I really need to get that Ego/Phaedra fic to go in the direction I want, but nothing's working out the way I want it to. And I've been working on that bastard for WEEKS ON END. Until then, I guess I'll be working on other plots floating around in the deep abyss of my mind. I'd let you in on some secrets, but I'm not about that kind of junk.

Disclaimer: No. I don't. Sorry.

Mine and Ash's relationship? I think the word to describe it is "one-upmanship". It's never been about friendship or romance or any of that kind of crap. We want nothing more from each other than our respect, which has been won over the both of us a long time ago. But something about the way it has been between us isn't satisfying Ash. I have some fair calculations as to why that is. I don't think I can really bring himself to go right out with it, no matter how hard I try to get him to scream everything he's been wanting to say to me during our tournaments. I can't just let this go, though. I want to know what's been bothering him because honestly, it's keeping me from getting caught up in the heat of the competition.

"Gary?" he asks, shifting to a more supportive position from where he is on the bed. "I have to go back, you know. Serena and the others might wake up soon, and if I'm not there, they'll all be worried sick and wonder about where I am and stuff."

"It's too early. What's gotten you in a bundle?" I respond, blinking my eyes open and allowing my pupils to adjust to the dark surroundings of my room in the hotel. In the more recent nights we had together, he has been getting up earlier and earlier to leave. Whether or not it is to avoid confrontation with his friends or something else...well, the first idea sounds too smart for Ash. Then again, he has surprised me, more or less, over the course of the tournament.

"Serena is starting to get anal about waking up early to get to the next town as soon as possible. She wants to stop by at a few shops here in Lumiose, though, before we leave, so if I go now, I might still have a shot at making it before they actually are awake." Ash lets out a yawn. He crosses his arms behind his head. "I don't like making my friends worry about me, even over something small. It just makes me feel bad. If you're traveling with others you'd understand, but you're kind of stuck here."

I give him a blank stare. It must have made him uncomfortable. Score for me.

"Not that that's a bad thing!" he says hastily. "Don't get me wrong. I want to stay with you."

"You have obligations," I tell him. "Don't sweat it."

Ash frowns, but doesn't say anything. He hunches over and reaches for his clothes that are on the floor on his side of the bed, slipping on his t-shirt. He proceeds to slide off the bed, but I catch him by his arm on an impulse. I never meant to, but it's now or never. At least not until I cross paths with him again. I need to know what the hell is going on in his pea-sized brain of his, because if he's moping over something stupid, then I have wasted my valuable time and his.

"Ash," I whisper, breathing onto his arm. "Tell me."

"Nothing's bothering me," he snaps, trying to break out of my grip. I'm too good to believe that. "H-hey! What's the deal? I have to go, Gary."

"No, you don't."

Ash firmly tells me, "Yes, I do. It's not my fault that you're stuck here and that you get bored. I have a dream to reach and so do you. You're this close to being a prodigy in the researching world, Gary. Worry about that first before we worry about..."

"Worry about?" I prompt him.

"Before we worry about the subject of us. Or whatever you want to call this." Ash continues. "Don't worry about what is or what isn't bugging me when it's probably not going to matter tomorrow."

"I don't know, you're starting to sound intellectual, which is starting to concern me," I fight back a smirk. "You didn't look too happy tonight. If it's me, or if it's something else, then you can tell me."

"Ah, it's nothing," he tries to dismiss it, doing his best not to look at my eyes. "I'm just worried, that's all. You would be too if you had friends to get back to."

"There's something else. Ash, I am a good liar...you? Not so much. You really think you can win this?"

Ash huffs and sticks his tongue out at him. He knows he can never win an argument against me.

"Adorable," I tease, pecking his elbow. "You're thick-headed, but adorable."

"Hmmfph!" Ash grumbles something I can't hear before he gets off the bed. "Well. If you're in the same town as me, then give me a call. But I'm not talking about this if you bring it up next time, okay?"

"That's why I want to get it over with now."

I roll off the bed, and stride over to him. I don't let my eyes leave him for a second. I don't CARE how intimidated he is by that - that just makes it even better for me if he is!

"Tell me."

Ash sighs. "You'd think it's stupid..."

"Fair, considering anything you say is pretty stupid...stupid cute," I correct myself, smirking as I see him flush. "But it looks like it's really bothering you and...it doesn't look good. So out with it. Or I'll make you say it."

"Yeah? And how're you going to do that? You haven't been pretty successful thus far," he challenges.

"That doesn't mean I don't still have a few more tricks up my sleeve," I retort. "Give me the chance and I'll work some magic."

"Ha, you said that earlier today, and you failed to prove it!" Ash laughs openly at me. Now it's my turn to frown. "Like I'm going to give in that easily to you! It's never been like that with us! Not since Kanto or Johto! Or when we were kids! I never backed down from a challenge, especially if it was you who set them up!"

"I still have enough time to prove to you that I will make you scream," I say. "You may have not given me what I wanted out of you earlier, but this time I can and will make that happen."

Ash's laughing stops abruptly when he catches onto how serious I sounded upon making the proposal. I'm not someone who backs down from a challenge, either. He knows that better than anyone.

