Hello :P It is Wednesday and I am back with a new chapter. Although this one doesn't actually feature Ash, it is heavily PokeShippy! It also tackles Misty and Gary's relationship as well. I always thought that despite them having a bit of a bickering relationship, there was a quiet understanding there too. About all sorts of things. So I hope you enjoy :3
Ages:
Misty: 15
Gary: 16
Disclaimer: I own the story! No OCs in this one.
A teenage girl and a teenage boy tucked down in their separate beds, the former reaching for a brush to comb through her growing locks before sleep time and the latter resting himself down on the mattress, one hand resting under the pillow as his cheek rested against it. It was as this was happening that the chestnut haired owner of the household couldn't resist checking on the two teenagers before she tucked down for the night herself.
Appearing at the doorway with a smile on her face and a matching set of dressing gown and slippers, Delia folded her arms loosely over her chest and addressed Misty and Gary.
"Anything else you need before I head to bed? Misty, dear?" the chestnut haired mother of my best friend asked the both of them in her house before turning to the orange haired female in particular first, her arms unfolding and her touch being felt on the frame of the door. Her smile appeared to brighten and her brown orbs twinkled against the low lit room. "Perhaps a glass of water? Or another blanket?"
Misty was in the middle of brushing the middle part of her long sunset locks at that point but even so, her attention turned to Delia and she gave the older woman her full span of it. Putting her brush momentarily down on the bed but still combing her fingers through her hair, she smiled sweetly at her before shaking her head.
Misty's eyes expressed as much gratitude as her words did.
"No, I'm perfectly cosy here." her initial response was laced with a bit of a giggle and then after her legs stretched out under the many layers of the bed in Delia's home that she had been offered, she spoke of the first part of the older woman's words. While Delia listened attentively, making sure, the orange haired teenage girl added. "And don't worry about me. I'll go down to the kitchen if I get thirsty. I won't make too much noise. Thank you though."
In spite of the fact that it was of course Delia being spoken to by Misty, it wasn't the older woman who responded to her first of all. Although her eyes creased all the more with fondness for the orange haired teenager and her hand lingered on the wooden frame, words came from the teenage boy in the mattress on the floor instead.
Addressing the gratitude from Misty that he deemed over the top, after turning over in bed and switching the hand that was underneath the pillow to conceal his words, he muttered out of the corner of his mouth:
"Kiss ass." Gary uttered just two simple words but they got their point across. And though they were meant for just him and that was obvious from the way that he tried to keep them hidden by turning over in the bed, the orange haired female most definitely heard them.
Misty shot Gary a look across the room and down, reaching for the hairbrush all over again and he had half a second to panic in case she used it at a weapon! Thankfully though, something else happened.
The auburn haired teenage boy perhaps did not do as good of a job at concealing his words as he had thought he had done when after Misty fortunately returned using her hairbrush for what it was actually made for, Delia's voice filled the air and she looked right over at him.
Her kindness and fondness that had decorated her face for the orange haired teenage girl faded away and an unreadable expression took over. Her fingers finally fell away from clutching the frame and resumed folding over her chest. Delia resumed folding her arms over her chest as she spoke her son's best friend's name.
"Gary." Delia started and almost immediately, the auburn haired teenage boy forwent rolling over in bed all over again and changed tactic entirely, choosing instead to sit up in his mattress on the floor. A bead of sweat formed on his forehead. However, before he could reply with a yes or mumble any kind of words at all, Delia softened all over again. As mischief and secretiveness quirked her lip upwards, she asked Gary. "How about you, dear? Anything I can get you?"
As I look back from years after knowing this story and even more years after it actually happened I can very much imagine the private sigh of relief that the auburn haired Pokémon Researcher took after he wasn't reprimanded for his pettiness – or his language – in the home of Delia Ketchum. As well as this, it was a mystery to me whether she had actually heard his words or not and nothing that she did gave it away.
She remained smirking. But none of us could be or can be sure whether that was the reason or not.
Gary must've let out a bit of a sigh of relief but knowing him, he probably tried to hide that all over again with some gesture or another. Falling back slowly down against the mattress and pillows, his eyes became crescents as he waved an over the top reassuring hand before replying to his best friend's mother properly.
"I'm perfectly fine as I am, Mrs K. You're too kind to us so I wouldn't dream of asking for anything more." Gary replied and needless to say, Misty's face was filled with private exasperation as she looked back over at the fellow teenager all over again, her hand occupied with brushing her locks but her face occupied with raising an eyebrow. No doubt did he too hear the excessiveness of his own words, much like the orange haired female did.
Whether Delia did or she did not, her mouth evened out from showing off a lingering smirk and she smiled at the two teenagers momentarily in her care. She nodded her head. She just had to be satisfied that she had done everything possible for her guests and it was time for her to head off for good and dream of wonderful things.
Even so, the chestnut haired woman being completely herself, she didn't evacuate from the scene straight away. Taking a step forward in her fuzzy slippers, she invited herself into the room that was not her own and first and foremost, she made a beeline for the orange haired female in bed who had finally finished brushing her locks and put it down on the bedside table.
