And here it is - the ending, the grand finale.

I'll leave my comments for the end.

Music:

- "Sunny Rain" - Yiruma;

- "Some of Us" - StarSailor

Enjoy!

Epilogue - When Hearts Match/From Ashes

Mew, how she had missed this.

Misty moved her legs slowly, every inch of her - mind and body alike - indulging in the pleasant sensations water provided. Her Azumarill trilled happily beside her, tapping her feet and splashing and genuinely enjoying herself. She titled her head backwards with a blissful sigh, causing her curls to graze the humid floor, and closed her eyes to revel in the mixed feelings that waved through her.

"Ready?" a voice behind her asked, feet rapidly approaching.

She didn't turn or open her eyes for there was no need. She hummed affirmatively, inhaling broadly, filling her lungs and her resolve simultaneously.

Ash cannonballed, splashing water everywhere - including on Misty - and giving Azumarill some waves to surf. But she couldn't have cared less at this point. He emerged, beaming like the idiot that he was. She snorted, smirking back like the idiot that she was.

The trainer slowly approached her, and sided her legs with his arms.

"You know," he gingerly started, "it's really a shame you can't come with me."

Misty sighed. They had been having this conversation for about a month. Maybe longer. It had started right on her birthday, and the topic had been dragging on and on for this long.

She drowned her hands in Ash's hair affectionately. "I have the gym," she replied firmly, but gently. "Though the challengers are coming less and less by now because it's almost October - summer is, after all, the busiest season - I can't just up and leave, or force my sisters to come back."

"Well, their tour should be finished by now!" he protested with a pout. "They're always running away from their responsibilities, leaving you to do the hard work. It's not fair."

"Yeah, you're right," she conceded. "I love this gym, though. I wouldn't be able to leave it to someone else just like that."

"Mist, you're not meant to be stuck in here for the rest of your days," he protested more vehemently.

She rubbed his raven hair soothingly. "Ash, we've had this conversation for, like, a hundred times." She paused when she realized something. "Arceus, I sound like my sisters."

Ash grimaced. "I just want you to be happy."

Misty smiled. "I know."

After that, they went quiet. Ash rested his chin on her lap, resembling a lost puppy as he did so, and the gym leader massaged his scalp absentmindedly.

"Where are you headed to next?" she asked in a whisper.

He turned his head sideways, noticeably welcoming her soft touch. "Don't know," he mumbled. "Maybe Unova; maybe Kalos."

"You'll decide eventually, and I'm sure you'll get your dumb ass into serious trouble then and again, as is usual, but everything should wind up just fine."

Ash could only glare as she delivered her judgement on his misadventures in a detached tone, and though a small - very, very small - voice in his head agreed with her words, he still saw it fit to proceed with their true intentions in a rather pushy way. He startled his girlfriend - ah, that name felt so weird still - by forcing her into the water.

Misty stared at him, rather unimpressed, while copious amounts of droplets of the treated water left her hair to return home. "Ketchum, you're on."

The next hour or so was spent by ridiculous amounts of races and yelling and laughter and bliss.

The days dragged along after Ash left the gym. Then weeks and months followed in a slow pace. Misty never thought she'd feel this lonely without her goofy boyfriend by her side. She was coping, though. Challengers came to keep her entertained, and Delia and Mr. Mime often visited her. May and Dawn had business in Kanto from time to time, and they always found time to drop by as well as nag her about Ash.

Also, despite the distance, Ash was being a sweetheart to the word's very meaning. He kept calling her every time he reached a new PokéCenter, and decided to take his last promise before he left very seriously - "I'll take you to where you can't walk. Always," he had said.

Using newly developed technology, Ash either called her when he was somewhere new in the wild, showing everything he could to Misty, or filmed whenever she couldn't get his calls. He'd even sent her a shiny Tentacool on Christmas. Time to make some confessions: she'd cried. A lot.

They met, obviously, whenever the gym was closed for maintenance or holidays. They never chose the same place to meet too, and off they went, exploring for a few hours and getting lost and arguing like a married couple. Pikachu always perked up when he saw her, being the first to reach her every single time, much to Ash's chagrin and Misty's delight. There were blissful times Ash had to take a break from his journey to attend to the League's business - being the Orange League's Champion and whatnot - and so it made things easier for them to meet.

However, she wouldn't deny that each goodbye tasted salty, and that the longer it went by the more frustrated she became. She could see it in Ash too. He had even proposed staying at the gym for a month or so, and she had refused, painfully so, knowing quite well that that would only stall the problem and not solve it.

All in all, her amazing pokémon were the one thing keeping her going. Speaking of which, she had some due credit to give.

"Tentacool," she called gently, sitting at the edge of the pool and patting her little girl on the head. "Good job in the matches today." Tentacool happily waved her tentacles in acknowledgement.

Daisy made her way toward her with a bottle of water. Misty accepted it gladly, almost emptying it in one go.

"It's her first day, right?" Daisy asked nonchalantly.

"Yeah," Misty said, putting down the bottle. With a smile full of pride, she added, "She went really well, though."

"All that training surely paid off," Daisy commented, crouching to pat the newest addition to the team on the head. After a short pause, the oldest reignited conversation, "How's Ash?"

Misty took some time to answer back. "Just great," she breathed out. She forced a smile, Daisy noticed, that didn't reach her eyes. "Taking Kalos by storm with his new friends ¾ Bonnie, Clemont, and Serena. He says Kalos is just like France, but I wouldn't know." She scoffed. "Yesterday, he sent me a video of a couple Alomomola playing around. We really should get one of those for the gym. It'd be a great addition for both battles and shows."

