Secrets Told

Chapter Three: Admittance

Samuel Oak thought himself to be rather good at reading the moods of those around him. He knew he was particularly good at telling when his youngest grandchild was in a sour mood. It wasn't particularly hard; slamming doors tended to be a sure sign of anger, as was the loud music emanating from behind the closed bedroom door. Behind the door, his grandson was most certainly cleaning his room – something he seemed to do in anger just to give the teen something constructive to do. Not that Gary was particularly messy and needed to clean up; whenever he was peeved about something his room just happened to go from reasonably tidy to immaculate. No doubt the room would be spotless by the end of the night, not that Professor Oak could blame him for being angry this time. He had tried to teach his grandchildren the importance of honesty and keeping promises from a young age but May's childlike personality made it difficult for her to stay quiet about things that excited her and Gary's generally secretive manner often made it difficult to tell what was going on.

He wasn't upset about May's excited claims. Well, actually he was, but he was upset with his granddaughter not with his grandson, which was exactly why he was currently standing outside of Gary's bedroom.

He found it a bit hard to believe, despite the fact that it made sense now. It was odd though, he couldn't help thinking that thought. His grandson… was involved with another boy. Gary; tall, athletic, sarcastic Gary who enjoyed going surfing with his friends at the nearby beach as much as he enjoyed working with the pokemon and reading books; was gay.

It was just a bit strange. Gary wasn't like Tracey or like the stereotypical gay boys. Tracey was into art and drawing, while art for Gary usually meant a horror novel with some sort of heavy metal band playing in the background. May had a few gay friends who enjoyed shopping with her and watching girly movies with her while Gary avoided the mall at all costs. Not to mention the last time the two siblings had gone out to the movies together – May had come home in tears because her insufferable little brother had tricked her into seeing a gory zombie film while Gary ended up with a nice long lecture on being nice to his sister. While May's friends seemed to have an issue with getting their hands dirty, Gary had no qualms about working outside with the pokemon and getting sweaty and dirty. Though less insane than Ash, he was almost willing to get scratched and bruised all in the name of pokemon. Tracey was sweet and polite, not to mention calm and patient but Gary was the exact opposite at times. He was as impatient as they came, though he had learned to be a bit patient in spite of himself over the past few years of researching. He had it in him to be polite but that sarcasm seemed to boil up at inopportune times, along with his arrogance and his self-absorbed nature. Despite the calm exterior, Samuel knew his grandson hated to be stuck in one place doing one thing for an extended period of time. Everyone could be perfectly happy with things being the same day in and day out but not Gary. No, he had to go out and do things just for the hell of it which, in the past year or so, had resulted in a fractured wrist, three dangerous encounters with venomous creatures, and a grand total of twenty-seven stitches. He was an adventurer at heart and somehow managed to sustain more injuries working in a laboratory and on the ranch than he had as a traveling trainer.

He confused his dear grandfather thoroughly at times.

Now was one of those times.

Professor Oak slowly opened the bedroom door, not bothering to knock, knowing full well that his knock would be drowned out by music. Sure enough, within the past half hour Gary had managed to straighten up most of his room but still appeared angry.

"Ah, I see we're in the middle of a hissy fit," he said calmly, smiling warmly as he closed the door behind him. He had to force down a grimace at this afternoon's music of choice – he just didn't see fast drums, loud guitar, and screaming as a becoming choice for a young researcher. It was a pity Tracey's taste hadn't worn off on the boy; the professor much preferred the tunes of Tracey's Boston and Journey albums over Gary's… well, whatever the impossible-to-pronounce Scandinavian band it was this time.

Across the room, his grandson shook his head, most likely uttering a sigh or curse that was lost in the music. Knowing how much his grandfather couldn't stand the music being played, Gary quickly lowered the volume and continued to ignore him.

"I know you're angry with your sister but reorganizing the bookshelf is going a bit far, Gary." The professor's eyes lingered on the tall bookshelves that were filled with novels, textbooks, cds, movies, and whatever else Gary had managed to squeeze onto the shelves between now and the last time he had been in a particularly bad mood. "Okay, I can see that obviously wasn't the best approach," he muttered as Gary ignored him. "I think we need to talk."

"There's nothing to talk about," Gary replied venomously as he shoved a paperback onto the shelf rather forcefully.

"There's always something to talk about – the weather, research, books," he picked a book off of the floor and frowned at the morbid title. "Or not," he muttered as he put it back down. "Or maybe secrets that we've been keeping for no apparent reason –"

"May already told you everything!"

"All May said was that you and Tracey were involved and I would say that's only a small part of it," he replied calmly as his grandson focused on alphabetizing a shelf of cds. The professor sat down tiredly on the perfectly made bed when Gary didn't respond. "Come on, Gary, out with it. How long has this been going on?"

