A.N. Here we have your typical 'Ash gets jealous fic'. I tried to keep everyone as in-character as possible, despite my headcanons.
Typically, in my stories, Goh is the one who ends up driving some kind of wedge into their relationship, but hey, Ash has his insecure moments, too… And with Project Mew, he has way more 'rivals' than he used to, so to speak!
This story's prompt and quote are:
Trust / "Sometimes, reaching out and taking someone's hand is the beginning of a journey. At other times, it is allowing another to take yours." ― Vera Nazarian
"So, Gary… for old time's sake, can you tell me something? Without teasing me?"
Gary looked at Ash like he had just said something very unusual for him. "What would it be?" He replied, unsure of what response he'd get.
"What exactly are your intentions with my boyfriend?" Ash asked, narrowing his eyes like he was very, very suspicious of Gary.
Gary couldn't help but laugh. Ash was jealous of him, now? "Nothing! We're just coworkers, is all."
"But I've seen the way he looks at you, sometimes…" Ash continued, now sounding a bit unsure of himself. "Are you sure you're not trying to recruit him into your cheerleading squad?"
"My what now? I let all of those girls off years ago. Though, now that I think about it…" Gary stroked his chin, pondering the concept of Goh in a cheerleader outfit.
"Gaaah! See, that's what I'm talking about! You're interested in him, aren't you?" Ash shouted.
"Eh… maybe." Gary shrugged. "Does it matter? You know, if it's really a problem, we could just all date each other at the same time. I wouldn't mind."
Ash considered it. "…Nah. I don't think I'm mature enough to handle dating multiple people at this point."
"Well, maybe some day in the future, eh? Who knows? But just so you know, even if I do think he's cute, I still wouldn't ask Goh out."
"Huh?" Ash paused. "But… if you think he's cute, why wouldn't you ask him out? That doesn't sound like you."
"I've learned from experience to not ask people out when I know they'll refuse. Now if you'll excuse me, I do have to get ready for my next mission for Project Mew!" Gary said while looking at his watch. "I'm sure me and my fellow Chasers will have lots of quality time together…"
Ash looked mildly scandalized. "You're just saying that to scare me, aren't you?"
Gary laughed. "I'm just teasing you, Ashy-boy! You know… for old time's sake?"
Ash laughed too, a bit more softly. "Heh. I guess it wouldn't be a conversation with you without a little teasing, would it?"
"Nope! But either way, until next time, Ash. I'll make sure to tell Goh you were worried about his loyalty to you… or maybe I won't! Who knows?"
Gary walked off, still laughing, while Ash wondered about some of the things he said.
Was he worried about Goh's loyalty? He hadn't really considered it. He just thought he needed to clear things up with Gary, since he knows he's been spending a lot of time with Goh… and what was that about not asking out people who're gonna refuse, again?
Ash groaned. He was absolutely terrible at this romance stuff. Though, it's his own fault for avoiding it all these years because he thought it was disgusting. Maybe if he'd paid more attention during all those soap operas Mom watched on the TV, he would understand it more.
Oh, well. He should probably get ready to accompany Goh for his next mission, too. Perhaps they'll let him join this time?
They didn't let him join this time. Ash was reduced to bouncing in and out of the view of Danika's phone camera so Goh could see him.
Don't forget, Goh! I'm here for you! Those other guys might be cool, too, but I came here just for you! His actions seemed to say.
"Ash, you really need to stop this photobombing spree of yours. You're distracting the Chasers." Danika told him.
"But, but!"
"I have important information to relay to them, information which they might not hear if they're paying more attention to your impromptu jumping exercise. Especially in the case of Goh!"
An angry voice shouted at her from inside the phone. "What do you MEAN 'especially in the case of me? It's not like I'm thinking of Ash 24/7!"
Danice seemed to think intently for a moment. "But you practically are, though."
Goh stifled a groan of frustration and went back to focusing on his mission. Oh, it was so nice to hear his voice so close to him, Ash thought! If only he could answer back.
He always feels out-of-place in these things. He's not a Chaser; he never even considered becoming a Chaser, but if he knew Goh becoming one meant he'd work alongside two cute boys all the time, he might've.
Sure, maybe that's selfish. And Ash is trying to not be as selfish as he used to be. Except when it comes to food, of course. That's when he'll absolutely not share, no matter what ravenous hamsters attack him for it…
But anyway, when Ash thinks about it, he feels like he has no business being Goh's boyfriend. Sure, they work together for Professor Cerise, but he's not smart like Goh, and Gary and Horace are. He doesn't have the same goal as Goh, and Gary and Horace do.
