Hello :P It is Wednesday and I am back with a new chapter. I wrote this back in February now but seeing as Misty (and Brock) has come back to the anime, last week was an Ash and Misty centred one and this one is Misty with Ash too but mainly James. It was fun to go back to the group in a time that isn't too far off the anime age and time :3 I hope you enjoy!

Misty: 20

Ash: 20

James: 27

Disclaimer: I own only the story and Jordan and Lynne with AAML-TAML. Just a little warning too for two uses of the f word :P

I beamed from backstage at the charity gig, my heart thumping with pride. It was time. After all of her rehearsing, it was time. After all of our encouragement and honest words, it was time. After all that anticipation and counting down the days, it was time. It was time for Misty to take to the stage and sing for a crowd all in the hope of raising money for breast cancer.

As the host of the little gig took to the stage and began to give the Pokémon Master's girlfriend a proper introduction with photos and videos to help, the crowd began buzzing even more with excitement. So many people were desperate to hear the red head sing live. So many people were desperate to hear the red head singing for the first time. There were so many members of our group mixed in with total strangers. Needless to say, their cheers and their smiles were the loudest and brightest.

Ash beamed and came bustling up behind Misty back stage as she got wired up to her microphone, giving her a massive bear hug from behind and nuzzling his nose against her cheek. He was ecstatic. Every single day he was proud of his girl and of course today was no exception. She was going to be singing to raise money to help cure the same thing that lead to her mother's end. What a precious person we knew.

"You're gonna do great, Mist, you're going to do great." Ash sighed happily as he continued wrapping his arms tightly around his girlfriend, rubbing her arms with his hands gently. "Are you excited, Mist? Are you ready? I bet you're excited."

Misty didn't have the time to respond other than a slightly shy smile and she pushed her bangs out of her eyes as James joined us all backstage from cheering quite loudly with his wife and children in the crowds. I could tell just by looking at him that he was just as excited for Misty and as proud of her as Ash was but he went about it in a much calmer way.

He playfully unhooked Ash's monkey arms from around the red head and shoved him away before slightly squeezing his best friend's hand and pressing a kiss to her forehead.

"You're going to kill it, Munchkin." He uttered in an encouraging way as he pulled away to smile at her and sort out her bangs for her.

As I hopped onto Ash's shoulder, my best friend scowled at his hugs being replaced by James' before he stuck his nose in the air, being unable to resist folding his arms smugly when he actually thought of something funny to say. He didn't even have the time to comment that James' choice of words was inappropriate seeing as Misty was singing in honour of her deceased mother when it was time for her to take the stage.

The host announced her name and allowed the crowd to cheer for her for a few moments before stepping behind the curtain. As he took his own microphone set off, he walked past Misty and gave her a shoulder squeeze and a look that said 'go for it, kiddo'.

Ash's beam seemed to light up backstage all the more as he moved closer to his girlfriend, their shoulders almost touching as Misty took a few deep breaths. He was expecting her to take the stage any second now. She had no reason not to.

A few more moments passed and Misty continued inhaling and exhaling. I don't think the boys could barely take notice as it was pretty packed backstage and Ash was almost bouncing off the walls and James was peeping through the curtain to wave at his wife.

Misty politely moved away from Ash when he got a bit too close in this important moment before being unable to stop herself smirking fondly when she saw after James gave a wave to his wife, he gave a wave to the poster of Lynne at the side of the stage. He didn't know it but his absent minded yet predictable and comical action made Misty's heart stop pounding for a few moments.

This didn't last long however as she took a step forward and she saw how many people were waiting to hear her sing. I watched from Ash's shoulder and I could tell her head was beginning to spin. I furrowed my brow from clinging to my best friend and saw her eyes were beginning to blur. I let out a worried noise and got the boys attention as Misty squeezed her eyes tightly shut and clutched onto her head.

Ash stopped peeping through the curtain to wave at the crowd, his face falling and his arms dropping as he caught sight of his girlfriend. His expression was that of innocence as he pulled her into a close hug.

"Go on, Mist, that's your queue."

My poor innocent best friend was about to nudge his poor anxiety ridden girlfriend towards the stage but luckily Misty got out of his grip in time. She threw her microphone set off and backed away from the stage, her cheeks flushing as she kept her eyes squeezed tightly shut.

After a few pained groans, one of her eyes cracked open and once again saw the stage and crowd and the posters listing her as musical guest and began to get even more overwhelmed. She took a few steps back and let out a gasp when she backed into the front of her best friend. I was working out whether this unreadable gasp was that of relief or fear as James lightly rested his hand on her shoulder.

She managed to spin herself around to face her best friend, her eyes opening and looking at him desperately as he looked back at her.

"Are you okay?" was all he asked softly, his fingers still gently on her shoulder as he looked at her with concern.

Misty breathed out and began to get teary eyed at his gentleness contrasting with the aching and all the noises that she was hearing in her head. She shook her head and squeezed her eyes shut again, her cheeks flushing more.

