Under the working Title: Hee, Hee, Hee

Written, quite to the author's disgust, by Miss Erie Maxwell when she was of the young, impressionable age of about 10 or 11. I am terribly sorry to anyone who reads this. I'm not being modest, so don't go around saying 'Well Erie, it wasn't THAT bad!' 'cause it is and I know it. I don't need an ego-boost, but if you need a laugh, read it and mock away! (of course, you probably won't know what is so funny unless you've met me.no inside jokes, it's just that my friends find it hilarious that I was ever this horrible ;p ) Anyway, for anyone who says this is outta character, I know, I'm sorry and don't blame me if you snap from reading this, 'cause I warned you! From the older, EXTREAMLY wiser (or more world-weary, also known as cynical) Erie Maxwell



Ash and Misty were far ahead of Brock before they realized he was still hitting on Yuka. "Aren't you going to go pull him away from her like you always do WATERFLOWER?!?!"

Misty scowled at Ash and said as she glared at him, "Oh, so now you're ordering me around, huh? God you're annoying! And how many times do I have to tell you; I HAVE a first name! My name is not Waterflower Misty!"

"Yeah it's Misty Ketchum!" Brock said under his breath. Misty and Ash whirled around to face him and said at the same time,

"Did you just say something?"

"Nothing . . ." Brock grinned. Misty just sulked off as Ash glared at her retreating figure.

"Okay Ash, explain. What happened while I was away?" Brock asked.

"I don't feel like talking about it. And NOTHING happened! Why does everyone just immediately assume that just because.ARGH!" Ash went sulking off in the same direction as Misty. Brock just smiled to himself. "As hopeless as ever I see!"

"That dumbass Ash, always so rude. . ." Misty mumbled to herself. She was still sulking when she saw something glittering on the road. Unfortunately, Ash saw it at the same time as her and began running to get to it first. Noticing this, Misty ran at top speed and scooped it off the road before he even got there. She was examining her new treasure when Ash ran by, grabbing at the thing in Misty's hand. Soon, the two were having a tug-a- war over the two small, linked golden objects.

"Give it back Ash, its two rings stuck together, so it's for a girl!" Misty protested.

"No way, it's a magic trick, an' I want it!" Ash said. As the two fought, Misty came up with an idea. She stuck one of the rings on and closed her fist so that the ring, for that's what it had to be, not some stupid magic trick that Ash felt was the one missing link in his life, couldn't fall off unless she took it off.

"Ha! Now you can't grab it at all KETCHUM! (See how you like it!) And this just proves I was right! It is a ring and it probably belonged to a beautiful princess with long, beautiful hair. She probably got it from her prince, but he got lost in the enchanted forest on his way back from the jewelers, so she never got them, thus forcing her to cry herself to death and all this could have been avoided if he had just learned not to be so stubborn and had never tried to take the shortcut through the forest." Misty shook her head in pity, thinking about her sad, sad story.

" . . . Okay . . . scary! Anyway, it's a magic trick, see? You pull these hard enough away from each other and they can pull apart as if they had never been connected in the first place!" With that, Ash tried to pull them apart, but seeing that he wouldn't get it off, he decided to beat Misty at her own game. He put the other piece of the magic trick on his finger, closed his fist and pulled as hard as he could. Suddenly there was a cracking sound and the two rings broke apart, but somehow repaired themselves on both of their fingers. As this happened, Ash and Misty both fell down as far apart as they could get. Before either could ask if the other were okay, the ground seemed to open up and a large golden pillar of light came streaming up. Right in the center sat the brightest golden nugget ever witnessed by mortal eyes in this or any world. Suddenly, a beam of concentrated light spat out of the jewel in the ground and hit Togepi's shell. She seemed okay with it, so after about 10 seconds of staring into space, Misty checked Togepi, then sat back down on the ground.

"See Misty, I told you it was magic!" Ash said. Misty didn't answer; she just studied Togepi's shell. There in the center of it was a piece of the golden gem. She fingered the edge of it and her ring hit it. There was a loud whooshing sound, then Misty put Togepi away and went back to walking down the path. She appeared to be completely normal, but Ash could sense that there was something different about her. He just couldn't quite put his finger on just what it was.

