Hello, it is Wednesday, and I am back with a new chapter! Like how it usually occurs in November, this month all of my uploads will be Ash x Misty centric and following the themes of PokeShipping Week on Tumblr! Today's one follows the theme of "Delia Playing Match Maker". This was fun to read through and edit! It felt challenging to me writing it, but I like that this one is shorter, and more face paced, and definitely anime inspired. I know I say this every year, but I love how PokeShipping Week (month to me on here!) always makes me feel so nostalgic to how I started on FF, and the things Shannon and I used to discuss so heavily :3 I hope you enjoy!
Disclaimer: I own the story only, no OCs today!
"There you go, dear. Best seat in the house!" Delia declared with a blush of someone far younger than her years, haphazardly banging a plastic serving tray against the side of her hip before she discarded it on the bar of the restaurant, pulling the chair out for the person to which she was speaking.
Misty tells me that although she tried her absolute hardest to disguise it and she succeeded, she couldn't help but allow her eyes to wander to the little booth tucked around the corner that she usually not only seated herself in but was often directed to by Delia.
However, she knew that beggars couldn't be choosers! And even though there was a part of her ticking mind that wondered why there was a change in routine, she instead focused on naturally showing rosy cheeks back to the older woman, smiling with gratitude and sitting down in the chair pulled out for her.
"Thank you, Mrs. Ketchum." She chirped in response, trying to ignore her cheeks burning in a different way as she accidentally scraped her chair a little too hard against the wooden floor, so it squeaked in response as she broke the distance towards the table. "Delia." She corrected before the older woman encouraged her to. "I can't tell you how excited I am for one of your milkshakes."
Smoothing down the hem of her skirt as if she were wearing a white apron like some of the girls bustling around through the doors leading to the kitchen, Delia's smile lengthened towards Misty as she looked down at her.
She always admired someone who could make a home for themselves anywhere and Misty always seemed quite at home in her restaurant! Often even kicking her boots off and allowing her socked feet to lounge on a chair opposite her if it hadn't been stolen by another customer around lunch time.
"I can't tell you how excited I am to have you here today." Delia found herself gushing before, just like the younger young lady had done, correcting herself with another smoothing motion over her pleated skirt. "How pleased I am to see you. It's such a beautiful day today."
Immediately nodding in response to any words that Delia had to offer regardless, Misty's eyes wandered over to the empty corner where she was usually seated one last time before she gazed over at the sunlight indeed streaking in through the windows of the restaurant and making it appear even more bustling and brighter than ever.
Then, like day was only just breaking within Misty's mind, it dawned on her that Delia too had words that had been corrected. It wasn't unusual for her to make a fuss about Misty's company and treat her like part of the family.
But even so, there was something different about her new excitement. Not exactly suspicious but it was something. But maybe it was just the weather giving Delia an extra good mood! After all, she had commented on how lovely it was.
Misty turned her attention back to Delia, nodding her head with more sincerity, her feet twitching towards the empty chair opposite her underneath the table but not just yet making herself entirely at home.
"It is really warm out there today. It's lovely." She agreed. Misty rid herself of the novelty shaped messenger bag she was wearing and allowed her elbows to rest on the table before they stretched out in front of her as casually as she could muster. "A hot day makes a milkshake even more perfect."
Misty tried not to let her words be too much of a hint but she pretty much failed! It, however, went down perfectly okay with Delia who saw them for what they were rather than seeing her in the light of yet another impatient customer.
There could sometimes be a lot of them, and certainly on certain days!
Although her words would go on to contradict this action, Delia reached for the discarded serving tray all over again and held it close to her body, tucked underneath her folded arms as if it were some kind of shield and she was protecting herself from the types of customers that were thankfully few and far between.
Even in hindsight I know that she didn't need such a thing. Delia could do more than merely hold her own!
"Say no more, sweetheart, say no more." Delia began, immediately rendering Misty wordless at the name that escaped from her, causing the teenage girl to feel more than just the sun warming the porcelain of her skin. "I've already nudged Michelle back there into action so she should be coming very soon with your order." The tray was banging back against Delia's hip once again before swinging next to there. "The best drink and the best seat in the house!"
