Up Close and Personal With Shauna!
By:  Angelical Proportions

Sunset:  the grandest time of the day.  Well, not for Misty...
"Misty?"  Ash knocked on the bathroom door.
"You know, I really do think that she needs a doctor, Brock."  Ash said, over his shoulder.
"Nah, it's just a bug going around.  Quit worrying, Ash.  She's tough.  She'll pull through."
Brock was right, but for some reason Ash still worried for her.  Misty groaned as she opened the door.
"Excuse me..."  Misty said, pushing Ash out of the way weakly.
Ash slipped an arm around her and helped her walk to the bed.  Brock raised an eyebrow as he looked up from the book he was reading and watched them in  interest.  Suddenly, a once quiet togepi in his lap trilled happily, and Brock instantly remembered that he was supposed to be reading a book.
"Lay down.  You need rest."  Ash commanded.
"No I don't..."  Misty grumbled, but lay down anyway.
"Pika-pi pika pik."  Pikachu said, pulling the thin sheets to Misty's chin.
"I'm gonna go to the store.  We should probably get her some medicine."  Brock said, setting up a bookmark and placing the book on the floor.
Ash looked over to Misty, then back at Brock.  
"I'm gonna go too."  he said quickly and leaving Misty's side.
"Aren't you going to stay with Misty?"  
"No.  You even said she'd be fine."  Ash said.
"Okay..." Brock said unsurly.
"You comin' Pikachu?"  
"Pika-pi Pika!"  it shouted angrily and jumped on Misty's stomach with it's arms out as if protecting her.
"What?!  You're staying?!  Pikachu, Misty'll be fine.  You don't need to worry."  Ash said with an unsure smile; even he knew he was lying to Pikachu, but he was also lying to himself.
"Pika!"  it said shaking it's head.
"Fine, but I'm going."  Ash said.
Ash and Brock left just a few seconds afterwards without saying goodbye, even.  Misty looked up at the pikachu shaking it's head sadly.
"Do you think Ash really does worry about me?"  she asked hopefully.
It looked up at her.  
"Pika.."  it hummed with a smile.
"You think?  Maybe... a lot even?"  Misty grinned for the first time that day.
"Pika... pi... pikachu..."  it hummed teasingly again.
Misty laughed lightly.  She never thought she'd laugh again, but there was always that laughing part that stood in the way.

Viridian; always a beautiful city in the night time... too bad it isn't night time, yet.  The sun was still setting over the many pine trees, a few pidgies chirped cheerfully from their many branches, even the noctowl have begun to sing in their deep vocalized hoots.
Once Ash and Brock were walking down the street, Brock eyed Ash suspiciously.
"Okay, you had better tell me what's going on."
Ash's nerves jumped immediantly.
"Uh... with what?"  he asked trying to sound as innocent as possible.
"Misty!"
"What about her?"
Brock grunted.  "I've been watching you two...  You guys are acting so strange..."  
"Hm?  Strange?"
"Must I give you details!"  Brock exaggerated.
Ash yawned.
"Well, today for example."  Brock started.
"What?!  We haven't flirted once today!"
Brock stared at him a while, wondering if he had even noticed what he just said.  Ash suddenly felt his cheeks grow warmer than usual.  Brock wanted so much to burst out laughing.
"It was a little slim, but the way you helped her to the bed.  It was... so CUTE!"  Brock exclaimed.
"CUTE?!"
"Yeah..."  Brock sighed.  "The way your arm was all wrapped around her..."
Ash realized that he hadn't even noticed he'd done that at the time...
"So?"  he mumbled.
"'So'?  What do you mean "so"?  You even do that at night!  What... twice already, I think."
"So?"  Ash mumbled again.
"So?  So?!  So, when will you two just get it together?!"
"There will be no 'getting together'!  Okay?!"  Ash shouted, waving his arms in the air.
Brock sighed.  
"You know, I worry about you two sometimes.  Always hiding your feelings."
"There's nothing to hide."  Ash growled.
"Fine."  Brock settled the entire conversation with the last word.
Ash kicked a random pebble down into the dirt that blew up at the slightest breeze.


