I'll save my explanation for the ending. Right now, enjoy some OrangeShipping, a ship I feel is honestly pretty neglected.

Here he was, again.

The path that lead to the Cerulean Gym never seemed to change, no matter how many times he came up to visit. The Cerulean Gym still had that Dewgong sign hanging above the entrance. Tracey winced. He remembered having to stand on the roof and reattach it after a particularly bad storm.

He had gotten woken up early that day by Misty, who needed the help. He of course responded that he'd be there in about an hour (the length of the train ride from Pallet to Cerulean) without even hearing about what Misty needed help with. And just like every other time, he picked a bouquet of baby's breath to present to her when he arrived.

And just like every other time, he threw them in the bushes before he could walk through the door.

And here he was, again, standing with a bouquet of baby's breath, on his way to the Cerulean Gym in the morning to help Misty out again, because she had a problem that needed fixing. And he was always there to help her.

Sighing, he tossed the bouquet into the bushes. He never had the guts to say anything, even after his countless visits over the years.

He stepped through the automatic doors and found the orange-haired Gym Leader looking away. She quickly turned and her blue-green eyes focused on him. "Oh, Tracey! Thanks for coming this early in the morning."

He couldn't help but smile. "Of course, Misty. I'm always available to help my friends out"

"Are you sure Professor Oak won't be missing your helping hands today?" she asked. She smiled at him, which always made him shudder inside.

"I made sure to ask if he would need me, and he said no," Tracey said. "There aren't any beginning trainers that are scheduled to come by today, so he said I could have the day off."

She giggled. "That's good. If you could come this way, I'll show you what I need help with."

He nodded. "Alright! Just point me at the problem, and let the handyman do his job!"

Misty led him down the hallways of Cerulean Gym towards the living quarters. "It's kind of embarrassing," she said. "I slept with Azurill again last night, and I think it had a nightmare. I was woken up by getting a Water Gun sprayed in my face, and she also sprayed the ceiling fan pretty hard." Tracey nodded as she continued talking. "It's not fallen, but it's pretty wobbly when it's on, so I thought you could fix it."

He smiled. "I'm sure it just needs me to take a look at it." This wasn't the first time he had been invited into Misty's room to fix something, or sweep a broken lamp. It was something he both enjoyed and reviled.

They entered Misty's bedroom. Misty's bed was setup in a corner, a single. The blankets and bedding still looked wet from Azurill's attacks this morning. The walls were painted an aqua blue and had images of ocean-dwelling Pokémon. Misty's closet hung open, mostly filled with identical outfits similar to the yellow suit she was wearing at this moment. There was a desk set up in the corner, piled with paperwork related to the task of running one of the Kanto Region's biggest Gyms.

Tracey hated that desk.

The ceiling fan was off, but Misty flipped the switch on the wall and it sprang to life. It spun briefly before it began to wobble and make a knocking sound as it shook. Misty turned it off. "See what I mean?"

Tracey nodded. "I'll need to take a look at it to find out exactly what Azurill hit so I can fix it. Do you have a ladder?"

Misty gasped to herself. "Oh, I forgot that! I should have realized you'd need a ladder. Give me a second, I'll go get it." Misty turned and quickly left the room.

Tracey looked straight up at the fan. He frowned. "That baby must have a lot of power behind its Water Gun to shake it so much. It might have broken something up there. I might end up having to repair the ceiling…"

The desk in the corner caught his eye again. He couldn't help himself but look over at the paperwork Misty was working on, her loopy and flowing handwriting on the pages. Most of the forms were from Pokémon League officials, requesting lists of recent challengers and whether or not they emerged victorious against Misty. Some were bills for pool maintenance. A few others were from her sisters, who had taken the Sensational Swimming Sisters show on tour (he heard they were in the Unova Region, in a place called Humilau City recently).

Pinned to the wall were pictures. Three big ones, and lots of little ones. The little ones were Pokémon Misty owned in the gym, or was interested in getting for the Gym. Tracey recognized the pictures of Jellicent and Clawitzer, Water-Type Pokémon from distant regions. Professor Oak had him doing habitat research on Pokémon from those regions recently.

The three big pictures made his stomach churn with mixed emotions. All three of them were of Misty on her travels with a mutual friend of theirs. Two of them also had Brock, former Pewter City Gym Leader, in them. One of them even had Tracey.

The pictures were displaced prominently, on top of the others. Like whenever Misty added pictures to this wall near her desk, she would always take care to save these pictures and replace them in a way where these three were the most prominent. Tracey knew why, of course.

It was because of a boy.

This boy was the nucleus of Tracey's mixed emotions. On one hand, this boy was one of his best friends. He had helped Tracey achieve his dream of meeting Professor Oak and working with him. He was friendly to just about everyone, and made friends with nearly everyone he met.

On the other hand, Tracey hated how he treated Misty.

Maybe it wasn't how his friend treated Misty, but more how he ignored her. Tracey wasn't oblivious to romance. He could tell that Misty pined for him, even after all this time apart. It would be months apart before his friend called his own mother, so he could only imagine how infrequently Misty received a call from their former travelling companion. He was rarely nearby, too. Tracey had been in Cerulean during his last visit, and he was home for only a day before he left again. This time for the Kalos Region. Tracey didn't even get a chance to see him this time. He had heard from his mother that he had made new friends, including yet another girl his age.

