A/N: Thank you for reading and supporting this story! I hope you'll like this chapter!

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

Days

The day Misty wants to sleep in

Misty

Wednesday, January 1st

8:58 AM. Misty closed her eyes tiredly, deciding that it was altogether too early to wake up, but still, there she was. Decisively, she settled further under the covers in the hope that sleep would reclaim her quickly. With how busy the League still was, she should enjoy this day of sleeping in, because it'd be unlikely she'd get another chance soon.

After some moments, Misty rolled onto her other side to face Ash, who was still deep asleep, his breathing soft. In the dim lighting of the room she saw his silhouette, his limbs strewn around the bed. Even though they always fell asleep close to each other, most often they ended up on opposite ends of the bed by morning. Once, she had even woken up to find Ash lying with his head at the foot end. It was still a mystery how he had managed that.

She smiled a bit, before closing her eyes again, trying to sleep. It had been late last night. Or early this morning, however you wanted to look at it. They hadn't been to a big party or anything, just spending the night with Delia and Professor Oak and their Pokémon. It had been quiet and warm, just chatting and playing games, and it had been a welcome reprieve after all the drama these past days.

Her smile faded. Poor Cilan, and poor Iris. She wondered how they were doing now. She hadn't heard anything from them except for a message from May saying that Iris was back in her Gym and that she had talked to Cilan, but no details about the conversation.

Hm. Misty resolved to call Iris later today. It had been a while since they had properly talked. And May, while she was at it.

She still didn't know the whole story of what had happened between May and Drew. Iris had been the one who had taken May under her wing (and Misty wondered if she was still able to do that with the current situation) but she hadn't been very forthcoming with information. Not that Misty could fault her for that, with such a personal issue.

She only knew that things hadn't been going smoothly for some time already, and that they'd had different ideas about the future. And with the recent happenings in mind, Misty could recall that May had mentioned that Drew had been rather lazy when it came to looking for apartments, or how she had complained that he was so often away for training…

Still, Misty hadn't seen it coming, and she had always thought that May and Drew's relationship had been similar to her and Ash's. Seeing how complimentary those two had seemed, even with the bickering, it had seemed like a proper comparison. Now the idea scared her a bit.

When Misty realized the direction of her thoughts, she forced herself to relax. She was overthinking this. Ash was a simple and straightforward guy, nothing like Drew. He'd tell her when he had problems, or he'd mope and be snappy until she confronted him. Then they'd talk and/or argue about it, and things would be solved again.

Besides, they had the same ideas about the future. Her having the Gym, Ash being the Indigo Champion, and perhaps, a child somewhere down the road. Obviously things had changed now, but the essence was still the same.

No, they were nothing like May and Drew. Resolutely, Misty forced her thoughts away from the subject. She would call May and ask her how she was doing. With the pregnancy, the League and the Gym to keep her busy, she had kind of neglected her friends. It was a good New Year's resolution to change that, she thought.

That decided on, Misty again tried to fall back asleep. But even though her thoughts might have settled, her stomach now seemed to have the opposite idea. Waves of light nausea kept her from falling asleep, and Misty tried switching to different positions to lessen the discomfort. Of course she could just get up, but she was against that on principle – she was not getting up early on one of the few days she could sleep in.

Just when she had found a comfortable position with her knees pulled up and half turned to her side, Ash started to stir.

"Hey," he said quietly, his eyes glinting in the half-dark.

"'Morning," Misty said, smiling.

"Too early," Ash murmured, turning over on his side to properly face her. "You wanna get up?"

"Nah, too early," she agreed with him.

"You look awake," Ash said after a yawn.

"I've been awake for half an hour or so." Misty completely turned on her side and pulled her knees up further.

"Why?" He almost sounded indignant, as if being awake when you could sleep in was a personal offense.

Misty cracked a smile. "Just thinking. And some nausea."

"Oh," Ash said. "You okay?"

"I'll be fine, yeah," Misty said.

Her words were followed by silence that lasted so long that Misty wondered if Ash had fallen asleep again.

Then she heard him take a deep breath.

"What were you thinking about?" he asked, and he sounded a lot more awake than before.

Misty was tempted to wave his question away, not wanting to bring up such serious topics in the early morning, but something in Ash's voice made her decide against it. "Iris and Cilan, and May."

There was the rustling of covers as Ash moved closer to her, and Misty was surprised when he grabbed her hand and squeezed it with both of his hands. Warm affection rushed through her and she felt tension drain out of her. With a smile she squeezed back.

"They'll be fine," Ash said after a moment of silence. "They're best friends, they'll solve this."

He sounded so confident, perhaps naively so, but Misty hoped that he was right. She herself was more skeptic, and couldn't help but think that a deeply painful matter like this could be easy to solve… if at all… But for Iris and Cilan's sake, she hoped that she was wrong.

"Yeah…"

"And May is strong," Ash continued. "She'll get through this."

"Yes," Misty said, this time with more conviction. "I was thinking of calling her today…"

"That's a good idea," he said immediately. "Yeah, that's a good idea…"

"Iris, too," she added. "If she wants to talk, of course."

"I hope so," Ash said. "It's not good to be alone with things like this. Maybe I'll call Cilan…"

Misty hummed in agreement, and then they fell in a comfortable silence. Misty noticed that the nausea had receded, and she moved closer to Ash and snuggled deeper in the covers. Slowly, she felt sleep creep back in and she was almost gone when-

Her phone rang, seeming extra loud in the silence of the bedroom.

Misty shot up from her half-sleep, adrenaline kicking in. She swore she had put the thing on silent-

And she had, she realized. This was her League beeper.

"The League?" Ash asked, sounding wide-awake and drawing the same conclusion as she had. "I thought you had the day off?"

"I had," Misty said, an ominous feeling in her stomach, and then quickly grabbed the device.

"Misty Waterflower speaking," she said in greeting.

"Misty, this is Leaf," the Champion's voice sounded on the other end, serious and solemn. "We have another case."

A beat of silence and Misty's heartrate picked up as the implications of the words hit her. Another case-

"Another death?"

"Yes," Leaf said. "It's Phoebe of Hoenn."

A/N: Thank you for reading! This chapter was a bit shorter and a bit more reflective, but I hope it wasn't too boring. Things are going to pick up again! I'd love to hear what you thought about it!

Thank you!

Recommendation:

Pokémon: One Good Bite Deserves Another by badassumbreon. FFN. This is an one-shot that can be classified as horror and humor, and which I really enjoyed. It's a bit of a darker take on the Pokémon lore, so if you like that, give it a look!

If you know a story you want me to recommend, be it your own or someone else's, let me know and I'll check it out!