A/N: Yeah, I'm on a roll! I actually have to pay attention that there are twenty-four hours between updates, otherwise I'm called a spammer XD Thank you all very much, and here's the next chapter! And a special thanks to anjumstar for pointing out some typos!

Disclaimer: I don't own Pokémon or the picture used as cover (though I did edit it).

Days

The day Ash sees it from the other side

Ash

Thursday, December 5th

"Seel, Headbutt!" Ash yelled and the Pokémon in front of him on the battlefield complied.

The opponent's Pokémon, an Abra, teleported away, again.

Ash grit his teeth in frustration. The Abra hadn't used one attack yet, but since he continued to use Teleport to evade all Seel's attacks, there didn't seem much that Ash could do about it.

The young girl on the other side of the field was cheering her Pokémon on and even that Ash found getting on his nerves, because the blasted Pokémon wouldn't let himself be attacked nor would it attack himself!

"Yes, go Abra, you can do it!" the girl continued to yell, and Ash took a deep breath to calm himself. Seel had to get in a hit on that Abra, otherwise this battle would be endless. It was his first day working with Seel, and he knew she could pull off some decent attacks, but if they never hit…

They had to trap the Abra.

"Destroy the floating platforms with Headbutt!"

"Abra, into the water!"

Perfect.

"Ice Beam, freeze the water!"

Seel was trained well and immediately saw what Ash was trying to do. She aimed the Ice Beam close to the swimming Abra, and the Pokémon got stuck in the ice. Abra clawed at the ice stuck to his lower body, but it was useless.

"Oh no, Abra!"

Ash paused, giving the girl enough time to recall her Pokémon or to come up with a solution, but she continued to look on helplessly, and Ash gave his last command. "Finish it with Aurora Beam!"

The attack hit Abra full on and the battle was over.

"Abra is unable to battle, replacement Gym Leader Ash and Seel are the winners!" the referee called out, and Ash couldn't resist sharing a victorious grin with Seel, before jumping back in his Gym Leader role.

"That was a good battle," he complimented the young girl. "Teleporting away is a good strategy-" And so very annoying. "-but you need more tricks up your sleeve if you want to win. Is this the first Gym you challenged?"

The girl nodded and clutched her Poké Ball with the Abra to her chest. Ash smiled in what he hoped came across as 'friendly and encouraging,' as Misty said he should. "Try to teach Abra an attack which can be used to deal damage to the foe before trying a Gym again. You can't win if you can't get a hit in." His grin widened. "As you noticed." He gestured to the partly frozen swimming pool.

The girl seemed to cheer up somewhat, politely thanked him and then left the Gym.

Seel hadn't been hurt at all, but having to constantly attack had still been exhausting. Ash accompanied her to the aquariums, and since this had been the last battle of today, he continued on with preparing the food for the Pokémon.

This had been his first afternoon working as a replacement Gym Leader. It had gone pretty well, considering he had never worked with most of these Pokémon before. He had used Staryu, Goldeen and Seel for the battles today, switching between them to keep to the level of the challenger.

It wasn't exactly how he had imagined helping Misty, but Leaf had pressured her to do something about the Gym, since it had been closed for almost two weeks. Misty hadn't found a long-term solution yet, so he had stepped in.

Misty didn't want to get rid of the Gym – no matter how much trouble it had caused her in her youth, it held too many memories for her to want to close it down. She had told him that she would convince one of her sisters to take over, but he wasn't sure if she even believed that herself.

Both Daisy and Violet had their own families and were busy with the little ones, and Lily had her life and job as well. If it was truly necessary, they could keep an eye on the Gym for a few days or a week, they had done that before, but doing so for the rest of their lives was something else entirely.

If Misty wanted to keep a Gym in Cerulean City, she would have to find a new Gym Leader. But he wasn't going to be the one to tell her that; she'd probably bite his head off.

He set down the last bowl of food in front of Psyduck, who cocked his head in confusion. Ash patted the Pokémon's head gently, before standing back up and stretching out his arms. He groaned when something popped back into place.

Gym Battles were surprisingly exhausting, and this morning he had also been busy with his own training. But he was almost done for today. He just needed to clean up the battlefield, and then he had to register all those battles… Gah, paperwork; but at least he could do that on the couch.

Ash returned to the battlefield, where the ice had already started melting. With a fishing net on a pole Ash started fishing out the debris of the destroyed platforms, and sometime later Politoed helpfully joined him. With her help, they were done pretty quickly, and Ash thanked the Pokémon. Politoed happily clapped her hands in response.

Now he only needed to remember to start the cleaning program when the ice had melted, and to put in new floating platforms.

But first, time for his own dinner. Finally. Politoed happily followed him towards the back of the Gym, but remained behind in the Pokémon area, Pikachu taking her place in following Ash to the kitchen. Misty wasn't home yet, but Ash was unsurprised.

Due their busy schedules, healthy, balanced meals were a luxury they didn't often enjoy, and thus Ash boiled water to make himself some noodle soup. He grabbed some bread and butter and impatiently waited for the water to boil, glancing at the clock. He still had to register the battles, and he wanted to be done before Misty came home. Not that that would be that difficult.

Ash sighed, and Pikachu chu'ed in comfort.

"Yeah, just tired…" Ash said, giving his Pokémon a small smile. Whatever it was that was keeping Misty so busy, he hoped it would be over soon.

A/N: Poor Ash… And what is Misty doing, exactly? Hm… Thank you for reading, and please let me know what you thought about it!

Thank you!

Recommendations:

Pokémon: Helping Hand by saltedshotgun. FFN. This is an interesting one-shot showing how Green gets some of his Gym Trainers, manages to almost die in the process, and there's also some Red and Green romance on the side. Thank you, anjumstar, for the recommendation!

Pokémon: Butterfly Lungs by ibuberu. FFN. Another one-shot, but this one is creepy. Horror-genre, so go in warned. Still cool, though. I can't say anymore otherwise I'll spoil it, but it's a good read, with a very interesting reveal. Thanks to inklaced for the recommendation!

Harry Potter: Potterwatch by Alohaemora. FFN. A long one-shot telling the tale of how a vital part of the rebellion against Voldemort came to be, featuring Lee Jordan, the Weasley twins, and more! Really nicely done world building :)

Recommendations are welcome!