This is set in Pallet
town right before the Pokémon League.
Coincidentally, the same time period as my friend Spruceton Spook's
self-titled fic Spooked (just kidding on the self-titled part.) If you haven't read her stuff—go. Read.
Now. This is dedicated to her,
Mandy, and Sharon.
There are hints of AAML in here. (DUH!)
But the title is not quite what you think it is. Oh, and if you don't like cute, stay away. Stay far away. Otherwise...enjoy!
Ash and Misty's Love
Chapter One—What is Love?
"Two
sixty-eight...two sixty-nine..."
Ash
sighed as he finished counting. "Two
dollars and seventy-three cents.
Pikachu, we're in trouble.
That's not even enough to buy gift wrap."
Pikachu
patted his trainer's back sympathetically.
"Thanks,
buddy," Ash said. He climbed the ladder
to his bed and flopped down on his mattress.
"What am I going to do?" he thought out loud. Misty's birthday was less than a week away. Even if he knew what to give her, he had no
money to buy anything. He barely had
enough to buy an ice cream cone. Of
course, she did like ice cream...nah, too hard to wrap.
"I
need money," he said again. He studied
the shape of his bank thoughtfully, absentmindedly stroking the charm on its
head. "This is one time it would come
in handy to have a real Meowth around.
I sure could use Pay Day."
Pikachu
made a face and shuddered.
"Not
worth it even for that, huh?" Ash laughed, scratching the pokémon's head
affectionately. "They're not all like
Meowth from Team Rocket, you know."
Pikachu
stuck his tongue out and then fell over in a 'play dead' position.
"Have
it your way..." Ash shook his head at
his pokémon's dramatics. "Come on. Maybe Mom will know what to do." His face brightened at the idea. "Mom!
Yeah, that's it!"
Heartened
by this thought, Ash scrambled down from his bed and ran down the steps to the
kitchen. "Mom, I need..." he began
excitedly, but stopped himself short.
Misty
and Brock were at the table, watching him curiously. He couldn't ask his mom for anything in front of them The reason for silence in front of Misty was
obvious. As for Brock—Ash preferred not
to be teased mercilessly about a nonexistent crush. He was only doing this, he insisted to himself, because Misty was
a friend.
"You
need...to take out the trash?" his mom supplied, her reminder unwittingly
saving him. "Is that what you were
going to say?"
"Uh,
right. Okay," he said. But he still needed money for a
gift...inspiration struck. "Can I have
a quarter?"
"Ash!"
Delia said. She gave her son an amused
yet exasperated look. Misty and Brock
burst out laughing.
"Geez,
Ash, I always knew you were greedy, but don't you know that you can't charge
your mom for doing your chores?" Misty teased.
"Hey,
you don't even know what it's for," Ash protested.
"What's
it for then?" she asked.
Oops. Duh.
Ash mentally kicked himself.
"Nothing,"
Ash said. "For your information, I'd
take out the trash whether I got a quarter or not! I was just hoping she had a quarter."
Then again, getting paid to take out the
trash isn't such a bad idea, he thought to himself. Why
haven't I thought of that before? I
could be rich by now!
"I
should think you would," his mom said wryly, but walked over to the cookie jar,
which, Ash happened to know, was not
used for cookies at all. The cookies
were stored in the sugar canister. The
spare change was stored in the cookie jar.
She pulled out two quarters.
"There
are two bags of trash, here's a quarter apiece," she said. "You're not going to waste them on more pokémon
cards, are you?"
"I
don't think so," Ash said truthfully.
He didn't need them when he had the real thing. Though...would Misty like pokémon
cards? Judging from the fact that both
she and Brock were rolling their eyes now, he guessed not. He should have known—she didn't approve of
his comics either. But what did she
like?
"Whatever,
sweetie," Delia sighed, shaking her head.
"As long as you take out the trash, I don't care what you spend it
on."
"Thanks
mom!" In a show of gratitude, he slung the bags enthusiastically over his
shoulder—so enthusiastically, in fact, that he almost threw them into the
doorframe and barely missed splitting them open.
"Oops,"
he apologized, and hastily opened the door to leave. His mom rolled her eyes. Ash could hear Misty taking another dig
at him even as he was walking out the door.
