Ash and Misty's Love
Chapter Six—Give a Little Love
All
in all, Ash thought it was a pretty good birthday. And as Misty said, it wasn't even his birthday.
He
had started out by taking Misty to a nearby Horsea farm. Brock had stayed behind to bake the cake—he
was making this one from scratch. His
mom was busy cleaning the house from top to bottom, as Professor Oak was coming
over later. Ash wasn't sure how his
house could get any cleaner than Mr. Mime kept it, but his mom got weird when
it came to guests.
The
farm was a little over two miles away, and since they were walking, he and
Misty allowed themselves an hour each way.
And Ash had to give her credit, the outing was quite bearable, as Misty
didn't try to cash in on it being her birthday every five minutes. It was only every fifteen.
On
the trip there:
"Oh,
look how pretty that flower is!"
"It's
just a wildflower. And it's on top of
that tree."
"I
know. But it's my birthday...."
So
Misty got a white flower to wear in her hair, and Ash got a bruise from falling
out of the tree. He did not look
forward to sitting that night.
And
when they got there:
"Ash,
look, you can buy a souvenir picture for two dollars!"
"But
Misty, we brought a camera."
"But
we can't get that picture. And it's my birthday..."
At
least, Ash figured, even though he paid for it, it was her own money that she
was wasting, because he never gave her back the change he got after paying his
mom back yesterday.
And
finally:
"Oh,
isn't that baby Horsea cute? Try to get
it closer, Ash."
"How
am I supposed to do that? It's scared
of me."
"But
Ash..."
"I
know, I know, it's your birthday."
"Well,
you don't have to be so rude about it!"
He
failed at getting the Horsea. But at
least Misty was too busy laughing at him for falling in the pool in the attempt
to bother getting mad. They decided to
leave after that so that, as Misty put it, Ash would 'dry out' on the way home.
When
they got back, she let him use the shower first. Ash didn't think this was meant as a courtesy though, as he had
been informed by Misty that "he smelled like Horsea crap." Ash retorted that it was better than being Horsea crap, but for some reason
she didn't appreciate that. And then
she took the bathroom for two hours once he was out.
While
he was loafing around, bored because both Brock and Misty were busy getting
ready for dinner in their own separate ways, he and his mom had had a
'discussion' about what he should wear that night.
"It's
Misty's birthday, and you should dress up."
"But
mom, Brock isn't."
"And
if Brock jumped off a cliff, would you?"
"Yes."
"Ash
Ketchum! Just go change right now!"
Ash
wasn't sure if she was mad because he was being saucy or because she knew he
probably would jump off a cliff if
Brock told him it would help him train his pokémon better. But the net result was that Ash ended up
sulking on the sofa in a pair of khakis and a light blue pullover. At least they had been able to compromise on
his wearing sneakers.
Besides,
his apparel had startled Misty when she was finally finished getting
ready. "You're not wearing jeans," she
said from the doorway. Ash was too
occupied with pouting to look up.
"Nope. Mom made me dress up."
"Well,
I like that color shirt on you," she said, and the bashful tone of her voice
was what made him look at her. Misty
wasn't what anyone would call shy—wait a minute, was she blushing? And then he
was blushing, because he realized he was staring at her.
"Thanks. Your dress is pretty," he mumbled. Though he was more distracted by the fact
that she was wearing her hair down. She
didn't do that very often.
She actually looks like a girl tonight. And he might have even been able to
describe her as pretty. He wondered if
Misty knew that.
Probably.
While
they waited for the Professor to arrive, they sat together on the sofa and
watched Emergency PokéCenter. His mom watched the last half of the show
with them when Brock kicked her out of the kitchen to finish up. And then it was time for dinner. Ash kept a watchful eye on his mom, Brock,
and the Professor during dinner, but they behaved themselves—until it was time
to open gifts. And then none of the
three could hide their Cheshire cat grins.
But he had a plan. He only hoped
it worked.
Misty
had wanted to open gifts before they ate cake.
"My sisters and I always do it that way."
"Wow,
Misty, I didn't know your sisters were freaks, too," Ash said. He had gotten punched for that one. He imagined she had hit him a little less
harder than usual, though.
