First of all, he wasn't pouting.
Was he bummed out? Yes.
Did he feel dejected and a little resentful? Maybe.
But he wasn't pouting.
"What's he pouting about?"
Ash's eyes narrowed at Gary, who apparently looked up just long enough from his task of decorating the tree to notice him sulking (NOT pouting!) on the couch.
Brock, who was helping Gary with his task, peaked around the tree as well. "Oh, he's upset Misty's missing Christmas Eve," he replied easily, returning to hanging ornaments. "Her sisters have this annual party at the gym Christmas Eve, so she's not leaving until the morning."
"I'm not pouting," Ash said curtly, rolling his eyes. "I just don't see why she's going. She's never gone to that stupid party before." He paused as Tracy joined them in the room, carrying a platter of mugs filled with hot chocolate his mother had carefully assembled for the boys, and pointed at him dramatically. "Tracy isn't even going! And he's dating Daisy!"
Tracy raised an eyebrow at Ash, passing Brock and Gary each a mug. "She said I could come if I wanted to, but I have some work to take care of at the lab that afternoon." He handed Ash a mug. "I bet if you would have asked, she would have invited you," he offered.
Ash scowled. "No, didn't you hear? She's taking Georgio."
"Oooh," Brock, and Tracy said together, sharing a knowing look.
"So that's what this is about," Brock said with a smirk.
"Who is Georgio, now?" Gary asked, ignoring the daggers Ash was glaring at his back.
Tracy chuckled. "He lives in Cerulean and has a big crush on Misty. He's asked her out a few times, and she keeps turning him down, but I guess she decided to give him a break for once."
"He's 'just a friend'," added Brock with air-quotes.
Ash glowered as Gary nodded in understanding, lamenting that it was a bummer she wouldn't be with them to hang out on Christmas Eve, but he hoped she had a good time at the party. And just like that, they returned to decorating the tree, like it wasn't that big of a deal.
And that was the crappy part, wasn't it? It wasn't that big of a deal.
Except that it totally freakin' was.
Christmas Eve had always been their night. A night for Ash and his best friends to hang out, catch up, eat too much food, and sing really badly along with the radio. It was always most of the Kantonians and every once in a while a straggler from another region he had traveled with, and yet this year, for some reason, though she has never missed a Christmas Eve before, Misty was backing out.
'Gym Leader obligations' she had called it. Now that she had grown confident in her roll as the main Cerulean Gym Leader, she felt she had a certain image to uphold or something. Blah blah blah. He had honestly stopped listening as soon as she mentioned her little 'friend' Georgio joining her as a date.
Ash had never met the guy, but he had heard enough from Misty and Tracy to know they probably wouldn't get along. He just seemed so pushy and rude. Couldn't he take a hint? Misty didn't want to go out with him, get over it already.
"Oh, I'm so happy for her," Delia gushed coming from the kitchen, sipping from her own mug of hot chocolate and joining Ash on the couch. Pikachu, who had been sitting comfortably on her shoulder, jumped into Ash's lap. "Misty is such a sweet girl, she deserves someone special," she said simply, taking a sip.
"She doesn't like him like that!" he snapped. Ignoring the various snickers from his friends, Ash growled. "I mean, she's never been interested in him before. I don't know what's up with her all of a sudden."
Gary grinned, whispering to Brock, "She probably got tired of waiting around for someone to make a move."
"Can you blame her?" Brock snorted.
"I don't know what you two are whispering about over there, but cut it out," Ash deadpanned. Brock coughed to cover a giggle, while Gary whistled innocently and hung up an ornament slightly more dramatically than usual.
Delia leaned over and rustled up her son's hair, smiling tenderly as he continued to not-pout. "Misty is growing up, sweetie. You all are. You can't be surprised if her interests lead her elsewhere every now and then." She kissed his cheek, ignoring as his nose scrunched up in response. "Besides, at least you'll all be together for Christmas!"
"Yeah, I guess," he sighed, unaware of the knowing smiles being passed around by his friends behind him.
O
Christmas Eve had been fun, but for the most part uneventful. The boys had enjoyed their usual shenanigans (maybe even a little bit more than was safe without the pearls of logic Misty would usually throw at them before they did anything too stupid), and went to bed overall pretty satisfied by their night. By morning, the house was a buzz with activity, preparing for Delia's Christmas Day party.
