Ash And Misty's Love

by Llyxius

It's Misty's birthday, and Ash decides to give her love. Wait a second, that's not what I meant...

4. Falling In and Out of Love

Ash and Misty's Love

Chapter Four—Falling in and Out of Love

            "But mom..."

            "Ash Ketchum, I said no!"

            It was Thursday morning.  Delia was getting ready to leave for town, and Ash was standing in the doorway, blocking her way.  And pouting.

            "The sale ends today!  I only need a few more dollars!"  Despite her words, he wasn't ready to give this up.

            Delia sighed.  "I'm sorry honey, I don't have anything for you to do right now."

            "Let me run your errand for you."

            "You can't."

            "Why not?"

            "You just can't," his mom said flatly, her tone telling him that as far as she was concerned, the matter was closed.  "Look, maybe you can do something for me later on today.  I promised you, you would be able to get the..."  She rolled her eyes at Ash's frantically waving hands, but complied with his wish not to say the word 'perfume' out loud.  He was still a bit spooked that Misty would suddenly show up around the corner somewhere.

            "...the you-know-what one way or another.  You'll just have to trust me on this one.  Now move out of the way, I have to go." 

            Ash sighed himself and looked down at the ground.

            "Ash..." she said warningly.

            "Alright, alright."  He grudgingly scooted aside, still keeping his head down.  He grimaced when his mom teasingly stuck her finger under his chin and forced his head up in order to plant a kiss right in the middle of his forehead.  He was a boy. He was supposed to shy away from affection.  Even if he did like it.

            "Ma-ma..." He groaned, but couldn't stop himself from grinning when she then swiped the cap from off his head and tousled his hair. 

            "Cheer up.  It's going to be a beautiful day, maybe you can battle or something," she said.  "Bye-bye now!"  She walked out the door.  Mr. Mime was already outside waiting for her, open umbrella and all.  Delia waved when they reached the end of the sidewalk, and Ash waved back.  Then they were gone. 

            Ash closed the door and sighed again, then pulled his hat back on, tugging the bill down resolutely.  His mom wasn't the only one who could be stubborn when she wanted something done.  "Pikachu, we're going out.  Are you with me?"

            Pikachu looked up from his breakfast bowl and gave a "pi" that plainly said, "Why are you bothering me when I'm eating?"  That was not quite the enthusiasm Ash was looking for.

            "Aww, come on Pikachu.  I want to try to get five more dollars as soon as possible so I can go into town later.  We'll stop for lunch later on, you know..."

            His pep talk was interrupted by his own stomach grumbling, and that was when he remembered that he had forgotten to eat breakfast that morning himself.  "Okay, I guess we can wait a few more minutes," he said sheepishly as he walked to the cupboard to get a bowl. 

            He poured himself some cereal with milk and bulldozed his way through it, trying to formulate a plan for the day as he did so.  He remembered to leave a little bit of milk at the bottom for Pikachu, who liked the chocolate flavor the cereal left to the milk.  After he let Pikachu slurp that down, they were ready.  He grabbed his wallet and they headed to the door.

            "Hey, where are you off to so early?"

            Brock walked in, still rubbing sleep from his eyes.  Ash always thought it was amusing to see him first thing in the morning.  His hair, though spiky during the day, was as neat as his mom's china cabinet compared to how it was after he slept on it.  It looked like a sandslash had taken residence on his head. 

            "I've still got to earn more money," Ash said, determination on his face. 

            Brock looked like he didn't know what to do with this information.  Ash hid his grin again; he wasn't sure if Brock was surprised at his persistence, or if his friend was just groggy from sleep. 

"What about training?  The Pokémon League is less than two months away," Brock managed to come up with.  He had a bit of a one-track mind until he had his coffee, and that was the last thing they had talked about last night before falling asleep.

            "I know, I know—maybe this afternoon.  Hopefully I'll be able to earn enough to get it this morning.  But until then..." Ash said.