"Me
first," his mom had announced, and pulled not one, but three packages she had
hidden out of the pantry. "I already
made sure that Misty didn't mind me doing this, but I got you all three
something. After all, I missed Brock's
birthday because you were traveling, and I couldn't very well get my son's
friends gifts without getting him one too, could I?" She winked at Ash as she set the packages in front of each of
them.
"Really?"
he said excitedly, surprised enough that he temporarily put all the 'love'
business out of his mind. "Thanks,
mom!" This deserved a hug. He'd have to remember to give her one
later—in private.
"Thank
you, Mrs. Ketchum," Brock said.
"Yes,
thank you so much," Misty echoed. And then they opened their gifts.
Misty
squealed, like a girl would, over a heart-shaped locket. Brock squealed, also like a girl but
sounding significantly funnier in the process, over a gag gift of an apron that
said "Kiss the Cook." Ash could tell
that Misty knew Brock was teasing her but was too busy laughing at him to hit
him for it. And Ash got...
"My
Hyper ball!" he yelled in delight.
"I
can take a hint," his mom said, smiling.
"Now you know why you couldn't run my errand for me yesterday."
"Wow! This is awesome!" He had thought he'd have to wait until Christmas to get
this. Of course, she could have been
planning on getting him a victory present after he won the Pokémon League...
Misty
was giving him a strange look. "You
have two now?"
Oops.
There went his cover story. His
mom had this incredible knack for inadvertently foiling him.
"Umm,
yeah...so, who's next?" Ash said hurriedly.
"Me,"
Professor Oak said. "Here you go,
Misty."
"Thanks,
Professor Oak!" As Misty opened her
present, he couldn't help but notice that she was a lot neater about taking the
wrapping paper off than he had been. He
didn't know why. It wasn't as if she
was going to use it again.
"Oh,"
she said respectfully, looking at it from all angles once it was opened. "This is really nice. Can I ask what it is?"
That
was a good question. Ash and Brock were
both looking at the strange, misshapen lump of blue the Professor had given her
as well.
"Sure. It's a unique water stone," he said. "I found it one day and ran some tests on
it. It turns out that it works no
differently than any other evolution stone, but I thought you might like it
because it's unusual."
"It's
great! Thank you!" she said.
Knowing her, she did like it.
She probably thought it was as 'cute as a tentacruel.' Ash thought both the stone and the pokémon
were ugly, but he wouldn't say that.
At
least not while the Professor was there.
Though if Brock had to referee a fight later on, he couldn't be held
responsible. Misty always seemed to get
mad at him when he was simply telling the truth.
"And
here's mine." Brock pushed something
that was loosely wrapped in tissue paper towards her. "Sorry for the appearance.
It was hard to wrap," he apologized.
"That's
alright. Thank you, Brock," she said,
and pulled the paper away to reveal a jar with some sort of mud-colored
material in it.
"It's
Pokémon food. But a very special
birthday mix for water pokémon—it has kelp in it," Brock said. Ash wondered where Brock had found seaweed
around Pallet town. Professor Oak must
have been involved in that somehow.
"They'll
love it! Thank you!" Misty said
again. And then everyone except Misty
turned expectantly to Ash.
He
flushed, but managed to keep his tone relatively normal when Misty followed
their gaze to look at him, too. "I, um,
have something for you in my room," he said.
"I'll give it to you—later."
"Ash!"
He
got yelled at on three sides. Brock was
groaning and rolling his eyes while the adults were laughing. Misty was watching him curiously.
"Come
on, go get it now, we're waiting," Brock said.
"We
were all a part of this too, you know," his mom said with a smile.
She is right...I couldn't have done it
without them...maybe I'm not being fair...
Fair or not—"I want to give it to her when we're alone." His face turned bright red as he realized
how he had phrased it, but luckily he had given them enough ammunition that
they stopped teasing him about the perfume and started teasing him about his
statement.
"Sounds...romantic,"
the Professor said.
"Is
there something you and Misty want to tell us, Ash?" Brock said.
"Mo-um,"
Ash groaned, which was his way of saying, make
them stop!
"Oh, just ignore them honey," she said. "You're adorable when you blush like that."
