You guys waited so long for W that I got my butt going on X. And here it is! Some serious shenanigans in this one.

Xerox

Misty hated paperwork.

She never thought that being a gym leader was going to be all fun and games. She knew it was work. Pokémon needed to be fed and cared for, and the gym needed to be up kept. All of that had been obvious to Misty. She'd seen her sisters do it all the time, and had even helped them out with the work.

What they had kept hidden from her, however, was the copious amounts of paperwork that came with being a gym leader.

That's what annoyed Misty the most. She didn't mind tending to her Pokémon or even the gym. All of that made sense to her. But paperwork? Not so much. She felt like a kid at school. And, from what she had heard, school was boring and, in hindsight, a waste of time.

It made a lot of sense. So was the paperwork.

But the League always wanted it. They always sent it and wanted it back promptly. It was pretty dumb things. Stuff like the status of her Pokémon and the gym building, how many times she had won and lost in a month, how many badges she still had on hand…

It especially didn't make sense to Misty because that was all of the same stuff a gym inspector looked at when they came around. Which was stressful, but much less annoying than filling out paperwork that didn't seem to serve any purpose other than to drive Misty insane.

Every time the stacks of paper came in the mail, Misty had to fill out every single sheet, then organize them, and then send them back to the League in a brand new envelope. Sometimes, and these were the worst times, Misty would have to bring them directly to League Headquarters at the Indigo Plateau. Hand delivering the paperwork actually might have been even worse than doing it in the first place.

In every single case, Misty would have to photo copy the papers before sending them out or delivering them. She needed the information on hand for her records. The gym inspectors sometimes liked to check them out. And, aside from that, it was good for Misty to have them around. She kept all of her filled out papers in a file cabinet, and was able to pull them out whenever she needed to look something up.

Fortunately, her sisters had actually been smart enough to make this job a lot easier on Misty. While they were still in charge of the gym, probably because they were too lazy to actually venture out and go all the way to a store in order to do so, the older three had purchased a copy machine and put it in the gym lobby, behind the desk. Misty couldn't understand why they had done that as a child, but now it all made sense. And she actually appreciated them for it. Because it was a lot easier to copy the papers in the gym instead of having to go somewhere else to do it. Especially when you were newly married and had apparently tied the knot with a child who didn't know how to do anything for himself including cooking, cleaning, and shopping of all varieties.

That's why Misty had been so aggravated with the League's most recently mailed out paperwork. It had come with a label stuck to the front of the envelope marked "Urgent!" Misty, of course, knew that this meant the paperwork had to be expedited. Not only that, but as soon as she actually opened the envelope up, she discovered a note inside from the offices, requesting that the paperwork be hand delivered by the next afternoon.

That was a disgustingly fast turnaround, even for Misty's expectations.

She hated to leave Ash alone. Not only because she seemed to have formed some sort of separation anxiety from him (as pathetic as that sounded) but because he was so…well, inept. The poor guy could barely function on his own. Misty was afraid that if she left him alone for the afternoon, he would starve to death. Or destroy the house. Ash got stir crazy very easily. And when that happened, he got pretty wild.

But, she had no choice. As gym leader, that was her job. It was terribly stupid and seemed really unnecessary, but the Pokémon League was the one group of people who Misty couldn't get into an argument with.

Which was really too bad, because she had a lot of bones to pick with them.

So, sucking it up like any good gym leader should, Misty quickly filled out the paperwork (or as quickly as one could fill out a stack so expansive) and copied the sheets, grabbing one of the piles and leaving it haphazardly on her desk before setting out for the Indigo Plateau.

XXX

By the time she finally got there, Misty was fully annoyed. She just wanted them to take the paperwork out of her hands so she'd never have to look at that particular stack ever again.

Well…except for the copied pile that was now sitting on her desk back at the gym.

Letting out a frustrated huff as she sat in the lobby, waiting for someone to call her in and take the papers, Misty opened up the large yellow envelope and pulled out the sheets, deciding to look them over one more time before handing the work into the League.

And thank goodness she had.

For what she found when she pulled out the paperwork was not the many forms she had spent hours upon hours filling out, but rather black and white photo copies of her husband's face.

Groaning, Misty squeezed her eyes shut and smacked herself in the face with the unflattering images of Ash. She should have known. This wasn't the first time. Ash must have gone stir crazy while she was battling the day before and played around with the copy machine. Scanning his face and…as Misty flipped through the sheets and then properly confirmed…Pikachu's as well.

Unfortunately for her, before she could even attempt to make a run for it with the false copies, Misty was called in by the head of the Pokémon League himself: Mr. Goodshow.

"Sir…" Misty choked out as she followed the old man back to his office, "I really can't give you these forms now…there's…uh…been a slight error with them, I noticed. I have to go back to the gym and fix it right away!"

"Oh, now Misty, don't be so hard on yourself!" Goodshow laughed. "I know how seriously you gym leaders take your work, but there's no need to get all worked up over it."

If only you knew how little I cared about this damn paperwork, Misty bit in her head.

"No, I really do mean it," Misty uttered instead, keeping her sarcastic thoughts to herself. "There's a serious problem with this paperwork. Not slight or small. Serious."

"I'm sure whatever it is can be quickly and properly fixed by our staff," Goodshow assured the obviously flustered Misty. "Now, I'll just take the forms from you…"

Misty grimaced and, knowing she couldn't continue to argue with the man, forfeited the sheets. He grinned appreciatively at her and took the paperwork, flipping through the pieces of paper. Misty just watched as his face began to fall, going from jovial to downright bewildered.

"Oh…" Goodshow murmured, holding up one of the pictures of Ash that showed the young man pressing his right cheek against the screen of the scanner while sticking his tongue out of his mouth and holding his eyebrows up as high as they would go. "Oh dear."

Misty sighed and shook her head, knowing full well she had tried to warn Goodshow in advance. "Hey, he may be my husband, but he's your Pokémon Master."

Poor Misty. It's like being married to a little boy XD But he's really sweet, so it's okay :P