It's Research
A/N: this chapter was getting too long, so I split it up into two chapters. This part is mainly the build-up to chapter 5, where things finally start snowballing from. Enjoy the new chapter!
Chapter 4
Misty pulled her feet up on Gary's chair and leaned back against the cabinet, which she assumed was meant for archiving files. She was sitting on the desk, right next to the computer, since it seemed they had a shortage of actual chairs. Her sea green eyes looked over to Gary, who was as always, concentrated on whatever he was typing on the computer. Misty then stared back down to her crossword puzzle. It was something she had managed to stuff in her backpack, figuring that she'd be walking back all bored on her way home. As she came across a word that was 10 letters long, she nudged Gary in his side with her foot, knowing that this was the only way to get his attention. He looked up at her with his eyebrows furrowed.
"10 letters for an ancient flying pokemon," she said innocently. He was the Pokemon Professor, shouldn't he know?
"Aerodactyl." Gary then continued to type again on his keyboard.
Misty filled in the words; quite happy to have a Pokemon Professor by her side.
It seemed, being a 'junior assistant' meant sitting on her ass while watching Gary do work. It wasn't bad or anything, she knew what his purpose was. It was his own weird way of asking her to hang out with him, when he had mentioned the proposal. Misty of course, still felt horribly guilty after wrecking his car yesterday, but was really glad he didn't seem to be mad at her for it. She really liked this new Gary, she couldn't imagine doing this to him when he was 12 years old, they'd be enemies until the day she died. She was still planning on paying him back though, but she wouldn't tell him about it.
A few minutes passed in silence, with the only sound filling the room was the typing on a keyboard and the scribbling on paper. Half an hour passed, and Misty had almost but completed her crossword puzzle, when Gary suddenly stretched and cheered out loud.
"I finished it!" he said happily, then turned his head to look at her.
Misty hopped off of the desk and leaned over his shoulder to look at the screen. What she saw, she didn't quite understand, but she gave him a pat on the back anyway. "Good job!" she said, genuinely happy for him. "What is it that you finished?" she then asked awkwardly.
Gary gave her a small chuckle, but explained it nonetheless. "It's a report on the research I did, you know, the one you've been working on with me?"
"Oh, I see. Well, congratulations! What will you do with it?"
"Show it to other Pokemon Professors that will scrutinize every word. But not before proof-reading it several times."
"Sounds tough."
"It is."
"But I'm sure you'll do fine! From what I've seen, you're a really great Pokemon Professor," she said, not quite knowing why she was complimenting him this much. But seeing him smile proudly in return made it worth it. That, and she was hoping to make things up a bit in return for the car.
"Oh hey Misty, didn't know you were here," said Tracey who walked up behind them.
Misty saluted him like a military officer. "Misty, the junior assistant reporting for duty, sir!"
Tracey looked at her weirdly. "What's up with her?" he asked, directing it to Gary.
Gary simply shrugged. "Beats me, she thinks she's working here now."
Misty leaned closer to Gary and started pulling at his long spiky hair. "What was that, Oak?" she said in a low voice.
Gary simply leaned back in his chair, ignoring that Misty's fingers were entangled with his hair. "You'll be seeing a lot more of Misty now, so get used to it Tracey."
"Well, I don't mind at all, it's always good to see you Mist," he said happily.
It's been a while since anyone called her Mist, it was usually Ash who did that. Feeling rather agitated at the memory, Misty finally left Gary's chestnut hair alone.
"So what exactly do you do around here, Tracey? " she asked as she was interested in what Tracey could possibly do, besides draw.
Tracey started walking ahead, going to a different part of the room. "I mainly help with databasing and archiving, and I'm usually the errand boy."
"Usually," repeated Gary. "All the other times, it's me."
"Well Gary, it would do you some good to get out of this lab every once in a while!"
Misty snickered at their banter, and Gary gave her a mean look when he noticed. "I can't possibly leave the safety of this lab, don't you know there are hungry women out there who want to throw themselves at me?" he then retorted.
"I don't recall any hungry women throwing themselves at you," mused Misty with a smile. "Unless you call that old lady you helped cross the street a 'hungry woman'." Misty recalled Gary helping an old lady across the street as they went shopping for groceries this morning.
Tracey simply laughed at that piece of information, which made Gary growl – he was definitely losing this witty battle of smart remarks.
"At least I have some sort of interaction with women lately, I don't think you could say the same."
