Oki-day.

 

Part 7.

 

Wow, I’m on a roll… Anyway. Um. I have no idea what to say. GCSEs suck? That’ll do.

 

Disclaimer: Pokémon, all respective characters, monsters and significant others are property of rich Japanese blokes. As Kaz is female, not exactly rich, lives in Liverpool and is of Irish descent… it’s not her.

:P

 

Theme Song: “This I Promise You” ~ *NSYNC

 

You’ll understand in about 2,860 words…

 

 

 

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Rock-a-bye-Baby ^_^

 

 

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:: 7 ::

 

         

         

          Ash swore as the seemingly personalized voicemail message told him, in no polite ways, where to stick his phone and never to call back, and hung up. Ash punctuated his latest curse by angrily chucking his phone across his office and cracking it irreparably against the wall. Not that he cared. It was old and out of date and he had much, much worse things to worry about. Muttering a string of curses, he aimed a kick at the wastepaper basket near his foot and sulkily crossed his legs on top of his desk, making as much noise as possible. Tracey, carefully sketching a perfectly posing Pikachu, raised an eyebrow. “Stressed?” he quipped, finishing the shading on Pikachu’s small nose and flipping his sketchpad closed. Ash shot him a daggered glare. “Well-“

            Don’t you dare…” Ash warned, rubbing his nose angrily and shaking his fringe out of his eyes. Tracey didn’t dare. Pikachu did.

          [We told you so.] she chirped. Ash glowered, and made a mental note that next time he had an urge to throw something, to be conveniently near ketchup and a window.

          Since what happened upstairs – exactly nine days, three hours and fifty-three minutes ago, she had blocked all of his calls, stopped any e-mail of his getting through, ordered Lily, Daisy and Violet not to let him either into the Cerulean Gym or call her, regardless of importance and ignored any messages that Ash had asked other people to pass on. It was weird – he’d expected anger and violence and more of Lance’s trees on his head, but she was seriously, seriously pissed – the last time she’d ignored him was when, aged fifteen, he’d stolen all of her clothes while she was in the shower as an April Fool’s, ran upstairs to the roof of the Pokémon Centre they were staying in, and raised them all above the flagpole. And even then, she’d ended up resorting to regular violence as revenge, with a now Brock-clothed Misty tying him by the feet to said flagpole and enlisting Bulbasaur to raise him above the tiny Johto village, and then took a photograph of Ash-the-flag and sent it to his mother, with the letter “Dear Mom – have decided to give up Pokémon training – I find I’m a much better public servant instead.”

          The ignoring came afterwards, for three weeks, until they were in the right place, at the right time, and the fair had come to town. He had to win her three stuffed Tentacool to even get a facial reaction.

          Oh, he was feeling guilty now, because, just like Tracey had lectured him about where his morals and stuff had gone, you shouldn’t do that to a friend. Of course he was guilty, but then, why should he take all of the blame? Brock had egged him on, Lance had written the damned letter, and she was the one who agreed! And it wasn’t his fault that his aunt had to go and croak it. So who took the blame? Maybe his attempts were a little… unorthodox, but it wasn’t his fault to begin with. When it all boiled down to it, he found only one person to blame.

          And it was not himself… he just couldn’t think of a random name at present. It was his own fault for being a Ketchum – well, that was just dandy. So, tracing back the line of Ketchums he knew and could blame (that did not include his mother, although she could have been more careful…), he came up with two.

          His great-great-great-great (trace back about ninety generations and you’re almost there) grandfather and grandmother…

          …or himself. For not running off and marrying some feminist who claimed that him trying to impose his surname on her was sexist and a travesty of justice, and that he should take hers instead. Wait, did that mean it was his mother’s fault?

          Tracey interrupted his little self-loathing (and pinning the blame) introspection. “Um… Ash? What do you think she’s going to do now?”

            Ash shrugged. “Dunno. Ignore me for the rest of my life?” Tracey shrugged.

