DISCLAIMER: I do not own Pokémon. Cover art by Cleopatrawolf (DeviantArt).

This story is intended as a sequel of sorts to the song, 'Under the Mistletoe', from the album, 'Pokémon Christmas Bash'. I was originally going to post it as part of my Trainer and the Tomboy collection, but since it's Christmas-themed I decided to flesh it out and make it its own thing.

A Deal's a Deal

CHAPTER 1: Setting the Scene of the Scheme

"What about Wilhomena?"

"The girl with the marill? What about her?"

"Don't you think she'd want to see you again?"

"It's been four years since we saw her. She probably doesn't even remember who we are."

"Okay…well, how about Temacu? She liked you."

"Oh god no, not her! She was creepy, and she only had a thing for me because I was in the right place at the right time. Remember how she was around that doctor straight after?"

"Ugh, fine, bad idea. Well, we've run out of ones from Johto now, too – was there anyone in Hoenn who noticed you?"

"Er, well, there was this one girl called Natalie who had a bit of a crush on me…"

"I'm listening…"

"But she was only, like, eight or something. Her sister, though, now she was something else…"

"Oh come on! What did I just say about sensible suggestions only?"

"ARGH!" Brock cried, streams of tears pouring comically from his narrow eyes. "This is hopeless! I'll never find a girl in time for the party! I can't believe I've let another New Year's Eve go to waste!"

Beside him, Misty rolled her eyes in an exasperated fashion. She had barely been in Pallet Town for five minutes, and already her old friend had managed to rope her into an intense discussion about his love life…or lack thereof. Finally losing her patience, she slammed her hand down on the table, causing the distressed man to look up at her in shock.

"For Mew's sake, Brock, get a hold of yourself!" she barked, her orange ponytail jiggling around on the left side of her head as she spoke. "You're never going to get any attention from a girl if you keep this up. And besides, the party's not 'til tomorrow night; you've got plenty of time!"

"I, for one, believe there's more to New Year's Eve than just finding a girlfriend," mused Tracey atop a stepladder behind them.

"That's because you've got one," Brock replied bitterly.

"Well, I…er…" the flustered pokémon watcher chuckled nervously before shifting his eyes down to the large pile of streamers in his hand. "That's not the point. Christmas and New Year are supposed to be about friends and family getting together! Isn't that the whole reason you came home a few days before Ash and the others?"

"It's not the whole reason," he corrected. "True, I thought it'd be nice to spend Christmas with my family since the Battle Frontier facilities are so close to home, but I also hadn't seen the Pewter City Nurse Joy in a while, so…"

"Yeah, that sounds about right," laughed Tracey. "Oh, er, mind your head, Misty."

Ducking slightly, the redheaded 17-year-old watched her friend lean over the top of her to fasten another frilly streamer to the wall, humming to himself while he secured it carefully in place. The makeshift ballroom in Professor Oak's laboratory was shaping up to be quite the festive party venue, with brightly coloured decorations hanging from the otherwise grey walls and a large pine tree at the opposite end of the room, its tip almost touching the high ceiling. Tending to the tree were Professor Oak himself, pausing every now and then to stretch out his back, and Delia Ketchum, who smiled to herself as she sorted through a box of shimmering tree ornaments. A warm feeling filled Misty's chest as she surveyed her surroundings, one that took her right back to her time travelling the world with her best friends; yet, as much as she tried to ignore it, a subtle note of disappointment lingered on the end of each sensation of joy and excitement she experienced, building and building until a sad sigh slipped through the young girl's lips.

When she arrived, Delia had told her the disheartening news that Ash, May and Max would not be arriving until the day of the party, a whole three days after they were supposed to. She already knew that Ash had not made it home for Christmas, as his mother had invited her to spend the day at the Ketchum residence along with Professor Oak and his two research assistants, and although she and Delia had grown quite close in recent years, she politely declined, silently convinced that the occasion would simply not be the same without her best friend there to celebrate it with them. In truth, it had only been a few months since she had last seen Ash, briefly travelling with him again to reach the Battle Factory close to her hometown of Cerulean City – but that did not stop her from missing him more and more every time he left.

Before she allowed herself to drift further away, Misty was plucked from her reverie by a shrill cry of "Zu, zu!" coming from in front of her. Looking down, she petted her baby azurill lovingly as it continued to skip from one end of the long buffet table to the other.

"Are you sure I can't help out in any way here, Tracey?" she asked. "I feel really lazy just sitting around while you're nearly breaking your neck on that ladder every five minutes."

Her offer was only half-genuine, however, as the girl was merely getting tired of listening to Brock feeling sorry for himself, and was looking desperately for a way out. "Oh, it's really no trouble, Misty." Tracey smiled down at her, apparently oblivious to her plan. "I'm almost done here, anyway."

