Serena took a moment to just admire the countryside in front of her. Halfway between The Battle Cheateu and Lumiouse City, the route in between was a beautiful grassland she hadn't had time to admire the last few times she had come through here. Always on the move, busy rushing from place to place. It was like seeing the landscape for the first time. It was beautiful, to say the least. Flowers of various colour and species were scattered all over the trail, and had attracted a wide variety of Pokemon, like Flabebè, Combee and other peaceful bug and grass type Pokemon. Above her were a crowd of Jumpluff, allowing the wind to carry them wherever it went.

She had been moving back to Lumiose City to see if she could visit Clemont and Bonnie. She had parted ways with them for a few months now, not having seen them in all that time. Clemont had returned to his duties as a Gym Leader, and Bonnie, despite her protests, had had to remain with her brother. It had been a tearful goodbye for both of them, so Serena was looking forward to seeing them again. Although it was an exhausting walk, so she was taking a break now. She had been trying to go further in shorter periods of time, and it had tired her out.

She sighed. Traveling on her own was... Kind of upsetting. She had grown accustomed to traveling with friends for a while now, only now traveling without a group for a few months now. It felt isolated. She didn't like it. She questioned how some people managed to travel on their own. It was kind of lonely.

Especially since Ash had returned to Kanto.

"Here." A can of soda, cold on touch, rested itself on her shoulder. Startled for a brief moment, she quickly took ahold of it.

"Miette, why?..." She asked, annoyed.

"You were daydreaming. Again." Miette grinned, sitting down next to Serena.

Miette, whom had been one of Serena's biggest rivals over the last three years, was now one of Serena's closest friends. Their relationship had improved dramatically since the days Serena traveled with Ash. The two got along much better whenever they had run into one another, with Miette even joining Serena on her trip back to Lumiouse City. The two had not only settled differences they had had, they had accepted those differences, and gotten to know each other past them.

"My daydreaming or not, why'd you feel the need to try and freak me out?" Serena questioned, still kind of annoyed.

"Oh relax." Miette smiled, taking a drink of the can of soda she had acquired for herself. "I could have poured water over your head."

"What a pleasant alternative." Serena said, sarcasm thick in her voice.

"Aww, don't be like that." Miette said in a teasing tone. "I wonder how quickly you'd have gotten over that if I had been Ash."

Serena blushed lightly. "Well... You weren't."

"Oh? Don't tell me you aren't in love with him anymore?" Miette asked, smiling and tilting her head. She had long abandoned her claim to shaving romantic feelings towards Ash, and just cut out any pretences. Now, one of her favourite pass-times was teasing Serena about her very real feelings towards the raven haired Kantoean trainer. "I'm shocked!" She continued. "I though you were much more faithful!" She was deliberately acting overly dramatic, like she was in some sort of movie or drama school.

Serena blushed and sighed. "And I thought you had gotten past the teasing thing for a while."

"You should know me better than that."

"Yeah..."

"Level with me though." Miette said. Her voice dropped all hints of teasing and joking, and she questioned the girl next to her. "Do you still love him?"

"Of course I do!" Serena said, rather loudly, and going slightly pink in the face. "I know I hide my feelings for him -"

"Poorly." Miette interrupted.

Serena sighed. "Yeah, poorly... But still... At doesn't mean they aren't there..."

Miette sighed as well. She looked into the sky, watching the Jumpluff float away. Once a few seconds had passed, she sighed once again, this time, in relaxation. "You know, I'm pretty sure he loves you as well."

"You think?..."

Miette looked at her friend. "Of course. I mean, I don't know him that well. I know you a lot better than I know him, but I'm sure he has feelings for you, Serena."

Serena looked at the ground. "I wish you were right.." Depressingly, Serena doubted all of Miette's claims. It wasn't particularly a case of her having little confidence in herself. She had gained plenty of self confidence during her travels with Ash, and she wasn't letting that go any time soon. It was more that she doubted that she was good enough for Ash, for one reason or another.

"Why aren't I right?" Miette inquired. "Look at you for one. I find you cute, and I'm a girl myself! I can't think of a dress of look you haven't managed to pull off. If I was, uh... You know... I'd... Uh..."

