DISCLAIMER: I don't own Pokémon.
A/N: I wanted to make this idea into a long story but I'm already doing one so I made this a little project on the side. Dunno if it's been done before, but even if it has, who really gives a damn? And remember, this is my first fic in TWO MONTHS, (ohhh the shame…) so I could be a little rusty. Anyways, here we go…
Misty Waterflower wrapped her coat tighter around her body, a fabric shield from the never ending rain. Most people would call her crazy for not catching a cab in weather like this, but then again, most people had actually ridden in a cab. Misty never had.
There were times when she really despised the life she was forced to live. She'd give up everything to have one whole day when she could decide what to do, when to do it and who to do it with, but she knew she had neither the guts nor the option to do so.
The 20-year old redhead's life was organised, scheduled and ruled over by her parents, Tony and Nicole. Misty had become the sole heiress to their incredible fortune after the tragic deaths of her older triplet sisters five years ago. Before this, Misty lived a life she now regretted taking advantage of. Travelling many different lands, meeting so many people from so many different backgrounds, and generally not having to worry about her wealthy family's fortune.
But then Daisy, Violet and Lily had been killed when the family's privet jet crashed, and Misty received what she considered to be the most cursed phone call of her life. Not only was she informed of her sisters' deaths, she was told that she now had to return to Cerulean City to perform her duties as the only daughter of Kanto's wealthiest citizens. All this at the mere age of fifteen.
So when she was happily accepting the fact that she'd never have to live the aristocratic life she despised, she was suddenly thrown into it amidst her grief for her sisters. It was something she would never forgive her parents for. She thought she'd escaped that life when she became a Pokémon trainer.
But now here she was, five years of it all and not willing to spend another second of it. Once a week she had a refuge, a refuge her parents didn't know about. If they did, she would be locked in her house for the rest of her life, unable to even have this one small link to the real world.
The rain continued to relentlessly pelt at her as she briskly walked closer to the small café, desperate to reach it and get her weekly dose of reality. She barged through the door, shivering from the cold. A head at a nearby table snapped up at her entrance and immediately its body too walked over to her.
"Misty, you idiot, I wish you'd grab a cab" Ash Ketchum gently scolded his best friend of ten years. They had met up in the same café nearly every Thursday since Misty had gone back. Ash too had gone to Cerulean and, with both of them knowing that Misty's parents would never let Ash stay with them, Ash had lived with relatives for two years while working as a Pokémon practical tutor at the local Pokémon school. It had given him the opportunity to keep training and earn a bit of money in the process. He now had a flat he shared with Brock, their other travelling partner, and his girlfriend, Jacqui.
"I've never caught a cab before" Misty said feebly as they sat opposite each other .
"It's not that difficult" Ash smiled. He knew it wasn't her fault. She so desperately wanted out of that life, he saw it in her eyes and heard it in her words.
"Well the rain wasn't that bad" Misty shrugged.
"Yeah, that's why you're shivering" Ash said sarcastically. Misty smiled.
"How's things with you anyway?" she asked.
"Same old" Ash replied simply. "Getting a bit worried about Brocko though, he seems really serious about this Jacqui girl. Might hafta consider getting new flatmates." Misty gasped at his words.
"Brock is gonna propose to Jacqui?!" she asked excitedly.
"He's made noises about it" Ash shrugged.
"Oh wow, that would be awesome" Misty sighed, thinking of her other old travelling partner and the oddity yet excitement of him being married.
"Speaking of proposals and such, I don't recall you wearing that last week" Ash said, pointing to the diamond ring on her left hand.
"The wonderful Chris gave it to me over the weekend" Misty said bitterly, mentioning her fiancé to whom she had been betrothed to since coming home. "I can't stand him, I don't think my parents could have picked anyone worse."
"What's so bad about him?" Ash asked. This was the point where his part in the conversation became a charade. He had heard Misty's many complaints about her future husband, and while he knew he was supposed to feel sympathetic, he found that emotion giving way to an almost overjoyed one. If she wasn't marrying Ash, then at least she wasn't marrying someone better than him.
It was a dark thought that had lingered in his mind for years now, but he knew it couldn't be helped. When it came to love, emotions overruled any sort of morals.
