Secrets Kept
Figures I end up writing the hurricane aftermath chapter in peak hurricane season. I've been through enough big hurricanes that I really didn't want to put too much focus and detail on the cleanup part (especially after Helene and Milton), so if any scenes in this chapter seem like they're a little rushed or lackluster or missing details or anything like that, that's the reasoning. Hurray for hurricane season /sarcasm
Anyways, welcome to the Orange Islands arc! There's gonna be fluff all over the place in the next few chapters! Not so much in this chapter but, oh boy. Next chapter!
Oh yeah, I also changed my username over on AO3 and Tumblr! You can find me under Paleosuchus_metallicus. I've got a handful of TraceyxGary fics and a ton of Palletshipping over there!
…
… … …
…
Chapter Thirty-Six
Tracey's visit home could have been going better and he felt it was very fair to say that. The circumstances alone had been, well… Shitty, to be entirely honest. He was dealing with it the best he could, but he had come home only the second day after losing Scyther and every bit of pain was still fresh.
His siblings tried to help – Tara tried a surfing lesson that first afternoon home but his mood had soured fast after multiple falls off the board. Josh had dragged him out to the nearby skating rink the next day for a little bit of rollerblading – something he hadn't done in ages – but Tracey found he just didn't have the energy to enjoy it like he once did. At least fishing at the cove with Marie went better, even if it was far quieter than usual. Still, he spent no small amount of time holed up in the room he shared with Josh, curled up in bed with Marill and Venonat as he let the world pass by. An indescribable fatigue had settled into his very soul and he truly didn't know how he found the energy to tag along the few times his siblings managed to drag him out of the house.
It really wasn't that bad, but Tracey couldn't remember a time he had been less happy to be home.
And then came the storm.
Not a metaphorical storm of emotions – he had already dealt with that – but an actual storm. Sunburst's first hurricane of the year. He had barely been home for forty-eight hours before they had to begin preparations. It was no small task with his family's large house and sprawling yard full of lawn furniture and bird feeders and flower pots and all sorts of things that needed to be brought in and stored. Shutters needed to be hung, flashlight batteries needed to be checked, and his father's office downtown needed the same preparation.
Though he'd felt bad for not telling Gary about the approaching storm all day, he'd felt a weight lift when he finally got to hear his boyfriend's voice over the phone that night. With that, things shifted and his mood improved as the storm got closer and the winds picked up. He found himself being dragged along by his siblings – quite willingly – to the nearby cove, to the beach for some playing in the rough waves, even just outside in the yard as the first bands started to sweep across the island.
It was energizing in a way, running around in the rain, splashing in the puddles like children, but that changed in the morning when the worst of the storm had passed. The power was out and the bedroom was stuffy and dark with the shutters covering the windows. His brother had opened the windows in an attempt to let in some fresh air, but the remaining wind and rain rattled against the shutters noisily, making it worse rather than better. Fortunately the worst of the storm had already passed and the rest was soon to follow. Soon enough, the rain was over, the clouds were distant, and all that remained of the storm was a cool breeze. That fatigue was back in full swing and he only forced himself out of bed when it became too warm in the bedroom to stand being in there any longer.
Tracey raised a hand to shield his eyes from the sunlight, letting his eyes adjust as he stepped out of the house and onto the back porch. After spending the night and morning in a rapidly warming house, feeling the breeze on his face was nothing short of blissful. A mug was pushed into his hands before his eyes could adjust to the late morning light and the scent of fresh coffee wafted over from the outdoor table where they ate most of their meals. His parents had already brought the chairs back out from the storage shed and had set up a camping stove atop the table, along with a spread of the chopped fruit that had been in the refrigerator.
"Thank you," he mumbled as he sank into the seat next to his mother. He took a deep inhale of the fresh air and sipped his coffee. It was as delicious as ever: his mother had the perfect blend of espresso and sugar down to a science, even on a little camping stove after a hurricane.
She gave him a moment to settle in before asking, "how did you sleep?"
Tracey looked out over the yard, noting the flooded sections and downed tree limbs. "Fine until Josh opened the window," he admitted through a yawn.
There were quite a few more down branches than he was used to seeing for the sort of storm they'd had, he noticed, and the lower parts of the yard didn't usually flood quite that much. Before he could ask about the storm, two plastic bowls were placed in front of him, one half-full of chopped pineapple, the other containing three strawberries. The last one was even more unusual than the state of the yard.
"Marie left the last strawberries for you," she explained, passing over a plate and fork before uncovering the other bowls on the table to reveal a variety of chopped melon.
"That's sweet of her," Tracey murmured, a tiny smile appearing despite the exhaustion that clung to him.
Marie had a complicated relationship with food, with all sorts of texture and taste aversions that could vary in severity from one day to the next. She had a few safe foods – the most notable of which was strawberries. It was a well-respected rule that Marie got first pick of the strawberries and no one finished off the last of them without asking her first. The courtesy was extended to everyone else's favorites, which was likely why there was so much pineapple left, considering it was Tracey's favorite. He took the strawberries and selected a few pieces of pineapple and mango while looking out over the yard again.
"How bad was it?"
"Stronger than expected," she replied, taking a piece of pineapple for herself. "The tide and storm surge are causing more troubles than the wind and rain."
Tracey winced as he bit into a strawberry. It had been a nearly-full moon last night – something that would already result in higher tides without a hurricane to raise the tides even more. He was suddenly aware of how quiet it was: Josh and Tara were nowhere to be seen, and there was no sign of their father either. That could only mean one thing. "There's a stranding, isn't there?" She nodded. "How bad?"
She was quiet as she piled a selection of fruit on another plate for Marill and Venonat to share. "Josh and Tara are still checking the coast, but I haven't heard back from your father yet."
"Is that good or bad?"
"Could be either."
She said it rather neutrally, but Tracey saw how her smile tightened just a bit at that. That told him some details: it wasn't just a single stranded pokemon, it was a stranding event, with multiple beached pokemon. Which meant not hearing back yet was probably not a good sign. Josh and Tara were usually able to search the beaches with staff from the nearby rehab center rather quickly, and the longer that took, the worse it was. His heart sank at the thought, but he wasn't going to dwell on that – it wouldn't do any good and he didn't have the energy to, in any case.
As Tracey looked back out at the yard, he noticed one of his siblings wasn't quite accounted for. "Where's Marie?" he asked curiously.
"In the hammock… She's rather upset." That made sense for a stranding, especially if it was as bad as Tracey suspected. Strandings were always hard on her. But his mother wasn't done speaking. She hesitated for a moment before explaining, "The cove was hit hard… The waves dumped an awful lot of sand on the shore, and we forgot to bring in the tacklebox and fishing rod, so they were washed away."
"Shit," Tracey cursed under his breath as a rush of guilt washed over him. He and Marie had been the last ones to the cove – he should have remembered. A small squeak came from his side and Marill's little paw patted his arm.
A hand settled atop his and gave it a gentle pat. "It's nothing that can't be replaced," his mother assured him. "I think she was more distressed seeing the cove such a wreck."
That didn't make him feel much better. The cove was one of his favorite spots on the whole island, and the time he spent there with his siblings – especially Marie – was always special. "We can fix it up though, right?" he asked hopefully.
"We can…" There was that hesitation again. "But it'll be quite the project and I don't know that it'll be the same afterwards."
A small sigh of relief escaped Tracey at that. He didn't have the energy to focus on that right now, but the knowledge that it wasn't destroyed was enough to keep him from being too overwhelmed. He finished his breakfast and helped his mother clear off the table, stowing the remaining tubs of fruit in a cooler full of ice in the kitchen.
An hour passed with no news from his siblings or father – whether or not this was a good thing remained to be seen. Sometimes they didn't hear anything because they were able to handle the rescue and resolve the issue, other times it was because the rescue was so intense that there wasn't time to spare for a phone call. Tracey desperately hoped it was the former this time. He wasn't sure he had it in him to help out right now: a thought that honestly made him feel terrible. He barely had the energy to help his mother take the shutters off the windows on the first floor, but somehow managed to drag some of the lawn furniture out of the shed while his mother and Marie worked on clearing some of the debris out of the vegetable garden. There was still so much to be done but he found himself slumped tiredly on the porch steps, a wet cloth – courtesy of Marill – resting at the back of his neck to help cool down after a few hours of work.
It was lunchtime when his mother and Marie left the garden, Marie carrying a basket full of rescued harvest, their mother pulling a wagon full of cleared debris. Marie took the vegetables into the kitchen to begin rinsing them while his mother joined him on the steps.
"I heard back from your father," she said quietly.
Tracey raised his head and peered up at her to find her expression rather somber. "It's bad, isn't it?"
She nodded. "It's a significant event," she replied carefully. "Tara and Josh are going to keep helping with that. You're welcome to help too, of course, if you want to."
That wasn't a lot of detail to go by and Tracey had a feeling she was keeping the details vague for a reason, but he didn't have the energy to think too far into that reasoning. He wanted to help, very much so, but if he didn't have the energy to help more at the house then he certainly didn't have the energy to walk to the beach and help with the rescue.
She gave a sympathetic smile when he voiced that thought and nodded her agreement. "That's fine," she assured him, resting a hand on his shoulder. "Get some rest while I work on lunch, alright?"
Too tired to think of a reason to do anything else, he found himself in the hammock a few minutes later. He had to cross through ankle-deep water in a few spots and his shoes were soaked through by the time he made it there but he kicked them off and laid back with Marill and Venonat cuddled up next to him. The guilt of not helping ate at him but the soft weight of his pokemon against his side was a special sort of comfort that was rivaled only by cuddling with his boyfriend, but Gary wasn't here, so that wasn't an option. Tracey reached into his pocket to retrieve his phone and opened up his text messages to peer at the last one from Gary – a picture of the beach near Pallet, complete with Gyarados and Blastoise swimming. It was nice to see that Gary and Wyatt were doing their morning surf trips again, and Gary was in such a good mood after yesterday's trip when they spoke…
But there were no new messages after the photo and Tracey closed out the window. He let the phone drop against his chest and closed his eyes with a sigh.
The next thing Tracey knew, he was waking up to Marill's insistent squeaking and poking. As he blinked blearily, he heard his mother's voice calling from the back porch. Apparently lunch was ready.
Tracey raised his hand to give her a thumbs up and slowly sat up, peeking at his phone for the time. It had been over an hour and there were still no new messages from Gary. Still, he dragged himself from the hammock and back towards the porch. He felt slightly more awake when he made it to the table and sat down next to Marie but he had a feeling he would be going right back to napping after lunch. There was a plate of sandwiches with a bowl of cucumber salad fresh from the garden and a few bottles of water at the center of the table.
