Here For You
By: TheFifthCharmedOne
Summary: When Misty breaks up with Ash (due to 'too many differences') Ash seeks comfort in the one person who's always been there for him. Palletshipping; YAOI. Don't like, don't read. o:
THIS FANFIC CONTAINS YAOI. IF YOU ARE HERE TO HATE, DON'T. I WILL FIND YOU AND MAKE YOU RUE THE DAY YOU DARED HATE ON IT. UNDERSTOOD? Good. ^_^
-X-X-X-
Flashback
"I want out."
"W-What?"
"I said I want out Ash. It's over."
"You…you can't mean that!"
"I do. Please Ash, don't make this any harder."
He stepped closer to her, but she walked away from him. She took hold of the suitcase that was sitting by the door, and she gave him one last look.
"I'm sorry." she said, and he could have sworn he saw a tear fall from her eye. He watched her go, his feet glued to the floor, unable to move, unable to speak. He wanted to stop her, to keep her from leaving, but he was too shocked. His heart felt like it had shattered into thousands of tiny pieces, and those pieces were tearing at his insides, forming scars that only time could heal.
A week later, Ash Ketchum sat slumped in his apartment, a bottle of whiskey sitting on the table. It was already half-empty, and the glass that he held in his hand was full.
His face was covered with a growing beard, his hair a mangled mess, his clothes rumpled and dirty. He had been drinking himself sick for days, and even though he didn't even like alcohol, the numbing effect it had helped him feel a little bit better.
A wave of nausea overcame the trainer and he ran for the bathroom, heaving up nothing but alcohol and other bodily fluids.
He leaned against the toilet, groaning.
I need to get myself together. he thought.
-X-X-X-
Gary Oak sat in his grandfather's laboratory, trying to focus on his research, but found his thoughts drifting. He looked out the window and wondered how Ash was doing. His friend and former rival couldn't be handling his breakup well, seeing as the black haired boy would see it as a loss, and if anything, he hated losing.
He knew about the breakup because Misty had come to him after leaving Ash.
Flashback
A knock on the door made Gary get to his feet; he had been knee deep in some of Professor Oak's notes, trying to get any information he didn't already know.
He expected it to be Tracey, who had a tendency to forget his keys. Either Tracey or the professor himself, who was also forgetting things in his age.
Needless to say, he was shocked to see Misty at the door.
"Misty?" he questioned.
"I need to talk to you."
He moved aside so that she could walk in and led her into the living room. He brought her a mug of cool water, which she gripped tightly unconsciously. Gary removed his glasses – he only wore them when he was reading for an extended time – and sat in a chair across from the red head.
"So what's this about?"
"It's about Ash. I broke up with him." She sounded pained.
"Why? You've loved him since you were-"
"Ten. I know. But when you love someone for that long, the feelings tend to fade. It's not like I wanted them to, trust me, I wanted to stay with him, but I couldn't. I felt like I was forcing the relationship, and I realized that it wasn't fair to either of us. So I broke it off." She choked back some tears, but maintained her resolve. "That's why I'm here." She met his eyes. "I want you to make sure he's okay. I know Ash; I know he doesn't take change or sad things well. I don't want anything to happen to him, I still care about him. I just don't love him as much as I used too."
Gary, who had been utterly silent during her whole explanation, stood and ran a hand through his hair. He turned back to her.
"Why me? Why not Brock or another one of his friends?"
"I would think it's obvious." Gary's eyebrows drew together, confused. "He trusts you more than any of his other friends. I could even go as far as to say he loves you like a brother. I didn't go to Brock because he wouldn't be able to comfort Ash like you can. You knew him before he was a trainer, you know everything about him. Even things that I don't know. You were his first real rival, and I think that it'll be the best thing if you're there for him when he most needs it."
"If you put all this thought into a breakup, is it really worth it?" Misty sat back down and looked at her mug of water.
"I asked myself the same thing. But I resolved a while ago that if I can't make him happy, and I know that someone else can, and I'm okay with that. I'd rather he was happy with someone who actually loved him, not someone who was trying too hard to have feelings that went away years ago."
Gary said nothing. "So will you do it? Will you help him?" The brown haired boy didn't reply for a few minutes, weighing everything in his mind like a true researcher would.
"I'll do it."
End Flashback
Gary scrubbed at his face with his palms, rubbing his eyes as he thought of Ash. Everything Misty said was perfectly valid, yet, something was off. He felt like she had planned this entire thing, and whatever her reasons, it seemed like she was trying to bring them together…
No! he admonished himself. You got rid of those stupid feelings years ago! Ash is just a friend!
Yet, the more he thought about it, the more he had trouble convincing himself. He let out a vocal cry of frustration.
"Damn it Ash, why do you do this to me?" he wondered aloud, and he stood, resolving to keep his promise.
-X-X-X-
After showering, Ash felt like the fog around his head had cleared, and even though he still felt like shit emotionally, at least he was clean. He threw on gray sweatpants and a white undershirt, the lines of his chest and stomach evident when he looked in the mirror.
He went to the living room where his Pikachu was asleep on the couch. He absently pet the small mouse and turned on the television, wrapping himself in a blanket.
Just as he was getting comfortable with an old movie, there was a knock on the door. He glanced at the clock.
It was after midnight, who the hell was knocking this late?