Ash
buried his face in his hands. Then he
noticed that Misty was the only one who had stayed silent during this whole
mess. He looked up and saw that she
looked as awkward as he felt. Well,
there was only one thing to do. He
bounced out of his chair.
"So,
who's ready for cake and ice cream?" he asked.
Ice cream was so much simpler than
love.
***
And
all that brought him to where he was now.
He had finished preparing for bed, and lay anxiously on the floor in his
sleeping bag, the pillow over his face to hide the light. Misty was still brushing her teeth, and
she'd turn the light off when she came in.
The
rest of the evening had gone well.
They'd had cake and ice cream, and then played the incredibly childish
yet annoyingly funny game of "pin-the-tail-on-the-pikachu." Professor Oak had gotten teased about being
a pokémon researcher and yet placing the tail on the pikachu's nose. Pikachu had gotten a laugh when he
threatened to thundershock the Professor for that one.
Ash had been winning until the very
last contestant, when his mom decided that it wasn't right to leave Mr. Mime
out, and that dumb pokémon had been dead accurate. Ash wasn't sure what a pokémon would do with the prize, a slinky
in the shape of an Onix, but Mimey would find some use for it, even if it
wasn't the intended one.
After
Professor Oak had left, they had all helped clean up and then the kids had
watched more television. Misty and Ash
never mentioned the matter of the gift, but neither of them forgot about the
incident at the table, either. They
excused themselves to go to bed before Brock.
He grinned as they left but acted like a decent human being and only
said "good night," then stayed downstairs to finish the movie. There was a chance he would fall asleep
before it was over and end up sleeping on the sofa all night. It had been known to happen.
Pikachu had been receiving a belly
rub by Ash's mom when they stopped by to wish her a good night, and refused to
leave right away. So it was just Ash,
Misty and Togepi who had gone upstairs, and the egg pokémon was already asleep on
Misty's bed.
Ash
heard Misty hesitate as she came in the door, then she said good-night and
turned out the light. Ash didn't
answer. He was hoping that she would
think he was already asleep. She shut
the door and the only light that could be seen was the slim beam that came
through the crack underneath the door.
He
heard her make her way across the room by memory and climb up the ladder to his
bed, and then start to lay down. And
then he heard the sound of the sheets shifting as she shuffled around to sit
back up again. The reading light next
to his bed clicked on. Ash gulped.
His
breathing was very still. Maybe putting
it on her pillow was a bad idea.
He
had nearly passed out yesterday when he saw how his mom had gift wrapped
it. She had said the paper was pink,
but it wasn't just pink. It was pink-on-pink.
There were bright pink hearts
covering the paper, for crying out loud.
This was another reason he would never have been able to give it to her
in front of everyone.
"Uhh...Misty
likes pink," was all he had managed to say to his mom.
"That's
why I thought this was perfect," Delia said.
Perfect, yeah. That was one word
for it.
Now
Misty must be reading the note attached to it.
Ash had found it necessary—make that imperative—that he explain himself.
Misty—this is ONLY because you said you
liked it. Mom picked out the wrapping paper.
DON'T make a big deal out of it.
Oh yeah. Happy birthday.
There was no point in signing his name.
The
paper crinkled as she unwrapped it, and Ash heard a sharp intake of breath as
she opened it and realized what it was.
After another moment he heard a soft swish
that sounded like—well, he wasn't sure what it sounded like. But when something wafted down to his nose a
second later, he knew what it was. Good
grief, girls were absolutely crazy. Why
was she putting on perfume right before she went to bed?
"Ash?" Her voice was hesitant, but he thought there
was a hint of delight behind it. Good,
she liked it. She had better, after
everything he had gone through.
He
didn't say anything. Pretend I'm asleep, he begged silently.
"Ash?"
Come on...
He heard her sigh and then there was a click as she turned the light
back off. Yes! She was going to sleep now. And he knew how their relationship worked. Neither of them would mention it in the
morning, it would be too awkward.
Somewhere down the road, Misty might do something unexpectedly nice to
thank him for it, but everything was back to normal for the most part. He had succeeded. At least that was one embarrassing conversation he had managed to
escape today.
"Iiiiiiiiiiieeeeeeee!"
