A/N: Okay, so this is my first Palletshipping story here, so please be kind ^_^. Reviews are love.
This one-shot is based on the episode 'Illusion Confusion'...y'know, the one where Ash and co. get lost in a forest and see illusions, and Gary comes with his HootHoot and helps them. Well this one starts from there and then takes a completely different direction, because..well..for obvious reasons. *coughs*
Also, I know Ash and the rest don't age in the anime, but in this story (and probably all the rest of stories that will follow), they age a year per region. So Ash is currently currently thirteen (and a few months).
Read and review? :)
"Ash, where are we now?!" Misty cried, the half-asleep Togepi in her arms jolting awake at her sudden loud outburst.
"Now…we're lost."
The sheepishness in Ash's tone was not lost on his red-haired friend, whose scowl deepened.
"It's close to midnight, and we're lost in this stupid forest, and it's all your fault!" Misty screeched.
"We're in the middle of nowhere," Brock added – although a lot less accusingly than Misty – looking around at his surroundings.
They were in a little clearing somewhere deep inside the forest that Ash had so confidently said he would navigate without getting them lost. And then he'd gone ahead and, well…gotten them lost.
"Everywhere's somewhere," Ash replied to Brock's earlier comment – somewhat timidly. He didn't want Misty to get all riled up again.
"Pika pi!"
Ash looked down at Pikachu, who was surreptiously taking in their surroundings, not seeming too happy about the fact that Ash had gotten them stranded practically in the middle of nowhere.
"What is it, Pikachu?"
By now Ash had been with Pikachu long enough to pick up on its slightest intimations, and he could sense that Pikachu was now extremely wary and on its guard.
Misty shifted from one foot to the other, her temper now replaced by trepidation and apprehension instead. "I don't like this place. Its…spooky."
A loud clap of thunder sounded in the sky, and all three – and Pikachu – looked up at the sky. Dark, ominous clouds were beginning to roll in, completely obscuring the moon and leaving them in an eerie darkness. The wind began whistling around them, and a jagged bolt of lightning ripped the sky in half, reverberating around the clearing and right through the trees, which seemed to groan in protest.
"Great, this was all we needed," Ash deadpanned, beckoning to Pikachu to take its usual perch on his shoulders so they could get going.
But before they could take even one step, a creepy, groaning noise stopped them right in their tracks. Misty and Brock exchanged worried looks even as Ash stepped up and shouted "Who's there? C'mon out!"
But neither human nor Pokemon replied, and the creepy, groaning noise slowly began intensifying and becoming more ominous.
"I said who's – " Ash's voice caught in his throat as a flash of lightning lit up the trees the clearing was surrounded by. It almost looked like the trees had…evil, menacing grins on their faces. Am I seeing things?
But a quick glance around at Brock and Misty's faces – even in the almost pitch-black darkness – confirmed they'd seen what he'd seen too.
No one needed any further spurring. They began running blindly, trying to get away from whatever creepy shit was happening back there in the clearing. The clouds watched with omniscient eyes as they continued to run through the forest, brushing against shrubs and bushes; receiving some cuts and bruises that no one really seemed to care about.
"Pikaaa!"
Ash grounded to a halt at Pikachu's cry and whipped around, adrenaline coursing through his veins, expecting to come face to face with…what the hell do I even think is coming after us?
But instead of something jumping out at him, he was hit with a startling emptiness. There was no one there. Absolutely no one. Not even Misty and Brock.
"Goddammit!" He cursed, realizing that in their hurry to get some place safe, they'd gotten separated.
"Pikachu, where are Misty and Brock?!"
Even as his question left his lips he knew that Pikachu didn't know; its startled 'Pikaaa' a few minutes earlier was only when it had realized that Misty and Brock were gone.
The wind roared around them, as Ash struggled to take in his new surroundings. There was another blinding flash of lightning, followed instantly by that same groaning noise that he'd heard back in the clearing – only this time, it sounded as if there were a dozen groans all at the same time.
"Whoever's there, c'mon out! I challenge you to a battle!"
Pikachu added a wired "Pika pi!" of its own to Ash's ultimatum.
And then, before he knew what was happening, a brilliant red light flashed over them, bathing them in crimson and forcing Ash to shield his eyes from the glare. As if on cue, all the creepy noises stopped – all that was left was the wind roaring through the trees.
"What the hell was that?" Ash half whispered, utterly confused at the sudden turn of events.
"That was nothing."
And although it was dark and he could hardly see anything, Ash instantly knew who that voice belonged to. His stomach gave a little flip.
