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Gary Oak was many things—in his obviously humble opinion, all good things—, but patience had never been a virtue graced upon him, no matter how many times his grandfather gave him lectures on the importance of possessing it.
Besides, when dealing with Ash Ketchum, being patient was a path that would surely end in madness. That was what Gary thought as he marched to Ash's house to bang at the front door, remembering a second too late that his friend had mentioned his mom wouldn't be at home that morning.
"Friend", right. Gary was seriously reconsidering giving the clumsy boy that title.
Giving up would be the sensible thing to do, but Ash had promised he wouldn't miss the event this time, that he would be up first thing in the morning, even before Gary himself, he would see it, trust it. He did not trust it, and for good reasons.
Fuming, he rounded the corner to find the window to Ash's room, though it was currently ajar, instead of a wide open for a change.
"Ash, it's time to wake up!" He yelled, dragging out the “a” with an annoyed tone to it. As expected, there was no response, or even a glimpse of movement that might signify Ash was up and about. Gary threw a rock at the window. "C'mon, stupid, if you don't wake up I'll catch all the pokémon myself!"
Not that they were actually supposed to catch pokémon at camp today, but provocation like that had a success rate of 100% in getting Ash riled up. At least when he was awake to hear it.
He made sure to huff and grumble as rock after rock hit the frame of the window, the glass of it making noises that startled Gary, thinking he might have gotten it to shatter this time. Even he didn't trust his luck that much, which is why the rock strategy was quickly set aside.
It worked in his favor that the tree at the side of the house happened to reach just outside Ash's room, and so, he let his ammo of rocks fall to the ground with a thud, and proceeded to climb said tree.
"You better thank me for this, you hear that, Ash?" Gary yelled on on the way up, wincing as the bark dug into his palms. "And you owe me at least twenty limited edition trainer cards."
Thankfully, climbing trees wasn't a new activity for Gary, and he reached the branch closest to the window rather quickly. He watched the room inside for a moment, checking if the window was open enough (it was) and how much impulse he'd have to use to fall right through it. Perched precariously on the branch, Gary took a few steps closer, feeling the leaves trembling beneath him.
He took a deep breath. "Alright, here we go…," Gary whispered, counting to three in his head, then leaping with as much strength as his legs allowed.
For a terrifying moment, he thought he wouldn't make it, but his body collided against the window and threw it open, propelling him inside. His shoulder hit the ground first, then his chin, and his eyes tear up at the sudden jolt of pain. Gary hurriedly sat up to rub the tears away, grateful Ash hadn't seen him almost cry from just a little fall.
As he stood on his feet, brushing some dust off of his clothes, Gary caught his reflection in the window: a bright red spot had already appeared on his chin. He resolutely ignored it, if only because he had a more important mission to take care of at the moment.
During the whole ordeal, Ash had stayed cuddled up to his Snorlax plush toy, snoring lightly like he didn't have a care for all the effort Gary was going through for his sake.
It was only fair that Gary pulled him right onto the unforgiving floor.
"Wh…" Ash had the gall to mumble, blinking up at Gary.
"Oh, so you're alive," Gary commented, giving Ash a skeptical look. He nudged Ash's side with his foot. "I wasn't too sure."
"Stop it!" Ash said, slapping Gary's foot away. "What are you doing in my room?"
"I don't know, what are you doing in your room ?"
"That makes no sense, I live here." Ash frowned at him, eyeing Gary like he had lost a few brain cells.
Gary rubbed at his forehead so he wouldn't slap it altogether. "Ash?"
"Yeah?"
"What time do you think it is?"
Ash stopped, stared at Gary. Glanced at the window. Stared at Gary again. "Dunno, morning?"
"Ugh! And you promised you'd remember properly this time!" When there was no change in Ash's confused expression, he threw his hands up. "We're late for Gramps' camp, you idiot!"
"I'm not an idiot, you are!" Ash rebutted, entirely out of habit. The rest of Gary's sentence hit him just a second later. "Ah!"
"Yeah, ah!"
"Gary, what do I do?!" Ash yelled, ready to bolt out of the door still in his pajamas.
Gary dove for Ash's wardrobe, digging for clothes and throwing them at their owner. "C'mon, we can still make it. You have two minutes."
"What? That's not enough time!" Ash complained, clutching his clothes.
"One minute."
That was enough to have Ash madly hopping on one foot to try and change his pajama pants into shorts. With Gary glaring at him from the sidelines while shoving supplies into his backpack—Gary was a good friend like that—, they make it out of the house under three minutes.
The look on his Grandpa's face when they finally skidded to a stop in front of him and all the other kids, panting for breath, was part amusement and part exasperation. He made sure to give him a thumbs up for good measure.
"We actually made it…" Ash wheezed next to him, clutching at his knees as he tried to catch his breath.
