DISCLAIMER: I don't own Pokemon. If I did, you wouldn't be reading this, you'd be watching it.

Ash breathed in deeply. This region of Unova was novel to him. The surroundings felt different than the other regions did. Perhaps it was only his imagination, but each region seemed to have a unique aura about it. He looked around him, at the bright green trees and the pristine sky, left untouched by clouds. He wanted this opportunity to take in his situation. It all seemed great, he had everything to look forward to. The excitement of new and unfamiliar pokemon to catch, the prospect of new friends and new rivals, the sheer possibility of it all seemed nearly daunting, but something felt off.

It always felt that way, at first, almost intimidating in a way, all the challenges he would inevitably face, all the hardships. It was sometimes difficult to remember that there would be good times, as well as bad. Of course, he was hopeful, optimistic even, but he always felt like something was amiss when he first started out in a region, ever since Hoenn, anyway. He stopped his already slow gait and sighed lightly. The small yellow creature on his shoulder perked its ears up in surprise, wondering why they had stopped.

"Pika?" it asked its trainer.

"What?" Pikachu had managed to knock him out of his small trance. "Oh, I'm just taking it all in, buddy. It's exciting, being in a new region, and all." He didn't sound quite convinced of his own words as he said them to his companion.

Ash looked to the sky once more, hoping that something there might get him out of his little funk. Perhaps another legendary pokemon would fly along and get him all riled up for his new adventure. He had already got a look at that Zekrom thing, and that didn't seem to have gotten his mind in the right place. After a bit of looking at the blue expanse, he turned his gaze to the side of the road and took a seat on the edge of the stone pathway on which he had been walking.

He sat there a for a second, looking at the ground before him, his hands supporting his chin on either side, a forlorn look on his face. Pikachu hopped off of his trainer's shoulder, and shook him lightly on the leg, knowing full well what was wrong. Ash looked his his friend, who was smiling at him, obviously trying to make him feel better. He chuckled a bit and resumed looking at the same patch of ground that had been so transfixing before. Pikachu's ears lowered in defeat and his smile left his face. The creature stood there, pondering his next move. A few seconds passed by until Ash broke the silence.

"I wonder what new friends we'll meet," he mused, reaching his right foot out to kick a small rock that was obstructing his view of the dirt.

"Pikapi, pikachu pika Pikachupi?" Pikachu asked.

Ash didn't have to think about the answer to that. He and Pikachu had both figured this out back when he first came to the Sinnoh Region.

"Yeah, it's about her." Ash fell from his sitting position, onto his back, having no choice but to revert his gaze to the sky. It really was a beautiful day out, and the sky was no different. It was just so blue here. He couldn't help but be reminded of her. It made the proverbial butterfree fly all about his stomach. He had always thought her eyes were beautiful, even before he started thinking about girls that way. As cheesy as it sounded, he had always likened looking into her eyes like looking into shimmering pools of water whose depths could not be known. He used to catch himself thinking that, mentally hit himself for it and remind himself of the dangers of cooties, which he was under the impression were a real threat to his health. It took him until he was almost thirteen years old to let himself think that she was pretty, and allow himself to realize that he felt something more than friendship for her.

He sighed once again, this time more heavily, closing his eyes in the process. He hadn't had this problem when he first started his journey, or when he first got to the Orange Islands, or the Johto Region, for that matter. The first time he ever felt this way was in Hoenn. The same happened in Sinnoh. At first, he knew that she had something to do with it, but he thought it was just the fact that he was alone for the first time in awhile, without her or Brock, his two best friends. In Sinnoh, it was different; Brock showed up during his little funk, and nothing changed, he still felt that weird feeling that something was missing. It didn't take him long to figure out that it was she who was missing.

"I wish we had gone to visit her before we came here. I wish I hadn't chickened out. I bet you wish that too, huh... It would have been fun to see Misty..." He trailed off.

He was a bit ashamed of that little factoid. He had planned to visit her in Cerulean, but some irrational fear got the better of him. The prospect of seeing her again made his mind run wild. He would moll over the possibilities, thinking that she might have a boyfriend or that she might not want to see him or that she might hate him now; it didn't have to make sense, if it could happen then it only served to add to his anxiety about visiting her. Fear wasn't something that normally got the better of him, but that was a different kind of fear than he was used to.