Brock was looking through pharmacy mumbling the many name brands of the medicines.  Ash picked up a short pink bottle, then set it down again with a frown.  
"You know, I don't think we'll find the perfect medicine for Misty if we don't even know what she has yet."  Ash spoke up.
"I think it's just a little cold or something.  All she needs maybe is something to settle her stomach."   Brock said.
Ash blinked.  He suddenly realized something.  He was in a pharmacy looking for medicine for Misty.  Misty's sick.  Misty's sick!  Why is he here if Misty is in bed sick?!  Brock heard Ash gasp and looked up at him.
"Did you find the right bottle?"  he asked.
"Why am I here?"  Ash whispered.
Brock stared at him a while.  "You're here to find some medicine for Misty."  he explained.
"No!  Misty's sick!  I gotta go."  Ash said, pushing by Brock and carelessly making his way through the crowd.  Brock was left in wonder and holding up another bottle of medicine.
A few women screamed as Ash flew through the crowd of people and out the doors into the road.  A passing car skidded to a stop, its horn blaring.  As soon as he made out the path to go back to the Pokemon Center, Ash ran as fast as he could towards the Misty lying sick in bed with who knows what kind of sickness.


"Togeprii!"  Misty's togepi shrilled happily as it hopped onto her bed.
Misty lay asleep, pomised to the fact of Pikachu babysitting her togepi.  Sure enough, Pikachu grabbed the togepi at once and hopped of her bed in fear of the little egg getting sick.
"Pika pika."  it lectured with a pointed finger.

"Well, here I am.  Here with..."  Misty sighed, "...nothing to do..."
Misty sat lazily on the dreamgrounds waiting for... well... nothing to happen.  What boredom.
Misty sighed again and wiped the cold, grey ground causing a few sprouts of grass to form.  She mindlessly plucked the grass from its 'roots'.
'Wish Ash was here... but..."  
She looked towards the empty sky-less sky.
'...wishes only work if he was here in the first place...'

Ash breathed in slowly and reached for the doorknob that lead to the room in which Misty slept.
'Great.  She's probably upset that I didn't stay with her,' Ash thought. 'She'll be upset and yelling at me even in such a terrible position she's in, and I gotta go and get her all upset...'
He took a last breath and turned the doorknob with a shaking palm.  He craned his neck into the room.  Misty was asleep.
Breathing a sigh of releif, Ash closed the door gently.  He walked to the bed: probably contaminated with germs beyond thought, he still risked his health and sat.  Staring at Misty's shut eyelids, he confessed.
"You know, I wish you were awake.  I wish I could talk to you and actually tell you how I feel.  But the truth is, I'm afraid.  Pikachu's right; I'm a real coward when it comes to this.  I am nothing compared to Superman when it comes to love.   I'm sorry.  I'll try harder.  But until then," he paused to softly kiss her cheek.  "I hope that the way I am is enough."
After another long pause sitting in the strange silence with the girl he loved, he spoke up, "But wishes only work in dreams... and then only if you're in them..."
Ash blinked.  He suddenly felt a strong ping of sleepiness.  Yawning, he lay down next to Misty, his eyelids heavy at the beautiful mention of the word 'sleep'.  He reached for her hand, even though he was incredibly tired at this point, and held it.   Giving in to the urging pleasantness of sleep, he fell into the dark pit of his awaiting dreams.


