Title: Dealing with Rivals

Summary: Ash had always relied on his rivals to challenge him to be better, but now one of his past rivals is pushing him into uncharted territory with a former traveling companion. Pokeshipping week 2022 theme "Rivalry."

Note: Little bit of a slow burn, but I promise it'll all be worth it in the end.


"When did that start?" Ash griped sourly, staring across the long table in the Oak lab at his oldest rival who had just placed a gentle hand on Misty's knee. To Ash's surprise, the normally feisty redhead didn't try tell Gary off or make any motion to remove his hand.

The large room that the gathering teenagers were seated in was more commonly used for presentations, dissertation defenses, and the occasional small scientific conference, but this evening it was being used for a party. Delia Ketchum, having finally admitted her house was above capacity with the ever expanding group of Ash's friends/past traveling companions, had enlisted Professor Oak's help with Ash's end of league party following his second place achievement in Kalos.

Dawn shrugged, quirking a brow at the concerned trainer seated at her right side, "last I heard, she turned him down."

"He asked her out?!" Ash balked before remembering the room and quickly quieting himself with a hearty shoveling of food from the plate in front of him.

This wasn't supposed to be his concern. As far as the room knew, Serena was his new girlfriend. She had kissed him following the tournament and while they'd never actually discussed anything, everyone made assumptions that the demure blonde was more than happy to play along with.

The only person who wasn't happy was Ash, having no natural inclination to his own feelings and no talent for resolving problems with words, he'd instead chosen to take this event as an opportunity to avoid the situation entirely, which was going just fine until Gary put his hand on Misty's knee.

"May," Dawn grinned, talking across Ash to the brunette girl who was seated at his right side, "when did Gary ask Misty out?"

"Mmm, don't know if he has recently," May shrugged through bites of food, "the first time was about six months ago though. It looks like he's finally starting to win her over."

"Eh, I think she's just becoming more emotionally available given recent events," Dawn chimed in with a wink, "good for her; she's been working too hard lately. She could use some fun even if she's pretty sure Gary would be just a fling."

Ash's stomach churned and flipped as he suddenly felt all sense of appetite leave his body. Something about seeing Gary Oak, his longest standing rival, with Misty, his first traveling companion, made his stomach feel like it was digesting broken glass.

When May told him she was dating Drew, he was happy for her. Granted Drew had been her rival more than his so there wasn't the confusing, overt layer of rivalry and loss.

But Paul had been Ash's rival, and while he was still a bit confused when Paul and Dawn started dating, as he definitely hadn't seen that coming, it didn't gut him in the same way that watching Misty respond to something Gary said before they both settled into comfortable laughter did.

How long had he been away?

And furthermore, how long had it been since he last called her?

"I thought that was the problem," May quizzically added, breaking Ash's train of thought, "Gary's looking for long term and she's not sure she could get to that point with him?"

"Oh, I didn't know about that," Dawn replied nonchalantly as if they were discussing competition event outfits and not his best friend's love life.

Internally Ash's mind was imploding. How was this normal?

"The first couple of dates they joined Drew and I on, I tried to convince her otherwise," May shrugged, "especially since Gary's one smitten skitty."

"Why're they going on double dates if she turned him down?" Ash sulked, his mood taking an even further dive.

The world didn't make sense anymore. It was as if someone told him he suddenly had to take ballet lessons to compete in pokemon battles.

May and Dawn responded to him in unison with differing perspectives.

"Nobody likes to be a third wheel," May had chimed in whereas Dawn took the offensive.

"Why did you switch your table placement with Max's when you're supposed to be sitting by Serena?" Dawn retorted with a glint to her eyes.

"Maybe I just wanted to catch up with old friends?" Ash offered up nervously, having been so mentally stumped for the past several minutes that he was unable to come up with anything better as an excuse.

"You know you have to tell Serena that you don't feel the same," Dawn reasoned having already assessed the situation at the start of the party. Dawn was the most like Ash, but one major point in which they differed was her relative ease with recognizing other's feelings and understanding relationships.

And Ash wore his heart like a glaring neon sign on his sleeve so he was a very easy read.

"I just don't want to hurt her," Ash sighed, "and as selfish as it is, I just wanted a few days to enjoy having been so close to achieving my lifelong dream."

Ash vaguely motioned around the room before turning his attention back to the gossiping contest competitors.

"Not quite what you thought, huh?" May added, empathetically.

