It's so nice that the site is finally working! Now I can finally see everyone's stories.

I wasn't sure what to do with this theme at first, and almost replaced it, but then I came up with a fun, simple idea that I thought would be a really nice portrayal of Ash and Misty's relationship. Oh, and Pikachu! Because you can never have too much Pikachu.

Touch

"What's this?"

"Don't touch it!"

"I didn't! I was asking what it was."

"Yeah, but I can tell you want to touch it."

"How?"

"The look in your eyes."

"That doesn't tell you anything!"

Misty scoffed and shook her head. "Spoken like a true man."

Ash smirked playfully at her. "So, you think I'm a true man, huh?"

"I'm sorry, I misspoke," Misty apologized, her tone seemingly genuine. "I should've said a true boy."

Ash scowled as Misty glided past him. "That's not funny."

"You're right, it's hilarious," Misty rectified, having now adopted the smirk herself. "Now, seriously. Don't touch that. I'll be right back!"

Before Ash could fire off his own retort, Misty had stridden out of the room and left him by himself. Huffing, Ash sat down on the nearby couch and once again glanced over at the side table, staring at the same object from before. Pikachu scurried up to his trainer, scaling the man's legs so he could take a look for himself. "Pi-ka?"

"Yeah, isn't it cool?" Ash asked. Pikachu turned to glare at his trainer, who was taken aback by such a look. "What?!"

"Pikachupi pi pika pi, Pikapi."

"I'm not gonna touch it," Ash grumbled. "Why do you guys all think I'm some kid who can't control himself?!"

"Pika pi kachu pi."

"Okay, well, I don't think that's fair."

Pikachu shrugged, unaffected by such feelings. Ash huffed and looked back over at the table. Sitting there was something he'd never seen before: a glass sculpture in an intricate, unclear shape filled with pure blue water.

Misty had certainly been protective of it from the moment he'd walked into the gym's lounge. Ash wondered if it was some kind of rare or valuable item. Perhaps it had been found in some kind of ancient fossil field? Or out at sea? Maybe it had the ability to boost a Pokémon's strength in battle. Or their speed. Or their agility.

It must at least be expensive, since Misty is so freaked out by me even looking at it.

Raising an eyebrow, Ash turned back towards Pikachu. "Hey buddy, can you tell if this is some kind of Pokémon thing?"

Pikachu tilted his head, showing Ash that he wasn't sure of what his trainer meant.

"You know, like some kind of special power boosting thing," Ash tried to explain. "I didn't know if those types of things had a certain scent or what."

The electric type sighed and shook his head. They definitely didn't, but he figured there was no point in telling Ash that. Instead, Pikachu simply leaned into the object and gave it a little sniff before glancing up at Ash and muttering, "kachu."

"Can't tell, huh?" Ash sighed. He glanced over at the object once more and murmured, "maybe just a little poke…"

He reached out towards it, causing Pikachu to squeak out in alarm. Ash's arm jerked from the unexpected sound, his hand knocking into the glass item and sending it tumbling towards the floor. Ash gasped and threw himself off the couch, diving for the object. His body crashed against the linoleum; arms outstretched so his hands could catch the glass. As soon as he felt the cool smoothness against his palms, Ash let out a sigh of relief and sat up, gazing at the strange sculpture that was finally in his grasp.

Okay, so maybe he really had wanted to touch it. But not like this, after he'd almost broken it on accident just like Misty had been expecting.

"Ash!"

And speak of the devil…

Misty ran back into the room, kneeling in front of Ash and grabbing onto his shoulders. "Are you okay?"

The young man timidly glanced up at Misty, his brown eyes locking with her cerulean ones. They both stared at one another, their breaths ghosting off of one another's faces. Ash was expecting her face to reflect anger, with narrowed eyes and red cheeks, but it didn't. In fact, she looked downright concerned. What's more, Ash slowly became more and more aware of Misty's grip on him; her slender fingers holding him tightly, their warmth seeping through the fabric of his t-shirt.

Misty, on the other hand, fought the urge to hold Ash even tighter not because she wanted to strange him for disobeying her, but to get a better feel of the muscles in his shoulders. He looked so sweet, staring at her with those big wide eyes of his, and she had to resist the urge to lean forward and kiss him. It certainly was hard to stay mad at him with a face like that.

Clearing her throat, Misty reluctantly let go of Ash and repeated, "are you okay? I heard gasping and crashing so I came running."

"Uh…yeah," Ash stammered, still sounding rather distracted. "It's just…uh…your glass thingy almost fell on the floor so I had to jump and catch it."

Ash held the sculpture up for Misty to see, leading to her eyebrows raising. "Were you touching it?!"

"No!" Ash cried. "I was only going to poke it. But I didn't! Pikachu scared me and I ended up hitting it off the table by accident!"

Pikachu looked displeased to be implicated in the current situation, but otherwise chose to keep any kind of defense to himself.

Misty sighed and took the glass figure out of Ash's hands. "I knew you wanted to touch it. Can't I leave you alone for five minutes?"

"Guess not," Ash begrudgingly admitted. "But come on, could you at least tell me what it is?! It's gotta be something really special since you were so worried about it! I'm dying to know!"

Misty scoffed before smirking, much to Ash's confusion. "It's just some tacky decoration Daisy bought from who knows where. It wasn't even expensive."

Ash's mouth fell open. "Seriously?!"

"Yep," Misty confirmed, nodding her head.

"Then why were you so adamant that I don't touch it?!" Ash cried.

"Because I know you, and I know you can't resist touching stuff you're not supposed to," Misty explained with a giggle. "It wouldn't have been as funny if you knew it was nothing interesting. Honestly, I wouldn't have minded if you ended up smashing the thing. I think it's kind of ugly."

Ash groaned and slumped against the couch. "You're going to be the death of me."

Misty smirked and inclined her head. "Come on, I'm not that bad."

"I thought I almost destroyed something valuable!"

"Well, that's your fault. Stop touching stuff you're not supposed to touch!"

At first I was going to make the object something that was actually valuable, but then I realized it'd be a whole lot funnier if it was actually junk that Ash was panicking over.

Last day tomorrow (already!) And I'll give you a little hint: I replaced the theme for it!