After Delia had cupped hold of Misty's face in a motherly way and pressed a kiss to the top of her head, her eyelashes fluttered and she addressed them both yet again.
"Well I hope you have a lovely sleep, then." she began and before Gary's own mouth could quirk upwards in mocking amusement at Misty's rosy, flattered cheeks at the affection from the kind-hearted woman, Delia appeared at the foot of his bed. That did well at ridding him of his own disposition! Although Ash's mother did not press a kiss to Gary's head nor did she cup him around the face, she did reach down to pat his leg gently through the covers before squeezing him on the shoulder as she headed back out the room once again. "I'll see the two of you in the morning."
Whether it was sheer relief that he hadn't been kissed as well or the gladness that his prior expression had not been noticed by either of the two females, stretching his own legs out under the thick layers of blankets much like Misty had done before, Gary called back out to Delia again before she left for good.
"Sleep well Mrs K. Look forward to seeing you again in the morning." The auburn haired teenage boy told her with not a smile on his face but genuineness in his eyes that he could not hide. Misty nodded her head in agreement and simply waved before she saw the back of Delia for the night. And while Gary did not have a smile on his face as he spoke his words, needless to say Ash's mother definitely did as she headed out of the room at last.
Nodding her head, her expression was sunshine in a vast comparison to the moonlit Kanto sky outside of the window. With appreciation and fullness in her heart that could not be explained so easily, Delia padded her slippers against the wooden floor of her home and headed off to her own bed.
Once the door had been shut behind her, a silence fell on the room containing the two teenagers. But it did not last for very long at all. Copying Gary's position and lying down in her bed herself with the back of her head firmly but comfortably against her pillow and her legs stretched out stretch underneath the covers, the orange haired female's voice broke the momentary silence.
Speaking very much for the Pokémon Researcher to hear, the Cerulean Gym leader muttered, her head moving against her own pillow as she mocked.
"Look forward to seeing you again in the morning." Misty copied Gary's verbalisation word for word with her mouth moving in an exaggerated way! The auburn haired teenage boy's head tilted against his pillow. Just one of his eyebrows became an arch. Both of them were arches by the time the orange haired female added to her sentences, tilting her head to look right at him. "Who's the kiss ass now?"
Another silence befell the two of them and the room as Gary's brows remained the shape of rainbows. Misty's eyes were slits as she continually looked over at him. Funnily enough, the quietness was far longer than the one that occurred just after Ash's mother had left the room.
But still, it wasn't too much of a lengthy one. After contemplating his next action and his next words for just a second or two, Gary nonchalantly and obviously rested his arms behind his head and retorted to the younger female.
"You, of course." He told her coolly and in a tone that didn't elevate nor recede. His hands behind his softer locks than normal because they too had been brushed following his evening shower; Gary shrugged against the night that was creeping further in.
And naturally because of these words that came from Gary that Misty deemed highly pompous, she didn't bother to hide her expression that came next which was her scoffing and rolling her eyes, her legs being pulled closer towards her as she lay in bed.
Despite her expression being very telling and the Pokémon Researcher's quiet head nod to himself was in the same manner, the two brash teenagers remained still after that. They went back to respectively and privately musing to themselves about something or other. I wondered what occupied their minds at the age of fifteen and sixteen, and on that night in particular.
I suspect that for Gary, it could have been things along the lines of that it was rather nice to settle in the same place for a few days that was the same one as his home town instead of roaming from place to place, researching, like it had been for the past couple of months. Though he found his newer choice in direction absolutely invigorating and everything that he wanted, sometimes the jumping from city to city and from town to town could get a little overwhelming.
And then there was Misty. What was she thinking of? Maybe it was wrong to assume but looking back in retrospect, I wondered if there was a slight giddiness that she was in the bed of Ash while he journeyed through Unova and he didn't have the slightest of ideas. But then again, perhaps that would not be the case at all.
Not only had she spent time with Delia while her son was away journeying quite a lot in the past few months and had been offered that particular bed, Ash often gave it up to her when they were ten years old anyway.
I suppose with both Gary and Misty, I couldn't be certain what they were thinking about at all. That was very much okay with me. I lived for the curiosity. I lived for the curiosity. I lived for the wonder. I wondered if Misty and Gary were uncertain what they were thinking about at all.
Whether they were thinking a great lot or a great little, one of them spoke to the other yet again and this brought an end to the thoughts for one and broke them away from them entirely for the other.
"Are you going to sleep straight away?" Gary questioned and before Misty could reply that she was planning to or she wasn't planning to or she could furrow her brow to indicate confusion why this was being asked at all, the Pokémon Researcher added, his cheek again falling against the soft white marshmallow pillow that he had been graciously given. "I just might read and I'll need at least one of the lamps on."
After he gestured to the two bedside lamps adjacent in Ash's room, she understood the words that came from him and she nodded her head. Her expression not having to recover from a look of suspiciousness at Gary's former words, Misty shook her head and she prepared to switch position in bed herself.
