Secrets Kept

**Updated June 2014 – originally chapter 3, just tweaked a bit, not much of a difference.*

A few OCs introduced in here… There won't be many, I swear. The chapters are going to be longer from now on and more should be happening in them since there's a lot to cover in this fic and I don't want this to be as long as Beyond the Walls. Enjoy!

Chapter Two

Tracey had never been one for parties or even large groups of people, not even back home in the Orange Islands. It had taken him a few years to get used to the way the Professor's granddaughter would throw parties whenever he was out of town and, once more, he found himself a bit uncomfortable and out of his depth. Predictably, May Oak, in all of her excitable splendor, had chosen to throw a party for her younger brother's homecoming during the professor's first trip out of town – when Gary had already been home for nearly a month. Only a few people were at the house currently and Tracey found himself in the kitchen doodling on a spare sheet of paper while May and one of her friends gossiped and giggled as they set up drinks and food.

Tracey glanced up from the Lapras sketch that he was working on as Gary entered the room, closely followed by a boy with long dark hair. Smiling his greeting at the two boys, Tracey easily recognized the other teen as Gary's best friend, Darren, who often helped out in the lab during the summer months. He had initially been surprised to find out that the two were such good friends, given how energetic and mischievous Darren was in contrast with Gary's rather laidback persona, but he had passed off this surprise quickly – after all, quiet as he was, Tracey was friends with hyper, happy-go-lucky Ash. Whoever said opposites couldn't attract or, at the very least, be friends?

Languidly crossing the kitchen, Gary leaned against the counter next to his sister and peered at the many bottles lined up before shaking his head. "How do you manage to get so much alcohol when you're underage?" he asked her curiously.

"That's for me to know and you to find out," May replied, tossing her dyed blonde hair over her shoulder with a grin.

Gary frowned slightly, eying the bottles again. "Gramps is going to be pissed if he finds out about this, May," he pointed out quietly.

Tracey couldn't help but be mildly surprised at his words; he had been rather under the impression that Gary didn't care too much about getting into trouble. The boy was constantly getting into some sort of trouble in the lab and didn't seem too bothered by any consequences that came his way. Perhaps he cared more about the rule regarding alcohol in the house considering the professor was rather strict about that particular rule.

May and her friend laughed and May shook her head, taking the opportunity to pick on her brother while Tracey turned his attention to his Marril, who had just jumped up on the table.

"Fine," Gary replied crisply, crossing his arms in response to the playful teasing. "Don't bitch to me if he finds out."

May opened one of the many bottles on the counter and poured a liberal amount into a plastic cup, which she passed to Gary. "Drink this and stop worrying, Squirt."

Gary inspected the drink warily, pulling a face and handing it back to his sister. "No thanks."

"So innocent," May laughed, offering Darren the drink that Gary had refused. The other boy took it with no complaint, shooting his friend a grin while Gary's frown deepened slightly.

"Whatever," Gary muttered with a scowl. He turned and left the room through the back door; Tracey glanced up to watch through the open door as Darren hurried to follow him across the backyard.

A soft sigh brought Tracey's attention back to the kitchen as May sat down in one of the empty seats at the table. "He's been acting weird lately," she announced to no one in particular, a worried expression settling across her features.

"How so?" he asked, mildly surprised. He didn't know Gary too well but they had been friends for awhile and whatever it was that May had noticed had passed by him unseen; something unusual considering the pokemon watcher tended to pick up on human emotions just from seeing their mannerisms.

"I don't know…" May frowned, thinking for a moment. "He's tense, like something's on his mind," she explained.

Tracey shrugged slightly, not really knowing what to say. "I haven't noticed," he admitted.

May gave him a small smile. "You don't know him well enough." Her friend, who had been standing next to the counter during the exchange, came over and sat down in one of the remaining chairs, looking interested.

"Maybe he needs a girl," she suggested with a suggestive smile.

"Of course you'd be the one to bring that up," May sighed. "In case you haven't noticed, he doesn't seem to be very interested in girls."

Tracey glanced up from his drawing again, his attention captured as May's friend scoffed quietly. "Oh, come on," she said with a dramatic roll of her eyes. "He flirts back all the time," she pushed on as though it explained everything.

Looking back down at his sketchbook, Tracey tried to hide a frown. May's friend was right – to an extent. He had seen Gary's responses to the way his sister's friends fawned over him, flirted with him, and all but threw themselves at him. Yes, he flirted back and there were times when he seemed to genuinely enjoy the company of the pretty girls, but it always seemed to be in a more innocent way than most hormone-charged boys his age normally would. Then there were times when he smiles wouldn't reach his eyes and he would simply brush off the attention in favor of a book or video game. Another small sigh from May brought his attention back to the conversation, though he kept his eyes on the incomplete drawing in front of him.

"Remember that tiny skirt you wore the other day?" The other girl nodded in confirmation of May's question. "You bent over in front of him and flashed him when you dropped your eyeliner. He had no reaction – you would think a teenage boy would get an erection or something but… Nothing. He didn't even look up and I know that book he was reading wasn't that interesting."

