Alright everyone please enjoy the chapter

Chapter 3: The cave

Despite her original worries the cave was incredibly beautiful, light filtered in through holes in the top of the cave and reflected off the ice and water leaving it light enough to easily see in most areas. The glittering icy walls of the cave encouraged her to explore further, she noticed the cave seemed to grow slightly colder the deeper she went. After walking for a few minutes she heard sounds coming from deeper within and decided to find the source. Going into a somewhat dark cave searching for strange noises probably wasn't a great plan, but she trusted her Pokemon to keep her safe.

Misty came upon a small lake, the sound reverberating through the cave was the splashing made by Pokemon swimming, nothing remotely dangerous. Near her a Slowpoke was wandering around, a few Seel were playing in the water, and a group of Psyduck were swimming. Even compared to wild Psyduck her own was really pathetic it couldn't even swim, on the other hand its psychic powers were far greater than a normal Psyduck's when it actually managed to use them. She'd started commanding Psyduck to just head butt its opponents to increase its headache, she remembered when she thought about smashing its head with a bike. In general she tended not to send it out because it could be risky, but Psyduck often decided to hop out on his own. However, mainly by luck, Psyduck usually pulled through for her. She was grateful for that, but it didn't mean she didn't want to pull her hair out every time Psyduck jumped out on its own.

As if responding to her thoughts Psyduck jumped out of its Pokeball and started conversing with the slowpoke. It was closer to a staring contest than an actual conversation, but she left Psyduck to do what it wanted and decided to focus on her other Pokemon.

She trained for a little while and continued to explore the cave without going too deep, she didn't want to get hopelessly lost. The entire time she would hear this small clicking noise that would stop whenever she did. Eventually when she turned around and started walking back to the entrance she saw the Krabby from earlier. "Did you follow me little guy?" Misty crouched down to look at it.

Krabby bubbled and nuzzled against Misty's outstretched hand. "Would you like to come with me?" She asked the Pokemon slightly confused at its actions. Krabby made a few affirmative noises and Misty placed a Pokeball on the ground giving it a choice. Krabby just clicked its claw happily a few times before stepping up to the Pokeball and staring at it for a few moments.

Krabby tapped on the Pokeball allowing itself to be captured, Misty picked it up feeling a bit like Ash whenever he got a Pokemon without really capturing it. After "catching" her new Krabby and returning all of her Pokemon she left the cave. She didn't realize it was already nighttime until she stepped out of the cave and saw the moon overhead. The time in the cave seemed to pass quickly and Misty knew it was almost time to head back to the Pokemon Center.

The beach looked beautiful at night so Misty took a long walk thinking her life over, perhaps she was being too introspective on her little vacation, but it was important. She loved working in the gym, but spending time away reinforced her idea that she needed to do something else for a while. When she was older and ready to settle down permanently she'd be happy to stay in the gym, but she still had her entire life in front of her. She'd gotten a taste of freedom and she needed to experience more of the world before she decided to take on a job that would likely last most of her life.

She also missed her friends, she still spoke to them on the phone or visited once in a while, but it was too infrequent especially Ash. He was traveling so much that Misty could never be sure exactly where he was. So Misty had to rely on him to contact her and he wasn't great at remembering to call her, not because he didn't care, but he got distracted and was forgetful. Which like Psyduck made her crazy, but it did make his calls more special.

She also thought about her new two Pokemon Tentacool and Krabby, in the few days she had been away from the gym she'd captured new Pokemon and she loved that aspect of being a trainer. She adored all her Pokemon, but there was something about catching a new Pokemon that was exciting.

She walked to the Pokemon Center deep in thought enjoying the cool night and the quiet streets. After swiping in she gave her Pokemon to Nurse Joy. They weren't particularly injured, but she did have them training in the cave so they were worn out.

The video phone started ringing and she ignored it until she realized the call was actually for her. With a simple click the screen flickered to life and to her surprise Ash's face showed up. He seemed a bit older every time she saw him, but that was mainly due to the fact that most of her memories of him were of when they were both young and his infrequent calls. Still even as he got older she could always see a bit of that stupid ten year old in him.

"Ash," she practically yelled before composing herself shaking off her surprise. She wondered if thinking about him actually summoned the boy somehow by her thoughts. She quickly disregarded that ridiculous idea and instead wondered why he was calling.

"Hey Misty," he greeted a broad smile on his face. Misty looked behind him and saw he was in a Pokemon Center as well, but she had no idea where.

"How'd you know where I was?" Misty hadn't told anyone where she was heading, only her sisters knew she was on a trip and Misty was pretty sure she didn't specify to where.