"No. I was thinking I might do some reading as well." Misty replied. At the time that Gary's lips pressed together and his eyebrows rose on his face once more at the thought of the younger female reading, he started reaching his hand under his pillow for the reading material that he was going to tackle. This put a bit of undeniable intrigue and interest in the Cerulean Gym leaders eyes. Managing to push past her stubbornness in the same instance that she pushed her bangs from her eyes, she added to her words. "What are you reading at the moment?"
I shouldn't have been surprised by what happened next but after being told this part of the story I couldn't help but roll my eyes! The reason that I did this because after Misty interacted with him and showed interest towards him, Gary replied with barely a moment of pause.
And it was as he did this that his voice came out curt as well as hurried.
"Something way too smart for you." The auburn haired Pokémon Researcher retaliated. After he turned to properly tug his reading material out from underneath his pillow, he must've caught a glimpse of Misty's very real and very quiet expression. Though she rolled her eyes and shook her head, she looked genuinely miffed at being spoken to like that after actually being a bit nicer to him. She even looked a tad hurt. Gary was forced to bite his lip as a wisp of hair fell down over his forehead. He was forced to add to his words by way of an apology. "It's one of my Gramps' research papers. You'd probably find it interesting, actually. It's heavily about Water Pokémon."
Misty merely nodded. She sat further up in bed so the headboard and her pillow too cradled her. She pulled her legs to her body. Her hands fell down towards her lap on top of her covers and her fingers reached out for each other, pressing against each other before becoming entwined.
I was pretty certain that it was this silence and this nod and Misty pressing her lips together that made Gary feel encouraged to add more words. I imagined his eyes wandering briefly to the ceiling in remorse before trying to correct the situation in a very casual manner.
"Would you like to read it?" Gary asked her and before she had a chance to oblige or decline with words and before she had a change to decline or oblige with gestures either (very rude ones!), the auburn haired teenage boy sat up in bed all over again and tossed the research paper over to the younger female. It was not done in a careless or a disrespectful manner, though.
The orange haired female understandably hesitated and paused before making a grab for it. But after a couple of seconds of looking down at her hands in her lap, she did this and with a sigh she reached for the very heavy and tightly packed paper belonging to Professor Oak.
No doubt if it was filled with knowledge and new discoveries of water Pokémon then it was certain to be something that she found highly interesting. Softness and a light couldn't help but fill her eyes when she thought about this, her thumb very imperceptibly tracing against the whiteness of the pages.
However, she kept this very well hidden and she snapped herself away from that demeanour pretty quickly. Holding the wad of paper in both of her hands and in front of her face, her eyes scanned the front with a fishhook in her eyebrow. She nodded her head and contemplated while Gary looked down at his own lap and ran a hand through his softer, auburn brown locks.
He looked up again and his fingers fell away from his hair as Misty finally came to a conclusion, tossing the research paper back over to him with the same air that he had done to her. After running a hand through her own hair, she told him her verdict with words, pressing her spine back against the headboard and pillow that she was surrounded by.
"Maybe some other time. I've got my own stuff to read now." Misty answered and immediately, Gary nodded his head, holding the wad of paper back in his own hands and his eyes gluing to the front page decorating it. I don't believe that he was expecting to hear some more words from the orange haired female. I don't believe that he was expecting any words from her at all. And if he was, he gathered that they would be aggressive! "You should read it so your highly smart self can answer all of my questions when I read it."
The two teenager's eyes met very soon after these words came out of Misty's mouth. Gary prepared to furrow his brow and engage in yet another bickering match between the two of them. But this was evidently not needed from the way that not too long at all after they looked at one and other, the orange haired female's head tilted and her eyes glittered. They glittered with… humour?
The auburn haired teenage boy didn't smirk and he didn't chuckle. Instead, he nodded his head and he shrugged and this was him accepting her antics, secretly glad that there was going to be a bit of a momentary truce between the two of them.
Because of this and before Misty reached underneath her own pillow for her own material – or perhaps leaned down and over the bed for it – Gary asked, placing the research paper briefly down on his belly as he continually laid in the mattress on the floor.
"What are you reading anyway? Something water related as well?" he questioned and it was after these words were heard that Misty stopped leaning her spine against the pillow and headboard and she prepared to reach under the second pillow for something to read as well.
Misty's hand rummaged. Misty's hand rummaged and felt under the pillow and against the mattress. When she had done this for a couple of seconds, she replied and then she went back to searching, inwardly swearing to herself that she definitely put it back there.
"A magazine." she replied and moving the research paper off his stomach and down next to him in the bed, Gary started to sit upwards in order to copy Misty's position of sitting up in his own bed. He also sat up in his bed out of intrigue and slight amusement at the sound of her hand brushing backwards and forward as she searched under her pillow.
Before Misty could indeed begin to lean under the bed to search for what she was looking for, Gary repeated her words back to her.
"A magazine?" Gary began to mock. But then it was a possibility that he had forgotten that they were having a bit of a momentary truce with regards to their verbal battles with each other. This certainly could likely be the case from the way that after just a second or two of showing this expression, he stopped smirking and he quietened down.
As the auburn haired teenage boy did this, he didn't add any mocking words, wondering whether it was a girly magazine that she was reading. Instead after a couple more moments of silence and watching Misty with a frown search under her pillow yet again before leaning over to under the bed, Gary simply nodded before occupying himself with beginning to read.
