Chapter 12
Gary walked down the street, Umbreon loyally beside him. The mall was crowded with people eagerly buying products and knick-knacks from the stalls that were set up for the annual Venonat Flea Market that bounced from city to city all over Kanto for the duration of the summer. It was a great event of commerce that drained the collective wallet of all Kantonians. The stalls were easy to build and tear down as the even only lasted for a week in each city they visited; there was also a great big sign on both entrances that depicted multiple Venonat bouncing around with various items in their grasp. The vendors spent the rest of the year accumulating merchandise from the rest of the regions around the world and selling them at a premium in their home region. In addition to the vendors selling novelty items, there were vendors offering food such as Hoenn lava cookies or ice cream cones made in the style of Vanilite to cool off the buyers who endured the hot summer sun. Gary, however, was not there to buy anything, and for most of his life he had been unimpressed with the Venonat Flea Market, finding it to be full of cheap novelties and grossly overpriced items. He was simply making his way back from the port, returning at last from a long expedition in the Sinnoh region. The market caught him by surprise; he did not expect to see it set up just outside the port.
For once he was glad to be back in Pallet Town. He was exhausted by the workload he was given and was not very fond of Sinnoh's Professor Rowan, who he thought was too archaic in his research methods. Drained of all energy by the trip to Sinnoh and by the return voyage home, Gary was eager to quickly debrief his grandfather on the information that he discovered on his journey, and then go home and relax before Professor Oak inevitably made him work on something else. He simply needed to muscle his way through the large crowd of people and walk the rest of the way to the laboratory where his grandfather was awaiting him.
He walked through the crowd of people and Pokemon, occasionally brushing against the shoulder of an aloof, unaware person. He could hear all of the vendors shouting vigorously at him and everyone else in the flea market, wanting them the buy their product.
"He-hey guy! Yeah, you with the Umbreon," shouted one vendor at Gary. Gary turned his head in curiosity to see what the man was selling. "You need to buy one of these specialty rugs from Johto! A thousands years of passed down craftsmanship at a low, low price!"
"No you need this!" exclaimed the vendor in the neighboring stall, "this is a Castform Weather Teller straight from the Weather Institute in Hoenn! Never know when you might need one of these so might as well buy it now! Only ¥9,000!" Gary rolled his eyes.
He continued walking forward, trying to make it through the market. He was forced to walk through the flea market as it was inconveniently set up right in front of the harbor; a cheap tourist's worst nightmare but an ambitious salesman's best dream. Gary blocked out the noise of all the commotion and just turned it into vacant white noise. He continued bumping into people, who he noticed more and more of which had bags full of items as he got closer to the exit. Umbreon quickly dodged between people and was able to easily follow his trainer. As Gary got closer to the exit, a large, rotund man bumped into him; the weight of the man pushed Gary back a foot or two, and caused his backpack to fly off of him.
"Sorry," the man muttered softly in passing.
"Moron," said an annoyed Gary, the words quietly passing through his lips. Umbreon rubbed his body against Gary's to comfort his trainer. Gary looked down and located his backpack; he knelt and began to put back the contents, some of which fell out of the side pockets. As Gary was grabbing his belongings he heard very faintly in the distance a voice that sounded incredibly familiar to him. He stopped what he was doing suddenly and quickly looked around him to locate where the voice was coming from, craning his neck all around, but the voice had disappeared; he went back to putting his items away. As Gary finished putting his belongings back, he gave Umbreon a pet on the head and stood back up. The both of them both began to walked towards the exit again, however, the sound of that voice returned and entered Gary's ears. He stopped abruptly once again. He searched around him, looking at the dozens of people passing by, trying to find the source of the voice he was hearing. Gary looked over to a crowded ice cream stand and looked at long queue of people surrounding it. He saw what he thought could be the owner of the voice he was hearing. In the line he saw a young man, around the same age as him, with crow black hair and a deep tan complexion. All Gary could do was stand still, ignoring all of the people who he was in the way of. There was no way Gary could mistake who this was. His heart sunk when he saw him. The boy he was looking at was Ash.
