Pokemon Fan Fiction / Pokemon Fan Fiction ❯ Closure ❯ Fighting Affection ( Epilogue )

Title: Closure

Author: Chibi/Warlordess

Pre-Author's Notes: Okay, having rebooted my entire computer thanks to that stupid virus, in hopes of making it disappear, I can sadly say that every single file that I ever wrote has been deleted permanently... Including the first chapter eight of Closure. So I'm writing it again. And God forbid that it should be deleted again, because I WON'T be reposting it if it does... But here I am, and you don't have to worry about that stuff yet, at least not until we try this one last time.

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

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

Dedication: I'd also like to dedicate this CHAPTER, in particular, to Silverflare07, my internet sis, and a great help and inspiration... And author, so go check out her stuff! Lol! I think she'll like this one, cause she wanted me to add Misty's new Pokemon (think back to the Togepi Mirage special) in here... And I did it just for her!

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SHOUT-OUTS!

Special thanks goes to the following people for reviewing my work and making me feel like I'd better continue or lose my one and only head! Some of you will have special messages just for you next to your names:

Hikashi Suzuki - I thank you for your comments, even if you did enter in just a little bit late... Or, well, REALLY late. But you were kind in your commentation, and that made everything worth it for Chibi.

Story Weaver1 - I just feel that I owe you a lot for saying so many wonderful things about my fic, and reviewing chapters that you could have just as easily skipped over. It feels great that you liked each and every chapter so much that you felt the want to review them all separately.

Brogramn - I know it seemed sorta strange for Ash to suddenly jump from immature, lil' kid (even if just inside), to sweet, caring, young man just wanting to be there, but the reason for that action was... Well... Nothing more than he was forced to come to a decision. Ash isn't the type of person who runs away from something serious, rather he faces it head on. I know the situation is a little different than a Team Rocket battle, or something like that, but I think it would still fit his profile more if he were to stick with it until the very end!

KawaiiCherryBlossom-aka-BWF - Hey, you! I just wanted to thank you so much for all of the confidence you've shown in me! Needless to say, I haven't gotten even ONE negative comment on this fic, but your positive influence on my works has caused Chibi to soar. You're just special like that cause you've been one of my idols since I began writing fan fiction over three years ago!

xSPiNx - Hey, SPiN (sry, I'm too lazy to do the special lil' 'x' thingies to your name...)! I just wanted to say thanks for reading this and good luck with your fic! You've been faithful to me ever since the beginning, and so I hope to give you that same type of faith and support while I continue to look forward to continuations on your fic, "Blinded"/"By Chance"/"At First Sight"!

samuraiduck27

Uranasu

Thunder Rose

Ayashe

nmmmmmmkrkrkkeyh

Pixie-stickjunkie

Dr. Evans

alexis

Ice-Wind88

Chaotic -Kinky- Kitty/Aki Tenshi Nerf-chan

MistyLover87

flirtyfairy33

Etherelemental

Ri2

Meca -chan

Rosemary the Rubix Cube

stella-s55

Cool Crystal Girl

hyliansage

mal

Stuffy

avan

Vulpix4Life

Z Girl Warrior

ash and misty4life

gmatxor

bluejolteon459

Sensational Sista

Chibimatchmaker

Silverflare07

A Nonny Mouse

Lord Cynic

Shippo123

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Chapter Eight (Epilogue): Fighting Affection

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"So, this is it, huh? Today you go back to Pallet... Amazing, how many things have happened this week, huh..?" Misty's tone was small, almost transparent when compared to her usual stature. It was obvious that she was still hurt and embarrassed about the goings-on from the day before.

"Yep... But I really enjoyed my time here... And you can expect me to be back whenever I get the chance." They had headed from the kitchen (just having finished breakfast), into the actual gym area, and were making their way to the waters' edge.

Today was another slow day, and Misty was kind of happy, rather than annoyed that she couldn't get any trainers to show up. It just meant spending more time with Ash, and that was all she wanted for the moment.

She looked at Ash and opened her mouth, as though actually hoping to speak her mind, but his somewhat mysterious expression made her falter. His eyes were glued to the water, and they were glowing brightly, as though, impossibly, an idea had formed in his head.

"Hey, Myst..?" He was back to using her nickname now... And that tone could mean only one thing...

"What Ash?"

"...Let's have a battle."

