With Tracey's realization having now been confirmed, he was left in a real pickle for sure. On one hand, he really wanted to confront Misty about her troubles, on the other, he had seen how hot headed Misty was, and feared two things – one, she would punch him for saying anything; two, he'd attempt to get her to open up, but it would go downhill quicker than Snorlax falling down to sleep after he eats...
He had been left with this issue all afternoon, and that night at the center's cafeteria, he seemed awfully tense.
"What's wrong with you Tracey? Not hungry?" Ash asked, noticing the undisturbed grub on the teen's tray.
"Uh? O-oh!" he jumped. "I-it's nothing Ash! Just err... Little slow that's all," he prattled lamely. Ash, being who he was, took the bait, shrugged, and returned to his fork, while Misty seemed... Irritated.
"Well if it's nothing, then I'm off to do some training," Ash spoke, gulping down the last drops of soda in his glass. "My compliment's to Nurse Joy's cooking. Now let's go, Pikachu! We've got to get ready for the next Orange Crew member!" And he ran off happily for the training fields.
"That Ash!" Misty fumed aloud, as Ash ran through the aisles for the door. "Always scarfs his food down, and never lets it settle... He's like his own Snorlax I swear... Well whatever, what's up with you Tracey? You sure something's not wrong?" Tracey's sweat dropped, now it was just him and Misty.
"It's you really with the problems," he thought to himself nervously. He gulped, took a swig of his soda, and breathed, readying himself. He proceeded to look Misty straight in the eyes, with a serious look on his face.
"Misty!"
"Gaaah!"
"We need to talk – Now."
Misty was quite startled by Tracey's sudden boldness, just a second ago he looked a shivering wreck, now all of a sudden he had a fire in his eyes. "Much like the flashes of fire in Ash's eyes..." Misty thought. "A-alright, b-but what do you need to discuss so urgently?"
"You and Ash," Tracey said. "Oh man I hope this works, otherwise it's a pillar reef for me..." Such a thought was now terrifying him, his face read confident, but his inner mind shaking with perpetuating fear.
Misty frowned, confused. "Huh...? What do you mean Tracey? What about me and Ash...? There's nothing really, I'm only following him because he ruined my bike."
But Tracey's boldness continued, he saw all too well through her facade. "C'mon Misty, be honest about your feelings. I err..." his sudden rush of confidence now diminished this he knew was going to be tough matter to push on. "...Noticed... You and him sort of..."
Misty's frown deepened. "We... What?"
"Kinda... Seem to... Like each other...?"
"Tch!" Misty spat. "Ash, loving me?! Ha, don't make me laugh Tracey, Ash is so dense, he never notices anything..."
Tracey frowned at that, he had seen Misty and Ash's blushing moment that afternoon. There was no way...
"But Misty, Ash does like you that way! You'd just have to look harder to see it."
Misty growled at that and. "Nice try Trace, but I've tried looking for hints from him for nearly a year ever since I met him! But he doesn't see anything! I have tried, tried SO hard to be patient with him, but no-...!" she ranted, looking angrily up.
"But he does Misty!" Tracey quickly cut in. Misty's quivering rage stopped, her eyes widened, she turned slowly to look at Tracey.
"...He does?" she asked inquisitively. The notion for her seemed pretty unbelievable.
"He does," Tracey basically repeated. "I um... Saw the way he was looking at you this afternoon... To you it seems he's ignorant, and he is by quite a bit. But I think he also feels nearly the same way as you." Misty remained quiet, her looked said she wanted Tracey to continue his train of thought.
"Um... For example he went through the trouble did he not of spilling out some extra cash to get you your favorite snacks! And he blushed when you smiled at him. Surely that means something. Right?"
Misty sighed. "I don't know if I really do like him Tracey. I just wished he knew more than just bodily actions he expresses without even knowing it. He's just so dense...! But I just wished it was him who could be the one to confess, let alone return his feelings... I just feel he doesn't know about how he feels though, y'know? Or, lately, how I feel..." There was something about the way Misty said this that made it seem less like something she herself was thoughtfully saying, but rather, her tone made it like a stream of consciousness, seemingly built up over time...
Tracey pondered the situation, it was true, while Ash in many ways was a great guy, romance was completely out of his league! Now, Tracey was pretty sure that Misty had no intention of being the one to confront Ash about the whole issue. But, seeing as both he and Ash were guys, maybe, he thought, maybe he could try and coax Ash to confess; if Ash felt the same way that is!
