Go Satoshi Tajiri. He's rich and I'm not. I own squat.

Author's Note: It's sure an odd thing to be planning one thing and totally going another way. I had originally intended this to be a shorter story, with NO citrus undertones; but whatever!

I'm pretty happy with myself for getting out a double update (triple if you actually read one shot Ranma fic I just loaded). According to my doctor I'm supposed to be massively depressed right now. I'm leaving home and moving to a completely new city and starting college this week- the Doc says that those are two super depression triggers. Feh. I suppose I'm nervous, but I don't think it's the end of the world. Maybe I'm just strange? Hahaha, whatever. Way I figure, I'm not going to be alone. I happen to be the proud mother of a fat, lazy cat with a major attitude problem. She and me? Oh yeah, we'll conquer the world.

Thank you Reviewers! Even if this is a double update I just want to continue to be thankful... yup!

P.S. If I get lots of reviews for this chapter I'll try to make the next one extra long as a gift to you guys!

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Time to Shine

Chapter 8

Evolution

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By the time Misty had reawakened her newfound "zen" had jumped ship and left her to die at sea. Did she regret any of it? No fucking way. But it still didn't account for the fact that she had let herself go in ways she never had before. She was a far cry from a modest prude, but there was a big difference in hearing about things and actually doing them. She felt her cheeks turning red in a mixture of embarrassment and disbelief that she had even done some of the things she did.

"Is it time to wake up?" Gary asked, eyes still closed.

"Something like that. It's already past one."

She saw him open his eyes and give her a funny look, quickly followed up by laughter.

"Hahaha! You look like attack of the killer tomatoes!"

She gasped and retreated into the bed, pulling a pillow over her head. She heard Gary continue to laugh as he tried getting her to come out of hiding.

"What are you doing in there? Is this how you treat all of your suitors? No wonder Ashy-boy never jumped on ship."

A well aimed kick to his shins made his yap shut. She smiled as he gave her a sloppy hug and got out of bed. Once she was sure her face was normal again she emerged from the pillow. She silently watched him get ready. It was then that the gravity of what had transpired finally hit her. Was it a mistake? They had never actually talked about what they were exactly; and furthermore, did he even want to be with her? She didn't think he was the kind of guy who would eat and run but there was always that the "what if."

"Gary, what's going on? What are we?" She asked in a small voice. He gave her an annoyed look in response.

"Don't ask stupid questions. We're us; I hate the term boyfriend and won't respond to it. So when Flannery asks you, and I know she will, just tell her that we're floating." He winked at her.

Floating. What the hell was that supposed to mean!? The guy was seriously insufferable. It made her wonder why the hell she liked him so much. He probably noticed her angry/distressed look. The next thing she knew he had jumped onto the bed and landed on top of her. She gave him a quizzical look. He just grinned his little grin and kissed her. She felt herself smile into his lips and brought her arms around him, bringing him closer. When they separated he gave her a pointed look.

"I'm not going anywhere and I sure hope you aren't either. I think I'd lose my mind if I had to watch you kiss another guy." He said seriously.

"You like me." Misty said with a smile.

"No shit. Took you long enough to figure that one out." She ignored him and continued on.

"Say it."

"Wha?" He raised an eyebrow.

"Say I, Gary Oak, am totally gaga over Misty." She smirked as he rolled his eyes.

"I, Gary Oak, am totally... loving the way Misty looks like she wants to jump my bones!"

He laughed and avoided the pillow flying at his head. She watched him get off the bed and sighed. Well, it was a start. He may reject girlfriend and boyfriend but he said he was going to stick it out; and, in its own way, that was enough. She got out of the bed and got dressed. She hadn't thought much on it the night before, but her outfit wasn't exactly conventional. It was no mystery that Misty didn't fear showing some skin, but at the minute she was showing way too much. Maybe a pitstop at her room? But then she'd have to deal with her sisters' questions... scratch that idea. There had to be some way around it.

She went into the bathroom and "borrowed" one of those toothbrush+toothpaste combos the hotel gave away for free. She may be a guest in this room but there was no way she was going to ignore gross morning mouth. As she brushed she pondered her damned outfit situation and smacked herself in the head. She could just borrow something of Gary's! Hahaha, pure genius. She looked in the mirror and smiled, satisfied with her brushing; but then a thoughtful look crossed her features. She had kept her hair down all week and kind of missed her ponytail. After putting it up she looked into the mirror one last time and... WHAT THE FUCK WAS ON HER NECK?!?!

"GAAAAAAAAAAAARY!"

