Disclaimer: Pokemon is not mine.

Author's Note: Eheh...I'm back. It took a year but my ass is back in gear and I'm feeling like writing again. This story, although only two chapters, was favorited enough times for me to realize that people want to see where I decide to take it (myself included hahaha!) and so, here it is! Chapter three STARTO~!

So I have decided that this will be staying in Gary's POV. It's a lot harder to write, but it's fun once I get into it.

And as always, REVIEW PLEASE!

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All That Glitters Ain't Gold

Chapter 3

A Splendid Homecoming

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I'm never going to forget that first dinner. Everyone was on edge--all for different reasons mind you, but the fact does remain--and the tension was ridiculous amounts of thick. The only one unaffected, naturally, was Mrs. Ketchum; but to some extent she was out of it. I suppose if I had to guess she was just bummed that her son's only chance of an age appropriate relationship had been shot. Oh well, there's that one saying about crumbling cookies that just seems to fit that particular "situation" to a tee.

Anyways, as I was saying, tension was huge and people were frazzled. No one more than me and Misty, though. We had BARELY managed to reach peace, and had just come up with months worth of relationship in the span of hours. It went without saying that we both knew we would be the hot topic at dinner. So not only did we have to keep our stories straight; there were a couple of skeptics in our midst that needed convincing.

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Gary was starting to wonder if that whole "Ash's group has insane timing" thing stayed with people after leaving the group. They arrived at the Oak Mansion just as dinner was being set out on the table.

At face value, the greeting was warm enough. There were hugs all around for Misty, a Dawn introduction for Tracey, and a pot of coffee for Gary. He figured that some things were more important than hugs; and after the day he had had, coffee definitely outranked the overly sugar coated welcome parade in the other room. Naturally, his peace was short lived, however, as everyone made their way to the food waiting on the table. Gary fought back an eye twitch as he realized that he and Misty were seated directly across from Ash and Dawn. Oh golly gee, what a coincidence!

The actual eating itself was peaceful. Regardless of whatever was going to come, there was no changing the fact that the table was full of starving people. But as the food started disappearing and the conversations started up Gary knew he was caught in a battle with time. He also knew that Misty felt the same, as her posture slightly tensed after finishing the last of her food. But, when he thought about it, there really was nothing to worry about. Their "history" had been perfected, and they both knew it inside out--mainly since it was all their own fabricated story and all. The thought calmed Gary's nerves somewhat, and he grabbed Misty's hand and gave it a squeeze, hoping to ease some of her tension. Unfortunately, it seemed as if no action was going to go unnoticed to prying eyes...

"So Mistyyyyy," Dawn started. "How did you guys meet? Since you guys are SUCH good friends with Ash I figured you would have told him AGES ago...how long have you been together again?"

"Four months and ten days." She replied proudly.

Gary bit back a laugh as Dawn seemed to get miffed by Misty's speedy reply.

"You see, it was by complete chance that we met. My sisters were vacationing in Sinnoh, Floarama Town I think, where they met a certain spiky headed researcher..."

"Haha, initially it was Violet who was interested in me. Can't say the feeling was mutual, but it was nice to get to hang out with people my own age for once. Luckily, Violet quickly moved on after learning my age; but I guess I left a good enough impression on all of them...they invited me to come back to Cerulean and meet their little sister who was--I believe the word was incompetent--at finding herself a decent guy. Considering I had some vacation time of my own coming up I figured why not? The Sensational Sisters were cool enough and I hadn't been on a date in a while. Heh, I assumed if things went bad I could just run back to Pallet Town and hang out with Gramps anyways. It was a win win situation."

"And you didn't recognize them?" Ash asked with an eyebrow raised.

"Pft, heck no! Last time I was in Cerulean I was 10 years old and, eheh, it was a really quick battle. I was kind of in and out, you know?"

"ANYWAYS, putting my sisters' lack of battling skill to the side and getting back to the story...at that time I had been getting calls daily from them saying that they had found me the perfect guy and shit. I wasn't amused. I figured there was no way I'd ever agree with a guy that my sisters chose. And I was partially right. They eventually wore me down and I agreed to one date and one date only. The day eventually came and I nearly slammed the door in shock seeing Gary of all people there! It's logical if you think about it, I'd only known him as Ash's rival and, naturally, had a degree of dislike for him myself. HAHA! It took the might of all three of my sisters to practically force me out the door! And even then, I was pretty unpleasant for the first part of the date itself. It wasn't until later that I decided to give him a fresh start."