"I called the gym and you weren't there so you're sister patched me through to here, wherever here is," Ash laughed slightly. Misty quickly realized the moment she swiped in with her Id it would alert her sisters where she was on the Cerulean gym's computers.

"I'm actually at the Seafoam Islands, in the Pokemon Center," Misty gestured to the rest of the Center with a sweep of her arm.

"Why? Don't you have to run the gym?" Ash asked looking at Misty confusion written on his face, Misty absently noticed he looked cute.

"I'm just taking a quick vacation, to train, catch a few Pokemon and relax," Misty replied stretching her arms above her head.

"You're catching new Pokemon?" Ash asked already looking excited at the prospect of Pokemon. Misty sighed, leave it to Ash to care more about the Pokemon than her.

"Yeah, I already caught a Tentacool and a Krabby," Misty held up their Pokeballs.

"Wow, Mist aren't you the best a Krabby and a Tentacool," he said sarcastically with what Misty thought was a stupid smirk.

She felt her temper rising in the way only Ash seemed to be able to bring out, "Hey Ash, how many Pokemon did you catch over your entire journey across Kanto?"

Ash just grumbled in response which gave Misty an opportunity to continue her rant, "I only went after water Pokemon and in a few days I caught two."

"Hey, I went for quality over quantity," Ash shot back.

"Yeah all thirty of those Tauros were just for quality," Misty said deadpanned. "Beyond that I seem to remember you catching a Krabby and unlike yours mine is full sized. Besides I'm going to evolve it and Tentacool and they'll be wonderful additions to my gym." Misty couldn't resist adding, "Plus I actually caught my Pokemon I didn't just get mine by fluke like you did." Misty made sure not to mention that her Krabby actually chose to follow her, something she berated Ash for before he caught his own Krabby.

"Fluke?" Ash asked his very familiar annoyance already apparent in his voice.

"Yeah, most of your first Pokemon decided to follow you and you had help from Brock and me," Misty pointed out.

Instead of getting mad he responded, "You said the exact same thing before I caught my Krabby," Ash recalled the conversation they had literally years ago with slight pout.

"With a stick," Misty rolled her eyes while trying to fight off a smile. Both of them started laughing at the familiarity of their old fight.

"This is why I miss you Mist," Ash smiled wistfully, "I can't talk like this with anyone else, everything is easier and more comfortable with you."

"Well I'm sure I have a special place in your heart," it was only after she spoke that Misty noticed the slight implication and hid her blush behind coughing. She did note that Ash had to hide his own tiny blush so she didn't feel as embarrassed.

"Anyway," Ash quickly redirected the conversation, "I'm coming back to Kanto soon to stay for a while."

"Really, when?" Misty asked this time not bothering to hide her excitement. The prospect of him being home was great and somewhat surprising considering how often he was travelling.

"I'm heading back in a few days, I'm going to be staying at my house and I really want to see you, Mist," Ash's voice dropped a bit towards the end.

"I'll come by when I get back or you can come to the gym. Just call Cerulean when you get back, if I'm not there my sisters will call me to let me know you're back," Misty smiled, happy they would finally get to spend some time together in person after what seemed like a long time. Actually Misty reasoned it had been a long time since they had been together.

"OK," Ash gave her a thumbs up and a broad smile.

"I'm really happy I'm going to be able to see you again in person," Misty admitted, but it was pretty obvious from the grin on her face which she couldn't have stopped even if she wanted to.

They spoke for a while longer about everything going on in their lives before saying goodnight and promising to see each other soon. She turned in for the night, once again sleeping in the Pokemon Center.

She planned on going back out, catching a few more Pokemon, and training the one's she already caught, to prove a point to Ash. She knew that while travelling the world he'd been training and catching his own Pokemon and she wasn't going to let herself look bad. She refused to admit she wanted to impress him, but she certainly didn't want to fall behind her friend.

The next morning she sent Corsola and Psyduck back to the gym to give her room to catch more new Pokemon. Misty headed back to the cave and found a Slowpoke instead of letting Psyduck have quality time with another slow Pokemon, she called out her Krabby and with almost no work she weakened and captured it. It was actually rather anti-climactic, but she still caught the Slowpoke. She stumbled across another water stone near the lake she had visited the day before and picked it up, surprised at the lucky find.

Leaving the cave she went to the edge of a pier in a secluded section of the beach to fish, she allowed her new slowpoke to fish alongside her. Her slowpoke failed to catch anything, but after getting a few Magicarp which she released she hooked a Shellder and managed to catch it.