"Ash, it's Gary, open up."
Standing, Ash let the blanket fall to the floor and he went to the door. Turning the bolt lock, he opened it to see Gary in the flesh. The researcher raised a pack of beers and a bag of chips. "Heard you could use some company."
"Where'd you hear that?"
"Misty."
The name made Ash recoil, as though he had been slapped. He still had so many questions, the main one being why. Why had she broken things off? What had he done wrong?
"Hello? Anybody home in there?" Gary gave him a quizzical look, and Ash shook his head, resolving not to think about it anymore. The brown-haired man walked past the black-haired man, entering his house with real permission.
Ash was going to object, but then realized that Gary had been right; he did need some serious company, if to just abate the loneliness and help him ignore the emptiness of his house.
-X-X-X-
"Did Misty tell you why she broke up with me?" Ash asked Gary a few minutes later, cracking open a can of beer but not drinking it. "Because I really have no idea."
Whatever you do, don't tell him why I broke up with him. It'll just make him feel worse.
"She didn't mention it. She just wanted me to be here for you."
"Why you? It's not like we've been all that close."
"Sure, but not for lack of trying. I've just been busy with my research and you've been busy with training. But Misty wanted me to help you through this so that you wouldn't do something stupid."
"Oh." Ash took a drink of the beer, and then had bad reminders of the fact that he had spent the last week nourishing himself on nothing but whiskey. Now disgusted with the beverage, he set it aside.
Gary watched Ash out of the corner of his eye. He saw the little changes in Ash's self-esteem and attitude. He was very sad, and confused, and he just wasn't himself. It was understandable, seeing that he and Misty had been together for almost six years, but a selfish part of him wanted Ash to see the truth.
Oh Arceus, could that have been a stupider thought? he admonished himself. Having feelings for a guy is stupid on its own, but the fact that it's Ash just makes it worse.
"Gary, have you ever loved someone?" Ash turned his head, and those chocolate eyes locked with Gary's green ones.
He swallowed hard before answering, averting his eyes.
"Yeah, I have."
"What's she like?" Funny how he automatically assumes I'm in love with a girl.
Gary took a long swig of beer and cleared his throat, trying to gather the right thoughts in his head.
"She's…funny. She always makes stupid jokes that, even when she tells it wrong, it still makes me laugh. She's sweet, helpful, and just all out amazing. She's a trainer; I met her when I was traveling. She's kind of tall, but still shorter than me, she's got black hair and brown eyes." he cast a quick glance at Ash, hoping that the dense one hadn't noticed that Gary was just describing him, but as a girl.
"Huh. So, did you ask her out?" Ash wanted to know.
"No. Never got the chance. She has a boyfriend." Gary swallowed more beer, trying to hide the redness in his cheeks. I really do sound like a lovesick girl. Fucking hell. He berated himself.
"Oh. That sucks." Ash said.
"Tell me about it." Gary smiled ruefully, somewhat thankful that Ash was so dense.
-X-X-X-
A few more beers later, both Ash and Gary were somewhat delirious. Even though Ash hadn't had as much to drink as Gary, they were both still awake at four o'clock AM, which wasn't good for their health.
"Love sucks." Ash hiccupped. Gary agreed with a half-hearted slur.
Then, as Gary looked at Ash, he allowed himself to fantasize. He thought about kissing those wet lips, mixing the taste of beer and pleasure. He thought about pulling off all of the other boy's clothes and fucking him so silly he couldn't think straight. He thought about such dirty things that if his mind was a TV show, it would have been strongly censored.
As wrong as it was, he had to act out his fantasies. The tightness in his pants was getting painful, the desire beginning to take over his logical mind.
"Hey, Ashy-boy." Ash turned, about to yell at Gary for the old nickname, when Gary crawled across the couch to him. "That girl I was talking about?" he leaned closer and watched as Ash's eyes went wide. "She's not real." He pressed his hands down against Ash's shoulders, pinning him to the couch. He shoved his knee between the trainer's legs, and dipped his head so close to Ash's face that their breaths mingled. "Or, rather, she is, but she's not a girl. She's you."
With that, he sloppily pressed his lips to Ash's, forcing his tongue into the younger boy's mouth. Ash tried to cry out in protest, but Gary refused to hear it. The researcher smoothly ran his hand over Ash's toned stomach and up to his chest, playing with the peaks on his pecs.
Gary pulled back from kissing the younger trainer, and looked at him, his eyes hot and heady.
"W-What the hell Gary?" Ash managed to say. "What the fuck are you doing? I'm not gay!"
"Neither am I. But I still love you. I've loved you for years, Ash, but I could never tell you." Gary smirked now. "But you were kissing me back, so you must have liked it," he leaned down and bit Ash's ear. Ash clenched his jaw, refusing to answer yes or no to that statement.
"Hmph. You think you can hide it from me, huh?" Gary grinned. "I can read you like a book Ketchum. You can't hide anything from me." He reached his hand down and pushed past the fleece sweatpants. Ash's eyes widened and his face turned bright red. Gary peppered Ash's manhood with feather light strokes and touches, not taking his eyes from Ash's the whole time.
"Agh…G-Gary s-stop it."
"I knew it. You like this. You're getting all hot and bothered, and I've barely done anything yet." Eyes wide at that insinuation, Ash swallowed hard.
This was going to be a long night.