Fandom: Pokémon (anime-verse)
Title: Videophone
Characters: Ash, Misty
Pairing: Pokéshipping (Ash x Misty)
Rating: K
Word Count: 1,536
Warnings: none
Summary: Ash is surprised to find a private videophone in his room at a Unova Pokémon Center lodge, and decides to take some time to reconnect with an old friend.
A/N: set in a slightly altered canon; Ash has actually aged with each of his adventures and is now in the ballpark of 15 years old.
Disclaimer: Don't own Pokémon.
The bunker was just like that of pretty much any other Pokémon Center Ash had spent the night at – a bunk bed, a desk, and two chairs, with no extra decorations. Trainers needed a place to stay, but they didn't need luxury, and in order to keep the Pokémon Center lodge service free to all paid Pokémon League members, they were sparse and bare, with only the necessities covered. There was one major difference, though, between this room and the ones Ash had used before: there was a private videophone mounted on the wall below the window. Ash had no idea why this Pokémon Center would have such an amenity, but when Cilan gathered up his small toiletry bag and plain beige Pokémon Center towel and left to go shower in the community men's bathroom, Ash decided to sit down and make a few calls. Pulling his chair over to the window, he dialed his mom – she always liked to hear from him, and it had been a few weeks since she'd called – but she didn't pick up. Next Ash called Professor Oak's laboratory – he'd still be working, since it was still daytime hours in Kanto. It only took a few minutes to fill the professor in on his latest achievements and travels, though, and Oak was a busy man, so Ash hung up with time to kill and no one to talk to. He didn't want to waste this precious resource; his videophone calls in Pokémon Center lobbies were limited in time and privacy, with everyone else clamoring to use them.
He thought about the friends he'd made on his adventures, and what they were doing now. He was usually able to keep up with them from time to time; most of them had portable communications devices of varying sorts or lived in a house with its own videophone, and they occasionally got to have a conversation on the road. They were usually the ones who called him, since Ash never knew when they would be free of their other responsibilities, and it never really occurred to him to go out of his way to contact him anyway – he was so busy focusing on his training and battling and the excitement of whatever adventure was around the corner. Ash felt a small pang of guilt; did it bother his friends that he never called? Most of them seemed okay with it; most of them called him when he had the time. Most of them…except one.
Ash pressed a few buttons on the videophone touch screen and pulled up a map of his home region of Kanto. He touched the icon for Cerulean City to summon a drop-down menu and selected the option "Call Cerulean Operator's Office."
"Thank you for calling Cerulean City! You've reached an operator; how can I help you?" The woman's voice was pleasant and friendly, but even so, Ash was slightly nervous.
"Yes, can you connect me to the Cerulean City Gym, please?"
"Just a moment…" the operator was a middle-aged woman with long reddish-brown hair, and her brow furrowed as she took a binder from somewhere off-screen and flipped through it. She looked up again at the camera. "Which department would you like?"
"Uh…" Ash didn't know gyms had departments, but he supposed it made sense. "Is there any way I could just talk to the gym leader?"
"I'm sorry," the operator replied, "the volume of calls directed at the gym leader makes it impossible to place requested calls without some sort of credentials, or else she would be flooded with phone traffic."
"But I'm her friend," Ash protested. "I just want to talk to her."
"I'm sorry," repeated the operator, "I can't fulfill that request. I can connect you to another department and you can leave a message for one of the gym's employees."
"Look," Ash said, hope seeping out of him as frustration built up inside. "I'm at a Pokémon Center with a private videophone. She won't be able to reach me later at this number."
"Don't you have a cell phone?"
Ash did have one, or rather a "cross-tranciever", as they were called here in Unova, but the signal tended to be bad. He needed to take the thing into a Mart for repairs. At any rate, he was afraid leaving a personal message in one of the gym's "departments" wouldn't do a lot to help him, and besides, he wanted to talk to his friend now.
"Does the gym leader have a personal number?" he asked.
"She has requested that her home and cell numbers be kept private."
"I see."
"Are you sure you're a 'friend' of the leader? If you were, wouldn't you have her personal numbers recorded yourself? Believe me, mister, we get calls every day from people claiming to be personal acquaintances of the leader, not to mention the mayor and other public figures."
Ash would have been stung by the operator's remark if he'd been paying any attention. As it was, he had only heard the first part of what she'd said, and it triggered a memory – something he should never have forgotten. How could I be so stupid! he berated himself silently.
Ash smiled.
"Thank you for your help, ma'am."
The operator blinked. "Oh? Well, I suppose you're welcome."
"Good-bye." Before the operator even had time to recover from her surprise – how had she helped him, exactly? – Ash disconnected the call. The map of Kanto reappeared on the screen, but Ash quickly exited to the main menu and climbed up to the top bunk, where he had left his things.
In a small, pocket-in-a-pocket compartment inside his backpack, Ash found a notebook that he'd written in from time to time during his adventures in the main land of Kanto and Johto, and even when he stopped using it as a diary he always kept it to remember his friends by, having them write something in its pages before parting ways. It had been his mom's idea, and Ash was rarely a sentimental person, but goodbyes did tend to bring out some of the emotion in him, so he figured what the heck, why not? Then he forgot about the book until his next parting, when his mom would remind him to "always keep something to remember your friends by," and he would pull it out again.
Which was why he'd never gone back and read one of the very first entries made by a friend. It was scrawled in the neat but childish writing of a twelve-year-old girl, signed with a heart and smiley face. Below the signature, a small postscript was written: "Call me sometime! 3" followed by a phone number. At the time, he'd thought, "Yeah, right, why would I ever want to call a girl?" Now he was glad he'd kept it after all these times.
It was probably a home number, and she probably wasn't home, so Ash tried not to get his hopes up again as he punched the number into the screen. After a few rings, the phone picked up and the video focused in on a small apartment kitchen, where a teenage girl with a shock of bright red hair was standing at the sink. Her back was turned to the camera; she'd obviously pressed a remote button to answer the phone as if she expected it to be something trivial, not worth looking at the camera for.
But it was her. Ash felt a grin spread across his face. "Misty!"
The girl turned – Ash was shocked to see how she'd grown and changed in just three years! – and dropped the sponge she was holding in surprise as she faced the camera. Her eyes widened. "Ash! Is that you?"
"It's really me," Ash replied. Pikachu, who had been taking a nap on the other chair, perked up at the sound of Misty's voice. He jumped off the chair and crossed the room in a few strides, leaping up onto Ash's head to behold their old friend. "Pikaaa!" he squealed in delight.
"Oh, Ash! It's been so long! And look, Pikachu too!" Misty giggled, her smile lighting up her face.
"I've really missed you, Misty," Ash said without thinking – and then realized just how true it was.
Misty's eyes widened slightly, and she pulled out a chair and sat down. Then she smiled again, more softly this time, and her blue eyes sparkled.
"I've really missed you too."