"Maybe it would have been different if…" Ash didn't bother to finish his sentence as his eyes fell to the redhead across the table.

She was pushing the carrots and peppers from the mixed vegetables off her own plate and onto Gary's while he wasn't paying attention. Misty's aqua eyes flashed up and made brief eye contact with Ash, and he watched her prod her fork in his direction, a silent indication that if he said anything about the vegetable misplacement she would hunt him down.

He stuck his tongue out in response, wordlessly calling her a child, and she glared back at him, to which he gave a hearty laugh.

It was still so easy to get under her skin. In an ever changing world, she'd been his constant and maybe that's why he'd been so lax with letting the communication slip. He knew she'd be the same Misty every time he returned and they could reliably tease each other like they were ten again until he left for the start of something new.

"Yeesh, do you two need a room?" Paul snickered from Dawn's side as he watched the sickeningly playful exchange between Ash and his first traveling companion.

"Talking to her would probably help, right?" Ash reasoned, missing Paul's intended mockery entirely, "do you guys think you can help me get a couple of minutes away from everyone to talk to her?"

"Ash being proactive about a situation with a girl? This I have to see," May grinned, though she better than the other members of their current small group understood the complicated entanglement that was Ash and Misty's sort of love story.

Outside of Brock and Tracey, May had seen more interactions between the two and she was the first person Ash confessed to about his feelings for the Cerulean City gym leader given Ash seemed unable to stop talking about Misty when May traveled with him.

And now that May was traveling through Johto with Drew, she made a point to make frequent visits to the nearby Kanto region for shopping and catch up time with Misty as the budding contest field was relatively small in Johto.

"Only because it's Misty," Dawn retorted with a sly grin.

"I'd do the same for any of you," Ash defended quickly attempting to brush off the insinuations cast his way.

"Then go tell Serena you're not interested," Dawn taunted with snark.

"N-no...That's different…That's too complicated..." Ash muttered in futile defense.

"So going to tell a girl you like her while you're supposed to be dating a different girl at this very table is somehow not complicated?" May mused with a small laugh.

"I didn't say it was a well thought out plan...but I just need to talk to Misty...please?" Ash mumbled shamefully.

"Deal, but you tell Serena about your lack of romantic feelings by the end of the night. I don't want to see you hurt that poor girl more by making this even more messy," Dawn bargained confidently sticking her hand out.

"Deal," Ash shook on it.

"Ok, now go out to the back deck," Dawn shooed Ash like a covert ops agent, "and quietly; don't call attention to yourself. We'll get Misty."

Ash did as he was told and managed to evade the other party goers by slipping out of his seat at the moment when the hired caterers came to change over the dinner plates to dessert. He wasn't in the mood for dessert anyway with his stomach still in knots from the Gary situation.

A couple of minutes later, Misty was strong-handed out the door by May and Dawn who promptly shut and locked the sliding patio door after forcing the ill-prepared redhead into the chilly spring air.

Her normal gym attire had been replaced by an off-shoulder navy blue romper that clearly was the result of one of her shopping trips with May as it didn't look like the redhead's usual style, but still showed off her long legs.

"I'm serious, Dawn. I don't know what prank you're pulling, but I will stick you in the gyarados tank for this," Misty growled through the door as the giggling bluenette mimed a "turn around" motion with her hands.

"Heya Myst…" Ash nervously greeted, feeling suddenly embarrassed at the intimate atmosphere of the dark, open air.

"You could have just asked me to chat," Misty flatly stated, shaking her head in annoyance, "I was looking forward to the cake. Daisy's on some low-sugar kick for the wedding and she won't let me keep desserts in the pantry."

"Eh; this was more fun," Ash evaded, knowing full well the athletic swimmer's penchant for sweets.

Relenting, Misty walked over to the edge of the deck to join him and stared across the open expanse of land that served as the Oak ranch.

"Congrats, by the way," Misty half-heartedly teased, "guess I'll have to get used to the idea that I may actually get to call you Mr. Pokemon Master for real someday."

Ash looked at her and felt his face turn sullen.

"I should be excited that I came so close to my dream this time, but...I just feel disappointed."

"Welcome to growing up," Misty sighed matching his mood.

Normally she would be his fixer, but it'd been a couple of years since she'd last been his source of support and it was very apparent that his normally Teflon optimism had taken more than a few critical hits over time.

"Maybe I don't want to grow up," Ash regressed childishly, crossing his arms over his chest and sticking out his tongue. It was almost too dark to see given the late hour, but his tone gave away his actions.

