Secrets Kept
*Updated June 2014 – originally chapter 15, just tweaked a bit, not much of a difference.*
Chapter Fourteen
A piercing series of beeps shattered the silence of the bedroom, rousing Gary from his sleep with a groan. It felt as though he had just laid down an hour earlier. A glance at the beeping alarm clock showed that he wasn't too far off; he had been hanging out with friends until nearly two in the morning before realizing the time and hurrying home. It was now five in the morning and it was his turn to get up early and feed breakfast to all of the pokemon. His grandfather usually did this every day but with him in Unova for two weeks, it was up to Gary and Tracey to do it.
Despite usually being able to function on only a few short hours of sleep, Gary had the distinct feeling he was going to be fairly useless today.
He somehow managed to drag himself out of bed and made it down the stairs without exhaustedly tumbling down them. It took nearly three hours but he eventually made it through the arduous task of feeding breakfast to every critter on the ranch. Hungry and more exhausted than ever, he finally started heading back toward the lab.
Umbreon suddenly darted out of the lab door, followed by Marill and Venonat as he approached the back door to the lab. Tracey stepped outside after them, leaning against the wall with a cup of coffee and a grin as he watched Gary. The canine ran straight to her trainer and rubbed her head against his leg affectionately before taking off across the yard, Marill happily bouncing after her. Venonat followed them, undoubtedly to play at the edge of the lake.
"You look like hell," Tracey commented when Gary reached him. "Maybe you should try going to bed earlier," he teased.
"Bite me," Gary replied, fighting back a yawn.
"There's nothing I'd rather do first thing in the morning than sink my teeth into you," Tracey replied, rolling his eyes. "Too bad I'm being responsible and doing my work."
"Hey, I'm being responsible!"
Tracey smiled and turned to head back inside. "That explains why you came home at quarter to two when you had to get up at five."
Gary rolled his eyes and followed him into the lab, leaving the door open for the pokemon to return when they were done playing. "Come on, Trace, stop being a nag. I'm starting to feel like you're my girlfriend. It's getting confusing."
"And I'm starting to feel like you're my little sister. It's even more confusing," Tracey replied, shooting a grin at his sleepy friend. "Go sleep, I'll be good in here for a while."
"Thanks, Trace," Gary yawned. "Let me know when it's time to give the pokemon lunch. I need to test the ponds for amoebas and clear out the algae bloom in the lake."
Tracey nodded, giving a small wave of acknowledgement as he sat down at his computer to begin his work for the day.
Rather than going upstairs to his bedroom, Gary headed towards the living room after grabbing some breakfast. He flopped lazily on the couch and flipped on the television and DVD player, hoping that the movie May had been watching with Tracey when he left the night before was still in. Sure enough, the menu came on the screen and Gary closed his eyes as the movie started, falling asleep before the opening scene was over.
He woke up a couple of hours later, near the climax of the movie, when Tracey leaned over the back of the couch and shook his shoulder. Tracey smiled apologetically at him as he groaned and glanced at the clock, whining about the time.
"As much as I would like to watch The Avengers with you, I could use some help prepping the food in the lab," Tracey said softly, folding his arms on the back of the couch and watching the movie.
"I haven't even gotten to check out Thor yet," Gary complained. He looked up at Tracey with a petulant smile.
Tracey laughed and shook his head. "Josh dressed up as Thor for Halloween, it was pretty funny," he said, thinking back to his trip home several months prior. It had been fun helping his brother and sisters with their costumes.
"Fitting," Gary murmured. "He's cute enough."
"No hitting on my little brother. And how exhausted are you to be saying that?"
"Extremely."
Tracey laughed again and walked around the couch to sit down next to Gary, who only moved his legs out of Tracey's way when the older boy crossed his arms over his chest with an even stare. The two boys watched the remainder of the movie together, Gary periodically dozing off for a moment or two, only to be woken up by Tracey either shoving his leg or lightly punching his shoulder.
"Why?" Gary groaned after a particularly hard punch.
