Authors Notes- Just a few items before we get started. First, I don’t own Pokemon. I’m new to this, but I see everyone else doing it, so I’m going to do it too (If the fed’s bust down my door tomorrow, it’ll probably be for all the illegal assault weapons in my basement and not for this). Second, the ages are what they are on the show. It’s up for interpretation, but I think Ash is 11 and Misty is 13 in the show. Ages don’t seem to matter in Anime anyways, so it’s anything you want it to be. Last, this is my first fan fic, so I’d love to hear feedback, please E-mail me at hassanalhedia@hotmail.com

By Hassan Al Hedia

PROLOGUE

Ash thought it was a beautiful day, despite how he felt. He had been awake for a few minutes, but he had probably been lying there for quite some time. His sight was finally starting to improve from the blur and double vision of the past few minutes. He could clearly see his best friend leaning over him with a concerned face. There hadn’t been much conversation, yet Ash had many questions. She had asked if he was alright when he recovered consciousness. “Yeah, fine”, he said even though his whole body felt sore and immovable. His head hurt the worst. Every heartbeat brought fresh bursts of pain in his temples, and he could feel blood running down his forehead. He tried to move his right arm to wipe the blood from his face, but something on his wrist was giving resistance. “Hey! don’t pull so hard” Misty exclaimed. Ash looked at his wrist and saw a large steel cuff connected by a chain to a similar cuff on Misty’s left wrist.

“What the hell!?” Ash exclaimed. “Ash, don’t swear!”, she replied. “W-what’s going on”, Ash repeated, confused. “You don’t remember?”, Misty asked with concern. Ash sat up despite a considerable amount of pain. He suddenly realized that he couldn’t remember why he was lying on the ground all beat up. He tried to remember the previous day, but nothing came. To him it felt like empty space in his head, or more like memories he just couldn’t reach. Next he tried to find his last clear memory. It was of him leaving Silver Mountain to return home after the tournament. The rest of his memories after that were just random images and feelings. “Misty, how long ago was the Jhoto league tournament?”, he asked while he closed his eyes and rubbed his head, smearing blood on his hand. “Don’t touch it!, let me clean that wound for you”, She said softening her voice. That was one thing he could remember clearly, that concerned tone she always used when he got hurt.

“About a month”. “Huh?”, he asked, her sudden reply interrupted his deep train of thought. “You wanted to know.”, she continued with her soft voice while she wiped his face with a cloth, “It was a month ago”. Ash turned his face away from Misty, towards the setting sun. “That’s the last thing I remember”, he said. “Really!”, She said shocked “Oh……”. “What is it?”, Ash turned his face back to Misty’s. He thought that he heard Misty’s tone change just before. “I-It’s nothing”, she said quietly, looking away. “Come on, tell me,” he said smiling, he was very interested in what she was thinking. “I’ll tell you later”, she said with authority. “Aw man” Ash exclaimed. He wanted to know, but Misty seemed pretty defensive. So he decided to let off because his head hurt too much to get into a fight with her right now. “So Mist, could you tell me how we ended up in the middle of the forest all alone and handcuffed together?”, he asked jokingly. “Well you seem to be in a good mood”, she said, smiling. She was very happy that the subject changed. “It’s getting dark”, she said looking at the disappearing sun, “Let’s get a fire going first”.

The sky was now dark blue, fading to black in the west, with a strip of pale yellow hanging just above the mountains in the east. The temperature had fallen with the sun, and would reach near freezing in a few hours. The night was assured to be uncomfortable for any creature in the forest. Even for the two with the gift of fire. Misty did most of the

fire starting work, but she didn’t really mind. Ash wasn’t in any condition to do much more than pick a few sticks for kindling. Once the fire was going, they both coordinated with each other to sit back on a tree trunk a few feet from the fire. Ash was thinking about how comical it was trying to set up a campsite when you’re handcuffed to someone else. They had to collaborate on every movement and every action before they did it. Between them it was like they only had three arms, so they had to discuss the actions of their cuffed hands before they used them. They learned quickly that not working together usually resulted in a sore wrist, or one of them being yanked off their feet. While Ash was staring into the fire thinking of the mechanics of two people being cuffed together, Misty was sitting next to him quietly staring at him. If Ash would have turned to her at that moment, she would have turned her head away. Ash would start asking questions if he saw her staring at him. She was looking at the bandages wrapped around the top of his head.

