Hello :P It is Wednesday and I am back with the next chapter for PokeShipping Month! This follows the theme of "Handkerchief". Even though that little item features in a small amount, it's very pivotal in the story. And hopefully sweet. This one takes place in the hospital, when Ash returns back to Misty and their newborn daughter, Rey, following his darkness. I hope you enjoy :3
Disclaimer: I own the story and the OCs mentioned!
As Misty's eyelids crept open and dreamland vanished from her memories, she adjusted to the real world in front of her. She only focused on one thing. Though her vision was blurry and she had the memory of sleep stopping her from seeing entirely clearly, she very much saw the person sitting on the foot of her bed. And because of that, this encouraged her eyes to no longer be slits and instead encouraged her hands to press down on the white of the bed, with every intention of sitting further up.
She very much saw what she knew she was seeing but there was a part of her that couldn't be certain. Misty's palms relaxed against the white bed beneath, thinking. Was it real? Was he really there? She needed a moment.
In the seconds that she paused, her breath hitching lightly in her throat and beginning to grip ever so slightly at the snow that enveloped her from below, the sound of gentle humming filled her ears. It was the sound of manly, gentle humming. I heard it as well. I could see it too. No, Misty did not have to fear any longer. She did not have to clutch at a distant dream. That dream had finally become reality. Ash was back. He was there. He was holding their little girl, rocking her gently and sweetly singing to her.
Falling back gently at the bedding that cushioned her and up against me too, warmth flooded the orange haired female's heart and the pit of her stomach. And it was the same time that she did this and before her hand had a chance to let go of the mattress covering and reach for me instead, that the same raven haired man took notice of the orange haired woman.
Ash took notice of Misty just as much as she did of him. Without a moment of hesitation, the corners of his eyes creased and he smiled. Still holding the baby girl in the crook of his arm, he trailed away from humming softly to her and he leaned forward. My best friend's eyes were filled with just as much love for his wife as they were for their new-born daughter.
"Did you have a nice sleep?" Ash spoke quietly to Misty and although they were soft and no names were spoken, it was so very clear who was on the receiving end of his words. The orange haired woman started to try to sit up all over again and because of this, I did as well, no longer curling up in the hospital bed with her. "Did you have sweet dreams?"
My eyes fell on the orange haired female as she properly propped herself in bed, reaching behind her and moving one of the snow coloured pillows behind her back to support her before her palm caressed the top of my head. I noticed almost immediately the way that words darted across her mind and her eyes but she did not say them.
She kept them in her mouth and out of sight from anybody else, perhaps enjoying them as a secret just for her. But they were no secret, I could tell. I knew that it was more that she wanted just one thing back for herself, after having everything else that she longed after back in her life.
Misty merely nodded and smiled in response to her husband's words, forgoing telling him that she still felt like she was in dreamland because of his new-found presence. There was a very real possibility that she also didn't utter these words because she did not want to overwhelm him. After all, he had only just returned.
Not catching onto this and maybe for the best, Ash just continued smiling even more so after he saw the movement of his wife's head. He joined her in touching the top of my head before his fingers traced away all over again, focusing on shuffling closer to the orange haired female on the bed and still holding their baby daughter.
Their baby daughter. Their beautiful baby daughter. It goes without saying that all eyes fell on her at that moment. Misty may have been able to hold back words that she did not dare to utter but when it came to murmurings of affection for her newest child, she did not have this same ability.
Letting out a gentle sigh that somehow fuelled her for she sat further up in her hospital bed than I had seen in months, she looked down at the wispy dark chestnut haired infant. She spoke of her and to her husband.
"Nobody sleeps as well as her. Look at her. So peaceful. So at peace." The orange haired woman crooned and although her eyes reached out to the little baby, almost forming an invisible string that tied the two of them together, her touch did not move at all. Her touch did not move away from my head.
And because of this feeling of her fingers on my skull and the warmth of her digits, I could almost gather her thoughts more clearly than anything. I noticed things more than ever.
There didn't seem to be an ounce of heaviness to her words, nor was there an inkling of longing. For the first time in a very long time, her words just simply were. This caused me to smile. This caused me to smile as my eyes enjoyed being on the little baby girl as much as the parent's did.
