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“You’re not letting him go, are you?” Ash asked
They were on their way back to Kanto, and Ash smiled at the way Gou was hugging Raboot, currently sitting on his lap with a big blush on his face
“You want to let go?” the boy asked and Raboot quickly denied with his head “See, he doesn’t want to” the boy commented proudly and Ash chuckled
“I’m happy for you Gou, you and Raboot are a fantastic team”
“Thank you” the boy said, looking away, attempting to hide his blush, Raboot did the same, not wanting to admit the human was right.
“It’s a good thing that we came for the Beautifly Migration, now that you resolved your differences” Ash said
“Or, as you called it, the Beautifly Relaxation” Gou commented, laughing
Ash frowned for a moment, but he couldn’t be mad at Gou for long, not especially if he was so happy right now.
“Well, relaxation is important” he countered “but you don’t seem to get that yet”
“Huh? What do you mean?”
“You’re always so serious and tense; you don’t even know how to relax”
“What about the games we play? Drawing Pokemon with you helps me relax” Gou confessed, a small blush appearing on his cheeks once again
“You always turn those in some kind of competition” Ash replied and Pikachu nodded
“I- I d-don’t do that!”
Gou looked down; Raboot was staring at him, also nodding. He let go of his Pokemon, pretending to be offended, but Raboot simply grabbed his arms, forcing the boy to hug him for a little bit more.
“See, even he agrees, you simply don’t know how to relax”
“Would you teach me? You always look so happy and ready for anything, I don’t think I ever saw you not-smiling” Gou commented and now it was Ash’s turn to blush
“Sure!” the trainer replied with a smile “Let’s begin with something simple, look outside the window”
Gou did exactlly that and stared at the coastline of Littleroot Town, thinking about all that happened in the previous days, if it weren’t for Ash’s intervention, then maybe he’d never found out what Raboot was doing at night, he maybe would never understand why he was dancing, or he could never apologize to him…
Gou was unable to focus on the sea, the sky, the trees; the Tauros trotting in the distance, his mind would go back to Ash over and over again
“You’re still too tense” a known voice interrupted his thoughts and Gou looked at his side, Ash was staring at him with a worried expression
“What’s on your mind?” the boy asked, and Gou quickly invented an excuse
“The ocean, it’s beautiful”
“It is” Ash replied “But you’re not watching it”
“What makes you say that?”
“I see your eyes moving left and right Gou, you’re overanalyzing things again”
“I was thinking about… something else” Gou commented, unable to confess
“Then if seeing things doesn’t work for you, let’s try some music” Ash offered, pulling out a pair of headphones from seemingly out of nowhere
“I’ve never seen you listening to any music” Gou commented
“There’s a lot you don’t know about me” Ash replied
“There’s a lot about you I’d like to learn” Gou said to himself
“What was that?”
“Nothing” Gou said, turning around and gulping “Music, you said…”
Ash approached to his friend and put the headphones in his ears. Gou gulped when he noticed how close Ash was to him, but remained silent
“Just relax” Ash insisted, starting to play the music
A faint sound of guitars invaded Gou’s head and the boy tried to seat more comfortably, closing his eyes and forgetting for a moment of the fact that Ash was seated right next to him…
When that same thought crossed his mind again, just a few seconds later, Gou opened his eyes and looked at Ash. The boy raised an eyebrow and asked:
“Do you want me to change the music?”
Gou denied with his head
“No, it’s fine”
“Then relax!” Ash commented, pushing Gou back against his seat “and close your eyes”
Raboot jumped to the floor, free of his trainer’s grasp, Gou was about to complain, but the Pokemon turned around and smiled, confirming things between them were alright. Maybe that was one of the reasons why Gou couldn’t relax, in the past few weeks he had been so worried about the fact Raboot could hate him, or not being around him…
He closed his eyes and tried again.
He was going back home, with lots of pictures and videos of the Beautifly Migration, Raboot was happy with him again, his Pokemon couldn’t hide his smiles anymore, and that made Gou even happier, everything was fine, everything was great and…
Someone was breathing at his side, and Gou went completely still. That strange, strange boy, what he was up to now? He tried to figure out what exactly Ash was doing without opening his eyes; he felt his breathing, maybe a little accelerated, but nothing out of the ordinary…
Gou immediately realized he did know how Ash breathes regularly and slapped himself, Arceus, he was such a stalker…
The sensation continued, and Gou felt something else, something barely touching the side of his neck, something like a very little comb, was that Ash’s hair, or the boy was doing something to his own hair?
Unable to focus on the music anymore, Gou opened his eyes and noticed how Ash sat upright in his side of the seat almost immediately
“What were you doing?” the boy from Vermillion City said
“The music didn’t work, huh?” Ash asked, changing the topic
Gou denied with his head, realizing it wouldn’t make sense to insist with his question
“I’ve got another idea, then” Ash exclaimed, taking Gou’s hand and dragging him all the way to the food cart.
It seemed impossible to relax every time Ash touched his hand, Gou considered. The boy was so strong but gentile at the same time, and his heart started to beat faster, if only Ash knew how he made him feel every time their hands touched or their faces were too close…
“Gou”
And the way he said his name, the sound of his voice, oh, he could relax listening to that kind of music…
“Gou”
If only Ash would say something else after his name, something like those three words Gou wanted to tell him since the moment he started to have feelings for him…
“Gou!”
