Work Text:
Like Foreplay
The evening had been wonderful: full of food, laughter, and conversation, and enjoyed by everyone… until Ash fixed Gary with that look from across the living room.
“It’s your turn to do the dishes,” the trainer announced.
It wasn’t.
Ash knew it. Gary knew it. Their pokemon probably even knew it. Not that the latter mattered much, given the fact that Pikachu and Umbreon were currently in the kitchen begging Delia for more treats.
“It’s not,” Gary returned easily.
“It is,” Ash retorted confidently, his smile bordering on a smirk.
Gary knew exactly what that smirk meant and met it with a lazy smile of his own. “It’s really not.”
“It really is,” Ash insisted. His voice was still level but Gary could see where his straight face was slipping, his lips threatening to twitch into a wide grin. He would crack with just the right push and Gary briefly debated whether he wanted that quick satisfaction now or if he felt like playing along to the end.
Fuck it. He needed to entertain himself somehow.
Gary took another sip from his glass and looked at Ash with a level stare. “No.”
Ash’s eyes narrowed, the challenge clear, but Gary merely gave him an innocent smile. But Ash had apparently caught on to what Gary was doing and his smile took a slightly feral edge.
Gary knew that look. He knew what Ash was going to say a split second before he said it and bit back a groan - he didn’t feel like going that direction tonight.
“I know how we can solve this!” Ash cried a moment later, pulling a pokeball from his belt.
Misty and Tracey both groaned loudly. Gary only felt a little bad for them – they both knew what they were getting themselves into.
“Absolutely not,” he replied automatically, shaking his head. The bickering and stupid argument topic were one thing but a battle was crossing the line.
Tomorrow was another story, but tonight… It was after eight in the evening and they’d just finished dessert, nevermind that they had company over and Gary was on his third glass of wine. It was irresponsible to battle in any state other than sober. Miscalculations and slowed reactions could easily get a pokemon needlessly injured.
Plus, a battle took energy and Gary was planning on expending the limited amount of energy he had left on the activities that followed this little game. A battle was definitely not on his list of priorities today.
Tomorrow maybe, but tonight?
Not a chance. A battle was definitely not happening. He doubted Ash even actually wanted the battle, all things considered.
“Why not? Scared you’re gonna lose?” Ash challenged. His rather ineffective poker face had fallen away to reveal a mischievous grin that made Gary simultaneously want to kiss him and throw something at his head.
Instead, he rolled his eyes and fixed Ash with the most unimpressed look he could manage. “Ash, our current win-to-loss ratio is three-to-one in my favor,” he reminded his fiance.
That apparently didn’t bother Ash in the slightest and his grin only widened. “I think you just know you’re gonna lose.”
They all knew that wasn’t the case. He'd had far worse losses – losing to a champion wasn't exactly something Gary would lose sleep over. Besides… “That’s statistically unlikely,” he retorted, voice bored and face impassive.
“The battles come down to chance,” Ash tried.
“Which is more often on my side than yours.”
“Just admit that you don’t want to lose.”
“I’m not worried about losing, I just think a battle is overkill for deciding whose turn it is to do the dishes,” Gary said, taking a sip from his wine glass to hide how close that had come to making him break into laughter. “Especially considering we both know it’s your turn,” he added pointedly.
It was a stupid thing to bicker over and Gary knew it – just as he knew that Ash was only instigating this in an attempt to rile him up. Ash knew how he got after a few glasses of wine: not argumentative or more stubborn than usual, but a little more… eager for what often followed after these silly little spats. And, even though he knew better, Gary could never resist that challenging lilt to Ash’s voice or that terrible attempt at keeping a straight face. Ash was downright adorable when he was trying to play Gary at his own game. Of course Gary was going to play along.
“My turn to tell you to do it,” Ash returned, his grin absolutely unwavering.
“I did it yesterday!”
Ash’s widening grin made him realize a second too late that he’d slipped. Now he was going to be insufferable. Fortunately Gary was saved by a convenient distraction in the form of his soon to be mother-in-law.
“Oh goodness ,” an exasperated voice came from the hallway leading from the kitchen. “I left the room for five minutes, what could you boys possibly be bickering over?”
Gary looked up as Delia reentered the living room and flashed her a quick grin. “Ash wants to have a battle to decide who should do the dishes even though he knows it’s his turn,” he explained, doing absolutely nothing to hide his amusement over the situation. Now she would be on his side.
“Gary’s coming off a six-battle winning streak, Ash,” she pointed out. “Are you sure you want to battle him to decide who does your least favorite chore?”