          “Probably. And she’ll probably turn your name to mud, burn effigies of you outside the Cerulean Gym, turn all of her Pokémon against you and teach them to bite you in the crotch at first sight.”

            “You’ve been speaking to her?”

            “If you can call the three brief sentences in between ‘I’m going to kill that-‘” Tracey coughed politely, “then yes, I have been speaking to her. At great length.” He shook his head. “I did-“

            “Don’t.

            Shrugging, Tracey scratched his head. “She’s really pissed at you, y’know… and… I think she’s pretty hurt, too,” he said, quietly, before trying to bend a pencil around his fingers.

          Ash looked puzzled. “Hurt? Why’s she hurt? She didn’t have a forest dumped on her head.”

          “Not that type of hurt. Hurt as in, y’know, angry-hurt.” Ash’s blank look could have beaten Psyduck’s. “Okay, you upset her. Cos she told you that she wouldn’t and she’s angry about the fact that you tricked her into it.” Tracey sighed. “And cos you were supposed to be her best friend, it’s even worse. And cos you lied to her, and cos you got Lance to lie to her, and because to Lance it was all a big joke and… well, you get the point. She’s pissed.”

            Ash bit his lip and frowned. “But I said I was sorry! I’m currently Interflora’s number one customer cos I’m sorry! I can’t exactly do much else if she won’t even talk to me on the phone, never mind answer my e-mail!”

            Tracey paused, then folded his arms. “Sometimes… these things are better direct.” he said, watching Ash’s face twist into one of incomprehension, and then sighed, before telling Ash exactly what to do.

 

 

~~::~~::~~::~~::~~

 

 

          Lily took one look at the familiar jacketed guy who had just crept into the gym, and released an extremely pissed-off Dewgong. Well, next time you’re in the middle of Resting, how would you like to be dumped on the floor? “Like, she doesn’t want to see you, Ash. Can’t you like, get the message?” The guy didn’t answer, instead, winter-gloved hands still covering his hooded face, and crept towards the main doors to the left of the reception desk that was covered in various displays of flowers, from roses and lilies to huge big exotic things that tried to bite the heads of three rookies earlier that morning. Lily frowned, “Like, didn’t you hear me? I said she doesn’t want to see you!” She stepped over to block the doors, grabbed the guy’s hood and yanked it down.

          And screamed.

          Daisy was next in, finding her triplet cowering in the corner, pointing shakily at a pile of fabric and trembling. “Like, what’s the problem?” she drawled to her sister, who began stammering as a dark shadow began rising, as if on cue, behind Daisy.

          And then Daisy screamed.

 

 

~~::~~::~~::~~::~~

           

         

          From his position halfway up a tree outside the Gym, Ash made frantic gestures to where Noctowl was sitting in a tree opposite, while trying to shin his way up to the next branch without losing an eye. He sighed disgustedly to himself. “I can’t believe I’m twenty-four and climbing trees to a girl’s window… S’like out of a crappy romance or something…” he muttered, wincing suddenly as a bare winter branch tried to make its way up his left nostril. If he was right – which wasn’t often, he noted dejectedly, Misty’s window was right above this tree. A third set of screaming diverted his attention, and he grinned, gripping tightly to the tree trunk with one arm, and recalling Noctowl with the other. The light in the window above him clicked on, and he saw a shadow moving across the ceiling, the door opening and then closing. All he had to do now, was…

          Get to the top of this damned tree.

