He's drowning when they first meet. Literally. She fishes him out of the river and he's soaked and half-dead. He barely affords her a second glance before he's staggering off, stealing her bike in his desperation to help his Pokémon.
Later, waves crash against him as she yells and waves her arms, demanding a replacement for the bike he ruined. He huffs at her and leaves, but she follows. She creeps after him, sticking close to his heels no matter how far he wanders.
Brock tags along eventually, and he doesn't hide what he thinks of them. Ash is electric and Misty is fire. But that's not right, because though she follows him like an incoming wave, she recedes just as quickly when he presses her. She can't be fire. She is the ocean.
In her hometown, he sees it. She pulls away and this time he stumbles along with her until she vanishes into the horizon and he's left standing in dry sand staring out after her. She floods him when they battle, her energy pulsing in full force.
Though there's no real winner, Ash has found his sea legs as he stares her down. She doesn't crack, swirling like a whirlpool, and Daisy awards him the badge anyways. He catches a twitch of her lips and that's enough for him.
He goes and she goes along, following his current.
He treads water all through Kanto and she's by his side. He does well enough. She never wavers in their rhythm, staying steady as always. It's appreciated.
Brock casts Ash a funny look and he looks away quickly. They're just Ash and Misty. That's all it is.
Brock leaves, a breeze that whisks away with a promise to return, and it's just Ash and Misty. The tide tugs at their feet as they stand on the beach and he looks at her.
The water captures her attention and he observes. She sways with the waves and the salt that tingles in his nose clings to their clothes for days.
If he wakes that night curled nearer to her than usual, his hand hovering dangerously close to her own, he would never say. He slides back across the ground and buries his burning face in the fabrics of his sleeping bag, smothering his embarrassment.
With Tracey, they are three again. It feels right and wrong and so many different things. Brock was a third point to their pyramid: water, fire, and earth. Tracey is air and he is a balance, but he is too light and Ash feels like there is a slope he is sliding along without pause.
There is tiptoeing amongst them now because any wrong move will capsize the dangerous truce and have them all swallowed by waves of chaos. But nobody places a foot wrong and the boat, and his Lapras, sail on smoothly.
Ash gets caught in a few too many riptides in the Orange Islands. He wins his badges handily, but the surprise makes him stumble and nearly fall face first into the rushing water he has so long associated with her. She is pulled away rapidly by forces outside of his control and she slides through his fingers without conflict.
But somehow, she comes rushing back every time and the ocean wraps around Ash. She is not going anywhere.
She beats him in the Whirl Cup. He is annoyed, but really, he should not have expected any less. She is the sea itself. There is no way that she would ever lose in a case like this: surrounded on all sides by water where the hum of crashing waves rejuvenates her. All Ash can think about is how he could have drowned in Kanto and how he drowns every day that he looks into her eyes.
The sea green jewels sparkle and Ash gathers Kingler into his arms and bows his head. She recedes and her hand extends to him. Her lips curl up and he is not going to live this one down for a while. Still, he grasps the outstretched appendage and returns her steady grip.
They are competitors. They are opposites. They are friends. They are companions. They are connected.
and everyone knows it.
She loses and he catches the momentary look of pain. It is an expression that would drown a city. He goes to her, but a swift hand hides her tears and her chin tilts up in challenge. She bounces back easily. At first, Ash wants to say something, but Tracey is there too and now is not the time for sentiments that the Watcher would not understand.
Ash bounces on his toes and leads the charge onwards. He doesn't look back for her. He can feel her following close behind and the breeze smells of salt and competition.
He wins. The crowd roars. The sound rings in his ears like he is underwater. Pikachu stumbles towards him and Ash collapses to his knees. His partner hits his chest and elation floods him as he laughs in ecstasy and hugs the electric mouse. He looks up at the sky and sees the fireworks exploding and he smiles.
His gaze is drawn to the side and he sees his friends on their feet. They are cheering up a storm and it feels as if they alone are shaking the stadium. Ash feels as if his cheeks may burst from how hard he is smiling.
He rises, Pikachu still cradled in his arms, and subtly wipes away a tear. He faces Drake and the Orange Islands Master dips his head in respect. Ash grins, unable to hear much over the crowd.
Lapras swims away and Ash feels numb. His partner has done so much good and now he hopes he has done it a service in return. His hands are slack at his sides and his eyes cannot be torn from the horizon.
Cool fingers brush against his elbow and his head turns enough to see her. She looks torn. His lips twitch.
The tides steals Lapras away, but Ash's hand finds hers and they watch the horizon in silence as they head to Kanto.
They head for home.
Brock is back and it feels balanced again. Looking around and seeing Professor Oak, Tracey, Brock, his mom, and Misty, it feels like home. Ash gets a fuzzy warm feeling in his stomach.
Suicune is unlike anything any of them have ever seen before. They stand, completely paralysed by its beauty and watch as it flees into the woods. It's gone for a couple seconds before Ash realises that he's holding Misty's hand again. She jerks out of his grip calling for Togepi, and Ash can only blink at the back of her head.
He wants to ask Misty something, but he's not sure what and with all the chaos in the day that follows, with Team Rocket and the Totodile, he never gets his chance and they're all far too exhausted for any more talking.
But he's in the Johto region now, and as heglimpse the soft glow of Misty's hair through the dark, he wonders how different everything will be.
