.Author's Note.
This is my very first Pokeshipping one-shot. I can't believe I haven't written a fic about these two cutie patooties before, because they're my OTP and I love them to death. Anyone that follows me on Tumblr knows this (and to anyone interested, feel free to follow me! A link is on my profile! :D), and so I'm super excited to have finished this! Typically it takes me months to finish a one-shot, but I had a pretty good idea for this one, so I finished it in a reasonable amount of time. Yay!
Note: I'm very concerned with how I portrayed Ash and Misty here, so comments, criticism, and tips are always welcome! I have very little experience writing these two, so I could use all the help I can get! Thanks! :)
Page number count: 1804 words
So, without further ado, I hope you enjoy my first Pokeshipping one-shot, because there will probably be more to come! Happy reading, lovelies! :D
Someone Stole My Bike!
Some days, Ash wasn't the brightest Chinchou in the school. It wasn't his fault today, though. He was on a temporary break from journeying, just to recuperate back at his little home in Pallet, and he found that his mother was keeping him busy with a steady flow of chores. He didn't mind, of course, since he could always look forward to a good meal later that night, and his mother's home cooking was always worth the work.
Today, he was caught at a grocery store in Viridian, looking to and fro from the shopping list in his hand to the items on the shelf, becoming more and more perplexed the longer he stared. He scratched the back of his head and looked to his starter Pokemon perched on his shoulder. This just might've been one of his biggest challenges yet.
"What kind of sugar do you think I'm supposed to get, Pikachu?" He frowned and squinted at his list as if by doing so the answer would suddenly become clear. He then peered back up at the shelves lined with packages. "There's brown sugar, granulated sugar, powdered sugar, coarse sugar, sanding sugar, caster sugar, and a bunch I can't even pronounce…"
"Pika…" Pikachu sympathized, looking just as lost as his Trainer.
"It all depends on what you're making. Or in your case, what your mom's making."
Ash's eyes noticeably widened as he spun on a dime and came to face-to-face that oh-so familiar redheaded Cerulean Gym Leader. She was just the same as she always was, but that didn't prevent his mouth from going dry at the sight of her.
"Misty…!" His mind was a whirl, and he honestly didn't know exactly what to ask first, so he went with whatever decided to fall out of his mouth. "What are you doing here?"
It only took a millisecond for the question to process in the girl's brain and for an annoyed frown to appear on her soft face. "As a matter of fact, Mr. Pokemon Master—" If said Pokemon master[-to-be] hadn't been able to tell by her expression she had a bone to pick with him then her tone would've dropped the hint. "—I had to hear from Tracey that you were home! How hard is it to pick up the phone or shoot an email or send a freaking postcard?!"
She was almost trembling, she was so livid. Trying not to entirely blow up in the middle of a grocery store when she should be happy she's seeing Ash Ketchum, the boy who promised they'd see each other again but then never calls or keeps in contact or anything—screw it. She has a right to be mad at him, she reasoned, watching him watch her.
Pressing her fists up against her hips, she bent forward to get in his face. "I called your house to see if you were free, and your mom said you were here—and she didn't know what was keeping you so long, so I offered to check on you, since I figured I'd be going to Pallet anyway. And apparently you were having a sugar dilemma."
All the dark-haired Trainer could do was give her an awkward grin, shrinking a little under that glare she was giving him. "Sorry, Mist."
She couldn't handle it when he gave her that toothy, I'm-really-sorry-please-don't-hurt-me grin, much less when he called her that. She felt her wall dissipating until she suddenly snapped back into remembrance that she was supposed to be mad at him. "Sorry won't cut it, mister! Would it kill you to at least try to keep your promise?!"
He opened his mouth to try to give some sort of legitimate excuse, but he ended up just standing there with a blank expression and his mouth hanging open.
And his lack of response didn't fly well with Misty. She furrowed her brows, turned on her heel, muttering something under her breath that Ash wasn't sure he wanted to even hear, and made her way to the exit.
Ash took a few hasty steps after her, not exactly sure how to handle this entire development. In fact, he barely knew what was going on. "Misty—"
"Ugh, go jump in a lake, Ash Ketchum!"
When Misty stormed off, there lingered a little hope that he would go after her. Maybe that's why she was blazing along Route One, hands choking the handlebars of his bike.
If that wasn't irony, she didn't know what was.
When she had exited the store and saw it sitting there unchained in the bike rack, there was no thought involved. There was no question that it was his—he used it so rarely that the little fake license plate with his name on it that he must've gotten when he was young was still hooked to it, hanging behind the seat and dirty with age.