He would let the orange haired female get on with doing what she had to do and searching for the magazine that she was looking for. He would interfere and he would help her when and only when he felt like her attempts were beginning to be pitiful!
Gary picked up his research paper and settled it up against his outstretched arms as he sat up in bed, his eyes absorbing and appreciating the cover page before he turned to the first one, preparing to read. He didn't ignore Misty's groans and her grunts of confusion as his eyes scanned and read the words that were on the front page. But he didn't acknowledge or respond to them either.
Perhaps her sighs and her dismayed scoffs lending a soundtrack to his reading, Gary got stuck into it. He quickly became so stuck into it that he didn't catch the way that she stopped her grunting and her sighing and her searching too in order to look over at him, her eyes becoming lines as she wondered whether he had hidden it.
Misty's gaze fell back over to the hairbrush on the bedside table for just a second. It was beneath her and she was beyond launching that at him in an accusation! But still, she didn't rule it out for any other occasion.
Letting out a sigh that was for a different reason, at the same time that Gary licked his thumb before turning the page and moving on to page two of Professor Oak's research paper, Misty got the idea of searching for some other parts of the bed.
Her spine resuming their position of pressing up against the headboard and pillow all over, her hand reached down the side of the bed between the mattress and the wood in the hope of finding what she was looking for. Her eyes widened and lit up when her hands clasped around something. Aha! She was going to have a night of reading after all. Or was she?
Peculiarly, Gary's attention somehow managed to be torn away from his reading at the rustling sound that could be heard coming from Misty as she pulled out some sheets of paper from slipping down the side of the bed. His attention was garnered before Misty uttered the words that came out of her next.
"I've got..! Oh. No. I don't have my magazine." Misty began animatedly and then trailed off lamely as she pulled her hand upwards and outwards again. She could feel and she could see that in her hold was a loose collection of papers rather than her magazine. The orange haired female furrowed her brow in disappointment. And then her head tilted with intrigue. Her eyes narrowed as they became studious. She brought the first sheet of paper to her eyes. "What even is that?"
Because Gary had looked over at Misty again some time ago, he caught on to everything that was happening. He saw everything that was happening. He saw what was in her hold straight away and it caused him for a split second to have very wide and panic stricken eyes before his expression changed to ice.
Gary was forced to utter extremely firmly and directly and rather harshly as Misty started to look at each and every sheet of paper that she found, each containing a different hand drawn something or other.
"Give them to me, Misty. I mean it." The auburn haired teenage boy spoke so sternly that instead of having its desired effect of causing Misty to comply and look rather obediently over at the older male, it instead rolled off her like water of a ducks back.
Because of the complete and utter sternness that was over the top and dramatic in her eyes, Misty didn't catch on to the seriousness and she laughed. Misty grinned and continued looking at them some more.
"Why, are they yours?" the orange haired female humoured him with a curious arched brow as she laughed and her eye twinkled, taking in each and every detail of the hand sketched Pokémon and people and places. The sigh that Gary let out that was bordering on a grunt – and would have possibly knocked her over if she wasn't in the comfort of Ash's bed – let her know that she had unintentionally hit the nail on the head. Misty's eyes widened and one of the sheets fluttered out of her hold. She changed her words out of surprise. "Oh, they're yours."
The orange haired female elongated the sound of the last word that she spoke and because of this, Gary believed that she was mocking him like he often did with her but she was wasn't. And because of this as well, he finally got out of his bed that was a mattress on the floor of his best friend's room and he hovered over Misty in hers, wordlessly snatching each of the pages out of her hold and off the bed too.
The way that he looked at her spoke volumes. The way that he looked direct at her with an unmoving and hard expression said everything that he needed to say. Misty's eyebrows began to rise out of disbelief for a different reason. And then they narrowed, shaking her head at how unnecessary she felt that he had been.
But despite this, she didn't speak of it. Despite the fact that she would have quite liked to, she didn't pipe up and anger Gary further. She didn't question him on what she had found. She didn't tease him about it either. With her own sigh as the auburn haired Pokémon Researcher remained silent, she started to reach down into the gap in the opposite side of Ash's bed and maybe because she wasn't so heavily focused on doing so, she found the magazine that she was looking for.
Along with the silence that Misty had gone along with as well as her plopping the rediscovered water Pokémon magazine down on her stomach, after Gary hopped back into his bed and tucked his drawings into his grandfather's research paper, he perhaps decided that it was time for one of them to speak.
And if the orange haired female wasn't going to be the one to do it as she picked up her magazine with the intention of reading it, then he was going to have to, wasn't he?
However, he wasn't given the chance to. Gary wasn't given the opportunity to break the wordless air because after Misty opened the magazine and held it in front of her face as she prepared to read it, she took the chance for herself.
I wondered if she understood his over the top antics at her discovery were a way of hiding his embarrassment – and vulnerability too.
"Your drawings were good. I liked them." Misty blandly spoke out into the silence and her shoulders moved upwards towards her ears before down again. She didn't let go of her magazine. She didn't stop looking at the words, though of course, she wasn't absorbing them there and then.