"I guess we should start walking again. Maybe it'll help get my mind off of things." With this Ash got up and began to walk, Pikachu following suit. The little yellow mouse bounded up Ash's clothing, up onto his shoulder again, and nuzzled his cheek, glad to see his trainer out of the dumps, for the time being. Ash chuckled a little bit as his partner's soft fur rubbed against his cheek. His spine tingled a little bit with the feeling it gave him, a feeling of being less alone, a feeling of knowing that someone was there for you. He was thankful that he always had such a great friend with him. He may not have Misty there for him now, but at least he had Pikachu.

They walked on for a few minutes, noticing strange and wondrous new pokemon appear and disappear into the trees. Soon they came upon an open field, pocked by wildflowers of all manner of colors. The field was split in half by a small river, whose babbling Ash could just barely hear. As they neared the river, they could hear that the babbling was really the rush of a small waterfall. Ash looked at it all and it all began to seem odd to him. He felt like he had been there before, a deja vu of sorts.

When they got to the middle of the small wooden bridge that crossed the river, just before the falls, it dawned on him. The memories came flooding back to him as he watched the water rush below his feet.

"Hey Pikachu, doesn't this look like where Misty fished us out of that river, way back when?"

"Pi," Pikachu affirmed.

Ash looked out, past the falls, noticing the outline of a person, a small girl, holding a fishing rod. "Oh, wow. There's even a girl fishing. She even has a ponytail. No bike for you to fry though, just a scooter, right Pikachu?" Ash laughed a bit. Whatever higher power was watching him must have been playing some sick joke on him, holding Ash, like an ant, under his magnifying glass, watching Ash squirm as his antennae were slowly singed off of his head. This was just about as reminiscent of Misty it could possibly get, only serving to remind him of her absence.

Suddenly, a shout rang out behind him, ripping him from his nostalgia. However, the source of the shout brought him right back to it.

"Come on Emolga! We have to get away from those rufflet!" A small boy shouted, a small squirrel-esque creature following close behind. Ash squinted, looking off in the distance, and sure enough, a large flock of angry looking birds were chasing the boy and his "emolga". Ash looked back to the boy, who was looking over his shoulder at the flock of birds, and cringed a bit inside, remembering the cold sting of Pallet River's water, as the boy neared the river, still not looking where he was going.

The boy let out a yell as he tumbled into the river, his emolga not far behind. The boy swam toward the emolga as they approached the impending waterfall, holding onto it to protect it. The boy's determination and care for his pokemon reminded Ash of himself.

Soon enough, the boy and his emolga fell down the cascade. Ash felt for the boy, remembering the panic and fear he felt when he went though the same thing. He looked to the girl, who didn't seem to have noticed what had just happened. She still had her fishing line in the water.

"Oh no. I swear, if she hooks him, I don't... I-I don't even know..." he said to no one in particular.

Ash watched as the girl's line began to tug on the rod. The girl seemed to need to brace herself to pull whatever it was out of the water. Suddenly, the boy shot up out of the water and flew over the dumbfounded girl's head, and came crashing to the ground. It was at this point that Ash noticed that the girl had black hair and the boy had red hair. Ash could only stand there and watch as this weird little gender reversed play of his life was acted out before him, his memories playing in his mind alongside this real version.

"Oh my gosh! What a poor little guy!" the concerned little girl shouted. Ash began to play a little game in his head where he guess what they would say to each other.

"Oh, I'm fine," the boy replied.

"Not you, your little emolga!" Ash was right about that one, the same thing Misty said.

"Oh, he doesn't look too good..." The boy's voice was dripping with worry, understandably so.

"You should get him to a Pokemon Center soon." Ash was right about that too.

"Pokemon Center?" the boy obviously didn't know very much about the whole pokemon journey thing, unlike Ash did as a kid.

"Yeah, they'll take care of your pokemon for you. There's one in Accumula Town. What happened anyway?"

"I got a group of rufflet angry at me. I didn't know how easy it was to do that, and now they're chasing me." The boy stood up and looked around, his emolga still in his arms. "Which way is Accumula Town?"

"That way," the girl said pointing to her left. The boy began to look around again, possibly wondering what to do next. A thought suddenly hatched in Ash's mind.

"Ten bucks says he takes the scooter," Ash said to Pikachu, who simply looked at him.

The boy began to walk over to the pink scooter, and Ash started to chuckle out of disbelief of what was happening. He couldn't help but smile at the scene before him. The boy picked up the scooter, deposited the emolga in the basked attached to the front and hopped on.

"Hey! What are you doing with my scooter?" the girl forcefully inquired.

"I'm borrowing it. I need to get to Accumula Town." With that, the boy began to race off in the direction the girl had pointed earlier. Ash began to laugh at the whole situation. He didn't know why he was laughing at the familiarity of this little farce, but he was, rather loudly at that.