That hit the spot, as Tracey turned red once the words left Gary's arrogant face. He shook his fist, all from across the room, and sputtered a few curse words at the brunette. Misty was very amused by all this, Gary certainly hadn't lost his wit, nor his arrogance. Except this time, she certainly didn't mind. She remembered all the times he made fun of Ash, and while she admitted that some of the insults were spot-on, she was clearly infatuated with Ash and would defend him no matter what. Yet now, now she could hear the underlying playful tone in his remarks, Gary was still witty and arrogant, but he didn't mean a thing of what he said.
Misty smiled and then messed up Gary's hair, just because she could.
"Hey hey, don't go messing up my hair," he said, holding up his hands to shield her away.
"I'm not, it's always messy, I'm just cleaning it up," she said with a smirk.
"It's not messy, it's an actual hairstyle, you know," he defended.
"Reeallly," she drawled out then messed it up even more once she saw an opening.
He managed to catch one of her wrists so she could stop. "You sure do like touching my hair, don't you."
Misty's mind went blank for a second, as he did seem to have a point there. She then grinned slyly at him, yanking her wrist back. "It's just so awful, I can't help but want to fix it!" She then let a giggle escape and roughed it up even more.
After going back and forth and messing up his hair, and being pinned down at her wrists, Misty finally gave up and hopped back up on the desk and continued to finish her crossword puzzle, while Gary did whatever he does best at the computer.
"Hey Tracey, I finished the report just now," he finally called out after a while of silence.
"Oh, the one Misty helped you with?"
Gary nodded and stretched out his arms behind the back of his head, sitting comfortably on his chair. "Yup, I'm just checking it for any errors right now."
Misty nudged him in his side with her foot yet again, he shot her an annoyed look. "How long will that take for you to be done?" she asked curiously.
"Oh I don't know, maybe a day or two. Three if you keep bugging me with your feet."
Misty simply smirked and nudged him in his side for good measure before returning to her own little world again. Gary did his thing, and she did hers, and not for a second did Misty think this was boring.
Who knew, just sitting on a desk next to Gary Oak keeping her company would actually manage to entertain her? Her life must have been really boring if this was entertaining to her. After an hour had passed were no one in the room had said anything, as two of them were doing actual lab work, Misty noticed she was getting hungry, so she hopped off the desk and started looking for the kitchen. She had made some lunch for herself and Gary, and stashed it into the refrigerator.
She had managed to drag him to the grocery store to get more food before they got to the lab, since he seemed to be living off of Mac & Cheese again, and it was not a memory she was very fond of. Of course she paid for all the food, since the guilt of wrecking his car would linger until the day she'd die. Luckily, he had barely mentioned the incident at all, he didn't seem very fazed by it. Maybe he was speaking the truth when he said he almost never used his car anyway.
Misty finally found her way to the kitchen and snatched her sandwiches from the fridge and returned to the lab. She dangled the piece of sandwich in front of Gary's face, causing him to stop typing and look up at her weirdly.
"What is this? Bait?" he asked, batting the sandwich away from his view.
"It's called lunch. Healthy lunch," she said and dropped the sandwich in front on his desk. Misty happily gobbled up her own sandwich, hopping back onto her desk that had sort of become her spot.
"I'm not hungry," he said. A low growl from his stomach made him turn away his face in an attempt to hide it.
"Oh I see, you just don't want to eat my food. Well then," she leaned over to grab the sandwich she prepared for him in order to eat it herself, but her hand got slapped away from the food.
"No way, you gave it to me, it's mine now," he said while he slid the sandwich across the desk to the other side where she couldn't reach it.
"Tsk, so childish," she said jokingly. "Just admit it; you want to eat my food."
Gary reached for the sandwich and brought it closer to his mouth – almost in slow motion. He took a bite from her sandwich, his teeth sinking into the breath and tearing a piece of off it. His green eyes looked at her seriously and for a second, Misty was a bit mesmerized. "I want to eat your food," he said, as plain as day.
Arrogant, childish, honest – Misty had found out Gary could be a mixture of anything. So she broke out into a secret smile, knowing that she didn't find that to be a bad thing at all.
For the rest of the day, Misty focused on her crossword puzzle while Gary continued to work behind the computer. He wasn't kidding when he said he'd be busy today, after that fiasco with the car, he'd been busy all morning once they had managed to tow away the car and got some sleep.
