#pokeship

She’s weird. She goes from one extreme to the other since the moment she properly got to introduce herself. Screaming in his face and smacking his hand away when he tries to help her up because despite everything going on he does feel crappy about the situation, then dropping the act all together and putting her hands up in a worried plea, asking if his Pokemon is okay the moment he says something. He supposes they at least have that in common. She seems to have a genuine love for Pokemon. Even if he does find her fear of bug Pokemon irritating, she's not going out of her way to harm them. It’s more like she comes to his harm getting away from them.

Ash doesn’t pay too much attention to her presence anymore. Misty is just kind of there now, and they have fallen into this back and forth they have only managed to drop three or four times so far. Brock told him a few days earlier that one of them always ruins it, and Brock has only been with them for two weeks but he thinks it’s probably true. Maybe. He doesn’t really know.

Because Misty is weird, and thinking about her in general is annoying. Because he doesn’t think about it too much, he also doesn’t think about what things would be like if they had met under different circumstances. So really, he doesn’t know why he’s staring at her as she hugs her knees on the opposite side of the campfire. Or why it should even concern him that she looks kind of upset or why Pikachu is sitting at her feet tonight and not his. He’s out here on a journey to be a Pokemon Master, not worrying about why the girl who follows him doesn’t even seem to like him let alone why he wants her to. He’ll get her dumb bike back soon enough and she’ll be gone; he has no idea how but so far things have been working out pretty well if he just tries enough. He has a Gym badge and two Pokemon now which has definitely been part of his plan. A bike is no big deal.

Brock nudges him in the side then, and he’s thankful it rips his attention away because he wants to look some stuff up in his dex anyway about Zubat. It has just joined Brock’s crew of Pokemon and is currently flapping near the pot he’s been cooking at. Ash gives Brock a glance to see if he'll mind but his new friend is simply tilting his head towards the space across from them quietly with concern on his brows. 

“What?” He asks, dusting his hands together where they’d started to get clammy for some reason. 

Brock tilts his head again. Ash frowns at him, following where he’s looking. It’s just Misty on the other side of camp, and he thinks maybe he’s asking him to pick their tin’s from dinner up so he grabs his and starts to stand when Brock sighs loudly. He pinches the bridge of his nose for a moment and shakes his head the same way he’s seen grown-ups do when they’re getting kind of annoyed or something. Ash narrows his eyes in question.

Brock sighs again. 

“Misty.” Brock says after a moment, not looking at Ash and he finds himself frowning deeper as he turns his gaze back to her. Her head is down and buried in her arms over her knees, but she shifts in acknowledgement. “Are you Okay?”

It clicks for Ash and he makes a little noise, almost saying ‘oh’. So he wasn’t imagining something was off with her after all. Though he doesn’t really get the big deal or why it needs addressing or for them to talk in whispers or weird looks because she’s right there and asking her is what has ended up happening anyway, he slouches forward with an arm on his own knee and his chin in his hand to watch if Misty is actually Okay. Though she is quieter this way it does just feel kind of weird that she hasn’t made some quip about him all night.

“ ‘m fine.” She mumbles a response. 

She sounds Okay. Fine is better than not fine, so Ash nods to Brock. Brock shakes his head silently at him and his mouth pulls to the side in a tight lipped smile. He crosses the space between them, putting a hand on Misty’s shoulder that makes her jump a little. Ash wonders briefly why it’s so easy for Brock who has only known her two weeks to touch her so casually and not get smacked away when she stays still, sways a little from left to right. 

“Pikachupi.” Pikachu rubs its face against her ankle. Ash’s eyes fall to his Pokemon as he tries to understand and he feels himself slump further forward.

“You can tell us.” Brock speaks like he is speaking for both of them and Ash has to resist pulling a face because honestly he doesn’t want to hear about girl problems even if he wants to know what’s going on. 

“Leave me alone guys, please.” Her voice is strained. He doesn’t think he’s ever heard Misty say please- not to them at least. Maybe to Brock when she wants more food. Or to someone that isn’t him that they’ve met who she’s all sweet and kind to in a voice she definitely doesn’t use with him. He catches Brock's eyes back on him when she simply scoops Pikachu up with her head still down and walks to a tree bordering the clearing they have found. She hugs the Pokemon to her chest, her back not far from them.

