Hello, it is Wednesday and I am back with a new chapter! I didn't think I would get this uploaded on time today because honestly, I have been reading and editing a lot of future uploads at the moment so thought my brain would be fried by the time it came to this one! But fortunately, this one is shorter than usual and quite back to basics as well. Although it does focus on some underlying heavier subject matter, it's still Ash and Misty with their relationship at it's core - as well as some good old advice from Brock! I enjoyed writing him as it's been genuinely years since he properly popped up in these stories of mine. I hope you enjoy :)
Disclaimer: I own the story and the OCs mentioned!
The sound of someone adjusting the radio and another person settling down onto the sofa was most welcomed on a bright spring occasion in Kanto. Focusing on that as well as the addition of a third person bustling around in the corner of the room, I felt most serene, almost as if I had absorbed the rays from the sun outside the window right into my being.
It was so very pleasant to focus on the simpler things in life. So for that reason, I didn't bother to move and I didn't bother to think all that much either. Life would play out as it was going to. And after the past few months, there was no better feeling than that.
Settling at last on a station which took his fancy, Ash finally left the radio well alone and after his fingertips briefly met the curve of his hips in his blue wash jeans, he took strides over to the sofa and to join the lady there. However, he stood and swayed for a bit before he turned over his shoulder instead, his attention momentarily captured by the other people in the corner of the room.
As if my best friend's chocolate brown hued orb had offered magic, he a magician and waving his wand, the two of them came far more to life and started interacting all the more with each other.
"Oh, you're such a happy, chatty little girl, aren't you?" Brock cooed to the baby who had simply been residing in her seat which was just hers and hers alone. Then, following the noises that were indeed very happy and chatty, she was freed from the restraints. "Has she always been in this way?"
Often a quiet but undoubted presence in the room, Brock spoke loud and clear on that occasion as he cradled Ash and Misty's youngest child to his chest. Little Rey who had hardly felt constricted in her seat at all, naturally kicked and cooed against the chest of her uncle.
Absentmindedly, a hand from Misty wandered to her own chest. And still craning around from his position loitering near the sofa and his wife, Ash's fingers clung to his hips a second time and I gathered that time around things were a bit different for him.
"Ever since I've known her." Ash replied to one of his closest friends with a curve of the lips to contrast his fingers seeking comfort against the round of his hips. Yet despite my worry that I did not allow myself to fully feel, because he had offered coolness, it soon became a natural part of him.
At last, he seated himself down next to his wife. Perhaps fortunately, Brock did the speaking before either of them had to fret about doing so.
"I can't tell who she reminds me of the most." Brock mused to himself, gently peeling Rey away from clinging against his chest. She kicked her legs some more. But she didn't resist at all! "She has eyes that are shaped like and speak nothing but of her mother and the other Williams'." The child in question felt a finger reaching to poke her pursed lips before they were spoken of. "But her mouth is all you, Ash! So mischievous."
And with that, any feelings of the past vanished as well as the remainder of sleep crust that Brock swiftly and paternally swiped away from the corner of little Rey's eyes. It was hard for anyone not to become the colour of a rose at being compared to someone who adored with your whole being! But especially for a father. Especially for Ash.
While I inwardly doted on the prospect and felt all the more of the spring sunshine coursing its way through my veins, I also had a private chuckle to myself.
It was funny how people often tried so hard to work out which parent the child looked like, wasn't it? It was almost as though people needed to see elements of things they already were familiar with in order to accept. I knew it really wasn't all that deep. But it was fun to ponder.
Meanwhile, when I took the chance for my eyes to wander over to Misty, still with a hand caressing her own chest, I could quickly see that she was doing thinking of her own. My initial reaction was to wonder how she felt about someone else doting on her and Ash's youngest daughter so.
Although it wasn't nearly the first time and certainly not the first time around for Brock, sometimes you couldn't help but call upon old feelings and have your mind trick you into thinking you still needed to think that way.