          Which, surprisingly, he did with ease, although not without scratches and a very inquisitive twig trying to go places no other twig had gone before. Ash hid just below the window, and peeked through. She was still gone, and it was definitely her room. Aside from the obvious sign – a large Togetic sitting on the blue-covered bed in the middle of the room, there was a dartboard with a magazine cutout of him attached – and with darts firmly lodged in his nose. A few Tentacool plushies were dotted about, and a large box of chocolates were balanced on her pillow, next to a remote control. Shadows from a TV set blared in the light. He chuckled. This was almost too easy. Reaching out, he felt down the sides of the window, and tried to force it open with his fingernails. She’d always had a habit of sleeping with the window open – even just a bit, so maybe…

          Kuso. She’d locked it. He scrabbled his fingers around the ledge looking for another way in, failed, and flopped back onto the branch.          Which broke. Shrieking like a girl, he grabbed onto the branch above, clung to it like a sloth and watched the offending branch flap about in the wind brokenly until it fell off and was tousled down the garden. Slightly worried, because he was a Pokémon Master and didn’t get worried by climbing a tree in the middle of a storm; he looked back at the window, and realized that he was in full view. So if she came back, he was pretty much screwed.

          So he had to get inside ASAP. Beckoning Noctowl over with his left arm, and waiting until Noctowl perched elegantly on his outstretched forearm, he asked the owl-like Pokémon to ‘do something psychic’ to open the window.

          Closing his eyes, Ash heard the humming of kinesis over the quickly increasing wind, and felt the deep sound rattle through his body, through his bones, and through the branch he was perched precariously on a la Ranma. He heard the rattling of Misty’s bedroom window, and winced as he felt Noctowl’s sharp talons dig into the flesh of his forearm as the Pokémon increased his concentration. The sound of glass scraping mixed with the sound of crashing winds; frantic branches mixed with Noctowl’s concentrated growl.

          Then silence. Meekly, Ash opened one eye, then the other.

          “Noctowl… can’t you do it?” he asked, on seeing that Misty’s glass window was perfectly in place. Noctowl cooed angrily, ruffled his feathers and turned his head away. Puzzled, Ash blinked, and then returned his gaze to the window.

          Which now had a huge, thumping great crack down the middle. “Oh noooooooo…” The glass split a little way again, making four perfect squares in the pane, which split into more little squares, and again, and again, until the clear glass turned to a greenish opaque with the cracks in the glass, and then…

          …collapsed in on itself, shattering inside the Gym, scaring Togetic into making frightened “tic! Tic!” noises and the door to the bedroom swinging open, revealing four Cerulean Gym leaders, each armed with baseball bats. Ash cowered under his hands, and tried to make himself as inconspicuous as a human sitting on a winter tree branch right in front of a window can be. He didn’t hear anything for a moment, and he assumed that either they were searching the room, or staring at him. Just as he was about to confess, a high-pitched scream broke out.

          “Like, it’s a ghost! We’re haaaaaunteeeeed!” And Ash peeked through his hands to watch the older sisters run screaming. Fun. He watched Misty obsessively, cringing when she turned towards the window, and relaxing when she looked away. He watched her brow furrow in concentration as she tried to step barefooted over the glass by her window, and he tried to blend in with the tree as much as possible, including sticking one hand out to the side and stretching his fingers out to resemble twigs and branches, and twisting his other hand around and pressing it as much into the bark of the trunk as possible, silently praying that maybe his tanned skin was dark enough to blend in. When Misty stuck her head out of the window, he thought that the game was up. He really did. When she looked down from the window, then she looked up – straight at him. But maybe being pregnant had dulled her senses, because she looked left, and down, then back to him, then right, and down again. He watched her shrug her shoulders, still with a puzzled frown etched onto her face, and as she turned away, he let out a sigh of relief.       

          Only it wasn’t exactly a sigh. More of a ‘hoo’ noise. A loud noise. And, of course (because Kaz ain’t getting *nowhere* with Ash sitting off in a tree), it would be the exact moment the wind decided to drop.

          ^.~

          Very, very slowly, Misty turned around. Her eyes bored holes through him, and he grinned and waved weakly. “Um… nice night out here, huh?”

 

 

~~::~~::~~::~~::~~

 

 

          “Aw, come on, are you going to make me sit out here all night?” whined Ash, still Ranma-sitting on the branch, glancing hopefully at the window, which was slowly and painstakingly being repaired, tiny-piece by tiny-piece by Togetic.