Serena grinned. "Is this your very poor and roundabout way of a confession?" Whenever she could, Serena really enjoyed turning Miette's teases back around to her.

Miette blushed at the mere thought! "You wish!" She smiled and laughed. "And there's my next point. You're funny and nice, loyal and kind. Quite honestly, I'm amazed you don't have an entire legion of your fans following you as we speak."

"That sounds creepy." Serena shuddered.

"Still though, it underlines the point." Miette said. "You still talk to him, don't you?"

Serena held up the tablet she always carried. Inside was a messaging application she used to talk to Ash frequently. "Uh huh."

Miette smiled. "You never know."

"I wish I had half the confidence over this you did, Miette." Serena said, weakly smiling at her friend.

"You'll see someday." Miette told her, smiling.

"Thanks..." Serena said, her smile gaining strength.

Miette giggled, and looked towards her watch. "Drink up. If we're gonna make it to the next Pokemon centre before nightfall, we had better get a move on." She told her, before guzzling down her entire drink in one, forced gulp that left her breathless after.

How right was Miette, Serena wondered as the two walked on. Serena tugged at one of her hair strands. She didn't think she was cute, or pretty. She wasn't sure if she was funny, and she didn't know about anything else her blue haired friend had mentioned. It had been two years since Serena had seen Ash. Now 16, she wondered just how much of her had changed since she had seen him last. She wasn't sure at all. All she knew that remained the same were her feelings towards the raven haired Kantoean trainer, but she didn't know if these feelings were reciprocated.

And it wasn't just that either. She had no idea how much Ash had changed, appearance wise and personality wise. She didn't care about his looks, so that bothered her little. What did bother her was if he had changed so much that she didn't recognise that silly, impulsive, energetic and good hearted trainer she knew. She wasn't against him changing. Change was unavoidable, especially in as two year time gap, but what worried her was that maybe, just maybe, he had changed into something she didn't recognise. She shook her head. She was overthinking things. She hoped.

"Hey!" Miette clicked her fingers in front of Serena's face multiple times before snapping her back onto the plains of reality again.

"Sorry, sorry, I'm back. What's up?" Serena asked, snapping back into focus.

"You've been spacing out a lot recently. You doing okay?" Miette asked, still smiling, but this one somehow gave off an air of concern at the same time. "Something on your mind?"

"Yeah, I'm fine. How much further until the Pokemon centre?" Serena asked, going lightly pink, and trying to dodge the question.

"About, I don't know, 20 minutes? You aren't getting out of this that easily." Miette told her. "What's going on?" It took her a second before it clicked. "Oh! You really were thinking about your knight in shining armour!"

"Be quiet..." Serena sighed in embarrassment. "Why are you so perceptive?..."

"Because you're about as readable and predictable as a kiddie book." Miette teased.

"Gee, thanks, Miette." Serena said, sarcastically.

"You're worrying over nothing. Truth be told, it's starting to frustrate me." Miette sighed. "Come on, let's just get under a roof before you start fainting."

"When have I ever fainted about Ash?" Serena questioned, much sharper than she had intended.

"I was referring to the heat, exhaustion and lack of sleep, but I suppose saying Ash is shorter. Like I said, predictable." Miette said, turning back to the pathway, smiling with smug satisfaction.

Serena blushed and sighed again. "Alright, fine..."

Serena quickened her pace until she was side by side with Miette, turning to face her companion, she asked a casual question. "So, what's your plan when we get to Lumious City?"

Miette sighed and bit her thumb lightly. "I'm not sure. It's mostly a stopping point for me. I suppose I could see one of those Pokemon Musical Performances that they're doing as part of a Unova region culture exhibit. After that, I'm not sure. As far as I know, nothing else is going on in the city for the moment."

"Nothing certain then?" Serena asked.

Miette shook her head. "Nope."

"Same with me." Serena admitted. "I wasn't even really expecting to run into you at Geosenge Town. This entire trip has been improvised for me."

