Awakened Emotion
By Ashy-Boy

Something was making stinging, shrill sounds that were determinedly attempting to wake Gary Oak up. The thing also punched him. Twice. Thrice.

Gary mumbled something in annoyance and tried to push the irritating feeling away. He didn't want to get up, not yet...it was so warm and nice.

Except that warmness was weirdly heavy on him.

Gary blinked his eyes open slowly. He saw the roof straight above. The pattern seemed strange. After a while, he recognized where he was; this was professor Oak's living room. In fact, he was on the big sofa in professor Oak's living room.

"What the..." Gary mumbled, rubbing his eyes and yawning deeply. He didn't remember falling asleep in here. When he opened his eyes fully and turned his head downwards, he finally saw Eevee sitting on the floor and nudging him.

And then he saw Ash.

"What the..." Gary screeched as he got his upper body up to rest on his other arm. He stared at the black-haired boy lying partly on top of his body. He was evidently asleep; eyes closed, mouth half open, body nestling.

So that was what had made him feel so warm. A living blanket.

"Ash, get up from there," Gary growled. He was infuriatingly confused. Why was Ash sleeping on the couch with him - and what on Earth was Gary himself doing in here, anyway? It was afternoon, not morning. This was an embarrassing situation that he wanted to get out of.

"Ash," Gary said as he got angrier, "if you don't get up this very next second-" Still no response. The boy just closed his eyes tighter and suddenly cuddled up to him, grabbing his shirt and squeezing it tightly. Gary raised his eyebrows. Ash was cuddling him?

This was it. Gary pushed Ash off of him and got up from the sofa unbelievably quickly. That was when Ash woke up too, murmuring something and getting up from the uncomfortable position he had just been thrown into.

"What were you doing?" Gary asked aggressively.

"Huh?" Ash blinked sleepily.

"What were you doing, sleeping on me?" barked Gary.

"What's -? Why am I here - hey." Ash realized something. "But...I was outside when Jigglypuff sung! What am I doing in here?"

Gary stared at him. Now that Ash mentioned it, Gary did remember walking in his grandpa's fields before hearing the Jigglypuff's song. But Ash hadn't even been near him at the time.

"Someone must have taken us here," Ash said.

Gary didn't want to admit that he was thinking the same thing, so he just said, "But that doesn't explain why you were lying on me."

"What are you talking about?" Ash asked.

"When I woke up, you were half on me."

Ash blinked. "No I wasn't."

"Yes you were."

Ash blinked again and then - blushed. "Oh."

Gary said mockingly, "What did you dream of - teddy bears? You can cuddle them as much as you want, but I'm not one."

"I was asleep," Ash defended himself. "I didn't plan to sleep with you..." Then, after a moment, Ash realized what he had said. "I mean, sleep on you, or, I mean -"

Gary stared down at Ash. During those few seconds his mind built a picture of the second meaning of Ash's mistakenly chosen words.

"Okay, now I don't think you were dreaming about teddy bears," he said in a stinging voice.

Ash blushed even more deeply, but still said, "I don't have to tell you anything. What's the big deal anyway? I said I was asleep and I didn't mean to sleep anywhere near you."

Instead of answering, Gary just sat back down onto the couch. Ash took a better posture and prepared to hear some more vicious comments, but surprisingly, Gary didn't say anything.

After a moment of silence, Ash finally asked, "Gary, are you okay?"

"Of course I am," snarled the other boy. "I'm just thinking."

"About what?"

Gary sneered. "Why do you have to be so curious?"

"Why do you have to be so disagreeable?" Ash shot back.

"I'm not disagreeable. I just don't want you to know everything I think about."

"I didn't mean that!" Ash almost shouted. "C'mon, Gary, aren't we ever going to get over this ridiculous arguing period?"

Gary fell into silence, staring at Ash. The black-haired boy was also a bit surprised at what he had just said. It didn't feel like he hadn't meant it- not at all. It just...kind of came out of the blue that he had actually said the thought out loud. The thought he had hidden ever since they had both started their journeys.

"Why do we always argue, anyway?" Ash added.

Gary was almost going to reply with yet another mean word, but then he thought about it again. Maybe...maybe it wasn't so necessary.

So Gary just kept quiet and sat there next to Ash, not looking at his eyes.

