Come on you guys, i need to know what you think if i am going to write a story that yu like. I couod be writting complete and utter crap and i wouldn't know cause you guys stopped reviewing lol (i hope not). well Pretty Please review this chapter for me! Oh and read it too, but review as well. Here you go.

Arrogance and Ignorance, Misty's Tale

Chapter 5

Spacing Out

Misty and Diego had been going out for almost a month now and Brock was still staying with them. Misty's life was finally how she wanted it, carefree. But as much as she had wanted to dismiss it, as much as she didn't want to admit it to herself, she still had thoughts about Gary sometimes, his face still popped into her mind on random occasions and she still thought about those two days of his company; if that's what you could call it.

Diego was telling her something at the time she was thinking about Gary and how often she thought about him, he seemed to be getting used to her spacing out though, but sometimes he got a little annoyed. She couldn't blame him, if he spaced out while she was telling him how she felt about him she would be pissed off too.

Yup, that's what she had done. She cast her mind back to what had happened.

"Misty you know how we kissed last night, well I just wanted to tell you that I didn't just kiss you because you kissed me, I kissed you because…Misty? Are you even listening? I'm trying to tell you how I feel about you and you aren't even paying attention?" Diego said in a voice that was mostly concern and disappointment, but it had a hint of annoyance in there, Misty cold hear it louder than anything else around them.

"I'm sorry Diego, I just have a lot on my mind, I know that's not really an excuse, but that's how it is…" She spaced out and was thinking about Gary again, the chick at the Lounge Café, everything. The morning he had seen her naked, so bare, then turned up the next night pissed as a mule.

"Misty you still aren't listening to me! Do you even want to hear what I have to say?" Misty lost herself in thought at the question, she thought about Gary, and Ash this time, and wondered, do I want to hear that he has feelings for me, do I want to hear that he wants to take me out more often? This was what I wanted a few weeks ago, have things changed, or is there really too much going on around me that I don't really have the time for a boyfriend?

Diego spun around and walked off agitated at her. She wanted to go after him, but his question had her stunned, did she really want to hear what he had to say? She lost herself in thought about it again…

So that's how it happened. Later on she went and apologised, and by now she had learned to not space out so much, and Diego had learnt to tolerate it when she did. She smiled at Diego and kissed him.

"I'm gonna go open up the gym for the day ok?" She whispered into his ear. He nodded and kissed her back before she walked off. She went and unlocked the doors to the gym; trainers were lined up outside, more than usual it seemed, must have been because the snow had cleared up.

The first one came in and Misty told him the rules. He got them and they got to their sides of the gym. Misty took a moment to stare into the blue pool that served as the battlefield. It was just a large pool with three stepping-stones for non- water types, but it was the most beautiful thing in Misty's world. It was as empty, and yet as full as Misty always felt; it always made her feel welcome. She thought about it, and let her mind drift to the ocean, she had seen it with Ash a few times, but she hadn't been there in so long…

Brock cleared his throat to get her attention and announced that he had decided he was going to be the judge, as he had nothing better to do. The trainer looked worried when pikachu jumped up onto her shoulder, but she explained that as she was the Water Gym Leader she was only allowed to use water pokemon and she was not about to use pikachu. Pikachu did look ready to battle though, Misty patted its head and whispered into it's ear to watch and learn. The pokemon smiled wickedly and sat up on her shoulder; lately it was the most comforting thing in the world, and it was technically Gary's pokemon, when was he coming back to claim pikachu anyway?

Misty sent out maril and the other trainer sent out his bulbasaur. Misty knew all about bulbasaurs by now, that many trainers picked them and they had an advantage over water pokemon, but she had trained her pokemon well.

"Vine whip" called out the trainer. Misty told maril to dive under water and it eluded the vine whip easily. The pool the pokemon were fighting in had three stepping-stones and left only three places for the bulbasaur to go. Misty let maril swim around for a while and before long maril came up from under bulbasaur and knocked it off the stone. From then Misty didn't have to say anything, the bulbasaur frantically swam towards the next stepping stone and maril came up from under it and sent it sky high with a tackle from beneath. Before the bulbasaur hit the water the trainer called it back. The trainer then sent out a pidgey.

