August '12 Daily One-Shot Challenge

AUGUST 13th - Normality

Meadow Wood


Hello guys! I have a confession. I've been looking at some wonderful Pokeshipping pictures that have inspired me to start drawing more and…I…*shudders* absolutely suck, for a lack of better wording. Literally. The people come out all stiff and awkward and weird and not normal and ahhh, so frustrating. Anyway, aha, so back to writing! My stronger point, eheh! Enjoy! :D


"Technically, you're wrong."

"No, technically I'm right."

Ash and Misty glared at each other as they walked down the trail on their way to the Celadon City gym for Ash's next gym battle. Unfortunately, the normally cooperative best friends – or maybe not exactly cooperative – had engaged in yet another one of their fierce arguments. The ones where Misty usually proved to be right.

"Look, I don't need to discuss this with you anymore." The red-head said haughtily. "Cheese can be white and yellow, and that's that. Heck, I bet there's blue cheese too!"

"Cheese can't be white." Ash retorted, even though the girl had moments ago decided she didn't want to talk about this anymore. "It's always yellow. I've seen it in the books."

"What books? You mean the ones where cheese is triangular with holes and mice are always chewing on it?"

Ash frowned. "No."

"Yes." Misty spat, before marching ahead of the raven-haired boy to where Brock was walking. The breeder had his face buried in a map, something he always seemed to be doing.

"Hey Brock,"

Brock lifted his head from the map, glancing over. "Oh, hey Misty."

"I just thought I'd talk to someone who has some sense of intelligence." Misty grumbled. "I mean, there's obviously such thing as white cheese. It's called Mozzarella, but that stupid dense idiot says otherwise."

"Yeah, there's such thing as white cheese." Brock hummed absentmindedly. Whenever Ash and Misty had an argument, Misty would rush up to him and rant on and on about the boy's stupidness. Brock had learned the best way to calm her down and avoid her mallet was to simply agree with everything she said.

"Clearly, that boy has something screwed in the mind." Misty went on. "Ugh, cheese is not always yellow. Heck, cheddar cheese doesn't even taste that good." She paused. "…and I'm sick of saying the word cheese!"

"Yup, Cheddar cheese," Brock shook his head, concentrating on his map. "Horrible."

"I know." Misty stormed.

Brock sighed, rolling his shoulders and folding up his handy map, before tucking it in his gigantic backpack. "Who else is tired? I'm thinking of taking a break."

Misty instantly forgot about her cheese rampage. She nodded gratefully. "Oh yeah, I'm beat. I have a cramp in my leg from all this walking."

"Alright." Brock stopped, turning around to Ash who was lagging behind. "Hey Ash? We're stopping for a break, 'kay?"

"What? Why?" Ash asked.

"We're all tired and it's almost supper anyway."

"Huh? No way. I don't wanna stop! Don't you know how close we are to Celadon city now?" Ash said in disbelief as he pointed straight ahead to the clearing. "A few more hours and I can have my gym battle."

Misty narrowed her eyes before Brock could reply. "Excuse me, but a few more hours? I'm tired, I'm hungry and I'm frustrated with you, so we're gunna stop whether you like it or not. Alright Ketchum?"

"No!" Ash retorted. "It's not alright. You guys are wimps. How come I'm not tired at all?"

"Wimps, huh?" Misty growled, taking a threatening step closer to him. Ash didn't back down, but swallowed noticeably.

"Okay, okay." Brock cut in, putting his arms up. "Let's take a quick break, okay Ash? Then, we'll get going right away!"

"But I'm not tired." He whined.

Suddenly, his stomach rumbled loudly.

"Uh, but I am a little hungry I guess," he rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly, his face heating up.

Misty smirked in triumph. "But I thought you wanted to keep walking. What happened to that Ashy-boy? Don't you want your precious little gym battle?" she mocked.

Ash grinned nervously as his stomach growled once again. "Uh, a quick break wouldn't hurt." He finally mumbled in defeat.

"Great." Brock clapped his hands together. "I'll get started on the stew and you guys relax!"

"Relax!" Misty said ecstatically as Ash shouted happily, "Stew!"


Ash bounced impatiently as he watched Brock stir a big bowl of stew, nearly drooling. "Hurry, hurry Brock. I'm dying over here!"

Brock assured him it would be done soon. Misty, in turn, nudged the Pikachu trainer with a wry smile. "And you didn't want to take a break," she said.

Ash bit his lip, ignoring her and instead turning to his Pikachu, who was munching on Pokémon food. Lucky guy… he thought as his stomach churned again, desperate for something to eat. "Brock, are you almost done?" the raven-haired boy begged.

"I'm getting there Ash!" Brock said, clearly flustered with being pestered so much.

Ash shrunk back, frowning. "I want food Misty. I'm dying." He told her. Misty was next to him, lying down on the grass and staring at the sky. She had her eyes closed. "Don't disturb me. I'm relaxing. Although, I don't suppose you know what that means."

"Sure I do." Ash said. "I'm just not lazy like you."

Misty flicked one eye open, before grimacing from the sun and closing it again. "Lazy? C'mon, without Pokémon, you'd be sitting around all day and getting yourself fat."

"Who says?" Ash retorted lamely.

"Me!"

Ash made a frustrated noise before looking away from her, hugging his knees and sniffing the almost-done stew. He whimpered. "I want food."

"We know that." Misty piped up, just to aggravate him. "I'm just as hungry as you are, but you don't see me announcing it every two seconds, do you?"

"That's 'cause you're not as hungry as me." Ash insisted, clutching his stomach as if to prove his point. "I'm this close to dying."

Misty parted her lips and sighed, rolling over so she could face away from Ash, as well as, the damn bright sun. "Ash, you're not close to dying."

"How do you know?"

