A.N. Hello, everyone!
You're probably thinking. "Back so soon, Andre? I thought you said it'd be a while before any new fics or chapters from you". It's true – but this isn't really a 'new' story, I've actually published it before.
It was written in Brazilian Portuguese, under the name 'Apelidos' and posted separately, because I can't change a fic's language just for one chapter and all, you know? Anyway, I decided to translate it and post it here with the others.
Warning: High concentration of sappiness ahead. Like, VERY high. This may be the sappiest thing I've ever written for Pokémon.
Enjoy!
No sooner than Goh got up from his bed did he find Ash already awake and very excited for yet another adventure-filled day. "Good morning, dear!" Ash greeted him, with a huge smile – the kind of smile that Goh was used to seeing on his face, actually – and gave him a kiss as the finishing touch.
But even though he felt deeply flattered, Goh had to ask. "Dear? You never called me dear before..."
"Right! But I asked to borrow this 'how to be a good SO' book from Chloe, and now I'm learning some things!"
Goh decided to ignore the question of why a girl who, as far as he knew, had zero interest in romance, ended up with such a book in her hands. Maybe it had been a gift from Chrysa? "Then I guess I don't mind it, D...D...De..."
Goh tripped on his syllables several times, but did not manage to get the word to come out. "Dear." He said at last, very softly and without making eye contact with Ash.
"Something wrong?" Ash asked curiously. Pikachu, too, gave Goh a somewhat concerned glance.
"I'm not sure, I guess I'm not quite ready for that level of intimacy yet."
"Oh, that's too bad! But don't worry, Goh, I don't mind, you can call me whatever you want! I'm not gonna think of you as a bad boyfriend just for not wanting to give me a pet name."
"Thanks for understanding-"
"I, on the other hand, will continue to explore the countless possibilities that this book has given me. Is that okay with you, my sunshine?"
"M-my sunshine?" Goh asked in a befuddled tone.
"Another of the suggestions I found!" Ash explained jovially.
"Oh, dear Arceus..."Goh grumbled silently. "This is going to be a super-embarrassing day, I can just tell."
"Pika!" Ash's Pikachu exclaimed, seemingly ignoring the frustration of its trainer's boyfriend and acting as though this was just the beginning of any other, normal episode.
At Professor Cerise's urging, Ash and Goh traveled to the Orange Islands briefly to document the pokémon variants that live there.
Goh made sure to launch an exorbitant amount of pokéball at every pokémon he saw.
Some of the islands' inhabitants were astounded by the swiftness with which Goh was capturing new pokémon. "Is that boy your friend, mister...?" One of them asked Ash.
"I'm Ash Ketchum, from Pallet Town! And that's my sweetie, Goh!"
Goh fell backward in surprise upon hearing Ash say that. "J-Jeez, Ash! Not in front of other people!"
Ash scratched his head, embarrassed. "My bad, darling! I'll try to remember in the future..."
Goh snarled in frustration, but kept hurling pokéballs even faster than before to distract himself from the growing redness on his face.
The following day, Goh once again noticed Ash had woken up before he did. Ash gave him the biggest ursaring hug he could, and then kissed his forehead. Goh had to take a few seconds to catch his breath.
'This is one of the drawbacks of dating a boy strong enough to lift tree trunks by himself', Goh thought mirthfully.
"How are you feeling today, my angel?"
'And this is one of the drawbacks of dating the most sappy boy in the world', he thought, less mirthfully. "Wait... What exactly is an angel?"
"I think that's what some people call the Togepi family", Ash replied, though he seemed uncertain.
"Hey, I'm no Togepi! If I had to be a pokémon, I'd be, I dunno... A Darkrai or some other cool pokémon like that!"
"All pokémon are cool!" Ash protested. "But a Darkrai would make sense for you. They are legendary, after all, and our love will become legendary some day, too!" Ash turned his face and winked to an unseen audience.
"...Let me guess: More of that book's suggestions?"
"Yeah...", Ash admitted, running his hand through his hair sheepishly. "It was in the 'how to leave your crush speechless' section..."
"I really am speechless, but I don't think it's for the reason they intended..."
"Oh, you're so hard to please, gorgeous!" Ash complained light-heartedly.
"...So now, every time we're together, he has to shoehorn in one of these pet names from that book he keeps reading to try and make me act all blushy and embarrassed! And 90 percent of the time, it works! Chloe, why did you have to give him that book?"
Chloe took a sip from her tea while trying to ignore Goh's Grookey playing music with the cooking pots in the kitchen before answering. "Firstly, because he asked for it, and secondly, because it's so cheesy that I just found it cringe-worthy. I just thought you guys would have more use for it."
The implied jab did not escape Goh's notice. "Y-Yeah, maybe we are like that sometimes..."
After all, didn't he pretty much strong-arm Ash into dating him, all those days ago? He remembers it like it was yesterday...
