DISCLAIMER: I do not own Pokémon.

Chance Encounter

A gleaming black car pulled carefully into the driveway of a large, detached house on the outskirts of Cerulean City. The summer sun had only just set, and the gentle pinks and oranges that had illuminated the journey here were now dwarfed by an equally spectacular display of starlight. As the humming of the engine came to a stop, a tall, black-haired man emerged from the driver's seat, stretching out his back and hauling a dark red backpack over his shoulders. He opened the passenger door to let out his faithful electric companion, who immediately jumped up to rest on his trainer's shoulder. The pair then made their way over to the front door, stopping only to take a brief look out into the distance, at the expanses of rolling waves that stretched out as far as the eye could see.

The young man had the best job in the world, one he had had his heart set on for his entire life, one that was sought by thousands yet claimed by only a select few. But coming back to this: his home, the crisp sea air, the calmness away from the urban sprawl, and, most importantly, his beautiful wife – this would always be his favourite part of the day. Once he located his keys, he slid the most worn of the bunch into the lock and pushed open the white birch door with his free hand.

The first thing he noticed, to his surprise, was that there were no lights on. Three awkward steps forward and one precarious stumble soon rectified that. His wife normally sat in the small front room at this time of night to read, but tonight he found her bundled up on the sofa in the larger room at the back of the house. Though she appeared to be in some sort of daze when he entered the room, her eyes met his a few seconds later, and a familiar, almost giddy feeling caused him to break out into a warm smile.

"Hey, Mist," he greeted lovingly, walking over to kiss her on the cheek. Pikachu hopped off his shoulder and curled up beside the young woman, mewing softly.

"Hey, Ash." She smiled, but there was little else in the way of emotion emanating from her.

Ash appeared not to pick up on this, however; or, at least, didn't say anything about it if he had.

"Man, I tell you, it's crazy down at the Indigo Plateau right now! Everyone's running around trying to get things sorted for Lance's retirement party, and since the Indigo League's coming up in a few weeks, they're really starting to harass me about my opening speech."

He paused to offload his backpack and navy blue jacket. "It's about ninety per cent done now," he continued. "Do you think maybe you could have a look at it at some point? I need some long words in there, and, well, I know you're good with that sort of thing."

Misty did not reply straight away, having returned to staring off into space. When she did, her response was nothing more than a half-hearted, "Mm."

"Misty? You okay?" the confused pokémon master said as he ambled back over to the lethargic redhead. She glanced in his direction for a fleeting moment, but remained silent.

A twinge of worry appeared in Ash's stomach, and he gently placed a hand under her chin, tilting her head upwards to face him.

"Misty, what's wrong? Did the doctor call again?"

His deep brown eyes were full of love and concern, and his gaze melted through her so profoundly that the blushing Misty was soon shaken from her sombre reverie.

"What? No, no, everything's fine," she clarified.

Ash was not convinced. "Then why are you acting so spaced out?"

Misty sighed. It was clear her husband wasn't going to leave this alone.

"Well, it's just this weird thing I heard today, when I…Ash, can you sit down?"

Realising he was still hanging over her like a mandibuzz, the young man sheepishly slid down into the seat beside her. Misty ran a hand through her shoulder-length locks before starting up again.

"So, I went for a walk into town this afternoon, and I passed the pokémon centre on my way to the gym."

"Mhm…" Ash mumbled, not seeing any sort of problem so far.

"There was this old lady outside talking to a couple of pokémon trainers. A boy and a girl; they kinda reminded me of us when we first met."

"That's…nice?" He smiled in a manner not entirely sincere.

"I'm not finished," she said sharply. "Just as I was going past, I overheard her say to them, 'friendship is but a chance encounter.'"

Ash was beyond baffled at this point. "Huh? What's that mean?"

"And well, it got me thinking about…things," she finished, ignoring his interruption.

"Like what?"

For the first time in the conversation, Misty turned to face her husband. Her brow was crinkled, and despondency dulled the usual shine of her blue-green eyes.

"Like…was I just in the right place at the right time when I fished you out of that river all those years ago?"

Ash cocked his head to the side. "Misty, what are you…?"

"It could have been anybody; it didn't have to be me. I was there purely by chance."

