Misty Waterflower rubbed the sleep from her eyes and winced from the enormous hangover announcing itself with pulsating headaches.
The light burned in her eyes, forcing the girl to turn away from the source and use a pillow as shield.
Her pillow. A pillow from her room.
The room she had not memory of entering before sleep. Misty figured somewhere along the flight, she must have fallen asleep and Ash had carried her inside.
The smile on her face from thinking about that gesture was genuine. Ash could be a real sweetheart. Even her new dress hung neatly over her chair to avoid unnecessary wrinkling.
"Wait a second… if my dress is over there… that means…"
Panic overpowered the lethargic state of her body and she threw the comfortable sheets off the bed. In her worst nightmare, she expected to be butt naked, undressed in a vulnerable situation by the man she trusted more than anyone else in the world.
What she saw took her breath away in equal fashion.
She wore something alright, if you could call the black negligee and matching lace panties as clothing. The sinful piece of nightwear was so far removed from her usual pajamas that the young woman stared for a full minute at her state of dress before reacting.
Violently.
"Graaahhh!" The distance between bed and door cleared In two steps, Misty ripped it almost off the hinges in search for the culprit.
The endeavor was cut short by three pairs of hands taking hold on her and pushing the enraged woman back into the room onto her bed.
She clawed, bit and kicked at the assailants, who all grunted and screamed in high feminine voices that she recognized.
"Let go of me! What is the meaning of this?"
The Sensational Sisters of Cerulean City always worked together, which proved to be a big advantage in handling the little nestling of their family.
Daisy, Lily and Violet loved their sister Misty dearly, but her short temper made it often difficult to interact without precaution.
Only the Ketchum boy had a noggin hard enough to withstand her tough love. And according to their fairytale arrival on the wings of his Charizard, Ash cherished their little sister and knew how to treat her like a princess.
The biggest roadblock to her happiness was Misty herself and Daisy had enough. "Listen runt, the boy did nothing to you. He carried you to bed and left. He wouldn't even enter your room without asking first."
"Then why the heck am I wearing this!?"
The three older sisters looked at each other and nodded, deciding their sister was now calm enough to be receptive to their explanation.
"The erotic nightgown was our idea. We figured it couldn't hurt to have it if you take into account how quick your relationship is developing."
The dry admittance of the deed threw Misty off guard. Her sisters interest in her love life was a completely new development and apparently they had no problems with Ash and her skipping some bases.
Quite the opposite, if she considered how they tried to sell the idea of a relationship with him.
Starting with the oldest sister Daisy. "Don't try to deny it! The guy goes missing and you leave everything at the gym behind for the first time in ten years. We had to convince you to close down the gym for my wedding day!"
Violet tagged in with the next salvo. "He spends more money on your dress than her wedding gown and brings you home on his flying steed without any ulterior motives."
Lily finished their summation with the point who held the most water in their eyes. "And he became so hunky and dreamy! Especially now after getting rid of his childish haircut."
The three sisters nodded in agreement and rolled their eyes at her wary expression. She remembered all too well what happened to things from her that they wanted in the past.
Her sisters took them.
"You look like a snubbull guarding its bone. Better get used to women drooling over your man. I mean look at him!"
The three women let Misty up and shoved her towards the window.
The view was the reason she had chosen this room. You could overlook the whole city on a clear and sunny day. More important than that, she could see the complete forecourt of the gym.
A lone figure in blue overalls sat among the green spaces outside with a spade and a bucket. She recognized the new haircut and the activity. "Pulling up weeds? He will be busy for hours!"
Lily looked at her watch. "It has been hours. He started as soon as Pikachu was snuggly covered in bedsheets in our guestroom and his Charizard got a big steak to munch on."
The expression on Misty's face darkened and with a forceful pull, she ripped the flimsy negligee off her body.
"What are you doing?" screeched Daisy in horror at her bare breasted sibling who started to run around the room for more suitable attire.
"Stop nagging and help me find a matching bra! The panties can stay because they feel really comfortable."
Their sister put on her usual attire of sports top and more loosely fitting jean shorts, before climbing out the window to get to Ash quicker.
The three sisters winced as she slipped and fell the last few feet into a bush. "What does he see in her?"
They watched from afar as she pounced Ash from behind and dragged the poor guy into the house by his left ear.
"Maybe a masochistic tendency?"
The loud protests and moans of Ash Ketchum rang through the Cerulean Gym as Misty kept pulling him into their kitchen and onto a free chair.
"I want you to sit down and think about what you've done while I make us both breakfast." Misty looked at the clock and frowned. "A very late breakfast. Why didn't you wake me up?"