"He's so pompous and uptight. He drives me up the wall and I don't even live with him! It's like cracking a smile causes splinters on his face or something!" Misty exclaimed. "I swear, if I marry him I will suffocate!" She had already considerably withered under her parents' rule, Ash could see it plain as day. Living and being married to a man she despised would not help matters.
She squeezed her eyes shut, as though if she went into a blackened world she would escape this one, and Ash felt a dagger stab through the core of his soul. He hated seeing her like this. She deserved better. She had been such a free spirit when she had been travelling with Brock and himself, and now here she was. Desperately beating her wings against a cage she couldn't get free from.
Ash slowly reached across the table and clasped his hands over hers. "It'll be okay, Mist" he said soothingly. "You'll see."
"No it won't" Misty said quietly. "It'll never be okay. Nothing ever will be again. Ever since I got that damn phone call everything's gone downhill. My friends all ooh and ahh because I'm going to inherit this huge fortune, but…" She trailed off and scanned her eyes around the café. She almost fitted in here. Another anonymous face in a crowd that would soon be forgotten.
But she knew she was different. She always would be. Forced into marriage by a tradition that totally contradicted the wedding vows they had to take - "To love and cherish..."
Misty had snorted when she'd heard that part. Love? She would never love Chris. Even though she had very limited experience when it came to love, she knew it was impossible, not to mention dangerous, to be in love with more than one person. She didn't have to worry about that. She only loved one person, and it certainly wasn't Chris.
"Misty…" Ash lost words. For five years now she'd had the same longings, the same complaints, the same desperation to leave this life she hated so much, and for five years Ash had been saying the same things. The words never changed anything though. They always ended up walking back to the elaborate Cerulean Gym, as if trying to prolong their time together, walking back to the same situations they had faced since their Pokémon journey had ceased.
Ash had often wondered what would happen to Misty if she ever gathered up the courage to disobey her parents and do what she wanted. Would they disown her? Spread untrue and gruesome rumours about her in the tabloids? Vow to never speak to her again? Whatever they would do, Ash didn't see it as a big deal. But he knew that to her, to her recent upbringing and backgrounds, it was.
"Ash, if in another five years time we are still sitting at this table, and I am still complaining about things that can't be helped, I want you to slap me firmly in the face" Misty said with a small smile. Ash was shocked by her sudden and blunt words, and widened his eyes to show this.
"You can't be serious. I will not be slapping you in the face in five years time. In fact, I will not be slapping you ever. For one thing I find it cruel to slap a woman" he grinned. "And for another I could never slap you for something you can't prevent."
Misty averted his gaze after hearing these words. Something she couldn't prevent. Like a natural disaster…more like a man-made disaster.
"Something I can't prevent" she repeated in a whisper. Ash bit his lip, wondering if now was the right time to bring up his lingering question. She was upset enough as it was, but he had never had an opportunity as good as this before.
"Okay Mist, I'm about to ask you something, and I want you to promise me that you'll slap me if it offends you or if it's brainless or whatever" Ash announced. Misty stared at him with wide eyes.
"Well go on then" she softly urged. Ash felt his insides almost being chewed up, not just at his nervousness, but at the fact that this wasn't the Misty he had known at all. Five or so years ago she would've come up with some smart aleck remark about always jumping at the opportunity to slap him, and now she was on the other end of the spectrum.
Ash inhaled a deep breath before he started. "Misty, what would the consequences be if you didn't marry Chris?" Misty quickly raised her eyes to meet his, unsure of how to answer his question.
"Well…I guess I'd lose the fortune" she shrugged. Ash raised an eyebrow.
"Is that all?" he asked.
"I wouldn't think so" Misty smiled wearily. "No doubt my parents would kick me out, never talk to me again and hunt down the reason I disobeyed them."
Ash gulped. He certainly didn't want to be hunted down by the wealthiest citizens of Kanto. Maybe he didn't have to be the reason, maybe just the encourager, the catalyst even. If Misty was as spiritually strong as she had been five years ago, she would've been out of this life faster than anyone could comprehend. He knew she wanted to get out, and maybe, just maybe, he could help her.
"Look Mist, I know how much you hate this life" Ash started.
"Life? You're calling this a life?" Misty asked with a bitter laugh. "I never call it that."
