It's still today and not yet tomorrow. So technically, I followed through by saying that I'd probably update again today...even though it's like eleven at night. XD

The Sensational Sisters appear in this chapter because I love them so much (and I have to throw in a "like" here and there, no matter how old they are. Even if they have matured. It's too much fun. XD). Also, I made up ages and years and a timeline in my head for this one just like I do for all the other ones, so I'm sorry if you think it strays far from canon.

This is a universal apology for all my stories because as someone who obviously ignores the fact that the characters never age, I make up my own time. XD

Blah blah blah, right? Enjoy!

Kick

Kick.

Kick.

Kick, kick, kick.

Misty broke the pool's surface only for the overwhelming need to breathe. As soon as she caught another breath, she submerged herself once more, kicking away her problems.

Kick, kick, kick.

It was a dull Tuesday morning.

There was nothing good about Tuesdays to Misty. Just as many gym challengers, just as much paperwork, and just as much dealing with her ditzy sisters. However, there was one thing wonderful about Tuesdays.

She received a letter from Ash.

Kick, kick, breathe.

Of course, since Ash was abroad, there was no guarantee that a letter would come every Tuesday. Misty understood that it was hard to be that consistent when you had no idea when you were going to even to be sleeping every night.

However, Misty looked forward to each Tuesday just the same.

Ever since she had left Ash and Brock, she found that she was unable to fill the burning hole her departure had left in her heart.

She missed Brock a lot too, of course, but...

Kick. Kick. Breathe.

But Misty was growing up and growing into her responsibilities. She couldn't have everything she wanted whenever she wanted it. She came home to the Cerulean City Gym and tried to forget the feeling of complete loneliness that slowly invaded her very soul.

That feeling had briefly subsided the moment she saw her sisters, though.

"Misty!" Daisy had called, as she, Lily, and Violet prepared to enter the back of a yellow taxi with several suitcases for each of the three. "I can't believe you're here!"

"Neither can I," Misty had muttered.

Violet and Lily had daintily embraced her and followed suit by greeting her just as Daisy had before the cab driver threw their suitcases into the trunk. They got into the taxi, both young women giving Misty a long look, a small smile, and a wink.

"Well, little sis, I guess this is, like, goodbye...again," Daisy had said. Misty recalled being utterly shocked at the emotional tone her sister had taken. She had trouble remembering a time where those three felt any sort of real emotion over anything other than a broken nail.

Daisy had thrown a milky arm around her sister's shoulders, sending her blonde tresses out of the way with a flick of her head, squeezing her a little tighter than Lily and Violet had.

"I actually sort of missed you, baby sis."

Misty remembered squeezing back with a small smirk.

"I actually sort of missed you too, you blonde bimbo."

Furthermore, she remembered the exact look on Daisy's face as she watched her through the window of the taxi while the drover slowly backed out of the driveway. At first, Misty wasn't entirely sure if she was correct. Could a facial expression be described with such a simple word?

Love.

At the time, Misty hadn't been able to believe it. Her sisters never really acted like they loved her, but every now and then, it hit Misty like a home run. Daisy, Violet, and Lily were her only family. How could they not love a runt (though Misty disagreed with the term, nowadays) like her? But her exchange with Daisy the day she came home proved everything.

Sometimes, it was easy to miss the love that was completely natural.

Kick. Breathe. Kick.

And once she realized that months and months later when her sisters came home (which was an affair that ended Misty's loneliness but also began her insanity), the young girl came to realize just how much she cared for Ash. Of course, she had a crush on him, which she'd almost accidentally told Brock a couple of times throughout their journey, but more than that, he became her closest, truest friend.

Kick.

And now that they'd exchanged probably a hundred letters over the last four years, the seventeen-year-old acknowledged that she felt more for Ash than she had originally thought. Misty figured her letters showed that pretty well.

Similarly, Misty had done enough reading between the lines of Ash's letters to understand that he felt the same way. It became an unspoken thing. Every few letters, he'd make sure she didn't have some other guy chasing after her and Misty would call him Ashton to remind him that she was the only girl who could make up nicknames for him.

Breathe.

