Pairing: Ash/Misty

Rated: T

Genre: Romance/Humor

Summary: In which Ash learns about married life and romance while trying to propose to Misty; however nothing ever seems to go quite right.

Most likely story name: 99 Proposals.

XOXs

What do you do when she says no?

They were snuggled happily in her double bed, under the comfort of cozy, white comforters, during one of Ash's routine visits. He was twenty two, on the next journey to become the best pokemon trainer in the world; and at a constant, moving pace forward. Life was taking off while he made preparations to join the Master's cup in the following two years.

Today was different though, Misty was sat up in bed, with her pillows fluffed behind her, and Ash was curled onto one side of the bed, with his face buried in girly-scented pillowcases until he flipped over to hang a heavy arm around her waist. The redhead, who was currently enthralled with a book, never flinched and only turned the page.

Ash grunted once, to no response, then again, to a quiet 'hmm'.

"Must be a good book." Ash finally muttered, sitting up with tired, droopy eyes. Slowly, her face fell, and her sea-green eyes fell on his innocent, brown eyes.

"Why can't you be as romantic as the man in this book?" Ash's eyebrows knit together in response, and a playful grin fell over his lips while she continued, pointing to the book as her only witness. She was joking, right?

"The boyfriend in this story showers his girlfriend with flowers, and chocolates and sweet letters and a million kind gestures." Misty rambled, earning a smirk from Ash. He propped himself up on one elbow raising his eyebrows.

"Well, he clearly doesn't have anything of importance to do."

Wrong answer, apparently, because Misty's fowl gaze fell on him, and her lips turned downward into a frustrated frown. "What does that mean?" She croaked

"Well," he stumbled. "I just mean that I don't have time to do all of that stuff. I'm busy, you know that."

Her scowl only grew larger, her eyebrows only lowered closer, and her eyes grew more narrow.

"What's more important than me?" She asked. Of course, it was a trick question, and the correct answer was 'nothing', Ash knew that; but somewhere in his sleep deprived brain, his mouth moved without thinking.

"Well, some battles..." He didn't even have time to finish his sentence before a frustrated Misty dropped the book on his face, silencing him.

"I don't know why I put up with you some days!"

"Awh, c'mon Mist, you know I hate that mushy, girly stuff!" As tried, scraping the paper back novel off of his face while she huffed at him.

"Well maybe if you would try reading it sometimes you wouldn't hate it so much! You would be surprised what a little bit of effort does!" She countered, and Ash felt his head spin.

"I put in effort!"

"You crawl into my bed when I'm sleeping!"

"...that's effort!" Ash argued weakly while she pointed at him with a perfectly manicured finger.

"That's creepy!" Misty groaned, and Ash inhaled to prepare his defense.

"You've never complained before."

"That's because I don't get to see you often. That doesn't change the fact that it would be nice to be surprised with something other than the bulge between your legs!"

"H-hey!" Ash stammered, face turning bright red at her accusation. "I do stuff for you all the time."

"Really?" Misty challenged. "Like what?"

A few minutes passed, consisting mostly of Ash racking his brain, and chewing the sides of his cheeks.

"I helped you clean the pool last month."

"What else?" She questioned, pursing her lips and cocking her jaw to one side with a knowing glare.

Ash stammered. "It doesn't matter, I can't remember them when I'm put on the spot!"
"That's because you don't!" Misty puffed.

"I do so!"

"Ash..." Misty groaned, pinching the bridge of her nose; they were in for a long night if he didn't just admit to being wrong; however, that wasn't going to happen any time soon.

"Oh, and today, see, I waited around while you read your book." Ash said, as if sitting in her company was doing her a favor; she only scowled larger.

"You're kidding, right?"
"...no...?" Ash offered weakly, and her breath stalled in her chest, and she wriggled her hand to his chest and squeezed the collar of his shirt.

"I want flowers and chocolate! You have never even celebrated Valentines day with me! I get more gifts from my students!" her voice was strained, exaggerated and tired while she shook him gently.

"Miiiisty." He whined, throwing his head back. "I don't like thinking about romance, and you know that!"

Misty threw her arms up and then folded them quickly; "So! I like romance."

"But I don't!"

Then she snapped, "Well, fine! If you hate it so much, you can sleep on the couch tonight!"

Then with lightning like reflexes, she yanked the covers off of him, and rolled him out of the bed and over the edge without much effort. With a thump, he fell to the floor, and an astonished Ash rose, rubbing his backside with an absolutely betrayed expression.

"You're not serious!" Ash gasped, knowing that they only had a few days with each other before he left on another journey. Misty cocked her head to one side, and stilled her jaw with a cold gaze.

"Dead serious! Get out!" She yelled, tossing a pillow at him—at least she was still merciful enough to give him that.

"But...but..." Ash stammered worriedly, "We haven't even...you know."

She shrieked violently, like a banshee off the coast of Lavender Town. "So that you don't hate!?"

Ash froze on the spot; was he supposed to deny the accusation? Because he definitely did not dislike it. His mouth opened, then closed like a magikarp and he winced. "Well, I have hormones like you..."

"GET OUT!" She screamed, lunging the book at his head—apparently, Ash was full of all of the wrong answers, because he dashed from the bedroom to the living room with speed that rivaled a fully trained jolteon, and took cover behind the closed door; listening carefully to her disdain and distasteful muttering below her breath.

"...Man..." Ash groaned, smacking his lips while he sat on the couch beside pikachu's perch. "I hate it when she gets into these moods." he grumbled to himself, thinking that Aunt Flow must have stopped in for her monthly visit or something.