“Are you sure you can take him?” Misty added, a mischievous grin curving her lips at the opportunity to pick on Ash. She shot Gary a quick wink and he returned her grin.
That never failed to get under Ash’s skin. His eyes narrowed briefly at their friend before his wide grin reappeared. “I’m a world champion, I can take anybody,” he boasted.
Gary had to fight not to laugh and hastily hid his smile behind a sip of wine before Ash could notice. The others rolled their eyes and shared a look. Tracey met Gary’s eyes pleadingly, begging silently to please, just this once, spare them from whatever this bizarre form of foreplay was – Misty’s words, not Gary’s. The accuracy of that wasn’t important right now.
Either way, Gary wasn’t about to do that. Not when Ash had that stupidly cute grin on his face.
He returned that grin with a smirk. “And yet you can’t reliably beat your rival from when you were ten.”
The other three shook their heads with an assortment of sighs and groans.
“Would you like some more wine, Delia?” Misty asked pointedly, drawing a giggle from the woman.
“Yes, dear, I’ll come with you.” She sounded amused, even as she turned to their other companion with her usual gentle smile. “Tracey?”
He sounded much less amused than she did when he replied, “Is there anything stronger?”
“With Ash here, probably not,” Misty snickered.
“Yeah, but it’s Gary’s house too,” Tracey pointed out.
Grateful for the ammunition, Gary only smirked in return. “Above the fridge,” he replied. “Out of Ash’s reach, right short stuff?”
“You’re not that much taller than me!”
Oh, there was that reflexive annoyance that Gary loved to pull from him. It did no harm and it only made Ash come back at him all the harder. Ash narrowed his eyes, clearly realizing that he’d taken the bait far too quickly, and Gary bit back a victorious grin.
“Guys, c’mon,” Tracey sighed. “Can’t you go five minutes without bickering?”
“That’s longer than Ash and Misty usually go,” Gary couldn’t resist retorting.
“Don’t you drag me into this!” Misty’s voice called back from the kitchen, eliciting a laugh from the couple.
Gary met Ash’s eyes over the rim of his wine glass and once more fought to keep his smirk from twitching into a grin. They had way too much fun with this. It would be even more fun when everyone left.
Speaking of. There was an easy way to speed that up. If Misty and Delia were getting more wine, then he might as well too. Tracey and Misty wouldn’t want to stick around long after that. They knew as well as Ash and Gary did where this little bickering match would soon enough lead – especially once Gary finished his current glass. Tracey in particular had walked in on the aftermath of this game far too many times to want to stick around.
“I think I’ll get another glass too,” he announced to the room. He caught a glimpse of Ash’s grin before it was quickly hidden behind his soda. His fiance knew exactly what he was up to.
Tracey shook his head tiredly and Gary almost felt bad. Their friend really did put up with so much with the two of them, but everyone – Gary included – said that Tracey was like an older brother to him and Gary took his responsibilities as an annoying younger brother very seriously.
“You know, it would probably be easier to just say that you guys are ready for bed,” Tracey sighed. He sounded slightly annoyed, but not angry – honestly, he was probably just too tired to deal with their nonsense after a long day in the lab.
Gary understood and sympathized, but…
“Where’s the fun in that?” Ash asked before Gary could.
“Yeah, Trace, you’re not tired of us already, are ya?” Gary teased, grinning as he stood and began making his way to the kitchen.
Misty and Delia looked up when he entered the room and gave him a knowing look. Were he and Ash really that obvious?
Probably.
Oh well. No matter.
He returned Misty and Delia’s knowing looks with one of pure innocence – something that neither of them were buying – and calmly topped off his glass with a healthy pour of wine. The two women shared a glance as Gary leaned casually against the counter and took a sip. They knew what was going on. Gary tried not to think too much about that.
“Where are you and Ash training tomorrow?” he asked Misty as casually as he could, as though he wasn’t planning on pouncing on the aforementioned trainer as soon as everyone else left.
Misty raised her eyebrows, her knowing look turning a bit sly. She definitely knew. “We were thinking south by the shore. Why? Thinking of joining us?”
Gary shrugged his shoulders and took another deep sip of wine. He’d be lying if he said he hadn’t been considering it. “Wanna go surfing after?”
“Only if you come training with us.”
“Alright,” Gary agreed easily. He stretched languidly and glanced over at the clock on the stove. “Well, since I’ll be joining you guys, I should probably head to bed soon,” he mused as casually as he could.
“Ugh,” Misty groaned, rolling her eyes as she finished the rest of her drink in one go. “You’re not subtle, Gary.”
