Disclaimer: pokemon (c) Nintendo

Dreaming of You

by

CrystalMask

Chapter 3

After softly closing the door to Ash's room, Misty pressed her ear against the door, wanting to make sure she hadn't woke him up.

"Misty?"

Misty quickly jumped away from the door and saw Brian standing a few feet away from her. "Brian! Don't startle me like that!"

"Why? What were you doing? Were you spying on Ash? And why are you out of your room in your pajamas?"

Misty blushed. "I wasn't spying on Ash!" And stop asking so many questions.

"Then what were you doing?"

"I was just making sure I didn't wake him up when I closed the door of his room."

Brian immediately eyed her suspiciously. "And why were you in his room?"

Misty glared back at him. "That's none of your business." She turned around and started walking towards her room. "Now if you're done with the Q and A, I need to get dressed."

Brian immediately started following her. "Just tell me why you were in his room!"

"No."

"Misty! Tell me now!" he demanded, following her stubbornly to her room. "Misty, tell me!" A loud slam of a door was his answer.

Misty sighed, walking over to her bag and grabbing her clothes. She knew Brian was still outside, waiting for her to finish so he could keep questioning her. After trying to take as much time as possible to get ready, she walked over to the door and opened it. As expected, Brian was outside, tapping his foot impatiently on the floor.

"What now?" she asked in a long suffering voice.

"Just tell me why you were in his room," he said, trying to hide the anxiety in his voice.

"Ash didn't feel too well last night so I just wanted to make sure he was okay. Are you satisfied?"

"Ooooh," Brian said, relief dripping from his words. "Aw, Cherry! You're such a good pal! Now, let's go have some breakfast, kay?"

"Sure."

To Misty's surprise, the ship's cafeteria was a lot emptier than she had expected. Sure, it was rather early in the morning but from experience, trainers usually got up early. She followed Brian to one of the tables and sat down. While Brian started reading one of the menus, Misty couldn't help but wish her other two best friends were there. She liked Brian and all, but she wanted to spend quality time with Brock and Ash.

"Okay, Misty, do you know what you're gonna order? Brian asked, awakening the redhead from her reveries.

Misty grabbed the menu and skimmed it. "I'll have the pancakes, I guess." She dropped the menu on the table and watched as Brian got up to get their breakfast. Aw man, where was Brock, anyway? He of all people should already be up. She looked around the cafeteria and felt her lips twist into a smile. Brock had indeed gotten up early, and was now in the process of trying to win the heart of a young girl sitting a few tables away from Misty. Same old Brock, Misty thought, rolling her eyes.

Just at that moment, Brian came back with their breakfasts. "Here we go," he announced, placing a plate of pancakes of in front of Misty. "Pancakes for you and waffles for me."

"Mmm-mm, thanks, Brian," Misty said, reaching for the maple syrup and pouring it on her pancakes.

"Heh, you're welcome, Cherry."

By the time Misty took the last bite of pancakes, half an hour had already passed. It was starting to get rather late and Ash still hadn't showed up.

"Ash isn't here yet," she muttered, mostly to herself.

Brian shrugged. "It's his loss," he replied curtly.

"Yeah, well, I'm getting worried," Misty shot back, getting up.

"Where are you going?"

"I'm going to go wake him up befo-"

"Misty, geez, stop freaking out about him," Brian cut her off, sounding annoyed. "There's stuff I want to show you and come on, isn't your best friend more important than him?"

"You're right, my best friend is more important," she answered, dryly, "which is why I'm going to go wake up Ash."

Before Brian could retort anything, Misty stormed off. By the time she reached Ash's door, the redhead had cooled off. She knocked twice on his door but there was no answer. She knocked again, harder this time. "Ash?"

Having received once again no answer, Misty slightly opened the door and went inside. Ash's room was completely empty; the bed was unmade and Ash's pajama had been messily stuffed into his backpack. "Hmm, he must have left already."

He couldn't be in the cafeteria—she'd have bumped into him on the way to his room. Maybe he was in the battleroom? She left the room and started making her way to the fifth floor. Just as she was passing the Olympic pool room, something jumped on top of her shoulder and held on.

"Pikachu-pi!"

Misty laughed. "Hi, Pikachu! How are you? Did you sleep well?"

The yellow rodent let out a content "pikaaa" and let himself tumble into Misty's arms, making the former giggle.

"Misty!"

She looked up and saw Ash standing next to the large pool, waving at her. She grinned and ran over to him.

"Ash! How're you feeling?" she asked upon reaching him.

"I'm okay, Misty but that's not important," he answered, waving his hand dismissively. "What's important is that!" He pointed at something inside the pool.

"Misty put Pikachu on the floor and looked at the place Ash was pointing to. At the very bottom of the deep pool, a small blue pokemon was swimming around.

"Is…Is that a Chinchou?" she asked, leaning a bit towards the pool.

Ash leaned in too. "No, no, it looks like a squirtle," he replied, squinting his eyes.

Misty leaned forward even more. "No, Ash, it's a Chinchou. I mean, look at it!"

"Misty, come on! It's a squirtle!" Ash leaned in even more except, this time, he leaned over a little too much. In a second, he lost his balance and started falling towards the pool. As any normal human, his first reaction was to grab onto whatever he could, resulting in pulling Misty along for his unplanned swimming session.

Misty was the first to rise to the surface. "Ash! What was that for?"

Ash surfaced next and laughed awkwardly. "Sorry, Misty, I didn't mean it, honest!"

"Yeah but now I'm all wet, you dolt," she shot back, pouting slightly.

Suddenly, a squirtle surfaced in between the two friends and then swam away, making Ash grin victoriously.

"Ha! I told you it was a squirtle!"

"Oh, shut up," Misty said, playfully splashing water on Ash.

