Work Text:
Kiss It Better
Afternoon sunlight shining upon his face was what woke Gary from what had turned into a longer nap than intended. A gentle wind swayed the hammock ever so slightly and a few leaves fluttered down from the branches above him. On his chest, Pikachu stirred and stretched his little paws, cracking an eye open to check on Gary before yawning and burying his face in his tail once more. Lazy little thing.
Gary couldn't help but smile as he took in his surroundings. The light had shifted with the sun a little past its peak and the shaded spot Gary had drifted off in was now full of scattered light streaming between the tree branches. Arcanine and Umbreon were dozing nearby and it looked as though Blastoise had relocated to the little pond beyond the shady part of the yard. The day's pleasant warmth was starting to give way to uncomfortable heat, which meant one thing: Ash would be back soon. He didn’t like to push his pokemon in the summer heat, which was understandable. Even so, the heat didn’t bother Gary. Not after six months of hiking through the swampy Calusa region, where he’d camped nearly every night in temperatures higher than this.
Three years later and the sun’s rays on his face still brought the feeling of absolute freedom from all expectations.
That freedom was still there, in the form of this little house and the massive yard and his husband and their life here in Pallet. A peaceful sort of domesticity had taken over his life since he had left the formal – and stifling and suffocating – world of academic research. Working with his pokemon at home, helping out in his grandfather's lab, traveling with Ash, the occasional field work he did for fun: that was his life now, and he couldn’t be happier for it. Especially when the average day involved a nap outside after spending the morning puttering about in their little garden and swimming in the pond with their pokemon.
But now that Gary was waking up fully, he was fast becoming aware of how long ago breakfast was.
Lunch was definitely a necessity, especially with Ash likely to be home within the next hour. Coming home to a fresh meal was absolutely not an expectation of Ash's, but it had become something that Gary actually liked doing. Misty and Dawn could joke all they wanted about Gary being a stay-at-home pokemon dad and trophy husband all they wanted – he liked his life.
Besides, the more he did for Ash, the more he could push his buttons without pissing him off. It balanced out nicely.
He yawned and stretched, savoring the warmth for a minute longer. Arcanine’s ear twitched at the sound of his yawn and the fire dog quickly sat up, signifying the end of their nap time. If Arcanine knew he was awake, then it was definitely time to start on lunch. He would start whining and begging for food soon otherwise, the spoiled thing.
“What d'you want for lunch, Arc?” he called across their sunny little napping spot.
“Pi pikachu!”
Gary chuckled and gave Pikachu a scratch behind the ears. “I asked Arcanine, buddy,” he reminded the little mouse.
“Chuuu…” He stretched his paws out one more time and peered up at Gary with wide, pleading eyes while Arcanine flopped over on his side, raising his paws to expose his belly.
Gary laughed again. “You two aren't helping very much. What about you, Bre?” Umbreon only twitched her ears and continued sunning herself, drawing an amused snort from her trainer. He hadn’t expected anything different. “Fine,” he sighed dramatically, “I'll figure it out myself.”
He stood and started to make his way to the house with Pikachu eagerly climbing up on his shoulder, pausing and kneeling to give Arcanine the belly rubs he was begging for. The two canid pokemon followed them back to the house and promptly plopped down on the back porch to go back to sleep while Pikachu and Gary figured out lunch. It was quite warm out, so nothing too heavy yet. Something light that would hold them over until they were ready for a proper meal.
There were a few… activities unrelated to pokemon that would occur before a full meal. A snack and a shower together, with some alone time while the pokemon rested. Something about Ash coming home with a light sheen of sweat, smelling of sunshine and forest, got to him every time.
A tiny paw batted at his hair before he could lose himself in the thoughts of just what he wanted to do to his husband this time. “Pipichu.”
Right. He had something to work on.
They had brought in plenty of vegetables from the garden earlier that morning, and there was a definite overabundance of cucumbers. Delia’s cucumber salad sounded like a good option. Cold, hydrating, and light enough that no one would have an upset stomach if they participated in some more… vigorous activities after eating.
“Pi...” Another scold from the pokemon on his shoulder had Gary rolling his eyes.
He didn’t know what Pikachu picked up on whenever his thoughts went down that route – pheromones, heart rate? Something alerted him every time, and Pikachu apparently understood where those thoughts led to enough to chastise him. Gary supposed dealing with them acting on those thoughts for the last eight years probably had something to do with it.
