Hello :P It is Wednesday and I am back with a new Ash and Misty themed chapter. I think that this was the first one that I actually wrote and I remember being pretty critical about it. It's a little shorter than normal but I actually quite like it. It definitely has a feeling of a new beginning while also a similar to how I would have written when I first started all of this! I hope you enjoy. The theme of this one is "Anime Finale" and takes place when Ash quits journeying in my stories to take up the Frontier Brain offer :3
Disclaimer: I own the story and the OCs mentioned!
"Look at me, Mist, look at me! Look how fast I can dodge!" my raven hared best friend crowed out gleefully as he continued (somehow) dodging each and every one of his Tauros as they hurtled towards him, delighted to see their trainer after yet another of his journeys concluded. Though it was obvious who his words were directed towards, they didn't look up. Ash's eyebrows continued knotting together, his tongue poking out his lips. He was determined to carry on his little show. "They can't get me!"
Misty was lying flat out on the grass in Professor Oak's lab just next to one of the water Pokémon lakes and she lifted her head up, craning to see her raven haired boyfriend. At first she pretended to scan the area for him, pretending not to see but naturally, he was far too busy with his bull Pokémon to notice! Then the orange haired female had to cover her eyes for real when the sun got in them. I just simply smiled. They were as crazy as they were when I first met them both at ten years old.
"Look at meeeee, Mist, look at me!" Ash's bellows got all the more prominent when the Tauros started to bellow, some of them finding fun in the little game and some of them feeling rather frustrated that their beloved trainer was seemingly avoiding them. I saw my best friend wiggle his bottom and clench his fists with glee as he got further into his antics. He whooped out one more time. "Look how fast I can dodge! Look-"
But unfortunately for Ash, someone did look and it wasn't Misty as she continued shaking her head fondly and smirking at her sixteen year old boyfriend. You see, unbeknownst to the raven haired teenager, after wriggling, he had stuck his bottom out a little too far and as one Tauros in particular stampeded in a circle and came back to its trainer, it decided that that sticking out rump was quite an exciting target to hit!
Before Misty or I could warn him or Ash could even see what was going on at all, the last thing he said was that one particular word and the last thing he did was show up a confident thumbs-up. And then it was all over. But some would argue, it was just beginning.
Tauros let out a mighty snort in a playful way and with the same youthful energy as the future Pokémon Master before it stampeded a few more steps and then collided it's horns into Ash's behind. Needless to say, my best friend let out quite the yelp! He was tossed many metres through the air and landed right next to his girlfriend in the water Pokémon area of Professor Oak's lab. Thankfully, he didn't quite land in the lake but he did land in a puddle. And he landed on all fours with his knees squelched into the mud and his bottom still in the air.
Automatically, Misty let out quite the gasp upon seeing the finale to Ash's show but after she could see from his face and in his eyes that he was okay, she merely just kept up her own façade. Even so, she sat up off the grass with me. But she just pushed her bangs out of her eyes, raising both eyebrows and giving her boyfriend a blank look instead of the attention that he was after.
"So all of that was for my benefit, was it?" she asked and before she could add more words and comment on the unexpected ending to his antics and before even her stubborn self could hide the fondness in her eyes any longer, Ash took the little bit of response he was getting and ran with it.
Along with Misty and I, he too suddenly sat bolt upright and nodded his head, reaching down to smear the mud off his knees. He simply gave his girlfriend a beaming smile and continued nodding his head, running a hand through his own untameable locks and not caring when a streak of brown got painted right through them.
"Uh huh! Of course it was." He uttered with the same enthusiasm as when he was just ten years old. However when Misty stopped pushing her true expressions away and allowed herself to soften and smile, it somehow mellowed my best friend out. Though he continued being as energetic as always of course, his grin dulled down to a smooth smile and his eyes glittered with sheepishness despite his confident words. "Of course it was. You loved it."