Misty's arms had once wrapped so tightly around little Rey before she had even been named that because of her sunshine nature, hardly letting anybody peak at her at all. I'm sure there was still a level to her that wanted to call upon that protection every once in a while.
However, before she could act on it whether she was going to or not, someone else noticed her quietness in the room and so took the opportunity to bring her into the surroundings like Brock was capturing the blue eyed baby in his arms.
With not a single touch at all, a husband offered his wife a smile. And as soon as they looked upon one and other, I could see they were just as connected as always.
"Whaddya think, Mist? You reckon you can handle having another child with my mischief?" he teased her, still not laying a single finger on her as he perched right next to her on the sofa but all the same, there seemed to be an invisible touch connecting the two.
Misty continued watching Brock with their daughter for a couple more movements of a clocks hand but then, her hand leaving the companionship of her bosom in order to run her fingers through the orange curtains that swung in front her face, her shoulders twitched to declare that the words had not fallen on deaf ears.
Brock looked up from jiggling Rey up and down in front of his face to instead observe the scene that could unfold in front of him. He always enjoyed a verbal battle between the two of them!
"Oh, the real question, Ashton, is do you think you can handle the sweet and fluttering lashes of yet another little girl like me?" Misty taunted him in return and, for just a second, her own lightly mascara swiped lashes clapped together.
But then, that gesture seemed to fade away like the last spark of a candle vanishing after it was blown out. Misty then offered a wan smile instead. And she looked away.
Brock, as stoic and dependable as I had known him when he was just fifteen years old, of course noticed this change in countenance straight away. Yet I noticed and I appreciated how he looked away, his shoulders only just lifting an inch towards his ear before he resumed interacting with the five month old baby instead.
If there was anybody in my life who was known as an action taker then it absolutely could be Brock. But there was somebody who easily beat him for this title and I don't have to tell you who that would be.
The quieter nature that was clutching onto Misty on that particular day had not gone unnoticed by my best friend and I understood that it was this that encouraged him to finally reach out to her.
Then not only did he actually briefly collide his shoulder into her and flash him that grin of his that was indeed known for being extremely cheeky yet charming in its own way, he properly wrapped an entirely strong arm around his wife.
Before Misty could resist, she was smothered against the side of his torso.
"Everything going okay for you over there, Mist?" he asked, eyes that were so warm that they could give the sun a run for their money already looking for the features of his wife and waiting for her to gaze back upon him. "You want to talk about anything?"
A single beat was missed. A beat where my head bobbed as if I had fallen asleep but I hadn't. One where Rey nonchalantly hiccupped and a distant gurgling sound from the kitchen could also be heard.
Misty's bangs shimmied in front of her eyes but that time it wasn't because her hand had made their way through each individual strand. I watched as she attempted to feign her own level of coolness, the movement in her left shoulder being as a way of pointing as it was to try and take some of her being back for herself, away from her husband.
"I think our little girl is doing just enough talking for everyone." She made a point of looking back at Ash but she didn't allow herself to melt into the pool of his eyes like she often would. Instead as she focused on keeping her grin steady, she gazed over at the way Rey was gurgling towards Brock. "She has so found her voice, hasn't she?"
Almost instantly, I didn't refrain from bobbing my head and I decided to clamber onto the window sill to proper absorb the exterior rays into my blood stream. In the same manner, Brock's spiky locks appeared to soften as he too nodded, tickling Rey under the chin in a silent attempt to keep her finding the strength of her little voice all the more.
Misty's attempt to move the attention away from her was a good one. However, you could always trust my best friend to be stubborn and relentless at times. And perhaps he didn't catch on to the way that his wife had shrugged away his touch and she was leaning away from him but it wasn't just so she could peer at her daughter some more.
"She has so many wonderful things to say." Ash did agree, that blush from before capturing the hue of his cheeks and neck too. However, part of me knew that it wasn't just the sheer adoration of his daughter. The way two strong hands of his placed on either one of Misty's slim shoulders and drew her back towards him showed me this. "Seriously, Mist. Are you good?"