He
screamed in shock as he felt something jump on top of him. Thank heavens Pikachu was still in the
living room with Brock. That would have
been good for an extra-powerful thundershock.
"Ash! Wake up!" Misty said, shaking him by the
shoulders. How'd she manage to climb
down without him hearing?
He
batted her hands away and knocked the pillow off his face. Not that it did any good, as it was still
dark. The least she could have done was
leave the reading lamp on.
"What?"
he asked irritably.
She
paused. "Thank you for my birthday
gift."
"You
woke me up for that?"
"You
weren't asleep."
"Yes
I was."
"No
you weren't."
"Yes
I was."
"No
you weren't."
"Yes
I was...oh, you're welcome. Can I go
back to sleep now?"
"When
did you get it?"
Great. She wanted to talk about it. Ash wished she
would wait until his heart would stop beating so rapidly to do so. He must still have been spooked from her
surprising him. Unless giving a girl a
gift was always this nerve-wracking.
"Yesterday,"
he said.
"You
didn't get a Hyper ball, did you?"
"No."
"Is
that what you've been saving money for?"
Duh.
"Yes."
Misty
gave a short giggle. "So,
yesterday...when I gave you that money...?"
Now
Ash had to grin in spite of himself.
"Uh-huh. You helped buy your own
birthday gift." They giggled together
this time. "Do you care?"
"What? No, that's fine. I think it's better this way, don't you?" she asked.
Whatever. Girls had strange thought processes. "Yeah.
I guess so."
They
were quiet for a minute, neither of them sure of what to say, and Ash had time
to think, Why couldn't you have just
pretended I was asleep?
Then Misty said, "So that's why Brock has been more obnoxious than
usual the past few days. It makes sense
now."
"Yeah."
"I
bet you had to put up with a lot of jokes about it being because you 'secretly
like me,' didn't you?"
Ash
gritted his teeth. "Yes." Misty laughed.
"Poor
Ash." Huh? Ash felt strangely warm at that comment. "You did that for me?"
"I'm
a good friend." Ash grinned.
"Yes,
you are," she admitted, then her tone switched to teasing. "I guess, considering all you went through,
there's really only one thing I can do."
"What's
that?"
"Give
you a thank you kiss."
"A...WHAT?"
Ash
bolted upright, his face turning bright red even at the thought, only to hear
the sound of cracking as his forehead connected with the only thing in the room
that was about as hard as his own head.
Misty's head.
"OWWWWWWWWWW!"
They
shrieked at the same time. As he rubbed his head, Ash hoped wryly that his mom
or Brock couldn't hear any of this. He
would not want to have to explain the sounds coming from his room.
"Ash,
that was a joke," Misty said, her previous happiness now changed to a more
typical disgruntlement at him. "You know, you secretly like me, me kiss you, ha
ha?"
"Very
funny." Ash's tone was about as flat as
Misty's.
Another
pause, and then Misty evidently calmed herself enough to speak normally. Well, maybe a little more affectionately than usual. "Well, I guess I'll go back to bed now."
"Okay. Good night, Misty."
"Good
night, Ash."
He
heard her making her way back up to his bunk and crawling underneath the
covers. There was a small "toki," and
Ash wondered if Togepi, who had amazingly slept through the whole thing, had
awakened, but it was only stirring in its sleep. Then there was silence again.
Ash
stared into the darkness. He would only
be fooling himself if he thought he was tired.
So he chose to think back about the past week. He had, surprisingly enough, survived. He had earned the money to buy a gift, coped with Brock's teasing
over what it was, and then given it to Misty without having to dig a hole in
the floor to bury himself in. Now that
it was all said and done, would he do it again?
That
was debatable. But at least she liked
it.
Really liked it, actually...
Ash
wondered about that kiss. If he hadn't
freaked out, would she have really done it?
And what would he have done? She
said it was a joke, but...he was
curious what it would be like to have her kiss him...
No I'm not!
Eww..let's get rid of that thought now...
But—okay,
okay, if he had survived the whole 'love' debacle, maybe he could have survived
the kiss, too. And maybe it would have
even been nicer than he would have thought.
Maybe. But he'd rather worry about pokémon.
