Ash and Misty's Love
Chapter Three—Don't Say You Love Me
Ash
leaned on his rake and wiped his brow, tilting his cap lower to get more shade
on his face. Working for Professor Oak
was anything but easy. The Professor
was landscaping a new area for plant pokémon, and Ash had been toiling in the
hot sun for several hours that afternoon.
Pikachu had helped out in the beginning but eventually got distracted by
the apple trees adjacent to the lot. He
and an eevee had made friends shortly thereafter, and they were now both taking
a nap underneath the shade of some lilac bushes. If Ash hadn't been so tired he would have smiled at how cute they
looked. Right now he just wanted a nap
himself.
"Just
one more thing," the Professor said for the millionth time that day. The first time Ash had believed him. He had been fooled the second time as
well. Professors were supposed to be of
the honest sort—that whole academic integrity thing and all. But by now Ash had come to realize that this
wasn't the case. Though in fairness to
the Professor, maybe it wasn't his fault that he was lying. Maybe his voice box was stuck on 'repeat.'
Ash
looked up wearily, expecting to see Professor Oak handing him some other sort
of torture device—like a shovel—and to his shock saw that the Professor was
smiling and holding out a ten-dollar bill instead.
"I'm
assuming you want your wages," the Professor said.
Ash
cheered up immediately. "Wow, thanks,
Professor Oak!" He accepted the money
gratefully.
"It's
for a good cause," the Professor said.
He grinned widely and Ash inwardly groaned, already anticipating the
next question. "What's the name of the
perfume again?"
"I
don't know," Ash mumbled, only to have the Professor laugh out loud at this.
His
mom had told the Professor exactly
what Ash needed the money for, and Ash had been teased all afternoon about the
'sweet' gift that he was giving Misty.
Not to mention had lots of hints dropped as to what kind it was. After their conversation yesterday, his mom
had asked the name of the perfume. She
had gotten suspicious when her quite ordinary and reasonable question had been
met by blushes and stammers by her son.
Ash had tried to bluff his way out of it by saying he didn't know. But after a cunning interrogation—how was he
going to buy perfume when he didn't even know what it was called?—his mom had
pulled out of him that this wasn't the case, and he was just too embarrassed to
tell her the truth.
Which,
of course, only served to heighten her and the Professor's curiosity.
"How
about we go back inside and have some lemonade and cookies?" the Professor
said, mercifully dropping the conversation—for now. "I think Brock and Misty will be finished themselves by now."
Ash
was anxious for cookies but more anxious to change the subject, so he readily
agreed. "Sure!"
Brock
and Misty were not only done, but they were already in the kitchen snacking on
some pound cake when Ash and the Professor came in. Misty wrinkled her nose at Ash as he plopped down in the chair
next to her.
"Eww,
you stink," she complained. Ash glared
at her.
"We'll,
I've been working," he said.
"Imagine
that," she said sarcastically. "Go wash
your hands." She turned her back to
him. Ash was sorely tempted to grab a
piece of cake right then and there, sweaty hands and all. Professor Oak was already over at the sink
washing his own hands, though, so Ash just sighed and walked over to take his
turn.
He
cleaned up as quickly as he could and sat back down, purposely avoiding Misty
as he inwardly sulked over the misfortune of doing a good deed only to be
harassed for it. He paused frowning
only long enough to accept a glass of lemonade and piece of cake from the
Professor and thank him for it.
"What's
this, Brock?" Professor Oak asked as he cut himself a piece.
"Oh,
Professor Oak, I hope you don't mind...I finished early so I made you some cake
that I found in the cupboard. You
weren't saving it for anything special, were you?" Brock asked.
"Mind? Of course not, it looks delicious. Thank you," the Professor answered. They segued into a discussion of ready-made
cake mix versus homemade, which Ash and Misty thought prudent to ignore.
Ash
sighed when he finished and stared at his now clean plate. Twenty-three
dollars and twenty-three cents. Twenty-four
cents, if you count that penny I found yesterday. He was almost there.
A
poke in his side broke his train of thought.
He ignored it, but another one followed. He brushed it away, irritated.
Then another one.
"Stop
it, Pikachu," he said in a low voice. A
giggle followed.
"He's
still outside, silly," Misty reminded him.
"What's wrong?"
"Nothing,"
he grumbled. That effectively narrowed
the culprit down to one person, but he wouldn't give her the satisfaction of
reacting. He laid his head down on the
table and closed his eyes. He was
tired.
There
was another poke. When he didn't
respond, there was one more. And then
there was a series of repeated jabs.
Ash was suddenly fed up.
"WOULD
YOU STOP THAT ALREADY!" he yelled, startling everyone as he sprang up out of
his chair. He gave Misty a look of pure
frustration. Her eyes looked slightly
confused, but were quickly narrowed to rise to the occasion.
But
Professor Oak stopped the fight before it even began by bursting out in
laughter at this reaction, surprising all three kids. He gave Ash a knowing look.
"What?" Misty and Brock asked. Ash just sighed and sat back down. Amazing how planning to do something nice
for a person gave him an extra margin of behavior with the adults. Normally Professor Oak would already be
yelling at him. But today he simply
smiled.
