Love Letter
By Fox McCloude
Disclaimer: Pokémon and all related characters belong to Satoshi Tajiri, Nintendo and GAMEFREAK. All rights reserved.
Kanto region, Cerulean City…
Being a trainer of renown had many advantages. The fame and prestige earned, the chance to take part in high-level competitions, to face great and powerful opponents, and of course the satisfaction of taking home the trophies as proof of his achievements.
However, it also had its downsides. Sometimes, due to the pressing engagements for being one of Kanto's top trainers, Ash Ketchum frequently missed out many important events of his loved ones. Between birthdays, Christmases, anniversaries and whatnot, Ash would often wish he could be in more than one place at once, so that he could be with his friends for important occasions. That wasn't always possible, so he always treasured every time he could be there for them in said events, and whenever he couldn't attend, he would find the way to make himself present even from afar, or to make up to them somehow afterwards.
Today was one of such occasions.
"Cerulean City, it's been a while since we last came here, right, Pikachu?" he told his faithful partner over his shoulder, who nodded firmly, as he felt the same way as his trainer for coming back to this place.
He'd been outside Kanto for over ten months, so he'd missed out the birthday of his best friend, and first traveling companion in his training journeys. While he managed to make contact via videocall to congratulate her, he'd promised Misty that he'd bring her a present when he returned.
Taking a deep breath, he approached the Gym's entrance, pressing the intercom. He hoped not to come at a bad time, as more than once he'd come for a visit when she was in the middle of a battle or something, but he was answered less than a minute later.
"Yes, hello?"
"Misty, it's Ash," he replied. "May I come in?"
"Ah? Hold up, I'll open right away!"
Instantly, the automatic doors opened wide to let him in, and the trainer stepped into the building. The place looked just like he remembered, and fortunately there was no activity in the battle arena at the time. In fact, there was no sign of Misty's sisters anywhere.
The redhead quickly came into view. She was drying her hair with a towel, and apparently she'd gotten dressed in a rush as she was putting on her shoes. Her hair looked still wet and a little bit messy. While he could see the answer coming, he still felt the urge to ask the question.
"Is it a bad time to come?"
"No, of course not," she assured. "You just surprised me, I had no idea you had returned."
"I wanted to surprise everyone," Ash explained. "I could take flight earlier than I thought, and since I landed close by, thought I could come and say hi to you first."
"Wow, that makes me feel special," the redhead replied. "Although… something tells me you had another reason to come here, am I right?"
Ash smiled. Misty had always been pretty good at reading him, though then again, that was normal considering they'd been best friends for over a decade, even after they'd spent long periods of time apart from each other.
"Well… do you remember what I promised in your birthday? I said I'd bring a present when I came back, so…"
"Oh, that?" said Misty. "You really didn't have to. It was enough that you made the effort to call and congratulate me. That means a lot to me, and you know that."
"I know, but I still had to keep my promise." He reached into his backpack, pulling out a compressed Dive Ball, which was adorned with a small, blue ribbon. "Happy late birthday."
Intrigued, Misty grabbed it and took out the ribbon. The boy could see the excitement in her eyes, probably wondering what Pokémon was inside. So, she pressed the button to expand and activate it. As it popped open, the light materialized into a…
"Eevee, eevee!"
"Oh, I can't believe it!" Misty caught the small brown Pokémon in her arms, and it immediately started licking her face playfully. "Hahaha, that tickles!"
"This Eevee hatched from an egg during my return trip," Ash explained. "You always said you wanted your own Vaporeon, right? I thought you'd want to evolve her yourself, so…"
The boy pointed at the necklace worn by the Eevee, a thin chain with a locket in the shape of a tridimensional transparent diamond. Inside of it was an object that was easy to recognize by any Water Pokémon trainer worth their salt. Meanwhile, the Eevee was still licking her new trainer's face, while Misty continued to laugh at the tickling.
"She seems very affectionate," the redhead commented.
