Runaway

Ash sat on the couch in Gary Oak’s quarters aboard the S.S. Anne. Pikachu remained perched on his trainer’s shoulder while Meowth curled up on Gary’s bed, obviously happy to have the choice of a bed for the first time in awhile.

Gary walked in with a couple of plates of food for Ash and his pokémon; as soon as the first plate clattered against the table, Meowth opened an eye before stretching and making his way lazily over to the table, rubbing against Gary’s leg affectionately.

“You know, you’re lucky it was me that you bumped into – anyone else would’ve turned you in instantaneously.” Gary said, sitting in a chair next to the couch. “I probably still would, if the whole thing wasn’t so hilarious that it’s pathetic.”

“So glad you can derive some entertainment from my own personal problems.” Ash said, not touching the food as Pikachu looked at it hungrily. As the pokémon’s stomach growled in his ear, he leaned forward and handed Pikachu a slice of an apple.

The brunette snickered. “It’s true – Ash, the goody-goody with the big brother who’s a Gym Leader, in cahoots with Team Rocket? I mean, how more ‘gossip rag tabloid cover’ can you get?!” Gary asked, smirking.

Ash leered at him. “It’s not funny, dammit! I’m in a lot of trouble here – people think I stole my own pokémon, for Arceus’ sakes!” he snapped, crossing his arms as Pikachu hopped down to the table to eat more of the food. “Besides, I’m not all that much of a goody-goody these days.”

Gary rolled his eyes. “Oh yeah, I forgot the unwritten rule that if you wear all black, you’re one bad rebel without a cause.” he said snidely, pointing at Ash. “Who the fuck do you think you’re talking to? I’m the fucking League Champion for more than one region, so trust me when I say I’ve seen a lot of shit scarier than you and your… cutesy pokémon!”

At this, both Pikachu and Meowth scowled at him, abandoning the food in favor of boycotting it like their master was. Suddenly they knew why he hadn’t been willing to take any help from Gary until he’d threatened to contact the mainland and tell them there was a stowaway felon on board.

“You know what? I don’t have to take this shit from you.” Ash growled, getting up. “Pikachu, Meowth, let’s go!”

“I wouldn’t do that if I were you.” Gary said lazily, propping his head on a fist.

Ash glared over his shoulder, one hand on the doorknob. “Oh yeah? Why not?!”

“Cuz I can still put the whole boat on lock-down and head it straight to Kanto.” Gary said, “And if you’re thinking you can take me on in a battle, you’re dead wrong – those two may be well-trained, but you have only 2 pokémon with you against my 6.” Shrugging, he smirked. “So, Ashy-boy, what’s it gonna be?”

Meowth and Pikachu looked at each other as if to say “He’s good!” while Ash glanced from the doorknob, to Gary, again. Finally, he returned to the couch and flopped in it, arms crossed. “You’re a dick, you know.”

“That’s no way to talk to your friends.” Gary said, mocking hurt.

Ash rolled his eyes this time, but gave his rival a curious look. “So, what? You’re gonna keep me here until we get to Sinnoh and then hand me in to further boost your reputation?” he asked, frowning.

Gary tutted, chuckling. “Are you for real? No, I’m not turning you over to the police. I mean, look at you – in jail, you’d be raped and dead in under an hour.” he said, “Besides, I know that these are really your pokémon; they like you too much to be stolen, and I’m not sending an innocent man to prison, no matter how annoying he is.”

“So… you’re gonna help me get to Sinnoh, then?” Ash guessed, not daring to believe it.

“No. You’d do something stupid and get yourself caught right off the boat.” Gary said, waving a finger. “I’m taking you somewhere where you can lay low for awhile. I have a house in Sinnoh’s Resort Area, and just about everyone there is too rich to mind anyone else’s business. You can stay there until I get a hold of Brock and we sort this whole thing out.”

Now Ash wasn’t sure what to say. “Wow… You’d actually help me out that much?” he asked.

“Of course! You’d muddle it up somehow on your own.” Gary grinned as Ash shot another glare at him. “I’ll send a letter to Brock when we get there so he knows you’re all right.”

“You can’t send him a letter so soon! What if the cops are keeping an eye on the place?!”

“So what? People will see MY name on the envelope, not yours. What’s so weird about a League Champion talking to a Gym Leader?” Gary asked, effectively making Ash feel like an idiot. “Now, shut up and eat some damn food already. I can hear your stomach from here.”

“I don’t want anything.” Ash lied, and a moment later his belly bit at him hard enough to almost make him double over. Pikachu and Meowth had already given up and returned to the food, and now pushed a plate over their trainer, giving him a shared flat look. For emphasis, Meowth even popped his claws and swished his tail.

