Disclaimer: I don’t own Pokemon

Brushing her hair back behind her shoulder, with a confident smile on her face, a navy-haired young woman with deep blue eyes followed closely behind her mentor as he led them both back inside of his Pokemon lab in Sandgem Town.

“Now Dawn,” the mentor said to her, turning as he spoke, his white-haired, bristly moustache sticking up slightly. “I need to go into my office for a moment. Would you please go place the three Pokeball that contain the starter Pokemon back on the table.”

Smiling brightly, Dawn eagerly nodded her head. “Right away, Professor Rowan, you can count on me!”

Continuing to grin as she watched the Pokemon professor walk away from her, heading toward his office, Dawn counted backwards from ten in her head, trying to calm herself down, until finally the older man disappeared from sight.

“Oh my gosh, oh my gosh, oh my gosh!” the blunette exclaimed, closing her eyes as she brought a palm to her face. “What am I supposed to do! I left the briefcase all the way back near the lake where the Professor and I were doing research. Ugh!”

Glancing down at the red-colored Poketch on her wrist, she stamped one of her feet to the floor, before turning and marching right back out of the lab, hoping that none of the aides there noticed her leaving.

“Will I even have enough time to go back and get the briefcase with the starter Pokemon before Professor Rowan comes back out of his office?” the teen wondered to herself with a groan.

Continuing to walk away from the lab, back out toward the route that would eventually lead toward the lake outside of Twinleaf Town, Dawn kept her arms at her sides, her hands balled into fists as her worrisome thoughts continued to float about in her head.

“What if he does something drastic?” she wondered aloud, her eyes widening slightly. “Like, what if he like fires me? What if I can’t be his apprentice person anymore. Oh my gosh, oh my gosh, oh my gosh.”

Continuing to walk on, Dawn slowly unclenched her fists, now taking in and exhaling deep breaths of air with each step she took.

“No, I cannot panic. I won’t. Okay. No need to worry, no need to worry, no need to--”

THUD!!

Blinking as she felt herself bump up against something suddenly, Dawn took a quick step backward, blinking a few more times, before saying in a rush as she realized that the something she had bumped into was another teen, this one a tall, blond-headed boy,

“Oh, I’m so sorry, I didn’t mean to run into anybody, and--”

“You didn’t,” answered a voice, a voice that cut her off.

Glancing from the blond-haired boy over to a second teen, Dawn felt her cheeks inexplicably heat up as her deep blue eyes came into contact with those of this other boy, who’s own eyes were a shade of light brown.

“It wasn’t you that ran into anyone,” the boy with brown eyes explained further, rolling his eyes slightly as he gestured with his thumb back toward the blond one. “It was him that ran into you. He kinda sorta does that a lot.”

Laughing slightly, Dawn attempted a smile, before answering,

“So I see. Well, I honestly do hate to run into someone, literally, and then leave, but you see, I left something important behind at--hey, wait…I know you two from somewhere!”

“Duh,” the blond boy said, before outstretching his hand, taking hold of Dawn’s and giving it a brief shake. “Nice to meet ya, my name is Jun, and time is money, and since I’ve got no time or money, I’d best be off, well, see ya now!”

Barely moving out of the way in time as the boy who had just introduced himself took off, running at a blazing speed, Dawn barely had time to blink twice before Jun had disappeared deep into town.

“What the…”

“Excuse my friend,” said the other boy, who now outstretched his own hand as he took a step toward Dawn, his brown hair sticking out very slightly from beneath a red beret he had perched on his head. “That’s just… him.”

“So I see,” Dawn replied, again with a giggle, before slightly looking away as she felt her cheeks again heat up, this time as the boy before her took hold of her hand, squeezing it briefly, before letting go.

“My name is Lucas,” he said. “And, however bluntly he put it, Jun was right--we have met before, just a few hours or so ago, near the lake. Remember?”

Now blushing even more, feeling slightly embarrassed by her initial loss of memory, Dawn slowly nodded her head, murmuring,

“I do remember.”

