Work Text:
To say that Misty was relieved to meet another Water-type trainer would have been an understatement. She'd never admit it, not in a hundred million years, but the gym got lonely. Whoever had decided it was a good idea to leave a teenager alone, in charge of nothing but a string of obnoxious challengers, was just the biggest idiot in the world. Most of them didn't even know what they were doing, those doofuses. None of them really understood her, or Water-types, or what made either of them tick.
So, of course, as soon as she laid eyes on the adorable Popplio and the even more adorable Lana, the hopeless romantic part of her that had dominated so many crazy adventures sprang in full force.
It was only hours after they first met, sitting around a wood table while Delia made her delicious, reliable meals inside, that Misty tried to engage her in conversation.
"So . . ." she began, tapping her fingers on the table. She'd never been the best at small talk like this, preferring battle to the weather. It wasn't like Ash had ever given her a chance to breathe, with all those ridiculous things that happened to him on that journey. "You're training to be a kahuna, right?" Lana shyly nodded. "I've been reading about them! They're like the gym leaders of Alola, except even stronger."
"Oh . . . I wouldn't say that." Lana's voice was soft, melodic, like a Jigglypuff's, but Misty was far from feeling like she'd fall asleep listening to her. "They're just . . . different."
"Huh." She'd nail a hole in the table's soft wood at this rate. "It's still cool, though! Alola sounds so pretty, with the oceans and the islands and all the beautiful Pokemon that live there."
"You should visit, then!" It was the loudest Lana had been all day, slamming her hands down on the table with such force that the forks clattered. Misty recoiled in surprise before trying (and failing, mostly) to regain her composure.
"I would," she sighed, "-but I have to keep up the gym. I can't just up and leave." Lana tilted her head to the side inquisitively.
"Don't you have sisters? They could take care of it for you."
"Ha, they're always on one cruise or another. I think they spend more time traveling than they do at home."
"You should talk to them." Popplio nudged at Lana's leg, and she scratched her head as she continued. "There's always a place open at the Pokemon School."
"I'll take you up on that." Misty extended her hand, her heart swelling with a strange sort of warmth when Lana took it into her own and shook it. She could hardly remember the last time she'd felt like that, but it wasn't unwelcome.
Lana waved her goodbye at the airport, and it wasn't unwelcome at all.
***
"What was your friend like, when you were adventuring with her?"
It was late at night, and most of the group was snoring peacefully in their cushy airport seats (the Oaks traveled in style, clearly), but Ash was restless as always, and Lana had never liked being in the air much. She considered herself lucky to have ended up sitting next to him on the trip back.
"Misty? Aw, man, she was great." Ash closed his eyes as if reliving some distant memory, scratching behind Pikachu's ears. "I'm pretty sure I would've died if it wasn't for her."
"She told me about your bike."
"What? No!" Ash threw his hands in the air, defensive, and Pikachu stirred on his lap. "I meant more than that. She was always keeping me and Brock in line. I miss her a lot - we never really see each other anymore."
"Don't you go back to Kanto a lot, though?" It was dark outside, and they were too high up to see out the window, but the little blinking light on the map pinned to the seat in front of her own said that the plane was heading right over the Johto region. Lana thought with a smile of the gentle temple lights spread out miles beneath them. "You wouldn't have been so . . . dejected, if you weren't home that often."
"Yeah, but between all the adventuring and her job at the gym, it's not like we can see each other much anyway." Ash scratched the back of his neck awkwardly, not quite meeting Lana's gaze. "Besides, the last time we met there was sorta this whole thing with . . . with a Mew? A lot of people nearly got hurt, and the Mew ended up . . ." The plane's whirring was loud, but not loud enough to mask the noise of her friend sniffling. "I think that turned her off from these sorts of things."
"Are you okay?" Water, Lana knew, was known as two things - gentle, rippling ponds that a person or a Pokémon could take a short break at and heal, and the crashing waves that pulled anything and anyone into their grasp if they were close enough. She considered herself the former, a healer, but there wasn't really much she could do in this situation.
"What? Yeah! Yeah, I'm fine. Anyway. Back to Misty. We used to hate each other - Arceus, did she have a temper - but time passed and we went through a lot together and, well, we became friends." Ash smiled fondly. "Best friends. I really wish we could've kept on traveling together, but her sisters needed her and then stuff just kept happening. She was always a great fighter, always cared, but she hated Bug-types. I mean, she couldn't stand 'em! Still can't."
"Really?"
"Really." Ash looked to the ceiling. "We had some amazing times together, me and her. Do you ever just meet someone, and it's like you're soulmates or something?"