Hours later and Professor Oak was closing up the lab. Gary had been scanning over some paperwork he printed, which probably contained the data of their research, ever since he left the lab along with her, going back to his house. Misty silently walked next to him, feeling the cold air hit her cheeks, while hearing the shuffling of papers fill her ears. It was quiet, but Misty was very comfortable being with Gary. The way his lab coat softly grazed her bare arm left her feeling a little nostalgic. Her eyes studied him as he was engrossed with reading the papers, barely paying attention to where he was going. In fact, if he wouldn't look up soon enough, he'd crash into a pole that was up ahead in his path. Misty did the right thing by yanking him sideways by his sleeve, immediately catching his attention.
"W-what was that for?" he said, caught off guard. Gary pulled all his papers together and held it up to his chest, his green eyes looking at her confused.
"You have one fascinating concentration," said Misty with a hint of sarcasm.
He frowned at her. "They say that there's a tie between someone's intellect and their concentration power. The better they can concentrate, the smarter they probably are."
"Hahha, that just seems so Gary-like to say," said Misty after chuckling loudly. "Now Mister Professor, pay attention to where you walk, or don't complain when I pull you away so you don't run into things."
Gary simply clicked his tongue at her. "Yes, mother."
Misty jabbed him in the side with her elbow, which caused him to grunt in response, but kept quiet after that. He returned to reading his paperworks as they descended down the path to his house. Misty had to pull him to her side again when he was venturing off-course, then decided link her arm with his raised one to keep him from straying away from her. It was almost like babysitting a kid who didn't know how to pay attention to where they were going. Except Gary was much older, and too concentrated on reading.
They finally arrived at his house, and he quickly opened the door, not saying a word, then setting down his paperwork on the kitchen table. He slid out of his lab-coat, something which Misty found hard to take her eyes off, then resumed to reading his paperwork at the kitchen table.
"I guess that's my cue to cook us food," said Misty with a half hearted smile at Gary who was barely aware she was even in the same room.
"You're so weird," she said while staring at him, studying his serious expression. Despite this weird knack he had, it was sort of interesting to see that serious gaze in his green eyes. It almost looked like he was angry, reading over those lines with a hint of passion. In a way, it was a lustful look. Misty's cheeks turned red after thinking that Gary was lustful, then whirled around and started to prepare for dinner.
As Misty prepared the ingredients for her dinner, she casted a sideways glance at Gary. "Hey, Gary?" she called out at him.
"Hmm?" he said in response. It was a miracle he even managed to give her a response when his eyes were focused on all the papers spread out on the table.
"Since you can't take me back tomorrow," she said, wincing a bit at the memory of crashing his car, "why not go to the beach with me instead? I can walk home myself afterwards. It's been ages since I've been to the beach in Pallet Town anyways, I really wanted to go for a while now." Misty bit her lip as she awaited Gary's response.
"Sure."
That sounded more like an answer to a question that could have been anything. Misty sighed with a smile; at least this way she could manipulate him into doing things, regardless if he wanted to go or not. A promise is a promise!
Misty happily returned to cooking, and after twenty minutes, finished up their delicious – and healthy – dinner. She plated the food, which contained some lovely pork chops, decorated with mashed potatoes and a healthy bunch of broccoli. She pushed away some of the papers on the table, and placed down the plate in front of Gary, who finally looked up at her.
"Oh, you were cooking?"
Misty didn't know whether to laugh or cry.
"Sorry, let me clean this up," he said quickly, then started to clean the table of all the papers, safely putting them away. "Oh hey, that smells good!" Gary noted.
"Why thank you," said Misty with a smile. "So you're still coming with me to the beach tomorrow, right?"
"Huh?" he said, his eyebrows raising. "Did I say that?"
"Yup," she said with a sneaky smile, slowly cutting her pork chop in half. "Right when you sat down at the table and started to read some more."
Gary let out a healthy laugh. "Misty, if you wanted to go to the beach with me, then just ask! You don't have to ask me when I'm not paying attention and I'll agree to anything."
Misty blushed a bit at that, then remembered to getting Gary to agree he was in love with Ash, and snickered quietly in herself. They both ate Misty's delicious dinner, and she finally convinced Gary to stop reading those papers already – and it was finally time for bed.
"How does around 10 o'clock sound?" asked Gary as he stood by his bedroom door.
"To go to the beach? Sounds good to me!" replied Misty with a smile.
"Okay then, good night," he said and finally opened his door. Feeling curious as to what his bedroom looked like, Misty peered over his shoulder.
When she saw his big and luxurious bed in the middle of the room, her mouth dropped to the floor; he was sleeping between silk bed sheets! Misty pushed herself into his room, still perplexed and insanely jealous at his bed.
