Spitfire, Chapter 24: Everybody talks

His heart was racing, his knees were weak, and his palms were sweaty. His throat was dry and even though Pikachu was on his shoulder reminding him that he was still walking on solid ground, he felt like he would float away, or at the very least, collapse. He was sure if it was humanly possible, his soul would have left his body several times already, however, Misty didn't seem to notice his estranged nerves. In fact, she seemed entirely occupied with her own extraneous thoughts; Ash was no emotional expert, but she looked almost as nervous as he felt. Side by side they shuffled awkwardly down the streets leading back to his house with little to no words exchanged between the two of them at the start. Seeing her, he decided that he would tell her; unsure of how, he would at least tell her something. Because there was something between them; or at least he hoped so.

Oh god, did he really hope so? He felt like he was losing his mind as his collar kept getting tighter and tighter; but really, what was the worst that could happen? He coughed to clear his throat, physically tugged on his collar beneath his over-coat and spared a glance at Misty, noticing right away that upon realizing that he looked at her, she looked away.

Ash was fidgeting, but Misty was clearly frustrated with thoughts of her own. Tracing the prior moments of the day, she had many questions: had Ash heard her in the store? Was that the reason he was so odd around her? She thanked the heavens that at least he wasn't passing out on her as Dawn suggested earlier. But also, why was he acting so weird; just yesterday they were on normal speaking terms, and now he only opened his mouth and closed it like a magikarp on land. The silence was driving her crazy, and so she initiated her own response.

"So...uh, you didn't hear anything weird today?" She tried, laughing nervously and holding her breath. Ash tripped up on his feet, staggering slightly; he eyed a bench up ahead and gnawed on his lip. The gifts were burning his hand and he wanted to give them to her before reaching his house—aside from the general embarrassment and teasing from his friends that would surely start, he was not ready for two things: Serena and his mom.

Blushing, he replied; "Nope." afterward, he clamped his jaw shut and shook his head.

Misty tucked her arms behind her back and smacked her lips; "Really? Nothing from say...Dawn? Anything like that? This morning? Maybe a little bit after nine?"

"Nope. Nothing weird coming from Dawn." he pressed while his cheeks burned red. Because it didn't come from Dawn. It came from Misty. Yet, whenever he tried to talk about it, the words got stuck in his throat. Mentally, he chanted to himself. He could do this!

"Then what's bothering you?" She begged the question, suddenly worried.

"Nothing." He lied, scratching his neck while he did.

Unable to answer with anything other than one word he wanted to claw his own eyes eye; heart pounding as he drew closer and closer to the bench at the start of his block. He rubbed his throat anxiously, struggling to swallow the lump that had formed there. Not only was this difficult, he struggled to find the words to say. Maybe instead of gift shopping; Dawn should have coached him! He had no idea what he was supposed to say. Man, it would have been easier if Misty did what Serena and May did and just kissed him. THEN he wouldn't be worrying so much. After a few moments of thought, Misty pursed her lips, displeased.

"Really? So why are you so restless? Girl problems?" She teased while her mouth curled into a smirk; "And who are those for?" She giggled, as his face turned red, she could almost feel the heat coming off his body from this distance away, and she had to stop herself form laughing at herself, and at him.

What was she thinking that she needed to spy on Ash to begin with? He was clearly unaware of what happened, and while it relaxed her a little; it also scared her. Who were the gifts for? Ash yelped and would have tossed the rose and chocolates if his grip on them wasn't so tight that he didn't have circulation in his hand anymore.

That's right, he had gifts! Maybe Dawn was implying that gifts would speak the words that he could not? At the thought of presenting the gifts, he thought he would be charming and smooth, maybe get on one knee—pull some Drew magic, but what he got instead was a rushing heat to his face and stumbling.

"Do you have to ask so many questions!?" He accidentally yelled while hiding his face with his left hand. This surprised Misty. There wasn't even a hesitation in his voice; he blatantly yelled, and so Misty raised her hands as if saying "Okay, sorry for mentioning anything". Great, he thought, yell at her, that will get the feeling across.

