Ash stood there on the docks staring, he couldn't take his eyes off her. She'd changed, not much but just enough to catch his eye, no longer did she wear her hair up or wear suspenders. A blouse was lightly on her shoulders, it was turquoise in colour, and on the left hand side of her yellow top was clipped the Cerulean gym badge the badge design was also on her bag. Suddenly she cocked her head to the right and his focus was interrupted, "Ash are you okay?" her voice was soft and kind, his heart skipped a beat, "Ye-yeah, I was... I was just____________" he couldn't think what to say 'staring? No, taking you in? No, looking at you? No,' there was no way of explaining it, so he blushed and turned his face away from her.

"So you noticed?" the words registered but he couldn't think of an answer, "So you've noticed how I've changed?" again her voice rang in his ears, he gulped, he had to say something. Anything would do, so long as it stopped her voice... her voice was just too good, how he'd missed it all these months, or was it years, that he'd been travelling. "Yeah, how could I not." He took a step towards her, really he hadn't expected to see her there after all didn't she say that she didn't want to come to Sinnoh? After all his attempts to talk her into coming there with him, suddenly she was here and alone... it was just them on the docks, them and only them, not even Pikachu had come with him when he left the pokécentre for a morning walk and all Misty's Pokémon were in pokéballs. "Why are you here?" he asked as he stepped even closer towards her, she blushed and he smiled 'how cute she looked when she blushed' as he got even closer she answered his question "I_ I just couldn't take not seeing you, I've missed you!" she said it with such confidence and he closed the gap between them, pulling her into a hug, "Same here."

Then a huge cry rang into his ears "ASSSSSSSSHHHHHHHHHHH!" Dawn's voice came crushing upon their moment and was soon accompanied by its owner, plus Brock and Pikachu. Rage and frustration was all over Dawn's face as she stormed up to the couple, who had separated from their hug, "Ash who's this?" her voice was shrill and sliced the two's ears with its piercing pitch. Brock stepped in to save Ash from explaining, "Misty, how've you been? Long time no see, when did you get here?" the bombardment of questions didn't phase the red-head at all, "Hi Brock! I've been fine, and you? Yeah has been a while and I only got here a few hours ago." Dawn fumed at the girl's relationship with her two companions, but then something registered in her mind 'Ash's fishing lure, was given to him by a "Misty"' this fuelled even more rage or more so jealousy.

As Dawn looked up at her friends again she saw a hand in front of her, "Hi I'm Misty, nice to meet you." The red head waited for Dawn to shake her hand, Dawn wasn't sure if she should but the smiles on Ash and Brock's faces compelled her to put her jealousy aside and try to genuinely get along with the girl, "Dawn, nice to meet you too. I've heard so little about you." The last words just slipped out of her mouth, and she mentally slapped herself but it didn't seem to faze the other girl, "Yeah, I guessed so... Ash isn't known for discussing his old friends with his new friends." Dawn laughed at the girl's simple remark and let a smile cross her face, "I know, right?"

Many hours later the group sat back in the pokécentre, Misty sat across from Dawn and the two where engrossed with talking about whatever came to mind. "Sooo, Misty, how's the gym going?" Ash butted into the girls' chattering abruptly but it didn't faze Misty, "Oh just fine, actually I'm here because my sisters believe I'm working too hard!" she laughed and turned back to Dawn who was now staring in awe at her, "You're a gym leader?" the red head grinned at the girl, so many people asked her this "Why yes I am, and one of the best in the Kanto region." Ash joined in on Misty's talk "Yeah, Misty runs the Cerulean gym... along with her sisters, The Sensational Sisters of Cerulean." Dawn's eyes gleamed and she instantly pounded Misty with questions "You're sisters are The Sensational Sisters? Wow, you are so lucky." The red head calmly waited while more questions where thrown at her, and gently answered each as it came.

