Prompt: New beginnings

Pokeshipping

She never said so, but new beginnings scared her. Going to a different region, training a new Pokémon, making new friends…The list goes on. Anything to do with begin sounded bad to her. It's why she couldn't travel with Ash anymore. She couldn't handle jumping and doing something new without breaking down and wanting to cry. The decision had been hard. On one hand, she desperately wanted to travel with Ash, the boy she'd learned to love. Wait…Love? No, surely not. Who was she kidding? She was Misty and she wasn't in love with some dense kid. Ha, ha, that was laughable. She had just made a good friend. She wanted to travel with Brock too! Just the three of them, and she liked it like that, but she was still afraid. New beginnings meant that she didn't know everything. She had to learn and she couldn't show Ash that she knew what she was doing because truthfully, she didn't. So she'd had to come back and do the same thing over again, but it was comfortable. She knew what she was doing. She could beat the kids that came in with her training skills and strength. Most of the time. She panicked whenever she saw a Pokémon she wasn't familiar with; from another region. Which brought her to her current battle.

Her palms were sweating. She was nervous. She'd never seen that Pokémon before. It was…*gulp* new.

It was green, standing on two legs with a yellow belly. It had a tail with a leaf shape at the end. Its eyes had yellow rings around them. What was this thing? It was strange.

The trainer itself was strange. It was a boy, who looked around her age, but she couldn't be sure. He mumbled his words. She could never hear him properly. He kept his head down, not looking at her. His hair was covered by the yellow hood of his jacket. On his belt were 5 other Pokéballs. One of them kept on moving, like the Pokémon inside was trying to come out, but the boy kept one hand over it.

She tried, she really did, but it was obvious from the very beginning that she wasn't going to win. This trainer was experienced, much more than her. She sighed as she called back her unconscious Starmie.

"Good job Snivy, return now," the boy mumbled. This time his voice was a little clearer. Something tingled at the back of her mind, but she ignored it.

"Good job," she said, forcing a smile, "You did great. Here's your cascade badge." She held it out in the palm of her hand. He shook his head. She tilted hers, very confused.

"I didn't come here for the badge," he said.

"Well then what did you come here for?" she snapped, "You've wasted me time…uh." Great. She'd forgotten to take his name. Oh no, she wasn't that stupid. She distinctly remembered him muttering something she couldn't quite hear. At the time she'd shrugged it off, but now she wished she could remember.

"What's your name again?" she asked, feeling stupid for it. The boy chuckled and something fluttered in her stomach. She quickly pushed it down.

"Ketchum," he said, "Ash Ketchum." He looked up and threw his hood back, revealing both his chocolate coloured eyes and the red and white cap that hid his frizzy black hair. The Pokéball that had been moving at his belt suddenly released itself as he took his hand away, a very upset looking Pikachu coming out. It crossed its arms and chattered away angrily to his trainer before it spotter the orange-haired gym leader who was currently frozen on the spot. It cried out and ran to her, suddenly forgetting about being angry with Ash and focused on climbing up her legs and into her arms where he begged for attention.

"Ash?" Misty said, her hand automatically reaching to stroke Pikachu's head, "What are you doing here? And what are you wearing?" He chuckled, looking down at his unusual bright yellow clothing.

"Couldn't have you recognising me until I'd done what I came here for," he said, "that's also why I had to put Pikachu in his ball. Sorry buddy." Pikachu chattered crossly and then sighed, resigning itself to being scratched behind the ear.

"What did you come for?" Misty asked, "You said you didn't want a cascade badge. That's not like you. What did you come here for then?" He chuckled again.

"Maybe I will take that badge then," he joked, "But in all seriousness, I came here for you."

"What?" she squeaked. He moved closer and she could feel her cheeks heating up, not sure if she was reading too much into the meaning of his words.

"Just like I thought," he said, "you aren't getting enough experience with Pokémon from other regions. I want to take you with me again."

"Ash, I've said before, I can't go," she whispered, "I have to run the gym." And a new region sounded scary. He grinned.

"I have three things Misty," he said, "One, I've already talked to your sisters about this and they said they'd take over seriously until you come back. Two-" He paused, leant over and pecked her lips "-I've been waiting too long to do that and I'm not going back with nothing. Three, I didn't say I was giving you a choice." Still surprised from the kiss, she could only let out a strangled squeak as he lifted her up like she weighed nothing and swung her over his shoulder.

"So you got her?" someone asked. Brock was here too.

"Sure did," Ash said, "She was completely helpless."

"Ash Ketchum! She yelled, "You are in so much trouble! Put me down! You are so lucky I don't have my mallet with me." He chuckled as she pounded her fists on his back, getting more agitated by the second.

"Now that's the Misty I love," he said. She stopped.

"Love?" she questioned. He placed her down gently and nodded, looking into her eyes. He looked a little nervous and so she offered him a smile, blushing a little as she answered him back. He grinned and entwined their fingers, aware that there was a third person with them. She was going to a new region, to look at new Pokémon with a new relationship. She smiled slightly. Maybe, she thought, a new beginning wasn't so bad.

A/N: Great, first one and I already messed up. Misty is way OOC and it's so cheesy! Anyway, I better explain what this is. I have found a 365 day writing challenge. Yay! Go me. So I thought I'd give it a shot. Basically I get a new prompt every day for what I'm going to write about. You heard me right, 365 days of writing. A whole year with a oneshot for each day. Obviously this is the first one and obviously there will be times that it will be impossible for me to upload, there are problems out there, but I will do my best to upload every day. This is so I can practise getting into a regular writing routine again. They're only short oneshots, so hopefully they won't interfere with my other stories (because I will still be uploading them as well). So the pairings I will be doing (I'll mention specifically which one I'm writing about at the top) are; Pokeshipping, Contestshipping, Ikarishipping and Caffeineshipping (for all you who love Mina and Jaiden romance). There will possibly be others, but I will specify at the top of the page what it is. So we'll see how I go with these ;P Please review. It would be really encouraging to have some support in this ;P