"Nothing. I think I just overworked Ash today," he
said, winking at Ash. Ash just put his
head back down on the table, prompting more chuckling from the Professor.
Misty
wasn't ready to let it drop. "I don't
understand why you're so money-hungry lately, Ash," she complained. Ash could tell she was still miffed because
she thought he was in a bad mood.
"He's
just trying to act responsible and save up money for himself. Right, Ash?"
Brock said. Delia and the
Professor both had let it slip to Brock what Ash was saving the money for, and
now Brock was in on it too. At least
this time he was defending him instead of teasing him.
"For
what? That Hyper Ball you've been whining
about to your mom? It's not even your birthday coming up." Misty sniffed. Ash had to give her credit, she hadn't been obnoxious about her
upcoming birthday, she just sprinkled her conversation with occasional allusions
to it. But he knew that if Princess Day
was any indication, all that would change on Friday. He wondered sarcastically if his mom had any spare red carpet
lying around the house.
"It's
not that," was all he bothered replying.
"Besides,
I don't see why Ash gets paid when we all did work. He should share."
Ash's
face, luckily still hidden by the table top, gave a twitch in anger. If he did that, he'd still have almost ten
dollars to earn before tomorrow! As it
was, one more job should be able to finish it off. That ungrateful little...
"Ash
isn't the only one getting a salary," the Professor said mildly, and Ash calmed
down, and bothered to lift his head up from the table to look at the Professor
in surprise. Brock and Misty shared his
expression.
"Oh,
that's not necessary..." Brock began.
Ash knew that Misty obviously disagreed with that, but even she wasn't
rude enough to contradict Brock in front of the Professor.
"Nonsense." Professor Oak pulled two more tens out of a
bread box on the counter, and Ash wondered for a moment what it was with adults
and their weird hiding places for money.
"Everybody has something they want, don't they?"
"Thank
you," Brock and Misty said, and Misty looked satisfied.
"I
know what I'm saving my money for." She
looked up dreamily, her chin resting on her hand for a moment before she
twisted her arm around so that she could smell her wrist. She succeeded in making Brock look at her
curiously. Uh-oh. Ash got a bad feeling about this.
"What
is it?" Brock asked.
"This." She held out her wrist towards Brock who
gave an obligatory sniff. "It's that
perfume I saw yesterday. The
salesperson gave me a sample. I like it,
don't you?"
Ash
saw Professor Oak and Brock both perk up at this information, and the Professor
gave Ash a sly grin. "Very nice. What's it called?"
The jig is up. Life as I know it is over.
Ash let his head fall back to the table so hard that it 'clunked,'
and he heard a small snicker from Brock at that movement. He was more concerned with the fact that
his head hurt now. That was stupid.
Misty
paused for dramatics. "It's called
'Love.'"
Whatever
reaction she had been expecting, Ash had a feeling it wasn't the one she
got. Though he could have predicted the gales of laughter that followed that
statement. He kept his head firmly down
on the table and wondered what shade of pink it was turning.
"Love?" Brock sputtered. "That's appropriate," he said, then burst into laughter
again. Ash looked up long enough to
give him a dagger-look then remembered he was ignoring them and faced the table
again. He wondered if crawling
underneath it would help any.
"What?" Misty asked. Ash heard an edge in her voice.
"Oh,
nothing," Professor Oak said, his laughter fading but the merriment still in
his voice. Ash could feel the
Professor's eyes on the back of his head but he refused to look up.
"It's
just that...don't you know Misty? 'Love
don't cost a thing,'" Brock said. He was less successful than the Professor at
stopping his snickering.
"That's
not funny," Misty growled.
"I
think Brock's right," the Professor said solemnly. "After all..."
Brock
and the Professor double-teamed on the next one. "Can't buy me love, love, love!"
They both started laughing again.
Misty and Ash both looked at them incredulously.
"It's
a good perfume," Misty said, definitely irked by this point.
"Love
is
a many splendored thing," the Professor said.
"Nah. I think it hurts," Brock chimed in.
"You
would know," Ash muttered. But the two
continued their banter.
"Well,
love is just a game."
"That
makes the world go round."
"And
heals the wounded heart."
"I
thought that was time."
"You
may be right...but love takes time."
"Until
the end...of time..." the Professor and
Brock both chorused again. Misty opened
her mouth to retort but someone beat her to it.
"IT'S
NOT THAT FUNNY!" Ash yelled. Misty
looked at him in surprise, her look both bewildered and gratified.
"What's
wrong Ash? Scared of love?" Brock asked, wiggling his eyebrows at
him. Ash buried his face in his hands.
"At
least Ash has enough sense not to laugh," Misty said, unexpectedly defending
him. Though she immediately nullified
her kindness by asking, "Did I just say
Ash had sense?"
"Give
me a break," he mumbled. He wasn't sure
if he was talking to Brock and the Professor or to Misty. Probably all three.
"Give
a little love," Brock suggested.
"Love
will find a way," the Professor added.
"Oh
boy."
Ash
couldn't tell if he or Misty said it first.
But they exchanged a look of commiseration and both laid their heads on
the table this time.
