MWHAAA! Here it is! …Finally… the last chapter after a year and some months, so enjoy ^_^
Attractions~* Part 6; Sweet Irony*~
Misty heaved a sigh and stared at herself in the mirror. She left a hand numbly run through her hair to slowly, and painfully brushed out the tangles. "Misty," she mumbled to herself, "You look like crap." A bitter smile crept to her lips. "I think it's like a drug," She looked over at her baby pokemon, announcing her thoughts out loud. "And I'm going through withdraw." She turned back to the mirror and put a finger under her left and pulled down. Red, blood-shot eyes greeted her. Misty sighed and dropped her hand. Her attempt at brushing her hair and stopped, and she only lay there staring at herself in the mirror, drowning in her own self-pity. An idle thought of 'I wonder what everyone else is doing' entered her head, but was soon answered.
"Misty?"
Misty smiled slightly. She knew that voice – no, it wasn't the one she longed to call her name, but it was the second best. "Misty, open the door."
Silence. Misty closed her eyes and pictured Brock standing outside her door, shuffling his feet, deciding what he should do. He would then take a deep breath and try again, "Misty, open up the door!" He would be getting annoyed now, and start pounding on the door.
Sure enough, the pounding of the door came only two seconds later. "MISTY! Don't make me kick open this door!"
Misty bit her lip. He would too. She looked down at herself, nothing embarrassing except for the red eyes and messy hair that was usually so carefully combed and put up. Never the less, she scrambled to her feet and dove under the covers just as Brock lifted a foot to kick the door. Misty giggled inside and called out, "Brock, just twist the dumb doorknob before you have to pay for the door!"
She giggled again as she heard Brock fall down out of stupidity, then jump back up to his feet and carefully open the door.
There she was, buried under the covers, no sign on life but the soft and gentle rising of the sheets. "Are you coming out to go swimming?" Brock asked gently. He sat down on the bed.
"No."
"Why?"
"I'm tired."
"Misty," Brock rubbed his forehead, "Ash and I are worried about you. What's wrong?" Misty mumbled something. Brock leaned in closer to hear, "I didn't hear what you said. It must have been lost in the transition between the sheets and the air."
Misty slowly and carefully peeled back the sheets, then quickly bounced up and shouted in his ear, "NOTHING!"
"OW! Hey!" Brock rubbed his ear. "Indoor voices!" Once again, Brock rubbed his face in an effort to ease the headache. "Misty, please," He began to talk to the girl who had once again buried herself in the sheets. "I feel like I'm talking to a five year old. Now will you calmly tell me what's wrong?"
Under the sheets, Misty closed her eyes. Brock was right, she was acting like a five year old. Brock was wise – okay, Brock was smart in most subjects aside from women, but she needed to tell someone besides a little egg who was too young to understand romantic love. Misty finally folded back the sheets and sat up against the backboard. "I know." She said at last. "But, it's… embarrassing!"
Brock's face suddenly drained of color and he stood up. "Misty! You can talk to nurse Joy about THAT! Do you need money for it?" He fished through his pockets and pulled out a five. "Here," He thrust it in her face. "Buy your… your STUFF!"
Misty's face scrunched up, feeling her old self return, she reached under the blankets and revealed her trusty mallet and smacked Brock with it – hard. "YOU IDIOT! I'M NOT HANVING PMS ISSUES! YOU THINK I'D TELL YOU, OR EVEN HINT THAT?!"
"OOOOW!" Brock crumpled to the floor and mumbled under his breath "You're right… I wouldn't be able to tell the difference – no! Stop! I didn't mean it! OOOOOOOOW!"
Misty picked Brock up by the ear, ignoring his string of 'ow's along the way and through him out the door. "Don't come back in either! I'll be changing!" With that said, Misty slammed the door shut, leaving the poor man to wither in the hallway. Misty leaned against the closed door to think. A sudden thought entered her head and she turned around and swiftly opened the door only to say, "Thanks for cheering me up!" and closed it again.
~*~*~*~
"Brock, what'd you say to her?!" Ash gaped at his friend's rather large bump on his head.