"Gary!" Ash couldn't help but allow a little incredulity to seep into his voice. Gary was here?
And then suddenly Gary was standing right in front of him. A streak of lightning tore through the onyx clouds, brilliantly lighting up Gary's frame – a mop of brown hair, purple shirt, and standing a foot taller than Ash.
Ash's breath caught a little in his throat. "What was…"
"Everything you saw was an illusion," Gary stated simply. "Good job, HootHoot."
"Hoothoot!" came a soft hum from somewhere down near Gary's legs.
"A…what?" Ash whipped out his Pokedex, scanning for information on the Pokemon.
Gary sneered at him. "Unprepared as usual, eh Ashy-boy? Don't you know you have to use a HootHoot to get through this forest?"
The whole scenario seemed incredibly surreal to Ash. He was stranded in the middle of nowhere, had gotten separated from Misty and Brock, and now he seemed to be standing and conversing with Gary – of all people – who, as usual, hadn't wasted a single moment to start mocking him. Well, at least that part happens to be real enough, he thought wryly.
"So what – " Ash cleared his throat a little. "What happens if you don't use a HootHoot?"
"You'll get lost here forever!"
Whether Gary was trying to scare him, or he was actually serious, Ash couldn't fathom, but he didn't have time to dwell on it as Gary's sentence was immediately punctuated by a loud clap of thunder, following which the sky burst open. The rain began to fall in thick sheets of droplets.
"Pika pi!"
Ash knew it was time to move – they had to take shelter somewhere. He turned around, readying to break into a run, when he heard Gary's voice behind him.
"C'mon HootHoot, we'd better get going."
Ash spun around as if scalded. "What do you mean better get going?!" He hadn't meant to yell, but the howling wind and the sound of the rain beating down like drumbeats had made him think that Gary wouldn't be able to hear him if he spoke in a normal pitch.
Gary raised his eyebrows at the sudden outburst. "Time's money, Ashy-boy. A little storm like this is not gonna stop me," he drawled in that same snickering tone. Then he seemed to pause and think for a moment. "Where is that red-head and the Pewter City gym leader you usually travel with? They desert you?" The last sentenced was laced with a little extra scorn.
Once again, Ash felt like he was trapped in some sort of a dream. He was standing and conversing with Gary in the middle of a forest, while the icy water raced to meet the ground, drenching them in the process.
"Pikachu pi!"
This sudden protest from the Pokemon on his shoulder sent Ash crashing back to reality. Dammit, he was not going to continue this very weird conversation standing in the pelting rain.
Acting on impulse, he grabbed Gary's wrist and dashed for the nearest group of trees.
"Hey!" Behind him, he could hear Gary's annoyance in that one-worded protest, but for some reason, Gary didn't pull away.
Stumbling through the mud, Ash brought them both to a small clump of trees that didn't look tall enough to be struck by lightning, but had leaves enough to shield them from the full force of the rain.
It was only when Gary jerked his hand away from Ash's grip did he realize that he'd still been holding it.
"Uh – " Ash began, not knowing what to say, but was cut off sharply by Gary.
"What's the big idea, Ash? Why drag me out here with you? Did I say I wanted to play houses with you as we wait for the rain to stop? I have got to be going, or I won't get out of this forest before daybreak – those gym badges won't earn themselves!"
By then, Ash had had enough. He turned to look at Gary, who was standing barely inches away from him, and drew in a breath. "I'm sorry if I'm not good enough for the Gary Oak to wait the storm out with while it passes, but I sure as hell wasn't going to let you go wandering off in this terrible storm, HootHoot at your side or not! Yes, I know you're a great trainer – " he silenced Gary who had just opened his mouth to retort, "but even I thought you wouldn't be foolish enough to go stumbling about in the forest at midnight in the middle of a freaking cyclone! So okay, go ahead, leave if you want, but both you and I know that as soon as you lose sight of me, the first thing you do will be to find shelter under a group of trees not very unlike this one! So yeah, go ahead Gary, be the jerk that you are and leave!"
"Pikaaa," Pikachu crooned sympathetically as Ash turned his back on Gary and leaned against a tree, crossing his arms.
For a while, no other sound could be heard except the rain crashing down and the wind howling through the trees.
"So…where are your other two friends?"
True, Ash hadn't heard Gary leaving, but he had assumed that with all the noise around, he wouldn't have been able to hear him leaving anyway, so he was a bit surprised as the question Gary had asked registered in his mind. It was also free from the usual scorn Gary used whenever he spoke to him, his mind registered.
