Work Text:
Celebrating Chaos
The kitchen was a disaster that Gary was determined to avoid. He was certain he would have to replace the mixer – the noise it was making was not the noise it was supposed to make – but he resisted the urge to fix whatever Ash was doing wrong. His husband could handle baking cupcakes. He didn’t need Gary to fix his mistakes, and if they needed to replace the mixer then Ash could buy a new one just like he had when he accidentally set the microwave on fire last year.
A loud clang, followed by an equally loud clatter rang from the kitchen before—
“Pikachu, no!”
The electric type in question came scampering into the room a few seconds later, though Gary only saw a yellow streak in his periphery. He looked up from the black and white keys in front of him but Pikachu was already gone, the only evidence of his presence being the little flour paw prints across the dark rug. Shaking his head amusedly, Gary turned back to the piano and picked up the melody once more.
Just another Tuesday afternoon at home between adventures.
Whatever Ash was up to was fine as long as he cleaned it, not Gary. Although he was starting to wish he had thought to get something to drink before Ash had started destroying the kitchen. It was easier to ignore the disaster down the hall when he couldn’t see it.
The mixer turned off and Gary breathed a tiny sigh of relief – it really shouldn’t be making that noise. But he could deal with it later.
Instead he refocused his attention on the song playing in his earbuds, which he was trying to figure out a good way to play on the piano. He had the melody down, but that was the easy part. Adding the intricacies from the bass line and finding a balance between the lead melody and the rhythm chords were far harder. Especially the latter. The music he listened to wasn't the easiest to fully transcribe into a palatable piano cover but he was damn sure going to try. He’d been playing for over twenty years now – he could do it, even if it took him until their next trip to work out these more difficult details.
There was a knock at the front door but Gary made no move to answer it – it was just Tracey and Misty. They would let themselves in. Sure enough, the front door opened and closed a second after the knock, followed by two familiar voices.
There was another clatter from the kitchen – and another from upstairs, along with the shriek, “Pikachu-pi!”
That might have been the most excited Gary had ever heard Pikachu over Misty’s presence. A yellow streak tore past him and a few sheets of music fluttered to the floor in his wake. Gary took a breath and closed his eyes for a brief moment. He had no idea what had gotten into those two, but they had been hyperactive and excitable for the last week.
Nothing unusual had happened in those few days.
Well…
Valentine’s Day had been in there, and he told Ash about their summer plans but that couldn't be it. Ash had been thrilled by his decisions to revisit the Kanto gyms and compete at the Plateau but…
Oh, who was he kidding? That was definitely it.
Ash had cried when he told him. Of course that was it.
“What is going on in here?” Misty’s voice came from the entry to the living room, interrupting Gary’s thoughts.
“Ash chose chaos this morning,” he returned without looking up.
Misty snorted. “You knew what you were getting yourself into.”
Truer words had never been spoken between them. That was probably an exaggeration, but it was true nonetheless. Gary only nodded, distracted as he focused on his task at hand.
Fortunately Misty was one of his husband’s few friends that understood how he was when he was concentrating on something. He wasn’t ignoring her by any means – if anything, doing something else made it easier for him to focus on a conversation without his mind wandering.
“How big of a disaster is the kitchen?” she asked, just as conversational as she would were he facing her and speaking to her face.
“I won't know it's a mess if I don't see it,” Gary reasoned.
“Mmhmm,” Misty hummed, the amusement clear in her voice. “Schrodinger's mess or something like that?”
Gary laughed. “Something like that,” he agreed.
There was a loud bang and the sound of breaking glass, but Gary pretended not to hear it. Figuring out which tweak to make to the bass notes to make it actually playable was a more pressing matter. Besides, he could hear Tracey in there with Ash and Tracey was the most responsible adult in the house at the moment. Better to let him handle it.
“You’re really gonna ignore what's happening in the kitchen?” Misty asked after there was another loud clatter, followed by Pikachu chattering at Ash.
“I'm trying to protect my sanity.”
There was another crash and a loud yelp.
“You’re doing a great job.”
“Considering who I'm married to, I'd say so.”
“You’re impossible, Gary,” Misty sighed.
Gary looked up long enough to flash her a grin. “I know.” He was quiet for a moment, debating on whether or not it was a wise idea to slip into the kitchen just long enough to grab a bottle of wine and some glasses for him and Misty. He winced when the mixer turned back on, this time making an even louder and stranger noise than before. “I’d offer you a glass of wine but…”
“That would ruin your false sense of sanity?” Misty finished for him.
“Exactly.”
Misty rolled her eyes and left the room. Her footsteps echoed down the hallway and came to an abrupt stop at the end. “Wow,” her voice came, simultaneously amused and smug. “Gary’s gonna kill you when he sees this.”
Ugh. That made the mess real.
“Don’t say that loud enough for me to hear!” he called down the hall to her.
Her laughter echoed down the hallway and Gary could hear her talking to Ash and Tracey as a cupboard opened and closed. For a moment, things seemed calm until—
“Ash!”