I'm sure that Misty found it challenging to resist the private urge of peeling herself away from her husband yet again. It couldn't be truer that she didn't want anything more than to not hurt his feelings. However, she knew when she was being constricted into places where she didn't belong.
I watched with a bubble forming beneath the fur of my chin and the knowledge that Brock was observing from his peripheral vision too, though he was doing a very good job at appearing occupied, dangling his necklace in front of Rey's face so she could catch her own reflection and beam all the more.
The words that flowed outwards next from the orange haired woman were intended as a ray of light similar to the reason that their daughter had come to be named what he was. But unlike her husband, forging emotions did not cause them to then formulate naturally.
"I'm as happy as our Rey of Sunshine." Misty nevertheless encouraged herself to affirm, luring herself away from the hold of her husband but in order to draw herself closer all over again on her own accord, bashing the side of her head against his shoulder as an act of playfulness.
Out of the corner of my eye, Brock's head dangled further down than his necklace ever could, then putting on quite the show of minding his own business. I knew that I could not just watch from the corner of my eye. And I was glad that I saw the full picture when Ash positively blossomed like a flower and shone like the sun which had allowed the new growth to take place.
Bless. My best friend revelled in the tiniest amount of reassurance that his wife was still in there and still adored him dearly.
He could not stop his arms from capturing her all the more and nuzzling against her with his nose colliding against her shoulder too, practically a little kid all over again who was overwhelmed with love. He was overwhelmed with real happiness that his wife was happy.
And because of this, Misty did not bother to fight the urge of wanting to be elsewhere than her husband's arms. She knew that it was wrong. She knew it was her favourite place to be. But it was her favourite place to be when it was carefree and unintended. Not when he was clinging onto her like he would never see her again.
"Hey…" Brock broke my consuming observations and for a moment, I thought that he was simply chatting away to Rey because his thumb was still lightly pressed against the dip of her dimple. Not for much longer. He soon was holding her in just the one arm and his hand fell to cup his own knee. "Can I borrow you for a moment, Ash?" he spoke as casually as he could, that hand on his knee lingering though he longed to draw himself upwards straight away. "I won't steal you for long."
His often stern and angular face made a point of becoming penetrable and easy-going and he did not have to try very hard for this to appear. His head bobbed towards one of his closest friends as Ash was encouraged to stop doting on his wife so intensely.
Misty's initial reaction was to feel relief coursing through her veins that she might have a moment of peace. But then the guilt and dread shot through her like a white hot flame. How could she be glad that Brock was taking away her husband after he had voluntarily left just a few months ago?
"Oh, sure. I guess." Ash's mildly confused words and tone to match were like cooling water against the burn in Misty's throat, the orange haired woman experiencing a déjà vu when her husband's presence actually soothed her for once. She was consoled against the guilt she had previously felt more suffocated by than even the tightest of holds. "If it's relationship advice then I think we will be longer for a moment." Inadvertently, he tried to melt the atmosphere of the room before his bottom had even left the sofa. "You're hopeless."
The orange haired woman managed to stop looking inwards at her guilt and what was wrong with her long enough for her eyes to become wider than Rey's lips when on occasion she actually wailed before they instinctively were slits, listening to the interaction between the two men.
Fortunately, Brock didn't appear too hurt and even joined in on the banter as he finally hitched himself up from kneeling on the floor with the baby.
"Hopeless." He agreed, forging a grin that was as cheeky as his friends could naturally appear. Then that curve of his mouth softening in order to nod down to Misty and smile at her in a brotherly way, that baby who had been so contented in his hold was offered out to her mother. "You want to have come cuddle time, now? I'm sure she has many smiles for you."
Swinging my head around to another angle, I conceded. I knew that if Brock had chosen some other words then Misty might have been more eager to chill out with her daughter and on her own. However, it seemed that after Ash's octopus-like limbs had longed to attach all around her, a bit of closeness was the last thing that she wanted. Even from her precious little girl.
