~*~
CHAPTER TWO
~*~
Mumbling curses under her breath, Misty stomped down the stairs.
"If that's that bimbo reporter again…" Pulling the door open, Misty had to resist the urge to slam it shut again.
"Hello Miss Flowerwater!" chirped Messena, standing on the doorstep.
"Miss Waterflower," Misty corrected through gritted teeth. "Listen peachy, I though I made myself clear the last hundred times! I DO NOT WANT TO BE INTERVIEWED!" Messena grinned serenely at the enraged red head.
"Oh, that's okay Miss, we already have all the information we need." Misty paled.
"Wh-what information?"
"Oh lots of it; that whole messy business about your mother and father for example." Misty glanced at Messena. The woman was speaking cheerfully; none of her words held any malice.
"I know what's going on," Misty stated quietly, leaning back from her offensive position blocking the door. "You're going to blackmail me into an interview, so I can save my mother's reputation in the press…"
"Yep, that's pretty much the idea!" chirped Messena, pulling out her slightly chewed biro. "Well then," she began, ushering in her photographer and pushing past Misty into the hallway. "Shall we begin?"
~*~
"Would you like some tea?" Misty called bitterly from the kitchen, as she watched Messena and the photographer invade her sitting room, where she and Ash had spent the previous evening revelling in solitude.
"Skimmed milk, no sugar honey! Us girls gotta watch our figures ya know!" Messena broke into peals of laughter. Misty smirked.
"Indeed…" Alone in the kitchen, Misty slammed the mugs and kettle down on the side as hard as she could without breakage, trying to release her anger. Helplessly, she sank from the counter top to her knees on the floor, feeling her chest thump painfully as her logic melted into panic. Warm tears slid down her legs as the only remaining rational part inside her began to make frantic plans.
~*~
Messena pressed the red circular button on her Dictaphone, and placed her tea on the table.
"Misty, tell us about your childhood." Misty sat stubbornly in the chair opposite her, her long legs crossed, as well as her arms.
"No. My childhood has nothing to do with Ash; and it's his biography. I'll tell you my life story if you really want it, but as far as I'm concerned, my life started with him."
"Uh yeah - that's…sweet. How old were you?"
"Um…almost 11."
"Tell me about the early parts of your journey." Suddenly, Messena noticed that the hard, unforgiving look on Misty's face was gone, and this much more contented Misty stared straight through Messena, into a happy past of adventures and love, Messena was almost jealous of, simply from that wistful, nostalgic look. Misty spoke, with her normal soft voice, instead of the one she'd been using with the reporters.
"He…broke my bike…"
~*~
One hour later
~*~
"So you love him?" Messena asked wistfully. Over the hour, the two women had almost bonded, as now Messena was seeing the real Misty, the one the Pokémon Master was crazy about, and Misty was seeing Messena as an intern trying desperately not to lose her job. But with that question, Misty snapped out of it.
"Huh? Um, isn't that too personal a question for a newspaper article?"
"Oh sorry," tittered Messena. "I just got so swept up in it all, I was asking as a friend, not a reporter." Messena stood up straight, and shuffled her notes together. "Thank you Miss Waterflower, you were-"
"Yes."
"Excuse me?"
"I do love him…always have, and knowing my luck, I probably always will," she laughed. "I do- I'd do anything for him…no matter what…" Misty got a lump in her throat as once again she realised how much she truly loved him.
Messena was just about to reply, when her mobile rung; that annoying high-pitched trill that sounded like an ambulance on Prozac.
"Messena Shundo, Daily Dodrio," she chanted, admiring her peach nail varnish she had specially coordinated with her hair. Suddenly she straightened up. "Mi- Miss Sonezaki…um yes, yes miss, she talked, I've got all the information you asked for…uhuh…what? Yo-you can't do th…but….but miss……." There was silence for a moment, as Messena's face hardened with every malicious word pouring from her boss's mouth, and Misty looked on curiously, spoiling the shots the photographer tried to take of her. Suddenly, Messena's face took on a more determined look. "Oh yeah…I QUIT!" Even Misty could hear Carys scream "You'll never work in journalism again!" down the phone. "I don't care - I don't want to when there are monsters like you in the business!"
Messena hung up abruptly, then collapsed on the sofa in floods of tears. Looking bored, the photographer left the house, taking a biscuit from the table on the way out, and not even acknowledging Misty in the slightest. Misty sat next to Messena with her arm around the sobbing girl's shoulders.
"Oh Misty, she's going to run the story about your parents," the girl sobbed. "She was gonna run both my interview and that whole murder thing." Misty's fists clenched at that word.