Once again, the awkward silence swallowed them whole. Aside from the shuffling of their feet, and a few sighs from Pikachu, who now walked between the both of them with his little arms crossed, they were on their own. While Misty was torn about mentioning her conversation with Gary, Ash was thinking of everything that could possibly happen in the next ten minutes, while also mentally slapping himself for yelling at her. What was wrong with him? How hard was it to bring up in conversation? Three simple words would suffice; hell, maybe even two would work. "I l...Looo..." He mentally swore at himself. How could he say it, if he couldn't even think it?! His chest contracted painfully and his face contorted uncomfortably while Misty finally exhaled.

Feeling a bit anxious, she noticed the tag on the rose, and while he remained unaware, lost in his own mind; she extended her hand to grab it, noticing that there was a tag on it—which might have had a name. Her hand bumped his when she went to grab it, and, to put it simply, he freaked out.

Screaming, he threw up his arms and jumped away from her as if she had caught fire; at this reaction, she scowled at him and placed her hands firmly against her hips.

"What has gotten into you?"

"Nothing!" he lied, but Misty pressed forward,

"Obviously something has gotten into you." From behind her, she heard pikachu chuckling, muttering a quick "pika..." And scampering off down the road towards the house.

"Pikachu wai-"

"No, no, no, he will be fine. Tell me, Ash, what's wrong?" She cooed, touching him again, elating a loud squeal from him as he nearly fell backwards and tumbled down. Unable to hold it in, she laughed loudly, throwing her hands onto her knees while he danced around.

"That wasn't funny!" he whined, flailing his arms at her; but it did nothing to stop her laughing fit. Her silly, contagious vocalization that usually made him laugh as well, only made his blush worsen, and his chest burn hotter.

"Stop laughing!" He tried again, this time, she wagged her hand at him, hiccuping as her eyes lowered towards him. She brushed her hand against her cheek.

"Why are you so jumpy around me? Did you find out how amazing my battling skills are? Is that the big, devastating secret Dawn mentioned earlier?"

"Oh please, I could beat you any day." Taking a 180-degree turn on his mood; he grinned up at her confidently, only to find that she was now standing only a few inches away from him, and touching his hand to bring it forward; where she touched the rose with the intention of taking it. Steam blew from his ears, and he recoiled backwards, causing the stem to snap; Misty ended up with the head of the rose, while he held the stem. The tag had fallen off, and dropped onto the dirt, alerting both Misty and Ash. Misty because she hadn't expected Ash to react that way, and Ash because the gift was ruined.

"I am so sorry!" Misty screamed, fingers twitchig as she went to grab the note from the ground, but Ash raced towards it at the same time, resulting in the piece getting blown into the air, and Ash and Misty bumping heads and ricocheting backwards. Misty held her forehead, while Ash held his own. His hat had fallen off of his head and onto the ground. He reeled backwards to grab it.

"Your head is like a brick wall" She cried, feeling a bump forming. He couldn't disagree with her. Collecting her thoughts, she looked around for the tag, and then back at the short-stemmed rose;

"Oh man, I am so sorry. I will go buy a new one. That doesn't make it better... I am so, so sorry." She whined and held the rose out to him; his face turned scarlet as he looked at her, slipping the stem from his hands and discarding it into the bushes beside one of the houses.

He couldn't really get mad at her though, it was technically for her; she only ruined her own gift. He flushed and held out his hand to push the bud of the rose back towards her.

"No, it's okay. You can keep it." He said, feeling relief wash over his chest as he realized he successfully gave her the first gift. However, when her face scrunched up, he knew that it wasn't the reaction that he wanted.

"I don't want your hand-me-down-rose." She grumbled, and pushed it back towards him, much to his surprise. She glared at him short; but he insisted.

"No, I insist; sort of like a break it you buy it type thing." he grumbled in return, pushing it back towards her. She glowered at him by this point.

"You should go back and replace it for whom ever it was for." She tired, pushing it back towards him. His face twitched slightly, as he took the rose from her hand by the small inch and a half of the stem remaining. She sighed lightly, allowing her eyes to close for a moment. Ash moved forward to take advantage of her blindness. He brushed his hand up against her face; moving her newly shortened-hair from her cheek, and pushed it behind her left ear, using the rose to hold it in place. Her hair had been covering the red mark left over from yesterday.

