I'm sorry I didn't put chapter three up sooner, I planned to start writing it out in my notebook on Wednesday, but somehow I got distracted…. By baking cookies… Lol.
Disclaimer: If I owned Pokemon, Ash and Misty would have gotten together ages ago.
Chapter 3 – Confiding in You
"Misty? Misty? Are you okay? Misty!" Ash asked the girl sitting next to him, one of his hands placed on her shoulder, gently shaking her. But he received no response. She was just sitting there, trembling like she was standing in the middle of an icy, cold lake on a chilly October evening.
Ash saw that she was staring at the doorknob with such intensity; her gaze alone could have blasted the door away. He took a closer look at her expression and gaped. Her teal blue eyes, usually so full of life, happiness, excitement, anger, and annoyance (those last two were usually directed at him), were now wide and filled with fear and…
It took him a little while to name the last few emotions he saw. There was pain. Not physical pain, but emotional pain, mixed in with hurt, anger, regret, longing, loneliness and… guilt. He could see tears misting over in her eyes. Misty just seemed so small, helpless and weak. It scared him to see her in a state of fear and panic.
"Misty?" He whispered. No response. He shook her a little bit harder.
"Misty!" Nothing. Now he was really starting to get worried. He didn't know what else to do.
"Pikachu, help me!" The small yellow mouse nodded and sent a thunderbolt at the teenaged girl.
The attack wasn't very powerful. But Misty had let her guard down. And because she wasn't prepared for the assault, the lightning had manged to snap her out of her trance. She blinked, causing the tears to leak out of her eyes. They began to crawl down her face.
"Misty?" She looked at him. That's when she realized her cheeks were wet. She hastily wiped them away with her shaking fingers. She was still trembling, but she could breathe normally, and was thankful for the smell of mothballs that filled her nostrils. "W-why is it s-so dark in h-here?" She hated the way her voice was shaking.
"Umm..." Ash stalled. He slowly put one of his arms in the air. His hand groped around until it closed around the light switch. He pulled it downward. Nothing happened. He pulled harder. A faint click was heard, but the room didn't become any brighter. That's when he remembered that the city's electricity was out. With his mind functioning as fast as it could, Ash leaned back, pressing his backpack against the closest wall. Through the fabric of his vest and t-shirt, and through the material of his knapsack, he felt something hard digging into his back. He slid a hand into his sack and pulled out a small, somewhat oval shaped object. It was… a flashlight.
'Yes!' He thought triumphantly, he flicked the switch on, and a silverish light lit up the small closet, he secretly hoped that in some small way, it'd help Misty, just a little bit.
The sudden bright light in her face caught Misty off guard for the second time that night. She had to blink several times before her vision refocused. She looked around, and could see several dresses hanging from the metal bar at the top of the room and a few shoes boxes here and there. They were obviously locked in a closet that held a woman's belongings. Misty felt relieved to know that she wasn't boxed in by four concrete walls, and that she wasn't alone comforted her greatly as well.
"Misty?" Ash asked, "Are you okay?" Misty's brain slowly began to return to its normal thinking rate, but it was several moments before she spoke.
"Yeah… I'm fine…why?" Words couldn't express how happy she felt now that her voice didn't shake, and wasn't small and weak.
"Are you sure?"
"Yes!" She snapped, suddenly annoyed. "Why?"
"I was just really worried about you… that's all…" She looked into his chocolate brown eyes, they held nothing but sincerity. Her expression softened.
"Really?"
"Really."
Misty averted her gaze to the ground, her eyes staring down at her shoes. She felt the color rise to her cheeks, her heart was pounding in her chest so loudly, that she was surprised no one else could her it. She was secretly glad that it wasn't bright enough for them to see how red her cheeks were turning.
"Misty… can I ask you something?" When her face had returned to its normal color, Misty looked directly into Ash's warm brown eyes and nodded, still trembling slightly. She felt a great deal better now, but she was still afraid and couldn't stop her limbs from shivering.
"You know you can tell me anything right?" He received another nod from her.
"Anything at all?" he continued. Once again, she nodded.
"Good, because I want to tell me why you were so upset earlier."
"I wasn't upset!" Misty immediately protested.
"Yes you were! And you still are! You were all zoned out and you're still shaking!" Misty opened her mouth to argue back, but she could not think of any comebacks. She was still trembling after all.
"Misty… just tell me what's wrong… please?" His eyes were filled with such a fierce determination; Misty found that she couldn't tear her eyes away from his gaze. Oh, how she loved that look on him. Whoa. Wait a minute. Loved? No liked. She liked that look on his face. Yes, that's what she meant.