Delia's enthusiasm was infectious to be sure. But Misty, however, could not stop her shoulders from slumping downwards an inch or two even if she managed to keep her face level. There was a reason that Misty had indeed hinted towards the milkshake being the creation of Delia and the creation of Delia alone. Plain and simple, her treats could not be beat!
Even though she had done so well for herself in recent years and could easily lounge at home as restaurant owner while everybody else ran the show, that wasn't her style. And furthermore, she hadn't gotten to where she had found herself through slacking off and not grinding in the kitchen, making all sorts of lovely food and sweet treats day after day!
The proof was indeed in the pudding. Misty was so incredibly happy to simply be invited to see Delia at work. But she couldn't ignore that any of the workers shakes were sub-par compared to hers.
Maybe Misty should have known better than to try and get her own way. But it was a testament to her and the older woman's closeness how she couldn't stop herself from assessing the waters ever so slightly.
"Oh, I didn't realize you were so busy today." Misty said, taking a quick glance around the rest of the restaurant which wasn't bustling more than usual on a Thursday afternoon. Obviously, otherwise Delia wouldn't have been standing around chatting! "I can always pop into the kitchen myself and knock something up. I don't want to intrude."
The black plastic tray which had once been used as a shield then became practically a barrier, plonking down on the table in front of Misty and stopping her from moving anywhere. Delia didn't consciously intend for this to happen.
But her next words made it clear that her and the tray were in some kind of union, conniving side by side.
"You're always welcome." Delia began rather firmly, not outrightly preventing Misty but certainly not allowing her the freedom of wandering into the kitchen of her restaurant herself. Misty's eyes scanned upwards in the second that she was flashed a smile brighter than the day they were having outside of the windows. "Michelle won't be long. You don't need to be darting off."
Misty's expression switched up from possessing eyes as round as the bowl of sugar cubes on the other side of the table from her and instead sloped her neck to the side, those same eyes darting around once more, unable to hide the fact that she was contemplating.
There it was again. There was that desperation for her to be sitting right there.
The question was, why? Why had she not been allowed to curl up with her headphones and her music pod in her usual booth and watch the world go by from there? Why did this Michelle have to make her drink? Why did she have to stay put, right there in full view of the few other customers and right opposite the entrance?
Misty couldn't help but wonder if it was merely a trifle. Maybe she was reading into things and none of it really mattered.
But there was another, bigger part of her that knew that her intuition was strong, and that Delia was one of the few people closest to her and she could read her like a book.
There was something going on. But what was the answer to all these questions?
Misty should have known that it was not so much a thing as it was a who.
"Is something going on here, Mrs. Ketchum?" she couldn't help but ask, the added correction of the word Delia not tumbling out of her lips at the proper time because, this time, she was not given the opportunity.
In the next couple of seconds, everything became clear. In the next couple of seconds, all of Misty's questions became answered by the presence of one more person in the restaurant.
He certainly allowed his presence to be known!
He burst in the doors of the restaurant, already guessing where Delia would be loitering but not having a clue to whom she would be loitering next to.
"Mom, I'm here! You invited me down." He announced in case his mother had forgotten like she sometimes forgot these things, both of his arms still stretched wide after just pushing open the double doors. "Where's that milkshake that you promised me?"
More heads turned than just Delia and Misty's. Fortunately, most of the customers eating around that lunch time were regulars and realized that this was the one and only son of Delia Ketchum and not some hungry and demanding customer!
Ash might have been hungry, but he was not demanding or a customer. Another thing he was and that was clueless. Because of his desire to fill his belly up with one of his mother's most famous treats on the menu, he didn't exactly take in the other people in the restaurant other than her.
With no tray to loiter next to either one of her hips this time, both of Delia's hands gripped onto her hip bones through her skirt and she made her way to stand in front of her son, educating him on his manners rather than greeting him straight away.
"Ash, have you forgotten the most basic of behavior since your last Pokémon Journey?" she enquired, watching her son look across at her with those chocolate eyes of his and unable to stop herself from melting at this gaze combined with the fact he looked across at her these days rather than up. "You greet everybody in each room that you enter."
Delia reminded Ash with more gentility and motherliness with her second sentence, watching the way that his eyes practically became rainbows close to his eyebrows at his own carelessness, scratching the back of his own neck in the second that he made up for his mistake.
