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Ash, Lana, Lillie, and Kiawe were exploring a small hideaway of Lana’s when it happened.
Mallow and Sophocles couldn't make it as Mallow had a big catering order with her dad and Sophocles decided to spend the day with his parents.
So it was just the four of them and their pokemon.
"Wow! This place is cool !" Ash grins as he looks in the small cave. It didn't lead anywhere and was just big enough to hold a room.
"It is pretty cool," Kiawe agrees with a smile as Lillie nods.
"What should we turn this into?" Lana smirks, crossing her arms.
"What about a-" Ash is cut off from his answer as a loud howl sounds out behind him.
They teens look towards the howl to see a pack of midday lycanrock glowing with white attack power.
The group gasps as the leader of the pack hefted up a large boulder and sent it flying. Straight towards ash.
Ash brought his arms up to guard his face but Pikachu jumps up and iron tails the rock.
The rock splits in half narrowingly missing ash, however a small piece breaks off and cuts ash near the eyebrow.
"Ash you okay?" Lana asks worriedly and Ash nods backing up from the lycanrock.
"We must have accidentally stumbled into their territory." Kiawe comments looking at Ash who was still trying to back away from the wild pokemon.
"We don't mean any harm" Ash says, holding up his hands in a surrender, it doesn't work as well as he would like it to with pikachu snarling at the wild pokemon.
There was a tense standoff as the teens try to figure out what to do, if they run the lycanrock take that as a sign to chase them, if they stay they will take it as a sign of aggression.
The teens try to figure out what to do before the pack decides to start attacking.
Pikachu was doing its best at dodging the attacks and keeping the rocks from hitting the humans but kiawe brought out turtonator anyway.
The turtle shielded Lana and kiawe the closest ones from the rocks.
A few rocks fell onto the spikes on the turtle pokemon and exploded.
The lycanrocks took that as even more aggression.
As the wild pokemon howled they triggered a rock slide, thankfully they were far enough away that most of the rocks missed.
Except for one headed straight for lillie.
She froze as she watched the rock come hurtling towards her.
" Lillie! " Ash shouts as he tackles her away from the spot the rock hit, the two stumble and not much could be heard besides the sounds of rocks tumbling down and screams from the teens.
Kiawe and Lana coughed as they held onto turtonator.
The dust started to settle before they heard Pikachu’s startled cry.
" Pikachu !?" The small pokemon was looking all around trying to find ash.
Underneath a small part of the rock was ash's hat.
Kiawe and Lana gasp in horror as they realize ash and lillie got trapped underneath the rock slide.
" Ash ! Lillie !" Lana shouts as she dares to venture to the wall of rocks now covering the little hole they were adventuring.
"Lana?" They hear Lillie cough from the otherside making her relax slightly.
"Are you and Ash okay?" Lana shouts to her as Pikachu continues to panic.
"I-i don't know it's really dark here" Lillie stampers, extremely nervous.
"Lana, go get someone to help, i'll stay here incase those lycanrock come back." Kiawe says and Lana looks back at him before looking back to the rock wall and back to him.
She nods to him determined before tuning back to the wall.
"I'm going to get help, lillie stay there!" She shouts before running off in the direction of the town, running as fast as she can.
Pikachu looks like it's about to iron tail the wall of rocks before kiawe picks it up.
"Pikachu, you can't, we don't know how stable it is, you could topple the entire cave." Kiawe says even as the pokemon starts to shock him.
Pikachu slumps before nodding and demanding to be put down.
Pikachu glumly picks up Ash's hat and puts it on its head.
"Pika pi chu!" Pikachu shouts at the wall and kiawe feels a bit of his heart breaking.
"They're going to be okay pikachu." Kiawe tries to reassure the pokemon sitting down at its level.
Pikachu just sits close to the wall with its ears down low, not looking at kiawe once.
" They're going to be okay.. " kiawes not sure if he's reassuring pikachu or himself.
It's so dark in here . That's all Lillie can think about as she tries to look around the dark cave.
She coughs slightly as she pulls out her phone.
Her phone lights up illuminating the cave around her and the cracked screen of her phone.
She shakily turns her phone's flashlight on, which was pretty much all she could do to her mangled phone.
When the light turns on she looks around the dim cave only to gasp as she finds ash.
He was lying on his back knocked out as he had rocks pinning him down.
He had a bunch of rocks precariously stacked on his legs and one large one pinning down his arm and half his chest.
" Ash !" She exclaims in horror as she covers her mouth with her hand.
"Pika?!" She hears a muffled cry from the otherside of the wall, pikachu must be so worried.
She hears a groan from ash as his eyes start to flutter open.
"Ash? Are you okay?" Lillie says as she sits down next to ash.
"Pikachu?" Ash mumbles confused and Lillie shakes her head.
"No it's me ash, lillie" Lillie gently says as she inspects the rocks on ash, if she moves one the could topple even more down.
"Oh lillie..." Ash starts to look like he's falling asleep before he snaps open trying to get up. " Whmhere pikachu? Pikachu! "
Ash keeps trying to get up, dislodging a bit of rock and piling a bit more onto himself.
"Ash, you need to stay still !" Lillie exclaims trying to force ash back down.
"Where's- where's pikachu?" Ash asks her wide eyed and panicked.
"Pikachu is safe and with kiawe ash." Lillie reassures and ash untenses and stops trying to get up much to Lillie's relief.
