Author's Note: Next chapter of Wishes! :) Thanks for the reviews, they help me write more.
Disclaimer: Clearly not owning Pokemon. :|:D
"Misty! Wait! I didn't mean—"
"No, it's alright, Ash. I know. You wish you hadn't met me…I-I'll be out for a minute."
"But Myst—"
"No. Stay. I- I need time to think."
And as soon as she left, Ash instantly felt regret coming to him. He sighed deeply. Why must all bad things happen to him?
He watched Misty's figure disappear in an instant, her tears splashing on his face. May and Dawn looked at him with horrified looks and Dragonite seemed to be doing something with her hands.
"I cannot believe you, Ash! The girl, your best friend, the person who lo—" May kept Dawn's mouth shut, from revealing Misty's biggest and most embarrassing secret. "What Dawn meant, Ash, was that she was your best friend. How could you do that to her?" May shook her head in disbelief.
Brock was looking at the direction Misty once left and felt some odd, fatherly feeling rising up in his chest. Brushing it off, he decided to give him a good talking.
"Ash," Brock started, getting everyone, even Dragonite's attention. "Misty is a short-tempered girl. Don't blame her for that. And for once, I will finally agree with both of you. It wasn't justified that Misty would intervene about something personal such as Pokemon, but you didn't need to go to the extremes. She'll surely remember that, Ash."
Ash finally felt ashamed. Brock had never, in his whole life, talked to him like that. For once, he didn't want to go on his side, he wanted to be by Misty's side—literally.
After a much awaited and uncomfortable silence, Ash raised his head up and declared with such passion,
"I'm going after her!" everybody gave a grin, nodding their heads as Ash, with Pikachu ran to the direction Misty disappeared to.
|*|*|*|
A girl with unusual, bright, orange hair looked at her clean reflection on the water. Fifteen minutes has passed and still, she didn't understand why she was crying in the first place. Azurill, her baby Pokemon, was clutched to her chest tightly, for some odd reason. There were so many things confusing her at the moment. One was that she didn't know what made her so upset, leading her to cry. Her sisters had always called her a fiery tomboy, and somehow, she knew, tomboys rarely cry.
Second, she didn't understand why she was in the forest of some unknown region - well unknown to her in particular, - and she seemed pretty upset. Third, which may be the most confusing of all, was that she couldn't think of what could make her heart beat so fast. It was all very confusing.
"Misty! Misty! Thank goodness I found you!" a raven-haired boy, wearing a Sinnoh League Cap and a vest with a big stripe in the middle, came to her view, panting heavily. There was a worried Pikachu perched on his shoulder, who jumped down to greet Azurill.
Azurill squiggled in her arms, wanting to be released in order to play with the yellow Pokemon, but the confused Misty clutched her even tighter.
"Pika Pikachupi?" Pikachu asked, tugging on Misty's shoe. Misty backed away, narrowing her eyes.
"Uh, excuse me, but your Pikachu...is there something he wants?" she awkwardly said to the stranger. Ash, too shocked to even bother, nodded.
"Yeah. He wants to play with Azurill, don't you already know that, Myst?"
What the...he called me Myst! Nobody, not even my sisters call me that! Who does this guy think he is anyways?
"I don't mean to be rude or anything, but..." Misty looked up, her fresh tears already dried, "are you a stalker or something?"
He almost fell down in shock, but instead he rolled his eyes and merely chuckled. Pikachu looked confusedly at Azurill, who shrugged her shoulders indicating she was equally flummoxed.
"No Myst! I'm your best friend, remember? Ash. Ash Ketchum."
She was left to ponder for a second, placing a delicate finger on her chin. Looking up at the clear sky, she said, turning to him:
"I don't get it. Just tell me if you're stalking me or something and I won't pound you into mince meat."
"...Oh I get it, Myst! You're getting back at me because I said: 'I wish I hadn't met you'. Very funny, now can you please drop this idiotic act? It's getting really annoying now."
Once more, Misty took a gentle step back. This guy was even creepier than that of the guys in Cerulean!
"Well...okay...huh, whatever you say..." Gently leaning down to pick up her knapsack, Misty looked in all directions wanting a way out. But he reached over to her and grabbed her slender arm.
For some odd reason, as Ash held her arm and locked eyes with her, he felt his pulse quicken.
"So uh...are you going to release me or something? 'Cuz you're face's getting all red. I wonder why...OH MY GOSH!..." shocked at her sudden outburst, he released his undoubtedly firm grip and looked at her with a weird expression.
"I knew it! I knew it from the start!" Misty screeched slightly, "You like me! as in LIKE like me! Like a...crush!"
He stopped breathing for a single moment, looked at her wide wide brown eyes and then blushed scarlet. Covering his red face from embarrassment with his cap, he stuttered,
"N-No! W-Why w-would I l-l-like you?!"
"Because! You're always giving out hints. Watch this." Somehow, Misty bravely kissed him on the cheek, causing him to turn even redder.
"See! Ha! I knew it!" she danced victoriously. Ash grinned goofily, touching the spot where she had kissed him. He must've looked stupid, but that was the least of his concern.
"Oh yeah, I like you. I like you a lot," he admitted, blushing slightly, "but there's something else. I know you don't know me, but you've got amnesia."
"Amnesia?"
"Yeah. We used to be dating - you know, kissing and cuddling and what not - but you bumped into a tree and the next thing you know, you forget things slowly."
