Spelunking Through Dreams Pt. 2
Hi all! Here's the long awaited Chapter 2! It would have been a shorter wait, but I got caught up in all this work that I had to do in order to graduate. -; Thank you to everyone that put this story on their alerts and special thanks to the one person who reviewed.
Anyhow, this time it's Misty's POV. I think that chapter 3 will be hers as well, so there's something to look forward too. Enjoy!
Oh, and I do not own poke'mon, just a dog.
Departure (Misty's POV)
Breakfast was fairly normal, except that Ash didn't say much. Usually, he'd be talking about how he was gonna beat any trainers we came across, or he'd be asking Brock about what wild Poke'mon were in the area. And, 9 times out of ten, he and I would get into an explosive argument over nothing. I smiled a little at that thought. We were both so stubborn that the fights usually ended with Brock and Pikachu teaming up to stop us.
But there wasn't any of that this morning. Worse, I knew I was responsible. I shouldn't have hit him so hard or yelled so loud. Then he would be his normal excited self. As it was, he kept scratching at his head. It almost looked like he was pondering something, but I knew it was really just a killer headache. That I'd given him, no less. It's not like I meant to give him one, I was just waking him up. I've woken him up in worse ways than hitting him with my mallet and he was fine after all of those…
"W-what is it, Misty?"
I suddenly realized that, as I'd been thinking, my eyes had drifted to Ash and had stayed there quite a while. "Uh, I-I was just… wondering if your head was feeling any better," I smiled, hoping he'd buy it.
He did. "Oh. Yeah," he replied, smiling a little, "It feels much better now." He went back to his breakfast.
I felt better, knowing that he was feeling better, and it was nice to see him smile again… Wait, what? Since when has my happiness depended on his? And why was I staring at him?
I realized then that I was staring at him… again. I looked down at my food before he noticed and felt my face getting hot. Now I'm blushing?! What is going on?
My thoughts were interrupted by Brock's voice, "C'mon, Misty, we've gotta pack up our stuff."
"Yeah," Ash added as he pulled up tent stakes, "The sooner we get moving, the sooner we can find some wild poke'mon!"
Having regained my composure, I replied, "Well, I'm more interested in-"
Ash cut me off, "Checking out the shops in the next town, right?" He was grinning a little, like he knew he was right.
And, as a matter of fact, he was. "How did you know?" I asked, a little blown away that he'd read my mind.
Ash blinked "Well, uh," he looked at his feet, "I just noticed that, well, that you like to go shopping when we get to a new town," he looked up and smiled at me, "Even if it's just window shopping, you know?"
"Oh," was all I could say. I felt… strangely happy. Happy at what? That Ash had noticed something other than a poke'mon? Thinking about it for a moment, I discovered that, yes, that was the reason I was happy. Well, not the fact that it had been something other than a poke'mon, but the fact that it had been me. Wait, why would that make me happy?
As I tried to puzzle out that question, I finished packing my red bag and stood up, slinging it over my shoulder.
Then, I heard a voice "Ready to go, Misty?" I turned towards the voice a moment before my preoccupied mind made the connection of whom it belonged to: Ash. His face grew concerned and he asked "Are you alright, Misty?"
At first, I thought he'd asked that because I'd Just stayed silent for a couple of moments after he'd asked me that. Then, the hot feeling in my cheeks registered in my brain; I was blushing… reeealy blushing. "Oh, um, uh," I stalled, trying desperately to think of some excuse. Then I remembered what Ash had said earlier when I thought he'd been staring at me. Yes! Salvation!! "H-headrush!" I blurted out, "From standing up…" I was inwardly praying that this would work.
Ash's face changed momentarily to relief, then it changed into… something I couldn't Identify. "Oh," he said, sounding a little subdued (which was strange for him). There was an incredibly awkward silence, and then…
"Hey, c'mon guys, let's go!" Brock broke the silence, waving to us from a little ways down the road "Or I'll leave you behind!" he added, laughing.
Startled out of our thoughts (for a moment, at least), we both turned and replied "Coming!" We started running to catch up with Brock. My hair got in my face and I realized that, because I'd been so preoccupied with my thoughts, I'd forgotten to tie it up the way I usually have it. Stopping, I set down my bag and started rooting around in it for my hair tie.
Ash stopped a little after I did and looked back at me. "What's wrong?" he asked.
"Nothing," I replied, pulling my hair tie out of the bag "I just forgot to tie my hair back is all." I Tied up my hair, picked up my bag and was about to keep going when I saw that Ash was still looking at me. For a moment, we just stared at each other. For some reason, I didn't turn away. I just kept staring into his eyes and he kept staring back. It wasn't like the staring contests we sometimes had that left me drained and usually feeling worse than before about whatever argument we were having. No, this was…
'Nice.'
The thought popped into my head before I could stop it. Nice? Since when did I think about Ash like that? But, despite my denial, I couldn't help but notice that I was still staring into Ash's eyes. I started to panic as I felt my face growing hot. Then…
"Pikaaa!" Pikachu called to us from a little ways ahead.
It was like pressing play on a paused movie. We both blinked and looked over towards Pikachu. After a moment, Ash spoke.
"W-we should get going."
"O-okay" I said. It was all I could say, the way my thoughts were churning. Thoughts like, 'Why was he staring at me?' and 'Why was I staring back?' Stuff like that. All questions and no answers, and they just kept flying through my head as I followed Ash to Brock and we set out on our day's journey. I had the feeling that this would be a long day.