On the coffee table, glaring at him from it's position beside Misty's coffee mug, was another one of those silly romance novels; the last few weeks, she seemed to be possessed by them—to the point that she was writing about them in letters and mentioning them in everyday conversation; was Ash really not giving her everything she wanted? Did she have to read boundless tales of some two-dimensional, overly masculine character falling head over heels in love with some Mary-sue female who was imperfection in a perfect way; or at least, that was the gist of what he read (which wans't a lot). Sometimes, affairs were involved, and office romances! The ones Misty adored the most were the science fiction romance, and the mystery romances; she had a thing for undercover agents with the female lead falling for a super hero, even though she actually knows the man in person. The 'Superman and Louis" syndrome, was how Misty labeled it so Ash would better understand.

Maybe she had been dropping a few hints here and there... well, if she wanted him to be more romantic, why wouldn't she just tell him so?

They have been dating for five-ish years, sure, the first few years were in secret, but they still counted them. Ash wasn't even sure the last time he bought her a gift... her birthday? Maybe? No, scratch that, he sent her a card with doodles on the inside and twenty dollars. He did bring her flowers once, when they first started dating and they were a big unofficial secret.

He picked them straight off the rose bush outside of her house, but she was so pleased to have them, she didn't care where he found them. In fact, Misty had been so happy, she put them in a vase on the kitchen table, and kept them there preserved for an entire week. Even though Misty could burn water, she somehow had a magical touch when it came to things that she liked.

Outside of her tomboyish persona, and dedication to her profession, she was a huge, sentimental romantic. Unfortunately, Ash was the complete opposite. Where Misty liked to snuggle and watch movies, Ash was perfectly fine with talking about pokemon, and spending time battling together. They were still together, so he didn't understand why they needed to do new activities.

It's special because it's different, she told him once before; but Ash didn't really understand that. If he went out of his way to please her, then spending time together was now more important? He sighed. He was so confused.

Ash twirled the pillowcase between his fingers, trying to discern the feeling of loneliness; she has never made him sleep on the couch before, even when they get into big fights, they always ended up making up by the end of the night regardless. But here he was, couch shamed and bitter.

Earlier, when he was curled beside Misty, he had to fight the urge to pass out, now he had to force his eyes closed. There was no way he could sleep like this! Her green couch was uncomfortable, and his feet hung over the edge, and it smelled like a mixture of chlorine and stagnant alcohol. Maybe if he begged for forgiveness it wasn't too late to crawl under her covers and get a decent night of rest before tomorrows activities. They were attending an official league meeting together at the indigo plateau, and unfortunately, Ash needed to be well rested in order to function.

Sitting up and preparing mentally to beg for Misty's mercy, the bed room door cracked open the very moment his head cleared the back of the couch. Her lights were on so she had a glow around her entire body because the living room lights were turned off. When she emerged practically wearing nothing at all, his stomach clenched, and heat rose directly to his cheeks. Some kind of frilly, flowing, lingerie? replaced her previous benign, simple pajamas, and his jaw unhinged watching her stoic, sultry expression.

"You can come back in." defeated, she sighed while dropping her hands to her side at his gawking expression. Ash didn't hesitate, before she even had the chance to fully turn and retreat back into her bed, Ash scaled the distance of the couch and living room, and wrapped his arms around her thin, yet athletic body.

"You're perfect!" he gasped into her neck and nuzzled his face into the crook. Goosebumps rose over her flesh, a feeling he adored against his lips when he kissed below her earlobe.

"Marry me?" he added shortly after, in a nonchalant, almost teasing voice.

"What?" Misty's face twitched and her body stiffened. Silently, Ash swore at himself when her previous expression turned to one of venom. "Did you ask me?" She growled and Ash felt himself sweat.

"Ahh...haha..." He laughed nervously, unable to repeat himself.

XOXS

The problem with dating a romantic person, was there were some phrases that were taboo; for Misty that phrase was anything involving the 'm' word, without Ash's full devoted attention. It wasn't like he was joking, he just wasn't...well, serious. Not to say he isn't serious about them! Doesn't she know the difference?

So, he was sleeping on the couch, and to be sure that he wouldn't get any ideas, she locked the bed room door, and took his pillow. He removed his shirt to use as a pillow and frowned, thinking of her all alone in her bed in that outfit. And how little sleep he was going to get on this couch—he was better off sleeping on the floor.

Man! Ash thought inwardly in a panic, why did he have to open his mouth? He blamed Brock for this! Spending six years of his adolescent life with the pokemon breeder messed with his ability to handle romantic situations normally. If he wasn't completely oblivious, he was putting his foot in his mouth. Wonderful!

Ash had ninety-nine problems, and Misty was a part of every one of them.

Author's Note:

So, there are always a ton of either really, really romantic proposals or sort of just 'he popped the question' without any thought; but what happens when a very romantically stubborn Misty tells him no continuously? What if Misty -didn't/couldn't/wouldn't- accept that Ash was super unromantic, and refused to marry him unless he put some effort, understanding and thought into what he was asking/doing?

Just a thought. This, of course, won't literally be 99 Proposals when it becomes a full story. But I thought the name was suiting. XD; -just having fun-

This was heavily inspired after I read a list of "Why women said no to their partners" And I was like "...okay, someone help me, I'm shipping trash. -puts self in garbage bin-"

To answer a reviewer's question; yes. I like to torture Ash, but it's within reason...right?