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There are five reasons why Misty can’t stand Ash Ketchum.
The first reason should be blatantly obvious - he ruined her bike.
The young red head spent weeks handing out flyers outside of the local Cerulean bike shop in the sweltering sun for that bike. She naively agreed to do free promotion for the new line of crimson acro bikes in exchange for a chance to own one of the models. She didn’t realize how many rude women, with their noses pointed high in the air would pretend they didn’t see her when they would walk by. How many gross older man who would stop and dote on how “cute she was,” but still have the nerve to pass on the flyers. How many sticky-handed, snot-nosed kids would take turns trying to see who could knock the most flyers out of her hands.
She hated that job, but she persevered- as she did with most things in life - and finally, she was rewarded with a gorgeous bike. And it was perfect. Until hecame along. With his horrible timing, and the serious look in his eyes. With the forced lop sided grin he had plastered on his face in an attempt to win her trust over before blatantly robbing her blind. He and his Pikachu ruined her beautiful bike and she’ll never forgive him for it.
The second reason she can’t stand him is how delusional he is! Misty is the youngest of four, self sufficient women. She and her sisters may not see eye to eye on everything but she was damn proud of how hard they worked and how hard she worked. But she didn’t get to be so independent by being delusional - no, she’s always been a realist. She tries to look at things from a logical standpoint and she tries to set goals that she can achieve.
But Ash? Ash wants the world and he’s convinced nothing can stop him. Forget half full, his glass is overflowing and Misty has had to stop herself from rolling her eyes at his grand declarations multiple times.
The worst part about it is not only how sure he is of himself, but of everyone else too. His excitement is annoying but also contagious it seems. He has a way of talking someone into wanting more and stopping at nothing until they achieve it.
Misty hates that his stupid words of encouragement have gotten stuck in her head. She would have been fine just taking over the Cerulean Gym like she was destined to since birth - but not anymore. Now she loathes spending eternity at the gym and dreams of travel, of something more. Now she slaves away so that she one day can be in the Elite Four. Goddammit.
Which reminds her - the third reason she can’t stand Ash. While she works tirelessly in Cerulean, what’s he doing? Oh, that’s right he’s traveling around the world with all of his newfriends. Because the boy is too fucking friendly! She could gag.
She and Ash didn’t exactly hit it off when they first met (which is fair considering he repaid her for saving his life with a charred version of her bike) but he seems to get along with just about anyone else.
The same Ash that tried to get rid of her for weeks in Viridian forest! They were stuck together in one of the creepiest settings in all of Kanto and he had the nerve to try and ditch her every second he got. It’s a wonder they managed to form a friendship afterwards.
But most of the time they spent traveling together, she wasn’t even sure if she could label the relationship between them as a friendship. Would they even be traveling together if she hadn’t forced him to bring her out of the Viridian forest alive? She couldn’t say for sure, but the answer leans more towards a ‘no.’
Yet, Ash seems to make friends everywhere else soeasily. He has friends all over the world - Johto, Hoenn, Sinnoh, Unova, Kalos, Alola. He used to send occasional post cards and Misty even got to visit him in Hoenn and Alola, but the lack of contact has shorted quite a lot of the years and she stopped checking the mail for his post cards ages ago. She hates to admit how much it hurts. Him being a flake is reason #4.
And the final reason Misty absolutely, cannot for the life of her, stand Ash Ketchum is because no one else in the world has the effect on her that he does.
She’s not sure when her feelings towards Ash changed, or if she has always felt strongly for him and it just took her a while to realize it.
Either way, she hates him. She’s sure of it. She hates how annoying he is and how he makes her feel and just everything about him! She hates him.
Except she doesn’t.
She hates herself for being too much of a coward to tell him how she really feels.
Because there are five reasons why Misty has never confessed her feelings.
For one, she’d rather die than be rejected. Rejected by Ash Ketchum of all people? Yeah, she’d rather take a thunder bolt to the chest.
The second reason she hasn’t confessed is she’s almost positive that romance never once crossed his mind. She’s not sure if that brain of his could wrap his mind around the concept. She’s not 100% sure he even has a brain.
Reason #3 why Misty hasn’t confessed is because she would rather die than be rejected. Yes, this has already been stated but it cannot be reiterated enough. Misty would rather be struck down by Arceus himself then to be rejected by Ash Ketchum. Keep that in mind.
The fourth reason is quite simple - it took a while for Misty to come to terms with her feelings and after going through the five stages of grief, she has finally landed in ‘acceptance.’ Now that she’s accepted her feelings for a boy who doesn’t know how to spell his full name, she’s been waiting on the right opportunity to gouge his reaction but it just..never seems to come.
Sure, she could just call him up and suggest they hang out-oh wait, that would require having his phone number. Which she does not. She only knows he has a rotom phone because of Delia and she only knows that he’s quite literally a 20 minute drive away from her because of Brock.
Oh yes! Might have forgotten to mention that Brock has actually had contact with Ash recently. It seems that quite a lot of his old friends have. He’s apparently visited a few recently. Which brings us to the final reason why Misty won’t confess..because he’s been in Kanto for who knows how long, and he seems perfectly happy without her.