"It's a risk," Tracey thought to himself. "But it's worth it, I won't tell Misty what I'm up to. I know it is odd of me to interfere like this, but I'm more than a Pokemon watcher, I can be a human watcher too!"
***
Ash was out training hard, he had even gotten his lazy Snorlax to participate in battle, but his Charizard... Not so much.
"Pikapi, Pika-i-Chu..."
"Never mind about Charizard, Pikachu..." Ash remarked, "We'll... Get there, someday... Anyways, Snorlax, use Headbutt!"
The big giant Pokémon rushed forward and slammed its head into a rock, hard, causing it to crumble under its weight. Ash was most impressed.
"Great work Snorlax," he cheered. Snorlax looked at its handy work and turned and smiled back at its trainer. It was then that Ash heard footsteps from behind him, it was Tracey and his Marill. "Oh, evening Tracey. What's up? Did you finish your supper?"
"Hmm? O-oh yeah, I ate just fine," Tracey explained, hoping he was convincing enough. Just then, Marill's suddenly went into a bubbly state of happiness, as if to say it had ate well itself. "Yeah! Marill and the rest also ate well."
"Well that's awesome, anyways what brings you here?"
"Here it goes," Tracey's mind gulped, he could wait, he knew, but given the heat of the moment following that afternoon's revelations, it just couldn't wait. "Hey Ash?" He began, a little too loudly.
"Huh? Oh, what's up Tracey?" Ash said, a little thrown off by Tracey's voice suddenly rising like that.
"Err... Can we talk? Like, this is very important," Tracey faltered a little as he said that, but felt he masked his nerves well enough.
Ash - to Tracey's own relief - just gave a complacent smile. "Oh? Sure thing Tracey, just gimme a moment," he pulled out a Pokéball and pointed it at Snorlax, "okay Snorlax, return." A red beam of energy came out of the white button on the ball, hit Snorlax who then shrunk with a red aura around him, and then went back into the ball.
Once Ash pocketed his Snorlax's Pokéball, Tracey lead him to some deserted tables not too far away. As soon as Ash sat down, Tracey began his business. "Ash, what is Misty to you...?"
Ash stared at Tracey for a moment, completely oblivious to what Tracey was trying to imply. He was just purely confused by what the raven haired teen was asking of him. He racked this all through his brain before cocking his head to the left and simply went, "Huh?"
"Oh boy..." Tracey thought with a groan. "Uh, well... How do you view your relationship with her?"
That got Ash's mind cogs moving (which was a rare case outside of battling). "Well... I suppose I see Misty as my best friend. Sure, she's annoying, wouldn't stop complaining about that bike of hers, she then just sort of followed me around after that. Not that I mind at all."
"Is that all...? She seemed like a lot more when you were Danny and Rudy for their respective gym badges."
"Huh?" Ash again asked. He was still puzzled or what this was about.
Tracey pondered for a second, then, he remembered Ash's earlier disgust at having to mention the name Rudy earlier that day. "Y'know, she did seem to enjoy herself being with Rudy and Danny. A lot more that she was spending time with you."
"And it wasn't fair!" Ash suddenly snapped, this, Tracey knew, was the result that he wanted as Ash launched into a catharsis of his own. "All that goo-goo nonsense stuff she showed them! What about me huh?! I was freezing during Danny's gym, and she was more worried about him! Oh, and Rudy..." he spat, "ugh... She never acts like that with me... We've known each other for much longer and she falls head over heels for some complete stranger, stupid, cocky Rudy. What a rude guy, and he says I'm the lucky one, apparently..." Ash finished, choking on those last words, completely disgusted at the memory before turning his head in frustration.
Tracey almost couldn't help but laugh, he decided to hit Ash with his best thought. "So then would you say you yourself Ash, felt jealous because Misty shows you no love?"
Ash's eyes nearly popped out of head, he swung round to face the green shirted teen. "W-what makes you say that?! Completely something I have no feelings for," he sneered.
"Ha! You're not fooling me Ash, you like her, don't ya..?" Tracey pestered. Ash took a moment to look around, to see if the ginger head was around. The place was deserted, save for a few wild Pokémon in the tree's, he tried to say something, but grew red in the face and turned away.
"I..."
"YES! He's in immature denial!" Tracey yelled in his mind.
"Fine," was all Ash said, looking guilty of the evidence. He could've denied it, but it seemed his body was betraying him. "You got me. Not that... Well, she seems to care at all," he muttered before twiddling his index fingers around each other in a subdued manner.
