Hey everyone! I decided to upload this chapter a few days early; I'm really excited about it, so wanted to get it out to you as soon as possible!

Chapter 6: Sharing a Dream

Ash had decided it was best to let Misty decide when she was ready to speak to him. He was grateful that she had been willing to make any kind of contact with him…even if it was in the midst of her crying her eyes out.

Although he wasn't sure what had gotten her so upset. It couldn't have possibly been their argument from yesterday…could it? Ash knew Misty was under a tremendous amount of stress, so as much as he had disliked having the fight with her in the first place, he didn't really take it personally. But maybe Misty didn't think that way and was taking it too hard. She definitely tended to overthink things more than him, stressed out or not. He wanted to reassure her he wasn't upset, but he also didn't think it was the best idea to interrupt her while she was getting all of her pent-up emotions out of her system.

So, he just kept his mouth shut and held her in his arms, letting her wail without interruption.

Eventually, however, Misty began to slow down. Before long, she was reduced to nothing more than sniffles, and finally, pulled herself away from Ash.

"Sorry," she apologized softly, her eyes and nose visibly red.

"Don't be," Ash murmured, smiling encouragingly at her. "Something tells me you needed that."

Misty frowned and slowly nodded. "It's been…a lot."

"I know," Ash replied.

Looking down at her hands, Misty continued, "I…I want to apologize for yesterday. You were just trying to help me, but I was acting really stupid and being terrible to you for no good reason."

"No, you weren't," Ash calmly argued.

Misty glanced back up with an incredulous expression on her face. "Come on, now's not the time to be all sweet to me. You can admit that I was a total nightmare and I wouldn't get offended, because it's true."

Ash shook his head. "Having that fight sucked, I'll give you that. But I honestly think we've had worse…no matter what Pikachu tries to tell me."

Misty shifted her eyes down towards the sleeping Pokémon and giggled lightly before sobering up. "Still…that doesn't excuse the way I reacted, and I'm really sorry. I hope you can forgive me."

Ash grinned so wide it looked like it could've cracked his face in half. "Of course! Don't even think about it."

Misty smiled weakly, rubbing at her eyes. "Thank you; that means a lot. At least no matter what happens, I know I still have you."

"You'll always have me," Ash confirmed with a chuckle. "Promise!" After winking playfully at her, he tentatively asked, "so…how did that interview go?"

Her smile suddenly turned a lot wryer, much to Ash's confusion. "It was a total disaster. But, at the end of the day, I guess that's what I deserved."

"Hey, don't say that!" Ash cried. "What makes you think it was so bad?"

Wincing, Misty explained, "Agatha called me out on my insecurity right away. She could tell just by looking at me that I was bothered by something. And she basically said that if I was going to let something silly like that distract me, then I was going to be doing the entire Elite Four a disservice."

Ash wrinkled his nose. "That's kinda harsh, isn't it?"

Misty shrugged. "I guess so…but who am I to argue? She's not exactly wrong."

"Yeah, but she could've been a little nicer about it," Ash grumbled.

Misty smirked. She knew Ash was just getting a little protective of her. It was very sweet, and she'd be lying if she didn't say it was making her heart flutter. "Either way, it all comes back to me. I didn't walk into the interview with my usual confidence, and it came back to bite me. I let this whole situation get the better of me, and that was a big mistake."

Ash frowned but said nothing else. He didn't want to argue with Misty and rile her up all over again. Besides, as much as he wanted to assuage her, he knew she had a point.

"Did she say when she'd let you know about the job?" Ash asked, curiosity getting the better of him.

"She said in a couple of days, but I'm almost positive she won't be picking me," Misty sighed. "And you know what? That's okay. If I was this worried about getting the job and having to face you in a battle, then I obviously didn't deserve to get it. Maybe I just need more time to train and get myself ready for such a big responsibility."

Ash smiled weakly at her. They both knew full well that an opening in the Elite Four didn't come around very often. This might have been Misty's only shot at the title. But she really did seem at peace with herself, and at the end of the day, that was all Ash wanted for her.