Being the clueless girl Misty was, she thought about it for a minute. This...'stranger' seemed to know a lot about her. But, reminding herself of safety, she quizzed him.
"Okay. I'll go along with you," his eyes shone as she said this, "if you answer all three of my questions."
Piece of cake, Ash thought.
"Number one. What things do I hate the most?"
"Carrots, peppers and bugs."
She seemed oddly flummoxed at his sudden answer, as if he was reading her mind somehow. But this was not enough for her to break down her wall.
"How many sisters do I have?"
"Three. They're triplets and they always think of you as the oddball of the family," being reminded of this, Misty's expression fell, "but I thought you were always the best and prettiest."
Blushing, she tried to keep her composure straight. No way was this guy going to get through her mind...even if he was kinda cute...
"Hmm...you're pretty good for your kind. Okay, how about this, what things do I like the most?"
He chuckled, rolling his eyes and snorting jokingly, "This has got to be the easiest. Water Pokemon," Misty's face lit up in victory. He forgot to mention one thing, the thing she adored the most next to Water Types.
"...more specifically Tentacool. You've always wanted to catch one. Oh and yeah, I can't forget - French things."
And that was the only information he needed to answer, until Misty finally gave up and followed him.
|*|*|*|
"How long has it been, Brock?" May asked with as much nervousness as she could ever muster. Brock was currently cooking his famous stew, decided to ignore May's question again. It was pretty obvious that she'd been worried about her friends, more so specifically Misty, since she wouldn't stop bugging him about it.
A sound by the bushes got all their attention, and 4 figures came into view.
"Hey, guys!" Ash cheerily said, holding onto Misty's hand. Her face showed confusion, for the lack of knowledge for these people. Ash had taken her somewhere and bravely took her hand.
Dawn looked up, stopping herself from brushing Piplup's hair. May stopped pacing around detective style and grinned.
"So, both of you finally admitted your feelings, eh? About time, I could say!"
Pikachu pounced on Brock's side, begging and kneeling for ketchup. This had stolen Misty's attention.
"What's up with the Pikachu? It likes ketchup?"
Everyone in the clearing stared at her dumbfounded. Pikachu was known mostly for his love of ketchup - and intense skills, of course - so why would Misty, Pikachu's favorite girl, forget something so unforgettable?
This time, Ash needed to act quickly.
"Um, Misty thought Pikachu loved...tomato sauce! Not ketchup."
Dawn sweatdropped, "But isn't ketchup made from tomato sauce?"
Looking over at Brock for a confirmation, he nodded his head. "Of course it is. But what does this have to do with anything?"
Everybody turned to Misty, who was currently poking her Psyduck, who was cocking his head stupidly. "Psy?"
"Is this mine?" Misty asked Ash, still poking the Pokemon on the head. He nodded curtly and quickly, trying so hard to avoid the confused faces coming from his friends.
"Oh. Let's try an attack. Okay...um, duck...use," she pondered for a minute, before turning to everyone, confused, "what moves do Psyducks have?"
This time, Ash couldn't think of anything to cover his little escapade up. May and Dawn giggled, pulling Ash away from sight, alongside Brock and Pikachu. When they were clear from Misty's view, they looked deathly at him.
"What did you do?" Brock whispered. Even Ash was a bit flummoxed. He had specifically wished that he and Misty hadn't met, so why did that affect her training skills? He was pretty sure she was better than him with training water types, so how in the world did she forget all of that? Well, she did catch Psyduck during their adventures, but that doesn't necessarily mean Misty didn't know of its attacks...does it?
May slapped his head, his cap falling over his face in the process, "You imbecile! Did you hypnotize Misty or something?" she said with a laugh - which didn't contain any hint of humor - before continuing, "because it seemed to work."
Ash still kept silent, his eyes wandering to each and every figure. Pikachu was looking at him distastefully...it was either him or the ketchup. May looked at him with menacing eyes, a murderous gaze appearing on her features. Dawn - who was currently twisting a lock of blue hair around a petite finger - shook her head sadly in his direction, most probably. And Brock, who was already upset with making Misty run away, slapped his head. Hard.
Being with a bunch of teenagers was harder than he thought.
|*|*|*|
After making one brief recap of what Ash knew, everyone looked at him strangely.
"Do you expect me to believe that?!" May gave a small, fake laugh, rolling her eyes in the process of doing so. Ash looked at all of them, their unbelieving faces, all showing equal shock and disbelief.
"It's true!" he hissed, "it really happened! I don't know who or what made it happen! My wish just came true. Isn't that satisfying enough?"
As everyone was about to retort some comebacks, Dawn shot her head up.
"It's Dragonite!" she dropped her nail filer.
"What?"
"I meant," she pressed harder, looking at Ash square in the eyes, "that your Dragonite. It was doing something earlier right as Misty left - there was this glowing-thingy...I think...it was sorta bright. I was with Piplup that moment and I was sure both of us saw it," Dawn looked down at her Piplup, who was resting beside her foot, "right?"
Looking up at the expectant humans, Piplup nodded his head eagerly and dropped his head instantly, after everyone's attention averted to the golden Dragonite, who was currently aiding Misty and Psyduck.
"This has got to be the worst Pokemon catch ever."
Author's Note: Finding out the mysteries of the golden Dragonite, Ash has realized that his Pokemon grants his wishes! Now, what will happen to our dearest Misty? Find out in the next chapters. :)
(waves AAML flag, proudly grinning.) AAML forever! :)