Chapter Text
It starts with an explosion, like so many things do since the three of them started traveling together.
Goh had always thought the amount of trouble Ash directed their way was… excessive, to say the least. He’d been relieved when Gary had decided to tag along on their latest trip, expecting things to go more smoothly with two people keeping Ash’s more suicidal tendencies in check. And Gary has always been the level-headed one of their group (loathe as Goh is to admit it), so things should be calming down, right?
Wrong.
Unfortunately, he realized far too late that Ash and Gary have the unsettling habit of bringing out each other’s inner lunatics, yielding a much higher rate of destruction together than either of them could ever hope to accomplish alone.
And has Goh mentioned the explosions?
Because they’re becoming a real problem.
“How many fingers am I holding up?” Goh asks, shoving three fingers in front of Gary’s unfocused eyes.
“Uh… six?” Gary guesses, swaying on his feet.
“Oh, crap,” Goh says, two seconds before Gary pitches forward. Goh manages to catch him before he falls face-first onto the ground, stumbling under the added weight. “Ash! Help!”
“‘M fine,” Gary insists, head lolling onto Goh’s shoulder as he’s carried back to camp. “You guys can put me down.”
“Yeah, perfectly fine,” Goh agrees, rolling his eyes. “It’s not like you collapsed or anything.”
Gary giggles. Like, an actual, honest-to-Arceus giggle.
Goh is so surprised he almost drops him.
“You’re cute when you’re sassy,” Gary tells him.
“Uh, okay,” Goh says, disturbed. “Ash, I think he’s concussed.”
“Did he hit his head when he fell down?” Ash asks, letting out a small grunt as he readjusts his grip on Gary's legs.
“I don’t know, I was a little blinded by the explosion to notice.”
“Yeah, those have been happening around us a lot lately,” Ash says, frowning. “We might want to look into that.”
Goh glares at the dark-haired trainer. He’d tell the other man his short list of suspicions as to why things keep literally blowing up around them (really, the list is just Ash and Gary’s names), but he refrains, if only because Gary is already asleep in their arms, face lax and peaceful despite the bruise blooming on his cheekbone.
“Let’s just get him to the tent and let him sleep off the worst of it,” Goh mutters, trying to hold back a shiver as Gary’s even breaths ghost along Goh’s neck.
—
In hindsight, it takes Goh and Ash far longer to figure it out than it probably should have.
Gary seems more or less fine when he wakes up the next morning, stretching his arms over his head and grumbling about Goh drinking all the coffee. He makes a few weird comments throughout the day, but Goh doesn’t think much of it past concussion and hit by a blast of psychic energy.
It isn’t until they’re eating dinner around the campfire that evening that Goh finally realizes something isn’t right.
“Why are you like this?!” Goh demands half-heartedly when Gary makes a quip about Goh’s fashion sense for the third time in as many hours.
“Like what?” Gary asks.
“A total prick.”
Gary shrugs. “Defense mechanism from being raised by my emotionally unavailable grandfather? That’s what my therapist keeps telling me, anyway.”
Even Ash pauses at that, spoon hovering halfway between his bowl and his mouth as he stares at Gary with wide eyes. “Uh, you feeling okay, Gar?”
“More or less?” Gary shrugs again. “I mean, this curry’s probably gonna give me heartburn later, so I’m not really looking forward to that. Oh, and I think I rolled my ankle yesterday when I fell, and this bug bite on my arm itches like a motherfu—”
“I think he meant mentally,” Goh interjects. "Or, uh, emotionally?"
“Oh, absolutely not,” Gary says, cheery. “But that’s hardly new. Why do you ask?”
“No reason.” Goh sets down his bowl of curry. “I’m going to call Professor Cerise.”
“Great idea!” Ash says.
“But you haven’t even finished eating,” Gary protests. “And it’s the middle of the night back in Kanto.”
“Uh, it’s important. Ash, keep an eye on… well, y’know.”
Ash salutes him with his spoon, scooting further down the log he’s sitting on to get closer to Gary.
Goh rolls his eyes, trudging from the clearing they’d chosen for a campsite and into the surrounding forest. He doesn’t stop until he can no longer hear Ash and Gary’s voices, the campfire a flickering speck in the distance.
Despite the late (early?) hour back in Kanto, Professor Cerise answers on the second ring, the bookshelves behind him signaling that Goh caught him working through the night. “Goh! I wasn’t expecting to hear from you. How’s the expedition going?”
“Well, it’s—it could be better,” Goh says, fidgeting with the edge of his phone case. “I was, uh, just wondering—purely hypothetically, of course—what are the symptoms you should watch out for after someone gets a concussion? If someone starts… oh, I don’t know, saying some deeply personal things that they wouldn’t normally share. Would that be, like, cause for major concern?”
“Ash got another concussion?!”
“Not Ash this time,” Goh says with a sigh. “Gary.”
“Gary? Really? But he’s the responsible one.”
“Yeah, yeah, I know,” Goh grumbles. “But he’s apparently a total idiot when Ash is around, so, the more you know.”
“Yes, well, Ash does seem to have that effect on people,” Professor Cerise says, giving Goh a loaded look that the younger researcher does not appreciate at all.
