Title

A Day in the Meadow

Author's Note: I wrote this story in response to a challenge brought on by Mist at the Pokeshipping forum on . The challenge was to write a one shot based on a piece of fanart. You can view the fanart I chose here. miyabic.whitesnow.jp/irasuto/color/ira4/satoshi.htm

(I hope I did that right.)

Disclaimer: I do not own Pokemon.

He could see Pikachu in the sky. No, not literally (don't be silly!)--he wasn't crazy, after all. It's just that the cloud looked like a Pikachu, a big, white, fluffy, smiling Pikachu that reminded him very much of his own. Wait, now it looked like a Whooper! No, wait again, now it looked like a rice ball! Boy was he hungry! Oh, was he ever hungry...

"Ash!"

Startled, the teenage boy opened his eyes to find a pair of big, blue-green ones looking intently at him. He had really been enjoying that nap, too...

"Ash!"

Couldn't she just let him sleep? Jeez, what was her problem? She was always bugging him, wasn't she? Why couldn't she just leave him alone?

"Ash!"

"What? What do you want, Misty?" Ash noticed the way her lopsided ponytail hung upside down and the way her bangs precariously dangled mere centimeters away from his nose. Unable to help himself, he blew them upward and away from his face.

"What was that for?" Misty seemed startled, but not angry. "By the way, Ash, your breath stinks! When are you going to start using those breath mints Brock swears by?" Giggling, she stuck her tongue out at him, which, like her bangs, was way too close to his face for his liking.

"Brock may swear by them, but they haven't brought him much luck, have they?" Ash replied, winking at his friend. He didn't want to get up, enjoying the feeling of the hard earth underneath him, a strong, tangible support system, but rolled over anyway, sitting up until he was eye level with Misty.

"Why'd you have to wake me up, Misty? I was having a nice nap," Ash stated angrily.

"It's boring when you're asleep," Misty confessed. "There's nothing for me to do out here on my own and no one for me to talk to."

"Well, Misty, wasn't it you who wanted to spend the afternoon in this meadow instead of watching Pokemon battles on TV back at the house like I wanted?" Ash questioned.

"Um, I might have said something like that," Misty admitted sheepishly. "I didn't, however, say that I wanted to come out here so you could sleep," she protested.

"Well, what did you want to come out here for?"

"I wanted to spend the afternoon in this meadow because it's so beautiful," Misty stated with stars in her eyes. "I also wanted to pick a bouquet of flowers."

"You've sure made progress on that one," Ash replied sarcastically, eyeing Misty's empty hands.

"Well, there aren't any nice flowers here to pick!"

Ash simply rolled his eyes.

"Hey! I saw that!" Misty growled. "Do you call this a nice flower?" She picked up a dandelion that was past its flower stage and blew its remains in Ash's face.

"What was that for?" Sputtering and wiping the white puffs away from his face, Ash turned toward his redheaded companion and shot her an angry glare.

"It's for annoying me," Misty shot back. "You are so annoying, Ash!"

"Me? You're the one who likes to wake people up when they're peacefully sleeping!"

Ash stood up, cognizant of the squishy feeling in his sneakers that meant he was sweaty. It sure was hot out! "This is boring! I'm going back home! Maybe I'll be able to catch the quarterfinals of the Silver Conference."

"W-w-wait! You promised me you'd spend the afternoon with me," Misty whined.

Ash sighed. He had promised Misty that he would spend the afternoon with her. Between training his Pokemon and watching battles on television he had sort of ignored his guest. She seemed genuinely upset by this, so Ash had agreed to spend some time with her today. He was not one to go back on his word.

"Alright, fine, but only because I promised!" Ash stated, frustration evident in his voice.

"Well, I don't want to force you," Misty returned, equally frustrated.

Aware that the situation was escalating, Ash didn't want to get into a fight with Misty. While he rather enjoyed their arguments, he was too tired that day to start one. Besides, was spending time with Misty really that bad? He hated to admit it, but perhaps he even preferred being with her in this meadow to watching Pokemon matches on television...perhaps.

"No, it's OK, Misty. I like spending time with you," Ash stated earnestly.

"Really?" Misty looked surprised and, Ash noticed, perhaps even a little red in the face. Why would her face be red? Maybe she was getting a sunburn or something.

"Sure, Misty." Ash paused for a moment. "So...what do you want to do?"

"Um, well, we could just, you know, talk," Misty replied.

"Misty, talking is for girls!"

"Well, do you have a better idea, Mr. Pokemon Master?"

She had him there. After all, what else could they do besides talk? They had left their Pokemon back at the house and there wasn't exactly anything exciting out here in this meadow.

"Fine. What do you want to talk about?" Let's see her come up with a clever answer for this one, Ash couldn't help thinking.

"Well, how about we talk about when we were kids. We never really talk about that. I don't know much about your childhood, Ash, and I'm curious about it," Misty answered.

Ash thought that was a pretty stupid answer, but what could he do? It's not like he had a better idea.

"That's alright with me, I guess," Ash stated grumpily.

"Yay!" Misty squealed. "Ash, you have to go first."

"What? Why do I have to go first?" Ash didn't want to go first; in fact, he didn't particularly want to do this at all (talking was, after all, a girl thing), but he couldn't think of anything better, could he? Oh well.

"Because I said so!" Misty replied bossily. Ash, however, made no reply. "Come on...it'll be fun," she gently coaxed.

"Oh, alright. Well, my mother gave birth to me on October fourth and named me Ash after my grandfather and..."