"What happened?" Ash asks, his speech starting to get a bit slurred.
"There was a rock slide, you saved me." Lillie says as she looks around the cave again looking for anything to help but she couldn't find anything.
"Oh, why is everything spinning?" Ash's voice is getting more slurred and Lillie looks at him worriedly.
She thinks back to the medical books she read, dizziness, confusion, loss of memory, she moves the flashlight over his eyes and sees that one of his pupils is much more dilated then the other.
"Ash, I think you have a concussion." She says timidly she's not entirely sure if he really does but she does know he's hurt.
"Not again." Ash whines making lillie smile shakily, same old ash.
Ash starts to drift off to sleep, making Lillie shake him as lightly as possible to keep him awake.
"You need to stay awake ash." She's not really sure if he does but a grumpy awake ash is better than an asleep and possibly dead ash.
"Hows pikachu?" He says as he is woken up. She chews on her bottom lip nervously before shouting out to kiawe.
"Kiawe! How's pikachu? Ash is worried!" She shouts as best as she can without knowing how good the rock stability is.
"Pikachu is fine and unharmed! It's very worried about ash though!" Kiawe says from the otherside, he sounds really nervous. More nervous then she thinks she's ever heard him sound.
"Is ash okay?" Kiawe asks and she looks down at ash.
"He's got a concussion and is pinned down by the rocks, one small movement and the entire thing can come tumbling over top of him." She chokes out and Ash looks at her slightly confused. She can hear kiawe's gasp even through all the rock.
Lillie doesn't know when she started crying but she realized it after she felt something wet drip down her cheeks.
"Why you sad?" Ash asks, starting to look worried, "don't be sad!"
"Because sad backwards is das, and das not good!" Ash reassures Lillie despite it supposed to be the other way around. But still Lillie let out a wet snort at Ash's awful joke making him look like a proud litten.
"I should be the one saying that to you ash" Lillie giggles slightly but the mood is sobered when a smaller rock becomes dislodged and puts more weight onto ash.
"Ow! Fuck !" Ash hisses out and Lillie panics, she doesn't know how she can help ash, her phone is too cracked to use beside a flashlight and kiawe left his at home, ash’s is buried under the rubble so all they can do is wait for Lana.
"Don' tell professor I said that." Ash grumbles referencing his curse of pain.
"I think a little swearing is justified ash." Lillie shakily smiles at ash, trying her best to stay calm and help keep ash calm. Despite ash being the entirely more calm one. And she doesn't think that it's the concussion keeping him calm. Well it probably has an effect but ash has always been laid back and calm even in the worst scenarios.
Lillie shifts so she's no longer sitting on her knees, she has no idea how long they are going to be here. She hopes not much longer.
Lillie puts her hand down on the hard ground only to stiffen as she feels something wet and very slick.
She shakily brings her hand up to the flashlight only to see fresh red blood on her hand.
She looks to where she put her hand only to see a puddle of blood seeping from underneath the rocks near ash's waist.
Lillie has to suppress the scream threatening to rip from her throat.
She shakily stands up and walks to the farthest part of the small place they are trapped in and wipes her hands on the wall.
She swallows the bile trying to escape as she can see the bloody handprint on the wall.
She sits next to ash again still really worried.
She is trapped in her thoughts as she sits next to her dying friend.
How will they get them out? Just small movements can get ash to be under more and more weight. How long will it take rescue to get here, it was about a thirty minute walk in the forest to get here, what if Lana gets lost, how long will they be stuck here? How can she keep ash alive? He's bleeding way too much to be healthy. He's going to bleed out if it doesn't stop. What if those lycanrock come back and trigger another rock slide?
Lillie is broken out of her worries when she feels something grab her hand.
She looks down and she's ash holding her hand smiling softly at her.
"We'll be okay," Ash says, nodding stiffly at her.
Lillie feels a fresh set of tears well up.
She's not even injured and Ash is the one reassuring her. She's the reason he's here in the first place, if he didn't tackle her out of the way he wouldn't be here, she would've been dead but he wouldn't be hurt.
"I'm sorry ash, I'm so sorry" she cries wiping her tears with her other hand as best she can.
"Not your fault" ash mumbles looking like he was about to fall back asleep before he snaps awake again.
Lillie didn't say anything, just bit her bottom lip and looked away.
It feels like her fault though.
"Uhm, ash!?" Lillie hears Kiawe yell and she shouts back.
"Yeah?" There's a small pause before kiawe shouts again.
"How do you calm pikachu? It's going to shock everything around it at this point!" Kiawe says from slightly farther away from the wall this time, pikachu must be pretty panicked.
"Pikachu?" Ash shouts this time, he winces and it must hurt a lot to yell for him.
"Pika!?" They hear pikachu yell and ash softens slightly.
"I'm okay bud! Don't panic!" Ash reassures his pokemon, and wow ash is the one they should be reassuring the most considering the situation but he seems to be reassuring everyone around him.
"Pika" Pikachu's cry is heard and Ash smiles softly.
"Just wait for the professors, we'll be out in no time just you wait." Ash grins determinedly at Lillie and she shakily smiles back.
"I haven't finished the essay yet" Ash pouts as he realizes this. Lillie starts giggling as she hears this, ash looks at her proudly as if getting her to laugh was the goal.
Knowing ash it probably was.
"I don't think professor kukui will mind," she tells him lightly, making ash grin.
