Disclaimer: No matter how much I wish or how much fairy dust I use, Pokemon will never belong to me. ;-; I only own a strange little bird, but you dont want him. ^^ But the characters that were created out of my own imagination were Racheal, Jason, and Aydee. ^^ Thankyou! ^-^

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She recognized his voice as quickly as her vision of him came into better view. She felt her heart begin to race as her headache suddenly didn't seem as big as it would be within a couple of minutes.

"Or could it be possible that you, gasp, didn't see where you were going? Could it be possible that you may have been in fault in this situation? You know, God forbid you were ever at fault because then the whole world would come to an end, wouldn't it?" The sarcasm was thick in her voice, as well as her anger.

He searched his mind for the right words.. but this wasn't the right time. What it was, was an awkward time. At least for Ash it was anyway.

While quickly looking over her upset figure, he recognized what she was carrying. Even through the painting's dirt, he recognized it. Finally, the words he was looking for came to him.

"What happened?" He asked, motioning to the painting.

"There was an accident." She pushed the loose couple of strands of hair behind her shoulder and began her walk downstairs, without further speaking to him.

"That went somewhat well.. It's a start.." He sighed.

He ran a hand through his hair, not feeling as hopeful as he had felt before about speaking to her.

He knew that if he attempted to call her back, she wouldn't listen even if he offered her money. He didn't bother trying either. Suddenly he felt his hope slowly disappear into nothing and had the idea that his main plan wouldn't go so well. She was going to be a challenge, and he was going to win her back no matter how hard of a challenge she was going to make herself out to be.

He needed a new plan.. A flawless one. Everything had to be nothing short of perfect. He began his walk back to his own room, getting ready to pack up. He prayed that on his way to the next battle he'd figure out something. Hopefully. Racheal wouldn't be happy about the sudden switch of plans, but he felt like his original plan would not be enough. Or Racheal wouldnt have enough to strength to deal with him during the middle of the current plan. Either way he had no choice but to figure out something new.





***



Misty concentrated on her food in her plate. As hungry as she thought she was, that obviously wasn't the case if she continued to try to break the world's record for highest tower of pancakes.

She felt strange after her run in with Ash. She felt different. In a sense, she was almost happy to have seen a small bit of care in his eyes for her. She didn't know for sure that the concern in his eyes was directed towards her, but she liked to think so.

'I shouldn't be thinking this. I should be concentrating on my amazing tower of pancakes. Nothing else.' The thoughts ran to her mind unknowingly as her normal morning routine.

She tilted her head to her side, trying to see if the pancakes weren't tilting or threatening to fall anytime soon. That was when Racheal saw her over the pancakes. She didn't need Misty to tilt her head in order for Racheal to realize who it was. The tower of pancakes made it pretty obvious.

"You know, there are many, many hungry children over the world that would be dying to consume your project", She paused, "Yet I think they'd understand if they knew this was your unique way of handling your emotional crisis."

Misty raised her eyebrows at Racheal.

"Your kidding."

"You'd be laughing if I was kidding. Is this a way to attempt to deal with your love with him? Abusing the privilege of eating pancakes?" She grinned, very well knowing she was starting Misty up too early in the morning.

"What love for him? You know that thing called closure, Rache? He's experienced it with me and I've experienced it with him, my friend." Misty brought all of her attention back to the lovely pancakes.

"Right. And if you truly believed that, you wouldn't be sitting here trying to make a tower of pancakes." She took a seat across from Misty, making herself comfortable.

She continued, "If you think about it, your just trying to avoid the whole situation."

"Oh, okay, sure. So, is it official? Are you my new psychiatrist?"

Racheal rolled her eyes.

"And then you attempt to act like none of this means anything to you. Your clever, but not clever enough." Racheal smiled triumphantly when she didn't hear any quick sarcastic remark from Misty in less then two minutes.

"Burn. Just burn." Misty planted another pancake on top of all of the others.

"The only thing that's going to burn are those pancakes. I can't believe you missed those dirty looks the chef has been giving you. I mean, I'd be upset too if someone tried building things with the food I cooked."

Misty yawned carelessly, continuing to attempt to care about the pancakes more then what Racheal was trying to get through her suddenly thick head.

"And what exactly happened this morning? I think it was made obvious to the whole hotel that you walked away from him. Such powerful shoes you have, Mist. They're loud."

"I was wearing slippers and by gosh, look at that, I still am wearing slippers. It wasn't me, but I wish it was so I could have slightly scared him."

"Its okay. There's plenty of angered couples in this hotel room that I can annoy about the arguments they've had, but I'm choosing the short one you and Ash had this morning."

"What argument? Your delusional." Misty sighed, searching her plate for any left over pancakes.

"I heard your voices. Hell, I heard both of you clash into each other. What happened?"

"Just by the way he looked at me there's only one thing to say, Rache. He doesn't care either." Misty bit her bottom lip. If she was saying this a few years ago, she probably wouldn't have had the courage to keep from crying.

"And just by the way I see you building together those pancakes, I'd say he cares enough to make you care. And this isn't just the normal type of care, Mist. This is the building care, my friend."