Yes, the little Ketchum baby girl was sleeping so very soundly. It was true that she never had really been a restless and wide eyed child, not even in the nucleus of the nightmare that had befallen us all in the past couple of months. But still, since her mother and her father were both back where they belonged and present in the physical sense as well as the emotion, she had most definitely flourished. And yes, she seemed to be even more at peace.
The dark chestnut haired baby girl perhaps knew that she was being spoken about and looked down at so fondly for she started mewling in her sleep, her little head turning and her cheek brushing to and fro against the chest of her father.
No doubt did this cause my best friend's heart rate to elevate with love. No doubt did emotion tickle deep beneath his naval before travelling upwards, passing through his lungs and eventually to his throat. He swallowed. He pulled the baby nearer. But then he did something that seemed almost natural for him.
In spite of his desperation to be near that child after all the time that they had lost together, he also understood the importance of mother and baby. And not only that, but he cherished the beauty of that bond.
His smile on his mouth dying down but lightness still being present in his eyes, after pulling the baby closer to him while she continued daintily mewling, he held her out towards Misty, offering her to her. And as he did this, words tumbled out of his lips.
"Have a cuddle with your Mommy. You know I love seeing my girls together." Ash spoke and contrasting the way that Misty had managed to hold back her words, the second half of my best friend's sentences appeared to trail out like very much an afterthought.
This caused my head to tilt and my ear to prick slightly but I tried not to stare. Although I knew that Ash's words were very much the opposite of a secret and they were not something that he wanted to hide back either, I could tell that that sort of vulnerability was a little bit strange for him.
After feeling so much – perhaps too much – tiny offerings of sensitivity could sometimes be a little uncomfortable. Almost in the same way that it hurt to trace your finger over a bruise long after the huge blow had initially been dealt.
Nevertheless, Misty simply lapped up the words from her husband. Though she didn't react too much out-rightly, she most definitely did sincerely. Her pale cheeks grew tinted with the delicate blush of a rose and while she didn't hesitate to take hold of her little daughter, she also had time for other things too.
After her hand slid away from me properly for a good few moments, her fingers reached out and traced the jaw of her husband for just a second before she reached for their daughter from him. Misty's voice filled the air before the touch of his wife could aggravate that metaphorical bruise of Ash's.
"And we love seeing you." The orange haired woman put forth simply in a voice that was very much like a breeze. It was almost like a spectre running its fingers along ones spine. And then it was gone. And more words came, concealing any memory of the previous ones. Misty smiled wider with the dark chestnut haired baby in her arms and running her fingers through her wispy locks. She spoke in a clearer voice, too. "She's the most wonderful thing. She looks so much like your Mom, don't you think?"
As these words were spoken, I too finally lifted myself properly off the bed and I decided to wander over to the window sill, looking out at the world outside our hospital bubble. Such peculiar weather it was. The Kanto December had only just stopped raining for the entire day and the sun was at last revealing itself from behind the clouds. It was most certainly a mix of weather.
And between the sunshine only just beginning to stream in through the window and words between husband and wife being uttered, sometimes it felt a little like I shouldn't have been there. I didn't feel unwelcome, far from it. I just sometimes felt like it was time for them to have their bubble.
However, moving forward from this, I knew that that would do no amount of good to anybody. It was time to get back to reality. It was time to mix all over again. It was time for me to observe rather than feel things so agonisingly deep in my heart.
It was time to go back to normal. And as my eyes broke away from the outside world and they looked at the faces of the people who were my world, I felt like I was exactly where I should be. And I felt eternally grateful for that.
I watched as Ash recovered lightly from feeling a little bit of a twinge in his heart and he showed that by absentmindedly rubbing his thumb up and down his sternum. Not only did Misty's words bring him back to a jolt of reality but they also showed him a whole new world too.
He blinked, the action of rubbing his own core dying down and his hands settling in his lap, a contemplative head tilt being revealed instead. He thought about it. Words filled his mind and he expressed them.
