Entry for IvyBean's Pokéshipping contest! Super late, last minute entry (oh gosh, I'm so sorry!), but here it is! I don't expect to win anything, or for her to even count it, but I wanted to give a go at it anyway. Of course, my computer and I are never quite on the same terms – thus the lateness – and it likes to crash whenever I have a million things to do. Jerk… then again, it's probably smarter to blame the viruses…
But that's enough of my rambling! Onto the story!

...

Little Bit of Confidence

Misty had always been a confident girl. Even in the days she was travelling—alone, and with a certain Pokémon trainer she may or may not have had an itty-bitty crush on—she always managed to hold her head high and not look down. The trick was to draw confidence from her surroundings; her friends, her Pokémon, and more recently, her sisters. Misty always managed pull through when her own confidence was shaken as long as she had those she was close to helping her out.

However, they couldn't help in this particular situation.

It started out an okay day. She had gotten the weekend off at the gym and decided that a visit to Pallet Town was due. She and Mrs. Ketchum always got along well together—the woman was practically a second mother to her. It was all planned in her head. After the trek from Cerulean, she would walk in, have a nice meal, and enjoy a long, baggage-dropping conversation with Delia. It was an ideal mini-vacation from the stressful occupation of fulltime Cerulean Gym Leader.

She never accounted for the—though she hated to admit it—highly attractive 16-year-old boy sprawled out on the couch, Pikachu snoozing comfortably on his chest when she walked in. Before she knew it, the two Ketchums were blabbering on about Pallet's Annual "Falling Leaves" Festival and shoving her upstairs to change.

Misty studied the threads in the sleeve of the kimono Delia had given her to borrow. It was a pretty light blue color, to represent the sky, as she was told. Feeling the air, Misty thought it was warm enough for a lighter kimono, a yukata maybe, but apparently it was tradition to wear a less summer-oriented material, signifying the coming of autumn. Supposedly, it was specially-made for Pallet festivities anyway, rather than the typical Kanto garb, so Misty figured it was best to go along with it.

She glanced out of the corner of her eye, studying Ash in his own yellow kimono as inconspicuously as she could. He looked pretty much the same as she remembered, just older and a bit more developed than before. More like he was really growing up. She had to admit, it was… becoming.

"So… This festival," Misty began casually, "what's it for again?"

Almost as if he had forgotten her presence until now, Ash glanced over at the girl and gave her a surprised look. "It's the Falling Leaves Festival! We have it every year," he said. "Everyone goes."

"Then why isn't your mom here?" she asked. "Or Pikachu?"

He shrugged his shoulders. "She celebrates tomorrow, since she already had me. Pikachu's keeping her and Mr. Mime company."

Misty blinked. "What?"

"On the first day, older kids and all the unmarried people go. On the second, parents and younger kids," Ash explained. "Though, sometimes people take their kids on the first day anyway, to see the dancing."

The redhead turned her brows in a glare and crossed her arms. "Quit with the short answers please. Why the special order?"

Ash brought up an arm and rubbed the back of his neck. "Well, I don't really know why. I just know the whole thing is for the leaves and celebrating a trainer's first 'whole moon' on his journey, or maybe there was something about harvesting crops…" he said. "It's a really old tradition, like hundreds of years old, and apparently we only do it for fun now, not the old reason. I forgot the old reason, though. But that's okay since I just go for the food anyway. This is the first time I can actually do the dances."

"Because…?"

"You don't dance in the festival until you're fifteen."

"Aren't you sixteen?"

"Well I wasn't home last year."

"Oh. Okay." Misty nodded and silence fell over the two again. Then Misty started to process everything he just told her. "Wait. What dances?" she asked.

The boy shrugged. "We pair off and do a special dance. That's why parents usually take their kids to the first day, so they can learn it."

Pair… off? An image of her and Ash dancing came to mind, and Misty could feel her heart speed up a bit. Dancing with Ash would be... Well, she had before but now... Misty wasn't sure she could handle it. Then she paused; there was something familiar about all this. She could briefly remember Mrs. Ketchum mentioning something about a festival along those lines, on a past visit.

"I met Ash's father at a Pallet Town festival. I can remember like it was yesterday," Delia had told her. "The festival's tradition was to have a dance so young people could find the one they would marry someday, but we haven't celebrated it for that in decades. It wasn't anything big, but it was absolutely beautiful, perfect for falling in love."