"Oh, she is. Though… she's also a little bit rambunctious too, and loves to get into places everywhere. You better not let her out of your sight, just in case," Ash warned.
"I'll keep it in mind." Misty grabbed the Dive Ball and returned Eevee when she couldn't bear the tickling anymore. "It's a lovely present, Ash. Really, thank you so much."
"Hey, it was nothing," he replied a little nervous and blushing. "Anything for my best friend ever, right? So… what do you say we catch up? I've got a lot of things to tell you."
…
Having successfully delivered the birthday present, Ash took a seat at the gym's living room, while Misty took Eevee's ball to the storage room. The redhead stopped by the kitchen, and returned with some biscuits and tea for a welcome snack. Thus, they could start getting up to speed of what they'd been doing for the past few months.
Eventually, after they talked about Ash's competitions, the conversation jump from topic to topic, and Misty told him about her plans of going to Johto to participate in the next Whirl Cup, to be celebrated next year. She was very upset because she was very close to winning the last time, only to end up losing in the final, and now she wanted to go back for revenge.
"I may have won if I had Gyarados for the finals," the redhead commented. "But the semifinals left him too hurt, and I couldn't force him. Next time, I'll make sure to have all the heavy artillery ready for the finals."
"I could help you train, if you want," the Pallet trainer suggested. "Ah, the Whirl Cup, that brings back memories. It was the first time we battled each other in an official tournament."
"And the first time I beat you, if I remember correctly," Misty said in a teasing tone.
Ash couldn't resist taking the bait. "You won by pure luck that time."
"Luck? You made a gross mistake and I capitalized on it. That's not luck, it's called strategy."
Ash wanted to protest, though technically she was correct on that. In hindsight, Misty had been left at a disadvantage when Psyduck popped out of his Pokéball, ruining any strategy she could have had. To win that time, it would have been enough to get Kingler to push Psyduck into the water, but instead he gripped his head, and the rest was history. It was technically the first time she beat him in a battle, but it wouldn't be the last.
"How long has it been since then?" Misty asked. "Nine, maybe ten years?"
"Well, who's counting anyway?" he said, not paying much mind to it. "Even so, they're great memories. I'd like to participate, if only to have a true rematch."
"Ja, do you think you can beat me? You're a good trainer, Ash, but when it comes to specialized competitions, you'll have it very hard against me."
"You sure about that?" he replied in a defiant tone. "Maybe you should put your money where your mouth is, shouldn't you?"
Both of them stared at each other. An external observer could almost see the sparks flying between their eyes, as many of the times they'd faced each other before. Although their mutual record slightly favored Ash, the boy knew Misty was a worthy opponent when in her element, not to mention she was, among his closest friends, the one who'd scored the most victories against him. And he respected her for it.
Between rivalry and everything else, there was another thing Ash wanted to talk with Misty. To know the redhead was planning on going to Johto for the Whirl Cup reminded him of that, so maybe it was a good time to ask her now.
"Hey, Misty… have you thought about taking a sabbatical from the gym?" he said. "It'd be nice, I don't know, to travel together, you and me. For old time's sake?"
"I'd like that, but I need to find a replacement who can take care of this place. You know I can't count on my sisters for that, let alone now they've landed movies and modelling contracts."
"Maybe we could…"
*RING, RING, RING! CALLING IN, CALLING IN!*
Whatever Ash was going to suggest, it was interrupted when the videophone went off. Misty went to answer immediately. Ash couldn't help but take a peek, but since Misty was covering the screen with her body, so he couldn't see who she was talking to.
"Hello?"
"Ah, Miss Misty," a voice that sounded like an older man replied. "I called to let you know I've got the next batch of badges you ordered. If you could come and pick them up…"
"Ah, thanks for letting me know! I'll go get them immediately." She immediately hung up and addressed Ash. "Sorry, Ash, I have to go immediately. You don't mind if I leave you by yourself a couple hours, do you?"
"No problem." He shrugged. "Work is work, after all."