As his heart sunk, a powerful feeling of rage overtook him. He clenched his fists and his cheeks began to grow a deep red with hot, angry blood. His breathing became shaky and his stomach felt uneasy; his knees and legs felt like they were about to collapse under his weight. As if he was controlled by some exterior force Gary began to walk towards Ash with heavy steps and a vengeful gait. Gary angrily walked closer and closer to Ash, his Umbreon unsure of what was about to happen. As Gary got a few yards away from Ash he suddenly stopped, as if all power had been drained out of him. He suddenly felt cold and his fists became relaxed. He saw something he did not expect to see.
Ash turned to the boy next to him in line; he looked into the boy's cerulean eyes tenderly and with a vulnerable glimmer in his own eyes. The two boys wrapped their arms around each other and then met one another on the lips for a gentle kiss. As Ash pulled away from the other boy a smile developed on his face; a genuine and innocent smile.
Gary had wanted to confront Ash for so long, reciting in his head all of the things he would say to Ash if he ever saw him again, however, now, Gary could no longer think of anything to say. All of his anger vanished in a brief moment. He felt at peace for the first time in a long time, as if what he saw was what he has needed to see for all these past years. Gary exhaled deeply, closed his eyes, and then turned away. He began to walk out of the flea market, looking behind him to make sure Umbreon was following him. A big smile grew across his face and he began to hold his head up high. His lungs now felt full of air, as if a heavy weight that was crushing them had just been released. Professor Oak's laboratory was only a couple blocks up the road, and with a lively step he made is way in only a few minutes.
He walked up to the front doors of the laboratory. He turned the knob on the left door and walked in, Umbreon following behind him. After closing the door behind him he walked some steps forward, however, he noticed that none of the aides who were normally in attendance at the laboratory were there.
"Hello! Anyone here?" called out Gary, his eyes searching around for evidence that someone was here.
"I'm back over here, Gary. In my office" replied his grandfather from a room way in the back of the laboratory. Gary, walked over and entered the room his grandfather was in. Umbreon decided to go to Gary's office where Gary had a bed made for it so that it could sleep on the days that he worked in the lab.
"Hey, Gramps!" greeted Gary cheerfully.
"Why hello, Gary," responded Professor Oak whose back was turned as he was examining two Vulpix. One an Alolan Vulpix, the other a Kantonian. Professor Oak then turned around. Gary walked up to him and gave him a hug. Caught off guard by this, Professor Oak took a few moments to also embrace Gary.
"I'm happy to be back!" declared a happy Gary.
"A-are you okay?" questioned his grandfather with a concerned tone.
"Yeah, of course. Why do you ask?" replied Gary with a smile.
"You haven't hugged me since you were 11," stated Professor Oak.
"I-I don't know," said Gary, scratching the back of his head, "I guess I'm just in a really good mood today. Where are all of the aides?"
"I, uh, gave them the day off. It was so nice out, I thought they would appreciate a day outside of the lab—and not having to fieldwork outside of the lab as well."
"That's good! What are you doing with these Vulpix?"
"Oh, my cousin Samson from Alola stopped by while you were in Sinnoh. He said that he needed help documenting microbiological differences between the variants and I offered to help. Speaking of which, how was your time in Sinnoh? Did you enjoy your time there?"
Gary paused before responding.
"I think Sinnoh made me realize some things that I had never thought about before. I'm glad that you sent me there. I think I learned a lot."
"Well I looked forward to reading all of your notes and seeing what you learned, Gary. I am sure that you're incredibly tired. Why don't you head home and get some rest."
"Thanks, Gramps. I'll see you there later tonight." Gary pulled the notes out of his backpack and set it on his grandfather's desk and then began to walk out of the office. Just as he was about to exit he turned around.
"Oh, hey, Gramps. Maybe, do you wanna do something fun tomorrow? We can go see a movie or something like that."
A-are you sure that you're alright, Gary?" asked Professor Oak.
"Y-yes!" responded Gary happily, "we just haven't done anything fun together in a while, and I just thought that maybe you should get out of laboratory every once in a while as well. You deserve a day off as well." A joyful grin developed on Professor Oak's face.
"I agree," he said, "I like this new, happy Gary that I'm meeting, haha!"
