Misty and Brock watched from the Elite Four stadium suite as the crowd funneled out of the stadium. The matches were done for the night and the excitement had abated. Misty sat with her chin in her hand as she absentmindedly stirred her martini with a toothpick and lazily watched the crowd leave the stadium. The rest of their friends, with the exception of Lucy who was sitting with Brock next to Misty, had all left to join Ash and his mother to celebrate his win somewhere downtown.
So here I am, after the biggest win of my boyfriend's life, as the third wheel for Brock's date, she thought cynically.
She scowled and then downed her drink and stood up announcing, "I'm going to the gym."
Brock was dreamily staring into Lucy's eyes, but Lucy wasn't as distracted and looked up at Misty, quickly understanding she was upset. She elbowed her boyfriend to alert him to his obviously upset friend. He looked up and a concerned look spread across his face. "Are you okay, Misty?" he asked her.
She looked at the couple and smiled. She was genuinely happy that Brock had finally found such a great girl who really appreciated him. They hadn't been officially going out long, having only recently reconnected after many years. Misty was sad when Brock had told her they were having issues, and so had endured several three stooges sessions in the last few weeks to try to cheer him up. Needless to say, she was still a little annoyed that he had made up his relationship problems just to keep her busy while Ash was in the early stages of the tournament. But it was hard to be mad at him at that moment while seeing them so happy together.
"Yeah, I'm fine. It kind of sucks, but we'll get through it. Just a couple more days, right?" She knew how unconvinced she actually sounded, and her hands-on-her-hips body language said what she wasn't.
"Would you like to join us?" Lucy asked. "We're going for a late dinner."
Misty shook her head, "No, I think I'll be better alone right now. Plus, I need to get Gyarados some pool time. You two go have fun."
With that Misty grabbed her coat and made her way out into the crisp cool night air. The gym was just down the road from the stadium, but she decided to take a detour through the downtown entertainment district in order to distract herself from her problems. She put her hood up in order to avoid being easily identified and stepped into the lively district. The streets were crowded, and the bars and restaurants were even busier than normal due to all of the League activities going on. People brushed by her and a drunk couple almost knocked her over, but she shook it off and continued down the boisterous street, eventually pausing for a moment at several of the brilliant electronic billboards. Ash's face was plastered all over them, along with the young girl from Pallet Town, touting the upcoming match for tomorrow evening. The display changed to highlights of his battles throughout the tournament as two talking heads were discussing his success.
"Dave, this young man is going to steamroll every last competitor left. He's only had to switch to a second pokemon once, and it wasn't because the first one went down, it's because his Pikachu wanted to battle! No one even knows what his full team is! Just that garachomp and Pikachu! After all these years we'll finally have a reigning champion again!"
The other man had a different opinion, "I'm sorry, Bill, but the Elite Four is a whole other ballgame. He won't be beating down on unsuspecting trainers anymore. I agree with what the Leader said. If he even makes it to her, she's going to crush him. I predict your dream of a champion will have to wait at least another year."
The one named Bill smacked the table, "The Leader was completely out of line with that statement. How dare she disenfranchise these young trainers? If you ask me, she's far too young and immature to be in her position and the League made a mistake when it allowed her to displace the former Leader."
She rolled her eyes and kept walking. Ash was a celebrity and she was turning into the heel of the Pokemon League. Just another cheery development from the past couple of days, she thought, grumbling to herself.
She'd had enough of the sights and sounds of the city, so she continued her way to the gym. The large facility was empty at that point. All of the employees had gone home and it was dark. The Elite Four had unrestricted access, however, and the keycard reader made a familiar beep when she scanned her badge. She made her way through dimly lit lobby toward the locker room and quickly undressed and changed into her blue and white swimsuit and pulled the barrettes out of her hair, letting it fall its length to her mid shoulders before placing it in a ponytail.
Walking into the workout room, she released Gyarados into the large pool in a brilliant flash from the league imprinted Pokeball that she had been given upon acceptance into the Elite Four. She looked at the ball for a bit and sighed as her prized pokemon made loud happy gyarados noises as it swam around the large pool. Placing it back in her bag, she set her belongings to the side and climbed on to one of the diving platforms. Gyarados looked up at his trainer expectantly. She closed her eyes for a moment, letting the sound of the small waves in the pool calm her nerves before she dove in. Gyarados quickly dove beside her and swam in sync with his elite trainer as she instinctively grabbed on to him and let him pull her around the pool as she'd trained him to do. To any onlooker, it would look like brilliantly choreographed water ballet as Misty and her pokemon effortlessly swam around the pool, complimenting each other's movements with a graceful style.