"S-soulmates?" Lana wondered what the funny feeling in her chest was. It was cold, whatever it was, and unpleasant.
"Yeah! Except, not like they are in movies. Like, you've always been destined to be friends, and even if you're apart for years and years and years, things're always gonna be just like they were when you left, almost like there wasn't any time passing at all."
"Oh." Lana mulled over this for a moment, and the funny feeling subsided. "So . . . you weren't together? Romantically?"
"Nope!" Ash flashed her a grin and a thumbs-up that didn't seem befitting of the situation. "Everyone thought we were, and maybe we could've been if we'd kept traveling together, but we were ten. Nobody dates at ten!" Lana chuckled.
"She sounds like she was amazing."
"She still is." Ash smiled. "You know, she didn't earn that title of the World's Greatest Beauty for nothing, even if she kinda . . . made it up herself. I get it." Lana flushed red.
"I don't know what you're talking about," she huffed. Ash let out a laugh, a warm sound that rang all through the airplane.
"Ha, I dunno if I do."
***
If there was one good thing Misty could say about the Cerulean City Gym, it was that the gym had the best wifi.
This came in handy one morning when, free for a little while from endless battles, she decided in a whirlwind of nostalgia to call up Ash again. She'd missed the dope, years without contact notwithstanding, and figured that maybe keeping in touch once in a while wouldn't be so bad.
beep-beep-beep
"'Ooh, Misty, you 'have' to get the newest model, it's so much better than the old one,'" she hissed under her breath, mocking Daisy's voice as she did so. "I don't know how this thing works!"
beep-beep-beep
"It was a lot better when we just had these things in Pokémon Centers and that was the end of it."
beep-beep-beep
"Ugh, why won't you just-"
"Mmf . . . huh . . . who's calling?" The screen went to a rather close view of Ash's hand, then to his bed and a lazily moving figure that Misty suspected was Ash himself. Finally, he straightened up and looked at the . . . whatever it was, even, Misty had a sinking suspicion that he was talking through that creepy Rotom that had followed them around all throughout the Kanto visit. "Misty?"
"Ash! Hey, can you hear me?"
"It's so late here, why'd you call me now?"
"It's only . . . oh." Nostalgia had failed to account for the nineteen-hour time difference, apparently. "Well, anyway, how've you been? Still getting pity from all the Gym Leaders to snag their badges?"
"We don't even have Gym Leaders here!"
"You didn't answer my question." Oh, it felt good to be back, like this, the banter coming more easily than anything ever did. Misty had missed it.
"Ugh, then how's your gym?"
"Boring." Misty held up the computer and waved it around to show off the surrounding room. "Really, really boring."
"Huh." Ash sat up, promptly bonked his head on the bunk above him, and let out a loud ow!
"Who's that?" a distant, familiar voice spoke up. Misty's heart started to beat a little faster.
"Lana! It's Misty, you remember her, right?"
"I couldn't forget." The quiet sound of someone walking into the carpeted room and settling down on the bed could be heard until Lana shifted into focus, eyelids heavy with sleep.
"It's nice to see you again." Lana's hair was sticking up at odd places, her Z-ring still wrapped around her wrist, and she smiled a little upon seeing Misty's face. She was, to put it simply, very cute.
"I'll leave you two alone for a couple of minutes, 'kay?" Ash scooted out of the frame and hopped off the bed, Pikachu in tow. Misty chuckled.
"Leave it to Ash to leave like that."
"I'm still carrying around the Cascade Badge," Lana blurted out.
"Huh?"
"Oh, it's . . . um . . . it's very pretty, so I wanted to keep it close to me a lot." Lana's face flushed a bright pink. "It feels like a good-luck charm."
"Hah, well, I'm glad you like it!"
"I wanna go back someday! Maybe we can have a real one-on-one battle, then." There was a sparkle in Lana's eyes that made Misty's innards feel like they'd turned to jelly, something so warm and earnest that she was nearly enraptured.
"I think I'd love that."
***
Ash wasn't the only one who'd noticed something was up, clearly. Popplio had gotten into the habit of poking Lana when she was particularly distracted with thoughts of one specific Gym Leader, and it wasn't like she could protest. The calls had become a regular occurrence, with conversations of training and battles and likes and dislikes and home lives all wrapped up in those late nights and early mornings. Lana learned that they both had sisters, even if Misty's were older and Lana's were younger, that Misty hated peppers and carrots but loved Kalosian things, that she had a secret stash of bad romance novels hidden behind her fishing rod collection.
Ash had happened to overhear that particular conversation, and what ensued was a laughing plea for Misty to send him her signed copy of The Fault in our Staryu.
