Secrets Told
Thanks to licoricejellybean for reviewing – as far as Ash goes, the only ships I like for him are palletshipping and pokeshipping, but since he's straight in this fic, I'll go with Misty. : ) Thanks also to Defiant Vixen!
Chapter Eleven: Battling
Nearly two weeks later found Gary in the laboratory, bored out of his mind. His grandfather was puttering around somewhere behind where he was sitting at his desk, one knee drawn up with his arm resting on it while examining a large bruise that he had managed to obtain at some point without his knowledge. Sighing quietly, he turned his attention to his other arm and glanced over the spot that Tracey had stitched up on the day that Ash had arrived in town. The cut had healed nicely with a scar that Gary was certain would fade rather quickly – not that he cared, he rather enjoyed the attention he received whenever he told stories of how he managed to get the various scars that were scattered over his body.
Sighing rather loudly, he crossed his arms over his chest, mildly disappointed when Tracey didn't even glance up from his computer several feet away. Gary hated being bored, he simply wasn't the type of person who could sit still in one place for long. Unfortunately, Tracey was busy, his grandfather was busy, his sister was out someplace, all of his friends were doing their own thing today, and he had finished his work for the day. On top of that, it was one of those rare days where nothing really needed to be done on the ranch. Groaning in frustration, Gary spun around in the desk chair he was sitting in, whining loudly when he hit his knee on the side of the desk.
Again, Tracey hardly looked up. "Don't hurt yourself, Gary," he muttered as his fingers flew across the keyboard while he typed up a report of some sort. Despite how much he wanted to get out of the lab and hang out with Gary, he had work to do.
A small chuckle sounded from behind the two boys and Professor Oak spoke up. "I never thought I'd say this, Gary, but I think you were more mature when you were ten."
"Please give me something to do before I go insane!" Gary begged, sick of sitting on the sidelines as he had done for the past hour or so.
"Go help Ash train," his grandfather suggested.
A small frown crossed Gary's face as he tilted his head to the side in slight confusion. "I thought Ash went back to Sinnoh?"
Tracey looked up at that and shot Gary a quizzical look. "Did you not notice him in here yesterday?" he asked.
"He was here?"
"All day," Tracey confirmed. Umbreon looked up at her trainer from her spot next to Tracey's desk and fixed him with a look that clearly questioned his sanity; Gary scowled at her. He could almost swear the canine rolled her eyes at him as she put her head back down atop her paws and went back to dozing off.
"I was busy yesterday," Gary explained as he looked away from his pokemon. He had been reading up on Eevees and their evolutions, working on what he hoped to be one of the first studies on Umbreon as a species; in the past few weeks he had plowed through all of the materials available to him and was now waiting on more, leaving him with nothing to do. He knew that he tended to get distracted from everything else in the world by working but he couldn't help but wonder how he had managed to not notice Ash Ketchum in the lab. As he thought, the reasoning came to him – he had been listening to a new album on his mp3 player all day and probably hadn't heard Ash over the headphones. He loved electronics if only for the way they effectively drowned out everything around him.
Another sigh escaped Gary as he slumped in his chair. "Isn't there anything else to do?"
"Not particularly," his grandfather replied, sounding weary. "And Ash could use some help training; he's got that competition coming up soon. I'm sure your pokemon would love a few good battles, too."
Recognizing defeat, Gary stood and left the lab, smiling slightly when Umbreon jumped up and followed him. He headed upstairs to his bedroom where he stripped out of his jeans and t-shirt to slip into a pair of cargo shorts and a black tank top; after pulling on his sneakers and grabbing his sunglasses, he hurried back down to the lab to pick a few more pokemon to bring with him. A few moments later, he was crossing one of the many fields on the ranch towards the place where he could see Ash working with his Heracross and Grotle while Pikachu watched from his perch on the boy's shoulder.
"Hey, loser," Gary called in greeting as he approached the trainer.
Ash glanced up from the mock battle and eyed him warily. "Hi, Gary," he replied with a touch of confusion in his dark eyes. "What are you doing out here?"
Gary pulled a pokeball from his belt and tossed it in the air, catching it easily while Umbreon eagerly looked up him, obviously looking forward to battling. He gave a small shrug as he replied. "Want to battle?"
A grin spread over Ash's face at the question as he glanced at his electric mouse. "Professor Oak put you up to this, didn't he?"
"Does it matter?" Gary asked with a roll of his eyes. "And, for the record, he didn't have to twist my arm too badly. Do you want to battle or not?"
"Let's go," he replied cheerfully with a glance over at his two grass-types who were watching the exchange between the teens.
Gary smiled and allowed Ash to select his first pokemon before tossing out his own pokeball. Initially, they started off with a six-on-six battle involving the pokemon that Ash had on him and the six that Gary had picked somewhat randomly from his vast collection that remained from his training days. At first, Gary was a bit uncomfortable, though he hid it well; one of the things he had always liked about Ash was the way he became so animated during a battle – he would turn into a totally different person and, as a younger adolescent boy, Gary had found the change to be attractive. Part way into the battle, he was mildly surprised to find that he was rather unmoved by that particular change and it pleased him. He now focused exclusively on the battle rather than on his former crush and found himself having fun.
