Helpless

by Epoxy-Resin

The disabled population is the world's largest minority of which anyone can become a part of at any time. "Peekaboo," said misfortune and jumped the already weakened boy. Ash wouldn't be Ash if he didn't try to get up again, though he's going to have to face he won't be able to do it on his own.

43. Here We Go Again

A little too late to update, sorry about that.

---

Oh, it's all going just fine, though these people… they're very loud. And tall, Ash feels incredibly small and with Cynthia being the main centre piece in this house, he's currently staring at backs belonging to people who know him but aren't interested in talking to him right now. It's not ideal but no, he's not jealous of all the attention Cynthia is getting, in fact, if he could get away with it and had something to entertain her with, he would kidnap her. But instead, she always worries about him and with his hand still bandaged -even though his recovery is going just fine- her attention would be going towards that and he doesn't want to explain what kind of a dumbass he was that day again. Saying it once was bad enough and while Cynthia would likely not be making fun of him, Ash doesn't need her pity, he's almost healed too! And his thumb, thanks to the support, is just fine to knit. And yes, he went upstairs but smiles as he's just gotten another commission through the 'Smile' app, though ends up stunned by the request, he needs to do some research to see if that's actually a real thing.

The teen is absolutely baffled when he finds out that, yes, a lot of Eeveelutions have these kinds of issues when they evolve in any other variant than the three base ones, namely Vaporeon, Jolteon and Flareon. It's got something to do with their mane missing, which they've grown used to as an Eevee so now the commission is based around the fact that the trainer of an Umbreon has issues as their pokémon misses their mane and thus, starts having some health issues due to a declined happiness and doesn't eat a lot any longer. Ash scratches his head, he really needs to know the sizes of the Umbreon's head and neck to make sure it'll fit the pokémon perfectly. He makes a little drawing of an Umbreon head and puts some lines around the zones he needs measurements of but he's still not really sure whether he can make a mane.

An idea pops into his head, he remembers seeing how doll restorers make hair by brushing out wool so he goes ahead and finds this lovely silvery black yarn. But even when he has a couple strands of wonderfully fluffy hair, he's at a loss on what to do with them so now Ash sits at his bed, surrounded by wool… and then, his bedroom door opens.

"Oh, you are perfectly on time," Ash says, with a big smile as Anabel's Espeon trails inside of his room.

The pokémon closes the door behind her with a very habitual-looking move of her back leg so it's clear that Anabel isn't following but that's perfectly fine.

"Did it get a bit too loud downstairs?" he asks, though the pokémon doesn't answer, she just jumps on his bed and lovingly bumps her head into his waiting hand.

She does go to sniff at the yarn and an idea pops up in his head.

"Hey, would you like to have a mane again?"

The pokémon just seems to stare at him but her two tail-ends make this odd curl movement and something inside his heart goes 'awww' so that's that, then. He's got his model, Espeon eagerly chooses her yarn, which will be the colour of her mane and hah, he's ready to start. He's got his measurements right in front of him and while it does take him two hours to make the mane, Espeon seems so happy to have it. She chooses to have it tied around her with a lovely purple bow that matches her fur and mane and she looks utterly adorable. Ash snaps a quick picture of her, to save for himself and then the pokémon totters off, likely going to show off her new mane.

But now the trainer who contacted him for the mane for their Umbreon has already replied with the measurements and his address. Ash has got to laugh, this trainer lives two streets away from here, next to the house of the young man, Bobby, who is going to fix Lance's watch. Ash has very little hope that he'll be able to hand Lance his gift by Christmas, he's not gotten a message from the man but hey, so be it. He's not going to tell someone who is doing a good job to do it quicker and possibly mess it up. Now, the watch was already messed up quite a bit but still…

No one comes into his room during the other two hours he's busy making the mane and he did tell the trainer he would come to deliver it himself since he lived close to him. The trainer agrees with that all too willingly, after all, that means no shipping. Ash smiles as he gives the mane a final shake but then jumps, his phone suddenly starts ringing and it's Bobby! He came through and restored the watch, just in time for Christmas. As sad as it is that he could have left without anyone spotting him, since they're all gushing about the babies Cynthia is expecting -all while she looks like she wants to be swallowed by the couch- he still told Steven he was going out for a bit and the man absolutely refused to let him go out alone so yeah, that poor trainer is going to get the surprise of a lifetime since Ash won't let Steven be left outside in the snow either.

The kid looks at him like he's Santa Claus himself, he didn't count on being recognised and hah, Steven is almost smothered by the boy's mother, she's a big fan of his. But the little Umbreon is Ash's main point of concern, it looks at him with such big eyes as he puts the mane around the pokémon's neck and over its ears. Ash didn't put a bow on this since the trainer didn't specify that he wanted it so it's just a system with tiny hooks that hides perfectly behind the fur but as soon as he's done, the pokémon does a binkie and perks up instantly. It zooms to the mirror in the hall and then zooms back to its trainer, tongue hanging from its mouth with the most adorable, dorky expression on the pokémon's face. The trainer is absolutely elated, though Ash refuses payment, telling the kid that he can consider it a present. After all, it's Christmas Eve today and the pokémon really did have a medical issue, it comes as a shock to Ash that this is something that exists but also that he managed to help and he's still befuddled that a pokémon could be so depressed after evolving.

"Let's go home now," Steven says but Ash shakes his head.

"Nope, one last detour."

"Huh?"

The teen just grins as he goes to the nice-looking store that looks horribly closed and rings the bell.

"H-hey, they're closed, kiddo-"

Ash didn't have the time to correct Steven, Bobby opened the door almost instantly, grinning like mad. And his smile only becomes bigger when he sees Steven.

"Come in, come in!" the man says merrily. "It's far too cold and snowy to be standing on ceremony."

Steven looks amazed as he's led through the store but as Ash turns to look at him in amusement, something catches his eye and he halts.

"Sir?"

"Call me Bobby, Ash, you're making me feel old," the young man chuckles but retraces his steps since he had walked ahead of him. "How can I help you?"

"Is this by any chance a pregnancy bell?" the teen asks as he points at the item that caught his eye just now.

"Hm? Oh yes, my father is a goldsmith. He made this a few years ago, shortly after he told me about the legendary birds and how he got inspired by them."

"Can I please buy this?"

"Of course, let me just get it out of the cabinet for you," Bobby says and ever so carefully gets the item off the velvet cushion. "Here, you go."

Ash accepts the bell on the very long chain and smiles, he can definitely see all three legendary birds pretty damn clearly, even though they're merely engraved in it.

"Why the legendary birds, though?" Steven asks but then backtracks pretty quickly, putting up his hands in surrender. "I'm sorry if that was rude, I didn't want to make an assumption."

"It's quite alright, my father is Kantonese and has seen the legendary birds while he visited family in Kanto. It was very weird weather that day too, it must have been four or five years ago but anyway, I was studying abroad so I wasn't there to see it unfortunately. But ever since, my father has been obsessed with them, his entire collection was about them and everything sold quite quickly except for this piece."

"Well, I like it and the lady I want to gift it to is expecting three babies so it seems fitting to have the bell depicting a legendary trio."

"Absolutely! Let me get this wrapped up for you. I've already put your other order in a box."

Steven does his best to see what's in the other box but Ash did make it very clear to Bobby that this was supposed to be a surprise and while he didn't expect the man to wrap it as a present already, it sure is handy. He can't help but smile as he walks out with his gifts but something seems to be bothering Steven.

"I thought you said you would be passing up on the gift-giving this year?"

"Well yeah but it's not really Christmas gifts if I could've given them any day, right? It's all about timing and I hadn't seen that pregnancy bell before, it was just too good of an opportunity to let go."

"Oh, I don't care for the bell, she'll be delighted with it, I know. But Lance has been… well, spicy. I sure do hope you didn't buy him a new watch because he'll spit fire."

"I'd like to see it," Ash chuckles, even though he didn't even think of buying his uncle a new watch.

Those brands go up to hundreds of thousands pokédollars, if not more!

"No, for real, Ash, you better not have. He's been blaming me for throwing the trash bag away the following morning, told me that he lost it forever now even though taking out the trash is part of my chores!"

The boy just shakes his head and Steven sighs.

"I'm sorry, I shouldn't have said that. If you haven't noticed that Lance hasn't been behaving like himself, I'm sure he never wanted you to get caught up in it. And he went out of his way to tell everyone to bar them from buying him a watch so if he sees you bought one… I don't know what he'll do.."

