Merry Christmas! (Happy New Year!) part 5

Disclaimer: I don’t own Christmas, or Pokémon or anything really. Gee, my life sucks.

Summary: It’s New Year’s Day, and everyone is recovering from the night before.

Speech. Thoughts. Pokémon.

Auld Lang Syne

Later that night... “Wow, I didn’t know Pallet Town could party so hard.” Exclaimed Misty, slightly out of breath. “Yep, we like to ring in the New Year with a bang.” Ash replied, with more than a hint of pride in his voice. They were slowly making their way back from the party, and Ash was trying to figure out how to ask Misty something important. “You know,” Misty started, breaking Ash out of his reverie. “I think this actually might have been one of the best Christmases and New Year’s I’ve ever had. Which says a lot about how I usually spend my holidays...” She rolled her eyes and sighed. “I can’t believe how much thought everyone put into their gifts. Even on such short notice, it’s just, well, amazing.” She fidgeted with her new bracelet. “Usually, I’m lucky if I get something that even resembles what I wanted.” She sighed deeply. Ash looked at her, slightly concerned. “I’m guessing you haven’t had very many good Christmases.” Misty nodded sadly. “Uh-huh. It’s the same with birthdays, too. My sisters almost always find a way to ruin it for me. Oh well.” She shrugged. “At least I can be happy with the knowledge that they’ll turn forty long before I do.” Misty grinned evilly and rubbed her palms together. “That’s the best thing about being younger than them. Evil old hags.” She added bitterly.

“We better be quiet.” Misty whispered as she opened the door. “Max and May are probably asleep by now, so we don’t wanna wake them.” “Right.” Ash nodded with a whisper. “Careful of the third step up, it creaks real loud.” “’Kay.” “Uh, Misty, wait a moment...” Misty turned, her foot hovering over the next step up. “What, does this one creak too?” Ash shook his head and blushed. “Uh, no. It’s just, come here, I wanna, talk to you about, something.” He silently went over to the couch and waited there, shuffling his feet nervously. Misty scratched her head thoughtfully, shrugged and went over to him. “Well, what is it, Ash?” Ash quietly scuffed his foot along the rug. ‘Drat, be a man, you can do this...’ “Flarglesnargleniff?” Misty turned her head and cleaned out an ear with her pinkie. “Sorry, didn’t get that, English please.” Ash could feel himself slowly turning into a puddle under Misty’s gaze. “It’s just, um, do you, wanna, maybe, go out. Sometime. With me.” He added, feeling it was necessary. Misty froze. “Huh, what? Do you mean, on a, date, or something?” Ash blushed deeply. “Um, yeah. I mean, if you don’t want too, that’s okay. If fact, forget I even mentioned it. Must be the, egg nog talking, yeah, the egg nog.” He started to push past her, keeping his face hidden, but Misty grabbed his arm. “Ash, you didn’t have any egg nog, remember?” “Oh, right.” Misty sighed and turned bright red. “And besides, even if it was, I’d still say yes.” She released his arm and stood there, nervously rubbing her wrist. Ash stared at her. “Wait, does this mean, you’ll...” Misty nodded shyly. “Yeah, I-I guess.”

The next morning... “Okay kids, I’m gonna be at the professor’s for most of the day, helping to clear up, so be good, okay?” Ash and Misty nodded as Delia headed towards the door. “Okay.” “We will.” Delia stopped. “Please don’t argue too much, I want the house in one piece when I get back, understand?” she looked pointedly at them, almost pleadingly. “Well, that’s no fun.” answered Misty, pretending to pout but her smile gave it away. “Wait for me, Mrs Ketchum!” Brock jumped down the last few stairs, cleaning supplies in hand. “I’ll be helping out, too.” “See ya, Brock.”

“So, how was the party?” Max asked. “Yeah, I can’t believe I fell asleep so soon. That’s so not fair.” added May. Ash and Misty glanced at each other and blushed slightly. “Pretty good.” “Yeah, best New Year’s I’ve ever had...” Just then, they heard a scream coming closer and closer. “Aaaahhhhh!” The front door slammed and Tracey went racing through the house. Soon after, they heard the back door close. “What was THAT about?!” “I have no idea...” they paused as the front door opened and slammed again. “Right, where is he?!” Gary stood in the doorway, panting, his eyes glowing with pure rage. “Um, who and why?” “Tracey.” Gary growled his reply. “I’ll teach him for sleeping with my sister.” He turned and started up the stairs, leaving a shocked silence in his wake. “Did he just say, what I think he just said?” Ash stammered, a blush creeping up his face. Misty nodded dumbly. “Uh-huh.” May giggled and buried her face into a cushion. Max shoved his fist into his mouth to stifle a laugh. “Whoa, Tracey’s a dead man.” Misty mused with a small grin as Gary finished checking upstairs and raced out the back door in his quest for vengeance.

“Can’t say I blame Gary for wanting Tracey dead.” Misty mused as they watched Tracey run past the window, Gary close behind with what appeared to be a very large stick in his hands. “Huh, what do you mean?” Ash asked, somehow dreading the answer. Misty shrugged. “It’s one of those things that you wouldn’t understand, Ash. Because you’re an only child, you see. But let’s just say, that if it was one of my sisters Tracey had ‘messed’ with, I’d have caught him by now. I’m not gonna say what I’d do to him, but I’ll give you a hint: you’d be receiving pieces of him in the mail for quite a while after.” May stifled another giggle, and quickly went to get a glass of water. Max had already gotten bored by now, and had gone upstairs to fiddle around with his new Pokétch. Ash looked around to make sure the coast was clear. “Tell me again why I wanna go out with you?” he whispered. Misty shrugged. “I don’t know, I’m a really good kisser?” Ash scratched his head and blushed. “Well, yeah, there’s THAT.” With a quick glance at the kitchen, Misty leaned over and gave him a quick peck on the lips. “And don’t you forget it, Ash Ketchum.”

Later that day... “Well, apart from Tracey, it looks like everybody had a pretty good New Year’s. Although, in a way, Tracey probably had a good time too.” Misty smirked. Ash spat out his mouthful of water and blushed as Brock chuckled, May giggled, Max snorted and Delia frowned. “So, I’m guessing Tracey won’t be able to come back to town for quite a while.” Misty rolled her eyes. “What an idiot. This makes some of the things Ash has done look like the work of a genius.” “Hey!” “Actually, this make Team Rocket look like brain surgeons. Although, I wouldn’t hire them even if THEY paid ME.” She shrugged. “For one thing, they never have any money... Anyway, so, apart from a few, shall we say, hiccups, it looks like this is gonna be a pretty good year.” Misty finished, glancing at Ash as he recovered from drowning. “If Ash doesn’t go ruining it by drowning himself on the first day...” “Shut up!” Ash wheezed, smiling slightly. ‘As long as he survives til our date, then I’ll be happy.’ She added quietly to herself with a smile.

Well, that’s it. That’s all she wrote, folks. I hope you enjoyed my little Christmas tale. Bit of a surprise ending there with Tracey, hey? What better way for Ash and Misty to get a sort of payback for Gary’s behaviour the previous night, than with one of their friends ‘messing around’ with his sister. This is, of course, the same older sister that he is supposed to have. I think she might be that brunette girl in the opening sequence of the first season of the TV show. The one Pikachu runs between the legs of. Watch it, you’ll see who I’m talking about here. I don’t know why they took her out of the series, though. Oh well.

There, that’s all the re-formatting done. Obviously, I changed the ending slightly, as it jumped about a bit in context, but it makes a little more sense now. Hopefully...

AUSSIE WOLF

18-Oct-08. (fixed)