"Your not making sense. And I think my mind would feel much less disturbed if you kept yourself from making sense. Therefore I wouldn't have to understand you."

Racheal laughed lightly, looking over Misty with knowing eyes.

"You'll understand. You see, now that I've got you thinking about Ash and how you say you don't care at all about anything, you'll loose concentration of the pancakes. That just tells me right there that you care about him." She yawned loudly for a moment before saying, "I'm going to my room to pack."

Misty had no answer, she was stunned. Pack? Did Racheal say 'pack'? They were leaving today? Ash was going to check out of the hotel today? That meant she had to be ready. She had no time to respond to Racheal because Racheal had already gone up to her room. Maybe she was supposed to talk to Ash earlier. Ash. She was thinking of him again. Not only was she thinking, but she was caring too.

It took her a couple of moments to look down and notice that her pancakes were spread across her plate and the table. They fell.



***



'She isn't falling for the charm. She isn't even going for the threats. Nothing. None of the offers, nothing at all.' Jason paced back and forth in his small room, thinking. He needed a plan. He wasn't getting Misty, and if he needed to put anyone's life on the line to get her he would.

'Plus, I'm running out of money. The hotels are getting expensive. They're getting hard to follow. I can't let things get difficult on me.'

He felt himself beginning to get hot in his stuffy little room. This was not helping him think at all.

'I need to be more persistent. I need to show her that she's what I want, and I'm exactly what she needs. She will eventually get sick of Ash. I can feel she cant even look at him any longer, knowing that he despises her. I need to make that clear to her.' He sighed.

'I need to destroy any chances he thinks he has with her and any chances she thinks she has with him. It has to happen.'

If he needed to, he would go to drastic measures to get her. Including killing Ash, himself, or her. Anything. Anyone. He had to try everything. He had to keep anything from holding him down.

He continued pacing back and forth in the tiny room.

He remembered that he made a meeting with her in the studio today. He figured it could be his perfect opportunity to bring up her leaving Ash permanently. He needed a 'plan B' just incase if his persistent ways didn't bring her to hate Ash with a passion. That is, if she already didn't hate him with a passion.

First off, he had to be positively sure that she'd meet up with him. He needed to apologize to her in a way. He figured that she was probably still upset about the painting.

'I'll just get a new one. They're all over. Such true wastes of paper and paint though. Honestly.' He rolled his eyes, remembering what the picture looked like and how much he thought of it as being pure stupidity.

'Ash and Misty. What a joke.' He laughed to himself as he threw himself upon his bed, simply lying there waiting for his plans to begin to take place.



***



"What time are we going?" Pikachu looked around the hotel room, making sure he didn't forget anything. It seemed as if he went unheard.

"What time are we going?" He repeated himself.

This was ridiculous. He knew people sometimes enjoyed to ignore him, but it was just plain wrong for Brock and Ash to do it at the same time and in the same room.

"You know, once I kissed a frog and it got me pregnant."

Brock looked down at Pikachu with widened eyes.

"That's it. You have to learn how to control yourself when it comes to eating candy. Especially those overly sweet lollipops. They make you say strange things." Brock neatly folded his shirt and placed it in his backpack.

"Joy. I've at least got the attention of SOMEONE in this room."

Ash continued folding his own cloths and placing it into his backpack.

"What do you want?" Brock sighed.

"What time are we leaving?"

"Sometime in the early afternoon."

"Thanks for the specifics."

"Anytime." Brock resisted the urge to ask Ash what he was thinking. It was all too dangerous to even look at Ash at this current time. All it gets you is a twitching eye out of all the stress of being ignored by Ash.

Suddenly, Pikachu something that something gravely out of the ordinary happened. It was new, different, and slightly scary.

"Brock." Pikachu tugged at Brock's pants.

"Do you realize that?" Pikachu continued.

"What?"

"I said 'joy' and you didn't start asking about Nurse Joy or anything. Did you notice that? I did."

"You didn't say joy before, I don't think." A look of confusion crossed Brock's face.

"No no, I did. Don't worry about it buddy, I understand that you no longer love Nurse Joy or that other one. What was her name? I remember her making a joke once about running me over with her police motorcycle thing."

"Your abnormal. I bet you didn't know that either. I feel observational."

Pikachu grinned. "I'm observational too. I know who your newest and latest love interest is."

Brock rolled his eyes.

Ash was still mumbling things under his breath, possibly talking to himself about his plan. He wasn't noticed much by Pikachu and Brock. Things were beginning to form in his mind. He figured he was going to need that white satin dress Misty wore at her first concert.. And he may need a copy of that painting.

Things were definitely coming together. He figured if Misty had her original copy of the painting destroyed by a certain moron, there was always another option.

To make the painting come alive.

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I think I was a little confusing with that last line. ^^; sorry. You'll understand better soon.. I hope. ^^; Sorry that the chapter is slightly short, but hey, I wrote a chapter. ^-^ I plan on getting Chapter 17 out on August 27th, which is the one year anniversary of Red Rose. By gosh, I think I may have one reader thats still out there. yeaaa ^-^ I hope to see you guys very soon in Chapter 17.

If you guys have any questions or want to receive emailed updates about Red Rose, email me at Tipsy801@aol.com. bai ^-^