Gary didn't say anything. He stayed silent except for a very throaty grunt that tumbled out of his throat. Misty believed that he wasn't going to respond. As he picked up the research paper and held it in front of his own face before having to drop it down again at the sheer weight of it, Misty believed that he wasn't even going to respond.
The orange haired female's eye roll was hidden by her magazine. But it was after that she did his action for only the words and the pictures on the pages of the magazine to see, that Gary cleared his throat.
"They weren't for you to look at. Let alone like." Gary told her shortly and Misty showed off another concealed eye roll before she lowered the magazine for good. I believe that she could not be fooled by his antics. After Misty didn't say anything, the auburn haired teenage boy was encouraged to speak all over again. His words remained concealing but started to be a bit less uneasy. "And here I thought back pain was going to be the worst side effect of you stealing Ash's bed off me. Now you're going to want me to do personalised drawings for you."
That time, the orange haired female rolled her eyes for more than just the words on the page to see. But then as the auburn haired Pokémon Researcher looked over at her with a glint in his eye that he managed to muster and a head tilt as well, her exasperated expression died down as she pondered.
She had seen such carefully drawn illustrations of all kinds of Pokémon. But it had been the delicately drawn ones of people that had caught her eye the most. Tracey. His grandfather. A girl who was a stranger to her. Ash.
No doubt that if anyone was going to capture her face and her essence well on a page then it was going to be Gary. But she couldn't exactly tell him that, could she? She couldn't offer him reassurance that heavily!
So instead, she did it in her own way. After remaining wordless and giving the older male time to pick up Professor Oak's paper yet again, Misty offered him words in order to make him feel ever so slightly better about his secret being discovered.
What she didn't know, though, was that these ones were somehow all the more touching because she offered parts of herself away in order to somewhat comfort Gary.
"I sometimes write songs, you know? Everybody has something they like." Misty said with a shrug and I wondered whether in hindsight she beat herself up for saying something so personal and saying it so casually. Or maybe she knew that Gary Oak being Gary Oak, he probably wasn't really listening anyway!
It was shown to the orange haired female and me too that he was indeed listening but her words also went in one ear and out the other. Somehow managing to hold the hefty papers with ease in both of his hands, Gary shot Misty a bit of a look and his head tilted further. Gary's head tilted further and he couldn't help but retort.
He evidently really didn't catch on to the fact that Misty had been trying to make him feel better.
"What do you write songs about? Nerdy stuff?" Gary responded and almost immediately, Misty reacted. And instead of reacting out of hurt like one of the previous times or reacting out of sheer annoyance like most of the others – after rolling her eyes so hard they very almost tumbled out of her eye sockets – the orange haired female decided to ignore him.
Misty decided to ignore Gary entirely. She wasn't going to give him the privilege of being responded to anymore. She had tried to offer a truce. She had tried to be a little more kind to him. And for some reason, he continually gave her more and more sarcasm and sass!
"Read your paper, Gary." Misty instructed him and I knew that I should have been impressed with how well she got her words across without the need of a particularly harsh tone or swear words as well. And I was!
The auburn haired researcher potentially was as well from the way that despite everything and despite the fact that he had only just been rather privately mortified by his best friend's former journeying partner out of everybody discovering his drawings, he started to smirk to himself as he held the reading material in his hands.
And extremely rarely for Gary Oak, he did what he was told! He did what he was told and resumed reading. Or rather, he tried to resume reading and Misty believed that he was doing so from the way that his eyes grew fixed on the page yet again.
But what the orange haired female didn't know after she tried to concentrate on her own reading was what the auburn haired teenage boy's mind danced over.
Gary's mind danced all over. And then it fixed on one thing and one thing alone. As he wondered to himself what she did indeed choose to write songs about, one possibility sudden popped into his mind and his brain couldn't let go of it. He couldn't stop thinking about it. He couldn't stop thinking about it because he believed that he was right.
Managing not to outwardly smirk, he put his grandfather's paper down on his outstretched legs and abandoned it for good. Misty cursed herself but she couldn't refrain from looking up as well almost as soon as she felt Gary's gaze and head tilt burning through her magazine and onto her.
"You write about Ash, don't you?" he questioned in a level and a rather mundane tone. In addition to this, his face didn't grow animated and it didn't glint particularly so. His chin didn't jut out either. His blandness to his expression was very telling. It was very telling indeed.
It was of course telling to Misty. It was telling to Misty who dropped her magazine and then knotted her brow together, being the animated one of the two and sticking her nose in the air. Naturally, she flushed a brilliant red. She hoped that the hotness of her cheeks would be perceived as down to the hurriedness of all of her actions.
"Just because you do tender drawings does not mean that I write tender love songs." The orange haired female retorted and she couldn't seem to lower her nose from pointing directly into the air. Her cheeks felt hotter. As her brow knotted, it started to flicker with irritation.
And although Gary had done his best and found it rather natural to hold back all of his expressions and gestures previously, he couldn't help but do some that were most clear. The auburn haired teenage boy allowed a couple of seconds of silence to pass and then he leaned forward to the edge of his bed, moving to prop himself up by his elbow and hoping to catch Misty's eye.