And he didn't meet Goh 3 years ago and become his childhood friend in a story that, when Goh explained it to him, sounded like it'd been lifted straight from one of those mangas Chloe likes to read!
Really, Ash can't wait to go back the lab and get a new research mission so he and Goh can feel like a team again, instead of him feeling like a housewife watching her brave soldier husband go to war while she can only give her moral support.
Is that an overwrought metaphor? Yes, but Ash is just feeling in an overwrought kind of mood right now, okay?
"Any progress on the mission?" Danika inquired.
"Kinda busy here!" Horace's voice spoke. It sounded like they were preoccupied with a battle. And yet…
Ash tapped his foot impatiently. Maybe if he just… hops just a little, Goh might catch a glimpse of him…
Oh, this is so pathetic! Why is he acting like this? It's not like Goh is going to just forget about him just because he has some other friends now!
The lovesick boy sighs and resigns himself to waiting for his dear Goh to come back.
Finally, at sunset, Goh and the others came back to Ash and Danika's location, triumphant.
"Goh!" Ash shouted, running toward him so quickly, he almost worried he'd trip.
"Ash, hey! Were you worried about me?" Goh asked.
"Not at all!" Well, that was only mostly true… "I knew you could pull it off."
"He sure did!" Horace remarked, putting his hands on Goh's shoulders affectionately. "It's all thanks to Goh's hard work that we were able to complete our assignment today!"
"Heh heh… it's not that big of a deal…" Goh stammered. "I just, you know, thought up strategies and stuff… nothing much…"
"Either way, we got what we came here for", Gary stated, brandishing three Pokéballs and throwing them in the air.
Three odd-looking birds came out. One was orange and walked on land, another was purple and elegant, and the third was pitch-black but steeped in magenta-colored fire.
"Oh, those are the Galarian Bird pokémon they sent you to get, huh? They look funky!" Ash commented. "Which one did you get, Goh? Was it the purple one? It reminds me of you the most!"
"Well, I can see how you'd think that", Goh stated, thinking with pride on how he and that pokémon were both very fancy-looking, "but I actually caught the Moltres, the darker one with the flames."
"You are pretty flaming, I'll give you that", Gary joked.
"H-Hey!" Goh protested. "I'm not that obvious! Am I…?"
"Congratulations, you three!" Danika told them. "The more legendary pokémon we can study, the better!"
"Are we gonna get to keep them, though?" Goh asked, trying not to sound too pleading.
"Huh? Well, sure!" She said with a small shrug, and then picked up her phone and started making a call. No doubt to inform the other members that everything went well.
"Ah… that mission sure was tough, though", Goh noted, sitting down on the floor. "I'm bushed!"
"So am I", Gary replied, "and hungry, too! We've been at this for hours…"
"I have an idea", Horace said, "how about we go to a restaurant and have ourselves a nice, celebratory meal?"
Ash's eyes widened. Horace was asking Goh and Gary out to… dinner? This was a very dangerous situation!
"C-Can I come, too?" He meekly asked.
He was surprised when Horace quickly nodded and said "of course", without even having to think about it. That made him feel a bit better.
There was a bit of arguing about which restaurant they should visit. Gary didn't know a lot of non-expensive restaurants, and Goh and Horace never left the house enough to check out any dining places – Horace because he was frequently bedridden, and Goh because… well, because he was Goh, and didn't do 'going outside' very much.
Ash, always resourceful, suggested a certain restaurant in Unova, where they were right now waiting to be served.
"The Crustle Cakes here are delicious! I highly recommend you try some, Goh!" Ash exclaimed.
"How do you know this place, Ash?" Goh asked.
"The waiters… and I guess the owners? Are friends of mine!" Ash told him.
"Ah… I see." Seems like half the world is friends with Ash by this point, he thought.
Horace smiled at them. "Seems like Goh is in good hands with you, Ash."
"T-Thanks…" Ash felt somewhat embarrassed by the compliment. He didn't know much about romance, but he knew what the underlying implication was. "What are you guys going to order?"
"I have my eyes on this Stunfisk Salad, here", Goh replied, poring over the menu.
"And I think the Panseared Pancake looks promising!" Gary stated.
"Uh… I'm allergic to some of these, and some of the others are pretty fatty. I think I'll just have a water", Horace told them.