She stormed into his room, eyes on fire. She saw him look at her, confused as hell, before she punched him square in the arm HARD.

"Dammit Red! What the hell was that for?"

"Don't give me that shit! Look at my neck!"

She pointed to the offending bruise and Gary choked to hold in his laughter.

"So it's a hickey! You didn't have to punch me for it!" She glared.

"Well maybe I just wanted us to be a matching pair."

Although she was the one who did the punching she still felt less than satisfied. Gary was smirking to himself and she could just tell that he was admiring his handiwork. Just a hickey, yeah right. She was pretty sure that hickeys were supposed to come in shades of red; her injury was a purplish blue. Fucking vampire, that's what he was. A proud, smirking vampire. Oh well, there was nothing she could really do about it now. The hairs on her neck stood up and she turned, abruptly catching the overcoat that was thrown at her head.

"The collar should help cover it up. I really didn't mean to leave such a dark mark, hehe." He smiled sheepishly.

"Thanks."

She looked at the overcoat and giggled to herself. It was Gary's labcoat/boyband shirt. She hadn't noticed yesterday, but the name OAK was silkscreened onto the back. Right, that wouldn't be conspicuous. Oh well. She tried it on and did a victory pose. It was a little big and it covered her little shorts and little black shirt number. In all honesty, she thought she looked cute in the baggy white dress shirt. She heard a cell phone go off and saw Gary pick it up, an unpleasant look on his face.

"Hi Roxanne."

She giggled for a multitude of reasons. First off, he looked irked about Roxanne's call. Second, he also looked like he was afraid that she would cut him in two. Well, if he thought she was that kind of girl then he was really mistaken. He could have all the girl friends he wanted. She knew he wasn't going anywhere.

"WHAT! You're kidding! Shit, I'll be down there in 2 minutes. Thanks, bye."

"Gary what's up?" Misty asked.

"They've started to draw up the tournament board but we're missing. Thankfully they've just heard Lance give a speech, but we have to go NOW!"

Misty didn't need to be told twice. She didn't want to think about the wrath that would be incurred if she were called to pick a number and not show up. Yeah that would be bad. The pair literally sprinted down the hallway. The elevator, if course, was busy on other floors and they really didn't have the time to wait. Quickly making a detour to the stairs the pair flew down to the lobby and resumed their sprint. All was good until the front door, but then Misty came to a realization.

"Gary, where exactly are we going?"

"Pokecenter." They took off running again.

"What?!? That's a few blocks away!" He grinned.

"Well then this is the perfect chance to work those thighs!"

She smacked him in the arm and groaned. Insufferable, there was no other word for it.

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They reached the Pokemon Center easily enough and were able to slink in without mishap. Nurse Joy probably paid a fortune to have the board drafting done at the center, it was pretty cramped. But, on the plus side, they probably weren't even missed except for by their friends. Misty looked around and spotted Flannery and Brawly standing against a wall looking bored out of their mind.

"Hey, I'm gonna go figure out what's going on." Gary said.

"Ok, I think I'll join Flannery and Brawly, they look kind of bored."

Gary nodded and the pair split up. She saw him disappear into the crowd; well, sort of. If she looked hard enough she could follow his spiky hair. She laughed and then ran over to her friends. They both looked off guard and didn't notice her initial approach. She grinned to herself and leaped into the air, intent on tackling Brawly. But of course his years of training kicked in and he turned during the last minute and caught her in a bear hug.

"Hey Cutie, we were looking for you earlier!"

"I actually just got here. What have I missed?" Flannery smirked.

"I'll bet you just got here. You want some concealer, Misty?" Misty blushed, busted.

"Ehehehehehe." She scratched her head.

"So you guys FINALLY got together! I want details!" Brawly clamped a hand over Flannery's mouth, trying to muffle her screams.

"Well, short version: I kissed and he kissed back."

"That's so awesome, Misty. I guess I can't call you Cutie anymore, huh? Well, at least not with your loverboy around. But, whatever the case, I knew you'd wrangle his ass in." Brawly winked and gave her the thumbs up.

"No doubt. You look adorable in his shirt, too." Flannery smiled.

Misty couldn't be happier. What did she do to deserve such awesome friends? Although she had traveled with Ash for years and would swear that he knew her inside out, she couldn't help but feel that in these past couple days she had genuinely found two people who not only understood her, but also loved her the way she was. All that and a great boyfriend-who-won't-be-called-boyfriend? Man, she was a lucky ducky. She was brought out of her reverie by Nurse Joy holding out an oversized hat.

