Hey Everyone! This is Pokemaster06 here, signing in for the day! I hope you all awesome people are all good!
I have been busy the past few months, what with the start of a new session and studies and campaigning for the past few weeks instead of studying. I don't know, but I hate the campaigning part. Not fun, that I have to go to door to door preaching to people to stay at home and all that stuff. I think I am being converted into a Sadhu of sorts. Not sure what that meant? Don't worry. Just skip to the story, aha!
Oh two more things!
1] ShippingShoujo, I know your B'day is long gone, but I promised you a present and I finally got around finishing it! I am late I know, but please accept it. Its my way of thanking you for hearing my inner storms and helping me calm them. So thanks a tonne! This story is dedicated to you!
2] Disclaimer: I don't own Pokemon nor its characters. It's only the plot I own. ONLY THE PLOT!
You Owe Me
She thought that the backdrop wouldn't and couldn't be more beautiful. Ah, they said the word was beau, but it was flawless, anyway. The clear blue sky, the soft wind that blew her hair. It brought a nice feeling to the bare skin of her neck. Completing it were the clumped together, yet neatly arranged houses and mansions, and the famous Prism Tower (the one she has had several fantasies of). Up close, it looked quite different than what she imagined. The top of the tower was like a crown, not like the pointed, slender tip she had seen on the usual telephone towers. And, despite having the name tower, it was a building. A building whose most perfect description would be nothing more than a magnificent piece of art. Clear glass that reflected the blue sky above ran up and down through the middle of the tower, accenting the architect's brilliance.
Misty had seen the map of Kalos, Lumiose City in particular, a lot of times. It was what had her drawn to Kalos in the first place. In the simplest of terms, it was like the city was set in plain concentric circles because of the arrangement of the town. Main roads and alleyways served as the lines that would mark the sectors of a circle. The Lumiose Tower was the centre point. Up close, its beauty multiplied itself a bazillion times.
Misty was sitting in a restaurant and in front of her was a small bottle of water. Smiling, she picked it and read the label on it for the millionth time that day.
L'eau de vie.
Misty whispered the words to herself. She didn't know how to pronounce them or what they even meant, but when she pronounced them, in her way, they sounded downright beautiful. She repeated the phrase again and again, each time faster and faster, and each attempt sounded more beautiful than the previous one. No wonder it was 'the language of Love'...
So engrossed she was in her fantasy that she didn't notice the blond man coming her way until he greeted her with a polite 'Bonjour, madame' and he continued speaking in perfect French, and all Misty could do was stare right back at him- straight in his small and sharp, beautiful blue eyes. Piercing.
This man in front of her had his clumped, blonde tresses curled and arranged to look like ripples, with his slightly curled bangs swept towards the left. His high-collared shirt traced his sharp jawline, but Misty could see his broad shoulder from between the wave-like collars, anyways. Looking at him up and down for a few times, Misty could finally understand why the man looked so familiar- he was wearing a shirt that looked like a chef's double jacket, and fastened by a Mega Buckle was a unique cerulean blue flowing tie hanging from his neck, which roused Misty's suspicions. But his Medieval-looking apron gave away his identity.
"You- you are Sie...bold!" Misty squeaked. But no sooner than the words left, everything around her turned into a light buzz and then it was all dark.
XXX
That day, Misty woke up with a very slightly pounding brain. The sensation was negligible, but its presence could not be ignored. In a state of subconsciousness, Misty's mind concluded that she was trying to remember the dream she was seeing. It was a nice trip, even if it was all imagination. But what she did not appreciate was being woken up by…
"Bzzt-bzzzt… Bzzt-bzzzt."
…and just when she was about to meet Siebold.
Groaning, she slammed her hand around her bed to find the offending object. Once her hand collided with it, she threw the alarm clock with a satisfying swing of her arm, frowning when she realised that Marill wouldn't be happy about it. The clock, after all, was shaped like her pre-evolved counterpart.
Throwing herself back on her bed, her mind, on its own, started thinking of various apologies to Marill, though she knew that the blue mouse would forgive her rather easily. Funny just how foggy her mind was in the mornings.
"Bzzt...Bzzzt."