Finally needing air, she nudged her large pokemon and it surfaced. She gulped in oxygen and wiped water from her face. As her vision cleared, she suddenly noticed the dark silhouette of a figure sitting on the bleachers near the edge of the pool and she let a very loud squeak escape her lips in surprise. Immediately Gyarados had lept out of the pool and was screaming inches from the face of whoever it was who had been spying on her. The figure stumbled backward off the bleachers yelling at her in a familiar voice to call off the monstrous water-type. Pushing herself out of the pool, she walked over to the head of her pokemon and gently tapped it, calling it off without a word, kneeling down to help her terrified boyfriend and his petrified Pikachu off the floor.
"Ash, what are you two doing? You scared us," she said softly.
"Scared you!?" he said, still breathing heavily, "you'd think this guy would recognize us by now!" He glared warily at the large pokemon, which he could have sworn looked amused.
Misty smiled, recalling her first meeting with Gyarados where they both saved each other's respective lives. "He's just overprotective," she said. Then looking at Ash she added, "What are you doing here? I thought…"
"I snuck away," he offered quickly. "I watched our back the whole way over and zigged and zagged through alleyways and streets, so there's no way someone followed us." he animated his journey by waving his hands around, "Brock told me where you were. It just didn't feel right all this celebration without you." He looked at her from under the brim of his hat.
Her heart fluttered from his words, and his eyes. She bit her lip, at that moment not really caring if the whole world walked in on them. She leaned into him and squeezed him as he returned the hug. She felt his heartbeat quicken as she remembered that she was in a bathing suit and was all wet.
"Oh, sorry," she giggled.
He laughed and winked, "No biggie!" At that, he set Pikachu on the bleachers and set his hat down next to him. Then Misty rose her eyebrows as he removed his jacket, then his shirt, then kicked off his shoes, and finally pulled off his jeans and walked to the pool in his boxers and jumped in. She doubled over laughing as he displayed his mediocre swimming skills as he flailed and splashed his way toward the far end of the pool.
"Do you need some help in there, you giant goofball?" she yelled after him.
"I can't hear you," he glubbed, spitting water out of his mouth, "I'm too busy winning this race!"
"Ha! Race!? You didn't say we were racing!"
The water gymnast launched herself into the pool and immediately started gaining ground on the amateur who had a big head start. She masterfully slithered through the water, looking almost like a Gyarados herself sliding easily in the water until she had easily caught up with Ash. Instead of swimming past him she grabbed him around the waist and the briefly both went under before coming up gasping for air. He splashed her, and then she splashed him, and then it turned into an all-out splash war. In between their lauging, gasping for air, and splashing, she was reminded of when they were younger again.
When she saw this was going nowhere, she decided to play her trump card. "Gyarados! Use SPLASH!"
"Wait!" Ash yelped, but it was too late. Gyarados lazily brought its tail down in the other side of the pool, causing a huge wave of water rushing toward the young couple. It lifted them out of the pool and deposited them on the deck beside the pool. Ash landed directly on his back while Misty landed right on top of him, laughing. She could hear both of the pokemon across the room also laughing, and felt Ash's chest move up and down under her.
She looked down and caught his eyes, and then the laughing stopped. He was looking at her with a slight smile and slightly raised eyebrows, and she returned the smile, blinking slowly. Their lips suddenly met without either of them realizing it, but it moved fast as they sat up and clung to one another, relishing the feel of their exposed skin touching and their warm bodies entwined as they were. She felt like things were about to get out of control, and wasn't sure whether she cared or not, when suddenly a loud clank was heard from in the locker room area.
The two bolted up, slightly dizzy from the blood having just been rushing through many other parts of their bodies. "What was that?" Ash asked.
"Someone's here!" Misty whispered, looking around frantically for a place for Ash to hide. There was nothing. The pool and the bleachers had nothing near them where he could hide, and heading to the weight room would offer him little options as well if the person decided to go lift weights. There was only one thing she could think of off the top of her head. "You're going to have to hide in Gyarados' mouth."
Ash just stared at her and managed to deadpan, "What!?"
"Just trust me, he's not going to eat you!"
