Disclaimer: If Pokémon were mine, egoshipping would be canon by now.

I just want to say "thank you" to all of my readers out there. I really appreciate the reviews and pm's. I'm glad that you're all enjoying the story.


6 months later…

Misty flopped down on the couch and turned on the television mounted on the wall in front of her. After having found a seemingly decent show to keep on, she picked up the pint of pistachio ice cream on the coffee table and immediately began to consume the sweet substance, ravenously scooping the concoction into her mouth with a spoon. If her sisters had seen her at that very moment, they would've muttered something or other about her being unladylike. But tonight, her sisters weren't home, so she really didn't care.

All she had wanted to do all day was to lounge in the living room while eating her favorite ice cream… and that's exactly what she was doing. She wasn't going to let anything get in her way.

It had been an exceptionally busy day for the red-headed gym leader. In addition to the dozen or so trainers that had arrived and asked for gym battles, she had to clean the pool, wash the floors, feed the pokémon and make sure that they had exercised. Completing these tasks while being buried in paperwork from the Pokémon League didn't exactly make for an enjoyable day. It certainly didn't make for an easy one either.

By the time she was finished all of her work, it was past eight-o'clock. It had taken her almost fourteen hours to finish all of her work. Regardless, she was relieved that she would finally be able to shower and relax.

She looked over at Togepi, who was sitting on the coffee table nibbling on some cookies.

"You're so lucky that you don't have a job," she said.

"Toge, toge!" the baby Pokémon exclaimed before stuffing another cookie into its mouth and munching happily.

Misty smiled at the innocent creature before taking one of the magazines in the pile next to it. She was desperate to find some sort of entertainment (the reality show that was playing on the television just wasn't doing it for her). She flipped through it carelessly before a rather large and colorful headline caught her eye.

Just as she was starting to become immersed in the article, the phone rang.

Ring, ring, ring! Ring, ring, ring! Phone call! Phone call!

Misty decided to ignore it, and smiled in satisfaction when it stopped ringing. She ate another spoonful of her ice cream before turning back to the magazine-

Ring, ring, ring! Ring, ring, ring! Phone call! Phone call!

"Ugh! Why?" Misty asked out loud.

Togepi only chirped in response, oblivious to his master's frustration.

She sighed and grudgingly walked across the room to the phone (but not before taking her ice cream with her; there was no way that she was going to let it go to waste). Sitting down, she hastily picked up the receiver and answered, "What do you want?"

"Well, hello to you too," a male voice replied sarcastically.

Misty's cheeks reddened a bit after Gary's image materialized on the screen. He did not look the least bit entertained by the situation.

"Oh, I'm so sorry, Gary, but I'm terribly busy at the moment. I'll call you back in an hour, I promise!" Gary recited, his voice a little higher pitched than normal. He rolled his eyes before looking at her pointedly. "Does that sound familiar?" he asked.

Misty's face turned an even darker shade of red. "S-Sorry!" she said sheepishly.

"It's been six hours; y'know that, right?"

"Yeah, I know. I'm sorry, but I was so busy… I just… forgot," she said, bringing her hands together, asking for forgiveness.

"Yeah, yeah. Whatever." He sighed and his face softened. "So what's bothering you?"

"What do you mean?" she asked, taking another spoonful of ice cream into her mouth.

"You don't normally answer the phone that rudely, do you?" he said, raising an eyebrow. "Then again, it is you that we're talking about, so maybe it is normal—"

"Excuse me?" Her eyes narrowed.

"Kidding, kidding." He leaned forward, supporting his head with his arm. "Seriously though, Red. What's wrong?"

"Nothing. I'm just tired… I've just had a ton of things to do these past few days. My sisters left for another trip, and so I'm by myself. I was up since seven this morning and I just finished around half an hour ago," she explained.

"Oh. Well, if you want to sleep or whatever—"

"No, no. It's okay. I haven't talked to you in a while anyway," she said, recalling that their last phone conversation was three days ago.

"You sur—"

"Yes, I'm sure," she interrupted. "What's up?"

"…I have some news."

"Okay, spill."

"Y'know how I've been kind of… well, wanting to get off of this island? I mean, it's great and all but—"

"You want to travel again," she said before taking another bite of her ice cream.

"Yeah. And—"

"You think you've worked with prehistoric Pokémon long enough," she said while pointing her spoon at him.

"…Did I mention all of this to you already?" he asked, dumbfounded.

"Once… or twice," she admitted. "So what's the news?"

"Okay, see: for the past couple of weeks, my grandpa has been working on a project with Professor Rowan from Sinnoh. Do you know about him?"