"Hey Misty, are you okay?" She stopped and smiled at him.

"I'm completely great. In fact, I'm absolutely perfect! Thank you for asking!"

" . . . BROCK! Misty's scaring me again!"

Misty sighed happily. "Ash, Ash, Ash. You're young, inexperienced in the ways of those who have, or more realize they have been through a huge amount of emotions. But fear not, I'm sure that one day you'll figure it out!" Brock, having heard that, ran over to where Misty stood, saying, "You've figured it out? You mean you've actually accepted it? THANK YOU! I knew if I waited long enough, at least one of you would notice!" Ash just stared at them.

"Okay, now you're both scaring me!" Brock's smile faded a little

"He still doesn't get it, does he?"

"Nope not yet!" Misty answered.

"GET WHAT? How can I get it if I don't know what it IS?!?!"

" Don't worry Ash, you'll understand when you're older! (Hopefully!)" Brock told his friend.

"WHAT THE HELL ARE TALKING ABOUT?"

Misty groaned to herself as Ash continued to badger Brock. "Okay fine, so Ash is a completely dense idiot. Than again, he can also be kind, sweet, smart, nice, cute . . . (sigh) I can't believe this! Well I guess I shouldn't be so surprised, what with the whole 'repressed within my subconscious' thing, but still!" Misty said to herself under her breath. She sighed deeply. "I need time to consider this." She thought, then told Ash and Brock that she was going for a walk. Ash tried to stop her, saying that they needed to get going and they couldn't afford anytime for Misty to just relax, but Brock stopped him, telling him that he should just let her go.

"She's suffered a major shock to her system Ash. Just let her straighten her thoughts out, okay? One day, you'll understand." Ash just scowled to himself, muttering about how Brock never took his side as he helped set up camp for the night.

"The things I have to do for her! ARGH! Man, she drives me insane!" Ash started to complain. "Just when I think I have her all figured out and labeled as a friendly enemy, she goes and starts acting all weird! And all this stress is for WHAT? Right now, I honestly couldn't care less if she disappeared off the face of the earth! Let her leave and good riddance!" Suddenly, Togepi came wandering out of the forest lost and alone. Ash was the first to see her and immediately jumped to his feet. "Oh no! MISTY!" He shouted, scooping up Togepi as he ran down the path to go find her.

"Hypocrite!" Brock muttered to himself, grinning. "Maybe there is hope for them yet . . . "

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

"MISTY. MISTY, WHERE ARE YOU?" Ash was getting really worried. It was already 11:00pm and he still hadn't found her! "Togepi, where did you last see her? Oh I hope she's okay! I don't know what I'd do if . . . never mind."

"Ash is starting to act really weird!" Pikachu thought. "I wonder what's wrong? I mean, sure it's horrible that Misty's lost, but still even under these circumstances, he's acting strange!" Togepi ran over to Pikachu.

"What's wrong with your daddy? An' where's my mommy? I WANT MY MOMMY! WAAHH!" Togepi sat on the ground and cried. Pikachu tried to calm her down, but she just kept crying, even louder then before. Finally, Ash walked over to Togepi and picked her up, cradling her in his arms.

"It's okay Togepi, we'll find her. I miss her too. Don't cry.I'm sure she's fine! (At least I hope so . . .)" After about 10 minutes of this, Togepi began to calm down and a few minutes later, she was asleep. Ash decided that he'd better bring Togepi back to the camp before he began looking again.

"Pikachu, I'm going to bring you and Togepi back to camp, then I'm going back to looking for Misty. Take care of Togepi, okay? Thanks Pikachu." Togepi turned on to its back and as Ash looked at her, he saw the gem.

"Hey, where'd you get that? It looks like it's almost made of liquid. Cool!" He stopped to examine the stone, but every time he poked at it to see if it was solid, Togepi would shift around so that he couldn't quite get at it. He was about to give up when Togepi grabbed his finger and yanked at it.

