Dreams

The stars shone down on scene below, soft green grass and a trickling stream shining in the moonlight.
The stream was not the only thing shining however as two pairs of eyes, aqua and hazel, were gazing back up at the sky, trying to understand a complex feeling that they had both felt before, but that now seemed to have reached a new peak.

"The stars are bright tonight" the boy commented.

"Hmm" replied the girl.

"I think that's Jupiter, that bright one there…"

The girl turned to look at him, an all too familiar expression on her face.
"Ash Ketchum you wouldn't know Jupiter if it came and hit Uranus" she said, and appeared to be very pleased with her clever little comment.
Ash was too, truth be told, though of course he wouldn't admit it.

"Uh huh yeah Misty, cos that would really happen" he said sarcastically.

"Oh you know what I mean!" Misty replied, "and anyway it isn't the point"

"Then what is the point?"

"The point…the point is that isn't Jupiter, it's Mars" Misty said, turning her nose up and looking defiantly back at the pinprick of light that was causing so much fuss. Really she didn't know what planet it was, it didn't matter, but she enjoyed arguing with Ash, and she was worried that if she didn't, then something else might come out instead…

"Since when were you an astrologer?!" Ash asked incredulously. Misty looked at him, and he could tell she was going to pass some snide comment about the fact that he had managed to use a long word, so carried on before she had the chance. "Anyway that is definitely Jupiter!"

"It's Mars!"

"Jupiter!!"

"Mars!!!"

"Jupiter!!!!"

"VENUS!!!!" Misty roared

"Huh? Oh….." Ash said, arriving at a triumphant conclusion, "you have no idea what planet that is do you" he said, a steely glint in his eye.

"Naa" Misty admitted. Ash was taken aback, he had been expecting her to defend her argument to the death, never back down, and that look she was giving him too, she looked embarrassed for some reason, and it made Ash blush too, in spite of himself.

"Well…neither do I" he said finally.

The two of them remained silent, as they were, for what seemed like an hour, though it had in fact only been a minute or two. The feeling each of them was experiencing was getting stronger, it was almost too strong, though they both resisted it stubbornly…

"They are really bright though" Ash commented, breaking the silence.

"Hmm" Misty said again but, realising that this was probably not enough of an answer, added "their showing in the stream too, look"

Both Ash and Misty got up from where they had been laying looking at the stars, and knelt over the lake again.

"I don't see anything" Ash commented

"You have to look carefully!" Misty chastised, but her voice had no where near the amount of impatience and authority that she had wanted it to carry, and in fact seemed quite quiet compared to how she usually was.
Ash had noticed too, but didn't comment.
"You have to look carefully, it isn't like looking directly at the sky, you have to get it from…" Misty began to explain, but Ash interrupted by pointing across her at something up stream.

"There's two yellow dots over there" he said.

"Ash…that's a Chinchou" Misty said flatly.

"Oh…" Ash replied, defeated.

Misty chuckled quietly, and she and Ash watched the lone Chinchou as it was joined by another two point of light.

"Aww look there's two of them!" Misty exclaimed, quiet but excited nonetheless.
Up stream, the two Chinchou were swimming slowly together, one circling the other as they moved off upstream.
"I think it's a courtship dance" Misty said, a dreamy expression on her face.

"Yep…looks like they're in love" Ash commented.

No sooner had Ash finished the sentence than he and Misty immediately blushed hard, both now looking around, determined not to show what had just gone through the minds of each of them.
Their eyes eventually found their way back to the little stream in front of them, and Misty and Ash looked into it in silence.
it wasn't long though before their eyes drifted a little and, whilst not leaving the stream, the two of them noticed something about the other that they had never seen before…no not never seen, truthfully they saw it day by day, but it was something that neither of them would admit seeing.
Their reflections were side by side in the water, both looking on in silence, mesmerised, but not by the ripples in the water.
Both Ash and Misty had spotted something in the reflected eyes of the other, something drawing and enticing, something inviting them to look, and keeping them so strongly rooted that they dared not move away for fear of the moment passing.
Misty stared into the reflected hazel eyes, as Ash stared into the reflected Aqua eyes, and they both realised, suddenly, there and then, that there was no use hiding it, no use trying to look the other way and pretend that what they had been feeling for so long simply did not exist.
They both sat up, looking away from the stream and at each other, directly, for the first time in a long time.

