"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, actually I'm not too sure about that.  I've been writing these things so long (ok so not really that long but that's beside the point) I think I should at least own something by now.  Wait, I do own something.

Claimer – I do own Stalker chick/Garnet Pebble/I just felt like putting another slash in here, is mine but I don't mind if you use her.  The world needs more BAGLE's (also mine).

Beyond the ShadowsTo Know You Know Nothing

Misty looked at him suspiciously.

She couldn't help but note the change that had come over him in the past few days.

He walked into the room with a bounce in his step humming a familiar love song.  She picked it up straight away as one of her favourites 'When I'm Missing You' by A1, something the two of them had ridiculed her many times for listening to.

But that wasn't even the most surprising part. 

He'd walked past the Pokemon centers desk and through the main lobby ignoring the Nurse Joy siting at the desk and every pretty girl in the room.

As he sat down beside her she checked his forehead.

All the symptoms pointed to one thing. The lack of temperature, the weird look in his eyes, the humming love songs thing, the weird air around him and not to mention that goofy smile that was plastered on his face or sudden bounce in his step.  Boy did he have it bad.

There seemed only one possible conclusion, only one thing it could possibly be at all and it seemed to be the most obvious of all, Brock Slate, the boy she had known to fall for any girl with the exception of herself and Jesse, was in love.

"What's her name?" Misty asked.

"Garnet Pebble," he sighed blissfully.  "She's the prettiest girl I've ever seen."

"I remember you saying the exact same thing about Jenny and Joy and Melanie and Melody when she came to visit from the Orange Islands and Erika and Giselle that little hussie . . ." Misty said trailing off not quite convinced of Brocks feelings for this Garnet person.

"This is different from all of them," Brock said changing to a more serious tone of voice.  "I've only known her for a few hours, but already I feel as though I could never live without her even if I wanted to.  I feel everything that you and Ash feel for each other.  And for the first time in my life Misty," Brock said almost shyly, "I think I'm in love."

Misty blushed slightly as she smiled at Brock's bluntness and sincerity.  Now she was convinced.  Now she knew that Brocks feelings for this girl were as true as her own for Ash and that Brock was honestly in love with her.

"Then Garnet is a very lucky girl," Misty told him tears of happiness welling in her eyes.

"Thanks Misty," Brock told her taking her in a hug for no particular reason.

"So," Misty asked, "when do we get to meet the love of your life?"

"Well seeing as I've already met yours," Brock teased her.  Misty whacked him.  "How about tomorrow?" he said seeing the annoyed look on Misty's face.  "I'll go organise it now."

Brock hurried away to the phone excitedly just as Ash entered the room.

"What's his hurry?" Ash asked her.

"He's going to call Garnet," she replied.

"Wait, are you saying that Brock actually has a girls phone number?" Ash asked quite awestruck.

Misty nodded.  "She sounds nice and its obvious that Brock really likes her, I mean he came in here and didn't even say hi to Nurse Joy." 

Ash's eyes widened with surprise.

"Anyway," Misty continued, "we're going to meet her tomorrow."

Misty sighed inwardly at the way things were going.  She had expected it to all be so awkward between them, that was probably why she'd been doing such a fine job of avoiding him, but it wasn't.

It was the first time they had been left alone to talk among themselves since she'd kissed him on the forehead to say goodnight and she still couldn't believe she had done such a thing.

Usually she was a rational person.  Usually she didn't do anything out of the ordinary, anything that involved major risk beyond the things that Ash seemed to rope her into using emotional, physical and otherwise blackmail.  Usually she didn't let emotions control her.  Usually she didn't listen to her heart when her head was screaming no at her.  Usually she wouldn't have kissed Ash, period.

But it had seemed so right at the time, like the most natural thing of all to do.  Like she was supposed to kiss him, like it was just something she always did.  It had happened so suddenly she wasn't sure that she could have stopped it even if she wanted to.

It was strange, she almost seemed to be stressing out more about a kiss on the forehead than one on the lips. 

Though that hadn't exactly been a kiss, just an almost kiss.  At least she thought it was an almost kiss.

Damn.  She couldn't believe she was going through all this again.  She'd finally convinced herself that it was nothing, meant nothing and never will and that plan seemed to be working pretty well until now when everything was turned upsidedown and she was back where she started.

But that's how it always was with things that concerned herself and Ash.  One step forward, two steps back, never getting any closer to understanding what she was searching for. 

There were times when she just couldn't take it anymore, that she decided to just give up on Ash, decide that she meant nothing to him and then realise that she couldn't continue the way they were just pretending that she didn't feel these feelings for him.  She would make her decision to leave, get ready to pack her things up and go when suddenly Ash would just do something so simple, yet so meaningful that she was back to square one where she wasn't sure if day was night or night was day.

All he had to do was say her name and she was locked into this state of confusion as to exactly what he mean t when he said it, how on earth was she possibly able to act calmly about the fact that she and Ash had almost KISSED?

She was still unsure of what would have happened if Pikachu hadn't been there, hadn't called out and stopped what had almost seemed like the inevitable at the time.  What if their moment hadn't been broken?  What if Pikachu had just waited a few seconds more to call out?  What if they had actually kissed?  What would happen next?  Where would they be?