"Your Mom isn't going to enjoy doing more washing on top of all your other smelly travelling clothes." The orange haired female told Ash with a hint of seriousness in her eyes then when she saw his own eyes melting as he listened to her words, her aquamarine orbs then glinted with light-heartedness as she leaned forward to get the brown mud out of his raven locks. I watched as my best friend held still and enjoyed that little bit of affection. And I watched even further when his brown eyes shone as Misty poked him on the end of the nose before speaking to him once more. She couldn't help but admit. "I guess I did like it."
And that was enough approval for Ash! His smile shone like the early evening sun we were having in Pallet Town and his own hands soon reached for his girlfriend. Their hands batted together as they pretended to fight for a couple of seconds but then they surrendered at the same time. They surrendered on the grass and then together we all flopped down looking at the sky. Yes, in that moment in time I was most content. I had everything that I could have possibly needed. I had no idea that things for us all were only just beginning.
The dew kissed grass tickled our backs as we lay together and I scurried to make my way between both Ash and Misty. I was delighted when both their hands reached for me and tickled my fur and I couldn't hide it from my face. Those two had always been some of my nearest and dearest and I still could not believe that they had become one.
Needless to say, it was something that I had always anticipated and something I had always hoped but it was still very much a dream come true. They were simply amazing together, no matter what they were to one and other. They bought out the best in each other. They were my very best friends. And I felt deeply lucky to have travelled the region that I called home with them both and Brock too.
"Kanto sky is always the best kind of sky." Ash broke the comfortable silence as we continued lying together and I looked up at my best friend, my head on his stomach while my legs were pressed against Misty's. I understood once again that we were entwined by fate and brotherly love when I realised that we were probably thinking of similar things. While I had been in my thoughts, the young couple's hands had stopped stroking my fur and become interlinked instead. But as Ash uttered more words, one of his hands broke away from Misty's and he clumsily but lovingly stroked her face instead. He had a special smile that was just for her. "I've seen a million kinds of skies all over. But Kanto's cannot be beaten. It's home. It's just well and truly home."
"And it is crazy to think that it's going to be exactly that for the next while at least, Ashy." The orange haired female surprised me by answering rather quickly but her soft voice contrasted this greatly as she enjoyed the touch of her boyfriend. She smiled at him back in the exact same way, elaborating what she meant when she saw his head tilting. Her own hand reached out to trace one of the zig-zag marks on his cheek. "You've travelled all over for so long and for now, that's behind you. I know it's what you want. It's going to be crazy having you in the one place. But it must feel weird for you?"
I nodded my head but I didn't intrude their little conversation. While I understood that I would most definitely be welcome and along with the other Pokémon too, their words seemed to be just for them and I would only interrupt when I had something truly of value to say.
And I wondered if it was for the same reason that for a couple of moments, Ash remained quiet as he listened to his girlfriend's words. When he was a kid he would have certainly blurted out what had come into his mouth even if it was sincere or not. But journeying had changed him. Misty had developed him. And perhaps the subject was a little bit of a serious one to him. So he really thought about his answer.
But when his thinking was complete, I believed that we were both surprised by the way that he smiled, leaning across to plant a kiss to Misty's cheeks before he made his fingers lightly battle against hers as he answered her. The orange haired female knew that she wasn't going to get the answer that she was expecting when he started to shake his head.
"To be honest, Mist…" the future Pokémon Master started and though his smile began to fade as he focused on getting his point across, the sincerity in his eyes certainly did not. In fact, it brightened up all the more. Ash scratched under his nose and shook his head once more before answering for good. "It just feels really right. Sure, journeying and everything is my dream but I've been lucky to do that all over. Maybe it's time to explore my new dream. You're definitely one of them. And accepting the Frontier Brain role now is too."
I smiled even before I heard Misty mumble the words "Oh Ash" with a delicate hint of love in her voice and I shuffled away slightly as the young couple leaned in and they shared a few kisses on the lips. While it was true that the rosiness to the orange haired female's cheeks and the dancing of her eyelashes were because of the part of Ash's words about her, she still found herself focusing on another part. She smiled encouragingly at her boyfriend, tapping him on the end of his nose.
