Chapter Text
Serena and Gary finished up their walk and headed back into the palace. The minute they were out of the public eye Serena pulled away from Gary. He smirked at her and tried to keep a tight hold round her waste.
"Let go of me!" She cried angrily hitting his chest.
"Oh come one," He sneered. "Don't deny that your hopelessly in love with me." He tightened his grip and pulled her even closer. She gave him a loud smack across the cheek and wrenched herself free.
"I love Ash not you." She said firmly.
"Seriously, why would you want an some loser muck boy when you could have all this?" He gestured to himself arrogantly.
"Don't you dare insult him." Serena said with venom seething through her tone. "Ash is sweet and friendly and funny and he makes my heart skip a beat. You and me don't have anything special why can you not see that." Her voice began to break at the end and tears had begun glinting behind her eyes. A flash of hurt appeared in Gary's eyes. But he soon concealed it again.
"I see." He said, "I understand." He turned away from Serena. She was in utter shock, had he just said he understood?
"Is there something you want to tell me?" Serena asked in a knowing way. Gary sighed and walked over to a sofa. He sat down then motioned for Serena to sit beside him. She kept her eyes fixed on him the whole time, then when they were both settled Serena sat silently signalling Gary to speak.
He signed once more and began to talk.
"When I was younger I was like Ash, I use to be so kind to all the people I knew and didn't care for all the power I had being a prince." Serena gasped at this, the 'Great Prince Gary of Kanto' didn't use to care about power!
"But then I fell in love and everything changed." He continued. Serena gasped once more but still didn't talk, desperate to hear the rest of his tale.
"There was this maid in the palace, she and I were the same age and had come to really enjoy each others company. I would always ask for her name but she kept refusing to tell me, we use to play games where I would try to guess it was a lot of fun actually. And as time went by we realised we both had strong feelings for each other and planed to marry when we where old enough." Gary stopped to breath for a minute; Serena was in total shock by all this and wondered what had happened to change Gary. She would soon find out as he continued the story.
"We kept our engagement a secret so no one would come between us. But unfortunately my father had grown suspicious and ordered one of the guards to spy on me. When my dad found out I was planning to marry he hit the roof. He immediately sent her away and kept me locked up in the tower of the castle till I'd 'learnt to be a proper prince'." He let out one final sigh of sadness then looked to Serena. He was a bit taken aback to see the honey haired princess staring at him with tears streaming down her face. She flung herself around him and began sobbing 'sorrys' and 'deepest regrets' at him. He just froze to shocked to return the hug; 5 minutes ago he would have been all over this kind of treatment but now it seemed his heart just wasn't in it. He pushed her away and looked into her soft blue eyes.
"Thank you." He said seriously giving her a long hard stare to show her he was being 100% honest.
"Why?" She question.
"You reminded me of who I really am, after I lost my nameless love I started to let what my father said change me. But now I realise that I will always have caring in my heart deep down." He smiled as he spoke.
"Oh, well your welcome." Serena said.
"I also know that deep down I still love her and you love Ash. So your right there is nothing between us." Gary said.
"Mm mm." Serena said wagging her finger in his face. "Your wrong." She smirked.
"What do you mean?" He asked puzzled.
"There is something between us. It's called friendship." Serena said giving Gary a genuine smile for once. He happily returned the smile and stretched out his hand. The to shook warmly and accepted each other as friends.
"There is still the problem of our arranged marriage. Now that our parents have agreed they will never let us back out." Gary sighed sadly. Serena stood up, her face was so downcast Gary couldn't even imagine how she was feeling. She left without saying anything else. Gary let out yet another sigh. He rested his arms on his knees and looked at his feet, wishing he could do something to help his new friend.
"Hey, I uh couldn't help but overhear your chat with Serena." Someone said. Gary looked up to see Serena's maid Iris. She had a kind of clever smile on her face. "I take it you no longer wish to marry Serena." She said. It was more of a statement then a question but Gary decided to elaborate anyway.
"Serena's sweet and I'm proud to be her friend; but there's just no special connection between us. I don't feel for her in the way I did for my childhood love. And I know she has that same spark with Ash." He looked to the ceiling and smiled all of a sudden. " I lost the girl I love because of these stupid royals laws, I hate to see Serena going through the same thing. He said allowing his smile to fade.
"Well what if I told I knew a way to get you out of this marriage and Ash in instead." Iris said flashing a sly smile. Gary thought it over then gave her an equally sly grin.
"I'm listening…" He smirked.