"The rest of us had to, so it was about time you joined the mix," Misty cracked a small, teasing grin and playfully nudged Ash's shoulder with her own as he took a place closer to her at the railing of the deck.

A couple of minutes of awkward silence passed between the two as there remained a lot unspoken that needed to be said, but admittance would take guts and gumption that had long been squelched by time apart.

They weren't strangers by any means, but they also weren't symbionts like they'd once been.

"So you and Gary, huh?" Ash griped suddenly, the bubbling emotions spilling forth in an unjustly sour statement.

"You and Serena, huh?" Misty retorted, leveling the field with an easy glare.

"You could have given me some heads up, given he's my rival and all that…" Ash muttered bitterly.

"You could have given me a heads up, given I didn't even know who you were traveling with for the past year…" Misty spat back.

At least this was easy. If they could get it all out there in a fight then maybe everything would go back to normal and they'd both stop acting so weird around one another.

This was probably the reason Dawn and May had shepherded them outside, having some precognition of the short fused, heavily explosive nature this "talk" was about to take.

It was Ash who broke the tense silence once more with a rumbling agitation.

"She kissed me. We're not even dating despite what everyone is saying and I honestly don't know how to address it because I'm an idiot. Is that what you wanted to hear?!" Ash grumbled, his voice building to a shout in his mounting frustration.

"Well if you were smart enough to ask questions first and not just fly off the handle, you'd know I'm not actually dating Gary," Misty matched his volume and frustration, "but Hell, I'll admit I've thought about it. He actually calls me, he shows up when he says he will, and he doesn't leave me on read for a year and expect me to come trotting back to him like some sort of wounded lillipup at any wayward whistle."

Ash stared at her; despite the volume and frustration that was dragging him back to their childhood habit of screaming matches, she was every bit entitled to say what she did.

After all, he came and went as he pleased and everything in their friendship was always on his terms.

How big had his ego gotten without her to keep him in check anyway? And at the core of it all, wasn't he at least supposed to be her friend? No part of him could deny that he'd been awful at that for the past year.

"Is everything alright?"

It was Delia's voice that called from the doorway finally realizing the duo had been locked out, likely from a check in response to the shouting match that had ensued.

"Everything's great," Misty muttered sarcastically, keeping her eyes trained on the expansive pokemon pastures beyond the porch with her back turned to the matriarch.

"We're fine, mom," Ash shrugged, looking at his mom with the helpless look she'd seen a million times before when he'd make some sort of mess he wasn't the least bit sure how to clean up.

"Ash, dear, why don't you come inside?" Delia offered gently, "and Misty, Gary's been looking for you."

"Of course he has…" Ash grumbled irritably, sulking as he headed towards the doorway.

"I didn't ask him to," Misty hissed at Ash's back as Gary brushed past him into the open air at the sliding door.

Ash glared at the maroon-haired teen, but Gary paid him no mind, instead sauntering up to the lingering redhead and wrapping his blazer around her exposed shoulders to shield her from the cold.

Inside Ash was wishing he could shout at the smirking teen, but for what – having good manners in bad weather? As much as he wanted to make Gary the bad guy, he couldn't justify it. He'd been the bad friend, it wasn't Gary's fault he'd stepped into a role that Ash should have stepped up for long ago.

Instead Delia grabbed Ash's arm and began to drag him through the doorway, but not before he heard Gary softly speak to his former traveling companion.

"Hey, Red. You OK?"

Ash was barely ten steps into the warm, well-lit party room before, bullheaded and brash, he did what he was known for and charged right back into the open air without a second thought for consequences, leaving a befuddled Serena, who'd tried to grab his attention upon his return, standing with his name half out of her agape mouth.

He could practically feel the steam coming out of his ears as he threw back the door, distantly aware that a couple of his former traveling companions were sharing gossipy whispers and knowing chuckles, but he was too far beyond it now. He was in too deep to let Gary-freaking-Oak take his best friend from him.

But when he stormed out into the chilly air again, he was surprised to find they weren't on the deck anymore. Kicking his feet at the pine boards below him, he shuffled onto the side path that he knew led towards the pokemon pastures.

While he trudged toward the fields he muttered angrily to himself, though he couldn't place where this rage came from and deep down he knew it was unjustified.

He stopped just short of approaching them and crouched behind an overgrown shrub. His mom had told him it was impolite to spy, but all sense of self-control had vanished with his dash back out the door.

