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...

Chapter one can be read .

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

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

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He's fuming with bewilderment and annoyance even as he traipses into the Cerulean City Pokemon Center twenty minutes after thrusting a bouquet of roses into his best friend's unprepared arms.

He should be over this by now, he knows he should, and it's not like he'd been aware of what such gestures were supposed to mean. He'd just been copying what he'd seen someone else do to show gratitude towards someone else('s Pokemon)!

But no matter how many times he tells himself it had all been innocent and well-intentioned, he knows that there's some small part of him that's suddenly expecting change... and that's the part of him that's left confused and frustrated; because he shouldn't want change to take place at all, should he? He shouldn't even be conscious of what that potential change was!

"Can I help you, young man?" asks the Nurse Joy standing a foot or two before him, pausing to greet him in between shuffling her paperwork around the front desk.

"Oh, uh, I dropped my Pokemon off here last night. My name's Ash Ketchum," he replies distractedly, unable to make eye contact out of sheer embarrassment over a matter that had literally nothing to do with her, he knows and internally admonishing himself over it.

"One moment, Mr. Ketchum," she nods, taking her seat once more and typing his name into the computer database. A few seconds later, she looks up again with a slightly more familiar smile, "Oh, yes, here you are! Your Pokemon have been out back playing with the others who are waiting to get picked up by their trainers! I'll go get them for you now! Just one minute, alright?"

"Yeah, thanks for your help," he says and watches her go for a second, her partner Chansey left behind to stare him down with a professionally friendly grin.

"Chansey chaaanse!" she croons at him with pep and he smiles but turns on his heel to take in the surrounding lobby, glancing at the four or five trainers lounging and watching television or else snacking and waiting for their own Pokemon to finish their check-ups.

And then he spots the PCs against the wall to his right, stares at them a few seconds, and begins walking purposefully over to one before he can stop himself.

The reason he'd gotten into this very mess was because he hadn't bothered checking out the detail and facts to avoid it... so it would be better to be absolutely certain, especially now, right?

Thinking of Misty back at the gym with her silly dozen of roses wrapped together just so with a length of twine, he takes a seat and types the meaning of roses into the search bar, clicks enter, and waits to see what will come up.

Surely there's nothing left to learn. Misty had told him just thirty minutes ago exactly what roses were supposed to mean. How can the internet's definition amount to anything different, right?

And certainly, the first thing to pop up says 'a red rose is an unmistakable expression of love.'

Don't panic! he shouts internally, loudly clearing his throat and discreetly glancing around the lobby once more while trying to ease the onsetting flush to his neck and cheeks. Misty had said as much before... but he hadn't known about any of this so he was in the clear, wasn't he?

And, after nodding affirmatively to himself and taking a couple of deep breaths, he urges himself mentally forward and continues to read. Besides, there are plenty of different types of love!

'Red Roses can also be used to convey respect, admiration or devotion.'

Okay then. Respect. Admiration. That's okay to feel, right? He's been friends with Misty for years! He's come so far, from originally thinking she was a loudmouthed, scrawny nag to instead thinking she's a talented, maternal, and even somewhat mature water-type trainer. Heck, he supposes that he could even (easily) carry a bit of devotion with him after all the time they've known each other! After all, you couldn't stay such good friends with someone unless you went the distance, and especially when you suddenly only got to see them on rare occasions.

The bottom line is that it made sense, and it was all familiar variations of what he'd been told just earlier that same day.

'The number of red roses has special romantic meanings associated with them.'

... What?! That can't be right, can it? Misty hadn't said anything to him about that, even when he'd admitted to planning on giving her the leftover roses! And to think, he'd only bought a dozen because it was the special recommended to him by the salesgirl (who, he could admit, had been looking a bit starry-eyed after he agreed and walked out with his purchase).

'Twelve red roses is the most popular of all which conveys "Be mine" and "I love you".'

... Wha...

Wha...

What the heck does–

"–Mr. Ketchum?" Nurse Joy interrupts from behind him with her usual cheery tone.

"Mwah!" he cries in alarm, leaping to his feet and blocking the monitor from her view. "U - uh, I mean, sorry Nurse Joy, I just... needed to check something out... real quick."

"That's fine! These computers are for trainer use after all! I just wanted to hand you back your Pokemon! Pikachu was very excited when I told him you were here to pick him up! He kept repeating something the whole way back from the playpen! Something along the lines of..." she pauses, trying to remember exactly the pronunciation, and then finishes, "... Pikachupi!"

"Pika... chupi?" Ash replies, biting his bottom lip hard after to hold back the smile daring to show itself. He knows what that means. Pikachu had barely gotten to see Misty since they came to town. It only made sense that he'd light up knowing that the next opportunity to do so was swiftly presenting itself.

