Interruption – Chapter 1
Before Tracey starts telling you the story (which I hope you truly enjoy), I would like to thank everyone who read Intermission (the first part of this story, told from Gary's point of view; in case you are here and you haven't read it, you can find it in my stories, it's not that necessary to read it because in this first chapter, Tracey kind of makes a summary of that story from his point of view, however it may represent some loss of information because Intermission was told from Gary's point of view and if you want to learn the full story with all details, I strongly suggest you to read it first).
I also want to thank those who added the story or the author to their favorites and to those who left their reviews, especially "AshxGary" (I have to say, I loved all your reviews, you made me tear and smile more than once, thank you), "nosoyashe", "Day loves music j", "XxAzelfxX" and "Happy Diamond" who read the story as it was being published chapter by chapter.
When I finished Intermission, I wanted to make a sequel but I had to publish Intermission first and see how it was received before going on, and thanks to all of you, this sequel was born. Interruption is told from Tracey's point of view, I know that this may sound odd or weird because you would ask "What does Tracey have to be with Palletshipping?", well, it was a challenge I set up for myself, to write how Gary and Ash's relationship might influence others around them, and you will see how it affects Tracey's life!
So, without further ado, I leave you with Mr. Tracey Sketchit, I hope you enjoy his story told in the following 6 Chapters (and there might be another sequel next if you like his story!).
Here I am, watching some television as my work-free week has just begun (not that I mind working anyway, it doesn't even feel like a job). I've been having this crazy obsession over the Resident Evil movies lately (and I'm looking forward to play the videogames too), I've been so excited I even pushed my best friend into watching the first movie with me, even if he is an easy to scare guy. I am just in love with Milla Jovovich (don't tell my girlfriend, please!).
My name is Tracey Sketchit and I'm currently living in Pallet Town, here in the Oak Manor (I know that Gary and professor Oak call it a mansion but c'mon, Oak Manor sounds cooler than Oak Mansion, besides, I have a little crush on Lara Croft too and you know, she lives in the Croft Manor and that).
And yes, I work here in the Oak Manor, I am the personal assistant to the great professor Oak (even if he insists that I should call him Samuel, I just can't, he is the grandfather of my best friend and I would feel weird calling him by his name). What do I do as his PA? Well, I help him with his research on pokémon, their characteristics and behavior in the natural environment. I've learned so much with him, and I've gotten the chance to draw dozens of different pokémon!
Yes, I like drawing, Gary even tells me I am an artist. I don't really think I have that much of a talent. Right now, I have a couple of notebooks full of drawings from around 350 different pokémon from the Kanto, Johto, Hoenn and Sinnoh regions. I still haven't had the chance to go to Unova, Kalos or Alola but I'm looking forward to that too.
But as much as I love my job here, it's my best friend who makes my stay in Pallet Town amazing. Gary and I have been best friends for a couple of years, he is the person I trust the most (and I'm very happy to say that it's the same vice versa), it was him who gave me the courage to confess my feelings to the girl I fell in love with, Misty; and now I'm very lucky to have her as my girlfriend of almost a year!
As I'm ready to watch Resident Evil 4 (I bought all the movies in DVD and I'm going to watch the last one when it comes to the movie theatre), Gary enters the mansion with a very big smile on his face. He looks radiant.
"Well, hi there!" I smile as he approaches me, he sits next to me, speechless but his smile is still there and I bet it won't disappear for long.
It's about 10:00am, Gary's been out since very early in the morning.
"For someone who just left his boyfriend in the port, you seem extremely happy" I say with a lot of curiosity on my mind.
Yes, I said boyfriend, and in case you were still wondering (I don't think so but I must clarify), it wasn't a mistake, Gary is gay and I'm totally cool with it, I just don't care who he decides to love as long as he is happy. And man! He looks extremely happy right now.
Just days ago, he wasn't sure if Ash (now his boyfriend) would feel the same about him (Gary had had these feelings for Ash for a long time), and I didn't know much about the details of how they had started their relationship, Gary and I haven't really had the time to talk about it (but I'm sure we're going to talk a lot about it very soon).
Everything had happened so quickly, so fast, just two nights ago, when Ash came to the Manor while I was watching Resident Evil 3:
"Ash!" I exclaimed as I opened the door, surprised. I was alone in the living room, watching the movie I had left on pause, and Gary was in his room (and professor Oak had left for a couple of days for a science congress).
"Hi Tracey" he gave me a weak smile "is Gary around?" now his voice sounded weak.
Just the night before, Ash's mother had made this incredible dinner for all of us to welcome Ash back from the Kalos League, where he won the second place. Misty, Gary, professor Oak, and I were there. Misty and I had spent the whole day trying to find a new wardrobe change for Gary (ok, mostly Misty, I was just carrying bags around the mall). Yes, Misty knew about Gary's feelings too and she was determined to make him look astounding for dinner, so Ash could see how handsome Gary was and luckily, fall in love with him.