Her eyes snapped open as heat rushed back up to her cheeks. Ash noticed that her hair was short enough that when it was tucked back, it curled under her ears slightly, and so he grinned.

"Now you have to keep it."

But her face didn't echo the same happiness; she strained her mouth and pinched the bridge of her nose.

"I'm not wearing a flower in my hair, especially not one that was supposed to be for someone else" She groaned, reaching up to remove said object; but Ash whined and swatted her hand down.

"But it looks cute." At his words, she made brief, awkward eye contact with him that resulted in recoiling his words and coughing to deepen his voice. "It may be possible that I've been around too many girls as of late."

"No kiddin'?" She joked, but stopped tugging at the small flower. Inwardly, Ash celebrated; that was one small victory, but as she suddenly started walking again without much extra thought, he knew that a small victory wasn't going to be good enough. He could have just told her the rose was for her, but somehow, he couldn't phrase the words eloquently. It was easier to sleuth it off as an accident than it was to admit his feelings and he wanted to slap himself in the head. Of course, deep down, Misty secretly hoped that the reason Ash hadn't made a big deal about it was because it was for her; but she couldn't bring herself to ask.

Reaching the half way point to his house, he stopped again. this time tagging her by the shoulder slightly. If he waited until he got home, there was no telling when he would get her alone again—and he knew that he wouldn't have the nerve with other people listening; so he swallowed hard against the lump formed in his throat. He was going for it!

"Hey, do you..uh...you know huh..er..." At his stalling, she was finally at her wits end, and rubbed her temples as she spun around on him. She raised her finger to him and wrapped her fist into the scruff of his shirt, holding him up.

"Were you or were you not with Dawn this morning?"

"I was?" He whimpered,

"Did you or did you not hear anything from me while you were with her?"
"Maybe?" He managed, swallowing hard, unable to look away from her green eyes as panic filled his heart.

Misty's face turned a shade of red; "What did you hear exactly?" She questioned, close enough to his face in a threatening manner that he could feel her breath over his lips and he screamed inwardly. His eyes glanced down to her lips as she hovered over him, branding the image of his pressed against hers; alerting his own screaming mind that he needed to do something. Anything to get out of this situation. Maybe he should just kiss her? After all, actions spoke louder than words, didn't they?

Of course, he didn't have time to react because she let go of his shirt and he fell to the ground, rubbing his head while she crossed her arms above him. Collecting his thoughts, he spit out the first things that came to his mind.

"That I missed your birthday and you're secretly dating Gary." He remarked quickly, looking at her to see the color drain from her already pale skin. She touched her forehead briefly, and then looked back down at him. She extended her hand to help him up; and he took it carefully.

"I'm not dating Gary." She scowled.

"But then why did you go out with him last night?" He asked casually, as if he didn't care. He dusted off his pants in the mean time while waiting for her explanation.

"Because, I was upset and he offered drinks."

He paused for a moment, holding his hand to his lips; "You drink?" He joked, catching her by surprise.

Her eyes shifted around the area as the wind picked up. "...Don't you?"

"No, never." He said, and then grinned up at her, taking a chance, "Maybe you could take me some time?" he said, sounding overly friendly while rubbing the back of his head, though the way she smiled made his chest hurt. He inhaled.

"Someday; and you know my birthday was three months ago." She said while turning her back to him, indicating that the conversation was over; but he wasn't done yet. She couldn't stare at him; did Ash off-key ask her on a date? Oh man, sometimes she wondered if it wasn't her that was the dense one. But then again, with Ash, she could never know.

"I know, but I still missed it." he crooned, but she shrugged in return.

"It's not a big deal," She offered, but Ash nudged her arm and held the chocolates out for her as his face turned red. She blinked at them, step by step nearing his house.

"Are these for me?" She asked skeptically, catching his eye only briefly while he adjusted his dirty hat.

"For your birthday." he blushed, pursing his lips awkwardly. Misty raised and eyebrow, taking them from his fingers gratefully.

"And the rose?"