"I hope so" Ash tries to laugh only to grimace.
"Tell me a story, one of your favorites!" Ash says and Lillie winces, he probably wants a distraction from the pain, he must be in a lot of pain right now.
"Uh-" she says as she cycles through a bunch of books she remembers thinking of the best one to tell ash.
"Do you know the story of the wolf and the woman?" Lillie asks Ash who shakes his head no.
"Okay well it starts with the woman..."
Kukui was shopping in the market when Lana came barreling towards him.
"Professor kukui!" Lana yells looking terrified, she also looks extremely out of breath.
"Lana is everything okay?" Kukui asks worriedly Lana has actual tears sprouting in her eyes.
She shakes her head explaining what was wrong. "Ash and Lillie got caught in a rock slide!"
Kukui feels his heart drop "have you called officer jenny yet?" Lana shakes her head no.
"Okay take me to them while I call officer jenny." He tells her seriously and she nods, turning around and sprinting off, kukui not far behind as he dials a familiar number in his phone.
They ran for about twenty minutes just to get there, Kukui and Lana nearly stumbling many times due to how fast they were going.
When they stumbled into the clearing officer Jenny on her way with medical on their way as well they saw kiawe very burnt and shocked looking extremely worried towards a large rock pile. Pikachu was sitting by the rocks despite how dangerous it could be for the pokemon if more rocks came down. Pikachu was holding onto Ash's hat as its ears were lowered.
Kiawe must've been shocked by a very worried pokemon.
"Kiawe! Are you okay?" Professor Kukui asks the worried teen.
"Yeah, yeah I'm fine but ash and lillie are behind those rocks, lillie told me ash was pinned by the rocks." Kiawe informs Kukui who feels his heart start to quicken in panic.
"Okay, stay calm, officer jenny is on her way" he tells him before heading to the rock wall where pikachu was.
"Ash? Lillie? Can you hear me?" Kukui shouts only to get Lillie to shout back, her voice hoarse from screaming and dust probably.
"We can hear you!" He hears Lillie from the other side and lets out a small breath of relief, they aren't dead and that's something.
"Okay, are you guys injured?" He questions, he doesn't know if he's ready for the answer.
"I'm not, but Ash has a concussion and has his entire lower half of his body pinned by rocks, along with half of his chest!" He hears Lillie shakily report on the other side, she's being so brave right now and as soon as he can he's giving all of his students hugs.
"Okay, officer Jenny is on her way, we'll get you out soon!" He tells them to try and reassure both of them, he hasn't heard from ash which is worrying but considering what lillie told him not exactly surprising.
"Can I have an extension on the homework?" He hears ash ask, his speech is extremely slurred and like he was breathless.
He also hears Lillie laugh slightly, so that must be what's keeping her so calm. That knuckle head of a kid.
"Sure ash, sure." Kukui confirms before looking to pikachu.
"It's not safe to sit here pikachu, we need to back up." Kukui gently tells the worried pokemon only for it to hiss at kukui with very sharp teeth and electricity trying to escape its cheeks.
"Ash wouldn't want you to get hurt, pikachu please ." Kukui squats down and extends a hand to the pokemon. Pikachu looks kukui in the eyes for a few lines seconds before it slumps nodding.
Hesitantly the pokemon walks away from the wall glancing at it every once and a while.
Poor pikachu, it's so worried about ash.
The pokemon will not let go of ash's hat and kukui doesn't blame it.
Lana and Kiawe are huddled close together, obviously needing comfort.
"How'd this happen?" Kukui gently asks the two, very aware about how close both of his strongest students were about to cry.
"We accidentally stumbled into a lycanrock pack, and they started to attack." Kiawe explains rubbing calming circles on Lana's back.
"Alright I'm going to call your parents but you guys need to get checked out by medical officials before you can leave." He tells them and they nod. Kukui steps forward and hugs them both, Kiawe is shaking against him and Lana seems to practically melt.
"It'll be okay guys." He tells them hoping it's true.
And fifteen minutes later officer jenny was there and two parents on their way.
He's got a very nervous pokemon next to him who is going to shock something soon.
And he's got a phone ringing.
Wait, he's got a phone ringing?
He pulls out his phone to see the caller, Burnet.
Crap he forgot to call Burnet.
He brings the phone to his face and prepares for the worried voice of his wife.
"Hey kukui, I haven't been able to get a hold of ash, can you call him?" Burnet asks and Kukui looks to the wall of rock currently separating his students and him.
"Yeah, about that, there's been a bit of a problem with the kids." Kukui tells her, wincing when he hears what he sounds like.
"Problem? What problem?" Burnet seems to be getting more worried now, honestly so was he.
"The kids were exploring the woods and bumped into a lycanrock pack, the lycanrock triggered a rock slide and lillie and ash got trapped." He could hear Burnet gasp before she probably put her hand over her mouth.
"Are they okay?" She asks first before asking next "where are you guys i'll be there soon."
Kukui sends her the GPS coordinates before he comments about the kid's health.
"Lillie seems to be fine, extremely scared but fine. Ash on the other hand..."Kukui grimaces as he thinks about how Lillie told him of his health.
"Ash got hit by a lot of the rocks, according to Lillie he has a concussion and has most of his body pinned by the rubble." Burnet catches her breath is heard as she starts up her car.
"Is he..? Burnet trails off and kukui frowns.