Misty hides behind Brock when they meet Heracross for the first time. Her fear washes over the group like a wave, but Ash smiles when she slowly opens up and later on, freely cheers on Heracross, letting her fear recede. When he captures Heracross, he steals a glance at her and Brock and they both look pleased.
As long as she isn't afraid, he figures, offering the Pokéball to the Bug-Fighting type.
What a Pokémon Totodile is, indeed. Ash knows that he caught it. It was his Lure ball, he was sure of it. But, Misty seems so sure too and the vortex of emotion swirling between them leads to a heated battle and he knows she will not back down. There are some things that Misty loves most of all, and Water types are one of those things.
When she sends out Togepi, he complains because this is the baby of the group and it's really unfair. Misty just winks and expects the battle to go on.
They battle, and Misty's Poliwag evolves. As cool as it is, Ash conquers the raging waters and wins the battle. Totodile is his, even if it does seem to like Misty quite a bit too.
He gloats about his Seaking. There's no way anyone could have caught a better one than him, but of course, he forgets about the tsunami waiting in the wings.
Misty has beaten him again, but he thinks of Totodile, and the grin that spreads across her face makes Ash feel like he's drowning. He suffocating for some reason, and apparently Misty is getting really good at getting his heart racing.
The fiery angel that he saw on his first day was Ho-Oh. Of course Misty doesn't believe him, but he wonders if its because Ho-Oh is a Fire type and Misty is so decidedly Water type. If it was Suicune, or Articuno, or even Lugia, she might have believed him.
Ash squints onto the horizon, watching the sunset, and wonders if the Guardian of the Sea would have sparked the same reaction in him. He's met Lugia, but the same sense of majesty and mysteriousness that shroud Ho-Oh do not exist for that Legendary.
His spirit, and that of his Pokémon, is a blazing fire. Misty stands next to him and he can almost feel the cool ripple of water she exudes.
It is balance.
Johto is substantially more successful than Kanto was, but there's no glorifying moment at the end like the Orange Islands, but it's enough, Ash thinks, as he hugs Misty and Brock and makes plans continue his journey.
The day she leaves it feels like the tide has retreated so rapidly he has fallen helplessly onto dry sand. They're all in tears and everything hurts. They are his family and to see them walk away so hopeful for the future literally causes him physical pain in a specific region of his chest.
Maybe he quite doesn't know it yet, but this is what love feels like, he thinks.
The river gurgles in its bed next to him and Ash races it towards the future.
There is no way, in any combination, that May and Max could replace her. Misty is too unique, and too dear to Ash's memory to replace her so easily, and yet he easily takes the Maple siblings in as if they were his siblings.
May is too timid and Max too intellectual, but they are May and Max and that's enough.
Ash's head goes under and he is sunk in a stream of memories as Brock rejoins them. He misses her.
Their time together while he travels through Hoenn and eventually Kanto again, is too short. It's a gentle sea breeze and the soft tug of the tide through loose sand.
He bids her goodbye and moves on to the future, hoping it might bring something that brings him full circle.
Sinnoh is colder. The people are just as friendly, and Ash meets Dawn soon enough. She's closer to May than anyone else, but she's wonderful in her own way.
Of course, Brock finds his way back into Ash's group and there's a new trio, but it feels wrong.
Ash turns over in his sleeping bag and brushes his fingers against the soft cloth that Misty gave him. It is tucked inside the outside pocket of his bag for whenever he needs reminding what he's doing. It is enough for then, and Ash knows that he wants to go home after Sinnoh, at least for a while.
The lure is another story entirely. It looks like her and it's definitely lucky. Misty's water affinity seems to have transferred into the lure, and Ash is glad because water, and especially fishing have never been his areas of strength.
Still, catching Buizel is important to him because it reminds him of Misty.
Dawn asks about the lure and Ash grins. It's a treasure to him and though he guards it with his life, he takes the opportunity to brag about Misty, his incredible friend with her incredible gift withWater type Pokémon.
Iris and Misty are so different, and yet almost close enough that Ash calls her Misty one day after a battle. The Unovan blinks and looks surprised and Ash quickly covers his blunder, brushing it off as a mistake.
The next time he calls his mom, she reveals Misty's been spending more time in Pallet Town, with her, with Tracey and even with Gary Oak.
Ash requests his mother pass on a greeting and he hangs up the phone as Iris and Cilan approach. This is personal and the tingling ember in his chest can't be extinguished this time.
He feeds the flames.
After Kalos he sits on the beach alone. It's dark and quiet. The waves crash along the beach and Ash recounts it all. Clemont, Bonnie and Serena, May and Max, Dawn, Iris and Cilan, Brock, Tracey, and Misty. The people who have become his family in the absence of real siblings.
But Misty is so much more. She has stayed with him like an itch he could never scratch and he leans back on his hands.
Ash stares out over the gentle waves and thinks of the blue in her eyes. The splashes of water against the rocks remind him of their spitfire arguments and how electric everything between them was. The whistle of the breeze makes him think of her laugh and he shakes his head.
She is exceptional and one of the very few constants in his crazy life.
Like the tide, he muses.
The tide comes and goes and he misses her.
AN: Just something short, hoping to get back into writing more often in 2018. Happy February everyone.