FOOL, BOY
Chapter Three
Running, running, running.
Tripping and falling.
Then some more running.
Leaning against a tree.
Late afternoon already.
Cursing Brock's lack of orienteering skills.
Running again.
Don't think, don't think, don't think – tripping again on tree roots.
Streaks of dirt all over.
Doesn't matter.
Just look at the path.
Run, just run, just run and don't trip.
Ouch.
Right, get up.
Keep going.
Keep going.
Keep going.
…
Finally.
Panting slightly, Gary slowed to a halt, noticing the trees thinning to reveal a small clearing. His chest felt tight and his cheeks were flushed and his mind was blank. His worn body welcomed the return of oxygen, allowing his tired muscles to relax somewhat.
Gary's head lolled back. He could see the clearing sky.
Blue.
Bright beautiful blue.
Cannot relax. It isn't over yet.
Unfortunately, due to his lack of concentration whilst pelting through the forest, his once coal-black shirt now had dark brown dirt all over it and he looked a dishevelled mess. He looked even more unkempt now that he had collapsed onto the forest floor, debris and all sorts clinging to his trousers.
Nonetheless, he was ready. He had absolutely no idea what he was going to say, but he was ready.
Using a tree trunk for leverage, Gary lifted himself to his feet and delicately walked towards the opening of the small clearing.
It was littered with a tent and three sleeping bags. There was a pile of smouldering embers lying in the centre and various pieces of colourful camping equipment sitting in unsystematic piles, nestled in the grass.
Gary crept into the space, checking the sleeping bags and frowning. He looked behind and around himself before coming to the conclusion that the once-inhabited site was now empty; which meant that there was no Ash.
Gary sighed. Life was not going to go easy on him today.
He spun in a circle with a hand pulling at his hair, at a loss of what to do next. He had gotten this far and was too jumpy to simply wait for somebody to return, so he slowly paced around the edge of the clearing instead. He listened intently for something, anything to alert him to the nearby presence of another person.
As he waited, his mind pondered the whereabouts of the reckless boy.
Undoubtedly, he thought, Pikachu had already figured out where his Master was and probably stood by him as he read the message from his friends. It was clear in his mind's eye - he would frown at first. Then he would carelessly toss the attached note to the side and unroll the scroll before glancing over the scruffy, handwritten letters. He would read it all, mouthing the words with soft lips, his gorgeous brown eyes taking in every scrawled word, even if he did not understand them all. His breath would hitch as he saw the separate line at the bottom, and he would pull that insatiable face of confusion. And then, and then…
Gary gulped. He needed to find him.
He felt torn between sprinting off into the trees to track down the trainer and do something impulsive – much unlike his usual character and scarily like Ash's – and thinking his situation through calmly and sensibly.
Hastily, Gary grasped the first option and aimlessly ran back into the woodlands.
He was back to running, barging through trees and shouldering away branches.
Run. Just run. Do not think.
He could not think. He would not allow himself to think. He would dive into this headfirst and damn the consequences, should they be bad.
Gary was exhausted before long. He had to stop. He did not want to stop but his lungs were crying out for mercy. Panting, panting, panting. Breathe, come on. Blood pulsed past his ear drums.
And then he heard something. A shout. A laugh.
He froze, pinning his ears back.
Stop breathing.
There was a moment of silence before he heard him.
"Pikachu, what was that for? Where've you been? Hold on a second, I'm kinda busy… Just calm down a – hey, what have you got there?"
Gary's eyes widened – he was so close, yet so far! Ash's voice was clear but Gary had no idea which direction it had come from. He listened for another sound.
"A message? Oh, so you went to see Dawn and Brock – I'd wondered where they'd gone. Disappearing on me like that before I'd even woken up…"
Gary heard him to his left and before his brain could catch up, his legs were carrying him towards the aspiring Pokémon Master. Breathing was no longer an issue. He left the path he had been following and cut through the trees, pushing foliage and stray branches out of his way.
His heart beat faster as he got closer to him.
"I mean, how uncaring can they be? At least you were there, buddy – I would really have been panicking otherwi-" Ash's voice stopped, and Gary halted abruptly, straining to hear something other than his rapidly pulsing heart.
Something.
Anything.
Anyone.
Please.
"I feel like I'm wasting my time. Will we continue or not?" Gary's eyes flew open at the sound of an unfamiliar voice – a male voice. Continue? Gary's thoughts flew into a fluster. Continue with what? Slowly, he crept towards Ash and his unknown companion, breathing shallowly.