"You knock yourself out." Misty answered in this manner at first, waving a haphazard hand and leaving her husband craning back around to face her once he had finally left her side on the sofa. Just like his ten year old self, he still needed things plainly spelled out for him. "You boys can enjoy her. She's so chatty, I'm sure she has advice for even you, Brock."
That time, Misty didn't force a smile and it naturally came when she was interacting with the man who was very much like an older brother to her. Immediately in spite of his naivety to it moments before, Ash hooted and had a very casual and wide grin. Brock was filled with the same amusement; but nevertheless, he didn't show it nearly as intensely!
He merely smiled in a fond manner towards Misty and reached out to her, giving her the lightest of squeezes too. Then, with that, the two boys as well as Rey bustled off to the kitchen for whatever it was that they needed to discuss. I was doubtful that it was relationship advice that Brock was seeking from Ash!
All the same, I would actually soon find out. With a waving motion of a hand set forth by Misty, I was encouraged (or rather, told) to head on out with them. To tell you the truth, I would have liked to linger with the orange haired woman. But I knew not to argue with her. Certainly not then and certainly not ever! But often it was for very different reasons.
Regardless, on that day, I left the comfort and the warmth of the window sill and headed elsewhere. To my surprise and to Brock's disbelief as well, Ash spoke almost as soon as we all arrived in the kitchen.
I needed to give him credit where credit was due. He was not that ten year old child anymore.
"Ugh, I just know that something is bothering Misty and it's probably something I've done but she just won't tell me." Ash vented, eyes resembling the chocolate pudding that resided in the fridge in the kitchen rather than appearing highly frustrated, tugging at his black mane of hair at the words that he was saying. "That's why you wanted to speak to me, isn't it?"
Using his foot, Ash shut the kitchen door behind us all before Misty could hear any words and find out that her husband wasn't as clueless as many people thought. In truth, Ash had his wits about him more than Brock thought.
His gesticulations did the talking and Rey's voice did the actual talking by hiccupping in surprise while being held by her uncle as she loitered in the kitchen with us all as well.
"I mean…" Brock began, initially unable to say all that much at all and using this word as a leeway so he would be able to take a leaf out of the youngest Ketchum's book and find his own voice too. His toes in his socks pointed up against a cupboard door though that one did not need shutting. "I just couldn't help but get the feeling that you were coming on too strongly."
It seemed that Ash's having his finger on the pulse was fleeting. Without thinking, his eyes started to grow much more narrowed rather than soft and oozy and he wondered why on earth his good friend was saying those words.
Soon enough, he would come out and ask exactly why. But for a couple of moments and impressively so, he made a point of lingering near me after I had perched myself on the kitchen table and his hand reached out to my head as a way of grounding himself.
After all those years, I was still his calm in the chaos, I thought to myself.
"What would make you say that…?" Ash wondered to Brock aloud, the sudden thoughtfulness of his voice a great contrast to the angles of his eyes when it was man vs man. Then, to switch things up, his tone was rigid while his eyes resembled more the ones of my best friend that I liked to gaze into and see my future. "I thought I had said something wrong."
An exhalation of breath flowed out of Brock but it couldn't be all that much in the presence of Rey. And in addition to this, that man hardly ever lost his temper anyway. He very much lived up to the essence of the gym that he used to be a leader of and was a complete sturdy statue in not just Ash's life but my own as well.
It dawned on me that despite his fair nature, maybe he was going to give Ash a hard time for ridiculing his love life previously, and calling him hopeless as well! Thankfully, however, Brock was seemingly able to focus on the subject at hand.
"I just get the feeling that maybe Misty wanted you to cool it a bit with the touching." Brock got this point across to one of his closest friends in a manner that he hoped was both direct and fair in the same breath. I knew nothing could compare to how real he had gotten with him when he decided to return after running away! "And by insisting on asking her if she was okay."