Brock shrugged. "She'll be okay now." He flashed a knowing smile at Ash, who gave a confused look in return. Ash shook it off and asked, "Is she coming, now?"
Brock nodded, wincing as he did so. "Hey, Ash, do you think girls would go for the bump? If I ever ask, I got in a fight with twenty guys over a sick, defenseless pokemon and won."
Ash rolled his eyes. "Sure, whatever Brock."
Ash sighed and looked out the window. He was already in his blue swimming trunks with little Pikachu all over, and a Hawaiian shirt over it and no shoes on. Brock had a similar outfit on, except he had bright orange swim shorts on with no shirt.
There attention was turned to the stairs when they saw Misty come down. She had a simple blue one piece on with bubbles all over. Her hair was brushed and flowed down her back. It held back with a pair of sunglasses resting on her head. Ash was thrilled to see the old sparkle back in her eyes. "Alright! You ready, Misty?"
Misty smiled and nodded. She almost tilted her head out of confusion when she saw a tint of blush form on his cheeks. He quickly turned away and cleared his throat. "Let's go then." Ash quickly marched out the door and into the pool.
The walk was short, but not quiet, Brock chatted on about his visit with nurse Joy, and thought out loud about the ideas for the stories of how he got the bump on his head – all of them involving him wrestling some evil being to save some poor innocent creature (pokemon and women included). Ash was rolling his eyes at Misty, wondering when she was going to hit him again, also glad to see her back to her old self. He didn't have long to wait – Misty quickly yelled over in his direction, "Keep it up and you'll have more than one bump to try and explain!"
The pool wasn't very crowded so there was tons of room for the group to swim, especially since it was such a big pool. There was even a little pool for all the pokemon! Ash and Pikachu were, of course, extatic to find this, and immediately threw out all the pokemon he had with him. Misty followed right behind, but Brock declined saying that his pokemon have a fear of water (go figure).
It was an hour later when Brock was still flirting with a group of girls that Ash was getting bored. He looked around for Misty. There she was, laying on a floaty on the other side of the pool. Ash took a deep breath and swam over to her. Staying as silent as possible, Ash swam right under and suddenly tipped the floating bed over, causing Misty to fall.
"AGH!" Misty came sputtering up only a few seconds later. "ASH!"
Ash laughed. "Come on Misty! I thought you'd be used to me by now!"
Misty huffed and scratched now wet head. "You'd think…"
Ash suddenly frowned and cocked his head. "Hey, Mist, what was bugging you this morning?" He suddenly flushed and looking down at his wrinkled fingers, "I mean, I don't want to bring up bad memories, er… um… what I mean is that I'm glad you're yourself again."
Misty smiled and nodded. "Thanks Ash."
"Oh, um, since there isn't a lot planned after this, I was wondering where you wanted to go next."
Misty thought idly, not quite thinking over her own words when they left her mouth, "I dunno, I haven't seen my sisters in a while, and I wanted to talk to your mom…"
Ash was silent a moment, and Misty shrugged. She didn't even wait for the loud 'no way!' that was coming soon. He asked, she told him, he didn't say it had to be reasonable.
"Okay."
Misty suddenly lost her balanced and slipped on the slippery floor of the pool. Ash jumped from surprise and immediately rushed to help lift Misty up from the water. She was coughing out water, so he helped her to the edge of the pool while gently patting her back (and blushing the whole time he does so). Finally Misty felt that she had coughed enough to cough up a lung, and decided she was well enough to speak. "Say that again?"
Ash was puzzled, but said, "I said it was okay, we can go visit your sisters."
"But," Misty stuttered, "That's out of the way!" Could it be? The attract worked an extra day? No…
Ash was even more confused now, not only was Misty acting strange now, but then she suggested going to her sister's gym, then two seconds later didn't want to. "So?"
"Soo…" A strange thought popped into Misty head. She looked up at Ash, her eyes shimmering. "Ash, why did you stop here before?" She asked quietly.
