Hey everyone! I promised you an Amour story on par with my old Advance ones, so I think it's finally time to deliver on that.

It's my hope and dream to continually improve every time I write something, though I realize I may or may not actually do that. That being said, I hope this story turns out at least as good as Love is Blind did, because I didn't expect the praise I ended up getting for that.

Anyway, here you are. Please enjoy!

A dry wave of heat swept through the forest, warming the already hotter-than-she-would-like young girl that happened to be walking through it at that moment. She frowned in a mixture of fear and discomfort as multiple beads of sweat dripped down her face and fell to the dusty ground beneath her.

"Where is everybody…?!" The young girl, Serena, cried out, hoping that one of her companions would hear her and direct her out of the mass of trees and brush. She was currently attending a Pokemon summer camp, hosted by the renowned researcher Professor Oak. She hadn't been too keen on attending, however, and in her attempt to distance herself from the main group, she had apparently wound up getting lost in the nearby forest.

"Where did you all go?" Serena asked again, though now it was clear that nobody was within earshot. Despite the fact that her mother had forced her to go to the camp, she was secretly afraid of Pokemon, and, honestly, wanted nothing to do with them. "Aaah!"

She recoiled at the sound of rustling leaves and subsequently tripped on a protruding root, causing her to fall over backward. She stared at the bush in front of her in terror, too afraid to even move, until the source of the noise finally burst forth and revealed itself.

"Poli!" A small, child-sized Pokemon emerged, bounding forward on its stubby legs and using its tail to balance in place of arms, which it lacked; a Poliwag. "Pawl?" It stopped and spared a confused but cheerful glance to Serena for a moment before merrily bounding off deeper into the trees, chanting 'Poli!' to itself with every hop.

Serena continued to stare off at the creature long after it had left her line of sight. "I knew I didn't want to come to camp…I knew it…" She mumbled sadly, tears welling up in her sapphire-blue eyes. "MOMMY!"

Despite her cries, she was met with only silence, and a few moments later, she heard something else rustling in the same bush that the Poliwag had recently emerged from. More tears escaped from her eyes, and so she shut them tight, hoping that she would wake up in her bed and find everything to have simply been a bad dream.

That was not the case, however, and instead of waking up, she heard a young boy's voice calling out from the brush. "Poliwag?"

Serena opened her eyes and stared at the boy in shock. She didn't think anybody else had wandered out this far, especially after failing to receive any reply to her calls for help earlier. The boy noticed her a second or two later and turned to her inquisitively. "Hey, are you all right?"

"Huh…?" Serena answered, not really thinking through what she was saying. Something about this boy seemed…different. Calm, kind. Almost…caring.

"Hi. I'm Ash!" The boy announced proudly when he didn't receive an answer. "Who're you?"

"Uh…" Serena answered, still unable to speak due to the lingering fear of being 'attacked' by Poliwag, as well as the shock of Ash emerging from the bushes. And she was just now noticing that there was something else bothering her, too…

"What's wrong…?" Ash asked her, noticing that something was amiss.

"I hurt…my leg…" Serena replied, finally mustering up an answer for the boy. She hadn't noticed it right away, but apparently her tripping over backward had injured her leg more than she had initially thought. She was finding it difficult to move, and pain was shooting out from it in waves.

"Don't worry!" Ash reassured her, bending down to her level and pulling something out of his back pocket. "See this? This'll make it better!"

The item in question was a handkerchief, mostly white, but with a baby-blue stripe along the bottom edge of it. In the two bottom corners, overlapping both colors, was a small Poke Ball emblem. Ash bent down and wrapped it around Serena's injured leg, a little above the knee, and tied it with a bow.

"All done!" Ash announced proudly, prompting Serena to attempt to stand up. She couldn't.

"Ow…" She murmured, but this only seemed to further encourage Ash.

"Now watch this!" Ash said, waving his hands around the makeshift bandage as if he were casting a spell. "Feel better, feel better, right away!"

Serena tried to shift weight to her leg again, but to no avail. If anything, it hurt worse now. "Ouch! It still hurts…I can't stand up…"

Ash got to his feet, that oddly comforting smile still present on his face. "Never give up 'till it's over. Okay? Come on!"

He held his hand out to her, presumably to help her up himself. "Huh…?" Serena breathed, still somewhat taken aback by Ash's forwardness and helpful attitude. She stared at his hand for a moment before reaching out and taking it.

Ash gripped her hand tightly and pulled her up, hard. So hard, in fact, that when she came to her feet, she continued forward a bit and fell forward slightly, her head landing on Ash's shoulder. To her surprise, she found that she was, in fact, able to stand, although her leg was still throbbing. She pulled back from him after a moment, and found that he was grinning at her even wider than he was before.

