Chapter Five - Trip the Light Fantastic

The golden light struck the mirror shard. Rather than reflecting off of its surface, the laser seemed to pass through it. The shard itself began to glow, first a dim gold, then a brilliant white.

Serena froze her arms in place. Something was happening, and she knew it. There was no way she was stopping now. At all costs, she was going to keep the laser focused on the mirror.

The shard shone so brightly that it cast shadows over the park like the midday sun. Serena shut her eyes and turned her head away from the blinding light, but she kept the laser focused, still as a statue.

"It's so bright!" said Ash. "I can't even look at it!"

"Don't look at it!" said Mirror Serena. "It can't be good for your eyes! Turn around before it blinds you!"

Even with her eyes shut and her head turned away, it was still the brightest thing Serena had ever seen. For a moment, she thought she could see the silhouettes of the others through her eyelids.

Then came the sound of the wind, which turned into a roar. The ground beneath them rumbled. She was certain she was going to fall. She felt Braixen pushing against her legs, propping her up.

"What's happening?" said Ash.

"I don't know!" said Clemont. "It's incredible!"

"Brother, I am not sure this is the most opportune time to be in awe!" said Bonnie.

Serena could feel the heat building against her skin. She couldn't last much longer. She could feel her eyes burning. She would surely go blind.

And then, it stopped.

The light dimmed. The the shaking ceased. All that was left was a faint sound of rushing air.

When Serena opened her eyes, she couldn't see. Her entire field of vision was one giant sunspot. After several seconds, her eyes began to adjust to the darkness, and she turned her head back to the mirror shard.

She was still shining the laser into the mirror. She had remained perfectly still. The mirror shard was glowing a faint golden color, and the grass around it was being tossed about by a gentle breeze emanating from it.

She lowered herself to her knees in a long, painstaking motion, careful not to break the laser's connection to the mirror. She could see into it now. It showed not her reflection, but a dark room, the only illumination coming from the laser itself. In the faint golden light, she could see a tall globe and a map of the world.

"That's it!" she said. "That's the library on the other side of the mirror!"

Her hands beginning to shake, she lowered the laser as close to the mirror as she could, so it would be impossible to stop shining through it. She took a deep breath.

The others came up beside her.

"I can't believe it," said Clemont, shaking his head. "I absolutely can't believe it."

"I would not believe it if I could not see it with my own eyes," said Bonnie, "but seeing is believing."

"Is that where you came from?" said Ash.

Serena peered into the mirror shard.

"I think so," she said. "Everything looks like how I remember it."

Mirror Serena knelt down beside the shard and looked into it.

"What's the deal with that weird map?" she said.

"What weird map?" said Serena.

"The big one on the wall," said Mirror Serena. "Everything on it is upside down."

A pang of fear shot through Serena's chest, fear that she was looking through a window into another world in which she didn't belong. Yet, when she examined the map again, she saw nothing out of place.

"What do you mean upside down?" said Serena. "It looks normal to me."

Mirror Serena raised an eyebrow at Serena.

"Seriously?" said Mirror Serena. "You don't see it?"

Ash looked deeper into the mirror.

"Oh, weird!" he said. "It is all upside down!"

Bonnie and Clemont both took a closer look. Serena stopped breathing. She blinked and shook her head. This couldn't be right. There was no way the map could be wrong. It was the same one as before.

She looked at the map again. It looked normal. And then, it hit her.

"I get it!" she said. "The map is upside down - from your perspective. Our worlds must have the directions flipped around!"

Serena thought a bit more.

"Are we in the southern hemisphere here?" she asked.

"Of course we are!" said Mirror Serena.

Serena's smile widened. She knew she was going home.

"Kalos is in the northern hemisphere in my world," she said. "That's why it's the middle of summer here while we were trapped in a giant blizzard there!"

She bit down on her lip, but couldn't contain her smile.

"This is it, you guys," she said. "That's my world. I'm going to go home."

Astonished faces stared at her.

"It's happening," she said. "I can't believe it, but we found a way back!"

She looked at the laser, and then to Ash.