There were so many questions just flying about in her head that she didn't even hear the one being asked to her by her best friend sitting beside her as he tried to bring her back to reality.

"Misty are you ok?" she heard him ask as she finally found her way back to semiconsciousness.  "Hey Myst, you there," he added waving his hand in front of her face.

"Sorry," she said sheepishly.  "I guess I'm just a little tired or something."

"Hey, maybe we can stay here an extra night and you can catch up on the lack of sleep you've got from all those nights on the forest floor," Ash suggested quite kindly.  "I mean we haven't even had a chance to check out the town yet," he added.

"That would be nice," Misty replied.

"I wouldn't bother," Brock said entering into the conversation that goofy grin still plastered on his face.  "I checked it out while you two were busy doing god knows what the other day."

Brock raised his eyebrow suggestively.  This was all a matter of emotional payback for in the early days of their journey the way Misty had done the exact same thing.  At least he had the decency to be subtle about these things even though it was a bit more pg13 than hers.

Both Ash and Misty blushed as they remember just exactly what they had been doing whilst Brock was out with Garnet one particular event standing out in their minds causing each to go into a state of deep thought.

Brock smiled at the red tinge on each of their cheeks, but they were too deep in thought to notice this or to notice the way the other had zoned out in much the same way.

Remembering the other day's events sent both into a state of semiconsciousness as if they weren't all there anymore.  The kiss played on their minds, it's meaning toyed with their hearts and the word almost broke them in two.

"Anyone there?" Brock said waving a hand in front of each of their faces again smiling to himself as if laughing at his own private joke.

"Sorry Brock," Misty said trying to force the usual spark into her voice even though she felt emotionally drained. 

Thoughts of Ash often drained her of it especially ones like this.  Sometimes they filled her with hope, happiness and raised her spirits to new levels she had never imagined she could reach.  At other times the sent her into a spiral of depression and drained all the excitement and energy and fire that she was well known for from her.

Ash noticed this.  He always did.  Her fire was one of the many things that he seemed to love so much about her.

He had known her so long that he could tell when it was forced and when it was real.  At times he felt as though he could sense exactly how Misty was feeling at that precise moment even if she was faraway as if they were linked.

The whole time they had known each other, they had never left each others side for more than twenty four hours and neither of them would really have it any other way.

"What was it you wanted?" Ash asked almost glad to be away from his heart wrenching and utterly confusing thoughts.

"Well, though the town itself isn't really much to look at there is a nice lake about half an hours walk into the forest," Brock explained.

"A lake," Misty said happily.  "With swimming and water Pokemon and sun bathing."

"So is that a yes to the lake idea Myst?" Ash asked.

She nodded happily before she ran upstairs to get her togs.

Ash sighed as he watched her receeding figure.  It seemed to hurt him to see her walking away from him.  The only thing that really kept him sane was the knowledge that she would be coming back.

"You should tell her," Brock said trying to offer some brotherly advice.  "She needs to know before it all just eats her up inside and she can't take it anymore.  Before she gives up and tries to move on with her life."

Ash stayed silent not looking at Brock but at the door where he waited for Misty to return to any minute now.

Brock sighed trying to find some way to get through to him.  Ash needed to hear what he had to say.  He had to convince Ash to tell her before it was too late and neither could stand it any longer.

He knew Misty wasn't going to tell him, she was too scared to start with but she liked to use the excuse of chivalry to get her out of it.  It was just as the song said, 'too shy to ask, too proud to loose but sooner or later I've got to chose' and that was what he needed to hear.  They were so afraid of losing what they had that regret wasn't even an issue.

"She doesn't think she can live without you Ash," he said hoping this would help.  He knew it was something Ash could relate to, but would it work.  "And right now," he continued, "she doesn't want to find out, but one day the pain is going to get so bad that life with you has even lost its appeal and she doesn't care anymore.  You can already see the pain in her, the doubt and the frustration."

Ash still refused to look him in the eye.

Brock sighed and yelled in frustration.  "you're in love with the girl and it seems she's the only one who doesn't fucking know already.  Don't you bloody well think she has a right to know?"

Ash finally looked at him as did many of the people around them who gave Brock dirty looks for cursing and ruining the peace and quite of the Pokemon Centre, especially Nurse Joy.

"She needs to know," Brock told him in a calmer tone, "and the only way she's ever going to believe it is if she hears it from you."

Ash sighed.  "I know," he said.  "I know."

~ to be continued ~

Another chapter completed, another love found and another heart broken.  Ok so I'm a little itty bit over dramatic but what else do you expect of me.

I have come to the conclusion that the legendaries and the mew and stuff are really powerful, but quite unaccesable so I'm making my own Pokemon up.  Finally something else I own in this story, by the way I don't own that lyric in there, it's Westlife (who else?) from 'If I Let You Go' and I've always thought about how perfect that one lyric is for Ash and Misty.

I've also come up with a new dark scary plot for this story with another stalker chick to mix things up a bit.  Yes, this will be very interesting.

Please review, it means a lot to me and the more the very merrier.