Chapter 2 - Brock's Broken Misty!

Author - Chibi / Warlordess
Author - Chibi / Warlordess

Disclaimer - I don't own anything.. . But Harry Potter and The Goblet of Fire is coming out on DVD as of March ofseventh and Misty's coming back as of April. . . first, wasn't it? So, eitherway, it doesn't matter, as the people who do run the shows around here arekeeping up with all of it a lot better than I ever could.

OoO

FictionTitle -"Fighting the Fates"

Chapter Two-"Brock's Broken Misty!"

Summary - While making theirway through Sootopolis, Ash and friends stumble across a local fortunetellerwho says. . . dun, dun, dun! Ash and May are destined to be together! And thenMisty and Drew pop into the picture. . . Whatever could they have to say aboutthis? Pokeshippy and Contestshippy fic. Tee hee. :)

Ages -

Ash / 15

May / 13

Misty / 16

Drew / 14

Brock / 18

Max / 10

OoO

May groaned.Ash groaned. Max and Brock attempted to hide back their laughter. They failed.May and Ash succeeded in kicking them under the table. Brock and Max cried.Thus was the chronological order of events that took place after returning tothe Sootopolis Pokemon Center.

The group wassitting in a booth in the lobby of the Center, hoping to forget everythingthey'd learned about their "compatibility" with one another thanks tothe fortuneteller from the mall, but without much luck. It was rather hard, yousee, when the person that you were supposed to be so well-off with was sittingright next to you. Not that Ash and May really thought that way about eachother; there was not to be any misunderstanding anywhere along the way.

They were justfriends.

But it wasdefinitely going to be hard to convince everyone else of that when people like.. . well. . . like Brock and Max, people who were supposed to be their closestfriends, kept making kissy-kissy faces at them and pointing towardsbroom-cupboards and handing them "Do not disturb" signs to hang onthe bedroom doors for if they wanted to spend some time alone together laterthat day.

Ash and May sighedin unison; it was all really beginning to become too much to bear. Not onlywere Brock and Max refusing to relent in their humor, but the two jokers werebeginning to become accustomed to the pain, so whenever the "lovers"chose to retaliate to their horrible pranks, the effects that wore on werepaining the two of them less and less.

"Ash, whydon't you just give into your desires?" Brock sighed despondently,feigning depression, "After all, if I had been told that my soulmate wasbut a few paces away, I'd only be too willing to believe it. . ."

Ash groanedagain.

"Pika. .." Pikachu attempted to comfort his trainer, patting him on the head as helooked up at his friend sitting next to him.

"Brock,that's not will, that's desperation. Anyway, why are we still talking aboutthis? What is with your obsession with me and May? Do you and Max have somesick and twisted interest in our unhappiness?"

May blinked,"Unhappiness? Huh? C'mon, Ash, really. . . I mean. . . What is it? Am Inot your type?" She put on a hurt look, her eyes watering up and hercheeks flushing crimson so that she seemed very pouty and Ash began stutteringin a way that showed he knew he'd done something wrong, but he didn't know howto make it better.

"I, er. .. I mean, it's not that, it's. . ." He turned red, muttered somethingunintelligibly, and then spoke in a very high-pitched voice again, ". . .It's nothing to do with that, or you, or. . . !"

"What hemeans to say, is. . ." And here Brock took up the microphone and Ashglanced his way appreciatively, ". . . that he's already in love withMisty and there's no way that you'll ever be able to measure up so youshouldn't even bother trying. Tough luck, May."

"W -what?" Ash said, now looking even more horrified, both at the blunt confessionof his undying affection for his best friend of Cerulean City and for thestraight-forward way the Breeder had told the Coordinator of it. He quicklyturned back to face May again, sure that she'd be even more upset now, surethat she'd probably even get violent, attempt to throw something at him. . .

. . . She wassmiling.

"Oh,c'mon, Ash. You really are a bit dense. . . I was kidding the whole time."She sighed in an over-dramatic way and swept a conscious hand to her forehead,"It's something all girls are born with, a talent, how to act." Shegrinned at him, then turned and scratched Pikachu's chin as the Pokemon trainercontinued to look half-shocked and half-angry at this news, "But that'ssweet, how you feel for Misty."

Ash seemed tobe thinking of the best way to reply to this, but the only thing he could comeup with was, ". . . Eh."

Brock,clearing his throat, continued the conversation, "Speaking of Misty, it'sbeen awhile since we called her, hasn't it?" His grin seemed to haveturned malevolent. Ash almost flinched as he looked at it. "Why don't wegive her a shot and. . . fill her in on all that's gone on as of late. . .?"

