Author's Note: Again, Egoshippy, this means the pairing is Gary&Misty. If you wince every time you read that, I kindly suggest you do not read this.
Summary: Whoops! No summary here!. GASP! Is Midnight Mist getting lazy?—No, It's just a short oneshot, and I feel that giving away a summary gives out the entire story. So just read it!
It's just a short piece of Egoshippy fluff. Like we don't need more of those -/sarcasm- XD
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"Enthralled"
By Midnight Mist
I used to look up to him so much.
The way he did his hair, the way he dressed, the way he would look at me and read me; he made me feel vulnerable, like an open book. But it was alright, it was even welcomed. Ash and Brock never did understand him, but I… I actually got a chance to see something rare. To see him vulnerable, kicked when he was down. I remember that day, it over a year ago, somewhere in autumn. His researching experiment had gone down the drains because of a mistake of an inexpert scientist. He had been seething, kicking chairs, throwing papers away, truly, scarily… alluring.
He threw a coffee cup at the wall. My cup. I remember how we started bickering about that, mad about my cup, mad about the wall, mad about the heartless jerk that was yelling back at me with his big smug grin and his spiky brown hair, still wearing those damn boots and outfit that made him look so damn good.
It had been the weirdest thing. We had been fighting, yelling, screaming, fuming and all of the sudden… Gary Oak reached out and hugged me. I was actually kinda scared, thinking he was mentally insane or something, but slowly started to relax into his arms. Not that he ever noticed. Even if he was a psycho there were worse ways to die than being held by strong arms.
After that it was like the door that fell open and couldn't be closed again. But I enjoyed it. We became close, Gary and I. He'd go on throwing pebbles at my window, we'd go on rides, we talked so much about every little subject that would be boring to everyone else but kept us enthralled for hours. We were verbally compatible, sometimes too much and we'd stay out all night just talking, or fighting about anything and everything.
'I'm sorry Misty'
I had been standing in his bedroom door, watching how everything he owned was packed away. 'You weren't even planning on telling me, were you?' I'd said, hurt.
His silence had granted. He even smelled guilty. He had left one day in mid summer and that was it for our friendship. The bitter memory of his depart made me cringe as I quickly got over it. After all, I'm currently in a social event, and people might think I'm mentally ill. But I can't stop thinking about him, the way he used to toy with my feeling in such a way it amazed how much power he had over them. He played them like puppets, but that summer day, the strings broke.
I'm sitting on a chair, bored out of my mind. I'm wearing a stupid black dress that isn't stupid and I love, but I say it's stupid because I'm still sulking about everything. It's Ash's 18th birthday, and I try to keep a happy face, but I can't.
He's here.
I only see him from the ultimate corner of my eyes, but I can feel him looking at me. After being absent for a year, after not saying goodbye, it's only natural he doesn't say hello either.
I'm trying not to sulk, it just makes him win. But here I am, looking away, sipping my drink that I can't pronounce but has a pretty little umbrella, listening to some guy trying to woo me and that doesn't realize I'm not even paying attention. I'm sympathetic and I smile at the guy whose name was Tom or Troy. But Troy is kinda weird, so let's stick with Tom.
Tom seems to say something in a rush, and not having heard what it was, I just nod, and he walks away in a daze. Whatever I did it worked! My beaming lasts so little. I feel a presence next to me, and I close my eyes in dread as I know who it is. It's like I have a radar or something, and my spider senses went off. I turn around groggily and try not to act too surprised.
His eyebrow is arched and he's looking at me so smugly I know it's fake. I knew him better than that, and he isn't that smug at all. I raise my eyebrow as well, both of us, examining each other as if to determine if we're actually there. It's been almost a year since I last saw him, but he seems to be a bit taller. Maybe it's the tuxedo that makes him look just a bit more mature.
I expect him to speak first, but to my surprise he doesn't. He leans over and takes my hand, pulling me to my feet, drags me to the dance floor. It's a slow song, and I can recognize it. 'Dancing in the Dark', one of my favourite classic ballads. It's too coincidental, he must've arranged it.
But before I ask for explanations, Gary pulls me closer to him and we start to slow dance, merging into the crowd of lovebirds swaying next to us.
We say nothing, but there's so much to say. I lean my head against his chest as I did before. I can feel his heart pounding, so loud and fast it almost makes me cry, but I close my eyes and focus on the music.
Suddenly, It's like we're floating; He's superman and I'm some kind of new generation Lois Lane. I open my eyes again and spot, in the distance, Ash, Brock, Delia and Professor Oak, all staring at the two of us, as if cheering us on.
Damn them, they knew.
Embarrassed, I look away and up to meet his gaze. He had been staring at me all along, and our eyes meet.
Damn him. How can he still play with my feelings so effectively? The puppet hold on my feelings was so there all the time it disgusted me. I started to break at my helplessness of getting rid of them, thinking about going stoic or something like that, but he graces this thumb against my cheek, and it breaks my heart.
I want to hate him but I can't, when I try to forget him, he won't leave my mind for weeks. I rest my head against his chest again and feel him let out a breath. The song is ending and my walls are crumbling.
I remember locking myself up in Ash's bedroom once he left. Both Mrs Ketchum and Ash were worried sick about me. I barely ate, and lost 5 pounds in a week. A flash of sadness rebels in my eyes as I grimace. It's beyond whether I forgive him or not. I missed him and I couldn't bear to watch him leave again.
I still look up to him; because he does this to me. I don't understand how, or when will it end, but he's come to stay, I can just feel it. Perhaps he's missed me as much as I missed him, because as he moves his hand to caress my bare shoulder I can feel it shaking.
All I know is that he's here, and we're dancing in the dark. I know he's come to stay, and that is enough. It will be hard to ever forgive him but I feel like I have to at least give it a shot, if not for him, for me. The void he left was too big and couldn't be replaced with something else, god knows I tried.
So we're dancing, and for a minute, all my world of anger, expectation and doubt reduce into nothing as my universe becomes the here and now. And as for here and now, I'm overjoyed. There's no other place where I would rather be.
And for now, that is enough.
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Author's Note: This one is for every egoshipper out there. Let's rock this place XD. And a special greeting to Maia. I just can't stop thanking you, WYB influenced me to start writing again (After my Rosita had to go to the doc and returned with amnesia, I was depressed for losing hundreds of pages long novels and stories. Including fanfics.) Thank you for the inspiration.
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Egoshippy wub,
Midnight Mist.