A/N: Thank you so much to FeraNelia, pokemoncha, a very sweet Anonymous reviewer and AshKetchumForever for your reviews! Thank you for your support, it's really made me happy.

2: Sticks and Stones

An Uncharted Section of Forest

The Sinnoh Region

2007

[Gary is 14, Ash is 15]

Ash:

I'm sitting up because I get the feeling that he'll be here soon. Gary promised me that night in The Crabhammer that it was the 1st of February, so here I am, on the 1st of February, waiting up patiently for him while Brock and Dawn sleep on, forgetful and unaware as I've been sitting on this date for a while without saying a word. Not telling gives Gary a little breathing space, after all, I hope.

The first time Gary travels. Will this moment be magical, a proper adventure for the both of us? It feels exciting and new, me being the one to call the shots, who knows things that he doesn't, who gets to see him all messed-up and confused as he's seen me countless times.

As I'm thinking this, I realise I'm being cruel so I stop quickly. Glancing at the digital clock on my pokedex, I sigh, wondering how much longer I'll have to wait on him before I end up nodding off.

The night air is freezing and I'm shivering in my sleeping bag but still I wait. Pikachu was determined to stay up with me for a while but even he has surrendered to the calling of sleep, chest rising and falling slowly, cheeks dimly growing red in irregular intervals as he stirs in is sleep, as he dreams.

It's past one when I hear a rustle in the trees, but when I look up it's only a volbeat, scattered slightly too far away from the rest of the swarm hovering in the distance. After a while it goes away and once again I'm alone, tapping my fingers in time to a song I'm humming in my head, glancing around, listening out for any sort of sound, any at all.

Despite my fondness of seeing Gary all flustered, my heart is racing with a mixture of anticipation and fear of what I am waiting to do. I quickly realise that as much as I want to make him feel inferior to me, even for a moment in exchange for a lifetime of him holding himself over me, Gary will be scared. He will be scared, have no idea where he is, have no idea of how he got here; Gary will be scared out of his mind.

I know if I were to blink and be in a completely different place, stranded in a forest at night, I'd be pretty afraid too.

With these thoughts in mind, I sit back, propped up against a tree trunk, arms folded tightly over my chest, and wait.

...

Gary:

I don't know where I am. I really don't know where the fuck I am.

Spinning around wildly, I find myself standing alone, in a forest, in semi pitch blackness. My heart is pounding, loudly, so loudly I feel like any second now it's going to rip me open.

A few seconds ago I was lying in bed, reading about fossilised kabutops findings, and the next thing I know the book was falling from my hands, my hands weren't frigging there, and a moment later I was here, by myself, in a dark forest.

I want to call out for help but I'm a little afraid of the kind of pokemon my yelling will attract; since I was lying in bed I have no pokemon currently on me, and for that I feel foolish.

So I begin to walk, my feet crunching uncomfortably on debris from the trees. The air is freezing, which puzzles me, as it is late August - or at least, it was a few moments ago. I'm praying all of this is a bizarre dream, but it all feels too real to not exist; the dirt being picked up by my feet as I walk, the dampness of the weeds heavily threaded with dew that I'm brushing against, the cold and clean air, the smell of damp and wood and grass.

I cough, sneeze, inhale, and then I'm standing a few feet away from what looks to be a campfire that's releasing wisps of smoke, reaching its dying end.

People, precious people with whom I can hopefully rely on for help.

I run towards the smell of wood smoke with hope rising in my chest, but it is neither quelled nor dashed as I halt in my tracks. Ash, of all people, is sat against a tree, straightening out.

"Gary? You're… in your pyjamas." He sounds a little surprised by this, yet not as I expected.

"Ash? What are you doing here?!"

"I was waiting for you… you look cold, come sit down."

"That's not the problem here! I… I'm losing it, Ashy…!"

He watches me closely.

"Losing it? Losing what?"

I shiver violently.

"My mind," I manage before another shiver wracks my body. "What the fuck is happening…? Just a few seconds ago, I…"

"Don't swear," he says sharply. "Sit down here and explain what happened, okay, Gary? And keep it down, unless you want Dawn and Brock to hear you."

"Dawn… and Brock?" My head is spinning; I know for a fact that Ash was travelling with Brock when he took part in the Hoenn League, but I don't have the faintest idea who Dawn is, unless she's some chick from Hoenn that he decided to pick up along the way.

