I wasn't sure whether to rate this K+ or T but I decided that my 14 y.o brother could probably handle this, and he's the kind of kid that looks away and shuts his ears at every kissing scene. (Bless his soul.) This is my attempt at writing something fluffy and happy and actually shippy unlike the mess I've come up with over the last four days. I personally see Ash and Misty in their mid-twenties in this story, but you're welcome to read them as being any age over whatever the legal age is in your area.

Misty hadn't realised she'd fallen asleep until she woke up from the cool air of the night hitting the skin of her legs and something poking into her side. She scrunched her nose and turned herself over. Ash had spread himself out like a staryu on her double bed, both his knees in the air and his elbow digging into her stomach. The position had pulled the blanket off of her lower half and had pushed her far enough to the side of the bed that she was threatening to fall off.

She should have known.

They must've fallen asleep watching movies. Ash and Pikachu had come over with soup and tea after Misty had called in to cancel their date. Despite her best efforts and the layers of knitwear she'd piled upon herself when her heating stopped working a few days ago, she'd still managed to get the flu. She'd called the Ketchum household in the morning so that he wouldn't have to make the trip up to the Indigo Plateau for no reason, but he'd showed up anyway.

"We'll just sleep on your couch," he'd said when she told him off about it.

Right. Couch.

She didn't have the energy to do anything other than gently push his elbow out of the way and both his knees down. Weakly, she grasped at the sheets and turned to pull them over her body, only to have them yanked from her grasp again. She glared at Ash; he'd lifted his knees up again.

"Ash," she groaned, sliding a leg up and kicking him in the hip; with a yelp, he was awake.

"Wha? Misty!" he barked, rubbing the sleep out of his eyes. He froze and quickly turned over and placed a hand on her shoulder. "What's wrong? Do you need anything?"

"Yes, Ash. I need the blanket."

"Oh," he grinned sheepishly, "Sorry."

Pikachu protested at the foot of the bed, sleepily pawing his way over to Misty's side.

"Did I wake you, Pikachu?" she asked, but he didn't respond, nuzzling her in the cheek. "No, don't do that … you'll get your fur in my nose."

"Are you sure you're alright?" Ash asked, "Are you thirsty? Do you have a headache?"

"I'm fine, Ash." She covered his hand with hers and squeezed. "Just a little cold. I'll be fine as long as you don't hog the blanket again."

"Does that mean your fever's going down?" He placed a hand on her forehead.

"Maybe." She sniffed. "The nights get pretty cold in my room, though."

"Want me to get another blanket?"

Misty smirked. "For yourself, maybe."

"I'm not going to get out of bed for that," he frowned. Misty giggled.

"What happened to sleeping on the couch?"

"I thought it'd be better to sleep closer to you." Ash thumbed at the fabric of her t-shirt. Pikachu crawled above her head and down near Ash's back, where he curled up to rest. "Is this … is that okay?"

Misty bit her lip. They'd only been in a relationship for a month at this point, and everything was still very new. Ash was taking his own sweet time to get into the swing of things, so they hadn't really done much other than casual dinner dates and making out every once in a while. Her sisters didn't understand it ("You're both well over the legal age so I don't get how you two haven't, like, jumped each other already.") but Misty was satisfied with the pace. She was always more interested in the romance than the sex, anyway.

She was surprised Ash had made a move at all – she was the one who had to initiate everything. But it made for a nice change seeing him so nervous about this.

"It's fine with me," she finally said. "But what's your mother going to say about spending the night with your girlfriend?"

"She was the one who asked me to stay overnight."

"In my bed?"

"Uh …" Ash laughed nervously. "What she doesn't know won't hurt her?"

Misty raised an eyebrow, and flipped over so that she was facing away from him. "Goodnight, Ash," she mumbled. She'd tease him about it tomorrow morning, when she hopefully felt better. She was too tired to bicker with him now. She closed her eyes, hoping to sleep peacefully for the rest of the night, but Ash took her by surprised when he slid both his arms around her waist and pulled her closer to him. "Ash?"

"What?"

"What are you doing?"

"Er …" Misty didn't have to be looking at him to know that he'd grown red. She wouldn't have seen it in the dark, anyway. "Spooning?"

Her eyes widened. "Spooning?"

"To keep you warm? And this way I can't take the blanket from you either."

Misty had to bite her lip to keep from emitting any sound. That was so sweet! Ash was so thoughtful! She had the best boyfriend in the world! How did she ever get so luck–

"Brock told me about it."

Misty groaned, shifting and pulling herself away from him. "Way to kill the moment, Ash."

"No, stay!" He tightened his grip around her. "I promise I won't bring up Brock again."

"You just did."

Ash grunted, burying his face into her neck. She gave up all hope of getting out of his grasp, so she relaxed into his arms instead. He was warm, and she knew with her flu that she'd get too hot and be up again in the middle of the night, but there seemed to be no reasoning with him.

"Just don't try anything funny," she whispered.

"Aw, nuts. And I had a whole stand-up routine lined up, too."

"Ash."

She felt him smile against her skin. "I can't do anything with Pikachu here."

"Good." She snuggled a little closer to him, pulling his arms tighter around her and making herself more comfortable. He might get sick, but that would be his fault. For now, this was nice – a little too warm, maybe, but gratifying nonetheless. She could live with doing this more often.

Her peace was interrupted when he started spluttering. "I didn't want to bring this up but I can't take it anymore – your hair is getting in my mouth."

It was fun while it lasted.