Fix You, a pokémon fanfic

Fix You

Written by ClaudiaDaro, translated by Fox McCloude

When you're too much in love to let it go...

Serena didn't look at her in the eye.

She'd sat on the rotten trunk of a tree, with the tiny white parasites marching in a row next to her right hand. She didn't feel grossed out as she'd normally be; she was too deep in her fear, about what was about to happen. Misty had told her she wanted to talk at that spot.

The Kalos Queen couldn't look at her.

And Misty was starting to get impatient.

"Serena."

She wanted Serena to look at her in the eye.

"Misty... W-what did you want to talk about?"

"You know very well what I want to talk about."

Once Serena finally looked at her in the eye, the Water-type trainer walked towards her, causing her to visible tense at the noise of her steps on the dried grass. Misty shortened the distance, placing both hands on her hips once there was less than two feet between them.

"Are you mad at me, Serena? Tell me the truth."

"No, please don't think that." Her response sounded sincere. "I'm not mad. Did I seem that way? I was just shocked you treated him like that."

"You don't like it?" Misty let out a little playful giggle. "I've always treated Ash my own way, and you're the first to complain."

The redhead placed her index finger on her chin as she became thoughtful.

"Hey! You shouldn't be too surprised. You threw snowballs at him. And don't ask how I found out; Ash always tells me everything."

She leaned forward to shorten the distance even more, coming to her face.

"Also…" she whispered, "about your little farewell kiss."

Serena blushed completely. Once more she stopped looking her in the eye to cover her face with her fluffy hair. Misty let out an amused chuckle.

"About the other thing… I didn't act on impulse. I couldn't see him like that. He was not himself."

Misty stopped chuckling, passing a hand across her hair in disbelief at what she'd just heard. "Not himself? What are you talking about?"

"Ash would never give up so easily. I wanted to help him."

"That's Ash too! That boy you saw being upset and defeated, that's Ash!"

"It's not him!" Serena denied it, shaking her head profusely. "The Ash I know would never give up and…!"

"You don't know him!"

When her aquamarine eyes started burning up, and a knot in her throat threatened to choke her, Misty lowered her face. She felt shame, anger, indignation. What kind of Ash was Serena picturing? How dared she say she loved him that way? How stupid of her.

Both of them related to Ash, but they saw him in different lights.

"You don't actually love him! You're just crushing on the… "nice part" you knew of him! You never saw him being the most selfish kid in the world! Never saw him making fun of a weak opponent! Never saw him lose! Never saw him being mocked by other trainers! Never saw him cry in anger! Never saw him tremble in fear during his first league! You don't know him at all, Serena! You don't!"

Misty looked at him and saw the real him. She knew of his ambitions, she knew his dream was hard, but she wanted to see him achieve it, no matter how long it took. In turn, Serena didn't see that; she couldn't see how it was still not enough for Ash. She suffered his absence and looked forward to meet him again.

"Please don't do that. Ash is still the same kid I met in Kanto..." She looked at Serena with pity. Screaming had relieved all that weight off of her chest. "Even if you see him as a leader and… whatever else, he's still Ash. I saw him grow. We both started being a pair of immature brats, and now we've grown up. I wonder if you'd still love him if you met the Ash who left home for the first time."

Misty turned around, completely tired after that scene. She barely walked five steps before turning around to speak to Serena one last time and cut the thing out for both their sakes.

"If you're still bent on your idea of loving him, please get to know him better, or at least as much as I do."

She hesitated, but said it.

"Don't you think we're being stupid, arguing over somebody like him? It's not like he has feelings you."

She hesitated again, but still said it.

"Nor does he have them for me."

"M-Misty..."

Serena smiled as a single tear rolled down her right cheek. Her eyes had turned glassy and her cheeks red. She would break into tears at any second.

Because Misty loved him too. Misty loved him. But unlike her, she'd been waiting for him without actually expecting anything. They'd been too many years apart from him, yet she never complained or regretted her situation.

That was true love.

'So then… what do I have?'

Love, but it was a love that had barely been born, and hadn't gone through the storms that would eventually strengthen it.

"Misty, I won't stop being your friend just because of that..."

Misty resumed her walk in a hurry; she wanted to cry as well.

"Neither will I," she said with her voice cracking, before vanishing between the trees.

Serena then broke into tears with her hands clutching her chest.

I promise I will learn from all of my mistakes.

Translator's Notes:

So, what's up? Here I am with a little translation. It's rare to find people who like both PokéShipping and AmourShipping on equal grounds, so this little gem from ClaudiaDaro is a treasure for me. I offered to share this little drabble of hers, just to illustrate a bit the point of how stupid is to fight shipping wars in the fandom, especially when we do so through the characters (aka demonizing one of them and make them do things they would NEVER do in canon). Moreover, there's a clear shortage of stories featuring Serena and Misty as friends and not at each other's throats, and even then, their feelings aren't less genuine than the other's. It's just that, as it's discussed here, each one met Ash at a different stage of his life, though in my opinion, I'd say they might be attracted to Ash for very similar reasons.

I might be doing more of these, since with the quarantine still on I've got A LOT of free time, though I'd also work on my own stories. Hope you guys enjoyed this one, see ya next time!