As soon as gifts were exchanged and opened, Brock and Delia were working away in the kitchen, Tracy and Pikachu were putting the finishing touches on the decorations, and Ash was wandering around a fog he just couldn't seem to shake, attempting to clean the bathrooms. Gary had gone home after breakfast to get ready and meet up with his grandfather, and they would be joining them soon, Misty in toe.
"You don't mind grabbing her from the train station, do you dear?" Ash's Mom had asked as he was heading out the door, to Ash's surprise.
"Hey, I thought I was going to pick her up?"
"The train station is on the way from the lab. Professor Oak and Gary can just pick her up on their way over," she explained. Brock and Tracy grinned at him behind her back. He chose to ignore them. She turned back to Gary. "She gets in at eleven. Will that work?"
He gave a thumbs up. "No prob, Mrs. K! We got it taken care of!"
Despite his best efforts, Ash felt himself pouting as soon as the door closed. "She's my friend, you know," he grumbled as soon as his mother had returned to the kitchen.
"She's all of our friend, Ash," Tracy corrected. "She actually hangs out with the Oaks quite a bit while you travel."
"Yeah Ash," Brock continued, a mischievous smile on his face. "She's got lots of friends. Georgio for instance. He's a great friend."
Ash groaned, falling back on the couch and covering his face with his mother's festive, snowflake covered pillow. Pikachu frowned, hopping up on the arm rest gazing at his trainer in worry.
Tracy shook his head. "If her hanging out with other guys bothers you so much, why don't you ask her out yourself?"
The pillow practically flew across the room with the speed Ash shot up at that one. "Ask her out?! Are you crazy?! I don't like Misty like that!"
Brock crossed his arms. "And yet you've been a total wishiwashi for the last week because she decided to go to go to a party with another guy instead of hanging out with you."
"I-" Ash flushed. Brock kind of had him there. "That... that's totally different!" he insisted. Tracy and Brock rolled their eyes.
"It's really not," Brock said simply. "Did you act like this when May told you she was spending Christmas Eve with Drew? Or when Serena chose to stay home and celebrate with her mom?"
Ash bit his lip. "Uh, I guess not."
"Or that year when Iris ran into Lance on her boat trip over, and decided to go spend the week training with him instead?"
"Okay, that's really different."
Tracy held up his finger. "What about that year I went home right before Christmas Eve, and all the flights back to Viridian got canceled because of weather? You definitely weren't this upset when I couldn't make it."
"Or when my sister got the flu, and I had to stay home and help take care of her."
"Oh! Or when-"
"Okay, okay, I get it, jeez," Ash said, rubbing his temples. "I get it, I'm making a bigger deal about this then I should."
Tracy nodded. "Because you like her."
Ash opened his mouth to retort, but Brock cut him off with a heavy hand on his shoulder. "Before you argue, just... pay attention today."
"Pay attention?"
Brock nodded. "Take a step back and pay attention to what you do and why you do it." He pat him on the back, smiling knowingly. "You may be surprised."
O
Misty didn't think she'd ever been more happy and relieved in her life than when the speakers on the train announced her upcoming arrival at Pallet Station.
First of all, she had been up way too late the night before. Why her sisters thought it was acceptable to keep a party going to almost three in the morning, she would never understand, but she was ready to call it quits by nine-thirty. Her eight o'clock, morning train came way too early that morning fo how little sleep she had gotten the night before.
Secondly, her feet were still killing her, and she had even removed the, admittedly adorable, pair of heels she had been talked into wearing fairly early in the evening. She wiggled her toes around in her cozy, wooly socks, stuffed into her even cozier boots, enjoying the warmth and freedom her aching feet been missing the night before.
Finally, and most importantly, she was at long last seeing her family. Well, her chosen family. While she had (surprisingly) grown closer to her sisters since moving home than she ever thought possible, nothing could quite compare to the group of people waiting for her in Pallet Town.
Her heart skipped a beat as the train emerged from the tunnel and entered the valley, and childishly, her eyes scanned the picturesque, snowy landscape, looking for that familiar house.
Okay, maybe there was one person in particular that she was especially excited to see. She bit her lip, brushing her hair behind her ears. She had long since given up denying to herself her feelings for Ash Ketchum, fully admitting to herself, and a very select group of people who she either trusted (ie: threatened), or who had figured it out and didn't realize it was a secret (a bit of a blow to her ego, that one). Ash himself, unfortunately (or maybe thankfully?), remained as clueless as ever.
