Work Text:
Drop It!
It was a normal enough afternoon at home in Pallet. Ash had just come back from a solo training session while Gary had spent the morning working on the plans for their next trip. Umbreon was dozing in her favorite sunbeam – the one that fell under the kitchen table – and Arcanine was lazing in the yard with Ash’s pokemon as they rested after their session. The scene was comfortable in its familiarity and Gary found himself easily slipping into a steady, quiet sort of focus.
Until…
“Pikachu, no! Get out of there!”
Gary’s focus wavered and he paused, glancing in the direction of their bedroom. Ash had been heading that way for a shower before lunch and probably should have been getting dressed right about now. Gary had thought Pikachu was outside with Ash’s other pokemon or napping in his favorite sunbeam on the living room window seat, but it sounded like he was up to something.
“No! Drop it! Drop it!”
Gary snickered and returned his attention to his laptop screen, trying to remember where he had left off. Pikachu was always running off with something. He was partial to small electronics, but anything would do: he especially loved socks. It drove Ash nuts, but Gary was thoroughly amused by it.
“No no no no!” That particular cry of despair caught Gary’s attention. “ Pikachu! Get back here!”
Gary looked up from his spot at the kitchen table with… alarm wasn’t the right word because, honestly, what could Pikachu possibly do inside the house that would be that bad? This wasn’t exactly new behavior anyway. He looked back at the laptop in front of him, jotted down a few notes in the notebook next to him, and returned to working on the itinerary for their next trip.
Whatever shenanigans Ash and Pikachu were up to this time weren’t overly concerning, even with that panicked note in Ash's voice. Pikachu had probably stolen something out of the laundry basket again. Gary was far more amused than he was worried.
Scampering paws followed by rapid footsteps echoed around the house, with Ash's increasingly frantic voice calling after Pikachu.
“No! Get back here!” The clattering of falling objects came from the living room. “Give that back!” There was a thump and a muffled curse – Ash had probably fallen over the ottoman again.
Gary knew he should probably move it, but Ash wouldn’t fall over it on a daily basis if he just watched where he was going. Leaving it there was the more entertaining option anyway.
“Pikachu! ”
Apparently Ash was fine. Gary pinned a spot on the digital map on his computer and jotted down another note, ignoring the ensuing chaos tearing through the rest of the house.
A moment later Pikachu tore into the kitchen like a little furry comet, closely followed by Ash, who stumbled and skidded on the tile floor.
“Drop it!”
Pikachu hopped up on the table and used it as a launch pad to leap over Ash's head onto the top of the refrigerator before running along the top of the cabinets. Another leap and he was back to careening down the hallway like the chaotic little ball of fur that he was.
“Pikachu!”
And Ash was off again.
Gary hadn’t even seen what Pikachu had gotten into this time. He shook his head and went back to work, ignoring the shouting and crashing that echoed through the house. It would be over in a few minutes and it would be Ash’s responsibility to clean up the resulting mess.
No need to worry.
Dawn would be proud of him. He smirked at the thought of their friend and the delight they both took in tormenting Ash.
The crashes and shouts grew gradually quieter as Ash and Pikachu disappeared up the stairs, only to grow louder once again as Pikachu made his way back to the kitchen.
This time he burst in with Ash directly on his heels and leapt straight onto the kitchen table, threatening to send Gary’s papers fluttering to the floor. Gary cast a stern look Pikachu’s way but caught sight of what the electric type had stolen this time and immediately burst into laughter.
Oh. It was that again.
His favorite little electronic to steal. Gary should have known, especially considering the buzzing that was emanating from the object.
He wondered if Pikachu would be so hellbent on stealing that thing if he knew what it was used for.
“It’s not funny, Gary!” Ash yelled. He attempted to grab Pikachu but the little mouse hopped to the other side of the table and then back again when Ash ran to intercept him.
“It’s hilarious,” Gary corrected through laughs.
Pikachu took a flying leap from the table to the top of the refrigerator and sat with his prize vibrating loudly against the top of the appliance.
“It’s gross!”
“It’s clean.”
Pikachu jumped down from the top of the fridge again and darted past Ash once more.
“You know where that thing goes!” Ash yelled back as he raced out of the room after the yellow streak that was Pikachu.
