Author - Chibi / Warlordess
Disclaimer - I don't own anything. . . But Harry Potter and The Goblet of Fire is coming out on DVD as of March of seventh and Misty's coming back as of April. . . first, wasn't it? So, either way, it doesn't matter, as the people who do run the shows around here are keeping up with all of it a lot better than I ever could.
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Fiction Title - "Fighting the Fates"
Chapter One - "The Wheels Start to Spin"
Summary - While making their way through Sootopolis, Ash and friends stumble across a local fortuneteller who says. . . dun, dun, dun! Ash and May are destined to be together! And then Misty and Drew pop into the picture. . . Whatever could they have to say about this? Pokeshippy and Contestshippy fic. Tee hee. :)
Ages -
Ash / 15
May / 13
Misty / 16
Drew / 14
Brock / 18
Max / 10
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"Oh, wow, guys! Look at that. . . !" May said, eliciting a squeal and revving her motors as she ran at full speed for another one of the shops at the Sootopolis shopping center. Her arms, not to mention those of Ash, Brock, and her brother, Max, were already full of bags, but she didn't hesitate to check the price tags on a certain few items, including a new pair of slacks and a golden bracelet with a ruby jewel in the center.
"May. . . !" Max whined, "Look, where do you think you're going to put all this anyway? We're travelers! And since when can you afford it?"
"For your information. . ." And here she turned to face him, stalking in his direction and looking mortally offended at the remark he'd made, insinuating that she hadn't been holding her own weight beforehand, ". . . I've been competing very well lately, haven't I, Ash, Brock?" She turned to the other two.
"Yea, you have, actually. . ." The oldest of the group stuck up for her, though he was still frowning, "I still think it's for the best, however, to save some of the profits for later on. Who knows what we might need them for. I mean, we do have other living things to care for besides ourselves."
"Pika. . . !" Pikachu cried from Ash's shoulder, and Ash gave a loud yawn as his stomach rumbled.
"Yea, I guess you're right. . ." May sighed, putting down the slacks and the bracelet.
"Great, good for you, May! You've come a long way! I see that those self-help books we bought you have really helped." Ash laughed when she stuck out her tongue at him, "Anyway, can we go get something to eat?"
"Right, right. . . And I see the self-help books we bought you haven't done a thing at all. . ." She commented as the group of four made their way out of one of the large department stores and down the wide hall, towards the food-court. They passed plenty of shops and things along the way, all of them glamorous in their own way, selling monumentously different things, from jewelry to clothes, books to holiday specialty items, flowers to gift cards, dollar-cheap things to DVD's and CD's, and then. . .
"Hey, what's that up there?" Max asked, pointing, and everyone turned and saw a large crowd of people muddled around a wide spot. It looked like it had formerly been renovated to include a new store, but there was nothing there now accept wide, gaping black drapes set high into the ceiling, and the drapes seemed to sparkle mysteriously somehow. As Ash, May, Brock, and Max got closer, they managed to catch sight of a sign just to the right of the crowd of people.
". . . 'Your future is fleeting; get it read today while you have the chance.'" May quoted. "Fortune-telling. . . ? Oh, how. . . romantic, somehow! That's so cool, and it says it's only ten dollars! I think this could be fun! Can we do it, Brock?" She turned and looked up at him and he seemed to think about it.
"I don't know. . . I mean, really. . . Who wants to trust their future to the 'all-knowing mind' of a mall seer? And for only ten dollars? It doesn't even sound worth it. . ."
"Oh, but please? Please, please, please, please, please. . . ?" She puckered her lip and Ash, his stomach rumbling hungrily again, rolled his eyes.
"Brock, let her have a go at it. The sooner she gets this done, the sooner I can head over to the food-court for my two double-bacon-cheeseburgers and four slices of pizza."
"Alright, alright. . . !" And the future Breeder waved her off as she parted through the watching crowd, just in time for two people, a girl with long brown hair in braids, and some guy with short bluish-green hair, to find out the fate of their long-term relationship.
"It will never last. . ." Said someone sitting at the front of the crowd; Ash, May, Brock, and Max turned to see the fortuneteller, a woman with heavy eyelids looking like she was always half-asleep. Her voice was very deep somehow, yet still soft and feminine. She had this way of keeping a person enthralled with her no matter what she said or did. At the sound of her words, however, the girl who had been standing before her, broke away from the boy she'd been holding onto and ran wildly away from him, tears leaking from her eyes. The boy didn't dare try to stop her.
"Er, h - hey. . ." May started, knowing that she probably shouldn't interfere, but feeling just a bit bad that something that seemed so nice had ended so suddenly, ". . . don't you think you should go after. . . Oh, no. . . It's you!"
"Well, if it isn't May, and her friends! Have you come to get your fortunes read, too?" Drew said, after turning to grace her with his presence. His ever-present smirk was still fixated where it always was, and he was holding a rose, too, and May looked expectant, as though waiting for him to throw it at her, and when he didn't, she tried not to look hurt.
"Actually, yes, I am. But that's not something you need to stick around for. Why don't you go try and catch up with your girlfriend, Drew? She was looking a bit hurt, there." At the thought of Drew and said girl, May seemed just a bit more haughty.