He nodded a cap adorned head at each and every person, touching the tip of the white visor to make sure that everybody accepted his apology as well as his sincerity. It seemed that they did. Some parents even nudged their twins who were about five or so and whispered to them, doing some educating of their own and reminding them that they saw that same teenaged boy reaching Top 8 position on TV for the Unova League.
Ash's cheeks blushed as red as the body of his hat. However, his cheeks would go on to become the white of the visor in the next second when, as Delia clasped her own hands in front of her stomach and stepped to the side, it dawned on him that there was somebody that he had not said hello to when he entered the doors of the restaurant.
Ash didn't even need to hear her name ringing around in his own head.
As soon as he saw her face, his shoulders without me weighing him down straightened up furthermore and he didn't hesitate to break the distance with her and her table, greeting her.
"Mist? No way." He commented even though he knew that his eyes were not deceiving him. His blood sugar levels were not that low just yet! Ash's gloveless fists bedded into the pockets of his new trousers fashioned by Delia. "What… What are you doing here?"
In the same manner that it had dawned on Ash that there was one person that he had not greeted, from the second that he entered the building, it dawned on Misty why Delia had been behaving in such a way. Being invited to the restaurant was never a trap but this most definitely was!
No, okay, it wasn't exactly a trap. But it was planned.
Misty could see that from the way that Delia avoided her eye, her hands no longer clasping in front of her stomach and creeping more towards her chest as her stance turned towards the two teenagers, observing how they were going to interact with each other.
For half a second, Misty wondered that too. It had been years!
But then, even though the present moment that she was in caught up with her, somehow the past did too, and she was back to being ten years old and knew exactly how to speak to this boy.
Newly, however, there was added warmth in her cheeks when she spoke across to him.
It really was a warm June day!
"It seems that I'm here for the same reason as you." She said, that time both her and Delia watching those eyes of his become warm, clueless discs of chocolate before she clued him in, her head tilting on the one side and just one of her eyes squinting together. "Your mom's milkshakes are simply to die for."
So many years. So many years without proper contact.
And yet, Ash heard these words and he saw that same familiar, almost homely (not that he would have ever admitted it) face. His own expression absorbed the brightness of the June day that everybody was experiencing, and he laughed from the pits of his hungry belly in agreement.
Delia could barely contain herself! Although still unable to meet Misty's gaze in case she was mad at her – she didn't know if she could bare that – she could see that their reunion was seemingly off to a good start. It was this that made her hands unable to not clasp obviously over her chest and giggle like she was the same age that both Ash and Misty were.
Turning to them both but her son a little more, she gestured with her head and encouraged him to sit, looking as if she needed her own milkshake to cool herself down!
"Well, if that is the case then I will pop off to the kitchen and make you both one myself!" Delia announced, her hands finally clasping to hold one finger in the air before she made herself scarce. Misty couldn't help but privately deadpan to herself that that was kind of what she wished for all along. Delia, however, got a few more words in before she disappeared. "I'm sure you two have lots to say to each other."
And with that, she was off! Ash noticed the way that his mother's kitten heels clacked against the wooden floor of her restaurant more than usual but couldn't for the life of him figure out why, even if he weren't so clueless as to not realize that this whole reunion was a ploy.
With his mother no longer orchestrating things, Ash hesitantly glanced over at Misty all over again to catch her eye. When he received it, she pressed her mouth together in a half-smile and he figured that this was not only a good thing, but this was permission to indeed join her.
So, Ash sat down, in the process removing himself of the jacket that Delia had only just gifted him and leaving his black and, for once, unstained t shirt that matched his locks. He even removed his hat, leaving it discarded on the tray in the middle of the table but waggling his fingers as if gloves had been removed, digits moving like previously tethered animals.
Misty watched his every move, and she didn't bother to try and hide it. She couldn't help but stare. He visibly looked a lot older than the last time they had crossed paths in the Hoenn Region and had filled out in the same way that she had. But despite all the changes, he was still Ash.
And this was the reason that she came out with a question towards him before he could try to think of something to say now that he had removed a couple of his garments and would end up rather chilly if he went any further to avoid small talk!
"No Pikachu?" Misty questioned, her foot under the table out of habit scooting towards the chair in front of her before remembering that it was the opposite of empty and she couldn't let her leg lounge on the opposite seat like she would have normally done!
Her boot shot back away from the trainer of Ash before she could tell if he had noticed that they had accidentally made some sort of contact with each other and so soon.
