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“Up and at ‘em, Ashey-boy!”
Ash groaned and snuggled deeper into his blankets, pulling his pillow over his face. He’d much rather down and ignore ‘em, and judging from Pikachu’s tiredly indignant chirp at the end of the bed as he cuddled closer to Ash’s leg they were in agreement about that. Jet-lag wasn’t something he often had to deal with, held off by the fact that he usually walked or took boats while crossing the world so his body never needed to deal with fast time-changes, but his mom had bought him a plane ticket to get him home from Alola fast to celebrate his win and now he was paying for it.
“Oh no you don’t, the sun isn’t even down yet!”
The blankets were abruptly yanked off of him, and Ash barely had time to worry at Pikachu’s distressed squeal as he was launched off the bed with them when he heard him being safely caught. He finally gave up on sleep, and sat up and glared. “What the heck, Gary?”
Gary smirked down at him, not looking the least bit ashamed of his actions. Pikachu was cradled in one of his arms, failing at his best pal duties by going straight back to sleep there instead of giving him a zap, and the other held a bundle of clothes that he tossed at Ash’s chest. “Here, your mom picked out something for you to wear so get out of those PJs. Seriously, it took you this long to earn that date and now you’re gonna pass out on me instead?”
“I— uh… huh?” Ash blinked at him, then flopped back down. Okay, it looked like he was actually still asleep and having a weird dream, because Gary wouldn’t be saying something like that in real life.
“You’ll be my boyfriend when we’re older, right Gary?” Gary said, pitching his voice high and childish, then shifted it just slightly to add a self-deprecating sting of arrogance as he replied to himself, “Yeah, right, win a Pokemon tournament and then I’ll go out with you.”
Ash blinked, stared at the ceiling for a long moment with his forehead furrowed, then finally sat up once more to stare at him. “I was eight!”
“Yeah, and since then you’ve entered every last Pokemon tournament you’ve come across.”
“I’m not just working to be a Pokemon master because I want to date you!” He threw his pillow at Gary’s face, knowing even before it happened that he would easily dodge it but scowling without real malice when it happened anyway.
Gary laughed, but there wasn’t any mockery to it like there once might have been. “Yeah yeah, you’re gonna be the very best for your own reasons.” Then he threw Ash a wink and added, “But dating me will be one heck of a bonus, right?”