Chapter Thirteen

Trapped in this world for so long, Misty seems to have lost herself in what the darkness has to offer. Her only hope in the form of her best friend who cannot seem to break hold of the guilt that threatens to strangle him. Now, she must live this life that she, more than others, had an option to join but now has no choice but to stay.

Misty

Sometimes- just sometimes- I hate people.

Take Ritchie for instance. I love the boy, he's family after all and usually I would view him as a playmate. Someone who knows how to have a good time, who won't tell me what I can and can't do and will share what little drugs he's got because he knows I need it just as much as him. But today- this morning, I hate him. I want to punch him in the face. What was he thinking, just sitting on me like that? Asshole.

I can feel myself get more and more worked up the more that I think about it but, ugh, he's just pissed me off so much. Ritchie will rue the day he foiled my dreams; you shouldn't ever even try to come between me and my sleep. Idiot.

And what's more, Gary's sat there, sparking up with one of his stupid smirks on his face. He's loving it. He's loving the fact that I'm angry and it's not at him. What a fuc-

"Calm down Red, your head will implode one day if you don't get that temper in check." A feral growl slips from my lips but he doesn't even flinch just remains sat there, smoking, enjoying life. I hate him.

I hate people.

I storm into the kitchen and quickly rummage in the fridge, pulling out the single item in there. I open the bottle but at the putrid smell I gag and involuntarily release the bottle, allowing it to not only fly through the room but soak my smug companion. Oh Karma, I love you so.

He looks down at his shirt, then to me, then down again. He looks confused- looks at me- his eyes seem to grow twice their usual size in realisation- looks down at his shirt- then he starts to gag. The sight is enough for me to fall to the floor, clutching my sides, breathing heavily, taking big gasps as I laugh so hard that no sounds come out, I'm like a fish out of water. This is hilarious. By now Gary's hyperventilating- and still in shock. His shirts covered in the white mess and so are his black dress pants. I'm not sure if he'll ever quite get the smell out of them. The worried look fuels my continuous side pain and I'm in tears. He's pouting and the gloss of his eye is begging for some form of help but right now I'm as good as paralysed as I literally roll around on the floor laughing with a rueful vigour for the first time in what seems like a while.

"Misty, this is fucking serious, look at me! How long has that even been in there, it smells like piss, milk should not smell like that! Misty, seriously stop laughing and help me." When he see's no sign of me seizing he sheds his outer layer until he's only in his boxers and storms into the bathroom to take a shower, or so I presume.

Meanwhile I'm rolling for another five minutes until I manage to compose myself, stand to my full height and gather some clean clothes from Brock's wardrobe, still trying to calm my stealing breaths. I'd 'borrow' some of Ash's clothes but I'm never quite sure what clothes are clean with that boy, his side of the wardrobe is always just an abundance of screwed up cotton, all stuffed into one pile and smelling a little funky, though you never know whether it's the whole pile or just a singular item of clothing. Though there was no chance that I was going to find out. It was for Ash to know and Ash to find out. There was no way Gary would fit into Ritchie's clothes, he was too short and Gary probably wouldn't quite fit into them. So Brock's it was. Ignoring the wafting smell from Ash's half of the wardrobe I fish around from some clothes Mr. Oak may deem appropriate before realising he'll never really be content with any of the items in there, so I pull out just a random shirt and jeans and begin to walk to the bathroom. Quickly, I open the door so that it's slightly ajar before throwing the clothes in without a glance as to where they landed. I shout in:

"Clothes on the floor, Oak." I hear a muffled reply and assume it is some form of thanks.

Meanwhile, just awakening in comes Dawn, looking overly dishevelled and just plain tired. She's barefoot, wearing an oversized tee (Kenny's if I remember correctly) and scrubbing her eyes clear. She yawns, and the cute little squeak that escapes her lips makes me smile at the junior, a breathy chuckle escaping as I do so. She must hear me because she looks up, a drowsy smile on her face. It's strange to see her so calm, it's not quite natural when it comes to Dawn but she's not really a morning person, that much I know, yet even now after living with her for what, five years now? I still can't get use to this tiny fact. It's nice to have her subdued for a short time in all honesty, gives you a quick break before mothering begins.

I walk over to Dawn, ruffling her scruffy bedhead and she sticks her tongue out before laying her head on my shoulder in a tired defeat. This doesn't last long as the minute Gary storms out of the bathroom, still looking agitated, she lifts her head, before scrambling to her room, red-faced. Poor girl has a little crush. She's not allowed to date Gary, however. He's an idiot who likes to sleep around, cares too little about anyone's feelings- most of us around here are far too aware of this fact.

"Dawn, hurry up and look presentable, I do believe Gary's taking us out." And with that I walk away. At this point a completely surprised Gary grabs my elbow and spins me around to face him. His face is priceless.

"I have work." Without a moment's hesitation I reply,

"I am work."

"Real work." He's making a statement, but I can see creases around his eyes and his lips are dry, cracked. I know Gary Oak. He wants to come, and so he shall even if I have to make this clear through the use of extensive force.

"Gary, you need a break."

"I have work to do." Why must men be so stubborn?

"Do it later?" I'm begging and fluttering, pouting my eyes like my sister's taught me.