"I don't think I can pass through this thing while I'm holding the laser, though," she said. "Can you hold it in place for me?"

"Um," said Ash, looking at his trembling hands.

"You can do it," said Mirror Serena.

Ash looked at her, and Mirror Serena nodded back.

"You'll do great," said Serena. "I know you can do it. I want you to be the one to do it."

Ash nodded, and he held his hands out to the laser.

"We've got to keep the button pressed," said Serena. "We can't let the beam go out. So, careful..."

With great care, Serena slid her thumb until it was halfway off the button, but still pressing it. Then, Ash gripped the laser and slid his thumb halfway over the button.

Serena released her hands. The beam stayed on, and Ash secured his grip.

"Got it!" he said.

"Alright!" said Serena. "Braixen, are you ready to go home?"

Braixen tucked her wand back into her tail. She nodded.

"Great, return!" said Serena.

Braixen disappeared into her ball, and Serena placed the ball back in her pocket.

"I guess this is it, then," said Serena, looking to all the others. "It was... interesting meeting all of you."

"It was certainly interesting meeting you, too," said Clemont.

"Yes, indubitably!" said Bonnie.

Serena looked to Mirror Serena. To her surprise, her counterpart smiled at her, just for a moment.

"Take care of yourself out there," she said. "I would hate for our... multiverse, or whatever it is, to be down to only one Serena."

Serena nodded back at her.

"I will," she said. "I'd tell you to take care of yourself, too, but I think you already have that covered."

Mirror Serena nodded, and Serena turned her head to Ash. There were tears forming in his eyes.

"I'm gonna miss you," he said.

Serena felt a tug on her heartstrings.

"I'll miss you, too," she said. "I'll never forget you."

She leaned in close to him, then kissed him on the cheek. Gasps echoed all around.

"But hopefully," said Serena, "you won't have to miss me."

She turned to face Mirror Serena, who was staring at her, astonished.

"Open your heart," said Serena.

And then, she put her finger through the mirror.

"Goodbye, everyone!"

The sensation was the same as when she passed through the mirror the first time, one of falling and not being able to stop. Just as she was certain she would feel the edges of the glass scraping her arm, she felt herself bypassing the glass as she was pulled in a direction which had no name. She shut her eyes. Everything turned to gold, and then went dark.

The first thing Serena was aware of was the sensation of the floor being underneath her. She pushed against it, and it pushed back. She rolled from her stomach onto her back and opened her eyes. The mirror stood behind her, silhouetted in darkness.

The glass was cracked, as if struck from behind by a sharp blow, but remained in the frame. There was not a trace of the world she had left behind. A faint, dark reflection of herself was all she could see. This time, it looked just like her, clothes and all, and followed her movements. Serena tested her reflection for a minute, just to be sure, but then she froze.

The glass was broken, but her image was not. Although each of the individual pieces of the broken mirror showed a slightly different reflection of the space behind her, Serena appeared in the mirror only once, at full size, not fragmented in any way.

Serena rose to her feet. She dared not touch the mirror. With her eyes fixed on her unbroken reflection, she began taking tentative steps backward, inching her way out of the room. Her eyes tried to scan the innumerable fragments of the mirror to see if there was anything behind her, but it was impossible.

When she bumped into the door frame, she yelped, then turned and ran from the room.

As soon as there was a wall between her and the mirror, she stopped. She sank to the floor, her back up against the wall, clutching her hat with one hand and holding onto her heart with the other.

She found herself needing to catch her breath. As she tried to steady her breathing, she held her hands up before her face. They were trembling. Attempting to keep them still, she tucked her hands against her sides and folded her arms over them. She pulled her knees up to her chest and rested her head against them.

She became aware of how cold it was. Only dim light was peeking in through the windows, the same vague blue color from the night before. Her breathing and the faint roar of the wind outside were the only sounds. She shivered and untucked her hands, rubbing her bare arms with them.

She froze again upon hearing the faint sound of voices below.

"-hope-"

"-think it's-"

"-came from up there-"

A beam of light shone up from the lower floors, moving past her, to the ceiling, and then down again. It scanned the cavernous atrium. She heard footsteps.