"Steven, calm down. It'll be fine."

"I worry, you know?"

"Oh, I know you do. But you really shouldn't. I'm not a bad person, otherwise I wouldn't have made a mane for a depressed pokémon. Have a bit of faith in me, I would never try to hurt my uncle."

Steven sighs very deeply but doesn't mention the watch thing again. Anyway, no one noticed they were gone, other than Wallace but he was told they'd pop out for a bit beforehand so he was aware of it. Ash goes back upstairs to get his phone as he might as well keep himself busy downstairs, in case anyone wants to talk to him. He also manages to sneak Cynthia's gift into the small pile that was forming after he went and wrapped it with the paper he printed the story of the legendary birds on because there's a small chance she might not know the entire story since Cynthia mainly focusses around the legendary pokémon in Sinnoh. Which is her good right too, that region has plenty of wonderful pokémon, legendary or not.

But Lance's gift is hidden in his room, Steven's reaction doesn't sit well with him at all and he wouldn't put it beyond anyone here to take the gift out of the pile just because they're worried about what might happen. Ash isn't dumb either, though, he can't believe neither Wallace nor Steven thought he wouldn't have caught up on the fact Lance felt so bad that the watch got broken. And how on earth would he buy another one, it's a luxury piece and he didn't go anywhere other than the supermarket and even if he did, someone would be there with him. If it wasn't for Bobby coming here when Wallace and Steven went out for a bit and Lance being heavily asleep on the couch, Ash could never have organised the surprise and all the other communication they had was through messages sent from his phone. Also, he's got some spending money but his uncle is very frugal and he's got a lot of horror stories of people overspending to tell so the idea to spend so much money on something Lance might not even like never even occurred to Ash. They've got quite different tastes too and he's got to admit that he hasn't looked at his uncle's watch too often to know what it actually looked like.

Bobby is an expert on these things, he even put a warranty certificate in the box to make sure that the value didn't get affected as the man is a licensed repairer. That's something that flew completely past him, Ash has no idea how to handle something like an heirloom. All he cared about, was that his uncle lost something precious to him and Bobby saw that he meant it when he said he did this just solely for Lance, that if it could be repaired, it would be a way better choice than buying a new one and the man had agreed with him. So for anyone to tell him that he may have done something stupid as Ash didn't want to spoil the surprise for anyone and thus, didn't say anything about it to anyone, is just plain out cruel. Ash cares about his uncle but he cares a lot less about assumptions. So while he initially wanted to gift his uncle his repaired watch back in front of everyone, he'll try and surprise Lance when he gets him alone. This will be a challenge, all the bedrooms are prepared for their guests and not all of them have arrived.

Apparently, Lorelei got a little jealous of Cynthia and got herself a boyfriend and now Ash has the delight of hearing all the tattle-tales of the pokémon league spin tales right in front of him. Now he's curious to meet the man who apparently isn't the sharpest tool in the shed. In fact, Karen all too willingly says that, instead of a sharp tool, the man is more of a spoon, a blunt one at that. That he didn't want to go to church with the ones who'd go tomorrow because he assumed it would be closed, like all the stores. She also said that when Agatha asked him who he thought was born on Christmas day, he looked at her weirdly and Ash stifles a chuckle when Agatha confirms the man eventually answered 'the Grinch' in response to her question. At least this isn't just a funny tale, if he really said this, Ash thinks this man is going to be great fun. Maybe they'll stop talking about Cynthia's kids as if they're already born if Lorelei's boyfriend keeps being funny like that.

In the end, Ash just decides to grab himself some dinner from the fridge and retreats to his room. They're likely going to start drinking again and he doesn't want to be there to deal with that. Not like last year's party, where Lucian ended up waving his freak flag just that tiny bit too hard and ended up in bed on the second day of Christmas. Anyhow, he's been told that there's this movie out and his friends who already saw it all tell him it's a good one so he'll go and watch it and then go to bed at a reasonable hour. And really, if he's lucky, he might actually wake up on time so that he can go and surprise his uncle with his gift first thing in the morning.

---

The teen wakes up at his usual hour but if anything, it's the silence ruling the house that makes him feel like he's the only one awake. Which is odd, wasn't the caterer supposed to bring food in because Lance doesn't want to cook for that many people? It's a good thing Ash is awake to receive it, though he frowns at the amount of food and heck, there's a kit to make mochi, or rather, there's seven. Was this meant as a dessert or something? Lance didn't say a thing to him about the menu so the boy has no idea whether or not this was part of his order but, sheesh, there's no way his uncle would be making mochi, the man doesn't have that kind of patience to make these sticky treats, Ash barely has. But he would rather have everyone get a good night's sleep than need to rush to get ready.

With the food in the fridge, Ash turns his attention to the mochi-making kits and honestly, there's a good hint at why his uncle bought these. The price of these things doesn't justify the 'DIY' part of the kit and sure, the gadgets are good quality but Lance likely figured he was just buying expensive mochi. But it's got a hair net, a mask and some gloves included in the set so Ash chases all the pokémon out of the kitchen with some food, to avoid hairs and whatnot contaminating the mochi, wipes the table, decks himself with the gear and starts making the mochi. It's a smooth process, the ingredients are high quality as well and when it works like a treat, it's a very calming process. His pokémon occasionally scratch at the door to get in but Pikachu, who was promised some ketchup as a reward, keeps them from entering the kitchen.

Just as Ash wipes the table again as he's finished making the mochi and puts them safely in their display box to go into the fridge, the door handle is pulled downwards so that couldn't possibly be a pokémon opening the door. And he's right, it's Cynthia but she's looking a little green so that's not good.

"Good morning," he says. "Can I get you some tea?"

"Yes, please," she croaks. "I'm a little queasy."

Ash just nods but doubts whether this has anything to do with her pregnancy. People getting on her ass about her kids and scaring the shit out of her with unsolicited advice all while Cynthia was ready to run for the hills as soon as she found out she was pregnant, has just given her anxiety. Just some green tea and a bit of yuzu marmalade dissolved in it should at least give her a bit of comfort and heck if Ash is going to say one word about her future. Just because she's going to be a mother, doesn't mean he needs to forget everything else she already is, right?

"Will you at least tell me the truth of what was decided in that meeting that called every trainer out of Kalos?" he asks, as he hands her the cup of nice, warm tea.

"Hasn't Lance said anything to you?"

"I've not had the time to ask him but I doubt he'll tell me the full truth. Steven and Wallace also don't help because they bother my uncle with their worrying about me to which he starts to worry if they say anything through their worrying and honestly, he just ends up not saying anything and then I start to worry because we know where shutting up ended up getting him in, huh?"

Cynthia giggles, already looking a lot less green.

"Mr. Goodshow is still very upset with Diantha's lack of professionalism. But we still know her a bit better than he does so you can imagine it came to a surprise to all of us when he said he was going to take over the pokémon league in Kalos. There was a lot of name-calling involved and it only made Mr. Goodshow even more upset and several people have found themselves suspended for at least this year because of what they said to him."

"Steven sure as heck wouldn't have said anything, right?"

"He didn't, he's one amongst the ones who got out of it without being suspended, like Lance and me but Wallace sure is. He can be particularly vicious and well, he and Diantha were on good terms with each other and he's known to be very loyal to his all friends. And he ended up leaving very angry, Steven trailed after him but came back shortly, looking utterly defeated. If Lance hadn't taken him home with him, I'm not sure whether he would have been okay, though I have no idea what they had a fall-out about since I know for a fact Wallace wouldn't be himself if he was ever mean to Steven."

"How about being a massive idiot?" Ash suggests, still bothered by the memory of that incident. "If anything, when I came here, Steven was upset because Wallace bought a boat to sail to Hoenn to go and get his skincare."

Cynthia laughs at that.

"Oh dear, that would have done the trick, alright. I hope they didn't work it out on anyone else but themselves?"

"Not really, especially Steven shut up instantly whenever he knew I was there. But he was very upset, I wished he would've come to Kalos with me so that he could have at least avoided needing to be confronted with one of Wallace's bad sides."

"This situation was less than ideal, a travel restriction while all of us were called to one region even less so but Mr. Goodshow only had our security in mind while making that decision. Perhaps he had a good reason to shield us from harm but I do wish he would have at least told us what had happened or what would have happened because now it just seems silly to have gotten all of us stuck somewhere unwillingly, while nothing happened," she says and shrugs. "I mean, I would have avoided going to Kalos anyway but to not even be able to go home… I don't know, his reaction seemed a little farfetched to me, still does now as well."