          I’m not making you do anything. You wanted to climb trees, Mankey-boy, you can stay in them.” she replied haughtily, keeping her eyes on the TV and away from the billowing lilac curtain.

Ash scowled at the curtain blocking his view of her. “Are you still mad at me?” he asked, and then narrowly avoided the large, knee-high stiletto boot that was skilfully thrown at him. “Okay, so you are… are you less mad at me? Misty?” He knelt up precariously on the branch. “Come on, you can’t stay mad at me forever…”

“I can try.”

          “Pleeeeeeease just talk to me?” he wheedled, wrapping his arms around himself in the cold air. “Aw, c’mon, I’m freezing my ass off here!”

          “Good for you.” she replied. “And no.”

          “But-“

            “Go home, Ash.”

          Ash paused, thinking of the best counter he could use when she was in a mood like this. “No.” he blurted stoutly, widened his eyes at his foolishness, and cringed, awaiting the sudden pressure of something resembling a brick smashing into his head and the blissful feeling of unconsciousness. However, nothing happened, except Togetic fusing one tiny square of glass to the other. “Misty, I’m not leaving!” he yelled again, and peered at the window, hoping for any sign of life, even a particular fingered gesture. “Seriously, I’m not going! So… when did Togepi evolve?” He paused, scratching his head. “Some time last week? Oh, cool.” All of a sudden, he realized how the concept of having a conversation with yourself could be so… irritating“So anyway, how’ve you been? My mom reckons that she’s got this herb growing in her garden that’s good for… um… y’know… pregnant stuff. You want some?” He paused again, both to listen for any reaction and to think of some other random comments. “’Kay, I can pass it in tomorrow. Um… ah, the hell with this. Misty, either you let me in or I’m coming in.” The threat was left hanging in the air until Misty effectively answered with a bunch of flowers to his face. “Heyyyy, so you did get them! Did you like them?” Another bunch caught him in the chest. “Hey, come on. Quit throwing things at me and we can talk things out.”

            Togetic shook his head slowly in response.

          Ash scowled. “Oh that’s mature. Playing Chinese Whispers with Togetic. Y’know, I can’t even be sure that you’re up there!” he pushed, slowly standing up on the tree branch so that he could see everything in her room…

          …and got a large Tentacool plushie in his face. “Yeah,” he agreed with himself, “really mature.” He straightened himself up so that he could look as imposing as someone standing precariously on a tree-branch with a plushies-throwing pregnant psychopath after his blood could look. “Misty, I swear, if you don’t talk to me, I’ll…” He paused. What would be an appropriate threat? Bugs were a no-no. She’d kill him without batting an eyelid anyway. And carrots and peppers were both out of reach and hardly terrifying when just there on their own… so… aside from snoring, what did she always try to stop him doing?

          Drinking? Nah. Where would he get a bottle of tequila at the top of a tree? And besides, she’d probably find him falling drunkenly out of a tree funny.

          Dancing? Again, the point of dancing himself out of a tree?

          …singing?

          Bingo.

          “Misty, if you don’t talk to me, I’ll sing!”

          No reply, though Togetic, still fixing the window, looked mildly terrified.

          “Don’t believe me? Well…” he cleared his throat and quickly thought of the first song words that came to mind. “Um…” He cleared his throat again, and then sang. Completely off-key and out of tune, mind you, so it was a pretty damned good impression… “When the visions around yoooooou… bring tears to your eyes… and all that surrounds yoooooou… are secrets and liiiiiiiiiiies… I’ll be your streeeength, I’ll give you hoooooope…” Somewhere along the way, the entire feline population of Cerulean City decided to join Ash as a chorus line. “’Til the day my life is throooooough… this I promise yoooooou” And so it went on, for the next ten he could think of, including a rendition of “Tooku Made”, “YMCA” (dance routines included) and, scarily, “Sakura Saku”. And then, finally…

          “Aaargh, all right, all right! Just quit singing, damn you!”

