Chapter Text
It starts in Kanto, when Ash and Gary are both snot-nosed little kids, fighting with each other like they’re still on the playground and not well into a year of their training journey.
It goes as predicted. Ash bumps into Gary, Gary makes a snide comment, Ash blows up with yet another temper tantrum, and slinks off to go have a nice sulk and do all the things to prove Gary wrong. It’s a formula they’ve been through dozens of times already, and that’s only the ones Misty’s been present for. She sympathizes with Delia and Professor Oak far more than she ever thought she would.
“You know,” she mutters to Gary as he saunters past her, tired of the game. “This would go a lot better if you just told him you like him.”
Gary blanches, whipping his head around to stare at her like she’s just said something blasphemous. He opens and closes his mouth a few times, for once rendered speechless. He finally settles on, “you’re delusional!” And storms off.
“What'dya say to him?” Ash asks, wandering back over to watch Gary’s retreating back. He looks a little lost now that the role of stomping-off-into-the-middle-distance is currently taken by someone else, but at least he’s not whining anymore, so Misty considers that a win.
“Just some friendly advice,” Misty answers with a shrug.
She figures it will take a lot more than one little intervention from her for those two to get their acts together.
She won’t know how true that statement is until much, much later, but by then, it’s too late to stop it.
—
Gary approaches her for the first time in Johto. Ash is drilling his Pokemon in the training area behind the Pokemon Center and hasn’t noticed his rival yet. Misty’s half-watching from one of the benches further into the park while she plies Togepi with treats and silly little games.
Gary doesn’t say anything at first, just takes the empty spot on the bench next to her with folded arms. He clearly has something he wants to say, but if he isn’t in a hurry to get on with it, Misty certainly isn’t going to bother dragging it out of him.
In the distance, Ash leans down to check on Chikorita, who took a bad tumble from one of Pikachu’s tackles. The little grass pokemon shakes it off, as surly at the thought of losing as her trainer usually is.
“Looks like he’s getting stronger,” Gary says awkwardly, after a few minutes of loaded silence. “Maybe he’ll actually be half challenging the next time he demands a battle.”
Misty rolls her eyes. “I doubt you sought me out for more of your ridiculous posturing, Gary Oak. But if that’s what you’re after, Ash is right over there. Knock yourself out.”
Gary scowls. “You think you’ve got it all figured out, huh?”
“In general? No,” Misty says. “But you two? Yes. You are both laughably easy to figure out.”
“I don’t like him.” Gary has a mulish look on his face that is hilariously similar to Ash’s own brand of pouting. It only intensifies when Misty laughs at it, his shoulders climbing closer to his ears by the moment. “I don’t know where you got that idea, but I don’t. So stop saying stupid things.”
It takes Misty a moment to realize what he’s sulking about. “Oh, are you still mad about my friendly advice? That was over a year ago, Gary. Learn to let things go.”
“I’m not mad,” he snaps. “I just want to know where you got such a ridiculous idea.”
“If it was so ridiculous, I doubt you’d still be thinking about it,” is her dry response. “I haven’t said anything to him, if that’s what you’re really worried about.”
“I’m not worried either. Just… stop it, okay? I don’t like him.”
“Okay.”
“Great, glad that’s settled.” Gary stands up, brushing off his pants in a way that is all for show, Misty’s sure.
“Mm-hm,” Misty agrees mildly, not even trying to hide her amusement.
Gary scowls at her and stomps towards the doors to the Pokemon Center just as Ash spots him and starts jogging over. He ignores Ash’s calls and disappears inside, the automatic doors sliding shut behind him.
“Was that Gary?”
Misty sighs. “Yeah.”
“What were you two talking about?”
“Oh, you know, the usual.” Misty waves her hand dismissively. “He wandered off when he didn’t get a reaction.”
Ash gives her a suspicious look. He clearly isn’t buying her answer (even though its the most likely one to be true) but she can tell he hasn’t fully worked out whatever alternate theory he’s operating from. “Well, okay. Too bad he didn’t hang around for a battle. I could have shown him how much stronger I’ve gotten!”