Daisy briefly wondered - as she'd been doing so many times during the past months - how all Misty ever thought about these days was the gym, and reckoned her baby sister needed a vacation.

"Misty," she started, praying to Arceus courage wouldn't betray her now, "Vi, Lil and I have been talking. We think you should take a couple days off."

The younger stared, astonished. It took her a while to recover her voice too. "But Daisy, it's summer. You know challengers are just about to double-triple, in fact. I can't just close the gym knowing this is the busiest season."

"Oh, not closing. We'd be taking over while you're gone."

Misty pondered this for a few seconds, shaking her head afterwards. "You usually take this time to do more shows, since it sells so well in this season. You can't possibly do both."

"Sacrifices, sacrifices," came a third voice, and a sliver of blue would reveal her identity to almost anybody.

"You've done plenty," a fourth singsong voice added, appearing just besides the latter.

"You've staged this?" Misty deadpanned. "Seriously."

"It's our turn now," Daisy finished, ignoring her.

Misty studied Violet and Lily suspiciously, then darting her eyes back to the oldest of the four. "This offer doesn't sound like you at all. What's in store for you?"

"Much needed redemption," Daisy confessed with an apologetic face. Violet and Lily hummed their agreement. "Go live your next adventure, Misty; right next to the one you love."

She needed no more encouragement than that.

Their reunion wasn't picturesque - no French song playing in the background, or a never ending field of flowers graced it so. However, it was truthful and very much their own.

Just moments after Misty's plane landed in Kalos, she was off, running through the checked luggage section with this enormous grin on her face and drawing every sort of glances to her person - from questioning, to curiosity, suspicion, recognition, etc. - and she could swear she had heard someone shout, "Got get him!" along the way.

Spotting Ash was the easiest thing, as it had ever been - never mind the months seeing him through the camera, she knew him from head to toe. Ash was talking to this young boy and signing his cap near one of the exit doors. She charged forward, all pumped up and ecstatic to put her legs to good use again. Pikachu was the first to see her, as usual, and upon his 'Pikachupi', Ash's eyes searched for her. And the glimmer of recognition was all too sweet for her not to taste it.

It seemed as though time had stopped, and everything else were just details. Instead of slowing down, Misty picked up her pace. Ash, with a grin matching hers planted on his face, walked a few feet ahead, leaving the kid behind. And Pikachu, all too used to emotional reunions by now, jumped off of Ash's head to the floor.

Ash didn't fall behind when Misty glomped him. He had been waiting with open arms for so long. And he didn't mind when she squeezed the life out of him, for he was doing the same, or that she was all over him, much like a koala would be. She looked down on him after long moments of just being there, suspended by his embrace, in the middle of curious glances and the newly arrived paparazzi. They laughed, still completely in their own little world, and rubbed their foreheads together, mixing raven and carrot orange, somehow matching the colors the last moments of daylight provided.

So, who are we kidding? It was picturesque, as the pictures in the magazines would later prove. As much as anything concerning these two could ever be.

"You put up quite a show. I bet we'll be the next hot couple around," Ash whispered in the middle of chuckles.

"Did not!" she exclaimed, but no hint of indignation could be found, just this huge smile that Ash had missed so much and the tone of someone who was just as exhilarated as he was. "I wonder what kind of nickname they'll find for us."

"Did too," he countered, closing his eyes for a kiss - a first of many, rest assured. They had the rest of her vacation to get some math done on the account of how many were due. "Mash?"

She laughed out loud, freely, and he joined her. "Did not," she managed, in between shaky breaths. She had spoken just against his lips, tasting the smile and the outdoors.

"Did too…"

"I missed you, twerp."

"I missed you too, twerpette."

A couple of chuckles later, Pikachu joined them, eager to give Misty a proper 'welcome back' too - that is, a lick to her cheek. And when they left, - completely ignoring all sorts of ridiculous questions and flashes of light that came from multiple cameras - holding hands in public for the very first time, chatting lively about all things pokémon and how Ash couldn't wait for her to meet his new friends, the trio reckoned the future had never seemed so sunny and warm.

The holes that had been built between them were nothing more than a mere memory now, fading and healing. Because even though they know time is a borrowed thing that fleets and dances in your hands, feelings and strong wills do not. Because they had learned how to fill in the gaps together, with trust and care and hope.

And even though there might be times they are forced to walk with a great distance separating them, now they knew they were headed to the same place.

After all, there's only so much a misunderstanding is worthy of, and no one is safe from committing a mistake. However, it is the second chance at such that measures how you've grown.

So perhaps some mistakes are better made.

I dare say they now agree.

Upon receiving a review (ShadowGallade) that asked about Ash and Misty's reaction to that misunderstanding of 4 years ago, and replying, I wondered if any of you also got confused. So, if you are, let me now, and I'll gladly answer your questions.

So this is the end, huh? Can hardly believe it, you know?

It's been wonderful, really. This is my first fanfic, and it has dragged through a lot of important years for me. You guys became a really big part of me too, and I want you to know that. Nothing is more important to a writer (even when it's fanfiction) than their readers. And I'm super duper grateful for all the love, the people I chatted with, those of you who only clicked on 'fav', 'follow' or both, you made my mail worth reading, and made my fingers move through the same keyboard through the years.

But we'll meet again! I won't stop writing. If you miss me, as I'll surely miss you, you just have to move on to the next story of mine.

I'll meet you there!

Forever yours,

C'sMelody