"Besides, now I can fully focus on cheering you on!" Misty added, regaining Ash's attention. "After all, you need my coaching if you want to go far in the champion's league."

Ash smirked and playfully rolled his eyes. "You really think so, huh?"

Misty giggled and nodded. "You said it yourself: I was the one who kept you going during the Indigo Conference!"

"You sure do have a long memory," Ash quipped, his eyes glinting with mischievousness. "I'll have to keep that in mind!"

Her own eyes twinkling, Misty seemed prepared to respond with something just as playful, but she was ultimately interrupted by an unexpected, piercing scream.

The sudden sound caused Ash to fall right off the couch where they were sitting, and jolted Pikachu from his formerly sound sleep. Misty, meanwhile, had jumped to her feet, her face wild with panic.

"What was that?!" She gasped.

"I don't know!" Ash cried, scrambling to get up from the floor. "I thought we were the only people in here!"

"Apparently not…" Misty murmured.

Another scream, just about identical to the first, sliced through the air once more, causing Misty to charge towards the battle area. Once Ash had managed to stand back up, and Pikachu had jumped onto the man's shoulder, he followed right after the gym leader, fearing for her safety. After all, this wouldn't have been the first time that intruders had gotten into the gym.

"I think I should tell Misty to invest in a better security system," Ash muttered to his partner Pokémon.

"Chu…" Pikachu agreed.

As soon as Ash crossed the threshold into the battle area, however, he was surprised to see none other than Daisy ducking down in front of the gym's bleachers, hunched over on the floor with her hands pressed against her head.

"Daisy, seriously?!" Misty stormed. "You scared me and Ash half to death! What are you doing here?"

"I forgot my bag!" Daisy cried, barely looking up at her younger sister. "I had to come back here and get it; I couldn't go the rest of the night without my phone!"

"Wait…how'd you get in here?" Ash followed up. "You guys let me in; I watched you all walk away! And we," he motioned between himself and a still agitated Misty, "definitely didn't see anybody come in through the front."

"I came in through the back door," Daisy grumbled. "I knew you and Misty were probably having some kind of super intense, emotional conversation, and as much as Lily and Violet wanted me to eavesdrop, I didn't want to bother you! I was trying to be discreet!"

"Yeah, we could tell by all the screaming," Misty muttered, trying to ignore the fact her two other sisters were once again trying to intrude on her personal life. "What was that for, anyway?"

"And why are you balled up on the floor like that?" Ash added.

"Ugh, you both ask too many questions!" Daisy cried, finally unfurling herself but still remaining crouched low. "I left my bag on the bleachers, so I was just going to sneak in and out to grab it, but then I was attacked by a couple of ghost Pokémon!"

"Ghost Pokémon?" Misty repeated, sounding incredulous.

Ash hummed and looked around the room. "I don't see anything."

"Duh, because they're ghosts!" Daisy snapped.

"Well then, how did you see them?" Misty questioned.

"Because they were literally harassing me!" Daisy bit. "Even I know that ghost Pokémon can make themselves invisible if they don't want to be seen!"

"I bet Daisy's screaming scared them off," Ash surmised.

"They wouldn't be the first," Misty sighed.

"Misty, quit making jokes!" Daisy fumed, finally standing up straight. "This is a serious problem! There are wild Pokémon in the gym!"

"Dais, no offense, but I don't see any sign of there being stray Pokémon in here," Misty replied, crossing her arms. "If they were really attacking you, wouldn't there be some kind of visible damage?"

Daisy looked exasperated. "They're GHOSTS!"

"Right, who can still use attacks," Misty reminded her. "A ghost type attack would still leave behind some kind of damage."

"But they weren't using their attacks on me," Daisy stressed. "They were just coming after me! Floating around my head and scaring me and stuff."

Misty glanced over at Ash, trying to gauge his reaction. He may have been dense about a lot of things, but Pokémon were not one of them. She trusted his knowledge on them, and figured he'd probably have a good idea of whether or not he thought Daisy had actually seen something like a bunch of ghost types.