"I mean… She definitely has her hair." Ash spoke a little bit lamely at first with a continuous blink and instead of causing any other sort of reaction within his wife, my best friend made Misty shake her head a little bit fondly and look down at their daughter all the more. Then, at the same time that the orange haired female's finger traced the baby's snub nose, he crept a little bit further and had more substantial words to say. "I can see why you see that. That's cute. I don't know. I see all of our other little babies. But above all, I see someone that I really love."
Naturally, Misty's eyes were pried away from the little girl there and then and they travelled to the face of her husband, her expression softening with all the love in the world. Although Ash's words were short sentences and they were spaced out, they still did not lose their charm. They still did not lose their purpose. Or their heart.
The orange haired female didn't utter words of softness nor of love in response to her husband's words, she merely felt all the emotions within her and displayed them on her face. She hoped that would be enough. No, she knew that that would be enough.
And as well as this, she was still wary of saying too much and feeling too much as well, just like Ash was but in a completely different way. She wanted him to stick around. She wanted him to want to stick around. Misty didn't want things to be like they were before. She had never wanted anything less.
But she tried not to think of this. Thinking too much of that kind of thing gave her a headache right in the centre of and deep within her forehead. So instead, she thought about how glad she was to have Ash's presence back once more, even if it was for the next while. A couple of months ago that felt like that was going to be impossible. So she was grateful. I was too.
The three of us sat with a silence after the words came from us and of course, all six of our eyes were on the baby girl. She was continually snoozing. She was continually occasionally mewling. She was then brushing her cheek against her mother's chest rather than her father's.
And though it was Ash who had caused the gentle silence only moments before, he decided that he would be the one to speak all over. With a bit of a frown on his face but thankfully one that was a far cry compared to the one that I had witnessed right before he first ran out of the hospital, he tilted his head all the more and spoke words as soon as they floated into her mind.
"It feels so wrong just continuously calling her 'she'. Do you like to call her anything else?" the raven haired male mused and after a lightness filled his eyes as he looked down at his daughter, then, for a moment, they clouded over as more words tumbled out of his lips. "We wanted to wait until she was born to name her…"
And there it was. There exactly it was. Just a glimpse of why we all often held back our words or stuck to simple small talk rather than the great conversations that we all could be known for. Though I believed in my heart that the darkness that had consumed my best friend in the entire world had vanished for good, there was most certainly a cloudiness that remained.
Not quite the pitch black hollow of the night. Not the pitch dark of the bottom of a ditch. But the clouds that came right before a great thunder storm. Even if there was no sudden noises. Even if there was no eruption. There was something thick; there was something heavy.
It wrapped its ugly arms around my best friend sometimes. And because of that and in spite the fact that I sometimes felt very heavy emotions when it came to accepting everything that he had done, I chose to seat myself on his lap rather than the window sill.
He didn't react properly to my tiny offer of comfort and support until Misty spoke quiet, thoughtful words back to her husband, after feeling her shoulders sinking just a fraction at the memory of something that never was.
"James calls her Rey of Sunshine…" she began and I couldn't help but wonder if that was the right thing to be saying in their circumstance. But still, I didn't say anything for the time being. I did watch and wait it out, though. I was almost as desperate for things not to go back to the way they were as much as Misty. She continued while Ash's eyes cleared enough to listen. "She's my baby girl. She is my sunny girl. But we still can call her whatever we would like to call her…"
Misty spoke. And then while still cradling their new-born daughter in the crook of her arm, her other hand reached out to the arm of her husband. My eyes dropped downwards as her fingers caressed soothingly from his forearm to his wrist and then to his fingers.
I don't think that she was actively trying to be soothing. I think that she was just being herself. Nevertheless, as I looked up from her touch and back to the face of my best friend, I could almost see from myself the way that the light in his eyes came back nearly as soon as he felt her finger tips on his skin.
He sighed. Ash sighed. Ash sighed a heavy sigh. And like he was ridding himself of something that he no longer needed, he sat further up and thought to himself. The raven haired male was actually a great thinker despite his often straight-forward thoughts.
But even so, he didn't get encapsulated with running after and chasing all sorts of musings that ran through his mind. He heard words. He listened to words. He took what he wanted and left what he didn't.
And then he too spoke, his hand clasping over the hand of his wife as she started focusing on rubbing her fingers there rather than on any other place along his arm.