Lunch was rather quiet, as was often the case without his other two siblings around, and it seemed that Tracey wasn't the only exhausted one, judging by Marie's constant yawns. He let her take the hammock when lunch was done and instead stayed at the table with his mother. She had brought out her watercolor supplies, along with his sketchbook but, while drawing with her was one of Tracey's favorite things to do at home, he had found his inspiration lacking thus far on this trip. Instead of drawing, he slumped in his chair, relaxing as a gentle breeze blew. It was rather comfortable as he watched his mother's hand move fluidly over her watercolor pad, her paintbrush leaving trails of color.
He had little desire to work on something right now, but he pulled his sketchbook towards him and opened it, pausing to peer at the drawing Gary had left on the inside cover of this one. It was a gyarados spiraling across the page, the black ink highlighted with blue and yellow details. This one wasn't just one of the doodles Gary had developed a habit of leaving for him - this was a larger piece, one that he had spent a considerable amount of time on. Seeing what his boyfriend had left for him this time was one of Tracey's favorite parts of their shared hobby and their habit of buying each other new sketchbooks. The drawings brought a smile to his face every time, even now when he was beyond tired. Tracey thumbed through his book idly, pausing here and there at sketches he had done in his little drawing sessions with Gary and gazing longingly at the little inked doodles in the corners of some of the pages…
He really did miss his boyfriend terribly.
After a few moments, he became aware of his mother's gaze on him. Her hand had stopped moving across her page, leaving what looked to be the start of a meadow scene to dry while she watched him. "I don't think I've seen you draw this whole time you've been home," she noted quietly when he glanced up at her.
Tracey sighed and stared down at a sketch of Blastoise in the lake, the waterfall rising behind it. He'd drawn that in the morning at the waterfall, after breakfast, before they started to pack up camp. It felt like that weekend had been so long ago, but it had only been three weeks, and Scyther had been doing well then. The final decline had been rather sudden, but unsurprising. He'd noticed Scyther slowing down again the morning after that wonderful night in Gary's room, and then he was gone two days later. It shouldn't have been such a surprise to him – they had all thought they were going to lose Scyther back in April, but he had made it until June.
He'd had time to prepare, but it had happened so suddenly. Scyther was there one night and was gone the next morning, and none of those weeks of knowing what was coming had prepared him for it.
"I don't get it," Tracey said after a few quiet minutes. "I knew it was coming… I don't know why I'm having such a hard time with it."
A hand reached across the table, settling on his, her thumb smoothing over the back of his hand. "Well, that's the thing. It's not just Scyther, is it?" she asked. "That alone would be hard enough, but then you came here and instead of peace, you got this storm and everything that came with it."
Tracey nodded a bit absently. That made sense, he supposed. His family was used to these storms and he knew how to handle them, but that didn't mean they weren't stressful. A day of preparation, followed by a day or two of clean-up, and depending on the storm, maybe a few days without power. Even if he hadn't been worried about the storm, it meant that his trip home had been far from the reprieve he needed.
Being away from Gary didn't help any, even though they were in constant contact. Their text messages were no less frequent and Gary had been checking on him regularly throughout the day – especially through the storm, even though he had been hanging out with his friends at the time. But that wasn't the same as being with him and he found himself missing his boyfriend terribly. Gary wasn't just his boyfriend: he was his best friend, even closer than Misty was. They were close in a way that Tracey wasn't with his siblings and he never needed to say much for Gary to understand what he needed. He felt lucky to have such a smart, caring, and observant boyfriend, but being away from that presence was hurting so much more than he thought it would. To make matters worse, he wouldn't be seeing Gary for over a month and, even more difficult: in just a few days Gary would be at Valencia Island, the closest major island.
So near, but still so far.
And, of course, his heart ached just knowing that there was a bad stranding on the beach a mere mile away – a stranding that he had been too selfish to help with today… But his mother refused to let him think that way when he voiced his thoughts.
"Tracey, you have wounds that are healing right now," she said gently. "Just because you can't see them doesn't mean that they're not there, or that they're any less painful. You need to help yourself before anyone or anything else. And you haven't been selfish at all, dear. You've been helping me all day."
Tracey looked back down at his sketchbook and the sketch of Blastoise. This was the nice part of talking with his mother – she could read him like a book, could pinpoint what was bothering him with startling ease, and refused to ever let him speak ill of himself.
"I just feel bad," he replied. "I've been feeling so crappy with everything going on and now this storm and the stranding… I won't even get to see Gary before he leaves for his research trip."
She was quiet for a moment, her gaze thoughtful. "Gary will be at Valencia with Philena and Professor Birch, right?" Tracey nodded mournfully and turned to the next page in his sketchbook.
"Well, since he'll be so close, why don't you invite him over for the solstice?" she suggested. "Perhaps Philena could spare him for a day or two." Her smile widened as her thumb stroked over the back of his hand once more. "Or maybe she could use an extra assistant with her lapras project in a few weeks."
Tracey smiled at that. It was tempting, but… "That's an awfully long time to leave Professor Oak without an assistant," he mused.
"He's already told you to take as much time as you want, and you're not his only assistant," she pointed out, "you're just his favorite."
Tracey gave a small laugh at the last bit. He supposed she had a point: May and Wyatt were still at the lab, and Darren and Adrian were likely still helping out as well. As for inviting Gary… Well, that was the best thing he'd heard in days. "Would you guys be okay with that?" he asked hopefully. "Inviting Gary, I mean," he added unnecessarily.
"Would I suggest it if I wasn't?"
That sent a little flutter of excitement through him, enough to make him turn to the next blank page in his sketchbook. "I'd like that," he admitted. He stared at the page for a moment, but there was still no inspiration, not even with half a dozen ideas for what to do with his boyfriend floating around in his brain. Unable to think of something to draw, he closed the book again and slid it away from him.
"Still no inspiration?"
"No," Tracey sighed. Staring at blank pages with no idea of what to draw was starting to become rather frustrating in the last few days. He would have thought that the idea of inviting Gary here would have brought about some sort of inspiration, but it seemed he was too tired for even that to do the trick.
"Time for more rest, I think." A large yawn escaped Tracey as she said it and she glanced up with a rather pointed look that drew a chuckle from Tracey.
"Alright, I'll go sleep some more," he agreed. His eyelids were feeling nearly as heavy as his limbs in any case, so another nap was definitely in order. Maybe if he got some more rest today, he'd be able to help with the rescue tomorrow and maybe even decide on a plan of where to bring Gary if he was able to visit for the solstice.
His text alert went off as he made his way across the yard to one of the lounge chairs he had brought out earlier. As he sprawled out comfortably on the chair, he opened his messages to find a few pictures from Gary. The skies were clear at the beach, but he could see the swell of the waves even in the little picture on his phone. No wonder he hadn't heard from him all day: adrenaline junkies at heart, Gary and Wyatt would spend every second they could at the beach when the waves were that large.
They shared a few messages back and forth before Gary and Wyatt had to return to the lab, and when Tracey put his phone down, it was with a smile. He hadn't mentioned the solstice but he knew he was going to get to see his boyfriend soon, and that thought helped ease him into a long, peaceful nap… until his brother calling across the yard for him brought him back to the present.
The sun had moved considerably, he noticed as he blinked blearily, it was low in the sky but wasn't ready to set just yet. It must have been nearly dinner time, which was confirmed by a second voice, quieter and significantly closer.
"Tracey, dinner's ready," Marie called softly as she approached. She held out a glass of what looked like freshly squeezed juice with a wedge of pineapple stuck on the rim. "The power's back," she explained as she passed it to him with a smile.
He stretched his arms over his head until he heard a few satisfying pops and took the glass from her with a quiet "thank you."
After sleeping the majority of the afternoon, he was feeling quite a bit better and he felt even better when he took a sip of the juice Marie had given him. Orange and pineapple, with a little bit of coconut water, it seemed. The power had been on long enough for it to have been nicely chilled, and few things tasted better after a long afternoon nap in the sunshine than ice-cold fresh juice. He savored the first few sips and took a deep breath of the evening air. Things like this were why he had come home. There was nothing more refreshing than these moments.
When they made it back to the house, his parents and other siblings were already at the table waiting with a spread of grilled vegetables and burgers. Tara passed him a plate with a few vegetable skewers and a burger on a toasted bun as soon as he reached the deck. His appetite had been sporadic and often nonexistent but after spending so much of his limited energy on things outside over the last two days, the smell of food on the grill had his mouth positively watering.
"What's going on with the rescue?" he asked as he took the plate from her and began piling toppings on his burger.
"There's still a group of volunteers there, and Professor Ivy's trying to call in trainers from around the Islands," she replied around a bite of grilled zucchini. "There's nineteen lapras–"
Tracey nearly dropped his plate. "What?" That was the highest number of stranded pokemon he had heard of in the Orange Islands. "On how many islands?" They couldn't possibly all be on Sunburst. Strandings that size just didn't happen around here.
"Just on Sunburst," Josh spoke up, deadpan. He looked absolutely drained, cheeks still pink from exertion and heat, and sweat still dripping down his face. Tara and their father didn't look much better.
Tracey felt his stomach drop as he took the seat next to Marie. "Nineteen just on Sunburst?" he echoed.
Their father nodded with a tired sigh as he sat down at the table with a large glass of water. "In four different spots on the north shore," he confirmed. "With another eight spread across three other islands."
Tracey's appetite was suddenly gone once more. "That's…" He shook his head, unable to even comprehend that. They had been dealing with this horrible, massive event all day long, while he had been napping in the sunshine. He tried not to feel too guilty, but his heart clenched at the very thought. "That's awful," he managed after a moment, voice small.
His father nodded. "When we found them, they still had piles of sand on their shells, so we've been clearing that off all day," he explained. "We're gonna have to dig them out somehow but we can't get equipment out on the beach. We're hoping the tide coming in will help, but…" he trailed off, shaking his head. "The clock's ticking, which is why I need to get back there."
"I want to help." The words were out before Tracey had fully registered them.
"Tracey, you've been exhausted all day," Marie started.
"And I slept most of it," he retorted. "I can help! You'll need people there overnight anyway, right?"
"There's already people there," Tara interjected. "You don't need this stress on top of Scyther."
"It's there either way," he shot back, perhaps a bit harsher than he'd intended. "I might as well do something useful with my time."
"No fighting over this, guys," their father cut in before Tara could reply. "I'd much rather you stay home tonight, Tracey. Your sisters are right, rest tonight and you can help in the morning."
"But you've been out there all day and you're going back! I slept all day, I can help!"
Surprise flickered across his father's face at the argument but it was his mother that replied. "We can discuss this after dinner, Tracey," she said gently. "See how you feel and listen to your body then, alright?"
