Thundershock

Stars

It was quiet up here, with just the stars and her Dratini for company. Peaceful, too. The wind ran it's fingers through her hair, and she sighed absently. Hugging her knees to her chest, Misty stroked Dratini as she stared out at the city, watching the way lights seemed to blink in time to the soundless melody of some unknown song.

Her friends were downstairs, hard at work as they prepared costumes and posters for the play, but Misty just felt suffocated. Moonlight fell across her bed in stripes, pale silver contrasting to a charcoal grey backdrop. Even Team Rocket had pitched in when they heard about the sequel.

Though, she supposed they weren't Team Rocket any more. It was funny, really. First impressions meant everything sometimes. Goodness, just look at her and Ash! She'd fished him out of a lake, for Mew's sake! Jessie and James would always be Team Rocket to her, and she suspected they'd always see themselves as Team Rocket too.

And now that James had claimed his inheritance, she had a feeling the duo were considering a permanent relationship. They certainly seemed comfortable enough with the idea. Arceus, Jessie was living in the mansion with him! That had to mean something.

She giggled as aggravated voices floated up from downstairs. Oh dear. Poor Chili. Iris was spitting chips again. Though he was the most temperamental out of his brothers, he still couldn't hold a candle to the Dragon-type Trainer. True to her specialty, she had a temper and generally scared everyone when she flew into a rage. Even Ash.

Which was saying something. Not many people could scare Ash - she was one of the rare few. His mother, the Professor, Leaf - from what she'd seen, the brunette had acid for a tongue and a ego to match (no wonder she got along with Gary) - Iris, and of course, Misty herself. Yeah, not many.

She sighed. "It's beautiful, isn't it, Dratini?"

The Pokemon chirped, rubbing her head against her Trainer's arm. Taking that as a 'yes', Misty smiled and continued stroking the creature's back. It felt smooth, not rough and scaly like you'd expect dragon skin to be. It was nice.

Something squeaked, like someone's sneakers against a cold surface, and she turned her head in surprise. Ash gave her a lazy wave from his spot in her doorway, a familiar crooked smile settling on his face. She smiled back, not really all that astonished to find him there.

"Hey, Mist." he greeted.

"Hey," she replied. "What's up?"

He shrugged. "Not much. You?"

"Just stargazing."

He folded his arms behind his head, a nostalgic look in his eyes. "We used to do that a lot, you and I. It was one of the things I missed most about traveling with you. That, and our never-ending arguments."

She chuckled. "Once we started, we couldn't stop, could we?"

He shook his head, grinning. "Nope. We sure couldn't."

"It was just one of those thing, you know? It was part of made us ... us."

"Brock and Tracey sure couldn't understand how we pulled it off,"

Misty rolled her eyes. "Brock's a flirt and Tracey's an idiot. Of course they wouldn't understand."

"Heh, true. Sometimes we didn't even understand it. Like the whole thing with Rudy."

"...Yeah."

She fell silent, eyes closing to prevent the tears from falling. Quiet, hesitant footfalls told her he'd crossed the threshold, and the mattress sighed as he sat down next her. He draped an arm over her shoulders and she smiled ever-so-slightly. He understood. He didn't need to ask, just acted upon what he saw.