"Wow. That's a lot of rain."

Swallowing a mouthful of coffee, Kukui looked over to where Ash was lingering in the doorway, staring out at the weather. "Yes. Luckily, Alola never really gets the monsoon seasons most tropical islands do, but we do have a lot of rain in Summer. We'll have quite a few days like this over the next few months."

Ash's eyes widened as he looked back over his shoulder. "Days? This is gonna last for days?"

"One or –"

"Allow me to explain!" Rotom cried, swooping around to hover in Ash's field of vision. "The Alolan islands are prone to extreme weather changes, which allow for its local fauna and flora to flourish. While the islands commonly experience hot and humid days year round, rain storms are frequent, often lasting up to a week at a time, with rainfall averages around six inches each cycle."

Ash blinked a few times, then glanced out at the rain one more time before sighing and shutting the door. Kukui raised an eyebrow. "You don't like the rain?"

"It's not that I don't like it," he said as he wandered back into the house proper. "On the road, rain means you're stuck. You can't walk in the rain for long – you'd end up sick. And unless you're actually training for water-type moves, it makes it too dangerous for pokemon training. So I never know what to do when it rains."

"Pika…" Pikachu agreed wearily. It was standing on the couch, peeking up and out the window just as its trainer had stared out the door.

Kukui shrugged. "Well, the good news is that you're not on the road this time. Why don't you take a day off for once?"

"Huh? Of course I'm taking a day off, it's the weekend," he said, and Kukui chuckled.

"No, I mean a proper day off. In all the time you've been here, I don't think I've seen you do that yet. Hang out, watch TV. You know – relax." He paused to knock back the last of his drink before setting the now-empty cup on the sink. "I have to go into the lab and give one of the scientists an update. There's some snacks in the pantry if you get hungry, so no cooking!"

Ash laughed and nodded. "Sure thing! We learned our lesson last time, right Pikachu? Rotom?"

"Pika!"

"I solemnly promise not to allow Ash near the stove again," Rotom swore, and Kukui grinned.

It was only later, when he got home to find Ash and the pokemon loitering on the front porch along with half the living room furniture, that he realised his mistake in ever leaving this group at home alone. As he stared over the situation, Rotom immediately began rattling off calculations about how unlikely it was that they could have wrecked the house twice in the two times they'd been left alone, and how—statistically speaking—Rotom was absolutely and definitely not to blame for this. Ash just laughed weakly while Pikachu rubbed the back of its head, Rockruff tried to hide behind the upturned table, and Rowlet snored.

But it was still raining, so Kukui squeezed himself up between the kitchen chairs before turning his carefully blank stare on Ash. "What happened?"

"Well, y'see…" He gestured vaguely toward the house. "We were going to do dishes before trying out the TV. Rockruff decided to hang around, and so while I washed, it was lying on my foot, and Rowlet was sleeping," he said, pointing at each pokemon in turn.

"Pika," Pikachu added. "Pika pikachu, pika."

Ash nodded like it had actually contributed to the discussion. "But Rowlet must've had a nightmare or something, because it suddenly started yelling, and that startled me, and so I moved my feet, but that just scared Rockruff even worse, and I tripped over it, only I tried to stop myself from falling and grabbed the draining board, but that didn't stop anything and everything just fell and broke," he said with a wince.

"Okay…" he said slowly, not seeing how that could have gotten all the living room furniture out here. "You didn't hurt yourself, did you?"

"What? No, I'm fine. But it did scratch up the floor really badly," he continued. "But I couldn't find any sanding paper to fix it."

"Fix it?" he asked incredulously. "What?"

"Don't worry, it's fine!" he said quickly, waving his hands. "We went out and bought stuff to replace everything."

"Pika pikachu!" Pikachu added, while Rotom's screen flicked on to a town map.

"I directed Ash to the nearest house wares store, and then to a hardware store, and advised him of the highest quality materials," it said proudly, before flicking onto an annoyed emoji. "He didn't buy them."

"I told Rotom you wouldn't like fine china," Ash said, before wincing again. "You wouldn't, right?"

Kukui was beginning to feel a little out of his depth. "You went out and bought new plates and cups? Just how many things did you break?"

"Just a plate!" he said, then added a little more quietly, "and… your breakfast mug. But Mom always says everything should match, so don't worry – I bought a whole set to replace them."

