The Dreaded First Date

I've never liked anyone else. It's always been Misty. I've told her how I feel. She didn't laugh at me, so that's a good sign. Now that I've gotten past that, apparently there's all these other things to worry about. Why does life have to be so complicated? I miss the old days. Back then all I had to worry about was getting my next badge. Now there's all this new stuff on my mind. "I can't do this, Misty might think I'm immature." "I can't say that, Misty will get mad." There's way too many rules. It shouldn't be this hard to get a girl to like you. It never ends, either. After she likes you, you have to keep her liking you. Girls are so much trouble. So why do I even bother? Because she's Misty. She's important to me, and I don't want to lose her.

I must be insane for liking her though. She's mean to me a lot. Not as much as she used to be, but it's still really annoying. She teases me, and taunts me. Sometimes she takes joy in kicking me when I'm down. And yet, I still like her. Yup,, something is definitely wrong with me. But it's like Gary always says. I can never back away from a challenge, and Misty's as big of a challenge as they come. That's why I like her. It's not easy with her. She makes me work for her attention. It's fun that way. Almost like a game, or a Pokemon battle. I don't like girls who throw themselves at me. Where's the challenge in that? There isn't one, and that's why it's better with Misty. She's like a Pokemon who doesn't want to be captured, but I'll win her over eventually. I have to.

When I was younger I always wondered why Brock made such a fool of himself over girls. It never made sense to me. Now I know. I need a girl. I need someone to take care of me, and I need to, no, I want to take care of someone. And I want that someone to be Misty. I've always protected her, so it just fits for me to continue to protect her. That's how it always should be.

I'm supposed to ask her on a date. A date. What does that mean? I bet there are rules for that too. I know that I have to pick her up, and drop her off, but what happens in between? I can't ask Brock, because he's never been on one. He has told me, though, that we have to do something fun and romantic on a date. Romantic? I know what Misty thinks is fun, but it's the romantic part that's going to kill me. So now I have to think romantically. What's romantic? Flowers? Dancing? Sunsets? French stuff? Where am I going to get French stuff here? Maybe we could go out to breakfast. They serve French toast at breakfast sometimes. Depends on the restaurant though. Oh, this is too hard. Maybe I should just ask Misty what she wants to do.

I'm on the date. I'm sweating like crazy. I hope I don't stink at the end of this thing. Misty been acting kind of weird ever since I picked her up at the Pokemon Center. Maybe she's nervous too? Nah, she's the expert at this kind of stuff. Yeah, she's probably just annoyed because of something I did...Oh no! Did I do something wrong?! I knew I should have brought her flowers. But it's not my fault, though. I forget things when I'm under pressure. There's way too much pressure! Ugh, tonight's going to be a disaster. I can just feel it.

We're at the restaurant, and we're about to order dinner. It's late, so I doubt they're serving anything French, but I certainly can't be blamed for that. She picked the time of the date. Yeah, I'm probably going to get blamed for it anyway. We get the menus, and I'm relieved that the stuff's not too pricey. I order the steak. It's big and juicy. It tastes great. Good mash potatoes too. This food is really good. There's some vegetables on the plate, but they did something to them to make them taste delicious too. These people are good. I'm not sure what Misty's eating. It was called chicken catch-cutch-crotch-oh, whatever. Chicken with a bunch of tomatoes and sauce. Anyway, she likes it. They're playing music now. It's slow, and boring. I take a look around. This place is pretty fancy. We seem to be the only young people in here. Misty's weird sometimes, well, a lot of the time. We should have went to the movies instead...But then I wouldn't be eating this food. This really is great food.

She's looking at me. What does she want? More food? Can't blame her. No. She wants to dance. Oh god. Well, I guess I have to do what she wants. In other words, same old, same old. Why can't we ever do anything I want? I have ideas and opinions too. Really good ones. This music is too slow to dance to. What's she doing? She's putting her arms around my neck. Um...what do I do now? I quickly look around the room. I guess I'm supposed to put my hands on her waist. I think my hands are dirty though. She'll kill me if I mess up her new dress. I have to do something. She's glaring at me now. To grab waist, or not to grab waist, that is the question. Ah, forget it. I wipe my hands on my pants, and start dancing. This music is really slow. Seriously, I don't even think we're moving. I look at her. She's looking right at me. Am I supposed to say something? I hope not, I have nothing to say. She looks, I look, she looks, I look. I tell her she's pretty, which is true. Did I say the right thing? She's smiling, and blushing. Success!

She's leaning on me! Her head is on my shoulders! That is a very good thing. Huh? I think I like slow dancing. Yup, that's what it's called. Slow dancing. Misty told me that. It totally makes sense. Everything about this dance is slow. Slow is good.