Using her new Pokemon she trained for a while before battling a few other trainers. She kept herself from using Staryu or Gyrados instead focusing on Shellder, Krabby, Tentacool, and to a lesser extent Slowpoke. Luckily they were next to the water because Tentacool wasn't very useful on land, not as bad as her Goldeen had been, but unless he was in water he wasn't effective.

She lost as often as she won, but it was good experience for her to get used to battling with different Pokemon and for the Pokemon to get battling experience. Plus it didn't effect the gym so she didn't have to worry, she was anonymous on the island.

The next day she spent most of her time around the city shopping, sightseeing, and enjoying herself. It wasn't extremely practical, but in her mind she deserved a break from battling and training for a little while. However that night she was back by the water. She was planning on heading back home to see Ash and check on the gym, at some point in the next few days. After some deliberation she spent the following day focusing mainly on Shellder before asking it if it would like to evolve with one of her water stones.

She was worried that they hadn't trained enough and that she would be evolving Shellder too soon, but Ash's Krabby it evolved in its first battle and that turned out fine. Still she knew evolving a Pokemon wasn't something to be done without thought, but from what she could tell training with Shellder it was already quite strong when she caught it. It didn't seem to be too young to evolve, but she wasn't going to force anything on the Pokemon. Leaving the decision up to Shellder was the best choice in her opinion. Shellder seemed pleased with the idea so Misty allowed it to evolve and soon she was staring at a happy Cloyster.

Misty allowed her Pokemon to enjoy the rest of the day without any battles so they could relax on the beach. Spending time with her Pokemon outside of battle was extremely important so she could further her relationships with them and become closer. She preferred to be friends with her Pokemon so they listened to her rather than force them to do what she wanted. That was one of the first things that drew her to Ash, his love of Pokemon.

The morning after she walked to the edge of the water and let her Gyrados out, before climbing on top. She was a bit sad that it felt like her time away from the gym flew by, but she was also happy to see Ash and get back to the Pokemon she had to leave behind. She started her trip back to Vermilion so she could get a ride back to Cerulean from the city. It was early so there weren't many people on the beach, but one last time everyone panicked when Gyrados appeared.

She hadn't thought too much about Ash in recent times, he was her best friend so of course she thought about him and had memories of him. Occasionally something would remind her of Ash, but not like when she first left. When she first returned home she thought about him all the time. Her girlish crush was still alive and well, but over time she focused more on her work. She grew up a bit and she was proud of that, but somewhere inside that blushing girl was hiding away, waiting for an opportunity to embarrass her.

Now knowing he was coming back memories started surfacing again, and she spent the ride reminiscing about her past and her friends, especially Ash. She wasn't sure why, but she was actually nervous to see her best friend. Of course she was far more excited than nervous so she was hoping he would get back as soon as possible.

A/N

I managed to post another chapter this weekend which is kind of crazy. I've been so excited about writing this that the chapter just came together. I won't be posting another chapter until next Friday/next weekend. Anyway the reunion will come either next chapter or the chapter after so I hope you are looking forward to it.

Thank you to everyone who has read this and favorited, followed, or reviewed so far, I'm extremely grateful to all of you.

Please leave a comment to let me know what you think about the chapter. Also tell me if there is anything you might like me to include (A certain Pokemon or something to that effect.)

Trivia

-In the games multiple water stones can be found in the Seafoam islands caves.

-Psyduck met a Slowpoke at Seafoam islands and they had a random chat.

-In one episode Misty pointed out that Ash really didn't catch most of his Pokemon and that they were mainly flukes. Due to this Ash got annoyed at Misty which led to the capture of his Krabby.

-Ash really hadn't caught too many Pokemon in Kanto, however he did catch thirty Tauros in the Safari zone. Although it was mainly by accident because they kept blocking him from catching other Pokemon. The episode was never aired in America because a gun was shown in the episode.

-The dub just said that he caught the Tauros, but never showed how.

-Ash has used a Tauros multiple times in battle, it isn't known whether or not it is the same one. (I prefer to think he uses a single one)

-To be fair Misty hadn't caught many Pokemon either, but she caught some before meeting Ash and she also had the Pokemon in the Cerulean Gym. Plus she was focused on water Pokemon (With a few exceptions) so her options were more limited.

Pokemon (On hand)

-Gyrados

-Staryu

-Tentacool

-Shellder -Cloyster

-Krabby

-Slowpoke

(In the Gym)

-Corsola

-Psyduck

-Starmie

-Politoad

-Seadra

-Seaking

-Caserin

-Azumarill

-Dewgong

-Various Pokemon mainly used for shows