Eevee made a concerned sound, poking Gary's legs and looking at him worriedly. Gary leaned to stroke its fur and whispered softly, "It's okay, Eevee. There's nothing to worry about."

Eevee cheerfully peeped its name, turned its back and jogged out through the half-open door, leaving the two boys alone.

Ash watched as the other boy straightened up and leaned his back against the sofa's back rest.

"I was thinking about how did I - or well, we - get here instead of just falling asleep somewhere out there in the yard," Gary said, trying to speak calmly. "Maybe some of the Pokemon found me and got someone to carry me in here." Gary's brow furrowed. "Pikachu was with you, wasn't he? Where is he now?"

"Umm..." Ash mumbled. "Well, he actually wasn't. He was...somewhere...playing, I guess."

Gary looked at Ash, raising his eyebrows. "You guess? So you aren't sure of where your Pokemon are most of the time?"

"I didn't say that," Ash said, getting outraged again. "Pikachu isn't here, so he probably got someone to carry us here. He's awake somewhere - getting to know Eevee, perhaps. If Eevee isn't as arrogant and selfish as you are."

Gary gasped.

"Or at least you try to be arrogant," Ash continued. "And I just don't get the point of it."

"I'm not trying to be anything," said Gary. "And besides, now that I think about it, I'm pretty sure I saw your Pikachu sneaking around me just before I fell asleep. Am I right?"

Ash swallowed his counter-arguments. "W-what?"

"You heard me. What was Pikachu doing? Spying on my training methods for you? Too bad I wasn't training."

"I haven't told him to spy on you," said Ash aggressively. "I was taking a walk around the fields with my Pokémon when Pikachu suddenly ran away. I trust him, so I wasn't worried."

Gary gazed at him suspiciously.

"How about your Eevee? Why was it awake?" Ash changed the subject.

"Well..." Gary started to speak slowly. "Actually...he ran off from me just like Pikachu ran away from you."

"That's weird."

"Yeah."

Ash fell into his thoughts. Why had Gary become so angry after waking up? Maybe Gary just didn't like being touched - but it was an accident, anyway. And the boy had looked so confused...or was that just Ash's imagination? Why would Gary be confused for the same reason that Ash was? It was definitely just his imagination gone wild after that dream he had had.

The dream about Gary.

Ash felt his cheeks grow hot again and tried to push the dream out of his mind. Gary was there, sitting next to him, and he didn't want him to notice anything weird.

And as if Gary had read his mind, he asked, "Are you okay? You look weird."

'Perfect,' thought Ash.

"No, I mean yes, everything's fine," he muttered. "I'm just...still sleepy."

"You didn't want to wake up from some nice dream, did you?" Gary grinned.

Is this possible?

"Why wouldn't I want to wake up from a dream that included you?"

Gary's grin went even wider. 'Damnit,' Ash swore in his mind. That line was supposed to be irritating, not so...revealing.

"You dreamt about me?" Gary asked. He looked very amused, like he was listening to a kid telling fairy tales.

Ash didn't have a chance to deny it anymore, so he nodded. "Well, you were...a part of it."

"So I was kind of the main character."

Ash grumbled. "Says who?"

"Your body language."

Ash didn't answer.

"So, you keep losing to me even in your dreams?" Gary kept grinning.

Ash sighed. "Actually, we had quite good relationship."

"Oh? Really?"

"Yes, isn't it hard to believe?" Ash smiled sarcastically. "We were at the highest spot in Pallet town. The place where we used to play when we were kids, remember?"

Gary nodded.

"First, I was there alone and I was looking at the town," Ash told him. "Then you came along and...and..."

"And?" Gary raised his eyebrows.

Ash thought about it for a moment before continuing. "You sat there next to me, so we were just like we are now...and you started to say something odd about how you wanted to start this all over from the beginning."

Gary's amused expression slowly faded away. He stared at Ash, waiting for him to continue, but the black-haired boy didn't. So Gary decided to resume the conversation himself.

"So, we sat there next to each other...that's all?" he questioned.

Ash didn't look at him. "Hmm."

"Are you sure?" Gary asked quietly.

They both looked at each other's eyes for a while, deep green ones staring into chocolate brown ones. During those quick one or two seconds, Ash thought he had just seen something...something hidden.

"No," Ash replied.

"Well, what happened then?" Gary didn't break the eye contact between them.

Neither did Ash. "You touched me."

