Before Boarding Desire
By AnimeDutchess
A/N: Alright, alright…a couple nights ago, I got to go see A Streetcar Named Desire performed live at a college close to mine. Oh…my God. It was SO good. Streetcar is one of my favorite plays, and…I swear to you, if you ever get the chance to see a good theater group put it on, GO FOR IT! Hell, get a copy of the play, or get the movie version (Make sure Marlon Brando and Vivian Leigh are in it, though). Really, it's that good.
But anyway, you don't particularly have to read the play to understand this fic. I'm basically taking what happens to one of the main characters, fleshing it out, and putting it in fanfic form. The events in here are mentioned and described, but not actually portrayed, in the play, and just thought it would go good as this type of fanfic. So enjoy, please, and review me! You all know how much I love reviews!
………………………………………………………………………………………………………
Disclaimer: I don't own Pokemon in any way, shape, or form, and I sure as hell don't own Streetcar. So please, don't sue me…I'm a poor college student! XD;
………………………………………………………………………………………………………
Warning: Character Death. I don't consider Palletshipping to be something to warn you about. Also slight OOC. Misty's playing Blanche DuBois, after all…you have to be over-the-top for that!
………………………………………………………………………………………………………
Misty was the happiest girl in all of Mississippi. Why, you may ask? Well, she had finally gotten married to the only boy she's ever loved. She worshipped the very ground he walked on from the moment they'd met. He was from a distinguished family, and so gentle and kind that there was no way he was a real person. His name…was Ash Ketchum.
He had seemed rather reluctant at the altar, but Misty knew he just HAD to love her back; he was the one who asked her, after all! With that friend of his to back him up, no less! And he did it in the most sincere of ways; he wrote her a poem, ending in "Will you marry me?"
That was what clinched it in her heart. That was what made her the happiest she'd ever been.
They were both so young at the wedding, so full of life…he was so wonderfully tender towards her, she couldn't believe it.
They didn't make love on their wedding night. Or at all, really; both had talked about that, and figured that they were just too young to do such a thing yet.
But on their wedding night, they had fallen asleep in the same bed. Misty stirred in the middle of the night and noticed that he wasn't next to her. There was a light from the bathroom, and she could hear him crying, softly, practically mewing. The sound broke her heart, but she didn't dare rush in. It was odd, she thought, that he didn't seek her for solace, and instead fled to the bathroom.
That was when it hit her that Ash wasn't like all the other beaus that had until recently filled the air that surrounded her.
………………………………………………………………………………………………………
"Ash!" Misty was racing through the halls of her family's old plantation mansion, holding up the skirt of her sundress with one hand and pushing back a lock of wayward hair with the other. She turned a corner suddenly…
…And bumped into her little sister, Dawn.
"Oh, Dawn!" Her hands went to cover her mouth, open with shock. "Dawn, darling, are you alright?" The younger girl rubbed the arm that had been bumped, but smiled up at her sister.
"Yes, yes, Misty, I'm fine…" She said in a positive tone, "What're you rushing about for?"
"Oooh! I'm glad you asked!" Misty scooped up Dawn's hands into her own. "I'm looking for my lovely Ash. Have you seen him?" There was a sense of urgency in her voice. Dawn blinked.
"Ash? Misty, you should keep track of your husband."
"I know, I know…it's so terribly irresponsible of me, isn't it?" She gave her sister a smile that bedazzled all who saw it. "Did you happen to see him anywhere, my darling Dawn? Anywhere at all?" The younger girl bit her lip in concentration.
"Ah…I think he went into the sunroom," She said, nodding. "But that was a while ago…I don't know if he's still there…" Misty looked relieved, and she pecked Dawn on the forehead.
"You're such a good little sister," She said, patting Dawn on the head and slipping away. "Tah-tah, and thank you!" Her shoes clicked and clacked all the way down the wooden floor of the hallway, Dawn watching her leave with a bemused smile.
When Misty reached the sunroom, the door was slightly ajar. She peeked inside to make sure her Ash was there.
And he was. But he wasn't alone.
Ash was staring out one of the full-length windows, all of them showing the lavish gardens, his back to his oldest and most trusted friend, Gary Oak. Gary had his hands in his pockets, staring at Ash with a look Misty couldn't quite place.
"Ash…" The older man cleared his throat. "Please…why did you really invite me over?" Copper eyes turned to face him, wide with surprise. "This meeting has nothing to do with all that bullshit you've been spouting." He took a step closer. "Stop hiding it. Please."
Ash was silent. Slowly, he walked over to Gary until they stood right in front of each other, very close…too close, Misty realized. Ash leaned his head on Gary's chest, his eyes closed. Tears were falling from him.
"I care about her, Gary…I really do, but…" Copper eyes looked up to meet emerald. "I don't…love her…like how I love…" Misty's heart was pounding as Ash stood on his tiptoes, the boys' lips inching closer and closer together. Gary seemed to soften, encircling his arms around Ash's body, holding him up. "…you…"
And then they kissed.
It was as if Misty's world had stopped spinning and dropped, dropped until it crashed and broke into a million bitty pieces, impossible to put back together. Her mouth had fallen open in shock, and her cerulean eyes were blank.