Something
tinged his nostrils, and he sniffed.
What was that? His mom didn't
have any air fresheners in his room.
Wait—duh. That perfume was out
of his hands for five minutes, and he had already forgotten about it. The smell wasn't so bad, now that he thought
about it. Better than that daffodil
stuff she had gone ga-ga over the last time.
A
thought crossed his mind, and he had to stifle a giggle. But the more he thought about it, the more
he felt like laughing. Until finally a
little chuckle escaped him. Sheesh, he
was as bad as Brock.
"What's
so funny?" Misty startled him by asking out loud. She sounded as wide awake as he was. Ash wondered what she was thinking about.
"I
was just thinking..." he said. "about
your perfume. You know what Brock would
say?"
"I
hate to ask," Misty grumbled.
"Love
is in the air."
"Ash!" And suddenly he was pelted in the face with
a pillow. Wow, for it being completely
dark, Misty had good aim. He had to
laugh.
"Well,
you asked!" He threw the pillow back.
"Missed
me," Misty said smugly.
"Whatever."
"For
someone who wants to be a pokémon master, that was a pathetic throw."
"At
least I don't throw like a girl."
"Take
that back!"
"Make
me!"
Whomp.
Ash got hit by the pillow again.
"Okay,
okay."
"Good. Now give me my pillow."
"Technically...it's
my pillow."
"Ash
Ketchum! I have to go to sleep here."
"You
seriously think I'm going to give you back your ammunition?"
"You
want me to jump on you again?"
"Here
you go."
"That's
better." Her heard her fluffing it up.
"Hey
Ash?"
"What
now?"
"Thanks
for giving me such a good birthday."
"You're
welcome."
"It
was really fun."
"Yeah. We had fun too."
"I
mean, even my sister's parties aren't as fun."
"I'm
glad—I think."
"Yeah,
that's a good thing. And the perfume as
really nice."
"My
love is your love."
"Ash! Stop it!
Or should I say Brock?"
"Ouch,
that was harsh."
"You
deserved it. Good night again."
"What,
no good night kiss?"
"Oh,
shut up!"
"If
you insist..."
"Good
night, Ash."
"Good
night, Misty."
The End
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Poké-pun
of the day: Since Team Rocket wasn't in
the story, I thought it was only fair they get a poké-pun, in the form of a
mangled motto. I simply take the
original and make parenthetical comments after each line, the stupider, the
better. If you think this is bad, you
should see what I can do to radio lyrics.
Such as, "Give me some time [I'd rather have chocolate.]" Try it some time. Stupid is fun...just ask my sister... LOL ^_~
"Prepare for
trouble!" [or at
least excessive annoyance]
"And make it
double!" [even
though there are three of us]
"To protect the
world from devastation—" [and
catastrophe, and disaster, and tragedy, and calamity, and...]
"To unite all people within our nation—" [not
yours]
"To denounce the evils of truth and
love—" [excluding fact or like]
"To extend our reach to the stars
above—" [or that low lying tree branch, whichever comes first]
"Jessie!" ["The Jezebel" Fletcher]
"James!" [" 'Da Girly-man"
Bond]
"Team Rocket blast off at the speed of
light!" [or a mach six spider,
same difference]
"Surrender now, or prepare to fight!" [Water ballons, GO!]
"Meowth, that's right!" [or wrong.
Ambivalence never hurt anybody.]
Boy, that was long...btw, Jessica Fletcher, if
I'm not mistaken, is the main character of "Murder, She Wrote." Please nicely correct me if I'm wrong. And 'Da Girly-man' is actually my boss at
work. ^_~ Lastly, I dearly hope I got the motto mostly correct, as I didn't
have it in front of me at the time.
O.o If not, please inform me, and
I'll upload a correction.
Yay! My first pokémon fanfic is complete! Not my first fic, mind you, but my first in
this fandom. I've been informed that
I'm writing another story after this.
Ain't that right, Spook?
LOL Just kidding, but others are
in the works. One coming up very soon,
in fact. Stay alert. ^_~
I wish I could thank
everyone who reviewed by name, but I can't.
Suffice to say I really appreciate everyone's reviews. Really.
Keep on being your sweet selves, and I'll see you next time!