"I'm not opposed to that name of James' at all… She is very sunny." Ash agreed and confirming my private hypothesis that babies were far more purposefully reactive and wise beyond their years and "Rey" most definitely was, the dark chestnut haired baby scrunched her nose up in her sleep. It wasn't quite a smile. She hadn't mustered that up for both of her parents to see together at that point. But it was a happy gesture nevertheless. And so very cute! My best friend's lip of course quirked upwards, the corners of his eyes creasing all over. "I'm not sure Sunny Ketchum quite fits with our other children though."
Ash's words were serious. The last part of Ash's words were said completely seriously and earnestly and with not a hint of humour. But they caused Misty to laugh. Misty laughed and she chuckled and she did this all in the presence of her husband and nothing sounded or looked better.
Because I joined in almost as soon as I registered the orange haired female's noises, Ash was forced to blink in confusion. At first his eyes squinted in confusion and finally took notice of my presence on his lap, both of his hands going around my sides since Misty's hand was no longer touching his and was covering her mouth as she continually giggled.
But the more that we laughed and we started to laugh at how good laughing actually felt rather than my best friend's endearing innocence, Ash couldn't stop himself from joining in. he didn't go all the way as we were. But he shook his head in amusement and he smirked, his eyebrows knotting together as if to tell us we were both fools! Perhaps we were. But perhaps it was necessary.
I believed that it most certainly was and not only was it a coping mechanism but it was something that could alter courses. Another of my assumptions was proved correct when Ash stopped lingering on the end of the bed and moved entirely, deciding to sit right next to Misty in the small, single bed.
It was when he did this that all of the laughter and the chuckles died down. But the atmosphere did not. The little bubble did not change at all. None of the beginnings of positivity were lost. The love wasn't either.
That was proven by the way that almost as soon as Ash and Misty were side by side in the very narrow bed and their legs were brushing up against each other, their hands longed to find each other all over again, too.
And because they searched, they found. Their fingers grew entwined. And as their digits became a duo, their eyes were once again unified in what they were looking down at. They looked down at their baby. They looked down at little "Rey". They looked down at the infant. And they felt the same peace as she possessed when she was asleep.
"So which of her siblings likes her the best…?" Ash questioned, turning the conversation back to the point of the little baby looking like her brothers and sisters when they were that same age themselves. With his hand clasped right around his wife's, he inquired exactly this.
I knew where it was coming from. I knew exactly where it was coming from. But Misty being a mother and disliking any sort of 'competition' between her children, she found herself turning towards her husband and giving him quite the bit of a look! In fact, it was almost a death stare from when they were ten years old.
I was forced to snicker all over again but privately to myself rather than pondering it was lucky that Ash didn't take even that small thing badly.
"What?" the raven haired male responded to Misty's narrowed eyed look with a slight nostril flare to boot. And then following this, he went above and beyond any nervous notions that one could have by even returning a similar look. While still holding his wife's hand, he folded the other arm stubbornly over his chest, for once the words following being simply what they were. "I wouldn't know, would I? I haven't seen all of them together yet."
I was glad that along with my best friend, Misty didn't feel too much heaviness in his words either. She continued her glare at him for a little bit longer before she mellowed it out. She replaced it instead by exhaling out of her nostrils and shaking her head.
But then she did take his questions seriously, even if she didn't like to engage in that sort of friendly rivalry. Switching the little baby so she was resting up against her legs as she planted her feet flat against the mattress, she ran her fingers through her locks all over again and answered. I was almost flattered when Ash assumed a similar position with me since bringing me to their side as well.
"They all adore her, of course. They wouldn't dream of feeling anything less." Misty stated, a streak of her own stubbornness decorating her words even though they were spoken softly all the same. From being propped up against my best friend's legs and feeling his fingers against the fur of my belly, I raised my eyebrow slightly. I couldn't help but feel that that was somewhat a dream-like fabrication! But I let it go. And I too listened. "I suppose I'm surprised by how much Ben has taken to her. He was always wonderful with Jessika but I thought that he might have grown out of it by this little girl. Apparently not."