Very out of his depth. "I… see… And what was that about the hardware store?"

"To fix the floor," he said blankly, as Pikachu gestured with both paws toward the house. "The hardware guys were so great, too. I was just gonna sand the scratches down, but they taught me all this stuff about how to polish and wax the boards so you can't even tell anything was done to it!"

Kukui thought of the floorboard he'd put a foot through last year, which was still strategically covered with an archiving box. He felt his eye twitch slightly.

"Only, we kind of ran into a bit of trouble with that," Ash admitted. "I made a mess of it. And then Rockruff ran through it. So we had smudges everywhere. So I did more to even it out, and… well…" He rubbed the back of his neck, looking around the crowded porch. "The guys at the hardware store said you shouldn't put down furniture until it's all dry and that could take hours, so…"

For a few seconds, Kukui couldn't get his mind to process anything beyond the fact that Ash had apparently made over his living room floor because of a few minor scratches. Mostly, he couldn't figure out whether to be impressed or exasperated. Or embarrassed, because if he'd broken a cup and damaged the floor, he probably would have thrown out the cup and forgotten it by lunchtime. But, in the end, he managed to focus just enough to point out, "I thought you were going to spend the day in front of the TV. When did you have time to do all this?"

Rotom lifted a wing in point. "It is conventional wisdom to do chores before beginning any enjoyable activity. This ensures the necessary tasks are done first and you will not be distracted."

"I would've done it even if you hadn't told me," Ash told it mulishly. "I'm not that irresponsible, y'know."

"Pika," Pikachu said quietly, and Ash made a face before adding, "Usually."

Despite existing in a hard plastic casing that couldn't actually express emotion, Rotom did an excellent job of giving Ash the side-eye. "Existing data does not support this hypothesis."

"Hey!"

Kukui decided not to get involved in that debate, simply because he wasn't sure which side he could come down on. Instead, he clambered past a pile of pokemon toys to reach the front door, so he could open it and have a look at the result.

It was a clean, polished floor. Not all the way to the edges, and since it was still a little wet you could see where Ash had completely failed to keep a straight line in his painting. He'd also missed a few waxy pawprints on the way to the door, but Kukui glanced down at Rockruff, still peeking out from under the table in shame, and decided he liked that addition. He glanced back up at Ash, who was still watching him warily, and inwardly sighed. What could you do?

"Welp!" he said, and shut the door. "Since we can't go inside for a while, let's go out for an early dinner, what do you say?"

"Wh- really?" Ash asked. "You're not mad?"

"No, but I think we should revisit that chores discussion we had," he said, climbing back out to grab his umbrella again. "I'm thinking maybe I should handle all the housework from now on, what do you say?"

Ash blinked, obviously shocked by the lack of reaction. Not that Kukui was completely sure what reaction he should have had. He wasn't even sure how he actually felt. He definitely wasn't mad. There was something ticking in his chest, uneasy and unhappy, but he had no idea why. It got a little worse when Ash slowly pulled back into himself, moving past shock and into a concerned frown. "That's not fair. I need to do something to pull my weight, right?"

He nearly pointed out the data Ash was unknowingly providing, or the sheer entertainment value he'd created in Kukui's life, but managed to stop himself at the last moment. He smiled and shrugged instead. "Well, if you're really worried about it, you can do the grocery shopping. We'll do it together a few times, so you see the kind of household stuff I get, and then I'll leave it up to you. How would that be?"

"Uh… sure, I guess," he said. "Are you sure? I can still do dishes – I promise this won't happen again."

"From existing data, that it is statistically improbable," said Rotom, and Ash glared at it.

"I keep telling you it was an accident!"

"Okay, you two, let's make that a Parting Shot and move on to the next round," Kukui said, flicking open his umbrella. Once again, Ash gave him an oddly surprised look, but didn't say anything before grabbing Rowlet's pokeball and returning it. Kukui filed the reaction away for later consideration, along with the rest of Ash's strange decisions over this rainy day.

He could analyse the kid later, after the wax had dried.

A day after the rain had stopped, Kukui found himself lying awake late at night, listening to the quiet noises he could hear in the basement.