"Yeah, just give me a minute." Ash's voice suddenly sounded strained and Gary swallowed, finally able to see the trainer through a parting in the trees. He could not see the other elusive boy.
"Hn. I knew you weren't worth it." Gary's anger flared. Ash's companion had a voice that was flat yet sharp and in that moment, Gary decided that there was no way he was going to let this insignificant brat talk to Ash like that.
"Look, if you knew that, then why did you say-"
"Ashy-boy?"
Gary had leapt through the trees surrounding a large battle field, landing a couple of metres away from Ash, and was currently attempting to hide the fact that he had been running to find him for who-knows-how-long by barely breathing.
Ash looked up at him in surprise, noticing the pink flush on Gary's cheeks, before looking back down at the scroll in his hand and the note stuck to it. "Huh," he muttered, "guess Dawn and Brock did meet you in the forest." Gary noticed the small mouse Pokémon pulling on the leg of his master's trousers, glancing over at him every so often.
"Uh, yeah," Gary stammered, trying to formulate a response – an excuse, mainly, for why he had suddenly appeared from nowhere. "I thought that Dawn saying 'hi' for me was impersonal and stuff, so I thought – I thought that I'd come and, you know, say 'hi' myself." Gary stopped, and Ash blinked at him. Gary smiled slightly and waved awkwardly in greeting. "So, hi, I guess." Ash grinned before walking over towards him, and Gary folded his arms, cringing inwardly.
"You searched through the whole forest just to say hello to me?" Ash stopped in front of him and cocked his head to the side, scrutinizing Gary's face. He shrugged and pulled a smug grin, "I guess you just missed me that much, huh?"
Gary couldn't tell whether Ash was mocking him or being completely serious and instead, blushed a bright shade of red, breathing heavily. Ash didn't seem to notice as he was temporarily distracted by Pikachu's whining. Gary was about to mutter something to attract the boy's gaze once more, even if it was garbled and incomprehensible, but was unfortunately – or fortunately, perhaps in his case - interrupted.
"Loser has friends, hm? Don't see why they waste their time on someone as pathetic as you." Gary turned to face the intruder and was met with a boy about Ash's age.
He wore an angered expression akin to a Gyarados and had cool lilac hair that harshly framed his pronounced cheekbones. Piercing onyx eyes flashed dangerously at him and Gary's glare was met with a dark scowl. He was temporarily surprised - what was wrong with this guy?
Gary noted out of the corner of his eye that Ash's expression had changed quickly to one of frustration. "Look, Paul, if I'm that much of a waste, just leave. I'm not in the mood anymore."
"Hn." And that, it seemed, was that. Paul, as Gary understood, left with a final dark look in the researcher's direction, before closing his eyes and walking away in silence. Gary looked back to Ash, who was watching the temperamental boy leave with a strange expression on his face. Gary suddenly felt nervous. He needed to know about Paul.
"Well, he seemed nice," he began. "Who is he?" Ash grimaced, his gaze still trained on the retreating back of the trainer.
"That was Paul, my rival," Ash replied quietly, frowning. Gary felt a twinge of jealousy.
"Your rival, huh?" Gary nudged the slightly smaller boy in the side jokingly, in what he hoped was a casual manner. He then smirked and winked. "Ever as good as me?" Ash laughed, looking at Gary, finally.
"In terms of battling, or how you both treat me?" Ash teased and Gary was thrown. He could make a snarky joke about Paul and big-up his ego at the same time – God, that sounds like a good idea – or he could play this towards the ultimate goal of making Ash adore him; or realise Gary's feelings at the very least.
Or he could insult Ash and make a run for the hills.
Ash frowned, noticing Gary's offered silence instead. "Hey, are you okay? You seem a bit off at the moment – and your cheeks are flushed," Ash pressed the back of his hand to Gary's warm face and he tried not to sigh at the relief of the cool touch, and at the fact that Ash was caring about his welfare. "Are you ill?"
"Ah, no, well, yes. I'm just a feeling a bit, uh, strange today," Gary replied weakly with a half-hearted grin, convinced that Ash would pick up on the badly-constructed lie.
"Oh, cool. I get that sometimes too." Ash folded his arms, looking innocently at his former-rival.
Gary blanched. Apparently not.
