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An Extra Pair Of Hands
Ash awoke to the ringing of his cell phone but, certain that it was just his alarm, he hit the button, rolled over and went right back to sleep… Until it rang again a moment later. He groaned, eager to sleep just a little bit longer – who was calling him this early anyway?
He felt Pikachu stand and stretch his little legs before climbing over him to peer at the phone’s screen. “Pipichu!” he squeaked excitedly a split second later.
Why was Gary calling him so early? Shouldn’t he still be asleep too?
Wait – he hadn’t forgotten a date or hiking trip had he?
No, that couldn’t be it. Gary wouldn’t be calling if that was the case. He would be here, dragging Ash out of bed in a flurry of teasing complaints.
“C'mon, you oversleeping idiot!”
Ash smiled to himself, able to hear the laughter in Gary’s voice even in his imagination.
“Pikapi!”
“Ow!” His eyes snapped open when Pikachu gave his hand a harsh nip.
Right. He actually needed to answer that. It was probably important if Gary was waking him up.
He groped around on the nightstand for his phone and pushed the button, bringing it to his ear as he mumbled sleepily into it, “Gary?”
“Mornin’, sunshine!”
There was that teasing laugh in his voice and Ash couldn't help but smile at the sound of it. Gary only called him that when he was being lazy and didn't want to get out of bed. He rolled over and sank back into the pillows on his bed, his lazy smile only broadening.
“Mornin’” he replied groggily.
“Barely,” Gary returned. “Get up and get over here. I need help with something and Tracey’s busy.”
That was odd. Gary was usually able to take care of everything himself – asking for help was just weird .
“What do you need help with?” His voice came out more concerned than he had intended but Gary only laughed when he replied.
“You'll see.”
The line went quiet after that and Ash rolled his eyes as he dropped the phone atop the covers. Apparently it wasn't anything too important or dangerous, otherwise Gary would have given him more details. That also probably meant it didn't involve pokemon.
Ash tried not to feel too disappointed.
“Yeah, yeah, see you soon,” he grumbled to himself as he climbed out of bed. Pikachu’s weight was suddenly on his shoulder, making him stagger slightly but he quickly regained his balance.
“Pipichu?” his starter asked, a bit of concern in his little voice.
“Gary needs help with something,” he replied through a wide yawn.
“Pi?”
“I know, weird for him, right?” He gave his pokemon a pat on the head as he set about finding a clean shirt and pair of jeans for the day.
“Pika.”
The little electric type sounded more concerned than was likely necessary but Gary had been up to something lately. He'd been working on something on his laptop: something that he apparently didn't want Ash to know the details about, if the way he automatically closed the laptop every time Ash came by was any indicator. It didn't seem to be concerning – anything that was usually brought on an episode of migraines and he hadn’t had a single migraine in over a month so it couldn't be that. Still, he clearly had some secret project going on. He was probably just planning their next trip… but why would he ask for Ash’s help like that?
Oh! He'd probably gotten some new field gear to try out – he usually did this exact thing when that happened. The last time he'd gotten a new tent, he'd surprised Ash by asking him to help out with something at the lab, only to lead him off into the woods for a surprise picnic-slash-camping trip date night.
That was a particularly fond memory - especially considering what they had done in the tent that night. How fitting that their first time fooling around together had been in a tent under a beautiful full moon in Pallet’s forests. Ash doubted that would happen this afternoon but he would be happy even if it was just a short hiking trip… And if they did end up going further than that, well. That was even better.
Ash rushed his way through getting dressed and ducked into the bathroom before rushing downstairs. He darted into the kitchen with a quick “Mornin’, Mom!” as he snagged a muffin from the plate on the counter for breakfast.
She caught his arm before he could rush right back out of the room. “That’s not a proper breakfast,” she chastised lightly, steering him into one of the chairs at the kitchen table.
“But I gotta go help Gary with something,” Ash complained around his mouthful of muffin, even as she pushed a plate of food in front of him.
“All the more reason to eat a proper breakfast,” Delia returned. “You boys need all the energy you can get.”
She turned back to the counter and returned her attention to whatever she had been working on – making lunch apparently, judging by the spread of food across the counter. It looked like she was preparing sandwiches and snacks, just as she did every time Ash went to the beach with Tracey and Misty… and every time Gary suddenly showed up as a surprise. She always seemed to know when he had something up his sleeve.
“D’you know what Gary’s got planned?”
“No, but I know what he’s working on this morning.”
Based on her tone and sly smile, Ash figured she probably wasn't going to share any of those details. She never did. It was awesome how close she and Gary were, but sometimes Ash wished she would be just a little more willing to let a detail or two slip every now and again.
Oh well. There was a surprise of some sort in store and Ash was thrilled by that detail alone. It was going to be a great day.
