Better

Disclaimer: I don’t own Pokémon, but if I did, man... that’d be wild.

Summary: Misty is upset because of her sister’s and needs cheering up. Ash to the rescue!

Note: This is another story that I originally posted in text format. Big thank you to ‘Captain Bones’ for reviewing it the first time around. Much appreciated! J

Speech. Thoughts. Pokémon.

“Damn them!” Misty growled as she stormed into the room. ‘Uh-oh,’ thought Ash. ‘I know I’m gonna regret doing this, but...’ “What’s wrong, Misty?” She turned to him, her eyes blazing. “What’s wrong? I’ll tell you what’s wrong! I just got off the phone with the evil witches I have to call my sisters, and you know what? They still don’t consider me a ‘Sensational Sister’! It’s like, no matter what I do, I’m just not good enough to be ‘one of them’. Like I’d wanna be anything like them.” she muttered under her breath. “But, even with all my hard work at the Gym, they still think I’m a stupid, scrawny, useless runt, or something you’d scrape off of the bottom of your shoe!” She stormed around the room a couple of times, then raced over to the bed and started punching a pillow. “I. Hate. Them. So. Much!” she growled, punctuating each word with her fist. Misty then rolled over, pulled the remains of the pillow over her face and screamed. Even though it was muffled by the pillow, Ash could still tell that she’d cursed very badly. ‘Wow, I haven’t heard that one before. Mum would kill me if I ever repeated it.’

Misty pulled the pillow away and stared into space with an evil look on her face. “Just because I’m not a model or an actress, they think it’s okay to call me ugly. Witches.” “You’re not ugly.” Ash said quietly. Misty rolled her eyes. ‘Here it comes, the insult. What’s it gonna be this time? You’re hideous?’ Ash remained silent, pulling slightly at a hole in the knee of his jeans. Misty sat up. “What do you mean?” she asked slowly, ready to belt him with the pillow if he insulted her. Ash blushed and nervously shifted a little. “Just, you’re not ugly.”

Misty was surprised. This wasn’t what she’d expected. Ash breathed in deeply, then continued. “It’s just, well, I think the reason your sisters pick on you so much is because they’re, well, jealous.” Misty crossed her arms and looked at him seriously. “Ash, you’re not hiding any drugs in here, are you?” His head shot up. “What?! No, of course not!” “Then explain.” Ash went back to picking at the hole in his jeans. “Well, for starters, they never really seemed all that, um, bright to me.” He stopped and waited to see if she was gonna punish him for insulting them. Misty merely nodded. “Yeah, they barely have the I.Q of a malfunctioning dishwasher between them, so?” Ash grinned slightly, then continued. “He-he, yeah, um, anyway... They also kinda seemed like they’d care more about themselves than anything else. Like they’d just, fall about, in a crisis. Not the kind of people you’d want to rely on in an emergency. Oh, and they say ‘like’ way too much. And who says ‘totally’ anymore?!” Misty smiled slightly. “Yeah, I think their brains fell out somewhere in the early nineties, and haven’t caught up with them yet.” They both chuckled. “And I’ve never really bothered counting on them for anything important. I’ve always kinda known they’d just let me down.” She looked at him. “Not that I don’t like insulting my sisters, but where are you going with this?”

Ash blushed, and went back to enlarging the hole in his jeans. “Um, yeah. Well, you’re, not like them. You, care, more about Pokémon and other people than you do about yourself. Well, except maybe bug-types. And Brock’s ears...” he added with a small smile. “Anyway, you’re good in a crisis. Like when me and Tracey got ourselves Stun Spored that time, remember? You looked after us, and found the Sorbayo weed to cure us. And you gave some to James and Meowth so they could cure Jessie, even though they had spent the whole day trying to trick you and steal the Sorbayo weed.” He laughed. “You even found time to catch yourself a Poliwag.” Misty smiled at the memory. “Me and the guys, Brock, Tracey, oh, and Pikachu too, we all know that, even though you yell at us a lot, hit us with mallets, drag us around by our ears, and generally act tougher then you really are, we know we can always count on you to help us out, and be there for us. Even if you had to fight your way through a whole forest of bug Pokémon, you’d still do whatever it takes to help us.”

Ash sighed. “Anyway, I guess what I’m trying to say is, who cares if you’re not like your sisters? It doesn’t matter what they say about you, because you’re better than them. You’re a better person, and a better friend.” He shrugged. “Of course, that’s just my opinion, and it probably doesn’t mean all that much to you.” By now, Misty was in tears. ‘That was the sweetest thing, anyone has ever said to me.’ She moved closer to Ash. “It means more to me than you could possibly know, Ash.” She hugged him tightly and kissed him gently on the cheek. “Thank you.” she whispered. Ash was surprised, but happy. “Anytime, Myst. Anytime.” He returned the hug awkwardly, blushing deeply.

THE END.

Okay, those of you who’ve read it before will probably notice that I’ve split this into paragraphs, something I apparently neglected to do the first time around. However, nothing has been removed or changed, apart from some punctuation and typos of course. So much better than before!

AUSSIE WOLF

17-Oct-08. (Fixed)

PS. On a more personal note, thank you to all those out there that voted me ‘Best in Category’ for TWO separate categories in March ‘09’! Much appreciated! Thank you! I found out the same day I re-submitted this fic, so I thought I’d add this extra bit. It’s nice to know that people out there like my work, and I’ll be posting some new stuff pretty soon. Once again, thank you!