Ash and May'sresponses were instantaneous.

"NO!"

Their shoutsgained the attention of half of the Center, and among the throng of theanonymous trainers. . .

"It's youguys again? So, what? Have you begun to stalk me, too?" Drew asked,sweeping a hand through his (beautiful, soft, ocean-hue) hair and smirkingarrogantly as he made his way over to them. If nothing else, they groanedagain, and Ash and May banged their heads against the table of the booth theywere sitting at. Seeing Drew reminded them of all that had happened just a fewhours ago. Drew stared at the two of them in particular at this response."What? Not happy to see me?"

"Oh, notnow, Drew. . ." May moaned, turning away, "We're not in the mood foryour attitude."

Drew stoodthere for a couple of moments, and he seemed to be thinking about something.And then his eyes widened as though something had just come to mind and heleaned against the back of their booth, and, if possible, his slight smirkreturned in an even more secure way than before.

"That'sright, May, you went to have your fortune read, didn't you. . . ?" He hadone of his roses out, and he was staring at it as though it was the mostinteresting thing in the world. May stared at it, too, refusing to look at him,because if she did, she might not have been able to look away. "So. . .what was it that she told you? Was it something to do with your future as aCoordinator? Like, maybe, the fact that you'd always be second best to yourever-dashing rival?"

"Youwish!" May shouted, rising to the bait and jumping to her feet. Half ofher wanted to tell him right then and there that the fortuneteller had said sheand Ash were. . . well. . . "compatible" as life-mates, but the otherhalf was a little worried of his reaction. How would he feel? Would he justcongratulate them and walk away, as if nothing had changed? Would he feel athrill of jealous rage and rip Ash from his seat, throwing a punch and tellinghim that if he laid a hand on "his girl" that he'd live to regret it?

And suddenlyMay faltered, feeling her face turn scarlet.

Drew turned toher and blinked, obviously waiting for her continuation of a comeback. Thatcouldn't have been all she had, could it? Unfortunately, May seemed to haveblown a fuse and had short-circuited. Max, sensing this, stepped forward,pushing his older sister away so that she didn't end up embarrassing herselfanymore.

"Sorry,but she'll have to get back to you on that one," he told Drew as he didso, and Drew nodded, just slightly confused as to what had transpired. As soonas the Beech siblings were out of sight, he turned to Brock and Ash again,pointing his rose after them questioningly.

"Er. . .? What was that about?" He asked.

"I'm notso sure. . . but it might have had something to do with the fact that Ash andMay are fated to fall in love and get married and have lots of little May's andAsh's together, running around, Thunderbolting girl's bikes and attractingFire-type Pokemon. . ." Brock said, smirking, and Ash growled.

"Brock!"He jumped to his feet, kicking his older friend as he untangled himself fromthe booth. Drew, who'd still been leaning against the back of the seat, felthimself slip, and fell ungraciously to the floor. He attempted to look unfazedas he replied to what had he'd just heard.

"What doyou mean?"

"Oh, thefortuneteller said something like Ash and May had a lot of traits that werewell in-tune with one another and that if they were to be in a relationshiptogether, it could last forever." And then Brock sighed, looking serious."But they won't listen to me when I tell them that they should actuallytry to pay attention to what their elder's say to them. . ."

"That'sbecause our most trusted 'elder' is a perverted Breeder-in-the-making with noeyes!" Ash commented exasperatedly, finally making his way out of thebooth and stepping up to Drew's side, "Need a hand?" He said, holdingone of his own out, and Drew nodded, accepting it. "It doesn't matterabout destiny, or anything. If you don't feel a certain way for someone, thenit's not fair to say you want to be with them, right?" He asked, and Drewnodded, although he wasn't sure if the question was rhetorical or not."And I don't feel that way for May, so you don't have to worry."

". . .Me?" He asked, "Why would I have to worry in the first place?"

"Er, youor any other guy, then." Ash gave a sheepish laugh, "Yea, that's whatI meant."

OoO

In the Woman'sWashroom, May felt the cool rush of water against her face and sigheddespondently, finally recovered from the incident having taken placebeforehand. She just couldn't understand it, what had happened. Drew had alwaysbeen so rude and obnoxious; at least, when he wasn't being witty, handsome, andcourteous. . .

"Ugh, howannoying. . . !" She exclaimed as she dried off her face, just in time forher brother to call out from beyond the bathroom door.