Ash shuffled his feet in the pool. He lifted a hand to rub behind his head. "I dunno…"
Misty exhaled a breath she didn't even know she held and looked down towards the ground. So it did work, all the nice things he'd done was fake. Misty stood up to her full height and started, "Ash, I think I'm going to go back to the hotel-"
"Wait," Ash grabbed her hand and bit his lip. Misty gave him an odd look. Ash looked into her eyes and said, "I lied." Misty cocked her head and sank down to his level as he continued. "I do know why I stopped, and stayed." His gaze fell on the necklace around her neck. "And why I got that necklace for you." Misty's breath grew faster. How could he know if it was just an attack (so to speak)? She waited for him to continue. "I guess I just felt that I needed to be nice to you since you put up with me all this way and everything, and we aren't doing anything specific for me, so why not do something nice for you?" Misty felt a blush creep onto her face, almost, but not quite, as red as Ash's. She waited for him to continue. "And I'm not big on us fighting, you know?"
Misty nodded and softly agreed. "I don't either, Ash."
Ash smiled faintly then reached out to take her hand. "Misty, I think I love you… and I wanted to thank you for always putting up with me and staying, except for the time when May was there, but I really missed you then, and I wanted to thank you for coming back and –" Misty gently put a finger on his lips to stop him. She smiled at him.
"Ash, you babbling." She leaned up and kissed him on the cheek. "I know I love you too." Misty was about to stick her tongue out at him, but then a thought came to her. "You mean you never felt strange the past few days?"
Ash cocked his head. "Wa? No, should I?" Ash scratched his head. "I know YOU were acting weird, but that's all." He started to shift his feet. "Misty, I should tell you, are you sure you're sure you love me?"
"Huh?"
"I know this is going to sound like the stupidest thing in the world, for me, but…" Ash stopped, to embarrassed to go on.
"Go on Ash." Misty encouraged.
"Remember that guy we battled before we got to Goldenrod?" Misty nodded. "I got an idea from him, and kinda…"Ash mumbled something under his breath. Misty had to lean in closer to hear. "Wa?"
"I used attract to make you love me!" He said louder.
Misty blinked. HE used ATTRACT? Ash shuffled on his feet, ignoring her look of surprise. "I was worried about you this morning 'cause I thought I had caused it by the after effects of attract or something. So are you still sure you love me, um, Misty?"
Misty felt it coming, she couldn't hold in any longer. It first came as a chuckle, then a snort, then a full-fledged laughter that filled the whole pool room. Ash frowned. "You don't halfta laugh about it…"
Misty suddenly realized what she was doing and put a hand on Ash's shoulder. "No, no Ash. I wasn't laughing at you, I was laughing at the pathetic irony of it all."
"Eh?"
"Ash, you dork, I used it too." She laughed again at the thought as her words sunk in. She gently punched his shoulder. "I guess great minds think alike, huh?"
A smile crept onto Ash's face. "You mean they never worked?" Misty sighed and hung her arms on Ash's shoulder. "Afraid not, Ashy, we were for real." Misty suddenly pushed down hard and dunked him under the water, a few seconds later, Ash came sputtering up. "I'll get you for that!" Misty laughed and lowered an eyelid while sticking her tongue out at him.
~*~*~*~
It was a sight to see, the two of them finally laughing and playing together like it should have been. Brock heaved a deep, relieved sigh and let himself fall back in the lounge chair while nursing his fresh bump. "Its about time. Do you know how hard it was to not laugh at them these past three days?"
Pikachu, who had briefly come out of the pool, sat beside Brock with a mini towel around his waist. He grinned slightly and nodded, thoroughly agreeing with Brock. Brock suddenly looked down at Pikachu and raised an eyebrow. "Wait, how did you know? You were with either of them when they bought it."
Pikachu 'Pika'ed and crossed it's tiny arms with a side glance over to the innocent looking egg laughing and clapping it's little arms at the happy couple.
MWHAAA! I'M DONE! FINALLY! After one year and some, I have finally finished this story! Hurray for me! ^_^
*ahem* Thanks for all those who've stuck with me and remained faithful, hope you were well pleased with the last part.
Especially thanks Chibi! You're *cough*gentle*cough* encouragement got my lazy butt moving =P
~Smile Jesus loves you!
Yes! Beach did change to pool, I am fully aware of that, but I realized 'there is no beach in Goldenrod!' oops… yea, so if you didn't even notice, just pretend I never said anything!