Author's note: Hey. Well, I may be back at college now, but I'm still gonna be doling out chapters. Plus:-
1) I never thought to say it before, but... a big thank you to every single reviewer for making this story so popular. You're fabulous, all of you.
2) If you see horrible grammar mistakes, like missing question marks/ellipses, it's most likely not my fault. The site keeps deleting things.
3) I own Jason and Penelope Waterflower.
4) This chapter was considerably hard to write. Maybe you can see at what point it started to get hard? Lol.
Chapter Twenty-five: A Midnight Impulse
It was under two weeks after Ash, Misty and May had encountered Anabel and gone Christmas shopping with her - May complaining all the while at the time about how boring shopping in their area was and how she'd love to travel other places around the globe and shop there, thus bringing up the usual complaining about how their world wasn't like the Pokemon world - it was now New Year's Eve. Everyone, which meant Delia Ketchum, Ash Ketchum, Norman Styles, Caroline Styles, May Styles and Max Styles, was gathered at Misty Waterflower's house for a party, Misty's parents, Jason and Penelope, being the gracious hosts of everyone present.
"Would anyone like anything to drink?" Jason asked, scratching the scalp beneath his short, messy dark blue hair, his matching dark blue eyes scanning the group of people sitting on the couch, armchairs and extra wooden chairs around the room.
A few of them said, "Yes, please", causing Penelope to leap up from her wooden chair, her long, curly pink hair, which shined beneath the ceiling lamp, falling over her shoulders. "I'll go get some!" she said perkily. Her greenish-blue eyes looked around the room. "What would everyone like?"
"Coffee, please," Delia, Norman and Caroline each said in turn.
"Coffee, please, dear," Jason said.
"Yeah, I'll have a coffee too," Penelope said, smiling cheekily. She then turned to Ash, Misty, May and Max. "Kids?"
"Coke, please," Ash replied.
"Lemonade, please," Misty replied.
"Coke, please," May replied.
"Coke, please," Max replied.
"Okay," Penelope said. She then walked over to the living room door and peered into the next room. "Girls? Drinks?"
"Like, lemonade, totally!" Daisy's voice replied.
"I'll, like, have a coke, for sure!" Violet's voice replied.
"And I'll, like, totally have a lemonade!" Lily's voice replied.
"Got it," Penelope said, "five coffees, four cokes and three lemonades." She bustled off towards the kitchen. "Be back in a jiff!"
"Coffee?" Violet's voice asked. "Ugh! Gag me with a spoon!"
After a while, Jason decided to get the party really started, so on went the music; it turned out to be mostly rock and roll music from the seventies, cranked up to very loud levels. Granted, it wasn't full blast, but it was still loud. As for Ash, he was feeling slightly too warm for his liking, possibly due to the fact that there were twelve people all crammed into one house, so he decided to go outside onto the patio for a short while; the late December air was sure to cool him down in no time.
As he leaned his folded arms against the light brown wooden frame of the patio, looking out onto the Waterflower family's beautiful garden of green grass - which was lined around the edges with an array of different-coloured flowers that Misty had told him were roses, petunias, hydrangeas and gardenias - he thought back to what May had said happened at her house on Christmas Day; apparently, Molly Hale and her parents, Spencer and Margaret, had come to visit, Spencer carrying a small box full of mistletoe. This, May had explained, was because, since the Styles' had had no mistletoe to hang on their tree, the Hales had decided to lend them some.
Thinking about what May had said happened next made Ash chuckle to himself; she'd said that she'd grabbed a mistletoe from the box and dangled it over Max's head, telling Molly to come over and give him a kiss. Max had blushed furiously and tried to get away, but Molly had tackled him and given him a kiss on the cheek anyway.
"Hey, Ash?" Misty's voice asked from the doorway.
Ash turned to face her. "Yeah, Mist?" he asked.
"You coming back inside? My dad's about to set the buffet."
Ash perked up. Food? he thought, his stomach growling, erasing all other thoughts from his mind. Awesome! He grinned. "Alright! Count me in!"
Misty smiled warmly at him, yet not neglecting to roll her eyes at his great love of food, he noticed, and led him back inside.
Once Ash had devoured as much of the buffet as he could, yet being sure to leave some for the other eleven people in the house, he went back outside. He wasn't really sure why, but he liked it outside; it was beautiful, peaceful and serene... and he rather felt like a bubble of silence had blanketed him once he stepped onto the patio, as all of the noise and commotion inside was quieted considerably.