Tracey grinned. "Why didn't you go to bed earlier?" He teased, earning a sharp kick to the thigh in retaliation. "Be nice," he warned, laughing a bit. "I'll tell the professor you were mean to me."
"You be nice," Gary retorted sleepily.
"I am being nice. I could be dragging you to the lab to help me prep the food."
Gary narrowed his eyes and nudged Tracey in the ribs with his foot, determined to get in the last word, whether it was verbal or not. He frowned slightly as he returned his attention to the television. May had been helping Tracey prep the pokemon food in the lab lately. Although she wouldn't touch any of the meat for the carnivores, her efforts in measuring out kibble into bowls, chopping fruits and vegetables, and arranging food bowls by group helped tremendously and cut down on a great deal of work.
If Tracey needed his help, that meant May was not currently helping. Now that he thought about it, the house seemed rather quiet and he had to wonder where his sister was.
"Did May go off somewhere?" he asked curiously.
"She went out with Amanda," Tracey confirmed with an uncharacteristic scowl.
Sensing something was off, Gary finally sat up to look at his friend properly. "Where'd they go?"
"Johto."
Gary frowned, confused by the response. "Why?"
Tracey sighed and rested his head back against the back of the couch. "Legal drinking age in Johto is eighteen," he reminded the boy with his eyes closed.
Gary rolled his eyes and groaned loudly. "Damn... I told her not to throw a party while Gramps was gone."
"So did I."
Sighing as he realized there was nothing he could really do about his troublesome sister, Gary stood. "How about we go take care of the food so we can get everything done and over with?"
"Sounds good to me."
The two boys prepped the relatively small lunch meal for the pokemon and brought it out to them, picking up the food bowls from breakfast as they went. The used bowls replaced the fresh bowls of food in a wagon pulled by Gary's Arcanine.
Once they were done, they went their separate ways, Tracey bringing the dirty breakfast bowls back to the lab for cleaning while Gary headed out to the various ponds on the property to collect water samples. After a quick check under the microscopes proved the water to be free of amoebas, he was back outside, this time with his mask and snorkel to clear a bloom of algae in the lake. Before he could do that though, Tracey stopped him, apparently needing some help in the stable for the ponyta and rapidash. Though the fire types were now Gary's responsibility, Tracey still did a lot of work in the stables - the horses loved him and the stable was one of his favorite places to work. Usually, they split the work but on days that Gary had to do extra work with the water, Tracey took over.
Of course, helping Tracey groom the ponyta and rapidash took a long time, but it wasn't something Gary minded. In fact, he was quite content to be doing something so simple with Tracey. It was an easy chore, if the horses liked the person doing it, and it was almost relaxing. The occasional comments and snippets of conversation between them made it all the more enjoyable, even with the particularly mischievous young ponyta that had taken a liking to nudging Gary with her nose every few minutes.
"Knock it off, Pele," he repeated for the third time after she had nearly knocked him over for the sixth or seventh time. She was small, but deceptively strong.
The young horse whinnied happily and nuzzled his shoulder. She nudged him again the second he returned his attention to the rapidash that he was trying to brush. Across the room, Tracey laughed as Gary closed his eyes and shook his head, trying not to laugh as well.
"You're very annoying, you know that?" Gary said, continuing to focus on the larger horse on front of him.
Pele snorted behind him and Gary knew her well enough to assume that she was flicking her tail in dissent.
"Yes, you are. Isn't she, Apollo?" he asked the older rapidash with a smile. The rapidash nodded its head and Gary grinned.
"You do realize that you're arguing with a horse, right?" Tracey asked, leading the ponyta he had just finished with back to the field to run for a few more hours.
Gary laughed. "It's hard not to when you work with this one," he replied tilting his head in Pele's direction, only to have her nudge his hand, knocking the brush out of it. "Seriously? C'mon, Pele, I've got work to do."