They would probably still try to talk him out of it, but Tracey nodded his reluctant agreement nonetheless. He looked down at his plate, determined to push through his lack of appetite. If he was going to help then he needed to eat, whether he wanted to or not. His parents shared a long glance over their drinks before his father nodded his agreement as well – that was all the encouragement Tracey needed. If he was sure he was up to it after dinner – he would be, he knew – then his father wouldn't fight him on it.
Tracey didn't know what exactly he would be able to do, and he wished he had more pokemon that could help, but he knew he would be able to do something, even if it was just helping dig sand away from the trapped pokemon and keeping them wet. He could use Marill to help keep them wet and Venonat could even help keep them calm. He was absolutely going to help out.
He forced his food down quickly and fixed his father with an expectant look as soon as he was finished, only to be met with a gaze that very clearly asked him to reconsider. As much as Tracey understood – and appreciated – his parents' and siblings' concerns, he wasn't going to change his mind. Even if he could only help for a few hours, he was going to help.
Before anyone could say anything more, the telephone rang from inside the house. The house phone was only used for rescues and emergencies, so Tracey was certain it was news on the rescue. He stood and quickly followed his father into the kitchen.
"Let it go, Trace," Josh's voice called after him.
"No," he retorted firmly, not even sparing his brother a glance. He leaned against the counter, crossing his arms over his chest as his father answered the phone and waiting as patiently as he could while the pokemon doctor listened to whoever was on the other end.
It seemed serious, but his father let out a relieved sigh after a few short moments.
"That's fantastic!" he said with a glance Tracey's way. "Oh, of course he can…" A small smile had formed on his face and Tracey frowned, confused. There hadn't been enough time to have a breakthrough in the rescue, so what could he possibly be smiling about? "And other trainers are coming in the morning?" Well, that explained some of it. "... Great. We'll head to the center now… Okay, thank you, Philena!"
"What's going on?" Tracey asked curiously as soon as he hung up the phone.
He gave Tracey another smile. "Well, it looks like you can come after all, but we need to stop at the Pokemon Center first. It turns out Philena knows a trainer in Kanto who can help us out," he explained. Tracey's immediate thought was Ash, but he had been in Sinnoh the last time they spoke. Before he could ask, his father walked back to the door and stuck his head out, calling, "Fern, sweetheart? I'll explain later, but Tracey's coming with me to the beach. We've got trainers and pokemon coming in to help."
Tracey hurried to follow as his father headed out of the kitchen and into the hallway towards the front door. "Which trainer?" he asked.
His father paused at the front door and looked back at him with a sly smile. "I'm sorry, did I say trainer? I meant researcher."
Tracey's stomach did a funny little flip at that. "Gary?" he breathed.
He nodded. "Your boyfriend sent a team of his pokemon to help as many lapras as we can before the other trainers come in tomorrow."
Of course he had. Tracey honestly didn't know why he was surprised. He couldn't help the grin that spread across his face at that. "Do you know which pokemon?" he asked, hurrying after his father out the door and down the porch steps. Blastoise was an almost certainty, but he didn't know who else to expect without knowing what Gary's idea was.
"No, but Philena said you knew them and they would listen to you."
That didn't narrow it down at all. Aside from Blastoise, Tracey wasn't sure who else to expect. Water types, most likely, but Gary had quite a few of those, all smart, powerful, and well-trained. He hoped it wasn't Gyarados. She was an incredible pokemon but Tracey wasn't entirely sure that she would listen to him, not to mention she would probably scare the lapras half to death.
They hurried to the Pokemon Center but, unsure of what to do next, Tracey hesitated when they entered the building. He had never retrieved pokemon from the transfer system – he didn't have enough pokemon of his own to need to transfer them and had always retrieved pokemon for the professor directly from another person. This was a very unfamiliar task to him. Fortunately his father noticed and steered him towards the machine in the corner of the waiting room.
"It's the same system Sam uses," he explained. "Very similar to sending a trainer their pokemon. Easier, in fact."
He walked him through it and Tracey found that he was absolutely right – it was easier than sending a trainer their pokemon. He only needed to enter his trainer ID number and select a particular box on the menu. He clicked on the box and waited for it to load, tapping his fingers nervously along the edge of the computer.
The box finally loaded and Tracey's eyes widened when four pictures popped up on the screen, each with a name and identification number below it. He didn't know what exactly he had expected, but a team of his boyfriend's top three pokemon wasn't quite it. Blastoise was the only one he had anticipated, if only for his type – Umbreon and Arcanine hadn't been remotely expected, but it made sense with how well they listened to him and how often they got in trouble for digging around the lab. Golduck rounded out the group, an unexpected choice given that he could be stubborn and moody – not unlike Gary himself on a bad day.
Tracey pushed the accept button and the machine began to whirr, a blue-white light appeared and the pokeballs materialized. He took the balls from the machine's tray and hooked them on his belt – it was the first time he'd ever had a full team on him and it felt so strange to feel more than three pokeballs at his waist. Something about that was exciting, but he couldn't allow himself to get too distracted by that.
"What's the plan?" he asked, looking back to his father.
"Gary and Philena's idea was to have the pokemon dig trenches from the shore to the lapras so that they can swim out," he explained as he led Tracey from the Pokemon Center towards the beach. "But we need to dig them out of the sand as much as possible before then. Gary's team will get us started and he'll bring another team with him tomorrow –" Tracey stopped rather suddenly, but his father kept talking, continuing to lead the way to the beach – "Philena's making a few calls and she'll be helping out on Valencia with some of her own pokemon as soon as she's done. Hopefully we can get some more trainers because we need all the help we can get… Tracey?"
Tracey had barely heard the rest. Everything seemed to freeze for just a moment as the realization hit him. Gary hadn't just sent pokemon to help out: he was heading down to the Orange Islands early, because of course he would want to help a bunch of stranded pokemon. But he was coming here, to Sunburst, where Tracey's family was, and no one in Pallet, save for Wyatt, understood what else was awaiting him here. He was about to meet his boyfriend's family before he'd even had a chance to come out to his own family, while in the middle of a highly stressful situation.
Tracey felt a wave of sympathy for Gary but couldn't help the grin that crossed his face nonetheless. He was going to see his boyfriend and, for once, the people around them would know that they're dating.
For once they wouldn't have to hide anything.
His father laughed softly when he looked back at Tracey. "Yes, you'll get to see your boyfriend," he teased lightly, shaking his head amusedly. "I figure he can stay for a few days before he goes to Valencia."
Tracey couldn't possibly think of anything better than that. But, of course, there wasn't time to focus on that and the rush of excitement that sent through him.
As they walked to the beach from the Pokemon Center, Tracey could hear the lapras long before he could see them. Their distressed songs drifted over the dunes and across the boardwalk to the main road along the shore. They were quieter than Tracey would have expected – a sure sign of exhaustion and stress. The poor things. His heart ached at the mournful cries, but that was nothing compared to what he felt when he climbed the steps to the boardwalk and saw the beach for the first time.
The beach was a far bigger mess than the yard. Sand was piled up in dunes that hadn't existed before the storm, and seaweed and driftwood and all sorts of debris was strewn across the sand. The lapras were spread across the shore as far as Tracey could see, even past the curve of the island's shoreline. Sand was piled around each of them as though it had been dumped by machinery, rather than simply tossed on shore by storm waves. It looked as though the sand had been cleared off their shells, but their flippers were still being dug out.
There were a few dozen people on the beach in small groups of two or three around each lapras, many of whom Tracey recognized from his father's office or the rehabilitation center. Most were working on digging out the pokemon's flippers while others poured buckets of water over them or held buckets for them to drink from. There were a handful of pokemon helping them: a geodude, a flaaffy, and an ivysaur were helping dig, and a group consisting of a squirtle, a staryu, and a poliwag were helping keep the lapras wet. Further down the beach was a chansey, who appeared to be helping two of his father's nurses tend to an injured lapras.
Tracey had never seen anything like it before. Beach erosion was usually the bigger concern with these storms. This was strange, to say the least.
He found a secluded spot beneath the palm trees to release his boyfriend's pokemon, and was grateful for the location when Arcanine immediately bolted to him and knocked him over in his haste to give the watcher as many slobbery dog kisses as possible. Blastoise gave a low grumble and Arcanine quickly sat, his tail still wagging hard enough to send up a spray of sand behind him. Umbreon and the others waited patiently for Tracey, though Umbreon's tail thwapped against the sand almost as hard as Arcanine's. Tracey sat up with a laugh – it felt so good to see Gary's pokemon after feeling rather lonely for the last few days. He noticed that Umbreon held a paper in her teeth and he held out a hand for her to drop the note into it.
She watched him unfold it, looking rather satisfied with herself. So cocky. She really was so much like her trainer. Tracey smiled and ruffled her fur affectionately before looking down at the note.
- see you soon -
Warmth flooded him as he ran his thumb over the inked doodle of Arcanine digging on a shore, his smile growing. It once again hit him that Gary was coming here, to Sunburst. The very thing he had been hoping for, only far sooner than he ever could have expected.
But he didn't have time to think about just how excited he was to see his boyfriend – there was a lot of work to do and they needed to start now.
The idea of digging trenches had sounded good up until now, but as he looked across the sand he saw that they weren't quite ready for that step yet. The lapras all needed to be fully dug out of the sand for them to have a chance to get off the beach, but Tracey decided to have the pokemon start on the first trench. Maybe the amount of time it took to dig out each lapras' flippers would balance out with the time it took to dig the trench. They needed to make sure the idea would work either way.
He got Gary's pokemon right to work while his father checked in with one of the nurses from his office. Fortunately Arcanine's favorite thing in the whole world was digging and he went about his task with the sort of enthusiasm that could only be only be expected from an excited dog. Umbreon and Golduck took their job no less seriously but went about it with much more poise than the large fire dog.
It was slow work even with three pokemon digging and Blastoise grumbled impatiently at Tracey, staring at the pokemon trapped in the sand. It took Tracey a moment to work out what the problem was and he felt a bit foolish when he finally did – Blastoise was Gary's pokemon and, just like his trainer, he didn't like standing around doing nothing.
"Why don't you help keep the lapras cool?" Tracey suggested. The large turtle-like pokemon gave an agreeable growl and relief washed over Tracey. He'd been a little worried – Blastoise was generally harder to read than the others and had his stubborn moments. "Spray them all down gently so their skin stays moist, alright?"
Blastoise gave another agreeable grumble and lumbered over the sand to the first lapras and began to do exactly that before moving on to the next one while Arcanine and the others continued digging.
"Is that Gary's blastoise?"
Tracey turned to find his father behind him, a large bag of supplies in one hand as he pulled a wagon full of more supplies with the other. "He's impressive, isn't he?" he asked, unable to keep the pride out of his voice.
The pokemon doctor nodded. "I don't often see one at that high of a level with such a smooth shell," he noted. "No pyramiding at all. A lot of trainers overlook shell health with their nutrition."
