Chapter Text
Each sentence is a separate story for each of the unused Pokeshipping prompts.
- Intimacy
She falls asleep with her head on his shoulder and Ash remains perfectly still, not wanting to wake her.
- Food
Delia has been teaching her how to cook for years now, each greatly enjoying the quality time, but once Delia had let it slip that, “food is the quickest way to a man’s heart,” and Misty had been so flustered she’d burnt dinner.
- Competition
When she wins her title Ash jumps over the barricade to reach her, lifts her and spins her in circles, jubilant, more so even than when he won his own.
- Handkerchief
“I can’t believe you kept it all this time.”
- Birthdays
His call comes in at 11:59, but she’s placated by the use of his nickname for her, and the promise to celebrate in person next year.
- Evolution
“Are not,” “Are too,” “Are not,” “Are too,” but neither are fighting to win, just to get the other’s attention, and neither can quite keep the smile off their face.
- Hiding
The lure is pushed deep into the bottom of his bag, under old clothes and maps, partly because he doesn’t want to have to share it, partly because it’s incriminating in a way he can’t yet articulate.
- Puberty
When Brock sits him down to have “the talk” it’s the most mortified he’s ever been, notwithstanding when his mother use to routinely remind him to change his underwear in front of other people.
- Slow
She used to tease him about it, but seeing her in that dress, hair down, the way the whole room seems to stop and stare at her, he can admit that maybe he has been.
- Stargazing
He’s long since memorized the constellations so that he can travel at night; he knows which ones will lead him back to her, and somehow these seem to shine the brightest.
- Horizons
Unreachable, but with Misty besides him Ash doesn’t really care.
- Umbrella
She left her’s at home and is drenched by the time she gets to the Ketchum residence; when he answers the door and sees her standing there, drenched and t-shirt sticking to her frame, he pauses so long Mr. Mime gets fed up and pushes him aside to invite her in.
- Vacation
“Come on,” her tone is commanding and pleading all at once, “let’s go to the beach,” and he only pretends to ignore her so that she’ll grab his arm to pull him along.
- Sunset
Objectively he knows it’s breathtaking, as vibrant as it is over the Alolan shore, but it’s only the second-most beautiful shade of orange, and second-most extraordinary tint of blue, he’s ever seen.
- Fight
Brock knows better than to get between them when they get like this, voices raised, so close together they’re practically touching (the rim of Ash’s hat is actually pressed against Misty’s hair); he just rolls his eyes and walks away.
- Comfort
Ash wakes up from a nightmare, having relived worlds breaking apart, checks the clock and is relieved to see that, with the time difference, it’s not too late to call her.
- Celebration
He’s grateful for the party his mother planned to celebrate the conclusion of yet another league, but her missingness grates at him, and when Brock accuses him of sulking he doesn’t have a good response.
- Chocolate
“Here,” he all but shoves them at her, the ornate, frilly box he’d been embarrassed to buy, and even more embarrassed to bring all the way home from Kalos, but her answering smile is radiant.
- Anniversary
Some years sitting on the bank of the river, alone, the memory of fishing him out of the current is so bittersweet she could choke on it, and yet year after year Misty finds herself there at the beginning.
- Fireworks
She presses her lips to his cheek at the stroke of midnight, and all the rest of the world falls away.
- Relationship
He tries to explain to the interviewer that Misty is just his best friend, a title he’s used countless times before, but the picture of them at the annual League dinner, dancing close, his arm wrapped protectively (possessively) around her waist is fairly damming, and even as he tries to force his voice to sound confident, sure, he can feel the blush on his face.
- Overprotective
For the crime of calling the new Pokemon Master ‘overrated’ she makes sure to crush her challenger in their battle; the trainer has literal tears in his eyes when he leaves, defeated and badge-less, and, hopefully, having learned a lesson on not insulting Ash where Misty can hear.
- Slumber Party
She’s slept in his bed countless times, and he on the floor of her bedroom in Cerulean, so this unexpected visit should be routine, practiced, ordinary; instead, she finds her heart beating wildly to the sound of his breathing in the dark.
- Taller
He’s practically strutting, suddenly reverted to his overly cocky, 10-year-old self, all because he’s finally an inch or two taller than she is.
- Training
He’s so clearly exhausted when he crashes onto the couch next to her that she feels bold enough to pull his head into her lap; with her softly stroking his hair, his eyes close as the smile appears on his face.
- Sunshine
Bright, like his smile, and she knows she’ll follow him to the ends of the earth.
- Rain
With just the two of them in the tent it doesn’t feel cramped, but that could be because their sleeping bags are pushed so close together, the sounds of the storm lulling them both to sleep.
- Water
“Are you going to help me or what,” she asks, gathering cleaning supplies and not paying enough attention, because he grabs her around the waist and jumps into the pool; between the shrieking and laughter and splashing, the chore never gets done.
- Electricity
Pikachu thinks that if he shocks them both enough, eventually they’ll figure it out.
- Nerves
She should have guessed, really, that he was going to kiss her as soon as he turned his hat around, it’s always been his tell.
- Ghost
Ash takes other friends to the annual festive at Madian Peak, and finally comes to understand the ways in which it’s haunted.
- Teasing
If Gary calls her “Red” one more time he might seriously consider sending for Charizard.
- Foresight
Professor Oak watches them from his window, bickering in his yard, and remembers, fondly, how it had felt to be that young and in love.
- Music
She makes him playlists sometimes, of songs she likes, or, more often, songs that remind her of him; sharing them with him can feel like more of an admission that she’s ready for.
- Time
Entering his bedroom can feel like stepping backwards into the past, and it breaks Ash’s heart a little to know that this place will never really be his home again.
- Perspective
The distinction between ‘best friends that were destined to meet’ and ‘soulmates’.
- Possessed
Misty flung herself into his arms without thinking twice; he caught her just as instinctively.
- Never
It’s just a stupid game, but he can’t even make eye contact with her, sitting across from him, face aglow in firelight; he’s so stupidly, ashamedly relieved when she doesn’t put her finger down.
- Road
All eventually lead to her, his home and greatest adventure.
- Life
She’s saved his twice.
- Counter
He wanted to fight - by her, with her, for her, always.
- Confidant
“I have a secret,” she tells him immediately once he’s answered the phone, “Tracy is going to propose to Daisy,” and it takes him a second, less than, to get the picture of Misty in a wedding dress out of his head so that he can come up with an appropriate response.
- Disaster
“I’m coming home,” he hells her as soon as he learns about the flood in Cerulean city, and he travels non-stop for days to reach her.
- Fantasy
Everywhere he goes he imagines her with him; the friends she’d make in Hoenn, the food she’d like in Kalos, the pokemon she’d adore in Alola, and the ache never really goes away.
- Flowers
Her favorites are Kasumisou, which is mother has planted in her garden for years now – it’s the first thing he sees every time he comes home.
- First
The feeling of his gloves is rough against her soft skin; the sound she makes when he deepens their kiss has his head spinning for days.
- Last
The train leaves at midnight, and she knows if she doesn’t leave now, she’s going to miss it, but when he begs, “stay for 5 more minutes, please, Mist,” she does.
- Lovers
Their kisses are sloppy and new, it’s exhilarating, and Misty can’t help but tease Ash with, “not too bad, for a want-to-be Pokemon Master”; Ash, wisely, does not correct her by pointing out that he is now actually a Pokemon Master.
- Breakup
It never happens.
- String
Regardless of place, time or circumstance, some things are meant to be; he tells her this over and over again, in different iterations of their life together, but the result is always the same, them, together, perfectly imperfect.