She refused.
All the while, Lana's heart swelled more and more with every call and every time Misty's face came into view. It had become hard to deny, not that she would've denied it in the first place - she had a crush. A big crush. A massive, Solgaleo-sized, impossible-to-ignore crush. The kind of thing her little sisters would've teased her for relentlessly if they'd been there. It wasn't long before she ended up confiding in a few more members of the group one late night when a game of Go Magikarp had turned into a feelings session.
"Misty?" Mallow raised an eyebrow. "You like the Cerulean City Gym Leader?"
"Pretty much," Lana murmured. Mallow was silent for a moment before she started grinning.
"That's . . . that's so cute!" she squealed, rushing over and giving Lana a hug. "This is just like the movies!"
"I hope it's one of the good ones, though," Lillie whispered. "Not one where someone dies at the end."
"Hah, like The Fault in our Staryu?" Ash snorted.
"I thought she didn't let you borrow it," Lana retorted.
"She didn't. Sophocles found the movie."
"I heard the movie wasn't as good," Mallow chimed in. "They cast it wrong, or something."
"Oh, but the lead actress was so pretty!" Lillie sighed.
"Misty hated the movie," Lana added, dragging everyone back to the subject at hand.
"Right, everyone!" Mallow slammed her fist into her open palm. "We have to make a plan to help get these two dorks together!"
"A battle strategy, eh?" Ash rubbed his chin thoughtfully, and Pikachu jumped onto his shoulder. "Now this I know how to do!"
Lana suspected that things were not about to go very well.
***
It was a sunny afternoon when the mailman delivered a thick package to the Cerulean City Gym and unceremoniously dropped it in Misty's hands.
"Probably another pack of fan mail," she muttered, scribbling her signature before sending the mailman off. "They're not even here, idiots." Regardless, she tore it open, and what greeted her was like nothing she would've expected.
Photos after photos of Alola were packed tightly into the box, of battles and landscapes and the beautiful, beautiful ocean, but many were just of Ash and his friends and, most surprisingly, Lana in nearly every single one. A letter sat on top of the photos, and Misty read it curiously.
Dear Misty,
Alola is a wonderful place, and I know you're always very busy, so you might not be able to visit, but maybe these could help just a little? Rotom's always taking pictures of us when we're not looking, and this seems like the best way to put them to use. I've loved staying up late talking with you, and I hope we get to meet again soon. In the meantime, keep going! You're incredibly strong, and you have the most lovely laugh, and I think you're really amazing, and Mallow says not to drag this letter on too long, so that's about it for now!
Sincerely, Lana
(P.S. from Ash: we had to delete all the pictures of bug-types lol)
Misty wasn't about to push down the warmth in her heart anymore.
***
It was, if nothing else, certainly unexpected when Ash got a call in the middle of one sunny afternoon. Misty's face appeared on Rotom's screen, nearly impossible to make out in the darkness.
"Ash?"
"Yeah? Isn't it super late back in Kanto?"
"Yeah."' Misty paused for a second, yawning. '"I'm going to tell you something, but it has to be a secret, okay?"
"Yep!"
"I've booked a plane ticket to Alola." It might've been the lighting, but Misty looked almost . . . bashful. "I'll be there in two days."
"Couldn't keep away from me for that long, huh?" Ash teased. He could almost feel Misty slapping him through the screen.
"It's for Lana, you self-absorbed dweeb!"' Another pause, almost saying more than words would have. '"I really want to see her again in person."
"Aw, wow, you're really in love, aren't you?"
"Shut up. You have to keep this a secret, okay? I want it to be a surprise."
"Got it." Rotom's screen went blank, and hardly a minute passed before Ash ran down the halls yelling "hey, everyone! My awesome friend Misty's coming to Alola soon!"
***
Jet lag was created to target her, specifically, Misty thought as she stepped off the plane with her legs feeling like lead and the suitcase bumping behind her sounding like a jackhammer. She hated international flights. Ash stood in the terminal, and - unsurprisingly - the rest of his Alolan friends were there too.
Oh well, she thought, and walked forward a little quicker when she saw Lana fiddling with her Cascade Badge, with her shirt, with everything she could get her hands on. Her heart was pounding so loudly that it might've taken over if not for the fact that Lana got there first, looking her right in the eye and pulling her in for a deep, gentle, perfect kiss. She tasted like saltwater and clouds, and hardly anything had ever felt so perfect.
It was enough that she didn't even get around to moving until Ash dragged her away in what might've been the most ironic turn of events in her life, and her hand was still intertwined with Lana's even as they left the airport for the sparkling blue below.