His train of thought crashed as he briefly felt a gloved palm on his cheek. "Are you sure you're all right? You're pulling strange faces." Ash tilted his head, looking up at the exasperated researcher with a frown tugging at his lip.
Gary tried to breathe calmly. He could do this; he would do this. Telling the truth wasn't that difficult, right?
"The sun's really warm today." Gary grimaced – wrong. He couldn't do this.
"Really?" Ash looked up at the sky and then around him, stretching his arms out wide. "I don't think so – feels pretty cool to me." He flopped onto the grass below him, lying out flat on his back.
Gary shrugged in reply, a comfortable silence settling between the pair. Gary set down gently next to Ash and watched him out of his peripheral vision.
Ash had his eyes closed, his cap shading them from the sun, as his chest rose and fell softly with his quiet breathing. Pikachu was now curled up on his abdomen and gently prodding Ash's hand with his tail, which was lying over his torso. His hand. The hand that was holding the poem. Gary stared at the paper, unfocused, deciding to maybe allow events to just play out naturally for once. His interference would probably only lead to more awkward questions than there should be.
"Do you know who it's from, Gary?" Ash startled him, causing Gary to see the boy looking at him with inquisitive half-open eyes. Gary stayed silent, stuck between not wanting to give anything away and not wanting to lie. Ash chuckled. "Look at you. Never seen you be so quiet."
Gary falsely smiled in reply, feeling flustered. "Never felt so lost for words."
Ash smiled at his friend before sitting up next to him, brushing their shoulders together: neither of them moved away. With great care, after several moments of playing with the roll in his hands, Ash removed the note before sliding his nail between the two sides of the sheet and unfolding it.
Gary gulped.
This was it; everything that he had ever thought about this boy and everything that he had ever wanted from him all came down to this moment. He hid his lips behind his hand as he nervously bit at them, causing them to flush red.
Ash held the paper out straight and read the first few lines out loud, his voice ringing across the pitch.
"'I understand this must be strange, to receive a poem with no name, but it is a love poem nonetheless, one in which I can confess.'" Ash's eyes widened and he reread the line.
"Uh, Ash?" Gary tapped him on the shoulder after several moments of silence. "Are you okay?" Ash ignored his queries.
"Gary," Ash started instead.
"Yes?"
"It's a love poem."
Gary sighed.
"Wow, it's really long," Ash muttered to himself, scanning the page, before pausing and fixing his gaze on the bottom of the passage. "Hey, Gary." Ash sat up on his knees, leaning over towards the taller boy.
"Yeah?" He swallowed as Ash's hair tickled his left cheekbone.
"I think I know this person. Look at this," he shoved the worn sheet in front of Gary's face, clueless to the effect he was having on him.
"Um, 'Sorry can't fix the things that I've done to you, but believe me Ash when I tell you this – I love you.'" Gary looked towards the sky with a stricken look – how could he have possibly written this? He coughed to clear his throat, turning his head back towards Ash. "They, uh, sound serious." He ruffled his spikes whilst Ash tried to decipher more from the page.
"Dawn got this from someone," Ash said quietly, "she got it from a guy in a cape and wouldn't tell me who. We're in a forest. What are the chances of being in the forest with someone in a cape who loves me, and someone who's sorry for things they've done?" Ash slumped over, his chin resting in his palm as he thought. Gary felt his hand become clammy – it could only be a matter of time before Ash realised tha-
"Lance sent me a love poem?" Ash's eyes were wide as his face turned to the image of puzzlement. Gary felt like whacking the poor boy up-side the head.
"No, Ash. Why on earth would the champion of the Kanto League be in Sinnoh to send you a love poem?" Ash relaxed slightly, looking somewhat relieved that he didn't have to be the subject of Lance's intense emotions; as powerful as his Dragon Pokémon, in all probability.
"Hmm... Dawn?" he offered instead, looking towards the older boy.
"I don't think so - Dawn said she got it from a guy, didn't she?"
"Oh, right." A few moments of hush passed before the trainer dramatically burst into life again. "I know! I know who it is! He doesn't wear a cape, but I know who it is! Who else could it be?" Ash suddenly twisted to grab Gary's shoulders, shaking him back and forth. "Gary, Gary, Gary, what am I going to do?"
Gary was confused. "Who do you think it is?"
"Are you an idiot?" Ash looked at Gary incredulously, "It was Brock! All this time and it was Brock! Girl-loving, Pokémon-breeder, best-friend Brock!" Gary sighed, grabbing Ash's face between his hands to calm him down.
