Disclaimer - Of course, I don't own anything! I'm just your average shipaholic klepto!

Author - Warlordess

Notes - Inspired by the most prominent scene reoccurring between May and Drew in the anime and back for its unplanned second installment! Lol. Let's see how much farther I can carry this plot...

Super big massive important note here - So this was one of the fics I decided to hand-write while at work since I have so much free time for the most part. Unfortunately, because I didn't have access to previous chapters and because it'd been so long since I last wrote chapters one and two, I forgot the style I was writing the fic in (present-tense, third person). I did my best to edit this so that I could finally get it posted and be done with this story and move on to other projects but I'm still concerned that I missed some stuff. So please, if anything "reads" weird to you, let me know so I can edit it further!

OoOoO

Title - "A Rose By Any Other Color" / part three

Summary - ... Would not have nearly the same effect on them. Either of them. What the heck has Ash gotten himself into? Pokeshipping!

OoOoO

He's a bundle of nerves upon returning to the Cerulean City Gym, Pikachu clinging affectionately to his shoulder as Ash slinks carefully in the front door. It's now roughly 7pm so any challengers will have gone, leaving just the two of them and their host, co-gym trainer Misty Waterflower.

Of course, as soon as he acknowledges their definite privacy, Ash shakes his head rapidly, mentally slapping himself for getting psyched up all over again. He couldn't - shouldn't - think of her now, right? He has other things on his plate, he has a mission, he has to be as stealthy as possible so that he can–

He pauses mid-step after making it to the entry foyer of the living quarters of the gym, having just walked past the archway leading into the combo kitchen and dining area.

There they were. Targets confirmed.

The dozen roses he'd unabashedly thrown at the redhead only an hour or so beforehand have already been given a nice, new home, sitting just so in a glass ovalesque vase on the dining table half-filled with water and the little packet of 'plant food' that had come with them.

They look so nice and homely even that Ash feels the slightest bit guilty about what's going to happen next... but a guy's gotta do what a guy's gotta do, especially when miscommunication between friends about unintentional romantic connotations of gift-giving are involved.

Nevertheless, all he needs to do is strip the roses of their original commonly known theme, so he doesn't need to take them all, right?

He's so close to the vase, he only has to reach out half a foot to make contact. But of course, the one thing he doesn't take into account, he's so focused on being stealthy, is how obvious his intrusion must be when he's the only welcome guest in the home, minus Misty herself.

So when the redhead calls out to him rather suspiciously from behind, he probably shouldn't come off sounding as shocked as he feels.

"What are you doing, Ash?"

"Mwah! Ah, I - I mean, uh..."

On instinct, he backs away from his target despite staring rather longingly at it, then he looks at Misty, back to the vase, to his friend, the floor...

"Nothing! I wasn't doing anything!"

"You were trying to take the roses back," she states matter-of-factly in a deadpan tone, crossing her arms and quirking an eyebrow as if daring him to deny it.

"I..."

It's downright amazing how such an accusation can leave him standing there blankly like a Stantler in the headlights. He hadn't planned any excuses, hadn't thought he'd needed to deny anything, hadn't planned on there being a witness at all. Of course, one of Ash Ketchum's greatest strengths is his ability to impulsively create solutions to his problems on the fly.

"Awe, c'mon, Myst! Just one!" he whines emphatically, gesturing in time with his statements after drawing a blank. "I don't need them all back! One would work just fine!"

Oh, great. That went well.

"Just... one? Ash, what is with your intense, sudden fixation on roses, huh?" the redhead begs him to answer with a huff. "I mean, it was bad enough that you decided, oh, two or three years too late that giving Gyarados flowers for helping out during the fake Togepi festival was somehow necessary and appropriate! But then, sure, let's make it an even dozen, and make sure they're long-stem red roses because nothing spells gratitude to a giant water dragon like an armful of the most romantic flower in existence! Oh, but wait!" she continues ranting, apparently deciding to ignore the raven-haired trainer's flinch at her explicit use of the 'R' word. "No, he doesn't need them so let's pawn them off on his unsuspecting trainer! But wait again! Because somehow, stealing back one rose and leaving her - me," she pauses long enough to stress, "with eleven is somehow less confusing!

"So yeah, Ash, you gotta fill me in!"

