Well, I hope this plotbunny lives a long life!
Disclaimer: I don’t own pokémon; it belongs to Nintendo and also Shogakukan Comics! This is non-profit, non-copyright infringing fanfic written by me and I own it.

Notes: <> for telepathy, ** for thoughts, italics if a pokemon talks

Timeline: Anime series-wise, this is after Clefairy/Moon stone but before Ash fights Misty. Fic-verse, its post-Dragon’s Love, Mirror my Reflection, and Pokemon Special but I think that’s it. My fanfics are like a tree, one trunk, tons of branches…

Chapter 2

“Lance-chan, I only need you.” Ash whispered. “You’re my only real friend…”

Lance hid a smile. * Oh… I see… in either case, he is too young now, Lugia’s right of course, but… it won’t hurt if I draw him in early… *

“I’ll stay if you want me to.”

“Honto ni?” Ash’s eyes widened. “Really?”

“Hai. You just have to ask me to stay.”

“Of course I want you to stay with me.” Ash said, feeling safe where he was. Lance smiled.

“All right.”

“They’re only following me around, they aren’t real friends. In fact, I don’t know why they’re following me.” Ash explained.

Lance raised an eyebrow. “Ah.”

Ash nodded, as Pidgeotto, Butterfree, and Pikachu all peeked out of their hiding places – or poke balls – to see what was going on.

Woah.

Pidgeotto fluffed herself up to look more presentable. I must be hallucinating! He can’t be a-!

Realm guardian! Butterfree finished.

Lance grinned.

Ash blinked, and then snuggled deeper into the embrace, feeling warm and happy. He quickly fell asleep.

Lance smoothed his unruly hair back with a hand and then turned to the pokemon. “So you can see me?”

Mute nods were given.

“Well, then I need you to keep my secret for a while longer, at least until Ash gets rid of those troublesome leaders who ought to be at their gyms.”

Hai!

We won’t tell!

You can count on us!

“That’s good…” Lance said, his voice lowering as his mind began to think about what he would do if they did spill.

That was last resort, though. Pokemon were usually trustworthy.

They all scampered off to play.

Lance began calculating, as he continued brushing Ash’s hair out. Ash needed some more pokemon; that was certain. The cards were still not accessible. So…

The Chosen smirked.

The area teamed with pokemon, so catching them would be no problem… as long as there was no outside influence.

With a thought, Misty and Brock drifted off to sleep in the grass.

He could deal with them later.

After a very refreshing nap, Ash and Lance had chocolate cookies and milk, and then Ash headed off to find pokemon.

Lance followed a good few yards behind, idly pausing to glance at random pokemon that caught his eye.

Pikachu placed himself on top of Ash’s head where the sights were readily visible. The first wave of bird pokemon attacked.

A few minutes later, all had been driven away, and his three pokemon had been quite leveled up. The only problem was his pokemon team’s injuries.

Lance teleported them to the Cerulean Pokemon Center, it was the most adjacent locale in either case.

Ash healed his pokemon, let them rest for a bit, and then went back out in the tall grass to train.

It was a mystery why some cities were barricaded with fields of wild grass that seethed with pokemon life.

How did people immigrate and emigrate?

How strange.

Well, it was not in his favor to pry, so he left the potential archetype alone, and continued on his merry way.

This time, luck was on his side as a wild Vulpix attacked.

“Wow.” Ash said. “Butterfree, let’s try our best!”

The bug nodded, bobbing his loose antennae up and down. I’m ready whenever you are!

“Sleep Powder!”

Sure enough, Vulpix drifted off to sleep, snores that would have been cute in another temporal phase almost deadly now.

No, it didn’t know Snore luckily.

Butterfree then used three Confusion attacks, bringing Vulpix’s HP bar down to red, as Ash threw a poke ball.

Vulpix was caught!

“Nice.” Lance commented, as Ash beamed. “Yay!”

Well, someone was less restrained.

“You’re my lucky charm, Lance-chan!” Ash said, hugging the other trainer.

“Oh, I wouldn’t say that.” The Dragon Master observed. “You have considerable skill on your own.”

Ash shrugged, and healed his new Vulpix, before deciding that a few hours of training was enough and that it was time to relax.

He and Lance soaked in the miniature hot spring outside the center together, lazily floating in the water.

Ash drifted back into yesteryear and the first time Lance had taken him to the hot springs. He hadn’t been more than seven, most likely, and it had been a very cold winter’s day, not snowy, because it never snowed in Pallet, but still bitingly chilly.

Lance had found him shivering outside, since his mom had told him to go play instead of being cooped up inside.

“Ash, what’s wrong?”

“C-cold.” Ash whispered, teeth chattering. He had fallen on his face and made a few snow angels, but playing by himself wasn’t much fun.

And there was no way he would go play with Katrina! Ugh. She was decorating a snowman with pink frilly underwear. Ew…

“That’s no fun.” Lance agreed. “Let’s go somewhere else.” The next thing Ash knew, they were at a rocky pool.

“Swimming?”

“Hai. Don’t worry about the cold, Ash.” Lance said, stripping off his jacket and black bodysuit. He slipped into the water without a flinch, and Ash waited a second, before shedding his own clothes and jumping in.

The water was nice and warm, steamy hot…

“Wow!”

“Natural hot spring.” Lance said.

“What?”

“It means the water’s normally hot like this.”

“This is much better than home.” Ash said, as he splashed Lance, and a water fight arose.

He smiled fondly, remembering that memory.

“Something amusing, Ash?”

“Just remembering.” Ash said, as Lance shampooed his hair. That felt so nice… and Lance-chan never got soap in his eyes…

< Ah. >

Afterwards, the two wrapped themselves in warm towels and headed back to the Pokemon Center for a good night’s sleep.

End Chapter

Yep, I’m doing flashbacks… sorry if you don’t like them.

Completed 5/20/04

There will most likely be shonen-ai at a later day, but right now its just fluff. ^-^