Set during Sinnoh, Dawn's perspective of Ash and Misty

It was when they were fishing for Buizels that Dawn noticed. After hearing rumors of an powerful wild Buizel, Ash was intent on catching it. His overconfidence in his abilities, however, was about the only in-character thing that occurred that day.

"Man, I am not getting any bites," Ash groaned as he pulled out the strangest fishing lure Dawn had ever seen. It was a shaped like a winking, red-haired girl wearing a yellow shirt, red suspenders, and jean shorts holding up her right index finger. Definitely not one the lures that were provided when they rented the fishing rods.

"I've never seen a lure like that," Dawn commented.

"This?" Ash asked as he held it up for her to see, "Cool, huh? I got this from Misty a long time ago," he told her proudly.

"Misty?" Dawn asked. This wasn't someone that she had met before, and she couldn't remember hearing about her before either.

"Right," Brock confirmed, "she's a friend of ours who is now the Cerulean City gym leader."

"Oh," Dawn replied. She was still a little confused, but that answer checked out. Ash and Brock had been traveling for a long time and met a lot of people along the way. "Let me give that thing a try," she asked as she held out her hand.

That's when things got weird. "No way, Dawn!" Ash snapped at her.

"Come on, Ash," Dawn said as she reached for his fishing pole, "why not?"

"Because I said so, ok!" He shouted. Now they were both tugging on it trying to pull it away from each other. Ash and Dawn had certainly had their share of arguments and usually one of them was clearly at fault. But this was something completely different. Dawn had no idea why Ash was getting so angry at her. She probably would have let it go had he not overreacted so much, but now she was curious about why he was being so territorial over a lure.

"Just as noisy as ever, I see," Zoey laughed as she walked up. With that, the argument was quickly dropped.

After telling Zoey all about this strong Buizel they heard about, Dawn's lure got a bite. The rumors were true, this Buizel sure was powerful. After it knocked out Piplup, Glameow, and Pikachu effortlessly, it stole all of their fishing poles before leaving the scene. This was when Dawn noticed that Ash angrily began to panic, and it didn't seem like it was because of the Buizel.

As they tried to hunt the Buizel down again, they found a whole stash of fishing rods hidden in a small alcove downstream. Apparently, it made a habit of stealing fishing poles from the unsuccessful trainers that tried to catch it.

"Wow, at least my lure is still in one piece," Ash said excitedly as Dawn noticed a look of relief wash over him. Then, she saw him hold the lure and just stare at it with a distant look on his face until the Buizel appeared again and snapped him out of it. She found it odd, but didn't have much time to ponder the situation because now she was more determined than ever to catch that Buizel. And after much struggle, she did!

Later that evening when the excitement died down, Dawn could not forget about the strange, overprotective way Ash acted about his lure. When the group got to a Pokemon Center, Dawn let her curiosity get the better of her. She excused herself to the computer, telling Ash and Brock that she was going to e-mail her mother.

Instead, remembering what Brock said, she logged on to the Pokemon League Database. Sure enough, under Kanto gym leaders, Misty was listed at Cerulean City. Dawn clicked on her name and her profile showed up. This was the girl on Ash's lure. The resemblance was uncanny.

Researching a little bit more, Dawn learned that Misty specialized in water type Pokemon, which made sense if she was modeling fishing equipment after herself. Her team was comprised of mostly Kanto and Johto native Pokemon. Trainers agreed that her strongest Pokemon was Psyduck, something Dawn found odd considering she had a Gyarados on her team. Digging deeper, Dawn was able to watch video clips of some of Misty's battles. She noticed Misty's battling style looked a lot like Ash's, even down to the victory pose.

Then she saw another link. 'Want a battle? Contact Misty!' Dawn hovered over it for a brief minute thinking about clicking on it.

"Planning your next gym battle?" she heard Brock tease from behind her. Dawn laughed nervously. "Dawn, what are you doing?" Brock asked.

"Um," Dawn sweat dropped as she scrambled for words, "I was just. You see, Ash's lure." Brock raised an eyebrow at her. "I just wanted to see what was up with that thing. Why wouldn't he let me see it? He's never acted that way before. Normally there's a reason why he argues like that," she finally said.

"And you thought Misty's Pokemon League profile would answer that question for you?" Brock asked sarcastically.