It was thoughts like that that made Tracey's blood boil. It's like he didn't even realize that he was playing with Misty's emotions like that. Like he just acted how he wanted, when he wanted, without thinking about the consequences of his actions.

Misty deserved better, he thought.

Sure, he had easily seen the romantic spark between the two when the three of them travelled the Orange Islands together, but it was like he just didn't care about how she felt.

Misty deserved someone who could be here for her, to help her. Not someone gallivanting around the world, travelling with any girls he ran into. She deserved someone loyal to her, who would respect her feelings and stay with her.

He couldn't say anything about it, though. No matter how unfair it was that Misty didn't have eyes for him, he couldn't say anything to her that would diminish her crush, or tell her that it was pointless. He hated feeling like this, conflicted by his heart.

He wondered for a moment how many half-finished sketches of her filled his sketchpads in his room. How much Misty had infiltrated his mind. He was too private to say anything, but he yearned for her in the same way Misty yearned for…

The Gym Leader reentered the room, clanging the metal stepladder against the doorframe as she carried it in. "Sorry about that," she said. "It took a bit longer to find than I thought to find it." He had looked up at her, from staring intently at the pictures on the wall. Misty stood the ladder up and walked over to the desk. "Heh, those were good times, weren't they?"

Tracey averted his eyes. "Y-yeah. The time we all spent travelling through the Orange Islands together is really special to me."

Misty walked up to the pictures and looked at them. "Y'know, a lot of times when I'm doing this paperwork, I think about what everyone is doing. How Brock's doctor's school is going, or how-"

"Misty!" Tracey interrupted. "I… I think you deserve better than him."

Misty stood up and took a step back. "Excuse me?"

Inwardly, Tracey was cursing his mouth. "I… I just mean that you shouldn't have to wonder how he's doing. He should be calling you every day. I mean… if I felt that way about someone, I'd be there as soon as I possibly could if they ever needed me. I would be on hand to do whatever task they needed help with. And I would certainly call them more than every few months." He turned and started walking toward the step ladder. "I just think you deserve better than some guy who's not even around for you."

Misty grabbed his arm. He looked over his shoulder at her. She was blushing, but her eyes were turned down, reflecting her sadness. "I… I think about that, too, sometimes," she admitted. Tracey felt her words cut him like a knife. "I wonder what it's like in that Kalos Region he's in now. Or how Unova was. He never even told me he came back. He just called one month and he was in the Decolore Islands, and the next he was in the Kalos Region, heading for his first Gym Badge. I know that we can't travel together anymore, but I wish it didn't seem like he'd forgotten about me."

Tracey mentally kicked himself. "I'm sure he hasn't forgotten about you." He hated seeing her upset like this. "But maybe… maybe he just doesn't feel the same way about you that you feel about him?"

Misty looked at Tracey, her eyes tearing up. Tracey felt like he had just punched her in the stomach, and felt his own heart breaking at the thought.

"You deserve better than that, Misty," Tracey continued. "You don't have to pine over someone who doesn't feel the same way about you. You deserve someone who's there for you, always. Someone who cares about you wants and needs. Someone who comes over here at a moment's notice to help."

"…someone who always throws bouquets into the bushes before he comes in?" Misty said, smirking but tears in her eyes.

Tracey's face turned bright red. "Wait, you know?"

"Daisy found them one day when she was following the gardener around," she explained. "At first, we didn't know where they came from, but every time you visited, she could find the bouquet in the bushes."

Tracey tried to pull away, but Misty held onto his arm. "Misty, I-I'm sorry, I didn't meant to say that about-"

"Shh…" She put a slender finger to his lips. "You don't have to say anything." She chuckled to herself a little. "You know, it's funny but I think I began thinking the same thing. I deserve better than him. I shouldn't have to choose between following my dream and following my heart. If I'm not important enough for him to stay in closer contact with, for him to visit when he's close, then maybe I should turn my attentions elsewhere…"

Tracey, face still blushing, nodded. "I know you probably don't feel the same about me, Misty," he said. "And it's okay if you never feel this way about me. I know that I'm not as brave or adventurous as he is. But I'll be here for you, loyally and for as long as you'll let me be here. I won't pressure you or make you feel bad, I promise. If you never want to see me again, I'll go back to Pallet Town and you won't have to."

Misty shook her head, still holding his arm. "Don't be silly, Tracey. Of course I'd want to see my friend again." She averted her eyes. "And maybe I'm willing to give this a shot. Just to see how I like it."

Tracey blinked. "Misty, are you saying…?"

She gave him a grin. "I'm saying, let's fix this ceiling fan, and then you can take me out for a milkshake. How does that sound?"

Tracey grabbed the stepladder and placed it under the ceiling fan, immediately beginning to scramble up it.

I wrote this story because I was reflecting about how I felt about Pokeshipping. I put my views on Tracey, I guess, that I feel like Misty deserves better than someone who's never around and has a lifestyle incompatible with her dream. I feel like, with all of the stuff Misty has gone through in her life, from her sisters and her constant bickering with Ash, that she deserves someone who will be there for her and actually makes an effort to have her in his life. I was honestly pretty giddy when Tracey was missing from the last episode of Best Wishes because he was at Cerulean Gym with Misty.

I think that's just about it. Thank you for reading, and please leave a review.