Attempting to focus on food and not his husband, Gary set about selecting and rinsing the vegetables and bringing them over to the cutting board. Even as he worked on precisely slicing the cucumbers into thin slices, he couldn't quite get the thought of Ash sweaty and breathless from training out of his head. He blamed the afternoon nap – he always woke up like this and the warmer it was when he woke up, the hotter the thoughts. Gary took a deep breath and shook the thoughts away before Pikachu could scold him again. It was probably best not to be distracted while chopping vegetables…
Still, he couldn't wait to kiss him deeply, to run his hands along sweat-slicked skin, to tug at his clothes until he ended up on his knees indulging Ash and himself with –
Pikachu swatted him with his tail this time. “Pika!”
“I am focusing!”
Maybe they would end up with Ash having him bent over the kitchen counter again, like last week. Now that was a thought that got his heart racing–
“Ow! Fuck!” The knife had slipped, grazing his finger and leaving behind a thin line of crimson. That’s what he got for being distracted.
“Pipichu!”
Gary winced at the concerned squeal next to his ear as Pikachu leapt from his shoulder to the countertop. “It’s fine,” he assured his husband's starter. That squeal had hurt more than the cut.
He set the knife down on the cutting board and moved to the sink to run his hand under some water. It really wasn’t bad – Gary had dealt with far worse in the field. Clean it, slap a bandage on it, and move on.
No big deal.
Not to Pikachu apparently.
The yellow mouse perched on the edge of the sink, trying to peer at Gary's hand. It would have been endearing if Pikachu wasn't putting his head directly in Gary’s line of sight. Gary turned off the water and inspected the cut once more, ignoring the little static shocks that came as Pikachu climbed back up onto his shoulder.
A small bit of red oozed from the thin wound, not enough to be concerning to Gary but–
“Pika!” the electric type squawked in alarm.
“It’s fine, Pikachu,” Gary murmured. He pulled a paper towel from the nearby roll and pressed it firmly to the cut. Why Pikachu was making such a fuss over something so tiny was absolutely beyond him. The bleeding would be done in no time and it wasn't even bad enough to really need a bandage.
But Pikachu had already hopped off his shoulder and scampered out of the room. Gary watched him head towards the stairs and gave a small sigh of relief. At least he wasn't trying to call Delia.
Gary tossed the paper towel in the trash and retrieved his drink from the table. He had just finished taking a long sip of water when the skittering of little paws on the wood floor made Gary look up.
“Pipichu!”
Pikachu tore into the room like a furry little lightning bolt and leapt up on to the counter, chattering at him all the while.
“Calm down,” Gary said firmly as he reached out to take the little red bag that Pikachu clutched in his tiny paws. “It’s okay, buddy,” he soothed, holding out his hand so Pikachu could see that it was only a tiny bit of blood.
That didn’t work.
“Pikachu, pika pi pika! Pipichu pikapi pika!”
Gary couldn't quite follow that frantic line of squeaks and chirps. He sighed and opened up the first aid kit. “It's okay,” he tried again. “Ash will be home soon and he’ll make sure I don't get hurt any more today, alright bud?”
“Chu! Pikapi Pipichu pika pikachu!”
Gary blinked at the little mouse in front of him. He hadn’t seen his husband's starter act like this before. Something involving Ash and blood must have happened at some point when he wasn't around to elicit this extreme of a response. Either way, he had no idea what his favorite electric type was squeaking out in his panic.
“I'm sorry, buddy,” he said softly, stroking Pikachu’s ear with his uninjured hand, “but I don't understand.”
“Piii!”
Apparently that was the wrong thing to say. Gary winced at Pikachu’s shriek and watched as the panicked mouse jumped down from the counter and darted into the living room.
“Pikachu!” Gary groaned. He retrieved a bandage from the bag and tossed the first aid kit on the table before he followed the pokemon into the living room.
Sure enough, Pikachu was perched on the table with the video phone on it, frantically hitting the buttons on the touch screen. He was stuck on the new, much longer password that they had put on it to cut down on the random phone calls Pikachu made to Delia and the professor on a daily basis.
“Buddy, I'm fine,” Gary tried again, opening the bandage and wrapping it around the small cut.
The phone chimed and the menu came up on the screen, eliciting a pleased squeak from Pikachu and a tired sigh from Gary. He’d figured out the new password apparently. Gary had thought it was long enough that Pikachu wouldn’t be able to learn it this time but apparently he’d underestimated the little guy again. He wasn’t sure why they even bothered trying anymore.
