DISCLAIMER: I don't own Pokémon.
A/N: Yes, I said in my last A/N that this chapter would now be rated R and I wasn't kidding. So please remember, it's rated R for a lotta reasons, you clicked into it knowing that. I'll accept all flames with a smile and a deteriorating writing ego. LOL, j/k, just do what you want, stop reading, send me a flame full of expletives, or you might just like it and want to go on. You never know! And by the way, I've never done anything like what I'm about to do, so forgive me if it sucks, lol.
Chapter Eight - Love's ultimate virtue.
The next three weeks flew by me at incredible speed, so fast that I barely had a moment to sit back and marvel on it all. This was, of course, all thanks to Ash and the flames that were quickly re-igniting between us. I couldn't complain. In fact, I was finder fewer things to complain about these days. Even my mother had gone strangely calm at the prospect of me "befriending" the boy who broke my heart. She didn't need details. Our phone conversations every three or so days were kept to a bare minimum of chit-chat and never really lasted more than five minutes, which suited us both.
It was one balmy Saturday evening that Violet suddenly burst through the front door. Not that I noticed - I was on the couch with Ash, too engulfed in his kisses to notice much else. Even her forceful slamming of the door didn't snap either one of us out of it, as we both knew it would be one of those three.
"Oh my God, do you two have trouble, like, prying your lips away from each other or something?" she asked loudly. That did the trick and I pulled away from Ash, glaring at my now seated sister.
"You got a problem, Vivi?" I asked, using the nickname she had picked up somewhere and absolutely despised.
"Don't call me that!" Violet screeched.
"Well then don't interrupt me when I'm busy" I said, preparing to turn back to a clearly amused Ash when Violet suddenly grabbed my arm. "What do you want?" I demanded in frustration.
"I ran into Mark today" Violet announced.
"Our cousin Mark?" I queried. Violet nodded. "That's nice. Guess it is a small world after all." I grinned at Ash, thinking back to that night we had first run into each other.
"No Mist, you don't understand, he…" Violet paused and I stared at her with raised eyebrows. "He knows about you two." She indicated Ash and I, and Ash sent me a worried look.
"What? How the hell does he know? Which one of you let it slip?!" I yelled, demanding answers.
"None of us. You two just aren't discreet enough down on that beach. He saw you yesterday and…well, you know Mark" Violet said nervously. I certainly did know Mark. He was a year older than me and I always thought he would've coped better as a woman. He tended to thrive on gossip, and the dirtier the better. No doubt this would be his ultimate field day, especially if he retold it back to Mom.
"If he dares says anything to Mom I'll…I'll kill him! He won't live to see seventeen!" I vowed, my voice gradually rising.
"Misty, calm down" Ash quietly pleaded, squeezing my hand in some sort of reassurance.
"No! Where is he? Where is the bastard?" Before I even had time to think, I had leapt out of my seat and was running towards the beach, my eyes furiously scanning the sandy plains. In my heart of hearts, I knew it was impossible. The beach wasn't exactly small, and dozens of baches were scattered on the upper bank. He could've been occupying any of them.
At this realisation, I collapsed on the sand and drew my knees close to my chest, hugging myself, trying to squeeze out some sort of self-comfort. Mark could now make everything fall apart so easily. It was a fact that brought tears to my eyes, even when Ash sat beside me and put an arm around my shoulders.
"You probably shouldn't do that out here" I said softly. It was hardly a protest though, as I was now leaning against his shoulder.
"Violet tells me Mark's a bit of a gossiper" Ash said.
"That's an understatement" I sighed. "He spreads things faster than margarine and adds his own little twists and fragments here and there. Out of all the people who could've been at this beach, it had to be him!" I exclaimed.
"Shh, it's okay. Your mom had to find out sooner or later" Ash said soothingly, rubbing my half-bare right arm.
"But not like this" I said weakly. "She'll have a heart attack hearing it from her nephew rather than her daughter, the one who actually committed the crime."
"What? Being in love is a crime?" Ash asked in astonishment.
"Being in love with you is" I smiled sadly.
"Gee, I've never even met the woman and already she's branded me a criminal" Ash said with a grin.
"That's her problem. She's so judgmental." Not to mention selfish, unsympathetic, favoring, demanding…
"You know, you could try calling her before Mark does" Ash suggested.
"That's it!" I exclaimed. "That'll work! God, why didn't I think of that? Ash Kethcum, you're a bloody genius!" I stood up with him and planted a small kiss of gratitude on his lips. We walked back towards the bach and I immediately pounced on the phone, ignoring Violet's curious gaze, and dialed out the familiar number.
Uh oh. I hadn't prepared myself on what I was gonna say. Geez, she hadn't even picked up the phone and already I'd made a mess of things.