The memory of the conversation flooding back to her, Misty almost gasped in surprise. This must have been that festival. Then she processed a little further, and a fluttering feeling instilled itself in her stomach. It was like some sort of weird Pallet Town mating festival, she realized, and she was going…

…she was going with Ash.

As if seeing him all grown-up and actually good-looking hadn't shaken her enough.

Misty could feel warmth flood to her cheeks and her mind went into overdrive. She had to get out of this. "Uh… Since I'm not actually from Pallet Town, and don't know the dance, I'm not required to go, am I?" she asked, hoping her voice wouldn't betray her. "I mean, I think I'd rather go back home than intrude…"

Ash suddenly straightened up, a smug look crossing his features. He turned and grinned at Misty, already noting the slight pitch in her voice and obviously figuring it would provide him the chance to grab the upper hand for some optimal teasing. "Hm? And why is that, Misty?"

Her breath caught as he leaned in towards her now reddening face. But Misty wasn't about to back down. Her confidence might have been a little shaky, but that didn't mean she could let Ash get away with teasing her. So she set her face in a glare and placed her hands on his shoulder, shoving him away with a retort of, "I came here for your mother, in case you've forgotten. Not you."

He laughed as she pushed him. "Aw, but I'm so much better! Plus, you haven't done anything fun with me in years!"

"Yeah, well," Misty tried, "that's because I don't want to."

"Y'know, Mist, if I didn't know any better, I'd think you were nervous," Ash said, the teasing smirk turned back on her again. Oh, how she just wanted to smack that right off of him. "I never thought you'd be cautious about this kinda thing."

Misty growled at him. "Oh, can it, Ketchum. I am not," she hissed, glaring hard at the boy. "Remember Maiden's Peak? That was a festival with dancing."

"Well," he countered, his voice still carrying that annoyingly taunting tone, "you don't seem so confident now as you did then."

"Well that's because, uh…" she trailed off, words dying in her throat. Did she really have no excuse? Well, she did, but she couldn't tell him that. Ash started chuckling at her lapse of silence, obviously thinking he had won this war. "Oh, shut up Ash!"

He rolled his eyes at her. "You know, Misty, if it's 'cause you don't really know anyone here—though you've never seemed shy anyway—I could have it rigged so you get stuck with me as a partner," Ash offered. "I got connections." At that, he puffed out his chest, as if knowing people in your own hometown was supposed to be some big deal.

Misty could feel her cheeks flare up at this suggestion. Her brain was flashing nervous signals to her in her head: Danger, danger! Don't let that happen! "No, no, no!" she said, waving her arms back in forth in front of her face. "That's okay! Really!"

"Why not?" Ash asked, obviously not understanding that his suggestion was the whole reason behind her not wanting to go. "You said so yourself, you don't know the dance. I can teach you."

"You'd be a horrible teacher! I wouldn't trust you to teach me how to drink water."

"But don't you already know how to drink water?"

"…Good to know you still have that stunning brain capacity." Misty rolled her eyes at him and turned to walk away.

She heard him sigh behind her, before his hand grabbed at her shoulder. "C'mon, Mist!" he exclaimed. "It'll be fun! I promise!"

"Fine," she huffed, "I'll go. But there will be no 'rigging,' got it?"

"Yeah, yeah, just embarrass yourself." Ash's hand slipped into hers, and she barely had time to blush before he ran away with her in tow. "Let's go!"

The two raced along the path, not minding if they got a little dusty, until they reached a small field decorated by a couple of trees just inside the outskirts of town. It was beautiful; a handful of small stands and booths stood scattered about, leaving an open space in the center. The trees all around the area had wide trunks, giving off the impression that they truly had been there for hundreds of years, and their branches of multicolored leaves were strung together with streamers and ribbons that blew in the breeze. Misty marveled at how such simplicity one might associate with Pallet Town could be so lovely and enchanting. She didn't realize she was still holding Ash's hand until he gave a sharp yank, pulling her to the center where a cluster of teenagers was already gathered.

"Ash!" she shrieked. "Let go!"