"WHAT..?" Was all she could muster. She wanted today to be a little more special than a trainer-to-trainer leaving. And she couldn't understand, after what Ash had just gotten through saying about definitely wanting to return, why he would ever think a battle could cure the sadness of their goodbye, "C'mon, Ash! Are you sure you don't wanna... I dunno, do ANYTHING else?"

"Hey, when I first arrived, wasn't it you who told me that you would do whatever was in your power to help me train for the next League? And we haven't battled in so long; you can't be saying that you're not the least bit interested in how strong we are against each other..?" The grin on his lips was more than enough to numb the defiant half of her brain.

"...Fine." They took off their shoes, just in case the battle got a little extreme, and Ash removed his back pack from his shoulders to leave it at the waters edge. They both turned in different directions and walked over to opposite sides of the field, "Are we agreed that this is a one-on-one battle, no time limit?" Misty called from the other end.

"You know it!" Ash saw Pikachu step forward, his arms pumped and a ready-to-battle expression on his face, "Sorry, Buddy... But I did say that this battle was for training, and I have another Pokemon who needs it more than you do..."

Pikachu looked slightly furious for a moment, before sighing, exasperated, and then backed off and stood beside him like a loyal pet. Ash removed a Pokeball from his waist and pressed the small button that expanded the mass of the capturing device. He looked in Misty's direction just in time to see her doing the same to a Great Ball, the familiar green-blue and white paint glimmering across the arena.

He smirked. There was only one Pokemon that she could be intending to use, if that was the Pokeball she was going to throw...

"Go, Tyrogue!" He shouted.

It seemed strange to Misty that he would call on a ground-type Pokemon. They were strong... And not as weak against water-types as rock... But still...

"Misty calls Gyarados!" Was what was heard from the other end.

The two Pokemon faced each other as they materialized out of nowhere, the two cylinders used being magnetically attracted back to their owners. There was growling and stances were made, but, though there was definite size differences, they seemed to regard each other as their equals, and so there was nothing offensive presented.

"I guess that I'll start this off." Misty stated after replacing the Pokeball at her waist, "Gyarados, use Agility and Whirlpool!" The Pokemon dived swiftly into the water, its body weight making the mat sink precariously below the surface, and shot forward. It's eyes began to glow a bright, neon blue as it got closer to its opponent.

On the other side, Ash was slowly forming a plan (slowly but surely; that's him... Lol.), "Tyrogue, Ice Punch! Block the Whirlpool before it invades your territory!" Ash called, pointing out to the shadow beginning to emerge from underwater; Misty's Gyarados rose from below the shallow depths of the pool, its eyes ablaze and its expression furious.

It roared as the water around it began to slosh around, looking choppy and forming small cyclones that began to grow both in number and in size. They swarmed around Ash's Pokemon, whose eyes were closed as they concentrated on a certain point of deflection.

There was one moment in time that stood completely still, leaving Misty to think she'd actually done it. She might have actually won so soon... And then there was a flash of brilliant light, and a shriek from the smaller Pokemon as it let loose its brutalizing attack, freezing the smooth torrents of water into jagged ice forms.

"Nice one, Ash... But, unfortunately for you, your Tyrogue can't exactly swim. You've just trapped yourself!" It was almost laughable, but Misty wasn't one to act superior in Pokemon battles. Especially when she knew her adversary could handle such situations.

"You think so, Misty?" There was a quirky sort of smirk on his face as he turned back to the battle, "Tyrogue, use Comet Punch on the walls until they shatter!" It seemed at first that his Pokemon hadn't heard him through the inch-or-so of glass liquid barring them from each other's view, but then there came the obvious sounds of solid ice being beaten repeatedly, and the ground shook slightly, and the water that had been left unfrozen, around the ice walls, and to the end of the pool, began rocking back and forth.

The ice cracked. Once... Twice... A long brittle-looking line was forming down the wall, giving the appearance of a decimated earth.

But Misty wasn't going to panic just yet, "Gyarados, use Iron Tail! Beat down that wall, and Tyrogue, before he gets a chance to escape!" With the combined force of the two Pokemon's strengths brutalizing the wall between them, it was soon falling into thousands of pieces.

"Tyrogue, use YOUR Agility! Escape the shards of ice, and Gyarados' attacks!" For Misty's Pokemon had kept going, trying to knock the other Pokemon into the water. And, needless to say, it was doing a pretty good job, as both trainers could tell after another shriek was heard from the smaller creature, and a humongous splash gave the recognition that it had been sent below the waters' surface, "Oh, no... Tyrogue!"

