"Okay, Ash, where did you get to?" Kukui asked under his breath. "That kid… it's weird, you know?"
Ash's Pikachu, very much not missing, looked up and made a curious sound. "Pi?"
"Ash," Kukui explained, waving vaguely in the direction of someone where you didn't know what direction they were in. "Sometimes he really does seem like a kid, but then there's other times when he's a hardened Pokémon battling veteran… and so are you. There's that Z-ring that came out of nowhere, and… ah, I don't know. There's a lot about him I don't know yet."
Pikachu shrugged. "Pikapi, pika… kachu."
"You'd be able to say a lot more than anyone else, I guess," Kukui decided. "If I could understand you, but it might just have to be a Secret Power."
He sat down, toned legs stretching across the floor. "It's not like there's anything wrong with Ash. He's a good kid. It's just that sometimes it's so obvious there's more, and other times… not so much."
Then there was some faint music, and Kukui looked up in surprise.
It sounded a lot like a violin.
"Pi!" Pikachu said, putting a paw to his lips and pantomiming for quiet, then pointed, and Kukui got back upright before following – quietly, of course.
It was Ash.
It wasn't something Kukui had ever expected to see, even with how much of a mystery his lodger already was, but- Ash was standing by a window, his trademark cap set aside, and there was a violin to his chin.
It might have been one of the smaller ones, Kukui wasn't an expert. But he wasn't tone-deaf, and he could tell that Ash's playing was… perhaps not polished, but it was nothing like his first time touching the instrument, either.
Kukui wondered where it had come from, a little bit.
But for now, he just leaned in the doorway, and listened. Pikachu clambered up to his shoulder, which Kukui managed to avoid reacting to, then listened as well.
After a few minutes, the music came to an end.
Ash took the instrument from his chin, sighing, and Kukui immediately noticed something about Ash.
He was calm.
That was… something of an unusual thing for Ash, Kukui was fairly sure.
"Pika, Pikapi!" Pikachu said, clapping, and Ash turned.
"Oh, hi Pikachu! And, hi Professor… and Rockruff too, huh, I guess I had more of an audience than I was expecting…"
"It was very nice, Ash," Kukui assured him. "I didn't know you played an instrument."
"It's actually not something I've been doing for all that long, I'm still practicing more than anything," Ash defended himself immediately. "It's actually an idea I had after my Sinnoh League challenge, because there was this guy who was doing Contests and the Pokémon League and he used a harp, and he sometimes gave orders to his Pokémon that nobody else could understand! So I looked for an instrument, and…"
Then Ash looked embarrassed. "The recorder really didn't work, so I tried this, but… uh, I've never actually used it in battle? Because Snivy did what I am fairly sure was a threat to break it over my head if I ever tried, and, it turned out to be really hard to do anyway. But I kept it up, mostly because it's… relaxing?"
Ash tried out that word, then nodded. "Yeah, it means I'm doing something, but I can relax. So I do it now and then."
"I'm glad you felt safe doing it in my house, Ash," Kukui said. "Where do you keep it, though?"
"Oh, uh… I don't usually use held items on my Pokémon, so one of them keeps it depending on who I'm going to use or not," Ash explained. "It was back at home before because this was kinda meant to only be a holiday, but, I guess it's a whole thing now, and so Unfezant brought it over with her."
Kukui belatedly noticed the large Flying-type in the corner of the room, and she chirped a greeting.
"It's nice to meet you," he said, with a nod. "Thank you for the performance, Ash."
Ash put the instrument down, with care, and smiled back at the Professor. "...hey, I should have Unfezant show Rowlet a thing or two! I think he's asleep, but it's sunny so he should be good for a quick flight…"
AN:
This is based on some art by Sorachi showing Ash playing the violin in Alola.