Work Text:
Pulling An Ash
Ash was already awake when the first alarm went off at six-thirty. He grinned at Pikachu's startled jump and tapped the screen of his cell phone to silence the obnoxiously loud screeching emitting from it.
"Sorry, Buddy."
The second alarm went off barely ten seconds later - a loud beeping from the alarm clock across the room - followed by the third. And the fourth.
Pikachu's ears twitched in annoyance and Ash bolted out of the bed to turn them all off before his starter could electrocute him.
Today was the day - his wedding day - and there was absolutely no way he was going to oversleep. Gary would kill him if he did. Well, probably not but Ash wasn’t willing to risk it. Either way, it was fortunate that his excitement had woken him up with some time to spare before the series of alarms went off.
Everything was set. Mostly. There were still a few things that needed doing - setting up the tables and chairs outside being the largest task - but that wouldn't be an issue with their friends' help.
For now, Ash’s biggest concern was breakfast… and how much he missed waking up with another person in the bed with him. But the separation was a good thing: Ash would help get everything ready while Gary would be able to relax in his own home, away from people for a few hours.
It was fine.
Different people needed different things: Gary needed his space and Ash liked being around people. The hustle and bustle of crowds and the general busy-ness of people preparing events were two things that just didn't mesh well with Gary. Too much human commotion made him tense and irritable - he was far more at home in the forest or hiking up a mountain than he was around people. It was actually one of Ash’s favorite parts of him. Gary’s ease in and love for nature meant their life together was full of adventure. And Gary was perfectly fine with socializing with friends, so his anti-social leaning really just meant more time in nature or in smaller settings with close friends. There was no sacrifice on Ash’s part whatsoever.
Their relationship had worked itself out into a near perfect balance, albeit full of bickering with an occasional disagreement thrown in here and there, but it was as close to perfect as things could be.
And this wedding was going to be no different. Hence the alarms. Oversleeping would definitely ruin the perfection of the event.
It would surprise absolutely no one and would probably amuse several people, but one groom pissing off the other would definitely put a damper on it all.
There was a loud knock at the door of his childhood bedroom. "Ash! Are you up yet?"
Ash laughed and opened the door. "Morning, Mom!"
She blinked at him for a moment before breaking into a watery smile. "You woke up on your own on your wedding day! I'm so proud of you!"
"Mom!"
– – –
Ash and Delia headed up to the lab, laden with baskets of muffins and scones for light brunch after the setting up was done. Misty was responsible for the mimosas, and they would take a break to eat once Gary got there. That was the plan… but Ash knew Gary and fully expected his soon-to-be husband to show up three hours earlier than anticipated.
He’d probably already been up for hours, gone on a run with Arcanine and Umbreon, tended to their little vegetable garden, and read three chapters in whatever book he was reading this week. He’d probably even squeeze in an hour of data analysis and still show up early. Despite how much it could drive him nuts at times, Ash wouldn’t have him any other way.
Ash had to pause when they reached the lab and headed around to the ranch. They had already set up the massive tent yesterday with help from Brock, Misty, and Tracey. The archway had been set up in the evening, but it was dark by the time they had finished. This was the first time he was seeing it all in the sunlight. It looked beautiful, especially with the sun just rising over the hilltops.
This was going to be perfect.
– – –
“Oh my god, you got up on time!”
An amused chuckle followed Misty’s greeting - if it could be called that. Misty was seated at the breakfast nook in Professor Oak’s kitchen, while Brock stood at the stove, cooking up something. The professor and Tracey were nowhere to be seen, but Ash assumed they were tending to the pokemon.
“I know!” his mother chirped, setting down her basket of muffins on the counter. “He did it all on his own!”
“All by yourself?” Brock asked with a sly glance. “No Thunderbolts to help you out of bed?”
Pikachu chittered out a laugh from Ash’s shoulder and Ash laughed as well. “No, but he almost shocked me over all the alarms I set.”
Everyone shared a laugh, even Delia who was preparing a fresh mug of coffee and a plate with a few muffins to bring to the professor. She excused herself a moment later, leaving Ash and Pikachu with their original traveling buddies. Brock set about going through a rundown of the morning ahead of them, all while finishing cooking up breakfast.
Ash was too busy trying to pay attention and keep track of who was supposed to be arriving and when to notice another friend join them.
“You’re up early,” said a voice from directly behind him.
Ash nearly jumped out of his skin at the suddenness of his friend’s appearance. He always forgot how easily Tracey could sneak up on someone without even meaning to. “Is everyone going to comment on that?” Ash groaned.