Misty sighed again as she plucked the last grass root from the dreamgrounds.  She would love to be training her pokemon at this point, but her pokeballs were completely empty.  Were they not allowed to share her dreams?  'Guess not...  
Tired of pulling grass from the 'floor', she lay down on her back.  Suddenly, something caught her attention.  There was a tiny black dot above her head that looked about twenty feet away and the size of a small marble.  Her forehead wrinkled as she concentrated on the tiny dot that began to grow wider.   As soon as it grew about the size of herself, she gasped and was about to jump to her feet, when something heavy fell from it... and it landed on top of her.
The 'burden' began to groan slightly and stir.  Misty held her breath when she noticed the Pokemon League cap under her chin and 'the burden's' chin... uh... somewhere else...  The person looked up at her.  She took in more air when she saw Ash's face within inches from her own.   She could feel her cheeks, forehead, and the back of her neck grow warmer than ever.   About what seemed ten minutes went by when Misty looked around at nothing in particular and then back at Ash.
"Are you able to move?"  she asked quietly, the blush rapidly spreading.
"Uh.. oh, yeah..."  Ash chuckled nervously and sat up, turning a bit red also.
"Hmm,"  Misty looked at the blackness above her slowly disappearing. "I never enter this place like that."  Her skin color was returning.
"Neither do I.  I don't know why that just happened..."  Ash stood, adjusting his cap.
"Why or how?"  Misty asked.
"Either way."
"So your saying you mind that that just happened that way?"  Misty asked a bit suprised.
"Hm?  What happened what way?  You're beginning to confuse me."  Ash looked at her cautiously.
"Uh... nevermind..."  Misty turned pink again.
"So, you made it.  Good."  hummed that evil tone.
A cloud of fog suddenly gushed into the dream and a black figure stood still and silent for a moment.
"Oh great, it's you."  Ash said with sarcasm.
"You have come for the tests."  it commanded.
"Oh... I forgot about that..."  Misty admitted.
"Me too."  Ash said, looking over at Misty.
"It doesn't matter.  There was no way to study; no way to cheat.  You must use your mind to control the games we will play."  the figure said raspily.
"Games?  You think this is a game?  My friggin life is on the line here!"  Ash tensed.
"Well..." the demon chuckled. "It sure is a game for me."
Misty hated this thing.  This demon.
"Now!  For your first test!"  the demon shouted.
Suddenly, the air grew warm and the scenery glew bright.  Grass sprung up from the ground in millions of green blades around them.  Daisies poked up from the dirt and between the transforming rock.  A low clash was heard and never stopped.   It was a little loud at this point.  The sky was light blue, but was hard to see through the millions of tiny leaves that covered the sky.  The ground seemed to be nearly pure rock and across from Misty was a waterfall.  They were at some waterfall.
"Oh!  This place is sooo romantic!"  Misty swooned happily, absorbing every detail.
"What are we doing here?"  Ash asked.
"This is the perfect scenery for your test."  the demon sneered.
Misty suddenly paused.
'Oh god I hope we don't have to do anything... uh... embarrassing...'  she thought.
"Hmm... yes.  This may end embarrassing for you two..."  the demon chuckled. "NOW!"  
The demon threw his arms up in the air and a giant sheild of flowing darkness covered his form.  About two seconds later, the darkness disappeared.  There stood Misty.
"Oh no!  Not again!"  Ash said and dropped to his knees.
The demon chuckled in Misty's voice.  "Nice to see you too, Ash."  it said.
"Huh?!"  he looked up.
"You need to figure out which Misty is which.  Pick the right choice, you win."  it stated simply. "But now, I need a name.  Shauna.  My name is Shauna."
"Shauna?"  Ash asked.
"You never hear of too many Shaunas walking around these days."  Misty whispered.  Ash snickered.
"Well, I guess I already won.  I choose this one."  Ash said, pointing at the Misty standing next to him.
Misty blushed.  The words 'I choose this one' from Ash's mouth had somehow affected her...
"Oh, no no no Ashyboy.  It won't be nearly this easy."  Shauna assured.
Shauna walked over to Misty and stood next to her.  Suddnely, a blur accured.  A blur between Misty and Shauna.  Were they switching places?  Ash stared; his human eyes had no way of telling who went where.  Soon, it stopped.   Both Mistys were on the ground gasping.
"That was so weird!  Hey!"  they both shouted.
"Don't say what I say!  Stop that!  Stop!"  they pointed.
"You're Shauna!"
"No, you're Shauna!"
"But, I'm the real Misty!"
"No, I'm the real Misty!"
They turned to Ash.
"Ash!  Can't you see which one is real?!  She's the fake!"
Ash stared at one, then the other.  Then one, then the other.  Oh god, they looked exactly the same...  He fell to the ground in confusion.
"Ash!  Stand up.  Pick me already so we can get this over with."  said the Misty from the right.
"No Ash don't!  She's trying to trick you!  Pick me!"  yelled the Misty from the left.
"He won't pick you!  You're a demon!"
"He will pick me because the only demon around here is you!"
"What?!  You're only trying to trick him."
"No, you are!  You want our bodies so bad you gotta dress in women's clothes!"
"Shut up!!"  Ash shouted.
They fell silent.
"I figured it out.  I know what to do..."  Ash said slowly.