Misty lifted an eyelid and peered towards Ash, who had his knees pulled up to his chest and an arm around his stomach. "If you were actually close to dying, I would care. But I don't right now, which means you're not close to dying."

Ash pouted, before giving her a sidelong glance. "You'd care if I died?"

Misty rolled her eyes at his obnoxious question, turning over and flopping down on her stomach. "Of course I would, silly. You may be a whiny, restless brat, but you're still my idiotic friend."

"Your friend?" Ash pressed, pushing aside all her previous insults. "I thought you just followed me around for your bike, which…erm….I'll pay for soon." He said the last part hastily.

Misty smirked to herself, laying her head sideways so she could see him properly. The sun in his chocolate eyes made them shine brighter than usually, and for an odd moment, she felt her heart flutter. "Yeah, I did. But we became friends along the way, didn't we?"

Ash didn't answer, letting this statement process through his painfully slow brain. Then, he nodded carefully. "I guess you're right."

The redhead snorted, ripping a clump of grass from the ground and releasing it. "Of course I am."

Ash let a small grin fill his face. He plopped down on the ground beside Misty, before sprawling his limbs and squeezing his eyes shut so tight that his forehead crinkled. He looked ridiculous.

"What are you doing?" Misty murmured lazily.

Ash didn't move, squeezing his eyes even tighter and breathing heavily. "I'm relaxing, like you are."

Misty stared at his concentrated expression. "Ash, you're not relaxing."

"Yes I am."

She giggled. "Nu-uh."

"Well, I'm trying to."

"You don't 'try' to relax. You just do. Trying would ruin the whole point." Misty lectured him, watching as he struggled to let go of his tense muscles. He was seriously a moronic disaster.

Ash bit his lip, opening his clenched eyes. "Whatever. This relaxing thing is pretty stupid, if you ask me."

"Just 'cause you can't do it?"

Ash frowned, laying his head on his arms, tummy pressed against the grass. "I'm hungry," he stated the obvious, ignoring her comment.

"Well, isn't that a new one." Misty replied sarcastically, moving over so she was lying closer to him. He was really disturbing her peaceful relaxation. "Now," she bumped his elbow with her own, "Will you please shut up so I can relax?"

"No." Ash quipped, eyes drooping in boredom.

Misty sighed. The day, as usual, was going by uneventfully by Ash. Sure, he got himself in tons of dangerous adventures nearly every single week, but he just couldn't spend a normal, safe day with excitement.

With another dramatic sigh, Misty scooted even closer – so close that her arm brushed his. She tried not to make it seem awkward even though her heated cheeks said otherwise. Thankfully, Ash didn't notice. He just let out a small groan, burying his face in his locked arms. "Food," he pleaded.

Misty shivered from being so close to him, feeling his hair touch her nose ever so slightly as she turned her head. "No food for you."

"Food." Ash repeated. "I'm gunna faint."

Misty rolled her eyes but her heart leaped. She didn't like when he talked like that. It scared her.

Even though she pretended not to care about him, deep inside, she knew she would forever worry for his health and happiness – especially because he was such a reckless kid. "You are not."

Ash looked at her, and suddenly smiled. "You know, you have nice eyes," he said.

"Huh? What?" Misty stammered, wondering where this was coming from. Her face flushed and she looked down, bangs covering her eyes.

"Nice eyes." Ash explained, squinting through the sun and examining her. Misty tried not to squirm. His heart soared. "Really nice."

"Oh – oh, well thanks!" Misty managed to sputter, her cheeks coloring.

Ash gave her a heartwarming smile before turning back to the ground, his face solemn. "Food," he once again moaned.

There was a long silence.

That was random…he was complaining about food…then he started saying he liked my eyes…and now he's back to being sad about food…what just happened? Or maybe it didn't even happen and I hallucinated it…weird…well, I'm flattered anyway. Unless he has a trick up his sleeve…I mean, why would that stupid boy say I had nice eyes…especially so out of the blue…

Misty shook her head brusquely to snap out of her inner monologue. She turned tentatively to Ash. I'll ask him. "Ash, how come you said you liked-"

She didn't have a chance to finish.

"The stew is ready!" Brock joined them with a grin on his face, unaware that he had cut in on an important question. He was holding two bowls that were filled to the top, a fantasizing scent wafting around and two spoons dipped in.

"Yes! Stew! Brock, my savior." Ash hopped off the ground and was onto his feet in less than a split second, before practically strangling the poor breeder to get his bowl of soup, not to mention spilling some on the grass beside him. Not waiting for it to cool down, he shoved the spoon in and stuffed it in his mouth, his eyes sparkling.

Misty watched him shove spoonful after spoonful into his mouth. "…my eyes." She finished with a sigh.

She watched him for a long moment, taking in every detail of his toned muscles, beautiful eyes, and cheesy smile – and for a second, she imagined them getting married, walking down the aisle, her in a beautiful white dress and him looking dashingly handsome in his suit and jacket – but the thought was thrown away as quickly as it had come.

"Hey Brock," Ash stirred his bowl, finally having slowed down. A little. "What're these little white things doing in here?"

Brock glanced at his bowl. "Oh, those? Shredded cheese, silly."

Ash stared at his bowl, before meekly looking at Misty, who had snapped out of her fantasy and was smirking like she was on the top of the world.

"See! I told you there was such thing as white cheese!" the redhead shouted, sticking out her tongue.

"Uh,well…um…" Lacking any words, Ash did the only thing he could do.

He stuck out his tongue as well.

All was normal again.


Well, this was quite..um random! Plotless! I wrote it as I went pretty much. Sorry it was posted so late…I had soccer and it takes like two hours…so I couldn't post…and I only had the ending left too! :D thanks for all your reviews so far guys! :D I love 'em and totally appreciate them. See you next chapter! :P