"You sleep in that?" she said outrageously, pointing her index finger at his bed.
Gary, whose hand was on the doorknob, rolled his eyes at her. "No, I sleep on the floor."
"That is so unfair!" she whined and fell on top of Gary's king sized bed. "I have to sleep in such a tiny bed, while you get all of this for yourself?"
"Hey, I'm an Oak," he said as a matter of fact. "We get what we want."
"Arrogant bastard," she mumbled as she snuggled close to his pillows, finding out that his bed was very soft and comfortable. That bastard had silk sheets – it was like sitting on a sea of clouds, or something like that. It was a big difference from the old and worn bed she had been sleeping in while staying over there.
"Alright, enough fangirling over my bed, get out."
Misty held onto one of the pillows and viciously shook her head. "No way, I like it here!"
"Well, well. I've had girls admiring me, even had a stalker or two, but I've never had a girl who so obviously wanted to sleep with me."
Misty grunted loudly and flung the pillow she was holding towards his face. Gary surprisingly dodged it as if it was no big deal at all. She then spread all of her limbs as far as she could to hog the entire bed for herself.
"You can go ahead and sleep in the guestroom, I'll be taking this bed for myself," she said dreamily.
Suddenly, she was grabbed at by her ankles, and dragged off of the bed, landing with a cry of pain on the wooden floor. Gary towered over her with an arrogant smirk.
"No one can sleep in my bed other than me," he said, obviously taking pleasure in bullying her like that.
Misty slowly got up, and dusted off her hot pants as if nothing ever happened. She then slowly stepped closer to his bed again, but Gary stretched out his arm to physically block her. Misty smirked, then elbowed him in his side, causing him to stumble backward, and she launched herself forwards, falling on top of his bed once more.
"Mine!" she said childishly and grabbed another one of his pillows, which there were a ton of on his bed.
"Okay redhead, you brought this upon yourself," said Gary as he composed himself after being elbowed in his ribs.
What happened was a series of brawls and take-overs. Each trying to get the other one to get off the bed, while trying to stay on there themselves as long as they could. Pillows were hurled across the room, elbows were jabbed into ribs, some hair was pulled, and Misty even managed to use a tickle attack on Gary to prevent him from taking ownership of his bed once more. Needless to say, they both ended up on the floor, beaten and exhausted from their rough play. She hadn't felt like such a kid since forever. Seriously, when was the last time she had become so physical and just messed around until her body was aching all over? Misty pushed herself up so her back was leaning against the edge of the bed.
"Oh man, I'm aching all over. More than I was yesterday," said Misty as she robbed a sore spot on her leg, which Gary had managed to kick accidentally while she was tickling him.
"I can't even be bothered to get up anymore," said Gary with a loud huff.
Misty then smiled wickedly, and slowly crawled on top of the bed. "Then you won't mind me taking thi—YAAHH!" she screamed in surprise as Gary yanked her back onto the floor, and her head fell straight onto his lap.
"If I'm too exhausted to get up there, then so are you." He held an arm across her stomach to keep her from any attempts at concurring his bed, and to keep her steady on his lap. He was now sitting in the same position as she was previously in; leaning with his back against the edge of the bed, with his legs spread out across the floor – and with her head on his lap.
"I will sleep in there someday," said Misty as she yawned.
"Keep on dreaming, red," he said, awarding her a new nickname.
Not soon after, and they had both drifted off to sleep, not even caring they were both in an uncomfortable position, as well as on the floor and not in a bed.
The next day, Misty was sitting on Gary's couch, watching tv in the morning. An annoying commercial came on blaring about the fact that Gym Leaders sucked these days, and sighed loudly. She was disturbed by Gary who was coming down the stairs. He was still wearing the same thing as yesterday, since he sort of fell asleep in it, but so did she.
"When did you get up?" he asked in a scratchy voice.
"Right when you kneed my face."
Gary's sleepy eyes grew wide in disbelief. "I did what?"
Misty turned her face so she could show Gary her left cheek. It had a large red mark on it, as if she were hit by something blunt. Or rather, Gary's knee. "Your knee, in my face," she said simply. "But it's okay, in return I drooled on your crotch."