"Oww! So you want to see my magic trick, huh? Well sorry to disappoint, but Misty has the other half. But you can look at my half if you want!" With that, Ash tried to pull the ring off, but for some reason it wouldn't budge! Togepi seemed impatient so Ash just let her grab his finger to look at the trick. He'd just get it off his finger later. Togepi seemed fascinated with the ring as she watched it glittering in the moonlight. Ash checked his watch and realizing it was already 11:25, sped up to a trot. He set his watch for midnight, thinking to himself that he would search for Misty until his watch beeped, then, if he still hadn't found her, he would have to give up for the night.

"All right you guys, we'd better get going if we're going to get you guys back to camp with time for me to go look for Misty." He tried to get his finger back, but Togepi wouldn't let go. "Come on Togepi, let go! We've got to get going." She still wouldn't give back his hand. "Fine then, I'll just walk with you holding my finger!" As the three walked, Togepi fell asleep again. Slowly Ash tried to get his hand back without waking her up. He had almost got it free when his half of the magic trick got caught on the edge of the gem. Ash managed to get it unhooked very carefully, but his ring hit the center of the gem, putting him in a trance.

All of a sudden, everything around Ash vanished except for Pikachu and Togepi who were still by his side. Right in front of them flashed events that had happened to them, the Orange Islands especially. He saw when he and Misty got on the blimp on the way back to Professor Oak and Team Rocket trapped them; when they helped that Nidoking and Nidoqueen get together even though their trainers were enemies, except this time he actually LISTENED to Misty's response; when they were at Rudy's gym and that guy was fawning all over Misty (stupid . . . evil . . .); what Rudy said to him when they were leaving; when they were at the second gym in the Orange League, what Danny had said to them, how Misty kept cheering for the gym leader and not him, how angry that had made him feel. (Fine, he was jealous, okay?!) Suddenly Ash came to a major conclusion: He liked Misty.

Now that he thought about it, this had always been extremely, painfully obvious. He had just been dense, very, very dense. Okay, he had been beyond dense. He had been stupid, asinine, foolish, blind, thoughtless, indiscreet, unmindful, remiss, idiotic, imbecilic, ignorant, moronic, and basically a complete dumbass! He just couldn't get it, no matter what! But now . . .

Suddenly, Ash knew exactly what he had to do. He had to find Misty. But first, he had better get Togepi to bed. By this time, they had reached the campground. Ash put Togepi on his sleeping bag; told Pikachu he'd be back at midnight and started towards the path again. Suddenly he ran into something and fell down. As Ash got up, he heard what he had just run into say "Oww!" Ash suddenly realized that he had run into Misty!

"I'm so sorry!" They said in unison. Ash helped her up as Misty asked if he had seen Togepi. "She's asleep on my sleeping bag. Where did you go? I've been looking everywhere for you! I- we've been so worried!" Misty caught the slip and grinned.

"I was looking everywhere for Togepi! I just let her out of my sight for a second and she took off! Why, what did you guys think had happened?" Ash, having had such a major shock to his system, quickly changed the subject.

"So . . . where did you go for your walk? Other then the forest path, I mean?" Misty just stared at him.

"Up the mountain at the end of the path. How did you know I left the forest path?"

" You've got muddy shoes and there is no mud in any part of the forest I saw." He answered quickly.

Misty smiled. "Wow, impressive! You're getting more observant!"

"Umm yeah, I am. (But not how you think) I'd better go tell Pikachu that his shift of babysitting is over!" Misty and Ash walked over to the sleeping bags to find both Togepi and Pikachu fast asleep.

Misty yawned, then said "Well I think I'm going to follow those two's example and go to bed. I'm exhausted! Good night Ash."

"Good night." He returned, then suddenly turned around. "Misty, you know what you said about me becoming more observant?"