Ash being very much still Ash, was seemingly clueless, but thankfully not towards where he had left me. A natural smile gracing his face at the mention of my name, he absentmindedly patted the shoulder of his that I usually lounged against before explaining.
"Nah." His gloveless hand joined the other one on his lap underneath the ledge of the table before his head shook from side to side, spiky locks at the nape of his neck brushing against his skin. "I left him with Tracey for the afternoon so he could help round up the Pokémon at Professor Oak's lab. Besides," Ash answered and then copied Misty's prior neck slope and half wink. "Milkshake isn't his go-to drink as you know."
Misty's lips pressed together all over again in a polite smile and her head bobbed in the same way, deciding to remain silent rather than force words in response or small talk that she simply did not mean.
Rather than mirroring Ash's stance of hands against the lap, both her wrists rested against the edge on her side of the table, her eyes washing over the boy in front of her while his own lips pressed together and his eyes wandered around the restaurant for something to do, directing towards the door in which Delia had disappeared and he could hear girlish chatter escaping from.
His stomach managed not to rumble too loudly!
After a couple of moments of palatable silence, Ash looked back over at Misty and because she was still focusing on him, their eyes met.
Funnily enough, it was her eyes that fell partially shut in a narrowing motion! Her head twitched, calling him out for what he was doing.
"What's with all the staring?" she questioned, it not growing lost on Ash that she was demanding an answer from him when all the while that he had been looking at the door leading to the kitchen, wondering how long it would be until a milkshake came, her eyes had been burning into him!
Nevertheless, he did not grow defensive. You might have thought that he would at the sheer hypocrisy, and he would have done at the age of ten, but he was not that age anymore. Granted, that side of him was still very much alive somewhere inside of him. But he felt different. Things felt different.
He could not put his finger on it, but he felt different. He especially felt different the second that his eyes took in one of his best friends in person for the first time in many years.
Ash's hands were still against his lap and as he sought for an answer inside of himself, they clasped closer together but, in a much separate way than his mothers had been.
With a deep breath in and a deep breath out, he found his response and decided to just be truthful. For some reason, he felt like he didn't have to hide anything from her.
"I guess I'm just waiting for you to tear me a new one in some way." He confessed, causing Misty to not exactly do what he was fearing but he certainly watched her expression screw up in a way that was confused and could soon appear quite frustrated in the next few seconds if he weren't careful. Ash countered this expression with an earnest, close mouthed smile. "I've been pretty terrible at keeping in contact, haven't I?"
Misty did not know what came over her, but she took her turn to experience a deep breath inwards and a deep breath outward. It was interesting how he wasn't holding back anything. The same couldn't exactly be said for her who had only just had to force herself not to reply with some sarcastic words when my choice beverage was hinted towards and how I had been left with Tracey.
She wanted to remark that it had been a long time but yes, she was not so brain dead as to not remember! And how funny it was that he was back in Kanto and had taken the time to visit Tracey but not her.
But then again, would that have been worth it? Would it have been worth getting angry at Delia for orchestrating this little moment? No, it wouldn't have been.
They say that time heals old wounds and apparently it soothes frustration as well. Not that Misty was ever frustrated towards Ash and his lack of contact, not really. Not when she thought about it.
She showed as much by the shrug that rippled off her shoulders in the moments after her inhalation and exhalation of breath, and her hands dangled more relaxedly against the table which was then joining them.
"It works both ways, doesn't it?" Misty replied. She ran a risk by saying something so nonchalant and vague because Ash might have forgotten what was being spoken about when no hint of reminder came in her reply!
However, the way that his spine pressed backwards against the table made it clear that not only did he understand, but he welcomed it and he allowed this knowledge to sink into more than just his skin.
Ash nodded in response, thinking to himself and himself alone.
He didn't exactly know why he had been so bad at keeping in touch. He could blame the constant moving and the distractions of battle after battle but that wasn't it. Not for a single second did he know how, despite his new-found tender honesty, he would begin to confess that he didn't know if Misty wanted to be reminded of a life way back when. Not when, just like he had heard, she was doing so brilliantly at running the Cerulean Gym all by himself.
What Ash could never have imagined is that it was the same for Misty. Why would he want to hear from her when he was doing so amazingly conquering region after region and meeting all kinds of new people?