Delia giggled and took another sip of her own drink. “Oh, subtle has never been in his vocabulary, dear.”
If Misty calling him out so quickly had brought a sudden warmth to his face, that was nothing compared to Delia’s comment. He tried to ignore the mortified twisting in his gut and took an unnecessarily large gulp of wine. “Thanks, Mom,” he said weakly, his usual wry sarcasm sounding forced even to his own ears.
It was one thing for Misty and Tracey to see straight through Ash and Gary’s admittedly childish games, but for Delia to know…
Now, that was just mortifying.
Fortunately no one was going to give him the time to be too overly embarrassed in front of his future mother-in-law. Misty set her empty glass down in the sink and crossed the kitchen with an amused smile. She patted Gary’s shoulder consolingly – and patronizingly – as she passed him and headed into the hallway back to the living room, ignoring his glare entirely.
“C’mon, Tracey,” she called, voice embarrassingly amused. “Gary’s training with us tomorrow and needs to get laid so he can have his beauty sleep.”
Gary choked on his drink and Delia giggled again as she took one last sip from her glass and set it in the sink with Misty’s.
“You boys are so silly,” she said, clearly thoroughly amused as Gary once more tried to look innocent. “Stop by on the way out tomorrow, I’ll pack lunch for everyone.”
A flash of guilt ran through Gary at that. Here they were, neglecting their guests in favor of playing games so that they could get laid once they had the house to themselves, and yet Delia still wanted to pack everyone’s lunch for a morning of training followed by an afternoon at the beach.
“You don’t have to,” he murmured but she shook her head, having none of that.
“I want to,” she replied firmly, reaching out to give his hair an affectionate ruffle. She gave him one last smile before following Misty back into the living room. “Stay out of trouble tomorrow, dear. Perhaps you boys can come over for dinner, if you're not too distracted,” she added slyly.
“No promises on the trouble part,” Gary returned, his grin already back in place as he followed her.
He caught Ash’s eyes when he reached the living room – his fiance was entirely too absorbed in discussing tomorrow's plans with Misty to even remember what had been happening over the last several minutes. Until Gary caught his eye, at which point he quickly wrapped up the discussion and they were soon enough walking their three guests to the door with promises to be on time tomorrow – a promise that they all knew would be broken but everyone was so used to that with Ash that it really didn't make a difference.
Misty gave them one last knowing smirk over her shoulder as they stepped out into the night, cheerfully chirping, “Have fun!” as she went.
And then they were alone. That had gone faster than expected – maybe they should take Tracey’s advice and just say they were ready for bed more often. It would maybe take a little bit of the fun out of the bickering, but this wasn't the time to think about that.
Ash’s lips were on Gary’s the second the door was closed behind them and he melted into it, groaning as Ash pressed him against the wall, effectively stealing his breath with a single kiss. He had been looking forward to this ever since Ash had given him that look – no one else needed to know if he moaned like a desperate whore when his back hit the wall and Ash’s fingers tangled in his hair.
Okay, maybe that last drink had been unnecessary if that was his response. No matter. He was exactly where he wanted to be.
Ash pulled away when the need for air started to become urgent, panting and grinning rather triumphantly over that response. The look was infuriatingly sexy and once again made Gary want to either throw something at him or kiss him until neither of them could think. He decided to go with the latter.
He yanked the trainer in by the back of the neck, crushing their lips together and pulling a surprised squeak from him. Forcing himself not to laugh at the sound that had escaped Ash, Gary slipped one arm about his waist, tugging him as close as possible and delighting in the groan the move drew from him.
Ash looked a bit dazed when they parted, but that didn’t last long. That dazed look swiftly morphed right back into his grin as his fingers toyed absently with Gary’s hair. “So, who’s top?” he asked once he had gotten his breath back.
It could have easily been another little spat between kisses that grew more intense by the moment but Gary really didn’t feel like putting that much extra work into it and either outcome was fine by him. Instead of making a smartass comment that would get under Ash’s skin, he held out his fist. Ash grinned and held his out as well.
Three shakes and…
Ash held his hand flat while Gary kept his as a fist.
Ash’s grin widened once more. “Race you to the bedroom!” he cried, turning and running in the direction of the stairs.
He could win that particular battle – after three and a half large glasses of wine, there was no way Gary was attempting to race him up the stairs. The last thing he needed was to face-plant on the stairs, but judging by the yelp and series of little thuds on the stairs, he had a feeling Ash had already done something similar.
“I'm okay!” Ash’s voice drifted down the stairs.
Gary sighed and shook his head fondly. Some things never changed.