"Oh, clumsy boys number one and number two are here," a new voice said, prompting Ash and Gary to both level a glare at the person.
A kid he had never seen before was watching them, the girl beside him not so gently nudging him with an elbow.
"Gou, don't be rude!" The girl fervently whispered.
"So your name is Gou," Gary said. "Who the hell are you?"
"Maybe I would tell you if you got here earlier," the kid replied defiantly.
Before Gary could think of a response to that, his Grandpa put a hand on his shoulder and smiled calmly at the group. "Now, children, no fighting. Ash and Gary got here and we can leave for our camp, and that's what matters." He looked down at Gary. "And mind your language, please."
Ash snorted at the reprimand, so Gary stuck his tongue out at him, the gesture returned in kind—though very discreetly, behind his Grandpa's back.
Once the small group got walking, Ash fell into step beside him, eyes glued to a head of black hair. "That kid has this really smug aura, don'tcha think?"
Gary nodded his assent.
"Kinda like you," Ash continued.
Gary kicked him in the shin; Ash kicked right back.
They bickered for a little longer, until his Grandpa turned with a smile, and both Gary and Ash sprung away and whistled innocently. The professor pointedly didn't comment on their behavior.
"Do you know what pokémon is that?" His grandpa asked, looking at each each kid to encourage them to speak up.
"Oh, here he goes," Ash muttered, heaving a sigh as Gary grinned.
"It's a—"
"A Kakuna, the cocoon pokémon!"
Gary blinked, surprised at hearing a response that didn't come in his own voice. Ash stared at Gou with the same level of bewilderment.
"He actually said it faster than you, Gary," Ash whispered fervently.
"Yes, I can see that."
His grandpa praised Gou for the correct answer, then promptly pointed to a bird marching along with a leek held in its wing.
"What about that one?" Gramps asked.
"That's a Farfetch'd," Gary hurried to answer, startling Gou just like Gary himself had been before. "It holds a leek in its mouth, and uses it like a sword to cut things," he added, reciting the information he remembered reading in an encyclopedia before.
His Grandpa looked like he had something to say, but Gou looked to the side, pointed, and declared: "And that's a Diglett." The pokémon in question bobbed its head in response. "It's a pokémon who eats roots."
Gary pointed behind a tree, and Gou stretched to peer behind it. "This is Dugtrio, it's Diglett's evolved form! It's really strong—"
"And it can dig over sixty miles underground!" Gou completed, before Gary could fully finish his sentence.
"How did you know that was what I was gonna say?" Gary asked, now truly impressed—and going by the amazed "ooh"s and "aah"s from the other kids, he wasn't the only one.
"Any good trainer should know, right?" Gou said, grinning.
"You got that right," Gary agreed easily.
"Oi, you two, I'm still here, you know?" Ash whined from where he was standing next to the girl with the long side braid (Gary thought he heard her name was Koharu?).
"Oh, you were there," Gary deadpanned, laughing at Ash's outraged cry that followed.
"Gou, and you too," Koharu pointed at Gary, "you're both being rude to the professor."
"It's fine, it's fine!" Gramps insisted, rubbing Gary's head as he said it. "I'm used to it by now," he told Koharu in a faux whisper.
Gary couldn't bring himself to feel guilty about that.
It was only after a minute of walking that Gary realized him and Gou had fallen into step together, with Ash and Koharu lagging behind them with different levels of exasperation on their faces.
Ignoring them, Gary turned towards Gou. "You know a lot about pokémon," he commented.
Gou blinked at him like he didn't understand that Gary was talking to him, but finally smiled smugly, hands on his hips. "Yup, I studied it all myself! I spend all my time studying pokémon, so I know everything about them." He paused, looked away. "...You?"
"Gramps helped a lot."
"Gramps?"
Gary pointed to the man leading their group. "That's him."
Gou's eyes did this thing, like Ash seeing a new pokémon or eating his mom's cooking: it got huge on his face, and it sparkled with uncontrollable excitement.
"He's your grandfather ?"
Gary nodded proudly. "Yup. He lets me into the lab all the time, I get to see all the pokémon whenever I want."
"Then just like Koharu's father with me," Gou said. They smiled at each other.
"What's this, what's this?" Ash's voice rang, and his body was soon squeezing itself between the two of them. "Are you two friends now?! I want to be friends too!"
"Ugh, we're not friends. We met, like, five minutes ago." Gary shoved Ash away, ignoring his pout and Gou's disappointed look. "Don't go getting the wrong impression."
"But—"
"Pokémon evolve, they're creatures who can change their appearance and form," Gramps was explaining
Gary froze; Gou did too. Their right hands shot up.
"But not all of them evolve," both of them said, like a choreographed number. They stared at each other.
"Right, Professor?"
"Right, Gramps?"
Behind them, Koharu muttered: "Oh, there's two of them now…"