It's funny how humans can be united in their insecurities. And even more bound in their unwillingness to share the quiet secrets of their heart.
"It's funny," Ash began again, snapping Misty out of her thoughts if she was having any and forcing him to drag himself away from the pits of his mind by starting the conversation again. "It's been so long but I feel like I've only just seen ya." His cheeks warmed through as he confessed this and then they burned for a different reason as realization dawned on him. "Probably because I only just posted you a letter. Gosh, maybe you should just send it straight back."
This certainly piqued Misty's interest! Not only did her wrists continue to lounge against the table but her body began to relax enough to relinquish her chest there, her neck tilting and her eyes conveying all the curiosity that she felt inside of her mind and inside of her heart.
She couldn't help but wonder what kind of things Ash would write in a letter to her.
She quizzed him on such.
"Why would I send it back?" Misty let these words escape from her before, after a sharp intake of breath, she posed a different question, hoping that he would answer this one rather than notice her first blunder. "What did it say?"
A lengthy pause occurred!
It had never been an agreement of Ash towards himself to grow more in tune with his feelings and express them increasingly – it had just been something that naturally happened the older that he got.
However, there, and then, and that moment was going to be a real test! How dedicated was he to this new version of himself? Would it be easier to allow his inner ten-year-old to run the show a little longer, playing dumb or even changing the subject?
Ash wouldn't find out.
His teenaged self, seized control and it made him admit to Misty, his cheeks warming to the shade of the blush on his hat which he had decided to add back to and turn around on his head for a bit of added confidence despite it all.
"It says all kind of embarrassing things, that's all." Ash did not why he was confessing this! If he was trying to make it seem less appealing and he was trying to dissipate Misty's intrigue, then it was not working. His gloveless palm pawing against his forehead now that his hat was turned backwards was working even less in his favor. "You should probably rip it up."
Misty always secretly felt a bit cruel for liking it so much when Ash's face went red, and she saw a flustered side of him that he scarcely showed on the battlefield anymore in front of an arena of people. But rather than wondering what it was about her that made her to be this way, on that day, instead, she was wondering why she felt like her heart was twitching seeing him so honest but so hot under the collar.
She didn't make any of it easier for him.
Misty considered for a minute, but then she leaned closer to her old friend across the table, meeting him dead in the eye while he squirmed.
"If it's full of embarrassing things then I have more incentive to read it from the second that it arrives." she teased with him in a deadpan way which usually made him unsure whether she was being serious or not.
Time may have passed, but Ash was still undecided.
Rather than allowing his lip to curl upwards towards his snub nose, he decided to accept it with a sigh. If there was anything that he had learnt all that time journeying alongside Misty, it was to let her have her way more than once.
In the end, Misty was blessed with not only the inner glee that her toying with him still worked no matter how many years passed, but she was offered even more reasons to feel her shoulders clenching becoming a thing of the past and a wide beam a thing of the present when Delia joined the scene all over again.
She had a new tray in hand this time. And, lo and behold, two milkshakes balanced on top of it!
However, unlike how that was noticed by Ash from the second that she joined them again and his stomach practically erupted with noise from the inside out like a volcano, Delia couldn't for the life of her work out what had gotten her son so very flustered.
Delia blinked down at him, managing to balance the tray with two stacked chocolate milkshakes on the one palm and the other reaching out to smooth across his forehead.
"Oh dear, maybe I shouldn't have kept you waiting so long for the milkshake." She said, referring not to the undeniably stomach groaning noise that had escaped from her son just the second before. She drew her body back as well as her hand to study him further. "You're burning up! Is the heat really getting to you?"
Upon hearing this, although Delia was very much present, Misty could not stop her giggles from escaping her even if she did the polite thing by holding a hand in front of her mouth and trying to chuckle from behind it!
Delia's chocolate eyes in which had had given to her son couldn't stop from swiveling round towards Misty properly for the first time since they had all been in the one room together, wondering why she was laughing at such a time.
However, the embarrassment of a mother doting on him for a rare occasion became too much to bear and he snapped as much as a gentle soul like Ash could snap, sitting straighter up and trying to swallow as if he could remove some of his redness down towards his stomach.
He hissed, mortified, from between two sets of gritted teeth.