Misty rolls her eyes. Those two are going to give her wrinkles before she’s twenty, she’s sure of it.
—
Misty and Ash part ways when he goes to Hoenn, and honestly, that should be the end of it, right? Ash is traveling with someone new, which stings a little, but May seems like a nice girl and it's not like she had a monopoly on being Ash’s only female friend.
Gary left training behind to go study pokemon in some other region, as far as Misty knows, so he is just another—far easier—part of her old life to file away in the back of her mind, throwing herself full-force into her gym and her training. So when one of her sisters finds her in the pool to tell her she has a phone call, Gary is the last person she expects to see on the other end of the line.
She picks up the receiver and holds it to her ear, anxiety blooming in the pit of her stomach. Why would Gary call her? Has something happened to Ash? “Gary? Is something wrong?”
Gary looks bleak on the other end of the line, a white lab coat slung over his usual indigo shirt.
“Gary? You’re starting to scare me here. Did something happen?”
“It was supposed to get better, not seeing him all the time,” Gary says, a maudlin edge to his voice.
Misty lets out a breath she didn’t realize she was holding, most of her worry going with it. “Gary…”
“What if—“ Gary’s knuckles tighten around the video phone receiver. “What if I said you were right, about me. How I feel, about—about Ash.”
“I’d say that I’m hardly surprised,” Misty retorts. “But you knew that already.”
“Yeah.” Gary sighs. “I’m sorry, for bothering you. I just—you’re the only one who knows, or even came close to figuring it out, and I—“ he cuts off, looking away.
Misty knows how much that cost him to say. To show a vulnerability. She understands, in a way, that reflex to protect what matters most to you, to keep your tender spots and weak points hidden, so no one can poke at them just for the fun of it.
“You miss him.”
“Yeah.”
“Me too.” The whole situation feels ridiculous. She’s standing in her kitchen in her bathing suit, a puddle of water gathering at her feet from her hasty pool exit, commiserating about Ash with Gary Oak of all people.
They end the call shortly after that, the whole thing awkward and stilted now that their bonding moment is over. Misty hangs up first, knowing somehow that she’ll be hearing from Gary a lot more in the future.
She’s not sure how she feels about that.
—
Weeks pass, and Misty completely forgets about Gary’s phone call and her own impending sense of dread surrounding his potential recurring role in her near future. Running the gym takes up most of her time now and keeps her busy enough that she doesn’t have time to think about much else. It’s a nice distraction from her own problems, and while it certainly isn’t the life of adventure she’s gotten used to over the past few years, it's enjoyable in its own way.
Brock writes to her regularly about their travels and keeps her up to date on their progress in Hoenn. Ash sends a few postcards here and there, and he is such a flake with communication that she’s actually quite touched that he remembers to send anything.
She’s just closed the gym for the day and is getting ready for bed when the vidphone in her room goes off. Thinking it might be Ash and Brock (or even one of her sisters, who periodically check-in during their travels), she hurries over to answer it.
It’s Gary’s face that pops up on the screen when the call connects, and Misty is more surprised than she probably should be at this point.
Resigned, she lifts the receiver to her ear. “Hello, Gary. What romantic troubles can I help you with today?”
Gary gives her an unimpressed look. “Why do you automatically assume I’m having some sort of gay crisis?”
“Well, that’s typically why you’ve sought me out before.” She shrugs. “So are you? Having a gay crisis, I mean.”
“No!” There’s a long pause, during which Gary’s scowl softens into something more sheepish. “Maybe. I don’t know.”
It’s been a long day. Misty’s exhausted from a flood of gym challengers, visitors, and meetings with various league officials. She had very much been hoping to fall straight into her bed and sleep the entire weekend away, but for some reason, she finds herself saying instead, “Okay, tell me about it.”
Maybe it’s because it’s what Ash would want her to do. It’s the same that he would have done for her, toward the end, when he had shed most of the immaturity and self-centeredness she berated him for when they first met.
