Part of "Pokemon: the Love Story"

    Ash spent the night sleeping over at his parents house, leaving most of his time to Misty. The night air blew through the open window. Misty slept calmly and quietly in Ash’s arms, but the night seemed to feel worse. As the wind blew and in-between Misty’s breathing, fighting could be heard from downstairs. This reminded Ash of how he and Misty used to fight. Screaming and yelling could be heard as well. There was loud thumping against the wall. Shouts of anger filled the house. All came from downstairs.
    The fighting came from Ash’s parents. They had always fought each other. Continuously trying to out do one another. They fought almost every week. After their divorce, because Ash had left on his journey to get away from home, the parents got back together and remarried, for which he believed happened after his Orange Islands adventure, for Ash’s sake. It hurt more than it was supposed to, for the three of them. It hurt Ash the most. He hated seeing his parents battle each other. He would try to get away. Lately, the attacks have been getting worse since the marriage of Ash and Misty. Misty sometimes brought up the fact that she wanted to try and get a house of their own. Ash, though, felt that if he left… It would be unbearable. He felt many pressures of living with his mom and dad. He had to, though. He had to make sure that they would hold onto sanity, the only way was to keep Ash in. He felt his horrible feelings wash away as he felt the tears on his cheek drip onto Misty’s skin. She was the only comfort in his life. He felt only sadness every time his parents battled. They were his driving force. He loved his parents very much, but many times, he regretted that he had ever left his adventures. He regretted that he had come home. It hurt, always. The pain was never gone. It hurled his life into a dismal land of darkness. The only comfort lay in his arms, breathing softly his name, dreaming of love and of passion. Ash kissed Misty softly on the neck, and through the torture of shouting, he fell asleep.

    That morning, Ash wakened to a soft breeze from the window. He looked about his room for Misty, who was probably downstairs anyway. He thought to himself about last night. He really did feel resentment for coming back. But this resentment held him back. He decided that such trivial things were useless now.
    "Ash, breakfast," Misty called.
    "In a minute," he grunted.
    He picked out his clothes for the day and went on to the table. He quickly ran downstairs tripping over Pikachu who was running down as well.
    "PI PIKACHU! [WATCH IT MAN!]" Pikachu shouted.
    Ash paid no attention to Pikachu. He continued walking to the breakfast table. He went to the kitchen where he lightly kissed Misty on the cheek. Ash said nothing. He usually said, ‘Good Morning’ or something because he was usually cheerful. Misty found this odd because he loved pancakes and would always say something interesting whenever Misty cooked them. In fact, Misty felt like an alien to Ash the whole time they were eating breakfast. Misty decided to speak out.
    "Ash, you remember that today we’re going to look at houses so we can finally move out of here and my apartment," she said.
    "Yeah, whatever," Ash mumbled.
    Misty had a surprised look on her face and said nothing. She had no clue what was going on with him. She wondered if it had something to do with moving away from Ash’s parents. She wanted to say something that would comfort her husband, but she felt nothing come out. She then closed her mouth and continued eating.
After breakfast, Ash went outside into the backyard, which had a wonderful view of the waterfall and lake. He’d always go there to be alone or to think whenever he was angry or sad. As a child, he would always run outside to this place when his parents would fight. After their divorce, nothing else happened at the lake. Now, he needed as if he were four years old. The waterfall was beautiful especially at night or whenever the sun was creeping over the mountains. He loved to look out at the lake and the water was always crystal clear that you could see your face in it.
    Misty looked out at the pond where Ash was sitting. She didn’t know why he went over there. In fact, she never noticed the pond at all. She was all dressed to go look for houses that day. She ran through her mind to find something that she could say that wouldn’t sound weird as it came out.
    "Ash, com’on, we’re going to look for houses now," was the only good shout she could make to Ash.
    Ash got up from the rock he always sits on and went over to Misty. She looked really happy that day and didn’t want to spoil it for her so he put on his happy face and went along with Misty. Pikachu also decided to tag along but promised not to get in the way. But his mind wasn’t concentrated on her. He kept thinking about his mom and dad. They stepped in the car and drove off to their realtor to look at some house plans that were being made in a neighborhood close by to Misty’s apartment. Her apartment was pretty far from the Ketchum residence. Ash didn’t feel so great either if they were close to home or far from it. He wanted to be close to his parents when they fought to settle them but wanted to be far away to not hear them arguing. Ash hadn’t noticed that Misty and Pikachu had walked off with the Realtor or that he was still in the car. He then felt a streaking feeling on his cheek. He saw sparkles coming down his face in the mirror.
    "What? Sparkles? Wait, those sparkles… those.. are my tears,"
    He felt them streak down his face. As he saw them, each one had an image of either his mom or dad. It was weird though, when two tears merged, the images disappeared. Misty and Pikachu were coming back so Ash had to wipe away all those tears. When they were leaving, Ash said nothing. He stayed silent all the way… "home".