Serena jumped up and dashed to the staircase.

"Ash!" she shouted. "Ash!"

There was a confused noise from below, a moment of hesitation, and then a response.

"Serena?!"

"It's me!" she shouted back, descending the staircase as fast as her legs would allow her. "It's me!"

The beam of light locked onto the staircase, where Serena was making a mad dash for the bottom. Ash came running to the foot of the staircase, with Bonnie trailing right behind him. He followed Serena's movements with a flashlight.

"Serena!" said Ash.

"It is Serena!" said Bonnie, jumping into the air as she saw Serena reach the final flight of stairs. Pikachu and Dedenne came trailing into the room behind her, accelerating as they laid eyes on Serena.

"Ash, it's me!"

Serena descended the final flight so quickly that she found herself losing her balance. She missed the final step, went tumbling to the ground, lost her hat, and sprang right back up. She threw herself at Ash and flung her arms around him.

"Serena!" Ash said. Astonished, he returned her embrace. "I can't believe it's you!"

"It's you! It's you!" said Bonnie, wrapping her arms around Serena's leg in the best hug she could manage. "We were so worried! We looked everywhere for you!"

"We searched for you for hours!" said Ash. "What happened? Where were you?"

Serena pulled her head away from Ash's shoulder. She felt her face turning red. She rested her hands atop his shoulders and stared at him, searching for the right words.

"I don't know if you'll be able to believe me if I tell you," she said, "even though the same thing happened to you once before. It's so crazy that I can barely believe it."

"What do you mean?" said Ash.

Serena shifted her eyes to the side. She knew that what she was about to say was going to sound absurd.

"I... wasn't in this world," she said.

Ash gave her a puzzled look.

"Huh?" he said.

"Do you remember the time you got lost in the cave with all the mirrors in it?" said Serena.

Ash's eyes widened. He nodded at her.

"You told us you were trapped in a weird world that was like the opposite of ours."

"Is that where you went?" Bonnie asked, agape.

"No way," said Ash.

Serena nodded. She felt Ash's grip slacken in disbelief.

"That's where you were?" he said.

Serena smiled as she watched the gears turning in Ash's head. Ash removed his hands from her arms and instead grabbed fistfuls of his hair. He groaned in frustration.

"How did I not think of that?!" he said. "You just disappeared, and all that was left was your candle in front of that big mirror! Why didn't I realize you went through it?!"

"Probably because that's crazy," said Serena, holding back an amused giggle.

"You went through the mirror?" said Bonnie. "How?"

"It was like what Ash said happened to him in Reflection Cave. I saw myself in the mirror, but different. My reflection looked like how I used to look, with my longer hair and my old outfit. It was moving on its own."

"Did your reflection reach through and grab you, like mine did?" said Ash.

"No, it was me who did the grabbing," said Serena. "When I saw her, I tried to say hello, but she didn't hear me."

Ash clenched his fist, as well as his teeth. Serena had never seen him so frustrated.

"That's what I heard you say!" he said. "I heard you say something that sounded like help, and I came looking for you, but you were gone!"

Ash removed his hat and rubbed his temples, running a hand through his hair. Serena thought he looked almost ashamed. He was frustrated with himself.

"She was about to leave," said Serena. "My reflection, I mean. So, I tried to reach out to her, but when I did, my hand went through the mirror and I fell through it. When I landed on the other side I met... us."

Ash ceased massaging his forehead and met eyes with Serena.

"Just like I did!" he said.

"They remembered you," said Serena. "They remembered all of us, actually, since they saw us through the mirror when you came back to this world. But mostly, they remembered you."

It was clear that neither Ash nor Bonnie knew what to say. Serena found herself feeling quite bare and quite alone in the silence. She locked her hands together and looked downward, off to the side.

"Their Ash is so different from you," said Serena. "He was so sensitive, and so unsure of himself. He remembered you for being so brave and so confident. I think you inspired him, in a way."

