A/N:

Full name: The Road to Olivine Part 2, the Woman-to-woman

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The rest of the morning went surprisingly quickly, the gang made it to Ecruteak City with time to spare making the likelihood of getting Olivine on time more promising. They still didn't stay there long however, only getting new supplies to sustain the rest of their journey. The group remained unusually silent for the most part whilst they were shopping with only the occasional word being said, mostly between Brock and Dawn. Ash and Misty had remained deadly quiet since that morning, still feeling too awkward to say anything to each other. Brock saw this and felt bad, he realised it was partly his fault as he had been the one who had 'interrupted' them, but he figured it would have probably turned out even worse if he hadn't intervened and they then saw him and Dawn watching.

After they had gotten everything they needed they set off on Route 38, heading east towards Olivine City. There was still very little talking between everybody and it was starting to become unbearable. Sadly no one knew how to break it. They continued across the open grassland and over the rolling hills meeting other trainers on the way, many looked like they wanted to battle. However in their current state none of them, even Ash, were in the mood.

The day progressed quickly, because they weren't being distracted they were making great time, Brock had already worked out that at the rate they were going that they would reach Olivine by midmorning the following day. They didn't stop for lunch like usual, instead they snacked on the go, not wanting to deal with the awkward silence around a fire where there was nothing else to do.

Eventually the day drew to a close and they knew they had to stop to camp and have some dinner. Brock unloaded his rucksack first and began to set up the camp fire in order to cook.

"Misty, Dawn. Why don't you two go fetch some water from that stream we past back there so I can boil some rice?" Said Brock realising they had drunk most of what they had bought in Ecruteak City. Finally, the first full sentence of the day and it had been a long time coming. Misty and Dawn both jumped at the chance to answer him.

"Yeah, sure." Replied Misty.

"We'll be back soon." Added Dawn and quickly they grabbed a container and headed back towards the stream.

As they walked, things between Misty and Dawn didn't change a great deal, there was still no talking between them. As a result, Misty resorted to staring at her feet and tracing the patterns on her shoes in her mind, just as a way of keeping herself busy. As they continued Misty got the feeling she was being watched by someone, or something. She looked round only to realise that they were still alone, however as she glanced over in Dawn's direction to survey the area behind her, she caught Dawn giving her a smug grin.

"What is it?" Misty asked nervously.

Dawn's grin widened. "You know."

"Err, do I?"Asked Misty, now becoming even more worried.

"Oh I think you do." Replied Dawn edging closer and closer to her.

Misty looked back down at her shoes and closed her eyes to brace herself for how Dawn would react to what she was about to ask.

"Is this to do with this morning?"

Misty had often been good at predicting inevitable events, either it was Ash getting them lost or Team Rocket blasting off again, and today was no different. It was a good thing that she did brace herself as if she hadn't it would have been highly likely she'd have jumped out of her own skin. The pressure within Dawn had been building to such an extent that, now that she could talk to Misty about that morning, she literally burst out screaming. Taking this as permission, Dawn wasted no time in diving head first into the subject, bombarding her with questions.

"Oh my god! How did it happen? Why did it happen? Do you like Ash? Does he like you? Were you nervous? Was he nervous? Who made the first move? Are you going to get married?"

Misty felt like she had just been tackled by a Wailord with the way Dawn's questions seemed to physically knock her off her feet and fall to the ground.

"Woah, woah, woah. Slow down." Snapped Misty attempting to calm down the now extremely hyperactive girl. "Fine." She said reluctantly. "One at a time if we have to do this."

Dawn could easily sense how distressed Misty was from the way she'd lashed out, she knew now that this wasn't the time to gossip.

"What's wrong Misty?" She asked calmly.

Misty sighed. "It's this whole thing with Ash. He's driving me crazy."

"Thing with Ash? What exactly do you mean?" Asked Dawn confused.

Misty looked down at the floor again, she didn't know how to talk to Dawn about this or whether she should at all. Unfortunately she had already inadvertently answered her question. Just the action of looking shyly away was enough to confirm what Dawn already suspected.

"You really like Ash don't you."

Misty knew Dawn hadn't meant it as a question, it was clear that she knew now. Misty's heart sank, she had never wanted anyone other than her and her sisters to know about this until the time was right and in one day she had completely blown it. She swallowed her sadness though, perhaps because Dawn had been traveling with Ash recently she would be able to lend her an insight to how he felt or what to do next. She admitted she did feel stupid taking relationship advice from someone seven years younger than her, but if she could help then it was worth looking stupid.

"Misty?"

Misty looked up suddenly, she relised she had been staring at her shoes for a considerable amount of time. Dawn was bent over slightly in an attempt to make eye contact with her, trying to see what Misty was doing or what was going through her mind.

"Misty please talk to me." Said Dawn in an attempt to make Misty open up.

"Please, I don't want to talk about this morning, I'm embarrassed, angry, upset, confused." Said Misty as tears began to slowly trickle down her cheeks. "I don't know what to do."

By this point Misty was in floods of tears, all of her bottled emotions she had harboured over Ash coupled with that morning were finally beginning to surface. She attempted to shield her face from Dawn as she didn't what her new friend to see her in that condition, but it was too late. Dawn wasn't stupid and could easily tell that Misty was in pain. By this point the girls had actually reached the stream and, as soon as they reached the water's edge, Misty collapsed to the ground as she no longer had the strength to stand. Dawn sat down next to Misty and put her arms around her, when she did this Misty found herself unable to hold back her tears any longer and she began to cry loudly into Dawn's shoulder. Her howls of pain could be heard by Pokémon far on the other side of the water, Dawn could have never have comprehended that Misty would have this much built up angst over Ash.

