A/N: I started writing a horror, but decided that doesn't work too well with the holiday season, so this came out instead. :D Not sure what I'd class it under, really. It's more Misty-musings in her pool than anything else, but that's not really a genre…

Anyway, this is for OrisisRedGirl for the PFC's Secret Santa. A bit late for the Christmas part, but have a Happy New Year!

For the Love of Water

Either the water had become sentient under her tutelage, or she had become that much closer to it. It was surprise, as her journey, for the most part, had been on land – passing the occasional pool, lake, or sea but mostly consisting of having her feet in something other than water. And yet she felt closer to her element than ever, as though her journey had erased the doubts with which she had set off…

And yet, looking at herself from a purely clinical viewpoint, she didn't look to have come any closer to her dream. Sure, she was a stronger trainer, but that strength hadn't come to her dedication to water Pokemon, but from her friends. And hasn't she got a Togepi: a normal type. Hasn't she fallen in love with Ash's adorable Pikachu? And even Brock's elegant Vulpix? Although she hadn't fallen out of love with the water type, she'd seen wonders beyond it, wonders greater than the cling of water to her skin, the fine strength of rushing rivers and bubbling strings, and the sparking beauty beneath the surface of the sea.

When she was back in the Cerulean Gym and her friends were gone, in their own directions, she found those things about the water she loved more wondrous than they had ever been. As though her journey had drawn her ever closer to her dreams – and it was probably the passion of those she'd travelled with that had done it. Ash and his never-yielding dream of becoming a Pokemon Master. Brock and his everlasting passion for raising and caring for Pokemon. Tracey's thirst to know all there was to know about them…

She laughed as the thought of her friends lit anew the fire in her heart, and the water she lounged in became instead the training ground for her strength. She ceased her amiable floating in the gentle lull; instead she cut through the pull water with well-placed strokes as a newfound current tried to push her back. There was no current, she knew; it was just the water responding to her, and her Pokemon. Or she was just kidding herself and it was her own body struggling with restraint, struggling so she could become stronger of it.

She swam until she was tired, and then floated in the gentle lull again. The noise of her sisters packing could be heard, and she wondered if that meant she was free to leave the Gym again. Free to travel again, with Ash and Brock and Pikachu and Vulpix… free to become even stronger.

She had challenges in her Gym: as the leader, she battled many different types of Pokemon and trainers. More than she had ever battled when travelling – but not one of them had Ash's passion, nor his commitment with Pokemon. Not one of them even had a Pikachu – a surprise, considering how advantageous an electric Pokemon would be in a water-based Gym. Though she rarely lost to them; she'd seen Pikachu battle enough times to know almost all of the tricks to the trade – and Ash would always update when she called, when he like the scatterbrain he was forgot to call. Brock remembered more often; it helped that the pair still travelled together, though Misty felt a tug of envy in her heart because she wanted to travel too, travel even though she'd found a haven in her Gym, a place that kept her, challenged her, and made her stronger.

She couldn't really justify it: she had the challenges she needed at home; it was only her companions and the fun they'd had she lacked. Maybe, she thought sadly, they'd already given her everything they'd could to help her grow: what was left was up to her. Maybe that's why she was still at the Gym, even though her sisters had been back and gone again – but she could still hope, still wish, the chance would come to travel again and find the thing that had made her strong all over again.

Even if that travel was just a short trip to Pallet Town to drop in on Ash before he started another new journey. Because she didn't visit Brock at his home – though she claimed it was because of his unnervingly large family and rock-covered city (for how could a water-type specialist feel at home amongst rocks) and not, as her sisters claimed, because she had a crush on one Ash Ketchum.