Trend

1wordprompt : "trend"

Ooh, no, she internally groans, attempting to blink away the sight before her. Sadly, it's still there and she's practically ashamed to say she's tempted to click on the hashtag sitting on her laptop monitor and see what results pop up.

But she really shouldn't do it. Who cares what everyone else is saying? Who cares how they feel? Who cares what this will do to his ego, right?

And that's what resides at the heart of her unease. When Ash Ketchum saw that his name was a trending hashtag on social media, he was going to have a field day and she was never going to hear the end of it.

But her hands are quicker than her sensibility and she's clicking the hashtag, which is linked to all the recent posts about him, cursing to herself afterwards but still not having the willpower to turn back before it's too late to save herself.

'Ash Ketchum's Pikachu is so cute! They're the greatest team in Pokemon training!'

Oh. Oh, okay. Well, that's innocent enough, she thinks to herself, eyes wide and then brow scrunching almost suspiciously. Could they all be that simple and unspecific? Ash's ego couldn't possibly be inflated by such a comment, and the poster behind it is right! Ash and Pikachu had always shown to be one of the most profound and selfless bonds between trainer and Pokemon!

'Ash Ketchum's been in the game too long to have such a small fandom!'

Um... what? Fandom? As in a community of fans? Ash-freakin'-Ketchum has fans now?

Ooh, no, she cries to herself once more in incredulousness, taking a moment to hold her hands over her face as it flushes scarlet and breathing shallowly through her fingers. Then she cautiously spreads them apart and stares once more at the screen.

Misty scrolls down the feed a little more. There are some more comments on Ash's team, photos of him standing in different stadiums or gyms, a few creepy shots of him minding his own business eating lunch or buying supplies. There are a couple of short videos of him battling other trainers - again, in the official capacity during gym or league title matches. Some of them are captioned with something along the lines of, 'My commentary!! Ash Ketchum deserves to be champ! This entire battle is WHY!!!'

She stares at one of these for a few seconds, doesn't dare to click the video and see what the person - the fan, she thinks ominously - has to say about her best friend. All she knows is... Well, Misty Waterflower will defend Ash Ketchum to the ends of the planet if need be... but if she were ever to get it inside her head that she needed to make video commentaries about his battle history, she'd have to take a dive.

The redhead continues scrolling a bit further. True, there are a couple more photos and even fewer videos, but the text posts take up most of feed by a long shot. Thankfully, while they're all tagged with Ash Ketchum's name, at least half seem to actually be about his Pokemon team or stats and nothing too personal.

And then... she suddenly sees it.

'Ash Ketchum has SUCH a cute butt!'

Wh... she tries to form the word but her brain fractures under the weight of this alarming post content. There's no way... Who would say something like that about a stranger?! Who would post something so embarrassing for all the world to see?! What is this?!

'Ash Ketchum's smile always helps me start my day just right!!'

'If you don't think Ash K is the cutest thing since the discovery of SKITTY then your wrong!!1!'

No, wait! How do - did people really talk so openly about people they thought were cute? Just... post anything they want on the web so everyone can see it?! Could this many people really have a crush on dense, short Ash Ketchum, the sometimes whiny, always stubborn and reckless and–