***
"Is
he never going to get bored of that?"
Ash stormed down the hall, Pikachu trailing behind his trainer
curiously. Two rooms away he could
still hear Brock in the kitchen warbling 'Can You Feel the Love Tonight'
extremely off-key. Delia's tinkling
laugh broke through during every rest.
Much
to Ash and Misty's chagrin, Brock had kept up his act all the way home from the
Professor's, and then throughout supper.
Misty had gotten so fed up that she had left before dessert was
served. And Brock was so annoying that
Ash had even been tempted to do the same—until his mom pulled out the ice
cream. Nothing could pull him away from
a Double Fudge Ripple ice cream cone.
Not even a half-crazed Pokémon breeder who thought he was Sinatra on
steroids.
But
now, with the dinner dishes cleared off the table and the ice cream safe in his
stomach, Ash had decided to hightail it out of there before Brock and his mom
could come up with any more bad puns.
He had just about had it with this perfume business. Tomorrow he should go into town to find
another gift. He had more than twenty
dollars, which was more than enough for him to find anormal gift.
He
headed toward his room to see if Misty was there. He had mixed feelings about her part in this whole charade. On the one hand, he held a grudge against
her for getting him into this mess in the first place. However, she was also an unlikely ally with
all the teasing that was going on. All
in all, he supposed their relationship was just about normal. For them.
He
reached his room. His door was not
shut, just cracked open slightly, and he could hear a girl's voice coming from
behind it. Aha. He started to put his hand on the doorknob
but the hurt tone of Misty's voice stopped him short. Pikachu tried to go around him to see what was wrong but Ash
blocked him with his foot for a minute.
"Shh," he said as softly as he could, then squatted down and started
stroking the back of his pokémon.
"What
do you think of it, Togepi?" he heard her say.
A
high-pitched "Priii!" was the answer.
"Thank
goodness," she sighed. "If you hadn't liked it I don't know what I'd do."
She's still obsessing over that perfume! Ash thought in disgust. All the more reason to change his mind about
her present. If that was all she was
talking about, he might as well go in.
He started to stand but she started talking again and he waited. He had a feeling she wouldn't be too pleased
with him if he interrupted.
"I
expected Ash not to like it," she was saying now. "He doesn't have any sense about stuff like this."
That's not what you said this afternoon! He protested to himself.
"And
Brock and Professor Oak are both guys, so it's okay that they didn't seem to
care either. Though I expected them to
be more mature about it. But even Mrs.
Ketchum was laughing at me." Her voice
gave a tiny wobble on the last sentence, and Ash heard her sniff. His eyes widened.
Shoot!
Of
course, Misty had no idea of knowing that everyone was really teasing him. She thought they were all laughing at
her. And hanging around him and Brock
all the time, Misty didn't get a chance to interact with many girls. She probably thought of his mom as a role
model of sorts. If she thought Delia
was laughing at her it would hurt her more deeply than somebody like him.
Oh please, tell me she's not about to
cry...it can't be that big of a
deal... he begged silently.
Togepi
gave a sympathetic squeal.
"I
felt like such a baby," she finished, and Ash was positive he heard tears in
her voice that time.
You are a baby, he thought
automatically, but his heart wasn't in it.
Surely he was imaging things.
Misty didn't cry over stuff like that.
But then again, she was a girl.
They always seemed to cry over the little things—like perfume—but didn't
even bat an eyelash at the big things—like impending death.
In
spite of knowing this, it didn't matter.
He may not understand why girls cried as much as they did, or why they cried over what they did, but
it didn't change the fact that any time he heard or saw tears in a girl
(imagined or not) he was reduced to a stuttering idiot who would do anything to
make her feel better. Even if it made
him look like a fool in the process. In
other words, he turned into Brock.
He
had heard enough. He slowly backed away
from the door and went down the hall the way he came in order to give her some
privacy. But he didn't want to go back
into the kitchen, so he stopped right before the living room and leaned against
the wall in frustration. He slowly slid
down to a sitting position. Pikachu
crawled in his lap, but even his pokémon's sympathy didn't make him feel better
this time.
He
was effectively stuck. Now he had to get her that perfume, like it or
not. He groaned. "Love potion number nine, coming right up,"
he said to Pikachu. Pikachu patted his
knee as Ash's head dropped in resignation.
Off
in the kitchen, Delia and Brock started a rousing duet of "Love Can Move
Mountains."
Yeah, Ash thought sarcastically, it can move mountains.
But right now, I'd much rather it be
buried underneath one!
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COMING UP IN CHAPTER FOUR: Ash finds out that love, just like an oddish,
is elusive.
Poké-pun of the day: I hate to disappoint any poké-pairers, but Mew and Mewtwo were
never meant to be. Just think about
it. Their children would be Mew-tants!
Thank you to A*Mon, who gave me my fourteenth
review and took me off of the dreaded number thirteen! I really hate that number... *shudders* Yes, I know I'm a nut.
What, you couldn't tell by the poké-puns?
Many thanks to everyone else who has encouraged
me as well! I'm really starting to have
some fun with this story. Keep on being
your wonderful selves and I'll see you next time!