No other word in the next couple of seconds ran through my mind like the way 'dumbfounded' had. In the next few breaths, Ash could not be described as anything other than that particular word. He had got the ball rolling by making it plain that he knew when Misty wasn't being entirely her usual self with him but there was still part of him that hoped that they would end up talking about Brock's life – and he would end up being able to offer him advice.
There and then, though, it became perfectly clear that the subject matter was about him and him alone. Ash's eyes were wider than I had ever seen and if they could have been sent upwards towards the sky, then they would have encouraged a solar eclipse to happen, his unbeatable gaze blocking out that far off beast in outer space.
My best friend couldn't stop his head from shaking in the moment that he carefully considered the words that he wanted to say, finding the comfort of his hips again rather than seeking solace in the fur of my neck.
"I don't understand." Ash started, his fingers somehow faltering on his hips despite how much they clung onto them for a level of comfort he felt that he could never truly find. His head shook continually in a jerky manner. "If a husband can't hold his wife and ask her how she is then-"
Another torrent of wind escaped from the nostrils of Brock while he lifted Rey up and over his shoulder, perhaps to shield her from the gust. Seemingly, he made a point of patting her back lightly and burping her so he would have something to do while interjecting the younger male.
"He can." The older male's interjection came and even though his words had prevented another person's speech from reaching its apex, he did not appear frustrated. In actuality, he seemed almost paternal, wanting to speak and direct and make things better. "You can." Brock corrected. Rey didn't make any noises to interrupt the moment herself. "Did Misty feel as though she wanted to be touched and wanted to be asked how she was doing?"
Opposing how Brock wasn't appearing frustrated in the slightest, a wave of defensiveness started to prick at the base of Ash's neck and encourage him to act in certain ways.
His touch fell away from his hipbones again. I could feel the hotness coursing through him as a molten hand rested on the fur of my neck for a second time.
"She felt tense." Ash was able to admit, the heat radiating from him not only being in his hands but being sent throttling towards his face as well. He swallowed as though that action would somehow soothe the colour in his cheeks. "But she is often tense." He tried not to argue. He watched his daughter's hand crawling up the neck of Brock for comfort. "No wonder…"
Ash's eyes watching the way that Rey's small and starfish touch crept closer and closer to the neck of Brock rather than the chest made me wonder if part of him wished that he could be that age and scooped up and with not a worry in the world.
He, however, knew that was foolish. And not because it was impossible. But because even innocent babies were not free from the complexities and harshness of life. He should know. He had caused one of the greatest for his own family.
With studious and careful eyes, although he did not appear any different on the outside, Brock could somehow tell when the flushed nature running through his friend started to mellow out and to become out of vulnerability rather than repressed frustration.
With the softest of sighs that you could hardly even hear, Brock switched the side of his body in which Rey was lulling for no apparent reason. In unison, his head tilted towards the direction of that area of his body that was then baby-less.
Brock might have been childless himself. But he seemed to be a parent to all with all the advice that he often came carrying in tow.
"Are you often asking if she is okay, then? And hugging her…?" the older of the pair wondered, Rey making noises in his ear as she raised her thumb to her lips and suckled. Somehow, he managed to ignore the sweetness of this and focus on the same endearing actions of Ash as his eyes told all while his own lips did not utter a second. Brock released one final sigh. "Maybe you need to back off a bit."
Another occasion where a beat passed. The clock ticked poignantly on the wall. Rey continued sucking her thumb with all her might, as if she could draw out answers for her father there and offer them to him in an unspoken sort of way.
That time, the drain did not bother to gurgle now that we were in the kitchen.
"How do you suppose I do that?" Ash answered back, frustration rising in the pit of his belly and though it was an unpleasant sensation, he breathed through it and focused on elevating himself to the other side, as well as my unfaltering presence. "I have so much making up to do, Brock…"
Rey found herself on the opposite side of her uncle all over again but she didn't appear to be fazed. Her thumb was receiving a right royal sucking and she was determined to discover all the wisdom in the world. Even if she couldn't convey it to anyone.