Apparently not, indeed. A smile filled my own features and I too listened almost as attentively as my best friend as Misty filled our ears with tales how sweet indeed Ben was with little baby 'Rey'. For a ten year old boy, he was wonderfully doting when it came to that infant girl. He had visited almost every single day that he was allowed to from the moment that both mother and baby were ready for company.
Ben had been a right little trooper. He watched with boyish fascination while the nurses gave his baby sister some of her first few baths. He observed his Grammy Delia feeding her and figuring out how exactly she was to be positioned and how much she was to be fed. A protective streak became apparent when James' son's visited and they ended up being put in their place for being a tad too noisy.
Ash and Misty's eldest son had even tried to help out with nappies as best as he could! Though one couldn't help but possibility wonder if that was so he could brag and wind Eddie up about it when he returned home to his video games console and spoke to his best friend that night.
Yes, all of the children had been wonderful. Ben especially so. The orange haired woman spoke only more of this upon seeing the light in her husband's eyes as he listened, his gaze down towards their daughter rather than any place else.
"I think Katie is going to enjoy having someone else to read to. No doubt will she choose some books that are a little too complex for her though!" Misty then spoke of her and Ash's eldest daughter and expressions continued to brighten. Mine did as well. I smiled fondly.
I did this especially so and all the more when the raven haired male added his own input to the conversation, his head turning away from his new-born daughter adjacent to him. With her little foot tucked in the palm of his hand, the corners of Ash's eyes and the sides of his nose as well crinkled.
"The books that Katie reads should be too complex for Katie." the Pokémon Master put forth and in that moment it was easy to sink against his legs, forgetting nearly everything else other than the moments that we were in.
I almost couldn't believe that the hospital room that was once filled with such panic and frustration and despair was beginning to have proper knowing and laughter bouncing off of its walls. As I sat there and I watched and I listened, it was so normal. It was so, so normal.
It was just a husband and a wife having a conversation and speaking lovingly of everything that they shared. Their children. Their life together. Their new baby girl. And speaking of that very same baby girl, before any of our eyelids could properly choose to focus on her all over again, she did some things to garner all of our attention.
Not too long at all after Ash's words, little 'Rey" started to gurgle and squeak and her own eyelids began to creep open. The raven haired male's hold gripped further onto the baby's foot but tenderly so. His eyes were a beam of light far more than the sunshine dancing in through the hospital window.
Ash's breath hitched in his throat at the unexplainable bliss that his newest daughter was beginning to wake all over again. But he spoke past the loving tightness surrounding his vocal chords, desperate for those moments to continue being real – as well as making them into everything that they needed to be.
"Yes. Yes, my darling, you know how smart your biggest sister is, don't you? And you're exactly the same as her." It was my best friend's turn to croon. His lips puckering as he spoke, it was almost as though he was leaning to kiss his daughter on the soft forehead without making any motion to do so.
His voice rose in pitch. The baby responded to this. She kicked her little legs against just the one of his hands that was holding onto her foot and then her eyes slid open for good, revealing earth shattering oceanic blue orbs.
The baby girl's eyelashes fluttered as she adjusted to the real world all over again. She searched for the sight of both of her parents. Because she was met with exactly this view, she gurgled a happy noise and kicked her legs all the more.
"Oh, you're so precious, aren't you?" Misty didn't hesitate to coo and of course it was done in the exact same way as her husband. Both of her hands moving to her cheeks while she comfortably pushed against her father's hand and her spine rested against her mother's legs, the orange haired woman added, the light of love in both of her eyes. "You had such a good sleep, didn't you? And now you're awake to hear about your brothers and sisters who love you so much."
Sometimes it was easy for me to take a step back and be amused at how peculiar people talking to babies was! It was very sweet how humans voices elevated in the presence of a young one and their eyes locked onto their youthful features, full of wonder.
But in that moment and in the hospital there and then, I was carried away with it as much as the little baby girl was! I had to fight back the urge to kick my own feet. I could not fight the urge to smile though. I allowed that to happen. And as I did so, the three of us watched as the newest baby Ketchum seemed to grow very coy at the words she was hearing, lifting her arms above her head and stretching.