"I don't have a girlfriend." May blinked at that statement and then stuttered, "This fortuneteller thrives on the futures, the bonds, of two souls. That girl was a member of my fan club. . . When she found out that I was coming into town, for whatever reason, she assumed that it would be in my best interest to accompany her here and find out if we were meant to be together. . ." At the thought of it all, Drew was looking suddenly harassed, and he placed one hand to the back of his head and glanced over his shoulder, as though trying to see if anyone was following him.
"Er. . . I - I'm sorry for you, I guess. . ." Although, for some reason, May was feeling a lot better, and the whole thing seemed hilarious to her now. Although she was attempting to contain the urge to laugh, she couldn't, and she turned around to keep Drew from seeing, sure that he would be upset or offended or something. "St - still, even if she was a, er, a kind of. . . stalker - crazy. . ." She broke off to laugh again before continuing, ". . . This fan of yours, Drew. . . She really did like you, didn't she? You should at least apologize, I think." And here she finally turned back to face him again, and she saw that he was a bit red in the face.
"That is unnecessary." Everyone turned to see the fortuneteller staring almost blankly at May, "I see the truth, and this girl. . . Whoever she is, whatever she came to me for. . . The repercussions shall not matter. She knows what I see, she knows what it is she came to me for. The results of her questioning such fates should not be tampered with."
"O - okay, then. . . I'm glad we've cleared that up, at least. . ." May said, saluting the woman for doing such a wonderful job at confusing her. She turned back to continue her conversation with Drew, but he had already turned around and continued walking off. "Hey, what. . . ?"
"I guess I do owe her a bit of an apology. She dragged me here, yea, but it was only because she wanted to know if there was a future for us. When one person feels a certain way for the other, it can't be helped that they might do stupid things. . . So I'll see you later, May, I've got something to do for now." He faced her again for about two seconds and threw her the rose he'd been holding, and any anger, any aggravation she'd been feeling against him for his behavior, slipped away almost immediately.
And then he was gone.
". . . How does he do that. . . ?" She asked herself when she noticed that her cheeks had started to turn just a bit crimson.
". . . Gee, I dunno, May. . . I'm sure he just plans on finding where the girl ran off to, and saying that he's sorry that things didn't turn out the way she'd hoped they would originally. . ." Ash said, his hands behind his head in a nonchalant way as she gave him a half-glare in frustration, ". . . Although, if you ask me, it's a bit too much trouble to be going through for a girl, isn't it. . . ?"
May chose to ignore him. She turned back to the woman and slammed a ten dollar bill down onto the table in a secure sort of way, as though proving that she was sure of what she was doing to everyone around her, and then stared directly into the woman's eyes.
"I want to know my future. . ." May said confidently, "Er, please." She amended a second later.
The woman sighed for some reason, and May blinked, confused. And then the woman turned to face Brock, who was half-glaring back at her.
"I sense your doubt in me." She told him simply, and it seemed to shock Brock that she knew that about him so clearly. "It's not the first time that someone has thought so lowly of my art, but I think you should know that it clouds my mind when dark thoughts interfere with my channeling at such a close range. . . If you must belittle my abilities, please, do it at a distance. . ."
Now that Ash and everyone had gotten close enough, they could finally see everything that was there. Ash had to admit, he'd been expecting a bit much more than what there was. . . Maybe something like a crystal ball, star charts, tea ceremonies, things like that. . . After all, he heard that foretelling the future had a lot to do with astronomy and foggy-glass picture-gazing. . . But there was nothing here other than the black drapes, the chair that the woman was sitting on, and the table. There was a small tin box that was keeping the money she was making from her charges sitting in front of her as well, but other than that. . .
"Yea, Brock. . . !" May said, now looking just as annoyed, "If you're going to get in the way of my fortune being read, go away! This means a lot to me and your bad vibes are ruining it!" She huffed and crossed her arms, and Brock threw his hands up into the air, stomping his foot.
"Look, if I leave you here, you're going to end up spending the rest of our training profits on useless things. . . I guess I'll just have to put my personal feelings aside for now. . ."
"Spring. . ." The woman said quite suddenly, and May turned back to face her first of all, looking just a bit shocked, followed by everyone else.
"W - what?"
"You are Spring, my dear." The woman placed her left hand onto the table in a strangely straight way. It looked pearlescent somehow, and the flesh seemed to glow white against the dark wood of the surface beneath it. "You are Spring, you have always been associated with the colors of life, and the brightness of the sun, the flare of the light. Life, vibrant, is within you, kindness and serenity are your most profound traits and they will be the two that get you the farthest in your profession. . ."
Suddenly she turned to Ash and placed her right hand symmetrically beside her other.
"You are Autumn. You burn of a passion, a courage, to protect your family and friends that has brought you far, though you have faced many tribulations. . ." At this point, Ash turned and quirked an eyebrow at Brock as though asking whether or not the future Breeder was still disbelieving to the woman's craft, "The wind at your back forces you onward, and you are determined never to stay in one place for very long, and thus, you continue to move from destination to destination. . ." The woman sighed again and both Ash and May stared as she withdrew both of her hands and replaced them onto the table, palms up, ". . . I see. . ."