"He's alive but they are having trouble figuring out how to free the kids without crushing ash." Kukui sadly tells her, looking to the many emergency severest look around and try to find a solution.
"Oh ash how do you find yourself in these situations?" Burnet mumbles but Kukui looks at the car nearing by.
"Hey Lana's parents got here, I have to go." Kukui says into the phone seeing a familiar man drive up.
"Okay, stay safe, love you, ash too" Burnet quickly rambles off and kukui chuckles.
"Love you too, I'll tell ash you said that." Kukui smiles before he hangs up the phone and puts his phone away as Lana's father gets out of the car.
Lana immediately rushes to him and hugs the man who hugs her back.
Lana got in the back of the car after hugging Kiawe who was still waiting for his mother to fly over before she left.
At this point it's dark outside; the only thing lighting up the place is flashlights and pikachu's electricity.
Kiawe was standing off to the side looking at the rock wall in utter helplessness.
He's going to have to give these kids a few days off to recover from this traumatic experience.
Twenty minutes later Kiawe's mother flew in with her own Charizard and Kiawe jumped on the back.
Then it was just him, the emergency services, ash, and lillie.
With no kids to fake it for kukui let his determined, optimistic face off and let his fear show, let his worry show.
His kid is trapped underneath a very unstable pile of rocks.
How does ash get into these situations indeed?
He can't even see what most of them are doing since they taped off most of the area.
Kukui looks at Pikachu who has climbed up a tree and is curled into a tight ball around Ash's hat, his heart breaking slightly for the small Pokémon.
Burnet gets there almost five minutes later and as soon as she steps out of the car she races to Kukui, hugging him.
For about two minutes all the two of them did was hug the other, taking in the other's comfort.
"How is ash?" Burnet finally asks to pull away from her husband.
Kukui looks away, "I'm not sure, no ones telling me anything."
Burnet frowns worriedly before remembering something. "Hows pikachu?"
She has no idea where pikachu is, and considering how protective the pokemon is it could be with ash or be fighting its way to ash.
Kukui gestures upward and Burnet looks up. She spots a small pokemon curled in a ball around what looks like a hat.
"Oh pikachu.." Burnet worriedly sighs, it must be so worried.
"Come down here pikachu" she tells the Pokemon, that way the three of them can be worried together.
Pikachu picks up its head and glares at the professor before jumping up another two branches and sitting there.
"That is not good." Burnet murmurs to Kukui who nods.
The two of them stiffen however as they hear two screams from the blocked off part of the tape.
Burnet slaps her hand over her face in horror.
Pikachu lets out a growl with electricity starting to sprout.
"He's fine, he's fine, he's fine" kukui repeats like a mantra to the point it feels like an echo.
Burnet eyes fill with tears as the screaming stops and she lets out a shuddering breath.
The pair look at each other in desperation.
The rest of the night they were next to each other wrapped in a blanket as they prayed to the tapus to keep ash alive.
The sun was just starting to peek up at them when officer jenny came up to them to give an update.
It has taken 11 hours but they got most of the debris off, in about an hour if all goes well they can have the two brought out.
"You have a very brave son." She tells them. They knew.
This entire time they've been waiting and waiting and waiting to even know if ash will make it out alive. So when they heard ash was alive Burnet just crumpled, sobbing into her husband's arms.
Kukui just zones out, he stops taking in the world around him as he's had enough.
His son could've died, his son could still die.
And all they could do was sit and wait.
After an hour they watched as ash was carted up on the stretcher. He was waving one of his hands around ranting in kantonion about some story he heard.
The professors almost got sick when they saw the condition of his legs, they looked crushed, his arm was in slightly better condition but not great either. He was bruised from every angle and he had a lot of blood all over himself.
They wanted to puke.
Lillie was being looked over on the side, and she did not look good.
Her dress was ripped in multiple places, she had bruises and small cuts all over her body, her eyes were blotchy and red from crying.
She was covered in dirt and dust but the worst of it was the dyed color of her socks, dress, and legs.
They were dyed a deep red, hard and caked on.
It felt even worse knowing it was ash's blood all over her.
She was still tearing up from what she faced and Kukui couldn't blame her.
She was extraordinarily brave today being able to stay calm as she was forced in close quarters with a very hurt friend.
Kukui was proud of her. Of all his students today.
But he was a little distracted watching his son disappear behind closed ambulance doors and being carted off.
Pikachu, watching the entire thing, jumped off of its branch and looked like it was about to chase after the ambulance before Kukui picked it up.
"Come on, we'll drive there it's faster." Kukui tells it as he softly sets the pokemon down in the car, making sure Lillie was being taken care of. She was put in another ambulance, probably to make sure she really was okay and driven off.
Which left Burnet, pikachu, kukui and the rest of the officers who were cleaning up.
Burnet got in the driver's side of the car and Kukui got in the passenger. They drove off as fast as they could following the ambulances.
When they got there they were told ash went into surgery, lillie went for a brief checkup.
All they could do was wait and watch the little emergency sign above the doors.
Honestly kukui envied those who when waiting can pace around, like what Burnet and pikachu were doing.
Pikachu was walking around with ash's hat on its little head stopping every once and while to adjust it.
Burnet was biting at her nails while walking back and forth around the waiting room.
Kukui....
Kukui feels numb.
He crashed onto the nearest hard plastic chair he could and felt like his limbs were hundreds of pounds.
