Misty smiled softly to herself as she gently pulled the sheets up around his shoulders while he slept peacefully. "Goodnight…" she whispered. 'Okay, so it's not really night… but he still deserved this bed even last night.'
"Goo…niiih…" Ash mumbled sleepily.
Misty giggled and softly kissed his warm cheek. She was slightly surprised to see him smiling softly when she pulled away. Her pleased smile faded, though, when he flipped over and muttered, "'Night, Mom." She softly growled and retrieved the journal from beneath the bed.
Unseen by either of them, Pikachu, whom observed and mentally documented the scene, kissed his trainers cheek as well.
Brock closed the door to the 'Center's restroom and sighed while straightening his shirt out. He was about to check on Misty when he passed someone…
"Oh. Hey Misty." He mumbled. Then it hit him.
"New wardrobe, eh?"
Misty turned around to face him, chewing vigorously at something as a boy lay behind her on the floor with a black eye. "Huh?"
"Who's that?" He asked.
Misty shifted from one foot to the next and adjusted her arm stocking in confusion. "Do I know you?"
The boy groggily stood up, straining to pull himself up using the ledge of the service counter. "You owe me.." He mumbled, and collapsed to the floor, which was only a few inches to fall, anyways. Misty giggled. Brock shook his head unsurely and mumbled incoherently, "Sorry, miss, it must be me."
"I am having the weirdest day… everyone seems to be mistaking me for somebody else…" Suddenly, her face brightened immensely and the stars in her eyes magnified as she sighed out, "I must look like a movie star!"
"In your dreams…" Adrian mumbled. An angry vein popped from her forehead and she slugged him. Cheerfully, she then stole yet another mini doughnut from the unconscious lump on the floor.
Brock was making his may down the hallway, when someone jumped out in front of him. The person slammed the door behind him and yelled out, "Excuse me!" as he passed the confused rock trainer. Brock looked behind him, where the kid was running, in interest, to see him jump into the men's restroom.
The abrupt knocking at her door caused her hand to clamp, which shut the journal she was holding along with it. "Yeah?"
"It's Brock. I need to ask you something."
Misty's eyes widened. She glanced quickly from Ash to the door in worry. 'If he sees Ash in my bed… oh, I don't want to know what will run through his head..'
Quickly, she looked around the room, frantically searching for somewhere to stuff him. 'A hiding place…' She thought. She considered the window, but… that was too long of a fall; it would wake Ash up… She felt her time run out—
The door opened slowly and Brock asked, "Are you dressed?"
'Good excuse!' Misty thought. She hauled herself against the door, "Yeah, I mean, no, I mean, I'm getting dressed!"
"Oh. Sorry. I'll wait…"
Misty spotted the closet near the corner and opened it slowly, partially afraid of what could be found in there. But as her curiosity reached it's peak, she was sort of disappointed that it was completely clean and spotless, but happy that it was enough to stuff a body in. Slowly, she strained to lift the sleeping boy from her bed, but he hit the floor with a hard thud, his hat flipped off on his head. Misty winced, praying that Ash hadn't woke up and the lifelessness in her hands told her that he hadn't. She sighed in relief and her shoulders sagged. 'How could someone sleep through that…' She dragged the body into the open closet and pulled him inside.
Once she made a good fit, she shut the door slowly while checking to make sure that she wasn't squashing a finger or something. Pikachu cocked his head in curiosity. "Pi..?"
Misty put a finger to her lips and pretended to zip them as if there were a zipper on her mouth. Pikachu nodded and repeated the action. Satisfied, she pulled open the door. "Yes, Brock?"
Brock's face was full of curiosity. "There was a lot of thudding in there. What's going on?"
"Nothing." Misty replied quickly, "It's just… Pikachu playing around."
"Oh…" Brock nodded slowly. "Is Ash in there with you?"
"Why do you ask that?" Misty reddened slightly, "Why do you think Ash would be in my room? Even if he was, why do you wanna know? It's not like we was doing anything! --I-if he was in here, that is."
Brock sweatdropped. "Um… no, that's okay, I just haven't seen him at all this morning, is all."
After a minute of uneasy silence, Misty spoke up, "So, you wanted to ask me something?"
Brock nodded and slowly looked around. "Yeah, it's about Ash… Err, can I come in?"
The sinking feeling in her stomach told her that this wasn't really about Ash. It was about her and Ash. She nodded politely and shut the door behind him as he strolled in. Once he made himself comfortable on the bed, Misty sat beside him, and he cleared his throat.
"I feel that I should take the liberty of asking you this, since I am the oldest of the group and farthest the one responsible of the both of you-" As Brock went on, Misty could feel the air leak out of her lungs- she knew it was about them. "-…So, I just want to know one thing…"
Ash slowly sat up and realized that it was dark. Everywhere. He quickly looked around in fear, but recognized both Brock and Misty's drowned out voices. They were right next to his ear. A little light leaked in from under the door on the carpet and his panic slowly deflated as he propped himself up against the closet wall realizing that he was, indeed, in a closet. But why? The musty humid heat reminded him of the sweat dripping down the side of his cheek and he rubbed his face with the back of his hand and fanned his overly warm chest with his shirt.
"Is Ash just a friend to you?"
