Chapter Text
The hot sun had begun to linger in each inward breath, not hot enough to be stifling but enough to make the air feel warming to the soul, fueling another step in the sunshine to feel it kiss against your skin. Gary loved the aspects of his work that let him work outside on days like this, quietly observing the Pokemon as they skittered across the grounds of Oak’s lab in clumpy cliches of odd mixtures. What it was that drew these odd clusters together, he didn’t have an answer to. Why would a grouchy, irritable Raticate choose to nap in the shade with a boisterously optimistic Wigglytuff? Why would a Growlithe splash in the shallows of the pond, against its nature, to entertain a Goldeen that dappled in the shallows? He couldn’t say, but noting it and drawing patterns from these observations had informed more of his academic progress than he would ever admit to his Grandfather. Samuel Oak would be far too self-congratulatory that his advice had taken him so far.
A little sweat began to trickle down his neck, reminding him of the inevitable heat death of a cool, breezy spring. Blossom had all but died away, only a few remaining flushes of pink existed amongst the furious regrowth of life that dominated the vibrant, green trees. He’d retire inside soon, for a cold drink and a refresh to his day.
Suddenly, it was sound that interrupted his thoughts. There was laughter, splashes, the familiar voice of Tracey muddled with a soft, clear voice that felt like it tugged memories to the surface that had never felt significant enough to recall until now. Startled, he twisted his neck back to see, to try and retain his mask of aloof indifference as a veil to coat his sheer curiosity. A flash of red hair, soaked in the lake water. A familiar shade of green as Tracey’s shirt fell to the ground to follow. Two friends, swimming with their friends in lake water, a maril and an azurill bobbing in the water on either side. Quietly sat to the side, a vaguely familiar blonde was tanning her legs, stretched out over a patchwork blanket that had been laid out for her.
Daisy was visiting Tracey again; clearly, this time she’d brought company.
Gary wasn’t even sure if they’d noticed him, too busy acclimating to the first flush of warmth that came from the ageing spring months as it settled into the chilled lake water. Tracey’s hair was soaked already, plastered against his skin like latex as he resurfaced to playfully splash water at an indignant Daisy. Behind him, a girl so familiar and yet so utterly a stranger to him, Misty swam slowly next to Azurill, gently coaching and cheering the baby Pokemon on; Maril floated nearby, observing keenly and smiling with every successful push out into the water that the small Pokemon made. Packing up his notebook by tucking it under his arm, Gary pulled himself to his feet, intrigued enough to approach.
“Well, well, well,” he cut through their afternoon intrusively, demanding immediate attention. Tracey smiled at him, his expression equal parts amused and pleasant, while Daisy peered over the top of heart-shaped sunglasses, sceptical but with lips quirked into a smirk that seemed almost knowing. Misty had to turn to face him, her eyes sharp with recognition and her lips quivering into an unsure grin. “Look what the Meowth dragged in. Cerulean’s own.”
“Gary Oak.” Misty stated his name by means of greeting, and it almost bothered him that she hadn’t simply said hello, as though his name was unfamiliar enough to her by this point that it warranted a purposeful statement. “As I live and breathe.”
“Like,” Daisy cast him a pointed look, an eyebrow arched eye, “you’re blocking the sun? So, like, just adjust a bit before you get too settled.” Tracey barked a laugh, watching as Gary baulked slightly, not used to being spoken to this way. Misty howled with laughter, the skin around her eyes creasing delightedly as Daisy replaced her glasses firmly over her eyes and crossed one slender leg over the top of the other.
“Duly noted,” Gary intoned dryly.
“Fancy a swim?” Misty offered, treading water so effortlessly it was as though pressure from the water rushed to touch and worship lightly tanned skin and suspended her without her trying. Gary’s nose twitched, genuinely considering it before replying.
“I’m good for now,” he evaded, instead finding a smug enough grin to resume his usual stance. Whilst the woman that had once travelled with Ash was an enigma to him, he knew enough to know that to suspend himself in the water around her would be to concede the battlefield to her, and he would rather have the high ground while he figured her out. Teal eyes were watching him, equally analytic, and she scoffed a laugh at his response as though seeing right through it.
“I see,” Misty enunciated crisply, her voice lilted with an unspoken challenge. “Pretty boy can’t get his hair damp.”
“And lose this perfect style ?” Gary picked up her threads instantly, and her lip twitched in a silent laugh as he tugged them. “Simply not worth it.”
