It had taken hours of convincing. And by convincing, it really meant just hours of whining and crying over and over again and pleading like there was no tomorrow.
"I'll do anything for you! I swear! Please just do this one thing for me!" Ash begged. He was going on his fourth hour now, and Paul had still refused to give into him.
"I've said it a million times, and my answer still hasn't changed. No," Paul told him. He attempted to go back to his book that he had been trying to read since the other teen had begun pestering him. It had been snowing all day, and Paul only wanted to sit inside by the fire and read. However, Ash had prevented him from doing so.
"C'mon why not? It's perfect! Christmas is in like, five days! It'd be great to go Christmas caroling!" he repeated. A sudden "Pika!" from Pikachu, who was resting in the corner, was heard to support Ash.
"Well first off," Paul began, "like you said it's snowing. That means it's cold out and I don't intend on freezing to death today. Secondly, in case you don't remember, I can't sing."
Ash rolled his eyes. He was sick of Paul's excuses. "Well if you go with me then I promise I'll make hot chocolate after! And don't give me that 'I can't sing' attitude. Everyone can sing!"
"I can't sing well then," Paul corrected himself. "I'm not going and you can't make me. Why don't you get someone else to go with you?"
"Because! Misty and Brock are too far away to make it out now, and Gary's away. Plus, why wouldn't I want you to come with me?" Ash pouted. He was getting really annoyed that Paul was treating his ideas as a chore rather than a festivity.
"C'mon Ash, you know everyone hates carolers! It's not worth the trouble," Paul countered. He went back to his book, scanning the words. He had gotten too riled up now to process the words from the page that his eyes were taking in. He didn't care at that moment though. He just wanted Ash to take the hint.
Clearly not having Paul's way, Ash moved his position on the couch. He yanked the prop from Paul's hands and threw it across the room, eliciting a "hey!" from the purple haired teen and straddled him, placing his hands on the wall, either side of Paul's head.
"I hope you know if you bent the pages in that book I'm gonna kill you," Paul said to him as an empty threat. "Now get off."
"Nope. Not until you say you're going with me."
Paul let out a sigh. He wasn't in much of a mood to deal with his boyfriend's begging. However he still hadn't been able to figure out if Ash's whining or going caroling was worse.
"If I do agree, there have to be some limits."
Ash raised an eyebrow, "Go on."
"First, we stick to the neighborhood. No exceptions," Paul stated. Ash nodded his head, agreeing to the verbal contract and allowing Paul to continue. "Secondly, we sing thirty second tunes. Anything above that and it's over." No words from Ash's lips to Paul's ears. Sign of agreement. "Lastly, if I hear you complain once, we go home. It was your idea and I will leave you in the snow. Got it?"
Ash gave him a smile, with the corners of his mouth extending all of the way to his ear. He leaned in enough to place a gentle kiss on the other's lips.
"Oh this is going to be so much fun! I'll go get our stuff!" he said, jumping off of the couch and dashing down the hall. Although Paul would never admit it, he secretly loved it when Ash got over excited. Sure, it got on his nerves but to see Ash so excited made him forget.
Within minutes, Ash had returned as a bundled up ball of clothing. He looked like he was bracing himself for the tundra when in reality it was more like a flurry of snow. And in contrast to Paul's jacket and gloves, he appeared ridiculous.
"I'm ready to go!" Ash said. With a roll of the eyes from Paul and a thumbs up from Pikachu (who was also ready to face the elements) they were ready to roll. Well, not before Ash got one more brilliant idea.
"C'mon out guys!" and before Paul could register what had happened, Bulbasaur, Glalie, Oshawott, Bayleef, and Scraggy had appeared before them. "This will be so much fun! Hey, Paul! Why don't you –"
"Nope. I refuse to let my Pokemon make a fool out of themselves."
Even after all the time they had been dating, Paul still had yet to ease up in some aspects of how he treated his Pokemon. Granted the training wasn't nearly as boundary pushing as it was before, but it still stuck to a lot of the same principles.
"Fine, they rest are staying out."
And with their dispute settled, they walked out the door ready to spread some holiday cheer.
xxx
Slam.
That was the seventh house in a row that had shut them out. Not even a single note was sung, and they'd already been "politely" told to stop.
"Can we go home now? This is just pathetic."