          Ash grinned.

 

 

~~::~~::~~::~~::~~

 

 

          Okay, so he wasn’t allowed past the window-ledge, in case he was needed (or ordered, kicked, etc. etc) to ‘vacate’ the room, but he could see her, and therefore, he knew that he’d at least get a warning should she decide to chuck stuff at him again. He felt very nervous. He could see in her eyes that she was angry – there was a blue fire he’d seen a lot burning, and her cheeks were pinker than usual, though… according to TV, that was a pregnant thing. Didn’t girls always glow when they were knocked up? He wanted to say things to her, but whether to say that he was sorry first, or to ask how she was, or… what? “Um…” Skilful opening, right? Be direct, but nice. Direct but nice, direct but nice, um… “So how long before you get fat?” A plant pot missed him by millimetres. “Waaaa, I’m sorry, um… I’m sorry I’m sorry I’m sorry, you’re not fat, I meant, um… I’m sorry and I love you and pleeeease don’t throw anything else at me!” he pleaded under his cowering hands. “Honest, I’m sorry, I never wanted you to find out like that, I just-“

            “Wanted to tell me once the baby was born before I could do anything about it?” she snapped, glowering at him angrily, fists clenched at her sides. She really was angry with him…

          “No, I just-“ He paused as something she’d just said hit him. “…what do you mean, ‘before you could do anything about it’? You’re… you’re not thinking of getting rid of it… are you?” He bit his lip. He couldn’t let her… she couldn’t… she wouldn’t

          To his relief, she shook her head. “No. It’s not the baby’s fault I was dumb enough to believe you.” And that remark hurt, because she was his best friend.

          “Misty, I’m sorry, honest.” He shook his head slightly. “I dunno, I just…” Okay, how did he put that he was after his inheritance in a nice way? “…are you still going to hit me?” he asked, flinching when she picked up a plushies from the floor and set it on her bed, before sitting next to it.

          To his surprise, she shook her head. “Nah.” she said, but… she didn’t sound so angry anymore. She sounded really upset…

          Duh, clever, Ash, he told himself. She just found out you knocked her up on purpose, what’s she gonna do, the Macarena? Course she’s going to be upset. Jerk. He frowned sadly. He was a jerk… “Misty, I’m sorry,” he said softly, cautiously approaching her and nervously sitting by her. “I know I’m a jerk, but I’m really sorry.” He creased his brow in worry when she refused to meet his gaze; she was turned away from him, looking so small compared to him… and compared to the confidant impression she usually gave, but now she was almost cowering from him, hands firmly wrapped around her stomach and not speaking. Biting his lip, he tried to turn so he could catch her eye, but still keep sitting next to her. Kneeling was for pussies and romantics – not him. If she didn’t look at him, she wouldn’t believe him – that was what he reckoned. “Come on… can’t we-“   

          She swung around to face him, and he was stunned to see that she was crying... “Don’t you dare say ‘forget about it’!” she yelled, so forcefully that Ash instinctively raised his hands in both surrender and defence.

          “I wasn’t going to,” he replied. “Cos… well, you can’t, can you?” He could feel a major migraine coming on, and buried his head in his hands, irritated. “I was going to say, ‘can’t we work something out?’ cos I don’t wanna be fighting all the time with you.”

            “Then what did you want?” she asked, and she was trying to put on a strong front, he knew, but that didn’t veil the tears in her voice, and she wiped her face roughly.

          He shook his head, “I dunno! I… guess I didn’t plan that far ahead or something.” Which was true. But that didn’t mean he couldn’t start planning now… it was just a case of what to plan first.

          She was shaking her head. “What did you think people would think? That we were stupid and had some one-night stand and I got pregnant? Or that we were having some secret relationship? Cos the whole of Kanto seems to know that I’m single, you’re single and there’s no way I can hide a baby.” she told him, making a pointed gesture to her petite figure. Something she said had stuck a sudden chord in Ash, however, and it was taking him a while to think it through.