Goh furrowed his brow at him. "Horace, just because you have Grass-types for most of your pokémon doesn't mean you have to act like one! Please, just order something."
"Okay, okay… I'll pick the Volcarona… Volcarona Bakemeat?" Horace squinted at the words. "That doesn't sound right, but okay."
"See, isn't this nice? You guys wouldn't have known to come here if I hadn't suggested it!" Ash declared. "I'm being super useful, right? Right?" He continued, inching closer and closer to Goh as he said so, never once dropping his smile.
Goh sweated a little bit at Ash's forcefulness. "R-Right!"
"Phew!"
"…Ash, are you okay?" Goh asked.
"Of course! When have I not been okay?"
"Let's see", Goh replied, apparently deciding to take the rhetorical question as a literal one. "When you lost to Bea that one time. When you got possessed by a spirit in the Ghost Train. When you accidentally neglected Pikachu so hard it felt betrayed, bothered and-"
"Alright, alright, I get it", Ash stated, accepting the truth of Goh's words. "Maybe I do become… not okay, sometimes. But this isn't one of them!"
"Yeah, Goh, he's just worried you're gonna cheat on him", Gary informed.
"WH-"
"Me, cheat on Ash? With who?" Goh inquired. "You must really not be okay if you thought I'd ever do that."
Ash was blushing with embarrassment from head to toe. "It's, it's hard to explain…"
"If anything, I'm the one who should be worried you're going to cheat on me!"
"Huh?" Ash was really confused now. "Who could I possibly cheat on you with? I can't remember anyone else showing interest in me, besides Gary, I guess."
Gary and Goh both groaned at this. "He really doesn't know anything…" Gary commented.
"Excuse me", a cheerful voice came from near them. "May I suggest you take some time off this discussion and order something?"
"Oh, hey, Cilan!" Ash said his friend's name cheerfully despite the tense situation. "I'll have a Crustle Cake, Goh wants the Stunfisk Salad, Gary will have the Panseared Pancake and Horace wants the… Volcarona Bakemeat?"
"Yes, that's the name", Cilan confirmed. "Please wait here while we prepare your orders! Chili, Cress – It's cooking tiiiiiime!"
Then, Cilan left. "I take it this is that friend of yours, huh?" Gary noted. "He seems even more flaming than Goh!"
"Stop saying that word!" Goh begged.
"Either way, I guess all that's left is to wait… I hope they're done soon, though", said Ash. "I can't wait to try out those Crustle Cakes of his again!"
"Personally, I can't wait to find out why Ash was suspicious of me cheating on him", Goh remarked, eyeing Ash with something like disapproval.
"And I can't wait to see what in the world I even ordered! What in Arceus' name is a bakemeat?" Horace questioned. Ash wasn't sure if he was genuinely confused, or just trying to clear the air. It could be both.
Then, the orders finally came… or rather, two of them did.
"Our sincerest apologies! The Crustle Cake and the Volcarona Bakemeat are taking a bit longer than expected. They're very complex meals!" Cilan explained. "While you wait, please enjoy your Stunfisk Salad and Panseared Pancake. It's tasting tiiiime!" He declared in his typical overexuberant way, and then quickly left to attend other costumers.
Goh and Gary quickly started eating, leaving Ash and Horace with nothing to do. Ash had never been in this situation before, having to strike up a conversation with his… love rival? Was that the right word? Goh had been pretty adamant there was never any chance he'd cheat on him, so Ash didn't know anymore.
"Hey, uh… about what Gary was saying…" He began.
"Hm?"
"I, yeah, I was pretty worried… you know, about you, him, Gary… you guys make a really great team. And you have so much in common, too. And you and Goh have this kind of storybook romance vibe going with the 'meeting as children and reuniting later' thing, so I thought-"
"What, you thought Goh would betray your trust, just like that?" Horace asked pointedly.
"No! I mean, I didn't think about it in that way, but… I guess I thought I'd be crazy for him not to do it. That's what I thought."
Horace pondered this for a while. "I think you need to trust Goh more. He's not wishy-washy like that. You should know that by now."
"Yeah… but I think the problem was, I didn't trust myself to be good enough for him, in the first place. So when I see you guys together, and how I'm not a part of what you guys have, really… I just get really insecure."
"What, you *monch* think I'm *chomp* not insecure about us, either?" Goh asked suddenly.
