Reunited, Happily and Painfully

A/N: Hey all, this is my first attempt at a fanfiction, so I'll need reviews of all kinds, flame if you want but be gentle. REALLY gentle.

Disclaimer: I do not own Pokemon. Period. It is owned by Nintendo, Creatures, GAME FREAK, etc etc. If I did own it I wouldn't be writing FAN-fictions. Derr-ka-derr. That said, let's get this thing going.

Ash: 18

Misty: 18

Brock: 20

Delia: 40

Prof. Oak: 62

Tracey: 19

May: 15

Max: 8

Gary: 18

Richie: 18

???: 42

Chapter One: The Letter

Cerulean City is known for its beautiful skies, perfect temperatures, and the winding route that courses through the mountains north of the city that eventually leads to Bill's Lighthouse. But it is now mostly known for the Cerulean City Gym, east of the Pokemon Center, atop a small hill. It had a rather large Dewgong sculptured above the entrance, and it had a retractable roof that domed over the pool area. It has grass all the way around it that was cleanly mowed every few days. Although it used to be run by the three Sensational Sisters, Lily, Violet and Daisy, housing swimming and water shows of the many, it is now one of the most competitive and organized gyms in all of the Kanto Region.

As the sun beamed down on the city, like any other hot July day, an 18 year old redhead was stirring after a long and much deserved sleep. Her name was Misty Waterflower, who, although wasn't a stranger to traveling, hadn't been out of her hometown in almost two years because of her sisters leaving. Her travels with her best friends had ended because of her sisters winning a trip around the world. Since then she's been running the gym by herself, as best she could. And after three straight weeks of nothing but gym battles, training and Pokemon League affairs, it's no wonder she woke up at around 12:30 pm. She knew that she had become much better at pokemon battling, however. And she's been learning about new water pokemon traits, features and abilities each day because of battling alone.

As she stirred, she flopped on her back. Her short, fiery-crimson hair was strayed all along her face and her bed sheets were rather messy from a long night's sleep. Her body ached from these last few weeks, so lately she's been slow moving every morning.

Her bedroom was a little typical, but not really; Tentacool/Tentacruel bedsheets, a Starmie alarm clock, and next to it, a picture of her and Ash sitting on a cliff that overlooked a night-time Saffron City, the sun barely done setting over the city. It was taken quite a while back, on her first journey with Ash, when they traveled through the Kanto region. She figured either Brock or Pikachu took it (She's seen Pikachu actually take rather amazing pictures). She also had dark blue carpeting in her room, a 28in HDTV, and shelving over the TV packed with Blu-Ray movies and anime collections. She also had a few posters, mostly of Water Pokemon, but her favorite was a wall scroll hung on her door of an artistic portrayal of Ash. He looked dark, but determined. His name was stroked across the bottom in Japanese. The intense katakana was black, outlined in bright red. (Yes, by now there's merchandise out that portrays Ash, especially in Kanto). There was also a poster of herself on the wall, one of the only photos of herself she likes. Her poster was brightly colored in blue and yellow, with all the water pokemon ever discovered edging the poster.

She finally glanced at her alarm clock, which never went off. 12:37 p.m.. She realized she had slept in extremely late, and started panicking, at first getting out a startled jump. (You know how it is when you sleep in.) The latest she's waken up these past few weeks was 8 a.m., how could a gym leader like herself become so lazy overnight like that? Soon enough, her mind finally turned on and she realized it was her first day off in almost a month, and because of the huge tournament going on at the Indigo Plateau, this was the busiest time of the year for the League, as many last-minute trainers tried to get their last few badges before the tournament's start. The cut-off day of entries was yesterday, giving the exhausted Misty a break. She flopped backwards, her head hitting the pillow yet again, breathing heavily from the near heart-attack she just had. "Man, I really do need rest..." she grumbled to herself.

She still decided to get up, since she was so used to it. Misty stretched as far as her limbs could reach, still laying down. She slowly slipped her feet into Seal slippers, rubbing her eyes. She then made her way to the bathroom, and put on an ice blue robe over her pajamas, that was made of thin, velvety Vaporeon fur (A/N: FAKE fur. No PokePoaching in this fic.). She then sluggishly made her way down the stairway that led to the pool area, and made her way out the main door, to the mailbox outside the door. The sudden sunlight made her whole body wince. "I must've slept pretty hard..." she thought to herself. "But I needed it…" She grabbed the mail and went back inside.

