Where There’s a Will, There’s a Way

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Watashi wa Chibi-Aussie! Okay all you pokemon trainers! Here’s chapter 3! How do you think of it so far? I hope your enjoying it, that’s the whole reason I wrote this! What’s to happen in this chapter? You think I’m going to tell you straight-up? No way! You’ve got to read it! All the usual disclaimers like I don’t own Pokemon or every single character on here except for the ones I make up. Everything I didn’t mention I meant to say, cause I don’t know everything that I’m supposed to put in a disclaimer! On with the show! One more thing. Don’t judge the title of this chapter! I should know, because if I go into a pokemon fanfiction site and find an AAMRN section that has a story with a title like the one below, I’m most likely not going to read it. You’ll be happy with the end of this chapter, I promise! (I hope that wasn’t a spoiler to this chapter)

Misty, Ash, and Pikachu made their way down the steps and stepped out onto the sidewalk.

"Lets see, now where are we going..." Ash pulled the map out of his backpack and looked at it, turning it around in all directions wondering which side was the top.

"Here, let me see it," said Misty as she grabbed the map from the clueless boy. "We are right here at the pokemon center, and the island is over there. We should take this road down to here, cross the bridge..." Misty began explaining the path that they would take to get to the island. While she was talking Ash began to "daydream" again, I needn’t say about what since it was obvious (recall the conversation between him and Pikachu in chapter one). "Okay? Ash? Ash?" she waved her hand in front of his unvacant face. After a few seconds he snapped out of it. "Don’t quit on me now, we’ve got a long trip ahead of us. If I asked you to repeat the instructions I gave would you be able to do it?"

"What’s that supposed to mean? Are you calling me helpless? For your information I’m the only one who will be able to find that bird unless you see it!" she screamed in his face.

"What if you don’t find it or I don’t feel like capturing it even if you do see it?" he yelled back to her. Her face softened and she took a step back, almost as if she was scared of what he said. She covered her mouth with her hands as her eyes began to moisten. Ash realized what he just said and scolded himself. "Misty I--I didn’t mean it..."

"You really don’t care, do you?" Misty managed to choke out as she blinked the tears away.

"PIKA pika pi (BIG mistake Ash)." Pikachu stayed over to the side avoiding the conflict. "Pika pi pikachu pika (Better make-it-up fast before something happens)." Too late. Misty ran past Ash and down the road as fast as she could.

"Misty! Come on Pikachu!" Quickly Ash began to run after Misty for fear that she might do something to herself. ‘How could I have said something like that? She’ll probably never talk to me again.’

"He really doesn’t care. I knew he hated me, but not enough to say that. Maybe it doesn’t matter to him if die or not. He proabably wouldn’t care at all! How could I ever think he would like me when he wishes I would die!" Misty thought to herself. If Ash wasn’t willing to capture the bird Houou her life would have to be short lived. But not that it mattered to her. What was the point of living if no one loved her? She had no parents, and her sisters were too caught up in their own lives to even think about her. Her pokemon liked her, but that was only because she was their trainer. She kept running to get as far away from Ash as she could.

"Pikachu, what am I going to do? I didn’t mean to say that, I really didn’t! Now she’s probably going to go and kill herself because I said I wouldn’t catch that stupid bird. It’s all my fault!"

"Huh? I can’t do that!" Ash’s face turned a bright red at Pikachu’s suggestion.

"Pi pikachu pi pika? pikachu pika pi-chu pikachu! (Do you know how bad she’s feeling right now? To her it sounded like you said you wished she would die!)" Ash didn’t say anything after that. He couldn’t even begin to imagine how bad Misty was feeling just from a few words.

"Pi pi, pikachu pika pi pika, pi pika, pikachu pika pi pikachu (For one, it’s not my problem, and two, she can’t understand me.)," Pikachu told it’s friend, happy that it didn’t have the problem Ash did. Pikachu was willing to help except it was going to let Ash find the solution himself.

‘I’m sorry Misty...I got too carried away with one of our stupid fights. I should have thought before I said what I did. I really didn’t mean to make you feel like this...’