Tracey smiled as he approached Gary, patting Pele on the nose. She was his favorite of all the fire horses at the lab and it amused him greatly to see her bother Gary so much. It was actually rather cute. "She's just trying to tell you that she wants to be taken through the agility course."
"Or you could just take her out for a ride. She's big enough to do that now," Gary suggested, finally finishing brushing Apollo the rapidash.
"Oh," Tracey said simply, shifting his weight and scratching the back of his neck. "I guess you, uh, could do that too."
Gary glanced at him as he led Apollo back to the field. "Have you ever ridden one?"
"No, have you?"
"Growing up in this town?" Gary asked with a roll of his eyes. "Are you kidding me?"
"That's a yes," Tracey sighed as he ran a hand through his hair.
Gary paused near the door to the field and gave him a contemplative look before smirking slightly and heading over towards the storage area that held riding equipment. "Pick a horse. An older rapidash would be good for you: they tend to be more calm. I'll take Pele since she seems to love me so damn much," he emphasized the last few words with a playful glare at the ponyta who had followed him into the storage area.
"But I thought you had to take care of the algae in the lake," Tracey said, unsure of whether to be happy to have the chance to do something new with Gary or to feel bad for distracting Gary from his other responsibilities.
The other boy shrugged, frowning as he picked up a few pieces of equipment and tried to remember exactly how they went. "A little algae never hurt anyone. I can do it tomorrow."
"Are you sure?"
"Of course, I'm sure, Tracey. It's just algae; it's not a big deal. Come on, I'll teach you."
Tracey grinned and followed Gary out to the field. He smiled as he looked around at the various ponyta and rapidash milling about before picking one of the older female rapidash. "I have no idea what I'm doing," he warned Gary, who shrugged his shoulders in response.
"It's been a long time since I've done this," Gary replied, frowning again at the riding equipment. Pele came up behind him and nudged him in the back with her snout, causing him to roll his eyes. "Stop, Pele!"
Tracey pulled the young ponyta away from him, patting her snout and snickering a bit as Gary continued to peer at the equipment in confusion. It was somewhat refreshing and amusing to see him, for once, confused over something.
"I'm not sure how much I trust you with this," Tracey teased him, earning another eye roll.
"Apollo, help me out here."
The rapidash that Gary had been brushing in the barn came over, nudging the different pieces and pointing with his nose to different places on the other rapidash in order to help the young researcher. Tracey watched, highly amused, as he kept Pele occupied.
Finally, after a bit of trial and error, Gary had managed to get the horse that Tracey had picked and Apollo ready for riding. Riding the fire horses had always been one of his favorite parts of childhood but it had been years since he had ridden one and, after realizing that he couldn't remember how to properly prepare the saddle and accompanying straps and buckles, he figured riding Pele wouldn't be the best idea. With how energetic she was, it wouldn't surprise him if she took off running and he wasn't about to humiliate himself that badly in front of Tracey.
Gary grinned up at Apollo when he was done and rubbed the horse's neck. "Thanks, buddy." Apollo snorted and nuzzled Gary's neck with his nose. "Watch the horn," Gary scolded lightly, dodging the long horn coming from Apollo's forehead. "I'd like my eyeballs to stay in my skull, where they belong."
"That would be an interesting call to make to your grandfather," Tracey laughed.
"Could you imagine calling May home from Johto for that?" Gary asked him, still grinning as he made his way over to his friend, leading the rapidash that he had picked out. Tracey pulled away from Pele to approach the larger horse nervously. Gary helped him up on to the horse, grasping Tracey's hand a bit longer than was necessary as he smiled reassuringly. "You'll be fine, Trace," he assured him before walking back to Apollo and hoisting himself up.
After a few minutes of showing Tracey the general ways to hold and maneuver the reins, they set off across the field, Pele happily trotting along after them towards the agility course that was set up in the adjacent field. Once in that field, they left her to her own devices as they rode around the perimeter of the field. Tracey's nervousness gradually faded and they eventually sped up to a slower trot while Pele ran and leapt over hurdles, seeming to have the time of her life.
