Chapter 4
Ash walked to Pallet Town's bus station, it wasn't really that big, just a small waiting room with about 10 chairs for people to wait for their buses. He remembered there was a bus leaving for Viridian City every 30 minutes and one leaving for Cerulean City every hour. He was lucky to arrive 15 minutes before the bus left for Cerulean City. He purchased a cheap ticket and waited for the bus.
Meanwhile, he kept thinking on how a bad decision he had made, entering Gary's room without his permission. He felt guilty. Then he remembered the conversation he had with Gary and he was sure Gary knew about it, why else would he tease him with how good he smelt? He got goosebumps when he remembered Gary's nose touching his neck and decided to skip the thought for the moment. He focused on Misty, he was going to visit her at Cerulean City's gym.
He hadn't seen Misty in a very long time, he started to wonder if she had changed that much. She had always been taller than him, was she still? Or was now he taller than her? He wondered if her hair was still red-orange like carrots, and if she still had the same temper she always had. He laughed remembering the good old times with her and Brock.
Then he wondered about him, he wasn't sure if he was in Pewter City, he probably was still doing his studies to become a pokémon doctor, so he wasn't probably in Kanto. He wished he was, he really wanted to see him and Misty both, for the three of them to be together once again.
The bus came and he got in. During the ride, he kept remembering his journeys to Kanto and Johto with Brock and Misty.
He finally arrived at Cerulean City after 1 hour and 15 minutes.
He hadn't been there in years, he was worried that he wasn't going to remember the way to the gym but luckily, he did. He was surprised he did. He walked around 10 minutes from the bus station to the water type gym. When he opened the door, he saw nobody around in the reception, maybe Misty was having a battle right then. He got curious and walked past the door that lead to the giant pool that served as the field of the gym.
And he was right, there she was having a pokémon battle with a young trainer who was around 14 years old, a couple of years younger than he and Misty. She seemed taller than the last time he had seen her, her hair was redder now and her skin even whiter, and she was full of energy. That's the Misty he remembered.
He sat on one of the benches, remaining unnoticed and watched the rest of the fight.
Misty's pokémon were pretty strong, she sure had gotten stronger during the past few years. Suddenly he felt the urge to challenge her for a pokémon battle, and maybe he was going to, he really wanted to.
When the fight was over (Misty had won obviously) Ash stood up and clapped loud enough for Misty to notice him.
When she turned to him, her expression became lively, a huge smile appeared on her face, she recognized him even without his signature hat. She was standing on a platform over the pool and she was so excited she jumped to it and then swam to Ash's direction. Ash laughed to see her jumping into the water and he walked to the edge of the pool and helped her get out. She wasn't exactly wearing a bath suit but she didn't mind getting her clothes wet.
"Is it really you?" she asked him touching his hair with her wet hands.
"Yeah." Ash laughed, feeling the cold water on Misty's hands.
"Can I hug you?" she asked for permission to get his clothes wet.
"Of course!" Ash exclaimed and he hugged her, he didn't mind getting wet.
Misty laughed, she was so happy to see Ash again, and he was so happy to see Misty again too.
On the other side of the pool, the trainer was going down the platform and with a sad expression on his face, he was walking to the exit.
"Hey!" Misty exclaimed running to him, and Ash followed her.
The trainer stood still and waited for Misty.
"You did very well." Misty smiled at him.
"Thank you," he said but he didn't believe her entirely, his face was still sad.
"Hey buddy, what's your name?" Ash asked him with a smile.
"Sun," he answered, his face looking to the ground.
"Hey, Sun." Ash put his hand over Sun's shoulder. "You were good, believe me, Misty's a very tough trainer, you won't believe how many times she kicked my ass in the past." Ash laughed.
And sure, Sun laughed too. Now he looked directly to Ash. Misty was standing behind him with a smile.
"You have to keep trying, I'll tell you, I've been a trainer for years and not all the times I've been able to beat the gym leaders on my first try, you have to analyze their strategy, think of a better one for you and your pokémon, and then come back."
"Think of a better strategy," Sun repeated to himself.
"That's right, my friend." Ash smiled.
"Thank you, Ash, and thank you too, Misty. I promise I'll get stronger and beat you next time!" Sun exclaimed full of energy and Ash smiled because Sun reminded him of himself when he was younger.
"I'll wait for that," Misty said with a smile.
"You're welcome, Sun." Ash smiled too.
Sun said his goodbyes and he left, now feeling much better. Now, Misty and Ash were finally alone.
"You're very good with them, I have no doubt you'll be the best pokémon master ever," Misty said proudly.
Ash blushed. "I just know how they must feel, that's all." He touched his hair trying to focus Misty's eyes on it instead on his cheeks.
Misty giggled. "Why don't we swim in the pool for a while?" She asked.
"Really? But I didn't bring my bath suit."
"You don't really need one," she said pushing him to the pool.
"Misty!" he exclaimed too late, in a second he was already in the pool. "Man! This water is so cold!" He shouted, his body trembling.
Misty laughed. "I'll go to the reception to close the gym for the time being, just to make sure nobody interrupts us." She smirked.
