Love is Odd
QuestShipping
Marina peered around the open door and spotted him in the middle of the empty gym, stretching alongside Typhlosion and Poliwrath. He was wearing a pair of tight black gym shorts and a white tank top, which clung to his body with sweat. Marina caught herself gawping at him and quickly tried to compose herself.
'Hey, Jimmy – looking good,' she said brightly, striding into the room. Jimmy jumped and turned around to face her. His face coloured slightly when he saw her approaching him, but he didn't shy away from her compliment like he used to. Instead, he smiled and winked.
'Thanks, Marina. I've been working out. You like the muscled and sweaty types?'
It was Marina's turn to blush now.
'Ew, no. That's gross. I prefer the strong, well-groomed and dashingly handsome types,' she replied, raising her eyebrows at him.
Jimmy grinned.
'So, that's me!'
He lunged forward, arms outstretched and enveloped Marina in a sweaty bear-hug. She shrieked and tried to beat him off.
'EW! Jimmy – let go! That is so GROSS!'
Jimmy laughed in her ear and planted a big wet kiss on her cheek, causing her to blush furiously.
HandymanShipping
The crowds bustled up and down the pavements of Cerulean City in the swirling snow. Winter had definitely arrived. A light covering of white was already beginning to form on every stationary surface. Tracey pulled his orange scarf tighter around his neck and hurried on down the main street of the city. He passed young couples, suited workers and excitable families as he made his way to his destination. They all seemed to be in a hurry. Car horns beeped as the traffic snaked slowly in both directions.
Tracey paused outside a jewellery shop and turned slowly on the spot to get his bearings. He sincerely hoped he was heading in the right direction. He didn't want to keep her waiting. He saw a familiar landmark and nodded in satisfaction before moving on. He passed a cinema and stepped aside to allow the flood of moviegoers to get by him. They were all chattering excitedly about the amazing film they had just seen. Maybe he could take her to the cinema next time? Or was that too clichéd for a date?
He approached the very centre of the city, where a large diamond-shaped square sat at the mouth of every major artery in Cerulean. A huge, elaborate fountain dominated the square, fountaining jets of glowing water into the air to the beat of some catchy song. Dozens of people sat on its edge, some throwing coins into the water, others sitting in silent amazement at the spectacle. Tracey had seen it before, so he did not slow.
Finally, he reached a large and expensive-looking restaurant on the edge of the square. Tall, mullioned windows looked in on a room of chandeliers and plushy furniture. The diners at this particular establishment looked very affluent. Tracey nervously approached the doorman, who nodded to him and pulled the heavy door open before him. He moved inside and was greeted by a blast of warm air. He loosened his scarf as a prim-looking man looked him up and down and consulted a large book.
'Name, please?' he said disparagingly.
'Um … Sketchit – Tracey Sketchit,' he said uncertainly.
The man looked down his nose at the book and nodded once briefly. He clicked his fingers at a passing waiter, who bowed quickly to Tracey and nodded at his superior.
'Right this way, sir,' he said before taking off through the capacious restaurant.
Tracey hastened after him, winding between polished wooden tables and exotic potted plants. The hum of conversation vibrated all around him, and gave the air an odd semi-permeable quality.
They reached a small table for two, which was laid with fancy cutlery and was lit by a tall candle. A young woman of astonishing beauty sat at the table, her back straight and her head held higher than most of the rich women in the establishment. Her long, wavy blonde hair flowed down her back in golden waves, and glistened in the light of the candles and chandeliers.
'Mr. Tracey Sketchit has arrived, ma'am,' said the waiter, bowing again before retreating.
Daisy looked around and beamed at the sight of him. He grinned and leaned down to kiss her before seating himself in the other chair.
'Have you been waiting long?' he asked anxiously, removing his scarf and shrugging off his heavy jacket.
'No, I just got here, like, a few minutes ago,' she said, flashing him a dazzling smile. Tracey noticed several men turning to gape at her out of the corner of his eye.
'I'm glad you could come tonight,' he said with a smile.
'I wouldn't miss it for the world, Trace,' she said in a low voice, squeezing his knee beneath the table. 'Misty was only too delighted to watch the desk in the Gym tonight.'
'Yeah, I'm sure she was,' he laughed. Daisy rolled her eyes.
'Well, she can deal with it – she's supposed to be the Gym Leader and all,' she said dismissively. She brightened and leaned forwards slightly. 'I handed in the deposit this morning!'
'No way!' said Tracey, astonished. 'I thought you needed a few more weeks to get your half?'
'Nope, I totally worked hard in both my jobs – so they gave me a raise!' said Daisy proudly, flipping her hair over her shoulder.
'So this is really happening?' exclaimed Tracey, trying to contain his delight.
'Yes it is, babe,' winked Daisy. 'We're moving in together.'
ForgetShipping
'Brendan – Brendan! Hey, wake up – your battle is in an hour!' said Lucas, poking Brendan's cheek.
He mumbled something inaudible and pulled the covers up over his head. Lucas grinned mischievously and gently took hold of the top of the duvet, before leaping onto the bed and sitting on the boy's scrunched up form, holding down the covers as he did so.
'Oomph – Lucas!' exclaimed Brendan in groggy fury. He struggled beneath his grip and pushed the duvet off his head. Lucas grabbed both of his hands and pinned him down.
'So, you gonna get up?' he smirked.
'Not with you sitting on me,' he grunted. 'You weigh a ton, idiot.'
Lucas sighed and relaxed back on Brendan's stomach. 'You know, I could just ring down to them and say you forfeit the match. Then we could order room service and chill out for the day.'
'Not bloody likely,' snorted Brendan. He wrenched his wrists free and pushed Lucas off with an almighty shove. Lucas fell backwards and sprawled at the bottom of the bed. In the same movement, Brendan leapt on top of him and settled himself on his chest.
'Now,' he said with a cheeky grin, as Lucas struggled furiously to throw him off. 'I want an apology for such a rude wake-up call – and an admission that I am the better trainer.'
'Never gonna happen!' exclaimed Lucas, slightly red in the face.
Brendan sighed tragically. 'Then we could be here for a long time …'
They stared unblinkingly at each other, Lucas fiercely and Brendan challengingly. A knock at the door interrupted their contest.
'Hello, Brendan? This is the hotel clerk – just a quick reminder that your battle starts in less than an hour,' a man called through the door.
'Ok, thanks!' Brendan called back across the room. He looked back down at Lucas and smirked. 'You got a lucky escape this time pal, but don't expect me to be so lenient next time.'
'I wouldn't dream of it,' grinned Lucas.
AppealShipping/PenguinShipping
The second hand of the clock ticked ridiculously loudly. It practically caused the windows to rattle in their frames. Dawn thought she could feel a twitch developing in her eye as it continued to get steadily louder. She ran her hands through her perfectly styled hair, attempting to straighten knots that weren't there. Her reflection in the wide mirror showed an attractive young woman with lines of anxiety riddling her face. She wore a loose orange and teal jumper over a pair of tight blue jeans. Her dark blue hair fell straight down to the middle of her back, and her perfectly curled fringe stood out impressively from her forehead. Her blue eyes were narrowed with fatigue.
She jumped as a pair of slender hands wrapped lightly around her shoulders and someone's chin rested on her head.
'What has you so worried?' whispered Zoey, making eye contact with her in the mirror.
'Oh … nothing,' replied Dawn unconvincingly, averting Zoey's gaze. 'Just nervous about appearing on TV.'
Zoey's small smile slid off her face. She looked away from the mirror and down at Dawn.
'Now I'm concerned,' she said. 'You're never nervous about standing up on stage. What's really going on?'
Dawn glanced up at her guiltily and winced involuntarily.
'I don't know – just a big mish-mash of strange feelings. You know I get weirdly emotional sometimes.'
Zoey continued to look at her cautiously, but said no more as a gang of assistants and makeup artists burst into the room, armed with clipboards and brushes. They shooed Zoey away and directed her to another seat as they began to touch up the girl's makeup. There was a knock at the door and Ursula leaned in through the doorway. She smirked when she saw who was in the room.
'My, my – just look at those poor artists panicking to try and make you two look presentable,' she said, a glint in her eye. 'It's so tragic to know that they work in vain!'
'Shut up, Ursula,' shot Zoey from her chair.
Dawn managed a grin as Ursula adopted a look of mortal injury.
'You wound me, Zoey!' she gasped, closing her eyes dramatically before winking at Dawn in the mirror. 'See you both on set!'
She withdrew from the room. Despite their rocky early relationship, Dawn and Zoey were now firm friends with their old rival.
'Ok, you're both good to go,' said one of the assistants breathlessly. She wiped a pudgy hand across her sweating forehead and readjusted her glasses. 'You'll enter stage left – and Ursula and Kenny will go on from stage right.'
'Got it,' said Zoey, leaning in close to her reflection to examine a small spot on her eyebrow. She hopped out of her seat and flashed Dawn a wicked grin. 'You ready to rock Sinnoh Now?'
'Let's do it,' she replied in a tone that suggested she was sentencing herself to the gallows.
Zoey frowned again at Dawn's tone, and caught her elbow as they moved out into the bustling corridor.
'Hey, listen, is everything all right? You know you can talk to me about anything.'
Dawn looked at her and smiled.
'Of course I know. I'm fine.'
But I can't talk to you about everything. There are some things even the closest couples can never mention.
They marched down the corridor, following the flow of TV staff towards the main studio. They just reached the left-hand entrance to the studio floor when someone tapped Dawn on the shoulder.
'Hey,' grinned Kenny.
Dawn jumped, and tried her best to cover up her alarm with a wide smile.
'Hey! You ready for this?'
'Of course I am,' scoffed Kenny, puffing out his chest. 'This face was made for TV!'
'Of course it was,' said Zoey sarcastically.
