Secrets Told

Thanks to Virgo Writer and Defiant Vixen for reviewing! Despite the lack of details, part of this chapter is a bit… mature. I'll leave everything to your imagination. : )

Chapter Eight: Surprise

May was calling for them but Tracey ignored the sound of her voice drifting up from the foyer on the first floor; he doubted Gary had even heard her, if he had, he certainly paid no heed. Ash had likely arrived but he had made a promise to make the stitches in his boyfriend's arm worth his while and he wasn't going to go back on that, not with the way he had the younger boy panting and grasping his hair between soft groans. Tracey smiled to himself; those sounds made his head spin and made him lose all sense but he prided himself in the fact that he was the only one who could make the young researcher writhe the way he currently was. The young woman who had been downstairs called them again and this time Tracey could hear footsteps down the hall.

He pulled back and glanced up at Gary as a frustrated groan fell from the brunette's lips. "We need to finish up before she comes to get us," he said quietly, shooting a nervous glance at the locked door even though he knew May couldn't possibly find a way in.

"Trace, please…"

He smiled again; of course he was the only person who could possibly make Gary Oak beg. It was amazing what love did to certain people, especially in this relationship – it gave Gary weaknesses that weren't usually there and made Tracey more daring than he normally would be. Of course, those differences were only apparent when the two boys were together. Tracey gave a slight nod and lowered his head once more, returning to his prior task while May knocked on the door and Gary yelled something about being downstairs in a moment. He quickened his pace and finally pulled away again a few minutes later as he wiped his mouth on the back of his hand before moving up to press a small kiss against Gary's flushed cheeks with another small smile.

Gary grabbed his wrist as he moved to stand up and gave him a slightly disheartened look. "You said an hour," he complained softly.

Tracey frowned slightly; he hated to break any promise to anyone, but breaking one he had made to Gary actually made his heart ache, especially after what he knew to be a stressful week for his partner. The kicked-puppy expression Gary was giving him certainly did not help matters; the boy had perfected the art of giving puppy eyes, something the professor had jokingly referred to as the "sign of a spoiled child."

"You'll get the other half later," Tracey replied after a moment, unable to hold back a small laugh as Gary scowled at him. "We can't keep Ash waiting, you know how your sister is." He stayed in the bedroom only a few moments longer, mostly to keep his boyfriend from complaining too much, before heading downstairs to greet his close friend that he hadn't seen in close to a year.

In his eagerness, Tracey took the stairs two at a time and all but ran to the kitchen where he was sure May was yapping off Ash's ear to the best of her abilities. Hopefully, she hadn't yet blurted out the things she had found out about himself and her younger brother just under a week prior. Surprisingly, when he reached the fair-sized kitchen, he found that May was being the quiet one as she sat at the breakfast nook with her chin resting in one hand while listening in an awestruck fashion to Ash as he told her some story involving his Staravia. Ash glanced up at the sound of footsteps approaching the room and quickly vacated his seat at the sight of Tracey; the two boys hugged briefly with identical grins and joined May at the table.

"I missed you," Tracey informed Ash without ever losing his grin. "How have things been going in Sinnoh?"

"Awesome – I have a ton of stories to tell you later! The League competition is in three months too, I have a really good feeling about it. What about you? How is working in the lab? I bet Gary's been annoying you nonstop!"

Tracey laughed, sorely tempted to tell the other boy exactly how much Gary had been able to annoy him over the course of… was it sixteen months that they had been together now? Maybe it was seventeen, he was never the best at remembering dates and the like – fortunately for him, his boyfriend was, and it was an incredible help in the lab. It was also nice to have someone balance out his weaknesses while he returned the favor. He noticed May quirk an eyebrow with a small, knowing smirk in a near-perfect imitation of her brother and gave her a small look, which Ash seemed to miss, to remind her to remain quiet.

"Gary's not that bad," he replied honestly with a chuckle before telling Ash about the recent projects they had been working on in the laboratory.

