Last chapter of the three shot! We find out what's really been bothering Misty since the stinging incident. So, what will happen in the story's conclusion? Read on and find out...

Chapter Three: On the Mend

Ash was staying over for the night, and Misty wasn't as happy about it as she thought she'd be.

It had been his idea to sleep in the same bed. No funny business, mind you. Ash knew of Misty's wishes to wait until marriage and he respected them. For that, Misty was grateful. Ash wasn't like other guys, who might have viewed that as a deal breaker. Of course, Ash wasn't like most other guys anyway.

Misty only had a twin sized bed, so the two of them sharing it wasn't exactly ideal. Especially since Ash was a pretty big boy. He definitely wasn't the scrawny little thing he had been as a kid. Ash was very tall now; his legs, in fact, were practically hanging over the end of Misty's bed. He was also solid now; well-toned and showing the beginning signs of muscle. Nothing too extreme, though, which Misty was grateful for. He did have a wonderful set of abs, however.

She couldn't fall asleep that night, and Misty wasn't sure if it was because of the faint pain that resonated in her arm from Tentacool's sting, the mid July heat, or the fact that Ash had his left arm and leg draped over her body, holding her close and snoring softly in her ear.

Maybe it was just a combination of all three.

Either way, Misty felt that she could simply lie in bed no longer. She had to get up, maybe even go somewhere. It took all of her strength just to wriggle out from beneath Ash's limbs, which only flared up the pain in her injured arm. Misty hissed quietly and grabbed at the afflicted area, which was still wrapped in a bandage. Fortunately for her, Ash was a heavy sleeper and wasn't awoken by her jostling. Just another thing Misty was thankful for.

She pulled herself out of bed and stared at her dresser, where the digital clock was faintly lighting up part of her room. Getting closer so her eyes could adjust, Misty leaned forward and scanned the time on the face of the white clock.

12:30 AM.

Sighing, Misty slipped on a pair of light blue flip flops and opened up her bedroom door, padding down the stairs until she reached the living room. It was drenched by moonlight, the furniture looking rather eerie in the nighttime darkness. Misty was usually never up this late. She made her way over to the large window, kneeling on the bench seat that was placed right below it. Resting her fingers on the window sill, Misty leaned forward until her forehead hit the cool glass. Her emerald eyes stared up into the midnight sky, tracing the silver stars and the roundness of the full moon.

She was thinking very deeply about something…and Misty didn't even know if it was right. It might hurt Ash. But she couldn't get over the events of yesterday. Her birthday. And she had managed to screw the whole thing up. Ash had been so sweet, to get her that gift, but everything had gone wrong. And Misty couldn't help but to feel guilty about it. She was the one who had ignored the signs, who had let it happen, and who was now letting the string of events affect her.

It might have been wrong, but Misty knew what she had to do.

Grimacing, Misty planted her feet back on the floor and retrieved her key ring from the hooks by the door. With one last look up the stairs, Misty opened the front door and slipped out into the dark, cool night, closing the white wooden slab behind her.

Unfortunately for the water type specialist, she hadn't done that very carefully. The sound of the door slamming shut was enough to wake Ash up, and with a fairly powerful jolt. He noticed that when he had Misty around, he became more alert when it came to ominous noises, especially ones in the night. Ash couldn't help it that he was so protective of his girlfriend. She meant absolutely everything to him. Looking down, however, the trainer realized that his beloved was missing, and that's when Ash's heart really started to pound.

"Misty!" Ash cried. His frantic yell was enough to wake up Pikachu, who had been sleeping on a folded up blanket in the corner of Misty's room since there wasn't enough room for him in the crowded bed.

"Pikapi?" Pikachu grumbled sleepily.

"Pikachu, Misty is gone!" Ash gasped, jumping out of bed and getting tangled in the lilac sheets in the process. "I just heard the door slam, and I woke up and she was gone!"

"Ka?!" Pikachu was wide awake now.

"I'm scared," Ash admitted, looking frantically around the dark room once he'd managed to free his legs from the soft fabric of Misty's bed sheets. "We have to go. We have to find out what's going on. Someone might have kidnapped her!"

"Pi-ka!" Pikachu yelled, leaping off of his makeshift bed and out of the room. Ash slipped on his sneakers and followed after his trusty partner, not even bothering to tie the laces on his shoes. He knew his mother would have scolded him, but she wasn't here at the moment, and the love of his life could have been in serious danger. So tied shoelaces be damned.

Clumsily, Ash bounded down the stairs and made his way straight to the front door, which he pulled open with much more force than was necessary. Pikachu ran out first, although Ash was close behind. He slammed the door shut, even more forcefully than Misty had, and ran out into the dusky night of Cerulean City.

Ash whipped his head around, not sure as to where Misty could have gone. It was late at night, and dark, so it's not like he could see very easily.

"Pikachu, can you track Misty by her scent?" Ash asked, his voice trembling.