"Mist, I can't help you unless you talk to me," he stated firmly, secretly growing a little annoyed with how cryptic she was being.

Finally, she let out a laboured breath. "Did we only become best friends because you met me first?"

"What?!" Ash was unprepared for her question to wound him so. "Of course no-"

"Don't answer just yet," she cut him off. "Not until you hear me out."

Rolling his eyes inwardly, the pokémon master slumped back down into his seat. For the last few months, his wife had been having these kinds of existential crises on a fairly regular basis, and although they had made for some quite legendary arguments at first, Ash had come to discover that these things were best discussed in a calm and civilised manner (something both he and Misty were still getting the hang of).

"Sorry." He sighed, but shot her a small smile. "Go on, then."

She cleared the coffee table in front of them of all its clutter, causing Ash to frown. Oh no, not the finger walking again, he pleaded repeatedly in his mind.

"Okay, so you're floating down the river…" Misty ran her finger along the smooth surface, much to his chagrin. She then placed her other hand off to the side in a 'sitting' position.

"And imagine it's…oh, I don't know…Iris who fishes you out."

Ash sat up. "But it wasn't Iris. It was you."

"I know, Ash," she growled. "That's why I said 'imagine'."

"And she lives in Unova, so…"

"Look, just go with it, okay?!"

He folded his arms in a decidedly childish fashion, but nonetheless refrained from interrupting her any further.

"She points you in the direction of the pokémon centre, and you steal her bike to get there so-"

When Misty heard Ash chuckle slightly, she halted her fantasy scenario and glared at him irritably.

"What now?"

"I'm gonna have to stop you there, Mist." He chuckled again, having broken his little silent oath. "Iris didn't have a bike. I'm not even sure if she can ride one."

She rolled her eyes. "Ugh, fine, Dawn then! So you steal her bike and she decides to follow you until you pay it ba- what the hell are you smirking at?!"

"Hate to break it to you, but Dawn didn't seem to care at all that I broke her bike. If she were in your position all those years ago, I'd probably never have seen her again."

"Grr, stop being a wiseass and just listen to me!" she barked.

"I would if you were making sense," he retorted instantly. "Why are you so adamant that I should have met someone else before you?"

At that point, Pikachu stirred beside Misty and unconsciously climbed onto her lap.

"Pikachupi," the yellow mouse purred contentedly in his sleep.

"See?" Ash grinned. "Pikachu likes you. Even has his own name for you. And how many times have I heard you or Brock say that pokémon reflect the feelings of their trainers? Yeah, that's right! Ash: three; Misty: nil!"

Though the faintest traces of a smile made their way onto Misty's face, she swiftly quashed it and brought her hands forcefully down on the table.

"I'm not joking around here, Ash!" she shouted. "Besides, I know Pikachu's got names for a lot of people – including Dawn, who I'm not done with yet, by the way."

Ash shuffled slightly away from her on the seat. "Alright, alright. Do carry on," he said, both genuinely and sarcastically. After a lingering scowl, she did just that.

"You and Dawn are practically the same person. You're like two pichu in a pod! Every time I've seen you and her together, you've been nothing but nice to each other, never argued even once. Don't tell me you wouldn't have had an easier time at the start if she was there instead of me."

To both her surprise and annoyance, her husband shook his head smugly. "Aren't you normally the first to point out that I needed a wakeup call when I first started my journey? You already knew your stuff, but Dawn would've been a rookie just like me, so who would've done the coaching if you weren't there? And I liked all the arguing. Well, most of the time, when you weren't being a total b-"

"Get to the point," she snarled.

Smiling sympathetically, the young man scooted closer to her once again. "Misty, you know what the doctor said last time. Are you sure you're not just having one of your m-"

"Ash, I swear to god, if you even think about saying 'mood swings' I'm going to put your head through this table."

"But this is so unlike you!" he persisted. "What's going on? Are you mad at me or something?"

Something about his pained tone of voice softened his wife's defensive attitude somewhat, and she exhaled a long and tired breath before taking Ash's hand and squeezing it affectionately.

"No," she admitted, "but I've been giving this a lot of thought today, and I just, I don't know, think I'd feel better if I got it off my chest."