"I guess it's possible they were in here," Ash murmured, tilting his head. "But I don't know if they were trying to bother you. Ghost types do tend to be pretty playful, after all. If they were actually in the gym, they might've just been trying to get Daisy's attention."

Misty smiled. She knew she could count on Ash to try and talk her sister down! On the matter of wild Pokémon, at least. "See? Ash knows what he's talking about! You're probably best off just taking your bag back home now and forgetting about the whole thing."

Daisy, however, was not convinced. Narrowing her eyes, she growled, "I'm telling you what I saw, and those ghost Pokémon were not trying to play!"

Misty groaned and rolled her eyes. "I think you're being a little ridiculous."

"I am not!"

While Misty and Daisy went back and forth with one another, Ash continued to think about the matter at hand. He didn't really believe any Pokémon was inherently bad, so he also didn't believe a random group of Pokémon would truly pester Daisy for no apparent reason. Unless, of course, they felt they had a reason to…

As he continued to ponder it, Ash felt something cold run against the back of his neck, sending a shiver up his spine. Frowning, he looked over at his shoulder and murmured, "Pikachu, don't do that! You scared me."

Pikachu, for what it was worth, appeared positively confused. "Pika?"

Ash blinked. "Didn't you just lick the back of my neck?"

"Pi…"

The young man paused, his heart speeding up a little. "Okay, so…if it wasn't you…what was it…?"

He slowly turned his head further, and locked eyes with the perpetrator, his breath catching in his throat.

"M-Mist…"

"Not now, Ash," Misty sighed. "I'm still trying to convince Daisy she's crazy."

"Um…I don't think she is."

Groaning, Misty pleaded, "come on, you were on my side a minute ago! And you actually made a logical argument! Don't turn on me now."

"I'm not!" Ash cried. "Because I was wrong!"

Misty was about to ask why he would say that, but as she spun around to face him, she realized why he was relenting and let out her own shuttered breath, taking a big step back towards Daisy. The blonde looked up, and as soon as she saw what both Ash and Misty had seen, she let out another ear-splitting scream.

"I told you!" She shouted, grabbing onto Misty's shoulders and shaking the stunned red head. "I told you there were ghost types in here!"

A gaseous purple figure with sharply narrowed eyes and a wicked grin shot up from behind Ash and into the air, rising until it was floating above the trio's heads.

"Haunter," Ash breathed, sounding quite mystified despite the fact that his nerves were fraying.

"How did it get in here?!" Misty cried, shrugging her sister's hands off of her.

"How many times do I have to tell you because it's a ghost?!" Daisy snapped.

Haunter stuck its tongue out and began laughing wildly, causing Misty to inch closer to Ash instead. As the gas Pokémon guffawed, three other hazy purple figures materialized around it with equally sinister looks on their faces.

"Gastly?" Misty questioned. "This is so strange…"

"Oh, please don't tell me the gym was built on some kind of ancient burial ground!" Daisy wailed. Ash and Misty slowly looked back towards her with unimpressed looks, leading Daisy to huff, "what? I watch a lot of TV!"

Haunter laughed again, and this time, the three Gastly flew forward, firing off a series of shadow balls at the humans.

"Look out!" Ash cried, grabbing onto Misty's wrist and yanking her out of the way. Daisy, on the other hand, shrieked and jumped over the front of the bleachers, hiding behind the short wall.

All three managed to avoid getting hit, the shadow balls colliding with the floor and leaving everyone unscathed. Pikachu growled from Ash's shoulder and jumped down protectively in front of his trainer and Misty, his cheeks sparking as he glared at the menacing ghost types.

"Great!" Ash cheered, releasing a flustered Misty. "Let's fend them off, buddy!"

"Hold on!" Misty cried, regaining Ash's attention.

"What?" He asked.

"This is my gym, I'll be the one to protect it," Misty declared, retrieving her own poke ball.

"Come on, Mist," Ash sighed. "At least let me and Pikachu help out! Four against one really isn't fair. If there's two of us, at least we can cut them in half."

Misty seemed reluctant, but after a brief moment of consideration, she let out a puff of air and relented, "fine. We'll work together."