“Not worth the cost in hair gel, more like,” she volleyed back, her voice as dry as the lake was wet. Tracey was laughing again, enjoying someone else being the butt of the joke, and he lifted himself onto the shore of the lake, his hands saturating the ground with water from his skin and turning it to mud under his fingers. Daisy’s nose wrinkled, watching him closely as he pulled himself from out of the lake.
“Tracey,” she sighed, exasperated but with words imbued with fondness. “You need to wash your hands, like, now.”
“I can rinse them in the lake,” he replied genially, giving her a crooked smile as though knowing this would not satisfy her. Immediately, Daisy was riled.
“Where all the Pokemon swim and drink?” Her nose scrunched up once again, clearly repulsed. “You need a full-blown shower, come on stinky.” The blonde was clearly unhappy with the state of him, but not so unhappy that she didn’t feel comfortable clutching his forearm between long-nailed fingers, the red of her acrylics glowing against the freckles dotted along his exposed arms. “Let’s get you cleaned up so I don’t, like, think about all the Pokemon who’ve used that lake as a toilet when you touch me.”
Clearly too enamoured to protest, Tracey allowed himself to be pulled away with little resistance. Misty had turned away from Gary long enough to watch them go, giving him the chance to watch the flicker of amusement that rolled across her lips and the slight shake in her head as she twisted her neck, craning to see them totter into the distance together. Grinning, Gary glanced back at them.
“A regular occurrence?” He asked dryly.
“When they first started this whole… nightmare, I just thought it was the grossest thing in the world.” Misty laughed, and she punctuated her sentence by dipping under the water. Patient and curious, Gary waited for her to resurface, and when she did she was at the water’s very edge, facing him with tanned arms crossed over one another, leaning against the grassy landscape that embraced the water’s edge. She was approaching him. “Now though?” Misty caught her breath and caught Gary’s eye. “I just think they’re sweet.”
“You just here visiting then?” Gary asked nonchalantly, crouching down so to meet her eye. Despite being the one stooping to meet her eye, he felt desperately small in her presence. It was something he wanted to rectify. Misty shrugged at him, her eyes sharp and wicked.
“I come to bother Tracey when I can,” she replied frothily, treading water behind her whimsically. “He and I are old pals.”
“You guys travelled together,” he recognised. Misty gave off a low hum, her head tilting to the side as she watched him, waiting for him to give away some detail or clue to a question he wasn’t aware of her asking yet. “With our good friend, Ashy-boy.”
“Good memory,” Misty drawled. Gary noticed the goosebumps along her arms, her wet skin sensitive to the breeze and pimpling at its touch. “Tracey gave me my Azurill egg, years and years ago. Now though, she’s not much of a baby anymore, and she likes coming down here to swim with Marill. She always did prefer the fresh spring water of Pallet to my chlorinated pools in Cerulean.”
“Do you?” Gary asked pointedly, his teeth showing as he grinned. Misty’s eyes widened, just slightly. “Prefer it here, in the lakes? To Cerulean?”
“I think,” she said slowly, quietly, in a low voice. “That they both have their merit.”
“Do you want a battle?” He tried not to sound too hopeful. Misty cracked a smile, and it quickly dissolved into a laugh.
“Listen to you,” Misty grinned around her own laughter, enjoying the sight of Gary at her mercy, “just question after question.”
“I’m a researcher,” Gary defended himself deftly, which simply made Misty laugh harder. He liked the sight, and the sound, he realised quickly. She shifted her weight against the ground and Gary was adept enough at reading body language to know to swing an arm down to offer her a hand getting out. Momentarily, she glanced over his proffered hand with a sceptical, raised eyebrow. Winningly, he grinned. “It’s what I do, Misty.”
“There’s plenty you do,” she hummed knowingly, pointedly, implicitly. Gary’s grin stretched further. Her hand raised up and grasped his forearm, the wet palm of her hand slapping his exposed skin noisily. He pulled her upwards and helped her find her feet on land.
She wasn’t that much shorter than him. Misty had always been a tall woman.
“Battle me,” Gary insisted this time, his teeth shining as he bore them in the sun.
“You’ll lose,” Misty warned dangerously, her smile coy and leading. Something about the way her grin changed, the challenge already accepted, the skin around her eyes creasing with the weight of her smile, set an unsteady rhythm in Gary’s pulse.
“Prove it.”
She did.