“That’s why it gets cleaned!” Gary rolled his eyes and returned his gaze to his laptop, wholly unfazed as Ash raced down the hall and up the stairs after his starter. “Your mouth goes there more often than that does,” he added under his breath, opening a new window and tapping out a few notes.
As long as Pikachu’s sharp little teeth didn't puncture the toy, the only harm would apparently be to Ash's dignity. Which was interesting considering the object in question was Gary’s.
Technically it was both of theirs, but Ash preferred using it to drive Gary crazy rather than pleasure himself with it. So it was basically Gary’s.
There were several more minutes of Ash and Pikachu tearing across the house, back and forth through the living room, up and down the stairs, fortunately leaving Gary alone in the kitchen to continue working. Finally the noise calmed down and Ash reappeared in the kitchen, breathless and messy-haired, hat lost somewhere along the way.
“Don't go in the living room,” he sighed, dropping into the seat across from Gary.
“I imagine there's a mess.” Gary took a sip of his coffee without looking up. He'd lived with Ash long enough to know how this went.
Ash heaved a sigh and slumped down in his seat but nodded. “I'll clean it up,” he assured Gary – not that it was a particular concern on Gary’s part.
“I’m sure you will,” he acknowledged, unfazed. It would be fine as long as Ash hadn’t caught anything on fire or blown anything up. Considering the lack of explosions, Gary was confident the house would be perfectly fine this time around.
Ash was quiet for a long moment, simply catching his breath while Gary continued on with his work. “I don’t understand his obsession with that vibrator,” he spoke up after some time had passed.
“I told you last time, it's gotta be the battery.” Gary figured it had to have something to do with the ions and current. He wasn't an expert on electronics, but Pikachu was an electric type. It sounded like a reasonable hypothesis. He could always ask Clemont or Goh if he really wanted to embarrass Ash.
Probably Goh. Goh’s reactions were funnier.
Actually, he was definitely going to ask Goh the next time he was over. It was too good of an opportunity to pass up.
“He doesn't go for the other one.”
“Because it's too thick for him to run off with it in his mouth.” Gary paused, noting first the phrasing and then Ash's reddened cheeks. He bit back a smirk. God, Ash was so easy still.
“Your camera recharges the same way and he doesn't run off with that!” Ash argued, making a remarkably quick recovery from his embarrassment.
“Because he knows how pissed I would be if he did,” Gary muttered, going back to his work. And it was far too big for him to try, especially with one of the lenses attached. There had to be something else to it. “Pretty sure he does it just to fuck with you,” Gary mused after a moment. Pikachu liked doing that.
“How come he never does this stuff with you?”
Gary shrugged his shoulders. It was probably because Pikachu got tired of Ash's chaos. Gary knew he sure did. “He likes me more,” he replied airily.
“He does not!” Ash squawked.
The electric type liked them roughly equally and Gary knew it, but he could never resist. The reaction was well worth it. “Of course he does.” Gary tried not to laugh as Ash sputtered incoherently for a moment, but knew his unfazed facade was quickly cracking.
“I am his trainer !” Ash all but shouted when he finally regained the ability to speak. “We’ve won championships together!”
Gary smirked, still keeping his eyes on the work in front of him, having successfully managed to fight back his laughter. “And we torment you together every day. It’s a special bond.”
“Gary.”
He finally cracked, laughing at Ash's torment. Oh, this was too fun. “You sure are having a rough time today, aren't you?”
“You're not helping!”
“Did you want me to help?”
“Gary!”
Okay, now Ash was actually starting to get annoyed and Gary couldn’t have that. This little game of his lost all its fun when Ash actually got mad at him.
Gary looked up from his computer screen with a sly smile. “Getting frustrated, babe?” He couldn’t resist one last poke. “Sounds like you could use a little time with that toy Pikachu loves stealing so much.”
“I hate you.”
“No, you don't.”
Ash held up his hand, flipping him his middle finger. “Fuck off, Gary.”
Gary fought back another laugh. He could see Ash's lips twitching as he fought back his own laugh. One more . “Wanna help me with that? It's more fun with two people.”
Ash sighed and let his hand drop into his lap. “You're impossible,” he groaned.
Pikachu chose that moment to reappear in the kitchen. He hopped up on the table and promptly walked across the keyboard of Gary’s laptop, eliciting a shriek from the researcher and a loud laugh from Ash.