"I'm not sure, I'm not a hundred percent aware of what happened exactly but what I do know, is that it all started before professor Sycamore got suspended for acting out of line towards me. See, he gave me a Mega stone and he did really make it seem as if someone was out to get the trainers with these Mega stones but told me he had full faith in me being able to keep them safe. But then his behaviour towards me made a one-eight turn for the worst and Diantha suspended him shortly after I told my uncle what happened. And while I have every reason to be upset, the professor's suspension gave someone the opportunity to snoop around. And I'm not sure what this person found but shortly after, a man called Lyssandre appeared in Shalour City, apparently interested in Aura. Considering the electric door of my room in the pokémon centre refused to open, I never got to meet him and if that wasn't the worst, it was raining buckets so the entire festivities planned to welcome their guest got ruined and Lyssandre never showed up because of that rain. But from then on, this man seemed to have been following me," Ash says and he still gets the creeps just talking about it. "I remembered that my uncle told me to stay away from Lyssandre so that's what I did but I felt worse and worse about Kalos as a whole, I mean, you found me at my worst, I thought… well, I don't know what I thought but all I could think off, was that I would be losing someone dear to me. And that feeling grew worse and worse until, all of a sudden, my friend, Clemont, told me that he needed to pass on a message from Diantha which was just her saying that I was wrong, that the pokémon I heard talking to me wasn't there. Only for me to see Lyssandre again, at the same time but when I went to take a nap, I didn't feel anything at all. I was so confused, I had the best day ever in Anistar City but then, the next day, I was ordered to go home."

"… If what you say is true… Well, the timing seems too perfect for it not to be true, because Mr. Goodshow acted out towards Diantha straight after she brought in this report of a security investigation where he found so many mistakes and missing parts that he went and did what he did. But what do you think her purpose was, then? Surely she wouldn't benefit from you being captured, would she?"

" Well, I dunno but I think… She would if she wanted to trade me off in a deal when it would give her a chance to have her son back, right?"

"That's so evil," Cynthia says and she's got a fitting expression of disgust on her face. "Oh, Ash, that's so bad."

"Is that perhaps why Mr. Goodshow acted out of sorts? You think he knows?"

"Highly likely, I will talk to him as soon as I see him again, this is horrible, Ash. Not to mention how you must have experienced all this, oh no, and I responded so badly to- oh, I'm so sorry, sweetheart!"

"Please don't feel that way, I wasn't at my best either and it's not like you were mean to me. I know you, Cynthia, there's nothing you can do or say to me that could make me see you in a different light, I do really, really like you."

"Oh, come here and give me a hug!"

Ash all too willingly slides off his chair to go and hug her. She's so easy to talk to and honestly, he would tell her all of his secrets if only he could get her to calm down all the time. Now if the rest of these people still resting so peacefully upstairs would mind their manners a little around her, that would be awesome but then again, adults always have this childish remnant left in them and with Lorelei, it's her jealous streak while with Lance, it's possessiveness. Steven just panics real quickly and Wallace just goes like 'fuck it, we ball' whenever he's pushed far enough. As far as Ash has noticed, his godmother is superstitious but he's not seen Karen or Will often enough to know anything about their particular trait that reminds him of all the kids he disliked so much because they all liked Gary more than him and ended up bullying him but still, it usually doesn't take long for something to show. Which doesn't mean anything to him, he's not perfect either, far from it, he's like, thirteen issues in a trench coat and quick to anger but he knows when he takes it too far.

These people… they don't often realise just how badly their behaviour affects people, Ash will never forget how Lorelei plain out expressed her jealousy over his situation but only focussed on the pokémon who came to help him deal with his issues, not the issues he suffered from. And sure, Agatha could tell him that jealousy is a sin but because Lorelei made no effort to know the entire situation, just focussed on what interested her, it just becomes childish to him instead. However, Cynthia holds him so close and she's so warm, that he quickly decides that he'll make an effort to keep her happy. After all, it's not beyond him to tell anyone to shut up but he's got to be careful, these people all have such long toes, it's far easy to step on them and the last thing Ash wants, is to mess up his uncle's party.

"Are you looking forward to today?" Cynthia asks and Ash blinks.

"Hm? Should I be?"

"I brought you a gift for Christmas too."

"Oh, right! Last year, it was just Clair, Lance and myself at Christmas, we gave gifts to each other as well, I nearly forgot that it was today we'd be opening them," Ash chuckles. "I honestly thought you were talking about the food, that also looks pretty amazing."

"I'm glad, I hope Lance ordered something traditional, it's been a while since he found the courage to order something from the traditional Johto kitchen."

"Honestly, it looked very Kantonese to me but the two regions are really close to each other so it might just be the same."

"What do you mean? Did you… Is Lance not awake yet?"

"No one is, except for you and me."

"No, surely not!?"

"I mean, if you don't believe me, go and check upstairs."

"I believe you but oh, heavens, some of them are meant to go to church, I've got to wake them up."

Ash watches her storm out of the kitchen and he can only smile at her dutifulness. She'll make a good mother, thinking of others, she just needs to care a little less about what other people tell her and well, he'll definitely tell his godmother to stop preaching about 'children' to Cynthia when she doesn't have a family and barely escaped getting together with a clown. What does she know about giving birth, huh? Ash already knows more than her because his phone has been spying on him and all the conversations and now his entire for-you page is filled with ladies giving birth. And yeah, he watched a couple of these videos and his respect for women only grew. However, he's got his entertainment seeing a couple of people trying to eat while getting ready and his poor godmother is getting far too old for this tradition but her superstition chases her and a couple others out the door, to go sit in a cold, draughty old building. It might not be snowing right now but it's damn cold outside, far too cold to be sitting still so nah, he's okay with being pagan in his godmother's eyes.

It's quite a sight to see his uncle zoom down the stairs, he looks all worried and startled but comes over to him straight away and kisses him on the forehead.

"Thank god, you were awake to receive the food," the man sighs, he sounds more than a little relieved and Ash just smiles.

"Good morning, uncle."

"Yeah, yeah, it wouldn't have been a good one without you. Oh, sheesh, why do I keep oversleeping all the time?"

"Because you're tired and went to bed at two o'clock at night," the teen answers, sitting way too comfortably on the couch with all his pokémon nestled around them, not passing up on the occasion for a cuddle or a nap. "But more importantly, did you sleep well?"

"Like a baby," Lance answers. "The awakening a little less so but well, better now than much later. But now Will's not feeling great."

"What's wrong with him?"

"As you'll likely already know, every ability has some sort of drawback, whether it is used or not and Will get these horrible headaches every couple of weeks. It's bad, this time around so please, try to keep your pokémon as calm as possible, he's about to come down any time now."

Ash looks down at his pokémon, who are currently all asleep so that's about as calm as they come but well, he's not going to ignore his uncle's warning. He hates having headaches himself and ugh, this sounds like something Agatha will have been telling everyone because no, not all abilities have a drawback, that's not how that works and it's not logical either. Will likely just has issues because he keeps overusing his ability, just like feet will hurt after having stood on them for a far too long time or how arms will hurt after carrying something really heavy. Ash has issues completely separate from his abilities, sure, his foresight doesn't help but none of his abilities cause his issues, they just make it a little worse. He's willing to bet Anabel needed help with her empathy affecting her too badly because of the emotionally stunted people around her and while Brandon isn't exactly a role model since he's a very grumpy man, at least he's not above telling people to fuck off. All she needed was to get a grip on herself first and then to find a balance between dealing with people and her ability at the same time.

But he remembers Lucian telling him Will was free to use his ability in the pokémon league so the man must've told everyone about it or at least given a hint of what he was doing. Something about that doesn't sit well with Ash, though, to people, this would be an invasion of privacy and that's the only thing that could get psychics in trouble. And someone like Mr. Goodshow wouldn't allow anyone to take offence to someone of the elite four, of any region, really. So does Mr. Goodshow just tell everyone to deal with it because Will would see trouble coming from a mile away? Is that why he's allowed to freely use his ability anywhere, exclusively in the pokémon league buildings? It would explain why his uncle feels pity for the young man, Lance isn't… well, compassionate isn't the exact word but Ash knows that his uncle has a complicated relationship with the pokémon league so it makes very little sense for him to feel this way about someone who represents one of his issues unless it just makes sense to Lance. With the man having been in charge of the security during large events inside of the pokémon league, Ash can't help but think Will, or at least his psychic ability was used, sort of like a pokémon.