Misty thought about this for a little while. This could get ugly, maril had never versed a pidgey or any flying type before, but she wasn't under any pressure to change pokemon, and by the rules of the gym she couldn't until her pokemon fainted.

"Pidgey gust" the trainer told the pidgey, smart move Misty thought. Maril was sucked up into what looked like a spiralling vortex of water. This wasn't going to be easy to get out of. Maril was so stirred up that it was confused when it was finished. Misty knew she wouldn't be able to control it, and it wouldn't be able to control itself. The maril was so confused it hit itself, and when pidgey came swooping down towards it, it just stood there. Maril was knocked unconscious.

"Maril is unable to battle, this round goes to trainer Dillon" Brock announced unbiasedly.

Misty returned maril. Misty thought about her pokemon, which would be best suited. Garados? No he was too strong, and a bit big for the pool itself. But a snake shaped pokemon….dratini! Misty grabbed the ball from her belt and threw it into the air. Dratini went flying into the pool. Well not flying, Misty wasn't sure if any dratini could fly, she hadn't heard of it. But then again, she hadn't heard many stories about trainers with dratini; they were rare after all.

Pidgey did it's gust move again. Misty called out to dratini and told it to spin with the water in the eye of the hurricane. Dratini did as it was told of course and spun around and around. The trainer was worried as it saw that pidgey was loosing power, it couldn't hold on to the gust forever. Just as pidgey started to show some fatigue Misty watched as dratini jumped out of the vortex and performed a perfect take down attack on pidgey.

"Pidgey is unable to battle. This round goes to the Cerulean Gym Leader Misty" Brock announced. Best two out of three meant Misty had one. She smiled and went to the other side of the pool where the trainer was gathering up his pidgey and telling it things were going to be ok. Misty admired that the trainers had such compassion for their pokemon, just like Ash had.

"You fought well, you taught me a thing or two as well. Train those tactics a little more and you could very well use them to clean up most water pokemon. You did well for someone I presume to have stared their pokemon journey only a little while ago" She sounded sweet to herself. She was sure that was how she had come off.

Diego came up to her and hugged her from behind when she stood up.

"Only you would be so sweet t someone who's only wishes five minutes ago were to take you down" Diego laughed and so did she. His warmth around her felt good, felt welcoming, but for some reason it didn't quite feel as she had imagined it would. She ignored that last thought and sunk back into Diego's embrace.

"Well Mist, that was rather thrilling. I haven't seen you battle in s long, and yet here you are running your Gym and kicking serious arse!" Brock said, both mockingly and lovingly. Misty wasn't sure you could be both at the same time, but Brock could manage to put most feelings together, and she was told she could as well.

"Wanted to give you show, you know…Prove I've still got what it takes" She smiled at him and he laughed. She had never felt as though she had to prove herself, she hardly ever did. The only person who had brought that out in her was Ash. She had always felt she had to prove herself around him. She hadn't really even wanted to prove herself to Brock just now, or Diego.

Gary…

"What did you say Diego?" Misty asked alerted.

"Me say…I didn't say anything…Are you feeling ok?" He asked her.

"Oh must be my mind playing tricks on me, has a habit of doing that. Don't worry bout me I'm fine. Oh well, heaps more trainers to see, lots more to do" She said as she faked a smile. She could have sworn she had heard someone say Gary, and at that exact time an image of him had popped into her mind. She shook her head frustrated and walked out to the doors of the Gym to admit another trainer.

OoO

"Brock I am starting to worry about her, she doesn't pay attention to what anyone is saying half as much as she used to, and even then that wasn't much! And now she is randomly asking me what I was saying, I mean she seems a lot more tense and stressed out now than she did almost a month ago when we started dating. Could it be me that is causing her to act this way?" Diego was worried, about everything; their relationship, Misty, what he was doing to her and having an affect on just by being in her presence…Not in that particular order, but it all worried him.