"Pika," Pikachu confirmed he could. Raising his nose, Pikachu started to sniff the air, hoping to catch a whiff of the girl. He had Misty's scent memorized just as well as Ash's, so he could find her trail pretty easily. Soon enough, he caught onto it, and started to run in the direction where it was moving towards. Ash followed after, not wanting to miss a single beat. Within seconds, he knew exactly where Pikachu was bringing him; the Cerulean Gym. As soon as Pikachu reached the building, however, he ran right past it, much to Ash's surprise.

"Pikachu, wait!" Ash cried, causing the electric mouse to skid to a halt. "Isn't Misty in the gym?"

Pikachu shook his head, his ears swaying along. Ash frowned, and began to grow truly concerned now. He knew that sometimes, when she was upset, Misty would retreat to the gym, because it was a place where she felt safe. But if that's not where Misty was…then things might be really bad.

"Keep going, Pikachu," Ash breathed. The electric mouse nodded and continued to run in the same direction, with Ash trailing behind quickly and diligently.

After a few more minutes, Pikachu reached the shoreline on the border of the city. Both him and Ash found Misty standing right in front of the water, staring down at her hands which she was holding up in front of her chest. Suddenly, she swung her am forward, throwing a red and white sphere into the air.

A poke ball.

"Misty, what are you doing?!" Ash cried.

The gym leader whipped around, and as soon as she did, the ball popped open and emitted a red light, which turned into Tentacool once it hit the water. Before Ash could even move, the jellyfish Pokémon swam away, deep out into the ocean which looked almost black this late at night.

"Misty…did you just release my birthday present to you?" Ash sounded numb.

"I'm sorry," Misty apologized hoarsely, shaking her head. "I just…I couldn't keep it. I couldn't."

"But why?" Ash moved closer to Misty, and now she could see the sense of hurt reflected on his handsome face. "Is it just because he stung you? Because…I know that was bad, but you're a great trainer, Mist. You're a great gym leader. You could've trained Tentacool, and you guys could've been really good friends! Great partners, even!"

"It's not the stupid sting that I care about!" Misty finally snapped, tears falling freely down her face. Ash was taken aback by her outburst, so Misty went on to hastily explain, "It's what happened after the sting. I cried in front of you. I never cry in front of anyone! I broke down, and I made myself vulnerable, and…that's just shameful to me. Crying in front of you is the worst thing I could have done! I made myself look like a total idiot! Don't you know how that makes me feel?!"

"Misty, it's okay to cry," Ash comforted the girl. "And it's even more okay to cry in front of me."

"No it isn't!" Misty shook her head furiously, the tears coming even faster now. "It's embarrassing! I don't want you to see me like that! Like this!" She began to become flustered again, once she became more aware that she was crying in front of him once again. "That isn't me. It isn't. It's not."

Ash moved even closer and wrapped Misty up in a hug. The trainer felt bad…he knew Misty's childhood hadn't been an easy one. She still wasn't comfortable enough to give him all the details, but Ash knew that it was traumatizing enough that it had left a lingering effect on her. And that's where the emotional stigma stemmed from. He pressed her head against his chest and stroked her soft ginger hair, feeling her body stiffen as she tried to contain the fervent sobs that were fighting to escape from her throat.

"Misty, just cry," Ash whispered into her hair. "Please. It's okay."

"No, it isn't," Misty squeezed her eyes shut as tightly as possible. She wanted to push Ash away, to run as far away from him as she possibly could. But her body wouldn't follow her mind's orders. She just couldn't do it.

"I swear to you that it's okay," Ash squeezed her more tightly. "I love you no matter what. Just because you cried in front of me doesn't mean I think any less of you. In fact…it makes me love you even more. Because it tells me that you trust me. You never opened up to anyone before we started dating, Misty. You were always the girl who never wanted to tell anyone how you were really feeling. Well, unless you were mad, of course. But then, all of a sudden, you started to open up to me. You were honest and fun and I really understood you. I'd never understood anyone as well as I did you. And ever since yesterday…when you cried after you got stung…you started to close up again. And that's not what I want. That's not what makes our relationship ours. So, go ahead, cry. And when you're done, I'll still be here, and we can go back to the way we were before today. Before all of this happened. And you'll know that I'll still be here, loving you, and not judging you for anything."

It was the sweetest thing Misty had ever heard. Ash was right…what Misty thought had been her pride, maybe it really was just her closing people out. Maybe it was because of the childhood she'd had, because of her personality, and because of her past. Maybe she was just bitter, even cold, and not very trusting. But there was one person in the world that she loved, who made her so happy, and who she could trust with absolutely anything in the world and not at all feel precarious.

And that was Ash.

So, for the third time in the last few hours, Misty began to cry. But this time, it wasn't out of pain, or sadness and shame. No, that was hardly it.

Instead, they were happy tears, rolling down her cheeks and into the dew kissed grass as Ash held her in his arms, stroking the back of her head and waiting patiently for her to finish.

Waiting to tell her he loved her once again.

And finished! I actually kind of enjoyed writing some angstier shipping stuff. It's still a happy ending, but not filled with the same kind of rainbows and sunshine that I usually put in. You can tell there's still a lot of stuff that they need to work on.

So, that's all for this story! Thanks for all of the great reviews! I want to keep trying my hand at non future fics, so let's see where it goes from here ;)