"Look, I can't do that, okay? I just..." he falters in reply, stifled by the unbidden memory of the online definition he'd found for his floral foul-up while he was at the Cerulean PokeCenter less than an hour ago.

Luckily, his helplessness is interrupted by a friendly yet curious inquiry from the electric mouse on his shoulder.

"Pikapi, pika pikachu pikachupi?"

Ah, sweet relief. Sweet, unintended relief from the wrath of a girl who'd once claimed she would kindly drag his deceased carcass away from the aftermath of a lost battle.

Or so he thinks.

"Hey, Pikachu, do you mind if your dense trainer and I have a few more minutes to talk alone? We'll come get you as soon as we're done."

Drats! Foiled again!

"Pikaaa cha pikachupi!" the electric mouse responds with a chipper smile and a nod, leaping down from Ash's shoulder and scurrying through the kitchen archway and out into the hallway beyond, leaving the raven-haired trainer to feel personally betrayed.

Of course, he doesn't have much time to dwell on it since it's quite suddenly, dreadedly, just the two of them, and this time it's for real. And, before Misty can start in on him, he beats her to the punch. The only problem is that the words tumbling from his mouth aren't previously verified for safety.

"I just need one rose back so you don't think I meant anything by them!"

His statement, stupid as it is, ends up met with stark silence. Misty scrutinizes him with a raised eyebrow and pursed lips, arms crossed and fingers dancing agitatedly along her opposing limbs.

"I don't... What's that supposed to mean, Ash?"

Not willing to foul up anymore than he already has, he pauses and thinks carefully about how to phrase his next explanation.

"Look, so, after what... what happened - what you said about Drew and the roses and - and stuff... When I went to pick up my Pokemon, I got online and... And I just don't want you thinking I'm in love with you or something!"

"I... wha... Ash, why on earth would I think something like that?" the redhead asks, sighing and uncrossing her arms so she can use them to gesture exasperatedly at him for such an odd assumption.

"Well, 'cause I know how much of a romantic you are, for one, but also because the internet said so."

"The internet said so...? Ash, no matter how much of a romantic I may be, that doesn't mean I'm versed in the entirety of flower language. Not to mention, I thought we already covered my low expectations when it comes to you actually knowing anything to do with love at all before you left. Even if I knew the specifications of what a difference it makes to be given a dozen red roses as opposed to something more or less, I'd never assume you knew as much as I do or that you meant anything by it. I mean, you're Ash Ketchum, after all!"

"Hey, what's that supposed to mean?" he shouts at her. How dare she just assume to know him, just because of their five or six year long friendship? They'd barely seen each other in the past one or two of them. The last thing she should be doing is expecting him to stay dense about things like this.

Of course, he conveniently forgets that he's just spent the past two hours leaping between seething and panicking because of how much of a romantic he's known her to be all this time.

"It means I know better! It means I know you! It means that, although you may do something stupid every once in awhile that confuses me, it's basically impossible for you to exceed any of my expectations for you. Especially when it comes to stuff like this!"

"Stuff like...? Well, just 'cause I'm not good with dumb, pointless stuff like flowers or romance doesn't mean I'm predictable or stupid or whatever. If this were Pokemon-related, I'd be blowing you away right now!"

Misty pauses, scowl washing over her face and eyebrows twitching, her thoughts abuzz. She can't believe this is happening, that they're fighting over this.

At the same time, she feels the edges of her heart fray a little as they dehydrate from the course their conversation has taken. All the while, she bites her tongue; all the while, she's subdued her overwhelming feelings, her hope that something has changed, shifted, on Ash's end.

She'd kept calm before while he tried to convince her that red roses were given purely to express gratitude and respect, she'd held her tongue while he tried to tell her that Gyarados would somehow understand his gesture, she'd done her best to explain diplomatically what she knew that Ash didn't, she'd even withdrawn from physical retaliation when Ash - all flustered bluster - had thrown the dozen roses in her face and left her alone with barely another word.

Point is, she's carried herself quite well through the whole thing without missing a beat and the one and only thing she's sure about now is that her spoils are not going anywhere, not even if it's limited to 1/12th of them.

"No, Ash, you can't have one of the roses back," she deadpans, arms crossed once more in defiance.

"Wha...? Why not?"

