"PikaPi, Pikachu."

"I know, Pikachu," Ash said, fiddinling with the PokeBall in his hands. "I'm just… kinda nervous, you know?"

"Pika, pika," Pikachu replied, "Pikachu, pika!"

"You're right," he said, takinga deep breath. "It's been 13 years. It's time I asked Misty to… *gulp* marry me."

"Pi-ka-chu!"

Ash took a deep breath and tucked the PokeBall into his pocket before turning to Cerulean Gym. "But what if I screw this up? What if she yells at me and—"

"Pikachu!"

"Right, right, right," he said. "Okay. Let's go!" Gathering his courage, he forced himself to walk to the door of the Gym. Misty was inside, filling out some paperwork. She didn't see him outside, but she did see him coming in.

"Ash!" she said, jogging up to him, hugging him and kissing his cheek. "What are you doing here?"

"Um, I wanted to talk to you," he said, holding her close to him. She must've had a battle earlier, because she was wearing her shorts and her bikini top. She usually did that when she had a battle. And it made Ash even more nervous.

"About what?" she asked.

"Well, we-we've known each other for 13 years," he said. "And I really, really love you, you know that."

"Of course," she said. "I don't know if I could ever love another boy."

"Then, um…" he nervously tried to think of something to say. But whatever he could think of didn't work. It was nerve-wracking, and he let go of her, backed away, pointed his finger at her, took out the Poke Ball, expanded it, showed her the ring and said, "MISTY, I CHALLENGE YOU TO MARRY ME!"

She was silent. Ash nervously waited, his finger still pointing at her and his eyes shut from nervousness. It took a couple moments before he heard her laughing out loud.

"Ash, you dummy!" she laughed. "Is that what you wanted to talk about!?"

"WHAT'S WRONG WITH THAT!?"

"NOTHING!" she replied. "But's so… you! In that case, I accept your challenge! BUT, you must also face me in a Pokemon battle!"

"Wait, do I have to win, or—"

"Nope," she replied. "I accept both challenges, if that's what you mean."

Ash stood still, his jaw slacked open until what she just said processed in his mind. His smile slowly, but giddily grew until it was wider than a Gengar's.

"ALL RIIIIGHT!" he cheered.


A short Pokeshippingfic written for a Tumblr prompt. The original prompt was "first comes love, then comes marriage", but the idea of a proposal fic popped into my head. And I may or may not have been thinking of Ed's proposal to Winry in FMA.