Title: By a Thread
Chapter title: Unravel
Rating: T
Disclaimer: I don't own Pokemon.
Summary: The Waterflower sisters generally had their little sister's best interest at heart, and when it becomes clear things between Ash and Misty aren't going to progress without an outside push, sometimes all you need is a bad souvenir. Pokeshipping, fluffy. Threeshot.
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"You have got to be kidding me!" Misty exasperated staring at the contents of a once neatly wrapped present from the remaining Waterflower sisters.
After two years, the Sensational Sisters had finally returned from their world tour, allowing Misty the luxury of escaping gym life for short stints of time. At some point, maybe her sisters would become better trainers, but for now Misty couldn't let the gym's winning reputation fall into disarray because of her own desire to travel, so occasional week long trips were all the leisure the water pokemon master allowed herself.
To her sister's credit they were generally more tolerable upon returning, even going so far as to bring back gifts they picked up for her throughout their travels, though Misty was sure most of the gifts were the result of Daisy's newfound maturity and Lily and Violet's shopping addiction.
Still she occasionally questioned their judgment on the presents they gave, today's being no exception. How they thought the fabric item in her shaking hands was a good idea was beyond her. And worse, they'd left her with no other options.
"Everything okay, Myst?"
The voice on the other side of the door was laced with concern as he'd heard the angry ranting of the volatile redhead. Whether his concern was forged from genuine empathy or fear for his possessions, she couldn't be sure, as she was currently blockaded in his bedroom.
"Just fine!" Misty balked, turning her attention back to the thin fabric item and turning it over in her hands with a heavy sigh.
"Then hurry up. Gary said we only have a few hours of good weather before the storm and Pikachu and I are ready to hit the pool," Ash insisted.
'Well, here goes nothing,' Misty thought changing into the bikini she was sure Lily or Vi had picked out as a cruel joke.
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A few days earlier:
"Oh like, for sure, baby sis, it's the cutest swimsuit you will ever own. Just promise us you won't open it until you get there. He's going to, like, die seeing you in it," the eldest of the Waterflower sisters trilled.
Misty narrowed her eyes at Daisy; if it had been Lily or Violet insisting she wait to see what they were getting her into she'd have ripped the packing open right away, but Daisy was generally more trustworthy.
Besides, what did Misty really know about catching the attention of boys? Her sisters were good at this sort of thing and they had promised her that even someone as dense as Ash wouldn't be able to resist her in the swimsuit they'd chosen for her.
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So she'd agreed in a moment of weakness and now she found herself cursing while staring down at the white swimsuit with tiny embroidered blue flowers on a triangulated top, which, while a bit thin on fabric, wasn't the real problem. The real problem was the matched piece to the set that seemed to lack anything other than a tiny string to cover her posterior.
The card that had been in the box with the swimsuit seemed to indicate that her sister's had predicted that Misty would be frustrated when she realized what they'd gotten her into:
It's Sevii style.
You'll knock him dead.
And don't even bother looking for your spare suit, we graciously swiped it from your bag because we love you.
Good luck, baby sis!
The only chance her sisters had at evading certain death was if this convoluted idea somehow managed to work out in Misty's favor.
Another big sigh escaped her and she pulled jean shorts over what she hardly considered a swimsuit bottom. For as much help as her sister's thought they were being, far lesser things had been considered scandal in the sleepy town of Pallet.
"What took so long?" Ash puzzled as Misty finally exited the room, giving her a curious stare.
"I just had some issues with the swimsuit my sisters got me," Misty earnestly replied.
Ash shrugged before darting down the hall to hurriedly grab two clean towels from the linens closet. Mrs. Ketchum was away for her first vacation in years and had left Ash to house-sit, though she still didn't trust him to have properly cleaned towels or underwear so she'd stocked the house with plenty of both.
"Looks fine to me," Ash mumbled, not really paying attention as he handed Misty the second towel and directed them out of the house towards the research center on the hill with Pikachu happily perched on his shoulder.
In Ash's opinion, Misty always looked great, but he didn't want to be caught staring so he'd only hastily glanced over at the swimsuit top enough to know it was blue and white and accentuated certain features she usually hid. He did his best to ignore things like this or he ended up having some mildly confusing thoughts about his best friend...and he was in no mental state to start to unravel that tangled mess of emotions that had only grown more complicated as the years went on.
