Author's Note:

This is my first real story that I'm finally publishing! It's a Pokeshipping one-shot, and it's not really that good, but I like it. I wrote it in May of 2012, and only got around to publishing it now... *sweatdrop*
By the way, since I don't really want to use my real name, I'm just going to go by Silvia, because of my username. So, people who like and or leave nice reviews will recieve cupcakes!
And just saying, just because you don't like my writing, doesn't mean you have to hate me!
Rant over. Enjoy!

-Silvia

Disclaimer: I, silvermoonflower13, do not own anything. The story may be mine, but it isn't copyrighted so I really don't own anything. If I owned Pokemon I would make the manga characters come to the anime for a much cooler story but no, sadly, I DO NOT OWN POKEMON.

Misty's Diary

Dear Diary,

I don't even know why I bother writing that. It's obvious that "you" are an inanimate object, and therefore, can't hear or read or et cetera. I never understood why people always write, "Dear Diary" this, or "Dear Diary" that, like the diary can solve all their problems. Plus, they use a capital D in diary, like that's it's name and they are talking to it. But Diary is such a horrible name.

Personally, I think it sounds like Diherria.

Pleasant, I know.

Yet here I am, writing away like this piece of diherria can actually hear me. The only reason I even have you, Diary, (there I go again talking-or writing-to myself) is because my sister Daisy says I have anger-management issues. So what that I constantly carry around a mallet and occasionally slug people in the head with it?!

I don't necciserily want to use it for that, though; I already have a human punching-bag named Gary Oak. And he deserves it; that guy has the biggest ego on the planet.

I, like a normal person, have personal issues too, you know. And I can bet all of my personal issues-aside from the occasional spats among all my friends, all caused by Gary's insanely huge ego, might I add-can be traced back to one name I don't go a day without thinking of, tracing the letters of it deep into my mind.

Ash Ketchum.

He might be my best friend, but he was a piece of work, may I tell you. I spent years with him, traveling around, helping strangers with their problems, and let's not forget him getting us and our other friend, Brock, lost in some forest.

He was dense, stubborn, idiotic, clueless, and completely oblivious to things.

And yet I found myself uncontrollably in love with him.

Like I said, he was always clueless to any hints I dropped. I always tried to tell him, but I didn't have the courage to full on share my feelings. Even so, just being his best friend for all those years we spent traveling around Kanto and Johto was enough. Until that one dreadful day.

My three older sisters (curse them) and I run the Cerulean City gym. While I was on my journey with Ash and Brock, they randomly decided to travel the world, and dragged me home to be the gym leader. Even when they returned, they still made me be the leader.

So, naturally following his dream to be a master, Ash went off to Hoenn. Brock unexpectedly went along too. That time, they traveled with siblings named May and Max.

In Hoenn, I still missed those times running around with Ash and Brock, I videochatted with them and got to meet May and Max. At one point, I even visited Hoenn, using Togepi as an excuse. May and Max were very nice to me, videochat or in person.

I have to admit, I was a little jealous of May. She was so pretty, but once when I was talking to her over video chat, a boy our age walked into view. He was a coordinator, I knew that much, and I guessed that he was May's rival. The way she looked at him…it was a combination of the look Ash used to get when he battled me or Gary and the look that Brock would get when he saw a pretty girl. So I knew I didn't have to be jealous; the boy was giving May the same look back.

I talked to him too, and found out that he was a coordinator, he was May's rival, and his name was Drew.

When Ash moved on to the Sinnoh region, he only went with Brock again. May and Max went their own way. I was video chatting less frequently, though I still got to meet the girl they traveled with again, and her name was Dawn. She was just as pretty as May, so me being me, I was immediately jealous.

Then Ash said that he made a new rival, and Dawn muttered something about her rival, a childhood friend named Kenny, and immediately blushed after, though Ash, dense as he was, didn't notice at all, and Brock was busy flirting with some girl. I knew I didn't have to worry.

But then Ash moved on too far far away. Brock came back to Kanto to be a doctor. Every so often I would visit him, just like I did with Gary. Although, my visits with Gary were actually to either punch his face in over a comment he said to me in a call, or to see if Ash had returned. Brock actually was my friend. A couple times while Ash was in Sinnoh, I went and visited Drew and May.

But after Sinnoh, Ash went to Unova.