"G-Gary...?" he stammers, backing away. "I...I can't...you know that - "

"I don't care," I snap hoarsely. I have become engulfed by a tidal wave of lust and it's too late for him. He can't back down from this now, and even if he tries to, I'm not going to let him. There's no way he can leave now. He'll have to come up with some kind of believable excuse to give to his friends when he returns to them (which he might need help from me with).

I lunge at him, pinning his arms above his head against the wall, pushing my lips against his. I smirk against them when I hear him let out a groan. Now he isn't leaving...he can put up with Serena's anal retentive, unreasonable need to get the hell out of town to get to the next city when he gets back to her and the others. There is enough time for us to waste. From what Ash has told me about her, my first thought was that someone needed to prescribe her some chill pills, which Ash immediately took offense to and tried his best to defend her ways of being.

"You were saying, Ash?"

I glide my hand down to his pants, and I squeeze onto the area.

"A-ah! Gary!"

That only makes me want to squeeze harder.

"Gary!"

"And you said I wasn't going to make you scream," I taunt him, chuckling. "Now are you going to tell me? Or do I need to kick it up a notch?"

"No! It's none of your business!" he snaps, pressing himself against the wall as much as he can. Ohohoho. He's really determined.

"Suit yourself." I grab onto his t-shirt and pull it off, and he slams his body into me, almost making me tumble backward. But I regain my composure.

He starts shivering under my hold from...from fear? Whatever the reason, it is TORTURING him - I hope he begs for it.

My tongue slides along his neck and shoulders, lingering there for a moment. He grits his teeth.

I unbuckle his belt, and then start to rub against the area again, eyeing him carefully for his reaction, and it's the one I expected: he's completely lost in me now. It's a matter of time before he lets it all out.

"Well?" he manages to say, sounding deprived, almost. "Get moving!"

I feign disappointment. He really thinks it's going to be that easy...? Oh, Ashy is never going to change.

"You remember how I said I was going to work some magic?"

Ash nods.

"You need to tell me the magic words if you want me."

"Wait, wh-what! No! Not in this life!"

"Then," I release my grip on him and he falls to the ground, trembling at my feet. As he should be. "I guess you're not going to be getting the relief you need. You can't go back like this. One of them will start to suspect that you're doing something like this. Given how brilliant Clemont actually is, he'll figure it out right away and confront you about it- maybe not in front of his little sister because she's too young to know about sex- but you're going to have to face them sooner than you wanted to if you go back. So now you don't have much of a choice. Tell me what the hell is going on with you, or leave like this and come back to your friends to answer their questions, which is going to be much harder for you, I would think."

"I..." He brings his knees up to his chest and wraps his arms around them. "I...it's stupid. I don't want to tell you anything."

I shrug. "All right. Whatever. No skin off my back."

"G-Gary...please...I n-need to," he stammers, and I look down at him with a smirk.

"Release?" I finish, and he nods. "You can take care of that yourself. I'm sure you know how to. Didn't you let me watch one time? I'm going back to bed."

I turn away from him and sit down on the bed, taking in a deep breath and letting it out, before lying down on my back.

"Gary..." I hear him whisper.

"Gary?" he asks again. I turn on my back, facing the window side of the room.

"Gary!"

"GARY!" This time he almost manages to make me turn around.

"I guess I'm not good enough to snag your attention, huh?" he says, sighing. "I should have known...it's always about what you want. Can't you ever think of anyone else other than yourself?"

Ash goes on when I don't have anything to say. "I'm just not good enough for you...aren't I...?"

Wait a-

Let me get this straight. He...he wants my attention? And that's what this whole thing has been about?

I'm going to need a minute.

"You've had my attention," I say simply. Briefly. I allow the information slip out of me before I have a chance to let this whole thing sink in. "Now what's the real issue with you?"

"That's just it! I just don't feel like I'm good enough." Ash goes on. "We do everything we can to upstage each other, whether it's in here, in battle, or in business, which is the only way I have ever been able to get you to at least notice me, and I just can't take it anymore! This has never been what I wanted. I wanted to be with you...you know, like. Together? Like that. But we can't! And you want to know why?

"Because it's always about you! It always has been! Heck, even this is about you...well, about me wanting you to be with me, but it still involves you! Because you haven't thought about me throughout all of this until now, all because you haven't been enjoying it lately!" he yells. "And I am sick and tired of it being about you all the freakin' time!"

"Ash." I address him, catching his attention. I rise from the bed, my back still facing him and my eyes are glued to the window. "You...have always been good enough."

"Wh-what?"

I correct myself: "No, actually, you're not good enough. You're better. You're better than anything anyone can ever want. Now what is this with the whole, 'not being good enough' bullshit? Because to tell the truth, I don't buy it."

Ash sighs again. "No, that's really what's been bothering me, but there is also the fact that you have to admit, it seems like it's been about what you want. You wouldn't have addressed this before if this didn't bother you...and well...today kind of proved it."

I can't argue with that. "You're right, but that doesn't mean I don't care about you...don't assume something if you don't know the whole story. All right?"

I turn around to see him nod once at me.

"Good, now that we have all that cleared up..." I trail off for a minute, before eyeing his jeans. "Need my help?"

Ash nods again. "Mm-mhm!"

"All right." I pat the spot next to me on my bed. "Let's put on our game faces."

"Gary!"