Dawn was panicking. Neither of them knew how she really felt about the other. She had involved herself with them both over the course of the last Grand Festival. How stupid had that been?! There they were, standing in front of her, chatting away about something stupid, both looking absolutely gorgeous. Kenny's hair was slicked back off his face in a fashionable quiff. She could see the veins in his forearms, and the hint of muscle beneath his grey shirt. Zoey looked like a model – tall and thin, with her hair twisted in a spiky knot on the side of her head. There was no doubt that Rhonda would ask them about their relationships during the interview. They were the stars of the Sinnoh contest world. While Ursula might buy her some time recounting her numerous conquests, there was no way Dawn was getting out of answering the question. What was she going to do?
'Kenny, Ursula – get ready on stage right!' shouted a man from behind them.
Kenny grinned at them and flicked his hair.
'I guess I'll see you out there.'
He walked off around to the far side of the studio. Zoey gripped Dawn briefly by the waist and smiled. The blinding stage lights flashed on.
'Let's go kill it,' she said, winking confidently.
Dawn saw the end of her life awaiting her.
'Yeah – no need to worry.'
ContestShipping
The intensely bright sunlight shone through May's closed eyelids. The air was not disturbed by a single breeze, and the wonderful heat of the sun pricked her skin with cosy comfort. An occasional buzz of a passing insect was the only sound to be heard in the garden, apart from her own rhythmic breathing. It was a perfect day.
The roar of the lawn mower caused May to jump ridiculously in her deck chair. Her glass of iced water toppled off the arm of the chair and shattered on the patio stones.
'Drew!' she shouted furiously.
Her boyfriend ignored her, moving slowly across the small garden with the lawn mower proceeding him. The top few buttons of his white shirt were open and the sleeves were perfectly rolled up to his elbows. The skin of his chest and arms was darkly tanned. May was disgruntled with him for tanning easier than she did. She was wearing nothing but a thin red bikini, and despite the fact that she had been lounging beneath the sun in Drew's back garden for the better part of the day, she still had only achieved a slightly darker shade of white.
'Shut that thing up!' she yelled at him over the noise of the lawn mower. 'You're ruining my peaceful day!'
He glanced over at her with a slight smirk, his green eyes shaded by his perfectly styled fringe.
'Sorry, May, I can't really hear you,' he called over to her, moving back over the same patches of grass he started on.
May bristled. 'Can you hear this?'
She made a rude hand gesture at him and he laughed.
'I don't see why I shouldn't make the most of such a nice day and cut the grass, seeing as I have nothing else to do – you point-blank refused to come upstairs when I was in the mood earlier,' he said mischievously, turning slowly on the spot as he moved in a different direction across the garden.
May threw him a look of contempt. She settled back onto the deck chair and put on a large pair of black sunglasses.
'You know I need to sort out my tan first, Drew. And besides,' she sighed, crossing her legs and resting her arms above her head. 'A day spent sizzling in the sun is going to make me antsy for some action tonight.'
The lawn mower cut off suddenly and May grinned triumphantly.
PokéShipping
'Shit, shit, shit – Mom is gonna kill us,' muttered Ash in panic, scooping up armfuls of books from the floor.
Misty hurried in from the kitchen with a brush and scoop, slightly red in the face. She paused in the doorway for a moment, instinctively admiring the sight of Ash on his hands and knees, reaching under the sofa for a stray ornament and wearing nothing but a pair of boxer briefs. She snapped herself out of it and made to sweep up the fragments of glass littering the floor, which had until a few moments ago comprised the casing of a series of photo frames. They had been knocked to the floor along with a shelf of books and ornaments when Ash and Misty had crashed into a cabinet during a moment of over-zealous passion.
'Quick – take the photo frames upstairs before she gets back,' said Ash hurriedly, standing up with a small jewelled Phanpy in his hand. 'We can say we wanted to mix up the pictures with some new ones … or something.'
Misty emptied the broken glass into a black plastic bag and looked Ash in the eye. She couldn't help but grin at the look of worry on his face.
'What's so funny?' he asked, bewildered.
'You're just sexy when you're agitated,' said Misty, shrugging casually.
Ash gawped at her, opening and closing his mouth. His eyes flicked to her red bra and the short denim jeans that they had failed to strip off before the catastrophic accident. He groaned quietly before shaking his head and holding up a hand.
'No - we'll pick up where we left off after we clean up,' he said firmly, averting his gaze from Misty's body.
'If you're sure, Ketchum,' murmured Misty, trailing a hand over his flat stomach as she moved to pick up the broken photo frames.
She smiled at the constricted noise he made in his throat and skipped lightly out of the room and up the stairs.
Twenty minutes later Misty was pulling on her shorts and top as Ash lay on the bed beside her, gazing at her with an astonishingly tender expression. The sound of presses opening and closing could be heard from the kitchen as Delia began making dinner.
'You're amazing,' he said softly, stroking her back with a single finger.
Misty looked down at him and smiled, her heart filling with sudden emotion. She leaned down and kissed him gently on the lips, brushing his messy hair off his slightly sweaty forehead.
'I don't think I ever said it, Ash, but I'm so glad I fished you out of that river all those years ago,' she whispered in his ear.
He wrapped his bare arms around her body and pulled her close.
'Me too. I thank those Spearow every single day.'