Chapter 4: Day 4-Writer's Block

Misty's POV

I wanted to make Snowflake feel a bit special, and I wanted to get my mind off of my lost job, so I took Snowflake to the library where I used to work. I know it's a terrible way of getting over it, however I did want to talk to my boss Ms. Naiomi. She's been there since the very beginning, after all her family owned the library. I know she did try hard to save it, but anyone could see that it was a lost cause. At least as a sign of good faith, Ms. Naiomi decided to have a free book special, giving out free books to anyone who wanted one. So I figured it might be a nice way to expand on Snow's reading capability.

Once we entered, Snowflake was so captivated by all the books around her.

She nearly squealed with glee. "Ahh this is amazing! So this is what a library looks like!"

I giggled. "Remember, Snow, this is a place where you're supposed to be really quiet."

She covered her mouth. "Oh yeah, sorry!"

Even though the bookcases were tall, they looked a bit bare. I guess they were almost done with the final move. We walked through the lobby area and climbed up the stairs, hoping we could find more books there. As soon as we walked up there was a long table with about ten stacks of books, a bit scattered, but still neatly piled up. As I grabbed Snowflake's hand and led her to the table, I could hear a feminine voice ring out.

"Welcome! Please feel free to take whatever you want! Oh! Hi there, Misty, it's good to see you!"

The voice belonged to a medium sized woman around 27 years old, wearing a black and white skirt set with a black blazer, dark, thin-rimmed glasses, and her long black hair tied up in a bun.

"Oh, hi Ms. Naiomi it's nice to see you too," I replied.

She smiled. "Oh is this the young girl you were talking about?" She looked to Snowflake. "I can tell she really has a passion for learning."

Snowflake was already curled up in a chair with a book in her lap, another book by her feet.

"Yeah," I said. "My cousin has always been interested in reading and trying different things. She's real adventurer." I couldn't help but show her off at least a little, even if she wasn't really my cousin.

Ms. Naiomi smiled happily, then took my hand and led me a few steps away. "I was hoping you would come. I wanted to apologize formally about all this, I know it's been sprung up on you and I didn't really give anyone a time to properly prepare for this."

"It's quite alright," I said. "I'm used to sudden situations."

"Well it's just you have been working here for about 10 years now and I hate to end it on such a sour note. Listen, Pewter City has been gracious to us and decided to let us have half of the Pewter Museum in order to hopefully combine the two. So if you ever need a job, Misty, I have some in mind for you," she reassured me, patting my shoulder.

I sighed and rubbed my head. "I thank you Ms. Naiomi, I really do, but I'm not quite ready to leave Cerulean yet."

"Well I suggest you take my advice," she told me, "Leave. Misty I grew up in this city the same as you, and I watched your gym fall. There's nothing in this town anymore, Misty. As much as I would like this city to go back to the way it used to be, in all honesty this has been a long time coming and it can't really get much better from here."

I nodded. "I know you're right, but I just still have a few loose ends to tie before I can officially leave here," I said.

"Well however you do it, please be sure to take care of yourself," Ms. Naiomi smiled looking to Snowflake, "And take care of that precious child over there. She just looks absolutely adorable."

I smiled and looked at Snow too, who was trying to read two books at the same time. "Yeah, don't worry about that. After all, she's my inspiration."

After spending some time in the library, we were on our way home. Snowflake was carrying two books while I was carrying three. I smiled, satisfied that my little Snow was so absorbed into learning about the world around it.

"I hate to be the bearer of bad news, Snowflake," I began to speak, "But are you sure you will be able to read all these books before you have to leave?"

"Don't worry," she replied, "After all your help, I can read much faster than a normal human can. Give me about an hour, and I'll have all these books read and done!"

I smiled. "Well I'm glad I was able to help. Ever since Ash became a substitute teacher about a year ago, I often wondered if I would ever be able to help anyone on the same scale. But I'm glad I found someone who appreciates my knowledge, even though I'm probably not as good as Ash is."

"Aw, nonsense Misty," Snowflake replied, "You and Ash have been such good teachers, equally good! You are just as good honest!"

I sighed, adjusting the books under my arm. "Well at least I'm still good for something, even after so much has already happened."

"I'm sorry about your gym," Snowflake said.

I looked to her surprised. "How did you know?" I asked.

"I heard May and Ash talking about it," Snow replied back. "It must have been pretty cool having an awesome place for your gym."

I sighed and chuckled a bit. "Well, people wanted to expand more on making this city look a bit different so they took some things away and added some things. One thing that was unfortunately taken away was my gym."

"So that amusement park isn't your gym?" Snowflake asked next.