Watching him relax and enjoy himself gave Gary a strange sort of pleasure that he couldn't quite place. It made him smile to see the older boy doing well at something he had shown him to do and he felt an odd type of pride watching Tracey.
"Told you you'd be fine," Gary said softly as they finally climbed off of the two rapidash.
Tracey smiled almost shyly in response, preoccupying himself with checking the time on his cell phone. "We should start wrapping everything up for the day," he suggested, realizing that they were late in beginning the preparations for the pokemon dinners.
Gary nodded and began busying himself with cleaning up all of the equipment that had been taken out in the stables, telling Tracey that he would be in to help him once he was done. He couldn't help but smile to himself as he returned all of the riding and grooming equipment to its proper place. Having both May and the professor gone for the day meant that he could relax a bit more than usual around Tracey. Most of the time, it had been just him and Tracey in the lab the whole week that the professor had been gone so far, and Gary often found himself with a stupid grin on his face as the two spent time together. Of course, there had been several times in the week that he had caught Tracey with a similar grin. He always seemed to notice when Gary caught him and would blush faintly, biting his lip as he turned away. Gary would laugh softly, shaking his head and trying hard to fight down a stupid grin of his own.
With both May and the professor gone for the day, he didn't have to worry about anyone else seeing those smiles.
Finally returning to the lab, he found Tracey there, finishing up with the preparations of the final meal of the day, while talking to Marril and Venonat, who were bouncing around on the counter near him. Umbreon was lying nearby and quickly jumped up to greet him, alerting Tracey to his presence. The other boy smiled when he saw Gary and continued quietly working.
"According to Marril, May's not back yet," he announced once Gary reached the counter and began helping him. "Maybe she decided against having a party here."
Gary sighed quietly, reaching over to pat Venonat on the head. "Don't get your hopes up on that. Knowing her, she probably went to the mall."
Marril, to Gary's surprise, squeaked in agreement. The little water mouse usually avoided doing anything that could be seen as agreement with something Gary did or said.
"You're probably right," Tracey replied, though Gary barely paid any attention.
He was more focused on the little blue mouse in front of him, who surprisingly accepted an apple slice that he offered it. Marril squeaked again and tilted his head cutely, begging for more food, which Gary gave him. Still surprised by the way Marril was being friendly to him, Gary reached out and scratched him behind the ears, causing the little critter to nuzzle his hand before chirping happily and bouncing off to play with Venonat some more.
"Why is he being nice to me?"
Tracey barely glanced up. "Marril's usually nice to everyone."
"Not to me," Gary reminded him.
"He has an issue with negativity. You've been in a better mood lately, so he likes you more than he used to."
Unsure of what exactly to say in response, Gary elected to stay quiet. Neither teenager spoke again until they were once again outside with a wagon full of fresh bowls of food.
"Why have you been in such a better mood lately?" Tracey asked suddenly as he traded a mostly-eaten bowl of grass pokemon food for a fresh bowl.
Gary shrugged his shoulders, thinking over his response. As he thought, Arcanine pulled the wagon of dinner to the next area. "I guess I realized that being gay didn't have to be the thing that defined me," he finally said, helping Tracey load up more partially eaten food.
"You realized that not every gay person fits the stereotype?"
"Yeah, I guess you could say that," Gary agreed. "I kind of realized that I could still be myself, you know?"
Tracey nodded in agreement as they continued picking up more food bowls. "There's nothing wrong with liking other guys, regardless of what some people think."
"Some people still think it's disgusting."
"Well then, maybe they should stop thinking about it."
Gary laughed softly. "It would be nice if they would."
Tracey glanced over at him, a bit thrown off by the response. "Have you thought about telling your friends?"
"I almost told Darren a few times," Gary admitted, shrugging again. "Sometimes I get the idea that he almost knows already."
"He practically is your brother and he is pretty smart. It's not impossible for him to figure something like that out," Tracey said reasonably.
"Are you trying to say I act gay?" Gary asked, lightly pushing Tracey and earning a laugh.