"Hope
you don't regret that, Mrs. Ketchum."
Ungrateful, Ash thought as he shut the
door behind him. She doesn't even know I'm doing this for her. He was struck with an apprehensive
thought. Then again, I hope she doesn't regret it, either...wait a minute, why
am I worrying about it?
He
sighed. Friends were complicated. Girls were even more so. And friends who were girls...well, they were
so confusing that sometimes Ash decided that surely, an undiscovered pokémon
species must be easier to figure out.
"A
pokémon named Misty," Ash said, then snickered. Riiiiight.
***
Three dollars and twenty-three cents. Ash dropped his most recent earnings in his
bank and listened to the coins clink.
"Now
what?" he asked out loud. He was going
to have to make a lot more than fifty cents at a time if he wanted to earn
enough to buy a decent present. He
wandered over to his window and looked out, discovering that his mom and Mr. Mime
were working together down in the garden.
There was a thought. Now would
be a good time to go talk to her...
"Ash,
what are you doing?" Misty appeared in
the doorway, giving him a funny look.
She had been doing that a lot over the past hour.
"Nothing,"
he said, suddenly annoyed at her arrival.
He couldn't talk to his mom while she was around, but Misty had been
popping up all over the place ever since that incident right before lunch. It was almost like she knew he was up to
something and had been following him around intentionally, though she would
never admit to it...
Hey,
that was it!
"Why
are you following me around?" Ash asked, crossing his arms over his chest and
giving her the cool once-over. Misty
looked taken aback, then furious.
"What?" She gave him death glare, but Ash couldn't
tell how sincere it was. Seeing as he
wasn't dead yet, it could be a
cover-up. "Of course not! You're crazy! Why would I be following you around?" she shouted.
"Then
what are you doing?" Ash asked smugly.
"What...I'm...nothing,
absolutely nothing!" Misty said,
flustered. She stormed out in a
huff. "Following him...the boy is
nuts...absolutely nuts..." Ash heard her mumbling as she walked away.
In
spite of himself Ash was surprised. What
do you know. I was right!
"It
works two ways," Ash said, nodding his head, a satisfied grin on his face. He and Pikachu gave themselves a thumbs
up. "Come on now, let's go find mom
before Misty changes her mind and comes back."
He
peered out of his doorway. The coast
was clear, so he quietly snuck down the stairs and peeked into the living
room. Misty and Brock were both there,
Brock watching TV from the sofa, and Misty sitting by the window, alternately
watching the program herself and glaring out the window. She was still annoyed.
Excellent.
All
he had to do now was make it to the kitchen without being spotted. He crept down the hallway, tiptoeing in
hopes of making less noise, carefully edging around the boards he knew would
creak. He made it to the kitchen and
slunk around the perimeter to the door.
He was just congratulating himself as he put his hand on the doorknob
when...
"Ash
Ketchum, what are you doing?"
"Argh!"
He
nearly fell over. Busted! Turning around, he tried to concoct a convincing
explanation. "Uh...well..."
His
mom stood looking at him, tapping her foot.
"Mom!"
he said, wiping his brow. Thank
goodness, his secret was still safe. "I
was looking for you. I thought you were
outside."
"I
came in for some water," she said. "What was it you needed?"
"Are
we alone?" Ash asked.
His
mom gave him a puzzled look. "Yes..."
she said slowly.
"Mom,"
he paused. "I wanted to ask you
something..." Surely his mom would
understand him. She wouldn't overreact
like everyone else.
"What
do girls like for their birthdays?" he
said. There. It was finally out in the open.
Delia's
gaze softened, and a grin twitched at the corner of her mouth. "So that's what this is all about," she
said, in a suspiciously high-pitched sing-song voice. "You want to get Misty a present."
"Mo-um,"
Ash groaned. "Don't make a big deal out
of it. She is my friend."
"Of
course, sweetie, of course," she cooed.
"Well, I would suggest getting her..."
"Yes?"
Ash said eagerly.
"...something
that she would like," his mom finished.
"ARGH!" Ash slumped against the wall and smacked
himself on the forehead in frustration.