Admittedly, inside he was a little annoyed that their little chat had been interrupted, but it couldn't be helped. The least he could do was to stay and watch the gym until she returned, and not to get into trouble. It wasn't too hard, and what could happen in the meantime?
A bit later…
Having nothing else to do for the moment, Ash sat on the living room's couch along with Pikachu. Misty had left him the remote control and told him he could watch anything he wanted on any channel for entertainment, as she had to go to Rifure Village in the outskirts of Cerulean for the badges and back. With luck, maybe he'd see one of his friends or rivals in the middle of a competition.
Despite everything, at the moment only one thing occupied the boy's mind, and it was the hope for Misty to hurry back soon, so they could continue their conversation. The topic about traveling together, this time only the two of them, had been going around his mind for some time, but he knew that her compromises with the gym wouldn't let her go so easily, even if she did want to accompany him.
What he couldn't tell her was that, indeed, he'd already found someone willing and available to fill in for her for a while, and they'd even talked about it. He was lucky to have such great friends. However, he couldn't make that choice alone, and Misty would have the last word; it was her gym after all.
"Ah, geez." The boy rested on the couch while he continued to push the remote control's buttons, flipping the channels on the TV. "How much longer are you gonna be out, Misty? You said it'd be just a couple hours."
Technically, they hadn't passed yet, but the clock indicated that it was less than ten minutes before it was two hours since the redhead left. He figured she probably got a minor delay out of her control, but having nothing else to do, and with nothing interesting on TV, he was getting bored to death.
Until…
"Pi?"
Suddenly, Pikachu's ears perked up, as if he were on alert. Ash was about to ask what happened, but right then, he heard noises. Like shelves being knocked over, water splashing, and Pokémon screams coming from…
"Holy Arceus… the storage room!" the trainer shouted upon realizing.
He jumped off the couch, running off with barely time to put on his shoes, while Pikachu ran in front of him. The Pokémon's cries were turning louder, confirming his suspicions of the place where it came from, and after going through the corridor, he opened the door to see the disaster.
Indeed, several Pokéball shelves had been tipped over, and the aforementioned spheres were scattered all over the place, letting out their occupants. A Goldeen and Seaking were flailing around and screaming in a small puddle, a Staryu and Starmie were exchanging water streams and freezing beams, a Politoed was hanging from the ceiling lamp and swinging around, and a pair of Seel had gotten into a slap fight with each other. And those were barely the ones he recognized at first glance.
"What the hell's going on here?!"
"Pikapi!" Pikachu cried, pointing at another shelf that wasn't tipped over yet.
More specifically, on the upper part. Ash instantly recognized the Eevee he'd given Misty, as she still wore the Water Stone necklace. She was there, giggling and playing cheerfully as she knocked over the Pokéballs from the shelf one after another, letting more Pokémon out.
"How did you get out?! Ah, who cares! Pikachu, go get her while I try to…!"
A water stream almost splashed him, but he managed to take cover behind the door. However, Pikachu caught his trainer's message and tried to make his way through the mess, as the trainer decided that the first thing was to pick up the scattered Pokéballs and try and return as many Pokémon as possible.
At first it was a matter of luck; he had to fire the retractor beams to different Pokémon hoping they were the right ones. He didn't want to imagine if a Pokémon the size of Gyarados came out in such an enclosed space. At the same time, he tried to look for the Eevee's Dive Ball among the mess, but with less Pokémon to worry about, he managed to stay calm.
However, while he was at it, Eevee started running around his legs with Pikachu chasing after her, and the two left the storage room. The trainer was in a dilemma: should he go after them, or should he continue returning the Pokémon on the loose inside the storage room?
After about three seconds of internal deliberation, he chose the latter, praying so his partner would be able to catch her, though fortunately he spotted the Dive Ball among the mess, and as he continued to return the rest of the Pokémon he pocketed it. It took him a few more minutes, but he finally succeeded, albeit now there was another issue: the shelves knocked over and the Pokéballs scattered all over the place.