Ash nursed his red ear and shrugged. "You looked like you needed some sleep and I got a weird feeling after your sisters said to come back later for a sexy surprise."
"Those traitorous witches…" Misty put butter in the sizzling pan with more force than necessary "But more importantly, why didn't you go to bed this morning?"
For a split second, Ash looked a lot older than he really was in terms of age; A faraway wistful expression in his face. "I don't need much sleep. Years alone in the wild with only my pokemon has taught me to rest efficiently."
She strongly disliked this melancholic side of him. "Well from now on, you start caring about your health and not efficiency! After eating you go straight to bed, got it?"
"And let you do all the work alone? You said there was a ton of stuff to be done!"
She smiled from his childish protest. "It's Saturday Ash, which means the gym is closed and I do all the paperwork."
He crossed his arms but didn't object any further even though it still visibly bothered him. The old Ash would have kept going until the miltanks come home.
Another point for the list of things she missed.
His new calmness gave her more opportunity to find a middle ground. "Look, another helping hand will do wonders for clearing the weekly schedule, which means a lot less needed catching up and more free time."
She took the cooking spoon from a pan and pointed at him. "Free time this esteemed lady would like to spend with you, Mr. Ketchum."
"It would be my pleasure and honor, Miss Waterflower."
The two trainers were all smiles and giggles from that point on, chatting and musing about anything and nothing.
"Psy?"
The second they both heard the trademark call of Misty's Psyduck, Ash noticed a change come over the cooking woman. Her smile and posture became more stiff with every step of webbed feet echoing through the house.
By the time the yellow duck entered the kitchen, you could have mistaken Misty for a human board. "Hello Psyduck, are you hungry?"
Not a single sound came from the pokemon as it stood beside an empty chair instead of taking a seat. Misty continued cooking like nothing had happened and Ash used the opportunity to take a better look at Psyduck.
The pokemon began to rearrange the forks and knives on the table. Once done, he said his name and changed it back to the earlier placement.
That cycle happened over and over again.
Misty put down a plate with force at the tenth repeat. "I think they are at the right place now, Psyduck!"
The pokemon didn't startle, change expression or react in any other way to the sudden outburst. He just stared and turned around to leave.
Misty's hand holding the pan was shaking.
"Psyduck?" Ash asked, making the pokemon stop. "Do you want something to read?"
He took the newspaper from the kitchen table and put it into in his right flipper. The pokemon had trouble holding it, so Ash took his other flipper and put it on top.
Ash felt a slight twitch from Psyduck before he let go and watched it waddle away.
"He can be a handful these days," Misty apologized for her pokemon. "He doesn't have headaches anymore according to the doctors but it didn't help with his other quirks."
Naturally, the mood was significantly subdued afterwards but Misty tried to bring it back with her cooking.
The times of burning water were long in the past and she hoped to dazzle the young man with a few techniques she learned over the years.
A feat Misty booked as success by his expression when she served the dish. "It smells delicious! Am I now the only one of our group unable to cook?"
Misty sat opposite of him and took a first bite "What did you eat all these years?"
"Pokemon food is very nutritious…"
She almost spit it back out from laughter.
They ate the exceptional breakfast in higher spirits and Misty shooed Ash into bed. She went straight to her office and he slowly made his way to the guest room.
Psyduck was waiting for him.
Only a single page of the newspaper was left, the rest shredded into tiny pieces around him. Ash worried about having angered the pokemon somehow until he saw the content of the remaining page.
"A champion in love! Read everything about his new flame!"
The article had a stunningly well-shot picture of Ash and Misty at the club. The photographer had managed to capture a moment when she sat on his lap and both of them laughed.
The writer made very disconcerting assumptions about them and he would have done something immediately, but Misty was very clear about what he should do now. This ordeal was a problem for Future Ash. Present Ash had the order to get some sleep.
Let the world think a while longer they were the newest couple on the block.
Arceus knows, he wouldn't mind one bit.
Ash took the page and neatly ripped out the picture to give it to Psyduck. The pokemon just stared at the human, until Ash kneeled down and put it in his flipper again with a gentle squeeze.
His reward was a single tail wag.
"Your welcome. Want to join us for nap?"
They entered the quest room where Pikachu laid on the bed, loudly snoring on his back.
Psyduck stopped in front of it and stared at Ash, who took the sheets carefully to keep Pikachu from waking up and made a small nest on the ground.
The young man laid down on a pillow and closed his eyes to wait. A few moments later the sheets moved and another body rested beside him on another pillow.
"Psy…"
Ash smiled and allowed himself to drift into a deep sleep. Maybe he could do more for Misty than playing the janitor.
It's not for nothing that the world called him the Pokemon Master, even if the title had a bitter aftertaste.