Title: Closure

Title: Closure

Author: Chibi/Warlordess

Pre-Author's Notes: Welcome to the much-awaited sixth chapter! I know that I've kept you all still in anticipation but I'm back and I'm as hot as ever. Now, a quick thing to say before I comment on the reviews, I added some of Misty's diary entries just to get an emotional grip on her real thoughts. I'm sure that we know everything all ready, being her dedicated fans, but Ash needs them read aloud so that he's forced to pay attention (tee hee). Anyway, I'll still include a well-lengthened chapter so don't worry that the diary entries are cutting a huge slab off of your fiction-ated intake. I've got it all worked out...

Now, comments on the reviews. Of course, thanks so much to the every-chapter-reviewers; your continued support of my writing has me jumping off the walls. To those one-timers-who-probably-lost-interest, t'is okay if you don't like it or are unable to review; one comment is enough. To the readers who haven't yet reviewed: YOU BETTER GET TO IT!

Disclaimer: I don't own Pokemon. I don't even think I own this idea. I'm just the first person that I know of whose decided to post anything on FFN/anywhere else about it.

Summary: Ash's stupidity gains him a visit to Misty's Gym after his finish in the Hoenn League and there, things between them get a little hasty. Implied and possibly serious AAMR.

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Chapter Six: Strike Three

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Dear Diary,

Something bad happened today. Although he tried his hardest, Ash lost in his battle against the other Preliminary Finalist. I kinda wonder if it's my fault, since I did officially declare myself his training coach, and intend to teach him everything I knew. Maybe I just wasn't enough...

Also, we're heading back to Kanto, hopefully for a little vacation. We're actually going to head straight through the place where Ash and I first met. Maybe it'll strike a memory in him and we'll spend a little time celebrating some sort of reunion! I can't expect a lot from him but... This is pretty special, isn't it? We've known each other for almost four years now!

I won't get my hopes up, but let's just pray that something happens...

Dear Diary,

Something happened, and I couldn't be more miserable... We've all ready passed Raphsody Falls, and as I expected, he acted as if he'd never seen it before... And, as if things couldn't be worse--My sisters called me today and told me that I had to come back home so that they could take another vacation away from me! (Sure, that wasn't what they said, but it's not like Daisy invited me to go for once, instead of Lily or Violet...)

I guess that it's kinda okay (I can't believe that I'm writing this) cause, in the end, Ash ended up proving to me how much I mean to him. He told me that I'm a great trainer for once, and that he can't wait until we meet again. I suppose that I can take that as a guarantee that he won't forget me as soon as I'm gone.

Parting ways was hard, but it gave me a lot to think about too. I know now that I feel something towards him. I felt horrible earlier, knowing that I had to leave him behind (more-so than Brock), and I could only feel that bad if I cared a lot for him, right? I think that he cares too, just not as much... At least, not yet.

Is it too much to ask that Ash grow up a little and realize that I'm going to be standing there, right next to him, for the rest of his life..?! (Even if not literally!)

Dear Diary,

I called the Petalburg PokeCenter in Hoenn and, lucky for me, Ash was healing his Pokemon at the time. I thought that it was weird that he wasn't actually staying there overnight to stock up on supplies, but then he explained that he'd been offered a room at the Petalburg Gym by the hosting family. Their children are going to start traveling with him, it seems.

He mentioned that one of them is a girl...

I wonder if she'll fall for him like I have? I hope not... I've always wanted another girl to travel with, but I don't think that I could stand a battle of the hearts with Ash as the prize. I care for him and everything, but this new complication has me worried.

Is it just me, or is that girl prettier than me, sweeter-looking than me, and probably friendlier and less-aggressive than me..?

Dear Diary,

I knew it! I knew something was up! I wrote to Ash awhile back, hoping that a Carrier Pidgey would be able to contact him faster than my bad luck searching in the Centre's and he wrote back telling me that something was wrong with that girl... May, I think her name was... He said that she had been acting strangely towards him all week.

I can't have this! I've got to stand up for myself! Even though I'm in another country... On the other side of the Pokemon Continent... Without any means of transport or Gym-Watch... I don't think I'll be able to see him for awhile...

Maybe being in contact by mail is better? Maybe all of his grand news about that May will be less painful if I just have to read it to myself... Over and over and over again until I get the chance to burn his letters... And then the thoughts can reflect in my mind...