"Yeah, what about it?" She asked sleepily. In answer, Ash kissed her. Suddenly, Ash's watch went off. It was midnight and, this being the hour the spell ended, the two fell into a long dreamy sleep, convinced in their minds that all a dream and a very good one at that.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

" . . . Whoa? Man, I just had the weirdest dream!" Ash said as he sat up in his sleeping bag.

"Ditto!" Misty agreed as she shook her head. Neither of the two could quite make eye contact considering that they couldn't quite forget the extremely intense and realistic dream they had had. As the two were getting up, Brock started to hum 'A Dream Is A Wish Your Heart Makes'

"SHUT UP BROCK!" Ash yelled. Misty just sat on the ground staring at Togepi.

" What's wrong Misty?" Ash and Brock asked. Misty just pointed to Togepi.

"OH . . . MY . . . GOD!" Ash said as he sat down.

"What? WHAT IS IT? Somebody tell me please!" Brock asked as he picked Togepi up. "All I see is this piece of gold in her shell!"

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

"Owww! It still won't come off!" Misty yelled as she pulled at the ring that seemed to be glued to her hand.

"Mine neither!" said Ash, who was sitting next to her pulling as hard as he could at his half of the magic trick they had found. Misty had forced him into putting it on and now he couldn't get it off his finger. "So we both agree that none of that . . . stuff was really us, it was that stone in Togepi and these rings, right?!" Misty asked, breaking the otherwise eerie silence between the two.

"Right, and it's a magic trick, NOT a ring!" Ash agreed quickly.

" Yeah, sure Ash, whatever you say. Ring, magic trick, whatever, all I know is that . . . thing has got powers. Extremely screwed up powers, but powers nonetheless."

"Yeah . . . powers, right . . . " Ash said, remembering exactly what this thing on his hand could do to him at anytime it wanted to.

"Misty, pass me a saw!"

"Gladly." She responded, handing him a handsaw. Unfortunately, that didn't really work at all and the pressure was beginning to hurt his hand. Ash put down the hand saw and sighed.

"Give it up Ash, it's hopeless! The only person who can get these things off us would probably be a jeweler, and I haven't seen one of those for weeks! In fact the last time I saw one was on Trov-." Misty caught herself quickly.

"Trovita Island. Come on Mist, you can say it, just repeat after me: tro- vee-ta! Now you try!" Ash teased her. In response, Misty pushed him over.

"Shut up Ash, I'm not in the mood, okay?"

Ash frowned. "What's wrong Misty? All I said was-." Before he could finish, Misty stormed off. He just stared after her.

"What did I do? Misty wait a sec, what's wrong?" Ash waited for a sec, then sighed and shouted out to her, "I'm sorry! Whatever I did Mist, I'm sorry!"

"So Ash, trying to make peace with the enemy, hmm? So tell me, what exactly happened last night? You and Misty seemed pretty worked up about it and Misty just blushes then sulks off muttering something about a ring whenever I ask. What did you do, propose?" Ash scowled at Brock in return.

"Ha, ha, very funny man. Like that'd ever happen. As for what happened last night, I really don't want to talk about it right now. (Or ever)" With that, Ash walked off towards his sleeping bag. Brock frowned. Those two were acting so weird lately and he knew it had something to do with the Orange islands. Suddenly Brock had an idea. "Come on guys, are you packed yet?" They both nodded silently, so the trio set out.

When they finally reached Violet City, Ash went to their room to sleep, Misty went to see if there was any good entertainment and Brock started putting his detective skills to work. He found a phone and called up Professor Oak. "Hey Professor, what have you been up to? Anyway, is Tracy there? I need to ask him about something." Professor Oak smiled on the video screen.

"Hi Brock! How are Misty and Ash?"

"Oh they're fine. Acting like their usual selves, so not perfect, but you know that's about as fine as they'll ever get!" Professor Oak laughed at that.

"Just a sec, I'll go get Tracy." A Pokemon musical came on while Brock was on hold. Finally the screen went back to the videophone with a tall boy, about Brock's age with straight black hair came on. "Hey Tracy."

"Hi Brock. How are Ash and Misty?"