"Huh, should I spill the beans? Tell him Misty feels the same...? Wait, what did Misty say back with those Nidoran trainers? 'They must really like each other, but are too immature to admit it,' yeah! Something like that, and that's what's going on between these two and.... No, this is something they need to do, uuugh but the opportunity is there," Tracey thought. But at the same time, he couldn't help but want to spill his guts out on everything he knew. But decided to not say anything. "Well... uh... You know, you should tell her soon how you feel," he suggested at last.
"But... I doubt she feels the same."
Pikachu stared at his trainer, and face palmed himself, "Pikapi... Pika achu pi..." he groaned.
"Huh?! And what is that suppose to mean buddy?"
Tracey saw an opportunity to intervene on Ash's thought process. "Well, did you ever notice that she may like you back...? Like, she was pretty worried about you back when Squirtle got attacked Rudy's Starmie's Thunderbolt. And she seemed pretty upset earlier today when you called her just 'a friend.' "
"Mm," Ash said thoughtfully.
"...And she was blushing when you gave her her snacks this afternoon."
"Wait, was she?!" Ash exclaimed, a lot louder than what he intended, he didn't know why but the thought for some reason cheered him up. "And there I thought I was the only feeling embarrassed at that moment," he thought. "I didn't know she was."
"Well she was red in the face as I said. So..."
"So...?"
"...Do you plan on telling her?"
"Oh," Ash said, growing red, deep down he somehow knew Tracey was going to ask him that again, he gave a deep breath. "I-I don't really know..."
"The sooner you do so the better."
Ash looked thoughtful at that, "y-you're right, Tracey. But... like, how do I do that? I'm not about to do all those weird gross mushy-gushy stuff like in the movies, I doubt she'd like that anyways."
Tracey thought again, knowing what he knew of Misty, despite her tomboy tendencies, he had gathered she was still a bit girly from time to time. "I don't know, get down on a knee?"
"What? Uu-ugh, gross, please don't seriously think I'd do something out of a fairy tale book!"
"And I'm not saying you should!" Tracey said, putting his arms up in defense. "Wish I could tell you, but I don't really know what to tell you."
"Well, that's a problem," Ash groaned, digging his frustrated head into his hands. Pikachu just watched the situation, and groaned too... How, he wondered to himself, was Ash this oblivious?
Just then, a rustle was heard from so nearby bushes. The Pokémon, Tracey and Ash - who lifted his head up from his temporary melancholic moment - to see a trainer stagger out of the bushes, a girl to be exact. She was a brunette, her hair stretched down her back, two separate strands either side of her though rested on her front. She had a white hat that had a red line going round the bottom rim but made a Pokémon league symbol of sorts at the front. Her attire was a teal tank top and red skirt, and her socks matched the same teal color as her tank, and her shoes a white pair with a big red line across them horizontally. She also had a yellow traveling bag with her.
She looked a bit of a mess, shades of dirt covered her face and legs, and a few rogue branch scratches covered her legs. She looked pleased to be out of the shrubs. "Whew, am I glad to be out of that," she gasped. She then glanced around quickly before laying her eyes upon the bench where Ash and Tracey were. Tracey actually recognized her.
"Oh hey, you're that girl with the Ivysaur from before! You said you had some training to do, but I wasn't expecting this."
The girl laughed, clearly embarrassed about the whole awkward situation. "Haha... Yeah, see I had heard there was this awesome trainer going about the Orange Island Crew challenge and I wanted to see if I could meet him by intercepting him or something like that. Let alone see him training his Pokémon."
"An awesome Pokémon trainer huh? Who might that be?" Ash was always eager to meet and battle strong trainers, and so to hear of another strong trainer taking on the Orange Island challenge provided an escape for him from his current predicament with Misty.
The new girl smiled at this, "I hear he's pretty cool, and a bit of an underdog. His name's, Ash Ketchum."
Ash and Tracey both stared. Ash scratched the back of his neck awkwardly, "Um... Hi, I'm Ash, Ash Ketchum, from Pallet Town. Orange crew challenger," he introduced, somewhat more formerly than what he intended.
The girl gasped and held her hands to her mouth. "Doh! No. Way. I am meeting the Ash Ketchum! Eee!" She squealed, "oh my oh my, a PLEASURE. I-... Wait, I..." she coughed to composed herself. "Hello there, um... My name's Leaf."
To Be Continued...