The next day our group awoke to a bright, sunny day but Misty it seemed had already woken up and was outside training with her Pokémon. Ash and Brock where quickly outside to admire their old friend's training skills, "You've really stepped up your training Misty." Sighed Ash as he came to stand next to her, Pikachu at his heels, "Yeah well, I've got to be as original as possible when battling... it's not like I can use the same tricks over and over again." The girl took a breath before unclipping a pokéball from her belt, "Psyduck I choose you!" the girl cried as she threw the ball, the duck type Pokémon let out a cry as it fell flat on its face after being released, "Psy, Psy." Brock let out a chuckle as he joined his friends, "He still hasn't evolved yet, huh?" Misty laughed and shook her head, "No, not yet but soon I can feel it. Plus he's gotten a lot better!" As if to prove her point, Physduck pulled himself up and began to do some fitness exercises.

Dawn awoke to the sounds of many Pokémon doing daily exercise, "Pika! Psy, Psy! Azu~rill. ChimChar!" and so on was cheered from the area outside. She pulled herself out of bed and looked out the window, to see dozens of Pokémon giving it their all at jogging behind the red head, Ash also following and Brock preparing breakfast. The girl ran down the stairs and out the door of the pokécentre, still in her nightgown, and looked in awe at Misty's morning fitness training "Woah, Dawn you're up... perhaps you should get dressed, then you can come join us!" cheered Misty as she jogged on the spot in front of the girl, Dawn nodded and headed back inside.

Moments later, Dawn had her Pokémon joining in on the fun. "Wow, so you do this every morning Misty?" the girl laughed as she focused on keeping up with Misty, "Yep," Misty cried back. Suddenly the girl stopped jogging, and immediately so did her Pokémon (the one's that can jog or fly that is), this caught Ash and Dawn off guard and both ran into the back of the red head who turned around and gave them a cheesy grin "And then I do skipping, add 20 laps of swimming a brief snack and then proper training!" a groan was emitted from Dawn and Ash pumped his arm in the air, cheering out "Then let's do IT!" another moan from Dawn, and her Pokémon. Somehow, Misty managed to have enough skipping ropes for all of them which meant everyone had to do it, "OK, everyone let's do 20 forward and then 10 backwards!" the girl cheered to her Pokémon who seemed... pumped?

When it seemed that physical training was complete and all that was left was move training Misty decided to add "Oh wait, we've got to do mental training after this, it's important to keep your Pokémons' minds sharp otherwise they won't be able to improvise when strategy lets you down!" after this Ash let loose a complaint "Misty aren't you here to relax, take time off from all your hard work?" the girl blushed, and shifted her feet in the ground, "Yeah but it's important to keep healthy and train-" Dawn cut in before Misty could continue her mini speech "Yes it is, but you've got to relax.... play with your Pokémon, take things slowly." Ash laughed and wiped a tear from his eye, "No use telling her that Dawn, believe me, Misty's tough and always trains hard... and her Pokémon are just like that. Plus, its only morning just wait till evening and then you'll see her playing with her Pokémon!" Misty blushed, Ash still knew her so well even though it had been such a long time since they last met.

As the day wore on Dawn managed to witness the organization that was Misty, she and her Pokémon knew every aspect of what they were doing and had fun doing it. "No wonder you're a gym leader, you're so organized and you really bond with your Pokémon... hey your specialty is water Pokémon right?" the two girls where dangling their feet in the water of the bay, at the docks from earlier, and just relaxing with their Pokémon "Yeah, why'd you want to know?" Misty replied coolly as she watched her goldeen and luvdisc swim around her toes, "Well it's just... I really would like to catch a water Pokémon that could really wow the crowds at my next contest... but since Buizel, I haven't captured any water Pokémon... really." Mist gave Dawn a kind smile and kicked her feet in the water "Well then, I'm the person to ask. What you want is a Lapras, but their pretty hard to find no matter where you are... then again you might want a Dragonair, or then again a Dewgong would be nice." Misty turned away for a second to think but immediately snapped back to look at Dawn, "Or if you want to mix ice and water you could get a Spheal!"

After much bombardment on what kind of Pokémon she could get Dawn gave in to Misty and proclaimed "Okay, my new goal is to capture a Clamperl!" And that was that. The girls continued to sit on the docks for a while and then decided to head back to the pokécentre, where Ash and Brock were waiting with a ready prepared dinner for them all. Once dinner was done, they all turned in for the night, with plans to leave in the morning for the next town and Dawn's next contest.