Goh was more than happy to do plenty of stupid things before he met Ash, thank you very much, but, well, he doesn’t think telling the professor that will really help his credibility much. “Anyway, they were training yesterday, and Gary got hit with a psychic attack—”
“Let me guess, there was another—”
“—Explosion, yes, but—”
“—Those are becoming a real problem with you three—”
“—Yes, I know. Now, as I was saying, he got hit by a psychic blast while he and Ash were training, and I think he must have hit his head pretty hard, because he’s been saying some really weird stuff ever since!”
“Like what?”
“I—I don’t know,” Goh hedges, not sure how much he should share of Gary’s recent offhand comments. “Stuff. Like—personal stuff. Things he would rather be boiled in hot oil than admit.”
“Ah,” Professor Cerise says, eyes twinkling. “I think I have some idea. Well, head injuries can affect cognitive function, so it is possible that his verbal filter is impaired. Does he have any other symptoms? Nausea? Dizziness? Mood swings? Memory lapses?”
“Um, no, not really. He said he felt great this morning.” Goh decides to leave out the part where Gary had apparently felt so great because he woke up to find Goh in a pair of jeans instead of his usual athleticwear because that ass. Goh… doesn’t even know where to begin unpacking that comment.
“Any visible trauma to the head? Bumps, cuts, bruises—”
“I mean, he got a bruise on his cheekbone, but otherwise… no. I couldn’t find anything, and I didn’t actually see him hit anywhere when he fell.”
“Well, I mean, explosion—”
“Yes, exactly.”
“Just—keep an eye on him,” Professor Cerise says. “I’m guessing there’s not a health clinic nearby at the moment, so unless his condition worsens, there’s probably no need to get emergency services involved. But do make sure he gets checked out once you reach the next town.”
Goh sighs. That sounds a lot like wrangling a litten into a bath, but whatever. “I’ll see what I can do.”
“Good, thanks. Oh, and Goh?” Professor Cerise leans in closer to the screen. “Just out of curiosity, what pokemon were they training with when Gary was hit?”
“Well, Gary was using his Blastoise, and Ash was training with an orphaned latias we rescued from poachers last week—”
“A what?! ”
“A latias. I was gonna tell you when we got to the next town,” Goh says, shrugging. “It’s too small to survive on its own and Ash thinks he knows somewhere we can take it. In Johto, I think? Some place he went to a long time ago, but they have, like, a nature preserve for latias and latios or something. He didn’t say much about it.”
“While that is amazing and I expect a detailed report on this soon, I think I know why Gary is acting so strangely.” Professor Cerise winces. “But I don’t think you’re going to like it.”
Goh groans. “Great, more bad news.”
—
“Oh thank Arceus,” Ash says, running over as soon as Goh reaches the edge of the campsite. “You’re back. Please tell me the professor had something helpful to say.”
“Well, sort of—”
“What did he say about drugs? Can we give him drugs?” Ash asks, pained. “Because I think he needs to sleep for a day or two. Or five.”
“What? No, he didn’t tell us to drug him.” He pauses, taking in the slight pallor of Ash’s skin. “What the hell happened while I was gone?”
“Uh, well…” Ash trails off, fiddling with the brim of his hat. “He sort of started… writing poetry?”
Goh rolls his eyes. “That’s hardly new. He texts me a haiku about how awesome he is at least once a week.”
“I mean, it was more the subject—” Ash breaks off with a huff when Goh just raises an eyebrow at him. “He recited a whole sonnet about how my dick can cure all sickness and bring about world peace, okay? Or… something like that, anyway.”
Goh chokes on air, not sure if he wants to laugh or start researching a formula for brain bleach. “He did not write a sonnet about your dick.”
“No,” Ash agrees with a sigh, “he wrote eight sonnets about my dick.”
Goh’s mouth twitches as he tries to fight off a grin. “Iambic pentameter and everything?”
Ash scrunches his nose. “I… have no idea what that is.”
“I’ll assume yes. He’s such a try-hard—”
“Insulting me again, Goh?”
Goh jumps, wheeling to find Gary strolling up behind him, hands in his pockets and a smirk tugging at the corner of his lips. Goh rolls his eyes and counters, “eavesdropping again, Oak?”
“Well, obviously. ” Gary shrugs, managing to look unfairly louche for someone with a concussion. “It helps reinforce my terrible insecurities that no one actually likes me and that you don’t actually want me around—”
Ash lets out a pained little gurgle. “Gary, please, for the sake of your own pride, stop talking.”
“—I’ve always kind of wondered,” Gary goes on, despite Ash’s rising panic. “I mean, you have to put up with me. We’ve known each other forever, and your mom and my gramps have been throwing me at you for years. You probably don’t even know if you really like me or not—”
Goh slaps a hand over Gary’s mouth, muffling the rest of his statement before he can say something more incriminating. Ash’s bottom lip is already wobbling as it is. “Gary, I think you need to hear Professor Cerise’s theory before you say another word about anything.” He sighs. “So shut up for the next five minutes, would you?”
Goh has a feeling it is going to be a long, long night.