"Since Gramps and Bill are about the same age and have been working alongside each other since before I was even born, I always considered him an uncle of sorts. I was staying with him at the time and when I told him the situation beforehand he was all too happy to conveniently 'be away' on the day of our date: I set up a picnic right on the cliff where we could eat and watch the sunset together. I brought her there and laid it out crystal clear. I told her that I knew she probably didn't like me, but we were stuck together for the next couple hours whether she liked it or not; and I gave her two choices. She could either sit in silence then go home alone or give me a fair chance and we could hang out and honestly get to know each other."

"Geez, then you waved that stupid sandwich in my face as a bribe!" Misty laughed.

"Hey, it worked didn't it!"

"Whatever...doesn't change the fact that you suck as a chef though! But yeah, I figured being a snobby brat wasn't helping anyone and decided to actually try dignified conversation. I don't think either of us expected to hit it off so well! We talked about our likes, dislikes, dreams for the future, and about everything in between. The food and sunset were long gone and over but it didn't make a difference; we just plopped onto our backs and kept talking as we stargazed. Eventually the sun came back and it was about then that we figured it was best that I got home before my sisters woke up and started worrying over nothing. He walked me home and asked me out for coffee later that morning; I agreed; and the rest was history."

Gary smirked as the table erupted into a burst of "awwwwwws" and "that's so cutes." He had to hand it to Misty, she was a good actress. If he hadn't known the truth he definitely would've bought the story; he saw Dawn's face take on a crestfallen look while Ash's simply looked deep in thought. Well that was good news for Misty, he supposed. If Ash was already doing outlandish things like thinking who knew what other miracles could occur! He was brought out of his thoughts by Brock clearing his throat.

"Ok Gary, pop quiz. What foods will Misty absolutely not eat?"

"Oh that's easy, carrots and peppers." He shrugged.

"Misty. What's Gary's favorite color?" Ash spoke up suddenly.

For a split second Gary's mask broke. It's something that they hadn't bothered talking about, but actually quite important. His favorite color was blue. Most people assumed it was purple, due to the old shirt he wore, but in truth he wasn't a big fan of purple at all. The only reason he wore the shirt was because of an argument he had had with Ash when they were kids. He tried insisting that the shirt was blue and Ash just laughed and called it a "girly purple color." From then on, he had worn the shirt just to prove that he could wear a "girly" color and still be great. Naturally, he never accepted defeat and had started calling it his lucky "blue-violet" shirt. But anyone with eyes could see it was purple; and the point was that if Misty named it as his favorite color Ash would suspect something for sure. If all eyes weren't on them Gary would've slapped his hand to his head in frustration for forgetting to mention something so simple to her. Oh well, there was nothing he could do about it now.

"Well...there's his real favorite color...but if you asked him he's ten times more likely to say that it really doesn't matter since he looks good in any and every color..."

Ash was about to open his mouth to respond but Professor Oak beat him to it.

"HAHAHA it's TRUE! I've heard him say it more times than I can count. Really Gary, what's so wrong with admitting you like purple?"

"It's not my favorite color." Professor Oak blinked at Gary's response.

"Oh. Then what is it?"

"Colors don't matter since I look good in anything I wear anyways." He smirked.

As the table laughed at his joke Gary heard Misty lightly let out a sigh of relief beside him. He gave her hand a squeeze to let her know that she had done great. It wasn't until she smiled back at him did he realize she understood what he was trying to tell her.

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The rest of dinner was easy enough. The Ketchum Crew eventually started trickling back to their own house until only Brock and Ash remained. Gary took the obvious hint and whistled a merry tune as he carried dishes into the kitchen. He couldn't make out what was being said, but it was pretty obvious what they were talking about anyways. Apparently Ash really didn't like something Misty said and Gary struggled to keep his laughter at bay. Brock's eyes were still closed, however, which probably meant he wasn't in complete shock/outrage/apallation at the current situation. A good thing perhaps? Pouring himself another cup of coffee, Gary went back to the table--where "the crew" was still in deep, hush hush conversation--and grabbed more plates, raising an eyebrow on the way out. Now when did Ash learn so many four letter words?

"You are a genius!"

Gary turned to face his "girlfriend" as she continued talking.

"You see how mad he is? Tell me that isn't jealousy!" Misty gushed.

"He's still here right? Wanna make him even more mad?"

