Disclaimer: I don't own Pokémon. This story is purely for entertainment. I don't own the song The Glory of Love either. It is by Peter Cetera and from the movie Karate Kid II. I just borrowed it for a while.

The spring sunlight filtered through the trees, creating intricate patterns with the shadows of the leaves, and playing over the large lunchtime crowds in Pallet's central business district. Things had definitely changed around here, Misty thought as she finished sipping her cup of coffee. She had just finished lunch with her good friends Jessie (formerly of Team Rocket) and Katrina, the pretty Raichu trainer that Ash had befriended while preparing for the Pokémon League.

Misty was eleven when she first came to Pallet, she was now twenty-four and the past thirteen years had seen Pallet go from a sleepy little town to a thriving metropolis. The reason for this change was the presence in Pallet of the two top trainers in the world - Ash Ketchum and Gary Oak.

People had changed too. Since Jessie, James and Meowth had quit six years ago, they had become best friends with the "twerps", even including them in the bridal party at their wedding last year. Jessie was now a successful business woman with her exclusive designer label "Divine Diva", as well as running a catering company. Her husband James was also doing well, Ash had employed him as his public relations spokesman, and he was doing an excellent job.

Katrina was now part of Misty's close-knit group too. She had kept in close contact with Ash after they had met while helping Clevon Spielbunk with his movie Pokémon In Love. The two trainers had become good friends, and both had noticed that there was a certain spark between their electric rodents. The mice were reunited last year when Katrina was offered a position at Professor Oak's and had moved to Pallet.

The spark had turned into a fire and it was soon obvious who Pikachu's future mate would be. The little mouse's heart had been captured by the dashing Raichu who had danced with her all those years ago, sweeping her off her paws.

Misty herself had changed. The so-called "ugly duckling" had grown into a beautiful swan. She was tall, with a slender but curvy figure, and her red hair now flowed down past her shoulders. A leading magazine had recently named her as the most beautiful of the Sensational Sisters, which pleased her no end. Life was treating her very well - she now had a place of her very own, a nice little townhouse in downtown Pallet, and she was in the final year of her Pokémon doctoral degree. A job was already waiting for her at Pallet's Pokémon Hospital when she finished. Things couldn't be better.

That was not entirely true, she admitted to herself. Things could be better when it came to her and Ash. They had been dating since they were eighteen, after finally admitting their feelings. Of course they had their ups and downs, and right now they were recovering from another "down". They had broken up after a rather heated argument, but were now back together, having patched things up. Or so she thought. Feeling depressed, Misty pushed away her empty coffee cup and slumped in her seat.

This sudden change in mood did not go unnoticed by Jessie. "Ok, what's with the long face?" she demanded. Misty sat up and sighed. Next time, she thought to herself, try not to let Jessie notice. Once Jessie noticed something was wrong, you were in trouble. Jessie would have to know what was wrong and why - right away. Until she got her answer, she would not let the matter rest. It was futile to resist.

"Ash and I are having problems," Misty revealed.

"I knew it! Oh boy!" Jessie crowed, only to be silenced by a look from Katrina. Jessie shrugged, she couldn't help herself. In her opinion, the real life trials and tribulations of Ash and Misty's relationship was far more exciting than any soap opera on TV. This was the next instalment in the long running saga.

Misty continued as if she had never been interrupted. "I think he's been avoiding me for some reason. I haven't seen him for at least three weeks, whenever I want to go out with him, he's always busy. I thought things were improving between us, especially after what he did two months ago…." She trailed off as she remembered what happened.

It had been two weeks since their breakup. The fight was nasty, Misty had accused Ash of not caring enough about her, that he acted as if she wasn't important to him, that he didn't need her. These were untrue and she knew it, but when you are angry, you are blind to the truth. Ash was offended by her accusations and retaliated with ones that were equally untrue and just as hurtful. Since that day, they had not been on speaking terms. It was during this period that she ran into Rudy, the Trovita Island Gym Leader who had fallen in love with her at first sight, and begged her to stay with him, but to no avail.