While Ash stroked her smooth hand, he let himself slip into a momentary trance, another smile forming on his face during the process. Misty's recent bouts of self-effacing could be trying at times, but in the long run, it was hard to become angry with her over something he found so inescapably endearing.

He nodded in understanding, and she continued from right where she had left off.

"Well, since you brought up coaching…what if, instead of meeting me at the river, you'd gone straight to that school in Alola after you got Pikachu?" She emphasised the point by extending the thumb and little finger of her free hand outwards to resemble an aeroplane in flight.

"Hmm…" he thought out loud. "Well, I guess I'd have learnt a lot that way, but you know I prefer to learn as I go, right? And hey, nothing beats the freedom of going it alone."

Misty raised an eyebrow. "But you weren't alone."

"I was for the first couple of hours! Argh, you know what I mean."

But it seemed the redhead remained chockfull of ammunition. "Okay, scratch the Alola thing. So, fast-forward to Viridian Forest, and instead of me with you, it's May. Can't you picture her helping you catch your first pokémon, just like I did?"

As with all of her previous what-ifs, Ash was quick to shoot her down. "'Fraid not, Mist. When I met May, she didn't even like pokémon. She was scared of them. If anything, I was the one who helped her."

Misty pouted over being foiled once more. She breathed in deeply in an attempt to push down her frustration, not wanting to lose it again.

"Right, okay, so maybe it wouldn't be them, but the point is it didn't have to be me, either! I could've picked any river to fish in! And if someone else happened to come along and rescue you, who's to say you wouldn't have gone travelling with them instead for the next however many years?"

Ash was still rather confused by his wife's meandering, but a thought suddenly occurred to him, and he couldn't resist countering her another time.

"Well, I could say the same for you. What if me being there was just one of your, er, chance whatevers?

"Encounters," she corrected flatly.

Unfazed, he placed his own fingers down on the table, walking them along like two little people. "If it was Brock who'd fried your bike, would you still have followed him? Or Ritchie? Or…" he shuddered at the thought, "Gary?"

Misty was shocked to see that Ash was now essentially playing her at her own game. Why she hadn't expected this level of resistance to her introspective ramblings, she had no idea.

"Of course not!" It seemed it was now Misty's turn to act offended. "Brock's got nothing to fry my bike with, Ritchie's nice to a fault so he probably would've bought me a new one there and then, and for all of Gary's shortcomings, I don't think he'd be stupid enough to jump off a waterfall into an ice-cold river. Also, didn't he have a car?"

As she picked apart his suggestions one by one, Ash grunted, realising just now how it felt to be on the losing side of this discussion. Still, he felt inexplicably sucked into this now, if only temporarily, and another 'candidate' came to mind, causing his stomach to tie itself in a knot.

"…What if it was Rudy?"

The redhead tensed up, a disquieting shiver shooting through her from head to toe. Ash was, of course, oblivious to it at the time, but since then, the couple had had many a conversation about Misty's childhood admirer from the Orange Islands. Suffice it to say that Ash was well and truly up to speed by now.

"Rudy?" she questioned. "Why would you think that-"

"You said it could be anyone," he stated bluntly.

There was a distinct acidity to his voice, one that the average listener may have skipped over, but Misty could read Ash like a book even before they were married, and nothing about him escaped her notice.

"Ash, we've been over this," she sighed. "Rudy was a really nice guy, but I never liked him that way."

"That doesn't answer my question."

"No I wouldn't follow him!"

"Then why do you think Dawn or May or whoever else would be more likely to follow me?"

A moment of silence passed over the Ketchum household. Misty did not want to admit she had been caught contradicting herself by her thickheaded husband of all people, but she also could not shake the realisation that he had a point. Having lost most of her energy to snap back at him, she simply looked down at the ground and rested her chin on her hand.

"It wasn't just because of the bike that I followed you, you know," she affirmed. "You've got no reason to be jealous."

The mention of that all-too-familiar word caused Ash's ears to prick up. "Wait a minute…" he began. "Is that it? Are you jealous of our friends?"

She rolled her eyes as she hit him lightly on the shoulder. "Oh come on, you know I'm not."

When met with a disbelieving look from the pokémon master, she sat up straight again, her face flushing pink. "Well, okay, fine, maybe I was a bit jealous of Serena for a while, because of the whole…well, you know. But we're over that now; I'm just as good friends with her as I am everyone else!"