Serena felt a smile forming on her face. She looked to Bonnie, but Bonnie spoke before she could.

"Did you meet the other me?" said Bonnie, bouncing with excitement. "Did she say stuff like I certainly hope we meet again, like she did in the cave?"

"Yes, she did," said Serena. "Their Bonnie uses lots of big, fancy words and acts like a lady all the time, but you're the positive, enthusiastic Bonnie we all love. And their Clemont was a great runner, but he studied magic instead of science, and his inventions were useless. It was just like you said, Ash."

Bonnie gaped at Serena. Ash blinked a few times, looking rather blank. Serena could see in his eyes that he knew she was telling the truth.

"And their version of me..." said Serena, rolling her eyes. "She was so arrogant! You wouldn't believe how frustrating it was to see her act like that! The way she talked, the way she treated other people, it made me so mad!"

Serena heard her voice echo through the atrium, and it occurred to her how loudly she had been speaking. She bit her lip and looked off to the side again, feeling embarrassed.

"Because... that's not me," she said.

"I'm really glad it isn't," said Ash. "I remember her. She was kind of mean."

Serena felt her heart pounding. She didn't understand why, but a smile was forming on her face.

"I know I won't forget her," she said. She resisted the urge to roll her eyes again, shaking her head instead.

"I can't imagine you being mean!" said Bonnie.

"I can't, either," said Serena. "That's why it was so frustrating! I couldn't stand her!"

"I'm glad we have the real you back," said Ash.

"I'm glad to be back," said Serena. "They helped me escape, and I needed all the help I could get. For a while, it looked like I was going to trapped there forever. On their side, I broke the mirror."

"Oh no!" said Bonnie. "How did you get back?"

Serena's smile transformed into a sly one. She folded her arms indignantly and took a step forward. She pointed plaintively at Ash.

"I never would have made it out of there if it weren't for that stupid textbook that you tried to show me!"

Ash backed away from Serena ever so slightly. Serena suspected he couldn't tell if she was actually mad.

"I'm sorry?" said Ash. "What do you mean?"

Serena retracted her plaintive finger and folded her arms again.

"That useless book you were so excited about turned out to have exactly the information I needed to reopen the connection between our worlds! Their Clemont tried to use a magic spell, but when he did, his fake magic staff broke, and it turned out there was a laser inside of it."

"A laser?" said Ash.

"For some reason, yes," said Serena. "And when you and Bonnie left the science section and you left that book on the floor, I opened it up and looked at it before I put it back on the shelf. I never would have thought that I would care about the wavelength of visible light, because I certainly didn't then, but when I saw that I could change the laser's wavelength, I knew what to enter to make it produce visible light! When I fired the laser into a piece of the broken mirror, I think I tricked it into thinking that the sun was still up, which reopened the portal and allowed me to come home!"

Ash grinned, looking quite amused.

"You're welcome?" said Ash, holding back a laugh.

Serena struggled to hold back a laugh of her own. It all seemed like an improbable fiction, at best. It was so absurd, so preposterously unlikely, that laughing at it felt like all she could do. As she focused on holding in that laugh, she felt her body move in a way that seemed independent of her control, acting on instinct. She placed her hands on Ash's shoulders again. She pulled in, closing the distance between them, shutting her eyes. She pressed her lips to his.

She lingered for just a second, then pulled away and opened her eyes.

A stunned Ash stared back at her, speechless.

"Thank you," she said.

Bonnie made a noise that was a cross between a cheer and a squeal of excitement. Serena backed away and folded her hands, biting her lip. She looked away. She couldn't believe what she had just done. Her heart pounded so hard she thought the others might be able to hear it.

"You kissed him!" said Bonnie. She jumped up and down, unable to contain her excitement. Serena smiled nervously, unable to contain her embarrassment.

Ash's eyes seemed out of focus. He held one hand up to his mouth, covering it. Pikachu tugged at his leg, trying to get his attention. It was no use.

"We've gotta go let Clemont know you're back!" said Bonnie, jogging in place.

"Please don't tell him about this," Serena whispered back.

Bonnie grinned.

