Don't you cry no more.


Gary swore his heart stopped at that moment. He could've expected anything from Ash, since he was sometimes unpredictable, so Gary was rarely surprised. But the younger boy's confession was a whole other thing. Gary was never really all that lucky in his life, and he could never stop his feelings for the boy, even when he knew Ash could never love him back. But now there was actually a slight possibility, but for all he knew, Ash could like someone else.

After a minute of rummaging through his thoughts, he realized he was making the air between them uncomfortable with his gaping mouth and his utter silence. Ash awkwardly coughed, the poor boy wondering if he should've said anything at all.

"I…I'm sorry, I just…w-when did this happen? Or more importantly, how?"

Ash just shrugged, "I honestly don't know. I just never pictured myself with a girl at all, and every time I try to think of it, I end up failing to do so and therefore…I just accepted it. I mean I've always enjoyed being friends with guys rather than girls and I always depended on them too. I've never been in a relationship with a guy, or rather at all, but yeah. That's how, I guess."

"And when?"

"Well I realized it back in Sinnoh, but sometimes I still questioned it before that. I think it was near the end of my Johto journey is when."

Gary gulped, taking every detail in. "Who knows?"

Ash embarrassingly blushed at this, "Only Pikachu, Brock and Misty. And now you. I still don't have the guts to tell my mom. Or even Professor Oak," he breathily chuckled.

It was Gary's turn to chuckle. "I understand."

The black-haired boy fidgeted around, now clearly nervous in Gary's presence. "So um, sorry for not telling you ahead of time…I understand if you don't wanna sleep next to me or anything…"

"No, Ash it's fine," he replied a little too quickly, and then he regained himself. "I mean, I don't have a problem with it at all. I just wasn't expecting it."

"Yeah, believe me I wasn't either…But thanks, Gary. Besides my mom I was always afraid of what you would think," he confessed after the two started walking their way back to the lab.

"Why?"

"I don't know, I guess it's just…I've known you my whole life and I don't wanna ruin our friendship over something like that."

Gary smiled genuinely. "Ash, as much as I'm surprised about this, I could never let something like that ruin anything between us. You're allowed to love whoever you want, and that doesn't make you any different from the rest of the human world. As long as it doesn't change who you really are, then we'll be fine."

Ash played a big grin, visibly relieved. "Thanks, Gary. I'm really glad to hear that."

They finally reached the lab, and Gary let Ash go in first, and he could not resist the urge to stare at his rear end, and he looked at it longer than he should have. Shaking his head, he calmed down his blush and prayed to himself to hopefully not lose control when in front of Ash now…because now more than ever, Gary wanted Ash Ketchum bad.

XX

Ash was in a near perfect state right now – he was in the most comfortable position ever, his face snuggled in the feathery soft pillow, blankets pulled up to his bare shoulders, and his breathing at an even pace. But he still longed for that warmth of being in another person's arms, or more specifically, Gary's arms.

Unfortunately, there was an uncomfortable sensation near him, something tugging at the blankets and nipping at his skin. He groaned and slightly opened his eyes to see a fuzzy yellow presence in front of him.

"Ugh, Pikachu…what is it? I'm still tired," he talked to his companion, his eyes slowly closing.

"Chuuuu!" Pikachu mewled loudly, something obviously bothering the yellow ball of fur.

"Okay, jeez I'm getting up…" He checked the clock and the time angered him, "Pikachu! It's four in the morning!"

"Pika…" His ears drooped, feeling apologetic. But it didn't last long when Pikachu suddenly perked up, now urging his master to get a move on already.

"Okay, okay! What, do you need to go outside?" His question was answered with a nod. "Alright, come on…" He didn't bother putting on a shirt, but instead covered himself with an extra blanket. Pikachu followed him to the door in the living room, where Ash finally let him outside.

Ash sighed as Pikachu ran behind some bushes. "Of all times to go to the bathroom…jeez," he whispered to himself as he quickly glanced around the living room, seemingly quiet. But then something – or someone – on the couch caught his attention. It was Gary, lying on his stomach with one arm hanging from the couch. On the floor near the couch was a beer bottle and his cell phone.

Ash pulled a sympathetic face. 'Another rough morning, Gary? I guess Professor Oak called you again…'

Ash scoured the rest of Gary's body, noticing that his shirt has been pulled up a little (or due to Ash's dirty mind, his pants were pulled down a little…) revealing some of his light tan skin. His hair was totally disheveled, as if Gary ran his hands through it a lot.

The younger boy quietly walked over to him, removing the blanket from him and placing it on Gary up to his shoulders. Ash then got on his knees and observed the older boy's face, lightly tracing his jaw line with his thumb. Then with careful consideration, Ash delicately kissed Gary's forehead, right below his hairline. Ash took a whiff of his hair, smelling cinnamon and apples and found himself delirious to the scent.

He slowly pulled away before Gary could awaken, and got up to go back to the bedroom, but not before letting Pikachu in. Ash could tell Pikachu saw most of everything by his suggestive questioning look, but the raven-haired boy just shrugged it off and went back to the bedroom.