In the back of his mind, he noticed time passing fairly quickly, something which was confirmed by several glances towards the clock on the microwave. Ten minutes went by, then twenty… a half hour. He was beginning to wonder if he would have to go upstairs to fetch the stubborn pain – what in the world was he doing upstairs anyway? Ash was commenting on a brief story involving Marril, Umbreon, and a well-timed water gun attack that Tracey had just told him when a soft sound from a different part of the house reached his ears. Were those sneaking footsteps he heard on the stairs, and was that the front door closing softly that he had just heard? If Gary was sneaking out to avoid seeing Ash and telling him about their relationship… Well, Tracey wasn't quite sure his reaction would be the calm one that was normal for him. He certainly would not be happy.

Leaning forward in his seat slightly, he was able to see out the window and into the driveway. A second later, he could see his boyfriend approaching the Jeep that his grandfather had gotten him for his sixteenth birthday.

"Excuse me for a second, Ash," Tracey stood, interrupting Ash mid-sentence and hurried outside, leaving behind a very confused pokemon trainer and a smirking May.

To say he was annoyed was an understatement; this was, by far, the angriest he had felt in years as he sprinted over to the car and grabbed the door just as Gary started to close it. To his credit, Gary had the grace to look startled by the sudden appearance of the older boy.

"Gary, what the hell are you doing?" he snapped as he glared up at him. "Ash is one of my best friends – him knowing about us means a lot to me!"

Gary pulled the key from the ignition of the car and slowly slipped out of his seat and climbed out so that he and Tracey were closer to eye level than the raised vehicle allowed. "I'm not running off, Trace," he replied calmly, placing his hands on Tracey's shoulders and meeting his eyes easily.

"You're not?" Tracey flushed slightly with embarrassment but didn't lose his irritated edge.

"No," the response was light and accented by a slight laugh. Gary smiled at him and shook his head slightly. "I'm going to pick up Darren and Brandon; I'll be gone for ten minutes."

Tracey stared up at him in confusion for a moment; picking up his best friend was understandable, although poorly timed, but the other boy he had mentioned was one of his friends who had been rather negative towards his coming out. "But I thought you and Brandon weren't getting along," he replied lamely.

"Apparently he's gotten over it," Gary shrugged and gave him another small smile. "I'll be back in a few minutes, I promise." He leaned forward and gave Tracey a small peck on the cheek before pressing a quick but rather passionate kiss on the lips. Tracey returned the kiss easily and drew away as Gary climbed back into the Jeep and grinned at him. "By the way, Trace, you're really cute when you get all flustered and pissed off at me like that."

The engine turned over and, despite his laugh, Tracey rolled his eyes at the comment and headed back to the house, mostly calmed by what Gary had said and somewhat content from that kiss. Kissing that boy always seemed to make his head spin at least a little bit…

He closed the front door behind him, went straight back to the kitchen, and paused in the doorway. The way Ash was uncomfortably avoiding his eyes did not escape his notice. A soft sigh escaped him as he sat back down at the table across from his friend. "You saw that, didn't you?"

Ash hesitated for a moment and nodded slowly. Tracey closed his eyes briefly and then opened them to regard the boy in front of him curiously; this wasn't entirely the reaction he had expected, not from this hyper and insanely childish friend of his. At least it wasn't a negative reaction, though the silence made it hard to judge what Ash was thinking.

"This wasn't really the way I wanted you to find out, but I guess you can't really get anything your way anymore," he added as an afterthought, his mind momentarily flitting to the events of the weekend.

"I just didn't expect anything like that…" Ash said quietly after a few minutes passed. Another few moments passed in an uneasy silence. "So… I, uh, I guess Gary's…"

"Yeah, he's gay," Tracey replied. Gary was not going to like this; then again, at least he wouldn't have to be the one to tell Ash about it, perhaps he would be relieved enough by that fact to let it go without an argument.