Delia shoved a picnic basket into his hands and shooed him and Pikachu out the door as soon as he was done eating. The basket was rather heavy for just lunch for the two of them and their pokemon and Ash couldn't help but wonder what she and Gary were up to this time. He resisted the urge to sneak a peek and eagerly hurried his way down the street towards the lab.
Convinced as he was that this was going to end up being some sort of date, Ash was surprised when he came to the driveway of the lab and found boxes and pieces of metal and tools scattered around Gary’s Jeep.
This definitely didn't look like one of Gary’s surprise dates.
Umbreon could be seen dozing on the porch while Arcanine was sprawled in the sunshine a short distance from the car. The doors were all wide open, music blaring from the speakers loud enough that the professor would have scolded Gary were he not preoccupied with whatever was going on in the lab this morn–
Wait. Was it even still morning? The sun was awfully high for the morning…
Oh, who cared? Gary was sitting in the driver's seat, apparently too distracted by something on his phone to have noticed Ash’s arrival.
Perfect.
Ash glanced at Pikachu with a mischievous grin as he held a finger to his lips and set the basket on the ground. Pikachu’s ear twitched as he copied the motion and patted Ash’s hat to signify his understanding. They crept close to the Jeep and ducked down when they reached it, crawling around to the open passenger door.
He waited another moment before springing up and leaning through the open door with a loud, “Boo!” Ash laughed at Gary’s startled jump and shook his head as he climbed into the passenger seat. “You woulda heard me if your music wasn’t so loud,” he teased, leaning in to press a quick kiss to his boyfriend’s cheek.
Gary narrowed his eyes and he flicked the brim of Ash’s hat in retaliation, sending it tumbling off his head and out of the car onto the ground.
“Hey!” Ash started to back out of the car to retrieve his hat but Gary’s hand caught his wrist and he pulled him in for another kiss.
“Took you long enough,” he murmured against Ash’s lips.
Ash could feel the smirk and he rolled his eyes, claiming Gary’s lips once more for the sole purpose of wiping that smirk off his face. It didn’t work. The smirk was still there when they parted – if anything, it had only grown. Apparently he had done exactly what Gary had wanted.
Oh well. At least he got another kiss out of it.
“What are we doing?” he asked, eager to distract Gary from that little victory of his.
Gary retrieved his phone from where he had dropped it when Ash had startled him and peered at the screen, which Ash saw was covered in diagrams and numbers. He groaned at the sight of it – this didn’t look like the fun sort of date he had been hoping for. Gary either didn’t notice or ignored him as he scrolled, eyes scanning over the diagrams.
“Installing the roof rack,” he replied without looking up from the phone.
That explained all the tools and metal pieces on the ground. “You didn’t tell me you got the roof rack,” Ash said quietly.
It was something that Gary had been saving up for and was eagerly looking forward to getting. Ash was a little surprised he hadn't mentioned it sooner.
“I told you twice that it was supposed to come yesterday.”
He had?
Ash frowned, trying – and failing – to recall when that had happened. His memory wasn’t that bad. At least not all the time – it was a different story when pokemon were around. He rolled his eyes, already knowing what his boyfriend had done.
“Did you intentionally tell me when I was training so I would forget?”
“Yes,” Gary replied honestly and without a second of hesitation. “I was actually going to surprise you by picking you up after I was done, but turns out it actually needs an extra set of hands to install.”
That sounded more like him. Ash grinned at the implication of what he had said: there was still a surprise in store. “What were we gonna do after you picked me up?”
“Nothing if we don't get it installed,” Gary returned easily.
So it was gonna be like that, huh? Gary had a surprise and was going to make him work for it this time, apparently. Ash wasn’t sure whether to be annoyed or excited. He remembered how heavy the picnic basket from his mother was and decided to go with excited.
That all had to mean they were going somewhere and doing something for a while. Maybe they were going camping, maybe to one of the more distant scenic places they always visited when they were in Kanto. Maybe they were just going out to Route One, maybe they were going all the way to Cerulean to their favorite beach. No matter what, it was probably going to be some sort of adventure.
Ash could never be annoyed about that – even if he had to help out with something first. It wasn’t like Gary asked for help often.
“What do you need help with?”
“Literally just holding stuff in place.” Gary climbed out of his car and tossed his phone on the seat.
“That’s it?” Ash asked doubtfully as he met Gary at the back of the car, where his boyfriend had already picked up the drill and was climbing up the ladder that was situated beside the Jeep.
Gary’s usual smirk tugged at the corner of his lips as he looked down at Ash from the roof of the car. “Bold of you to assume I trust you with power tools.”
That… was actually a fair point. Not that he was going to give Gary the satisfaction of saying so. Instead he held up his middle fingers at him – but his insufferable boyfriend only grinned and blew him a kiss.
Pain in the ass.
He was lucky Ash loved him so damn much.