Tracey smiled. "Not Gary," he replied proudly.
His father patted his shoulder with a proud smile of his own. "Good taste in boys, Tracey."
Despite the circumstances, Tracey couldn't help but laugh. "Thanks, Dad," he called after him as his father followed Blastoise down the beach.
The pair checked on the pokemon and did what they could to help them with the lingering heat while Tracey watched Gary's other pokemon. It took a long while but they finished the trench from the shore to the first lapras and seawater began flowing into it, filling it almost halfway while Golduck filled it the rest of the way.
The water came right up to the lapras and it cooed appreciatively at the sight of it. Her front flippers dug into the sand in an attempt to crawl into the water, but the exhausted pokemon stayed stuck in place. Tracey frowned: the sand around the pokemon wasn't terribly deep, quite a bit had been dug away already but if the water-type didn't have the strength to move a few feet, then they had another problem on their hands.
Part of the plan needed tweaking.
The lapras dug her flippers in one more time, sending up a spray of sand as she wailed desperately. She fell still after a moment and hung her head as she stared mournfully at the water. Marill hopped down from Tracey's shoulder, squeaking soothingly as he patted her flipper gently.
"It's okay," Tracey soothed, stroking her head before kneeling down to check her flippers. They were fine – no injuries to be seen - so he began scooping more sand away from one of them.
Umbreon gave a bark of approval from his side and began digging out her other flipper. Both front flippers were freed in a few short minutes but the lapras stayed put, apparently too exhausted to move, even when Marill added water around her flippers.
Tracey groaned, unsure of what to do, but Umbreon seemed to have an idea of her own. She nudged him out of the way with her nose and dug her front paws into the sand between the lapras' flippers, swiftly digging out a space connecting the hollows that her fins rested in before moving around to her side, continuing to dig out the sand from around her. Tracey wasn't entirely sure what she was doing but she seemed to have a plan in mind. She nudged him out of the way again and bounded past him to Golduck, barking urgently all the while.
Tracey was aware of the nearby volunteers watching, but he ignored them, focusing on the pokemon as they dug around the lapras and carefully excavated a pit with the pokemon in the center of it. Golduck and Marill filled it together without a command and suddenly Tracey understood the pokemons' plan.
"Good call, Umbreon!" he praised, watching as the lapras gave a coo of appreciation before dipping her head to take a long drink.
Still, she didn't make to move and Tracey frowned again, his thoughts running a mile a minute before he understood.
The pokemon had been on the beach at least since morning. They had been in the tropical summer heat all day, trying to escape from their sandy confines after attempting to stay safe during a storm. They were exhausted, dehydrated, and distressed, and all that weight sitting on their bones and organs without water to support it made injuries and internal bleeding a bigger risk by the minute. They needed to get to water to rehydrate and to take the weight off their bones and organs, but if they were too exhausted to move even a little bit, then the work to dig the trenches was in vain.
The plan would work, but it would take a lot of time and that was something the pokemon didn't have much of. They needed the water now, and it took Umbreon and Golduck much less time to dig a pit around the pokemon than it took to dig a trench from the shore to the pokemon. It wasn't perfect, but it was the best chance to save as many of them as possible.
"Change of plans!" Tracey announced. Umbreon and Golduck looked up at him curiously. "Arcanine!" The fire dog's head shot up and Tracey had to fight not to laugh at the amount of sand already stuck in his fur. He waved him over and waited until the three pokemon were focused on him. "We need to do this for all the lapras first," he explained, gesturing to the one resting in her freshly-excavated pool. "Arcanine, you're the fastest - can you dig a moat around each one?" Arcanine gave an affirmative bark. "Alright, you do that first and we'll worry about the trenches later. Umbreon, Golduck, you two dig the rest of the sand out from around them, and then Marill will help you fill them with water, Golduck."
By now Blastoise was far enough down the beach that Tracey could no longer see him or his father, but that was okay – they would be back soon enough. Arcanine made quick work of digging moats around the nearest pokemon, saving Umbreon and Golduck a bit of time. The other people on the beach took notice of the working pokemon and moved out of their way to allow them to dig. With Tracey and Gary's pokemon taking care of the lapras nearest to the boardwalk, most of the volunteers moved further down the beach to some of the pokemon that needed more help. There were a few that Tracey could hear wailing and thrashing about in the sand further down, and he overheard mentions of injured pokemon even further down the beach.
At least taking care of these lapras on his own meant that the others that needed more help would get it. That was fine by him.
By the time Blastoise and his father came back into view, the next lapras was already resting in its own pool of water.
His father paused as he got close enough to see the pools and looked back and forth between the lapras and Tracey. "Was this your idea?" he asked curiously.
"Technically Umbreon's," Tracey replied. "The first lapras was too tired to get out of the sand so Umbreon and Golduck dug around her. It at least gets them in water to recover a bit."
He was quiet for a moment, his gaze sweeping over the pokemon once more. "That's actually genius, Tracey," he said quietly. Tracey shook his head, attempting to brush it off. "I'm serious! The first idea wasn't working, so you started digging hospital pools for them – we've had people out here all day and no one thought of anything like this. If we can get them all in pools like this, they can stay in them overnight until we have more trainers to dig the trenches in the morning."
Tracey nodded and moved on to the next lapras with Gary's pokemon while the pokemon doctor hurried back down the beach so that they could start doing the same for the lapras who needed it most. It was painfully slow, even with Umbreon, Arcanine, and Golduck moving as fast as they could. Tracey found himself working ahead of the pokemon to clear more sand away from the next lapras while Venonat and Marill tried to keep them calm. It seemed to be working and they fell into an easy rhythm of helping the trapped pokemon, working well past sunset and into the night.
It was dark when Tracey's father approached him, looking rather weary. "What's wrong?" he asked automatically, hoping desperately that there weren't any new problems.
"Nothing new," Dr. Sketchit replied. "I'm heading home for the night. Ashley and Jacob are with the injured lapras down there," he gestured to where two of his nurses were working with a small group from the rehab center. "They're in charge until morning. Are you okay to keep working, or do you want to go home?"
Tracey nodded before his father was even done asking the question. "I'm staying until every lapras is in water," he replied firmly. Tired and sore as he was, he and the pokemon had just taken a break for water, rest, and food and now they were rested and ready to get back to work. One of the local pizza places had brought food and drinks for all of the volunteers, and one of the trainers who worked at the rehab center had brought berries and treats for all of the pokemon helping. Gary had even had the foresight to send each of his pokemon with a berry as well. None of them were slowing down in any case.
"I had a feeling you would say that. Take plenty of breaks. Try not to overdo it, alright?"
"We just took one," he assured his father. "We'll be fine, Dad, don't worry about us."
"He's going to either way, dear," a calm, somewhat amused voice spoke from behind Tracey. He didn't need to turn to know who it was.
"Fern…"
"See what I mean?"
Tracey laughed at his mother's gentle tease but his father shook his head tiredly. "You've been working around the yard all day, Fern."
"And I've been resting ever since dinner," she countered calmly. "Besides," she added, resting a hand on the pokeballs at her waist, "I've got a few helpers who would love a chance to dig up the beach."
A grin spread across Tracey's face: he knew what that meant. "C'mon, Dad, you're not gonna deny Swampert a chance to dig, are you?"
His parents shared a glance and a smile, and his father nodded. "Alright," he relented. He took his wife's hand and pressed a kiss to her knuckles. "Call me if you need anything, okay?"
Seeing that small action made him think of Gary and Tracey felt another flutter of excitement. He couldn't wait until morning, but for now, there was a job to do.
"Tara already volunteered to be our ride if Tracey or I need to head home, don't you worry about us."
That seemed to do the trick.
As soon as the pokemon doctor left, Tracey's mother released several of her own pokemon, each of whom eagerly greeted Tracey before immediately getting to work. Her wigglytuff went from lapras to lapras, soothing them with Sing. Mightyena and Swampert joined Umbreon, Arcanine, and Golduck with the digging, while Azumarill alternated between helping Wigglytuff and Blastoise. Swampert helped Blastoise and Golduck fill the pools as soon as they were dug, leaving each lapras to rest in their own little pool.
With two extra pokemon digging, they were able to work faster, and with Wigglytuff and Azumarill's help, the distressed cries of the trapped pokemon were calming and becoming quieter as the night went on. His mother's pokemon were older than Gary's and couldn't work quite as fast as his but having another team of pokemon allowed them to take turns alternating breaks with the pokemon, which let them work through the night. The final pool was being filled by the water types as the first rays of sunlight broke the horizon and they recalled the pokemon as soon as the last lapras was resting in its own little pool of water. With all of the trapped pokemon in some water, some of the pressure of the rescue was lifted and they could take a proper break before more help arrived.
Utterly exhausted, they made their way back to the first lapras and Tracey released his and Gary's pokemon once more so that they could all stretch and sprawl out in the sand while they rested. In what seemed like no time, Tracey found himself blinking awake to his sister's voice and a hand shaking his shoulder. He opened his eyes to find Tara holding out a bottle of water with a grin. The pinks and oranges of the sunrise had dissipated and the sky was as bright a blue as the ocean. It didn't seem like much time had passed but volunteers were milling about, checking in on the nearest laprases. Tracey could hear his father speaking to someone nearby but he was too tired to do anything other than accept the water from Tara with a grateful smile.
"I can't believe how much you guys did last night!" she exclaimed as Tracey took a sip of the water. "Half of these laprases would've died without those pools, you know that, right?" Tracey could only nod. If he hadn't been quite so focused on the exceptionally difficult task of staying upright, he might have noticed Tara's concerned frown. "C'mon, Tracey, time to go home and rest. We've got it from here. I'm gonna drive you and Mom home now–"
Exhausted as he was, Tracey shook his head. He had been looking forward to one thing all night and he wasn't leaving until then. "I'm waiting until Gary gets here."
Tara fell quiet and shook her head with a sigh. "You've been up all night, Tracey–"
"And I'll rest until he gets here. I'll go home then, just let me have this, Tara." Even if he was too drained to do anything more than give Gary an especially sleepy greeting, he wasn't going to leave until he got to see his boyfriend. He needed to see him – to tell him in person just how incredible his pokemon had been, how Umbreon had come up with this idea on her own. After how stressful the last few days had been, he needed to see him, if only for a few brief moments before he went home and crashed for the rest of the day.
"Alright," she agreed reluctantly. "I'll let Dad know you're staying a little longer, but don't you move from here, okay? Rest until then."
Tracey smiled tiredly and nodded. "I will," he agreed easily. He laid back against Arcanine in the same shady little spot he had first released his boyfriend's pokemon the night before and let his eyes close as sleep overtook him once more.