"Not too exciting when showcases haven't been announced in a while, huh?" Miette said with a sigh. "Not a lot to do."

"No. I've made a few PokeVision videos, but that's effectively all I've done in terms of performing for a few months. It doesn't feel fair to the Pokemon, never mind the trainers who kept performing at the Showcases." Serena said. Pokemon showcases had recently stopped being televised in the Kalos region. Had they not been canceled, Serena would undoubtedly be training for one right now. They had been off the air for several months, but had kept promising trainers and viewers that they would return to air shortly. Serena had taken the opportunity to travel a bit.

"Did they give a reason?" Miette asked.

"Something about contracts that the televised showcases needed to fix? Or copyrights? I don't know." Serena admitted. "Either way, we haven't got much else to be doing. I dunno. I may go visit my mother in a few days."

"Sounds cosy."

"I wish."

"Huh?"

"Nothing." Serena said, yawning, tears welling up as she did so. "Tired, that's all."

Serena practically collapsed onto the bed in her room at the Pokemon centre. A huge combination of exhaustion, emotional and physical, heat, and what felt like a bit of depression had tired her out completely. Emotionally and physically, she was effectively dead to the world.

Miettes teasing about Ash hadn't helped. She hadn't even seen him in years, yet she still felt this strongly towards him. She had to wonder if she was normal. Did it really make sense to have feelings this strong for someone she hadn't even seen in nearly two years?

Whenever she had had the courage to talk to someone about it, be it anyone other than her closest friends like Clemont, Bonnie, Shauna, and now, Miette, she had been met with an odd look, and a sort of, what Serena could only describe as, strangled noise. Those who didn't stop there, basically told her to get over it. After a while, Serena had almost started to believe it herself. But she couldn't just drop these feelings like that. She honestly doubted that she could ever drop these feelings at all.

She sighed and covered her eyes with her left arm, flopped lazily over her. She was going to just lay there. She was tired. She needed sleep. At this point she couldn't even be bothered to change into her pyjamas. Well, it was more accurate to say that she just didn't care.

At that moment, she heard her tablet buzz, and saw the light from its notifications from the corner of her, now revealed to be, uncovered eye. She sighed. She was 100% certain that was Miette again, getting in one last tease in before she turned in for the night. It wouldn't be the first time. Serena had even questioned her how this benefitted her, seeing as she wasn't even gonna see her flustering. Miette said with a smile, that her response had been that she was flustering in front of her now, which Serena had been caught out by.

Serena sighed, and lazily reached for the tablet. It would bug her if she didn't know what the notification had been about. She held it in front of her face and moved her arm.

It was from Ash.

"Ash?..." Serena questioned quietly to herself. Curious, she tapped on the response.

'Hey Serena.' It read out. Serena noticed it was structured more like a letter than a friendly instant message. It seemed a bit formal, especially for Ash. But that only furthered her curiosity. He tiredness from a moment ago had been shoved to the side for now. This was more important.

'How you been?' The message continued. 'Sorry for messaging you so late. But I just got word. My "work" here is finished, so I'm pretty much free to go now, and I've decided, I'm heading back over to Kalos!'

Serena shot upright. "Wait, what?" She asked aloud, double checking the sentence, almost convinced that Ash had missed a letter or apostrophe or something, before the realisation settled, and a huge grin appeared on her previously dreary face. "He's... He's coming back to Kalos?..."

'There's a lot I haven't done in Kalos. Besides, I kinda miss traveling with you.' Serena read on, feeling her heart nearly explode at that sentence. She doubted there was anything being insinuated behind it, but still. 'I'll be in Lumiouse City in a couple of days. If you wanna meet up and you can make it, that'd be awesome. If you can't, or don't wanna, I understand. Just wanted to let you know. At any rate, I've got to finish up here before I catch the next flight outta here. Hopefully I'll see you soon.' At the end, Ash had written his name, with a "^_^" icon at the end. Whatever it was about it, it gave the entire thing a sense of informality again.