He rubbed his face, debating whether it was worth getting one of his pokemon. He didn't really think it would be thieves – he didn't study anything worth stealing, and all his valuable material goods were on the main floor. There was that Team Rocket, but from what little Ash had said about them, it didn't sound like they would go after his research. It was more likely to be Guzma or one of his idiots. Or…

He squinted up at the darkness of the ceiling, as if he could see through to the loft above.

It wouldn't be the weirdest thing the kid had done.

He grabbed a pokeball just in case and trudged down toward the basement stairs. It was dark, lit only by the glow of the tank and… ah, yes. Rotom was shining a bright light over Ash's shoulder, so he and Pikachu could stare at an open book.

"Ah, found it… normal type, uses fe- fero- oh, man… fe-ro-mo-nes? What the heck are fero-moan-es?" he demanded in a rough whisper.

"Scanning," Rotom reported. "Pheromones. Secreted or excreted chemicals that trigger social responses."

Ash started to turn and stare at it, but caught sight of Kukui lingering on the stairs before he could finish. He jumped, snapping the book shut and jerking upright. "Professor Kukui! Sorry! I – I didn't mean –"

"It's alright, Ash, calm down," he said, and yawned. "But it's really late. What are you doing awake at this time of night?"

"Nothing!" he said, while Pikachu echoed him, shifting as if to hide the book from view.

Kukui peered at them for a long few seconds, then wandered over to snag the book out of Ash's hands. "You know, most kids sneaking into their guardians' reading material are looking at porn, not…" He paused to look at the title of the book. "…the scientific glossary of pokemon move origins." He returned his nonplussed gaze to Ash. "I know you're still young and all, but you really need a hobby."

Ash pulled back, obviously not sure how to respond to that. "Uh, well, I…"

"Why are you studying at two o'clock in the morning?" he asked wearily. "I don't mind you reading my books, if that's what you're worried about."

"Oh, uh, no, that…" It was kind of hard to tell in the dark, but he was pretty sure Ash was blushing. "I just didn't want to bother anyone. You're so busy with school and your work at the lab, I didn't want you to think you needed to help me with this."

"Well, now you have me curious. But whatever it is can wait until tomorrow," he said, and gently kicked at Ash's hip. "Go on, get up to bed."

Ash hesitated, then sighed and scooped up Pikachu as he clambered to his feet. "Yeah, okay."

Kukui followed him back upstairs and waited for him to get up the ladder and settle down. Once he was sure Ash was in bed, he went back to his own, absently cataloguing all the moves that used pheromones even as he drifted off to sleep.

By the time Ash got up the next morning, it had coalesced into an entire lesson. He fully intended to present it to a class one day, but first he had to test it on a willing student. He waited just long enough for Ash to send Pikachu outside for fresh air—and for Rotom to take its educational thunder-stealing self out with it—and begin rummaging for breakfast before pouncing.

"Pheromones," he began, "are kind of like a smell. Only you don't realise you're smelling them. Your body reacts to them unconsciously. It's a chemical reaction that influences a lot of social behaviours in both people and pokemon."

Ash stared at him blankly until the memory apparently came back. He almost immediately put down the cereal box to wave his hands awkwardly. "Oh, y- you don't have to –"

"Nonsense! Talking about moves and how they work is what I'm really interested in, after all!" he said cheerfully. "So, which move were you looking into? Sweet Scent? Charm?"

Ash's blush was more visible this time. "Attract."

"Ah, the be-all and end-all of pheromone-based moves," Kukui laughed. "And the bane of many a pokemon trainer."

"Yeah… I have a snivy that used to spam it every chance it got," Ash agreed. "I encouraged it to start with, but now I try to avoid it if we've got other options. It can be kind of cheap."

"Oh, I don't know. How is it any worse than…" He trailed off, because every move he could think of had an easy antidote. True, professional battlers didn't use antidotes until after the round was over—if at all—but it was probably the principle of the thing. "Well, if you put the move into a roster, you might as well use it. So if you've used it before, why the research?"

"It… well…" Ash shifted awkwardly, then put the cereal away and got out the milk to finish making breakfast. He looked surprisingly embarrassed. "I don't – I don't really… get it. How it works."

Kukui grinned. "I'm making a career out of questions like that, you know! At its most basic, it works on chemicals. A pokemon releases pheromones, causing the opponent to –"

"But only if the two battlers are different genders," Ash interrupted. "That's what I don't get."

He blinked, and Ash grimaced.