Misty only gave him a smirk that, for a second, made him actually believe that they had been dating for four months. Gary smiled charmingly, grabbed her hand, and together they walked back to the others. Ash had a resigned look in his eyes that made him wonder what exactly Misty had said to him before she came bursting into the kitchen. Girlfriend or not, Gary had to admit he respected her ability to break the obnoxiously bright Ketchum spirit. He slung an arm over Misty's shoulder as everyone started saying their goodbyes...that never seemed to end. Gary made a mental note of the fact. In the past he had actually noticed that Ash's group had a tendency to do a strange, "wave as they walk away" thing; but the actual goodbyes themselves were just as drawn out? No wonder he was so far ahead in the beginning of their journey!

"Umm..sorry to cut you guys off, but I'm a little tired and wouldn't mind having some alone time with Misty before I hit the sack."

"No problem. We're about done here anyways." Brock said diplomatically.

"Cool. Oh, hey Red, where are your bags? I'll bring them up to my room."

"SHE'S STAYING IN YOUR ROOM?!?!"

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And that was the first and only time I've seen Brock's eyes open.

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"Yeah. I'm loaning her your old bed, Ash."

Feeling quite satisfied with himself, Gary made his exit with Misty following a minute or two afterwards. They blinked at each other for a minute before they heard the front door close. Not even a split second later they burst into unrestrained laughter. Gary, for his part, found the whole situation amusing. This was honestly the first time that he and Misty had been able to let their guards down around each other, and he had Ash to thank. There was definitely something to be said about the powers of irony. He led Misty through some hallways until the eventually reached his bedroom. He noticed her giving him a look and sighed, apparently their small truce still wasn't completely solidified. But Gary found it didn't bother him too much; compared to the nonstop screaming he received earlier simple uneasiness was a welcome change. There would be time to actually build trust and that crap later.

"Don't give me that look. You're not gonna be in my bed or anything like that. The only thing we'll be sharing is a bathroom and door."

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I know that my life has been pretty damn nice. I grew up with lots of money and wasn't humble about it, period. A big part of that came from my Grandpa giving into most any demand I had when I was younger. Take, for example, my bedroom. When my parents died and I came to live in Gramps' mansion he let me pick any room I wanted; being the little brat I was, I picked two. My bedroom is actually two separate rooms that are connected by a bathroom and you better believe that both of my rooms are fully furnished. When Ash and I were younger he used to sleep in one room while I took the the other one.

Never thought I'd ever loan the other room to someone like Misty, that's for sure.

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Gary scratched his head in slight annoyance. When he had first claimed his bedroom he demanded that one of the two doorways be torn down and turned into simple wall. The reasoning was simple enough, if there were two doors then he was just crashing in two different rooms. By only having one doorway it made it more official that all of it was his room. The room with the doorway was his lounge space, then there was the bathroom, and finally the place where he slept. Simple enough layout and it had never given him problems before. But now here he was. It was seven in the morning and he was craving his coffee and leftover research that he didn't really get to touch the day before. The problem was the redhead sleeping in the next room over. He didn't really want to wake her but...he was wide awake dammit! He continued scratching his head and pondered the events of the night before.

Misty had calmed down after he told her they wouldn't be sharing a bed. He stayed true to his word and gave her Ash's old bed--a huge worn in couch that was probably as old as he was, if not more. Feeling a little tired at the time, Gary had turned in soon after that, but made sure to make some joke about him possibly needing company in the middle of the night before he left. The look on her face had been priceless. The idiot loudmouth actually thought he wanted to sleep with her? Yeah right. As far as he was concerned, sex with Misty would be like sleeping with a dolled up Pikachu. Well ok, so Misty was a lot prettier than Pikachu but it was still the same feeling! Misty practically had Ash's name stamped across her head and the thought of Ash killed his libido ten times more than any conventional cockblock ever could.

Gary smirked as an idea hit him. Later on he'd probably smack his head for it, considering it had nothing to do with what he was pondering before that. But you know what? It didn't matter anyways. Reaching into his desk, Gary grabbed a pen and some sticky notes. He scribbled a message onto the top one and separated it from the stack. Sneaking to the best of his ability, Gary made it through the bathroom and into Misty's room noiselessly. He gently stuck the note on her sleeping persona before making a break for the kitchen, cackling all the way. Misty probably wouldn't be too amused when she woke up, but it was okay! He figured he could always make it up to her...theoretically.

My favorite color is blue.