Very few people knew just how insecure she truly was. Underneath her seemingly confident attitude was a young woman whose self-confidence was so low she always doubted every compliment that was directed at her specifically. It was natural to deflect it to someone else, someone who was more worthy in her eyes of such praise.
"That was quite the match, I don't think I've seen anything like it before. You did a great job!"
"Oh, thanks, but my Pokémon did all the work," she replied, nervously laughing while rubbing the back of her neck.
The result of every seemingly harmless remark adding up was a large blow to her self-esteem. The scars left behind from the deep wounds words left behind would always ache, not even time would numb them. But her temper did a fair job of hiding how much damage she had endured.
She was walking home after a long day when she heard someone exclaim her name. Curious, she went to investigate and found a group of boys.
"Why would you think an ugly duckling like her is hot?" One boy asked his companion.
"Yeah she's so scrawny it's pathetic," another added.
When the boy being interrogated simply replied they had misheard him, her heart broke. But no one would ever know that, not even after she creamed all of the boys continuously whenever they challenged her to a Pokémon battle.
She had come to accept that she would always be broken, forever overlooked in favor of those around her. Sadly, it was the hand she had been dealt in life. There was nothing she could do about it, except to either learn to live with the pain of being forgotten or keep trying to find a way to stand out from the beautiful and talented individuals that surrounded her on a regular basis much like how a boat was surrounded by crashing waves in a storm.
"Can you believe how strong everyone here is?" her companion asked."I can't believe we're here with all of the top Pokémon trainers!"
"It is an honor to be invited," she replied, say nothing about how she was left out of what her companion believed to be the best of the best.
"There are so many amazing trainers I can finally get advice from," her companion continued, missing how each sentence served to plunge yet another dagger in her heart. Something she thought she would finally get used it after all of this time.
"I'm sure they'll be more than happy to help," she managed to choke out before her companion dashed off. "Since you don't need me at all," she muttered afterwards as a lone tear fell. She wiped it away before plastering on a smile that could fool almost anyone.
There were times when people would catch a glimpse of much pain she felt, but those were exceedingly rare moments. Even more rare were the times anyone would see how deep the hurt went. Only one person ever saw how hurt she was, but she dared not bothered him, not wanting to hold on to something only to have it yanked out of her grasp once more.
"Hey, are you okay?" a male voice asked her. She turned to see who had approached her.
"Oh, hi Lance," she smiled at the man who was six years older than her. "I'm fine."
"Don't try to pull the Mareep wool over my eyes," he scolded. "We both know it won't work."
"Honestly, I'm fine. See," she closed her eyes and gave him a large smile. "I'm smiling."
"It doesn't reach your eyes," he commented. "You know you can trust me."
"I know," she said. "Well I better leave you to your duties of being the Pokémon Champion of both Kanto and Johto. I'll talk to you another time Lance." With that said, she took off to try and lose herself in the crowd, away from the one person who would see how hurt she truly was.
"Misty," Lance murmured, looking after her with his concern for her written plainly on his face. He knew for sure something was bothering her, and if his gut instinct was correct, it was the same thing Misty always secretly struggled with. Her self-worth.
She had given up on finding the same sort of happiness those around her had. She reasoned with herself that they had truly deserved it while she didn't. While all the other girls seemed to find their princes, or on the path to finding their prince, no guy seemed to spare her a glance, unless it was as a friend, but never the way a prince looks at his princess, since she had reasoned with herself that she wasn't Cinderella and there wouldn't be a fairy godmother or happy ending for in store.
Misty stood on the sidelines, watching all of the beautiful women dance with their adoring partners. If she herself couldn't find that kind of love, then she would have to make do with watching and knowing that at least not everyone was as miserable and broken as herself. At eighteen, it seemed as those all of her friends were dating, had dated, or at least interested in someone. Misty denied any interest in dating, but she couldn't help but secretly long for someone to show her the kindness and affection she witnessed from the couples on the dance floor.
"May I have this dance?" Lance asked, seeming to come up from nowhere.
"Me?" Misty answered. "Why me? There are plenty of other girls to ask."
"But they're not you," he replied, holding out his hand for her to take.
Nervously, she reached out and put her hand in his. Lance led Misty out close to the center before putting his hands on her waist while her hands went to his shoulders. Their eyes locked and the necessary conversation passed between them, unspoken but understood by only the two of them.
It would take time for her to heal from her wounds, time he was willing to spend helping her. Ultimately everything would be up to her, however his support was not unwelcomed. Slowly the amount of times she would tear herself down would decrease, he would help her learn to make sure her voice was heard, and together they would build up her confidence until she knew how amazing she truly was. Until the princess realized her prince was beside her, helping her all along.
Well I hope as sad as that is, that you guys liked it. I just needed to vent my feelings and so projected them onto Misty. However, I gave her a happy ending because quite frankly I'm a sucker for them(even though in a lot of story ideas I put characters through a lot of junk). If you want something funny with Lance and/or Misty in it, check out my story Love Finder.
Fun fact: Misty's reaction to Lance asking her to dance is what ran through my head the first time a guy asked me to dance.