Pikachu sighed a melodramatic sigh. The pokémon just couldn't wait any longer to see those two kiss already.

XX

The rest of the day went pretty normal, nothing special happening. Gary and Ash agreed to walk around the rest of Sandgem Town and even hang around the outskirts of Jubilife City, but not until a little later at night.

Right now, Ash is with Crystal outside, showing off some of his Unova pokémon and telling her stories about his pokémon training adventures.

"Wow! So you really saved basically the whole world a bunch of times! I like that one story with Lugia the most though, I think. Especially the part when Team Rocket helped out and even sacrificed their lives for you guys!"

"Haha, yeah I know! They can be really annoying and sometimes evil, but inside I think they're actually really nice."

"They sure sound like it. I remember when Gary told me about the talking Meowth. My first instinct was with telepathy, ya know but Meowth doesn't have that much psychic power to do that. Plus his mouth actually moves, right? So I was really surprised!"

"I know. I didn't even notice it at first, I thought it was some kinda puppet or mascot they had, but nope, it was a living, breathing Meowth."

They both laughed, but then they were interrupted by Dora. "Hey. Sorry, I have to cut short here, but I need to take Crystal home."

The little girl frowned deeply, "Man!"

"Wait, I thought she lived here?"

"She sort of does. Our mom lives about half an hour away and we take turns taking care of her. I get to take care of Crystal on my days off or when I don't work all day and Mom takes care of her when I work full time."

"It's a really tiring process," Crystal confided. Dora sighed sympathetically upon hearing this.

"I'm sorry, Crystal, that does sound tiring. But one day you'll get to be free," Ash joked, making Dora chuckle.

"Definitely! Well, thanks for all the stories! You have to tell me more when I come back!"

"I will, I promise!"

They said their goodbyes, and Ash walked back into the house, where it was in that quiet state, or maybe too quiet. He visibly gulped and instantly walked to Gary's bedroom. He knew that Professor Oak called him earlier and heard Gary shouting, and that's when Ash decided to go outside with Crystal at that time. But now the silence was deafening.

He took the risk to go inside and was quite shocked to see a broken cell phone laying next to the wall and Gary sitting on his bed, his hair back in that disheveled state and his fingers massaging his temple. Gary stopped after seeing Ash and stood up.

Ash was nervous to be around the brunette in his angry status, because sometimes he can be a little dangerous to be around, his voice in a loud volume shouting expletives and whatnot. Thankfully, Gary never hurt Ash in a physical way.

The shorter boy closed the door behind him in case Dora came back sooner than later. But then Ash thought maybe Dora took Crystal home because she didn't want her little sister to see Gary in this condition. Hell, Ash didn't even want to bother, but he was sort of hoping he could get Gary to finally confess in this livid yet vulnerable state. Still, Ash stayed right behind the door just in case he had to run.

"What…what happened? Are you okay?" Ash was the first to speak up after another minute of silence.

Gary sharply inhaled and exhaled, "Do you know how many times that stupid grandfather of mine called me?" He asked rhetorically, but it seemed like Gary still wanted an answer.

"N-No…I guess a lot?"

The brunette exasperatedly chuckled, "Nine times. In one hour. Of course I didn't answer the first four times because I didn't want to talk to him after he called me at three in the morning. But then for the next five times he called, I answered and every time he would raise his tone at me I would hang up. Because I'm so done. I'm tired of him ridiculing me and yet he still treats me like I'm supposed to be some sort of expert. I mean I'm not really an expert, not yet anyways. I still consider myself as a rookie because all the things I've learned right now are things that gramps knows about."

"Ridiculing you? I thought he would be proud of you…?"

Gary sighed again, only more softly. His eyes seemed broken, the green iris a shade darker than normal. "I'm ready to tell you now. But it's a long story, so I'd sit down if I were you."

Ash nodded, going to the bed and sitting down, and before that he looked out the window and saw that the clouds were getting darker. It was only around five, but maybe there was a storm coming. Ash looked at Gary. His arms were crossed and his face looked hesitating.

"The only thing I ask of you, Ash…please don't judge me. And please…believe me," his breath was raggedy and he glared at Ash, blinking not necessary.

He nodded, "Okay," and when he saw that Gary got more hesitant he quickly added, "I promise."

Gary bit his lip before relaxing a bit. And then he started, "Yes, okay he was proud of me. After the Silver Conference and after I left Pallet Town, I decided to do a lot more researching and that's when I found Sayda Island and Dora. I called there to apply and be positioned there and they accepted me immediately. Grandpa found out and he was so proud of me that I was taking things in my own hands, especially at my age at the time. So I was positioned there for quite some time before we moved to Sinnoh. Two years, to be exact. But those years…I've had better years," Gary shook his head as he recalled to that time.

"I went in there at sixteen years old. I was determined at first, and I was so set on achieving my goal, and I felt like nothing could stop me. But then you know, Dora and the other researchers start calling in more people to work faster on large projects. There were a lot of girls, a lot of them my age. So then I realize I'm working a lot harder than I should and I start having more needs. My hormones were off the wall. And then a week later I couldn't handle it anymore. I start hitting on girls and later on I get in their pants. More or less, I was a horny bastard."