‘What am I going to do now? I can’t just go up to someone and ask them to catch some bird for me. Maybe Ash didn’t mean what he said...no, I could tell he meant it. How could one be so heartless? Sure our fights could make us mad at each other and we usually fight about petty things like who’s better than the other. But no fight of ours has gone as far as this. Sure maybe he made me mad sometimes, but I usually got even. But not this time. I might as well just run away--away from everything and everyone," cried Misty as she continued to run blindly into a nearby forest.

"Hurry, she’s heading into the forest!" Ash and Pikachu continued their chase after the heartbroken girl. "I wonder how far she plans on running? She has to get tired sooner or later," Ash said to himself.

"Pikachu, pikachu pika pi pikachu (She probably won’t stop running until you do)."

"Are you sure? If we stop we might lose her. That might not be such a good idea."

"Pika pi. (Trust me.)" Ash slowed down and began to walk as he watched the figure in front of him disappear into the trees.

"I hope you know what you’re doing Pikachu." said Ash to his furry electric mouse. "Please forgive me Misty. It’s all my fault. Here we are in a big misunderstanding when we should be searching for the island and Houou. How will I ever be able to make it up to you?" "Pikachu, help! I don’t have any idea how to apologize to Misty, and after today we’ll only have four more days left to look for Houou and bring it back! What am I going to do?" cried Ash in terrible distress.

"Pika pikachu, pika pi, pika. Pi pika pikachu pi pika (wait awhile then we’ll go out to look for her. You’ll know what to do when the time comes.)"

Misty looked behind her through her tear-filled eyes and saw that Ash and Pikachu were no longer following her. She stopped by a tree and sat agaist it, hugging her legs to her chest. Softly she began to cry into her arms.

"He stopped following me. Does that mean he wants to give me time to myself or did he just go back to the Pokemon Center? I just don’t understand him...us...why we always fight. Is he really my friend? Of course he is, but...how good of a friend is he? Most of the time, like when we’re not fighting, I see him as much more than a friend. He is more than a friend could ever be. Has he just suddenly decided to ‘call it quits’? I--I just can’t take that kind of a burden. It’s too much for someone like me to handle. Sometimes he makes me so mad, but I usually get even. This time he tipped the scale way overboard in the emotional region. How could he have been so heartless? I just wonder if he really meant what he said, or if it was all just a misunderstanding. Because if it was, I truely forgive him, if he were only here..." As Misty went on thinking to herself, for no apparent reason she began to remember the song "Have you ever" by Brandy. Now what used to be her favorite song, sounded like words of torture and sorrow. And she could only recall the verses that made her depressed the most. More specifically the second verse.

Not only did this song make Misty feel even worse but it also made her cry harder. "I was so stupid to run away like I did. Now I’m in the middle of nowhere, all alone, and with half-a-day gone when we should have been heading for that island. Ash, where are you?" she eventually cried herself to sleep in the darkness of the woods.

About an hour or so later, Ash was up and about looking for Misty with Pikachu assisting him. He went on looking for her, but refrained from calling her name, for fear that she might get up and run away. He searched for twenty more minutes when it was way past sunset. Just as he was about to give up he spotted a figure by the foot of a tree. Slowly he approached it, just in case it was some kind of pokemon. To his surprise and relief, it was Misty. She looked very different right then, for her hair wasn’t up as usual and her face was streaked with tears.

"Um, Misty?" whispered Ash as he realized that she was asleep. He gently shook her to attempt to wake her up. It took him a bit, but she finally woke up. She rubbed her eyes that were sore from crying. After her eyes adjusted to the light she looked at who had awaken her. There, kneeling in the dirt was Ash along with Pikachu.

"A-Ash?" she managed to choke out. Before she could say anything else, Ash began to talk.

"Misty, I want you to know that I didn’t mean any of what I said awhile ago. I blindly said it and I...I...just wasn’t thinking. I didn’t mean for things to go this far and--" Ash could no longer think of anything else to say. He could feel his eyes becoming watery as he hung down his head, avoiding her look.

