AmourShipping

AmourShipping is the het ship between Ash Ketchum and Serena from the Pokémon fandom.

Pre-Pokémon the Series: XY
Ash and Serena were childhood friends, first meeting at Professor Oak's Summer Camp at the age of 5. Said meeting was formed after Serena found herself lost in a forest. Young Serena became startled by a Poliwag, falling over and injuring her knee. She began to cry from her situation, until Ash popped out from nearby. He had apparently been chasing the Poliwag that scared Serena. Noticing her injured knee, Ash pulled out a handkerchief and wrapped it around Serena’s knee, causing her to blush. Before helping her up, he stated that it was a “good-luck charm” and that it’d help the pain go away. Serena struggles to stand as she’s pulled to her feet, but Ash tells her “don’t give up until it’s over”, a line that would stick with her years from then. He then escorted her back to the camp’s center.

They didn’t meet again until years afterwards, as Serena left back to her home region of Kalos upon the camp’s completion.

Pokémon the Series: XY
It isn’t until partway through the season that Serena is introduced. She is seen firstly as she slumps to her sofa to watch TV after a Ryhorn racing session with her mother. As she watches, she sees a boy dangling from the top of Lumiose Tower in an attempt to calm a frantic Garchomp. She quickly recognizes it to be Ash and grows excited, but she was unsure whether it was really him or not. Then sets out a plan to find him.

Upon entering Professor Sycamore's lab, Serena asks him about the trainer she saw on TV and he confirms that it is Ash, to which Serena gets more excited.

Entering Santalune City, Serena is still eager to see Ash, heading to the gym there. Entering the gym, Serena runs towards him, but Alexa stops her, so she just watches the battle. When Ash was defeated by Viola's Vivillon, Serena felt the same as Ash. When Serena wanted to talk to Ash as he was leaving the gym, shyness entered her and she couldn't do it. Serena noticed that Ash forgot his backpack so she saw this as an opportunity to talk to him. While Ash was lamenting his latest defeat, Serena finally appears to him, finally returning his backpack. After meeting Clemont and Bonnie, Serena and Ash introduce themselves. Later, at Alexa's training, Ash is still losing self-confidence, when Serena returns the favour Ash had given her in her childhood. Serena tries to get Ash to remember her in those moments. At one point where they were in a restaurant, Serena stared at Ash for a few minutes. When Ash completed his training that night, Serena talks to Ash alone for a brief period of time, wishing him luck in his upcoming rematch against Viola.

After Ash finally gets his first Kalos medal, the group sets off for Cyllage City. Serena is perplexed and hesitant when Ash asks her what she will do next. In the midst of their doubts, Ash proposes to Serena that they would travel the entire Kalos region together, which she accepts. From there they set off for their next destination in the company of Clemont and Bonnie.

As they leave the city, Serena offers to return Ash's scarf and finally gets him to remember those moments they both experienced as children. Later, Ash is encouraged to practice riding a Rhyhorn. After many unsuccessful attempts, he asks Serena alone for help, who reluctantly accepts.

In the evening of the next day, Serena offers Ash some biscuits for helping her as a child.

Later, in the episode Kindergarten Chaos!, Serena becames jealousy for the first time, as she becomes nervous when a certain Penelope tells Ash that if she won the two of them would go together. Unfortunately for Serena, Penelope's Sylveon defeated Ash's Froakie using a combination of Attract and Draining Kiss. But later, Ash would return with the group to resume their journey to Cyllage City.

In the episode A Conspiracy to Conquer!, Serena decides to go with Ash alone while they face the problem of Madame X and her Malamar. After dealing with the problem, the group meets again.

Later in the episode A Pokévision of Things to Come!, Serena dresses up in the Fennekin costume, which Ash finds very sexy, This finally made him agree to help her make her PokéVision videos.

In the episode An Undersea Place to Call Home!, faced with an invention by Clemont to decide who would enter a submarine, Serena decides to choose the same as Ash. They both chose left and it turns out they both won. They enjoyed those experiences until the tour under the sea was over and the group reunites again.