"Eh?" Ash looked at him, startled. "I didn't realize you were listening! Usually, I'm the one who tries to multitask while I eat…"
Goh wiped some bits of the salad off his mouth. "Sorry for talking with my mouth full, but I just had to say it. I told you before, Ash, I've gotten worried about you cheating too. I wouldn't be able to count the amount of people you've charmed with the fingers on both my hands."
"…I still very much doubt that, but go on", Ash replied, making Gary roll his eyes while he ate.
"And there have been lots of times where I had to ask my parents, or Chloe, or yes, Horace and Gary here, to convince me that you wouldn't do it. They all always told me the same thing, which was that I should trust you. That I should trust in how much you loved me, and only me, even if I could never quite bring myself to trust in the idea that I was worthy of love. Seems like you could use the same advice, yeah?"
Ash didn't know which part of what Goh said he should process first. "Yeah, actually, that's a very good- wait, you asked Horace and Gary if they thought I'd cheat on you?"
"Yeah!"
"And neither of them said they thought I could?"
"Yeah!"
"And Gary didn't throw me under the bus, not even once?"
"Ye- well, there was one time where he offered to 'check how faithful you were' or something, b-but that was obviously just to get under my skin!" Goh explained.
"Huh. I guess I got paranoid for nothing!", Ash admitted, smiling with relief.
"Now you understand why I said I'd never ask Goh out because I know he'd refuse?" Gary asked. Ash smiled and nodded at him.
"You are all such great wingmen", Ash complimented.
A polite cough came from nearby, and Ash looked in its direction to see Cilan, carrying Horace's, and more importantly, HIS meal. His mouth started watering.
"Once more, with feeling… it's tasting tiiiime!" Cilan announced, setting the plates down.
Ash looked like he wanted to hug the Crustle Cake. "Delicious… crusty… filling…"
Horace, meanwhile, stared down at his plate, filled with the so-called 'Volcarona Bakemeat'. "Is this really okay to eat?"
"Just try it! It was inspired by Johto's famous traditional foods!" Cilan said encouragingly.
"Okay…" Horace picked up his spork (why was it served with a spork, of all things?) and started to apprehensively cut into the 'meat' (if it was meat).
"It seems you four have successfully simmered down that sour situation", Cilan commented.
"You were paying attention, Cilan?" Ash questioned.
"I'm a Love Connoisseur as well as a Pokémon Connoisseur!" He explained. "And Ash's love life in particular is one I can't help but notice the unmistakable flavor of… always so spicy, with a multitude of ingredients from every region under the sun!"
"See, told you!" Goh said as he nudged Ash slightly.
"Hey, that 'ingredients from every region' thing could mean anything!" Ash protested.
"I'm happy things seem to have resolved themselves, but just in case, here you go:"
Cilan handed Ash a small book, titled '11 secret tricks to spice up your relationship, by Love Connoisseur Cilan'. Ash wasn't sure how to react. "Uh… thanks?"
"I'll leave you to sample our fine dishes in silence, now. Terribly sorry for the wait, but you know what they say: you can't hurry greatness!"
Ash took that has his cue to dig into his cake, eating it so fast it was a wonder he didn't end up choking.
"I'm so glad we had this talk, guys. I'll be sure to not let my trust in Goh waver in the future!" Ash promised. "But, there's one question I have… I get why Gary was so sure I wouldn't cheat on Goh, because we've known each other for years… but why were you so confident I wouldn't do it, Horace?"
Horace gave him a large smile, and putting his hand around Goh's shoulder, he explained. "Well… I just couldn't imagine someone who feel in love with this amazing boy here could possibly fall in love with someone else afterwards, that's all!" Goh blushed profusely in reaction to this.
Ash gnashed his teeth and tried not to let his jealousy show. This was gonna be a lot harder than he thought.
A.N. Ah, Ash being jealous. Truly an age-old trope in this fandom. My first fanfic for pokémon involved the same idea, you know. That was after Horace's first episode.
I see Horace as being a very sickly kid who's allergic to a lot of things, because you know... white-haired anime boy syndrome. That's why he's a picky eater!
(And don't worry, the restaurants in the pokémon world only serve 'Pokémon World Meat', just like how Ohmori would want. No animal cruelty here. Totally.)
It's just occurred to me how many 'workplace romance'-type ships Goh has. Ash and him are research fellows, and Goh and Horace work for Project Mew with him. How precocious! /hj /lh
Anyway, see you (maybe) tomorrow? :')