"Ah, hope Misty forgives me, but that'll have to wait. First I need to catch that Eevee bring her back here," he said to himself.
Exiting the room, he looked and listened on both sides of the corridor. He didn't see where Pikachu and Eevee ran off to, but it didn't take long to find out as a few seconds later he heard noises of stuff being tipped over (fortunately not glass or something that had been broken), and headed to the door where he heard it.
"Pikapi, pika pika chu!" Pikachu cried out as he tried to catch Eevee, only for her to dodge him by jumping on top of a box, that she tipped over scattering a huge pile of folders and papers.
"Eev, eeveeeeeeeeee!" the Normal-type cried out, clearly amused at the chasing game. When Pikachu tried to jump her, she dodged and ran to the door, trying to sneak between Ash's legs just like the last time.
Now, however, the trainer anticipated and grabbed her by the tail before she could run away.
"Ha! Gotcha, you cute little sneak," he said. "You're a real handful, you knew that? Look at all the mess you've done."
"Eevee, Eevee!" she complained, trying to shake off when Ash lifted her, albeit carefully enough to not to hurt her.
"There, I think you've had enough fun for a day," the boy said as he activated the Dive Ball's retractor beam and returned her. He sighed in relief once she vanished. "Oof, finally. But now… geez, how can a Pokémon so small make such a big mess?"
The trainer couldn't help but feel a little guilty for this. After all, he was the one who brought Eevee for Misty, and while he did warn her about how she could be a little mischievous, he actually didn't imagine she'd sneak out of her Ball and cause such a ruckus all by herself. And not just here, but in the Pokéball storage room, with all the shelves still knocked over.
"Ah, it can't be helped," he said, picking up the papers, trying to get them into the folders or organize them in stacks.
He had no idea if they were sorted in a specific order, but if that was the case, he hoped Misty would forgive him. The least he could do was to try and pick them up before she returned. Though cleaning up all that mess would take a while for just the two of them.
"Pi? Pikapi!"
"Huh?" The trainer turned to his buddy when he called oud. "What's up, Pikachu?"
In response, and much to Ash's confusion, Pikachu raised what looked like a sealed envelope. It was weird to see something like that in this time where communication was mostly digital and traditional mail had long been left behind. However, when he grabbed it, he saw the destination address was his home in Pallet Town, and it had his name: Ash Ketchum.
"For me?" The trainer then looked at the sender address, and it had Misty's name with all respective data, but the most curious of all was the date, of quite a few years back.
More concretely, from when he traveled across Hoenn and shortly before he returned to Kanto to challenge the Battle Frontier.
Curiosity ultimately won him over, and he opened the envelope. Inside was a mail sheet colored light blue, with some triangle and circle figures scattered across the margins, and on the lower right corner the silhouette of a Lapras. Ignoring that, though, he started reading its contents, which had been clearly hand-written.
Dear Ash:
As I hold my pen to write this letter, a strange feeling invades me. It's a bit hard to put into words, bit it feels like something trembles inside my chest, in my heart. I don't know if that makes sense.
Truth is, this last year since we separated hasn't been easy for me. I miss our adventures together, and there are days I feel really lonely here. I'm also sometimes worried if you'll be okay, wherever you are, but then I tell myself I shouldn't be. I know you well, and you always overcome any adversity no matter what happens.
Ash stopped for a moment, trying to assimilate what he'd just read. So, Misty had missed him, even one year after they stopped traveling together? Being honest, he too missed her a lot during that time; after all, she'd been his first traveling companion. He still felt a little guilty for the words he said when he found out they had to part ways, as he didn't get the implications in full until the time for the farewell itself had come.
But then, why was this letter here? The date said it was from over eight years before, but if it was in this, it meant it'd never been sent. Why?
It hurts me to be apart from you, and I have moments when I have trouble sleeping at night. I feel that everything I do, everything I see, is filled with you, all the memories of the times we spent together. And that sometimes makes me want to cry.