"Oh, just give the shakes here, will you?!" his voice came out like a shake but more of a feeble one than a ferocious one, immediately feeling bad for his reaction from the second that Delia merely patted him on the back, believing this reaction was too due to heatstroke though he was indoors on a bright day, yes, but not a scorching one.
Delia removed the original tray off the table of Ash and Misty while the teenage girl's chuckles settled down, replacing it with a tray balanced with two chocolate shakes that were filled to the brim with all the extra decorations that they liked.
Whipped cream. Sprinkles. A special chocolate straw.
Ash might not have been able to gulp his embarrassment down to the pits of his stomach, but he could make a grab for his of the drinks and begin satiating both his cheeks and his belly with the cold, deliciously sweet drinks.
For a rare occasion, rather than scolding her son on not offering Misty her choice of the two first, she handed the other one over to her herself as well as a napkin, taking the tray back all over again and pinning it casually underneath her folded arms as if she was desperate for a companion like those two had each other.
And it was all her work!
Well, that's what she told herself. As much as I might have wished, although this was not a story that I was a part of, even upon future reflection I can't help but realize that the two of them were going to find each other eventually.
Everything and everybody meant to be was always going to wander back somewhere or sometime or another.
Ash and Misty's eyes wandered to each other even while having the first appreciative mouthfuls of chocolate milkshake. Delia looked on, clutching the tray close to her heart, and possessing cheeks that looked like she needed her own cold drink to cool down!
"Oh, it's just so lovely to see the two of you together once more." She gushed, nearly letting on that she orchestrated it but fortunately, Ash was none the wiser and Misty clued in a long time ago. "I bet you've had so much to chat about." She squeezed the tray extra hard before it became an accidental fan as she pulled it away from her body in the one hand, that hand moving and creating an unintentional but welcomed breeze. "Have you told Misty about Kalos, dear?"
Ash might have been in the middle of enjoying all the flavors of sweetness tantalizing his tastebuds, but it wasn't lost on him that he needed to take a moment to consider to himself, thinking. She could not stop his expression from visibly deadpanning!
Oh yes, he had only just been reassured that Misty was not mad by his lack of presence and was going to tell her that he was about to leave their shared region all over again and go gallivanting off once more (!)
Fortunately, he managed to even out his expression soon enough and restrain the urge to snap at his mother all over again, instead being drawn into Misty's pair of eyes that were looking at him with intrigue once more.
Making sure to pull away from his drink enough to converse with Misty as well as remembering to flick his finger across his top lip to remove the potential milkshake moustache from there, he explained, figuring that Misty deserved to know of his plans even if it wounded her that he would be heading off again so soon.
But then again, would she really be so surprised? Even after all those years, they knew each other, there was no doubt about that.
"I met a woman from the Kalos Region, and she said her sister has a gym over there so I'm planning to head out there and check it out." A pause. A pause where Ash tried to gauge Misty's facial displays as well as flick his finger across a smear of milk on his top lip that wasn't there. "Have you heard of it?"
Misty, hardly ever missing a single detail, most certainly caught on to the way that Ash had a private moment of deadpanned dismay towards his mother. For a passing second, she thought about portraying that same expression but towards him!
However, with Delia present as well as the comfort of the sweet food and company making its way to her, she reconsidered and it made her simply nod her head, unable to restrain her response of sitting further up in her chair, even if she did not gush as much as Ash's mom had been doing.
"Of course, I have. Kalos is where Lumiose City is." She said and then she appeared to need to pause for breath between sentences even though her eyebrow twitched with dismay at herself for doing this. "It's only, like, the most romantic city anywhere."
Ash might have been fifteen years old at that point, but his thick eyelashes still clapped together, clueless!
Nevertheless, Delia wasn't as clueless as her soon and she agreed. She put the tray down with such a thwack on the bar bench behind her which she didn't entirely mean, getting carried away and thinking she was the same age as those two.
Well, she always would be inside her heart!
"Oh, yes, it's truly so wonderful over there." Delia concurred, leaving her son to quizzically turn his head, wondering when and if his mother had been over to Kalos before, why she had kept it from him up until then. But he would go on to look at her for a different reason as she added. "You should join him, Misty. I know how much he would love that."