After those words, Gary brought his hand to Ash's arm, stroking it lightly. "I touched you?"

"Like this," Ash said, lifting his hand up to touch Gary's cheek softly. "And..."

"And?" Gary whispered, recognizing that his breath had sped up a little. But he didn't care. He wanted to hear more. He wanted to hear it.

"And then you woke me up," Ash finished the sentence.

Gary blinked.

"I woke you up," he repeated.

"Yeah," said Ash. "If you can't remember, you practically threw me off the couch when you woke up."

Gary couldn't have imagined himself doing so, but he blushed. For once, he really regretted something he had done; ending that dream of Ash's. This situation was...new, totally, and Gary also knew it wouldn't happen again very soon. Ash was opening up to him, and even Gary himself had managed to lower his guard. Maybe he was able to bring his thoughts up at last. This seemed to be the only chance.

"What if..." Gary whispered, "what if you had just continued that dream?"

Ash had dropped his hand down from Gary's cheek, but he still had that intensity in his dark eyes. "What about it?"

Gary moved to better position, so that he was sitting very close to Ash. He put his hand on Ash's cheek like the boy had done for him, but he didn't just let it lie there; his thumb began to stroke the soft skin. "This was the situation, wasn't it?"

"Well-" Ash's voice cut off when he stared into Gary's waiting, sparkly eyes.

"You were alone, I came along, we looked at the town together. I stroked you, and?"

"Actually," Ash breathed, "I never said you stroked me. You started that by yourself."

Gary's face seemed to show that he was going to pull his hand away, because Ash quickly replied, "But that doesn't mean you should stop doing it."

Gary smiled.

"So, what would have happened then?"

"I - I don't..." Ash coughed. "Probably..."

"Say it," Gary found himself whispering.

Ash looked at him, swallowed and said, "Probably, you would have kissed me."

Gary had some kind of evil grin on his face. "I would have kissed you."

"What's with you, repeating everything I say?" Ash tried to tease, but his nervousness showed through. And Gary didn't seem to listen anyway. His eyes glowed in a way Ash had never seen before.

And then Gary was there, against him. Ash's world had filled with Gary's scent before he realized that the brunette was kissing him - actually kissing him. Gary's fingers were seeking through his hair and his lips were moving against his own, and that was when Ash finally decided to give everything he had to that boy.

So he kissed him back hard.

Ash really began to think that anything Gary ever did, he did it incredibly well. Ash quickly forgot who and where he was while Gary's tongue slipped into his mouth. It felt like it tasted every bit of Ash, sending up waves of strange electricity through the boy's body. Then, in the next second, Gary had taken Ash's tongue between his teeth and sucked its tip. Ash couldn't block a quiet groan escaping from his throat.

After a moment, Gary broke the kiss and leaned his forehead against Ash's.

"Gary, are you okay?" Ash asked quietly, breathing heavily.

"Is this the time to wake up?" Gary replied with another question, still refusing to open his eyes.

"If...if you want to," said Ash.

"I don't."

They both just sat there against each other, Gary's fingers still in Ash's hair, Ash holding Gary's hips.

Suddenly, Gary whispered something Ash couldn't catch.

"What did you say?" Ash raised his head and saw Gary opening his eyes. Now they were full of emotion.

"I love you," sighed Gary.

Ash smiled. "I love you, too."

"For all my life, I have loved you."

Ash couldn't help the tears gathering in his eyes. He tried to push them away - for Moltres's sake, he wouldn't cry a single tear in front of Gary! - but the passion in Gary's eyes was too much for him. His voice shook when he said, "You've got a funny way of showing it..."

"Shut up, loser," Gary snickered. "This morning - or afternoon, whatever it is now - I freaked out because of you...and that's why I yelled at you, sorry about that. I thought I was out of my mind when I saw you sleeping there."

"Oh?" Ash blinked. "Why?"

"I have imagined that scene a million times, and then..." Gary turned his head so he didn't have to look at Ash's eyes, "then you actually were there. Here. With me."

Ash didn't know what to say. Yes, he had desired to bring his feelings up and have them returned, but now, when he heard Gary actually saying these things, he couldn't believe them.

"Bless that Jigglypuff," Ash finally said.

Gary smirked and kissed him again.

Behind the door were Pikachu, Eevee and Jigglypuff. They were listening to the boys' voices.

'This went pretty well,' peeped Eevee.