…
… … …
…
Gary awoke to find the earliest rays of sunlight illuminating the horizon. He watched the waves through half-lidded eyes, teetering on the edge of drifting off again as the sun slowly rose. It was quiet and peaceful with the waves – well, they weren't exactly gently rocking the boat, but he'd dealt with worse on both of the past sharpedo trips. It was rather comfortable in the bridge and for now there was no worry over the situation he was walking into, no anxiety over meeting his boyfriend's parents, just a quiet sunrise over the ocean.
"It's beautiful, isn't it?" a voice asked softly.
"It is," he agreed, yawning. "How far are we?"
"Close," Valerie, the boat captain and a friend of Professor Ivy's, replied. "Sunburst'll be on the horizon in no time."
"Awesome." Gary stayed settled in his seat and closed his eyes again, trying to relax for the last bit of the boat ride despite the nerves that had been bubbling below the surface ever since sending his pokemon over the evening before.
He knew there wasn't much of a reason to be nervous – Professor Ivy had told him each of the three times they spoke yesterday that Tracey's family was the least of his worries, and he knew from everything Tracey had told him about his family that this was true. His grandfather had even commented that he would likely enjoy spending a few days without Tracey's family after the rescue was done. That all helped, but the nerves were there regardless, both over the rescue and staying with his boyfriend's family. Talking to Valerie over the course of the boat ride had helped as well. When Professor Ivy told him the details about how he was going to get to Sunburst, she had told him that Valerie was an old friend and was a trainer and researcher, but after meeting her, Gary had a feeling their relationship had been a little more than just friends at some point.
Even though there were a handful of other trainers on Valerie's fishing boat-turned-research vessel, he found himself staying and chatting with her much of the time. They connected quickly over talks of sharpedoes and scuba diving, and their conversations had covered everything from fondly picking on Professor Birch to debating over which Kanto-native ice type was the best to which places in Kanto had the best surfing. She had told him stories from her travels in far away regions and, encouraged by the array of pride flags here and there on the boat, he had even told her about Tracey.
He was exhausted after staying up much of the night talking to her – sleep hadn't been easy to come by – but that was just fine. The conversations had made it worth it.
He just hoped the rescue was going well. It hadn't sounded good the times he had spoken to Professor Ivy and he couldn't see how it would get much better at night without a larger group of pokemon to help. He could only hope that his pokemon had been able to make a difference and that Tracey was doing alright. A bad storm and a terrible stranding were the absolute last things Tracey needed after losing Scyther but at least he would be there to help soon enough.
For now, he would rest as long as he could – which really wasn't long at all. Sunburst was on the horizon in no time and they were pulling up alongside the dock shortly after. He had only seen Sunburst's harbor once, briefly, last summer, though he hadn't seen much of the harbor then, and it looked much the same as he remembered it. The water was higher than he recalled and there were fewer boats coming and going, but the shops were still there and there were still plenty of people, though most of them appeared to be cleaning up debris or fixing one of the docks.
Gary spotted Professor Ivy waiting against one of the railings and made his way to her as soon as he stepped off the boat, Valerie not far behind. She looked rather tired but greeted him warmly nonetheless and Gary waited patiently while she and the boat captain greeted each other with warm hugs and bright smiles. He watched, somewhat amused by the familiarity between the two women – they had to have been more than friends at some point.
"I've got five more trainers with me, what do you need us to do, Philena?" Valerie asked once they had gotten their enthusiastic greeting out of the way.
"Mikan and Tangelo need more trainers to help out, so if we can get some of those trainers there, that would be best." She gave Gary another smile before continuing. "Thanks to this one sending his pokemon to his friend-"
"Boyfriend," Gary corrected, grinning at Ivy's surprise.
"Boyfriend," she echoed with a smile full of pride and Gary felt a rush of warmth. That felt better than he'd expected. He hoped he wasn't blushing like an idiot. "Thanks to your boyfriend and your pokemon, each lapras is in a little hospital pool on the beach, resting and waiting to be checked over and released."
Tracey and the pokemon had done all of that overnight? He knew his boyfriend and pokemon were capable and smart, but that was a lot of work for a small team to do in such a short amount of time. "All of them?" he asked incredulously.
Professor Ivy nodded. "He had help of course. His mother brought out a team of her own pokemon and more volunteers have been coming in this morning now that the roads have been cleared. Once we get you over there with your pokemon, we can start digging trenches to the shore and getting those lapras back in the ocean where they belong."
"That's a lot of work for a pair of people and some pokemon to manage," Valerie noted.
Gary nodded his agreement but Professor Ivy only gave him another smile. "You have strong pokemon," she pointed out. "They work hard, and Fern's old team is nothing to sneeze at. She could have been a gym leader back in the day if she wanted… Tara's waiting to give us a ride over to the beach, so we should get going. Val, are you able to bring–"
"Of course. Is it just Mikan and Tangelo that need the trainers?"
"Valencia's clear, we were able to get our three back into the water with the high tide last night, but Mikan has three more left to get back in the water and Tangelo has four. We'll be alright here now that the pokemon are in pools and can get medical attention."
Valerie nodded thoughtfully. "The pools definitely give the Sunburst pokemon time that the others don't have. Smart boyfriend you have there, Gary."
Gary couldn't help but grin. "He is," he agreed.
Hearing someone else other than Professor Ivy or Wyatt refer to Tracey as his boyfriend - especially in such a positive way – sent such a flutter of absolute happiness through him that it caught him entirely by surprise. It felt as though his emotions had been all over the place in the last two days, from worried about Tracey and utterly despondent from the failed attempts with his grandfather to suddenly having the courage to tell his friends, from nervous over the unexpected trip to meet his boyfriend's family and help with a terrible stranding to being excited and so proud of Tracey that he couldn't keep that stupid smile off his face. It was all such a quick back and forth that it all felt a bit unreal.
Valerie left for her boat soon after and Gary waited until she was out of earshot before turning to Professor Ivy with a grin. "So?" he asked pointedly, unable to resist.
"Yes?"
"Am I not the only one with a secret relationship?"
Professor Ivy laughed as she led him to a nearby picnic table where her bag was resting along with a paper coffee cup and a bottle of soda. She passed him the latter with an amused smile. "Here – I remember you prefer your caffeine sickly sweet… And, no, Val and I don't have a secret relationship. It was very much not a secret and it was a long time ago."
Gary accepted the bottle with a quiet thanks before twisting the cap off and taking a quick sip. "Doesn't seem like it was that long ago," he replied, following Ivy along the harbor towards the parking lot. "Kinda seems like it's still going on."
She gave another small laugh and shook her head. "Troublemaker," she retorted, her voice fond. "It was many years ago. We're still very close, but no, it's not a secret relationship." She was quiet for a moment as they began crossing the parking lot before asking, "Are you nervous?"
Gary thought about it only briefly before shaking his head. "Not really." His nerves had settled into a quieter flitter on the boat ride over and since hearing how well things had gone the night before, he was more excited than he was nervous.
"Good!" Ivy replied earnestly. "I'm glad. Tracey's a product of his upbringing: his family is very kind and his parents are some of my favorite colleagues to work with. You'll like them. I'm just sorry you didn't get a chance to have some fun with your friends back home before this."
Right. He had almost forgotten about the conversation after the video call with Birch… and that he hadn't had a chance to tell her about what had happened since then. Gary couldn't help but grin. "I did, actually," he replied, his grin widening when Ivy shot him a curious glance.
"Oh? And what sort of trouble did you get up to?"
"We went surfing."
"Ah, of course. That sounds like you. I'm glad – I could tell you needed it," she said. She paused, glancing at him once more while his grin stayed firmly in place. "Is there something else that has you this happy, or are you just excited to see your boyfriend?"
"I told one of my friends at the beach." He managed to say it in a way that didn't sound too overly excited but it seemed that worry hadn't been necessary.
"You did?" she gasped, sounding simultaneously surprised and delighted.
"And another one later that night," he added, his grin only widening.
She stopped walking and pulled him into a sudden hug. "That's wonderful! Gary, I'm so happy to hear that!" She pulled away and rested her hands on his shoulders, beaming proudly. "You were so frustrated with yourself just the other day, and then you went and did that? Oh, that's such good news! Have you told Tracey yet?"
Gary shook his head, unable to keep a small laugh from bubbling up at her excitement. Telling her felt so much better than he had expected and he suddenly couldn't wait to tell his boyfriend. "I was waiting to tell him in person."
"I'm sure he'll be thrilled to hear it. Are you ready to go see him?" she asked, tilting her head towards a blue car parked a bit further ahead.
Gary's grin quickly faded into a concerned frown. "He's not still at the beach is he?" He better not have, but Tracey could be stubborn and it wouldn't surprise him in the slightest if he pushed through exhaustion to help.
"Tara says he's been resting," she assured him as she started towards the car. "Apparently he wanted to see you before going home."
Somewhat taken aback by this detail, Gary could only manage a surprised, "really?"
Professor Ivy only nodded and gestured for him to follow her. Tracey must have been so exhausted after doing so much work through the night, on top of dealing with the storm and mourning Scyther, but he was still here waiting to see him? His stomach did a funny little flip at that but he pushed it out of mind as he followed her.
"And everyone says I'm the stubborn one," he huffed, rather amused. He honestly would've done the exact same thing, so he couldn't exactly fault his boyfriend for that.
"Oh, I couldn't see you dating anyone who can't match your determination."
"That's a nice way of calling me stubborn," he retorted, flashing her a mischievous grin when she rolled her eyes good-naturedly.
"I said determination, and I said it for a reason. It takes a determined couple to make a secret relationship work, especially when they live in the same house as the people they're trying to keep it from… just like it takes a determined person to work all night to help trapped pokemon." She shot him a sly smile. "And just like it takes a determined person to come to a different region and stay with his boyfriend's family before he's even come out to his own. Brave, too."
Though he had been joking, Gary felt his face heat at that and he ducked his head in an attempt to hide it. She noticed of course, and leaned into him, laughing gently.
"Come on," she said, still sounding rather amused. "I hear Tara's been wanting to meet you. You'll like her."
Up ahead, a young woman with dark hair pulled back in a long braid had climbed out of the car and was leaning against it as she waited for them. She raised her hand and waved, flashing a grin that soothed any remaining nerves in an instant as she started towards them.
"I finally get to see what all the hype is about," she teased with a mischievous wink when she reached them. "Nice to finally meet you, Gary. Shame it's not better circumstances, but your pokemon definitely helped with that."
"I heard Trace had a pretty big part in that too," Gary returned easily.
Tara laughed and looked over at Professor Ivy, her grin turning cheeky. "Redirects praise onto his boyfriend, nice! No wonder you vouch for him, Philena!"
Gary only laughed as he followed the two women to the car. He liked Tara already – Tracey had told him he would ages ago.