"Of course not! My gym was a lot more symbolic and dignified than that money trap," I spat out. Then I looked at the confused in Snowflake's beautiful baby blue eyes and decided to change my spiteful tone. "But it was my decision and I can't dwell on it."

"Oh. Did Ash have a gym too?" Snow asked.

"Nope, he was just a trainer," I replied.

"Why did he stop being a trainer?" She asked next.

I hesitated, for as much as I wanted to tell her, for some reason it was hard to find the words.

"I don't think that's for me to say," I said.

I saw Snowflake's head fall and immediately felt bad. I remembered all that pain from seven years ago that seemed like it would never end and yet, for some reason when I looked at her eyes and saw her smile, the pain wasn't as intense anymore. But as much as I wanted to make her happy, I couldn't tell Ash's story, at least not like he could.

"It's just a bit hard for Ash to talk about," I began. "Even though it's been seven years since it happened, it's still hard to move on from it."

"I guess I can understand that," Snowflake agreed. "Things that happened, even though it was so long ago, I feel like I can't shake it. It's almost like a string of bad luck has always followed me around. Except for when I met you, and Ash and Pikachu."

I smiled, happy that I could make her has happy as she has made me. Thinking about her has always made me forget my own troubles, even though they are still there in my face. I decided to break down a bit, and tell her the truth about how things went so wrong for me.

"Well, if you really want me to say the story, I broke a mirror seven years ago. There's an old superstition that goes, don't break mirrors or it's seven years bad luck. I was never big into that sort of thing until I actually broke one. It seemed like ever since then my life hasn't been any better," I said.

Snow looked at me in confusion, but I guess she couldn't understand everything about human old wives' tales. But this part was sadly true, I did break a mirror seven years ago accidentally out of anger. It seemed like since that day, things have only gotten increasingly worse.

Being thoughtful I said, "You know, you never mentioned your old master. Was he the one who taught you to speak like a human?"

Snowflake nodded. "I think so," she replied. "I don't remember much about him."

"Well it has been a 1000 years," I said. "I know I wouldn't be able to remember that far back."

Snow laughed, "Wouldn't it be nice if you could?"

I laughed along with her. "I rather pass."

"But why?" Snowflake asked curiously.

"Remembering so much," I replied, "Seems like there might be more bad memories than good ones."

"My master would say, it's always the bad thoughts that help give you strength for the good thoughts," Snowflake replied.

We walked along home, just happy to enjoy each other's company, but we unfortunately came home to a dejected looking Ash sitting on the couch. His elbows were on his knees and his hands buried his face so that his hair casually graced his fingers. Pikachu was sitting by his side until he saw us, and with a happy cry, he came over to greet us.

"Pikachu!" Snowflake said with a smile, "Did you miss us?"

"Pi Pikachu!"

It was at this turn of events that Ash finally noticed us and looked up with a smile. "Hey guys," he said, "I didn't think you would be home this early. Did you have fun?"

Snowflake gathered all the books in her arms, including the ones I was holding, and bounced over to Ash happily.

"Look at all the books I got Ash," she replied, "Misty doesn't believe me when I say I can read all of these in an hour."

"Wow," Ash remarked, "I'd love to see you smash that goal. I doubt I can read five books in an hour."

I rolled my eyes and giggled. "He can't even read a newspaper article in an hour," I teased.

"Hey, it isn't my fault the pictures are distracting!" Ash replied back. And then he smiled. "Hey Snow, why don't you and Pikachu go into my room and read huh? Venusaur is in there waiting for you."

"Oh yeah!" Snowflake jumped up and down and happily said, "Let's go read Pikachu! We can totally do it with our lighting speed!"

Pikachu hopped on her shoulder as she bounded towards Ash's room, while I sat down on the couch next to Ash. Ash sighed and leaned back into his seat, tilting his head back so his eyes gazed upon the ceiling above us. I leaned forward, placing my hand on my chin, and looked to him quizzically.

"So Ash, you had a hard day?" I asked him.

He closed his eyes and sighed. "It couldn't be any harder."

My slight smile began to fade. "Alright what happened?"

I heard him sigh again and then he began to speak, "Alright so the landlady Ms. Crabapple came over today, and she brought someone with her…"

"You mean Ms. Crabble?" I interrupted.

"Whatever," he said. "Anyway she came by with this guy from the Federal Internal Affairs or something like that, and he was asking questions."

"What type of questions?" I asked.

"Well…" he sat up now and turned his head to look at me. "He was asking about Snowflake. I didn't say anything and I tried to feign innocence but it got a bit out of my control."

He went into another round of silence as he stared at the TV, I guess thinking that I would say something, but instead I urged him to continue.