“Can you hand me that bar?” Gary asked, pointing to one of the metal pieces on the driver's side of the car.
“Can I throw it at you?” he returned, even as he moved to pick it up.
“Please don't. The car has enough dents already.”
Ash gave him a mischievous grin as he passed the bar up. “Says a lot about your driving.” He laughed when Gary rolled his eyes and passed up the next bar that Gary pointed to.
“Says a lot more about the rhyhorn that charged it,” Gary replied. “Grab those two pieces and get up here, smartass.”
Ash laughed harder but did as he was told. They had been young children when that happened, back when the lab had a larger staff and did larger projects. It had been a lab Jeep for the field but an angry rhyhorn had sent it hurtling and flipping over. No one had been in it and it still worked fine, it just looked as though it had been charged by an angry rhyhorn at some point – something Gary seemed to rather enjoy.
There hadn’t been any additional dents since the professor had passed over the keys when Gary had expressed interest in it two years earlier. Gary was more than responsible with his car.
And now that Ash was on the roof, he could see there was a decent dent between him and Gary. “Wow! Even the roof got dented? Think it landed on a rock when the rhyhorn flipped it?”
Gary glared at the dent as though it had personally offended him. “No,” he said flatly. “That’s from when I realized I needed a second pair of hands.”
Oh. So Gary had managed to put another dent in it. And his perfectionist boyfriend was not thrilled.
They couldn't have that. Not when there was a surprise date after this.
“Well, at least none of the dents are from your driving,” Ash reasoned with a reassuring smile. “And it's not like anyone's gonna see it with the rack up here.”
“It's still annoying.”
Ash waited for him to finish fitting two of the metal rods together before he patted his knee consolingly. “You want to use it in the field, right? Camp out of it and all?”
“That’s the plan… Hold this here.”
Ash held one of the pieces in place as Gary screwed it in, and they repeated the process on the opposite corner of the roof. He was about to remark on how easily this seemed to be going before he realized that every spot was already marked or drilled or prepped in whatever way it needed to be. They worked in relative quiet, with Ash holding pieces in place and occasionally climbing down to fetch another few pieces. It wasn’t difficult at all. It seemed Gary had done the hardest parts already – the measuring, the drilling – and all that was left was this. Quite literally just putting it all in place.
It was a wonder Gary had been so cheerful on the phone earlier. He must have been so frustrated by part of his surprise being spoiled, which was honestly probably why he had been blasting his music when Ash came along. Ash felt a little bad for him, but Gary didn’t seem too upset by it.
The rest of the surprise must have been good for that to be the case.
Finally the last piece was in place and Gary visibly relaxed.
“That took way more time than it should've,” he sighed, though he sounded a little more relieved than annoyed.
Ash offered him a smile and a distraction. “What’s the first adventure with the roof rack?” he asked.
That did the trick. Gary smiled, his eyes lighting up as they always did when talking about traveling. “Well, the first big one will be the Orange Islands this summer.”
Summer was still two months away.
“How about the first small one?” Ash tried again.
But Gary only smirked. “You'll see,” he replied flippantly.
“When?”
Gary looked as though he were debating whether or not to just give in now and tell him or to stretch it out longer and torment him some more. Ash gave him his best puppy dog eyes and hoped he would choose the first one.
“Whenever you open the basket from your mother,” Gary finally replied, sending a little shock of surprise through Ash. That was almost as good as just telling him right now, and Ash had a feeling he might know what he would find in the basket.
He grinned and quickly climbed down the ladder, scurrying over to the basket as fast as he could. Gary’s laughter followed him and he heard his boyfriend climb down the ladder behind him as well. In his excitement, it took a moment to figure out how to undo the clasp holding the basket shut but when Ash finally opened it he whooped cheerfully. Sure enough, atop the drinks and food were two beach towels and his board shorts and rashguard.
This was the main reason Gary had wanted the rack in the first place: so that they could go surfing and comfortably have enough space in the car for gear. He’d had a feeling this might be the surprise, but he never knew with Gary. Sometimes he was predictable, but as soon as Ash figured out the pattern, Gary went and did something different.
“Is this the whole surprise?” Ash asked, pulling out the change of clothes.
“Look in the back of the car.”
That meant they were camping. Ash’s grin widened as he bounded over to the back of the car and opened the door. Sure enough, there was Gary’s tent – the big one that he only used when he was driving somewhere. It was too heavy to comfortably carry in the field, but was perfect if they were going in the car. But something else caught Ash’s eye: an inflatable mattress.
“Got some extra plans for tonight?” Ash asked slyly.
“Yeah, being comfortable.”
Fair enough. Ash wasn’t going to complain either way.
“Where are we going?” he asked curiously.
“I was thinking south of Pallet. It’s quiet there.” Gary flashed him a mischievous grin and Ash returned it with his own excited smile.
This was definitely going to be a good weekend.