"He won't care about the kiss!" she said. "He needs Braixen's help!"

Serena's expression changed from embarrassment to concern.

"Is he still sick?" she said.

"He is," said Bonnie, nodding. Her mood fell immediately. "He's working through it to try to get the power back on, but he's running out of light! The candles have all burned out, and the batteries in the flashlights we found are running low."

Serena was more than happy to have an excuse to leave.

"I have Braixen with me," she said. "Let's go."

"Okay!" said Bonnie.

Bonnie latched onto Serena's hand and led her toward the entrance of the atrium, Dedenne following behind. Serena managed one more glance at Ash. He blinked, then met eyes with her. Serena smiled at him and raised her eyebrows for a moment before being pulled around the corner by Bonnie.

Pikachu followed a few steps after them, but gave up and returned to Ash.

Ash remained there, motionless. Pikachu tugged at his leg again, and Ash shook his head, running his hand through his hair.

"I think I need to sit down, buddy," he said.

Serena felt a jolt of pain and inhaled sharply. She looked at the disaster she was making of her fingernails and knew she had to stop. She tucked her hands under her backside in an attempt to quiet them. Her attempt only made her more aware of what a nervous wreck she was.

She had lost track of the time, but she knew it had been at least a couple of hours since she returned. Not long after she arrived with Braixen, Clemont restored power to the library. As the light and heat returned, Clemont returned to his makeshift bean bag bed to collapse in an exhausted heap, in need of a well-deserved rest.

At first, Serena also tried to get some sleep, but it proved hopeless. She couldn't sit still. Her mind was spiraling out of control. As restless as she had ever been, she took to wandering through the library.

When she approached the geography section on the third floor, she had hesitated before entering it. When she found the courage to peek around the corner, she saw her fractured reflection in the mirror staring back at her a thousand times. The strange, unbroken reflection was gone.

She felt drawn toward the mirror by some mix of danger and fascination. Careful to keep her distance, she sat down in front of it. And thus, she remained there for some time, picking at her fingernails and wringing her hands until she was forced to sit on them to contain them.

Nothing had happened, and that was what ate at her. She had escaped from another dimension, flung her arms around Ash, and kissed him - right in front of Bonnie, Pikachu, and Dedenne! - yet nothing had happened. Ash had not said a word to her since the kiss. Things were no different now than before.

Feeling like her mind was unraveling, she sat before the mirror and set her eyes to the impossible task of focusing on the thousands of jagged reflections in the broken glass. Time seemed like it wasn't passing at all. Every now and then, a new thought would occur to her and rend her heart with anxiety, or desire, or despair. She wondered why nothing was different. Had Ash not understood what that kiss meant? If he hadn't understood, what could possibly make him understand?

She imagined trying to explain her feelings to him and all the possible paths that conversation could take. All of them led to dead ends, or worse. She imagined Ash never understanding, the concept of romance so foreign to him that it didn't exist in his mind. She imagined him rejecting her, saying that he had to focus on his training first and that it would always come before everything else. She imagined him saying that he didn't feel the same way and that he didn't know how things could ever be the same again.

That particular line of thought terminated with Serena envisioning herself at her mother's doorstep, her journey ended. A lifetime of drudgery, monotony, and Rhyhorn racing awaited her once again.

"Serena?"

Serena jumped in fright as she heard Ash speak behind her. The mirror was useless for seeing him, and she was forced to free her trapped hands and spin around to face him. Her heart felt as though it stopped, despite the redness of her face.

"Ash!" she said.

Ash watched her with an expression she couldn't read. She had never seen him looking like there was so much going on in his head. He held two steaming mugs, and he offered one to her.

"I brought you some hot chocolate," said Ash.

"Thank you," said Serena. She accepted the mug from him, but the exchange went poorly. Both of them seemed uncertain in their movements, and some of the drink spilled down the side of the mug onto the carpet. They both ignored it.

Serena took a sip from her mug. It tasted fine, but it wasn't what she wanted at all. It was no different than before, but at the moment it was much too sweet for her liking. She felt like she would jump out of her skin if she had any more sugar.