So when the young man crawls down the stairs, clearly in pain, Ash barely pays attention and focuses on his pokémon instead. Meep doesn't like strangers all that much and with his incubator firmly set on his lap, the pokémon likes strangers even less and will bare her teeth at anyone who comes too close. Her mother instinct is ready to get her into trouble and while Ash understands, he would rather avoid her nipping at anyone but heck he won't leave his incubator alone, not when the egg is about to hatch. Ash already wants to go back upstairs too, if his egg hatches, he won't be able to stop the young pokémon from being calm and he also doesn't want to celebrate Christmas in full silence either.

'Shall I block his abilities or will you do the honours?'

''I don't know if that's a good idea, though, Mewmew. What if he panics?'

'Do you wish for me to come stand in front of you and show you how little I care about that?'

'No, no, but he's had this ability for his entire life, I mean, I get that he ought to be grateful for the fact that blocking his abilities will get rid of his headaches but this might be very weird to him.'

'It does not take so much effort to be ordinary, I assure you,' the pokémon answers dryly. 'And please get rid of the notion that I am doing this for him.'

Ash hesitates for a bit but while he's not the boss over whatever Mewtwo does, they could pin it on him. Nevertheless, he can play it off as being concerned so he gives his legendary friend the green light and it's a relief to see Will just fall asleep instead of jumping up, all panicked. Maybe this young man just suffered from headaches the whole night and didn't sleep… yes, perhaps this was a good idea, after all. Even if he's got to be silent for a little longer now, Christmas won't need to be celebrated in silence so at least he's got that to look forward to.

---

Has anyone ever seen a cat-type pokémon jump away from a banana? Because that's sort of what Will acts like as soon as he wakes up, no one can stop him and it's funny because Ash wanted nothing to do with this whole situation because this had every possibility to turn into a hot potato but still, Will sags into the seat right next to him, burying his head in his hands and generally acting as if the world just ended.

"What's your damage, then?" he asks, playing ignorant because well, just because Will's having issues, doesn't necessarily mean he needs to suffer too.

"This can't be true… I think I lost my ability."

"Is that such an issue?"

"But the pokémon league depends on me," Will utters.

"Does it, though?" Ash asks, barely able to keep himself from raising his lip in disgust.

"What use am I if I can't at least warn them of danger?"

"Use? Is that all you think you're worth? You do know pokémon have more rights than you then, don't you?"

"You're seeing this wrong, it's what I owe them."

"Am I really seeing this the wrong way? So you don't realise you're doing this for that sweet, sweet tolerance? Will, I'm afraid that the only one who feels that way is you."

"But… But…"

"Isn't it bad enough you suffer from crippling headaches, that you also do it for people who don't have as much respect for you as you have for them? Don't they have ears and eyes to keep them from danger, aren't there people looking twenty-four-seven through cameras for the pokémon league's surveillance? Does anyone else have this sort of fantastic qualities to keep everyone from harm in the pokémon league then or do you just have a Hero syndrome that you think you can keep them safe? Also, what does this service bring you as a profit, outside of the tolerance? At least the surveillance posts are being paid for but you? You waste your ability in the most safe building on earth, to keep people safe who already can defend themselves pretty damn well, if you ask me."

Will falls silent and bites his lip.

"But my pokémon…"

"Those headaches are a sign that you're not doing well, I wonder why you just bit through them instead of looking for help. No matter how many preach to someone who is suffering that this is 'normal' under certain conditions while they have never met these conditions either, it is just plain enabling. And guess what, they enabled you to suffer under the excuse of 'caring' for you. But let me tell you one thing, Will, if you aren't the one respecting your boundaries, no one else will. So do me a favour, go and see a doctor as soon as one becomes available for you to find out where these headaches actually come from?"

"… You're right," the young man answers, deflating right next to him. "But what was I supposed to do?"

"I'm not telling anyone they're not allowed to make mistakes, I mean, I still do it all the time so who am I to judge? All I'm asking for you is to figure your ability out instead of following people's advice who have even less of a clue of who you are and what you can do."

"But how can I figure my ability out when I don't have it?"

"Then you can still figure yourself out."

"I'll have plenty of time to do that because I won't have a job after this!"

"What do you mean?"

"My bond with my pokémon, how am I going to survive if I can't use my ability any longer?"

"Oh, does everyone here have an ability like that then? Last time I checked, I won the trust of Lance's pokémon by giving them a clean room, a comfy bed and food when my uncle was busy or unable to feed them. I mean, is this really about understanding pokémon or just a plain lack of self-esteem and respect, Will? Because I can communicate with people but understanding them doesn't necessarily mean talking the same language, it goes a little deeper than that."

"This is going to be hard to get used to," the man sighs. "I… I might need to impose on you and your uncle for a little while longer."

"That's fine to me, perhaps you should talk to Lance about that more than me. All I can do is support you in whatever choice you make."

"That's… yes, that's nice, thank you."

And so, the young man goes to find Lance but if anything, Ash knows his uncle to be tolerant if not caring overly much about abilities. He will care more about health and safety and well, Will's constant use of his ability might've put a lot of unnecessary stress on him so yeah, it's not an ideal situation but Ash would rather know why Will is so prone to headaches than let him suffer. However, Mewtwo puts a bit of a damper on the situation, it tells him that blocking the young man's abilities ended up causing them to turn off for Arceus knows how long and that it has no way to turn them 'on' again. And the thing is, even if Mewtwo isn't telling Ash this, the boy feels deep guilt and slight panic seep through their psychic bond.

'He might never be able to use his abilities again,' the pokémon says and another wave of guilt seeps through their bond.

'Tragic.'

'Please understand, friend, this is not normal either.'

'He didn't take good care of himself and pushing limits always has bad results, especially for people. Not to mention passing limits.'

'It does not sit well with me that this could ever be a possibility.'

'And that's why I told him to go see a doctor, calm down, buddy. It's out of our hands right now.'

'But I did this!'

'Mewmew, you are powerful, yes, but honestly, if you were able to stop his abilities in total, what could have possibly happened if he still did have his abilities to use as he suffered from these headaches? Do you think there couldn't have been a chance that he might've woken up without control over his abilities one day or another anyway?'

'It was indeed too easy a feat for me to… You are not angry at me?'

'Of course not,' Ash nearly scoffs out loud too, which could've been a little weird but to heck with it, he needs Mewtwo to understand. 'I don't believe for a second he will suffer so badly, either. His entire team are Psychic-type pokémon, if one of the two has an ability, which Psychic-type pokémon typically have, what's stopping his pokémon from contacting him through that bond? Sure, he can't answer them through that bond but they sure can read his mind well enough that he doesn't even have to answer them. Now if my uncle suddenly became psychic, his pokémon wouldn't give two hoots if he spoke to them out loud or in their heads but Psychic-type pokémon are a little bit more sensitive and humanoid like that. I don't see what's stopping him from being a trainer at all so you tell me what damage you really did and need to be guilty about.'

'Ah. I'm starting to understand why you are not upset with me. You do not like abilities at all, do you?'

'It's not that, it's… Sure, I sometimes wish I didn't have any but you saw how blocking mine made me sick so riddle me wise why Will became better once you blocked his abilities.'

'Fair enough, I stand corrected. Thank you, friend, for explaining this to me, and for understanding and calming me down. I… I will leave the superior knowledge of humans to you but I need you to realise that losing strength is damning for a pokémon.'

Ash understands that that all too well, it's usually a sign that the pokémon is about to pass on to the other side of life and he doesn't wish this on Will but dammit, why do people think it's fair play to suffer? Will should've really gone to the doctor earlier, in fact, he sort of desires to use his ability to check what's wrong and the feeling creeps along his spine as he watches the young man come back into the living room, with this tiny smile on his face but still, it's the fact how Will keeps rolling his shoulders with a pained expression during the fifteen minutes Ash keeps an eye on him that's making him consider using his ability in front of all these people.

"You good?" he asks and the man seems surprised, though smiles wryly at him.

"My shoulders have been stiff for a while now but I'm alright, thank you for asking."

"Do you mind if…?" Ash asks, raising his hand upwards ever so slightly because he wants to look at him through the eyes of his Aura so badly.