“He likes to fuck with you too,” Ash choked out between laughs as Pikachu then hopped down from the table to curl up in Gary’s lap while Gary frantically tried to undo all of the changes Pikachu had just made to the document on the screen.
Gary shook his head with a groan. “How do you always manage to fuck up the formatting, buddy?”
“Chaaa…” Pikachu yawned cutely from his spot in Gary’s lap.
“Pretty sure he does it just to fuck with you,” Ash retorted airily in a near-perfect imitation of Gary, who only shot him a quick glare over the top of his laptop screen. He stayed quiet, grinning widely as Gary tapped away on the keyboard.
“Done,” Gary finally sighed a few moments later, quickly closing the laptop in case Pikachu got the idea of walking across the keyboard again.
“Cutting it close with that itinerary this time, huh?”
Gary fixed him with an unimpressed look. He would have had everything worked out last week and would have had his bag ready to go if Ash hadn’t messed with the plans. “You're the one that wanted to add another two weeks at the last minute,” he reminded the trainer. It wasn’t his fault Ash waited so long. Ash stared at him for a moment, just long enough for Gary to briefly wonder what was wrong before it clicked. “You want to see what I added?”
Ash laughed, seeming genuinely amused, and nodded. “I mean, unless it’s a surprise.”
Gary hadn’t considered that. He had just been happy to be done with boring work for the day. He loved surprising Ash, especially when Ash knew there was a surprise but had no clue as to what the surprise actually was. But he’d also worked hard on it and had added in a few little touches that could be sweet surprises later so maybe…
He opened his laptop and brought up the window, eagerly diving in and going over the most important details while Pikachu napped in his lap. Even looking at only the most important details, those two weeks had a lot of travel, plus alternate plans at a few points. It took a long time to go over it and by the time they were done, Pikachu had wandered off. Umbreon had even moved from her spot beneath the table.
A glance at the time on his laptop screen told Gary that it was probably time for lunch. A loud grumble from Ash’s direction told him that it was definitely time for Ash to start on lunch for both of them.
Ash’s cheeks flushed pink and Gary laughed as he clamped his hands over his stomach, as though that would stifle the sound. “I didn’t have lunch yet and I chased Pikachu all over the house!” he defended, pulling another laugh from Gary.
Gary closed his laptop again and stood from the table, grinning at his boyfriend. “Go ahead and start on something for lunch while I put this away, okay?”
“Any preferences?” Ash asked as he stood and walked over to the refrigerator and peeked inside.
“Food,” Gary called over his shoulder, heading into the hallway and the stairs beyond. He snickered to himself at the sound of Ash’s muttering in the kitchen as he headed up the stairs. Ash would be fine – he was the one who liked cooking anyway. Well, he was the one who was good at it, at least.
He headed down the short hallway to his office – more a spare bedroom to store their field gear than an office, but that’s where his desk was. He set his laptop and notes atop the desk and hurried back out of the room, eager for lunch, but also curious as to where Pikachu had wandered off too. Umbreon, he had seen on his way to the stairs, was napping on the living room window seat, while Arcanine hadn’t yet moved from his spot outside. He hadn’t seen Pikachu for a bit.
As he passed his and Ash’s bedroom, Gary paused. He could hear the buzzing from the hallway. He should have known that Pikachu was up to something.
“Again, buddy? What is your obsession –” he cut off with a laugh as he entered the room.
Pikachu was on the bed, rolling on his back atop the toy with all four paws in the air. He froze when Gary came into the room, his ears twitching. “Pii?” he squeaked curiously, the vibrations from the toy putting an undeniable waver to his voice.
Suddenly it clicked.
Of course.
This particular thievery hadn’t been an issue until Gary had hurt his shoulder out in the field a few months back. The healing injury had caused painful muscle spasms and he had been desperate enough to take Dawn’s questionable advice of using a vibrator along the injured muscles. It worked well enough that they had bought something just for that purpose but those were the only times Pikachu had ever seen the device used. The only thing Gary could think of was that he thought it was used for massages.
The mischievous little mouse had been doing everything he possibly could to get extra massages from Gary lately, the spoiled thing, but it hadn’t occurred to him that this could also be an attempt to get one.
Gary laughed again. “Buddy … Did you just want a massage this whole time?”