He could barely even twitch his fingers.
And tapu what was he going to tell Delia?
Her only son nearly died.
Kukui looks up and sees Burnet almost making her fingers bleed from the chewing.
With great effort he stood up and pulled her hands away from her face.
Then he pulled Burnet in for a hug, his shuddering breathing definitely being felt.
Kukui feels something wet drip down his face. It wasn't until he brought a hand to his face he realized he was crying.
Burnet led him to a chair where he sat, she sat next to him rubbing circles on his forearm.
Kukui lets out a sob as he leans into his wife.
How could this happen to their boy?
They've had to sit there as ash was toeing the line of life and death.
No clue how he was doing or if he was okay, or even what was happening to him.
Kukui bites his bottom lip to stop the sobs threatening to escape.
He needs to see ash again. He needs to see him smile bright and full of love for the world. He needs to hear the ugly snort of laughter Ash gets when Kukui tells an awful pun. He needs to see Ash's eyes light up with joy again after he wins a battle. He needs to hear the loud rambling he does whenever he's describing a fight he particularly enjoyed.
He just-
He just needs to see his son again.
He needs to see his keiki.
It wasn't until he felt something soft and fluffy brush up against his knuckles did he break out of his thoughts.
Kukui looks down and sees Pikachu rubbing his head on Kukui's hand.
Kukui softens as he picks up pikachu.
Pikachu is situated between himself and Burnet while the small pokemon coos softly.
It wasn't until Burnet started to pet pikachu, ash's little hat still held close to the pokemon did the pokemon finally let itself crack.
All throughout the entire ordeal Pikachu hasn't once shed a tear, just watched in panic as it could do nothing to help ash.
But pikachu finally let itself feel the pain it feels from its best friend being hurt near death.
The electric pokemon lets out some of the most heart wrenching sobs the small pokemon could let out.
The cries of the pokemon were full of grief and pain of losing your other half.
The small pokemons body shook as it cried, obviously terrified for ash.
It shoves its little head in ash's hat as it cries, Kukui feels his heart cracking.
"Oh pikachu..." Burnet sighs, she pulls the little pokemon up and cradles it close to her chest.
"Pika..." the pokemon continues to cry as a fresh set of tears falls from Burnet's eyes.
"I'm so sorry pikachu" kukui whispers to it, not at all breaking up the sobs of the pokemon.
Kukui wipes his own tears from his ears using his lab coat.
God they all look awful.
Pikachu is all muddy and slightly scratched from a few rocks.
Burnet is in her pajamas with her usual hair piece missing and hair all over.
Kukui is sure he's not better.
His bun has mostly slipped out of its usual place with a few strands that slipped out entirely, the hair tickling his neck in a way he's always hated. His coat is slightly ripped from running in the woods and catching on branches. His eyes are no doubtably red and puff like his wife's. His usually white coat has dirt and grass stains on it.
All three of them were tired, dirty, hungry, and thirsty.
With shaky legs, Kukui stood up and went to the vending machine nearby.
He inserted the money he was supposed to use for groceries into the machine and pressed the button for freshwater three times, a small bag of pokemon snacks for pikachu and two bags of pretzels.
After the food and water tumbled down, Kukui collected the food and went back to his little family, ignoring the missing gap that seems so wide.
By the time he got back pikachus sobs had dulled down to small hiccups, still not lifting its face from the hat.
He handed Burnet a bottle of water and a bag of pretzels. She puts the pretzels on the chair next to her but does drink from the water thankfully.
Ash would want them to be taking care of themselves.
Kukui ignores the fact he hadn't eaten or drank anything despite holding both.
Instead kukui opens the pokefood to try and feed pikachu.
Pikachu only lifts its head up just enough to glare at kukui.
The pokemon shakes its head ever so slightly before shoving its head back down into the hat.
Kukui takes his own hat off and runs a hand over his face.
Burnet shushes pikachu like you would a small child.
"You need to eat something pikachu, you haven't eaten since yesterday's lunch." Kukui gently tells the Pokemon, who still wouldn't let go of the hat.
Kukui grabs a small piece of kibble from the bag and brings it closer to pikachu.
The pokemon wouldn't budge even as Burnet gently guides pikachu to kukui's hand.
Pikachu starts to spark making both kukui's and burnet’s hair stand up on end.
"Pikachu please ." Burnet pleads with the pokemon, it does really need food.
Pikachu refuses to lift its head.
"At least a bit of water?" Kukui asks, opening a water bottle for pikachu and bringing it close.
It took a good ten minutes to get Pikachu to even drink from water, and they couldn't get Pikachu to eat anything.
By the end of it Pikachu had jumped out of burnet's arms and laid down on the chair next to her, ignoring both of them.
Burnet and Kukui shared a sad look before they moved on. Pikachu wasn't going to be able to be helped yet. The best they can do is offer food and water and hope the pokemon takes it.
One thing throughout the entire ordeal that they didn't take notice of was the press.
Press came during the rescue but they thankfully didn't go near kukui or Burnet so they let it slip behind their mind filled with worry.
It wasn't until hala and Olivia barged into the hospital did they realize that the news got out about ash and lillie.
"Hey hey hey, are you guys okay? Are the kids okay?" Olivia asks as she goes to her friend, Burnet and Olivia have been close for a while, they are drinking buddies.
Meanwhile hala went to kukui and softly asked if everyone was okay.