"Hey! Come back here! That thing better be in mint condition when you give it back to me!" she shouted at the boy. The flock of rufflet suddenly came racing by them, intent on exacting whatever it was they intended to exact on the little Ash-clone, as Ash had been calling him in his head. The girl rushed to pack her stuff and chase after the boy, when she noticed Ash laughing hysterically on the bridge.

"What're you laughing at, Mister?" She asked, somewhat vexed by his amusement at her plight.

"Oh, haha, uh, it's just that... the exact same thing happened to me when I was your age," Ash choked out between laughs.

"Whatever. I'm going to find that kid and my scooter. See ya." The girl ran off down the road, after the boy.

"If it ends up barbequed, follow him around everywhere! I'm sure he'll appreciate it!" Ash shouted to her as she faded off down the path, not knowing if he was heard.

He sighed, memories of his old travels with Misty came rushing back to him. All their arguments, all the insults and the like, but also the more tender moments, not to mention all of Brock's antics. He rested his back on the bridge's railing and sank down to the ground.

"I wonder if they'll fall in love..." Ash's voice was quiet, his tone wistful. He could feel himself plunging back into that feeling of emptiness, that feeling of yearning. He began to smile as he remembered her face, but his eyes returned once again to the ground.

Pikachu looked at him and suddenly figured out how he was going to get him out of this. He hopped onto his back, unzipped his backpack, and grabbed that little device that his mom had given him before he left. Pikachu overheard that it was for talking to his mom, so he figured that if it could talk to his mom, it could talk to Misty. Pikachu grabbed the thing in his mouth and bounded back in front of his trainer.

"Pikapi," he said, his voice muffled by the gadget.

"Huh? What do you want me to do with that?" Ash asked, curious, but having an idea of what Pikachu was thinking.

"Chu Pikachupi," Pikachu stated plainly.

"I was afraid you'd say that. It's probably a good idea though." Ash took the phone and looked at the waterfall. "We should probably go somewhere without so much noise, right Pikachu?"

After about a minute of walking, Ash took a seat on a rock on the side of the path, Pikachu taking the space next to him. The rock was cold, a bit damp and not too comfortable, but he didn't care that much, he had other things on his mind. He looked at the phone, and instantly, anxiety welled up in the pit of his stomach. A tingling nervousness ran down his upper body, making his face feel hot. He flipped the device open and looked at the keyboard. He ran his thumb over the buttons; the feeling of them on the pad of his thumb made his fingers tense up. He stopped his finger on the "9", the first digit in her phone number. Adrenaline began to pool in his gut, putting him ill at ease. His finger hovered over that 9, that odd fear that had plagued him before was beginning to resurface. What if she didn't want to talk to him? What if she was on a date with some other guy? He had never been this freaked out by giving Misty a call. What had changed? Perhaps he feared Misty's reaction that he had left Kanto without visiting him. Perhaps he just felt bad about not visiting her. Perhaps it was just that he felt vulnerable right now.

Pikachu stared at his trainer, who appeared to be frozen. He wasn't entirely sure, but he was fairly certain that Ash was supposed to be doing something other than sitting there, motionless. Normally when Ash dealt with shiny gadgets, he pressed buttons and they made beeps and boops and other such noises and then they did what he wanted them to do. Ash looked like he was about to press buttons and make booping noises, but he was just sitting there. Pikachu decided to do something to get him going.

"Pikapi!" It seemed to work as Ash turned his head.

"What?"

"Pikachu!" he demanded.

"Okay, okay, I was just nervous, is all."

Ash finally pressed that "9" that daunted him so. The device let out a beep that gave Pikachu an odd satisfaction, being right about the beeping noises that these sorts of things made. Ash took it one step at a time, pressing each button in the sequence that would connect him to Misty, each dial tone giving him a small surge of anxiety. When he was finished, he pulled a small, crumpled up sticky note, on which Misty had written her number a few years ago, out of his jacket pocket, to see if he remembered her number correctly. It seemed that he was right after the first check, but he looked back and forth, from the note to the screen, just to be sure. He was also doing it to stall, but he didn't want to admit that to himself.

Now all he had to do was press the green "send" button and he would be past the point of no return. He looked at it for a second, the adrenaline rising in his chest. He didn't like this feeling of anxiety, it was too similar to nausea. He just wanted it to be over. He knew that it would rush out of him as soon as Misty picked up, but some unknown barrier in some unknown part of his mind was preventing him from getting there. Suddenly that barrier shattered, allowing him to press the button. He put the phone up to his ear and the waiting ensued.