She looked up at Ash and saw him watching her awkwardly.

"Can I sit down?" he said.

"Oh, yes, of course," said Serena, smoothing a patch of the thin carpet for him.

Ash sat down next to her. He looked uncomfortable for reasons far beyond the stiffness of the floor. He took a long drink from his mug, then set it down beside him. He looked to the mirror.

For a moment, Serena was terrified at the thought that she would have to be the one to start this conversation, but then Ash spoke.

"When did the mirror get broken?" he said. "It wasn't like that when I was looking for you."

"I think it broke when I came back through it," said Serena. "At least, it was broken when I looked at it after I got back."

Serena tried to take another sip from her mug, but she regretted it immediately. The hot chocolate was just too rich for her nervous stomach.

"It looks kinda like it was punched, almost," said Ash, pointing at the obvious point of impact in the center of the mirror.

"I think that may be because I came back through a small piece of the other mirror," said Serena. "All of me had to fit through that tiny space, and it was just too much, I guess."

Ash took a long sip from his mug.

"That makes sense," he said.

"It's different now than when I first got back," said Serena. "When I looked in the mirror then, it was broken, but my reflection wasn't."

"That... doesn't make sense," said Ash.

"I know," said Serena. "The only reason I can think of is that maybe Ash - the one from their world - was still shining the laser through the mirror for a while after I went through."

"Why would he do that?" said Ash.

"Maybe to make sure I had enough time to make it back here?" said Serena. "I don't know, it's just a guess."

Ash half-smiled and looked thoughtfully up at the world map on the wall.

"He was looking out for you," said Ash. "I'm sure of it."

There was a pause, one which gave Serena just enough time to let her nerves get the best of her again. Desperate for the silence to end, she kept talking.

"Their world is upside down, compared to ours," she said, pointing at the map.

"Well, yeah, their world is the opposite of ours," said Ash.

"But I mean literally upside down," said Serena. "They could see that map through the mirror when we reopened the connection, and they all thought it looked super weird because everything on it was upside down."

It seemed to take Ash some time to realize what Serena was saying.

"Oh! So their north is our south, and stuff like that?" he said.

"Exactly," said Serena. "It was super hot there. We're having a blizzard, and they were having a heat wave. It's the middle of winter here, and the middle of summer there."

"Weird," said Ash.

"Their library closed, too," said Serena, "because the air conditioning broke."

Ash seemed to find that amusing, and he cracked a small smile.

"Did you break into that library, too?" he said.

"No, the others wouldn't help me do that even to get me home," said Serena. "I was scared and crying on the sidewalk in front of their library, but they were still better law-abiding citizens than us."

Ash asked her a question that he only could have known to ask from experience.

"The sun set, didn't it?"

Serena nodded grimly.

"Yes, it did," she said.

"Was that when you thought you were trapped there?" said Ash.

"Kind of," said Serena. "Before the sun set, I realized that breaking the mirror was probably really bad, but between that and the sun going down, I thought I was stuck there for sure."

Serena let out a deep sigh.

"It was really scary," she said.

"Yeah, I got pretty scared too when I thought I was going to be trapped in there," said Ash. "But I was lucky. I just beat the sunset."

Serena remembered it quite well, Ash throwing himself across a gaping void between worlds as the connection between the mirrors separated. She shuddered at the thought of what would have happened to Ash had he missed his jump.

"I'm kind of glad I didn't know where you were," said Ash. "If I had known you were in the Mirror World when the sun went down, I... I don't know what I would have done."

Ash lowered his head, looking at his feet. His brow was tight. Serena's heart raced, and her imagination raced faster. Only a fool could miss that subtext.

Or Ash.

"I can't believe I didn't realize you went through the mirror!" said Ash. "It was all right here in front of me!"

Serena bit her lip. There was so much right here in front of him that he didn't realize.

"I don't blame you for not realizing," said Serena. "It's so crazy that nobody would ever think of it. If anything, I'm thankful that you believe me."

Ash inhaled through gritted teeth. He was still frustrated.