"No, it's best not to jump with conclusions, especially when it comes to Mist. She is a complicated girl and a lot has been on her mind lately. I mean she was stuck with this gym and she has no other choice but to run it. Maybe she needs a break from it, maybe you could take her out for the weekend or something?" Brock said to Diego. Diego agreed and went off to the local library to look for some locations where they could go.

Brock stood there and watched as Diego, a good friend of his, was being so dreadfully used. Diego was just a pawn to get Misty's mind off Gary and Ash, but it seemed to be working in the complete opposite way. Misty lost concentration a lot easier and seemed to be hearing things often. Brock was pretty sure it was Gary or Ash on her mind, and he felt bad for Diego that she was always thinking about other guys while she was with him, but what was Brock supposed to do about it now? He couldn't just walk up and announce to Misty he had set her up, and he couldn't just turn to Diego and tell him to stop liking Misty because she didn't really want him.

Brock raked a hand through spiky hair in confusion. What was he supposed to do now, he had put them both in positions they probably never should have entered into, and this was going to make things a lot harder in the next few days.

OoO

Misty finished up with the last trainer of the day and went into the kitchen to get some of Brock's cooking. It tasted funny tonight, not like Brock to make food that doesn't taste right unless…

Later that night when Diego went to bed Misty snuck out of the bedroom they were both sleeping in and went to the living room to talk to Brock.

"Hey Brock, you're awake aren't you?" It wasn't really a question, more a statement confirmed by the groan and the sudden surge upright.

"Something's wrong, the only time things you cook taste funny is when something is up, so what's up Brock?" She was being very dominating and scary, she knew it, but she wasn't going to let him avoid it this time. He avoided things like this all the time, and somehow they seemed to explode in her face every time it did. He was usually looking out for her best interests when he did it to, which was what worried her most.

"Look Mist, just enjoy the time we have together and don't worry about the things that are troubling me, I don't want them to trouble you too" He was being rather firm with her for the first time in a long while. Misty just looked at him stunned for a little while, but then she remembered her task and went ahead with the argument.

"Look Brock you feed me that line every time I ask you what's wrong, and every time something ends up going seriously wrong and somehow your good intentions don't end up turning out quite how you wanted" Misty knew that was putting it extremely nicely. Sometimes things Brock tried were just stupid from the beginning, but she didn't let him know that. Brock took hold of her shoulders and looked her straight in the eyes.

"Look Mist I know things don't usually go well when I start getting worried, but trust me on this, you don't want to know this time, you just don't" Misty wanted to cry, she knew by the tone in his voice he was right, she didn't want to know.

"Mist…Is there something troubling you, I mean you aren't eating properly or even paying attention half the time when someone who you would find gorgeous is telling you how beautiful you are. D was telling you how much he cared about you and you were on another planet, what's with that?" Misty opened her mouth to say something, but she wanted to say it so much that it wouldn't escape her mouth. She just started crying on Brock's shoulder. Brock made soothing noises as he ran a hand through her hair and patted her back. She knew she shouldn't but she was so messed up right now that she couldn't help herself.

Pikachu bounded around the corner and started patting her as well. She looked into the eyes if the pokemon and laughed as she remembered how it bit Gary, how it totally hated him. Just like Ash's pikachu…She hugged the pokemon and took it o the second floor with her as she went to her bedroom there. She was sharing one with Diego downstairs, but right now she wanted to be alone.

Brock didn't say anything as she left and she hadn't wanted him to. She went up stairs with pikachu holding onto her on her shoulder. She went into her room and sat on her bed. Pikachu looked up at her with such love and attentiveness. She hugged the pokemon and she felt like she was back in the night when Gary turned up drunk. When she was hugging pikachu in the attic. It was the only one who would take care of her no matter what happened.

"I love you pikachu," She said as she snuggled into the pokemon, and it into her.

"Pi Pika Pi Chu" It said, Misty wasn't sure, but she could have sworn it said it loved her too. Misty picked the pokemon up and went and got her jacket. She was going for a walk.

Well thats chapter five, hope you liked it, and even if you didnt, hope you find the time to review and tell me what you think. This one isn't particularly my favourite but that doesn't matter, as long as you guys read, review and like it then its al good. So tell me what you think, and keep reading my story please. Onto writting chapter 6.