            "Get what?"  Misty asked, causing Ash to jump as she walked in the kitchen.  She was moving a little slowly as well, but was at least alert.  She gave Brock a wry grin.  They had both learned to leave him alone for the first ten to fifteen minutes of the day.

            "Misty!" Ash said, irked.  He closed his eyes and tried to count to ten before he answered.  He didn't want to fight this early in the morning. 

            It was no good.  "Nothing," he answered curtly.

            "Oh, are you still trying to get that Hyper ball?" she said, yawning either at him or from sleep.  She wandered over to the fridge and poured herself a glass of milk.

            "I'm not trying to get a Hyper ball!" he said.

            "Sure you're not.  Try not to be so obvious, Ash."  She rolled her eyes and sat down at the table.

Try being a little more perceptive, Misty, he felt like saying, but bit his tongue.  As long as she thought he was trying to get a Hyper ball, that was a good cover.  Seeing her did remind Ash of something.  The only problem was, he couldn't mention it in front of Misty.

            He opened the door and started to step out, but motioned for Brock to follow.  Brock stared at him blearily for a moment, then shook his head and obeyed.  Misty looked at them both suspiciously when he pulled Brock outside to talk, but what else could he do? 

            He shut the door most of the way and tried to whisper a reprimand to his older friend.  "Be nice to her today.  You hurt her feelings yesterday with all those dumb love jokes," he growled.

            Brock looked startled, and gave Ash a look as if it had been Ash who had just awoken instead of vice versa.  "But I wasn't teasing her..."

            "She doesn't know that!  Just be nice.  And lay off all the love jokes!"

            Brock yawned, then shrugged, obviously still too tired to argue further.  "Gotcha." 

            Ash nodded and started down the path. He was making his way down the walkway as Brock went back inside.  But before Brock had shut the door, while Ash was still within hearing distance, he heard Brock say, "Gee, Misty, I know I was having a lot of fun yesterday, but you know, I really like that Love stuff.  You smell really good right now."

            "I'm not wearing any perfume, Brock."

            "Oh." 

            Ash grinned.  He could just imagine Misty's face.  Brock was probably trying to make up for his faux pas now—but he hadn't achieved full awareness yet.

            "Uh...it must be that natural girl smell, then."

            What?  Ash thought to himself, snickering.  Come on, wake up before you try to deliver a compliment, Brock!  Misty must have been thinking along the same lines.

            "Ash!" she yelped just before the door shut.  "Don't leave me alone with this psycho!"

            Ash gave a cheerful wave good-bye.  And he and Pikachu were nice enough to wait until they reached the end of the street before they broke down in laughter.

***

            Unfortunately, that was the high point of the day.  From there it went downhill, fast.  At half the houses he stopped at, no one was home.  The rest mainly had stay-at-home moms who were too busy themselves to have him doing anything.  He did get lucky and met one lady just as she was getting out of her car.  She took pity on him and gave him a dollar to help her carry in the groceries.  But now it was early afternoon, and he was still only at twenty-four dollars and twenty-four cents.  It wasn't fair.  He was so  close.

            "After all that, maybe we'll have to get Misty something else after all, Pikachu," he said dejectedly.  Pikachu, nestled on his shoulder, sighed along with him.  "Mom promised me, but..." he trailed off, not wanting to admit that he didn't fully believe her.  He loved his mother, but she could be on the flighty side sometimes. And she didn't always understand exactly what was important to him, which made it even more likely that it could escape her mind.  Pikachu gave him a sorrowful look, not wanting Ash to be thinking that way of Mrs. Ketchum.

            "Think we should give up and head into town?"  Ash asked his pokémon.  He stood in the middle of the road, contemplating his options.  "I don't think she even knows I'm planning on buying her a present, so she should be surprised no matter what it is."  

            Despite his words, he felt uncertain.  He had a gut feeling that perfume was the perfect gift, and he always followed his instincts.  He also hated—absolutely hated—to admit defeat.  But then again, he didn't want all his efforts to be wasted, either. 