"You three, please draw a number."

The three gym leaders drew numbers and held them out to be recorded. Number 13, that put her smack dab in the middle; or at least really close to it. That was a good thing, if she was completely demolished at least she wouldn't be the first or the last. But she couldn't think like that! She would win, and in the process show the world exactly what Misty Waterflower was made of!

"What did you draw, Misty?" Brawly asked.

"Lucky 13." Flannery sweatdropped.

"Um, I think 13 is actually UNlucky."

"Feh, eye of the beholder" Misty brushed it off.

As it turned out, she wouldn't really have to worry too hard over battling her friends. Flannery ended up with 17, which was still far enough from 13 to ensure that they wouldn't battle unless they both miraculously made it to the finals. And Brawly? He was miles away with number 25. It was highly unlikely that they would be reaching the finals, though, as Misty would soon learn.

"Wouldn't it be awesome if we snagged gold, silver and bronze?" Misty grinned.

"It sure would. I doubt it, though." Brawly sighed.

"No kidding. I forgot that you missed the speech. There's only 24 gym leaders. But, we need either 16 or 32 competitors to make it an even tournament. And, no one wants to drop out now, so we had to add 8 people. So now we're also taking on the Elite Four times two!"

"What! We can't beat them! We don't really need 32 people, do we?" Misty asked, wide eyed.

"Well, it's the only way to crown one champion without giving anyone an unfair bye. If you think about it mathematically it makes sense- 1 x 22, 2 x 24, 4 x 28, 8 x 216 and 16 x 232. This way it's fair; and, we actually have it easy. Since Bruno does double duty there's technically 11 elite four members. The three leaders- Karen, Lance and Drake- aren't competing, so imagine how much worse it could be." A mysterious voice spoke up.

Misty scrunched her forehead. She knew that voice; in fact, she knew it quite well! But there was no way. It couldn't be him, could it? She turned and immediately her eyes lit up.

"BROCK!" Misty jumped into his arms for a hug.

"Hey Misty, I was wondering when I'd run into you!"

Misty smiled and brought him into her circle. All was good until Brock saw Flannery and turned into a mushy pile of goop. Misty bopped him over the head and glared. She had missed her girl crazy friend way too much to let him loose it over a girl. She watched him sigh dejectedly and she bopped him again, not buying his game at all. Flannery and Brawly blinked in confusion, not quite understanding what was going on at all. Something caught Flannery's eye across the room, though, and she cleared her throat to get Misty's attention.

"Looks like they didn't get the memo." Flannery pointed.

Misty and the two boys followed her finger and saw none other than a surrounded Gary. Erika, Whitney and Jasmine were flanking him like a pack of hungry wolves. Roxanne wasn't helping matters any: she was attached to Gary's arm, keeping him anchored to the spot. Gary himself didn't look like he minded too much, he just looked more bored than anything else. He looked up and caught her eye, giving her a knowing wink. As if he thought she would crumble into a pile of jealous, yeah right! She just rolled her eyes at him and turned around.

"Ooh! He just hung his head, that was mean Misty." Brawly laughed.

"Please, he got himself into that mess. If that's the type he prefers then, by all means, who am I to stand in the way?"

Brock looked back and forth between Gary and Misty. Misty carefully watched him put two and two together in his head. The comments, his shirt, and even that damned hickey on her neck. She heard him gasp as it all fell into place. It was the craziest thing, she swore she saw his eyeballs! Now that was one shocked Brock. But, how would he take it she wondered? Honestly, she wasn't too worried. She knew that Brock loved her to death and trusted her to make the right choices. But, there was always that what if.

"Gary Oak? Honestly Misty?" Brock asked seriously.

"Yeah. He's a good guy, Brock." Brock nodded.

"I don't doubt it. But, what about Ash?"

Misty noticed Flannery's eyes slightly widen at the mention of Ash. She saw her grab Brawly by the collar and mumbled something about the bathroom before hightailing it out of the general area. Smart thing, too. Flannery probably understood how close Misty was to taking violent choking action against Brock at the minute. Friendship was everlasting, but sometimes you just had to know when to stay out of it. Misty stayed silent and let Brock continue.

"He's here, you know. There's no way he'd miss this, it's like a dream to be here for him. He was throwing a fit the whole way here about how he should be participating instead of just watching."

Misty gave a half smile, thinking to herself.

"When I got the forwarded invite from my dad I couldn't believe that he'd pass up the opportunity. It was his dream to battle here. There was no way I'd turn it down. May and Max also were inclined to come and watch their dad, Norman, battle live. We just arrived this morning, but Ash was looking for you since the moment we checked into the hotel."