“Pikapi! Piiiika—”
“No!”
“Pikachu, don’t!”
The racket that followed was likely loud enough to wake the dead. Or summon a legendary. Stranger things had happened. Either way, it was becoming increasingly difficult to ignore the destruction of his kitchen – the one he had just finished painting last week. It sounded as though the mixer had started smoking and Pikachu decided to take matters into his own paws.
So much for protecting his sanity.
Eager for a distraction, Gary turned back to the piano and continued playing until a glass of dark red liquid was held in front of him. He accepted it with a quiet “thanks” and took a deep sip. “How bad is it?” he asked reluctantly.
“You need a new mixer,” she replied, confirming his suspicions. “Tracey and Pikachu are cleaning up while Ash gets a cake from the bakery downtown.”
“Probably for the best,” Gary sighed.
He wasn’t mad, not even especially annoyed – just tired. He could easily keep up with Ash most of the time, but this much chaos following so much excitability over the last few days? It was a lot to deal with and he was going to need a quiet day just to recover from the last twenty minutes.
But he couldn’t leave that big of a mess for Tracey to clean up. That wasn’t fair to his friend.
He stood with a groan and headed into the kitchen to find less of a disaster than he’d expected. The mixer was scorched, there was flour quite literally everywhere, and the pieces of a broken measuring cup sat atop the counter. There were more dishes in the sink than in the cupboards, Gary was certain, but it seemed everything but the mixer and measuring cup had survived the ordeal.
By the time Ash returned, the kitchen was clean and they were all sitting around the table, perhaps coated in a bit more flour than they would prefer, but all enjoying a glass of wine regardless.
Ash set the bakery box down in the center of the table without a word and sat next to Gary with an undeniable pout on his face. That wouldn’t do, regardless of how cute that pout was. Gary rested a hand on his thigh and gave him a reassuring smile. A scorched mixer and a messy kitchen weren’t a big deal. They’d dealt with worse.
It was Misty who broke the silence that hung over the room like a thick fog. “Why did you want to make a cake so badly?” she asked Ash.
The pout was gone in an instant, replaced by a bright smile as though the last hour hadn’t happened. He flashed Gary a grin before looking at Tracey and Misty, and Gary knew exactly what he was going to tell them.
“Because we’re celebrating!” he chirped. Misty and Tracey stared at him blankly and Pikachu jumped to explain, chattering and squeaking up a storm, but the only thing that could be easily understood was the repeated chirp of “pipichu” and “pikapi”. Ash pulled Pikachu into his lap and scratched him behind the ears to calm him down so that he could explain. “We’re competing this year!”
Misty and Tracey looked back and forth between the two of them, clearly still unclear as to just what they were celebrating.
“Competing?” Tracey echoed. “What do you mean?”
“Yeah, aren’t you two always competing with each other?” Misty chimed in.
“The Indigo League,” Gary explained. “We’re both competing this year.”
Their eyes widened comically as they took in this information.
“You’re competing?” Tracey asked, staring at Gary as though he had grown a second head.
Gary couldn’t exactly blame him. Tracey had met him back when his enjoyment of competitive battle was at an all time low and he was considering leaving the training world for research. He had never shown an inkling of interest in returning to competitive training, not even to them. Honestly, he had hardly considered it before Delia suggested it on Christmas Eve during an unplanned wine date, but her mention of it had brought the building itch to the forefront of his mind until it became impossible to ignore.
“That’s not all,” Ash said, his smile as bright as the sun. “We’re redoing Kanto this summer.”
A grin spread across Misty’s face faster than Gary had ever seen. “You’re doing the gyms?” Gary nodded and she positively squealed at the news, taking him entirely by surprise. “Oh, I can’t wait!” she exclaimed, pumping her first excitedly. “I wanna battle Blastoise! Don’t you dare show up with an electric type!”
The three men laughed and Gary shook his head. “No type advantages,” he said. He saw Ash raise his eyebrows in surprise and flashed him a grin. “I have a three-to-one win ratio with one of the top trainers in Kanto,” he explained, “I need to make it a challenge somehow!”
Another laugh went around the table, light and comfortable before Misty’s gaze landed on Ash. “Is this why you were so insistent that we come over this weekend?” she asked.
“Yep!” Ash chirped. “I told you, we’re celebrating – this is gonna be the best summer ever!”
He was positively radiating happiness and Gary couldn’t help but smile at the sight. Chaotic afternoon aside, he was utterly enamored with his husband. So supportive in every step, no matter how big or small, always celebrating even the little things… Always seeing Gary for his capabilities and passions, rather than his name and the expectations that came with it.
Ash may have been celebrating the fact that they were finally taking a trip that they had wanted to take for over a decade, but Gary was celebrating something a little bit different. For Gary, this was a sign from Ash, showing just how much he cared. For Gary, this was as much celebrating Ash’s love as it was this trip…
And if that meant celebrating chaos incarnate, then so be it.