He turned around once again to face Gary, who was looking straight at him. Something about that look unnerved Ash, forcing him to look away. "We were running to find shelter, and…we got separated," he finished lamely, looking down at the ground.
"I could get HootHoot to go look for them."
Ash jerked his head up, allowing his surprise to show on his face. Gary was actually offering to help him?
Gary chuckled softly, evidently amused at Ash's shock. "You really think I'm that much of a jerk?"
Ash mumbled something under his breath, clearly uncomfortable.
Gary let out another soft chuckle and leaned against the tree, turning his face to look at the lightning flashing in the distance.
Subconsciously, Ash mirrored him so that they were both now looking ahead at the sky, each lost in their own thoughts.
Pikachu and HootHoot had found a little hole at the base of a tree, and had let themselves in. Gary and Ash stood outside, the thick canopy partially shielding them from the downpour, but not entirely so. Ash's head was relatively dry, protected by his cap, but his shirt and jacket were almost soaked through. Gary, not having the protective cover of a hat, had his hair sopping wet, bangs sticking to his forehead, clothes drenched almost as much as Ash's.
A gurgling sound from Ash's stomach brought them both of out of their respective reveries. Hints of red formed at his cheeks as Gary looked around at him again, raising an eyebrow.
"You're not going to die, right?"
"Huh, very funny," Ash snapped back mirthlessly. He'd last eaten hours back, so it was quite understandable that his stomach would protest.
"Hey remember my seventh birthday party? You ate so many cheese burgers that you got sick and couldn't go home and had to stay over at my place? Like, whoever gets so sick after eating cheese burgers they cannot walk fifteen steps back?"
A slight blush crept up Ash's cheeks, and regardless of the fact that the joke was on him, he couldn't help smiling. He remembered that day. He had spent all day at Gary's, and by the time evening had come and their other friends had started to arrive, he was already sick from eating too many cheese burgers, and was writhing and groaning in Gary's bed. After the party was over, Gary had come up to him with some cake. He remembered feeling too ill to even eat the cake, and Gary had laughed at him, calling him a pig and saying that that was what he deserved for being such a glutton. There had been a big storm that night, and Gary and Ash had huddled down underneath the blankets, discussing how they would leave together for their Pokemon journeys in a few years, and how they'd travel the country together, winning badges and catching Pokemon side by side. Gary had said he would ask his Grandpa to give them a car so they could get places quicker, and Ash had protested saying that walking would be much more fun. Eventually, they had fallen asleep bickering, even as the wind howled around them and the lightning flexed in the distance.
A similar bolt of lightning – not unlike that one five years ago – streaked across the horizon, bringing Ash back to the present. He realized he had been staring off into the distance, so he turned sideways to face Gary and opened his mouth to speak, but his breath hitched in his throat, forcefully shoving down whatever words he might have chosen to utter.
Gary was staring straight into his eyes. The emerald in Gary's eyes bored down into his sienna, and for the life of him, Ash couldn't remember what he'd wanted to say. He swallowed, unable to tear his eyes away from Gary's. His stomach did a little flip when he realized that their shoulders were touching as they were both leaning against the tree, facing each other. There was very little space between them, and all Ash wanted to do was take a few steps back, maybe twenty – hell, he wanted to turn tail and run right into the fury of the storm. But it was almost like he was rooted to the spot – almost like Gary was pinning him to the tree, although Gary was not touching even an inch of his body, well, save where their shoulders were touching.
And before he knew it, the words were out from his mouth. "Gary…what happened to us?"
The words, even though they'd come from his own lips, sounded very foreign to Ash. Why the question? Why this question? He couldn't recall dwelling on it anytime in the recent past. It was not like Gary's three hundred and sixty turn from their intertwined childhood days to this sneering aloofness had affected him a lot. Sure, he had let the question sweep through his mind once in a while – a floating, evanescent thought right before sleep took him over – but never had he consciously given this any thought. He'd just chalked it up to shit that happens, and had let it go.
For a while, silence reigned. Ash continued to stare into Gary's eyes, searching for answers to a question that he didn't even know why he'd asked in the first place.
It was Gary who looked away first. He let out a small sigh as he stared straight ahead.
Ash waited for him to speak, but when it was clear Gary wasn't about to say anything, Ash tentatively raised a hand and brought it down to rest on Gary's shoulder. He could feel Gary flinch a little under his touch, and suddenly, Ash wondered if he had gone crazy. What on earth was he doing?