He glanced over his shoulder at her before dropping his gaze to their linked hands. His eyes widened, not realizing he had been holding on this whole time, and he practically threw her hand out of his. The hand then moved to the back of his head and he laughed sheepishly. "Sorry Mist, I didn't realize—"

"Ugh, it's fine," Misty cut in. "Let's just get this over with."

She strode forward to move towards the group of people, intent on losing Ash in the crowd, but he ran forward to match pace with hers. "I still don't get why you're so worked up about this," Ash said. "You pretty excited when me and Mom told you about it earlier."

"Mom and I," she corrected.

"Whatever," he waved off her nitpicking. "But you still didn't answer me."

Ash never got her answer as the pair realized they had made it to the center of the festival field and were swept into the crowd of teenagers. Boys made their way to the left, and girls to the right. Misty sighed once she lost sight of Ash. There were so many kids here; there was no way she would actually get paired off with him. Nope, definitely not. She was sure to be lucky today, right?

Wrapped in her thoughts, Misty nearly missed it when all the girls started moving, creating some sort of formation that she had no knowledge of. Watching them all, she bit her lip. Maybe she should have taken Ash up on his offer to teach her the dance… No, no. She shook her head at that thought. She could do this herself; she had the confidence for it. A rushed-looking blonde walked past her at that moment, and Misty took the opportunity to find out what was going on and tapped the other girl's shoulder.

"Excuse me, but…"

The girl looked at Misty, her eyes grazing over and widening at an apparent realization. "Oh! You're not from here are you?" she asked. At Misty's shake of the head, the girl smiled and grabbed the redhead by the arm. "That's okay! Come on, you can stand next to me and I'll try to help you until the pair-offs."

Misty gave her a thankful grin and allowed the girl to drag her along. Two circles were forming in the center, girls on the inner and boys on the outer, and the blonde girl pulled her into the ring of girls beside what appeared to be her friends. Her back was turned, so she faced inward, giving her no chance to pick out Ash in the crowd. She just crossed her fingers and hoped she'd be lucky this time around.

She glanced over at the blonde girl, seeing her chattering away with another girl beside her. "So…" Misty said loudly to gain the other girl's attention, "what do we do now?"

The girl turned to her with bright eyes. "Oh! It's pretty simple actually. When we're in the circle, we just join hands and move around. I'll show you the footwork when we start. Then when you hear the chimes, you turn around and dance with the guy behind you," she explained.

"That's it?" Misty asked.

"Yup!" the girl exclaimed. "Your first partner should be able to show you the pair dance—I don't think we have any outside boys this year…"

Just then, music started to play. A soft, tinkling sound that seemed to wrap itself around Misty, and she couldn't help but to smile at it. She noticed the girls around her perk up a bit, a few giggle fits breaking out among them at the thought of dancing with any of the boys. The music then took on a bouncier tone, and all the girls grabbed hands. At the blonde girl's quiet "to the right," Misty began walking, the chain of colorful kimonos moving along with her. After a few directional changes and a couple steps inward and back again, the chimes rang, causing all the girls to let go of each other's hands and turning around.

It took Misty a moment before she registered that that was her cue. She turned around and immediately felt her stomach flare up in masses of Butterfree. There went her confidence.

"Ash!" she hissed. "I told you not to rig it!"

He held up his hands. "I didn't, I swear!"

Finding it useless at this point to argue, Misty just narrowed her eyes at the boy, who only cringed at the thought of possible pain for being paired up with a girl who obviously did not want his company. "Fine," she huffed. "Just show me what I'm supposed to do."

Ash smiled, and grabbed her by the upper arms to pull her away from the main circle, which Misty hadn't realized had already broken up until now. Once they had taken a few steps out, Ash linked their arms together—her left in his—and began to walk in small circles. He leaned down to whisper in her ear, "Just follow my lead, okay?"

Misty held back a shiver at his warm breath on the side of her face. Steadying herself, she managed to lean up—wait, was he taller now?—and reply, "I never thought I'd say this but… Ash, lead the way!"

The grin on his face grew as she leaned away, and he quick flicked his arm to bring Misty's back to his chest, ignoring her small oof and not seeing the pink tint across her cheeks. She could hear Ash mumbling behind her, "Five turns, to the left. Pull back, go again," and suddenly her right arm hooked in his and they were circling again.