I close my eyes and I see your face, and hear your voice in my head, those words you told me on that day. That it was no coincidence that we ran into each other. That we were destined to meet each other and become friends. And those words become my strength to move forward, to chase after my dreams, and root for you in the distance as you chase after yours.
Some days I wonder, did you ever felt something else for me? Did you see me as more than a friend, or a girl who was angry at you because you fried her bike? When I remember all the times we laughed together, or even when we fought, I can't help but wonder if maybe, just maybe… you and I could have been something more.
"Something more…" As the letter continued, it became more evident why it was locked up in this storage room. It probably wasn't easy for Misty to write all this, let alone having the courage to send it after it was done.
Forgive me, I must be spacing out. I don't want to distract you with such sentimentalism, I just needed to get all this of my chest to feel more at ease with myself. Keep doing your best, wherever you are.
Your friend forever,
Misty.
Ash finished reading, taking a few seconds to finally process all the contents, before rereading it once more, just to be sure he'd understood well. Misty's written words had truly gotten to him. He could feel in them the affection as well as the loneliness and sorrow she must have felt when they separated. After all, he too was very sad when they had to part ways.
"Ash?"
The sudden voice pulled him out of the trance, and he turned around to see her. She seemed surprised, albeit at the moment she was looking more at the disaster in the room than at him. The trainer took exactly five seconds to process the situation he was in, and realize he had to say something, before she assumed wrong ideas.
"Ah, Misty, this isn't what it looks like!" the trainer exclaimed, frantically waving her hands. "It just turns out that Eevee, well… Pikachu and I were trying to…"
"Ash, Ash, relax," said the redhead as she momentarily grabbed him by the shoulders to calm him down. "Breathe, then you explain me what happened. Also, why the Pokéball storage room is a mess? The shelves are knocked over and all the Pokéballs scattered around."
"I'm getting to that." The trainer follower her advice, and took a deep breath before proceeding to explain himself. "While we were watching the TV, Pikachu and I heard some noises. Turns out that the Eevee I gave you, well… she managed to get out on her own. Remember that I said she was a little bit rambunctious? I seriously underestimated her."
He scratched the back of his head with the hand that held the letter, chuckling nervously, while the other extended Eevee's Dive Ball. Misty saw him with a serious expression, but she smiled almost immediately.
"Alright, I do believe you," she said. "Guess it's partly my fault too; you did warn me not to let her out of my sight. Nothing that can't be solved with a little love and discipline, right?"
The redhead looked around again, her eyes fixated on everything that'd been scattered and picked up a few stacks of paper before tucking them into the boxes Eevee had tipped over. Ash was about to help her, but right then Misty noticed the paper sheet he was still holding in his hand.
"Ash, what do you have there?"
"This? Nothing, I just found it when…" The trainer made a futile attempt to hide the letter behind his back, but that only made Misty place her hands on her hips, and glare at him severely.
"Ash…" she said, as she started tapping her foot repeatedly on the floor.
Ash chuckled nervously, and tried to glance at Pikachu looking for support, but the latter's answer was a non-verbal "You're on your own", and the trainer couldn't do anything but resign himself to his fate.
"In my defense, I found it in an envelope addressed to me," he said handing over the paper. "Sorry I couldn't help but read it."
Misty grabbed the letter and read it. For a few seconds, the Gym Leader's expression remained unreadable, until it made way to a gesture of surprise, and finally, a smile of nostalgia and realization.
"I can't believe it. It's been so long since I wrote this, and I thought it'd been lost. The things you find when you're cleaning up a mess, huh?"
Silently, Ash agreed with that. He still kept Tracey's sketchbook that he found when they were cleaning up the laboratory, which had a drawing of him and Misty sleeping under a tree. Would this become a pattern of sorts?
"Can't be helped. Let's pick up all this mess, shall we?" said Misty as she stuffed the letter into her pants' pocket, kneeling down to pick up more scattered papers.