"I KNEW THAT ALREADY!" he yelled, then jumped at the sound of another
voice.
"Ash,
don't yell at your mother like that.
It's extremely rude," Misty scolded, giving him a dirty look.
"Geez,
Misty, where do you keep coming from today!" Ash said. How much had she heard? He shot her a look of unmistakable annoyance
which Misty bristled at. "I'm not
yelling at her!" he said.
"Hmph. Funny, I thought that that's what shouting
at the top of your lungs was—yelling."
"I
wasn't yelling at her!" Though the same couldn't be said for now...
"I was yelling, but I wasn't yelling at her!
If I was yelling at her I would sound like THIS!"
"So
I suppose you're yelling at ME, then,
HUH?" Misty shouted herself, crossing the distance between them and glaring at
him, trying to intimidate him with her added height. Ash stood his ground.
"YEAH! LIKE THIS!"
"OH
YEAH?"
"YEAH!"
"YEAH?!"
"YEAH!"
"YEAH?!"
"WHY
I OUGHTA..."
"Ash!" The sound of Delia's melodic laughter broke
the argument up just as quickly as it began.
She gave her son an amused look, and he looked back at her sheepishly. He supposed it did look rather silly to be
shouting at a girl one minute and planning to buy her a gift the next.
Though...
he thought in confusion, the
way Brock says it, it works that way with any
girl, not just Misty...
His mom was still smiling at him, obviously pleased at the
interest—or perceived interest—that Ash had shown earlier. "Tell you what, Ash," she said as she pulled
a list off the refrigerator door. "I
need some grocery shopping done. You go
to the store and pick these up for me, and I'll give you..." she consulted the
cookie jar. "Five dollars, for whatever
that secret project of yours is." She
winked at him.
Ash
ignored the teasing. Eight dollars and
twenty-three cents. Ash's eyes
widened. If this kept up, he may even
have something left over for himself.
"You got it!" Ash said happily, yanking the list out of his mom's
hand with such enthusiasm that he nearly tore it in half. He hurriedly smoothed out the wrinkles. Misty and Delia both sighed.
"Misty,
dear, you and Brock wouldn't want to tag along to see that the groceries get
home in one piece, would you?" Delia asked.
"I'll watch Togepi for you.
Besides, there are some nice stores downtown. You might want to do some windowshopping." She gave her son a look that Ash was
actually able to interpret as, Pay
attention. You might get some ideas of
what she likes from this trip. He
gave her a subtle nod of agreement.
"Sure
thing, Mrs. Ketchum," Misty said. She
went back to the living room to pull Brock away from the TV. Sounds of shouts and scuffling emerged from
the area and Ash and his mom looked at each other with their eyebrows
raised. Finally Misty came back
carrying a sleeping Togepi in one hand and dragging Brock by one ear with the
other.
"But..but..."
Brock was stammering. Misty's face was
an angry red and her eyes were squinted in irritation.
"You
don't need to watch any more of that crap," Misty said, disgust apparent in her
voice. "Male chauvinist pig!"
Ash's
curiosity got the best of him, and he hoped it didn't mean that Misty was going
to kill him for it. "What was it?" He dared to ask.
"It
was beautiful. It was lovely. It was..." Brock breathed out.
"It
was the Annual Police Department beauty pageant!" Misty said, shaking Brock in
annoyance as she informed the others.
"Twenty Officer Jennys competing for the title of 'Most Arresting Police
Officer'! It was propaganda, it was
exploitation, it was..."
"...the
swimsuit competition," Brock said mournfully.
Ash gave a low whistle.
"And
you were able to drag him away from that?"
Ash said in admiration. "Wow,
Mist, you're stronger than I thought."
"Never
underestimate the power of a water pokémon trainer," Misty said, nodding in
satisfaction as she gave Brock one last swat on the ear.
Brock
just looked pained.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
COMING UP IN CHAPTER TWO: What is love? You'll find out...
Poké-pun of the day: Why the heck does Mr. Mime say his name?
(Think about it, think about it...)
Review, please. Preferably no number reviews though. Reminds me too much of school. And this, if I neglected to mention it
before, is just for fun. And that's my
disclaimer. ^_~