Misty screamed. She would kill the man or whoever the hell they were for creating such an alarm clock. That wouldn't just break. Why couldn't just a human being, hardworking as she was, wake up at her own time and then slave around the gym?
Right, stupid stuff- discipline.
Angry green eyes that preached nothing more than anger at the moment shot daggers at every other object that could produce the noise -books, tv, radio- there was no way she was showing mercy. She would nip the problem right in the bud and then she would sleep all she wanted. Damn the gym.
But when her eyes did land on the alarm clock, however, her anger broke and morphed into that of confusion.
The alarm clock was broken.
"Bzzt...bzzt…" Not again. She turned around to jump off the bed, but her hand brushed against the hem of a shirt and… skin? It was at that moment that Misty realised that the vibration wasn't the only thing that she heard.
There was a snore.
And a "cha".
And the events of the day before clicked into her mind.
Ash had come to Cerulean to deliver something from the Cerise Laboratory in Viridian- no Vermilion City. It had to be Vermilion, because Viridian City was basically cursed, proved by its constant change in Gym Leaders. Really now, who wanted to take over a gym that used to be run by criminals? She knew that she wouldn't.
But that's besides the point. Because at the moment Misty's uncharacteristically foggy mind had a big question.
Why was Ash Ketchum, of all the people who could have been there, sleeping on her bed?
And poor Misty Waterflower who generally spent the night alone in just a baggy t-shirt and a pair of shorts became acutely aware of her appearance. Because she was a young adult and not just any ten-year old, sleeping next to a fifteen-year old, albeit dense, pokemon trainer.
"Bzzt...bzzt…"
Sighing, Misty stuck her hand under her pillow, groping around for her phone. Someone was trying to reach her at an ungodly hour, for some Mew-damned reason.
She had a thought for a fleeting moment that Daisy was returning from the Sevii Islands, and she was alerting her about it- basically an indirect order to make breakfast for five. Why, her sister was cruel enough to ask a nine-year-old with a broken hand to help her clean the pool. But she ruled that out when her hand collided with Ash's vibrating Rotom phone, making out the difference because she still used a classic phone- the one without Rotom. She was a Gym Leader of the Kanto region. Gym Leaders here made their own badges, after all.
As soon as she fished out the phone from under Ash's pillow, the phone took a gasp of air (much to Misty's surprise) and screamed:
"YOU HAVE A CALL FROM GOH!"
Misty covered her ears, dropping the phone on her lap. When the Rotom phone was done shouting, she asked, "From who?"
"G-O-H! Goh!" At least her phone didn't have an attitude.
"That's a weird name…" she mumbled. However, her thought process was cut short when the phone screamed again.
"Ash Ketchum. You. Have. A. Call. From. Goh. Are you going to pick it up?"
She winced. She had half the mind to tell the phone that she was not Ash, but decided against it when she saw Rotom's mouth reopen. Not wanting to be scolded, she quickly accepted the call. "Hello? May I-"
"Ash! THANK GOODNESS YOU FINALLY PICKED IT UP! Where are you?" a male voice with an unusually high pitch shouted through the phone's speaker. She assumed his name was Goh.
"I am-" Misty began to answer, when this 'Goh' person again cut her off.
"Save it!" Misty briefly held the phone away from her ear. She wondered if this was what she sounded like when she screamed. The boy kept rambling on and on about some Dragonite being difficult and a Dracovish sulking in the water. About how he was worried, and he sent out a search party.
Misty opened her mouth to reassure the boy, but he kept on rambling.
Holy Mew, did he not breathe?
After a few more moments of Misty waiting patiently for her chance, a golden chance to speak, she let her mischievous mind finally take the reins.
"Dat's enough ah heard of ye!" Misty scolded the boy with her best 'pirate' voice. She could hear a small "huh" come from the other end, indicating she had his full attention. Beside her, Ash let out a content sigh in his sleep, so she continued. "Listen lad, I don' care about dat Dragonite yer talkin 'bout. All I wan' in exchange for yahr friend is da moneh, and once ah'll get that, yahr friend is free to go. How does dat sound?"
Mew, all those years with Jessie and Meowth are finally coming to some use.
"Wha-?! No!" the boy sputtered, leading Misty to bite her thumb hard in an attempt to stifle her laughter. The boy stumbled on his words and stuttered some more before he asked, "How much money are we talking about?"