Serena put the tablet on the bed, and retread the entire thing a second time, closely. Had she made a mistake? She must have done. Once she re read it, she was convinced. Serena felt excitement building up in her chest, squeezing her hands together before she had to stifle an excited squeal. She could hear her own heart thump in her chest, running amok of its own accord. She could feel her face heating up and going red. She put both her hands on her checks, the hands correlating which cheek to which side. She had to tell herself, and force herself, to calm down. Her previous tiredness has just been thrown to the wind by a surge of excitement - fuelled adrenaline.

She wanted to write a reply immediately, telling him she'd be there, it she'd had to slow her heart rate down, and that took some doing in itself. She just couldn't believe it. Why was he coming back now? In fact, why was he coming back at all? How long would he be here for? Serena didn't care though. She was simply ecstatic to know She was finally going to see Ash again!

Okie dokie guys, this was chapter one of Loyalty! This took a long time to start, even for me. That's because, as I'm sure many of you know, loyalty is, for me, the single most important trait in a person, and one that's been shoved to the side a lot recently in society. If you ask me, a world where everyone hold the concepts of loyalty and faithfulness close to heart is a world I could tolerate living in. Loyalty, this fanfic, I want to be my showing on what I consider loyalty is. There's gonna be a few incidents you may not expect, a couple of subplots, and more. I'm not even sure how long this will last. I don't have a plan to end it like I did One Day Off. It'll end when I think it's run its course.

So, on to the more personal info, as I like to do at the end of these chapters. Recently, I've been tasked with making two original characters for my college course, with the pretence of them being characters from The legend of Zelda franchise. Good for me, but only in art style. I know nothing whatsoever about Zelda as a franchise. So I handed in one of them today, and was told it was one of the screens of the course that year - which basically means it was essentially perfect, and is used as an example. Needless to say I'm happy about it, so a lot of effort has been going into that for the past few weeks. Personally I'm not a huge fan of my drawings, I don't think they're that good, and considering I'd like to publish a manga someday, that's a freaking big issue. So, I practice a lot. You can follow my Tumblr, GamingEmpire, to see some.

Onto a much more... Personal preference thing. Fondantshipping. It's a thing, and it's coming very soon. You may notice I had a few implied Fondantshipping hints with this chapter, and truth be told, that was mostly me practicing seeing if their interactions were realistic, so I guess that makes this a sort of beta testing, huh? Well, the Fondantshipping fanfic is basically a late birthday present to a close friend of mine, whom with I gush about Fondant a bit too much. But yes, apparently, according to google, I'm the only person writing FondantShipping fanfics. Which is even more weird, considering this is going to be a lemon. Yep, I'm breaking my one underlining rule here for this fanfic. So, damn, looks like this is happening. Don't wanna read it? That's perfectly fine, I do not expect anyone here to read it at all, I'm just saying this so no one becomes concerned I've just turned into a yuri account. No, I will occasionally write Yuri, even more occasionally, lemons. Although admittedly, it would be nice if this fanfic caused a Fondantshipping boom. I'm gonna be real upset if I loose followers over this and the fondant community gets only my fanfic. It'd be nice to have a bit more stuff over there, but now I am complaining. Just know, your choice, I don't expect anyone to read it. It's a guilty pleasure more than anything else.

Also, finally, my birthday is on the 1st December. In a couple of weeks, I will be 17, so that's gonna be... Interesting, to say the least. I'd like to make my 17th year my year of creativity, so, I'd like to engage with you guys more often, exchange works, do team up projects, and work on my drawings and YouTube channel more. I'd love all you guys to join me in those if you'd like. I started a new YouTube channel, TheGamingEmpire, so if you wanna join the fun there, come on down!

All that aside, I guess that's it from me. I do hope you enjoyed Loyalty chapter one, and hope you're looking forward to the next chapter. Let's make this one a big one, guys. The more follows and favourites, reviews and the likes this gets, the longer I'll make the story, because you guys deserve it for being so awesome and following me this long. I'm grateful that you all choose to spend some time of your day to read the ramblings of an insane 16 year old guy operating out of England. I can't thank you enough ^_^

So as always, I hope you enjoy, and I'll see you in whatever I wrote next. See you all!