His hat was off and the bandages had pushed all of his hair down, making his hair look longer than it really was. All the hair that usually stuck up was now over his ears and even almost in his eyes. “It almost looks like he combed his hair for once,” She thought “No, it doesn’t really do his hairstyle justice”. She began to chuckle and Ash turned his attention from the fire to her. “What’s so funny?”, He asked. “Nothing, I just think you look good with the new hairstyle.” She said continuing to laugh. “Hey, I never complain about the way you do your hair.” He responded with his best offended voice. “I wasn’t making fun of it, I think it looks cute--” She cut off the rest of her sentence. They both realized what they were talking about at the same time. They simultaneously forced their gaze back to the fire, they were both blushing and neither of them dared say anything more. For the next few minutes, an uncomfortable silence fell over the campsite, the only sound was of the fire crackling and popping. “So you were, uh, going to tell me what happened today.” Ash said, finally breaking the odd silence. “Oh! Yeah!,” She was relieved that the moment was over.

“This morning started out pretty much like any other day on the road,” She began slowly. “Brock was making breakfast, and we were both by the lake getting cleaned up. Team Rocket came outta nowhere with their balloon and got us with a net. They made a clean getaway with us, and once they were sure Brock didn’t see us they pulled us up to the basket and handcuffed us. Then we had to explain to them that we didn’t have any of our pokemon with us, because they were all still sleeping back at camp”. “They never get a break, do they?”, Ash joked. “Well it’s not like they don’t deserve it.”, she said smiling, “Anyway, they flew over these uninhabited mountains and said they were going to hold us for ransom. They had their backs turned and were talking about all the things they were going to get with our ransom money. So we decided to make our escape. We still had our breakfast silverware with us. I guess we wanted to make a controlled landing, but the balloon kinda started to blast off once we cut a hole in it with a fork. We fell out a few hundred feet up in the air, and Team Rocket blasted off in their balloon. I guess the trees broke our fall because here we are, still alive.” She smiled with the last thought. “But how come I can barley move and you don’t even have a scratch?” Ash asked. “Oh that was so heroic” She said with a big grin on her face, “You held on to me while we were falling, and you spun so that you were below me. That way you would take most of force from the fall through the trees and on the ground. It was very sweet of you!” Ash scratched his head and blushed. “Aw, it was nothing really.” Just then an enormous growl came from Ash’s stomach. “Great! Just the way to ruin the moment!” Misty thought.

“Uh.. You don’t happen to have any food in that backpack of yours, do you?” Ash asked pointing to Misty’s red bag. Misty had her backpack with her when they were abducted by Team Rocket. She had managed to hold on to it throughout the fall as well. All it had in it was extra sets of clothes, towels, bandages and her sleeping bag. “It looks like we’re going hungry tonight” She answered grumpily. “Really, nothing?” He griped. “Complaining only makes it worse”, she replied, “I want to going to bed, you coming?”. “But we only have one sleeping bag, we can’t sleep in the same bag”, Ash said blushing. “There’s nowhere else to sleep, besides it’s too cold to go without one.”, Misty answered, “We’re good enough friends to know that it doesn’t mean anything. Just stay on your own side, and there won’t be a problem”. “I guess….” Ash wasn’t convinced but there was no other option and he was extremely tired also.

They both sat in Misty’s sleeping bag, there was hardly enough room for both of them to fit lying side by side. Misty had kept a cool tone throughout the whole sleeping discussion. But the truth was that she was just as nervous as Ash was about the idea. She knew that she had to act like it didn’t bother her, or else they would both be too scared to go to sleep. “Listen Ash, if you need me to help you with your bandages or anything during the night. Please wake me up, I wouldn’t want anything to happen to you during the night” She said trying not to sound compassionate. “Uh.. Ok, thanks Misty” Ash said “G’night.” Ash got her message, even though she didn’t want him to “Goodnight Ash”.

Authors Notes (again)- So, what do you think? Part2 should be done sometime next week, so I hope you come back and read It!! Please write me and tell me what you think.

Until Next Time-

Close the world, open the nExt