He nearly spit, unable to speak the truth. He hit himself on the chest to be able to form words; "For my mom."

Misty turned equally as red, touching the rose thoughtfully as she did, "That's...that's kind of weird, Ash. Why would you buy your mom the staple flower of romance?"

Alarmed, he looked around; "...because Dawn said it was normal?" He said, placing the blame elsewhere. Misty's face panned, and while she didn't think that was the truth; actually, she knew that wasn't the truth—she wasn't in the mood to question it; as Ash had just given her a small bag of chocolates with the words "With love" printed on the tag, and so while she had her doubts, she suddenly felt elated.

Until she didn't. Remembering what she needed to talk to him about, she grabbed him before he walked into the house and blinked at him.

"Wait, I need to talk to you." She said abruptly, catching him off guard and pulling him out of his stupor. He glared down at where her hand made contact with his elbow, and could feel the heat radiating from that spot, up his arm, and down his back. He shivered.

"A-about what?" he stammered, pulling on his arm to get free.

"Well, it's about the situation you're in."

"My situation?"

"Yeah, about Serena."

"oh." He said slightly, pulling more on his arm, but she didn't budge.

"Well, Gary and I talked about it last night," Misty started, but upon seeing Ash's face drain of color, she thought maybe she should have started on a different subject, "And he gave me some advice about your situation."

Ash scoffed, "Good to know you two are close enough to talk about me, now." He grumbled, finally freeing himself of her grasp. He brushed off the spot where her hand touched, and exhaled.

Misty scowled at him, getting one in return but she remained calm and pulled on her yellow vest while continuing, "Anyways, his advice to me, was to tell you that you shouldn't be dating Serena-"
"I know," Ash said abruptly, catching her off guard; a slight tinge of pink rose to her cheeks, it was her turn to be surprised.

"oh.." She said, aloof.

"Yeah, I, uh...well, I know." He said, unable to say the truth because of his own nervousness. Mentally, he slammed his head repeatedly into a wall.

He looked down at Misty, who was only a few inches shorter than he was, but right now, he felt so small beside her. She crossed her arms. They were standing in front of his front door but with no one in earshot, she spoke before he could.

"For future reference, if you're going to date someone, then date them with confidence; no one should have to be danced around like you and Serena were doing. That way no one gets hurt, or slapped, in my case." She continued thoughtfully. It was there that Ash could still see the small sting of red over Misty's left cheek, and instantly, he rose to touch it. Unwavering she continued,

"If you weren't sure about your feelings, you should have been honest from the start; rejection hurts, but it's a lot worse to be given false hope. Proper rejection gives the person the time that they need to think, and heal, and then move on." Misty scolded lightly, backing up so that his hand fell; a look of sadness washed into her eyes.

"That's why I..." Misty stammered, but then stopped herself, "Look, I know you're not good at these things, but at some point you have to stop thinking only about pokemon battling and think about adult stuff. If you don't like them, then tell them so they can move on."

Ash inhaled sharply, her words stung oddly; as if she were speaking primarily for herself, and Ash wanted to throw up his hands and refute her thoughts; but he couldn't speak, at least, not the words that he wanted to.

"I know. Thank you." he assured her while stepping closer to her, much to her dismay and weariness. He wanted to tell her that he has been thinking about other things besides battling; that he has been trying to fix everything himself; but no matter what he did, he seemed to fall short. His mouth opened, and then closed.

Misty half expected him to come out and say it; the infamous, "I don't like you", but under the circumstances, he probably still didn't know that she ever liked him to begin with. She chewed on her bottom lip. Ash was sure that steam could be seen coming from ears. The words were all there, but they were so piled up in his mind that all he could manage to do was raise his hand to touch her chin, causing her to flinch slightly as he stepped closer to her. She froze while looking at him, her own heart thumping out of her chest. Carefully, he smoothed his thumb over her chin, gazing into her dazzling green pools. They pulled him in and gave him energy and knocked the wind out of him at the same time. When his face was about two inches from hers, he spoke with his eyes shifting slightly to her lips.