She had lingered at the sight of it at first. He was still the same kid she'd met when she fished him out of the river and he repaid her by stealing her bike.
And now, foliage flying past her, she only murmured one word, "Idiot…"
She stopped at the riverbed and popped the kickstand. Her eyes stared down at the water for a good while until she approached and sat down near the edge. Here, she wasn't angry—angry just wasn't the right word for what she was feeling—just hurt.
There was no telling how long she sat there, thinking, lamenting, refusing to let herself become entangled with emotion. She should've been used to this. She should've stopped caring long ago. She should've—
"I knew you'd be here." His breath was shaky at best. Misty could hear the huffs and gulps of air he drew in, then the grinding of his shoes against the dirt as he drew nearer.
Not turning her head, she decided to cast a line to his statement, albeit with crossed arms and a scoff in tow. "…Oh? Why would that be?"
His answer was simple and unhesitant, almost a little too reflexive for the situation and even more so for Ash Ketchum. "A feeling."
With a quiet ta-tap, Pikachu jumped from his shoulder. The electric mouse went to the redheaded girl and hopped onto her bent knees for a view of her face.
She smiled lightly and gave him a scratch under the chin; Pikachu wasn't the one she was annoyed with.
The lapse of time between his answer and her response seemed to stretch on. Only after her fingers dropped from Pikachu's chin did she open her mouth to speak. "Yet you don't ever get a feeling that tells you to call your friends once in a while?"
Another pause.
"Well…about that…" As the dark-haired boy sat down next to her, albeit with noticeable distance, Misty batted a single, aquamarine eye in his direction. He didn't talk for a few more moments, fiddling with his fingers and visibly shrinking under the pressure. "…you know how it is."
"No, really, Ash. Please do explain." She was preparing herself, the sarcasm in hand.
Ash could be dense at times, but even he could hear the acidity of her threat, daring him to conjure up an excuse good enough to pass her test. "You know…with traveling and training and Team Rocket and—" As he spoke, he saw how the expression of the girl next to him changed and his voice began to rise. "—and…and…please don't hit me."
At this rather pathetic plea her eyebrow rose almost as much as his voice had. "What? Ash Ketchum, you have sunken to a new low."
"You hit me last time we were here."
It took a moment for her to comprehend, but in a flash, it all suddenly came back to her. This was the spot where she'd pulled him out of the water with her fishing rod and smacked him for his idiocy, only for him to go and ride off on her bike.
And she was a little impressed; his memory was spot-on. But that didn't mean he'd won. "That doesn't make any difference. Things aren't like what they were back then." She turned her face towards his and gave him a rather pointed look.
It was almost as though he didn't even see that expression glaring him down. He laughed. "Yeah, of course it's different now. We're friends now. We were just random strangers back then—" He paused as Pikachu jumped from Misty's lap to his, and he gave his partner a pat on the head. "—That one stranger was really lucky the other stranger pulled him outta the water, even though that stranger did get a smack to the face. And I bet that stranger is really thankful the other stranger was always there for him, because he did get into a lotta jams since then that he wouldn't have been able to get out of alone."
The Cerulean Gym Leader had to admit, he did have a way with words. Sometimes. She reached over and pushed the visor of his cap down into his face. "You're an idiot."
Ash grinned real wide, looking a lot like a kid in a candy store. "Which means you forgive me, right?"
She crossed her arms, refusing to admit that this Pallet boy had indeed gotten to her. In his own, little, Ashy way, he could always find a way to make her cave to him. "No, but it does mean I'll tolerate you until I do."
"Then come on!" He jumped to his feet, excitement written on his face, and extended his hand out to her. She instead, far too flattered by the gesture to take up his offer, stood up on her own accord, only for her hand to be snatched up anyway and to be pulled along behind him.
"Ash, what are you doing?!"
Splash!
When Misty surfaced from under the cool waves, she was only met with shining brown eyes. She pushed her wet tendrils from her face and furrowed her brows. A droplet of water slipped off the tip of her nose and settled on her top lip. "Ash, what was that for?!"
"You told me to go jump in a lake, and I thought it'd be more fun if you were there too!"
His eyes disappeared when he smiled, and for Misty it suddenly became easy to sink into his crazy laughter, because in the middle of the river that brought them together it all just seemed ever-so surreal. And it was at that moment she realized that when he stole her bike on that day that started it all, he'd also stolen something else of hers as well.
And just maybe she was going to let him keep it.