"You're that observant?" Tracey asked, slapping a hand over his mouth when he realized what he had just asked. He liked May, the last thing he wanted to do was insult her intelligence by insinuating that she couldn't observe her brother's actions. Still, it was interesting for her to make that particular observation about her brother.

To his surprise, May laughed. "Trust me, Trace," she began, flashing him a grin. "When it comes to my baby brother, there's nothing I don't notice."

Meeting her dark brown eyes that were so much like Gary's, Tracey wondered if she was warning him of something. Perhaps she had noticed that he was starting to take an interest in her brother; after all, she knew that he was gay and now here she was, raising questions about the other boy's sexuality. Not entirely sure what to say, Tracey forced a smile.

"I guess it's a good thing that someone's so observant, because there are times when Professor Oak is just way too oblivious to what's going on around him."

May simply laughed again, leaving Tracey under the distinct impression that anything he noticed about Gary was likely to be picked up by the girl. If Gary was as secretive as Tracey suspected him to be, May's perceptive observations could cause trouble between the two siblings and, with the way they bickered, that was the last thing they needed.

… … …

Despite being surrounded by friends, laughing, joking, and seemingly having a great time, Gary was starting to feel miserable. There was no other way to describe it. It had started as fun but everything had grown tiresome during the past few hours. He was quick to realize that things had changed drastically since the last time he had been home; his friends were now obsessed with girls and sex – it seemed like that was the only thing they had talked about all night when they weren't cracking jokes about one of May's flamboyant friends who was very obviously gay.

For once, Gary was rendered into near silence while everyone else spoke; he simply had nothing to say. He had never been interested in girls, he supposed he could try to feel something for his sister's friends but he doubted that would help matters. There had simply been too many confusing thoughts circulating his head since he had settled in at home. He constantly tried to push them to the back of his mind, to suppress the teenage fantasies that came up when he lie in bed at night but he always woke up the next morning feeling sick when it all came flooding back to him. In the back of his mind, Gary knew what the issue was, even if the conscious part of his brain refused to acknowledge it fully.

Glancing around the living room for a distraction from the conversation going on around him, Gary noticed Tracey emerge from the kitchen and their eyes met. Tracey smiled at him as he headed in the direction of the stairs; the eye contact broke and Gary hastily turned his attention back to the other boys in time for one of them to fix him with a mischievous grin.

"Gary, how were the girls at Sayda?"

It took a surprising amount of effort for Gary not to glare at the blonde boy, Wyatt, who had slyly asked the question. Instead, he managed to force a smile onto his face. "Because I had so much time to find out," he replied sarcastically.

Some of the other boys laughed, others commented disbelievingly. Gary mentally sighed, he had only been fifteen when he started at the research center on Sayda Island – had they really expected him to hook up with peers that were at least five years older than him?

"It was all work, guys," he pointed out. "Non-stop for months straight. I didn't even have time to think about chicks."

"Pity," Wyatt sighed, taking a sip of a soda that Gary knew to have a large amount of alcohol in it. "Because Professor Ivy's got some awesome -"

"I didn't even work with her there!" Gary cut him exasperatedly off before he could continue, not particularly wanting to hear his idiotic friends gushing over a professor's cleavage. Especially not when it was a professor he held much respect for.

Gary found himself wishing to be somewhere else as the others were sidetracked by the mention of the female scientist. Why were they so damn obsessed with breasts? It was driving him crazy. He was saved from their incessant chatter when May and several of her friends entered the room, all talking loudly, particularly her flamboyant male friend whose name he couldn't remember. His friends stopped talking and exchanged amused glances and laughs while Gary could feel his heart sink slightly. Here we go again…

Couldn't they just let it go?

Apparently not, he thought bitterly as the jokes and comments began.

Sighing irritably, Gary rested his chin in his hand, his normal, confident smile fading into an expression of bored indifference. Several minutes passed and the others showed no sign of letting up; he was about ready to leave the couch when he felt a sharp poke in his side. Next to him, Darren grinned and Gary retaliated by shoving his shoulder before returning to brooding.

Darren leaned forward, resting his forearms across his knees after lightly pushing Gary back. "You're quiet," he observed.

"And you're drunk," Gary replied flatly.

"Only a little." Gary shot him a glance that told the other boy that he wasn't particularly happy. Most people wouldn't catch the slight glimmer of annoyance in his eyes but he had grown up with the dark-haired boy and could easily consider him a brother. Darren would notice what most people didn't, having grown up with the other boy, and that annoyance in Gary's gaze didn't escape his notice. "We're just having fun," he defended.

"I'm not," Gary muttered under his breath, quiet enough that only Darren would hear.

"Drink this; you'll be having fun in no time," a feminine voice said suddenly and a small glass of clear liquid was held in front of his face. Gary looked up to see May leaning on the back of the couch, smiling at him and obviously listening in on the conversation. A soft sigh escaped Gary has he warily took the drink. "You know you want to," May teased.

Without hesitating any more, Gary raised the glass to his lips and swallowed the shot quickly, forcing himself not to pull too much of a face at the taste of the strong drink.

"Not so innocent, now are we?" May asked, leaning over to press a quick kiss against Gary's cheek as she took the glass back.