Unova is kind of cut off from the other regions. I learned from Brock that Ash was traveling with a boy named Cilan and a girl named Iris. Me being me, well, you realize how I reacted…and Brock accidentally got a face full of mallet. Like I said, accidental.

Ash never ever responded my video calls anymore. It was like he was scared of me and my mallet. I tried not to worry about it; he was probably training or challenging someone and didn't see my call, dense as he was.

But I couldn't help being anxious that he might get separated from his new friends somehow, and not have anyone to help him out of the forest. I couldn't help worrying that maybe that Iris girl…

No, I couldn't bear it, Diary. I decided as I was writing this dumb thing that I would listen to my heart this time.

I got up and shut you stupid book. I tossed you under my bed so that my sisters' prying eyes wouldn't see it. I hated when they tried to meddle.

Without thinking, I walked to the door, but Daisy stopped me. "Where do you think you are going?" she asked me. Dang it.

I smiled, knowing just the rebellious thing I never had the courage to say to one of my sisters before. But I started with something simpler. "I…I'm going to see Gary."

She raised her eyebrows. "Misty Waterflower, do you have a crush? That's the second time this month! And challengers always come by whenever you're out with Gary, or that guy who's name sounds like Rock, or those coordinators that come by."

I countered, "Aren't you the one that is always saying I'm unpopular? Aren't you the one who says I need to get more friends? Aren't you the one who says that I need to change my clothes or my hair or get out more because I'm not like you?!"

Daisy looked shocked, but she quickly retorted, "I am, but you're such a bother! You're an embarrassment to us, and you always leave us in charge of the gym."

I was SO not going to take that! "You three were in charge of the gym in the first place! You made me stay here when I could have been with…when I could have been on my journey! Instead, I've been replaced…never mind that! But I'm leaving! I'll be back in a few weeks or days or something but…" I calmed myself down, thinking how my sisters maybe did deep down care for me, "I will call."

I picked up my red backpack and slung it over my shoulders, walking out the door. I always kept that backpack there for when I finally got the courage to leave.

That day had come.

I flew so fast, I barely noticed I was in Pewter City when I ran into the exact doctor I was looking for. "Brock!" I exclaimed. "I know you are busy, but I just wanted to tell you I'll be going to Unova for a bit, but unlike an idiot who's last name sounds remarkably like ketchup, I will answer any calls you make."

He smiled. "That's great, Misty." he walked off. He knew why I was really going to Unova.

I ran so fast, so far, so crazily, I had no sense of direction and amazingly ended up in Vermillion City. I bought a ticket to Unova-which isn't cheap, may I add-and boarded the boat.

It took a really long time to get to faraway Unova, and as I sat on the boat, I cooled down and thought everything over. From the simplest things to my outburst.

My name was Misty Waterflower. I was lovesick and the boy was far away. I was worried. I came to visit him…no, if I had to explain why I was there, I needed an excuse. Or a way to get his attention. Something like…oh, I had it!

Thinking I was all set, I called May. She answered after two rings. "Hey May!" I said.

Drew appeared on the screen too. "Hi Misty!" they said in unison, then blushed. I made a silent note to myself to remember that for later.

May looked behind me and squinted. "Misty…where the heck are you?"

I shrugged and grinned. "On my way to Unova."

Drew's bright green eyes widened. "What?! Why didn't you tell us? We would have come! And I bet Dawn and Kenny maybe would too!" I remembered that Dawn was better friends with May than me, but even so, I had talked to Dawn over the phone and on email more times than Ash had.

I shrugged. "I was going to but…but I wanted to surprise him myself." May looked like she was about to say something, when the ship abruptly stopped. I hadn't realized the time I had been thinking before calling Drew and May was actually hours.

"I got to go now! Wish me luck!" I called out over the engines stopping. They waved and we ended the call. I ran off the ship but, not knowing anywhere in Unova I took a map from a display of brochures. As I saw the name of one town's gym leader, I headed out in the direction of it since it wasn't too far away. At one point, I needed to stop and camp out in a forest for the night.

For traveling through towns, I was going pretty fast. I finally ended up in the village of dragons. I rushed through town, and burst into the gym, remembering the way I did so when I was with Ash and Brock.

The gym leader turned. He was tall with paper-white hair and a beard the same color. His posture made you want to stand up taller if you were slouching. He was impeccably intimidating.

"Ah, Miss Waterflower," he said, shutting his book and setting it on a table.