"Ash, it was not Brock." Ash looked at him, helplessly muddled. "Brock has nothing to apologize to you for, plus he is head-over-heels in love with every pretty girl to have ever existed. And in all honesty, do you really think he could write a poem like this?" Gary raised an eyebrow at the boy, watching his shoulders slump in relief.
"Oh, thank God, because that could have been really awkward."
"At least you have me here to help figure it out," Gary ruffled his hair and laughed as Ash batted away his hand with a dash of red over his cheeks. "So, got any more ideas?" Ash tilted his head to the side, looking in the direction that the angry-boy had left earlier. His jaw dropped.
"Paul? Paul? There is no way that-" Ash was stopped by a hand covering his mouth.
"Don't worry, Ash. There's no way that it was Paul," Gary smiled tightly once more at the boy's dear look of confusion. Although Gary sometimes found Ash's complete lack of common sense to be quite amusing, today he was finding it quite nerve-wrecking.
"Oh, okay… Wait, how do you know that there was no way it was Paul?" Ash pointed a finger at Gary suspiciously and leaned in closer to his face, causing Gary to blush – again.
"Because, um, he was here, when I was with Dawn, when she saw the guy," Gary spluttered, trying not to fall backwards.
"You were with her?"
Oh, shit.
"Erm, yes?"
"When she saw the guy?"
"Ash, really, don't you-"
"You know who it is?"
"Well, yes, but-"
"Why won't you just tell me?"
"Look, it's really not that sim-"
"If you were a good friend you would have told me who this guy was already and-"
"Ash, just listen, I'm pretty sure-"
"-I wouldn't be worrying so much about this and-"
"Wait, why are you so worried about it?"
"-and I'm so confused and it hurts, Gary, it hurts to know that there is someone out there who likes me and I can't do anything about it-"
"Ash, pay attention-"
"-and I need to know-"
"Really, you need to listen to me."
"-I have to know-"
"Won't you just shut up for a minute?
"-why can't you – hey, what are you-mmf!"
Ash had frozen with shock, eyes wide and staring at Gary's face as he was effectively quieted. The answer he had been searching for dawned upon him. Gary had his eyes scrunched close, eyebrows furrowed with apprehension as he hoped his impulsive actions worked out for the best. If they didn't, well, at least he would always have this moment – the moment where, for the first time in his life, he felt that magic that all girls seem to babble on about.
Flushing, Gary drew his head away from Ash's face and sat back on the grass, no longer making contact with the trainer. He stared intently at the blades around him, which now seemed a lot more interesting than they were a few minutes ago, and plucked one from the ground before tearing it to pieces. Ash watched, trying to say something.
"It was you," he stated rather blandly after a few moments, trying to catch Gary's eyes. "You wrote the poem, you spoke to Dawn."
Gary would not look up. He tore up several more blades of grass instead.
"My best friend - my rival," Ash's voice cracked and he wanted so badly to touch his shoulder, to make him look up.
But his hand remained on his knee, loosely holding the poem. He swallowed.
"You love me," Ash whispered, looking at the side of his head.
Gary dropped the blades of grass, letting his hands fall as his heart beat furiously. He looked at the boy, who was in turn staring at the field.
"Yes." Weak. He could say nothing more.
Silence. A long, long silence.
"Gary Oak loves me," Ash muttered again, trying to make sense of it all in his head. He looked up and their gazes met, causing Gary to stop breathing. "You wore a cape once."
Gary chuckled uncertainly, "So I did." Quietness began to settle over the pair, begging to be banished.
"Why didn't," Ash tried to talk, but felt quite tongue-tied. He swallowed before trying once more. "Why didn't you say something before, when you first saw me?"
"I couldn't." Gary was still wary and suffering from shock, caused by the slight probability that his feelings may just be reciprocated. "I'd come to try and stop you reading the poem." Ash frowned.
"Why?"
"Because I wanted to tell you face to face." Gary looked skywards. "It was Dawn's fault that Pikachu brought it to you anyway."
"I'm glad he brought me the poem," Ash said hastily, ruffling the Pokémon's coat. After a moment of accidental tugging on his fur, however, Pikachu bounded off, back into the forest, leaving the pair alone.
"So it was a good thing it happened?" Gary offered weakly, and Ash nodded briskly, his mouth tightly shut.
