Author's Note: Woo! Woo! I am in a good mood right now and it is perfect for writing! But jeez …. When will I get to the fun stuff? It is all depressing that and all 'cry-cry' this. Sigh, where's the laughter, and Misty beating up people? Oh well, at least I get to write a chapter with my favourite character in the world again. MISTY! Boo ya! So … ENJOY THE CHAPTER!

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His manly fingers tremble when he touched Ash's belongings. When he viewed the many framed photographs on his large wooden dresser, Brock glowered. Most frames held photos of Misty, but some included other friends, as well as Ash and himself. Though, one certain picture gleamed brighter out of the rest. It was back in the day, when all three of them: Ash, Misty, and him, were all traveling together. Ash was on the outside left, him sheepishly grinning as Pikachu attempted to steal his pokemon league hat. Typical. Then Misty stood strait in the middle, cradling Togepi in her left arm and poking out a peace sign with her right hand. Of course, then there was Brock on the outside right. Oh, how he remembered that day. While Vulpix snuggled against his legs, he laughed, watching Ash struggle on the other side of their female friend. That is where his smile came from. In fact, he had forgotten there was even a camera around until Delia shown him the photo, later on.

They seemed so happy in that photo. There really wasn't much to worry about back then. Think about it. Misty and he had to blame Ash for their sudden friendship. If it wasn't for him, Misty would have eventually went straight back to Cerulean on her new bike and never have any fun for the rest of her life, whatsoever. And if Ash hadn't inspired Brock to leave the gym, they wouldn't have traveled together.

And now, they could never fool around and laugh together again.

"Brock?" he heard that sweet, middle aged women call his name. "Could you come here for a second?"

"Ya, sure," the man replied. There was one thing he didn't understand, and that is how Delia's voice could stay so steady and firm. After all, she was going through all of her dead son's belongings. Though, she did also go through the pain, when her husband left.

Brock picked himself off from his knees and walked out of Ash's bed room. Now, standing in the kitchen, he glanced at the older women. She held her chin between the thumb and index finger, as she observed the surface on top of an old refrigerator. Delia shook her head, "it's up there. It is some sort of jewellery; could it be?"

"Maybe," he guessed, "Ash never actually showed me it before." The breeder walked closer and reached for the shiny object. He shivered when he gripped and retrieved the cold piece of gold. Now lay in his hand was a ring that he eyed carefully. He shrugged, "Well, it is a ring," Brock handed it to the lady, "but, I believe it is yours."

Delia's eyes widened as she glared at the band astonished. "Oh," she rolled it around in her palm, "I must have forgotten it here one day. But, I was so sure that it would be the one Ash bought.

A thud came from the front of the apartment. Both people glanced toward the doorway of the porch that went to the outside.

Finally, a redhead walked into the awkward kitchen. Her eyelids draped down when she gawked at the other two. She greeted, "hey."

Delia and Brock stood silently. Brock had clearly remembered Delia locking the front door behind her when they arrived. Although, he still didn't seem to understand the point of this. After all, who would try to break into an apartment with people inside?

"Ash gave me a key a few months ago," she looked over to Delia, "so; I kind of let myself in. I didn't know if you two were here yet."

"Oh," Delia said, as she reached out her palm where Misty handed over the key. "Thank you, Misty."

The red head sighed and leaned against the surface of her deceased boyfriend's kitchen table, "So, what do you want me to do?"

Delia, who was still gazing at the key, finally snapped out of her trance. She gripped the key between her fingers and brought her attention back to Misty's question. "Uh, you can help Brock with the bedroom."

The gym leader shrugged, "sure thing," as she reached for a cardboard box that sat on the table.

"You won't need that," Brock stopped Misty from grabbing the box. "There are some extra boxes in the room."

Misty slowly brought back her hand and followed Brock into the familiar bedroom. She saw Brock nudge his shoulder toward the bed where a good sized cardboard box sat. The red head picked it up off of the sheets, but stayed there. Unsure where to start cleaning up, she asked, "Brock?"

"That drawer," he said flatly. Once again he nudged in the direction where he wanted him to go.

She followed his nudge to Ash's Poke gear drawer. It was too easy to know what was in there. Misty remembered how Ash would constantly open the drawer which exposed around fifty poke balls that had their own advantages. Some of them must have been around twenty years or even older. Most of them, he collected during his journeys, but never told a soul. Misty was the only person Ash had ever confided in about his collection.

Well, that secret would no longer be a secret. She knew Ash wouldn't care, though. So, she collapsed to her knees with the box and pulled open the drawer.

As she expected, minimized poke balls filled the space of over half of the area. The other three fourths of the area had various pokedexs from different regions and other poke gear neatly stacked. "So," she began. It wasn't so easy to go through Ash's belongings. Perhaps, if she spoke with Brock, her thoughts would only stay focussed on the conversation. Misty continued, "Um, did you guys ever find Pikachu?"

It was odd. The fisherman that found Ash hadn't seen Pikachu around the same area. In fact, he hadn't seen him at all and because of this, rumours started spreading around Pallet Town. Then, they started spreading further and further. Eventually, the rumours had spread throughout Kanto. Who really knows how far the words actually went. Misty started to wish that Ash wasn't the most popular pokemon master around. After all, if he was not a master, then the rumour would still be in Pallet.

Some thought Pikachu just simply ran away. Others assumed that he was also sucked into to the river and drowned. Few even thought that Pikachu was found by a trainer and captured for their selves. Misty didn't believe any of these words. Pikachu would never run away. He was too important to everyone to die along with his trainer. And for the last rumour, Pikachu was to witty and strong to be foolishly captured by a trainer.