          Nothing new there, then. And she’d turned her back on him and seemed to be willing Togetic to hurry up and repair the window so that she could shove him out of it. And then, as though something had finally knocked the missing cog in his brain into place, Ash had an idea.

          “Say… Misty…?”

 

 

~~::~~::~~::~~::~~

(I was thinking of being really evil and leaving the part there, but FF.Net is down as I write this, and I have nothing else to do. ^^’)

 

 

          WHAT?!”

          Togetic gave a worried glance to his perdy window and then another at mommy, who was currently defying all natural laws and making a chocolate box look extremely threatening. Ash had fallen off the bed with the force of her yell, and was cowering slightly from where she stood over him, making threatening gestures with an orange-crème thing. “M-misty, come on, put the chocolate down…

            “Are you nuts?!” she yelled, stamping her foot, and rattling the half-completed windowpane dangerously.

          Ash tried to pacify her, “Mist, come on, we’ve done it before! In fact, you’re there every weekend!” he stammered pathetically, keeping his eyes on her like a deer in the headlights, waiting for the familiar movement that came seconds before she knocked six dents into his head with her mallet. “Look, just trial it out! You never know what might happen until you try!”

          “I’m not moving in with you, I’m not pretending to be your secret girlfriend, and you can go now.” She pointed to the window to punctuate her sentence, and Togetic frowned.

          Ash tried to protest. “Misty, come on, it won’t be for long!”

          “Nine months.”

            “You’re complaining about that? We spent seven years travelling together!”

            “That didn’t mean we shared a bed, Ash!”

          Ash looked puzzled. “Huh? What are you talking about, you’ll get your own room!” he said, scratching his head as she tried to push him towards the window. Misty sighed.

          “Ash, how many bedrooms are there in your house?” she asked slowly.

          He frowned deeper. “Two, why?”

          “One bedroom is yours, right?”

          “Yeah…?”

            “And you have one spare room, right?”

            “Uh-huh…”

          “So where will the baby sleep?”

            “In the spare room.”

            “And where will I sleep?”

            “In my room.”

            “And where will you sleep?”

            “In…” Ash paused. “Ohhh… Now I get it.” Then he shrugged. “So?”

          Misty scowled dangerously, and, one hand around her stomach, forcibly pushed him towards the window, causing Togetic to run scared to the other side of the room and hide behind the wardrobe. “Out,” she ordered, jabbing him in the chest with her finger. “Brock will marry a Joy, Gary will admit publicly he’s gay, and Hell will freeze over before I sleep in the same bed as you.”

            “Can I get that in writing?” he asked eagerly, trying to walk so that she ended up retracing her steps away from the window before she could shove him out of it. She nodded, suddenly somewhat shaky, and urged him out of the window. “…are you okay?” he asked, concerned, taking a step forward, and promptly being shoved out of the way and into the dresser as Misty made a run to the window, stuck her head out and-

          “Omigod, like, eeeeeeew! That’s so totally gross!” Misty gave Daisy’s prized window box a new colour scheme. Ash winced his brown eyes sympathetically, and rubbed her back gently.

          “You okay now?” he asked when she finally pulled her head back inside and wiped her mouth on her sleeve. She pulled a face at the taste in her mouth and his question, and Ash cast his eyes about the room for something useful. He handed her the box of chocolates that was still sitting on the bed, and winced again when she darted back to the window and heard Violet shrieking about how if she wanted stained glass, she would pay for it. “Are you okay?! If you’re sick, then maybe we should get you to a doctor-“ she cut him off by raising a pale hand.

          “Morning sickness. It’s normal.” she told him, her voice still having traces of her nausea and her face was a lot more pallid than usual.