"You sure?" she tried again as Brock began to whimper childishly beside her.

"Yep. Thanks for offering, though."

"Dammit," she muttered to herself. Sighing in defeat, she rolled up the sleeves of her red Christmas jumper before turning back to her girl-obsessed friend.

"So there was really only one person in the whole of Hoenn – a child, no less – who found you attractive?" She sighed, trying to hide the boredom in her voice. "You can't think of anyone else?"

Brock stroked his chin in thought. "Well, actually, there was one more. It was fairly recently, too. Her name was Lucy."

Misty sat up in her chair, quickly finding herself interested in the conversation once again. "Ok, that's a good start, I guess. So, how'd you meet her?"

He blushed. "Oh, well, you see, she runs the Battle Pike near Fuchsia City, and-"

On the other side of the table, Gary Oak, who had been uncharacteristically quiet until that point, suddenly broke into a huge coughing fit, sending tiny beads of eggnog flying into the air.

"Wait just a second…" he spluttered, gradually regaining his naturally snarky tone. "Lucy? As in Pike Queen Lucy, the Frontier Brain?"

Brock nodded innocently, causing both Misty's and Gary's eyes to widen in utter disbelief.

"Well? What happened?" Misty probed eagerly.

To their disappointment, however, Brock just shrugged lamely. "Nothing, really. I asked her to travel with us, but Max dragged me away before she could answer."

Gary and Misty looked over at each other, trading incredulous expressions at the words they had just heard. A short silence elapsed as the two teenagers tried their best to wrap their heads around the sheer absurdity of the situation just described to them, broken moments later by a swell of hearty and slightly malevolent-sounding laughter from the far end of the table.

"Are you freaking kidding me?!" Gary panted, his voice somewhere between amusement and disgust. "You managed to get one of the hottest, most desirable women on the planet to come onto you, and you still blew it?! Oh, that's it, that's the final straw right there. This guy's a lost cause, Red."

"I've got to say, Brock, I agree with Gary on this one," Misty muttered disapprovingly. "I mean, how could you let that one get away? I've seen her on TV; she's gorgeous! Hell, I'm straight, and even I'd think twice if she made a pass at me!"

The formerly solemn pokémon breeder's face lit up boyishly at that last remark, causing Misty to smack him hard on the arm. "I was just kidding, pervo. Wipe that look off your face right now!"

Gary smirked, flicking his wild, brown hair and lifting his legs up to rest them on the table, "Well, if there's one thing we can take away from this," he addressed Brock in his signature holier-than-thou fashion, "it's that your inability to get a girlfriend is definitely your fault, not theirs."

Although Misty partially agreed with the arrogant pokémon researcher, she could not deny that his nonchalant attitude was beginning to wear on her. "If you're going to sit with us, at least try and help instead of just picking apart all of my suggestions," she said sternly. "Why don't you try and set Brock up with someone from your fan club?"

At that moment, Tracey let out a small chuckle from the corner of the room. "Sorry to burst your bubble, Misty, but, despite what he'd have you believe, Gary hasn't had a fan club for years."

Gary shot Tracey a murderous look, but swiftly returned to his former expression of self-importance before anyone noticed. "Technically true though that may be, Mr. Sketchit, I still have all their numbers right here." He gestured towards the pokégear on his belt. "I could call any one of them right now, and they'd all clamber over each other at the drop of a hat for a chance to carve their name in the Oak, if you know what I mean…"

While both Brock and Tracey immediately started sniggering, Misty simply wrinkled her nose and grimaced.

"That's…truly disgusting," she scolded the boy, who winked cockily at her.

"Hey, don't knock it 'til you try it." He grinned somewhat flirtatiously. "I'd be happy to teach you sometime…provided Ashy-boy doesn't mind sharing, of course."

In an instant, Misty's face was as red as a cheri berry, and her lip quivered in both anger and frustration.

"Why, you stuck-up, arrogant little-"

"Is everything alright over there, dears?"

From the far end of the room, the sweet, singsong voice of Delia Ketchum sailed over to Misty's ears, briefly distracting her from the inevitable gruesome murder she was about to commit.

"Uh, yeah, everything's fine, Mrs. Ketchum," she waved, trying to laugh away the shakiness in her voice.

"I'm so happy you could join us this year, Misty," smiled the benevolent woman. "And Ash will be, too; he really misses you, you know."

Misty's blush returned once again, albeit for a slightly different reason. "He…he does?" she murmured.

Delia nodded warmly. "I can tell by the way he talks about you. Mother's intuition and all that."