"I don't normally pay attention to that stuff – I mean, who cares? As long as it's strong and happy, then it doesn't matter whether it's a boy or girl, right?" He carried his bowl over to the table and poked at it with his spoon, apparently to better avoid looking at Kukui. "But Sophocles keeps bringing it up, reminding me that Togedemaru is a girl. At first, I figured he was saying that was why it worked so well with Pikachu, like a brother-sister combo, only yesterday Lana said that probably wasn't what Togedemaru had in mind. But he must've been telling me it's a girl because it's important for some reason. And the only time it's important is when you're using a move like Attract. So…"

Kukui winced around his smile. Having watched the two pokemon interact, he suspected Sophocles was trying to awkwardly raise the issue of their pokemon potentially breeding. But that was probably a conversation for another day, because Ash was continuing his train of thought.

"It got me thinking, you know? About why it works the way it does. It's not like a ghost-type move, where it makes sense for it not to work against another type. And that would make sense, because I can totally get why a grass-type wouldn't be able to distract a water-type or whatever, because a water-type's gonna be on guard around a type that could badly hurt them, right? But it's got nothing to do with that. It's just about whether they're a girl or a boy."

Kukui opened his mouth, then stopped. And after another moment, he stared.

He had been about to make a very obvious and—now he was taking a second to think about it—very flawed argument, but Ash had actually raised a very good point. Why wasn't Attract influenced by type or evolution? He'd never spent a lot of time researching pheromone based moves, preferring attacks to stasis moves, but what little research he'd done into it told him it was a commonly accepted theory that Attract had evolved as an evolutionary assistant. That is, pokemon had originally used it to procreate. And yet if that was the case, then why was it so universal? A stufful couldn't mate with a dartrix. And yet they could Attract one another.

He twitched with the urge to start taking notes. This was absolutely a paper in the making.

"So there must be something that makes boys and girls different," Ash continued, frustrated and entirely oblivious to Kukui's rising academic excitement. "If Attract is all about the fera-moles then it's gotta be that. But when I ask people about how Attract works, they just laugh at me and say 'oh Ash' like I'm being stupid. Iris said that if I didn't get it, it was because I was a little kid, and that time, Cilan actually agreed with her! Like I'm just supposed to know! Then they made some joke about how I have the ability Oblivious, which I'm pretty sure was an insult, but I don't even know why! But I didn't want to ask more questions when they were laughing at me, and the guys here don't think I'm an idiot yet so I don't want them to know I don't know, but if it's something I'm supposed to know then I should know it and I don't!"

Kukui stared. While he'd delved into the theory, the conversation had somehow gone sideways, and he no longer understood what they were talking about. He resorted to some of the basic teaching skills he'd learned back in the day – if a student didn't understand something, go back and find the point where they stopped following the lesson.

He was pretty sure Ash understood the concepts. He apparently couldn't say the word 'pheromone' but knew it was a chemical. He understood that Attract worked on opposing genders, and that it had something to do with pheromones. But something about that was confusing him. Something fundamental.

Which wasn't surprising. Kukui had noticed that about Ash – whenever he tried to work something out, he assumed he didn't already understand it because it was complicated. That caused him to overthink things, get stuck on minor details, and ignore the usually simple error he'd initially made. So what was it about Attract that everyone just took for granted, but Ash didn't? What was Ash overthinking?

'There must be something that makes boys and girls different.'

He blinked, pulling his head back. Surely not. Surely that couldn't…

"Ash," he said slowly, "do you know what makes males and females different?"

He blushed, indignity rising. "Of course I do! They look different! You know, different tails or colours or…" His blush got a lot worse. "And the other stuff. You know… down there on humans. But those aren't chemicals!"

"Well, technically everything is chemicals," he said, furrowing his brow. "But you're right. That's all…"

He frowned as he tried to find words that apparently refused to come. Now he was overthinking it.

And Ash was right! Attract didn't have anything to do with the physical attributes – if it did, it would have been banned from battle a hundred years ago purely for decency's sake. It was about attraction, and that shouldn't be a difficult concept to –

He stopped himself right there. Not only had he been about to think the most stupid, out of touch, grown-up thing ever… but he was forgetting who he was talking to.