Almost as though the Pokemon had heard its master call out to it, there was a slight sucking noise and a guttural wail as the creature re-emerged from the depths and situated itself on its mat, coughing up excess water and pounding its fist into the marshmallow-soft landing under it.

"All right, Tyrogue! Now, use another Ice Punch; but this time, block Gyarados back into a corner! Make a path and circle around 'em!" Ash rose a fist in assurance of his next plan, betting himself twice over that Misty could have no counter-attack to that.

His Pokemon nodded and began its decent to the waters edge again, its fist and eyes starting to glow an icy blue. As his fist plummeted not-even through the surface, a jagged bridge began to form, right over towards the retreating Gyarados.

Misty growled... And she'd almost had him too!

"Use Agility, Tyrogue! And once you reach him, I want you to use all of your strength and hit Gyarados on every single part of his body you can reach with Comet Punch!"

Following the commands given to it, Tyrogue strode forward and bypassed the wind and waves forming on either side of him, coming down on his opponent hard and fast like a sudden bolt of lightning. He punched once... twice... About eight times before falling back, and dodging Gyarados' tail.

Misty felt a small smile growing on her face at the action showed from her Pokemon. The Comet Punch attack may have been very repetitive, but it definitely wasn't that strong... And her water type's hide was most-likely an advantage over the other.

"Nice try, Ash! But no matter what, you're still fighting in my environment! Gyarados... use Iron Tail to free yourself from the trap of ice!" The creature did so with all of its strength, while Ash's continued to claw and bruise him with his fierce knuckles. Soon Tyrogue was standing merely on a foot wide, thin slab of ice, looking laboriously exhausted and breathing heavily. Gyarados, after bashing so hard, non-stop, for the last five minutes at least, was looking just as bad, "Gyarados... Hyper Beam!" The said Pokemon roared tiredly and opened its mouth, the bright fiery charge of the energy cannon-type of technique showing its physical brutality there.

"Try and dodge it!" Ash tried desperately, but he knew it was no use... After all, there was only the choppy water on either side of him... And if he left the arena area for the safety of dry land, he'd have to forfeit... And there was NO WAY that Ash Ketchem would let himself do that; especially if there was even one chance for an alternative way out.

So the cannon blasted from Gyarados' wide mouth, straight through the very glacier that Tyrogue had been standing on a moment before. Ash had yelled something desperately, but Misty hadn't heard... She knew it was over... She knew that she'd won...

"You've been training him a lot, haven't you?" She heard him that time.

"Just a little bit more each day." She said with an innocent smile, as Gyarados came back towards her, looking tired beyond belief from its last attack, but faithful as she began massaging his hide.

"That's really just too bad, Misty..." Ash was smirking, looking a little unlike himself, but there was still that victorious glow in his eyes, and he seemed to know something she didn't, "...Tyrogue, NOW!"

A spiraling cocoon-shaped whirlwind emerged from the water again, jumping back on the mat just in front of Ash and stopping there. Tyrogue's appearance looked dreary, and almost soulless from the tough battle, yet the will to fight was still in him, and when Ash smiled again at his efforts, he regained his fighting composure.

"What?!" The only thing Misty could think was, How could this be possible? "Give it another shot, Gyarados! Just one more!" She cried desperately, and her Pokemon nodded obligingly, rubbing his tail fin against her thigh before moving out, "This is it, Ash!" He knew she was right. It looked as though one final assault from one of the two Pokemon would do the other in... It was all a matter of time and precision... And luck and skill, now...

"Agility and Fire Punch!"

"Dodge it and use Dragon Rage!"

Neither even saw the attacks come together. There was a clash of bodies, two shrieking gasps of pain, and a humongous splash as both Pokemon fell back into the water. A steam from the Dragon Rage had filled the arena, and so Ash and Misty couldn't see anything.

Both trainers were torn from their worry for their Pokemon, and their constant self-nagging about who had won... Who had been strong enough to beat the other..?

Ash and Misty hadn't noticed that the battle was so intense, they'd both lost their breath while waiting so impatiently for the outcome. But soon the fog had started clearing, and they were standing there watching the quiet water, with its lack of waves.

Both Tyrogue and Gyarados laid floating at the top, snoring peacefully and looking thoroughly beaten, though content. The two teenagers' eyes' widened...