Ash had been watching all this and came up behind Misty, reaching his own clammy hand to touch Misty's shoulder.

"Mist, are you not okay?" he asked, his ecstasy and pride dying down as he began to realise something was wrong with his girlfriend but he just couldn't yet fathom out what.

Oh, Ash. Sweet innocent Ash. He was so new to Pokémon Mastery and fame that he absolutely adored every single event and interaction. He understood her anxiety as he got older but at that moment it was foreign to him.

The orange haired female whimpered more and swallowed as Ash's words unintentionally made her feel that she should be okay and she should be getting out there.

Even though my best friend didn't understand why she was stressed, he had a heart of gold and it was his natural instinct to encourage anyone. He squeezed her shoulder with all the love in the world and once again, Misty found herself tearing up at her two favourite guys' kindness.

"I…" she stammered as she finally opened her eyes to briefly glance at them both, a guilty lump forming in her throat as her eyes also took in the photo of her mother. For some, this might have been what made them pull together and get out there. I didn't blame Misty for acting the opposite way. She let out a stifled sob as she suddenly took off back to her dressing room, not looking back. "I don't want to have to do this anymore. I'm sorry."

Her apologetic words trailed away with her as she got further and further away from us but our concern for her got even further and further intense in our hearts. As the host slipped back on stage to announce there had been a "technical difficulty", James rubbed his forehead at what just happened and Ash looked over at him.

Now that his girlfriend had disappeared, he was the one with worried looking orbs and he blinked them vulnerably up at James as he scratched the back of his neck. His eyes pricked with guilty tears as he shook his head at himself.

"Did I do that? Was I being too excited? Did I make things too much for her?"

Despite the tense times and the worrying ache in our hearts, I couldn't help but breathe out and reflect. Normally it was James who was the worried one and Ash the one who just wanted to go with the flow. But seeing that the younger male was full of vulnerability and guilt, James knew that he had to take charge. Being a father had changed that man for the better, even though he hadn't really changed. He just grew into the real version of himself.

James reached out to give Ash a light pat on the shoulder, getting distracted by his wife in the crowd frowning and mouthing confused words as Misty still hadn't taken to the stage. The lavender haired male just gave a shrug before focusing on Ash when he shuffled his feet sadly.

He got distracted by the host coming backstage again to ask if anyone wanted to entertain the crowd for a few moments and shuddered at the idea he might have to but made sure to come back to the present to focus on Ash.

He gave him a composed smile as he squeezed both of his shoulders. He didn't have time to say anything as Ash asked yet another question.

"I really think I might have done this. What can I do to fix this?"

Luckily Ash's question had lead right into what James was originally going to tell him anyway and he gave him a nod of the head as he continued squeezing his shoulders.

"What you can do, Ash, is get your butt out on that stage and entertain the crowd for as long as your girl needs you to, okay? That will be helping her plenty."

My raven haired best friend considered this for a few moments before nodding his head and heading off to get microphone-ed up. He gave James a thumbs up as he bustled off and the lavender haired male returned one back.

Now that the younger male had gone, James let out a worried groan and his eyes expressed the concern for his best friend that he was feeling in his heart. I jumped onto his shoulder and gave him a nuzzle as we took off down the halls together to get to Misty's dressing room.

There were a few noises and squeaks on the way from people being in disbelief they had seen James Morgan and his hair in person but he ignored this more than ever and focused on his best friend. It didn't take long to reach our destination.

James was quick to knock on the door and he breathed out from walking all that way, leaning against the wood as he gently spoke to Misty.

"Munchkin? Munchkin, it's me. I-"

"Go away." Misty interrupted but not in a rude way. For once she was not shutting others out and she was being present in the moment to her feelings and emotions as she sniffed worriedly. Both James and I could tell she was leaning up against the door judging by how close and miserable her tone sounded.

James didn't say anything and began stroking the door frame as if it was his best friend's hair and the silence caused Misty to be desperate to break it. She let off another sniff before talking.

"If you've come here to make me go out there you've got another thing coming."

James was quick to interject and, like Misty's, it wasn't in a rude way.

"You know how much I hate public events like that so I am going to be the last one forcing you out there." He chuckled lightly at his own words and I imagined Misty giving off a shaky smirk from the other side of the room.

The trust that her best friend wasn't going to make her do anything she didn't want to do and the fact he wasn't smothering her with concerns and questions made it easy for Misty to take a brave step. She moved away from leaning against the door and unlocked it so James and I could enter.

The lavender haired male crept in through the crack in the door and when he saw her sitting on the floor with her knees pulled to her chest, he copied her exactly. We stayed in silence together for a few moments, just sitting together. Misty was sniffing gently and playing with the ends of her hair when James finally broke the quietness.

"What happened there, Misty?" he asked softly, his eyes full of concern as he sat close enough to Misty to comfort her but not too much to crowd her.

Once again, upon hearing one of her guy's gentleness, Misty's aquamarine eyes filled with more tears and she squeezed her eyes tightly shut. Her hands began clutching her head much in the same way she had been doing right before she had to get on stage.