Misty's heart positively skipped a beat although she tried to tell herself it was just delayed brain freeze but in the center of her chest instead. But how could she really convince herself? After that lapse in heart rate happened, she felt warmth creeping from her neck and up to her face rather than frost.
Why was Delia saying such a thing? She knew why. Of course, she knew why. She knew why she had orchestrated their meeting. And she knew why she was saying such things.
It was Misty's turn to swallow to try and gulp back some of her true demeanor and her true feelings.
In the end, this was overshadowed by Ash turning towards his mother and barking in response, not exactly in an annoyed way and not exactly protective either.
Time would cause his reasons to be revealed as… well… pride.
"Oh Mom, don't you realize how busy Mist is?" he began. If it wasn't for the pet name, Misty's heart might've taken a break from skipping to sink with the sudden insecurity that he wanted nothing less than her to join him. "She's one of the greatest gym leaders in Kanto and she's achieved that all on her own." Ash turned away from Delia and fleetingly instead met Misty's eye. "She hasn't achieved that by following after me."
Before a smile like a secret language between the two of them twitched his mouth upwards, his thick eyelashes appeared to dance together and look at Misty with fondness. Somehow it was this more than the smile of a mouth that dawned on Misty most of all. Somehow it was this more than anything that reassured her.
She had never asked for reassurance. But she received it. Why, oh why, could she not stop her heart rate from elevating upwards - and quickly?
Misty realized that Ash had asked around how she was doing even if he hadn't actively stayed in touch all the time. He cared. He cared more about her being where she needed to be than by his side for his sake.
They both understood as such the minute that they needed to depart way back and say farewell to their final Johto journey. Time had not blurred this. It strengthened it only more.
Delia practically curtsied when she was looked over at by two teenagers once again, Ash hoping she understood why he needed to speak for Misty in such a way and Misty with a silent mouth pressed together, reassuring her that there was no tension.
Knowing of such, Delia understood where she stood. So, she knew that she didn't need to stand for much longer.
She had done her bit in arranging them to sit together.
Now was their turn to see how they wanted things to go.
"Such hard workers deserve another shake. I shall see to it immediately." Her head bobbed just the once and then she bobbed out of sight, interfering no more, not that what she had been doing could really be described as that.
Exactly like it was within the heart of her son, she just cared. She had seen the two of them almost lose sight of each other over the years even though, funnily enough, there was an invisible string tying their paths and their dreams together.
No more. Because of Delia, no more. Because of themselves, no more. Because of fate, no more.
Distance had made them realize what was important.
Although, for a little bit longer, more lightness would be present. Misty felt the need to make sure that things really were okay between all three of them and the almost raised voices had been for good rather than for good.
Her taking the subject elsewhere caused her to take a few more sips of her milkshake before jokingly pushing it away from her, squirming her face together and shuddering in a way that definitely got Ash's attention straight away.
But she only just had to blink!
"I think your mom gave me one of Michelle's shakes and passed it off as her own." Misty humorously scrunched her nose up some more, wrists draping across the table. "I know a Delia shake when I taste one and this isn't it."
A beat. One single beat. And then it happened. What happened was something that Misty was not expecting. Maybe not Ash either.
Misty was only mucking around. And Ash didn't realize how dedicated he was from speaking and acting in alignment with everything that he wanted.
Ash suddenly offered.
"Have mine." He stated before, as honest as he was trying to be tugged towards by his heart, he couldn't help but backtrack a few steps! But somehow this sidestep meant even more. "Share mine with me. I really don't mind."
Another pause. Another singular pause where Misty's eyes narrowed together, and she wondered what her oldest friend was playing at!
It was, however, amazing how quick she was to give into wit. And how quickly she stumbled across it. While Ash discovered real want within a single second, she discovered true teasing.
She didn't open her eyes back up from narrowing until the very last minute, gesturing too.
"You don't mean that." She stated, causing Ash to widen his eyes from behind one last mouthful before he slid it exactly between them both on the table, gurgling I do from between a mouth bursting of shake. "You're only saying that because your mom is still spying on you."
Ash's head frantically whipped around and almost choked! But, of course, he saw that Delia really had headed off and heard from Misty's laughter while he wasn't looking at her that she was only teasing her all over again.
Narrowing his eyes himself, Ash turned back towards her and considered revoking his offer. But it was useless. Not only because Misty was the last person to let him forget something he had agreed on and not even because it was the right thing to do.