"Lillie-" kukui tries to update but it feels as if his voice was failing "lillie seemed fine when she was pulled out... ash..."
Kukui's shoulders shake and his fists clench as he thinks about ash.
"Ash is still in surgery" Burnet tells the kahunas with a wavery voice.
"Oh poor boy" hala sighs with a mournful look on his face.
"Hey pikachu, how are you holding up?" Olivia asks the pokemon currently curled in a ball around the hat.
Pikachu glares at Olivia, sparking warningly.
Olivia pulls her hands back in a surrender motion.
"Pikachus not taking it well, it won't eat and we barely convinced it to drink anything." Burnet says softly, petting pikachu throughout it all.
"Chu.." Pikachu whines muffled by the hat.
"Poor pikachu.." Olivia sighs, her face softening.
"It'll get better" Olivia tries to reassure the pokemon only for pikachu to shock her.
"Ow!" Olivia shrieks when she is shocked, her hair sticking up in all different directions.
Waiting for ash to get out of surgery was hell.
Kukui and Burnet were on edge and felt like one small thing could push them both into uncontrollable sobbing. Pikachu was one comment away from exploding and destroying the entire building. Hala and Olivia were just trying to keep the three stable while Ash was on the operating table.
Finally, Finally the light blinks off and they aren't sure if it's a good thing or not.
After five minutes a doctor comes out to update them.
They scrambled up to meet the doctor, pikachu jumped up from the chair to land on kukui's shoulder, ash's hat still firmly planted on its head as it starts to shout at the doctor.
Pikachu's eyes were blown wide and ready to fight or run.
Kukui had Burnet's hand in his own both holding onto each other like they were going to disappear.
"It was a tough battle, but you have a strong son." The doctor tells them and they slump in relief.
"His heart stopped three separate times during the operation, and he almost didn't make it." Kukui's breath caught in his throat. Ash had died. Ash had almost fucking died.
"His legs were almost completely crushed and will need to have multiple reconstruction surgeries, we have no idea how his head is, but we won't be able to find out until he's awake." Kukui barely feels like breathing, he feels like everything is fading away.
"Unfortunately if he were to wake up now he would be in extreme pain so we have put him in a medically induced coma until the pain will be slightly less unbearable." Ash is in a lot of pain, he needs a lot of surgery and they have no idea how his brain is doing. Today feels like the worst day ever.
"Pika pi pikachu!" Pikachu snaps at the doctor who gives the pokemon a blank look.
"Anyway questions?" The doctor turns back to kukui and Burnet.
"Yeah, how long will he be asleep?" Burnet asks hesitantly but Kukui is just antsy to see his son.
"In about two weeks if it all goes perfectly and a month and half if it doesn't." Kukui tenses again, he's going to be asleep for weeks, he's not going to be able to see Ash's hazel eyes for weeks.
And finally, finally after hours and hours of waiting to even see if Ash was alive they get to see him again.
They walked into the smelly room (the type of smell where you can just feel in your brain as soon as you take it in) the lights felt like they were burning Kukui's eyes, and the beep, beep, beep sound grated on Kukui's ears.
But they were able to see ash, his entire arm and legs were casted, he had bandages and band aids scattered throughout with the one arm not casted held out with wires attached to it.
Over his face was a face mask that you could see the slight fog whenever ash breathed out.
His dark hair was everywhere around the pillow he was laying on.
He looked peaceful, but Kukui couldn't help but feel unnerved.
He just, he just looked so small, like the bed was swallowing him whole.
When Pikachu, still on Kukui's shoulder, saw ash it nearly sobbed in relief, before leaping off Kukui onto the bed with ash.
The pokemon took off ash's hat and ever so softly placed it on ash's head, it didn't stay though, instead the hat flipped off ash's head and was laid on the pillow above ash.
Pikachu looks at ash in desperation before it curls up in a tight ball next to ash's neck.
Kukui sits in the chair next to the bed delicately grabbing Ash's hand holding it, making sure not to mess up any of the wires.
Burnet sat in the chair next to him, leaning her head on his shoulder as she grabbed his free hand.
And that was how they could be found for the next while.
The silence was broken when Kukui's phone rang.
Kukui fumbled with his phone for a few seconds before he realized who the caller was.
Principal oak.
Shit he forgot to call in sick.
"Hello?" Kukui answers wincing when his voice sounds hoarse.
"Yes hello professor kukui, I saw what happened on the news, I've gone ahead and canceled your classes for the next week, the kids get a week off to recover, you get a week off to be with your boy." Principal oak updates kukui who sagged in relief.
"Thank you principal oak," Kukui says genuinely.
"Of course professor kukui, I hope ash has a good recovery" after that the two said their goodbyes and went back to what they were doing beforehand.
Ash felt like his body was on fire, everything hurt and everything was fuzzy.
Ash tried to open his eyes, his eyes fluttered open only to Immediately shut them again.
It was so bright ash felt like his eyes were burning.
He could feel a fuzzy something pricking by his neck.
Ash groans softly.
Why does everything hurt?
Where's Professor kukui? Where's Professor Burnet? Where's mama? Where's pikachu?
Where's pikachu?!
Ash forces his burning limbs to move, but he could only twitch his right hand, but it was covered in something.
Ash opened his eyes again, shutting them again when his eyes felt the white hot pain again.
"Ash? Are you here?" Professor Burnet? Where is he? Why does everything hurt?