"I… I… Ugh, it's so stupid." She tugged at her bangs in frustration but began to relax her knuckles as she felt James move closer to her side and me hop from his shoulder to perch on her feet. She let out a few sniffs and began to admit a few things but kept her eyes shut at first.

"I don't know, I just… Right before I got onstage I was suddenly hit by all these terrible thoughts. How by being good at something I was being a show off. How by not being good at something I was a loser. How it was pretentious as fuck for me to be doing this. How I was just kidding myself I could do it. How no one was genuinely proud of me, they were just saying that. How-"

"I don't think these are your own thoughts and words, Misty." James managed to speak through a lump in his throat and was about to say the second part of his thoughts when Misty confirmed it.

"N-No…" Misty breathed out, her chest heaving as her eyes pooled with more tears. "They're my sister's words. They're my sister's thoughts. It's what they used to say to me."

As Misty broke down in tears, James wrapped his arms around his best friend and held her as tightly as he could. He shook his head gently after kissing the top of her head, his gesture half in disgust she too had gone through this and half in complete understanding where she was coming from. But he didn't bother telling her this or trying to fix it. He knew nothing he could say would make it better just yet. So he just held her. I say 'just' as if it really didn't help but of course it did. I felt my own heart aching and my skin tingling as we all shared the closeness.

As Misty's sobs died down, James fingers gently stroked the hair on the top of her head and he continued hugging as he wisely spoke to his best friend.

"You really gotta stop this, Misty, you gotta stop this." He breathed out sadly before quickly continuing before Misty thought he was asking her to stop crying. "You've got to stop letting your sisters be your inner voice because it's really a load of crap. You've got to let go of all that. You are an amazing person. No matter what anybody says and no matter what you've been made to think, you are soft and you are kind and you are talented and you are valuable to this world. You need to let go of them and focus on your future. Ash, Pikachu and I and everybody else are your future. And we have nothing but kind words to say to you for no reason other than it being the damn truth we feel in our hearts and know to be true."

It took Misty quite some time to stop the tears from streaming from her eyes upon hearing this and for some moments she just gratefully rested her cheek on her best friends shoulder and held onto him just as tightly. After a while, she let out a slow sniff. She shrugged as she spoke.

"I just suddenly got so scared that I was going to get up to and nobody would like me very much. But I guess that's because, well, I don't like me very much."

At this confession, James soft, green eyes filled with tears but he knew he had to be strong and not let the younger female sense his heart was breaking. He just pulled her closer still and rested his cheek on her head.

"That's still your sisters talking, Munchkin, don't let what they said years and years ago effect how you view yourself now." He mumbled before smirking slightly, nuzzling his nose against her hair. "Besides, if you think you're hard on yourself, I actually don't like very many people but I adore you so you could count yourself lucky. In fact, if I were you, I would be fucking honoured."

Misty was soon to let out a shaky laugh upon hearing this and her eyes filled with more fond tears as she moved even closer to her best friend.

"My god did you sound like my dad just there." She breathed out thoughtfully before nuzzling her cheek against him, her hand lightly patting his other shoulder. "But thank you, James, I am so grateful for you. You are in no way blood related to me but you have loved me and respected me and comforted me in so many ways I don't know how to thank you. Even in my saddest times and the times I've disliked myself most, both you and Ash have always loved me truly and that really does count for something. No, it actually counts for everything. So, thank you. Thank you, Jimmy."

James had delivered Misty some heartfelt words and now she was delivering them back to him, he was even more speechless and touched than ever before. Neither of us knew what to say after that so we all just hugged onto one and other and like Misty just said before, our closeness was enough.

Misty described that day all you need in life. It takes a lot to accept yourself, let alone love yourself because, after all, we are the people we spend the most time with so of course we're bound to get sick of ourselves sometimes! But I think by allowing other people to love us, we are loving ourselves. By letting someone into our lives and letting them love us for our messy, unsure, broken and raw selves, we are being true to ourselves. For on some level, you must think something at least slightly special of yourself when you give your all to another person. Because you understand by giving someone your all, that is always good enough.

The End.

There you go! Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoyed :3 I really do love James and Misty's friendship. That has been something Shannon and I headcanoned since the beginning and it really does make sense looking back. They both ran away. They dealt with hardships involving parents and siblings respectively. And James reminds her of her dad too like she mentioned. Shannon and I also headcanon that her relationship with her siblings isn't the best even in the future. Daisy unfortunately was 12 when Jordan died and has the most vivid memories of that time but she and Misty get on the best out of them all. Violet and Lily both have distance with Jordan due to sharing the same hair colour as Jordan's abusive brothers. Jordan found it hard to connect with them and get over that since they were born. Lily suffers the most due to father issues and jealousy that he views Misty as his saviour. It's quite heavy and maybe I'll write about it in the future but that's how it is in our universe :P Misty might have them in her life but she definitely views Ash and James as her family more. Thanks again for reading and I will be back next Wednesday with another chapter so see you then!

AmyBieberKetchum signing out :3