"No," Tracey replied, rolling his eyes. "In fact, I doubt many people would believe you if you came out to them. Even my gay-dar was a bit confused by you and it's usually dead on."
"Thanks, Trace," Gary replied sarcastically.
Ignoring the sarcasm, Tracey smiled. He knew his words probably gave Gary at least a little more confidence when it came to this particular topic. "You're welcome."
Once they were done, they returned to the lab again and made quick work of cleaning the food bowls, leaving them on the counter to dry so that they could consider their work for the day done. Seeing that May was still gone, they snacked on left over pizza on the back porch despite the warm weather. The whole day had been hot and the temperature dropping a few degrees in the early evening had done rather little in cooling off the small town.
Within a few minutes Tracey had his sketchbook out and was drawing the view of the back yard. Though a bit bored, Gary watched, somewhat amused at how quickly and easily Tracey could become absorbed in his drawing. An odd noise caused him to look up in time to see Umbreon push the back door open with her snout and slip out on to the porch. She walked past the table, rubbed her head against Gary's leg once and trotted off towards the pool. She sat at the edge of the shallow end and carefully reached her paw in to test the water while Gary shook his head, trying not to laugh at her. She could be so odd sometimes.
Umbreon looked up at her trainer and twitched her long ears before looking back at the pool. She backed away from the edge a good distance, walking out into the grass before turning and running towards the pool once more. With a flying leap, she landed a good distance from the edge of the pool, swam towards the steps, and climbed out, ready to do it again.
Laughing at her antics, Gary reached down to pull off his socks and shoes. Across from him, Tracey turned the page in his sketchbook, ready to sketch the dark canine. Before he could begin his next drawing, Gary reached out and gently tugged the sketchbook out of his hands.
"Come on, Tracey, be fun for once," he teased, pulling his shirt off and tossing it on his chair.
"What are you doing?" Tracey asked warily as the younger teen stripped down to just his boxers. He fought not to blush as he glanced Gary over.
"Swimming," Gary replied simply.
"You do know you have about half a dozen bathing suits for that, right?" Tracey asked, standing up to reach over the table to retrieve his sketchbook from where Gary had placed it out of his reach a moment earlier. Taking advantage of Tracey standing, Gary grasped his wrist and dragged him away from the table towards the pool. "I'm not going swimming in my underwear, Gary," Tracey complained, trying to grab the table to keep the other boy from dragging him closer to the pool.
Gary let go of his wrist and caused Tracey to stumble a bit closer to the pool. "Who says you have to swim in your underwear?" he asked.
Tracey tried to make a move for the table but Gary grabbed his arm again, deftly slipped his hand into Tracey's pocket to grab the boy's cell phone, and tossed it on the table. "Gary, don't you dare!" He tried to wriggle out of Gary's grasp but the other boy laughed and tightened his grip, somehow managing to drag him to the edge of the pool.
Umbreon jumped into the pool again, splashing them both, and Gary took advantage of Tracey's surprise and pushed him into the water before diving in next to him. Tracey emerged from the water sputtering and coughing but laughing at the same time as Gary popped up across the pool from him.
"Why would you do that?" Tracey asked, still laughing as Gary swam towards him.
"For fun." Tracey scowled playfully at him, crossing his arms self-consciously across his chest. The move wasn't lost on Gary and he rolled his eyes when he reached him. "Oh, come on, you look good wet," he said, reaching out and uncrossing Tracey's arms. "Relax, Trace!"
Tracey sighed and reached down in the water to pull off his soaked shoes. "How many times have I told you to do just that over the last year?" he asked irritably.
"Yeah, well, it worked, didn't it?" Gary asked, leaning against the side of the pool next to him. He rested his arms against the pool edge behind him and closed his eyes, relaxing in the cool water. His fingers brushed against Tracey's wet shirt but neither boy moved away.