Ash stood up from his seat, pushing the glass coffee table backwards slightly to give himself room to kneel in front of her. Their faces were level as he got into position, their two pairs of eyes staring into one another, and he rested his hands on her exposed knees to anchor himself in place.

"Misty," he said in a low, husky timbre that made her heart skip a beat, "I'm tired of all this make-believe, 'what if' stuff. Please just give it to me straight. What's this all about?"

As her eyes scanned his boyish face, she saw that look again, the one of pure adoration he had sent her way before this conversation began. Though she usually had no trouble at all holding her own against the force of nature that was Ash Ketchum, it was at times like these where she felt she could just not say no to him.

"Well…" she started bashfully, "ever since I heard what that old woman said, the words 'chance encounter' have been constantly on my mind. Pretty much everywhere we went together, everyone we've met, everything we've done, it all just happened by chance. I didn't mean to fish you out of that river; it was just a coincidence, a happy accident. If I wasn't there on that exact day at that exact time, we might never have met, and that means we would never have become friends, or fallen in love, or ended up where we are now. I guess what I'm trying to say is, if I hadn't been there to save you that day, if someone else had taken my place as the first person you came across on your journey…maybe it would be them you ended up falling in love with, and not me."

Ash simply stared. He could not believe what he had just heard. There was so much to process, and he had no idea of how it should all make him feel. Misty's eyes were darting all over the place, and she had begun to bite her lip as she replayed everything she had just said in her head. Knowing her as well as he did, Ash took this as a telltale sign that she was about to start up again, so decided to deny her the chance to by leaning forward and pressing his lips to hers.

The kiss was brief, but not lacking in potency, and as soon as they parted, Misty realised just how much she had needed that. When her eyes refocused themselves on Ash, the vulnerable redhead was surprised to see that he was neither angry nor upset, but, rather, looking ready to burst with laughter.

"And you call me the dense one!" he wheezed.

In that moment, Misty seemed too confused to be able to get angry with him. "Hey! What's so funny? I just poured my heart out to you there!"

His laughter gradually reduced to a smile, but the mischievous spark in his eyes remained. In the space of a few seconds, he picked himself up from off the floor and sat down to Misty's right, wrapping his arms gently around her waist and burying his face into the shoulder of her yellow T-shirt.

"How's about we make a deal?" he whispered enigmatically in her ear. "I'm going to tell you something, and if you've never heard it before, you have to drop this whole thing. If you have, then feel free to go on like this to your heart's content!" He held out his little finger like a child for her to shake. "Deal?"

Though Misty was certainly appreciating their new sitting position, his proposition was peculiar, to say the least. Nevertheless, her curiosity won out in the end, and she shook his finger with her own, giggling lightly. "Deal."

He cleared his throat. "Well, you know I've travelled with a lot of people, right? They were all with me for quite a long time, and they all eventually left, either to go back home or to explore another region."

She nodded in acknowledgement, trembling when she felt Ash's lips graze her cheek.

"But out of all of those people," he said as he periodically kissed her jawline, "only one of them has ever left me because they had to, not because they wanted to."

Through the combination of Ash's words and his sweet kisses to her neck, Misty felt a gasp rising up from her throat, but she just barely managed to suppress it. Could what he was saying really be true?

"And if I were to ask that person now, 'would you ever have stopped travelling with me if you'd had a choice?', well…" Like earlier, he brought her head around to the side to face his. "Would you?"

Were her heart not beating so fast, Misty would have been certain that it had melted. As her eyes glazed over with tears, she cupped his face in her hands and kissed him with all the love and passion she could muster. This embrace lasted far longer than the last, and by the end, the two 28-year-olds were both puffing and spluttering for air.

"Of…course I…wouldn't," she panted, in case there was still any doubt in his mind.

As he caught his breath, Ash snuggled back into his wife's neck and held her tighter.

"I don't believe us meeting was just a chance encounter, Mist," he finally said. "I mean, sure, maybe it was a coincidence that you just happened to catch me on the end of your fishing pole, but remember what I said on the day you left? Well it's still just as true now: I know we were always meant to meet and become friends. If you hadn't been there that day, we'd still have found our way to each other somehow, and it wouldn't matter if you were the first or the fiftieth, because it wouldn't change how I feel about you. You're not special to me because you were my first friend; you're special to me because you're my best friend, and the only girl I've ever loved."

