Ash, Gou decided, has some really bad habits. Some of those included hiding his emotions. Gou was an open person, he liked to think. If he was upset he'd find someone to talk to. A lot of times, this person was Ash. After the Darkest Day, Gou was getting nightmares for a while and when he was up with them, he often heard his research fellow partner tossing and turning around, often muttering to Pikachu.
One specific night, Gou's nightmare wasn’t that bad, but he wasn’t tired anymore so he didn’t go back to sleep. He went on his Rotom Phone for a while when he heard more tossing and turning. He knew it was Ash, as Pikachu couldn’t make that much noise. He peered up to see if Ash was ok, as he hadn’t shown any signs of being upset about the whole ordeal.
“Ash? You ok up there?” He called, bit the only answer he seemed to get was some muffled sounds of pain. Had Ash gotten hurt? No, that’s not right, Nurse Joy had checked both the boys over after it had happened. All the injuries Gou had was a graze on his arm that was easily bandaged and the raven haired boy somehow came out unscathed.
Gou thought about the many misadventures that him and Ash have had, and how Ash had acted completely fine with all of them. Gou doesn’t think Ash was half as excited as he was on Lugia. And when they were talking about it afterward, he had heard Ash mutter something to Pikachu about how it ‘felt like the same one they saved from TR’ Gou didn’t know what exact ‘TR’ stood for but they didn’t seem like good people, if they tried to take a Lugia. Ash was more secretive than Gou would like but that can’t be helped.
The tossing and turning was getting more and more common and Gou was getting more worried. Ash hadn’t had a nightmare since he moved in to the Sakuragi Institute. His only nightmare, Gou thought, was probably due to homesickness.
Ash wasn’t very good when it came to talking about himself, Gou realised. When he won a battle, he gave his Pokémon all the credit, saying that he barely did anything, which wasn’t true. So, when it came to feelings, it was a no-brainer that Ash would suck at it.
Gou snapped out of his thoughts when he heard a muffled scream from the raven haired Kantonian.
“Ash?!” Gou said, well, nearly yelled. “Are you ok?!?”
He didn’t get a response other than some heavy breathing, so he got up and climbed the ladder to his research partner’s bunk.
“Can I touch you?” Gou had asked. He waited for the nod of confirmation before gently placing his hand on Ash’s shoulder. “You’re in the Sakuragi Institute” He tried his best to calm his friend down, and was relieved at the sound of his breathing calming down. He noticed Pikachu was simply nuzzling his trainer’s chest, and Ash slowly lifted his hand up to rub his Pokémon back.
They both ended up falling asleep on the top bunk of the bed in their shared room, being rudely awoken by Koharu at 7am. At breakfast, Ash seemed fine, if not just a bit tired. He probably forgot the ordeal the night before, so Gou hadn’t mentioned it.
It was a warm evening and Gou and Ash, obviously along with Pikachu, were sitting on the Kalosian grass. Ash and Pikachu were sparing worried glances at each other all day, and Gou had noticed them both tense up when hearing Korrina mention something about Lumiose. Gou hated being in the dark about things, so he decided that now was the time to ask.
“Why were you so jumpy today?” Gou asked, instantly realising that he sounded way too harsh.
He noticed Ash’s eyes go wide and he froze for a second, before composing himself. “I- I don’t know what you’re talking about?” he replied, voice tense and shaky.
“Please don’t lie to me” Gou said. Oh dear, that came out way harsher than he intended it to.
“I- uh, I’m sorry, I- I cant-I can’t” Oh fuck Ash was panicking now.
Ash curled his knees up and put his head down in them. Pikachu shot a disgusted glare at Gou, which he could understand meant “What the hell?”.
They had both ended up going to bed without another word to each other, eye bags now prominently showing under Ash’s eyes. Gou had felt bad. He decided to look up news about Lumiose city during the time he knew Ash was there.
‘Kantonian boy jumps off Prism Tower to save partner Pikachu’ One article read. Oh, that explained it. He read further. ‘Kalos Crisis kills 3, injures hundreds’ Oh. *that* was it. He read down the article page a bit more ‘After the Kalos League Final between Alain and Ash Ketchum, there was an explosion that nobody knew what it was. Many people ran for shelter and even more ran when they saw the legendary Pokémon we identified as Zygarde. Supposedly, Team Flare leader, Lysandre, wanted to destroy the world and create a new one, starting with Kalos. Many strong trainers, such as the Champion Diantha, Ash Ketchum’ Wait, hold on a second, why is Ash labelled as a strong trainer in the news? Gou could understand the whole finalist bit, but why is Ash there? He continued reading. ‘All the Kalos gym leaders also showed up as Kalos needed all the help available. Below shows a video one of our cameras caught of the tragedy’ The video showed a boy being strung up using some red energy, with a Pikachu and some other Pokémon that resembled a Toxicroak, in some ways. Wait. Gou recognised that messy jet-black hair anywhere. That wasn’t some random boy, that was Ash. Why was Ash up there?! The video then proceeded to show Ash in immense pain and Gou couldn’t watch. The video ends when the man who was stringing Ash up jumped from the top of ‘Prism Tower’.
Gou was gobsmacked. How could Ash keep this from him?! He got curious and simply searched Ash’s name in the search bar of Google. A whole bunch of results popped up, from regional professors to small PokéTube bloggers, so many people knew who he was. He clicked a page by Professor Sycamore titled ‘The Bond Phenomenon’ he was curious and sure as he’ll wasn’t going back to sleep after what he had already seen.
Scrolling through the page, he seen the name Greninja mentioned alot, so he looked it up. It was the same Pokémon from the video. He went back to the blog. ‘A key trainer of mine, Ash Ketchum, grew a close bond with a certain Froakie who rejected every other trainer but Ash, and when it evolved into a Greninja, during battle, Him and Greninja could perfectly sync. In the words of Ash, he states that he can “Feel what Greninja feels and see what he sees” when bonded’
He really should ask Ash about this in the morning, even if he accidentally spent all night reading about his research partner.
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1205 words. Holy crap this is a big boy
please enjoy this I was sneaking on my phone to write this in business today