Misty left and Ash's body quickly adapted to the cold water, now it felt warm against his skin. He took his t-shirt off and tossed it to the edge of the pool. He wanted to take his jeans too but maybe that was not going to be appropriate. He swam to the other side of the pool, waiting for Misty to return.
She got back in two minutes. "Hey!" she exclaimed running to the pool and then jumping into it.
Ash swam to get closer to her. "You're crazy." He laughed.
"Hey, you took your t-shirt off, nice!" She laughed.
He blushed and tried to change the topic. "So, how long do you swim in here?"
"Pretty much every day," she revealed. "Hey, how about a race from one side of the pool to the other side and back?" She challenged him.
"I'm in!" Ash said with lots of energy and they both swam to the nearest side of the pool to start the race.
-o-
Ash and Misty finally got out of the pool after an hour. Misty lend Ash a towel to dry himself. When he was done, he put his t-shirt back on (even though his jeans were still wet but that wasn't a problem to him). Misty's clothes were also all wet and she didn't mind. She used a towel to get them as dry as possible.
Now they were sitting on a bench near the entrance to the pool area.
"So, what brings you here? I have to say I'm quite surprised with your visit," Misty said.
Ash understood that as a way to remind him that he hadn't contacted her in a very long time. "I know," he sighed. "I just… I just needed a break from everything and I wanted to see my old friends again," he added.
She knew about Ash's defeat in the Kalos League finale, she understood him, and she was wise enough not to bring that topic up.
"How long are you staying?" she asked instead.
"About a month, you won't believe where I'm staying," he said in a proud kind of way.
"You're not staying in your house?" she asked surprised.
"No," he said no more.
"What? Where are you staying?" She had definitely no idea.
"Guess! It's very easy." He giggled.
"I don't know, are you staying at Brock's place?" It was the only thing she could think.
"Not really, but now that you bring that up, is he in Pewter?"
"Yeah, I saw him about two months ago, we're still in touch with each other." She smiled.
Ash's eyes sparkled once more. "That's awesome, Misty! I want to see him too!"
"We'll call him." She smiled. "But first you have to tell me where the hell you are staying!"
Ash laughed and he had to answer this time. "At the Oak mansion."
"Say what?" She jumped to her surprise.
"My mom is remodeling our house and she's been staying in the mansion for a while, it's a very nice place, so spacious, so comfortable, so elegant, I feel like I'm living in a luxury hotel."
"Is Gary there?"
Ash felt nervous, remembering the incident in the morning.
"Yes, but he's too focused on his research, we're not that close anyway." Somehow, saying those words hurt him.
"Well, it's his loss, I'd be very excited if you were living for a month in my house." She smiled. "Alright, let's give Brock a call, shall we?" she asked standing up.
"Yeah!" Ash said standing up and he followed Misty to the reception.
"Oh, right, is..." She turned to Ash half the way to the reception. "Is Tracey there too?" she asked kind of nervous but not enough for Ash to notice.
"Not really… now that you've mentioned it… it's odd… I thought he lived there," Ash said confused.
"Well, he was still living there around a month ago… could you please ask Gary and tell me? It's just… Tracey and I are good friends and I haven't heard from him since then, maybe he went back to the Orange Islands."
"Sure, I will ask him, Tracey's my friend too." Ash smiled.
-o-
Misty turned on the enormous TV screen that was in the reception.
"Wait, we're going to videocall him?" he asked eyes opened.
"Why not?" She laughed and she clicked on some stuff on the screen, too complicated for Ash to understand, but he could understand a column on the right of the screen that was labeled as recent calls that showed the name of the person she had called, the time of the call and the duration of the call.
Ash's eyes grew bigger when he saw that most of those recent calls were from/to one person: May
"Wait! You've recently called May?" Ash asked surprised.
"Yeah, we became really good friends since we met in Hoenn." Misty smiled setting the video-call, now it was just about time for Brock to pick up and appear on the screen.
"That's awesome! How's she doing?" Ash asked very curious about her friend.
"She just arrived to Hearthome City three days ago, she's there for a Pokémon Coordinator Gala" Misty revealed.
"That sounds amazing! I'm so happy for her," Ash sighed, remembering her and missing her.
Brock finally appeared on the screen.
"Hey Misty! Oh, Ash! Hi there, my friend!" Brock was wearing his lab coat, like Gary's, but he used it for another reason, because he was a pokémon doctor, not a pokémon researcher. He also seemed to be in a lab, did he have his own lab in Pewter City now?
"Our friend here is staying for a month at Pallet, and he wants us three to be together again, what do you think?"
"I love that idea!" Ash could swear he saw Brock's eyes opening.
"He's staying at the Oak mansion, can you believe it?"
They talked for some more time, about an hour, before Brock had to leave, it was nice, Ash finally knew what his best friends had been doing these years, and the three of them talking… it felt just like the good old times.
Brock said he had a busy week but soon after that, he would make sure to have the rest of the month available to spend the most time he could with Ash and Misty. Misty said she also needed to get some stuff done and that she would ask one of her sisters to take care of the gym for the rest of the month too.
Brock and Misty agreed on visiting Ash on Pallet Town the next Friday, in a few days, though somehow, Ash felt it was going to feel like an eternity.