"Misty I..." he started, and for a brief moment of time, all he could think about was her. The way her green eyes questioned his actions; how attractive she looked with her hair shortened and how pink her cheeks grew the closer he got. Misty stopped breathing, standing perfectly still while he dipped his head forward. Time moved in slow motion as she watched his eyelids close slowly. If she didn't know better-and Misty did-she would have thought that Ash was going to kiss her; and she could feel her heart stop beating as the heat of his face transferred to her own.

"Hey, there's my coat?" The front door swung open beside them, revealing Gary.

Panicked, Misty quickly thrust her palms into Ash's chest, knocking him away from her; he flailed his arms backwards until he smashed into his mother's rose bush. Gary stared at the two; mostly at Misty's scarlet face, and lifted an eyebrow.

"...Did I interrupt something?" He smirked, and Misty turned at him, fists clenched.

YES, she wanted to scream, but instead she saw Dawn darting around behind Gary like a deer, trying to be sneaky, but failing so hard at it, so Misty covered her face in embarrassment instead. Ash spit leaves out of his mouth.

"Thanks Misty." he muttered shamelessly, having drawn her attention back to him.

"Oh, mew, I'm sorry." She spat hopelessly, frantically lifting him up while he winced, feeling thorns in his side, literally.

"Well, that could have gone better." He muttered to himself, feeling all the nerves that were gone rocket back into his chest; once again becoming overly aware at how close Misty was standing to him, and that her hand was still wrapped around his own. He slithered his hand from hers while Gary sniggered.

"Man, I must have reall—Ow!" Misty kicked Gary in the shin in the middle of his comment, holding the chocolates close to her as she spun around the two males and darted into the house without further comment. Her heart raced, and she needed to get out of there.

Ash was left standing there, pulling leaves and thorns out of his hair and coat while Gary rubbed his shin.

"What did I do?" Gary mumbled, watching as Misty stripped off the jacket and tossed it away carelessly onto the coat rack. Ash half glared at the moment-ruining knucklehead.

"What are you even doing here?" Ash's question drew a glare out of Gary that he had not seen in years.

"I'll have you know that my grandfather called."

"Really? what about?" Ash asked, dropping the hostility automatically, Gary stumbled over his words; and had it been anyone else but Ash standing there, they might have caught on that Gary was lying. And he didn't really have a good reason for blowing that up.

"None of yer' business, squirt." He finally mumbled as he stuffed his hands into his pockets and turned to leave. Ash puffed his cheeks up at his back and stuck his tongue out at the Pokemon-researcher.

Around the corner, Dawn appeared, flabbergasted.

"W-what happened?" she asked, lifting her arms for emphasis. How in the world did Ash mess this up? She gave him the perfect set up. There was no way he could have... Dawn looked absolutely horrified and put her hands on Ash's shoulders and shook him.

"You didn't tell her?" She hissed, and he frowned at her, feeling sweat drop down the back of his neck.

"I didn't know how? I panicked." He suggested and Dawn could only face palm while he twiddled his fingers. He was hopeless.

"And what about the gifts?" she tried, hoping that he at least gave those to her, but the look of embarrassment that crossed his face while he scratched his cheek almost made her dirt dive.

"You didn't!?" She hissed quietly, pulling him through the front door.

He looked down as she shut the door behind them, and shuffled his feet; "Well, I did but..."

"But what?"

"I sort of accidentally gave her the flower, and told her the chocolates were for her birthday?" he laughed nervously, causing the corners of his mouth to twitch while Dawn turned, and smashed her head into the wall.

"HOOOWWW?" She squealed, alerting some passersby through the hallway. One of them being Misty, who had stalked off to put the gifts he had given her away, as well as the flower in her hair. He almost blatantly questioned Misty about it, but decided to keep it to himself as he watched her blush and walk awkwardly into the living room. Thump. Thump. Thump. He moved his hand to his chest and looked desperately at Dawn.

"I need help." He muttered painfully, and a glimmer formed in the coordinator's eyes.

"I know just who to ask." Her malicious smirk made Ash worry, but so long as it got the job done; who was he to question it? He glanced one more time at Misty who stalled at the entrance of the living room to talk with May; and he blushed furiously. Why was this so difficult?