Not much to say at the moment except the usual. I do not own Pokémon, if I did Pokémon Z would be announced by now, blah blah blah. Also I am writing this for two reasons:

1. To write. I need to get back into it...though I've said this with each fanfiction I've put up here.

2. The following scenario is similar to my own, so it's a bit more personal to me. As such, I felt it was finally time to write it out.

Enjoy and I apologize if it sucks. I would like to note that I did try to check for spelling errors, but I am very bad about missing stuff, so I apologize. Constructive criticism is okay, but I ask that you refrain from being rude as I am a sensitive child and will probably cry. I apologize in advance to Pokeshippers. Read the author's note at the bottom for more. Thank you!

The Cerulean City Gym was a mess.

The pool that was used as a battlefield was filthy from not being cleaned in so long, and there were candy and ice cream wrappers all over the gym floor. The place had an aura of loneliness from not being battled in for weeks. And the worst part? Misty, the gym leader, really didn't care. She didn't plan on opening the gym, so there was no point in cleaning it. She was perfectly happy to sit in the lonely arena staring at the filthy pool water eating candy all day.

She knew she was being a child. Really, she did. She had a job, and it was her responsibility to carry it out, no matter how much pain she was in. And she knew that she could only keep this up for so long before the inspectors from the Pokémon League came to see why the gym had been closed for so long. And once they found out that she really didn't have a valid reason for keeping the gym closed, she'd likely be removed, and that would be a disgrace to her and her sisters who had given her the position. But she also knew that she couldn't battle anyone the way she was right now. She'd be just as much, if not more of a disgrace, if she tried to battle like this.

And so instead she spent the days alone in the gym arena. She kept her Pokémon in the aquarium where they had clean water and kept her distance from them. Her sisters and her best friend Tracey tried to knock on the door of the gym and coax her out, but it was in vain. Misty was not coming out. Eventually her sisters, at a complete loss, left her alone. Tracey would occasionally come by, but Misty knew that he knew it was hopeless. Even Brock tried a couple of times, but nope, not even he could convince her to come out.

Of course, Misty wasn't always like this. Occasionally, usually when Tracey came by and stood outside the door waiting for her, she thought that maybe she could fix herself. She thought that maybe she could finally move on like he had. She thought she could wake up happy the next day, open the gym, and happily live her life. Then she would go up to her room (which had become her least favorite place in the world) and see all the pictures. Ash Ketchum, Brock, and herself all smiling at the camera. Ash and his beloved Pikachu in a battle. Ash and his Charizard fighting Gary Oak and his Blastoise. So many pictures. So many memories of a life that was no longer. And Misty's heart would just break again.

As she laid on her bed after another day of this sad routine, she stared at the pictures and let the memories flood her brain. She remembered all the times after Ash had left on his journey for Hoenn, back when she was still perfectly fine. They still saw each other occasionally, and Misty was still happy, even if she did sometimes get nostalgic and sad when Ash wasn't around. She would always be told in advance when Ash was coming home, and she would be there to meet him.

Then Ash stopped talking to her and informing her of when he would be home altogether.

It started when he returned from his Battle Frontier adventure. By the time she learned he had come home, he was already in Sinnoh. Of course, she was irritated with him, but she let it go. It hadn't been that long since they saw each other. Then he came home from Sinnoh, didn't say a word to her, and disappeared to Unova in the blink of an eye. That pissed her off, but she still forgave him.

Then he came from Unova while Tracey was staying over. And a day after Tracey left Cerulean, he called her.

"Misty! You won't believe it! Ash came back!"

Misty remembered her heart nearly leaping out of her chest with joy. He was finally back! She could go see him! And she could confess, and tell him that she was hurt by him never talking to her anymore (because that was the only way he would know), and everything would be just great. She smiled and told Tracey to tell Ash that she was coming, but…

"Oh…Misty, I'm sorry, he already left for another region. Kalos, I think it was… I'm really sorry. I didn't get to see him either…" Misty vaguely remembered the guilty look on Tracey's face on the screen, but she mostly remembered the way her heart dropped. She felt as if it had been stomped on and smashed into pieces.

Ash had come back home.

Ash hadn't come to see her, hadn't called her, hadn't told her he was coming home.

Ash had completely forgotten about her. She was sure of it now.

And Misty hadn't been the same since.

Misty now looked at one picture in particular. Brock had taken it while Ash wasn't looking. He was just sitting on the grass, petting his Pikachu, staring at a small lake with a peaceful smile on his face. Misty remembered she had loved it.

She focused on another one, and her heart squeezed inside her chest. It was a shot of just Ash and Misty. Even Pikachu was left out of it. She was scolding him, glaring at him with fiery sea-green eyes with a finger pointing in his face. Her red hair looked like it was blazing in the sun. Ash, on the other hand, was staring at Misty with confused, terrified brown eyes, his black hair secured under his red cap. She thought he had been yelling something along the lines of, "I'm sorry! Please don't kill me!" when Brock took the picture.

It was Misty's favorite picture. It signified their entire journey to her. But now she also hated it, because it showed her something that would never be again.

Misty slowly got up from her bed and walked over to the wall where the pictures were hung up. She caught a glimpse of herself in the mirror on the way and wanted to laugh, she looked so horrible. Her red hair was a dull mess, and her eyes that used to be so full of life were not dull, lacking any of the life it did back then.

Just as she reached the photo she had been staring at, there was a knock on her bedroom door. She was intent on ignoring it, but whoever was on the other side wasn't having it. Within sixty seconds of the knock, the person picked the lock and opened the door. Misty turned her gaze to the person now standing in the doorway. He was taller than her, had dark hair, with a red headband around his forehead. His dark colored eyes fixed on her with concern.

