I’ll Be Home For Christmas

Part 4

By Finaille Nailo

"Tough day, huh?" Brock asks, walking into the living room with a box of tissues. Misty’s face was red from crying. He hands her the tissues, and she takes one and blows into it.

"Yeah… tough…" Misty says with a sigh.

"Personally, I’d be just scared to death if I’d gotten an email and a phone call and all the person said "I’ll be home for Christmas" and that’s it. I mean, think about it?" Brock says, sitting next to her on the couch. Misty glares at him for saying that, and Brock sighs. "Do you want me to rub your back?"

Misty nods. "That would be nice, thanks." She says, sniffing. She turns her back on him, and he starts to massage her back.

"I just hope you feel better…" Brock says sincerely. Misty smiles, although Brock can’t see her face.

"Thanks… hey Brock?"

"Yeah?"

"I know you said that the email and the phone call couldn’t have been from Ash…" Misty says; Brock coughs as she says this. "… Well, what if it was?"

Brock shrugs, and turns her around to face him. "I’m sure he’d be trying to find you…"

"Is that what you’d do?" Misty asks curiously. "If you were Ash, I mean."

"Well, I don’t know… I mean, I’m the romantic type of guy… but I haven’t really been able to hold a decent relationship…"

"And we all know why that’s happened…" Misty says with a smug grin. Brock’s eyes widen, and he hits Misty playfully.

"Very funny…" Brock says.

"It was, wasn’t it?" He rolls his eyes, and scoops her up in a hug.

"Hey Misty, I’ve just realized something I haven’t told you." He whispers in her ear.

"And what’s that?"

"I love you…"

Misty blinks uncontrollably, and pushes Brock off of her onto the ground and starts to freak out. "EWWWWWWWWWW!!!!!"

Brock grins evilly. "I was just kidding… I do love you, but only as a friend." He snickers. "I deserved that though… anyways, what I was going to say is, I haven’t told you what Ash told me after you left."

"That wasn’t very… wait, what? He… said something?"

"Misty, he missed you… he wasn’t himself after you left… you do know he quit the league, right?"

"He did?"

Brock nods. "All because you left. He spent weeks searching for you… we both thought you went back home to Cerulean."

"I didn’t want to see him again, so I went to the one place you two wouldn’t have gone looking…"

"Which was…?"

"I went to the Orange Islands… I went back to Rudy. But we too got in a huge fight… so I came to back to Cerulean…"

"That must have been three years ago… the same time Ash and I left our separate ways." Brock says. "Really bad timing… if you were a week earlier, you would have seen Ash. We were in Cerulean, your sisters invited us."

"Hey, wait, wouldn’t that mean when we moved in together you were still talking to Ash? And never told me?" Misty asks.

"I suppose it’s time I told you the truth about everything, huh?" Brock asks. Misty’s eyes became focused on Brock’s.

"The truth?"

"Last night… at the dance club… Ashton was…" The phone interrupts Brock.

"I’ll go get it." Misty says, hopping off of the couch and running to the phone. "Hello?"

"Hey, this is Duplica, is Brock there?"

"Oh yeah, hi! I’ll go get him." She sets the phone down. "BROCK!!"

"What?"

"Phone for you!" He walks up to Misty and she hands Brock the phone. Misty goes back into the living room and sits down, staring at the blank TV screen.

Last night… at the dance club… Ashton was? Ashton was WHAT??? What did Brock mean? Wait… could Ashton be Ash??? No no no!! That couldn’t be… he wouldn’t do that to me, would he? Misty glances at the clock. It’s six… guess I should turn the TV on… the marathon is gonna start. She grabs the remote, and turns it to their local channel just as Brock walks into the room.

"Hey, what did Duplica want?" Misty asks curiously.

"Oh… um… she just wanted to say Merry Christmas. Hey! The movies are starting!" He sits down next to her.

Misty rolls her eyes, "What a way to spend Christmas Eve… six hours of pointless movies."

"Shut up… I won’t be able to hear… OW!"

"Never tell me to shut up." Misty says after smacking Brock in the side of the head. How great… Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer… Misty thinks to herself as the first movie starts. I know this story so much I could recite it backwards… She sighs and makes herself comfortable…

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"On the road to Cerulean City!" Duplica sings happily… and loudly. They are both in Ash’s car, about 20 miles away from Cerulean City.

"DUPLICA! That’s Viridian City! And will you shut up for five minutes?" Ash asks, tapping on the steering wheel impatiently.

"Aw Ash, have some more fun in your life!"

"It would help if you were quieter… you’re so loud…" Ash says, rolling his eyes.

"Worried about tonight?"

"Yeah…"

"Ashy-boy, she’ll be ecstatic to see you! You worry too much, things will be fine!" Duplica convinces Ash. He smiles.

"Yeah, you’re right." Ash smiles. "You know, for some reason when I first met you, I knew you liked Brock."

"Really?" Duplica asks, a little surprised.

"Yeah, at the theater… you were all flirty around him. And you, besides Misty, were like the only girl he never seemed to have a crush on, he treated you like a little kid." He smiles at her. "You definitely don’t look like a kid now, but you still act like one." He says with a laugh.