He huffs, clearly exhausted and the dark markings under his eyes are in no denial of this.

"Red..." The exhaustion cracking in his voice stops him from continuing. It breaks my heart to see him work himself to the bone, ever since his first fallout with Ash when we first moved here to Viridian he's distanced himself, piling himself in mountains of work, the only real time we saw him was during his deliveries and even then he was never really there, none of us were... Plus, I still needed to talk to Dawn about the whole Kenny situation, having Gary there will assure me victory, his charm was something I could use to my advantage- it'd definitely get his mind off of work.

Directly into his green eyes I looked, showing that pity that he dreaded. He diverts his gaze, runs his hand through his hair whilst glaring at the floor, tapping his foot and grinding his lips in deep concentration. When I hear the deep breath I know I've won and I grin his infamous smirk before he even gets any words out.

"I guess, while Drew's here, taking a little time off won't be so bad." He reflects the smile though I'm sure his is more natural than my own, he was the creator after all. I roll my eyes and both us laugh before out comes Dawn, a bouncing ball of energy. Before we leave for some morning breakfast I wonder whether May would like to join, I'd ask Ash but I know today's a Saturday meaning he's in Pallet for the day, visiting his Mum. After last night, Joy won't be in any state for food, Iris is still over at Cilan's, Brock and Ritchie are out and even I am not brave enough to wake Zoey from her slumber.

"Dawn, is May up?" Gary opens his mouth to speak but Dawn's much faster,

"Must be, she isn't in our room." My head cocks slightly to the left, a troubled look overcoming my features.

"Actually, she left this morning, a little early morning stroll was in order, I believe." Okay, that's even more confusing. Again before anyone else can get a word in edgewise Dawn speaks up.

"But, why, it's already so early?" Dawn's large innocent eyes look towards me, asking for a response as she always did when she was never sure of an answer or of herself.

"Yeah, did something happen?" I look to Gary, he must know, the slight lift of his lips suggests he does.

"He and Drew got into a little fight, she sort of stormed off." He must feel the intensity of my glare because he lifts his hands in a stance of innocence.

"Let me get this straight, your companion made our CC upset enough to run out of here, early in the morning, on her own, when she's been here less than a week?"

"In my defence I had nothing to do with it."

"He's your partner, and therefore your responsibility whilst in this house, you know that Gary. Besides I didn't even show her the territories yet, what if she wandered over to N's side? What is Paul or Ursula or Trip got a hold of her?" I'm fuming, how could he have been so stupid.

"Drew went after her; I swear to you he wouldn't let anything happen to her." I'm about to retaliate with a few swears of my own but a squeak of fear caught my attention and I turn to Dawn, cowering into the corner. All of the angry melts away at the sight and I see Gary's defences fall down too as we both look sympathetically over to the navy haired girl. I watch Gary walk over and fold her into his arms, her back to us and his chin leant ontop of her head.

"We'll talk about this later." I mouth; he mouths an okay in reply. I feel guilty for scaring Dawn. When she finally pulls away from Gary, albeit hesitantly I note, she looks my way for guidance like a child would to a mother.

"How about that breakfast, eh?" Just like that she jumps into the role of the sugar high girl, skipping over to the front door. At the notion Gary and I chuckle to one another.

As we leave the building I make sure to text Brock, informing him of the May situation and asking for his aid in finding her. I needed the reassurance that she was going to be okay.

[A/N]: SOOOOOOOOOOOORRRRRRRYYYYYYY FOR THE WAIT! I did say it'd take a whole to upload next but even I didn't think it would take that long... College swamped me, uh.

REPLIES:

Jigglypuff- I hope you're exam went well! I'm sure it did and I'm sorry I couldn't wish you good luck sooner but good luck... Thank you for reviewing it meant a lot, and though you haven't reviewed this story before I do remember you commenting on my 'Abandonment Issues' egoshipping story- assuming this is the same person. I hope you liked this chapter; I based it around Misty and Gary but couldn't help adding a little bit of Dawn into the mixture, hope it was to your liking! :) Oh, and of course thank you for the support on my test, it must have worked some magic because I somehow jumped up three grades and am no longer failing! :P

Ready to Fly- That's exactly what I aiming for with Brock, he's basically the one people need to keep in line and look after them- just like he was in the anime. I'm going to try and make him into a bit of a role model in this story too, for the younger residents since he's probably the most 'pure'. Glad you're looking forward to more and hopefully my now three pages of planning won't go to waste :') Haha, yay, I have a fangirl! Woop, feeling accomplished haha :) I know what you mean about Pokeshipping, Ego could never replace it but it's sort of like a struggle at times to find a favourite, they're both just so addictive. I'm hoping to include some Pokeshipping ion my next Ash or Misty chapter (depending which comes first) but I had to mention Delia somewhere along the lines, and I didn't want to leave it too late and make it feel as though I've just dropped her in. I hope you enjoyed this chap, sorry it took so long but catching up is sooooo hard, like ugh, effort, you know? xD Oh and also, thank you so much for the support, I passed my test, woop! Kicked its bum and then continued to fail a class I was doing well in haha. Ah, life. :') Right I'll stop rambling, again a HUGE thank you!