Misty's grin dropped and her eyes widened. She couldn't believe that he was actually giving in, and so quickly at that. Just what kind of people he was travelling with?
She stalled. "Aye, Don'cha dare play dat game with meh! Yer gunna tell deh Officah in that stinkin' city of yahrs, 'n' come down tah find meh, but know dis, lad, it's of no use! Dat woman will listen to me before even she heeds yah!" She let out a couple of small coughs, her throat becoming increasingly sore from faking the gruff voice.
"I am not playing any games! I just want Ash to be safe!" came the screeching voice, and once again Misty held the device away. "Just how much do you want?"
"Kids dese days! Ah-solute cowards!" She continued to stall. "I remembah, back in mah day… Oi, ye wan' yer precious baby to be safe, bring he-yah dah money...And dey would come with dah entah town wid Moltres's red flowah! No-one ah have evah threatened gave in sooo esey-lee! People like ye, boi, ruin dah fun of nappin' people!"
There was a pause and then the boy exclaimed, "You've got to have a twisted mind!"
Yeah, I probably do. Misty nodded feverishly in an attempt to hold her laughter down.
"How much could you possibly want?"
Misty pondered on this. Just how much would not be too much, but wouldn't be too less either? "Ten million poke-dolahs. Yah, ten-million."
"..."
"Wimp."
"..."
"No! I am not a wimp. Look, what you are asking for... It's way too much! You've got to be kidding!"
"..."
"Nah, not when it's a prank cawl!" And Misty cackled.
"..."
"...oh…my…tummy...hurts!"
"..."
"Oof…Hey are you still there?"
"..."
"So you're dead?" Still no answer.
"Right, dead people can't talk… Hey dead man, if you can still hear me, just know that I am not sorry, okay?"
"NOOO OH HO!" Came the response.
"Not dead? That's too bad!"
"Who's not dead?" Ash asked, rolling over. He would have fallen off the bed if it wasn't for Misty pulling him back up.
"Pika Pikachu…" Pikachu mumbled, mimicking his trainer's actions. Misty swore, if it wasn't for the difference in species, she would have taken them for siblings.
"Hey, that sounds like Ash! Does that mean he's alright?" the boy, Goh, asked with the slightest hint of excitement lacing his voice.
Misty scoffed. "Of course he's okay! May I ask what other place in Cerulean is safer than the Gym itself?"
"...Is he really in the Gym? Do you mean to say that I am speaking with one of the Sensational Sisters?! Which one is it? Daisy Waterflower?"
"I am Misty Waterflower you're speaking with, the current leader of the Cerulean City Gym! I am also an internationally known beauty!" Misty answered with a proud smile plastered across her face. It fell however when she heard the boy's answer.
"Oh! I didn't know that the runt would turn out to be such a fine Gym Leader!" Goh said, forgetting the prank he was played, "I heard that you were competing in the World-"
"Who the hell are you calling a RUNT?!" Misty bellowed, and behind her both Ash and Pikachu jolted as if they were being shocked- though by the end of it only Pikachu was listening in on the conversation. Ash was still half-asleep.
"Cha…" Pikachu yawned, watching the redhead through its beady little eyes.
"N-nobody!" The boy squeaked, only to be answered by an annoyed "hmph". Following that, they settled in on an awkward silence, after which Goh asked:
"Can I talk to him? Ash, I mean."
"Oh," Misty blinked. She momentarily had forgotten that they were still on the line. Quietly nodding, she proceeded to press the phone to Ash's ear. He answered it with a snore.
She face-palmed. Using her other hand, she gently nudged Ash's side, "Hey, your friend wants to talk to you. Wakey wakey, sleeping beauty!"
"Who?" he groaned.
"Goh," the boy on the other end helpfully answered, and Misty felt an odd sense of deja vu. The morning just kept getting weird.
"I'll talk do you lader," Ash mumbled. Misty sighed.
"You heard him, Goh. He's still dreaming about food." The boy chuckled.
"He could be dreaming about Pokemon too, you know?" Misty figured this boy probably knew Ash quite well to make the statement. But, then again, Ash was like an open book. It wasn't like you needed to spend too much with him to know these kinds of things about him.
She wondered if she was like that too.