"And you're going to be the best Frontier Brain that the world has ever seen." She told him with a bashful giggle as she spoke from the heart and needless to say, that sound became all the more frequent when Ash felt his chest puffing up! He certainly felt elated at the support of his girlfriend. During some moments Misty would have playfully burst his bubble but there and then, she wanted to keep on lifting him up. Maybe she would drag him teasingly down later on. But the time being, she complimented him. I became as tickled pink as Ash and as if they were directed towards me as well. "No one has known such a young one and one who has travelled so widely as well. You're not just lucky for being accepted. All those young trainers are lucky too. Because they get to try and beat the best trainer ever."
"Well if you can't beat me then I don't see how those other ones will." The raven haired male uttered back quickly in response with a knot in his brow and a grin on his face that was both confident yet endearing in one. However, before Misty's own face could change to a look of competitiveness and before she could insist to her boyfriend that she could definitely beat him in a Pokémon battle, Ash grabbed both of her hands and held them close. He began to chuckle softly, his gloved fingers stroking her knuckles. "You have to train with me all the time. We gotta do this together. The only way that I'm going to keep up the reputation that goes along with being the youngest Frontier Brain is to have the sparring partner of the okay-est Gym Leader ever."
And while the orange haired female narrowed her eyes together briefly before being unable to stop herself from laughing at her boyfriend's words, understanding the true heart behind them and she reached out to ruffle his already unruly hair, I sat up properly once again and beamed myself. It gave me such an indescribable feeling to have met them both at ten years old – one due to being late to Professor Oak's and having to pick me for a partner and the other pulling us both out of a lake – and then to know them then – two Pokémon trainers who were renowned for their kindness, their dedication and their skills.
It was no doubt that they had succeeded in the things that they loved the most. And in the process, they had fallen in love and discovered that they loved each other the most too. I was so happy to be caught in the middle of it. I never felt like a third wheel. I merely only felt incredibly lucky. I had been on the biggest adventure with them both and I had a front row ticket the entire time. It felt as though it simply wouldn't get any better than that. But it really would!
To go along with Ash's words, both he and Misty had started sparring their fingers against one and other while I thought to myself once more and they had also started to use their limbs as well. Though it remained friendly, I was glad to have moved away. But they soon started giggling to themselves and to each other and they sorted themselves out. They moved away from one and other and lay flat out on the grass and it was almost like they were still like those two ten year olds. But things had clearly moved on a long way from then by the words that Misty had next.
"Do you think that things are always going to change for the good though, Ash? Do you think that it's all going to be all good?" the orange haired female wondered aloud and I was the first one to glance over at Misty from sitting near the puddle that Ash had fallen into and my brow started to knot slightly. The wisdom that I had gathered on the road caused me to think that nobody could predict that and I knew that my raven haired best friend felt similarly when his own expression started to crease up. However, before he could say his own words, Misty had some and she almost shook her head at herself. "I mean, I'm not silly. I just mean that Kanto always has new people passing through here but you're not going to meet an influx of people like you do on the road. It's different. Do you think it would be different bad?"
And despite the fact that what the orange haired female started to bring up was well and truly valid, the positive being that was Ash Ketchum simply showed off a smile and shook his head, his own hand running through his hair. He couldn't help but say.
"How could it ever be bad, though? I get what you mean and that people will probably come and go. But things have to keep moving. If they didn't then I would have never accepted the frontier brain offer. I feel like I'll meet loads of people doing that. But anyway, I haven't been home properly since I was ten years old and I think it will be really nice to make memories with the people here that mean the most to me."
Everybody says about these moments when parents see their children grow up and they see the moments that a child fades away and become an adult. And granted, I am not Ash's parent! But that moment was one of them that I was shown that my best friend was well on his way to becoming a man.