"Shhh, it's okay. I can't believe Ash would ever put anyone through this much pain." Said Dawn holding Misty tighter.

"It's not his fault." Sobbed Misty. "He doesn't know."

Dawn pulled away from Misty to look her in the eye "You mean he doesn't know how you feel?" She asked shocked.

Misty shook her head.

Dawn hugged her tight again. "Poor you. How could he not realise that? Honestly he's so dense."

Misty took a moment to wipe the tears from her eyes. "It's not his fault, I've never told him."

"Really?" Asked a confused Dawn. "Why not?"

"What's the point?" Misty asked as she began to cry again. "It's not like he would ever feel the same way."

"I don't know about that." Said Dawn who had moved to sit next to Misty by the waters edge. "From the impression I got, I thought he liked you."

"Really?" Asked Misty as she rubbed her eyes again.

"Yeah. It's like the fishing lure you gave him. He showed it to me once and was very protective of it. He wouldn't even let me touch it."

Misty's face lit up upon hearing this. Perhaps Ash did have some feelings for her after all. As she thought back to that morning she remembered how it wasn't her leaning into the kiss, he had also lent towards her before they had been interrupted. Did this mean that he liked her though, or was it Ash just being dense and not knowing what else to do? While she would normally have guessed the latter, there was something about their night together, and that morning, that made her feel that maybe, just maybe, he shared her feelings. She soon realised however that in their current situation she couldn't just go bounding up to him with her newfound hope and profess her love to him, plus it probably wouldn't be the best thing to do, she didn't want to scare him away.

"Mmm maybe he does. But it doesn't really matter if he's not speaking to me like now." Said Misty lowering her head again, disheartened.

"Come on Misty." Said Dawn as she patted Misty on the shoulder. "It won't last forever, you know that. You two spend way too much time together to not talk to each other. Besides, you've known each other for over six years now, neither of you are gonna let something like this ruin what you already have. I know you wouldn't and Ash would realise he wouldn't be able to cope without your help. Who were the ones looking after him when you started traveling together?"

"Me and Brock." She said agreeing with Dawn. She was right, she would let this ruin their already strong friendship. If anything it gave her a window to possibly become more.

"Exactly, now come on lets get the water and head back. With any luck Brock will have slapped some sense into Ash as well!" Said Dawn standing up as she went to fetch the water canister.

Misty laughed. "Maybe, but I don't think Brock is the best person to give relationship advice."

Dawn laughed with her. "True, but you never know, he may surprise us yet."

"Maybe." Smiled Misty.

The girls gathered their things and filled the canister for Brock. Once they were done they began to head back towards the camp site, fortunately in a much better mood than they had gone in. As they approached the camp Misty realised there was still something on her mind.

"Dawn?"

"Yeah Misty, what's up?" Dawn asked as she waved down to the faint outlines of Ash and Brock.

"What am supposed to do when we get back to the camp? I mean Ash probably still isn't talking."

"I think the only thing you can do is hope that things get better. Like I said, you and Ash have known each other for so long now, he's not so dense that he'd let a friendship like yours go to waste. Besides who knows maybe it's opened his eyes to how you might feel about him. This could be a good thing, just give it time. I'm sure everything will get back to normal soon. Especially as we're always together, he'll have to talk to you at some point!"

Dawn's words comforted Misty, she knew she was right she just hoped that this period of silence didn't last too much longer, she missed Ash.

"Thanks." Misty smiled. "Come on lets get some dinner."

Once they reached the two boys, they all sat around the fire and watched as the final rays of the light disappeared behind the mountains in the West. Brock finished making dinner and passed around bowls to Ash, Misty, Dawn, and of course, Pikachu and Togepi. The group ate contently as they were all quite hungry from an entire day of walking. As they ate the conversation slowly began to reemerge. First Misty and Dawn started talking between themselves, Ash and Brock followed in a similar suit. Not before too long it was as if the rest of that day hadn't happened, almost everything was back to the way it was. The only change was that there were still very few words exchanged between Ash and Misty. Most of the time, conversation involving both of them went through Brock and Dawn. Misty felt uneasy about talking to Ash, from what she could tell he was still uncomfortable thanks to the events of that morning. As the night drew to a close Misty had all but given up with trying to strike up a conversation with him, it seem like a futile effort to fix their situation that evening, but then it happened. She caught him glancing at her from across the fire. He looked at her with a sense of embarrassment, clearly not wanting to have been seen by her, but this was the moment Misty had been waiting for. She returned his gaze with a small smile, she saw Ash act slightly taken aback by the small gesture and immediately her heart started to race. Perhaps she had come across too strong, maybe he wasn't ready yet to exchange pleasantries. 'Oh know, I've blown it now.' She thought to herself. Fortunately, before she could begin to assume worse, Misty saw Ash relax from his surprised posture and return her cheerful grin with one of his own. She felt those all too familiar butterflies dancing inside her as his dark chocolate eyes gazed into her glittering aquamarine pools. His smile warmed her heart, knowing that he wasn't being completely cold was a comforting feeling for her. Despite not knowing what her's and Ash's future together would be, she could at least take solace in the knowledge that she would have to dwell on the events of that morning again.

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A/N: Well there you go, the second part is now done finally :)

hoped you liked it. whilst I was writing this I started to feel that chapter 9 could have been written a bit better so at some point i'll probably go back and redo it.

I'm gonna take another little break from this story I think to write another one-shot, i have one already start that i really want to finish and i think you'll really like it so i want to get that published first. Be sure to be on the look out for it.

Thanks again for reading, if you're reading this far into the story then thankfully i haven't bored you to death...yet!

Review. Review. Review.