Because of course he was.
That sweet little idiot barely knew what was going on around him half the time on a good day. Heck, Brock let slip to her that Serena, another poor victim to fall under the Ketchum spell, had hauled off and actually kissed the boy, and he was still oblivious to her feelings! Surely Misty's subtle flirting-by-teasing wasn't going to awaken anything in him anytime soon.
But alas. The heart wants what it wants.
Which was why she had been so gracious to Georgio this once and invited him to the party. She had been there, man. Unrequited love was a drag.
"Now approaching Pallet Station."
Grabbing her bags and pulling the nice knit cap Delia had made for her the previous Christmas back on her head, Misty slipped from her seat and started joining the few other people left in her car near the doors to get off. As they rolled to a stop, Misty smirked, a familiar head of spiky, auburn hair standing out amongst the others.
"What? Ash too lazy to come and get me himself?" she asked, grinning as she pulled Gary and Professor Oak in for some long overdue hugs.
"Oh, you know Delia," the professor laughed, "she probably has a to do list a mile long for him to get done before the party."
Gary smirked. "Also, yeah, he's totally lazy. Merry Christmas!"
"Merry Christmas to you guys, too," she laughed. "Shall we?"
The trio set off on the relatively short walk to the Ketchum residence, Gary dragging along Misty's bags (after being volun-told to do so by his grandfather, of course), and the professor entertaining them all with his recent research with a particularly energetic abomasnow that had been sent to him the previous week.
Misty was only half listening, the small town's adorably festive lights and decorations making her heart swell. She always did have a weakness for the whole romantic Christmas aesthetic, which had led to some rather substantial letdowns with Ash over the years. A romantic evening walk in the snow to look at Christmas lights here, sharing a blanket and sipping hot cocoa by the fire there, more fantasies involving mistletoe than Misty knew what to do with, all yielding the same, anti-climatic response.
She sighed, smiling sardonically. Maybe this was the year?
Heh. Fat chance.
O
Ash was pulling a sheet of cookies from the oven when the front door swung open, Misty and the Oaks walking in together, laughing loudly over something funny one of them had said just before walking in. Delia was out of the kitchen in a flash, skipping over and wrapping Misty up in a big hug before the poor girl even had a chance to take off her coat and scarf.
"Oh Misty! I'm so glad you could make it," his mom gushed, "I swear, you look more and more beautiful every time I see you."
Misty flushed, grinning ear to ear as she hugged her back.
"Ash," his mom called, waving him out. "Misty is here! Come tell her how pretty she looks!"
Misty let out a small, squeaky 'Mrs. Ketchum!' at that. Ash snorted and strolled into the living room, slipping off his oven mitt in the process. "I thought we weren't supposed to lie at Christmas," he said with a chuckle, opening up his arms to give Misty a hug. "Merry Christmas, Mist."
Misty rolled her eyes, stuck out her tongue and hugged him tightly before yanking the oven mitt out of his hand and whacking him lightly on the back of the head, "Ha ha, Merry Christmas to you too, jerk."
Ash laughed, receiving a little flick in the ear from his mom as well for his little quip, before helping Misty up to his room with her bags.
"Take a step back and pay attention to what you do and why you do it," Brock's voice suddenly reminded him. "You may be surprised." Fine. He would humor Brock this once.
Okay, let's see, he thought to himself. Misty got here, he immediately made fun of her, and now he was helping her get settled in so they could join the others before the party.
He frowned. Yeah, he kinda went straight to insulting her looks there, didn't he? Wow. That was... wow, yeah, that was a kinda crappy thing to do, wasn't it? Why did he do that? And on Christmas? He certainly wouldn't have pulled that kind of stunt with his other friends, especially not any of the girls. So why her? It wasn't even true; Misty had always been pretty cute. It was-
Whoa, wait, what? He coughed, almost losing his footing and dropping all of Misty's things before flailing a little and managing to recover his balance.
Misty snickered somewhere behind him and made some snide comment about him being clumsy, but honestly, he didn't really hear it. Did he just call her cute?
Okay. Real talk, Ash actually thought all of his female friends were attractive. He wasn't blind. But calling Misty cute just seemed... it felt so...
Because you like her, an annoying little voice (that sounded suspiciously like Tracy) sang in his head. You make fun of her looks so she wont realize you actually like them.
Ash flushed, ignoring that thought by focusing on making it up to his room without killing himself.