Gary quickly looked down on his pants, and he could spot the faint glimmer of dried-up drool in the middle of his crotch area. His cheeks started to turn a bright pink and he quickly went back upstairs again. Misty laughed out loud, finding it rather amusing. She found herself waking up when she had managed to roll off of Gary's lap during her sleep, and then got a real good wake-up call when he twitched and crashed his knee into her face. It hurt, of course, but once Misty noticed that minutes before, she had been drooling on his lap, she simply smiled sheepishly and left him sleeping on the floor all alone.
It was a nice day today indeed. Especially since she was going to go to the beach today with him, though she did feel rather sore. All that fighting yesterday left her with a few bruises, and now she has another one forming on her cheek as well. Not to mention she crashed his car a couple of days ago …
After twenty minutes, Gary came downstairs again, this time wearing different clothes, and his hair looking a lot more tamed.
"Alright, let's go to the beach, red."
Misty's ears perked up at the nickname, but said nothing, and simply gave him a wide smile; happy to know he was going to the beach with her. It took about half an hour of walking to reach the beach of Pallet Town. It was a huge difference between Cerulean's beach, since it was always crowded by tourists and the like. Pallet Town had no such thing, and the beach was essentially deserted.
"Wow, it's been so long since I've been to the beach with someone!" said Misty excitedly, then quickly ran towards the sand, kicking off her shoes.
Gary lagged behind her. "I thought you'd be coming to the beach pretty often. Being a water-type Gym Leader and all."
"Sometimes, it's just a bit too crowded really. Besides, when I do go, I go alone," she said a bit sadly. This was starting to remind her of memories she spent with Ash at the beach. She stared at the ocean, her eyes glazed over and unfocused. "Is Unova far from here?" she asked randomly.
Gary plopped down in the sand. "Pretty far. Takes about an entire day to get there by plane."
"I see," she said simply.
"Ash is currently training there, isn't he?"
"Last thing I heard of him, he was indeed in Unova. But he hasn't called me once since he's been there."
"Not much on speaking terms, are you?" he asked rhetorically.
Misty walked over to the waves washing up on the beach, her toes getting wet. "I guess I lost that privilege once I became a Gym Leader."
Suddenly she heard Gary try to hold in his laughter behind her back. Misty whirled around; he thought that was funny? On some kind of level, she thought Gary at least knew how she felt about the subject of Ash. So hearing him laugh at her was like a blow to her stomach.
"What's so funny?" she spat out.
Gary quickly cleared out his throat, then smirked at her. "Well, you see, that jerk can't even spare one measly phonecall for over a year – yet I swear, I've been behind the videophone far more than I was behind the computer this past week!"
Misty smiled; that was true. They called every day, even if it was just nonsense they talked about. Gary even called her himself, something which Ash hasn't managed to do in years.
"My sisters were already joking I should get a cellphone for hogging the videophone every day," she said with a small laugh. The redhead then stepped into the water, walking further and further ahead until her ankles were submerged.
"Hey Misty," Gary called out. She turned around to face him. "About that junior assistant thing." His green eyes avoided hers as he spoke, and he shyly scratched the back of his neck. "I just used that as an excuse to hang out with you more … There is actually no such position."
Misty kicked up some water from the ocean, reaching almost far enough to splash on him. She laughed happily, covering her face with her hands; those words washed away any bad feelings that still lingered around because of Ash. Here was Gary Oak, admitting that he indeed, wanted to be around her. She could have never imagined her life turning out this way, because Gary could be such a smart-ass when they were younger, always teasing her and her friends. Yet now, they each found a mutual friendship.
"What?" he said a bit embarrassed. That shy side of him was pretty cute.
"I knew that," she said with a wide smile. Misty then finally left the waters, picked up her shoes from the sand and walked over to Gary, then sat down right next to him. She gave him a warm smile, while he tried to nonchalantly turn his face away, pretending to be cool and aloof, despite Misty now knowing he wanted to be friends with her as well. At least she wasn't the only one who really liked spending time with him. In fact, she hadn't had this much fun or adventure in years!
They remained silent for a while. It wasn't an awkward silence, but it felt rather comfortable. Misty dug her hands into the warm sand and then slowly lifted up her fingers one by one, letting the sand fall through them. She then felt her fingers hit something hard; it was a seashell. She picked it up in between her index and thumb, then examined it close-up.
"Oh hey look, I found a pretty one!" she said excitedly. It was a small seashell, pure white, so white it looked almost fake, as if someone painted it that way.
Gary snorted at her tiny little seashell, as he then turned away from her, and grabbed something from the sand on his side. He lifted it up to show it to her; a cream coloured spindle shell. Misty bit her lip, a bit envious since it was more interesting than her plain one.