"Who said anything about love songs?" Gary said with a grin that lasted just for a second. And then his expression grew bland all over again while his head tilted more.
Misty believed that her face simply could not feel the heat more but she was proven incorrect! Hearing these words from the auburn haired teenage boy – the snarky and stubborn and unbelievable and downright irritating auburn haired teenage boy – the orange haired female's face burned and burned and burned.
And then after her cheeks scorched for a second or two more, Misty swallowed. And Gary caught onto that swallow. He saw the way that the Cerulean Gym leader's lips began to pout with concealing her fury but most importantly, her vulnerability. I suspected that it was because of this that caused the older male to change tactic.
He remained shaking his head. But something in him softened. Something in him softened as he humoured her.
"C'mon. I gave up Ash's bed for you. The least that you can do is tell me yes or no." Gary spoke to her and showing that her burning cheeks fuelled her as well as brought her down, the orange haired female responded to him quickly.
Misty responded to Gary quickly by tossing her magazine to the floor with a slap and refusing to look at anyone or anything.
"If it means that much to you then shut up and let's swap." snapped Misty and her legs started to twitch under the covers almost as if she was willing to swap there and then in order for Gary to shut his mouth.
However soon enough, this action of her limbs died down. And soon enough after that as well a strange silence took over that room. Even though Misty's words had been direct and explosively so, what happened next rippled over them both and rippled over them like water. It was almost as though when the magazine had dropped to the floor, it had caused water-like movements to occur.
The room and the silence seemed very eerie like when you are underwater and can only hear the bubbling moving in and out of your ears and very distant and far off unfathomable sounds. Misty and Gary didn't look at each other. The teenagers didn't look at each other. They didn't look at their reading materials. They didn't look at their laps. They seemed to look nowhere.
Then, eventually, after a couple of minutes, Gary was actually the one to speak. I supposed that it was his turn. But as he spoke, it was shown that there really was a sensitive side to him and not just from the way that he liked to capture through drawing the things and the people that captured his heart.
"I wouldn't blame you if you did write about Ash. I draw him all the time." The auburn haired male offered with a shrug and I wonder if he also looked back in retrospect and shuddered at this private confession being spoken in an attempt to reassure the younger female. But probably like it was when it was the other way around, Misty didn't respond to give indication whether she had actually heard or not.
I sort of hoped that the orange haired female at least noticed and in a very small way appreciated that Gary didn't bring up the phrase 'love songs' yet again. That was the last thing she needed. That was the last thing that she needed entirely.
Clearly during that moment in time, although she didn't respond in those moments before, after her very undeniable outburst, it soon became obvious that Gary was the last thing that she needed.
Even the auburn haired Pokémon Researcher started to get that message when Misty wordlessly lifted herself out of the bed and trod on the magazine in the process. Gary's first inclination was to believe that she was heading out of the room and away from him and this prompted him to roll his eyes before drawing breath.
Nevertheless, he was stood correct as well. It was true that being a Pokémon Researcher meant that he needed to catch onto the smaller details and reach between the lines. It was also true that he had proven to be able to do this from the way that he had read Misty's affections for Ash and unfalteringly so. But then again, most people did!
We went about it in a much different way to Gary, though. No doubt was his bluntness and his directness a risk. His ability to brush people the wrong way and plain and simply piss them off was as well. Maybe he knew it. Maybe he knew it from the way that he believed that Misty was walking straight away from him on that night.
Fortunately though, as the orange haired female got out of bed and stamped on her magazine before walking over it entirely, she made her way over to the window of Ash's bedroom. After she did this, it only took her a couple of seconds of lingering there and her bare feet pressing against the carpet for her hands to reach out and part the curtains.
Almost immediately, the moonlit shone so brilliantly and brightly that the low lit lamps of the room were rendered pathetic. Misty's hands dropped away from the curtains after clutching the material. She looked out of the window. She looked out of the window and out into the Pallet Town night.
I believed that it was absolutely the wrong decision but after leaving her be for some moments and not saying a word, Gary started to shuffle in his own bed on the floor next to Misty before his own feet planted on the ground. He got out of his bed. He got out of his bed and running a hand through his auburn locks, he approached the back of the younger female.
Practically straight away, she tensed. She tensed and her mouth fell open as she decided that she was going to explode on him yet again.
But something stopped her. Something stopped her and I don't know what. I was never told. All I know was that as Gary approached her a little more and his own hand reached out, parting the curtains further although they didn't need to be parted more at all, something stopped Misty from not allowing him to be there.
And so, the two of them lingered by the window and looked out of it, both of their gazes heading far out of the window and all that they could possibly see. Utterly going against her judgement to yell at him into the quiet of the night moments before, Misty's mouth started to open a few more minutes into looking out of the window with Gary and she got the inclination to say different, softer words.
As her orbs continually fell over and studied Pallet Town, she almost couldn't help but say them, ignoring the way that Gary was fixedly staring at the back of her head after he heard the first syllable escape her mouth.