"Well, if Ash wasn't going to tell me."

Brock sighed, "There is a reason why Ash was being so territorial over that lure. But that's something that you'll need to ask him about. He'll tell you, but approach it gently, you know how he can be." Then Brock looked closer at the computer screen. "And having a gym battle against Misty won't give you the answers you want either," he laughed.

After their talk, Dawn finally decided that she would ask Ash about earlier. But she kept in mind what Brock told her, approach it gently. She took a deep breath and knocked on the door before she walked in. Once again, Ash had the lure in his hand while he and Pikachu were both looking at it. When he saw Dawn come in, he quickly tried to hide it.

"So, Ash," Dawn began tentatively, "why don't you tell me about your unique fishing lure. It seems like it's important to you. Where did you get it?"

"I told you, I got it from my friend, Misty," Ash said vaguely.

It took everything in Dawn to remain patient with him. "You said that, but what makes it so special?"

"I got it when I was battling Brandon at the Battle Pyramid. I wasn't doing so hot so she gave it to me to help cheer me up. It's kind of been a good luck charm for both of us now."

"How so?" Dawn asked. "It didn't exactly help you catch that Buizel," Dawn laughed as Ash shot her a dirty look.

"She called this one the 'Super Misty Lure Version 4," He said as he picked it up again, "we entered this Seaking catching competition when we were traveling around Johto and she won using it. After she gave it to me, I won the Battle Pyramid and earned the Brave Symbol. I've had it with me for all of my gym battles here in Sinnoh too."

"So tell me about Misty," Dawn said anxiously anticipating the response.

Ash's eyes grew wide, "W-what about her?" He asked nervously.

"She traveled with you in Johto?" Dawn inquired carefully.

"She traveled with me through Johto, Kanto, and The Orange Islands. Actually, I met her on the very first day of my Pokemon journey. She's an amazing water Pokemon trainer. At first she annoyed me a lot, always telling me I didn't know what I was doing. But when I met her, I guess I really didn't. I don't think I would have made it through those first steps without her."

"It sounds like she is pretty important to you, huh?" Dawn pried.

"Well, yeah, she's one of my best friends. Sometimes I miss traveling with her."

"Do you ever think that, you know, maybe she's something more than that?"

"I don't know what you're talking about!" Ash responded quickly.

"Yeah, you do," Dawn smiled, "If she wasn't, then why wouldn't you let me see her lure earlier? And why are you still looking at it now when you're not fishing?"

Ash let out a deep breath. He looked away and then looked back at Dawn. She was still staring at him waiting for an answer. "It's ok if you do," she told him, "I wouldn't tell anyone. Especially not Brock."

Ash looked nervously at her as Pikachu excitedly seemed to answer for him.

"I'll take that as a 'probably,'" Dawn laughed.

"Hey! I never said that!" Ash yelled.

"You didn't have to," Dawn smiled, "actions speak louder than words. But Ash, who really benefits from hiding the truth? Get it out there before it's too late."

With that, she left him alone, awestruck.

When Dawn left Ash's room, she found Brock outside, clearly having listened to the whole conversation.

"So," Brock began, "Did he tell you everything you wanted to know?"

"I guess so," Dawn said, "So how long has he been in love with her?"

"As long as I can remember," Brock told her, "She's the same way, but neither of them has ever been mature enough to admit it."

"Well we should do something to get them together!" Dawn exclaimed.

"No, Dawn, we can't!"

"Why not? If two people really like each other, they should be together!"

"You can't force true love. It has to happen on its own," Brock told her.

"That's rich coming from you," Dawn scoffed.

Brock frowned, "The thing that makes Ash such a great Pokemon trainer is that he is always in tune with his Pokemon's feelings. But the same can't be said for his own. That's why you need to promise you won't get involved," Brock said sternly, "They'll figure it out soon enough, but you can't do that for them."

"I promise," Dawn sighed disappointedly.

Late that night, Dawn tiptoed back to the computer. She remembered what Brock said, but she couldn't stand by and do nothing. That wouldn't help either. She logged back on to Misty's gym leader profile. She saw that link once again, 'Want a battle? Contact Misty!' She clicked on it and typed a short message that she knew would make a difference, even if it was small.

"Someone in Sinnoh is thinking about you today..."

I just want to keep you longer.