          “Morning sickness?!” Ash showed her his watch. “Misty, it’s eleven o’clock at night!” he exclaimed, eyes wide in disbelief.

          “Whatever.” she said tiredly, rubbing her eyes and yawning the way he teased her about being kawaii. “Out. I need to sleep-“

            “And now you’re sleeping for two.” he teased, unable to resist the opening.

Her brow furrowed at the alien phrase, then she smiled slightly. “I suppose.”

“Or three. Or four!” Ash grinned excitedly, “Hey, you could have triplets and we could start our own basketball team!” He whooped and punched the air. “This is going to be cool!”

            “Yeah,” she agreed, matching his grin with her own. “It will be cool… until I have to go through twelve hours of labour getting out your baby who’s probably inherited your huge head! Now get out!” she yelled, making a sudden about-face and shoving him back towards the window.

          “Hey, I do not have a huge head-“ he countered, then Ash paused by the window, trainers cracking glass into the carpet underfoot, obviously thinking about something. You could hear the cogs turning in his head if you listened hard enough. “Misty… is this one of those mood-swings that pregnant people have?”

          “Get out! There is no way I am going to move in with you!” she yelled, and skilfully (or it might just have been brute force) sent him flying out of the window and back into the tree with a pink and red mallet.

          His breath expelled violently when his spine slammed into the hard wood tree-trunk, and, wincing as his back seemed to click totally out of joint, he realized that the twig from before had returned. He shot up, lost his balance, and clattered down until he hit the grass on his… rear. He caught Daisy’s angry glare from the kitchen window, and in reply, he pulled down his eyelid and stuck out his tongue. He looked at the window, which was rapidly being repaired by Togetic. “Misty, I’m not going until we sort this out!” he yelled, glaring at the window as though it were her face. “Misty! Come on, I said I was sorry! Just pleeeeeeease talk to meeee!” As he continued to yell pleas up to where he was getting no response, and the window was three-quarters repaired, a crowd began to gather around the Cerulean Gym, mainly wondering why the Pokémon Master was standing outside in the freezing cold yelling at a window at twenty to midnight. And where Ash lacks in intelligence, he makes up for in tactics. “Misty, come on, I love you!” he yelled, “We can talk this through, can’t we? I mean,” he looked furtively at the crowd, who looked very interested at the fact that the single Pokémon Master was confessing his love for a Gym Leader, “We’ve been dating six months, are you just going to throw that away?” The crowd gasped. Ash grinned. Daisy, Lily and Violet burst out of the front doors of the Gym and looked stunned.

          “You’ve been dating-“ Daisy.

            “-our baby sister-“ Violet.

            “-for SIX MONTHS?!” Aaaaand Lily.

            “Why were we not informed?!” all three shrieked, horrified at the prospect of losing so much gossip. Ash cast a glance up to the now fully repaired window where he could see a pair of fluffy slippers being kicked lazily in the air.

          “Well…” And Ash paused, trying to think up a logical excuse he could use quickly. “Well, y’know, we… er…” Daisy suddenly began to coo.

          “Like, omigod, you wanted to keep it a secret, right?” she squealed, and the other two triplets squealed too. The crowd began to mutter about the fact that the Pokémon Master had been carrying on behind the public’s back. “Like, that is totally romantic!” she cooed.

          “Totally!” Lily agreed, and Violet ran into the Gym.

          Ash looked puzzled, then shivered slightly in the cold. “Where’s she goin’?” he asked, before he found Daisy shoving him towards his car.

          “Just get in your car, get the heating on, and open the back door, ‘kay?” And she was gone before Ash could even ask why. Of course, he wasn’t going to argue – if Daisy was even half of what Misty was like pissed off, then he was pretty much dead. So he did what he was told. He jumped into the front seat, turned the heating on full blast because outside was freezing, and opened the lock for the back door, but kept his finger on the auto-lock just in case. He kept his eyes on the doorway to the Cerulean Gym warily, keeping his ears as alert as they could be over the whooshing of the heating fans, and lo and behold, the sound of breaking glass could be heard from the foyer. The crowd parted, and started to disperse. And four Cerulean Gym Leaders walked out, three looking very pleased for themselves, and one… being carried kicking and screaming, not looking pleased at all.