"I know" Ash said quietly. "But I can see it in your eyes. I see it in that fake smile you wear when things are actually going wrong, I hear it in your words and I feel it at your touch."
"I'm glad someone does" Misty said, her voice trembling at the words.
"What would you do if I told you there could be a way outta what you're leading right now?" Ash blurted out in a flurry. He immediately slapped his forehead, wondering if that had been just a tad too hasty for his best friend, who was now sitting in front of him with a small smile on her face.
"Oh Ash. If you told me that, all I could do is laugh and dream about it. Because that's about as far as a statement like that would go."
"No it's not" Ash said firmly. "Your parents have not got you locked in a dungeon. They've only got you bound by rules. Misty, I know you can break free of that, and I know that you have to. You'll never be yourself again if you don't."
"So what I am gonna do once I break free, huh? Where am I gonna go, how am I gonna support myself? My training licence expired two years ago, I've got no qualifications, no work experience, nothing! As much as I hate to admit it, I've got nothing without my parents" Misty confessed, fumbling with the tablecloth and avoiding all eye contact.
"You'd have me" Ash said quietly. Misty shot her head up to meet his eyes, unsure if she had heard him properly.
"What did you just say?"
"I said you'd have me. Because you would. I'd help you out until you got back on your feet, you know I would." This said, Ash hesitantly reached over the table and gently grasped her hands, running his fingers over her smooth skin, loving the touch but knowing that it couldn't last long. "Come on, Mist. Don't put yourself through this anymore. You were your own life when we were travelling, and I know that hasn't completely extinguished yet. Please…just think about it."
Misty sighed, biting her lip in protest to the tears that were threatening to fall. "I have thought about it. For five years. And it is useless."
"No it's not!" Ash suddenly exclaimed, catching Misty off guard. "I refuse to believe that. I'm sick of feeling sorry for you when I know you can get out of this!"
"Well gee Ash, thanks for the caring attitude there, what a great friend you are" Misty said sarcastically.
"Don't give me that" Ash sighed in exasperation. "I've been nothing but a friend to you these last ten years."
"Friends are supposed to listen to each other. All you're doing is throwing my words back in my face and calling me a liar!" Misty pointed out, her voice slightly rising.
"I am listening, and all I am hearing is the desperate cries of a girl who thinks she's trapped and wants out, but thinks it's impossible. I am telling you, as a true blue friend Misty, that there is a way out."
"Well then maybe you shouldn't be my friend" Misty scowled, hating that she was losing the verbal battle.
"Okay then, we won't be friends" Ash announced, sending Misty into a reverse-psychology shock.
"Really?" she whispered.
"Really" Ash repeated. Before Misty had time to think or react, she suddenly realised that his lips were on hers, that he was kissing her with all the love and emotions they had both stored away for ten years in a highly public place, and not appearing to give a damn about it. It didn't take her long to give in to him, returning the kiss with everything she had ever felt towards him, which only contributed to her reluctance when it was broken off.
She stared at him for a moment, trying to regain some normality into her breathing. The words that were sprinting round her head refused to travel to her mouth and Ash had to let out a small laugh at her shocked expression.
"You still into the whole no friends thing then?" he asked with a broad grin.
"Ash, wha…what do you mean?" Misty asked in an uncontrollable daze.
"What I mean is I have been waiting ten years to move beyond the friends stage and into…well, I guess into what happened just then." Seeing her shocked expression, his face fell and he apologetically reached out to her. "I'm sorry Mist, I was totally out of line there, I shouldn't have been so forward with you. I just hate seeing you like this and I wanna help you -"
"Ash, shush" Misty ordered, forcefully cutting off his apologies. "You have nothing to be sorry for. You've just opened up a door I've been standing in front of for too long." She sighed as she finished talking. "It's dangerous for me to be betrothed to Chris and in love with you, but the reality is, that's the situation with me at the moment. What's even worse is that I can't change either of them."
"So…you do love me?" Ash asked hopefully, somewhat densely, which made Misty break out into a grin.
"Ash, I kissed you back and just said that the situation was I'm in love with you and engaged to Chris. What more do you want, a signed documentation confirming it?"
"Sorry, sorry, I just thought…" Ash trailed off and smiled at her, all the warmth and love he had ever possessed for radiating from that one smile. "I can't believe you actually let yourself do that."
