"You can't make someone love you, all you can do is stalk them and hope with time they panic and give in."
Disclaimer – I don't own Pokemon though I do claim all rights to stalker chick and anything that happens in her crazy mixed world where she's in love with . . . opps I've already said too much.
Beyond the Shadows – Another Point of View
Ash smiled to himself as his heart began to flutter away happily from just being in the same vicinity as the girl sitting merely inches away from him on the next couch. He tried not to watch her, but he couldn't help it, she was breath taking and there was nothing in this world that would ever draw him away from her. He would be utterly content just to stay like that for the rest of his life.
The fifteen-year-old girl sat cross-legged on her seat engrossed in the book she held in her hand. Strands of auburn hair fell across her burrowed forehead and half-closed blue green eyes as she murmured softly to herself. Ash had to do everything in his power just to keep from walking up to her and pushing those few strands away from her face before lightly kissing her forehead.
He would give anything for a chance like that, for the chance to kiss Misty, just once and know nothing would be ruined afterwards. He would walk through hell and back just to hold her in his arms, even for a millisecond. If she shed even one tear, there was nothing that he wouldn't do to just to see her smile again.
He would risk everything for Misty to love him, that is, everything but their friendship. They had been friends so long, she was one of his best friends, quite possibly his best, and that friendship meant more to him than anyone could ever possibly imagine. He would give up all he had just to know she felt the same, but their friendship was just too important to risk on a maybe. He couldn't put something so dear to him like that on the line only to find out that she could never feel the same way about him and have it destroyed forever.
It was just too great a risk for him to take.
"Did you say something Myst?" Ash asked as he was suddenly brought out of his trance by the melodic sound of Misty's angelic voice.
She looked up and Ash immediately found himself drawn to the deep blue green pools of her beautiful aquamarine eyes. It was as if with that one look she had swept him away to a whole other world so faraway that he barely registered anything else around him other than her and she didn't even realize the power of her spell she was unaware of even casting.
"Girls," he sighed sarcastically as he raked his brain for an even moderately witty remark to reply with. Misty usually had this effect on him, he would get so caught up in her that he was unable to concentrating on anything else whenever she was near, which was probably why they got lost so often. "One swallow and already they're humming love songs to themselves."
"Two," she corrected quietly before resuming her previous position and returning to her book.
Ash sighed inwardly. He knew that he could just sit there for eternity just watching her, not caring if she saw him or even if she realized he was there. The important thing was, that he could see her and that was all that mattered.
She was so beautiful and amazing and just so indescribable that never once did he ever have to doubt why he loved her because every day he knew her only made it clearer. Every morning he would wake up early, before even the sun had woken up just to see her as the suns rays beamed across her face only making her look more beautiful and angelic than she already did. He just wanted to make sure she was still there when he woke up so he could just stay there watching her breath and knowing that she was really there, that she wasn't a dream, that she was real.
It was strange how one minute he was laughing at all the corny lines and clichés and next minute he's practically applying them to his life.
But then everything was so different now.
If you told him five years ago that he would be sitting in the Hasselton Pokemon center practically drooling over Misty Waterflower he would have been the first to tell you how wrong you are. But here he was, secretly watching her as he tried to hide behind a magazine just in case she looked up.
Ash could hardly believe it had been that long, he could still remember the day they met like it was yesterday. He always knew there was something different about Misty; that she wasn't like anyone else he had ever met. He guessed the attraction had been there from the start, but then as a ten year old boy he disregarded, tried to focus on something else and pretend the he was thinking about the bike just as much as she was.
Now he knew better. It was never really about the bike for him. Maybe at first he just didn't want to be alone, but now . . .
He was so afraid of what might happen if he gave it back now. There were so many questions, so many 'ifs' and 'maybes'. What if she was only there for the bike? What if she thought he didn't want her around anymore? What if she left for good? Or maybe the bike was never the issue for her either?
Or maybe . . .
"I'm going up to the room for a lie down," she said brightly breaking him from his thoughts.
He could tell there was something wrong. Misty was only ever that perky on two occasions; when she was on a sugar hype and when she was trying to hide something, and he was pretty sure she hadn't had that much sugar.
And the latter meant he had two options. He tried to look at her face, but she was turned away from him so he couldn't tell. He wanted to ask her what was wrong, make sure she was all right, but he always had trouble talking to Misty. His words always got messed up and he always ended up feeling stupid when he said the wrong thing and only made her more upset.
Sometimes it was best just to leave it.
"Oh ok," he replied in a dejected tone. He wanted to say more but he couldn't, he didn't want to mess things up.
"What's wrong?" she asked turning to face him.
Ash looked up at her. She was as beautiful as always. She would even have looked happy if it wasn't for the sadness in her eyes, but he couldn't find the courage to do it.
'Maybe she is just tired,' he reasoned with himself. 'Or maybe I'm just a big timid jerk who isn't even brave enough to ask a girl who he's known for five years if she's ok. Sorry excuse for a friend.'
"Nothing," he said trying to use a nonchalant tone, shaking his head and looking down at the ground by her feet. "Don't worry," he said looking up and forcing a smile onto his face just for her, "you go rest."
Misty gave him a quick smile then headed upstairs.
'Good one Ketchum,' he told himself. 'You sure got her swooning.'
"Why can't I just talk to Misty like other girls?" Ash sighed aloud to himself.
"Because you love her," Brock replied for some reason finding that exact moment to distract himself from Nurse Joy.
"Great timing Brock," Ash muttered.
"Why don't you just get it over with and tell her how you feel?" Brock asked ignoring Ash's last comment.
"We've been through this before Brock," Ash told him exasperatedly. "Misty means too much to me and I don't want to put our friendship on the line like that. I don't want to loose her. I could never forgive myself if anything happened to her."
"Ash do you want to regret this for the rest of your life?" Brock asked.
"I'd rather have regret than not have Misty at all," Ash replied. "Its simple as that."
Brock sighed. "I try to help him, but does he listen no," he rambled exasperatedly as he walked away. "Doesn't he realize . . ." Brock trailed off as he spotted Officer Jenny walk by. "Ooo, Officer Jenny, you can lock me up any day," he said dreamily as he followed behind her his feet barely touching the ground.
"Ever heard of monogamy," Ash called after him.
"The colour of Officer Jenny's hair," Brock signed contently.
(A/N: Monogamy means to only be with one person at a time for those of you who have never heard of it and just thought I had really bad spell check. Don't worry I thought it was a colour too)
"So much for that," Ash sighed jokingly to himself.
Brock's Diary(A/N: I didn't want to leave Brock out so I had to do this, plus it should be kind of funny)
ODE to JOYHow soft her touch
How sweet her lips
My only wish
To steal a kiss
Her open arms
Her loving eyes
If only she
Could be all mine
Her heart so pure
Her smile so coy
My sweet true love
She is Nurse Joy
~ to be continued ~
Did you enjoy? I know that last part was weird but I wanted to make this a bit longer. I am, however, thinking about making it a regular thing; extracts from the Book of Brock.
Please review and let me know if I should continue just so that Brock doesn't feel left out seeing as it's his first mention in the story and I'm pretty sure he'll be pretty scarce throughout the rest of it.
