Grass rustles as a backpack is set down. Night is falling and in the pinkish glow of dusk Ash is sleepily plotting out the evenings events and trying to decide if he should just skip it and sleep.
"Today was rough." he thinks to himself.
Ash slumps down and lays on the grass in the small clearing he found and turns to his traveling companion who is also lacking heavily in the energy department, evident by their slumped shoulders and drooping head
"we've been crawling through this forest getting jumped by pissed off pidgeys all day and getting no closer to the next town. What does the map say misty? Are we even close yet?"
"I don't know ash, you check the map. You were the one so keen on taking this route. I wish you would have listened to me when I suggested we DON'T take the dark and overgrown path.."
Sensing Misty's frustration ash drops his line of questioning and try's to think of a good way to smooth this over. Last thing he wants is for the two of them to go to sleep mad at each other like they seemed to so often years ago.
Misty and ash have been trekking across what seems like the known world for roughly 15 years now. Crossing kanto, jotho, sinnoh and more. Some would say (surely misty would agree) they've seen it all AND MORE. but even after all these years misty has grown quite fond of ash's company, as dumb and oblivious as he can certainly be at time, she's certainly noticed that he at least attempts to be less of a block head and actually listen to her when he's not going off halfcocked in search of some rare pokémon he happened to have heard about.
"you hungry misty? We have some bread left over from lunch if you'd like."
As ash rummages through his pack for a snack she glances over at him seeing his determined face, focused on finding bread. She smiles to herself knowing this is important to him and his way of trying to say sorry.
"sure, I could use a little something, but please tell me that we still have some of that razz berry jam left over. Plain bread does not sound appetizing at all!"
He pulls out the bread, a small knife and finds the jam. Juggling all of it so as not to dump it on the grass he generously spreads some razz berry on a slice of bread and hands it to misty.
She gives ash a small smile and takes a large bite, suddenly realizing how hungry she is.
"while this isn't my dream meal it certainly hits the spot ash. Please tell me we're going shopping when we hit town, a girl can't exist on bread and jam alone you know!"
Ash laughs loudly, knowing she's totally right. While he might be able to go for days eating nothing but what appears to be dried corn berry bars ash knows misty does like a bit more variety than he does.
"you got it misty, we'll do a nice shop and get plenty of supplies I swear!"
Ash looks up from his meal to misty and sees her savoring each bite. She's so in to it she doesn't seem to notice a bright red glob of jam that's currently residing on the tip of her chin. He chuckles quietly to himself but apparently not quite enough because not soon after misty shoots ash a stern look asking "what? What's so funny now!?"
"You've got jam on your chin, that's all I swear!"
"well why didn't you say something instead of just laughing at me?!"
"umm well it's cute is all, I couldn't help myself.."
Caught a little off guard by the comment misty quickly wipes the jam off her face and stares down at the ground. Though as surprised as she might have been, she can't help but laugh a little which sets them both off.
Settling down a little, misty watches as ash tosses some pokémon food low in the air which pikachu happily catches midair, landing softly to munch on his newly caught prize.
She's always been so amazed by how he seems to just get pokémon so easily. Never missing a beat when pikachu gets hurt. Always seeing him so proud when pikachu wins a battle no matter how one sided it might have been. It's certainly an endearing quality that makes travelling with him at least slightly more bearable.
"I think I'm ready to turn in for the night ash. Let's get some sleep ok?"
"oh yeah, it is getting late isn't it."
By the light of their camp lantern they each grab their bedroll and lay it out on either side of a small group of trees so as to give them each a small bit of privacy.
Dimming the light on the torch till eventually it feels as if he can't even see the tip of his nose in front of his face, ash pulls his blanket up to his neck saying "good night misty, I'll find us a path out of the forest in the morning. I promise I'll listen to you next time we're choosing where we go."
"night ash, you better!" she jokes as she rolls onto her side, hoping to find sleep quickly.