"Err, go ahead," Will answers.

It sort of bothers the teen a little that this man would just allow it but his great need to see to this trainer's wellbeing has him in a choke-hold and so he dutifully follows his instinct. If Will is shocked to see the eye opening on his hand, he doesn't mention it and frankly, Ash wouldn't care much for the feelings he might have about it. His Aura tells him that something is gravely wrong with him and just as the teen looks at the young man's shoulders, he pauses, dread pooling in his stomach.

"Stay," Ash all but commands as he leaves the room to phone an ambulance.

Christmas be damned, if he'd known that Will had blood clots stuck in various places in his chest, not necessarily in his lungs, he would have called for help much earlier, heck, Will should've gone to the doctor much earlier too. Thankfully, the emergency services work through the holiday and well, blood clots are bad so it doesn't take long before he hears the sirens of the ambulance come closer, the hospital from Johto isn't that far away from Mahogany either. Will is confused, clearly not knowing what's happening as the medics gently ease the man into a wheelchair, unwilling to let him move any more than he already has to but then again, everyone in this room other than Ash is confused by what's going on.

"Ash?" Cynthia asks but Lance beats her by getting to him first.

"Kiddo, what happened?"

"I-I… Ugh, this is so not okay!" the teen says and stomps his right foot on the ground -knowing damn well his left will hurt if he did it with that side. "Guys, it's not right to have pain before, during or after using an ability! I don't know who is responsible for giving you all the idea that this was okay but this could have killed Will!"

"What's wrong with him?"

"The headaches, uncle, that's not normal!"

"Kiddo, kiddo, calm down."

The man hugs him close and for a moment, the boy calms down but the idea that someone completely innocent could've been hurt this way riles him up again and heck, even if Will is in the hospital, there might still be a chance he won't make it!

"Uncle, why was this allowed?"

"That's on Lucian, he had main custody of Will after he was left behind by his family as a small child. But Lucian didn't have much time and well, the system in Sinnoh isn't ideal so we all tried to pitch in where we could. But you know how he is about abilities, right?"

"Uncle, I don't care, if he didn't have time to deal with Will, why did he accept it at all? What's he going to do with the kids he's expecting with Cynthia? Is he also going to dump them on everyone or does he expect Cynthia to become a stay-at-home mother? If that's her choice, great, I'll support her but I have an inkling that this would be something new to her, that this wasn't discussed before their relationship but does he realise that this will leave him without a job? Or is he going to take the Champion role?"

"Ash, I know you're not fond of his ideas but he was just trying to help. And no, there won't be any such role reversal, Cynthia will take maternity leave and she has her family to help her out with the children. As for the rest, I suppose that… well, he thought he could help Will but all of us had the idea that we were a bit more important than everyone else at some time. So if that entire concept of that getting out that freak flag rubbed you the wrong way, forget about it."

"He can put that thing wherever he wants," Ash replies obtusely. "Will's life is in danger, Lance."

"What are you talking about?"

"Who told everyone here that these headaches were normal?"

"I don't remember but even if I did, I wouldn't tell you because I know you would put this person on the stake and that's not what I want for today."

"Who's Will's emergency contact?" the boy asks instead, turning away from his uncle and Karen, who raises her hand ever so carefully, shrinks a little under Ash's heavy gaze. "Well, I hope that, when you get a call from the hospital, it'll be good news! 'Cause there's a high chance it won't be!"

And with that, he turns on his heels, stalking towards the stairs. Lance sighs, shaking his head but looks up when he feels a hand on his shoulder.

"It's… This is indeed a less ideal situation, I can understand why he's so incensed about this. After all, my pregnancy has been widely debated yesterday, perhaps a bit much."

"Oh, don't worry, though, Cynthia!" Ash calls out, already halfway up the staircase. "Lorelei doesn't like it when someone else gets all the attention, be glad you got the chance yesterday 'cause before you know it, she'll jump us with a pregnancy scare too. Maybe even before lunch, who knows!"

And with that, the boy disappears upstairs, likely to go lean on one of his pokémon and sulk. Lance knows what he said wrong, it's got little to no use to tell the kid to calm down, it'll just aggravate him more and dammit, why is this kid always upset for a good reason?

"I don't like this, I don't like it a bit," he grumbles. "How is it that, whenever I try to get him to calm down, I always feel like a jerk because he's got a point?"

"It is a little coincidental how quickly Lorelei grabs the closest dude to her and declares him her partner," Karen pipes up. "That being said, this is the first-ever time I've heard anyone contradict the statement that having pain with an ability is not good but honestly, this little kiddo has more than a couple of abilities, I think, when it comes down to it, we have to listen to him more than to anyone without an ability contradicting it. Also, what the hell did the kid do, anyway? How could he tell Will's life is in danger?"

"I don't know, it's likely Aura-related," Lance sighs. "I regret I didn't pay attention to what Riley was saying until the git left with his tail between his legs, scared of this fifteen-year-old kid who was only fourteen at the time."

"Yeah, sure, I'm not going to be scared of someone who gets upset when he sees someone isn't properly taken care of, no matter what abilities. Ash even asked Will if it was okay if he took a look at whatever was grabbing the kid's attention, I mean, I kept an eye on him and he was definitely looking at Will for a long time, something was nagging him and if that's true, if this action saved Will's life, I don't want to hear a bad word about him ever again."

"Well, then let's start doing that already. Let's not forget this boy likely used the same trick to discover my pregnancy that not even a test could trace, until weeks later," Cynthia sighs. "And also, Lance, I need to correct you, Lucian was thinking of taking my place as Champion during my pregnancy leave. It was only because I resisted that idea that Charles backed me up and told Lucian to back off, that such a deal wasn't on the table anyway. While you were correct in the information you told Ash, it's only recently been decided that this was the case."

"So he's got the right idea about Lucian too, huh?"

"Yes, yes, he does. I love him, don't get me wrong but some parts are going to have to change because he might have been telling everyone we're going to get married but he hasn't asked the question yet and I haven't said 'yes' either. I might still change my mind."

"Children out of wedlock, oh, Cynthia, you want to never hear Agatha's voice again?" Karen chuckles but there is no mirth in her statement or tone.

"You know what, I wouldn't even care less. You don't know how nervous she has been making me and honestly, if what Ash just said is true, that Lorelei is jealous of that, she can have her, I swear. As if three kids at once isn't bad enough already, as if I'm not already at wit's end! Sure, it's a happy thing, they're babies, they're going to be cute but I'm going to be the one doing most of the work and I… I have doubts, that's all," she says and folds her arms around herself. "If it wasn't for the support, I likely would have done something entirely different."

"I don't have any experience with kids," Lance admits. "And Ash is setting unrealistic standards for all the kids that could still come into my life but you'll always be welcome here, Cynthia, no matter what you decide on."

"I mean, same," Karen pipes up. "I only have a tiny apartment but they can stay over if they get into your hair too much, you know? I can always have Liepard out, she loves kids, you know that."

"I wouldn't do that to you, Karen, it's nice of you to say that but poor Liepard's eardrums, little babies cry so hard, they have nothing else than their voice to draw attention. And Lance, do you think Ash loves kids that much to allow their crying?"

"Honestly, I wouldn't even be surprised if they wouldn't cry around him, that's just all those things about my boy that make him so.. so… well, let's just say that things like that would fall completely within what I would come to expect around him if only he'd notice he'd do us a favour," the man sighs and kicks at his heels in annoyance. "And I don't even mean any of this mystic mumbo jumbo, more in the way that he would sit next to their crib and pull funny faces to keep them entertained. You should have seen him with that little girl in Kalos, I'm not blind, I saw how he cared for those two kids, this was likely the first time he travelled with children younger than him, while he usually joined older teens who took care of him. And Cynthia, he loves you so much, you can't tell me you haven't noticed that?"

"I do, I think that's why he's so upset too and just removed himself from this situation, to stop me from getting even more stress but ah, who could have known this would happen to Will? He always complained about the headaches and the joints and the pain in his chest, even the breathlessness… It seems too bad now that I list all of the issues he told me about throughout the years, is he going to be okay?"