Pokémon the Series: XYZ
In “Battling at Full Volume!”, Ash trains Pikachu and Greninja on a river. Serena throws a towel to Ash in the hope of not catching a cold. He catches said towel, assuring her that he will be fine, and sneezes. The next day, Serena asks Bonnie to wake Ash up. He comes out of his tent, and tiredly walks towards Serena. When he gets close to her, Serena feels some romantic tensions, then Ash says “Iron Tail, Pikachu!” and falls down. Serena checks his forehead, and says to Clemont and Bonnie that he has a fever. Back in Ash's tent, Serena tries to cool his temperature with a washcloth but does little to lower his fever. Clemont and Bonnie go out to find some medicine, leaving her and Pikachu to take care of the young trainer. Meanwhile, another trainer named Jimmy is searching for Ash. Serena borrows Ash's clothes to battle the punk-rock trainer in his place. Midway through the battle, Team Rocket kidnap Ash's Pikachu and Jimmy's Pikachu Spike, and blows Serena's cover. A recovered Ash commands Greninja to stop their truck. Jimmy sees Serena as a trainer equal in spirit as Ash.

In “The First Day of the Rest of Your Life!”, Serena ponders on her next move after her loss. She, Ash, Clemont, Bonnie then watch the news of the Prism Tower lighting up once again. The next day, Serena leads the three to a park somewhere in Lumiose City, where she and two other Master Class finalists (Shauna and Jessilee) do their Showcase Performance exhibition. Shortly after, everyone joined in dancing along with the performers. Back in Clemont and Bonnie’s father’s apartment, Ash and Clemont offered Serena help in making dinner. The next morning, Ash, Serena, and their friends see Serena's mother off, where the latter offers them a visit anytime to her home. Then they part with Tierno, Shauna, Trevor, and Sawyer. Clemont and Bonnie were about to return to the Lumiose Gym, and Ash allows Serena to “stay with [him]”. They went to the airport, where Ash affirms that it will open soon. Next, they walk around Lumiose City and eat one of their famous foods. Ash and Serena then have a Pokémon battle on the same battlefield from the first episode of the XY series, the latter admitting that she never had a proper battle. Serena lets out Braixen, and Ash commands his Pikachu. The battle is called off, with Ash admiring her Pokémon that support her and “always cheering [her] on and on”. This motivates Serena to turn down her mentor’s offer and decide to go on a Performance training journey.

Fanon
This ship is one of the most popular ships in the Pokémon anime. It's also one of the most popular ships between Ash and a female companion. The popularity of the shipping began during the first season of the XY series due to Serena being revealed to have known Ash in her childhood, and had a canonical crush on him. Additionally, in the season finale of Pokémon XYZ, before leaving for her flight to Hoenn, Serena went up the escalator and kissed Ash on the lips and leaves down the escalator as she goes to her plane and leaves for Hoenn. This made fans very excited and fanboying and fangirling that Serena managed to kiss Ash. Tetsuo Yajima, the director of Pokémon XYZ, confirmed on Twitter that while they couldn't show the kiss so that the episode could air on TV, it definitely happened. He also said that Ash and Serena would possibly become a couple in the future of the Pokémon anime. It rivals with AdvanceShipping (Ash×May), PearlShipping (Ash×Dawn), AlohaShipping (Ash×Mallow), AureliaShipping (Ash×Lillie), and BlueAngelShipping (Ash×Lana). The major rivals of this ship are PokéShipping (Ash×Misty), NegaiShipping (Ash×Iris) and FirstFriendShipping (AshxGoh).

Fandom
FAN FICTION
 * Ash/Serena tag on FanFiction.net
 * Ash/Serena tag on FanFiction.net

DEVIANTART

PIXIV

REDDIT
 * r/AmourShipping on Reddit

WIKIS
 * AmourShipping on Bulbapedia

Trivia

 * The ship's name comes from the word amour which means “love” in French. It is because Serena is originally from Kalos, a region based on France in Pokémon X and Y; and she fell in love with Ash since childhood.