He wanted to.
He had always enjoyed sharing. And sharing something with someone you hadn't been able to share things with for a very long time was even sweeter than a shake.
Ash answered again, telling Misty how much he did mean it by swiping her straw away from her old milkshake and shaking out the residue of the subpar shake out of the end of it before dipping it into the better one.
His one.
I hope this wasn't another ploy by his mother who was secretly poking her head through the kitchen doors after all!
Not that Ash was thinking of such, but even if he could have been, it would have been dissipated by the tone that escaped Misty's mouth as she thanked him.
"Well, thank you." Were the only three words that she said. But her voice had a quality like a breath of wind on a pleasantly warm day. Her tone was that of surprise mixed with serenity and this made it melt into Ash's skin even more so.
Nevertheless, he only nodded and didn't bother to smile in response. Instead, the moment that they had next spoke everything. Both of their heads leaned together as they took a slurp together and it was this moment that caused their smiles to begin to form.
Then, when they pulled away, gargling appreciatively at the taste that was erupting on both their tastebuds, it caused them to fully grin at each other, offering smiles that made it seem like the sun was still blasting in through the restaurant windows and the door too even though it was momentarily hiding behind clouds for just a few seconds.
This time, it was Misty who ran her finger over her mouth as she removed herself of any milkshake residue. Ash watched. Ash watched but didn't follow suit. Instead, rather than a finger tugging against a mouth, words tugged against a mind.
Words itched against a heart.
Would he say them? Yes, he would.
Life was far too short to let things slip by, he had learnt of such.
"I know you're busy, but Mom is right, you should come out to Kalos if you find the time." Ash began before dipping his head back close to the milkshake when Misty did the same, taking a fateful sip. Even though other revealing words soaked against his tongue, he settled with saying these ones instead. "It'd be worth the wait."
And in hindsight, there are things I cannot possibly tell because they are for two people to know. Still, to this day, I wonder, was Kalos meant to be worth the wait to Misty? Was her presence to Kalos meant to be worth the wait? Was it Misty? Was it her who was worth the wait to Ash?
I wasn't told a yes, but I still know it's a yes. Of course, it's a yes. How could it not be?
Misty's head being so near to Ash's at that point didn't do a good job at concealing the warmth of her cheeks, even though they were sharing a cold drink.
All the same, like how it was with Ash, maybe there was a part of her that welcomed the blush. Welcomed the nerves. Welcomed the honesty of it all.
In the end, her words spoke nothing of the truth in her way.
She nodded her head and inadvertently bobbed her head closer to Ash's. She didn't commit to anything. But her words sung with hope. And that was everything back in those days.
"I'll see what I can do." She told him. And then she smiled. They both did. At the words that they had shared after so many years. The moment unfolding between them. As well as the drink. The drink too, of course.
And even though Delia still wasn't watching, and I wasn't a part of this story at all even though how I wished that I had been, I know we both look on with love in our hearts. Whether we look across. Whether we look backwards. Or even we look forwards.
Some people are going to gravitate back to each other no matter the time spent apart. Maybe Ash and Misty needed that nudging from Delia. Maybe they didn't. I choose to believe that, without any intervention at all, this moment was going to happen.
Some moments were just meant to be. Just like Ash and Misty keeping in touch from this moment on. Just like her indeed heading out to see him in Kalos, and a lot sooner than they both anticipated. And yes, them falling properly in love across the distance.
Their hearts had always yearned for each other whether they were plonked on the same region, or they were at opposing ends of the globe. Some hearts are lost until they wander together again.
Every day I so thank Ash and Misty's paths being destined. I know that half of these tales would not happen without them. I know that half my smiles would not happen without them.
Like Ash and Misty too, that is me being honest. I really have never meant anything more.
The End.
There you go, thanks so much for reading and I hope you enjoyed! :) It's funny how this stage in Ash and Misty's lives is such a pivotal moment - the beginning of it all in many ways - and yet I hardly tackle it. Delia's role in this story amused me. I'm sure in the future she will lovingly gloat how it was her actions that lead Ash and Misty to be romantically together in the end! Who can blame her though? She loves her son dearly and she knows which young lady is perfect for him :P Thanks again and I will be back on the 16th for yet another PokeShipping centric tale! See you soon :)
Amy signing out!