“Pi…”
He tried not to laugh at the waver in Pikachu’s little voice. “You’re lucky I’m so neurotic about cleaning those things,” he told the pokemon as he sat down on the edge of the bed.
He didn't have the heart to tell the little guy that the type of massage he was looking for was not the type typically provided by that device. But it had helped a bit with Gary’s injury so maybe that level of vibration was just right for Pikachu’s little muscles.
Still. It wasn’t for pokemon and Pikachu needed to stop going in that drawer.
Gary gave Pikachu’s belly a quick little scritch as a distraction before reaching beneath his back to carefully extricate the toy.
“Pika!” A warning spark came from Pikachu’s cheeks as his front paws grabbed the hand rubbing his belly and he kicked at Gary’s forearm with his back legs.
His little claws left scratches along his arm but Gary held his ground, frowning at the angry squawk. “Absolutely not, mister,” he replied firmly. He didn’t do temper tantrums, not even with his partner’s adorable starter.
Pikachu’s ears drooped and he gently pushed Gary’s hand away with all four paws with an apologetic coo and round, pleading eyes. Gary sighed as he pulled his hands away and turned off the retrieved toy.
That little coo and those eyes were what always got them into trouble, but Gary was tired of having to clean everything in that dresser drawer every time Pikachu stole it and he really didn’t want him to come running down the stairs with that with Delia over. They couldn’t keep spending thirty minutes chasing Pikachu all over the house like this. They had already tried pokemon-proof locks but Pikachu had chewed through them all.
A boundary had to be set.
“Pikachu, you can’t keep stealing this and running around the house with it.”
“Pi.” Another round of warning sparks came from Pikachu’s cheeks.
Was he really having this conversation with a pokemon? “No , it’s not for pokemon. If you want a massage, you can just ask for one.”
Pikachu’s ears drooped further with a pitiful little coo. “Pipichu…”
Gary felt himself caving. He shouldn’t, he’d always been stricter with his own pokemon – he indulged them and they never went without, but he didn’t give in to the begging every time one of them wanted spoiling. If that was the case, then Umbreon would still be trying to hop up on his shoulder like she did as an eevee… But Pikachu wasn’t his pokemon and Ash was always spoiling Umbreon and Arcanine.
It wasn’t like the toy was used often and if Pikachu just wanted a little back massage from it, then what was the harm?
Ash could find something else to drive him crazy with and they could put Pikachu’s favorite object to steal somewhere for him – somewhere where it wouldn’t be found by whichever house guest happened to be unfortunate enough to stumble upon it (probably Tracey, given his track record of walking in on them).
“Fine,” he gave in with a sigh, turning the knob to turn on the little toy and holding it vertical.
Pikachu’s eyes lit up and he jumped up, bounding across the tiny space between them and turning to press his back along the vibrator.
“Chuuu…”
Gary had to bite back a laugh at Pikachu’s pleased little sigh. “Just keep it in the bedroom, okay? Don't go bringing it to Delia… Bring it to Misty instead,” he added with a snicker. He could deal with that embarrassment and Ash's reaction would be hilarious .
Pikachu didn't reply, eyes closed as he stood on his back legs, expression blissful. Gary had to admit it was pretty damn cute. He could definitely get him and Ash a new one if Pikachu liked the massage that much.
“I heard that.”
Gary jumped at the sound of Ash’s voice from the doorway and looked up to see Ash raise his eyebrows in silent question at the sight of them. He huffed and rolled his eyes. Ash hadn’t had to face those puppy eyes, he could save his judgment. “He just wants it for a massage,” he defended.
Ash tried to hide his grin but Gary saw through the attempt. “I warned you about spoiling him.”
“Yeah, I know.” Gary rolled his eyes again. It wasn’t like he was going to stop spoiling his partner’s pokemon over something as silly as this.
“Misty’s never gonna let us live this down.”
“She wouldn't be Misty if she did,” Gary reasoned. “Blame Dawn, she's the one who suggested using the vibrator for a massage.”
Ash shrugged and plopped down on the bed next to Gary. “As long as we're in agreement to blame the girls.”
A laugh escaped Gary at that. “Sounds good to me!”
Life in their house held a certain level of chaos on a daily basis, but that just made it all the more fun. Especially if they got to blame some of their friends for it.