She shook her head, "It's definitely food; he's drooling." The boy let out a yuck, leading Misty to laugh. Pikachu did too and he jumped on her lap with a 'Pika!', and blabbered to Goh something in his own Pika-language.
"Uh-yeah, okay… Hey uh, Misty, wasn't it?" She nodded despite knowing that he couldn't see her. "When Ash wakes up, please tell him to return to the lab, ASAP. All of his pokemon are actually getting worried about him…"
"Will do," Misty nodded, and he promptly hung up. Lowering the device, Misty blinked at the phone in her hand. She flipped it back only to see the Rotom's ghostly still grin. The corners of the 'grin' did not twitch for a moment. And that was what made her skin crawl. With a hasty move of her hand, she shoved the phone back under Ash's pillow.
Sighing, she looked down at Pikachu on her lap, who was lazily flicking his tail left and right. Scratching his ears, she quietly asked, "Would you like something for breakfast, Pikachu?"
The little yellow mouse quickly jumped off her lap.With a happy 'chu' he began waving his little paws around frantically, explaining Misty about his favourite idea of breakfast. The redhead smiling, nodded to the yellow's every little syllable, all the while scratching his ears. She didn't know what exactly Pikachu was saying, but she did have a pretty good idea of what it really was. He was her Pika-pal after all!
"So a large ketchup bottle and some nice, juicy apples, it is! Right, Pikachu?"
"Cut out the ketchup bottle…" Ash mumbled, snuggling into the oddly comfortable mattress. It was...squishy. And he had no idea why.
"Ah, I am sure Pikachu doesn't gobble up everything he sees in sight, unlike a wild Pokemon Master I know."
The raven-haired trainer peeked one eye open. "You've got little room to talk, Mist. I am really sure that last night, it was you who was inhaling the pizza rather than eating it like the lady you claim yourself to be. Right, buddy?"
Pikachu, however, betrayed his trainer. He jumped into Misty's arms and rubbed his red cheeks along the length of her neck, despite knowing the truth.
Misty kicked his butt (literally). "See? Pikachu knows it all! And you've got some nerve saying that to my face, while sleeping and drooling on my bed! Shameless as ever, I see."
"Deal with it," Ash retorted. He then turned to face the other side of the room as he pulled the blanket up to his neck. Boy, Decembers are cold!
Misty huffed, sticking her tongue at his sleeping figure before turning on her heel to exit her bedroom. "It's only oatmeal and milk without sugar for you, Mr. Hotshot!"
Pikachu, who had since hopped down from Misty's hug, shook his head at the two teenagers' shenanigans. He wondered if the two would actually grow up and mate, or do whatever humans did first already.
Breaking himself from his thoughts and finding himself getting comfortable quite easily, Pikachu looked at Ash. He had fallen back asleep quite easily, even after that bickering with Misty. He guessed he was really tired. Why? Pikachu didn't know. Now, he didn't know about reading a clock either, but he knew from his instincts that his trainer had been quite early to bed.
Using his tiny little paws, Pikachu roughly pushed and pulled Ash's shirt back and forth in an attempt to wake him. But sadly for PIkachu, method one turned out to be a failure.
Not exactly wanting to get on the bad side of Pikachupi, Pikachu got down on all fours on the bed and propelled himself forward, ramming right into Ash's back. The sleeping trainer let out a barely audible "oof" and flopped onto his stomach. Method two, fail.
But the yellow mouse wasn't the type to just give up. Not after all everything he had been through. He was determined to do this step by step.
Hence, Pikachu's next weapon turned out to be his tail. Jumping in the air and doing a few flips, he gained momentum and let his iron-hard tail collide with his trainer's shoulder blade, earning himself a very short, though equally angry counselling session.
"Please lemme sleep! Especially when Mimey's not around!"
Result: Method two, huge fail.
Pikachu was tempted to use his final resort early, but he reconsidered his decision when he imagined the redhead's reaction to finding her room charred. He vividly remembered professor Burnet's reaction on seeing the couch in the loft completely charred and burnt. It happened only once, but that didn't necessarily mean he wanted a repeat. Not with Misty's wrath being worse than her Gyarados's. He shook the terrifying memories of Misty's ranging anger out of his mind.