After a thrilling battle that had lasted just over an hour, the boys headed inside for a quick drink and bite to eat before picking new pokemon and going right back outside where they continued battling. Gary could see that Ash had grown as a trainer and had even matured a bit; if it weren't for his relationship with Tracey, he may have grown to like the boy again but, aside from finding him to be a bit cute, Gary felt nothing like those old and confusing feelings that had once reigned.
A few hours and many battles later, the two former rivals stopped battling and locked gazes from across the field as they recalled their final pokemon. Ash's competitive gaze had lost none of its intensity over the years and Gary realized with a small groan that Ash still saw him as a rival; perhaps they were friendlier now than they had been while Gary was still a trainer but, in Ash's eyes, they were still competing while Gary was done with it. He still enjoyed battling but he found that the actual training no longer appealed to him. The traveling had been fun for awhile but, after a few months on his own in the Johto region, Gary had yearned to stay in one place for more than a few days while growing sick of the solitary life of a trainer. It was only one of the many factors leading to him becoming a researcher. He still traveled on occasion to help out other professors – he was, after all, a wanderer at heart – but he was content with spending most of his time in a place that he could call home, with people he could say that he loved.
Returning to Pallet Town had changed him a bit as well. He still had a competitive edge to him but that streak had diminished greatly after he stopped training and, with that, his arrogance had toned down, along with his rather bratty, childish attitude. He had grown up, which wasn't really surprising considering he was in a serious relationship while working in his grandfather's lab and taking online classes for the university in Saffron City. Some things just caused people to come into their own and mature; school, jobs, and relationships were but three of many things that could do that.
He hated to break it to Ash, but the rival that boy had once known was gone and was unlikely to ever return. Tracey had turned him soft, he realized with a small laugh as he shook his head.
"What's so funny?" Ash asked curiously as he closed the distance between them.
"Nothing," Gary shook his head again. "The heat's just getting to me a bit. What do you say we go get some ice cream to cool down?"
Ash agreed and they both laughed when Pikachu became excited by the suggestion. Despite being sweaty from spending hours outside in the summer heat, the boys walked around the perimeter of the house without changing clothes or washing up. They climbed into Gary's Jeep and he couldn't help but laugh softly at Ash as the boy sighed in relief when the air conditioner came on full blast. Gary quirked an eyebrow at the way Ash leaned back in the seat with his eyes closed as he allowed the cold air to wash over him. The boy looked thoroughly debauched with his messy hair and sweat-slicked skin; it was sexy, no doubt, but Tracey still was more appealing to Gary. He shook his head with a small smile as Ash relaxed and backed the car out of the driveway, heading towards the beach to the south of the town where there was a particularly good ice cream place that he and his friends frequented after spending hours in the ocean.
The radio came on and Ash shot Gary a confused look. "Metal?" he asked in surprise. Gary nodded, keeping his attention on the road. "I didn't expect that," Ash muttered.
"What were you expecting – boy bands?"
"No, I just figured you'd be into the same stuff as Tracey… How did you even get into this?"
Gary shrugged and stayed quiet for a few moments before finally speaking up. He'd explained it once in detail to Tracey but to no one else – then again, no one had asked for an explanation. "I guess when you're going through a rough time, you don't want something mellow; you want something powerful to make you feel stronger," he said matter-of-factly. It was the only real explanation he could offer verbally. He doubted happy-go-lucky Ash would understand the way the heavy music had formed an outlet for him while dealing with anger and confusion. Whenever he was mad, the loud and fast pace of the music seemed to express it; whenever he was confused, the predictability of the music provided a form of stability; and whenever he felt weak, the raw and aggressive power gave him an indescribable strength.
Ash nodded and took the answer as it was with no further questions, remaining quiet for another moment before responding. "I started listening to Twisted Sister before big battles," he admitted.
Grateful that they had been at a stoplight when he said that, Gary laughed loudly. "Seriously?" he asked doubtfully.
"Yeah… One of their songs came on the radio before one of the battles at the Silver Conference and it got me kind of pumped up for the battle. That was when I beat you –"
"And you figured that it was good luck, didn't you?"
"Shut up," Ash muttered as a rather cute blush swept across his face. Gary had caught him on that truth but it didn't change anything.
Gary laughed again and shook his head. "I used to listen to them before battles, too."
Ash glanced over at him and regarded him curiously for a minute. "It's interesting," he began slowly, pausing with a small frown.
"What's interesting?"
"We grew up to be so different but we still have so many similarities."
"That's because we were best friends as kids – the similarities are there because of that," Gary pointed out.
"What exactly happened to that anyways?"
Pulling up to another stoplight, Gary rested his forehead against the steering wheel with a groan. "Why do people keep asking that?" he exclaimed in frustration; Ash fixed him with another confused expression. "Do you really want to know the answer to that?" Gary asked, raising his head and continuing to drive as the light changed. Ash nodded and gave him a look that Gary took to mean something along the lines of "duh." A long pause ensued while Gary debated lying about the reason; finding nothing he could use as an excuse, he finally opted to be truthful. "I liked you," he admitted quietly.