Pikachu’s triumphant chirp brought Gary’s attention back to the screen – and the menu that he had brought up.
“You don’t have to call De–” Gary rolled his eyes when Pikachu hit the button anyway. “Hi, Mom,” he greeted when she answered on the second ring.
“Pika! Pipichu pika pi chu!”
Delia and Gary both looked at the frantic electric mouse: Gary with a resigned sigh and Delia with a concerned frown.
“I cut my finger in the kitchen and he’s absolutely certain that I’m going to die,” Gary explained, deadpan.
Delia’s frown melted away into amused relief as she looked back at Gary. “Oh dear! How bad was it?”
“You remember that time I broke a box of microscope slides in Grandpa’s lab?”
She winced. “The time you ended up with a piece of glass stuck in your hand for a week and a half?”
Maybe that wasn’t the best comparison. Gary grinned regardless. “Way less blood than that time.”
“Well, that’s… reassuring.”
She didn't sound convinced and Gary couldn't help but laugh. “It's nothing,” he said, raising his hand to show her the little bandage. “Wouldn't have even bothered with the bandaid if I didn't still have vegetables to chop.”
“Pi!” Pikachu swatted at Gary’s hand with a paw and Gary looked down at him, perplexed but amused.
“Am I not allowed to finish making lunch?”
“Pi, Pipichu!”
Delia giggled, her smile warm. “Want me to help?”
“Pika!”
“I mean, I don’t need the help… but I did pick up a new bottle of wine yesterday.” Gary gave her a grin and was met with a smile from Delia and an unimpressed look from Pikachu.
“Chuu…”
“You really don't like me drinking, do you?” Gary asked the pokemon, earning another reproachful coo.
“I think he remembers when you were in university.”
That actually made some sense. Delia had said it kindly but Gary cringed at the memory nonetheless. “I guess being hungover every time he saw me left a bad impression, huh?”
“It definitely worried him,” Delia agreed. “It worried all of us,” she added after a moment. She fixed him with a warm smile before he could feel too guilty for that. It still bothered him, despite the nearly four years they had passed since then. “I'll be there in a few minutes, dear. Try not to get Pikachu all worked up again.” The last part was said with a giggle and was accented by a sassy little squeak from Pikachu.
He rolled his eyes but gave her a smile all the same. “Alright,” he agreed. “See you soon, Mom.”
Well. So much for those fantasies of fooling around in the kitchen when Ash got home.
Ignoring Pikachu’s reproachful squeak, Gary returned to the kitchen and returned to the cutting board to finish preparing lunch. It took significantly less effort to keep focused on the task after all of the chaos of Pikachu’s panicking and he was just finishing chopping the last of the vegetables when Arcanine bounded off the back porch and around the corner of the house, barking excitedly the entire way. Delia had arrived. He winced when Pikachu squealed excitedly and leapt off his shoulder, racing to the front door in his haste to greet her.
Gary smiled when he heard the door open and wiped his hands on the kitchen towel before following the cheerful noises of the pokemon to the front door. The door opened before he reached it and Arcanine bounded in ahead of Delia, whining and barking, his tail hitting anything and everything in the entryway in his excitement. It took a moment to get the fire dog to settle down, but Delia enveloped him in a warm hug at the first chance she got.
“Alright, let’s see what’s got Pikachu so concerned,” she said, releasing him from her hug and catching his wrist. She quickly spotted the bandage and tsked softly before raising his hand and pressing a gentle kiss to the bandage. “There!” she chirped. “Good as new! See Pikachu, Gary’s all better now!”
“Pika!” They both winced at the excited squeal Pikachu gave at that. He jumped back up on Gary’s shoulder and peered at the bandage. “Pi?” he asked, sniffing curiously.
“I told you it was okay, buddy,” Gary said, letting the pokemon investigate his hand. Apparently satisfied, Pikachu jumped down and headed back into the kitchen as though absolutely nothing had happened.
It worked?
Gary shook his head and watched him go with a bemused smile before looking back at Delia. “Is that really all it takes to calm him down?” he asked incredulously.
She shot him a wink and flashed him a bright smile. “That’s all it took to calm you boys down when one of you got a boo-boo.”
“Whatever works, I guess.” Gary shrugged his shoulders as he led the way back to the kitchen.
Pikachu had found his favorite sunbeam on the counter and curled up happily. Gary shook his head amusedly and retrieved two wine glasses from the cupboard while Delia greeted Umbreon out on the back porch. By the time she came back in, the new bottle of wine was opened and two glasses were poured. Delia took hers with a smile and a chirped thank you.
“Dawn says she really likes this one,” Gary explained, “so quality might be… iffy.”
Delia peered at the bottle, which had a pachirisu on the label, and took a sip. “Sweet and bubbly, just like her,” she declared after a moment.
An accurate description, Gary determined after taking a sip of his own. “It’ll go well with lunch,” he replied, setting his glass down to begin tossing all of the chopped vegetables into a bowl.
“Oh, I see what you’re making!” Delia chirped, her smile positively infectious. “How’s your hand, dear?” she called over her shoulder as she gathered a few ingredients from one of the cupboards.
Gary smiled and reached for his wine glass. “No need to worry,” he replied.
That earned him an affectionate hair ruffle and a kiss to the cheek. He bit his lip to hide the smile that always came to his face whenever she did that and focused on finding where on earth the measuring spoons had disappeared off to this time. Delia’s fond smile told him that she saw it anyway. He’d never been able to hide anything from her, not even as a little kid, and definitely not now. Especially not during one of their wine afternoons – even one as unexpected as this.
This was his and Delia’s thing: trying random wines while spending the afternoon cooking together – sometimes with Ash, sometimes with one of the girls. It was how he’d learned to cook after returning home from his journey in Calusa, it was how they’d decorated this house after he and Ash moved in, it was how they’d planned their wedding…
They fell into the same rhythm they always fell into in the kitchen, conversation ebbing and flowing, gentle teasing and laughter frequent as they took their time sipping their wine. More time was spent standing and chatting than was spent on actually preparing the food and it was perhaps his favorite part of this domestic little life they had settled into here in Pallet. He rarely felt more at ease than he did when he was with Delia doing this exact thing.
They were nearly done with their first glass and were finally mixing together all of the ingredients when Delia asked, “Pikachu didn’t do this before you got sick did he?”
“My appendix?” Delia nodded and Gary paused, taking a sip from his glass as he thought. Pikachu always worried about him, he knew that, but… “No… not really,” he replied. “He would get the first aid kit for me, but he didn’t freak out like this.”
He’d always stayed close whenever he wasn’t feeling well and was always quick to fetch his water bottle or the first aid kit – though he was usually doing that for Ash, not Gary, but today had been an extreme reaction.
“That might be our answer,” Delia said thoughtfully.
She had a point there. Today’s reaction was extreme, but he’d had it before. The very first time he’d called Delia for what he perceived to be an emergency. It hadn’t quite been an emergency – Gary wouldn’t have been any worse off if he’d had to wait for Ash to get back from training with Misty – but he understood why Pikachu had panicked then. His fever had been sky-high and he hadn’t been able to leave his spot on the bathroom floor for hours when Pikachu took it upon himself to figure out how to use the video phone and called Delia for help. All Delia could do was sit with him and bring him water and try to get the fever down. He couldn’t keep anything down, not even the electrolytes or broth she kept pushing on him. He’d never appreciated Delia or Pikachu more than he had that day.
“Maybe,” Gary mused, focusing a bit more on mixing the dressing and fresh herbs into the vegetables without spilling everything on the counter . A smirk curved his lips when a thought occurred to him. “That means he likes me more, doesn't it?”
Delia gave him an indulgent smile. “I think it means he worries about you more… Just like we all do.”
“Here we go with you all worrying about me too much.” Gary's eye roll was accompanied by a wry smile as he leaned back against the counter. He didn’t mind the concern. If anything, it amused him. “I'm the one that stays home and keeps out of trouble these days.”
A giggle escaped her as she reached out to pat his cheek. “It's just because we love you so much,” she cooed.
“Ugh, Mom.” He couldn’t help but return her smile, despite the pink tinting his cheeks.
Undeterred, Delia giggled again and ruffled his hair affectionately. “You can complain all you want, but that smile gives you away.”
Gary laughed and hid his grin behind the rim of his glass as he took a quick sip. The wine was a bit sweeter than he preferred, but that hardly mattered when he was sharing it with Delia. He nearly choked when a loud bark came from the front room a second later, followed by Arcanine’s excited whines announcing Ash’s arrival before he even made it to the door. Shaking his head at his pokemon’s excitement, he took another small sip.
The front door opened and closed, followed by Ash’s voice. “Hey, babe! I’m home!”
“Pikapi!” Pikachu leapt off Gary’s shoulder with enough force to make him stagger backwards with a wince.