"Hey!" Ash laughed and covered himself. Not wanting to let Misty get away with it, he retaliated by splashing her with water too. Soon after, Ash was in the middle of a very intense water fight with Misty until he noticed Pikachu.

The small pokemon was laughing at the humans' antics and Pikachu, unlike Ash and Misty, was completely dry.

"Hey Misty, don't you think it's only fair that everyone gets soaked?" he slyly asked, nodding towards Pikachu.

"Oh yes, I agree, Ash," she replied, smiling mischievously.

"Pi?" squeaked Pikachu, noticing how the two trainers were slowly swimming towards him.

The moment Ash and Misty were out of the pool, Ash yelled, "Get him!"

Pikachu immediately ran away for his dear life, followed closely by the two laughing teens.

"Come back, buddy!"

"Yeah, Pikachu, we only want to throw you in the pool!"

"Pikaaaaaaa!"

Ash ran ahead of Misty and managed to get close enough to catch Pikachu. "Gotcha!"

"Pika!" Pikachu tried to fight his way out of Ash's arms but Misty had come to help Ash restrain Pikachu, leaving the poor pokemon with no escape from his giggling tormentors.

Once they reached the poolside, the two humans started counting the seconds until Pikachu's watery fate.

"One…Two…Three!"

The two of them jumped in, taking their unwilling mouse along with them for the ride. After everyone surfaced, a half furious half amused Pikachu started chasing the two friends. As they swam away from Pikachu's wrath, Ash caught Misty's eye and showed her the largest grin he could muster, unaware of the blush that instantly appeared on her face.

Lying down on a beach chair next to Misty, Ash couldn't stop thinking about how nice it felt to hang out with her again. While they had waited for their clothes to dry as they rested under the sun, the two friends had finally really sat down to catch up.

"You know, I really missed you," Ash confessed, grinning at her.

"Aw, has little Ashy-boy gone soft on me?" Misty teased, wanting to distract the blush that urged to appear on her face.

"Heh, last time I ever tell you what I'm feeling," Ash scoffed, trying to sound offended.

Misty laughed gently. "I missed you too, softie."

Ash smiled and was about to say something but a scream cut him off.

"Cherry!"

Groaning quietly, both Ash and Misty turned around to look at Brian, currently running towards them.

"Hey," Misty greeted in a half-hearted attempt to look happy he had come.

Brian glanced at Ash, gave him a curt nod then looked at Misty. "Hey, Misty, I wa—Why you wet?"

"Oh, no reason," she replied, smiling, "Ash and I just felt like swimming—"

"With our clothes on," Ash completed, also smiling at Brian.

"Aw, I wanted to be the first one to swim with you, Misty," Brian muttered, oblivious to the satisfied smirk Ash was now displaying.

Misty smiled sympathetically. "Maybe later, Brian."

"Well, okay."

At this point, Ash expected Brian to leave but, instead, Brian lied down next to Misty on the beach chair. As if wanting to add insult to injury, Brian put his arm beneath Misty's neck and got closer to her. And then, to make thing as bad as they could get, Ash noticed Misty was blushing. What was Brian doing? Was he trying to steal Misty away or something? And why did she seem to like it?

Ash, of course, was quite mistaken in his assumptions. Although Misty loved Brian as a friend, she wanted to hit him for cuddling her in front of Ash. Embarrassed by Brian's inappropriate actions, she blushed intensely. She was about to move Brian away from her but got distracted by Ash getting up.

"Ash? Where're you going?"

"I'm going to go take a look around the ship," he replied, his casual tone sounding very forced.

Misty made a move to get up. "Oh! I'll come wit-"

"No," Ash interrupted, "I don't mind going alone." Before Misty could even reply, he walked away.

Worried by Ash's cold behavior, she told Brian to wait a moment and ran off to catch up with Ash. "Hey, Ash!"

Ash stopped and turned to look at Misty. "Yes?"

"'Fess up. What's wrong?"

Ash forced a smile. "Nothing's wrong, Misty."

"Ash…"

"Fine," Ash grunted. "It's him, okay?"

"Him? Brian? Ash, not this again," Misty groaned. "What's Brian done to you for you to dislike him so much?"

"Well…nothing exactly," Ash muttered.

"Then why do you hate him?"

"Because he keeps interrupting," Ash exclaimed, frustrated. "You and I were having a great time and he just comes along and interrupts like if he was your best friend and—"

"Ash, he is my best friend," Misty interrupted.

"Well, fine then!" he snapped. "Why are you even hanging out with me, anyways? Go back and cuddle with your best friend and leave me alone!"

"Fine I will!"

"Fine!"

"Fine!

They both stormed off in opposite directions, muttering under their breaths.

The rest of the day was very unpleasant for both of them. Avoiding eachother, talking only if necessary and all-around being in a sour mood, Ash and Misty looked like the opposites of best friends. The only moment they momentarily forgot their squabble was when the ship reached Tura Island.

Saying the Island was big was a severe understatement. Tropical forests covered the island, small mountains poking out from inside the trees. Upon reaching the northern part of the island, both contestants and tourist were led to a huge pokemon center right at the entrance of the tropical forest. Ash and Misty reluctantly followed, wondering if the trip was really going to be as pleasant as they had hoped.

TO BE CONTINUED

AN: Everytime I make Brian call Misty 'Cherry', a little part of my soul scrunches up and dies ._.

SO, dear readers, I'm sorry to be a little late with thisss but I had a little trouble deciding if I should include a dream sequence in this chapter but I think instead of including it here and doing only a tiny sequence, I'll do a whole chapter focused almost entirely on a dream sequence BD

Anywayss, I hope you enjoy and the next chapter should be done in like max a month and min two weeks~