Work Text:
“Ten years,” remarked Ash as he took another shovelful of dirt from the backyard of his childhood home. Misty chuckled, a shovel in her own hand.
“Yup, ten years,” she replied, taking her own shovelful of dirt and tossing it into the same pile.
“You think everything in there is still intact,” Ash asked.
“I hope so, especially some of the more fragile stuff. I’d hate to see anything broken, especially my Mini-Misty lures.”
“Or the photos,” Ash grunted, scooping a heavier load, as dirt gave way compact, wet dirt.
“Thank the stars Delia said we should put in copies and not the originals. I would’ve hated to lose those.” Another scoop. Another soft of dirt.
Ash pushed down into the dirt again and heard a scrape: metal against metal. The pair looked up and grinned at each other, knowing they hit the capsule. Instead of digging down more, they dug sideways, widening the hole just enough to reach around the box and lift it out.
“You want to open it here, or inside,” asked Misty, gesturing to the box and locations.
“Let’s clean it first, then bring it in.”
Misty nodded, taking one handle of the box, and Ash taking the other and pulled it up onto the table on the patio. Heavier than expected, the two wiped it down with bristle brushes, followed by the occasional towel, and more brushing until nearly all the dirt was off, save for a few small bits here and there.
Finally, the locks were cut open with bolt cutters and Ash and Misty looked inside. The items locked away were a little worn after a decade in the capsule, but still relatively intact.
Inside were copies of photos that Ash took throughout the years from the first Pokémon he caught (a Caterpie), to a photo of him standing next to the world championship trophy.
Each photo they went through, they had words to share with each other.
“Heh, I remember how squeamish you were about him.”
“Hey, I got out of that phase,” Misty retorted, giving Ash a playful shove. “I did catch a Surskit.”
Ash nodded. “You certainly got over your fear… mostly.”
Misty snorted, then chuckled. There was a box of the first eight badges Ash had won. The hat he wore when he won the Pokémon World Championship in Galar. Misty’s contribution was one of her Mini-Misty special lures, one of the dolls she won in the Princess cup, as well as her own photos. One of the more interesting photos was a side-by-side of Misty’s original bike: the left was the wrecked version, the right was the restoration. Though less exciting than the other items, one of Misty’s original hair ties was included.
When Ash looked at the tie, he looked back at Misty who met him. “You think you’d ever where you hair up,” he asked.
Misty brushed her flowing hair which was now about past her jaw.
“Nah,” she answered. “You always had that look of awe in your eye whenever I wore my hair down.”
Ash chuckled, thinking back to when he first saw her at the Maiden’s Peak festival. He nodded. “Absolutely, and you know what?”
“What?"
He gave her a peck on the lips. “You still look beautiful.”
She blushed, but then kissed him right back.