"Hold on, aren't you gonna tell me anything? About that letter?" Ash asked.
Misty raised her look at the question. Admittedly, he too was surprised at having said it, but he couldn't take the words back. And he needed answers.
"It's just a letter I wrote years ago. Nothing more," the redhead said.
"But why was it here? The envelope had my address, but you clearly never sent it," he insisted.
"I wasn't planning to," she confessed. "It was something I wrote to vent at the time."
Ash found that pretty weird. Writing it was one thing, but placing it in an envelope, and writing down the name and destination address on it? Why go that far if she wasn't going to send it?
"Misty, you're dodging my questions," the boy said. "Maybe… you're afraid of something?"
She turned away, and Ash managed to catch a slight frown in her face, as she fiddled around with a finger around her ponytail. She seemed to have difficulties keeping visual contact with him at the moment; however, the blush on her cheeks seemed to intensify by the second, and that was all the answer he needed.
"Sorry, that was too blunt," he apologized. "But I can't blame you if that's the case. After all, I never realized what you felt."
Misty shook her head. "No, don't beat yourself over that. I was the one who didn't say anything. Yeah, I admit it, I didn't want to leave then. Traveling with you, all the adventures we shared, the laughs, the sorrows… all of those are precious memories for me. And that'll never change."
"And your feelings?" Ash asked again. "What you wrote in that letter… do you still feel it?"
The redhead turned away again, albeit only briefly. This time, even with her face leaning to a side, her aquamarine eyes quickly became fixated on his brown ones. Neither could say a word, but there was no need to.
"Do you still want it?" he asked again. "That we travel together, just the two of us this time?"
It seemed a little silly to ask that question, considering it was the same conversation topic they were having a couple hours before. And of course, she had said she would like it, but she couldn't without getting someone to take care of the gym in her absence.
However, the emphasis on saying "Just the two of us" made the question take on a completely different meaning, one he was certain Misty understood perfectly.
"Listen, I may not have the right to say this, but… I had it hard to get over our farewell too, you know? I didn't understand why I missed you so much, until much later. I mean, it was always hard to say goodbye to my friends, but with you, it was different."
"Different how?" she asked.
The boy made a pause. What he was about to say, he had to be really careful. One single wrong word could end up ruining everything.
"You were my first traveling female companion, and the one who was the most with me. Even when we had our disagreements, it was fun to be with you, you know? Sometimes I even missed our quarrels."
"You don't say," Misty giggled. "So, you're saying I was special for you? That way?"
Ash nodded. He breathed again and this time, he approached to hold her hands. She was a little bit surprised by the sudden gesture, but she made no attempt to push him or to step away from him. She just stared into his eyes.
"I really liked you, Misty. No, scratch that; I still like you, a lot," he said. "And if there's still something of what you wrote in that letter… I would like that we could be something more. You and I, more than just best friends."
In truth, he was falling short with his choice of words. True, despite being sharp-tongued as a kid and say otherwise, he'd always liked Misty. Over time, however, those feelings had changed, evolved. Now they were much deeper, far beyond simply affection for a friend, or traveling companion.
After a few seconds, Misty sighed. But it wasn't a sigh of resignation; rather, it seemed one of relief, like she suddenly felt more at ease.
"Ash, believe me, nothing would make me happier than to travel with you again. But you already know: I can't leave the gym without being sure it'll be in good hands."
"I know," he said. "And precisely, I wanted to tell you about that. I may… have found someone to fill in for you."
Misty's eyes widened briefly. This had seemingly caught her off-guard. It was understandable; maybe she wasn't expecting him to have thought about everything with anticipation. He'd always been more the spontaneous type, doing things on the fly, and only stopped to think them later.
But not this time. He had to use his head, and also his heart.
"Turns out I ran into Lana during my last trip. We talked a bit, and when I told you about my proposal to you, she said now that her Manaphy expedition is over, she could do this favor for us."
"She said that?" Misty asked. "Well, that's really considerate of her."