"Are youokay now, May?" And he actually sounded a little worried for her. . .

"I'mfine, Max, no need to call the paramedics or anything. . ." She replied.

"Thenwhat happened?" And her laugh faltered again immediately, her faceflushing unexpectedly at the thought. Ugh. What had happened? She didn'teven want to think about it. . . "I mean, you're not very good atconfrontation anyway, but you've never just stood there and let Drew come atyou like that. . . If I didn't know any better, I'd say you had a stress-relatedcollapse. . . maybe caused by some newly discovered feelings for someone.. . ?" Her brother ended in a slow, serious tone, and May felt herselfcripple slowly but surely under the truth of the matter.

"I. . . Imean, no. . . That can't be. . . it. . ." She turned to face the largemirror and gave herself a good, long, and hard look, ". . . Not for him.. ."

"Yea. . .I wouldn't have expected you to fall for Ash either, May, but beggars can't bechoosers, you know? So if you think that there's a chance that thefortuneteller's right, then you'd better come out with it now while you've gotthe time, because. . ." Max could tell that wherever he was going with hisstatement was the wrong place because he could sense the dark waves waftingfrom underneath the door.

"I. Do.Not. Love. Ash." May said in a loud and clear voice that easily reachedhim. She stomped out of the bathroom and stood before him in all of herolder-sister glory, bearing down upon him with an evil look upon her face."Look, Max, I appreciate your enthusiasm in the matter, but I really don'tfeel anything for Ash other than friendship; whatever happened earlier hadnothing to do with him, believe me! It had to do with. . ." And here sheglanced at Drew, felt her cheeks turn slightly pink, and then faced her kidbrother again, ". . . yea, not Ash. So get over it. . . What's wrong. . .?" For Max was looking just a bit troubled.

"I'mthinking about what the woman was telling us, remember when we were walkingaway from her? She said that even if what you and Ash had wasn't destiny,choosing to ignore it would probably cause a good deal of trouble. . . Do youthink she had a point. . . ? I'm just worried for you and Ash is all. . . andyou know, it's your fault."

"Huh?What? How is it my fault?" May asked, angry.

"Well,you're the one who was interested in learning what your future held for you tobegin with, remember? Not us. Your the one who led us to the woman. Not us.Your the one who pleaded with Brock to agree to let you spend another ten dollarson that last thing, and then paid her to tell you what you wanted to know. Notus. . . You see where I'm going with this yet?" He asked her, pushing hisglasses up the bridge of his nose in a geeky manner.

"Fine;yea, I get it. I may have inadvertently ruined mine and Ash's lives, and I'msorry. Whoopsy-daisy. Can we move on now?" After a look from her youngerbrother, she sighed again and rubbed unenthusiastically at the back of herneck, "Right, right; I get it. . . I know I dragged everyone into this,and I'll go and apologize. . . but only after Drew's gone. I'd rather not lethim find out that Ash and I are meant to be together, you know? Who knows howhe'd react to that?"

Max didn'tfully understand what she meant by asking him that question, but turned andpointed either way, "Er. . . Too late. I think he just found out."

May lookedaround too in time to see her rival hit the ground, hard, in a veryunflattering position. She'd never seen Drew fall before, and for the verysimple explanation that Drew never fell. She had a feeling that, if she were toever ask him why that was, he would tell her that it was because he wasinexplicably flawless. She rolled her eyes at the thought, but herinner-irritation lasted only two seconds before she understood. . .

. . . Drew knew.. .

"Oh, no.. . !" She moaned, looking horrified, and took off again for the booththat the group had been sitting at earlier, trying to think of an explanationthat would fit best for the whole thing, but then, how would she explain to himwhy she was defending herself against him? Ugh. How annoying. Max followedafter her as well. "Er, hi guys; h - how's it going?"

"So, May,it turns out that you've got something of a great future going for you afterall." Whoa, what a look Drew was giving her as he said that. . . It wasn'ta look that she could place, but it was definitely a look. Yea, it meantnothing, did it?

"Uh, er.. . y - yea. . . You know. . . 'Cause m - me and Ash, yea. . . We. . ."She attempted to say something witty in return, but it died instantly in herthroat. "No way! That fortuneteller was way wrong! Ugh; she has no ideawhat she's talking about, or hasn't Ash told you yet that we don't haveanything going for us? Nothing she says is going to change that!"

Brock,standing in the background with his hands behind his back, began humming awedding march under his breath. Ash and May turned and glared.