"Mine's better," he said with an arrogant smile, toying around with the shell in between his fingers.
Misty quickly used her eyes to scan the beach sand around her, and spotted a spiral shaped shell, then pulled it out of the sand and shoved it into Gary's face. He simply chuckled, then showed her another, prettier shell. They continued to do this for about two more minutes until they had a pile of shells stacked up besides them.
"There's so many pretty ones," said Misty with a beaming smile.
"Yeah, too bad we don't have a bucket with us or anything, we could carry it home."
Misty stared at Gary's serious face for a second. "Really? I didn't peg you as a guy who liked keeping seashells. And I've got pockets, you know."
Gary picked one up from the pile and threw it in the air, catching it with his hand. "Shells are like fossils; they can be very interesting to study."
"Right. Pokemon Professor and all that. I just like 'em because I like anything associated with water."
"What a shallow reason," he said with a laugh.
Misty puffed up her cheeks. "As if yours isn't!"
They said nothing for a while as Misty started to play with the shells. After a minute or so, she spoke up. "Why did you want to become a Professor? I thought you liked pokemon battles."
She had always been curious about the reason, ever since she found out he stopped training and became a Pokemon Professor instead. Gary slowly turned his head towards her, and the ocean breeze made his hair billow around in the wind, caressing his face. At that moment, he looked as if he belonged in a magazine for celebrities. Misty quickly turned her head away.
"Hmmm," he drawled out. "Wouldn't you like to know?"
Misty puffed up her cheeks for a second time, then punched him in the arm.
"Ouch!" he said while wincing.
"I'm so sorry! I forgot you had a bruise on that spot!" Misty had almost forgotten they were in a small car crash just two days ago. "How is it looking anyways?" she asked while she quickly rolled up his sleeve.
The bruise on his arm had turned big, like the size of her entire hand almost, covering mostly the upper part of his arm, and some of his shoulder. Not only that, it was a nasty yellow. Misty felt so guilty by looking at it; it was her fault he got that bruise. Gary quickly pulled his sleeve down to cover it up.
"It's nothing, it'll go away in a week."
"Sorry," she managed to squeak out.
Gary then messed up Misty's hair. "Don't worry about it. Besides, I got you back for it, right?" His fingers then gently grazed over her left cheek, catching her by surprise. The spot where his fingers were touching her lit up like a light bulb, heating up because of his touch. His eyes were focused on the small red mark on her cheeks, which had stopped hurting since a long time ago. He lifted his fingers from her cheek, pulling away from her with a small smile.
Misty quickly rubbed her cheek with her hand, afraid Gary would notice it was getting redder. She didn't fail to notice either that her bare arm was softly touching his sleeve. For some reason, these little details jumped out at her, which was making her feel self conscious.
"I just didn't feel like traveling anymore," said Gary all of the sudden.
"Huh? Is that the only reason you became a Professor? No way, I mean, you might as well become a Gym Leader then," said Misty in a haste, trying to shake off her weird feelings at the moment.
Gary chuckled at her questions. "No, that's not the only reason. I realized that I was more interested in studying my pokemon, than to battle with them."
"Aha."
"Besides, I look good in a lab coat," he said with an arrogant smirk.
"I'll agree to that," said Misty with a laugh.
That comment made Gary even more arrogant and full of himself. He puffed out his chest and looked around the beach as if he were king. "See, even Misty thinks so. Women fall at my feet when I wear 'the' coat."
"Now don't get too cocky," said Misty with a sly smile. "Who was it again that said he has no experience? I think his name started with a G …"
"I have no idea what you're talking about," he said, completely dismissing it. "You must have heard wrong. Must be Tracey that you're thinking of."
Misty bit her lip to prevent herself from laughing. She then dug her fingers into the sand, gathered a bit of it, then lifted it over Gary's head and scattered it in his hair.
Outraged, Gary immediately counter-attacked, throwing sand in her hair as well. The next hour was spent fooling around with Gary at the beach. She even managed to pull him into the ocean, getting both of them entirely drenched in the process. As Gary stood against a backdrop of the vast ocean, wringing out his shirt, Misty couldn't help but think that this is what she was missing from her life. She used to say that her pokemon were her life, but life proved otherwise when she realized she was bored, and sinking into a small depression as she was left all alone. What good were her pokemon if she didn't have someone to share it with? Gary smiled broadly at her, showing off his white teeth, then splashed some water at her again. Misty grinned back, splashing water at him as well.
She believed that, she had found this person again.