"Yeah, but in exchange, she wants us to do a favor to her," Ash continued. "After this, her next expedition will be to search for Suicune, and she wants us to let her know of any sighting that helps her in the future."
"Well, with our luck, I don't think that'll be too hard. You should know about it, right?" the redhead commented with amusement.
He chuckled as well. They'd had enough encounters with Legendary Pokémon, and Suicune more than once, so with that record their odds seemed good. But that wasn't important now.
"If that's covered, then I guess I have no reason to refuse," said Misty. "But before I agree, I'd like to be sure of something."
The redhead approached him again. She was no longer tense or nervous, and didn't even shake for a second when she stared at him.
"Ash… are you asking me to travel with you… or to be with you?"
"Both," the boy replied without hesitation. "You're my best friend, my first traveling companion… and now, I want you to be my girlfriend."
He surprised himself at how easy it was to use that word. He wasn't the biggest romance expert in the world, but even though it took him a while to understand, he'd matured enough to know his own feelings. Why did some people have it so hard to say it? He never understood.
For her part, Misty was a little bit startled by his blunt declaration. She gave no verbal response: instead, she held his hands and getting face to face with him, kissed him softly on the lips. It was brief, but not unpleasant in the least.
"That… was a yes, right?" he shyly asked.
"What, you doubt it?" she said with a clearly feigned annoyance. "Or should I give you another just to be sure?"
"No, I mean yes, I mean… aw, sheesh! Look at what you make me say!"
"Hahaha, you know it's always fun to tease you," Misty said. "If you want me to be your girlfriend, you better get used to it, will you?"
The trainer wanted to scowl, but he simply couldn't. It was incredible how Misty took full control of the conversation at the last moment, and inside, Ash's competitive flame told him he had to get even one day. He couldn't let her have the last word on their relationship.
But leaving that aside, at least he could tell her, and she'd agreed to her proposal. Who knew if she would have agreed if he didn't happen to find that letter in the middle of the mess. Something good came out of Eevee being so mischievous, so one day they'd have to thank her.
The love letter's message had been delivered, even if it was many years later.
FIN.
Author's notes:
Happy 2022, people! How did you welcome the new year? Well, now then, this one is my first work of this year. Another of the PokéShipping oneshots I'd been working on in the past few months. The title and general idea, as I said in the notes of "A Different Start" are inspired by Mayumi Iizuka's song "Love Letter"; in fact, a huge chunk of the letter's content is based on the song's lyrics, as it fits pretty well with Misty's feelings after her farewell from the group in the original series (I'd love it if someone made a PokéShipping AMV with that song). That actually made me easier to write the letter itself, but the challenge was in creating a situation where Ash could read it. Maybe I did cheat a little by recycling a scenario similar to "Sketches", but it worked for me, and since I could allude to it here, I figured why not place them in the same continuity?
As for Misty getting an Eevee as a present from Ash, that was suggested by Shadechu Nightray, who just like me (and I'm sure many more out there) wishes Misty would have her own Vaporeon in the anime (she already has one in the Pokémon Masters game, so that's a start). If anybody asks, that Eevee is the offspring of Gary's Umbreon, and a hypothetical Espeon that would belong to Ash (that's the Eeveelution I'd love to give him). As I needed a small Pokémon causing mischief and make the mess so Ash could find the letter, she fit perfectly, so you can thank her for it. Lastly, also special credits to Suki90 and PinkStar, who kindly agreed to take a preliminary view to the letter's content, and helped me refine a few details with the final scene. I really appreciate the beta-reading you've done for my Pokémon stories, you're the greatest, thanks a bunch once more.
Anyway, there's not much else to say. This year I'm feeling quite optimistic, I've got several projects I wish to retake or start, both in Pokémon and other series. So when I'm done revving up the engines with short stories, I hope I can get into the longer ones, even if multitasking can be a little hard. I hope you guys enjoyed this shot, until next time and hope you do well during 2022.