"So,then, you guys really don't think that there's any chance at all that she'sright? But her predictions have been known to be one-hundred percent accurate!Why else do you think she was drawing such a crowd?" And Drew quirked aneyebrow in question.

Brock changedhis tune quickly from the wedding march, to Mandy Moore.

"'I'vegot a crush on you! I hope you feel the way that I do. . . !'" He sungoff-key.

"Hey,Brock? Isn't that Nurse Joy? She's looking so attractive today, isn't she? Orhave you turned gay? You know, I hear James from Team Rocket has shown a suddeninterest in you. . . Maybe you should get a start on proving yourmanhood." Ash stated dryly.

Brock's jawdropped and he leapt madly for the front desk of the Center, leaving the restof the group alone. Max, taking a leaf out of the Breeder's book, chose tochill out for a while.

"I'll gowith him and make sure that he doesn't go too far. We don't need anymorerestraining orders." He ruffled a hand through his dark hair and wentafter the oldest member of the group, who was back to his usual, useless flirtof a self in an instant.

"Me,too." Ash said, and followed after the other two.

"So. .." May started up in conversation again, sensing that she and Drew werealone, ". . . Look, have you ever heard the saying that there's a firsttime for everything? Well, Ash and I are clearly just friends, and I'm not interestedin him. . . I don't plan on ever being interested in him. . ." She allowedherself a grin, "There's nothing for you to be worried about."

Drew blinked,and then, in explanation of a scoff, "Maybe you're misunderstanding me.I'm not worried. After all, I'm not so superstitious as to believe in somethingas destiny. . . And fortunetelling is a very off way to try and figure out howyour life's going to turn out, isn't it? Only those who aren't confident aboutthemselves would resort to such means. . . And that means that I wouldnever do that on my own."

"Oh. .." For once, she wasn't inclined to fight back. She was ratherdisappointed, however, that he hadn't seemed to be affected by the fact that hemight have been close to. . . "losing" her, maybe? . . . to Ash. Shehadn't been hoping for anything concrete, like a confession of undying love andaffection, but something, anything, to show that he was even just slightlyliable to care about the situation at all. . . "Well, I guess that this isall for now, then. I'll see you next time, Drew." And she waved at him andgave him half a smile to show that it was at least on good terms that they wereto depart, and he seemed to falter in his stance.

"What'sthat mean?"

"Well,don't you have places to go, fans to avoid, autographs to sign? And Ash, theothers, and I are gonna stick it out here in Sootopolis for the next couple ofdays to give the Pokemon a break, so. . ." Drew was looking at her withthe strangest expression on his face.

". . . Ithink that I deserve a bit of a vacation," he replied, not looking her inthe eye, and walking towards the front desk to sign out a room at the Center.

Somehow, thatwas enough for her.

OoO

It was hourslater, and most of the occupants of the Sootopolis Pokemon Center were asleep.A tall figure slowly and carefully made his way from the back, across thethreshold, and into the lobby. It was amazing that he could see anything,especially as, just as his friend had said to him earlier that day, he had noeyes, but he made his way stealthily over to one of the video-phones beside thefront door just the same and picked up the receiver, dialing for the operator.

". . .I'm trying to reach the Cerulean City Gym." He said in the clearestwhisper he could muster, knowing that anything louder would reach his friends,and that said friends would then commit murder. "Er, thank you."Brock drummed his fingers on the counter as he listened to the automaticringing of the phone placing the call through, and then, thinking ahead, flippedon the video-signal, and the monitor switched on.

". . .Good morning, this is Misty of the Cerulean City Gym speaking; how may I helpyou today?" Came a bored reply from the other end of the line, and Brockraised an eyebrow, suppressing a laugh. It would be morning there, wouldn't it?And it would be early, too, considering, meaning that there probably wouldn'thave been time for any trainers to have come and issued a challenge for aCascade badge as of yet.

Nevertheless,she needn't sound so uninterested. Well. . . he knew one way to change thatattitude, whether it was for better or worse.

"Hey,Misty? It's Brock; can you turn on your video monitor?"

"Oh,thank God, I thought I was going to die if someone didn't try to call me upsoon!" She said, and he heard her shuffle some useless items around tofind the said switch, ". . . So, what's been going on lately with youguys? I haven't heard from you in a while. Isn't it late wherever you are?Where's May, and Max, and. . . Ash?" She seemed to be trying not to soundtoo excited at the thought of her best friend as he heard a click and her faceappeared quite suddenly, looking excited at the sight of him.