I'm depressing myself, I think, so I've gotta go...

PS: Ash actually sent a photo of him and Brock, and a gift. I'm surprised that they're dressed so differently, but then again, I'm also just a bit relieved... I was kinda beginning to wonder if they knew how to shop for themselves... And Ash replaced his Pokemon League cap and sent the old one to me! I've placed it somewhere special so that it won't get damaged!

Dear Diary,

I began traveling out to Hoenn today because my sisters came back and told me that they planned on staying home for awhile before leaving again. Well, it's not like that plan has any problems with me! Now I can give that stuck-up, coaching replacement of mine a nice little word or two on subtlety and territory! She's not gonna flash herself at Ash and expect him to be puddy in her hands!

Except... Well, My sisters forced me into one of their bedrooms saying that now that they're big-time, modeling celebrities (it's been a thing for Daisy, especially since she won those tickets at the beauty contest), they can't have me running around dressed like Cinderella and giving them a bad name... And now I look just as bad as that girl. I wonder if Ash will think any differently about me, now..?

Still, my prince has gotta notice that my glass slipper is missing sometime, right?

Dear Diary,

Well, Ash is still Ash, meaning that he hasn't even noticed that my hair is red, yet... He congratulated me on finding their campsite so easily from his instructions... Phht! I guess that he thought I wouldn't be able to get there without his "expert" help! Someday, I'd like to show him a thing or two about modesty and humility! I think I deserve more respect and credit than that!

Oh, and you won't believe it! It's the funniest thing! That May-girl is actually kinda nice! I found out that she was only acting weird all that time ago because she was trying to find a way to tell Ash and the others that she didn't want to be a Pokemon Trainer, that she only wanted to be something like a Contestant-something-or-other. And she all ready likes another guy from her hometown, she told me today. I think his name was Brendan Birch, the son of that Professor...

I guess she realized that I was jealous about her and Ash's relationship and she wanted to set things straight. I'm happy that she did! This means that I don't have to worry about placing 'Operation-Replacement-May-Removal' into play... Whew... I was worried that first-degree murder would take a good twenty-five-or-more years off of my life, meaning less time to get Ash to notice that I've been standing here for the past five years!

I hafta go because--I'm going to kill the little idiot... Brock called me over for dinner and he looked up from his bowl of chowder at me as if he'd just realized that I was even here! Is he kidding?! I'm going to damage his brain so much that he'll forget I even left in the first place!

Ash smiled at the memory. Yea, Misty had aimed a well-placed mallet whack at his head for that one. He flipped through all of the other entries that he'd read and thumbed through the many pages ahead. He'd stayed true to his word, meaning that he'd only read of the accounts having to do with him, but that had given him enough to think about in itself.

He also remembered the time when May had pulled Misty away from them, telling him and the others that they'd be right back, and walking deliberately off of the pathway for some privacy and what she had dubbed as "girl talk". They'd returned barely two minutes later and, afterwards, had become quite friendly towards one another. He understood that now.

And, he frowned now, reading over a certain line from the last account. Of course he'd noticed before that her hair was red! C'mon, he'd traveled with the girl for four-and-a-half years (counting the time after she'd left for home)! You can't be best friends with someone and not note the more... unique factors of their appearance. Anyway, he'd just never said anything because he was a guy! And guys never go around talking about their female traveling friends' hair, whether it be color or style...

He sighed, slamming shut the tiny book, and looking at the small alarm clock beside his bed. It read 7:03 A.M. Ash's mouth fell open in shock. He couldn't believe that he'd stayed up all night and early morning, just to read a girl's life record! And, his mind started panicking at the very thought, Misty got up around seven to shower... Meaning that, right now, she was in the bathroom! Her eyes were open, and he knew that if she caught sight of either her diary missing, or him in possession of it, he could kiss his next title match and easy-passing, home-cooked meal goodbye!

"Ugh... I better move before she notices that I'm not snoring!" He jumped out of his bed, tripped over his shoes (he had kicked them off upon entering his bedroom the previous night), and fell to the ground. The earsplitting thump echoed against the walls, making the windows rattle.

He held his breath, his glance swinging at the door as though expecting her to come running through its solid mahogany surface, and jumped up upon hearing a faint squeal of the shower faucet being turned and the complete silence of a bathroom without steaming water running.