Misty was surprised; she hadn't expected Ash to actually dance, and glancing around at the other couples, it seemed he was doing it well too. Out of nowhere, she felt herself being spun, and suddenly found her staring up at her dance partner, hands on his chest to steady her. Blushing horrendously at this realization, Misty pushed back, only for Ash to take her hands in his and place them on his shoulders. His hands went to her waist, and Misty found she probably wouldn't be able to drop the blush anytime soon.

"When you hear the chime again, you're supposed to go find another partner," he told her as they gently swayed. "We do this until then."

"Oh?" Misty felt a small swell of disappointment at that, but she wouldn't let Ash know. "And it's just like that? All those moves we just did?"

"Well, there won't be as much swinging around. You'll actually have to try to do the dance along with everyone," he said, smirking.

Misty narrowed her eyes at him for the remark, but after a moment she let them soften. "I'm surprised Ash," she said. "You're not bad."

He was visibly surprised at her compliment, and it took him a second before he smiled. "Thanks Mist."

Feeling a sudden need to get closer to him, Misty allowed her arms to come up and wrap around his neck, resting her head against his chest. She could care less if it was against tradition; this was a very comfortable position. It was surprising to hear his heartbeat as she could have sworn hers was beating just as fast.

Ash swallowed, almost uncomfortably, and glanced around to see no one notice Misty's action. "Uh… Mist?" he said unsurely. "Wha-what are you doing?"

She sighed against him. "Nothing." She lifted her head off his chest and looked up at him, though her arms stayed put. This was… nice, and she didn't want to stop it.

Ash gasped softly, blinking brown eyes at her. He seemed to steel himself by scanning all the other pairs around them before looking at her again. "Can I tell you something?" he asked. Ash didn't wait for her to answer, and said quickly, "I lied. I, um… I rigged it." His eyes went wide, filling with a seemingly panic. "Don't hurt me."

"Wh-what?" Misty gaped. "You did rig it? Why?"

His face went red and he looked away. "Well, I…" His gaze went back to her, but that only seemed to force more blood to his cheeks. "Don't laugh, but I… I kinda… I-I wanted to dance, with you."

Color pooled to Misty's cheeks as well, and the Butterfree were back. She smiled softly when he finally risked a glance back at her. "That's so sweet," she said.

He laughed nervously. "Uh, yeah," said Ash. "You just look… really pretty… and… stuff, a-and I hadn't seen you in a really long time and, uh, where is that chime? We really should've changed by now…" He looked away again and Misty giggled at his nervousness.

"Thanks Ash." She leaned up and kissed his cheek, surprising both Ash and herself. Pulling away, she watched their dancing feet. "To be honest," Misty said quietly, "I… was hoping I... didn't have to dance with you."

Ash's shoulders slumped under her arms. "Oh? W-why not?" he asked. She could tell he was trying not to sound hurt and bit her lip, realizing she would have to reveal a little more than she wanted. Misty took a deep breath, and lifted her head again. They were a little closer than she remembered, and her breath hitched as she stared into his eyes. She was close enough to notice that they by far surpassed the leaves on the beauty scale.

But forgetting that, she held the gaze to say, "I… I may have had a… small crush on you… Um, when we were ten." His eyes widened and his mouth opened to speak but she kept going. "Awhile back, your mom told me about a festival… where they dance," she paused, "and people… fall in love."

"So, why were you worried?" Ash asked. "If you had a crush on me, this would be the perfect chance to see if I did too?"

Misty was silent for a second, casting her blue-green eyes to the side. "I guess I didn't want to admit I still did."

"Do you want an answer?"

Misty looked back at him, confused by his question, before she realized his lips were pressed to hers. She was surprised at first, but soon melted into the kiss, warmth spreading through her body. When he pulled away, her eyes were still closed. Misty never wanted the feeling to go away, and now she felt as if she had all the confidence she'd ever need again. Ash smiled at her when she finally opened them.

He leaned towards her ear and whispered, "I have a crush on you too."

And when the chimes finally did fill the air with their tinkling sound, neither of the two moved.

…

Yup, and that's what I got. Could've been better, of course, and yeah, I really can't write fluff, but I tried! Now I just gotta wait and see what happens! I'm not quite sure if Beanie will accept it, 'cuz, like I said, it's kinda really, really late, considering today's the deadline, but it's cool if she doesn't. One-shots are always fun! :)
Oh. And I made up that festival. It's not real. That I know of.