"No," Brock said. He shook his head, "Pikachu never showed up anywhere, so we thought he could have been lost in the forest. We sent Tailow and Staraptor to search from the sky and sent most of Ash's other pokemon to search from the ground-"

"And they found nothing," she guessed.

"Nothing," the man repeated. Both of the friends lowered their eyelids and stared down at their drawers.

The red head took a handful of different coloured poke balls and threw them into the box that sat on her lap. "To bad," she grabbed another handful, "I thought he would like Delia's home, or the Lab. Whichever place Pikachu was going to go."

Brock glanced back at Misty, as he folded a red T-shirt. Her lips remained in an emotionless strait line. Her eyes glued onto the poke gear in front her. Brock could never imagine what she was thinking at the moment. Misty must have been worried, but mad because Pikachu could have received the same fate as Ash. He believed this was just the right time….

"Mist-"

"I'm fine, Brock" she interrupted before he could get the subject across. "You don't have to worry."

He was taken back at this statement. "Actually, I was going to keep my mouth shut about your behaviour, but it is nice to know." He sighed and leaned back against Ash's bed, "I was actually going to ask you about Saturday."

The women grunted and moaned, "Brock, I know you want to cheer me up, but I don't know. Where are you going with this?"

He laughed, as he scooted up beside her and shifted to his knees. Remember what he was going to ask, he rubbed the smirk off his face and gazed into Misty's aqua eyes. "Mist, you aren't the only one who is depressed-"

"I am not depressed," she added.

Brock sighed, "Fine, you are not depressed, but I have read your gym leader stats on the internet for the past week." The man placed his right hand on her should, but she kept her eyes glued to the three poke balls she had just placed in the box. "You should still be the top gym leader in Kanto, but you lost every match this week. Now, Blaine has taken first again."

She turned her head and stared at Brock through his eyes. It was true; Misty hadn't beaten one trainer that week. She would be confident when the battle began, but then the trainer would call out to their pokemon, and Misty would get distracted, think that the voice came from Ash. "You are not making me feel any better by putting me down. I know that I haven't been doing my best this week."

"I know, but I am getting to the cheering up part. I haven't had the best week either."

She looked back into the box as she placed Ash's first pokedex in there. "What could that possibly be? Not like you still own you family's gym."

"No," he said matter-of-factly, "but I haven't been able to hit on a girl for a week. Do you know how bad that is? Every time I go past a hot girl, I say something really stupid." The redhead gave him the 'no shit' glare, "no, I mean really stupid," there came that glare again. "Okay! Now you aren't helping!"

She sighed, "Sorry. Continue?"

The man smirked, "thank you, Misty. " He took his hand off her shoulder and stood up. "Anyway, I think that we both need a little cheering up, don't you?" He didn't let her answer, "So I think we should have a fun day on Saturday."

Misty asked, "And what are we supposed to do? If you want to do anything on a Saturday, you have to plan a week ahead."

"No you don't," he stated, leaning against the dresser, "You want to know why?" Misty nodded. "Well, 'cause I happen to have a night pass to this new strip bar in Pewter" he smirked, "you will like it. It is full of aquariums."

Misty's mouth hung open at his plans. She lifted herself onto her feet, shifted toward Brock and began to swing her arm, "Brock! You are such a-"

He caught her fist with his palm and laughed, "A jerk? Ya, I know, but I was kidding Mist. You can stop freaking out," he laughed even harder. Although, he was also holding in a moan from the pain he received from the punch, even if he caught it. "I just wanted you to act like yourself for a moment."

"Hn," she grunted, bringing back her fist. She couldn't believe that she was fooled by one of her friend's stupid tricks. "Moron…." She said underneath her breath.

Brock shook his head at her annoyed tone, while he continued to smile. "Okay, no more tricks. Here comes the real news.

The red head curiously looked up at him.

"Okay, do you know about the new water park outside of Cerulean?" She nodded. Brock reached into his back pocket and pulled out to pieces of coloured paper with little words printed on them. "Well, I just happen to have free day tickets for Saturday."

Ignoring her anger, Misty rushed over and grabbed the tickets out of his hand and gazed at them. "Where did you get these? Do you know how expensive they are?"

Brock snickered to himself, "do you remember when you were out of town and you asked me to check your mail?"

"Ya."

He placed both hands in either pocket, "well, I found those tickets in your mailbox. Apparently, the park sent them to you free because of you being a water trainer and Cerulean City's gym leader." He shrugged, "I took them in case I got a date with a girl."

Misty's skin shaded as red as her hair, just before she pounded Brock's stomach by his surprise. "Stupid idiot …." She went back to the drawer and knelt back down. She picked up a love ball.

This was where she froze. Misty had never seen a love ball in his collection before. In fact, she remembered him ranting on about how love balls were pathetic and useless and how he would never buy one. She pressed the center button which opened it.

"Hey, this idiot is bringing you to a water park!" he laughed, slowly moving his eyesight toward her. "But I can understand why you would be a little-"

His words stopped when his eyes met Misty. She sat there holding the open love ball. Inside, rolled a small gold band with a diamond sitting on the top. "What is this?" she whispered to herself, picking up the ring inside. She held it close to her face when she noticed a small engraving inside. Misty whispered out the words she read, "T-to my dearest Misty. Please, be mine, f-forever…."

Brock swore under his breath as he kneeled beside Misty. Ash had confided in Brock a month before that he was going to ask Misty to marry him. That ring was what he searched for. He would do anything, only to make sure Misty never found out about the proposal-to-be.

"Ash, "Misty whispered, falling into Brocks arms. "He was going to propose?" the tears streamed down what was her beautiful face. All Brock was able to do was hold her….

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Authors note: Ha! I fooled you! Just when everybody thinks everything is fine again, bam! Misty finds the ring! Haha, sorry. Although, you have to admit, that chapter was an upside.