Though she didn't smile, her eyes comfortably shut again for a couple of seconds and the daintiest of lines appeared on either side. Just like her father. That put a lump in my throat. But it was the best lump in my throat than I had felt in months.
At the same time that little 'Rey's' eyes crept open all over again, treasuring the sight of us all together in the same space, more words tumbled out just for her.
"You want to hear more about your brothers and sisters, don't you? You can't wait to see them all again, huh?" Ash spoke and his hand finally broke away from the small cushioning of her foot and his thumb on one of his hands brushed at the child's cheek while Misty did the same and to her other cheek with her opposite hand.
And very much like she did understand exactly what was going on and being said, the baby girl shook her head from side to side against her parent's fingers, nuzzling them before she let out a very excited mewl! She let out a very excited bubble from between her lips as well.
This caused the orange haired woman to almost tear up with consuming love for her nearly two month old little girl.
"Oh, our little girl is smitten with them all. I just don't see how it's not always reciprocated!" Misty started and it caused Ash to turn to the side in a little bit of curious amusement before his attention was captured by his infant daughter all over. Though I knew what was being spoken of before the words came from a smirk from the orange haired woman, I listened all the same." I guess James and Jessika were expecting a little more from her and are not really too interested until she can do more things."
And perhaps more so than anything on that day but not quite that entire week, it was what happened next that surprised me the most. My head swivelled with amusement at the intense reaction from my best friend.
He too very much engulfed with love for his baby girl but then not the kind that sent him running, he chuckled when he heard his wife's words and then he sniffed, a very passionate yet soft blush streaking over the bridge of his nose as he meant his own words very much wholeheartedly.
"What are they on about? She can do so much." Ash spoke certainly and showing us all that she was on the same page as her father and perhaps trying to impress him during their first few days together, baby 'Rey' blew another bubble from her lips before sneezing. These actions were not unmissed by her dear daddy. He sniffed, his nose flushing all the more. "See! The new-born stage is one of the most wonderful stages."
And just like that, it happened. Just like that, it happened again. Maybe I should have seen it coming. But maybe there was no way to predict. I saw the way that my best friend grew consumed and engulfed with love for his little girl. I saw it as clear as day. But then again, it was expected. It was expected and it was normal for a parent to be enamoured with their child.
However, it was not expected for that intense emotion to suddenly switch up and change and constrict, almost ripping at the throat from the inside and out. Before Ash's change in expression could even register to Misty, words came very nearly hissing out that confirmed his change in demeanour.
"It's the most wonderful stage and I missed it…" Ash almost spat out. I say 'almost' because it was different from other times that his darkness took over. His voice was not volatile. It was not a screeching volcano. It was low. It was spiteful. It was emotional. It was all of these things. It was all of these things and only towards himself.
The orange haired woman turned towards her husband, their little baby growing silent in her lap. For a second, Misty did not want to look at him. For a moment, Misty did not want to look at him and see the pain on his face and feel it from within her own being too. She had loved the prior moments. She had loved the prior moments so much.
Though she knew that there would still be difficulties to come and she very much appreciated that. But still, she had had a touch of the happiness that they once shared and she wanted to run with it. She wanted to clasp her hand right around it and cherish it.
My own breath hitched in my throat. I was able to look at Ash. I was able to look at Misty. I was able to look at their baby. I was able to take a step back. Thankfully, Misty had been shown how to do that more so than ever in the past couple of moments. She was not an expert. Far from it. No one expected her to be.
But she just knew how to seize the right moment when the right one came. And so, her eyes fell onto the face of her husband and she was somehow able to maintain composure. With her heart tearing in her chest for him at the anguish and cloudiness taking over his face, she was able to keep steady on the outside.
She was the circuit breaker to his emotional electricity. She was the breath of cool air to his fire. She was the umbrella when he was being rained upon. After all those decades of being the same for her, it was only right that she was reciprocating.
I watched, almost in awe as Misty pried her hand away from her daughter's cheek and placed it upon her husband's instead. Almost immediately, the dullness subsided. It did not vanish. It did not go away. But there was a moment of clearance. There was another one of these when Ash's head turned to look at his wife, emotion coursing through his veins and blurring his eyes as she spoke to him.