Ash's positivity could be frustrating to some people sometimes and how he found a silver lining in everything could be baffling to some. But I knew that he was capable of being a realist too. However, he was never the type to linger on the bad and ignore the good. Misty was right to bring up the fact that he was giving up a social aspect that he enjoyed almost as much as the battling and the training and the life-long friendships with his Pokémon. But it simply wasn't in my best friend's nature to ignore the opportunity to embrace something else – something new or something old – and turn that into something worthwhile as well.
And the orange haired female was absolutely so grateful for this. She knew that he had many sides to him and he too could wallow in self-pity but she admired his strength when it came to seeing things on the brighter side. After planting a lingering kiss to the end of his nose, she nodded, finding herself grinning almost sheepishly at his infectious outlook.
"I guess you're at the age now when you can make even better friendships with people like Gary and Tracey and even your Mom too. I don't know. I just had this crazy thought. Sometimes I wondered if you'd feel closer to them all while on the road. Because you're in contact almost every day. When you're all together and in the same region, sometimes you forget to really take the time to check in on one and other. It's like that in the same house, even…" Misty trailed off and as both Ash and I started to think about the names like Gary and Professor Oak and Tracey and Delia and all our Kanto friends who we would reconnect with while we stayed in the same place, it was evident that the orange haired female was thinking of something else entirely.
It took my raven haired best friend a little while to get there. But to be honest with you, I was taken aback that he actually managed to get there at all! His expression changed from positive and onward looking to mildly confused at his girlfriend's thoughtful tone. But then after we both shared a look and Misty smiled and shook her head, playing with her bangs like it didn't matter, Ash knew that it very much did. And then he understood where she was coming from.
He didn't know quite what to say so instead he just pressed a kiss to his girlfriend's forehead and wrapped his arm around her, pulling her close. If there hadn't been the kiss then that gesture could have been mistaken for just pure and genuine friendship. But that was them. That was Ash and Misty. At their heart of their relationship was a lovely companionship and a lovely understanding – even if they didn't understand each other all the time.
"Don't worry, Mist. We're all going to have so much fun together. We're going to battle loads and explore and have fun but we're going to talk too. We're all going to be great." The raven haired male grinned and reassured his girlfriend and while Misty got the feeling that he didn't quite understand where she was coming from, she soon figured that maybe that was for the best. He was giving her reassurance from his heart and she couldn't ask for more. She lightly shut her eyes as Ash continued and I moved back closer to her and rested my cheek on her leg. Ash brushed her hair from her eyes with his fingerless gloved fingers. "And on another note, you gotta make sure that you still hang out with my Mom loads, even now I'm around. She really cares about you, Mist. And I like seeing the both of you together."
And with that, I could tell that all of Misty's past memories of being in a house with her sisters and not really connecting and feeling that belonging and unity began to flutter away to another place entirely when she was reminded how much the new people in her life cared about her. Part of her still believed that Delia was only being nice to her because she was nice to everybody but I knew that that wasn't the case at all.
Both of them cared deeply about Ash. Both of them cared deeply about each other. And they had enjoyed each other's company before even she and the raven haired teenager made it official. Some bonds couldn't even really be formed. They just existed; they just were. And Misty and Delia's was one of these examples.
"Of course we will, Ashy, are you kidding me? How else will your Mom tell me all those embarrassing stories of you if we don't get our time together?" Misty uttered in quite the level tone and with such an unreadable expression that for a long while, the raven haired male believed all that was being said! While he didn't try to change it, his pupils widened and his mouth puckered into a pout. It didn't take long at all for Misty to burst into laughter and flick her boyfriend's pouty lips. Though she didn't correct her words, she reached across to ruffle his hair again and asked him something else entirely but with a similar sentiment. "So what's your favourite story of all your years of travelling then, Ashy Boy?"
And with that, I knew I had never seen someone with quite a dramatic change in expression as I had as in that moment and on Ash's face. While a part of him narrowed his eyes as he heard himself be called Gary's nickname by his girlfriend, he soon couldn't stop all of the memories dancing through his brain and because of that, all the fondness and gladness twinkled across his eyes. He lay down even further with his girlfriend and though he took a good few moments to think, he still couldn't stop giving her a flurry of examples.