A perhaps odd time to laugh, but at least Brock didn't do it dramatically. A quiet, sigh-like chuckle escaped his lips, like a father looking fondly down at his son when he accidentally ties his shoelaces with each other rather than sticking to the same foot.
"Ash, you don't have any making up to do at all…" he disagreed, silently noticing the way that he had his hand on me so figuring that it was okay for the younger male to be reached out to as well. Ash felt a sturdy, very present hand pushing down on his shoulder. "Just don't bail on her or yourself again. Other than that it's just…"
A wave of the hand spoke Brock's words that he apparently felt that he did not need to continue with. What he meant was obvious, wasn't it? Evidently not. Ash wanted everything spelled out for him. Even if he disagreed with it. Even if it was difficult.
"I just don't know what I'm supposed to be doing anymore…" he confessed, my eyes then the clocks that swung their hands on the wall as I swayed my head and took in the silhouette of my best friend. That silhouette raised an opposite hand to the front of his forehead and clutched it there. "I do have so much making up to do. And I so want to be better. But sometimes, I fear that she just does not want to know…"
'Just'. 'Just' was always such a haunting word. It was the word that carried intense weight and could shatter hearts like it was nothing. That was exactly what the word 'just' was. It meant that something didn't matter all that much. But of course, it was always uttered when things mattered the most.
It was a touching sight when, Brock still with Ash's daughter not letting go of his being, appeared right next to her father and he was then not simply holding the infant and the shoulder of the younger male either. He was clasping Rey as well as both shoulders of my best friend. It made me wonder if he ever would be destined to have children of his own. Because it seemed that his calling in life was to take every single person under his wing. And certainly my dear Ash.
"She wants to know with every part of her, Ash." Brock reassured him, leaving me wondering if Ash envied the way that he could administer a hold that was so tight yet somehow left you feeling as though you were being hydrated with air rather than deprived of it. "Just maybe… Maybe all the asking and all the reassurance, as thoughtful as it is, just reminds her that something did happen, if that makes sense?" Brock paused. He could not yet tell if his words were penetrating the younger male. "Maybe she just wants things to be chilled. And young. Innocent. The way things always were."
I watched as Ash's eyes wandered down to the hold that was dominating him so, getting a taste of how it felt to be Misty. However, it was not unwelcome. And as his eyes flickered downwards, they then flickered with a different quality as he was encouraged to confess.
"But she is my wife." He stated, making it as clear as the day outside that he didn't quite catch on to everything that Brock was saying. He wanted him to find his own way there. But if he actively needed to point the direction on the map for the younger male then he would certainly do that.
A smile curving up Brock's lips told me exactly of such. Rey felt the careful brushing of lips against her cheek in the next second and I somehow felt my cheek reddening even more than usual, as if that kiss had been for everyone, a mark of not only how brilliant it was that we had survived some very intense moments all together but how joyous it was that we were welcoming the future with open arms.
I hoped that even Ash caught onto this gesture.
"What I mean is…" Brock started again, unwrapping his arm from around the younger male and as he allowed physical distance to form between them both, he hoped clarity would prevail instead so he could get through to Ash in the best way. Suddenly, he changed tactic. Questions were asked instead. "What brought you and Misty together in the first place?" Switching Rey all over again, he continued before a lake was the answer. "How did love feel back then compared to now?"
Ash's chin fell down towards the floor as he pondered. He pondered so hard that moisture threatened to fill from the bottom of his eyes but I knew it wasn't just because he was thinking in such a focused way.
My best friend looked as though he had had a weight pushing down on the back of his neck, forcing his face to peer downwards. I understood. Yes, their love had once blossomed so freely. It certainly felt weighty to them now, didn't it?
The man with the hair the colour of midnight exhaled this. It needed to be set free from him.