"It'll be nothing short of a Christmas miracle if Ash somehow got so upset about nothing," Wallace mutters and it's thanks to the silence in the house that they even hear him. "Goddammit, if the kid's mother hadn't brushed the gold off Christmas years ago, maybe today would have meant something to him, maybe it would have made him happier, to begin with. Now though? He's seen something that scared him and sure, he likes all of us plenty… just not all together in one room. Then we don't hear him, then we don't see him and that'll bother him more than he'll admit out loud. And he just knows something's up, I wouldn't be at all surprised if he's telling all his worries to the pokémon around him who don't judge him like we do and that the story matches the truth really well. As for Will, I don't know how many times he's said all his issues to everyone but it's one thing reporting them and a whole other to actually do something about it. He's in his thirties and you saw, he doesn't have this primal, deep-down fear of doctors so I don't understand why he never went to seek help himself."

"I've tried, you know?" Steven says, answering Wallace's statement. "From all the times I've met Will and he bombarded me about his headaches, I told him to go see a doctor but he never went, told me that it was normal or had some other excuse. I must have told him over a hundred times that it likely wasn't when he had issues when he used his psychic talents but he'd always smile at me and ask me if I was sure he wasn't using them so you know what? I don't wish ill on him at all but he clearly didn't listen to me and I doubt that he'll listen to Ash any more than he did listen to me so whatever is ailing him, I hope it's serious enough that it drives the point through."

"Whatever it is, we can't change it," Lance answers and he's getting huffy. "I don't think any of us have the right to say outright that we know Will or Ash well enough to assume things about them. Perhaps, if we put all of the pieces we know about the two of them together, maybe we'll get somewhere but at this point and time, I'd leave both of them alone because I know it'll only upset my boy even more than he already is. And please, punch me next time I tell him to calm down, yeah? Because that got us nowhere and it never will."

"Let's… let's just wait until our churchgoers return, okay?" Karen pipes up. "Who knows what happened to them, it's started snowing too."

"Tough, no one told them to go," he answers and turns around, towards the kitchen. "We still got an hour before they get back anyway, so let's hope this snow will cool off everything and everyone."

"Alright."

---

Ash is sitting on his bed, leaning heavily on Galie who is just enjoying the body contact, even though the teen is sulking badly. By now, Meep's come upstairs and through Mewtwo, was able to tell him what had been said downstairs but honestly, he really couldn't care less at this point. If it's true that Steven told Will to go to the doctor so many times, then it just means that there was stubbornness involved. Wallace is also right in claiming innocence, Will is an adult and has been for several years now and no one could actually tell him to do anything he didn't want to but to Ash, all this means is that he spooked the man to the point where Will couldn't resist. And yeah, he didn't give him a chance to either, what was he going to do? Send the medics away? Nah, that wouldn't work out well for him at all but to think that these people downstairs also noticed Lorelei's strange behaviour and just pieced together what a piece of work Lucian really is? Are they blind or just didn't pay attention to their surroundings?

He can't take it, he gets out his phone and sends Will -whose number he has through Lance's shared contacts- a message to ask him if he's okay. Ash just never expected Will to answer straight away and the man calls him his guardian angel, that he's alright only because of his quick intervention. Now, the boy isn't ready for this praise though keeps himself from calling the young man an idiot and instead asks if they already know what the issue is. And yes, apparently, they did a scan of the area that Will was hurting in and indeed found the blood clots so now he's on bedrest and blood thinners which are making Will extremely nauseous. He's also kept under supervision and they will be doing several scans of the man's chest throughout the period the blood clots still remain visible so while not ideal, this is a much better fate than the one Ash's Aura had shown.

So he tells the man to rest easy, that he's not going to miss much except for the food but honestly, that he can step into every Kantonese restaurant and get the same thing, that he can even give him the names of the dishes if he wants. Will seems to find this funny and even goes as far as to ask if he's holed up in his room and if he's had a bit of an argument with anyone there. Ash doesn't hide the fact that whatever happened to this man upset him and there's really nothing anyone can tell him that will calm him down so yes, he answers that he did and needed a moment to collect himself but that he feels better now that he prevented a tragedy on Christmas day.

But not for long, as per usual. The front door opens all of a sudden and he sort of relaxes as this group of people means that they'll likely leave him alone, too busy dealing with all the rest and it'll likely start with questions why Will isn't there. So because of that, Ash goes to lean on Glalie again, determined to go down when it's time for lunch but not earlier or later as he doesn't want to be put on the spot solely because he cares. However, after a good while of silence -though his room typically lets through any noise from downstairs unless it's really loud- he nearly jumps from the bed as a massive argument suddenly starts and now he really doesn't want to go downstairs. But his curiosity lures him towards the staircase, out of sight and bounds but still allows him to hear what's being said.

He blinks in surprise when he hears his uncle getting mad as fuck at Lorelei's boyfriend, because of something the man said about him and now Ash feels a little guilty because Lance deserves better… and the only mistake he made was to assume Lorelei's partner would be fun but from the sounds of it, as Lorelei herself starts screaming as well, the man is just an idiot and unfortunately, an asshole. Ash scrambles away from the staircase, gently closing his bedroom door behind him and sighs as soon as this action dims the sound of the commotion. The sight of the incubator on his desk reminds him that he's got better things to do than to bother with that situation outside.

"Chosen?"

Ash jumps, not having expected Necrozma to speak up all of a sudden.

"Kozzy? What's the matter?"

"Mystical disturbance," the pokémon answers and leaves the boy frowning.

"What do you mean? What's that got to do with me?"

"This week signals a cosmic change, you might get affected."

"How do you know this? And what effect would it have on me?"

"This happens every year. And the effect is unclear."

"But I didn't have any issues last year? I mean, none that had anything to do with that."

"You are not the same person you were last year."

And that's all he gets out of the pokémon, who just lives to keep his mind off things and now Ash is lost on what he's supposed to do or expect from this supposed cosmic change. Still, the egg is safe and sound, he feels like polishing it and feeling the life from inside of it but while he's successfully polished it, Ash's hand slips just a little bit but ends up resting on the egg and well… he's got a cute, chirping Noibat on his lap, who he lovingly nickname's Cookie because the pokémon is mint and chocolate coloured and reminds him of the After Eight biscuits his mother absolutely hated with a passion, though professor Oak always bought them for her because she couldn't voice her dislike of it to the man as she considered that 'rude'. She likely isn't missing those, wherever she is.

He just keeps playing short games with the excitable baby pokémon, who chitters animatedly at everything that moves. It's a nice pokémon, very cute as well but Ash is tired, of a lot of things, actually. He's worried about his two strange-looking pokémon, that situation downstairs isn't ideal either and he just wishes he could get over all of this fast. Seeing his recently acquired pokémon nicely get captured, the boy is ready for a nap to try and forget everything bothering him and hopefully give him the strength to smile when he goes down.

---

Ash wakes up and he's not in his room. Now, it's not beyond his uncle's capacities to just pick him up and take him places but like… it's winter in Johto and he's sitting on green, luscious grass. There are sounds of pokémon he's never heard before and as he sits there, quite contently too, a Tauros saunters towards him, looking ready for a snuggle. And it's so nice and warm here, Ash has no clue where he is as the trees and greenery just look very tropical. But the Tauros' fur is a nice, familiar feeling, he enjoys raking his fingers through the sometimes stiff but tactile hairs and as the pokémon plops down, promptly rolling on its side to give Ash access to the softest furry place, he figures the pokémon enjoys the action just as much.

"That's cute," someone says and he turns around to look but his head is very heavy and he can't see who is talking to him very well as the sun is shining directly in his eyes.

"Wanna touch?" he asks and the person lowers their head.

He can sort of tell it's a girl, with long blond hair dressed in all white but her face is a whole lot more interesting as she doesn't look comfortable, sitting so close to this Tauros.

"I'm not sure," she answers. "What if it moves?"

"It won't," he says as he knows that Tauros rarely move from a comfortable position for as long as it doesn't become uncomfortable. "Trust me."

"… Then, what do I do?"

"Give me your hand."

She does and as gently as he can, lowers it down onto the Tauros' soft belly fur. Once her hand makes contact, her expression changes instantly and despite giving him the impression she's quite a bit younger than him, she very much looks like a child now, with this wondrous look on her face.

"Oh," she breathes out and Ash smiles.

"Is it nice?"

The girl nods and seems content to keep rubbing the now asleep Tauros' belly. She doesn't even know that she's currently caressing the pokémon on her own, Ash has taken his hands off her and the pokémon for a while now. But he's getting tired again and yawns widely… and is back in his bedroom.

"The fuck?" he asks, to no one in particular but perhaps not quite so, his bedroom door opens and Anabel's slightly worried face appears from behind it.

