A/N: I think I should just write a bunch of one shots and just say that they will all tie in together somehow, eventually, because it seems to be the only thing I can do. I was reading an fic and this suddenly came to mind. I don't know why seeing as it wasn't even a remotely alike to this in any way. For one, there wasn't really any Ash/Misty stuff in it. But nonetheless, this came to mind and so I had to write it down. Let me know what you think.

Shouting Match

"Because I'm still in love with you." Ash collapsed on the couch, his elbows on his knees while his head rested in his hands, covering his face and giving Misty nothing to go off of. The two took a deep breath, the exertion of their argument finally ting a toll. When Ash lifted his head again Misty saw that his eyes were beginning to shimmer with unshed tears and she took a guess that hers were not much different.

Ash without making eye contact stood again, his back to Misty as he dragged his hands through his already messy hair. He faced her again, tears still in his eyes and took a few steps forward, closing the gap. "Misty, I still love you, O.k. I never stopped..." He was stopped and a stinging feeling surface on his cheek.

Her hand was still raised slightly as she spoke. "What the hell is wrong with you? God!" She too pulled her hands through her hair, her fringe becoming momentarily stuck up before falling back into place.

"You honestly didn't know?" His voice was low, obviously not wanting to receive another violent answer. Instead she just stared at him accusingly and giving him the look that showed she obviously didn't see. " And here everyone keeps telling me it's so obvious and all along you of all people didn't know. I can't believe this." The last bit he muttered to himself. Again he had his back to her.

"You broke up with me. That was clear sign that you didn't want to be with me." She spun back around in enough time that he caught sight of her wiping away on of the brave tears that had dared fall from her eyes.

"Not want. Couldn't." His eyes were dead set against hers, not backing down.

She scoffed her response of Yeah right and crossed her arms, facing him off.

"Honestly." He took a step closer to her ad Misty nodded for him to continue. "I didn't want to keep you pinned down. I was never around. You deserved better than that. Much better. Something I couldn't give you because I was still trying to pursue my childish fantasy of becoming a Pokémon master. I couldn't just let you wait. It wasn't fair." His voice had reached the point of pleading, though that's not quite the right word. He had started of strong, but it had devolved into something much quieter and mildly calmer.

"It's not a childish dream." The mutter brought his attention back from the floor the he had become suddenly so interested in to Misty once more. Ash though he saw the remnants of a smile, but wasn't given long to ponder on the prospect as she went into a rant. "No, childish would be wanting a happily ever after ending. Childish was thinking that it would be so easy to get over you. Your dream wasn't childish. Your actions were. Your naivety..."

"No, you're right. It wasn't the dream..." a pause as she looked smugly at him, having proven him wrong and herself right once again. "It was me. I was selfish. I loved you, but I couldn't give up my dream. Now, I wish I had! All this hard work...it meant nothing if I couldn't be with you. But I realised that too late. You had already moved on."

Misty just looked at Ash in confusion and anger. "Who told you that?"

"Brock. Tracey. Daisy. Violet. Lily. My mom...You." He gestured around the room, as if the people were there with them, witnessing the fight. But when he got o Misty, her name barely a whisper from his lips, he stood stock still, staring at her with sadness. She had shown him that she had gotten over him and it hurt. Even if he was the one to break up with her, it didn't mean he stopped loving her.

"Me?" She pointed to herself in confusion, backtracking, trying to remember the moment when she had lied to him and told him she had moved on. But the memory wasn't surfacing.

"You started dating." His response brought to the surface one memory that turned into multiples as she remembered every instance where she had brought up her current boyfriend to her ex-boyfriend. And it hit her that he had been reading between the lines. That he wasn't being literal when he said everyone was telling him she was moving on. For years Misty had it in her head that Ash could never analyse a situation and find the underline meaning. Even though he was older now, she suspected that the ability had always been there, he just never showed it. That prospect finally became apparent to her as she remembered all the other instances where Ash showed he was capable.

Her mind was brought back to the present as he continued. "You seemed happy. So I kept going. Kept training. Kept trying to forget about you. But I couldn't, and never will, be able to stop thinking about you." She couldn't move. The prospect of Ash still being in love with her... a few days prior and she would have said she was still in love with him and rushed into his arms and kissed him. But now...

"What do you want me to say?" What had started as an extremely heated argument and transformed in to a confession could now only be described in one word for Misty, torture. Now, for the first time in years she didn't know who she felt about Ash, and therefore had no idea what to do or say to him.

"If the obvious doesn't come to mind, then I don't want you to say anything to me. But you should probably say yes to him." He stood and waited for her to say anything, absolutely anything. The obvious to him may not be the obvious to her but he didn't care, so long as she said something now. But when one minute turned to two, then to three, then five, he couldn't wait any longer. Ash picked up his jacket from the back of the sofa and walked past Misty and out the door, no argument, no words.

He just left.