He had a feeling this was going to get annoying.
“Probably.” Tracey shrugged. “You were late yesterday,” he pointed out.
“Barely!” Ash all but shouted, loud as ever. “And that was because of Gary!”
“I’m pretty sure you both had a hand in that,” Tracey retorted calmly, shaking his head as he poured himself a cup of coffee.
“Wrong body part,” Misty corrected with a smile that was anything but innocent.
Ash choked on his drink and Tracey grimaced - of all of their friends, he was the one who never failed to walk in on them. Brock wisely stayed quiet, though Ash caught sight of his amused smile.
“Ugh…” Ash groaned, rolling his eyes. True as it may have been, he and Gary had only been five minutes late in setting up yesterday. Five minutes barely counted when Ash was usually over an hour behind.
He was fortunately saved from any more teasing by Brock announcing breakfast. Excited by the promise of good food, Ash bounded over to the counter to fix up a plate. They still had work to do this morning and he knew he needed the energy.
– – –
Once breakfast was settled, the four of them, plus Pikachu, headed outside to finish setting up. They fell into an easy rhythm with Brock and Ash putting together the tables, while Tracey lined up the chairs for the reception. Misty followed along behind him, decorating each chair with a wide ribbon wrapped about the back and tied in a bow. Delia added a tablecloth to each table and set a large vase in the center of each. Misty’s psyduck followed her, filling each vase with water for the flowers that would come later.
Dawn came along soon enough and, after plenty of excited squealing and hugging, she joined Delia in setting up the tables. She added a bow to each vase and surrounded it with some small decorative branches. She was joined by Chloe a short time later, when she arrived with Goh. While Goh helped Ash in his attempt to string fairy lights along the inside of the tent, Chloe carried a large basket of freshly cut flowers - delivered by one of Pallet’s local gardeners - and arranged a handful in each vase.
With so many helping hands, the set up was mostly done in only an hour or so. Better yet, it hadn’t felt much like work at all. It was impossible to feel like work when he was surrounded by several of his best friends, all laughing, joking, and conversing as they would in any other setting.
Ash couldn’t imagine how he and Gary could have planned for all this on their own. He was sure they would’ve managed, especially with Gary’s planning skills, but, honestly, what did they know about planning a wedding? Granted, most of the people who had helped them didn’t know much more than they did, but enough people knew something that they had managed.
It didn’t hurt that neither of them had wanted anything fancy. At the end of the day, they were just boys who loved getting their hands dirty working with pokemon. Some fancy affair wouldn’t suit them.
Before long, the last minute details were being completed and they were ready to have Misty start mixing up some mimosas for a quick brunch before everyone went to get dressed for the ceremony. But as Ash looked around, he noticed someone was missing.
“Hey, Ash?”
Tracey was frowning, his dark eyes concerned. Uh oh - what went wrong? Was it something that could be left alone, or was it something that would annoy Gary? Oh well, there were plenty of people who could help with a mishap. It would be fine
“What’s up, Trace?”
“I don’t want to worry you or anything,” his older friend began slowly, “but Gary’s not responding to any text messages. The professor tried calling him, but he’s not answering.”
It wasn’t especially unusual for Gary to miss texts when he was focused on work, but not answering the phone was mildly concerning. He always answered for his grandfather. Maybe he had been doing something outside and left his phone in the house? That seemed odd too, though.
Ash pulled his own phone out of his pocket and opened up the chain of texts he had been sending Gary all morning. He was so used to going a while before hearing back from Gary that he had thought nothing of his partner’s radio silence this morning, but now that he looked closer… there wasn’t even a read notification on any of the texts from today.
“That’s weird,” Ash murmured, scrolling back through the countless texts he had been sending his fiance all morning.
“I figured he was just working on data analysis at first, but, well, you know Gary. He should be here by now.”
A glance at the time showed that Tracey was very much correct. It was after ten - the planned time for Gary to get there. The expected time had been much earlier. A swell of concern twisted Ash’s stomach into an uncomfortable knot.
Something was wrong, but what?
“Could he have overslept?” Misty asked, appearing at Tracey’s side.
Tracey shook his head. “Not Gary.”
“Not this late,” Ash agreed.
“I thought you said he was still dealing with jet lag,” Misty pressed. “Are you sure?”