"Er, what do you see?" Ash asked, and May nodded, gulping anxiously as she leaned in, not wanting to miss a word.
"You two, a Spring and an Autumn, it is a very. . . decent thing for two such as yourselves to be acquainted with each other at such ripe ages!" The woman nodded affirmatively as she went on in a much firmer tone. "You're lucky, you are."
"Lucky. . . ?" May asked, "Why?"
"I don't think I like where this is going. . ." Ash groaned.
"I decree that you two would be very well-suited for one another. . ."
Ash and May continued to stare, as did everyone else.
". . . for the rest of your lives."
"Wh - what. . . ?" May squeaked again, as though hardly daring to believe it.
"You can't be serious!" Ash said in a much louder tone, seemingly first to recover. In the background, Brock and Max looked ready to break out into peals of laughter.
"Yea, what? That doesn't make any sense! Er. . ." May turned a bit red here and broke off, slightly abashed, ". . . does it?"
"No, it can't!" Ash continued in her place, "I mean, I'm two years older than you! We don't know each other well enough! You don't know us well enough to tell us that we're meant to be, let alone what you just said doesn't make any sense! And, well, no offense, May, but I don't really have any interest in you, at least, not in that way. . ." He finished in a mumble.
The crowd that had been there before Ash, May, Brock, and Max had arrived, the crowd that had been silent for the most part beforehand, seemed to strike up a slight of conversation at this point. Some of the people seemed to agree with Ash and May on the finer points of detail. . . but others were adamant about the fortunetellers skills.
". . . You do not understand. . . !" The woman started in explanation, but Ash was growing weary of the entire ordeal, and as he still hadn't gotten his lunch, he was beginning to feel mighty temperamental.
"No, you don't understand, lady! I'm tired, hungry, and you just got done telling me that I'm destined to be with my thirteen year old friend, May, who I don't have any type of romantic feelings for! You may be good at telling us if we've been through the wringer over the years of our training or whatever, but you don't get to decide whether or not we end up destined to spend the rest of our lives with a certain person, okay?" He finished with a huff, "Now. . . I'm starving, and if I don't get my double-bacon-cheeseburgers and pizza soon, heads are gonna roll. Who's with me?"
He turned to his friends and, not wanting to upset him any further, May, Max, and Brock began to follow after him, but he hadn't even taken three steps when the woman called after him, and what she had to say made him stop in his tracks.
"I did not say that you were destined to spend the rest of your lives together."
He faced her again, sighed frustratedly, unsure as to why he cared what the difference was.
"What's it matter? Isn't all of this soulmate-stuff the same?"
"'Soulmate-stuff'? Dear, you belittle reality. There is no such thing." Ash blinked, but let her go on. "There's no such thing as destiny, fate, or a. . . soulmate. There is a certain level of compatibility between every two people, however, and you two. . ." And here the woman nodded between him and May, ". . . share quite a lot of it. This is the same for every Spring and Autumn, of course, certain personal traits aside. Your traits are beautifully in tune, aren't they? Serenity, courage, kindness, passion; they are all links of the same well-oiled chain, and one with no diversity. A relationship between the two of you would be, well, near perfect."
Ash and May just stared at her. So did everyone else. They blinked, and then they turned away and began walking towards the food-court again, as though the whole course of their adolescent lives hadn't just possibly been altered.
"There won't be any type of relationship, lady, believe us." Ash and May said at the same time, and the crowd actually began to boo and hiss at them in retaliation to this conclusion.
"Wait just a moment, dears. . . !" They didn't stop walking away this time, knowing that, if they did, they might end up being wrapped up once again into another foolish fortune-telling bargain, "Destiny or not, it is not wise to ignore what you've been dealt by those who're wiser than you, children! There are consequences, and ignoring what awaits you will only make them worse. . . !"
Ash, May, and everyone else thoughtlessly ignored her.
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Notes - Oh, no, I've started another one! Crap! Then again, this one is likely to be shorter. . . I think. . . And I couldn't help it. . . It sounded like a funny idea. Heh. And it's cool to think that Ash and May find it just as ludicrous as we do, that they're a couple. Heh. Yea, and next chapter, I think, I'll have Drew and Misty find out about the whole thing, but I dunno if Misty will actually make it over to Hoenn or not. . . Brock's going to call her to let her know, you see. . . ? Heh. Yea. . . Uhm. . . What to do about it?
God, I need help. I need to stop coming up with fic idea's. I need to stop writing up fics when I've still got plenty of other things to write. Uhm, thanks to gladdecease and Silverflare07 for their friendly-ships (heh!) with me 'cause it's making me feel a bit better. I've been feeling really depressed recently (lots of thoughts of suicide, although, now that I think about it, gladdecease doesn't even know about that) and I'm planning that, since it's because I've been spending so much time with my mom (whose not such a fun person anymore), I plan on taking some time away from her. So, yea.
Anyway, should I continue with this fic first, or "The Strangest Kind of Love"? Heh.