Ah, nothing like plotbunnies… *throws line in pond* At least they don’t cost money! And you don’t have to pay them a salary!

I love plotbunnies!

Ash: …
Phantomness: What?
Lance: Are you feeling all right?

Kairo: Don’t imply anything! She might destroy this fic!

Shoyko: Oh, have more faith. Otherwise you might end up like Emerald…

Lance: You sound like Roy Mustang from FMA…
Disclaimer: I don’t own pokemon. It belongs to Nintendo and Shogakukan Comics. This non-profit, non-copyright infringing fanfic belongs to me!

Chapter 6

< A-all right… >

He was about to use Pikachu when he remembered he must not rely on it too much, so he sent out Primeape.

Primeape was faster and used Dynamicpunch, confusing Eevee.

“Eevee, Bite!”

Still, dark didn’t affect fighting that much, and next Primeape used Karate Chop. Eevee’s HP was almost nil.

“Eevee, Flail!”

But Flail was still a normal type attack, and was not too bad. So Ash had Primeape use another Karate Chop.

Eevee fainted.

< Why is it so hard? >

< Interesting. He didn’t use it. > Lance observed.

< Use what? >

< Never mind, do not fret little one… >

Ash smiled. * So I won! Ha! I beat you Gary, this time it was fair and square! *

“So you haven’t been slacking off.” Gary said. “Well, got to go. Smell you later!” And so, he left.

Ash hugged Lance tightly after he was out the door. “Thank you!”

“What?”

“For training me of course.” Ash said brightly. * And for being here with me… I don’t want you to go… *

It was selfish and he knew it but he wanted Lance very badly.

I want you to stay with me forever…

Be mine.

“Watch the ankle.” Lance said, as Ash leaned on him and walked back to his room.

“Hai.”

“Do you want anything?”

“Um… maybe some juice.”

“All right, wait here then. I hope you don’t have any more challengers today because you should really stay in bed. It is getting late, anyways.”

“It is? But it’s only ten in the morning.”

“Well, you should still stay in bed.”

So Ash did. He drank the passion fruit juice Lance brought him and read three books.

The next day, he stayed in bed until he realized he had to shower, so he limped to the bathroom. His ankle didn’t really hurt much now, but still…

Apparently he had miscalculated.

Ash’s eyes widened as Lance stepped out, clad in a dark blue bathrobe. “What are you doing out of bed?”

“I need to shower.”

“Well, be careful.” Lance said. “Does it hurt?”

“Not really, I took Motrin this morning.”

“That’s good.”

Ash tore his eyes away from studying the flat planes of Lance’s chest, since he had only loosely cinched the robe at the waist with the belt.

He hastily took a cold shower while Pikachu kept an eye on him.

If you like him, why don’t you tell him?

“I don’t know how to.”

Well, it’s better than torturing yourself, isn’t it?

“But he doesn’t know me that well, and I don’t know him that well yet…”

I guess…

Still, Pikachu might be right.

“What do you pokemon do?”

Oh, that’s easy! If we find someone we want to be our mate we just tell them!

“Um… even if you’ve just met?”

Of course!

“Well, that’s blunt…”

Maybe he _should_ just tell Lance. No, he could wait until the training period was up. Then, Lance would leave anyways.

So it would hurt less if he got rejected.

And so, three more weeks passed, and Lance got ready to leave.

“I think you’re more than capable of handling this gym on your own.”

“But what if I lose?”

“Don’t.” Lance said simply.

“H-hai!”

“Why are you so worried? You’re a perfectly good trainer.”

“You’re better than I am.”

Lance took Ash’s hands in his. “Ash… don’t lower yourself just because you aren’t perfect.”

Ash’s eyes widened slightly, but he nodded.

“And please don’t hate me for this.” Lance said, before he kissed him.

Woohoo! Now that’s more like it!

Espeon shot her sister a dirty look. < Now, now, we shouldn’t interrupt. >

Finally. Pikachu muttered.

Ash looked at Lance breathlessly. < You? >

< Do I love you? Of course. >

< Why? >

< Well, why do you love me? >

Neither could really explain, so both accepted… and everything would work out, Champion and Gym Leader Together.

That was just the way love worked.

End Chapter

Completed 7/10/04, started 6/9/04

I think I can end the fic here so I will. ^-^

Random notes

I have no idea why I named this fic what I did but if you look really carefully between the lines the significance should make sense…

There’s one or two hard to find fairy-tale references in this fic.

This was written long, long ago, but I just completed it if you notice the dates…

If this part is slightly weird, Phantomness is high on painkillers at the moment because she hurt her ankle in karate…