They loaded Gary's bags into the trunk and Tara pulled out of the parking lot and onto the main road along the coast. There were piles of sand along the shoulder of the pavement, clearly pushed aside by machinery to cut a path for the cars. Some sections of road were still flooded and there was the occasional down tree, most with people working with chainsaws to break them down and clear more of the road. All in all, however, the island didn't seem to be in terrible shape. Despite Professor Ivy telling him that the strandings were the worst part of the storm and that Sunburst and the other islands were mostly okay, he had half expected to see more damage.
Tara chuckled when he voiced that particular thought. "You've never experienced a hurricane before, huh?" she asked with a glance in the rearview mirror. She sounded genuinely amused.
"Pallet only ever gets the remnants," Professor Ivy explained, "if they get anything at all. The storms are usually largely dissipated by the time they get that far north."
"Ah, true. I didn't think about that." Tara glanced in the rearview mirror back at Gary again and flashed him a quick smile. "We deal with these storms all the time," she said. "Everything's designed around them. The buildings are built to stand up to them, our houses and roads are elevated – except this one since it's on the coast – every window has shutters… It helps a lot when these storms roll in so fast. Everyone knows what to do and we all help out afterwards. People were out clearing the roads as soon as it was safe, people have been cleaning trash out of the harbor since yesterday. It looked a lot worse yesterday morning, trust me."
"Sunburst definitely took the brunt of it this time," Professor Ivy mused.
Tara nodded. "We did, but the storm wasn't that bad, to be honest. The winds weren't that strong and it blew past us so quickly that we really didn't get that much rain even. I mean, the yard was flooded in a few spots, but the water's mostly gone now. It was the tide and the waves that were the problem. Now we've got these dunes everywhere and the beaches are totally reshaped… We'll get it cleaned up, though," she continued brightly after a tiny pause. "We always do."
She spoke so casually about it, as though it was absolutely normal to have life upended and flipped around for several days at a time, which Gary supposed it probably was somewhat normal for them, if everything he'd heard so far was correct. It seemed like so much to deal with, yet the people they passed on the road still smiled and waved as they passed by, as though they were just on their usual morning errands, and not cleaning up after a massive storm. Was this just how people in Sunburst were? If so, then a lot of things about Tracey suddenly made a lot of sense.
He had a feeling he was going to like it here.
After a few minutes of chatting and filling them in on the rescue, Tara pulled into a rather full parking lot that was still half-flooded and stopped in front of a pathway that went into a strand of mangroves. "You guys go ahead," she said, shifting into park. "Dad and Josh are down on the beach and Tracey found a nice spot to rest with the pokemon. I need to pick up some more supplies from the rehab center, but I'll be back to help in a bit."
After a quick good-bye, Gary retrieved his backpack (full of water, snacks, and plenty of treats for his pokemon) from the trunk and he and Professor Ivy started down the pathway through the mangroves. There were broken branches on either side of them, with seaweed and other debris caught in the roots and branches. The path itself was sandy and it was only when they were halfway down it that he noticed it was actually a boardwalk. Apparently the storm really had dumped sand everywhere along the shore.
As they walked, Professor Ivy gave him a brief rundown of what was happening over the next several days. Nothing was set in stone, other than the start of the sharpedo project at Valencia. They expected a day or two for wrapping up the rescue and a day to complete any necropsies that came up. That would bring them right up to the day that Gary was supposed to originally head to Valencia, but it seemed the professor had already made up her mind on that. With Professor Birch arriving a few days earlier than originally planned, Gary's help leading up to the project wasn't quite as necessary.
"You stay here for a few days," Ivy told him firmly. "Try to enjoy yourself – this rescue won't take anywhere near as long as we expected, thanks to you and Tracey. We're doing the sharpedo dissection on Wednesday afternoon and I don't want to see you until that morning, alright?"
Gary couldn't help but grin at that. He couldn't possibly complain about an extra two days with his boyfriend. Minor nerves aside, rescues and necropsies aside, spending that time with Tracey in a place where the people around them knew they were together would be a welcome change of pace. "Sounds good to me," he agreed easily.
They broke through the other side of the mangroves and came to the beach. There were dozens of people milling about the sand, though many of them were centered around a table covered in food and a woman with a megaphone who seemed to be giving instructions to the volunteers. He could hardly see past them, though he could hear the lapras songs, quiet as they were, drifting from behind the large group. The fact that it was quiet songs he was hearing and not distressed wails was yet another nail in the coffin for his nerves. It was an excellent sign.
"I'm sure Tracey would love to spend that time with you," Ivy continued, shooting him a quick smile as she led him around the group of people. "Matthew says he's been so down."
"That's an understatement," a voice cut in.
Distracted by the sight of lapras after lapras lined up along the sand, Gary almost missed the sandy-haired teenager that had caught up to them. He recognized Tracey's brother in an instant and the nerves returned almost immediately, though he knew it wasn't necessary – Josh had been adamantly against the secret aspect of the relationship but Tracey said he had come around quickly and had been supportive ever since. Gary pushed the nerves away as the other teenager gave him a small smile and a nod in greeting that Gary returned.
"Hello, Josh," Professor Ivy greeted warmly. "Gary, Josh - Josh, Gary. I'm sure you two have already heard plenty about each other by now."
"Sure have," Josh replied, with a wry grin. "Tracey says you've been interested in the rescues. Ready to get your hands dirty?"
"I've been ready."
"Good." Josh turned and waved for them to follow him as he started towards the pokemon. "C'mon, you'll want to see this, Professor. What Tracey and Mom did is gonna change how we handle mass strandings from now on." Josh nodded to the first pool, which was connected to the ocean by a trench. Just off the shore was a single lapras, who looked a bit battered and was watching the shore worriedly, but otherwise seemed to be doing alright. "I can't believe we've never thought to have pokemon dig hospital pools for beached pokemon."
Gary was a bit surprised by that as well. It seemed so simple, but it sounded like this whole situation was quite unusual from what they typically encountered. He'd read about strandings in the past, but he hadn't read about mass lapras strandings before, at least not here, in the Orange Islands. Maybe this was the first time that something this bad had happened in the area. Good thing Tracey and Umbreon were so quick-thinking in that case. He couldn't help but be impressed – and proud – of his boyfriend and pokemon.
Beyond the empty pool a few pokemon could be seen digging from the shore towards the next lapras – a phanpy, wartortle, and what looked to be a linoone using Dig. Their progress was a bit slow but his pokemon could help with that, and it sounded like the most important part had already been completed by his boyfriend and the team he had sent him last night. A few water types were waiting nearby: a kingler and a seel. His own starmie and dewgong would join them soon enough. Gyarados was there as backup as well, but Gary was hesitant to use her. The last thing he wanted to do was add more stress to the lapras by scaring them.
"The biggest problem with a lapras being beached is all the weight resting on their bones and organs," Professor Ivy explained, pulling Gary's attention away from the pokemon on the beach. "They rely on buoyancy to support their shells, without the water–"
"The weight starts to crush them," Gary finished for her. He'd learned more than his fair share of information about lapras biology in helping her prepare for her lapras tagging project.
She nodded rather grimly. "A lot die from organ damage and internal bleeding once you get past twenty-four hours."
Josh led them a bit further down the beach where they paused near the empty pool. "A lot of these pokemon would be dying now if it wasn't for the pokemon digging the pools when they did. There's a few that Dad's still worried about, but this is something much better than what we thought we would be coming back to when we went home yesterday… Anyway," Josh shrugged his shoulders and gestured to a shady little alcove surrounded by palm trees, where Gary spied the blue dome of his starter's shell. "Tracey's with the pokemon back there. The sooner you wake him up, the sooner Tara can drag his stubborn ass home."
Professor Ivy chuckled and rested her hand on Gary's shoulder. "That would be your influence," she teased gently.
He narrowed his eyes, not quite able to hide his smile. "I thought you said I was determined."
She laughed again and gently pushed him towards the alcove. "Go see your boyfriend, Gary."
Unable to think of any reason to do anything other than exactly that, he grinned and headed over to the alcove, where he found Tracey sound asleep, his head resting against Arcanine's back with Marill and Venonat cuddled against his side. Umbreon was curled against his other side while Golduck and Blastoise rested in a sunbeam shining between the surrounding palms. His hair was a mess, cheeks still a bit pink from the night's work. Gary reached out and rested a hand against Tracey's cheek, which was still sticky with drying sweat. Even asleep he looked absolutely drained, but there was a peacefulness on his features that hadn't been there a few days earlier. Gary's smile softened at the sight and took a moment to savor it, to commit it to memory.
"Sleeping on the job, huh, Trace?" he asked, musing Tracey's hair. Tracey's eyes fluttered open and a tiny, sleepy smile curved his lips when his gaze focused on him and Gary returned it easily. "Mornin', Trace."
"Hey," Tracey murmured groggily, as he pushed himself into a sitting position. "It's so good to see you."
There was a brief moment of awkward quiet where Gary could see the conflict in Tracey's eyes, how he was resisting the urge to hug him, and Gary couldn't help but laugh softly. The important people around them knew about them, and they could definitely do better than that. "What sort of greeting is that?" he teased, grinning. "Are you my boyfriend or not?"
Realization flickered across Tracey's face and his sleepy smile morphed into a wide grin. "We're not in Pallet, huh?"
"No. We're not," Gary agreed calmly. He laughed again when Tracey threw his arms around him, hugging him tightly and burying his face against his shoulder for a moment.
Finally.
It had never felt so good to hug him and Gary wound his arms around him, a small laugh escaping him as he held him close and savored the moment for as long as they could.
"You're incredible, you know that?" he murmured, pressing a kiss to Tracey's cheek.
He felt Tracey shake his head against him. "Your pokemon are incredible," he corrected.
Always so modest. Gary shook his head, amused. "They wouldn't have worked with you if you weren't awesome," he countered.
"I missed you so much," Tracey whispered. He always changed the topic when faced with such bold praise but Gary resisted the urge to roll his eyes and instead hugged him tighter and rested his head against Tracey's.
"I missed you too," he admitted, once more savoring the closeness. He laughed a bit when he pulled away a moment later and looked Tracey over again. "You're a mess, Trace," he said, voice fond as he reached out to brush some sand off Tracey's cheek.
They were interrupted before Tracey could reply by a squeak and a small blue pokemon attempting to squeeze his way into their hug – suddenly all of his pokemon were waking up and gathering around them. Golduck and Blastoise were the calmest, waking just long enough to grumble their tired greetings before going right back to sleep, but Arcanine bolted to his feet when he saw him and it was all Gary could do to avoid being knocked over by Arcanine's enthusiastic greeting. Venonat somehow managed to squeeze her way into his arms with Marill and nuzzled against his shirt with a few quiet chirps while Arcanine snuffled his hair and covered his face in as many dog kisses as possible until a stern bark from Umbreon made him stop and sit.