"Did - did she wonder why my father was so high profile, to have all those records?" she asked, warily. Messena nodded, black rivets of mascara coursing down her cheeks.
"That was to be my next assignment," she wailed. She continued, but Misty couldn't hear a word. They were going to find out… And that deadly rational part made its final decision. Misty gulped back a sob, as the full implication of what she had decided to do hit her like a rock hurled at her stomach. She had to get out of there, for Ash's sake.
~*~
10 minutes later, Misty was rummaging around in Ash's cupboard, picking up different Pokéballs and examining them until she found the one she sought and opened it. The owl Pokémon ruffled its feathers and opened its yellow eyes, irritated at being woken in the day, but its gaze softening when it saw its master's mate.
Instinctively, the Pokémon knew the gentle girl was upset, and stroked her cheek with a feathered wing in comfort. Misty smiled.
"Noctowl, I need you to take this message to Ash." The Pokémon understood, and lifted its leg for Misty to attach the piece of paper. "He should be on his way home from Indigo Plateau, probably got a lift with Gary in that ancient sports car." Noctowl nodded wisely. "This will just tell him to come home quickly…he can get on Rapidash, or get Pidgeot to give him a lift…" Flapping its large wings, Noctowl hovered off the ground, then glided out the window in search of Ash. Misty sat on the floor on her own. "It's our last day together…trust him to waste most of it with Gary!" she half chuckled, warm tears overspilling.
~*~
Sitting impatiently on the couch, circumspectly going over every inch of her hurried plans.
"Ash will be crushed…" a little voice from inside said.
"But you're doing this for him…" another coaxed. "He'd be angry at you if your dead father lost him his position as Master…don't be selfish."
"But it's not your fault!" the first contradicted. Before the two forces could continue arguing, Misty heard a frantic fumbling at the lock, and Ash trying every key on his ring. Sighing she rose. He was obviously in a great hurry; he'd forgotten which was the key to the house he'd lived in since he was born. Opening the latch, Ash practically fell on top of her and crushed her into a hug.
"What's the matter? Are you sick? You want me to call a doctor?" he babbled, trying to take her pulse from her forehead, and her temperature from her wrist. Laughing, Misty pushed him away, half noticing Noctowl flying into the kitchen and helping itself to the Pokéchow set out for Pikachu, who promptly followed it into the kitchen.
"I'm fine, you big lump! Get off me!"
"Hey, it's not my fault you're as scrawny as a twig!" Playfully slapping him, she drew him down to the couch. "So what's up?" He was answered by a playful kiss.
"Woah, what was that for?"
"The one you missed last night…" Slowly kissing his surprised face again, Misty moved her arms around him, and instinctively, he did the same. "And that one was just because I felt like it…and that one…and that one…" Content, Misty finished her kissing assault on Ash, and laid her head on his chest, an unspoken signal to him to play with her hair.
"…wow," he muttered. "That was way better than being in that hunk of junk car with Gary all morning." Misty rose. "What's up now?" Misty chucked his jacket at him.
"Come on; we're not spending today indoors watching TV and stuffing our faces." Dragging him out into the back garden, Misty turned and wrapped her arms around him again. While he was goofily leaning in for a kiss, Misty grabbed Pidgeot's Pokéball from his belt.
"Heeeey, I want my kiss! Don't mess with a guy's heart like that!" he joked.
"More like a guy's loins," Misty teased back, blowing him a preoccupied kiss as she called Pidgeot from the Pokéball.
"What's going on?!" asked Ash. Misty just tapped her nose and grinned. "Oh, you're too adorable, you know that?" he said sarcastically, rolling his eyes and shoving his hands deep into his trouser pockets.
"Of course," she replied, before turning to the large bird Pokémon. "Pidgeot, can you take us to that place in Vermillion City you used to take me?"
"Piidge -ohh!" the Pokémon cried, as Misty climbed on its back and held her hand out to Ash who clambered on, looking densely confused.
"We're going to Vermillion? Pidgeot used to take you there? Hey, stop using my Pokémon without asking!" Misty didn't retaliate to the playful command, instead, she lifted up Ash's arm and placed it round her shoulders. With a massive swoop of its huge wings, Pidgeot soared into the air, and headed in the north-easterly direction of Vermillion Harbour.
They cut straight across the sea; the high afternoon sun making the ocean waters appear silver. Crawling away from Ash on Pidgeot's broad back, Misty moved closer to its head, and took deep breaths as the warm ocean air washed over her. Ash came up behind her, taking her hands and resting his chin on her shoulder. She could hear him self consciously humming.