Misty was surprised that he remembered her, after all, it was twelve years ago when Ash competed in the Orange League. Rudy was in the Island on holidays, and asked that Misty have dinner with him one night, for old time's sake. Misty accepted the invitation, she was free and she had nothing to fear about Rudy. He had been a perfect gentleman when she had rejected him all those years ago, and he would be over her by now.

Two nights later, she dropped off Togepi and her other pokémon with Tracey who had agreed to mind them while she met Rudy. Dinner was uneventful, followed by an evening stroll through the park. Rudy led her to a quiet, secluded spot where he told her that he still loved her and once again asked her to be with him forever. Again, Misty refused, she didn't love him, never had and never will. Yes, she had been flattered by his attention back then, but she didn't love him. She felt assured that he would be okay about her refusal, just like last time. Big mistake.

Rudy had changed a lot since then, and this time he wasn't going to take no for an answer. He grabbed her, forcing her arms behind her back, before binding them and pushing her to the ground. Misty screamed and struggled with all her might, but Rudy was just too strong.

She squeezed her eyes shut, not wanting to see what she knew was going to happen next, when she felt Rudy's weight yanked off her back with a shout. She rolled over to see Rudy struggling with another man, who knocked him out after a few minutes. A small yellow mouse ran up to her with a squeak of "Pikachupi!" She knew who her saviour was - Ash. It turned out that Tracey had blabbed to Ash about her outing with Rudy, since Ash had never liked the Trovita Island Gym Leader, he decided to follow them. Luckily for Misty.

Soon after, they had resumed their relationship, but now she wasn't sure where they stood with each other.

The silence was broken by Katrina. "Well, the only thing to do, is to back Ash into a corner and make him talk to you."

"And what better place to do it, than at the Pokémon League Ball next Saturday!" Jessie added. The League was holding its annual ball in Pallet this year, and it was to be in honour of Ash's historic achievement. Ash was the first person to hold the title of Grand Master for the record fifth year in a row. "There's no way he can avoid seeing you - after all, you are his date for the evening."

Misty smiled, now that was a good idea! She always looked forward to the various social functions that the League held. It gave her a chance to dress up in glamorous evening wear, and feel like she was in some fairytale. The only thing about the Ball that she was not looking forward to was the attention of the paparazzi. Unfortunately, that was a fact of life when dating the world's most powerful trainer.

Meanwhile, the world's most powerful trainer was not feeling so powerful as he wearily surveyed the large stack of papers still on his desk at Indigo Plateau. If there was one thing that he disliked about being the Pokémon Grand Master, Ash Ketchum thought, it was the paperwork. And there was loads of it - regarding changes to League rules, gym applications, job applications, gym reports, new licence applications. As he was the top Master Trainer in the League, everything had to come to him for final approval. Ash was glad he had a business management degree to help him cope with all of the aspects required to run such a large organisation.

Right now, he was signing the latest batch of successful applications to become new trainers. So far, he had done half of them - but there was still that large pile of paper to go. Ash sighed and ran his hand through his short black hair. If those papers weren't so important, he'd call out Typhlosion and have the paper "accidentally" catch fire so he could finish up and go home. Oh well.

He looked up to see his office door open a bit. He heard Pikachu greet his private secretary, Mrs. Maggie Taylor. Ash smiled, Pikachu wanted a new look to impress Raichu, and so had gone off to a salon with his cousin Sally, who promised to drop the Pokémon off when she was finished. "Come on in Pik. Let's see your new look!" he called, expecting the little mouse to come charging in as usual. To his surprise, it was two minutes before Pikachu slowly crept into the room.

Ash stared at his best friend. The tiny mouse's golden fur was fluffed out into tiny curls, with pink bows adorning both ears and her jagged tail. To Ash, Pikachu looked like a pompom ball or like a giant sized powder puff.