The seventeen-year-old waded to the edge of the pool, placed her palms flat on the concrete, and lifted herself out, letting out another exhausted exhalation as she did. Misty padded to the locker room, grabbed a neatly folded towel off the wall's shelf, and set it on one of the benches in the middle of the room. The locker room looked like a typical sports locker room: gray lockers on either side of the cerulean-painted rectangular room, a row of benches down a singular aisle, and showers on the far end of the room.

Not wanting to waste any time, Misty stripped out of her white bandeau bikini, dropping it on the floor and effectively leaving the soaking top and bottoms to drip on the tile. She shrugged and turned on the water in the middle shower stall.

After showering, dressing, and cleaning up the mess she'd left on the floor of the locker room, Misty entered the lobby of the gym to find her three sisters chatting happily behind the counter, lattes in the hands of Daisy and Lily and the latest issue of Cosmopolitan in Violet's.

"Oh, Cosmo! Can I read that when you're finished, Vi?" Misty asked casually as she briskly stepped into the room, taking a seat on the light pink sofa reserved for waiting challengers. Misty put her feet up on the brown coffee table and took a deep breath.

"Yeah, if you change that train wreck of an outfit you're wearing," her second-eldest sister snorted. "And get your feet off that coffee table! I worked hard to get that thing looking shiny and you're going to muck it all up!"

Misty rolled her eyes and kept her feet crossed on the table.

"Come on, I just got done working out, not going to a ball! Warm ups, a tank top, and a ponytail are hardly a crime!" Misty retorted, glancing down at her black workout pants and green tank top and back up at her sister.

"Whatever," the blue headed beauty trilled. Daisy watched Lily examine her nails and Violet flip the magazine's page as Misty opened her mouth to ask the inevitable Tuesday question.

"Do I have any mail?" Daisy smirked. The younger girl always asked with a practiced ease that Daisy always saw right through.

"If I tell you yes, will you squeal excitedly like a love-sick little girl and fly out of the room?"

Misty nearly fell off the couch.

"Do I really do that? I so do not do that!" she exclaimed, instantly up on her feet.

"Oh, you so do, little sis!" Lily chimed from behind her nails.

"Shut up, Lily!"

"Geez, Misty, way to be rude."

"Like you're any nicer, Violet!" the bluenette looked scandalized from behind her magazine.

"Girls, girls," Daisy tiredly interjected. "We're all equally bitchy. Well, Misty's just a tad bitchier. Okay, a lo-" Daisy caught the flaring nostrils of her redheaded sister and trailed off nervously. "Anyway, there's nothing to fight about! Misty, here's your letter from Ash and something from the Pokémon League," Daisy changed the subject, pulling the two envelopes out from a drawer behind the lobby's counter.

Misty skipped over to her and snatched the slightly beaten up letter that could only be from her best friend before hurrying into the hallway, trying not to burst with excitement. Daisy watched the redhead go and wondered why she even pulled the League letter out.

"She does this, like, every time he sends her a letter," Violet sighed, closing Cosmo and setting it down in front of her. Lily nodded solemnly.

"Yeah, she really likes him."

"I think there's more to it than like, ladies," Daisy winked, sipping her latte once more.

The Sensational Sisters shared a hearty giggle.

Once safely away from her sisters, Misty had already scanned through Ash's page-long letter twice. It was the usual. Battles, a new gym badge, seeing new Pokémon, anecdotes from his recent adventures with Cilan and Iris, and a little drabble at the end.

"...and the other day, Pikachu and I were looking for firewood in the forest and we came across a lake. I saw a girl who was like halfway underwater and kicking her legs in the air, like she was trying to do a handstand. I bet Pikachu my hat that you could do better underwater tricks than that. Oh, and yesterday..."

Misty smiled as she ran back into the lobby, gleefully bouncing down on the sofa and eying the nearest pen and white blank page one of her older siblings had placed on the coffee table while she was absent. So used to this routine already, Daisy, Violet, and Lily nonsensically chatted and went about their business while Misty snatched up the ink pen and began to write.

"Dear Ash,

First off, if you're staring at girls' legs, I'm going to kick you so hard when you come home that you'll end up halfway through Johto..."

Oh, Misty. Even when they're not together, she's threatening Ash out of jealousy. :)