Sensing that this was the natural end to the conversation, Delia turned slowly back to decorating the giant Christmas tree, while Misty remained rooted to the spot in a kind of trance. Her older friend and mother figure had a way with words that always seemed to resonate profoundly with the young girl. Her heart began to beat faster, and she allowed a small smile to grace her features before a familiar groaning sound succeeded in tearing her from her little bubble.

"That's real nice and all, but can we please get back to the matter at hand?" a rather frantic Brock whined. "I've got a serious crisis here, people."

"Oh, for the love of god!" Misty snapped, her patience for Brock's drivelling finally reaching capacity. "Fine, you know what? I'll do it myself! Honestly, you guys are useless!"

"What are you talking about?" he asked nervously.

"I'm talking about getting you a girlfriend, what you do think?!"

"I, er…really?"

"If it'll stop your whining, then why not?" she replied in a slightly softer tone before adopting a determined grin. "I bet I can find the perfect girl for you in no time – before the end of the year, in fact! It's a done deal!"

Gary raised an eyebrow at her odd choice of words. "A deal?"

"Uh, yeah, that's what I said, isn't it?" Misty uttered, unsure of what the boy was getting at.

"And what if you can't?"

"Can't what?"

He chuckled haughtily. "Well, let's face it; finding anyone a date in less than two days is a pretty tall order – unless you're me, of course – and Brocko here's got a terminal case of womanitis."

Across the table, Brock blurted out a quick "hey!" before the pokémon researcher continued. "I'm just saying, how about we raise the stakes a little, huh, make this more interesting? You did say it was a deal, after all."

Though her gut told her to shoot down his idea there and then, a niggling spark of curiosity in the back of Misty's mind compelled her to hear him out. "Go on…"

He held up his finger pompously to emphasise his forthcoming announcement. "The deal is that you have to help Brock find love before the strike of midnight on New Year's Day. If you don't, then we three get to choose a suitable punishment for you." He circled his finger between himself, Brock and Tracey. "How's that sound, eh, Red?"

Misty grunted under her breath, cursing the fact that everything with Gary Oak seemed to turn into a competition at some point. Nevertheless, after his outrageous comment a couple of minutes ago, there was no way she was going to let him gain the upper hand.

"Fine, what do I care?" she declared confidently. "It's not like I'm going to lose anyway."

"Then it's settled!" Gary concluded, turning towards his co-conspirators. "So, any ideas, boys?"

As fate would have it, Tracey, who had been drifting in and out of the conversation as he darted about decorating the lab, seized this moment of silence to call across the room to his friends at the table.

"Hey, make sure you guys remember where all of these are, okay?" he joked, holding up a small, green branch and gesturing with his thumb to the others hanging from the light fixtures around the room. "I really don't want to have to kiss any of you."

Misty laughed out of politeness, but scowled inwardly at the infernal plant between his finger and thumb. Her last experience with mistletoe – six years ago in this very room, coincidentally, with a certain dimwitted pokémon trainer – had not exactly gone the way she had hoped.

At that very moment, however, Brock's eyes lit up, and a devious grin crept onto his face. Beckoning Gary closer, he leant forward over the table and whispered his plan into the young man's ear, after which the two began to chuckle furtively.

"Oh my god…it's perfect!"

"I know! Why didn't we think of this years ago?"

Misty watched the scene with a mixture of confusion and anger, the latter building with every ambiguous line they spewed out.

"What? What is it?"

"Oh man, I can't wait to see the look on their faces!" Brock wheezed, his face flushed from laughter.

"Truly a sight to behold, I wager," Gary agreed.

Misty's face began to grow hotter and hotter. She did not like to be kept in the dark.

"Come on, what is it? Tell me!" she wailed.

"I hope someone brings a video camera."

"Yeah, Gramps is bound to have one lying around somewhere. We ought to sell it to the news when we're done, eh?"

For the second time in an hour, the furious redhead banged her fist down on the table, causing Brock to jump and Gary to shift his legs back down to the floor.

"GARY OAK, YOU BETTER LET ME IN ON WHATEVER THIS IS RIGHT NOW, OR YOU'RE GOING TO SPEND THE REST OF THE HOLIDAYS PICKING TINSEL AND PINE NEEDLES OUT OF YOUR ASS!" Misty shrieked out in a single breath, pointing menacingly towards the Christmas tree in the corner.

"Okay, okay, no need to get graphic," Gary exclaimed, the cold sweat on his forehead betraying his efforts to casually shrug off the girl's harrowing threat. "I think we're ready to reveal, right, Brock?"

The pokémon breeder grinned, albeit somewhat nervously, before nodding his head. Taking that as his cue, Gary cleared his throat and leaned closer to the increasingly anxious redhead across from him.

"After much deliberation," he embellished mockingly, "Brock and I have come to the decision that, should you fail in your mission to set my dear colleague here up with a lady friend before the strike of 12 tomorrow night…" He paused dramatically while Brock performed a drumroll with his hands on the tabletop. All Misty could do was watch, wincing as she tried to prepare herself for the worst.