Gary was really nervous, he hadn't seen Ash in a couple of years and the first thing Ash did when he saw him again was to give him a big hug. I could tell Gary was melting inside and the evening was promising, but as dinner went by, Gary was mostly quiet (yeah, he was super nervous sitting beside Ash) but then Ash mentioned a girl, one of his companions, and he started to tell us a story, I had a bad feeling about that… and I wished I had been wrong all along but then Ash was very excited to tell us that girl had given him a surprise goodbye kiss. And that's when Gary left dinner abruptly, I know he was heartbroken, shattered.
I had followed Gary to the cold streets of Pallet Town and we had our first of a couple to follow small fights, and I had to promise Gary I would lie to Ash about his reason for leaving. When I got back, Misty told me that the girl had kissed Ash on the cheeks and not on the lips like every one (especially Gary) had thought. And I could see Ash's face become a little sadder after Gary's departure. I could tell he felt responsible but I knew he didn't have the slightest idea of why.
So, the following day in the morning, Ash, Misty, and I went to Cerulean City (Misty's hometown). We had invited Gary (Ash had insisted Misty and I to tell him to come, mostly because he felt guilty somehow that Gary had left dinner, but neither Misty nor I could convince Gary to come). Ash was mostly quiet during our visit to the city (which was not normal because Ash used to be a chatterbox, especially about anything pokémon related). And well, Misty and I had traveled with him in the past and that day felt nothing like the old days together, Ash was sad and we knew it.
The thing was… Gary didn't want to see Ash because he was afraid he would confess his feelings to him and ruin the friendship they had, because they had been friends since they were children, Ash was Gary's oldest friend and I think the same backwards, even if they hadn't talked that much to each other the last couple of years.
Gary was wrongly convinced that one day he would forget how he felt about Ash and see him as only as a friend. But in matters of love, you know you can't do that. Misty and I wanted to do everything but we were hopeless, we had tried talking Gary into his senses but it hadn't worked.
So, then Ash was standing in front of me at around 2:00am asking me to talk to Gary. Of course, Gary was around, this was his house and it was really late, where else could he be? Gary was not the type of person to be out of his house after 10:00pm. That felt like the last chance I had for Ash to talk to Gary and them to make things right, so I didn't care Gary was sleeping, I didn't care Gary told me he didn't want to see Ash, because I knew that wasn't the truth at all.
"Yeah… he went to sleep around 2 hours ago," I told Ash.
"Right" he smiled awkwardly "I don't know why I thought he'd be awake at this time of the night, I should have called instead of coming" he sounded regretful, his face looking down as his hands were inside his pockets.
He had walked all the way from his house to the Manor in the middle of the night (about 15 minutes). Ash really cared about Gary, maybe not the way Gary would have wanted, but Ash did care for him and that was the most important part, so I let him in.
"Come in, it's late and cold".
"Thanks" he half-smiled and just stood there next to the stairs.
"You should go to his bedroom, Gary has insomnia so he probably is awake right now, he's probably reading" I lied, just to push him forward, I felt he needed it.
"Really?" he turned and asked me with surprise.
"Yeah, just go" I smiled "his bedroom is the last one in the third floor".
"I… um… thank you, Tracey" he took the stairs and disappeared before my eyes.
I went back to my movie and I finished it around 3:30am (spooky if you believe in those things about the gates of hell opening from 3:30am to 3:45am), but I wasn't scared, that's why I loved scary movies so much, because they didn't scare me.
Anyway, I guess I hadn't noticed Ash had been in Gary's room for almost 2 hours, but I went to bed questioning myself what they had been doing, sure they had a lot to talk about, but I just wondered if my man had just scored.
Surely, the next morning I went to Gary's bedroom… and Ash was still there! Omigod, I couldn't believe it, I was so excited! My best friend had finally slept with Ash! Okay, maybe it wasn't like I had thought before I went to sleep hours ago, Gary told me Ash had just spend the night and that they had slept together (with clothes on, he clarified) but he told me they had kissed, omigod!
I was extremely happy Ash and Gary were finally together, and I had lots of questions to ask right then, but I wanted Gary to be comfortable and I told him he should spend the whole day with Ash… and that's what they did (they even spend the night together in Gary's room, draw your conclusions just like me).
So, this morning they left very early because Ash had to take a ship to Alola, where he would be the next 6 months. Ash is a pokémon trainer and he is constantly traveling around the world, searching for new adventures, as I said, I even once traveled with him and Misty to the Orange Islands, that was like an eternity ago, and that was when I started to develop my feelings for Misty; anyway, he was now off to another region and I thought Gary would be sad, that's why it was so surprising to see him this happy.
And there he was now, sitting next to me, all smiles, and no words coming out of his mouth yet.
"I'm so happy, Tracey" he finally said something.
"I'm really happy for you, bro" I gave him a quick hug.