Disclaimer: This story is based on characters and situations created and owned by Game Freak and Nintendo. No money is being made and no copyright or trademark infringement is intended.

Two for the Price of One

Part 2

Breakfast the next morning was a little awkward. Judging by the way Lily and Violet were watching him Daisy had brought them up to speed. Misty however had no such luck, and was showing a strong desire not to talk about it. She completely ignored Daisy and coughed loudly every time she tried to speak. However Daisy had decided to take the high ground and not provoke another fight with her sister.

Tracey excused himself and ran to find the phone. He needed to find somebody – anybody – to talk to. He was about to ring Professor Oak when he thought better of it. The Professor had a tendency to answer the phone with his shirt off on the mornings Tracey wasn't there. So he phoned Gary instead.

He answered with his shirt off.

"Tracey?" Gary asked. "What's wrong? Did Gramps feed Viagra to the Tauros again?"

Tracey had voiced his opinion to Professor Oak on several occasions that those Tauros Ash had caught were a nuisance. But the Professor had flat out refused to get rid of them, and even insisted they were cute. He did, however, agree to sedate them every time they got out of hand. Pills got mixed up, the question of why the Professor had so much Viagra had come up, but at least Ash hadn't noticed the last time he visited that he had thirteen more Tauros than usual.

"No, I'm in the Cerulean City Gym," Tracey explained. "I just need someone to talk to. Actually, there might be something you can help me with." He explained the situation to Gary, who looked thoughtful for a moment.

"Misty... Misty," he repeated. "That scrawny guy Ash hung out with?"

"No, Misty's a girl," Tracey corrected. However Gary took it in his stride.

"Well, what do you think of these girls?" he asked.

"Well, they're both really nice and kind and all but..."

"Only one of them is hot," Gary finished. "Listen Tracey, my Grandpa once gave me a very traumatising piece of advice, but perhaps you can use it. When your heart can't decide, simply follow your loins."

"That's... not really helpful."

"I think it means pick the hot one," Gary explained. "Whoever you choose let me know. I might be able to give you a few tips." He wiggled his eyebrows. "I should go now. I'm supposed to be taking this kid to get his first Pokémon." The screen went black (though he thought he heard a sarcastic remark about how brilliant a Charmander was), and Tracey was suddenly confronted with the fact that he would have to spend the entire day in Misty's company. He had no idea how he was going to handle this.

When he returned to the kitchen Violet told him that Misty had just gone upstairs to get ready. Daisy and Lily were apparently getting ready to open up the Gym, so Violet sat Tracey down to have a man-to-woman chat.

"Yes?" Tracey asked.

"Now, what are your intentions towards my sister?" she demanded.

"Which-?"

"Don't be, like, stupid. Misty. It's obvious you don't want to go out with her to begin with. So how are you going to break it to her?"

"I'll send her an e-mail?"

Violet suddenly sat down on his nap. Tracey was about to protest when she grabbed his right nipple through his shirt and began twisting. He'd like to say that he took it like a man, but he screamed like a sissy.

"You can't treat my baby sister like that," Violet reprimanded him. "You're going to tell her today, and that's that."

"But-"

She twisted again.

"Okay, okay!" Tracey pleaded. "Just let me go."

"And, you're going to give my other sister an answer as well," Violet told him.

Tracey was about to object again when Misty came in. It must have looked very bad. Tracey had dated her sister the night before and now had another sister on his lap touching his nipples. This seemed like another opportunity for Misty's infamous temper to shine through.

Somehow it didn't. Violet slid off of Tracey, mumbled something and walked out. Misty stood for a moment, then grabbed Tracey's hand.

"Come on Tracey, we've got lots to do today," she said with a cheer that perhaps didn't suit her. She led him out of the Gym, making a special point of saying goodbye to Daisy, and towards the beach. There she sat him down on a park bench and landed beside him.

At least she was as clueless as he was.

"Misty look, there's something I need to tell you," Tracey began.

"There's something I need to tell you too," Misty interrupted. "I'll go first. You see, for the last month or so I've started to really miss you."

"Hey, where'd the blonde go?"

Apparently the voice of his father in his head had woken up.

"And that's when I started to realise..." She paused to draw in a breath. "I love you." To this Tracey wasn't sure what to say.

She was staring at him.

Well, what was he supposed to do?

Even his father's voice appeared to have run out of ideas.

"I love you too."

He wasn't sure why he'd said it, and he was certain he hadn't meant it, but somehow her looking at him so expectantly had made him say it.

And he was doomed. Daisy would hate him and Violet would force him into marrying Misty. Gary would give the toast at the reception and he'd tell everyone how pleased he was that Tracey had found his perfect man. And Ash would be so distraught he'd fail to notice his mother sneaking out after a man in a white lab coat.

"I can't believe it," Misty said. She smiled but the joy didn't reach her eyes. "This is great. I wasn't sure if you liked me." She jumped forward and pressed her lips against his. From the shock of it all he did nothing at first, but then tried to push her gently back.

"Listen, let's not tell anyone about this for a while," Tracey said. Misty looked confused.

"Why not?"

"Because I have something I need to do first."

"HELP ME!"

"Don't worry, this is fixable."

"Really?"

"No. You're boned."