"Actually they're why I called you. Tracy, what happened while I was gone? You were with them, right? So what happened? I keep asking them, but they refuse to tell me!" Tracy grinned.

"Well Ash won 4 badges, then he won the orange league. Oh and he also saved the world, but you know all that from the news papers, so what exactly are you asking about?"

"I mean personal stuff. Like, did someone say that they liked each other again? No they usually get over that really quickly . . . WHAT HAPPENED?!"

Tracy took a deep breath, and then he began. "Rudy of the Trovita Gym, Melody, Danny from the Navel Island, Ralph and Emily, as well as their nedoking and nedoqueen."

"Excuse me?" Brock asked, puzzled.

"That's what happened to them, all those people, but especially Rudy and Melody! Emily and Ralph actually just helped to make it a bit more obvious, and Danny just made Ash jealous, so Rudy and Melody definitely made the biggest impression. I'd better let Ash . . . actually get Misty to explain it. Ash won't have much idea what your talking about, but trust me, no matter what she says, Misty knows what this is about. I have to go now, so see you later Brock! Hope I was able to help you out!" Brock thanked Tracy, then hung up and smiled to himself. 'Yes, Tracy definitely gave me a major clue in this investigation."

A little while later, after Brock had hit on and been rejected by about 25 girls, he set out to look for Misty. He searched for an hour, then finally ran into her coming out of one of the town's spectacular Broadway style shows. "Hey Misty, wait up!" Brock yelled over the crowd, running to catch up with her.

She waited patiently for him to catch his breath, then said, "Yes Brock? What is it? Not to be rude, but this is the intermission and I really don't want to miss the second half of the show."

"Yeah, ok Misty whatever. I was just talking to Tracy and he explained EVERYTHING to me, so there's no denying it. I just came here to give you a chance to give me your view on things before I asked Ash about it!" Brock smiled artfully at her.

" Wha . . . Whatever are you talking about Brock? There's no denying what? Go ahead and ask Ash because I have absolutely no idea what you mean! Sorry that I couldn't be of more help! Got to go!" Misty half ran into the theater, clenching her program so tightly that it seemed to be permanently scrunched up. Brock smiled to himself, despite the fact that it seemed as if he had failed. For you see, Brock hadn't failed at all. He had never expected to get a straight answer out of Misty. He had asked her for the simple intention of watching her reaction. And what a reaction it had been! She had only lost control of her thoughts for a few seconds, but in those few seconds Brock had gotten a ton of information, the most important being that she knew perfectly well what he had been talking about. Something had happened, something immense. And it was his job to uncover just what that something was.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Ash lay in his top bunk, trying his best to get to sleep, but his efforts were in vain. He lay there, going over what had happened in his head. There was him fighting with Misty over the rings or magic trick whichever it was, him kissing her, Misty and him breaking the two parts away from each other, him kissing her, Misty acting so weird after her ring touched the gem on Togepi, him kissing her, When Togepi came back from the woods without Misty, him kissing her, how worried he had gotten, him kissing her, when his ring had touched the gem, oh yeah, and him KISSING HER! He was not 100% sure what got to him the most, but he had a pretty good idea. Ash groaned to himself, burying his head in a pillow trying to get it out of his head. It wasn't really that the idea itself was disgusting, but Mist was his friend! He sighed to himself and, deciding that there was no way he would ever get to sleep now, sat up only to hit his head on the ceiling. "OWWWW!"

Brock walked quickly into the hotel room, hoping he hadn't missed Ash. "OWWWW!" Brock tried not to laugh as Ash rubbed his head.

"Hey Ash, what are you doin'?" Ash sighed and jumped to the floor.

"Nothing much, why?"

"Oh, I just wanted to ask you some questions about the Orange Islands. You know, catch up on whatever I missed."

"Why don't you ask Misty? I'm trying to sleep!" Ash grumbled.

"I already tried asking her, but she almost bolted back inside the theater when I asked her. She said it was because she didn't want to miss the second half of the show, but I personally think she had a completely discrete reason."