Relieved, Gary grinned, watching Ash blush and look away. "From your reactions, I'm guessing this isn't the first time you've thought about us, hm?" Ash played with his hands. "Ash," Gary said quietly, "do you like me?"
The boy shrugged his shoulders. "Yeah, but I couldn't tell you about it because I hardly ever see you. You're never always here."
"Well," Gary moved in closer, still slightly hesitant, "I'm here right now, and I'm telling you that I l-love you, Ashy-boy. What're you going to do?"
"I-I don't know, I feel really weird," Ash stammered, his face and neck heating up with embarrassment.
"Come on now, no need to be shy," Gary murmured, red still splashed across his cheekbones despite his cocky demeanour, "I want to know what you want me to do." He moved in so his lips were tantalizingly close to Ash's, and Ash floundered before blurting out a request.
"Hold my hand!" Ash blushed furiously, and Gary blanched.
"Hold your hand?" He raised an eyebrow. "You don't want me to kiss you or something?"
"Ah, why would I want you to?" Ash ducked his head before mumbling, "You just did that," whilst playing with his hands in his lap and pulling at his lower lip. The silence was broken by a whisper and a chuckle. "This is so awkward."
Gary felt a nervous panic pull at his heart once more, but held out a palm regardless, watching as the smaller boy looked at his hand with surprise. Tentatively, Ash reached out and lets his palm meet with Gary's.
They blinked.
"Hold on a sec," Gary quickly withdrew his hand and Ash panicked, before realising that Gary was only trying to remove his glove. "You wear these all the time, and I can only feel material – there we go." Gary smiled, tossing the glove over his shoulder before grabbing Ash's hand again.
It was warm, Ash noted, and at that moment, he realised he adored holding Gary's hand, even if it did make him feel like a small child. He boldly interlocked their fingers and gave a small squeeze, looking up into Gary's eyes, before sniggering. Gary pulled on Ash's arm, worried that he was being laughed at.
"What is it? What did I do?" Ash shuffled closer to Gary in response and held their hands in his lap, still grinning.
"Oh, nothing," Ash ran the fingers of his other hand over the back of Gary's knuckles. "It's just, in everything I've ever imagined, I never actually thought I would be here, holding hands with Gary Oak. I was scared for a minute that you would say no."
Gary smiled, closing his eyes, relishing in the warmth of the summer sun and heat from the trainer next to him. "Aw, Ashy-boy, you're so cute."
"I'm not cute," Ash muttered defiantly, flicking Gary's hand for good measure.
Gary laughed at Ash's cute attempts to not appear cute. "Ha, okay, whatever you say."
"Hm."
"I still think you're cute." Ash thwacked Gary on the shoulder, before huffing.
"I should get Dawn to hit you with that mallet of hers."
Gary sat up, eyebrows disappearing into his hair line. "Wait – you know about that?"
"Yeah, she's used it on me several times."
Gary pouted and tapped the side of his head with his free hand, mumbling angrily. Ash smiled, and awkwardly wrapped Gary's arm around his neck, snuggling into his shoulder.
"Oh, yeah, so not cute, Ash," Gary laughed, holding him in tighter as Ash sighed.
"Whatever. I don't care anymore."
"Really?"
"Truly."
Gary ruffled Ash's hair, and he pushed away from him in annoyance, pulling his hat straight.
"Gary, you're ruining my hair." Gary smirked.
"You mean, it's not already ruined?"
"You're one to talk." Ash punctuated his response with a ruffle of Gary's hair, causing the taller boy to lean out of his reach, biting his lip in an attempt to not laugh. Grabbing Ash's wrists, he put on a serious expression and closed his eyes, pulling a pose.
"My hair is artistic." Ash snorted, pulling his arms from Gary's grasp, and snuggling into his side once more.
"Whatever helps you sleep at night, Gary." They fell into silence once more, both with smiles pulling at their lips.
"You know, we should do this more often," Gary sighed into Ash's hair and squeezed his shoulders gently.
"Definitely," Ash replied softly, reaching for Gary's free hand. They touched and Ash closed his eyes, relaxing into the unfamiliar sensation of being adored. They breathed slowly, listening to the chirping emanating from the surrounding tree tops.
A thought flitted through Ash's mind, as he saw that the day was beginning to come to a close. He would not mind exploring this for a while, not at all.
His fingers tightened around Gary's own.
"Travel with us?"
Squeeze.
"I thought you would never ask."