Ash was becoming furious. "No! You promised we were going to do this and we will!" Acting like a child, Ash stomped on the snowy ground in a fit. "We can't go home now!"
Paul was finally fed up with Ash's attitude. He'd put up with his childish behavior of whining and hissy fits and he was no longer in the mood to let it go like he had bee.
"You know what, you can stay out then! I'm so done with this!" Paul said, his voice slightly rising with every word. Ash winced at the sudden change, unsettled by the fact Paul was seriously angry with him for once. "It's quite obvious that no one cares about stupid carolers! All they do is slam the door in our faces and while the message is very clear to me, it's obviously isn't to you! They don't care about stupid Christmas songs and they're trying to send the message to go home! And quite frankly, I agree with them and I'm going home."
It was when the furious teen was finally done, that he realized he had shouted at his boyfriend during the entire rant. As quick as the anger had overtook him it left. It was replaced with a gut wrenching feeling of guilt as he saw the Pallet Town trainer's holiday spirit ruined with his own scrooge-like attitude.
"Fine," Ash said, biting his lower lip as he tried to prevent himself from getting upset. He blinked his amber eyes a few times, trying to get rid of the tears that were threatening to fall. Then he turned his back towards Paul, and began walking in the opposite direction.
"Stop being dramatic. Where are you going?"
Ash stopped walking, but didn't turn around.
"C'mon, answer me. There's not too many places you can go."
Ash continued to walk away, with his Pokemon trailing behind. Paul sighed and rolled his eyes. It was obvious to the older teen that Ash wanted Paul to follow him and work it out, but the heavy snowfall and torturous winds convinced him otherwise and lead him back to the house.
xxx
It was very late in the evening.
After coming back to Ash's house, he resumed staring at the book he held earlier. He couldn't take his mind off of the events that had happened earlier, and he was getting more concerned about Ash each passing moment that he hadn't come back home.
He was regretting leaving the trainer out in the snow, upset and hurt and by himself. Paul was about ready to get up and search for his boyfriend when said teen walked in the door.
He took off his snowy scarf and wet boots, and returned the Pokemon that he had brought along with him back into their Pokeballs (minus Pikachu of course). Once he finally acknowledged Paul, he shot him a look that if it could, would kill. Paul grimaced. Of course he expected and deserved it, but it still hurt him nonetheless.
As Ash finished, he walked right past the purple haired trainer (not without of course giving him a good punch in the shoulder) and went straight to his bedroom.
Simply put, Paul felt horrible. He hadn't meant to completely ruin the happy atmosphere that surrounded Ash. He just wanted it to have less influence on himself. But now he wished he hadn't said anything at all and was still outside completely and utterly miserable if it would make the other happy again.
Running out of options, Paul turned to Pikachu who had been left behind.
"C'mon, you know him better than anyone else. What do I do?"
The small electric Pokemon turned his head away from the question at first. However, just as quickly as he'd rejected to help Paul, he came up with an idea to help him.
xxx
"Hey, Ash?" Paul asked, knocking on the door to Ash's room.
"Go away," Ash said, lying on his bed. Paul rolled his eyes, not taking the 'no' as an answer. He pushed open the door and lay down next to him on the bed.
"I told you to go away," Ash murmured as he rolled away. The last thing he wanted to see was Paul.
Paul scooted closer, wrapping an arm around the upset teen and pulling him close. "Yeah, I don't care."
"What do you want?" Ash asked, weakly attempting to break free of the other's grip.
"I'm sorry you know," Paul admitted. "I was harsh back there. A lot of stuff back there wasn't true. I was just annoyed, you know? I know you've got as much enthusiasm about Christmas as an elf, but I should have just kept letting you do your own thing. I was a big jerk about the whole thing,"
Ash turned around, "Oh believe me, I know. But I also shouldn't have forced you to do it."
Paul leaned and gave Ash a short kiss that the latter accepted, a reassurance that everything was going to be okay between them.
"I know it's not the same, but if you want to later we can sing something around the fire," Paul suggested. He had wanted to make it up, but that was the best he could think of.
"Eh, I know that's not your thing…"
"It's whatever you want to do."
"Even Mariah Carey?"
"… Yes."
"Let's go!" Ash shouted, jumping off of the bed and running downstairs, all anger pushed aside and forgotten.
imsorrytheendingsucksitstart edtogosomewherethenigotsicka ndyeah
Anyways, happy 20th day of comashipping c:
