Hey Nuggies! Well I really shouldn't be doing this, but here I am writing another fanfiction since I have writers block on a few of my other ones, and because this won't leave me alone. Here is your warning this will be SLASH! I have decided though that this will not have M!Preg.
Main Pairing: AshxPaul
Rating: M (to be safe)
Chapter Warning(s): Mentions of vomiting
Disclaimer: I do not own Pokémon it belongs to Game Freak, Nintendo, Creatures, The Pokemon Company, etc, nor do I write this for profit. This is for entertainment use only!
Please don't forget to head over to A03 for the discord link! You don't need an A03 account to do it.
Enjoy!
Ash laughed at one of his new friends as he leaned back against Paul in the poolside chair they were sharing. They had been in their League assigned rooms for a few days now and so far they had just explored the area to see what it had to offer. This area was different from the other League building he had ever been in since this area was open to the public. It had a few hotels, arcades, markets, two Centers, and quite a few other things to keep people entertained while they were there. When the League wasn't using it for their end of the year competitions it was used as a resort.
Ash and Paul had explored the area and ended up finding a few others that had quickly become friends with Ash and tolerances to Paul. There was Cleo, a Johto native, and her boyfriend Nathan, who was from Galar, then there was Sino, from Unova, and their best friend Terra. It surprised Ash that he hadn't met another Kanto native yet while they had been there.
"What are you thinking about?" Ash heard Paul whisper softly above him.
"Nothing really," Ash said as he arched his neck a bit to look up at Paul, "just trying to mentally make sure I'm ready for tomorrow. I'm as ready as I can be physically."
He saw Paul nod and Ash relaxed against him again. Ash pulled up his wrist to get on his watch to re-read the emails they had gotten after arriving. It stated that all the battles from the beginning would be a full six on six battles. No substitutions, no items during or before a battle, no revivals, and there was a very clear warning on the bottom of the rules stating that anyone caught sabotaging another battlers person or pokémon would be investigated and if found guilty would be banned from attending another competition in any Region.
"There must have been an incident last year," Ash said as he read over the warning, "there wasn't any kind of warning like that last year or the year before."
"How do you know?" Paul asked as he wrapped an arm around Ashs' waist.
"The League does a live broadcast and displays the rules and any warnings on the tv before the first battle. That way if anyone at home sees anything fishy then they can call it in. The workers can't catch everything," Ash said, "Don't they do that in Sinnoh?"
"Nope," Paul replied with a small shake of his head.
"I see," Ash said, "There's a phone number and email they show as well for people to call on or email at. It's always on the screen and there are people that are by the phone and on the email the entire competition to check and take care of any problems that might occur."
"Sounds tedious," his boyfriend said and Ash couldn't help but agree. It did sound tedious, but it worked as far as Ash knew and he was sure there were a lot of people calling in to just call in or people who give out fake information. Ash let out a deep sigh as he moved to stand up.
"Where are you going?" Paul asked as he watched Ash.
"To our room to take a nap," Ash said softly, "I'm getting a really bad headache."
"Too much sun?" Paul asked, "Do you need me to come with you or grab you anything?"
"Perhaps. You can come if you want, or you can stake out the competition," he replied, "I don't need anything. I've got water, food, and medicine in the room and you're only a text or call away if I do need anything."
"Okay," Paul said, nodding, "I think I'll stay out here for a little while longer, text me when you get to the room?"
Ash nodded and shoved his feet into his shoes before grabbing his bag. The headache had come on suddenly and Ash didn't know if it was a natural headache or something else. Thankfully it didn't take long for Ash to get to the hotel room and into the blissful cool air of the room. He really had been getting a bit too hot outside.
Ash dropped what he was carrying on the desk in the room before crossing the entirety of the room to close the curtains. Afterwards he went over to their miniature fridge to take out a cool water to sip on and just as he was about to sit down on the bed he saw some movement in the corner. Which was weird seeing as there were no pokémon in the room as Pikachu opted to stay with Paul by the pool. His starter has spotted another Pikachu and was trying to gather the courage to get close to her when he left. Ash turned to face the movement with a hand on his pokéballs, only to relax when he saw a familiar face.
"Marshadow," Ash said softly as he let his hand fall from his belt, "you scared me a bit there. Did Darkrai send you?"
Ash watched as Marshadow nodded and let out a soft hum confirming that Darkrai did send Marshadow to him.
"Darkrai found another pokémon in trouble didn't he?" Ash asked as he knelt in front of the small shadow. He saw Marshadow nod again and he got up to grab what he would need. He didn't know what kind of pokémon Darkrai had found so he didn't know how much water he would need, or towels for any clean up. He grabbed a few Sitrus berries from a bowl the staff left in the room to stuff into his bag before shouldering it. Just before he knelt back down in front of Marshadow he sent a message to Riley, just in case he needed his mentor if he got infected again.
"Okay," Ash said, "I'm ready to go."
Ash held out his hand for Marshadow to take and in a blink of an eye he was gone from his room and into a new area. It was barely lit, the cave they appeared in, but warm. Floating balls of ghostly fire made the cave glow purple, and in the middle of the area was Darkrai floating in front of a pokémon he had never seen before. It was large, avian and draconic in form, with black, red, and white scales along its body with gray feathers surrounding its neck. As Ash got closer he could see the creature's bright blue eyes, half lidded, and filled with pain.
"How long have they been like this?" Ash asked Darkrai, who had moved a bit out of the way to make room for Ash.
"Not long, I believe," Darkrai replied, "I was meeting with the others after you cured me to let them know about this Corruption. When I arrived here Yveltal was just fine then all of a sudden he collapsed. That's when I sent Marshadow to you."
Ash nodded as he knelt beside Yveltal and waited until the creatures' eyes were focused on him. He whispered softly about what was going on and what he needed to do and waited until he got a nod in understanding before placing his hand on the heaving side. Yveltals' scales were warm against his palm as he slowly pushed his Aura into the infected pokémon. Ash followed the now, sadly, familiar feeling of Corruption within Yveltals' body until he was able to reach the Core of the Corruption.
He was careful as he attacked the Core and made sure that nothing attached to his own Aura. He didn't know how long it took since Yveltals' body was much larger than any others he had managed to purify, but by the time he was done his own body was drenched in sweat and Darkrai had moved to the side to not get vomited on. As he pulled his Aura back he sent some of it to the pile of sick to purify it before any Corruption that escaped that way could infect anything else.
Ash had to take a deep breath before he could move, as sore as he was from kneeling and not moving the entire time, to care for Yveltal. He dug through his bag for water and towels to clean himself and Yveltal up before giving the creature some much needed water and crushed up Sitrus berry since he knew from experience that Yveltal would be too tired to chew.
"You should be just fine now," Ash managed to croak out and winced a bit as the headache he had gotten throbbed viciously in revenge for the strain it went under.
"You… seem familiar," Yveltal said softly, his deep voice made it feel as though his own rib cage was vibrating even though Yveltal spoke telepathically to him. The sensation reminded him of standing next to a speaker in a concert that had a lot of bass to the music.
"What region are you from?" Ash asked as he went about cleaning up, ignoring the fact that his headache had escalated to a migraine and he was unable to see out of his right eye because of it.
"Kalos is where I call home," Yveltal replied as he raised his head a bit to look Ash in the eyes.
"I was there almost seven months ago," he said softly as he met Yveltals' gaze, "You might have felt my Aura then. My Mentor told me that my Aura was almost like a beacon."
"Must have been then," the beast said before settling back down onto the ground, "I thank you for your help. Who knows what would have happened if Darkrai didn't know about you."
"You're welcome. I'm glad to be of service," Ash stated, "You can come to me if you need help for any reason."
The large dragon nodded his head before letting out a deep sigh and closed his eyes to fall asleep. Ash, honored for the bit of trust Yveltal gave him by falling asleep in his presence, quietly went about gathering his things before Darkrai and Marshadow took him back to his rooms. He said his goodbye to the two before the two teleported out of the room, or was it shadow travel? Either way he was now alone in his and Pauls' room. There was no reply message on his watch, though he did that Riley read his message, so he took it off and placed it on the side table before dropping his bag on the floor.
His head spun and his body flashed with heat making him sweat a bit and his stomach churn. Luckily he was able to keep what was in his stomach down, but he couldn't keep his body upright. In that moment, before he fell to the floor, passed out, was the door opening and Paul walking in with Pikachu in his arms and his head slamming onto the hard floor.
The first thing Ash became aware of when he started to wake up was a loud beeping in his ear. Then he felt the scratchy sheet covering him, and something plastic touching his arm as well as squeezing his finger. He took in a deep breath as he slowly opened his eyes only to be met with a low lit room and without seeing any bright harsh lights Ash fully opened his eyes. From the corner of his eye he could see that the sky outside of the window was dark as opposed to the bright clear skies from when he last remembered being awake.
He turned his head a bit, while thanking Arceus that his migraine was gone, to look out of the window only to see Paul sitting beside his bed. He took a moment to study Paul. His boyfriend had his arms crossed over his chest and his tilted forward a bit. His dark eyes were closed to the world, and his chest move rhythmically up and down as Paul breathed. In his lap was Pikachu, curled up and sleeping.
Ash smiled softly as he moved a bit in the bed to make himself more comfortable only for his movement to make enough noise to wake up Paul.
"Hi," Ash said softly and instead of getting a reply he watched as Paul carefully picked up Pikachu to place his starter on the bed near his knee and moved to lean over him.
"Do you know how terrifying it is to walk into our room and see you collapse right in front of me?" Paul asked as he stared into Ashs' eyes, "Why didn't you tell me that you felt that bad?"
"I didn't know I felt that bad, honestly," Ash said after being silent for a moment. He could tell that Paul didn't mean to sound so harsh in his words. He could see how scared Paul was in his eyes and his Aura, and he could feel the relief Paul was feeling to see that he was awake. "I just got some water and was about to message you when I couldn't see out of my right eye. That's when you walked in. I promise," Ash said and hated that he had to leave out a large reason as to why his headache escalated to a migraine.
"Okay," Paul replied, "just please next time message me before it gets that bad again."
"I will," Ash promised and smiled as Paul leaned forward to place a soft kiss against his dry cracked lips. Their lips met a couple more times before Paul pulled back and asked if Ash wanted any water. As Ash sipped on the cool water Paul caught him up on what has been going on since he passed out. He had passed out around one in the afternoon and it was now about eleven at night. He had been out for a solid ten hours, not quite his record, but was surprising.
Also while he was out Paul had taken care of his pokémon, giving them their dinner, and doing some basic grooming that Ash usually did daily, after being reassured that Ash was going to be on a constant watch by the nurses. Paul also told his mother and cousin that he was in the hospital so when his boyfriend gave him his watch it had several messages from then as well as a couple from Oak. He thought it too late to reply so he left them alone to answer at a better time in the morning.
Ash was just talking to Paul about the competition when a knock sounded from the door to his room and a tall woman walked in wearing scrubs. She had short, bright, blond hair and soft purple eyes. What fascinated Ash the most was the tattoos along her arms.
"Good evening!" she said as she stepped closer, "It's good to see you awake Mr. Ketchum."
"Evening," Ash greeted with a small sheepish smile on his face.
"I'm Nurse Summers and I'll be coming in to check on you a few times this evening," Summers said, "I'll also be the one to call for if you need anything. Now that you're awake I can let the night shift Doctor know and come see you about what happened."
"Okay," Ash said and gave her a small nod, "I don't think I need anything right now, but thank you."
"Of course!" Summers said, a bit cheerfully for it being almost midnight, "Let me check on your vitals now that you're awake and then I'll be on my way."
Ash nodded again and sat up a bit so Nurse Summers could do her checks. Ash studied the Nurse as she did her thing and she just seemed so familiar to him. Thankfully it didn't take her long to do the check up on him and soon enough she was out of the door after saying that the doctor should be in soon to talk to him.
"What's on your mind?" Paul asked after staying quiet while the Nurse was in the room.
Ash sat back and took a deep breath before getting a sip of water. "She looked very, very familiar, and I can swear I heard her name before," Ash said, "but I've never met her before."
"I'm sure it'll come to you," Paul said as he adjusted himself in the plastic chair. Pikachu chittered softly as he looked between Paul and Ash. Ash hummed softly as he moved his gaze up to the ceiling as he thought back to any encounters he could have had that reminded him of her.
"Summers, Summers," Ash murmured softly before letting out a sigh. It wasn't Angelique, who he had met briefly in the Mt. Moon along with Paul and Misty, nor was it any passerbyers. It wasn't anyone he met while in Kalos, or any of the Rangers he met on the way to Rota or any of its citizens. He looked over at Paul and saw that his boyfriend was looking at him with a soft expression. His mind wandered from the topic of Summers and instead he began remembering the times he spent with Paul before they had split in their journeys.
"That's it!" Ash said as he sat up higher, "That's why I think she's familiar!"
"Do tell?" Paul asked as sat back in his chair.
"Abigail Summers," Ash replied as Pikachu crawled up higher into his lap, "She looks like an older Abigail Summers."
"Who?"
"She's the one that revived and abandoned Tyrunt in the Safari Zone near Fuchsia City," Ash said, "remember that Baoba had that problem with a rogue pokémon destroying the facility and it turned out to be Tyrantrum? I found her on the S.S. Anne, talking about it with her friends."
"I remember you telling me something about it, but I forgot about it. I was more caught up on the Zeke thing and trying to make sure he wouldn't get near you again," Paul said with a small shrug, "so you think your Nurse is somehow related to her?"
"Must be," Ash said and was cut off from saying anything else by another knock sounded at the door before it was opened. A slender, short man walked in with a small smile on his face and greeted the two in the room.
"Good evening, Mr. Ketchum!" the doctor said as he walked closer to the bed, "My Nurse told me you were awake. That's very good, glad to see that you are."
"I'm glad to be awake too, Doc," Ash replied with a small polite smile on his face.
"Apologies," he said with a chortle, "I didn't introduce myself. I'm Dr. Sover, now I wasn't here when you were brought in, but the day shift doctor, Dr. Westlam, did catch me up on what is going on. You, Mr. Ketchum, had a case of heat exhaustion."
"Heat exhaustion? Like a heat stroke?" Ash asked as he gave the doctor his full attention.
"Heat exhaustion is similar in some ways, but not as severe as a heat stroke. Thankfully your temperature didn't get above one hundred point seven," Sover said, "That's why it's classified as heat exhaustion and not a heat stroke as a heat stroke causes your internal temperature to reach one hundred and three. That's when it becomes very dangerous. Were you experiencing anything else before you were brought in? Dizziness, fatigue, nausea?"
"I was getting a bit dizzy and nauseated, and I also had a really bad headache that turned into a migraine. I thought the migraine was causing it all," Ash told the doctor, "I was just getting into my room when I lost sight in my right eye, but I passed out before I could message Paul to come help me."
"He smacked his head on the floor pretty hard too," Paul chimed in, "I couldn't get to him fast enough to catch him before he passed out."
Sover nodded and wrote a few things on the white board in the room listing what they had told him. "Are you still feeling any of those symptoms?" the man asked.
"No," Ash answered, "Migraines gone, no dizziness or nausea, and my vision is back."
"Very good," Sover said as he placed the marker down, "I think just to be safe we'll keep you here for the rest of the night and if in the morning you still feel good then we can discharge you."
"Am I going to be able to be in the League competition?" Ash asked, just in case since he did hear about someone having to forfeit their place due to medical reasons in last year's competition.
"I don't see why you couldn't as long as you take the next couple of days to relax out of the sun, drink lots of fluids, and then come back to get checked out the day before the competition takes place," Sover said with a grin in place.
"Okay, I can do that," Ash said with a nod.
"Good! Well, if you don't have any more questions, then I need to be on my way to speak with another patient," Sover stated and waited a moment before taking his leave leaving a relieved Ash and Paul sitting in the darkened hospital room.
Ash took a deep breath as he took his spot on the field with the other competitors for the Opening Ceremony. From where he stood he could see a few others that he knew or had met during the journey here and he was glad to see that they had done their best to get here, just like he had done. He was mostly surrounded by strangers, though he did see Gary two rows down and three rows in front of him, and Paul was somewhere on the other side of the field. He had been cleared yesterday for this and he couldn't feel more ready, yet so underprepared.
Perhaps it was just the anxiety he was feeling telling him that.
Ash let his eyes roam around the area and tried his best not to start freaking out over the amount of people that would be watching him competing. He saw a few people up in the stands that he recognized and several he had no clue about. He saw kids getting excited and parents doing their best to keep them from trying to go over the railing. He turned a bit to look at the higher box seats for those that paid for VIP tickets and such as well as the two larger box seats that would hold the Gym Leaders as well as the Elite Four and Champion Lance, himself. They were empty at the moment, but he had no doubt that they were going to be filled soon.
He turned once more to focus on the large screen that usually would hold the battle trees and show who moved on and who were defeated. Of course there were smaller screens near each arena for each individual battle. Ash supposed it would be hard to have several battles being shown on the main screen all at once. Looking up Ash could see that the League had decided to use Rotom Drones to get shots they couldn't before.
The main screen showed the runner that carried Moltres' Flame, a tradition for their Opening Ceremonies, with their pokémon, a Houndoom, by their side. The live stream of the runners have been running all morning and had already traded hands four times. The Flame was getting so close to the League. There was only one runner left.
"It's getting serious isn't it?" A deep accented voice said quietly beside him making Ash turn to look at who spoke. He was tall, really dark skinned, bald, and had a silver hoop pierced onto his upper ear. The man had narrow silver colored eyes, but they held a gentle kindness in them.
"Very," Ash said in the same volume.
"First competition?" the guy asked.
"I've been in a few tournaments, but nothing like this, no," Ash replied.
"It gets a bit better after you've competed in a few," the man said in a soothing tone and Ash couldn't help but feel himself relax.
"You've been in another?" Ash asked and saw that the runner on the screen had passed on the torch to another runner with a Jolteon at his feet.
"Two others," the man said, "The one in Hoenn and another in Kalos. I'm Avondré D'Mario by the way, I'm from Hoenn."
"I'm Ash Ketchum," Ash said happy to put a name to a face, "I'm from here, Kanto, I mean."
Just as Avondré was about to speak again a loud ding sounded in the arena like the ticking of a clock and Ash turned his head so fast he heard his neck pop. The timer, shown on a black bar on the top of the screen, was quickly dwindling down as the runner got closer to the arena entrance. The competitors quickly moved so that there was a clear divide between the two groups and so that there was a straight shot to the large golden bowl that held the materials to keep the Flame burning for the entirety of the competition.
Soon enough the steady pounding of footsteps could be heard just before the runner with the Jolteon burst through the doorway. The timer was on three seconds when the runner passed Ash and Avondré and everyone in the stadium waited with baited breath as the runner climbed the stairs and made it just in time to throw the Flame, holder and all, into the golden bowl. The Flames spread and shot up along the wooden sculpture that had been sitting in it, making it look like Moltres was in the fire.
"Pokémon fans of all ages! Welcome! To the annual Indigo League Conference!"
Ash looked away from the flames to the stage right in front of it to see a short man with a microphone in hand. He had a long white beard, and hair that matched, and Ash couldn't see it from here but he knew from pictures that the older man had kind black colored eyes. He was dressed casually in shorts, a track jacket, a hat on his head, and brown boots.
"My name is Charles Goodshow," the man said to introduce himself, "and let's all cheer for these hard working and dedicated trainers!" Ash held back a wince as he heard the people in the stadium erupt with cheers and thunderous applause. Thankfully it didn't last long and Goodshow was announcing once more.
"Before we begin with the Preliminary Battles I would like to introduce our Gym Leaders for everyone here and at home," Goodshow said as he waved his hand up towards the two large box seats where the Gym Leaders had taken their place when Goodshow had first started talking. Ash tuned out the introductions, having already met them, even met a few a bit more personally than most have and moved his eyes up to the higher seats above them.
"And I would never forget our beloved Elite Four! Our Ghost specialist Lady Agatha! Our Ice specialist Lady Lorelei! Our Fighting specialist Bruno! And who could ever forget the newest addition to our Elite Four, our Dark specialist Karen!"
Ash clapped as he studied the new addition. He had heard that Lance was getting a new member from the man himself, but he hadn't heard any prospect for the position. The woman looked not much older than himself and had long dusty blue hair that matched her eye color. She was waving to the crowds with a small smirk on her face, but to Ash the expression didn't seem haughty or self-absorbed like he had seen on Garys' face.
"And everyone! Please give a huge round of applause for our Champion! The Dragon Master himself, Champion Lance!"
Lance, sitting between Bruno and Agatha, stood up and gave the crowd a bow and as he straightened Ash could see that he was being handed a microphone by a worker. The man after standing up straight brought the device to his mouth and spoke clearly and straightforwardly.
"Thank you, everyone! For coming here today to witness the hard work these trainers had put into themselves and their pokémon for the last year. I hope everyone has a wonderful time as we watch these trainers give it their all! Now, with Moltres' Flames alight, let us begin!"