"Misty…?"

"Yea Ash?"

This was it, the moment of truth, the moment that they had both been waiting for.
Ash took a deep breath, building up all of the courage he had, to say those three simply words.

"I…I love you…I love you Mist…"

"I know…" Misty said quietly, leaning a little closer, "…and…and I love you too Ash"

…and that was it, they were kissing, and it was the single, sweetest thing that either of them had ever experienced. they hadn't realised it before, but the need to say those words, to admit to the other those building feelings, had been like a great weight on the shoulders of both of them, and now it was done, and the weight lifted, and all that mattered now was sinking into the others warm embrace, and sharing that first special moment, the moment that neither of them would ever forget – the moment their lips first made contact, the moment that just confirmed what they had known in their hearts all along.
They were in love.

Alternative ending.

…"I know…" Misty said quietly, leaning a little closer, "…and…and I love you too Ash"
They leaned closer, and closer, until finally…

Misty's eyes snapped awake, there was sunlight now pouring through the gap in her curtains, and her alarm clock was beeping loudly on the bedside table.
Misty moaned, smashing the alarm clock with her mallet which reduced it to a heap of crumpled metal and springs, and lay back in her bed.
She had over slept, the clock must have been going like that for some twenty minutes or more, but she had been so deeply asleep that she hadn't noticed it…
She couldn't believe she had actually admitted to Ash that she loved him, that he had admitted the same to her, but then…

Misty hiccupped over a sob, but the next was just too much to bear, and she buried her face in her pillow, tears streaming down her cheeks and soaking the soft fabric.

it had been a dream, just a dream and though she could remember it vividly, though she could imagine with all of her strength the tender feeling of the kiss that could have followed, she knew in her heart that it couldn't be true, that it wasn't true and, above all, she was alone.

Her sisters were still off on their cruise, Misty was still leader of the Cerulean city gym, cooped up in the building all day with nothing to do but battle the occasional trainer that would pass through the doors, but above all, the fact that was laying so heavily on her heart that it hurt, was that Ash was gone, and she was alone.

She could go to Hoenn, she could search for Ash but…no…no she couldn't, her family would lose the gym and they'd have nowhere to live…as much as she loved Ash and desired to be with him, her nature would not allow her to do that to her sisters.
And so she was left to wait, wait and hope with all of her heart that one day, one day soon, Ash would come back to her, come back and be with her.

"Listen for the merry rings" she said quietly to herself.
She had been told that by a strange man trainer who had visited the gym the other day, just turned up out of the view and the last words he had spoken had been that
"Listen for the merry rings" she said to herself again.
She didn't know what the trainer had meant by that but she could always cling to the faint chance, the remotest possibility that he had been referring to…

Misty paused, tears still steaming down her cheeks but she was quiet now, listening intently for she thought she had just heard a sound…
…
…
There it was again, that little ring r-ring ring, ring ring sound.
it was the doorbell to the gym, no doubt about that but the tune, it sounded odd, sounded a little familiar too she had heard that strange trainer humming it as he walked out without his cascade badge and, above all, it struck Misty that the tune did, in fact, sound…well cheerful.

Jumping out of bed, Misty ran out of her room at a speed that would have shamed an Olympiad, dressing gown billowing out behind her, and she took the stair three at a time, hurtling into the corner half way down before leaping the next flight and landing, with a skid, on the laminated floor of the gym.
She carried on sliding, crashing into the door but the little window was too grimy for her to see anything clearly, she had been neglecting the cleaning and now regretted it.
Unperturbed by this Misty yanked on the door chain, which snapped off. She fumbled with the last catch and then that was it, the door was unlocked and all that was left now was to open it and see who it was.
She really had no idea who it could be, but the hope in her heart had grown so strong since she had heard that ring that she believed that it could be, hoped and believe that when she opened the door, she would find…

Misty turned the handle, her hand shaking, and opened the door…