a ribbon around her arm. Then the little fox pranced around a bit—could she feel how happy Serena was? 

—

Ash climbed back onto the ferry deck once the pier was out of sight and was accosted by two very excited preteens. 

“You have a girlfriend?!” Goh squeaked. 

“Your girlfriend is Serena?!” Chloe squeaked as well. 

Even Pikachu sounded surprised as he jumped onto his shoulder. “Pikapi?!”

Ash adjusted his hat back to normal. “Well, we’re not dating. I think.” Two kisses hardly made a relationship, right? They hadn’t even talked about it.

“You think?!” 

“How do you not know?!” 

“I didn’t know you liked girls!”

“I didn’t know you liked anyone!” 

And on and on. 

Ash shook his head and scratched Pikachu under the chin. Had he been so dramatic at that age? Surely not. 

He missed Serena already. He had a goal to finish, though—world champion, and he was so close .

Wait for me, Serena, he thought. Keep improving, keep making the world smile, keep helping people find their dreams. Keep being you.  

And please, wait for me.  

—

As long as it takes, I’ll always believe in you. I’ll be ready whenever you are. 

[sunny-likes-pokemon]

Serena/Pikachu interactions are very cute and there needs to be more of them.

[sunny-likes-pokemon]

For valentine’s day here 4 sketches of my 4 OTPs:

Noremma: Norman x Emma (The Promised Neverland) SatoSere/Amourshipping: Ash x Serena (Pokémon) Izuocha: Izuku x Ochako (My Hero Academia) Luuta: Luffy x Uta (One Piece)

I have many ships I love and I would have liked to sketch more, but having no time for it I decided to just do my 4 favorites ever!

A bonus doodle with Uta being a mess at cooking and Sanji distracting from his helping duty because he got beaten by Luffy on love… (Uta is cooking meat with chocolate… apparently Chocolate can be used as sauce on meat and it’s supposed to be good??? So it works for Luffy)

[sunny-likes-pokemon]

Love will taste like malasadas…or malasadas will taste like love?

Read the story here on AO3

(click to enlarge image)

A picture + short story in honor of the most precious couple of dorks ever, now canon.

Happy belated Amourshipping  day everyone! ♥

[sunny-likes-pokemon]

Himeka!Millefeuie on action. 

Serena you owe her a big one (if you ever recover from this).

Pokemon: Soul Masters HC - quick thing of something that happened right after the double battle!

♥Amourshipping♥

[sunny-likes-pokemon]

Pokémon Yurutto