Chapter 4: Or Was It?
Misty let go of Ash and he fainted. Misty sat there, dazed,
until she finally realized what she had just done. Oh well,
at least nobody had seen… She turned around to see Jigglypuff
smiling at her. "Puff!" said the Jigglypuff happily.
"You had better not tell!" said Misty, suddenly worried. A large drop of sweat appeared in front of her hair.
Jigglypuff cocked her head, which was her entire body, at the girl."Jiggly jigglypuff puff?" she asked. ("Don't you want him to know you love him?")
Misty understood Jigglypuff the way Ash understood Pikachu. "Well, only if he likes the idea…" she said hesitantly. She then drifted off into another romantic daydream.
"Jiggly!" Jigglypuff said as loud as she could to snap Misty out of it. ("But I think you're cute together!")
"You really think so?" Misty asked.
A nod was Jigglypuff's simple response. Jigglypuff continued, ("And besides, you both have the same dreams, goals, and kind heart.") She paused, then said, ("And I'm coming with you to make sure you two hit it off like nobody else!")
Misty blushed. "Well, okay…"
Ash woke up. He blinked in a daze. "Hey, Misty," he said groggily. "I had the weirdest dream. Team Rocket stole all of our Pokémon, kidnapped you, and then I saved you and you kissed me. Pretty strange, huh?"
Misty was taken aback. He thought it was a dream. Maybe that wasn't such a bad thing. Now she could pretend it had never happened. After all, it didn't seem like he had really liked it. "Yep," she agreed. "Pretty weird. As if I'd ever kiss you! You won't even repay me for my bike!"
Ash snapped his fingers. "Darn. That was one part of the dream I hoped had actually happened. You were so happy when I saved you that I didn't have to pay you back for your bike anymore!"
"Well, let's get out of here, Ash. Back to camp."
"Hey… just where are we? This is like the cabin in my dream." He looked around and noticed the discarded ropes. "Hey, those are… then it really did…"
He fainted again.
Misty sighed. "I guess we'll have to drag him back there ourselves," she said, turning to Jigglypuff. She had inflated herself angrily. "What's wrong, Jigglypuff?"
("You said you would let him know you love him!")
Misty smiled nervously. "Well, please just play along for now! I'll tell him sometime. I promise!"
Jigglypuff shrank back to her normal size, but still looked kind of mad. ("Well, you had better. If you don't, I'll tell him myself.")
"What? Ash doesn't understand you."
("I can use body language. He seemed pretty good at charades when we had to save you,") she said. Luckily, Misty had no idea that she was lying and was just trying to scare her into admitting how she felt to Ash. ("He'd be pretty mad if he found out that you were trying to keep a secret from him when he doesn't keep any secrets from you, you know.")
A few minutes later, Misty and Jigglypuff had dragged Ash back to camp. Misty had gotten her stuff all packed away and was ready to travel. Ash was still unconscious.
A few more minutes later, as Ash opened his eyes, Misty stood over him and said, "Wake up sleepyhead! It's already past noon. Brock went to town to try to get a date with Nurse Joy, and Jigglypuff and I already ate lunch!"
"What?" said Ash, confused. "I missed lunch?" If he had been standing up, he would have fallen over.
"Yep," said Misty cheerfully. "He has no clue that I kissed him," she thought happily to herself.
Ash frowned and said, "Something's going on here. I know you're just making up stories! You just don't want to admit that you kissed me, that's all. I know that wasn't just a dream!"
Misty fell over. She quickly got up and brushed herself off. She stared down at the ground so that Ash couldn't see her blushing. "Well, yeah, I…"
Jigglypuff smiled happily, knowing that Misty would have to admit her true feelings to him now.
"You weren't thinking when you did it and it was kind of like a reflex, right?" Ash asked.
"Yes, exactly!" said Misty. She secretly thanked Ash for giving her the lie that she couldn't think of. Now it was Jigglypuff's turn to fall over.
"Oh," thought Ash. "For a second, I thought you were actually in love with me…" Out loud, he asked, "So it didn't mean anything, right?"
Jigglypuff stood up and shook her head. She couldn't believe what Misty was leading Ash to believe.
Misty nodded quickly. "Right, right. Now, you need some Pokémon, so let's head to the nearest Pokémon Center."
Ash shook his head. "That's where Team Rocket was headed…" Misty frowned. "The second nearest Pokémon Center is a pretty long way from here, too… And if we went to the Pokémon Center off of the path and in the forest, wild Pokémon might attack us. Only Psyduck is any good there, with no water around." She stopped when she noticed Jigglypuff had inflated herself.
"Oh, I'm sorry, Jigglypuff. I just wouldn't want you to get hurt." Misty smiled reassuringly at the cute pink Pokémon, who returned to normal size, then turned back to Ash. "What are we going to do?" She really didn't want to wait for Team Rocket to leave the nearby Pokémon Center with nobody else but Ash there. He might start talking to her and asking her further about why her first reaction would be to kiss him. If that happened, she wouldn't know what to say.
"I guess there's only one choice. We'll go to the Pokémon Center, through the forest in case they come back this way, and wait for Team Rocket to leave if they're still there."
Ash paused when he saw Misty frowning. "I really think it's our best option."
Misty frowned even more when she realized Ash was right, but nodded in agreement. She also shot a scowl at the smirking Jigglypuff. What if Ash actually understood her and found out how she felt about him? She just had to tell Ash that she loved him. She couldn't let Jigglypuff do it for her. But what if she said something wrong? What if he didn't like it?
No, no what ifs. She was going to tell him, and that was final. Well, maybe she would.
