Ages:

Ash--> 21

Misty --> 20

"..." Spoken Words

italics Thoughts

~~~~~~ Scene changes / flashbacks / change in P.O.V

(...) Author's Notes

Disclaimer: None of the following characters used in this story belong to me, k? Only the plot is mine, the rest....belongs to good ol' Japan ^-^

Last Chapter review:

Chapter 8: Internal Battles

Over the next couple of days, Ash and misty talked more and more with Mrs. Ketchum. She ended up telling them almost exactly what they needed to know.

The photo albums and the late night chats have done the situation good, no doubt, but there was still something plaguing Ash's mind; why were there still gaps? One minute there was a memory of he an Misty on one of their nights alone on the town and the next minute it was a flashback of some Pokémon battle fought back when he was a kid.

Ash felt that he should've felt whole, or, at least, semi-complete.

Ash's mom had claimed "there were quite a few things missing", which he supposed would explain the gaps, but Ash felt that he should at least feel relieved, but he didn't. He was still uncertain about some things in his past.

Misty seemed to be moving on quickly and happily, and his mother was absolutely thrilled to have her long lost son back; so happy that she'd promised to throw a humongous bash the moment Ash and Misty fully regained their memories. This may have been what was hindering Ash's progress. It's not as if he didn't want his memory back, because he most certainly did, it was just that he didn't want to let his mother down if it didn't happen. She was so happy, who'd want to burst her bubble?

*I certainly don't.* he thought, staring aimlessly around his backyard from his lawn chair.

Shaking his head, he pushed his uncertain and negative thoughts from his mind and concentrated on his surroundings.

From his lawn chair, Ash was able to see practically every spot in the yard. The entire yard was surrounded by a tall, wooden fence, and the ground was covered in short, green grass that reached all the way to the ends of the paved porch. To his left was a small garden of pink roses next to a wheel barrel full of what looked like fertilizer. Searching further, and turning in the process, Ash discovered a tall Oak tree all the way in the far corner of the vast yard. Looking to his right a little, his eyes fell upon a rock garden next to a small Bonsai tree. Directly on his right, all the way in the bottom right corner, was a small, old garden shed that looked to be about fifteen years old, at the very least.

Ash sighed and looked above him at the clouds.

He squinted as his eyes were struck by the bright, morning sunlight.

Ash closed his eyes and leaned back into his chair, allowing the subtle wind to blow his unwashed hair any way it pleased.

Then he felt it. It was subtle and almost unnoticeable, but he felt it. He felt it every time she was near him and now at least he knew why. Ash kept his eyes closed, listening for the sliding glass door behind him to slowly open, just like it had every morning for the past two weeks.

He kept his eyes shut when he heard the familiar sound of the door slowly sliding open and that feeling of his growing stronger and stronger as she approached him.

He hears her walk over toward him and suddenly stop behind him. He feels her place her soft, delicate hands upon his shoulders. He smiles when he hears her voice chime.

"Good morning, Ash." she says sleepily, placing a small, quick kiss atop his head.

"Morning, Mist." he replies.

There is a momentary silence between them as Ash relishes in the feelings she's given him. Then something happened that was not routine. Ash finally opened his eyes to discover it. He found himself looking up into the uncertain face of this woman.

He shifted himself so that he was not looking at her upside down and flashed a curiously worried look upon his face.

"Mist, what's wrong?" he asked gently, eyebrows furrowed.

Misty quickly snapped out of her thought and looked down at Ash with a surprised look on her face.

"What do you mean, Ash?"

Ash frowned; asking that question was one of the signs someone has a problem they don't want to discuss.

"Don't give me that. What's going on? Why so quiet all of a sudden?" he asked, crossing his arms over his chest.

If Misty hadn't been concentrating on not telling Ash what was on her mind, she would've found that gesture adorable.

"There's nothing going on, Ash. I was just thinking about something that happened last night, that's all."

Ash's curious face immediately turned into one of concern as he leapt from his chair and grabbed one of Misty's hands.

"What happened last night? Are you Ok? Did someone --" but Ash was cut off by a giggle.

"Ash, nothing physically happened, ok, it was just something that popped into my head." she said airily, waving the hand that Ash wasn't holding.

He looked at her skeptically.

"Oh, ok...if that's all." he said warily, releasing her hand only to notice her glazed look.

He waved a hand in front of her eyes, then snapped; no reaction.

Ash furrowed his brow and stepped closer to her face, looking closely at her, when all of a sudden her eyes blinked furiously and she inhaled sharply. Her, now lively, eyes wide with panic and surprise.

Ash quickly reached up and grabbed the sides of her face with his hands, forcing her to look at him.

"Misty, Misty, calm down." he spoke, "What happened?" he asked slowly and quietly once her breathing had slowed.

"I-I had a flashback, Ash. I had a flashback." she said hurriedly.

"Ok, ok. What did you see?"

This question made Misty freeze and look right at him. She gulped and wet her lips.

"Oh, nothing we didn't, uh, know....before..." she said, biting her lip.