She pondered for a moment before replying, "I've heard of his name before."

"He specializes in Pokémon evolution."

"Ah, I think there was an article about him in the paper last week."

"Anyway, he mentioned to Grandpa that he was going to start a new long-term project on the legendary Pokémon in Sinnoh, and that he was looking for some new recruits for his team. Grandpa mentioned me, and… now I'm going to Sinnoh," he said with a small smile. "It's more hands on, so I'll be traveling more instead of staying cooped up in a lab."

"Really? That's great, Gary! I'm really happy for you."

"Thanks."

"Legendaries…" Misty thought out loud. "That sounds so interesting. You're so lucky that you have the chance to study them."

"I guess, but you've definitely seen a lot more than I have," he said, remembering the numerous stories that she had told him. "Seeing Ho-oh, Lugia, Celebi and all of those others? That's pretty impressive."

"Yeah, but it wasn't like we saw them all for fun or anything. My friends and I just have a knack for getting ourselves into trouble," she said, chuckling.

"Well, I don't think anyone can deny that."

Misty smiled wistfully.

"You miss it, don't you?" he asked softly.

"What? Getting into trouble?"

"You know what I mean."

She smiled guiltily. "…A little," she admitted.

Gary looked at her disbelievingly.

"Okay, a lot…," Misty corrected, "but it's fine."

"Really?"

She nodded. "Really. I'm sure I'll have time to travel again later." She paused before speaking again. "So when are you leaving?"

"I'm leaving here on the twentieth of next month, so… seven weeks. Then I'm going to Pallet for a week before visiting you in Cerulean, and then I'm catching a ferry to Sinnoh from there."

"How long are you staying here, then?"

He shrugged. "I dunno… Until you kick me out, I guess," he said with a grin.

She looked at him fondly. "It's been a while, hasn't it?"

"Yeah…" Gary remembered their two reunions since he went to work at Sayda Island. The most recent one was two months ago, his grandfather and Tracey paid another visit to the young researcher for his 14th birthday (regardless of the previous Aerodactyl-related fiasco). They had even invited Misty to come along. He wasn't expecting to see her, but it was certainly a pleasant surprise.

A month prior to that was Misty's own birthday, and he had shown up at the Cerulean gym with a togepi-shaped cake.

"Well, you know what's up with me. Anything exciting happen to you these past few days?"

Misty's face suddenly flushed red when a certain event from yesterday replayed in her mind.

"Aha! So something did happen!" Gary said with a grin. "Do tell."

She laughed weakly. "Haha… Um… Where do I begin?" She pondered for a moment before continuing, "Uh… Daisy, Tracey, Casey and I were hanging out by the pool when a Pelipper flew in through the window with a letter addressed to me. It was from some guy named 'Georgio' and he wanted me to meet him at the lighthouse."

He blinked. "Huh? What for?"

"I didn't know at the time… but Casey volunteered to go with me to find out, and so we did, and then we found out that all this Georgio kid wanted was to uh, ask me out on a date."

"A date?" he repeated. "He went through all of that to ask you out on a date?" he asked, incredulously.

Her eyes narrowed. "What are you saying?"

He shrugged. "Seems like he's kind of a wimp to me. Why couldn't he just go to the gym and ask you?"

"I don't know…"

"Well, did you agree?"

"No…"

"Why? Was he a creep or something?"

"Not at all," she replied, shaking her head. "He seemed really nice and sweet."

Gary rolled his eyes. "Awww, how nice," he remarked sarcastically.

She glared at him. "Why do you care so much about my love life all of a sudden?"

"You mean your lack of one?" he pointed out.

"Oh, please. You're on the same boat as I am, Gary Oak," Misty said pointedly. "Making fun of me would make you a hypocrite."

"…Shut up." This was one of the times in which Gary regretted telling the red head so much about his life.

Misty smiled smugly. She knew that Gary had only been on a handful of dates, but none of them ever evolved into anything: he had never a girlfriend of any sort. He had said that he was just too focused on training his Pokémon and 'being the best' when he was younger to even seriously consider going out with anyone.

And now... well, it wasn't like there were a lot of young and attractive girls in the Pokémon researching field. Especially on an island in the middle of nowhere.

The only response that she could come up with when he had told her that was: 'Jeez. You can be as dense and stubborn as Ash, too.'

That comment had obviously ticked Gary off. However, she really wished that she could have taken a picture of his face after she told him that Ash had already been kissed by a couple of girls.

...And his face after she told him the story of Rudy (the leader of the Trovita Island gym) proposing to her was absolutely priceless.

"Why'd you say 'no'?" he asked, trying to divert the topic of conversation away from him.