"I know. But you gotta realise Ash, this is impossible." Misty took a sip of the coffee that had just been placed in front of her and kept her eyes lowered on the mug as she talked. "I can't break off my engagement with Chris, I can't just storm into your life the wreck that I am now. It's not fair to anyone."
"What about it being fair to you?" Ash pointed out. Misty didn't reply and Ash stroked a lone finger slowly down her cheek. "You deserve better. The money and the high life is nice for a while, but it's also killing you. Please Misty, just let me help you out. I swear to God you won't regret it, and if you do, you can never speak to me again and be in eternal bliss with Chris or whoever your parents hitch you up with."
Misty couldn't stop the two tears that escaped her eyes at the picture Ash was verbally painting. She couldn't bear the thought of being in so-called eternal bliss with Chris, the wounding word in that sentence being 'eternal.' If she didn't do this now, she knew there was no hope for her.
"Can I think about it?" she asked quietly.
"You can think about it till the ends of the earth, but the quicker you come to a decision, the quicker your future is made out for you" Ash said. Misty nodded and quickly finished off her coffee, her mind swirling with a million different things.
Half an hour later the rain had let up, giving way to a cold and gloomy nights on the deserted Cerulean streets. The light breeze was no comfort to Misty as she walked, arm in arm, with Ash on the way back to the now elaborate gym. The walk was silent, contradicting their many thoughts, but the invisible emotions surrounded them and they both knew it.
Before they had time to comprehend the length of their journey, the tall gates of the Cerulean Gym were before them and the dreaded goodbyes now had to be conversed.
"Until next week then" Misty said regretfully. Ash nodded and softly kissed her, relishing the feeling of his lips on hers in case this was the last time he felt it. The kiss nearly devoured the both of them into a world without their usual worries or cares, but Misty was suddenly snapped out of her pleasures by reality and she reluctantly pulled away.
"Think hard, Mist. But I know what you truly want" Ash said softly.
"I don't know what I want myself, how can you know?" Misty asked.
"You know, and I know." Ash hailed a cab and slowly climbed into it, giving Misty one last smile before it sped him away, leaving her outside the gym with a conflicting mind and an overexcited heart.
*******
A week later Misty caught her very first cab. There was no way she could walk with two suitcases in her hands, and with a voice that was shaking as much as her hands, she directed the cab driver to the all too familiar café.
Ash was not inside this time. He was leaning against a power pole outside, checking his watch every two or so minutes and pushing himself to the brink of sanity with nerves. A cab passed him but he ignored it. The one he was looking for would not be in a cab.
But shock and delight soon flowed through him when out stepped Misty, her face lit up in a somewhat nervous smile as she handed the driver a fare and grabbed her bags. Ash was unable to move, rooted to the spot by disbelief at the scene in front of him.
"Hi Ash" Misty started quietly as she walked up to him. Ash didn't even reply, he just swept her into his arms, gratefully kissing her for all the world to see.
"I knew it" he said simply, still holding her close.
"So why were you looking so nervous?" she asked him with a grin.
"I never can tell with you, Miss Waterflower. I thought you might've changed your mind or something" Ash shrugged.
"Changed my mind so I could be with Chris instead of you? Wake up, Ash. I've been in love with you for ten years and only now can I truly let it be. I have you to thank for that. You're restoring me back to the person I know I can be again, and for that I'll never be able to repay you" Misty said gratefully.
"Just being with me is enough. More than enough" Ash reassured her. "Hey wait, what did you tell your parents?"
"The letter on their bedside table said it all. Sorry to do this, find another heir, give Chris his ring back…" Misty held up her hand, now completely ringless. "Didn't need that rock weighing my hand down."
"You're incredible" Ash murmured, leaning down to initiate another kiss, when she only too happily responded to. And now Misty knew there was more to life than being told what to do. She was going to relive her former life and become her true self, and the only person she would ever want by her side would be there for her every step of the way.
A/N: I finished it!!! I can't believe it, two months since a fic, sheesh! Slacker Sass! Well, thanks for reading this, and if you wanna review I urge you to do so cos I LOVE REVIEWS!!! Uh, sorry, didn't mean to come on so strongly there. But if you find any faults in it, please tell me, I can only get better by constructive criticism. Thanks peeps, AAML forever!!