Now rain could be heard pitter-pattering on the roof. Thunder was in the distance. It was as if it was portraying Gary's feelings.

"That went on for about a year and a half, until one of the researchers found out and told my grandpa. And that's when it all went downhill. Gramps decided to make me regret everything I did by making me work twice as hard and even make me work on holidays and all that shit. Month after month I got more and more depressed and less dedicated. Then Dora decided I needed to get out of Kanto, and I agreed with her. So just a little FYI, when we saw each other in Sinnoh I was still depressed. I just did my best at hiding it.

"But then you know, when I was in Sinnoh buried in my work I started realizing that maybe my grandpa never really cared for me at all. Throughout my whole time as a trainer and as a researcher, he never called me. I always had to be the one to call him. He doesn't call me on holidays, on my birthday, none of that."

"Not on your birthday? Not even on Christmas?" Ash asked, having a really hard time believing that little fact.

"Nope," he faked a smile. "I was all alone. Dora and Crystal tried to make it better but I just tell them to go celebrate with their family. In the end it's just me and Umbreon…and you know, in these cases I always think about my parents. They would never do that to me, and they would forgive me in the end even if it's something bad. They would understand. But gramps, he seems to always put work first for me. It's never about my feelings or what I want to do. It just seems like he has a whole schedule planned out for me and everything is just so predictable. My parents would let me do what I want. If they were alive, I know that my dad would knock some sense into him, and my mom would tell me everything will be okay," Tears were now streaming down his face.

Ash knew Gary didn't like to talk about his parents ever since they died. In fact, this was a first because the last time Ash heard Gary talk about them was the night they died, and he couldn't stop crying about how they died and how he was going to be all alone.

"Mind you, I'm scared of dying. I really am. But this year…it's just been so incredibly hard on me. I've been feeling things that I've never felt before and I get so scared of those feelings sometimes. And I have such a heavy burden on my shoulders and I'm tired of carrying it. I've had so many sleepless nights because of nightmares and thoughts running through my head like crazy," Gary ran his hand through his face, wiping away tears. "But the thought of killing myself may have crossed my mind once or a million times."

Wouldn't that be a surprise. Ash not seeing Gary for three years only to find out that he's dead. The thought alone scared him and now his own tears were forming. His hands were now gripping the bed sheets tightly, as if trying to contain himself from not crying too hard or losing his control.

"Gary…" he whispered, afraid that if he spoke any louder he would burst out crying.

The brunette sighed, "I'm tired. I miss my parents and I miss how things used to be, and I just want someone to actually care about me. At least, noticeably. And I mean, not to put any pressure on you, but I know the whole reason gramps sent you here is just to distract me from being angry at him any longer. But if he keeps calling me like this I won't stand for it. I don't care about the shattered glass on my phone, it'll still work. Even if I am literally on break from work, I'm not on it mentally."

Gary stopped to take a breath, and Ash took this chance to interrupt, "I…If it makes you feel any better about me…I was really excited to see you. I mean, sooner or later I would've contacted you. Whether it's for Misty's wedding or some other thing…"

The taller boy smiled and walked closer to Ash, absentmindedly playing with the collar of the coal-haired boy's shirt. "Thanks, Ash. It's just…I really needed someone. And when I saw you on the first day you came here I was almost relieved," he was now clutching the boy's shirt. "Ash, I know this all may be hard to believe and understand but…I just really need you."

The tears stopped for Ash, but his big brown eyes were still misty. He looked deep into those emerald eyes that he loves. He stood up from the bed and grabbed Gary's hand that was gripping his shirt.

"I believe you, Gary. I never stopped believing in you. And I still stand by what I said. Let me be there for you. I'm here. I'm always here," Ash comforted him, wiping away Gary's falling tears with his free hand.

'Goddamnit, I love you,' Gary thought, resisting every single last urge to kiss the shorter boy. He wanted to, so bad. But this moment, right here, was too perfect. And just as Gary thought it couldn't get any more perfect, Ash pulled him in for a hug, his warmth inviting itself in and enclosing around Gary's body. The brunette lost his grip on the shirt and circled his arms around Ash, hiding his face in his black hair. Soon enough they moved to the bed, Gary still burying his face in the crook of Ash's neck.

And all Gary needed that night was to fall asleep in Ash's arms, the smaller boy lightly scratching his back and kissing his hair.


Finally x.x Sorry again for the month delay, guys I've had more Supernatural problems (I'm FINISHED with Season 7 though, I now have to wait for Season 8 in September for it to come on Netflix) and I also had some personal problems. But, hopefully that will cease, and I'll try and get more chapters in sooner than later.

Ahhh, poor Gary again :( Good thing Ash is there to comfort him! And the moment you've all been waiting for will be in the next chapter! Betcha can't wait, huh? ;D Don't worry, I'll start working on chapter 5 IMMEDIATELY. xD Also! I'm also going to be starting a new Palletshipping oneshot soon so look out for that sometime next month :)

Reviews are MUCH appreciated. And I'm really happy with all the reviewers I have so far too! Keep it up! xD Bye for now!