"How long are you hangin' around for?" he asked, throwing a suitcase under the loft when they finally made it up the stairs. Misty shrugged and tossed her smaller suitcase up on the bed.
That's right, Misty always slept in his bed.
That was probably gonna stir something in him later, he thought miserably.
"The gym is closed for the holidays, so I was hoping to stick around for New Years," she said with a shrug. "If your mom doesn't kick me out sooner, anyway."
"She wouldn't do that, she loves having you around," he replied easily.
Misty smiled shyly at that and Ash felt an unfamiliar lump forming in his throat. "Aw, well, good," she replied. Ash swallowed the lump. He would tackle that feeling later.
Upon returning downstairs, Misty made the rounds, hugging the rest of her friends and wishing everyone a Merry Christmas as she handed everyone a small, carefully wrapped gift. Ash couldn't help but smile when he noticed his present was wrapped in Santa hat wearing pikachu.
"We were out of gift tags, so I wrapped each present in different paper to tell them apart," she laughed, handing Tracy something wrapped in Happy Birthday! wrapping.
"That explains why mine says 'It's a Girl' I guess," Gary snorted.
"It was the most fitting," Misty said with a grin, ruffling up his hair. Gary stuck out his tongue, and playfully grabbed her hat, holding up just beyond her reach as she giggled and jumped to grab it back.
She actually hangs out with the Oaks quite a bit while you travel, that Tracy-sounding voice reminded him, mockingly. Ash bit back a scowl. That was fine. Misty could hang out with whoever she wanted. Why should he care?
Yeah Ash, the Brock-sounding voice in his head chimed in, why should you care?
He frowned immaturely. He didn't need to take this abuse, he grumbled inwardly, least of all from himself. He tucked his gift into his pocket and stalked off to the kitchen to grab a cookie, mentally adding to himself that he may need to look into therapy after all this, he was like, ninety percent sure he was losing his mind.
At least he had food.
O
Something was up with Ash.
Misty's eyes followed him suspiciously as he slunk out of the living room and disappeared into the kitchen, only to watch him return a few moments later, angrily shoving a handful of cookies into his mouth for probably the fifteenth time that day.
Like, Misty knew the boy liked cookies, but this was getting ridiculous.
It started when she first arrived and was handing out gifts. He did it again later when she and Gary had helped Professor Oak back to the lab to grab a gift he had gotten for Brock that he had forgotten to grab. Misty thought maybe it had something to do with Gary, but then he went off and did it again when Mrs. Ketchum had asked her how the party at the gym had turned out, and again when Tracy asked what her friend Georgio was doing to celebrate today.
"Is there something wrong with him?" she finally asked Brock, who she also caught watching Ash's cookie binging. Brock smirked as he sipped his eggnog.
"I don't know Misty," he answered, his voice sing-songy. "Maybe you should go ask him about it."
She narrowed her eyes. "What did you do?"
"What do you mean?"
"Brock."
He blinked innocently, but Misty wasn't stupid, she caught the mischievous glint in his eyes; he had always been a horrible liar.
She pursed her lips. "I feel like I'm going to regret this," she groaned, turning on he heels and marching towards Ash. Behind her, Brock laughed loud and long.
"You can thank me later!" he called. Somehow, Misty severely doubted that.
After wading though people at the party, Misty found Ash by the Christmas tree, having finished his handful of cookies and holding Pikachu up to check out an ornament near the top. She tried to watch him critically while he was distracted, trying to figure out what was going on in that head of his, but ultimately giving up in favor of just going up and talking to him.
"Are you sick or something?"
Ash squawked at her sudden question, almost dropping Pikachu in his surprise. The pokemon glared at him, wiggling out of his grasp and scampering off to the couch as Ash spun around to face her, his eyes wide. "Misty!" he cried.
"Correct." She crossed her arms. "What is going on with you today? Why are you being so weird?"
"I'm not being weird."
"Oh, so you always eat cookies by the bucketful, and jump ten feet whenever someone asks you a question?"
"...Yes."
Misty rolled her eyes. "Ash Ketchum, what is going on? I swear, you've been acting super weird since I got here, and the only thing that has been constant with everything that has had you being so strange is... me." She frowned, saying it out loud was a lot harder than just thinking it in her head, but it needed to be said. "Did I do something?"
At least Ash had the common sense to pale a bit at her question, his eyes filling with worry and a little panic. "Oh Mist- No! No no no, that's not..." He cut himself off, biting his lip. "Can we talk somewhere more private?" he asked, glancing nervously around the crowded room.