"So easy." He told Brock, managing to garner the strength of lifting his head back up as he showed qualities of the man he wanted to be rather than the one he had been by focusing the lightness of then rather than the heaviness of now. "I barely even thought." Brock resisted saying anything! Rey cooed knowingly. "We would talk all night. We would wake up next to each other. Share everything. Food. Laughs." One word lingered in his mind and longed to escape. "Battles."
As if the electricity of being on the battle field opposite each other was undeniable and coursing through his veins there and then, Ash's irises started to illuminate as if he was witnessing one of my electric attacks on Misty's unsuspecting Pokémon.
Not only had Ash and Misty shared so much, but Brock had shared it all with them too. From the beginning. Because of this while, very touchingly as I look back in retrospect, holding the infant that Misty and Ash did indeed share, the spiky haired man reflected on their collective memories which were a symbol of their youth.
Yes. He would never forget in a hurry either. The way the two of them would go head to head! It was a testament of their strength. It was a testament of their loyalty together. And funnily enough, their intimacy too.
They could read each other like a book from the very start which was a marvel from how clueless those ten year olds could be at certain times! I for one knew that it was the battling that truly brought them together. I had witnessed it and even felt it within myself.
There was a connection like no other when you went head to head against someone on the battle field. And how you dealt with loss and picking up the other person and congratulating them and the empathy shown every second of the way was intense character building.
And apparently not just character building. Relationship building as well.
"You certainly had some spectacular ones, didn't you?" Brock finally decided to stop allowing the glint in his eyes to do all of the talking and conveyed some of what he actually wanted to say through his lips. He chose his words meticulously. "Shame."
As I fully listened to everything that was put forth, I admit to you that he did not actually utter this word that I describe as falling out of him at the last minute. But he might as well have from the way that rung out in my ears. And he might as well have from the way that he chose all of his language to point up to this lost word.
He spoke of Ash and Misty's frantic battles in the past for a reason. He wanted to ignite. And ignite he did!
Heart hammering in the chest of my best friend, that same man no longer was looking at the ground but he might as well have been from the way that he appeared to level out his line of vision even more. And wearing a cap in front of his eyes like a shadow was a thing of the past. But he might as well have from the blackness that appeared to dull his eyes for a split second.
But like a puff of smoke into thin air, it was gone! My best friend was fully there. More there than I had seen in at least half of a sun's orbit around the earth.
Ash like he was really ten years old again could not deny himself from speaking words he wanted to say.
"Brock…" he tried to control them somewhat at first. He tried to control the pace in which they came out and he succeeded in this. But he did not stop words of his from travelling into the ether. Why would he? "Do you think that I could ask Misty to battle in a minute? Do you think that is a better way of getting on the same page again rather than talking all the time?"
I took a pause to think to myself and I didn't know if anybody else did. Regardless, in that moment where I poised my head and I breathed heartily in through my nostrils, I knew that I wasn't just imagining the sparkle that flickered in the corner of Brock's own orbs and the way that his jaw appeared to be very taut with the effort of controlling his beam.
As though he was a father trying to contain his pride in front of his child for the fear of ending up with an ego-maniac on his hands, he tried not to resist the sheer joy when he and Ash were on the same page as well.
Stroking the corner of Rey's mouth that was so very much like her father's almost as if to offer her his pride instead of bestowing it wholeheartedly on her raven haired twin, Brock slowly nodded his head. This gesture was halted in contrast to the words of affirmation that longed to burst from him too.
At last, he couldn't help but erupt either. Well, as much as a rock-type former gym leader could do. Perhaps a fire type one could do a more heated display!
"I think…" he started. Thankfully, words followed promptly. He was not that teasing. "That is a fantastic idea, Ash."
And with that, I was shown that my best friend really did thrive on validation. Whether it was from a father-like figure or his actual father. Whether it was from me. Whether it was from Misty. Whoever it was. He used to drum it into himself that that was a bad thing. It certainly could be detrimental when he focused on that more than the worth that he found within himself.