Ash grinned as Misty tossed her poke ball, crying, "Psyduck, let's go!"

The duck Pokémon appeared beside Pikachu, quacking confusedly. As soon as he realized the four ghost type Pokémon were grinning down at him, however, he let out an alarmed cry, causing Pikachu to sigh.

"Maybe not the best choice…" Ash chuckled nervously.

Misty growled and clenched her fist. "It'll be fine. Psyduck, use water pulse!"

Although he was still nervous, Psyduck used his wings to fire off a ball of water at the ghost Pokémon, who easily avoided the attack.

"Or not…" Misty sighed out of frustration. Ash sweat dropped, but quickly regained his composure, refusing to let the ghost types get the better of them.

"Let's go! Pikachu, use quick attack!"

The electric mouse broke out into a sprint before jumping up at Haunter…and slipping right through him.

"Huh?!" Ash gasped before realization hit him. "Oh right…normal type moves have no effect on ghost types!"

"Nice job, Mr. Champion," Misty bit, narrowing her eyes at him.

"I wasn't thinking!" Ash cried.

"Do you ever?" Misty snapped.

"Excuse me but could you two please save your lovers' quarrel for another time?!" Daisy shouted, having just popped her head up from behind the bleacher wall.

"It's not a lovers' quarrel," Misty muttered, though she sounded much less convincing than usual.
"Psyduck, psycho cut!"

"Psycho cut?!" Ash exclaimed, whipping around just in time to witness Psyduck slashing Haunter across the face with blades made of psychic power. "How'd you manage that one?!"

"I taught it to him," Misty replied, not taking her eyes off of the battle. "He doesn't even need to have a headache to use it!"

Ash made a noise of interest. He knew Misty was a talented trainer, but he found that to be particularly impressive, knowing that Psyduck was not the easiest Pokémon to work with. Still, he knew he couldn't let Misty try to take on the ghost Pokémon by himself. He needed to get over his previous misstep and order another, more effective attack.

"Pikachu, iron tail!"

His partner managed to strike the trio of Ghastly with his glowing tail, in perfect succession. All three were left reeling, earning an impish grin from Ash.

"Nice work!" He complimented his Pokémon. "Now, use electroweb!"

Still in the air, Pikachu swung his tail and fired off a web of electricity, netting the three Ghastly and Haunter inside of it. The ghost types struggled against it, trying to get past the crackling netting, but were continually electrocuted in their attempts.

"Misty, go!" Ash cried.

"Psyduck, use hydro pump!" Misty ordered, not missing a beat.

The duck Pokémon opened his beak and fired off a heavy flow of water, of which the Ghastly and Haunter could not escape from thanks to Pikachu's electroweb holding them back. The water combined with the electricity caused double the amount of damage to the ghost types, causing them to cry out in pain before falling listlessly to the ground.

"Awesome!" Ash cheered, turning towards Misty with a bright smile on his face. "That was great!"

"It was," Misty agreed. Her own smile far more subdued than Ash's, but she still found herself positively enchanted by just how ecstatic Ash was.

Down by their feet, Pikachu and Psyduck exchanged cheerful looks, giving one another a high five for their efforts.

"Ugh, thank goodness," Daisy sighed, draping herself over the bleacher wall. "That could've become such a disaster if we didn't step in!"

"Who's we?" Misty asked, raising an eyebrow. "Ash and I took care of all the battling while you hid in the bleachers the whole time!"

"I was sending you positive vibes from back here," Daisy calmly argued. "So, I was part of the battle in spirit!"

"Right…" Misty sighed, rolling her eyes. Ash chuckled at the exchange, leading Misty to show off a much wryer smirk.

"Ah, now that was the Misty I was expecting to meet."

Misty's eyes snapped open as she whipped her head around to face the doorway to the battle area. Standing there was someone who she was not expecting in the slightest but had become quite familiar with over the course of the last few hours.

"A-Agatha?"

The graying blonde smirked and stepped forward, using her carved wooden cane to assist her. "In the flesh."