"Oh,actually, they're. . . sleeping, but that's okay, because I wanted to talk toyou on my own!" He said as her face fell at the news.

"Er, thisisn't gonna fall into the category of some declaration of everlasting love, isit. . . ?" She asked, sounding as though she thought it were trulypossible of him, "I mean, I know you've been rejected a million timesover, Brock, but, you know, it's not time to throw in the towel, I don't think.You should keep at it for a little while longer, you never know, you mightstill be able to find a girl whose crazy enough to. . ."

". . .Whose crazy?" He asked, quirking an eyebrow, "Never mind. I don'twant to know. But, yea, there's this thing that happened recently, actually,today, and I thought that it was something you'd want to know, given your, er,condition. . ." He stared pointedly at her until her face flushed brightred and they both reached a silent understanding. ". . . Right. Well, it'sabout Ash and May, and, well, you may not like it, but it's got to do withtheir future. . ." And he began the long tale of the group's trek throughthe Sootopolis shopping center leading up to their visit to the fortuneteller,". . . And I don't know whether or not you believe in that type of stuffanyway, because I don't, but. . . well, the woman said that Ash and May. . .she said they had a lot of stuff in common, things that mattered when in along-term relationship with one another. . . She said that they'd do well tospend the rest of their lives together. . ."

He held thereceiver away from his ear, fully expecting her to blow up at him at this news,but she didn't seem to have anything to say in response. He faced the monitorand saw her staring back at him, or through him, or something like that, herjaw slack, her eyes slightly wide, her grip on the phone slipping in such a waythat it fell a moment later and clattered as it hit the floor. It seemed thatwhether or not she believed in fortunetelling, she still thought that theopinion that Ash and May were well-suited for one another was worth somethingin itself. . .

"Er. . .Misty. . . ? Misty. . . ! A - are you gonna wake up? Hello?" Brockattempted to rouse her from her catatonic state by waving at her through thescreen, shouting into the receiver, forgetting that it was nowhere near her earin any case, sighing, "Hey, you don't really have to worry, it's not likethey feel that way for each other. . . C'mon, Misty, listen to me. . . I justthought it was funny, really." But she didn't seem to be paying anyattention to him. "Oh, would you get over it? If you really think thatthere's any chance at all of Ash running off with some other girl, let alonewith May, then you should get over here and look after him for yourself! Imean, think about it! The best way to prevent him from being snagged by someoneelse is to get him first, right?"

She stilldidn't reply. It seemed that she didn't have anything to say to him after all.Growing irritated by her lack of a response, Brock ran a hand through his hair;he was also just a bit worried, and not just for Misty. At this point, he'd bein trouble, too, not to mention. . .

His eyeswidened at the thought and, losing himself, he hung up and ran across thePokemon Center lobby and down the back hallway that led to the guestrooms thatthe trainer's reserved for overnight stays. He made it back to the one he andthe rest of his friends had saved for themselves, crept back inside, and foundhis way to Ash's side in no time.

Ash, just likeevery other normal person at one in the morning, was snoring peacefully. Notcaring at all if he disturbed his friend's sleeping pattern, Brock beganshaking Ash forcefully awake.

"Ash. . .Ash. . . ! Get up. . . !" Brock whispered as loudly as he could withoutwaking up either May or Max, who were both sleeping on the top bunks of the twobunk beds, "Damnit, Ash; I think. . . I - I'm sorry but. . . I think Ibroke Misty!"

OoO

Notes - Whoa, that was fun towrite. Lotsa fun, really; heh. Anyway, yea, I hope to have the next chapter upwithin another week or so, if I can help it. . . Uhm, what else should I besaying right now? Er, thanks for the reviews you guys gave me (to those of youwho weren't too lazy to actually review, Jillie Rose), and I hope to getjust as many this time around, if not more, as long as FFN will actually let meupload this stupid chapter when I want to! (Ugh, stupid site, I swear to. . .not God, but. . .)

Anyway, yes,what do you all think so far? Is the fic funny? Is it. . . er. . . romantic? IsDrew horribly out of character? Unfortunately, I've only seen about thirty minutesof him in the anime all-together, and while I clearly support him and Maytogether, and while I have this horrible obsession with him and his luscious,hot, sparkly hair. . . Yea. . . It's just not something I can help atthis point, you know? We'll just have to live with it. Is anyone else out ofcharacter? (Or at least, so out of character that it should be dealt withimmediately, or else I should just stop writing fics for ever and eternity?)
 

You are not authorized to comment here. Your must be registered and logged in to comment