"Ash? Are you okay?"

He's not sure, that was the weirdest, most realistic dream he's ever had and now he's not sure what to do.

"Err… I suppose so. What's going on?"

"I was just worried about you."

"Oh, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to make you worried. I just took a nap."

"You don't have to apologise but perhaps you'd like to come downstairs?" she asks. "It's still a little soon for lunch but perhaps we can start to give out presents."

Right well, he's not sure if he wants to be there for that today, especially since he's aware of that argument but Ash isn't going to entertain himself with messing around as he's still thinking about that dream. Anabel watches him carefully as he snags Lance's gift out of his desk drawer and keeps watching him as she follows him down the stairs. Whatever had happened clearly faded out but one thing is painfully clear, Lorelei has cried recently and is now flanked by Karen who won't leave her side. Is he going to ask what happened? Nope, not at all, Ash doesn't want to know what upset his uncle to the point where the man likely sent Lorelei's boyfriend outside. Or perhaps her boyfriend didn't take kindly to criticism and left on his own accord? Frankly, he doesn't care and thus, goes straight to his uncle.

"I heard we're giving out presents, so here, uncle. I hope I did you a service with this," he says as he reaches the typical, long and thin watch-shaped box all cutely wrapped up out to his dumbfounded uncle.

At least Lance accepts it but he doesn't look ready to open it just yet.

"No one put you up to this, right, buddy?"

"I take full responsibility for my actions," Ash replies dryly, remembering all too well how Steven panicked upon seeing Bobby the repair man reaching this out to him.

"Right, well…"

His uncle does unwrap the gift now and the boy doesn't care how long he needs to stand here until Lance gets to open that box, he'll stay until the man realises that he didn't do what Lance thinks he did. After all, the man gives him a bit of side-eye after seeing the name of the shop Bobby works for in that beautiful, silver-coloured font but pauses when he takes the lid off.

"Huh?" Lance utters. "How did you…? Surely not?"

The man suddenly shoots into action, throwing all the things Bobby put into the box to the side as if they didn't matter and takes a very close look at the watch all nicely restored to its former beauty.

"Ash, how the hell did you do this? Tell me you didn't scour the internet for the exact same watch."

"I didn't, uncle," he answers and picks up the warranty cards that would have explained a lot to his uncle but it seems that wasn't meant to be. "However, don't go into the acting business just yet, I saw what this watch meant to you so I fished it out of the trash before Steven got to it."

Lance looks confused until he sees what the cards Ash gives him say.

"And before you say anything, your old man did already cheat you out of something valuable. Something must have already happened to this watch before because this kind usually has sapphire glass which Salamance's tail would never be able to smash, not even when he did it on purpose. But Bobby repaired it completely, it works again so please, keep these cards and the box, you've got a warranty on it again."

This time, Lance puts the card ever so carefully on the armrest of the chair he's sitting in and takes his watch out of the box, smiling warmly when he sees that it actually is his watch. He puts it on straight away, looking so smug even though he has no reason to. If Ash didn't know his uncle is a slightly paranoid person, he would have gotten mad at being accused of not listening to him but anyway, it's over now.

"Do I want to know who Bobby is?" the man eventually asks.

"You already do, you just didn't stick around long enough to get to know him as well as I do as I had nowhere else to go when I was stuck in that wheelchair," Ash replies sassily. "He's a repair man who lives a few houses away from here, working from the jewellery store of his family."

His uncle smiles at him, shaking his head in disbelief but thanks him so profusely, for noticing and for going as far as to get this precious heirloom restored despite everything. The tone is set for a pleasant time, Ash settles next to Steven who grabs him in such a close hug, apologising for assuming and promising to make today worth his while. For all the gifts that are given, Anabel makes it perfectly clear to him that the thing he made for Espeon has fixed an issue she didn't know anyone to turn to and the fact he did it without her needing to say anything makes her so happy… And next to that, she thanks him again for the clothes he got her, that the idea of him thinking of her even all the way in Kalos is very flattering.

His mood is suddenly a lot lighter, though the odd dream he had lingers in his mind like a bad taste in his mouth. However, Cynthia has this tiny box as a gift for him and he's curious as to what it could be but Lucian's remark on his delighted look sort of brings him down to earth.

"What could that item possibly mean to you? As far as I know, you don't have the pokémon required to use it."

"I built the pokémon required for this so mind your own business, Lucian," Ash answers sharply but the fact he mentioned he built a Porygon has several people interested, including Lorelei.

"What do you mean, you built it?" she asks.

"Exactly that. I have a brilliant friend in Kalos and we both have one from the same box, he helped me make DuckDuck and I helped him create Mozilla," he says, pleased as punch as he likes his Porygon a lot. "And now, with this," he adds as he holds up the box. "-I can make it DuckDuck the Destroyer."

Now, Lucian looks chided but Cynthia did go and look at all the possibilities for the gift she could possibly give him and sure, it's a dubious-looking disk but that's what it's supposed to be. And Ash isn't kidding, Porygon-Z is a terror to anything technological and that suits him perfectly as it'll allow him to mess with some people without leaving a trace. Now, Cynthia coincidentally is holding the gift he bought her and she seems slightly oblivious to who would gift her something that fits perfectly with her interest. In fact, she takes some time getting all the tape off the paper so she can give the wrapping paper a read. Now, Ash went and took the story from an official history website because he wanted it to be as close to the real thing but it's only after the end, that it's mentioned that the story of the Legendary Birds is from Kantonese origins, that she looks straight up at him.

"Oh, you know me so well," she says and that smile on her face, gosh, he wishes he could keep it there forever.

But yeah, he did his best and it was just too good to pass up on opportunity, despite Steven's worries and he's happy to see that it was worth the gamble. Cynthia is delighted with the accessory, she knows what it is and thanks him for the thoughtfulness as it hadn't occurred to her to get one herself. Not everyone knows but Cynthia stops anyone from discussing her pregnancy even though she was just given the pregnancy bell but Ash is happy nonetheless as he doesn't want to see her as stressed as this morning ever again. She makes her boundaries very clear this time and while this clearly miffs Agatha, it's Cynthia's full right to do so.

His attention is pulled away from the situation as Wallace and Steven proudly present their very heavy gift, it's good that Ash is sitting on the floor anyway or he would've buckled in two. No way he's going to be able to guess what's inside this box as only the unhappy surprises concern him so he plays innocent and unwraps the gift that confuses him until he realises that Steven likely got this through the pokémon company and that this likely isn't a widely sold device yet. And he's right, it's apparently a very high-spec sort of camera that works perfectly with his phone - making Ash highly suspicious that his uncle got the phone through Steven's connections within the pokémon company- but that it's completely up to him what he ends up doing with it so now the boy is kept busy with this complicated looking machine.

Something tells him that he would like Clemont's opinion on this but not even his 'Merry Christmas' message to him has been answered so perhaps he's better off reading the instructions. He smiles when he sort of understands that this is a camera that is going to capture all the images and videos extremely detailed and that they bought this for him because of that app but oh, he's going to have way too much fun with this! He thanks Steven and Wallace, of course, this is going to be so cool as he could film the path trails he's recently taken up on filming, you know, give those who couldn't travel a bit of a look into what the region had to offer, right? He hadn't thought of ever going back to Kalos to do it but boy, would he love to trail through White Forest with this camera?

But he'd noticed how quickly they started looking for him, in fact, if he hadn't been able to make nice with Ingo and Emmet, it probably wouldn't have been such a pleasant outing with professor Juniper, no matter how understanding she would have been, something would have happened that would ensure her that he wouldn't pull a stunt like that. So perhaps he better tell people if he's planning on going somewhere because tolerance wears thin over time. Still, he likes this camera so much, that he's very caught up in trying to figure out how to get the best out of this device, so caught up that he hadn't realised his uncle hadn't gotten him a gift. And Ash would never have spent a minute thinking about that if it wasn't for Clair pointing it out to him.

"Lance has given me a home. That's the best gift I could ever ask for," he answers and the chance of his uncle having heard that is high but now he wonders why he can't see Lance anywhere.