The usual stuff; bills, junk, more bills, and a newsletter from the Official Pokemon League Kanto Bureau, reminding all gym leaders that the day before was the cutoff day for league entry, and to discontinue official battling until further noticed. This relieved Misty; even though she already knew about it, it was settling to her that she got the official statement from the Bureau. She even got a couple fan letters in the rather thick stack. The last one, however, caught her off guard.

It was from Ash Ketchum, the boy she had traveled with in all their journeys together throughout Kanto, the Orange Islands and Johto. From the boy she randomly fished out of a lake in the outskirts of Pallet Town. From the one person she truly cared about, yet had no idea why for a long time, at least until his first trip to the Indigo Plateau. She knew that he'd be participating in this huge tournament, but it didn't really sink in until she realized how close the tournament really was to starting. She headed up to her room, plopped on her bed and opened it, wondering just what it was that he wanted to say.

Dear Misty,

How've you been? I hope everything's running well at the gym, I know you've been busy for awhile. I just hope you get this letter as soon as possible. Everyone told me to say Hi for them too.

But first, I'm really sorry I haven't contacted you in a while… these last two months I decided to go to the Hoenn region for some extreme training, and I haven't had time for much of anything else except eating. Plus, I know how you've been busy with all the last minute trainers trying to enter this year's tournament.

I'm sure you know that I'll be participating in the Indigo League, and I'd really appreciate it if you could be here to support me, just like the old days. I found out that if I already have eight badges from a region, I can enter the tournament every year without trying to re-earn them, so I figured I'd give this Indigo thing one more shot (This time, Charizard is obeying me, so I'm really gonna give it my all this time around).

It would mean a lot to me if you could make it, and I know that this sounds kinda weird coming from me, but I don't know if I can make it all the way to the end without you there. If you can't make it because of the gym, that's ok, don't stress yourself about it and I'll completely understand... If you can make it, great! Everyone's here already (well, except my mom...) and you're the only one missing.

Just, don't work yourself too hard. Chances are I'll make it pretty far anyways. I haven't trained so hard that I couldn't walk for a day, but that actually happened last week, so I can't say that now! There's no way I can lose this time… I'm actually hoping to have a rematch with Richie, to show what my Charizard can actually do.

I really hope you can make it. The finals are held in a week and a half, and my status will be on the news, since I'm a local and all. Don't worry, I'll make it far enough for you to make it here.

Yours Truly, and best regards—

Ash Ketchum

Misty reread the letter several times, feeling both happiness and guilt. Happy that Ash finally was able to communicate with her, and that he let her know how much he cared of her presence… yet guilty that she's barely kept in touch with him, and that she won't even be able to make it in the first week to see his matches... The league requires a gym leader's presence at all times during the week after the cutoff day of entry into the tournament, for basically gym upkeep and phone calls. "Stupid league guidelines..." she mumbled.

Lately, every time Misty thought of Ash, she would forget all of the frustrations and poisons from that day that had plagued her. She'd get an odd feeling in her stomach every once in a while as well, as she thought about him more and more. He's been training so hard for the previous 2 months, and she was so proud of him for putting as much effort as he did into this year's league preparations. 'And he's been training as well…" she thought to herself. Ash e-mailed her a recent picture of him, Brock and Dawn in Sinnoh, and she definitely noticed that he's grown a bit. He looked stronger, taller and much more in shape than the last time she saw him. He was definitely not a dorky kid trainer anymore (not that that was bad).

And now after these hectic two months she still can't let him know that she won't be able to come for almost all of his tournament time. And even if she could, how could she make it to the Plateau in a three day period after the week was over? It takes her almost a week just to travel to Pallet. How could she possibly make it to Indigo Plateau?

Suddenly, an idea passed through her head. She quickly grabbed the phone and dialed the number to the Pokemon League Bureau to hastily request a two-week-period of time off, with panic in her voice, due to a family emergency that happened recently in the Hoenn Region. Usually they were rather strict on sudden requests off for the gym leaders in the region, but because of the season's end, and a little thanks to her "Misty charm," she finally persuaded the agreement to fulfill her request. She hung up and muttered "The things I have to do to support my friends…"

Within an hour she was dressed in slim blue jeans that flared at the bottom, a blue t-shirt, red converse hi-tops, and a pink hoodie sweater, along with her familiar red bag full of a few days of clothes. She hastily put her hair into her usual side-ponytail, got out her bike and locked the door. She then started pedaling hard, not to the Indigo Plateau, but to Pallet Town. "Don't worry Ash, I'll make it…" she thought to herself as she left.