The boy blinked back to reality, he was sitting on the table with a plate of soup in front of him. Ash, Pikachu and even Raboot were staring at him, and the boy from Pallet Town decided to talk:
“Everything okay?”
Gou nodded mechanically
“I wanted to talk about that thing you do, actually” Ash continued
“That thing I do?”
“Yeah, sometimes it’s like you’re disconnected from everything, I say your name or try to tell you something and you just don’t react at all, how do you do that?”
“I just have a lot on my mind” Gou said, and he actually wasn’t lying
“Like what?” Ash pressed
But Gou just remained silent, eating his soup, after a few seconds, he started to smile and Ash commented:
“There it is, I knew the carrot soup would make you smile”
“How?”
“It’s your favorite soup, after all” Ash confessed, scratching his cheek “Or at least, that’s what I think, you always order it when we are travelling to another region”
“You were right” Gou said, trying to ignore the fact that his crush knew his favorite dish “Food does help me to relax”
“Then you should try one of my croquettes” Ash said, picking up one of them with his fork and offering it to the other boy
Gou was surprised by the action and couldn’t restrain himself from commenting:
“I thought you didn’t like to share your food”
“I never said that” Ash replied defensively, letting go off the fork
“The day before yesterday you literally said you wouldn’t like anyone asking for your precious croquettes, not even one”
The Pallet Town trainer froze for a moment, but insisted on his offer and placed the croquette on Gou’s empty plate
“You’re not asking for it, I’m giving it to you” he explained with a smile
“Why?”
“Because I want you to relax, of course!”
Gou stared at his crush for a few seconds; something was definitely off today
He failed to notice how Raboot and Pikachu were exchanging some suspicious looks…
A few hours passed, and Ash and Gou took a flight back to Kanto. The boy from Pallet Town chose the seat right next to the window and stared at the night sky, pensive. He looked at Gou; the boy was too busy checking something on his phone, his face a weird mix between curiosity and concentration…
“I’m out of ideas” Ash confessed out of nowhere
Gou put the phone on his lap and raised an eyebrow
“Ideas about what?”
“Helping you to relax”
“Are you still thinking about that?” Gou asked, chuckling “Don’t worry about it, I’ll find my own way to relax eventually”
“I don’t accept it!” Ash claimed and Gou laughed as his crush made some sort of dramatic pose “I need to find a way to help you!”
Ash got up from his seat and went to the aisle, shaking Pikachu and Raboot, who were trying to sleep. The two Pokemon opened their eyes and Ash questioned:
“Can you help me to find a way to make Gou relax?”
Both Pokemon nodded and ran towards the Vermillion City boy, motioning him to get up. Gou did it and Pikachu and Raboot intertwined their paws and started to twirl around together.
“You want us to… dance?” Gou asked
“Rab! Rab!” Raboot nodded, clearly showing this was his idea
“I’m not a good dancer!” Ash said, looking away and Gou wondered for a second why his face was so red
“And it’s dangerous to be standing on a plane” the other boy commented, although deep down he’d liked to dance with Ash
“Rab…” Raboot said, shooting a glare at his trainer
“It’s dangerous, so we won’t do it, end of discussion” Gou stated
Immediately, Pikachu jumped to Ash’s seat and curled up in a ball, pretending to snore loudly
“Well, of course sleeping its relaxing” Ash said “But that doesn’t help us very much”
Raboot and Pikachu then forced both of his trainers to return to their seats, when Gou was about to protest, the fire-type Pokemon pushed his trainer making him place his head on Ash’s shoulder
“Pika!” the electric Pokemon shouted, moving Ash’s hand and putting it on Gou’s lap
Both of the boys’ faces went fully red at the contact and they quickly separated
“S-sorry” Ash stammered “I bet that wasn’t relaxing at all”
“I don’t know what they were thinking” Gou muttered, looking at their Pokemon
“It felt that bad, huh?” Ash asked with a pang of sadness
“Not at all” Gou quickly corrected himself “Not for me, at least, I thought you might have been uncomfortable”
“Would be weird if I said… it felt fine having your head on my shoulder?” Ash asked
Gou looked at his crush, he could see the boy was obviously embarrassed, but he took the courage to reply
“No… Would be weird if I said… it felt fine having your hand on my knee?”
“No…” Ash said and remained silent
“So…” Gou whispered
“Want to try that again?” Both of them said at the same time and also at the same time, nodded
They returned to the previous position and stayed there, every once in a while, Ash would shift his position slightly, and Gou would move away. But every time Ash would take Gou’s head and placed it right back on his shoulder.
When the plane was about to descend and the lights dimmed out a little, Ash decided to ask:
“I think I know how both of us can relax at the same time”
“Really?” Gou questioned with curiosity “How?”
For all response, Ash took Gou’s chin lightly and placed a soft kiss on his lips. Gou froze at the sensation, but managed to relax as soon as he felt his crush touching his hand…
When the plane finally landed, the raven haired trainer asked:
“So, are you feeling relaxed now, Gou?”
The boy simply nodded and kissed Ash again, and none of them noticed how Pikachu and Raboot clasped their paws together, happily watching their trainers…