Delia’s hand caught him by the elbow before he could hit the counter and she gave him a sympathetic smile when he shook his head tiredly. Amazing how much force such a little thing could create in a single movement. At least he’d avoided doing that to his bad shoulder.
“Oh, there you are, you furry little traitor!” Ash’s amused voice drifted from the front hallway. “Did you and Gary have a good morning?”
“Pi! Pikachu pika pipichu chu!”
“What do you mean Gary got hurt? Oh! Hi, Mom!”
Ash appeared in the doorway and Gary suddenly very much wished Delia wasn’t there. His hat was backwards over windswept hair and a black tank top revealed toned arms glistening with sweat. A few smudges of dirt and soot were scattered across his skin and his jeans – already baggy and torn – had dirt at the knees and what looked to be a new tear. The smell of smoldering embers clung to him and Gary busied himself with his drink in an attempt to not make his blatant staring quite so obvious to Delia.
He loved when Ash worked with his fire types.
Delia didn’t have quite the same reaction. “Ash! What happened?”
Charizard, probably. Gary wasn’t worried about anything other than keeping his hands to himself with Delia in the house.
But Ash was more focused on Gary. “Pants got caught on a branch,” he explained quickly, his worried gaze on Gary. “What happened, babe?"
It took a second to remember that he needed to reply. “Oh! Nothing really,” he said quickly, raising his hand to show the bandage on his finger. “The knife slipped when I was cutting vegetables. It’s fine.”
An amused smile appeared on Ash’s face and the concern in his eyes was replaced with fondness. He knew the exact cause of that delayed response, no doubt.
Delia sighed and shook her head. “I’ll go get you a towel – you drink some water and stay out of trouble until I get back!” Gary barely noticed her own amused glance his way as she ducked out of the room and into the hallway.
Ash stopped in front of Gary and grinned as he took Gary’s hand in his. “Well, I know how to fix that,” he announced and pressed a kiss to his bandaged finger.
“Your mom already did that.”
Ash’s grin faltered but it quickly returned as a smirk. “Oh, well, did she try this?”
His lips were on Gary’s in an instant, his tongue brushing against Gary’s lower lip in a way that had Gary melting against the counter. He parted his lips and let Ash take over his senses. His hands slipped beneath the bottom of Ash’s tank top, fingers resting just barely above the waist of his jeans. A tiny moan escaped him, suddenly desperate between the interrupted fantasies from earlier and the sizable glass of wine he had just finished.
“Ah, were my motherly healing powers not enough?”
Gary pushed Ash off of him and quickly turned back to the kitchen window, cheeks burning at Delia’s sudden reappearance, but Ash laughed heartily and accepted the damp towel she passed to him. “Husband's have special healing powers too, y'know,” he chirped cheerfully.
“Pikapi!”
Clueless, as always. “Ash!” Gary turned just long enough to swat Ash in the back of the head before turning back to the window.
“I didn’t mean it like that!” Ash squawked.
Meanwhile, Pikachu wasn't about to let Gary’s swat go unchallenged. “Pipichu!” He batted a paw at Gary, nearly tumbling off Ash's shoulder in the process.
“Be nice, Gary,” Delia chastised, though he could hear the smile in her voice.
“Pi!”
“Yeah, Gary, be nice.” Ash stuck his tongue out childishly at him, poking him playfully in the ribs.
Gary swatted his arm in retaliation, unable to help the laugh as he retorted, “I am being nice.” He turned away from the counter with his arms crossed tightly in the hopes of warding off any other pokes in the ribs, his cheeks still warm in a way that had nothing to do with the wine he and Delia had been sipping.
“Well, I’ll leave you boys be now!” Delia said with a giggle. “Don’t think I haven’t seen you eyeing him ever since he got home, mister,” she added with a sly smile in Gary’s direction.
Ash laughed and wound an arm about Gary’s waist, pulling him in for a smooch on the cheek. “See ya later, Mom!” he chirped.
Cheeks burning once more, Gary ducked his face against Ash’s shoulder. “Bye, Mom,” he returned, his voice a mumble against Ash, who only laughed harder.
“See you tomorrow, sweethearts,” Delia’s voice drifted down the hallway.
The door closed behind her and Ash tilted Gary’s face towards his, stealing another deep kiss before pulling away with a grin. “You know, I got a little scraped up out there with Charizard… Think you could kiss that better too?”
Gary’s hand settled on the waist of Ash’s jeans as he fixed his husband with a sly smirk. “I think I can manage.”
… … …