As he stood there with the nice cool breeze caressing his skin and blowing his jet black hair, his thoughts drifted to Anabel Gardener; she was such a nice girl... and such a nice change from what he now considered the norm. True, his life was already pretty good, but it was just nice to have someone appreciate him as much as Anabel had; Misty, love her though he may have done, was always shouting at him for something or other, sometimes making him feel two inches tall with her words... and May and Max were his close friends, but they didn't seem to connect with him on the same level Misty did. When Anabel had come along that day, he'd felt special; he'd both a) been highly appreciated, having most of her attention directed his way, and b) not once all day been shouted at. Even the red-headed demon herself hadn't been nasty to him... though he still wasn't sure why Anabel had been so nice to him and just about ignored everyone else in the group... He shrugged to himself; understanding females just wasn't his forte.
"Hey, Ash," Misty's voice said. Ash turned round to meet her eyes and noticed her smirking. "You out here again?"
Ash chuckled. "Yeah," he replied.
Misty walked over and stood on his right, folding her arms and leaning them on the patio's wooden frame. "So, why's that, then?"
Ash shrugged, looking back out over the garden. "I just like it out here." He paused. "What are May and Max doing?"
"They said they'd be out here too after they've finished eating."
"Oh, okay."
Silence fell between them... and, after watching a sparrow land on the nearby fence, then fly off again, Ash glanced over at Misty; her ginger hair, fastened in its customary side ponytail, was swaying gently in the cool breeze... and a single section of her face was illuminated by the light in the living room, giving her face a rather godly glow. A smile graced Ash's face as he watched her.
She seemed to catch sight of him from the corner of her eye. "Hmm?" She turned to face him. "Something wrong?"
He felt his cheeks tint, so he turned away again. "No."
"Hey, guys!" May's voice said from the doorway before her footsteps approached them. Standing on Ash's left, she copied his and Misty's stance. "What'd I miss?"
Ash continued to stare ahead of him. "Not much." He then glanced over at May and saw Max on her left, also copying everyone's present stance.
"Eh," the young boy said, smirking, "how boring."
Ash chuckled slightly.
After a while, Ash, Misty, May and Max's conversation of random topics died off, so Ash racked his brain for something else to say. Eventually, after much thought, he came up with something related to New Year's.
"So..." he said, "anyone got a New Year's resolution?"
"Hmm..." May replied, "not sure."
"Me neither," Max replied.
"I am," Misty muttered. Ash looked at her; she was staring ahead of her, refusing to make eye contact with him. "I'm gonna try to be a nicer person."
Ash's eyes widened. A nicer person? he thought. Really?
"Aww..." May said, her voice dripping with sugar, "how sweet..." She paused. "Hmm... then maybe I should think of one."
"What's yours, Ash?" Max asked.
Ash paused a moment, once again facing the garden, yet taking a second to glance at Misty from the corner of his eye. "Not sure," he lied.
In actual fact, he knew very well what he wanted as his New Year's resolution: to gather up more courage and make a move on Misty. Unfortunately, he also knew that he had no clue of how to handle the situation, as romance was never one of his strong points.
May giggled. "Well, I think it should be to eat less," she said.
Misty and Max laughed at this... and Ash's mouth couldn't help but curl up at the comment; yeah... maybe he did like to go overboard just a little bit when it came to food...
Eventually, Max had gotten fed up of standing outside in the cold and had gone back inside to the loud music and incessant chattering. May, being the caring older sister she was – or mother hen, as Misty had called her – had gone inside after him, not wanting him to get lonely by himself, since, without her, he'd be the only preteen in the entire building. Ash, however, had wanted to stay outside a little longer, so Misty had opted to stay with him.
"Won't be long now," Ash said.
"Yeah..." Misty replied, "it'll be the New Year soon."
"Uh huh... and then the fireworks'll start going off."
"Yep."
There were a few moments of silence. Ash looked at Misty and saw, by the way she quickly jerked her head away and stared at the floor, that she'd been watching him. Her face also bore a slightly miserable expression.
"Something wrong?"
Misty looked up at him. "Hmm?" Her cheeks tinted. "No."
"Guys!" May's voice called out from inside. "They're about to do the countdown on TV!"
Misty's face relaxed into a smile. "Wanna go back inside?"
Ash shook his head. "Nah," he replied. "We'll get a better view of the fireworks here, anyway."
Misty chuckled in response.
"Ten!" everyone inside shouted. "Nine! Eight! Seven! Six! Five! Four! Three! Two! One! Happy New Year!"
Off went the different-coloured fireworks, exploding in every direction around the house; there were blue ones, green ones, red ones, purple ones and yellow ones... and the house down the street, which had owners who were well known for being pretty well-off, sent off a dazzling display of many different colours all meshed together in their many explosions. Ash looked at Misty, caught her eye and smiled... and she smiled back.
"Happy New Year, Ash," she said.
"Happy New Year, Misty," he replied.
It was in that moment, watching the fireworks exploding in the sky illuminating her face in many different colours... and keeping in mind that it was now midnight... he had... the strangest urge... to do something that he'd never considered doing before...