"Pallet Town somehow seems so much bigger during this time of night. It's like you can see for miles." Misty nearly whispered and because of this and because Gary wanted to take a bit of time to be certain what she had actually said, he waited a moment or two before nodding in agreement. Following that, his own neck started to crane more as he looked down at the town below.
I knew exactly what she meant. I had thought the same thing a thousand times over when I visited there with Ash and then when I lived there with Ash. And of course, when I came back there again after not being there for a while. It was funny how you could see for miles but at that time, there wasn't really anything to see at all.
Lights in people's houses were always switched off. The houses slept just like their owners did. Nothing appeared to move at all in the far off fields. There was hardly any rustling of leaves. There was hardly any moment in the hedges. Plain and simple, there was not much to see at all. But somehow that meant there was so much to see.
There were things to see that were unmissed by most people. There were things to be noticed that were not there to be noticed. That was the hour when it was the lost souls who were awake. The thinkers. The dreamers. The observers. That time of night brought peace to all those kinds of people. And I was glad to know that I knew and cherished each and every of those kinds of people.
Gary brought Misty a little more back to reality from her staring and her pondering by beginning to get a little cold with standing there and out of the weighty bed clothes and with his bare feet pressed against the floor. He started to subtly jump from foot to foot, his arms hugging around himself. Misty ignored him. But it wasn't done unkindly.
That time, it was due to different things occupying her mind. And surprisingly, she spoke of them despite Gary's prior rather heavy teasing.
"For some reason every time I look at the top of that path leading into the town there, I expect to see Ash. I don't know why. I guess it's one of the roads he travels the most and loves the most…" Misty quietly mused and her voice trailed off with thoughtfulness. It was after not much time at all that she did this that the auburn haired Pokémon Researcher stopped lingering behind her and lingered next to her.
And as Gary did this, he couldn't stop himself from looking at her in a very knowing way, his face creasing against the moonlight of Kanto and shaking his head. But still, even though he knew why Misty thought these kind of thoughts and he usually wouldn't have hesitated to come straight out with them; there was a part of him that didn't want to enrage her like he had done before.
But more importantly and more sweetly, he didn't want to upset her. And so, he tailored his words. For a rare occasion, Gary tailored and changed his words but they still remained true. His hand ran through the back of his locks as he spoke them.
"I know what you mean. I'm sure Delia does too. That's the path that she longs to see him travelling down because that means he's coming back home to her." he spoke with a touch more of a mature tone in his voice than normal and maybe it was this that caused Misty's eyes to glitter secretly with understanding as she looked up at the night sky. Or maybe it was simply Gary's words. Ash had not travelled along that road back to her because they had not seen each other in person for at least a year. But still, she understood. She thought of this while Gary spoke some more though his words before were perfectly fine. "No wonder she likes having us here."
Misty thought of different things as Gary said these words of his. But showing that she had heard them all the same, after her previous private musings faded away, she let out a sigh and considered them instead. Soon enough, she nodded her head and even gave the fellow teenager a bit of a look and her nod became to be in agreement with him.
Agreeing words tumbled out of her lips next. But they didn't stop being thoughtful.
"Ash is lucky to have her." Misty said and instead of addressing the fact that Delia cared for her son's friends almost as much as she cared for him, she said this sentence instead. And instead of saying some other words to go along with them, she allowed them to wordlessly ring out instead.
Yes, Delia was lucky to have Ash too. All of us were that knew my raven haired best friend.
The auburn haired Pokémon Researcher nodded his head. Gary nodded his head and continued folding his arms over his chest and even though a part of him would have liked to continue looking out of the window – and even would have liked to linger next to Misty – he couldn't stop a yawn from taking over his mouth and throat and he decided to disappear back to bed.
He decided to disappear back to bed with a tiny haphazard wave of the hand. The orange haired female twitched and then softened like Gary's hand had reached out to her. Of course it had not. But she somehow felt his touch anyway. She liked him better when he said less. She liked him better when he said far less. It made her talk to him more. And enjoy talking to him more.
Misty wanted to linger by the window and look out of it and down at the sleepy town and no doubt along that yellow path that was silver in the moon light. That same path that she too longed to see Ash running down it during some moment or another.
The orange haired female wanted to linger and she wanted to say. But after one more minute to herself of looking out and being quiet, she decided to copy the actions of the auburn haired teenage boy and she too climbed back into her own bed. She climbed into the bed of the raven haired teenage boy while Gary snuggled up against the mattress on the floor.
After the two of them both clicked their respective orange glowing lamps off and the undrawn curtains shone a white light in instead and before they decided to head off to dream land, Misty discovered herself speaking to Gary.
I think even she knew her words that came next almost addressed the hushed and friendly moment that they had shared.
"Are you sure you don't want to have this bed back? He is your best friend after all…" the orange haired female offered and for a reason that was not wistfulness caused her voice to trail off while she copied Gary yet again and positioned herself on her side. Her hand even slid under her pillow partially while her cheek rested against the marshmallow white.
I suspect that the auburn haired teenage boy believed the quietening of her voice to be wistfulness from the words that came from him next as his cheek rubbed against his own pillow while he shook his head. Still, he allowed a few moments to pass before a softer version of his voice spoke out into the moon lit room.