With Serena…
Fennekin was sat on Serena's bed licking it's paws when the daw flew open causing her to jump. She watched as her trainer ran right past her and out onto the balcony. Serena caught hold of the railing for support and then collapsed into a crying fit. She felt so cornered, Gary was right after all. She would be forced to go through with this marriage regardless of how she felt. It wasn't fair, her mother could do what ever she wanted just because she's the queen. It was only because she had threatened to kill Ash that she had pretended to hate him. She knew that like him his heart was probably the broken and the guilt made her cry harder. She was in the midst of choking on her sobs when she felt something soft brush her face. She opened her eyes to meet with those belonging to her partner.
"Fenn..?" Fennekin said, clearly feeling concerned for her trainer. Serena wiped away her tears and tried to tell Fennekin she was alright. But a few uncontrollable tears slipped out of her eyes betraying her words. Fennekin understood Serena better than anyone and knew she needed her right now. She began licking the tears from Serena's eyes, making her giggle. Fennekin's face lit up at her trainers laughter.
"Well at least I'll always have you Fennekin." Serena said giving her partner a sad but accepting smile. Her face suddenly turned to one of question when she realised she wasn't crying anymore but she could still hear sobs. She stood up and leaned over the balcony to see if anyone was around. Her eyes immediately spotted Ash in the square. It didn't take long for her to notice Ash was the one crying. She felt another knife of guilt slide through her heart as remembered it was all her fault Ash had been through all this. It was a pitiful sight really; he was sat down while bending over so his head was hanging just between his arms which were both holding him up. He was still half naked in nothing but moltars (which if you remember were underpants made out of heavy metal. They are diaper shaped and have strange markings on them, just put there to look silly). His body was bruised and stained with muck. It was all over his hair to, which was hanging around his head at the moment concealing his face. But the shaking of his shoulders could be seen and his sobs echoed in the silence of the town. Serena couldn't stand to see him this way. But she knew there was nothing she could do to help him without being caught by the guards and Ash suffering a greater punishment. It wasn't fair! She had started all this it should be her down there not him. Tears began seeping out of her eyes once again.
"What am I going to do." She cried.
"Well for starters your going to stop letting your mother push you around, your going to marry Ash and then your going to become the queen of Kalos." A familiar voice said.
"Huh?!" Serena spun round to see non other than Iris and Gary. "What?" She asked.
"I said your going to marry Ash then become queen." Iris said rolling her eyes and giving Serena her 'your a kid' look.
"But how?" She asked.
"Iris has a plan." Gary said smiling.
"Ok." Serena said with a hint of uncertainty present in her voice.
"Listen closely, heres what we need to do…" Iris said.
An hour later…
Ash's cries had softened to stifled sobs as the night came and everyone left. He was completely heartbroken, what was worse he'd been forced to cry with everyone watching. He felt more humiliated than all of his previous humiliations combined.
"Serena." He choked out. It was the first thing he'd said in days. He just couldn't believe she'd called him a loser today. Was it true she had just been using him, he thought she loved him. And even now after all he'd been through he still loved her. After all, the worst thing about hating someone you love. Is the fact that they are someone you love!
"Ash?" A soft voice whispered just in front of him. He sniffed mid sob and looked up enough to see a figure in a familiar black cape.
"Who are you?" Ash asked. The figure pulled back the hood to reveal the face of Serena! Ash gasped then quickly looked away as if she had just hit him. He looked very pained at seeing her; she took a few steps back wondering if this was perhaps not such a good idea.
"Listen I know you were just using me and that you love Gary. But I can promise you, nothing you say will make me feel worse than I do now." Ash said, the hurt evident in his voice. This made Serena feel worse. She was so nervous she thought she might throw up, she was desperate for Ash's forgiveness. She took a deep breath…
"I love you." She said. It was all she needed to say to get his attention. Ash looked straight at her, his eyes wide with surprise. He stayed frozen like that for about a minute before his face relaxed into one of depress again.
"I know your lying, it's ok you don't have to pretend to like me anymore." He told her as a couple more tears escaped his eyes.
"No. Ash I promise it's not a lie, please let me explain." She begged.
"Come on. I believed it for a little while but I should have realised you never loved me. Who would?" Ash sighed.
"Who wouldn't?" Serena countered.
"Seriously! I could keep you here all night listing names." He said.
"Well I love you and I know all your friends do to." Serena said. She smiled softly hoping to somehow get through to Ash.