With a small amount of alcohol, he probably could have sat there awhile longer, forcing himself to listen to the mindless chatter, if someone hadn't chosen to utter a rude comment about May's friend when the girl sauntered off. Screw it. Gary stood and left the corner of the room that he and his friends had taken over, ignoring inquiries of where he was going. He wasn't sure where he was going, he just knew that it was away from them.

Gary found himself in the lab, brushing his Arcanine's fur with scowl on his face a few moments later. He wasn't quite sure why he was so annoyed – his friends had always managed to be idiots, they had always brought up girls; so why did it bother him so much this time?

You know exactly why… The quiet voice in the back of his head murmured, causing Gary to shake his head almost violently.

"Shut the hell up," he hissed, pressing his palms against his eyes and willing the thought away. Arcanine peered up at him curiously and Gary cracked a small, guilty smile at the pokemon as he picked up the brush that he had tossed away from him a moment earlier and began to brush the large dog once more. "I've only been here a month and I'm already losing my mind, Arcanine," he said with an ironic grin, shaking his head once more.

No matter how much he focused on running the brush over his pokemon's striped fur, he couldn't shake the inexplicable irritation towards his friends from his head. He was different from his friends – that was a particular feeling he couldn't escape. Granted, they all were different, in a core group of seven close friends, it was impossible for there not to be differences amongst their similarities. Hell, their personalities were all vastly different; from Wyatt, who was so spontaneous that Gary sometimes wondered if he should be institutionalized, to Chase, who was so calm that his hair could be on fire and he wouldn't raise his voice. Their interests were incredibly varied; Darren cared little for anything other than music, Adrian always had a book in hand or nearby, while Gary was adventurous and loved being outside handling pokemon in some way. Even their thoughts regarding sex were different; Chase, Mike, and Wyatt were utterly sex-crazed but too awkward to succeed in more than masturbation, Brandon was almost comical with startling innocence for a sixteen-year-old boy, and then there was Gary. He'd had several crushes throughout his life, though he only remembered one in particular; he hardly gave girls a second thought – he couldn't even recall ever liking a girl!

Perhaps he simply hadn't tried hard enough; after all, he had never really had the spare time to focus on that like the other boys did. They had stayed home and gone to school like normal kids, even though Darren and Mike had both been trainers at some point, while Gary had been busy with training and then researching ever since he was ten. Still, he supposed he could like girls if he just got used to not having a constant distraction from them.

Arcanine gave a sudden bark, effectively startling Gary out of his thoughts and forcing him to notice that he had been brushing the same spot on the canine's back for the past five minutes. He gave the animal an apologetic smile and set down the brush with a small sigh before sitting in front of his pokemon and began to scratch the dog behind the ears.

"Who would have imagined that adjusting to life here would be so easy?" he asked Arcanine with sarcasm dripping from his voice.

The dog gave him a reproachful look that Gary would have responded to if he hadn't been distracted by squeaking followed by footsteps and Tracey's soft but firm voice.

"No, Marril, you know you can't play in the lab; that's what the pool is for," the boy was insisting tiredly when he paused at the sight of Gary in the lab with Arcanine. Marril had disappeared around a corner, still squeaking happily, and Tracey rolled his eyes and hurried around the corner. He emerged a moment later with the blue mouse squirming in his arms as he made his way over to where Gary and Arcanine were sitting. "Get bored at the party?" Tracey inquired.

Gary shrugged, reaching out to pet Marril as it sniffed him cautiously. The little pokemon had yet to warm up to him, despite the treats and pats that Gary often gave him. "Something like that," he replied indifferently. "You?"

"I was actually going to get something to eat, but somebody had other plans," Tracey looked down at his pokemon with a significant look. Marril hastily turned his attention back to his trainer and gave an indignant squeak that made both boys laugh.

"Stubborn little thing, isn't he?"

Tracey laughed again and nodded; he had to force himself not too be too distracted by the amused grin on Gary's face. "You have no idea."

They shared a smile and Gary suddenly felt the thoughts from moments before come flooding back to him. Something must have shown on his face because Tracey's smile faded slightly and he opened his mouth to say something, only to be cut off by the lab door opening again. Gary looked up as someone called his name and scowled slightly when his friend Mike rounded the corner and announced that May was looking for him. He hesitated for a moment, torn between following his friend out of the lab to find his sister or staying in the large room with Tracey. He felt oddly drawn to the pokemon watcher and a large part of him would have preferred to stay in the quiet lab with him and his pokemon, talking about something – anything – other than what the others were talking about. Closed off as he naturally was, he had the inexplicable urge to vocalize his thoughts to Tracey. Something told him that the boy would understand.

Finally, Gary stood and Tracey followed suit, his smile seeming a bit sad. "I guess I should go up to bed," Tracey announced, starting towards the door.

"Guess so," Gary muttered, his eyes following the other boy out of the room. Once Tracey was gone, he heaved a sigh and ran a hand through his hair before forcing his face into his normal smirk as he too headed for the door.

In that moment, he made up his mind. He was most definitely going to have to start trying to like girls – his eyes seemed to linger on Tracey far too much for his liking.

… … …