Misty raised an eyebrow. "What? Why?"
"Just," he sighed. "Please?"
"Fine," she grumbled, taking her coat from the coat rack as Ash guided her out to the patio. "This better be good."
O
Once outside, Ash immediately wished he had also grabbed his coat before going out the door. The sun was starting to set, chilling the already frosty air, and the warm glow of the Christmas lights did little to actually warm his skin. No turning back now though, he decided, if he went back inside, there was no guarantee he would be able to face Misty again like this for a long while.
Because, per Brock's request, he had been paying attention all right, and he wasn't sure he appreciated what he was noticing.
Something about Misty was different than all of his other friends. He had worked that out at least. Something about her made him feel certain ways, and while he had no idea what those ways were, he didn't think he hated them, but he definitely didn't like them either.
He had narrowed them down to two general feelings, both of them involving a pretty sizable lump forming in his throat for different reasons.
The first was the lump that formed when Misty brought up the party at her gym or spent any length of time with Gary. What those two things had in common, he had no flipping clue, but it was definitely the more unpleasant feeling of the two. The other was the lump that formed when was reminded that he apparently thought Misty was cute. This one came up a lot less, but he had noticed it a few times. Like right now for instance, with the snowflakes sticking to her hair and eyelashes, and her eyes sparkling in the lights and-
Yep. There it was. He shook his head wildly, willing his brain to shut up, dang it. Not now.
Misty was staring at him quizzically, obviously annoyed at being out in the cold, but curious enough to hear what he had to say to stick it out. He figured it was probably about time to say what he needed to say.
"I have no idea why I'm acting like this."
Oh yeah, that was helpful. He internally slapped himself.
Misty's eyebrows furrowed. "Wha-?"
"Wait, that's not what I meant to say," he said with a groan.
"I sure hope not."
"Okay," he tried again, starting to pace around the patio. "Here is the thing. I think I have been acting weird because of something to do with you. I started feeling weird after you called last week, specifically when you brought up your party at the gym."
Misty crossed her arms. "The Christmas Eve party?"
"Yes."
"The Christmas Eve party I tried to invited you to, and you turned down?"
"Ye- Wait, what?"
Misty sighed. "Don't you remember? It was like, a month ago. I called you and asked if you would want to come visit Cerulean for Christmas Eve, and you were all like, and I quote: 'Ha ha, come on Mist, you know Christmas Eve is always in Pallet Town!' So I assumed you didn't want to go."
Ash's mouth hung open like a magikarp. "What?" he squeaked.
"Yeah," she shrugged. "You couldn't go, and my sisters insisted I needed to have a date, so I asked Georgio. I thought you remembered that."
"No!"
"Oh. Well, that's what happened. But what does that have to do with..." her voice trailed off, a small, knowing smirk creeping onto her face as the dots connected. "Oh my god. Ash, are you jealous that I took Georgio to the party?"
His face flushed. "No! I'm not jealous! What would I even be jealous about? We had a great time here!"
"You're jealous!" she squealed, beaming.
"I am not!"
"Aww, Aaaash," she cooed, her tone softening as she playfully poked him on the nose. "You know you're my favorite," she giggled. "I promise you can be my date next year, assuming you don't turn me down again."
He scoffed, pouting. "I didn't turn you down! You just assumed I did!"
"Maybe so," she giggled. "But I wont make that mistake again, especially now that I know how jealous you are."
"I'm not jealous!"
"Sure, sure," she sang, practically skipping to the door and holding it open for him. "C'mon, let's go back inside, it's freezing out here."
Ash frowned, but obliged, happy to get out of the cold. "You're not gonna let me hear the end of this, are you?" he asked, wincing. Misty grinned.
"Nope, never."
He moaned in annoyance, dragging his feet back inside as Misty laughed and closed the door behind him.
Well, at least he knew what the the one feeling was. As for the other one...
He caught Misty out of the corner of his eye, hanging up her coat and shaking the snow from her pretty red hair. Her cheeks were flushed a little from the cold, and the lights from tree behind her framed her head like a halo. He gulped.
He hated when Tracy was right.
O
Merry Christmas Eve! Hope you liked this little festive one shot!
I'll be honest, it may be something I'd be willing to continue in the future if you guys enjoyed it, so let me know in the reviews or comments!