"I know. At first I thought you meant what you said, so I got really frusterated and began to run. But now I understand. Ash, I thought you were going to leave me!" New tears built up in her eyes but she didn’t hold them back like she did most of the time. Instead she flung her arms around Ash and began sobbing into his shoulder. At first he was rather stunned and somewhat surprised. Then he became more relaxed and hugged her back, rocking her back and forth trying to comfort her. Pikachu looked on in happiness at the two.

"Chu, pika, pikachu (They finally found each other)." Slowly Pikachu made its way behind a bush to hide, but still wanted to watch to see if anything would happen. It was going the direction Ash was looking, so before it hid it made a victory sign and winked at Ash. He blushed when he saw Pikachu’s comment right as it hid behind the bush. For a few minutes the two of them just sat there, which Pikachu was not amused by at all. Well, maybe a little bit, but it was getting bored. The only thing that could be heard was Misty’s muffled crying and maybe a pokemon here and there. Soon Misty settled down and dryed the tears from her eyes, although she still held onto Ash. He didn’t mind at all himself.

"I’m glad she forgave me. I don’t know what I’d do if she didn’t. At least we’re still friends, maybe even more than friends...huh? What am I thinking? Why would Misty ever like me, of all people? I’d better just keep dreaming, that’d never happen," Ash thought to himself. "Feeling better?"

"Kind of feels like we’re in one of your romance novels, doesn’t it?" he laughed. She realized he was actually right. Boy and girl are friends, they have a big fight, split up, then almost always get back together. "We should probably get some sleep. After all, we’ve got a long walk ahead of us tomorrow, and it’s already late. Pikachu!" called Ash into the darkness. "Great, I forgot where Pikachu went off to. Pikachu? Where are you?" Ash and Misty looked around them for the small electric pokemon. They searched behind trees, up trees, pretty much everywhere. A sound could be heard nearby.

"Chuuu....chuuu....chuuu...." Misty looked behind one of the bushes and found Pikachu, slumped over and asleep.

"What is it?" he said a bit too loudly, as Misty shushed him in response. He looked behind the shrub and he, too, saw Pikachu. He laughed quietly then said, "Looks like Pikachu got too bored watching and fell asleep!"

Ash thought for a minute while stuttering, trying to come up with a good excuse. "It, um, I mean....it just got bored watching...watching for other pokemon like I told it to." Ash realized what he just said, "THAT was slick. She’s gonna catch that mess-up big time."

"And you could at least come up with a good lie. I’m not that dense, I can sense when you’re lying or not."

"That was because my feelings were hurt so bad that I wouldn’t have been able to anyway!" she practically screamed back at him, remembering her past emotions. "And besides, that wasn’t a lie. It was a statement!" They stood there for a moment or so, just glaring at each other. Sooner or later Ash gave in.

"Look. We aren’t going to get very far if we keep having pointless fights like this. Got it?"

"You’re right. Sorry. We’ll have to work together to find this bird, okay?" said Misty as she extended out her hand. He shook it in agreement. "Not to mention it’ll be a load off of Brock if we do ever stop fighting," giggled Misty.

"But then he’ll think something’s wrong. Bad idea." They both laughed at the somewhat-of-a-joke. Ash bent over and picked up Pikachu.

"If that little trickster is going to spy on us, it might as well do it where we can see it," suggested Misty as Ash placed Pikachu at the foot of one of the trees that they would be spending the night by.

"It’s not like it’s different from any other place in these woods," joked Misty.

"You’ve got a point, there." They settled themselves onto the cold, damp ground. It was a hard task, but they eventually were comfortable. Their sleeping bags helped out a lot. It isn’t exactly very pleasent to sleep on dirt by itself.

**You like it? I like it. If you don’t, well that’s your problem (just kidding!) There’s more action (and romance) to come so stay tuned! E-mail me all of your comments, and don’t forget to e-mail Ash about what a great fanfic page he has! (Pokemon FanFic Archives). He’s the one that agreed to put up this ‘fic after all! Ja ne!