Ash paused at that. Gary’s most recent research trip had run longer than expected and he’d only gotten home a few days ago. With everything going on with the wedding, he had been sleeping odd hours and hadn’t had a day to just rest so that he could get his body back on schedule. It wasn’t likely, but Umbreon and Arcanine had both hidden his phone on the other side of the house to keep it from waking him when he desperately needed rest in the past.
He scrolled back through all of the morning’s text messages to the ones from the night before. Tired or not, they had both been up late and Gary’s last texts had come in at one-thirty-seven.
- can’t sleep -
- taking the pups outside, leaving my phone -
- maybe it’ll help -
Wandering outside would’ve relaxed him for sure, and if he had sat down with his pokemon when the exhaustion finally caught up with him…
Ash couldn’t help but laugh a little as he held out the phone to show Tracey, who snorted in amusement.
“Oh, the professor’s gonna love that.”
Ash nodded, grinning. There was sure to be a poem about how they were always meant to be. Oh, who was he kidding? It was their wedding day, the professor was already going to be doing that.
– – –
Ash smiled as he rounded the corner of their house and entered the side yard through the gate. He paused, considering the archway over the gate and the blooms that covered it. The flowers smelled sweet and wonderful but were too small to pick and give to someone. Ah well. He could pick flowers another time.
The gate clicked closed behind him as he made his way along the path that wound through their little vegetable garden before curving around the house and into the backyard. He was nearly bowled over by the excited Arcanine that bounded over at the sound of his steps on the grass. His presence was all Ash needed to confirm his suspicion.
“Hey, bud,” he greeted. “Did Gary do something silly?”
Arcanine leaned into Ash, giving his version of a hug and just wagged, his tongue lolling out of his mouth. Ash took that as a yes and continued further into the yard, crossing the open space towards the wooded area of the yard, where the shadows kept a hammock in perpetual shade.
Sure enough, there was Gary, sound asleep with Umbreon curled under a tree nearby. It was a sight Ash had come across plenty of times and it always brought a smile to his face.
Ash lowered himself gently on the edge of the hammock, careful not to rock it too much. "Hey," he murmured, giving Gary’s shoulder a gentle squeeze.
Gary’s eyes fluttered open. "Hey," he returned, his voice soft and sleepy.
It was a voice Ash could never not smile at and so he graced his soon-to-be husband with the most reassuring smile he could.
Gary’s eyes widened with realization before Ash could say anything.
"Everything's fine,” Ash soothed, reaching for Gary’s hand. “There's nothing to worry about."
"What time is it?"
"Almost eleven, but - Gary!" Ash caught him by the shoulder and eased him back against the hammock before he could flip it. "The ceremony's not until one. Everything's fine."
"But -"
"It's a twelve minute walk," Ash cut him off, absolutely unwilling to allow Gary to panic on their wedding day. There was nothing to panic about.
Of course that wasn't enough to soothe him. "I still need to -"
“You have plenty of time for a shower - it’s fine,” Ash assured him, barely managing to bite back a small laugh.
"But breakfast -"
Ash couldn't hold his laugh back any longer. "Gary, it's okay," he interrupted firmly despite his laughter. "Mom made muffins, there’s plenty of food. Everything is fine."
Gary didn’t look convinced in the slightest and buried his face in his hands. “This is a disaster,” he groaned.
Always so hard on himself. Ash shook his head and reached out to pull Gary’s hands away from his face. "Everything's taken care of. I promise everything is perfectly okay."
“Gramps is never going to let me live this down.”
“Neither are me and Tracey, so what?” Gary shot him a glare but Ash grinned. “Hey, at least now we’ve both overslept on one of the most important days of our lives! And it worked out for both of us - I got Pikachu and you got out of helping this morning! That’s a good thing right?” Gary didn't reply so Ash tried again. "At least you got over your jet lag?"
Gary sighed but laughed after a moment. He looked up at Ash and shook his head, amusement clear in his eyes. “What are the fucking chances?” he asked, drawing another laugh from Ash.
“Apparently higher than we thought.” He couldn't help the grin that split his face at Gary's amusement. Now that he had found his missing groom, they could get back to the lab and enjoy some time with their closest friends and family before they had to break away to get dressed for the ceremony.
The plans were thrown off a little bit, but Ash couldn't care less. He couldn't complain when it meant his husband would be well-rested and happy at their wedding.
It was close enough to the ceremony, he could call him that now.
– – –
“There you are!” The professor’s relieved voice greeted them when they reached the lab. “I was getting worried.”
Gary grinned sheepishly at his grandfather. “I pulled an Ash.”
The elder professor simply chuckled. “I’m just glad everything’s okay. Everyone’s around back, go get some food.”