Finally freed from that moment of chaos, Gary and Tracey could only laugh, something that threatened to send Arcanine right back into his excited frenzy. Umbreon took advantage of the returned quiet to settle against Gary's side and nuzzle his shoulder in a much calmer greeting than the other canine.
"You'd think he was away from you for a month," Tracey commented, voice amused as Gary stood and helped him to his feet.
"I think he knows it's a big deal for me to be here," Gary returned. He leaned in to press a quick kiss to his lips and brushed some of Tracy's hair out of his face with a smile. "Go home and get some sleep, Trace," he pressed gently, giving his hand a squeeze. "It sounds like we've got it under control now, thanks to you."
"Thanks to Umbreon," Tracey corrected through a yawn. "It was her idea, I just went along with it."
Gary smiled fondly at the jet pokemon leaning against his thigh and smoothed his hand over her long ears. "That's my smart girl," he murmured. She raised her head proudly and looked up at him, her tail wagging gently. He gave her another pet before looking back up at Tracey. "Alright, Trace, seriously. You've been working all night – go home and rest."
Tracey nodded, yawning again. "I know. Tara's gonna drag me home once she gets back, don't worry about me." He took a minute to recall the pokemon, though Umbreon stayed by Gary's side and fixed him with an unimpressed look until he lowered the pokeball with a tired shake of the head. "She's definitely your pokemon," he told Gary, his smile was fond but his exhaustion was showing through more and more the longer they stood on the beach.
Gary returned the smile but something caught his eye – something that sent an unexpected wave of excitement through him. He reached out and slipped his fingers through one of Tracey's belt loops, tugging lightly. "You have a full team," he observed, unable to keep the grin from curving his lips.
Sure, two-thirds of that team consisted of his pokemon, but that didn't change much. Seeing Tracey with a full team of pokemon sparked some little fire within him, a curiosity of what other pokemon his boyfriend would have for companions, what his training style would be, what sort of strategies he would use…
He was getting a little too excited a little too fast. There were more important things than fantasizing about his boyfriend as a pokemon trainer right now.
Tracey looked down at the pokeballs at his waist and smiled as well. "It's a little heavy on water-types," he observed.
That actually sounded rather fitting."You're working on a beach on a tropical island," Gary pointed out. "And it's actually pretty well-balanced. Golduck knows a bunch of psychic attacks and Marill's part fairy-type."
So what if he was getting overexcited? They had a few minutes before Tracey would be heading home, they could indulge this conversation for a little while.
But Tracey apparently had another idea. He looked further down the beach, past Gary's shoulder and waved to someone before grasping Gary's hand and tugging him away from their sheltered alcove. "C'mon, I want to introduce you to my dad!" he exclaimed, suddenly full of an excited energy that hadn't been there a moment earlier.
Tracey's father had joined Professor Ivy and Josh near the first pool and waved as they started their way over. Regardless of how curious he had been about Tracey's family and how much he had been wanting to meet the pokemon doctor, there was something that he had been looking forward to telling his boyfriend.
Realizing that he was losing his chance to tell him, Gary stopped walking and tugged Tracey's hand back. "Wait, Trace–"
Tracey gave his hand a gentle squeeze and flashed him a reassuring smile. "Don't be nervous," he assured him. "Dad and Tara will teach you everything, and Josh is harmless."
That wasn't the problem at all.
He laced their fingers together and returned Tracey's smile. "I'm not nervous, Tracey." He was, but it wasn't enough to be an issue. Not after meeting Tara and Josh, not after seeing the progress on the beach, and not after… "I told Darren and Adrian," he admitted, delighting in the surprise and disbelief that flickered across Tracey's face.
It was a moment before Tracey could speak. "Really?" he finally sputtered, eyes wide. "You told them?"
Gary nodded, biting his lip to keep his grin from growing too silly. Tracey sounded so excited and he couldn't hold back his grin anymore when the surprise on Tracey's face turned to pride. He was pulled into a sudden, tight hug and he laughed a bit, a sound of pure relief as he buried his face against Tracey's shoulder for a moment. It had felt so good – overwhelming and emotional in the best way – when he told him about telling Wyatt, but this felt so much better than even that.
"I'm so happy for you," Tracey exclaimed, squeezing him a bit tighter. "It went well?" he asked, a bit unnecessarily.
Gary nodded again as he pulled back from Tracey's shoulder. "You should've seen the look on Adrian's face. He was so surprised." He couldn't help but laugh at the memory. "Darren's known the entire time, apparently," he added, rolling his eyes.
"I had a feeling he knew," Tracey admitted, "but, Gary, that's amazing!" He pulled him into another hug and gave him a tight squeeze, drawing yet another laugh from him. "I'm so proud of you."
That touched something inside and, for a moment, all Gary could do was bury his face against Tracey's shoulder and breathe as his eyes burned. He took a deep breath and forced a tiny laugh that came out a little more choked than he would've liked. "Don't make me cry in front of your dad and brother the first time I'm meeting them," he said, still half-laughing though he was mortified at the very thought.
"No, don't cry," Tracey laughed gently and ran his fingers through Gary's hair, musing the messy strands as he gave him a moment to collect himself.
Somehow this all felt so incredible. There was such a swirl of emotions of all sorts: excitement to be here and to be meeting his boyfriend's family, the still-minor nerves over those very things, relief over the current lapras situation, and this genuine happiness over being able to finally tell Tracey that he had done it… It was almost too much but in the best way possible. All of the stress of the last few days was gone in an instant, replaced with this swirl of good feelings, with a sort of easy acceptance of whatever this trip could throw at him.
He could do this.
Gary blinked a few times, laughing again as he pulled away. "Okay, I'm good," he said, taking a deep breath.
"Ready?" Tracey asked, smiling that smile that always got to him.
The smile that always made Gary feel so seen and understood… and loved. Before he could fully think his actions through, he dipped his head and brushed his lips against Tracey's in a soft kiss, full of appreciation and love.
Tracey was quiet for a moment, his eyes a bit wide as he gaped at his boyfriend for the briefest of seconds. Finally he smiled again, chocolate eyes lighting so brightly as he teased, "Wow… In front of people and everything. You're being awfully bold."
Beneath the tease was no small amount of awe and pride, and Gary flashed him a confident grin. "We're not in Pallet, remember? Now, c'mon – weren't you gonna introduce us?"
"Alright, c'mon," Tracey said, taking his hand again and tilting his head towards the others with that excited smile back on his face. "Sorry," he called ahead of them, "Gary was just telling me some good news!"
"He's been looking forward to telling you," Professor Ivy called back. She inclined her head towards the pokemon doctor – who Gary recognized easily from the many video calls his grandfather had with him over the months of caring for Scyther – and said something quietly. He couldn't hear what was said but assumed Ivy was telling him the exact same thing he had told her and Tracey. Gary's assumption was quickly proven correct.
"Oh, that's great!" Doctor Sketchit exclaimed, giving Gary a smile that was so very much like one of Tracey's that the last remnants of his nerves dissipated on the spot. "Congratulations, Gary," he said warmly.
Gary hadn't expected a greeting quite like that but it immediately put him at ease, much the same way Tracey always did. He could tell why Professor Ivy liked working with him so much. "Thank you," he replied, beaming.
Between the gentle squeeze Tracey gave his hand and the smiles both the pokemon doctor and professor gave him, everything felt right - like he was in the right place, doing the right thing, and on the right path to a future that was right for him. All the worries about school and his future and telling his family – all the things that had been weighing so heavily on his mind for the last week or so – all suddenly felt so distant.
"Dad," Tracey started, still positively radiating excitement, "this is my boyfriend, Gary."
Gary's stomach flipped and twisted in a way that had absolutely nothing to do with nerves. Wow, did it feel good to hear himself introduced that way. It seemed Tracey felt similarly, if his broad smile and bright eyes were anything to go by. The introduction wasn't necessary in the slightest, but the doctor fixed his son with an indulgent smile as Tracey spoke. Next to him, Josh rolled his eyes good-naturedly, his smile amused.
"We're glad you could come, Gary," the doctor said, his gaze shifting to him, warm smile still in place. "Are you ready to get started?"
Gary reached for the pokeballs at his belt with a grin. "Ready!"
Before long, Tracey had left for some well-deserved rest at home while Gary's pokemon joined the others on the beach to pick up where Tracey and his mother and their teams had left off.
It hadn't exactly been easy to pick the pokemon for this trip - the ones who were best suited for the job were the ones he had sent to Tracey the evening before - but Houndoom, Sandslash, and Donphan helped dig trenches that connected the hospital pools to the shore. Starmie and Dewgong worked with other water types to fill the trenches with water and, one by one, the lapras were returned to the ocean. Josh and Professor Ivy spent most of their time with him – the professor using her own pokemon to help as well - while Tara and the pokemon doctor worked with the small handful of lapras that weren't as well off as most were.
There were a few injured laprases, and apparently an older one further down the beach that Tracey's father was especially concerned with, but even so, most were expected to recover. Most just needed some extra rest, fluids, and some minor first aid, and a few would go to the nearby rehab center to heal broken bones and larger lacerations, Professor Ivy had explained. He was able to help with a few of the injured ones, giving them some extra water, occasionally feeding one a berry or helping Tara or one of the nurses rub ointment onto wounds.
The work took a long time and the sun was positively brutal in its intensity as the day wore on. Breaks here and there helped keep the heat and exhaustion from becoming too much, and the occasional need to get in the water to gently lead a lapras toward the shore was a welcome cool down every time. With every lapras that was freed, Gary felt a bit of pride bloom within: it felt good to help pokemon in need, especially a species that had been a favorite since childhood, but just as good was the feeling of being able to be so open with the people around him. He spoke casually to the professor and to his boyfriend's siblings and the more they talked about him and Tracey, the better it felt – the better everything felt.
This was the right move. He was sure of it.
He had the very distinct feeling that things were going to be different after this, Somehow this was going to be a catalyst. Gary wasn't sure how or for what exactly, but this was where he needed to be right now.
The future would work itself out just fine, but for now, he was surrounded by people who accepted and supported him even when they barely knew him and he found himself deciding easily to just roll with it. It would be fine.
…
… … …
…
It felt as though no time had passed when Tracey's alarm woke him in the mid afternoon. If it hadn't been for him glancing at the clock when he'd dropped onto his bed in an exhausted heap, he would have been convinced that the alarm on his phone was set for entirely the wrong time and that he had only gotten an hour of sleep and not the five he had anticipated. He blinked at the afternoon sunlight pouring through the window and groaned tiredly.
