Another one from the ol' memory vault! When I was 16, I had about half a dozen fic ideas where Ash and Misty confessed their love after an argument; more often than not it involved Ash blowing up, making Misty cry and then running after her to apologize. I already tackled a gender-flipped semi-deconstruction of the premise in "Musings on an Apology", this time I'm playing it straight.

"Why do you always have to be such a bitch? Sometimes, Misty...no, every day I wish I'd never met you, ever since I did you've done nothing but make my life miserable! Why don't you just go on back to Cerulean City, I know I'd be better off without your nagging and complaining and blaming me for everything that goes wrong!"

That tirade had been a long time coming, and he should have felt free and happy after getting everything off his chest. He hadn't even batted an eyelash when she stormed from the room on the verge of tears.

So why was he more miserable than before? Why was he standing several feet from the river, watching her cry into her knees?

Go after her, Brock had said, his tone of voice not even giving Ash a choice. Go after her or I'll drag you in the direction she went.

"Why is she even upset?" Ash muttered. "She's never even liked me, she only came with me because I ruined her bike. She'd be just as much better off without me."

You care about her, Brock had insisted, and she cares about you. I've traveled with you two long enough to pick up on how you really feel about each other.

"How I feel..." Ash sighed. "Maybe I do care, but she always makes it impossible!" he groaned.

"Now you know how I feel." Oh, great, she'd heard him and she was coming over this way. Ash shoved his hands in his pockets and tried to look indifferent.

"Really."

"You're just so clueless! You only care about yourself and your pokemon and your training, you never let anyone help you or give you advice-"

"Advice?" Ash interrupted, his anger flaring up again. "Maybe from Brock it's advice but you're always bossing me around and cutting me down every time I make a mistake!"

"Only because you whine and mope around every time you mess up and won't admit you made a mistake!" she snapped. Ash narrowed his eyes.

"I don't know why I even-"

Don't let anger come between you and Misty, or you'll regret it the rest of your life. He looked towards Misty again; fresh tears were welling in her eyes and his rage melted into sadness.

"Misty, I..." His hands bunched at the denim lining of his pockets. He did care, he cared so much it hurt when she got snippy. "Just tell me why you hate me so much!" he blurted out. Her eyes widened, and her tears fell anew.

"Hate you? Ash, how could you think that after all we've been through together?" she cried.

"Well, you sure act like it!"

"Ash Ketchum, I care about you more than you'll ever realize! In fact, I..." She stamped her foot and balled her hands into fists. "I love you!"

"I...you...what?"

"I love you," she repeated, "you big jerk."

"Misty..."

"But you hate me, so why does it even matter?" she asked, and Ash felt sick remembering his tirade.

"I didn't mean it," he said. "I'm glad I met you, Misty, I really am." He tentatively reached out and put a hand on her shoulder. "In fact, I..."

He couldn't finish, but the look on her face told him she knew what he was getting at.

"Even after the way I've treated you all this time?" she asked.

"Yeah."

Misty shook her head, tears still running down her cheeks, but she was smiling as she threw her arms around him.

"You sure have a funny way of showing it," she laughed, "you big jerk."

"Well...so do you, you big brat!" he retorted. But the words lacked any anger behind them; Ash wrapped his arms around Misty and pulled her tightly against him. We're both pretty stupid about this, I guess. But maybe not much longer...not if Brock has anything to say about it.