"Oh… thanks…" Duplica mutters, looking out the window and crossing her arms. Ash reaches over and rubs her shoulder.

"Hey, it was supposed to be a compliment…" She looks at him with a smug grin.

"You are WAY too gullible."

"Am not."

"Am too!"

"Am not!!!"

"AM TOO!"

"OK! Fine, I am…" Ash sighs as they pass a sign that says, Welcome To Cerulean City! Home of the Famous Water Gym!

"Ok, we need to take the Goldeen Street exit to get the to mall…" Duplica says, looking at the various signs covering both sides of the road. Within minutes, they reach the exit, and Ash pulls into it. They find the mall shortly after. They find a parking place, and walk inside. Ash stops in awe, and stares in the huge mall.

"Woah… this is much bigger than I thought it would be." Ash says, blinking and looking around.

"Well duh! This is the largest mall in Kanto, it was just built a few years ago."

"Must have been, I thought the largest mall was in Celadon City." Ash says.

"Well, not anymore." She glances at her watch. "It’s only seven, we’ve got quite a bit of time. Wait, I think… what time do you want to go to Misty’s?"

"Maybe around midnight… we still gotta do the Christmas requests so then, how about we meet back right here at 8:45?" Ash asks her. Duplica nods in agreement.

"M’kay, see ya in a little while then, Ashy-boy!" She giggles and Ash rolls his eyes. Duplica smiles and walks toward an escalator. Ash looks around for a moment and sighs. He spots a sign with a listing of stores nearby and walks up to it.

"Let’s see… jewelry stores… 20 JEWELRY STORES???" He yells in surprise. Many people around him stared with confused looks. Ash sweatdrops and smiles nervously. Guess I should take one at a time… I do have a while…He sighs again, and walks away to find the first one on the list.

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"Finally, it’s over…" Misty sighs, somewhat overdramatically. "I’ve seen Rudolph WAY too many times."

"Oh come on Mist, you know you love it." Brock says, grinning and nudging her shoulder playfully.

"Riiiight… sure I do. So, what torture are we going to watch next?" Misty asks with a sarcastic tone.

"Actually, we have about fifteen minutes till the next one comes on."

"What do they do until then?"

"Christmas requests."

"Oh, those… my sister got one once. Her husband asked her to marry her over it." Misty says, smiling.

"Lily, right?"

"Yeah." There’s a moment of awkward silence.

"So, think you figured out who emailed and called you?" Brock ponders curiously.

Misty sighs and looks down. "No, I haven’t a clue who did… but I somehow think the boy who called me was Ash…"

"Misty, you’re insane, it couldn’t be Ash… we’ve gone through this before."

"Yes, yes, I know that quite well! It’s just my opinion though, I am entitled to have one you know." Misty smirks. Brock sighs.

"Well if you get your heart broken, I’ll comfort you, but it’s not my fault you know." Brock says. He smiles at her.

Misty slaps her forehead in frustration. He still doesn’t understand… I know he means well, but still, he’ll never understand. "Um, yeah, thanks Brock."

"No problem. Anyways, the next movie is about it come on." Brock says, glancing at the clock.

"And the torture is…? You didn’t tell me the last time I asked."

"Oh, right, I thought you were asking when it came on." Misty rolls her eyes. "Anyways, I think it’s Christmas on the Sea."

"Wow, they’re actually playing a decent movie?" Misty asks, somewhat surprised.

"Hey, there are other Christmas movies besides the cheesy ones, you know." Brock jokes.

"No… really, I never would have guessed."

"Oh shut up, it’s coming on…"

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Bleh, eight stores just to find the perfect engagement ring… "I’ll take that one sir." Ash says to the man behind the counter, pointing to a beautiful ring; an 18-carat gold ring with a Starmie on it, and the middle of the Starmie a beautiful, shiny red ruby. Ash pays for the ring, and walks out of the store with a small bag in his hand and a smile on his face.

He glances at his watch. I’ve still got nearly a half-hour… maybe Duplica also finished her "business" early. Guess I should go back to where we split up. As luck had it, when he returned to find Duplica sitting on a bench, looking outside.

"Duplica!" He calls out. She smiles and turns to him.

"Hey, did you get the ring?" She asks. He nods. "Well, do I get to see it?" Ash digs it out of the bag and carefully shows it to her.

"So, what do you think?" Ash asks, somewhat embarrassed.

"Oh come on, stop acting like a young schoolboy, it’s beautiful. She’ll love it. So, where to next?"

"Guess we should find out where in the world the TV station who does the Christmas requests is." Ash says.

"Yeah, generally that would be good if we knew that." Duplica says with an evil grin. "Well, let’s go!" They walk out to Ash’s car, and drive off to find a gas station (they need directions ^^).

A/N- Bleh, I finally get this out… IT’S BEEN TOO LONG! Sorry, dates and friends have consumed most of my time. Please review and I hope you’ve enjoyed this. There should only be a part or two left. Thanks for reading!!!!