            Suddenly there was a rustling in the bushes off to the side.  As this was a welcome distraction from their dilemma, both Ash and Pikachu looked over at the brush curiously.  Ash frowned.  The very last bush on the left looked odd, like it was a different species than the rest.  His mom would know what it was, but he didn't.

            Pikachu walked over to the bush and started sniffing it.  Then...

            "AAAARGH!"

            "PIIIII!"

            Both Ash and Pikachu gave startled yelps as the bush promptly jumped out at Pikachu.

            "Pika-CHU!!!!"   Pikachu reacted with a frightened, split-second thundershock and the bush flew back several feet.  Ash did a double take at this, then switched his startlement to excitement as he realized what it was. 

            "It's not a bush, it's an oddish!" he said.  It had been hiding behind the other bushes so that only its leaves stuck out.  This was great!  It had been awhile since he had captured a new pokémon.  But even as he reached down to take a spare poké-ball, he realized something, and his eyes widened. 

            Once on their journeys, right before he had acquired Bulbasaur, Misty had tried to catch an oddish herself.  But still, just this past week, she had exclaimed over an oddish stuffed toy.  So unless he missed his guess, she still liked oddishes as well as before....

            ...which meant that if he caught this oddish, it just might be as good a gift as the perfume would have been!

            "Alright, let's catch it!  Poké-ball, go..."  Ash stopped mid-swing.

            The oddish had timidly crept up to where it was before, and just stood there, trembling.  It gazed up at him with tears glistening in its eyes.  Ash had a feeling that they could be released at any moment.  When it noticed him looking at it, it stared him straight in the eyes and squeaked a pathetic, "Oddish?"

            "Darn it," he mumbled.  Tears in pokémon were almost as effective as tears in girls.  The poké-ball would have to wait.  "What's wrong?"  he asked, kneeling closer to the ground in an effort to appear less threatening. 

            Pikachu walked closer to the oddish, which hastily backed away, still skittish of his thundershock.  Pikachu gave it a reassuring "pi," and the oddish allowed him to come so close as to stand right next to it.  Pikachu pointed at something the oddish was standing on.

            "What is it, Pikachu?" Ash asked.  He cautiously came closer.  "Don't worry, I'm not going to hurt you," he told the oddish.  "Or capture you," he added as an after thought. 

            There was a piece of paper trapped underneath the oddish's foot.  He carefully pried it out from under it, the oddish backing up in fear.  "It's alright," he said, trying to comfort it and examine the piece of paper at the same time.  He read the words out loud.  "Lost: Oddish.  About one foot high, only one year old.  Answers to the name of Missie."

            The oddish gained a look of hope at hearing its name, and walked hesitantly up to Ash.  "That's you, huh?" Ash asked.  "Pretty smart for you to recognize your picture on the paper.  Missie.  You must be a girl.  Or at least have a girl for a trainer," he said, smiling.  "I bet you were just scared because you were lost.  Why don't we see if you can get you home?"

            "Oddish!" it cried joyfully, and to Ash's surprise, jumped straight up and into Ash's arms.  He laughed.

            "Wow, you're affectionate when we're not trying to catch you, aren't you?" he teased.  "You like that idea?  Great.  Now we just have to figure out where your home is," he wondered.

            Pikachu tapped the piece of paper again.  "Pika pi," he said.

            Ash looked back down.  "Oh!  There's an address.  That's not too far from where I live, either."  He picked up the flier, folded it so that only the address was visible, and looked down the road determinedly.  Until he remembered one small detail.

            "So much for the perfume," he said sadly.  Pikachu looked downcast as well.  The oddish, sensing that it was somehow causing problems, gave him a guilty, apologetic look.  Uh-oh.  Those weren't tears in its eyes, were they?  He hastily smiled at it, trying to shrug off his own disappointment.  "That's okay. It's more important that we help you get home. Well, let's go." 

