I looked around at the people around me, seeing the faces of my two friends I hadn't seen in forever. They had decided to visit me on their way home, this having been the first time I had seen either of them in 3 years. I was beyond excited, and when they had arrived, things had just seemed to slip back to the way they had always been when we were traveling together. Brock had cooked us a dinner of his famous lazy boy no chew stew and rice balls, while Ash's ever growing bottomless pit of a stomach had eaten almost all of it. Between bites we shared our stories from our travels as Pikachu enjoyed the ketchup bottle I had bought just for him.

When we ran out of stories, we decided to spend the rest of the evening watching a movie. We were planning on cleaning up the meal together, but Brock told Ash and I to go pick a movie while he cleaned up the kitchen. Despite Brock's protests of us helping out, I cleaned up the dishes from the table put them in the sink. As I was exciting the kitchen, I heard Brock call my name.

"Hey, Misty," he called, just as I was rounding the corner.

"Yeah?" I asked, whipping my head back around.

"Can you and Ash try to not have this end in a giant argument?" He pleaded. "It's just a movie."

"Sure thing, Brock," I replied, winking as I headed back toward the living room where Ash was waiting.

When I reached the living room, Ash was standing in front of the stack of movies, scratching his head in puzzlement.

"Can't decide?" I asked him.

"Huh? Oh, no. It's just that all these movies are stupid chick flicks," he explained.

"Excuse me?"

"You heard what I said," he repeated. "Stupid chick flicks. No action, no gore, no races, no nothing! How can you live with this stuff?"

"I live perfectly fine, thank you very much. Maybe if you had a thread of romantic in you, this wouldn't be such a problem." I admit I there were some chick flicks that I found dumb, but I would not stand for Ash's lack of appreciation. You could blame my sisters for the rest of the movies.

"I can be romantic!" he yelled back.

"You? Romantic? When Spoinks fly,"

"You know they kind of can? With the whole spring…"

"Not the point, Ash! You can't be romantic."

"Yes I can!"

"Prove it!"

"Runt!"

"Wannabe Pokemon trainer"

"Scrawny,"

"Dense." My promise to Brock had clearly gone unrecognized.

"Red head."

"Oooo. So observant, " I teased. "How long did it take that one to get through that dense brain of yours?"

"Not as long as it took you to grow a few inches." It was true, he had grown taller than me, but I wasn't going to back down now.

"GUYS! ENOUGH!" Brock yelled, running in the room.

"He started it!" I yelled, pointing my finger.

"What? I did not!"

"Did to!

"THAT'S IT! I CAN'T TAKE THIS ANYMORE!" Brock yelled some more. "Ash…. Misty.. follow me."

"What?" Ash asked.

"FOLLOW ME!" he demanded. Having never seen him this angry, we followed him as he led us into the backstage area of where my sisters did their water ballets. When we had entered the little backstage room where they got ready, Brock ran out after we both walked in and slammed the door before we could escape.

"HEY! BROCK! WHAT THE HECK!" I yelled, banging on the door.

"YEAH!" Ash yelled. "LET US OUT!"

"Nope. Not until you two can get along. You two are stuck in there until then."

"What? Work with her? She's impossible to work with," Ash yelled at Brock.

"Too bad. It's going to be a while then."

"I swear to god, Brock. When I get out of here, I'm going to beat you to a pulp," I threatened him.

"Oh well. Until then," he replied. Then we heard his footsteps as he walked away.

We both banged on the door yelling at him to come back. After about three minutes, my fist began to hurt and I gave up as I slid down the door. Ash on the other hand continued to bang on the door, his banging getting increasingly sparse. A few minutes later, he was hoarse and his fist just slid down the door no longer making any noise. I watched as he lightly hit his head against the door and fall to his knees, still lightly hitting his head.

"Ash," I called. He didn't' even notice. "Ash!" I yelled louder, finally catching his attention. "Just give it up. He's not coming back." He looked at me, tiredness evident in those big brown eyes of his.

"How do we get out of here, Misty?" he asked.

"You heard Brock. We have to work together. How, I don't know."

"Ugh." He sighed, hitting his head on the door to add emphasis. I was beginning to understand how he was dense sometimes. He killed so many brain cells.

"Well don't sound so excited, " I replied, sarcasm in my voice.

"Well do you have any ideas?" He asked.

"No."

"Exactly."

"Do you?"

"No…"

"Exactly". Now I wanted to hit my head against the door in frustration.

"Wait! We could pretend."

"He would know the difference."

"Oh," Ash signed in defeat.

Time passed as we both sat there trying to figure out how to get out. How were we going to work together to meet the standards of Brock ? Trust me, there was nothing I wanted more than to get out of here, but as long as we had no ideas, that wasn't going to happen. Accepting the fact that we probably wouldn't come up with and idea anytime soon, I opted for a friendly conversation.

"So about earlier-," I began.

"Yeah?" he asked, his eyes appearing from under his hat.

"-you were going to show me how you're romantic. Remember?"

"Oh, yeah," he sighed. Apparently this wasn't the topic of conversation he was hoping for.