A loud cheer went up into the air as they stepped out the back door. Ash waved and laughed. “Found the missing groom!”
“You weren’t trying to track down a legendary pokemon, were you, mister?” Dawn asked sternly, hands on her hips.
“Nope!” Ash cut in cheerfully before Gary could reply. “You guys were so worried about me sleeping in, you didn’t even consider someone else doing it!”
Gary groaned at his side but everyone else laughed.
“The infallible Gary Oak overslept?” Dawn all but shrieked with laughter.
"You overslept?” Another voice called out. “Jeez, you two really are made for each other."
"Nice to see you too, Goh," Gary retorted, deadpan.
Misty shoved a mimosa into each of their hands the second they were beneath the tent and ushered them over to the table everyone was gathered around. Ash noticed Gary’s eyes flicking over all of the decorations, a small smile on his face. He looked over at Ash, opening his mouth to say something but was interrupted by Dawn appearing at his side.
“Now that the missing groom is here,” she announced loudly, holding her glass high. “We have something for you, Ashy-boy!”
Gary swatted her arm. “Don’t you steal my nickname,” he complained, though he was still smiling.
She grinned and stuck her tongue out at him before picking up a box with an ornate bow and placing it in front of Ash. “We all know how much you wanted to wear a hat -”
“Gary said I could!”
Dawn narrowed her eyes at his interruption before continuing. “So we got you a special hat just for the wedding.”
Suddenly Ash was nervous. Dawn being in charge of something usually meant trouble. Curiosity won out and he opened the box only to immediately burst into laughter. Set upon a layer of fluffed up tissue paper was a white hat with the word Bride embroidered in large pink script across the front. As he picked it up, the veil attached to the back became apparent and he laughed even harder.
“Put it on!”
Goh and Chloe joined Dawn’s chanting for him to put it on while the rest of their friends, plus the professor and Delia laughed. Next to him Gary was laughing so hard that he buried his face against Ash’s shoulder, which only made Ash laugh harder than ever.
“It’s perfect,” he choked out, tears of mirth streaking down his face. He placed it atop his messy hair and felt Gary fluff up the veil behind him. “What d’you think, babe?”
Gary snorted. “Wear it,” he challenged.
Amusing as that thought was, he had already bought a hat for the wedding. Gary telling him he could wear a hat in the wedding had thoroughly surprised him, but he wasn’t about to complain. As several people had told him over and over again, this was their day, something that Gary had taken seriously - as evidenced by the permission to wear a hat, so long as it was nicer than one of his ratty training hats.
“Oh, I am,” Ash replied. “Just not for the ceremony.”
“C’mon! I’ll give you a reward if you do,” Gary teased, giving him a playful wink that had Ash’s face heating up in an instant.
“It’s not a reward when you’re gonna do that anyway.”
“I didn’t say what the reward was,” Gary replied innocently.
Ash bit back a laugh. “I know you.”
“Please,” Tracey interjected, “even I know what that reward will be.”
“Then learn to knock,” Gary retorted despite the pink coloring his cheeks.
Misty and Dawn crowed with laughter. “What’d you walk in on this time, Tracey?” Misty asked through her cackling.
“I’d rather not say.”
Gary’s cheeks turned even pinker and Ash couldn’t help but laugh as the researcher downed his drink in one go. “Oh, look at that, my mimosa disappeared. Misty, could you fix that for me?”
Several laughs came from the friends surrounding them. Misty just rolled her eyes and passed him the bottle of champagne. “Here, we all know you just want the alcohol.”
– – –
“You ready?”
Ash glanced over at the other occupant of the room and grinned, adjusting his hat in the mirror. It wasn’t the fancy one his friends had just given him, rather a simple but nice solid black one. “I’ve been ready,” he grinned.
“Good.” Gary smiled and stepped closer to him, pressing a gentle kiss to his lips. “I didn’t get to say it downstairs, but everything looks really nice. You guys did a great job.”
Ash’s grin faded into a grateful smile. “I’m glad you like it,” he replied honestly. A faint blush spread across his cheeks as Gary reached out and adjusted his hat, fussing a bit with the strands of hair poking out from under it.
Something about Gary’s fussing always made him feel special.
Done with his fussing, Gary rested his hand against Ash’s cheek, his eyes softening into that loving expression that sent little tingles through Ash’s whole body. “I love you,” he said softly.
Ash grinned, thinking back to a phrase Gary had said to him so many times over the years now. “Love you too, you oversleeping idiot.”