"Guess this is the perfect time to do something boyfriendy, huh?" he murmured. Misty nodded. Ash cleared his throat. "Just don't sue me for unoriginality, okay?"
"I won't," Misty laughed. With his head still rested on her shoulder, Ash caressed her fingers gently. He cleared his throat again.
"Let me be your wings," he half sang, half said. "Let me take…" He halted for a second. "Let me take you high above the stars." Every word cut into Misty's heart like a knife, every syllable reminding her what she was going to do to him in less than a day. "Anything we're dreaming of, will soon be ours…" Ash's singing was now nothing more than hot murmuring in her ear. Misty started to cry, and Ash gently wiped the tears off her face. "Anything that you desire, anything at all…everyday I'll take you higher, and I'll never let you fall."
"Oh Ash," Misty wailed, turning around and hugging him. Ash gently tapped the side of her nose as she drew in to kiss him once again. His face broke into a grin.
"I knew that'd get you kissing me," he grinned. Misty had no time to retaliate, as Pidgeot landed, and to show its disgust at the public show of affection between the two people it still saw as squabbling ten year olds, returned to its ball without being told.
"Hey, it was worth it," he grinned again. "Even if I did have to sing!"
Grasping his hand and making a face, Misty led Ash down the precipice they had landed on, to a secluded beach, with golden sand, and the silvery sea washing gently against it. To the left, they could see the boats pulling in and out monotonously of the Harbour, but no one could see in to them. Misty led Ash to the top of the beach, where there was an old battered bench. Ash ran his fingers over the ancient wood.
"This is where you used to come Myst? Before you travelled with me?" Misty nodded.
"There's more." Again, she led him across the beach, to the far end, where green shrubbery was starting to grow again. Pushing past the weeds, Misty beckoned Ash closer, to see a small cave that had been cut out of the cliff face. Walking in, Ash expected it to be slimy, and dark, but to his surprise, he found that it was sandy and dry, and various candles were set up around the walls that Misty lit.
"What's all this then?" he asked.
"This was my solitude," she answered. "When my parents started arguing, and even more so when they died. I caught Goldeen in that rock-pool outside," she added.
"You mean to say, you set this thing up when you were a little girl?"
"Yep, and you're the first person I've ever let in it." A picture on the crate that the younger Misty had used as a table caught his eye. The paper was turning green at the edges, and Ash thought it would break in his hands and turn to mush. It was a drawing, and in the corner, someone had scribbled Misty Waterflower, aged 5 and a 1/2 in thick black crayon. It was a bit hard to make out, but the scribble of orange at the top gave the impression it was a self portrait.
"Hey hon?" Ash called Misty over. "What was this?" Misty took it gingerly.
"Oh, it was a drawing I did of myself on my wedding day. It's nothing weird, all little girls dreamed of the big white dress and the veil…"
"You want a big white dress eh? That can be arranged!" Ash pulled Misty into his embrace again after she put the picture back down. He felt so close to her that day. He looked down at Misty's scrutinising face. The light from the flickering candles bounced off the walls of the cave. Ash 's breath caught in his throat. Candlelight, Misty's favourite place in the world…
Misty's breath also caught in her throat. Part of her wanted Ash to say the words she knew where on the tip of his tongue. To have him tell her that he loved her…he had skipped around the words so many times. Endless metaphors like "you are my everything" and "you are my reason to be" came from his heart, but were poor facsimiles of the phrase she most desperately wanted to hear.
Another half of her screamed for him to stop. If he told her that he loved her, and took her in his arms, there was no way she'd ever have the guts for her moonlight flit, and Ash's career, no, his life long dream, would be completely ruined.
Ash was increasingly aware his mouth was hanging open, as three "stupid" words stuck in his throat. Suddenly, there was a crash from outside, and suddenly there was a thundering sound as rain smashed down on the roof of the cave.
"Aw damn," Ash cursed. "We'll get completely soaked!" Guiltily thankful the awkward moment was over, Misty fiddled around in her bag.
"Hang on." She pulled out a Ball, and opened it.
"Toki, toki tic?" The petite evolution of Togepi stood in front of the couple, her delicate fairy wings getting battered by heavy drops from the cave roof.
"Togetic, can you teleport me and Ash home?" Togetic nodded, and squinted her little eyes shut.
"Tokiiiii!" she chirped, as the cave was engulfed by a violet light, and suddenly Misty and Ash materialised on their sofa.
"Thanks Togetic," Misty said, as she returned her to her ball. She sat there in silence for a moment, feeling the cool hardness of the device in her palm.
"So," said Ash, coming up behind her and wrapping his arms around her. "Who's for TV?"