It was far easier not to look and pretend all was fine.
When they arrived at the top of the hill they found Brock lounging in a deck chair while Gary and Tracey took turns diving off a makeshift diving board that they'd strung together out of loose items from the Oak shed.
"Are you sure the professor is okay with us using one of the pokemon pools for swimming?" Misty interjected as they arrived, her reluctance returning.
"There's no water pokemon studies going on at the moment and it's not as if these are wild pokemon anyway," Gary replied in confusion.
Ash eyed the redhead at his side carefully. Usually Misty was the first in any body of water, but her hesitation paired with the stream of swear words he'd heard through the door earlier seemed to indicate something was up. This was the first time he'd seen her in several months and he'd planned the pool day as a special surprise for her (not that the other's had complained as there wasn't much to do in Pallet anyway).
"Why don't you want to swim?"
Ash had never been one for subtlety, especially when it came to people skills.
Misty's face flushed red as she met his eyes.
"My sister's gave me a swimsuit that isn't really built for swimming."
Her voice was tinged with embarrassment. Ash braved another glance over her swim attire, but couldn't seem to figure out what the root problem was. She'd worn swimsuits with thin straps before; by now she had to know he wouldn't do anything to make her lose the top. He valued his life too much and she would undoubtedly kill him if he so much as tried to embarrass her that way.
"Don't you usually keep a spare or three? I swear you had more swimsuits than changes of clothes when we traveled together," Ash teased the flushed redhead.
"I'll bet you were counting them, huh Ashy-boy?" Gary teased splashing his rival from the deep end of the pool.
"I wasn't counting; I'm just more observant than people give me credit for," Ash grumbled in response.
"Only when it comes to-" Brock started before Ash grabbed Misty around the waist and dove them both into the deep end of the pool with a resounding splash before Misty could hear the conclusion to Brock's statement.
"What the heck, Ash?!" Misty griped when she surfaced, "what if this fabric wasn't meant to go in water?"
Ash shrugged, "your sisters are clueless, but I doubt even they'd get you a swimsuit that couldn't get wet. Besides, you don't even like it from what I can tell."
"I like it just fine. I'm just not sure why they thought it would be a good idea to get me a Sev-nevermind," Misty hastily shook her head and pulled herself out of the pool.
"What did they get you?" Ash childishly asked as he watched the redhead wrap a towel around her torso and maneuver to remove the soaked short bottoms without revealing the swim bottoms.
"Something you're not old enough to be privy to," Misty taunted. "I'm going to sit here and hang out with Brock. You were so eager to swim today so why don't you get to that."
"We're the same age!" Ash retorted swimming up to the edge of the pool and attempting to splash the lounge chair from a distance.
"Physically, sure; mentally, far from it," Misty grinned, enjoying the sour face the raven-haired teen gave in response.
Realizing he was getting nowhere, Ash swam up to the pokemon watcher who was playing with Marill in the shallow end.
"Hey Trace, do you have any idea what Misty's griping about? Did Daisy tell you anything?"
Tracey looked at the younger trainer with an amused grin. The only way Ash would know about Tracey's relatively new relationship with Daisy was through Misty so it appeared the younger pair kept in communication more than they led the group to believe.
"Daisy may have mentioned something," Tracey chuckled.
"Care to share?" Ash sourly queried.
He felt like there was some big joke he was being left out of and he didn't much care for it. Lately it seemed like everyone had been trying to push him and Misty together, not that Ash hadn't thought about it over the years, but with the pressure coming from all directions, it made them both retreat further from the other much to the remainder of the group's amusement.
"Sorry, Ash, I'm sworn to secrecy. If you want to know then you'll have to talk to that one," Tracey sheepishly shrugged pointing to Misty who was amicably chatting with Brock.
Ash tried his best to forget about it and just enjoy the pool day as intended, but swimming seemed lackluster without Misty to race and annoy. Granted he generally lost at fair swimming matches against the tomboyish mermaid, but he wasn't above playing dirty when it came to the swim given it was sure to get a rise out of her. Now with no Misty to race he was reduced to racing Gary, and racing Gary just didn't have the same effect. Ash quickly realized the dirty tricks he'd pull on Misty to even the score were much too tactile to try on someone platonic like his oldest rival. So Ash lost race after race, much to referee Tracy's amusement.