Lunch goes swimmingly, it's just some fancy bread and spreads he doesn't mind but again, Ash isn't a picky eater. But to see Wallace put marmalade on top of a… well distinctive smelling cheese that has Steven recoiling when he took the lid off the box the cheese was in… Nah, that's a combination he's not brave enough to try but even so, Ash did have his uncle sit next to him and the man did smile at him, though a little watery? He's not sure and Ash is pretty much the first to leave the table as he wants to go and test out the camera outside and see what it's capable of. He goes a little further than he would have liked to because it is cold but it's so beautiful outside! The portable camera is just the smallest, daintiest device with one heck of a battery pack attached to it, which cordlessly sends all the information through to his phone, to the program which gives him the option to manipulate, improve or just generally do strange things with his videos or pictures.

Ash doesn't think himself to be so artistic and, sadly, all this wonderful quality gets utterly lost as soon as he uploads it on the 'Smile' app. But at least the footage is great, he caught a lot of pokémon in their natural habitat who didn't care if he was there since all he was doing, was looking at them. So it's calming and nice, exactly the way how Ash feels right now, especially around his recently hatched Noibat who gets his first introduction to snow which persistently wouldn't melt. The pokémon chitters happily as he follows the footsteps he creates and while Ash needs to keep a close eye on this funny baby pokémon, he's feeling happy as nothing happens and he has gotten a great memory with his little Kalos native pokémon while that entire region can go and suck an egg, for all he cares.

The last picture he takes with the special camera, as he notices he was out for a very long time, is Gabite leaning against the snow Gible, looking pleased as punch. Ash comes inside the house with his giggle smile still on his face as Gabite couldn't get inside fast enough as his pokémon hadn't encountered snow that often to remember just how it felt like so yeah, the poor dragon was cold now. No one asks him where he's been, quite obviously as he went and put those videos on the app -hence why he knew the app lowered the quality- so they knew perfectly well what he'd been doing. It is, however, time for lunch and he was right in claiming it was in the Kantonese style, though his uncle seems more than pleased to see that he finally managed to buy already-made mochi.

"Oh yeah, it was made by someone with a little short of years' worth of experience," Ash casually remarks.

"Really? They never stood still long enough for the delivery to tell me those sorts of things," Lance answers. "Anyway, I figured it might be nice for you to have food you remember having eaten in these sorts of periods."

His uncle is such a nice person, Ash isn't mad at this even though this is food he's never gotten served inside of his previous house. He hadn't needed to sit there and listen to Brock trying to get him to understand how his mother might be cooking for an army but that she never cooked it for him, to now try and tell someone that she participated in all these Christmas things. Nah, he's delighted to get to try tteokbokki again and have the cold noodles with vegetal broth, like, this very much reminds him of the freedom he found on his journey instead of the 'cosy times' he never experienced at the house in Pallet Town. So he thanks him, though ends up trying to hold his laughter at the comments about the delicious mochi, all because they heard someone with experience was involved, all while it was just him who figured his uncle didn't need to go through the trouble of making the sticky treat.

But he hasn't lied, his mother was the 'if you want it, do it yourself' type of person and he liked mochi so in the rare times he got handed some money, he either went to get mochi or if it was too expensive, go and get the ingredients. After one bad experience, he had always waited until his mother left after having done the dishes, so that she wasn't there to see him make the mochi -because she would make fun of him, telling him he'd fail or that he was doing it wrong and then get mad if he told her to do it for him- and when he cleaned up the mess the mochi made, he would do it with the dish soap so she couldn't smell he had cleaned up his mess -or she'd give him grief for 'messing' with her kitchen- as the place would always smell like that dish soap after the dishes anyway. Yeah, strict parents just raise sneaky kids and perhaps his mother wasn't strict, the way everyone urges him to tell him how he feels while she had never cared about it still shows that something went amiss. Ash just isn't sure whether he isn't the issue but there's no way he'll say that out loud.

They settle in front of the TV but no one's watching it, they're just talking over it and Ash just listens to whoever speaks the loudest, he can't be bothered to keep up but he is interested when the subject of the Aura community comes up. It's Brandon -who he hadn't noticed before but then again, the man clearly wasn't looking for him- who expresses a lot of confusion about the recent developments as several hundreds of families who had hidden themselves behind powerful magic -yes, Brandon calls it straight up magic- and that the world is going to change a lot from this point on but the teen stops listening to him as soon as the man involves Zodiac talk into this. Like, he's done things because he's a person, not because he's a Gemini and anyone blaming their zodiac sign for any sort of misdemeanour… Well, he wouldn't even give his mother daylight if she were to try it.

After three hours of that same chit-chat, where there are a couple of people more interested, like his godmother of course, it becomes too much for Ash to bear and he bids his uncle a very good night so that he can weasel out of this Tauros crap without too much fuss. Once upstairs, Ash stretches widely and flops down on his bed, where Pikachu, Meep and Gabite instantly claim whatever space is still around him. Don't ask him where Gabite was hiding before or whether the pokémon released himself but he wouldn't care either way. However, when he eventually does sit up about an hour or so later, his eyes land on this box that has clearly been sitting there and then it hits him! That's Cynthia's gift, from his birthday all that time ago and he went and forgot about it!

Now his pokémon groan and moan when he gets up from bed but it's not nearly close to bedtime and he still needs to take a shower, which he will do… after he gets to see what's in that box. Times clearly already have changed, Cynthia never bothered to wrap this one while that box with the dubious disk in it was nicely wrapped but Ash won't complain as the lack of wrapping paper just means his pokémon can't chew on it either. Despite having been vaccinated for all the known pokémon diseases, he's still aware that chewing nasty things can still poison pokémon and people alike so he's happy not taking that risk, he got the message when he saw that needle and thanks to the size of it, Ash will remember it for a long time.

"Oh," he says when he opens the box, seeing another but nicer decorated box inside.

Once lifted from the cardboard one, the box is easily identified as a music box and Ash, who has never owned one before, is pretty chuffed. It's a heavy one too and while simple, he figures that the quality of it likely explains something. It looks interesting, the outside is made out of a very deep, blue-hued enamel with ripples in it and it has a lock that doesn't need a key. Considering it was still wrapped in plastic, Ash figures that the cardboard box was just what the music box came with but he discovers the key to wind up the music part as soon as he opens it, sort of compensating for his disappointment of not hearing the tune upon opening.

Now that the teen managed to get it to work, this tune he's hearing, which also gets his pokémon's attention, sort of feels familiar. It's piano-like but the melody of this… he's heard this before. And it's short and sweet, just long enough not to bother him but even while he's in the shower, Ash can't put his finger on where he's heard this song before. Trailing back to his room, he's none the wiser and sort of keeps listening to the song, over and over, until someone gets so peeved, they simply close the music box from a distance, freaking him out for a few seconds.

"Mewtwo? What's happened?" he asks, surprised as he hadn't expected the pokémon today.

"You tend to have the bad habit of not sleeping whenever I am near and I do not plan a repeat of that."

"Huh? What time is- Oh!"

Ash is a little freaked out at seeing he spent two hours looking at that box, trying to figure out where he had heard that tune before so he's quick to jump into bed. It's midnight, far past his bedtime, after all, and while Lance likely wouldn't care, he's not planning on oversleeping like everyone else did.

"I find it bizarre you do not value your sleep as much as I do," Mewtwo says as it tucks him into bed. "Now you stay there and sleep or I will come here and stare at you all night long."

"Alright, alright, I'm sorry. I'll go to sleep."

The light clicks off on its own but Ash refrains from thinking about why his legendary friend is this upset. It's not like he's been that active today but whatever, he'll get to the bottom of this tomorrow when he's not nearly in as much danger of pissing off Mewtwo any further than he's already managed to do. Looking back at today, there were only a few parts that were 'merry' about this Christmas but he's sort of come to expect issues whenever all these people think of themselves as important, that's what he's grown up needing to deal with in Pallet Town, after all. The only difference here is that the people of Pallet Town are just delusional, while most of the people here, like the Champions, do have some sort of role to play and would be greatly missed if one would suddenly disappear, for whatever reason. Now, those busybodies in Pallet? Ash doesn't miss anyone there, to be frank, so he really is grateful to his uncle for having gotten him out of there, even though this entire business ripped a piece out of his heart.

But yeah, here's to hoping tomorrow will be better and if he's heard it correctly, a couple of people will leave tomorrow and in the week, a couple of others will come by to celebrate the New Year with them. And, if he's not mistaken, Ash caught Lance talking to Leon on the phone and that's someone he would very much like to talk to. But that's for later, now, he better stop thinking and actually sleep before Mewtwo comes back and offers 'help' again.

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End of chapter thirty-four