He found them sitting on a bench beside a small pond on the Oak property, one that was used to house baby water pokemon in the summertime, though now it was empty as the slightest layer of ice still lingered across one edge.

Much to Ash's mounting misery, Misty was still draped in Gary's blazer and she had her head resting on his shoulder. Gary had one arm protectively wrapped around her shoulder in a comforting manner. The image nearly made Ash sick; whereas he and Serena were awkward and fumbling, this amiable closeness was clearly built up over time and he felt like he was intruding. He began to turn to leave, but was stopped by the sound of Misty's voice.

"Why am I such an idiot?"

It came out as a broken statement in a tone that Ash knew she reserved for the lowest of moments and it made his heart ache at the sound.

"You're not," Gary soothed, "you fell for an idiot, but that doesn't make you one."

Ash heard Misty chuckle hollowly in response.

"Why can't I just let it go? We were just kids when this started and a childhood crush isn't supposed to mess up my life like this," She lamented bitterly, "I even went so far as to dress up for this...how pathetic is that?"

"For what it's worth, I think it'll work out," Gary postulated, "if you saw the glare he gave me, you'd know how much he absolutely can't stand me right now."

"He can't stand you most of the time," Misty half-heartedly teased with a small laugh, a genuine one this time, "but you better not be lying just to make me feel better."

"I've always been honest with you, Red," Gary grinned, using the childhood taunting nickname as an affectionate moniker, "I have no reason to start lying to you now."

"Thanks…" Misty sighed, "someday you're going to fall hard for some girl and I'm going to get to return the favor."

"Maybe…" Gary hollowly grinned, the girl he'd fallen hard for still tucked into his willing embrace, but the reality of knowing she would forever be out of his reach loomed on his mind.

"Or some guy, if that's what you're into," Misty shrugged, earning a playful shove from the pokemon researcher.

"Too bad all the good ones are taken," Gary joked, earning another genuine laugh from the redhead.

Misty stood up and made a motion to head back to the path before suddenly stopping short.

"For what it's worth, if I thought I could get to a point where my whole heart could be in this, I would have said yes," Misty admitted quietly.

"It isn't the first time I've lost to Ketchum, though this one definitely sucks the most," Gary shrugged, letting the words settle into the crisp night sky, "besides, all we promised each other was honesty."

Misty hummed in agreement and made a motion to start up the path once more.

"One more thing, Red," Gary grinned faintly, grabbing the redhead's hand and pulling her into an emotionally-charged staring contest, "you have to keep that ego of his in check. If I hear you're indulging that loser too much, I will be forced to take action."

Gary's tone was soft, but playful and memories suddenly flooded back to Ash of all the other times Misty had chosen him over what could reasonably be considered better options.

"I always do," Misty laughed in response, breaking the stare and nodding at the researcher with a determined grin.

"You do," Gary acknowledged, "and that's one of the reasons I'm willing to concede. Could you imagine how insufferable he'd be if he actually ended up with miss-soft-spoken-cheerleader-type? I'm stuck with caring for the Oak ranch for life so that means I'm also stuck with dealing with Ketchum for as long as he has pokemon here. So you keep him human, and we'll always be good friends, deal?"

"Deal," Misty grinned, her confidence further bolstered by the unusual pep talk.

Gary pushed her forward towards the warm lights of the lab with a gentle hand to her back.

"Now go get the guy before I have a change of heart."

The line was said with a smirk, but Ash could see that Gary was using his hair to shield the hurt in his eyes, an emotional defensive tactic that Ash was no stranger to.

With that, Ash scrambled back to the lab, taking advantage of the shortcuts he knew from childhood and the distant thundering noise of his tauros herd running laps around a nearby field.

Silently he slipped back into the party and his attention was immediately grabbed by the blonde he'd been avoiding for most of the evening.

"I need to talk to you," Serena insisted, dragging Ash to the front porch to avoid the redhead that she knew would be heading in through the sliding door to the back.

"Do you think it can wait? I still need to talk to…" Ash trailed off staring at the back door while Serena's blue eyes searched Ash's face for any trace of emotional attachment to her.

Finding nothing other than friendship, and even that had been strained since the kiss, Serena spoke again.

"I don't think we belong together. I know we weren't exactly dating, but you're clearly not over her," Serena sighed admitting the fear that had been growing all evening.