"Pika..?" His fall had woken Pikachu up. He turned, seeing his friend leap off the bed to accompany him, and began racking his brain for ideas. If Misty walked into her room now, he could guarantee her eyes and hands following the progress of her unfinished diary entry. Come to think of it, he was lucky that she hadn't yet remembered falling asleep at her desk, otherwise she would have placed the clues together and noticed that he might have seen what she was writing the night before.

Almost as though he had had a second brain still conjuring up a plan to get him out of his desperate situation, he turned to Pikachu.

"Pikachu! I need you to distract Misty while I get her diary back into her room and on her desk! When she opens her bathroom door, run in and... I dunno... Pretend to slip and hurt yourself or something! Keep her busy until you hear me call your name, okay?"

Pikachu looked slightly defiant for a moment, its expression saying quite clearly that he knew that this was going to happen, before he ran out the door.

"Thanks, buddy..." Ash said to himself, getting up from his squatting position on the floor and poking his head into the hallway. Pikachu was down the hall, waiting for the bathroom door to open so that he could continue with the plan. Ash somehow managed to get his brain to focus on his physical movement and placed himself against the wall outside his door, snaking along it until coming to the partly opened entrance to her sleeping quarters.

He threw himself upon the door, crashing into her room and stumbling a bit before proceeding hurriedly to her desk. His mind registered the faint clicking of a doorknob being turned and the sound of a small body slipping and landing ungraciously against the glazed porcelain of the bathtub.

As Misty's voice was heard trying to comfort the uninjured Pokemon, he remembered that her book had been open and, therefore he attempted to find the page of her unfinished entry as his friend pretended to moan its name in the background.

Ah ha!, Ash stated, finding the page filled with the familiar red ink, but then his triumphant smile faded, Wait, this isn't it... This is dated from... the day I arrived?! What did she write about then... His eyes fell upon his name and, though he could hear Misty reprimanding his troubled buddy about his faking an injury, his curiosity got the better of him and he began to read...

Dear Diary,

Ash just called; amazing, right? You walk around three countries with the guy and he doesn't give you the time of day, and then, right out of the blue, when you two are supposedly a good few thousand miles apart, he rings you up, hoping to get something out of you. As you could have gathered, Ash wanted something from me.

He wanted to stay for a week or so at the gym... And I didn't turn him down. And now, I'm entirely beside myself because he's going to be here for the rest of the week, under this very roof with only me and the Pokemon! I dunno what to do... I mean, I couldn't let him sleep in that PokeCentre, where he'd be cramped against the wall and other people's bodies... And I couldn't let him sleep outside because the reason he asked to stay here anyway is because of some huge, ongoing storm starting today...

I'm so worried... I know that I'm going to end up saying, or doing, something really stupid... I've been away from him for so long that I've grown accustomed to talking to no one but myself, and it's been so long since I've had a reason to hide my "secret", so I can't exactly promise what will come out of my mouth... My heart's racing and he hasn't even arrived yet!

I'm upset, too... He called, telling me about the mistake he made, that had led to him asking to sleep here until next Monday... He didn't even want to see me! I bet if he hadn't found out that he'd done wrong, or ended up here in Cerulean, he wouldn't have gotten in contact with me at all!

I better go... It's beginning to rain outside and Ash still hasn't arrived. I'd better go and find him before he gets stuck out there... He probably doesn't remember his way here and needs my help...

PS: ...

"...Sometimes, knowing that he's never really cared about me like I do him, makes me regret ever..." Ash's voice broke off as he was interrupted.

"Ash?" The hesitant and heartbroken whisper of Misty shattered the silent and still air as he turned to see her looking at him, a towel draped around her body and a face that held the deepest regret, uncertainty, disbelief, anger, and other mix of emotions ever seen from her at one time.

But, her intrusion from his reading hadn't stopped his eyes from scanning the last couple of words before turning around. Incidentally enough, his quiet reading skill was more enhanced than his reading out loud.

"...Loving him."

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Post-Author's Notes: HAH HAH! I bet you all wanna kill me now, don't you? Well, too bad! I think that the next chapter will be the last... But I'm not sure... I'll try and make it good, though. I dunno what I've got in mind, so don't ask me... So, now it's almost midnight and my first day as a high school Junior is tomorrow (you can tell that I wrote this awhile back, can't you?) so I have to go before my mom notices that I'm not in bed.

See you next time!