Ash's frown deepened; she was either lying or was extremely nervous about something. She always bit her lip when she was.

But Ash decided not to question her further, for now, and gently released her face.

"Ok." he said slowly, keeping his eyes locked with hers.

Mist bit her lip once more and nodded her head quickly.

"Well, Ash, I, uh, I'm going to go and help you mom make breakfast. I'll, um, call you when it's ready, ok?" she concluded briskly, slowly turning and making her way to the door.

Ash shook his head and plopped back down in his chair.

*The plot thickens...* he thought absentmindedly.

*~*~*

An hour later, weird behavior and lies almost completely forgotten, Ash and Misty were cleaning up the kitchen silently after that morning's breakfast. Every now and then Ash would hear Misty sigh which, for a while, he thought was because of the activity, but as he began to think about it, it led him to believe it had something to do with this morning.

Finally, after a half an hour of soap, water and dirty dishes, Ash and Misty rinsed off their last few items and placed them into the dishwasher for a thorough cleaning. As they left the kitchen, Ash noted that Misty was avoiding eye contact with him.

*C'mon, I'm just paranoid, she's not avoiding me, and there's nothing weird going on.*

That thought seemed to ease Ash's nerves a little so he was at least able to think of something else.

Around noon that day, Mrs. Ketchum announced that she was taking them out to lunch.

Happy for a distraction, Ash and misty got ready quickly and dove into Mrs. Ketchum's car, Misty claiming the front seat. The ride to the restaurant was quiet as no one could really think of a topic to talk about that would last only a couple of minutes.

After about a 5 minute drive they arrived at their destination: The Pallet Town Diner. (AN: creative name, eh?)

Ash smiled when he saw the sign, remembering all the stories his mom had told him about coming here as a child.

He sighed happily, reliving memory after memory, and strolled over to Misty, almost completely forgetting her odd behavior. She, however, didn't notice him walking up to her, or, if she did, she didn't show it.

Ash furrowed his brow and stopped walking about a foot to her right. He stood and stared at her for a moment, noticing the blank expression on her face. Slowly he reached for her shoulder to bring her back to reality. He touched it softly, hoping that was all she needed, but it didn't work. Ash's frown deepened.

*This is exactly what happened this morning.* he thought, gently shaking Misty in the process.

Suddenly, she gasped sharply and snapped her head in Ash's direction. Her eyes grew wide and shined with what looked like tears. Quickly she turned from him and walked to the entrance as fast as she could.

Ash stood rooted on the spot, dumbstruck.

What was going on? That was the second time today she'd looked at him as if she were going to burst into tears. Did he do something wrong?

Ash exhaled, happy memories gone, as he slowly walked to the entrance. When he was reaching for the door handle, Mrs. Ketchum stuck her head out.

"Ash, burry up, Honey! The table's ready."

Ash nodded and followed his mother into the diner. Those momentarily forgotten memories quickly rushed back, causing Ash to smile once more.

As he looked around, he felt someone pull him forward. Figuring it was his mother he allowed her to lead him while he looked around. It was a cozy place, as his mother has said, full of people he most likely knew in one way or another.

Suddenly, he felt the person pulling him let go and heard chairs scrapping the floor. He looked down at the table, located an empty chair, and placed himself in it.

He looked to his left and saw his mother dive right into the rather large menu and smiled slightly. He then looked to his right, expecting to see Misty doing the same, but she sat stationary, staring blankly at her glass of water.

Ash furrowed his brow again and looked over at his mother, who was lost behind the high walls of her menu.

Ash needed to get her attention, so he lightly tapped her leg with his foot under the table. It worked and she looked at him with questioning eyes.

He quickly looked over at Misty and then back to his mother, who was still looking at him oddly. He subtly nodded his head in Misty's direction, hoping his mother would get what he was trying to do.

Apparently, she did, because she closed her menu, placed it down on the table and looked at Misty. Her face was instantly covered with worry.

"Misty dear, why don't you order something? They have excellent entrees here. Go on, take a look." Mrs. Ketchum said, pointing to the menu before Misty.

Misty shifted her gaze from her water glass to the menu and immediately she began to cry freely. She let out a little whimper and quickly got up from the table, running to the exit.

Ash's eyes widened as he worriedly watched her leave.

Mrs. Ketchum abruptly rose to go after her, but Ash stopped her.

"I'll go Mom, you stay here and order something." Ash said, rising from his chair.

Mrs. Ketchum nodded, sighed a little and looked back at her menu with a little less interest.

Ash quickly strode to the door misty had bolted out of and, after opening it, found her sitting on the curb of the sidewalk, crying like there was no tomorrow.

Ash's frowned deepened still more at this. He walked quietly over and placed himself beside her heaving form, not saying a word.

He let this carry on for a few more minutes, and until he heard her muffled cries die down.

Slowly he turned his head to her.

"You wanna tell me what's going on, Mist?" he asked softly.