However, if one thing that being away from everyone taught him, then it was that he thrived on human connection. And that was no bad thing. He wanted to connect to all. Most certainly his wife. He wanted to find her again, as he wanted her to find him again too.
What he didn't realise was that they were always there. And like Brock taught him, he needed to nurture the carefree and innocent side of their love in order to see things with greater clarity.
For the time being, what I saw was my best friend positively come alive at the prospect of what was around the corner. And again, he did not bother to stifle his instinctive reactions.
Ash bared Brock the biggest grin that I had seen in a long time. Practically buzzing from the tips of his toes to the crown of his head that lie underneath an unruly mane, he reached out and he squeezed the older male's shoulder in a fashion that portrayed the static running through him.
Then, he took hold of his daughter underneath her armpits and drew her away from her uncle, bringing her closer to the chest of her father instead. Ash drew Rey close to his own chest. For he knew that if he was going to ask Misty to relive their youth and revel in the innocence of not what once was but also what was still there, then he didn't want to do it without anybody but her clinging onto him.
She would remind him of the balance. The fact that their past was still with them and the future was bright for them too. They could have anything that the two of them wanted. They just needed to believe. In each other. In the process. That what they wanted was already there. They just needed to nurture it so it would always remain.
I have to say that it was truly a joyous sight when, after pressing the firmest yet most loving kiss I had ever seen to Rey's pouching cheek, Ash bustled out of the room. And that joy rushing through me seemed to get better and better when I heard my best friend giddily asking his wife what kind of experience he wanted to share with her.
They seemed to be young again as I heard Misty agreeing and I heard them start to clamour to each other, and then of course, tease one and other, reassuring the other that they would be in for the battle of their lives and there was no way the other was going to win!
Feeling whole in his own way even though he had just lost Rey to her father, Brock stood next to me that time instead and I started to feel a stoic hand resting against me. Momentarily, we shared a glance and a smile with each other. Infinitely, we spread between us the knowledge that things were moving in the right direction.
Things were exactly where they were meant to be. And there was no better feeling than that. Wordlessly, I thanked Brock for always being there. Every step of the way. He thanked me too. And then we headed out of the kitchen. And as we did so, we saw Ash and Misty join their hands together, Poké Balls on their belt, before they paced in the direction of the Pokémon Battle field that could cover the pool in their home.
To tell you the truth, I couldn't have been less than miffed as Ash did not call over his shoulder and encourage me to be his Pokémon partner that would assist him in leading Misty to a crushing defeat. In that moment, all that mattered to him was the hold that his wife had on his hand. And would always have on his heart.
Ash and Misty fell in love when they were ten years old. They might not have realised it. It might have taken forever to piece together. But all in good time. It was something that just ran through them. Sometimes it was unspoken. Sometimes it shouted from the roof tops. Sometimes it needed a point in the right direction from other people. Sometimes it made its way on its own.
Regardless, it was a sight to behold. Love could sometimes be a battlefield. But Ash and Misty proved that the battlefield could be a fun one. One that you wanted to find yourself on. Because you could find parts of yourself there. Lost parts. Innocent parts. The very beginning.
Those two were my beginning. And funnily enough, I know that in the end, all I will think about is the two of them. And their lives together. And their lives with me. All of us. All together. As we always were. As we always will be. Unbreakable. Just like the hold on each other's hands that they showed me on that day.
The End.
There you go! Thanks so much for reading and I hope you enjoyed :) This one was one of the earliest ideas that came to mind when I saw the themes for the PokeShipping Week. The theme was "Brock Giving Ash and Misty Dating Advice" but of course, as ever, I twisted with it a bit to fit the kind of stories that I like to write! The darkness saga often crops up but it was fun to tackle it in this way and give Brock a role to play in the scenario as well. I definitely should go more into his side of it all! Thanks again for reading and I will be back next Wednesday for another chapter so see you then!
Amy signing out :3