Purrrp-purrrp. The first ring sounded, causing an anvil of anxiety to drop through his midsection. The next few rings weren't so bad, though. After three or four rings, Ash realized something. He was in a completely different part of the world than Misty was, and in a different time zone. It was probably two or three in the morning in Cerulean! Misty probably wasn't going to pick up. He then consigned himself to leaving a message. Suddenly a voice began to speak over the line. It wasn't Misty's but it was familiar.

"You've reached the Cerulean City Gym's personal phone line. If you could, like, leave a message after the tone, we'll get back to you, like, as soon as possible. Have a great day!" The voice brought back memories to Ash. It was Daisy's ever-perky voice, and as such, he couldn't help but remember the underwater ballet, and how great Misty looked in that mermaid outfit. He wished she'd wear her hair down like she more often, like she did during the performance.

He didn't have much time to reminisce about old times as the beep was coming any second now.

Beep. Ash panicked a little bit at this sound. He had no idea what to say. He supposed he would just have to wing it.

"Uh, hi, Misty, it's Ash. I just wanted to talk to you, but, uh, I'm in Unova now and I forgot about the time difference. So, first off, I wanna say I'm sorry that I didn't visit you at the Gym when I was home. I, uhh... I really wanted to, but I, uh, couldn't. A-anyway, My mom got me this mobile phone thing so now I can call you whenever I want instead of just when I'm at a Pokemon Center. That'll be nice, right?"

Pikachu nudged at Ash's leg, signaling his desire to say "hi". Ash chuckled a bit at this. "Oh, haha, Pikachu wants to say hi. Say hi Pikachu!" Ash lowered the phone down to Pikachu's level.

"Pikachupi! Pika chupika pi!"

"Haha, so, it's really nice here, I wish you could see it. Oh, yeah, the reason I called! I saw the weirdest thing a few minutes ago. Remember how we first met? Well, I saw the exact same thing happen with two other kids. This boy and his pokemon who were being chased by these bird pokemon fell into a river and this girl fished them out, just like you did with me. He even took her scooter and went off to the nearest Pokemon Center, weird, right? Well, it just... reminded me of you and made me wanna call you." Ash paused for a second. He knew what he wanted to say, but he didn't know if he wanted to say it. The nerves that had berated him while he was dialing the phone began to return to him, but he decided to just out and say it.

"I miss you Misty... I miss you a lot. I wish you could come and travel with me again. I know that's too much to ask of you, but I do... Truth is, I feel kinda lonely here, no Brock, no Dawn, no Max, no May... no you. Just Pikachu... Not that he doesn't keep me company, it's just... I don't know. So I just wanted to talk to you... Call me back anytime; I'll be waiting. Bye, Misty."

With that, he hung up the phone. He felt a lot better. Leaving that message turned out to be quite cathartic. He felt like a weight had been lifted off of his shoulders, like someone had relieved his burden of anxiety. Something about leaving that message also made him feel less alone. Maybe the simple fact that he talked about how he felt is what relieved him. Maybe it was the fact that he had finally told Misty that he missed her, something he had always wanted to do, but had never actually done. He didn't know. The important thing was that he seemed to have gotten himself out of the rut he had been so firmly stuck in. Ash stood up, took a deep breath and looked down at his yellow companion.

"Why don't we get going, buddy. We've got some adventures to get to, right?" Ash's voice had a renewed vigor in it. Pikachu smiled at his trainer and leapt up Ash's back to his perch on Ash's shoulder. He gave Ash a little nuzzle, showing that he was happy that his trainer felt better.

"I wonder when Misty'll call back. I'd still like to talk to her. I'm sure you do too, right, Pikachu." Pikachu let out an affirmative "Pi," to which Ash chuckled a bit.

The two then stepped onto the path, and stood for a moment. Ash looked back at the sky. It still reminded him of Misty, but more in a fond way. It didn't make him feel lonely to be reminded of her anymore, it only made him feel closer to her. He looked back down the road, toward the looming battles, challenges, hardships, and joyous moments on the horizon.

"I wonder what kinds of pokemon we'll have caught in a few months. Maybe we'll make friends with an emolga or a rufflet, eh Pikachu?"

"Pi pika pika," Pikachu replied.

"Yeah, who knows? Lets get going."

With that, Ash and Pikachu walked down the road, ready to face the future's uncertainty head on.

Truly, I hope you derived some enjoyment from reading this, my first posted fic. If you have any praise, criticism, tips, anything at all to say, by all means, leave a review. I appreciate criticism, as long as it is constructive.

Thanks for reading,

Sardonicus