"Because they're mine. You forfeited ownership rights the second you threw them at me. But also, because you don't need to have any number of them back. You've already explained to me that there were no romantic intentions towards me or my Gyarados when you brought them into my gym and I've already explained to you that I never expected anything like that from you anyway."

"B - but..." Ash begins before faltering.

The redhead has a point. As long as she knows he doesn't mean anything special by it, there's no harm in her keeping them, right? Still, some odd alarm is blaring in his head, and it's no longer really reacting to the all-consuming panic that had originally been plaguing him. Instead, now, it's about the indignation that he happens to feel every time Misty reminds him about how well she's always known him; the frustration that bubbles up in his chest when she explains about her low expectations.

It's harder figuring out why this is than anything else he's had to endure all evening. Who cares what Misty thinks about his romantic knowledge? Who cares what he knows about this stuff at all? Certainly not him, right? He's too busy with Pokemon training anyway! Still though...

He worries about his own inability to let this go. He wonders about his initial plans to bring Gyarados the roses as thanks for the water-type's hard work helping them out during the fake Togepi festival in Hoenn a couple of years ago. He remembers how he'd been coerced into buying a sound dozen when he'd originally planned only to get one - which, to be honest, hadn't been that hard because he'd been feeling a guilty since his ideal plan had taken so long to be put into action...

But more than that, he remembers how he'd looked at the ornately wrapped bundle in his arms and thought that, what with so many roses, he could easily give Misty any leftovers... give them to Misty, the girl who he's known to be an intense romantic ever since they were eleven or twelve years old and she'd tried setting up those two kids in the Orange Islands... give roses to her, all the while suppressing some awkward expectation for change...

That's right. Change. He'd been on his way to the Center, fresh information about the romantic connotation of rose-giving in his mind, and he'd thought to himself that he couldn't help expecting something, even if he didn't know quite what...

But he'd given Misty - a known romantic - a dozen flowers with known romantic definition, and he'd expected change of some sort.

Well, then. Maybe he knows a little more about all of this than even he realized.

Now he can only ask himself what to do with this acknowledgment as he's coming down from the overwhelming shockwave.

"You know what, Myst?" he begis suddenly after a solid two minutes of mind-blowing contemplation. "You should... you should keep 'em. The... the roses. They're yours."

"Gee, thanks, Ash!" she replies sarcastically on impulse despite the fluffy sensation that starts to bubble up from her core. "It's almost like the exact same thing I said to you five minutes ago!" she eyes him for any sort of noticeable reaction but he doesn't give one so she next begs the question, "What changed your mind anyway...?"

"Nothing really. Just figured some stuff out. Hey," he moves on, pausing to gulp down an exaggeratedly dry breath, "you know how you were telling me about the roses? Like why people give them, what they mean, stuff like that...?"

"Yeah...?"

"Well, I think I - I think I knew about that already. I mean, some of it. Definitely not as much as you but..."

"No, you didn't."

"I think I did."

"But you didn't."

"... Anyway, I've got a question for you now. Just bear with me, Myst, this is as hard for me to ask as it will be for you to answer."

"O... kay...?"

"If... if, say, I were to let you... you know, if I were... okay with you thinking... No, look, if you, if I were to tell you that you should accept the roses for the - uh - the normal reasons someone would accept roses for, what would you say about that?"

"What would I... Ash, what is going on right now?" the redhead replies after enduring through the raven-haired trainer's rather obvious struggle.

"You answer my question first!" he says, pointing at her and clearing his throat to distract himself from the feeling of his cheeks flushing a fiery red.

"If I accepted the roses for the normal reasons, that would mean there was some sort of romantic intention behind them before given... by you," she explains almost as a reminder about such things, "Ash, I'm just gonna come out and ask it."

There's a brief moment of silence during which the two of them have completely different prospective questions in mind.

"You originally planned to give Gyarados the roses. I know you love Pokemon; catching, training, befriending; so I gotta know... you're not in love with my Gyarados, are you?"

"Wha...?! No! That's not what I... look, Misty, I know I said originally that the roses were for Gyarados, but I think, maybe subconsciously that they might have been for you. They were always for you... if that makes any sense."

She has no response to that, just standing there staring him down in disbelief, so he decides to further elaborate.