"You're his best friend too. Even if he hasn't told you." Gary told her with a bit of a shrug and although she didn't outwardly deny this, Misty's eyelashes fluttered just a little bit and her expression filled with disbelief against the quietness of the night. Nevertheless, before it could take over entirely or she could think to herself some more, he spoke of the younger female's offering. "I'm fine though. Thanks. You keep it."
Contrary to his robotic words, he did have gratitude in his heart and mind. But more importantly so, he had something else on his mind and after a few more minutes of quiet and Misty starting to rub the material of her white pillow as she lay her head upon it, Gary spoke of this. He tells me that he tried not to.
But in the most delicate of ways, it began to eat him up. And so he knew that he needed to take another chance. Another risk.
"I was wondering if I could ask you something?" the auburn haired teenage boy wondered and moving away from her quietness, Misty very noticeably let out a sigh – albeit a low one – as she turned over in her bed to the opposite side.
She turned to the side that was away from Gary but it wasn't intentional. Her hand slid up and found its way nestled back in the material of her pillow yet again.
"No, you cannot ask me to write a love song from you for Ash, Gary." Misty told him directly and firmly and in a tone that was equal parts a whisper as it was laced with finality. And then she shut her eyes as if that was the end of the matter.
But of course it wasn't the end. And of course, these words were not the ones that Gary was wondering. She was going to have to spend a bit more time with him alone for her to figure him out in his entirety!
Misty didn't speak of the correct words that Gary was wondering and after he himself told her of this and she begrudgingly granted him permission to say what was really on his mind, another silence took over.
Another silence took over as the teenage boy bit on his lip. A silence was the only thing that spoke for a few minutes more as the orange haired female tried to relax against the bed and the auburn haired male tried to keep up his courage to say them.
Eventually he did. And his tone came out innocent, level and almost tender.
"Do you love him?" Gary asked Misty and he did not even need to utter the name of the person that he meant. He had been a subject matter for a good bit of their interactions. He had been on Misty's mind when Delia left them alone for the night. It was his bed that Misty was tucked up in and she felt so content to be so.
That was, naturally, until this question was asked. Misty's breath hitched in her throat. Misty's breath hitched as she couldn't deny the softness of Gary's voice and she knew that he wasn't playing around. Slowly and silently, her legs drew to her chest. Her eyes fluttered and fell shut all over. Her hand stiffened within the pillow.
She couldn't deny the softness of Gary's words. She couldn't deny the butterflies that cascaded through her and then the ache that took over her not long after she heard what he said. The auburn haired teenage boy continued biting his lip before he shut his eyes, listening out.
He listened out for an answer. He listened out for an answer, whatever it was. Part of him believed that it would be undeniable. Part of him believed that he was going to have the truth told to him. Part of him hoped that he was going to have the truth spoken to him.
Instead, what he heard was a similar thing to when she had instructed him to go back to his book. After Misty tried to let her legs stretch back out under the covers and ignore the elevation in her heart rate, she muttered through a dry mouth.
"Go to sleep, Gary." The orange haired female told the auburn haired male as her eyes continually fixed shut and her eyebrow twitched as both brows drew together in an attempt to go to sleep herself.
Gary let out a clear sigh. But within this clear sigh was acceptance. Within this clear sigh were acceptance and an understanding that she didn't have to say anything that she didn't want to. And he almost respected her for exactly this.
He rolled over to the opposite side with the intention of going to sleep for good. He made this obvious by speaking to Misty gently even though she had essentially told him to go to hell with her last words!
"Night, then." Gary told Misty simply. Then after the two of them had opposite positions, the auburn haired teenage boy curled up on his side as he laid in bed and the orange haired female resembling a book mark as she too lay on her side in the bed, something rung out in to the night.
After another silence was the only thing that sounded - something else rung out into the night. It was not words. After Misty thought about Gary's ones and she knew the answer belonging to her heart, she couldn't stop it from filling her mind and so filling the silence.
Misty didn't speak them. Misty didn't speak them at all. In the same way that the words of Delia being lucky to have Ash didn't need to actually be spoken, the words that came next didn't need to be as well. They spoke out and rang out into the night for even Gary to hear. He had been listening out for them.
The orange haired female's heart said even though her mouth did not. Gary heard what was not there to be heard. Gary noticed what was not there to be noticed. Misty heard what was not there to be heard. Misty knew what had always been known.
Yes. Yes, I love him.
The moonlight heard this of course. The moonlight knew. One day Ash would as well. One day. Sooner than any of them thought.
The End.
There you go! Thanks so much for reading and I hope you enjoyed :3 This was one of the first ideas I had when I read the PokeShipping Week themes on Tumblr. I've always wanted to explore Misty and Gary a little more - especially Gary with regards to Misty's feelings for Ash as a teenager - so this was the perfect opportunity! Pretty sweetly, Ash and Misty do romantically get together not too long after this and become a long distance couple while he travels in Kalos :) I can't believe this is it for PokeShipping Month! Of course, I have one more to upload and that will be over on The Diary of Baby Rey on the 28th. But for Pikachu Tales, it has come to an end for another year. Thanks as always for reading! See you soon :P
Amy signing out!