"Hello?" A familiar male voice answered and my sinking heart instantly lifted.
"Hi Dad" I said cheerily, almost forgetting the task at hand. I loved my father, and I hadn't talked to him since I'd left.
"Misty? Is something wrong?" Dad asked.
"N-not really" I stuttered. "Is Mom home?" There was a long pause, so long it made me wonder if the connection had been cut. "Hello? Dad, are you there?"
"I-I'm here sweetie." Now it was Dad's turn to stutter. "Your mother has…gone out. She won't be home for a while."
"Oh my God, are you guys getting divorced?" I asked in horror. It was an instant reaction to the hesitant tones in Dad's voice and the obvious secret he was habouring. I heard Violet gasp in what seemed like surprise, although as much as the prospect of our family splitting up would upset me, it wouldn't surprise me. I don't know how Dad can live with Mom every day like he does. I obviously didn't inherit his tolerance.
"No no no" Dad chuckled. "Of course not. She just might be away a bit yet. You know her, busy busy."
I groaned. "I do know. Okay, you don't have to tell her I called or anything, I'll catch up with her later."
"Alright. Don't get into any mischief over there peachpie" Dad teased, using the nickname he had leeched on me the minute I was born. I cringed, thankful for the privacy of the phone, my mind playing images of Ash repeatedly calling me peachpie.
"Yes sir" I laughed. "See ya in five weeks." Yes, I only had five weeks until I had to go home. Bummer huh?
We said our goodbyes and hung up, after which I immediately crashed onto the couch, rubbing my temples in frustration.
"Not home?" Ash asked, sitting beside me. I nodded and leant my head on the back of the sofa, staring skyward.
"Maybe it's just as well. I have no idea what to tell her" I said.
"What, you can't tell her that you're sucking face with the ex that brought you home?" Violet grinned through her teasing.
"Oh shut up" I groaned.
"Sorry, sorry" Violet apologized. "Anyways, I'm gonna meet the other three at some café. Then I think we're out all night. So, uh…don't do anything I wouldn't do." With that she left, and I turned to Ash with a puzzled expression on my face.
"Is there anything she wouldn't do?" Ash burst out laughing after hearing this and I cuddled up closer to him. Being enveloped in him, his arms felt like a barrier, a border from which no one could hurt me. Sounds like a stupid illusion to be under, but it wasn't like I could help it.
We fell quiet after Ash's giggles died down, just savoring each other's presence and watching the rhythmatic dance of the ocean tide. It was almost lulling me to sleep, but I refused to doze off. It was only 6 o'clock and I planned to spend every minute of daylight with Ash.
"Hey Misty?" Ash suddenly spoke up.
"Mmm" I replied lazily.
"What's gonna happen when you go home?" Ash asked. My half-closed eyes sprung open and I sat up fully to face him.
"Do we have to think about that now? I've still got five weeks here. That's quite a while" I said doubtfully. I was trying to convince both myself and Ash on that matter, which I guess was just too big a job for me to handle.
"It's not long enough" Ash mumbled, now nuzzling and kissing my neck. I didn't realise two years of separation could fuel so many unknown feelings within me at just Ash's touch, and I felt myself slipping away from reality as I responded to his kisses.
"You ungrateful bastard" I teased softly. This only contributed to the kisses deepening in passion, as we both seemed to be facing up to the reality that one day in the near future, summer would be over. He would return to his highly public and demanding life at the Indigo Plateau, and I would return to my dreary existence under the same roof as my mother in Cerulean City. It was a prospect neither of us were looking forward to.
I actually had a bit of a delayed reaction when Ash's hands started wandering from my waist to my upper half, a part of me he had never been near before. I felt a slight tugging at the buttons of my blouse and that was the final trigger I needed to pull away from Ash and eye him carefully. The two of us were breathing heavily, like we'd just run through the finishing line of a marathon, and neither of us could tear our eyes away from the other.
"I'm sorry Mist" Ash apologized, looking disheveled. I can't have looked much better myself, with my flushed face and consistently pounding heart that was threatening to fly through my chest. "Look what you do to me" he laughed slightly, placing a hand on my cheek. "I'm sorry, I can't say that enough, I'm so -"
I put a finger to his lips, instantly silencing him as I did. I continued to silently scan his eyes as I took his hand and placed it back where it had been before, on my right breast, his eyes widening and sensations awakening inside of me that I had never experienced before. Sensations that were based on the all too powerful drug of love. I inhaled deeply, suddenly realizing how much I wanted this.
"Don't be" I whispered.
"What? Misty, are you sure about -"
"Shh" I hushed him. "I'm sure." I nodded, confirming everything I was feeling, and drew my lips to his in the most powerful and meaningful kiss of my life. I didn't care how hasty this seemed, because in reality our love had survived for years - the years we had kept it to ourselves, the years we had gone out, and the years we had been separated.