"Draden, how are you today?" I asked. I knew Draden, the Opelucid City gym leader, from the meetings occasionally held to get a percentage of gym leaders together and talk about strategy or stories of trainers that came to our gym. I, of course, attended these in the place of my sisters. So I became friends with some other gym leaders, that including Draden.

"Fine, thank you," he replied. "What brings you here today?"

"I need a favor," I told him. I didn't fill him in on my full story, that was personal, but I did say enough to give him an idea of what I needed him to help me with.

I told him that I came to Unova to find an old friend. I suspected that he would be around this town, and would immediately go to the gym. So, I thought I would surprise him. Draden said that he knew Ash was on his way because he knew the Iris girl.

So he and I sat and chatted while we waited. It didn't take long until I heard that voice yelling, "No, we need to go to the gym first!" Typical Ash. Draden and I stood at the battlefield then, waiting for the exact right moment. We both tried to make it look like the battle had already started by taking out whom we were going to "battle" with.

When I heard the doors open, I shouted, "Dewgong, use Blizzard!" my Dewgong shot foggy ice and snow chunks through the air, like a miniature snowstorm.

I didn't dare turn around, but I heard a girl's voice say, "What's wrong with Ash?" and then a boy's voice talking about my battle style like it's a recipe for peach cobbler.

Diary, I don't even know what peach cobbler is.

Do you? No, you don't, you're an inanimate object.

The next thing I know a few moves later is that I've somehow won. I thanked Draden for the "strategy test battle" that we had been supposedly having and turned to leave.

Although he was my best friend, my heart stopped for a moment. Ash looked confused, or in a trance, or shocked. I pretended to be surprised and Dreaden walked into another room.

"Ash?" I said, like I couldn't believe I had run into him.

"Who the heck is this?" the girl, Iris asked. I could practically feel her jealousy and anger radiating through the room.

I could almost hear her thoughts, "Who is this girl and why is MY Ash getting so worked up over her?!"

Smiling, I introduced myself, "My name is Misty. I'm Ash's best friend and I used to travel with him." Ash was still in shock, Cilan apparently didn't find any problem with me being there, but the look on Iris' face was simply priceless. I decided not to underestimate this girl, though. So I kept my guard up.

Iris stopped gaping and said, "Forget the gym, Ash, let's go eat!"

Ash stammered out, "I…Uh…"

Thankfully, Cilan was good at guessing and saved us, "Iris, I thought I saw Trip over by the restaurant! Why don't we join him and let Ash catch up with his old friend?"

Iris started to object, but Cilan took her hand and dragged her out and over to a restaurant.

"C'mon Ash," I said and we stepped out of the gym and began to walk.

He finally seemed to emerge from his shock and ask, "Mist…why did you come here?"

I didn't know what to say, so I went with the closest thing to truth. "Well, I wanted to come visit since I haven't seen you in a long time. When I came, I realized an old gym leader friend of mine, Draden, was here. So I came and battled with him."

Ash still looked a little surprised. "You…you came here for me?" I nodded. "Mist, I…I feel so awful. I haven't seen you in such a long time. I was worried you had forgotten me, so I never visited you."

"Ash, I never forgot you! How could I? What about all those times I called?"

"Well, I…it just wasn't the same as actually being with you. It was just a reminder that you weren't with me; that you were still back in Kanto."

That didn't make too much sense to me, so I replied, "I really missed you, Ash. I felt like you were ignoring me, that I'd done something wrong, or maybe that…that…that you replaced me."

Ash looked appalled. "You never seemed to think that before with May and Dawn as my friends."

It was truth time. But I didn't dive right on in. "Because I knew that they both only thought of you as just a friend."

As clueless as ever, he said, "And you were worried I had replaced you with Iris as my best friend? Because one, it's allowed to have more than one best friend, and two, Iris is a little…irritating."

I liked that he thought of her like an annoyance, but I still responded, "More than just a best friend."

"You were worried that…oh. Mist, even if I did get a girlfriend somehow, you would still be my best friend."

This was pointless. I knew in my heart that if he really wasn't catching on at this point, then he obviously wasn't interested enough to see the hints. I couldn't feel the way I did any longer.

"Just…just forget it!" I cringed as I said it, and not knowing where I was going, I ran off. As I was going I heard Ash,

"Mist! Where are you going?!" there was worry in his voice, but tears in my eyes and I kept running. I ran out of town, down roads, ran until the sun set, but I didn't even stop then. No, I kept going. I bolted into a familiar town; the one I had first come to.

