“Go away!” Ash repeated, trembling violently. Pikachu looked like he wanted to say something, but Ash refused to hear it. Unsure how else to help, Pikachu scurried off to get Ash’s hat while he struggled.

He couldn’t be weak; he couldn’t. Skye couldn’t see him crying like this. It would make him weak. Ash crying was weakness.

It wasn’t what he told himself. He always knew that crying wasn’t a real weakness. But it was still his method of thinking, even if it wasn’t something he verbally thought to himself. It was his mentality and it wasn’t something he could just shake off. Crying was weak, and Ash wasn’t weak, ergo unless a Pokemon was leaving, he wasn’t allowed to cry.

“Go away!” Ash repeated, trembling violently. Pikachu looked like he wanted to say something, but Ash refused to hear it. Unsure how else to help, Pikachu scurried off to get Ash’s hat while he struggled.

He couldn’t be weak; he couldn’t. Skye couldn’t see him crying like this. It would make him weak. Ash crying was weakness.

It wasn’t what he told himself. He always knew that crying wasn’t a real weakness. But it was still his method of thinking, even if it wasn’t something he verbally thought to himself. It was his mentality and it wasn’t something he could just shake off. Crying was weak, and Ash wasn’t weak, ergo unless a Pokemon was leaving, he wasn’t allowed to cry.

“Skyyeeee!” Ash whined. “I said I was sorry! What more do ya want from me?” He wasn’t that offended, in truth. He was used to people teasing him and poking fun at his somewhat clumsy nature. He heard it all from Brock, Misty, May, Max, Dawn, Iris, Cilan, Bonnie, and sometimes–although fairly rarely–even Clemont or Serena. It was encouraging to see that Skye was emerging from his shell a bit, at least enough to tease Ash without feeling like a completely terrible person or something.

It was really nice, to be honest. Ash couldn’t help but laugh. It was such a nice feeling. Despite his drowsy state, he could feel energy welling up, bubbling into laughter and joy.

And he couldn’t seem to stop. Pikachu began laughing alongside him. It was funny, really. Ash remembered first meeting Skye, and how withdrawn he was. He just kept pushing him, moving forward and taking him outside of his comfort zone. Not too far, of course–and any time he did, he made sure to take a step back and give Skye time to recover. After all, there were certain things or topics Ash realized he had to avoid for his mental well-being. And that was okay; everyone had something like that. Even Ash. But seeing Skye come this far after so long… It really made him happy. It was a blessed feeling, honestly.

He hoped Skye could feel that feeling too.

Ash looked so done. Pikachu was laughing at him, Skye was flustered, and Ash really, really wanted to die. Or disappear. Either works.

Ash pushed himself up into a sitting position and extended his hand for Skye to take and sit back up with him. Pikachu, fretting like a mother would, brushed Ash’s hair out of his face and licked his nose so it would feel better. But he had to be strong, of course, or else Skye might think he was actually embarrassed. So he plastered another sheepish smile and tried again.

“Ahahaha… Sorry, Skye! Guess I’m more tired than I thought… I can clean up your bed if ya want, though!” Ash was boisterous and a bit rude, sure, but he was nothing if not a good friend. Pikachu definitely knew Ash was faking, though.

He knew.

“I mean… I thought you’d probably be okay with it? ‘S not new or anything, so…” Ash shrugged, moving to stand up from the bed. 

Unfortunately, in his tired stupor, he forgot how to humanly function and lost his balance really bad. He ended up tripping over his own ankle and falling right into Skye. Ash tried to catch himself, but ended up toppling himself further when his hand instinctively tried to grasp onto something stable (like Skye’s shirt, which was not stable at all) and knock Skye right down with him. No, it didn’t end up with Ash pinning Skye down or anything, but now they were both on the ground, with Ash having clumsily landed halfway across Skye’s torso. Pikachu, startled by Ash and Skye falling suddenly, perked up and peeked over the bed to see what the commotion was, and, alarmed, moved as soon as it could to help.

Now Ash wished he had pretended he hadn’t heard Skye’s voice at all. Maybe if he had pretended to keep sleeping he could avoid the commotion. He just wanted to sleep with Skye’s famously fluffy blanket, was that so much to ask?!

“Uhhh… Jetlag?” He wasn’t entirely wrong. He had only recently come back from Kalos to prepare for his vacation with his mom, so his sleep schedule was very out of whack. It must’ve been really late in Kalos by now, so Ash wasn’t quite ready to stay up the entire day.

On the other hand, when his mother suggested giving him a week to get used to Kanto’s time schedule, he had completely and utterly refused, hurriedly told his mother he’d be freeloading with a friend, grabbed Charizard from Professor Oak, and flew all the way to Skye just to bug him. Ash knew what he was doing was stupid, but didn’t care. Skye knew Ash had come back from Kalos recently, but Ash never bothered to tell him how recently or why he was even bugging Skye in the first place.

It didn’t matter, anyway. Ash and Pikachu were happy to see Skye again. They’d been friends for a good, long while, and Ash was happy Skye was starting to feel more comfortable around him after all this time.