A fresh stream of tears filled Misty's eyes, which had now fully regained their lustrous sparkle. These sorts of sentiments usually went unsaid, but every time something like this found its way into the conversation, the redhead couldn't help but bask in the knowledge of just how in love she was. There was no pretence with Ash Ketchum. He was pure, honest and genuine right to the core, and hearing him deliver such a beautiful speech from the bottom of his heart made her feel like the luckiest woman in the world.

"And god, I do love you," he continued, kissing her delicately on the forehead, "even if you are insane."

"Hey!" she scolded lightheartedly. She then felt Ash's hand travel down to her stomach, and smiled as it softly traced the contour of her now visible bump.

"So will little Ash Jr." He chuckled merrily. "Just you watch!"

"Ash, I've told you a thousand times, we're not calling him Ash Jr.," she remarked, attempting to sound stern but largely unable to hide the bubbling excitement in her voice.

"Well I'm still waiting for you to come up with something better!" he teased.

Cuddling tenderly into each other, the couple lapsed into a short silence, the only sounds being Pikachu's light snoring and the faint whir of electricity from the lamp in the corner of the room. Misty's hands intertwined with Ash's on top of her spherical belly, and both were in such a state of bliss that neither took note of just how long they stayed like that.

"Hey, Ash?" came the young woman's sweet, melodic voice.

She felt her husband stir behind her. "Yeah?"

"I love you, too. Sorry I put you through all of that." She laughed at the end to try and lighten the mood.

"You don't have to be sorry, Mist." He smiled at the back of her head. "It's all in the job description! Nine till twelve: warmups and training exercises; one till five: advanced battle techniques; five till nine: catch up on paperwork; rest of the night: counsel psychotic, pregnant wife…"

"Don't push it," she snapped, but giggled nevertheless.

"You know what the moral of this story is, don't you?" he asked.

Misty swivelled her body around to face him properly. "Always follow your heart?" she suggested like the girlish romantic she still was.

"Well, actually I was going to say 'don't eavesdrop on creepy old ladies' conversations', but what you said works too, I guess."

At that moment, Ash's stomach let out an almighty rumble so powerful that Misty could feel the vibrations through the sofa.

"Ehehe…" He scratched at the hair around his cap in embarrassment. "You, er, wanna order a couple of pizzas or something? I wouldn't say no to a chance encounter with an extra large deep dish pepperoni right about now."

"Sure." She shrugged as he stood up and made his way over to the kitchen door across from her. Misty watched him root around hopelessly in the kitchen drawers for the stack of takeout menus, a dazed, almost ethereal smile creeping onto her face. How strange it was to her that after nearly a whole day of fretting over nothing and then bombarding Ash with it as soon as he got home, the pair were now acting completely normal again, and she had never felt better.

"Ash?" she called over. "Get me a-"

"Yeah, yeah, I know: anchovies, olives, pineapple, all the nasty stuff…"

He popped his head around the door just long enough for her to stick her tongue out at him, then returned to his former task. At least, he would have, had one last little opportunity for a 'bonus point' in their recent discussion not suddenly come to him.

"Oh, and just for the record…" he crooned slyly, "me and Dawn did have a kind of fight once."

Misty's eyes grew wider. "Really?"

He nodded. "Yep, because I wouldn't let her use this."

Reaching into his pocket, he pulled out his tangle of keys, on the end of which was a brightly coloured lump of plastic, staring cheerily over at its likeness with its tiny, painted-on eyes. Before human Misty could question the appearance of Mini-Misty, however, Ash stuffed the lure straight back into his pocket and leapt out of sight.

Amongst the clattering of kitchen utensils and Ash's attempts to communicate their order over the videophone, Misty Ketchum found herself at peace once again. Maybe all this overthinking was just a mood swing all along – not that she would ever tell Ash that, of course. As much as she hated to admit it, she had been wrong this time, and her husband had been right. She and Ash were always meant to be together. It was not every day, after all, that one's soulmate flew into their life on the end of a fishing line – how could such a beautiful encounter be mere chance?