"Oh man, how can I possibly choose just one? Of course there's catching all of my Tauros in one go and you're definitely glad about that one because you get to see me be a legend and working with them all. There's seeing Max be so kind with Ralts and love Pokémon almost as much as I. And then how could I not mention choosing Pikachu and then you pulling me out of that river – the beginning of it all?"
Ash rambled through so many examples but I was touched by the genuineness of each and every one of them. Memories shimmied through my own mind and no doubt it was the same way for Misty as it was for me. But she of course took the moment to reach and squeeze her boyfriend's hand at the affirmation that that day meant as much to him as it did to her.
As the raven haired teenager chuckled sheepishly at the interlocking of fingers with his girlfriend all over again, yet another memory flickered into the mind of my best friend. I was tickled pink to hear it. And Misty shared that gladness with me. We really were my favourite trio!
"I remember Lt. Surge a lot too and when people thought that I should evolve Pikachu. It's strange. I felt like a trainer the moment that he saved me from those Spearow, of course I did. But perhaps even more so, I felt like one that day that we decided not to evolve him at all. I really knew who I was as a trainer. I knew I loved my Pokémon for who they were and what we could do together rather than their strength of if I evolved them. I don't know. That's something that I would like to talk about more." Ash explained himself and though he seemed a little bit sheepish through his words and he uttered the words "I don't know", both Misty and I knew that he really did know. And because of that, we knew things too.
We knew that he was destined for greatness – even more than he had achieved at that moment. Not because of what he could do but because of who he was. He made people feel great. He was certainly a credit to the region.
The raven haired teenager proved that he had a heart of gold once more. Despite the fact that he liked talking and he liked sharing and he especially liked doing all of this based on his own experiences, he knew not to take the voice away from others either. So after pulling his girlfriend even closer to him and after playfully (but lovingly and lightly) flicking her on the cheek, he made sure to ask her with a smile.
"What about you, Mist? What about you? What's your favourite story?" Ash asked and in the exact same way as it had for her boyfriend, a thousand memories swam through Misty's mind like the water Pokémon in Professor Oak's laboratory lake. The orange haired female shook her head as if there were not enough words in the world to express them all. After smiling and thinking to herself, she decided to offer just a couple. Her eyes wandered up to the Kanto sky as it started to change to pinks and purples and oranges too and she smiled. I and Ash's eyes soon wandered in the same direction. We all shared a similar smile.
"I am excited for everything that has happened, Ashy, but right now I feel really excited for everything that is about to happen as well. I like to think back to the memories of Sakura and the Evevee brothers and of course the racing and the adventures in Alto Mare as well. But for once, I'm looking at what is ahead as well. Me running the gym even better than before. You being the best Frontier Brain ever. All of us being together. It's a change. But it's a good change. And I think that it's something that we're really ready for."
"And I agree with you there, Mist, I really agree with you there…" the raven haired male answered promptly but his eyes fluttered shut with thoughtfulness as his neck continued to crane towards the sky and the Kanto wind brushed through his messy locks. Soon enough, the orange haired female and I followed suit. And soon after that also, we all joined hands. We believed in the words. We believed in the words of moving forward. We didn't know what was next for certain, even though we had a rough idea. But we would be together. And that was the only thing that mattered. And I knew that Ash and I really were thinking the same things there and then. After tapping his shoulder for me at last and wrapping his own arm around Misty, he smiled at her. Her eyes flickered back open as he gestured with his head, scrunching his nose up. "I think we should move forward right here and now. We should head on back home! C'mon Mist, I bet my Mom's got something amazing cooking."
And it was there and then that I knew that despite the fact that we had all decided to move forward and we would most certainly do that as Misty laughed and held onto her boyfriend and stood up with him, saying one last farewell to all of their Pokémon for just one more day – I just had to look back just one more time. I just had to enjoy the fact that although things changed, they really did stay the same as well. I had met Ash as a hungry ten year old boy and he was still a hungry sixteen year old teenager!