Gary exhaled sharply. "Awhile," he replied flatly, still trying to ignore his grandfather.

"Specifically, please?"

"Fifteen months and twenty-three days; are you happy now?"

Professor Oak raised his eyebrows slightly at the curt response. He was well aware of the attitude the teen possessed and while most people were used to it, he was very rarely on the receiving end of it. He certainly wasn't used to it being thrown in his face. "Over a year then… I take it this had a lot to do with that phase you went through after you came home," he mused quietly.

Gary hesitated slightly before responding softly, "Tracey helped me a lot with that."

The professor nodded slowly. "Tracey's a very nice young man; I had been hoping he would find someone just as good as himself. Now that I know about it, I'm actually pretty happy. I'd much rather see you with Tracey than one of your sister's friends – he's after more than your money and reputation." Samuel had always been fond of his young assistant; he was very bright on top of kind, caring, faithful, and anything but materialistic. A far better suitor for his grandson than May's promiscuous friends that wanted anything and everything that was worldly; a handsome young man with a good reputation in the scientific community as well as a nice-sized bank account would make the perfect prey for those girls. Fortunately, Gary was not only smart enough to not fall for their games, but he wasn't even into them in the first place. "When exactly did you figure this out?"

This time Gary's hesitation was more than slight as he set down the stack of cds that he had been holding. He sighed and wandered across his bedroom to the window where he silently gazed out at the ranch. It was several moments before he spoke again. "A pretty long time ago, actually..." He sighed again and turned his gaze towards the dark carpet beneath his feet. "You remember when Ash and I stopped being friends?"

"Yes," Professor Oak replied slowly, remembering the way the friendship between the two children had ended for no apparent reason when they were many years younger. "You weren't exactly very nice to him and then you teased – " he stopped suddenly as realization dawned on him. "Boys that age usually tease people they have a crush on…" Gary nodded miserably without looking up. "I'm assuming you started being mean to him when you realized it until he just stopped being friends with you because of it." The only response was another silent nod. "Well then, it looks like Brock had been right on target when he suggested that you only teased him because you liked him."

Gary's head snapped up at that. "What?"

The professor smiled at the sharp question. "He suggested something along those lines when you and Ash competed in the Silver Conference. Does Ash know about this?"

"No," Gary replied blandly. "Though he probably will by tomorrow with May's big mouth," he added bitterly before sighing once more and crossed the room to sink wearily into the chair at his desk. "I stopped liking Ash like that after everything in Johto," he said softly. "He was the last person I wanted to like and I tried so hard to even care about May's friends. I wanted to like them but I just couldn't."

"You knew you didn't like them so why did you even try?" Professor Oak asked curiously. He couldn't understand why his grandson, as smart and intelligent as he was, hadn't been able to simply accept it and move on as if nothing was wrong. Especially since there truly was nothing wrong.

"Because I was confused! It didn't make sense then and it still doesn't make sense – animals, including humans, exist for the sole purpose of reproducing and you need a male and a female for that! It just doesn't work… Why are you shaking your head?"

Professor Oak smiled, somewhat torn between the researcher being proud of his grandson's ability to think scientifically about something that affected him so much and the grandfather being concerned with the effect this thinking had on the teen over the years. "It doesn't make sense," he agreed cautiously. "But that doesn't mean it's not natural; I mean, how many times have you come across pokemon of the same gender on the ranch… ah, well…"

"Just say it."

"You already know what I mean so there's no point in saying it. Still… You've known I have no problem with these sorts of things, you could have told me. And you know yourself better than anyone else – how could you possibly have been so confused?"

"You don't get it, do you? It's not that easy! Especially when you have no friends that can understand it or when all your friends constantly make fun of… of –"

"You don't have to say it," Professor Oak interjected, raising his hand when he could see that Gary couldn't even force the word to come. "I suppose it doesn't entirely matter anymore since you're obviously comfortable enough to be with Tracey. Anyway, the reason I came up here was to calm you down and tell you that I spoke with your sister and hopefully she'll stop acting so hyper over this situation."

Gary sighed and put his head in his hands, feeling as though a headache were coming on. "It doesn't matter, the damage is done. She's already told her friends; it's only a matter of time before they tell everyone else."

"This probably isn't something you want to hear but you should probably tell your friends before they find out from someone else," the professor advised gently. He lowered his eyes to the floor as his grandson uttered another tired sigh. Samuel Oak knew that telling his friends would be far harder for Gary to do than telling him would have been – after all, the two Oak siblings had been raised knowing that their grandfather was supportive of them in all facets of life.

There was no way of knowing how the other teenage boys would react to this news but his grandson would simply have to approach this challenge with the normal confidence he possessed and just hope for the best.