Title: Unions
Prompt: #46 - Family
Pairings: Misty/Everyone – friendship. Ash/Misty if you squint. (Maybe I should actually get around to Pokeshipping instead of just hinting at it.)
Rating: K
Warnings: Not just for this story, but I might start posting one-shots that I'll have to edit and/or redo. I was looking through my list of stories I've done so far, and it made me wince. It's gonna get worse before it gets better.
Notes: None.
Hmm… Do I own Pokemon..? ..Why don't you mull that over while reading what's below?
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"..The gleam in a person's eye when he feels that we have sympathized with him, understood him." – Don Marquis
--
Ash grins at her from behind the glass window, an assuring glance that signals his approval. She smiles back as she turns away, hiding her disappointed expression from him. Her attention returns to her sisters, who are chatting animatedly - annoyingly - amongst their guests. Her guests.
All around her are people she didn't even know she knew; people she has met over her years spent traveling with Ash and Brock and Tracey.
She, of course, is in charge of all things work, despite the fact that it is a party for her.
That is why she is carrying the overflowing chip bowl into the living room, while her sisters mingle with various strangers and her best friend is outside, awaiting her company. She should have predicted the night would turn out like this. She has yet to converse with more than two people, and she is aware that the situation probably won't change soon.
"There you are, Misty," Daisy says, flipping her golden hair over her shoulder. Misty tries not to roll her eyes at the way Daisy's former conversation partner gawks lustfully at her sister. "I was, like, looking for you! You should, like, be here to talk to our visitors!"
Misty rolls her eyes as Daisy returns to her former conversation. She drops the chip bowl promptly down on the living room table, not even bothering to mention that it was Daisy who insisted she retrieve snacks from the kitchen in the first place.
She remains silent, even though she longs to be with her friends. As always…
"Hey, Misty." Misty turns face-to-face with a joyful Sakura. The younger girl is smiling knowingly, and she giggles quietly before saying, "I'll take care of the Demands of the Wicked Witches, if you want. Just go."
Misty surveys the room, glancing briefly at the abode full of people she barely knows. She'd rather be anywhere else.
"Thank you," she whispers, her face filled with utter gratitude. "Thank you."
--
She is in her place; where she is meant to be. She has never felt so at home in this very building.
She is with them.
Brock sits across from her, Tracey at his side, the pair of them grinning and goofing around in a way that is so familiar she wants to cry. May, Max, and Dawn, all of whom she is barely acquainted with, make her feel content and comfortable in a way few people have ever allowed her to experience.
And, of course, then there is Ash. He is seated adjacent to her, so close she can feel his body heat, and the small hairs on her arms stand at attention in anticipation of his touch.
This is what she had been waiting for.
Ash chuckles, lifting his arm to scratch and ruffle his wild hair sheepishly, wishing her a happy birthday. He says her present won't be ready until her actually birthday - and she will have to wait.
Brock laughs, "He only says that because he doesn't have one for you yet. Can you imagine Ash actually waiting to give you a present?"
And Misty giggles in return, responding sincerely that Ash didn't have to bring her a gift - none of them did. Them being there, surrounding her, allowing their personalities to brim and spill over along with hers, and filling up all of her empty shells and broken shards of self… that is enough.
"Good," Ash replies, wrapping his arm gently around her waist and squeezing, "because I really didn't have one."
She laughs and hugs him back and Brock makes a perverted comment and when Max leans over to smack him upside the head and they all share a conjoined laugh - she knows she has made it.
These people are her family. And she's never letting go.
--
["These are the moments worth living."]
--Lunamire