"Yes! Well, anyway, here you go!" And the nurse holds out a tray carrying five Pokeballs for him to take while Pikachu simultaneously leaps from her shoulder to his.

"Thanks Nurse Joy, my Pokemon are always in great shape after you help them!" he tells her in gratitude as he straps them all to his belt and wishes her a great rest of her day. The ever-friendly nurse nods and smiles, bowing in thanks, and leaves him to his previous concerns... which were beginning to psychologically cripple him after his latest discovery.

"Pikapi!" his best friend chirps from his shoulder before jumping onto the desk and turning his sights on the monitor instead, "Pika kachu, Pikapi?" he asks while gesturing to it.

"U - uh, it's nothing! I was just... looking something up, you know? Always good to learn something new and I - I was... bored," he winces internally at such a lie, especially considering that's the last thing he'd been before getting his Pokemon back, but Pikachu knows no difference and just nods his head with a positive chant of his own name.

"Anyway, let's head back to the gym, yeah? You wanted to see Misty, right?" he goes on, hurdling through the next couple of sentences so as not to stumble on that name and cause any serious worry.

Because he can't be worried about this now. He really can't. He didn't know. He still hadn't known even after giving Misty all of those roses that such silly numbers were supposed to mean something. He's in the clear. He has no reason to panic about this.

But that doesn't keep him from doing so.

The fact that his heart has nearly stopped on three separate occasions today and his lungs have just about shriveled up from lack of oxygen (after all, each new discovery about this scenario leaves him in a state of shock and he tends to have trouble breathing when he's trying to wrap his mind around a relationship-altering piece of information, or two, or three), leaving him staggered but he reminds himself that he can't show it. Nobody can bear witness.

And, again, how was he supposed to have known?

'Red roses can be used to convey respect, admiration or devotion.'

It's all well and fine, or else it would be, if that was the end of it.

'The number of red roses has special romantic meanings associated with them.'

Numbers. It's all in the numbers... Only it really isn't. No matter what, Ash knows he's screwed simply for handing over any amount of red roses because red denotes romantic association.

'Twelve red roses is the most popular of all which conveys "Be mine" and "I love you".'

Stop! Leave me alone!

"Pikapi?"

"Uh, sorry buddy, back to the gym, right?" And he only notices after Pikachu's intervention that he's stopped walking and is stalled right in the middle of Cerulean City's main street.

He wonders if he still has an acceptable out he can fall back on after this. Misty had all but agreed he could take it before when she'd refused to give Gyarados the flowers, and had even said she wouldn't keep them for herself... but then he - Ash - had forced them on her and run away.

It was all okay and fine and dandy when it was just about respect and gratitude but... but even he had known from the beginning that it might not all be about that. After all, he'd already planned on Misty keeping at least one of the roses. One, which is a lot less incriminating than twelve, now that he knows more about the details of the matter.

Still, giving a girl even one flower... it symbolized something, didn't it?

A shuddering breath escapes his throat. No. No, no; he wanted nothing at all to do with this, with anything.

He has never been anything even closely resembling a romantic so, no matter what his thought process, no matter his intentions o - or his expectations, surely they'd never amount to anything like that, right? Because he couldn't have known!

But Misty... Misty was a romantic. She had always been one, even when they were ten years old... and, just earlier that day, she'd set him straight on other particulars relating to his folly in giving red roses out of thankfulness. She'd even warned him that they were meant to denote romantic intent.

So then why couldn't she... why hadn't she said anything about the meaning behind twelve roses to begin with?

Was it simply because she didn't want to make matters worse? For instance, because she understood he hadn't meant anything romantic? Maybe it was part of the out she'd offered him... But maybe it was also because all twelve roses weren't meant to go to the same recipient? They'd mostly been for Gyarados after all. Ash had just assumed that Misty would keep one (or more) for herself. Like she'd said before, what use did a giant water dragon have for a bunch of flowers, right? It was really more the gesture that was supposed to be conveyed anyway...

Nevertheless, she could have told him something... that way he could clear up any other misunderstandings, right?

Well, one thing's for certain. Ash Ketchum had only had a few plans when coming to Cerulean City. One had been to, of course, catch up with one of his oldest friends. Two had been to offer Gyarados thanks for being such a great help during the fiasco at Togepi Kingdom all that time ago. And now, three, would be to take back those roses at any cost without anymore romantic inclinations being forced on him!

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Notes - The end! Now it's a chapter fic. The third chapter will be posted... someday... hopefully soon. I'm off on Sunday so I'll think long and hard tomorrow about where I want to take this fic. I figure the next chapter will be the last but I don't know how far I want Ash's revelations and confrontations with Misty's romantic side to take him (or their relationship) so here we go.

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