He heard another choked sob escape her lithe form as he said this. Scooting closer he placed an arm around her shoulders. Instantaneously, she tensed and pried her heavy head from her folded arms. She looked at him momentarily before her eyes welled up with tears once more. She moved to put her face back in the cradle of her arms, but Ash stopped her with his hand, forcing her to look at him.

His face showed a mixture of feelings; he was trying to be sympathetic, but stern at the same time, he was worried about her, he was....a number of things.

"What is going on?" he asked her frankly.

She momentarily ceased her crying and sniffed. She bit her lip and gulped.

"I-I can't tell you." she said simply, her eyes threatening to spill more tears.

Ash sighed but held his position.

"Why not? Why can't you tell my why you look like you're going to cry every time you look at me? Why can't you tell me why you almost can't bear being in the same room with me? Why? Because I deserve to know, Misty. We haven't kept any secrets so far, let's not start now."

Misty gulped again as her lower lip trembled.

"O-ok..." she said, pausing to lick her trembling lips.

Ash nodded and let go of her face.

Misty took a deep breath and began.

"Remember this morning when I told you I had a flashback and I told you it was about something we already knew?"

Ash nodded.

"Well, that-that was a lie." she said sniffing constantly.

Ash left his face as expressionless as possible and nodded again, willing her to continue.

"My flashback was about something that happened...between...us." She bit her lip again and drew a shaky breath, reading herself to continue.

"It's also connected with this place." she said, gesturing to the diner.

Ash nodded once more, fully keeping his attention on her.

"Ash, we-we....we broke up here."

Ash furrowed his brow for what must've been the millionth time that day.

"What are you talking about?"

Misty's eyes slowly let the tears fall as she averted her gaze to the ground.

"We broke up here." she stated again.

Ash sighed.

"Ok, I understand that part, but why did we break up?"

Misty choked another sob, still refusing to look at him.

"If you honestly don't remember, then-then there's, uh, no reason to...remind you..."

Ash shook his head and gently grabbed her face again.

"Uh-uh, no, we're not doing that. You need to tell me why, you can't just say 'we broke up here' and not tell me why, Mist, it doesn't work that way." he said, getting rather exasperated, still holding her face to look at him.

"But Ash, it --"

"No, 'buts', Misty. Tell me." he interrupted.

Misty broke down into tears again, her face still in Ash's hand.

"I-I....cheated on you." she cried, pulling her head from Ash's hand and burying it in her own.

Ash gulped and looked at her crying form; she looked so completely miserable and it was blatantly obvious she was regretting even having the flashback.

Ash reached toward her and pulled her shaking body to his chest.

"Now, now. That's all in the past, Mist, don't dwell on it. I mean, look at it this way." he continued, softly stroking her red hair, "Even if we did break up, it doesn't matter because we obviously got back together before we went on that cruise." he concluded soothingly.

Ash then sat in silence for an expanse of ten minutes, the only sound from Misty's slowing sobs. After another five minutes of sobbing, Misty cried her last tear and looked up at Ash.

She sniffed.

"Do you really feel that way?"

Ash smiled lightly.

"I wouldn't have said it if I didn't."

Then Misty did something she hadn't done all day; she smiled back. So they sat there in one another's arms, just staring at each other....until that moment came. That moment where you know everything in alright, that moment where all you feel is joy and love...and in that moment is when you express it. Ash slowly leaned toward Misty, and Misty followed suit, tilting her head in the opposite direction of Ash's, and then their lips met. (AN: Wow...that's gotta be the cheesiest and fluffiest thing I have ever written! lol, but I suppose it explained 'the moment' well, huh? hehe)

*~*~*

Forty-five minutes. That's how long it took Ash and Misty to return to the table, and when they did, they were glowing. (AN: Well, you'd be too if you just had your 'first kiss' with you amnesiac boyfriend!) Misty was no longer crying and was holding Ash's hand with a death grip.

They strode over to the table where Mrs. Ketchum was seated, only to discover two new faces.

"Oh Ash, Misty, I'm so glad you're both alright now." she squeaked, "We were just talking about you two. Ash, Misty, I don't know if you remember him, but this is Professor Oak." she said pointing to an older-looking man.

"And this," she continued, pointing to a younger-looking man who looked oddly familiar, "is his grandson, Gary."

Almost immediately Ash and Misty put two and two together and they hurriedly looked at one another; this was the 'Gary Oak' they had been searching for in Cerulean.

~~~~~ End of Chapter 8 ~~~~~

To be continued...

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Well, it's been a while, eh? Yea, sorry about that...I'm the biggest procrastinator, PLEASE forgive me! I spent all day working on finishing this chapter and I PROMISE to have the next one out quicker....

Oh, one more thingy, I've set a limit for myself to finish this, so there's only going to be 2 or 3 more chapters. Believe me, if I don't set myself a limit, I'll NEVER FINISH...that's just the way my weird brain works, I suppose.

Well:

What did ya think?

Email me: silverserenity2000@yahoo.com

(or you could just press 'review'....hehehehe)

Storyline © Angel: da Newsies fan