Misty's dainty blush intensified and her eyes grew wide. She could feel her heart first pound numerously, then flutter and her stomach first sank, then tied itself in knots. That… was a question even she couldn't answer to herself… "I don't know…" She said just above a whisper, not even focusing on Brock's glare anymore, but her stare was now into nothing, near his shoulder. Her head shook somewhat, "I… don't know…"
Brock smiled friendly and patted her knee as he stood to leave. "That's all I needed to know." He scratched Pikachu behind the ear in goodbye and just about the time he reached the doorknob, the closet door opened.
Ash stumbled out of the little closet, fully awake and shirtless to boot. He wiped the sweat off of his forehead once more and faced Misty. "Is he gone?"
Brock, totally wide-eyed, observed the scene in front of him. Ash looked at him and grinned, seething, "I guess not…" Brock left the room quickly without saying or doing anything. He had enough answers for one day. Misty tried to hide her red face in her hands. She was so embarrassed.
'I should've just left him on the bed…' she thought.
Ash took a seat next to her on the bed, slinging his shirt onto his shoulder. "What was that all about?"
Without answering his question, Misty asked one of her own. "Why did you take your shirt off?"
"You have no idea how hot it was in there." He said and laid down on Misty's bed sideways with a happy sigh, "Your room is much more cooler!"
Her glare softened and all of her embarrassment and confused anger melted away at the cuteness of his childish smile.
Out of the corner of his eye, he saw something out of place and directed his attention to it. "What's this? A diary?" He reached for the journal beside Misty on the bed, but the words, "a diary" knocked her out of her daydreams enough so that she was able to protect it.
"No," She lied. If he didn't think it was a diary, he wouldn't be tempted to sneak into her things and read it down the road, "It's a…um… it's none of your business."
He fought to keep the smirk from damaging his perfectly innocent act. "Even if it was, I wouldn't want to read it. I don't even like reading my own diary." Though, the evil smirk was not going to give up, and it devilishly degraded the innocence. "Besides, who would want to read the life of a girl named –Misty-?"
She scowled. "Well, I would. I'm sure my s..-parents…would…"
Her anger quickly dissolved into sadness and Ash caught it when her gaze reluctantly drifted to the journal in her hands. "My parents would have."
Everything seemed to have fallen in the dreadful silence and Ash wouldn't dare to speak. He heard her sniffle and looked away, tearing his gaze to the quilt on her bed. After a while, after the boredom had left him to picking at a loose string in the quilting, he spoke absently, "Read me a page."
"No! Why would I??"
"Well, what do you have to hide?" He asked, sitting up.
Misty glared at him. Oh great, now he's interested in her diary. Perfect. "Plenty."
"Like what?"
"Like, personal stuff that I have no intention to share."
"Ooh, really? All your personal stuff packed into one little journal, right?"
"Yeah… And if you ever, EVER try to read it, you'll die such a horrible and miserable death the second I find out."
"So that must mean that the personal stuff must be pretty personal to protect it that harshly, huh?
Her glare hardened and the diary's lock made a small click, then she stuffed the key into her pocket .She jumped up and started walking to her door, leaving the diary on the bedside table alone. "Yep."
Ash followed her out of the room. "You don't trust me, do you?"
"Never have, never will."
Pikachu sniffed at the diary curiously and poked at the green cover, unsatisfied.
"I'm, not that untrustworthy, you know." Ash said as they entered the lobby. "Even if I was, I don't think I'd want to get into your business, anyway."
"Why is that?" Misty asked.
"Well, I guess if I had found something out, I wouldn't be able to think of you the same since I'd know something 'super-secret' about you."
"You don't want to know any of my secrets?" Misty felt a little relieved that he didn't seem nosy. But it sort of disappointed her that her secrets didn't seem 'good enough'. "Why?"
"Um… maybe I don't need to know anything. Maybe I like you the way I know you now."
Misty smiled softly to herself. "I like you too, Ash."
A shriek was heard towards the front desk where a guy with red and white striped sleeves and a black bandana ferociously tickled a red-head struggling to get up off of the floor whom was laughing like crazy. A boy with light brown hair and about Brock's age stood beside the two with a nervous grin.
"Are you two finished?" He asked lightly.
Misty saw Nurse Joy standing at the service desk signing a paper and approached her. "Nurse Joy, how is Togepi?"
Joy looked up at her with a somewhat worried expression on her face. Her eyes were a bit red. "Who? Oh, Togepi…"
As Nurse Joy's sentence drifted off, Misty's worry grew to a dangerous level. "He's okay, right??"
"Um.. who?"
"Togepi!"
"Oh. Togepi. Is it your Togepi…?"
Misty's worry continued to grow as she stared at Joy disbelievingly.
"Oh, you're Misty!" Nurse Joy said sheepishly. "I'm sorry, Misty. I didn't get much sleep last night… Togepi. So, Togepi is doing just fine. He'll be fully healed by tonight."
Misty sighed in relief. That felt better… Now, she didn't have to worry about him consistently any longer and she could faintly feel the weight of the worry lift from her shoulders.
"That's great to hear, Nurse Joy." Ash said.
The red-headed stranger's laughter died down. "Adrian! Everyone's looking!" She grinned mischievously and smacked his shoulder. At this, Misty's attention centered on the grinning girl. At that, the grinning girl's attention centered on Misty.
"…"