"…You have to walk up to your beloved Ashy-boy and give him a full-blown smooch under the mistletoe."

The subsequent howls of laughter from Brock, Tracey and Gary were but a blur to the motionless girl, the words of her best friend's old rival ringing harshly in her ears like a family of overexcited chimecho. Though she thought she was equipped for anything those three could throw at her, as she had always been in the past, this was on a whole new level, more difficult and more terrifying than she could have imagined. Not that the trio had never hinted at her not-so-well-hidden feelings for Ash before, because they had – rather liberally, in fact – but actually asking her to…kiss him? A sudden dizziness brought on by the sheer heat of Misty's crimson face prevented her from entertaining the notion further.

"And, what's more," Brock added, eliciting a horrified gasp from the blushing young woman, "You have to do it right in the middle of the room, just as everyone's shouting, 'Happy New Year!' Isn't that hilarious?"

That did it. Though Misty may have been temporarily lost for words, this final grain of salt in the wound caused her to instantly regain her most caustic vocabulary.

"WHAT?!" she bellowed at the trio. "You must be crazy! If you think I'm doing that at all, let alone in front of the whole town, you've got another thing coming!"

"A deal's a deal, Red," Gary reminded her. "You said we could choose, remember?"

"Screw your deal!" she spat back at him. "And screw you! I'm not doing this, you hear me? Just leave me alone!"

Reaching over to scoop up Azurill in her arms, Misty slouched back in her seat, turning slightly to the side so as not to meet the gazes of the three men surrounding her. She hugged the baby pokémon close to her chest, muttering to herself angrily. Brock and Tracey exchanged a serious look as if silently agreeing to tone down their jesting; as fun as it often was to tease their old friend, they always seemed to know when they had gone too far, the point at which their words began to hurt her rather than simply annoy her, and this was the exact place to stop and apologise. Gary, however, was not so wise, being both less familiar with and less sympathetic to the volatile redhead's feelings, and, before the older duo could get a word in, he flicked his hair vainly before starting up again.

"Well, okay, then," he began through a suspiciously sarcastic smile. "If you don't want to, that's your choice. Still, I can't help feeling sorry for old Brock here, you know? I mean, after you'd all but promised him that you'd help him find a date for the party, the one he's been so looking forward to…I know I'd be feeling pretty bad about myself right now if I let someone down like that. And for what, a simple kiss with my best friend who I've been painfully in love with ever since I met him? Come to think of it, New Year's Eve is a pretty romantic occasion, is it not? I could certainly think of worse ways to experience my first kiss…"

As he continued to drone on in the background, Misty dug her toes into the floor out of both anger and embarrassment. She knew that Gary was trying to manipulate her, and wanted nothing less than to give him the satisfaction of seeing her relent, but the more he spoke, the more she found herself focusing on the elements of truth in his spiteful monologue. It did seem selfish of her to shun Brock in his hour of need over a simple bet; yet, things involving Ash Ketchum were never that simple, and she cursed him for the way he made her feel in moments like these. Releasing a tired sigh, she reluctantly made her decision.

"That's enough!" she silenced him. Then, with her eyes fixed on the floor, she softly murmured, "I'll do it."

Instantly, wide smiles appeared on the faces of the three men around her. Brock and Tracey sighed with relief, while Gary just chuckled to himself.

"Thanks, Misty," Brock said cheerfully. "Somehow, I feel much better about my chances now!"

Still rather lightheaded from her most recent action, Misty did not reply for a few awkward seconds. "Don't thank me yet, Brock. We've still got a long way to go."

Nodding, Tracey leant his arm against the wall next to the table. "You guys ought to make a start pretty soon. I'm heading over to Viridian City in about half an hour to run some errands, so you're welcome to come along if you want."

No sooner had the pokémon watcher uttered the words than Brock leapt up from his seat giddily, punching the air like a child. "Alright! I'd better go and get ready! This is going to be my year, I just know it!"

Moments later, he was gone, the heavy lab door slamming shut behind him. Misty just sat there, trying to make sense of the surreal conversation that had taken up most of her morning. Suddenly, a task that she was formerly only partially committed to now had her undivided attention, and it was all to do with Ash. Contrary to what Gary had said, a packed room full of people she had never even met was hardly her idea of a romantic scenario. There was no way she would waste such a precious experience all for the sake of some measly deal, but neither was she about to go back on her word. She just had to make sure she won, and for that to happen, Brock would have to act even vaguely normal around a woman. As the young girl tried in vain to imagine what such a phenomenon would even look like, a solitary thought rattled unceasingly around in her brain:

Why do I keep getting myself into these things…?