The words broke her to say, but chewing at her lower lip to stop the tears, she internally acknowledged that continuing to lie to herself about the situation would be worse.

After all, the pretty blonde had heard all about Misty during the time that Serena traveled with Ash despite his journey with Misty having been years and many journeys prior, and an earlier conversation Serena had with Misty revealed the inverse was untrue.


Earlier that evening...

Serena eyed the redhead across the room cautiously at the start of the party. Ash had spoken a lot of her when they traveled together and it set off alarm bells in the blonde's mind; still Misty wasn't what Serena expected.

The surprise to Serena was that Misty was beautiful, in the way that clearly showed she wasn't trying to be beautiful. It was this kind of wild beauty that stoked immense fear into Serena and she regarded the redhead a rival, granted a rival that she had yet to formally meet.

If there was one thing Serena had plenty of it was manners, and she'd heard somewhere that it was rude to have a rival that one didn't know.

"Hi, we haven't met yet," Serena pleasantly stated sauntering up to the redhead at a lull in her conversation with a dark haired boy clutching a sketchpad, "I'm Serena, future Kalos Queen."

"Misty Waterflower. I'm the leader of the Cerulean City gym and future water pokemon master; you must be one of Ash's new traveling companions," Misty deduced grabbing the blonde's hand in a firm handshake.

"Waterflower?" Serena echoed suddenly debased by her interest, "As in the internationally renowned Waterflower sisters who paved the way for pokemon preforming with their world class water ballets? Ash didn't mention that you were a Waterflower..."

"And thank goodness for that," Misty laughed, "at least he had enough sense not to embarrass me by mentioning my ditzy older sisters."

Internally Serena felt herself crumble, of course Misty would be directly related to some of the most beautiful women on the planet.

"Embarrass you? My mom took me to see their performance of 'The Mermaid' when I was first interested in pokemon. I heard the regular run show wasn't as good as the debut performance, but they had some special performer return home just for that show so it was impossible to get those tickets," Serena explained taken a bit aback at the redhead's obvious detachment from her family.

"Oh mew," Misty laughed, "the first performance of that show went off the rails, so you really didn't miss anything."

"How would you know?" Serena defended, "there was hype for it all the way in Kalos so I'm sure you're just jealous of your sister's success."

"Serena," Misty grinned knowingly, "the first performance had two princes neither of which were in costume, real villains who were always in costume, explosions that we were lucky didn't actually injure anyone, and me as the mermaid per my sister's bullying."

Serena stared at Misty at a loss for words. She'd heard so much about that performance that it seemed impossible that it would be the messy disaster of a show that Misty described.

"I'll give my sisters this, they're good at turning dumpster fires into notoriety, and the show was entertaining...My reactions were definitely more genuine when Ash and Brock suddenly dove into the pool to help rescue the pokemon from Team Rocket," Misty laughed, trying to comfort the clearly embarrassed petite girl.

"Ash was there?"

"Yeah; we'd been traveling together for a couple of tournaments at that point," Misty grinned cheekily, "but he was still naive enough to think he could sweet talk me out of the fact that he owed me a bike."

"That's how you met, right? He destroyed your bike?" Serena asked curiously.

Ash had mentioned the story before as that was the first of a slew of bike destruction's that the pokemon master in training had partaken in.

"Yeah; I think I'm the only one to get my bike back though," Misty heartily laughed, "how'd he meet you?"

"Didn't Ash tell you about me when you traveled together?" Serena pivoted the conversation curiously.

Ash always talked about the redhead and their adventures when Serena traveled with him so she was surprised to know that Misty seemed to know little to nothing about her.

"I don't think so, no," Misty answered honestly after some thought, "I'm sorry, should he have?"

"I just figured since…" Serena started, crestfallen, "I met him when we were children at Professor Oak's pokemon camp."

"Oh, he may have," Misty quickly backtracked in an effort to buoy the blondes slipping mood, "I haven't traveled with him in a very long time so I'm sure there's plenty of things I've forgotten that he's talked to me about."

"Y-yeah," Serena mumbled in response looking for a means to escape, this conversation had done nothing to highlight the flaws Serena had been searching for in the redhead. If anything it had only served to debase the blonde's confidence further.

"Dinner," Delia's voice projected across the large room and the two girls dismissed each other with a mutually guarded tone but outwardly friendly wave, taking their seats at the table.

Serena's next disappointment was finding herself seated between Max and Bonnie who immediately hit it off, with Ash nowhere near her at the dining table.