Ash can feel the tears slipping out of his closed eyes.
"Pika?" Ash feels the fuzz on his neck move.
More tears slipped down as the pain burned more and more.
Ash twitches more as his pain grows.
"Is everything okay?" A new voice joins, someone he had no idea was.
"He's awake" professor kukui? Why was professor Kukui here? Why did everything burn?
Ash let out a whimper as another pump of lava pain through his blood.
Everything started fading out of his senses as the pain took over, his fingers twitching more and more.
"Sh.. han... on ...thing's al...ght" what? Why is everything fuzzy? Why is he floating?
His tears start to pool at his neck.
His hand becomes free as he feels a prick on his arm, his eyes open once yet again but not being able to see anything.
"Da'?" His tongue feels heavy and his jaw sends more white hot pain down his body.
Everything feels heavy as he starts to fuzz out.
The final tears slip out as he closes his eyes yet again to be met with black again.
Kukui shakes as he watches ash fall back asleep, he wasn't supposed to wake up but he's a stubborn kid.
But he was in so much pain.
Kukui has never seen ash cry, not a single time in the months he's been living with him.
They've had their ups and downs and throughout it all, absolutely no tears. Even if he would have been totally justified in doing so.
So seeing him be in so much pain he was crying out. It scared kukui.
But even worse it wasn't until he heard what ash had said did the weight of the situation really hit him.
Ash's voice was haunted and scared as he reached out for kukui, he called him dad.
It reminded Kukui of the fact he's been calling ash his son in his head for a while. And not even just in his head, people refer to the two as father and son.
What does Ash think of it?
Does he think of Kukui as a dad like he thinks of Ash as a son?
Pikachu is shaking as it looks at ash, the pokemons tail is tucked and ears down low.
They've barely been able to get Pikachu to eat, only one day have they gotten Pikachu to eat in the last week and it was barely a few bites.
Pikachu refuses to move from Ash's neck.
The only time it moves is adjusting its head to lay on ash's neck or just next to it.
Pikachu relaxes slightly before it licks Ash's cheek, wiping the tears off of his trainer's face.
Pikachu curls back up like it has for so long.
Kukui lets out a long shuddering breath as Burnet sits back down next to him.
Burnet ever so delicately reaches out and wipes the rest of the tears from ash's face.
At least Ash seemed more relaxed and not like he was in pain.
This time Burnet grabbed Ash's limp hand, the one he dropped when he felt ash twitch against him.
He was just so startled when he felt ash wake up he panicked.
Kukui leans his head onto Burnet's shoulder as he continues to shake, he hates seeing ash in pain.
"Look at him, he's gonna be ready to see us as soon as possible" Burnet murmurs to kukui.
Kukui smiles softly; he didn't think of it that way.
Ash will wake when he wants to, the tapus couldn't stop him if they tried.
Unfortunately kukui can't stay in the hospital with ash until he wakes up 24/7.
As much as he would want to, he does have a job he would like to keep.
Plus his students haven't heard from either of them this past week, kukui hasn't really been using his phone, and ash was....
Well ash is asleep
So, he pulled himself together as best he could, tried his best to get Pikachu to eat or drink something, before he headed to the school.
He and Burnet will be going back to work the next week before they start alternating which one of them will stay with ash in case he wakes up and who will go to work for the day.
When Kukui walks into the classroom he finds five of his students pulled together in a tight circle, glancing over at the empty desk ever so often.
Lillie was quiet as mallow was tucked close to her to comfort the shy girl.
Kiawe and Lillie looked the most nervous at ash’s absences, Lana seemed to be doing better though it seems.
"Alola class!" Kukui smiles, putting on a brave face for the class. The kids need someone stable to lean on.
"Professor! How's ash?!" Lillie Immediately exclaims when he says that jumping up from her position.
She suddenly blushes after her outburst and looks back to the ground.
"Ash is still in the hospital, he's not taking visitors until he's awake" kukui tells the students, they seem to tense as they realize that ash hasn't been awake.
"Is he gonna be okay?" Lanas quiet voice asks him and he nods, a smile still plastered on his face.
"Ash will be okay, but for now we get to talk about pokemon affection!" Kukui shifts the topic as the kids start to head to their desks. Kukui absolutely doesn't dare think about the empty one in the back of the class.
Burnet looks at Pikachu sadly.
All it will do is sleep next to ash, like if ash was asleep then so will pikachu.
It's lost a lot of weight despite not moving an inch since it got here.
"Pikachu, please, ash wouldn't want you to be wasting away like this." Burnet begs, ash isn't supposed to wake up for at least another three days. Pikachu needs to be taken care of.
Pikachu shifts slightly still not getting up.
"Pikachu.." Burnet sighs, she can hear pikachu's stomach rumbling despite the pokemons refusal to get up.
"One bite." She compromises by grabbing a piece of kibble, with ketchup on top.
It takes half an hour to get Pikachu to eat just that one piece, but once he ate that piece he started to eat more thankfully.
Pikachu even got some water.
Now the issue was a bath.
Because pikachu was still dirty, and it needs to be cleaned before it accidentally infects any of Ash's injuries.
But something tells Burnet she won't be able to convince Pikachu to go with her willingly.
She really doesn't want it to come to this, she knows how much pikachu hates the Pokeball, but it's the pokeball or giving the pokemon meds to knock it out.