But he was hungry for more than just food at that moment in time. He was hungry for belonging. He was hungry for change. He was hungry for a challenge. He was hungry with the desire to be the best boyfriend to Misty. He didn't have to worry about that, though; he was already a pretty damn good version of that already.
All of us remained comfortably quiet on the walk from Professor Oak's laboratory back to Ash's home in Pallet Town. We said farewell for the time being to Samuel and Tracey and that was the last bit of conversation that we had. We remained quiet. We remained thoughtful. But we remained comfortable.
We remained comfortable and content at the idea of the unknown. Nobody had any idea what was going to happen next after Ash decided to stop journeying and stay put for the time being. Like I said, there could be a brief outline but nobody really knew.
It was uncertain. It was riddled with uncertainty. But instead of feeling afraid and tense and reluctant, all three of us felt very empowered indeed. The world was our oyster. We could get up to anything that we wanted. Would it be chaos? Would it be calm? No one could tell. But looking back at all of our adventures just one more time, both of those things were definitely likely!
And then as the three of us concluded our walk from the lab and to Ash's cosy home in the heart of Pallet Town, we all were reminded of something that we hadn't found ourselves talking about. For the change of Ash coming home wasn't the only change that had occurred. Misty wasn't the only one spending more and more nights in the household run by Delia Ketchum.
That chestnut haired woman had a heart that was the same size as her son's and perhaps bigger for the admirable amount of forgiveness that she possessed. She possessed a forgiveness for all. She possessed a forgiveness for perhaps the unforgiveable! And that was evident by the sights that Ash, Misty and I opened the Ketchum household front door to.
We had left behind the stampeding of the Tauros and then come face to face with the stampeding of children instead. Jessie and James' twins Jazmyn and Justin had grown bored of packing as their little family moved into the Ketchum household as well and they were running around in all kinds of directions, their feet pounding on the wooden floor! They had their overalls on and were using a wrapping paper tube as some weapon or another and they were chasing Mr Mime.
The lavender haired male that was their father was trying to stop his twins from making too much noise in their new home but in the process of chasing them to end their game; he had obviously joined in as well. James was on the receiving end of glares from Jessie, it appeared, but on a closer look it seemed as though the magenta haired female was actually glaring at Meowth - for he had made himself comfy in the rickety crib of the latest Morgan child when he was soon to be born and was refusing to get out!
It was chaos. It was mayhem. But it was soon to be our everyday life. Delia just merely continued cooking in the kitchen and waved us in as we dodged all of the ex-rocketeers havoc and then all we could do is look at one and other.
As Jessie, James, Meowth, Justin and Jazmyn all moved in with us also and put their own past behind them, all Ash, Misty and I could do was look at one and other. I focused on the gaze between the raven haired male and the orange haired female. With his eyes, my best friend couldn't help but wonder if any of them were entirely prepared for all of the changes after all.
But then after the three year old twin's almost collided into us all before just shrugging it off and laughing and turning around to chase their father instead, all Misty could do was burst into a similar fit of giggles, her eyes lighting up perhaps more than I had ever seen. She didn't have to say any words at all. Words echoed around the room even though they had not been spoken.
Our little trio knew that while we had all quit journeying, it was also the start of our biggest adventure yet. And it was certainly going to be a chaotic one! But one that would lead to even more memories. And we were all absolutely right.
The End.
There you go! Thanks so much for reading and I hope you enjoyed :3 It was really quite difficult to get all of the Ash and Misty chapters done this year (I only just wrote the last one a couple of days ago!) I think it's down to my life being a little more packed now and I usually write to relax so knowing I have to write certain things can be difficult. But even so, I really enjoyed it. It's very cool to develop Ash and Misty even further even though they're the ones I've written about the longest. Their interactions here reminded me of all old conversations me and Shannon used to have. They're definitely still close to my heart :3 Thanks again and I will be back next Wednesday with another chapter of this story so see you then!
AmyBieberKetchum signing out :P