          “Like, Misty, will you just calm down? You’re totally messing up my hair!”

            “Oh, I’m so sorry. Remind me to fix it for your funeral! Now put me down!”

            Daisy tutted fractiously, “Little sister, you should totally be thanking us! I mean, usually Lily would take him for herself, but, y’know, we’re being charitable for a change.”

            “Hey!” Lily protested, “That was one time only, and besides, Misty didn’t like that Rudy guy anyway.”

          “Why should I be thanking you?! I TOLD YOU why I’m not speaking to him, and there is no way in hell that I am going home with him!”

          “Like, Misty,” Violet interjected, “that’s like, the lamest dumping excuse we’ve ever heard! Come on, he’s the father of your baby, and you two totally make a cute couple!” In the confines of his car, Ash pulled a face. “You can’t seriously expect us to believe that a guy as nice as Ash is got you pregnant for a pay-off.” Ash winced. He could hear Misty’s growl from across the car park. Daisy, Lily and Violet quickened their pace until they reached Ash’s car. Daisy opened the door; Lily and Violet chucked her across the back seat, and slammed the door shut. Ash locked the door. “And baby sis’, you should totally calm down – you don’t want to get veins on your butt like Daisy, and it’s not good for the baby.”

          “I don’t have veins on my butt!” Daisy squealed, embarrassed, and clamped her hands to her rear.

          In the back of the car, Ash could see that Misty’s hair was tousled and that her eyes were burning angrily. She glared at him. “Open the door, Ash.” she growled, cracking her knuckles menacingly. Togetic appeared next to her on the seat, curled up and fell asleep.

          “Not until we talk.”

          She scowled at him again and watched her sisters flouncing off discussing Daisy’s rear and whether they were veins or ‘contemporary tattoos’. “Open the window, then.”

          He shook his head. “No, because I know you too well, and you’ll try to get out.”

          She turned puppy-dog eyes on him, though he could still see her face burning with rage. “Just a little? I need to tell my sisters something.” Ash looked apprehensive.

          She increased her kawaii-eyes attack.

          He gave in, as per usual. He opened the window slightly, enough so that she could yell but not enough that she could get out. “Daisy! Violet! Lily!” she screamed; her sisters turned away from their squabble near the entrance and looked over to where Misty was yelling from Ash’s car. “You’re all thirty and single and you’ll never get another date because you’ve got bigger asses than the entire Japanese Sumo team!” She heard Violet’s enraged shriek with a satisfied smirk on her face. Ash closed the window, and then got a smack to the head. “So talk.”

          He grinned at her in the rear-view mirror, noting the bunny-co-ordinated pyjamas she was wearing. “Not here.” he said, grinning at the fact that he’d beaten her and the look on her face. “Now put your seatbelt on like a good girl!” he cooed, missing her slipper being hurled at him, and he picked it up and locked it in the glove compartment. He started the car and drove towards the Cerulean-Pallet motorway.

 

 

 

~~::~~::~~::~~::~~

 

 

 

[A/N] …bloody hell! I only wanted that to be 5000 at the most, now it’s over 5,900! XD

 

          Anyway… it’s up, and because the site was down, it couldn’t be up for my two-year-old thingy here. I’m two! *squeal* Yayayayay! And I finished my exams on that day too! Ah, how I shall always celebrate the 18th of June… Whoop! All reviews welcome, nice and nasty, and *definitely* C+C.

 

          Yay!

 

          Um, does anyone want me to do a little alert thingy for when I update this? If you do, review and leave your e-mail address! (I want Support things!)

 

          The ickle review box is your *friend*! Give him reviews!

 

          ~ Kaz

 

          xxx

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