"Yeah, but I've had the exact same thing happen to me!" he said. "I could have helped you if I had realized what was going on."

Serena shook her head.

"We don't know that," she said. "We don't know what you could have done. You may not have been able to come through the mirror after me, because I broke it. Who knows?"

"I don't know," said Ash. "I definitely know I didn't help you, though. I feel like I failed you. I couldn't protect you."

There was something about the way Ash spoke of protecting her that made Serena's heart flutter.

"You didn't fail me," said Serena. "You helped me so much. You just weren't there for it! The textbook, the laser... there's no way that was just luck. That was way more than a coincidence. It was fate."

Ash didn't seem satisfied. His lips were tight as he looked away.

"I wouldn't have made it back without you. You saved me. You may not have been there, but you helped me," said Serena. "And even though you weren't with me, there was still an Ash helping me."

Ash's eyebrows raised as he looked at her.

"My mirror self helped you?" said Ash.

"He helped me so much," said Serena. "He was wonderful."

"What did he do?" said Ash.

"He found me," said Serena. "He found me in the park after I ran off crying, and he sat with me and talked."

Ash looked a bit confused, like there was supposed to be more.

"What else did he do?" he said.

Serena opened her mouth to say that he hadn't done anything else, but she stopped herself. She knew that wasn't true. She could feel sweat on her palms.

"He held my hand," said Serena.

Ash's eyes shifted to Serena's hands in her lap. He didn't seem to know what to say.

"And he rubbed my back while I was crying on his shoulder," said Serena.

Serena's heart thundered. She knew there was one more step.

"And he kissed me," she said.

"What?"

Ash looked stunned. Serena grinned sheepishly.

"Well, it was more like we agreed to kiss each other, and then we did it, but yes, he kissed me," she said.

"But... why?" said Ash.

Serena felt her stomach clench. The truth was dangerously close.

"Well, you know how the Mirror World is a world of opposites," she said.

Ash nodded. Serena took a deep breath before she spoke.

"Their Ash has a crush on their Serena."

Ash blinked several times. For a moment, Serena thought that what she had said went completely over Ash's head, but then, his eyes widened and he leaned back against a bookshelf.

"So, you..." he said.

Serena's heart felt as though it had stopped. She bit her lip, her face fraught with worry. Ash looked at her. The two met eyes, and after a long pause, Serena nodded.

"You have a crush on me?" said Ash.

Serena swallowed.

"Yes," she said.

Immediately, Serena hated how she said it. It was such a weak response, so uncertain, so typical of all the months of hiding her feelings. It felt more like an admission of defeat than an admission of love.

"Bonnie was telling the truth, then," said Ash.

"What?!" said Serena. "Bonnie told you? When?"

"Just a few minutes ago, after you left and came up here," said Ash.

Serena felt something like relief. It wasn't like Ash had been walking around with that knowledge for weeks or months. She hoped that was a good sign.

Ash scratched his nose awkwardly.

"I didn't know what to do after, um, what you did," said Ash. "Nobody has ever done that to me before."

"You mean... kissed you?" said Serena.

"Yeah," said Ash. "Not like that."

"On... the lips?" said Serena.

"Never," said Ash.

"Oh."

Serena had no idea what to say. Ash was speaking of the kiss in such a roundabout manner that she couldn't tell what his feelings were. She began to feel sick to her stomach.

"You were wrong, you know," said Ash.

Serena felt as though her heart had been stabbed with an ice pick. Of course she had been wrong. She was wrong to kiss him. She was wrong to waste so much of her life chasing after a childhood crush from summer camp. She was wrong to think they ever could have had a relationship.

"I didn't save you," said Ash.

Just as the tears were on the verge of overflowing Serena's eyes, she froze. She saw Ash staring at her with an expression she had never seen before. He looked bashful. He looked full of admiration. He looked vulnerable.

"You saved yourself," said Ash. "You're the one who found a way out. You're the one who had the courage to never give up."

Serena clasped the ribbon around her neck.

Never give up until it's over.

"You're so strong," said Ash. "You're stronger than you know. You're strong in all the ways I'm not."