Gary chuckled at the sight. “See? Even your pokémon know you need to eat.” he said, standing up and walking over to the bathroom. “In the meantime, I’m going to take a shower. That food had better be gone by the time I’m done, or I’m gonna get REALLY creative, REALLY fast.”

With that, Gary shut the bathroom door. Ash glared at the door for a second… two… three…

He attacked the plate ravenously, making his pokémon jump back even. In less than five minutes, he’d downed the plate that had been previously piled with food, and was content to lie on the couch to watch TV. It was already tuned to the Sinnoh stations, and as he flipped through them, he was glad to see that none of them said anything about a ‘runaway youth from Kanto with possible stolen pokémon’ or anything of the like. Luckily, it seemed Sinnoh had its own gang of pokémon thieves to worry about, and their problems totally eclipsed Kanto’s problems – and Ash’s.

“Still, I hope Kanto forgets all about me soon.” he told Meowth and Pikachu as they plopped down next to him. His eyelids were getting heavy now that his stomach was full. “I gotta get back home… all of the trainers at Brock’s gym are gonna get soft without me there to fight ‘em every now and then…”

By the time Gary walked out of the bathroom, Ash was already fast asleep on the couch, Pikachu curled up in the middle of his back and Meowth safely on the back of his couch. Gary considered leaving him there for a moment, but realized that Ash might wake up during the night and try to take off; the lifeboats weren’t all that hard to detach from the ship…

“C’mon, Ashy-boy.” he sighed, picking the younger man up and walking over to the bed. Ash mumbled something in his sleep as he was rolled to the side of the bed closer to the wall, but Gary didn’t catch it as he slid into bed and covered both of them.

As soon as he lay back, Ash flailed over to Gary’s side and caught the brunette in a surprise full-on body lock, arms wrapped around his torso and legs around his hips, with Ash’s skull rubbing into Gary’s ribs uncomfortably. When the black-haired male finally stopped moving and Gary realized he was still asleep, he looked down at Ash as best he could.

“Are you fucking kidding me?”

From the safety of the couch, Pikachu was laughing his tiny, yellow ass off while Meowth grinned lazily. Glaring at them, Gary looked over at his bag and said, “Arcanine! You awake?”

Something in his backpack wriggled, and one moment and a beam of light later, a regal-looking Arcanine stood in the middle of the room. Pikachu stopped laughing while Meowth hissed and hid under the couch. The Legendary Pokémon sat down and tilted his head, waiting for his master’s command.

“Arcanine, I need you to block the door, in case this idiot actually manages to sneak by me.” Gary said, jerking his head towards Ash. “He’s a nuisance, but we can’t have anyone recognizing him, or he’ll go to jail. Understand?”

Arcanine nodded intelligently, then leaned against the front door and curled up to sleep.

Gary put his head back against his pillow and made himself as comfortable as possible. He closed his eyes, frowning as Ash refused to flail back the way he’d come.

“I hate you, Gary!”

He sighed as Ash began to snore.
_____________________________________________________________________________________

“How come we gotta move to Pewter City?” Ash asked, kicking his feet with spoon in hand as he ate his morning cereal.

“Because that’s where my gym is gonna be.” Brock said, packing both of their things.

“Are we gonna stay there forever?”

Brock sighed, already anticipating the crying tantrum his four-year-old brother was going to throw over the loss of constant contact with his best friend. “Yep. I have to live there as long as I’m the Gym Leader, so we’re definitely going to be there for awhile.” he said, then straightened up and walked over, sitting next to Ash. Placing a hand on his shoulder, he added, “You know what, though? Maybe during the summer, I can get Prof. Oak to agree to let you stay for a couple of weeks, or even have Gary come stay with us for a little bit.”

Pouting, Ash shook his head. “Nuh-uh. Gary’s not my friend anymore.” he told his surprised older brother.

“Oh? Why’s that?” Not even wild Tauros could keep the two boys apart.

“Gary said I couldn’t be a Pokémon Master with him. I wanted to share.” Ash huffed, then pushed his cereal away and folded his arms on the table, hiding his face.

“Well…” Brock leaned down and said, “Technically, there’s more than one Pokémon Master. In fact, there’s quite a lot of us.”

Ash looked up at Brock, his eyes a little shiny from unshed tears. “So… So I was right? Me and Gary can both be Masters?”

Brock nodded, but Ash started another angry pout. “So he just didn’t want me to be one cuz I’m little!” the child concluded.

“I-I don’t think that’s what he was thinking at all!” Brock said, taken aback by Ash’s outburst.

“Well, it doesn’t matter. He’s not my friend anymore, anyways. I don’t like him, and he said he didn’t like me, either.” Ash said with the sort of finality in his voice that only young children could muster.

Thinking for a moment, Brock asked, “Did you really mean it when you told Gary that you hated him?”