"What?"  the Misty from the right asked.
"Hm?"  asked the Misty from the left.
Ash took a deep breath. "I know that Shauna- whoever Shauna is over there- knows what Misty knows."  another deep breath. "so..."
"Well?  Get on with it!"  commended one of the Mistys.
Ash couldn't tell which one was which, his head was bent over.  Then, it lifted.
"Misty, whichever one you are, I need to tell you something, but since I can't say it to your face, I won't even say it looking up."  he closed his eyes and bowed his head.  "Misty.  I don't know if you know this or not, but..."  he tried to breath through his clenched teeth "I... really, really like you... a lot."   he said quietly.
"What do you mean 'a lot'?"
"'a lot' like in how much?"
"A lot.  Maybe love even... I don't know..."  he continued.
They both gasped.  Ash looked up at them red in the face.  They each had tears in their eyes.  Each were blushing.  
'Oh great.  This is gonna be harder than I thought...'  Ash thought painfully.
"So what I was planning to do... I need to... You see, I can't tell which Misty is which by asking a question because Shauna knows everything that Misty knows.  So since I know that I love Misty....  'God, I've been waiting forever to say that.' ... then my instincts should tell me which one is Misty..."  
There was a looong pause.
"...if I kiss her."
The two Mistys had turned bright red by now, blushing to the extreme.  So much was running through Ash and Misty's minds that the clashing waterfall had seemed ignored.  Shauna, however, seemed to be enjoying the veiw.
"Kiss me?"  they both asked; one naturally suprised, one acting everything out.
Ash nodded.
"Which one..."  he asked pointing to either of them.  "goes first?"
They looked at eachother.  Misty hated the fact that Ash was going to kiss a total stranger, not to mention a total demon, yet was too stunned at the sound of his voice offering her a kiss.
After another long pause, Ash spoke up.
"Okay.  I'll choose.  Let's just get this over with."
Ash stood and walked over towards the Misty on the left.  Misty suddenly tensed as she watched Ash approach her slowly.  
'Oh my gosh, he's going to kiss me first.  Well, not that that's a bad thing...'  she thought. 'Oh, why am I so worried, he said that he loved me... or at least really liked me...'
When he reached Misty, he had a strange feeling that this one was actually her.  Then, he looked over to the other Misty, who stared at him in shock.
"Okay.  I don't know if you're Shauna or not, so let's just do this."  he said.
"Okay."  she whispered.
"Okay."  he whispered back.
They stood still.  Nothing happened.
"Aren't you supposed to kiss me?"  Misty asked.
"Yeah... but..."  he muttered.
"What?"
Ash sighed and trudged over to the other Misty.
"Could you please turn around.  Even if you're the real Misty, I wouldn't want you to see this."  he said quietly to her.
Shauna growled.  "You expect me to just turn my back while you go kiss some demon."  she said coldly, turning her back.
Ash rolled his eyes and left Shauna's side.
"Okay."  he said as he stood in front of her.
"Okay."  she replied.
As Ash expected another stalling silence, Misty leapt forth towards him into his arms.  His eyes sprung open in total suprise as her lips met his in a lock of pure passion and love.  But... something wasn't right...  Something wasn't... something didn't feel right... didn't taste right...   Other than that, everything was perfect.  Perfect.  Ash wanted so much to smile, but lips can only do one job at a time.  Misty, on the other hand, seemed to enjoy every split second of his lips resting on hers.  A small tear of jubilation fell down her cheek.   She had been waiting so long for this.  It seemed exactly like her dream.  A dream... that was what this was... But it didn't really matter.  As long as Ash's real spirit knew he was kissed by her, that was good enough for her.  She could only pray that Brock wouldn't find any water anytime soon...   Ash wanted so much to enjoy this, but something just wasn't right!  That taste... it was horrible!  A kiss isn't supposed to taste so horrible!  He began to have second thoughts about this Misty being the true Misty...
Ash figured that five minutes were enough for one kiss and pulled away.  
"What's wrong?"  she asked.
"Nothing, it's just..."  Ash licked his lips and winced at the horrible taste that stung his taste buds like acid.
"I'm not that terrible!"  Misty shouted.
Ash shook his head, his eyes still closed in dissatisfaction.  Misty put her hands on her hips.
"Fine!  It was your choice to kiss me, anyway!"  she shouted as Ash walked over to the other Misty: Shauna.
Misty continued to curse under her breath until they became louder.  She had not expected her first kiss to end up like this.
"You ready?"  Ash asked.
Shauna nodded and smiled temptingly.  Ash grinned.  They slowly pulled into a kiss.  A soft, tender kiss with all of the emotion and love that a true kiss could ever need.  Warm and beautiful, the kiss only lasted a few minutes until Shauna broke away slowly and smiled lovingly.   Ash opened his eyes and smiled back.  Misty wanted so much to kill Shauna at the moment.
"I've made my decision."  Ash declared, still smiling at Shauna.

~~~~~End Chapter "Up Close and Personal With Shauna!"~~~~~
Ooooohh!  What a cliffhanger!  Hang on!  Well, whaddya think?  Who's he gonna choose?  Demon or woman?  Hmm...
See yaz!  ^^