"Well," he sighed again, "I kept telling him to leave and trying to cover it up but, that's when the guy started pointing at my chest and started threatening me with all these crazy ultimatums and then he had the nerve to grab my collar. So of course I shoved him off of me and he started arching back his fist like he was gonna take a swing at me, and that's when…"

"When?" I urged him again.

"That's when Pikachu came out from the back room. It was so fast I didn't even see him, nor did I have time to stop him. He gave the guy a swift Thundershock that send him back a little and then landed right back on my shoulder. Of course Ms. Crabapple saw the whole thing and started yelling and screaming at me, and then the other guy started yelling at me too, and then I started yelling back to defend myself. Well once the guy stormed off and I finally calmed down a little our landlady started squawking at me."

I couldn't help but noticed how distressed Ash looked, as if he was about to burst into tears. It hurt my heart to see him in his inner turmoil. I was about to say something until he began to speak again.

"She said since we broke the terms of service of our lease contract we have to leave. She gave us one week."

I could feel my eyes widen in absolute shock. "What?! Can she just do that?!" I asked.

"I broke the lease, Misty, no pokemon allowed remember?" Ash replied. "But I have been thinking, since Pikachu and Venusaur are my pokemon I could talk to Ms. Crabapple tomorrow and try to explain that you are innocent in all this so that way at least you can stay here and I'll leave. It's only fair."

I shook my head. "No Ash, I was the one who allowed you to stay here so therefore if you leave then I leave as well."

"But-"

"No," I interjected, "We decided when you moved in that we would go through things together right? So what kind of friend would I be if I left you in your time of need?"

"A smart friend who wouldn't hang around a person like me," Ash said.

I smiled and patted his back with my hand. "No way. I wouldn't ditch you, Ash. We're in this together no matter what, remember? If we go down we go down together and we go down fighting."

Ash looked to me and smiled slightly, then ran his fingers roughly through his hair. "God I'm so sorry Misty," he said. "This is all my fault. I wanted to protect you like the man I thought I was but at the end I only ended up making this worse."

He stood up and turned to look at me fully. "I think I could use a shower. Do you mind?"

"Ash why do you think I would keep up with your body hygiene? It's not like I'm going to come and wash your back or something," I said, rolling my eyes at him.

"Hey you know what at this point I wouldn't mind a nice back scrubbing," Ash murmured, winking at me.

I shoved him on the back playfully. "Just go already!"

I smiled as I heard his infectious laugh, then watched him enter the bathroom, shutting the door behind him. I exhaled deeply as I grabbed the remote and started flipping channels. I tried to forget the past few days but I really couldn't. With the loss of my job I probably wouldn't be able to pay rent anyway, but now with Pikachu's protective actions there was no need. I couldn't really blame the little rat, if it were me I would have punched that guy's lights out, not to mention give Ms. Crabble a few choice words. But now faced with the reality of having no money, no job, and no place to live, I realized there was only one soluble option.

Well Misty, time to swallow that foolish pride of yours.

I sighed again, finally settling on a random sitcom to watch, and leaned back on the couch. I closed my eyes, finally giving in to my stresses of the day as I listened to the sound of the shower running. My mind couldn't help but drift back, all the way back, to a long forgotten memory.

A quiet bathroom, a wet floor, a pulled back curtain, and the sound of a leaking faucet. Drip, drip, drip goes the sound, plaguing my every thought, my every emotion.

Drip. And there it was. Drip. A tub filled with water. Drip. And buried deep in the depths. Drip. Casually helpless. Drip. There laid the body. Drip. Of my deceased mother.

Drip. Her once sky blue eyes became blended with the murky water. Drip. Almost as if she was crying.

I remember hearing screaming, crying, and being pulled away, far away, from her body. And thus went the curtain, putting an end to the misery, closing her life completely. I however wasn't able to utter a sound. I don't know if it was because of the pure shock of it all, or maybe because I didn't truly understand the situation. I couldn't help but wonder, in the final moments, did she began to have doubts?

It seemed so far away now. It still felt like I could hear it. The sound of singing. Such a harmonic sound, a sweet heavenly voice, softly caressing my ear. And then she would turn to me and smile, a beautiful wide smile, and say my name, gently calling out to me, arms outstretched as if subconsciously pushing the world away from her. All of the world, except for me.

"Misty…"

I opened my eyes, with a bit of shock evident on my face, then blushed a little as I noticed Ash looking down at me. His wife beater shirt gently falling from his chest onto mine. His hands were on either side of me on the couch, his bent knees also on both sides of my body, not to mention his face was dangerous close to mine.

"Wha-What are you doing?" I whispered.

"You were crying in your sleep," his whispered back to me, his eyes filled with worry.

I gulped, feeling that familiar sudden sensation, my heart pounding loudly in my ears.

"I-I'm fine…" I whispered, a bit more faintly, feeling a tear roll down my cheek.

