Title: "Moments of Yesterday"
Author's Note: First posted on the LiveJournal Pokeshipping community. (Thank you so much for your kind words, guys!) I actually sat down and did a fanfic, which is amazing for me. I hope this sudden inspiration continues, as writing, as it turns out, is quite nice actually.
Disclaimer: I do not own Pokemon, obviously.
Cerulean Gym was closed for the day. Challengers departed mournfully, headed for the nearest Pokemon Center to heal the creatures that had only a short time ago got destroyed by the powerful team led by the Gym Leader. She was not heading home like the rest. The Gym was her home. Which meant getting wet was all in a day's work.
Misty yawned and stroked her flaming red hair with her Magikarp-embroidered towel. Long day. A massive influx of trainers from Sinnoh were pouring into Cerulean, many of them wanting to test themselves against her Pokemon. She thought they must have come via blimp, which was one of the most fashionable ways to travel from country to country. She admitted that when she heard of the news, it wasn't the battles she was thinking of. But the boy she still dreamed of never did come back, so she busied herself with training her many water Pokemon in the Gym's pool.
Misty sat down on her bed. She picked up the TV remote carelessly flung on to the pillow and pushed the 'power' button. Nothing on television. It was Tuesday, after all. Nothing was ever on television on Tuesdays.
She decided to dig through her old tapes. She had been meaning to do this for a while, but had always put it off. She opened one of her blue storage boxes and looked through it, slowly, looking intently at each label on the front. One read, "Taking care of your water Pokemon: Parts 1, 2 and 4."She smiled. She must have forgotten to record part three.
She continued doing this for a while, sliding some into the video player and watching them for a few minutes before putting them back in the box. But as she neared the bottom of the pile, she stopped. One of the tapes had a label that caught her attention significantly more than the others. She brushed the dust off, peering closely at the title. "Hello future me - you've got some things to see!"
What a groanworthy title. Misty sighed as she put it in the video player slot. Whatever she had been thinking back then, it must have been bad. An image of herself flickered on to the television screen. Misty blinked. She looked so young. The Misty on the TV still had a happily chirping Togepi in her arms and a smaller, scrawnier shape. The TV Misty grinned.
"Hello!" she said, "this is our camp...it's not much, but we call it home!"
The camera pulled around to face a campfire and some tents. Brock was stirring something in a pot. Pikachu was dozing by one of the tents. The camera whirled round to face Misty again.
"Brock's making dinner. If we didn't have him we'd probably die!" the taped Misty laughed. Then, a muffled voice spoke up from offscreen.
"Misty, how long do I have to hold this stupid thing?"
It was Ash's voice. TV Misty's expression hardened into a fierce frown.
"Until we've finished, Ash Ketchum!"
The tape buzzed along. Scenes of Pikachu playing with Togepi, Ash sleeping, and one of Brock flirting with a girl who he was supposed to be asking for directions flashed by. Finally the chaotic noise and shouting of the three friends died down until there was only Misty, staring up at the moon floating in a starlit sky.
"Hey, Ash," said Brock, and the camera turned to face him, "what is it?"
"N-nothing!"
And the camera turned off.
Misty stared at the television. Should she turn it off now? The answer came when the her younger self appeared on screen once more, smiling.
"If you're watching this, me, in the future...or one year, two, anything. I just want to say that I hope you did it. I hope you and him are happy. I hope you still...love him."
The tape finished.
Misty was silent for a moment. Then she let out a long, deep sigh. Maybe if he didn't do it himself, she would. Maybe it was time to give Ash another surprise visit.
END