"IT WAS--"

"--A TIE?!" They both groaned at the same time.

There were a couple minutes of ranting and raving, which was interrupted most ungraciously by the telephone ringing. Misty jumped from her Trainers platform onto the arena floor and ran out the door to the lobby where the phone sat behind the main desk.

Ash heard her answering and sighed, smiling afterwards.

That had been one hell of a battle, if he happened to say so himself...

"Ash! It's for you!" Misty called. Ash panicked out of his thoughts (almost slipping and landing face-first in shoulder-deep water, called back his Pokemon and strapped the ball to his belt, and then ran after Misty into the lobby.

When he first saw her, she was looking thoroughly disgruntled about something, but when she shoved the phone receiver into his gut, she didn't say anything.

Ash turned on the vid-screen and saw a young woman staring-well, more like glaring-straight back at him.

"ASH KETCHEM! WHAT THE HECK DID YOU THINK YOU WERE DOING, GOING TO SPEND THE WEEK WITH MISTY WITHOUT TELLING ME ABOUT IT?! YOU KNOW, I WAITED THREE DAYS FOR YOU TO CALL AND TELL ME WHEN YOU'D BE ARRIVING, OR FOR YOU TO SHOW UP, BUT COULD YOU SPARE THAT COMMON COURTESY?! NO! DO YOU KNOW HOW WORRIED I'VE BEEN?! HOW GRIEF-STRICKEN?!"

Ash tried to reply, "I-I'm sorry, mom, but I forgot--"

"OH, WELL THAT'S JUST FINE, ASH! FORGET YOUR OWN MOTHER, WHY DON'T YOU?! AND I CALLED ALL OF YOUR FRIENDS LOOKING FOR YOU! GARY OAK, BROCK SLATE, THAT MAY AND MAX BEECH, PROFESSOR BIRCH! YOU DIDN'T EVEN HAVE MISTY DOWN IN YOUR LITTLE BLACK BOOK! HOW COULD YOU NOT WRITE YOUR OWN BEST FRIENDS NAME, AND NUMBER, AND ADDRESS DOWN?!"

"I-I didn't really think I'd need her number..." Ash stopped and gulped. He felt a burn on his back that could only have been brought around by Misty's very deep glare. She must have been one AN-GRY "best friend" at that moment in time.

"OH, SO I'M NOT WORTH YOUR TIME OF DAY NOW, UNLESS YOU NEED SOMETHING FROM ME, IS THAT IT?!"

Great, so now he was being yelled at by TWO PMSing females...

"N-no! That's not what I m-meant!" Ash was beginning to panic. Something told him that this whole conversation was going to end him up with another bruise, so he quickly turned back to his mom, "Look, I'm sorry that I didn't call you but at least you know that I'm okay now, right?" She didn't answer him, "Well-that's-great. I'm-glad-that-we-agree. See-you-when-I-get-back-to-Pallet-tomorrow! Bye!" And he hung up on her and turned to face the greater of the two problems.

"ASH..." It was a venomous whisper that made his legs quake with fear.

"Misty, I'm sorry that I never wrote your number down... The only reason I didn't was because... Well... I guess that I just couldn't imagine traveling around without you... And so I never thought that it was necessary because I always thought that you'd be right there with me!" He hoped that sweet-talking her, while bowing his head and looking hopelessly adorable and miserable, would do the trick.

"Oh... Ash..." The very touched tone now heard from her, and the feeling of emanating affection pouring so profusely from her in vibes, proved that he'd been right, "I'm so sorry! I never knew that you felt that way!" And, with that said, she took fate into her own hands and hugged him to her tightly (A/N: Or "glomped" him... which ever suites you...), making him turn a most interesting shade of scarlet.

"MWAH! HUGG-ING... NO HUGGING!" But his attempts to pry her off of him were pointless.

For she was as attached to him as a Snorlax was to its 1,000 pounds of food per awakening...

...And she always would be.

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Post-Author's Notes: Lol! Thank you, thank you! It ended with a little humor, a little adventure, and a little fluffiness! I hope that that was enough for you AAMR fans who probably wanted to kill me before. I hope that this changes your mind.

Now! Two things!

1.) Should I bother with writing a sequel, or is this fic how-you-say "as good as it gets"? (If I do make a sequel, I'll probably feature a flashback to the goodbye's they'd have stated to one another at the end of this fic, and Ash's visit.)

2.) REVIEW!

I think I've rested all cases... :)