But he loved his Pikachupi, so he would wake Ash up for her.
Pikachu tried using his Electroweb. This one was somewhat successful with the web shocking Ash lightly from time to time, but that was only till Ash crumpled the Electroweb in his hands and threw it back at PIkachu with all his might.
Now, Pikachu really regretted shocking Ash before without any reason. It basically made him shock resistant.
He decided. It was time to use his final resort.
XXX
Misty happily hummed as she sliced the apples while watching over the frying omelette on the stove. Occasionally, she would tilt the pan this way and that after lifting it from the station. This was something she'd seen Delia do whenever she made her one of those during her stay in Pallet. She was a rather fast learner, hence picking up the trick only after watching the brunette do it in front of her a few times.
It sure was coming in handy now.
Just wait till I rub it on his face. That will teach him about making Chef Louis comments around me! Misty grinned as she looked for a brand-new ketchup bottle in her kitchen cabinets.
But before she could find the bottle, the sounds of a large commotion could be heard. A few seconds thereafter, there was a huge explosion and Ash's very clear voice shouting, "What the fudge?!" reached Misty's rather sharp ears.
She froze. Horror washed over her as the worst came to mind.
She slapped herself. I am overthinking it...yeah. Just breathe. Just breathe.
She prepared to run up the stairs. For the first time in years Misty cursed herself for making her humble home such a giant structure. Honestly, she is always proud of the structure being the loudest in the city. But this time around, she actually wished that the top of the building was a little easier to reach.
"I swear to Arceus if Ash destroyed the- no!" She finished her thought with a scream when she stepped over a puddle of water. Her face blanched. Just what she had feared.
"Ash Ketchum!" she roared as she stomped into her bedroom, splashing water around with every step. She looked around her room, drenched from the water that had burst out from her mattress. Her newly bought cupboard was completely wet, and she knew it wouldn't be long before it soaked in all the water and slowly the wood would start to rot. As she kept looking around, she found Pikachu drying himself off from the top of the A/C, spraying water droplets all over the room from his tiny little body. When her eyes landed on the floor she saw her broken alarm clock sparking. In short, her room was a disaster. She walked over to her bed, feeling some powdery substance under her foot as she neared the furniture. Her blankets!
As she got closer toward her bed, she noticed that the hollow frame of her bed was filled to the brim with water. All those months she spent saving for the mattress, straight down the drain.
"Great job, Ash! Really! I ought to give you a cookie for the amazing job you've done!" Misty barked, her sarcastic quickly taking over to mask the anger inside.
Suddenly, Ash's head broke the surface, and greeted her with a sheepish smile. She suddenly had the thought that she now has two swimming pools in her home.
Misty threw her arms around as if she were presenting something to him and said, "Is this supposed to be a belated birthday present, Ashy-honey? If so, I must say I am impressed!"
Ash looked around the room, his eyes wide. "Oh shoot!"
"I see, Delia has taught her son several euphemisms for the famous curse words just so he can be polite. But, I also see that she has failed to teach her son how to behave in his friend's bedroom! Seriously, what the fuck-"
"Fudge!" Ash interjected without a moment's delay. Misty whacked him over the head. He whimpered. He was also tempted to ask what euphemisms meant, but he swallowed his words back down when he noticed Misty's anger.
"Look, I don't give a shit-" Ash winced as he bit on his tongue to resist himself from correcting her, "-about the wardrobe and my bedroom being soaked, because Politoed can use Sunny Day to dry them completely, but!"
"Misty, I think there is something-" Ash interjected, with his brows furrowed deeply.
"No! You'll lemme finish! Ash Ketchum! You owe me a freaking mattress! Do you hear that?!"
"Yeah, but I also smell something burning!" He finally exclaimed, voicing his thoughts. He closed his eyes in fearful anticipation to be whacked over the head again, but when nothing came, he opened his eyes, only to see Misty's face growing ghostly white.
She rushed out the door, shouting imprecations so loudly that Ash was sure that the entire neighbourhood could hear. But he figured that it was the least of her concerns.
Ash heard her scream and curse relentlessly, until a very dreaded sentence caught his ears:
"You so owe me a new frying pan!"
XXX
Tonnes of thanks to Acanthus Addams for proofreading this! You're awesome too, dude!