"But…what are you doing here?" Misty asked nervously. "I thought you said you'd let me know about your decision in a few days."

"I know what I said," Agatha commented. She said it plainly; there was no snark or sarcasm in her tone. "But the longer I thought about it, the more I realized just how unsatisfied with our conversation I was. After all, there was a reason you were at the top of my list to interview for my position. And the fact that I didn't see any of it during your interview was disappointing. I knew I wasn't seeing you at your best, and that was what I wanted."

"Oh," Misty murmured, still not fully understanding what Agatha was getting at. "So…did you come here for another interview?"

After a short pause, Agatha replied, "not quite."

Reaching into the small handbag that was slung over her shoulder, the older woman retrieved four poke balls and held them out towards Gastly and Haunter, enveloping the Pokémon in a swathe of red light and returning them to their rightful spheres.

Misty was stunned, and without thinking, Ash blurted out, "wait…those are your Pokémon?!"

"Indeed," Agatha confirmed before turning her head and smirking at him. "Hello, young champion."

Ash suddenly realized he had spoken out of turn, bringing an embarrassed blush to his face. Sheepishly rubbing the back of his neck, he managed to eek out a nervous, "um…hello!"

"Oh, thank Arceus this place isn't haunted," Daisy groaned, holding a hand over her heart.

Agatha appeared bewildered, to which Misty quickly pleaded, "ignore her; she's crazy."

Daisy glared at the back of her sister's head, but otherwise kept quiet. Agatha, on the other hand, must have found some amusement in Misty's quip, as her already rare smirk managed to widen.

"What I saw here today was far more indicative of your true self than what I saw back in my office," Agatha noted, heeding Misty's advice.

The gym leader raised an eyebrow. "You mean mine and Ash's battle against your ghost type Pokémon?"

"Indeed."

Misty frowned. "But that's the thing. I didn't battle them on my own. I had help. From the Indigo League champion, no less."

"There's nothing wrong with receiving some help every now and again," Agatha assured her. "Besides, I already know that you and this young man have been friends for a very long time; it has nothing to do with his current title or anything of the sort. No offense, of course."

She had directed that last statement to Ash, who visibly stiffened up. "Heh, none taken!"

"The two of you worked excellently together," Agatha continued, glancing back over at Misty. "And, perhaps even more importantly, I was able to see your true colors. You're determined, you're strong, you think on your feet, and perhaps most importantly of all, you aren't afraid to lean on your friends when you need them."

Out of the corner of her eye, Misty could see that Ash was smiling sweetly at her. Willing to take the risk in front of Agatha, Misty ever so slightly inclined her head and gave him her own smile, which only led to Ash's widening.

"With all that being said," Agatha concluded, regaining Misty's attention. "I would like to offer you the Elite Four position."

Ash and Daisy both gasped, but Misty just stood still, needing extra time to process what Agatha had just said. "Wait…really? You…you'd really offer me the job?"

Agatha confidently nodded her head. "Yes. You're exactly the kind of trainer who I want to take my place."

Misty was still in shock, but Ash was very much present. Jumping in front of her, he cheered, "Misty, this is so amazing! You've got to take it!"

She looked up at him, biting her lower lip. "You really think so, huh?"

"Of course!" Ash exclaimed. "You just heard everything Agatha said; you're perfect for the job! And it's what you've always wanted. Nothing would make me happier than knowing that you were able to achieve your dream!"

Misty smiled softly. Typical Ash. He was following his own dream, and closer to it than ever, but all he could talk about was her. And her dream. It was part of why she had such strong feelings for him. Ash was an amazing guy, and an even better friend. But still, his dream was just as important to her as her own was. She wanted to be just as good of a friend to Ash as he was to her. After all, if they both believed in each other, no matter what happened, they would always have each other.

And so, Misty looked away from Ash, towards an expectant Agatha, and offered her an appreciative grin.

"Thank you, Agatha. I really appreciate it! And…I think I know what I want to do."

What, you thought I was going to tell you Misty's decision without a cliffhanger? Not a chance!

So, what are we thinking? Does Misty accept the position or not? The epilogue is coming up!