"So, like, when I had the idea for the rose, it was originally for Gyarados and I did get the idea from watching Drew... But when I ended up with the dozen, I figured - hey - why not give whatever's left to you? And I didn't once think how weird or awkward that might be, I didn't care that giving flowers was a commonly romantic gesture or that you were a serious sap even though it's definitely true and could easily cause more problems than it's worth. And after you told me... well, after I knew for sure what roses meant, I gave them to you anyway, remember? And when I was on my way to the Pokemon Center, as embarrassed as I was about everything, I still remember thinking how... something might change, something between us might be... different after all that. And it didn't bother me... much."

The redhead continues to stare him down even now after he's bared his soul. Ash, for his part, doesn't quite know what to do at this point. He's said his piece, not to mention that he's been as thorough and clear as possible too. There's no way that Misty doesn't understand what he's trying to say, which means that the only other possible reason for her silence is that she... doesn't feel the same way he does, right?

"Uh... sorry, I just thought... I didn't think there was any harm in trying to tell you–" he begins again as a segway into a plea for her renewed ignorance over any potential feelings between them, but he's interrupted by her holding up a hand to shut him up.

"Okay, so... just so we're clear, Ash Ketchum, you're telling me that you have... feelings for me... you like me romantically... you want to... like, date me and stuff."

"Uh..."

"And you came to this conclusion naturally, right? I in no part accidentally coerced you into feeling some sort of way you don't actually feel, I didn't put any ideas into your head, I didn't force you to have some huge epiphany you weren't prepared to handle, etcetera?"

"Wha...? Misty, what makes you think that you could've–?"

"I'm just making absolute certain, Mr. Pokemon Master, before I go so far as to tell you that I feel the same."

"You... you do." It's less a question of verification and more a stunned statement. "You do?" Oh, there was the question.

"Yeah, I've loved you for a few years now, you know? I just... And I knew you felt the same based on behavioral patterns and signals but I wasn't going to try and force you to see it for yourself before you were ready to accept it. I mean, talk about your giant headaches versus your epic waiting games but I had to make some kind of call so... these are the results of my toss-up, I guess."

"I'm sorry, you've been waiting how long? And you're what-ed me?"

"Ash, c'mon, don't get cold feet now. Not after that fantastically imperfect and overly-complicated confession. Let's not get so worked up that we start moving backwards. Just pull yourself together and ask me out to dinner."

"I... Why am I doing that?"

"Because you asked me almost twenty minutes ago what the next step would be if I were going to accept the dozen roses under normal circumstances, didn't you?"

"A - and... dinner is the next step?" he asks skeptically, somehow regretting his last twenty-four hours of decision-making even as his heart pounds and hands and browline begin to sweat at the same time in true first-date-jitters fashion.

"Well, you know, basically. Fully detailed disclosure includes information like exclusivity between the two of us, no Pokemon; class, no fast food; atmosphere, no family restaurants... Stuff like that. For someone like you, yeah... It'll take some time to understand the etiquette but don't worry. This first one will be a freebie; a learning experience. I won't hold any of the ten or so mistakes you're likely to make against you."

"Somehow I doubt that," he mutters but she still manages to hear.

"What was that?" she asks sharply with a new scowl at his latest witty quip.

"I said, hey, Misty, did you wanna join me for dinner tonight? No Pokemon; I promise."

"No Pokemon?" she repeats, equal parts hopeful and dubious.

"Just you and me," he affirms with a nod.

And she smiles brightly at him in response, heart lighter than it has been all day, and lighter still than it had been for the better part of the past few years.

"Sure, Ash, why not? Let's do it."

OoOoO

Notes - So sorry for that long delay, folks! I pray that everything came out sounding okay. I have to admit, I'm not as fond of this chapter as I was when I was planning it out, and I feel like I... missed the mark on how I wanted some things to pan out, things that I'd hinted at in earlier chapters but... well... it's over and done with now and hopefully it satisfies everyone.

Like I said in my special added note at the top of the page, if it feels like something isn't reading well, please let me know so I can edit further, since I bungled up the chapter while drafting it at work.

Now it's on to my next project, which is the sequel to Not According to Plan (the one-shot where Ash accidentally gropes Misty while they're traversing the Seafoam Islands for Professor Oak). After that, I'll finally start typing up the one word prompts!

Thanks for your patience! Please like and reblog!