Dedicated: To Chelle. Was there ever any question?
Disclaimer: *paints a picture* That's me….*keeps painting* That's me not owning anything and being broke. *Finishes the painting* That's me not getting sued for this.
It Was a Monday
I think that every important event in my life has happened on a Monday. I was born on a Monday and one Monday my dad went to work and never came back. A few Monday's later I became one of the youngest gym leaders ever. I caught Geodude on a Monday a year before my father left and I caught Onix one Monday a year after he left. I don't know if it's fate, or whatever, but every Monday I wait to see if something Earth-shattering will happen. Most Mondays are just like any other and nothing important happens. Some are really extraordinary and sometimes something would happen that I wouldn't know was important until a lot later.
I meet Ash on a Monday. Yep, I usually had a lot of matches on Monday mornings and Ash was one of them. I didn't think anything of it, he was just another kid after the Boulder Badge, and Ash wasn't even anything special during our first bout. I whooped him but good. I didn't think anything of it until he came back later and almost beat me. And brought my father with him. That was a Monday too. It seemed like a lot less time, but it was a whole week that he waited, powering up his Pikachu. I was free from a life that I thought was stifling me, I didn't realize until later that I sort of liked my life. I loved looking after the kids and cooking and cleaning. It was very domestic and cozy; and the perfect place to breed and raise Pokemon is within a family. But I didn't know that then, and I left that life on a Monday evening, I was sixteen.
I meet Misty on that same Monday. She was just 'that girl following us' to me then. Over the course of fifty-two Mondays I got to know her pretty well. I learned that she was thirteen and a big fan of romance of any kind and that she loved ice cream. I found out that she loved to swim, especially in cool, flowing water. I knew that she loved Pokemon, raising them, training them and battling with them. I loved battling with her; she'd never been an official trainer, but if she had been the Cascade Badge would have been a lot tougher to get. She knew her Pokemon and yours too. Attacks, weakness, and the kind of care and training they needed. She was good. We'd battle forever, waiting for Ash to get done with whatever he was doing and in the middle of the night when neither of us could sleep. And I never even thought about whether or not we were battling on a Monday.
I probably should have been paying more attention to my Mondays during that year. I met Professor Ivy on a Monday. I was taken with the opportunity to work and study in her tropical island lab. I was fascinated with the difference location could have on a Pokemon and I wanted to learn more. But more importantly, I'd found people who needed me. There were people to cook and clean for, people who needed my help. And I missed being needed. I missed my family. So I adopted Professor Ivy and the girls as my family, because I needed them to need me. Ash and Misty left a week after we got there, on a Monday.
I spent the next one hundred-fifteen Mondays studying and learning and training and breeding Pokemon. I also spent them cooking and cleaning and fixing things around the buildings. I made myself indispensable to the running and maintenance of the lab. And I enjoyed my life tremendously. Because I knew that the time I had there was short, that it had to end sooner rather than later. I wasn't that upset by it, I knew when I first decided to stay on that it was only for a matter of time. Everybody has to build their own future, their own destiny. And then one day, one Monday, I knew it was time to leave and the following Monday I did. I set off for home, to see my brothers and sisters and even my father. I wanted to see my old life again.
I'd like to say that I fell right back into place in Pewter City, but I didn't. Oh, it was a nice visit and I even fought a few gym matches for my father, but I didn't belong there anymore, not as the head of my family and not as the gym trainer. It didn't bother me a whole lot because I'd never wanted to be a full time gym leader; I had always wanted to be a breeder who battled on the side. So I left Pewter City and went wherever the wind took me. It was a lot of fun, battling other trainers and swapping breeding tips and nutrition information with anybody who wanted to trade secrets. When you're nineteen, the world is your Cloyester.
But eventually it got dull. Oh, not the Pokemon. No, that was still as much fun and as much as a challenge as ever. The traveling got dull. Eventually I just wanted to find a place to settle in and start building a life. At the ripe old age of twenty-one I was ready to finally settle down. I didn't stop traveling right away, instead I looked around a bit, to find a place where I wanted to stay. I found a place, Roseate City. I loved it for its name, which means 'cheerful' and the for the fact that it is not to far from Pewter City, I could easily visit my family several times a month if I wanted to. I did and over the next two years a steady stream of people found their way from Pewter City to me, looking for Pokemon tips and food and sometimes battles. I think that's when I started to become known, at the age of twenty-three, as a top breeder, though I didn't know it yet. I was too busy being busy.
