“americas dream couple” 

In which Ash and Misty see each other again. For the record, this isn’t something I’m expecting to see happen in any shape or form (and yesterday’s preview already Jossed a bit of it lmao), just let me dream.

(There’s a very small mention of one-sided am*our/The Kiss™, please don’t murder me.)

—-

The wind blowing over Alola carries the stingy scent of the sea everywhere even when the sea is not in sight. Ash likes it, of course—it brings to mind memories of fun times, of saltwater drops clinging to his hair and to Pikachu’s fur and of melted ice cream dripping down his arm, of jumping feet first between the waves and raising splashes as high as the sun. It’s a summery scent, a feel-good scent, and he likes noticing it when he leans out of his window in the morning and the breeze blows against his face.

And yet sometimes—only sometimes—with it comes a faraway echo, a thought bubbling up from the back of his mind. Somehow always unexpected, always stopping him in his tracks for the briefest of moments. Not unpleasant, but always accompanied by a strange almost-ache he’s never quite managed (never tried?) to give a name to. Something like

I bet she’d like this place

or

I wish you were here

but it’s not just the missing—that he’s accustomed to. He’s quite the expert: he misses Brock and Dawn and May and all of his friends, and he misses his mom and his home sometimes when he’s away and then all the places he’s been to and all the new friends he’s made every time he goes back. He misses places he’s yet to see, too, it feels like, the wanderlust itching at his fingertips whenever he rolls over in his bed and can’t fall asleep. Yep, he knows all there is to know about missing! But this is different somehow. Like there’s something more to it he can’t place, like it’s a special kind of missing, crashing over him at once and pulling him under. blub blub

Only for a moment, then something else catches his attention and the feeling’s gone again. Like the waves.