    The next day, Sunday, or the day which Misty reserves for her exercising, Ash decided to go out jogging with Misty as to get away from home. He didn’t want to talk, though. Misty was talkative the whole time about houses, living together, furniture, gardening, waterfront, beach-front, and more frequent "candle-light dinners made at home. When she finally got to that part she started to notice that Ash hadn’t said anything. So she stayed silent the last quarter mile. Ash spent the whole time thinking about what to do when they got home, how he would deal with his parents actually. He wondered how far he could stay in-town but getting as far away from them as he could. When they finally reached home, Misty decided to have a talk with Ash.
    "Ash" she said calmly, "Ash?"
    He remained defiant to anything she said.
    "ASH!! Listen to me!" She screamed at him. Ash only stopped.
    "What’s wrong with you?!" She blurted impatiently.
    He was silent for a few seconds, "… You want to know what’s wrong" he sounding ticked off.
    "I’ll tell you, you’re blabbing like a blonde. You.." He was cut off.
    "My sister is a blonde, is that a problem!!"
    "Yeah, it seems that the family gene has been inherited by the red-head!"
    "You know what, you’re hiding something, what?"
    He shouted angrier "Fine, you want to know, look at you, standing there in that stupid looking jogging outfit without a care in the world except on a so called ‘dream house’ while I’m suffering…"
    "Suffering? Misty queried.
    "Yeah, from the stupid idiotic fights my parents have every night,"
    "Ash," Misty spoke concerned for the moment. Ash began to break down and crumble.
    "Every night, I wait to you sleep, I can’t do anything. This home is crumbling, I can’t do anything. I want to stop all of this incessant arguing. But they won’t even listen, they’re to busy arguing over stupid things," Ash said calm.
    "And you think that it’s because of us getting married,"
    "No, I don’t think that it’s because of that. I know it’s because of that. The only reason they got back together is to ‘support me in my life after marriage’"
    "So then you don’t want to leave?"
    "Yes… No…I don’t know. I feel empty. Ever since we came back nothing has gone right,"
    "Ash, why didn’t you tell me? We’re married to support each other, not to keep secrets. I love you and I’ll always be here for you so that way I can support you. I also married you because you’re very open to feelings, except for now. But you don’t always have to cry alone, I also married you because you don’t mind crying in front of me. I’ll tell them, if you don’t want to."
    Ash only nodded.

                                                                Several months later……

    "Bye Ash, bye Misty, and bye Pikachu!’ Shouted the two parents as the Ash, Misty, and Pikachu drove off to the northern side of town. The two parents were finally together. Ash couldn’t believe that they were actually holding each other as the kids left. He shed a few sparkles with images of the parents, but when the two tears merged, the pictures of both parents were shining in one single tear of happiness.

Pika’s Prints: Excellent story by me. I got a significant part. My tail is still red though. I like this little part of the house they got me. NICE!!!! It’s roomy to. I wonder how big this thing is, I haven’t been through the whole thing yet. It’s HUGE!!! Also a new place for a new story. Whew!!! -Pikachu