"And what would that be?" Ash asked with his arms crossed, somehow managing to grin both smugly and (mock-)innocently at the same time

Brock smirked right back at him while he whispered his answer. "The chocolates!"

" . . . What?"

"The theater chocolates. Haven't you ever had them? They're delicious, as well as extremely sophisticated!" Ash just stared at him, wondering when he had turned into such a screwball. "Anyways, can you tell me about the Orange Islands? I know all the stuff the papers said about you guys, but I mean the inside version! Like, for example, how's that gym leader, ummm Ruby or something. Is she cute?" Ash almost burst out laughing at that.

"It's Rudy and no, he's horribly ugly, although I guess he DID make a pretty good girl . . . but thanks Brock, you've made my day!"

Not missing a beat, Brock quickly said, "Ok, what about that girl you three were with in the paper, Melody is it?" Ash smiled at that.

"Yeah, Melody was a nice girl. She showed us around and told us the legend that got the whole adventure going. Tracy and Mist said . . . actually, just Tracy said Melody had a crush on me. Misty wouldn't talk to me for awhile after Melody kissed me." Ash frowned in memory, while Brock chocked back a laugh.

"Really? And why was this, do you think?" Ash sighed, almost forgetting Brock was still there.

"I don't KNOW! Honestly, sometimes Misty just completely confuses me! I mean, after Melody kissed me she refused to talk to me and if I didn't know better I would say that she hated Melody! But she has no reason to do that, right?" Ash asked Brock, hoping Tracy had told him something.

"Not that I know of." Brock smiled.

'No such luck.' Ash thought to himself.

"Anyway, I'm sorry about waking you up. I'll just leave. I wanted to check out the play Misty is seeing anyway. Bye Ash!" Brock made it outside before he burst out laughing. "Hmmm, how interesting! And Tracy said I wouldn't get anything out of Ash. Tsk, tsk, shows what he knows!" Brock started towards the theater then, on his way to find Misty and maybe getting a few of those theater chocolates.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Misty sat in the dark theatre, hardly paying attention to the dancing Squirtles on the stage. She had too much on her mind to notice the show, as wonderful as it was. Her head was too full with the events of last night to even consider think of anything else. She sighed, confused. It wasn't like after a blow like the one she had gotten last night she could just go on with life like nothing was going on. It would probably be easier if she could have just forgotten all the things the ring had shown her, all the proof that it had offered her. If she could just forget all that, she could probably make it through an hour or two without thinking about it. Or even better, if she could just forget the whole thing, all of it. The memories, her getting lost, the kiss, all completely erased from her system. Unfortunately, that was impossible. So now Misty was being forced to think about all this (especially the latter) 24/7. Sighing again, she sat up and tried for the umpteenth time to pay attention to the show. Finally, the Squirtles finished and the show operator said they were having the second intermission at that time. Misty went outside to stretch her legs and ran yet again into Brock. "Hi Bro-" She began, but was interrupted by Brock, grinning from ear to ear.

"So . . . what's this I hear about a girl you appeared to hate, hmmm? A 'Melody'?" Misty's eyes bugged out at the sound of that name and she glared at Brock.

"Brock, firstly I do NOT hate her. I'm just not the best of friends with her, that's all. Secondly, I don't see how any of this has anything to do with you. Why are you so anxious to find out what happened while you were away?"

He just shrugged, saying, "I've got nothing better to do!"

Okay, disclaimer: The 'Pokemon' I'm getting this from belongs half to Nintendo and Game Freaks, and all those wonderful people ('cause I got a lot of it out of the anime) and the other half is the great Toshiro Ono, of my favorite version of 'Pokemon' manga, which if all of you are sane you will go off and read. Oh, and does anyone have after the Orange Islands? I know what happens, but I've never actually READ it, per say. Lol ^-^

Oh yeah, anyone who's got anything they wanna say to me, or if you're just bored, e-mail me at babygirl_1999bc@yahoo.com Also, I may need a new beta, as mine doesn't. well, she's busy. So, e-mail me, or leave a review! Thanks, bye!