We've left the restaurant. We were there a long time. Dancing, eating, and talking takes up a lot of time. We had a bunch of pointless conversations about Pokemon, and trees, and cheerleaders. I don't remember how we got into each topic, but I remember we agreed a lot. The important thing is I enjoyed myself, and I think so did she. We haven't argued yet, which is a miracle. I haven't done anything wrong, which is an even bigger miracle. We're walking on the boardwalk now. I can smell the ocean. It's really nice, and...romantic. Hey! What's going on? Something's touching my hand. Oh, it's Misty's hand. Does she want to hold hands? Oh man, I'm that guy that I used to make fun of. You know, the one who's always holding hands, and hugging his girlfriend. The one who whispers stupid love junk into her ear, and wants to make out all the time. I'm sappy guy! I grab her hand. It's nice, and soft, and warm. Sappy guy to the rescue! Oh well, this is better than being malleted over the head for doing something stupid. I look over to her. She sees me looking, and smiles. Am I blushing? How does she do that to me? Yeah, I really like her.

We're walking on the beach now. She's pulling at my hand. I sit down on the sand. She's still standing. I thought she wanted to sit down? Her dress. She doesn't want to ruin it. I'm wearing nice clothes too. I guess guys don't value nice clothes as much as girls do. I have a jacket. She could sit on that. I take it off, and lay it out for her. I guess that's what she was waiting for, because she's sitting now. She looks out into the ocean. It's kind of windy tonight. The tide goes in and out. She looks great. Her hair is down, and blowing in the wind. The moonlight is shining on her face. She looks like an angel. Ack! Sappy guy has returned.

She's shivering. She's sitting on my jacket, so I can't offer it to her. See? It's not my fault when things go wrong. Even when I know the right thing to do, it's not an option. She's shivering even more now. Oh...fine. I put my arm around her, and she looks a little surprised. Uh oh, I wasn't supposed to do that. She's going to hit me now. I can feel it coming...No. She's leaning into me. Her arms are around my waist. She sighed. A happy sigh? This is weird. Her hair is tickling my nose. It smells good though. Like apples, or something. I'm hungry again. We have to go back to that restaurant. Not now, but soon.

She's talking. She had a good time. So did I. She's surprised that I could be so romantic. I was? She said that for the next date I could pick the place where we go. That's good to know. Maybe we'll go back to the restaurant. No, she'll be expecting someplace new. Great, now I have to think of something to top tonight. What's going to top that food? Oooh, she had this planned all along. I'll show her! I'll take her on the most romantic, and fun date ever! My head hurts! I can't think right now. That ocean/apple smell is getting to my brain.

She wants to go back to the Pokemon Center. It's late. I look at my watch. It is late! It's almost 11:00. If we don't get there soon we'll be locked out. That won't be good. She unwraps herself from me. Without her warmth I notice how cold it actually is. I pick up my jacket, which is now covered with sand, and we begin to walk back. I want to say something to her. I want her to know that I really had fun. I want her to know that I liked being with her. Now how do I say that, without saying that? I tell her I had a great time, and that dating isn't so bad, so long as I'm dating her. She stops walking. She's looking at me funny. She smiles, and holds out her hand again. More hand-holding. I guess that works for me.

We reach the Pokemon Center a minute late. Luckily Nurse Joy hadn't locked up yet. We still get lectured, though. I walk her to her room. We're standing in front of the door. She searches for her keys inside her really tiny purse. Why does it take so long? There's not much space to look through She finds it, and opens her door. I tell her goodnight, and I turn to go to my room. Something stops me. She's holding onto my arm. I turn back around. She's coming close to me. She's looking at me weird again. Her cheek touches mine, and...she kissed me. Misty's never kissed me before. Okay, I'm really warm now. I know that I'm blushing. I look at her. She's blushing too, so I guess it's okay. Now she's says goodnight, and thank you. She goes into her room and closes the door.

What just happened? That has to be the strangest thing I've ever felt. I've been kissed by a lot of girls, but this, this was different. I touch my cheek. I'm still warm, and I can feel some lipstick on where she kissed me. My heart is definitely racing. Why is it doing that? Why is Misty kissing me so special? I think about that as I head to my room. When I'm inside I go straight to the mirror. I'm still red...and I'm smiling. I hope I didn't look this stupid before. I probably did. Oh well. I have to know how she does that to me. How she makes me feel so...so great. I wonder if I make her feel like that. I hope so. She deserves to feel great, and special. Really special.

I can't wait for our next date. I'm thinking about taking her to a carnival. She should like that. Maybe next time she'll kiss me on the lips. Or maybe I'll kiss her. We'll see. Anyway, at least the first date is over with, and I wont have to be totally clueless anymore. I really don't know why Brock made such a big deal out of this dating stuff. It's a piece of cake, if you ask me. ^_~

The End

A/N: I don't know why I'm writing so much these last few days. I guess I wrote this because I was in the mood for some mindless fluff. I've never done an Ash POV or a first date story before, even though practically everyone else has done one. I just thought I'd give it a shot. Something quick, and cute. I'm a lot happier with this story than with the other one I put up. Anyway, tell me what you think in a review.