At that, Ash frowned uncertainly. “N-No… I was just mad…”

“I bet that’s the only reason Gary said it, too.” Brock said, ruffling his little brother’s hair.

For a moment, the little boy mulled over the information. Then he launched himself at Brock, hanging from his neck and crying, “I don’t wanna go! I don’t wanna go!!”

As he toted Ash around on his back, Brock sighed and wondered if it was gears turning in his little head, or a lone pinwheel in a hurricane.

Ash glared at the Arcanine. “C’mon! Move…” he said, nudging the giant dog with his foot.

Arcanine groaned, leaning against the door even more and staring back at Ash lazily. Then he yawned, as if to show off his gleaming canines without actually threatening the human.

Frowning, Ash looked around the room. Gary was still asleep, now sprawled across the bed on his stomach, while his pokémon still snoozed away on the couch as well. He looked back down at Arcanine, who raised its eyebrows as Ash crossed his arms behind his head.

“Well, if anyone asks, I tried. Got it?” Ash said, wandering off towards the bathroom. Looking amused, Arcanine’s tail thumped against the floor a couple of times before he finally finished sliding onto his side, head on the floor.

Gary woke up two minutes later, lifting his head when he realized he could breathe. His Arcanine was still in place, and glanced from Gary to the bathroom and back several times. Secure in the belief that Ash hadn’t left the room, the League Champion changed his clothes and took a seat on the couch, turning on the TV.

“This was the scene in Johto’s Goldenrod City as the police closed in on yet another Team Rocket member, who apparently vanished into thin air down the abandoned elevator shaft!” the Jubilife News Reporter was saying, and off the bat, Gary frowned. “While many speculate that the boy, Ash Harrison, younger brother to Pewter City’s gym leader, Brock Harrison, may have died and his body dragged away by Ghost- or Poison-type pokémon in the area, Johto’s Police Force claims they will continue their search until a body is found. Not long after, Olivine City’s Harbor seems to be infested with a number of Pikachu, who use Flash whenever someone tries to get near them, signaling more of their nest to join. As of yet, no one is quite certain why the pokémon are signaling to each other, or which one started it, for that matter.”

Gary’s frown deepened. As the station went into Hoenn’s contests, he flipped the channel to a movie station instead. A man was inching along the outside rim of a luxury liner, moving from one porthole to the next as Sharpedo hopped alongside the boat, snapping at his feet…

Just then there was a yelp from the bathroom, and instantly Gary bolted over, all but kicking down the door as he barged in. “What the hell is going on in here?!”

Instantly, Ash’s foot was in his face. “Don’t you knock?!!” the raven-haired male demanded, quickly securing the short, blue towel hanging from his hips.

Rubbing his cheek, Gary yelled, “What was that for?!”

“Why did you come running in here, you psycho?!” Ash narrowed his eyes at him. “Are there pills you should be taking that I don’t know about?”

“I thought you were doing something stupid!” Gary defended himself, pointing at the movie on TV in the main room. The movie character had fallen into the Sharpedo-infested water.

Ash looked past Gary at the TV, then flushed an angry crimson. “Why would I try climbing around the outside of a boat?! Everyone knows you could get killed doing that! Just look at how the movie ended!” he snapped.

Gary shrugged, huffing. “I certainly wouldn’t have put it past you.” he said, then looked pointedly at his rival’s tight, wet stomach muscles. “…My god, you’re scrawny.”

“Get the hell out!!” Ash shoved Gary out of the bathroom and slammed the door shut behind him.

Pikachu, Meowth and Arcanine stared at Gary in amusement. He tutted at them. “What are YOU all lookin’ at?”

Just then, there was a knock on the door, and one of the staff was outside when Gary opened it. “Mr. Oak, I heard yelling in your room. Is everything alright?” she asked.

Gary opened his mouth to say he was fine, but then a wet arm slung around his neck as Ash leaned in. “What’s up? Is it time to eat yet?” He had only pulled on his boxers and pants, and hadn’t dried off his body.

“Oh!” The woman blinked at them dumbly, then began profusely apologizing. “I didn’t realize I was interrupting! I’m so sorry!”

“You weren’t interrupting anything!!” Gary said, turning bright red.

Ash nodded. “That’s right – I just finished! Can you bring us something to eat?”

Now the staff member was brilliant red. “O-Of course… I’ll be right back…”

As she hurried away giggling, Gary slammed the door and began throttling Ash. Pikachu rolled off the couch in a fit of laughter while Arcanine and Meowth watched their trainers scrap, unsure of how to react to the situation.
..................................................................................

...I dunno about you all, but if I were that waitress, I'd be pleased as fuckin' FRUIT PUNCH to see that. Maybe that's why she ran away giggling.

Hee hee~<3 Oh Ash, you adorable, clueless bastard.

*runs away from Gary*