***AUTHORESS NOTES***

This is just a little one-shot to get my creative juices flowing again.
Within the next week, a new site for Sapphire Sunsets will be up-
complete with a soundtrack.

Just to let you know, this is NOT a song fic. It's just named on my
favorite song of the moment. 

WARNING: This IS egoshipping. It's a bit of dramatic fluff. If you do
not appreciate this pairing, just don't even read it. I like the
coupling of Gary and Misty, and I realize that a lot of people don't. I
just don't want a bunch of flames saying "GAML sucks!" etc. If you plan
on doing that, realize how petty and immature that is.

Have fun reading!

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Wake Me Up When September Ends
By Torchick



     It had been one year to the very day. Yes, exactly one year. The
waves of the water surrounding the Cerulean Cape were calm, and with any
other situation, they would've soothed her. 

But not this time.

     Misty sighed and tossed a flat stone into the water. It was over.
It had been over for a year.

Exactly a year.

    "You're thinking about him again," came Gary's smooth voice. The
spiky-haired boy took a seat next to her. Her eyes moved from the waves
to his face. All of her facial features showed just how sad she was.

     "I haven't said a word to him in exactly a year. 365 days," she
said bitterly, casting her eyes downward. 

     "But, Misty, you're the one who wanted to leave him," he reminded
her.

     "I didn't know that the price of freedom was so high," she
responded.

     "You wanted to be your own person. And you are now. You proved that
you're not just a shadow of Ash. You succeeded."

     "Success is nothing when you have no one to share it with," she
sighed. "The one you love is a high price to pay for independence."

     "I don't know why you think this is your fault," Gary retorted.
"Ash just thought that you'd be around forever. He didn't take well to
the fact that you wanted to be independant."

     "I would've come back," she said truthfully. "I just needed to be
my own person for awhile."

     "Maybe it was fate, Misty. Maybe sometimes when you leave, you
can't go back. Sometimes there's just no turning back."

     "I never wanted to lose him, Gary. Especially not the way I did. I
wish he would've listened."

    "But that's just how Ash is, Misty. He's stubborn like that. He
thought you didn't care anymore, and once that cemented in his mind, he
had to cut all contact with you. He couldn't be around somebody who he
thought had betrayed him."

     "Why are you acting like you know all about Ash? This shit you're
saying doesn't make things better," Misty snapped.

    Gary shook his head. "You're impossible sometimes."

    "And you're not?" she questioned angrily with a roll of the eyes.

    "It's my job," he smirked.

     Misty sighed exasperatedly. "I don't know why I bother talking to
you sometimes."

     "Because you need me," Gary replied, all the playfulness out of his
voice.

    "No, I don't," she argued with a glare.

   "Yes, you do." He wanted to say that he needed her, too, but didn't.

Sometimes silence is the only possible answer.