“Right,” Lucas said, before he held out a briefcase to her. “Jun and I found this out in the grass. We figured you were the ones who had dropped it, and--”

Dropping the briefcase to the ground in surprise, the boy called Lucas awkwardly folded his arms around his newly-acquainted friend’s back as she threw her arms around his neck suddenly.

“Thank you, thank you, thank you!” she squealed, before quickly pulling back, her cheeks redder than ever as she bent down to pick up the briefcase.

“No problem,” Lucas replied, although he still seemed a bit awkward after the impromptu hug.

“Like seriously, I was afraid that Professor Rowan might kill me,” Dawn said, sighing in relief as she stood back up, the briefcase in her hands, before opening it. “Or worse, fire me…”

Slowly arching an eyebrow as he watched the blunette chatter on, Lucas reached a hand to his belt, before retrieving a Pokeball.

“Erm,” he began, holding it up. “Excuse me but--”

“…and then what would I do? My own father is one of the Professor’s top aides--I can’t not live up to that expect--oh no! The briefcase is empty!”

“Erm, yeah,” Lucas said, clearing his throat slightly as he held the Pokeball a bit higher. “That’s what I wanted to explain. Jun and I--”

“Where are the Pokeballs that were in here?!” Dawn demanded hysterically, paying no attention to the young man before her, who was now sighing apathetically.

“Uhm, Dawn was it?” he said, outstretching his free hand to place it on her shoulder, successfully getting her attention as she paused mid-rant to look back at him.

“I have one of the Pokeballs,” he said too her, slightly waving the one in his other hand around. “Jun has another, and there should still be one inside.”

“Oh…” the blue-eyed girl said, now sounding slightly sheepish as she reached into the briefcase and pulled out a single Pokeball. “So there is one.”

“Yeah,” Lucas continued on, removing his hand from her shoulder as he spoke. “I’m sorry if Jun and I did the wrong thing by taking them, but we had to protect ourselves against a couple of wild Pokemon out in the tall grass by the lake, and then, well, I guess he and I just wanted to spend a little more time with them. Anyway, I’m sorry…”

Moving to place the Pokeball back into the open briefcase Dawn was holding, Lucas sighed sadly. Seeing and understanding that he didn’t really want to part ways so suddenly with whichever starter Pokemon was inside his Pokeball, Dawn quickly moved the opened briefcase back, out of the reach of Lucas’s hand.

“What’re--”

“Maybe you don’t have to give it back just yet,” she explained with a smile, before leading her new friend back inside the Pokemon lab.

“And what about Jun, who just high-tailed it out of here before asking?”

“Well the way I see it,” the blunette replied, waiting for Lucas to walk on inside of the building before closing the door behind herself. “You and your friend there did me an enormous favor, bringing this briefcase back to me, so I’m going to see if I can get a favor done for you. Maybe the professor will let you keep the Pokemon a while longer. Knowing the Professor like I do--and I’m not making any promises but--maybe he might let you just keep it for good."

“Well, when you put it that way…” Lucas replied, smiling slightly as he glanced at Dawn, before glancing back at the Pokeball still held in his hand. “Huh, so maybe this is like a, I dunno, a fortunate mistake or something. Maybe I’ll end up getting a Pokemon out of it, and, like you said, I got to help you out, too.”

“Serendipity,” Dawn said, feeling her heart flutter slightly as she looked over to see Lucas now smiling back at her again, her cheeks also heating up again in response.

“Seren-what now?” the beret-wearing teen questioned, looking puzzled.

“Serendipity,” Dawn repeated. “It means, a fortunate mistake.”

“So, like me maybe getting this Pokemon now because I returned the briefcase?”

“More like me and you meeting each other at all…” Dawn murmured to herself with a slight smirk, her face warmer than ever.

“What was that?” Lucas asked, moving to walk more closely beside her, as he had not clearly made out whatever it was she had just mumbled.

“Oh, nothing,” the blunette replied, flustered, before she looked ahead and caught sight of the back of the head of an older man with white hair. “Hey, Professor! I have a favor to ask of you!”