Ash had been travelling for a long time, and normally you could make certain assumptions about a person with that kind of background. Pokemon journeys were usually less about starting a career in the professional pokemon industry and more about kids growing up and finding out who they wanted to be. There were a lot of kids that barely caught more than a couple of pokemon, instead taking the time to learn different skills and meet people.

Socialising was usually the biggest part of a real journey. For the first time, kids were away from their parents. Nurse Joy and the gym leaders weren't there to tell them how to behave, so the kids experimented. They tried being jerks, tried being kind, tried all sorts of personalities. And then they tried them on different people, to see the kind of reactions they got. Eventually, they tried flirting. And then flirting would become kissing, and so on. Eventually, most kids figured all that out, spent a few more months working out that they weren't destined for the professional pokemon industry, and then they went back home and settled down for some real life.

In the back of his mind, Kukui had kind of assumed Ash would have gone through all that. Sure he was hyperactive, but he was also a genuinely nice guy, full of the kind of emotional maturity that had to have been learned through experience. And he was so good with the girls. He'd only been at school a week, and already Kukui had seen all three of them giving him curious glances. It seemed logical that he could have only gotten to this point by suffering through at least one or two relationships.

But logic, he was beginning to realise, was not always the best device to use when attempting to make sense of Ash Ketchum.

Ash probably hadn't even had a normal journey, Kukui reminded himself. Team Rocket was one thing, but even if they hadn't been apparently hounding his every step, normal kids on normal journeys weren't so acutely focussed on their dreams. Kukui had been tired and teasing last night, but he was really coming to appreciate the fact that Ash literally had no life outside pokemon training. No hobbies, no outside interests. He was perfectly sociable and able to talk about other things, but it was usually only for someone else's sake. The only reason you couldn't call him a workaholic was because until you actually achieved a title, people didn't usually consider pokemon training a career.

And with that thought, Kukui finally realised what had bothered him about Ash's actions on the rainy day. It wasn't that he'd broken a few plates or attacked Kukui's floor in a misguided attempt to help. That had all been kind of funny in its own way. What had bothered him was that none of it had been the kind of behaviour he expected from a kid Ash's age.

It was the reminder that—generally speaking—when left to his own devices, Ash didn't behave like a normal kid.

And when Kukui thought about it… that should have been obvious. He hadn't grown up here in Alola, and he'd spent the last few years dedicated to the Pokemon Battle Circuit. Ash's entire worldview was structured around how you behaved on a professional journey, where you only stopped during the day because you had something to do – even if that something was just exploring your environment or getting to know the locals. You didn't take days off to do nothing. You didn't wait to see what other people thought of your actions. You kept moving, kept working, and if you got into trouble you found a way out of it, and avoided any expected fallout by simply moving on. People and their reactions to you were just complications that you tried not to focus on.

When he thought about it like that, Kukui wasn't in the least bit surprised that Ash hadn't worked out the whole attraction thing yet.

"Professor?"

He blinked, then blanched, suddenly realising he'd been silently staring at the kid for a ridiculous amount of time. "Sorry, I was thinking through a problem."

"A problem? Is everything okay?"

He flicked his hand to dismiss the concern, and then took a moment to rearrange his thoughts into something that wouldn't sound so much like a failing on Ash's part. "Now that we're talking about it, I actually find that you raise a perfectly legitimate question," he began slowly. "After all, attraction isn't just about a person's gender in humans, so why should it be so for pokemon?"

Ash blinked. "Attraction? Like… liking someone?"

And there it was. The integral point that Ash had skipped past in trying to work it all out. "Of course. Where did you think Attract got its name from?"

He opened his mouth, then shut it again, apparently stunned. He blinked a few more times, and then lowered his eyes to the cereal that Kukui suspected had become increasingly soggy. "Oh. So… so when a pokemon gets hit by Attract, they're distracted because they're being forced to like the other pokemon. That kind of like?"

"That's right."

His brow only furrowed further. "But… but then why does it only work on opposite genders? I mean, that's not how that works with people. Not all the time."

Somehow, Kukui wasn't in the least bit surprised that Ash considered that an obvious fact.