Or maybe it’s because she knows, deep down, that Gary’s just lonely, and, well, maybe she is too.
—
Gary’s calls become something of a regular occurrence after that. He usually doesn’t go more than a week and a half without ringing her, though lately it’s been more like once a week.
He talks a lot about his studies in Saida, his progress in becoming a researcher, and the things he wants to accomplish. He also passes along tidbits of Ash and Brock’s travels that he heard from his grandfather, some of which Misty knows from Brock’s letters and occasional calls, and some of which is so recent that she hasn’t heard the news yet.
She in turn talks about her own struggles with keeping the gym going, the inane bureaucracy that comes with it, and the trainers who come to challenge her. They both have a nice laugh at the more obnoxious ones who don’t make it past her on the first try, though they hardly ever come back humbled.
“It was probably lucky for me that you hadn’t taken over yet when I was a challenger,” Gary muses. “I mean, I would have still won, of course, but you might have at least given my smart mouth a run for its money back then.”
“You still have a smart mouth,” Misty tells him. “And that’s big talk from someone who’s never battled me. See how far you’ll get at the Cerulean Gym now, mister.”
“Do I get another badge if I win?”
“Do you know how much paperwork I have to fill out every time I hand out a gym badge? You can have one of the fake ones we sell to the tourists.”
Gary chuckles. “Deal.”
--
Misty’s reunion with Ash and Brock isn’t quite what she expected, what with the whole Mirage Kingdom business. She supposes it’s too much to ask for a normal vacation when it’s the three of them together.
Before she leaves, she passes on well wishes from Gary. Ash looks perplexed as he asks, “Gary? When did you see Gary?”
“We chat a few times a month,” Misty says. “You should give him a call if you get a chance. I know he’d be thrilled to hear from you.”
Ash doesn’t seem convinced of that, but underneath his hesitance is something else, something Misty distantly remembers seeing before, when he’d spotted them talking at the Pokemon Center in Johto and Gary hadn’t even stopped to acknowledge him. She hadn’t known how to identify it then, but now, she’d almost swear it’s jealousy sparking in Ash’s eyes. “I’m sure must be pretty busy with his studies, but you can tell him I said hi next time you talk to him if you want.”
“Yeah, of course.” Misty’s the perplexed one now. Why would Ash be jealous that she and Gary keep in touch? It must be something else, she decides, and leaves it as a mystery for another day.
Her trip home is bittersweet. She fiercely misses Togepi, but she’s also proud of him for evolving into Togetic and for wanting to protect the other pokemon. He always was brave, even as a baby, and she knows it’s for the best, no matter how much it hurts.
On a whim, she calls Gary. She isn’t usually the one to reach out first in their relationship, mostly because Gary’s schedule is far less predictable than her own, but she doesn’t know what to do with all the thoughts swimming through her head at the moment.
When he answers, he’s missing his lab coat and his hair is wet like he was in the shower recently, but he smiles at her. “Hey, I didn’t think you’d be back so soon. How was Hoenn?”
“Fine, I suppose. I didn’t catch you at a bad time, did I?”
“No, my lessons are finished for the day. So you can tell me all about your trip.”
So she does. She tells him all about the fake Togepi convention, getting kidnapped by Team Rocket, the power struggle in the Mirage Kingdom, having to say goodbye to Togetic, and then Ash and Brock shortly after.
“I’m sorry about Togetic. It must be hard to let him go after all this time, but you did the right thing. He’s protecting other pokemon that can’t defend themselves. That shows that you’ve done a great job training him.”
“I know,” Misty says, with a small smile that’s only a little watery. “I’m just going to miss him, is all.” She’s quiet for a moment before her smile turns into a smirk. “But enough about that. Let’s talk about when you’re finally going to stop being a coward and ask Ash out. You should have seen the lost puppy look he had on his face the moment I mentioned your name. Boy’s pining hard.”
Gary, as predicted, tries and fails to look unaffected by the comment, and Misty laughs.
She’s still heartbroken about losing Togepi—probably always will be—but teasing Gary about his love life is a welcome distraction.