Tracey was very glad to be back in Pallet Town, where Gary and Professor Oak had been waiting for him. He'd given the sisters a half-baked excuse about how Professor Oak needed him back at the lab immediately. He had a feeling that none of them believed him. For one thing Violet was glaring at him.

Neither the Professor nor Gary could fathom how he'd managed to shaft himself so thoroughly, but they were eager to help him out. He liked to think this had something to do with their friendship with him and not the fact that Misty still had two perfectly eligible, attractive, young sisters.

"There's only one thing for it," Gary told him. "You've got to go back to Cerulean, apologise to Misty and say you lied to her, you might want to wear a helmet for that, and then you've got to tell Daisy."

"Can't I just e-mail them?" Tracey asked.

"Goodness no," Professor Oak replied. "Why don't you grow a pair?"

It was amazing how much Professor Oak sounded like Tracey's father at that moment.

"Hey, don't worry, I'll go with you," Gary said. "I'll distract the other two sisters or something. You'll be alright on your own, right Gramps?"

"Oh, I daresay I'll manage," Professor Oak replied with that twinkle in his eyes.

So Tracey found himself cycling back to Cerulean City. He hadn't told the girls he was coming, so Violet was quite surprised to see him and Gary coming.

Gary kept up his end of the bargain. Before Violet could tell Tracey off, he had grabbed her and tossed her over the handlebars of his bike, before cycling off into the sunset. The trainers Violet had apparently been showing out of the Gym watched on in shook. Tracey recognised one of them as the punk who stole his milk, but he ignored it.

When he got inside he ran into Lily.

"Where's Misty?" he asked.

"Cleaning up in the Gym," Lily replied. "Why?"

But Tracey had no time. He'd made the last leg of the journey on pure adrenaline that he was relying on to carry him through this. He burst into the Gym where Misty was congratulating her Starmie.

"Now or never, son. But just so you know, if you die, I always loved you... Even if you were nothing more than a constant disappointment."

"Thanks Dad," Tracey muttered. He dashed over to Misty, who took his running to be a sign of affection and ran over to him, before trying to kiss him.

"Misty, wait," Tracey stopped her. "There's something I need to tell you. You should sit down while I make sure you don't have any mallets or anything else you might kill me with."

Misty reacted as if it were just a joke that wasn't really that amusing and sat down on a bench beside the pool, apparently unconcerned. Tracey sat beside her.

"Look, Misty. It's about the other day. You remember when I said I loved you? Well... I don't. As a matter of fact, I've kind of fallen for your sister."

That sounded so much better in his head.

"Oh," Misty replied. Her gaze fell down towards her own feet.

"I'm really sorry," Tracey tried to explain. "You see, when you said you loved me I didn't know what to do. I panicked I guess, and I just didn't want to hurt your feelings. I suppose all it served to do was make it even worse."

"No," Misty said in a voice barely above a whisper. "I just thought you wouldn't... but I guess I should be used to guys running off in the other direction the moment I get close to them."

"Misty, if this is about Ash-,"

"It's never about Ash," Misty snapped back, her head whipping up to glare at Tracey. Her tears splattered across his shirt.

"Look, one day he'll come to his senses and realise what's been in front of him for so long."

"Shut up," Misty sobbed. "Just shut up! You came here and said you didn't want to hurt my feelings but now you're just trying to hurt me by bringing that bastard into it. I hate him. And I hate you!"

"You don't mean-."

"I HATE YOU!"

Tracey did the only thing he could think of. He grabbed her and pulled her into a hug, holding her head gently against his shoulder while she sobbed. For a while the two just sat in the embrace. Then Misty's head rose slightly.

"I don't hate you," Misty whispered. "I guess I just don't know what I want at the moment. I thought I was in love with you." She gave a sad laugh. "But I guess with three beautiful sisters to compete with I was never going to get the guy."

"Hey, one day..."

"Yeah, yeah. So everyone keeps telling me." She smiled. "Lily actually told me again right before you arrived."

"Misty, do you mind if I go talk to your sister now?"

"Yeah, go ahead. But if you see Lily or Violet on your way let them know I could do with a strong cup of tea."

Lily was waiting outside so see if it was safe to go in. Tracey nodded on the way out and she dashed in to find her sister. So all he had to do now was find Daisy. He stumbled through the Gym to the rooms at the other side. He came before what he thought was Daisy's door and knocked.

And Gary answered with his shirt off.

"This is Violet's room, you want the next one," Gary explained. Tracey didn't want to ask, though he probably already knew. So he just walked down to the next door. He knocked.

No one answered.

He knocked again.

Nothing.

So he did the only thing that made sense. He threw open the door and charged into the room.

"Tracey?" Daisy cried, leaping up off her bed and pulling a pair of headphones off her head. For a moment Tracey just stood and looked at her. He'd meant to tell her all about Misty; about how he'd lied to her and she'd probably never speak to him again. But he didn't need to concern her with small matters like that.

"I was, er, wondering," Tracey began. He then realised he had no idea what he was wondering. So he tried to be spontaneous and romantic. He stood forward and wrapped his arms around her. Somewhere in the middle their lips met.

Daisy pulled back long enough to whisper, "You're quite good at that."

"Not my first time," Tracey replied. He silently prayed that he'd never have to tell her how his first kiss had been a few days ago with her sister. But he cast such thoughts out of his head. Now was about Daisy, and he could worry about Misty and the groaning from the next room another time.

THE END