Gyarados had already started approaching and, again, Ash could have sworn the pokemon had an amused look on its face. Ash grumbled about his luck; having to go from a heavy make out session to practically being Jonah. Misty did feel bad for him, and was frankly pretty flustered herself as she gathered his clothes into her bag. But she couldn't help but be a little amused watching her boyfriend climbing into her gyarados' mouth very, VERY tentatively.
No sooner had Gyarados shut its mouth than had a very familiar, very blue haired woman entered the pool room only to stop short when she saw Misty and her large pokemon staring at her as she entered. Karen was wearing what Misty considered a very unnecessarily small two piece that looked maybe a size too small considering how the curvy Elite Four member was about to pour out of it. She was glad Ash was shut up in a pokemon mouth at that point.
"Hello, Leader Misty," she said, continuing toward Misty.
"Karen," she replied, still looking at her through narrowed eyes as she began to make her way toward the locker room.
Karen noticed the somewhat pained look on Misty's huge water-type, "What's his problem?"
Misty bit her lip a little, "Uh...what are you talking about? He always looks like that."
"Oh-kay. Whatever," Karen replied, waving her hand as she passed her rival. Suddenly stopping, she asked, "Whose Pikachu is this?"
Oh no, we forgot to get Pikachu! Misty began to panic as Pikachu jumped up onto her shoulder. "Uh, it's mine, of course."
"You have a Pikachu? A water trainer has a Pikachu?" Karen put a hand on her hip somewhat dramatically.
"I can capture other pokemon, Karen," Misty said through gritted teeth.
"And you let it run around a pool? While you're swimming?"
"I…well I mean…" Misty did not like how her story was starting to falter.
"And I don't think I've seen a gyarados keep its mouth shut for so long," Karen was now developing a knowing smirk on her already smug face. "And why are you walking to the locker room with a gyarados out of its pokeball?"
Misty looked at her pokemon and could see the strain on its face from carrying a full grown man in its jaws for so long. Sweat droplets had already began forming on its already wet face. Misty clenched her fists and turned back to Karen and was about to lay into her when gyarados suddenly sneezed the loudest sneeze any of them had ever heard. Ash shot across the room and back into the pool with a huge splash.
Karen couldn't help but laugh as Misty ran over to the pool, but when she called out the man's name is when it really caught Karen's attention.
"Ash! Are you okay!?"
"Wait….what?" Karen said.
Note: Sorry this chapter is a bit shorter. It just felt like this was the perfect place to end it. This is a pretty fluffy chapter, but don't worry, there will be plenty of battles ahead.
I won't reply to reviews in every chapter, but I will try to maybe after every other.
nyislandersgirl: Misty is also my favorite character. I love the original three: Brock is the older brother we'd love to have, and Ash is obviously a mainstay, but Misty has always had the most interesting backstory and deepest potential of any of Ash's companions, and their relationship has always seemed so interesting, unpredictable, dynamic, and organic.
MandyQ: Ash certainly wouldn't care if people knew who he was, but they both felt like they didn't need to advertise it as he was finishing up reaching for his ambitions in other regions. He's not looking for that limelight, and he doesn't want to distract from her accomplishments either. Now they have some other complicated concerns.
As far as how the league works, we are given very little to go on in the anime and the games. In my universe, the Elite Four, while they have administrative powers in their own right, do answer to someone; namely the league curators. The curators kind of oversee League operations and try to act democratically in the interest of the league. Kind of sort of like some of our major sports leagues. There is a league president too. I don't know how far I'll nail it down. You may or may not see a couple of the older Elite Four members/former champions who have retired.
I'm glad you picked up on some of my easter eggs. The unforgettable Youngster Joey actually became a pretty good trainer. Actually I wasn't necessarily intending Leaf to be in the story. She was kind of a placeholder name that I forgot to change. But she's there now so I'll work her in a bit.
Misty became a member of the Elite Four because the League recognized her talent as a gym leader and wanted to bring some youth into the group. Brock too. They weren't the only prospects, but they won out. That could be a potential pre-prequel, haha. But there is a strenuous entrance process, and the eventual four do battle each other in order to decide their placement/importance. Misty is the best.
Cake: I feel like she'd have to be competitive as a gym leader and now Elite Four leader. She doesn't like to lose. That carried over from her childhood, but I think is amplified now. She is proud of her talent, and maybe even a little cocky. After all, she hasn't lost in years.