All of sudden, as if by instinct instead of reaction, his hand caressed my face, wiping the tear away. I shuddered, I don't know why but it felt nice feeling his hand on me...a bit too nice. Then, a more involuntary reaction, Ash quickly pulled away, muttering a "sorry" under his breath, and then stood up and cleared his throat.

"Uhm, maybe I should cook you something to eat huh?" He said, walking quickly to the kitchen. "What would you like?"

"Hamburgers!" A voice yelled from the hallway. Ash and I looked to see Snowflake bouncing up and down, Pikachu in her arms, skipping over the couch and sitting next to me.

"Oh hi Snowflake!" I exclaimed, reaching out to hug her. "Did you finish all those books already?"

It's amazing, I almost forgot she was here, after everything that's been happening.

"Yes! And they were all great!" She happily replied.

I heard Ash fumbling around the kitchen, dropping a pan and then quickly placing it on the counter.

"So," I asked next, "Out of all those books, which one was your favorite?"

"Hmm," she hummed thoughtfully, placing her hand on her chin, "I really like the story about the boys walking down the train tracks," she said. "I think they were trying to find a way home but missed the train."

I laughed gently. "Hey that's very good! You did a good job! And I bet Pikachu was a great help as well," I said, giving Pikachu a nice belly rub.

"Chaaa…" he sighed contently as Snowflake smiled.

"So you like belly rubs Pikachu?" She said. "I kind of want one too."

"Well then that can be arranged!" I stuck out my hand and rubbed it across her belly, which resulted in an eruption of laughter.

"Hahaha, that tickles!" Snow laughed, her body squirming with delight. Her laugh became infectious and soon Pikachu and I began to laugh too, trying our best to tickle her silly. It was then that I realized, no matter how crazy your day is, nothing keeps the worries away like a nice tickle.

So after we all sat down and ate dinner, which included another Pikachu ketchup lesson to Snowflake, and I safely put her in bed I began to sat down and go over our remaining finances.

"That dream you had...was it about your mother?"

The voice had broke our thirty minutes of silence and was almost unheard of because it was so low sounding.

I looked up from my paperwork. "Huh?"

"You were dreaming about your mother weren't you?" Ash asked.

I slowly looked to his seating position on the floor. He was absentmindedly fumbling around with a deck of playing cards.

I nodded. "Yes."

"It must have been hard for you...to be exposed to death so early in life," Ash murmured.

"Well you can't have life without death," I pointed out. "And besides you know how sick my mother was, so I suppose her death was...inevitable."

I couldn't help but think about her and her former position as the gym leader of Cerulean. Was it the small position of power that led her to be so unstable? Maybe the fact that my dad at died beforehand could have caused her unfortunate depression? Or maybe could she have foreseen the city's failure?

"I'm sorry, I know you don't like talking about it," Ash replied, his voice growing a bit louder. "I just thought it would help you."

I sighed, looking back down at the papers in front of me. "It doesn't look promising."

"Huh?" He perked up, causing him to lose grip on the cards in his hand and scattering them on the floor.

"I mean we don't really have enough to get a new apartment do we?" I said. "Even if we pool the rest of our savings together, we probably wouldn't have enough for a deposit."

Ash was on his knees sliding around the carpet, trying to pick up the fallen cards. "So what should we do?"

I tossed the papers beside me on the couch, and began to play with my hair. "I have no choice. I have to go into the extra account."

"Wha? But Misty that's-"

"I know, I know," I groaned, "But there's no other option. The money will help us start over, and if you want, we could actually leave Cerulean."

"Wait Misty what are you saying?" Ash looked at me. "Are you really sure you want to leave? After years of saying you would never leave?"

"My only concern is you, Ash," I replied. "I hate for you to leave your job."

Ash got up and sat down beside me, stacking the cards on top of my papers and putting them beside him. "That doesn't matter right now, besides I'm just a sub teacher I wouldn't be missed so much," he said. "What happened to all that foolish pride though, I thought you would never use the money your sisters gave you."

"I said that because then I still had my job to fall back on, but now I don't even have that and I lost my gym. Although I don't want to, that money will help us out a lot and we will be comfortable for a while. It's going to be hard but we can do it as long as we stick together," I said this affirmatively although a bit worrisome.

"Wow Misty...well I'm impressed you finally managed to come to your senses and I'm sure everything would work out, but are you sure you're willing to leave Cerulean?" Ash asked next.

I hesitated a bit, after all Cerulean is still my home no matter how poorly it's doing. But I knew in the end staying here any longer would be like going down with a sinking ship. It would be different if I was on my own, but now I had others to worry about as well.

"Yes," I nodded again, swallowing hard. "If we have to, then we have to, wouldn't we?"