Somewhere deep down Serena had hoped that she and Ash had this special connection because he rescued her, but the more she got to know him, the more she realized rescuing people was just a natural part of his personality.

It hit Serena suddenly that in his friendship with Misty, it was often Misty who rescued Ash.

Ash who always rescued people may have actually needed a person who would throw themselves into danger despite their own self-preservation, and as much as Serena wanted to be that person, she wasn't.

"You what?" Ash puzzled unsure if he heard what he thought he did.

"I know you don't feel the same way I do," Serena admitted, "and that's okay. We'll always be friends."

Dumbfounded, Ash watched her walk back into the party towards Clemont and Bonnie with a sad smile.


It didn't take long for Misty to find him on the front porch having been alerted to his relative position by Dawn and May who seemed to be living for the drama at tonight's event.

"You OK? There's a rumor going around that you got dumped," Misty teased elbowing the teen lightly.

"I heard that rumor too," Ash nudged her back, "but, really, does Serena seem OK to you? I think I hurt her feelings."

"She'll be alright; maybe not right away, but time makes everything easier," Misty shrugged feeling sympathy for the blonde. She understood rejection and ill-timed feelings as much as anyone, having waited years for Ash to even remotely notice his feelings.

"I, uh, realized a lot of things tonight," Ash admitted suddenly, "it kind of hit me all at once so I think I know how Psyduck feels now."

"You really know how to charm a girl, Ash Ketchum," Misty teased, "comparing yourself to my dimmest pokemon is really how you want to start this speech?"

"He's also your favorite and you know it," Ash retorted readily.

"What can I say, I'm a sucker for a fixer upper," Misty shrugged, "but as well eloquated as I'm sure this admission will be, I think it's better saved for another time. There's been enough drama tonight and I'm not in the mood to add to it."

"Tomorrow afternoon then? When it's just Brock, you, and I still at the house," Ash offered up earnestly, "though I think you already know what I'm going to say."

"It's a date; albeit a weird one if Brock's around for it, and despite having an idea of what you're going to say, I'd still like to hear it. You've heard enough while spying on me tonight," Misty teased playing into the fact that she knew he'd been present for a portion of her honest conversation with Gary.

"I don't know what you're talking about…" Ash mumbled in embarrassment.

"Well then take a lesson from your rival, promise me honesty and see if we can build the rest from there," Misty nudged.

"I can do that," Ash acknowledged, "I promise you full honesty tomorrow afternoon."

"And every day that follows," Misty added boldly stealing a quick kiss that caught the brown eyed boy by surprise.

"I thought you said we'd talk about this tomorrow?" Ash asked stunned as he watched her wander back towards the party.

"I did, but that wasn't talking," Misty cheekily tossed a grin back over her shoulder as she grabbed May and Dawn by the arms to head to the dance floor before Ash could chase her down again.


A little bit later into the party Ash found himself stepping out onto the back porch to escape the bustling atmosphere and take a moment to really reflect on his tournament placement and the night at hand, but where he expected solitude he found sullen company.

"Hey, Gary," Ash quietly acknowledged, having noticed that his former rival had pointedly avoided rejoining the party for most of the evening.

"What do you want?" Gary muttered darkly.

"Just to say thanks…" Ash admitted sheepishly, "thanks for letting me see how much of an idiot I was being."

"You're always an idiot, Ketchum," Gary snarkily responded, with the tiniest bit of a smirk upturning the corners of his mouth.

"I know. I'm trying to be less of one these days," Ash grinned foolishly, taking a place at his former rival's side.

"You're a lucky guy, Ash," Gary sighed.

"I've heard that before, but I think I finally get it now," Ash affirmed.

"But know that if you hurt her, I will break every bone in your body," Gary threatened locking eyes with his former rival.

"Understood," Ash acknowledged, "and Gary, thanks for looking out for her while I was being an idiot. I won't make the mistake of letting her go again."


Hope you enjoyed!

The biggest challenge with writing this one was walking that fine line where Ash gets to be himself, but he can't be such a big jerk that egoshipping would make the more sense. It is pokeshipping week after all, so I hope I did this minefield of emotional turbulence justice.

Tomorrow (late-ish) the theme I'll be posting will be "Pirate Ship" instead of the chosen theme of "Soulmates" since that theme felt a bit flat on it's own. Get ready for some lore and an AU setup!

Review of favs are always appreciated!

-FWFT