Dear Misty,

I have written this letter a hundred times over, never completely satisfied with the outcome. There's always something missing, always something not worded correctly or something that just isn't explained properly. I feel there is something I need to tell you and I just can't seem to get the courage to say it to your face. So I wrote this letter.

I love you. I have always loved you. Of course at the beginning I didn't understand my feelings. It took me a couple of years to find out that the burning feeling in my chest and Butterfrees in my stomach were trying to tell me something. Well you know me; I was extremely dense and probably still am.

On the first day of my journey, when I had the incident with the Spearows, I never told you how scared I was. They were about to attack and I had nowhere else to go so, like you know; I jumped down the small waterfall. I didn't expect the under tow to be so bad and ruff. I was losing too much oxygen and Pikachu wasn't any better. Then like some sort of miracle, I felt a tug on the back of my shirt and suddenly I was flying through the air. After I landed, I was stunned. I was alive and so was Pikachu.

"Oh a Pokemon. Are you ok?"

I looked up and at that moment I feel in love. To be honest I thought you were some kind of angel.

"I'm ok." I replied. Would you imagine my disappointment when you said you were talking about Pikachu?

As the years past my love for you grew. For a while I thought you hated me and maybe you did, but then we became friends then later best friends. But that's all we were, that's all we are. And it hurts. I have loved you for so long, Misty. But now you're with Gary and you deserve to be happy. I want you to be happy, no matter how much it pains me.

When you left after Johto, my heart broke into a million pieces. It was right around then that I understood my feelings. It was also around then that I figured that you couldn't feel the same way about me, but then you gave me your handkerchief and that small little token gave me hope.

Maybe she does have feelings other than friendship towards me. I thought. At the time I had hoped that if I waited till after your sisters came back from their cruise or whatever it was they were doing for so long, that you would journey with me again. If you had I probably would have told you how I felt, but you never came and I still had my dreams to fulfill.

So I went to Hoenn. I first tried traveling on my own and for a time it was nice, just me and Pikachu, but it quickly got lonely and then Pikachu got sick. That's when I met May. She was nice and I thought maybe she could get my mind off of you. I was wrong Misty. I traveled with her and Max then later Brock, but it was never the same. Having another girl around just seemed to amplify the fact that you weren't there with me. Brocko wasn't much help either. Though he is one of my best friends whenever he was around I couldn't help but remember old times and past adventures, with you. I missed you so much, Misty.

The few times you visited me were wonderful and I had hoped you wouldn't leave but of course you had a gym to take care of and I still wanted to be a Pokemon Master. My heart broke again and again each time we had to split up, and at one point I truly believed by heart would be so broken that I wouldn't be able to find the pieces, but I'm Ash Ketchum and I had things to do and people to beat. So I put on a happy mask and life went on.

I never really spoke of you to my others friends it hurt too much. The few times I did, I only spoke of the adventures we had never calling you by name, you would always be: my travel companion at the time, or my friend. Brock would always give me that sad little smile that told me he knew who the "friend" or "companion" was. I'm pretty sure Brock knew how I felt about you, hell I think everybody but you knew how I felt, I was rather obvious Mist.

After a few more years, new companions and many competitions later, I was tired and upset and had been through many different forms of hellish adventures and I just couldn't take it anymore. I went to Unova hoping for a new start without as many reminders of you and that's what I got. It was also around that time when I cut off connections from everybody except my mom, Professor Oak and Brock.

Brock was my eyes in Kanto, he would tell me what was going on and who was doing what. We would talk about old adventures all the time and at first he would ask me to talk to you, tell you how I felt, and I know he was just trying to do what was best for me because he could see that all the pent up emotions were slowly destroying me but I was afraid, so I got angry and he stopped asking. Now I feel rather like the idiot you always said I was. If I would have just told you how I felt I wouldn't have this big "what if" hanging over my head. If I could go back in time I would change many things in regards to you Misty, but it's too late now and Brock says you seem happy and you know how well he is at reading people, except of course the woman he sets his sights on.

I really hope you're happy, Mist. Oh, and if this letter ever gets to you, I don't want you to worry about me, I'll be ok. Maybe I'll visit when I have some time, though it may be a while, the life of a Pokemon Master waits for no one.

Love you always,

Ash Ketchum

. . .

Misty never would have guessed, after all this time she was thinking she was the broken one, hurt beyond repair. She thought she was the one secretly pining away for her best friend, her best friend that could never love her back none the less, and now all she wanted to do was run into his arms and tell him how sorry she was for leaving and hurting him. Tell him she did love him back. But now he was gone and she couldn't move because she was dying inside.