Every part of his body ached and it felt as though he hadn't slept in a week. The last thing he felt like doing was dragging himself out of bed, but a hot shower was a necessity and he needed to straighten up his bedroom before Gary got to the house. And, as he quickly realized, he was going to need to change the sheets and covers on his bed as they were now covered in sand.
Tracey groaned again. That was what he got for not rinsing off when he got home. Oh well. There were worse things he could be dealing with right now.
He dragged himself out of bed and down the stairs from the large third floor room and took a long shower, savoring the hot water against his sore muscles. After taking his time replacing the sandy sheets and covers on the bed and helping his mother and Marie with a small, late lunch, he found himself antsy and anxious. He wasn't nervous, this was more on the excited side of anxious than genuine nerves. In spite of all the negativity – Scyther, the storm, the rescue, the lack of sleep – despite it all, nothing could diminish his excitement for his boyfriend being here.
Gary was at Sunburst.
He'd met his father and two of his siblings. He was staying for a few days. He was staying here, in his family's house.
Tracey's heart raced with anticipation every time he thought about it and, though he was certainly thrilled with this turn of events, he was restless nonetheless. Finally, after straightening up his side of the room for the third time, he decided to walk down to the beach to see how the rescue was going… and to see his boyfriend.
It wasn't a terribly long walk down to the shore where some of the lapras were stranded, but it wasn't a very short walk either. Still, he made his way down to the shoreside road and picked the first path through the mangroves that he saw. He had to crawl through a few tight spots where branches had been broken or debris had been lodged in his path, but he emerged on the beach a few minutes later with only a few minor scrapes. Umbreon made it through entirely unscathed, but it was a bit harder for Tracey with Marill on his shoulder and Venonat in his arms. He peered around the beach, trying to get an idea of exactly where they were in relation to the rescue team.
They were a long way down the shore from where he had seen Gary this morning, but it was only perhaps halfway down the line of stranded laprases. He wasn't sure what to expect when he stepped out of the mangroves, but an empty lapras pool wasn't it. Tracey had fully expected it to take a long time for them to make it this far down the beach, but he supposed they had been working for at least six hours to free the laprases from their little hospital pools. Plus there were a lot more pokemon today than they'd had yesterday. The fact that he and his mother had managed what they had was still, frankly, astounding. He didn't know how they managed, or how she was still going about much of her business as always, or how he was managing to make his way down the sandy beach when his limbs still felt so heavy with exhaustion. Either way, he passed by two more empty lapras pools before spotting the group of volunteers around another pool a bit further ahead.
Umbreon bounded ahead suddenly and Tracey quickened his pace with a grin when he spotted a familiar houndoom digging with an almost equally familiar donphan. Umbreon joined them without a single command and Tracey smiled at the way Houndoom paused in her digging to greet the other canid pokemon – the two dark canines were especially fond of each other. The trench was already halfway from the shore to the lapras, who looked rested and ready to be free – Tracey hoped all of them were that well off. It took Tracey a moment to spot his boyfriend in the team around the pokemon. He spied him soon enough though, kneeling beside the pool with his father and sister. It looked like his father was walking Gary through some sort of sample collection, though it wasn't until he came up beside the pool that he saw it was a blood draw. Gary's expression was one of absolute focus as the vial connected to the syringe slowly filled with dark crimson liquid and, focused as he was, he missed the pointed look Tara shot Tracey entirely.
"You should be resting," Tara scolded mildly as Gary and the pokemon doctor finished up the blood sample.
Tracey shrugged his shoulders and watched his boyfriend, mesmerized as he often was by that look of intent focus. He stayed quiet, waiting until Gary had passed the needle and vial off before speaking. "How different is it from taking samples from a sharpedo?" he asked, grinning at how quickly Gary's gaze snapped up from the pokemon to look at him. Unable to resist the urge to surprise him, he had hoped for that reaction.
Gary's eyes narrowed but that did nothing to hide the smile that had replaced that focus. "Sharpedoes don't have a blubber layer so this is definitely a lot harder," he explained. "But I don't have to worry about getting bit, so that's a plus."
"The better question is, why aren't you at home resting?"
Tracey shot Tara an exasperated glance. "Because my sleep schedule is already messed up and I don't need to make it any worse."
Gary accepted the response with an understanding nod but Tara sighed and shook her head, crossing her arms over her chest. It was their father who replied once he had finished labeling and setting the collected vial in the sample case. "You can help if you want, but please take it easy, Tracey," he said with a pointed look as he jotted down a few notes on his clipboard. "We don't need you overdoing it."
"I'll make sure he does," Gary assured him with a glance Tara's way.
This seemed to placate her. "You'd better," she replied with a smile as she passed Gary an alcohol wipe and a tube of ointment. "Same as the last one," she explained.
Gary nodded and pulled the wipe from its sterile packaging before wiping down the spot where the blood had been drawn from the lapras' front flipper. He added a dab of ointment and passed the wipe and tube back to Tara, who returned to the open field kit nearby. With one last gentle pat on the pokemon's side, Gary stood and met Tracey's eyes with a smile that told Tracey all he needed to know about how the day was going. He seemed to hesitate for the briefest of moments before grinning and slipping two fingers through one of Tracey's belt loops, tugging him closer and dipping his head for a quick kiss in the lips.
Briefly overcome by the sheer joy of being able to kiss his boyfriend in public, Tracey sighed and wrapped his arms around Gary. "I'm so glad you're here," he whispered.
"Me too," Gary returned. He pulled away from the embrace and grasped Tracey's hand, leading him around the side of the lapras. "Check it out," he said, gesturing to two separate lapras groups out in the water. One was a little bit further down from them, in front of the next two stranded pokemon, and the other was quite a bit more distant, further offshore and closer to where the first several had been stranded. "We've managed to free ten so far. There's two back there that'll go to the rehab center, but most of them so far have been in pretty good shape."
Tracey's eyes swept over the sea, taking in the pokemon he could see in the distance. This was such a better outcome than he could have imagined when he had first heard about how bad the stranding was. He was suddenly struck by just how lucky they were to have it turn out like this – even with the amount of volunteers they had today, even with trainers coming from other parts of the archipelago, even with Professor Ivy and Gary helping out today, even with his mother's pokemon helping the night before… Today's situation would have been far more somber than it was if Gary hadn't sent him his pokemon when he had.
Gary's fingers slid between his and squeezed lightly. "Professor Ivy thinks only about half of those would've survived if it wasn't for the pools," he said softly. He gave a soft laugh and flashed Tracey a proud grin that made his cheeks burn. "Your dad's so proud of you. He won't stop talking about you and your mom working all night."
That was one of the few things he could have said to make his cheeks burn even hotter. Tracey looked away from Gary and instead watched the pokemon as they worked on finishing up the trench they were digging. "We couldn't have done it without your pokemon," he replied, giving Gary's hand a quick squeeze in thanks.
The squeeze Gary gave his hand next was harder, more playful, and Tracey immediately squeezed back. "I guess it's a good thing you came home when you did then, huh?"
"I guess so…"
They fell quiet as the pokemon connected the trench to the pool and the water-types stepped up to fill it while Houndoom, Umbreon, and Donphan rested in the sand. A little further away, a similar scene was unfolding with the next two laprases on the beach. In no time the eleventh lapras was released into the sea, soon enough followed by the twelfth and the thirteenth.
Tracey stayed and helped, much to the chagrin of his siblings, who seemed quite intent on him resting and recovering. He wasn't sure how to explain to them how very much he needed this – to work side-by-side with not just his boyfriend, but his father and his siblings. It wasn't just about spending time with his boyfriend or helping the pokemon: it was about being there to see his boyfriend work with his family and learn how to do the rescues that were such a big part of his family. He'd missed a lot during his time resting at home, but it still warmed his heart every time he saw Gary and Josh conversing like old friends, every time he saw Tara give Gary an easy grin or nod of approval, every time his father took the time to show Gary how to take a different type of sample. He'd thought Gary would like his family and now that Gary was actually here and working with them, he couldn't be happier.
There were still three laprases on the beach when they headed home for the evening. Two of them were the two Gary had mentioned earlier, who were both injured and would be taken to the rehab center as soon as the transportation was figured out, while the third was one of the last ones to have a pool dug for it. It was an older lapras that had been injured in the storm and Tracey had been worried about it last night when he and his mother had been digging the pools. One of the nurses from his father's office had stayed with it most of the night in an attempt to improve its condition but even with a team of volunteers and nurses working on it throughout the day, there were doubts that it would make it. There wasn't anything Tracey or Gary could help with and Tara and Josh couldn't do much either. Though Tracey hated to leave, there was a team of nurses who would do everything they could to help the injured pokemon and his exhaustion was starting to weigh far too heavily for him to do anything more to help.
Though he had been looking forward to dinner at home – food prep was always a family affair between picking food from the garden and cooking together in the large kitchen, and he couldn't wait to involve Gary in that – one of the local restaurants had set up a large grill on the beach near where they had started and was making burgers for everyone who had helped with the rescue. While his father finished up with a few of the nurses and Professor Ivy, Tracey grabbed a plate and a soda for himself and Gary and found a spot in the sand for them to sit with Tara and Josh. The conversation turned from pokemon and the rescue to surfing, with Tara enthusiastically listing off some of the best places on the island and Josh chiming in about the snorkeling in some of those spots. Hopefully they would get a chance to go to a few of those spots before Gary had to leave for Valencia.
Marie joined them a short while later and, just like with Tara and Josh, she and Gary were soon enough conversing as though they had known each other for years. Tracey watched with a fond smile as she excitedly asked question after question about his pokemon while he indulged her curiosity and answered each one with a smile and a level of patience Tracey didn't often see from him. It was a different side to his boyfriend, one that was quite rare to see – he had seen it pop up with Wyatt a few times in the lab, usually when Gary was teaching him how to work with a new type of pokemon. It warmed him from the inside out, seeing that side of Gary come out with his younger sister.
Still, a bit of relief came over him when his mother joined them, bringing an end to Marie's string of questions. His mother always had such a quiet, soothing energy about her and though he hadn't seen many signs of nervousness in his boyfriend all day, he caught the tiniest flicker of something in Gary's eyes when she introduced herself, but it quickly disappeared when she gave him one of her kind smiles. Soon enough, his father joined them and the whole family was together as though it was a perfectly normal day and as though Gary had always been part of the group.
Sitting with Gary's hand openly grasped within his own, sharing laughs and the occasional quick kiss on the cheek, Tracey could almost cry with the sheer relief and joy of his boyfriend being so easily accepted into the fold. It was as close to perfect as it could get with there still being pokemon needing medical care but, with other people in charge of that situation, Tracey let himself relax and rested his head against Gary's shoulder, simply taking in the moment and enjoying it.
One day they would be able to do this in Pallet and it seemed as though that day was getting closer and closer.
He couldn't wait.
…
… … …
…