And then everything came to a halt. On a Monday. I was working in the training yard when I heard voices. That's not unusual, people usually wonder around my place a bit looking for me, and I don't mind that. But the thing that made me stop working, made me look for the people who were on my property was the sound of the voices. They were familiar. In the patch of grass right in front of my house I found them, a boy of about seventeen and a girl. The loveliest girl in the world! She had this dark red hair that swirled around her shoulders and these eyes that were so blue it was like looking into the ocean. I felt my heart leave my body and settle comfortably into her hands. Oh man, I've had it bad for Nurse Joys and Officer Jenny's since I was fourteen but that was nothing compared to this. I totally lost myself in that girl. And then the boy spoke.
"Hey Brock, what's the matter? Don't you remember me?" What? I took a good look at the boy and almost collapsed. Ash?! It most certainly was. He didn't look very different from the last time I had seen him. Jeans, T-shirt and a belt full of pokeballs, it was Ash all right.
"Hey Ash!" I greeted him in a cool, manly tone. Guys don't hug their friends, especially not in front of beautiful women. Still, I was excited to see him. He hugged me. All right, I haven't seen the kid who is basically my best friend in almost seven years, of course I hugged him back. The beautiful woman could think what she liked.
"Don't I get a hug too, Brock?" That voice. I hadn't forgotten her, not in all the time I'd spent studying and traveling. So I looked around for Misty and that's when that gorgeous woman stepped up and hugged me. And very nearly killed me. "I've missed you, Brock. You know you could have called or written or something." Misty said right in my ear. I jerked back so fast I nearly dumped the woman in my arms on the ground. And Misty's eyes laughed at me, out of the gorgeous woman's face. Misty, at twenty, looked a heck of a lot different than she did at thirteen.
"Misty????" I must have sounded like a confused moron. Well, I was a confused moron. I covered, "Gee, you look…" ravishing, fantastic, gorgeous, "great!" I don't think I covered very well, 'cause she laughed at me again.
"I look better than great." She told me. She didn't have to, she really didn't have to. Misty has always worn really short shorts and if I remember right she always liked those mid-riff baring T-shirts. They looked a lot different on her now. She grinned at me and I remembered that grin well. Victory grin, score one for Team-Misty. Same grin she always wore after she whomped me in a pokemon match. "I grew up." She informs me.
"Uh, yeah, I see that." God, I wonder if I was even coherent. Manners, I prompted myself, let's remember our manners Brock. "Would you like to come in?" I tried to address the question to both of them but I was kinda busy staring at Misty. Misty who used to tell me stories about her life in Cerulean City and her sisters and her gym. Misty who always argued with me about how water-type pokemon were better than rock-types. Misty who used to challenge me and tease me and laugh with me. The same Misty who grew into a beautiful, confident woman when I wasn't even there to see it.
"Sure." She answered me, her voice easy. She swept past me and up my front steps. I was left in a cloud of scent that was equal parts perfume, ocean and Misty. I hurried to catch up to her and unlock my front door. Ash followed us into the house. I busied myself making tea; my mind was just brimming with questions. Where had they been? What had been going on in their lives? How did they find me? A million different questions, but Ash spoke first.
"Pretty humble place for one of the world's top pokemon breeders." He said jokingly and gestured to the modest front room.
"I'm not one of the top breeders." I told him, pleased that he thought that much of me. He had always been over-effusive with his praise for my talents, but still, a guy appreciates the vote of confidence.
"You're out of the loop." Misty informed me and came to stand with me in the kitchen. "Remember all those honors that Suzy won? And all the magazines that talked about her?" I nodded, of course I remembered. One day, I wanted to be on the cover of those magazines, with all those honors. Misty smiled and pulled a stack of said reading material out of her knapsack. "You've got 'em all and then some." And she dumped the pile onto my counter top. Almost all my dreams came true on a Monday.