He snatched his hand down from Gary's shoulder and crossed his arms again, this time actually taking a step back so there was a little more space between them. This movement caught Gary's attention. He looked at Ash sideways, still lost somewhere in his thoughts, and for a second, Ash felt like the ground was about to give way beneath his feet. The sheer amount of pain and loneliness in Gary's eyes blew him away, so much that he was forced to look away. He felt like he'd caught Gary in a moment of defenselessness, with all his guards down – and suddenly, in a moment of sheer craziness, all he wanted to do was wrap his arms around his childhood friend and never let go.
"Uh…" he began, not knowing what to say, but knowing he had to say something, or he'd end up hugging Gary, which would definitely get him a well-deserved right hook.
"It's okay, Ash."
Gary was still looking at him, and though his walls were back up again, he didn't seem angry or upset that Ash had caught him in a rare moment of vulnerability.
Ash shifted from one foot to the other.
"Ash, I…I don't know. I'm sorry."
Ash didn't fully understand what Gary was apologizing for – he's actually apologizing to me, a part of his mind reminded him – but nevertheless, he nodded. He realized Gary hadn't answered his previous question, but that was okay. He probably wasn't ready for the answer, anyway. He didn't even know if he wanted an answer in the first place, anyway.
"I watched your final match with Ritchie."
Ash was startled back to reality again. He was getting whiplash now – who was this person standing with him and what had he done to Gary? Gary had actually watched his Indigo League match after having been chucked out of the competition himself?
"If not for Charizard, you would have won. While that goes to show you still have a lot of work to do as a trainer – " here Gary chuckled lightly and Ash heaved a sigh of relief to see that Gary was still the Gary he knew – "you were really great, Ash. I guess you aren't as much of a loser as I had made you out to be."
"I was never a loser!" Ash protested half-heartedly, a strange warmth spreading over him, seeping in even through his soaked clothes.
"Maybe someday we can…get there again, you know?"
"Get where? Back to the Indigo league?"
Gary lightly cuffed Ash in the shoulder. "No, idiot. Back to how we were before – " he waved his hands around awkwardly – "all of this happened."
And Gary was staring straight into his eyes again, a strange fire burning in them. Arceus help me, was all Ash could think before he threw his arms around his friend, not caring that he stood a foot taller than him, not caring that this was Gary he had thrown himself against, and definitely not caring about the rough shove that he knew would soon follow.
Somehow, it never did. He could feel Gary bring his own arms to wrap them around Ash's body – his backpack, to be precise. He could feel Gary's hair – all wet and soaking – in his face, and for a split second, he felt at home.
"Pika pi?"
And suddenly, the moment was over. Both boys threw themselves apart, Gary turning straight ahead and nervously running his hands through his hair, and Ash bending down to speak with Pikachu, who had let itself out of the hole.
"Pikaa!"
"What is it, Pikachu?"
It wasn't Pikachu who answered, but Gary. "You really are a loser, Ashy-boy. Care to notice the rain's pattered down?" The condescending smirk was back in his voice and on his face.
As Ash stood up, Pikachu on his shoulder, he couldn't help wonder if he'd fallen asleep underneath the tree and dreamt up the whole last half hour – it was almost like it had never happened.
"You can go on ahead, Gary," said Ash, "Pikachu and me can look for Misty and Brock on our own."
Gary shrugged. "C'mon HootHoot, we'd better get going."
The thunder and lightning had almost died down now, and the rain was barely a drizzle. The moon had come out from behind the clouds, bathing the forest in white.
"Gary, you'll be okay, right?"
Gary looked straight into Ash's eyes, and for a split second, it was almost like they were standing under the tree, eyes burning with a passion none of them could explain.
Then Gary turned around and began walking, HootHoot by his side. "Smell ya later, Ashy-boy!" he lifted a hand in goodbye without turning around, continuing to walk straight ahead.
Ash stared after his departing figure for a few seconds before shaking his head and turning around to walk in the opposite direction. He didn't know what the hell had happened under that tree while the storm had raged, but maybe he didn't need to know. He knew he had not dreamt it – all of it had been real, and probably, that was the only thing that mattered.
"Pika pi!"
"Yeah Pikachu, let's go find Misty and Brock."
"Pikaaaaa!"
A/N: Okay, so...hope you liked it...? This was my first shot ever at a Palletshipping story. They've been my favorite ship for quite a long time now, but I never got around to writing anything with them, but today suddenly inspiration struck, and...well...you just read the results of said inspiration.
Liked it? Hated it? Please leave a review? :)