            They set off, Ash carrying the oddish, and Pikachu trotting along beside him.  The closer they came to the address on the flier, the more oddish seemed to recognize its surroundings, and the happier it became.  Finally, just as they reached the correct street, it jumped clear out of Ash's arms and started running away.

            "Hey oddish, wait!" he shouted after it frantically.  "You don't want to get lost again, do you?"   Boy, did he ever hope it knew where it was.  Knowing his luck today it would run straight past its own house and he'd be stuck chasing after it again.

            It stopped, and for a minute Ash thought it was because the oddish had listened to him.  But then it took off down a driveway.  Ash ran up to the house and checked to see what number it was, then looked at the flier and compared the two.  He smiled.  He guessed the oddish did know its own home, after all.  He walked up to the door of the house.

            Oddish was leaping up and trying to touch the doorknob.  It was a futile effort.  "Whoa, Missie. Here, let me help you," Ash said, then reached out and rang the doorbell.

            "Coming!"  A man's voice answered, and Ash heard footsteps.  A moment later the door cracked open, the security chain still in place.  "Who is it?"

            "Oddish, oddish!"  Missie said energetically as she tried to wedge her way through the small opening.  Obviously failing, she then tried to tackle it, but only succeeded in knocking herself back several feet.

            "Hey, calm down," Ash said as he knelt down to pick her up, but the man had already realized who it was and was hurriedly releasing the chain.  He opened the door completely.

            "You found Missie!" he said, gratitude written all over his face as he took the oddish from Ash's arms.

            "Well, it was more like it found me," Ash admitted, giving the man the 'lost' flier.  "She was sitting on this.  That's how I knew she was yours."

            "You don't know how happy I am that you found her," the man said, hugging the excited Missie in his arms.  "This is my little girl's first pokémon.  She's only six years old and she was heartbroken when Missie disappeared.  She had even named Missie after herself.  They're both Melissa.  Missie for short."

            Ash felt a warm feeling inside his chest.  At least one thing had gone right that day.  "It was nothing.  I'm glad she's back where she belongs."

            "Me too.  Just hold on while I go get your reward."

            Ash blinked. 

            "What?" he asked slowly.

            "The reward.  You did see the bottom of the flier, did you not?"   The man held the flyer out to Ash so that he could see.  Sure enough, down at the bottom, in a different font than the rest, was the word "Reward.  $50."

            Wait a second...FIFTY DOLLARS?!   

            How the heck had he missed that?  Then again, if he hadn't even seen the address in the first place, maybe it wasn't that surprising...but fifty dollars?   The polite thing to do would be to not overreact, but Ash was so shocked that he didn't even think of trying to hide his astonishment.

            "You returned her without even knowing about the reward!" the man said, even more grateful.  Aha.  So Missie was a her.  This fact didn't distract Ash for long though, as the man quickly added, "Now you are even more deserving of the reward.  Let me go get it." 

            Ash could only stare.

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COMING UP IN CHAPTER FIVE:  What, you mean besides a double plot twist?  Ash learns that love is unpredictable. 

Poké-pun of the day:  I know you've always wondered about the character's full names, and I've got them for you.  They're Asher Cole Ketchum, Misty C. Shell, and Brock Bottom.  A little known fact about Tracey Sketchit: his middle name is Indian and translates to be "Little-boy-who-paint-by-numbers."

(Unlike a lot of people, I actually like Tracey, but I couldn't resist...  ^_^)

Thank you to Sgt. Pepper, for giving me another 'love' pun that I had left out!  I put it to good use in giving my chapters titles.  Do you like them?  Oh, and I appreciate the song suggestion too, but that may have to wait for another story.  ^_~

Thanks so much to everyone else as well.  You should see me smile when I read the reviews.  Did I mention that it cracks me up every time somebody says that they 'love' this story?  He he...there are too many puns available with that word!   Anyway.  I think the next chapter is going to be something you are all waiting for, so if you don't like it...well, then you don't like it.   ^_^;   But I'm pretty sure you will.  See you soon!