Pikachu needs to be cleaned or else the hospital is not behind kicking both her and Kukui out, along with pikachu.
So she sits down in the chair next to the bed and tries her best to explain it to the pokemon.
By the end of it pikachu had raised its head but tilted it down, she must have gotten through to the grieving pokemon.
"Will you head back to the house with me willingly?" She gives the pokemon a pointed look, but it may have looked more like a pleading look.
The pokemon slowly nodded before getting up from its position.
Burnet reaches out to pick up pikachu only for it to let out a warning growl.
She immediately steps back to give the pokemon space as it jumps off the bed and walks to the door.
Burnet lets out a sigh, she looks back to ash pushing a strand of hair out of his face.
Wake up soon ash, Burnet is not sure how much longer this family can hold on.
Little bonus scenes i cut out of the oneshot because they didn't fit:
After school, Kukui was browsing through the news, he hasn't looked since the accident and he should probably keep in loop.
As he scrolled and became more up to date about the stuff that has gone on in the past week, a strange amount of legendary sightings, a pokemon battle there (kukui saved it for when ash was awake and inevitably antsy to get up), champion this, champion that.
But as he scrolled to the more recent posts he started to blink.
Orange Island champion hospitalized?
Orange island champion trapped in a rockslide!
Orange island champion dead?!
But what surprised him more about the titles was the pictures.
The pictures were all pictures of ash holding up a V and in the other hand a trophy. Pikachu was on Ash's shoulder holding out a V smiling wide.
Ash definitely looks younger than he is now, shorter and less developed.
But it's definitely ash.
Opening up a new tab, kukui starts to look through the updated list of champions.
And there right below the orange islands, satoshi ash ketchum right at the top of the region.
First of all, Satoshi?
Ash is Ash's middle name?
Is Satoshi his actual name?
And second...
Ash is a fucking champion?!
Opening yet another tab, kukui quickly typed in ash’s (apparently named satoshi) name into the search bar.
New comer ash ketchum vs kalos region champion alain!
Lots of articles of the kalos crisis, but it wasn't until he spotted a video of ash on the top of luminous tower before fucking jumping off after pikachu.
Great so jumping after pikachu is a pattern.
Amazing ash.
He scrolled through more pages and saw ash in different regions, the runner up in kalos, the champion in orange islands, 16th in kanto (which isn't as great but from what he sees its ash's first league so he didn't do all that bad for a beginner trainer), top 8 in three leagues, and top four in another.
Then he sees all the articles talking about how ash is dead.
The media thinks ash is dead.
He scrolls through and sees gym leaders, professors, friends, champions, comment about what ash was like. How kind he was, how brave and daring he was, how determined he was.
How does ash get around so much?
Kukui knows ash is 16, turning 17 in another month, and he's been to each region except galar so far?
His gut is churning as he reads all the articles about Ash's supposed death.
And if he quickened his pace to the hospital just a bit faster, well who's to say.
Electricspin: wth guys! I saw the news. Are you guys okay?!
Cookinggreen: what happened soph?
Electricspin: check the news!
Cookinggreen: OMG ARE YOU GUYS OKAY?
Electricspin: guys?!
Cookinggreen: ANSWER YOUR PHONES
Welavolcano: wth why are you guys spamming the gc?
Cookinggreen: you guys got stuck in a rockslide?!
Verywatery: only ash and lillie, we got out unharmed.
Electricspin: are lillie and ash okay?
Welavolcano: I'm not sure, we were taken home.
Cookinggreen: Well I'm going to go check on Lillie tomorrow, you guys coming?
Electricspin: yes I want to make sure both ash and lillie are okay.
Verywatery: I'll be there.
Welavolcano: I'm not sure, what if they want to be alone?
Cookinggreen: ash? Want to be alone? Are you sure about that?
Welavolcano: ...
Welavolcano: okay I see your point ill be there tomorrow.
Cookinggreen: good.
When the four teens met up mallow immediately hugged Lana and kiawe.
The two looked awful, both had messy hair and slightly red eyes from crying.
Mallow squeezes her eyes shut. She wasn't there when Ash and Lillie got stuck, she didn't even know it happened until Sophocles told her.
She feels awful.
The four of them decided to go to lillies house first, they were tempted to go to ash but Lillie was closer.
When the four of them were brought to lillies room she burst into tears almost immediately.
Mallow rushed over to her and hugged her lightly making sure to not hug any wounds she might have.
"It was so scary! Ash was mostly trapped under the rocks but he was the one who was calm and collected making sure I was calm." Lillie cried as she hugged mallow closer and tighter.
She still can't believe what happened.
"Oh lillie" Mallow sighs as she holds onto Lillie tighter.
"Are you okay though?" Mallow pulls away to look her in the face, rubbing a few of the tears that escaped off her cheek.
"I got checked out at the hospital this morning, besides a few scratches and bruises I am perfectly okay." Lillie tells her friend who sighs in relief.
After an hour however it wasn't done, it didn't go well.
Ash starts to drift back to sleep and Lillie snaps her fingers in front of his face.
He glares at her hand pouting as she keeps him awake.
" I want my dad " Ash grumbles in a different language and lillie blinks at him confused.
"Ash I don't understand what you are saying." She gently reminds and he frowns at her.
" I want professor kukui ." He continues to say in a different language, his slurred speech isn't making it any easier to understand.
But she could understand professor kukui.
"Lana is on her way to get help" she tells him