Serena felt like the tears were coming again, but for a very different reason.

Ash looked away. He was quiet for a while.

"I'm sorry," he said. "I'm sorry I couldn't save you."

Serena sniffled, and she wiped away the tears.

"Don't be sorry," she said.

"I'm sorry I didn't understand your feelings sooner."

Serena said nothing. There was a part of her that definitely would have accepted an apology for that.

Again, there was silence. At a loss for how she still had tears to cry after all of the day's events, Serena sniffled again.

"Here," said Ash. He reached into his back pocket.

Serena's jaw dropped. It was the handkerchief. The handkerchief. The very same one as all those years ago. He handed it to her again.

"Thank you!" said Serena, so astonished that she was amazed she was able to speak. This was no ordinary handkerchief. Serena knew that Ash wouldn't have brought it here with him without good reason. Not even he was that dense.

Rather embarrassed, she dried her eyes. There was nothing she could do about the redness of her face. It was getting redder by the second.

Ash scratched the back of his neck and turned his head away, hiding a bashful smile.

"You're really pretty," he said.

Serena nearly gasped. There was no way his choice of words was a coincidence.

"It's true," said Ash, turning his head back to smile at her, his own face looking flushed. "You are."

"Th-thank you," said Serena. It was tough to talk through the fit of the giggles she had developed.

The two of them looked at each other with ridiculous smiles for a few silent moments. Then, Serena reached out and slipped her hand into his, weaving their fingers together. The fit felt so natural. The idea that there were so many steps involved seemed absurd.

Serena gave Ash's hand a light squeeze. To her joy, he squeezed back.

Serena decided that taking risks was easy, once you took them.

"Did you like it when I kissed you earlier?" she said.

She wasn't sure why she asked the question, other than to buy more time. She wasn't sure what her own thoughts were about that kiss. It had been such a spontaneous, fleeting, and altogether overwhelming thing that it had been impossible for her to collect her thoughts about it. There was both too little and too much information.

But then, Ash nodded.

"I was really surprised by it," he said, "and I didn't know what to do, but yeah, I did."

Serena drew closer to him. There was no turning back now.

"Do you want to kiss me again?" she whispered.

"Yes, I do," said Ash.

Serena began to close the distance between their faces, but as she closed her eyes, she noticed his were still open. She laughed.

"Close your eyes, you goof!" she said.

"Oh! Sorry," said Ash. "I didn't know."

Serena shook her head and rolled her eyes before she shut them again. She kissed him. It was electric. It felt like so much, all at once. As she lingered for a second, she was struck by the profound sense that although neither one of them had a clue what they were doing, what they were doing was very, very right.

She felt breathless when she pulled away and opened her eyes.

"Wow," she said.

"Yeah," said Ash. He blinked. It took a moment for his eyes to refocus.

Serena leaned in, resting her head on Ash's shoulder. She couldn't remember ever feeling happier. Ash wrapped an arm around her waist and pulled her in closer. He had the biggest grin on his face.

"I really liked that," he said.

"Do you want to try it again?" Serena whispered into his ear.

"Yes," said Ash.

It was just as good as before. When Serena pulled away, she felt overcome by giggles.

"Do you have any idea how long I've wanted to do that?" said Serena.

"A while, I bet," said Ash. "I'm sorry it took me so long."

"That's okay," said Serena. "It was worth the wait."

There was content silence for some time. There was only one question remaining in Serena's mind.

"So, does this mean we're, you know... together now?" she said. "Like boyfriend and girlfriend?"

She didn't even need to ask the question. It was undeniable from the way Ash was looking at her, but the response was the most gratifying thing she had ever heard.

"Yes."

Serena nuzzled up to Ash's shoulder. She wanted to kiss him again, but she decided it would be better to wait for now. They would have plenty of time later. Maybe all the time, if they were lucky.

She sighed as she leaned her weight into him. She felt the tension release from her muscles. She felt the burden of carrying her feelings for so long being lifted from her shoulders.

She felt the light returning to her life, and it was fantastic.