Whee! *vanishes*

Disclaimer/Notes: See previous chapter

Who ever said an authoress was sane?

Lance: Not me

Ash: *shakes head*

Muses: *back away quickly*

Timeline: 6 months later – Johto!

Chapter 8

“Sugoi…”
“Pretty, isn’t it?” Lance asked offhandedly.

“Hai!”

It hadn’t been too hard, the death glare had kept the two or three rocket teams they had run across away before they even attacked.

Good.

People really do see what they want to see. I’m just manipulating it so he sees what _I_ want him to see.

And there’s nothing wrong with that.

He is kind of kawaii in a hyper way.

Lance blinked at that thought. * Wait a second… well, I suppose if he isn’t related to me it can’t hurt. *

He smiled as Ash hugged his new Charmander tightly to his chest. They had located the valley, found a willing partner, and left.

It was easy.

She sneezed in his face, but Ash just smiled.

He thought it was kawaii of course.

Of course, Ash trusted him. That had been rather easy to earn. First there had been the cave-in…

Ash had clung to him the entire six hours they were trapped before the rescue team dug them out. It had been very good for subtle manipulation.

In any case, it had given him a very good opportunity to peek and adjust mentality… and why waste opportunities?

Then, there had been that time when they had gotten stranded on a tiny island outside of Vermillion due to a teleport accident with Ash’s Abra, and the resulting battle with all those Exeggutor which had tired out his dragons so they couldn’t fly…

That had been _very_ helpful.

Still, father wanted Ash on the Team before the end of this year; so he had to work fast. Hmm…

Now how to do that without breaking anything?

**********And for fun, the flashback************************************

They were walking around in Rock Tunnel, while Ash’s Bulbasaur and Poliwrath kept the rock-types far, far, away.

“It’s so big…”

“I know, at this rate it’ll take a week to get to Lavender.” Lance agreed.

“I hate camping in caves.”

“Tell me about it, Diglett’s tunnel was bad enough…”

Poliwrath yawned, as Bulbasaur whacked a stray Geodude out of the path. It had all been going well, until they ran into the Onix.

Before they could attack, it had used Earthquake… and unfortunately, while still half-buried in the ground, that was a very powerful move.

Lance grabbed Ash instinctively, Aerodactyl appearing and settling over them, curved wings like a shield, as the mountain fell around them.

When the dust finally cleared – that took a while, and it was so hard to breathe during that time – they were trapped.

Rubble and stones covered every inch.

Ash coughed, and Lance quickly checked him over, causing rampant blushing from the younger trainer, who was suddenly very glad they were in the dark so Lance couldn’t see his face.

“Ash, nothing’s broken.”

“Honto Ni?”

“I can’t feel anything.” Lance said, but just in case, he let a little bit of his healing power soak into Ash’s skin.

It wouldn’t do to kill him or have him killed by accident.

Ash nuzzled Lance, surprising the other trainer. “Ash?”

“I’m scared…”

“Don’t worry, we’ll get rescued eventually.” Lance said, but Ash continued to cling, pressing their two bodies even closer together, not that there was much room in the first place…

It was very lucky though.

Lance kicked all possible hentai thoughts out of his mind, reminding himself that even if Ash was kawaii, he was also barely eleven and that was not legal age.

Besides, it might hurt in the long run.

Still…

Ash’s breath caught in his throat as Lance kissed him. It didn’t seem intentional, but… he squirmed involuntarily in spite of himself.

Hormones had no age limits unfortunately.

Lance shifted slightly, as Ash let out what sounded like a strangled mew, and then closed his eyes.

***********************End Flashback***********************************

“Lance?”
Lance looked at Ash from where he was adjusting his jacket nonchalantly. “I’ll be leaving now.”

“Nani?!”

“Wasn’t the deal that I would show you where the Charmanders were?” Lance smiled. “Well, you have your own now. I’m sure you don’t need me following you around…”

There, tweak a little on the guilt, and…

The blue light began to gather itself, as he got ready to teleport. Just as the lights flashed, Ash grabbed onto his arm, like he had planned.

They wound up sprawled on the floor in Giovanni’s office. Giovanni blinked, coughed, and then blinked again.

“You two all right?”

“Hai, father.” Lance said respectfully.

“Ah! I’m sorry!” Ash said, and began apologizing profusely while Giovanni waved them outside.

“Demo, where are we?”

“My home.” Lance said simply as Ash followed him down the corridor to his room. Black met their vision, black spangled with red and streaks of white. Inside, after they had closed the door, Ash let himself stare at the decorations. It wasn’t overly gilt-adorned or anything, luckily. Just mostly black.

Lance flopped down on the bed, sighing. “So, I guess you can stay here.”

Ash blushed. “I-I’m sorry, I just didn’t want you to go.”

“I see.”

End Chapter

Completed 6/22/04

Started 6/21/04