"There you go!" Ash said proudly, chuckling at her happily. "I think we should getting back to the campsite, okay? Come on!"

Ash, still holding her hand, slowly began to guide her out of the forest. What he failed to notice, however, was that Serena found it unable to take her eyes off of him the entire walk back.

Serena slowly opened her eyes, blinking a few times until her vision came into focus. All that was visible from her perspective was a blank white ceiling.

"What…happened?" She moaned groggily to herself, sitting up in bed and rubbing her eyes. She looked around the room at her travelling companions as her sense of reality gradually came back to her. She saw Clemont, the young Lumiose City Gym Leader who also happened to be a kind of genius, though his inventions had a bad habit of blowing up while being used.

Next to Clemont was Bonnie, his younger sister, who was too young to be a real Pokemon Trainer, though that didn't stop her from following her brother around and learning everything she can from him, and trying to find him a suitable wife while she's at it.

Finally, Serena's eyes drifted over to Ash, who appeared to have thrown his covers off in his sleep, and was now lying on his bed in an oddly twisted position with nothing covering him from the admittedly mild temperature of their room.

She smiled after staring at him for a moment. "Ash…"

Ever since she had found him in Santalune City following some of the most ridiculous coincidences she had ever witnessed, her life had seemed to be just a little bit brighter. Not only had she miraculously befriended her starter Pokemon, Fennekin, but actually getting to travel around Kalos and see the world, making her own decisions and having new experiences…it was a feeling she couldn't describe even if someone had asked her to. Ash had proven to her that she could be whatever she wanted to be, even if she didn't exactly know what that was just yet.

And that wasn't even taking into account Serena's hidden feelings for him.

She wasn't sure when she had realized it, but there was certainly no denying it. At some point between meeting him as a little girl and joining him, Clemont, and Bonnie on their journey across Kalos, she had fallen in love with him. Ever since she'd seen him climb to the top of Prism Tower on TV, she'd known that something was different about him. She thought he looked familiar back then, and when she found out his name, she knew it had to be the same boy that she'd had a crush on as a little girl.

Leaving home to find him was a pretty far-fetched idea, but it was around the time she was supposed to go and start her Pokemon journey anyway, so she was able to rationalize it to herself that way. But when she finally met up with him in person, and spoke to him, and watched him battle...butterflies in her stomach was the only way to describe it, but at the same time it was so much more than that.

That was months ago. Now, their group seemed inseparable, and Serena had happily settled into being one of his close companions. It was enough for her to just be there for him and help him along on his journey. Somewhere in the back of her head, there was a voice telling her that she would have to deal with her feelings eventually, but so far she had always managed to ignore it.

"Pii…" Pikachu yawned suddenly, causing Serena to jump and look down at its resting place at the foot of Ash's bed. The small Electric Mouse Pokemon was Ash's constant companion, something that had surprised her at first but was endearing all the same, to the point where nowadays she couldn't imagine seeing Ash without Pikachu perched on his shoulder or walking at his feet. Their close bond had even inspired Serena to try and become closer with her Fennekin.

After a moment, Pikachu's eyes drifted around and noticed Serena staring at it. "Pika?"

"Good morning, Pikachu!" Serena greeted warmly.

"Pii-ka!" Pikachu answered, smiling back at her.

"Uuugh…is it morning already?" Ash muttered, gradually pulling himself up and rubbing his eyes.

"Sure looks that way…" Clemont added from across the room as Bonnie opened her eyes and yawned, both of them sitting up as well.

"Wait a minute…I remember now!" Ash exclaimed, jumping up out of bed suddenly. "Today's the day we make it to Shalour City, right?"

"Well, yes…according to Serena's map, anyway." Clemont replied groggily, still not fully awake yet.

"All right! Then that makes I get to see the Shalour Gym today, too!" Ash declared boldly.

"Pika!" Pikachu added, channeling its trainer's enthusiasm.

"Come on, guys! Let's get ready and get moving!" Ash ordered, gesturing dramatically at the one door that led out of their room.

"Uhh…okay…just give me a minute to…finish waking up…" Clemont mumbled, his eyes gradually falling shut of their own accord.

"Oh, please, big brother! I'm the one who could hardly sleep last night, since you were snoring so loud!" Bonnie declared.

Ash and Serena watched the two of them argue and couldn't help but laugh. A few moments later, Ash turned and looked back at her. "Well, I'm gonna go get ready. Keep an eye on them until I get back, 'kay?"

Serena chuckled at that last bit and nodded. She continued watching him as he made his way to the bathroom and shut the door, and she found that the smile remained stuck to her face as well. "Yeah…I'm happy just the way things are now."

As always, please R&R! I'll see you guys in a few days, where SOMETHING WILL ACTUALLY HAPPEN!