"You can't change the past, Ash… We have only the future now. A whole future to simply enjoy with our little girl and all of our other children too." The orange haired woman started prosaically and she could feel the hotness of his being beneath her fingertips. She could sense when he was about to interject with just one word, too. She put a stop to it. Swallowing her own feelings of fear similar to his own. "No. I don't want you to look back. I want you to look forward. At the sunny days ahead. With our sunny little girl."
I don't believe that Ash had ever seen his wife being so composed. I don't believe that Ash had ever seen his wife being so calm. For a split second, part of me wondered if he was going to be unnerved by all of this and it would cause him to lose control all the more. But I just had to have hope. Simply, I just had to have hope.
That word was a funny old thing. Sometimes I believed that it was what kept the human world together, the Pokémon one too. Sometimes I knew that it did. And that was okay. A positive mind and a hopeful heart would always do wonders. Along with laughter, that too could alter courses.
Composure could as well. And this was painstakingly shown to me with the way that Ash reacted to Misty on that day.
Though his eyes flooded and pooled, though a vein in his forehead throbbed with anguish, he listened. He listened. He really did listen. I was surprised when he nodded. I knew that he was nodding because he didn't know what else to do. I knew that he was nodding because he wanted to believe. I knew that he was nodding because he wanted to have hope.
He didn't wholeheartedly have it there and then and that was okay. I believed that he would in time. I hoped that he would in time. In the meantime, he was winging it. And somehow, I never loved him more for it.
Silence was the four of our companion for the next couple of moments. While Misty's hand slid away from Ash's cheek to give him wordless space when his skin began to cool, little "Rey" remained silent in the lap of her mother. She didn't blow any bubbles. She didn't dart her eyes all around. She didn't even sigh. In fact, she barely seemed to breathe.
It was as though she was holding out. It was as though she was waiting. It was as though she was waiting for things to come. I didn't know what it was until the moment came. I didn't know at all. But then it became so very clear. Like all of us were and her father was as well, she was waiting for her place in the world.
My best friend finally moved a little more and I wasn't offended when I was nudged off his lap as he drew his legs closer to the rest of his body. And then my best friend moved a whole lot more. Ash moved a whole lot more.
Not ignoring the puddling in his brown orbs and not ignoring the sensitivity in his throat either, the raven haired man turned to his wife properly and acknowledged that he had heard her words. He didn't ignore Misty for their daughter though he reached for her next.
"I… I treasure every minute with her." Ash shakily insisted and it took a lot of effort for the corner of his mouth to quirk upwards even the tiniest bit. But he succeeded. He succeeded in showing this to us as his hands reached out to little Rey with the smallest nod of his head.
As Ash's hands tucked under the baby girl's armpits and he scooped her up for himself, it was wordlessly affirmed. Yes, she was his sunny girl. Yes, she was their sunny girl. She was James' Rey of Sunshine. She was Rey. She was their daughter. There was no way she was having any other name.
I climbed onto Misty's lap at that point when I felt her beginning to shiver, the orange haired woman reacting to the momentary outburst from her husband and coming to terms with it, as well as the sensitivity that she too felt. But that would fade. In time, that would fade. I knew it. Everything just took time. And thankfully, we were all blessed with exactly that.
It took a lot to go up against your biggest fear. Whether they were real in the sense that you could see them standing in front of you or they plagued the quiet corners of your mind, it always took a lot up face up to your fears. I applauded anybody who did exactly that. And I most certainly applauded Ash and Misty for doing exactly that.
Though words of encouragement had been offered to her husband, I knew that they were for Misty too. All that mattered was the future. But more importantly, all that mattered was whatever second that she was currently in. She could be whoever she wanted. Ash could be whoever he wanted. She would be loved for who she was. Ash was too.
They had the love of their children, among the love of so many people. I knew that this love could heal. A child's love could always heal. Rey's especially could. And she showed that on that day in the hospital when Ash cradled her in front of him all over and murmured sweet words just for him.
She smiled. Rey smiled. Her little innocent face brightened more than I had ever seen and finally in the presence of both of her parent's, she showed off a smile. It was Ash's turn to be filled with ecstasy. Slowly but surely, gone was the cloudiness that he had once felt. And when his little girl smiled at him, it was like he was saying goodbye to it for good.