"Yeah I know my friends love me, even though I sometimes doubt it and feel as if they just feel sorry for me. But still I can't understand why someone like you could ever love someone like me. You deserve someone like Gary, he's a prince. I'm a muck boy. I did keep up the hope that you loved me until Trip pointed out it was impossible." Ash sighed, hanging his head slightly.
"I love you for you not because your a prince. I honestly couldn't care less that you're a muck boy. I fell in love with the person you are on the inside." She paused to think for a moment. "And what do you mean Trip pointed out it was impossible." She snapped.
"Well…" Ash started, then began to tell her about what had occurred this afternoon.
*Flashback start*
Serena walked away with her arms around Gary. Ash stared at the loving smile on her face till his tears turned it into a blurry mess. He felt a fool for crying like baby in front of the whole town including the woman he loved. He choked mid sob as he recognised the laughter beneath him.
"Your an even bigger baby then I thought you were!" Trip said between laughs.
"Your an idiot to. I can't believe you thought the princess actually liked you." Damien said with a vile expression on his face.
"She, she said she loved me." Ash muttered under his breath, but Trip's keen ears caught it anyway.
"What was that. You really thought she loved you. Don't make me laugh!" Trip said, laughing anyway. He then help up a mirror he had brought to torment Ash with. "Just look at yourself; what kind of person would love you. Your a loser! A freak! A no good muck boy who tried to pretend he was actually worth something. But guess what you have no home, no friends, no family and, judging by the state your in, no dignity either. Only a complete fool would even like you, let alone love you!" Trip screamed, the hatred and venom soaking his voice right through. The others laughed evilly as Ash just stared at the mirror in front of him. He had known he must have looked a sight but he hadn't until now had any idea how awful his appearance truly was. He was in just those ridiculous moltars which exposed the rest of his skin. It had been severely beaten and was covered all over with cuts and bruises. Then there was all the muck and grime staining his body and causing his hair to stick to his head. The only clean part of himself were the channels on his face where his tears had fallen from his, now bloodshot, eyes.
Ash looked over himself several times but he could see only truth in their words. They were right, who would love someone like him?
*Flashback end*
"They were right you know. I mean, just look at me." Ash said gesturing to his, still hideous, appearance. Serena knew deep down she had never loved Ash for how he looked it was his inner self that she really loved. But she could tell from what he'd said about not being worth anything he felt unworthy on the inside as well.
"Listen Ash first of all I never loved Gary, I just pretended so my mum wouldn't kill you." She said.
"What?" Ash suddenly looked up in amazement.
"Secondly," Serena continued. "I fell in love with you on the first day we met, when you were Ash not 'prince Satoshi' I love you because your funny and kind and respectful and you love pokemon and you're always nice to people even though some aren't nice back…" She just began endlessly listing things she loved about Ash. He just listened in stunned silence. And when Serena had decided she'd made her point she looked at Ash with a deep seriousness in her eyes.
"Don't you dare break my heart by saying I can't love you cause I do and I want to be with you forever. I'm begging you." She suddenly became very pleading, her eyes shinning in the moonlight as she feel to her knees. "Please Ash, forgive me and admit that we both love each other." She stopped there and began staring into Ash's chocolate eyes, looking for some sign of emotion. At first he was still shocked but after a while his eyes softened into a look of acceptance. his lips began to curve into the same loving smile he used the first time the two met.
"Of course I'll forgive you Serena. You're everything to me and I would love to be with you forever." Ash said.
"Ah!" Serena gasped in happiness. She didn't care that Ash had grime all over his face she ran up and kissed him passionately. She loved him so much, but midway through the kiss she felt him start to resist and pulled away.
"What is it?" She asked nervously.
"I'm still chained to a stage, and your getting married tomorrow so we can't be together." Ash sighed seeming depressed again.
"Oh don't worry about that." Serena said with a sly smile. She then whistled twice and two hooded figures appeared from the shadows. Ash gasped when they lowered their hoods to reveal they were Iris and Gary.
"The three of us have a plan." Serena said.
"Really?" Ash said.
"Really." Gary confirmed and then added that he was sorry about all the things he'd said to Ash in the past.
"What changed your mind?" Ash questioned.
"Well I talked things out with Serena and she helped me realise who I really am. Anyway I don't love Serena the way you do Ash; it should be you marring her tomorrow and Iris here knows away to make sure you do." He said smiling at Iris. She gave a rather clever grin then proceeded to explain the plan to Ash…
(I know thats like the third time I've mentioned the plan and some may be wondering what it is. But I thought it would be more fun if I just explained it as it happened.)