'All right, I accept!'
'Hm? Accept what?'
'I accept you as my boyfriend!'
It was probably the least romantic way to ask someone out imaginable. Goh still wasn't quite sure what compelled him to say it. But Ash was around his age, had the same interests, and Goh thought he would make for a good companion (or 'darling', as Ash would probably say).
He could have told him he wanted to be just friends. So why did he decide to become boyfriends, if he couldn't deal with these kinds of cheesy displays of love whenever the situation demanded it?
Perhaps Ash decided to start doing this because Goh doesn't treat him with enough affection, and he's trying to show Goh how he should act as a boyfriend?
Goh chose to ignore these worrying thoughts for now. "Wanna come with us to explore Unova today, Chloe?"
"I'm not feeling very motivated today, Goh. I'm sorry." Chloe explained, taking another sip of tea.
"Oh, okay... that's fine." Goh whistled to call Grookey back to him. "Until next time, then!"
"Rookey, Rookey!" Grookey exclaimed while waving goodbye to Chloe as well as Eevee, who was sitting on the girl's shoulder. Goh walked to the door and exited the Cerise family's house.
"Those boys worry me sometimes, Eevee", she told her vulpine friend. "I hope he doesn't end up doing anything reckless."
During the Unova trip, Ash made sure to buy a few Casteliacones for himself, Goh and their pokémon, and they sat together on a beach to enjoy the icy treats.
"I hope the flavor is to your liking, snugglecakes!"
Goh sighed in relief that this time, no one was paying attention to them. "Yes, these are very tasty. Thank you, Ash. I..." I love you, he meant to say, but of course that blasted shyness had to get in the way again.
Ash ran his fingers through Goh's hair and tried to confort him. "I won't force you to say anything you don't want to tell me yet, my beloved honeybun. Don't worry."
Goh remained silent for a while, and then asked a question. "Hey, Ash... tell me, honestly... would you rather I call you by some cutesy pet name too, just like you do with me?"
"Well, obviously you don't have to-"
"I know, but I'm asking if you would prefer it if I did."
"I..." Ash took a moment to think. "You're right, Goh. I'm making an effort to learn these things because I want to be a better boyfriend, so it kinda hurts a little to see you not trying to do the same. But I couldn't ask that sort of thing from you, because I know your way of thinking is different from mine. That's why I fell in love with you to begin with, because you're so similar to me, and yet so completely different at the same time. So it's true that it's a little disappointing, but I don't mind. I can be affectionate enough for the both of us, if I have to!"
Ash smiled the same innocent smile as always, but Goh remained uncertain. "Are you sure?"
"Of course I do, my delicious caramel!"
"...Caramel, honeybun, snugglecakes? Wow, you must have been really hungry."
Ash laughed warmly. "Those weren't from the book, actually. I was always fond of calling the people dearest to me with food nicknames. For example..."
'Please calm down, my darling shark fin soup!' Ash shouted to Misty, who was trying as hard as she could to fling a bowl in the direction of a trainer who'd told her a churlish pickup line.
'What? Why am I your 'shark fin soup'?' Misty questioned.
'Because you endanger lives and should probably be illegal', Ash explained with a mocking smirk.
"That didn't sound like it was a term of endearment", Goh commented after hearing the story.
"I was pretty mean-spirited back then", Ash admitted.
"Oh! Speaking of your older friends, look who's coming our way!" Goh pointed in the direction of a dark-skinned girl with extremely long hair and wearing an elegant dress.
"Hey there, you two!" She shouted, waving at the two boys.
"Hi, Iris!" Ash respondeu.
"What a coincidence finding you here, Ash. I was thinking of challenging you to a rematch!"
"Rematch? You mean for the world tournament?"
"I guess there's no reason why she couldn't rematch you to get her ranking back", Goh mused.
"Okay, cool! Just give me a moment while I ask Professor Cerise to transfer my other pokémon here." Ash said as he ran to the nearest Pokémon Center.
Iris sat on the bench with Goh and asked him: "So, what exactly do you see in him?"
Goh was so surprised, he almost let the Casteliacone on his hand fall to the ground. "W-W-W-What do you mean?" He asked her in an attempt to avoid the question for as long as possible.
"Everybody knows that Ash's got a boyfriend now, and I'm wondering how exactly that happened. Don't take this the wrong way, but Ash is a bit..."
"Zany? Wacky?"
"Something like that."
"There isn't much to say. He's a very nice and handsome boy, and he makes me happy."
"Don't you get tired of his giddiness sometimes?"
"Sometimes, yes. He can be a little kooky. Especially when he's calling me things like 'snookums' in public, and it's so embarrassing..."
Iris laughed very hard upon hearing that. "Snookums? Really? It's just like that little kid to use such a cheesy pet name like that!"