"And there, Ash," he said, lifting his coffee cup to salute him, "is a research topic in the making. We've always said that Attract is unavoidable except through gender, the Oblivious ability, or sheer strength of will, but what if it's not? What if it's both more and less powerful than we thought? What if the real reason some pokemon aren't affected isn't strength of will, but rather a simple lack of attraction? And while we consider these problems, let us also ask why genderless pokemon are immune. They are well known—and often used—for their ability to breed, and yet it's a given fact that they will be immune to Attract. That doesn't make sense, and that makes it an excellent point of enquiry for a researcher."

He seemed to have lost Ash somewhere along the way, but at least the kid didn't look embarrassed anymore. "You mean… I'm not stupid for not getting it?"

"No, not at all. You're just looking at things from a different perspective," he said, sitting back in his chair. "I don't think I'd study it myself—far too time and resource intensive—but it would be a fascinating research paper."

"Uh… I don't think I get it, but okay!" Ash said. "So I guess what you're saying is that there's no real answer?"

"Probably." He paused, trying to remember how Ash had originally approached the conversation. Something about Togedemaru? "What was the question, again?"

"How does Attract work?"

"Oh. Yes, now that you mention it, there's no real answer right now," he said. "I think the best way to work with it in a pokemon battle is to assume that it will work on a pokemon of the opposite gender, but don't rely on it working all the time."

Ash chuckled weakly, then shook his head and started eating his cereal. Kukui sipped his coffee, discovered it had gone cold while he was thinking, and grimaced. He got up to fix the problem, but found himself considering Ash again as he closed the microwave.

It was really none of his business. But as a teacher, he could just imagine the sort of problems that could arise in a small, tight-knit class with a friendly kid that didn't notice attraction when it was staring him in the face. He could already guess which (opposing but related) directions all three girls' imaginations would go. He cringed at the future awkward conversations and decided to soften the blow by starting them now.

"So, since we're on the topic," he said slowly, "has any human pulled a successful Attract on you?"

Ash blushed again, but didn't answer until he'd finished scarfing down his cereal. And even then, it wasn't much of an answer. "Um… Well…"

"Ohh?" he prompted, amused. "Ash, do you have a girlfriend?" When Ash only looked more awkward, he made a point of adding, "or boyfriend?"

"Nothing like that," he insisted, then ducked his head. "There's this girl. We were travelling together in Kalos. When we said goodbye, she kissed me on the lips, so… I… I don't know… Some of the stuff that happened when we were together seems kinda weird now. Like I maybe missed some stuff."

Kukui grinned. "Probably. I know I did, when I was your age."

Ash peeked at him sideways, then shrugged and got up to take his bowl back to the kitchen. "I dunno. It seems like a lot of hard work, that whole liking someone thing. I have this one friend who falls in love all the time. It makes him really crazy, and he gets really upset whenever it doesn't work out, which is kind of every time."

"Oh, yes. Believe me, love is always painful," he said. "And it is indeed hard work, even after it stops hurting so much, but most people will tell you that it's worth the hassle."

"You think so?" he asked, and Kukui paused to take a moment and think of his beautiful Burnet, working hard on her research and out of his reach.

"Definitely."

Ash smiled and set about washing his bowl and spoon. As soon as he was done, he started for the door, only to stop after only a few steps to look back at him. "Hey, um, Professor?"

He looked up from thoughts of Burnet. "Hm?"

"Thanks."

Kukui blinked, brow furrowing slightly in confusion. "You're welcome, but what for?"

Ash shifted his weight from one foot to the other, stretching his fingers and looking everywhere but at Kukui until eventually he shrugged. "I dunno…" He hesitated, then ducked his head into his shoulders, embarrassed again. "Just… you know… thanks."

Once again, something curled in Kukui's chest. It wasn't warm, like he'd done something good, or tight, like he'd seen something bad. It was some strange, uncomfortable combination of the two. He made a point to meet Ash's gaze with nothing but sincerity. "Any time, Ash."

For a moment, the boy seemed to waver in place, like he wasn't sure what to do, before he abruptly turned and headed out the door.

Growing up, Kukui thought as he retrieved his now-warm coffee, was never easy. Knowing who and what you wanted to be should have made it simple, but he supposed that it only really changed the kind of challenges you faced.

As part of his journey to become a Pokemon Master, Ash had stayed in Alola to learn some more of the theory around pokemon, develop his skills, and continue his dream. But maybe, just maybe, the more structured environment could teach him a few things he hadn't picked up out on the road.

"Should be interesting to watch," Kukui noted softly, and finished his coffee.