"Tracey." Misty didn't bother masking the irritation in her voice.

"Misty." Tracey said calmly, not bothered by her appearance or attitude.

"I didn't think breaking and entering was your thing."

Tracey blushed slightly at this. She was right, of course. Tracey was a well-mannered young man who had won the respect of even Misty's sisters. He was the last person anyone would expect to break into a young woman's room.

"S-sorry. I couldn't think of any other way to get to you. You know I've tried coming to the gym door several times, but you never answered."

There was silence for a minute. Misty didn't really know how to reply to that. She figured she should apologize, but at the moment she wasn't really sorry. She sighed and sat back on her bed.

"So," she said, looking back at her favorite photo, "how's Ash?"

Tracey flinched at the word "Ash", knowing how much his answer would probably affect her.

"Um… I don't know much. He doesn't talk to me either, you know. He hasn't even called Professor Oak since he arrived in Kalos."

Misty nodded, still gazing at the photo. She had expected that answer.

Tracey stared at her for a moment, then sighed.

"Misty, how long are you going to keep this up? This isn't you. You're not the type to get depressed and spend your life in your room and in your gym arena. You're the type to get angry and break things."

The redhead laughed slightly at this.

"I did get angry, you know." She said quietly. She got up from the bed again and walked back over to where the pictures were.

"I tried so many times to rip these photos apart, to scream that if I didn't matter to Ash, he didn't matter to me either." As she spoke, she plucked one of the pictures off the wall.

"Hell, I still am angry." As she said this, she ripped the photo she was holding in two. She didn't like it anyway. It was a photo Brock had taken with Ash's back turned.

Just like how Ash had his back turned to her now.

"I tried to reach him when he left for Sinnoh. Unova, too. But it isn't easy when you don't know exactly where he is, and he doesn't have a separate phone number of his own. So I had to wait until he contacted me. But of course…" Misty trailed off. She didn't need to finish this sentence.

There was another minute of silence before Tracey shook his head and tried again.

"Misty, everyone out there is worried about you. Your sisters are scared to death that you're never coming out of this building, your regular challengers are worried, Brock is worried. Even if Ash isn't here, we are- "

"I know that!" Misty snapped, facing him.

"I know you all care about me, and I care about all of you too. And I know I shouldn't make you all worry." She sighed, once again setting her gaze on the photos. Another minute of silence occurred between them, Tracey not sure of what else to say, and Misty focused on the pictures of her past.

"Hey, Tracey." She said after a couple of minutes. Tracey's eyes widened in surprise, not expecting her to actually initiate any more conversation.

"Y-yes?"

"Did I do something wrong?"

Tracey sighed at this. She was still staring at the photos, a look of horrible longing and despair in her eyes. She went on.

"I mean, I don't feel like I did. I did try to reach out to him, and I also tried to give him some space. And yet he just… disappeared. How can that happen? After all we went through, how can he just…. forget about me like that?"

Tracey was about to speak, to tell her that she was absolutely right and that she was completely blameless, when she reached out to her favorite photo of her and Ash and touched it with her fingers.

"And yet… I can't hate him. I'm angry, but I don't hate him. I just want to see him."

"Then don't." Tracey replied simply. "You don't have to hate him. It's better that you don't. You just have to…" he trailed off, not sure how to put what he was about to say without pissing her off.

"Let him go?" Misty finished for him, looking over at him. Her eyes were still filled with sadness, but they also seemed to hold understanding in them.

"Yeah." He replied.

Misty seemed to consider this for a second before looking back at the photos.

"I know. I really do. It's just…"

Tracey stayed silent, no longer sure of what to tell her. He slowly backed out until only his head was in the doorway.

"I'll leave you in peace now. Just…please come out tomorrow? I think that's a good start."

Misty stayed silent for a second before looking over at him, and his eyes widened. There was sadness, longing, despair… but also determination.

"Yeah. Okay. Thanks, Tracey."

After Tracey left, Misty stared at all the beloved photos of her old life for a few minutes. Then she grabbed a box and started slowly unpinning them from the walls. She carefully packed the photos in the box and hid the box away, where she didn't plan on finding it.

The next day, the Cerulean City gym reopened, and the gym leader was once again taking challengers.

A few extra things to say here:

First of all, I think Misty is a whole lot stronger than most girls her age, so I imagine that tearing all the pictures off her bedroom wall is actually one of the first things she would have done, but you get it. I imagine that if Ash really hasn't contacted her at all these years, well... you get it. Also, I just put her bedroom in the gym building because I'm not sure if she actually has a house she lives in.

Second of all, yeah, there's a moral here, and honestly it's mostly for myself. Basically, people leave your life, no matter how much you may not want them to. Sometimes there's just nothing you can do about it. And in this fanfic, Misty was lucky to have someone to help her, but sometimes you have to help yourself. Sometimes you just have to pick yourself back up. It's not always going to be that way, but yeah. I haven't quite figured out how to do that though, which is why Misty had to have Tracey's help in this. That, and I kinda like Orangeshipping. Anyway, don't get me wrong. Friends are wonderful and are usually always willing to help. There are just times when you yourself have to let go of former friends or former love interests. Your current friends can't do that for you. Note that what I just said has nothing to do with the deceased. I'm guessing that's a bit different.

Third of all, I'm guessing that the whole Ash never seeing Misty anymore thing has already been done a billion times before, and I do apologize for that. I have had this idea for like a year now, and I've only seen one other fanfiction so far that was also an Orangeshipping fic dealing with Ash ditching her, but I'm hoping this one is at a little different.

I apologize for how utterly depressing this fanfiction was, and I apologize to Pokeshippers everywhere and to anyone who disliked this fanfiction. Good day everyone.