Tracey tossed his shoes on the deck surrounding the pool before tugging off his shirt and shorts, stripping down to just his boxers. Gary couldn't help but sneak a peek out of the corner of his eye as Tracey tossed his clothes on the deck next to his shoes. The other boy squirmed slightly and Gary knew that Tracey had somehow known he was looking.
"I told you, you look good wet."
"You're a terrible flirt," Tracey replied dryly, swimming across the pool to the other side.
Gary quickly followed him. "I wasn't flirting, I was telling the truth." He reached out and grabbed Tracey's wrist again, lowering his voice a bit. "Though if you want me to flirt with you, I could."
Giving up on his attempt to appear annoyed, Tracey laughed and moved slightly closer to Gary. "And what makes you think I would be interested?" he asked teasingly.
"Well, we're both soaked and in our underwear so…"
Tracey snorted in amusement, rolling his eyes a bit. "That sounds like dialogue for a bad lesbian porn," he commented.
Gary gave a short laugh and released Tracey's wrist, swimming away a bit. "And you say I'm a terrible flirt! Although I guess you're right." He narrowed his eyes suddenly and regarded Tracey with a strange look. "What's your experience with lesbian porn in first place?"
Tracey cringed at the question and Gary laughed again. "Very awkward circumstances involving my brother," he replied slowly, rubbing the back of his neck as he watched Gary approach him once again. The boy never seemed to stay still for long. "What about you?"
"Very awkward circumstances involving my friends."
Both boys rolled their eyes and were quiet for a few minutes, relaxing in the water for some time. Gary continued to swim back and forth across the pool, dodging Umbreon's periodic running leaps into the pool. He could almost swear she was trying to land on him. Tracey rested against the side of the pool, occasionally petting Umbreon when she swam by or splashing Gary mischievously whenever he came up for air close by. Eventually Gary grew tired of dodging Umbreon and decided to relax against the side of the pool like Tracey.
The older boy appeared to be in deep thought about something and Gary took advantage of his distraction to splash him in the face. "What are you thinking about?" he asked after Tracey retaliated with a splash of his own.
The small smile that had been on Tracey's face faded with the question. "If May does her usual thing," he began seriously and Gary closed his eyes, knowing the question that was coming. "Are you going to get drunk with your friends?"
Gary groaned and ran a hand through his hair. "I don't know," he said after a minute. "If I tell you no and something happens later on and I end up doing something stupid, I would feel really bad for breaking a promise to you."
The response surprised Tracey and he titled his head curiously, considering the boy in front of him. "Why is that?"
"Well, you've become one of my best friends, you know. And you've done a lot for me. It would be pretty shitty of me to make a promise to you and then break it."
Tracey smiled faintly but remained serious. "You've been doing really well since you got back from the Islands. I don't want to see you screw that up," he said honestly.
Gary sighed and nodded. "I know," he replied quietly. "I don't want to screw it up either."
"Then why am I worried that you might do that?"
"Because that's exactly what I've been doing for the last ten months," Gary said softly. Tracey nodded in agreement and Gary had to resist the urge to roll his eyes at him. "It's not going to happen again."
"That sounds an awful lot like a promise to me," Tracey pointed out and Gary sighed again.
He thought a moment before fixing Tracey with an even stare. "I guess it is."
It was at that moment that May's car could be heard pulling into the driveway, followed by the familiar sound of the girl laughing with her best friend. The sound of the two girls giggling was followed by the sound of Darren's voice, apparently irritable about being left to carry everything out of the car. Gary dropped his gaze from Tracey, biting his lip as Umbreon swam another lap around the pool before climbing out and running excitedly around the side of the house to greet the new arrivals.
Gary moved past Tracey to climb out of the pool, only to have the other boy catch his arm before he could do so.
"Don't worry about your friends," Tracey said softly. "You'll be fine," he added and without really thinking, leaned forward and pressed a quick kiss against Gary's cheek. "Maybe that'll encourage you to be good," he said, releasing Gary's arm and climbing out of the pool, leaving the younger teen speechless as he gathered his soaked clothes and headed inside.
…. … …