It felt like sunshine had befallen all of us when Ash turned to look at his wife, his eyes a mixture of sensing the new beginning and also the acknowledgement that that bond had always been there. He was just finally allowing himself to bask in it.
It was Misty's turn to be overcome with emotion. I could feel her supressing her sobs that quickly came from the pit of her stomach as I sat upon the skin of her stomach. But she couldn't hold them back at all. Tears erupted from her and pooled in her eyes, splashing down her face. Her mouth quivered and quirked.
Ash didn't hesitate to turn to look at her, his cloudless eyes suddenly filled with a very real and nurturing concern. Rey hiccupped and then whined, sharing the confusion as well as her mother's emotions. I was oddly still. I was oddly quiet. I was oddly peaceful. I very much knew what they meant.
And soon enough, we all did when Misty's hand moved to her mouth as the tears kept coming and her lips finally quirked upwards for good and for all to see. She smiled. She overwhelmingly giggled. She tried to blink back tears. But more came. So she decided to embrace it.
"No… No, no. These are happy tears. Promise. Our little girl is such a beam of light." The orange haired woman spoke and she almost rambled but it was accepted. In fact, it was almost expected.
Yes, there weren't enough words to express the wonder of that moment. No, there were not words good enough to express it either.
There weren't words good enough to express the next moment either. I watched from the belly of the person that I loved so much as the person who I loved equally and deeply as much instantly lean to press a kiss to the top of his wife's head. And then after he did this, he handed the baby back over to her so they both could be soothed.
Misty held Rey closer than ever before as her husband reached into his pocket in order to pull out something to wipe his beloved eyes with. That red and yellow patterned cotton item was soon enough produced and the orange haired woman swiftly and tenderly felt it mopping up tears that she no longer needed.
And as a baby girl was in the arms of her mother and I was on the stomach of a good friend and as a husband cared for his wife deeply, words were spoken from man to woman. Words were spoken that should have been uttered moments before. But they were still welcomed when they did come.
With an agreeing smile on his lips and light in his eyes, Ash spoke words to Misty that was very much an affirmation of love for all their years together, as well as their years to come.
"She is a beam of light. And you are too. I treasure every moment with you as well, Mist." Ash told Misty as he dabbed her face with the handkerchief that she had bestowed upon him when they parted ways from their journey all those years ago.
And if that gesture didn't put a lump in my throat enough, Ash pressing a meaningful kiss to his girl's foreheads and my one too definitely did.
I moved away and I settled against the duvet as I decided to watch my family doing exactly what they did best. Loving one and other.
It was a hard time that they had faced. It was a hard time that we all had faced. But we were coming out of the other side of it, I believed that. We hadn't left the difficult times entirely, I knew that. But we had the strength to overcome whatever was next.
And I knew one thing for certain; like the red and yellow patterned handkerchief reminded of simpler times, we all had to search for that kind of thing as well. For the ten year old selves of Ash and Misty would always be inside them. That was one thing that would never get clouded. That was one thing that was very much certain.
And not only that but I believed – no, I knew – that that was one of the most important driving forces in the world. If they remembered the more innocent times, then the complex ones would be more bearable. If they remembered the youthful times, then the ageing ones would go down without a hitch. If they remembered and love each other at ten years old then they would love and remember each other for eternity.
That was just one of the things in the world that I needed to be right about. And thankfully, I was.
The End.
There you go! Thanks so much for reading and I hope you enjoyed :3 I think you can tell by the amount that I keep coming back to the darkness/Rey saga that it's one that I thoroughly enjoy! I always like tackling it from different angles and thinking up new things. And I have very fond memories with Shannon regarding us initially coming up with the basics of it. Even though what happens to Ash is quite fantastical with his darkness having parallels to Anakin going to the dark side in Star Wars, there's almost something perhaps relatable to it. I'm glad that he comes out the other end of it. It's never good to bottle things up, whether it's in the Pokémon World or our world! :) Thanks again for reading and I will be back next Wednesday so see you then.
Amy signing out :P