Misty continued to listen.

"Misty, you know we'll always have each others back. Shit, I don't know what I would have done without you those first 3 years. All Ash would EVER talk about was badges badges badges, you remember right? But yeah, all we had was each other and I still trust you wholeheartedly. So, if you tell me that you're happy with Gary then I'll back you 100, just keep in mind that Ash probably won't be so open."

"Brock, you're the best."

She smiled and hugged him real hard and good. She knew she had been a fool to even doubt Brock in the slightest. It was true, they had relied on each other and she should have known better than to think he would discard that. It was a weight off her shoulders, though. Brock was one of her rocks, cliche as that may sound, and it was really good to know that they were still looking out for each other.

"I'm really crazy about him, Brock. I'm happy with him and if Ash can't respect that then he can go to hell."

Brock gave her an amused smile, probably never expecting to hear those words from her mouth. She shrugged and smiled, filling Brock in on everything that had happened since she left Cerulean City a few days ago. She didn't bother censoring herself, Brock would know immediately if she twisted the truth even in the slightest. When she finished she figured that they made quite the pair: her face being red as a stop sign and Brock's jaw dropped all the way down to his shoulders.

"Holy shit Misty. If I had only known I would have dropped Officer Jenny for you years ago." He grinned.

"Shut up. I'm already blushing bad enough." He laughed.

"I'm just kidding. Besides, it seems that you're taken anyways. I'm really happy for you, Mist. You sure as hell deserve it."

"Thanks Brock." She smiled.

"No prob. But, uh, shouldn't you save him? I swear, some guys have all the luck."

She watched Brock send Gary a look of pure envy. Misty giggled to herself, if only he knew how obnoxious the fawning was. He sure as hell wouldn't envy Gary then. But, she had to admit, Brock had a point. She wasn't being a very good lovergirl by just leaving him to the sharks. She confidently strode over to where they were, Brock in tow. It was obvious that they had some kind of relationship- hell, she was wearing his name across her back- but if there were any doubts they were about to be put to rest. Ready or not, world, she had hooked up with Gary Oak.

"Could you females back the fuck up please."

Misty kept a straight face, trying her hardest not to break into laughter at the looks on the girls' faces. She put her face into an annoyed look, drawing inspiration from her sister Violet; and she just knew that if her blue haired sister were here she'd be damn proud. She watched the 4 girls' eyes widen and jaws drop. She raised an eyebrow, daring any of them to challenge her, as she walked up to Gary and kissed him right there in the middle of the Pokemon Center.

She felt him wriggle his arm free of Roxanne and wrap it around her waist, effectively bring her closer. She snuck her tongue into his mouth and she felt him smiling as they played tonsil hockey. What could she do? She only meant to free Gary from the sharks, as she affectionately dubbed them, but somehow ended up jamming at first base. It sure as hell wasn't a bad thing, though. She just hadn't thought ahead to suck in some extra air. He didn't seem to know this and didn't feel like letting her go anytime soon; so she flicked him in the head.

"Air Gary. I need to breathe."

"Oh. Sorry about that, heh." He smirked.

"Yeah whatever." She rolled her eyes at him.

The Sharks and Roxanne had long since left, leaving Brock. Misty immediately felt bad about making him watch her mini make out but ended up eating her words. Brock was too busy staring at Nurse Joy, Misty doubted he even acknowledged her kiss. She felt Gary slightly tense and she looked at him, wondering what was up, and found him looking at Brock. She figured it was some sort of manpride thing.

"Ash sent him to kill me, I just know it." Gary whispered.

"Shut up. He actually is willing to give you a fair chance." She whispered back.

"The last time I spoke to him was when I won my boulderbadge, and I'm pretty sure I wasn't telling him job well done."

"Um, am I missing something?" Brock asked in a normal voice.

Misty and Gary jumped, not expecting the voice. Misty smiled and Gary just shrugged, waving hello to Brock. The other man nodded and smiled, extending his hand. Gary mirrored his actions and the two shook hands. Misty just cocked her head, not getting it. For all she knew there had been a whole conversation that she had just missed. Oh well, handshakes were usually a good thing. She figured she was in the clear... until Brock opened his mouth.

"If you hurt her I'll hunt you down, Oak. Count on it."

Gary sent her a look that just screamed 'I told you he wants to kill me!' Misty just laughed and pretended she didn't notice. This tournament was turning out to be quite the spectacle. Who knew what would happen next?