"Wow." I was whispering. "Oh, wow. I didn't know." I really hadn't. You think they'd warn a guy.
"Yeah, and Misty and I get to say that we knew you when." Ash added, coming into the kitchen as well. He grabbed a cup of tea and sat down at my table. Still in shock I sat down with him. Misty stayed leaning against the counter.
"So, what have you two been up to? Make into the Elite Four yet? Ash? Misty?" I smiled; Ash had been on his way to the top when I'd left them. I had tried to keep track of him, of them, but being so busy I was often way behind on news. I wondered if he'd fulfilled his dream without me there to see it and congratulate him.
"Not yet. Soon." Ash answered. " I almost made it last time, but Gary beat me in the final round." He made a face. I guessed he and Gary still weren't friends. "Misty hasn't even tried yet." He grinned in her direction, baiting her. "She's too chicken to face me in a match." She didn't take the bait, but she did grin at me and wink. Seven years ago she could have taken Ash in a heartbeat, I doubted that that had changed.
"You know I want to be a gym trainer." She reminded him. "But Cerulean City Gym has become one big water show." She sighed, suddenly sad, and sat down in the vacant chair across from me. "The Cascade Badge has become a big joke."
I nodded. I completely understood how that felt. "Kinda like the Boulder Badge." She looked at me curiously and so did Ash. "The Pokemon League is closing the Pewter City Gym. Flint just can't hack it and with the rest of the kids leaving home soon he's glad the gym is closing." I smiled at Ash. "Keep a hold of that badge I gave you, one day it's going to be a pokemon myth."
Misty smiled too. "Like Blaine's gym." Her face sobered. "And mine." She sighed deeply. "My sisters have two months to turn the gym around or else they get closed too. I don't think they care."
Ash shrugged. "So open your own gym. With two gyms closing that leaves room for new ones." Misty looked ready to pop him one. I could understand why. Running a gym is hard, even if it's an established gym like the ones we grew up in. Starting your own, by yourself is almost impossible. Misty told him as much.
"So, get Brock to help you." He told her, and I was floored. "I'll help for as long as I can before the League games start. Besides," Ash smiled, "starting a gym should be good training."
"Oh Ash," Misty sounded weary. "Brock's a pokemon breeder, remember? If he wanted to be a gym trainer he'd be running the Pewter City gym instead of letting it close." She was right. But that didn't mean that I didn't mind helping…
"I wouldn't mind Misty." I heard myself tell her. "You'd be the gym leader, right?" She nodded, looking very interested. "And if Ash helped us out in the beginning, we'd get established pretty quick." Ash nodded now. He opened his mouth to say something, but I didn't let him get it out. "The day-to-day running of the gym wouldn't be much of problem, it'd tack on a bit to the chores I already do but I don't mind. Especially since I'd be helping a beautiful woman." I smiled, focusing on Misty and the look of hope in her eyes.
"You wouldn't mind helping me run the gym?" She was whispering. And blushing. I lost my heart to Misty on a Monday.
"I wouldn't mind helping you do anything." I told her sincerely. I think she's had my heart since the first Monday that I laid eyes on her. It must certainly have been hers the last Monday that I'd seen her. Love doesn't happen this deeply, this quickly. Not even on a Monday.
She leaned across the table and hugged me, impulsively. "Let's go out to eat." She suggested. "We can start making plans over dinner. We need to design a gym layout, and a badge, everything." She grinned that victory grin again. Maybe I started to love her on one of those Mondays that we sat up half the night talking and battling pokemon, when I didn't care what day it was.
So we went out to dinner. Me and Misty, and Ash came too, although I don't remember him saying much that evening. Most of what I remember about that night has everything to do with Misty and the way she looked and what she said. And all the things she didn't say that night, but that she would say on other nights when it was just the two of us. Words of love and need and the future. It was I who spoke of marriage and babies.
And now I'm about to go into a church full of people, with Ash at my side, and make her my wife. I couldn't be happier. And today isn't even a Monday.
* * *
I'm standing beside my best friend at his wedding and watching him and the woman I love make a vow to love each other forever, forsaking all others. I lost every chance I'll ever have with the woman I love, on a Tuesday.