''I love you.''

The man in front of him raised an eyebrow.

''Ok, what?''

''I love you. Really Brock, you have no ide...''

''Wow, wow, wow. Ok. What the hell. Are you sleepwalking again or having some kind of freakish hallucination about me being Misty? Because honestly, if you made me call her here just come out and say you're in love with me, I swear to God I'm gonna kick your ass. And no offence, but as far as I remember, I still like women.''

''No, you idiot. I'm in love with her. I'm just here to thank you for everything. Really, Brock''

Ash's tone was sincere and carried a deep gratitude, Brock could feel that. Patting his friend on the shoulder, the breeder offered him a smile.

''So, I guess this means things have finally worked out between you two?''

He blushed.

''Yeah, kinda. I went to talk to her last night and...'

''Ash?''

Both of them turned their heads to the source of the voice. There was a very real, very awake Misty standing by the door of Ash's bedroom, which was just a few doors away from Brock's, hair completely disheveled by the sleep, rubbing her eyes.

The breeder looked at his friend, completely shocked.

''H-hey, Mist... Can you just wait five seconds, I'm just talking to Brock. Be there in a sec.''

She yawned, before smiling to the boys giving a small nod.

''Okay. Sorry. I was just worried something had happened, I couldn't find you in the room. I'm gonna go back to sleep. Morning Brock!''

Ash waited till the door was closed to turn his attention back to his friend, just in time to see his knowingly smile.

''So, things kinda worked out? This'' - he pointed to Ash's room - ''doesn't look like a kinda''

''It's not what it looks like.''

The breeder raised an eyebrow.

''Oh really? Because it looks like Misty coming out of your room after spending the night there; correct me if I'm wrong. And I'm not gonna even start about the state of her hair.''

If the trainer blushed any harder, he would probably burn. It took Brock's every inch of self-control not to burst out laughing in his friend's face.

''Well, she is coming out of my room, but it's nothing like that. And she is not exactly a quiet sleeper, ok? She tosses around the bed the all the time, I have nothing to do with the state of her ha... Can you stop?''

And there goes his self-control.

''I'm... I'm sorry Ash. Really.'' He laughed one last time, before closing his eyes and try to regain his composure.

''I'm sorry.'' He said more seriously this time. ''I was just not expecting that. Well, not yet. But I'm not judging, really. I'm actually happy. You don't have to be embarassed by it.''

''Brock, nothing happened, Jesus Christ!''

The trainer threw his hands up in desperation. He was never going to hear the end of it. He took a deep breath before trying to explain the situation again.

''We talked last night. After I talked to you. I figured you were right and went to her room.''

''I told you it would be fine.''

''Yeah, it wasn't exactly fine.'' He could still remember how genuinely hurt she looked when they started the conversation about his absence. It didn't matter how fine things were now, he still felt like he had to make it up to her somehow. Maybe even more now. ''We had a fight. A really horrible fight. About me not calling or contacting her. I got desperate, didn't know what to do, so I just grabbed her and kissed her. Then marched out of her room.''

''Wow, way to compensate for the lost time!''

Brock smiled, kind of impressed by Ash's courage, and gestured for him to come inside and sit on the bed.

''Yeah, well... Then she went to my room to understand why I did that. I tried to make her drop the subject, but you know how Misty is... she's very... well, Misty. It's not like her to drop things like this. So I told her everything there was to know. I tought I already had screwed everything to that point, so it didn't really mattered. But then...''

The breeder's smile grew as he finished his friend's sentence.

''It was mutual.''

''Yeah. We, well... we... wait. You knew?!''

Brock shugged, trying to ignore Ash's murderous gaze.

''Yes. Sorry, Ash, I couldn't say anything. I promissed her I wouldn't. Like I promissed you I'd never say anything about how you feel to her. And it wouldn't have any meaning coming from me, anyway. It had to come from one of you. You guys needed to gather the courage to do something about it, because it's going to be your relationship. I just... gave you a little hand. Come on, do you really think I would do all of this and insist so much for you to talk to her if I wasn't sure it was going to work? I knew how hurt you would be if this didn't work. But I knew it would.''

He watched the trainer as he look at him in shock. It took Ash some good seconds to form some kind of response.

''I... wow, Brock. Thank you. I don't think I can thank you enough for this.''

''Yeah, you own me one. But I believe you were in the middle of telling how this happened?''

Ash stared at him for a while, trying to remember what he was saying before. Is there anything else left for me to find out today?

''Oh, yes. So... we worked it out. So I asked her to stay with me for the night. She's gotta go back to the Gym in a couple of days and I can't abandon the League now. I just wanted to be the closest I could to her before she has to leave. That's why she came out of my room. God, Brock, our Pokémon were there!''

He rolled his eyes at the way Brock looked at him. As thankful as he was, he was still tired from everything that had happened to him in the last hours. Having his friend shooting him suspicious looks was definitely not something he wished to deal with this early in the morning. Before Brock had the chance to make any sort of comment, he got up and started to slowly walk towards the door.

''Anyway, I just wanted to thank you. Really. Thank you, Brock. I'm gonna let you sleep, it's too early and I know how tired you were yesterday.''

As he was reached for the door handle, he could hear Brock's laugh.

''Yeah, go back to your love. Altough I believe you have more reasons to be tired than I do.''

He got the suggestive tone in his friends voice, cheeks turning red once more.

'Brock!'

'Sorry, Ash, I can't help myself. Just, you know... I was wondering why these two little guys were knocking on my door at two in the morning.'

He pointed to the farthest corner of the room, where Pikachu and Azurrill were sleeping peacefully. The color drained from Ash's face.

'I... I didn't know they were... How have this... I didn't know they had come here!'

Brock's smile grew wider every second.

'Yeah, well... next time you intend to hide something from someone, be sure your Pokémon don't go hide from you in that person's room.'

Hello, guys! Yes, it's been almost a year, I'm ashamed. I promisse I will update more often now. I hope really more often. Thank you for all the kind reviews, don't give up on me!

I was reading the first chapters of this story and I realized my spell checker sucks, because some mistakes have slipped. I'll be correcting that, too.

About the chapter... Yeah, well, who knows what really happened? Not even I do. You're free to interpret this the way you want. I know this one was a bit short, but I felt the need to write a chapter to thank Brock. Come on, he was the mind behind all of this. But we still have plenty to deal with, so stay with me!

As always, constructive reviews are welcomed. Thank you for everything, 'till the next time!

Oh, and happy new year!

(I just got this new laptop, and I write really fast so my ideas won't slip away, so, I'm sorry if there's any mistakes. I still don't have a spell checker here. I double checked, but, well, you never know.)