She took in a quiet, shaky breath. 'Should I tell him? It would lift a huge weight off my shoulders, and I've kept this secret bottled out inside me for so long… it's eating me up inside… but what if – what if he thinks it's my fault too?' But Misty couldn't keep everything inside for much longer. She was silent for a little while longer, organizing her thoughts, trying to figure out how and where to start.
Misty was quiet for so long, Ash wasn't sure if she had heard him asking about her problem.
"Myst?" he asked, just as she opened her mouth, took one more deep breath and began talking very softly.
"When I was six years old, I woke up in the middle of the night, because the fire alarm was beeping really loudly. I could smell smoke, and the scent was really strong, it seemed to be coming from everywhere. I got out of bed and started wandering around, looking for my parents…
---
"I woke up in the hospital a few days later. The firemen, they - he told me that my sisters and I were the only survivors…" Misty finished. While she was telling her story, her eyes had filled with more tears that she stubbornly refused to shed.
Ash was stunned, shocked. Sure, he'd always wondered why Misty always acted so tough on the outside, when he and Brock knew that she was nothing but a big softy on the inside. But he'd never expected something this tragic had happened to her. He wasn't sure what to say, so instead of talking to her, he put his arms around her shoulders and pulled her into a gentle hug. Ash prepared himself for feelings of awkwardness and embarrassment that he was sure he was going to feel, but they never came. It actually felt… nice being this close to her.
There were so many tears welled up in Misty's eyes, she found that they were clouding her vision. Her throat was clogged with so many different emotions. She bit her lip, trying to keep the sobs that threatened to spill out inside her. But she lost the battle. She broke down and cried, like a frightened child lost in the middle of a dark night with no place to go.
She cried until her eyelids grew heavy, and she couldn't help but fall into a restless slumber.
---
"Ash! Misty! Where are you guys?" Brock's distant voice called. Both Ash and Misty stirred in their sleep. They yawned and sat up. They both realized that Ash had his arms around Misty at the same time, and they immediately leapt apart, blushing as they did so.
"Brock must be back."
"Yeah…"
They both called out to their older friend until they heard footsteps approaching on the other side of the door. With a small click, the door was jerked open to reveal Brock and Nurse Joy smiling, the sunlight reflecting off their faces.
'It's morning already?'
Misty stood up and stepped out of the closet and began stretching. Ash got out and did the same. They felt much better afterwards.
"What happened to the robbers?"
"We managed to catch them in time. Oh… I almost forget." Brock opened his backpack and tossed Ash his belt and threw Misty her own belongings.
"Officer Jenny arrived back to the police station when we got there. -It was definitely a lucky break. - You see, the intruders weren't very bright, and put away their guns before they left the center. We were waiting for them outside, and they were unarmed, so they had no choice but to turn themselves in."
"Then why were we trapped in the closet for so long?" Misty demanded, slightly angry that she was in an enclosed place for longer than she needed to be.
"We were at the station filling out the paper work. Since there we caught the two of them, we thought you guys would be okay…"
Ash smiled, "Yeah we were okay…"
---
Misty sat outside on the grassy coated drumlin. Togepi sat on her lap, as a light, gentle breeze flowed through the air. The sun was setting over the horizon, and every single color you could see in a sunset was plastered across the sky. It was a beautiful evening, and Misty was just happy to be out of the closet and in a wide open space filled with fresh air.
The sound of a twig snapping made her turn her head. Ash was approaching her, Pikachu standing on his shoulder. He smiled at her as he sat down next to her, and she smiled back. Both their pokemon leapt away from their master and began playing in the grass. Everything was quiet for a moment.
"Are you okay now?" Misty nodded.
"I'm glad you told me what happened to you and your parents… it's not your fault that they died, and you shouldn't feel responsible. You were just a little girl when it happened, and you couldn't have done anything to stop it." Misty kept her gaze anywhere but into his eyes. Off his lips, it sounded like the truth, and in her heart, a small part of her told her he was right.
Ash wasn't sure what possessed him to do it, but he placed his hand on top of Misty's and gave her fingers a gentle squeeze. She blushed and was glad that he couldn't see her face. He didn't let go of her hand.
"I'm glad you know you can tell me anything." She nodded and still refused to meet his eyes. She was too busy pondering about her claustrophobia to notice how nicely hers and Ash's hands fit together.
And she decided, that maybe, just maybe she was just a little less afraid of enclosed spaces, but until she got over her fear completely, it'd be nice to keep Ash around to help her through it all.
Well, I think that's where I'm going to end it. You might ask why I wrote this story… and it's because I believe there is more to a character than we see on screen. I think that Misty has witnessed some sort of tragedy in her life and that's why she acts so tough on the outside. But that's just my opinion.
This is probably going to be my last story for the summer, because today's is my older sister's last day of summer school, and because our one and only computer is in her bedroom, and because she's on 24/7 I'm not going to be on too much during the month of August.
Well, what did you think? Please leave me a review!