"Then Gary gave me a wedgie and all of the other kids in Pallet Town made fun of me for a week. It was awful." Ash laughed at the memory. Though it had been painful at the time, it was almost fun to look back on it now (almost). Actually, Ash was rather enjoying talking to Misty about his childhood; it brought back a lot of cool memories. He had thought that he would hate it, but in reality the opposite was true.

"It sure is fun to look back on these things, isn't it, Misty?" Ash questioned, closing his brown eyes contently. When he received no answer, he opened them and looked over at his friend. No way. She couldn't be...could she?

Misty was, in fact, sleeping.

How could she fall asleep during his talk? Here he was relaying the most important moments of his childhood, and Misty had the nerve to fall asleep on him. Wasn't it Misty who had gotten mad at him for falling asleep earlier? She was going to get a lot of grief for this.

"Misty! Misty, wake up!" Ash began shaking his friend furiously until her eyes opened in surprise.

"What? What is it? Where's the fire?" Misty glanced in every direction looking for the emergency, her head shaking rapidly.

"Calm down, Misty! Everything's fine!" Perhaps Ash had been a little too enthusiastic in his shaking and yelling.

"Oh." Misty looked embarrassed. Then she just looked mad. "What did you wake me up for?" she stated angrily.

"Well, Misty, it's just so boring when you're asleep, and there's nothing to do out here on my own and no one to talk to," Ash stated, a small grin making its way across his face. "Does that sound the least bit familiar to you?"

"Um, maybe...hehe." Misty sweatdropped in reply.

"Besides, I was telling you about all of the important moments of my childhood!" Ash sounded a bit hurt as he said this.

"I'm sorry, Ash; I really am. I guess it's just easy to fall asleep when it's hot out...although I suppose you know that," Misty finished with a giggle.

"Yeah, I do." Ash couldn't help but laugh along with his friend. The laughter soon died down, however, leaving an awkward silence in its wake.

"So, Ash, what do you want to do now?" Misty questioned, finally breaking the silence.

"It's your turn to tell me about your childhood!" Ash stated excitedly. He had been waiting to hear all about hers. When she looked less than enthusiastic he added, "It's only fair because I told you all about mine...even if you did sleep through it!"

Smiling, Misty obliged.

Once again Ash saw Pikachu in the sky. This time Pikachu wasn't white and fluffy, though; it was shiny and bright, made up of tiny, twinkling stars. Where had the day gone? He and Misty had spent so much time talking about their childhoods that a large amount of time had passed. It was no longer hot and sunny out, but cool and dark. Ash felt a breeze tussle his unruly black hair, reveling in the relief it provided from the heat (for, though it was now cooler, it was still quite warm out). He had really enjoyed the day, even if he hadn't expected to. Smiling, he looked over at his companion.

"Misty, what do you see in the stars?"

"Huh?" Misty appeared startled by this question. "What do you mean?"

"You know...what do you see when you look at the stars," Ash replied.

"I see a bunch of shiny lights," Misty stated dumbly.

"That's not what I mean, Misty. I mean, what kind of shapes can you make out of the stars?" Ash questioned.

"Oh, I guess I've never thought about it that way. What do you see, Ash?"

"Well, usually I see Pikachu or some kind of food. Right now I see a big doughnut. People say that you see things in the stars that are important to you," Ash explained.

"Hmm...That makes sense," Misty mused. "It's no wonder you see food; it's all you ever seem to have on the brain."

"Wah? That's not true at all!" How could she think that? After all, food shared a very important spot with Pokemon as the top thing on his mind; it wasn't all he ever thought about because he thought about Pokemon, too!

Ash couldn't finish his train of thought, however, because his stomach let out a loud growl.

"I rest my case," Misty said smugly.

All Ash could manage was a light "hehe."

Silence overcame the duo once again, only this time it was Ash who broke it.

"Misty, you never did say what you see in the stars. What's important to you?"

"I'll never tell..." Ash noticed that his friend had turned red in the face yet again. Boy, she must have really gotten burnt!

Then Misty did something completely unexpected. She grabbed Ash's hand and gave it a tight squeeze. Ash immediately flinched at her touch, but, much to his surprise, it really didn't feel bad at all; in fact, he rather liked it. He returned the gesture, squeezing Misty's hand before letting go.

"Thanks for spending the day with me, Ash. I had a really good time," Misty stated with genuine happiness.

"I had a good time, too," Ash replied.

Once again, an overwhelming silence made its presence known. Ash prayed for it to end; it was so awkward! Finally, it did.

"By the way, Ash, your hand is really sweaty. What's your problem? It's not that hot out anymore."

"Uh, I don't know," Ash said truthfully. Why was his hand sweaty? Misty was right; it wasn't that hot out anymore. What was going on with him?

Despite his confusion and insecurities, Ash decided to add a little humor to the situation.

"Gee, Misty, don't tell me that Brock has some secret anti-sweat cream that I should use on my hands or something. It probably works as well as those mints!" Ash laughed at his statement.

"Oh, no, Ash. I don't think you need special cream or mints to be likeable," Misty replied, winking at him.

With that Misty got up and ran out of the meadow and towards the Ketchum residence, grinning broadly and leaving Ash to ponder the meaning of her words. Was his face ever red...and he was definitely not sunburned!

The End

Author's Note: I hope you liked this one shot. I know it's not very shippy, but sometimes subtle shippiness is the best kind (in my opinion, anyway).

I know I said that I was going to write a humorous fic and a fic centered around May, but I've been experiencing some writer's block. This challenge helped snap me out of it (however briefly).

Enjoy the fic! Don't forget to review! :)