Not fully comprehending his actions, he slid very slowly across the patio's wooden frame towards her, the entirety of his attention focused on her lips. He'd never experienced this before... this sudden... need for her... this sudden... need to kiss her...
She looked back at the fireworks, seemingly oblivious to what he was doing. He was fine with this; she'd probably hit him if... His trail of thought drifted away; now was not the time to think about that.
He slid a little closer. She glanced back at him and he stopped, turning away and pretending to watch the fireworks. As soon as the corner of his eye saw that her head had turned away again, he looked back at her; there was that feeling again... that need; it was driving him crazy.
Again, he slid closer, trying not to attract her attention too much. He let his eyes wander around the garden, hoping that she'd either think nothing of his actions or believe that it was all in her head.
He looked back at her again... and again came the desire... the impulse... to kiss her... Why the heck was this happening to him? Why the heck was he feeling this? He'd never felt this before... It felt... pleasant, yet... painful at the same time... as though... the thought of kissing her was pleasant... but the thought of how she'd react was painful...
He slid closer, his right arm now brushing her left arm. She glanced over at him questioningly and he averted his eyes again, looking elsewhere. After a few moments, he looked back and saw that she'd looked away again.
Darn, this was hard... but he was determined to kiss her. He didn't know why, and, right now, he didn't really care why... he just wanted to get this over with. He slid even closer, his arm now actually pressing against hers, and, again, she looked at him questioningly. He was expecting her to have said something by now... maybe something along the lines of, 'Uh... what are you doing?' but she said nothing... absolutely nothing.
Instead, she just stared at him, clearly confused; perhaps so confused that her brain had gone on meltdown, which would certainly explain why she hadn't said anything yet.
Smiling slightly, yet not without a hint of suspicion glinting in her greenish-blue eyes, the red-head looked away again... and Ash admired how beautiful she looked in the glow of the fireworks. That wasn't to say that he didn't think she was beautiful normally, but, somehow, tonight was different.
He watched her, her ginger locks blowing in the still-gentle breeze... and realised that he never felt any impulses around her when May was around... or Max, for that matter... maybe because their presence distracted him enough for him not to think about his feelings for the red-head too much. He was only now realising that his feelings for her were stronger when neither May nor Max were around... because that meant that all his attention was focused on her and only her.
He leaned his face a little closer, thanking whoever was granting him such good fortune that she was now looking in the opposite direction; he was determined not to mess this up... more determined than he'd get about trekking through Victory Road in his Pokemon games, to reach the other side and get to the Pokemon League.
Her head twitched in his direction, causing his breathing to cease momentarily. However, she seemed to change her mind midway and turned her head back again. He let out a silent exhale through his nostrils and leaned closer still.
He attempted to speak, to get her attention, but found that his mouth had gone dry... and that no words would escape said mouth... so, instead, he raised his right hand ever-so slowly, tentatively bringing it up to her left shoulder. He then lightly tapped said shoulder once and held his breath again, dropping his hand back down to his side.
She turned to face him and, suddenly noticing how close his face had gotten to hers, widened her eyes in shock, her face tinting slightly. She opened her mouth, apparently to say something, maybe ask what he was doing, but it seemed that she could no longer speak either.
For a couple of moments, neither said a single word, merely staring at one another, both faces slightly red... then Ash leaned forward a tiny bit more. Needless to say, Misty looked shocked out of her mind... possibly too shocked to move; she did nothing but stare at him, wide-eyed as he brought his face so close, they were mere inches apart.
"Guys!" May's voice called out.
Ash jumped in fright and, the next moment, his forehead smacked painfully into Misty's. He turned away, clenched his eyes shut, gritted his teeth and clasped his sore forehead with his hand.
"Oww..." Misty grumbled, voicing his very thoughts at that moment.
There was a moment's silence. "Uh... why did you two just headbutt each other?"
Ash ignored her and, apparently, since May was greeted with silence, so did Misty.
"They did what?" Max's voice asked.
"Headbutted each other..."
Max laughed. "O-kay... and why would they do that?"
"... That's what I wanna know..."
"I mean, I know they love to fight, but isn't that a little extreme?"
"Yeah... but, anyway... all the grown-ups are out front, watching the fireworks... You guys coming? We can all go and watch them together..."
"Meh..." Misty seemed to grunt.
Thoroughly embarrassed, with his face the colour of a ripe tomato, Ash looked away, leaning his right elbow on the patio's wooden frame and resting the right side of his chin on the clenched fist belonging to the arm of said elbow; mortified, he simply refused to look anyone in the eye right now.
Way to kill the mood, May... he thought, far too embarrassed about the situation to be miserable that his one chance at kissing Misty had been thwarted.