"Pikaaaa…" The little Pokémon was red with embarrassment.

"You think you look like a tennis ball?" The mouse nodded.

"Well, I think you look like a pompom…but a cute one!" Ash added hastily before she could zap him. "Next week, just wear one bow on your ear, and you'll still look adorable. Raichu will love it."

Pikachu perked up. "Pikapi!" she chirped and flung herself into his arms for a hug.

"You can't wait for next Saturday, can you?"

"Pi."

"Neither can I." Ash was looking forward to the League Ball next week with him as the guest of honour. He would probably see many of the people he had met throughout his journeys. It was going to be great. Misty would probably kill him, but it still promised to be a great night.

The League Ball was in full swing and Misty was enjoying herself as she listened to the speeches. Everyone looked terrific - Ash was looking very handsome in his black tuxedo, Katrina was turning heads in a strapless red gown, Pikachu looked adorable with a pink bow on her ear as she went around holding paws with Raichu who was wearing a little black tie. Misty was also making a great impression. She wore a full length midnight blue chiffon evening dress that Jessie had designed for her. It was a halter neck with two diamond clasps on either strap, cut low in the front and back and flowed into a short train. Her hair was gently waved and swept up on one side - Jessie told her she looked like a movie star from the 1940s when glamour was in. Misty had made Ash's jaw drop - as well as almost every other guy in the room. The only thing that was marring a perfect evening was that she was not any closer to finding out the reason for Ash's strange behaviour. She had confronted him in the limo just before they were to get out, he just gave her an enigmatic smile and said that nothing was wrong, and stepped out before she could say another word. Then she had found out from James that Ash was not that busy with League duties during the last three weeks, so he had been doing other things. Just exactly what those "other things" were, Misty wasn't sure she really wanted to know.

Ash was now speaking and Misty was only partly listening as she wondered what he had been up to. He was nearly finished when he said, "And last, but not least, I'd like to thank Misty." That got her attention, and she leaned forward as she waited to hear what he was going to say.

"She's been with me from the very beginning, and I'm very grateful for that. I just want to say four words to her."

Everyone was looking at her and Misty felt herself blushing. Oh, this is so embarrassing! I'm going to kill him for this.. she thought furiously.

"Will you marry me?" Misty's jaw dropped and she stared at Ash in astonishment. Was he serious? She looked around at their friends who were all grinning from ear to ear, as was every other table. Oh my God, he's serious. Now I can't very well kill him. Someone shoved a microphone in her face and she managed to say, "Yes."

The whole place erupted with cheers, with Brock, Tracey and Gary giving Ash a thumbs up. When the place quietened down, Ash spoke again. "Now I'd like to ask Misty to join me for a special dance. I'd like to dedicate this song to her."

Teary eyed, Misty stood up as Ash neared their table, and they embraced with a gentle kiss. He slipped a diamond ring on her finger before leading her out to the dance floor.

As the song died away, Misty and Ash stayed on the dance floor, then were joined by the others as the DJ started another disc.

"This is the best night of my life", Misty said happily.

Ash smiled. "Well, it turned out just as I planned." When Misty looked at him, he explained. "For your information, this whole proposal scenario was what I've been busy doing for the last three weeks!"

Now Misty understood. "That's why you were avoiding me!"

Ash rolled his eyes. "Well….duh!" and laughed while Misty lightly hit him.

"You do realise this is going to be in the news" she murmured.

"So?"

"I'll have to get you back for that. I was so embarrassed before!"

"Exactly how are you planning to get back at me?"

Misty smiled contentedly. "Not sure yet. But it can wait. Because I've got you forever."

Author's Note: No need to worry - I am planning to do one like "Anything" - it is just finding the right song. Maybe I won't be able to repeat or top that. I'm not too happy with this one - oh well. If Chuchino reads this - I wrote a Pokéshippy one like you asked - do I get my Jelly Tots now? Any chance of sending them to Sydney?