"I… I don't know. Something was… holding me back or…"

"Is it Ash?" he cut in.

"Wh-What?" she stammered, almost falling off her chair.

"Oh, please. Everyone knows that you had some mega crush on him or whatever… Everyone but him, that is."

"Yeah, well the keyword here is 'had.' As in: past tense."

"So you don't anymore?"

"No," she answered simply.

"As of when?"

She shrugged. "A couple of months ago, I guess…? I don't know when exactly."

"What brought that on?"

She sighed. "I got tired of waiting. There's no way that he'll focus on anything else but Pokémon anytime soon…"

"Well, you've got that right," he interjected. "I don't know why it took you so long to figure it out but… whatever. Someone as thick-headed as him isn't worth your time anyway."

Misty frowned. "He's still my friend, y'know. You don't have to talk about him like that."

"So what? He's my friend too. Besides, you know it's true. That kid is just way too oblivious to everything."

"...I'm not going to say anything."

"Why? Because you know I'm right?" he said whilst smirking.

"You're impossible," she said, narrowing her eyes.

"As are you," he shot back.

Misty grit her teeth. She really wasn't in the mood to argue at the moment. Instead, she took another spoonful of her ice cream into her mouth.

"…What… are you eating?" Gary asked, pointing at the light green substance.

"Pistachio ice cream, of course."

"...Pistachio?"

She nodded.

"Hm. Never had it."

Misty froze and looked at him. "What?"

"What?"

"You've never had pistachio ice cream before?" she exclaimed, shocked.

"Uh, hello? Didn't I just say that? Are you deaf or something?"

She only rolled her eyes. "Well, you're missing out."

"Am I, now?"

"Yes. Pistachio is the most delicious ice cream flavor to ever be invented." She finished off the last of the cold treat before adding, "Ever."

"Says who?" he challenged.

"Says me, of course."

"And who made your opinion the supreme law of the land?"

"Me, duh."

"You're such a child."

"As are you," she said with a triumphant grin.

Gary rolled his eyes, but he couldn't help the smile that tugged at corner of his lips. "Uh… I think Togepi's falling asleep there," he said, looking over her shoulder.

Misty looked behind her and saw that the baby Pokémon was fighting to keep its eyes open. She carefully picked him up and set him on her lap.

"Aren't you tired too?" he asked her.

She shook her head. "Not anymore. I think it's from all of that sugar in the ice cream… I won't be surprised if I crash in a little while, though."

Togepi yawned and snuggled closer to Misty before falling asleep.

"The poor thing's been up the whole day."

He studied the Pokémon before asking, "Are you ever going to let him battle?"

"I… I don't know…"

"Y'know that he won't be a baby forever. You've had him for almost four years now; you're gonna have to train him sometime. Do you even know of its capabilities?"

"No…" she admitted sheepishly. "All I know is that he can use metronome, but other than that…"

"Hm. Well, if you want, I can help you train him when I visit you," he offered.

"Really? I guess that would be okay… Thanks."

"No problem."

"How are your Pokémon?" she asked after a few moments of comfortable silence.

"Lazy," he answered simply.

"What?"

"They really like the weather here. All they do is sit in the sun all day."

Misty laughed. "Who can blame 'em? I'd probably do the same."

"Yeah, I guess you're right… Might as well let them enjoy it while they can, eh?" Gary remarked, remembering that he would be going to Sinnoh soon.

"Yeah… It's cold up there, isn't it? Sinnoh, I mean…"

"Generally, yes. There are some parts in northern Sinnoh that are so cold, that it snows all of the time," Gary informed.

Misty made a face. "I hate the cold."

"I'm guessing that you won't be visiting me in Sinnoh then?" he teased.

She shrugged. "If you don't do anything to piss me off, then I'll consider it…," she said, sticking her tongue out. "But… Sinnoh isn't exactly right next door, though, y'know? I'd have to leave the gym for at least a week, and I'm not so sure about leaving my sisters to take care of it for so long…"

Gary chuckled. "Yeah, I understand. It's alright. I forgot about that." He rubbed the back of his neck. "Whatever. I'll probably have more opportunities to sneak away than you, anyway… and I know that Grandpa will be expecting me to come home every now and then to update him on my findings."

"So... we'll still get see each other?" Misty asked, hopeful.

"Definitely. I would never deprive you of the pleasure of my company."

Misty sighed. Gary had certainly grown up since their travels through Kanto and Johto, but there were just some things that would never change.


And there's Chapter 4! Woo~! Haha. It's a little short, but the next one will be longer, I promise.

Please review! The more reviews, the more motivation I'll get to update quicker. xD

Thanks for reading!