Eventually a dejected Ash stepped out of the pool and plopped down next to Misty on the lounger beach chair she was occupying.
"Get your own chair, Mr. Pokemon Master. There's more in the lab," Misty griped, not enjoying the fact that he was deliberately edging into her space to soak her finally dry chair.
"No thanks; I'm plenty comfortable right here," Ash devilishly grinned, lounging back and laying himself partially over her left side, tossing a loose arm over her in a lazy embrace as he did.
Because of their proximity he couldn't see the intense blush that bloomed over her face until it spread down her neck. Ash's face had found its way into the crux of her shoulder and he decided he was too comfortable to move as Misty was radiating plenty of heat as the wind blowing cumulonimbus clouds from the north came with a bitter chill.
It really shouldn't have surprised Misty that Ash was acting this way. Whenever he came home from traveling with whatever new group of friends he'd found, he became exceptionally needy for attention from her. He claimed he missed her and his actions gave her no reservations on that statement. Still, he often also seemed touch-starved in a way she couldn't quite understand. When she thought back to their time traveling together she didn't remember as much contact between the two of them. Sure there was the occasional fight that got out of hand, they had no trouble grabbing onto one another in times of crisis, and one of them gladly dragged the other around in times of celebration, but this was concentrated and generally closer, less platonic violations of personal space. Not that she minded, it just confused her that Ash of all people was the instigator.
"Didn't your mother teach you that PDA wasn't polite?" Gary teased as he returned from fetching another lounge chair from the storage area of the lab.
"Nope," Ash grinned, nuzzling his face further into Misty's shoulder and earning a frazzled 'eep' from the confused girl.
"Is this your way of telling us you're finally dating?" Brock grinned knowing the series of events about to unfold. Ash and Misty's denial was rather predictable, though the vehemence with which claims were getting denied was losing it's gusto as the years went on.
"We're not dating!" Came the unified reply.
It was more of a mutter, than the shouts of denial from their youth, but the semblance remained.
"Could've fooled me," Tracey chuckled, "though I've been convinced you two were ready to start something at the Orange League."
As expected, that statement ignited the argument between Misty and Ash that left the other three boys to spectate and occasionally egg-on or referee depending on circumstances.
Finally frustrations reached a boiling point.
"Get your own chair Ash," Misty grumbled so low he felt the vibrations of her voicebox tickling his forehead.
"Too comfy," He protested, snuggling closer to her. This had become a new way to annoy her and part of him had to admit he enjoyed the contact. And the boundary pushing.
Brock and Tracey snickered as they saw Misty's exasperated eye roll. They could tell from her expression that her patience was wearing thin.
"You have three seconds to get off me, Ketchum. Three..."
...
"Two..."
...
On one she shoved him with all the force she could manage given her partially immobilized status. Ash landed sprawled facedown on the concrete while Misty moved to stand and go grab herself a fresh chair as she knew he would just find his way back into her current chair. In the detangle of limbs he'd managed to snatch the towel that had previously been secured around her waist and he used it to cushion his fall.
A low whistle from Gary caught Ash's attention.
"Yep, that is definitely not a swimming swimsuit," Gary grinned teasingly.
Finally noticing the cause for distraction, Ash became frozen in place, staring with mouth agape. He wanted to tackle Gary for staring at his...
Girlfriend? No that wasn't it...
Best friend? That didn't seem right either...
His Misty?
Just Misty?
His brain wasn't making sense of things and he continued to stare wide-eyed as Misty grabbed her still wet shorts and haphazardly jammed herself into them before sprinting down the hill.
By the time Ash registered what had happened she was already a speck at the base of the large hill that overlooked the small town. He leapt to his feet, quickly smacked the back of Gary and Tracey's heads, and darted down the hill after her. Brock had been a gentleman for once, and had chosen not to look, having been alerted ahead of time by Tracey as to the nature of the swimsuit.
As Ash sprinted after Misty, he heard Tracey talking to what must have been Daisy on the phone, "it worked just like you said it would. She was flustered so he spent the entire time trying to figure out why, and the only time I've seen him that immobilized was when he was accidentally been hit by stun spore...If he hadn't figured out what hormones were before this, he knows now."
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Next chapter has a storm brewing!
If you're enjoying, you can give this little threeshot a like, follow, or comment if you'd like. I generally write for me, but I always love knowing it made someone else happy too.
-FWFT