"And you guys are dating?" Tracey nodded in response, easily noticing the way Ash's voice grew strangely quieter with each thing he said. "How long?"

"Almost a year and a half."

Ash raised his eyes and met Tracey's for a moment and something akin to anger flashed across his face before disappearing into what appeared to be confusion and hurt. "You kept that from me for over a year? I thought I was one of your best friends!"

"You are, Ash! I wanted to tell everyone about it – we kept it a secret because Gary wasn't comfortable with it yet," Tracey calmly explained, inwardly a bit surprised by Ash's reaction.

"So just because you're dating him, you're letting Gary run your life?"

Tracey frowned, only someone who didn't understand Gary would make an accusation like that; apparently there were still some remnants to the rivalry that had supposedly ended after the Silver Conference in Johto. Although certainly the dominant one in the relationship, Gary had never tried to control him and having his best friend insinuate that had been the case very nearly infuriated him – it seemed that Gary's hotheaded nature had worn off on him slightly over time.

"Gary does not control me, Ash, I willingly kept it secret even if I didn't like it," he replied tartly. No matter how often he whined or gave those adorable puppy-dog eyes in order to get his way, Gary had never been manipulative and, in fact, he had always encouraged Tracey to do his own thing.

Tracey couldn't help but think that Gary had been the perfect boyfriend since the beginning; well, nearly perfect anyways but everyone had flaws. He was forever doing small things for Tracey – getting him drinks or food when he was too busy working in the lab to even think about it in the first place, always making sure to give him a kiss before turning in for the night, constantly checking over any injuries, letting him control the radio in the car – little things that meant the world to him. Gary spoiled him too, his bookshelf and dresser were both accented by little things his boyfriend had picked up for him; there were a few pretty shells, some large pieces of sand dollars or coral that had washed up, even a fairly large sea urchin shell that Gary had found when he went to Hoenn to help out Professor Birch for a short time several months before. Not to mention the way he always seemed to find a brand new sketch book on his desk whenever his current one had only a few blank pages left, even though he knew that his frequent sketching often bored Gary, despite the way the younger of the two tried in vain to hide it so as to not make Tracey feel bad.

"Why did you do it if you didn't like it?" Ash asked incredulously.

"Because I love him – that's what love is; it involves sacrifices and putting other people before yourself!" Nothing could have prepared him for the expression of complete and utter shock that appeared on Ash's face at his words, nor for the way the other boy suddenly stood a bit shakily. "What is it?"

"Nothing… I, I'm gonna go see how Professor Oak's doing with Pikachu – Sorry, Tracey."

Tracey watched dumbfounded as his friend quickly left the room and headed in the direction of the lab. He didn't know what to think or to expect to happen next; whatever he had been initially expecting, it certainly wasn't the way Ash had just ran off. It wasn't the way he had wanted things to go. Unconsciously, his hand reached up and fingered the necklace that he had worn every day since his twentieth birthday eight months ago. It was a large piece of deep blue sea glass that Gary had found on the beach at Cinnabar Island; he had drilled the hole in it himself and had strung it on a leather cord. Tracey loved it; the cobalt blue was his favorite color, it reminded him of the beaches back home in the Orange Islands, and, of course, it had been a gift from Gary, one that he had made, and therefore meant a lot to him.

"You love my brother?" May finally found her voice. "Aww, Tracey, that's so sweet! You two should totally get married!" She paused with a silly, excited smiled plastered on her face and appeared to think before the smile depleted a bit. "Wait, how would you guys do the bridesmaids? I would be the maid of honor, wouldn't I?"

Outside, Tracey caught a glimpse of the Jeep pulling back into the driveway and he sighed. "May, not now," he muttered as he stood and headed upstairs to his bedroom. He doubted Gary's reaction to Ash's actions would be particularly good and he wasn't about to let his boyfriend's friends see him upset.