"So… show me. I'm waiting. The day Ash Ketchum shows a romantic side. I'm glad I'm here to witness it."

He looked at me and rolled his eyes in annoyance at my comment. I watched as he closed his eyes, deep in thought, trying to come up with an idea. Normally, I do actually have faith in him to be able to do things that I claim he can't, but this was not one of them. The fact that he had traveled with Brock was enough to prove my theory even more.

"Your eyes are really pretty," he told me in all seriousness. "They remind me of the ocean. And every time I see the ocean, it reminds me of how much I miss you."

I stared at him, my eyes growing wide in shock. Did I really just hear that? Had that really been Ash Ketchum who had said that? "You're joking."

"I'm not." He turned to look at me, seeing if there was anything else I had to say. "Did I pass?"

"Ha ha. Yeah, Ash. You passed. That was very sweet," I told him.

"See? I told you I could. If you had believed me in the first place we wouldn't be here," he teased.

"So this is all my fault?" I challenged him

"Well.. yeah. Obviously." To him, there was no other explanation.

"Is not," I snapped.

"Uh huh," he replied nodding his head.

"This isn't helping us… " I pointed out. If we were going to continue arguing like this then we would never get out.

"Right…" He sighed some more then leaned back against the wall.

"So what do you suggest we do? I don't want to be in here all day."

"Hmm….." Again, he closed his eyes in deep thought. Maybe if he dug deep enough, he would find something useful in that dense brain of his. "I think I have an idea."

"Care to share?"

"Just play along," he told me. Now I was confused.

"Uh.."

I watched as he pulled his phone out of his pocket and started dialing some numbers. The phone started to ring as he put it to his ear. I listened as the ringing pierced the silence we were sitting in. I didn't know who he was calling, but apparently whomever is was had something to do with our plan.

"Hi, hello. We need help! We've been kidnapped," Ash told the person on the other line. "WHAT?" I yelled at him. This was his grand idea? Getting Brock arrested?

He just waved me off, continuing to talk on the phone. "Yes. We're locked in the dressing room at the Cerulean City Gym… two of us. . .. no, we're fine…. we just want out."

If looks could kill, mine would have killed him right on the spot. I wanted to be out of here just as much as he did, but my idea of getting out was not calling the police. Did he know that we could get arrested for calling in a fake crime? He won't be laughing when that happens. When he got off the phone, I was ready to lose it.

"You have a lot of explaining to do, Ash. What the heck was that? The police? Really?"

"Calm down, Misty. It wasn't really the police," he assured me.

"Then who did you call?" He started laughing in that scary, evil way. He was starting to freak me out.

"He he.. you'll see," was all he said.

We sat in silence again as I waited for the police sirens and Brock running to let us out before he got into trouble. Fifteen minutes went by and I heard nothing. I guess maybe they were never coming. If they weren't, though, then who was? Suddenly, though, my questions were answered as I heard shouting from the hallway outside.

"Look, I'm sorry! I didn't mean to! They deserved it, I swear. You know how they are! Please don't attack me!" I heard Brock yell to whoever was outside. His shouts got closer and closer until finally he was right in front of the door. "Ow! See? I'm opening the door! Calm down!"

When Brock opened the door, he was knocked over and trampled as Ash's Bayleaf ran into the room in hysteria. It looked first at me and then to the other side where it saw Ash. Bounding over to him, Bayleaf nudged him to get his attention.

"Thanks, Bayleaf. I knew I could count on you," Ash said, patting the Pokemon on the head.

I just stared at him, slowly realizing the mechanics of his plan. It had worked and that shocked me. His plans never worked. But here we were, the door open, and freedom just ahead. Before Brock could get back up, I ran out of the door, Ash and Bayleaf behind me. When we were safely back in the kitchen, I turned around and gave Bayleaf a hug.

"Thanks, Bayleaf. I owe you big time. Fill free to beat up Brock anytime." Bayleaf just smiled in response to my kind gesture.

"What about me?" Ash said, a little pout on his face. "I came up with the plan after all."

"Oh, I'm sorry, Ash. Of course," I replied, giving him a big hug. I owed him big time, but I wouldn't say that. "Thank you for getting us out of there."

"Your welcome," he replied, smiling brightly at the compliment. I had realized that I had unintentionally boosted his ego, something the never had a good effect on him. There was only way to change that, though.

"You just go lucky," I told him, sticking my toung out for emphasis.

"Whatever," he replied, crossing his arms over his chest.

"Aww. Is little Ashey mad?" I teased, making baby faces at him. "Did Mighty Misty bruise little Ashey's ego?"

"No."

"Aww," I teased some more. I could see him getting a little bit more ticked off each time I made a face at him. I was smart enough, though, to see where this was headed so, before it could escalate into another argument, I ended it.

"Thanks, Ash." I told him giving him a small kiss on the cheek. "I'm glad you were here to get us out." And with that, I walked away to go find Brock and see if he was still conscious.

As I strolled down the hallway, I peaked around to catch a glance at Ash who was still standing where I left him. Laughing, I turned around and as I rounded the corner, I heard him cheer in celebration.

"Yes!"