Her body seemed to have a mind of its own; she tore the door open and rushed inside. The boys were startled, and they quickly detached from each other, looking at Misty with wide eyes. Ash looked so sad, so scared, so guilty…
"Misty…" His voice started to crack. "Oh God…oh God, this…this isn't what it looks like, it…" He started to cry. "I'm sorry…I…" Whatever attempt he was making, it fell apart immediately when he started to sob. Misty was shaking; was she furious? Heartbroken? She couldn't tell. All she felt was her happiness crumbling to dust.
Gary looked back and forth at the two, his face showing his worry.
"We…we need some drinks."
………………………………………………………………………………………………………
They had gotten insanely drunk, too much so to drive, but drive they did, all the way up to the fancy dance hall in the next town over. They had been laughing and babbling the whole trip, numbing their feelings in the sweet embrace of liquor. When they entered the place, they danced until they were too dizzy to see straight, and even then they kept dancing.
It wasn't until the polka started up, the lovely little Varsouviana, that things got bad. Misty and Ash we dancing in circles, her head resting on his shoulder. It reminded her drunken mind of their wedding reception, how they had danced for hours; she a gleeful bride, he a shy groom, always casting glances at the friend who watched them with a sad, smiling face…
Suddenly, in the middle of the dance floor, Misty stopped. Inebriated as he was, Ash knew something was wrong. She leaned her head up, lips only a hairs width away from his ear, and whispered harshly to him.
"I saw…you dirty, filthy creature, you…you're an abomination, a freak…Hell is better than what you deserve, you…you DEGENERATE!!" She screamed the last word in his ear, her breath hot with more than just alcohol, but with a bitterness he had never known to exist in her. Those words, they tore through him like a sharpened knife through tissue paper. Instantly, he broke from her grasp, and ran out the glass double-doors, out to the fountain. Misty wobbled, trying to comprehend what had happened, but Gary, who had seen and understood, tore off after him.
He found Ash sobbing his heart out, clutching the ledge of the fountain like it was a lifeline. His whole body shook with each cry, and Gary immediately went to comfort him.
"Ash…" His voice was soft and loving. He brushed as many tears away as he could. "Ash, please don't cry…" The younger boy pushed his hands away.
"Gary…leave me…"
Ash, what did she say? She's drunk, you know-"
"BUT SHE MEANT IT!" The pain in his voice could make any person weep with grief. "She meant every word, and I…I've done such a horrible thing…"
"Not…too terrible, Ash…you can't help it…"
Ash seemed to be calming down now. "No. I thought it'd stop…if I married her. The girl that everyone wanted…" He sniffed and hiccupped, hastily wiping his eyes. "But it won't stop. I can't stop it…"
"Ash, being in love isn't a crime…" Gary's voice cracked; he was also starting to cry. Ash shook his head furiously.
"No. No. I've done a horrible thing…I have to end it…" He scrambled for something attached to his belt, and pulled out a shiny silver pistol. Emerald eyes widened in horror at the site of it.
"Ash, no! You're drunk, you don't know what you're doing…" He took the boy by the shoulders and shook him. "I can't live without you, dammit!" Copper eyes were blank and full of tears.
"Then I'll go ahead of you…" He cupped Gary's face with his free hand and kissed him with all the passion he could muster. When he drew away, his face was peaceful. "Leave. I don't want you to see me dead."
"…" Gary glanced away. "I love you. I do."
"As do I."
Gary left, reluctantly, looking back every few seconds, wondering when Ash would pull the trigger.
He was already entering a cab when he heard the gunshot. But he didn't turn back.
………………………………………………………………………………………………………
BANG!
The shot rang through the night, and the Varsouviana immediately stopped playing. The shot seemed to rouse Misty from her drunken stupor; she looked round and round for Ash and Gary, but it was no use; the crowd rushing out the glass doors to see where the noise had come from swept her outside. Blindly, she tried to push through the crowd, vaguely remembering that Ash had run out this way, hadn't he? After she admitted to him the truth that had been stewing deep down in her heart since that afternoon? A man grabbed her wrist, pulled her back.
"Stop, Miss! You don't wanna see!" He exclaimed, but she pressed on, breaking through the crowd that formed a half-circle around the sight.
The ledge of the fountain was sprayed with blood and a strange goo that Misty could swear was brain. Blood coated everything, even the face of the boy she had married, his copper eyes glassy. His face was serene, which only magnified the horror before her.
Ash was dead; shot himself none too beautifully through the back of the head. Misty's eyes rolled into the back of her head, and she fainted.
When she awoke, she was never the same. The next day, the gardeners found Gary's body in the center, a gunshot wound in his stomach and fresh tears on his cheeks, clutching a bloody note with an apology to Misty, to Ash, to everyone. But she never read it.
She was already on her way to boarding Desire.
Fin
………………………………………………………………………………………………………
A/N: It's based on what happens to Blanche and her husband before the events of A Streetcar Named Desire. I felt like reinforcing that.
I've never killed off a character before! Like, with actually writing it down and all! That's pretty wild for me…so, what did you think? I love reviews, just love them! Ja Ne! - AnimeDutchess