I rushed toward the docks just as a boat pulled in and let their passengers off. I would get a ticket and leave Unova. That was when I bumped into just the wrong passenger who had left the boat.

"Misty?"

I groaned. "Oh, Arceus, no, not you!"

He grinned, "That's no way to greet your best friend!"

"Gary, you are NOT my best friend. Now go away, I'm trying to go home. And what are you doing here anyway?!"

Diary, you can believe I was pissed at him.

Gary shrugged. "Your sisters called. It's fine, I told them you were with me, but Brock told me you were here, so I came. Plus, I thought I'd beat Ashy-Boy in a battle for old time's sake."

I didn't really know what to say to Gary. "Well…fine. You go do that. I'm going home."

"Hey wait!" Gary grabbed my wrist as I started to the docks. "What's wrong?"

I wrenched free of his grasp and spat, "Nothing! Leave me alone, will you!" I felt bad being rude to him, but he wasn't making me feel better in that situation. So I walked to the docks and boarded a boat back to Kanto.

Although we didn't talk the whole way home, Gary came too.

Dear Diary,

I still don't know why I bother sometimes. Why I bother writing in you. Why I bothered going to Unova three days ago. Why I bothered even talking to Gary and his enormous ego that day. Why I even felt bad when I was rude to him.

The three days when I returned were slow. I took care of the water types at the gym. I wrote in this. My sisters (curse them) said that as a reward for watching over the gym for the three (it was only two) days I was gone, they would take a vacation to a resort in Sinnoh for two weeks. Of course. I expected that much from them.

There weren't any challengers. But the days were still slow like a Slugma. I tried to forget everything that happened. I needed to erase away that part of my life. I started over.

My name was Misty Waterflower. I was the Cerulean City gym leader. My friends were named Brock, May, Drew, Dawn, and Kenny. I supposed I could count in Gary…

On the third day I got back from Unova, I sat at my kitchen table, writing in you stupid diary. I still sat, thoroughly depressed, when the doorbell rang.

I didn't want to answer it. If there was a contestant, they would go to the gym area. It was probably just someone looking for my sisters. But whoever it was, they did not want to go away. It was incredibly annoying. Then I remembered the last time that happened, it was Gary who wouldn't leave me alone.

I stomped over, whipped open the door in anger and began to say, "You stupid Gary Oak, get your jerkface, self-absorbed ego off of my property!" but I swallowed the first word.

In shock of who I saw before me, I let out a feeble whimper, "Ash…"

His chocolate brown eyes were full of concern and worry. About me. I felt my face redden.

Ash broke the silence between us. "Mist, I…I'm sorry for what happened before. I left Unova to come find you. I'm so sorry that I haven't visited or called. Please, will you forgive me? I need you to, you're my best friend!"

I was appalled that Ash Ketchum was apologizing to me. "Ash, I don't know if I can."

"Listen Mist, I always wished I could go back to the way things were before your sisters called you back here. I wished that you could continue traveling with me. Please, I need you to be on my side. I need you as my best friend."

"Do you promise to answer my calls?"

"Yes, of course. Mist, I'm sorry I haven't for so long. It's just that…"

He paused. "What is it?" I asked.

Surprisingly, Ash took my hand. "Mist…ever since I stole your bike the first day I met you, I knew you were something special. I silently hoped I would see you again. And then, we became best friends. And when you left, I didn't know how I would be able to continue my journey.

I didn't think I'd be able to live without you. Without you there to cheer me on, or to get me out of a forest. That's what I thought the feeling was; that I needed you there to help me, to be my best friend.

But, I finally realized what that feeling really was. And before, seeing you, it made me freeze up. But I understand now, why I need you. And I really do so please, please accept my apology."

The whole time he was talking, I could practically feel my heart melting. "I forgive you." he let out a sigh of relief. I suddenly was very aware of his hand holding mine, but I smiled. "So why is it that you need me?"

He looked nervous. "If I tell you, do you promise not to hit me with the mallet?!"

I laughed. "Of course not! Now, your answer?"

I expected him to say something else about our friendship, but to my shock, he leaned in and kissed me on the lips. I didn't even really care at that point about the fact that I was blushing down to my toes.

After, he was still holding my hand. "Does that answer your question? I love you, Mist."

Finally, finally on that day of November 7th, I knew that Ash Ketchum felt the same way about me as I did with him.

"I love you too, Ash. I always have and I always will."