"I'm baaack!" Ash shouted suddenly from behind them. Goh and Iris almost leapt back from the shock.
Ash picked up a sandwich he had bought and offered it to Goh. "Here's another delicious treat for you, snookums!" Iris covered her mouth with her hand to try to hold back more laughter.
"But I only just now finished my ice cream..."
"You've been so thin lately! You gotta eat more!" Ash insisted.
"Alright..." Goh grabbed the sandwich and started biting into it. "But you really should cut back on the nickname thing while we're in public, Ash. You never know who could listen!"
"What do you mean, hon- I mean, Goh?"
"Not everyone in the world approves of relationships like ours."
Ash put his hand on his chin in thought. "But things are changing, right? Maybe if we showed people that there's nothing wrong with it, they'd start to be more understanding!"
"It's just that I, personally, would like to avoid getting in trouble because of that. I've already had some bad experiences related to that sort of thing, when I was younger."
"Oh... alright. I understand, Goh. It's no big. Your name is already fun enough to say by itself!" Ash replied with a smile. "Ah, man... But I was having a blast finding all those cutesy nicknames to call you! It's gonna be hard to stop!"
"You can always use them when we're alone", Goh suggested. "Or when we're with your friends, since it seems like 99 percent of them are gay, for some reason."
"Yes, I have lots of happy friends!" Ash spoke with a contented expression.
"Uh, I don't think that's quite what Goh meant, Ash..." Iris remarked. "But getting back on topic, are you ready for our battle?"
"I was born ready!" Ash boasted confidently.
"Then let's go!" Iris declared, taking two pokéballs out of her pocket. "...Or rather, let's wait for the Rotom to get here so it can judge our battle."
Goh watched as the two trainers gave orders to their pokémon.
Ash started off the battle on the wrong foot. This time, Iris' Dragonite kept its distance to avoid being hit with a surprise attack, then hit Ash's Dracovish with an Ice Beam and followed it up with a Dragon Rush. Dracovish could barely stand after that (though Goh couldn't help but think that the mere fact it was able to stand at all was a small miracle, all things considered).
While they fought, Goh reflected on the things he and Ash had discussed throughout the past day.
'I'm making an effort to be a better boyfriend.'
'I won't force you to say anything you don't want to tell me yet.'
'Maybe if we showed people that there's nothing wrong with it, they'd start to be more understanding!'
'I can be affectionate enough for the both of us, if I have to!'
'But I was having a blast finding all those cutesy nicknames to call you!'
Goh continued to think silently, asking himself if it was really fair to ask Ash to be less affectionate with him in public.
For someone so extroverted, it must be really tough to have to hide how much you love someone else. Even though Ash said it was okay, Goh still felt guilty about it.
Eventually, Dracovish managed to strike Dragonite with its Ice Fang once again, and fainted shortly thereafter. Iris' Dragonite was wounded, but remained conscious.
It was clear that Ash wasn't having much luck using the same strategies as before, but there was something else influencing his performance. Goh could not help but notice that Ash seemed almost... unenthusiastic?
'Maybe he's sad because I've made him feel like I don't care as much about him as he does about me' Goh thought. 'I haven't exactly been giving him evidence to the contrary lately, have I?
'Who cares if someone overhears two boyfriends acting like boyfriends? Since when do I care what other people think about me?
It's about time I start trying to be a better boyfriend, like Ash is!' Having decided that, Goh got up and shouted loud enough to get Ash's attention:
"GO FOR IT, ASH! I know you can do it! You didn't lose against Iris before, and you're sure as heck not gonna lose to her today! I believe in you, my… my…" Goh swallowed and hesitated for a brief second.
"My future!" He concluded.
Ash smiled the widest smile Goh had ever seen him give to him, and nodded. "That's right!"
Ash then picked up the electric mouse on his shoulder and placed him on the ground. "Pikachu, I choose you!"
The yellow rodent stared at his opponent confidently and the pair immediately began their counterattack.
Iris' pokémon had more difficulty hitting such a small target, and eventually, Pikachu's speed and powerful moves led them to another victory. Ash had proven his skill as a trainer yet again.
"Contestant Ash Ketchum is the winner!" The Drone Rotom declared.
"Congratulations, Ash!" Goh said, running toward Ash to give him a hug.
"Thanks, Goh! But whatever happened to not wanting to use pet names in public?"
"I've decided that if it doesn't bother you, then it shouldn't bother me!" Goh explained. "After all, I didn't choose to become your boyfriend just to hide it from everyone else, yeah?"
"That's so nice to hear, my cute sweetheart", Ash told him, sounding incredibly moved.
"I aim to please, my treasure..." Goh replied, trying to sound suave (it didn't really work, but it was still cute to see him try).
"My kitten..."
"My cuddlebug…"
"My snugglekins…"
"Oh jeez..." Iris sighed. "These two kids really are made for one another..."