Ash shrugs at him, part of him feeling betrayed by Pikachu for not putting up a fight to stay by his side but part of him thinking it’s probably better she hugs whatever is going out on his Pokemon than shout it out at him. 

“I guess we should give her some space.” Brock mutters, shaking his head. He gathers their dishes to wash out and mumbles something to himself. It leaves Ash at the fire alone with the presence of Misty known, not far from him and soon his knee bounces in an anxious jig. 

He shouldn’t even care. Misty doesn’t care when he’s down- she comes and taunts him and pulls a tongue and eggs him on. He guesses maybe she does help him in some ways but they’re not out of her being nice. She kind of points things out that could say she cared. Like with Brock’s badge and her insistence he takes her advice. Even that feels like a stretch, but Ash peers over his shoulder slowly because he doesn’t want her to see him looking and thinks he cares because he doesn’t- the same way she wouldn’t- but Misty has her back to him still and he can see Pikachu’s ears over her arms. 

His gut bubbles and he tells himself that if this is something that’s going to slow down their next stop he supposes it does matter. When he stands up he is oblivious to the way Brock stares at him crossing the clearing, closing the gap between himself and Misty. He is aware he is feeling very shy all of a sudden though and is almost grateful that she must feel his presence because she sighs and speaks without looking back.

“I told you to go away.” 

Not for the first time, Ash immediately feels very stupid for trying and is reminded why he doesn’t. He shoves his hands in his jacket pockets, scowling at the back of her hair he has just noticed is down.  “Actually you told us to leave you alone.”  

“Then listen to either of them.” Misty huffs, but it lacks her usual kick and it makes the response he hasn’t really thought out die in his throat. 

He shuffles a shoe in the gravel instead. “Whatever then.”

“Good.” She sniffs. 

“Just don’t keep Pikachu too late.” Ash grumbles. He hopes she doesn’t think she’s won something because he’s backing down. “We have a Gym battle tomorrow, remember?”

Misty’s shoulders tense. She turns to him so quickly he almost falls back when she hands Pikachu off to him like a bag.

"I won't be there so knock yourself out." She exhales through her nose that is now in the air. If it weren’t for the way her shoulder smacks into his as she walks past he’d swear she’d disappeared at how soon she’s gone from his sight. He is left with Pikachu, who seems to be scowling at him and Ash just frowns back a question and rubs the top of his arm, choosing to tend to it over the sting of her words.  

He doesn’t get it, and when he gets back to the fire Brock is starting to tidy up. Misty had laid her sleeping bag as far as possible from them earlier and Brock offers him a gaze that is somewhat uncomfortable when she storms in that direction. Why is everyone looking at him like he’s done something wrong when she’s the one in a bad mood? He rolls his eyes out and gets his Pokedex out before Zubat is called back in, and his evening improves for it. Brock talks with him in quiet voices for a while about the new Gym they’re visiting tomorrow and they put the fire out together, apparently his older friend is still appalled at the way they’d been doing it before he joined and now insists he makes sure it's done right every night. Brock seems good at stuff like that so he gladly takes the help and when Ash pulls his sleeping bag out he has almost forgotten about Misty’s thing.

Almost. Kind of.

Pikachu joins him when he plops down and he lets himself glance over for the first time since she’s barged away because he is pretty sure she’s asleep by now. Either that or she’s snuck off to really be alone, to really find a way to not be there tomorrow and left them for good because there hasn’t been a noise from her side of the clearing all night. She is curled tight in a position he doesn’t think can be comfortable and an unfamiliar warmth fills his chest. Misty is still there, even if she isn’t supposed to be; even if she isn’t part of the plan. 

Ash finds he is smiling and he scowls, and then he falls asleep focusing so hard on how he wants to dream about their next stop; Cerulean Gym.

fairy here: hey!! i wanted to write some stuff from ash's pov for a while. this may be a little series of him growing up and how he see's misty so if it feels a little bitter and not a lot sweet, it's just the beginning.

A fantasy AU where Ash is down in the dumps and decides to join an expedition whose mission is to capture the Merpeople for some extra cash, but it's love on first sight for him when he meets Misty, so he becomes a double agent instead, working together with the Misty to throw the hunters off the Merpeople’s trail and evacuate them to a safer place. And once it's all over, the two have no choice but to part ways as Misty doesn't want to let go of her people and culture and Ash cannot abandon his Mother waiting for him back home.