Chapter 17: In Which Misty Makes a Confession at a Rather Inconvenient Time

"Aww, darn it, she took the noodles with her! I was hoping she'd leave them behind!" whined Ash. No one listened to him, however. They all had more pressing concerns, like the fact that the building was going to blow up soon.

"She could have just been bluffing," suggested Misty, rather doubtfully.

"And she didn't say how long it would be. We might have hours yet before it explodes," Brock said optimistically.

"Or seconds," Brynna observed gloomily.

"Well, in any case, we should at least try and get to the door," said Brock.

"All right," everyone agreed, including Ash, who wasn't really paying attention.

"This building will self-destruct in approximately three minutes," said the calm, prerecorded female voice that always says this sort of thing in movies. "Have a nice day."

"What?!" exclaimed Brock. "We can't get out of here that fast!"

There was a brief pause.

"So, I guess this is the end, then," said Misty unnecessarily.

"No! It can't be!" yelled Brynna. "I don't want to die with you people!"

"Hey, I resent that!" said Misty angrily, brandishing her mallet.

"Don't worry, Misty," Brynna said soothingly, "I wasn't talking about you. You're not that bad- well, you wouldn't be, if you stopped hanging around with those freaks." She nodded towards Ash, Brock, and Tracey.

"Gee, thanks, Brynna," Misty replied sarcastically.

"You're very welcome," Brynna told her.

There was another pause.

"Brock?" Misty said finally, breaking the silence.

"What, Misty?"

"I hadn't planned on telling you this... but..."

"What is it?"

"I don't want to die without you knowing that... I love you, Brock!"

Ash looked crushed. Brock just looked confused.

"You... what?" said Brock, thinking that he couldn't have heard her right.

"I love you. I know I shouldn't love you, because you're always flirting with other girls but you mostly ignore me and you have no eyes to speak of and you cook and clean and wear a frilly pink apron- not that any of that's bad, or anything," she added hastily, "just, you're not the sort of guy I ever pictured myself falling in love with. But I love you anyway and I want you to know that before we die."

"That's... nice..."

"WHAT?! Here you spend practically all your time complaining that none of the pretty girls you're in love with want anything to do with you, and now a pretty girl is confessing her love to you and all you can say is 'that's nice'?!"

"Uh, guys?" Brynna began.

"Er, I'm sorry, Misty, but I just don't think of you that way..."

"Hey, guys?" Brynna tried again, only to be interrupted by Misty.

"ARE YOU INSULTING MY LOOKS?!?!?!" Misty grabbed her mallet out of... well, wherever Misty's mallet goes when she isn't using it.

"Guys..." Brynna started to say, but was cut off once again, this time by Brock.

"N-no, Misty, I didn't mean it that way, I just-"

"HEY YOU GUYS!" Brynna yelled. Everyone turned to look at her. "Thank you. I hate to interrupt your soap opera, but we don't have to die!"

"We don't?" said Ash. "How come?"

"Because of that convenient little plot hole over there which I've been trying to call your attention to for the past fifteen minutes."

"But it hasn't been fifteen minutes yet," Ash said confusedly.

"I was exaggerating. Anyhow, if we hurry, we can make it through before the building blows up. Come on!"

They threw themselves through the plot hole, and landed hard on a grassy hill not far from Goldenrod City.

"Ow," they said, almost in unison.

"Anyway, Misty," Brock continued as if nothing had happened, "what I meant was, I met you when you were a kid, too young to be a... a dating prospect." Here Brock paused briefly as a loud explosion and a burst of fiery light came from the general direction of Goldenrod. "So I got to know you as a friend first," Brock went on. "And then when you were old enough for me to be interested in you, um, romantically, I was so used to you being a friend that I kind of didn't notice that you were also a pretty girl. Um. You know what I mean?"

"And it also didn't occur to you that no matter what you thought of her, she might still have a crush on you, even though it was pretty obvious that she did," Brynna commented.

"What?" said Brock, looking at her blankly. Everyone else did more or less the same.

"Oh, please," said Brynna, sounding rather disgusted at everyone else's obliviousness, "don't tell me none of you noticed!"

"Okay," replied Ash, "we won't tell you, then. We'll just keep it a secret."

"Come on, it was so obvious! The way she never lets him talk to girls, and always looks kind of jealous when he does. The way she argues with him all the time-"

"If Misty arguing with someone is a sign that she loves them," interrupted Brock, "then Misty's in love with half the world."

"Good point," conceded Brynna. "But her fighting with you is different. Everyone else she just insults and yells at and intimidates, but she actually lets you think of some sort of comeback. I think she's picking fights with you on purpose because that's the only way she'll get you to talk to her."

"She argues with Ash too," said Brock. "It's just that Ash can rarely think of comebacks other than 'Oh yeah? Wanna settle this with a Pokemon battle?'"

"Anyway, there's also the way she seems to resent having me along, as if she were perhaps jealous of the attention I get from Brock." Under her breath, she added, "Though Latios knows I'd rather he paid attention to her than to me..."

"Ever consider that maybe I just don't like you because you're a bitchy know-it-all?" muttered Misty, but Brynna either didn't hear or ignored her.

"That's about it, I think," Brynna concluded.

"She should stick to analyzing Pokemon behavior," Misty said under her breath. "She's better at it. Not that that's saying much."

"I never knew that any of that meant that she loved me," said Brock. "I thought it was just Misty being Misty."

"People never see anything that they don't want or expect to see. It's one of the quirks of humankind."

"Like you don't believe that Pikachu can go invisible when he wants to, so you refuse to see the evidence that he's there even when you can't see him? Like the disappearing Pokémon food and the bed that bounces of its own accord and things?" Misty asked innocently.

"Oh, will you stop with the invisible-Pikachu thing already? It might've been funny the first time, but it isn't funny now. I'm getting sick of it."

"It's not a joke!" protested Ash.

"So you don't love me, then?" Misty asked Brock, looking all tearful and kicked-Growlithe-ish- most unlike her usual self.

"It's not that I don't love you, Misty. I do love you. But I love you more as... as a friend or a sister, not the way I love Brynna, or that Team Rocket woman, what was her name? Gretchen, that's it... or Wilhelmina, or Suzie, or Sissy, or Lorelei, or..." He went on in this vein for some time, listing nearly every girl he had fallen for in the past, well, who knew how much time. "... or Nurse Joy, or Officer Jenny..." Brock trailed off, most likely lost in fantasies involving himself and one or more of the aforementioned women.

"Pika PIK pika pi cha (I did NOT need to know that)," Pikachu informed the author.

((Sorry.))

"Officer Jenny!" exclaimed Ash, as if Brock had just reminded him of something.

"What about her?" asked Tracey.

"We can find one and tell her about what happened, and she can find Team Rocket and get our noodles back!"

"Yeah, right," Misty scoffed, seemingly over her heartbreak now, at least temporarily. "Since when has going to the police ever worked?"

"Well, it's probably worth a try," argued Ash.

"He's probably right," Tracey agreed.

"It certainly can't hurt," added Brock.

Misty sighed. "Fine," she said. "Why not?"

And so, off they all went to see if anything remained of the police station in Goldenrod.