And this was it. Tonight I would prove to Ash how much I loved him. I would give him a part of me that no one else could have. I wouldn't give it to anyone else either.
He slowly pulled away from me, halting the prolonged kiss, and started stroking loose strands of my hair. "Misty, I don't wanna do something you're gonna regret. I know I won't regret it if it happens because I love you so much, but…"
"Don't say if" I interrupted. "You should be saying when. It's happening, Ash. You know it and I know it, we both know it's inevitable."
"But now? Tonight?" Ash asked. I took his hand again and kissed his fingers before intertwining them with mine.
"Yes. Tonight. I need you to know how much I love you, even through all my bitter ignorance" I smiled. Ash smiled back.
"I loved you through all that too. I just…I don't wanna hurt you, or ruin what we have now."
"Ash, if anything this will seal or strengthen the bond we already have" I pointed out. I stood up, my hand still firmly in his. "But it's up to you. If you're not ready, than neither am I." Ash looked at me for all of two seconds before he joined me standing up.
"I'm ready" he whispered. Those two words sent me into nervous pleasure and our hands were still clasped together as we slowly started walking down the hall. My stomach was running round in circles and I could've sworn I was lacking oxygen but this was happening. My dizziness would only stop me if it caused me to pass out.
It was strange to think, as we walked into my room, that the last time we had both been in there was when I had, in my own subtle way, told him to piss off.
Such is the irony of life.
I closed the door behind me and pulled Ash over to my bed, where we both sat down and just looked at each other for a long, virtually breathless moment. Ash finally broke the ice when his hand found its way to my cheek and then slowly started moving lower.
"I love you" he said softly. A phrase he had said to me so often it was becoming common. However this time the words made me feel things I clearly defined as uncommon, things that were now making me wrap my arms around the back of his neck in an unexplainable hunger.
"I love you too" I replied. The kiss that followed was one I didn't want to let go of, and in the end I didn't really. Our lips never left each other as Ash started unbuttoning my blouse, my skin warming to his somewhat hesitant touches. The apprehension soon subsided and we started waltzing into the lover's dance. It was slow, it was fast, it was painful and it was beautiful all at the same time.
Ash made it that way. When I blushed at the body I owned and sometimes hated, he kissed me and told me how beautiful I was. When I cried out in pain, he caressed me until it became pleasure. We melted into one as the world and all the worries it held dissolved -- there was not an ounce of room for my mother, Mark, Giselle or the Pokémon League. Just Ash and I, discovering what we had lost and making up for it.
Our rhythm became in sync until it eventually became faster, almost desperate, progressing to the highest level of love possible. I vaguely remember calling out the name of the only person I would ever love before we both climaxed into a state of sated exhaustion. I was finding air hard to come by in my overwhelmed state and finally slowly exhaled, my eyes never leaving Ash's.
"Wow." It was all I could say and it was barely above a whisper but it concluded what we were both thinking and feeling at the time, and he kissed me so tenderly I nearly cried. This was just one of the many kinds of love that had been absent from my life for so long.
"I didn't hurt you, did I?" Ash asked worriedly, now holding me in his arms.
"Well…not really, I had to expect it. Either way it was wonderful" I replied softly.
"No regrets then?" Ash added.
"None whatsoever." His chest now became my pillow and I had barely wrapped my arms around him when my eyes started closing in a slumber I couldn't stop.
*******
The most amazing night of my life had just transpired and now I was waking up -- in Ash's arms, no less. I smiled up at him through sleep-filled eyes.
"Good morning" I greeted him.
"It certainly is" Ash smiled back. He started those unstoppable kisses again and I automatically responded to them, feeling those sensations that had now become half-familiar since the previous night.
The kisses were lingered over and started traveling to places other than lips when a sound hit my ears and I immediately tore myself away from him.
"What was that?" I whispered panickly.
"What was wha -" Ash was cut off when the door to my room swung open and the nightmare of my life was suddenly standing in front of me.
"MISTY WATERFLOWER, CHRIST AND HEAVEN ABOVE!!" I knew there was no point trying to cover up the situation, but I still screamed and pulled the blanket up to my chin.
Mom.
A/N: Okay, things to note: this story is now rated R. I dunno how many times I've said that, but please keep that in mind when you're about to flame me. Also this was my first sex scene and it was only two paragraphs long, I know, but any longer and I probably would've had to put it under NC-17. And I tried to do it with some taste, so I can only hope I succeeded. Um, what else…there's a bit of a cliffhanger! Haha, won't be hanging for long, I'll get the next one up ASAP. Until then, stay cool everyone!