Ashy-boy motions for me to sit across from him and I squat down in the clearing, warming my hands by the fading fire.

"Ashy, you seem to have a vague idea of what the hell's going on. Do tell. I'm dying to hear it. Some sort of caffeine-induced acid trip?"

"Nothing like that," he says, shaking his head. A small smile tugs at his mouth and I'm suddenly hit with the realisation that he's enjoying knowing what's happening while I'm left so hopelessly in the dark, and it's very irritating.

"Ash, please. Just tell me, alright?"

Seeing he's pushed me far enough, he straightens his back and catches my eye from across the campfire.

"Time travel."I raise an eyebrow.

"You might as well have said alien abduction."

He rolls his eyes. "I'm being serious, Gary."

"Yeah, and I'm being serious!" I hiss. "Ash, I was in my bed back home one second and standing in the middle of a forest the next. For god's sake, please tell me the truth!"

"I am," he says, tiredly, rubbing his temples. He looks sleepy. "Look, Gary, I know this is probably sounding so crazy right now - I mean, it was crazy for me when I found out - but… well, you're a time-traveller. It's difficult to explain, um… well, two years ago - make that one year for you… I mean, you are fourteen now, right? You look it - I was visited by a future you. It was right after I'd been knocked out of the Hoenn League and we went to this really dodgy restaurant… and you were there. You were like, twenty-five or something. Maybe twenty-two? I'm not sure, but anyway, you were older. It was so bizarre.

"You told me that around this time - for me, not for you - you got into genetic research in order to find out how you could time travel. I can't remember how exactly it worked out, but you told me you had some sort of answer. That's why you travel."

Ash's longwinded speech has left me completely stumped.

I'm a time traveller?

"This is crazy," I mutter, shaking my head. "It's crazy and illogical and completely insane."

"Oh yeah?" Ash's face is creased into a frown. "If what I'm saying is insane, what do you propose happened, huh?"

I put a hand on my forehead. I do feel a little warm, actually.

"A fever. A fever-induced hallucination. I'm obviously coming down with something."

He eyes me, sceptical.

"No way. That's too far-fetched."

"A dream, then? A crazy-ass dream that'll mean nothing to me when I wake up tomorrow," I try instead, pinching myself hard on the arm. Nothing happens. "Here, you try."

With a heavy sigh he reaches over and pinches me too, as hard as he can, until his arm starts to tremble with the strain.

I bite down on my lip. It's pretty painful; Ashy-boy is a lot stronger than I give him credit for, and I'm still awake, worst luck.

"Okay, okay," I say. He lets go and I examine the mark that he's left on my arm. "So lets say, hypothetically, I believe you and I am, in fact, a time traveller. Why would I tell anyone? Why would you of all people be the one to explain this to me? Why am I not here instead?"

Ash opens his mouth to say something, then closes it again and shakes his head. "I don't know," he says in a small voice. "If it was anybody else telling you, maybe you'd believe them. But I can't do anything else to make you believe me… all the proof I have is in my time capsule box back at home."

...

Ash:

Gary's face is very pale. Not that I can blame him at all; what I've told him is enough to shake anybody up. It's a little frustrating that it's taken him this long to catch on, though.

"When will you show me?" he asks, and I shrug.

"When you next go back to Pallet Town and we're the same age? Maybe? I'm not sure. I know you'll see it one day. Since after all… the one who gave it to me is you."

"So who wrote it?"

"Ah, that… well, it's a bit of a Möbius strip, I guess. You told me that I was the one who wrote it, but when you gave it to me it was already written, so as far as I know I've never written it at all. So I don't really know how it exists. But it's true. I mean, you were the one who gave it to me, so I have to believe it."

He frowns and dips his head a little lower, shivering in the darkness.

"This shouldn't be possible." Gary clenches his fists. "Why me? Why is it me who's the time traveller, and nobody else?"

As the campfire flickers and snuffs out, a thin wisp of smoke trailing from its remains, I watch it and I think back to the conversation we had the day I found out the truth. I wonder if now is the right time to say. But then I realise that if Gary doesn't quite believe me, perhaps he'll believe somebody much closer to him.

"Professor Oak… Professor Oak has travelled through time before. I… I met him, back when he was younger than we are now. You told me that, that the encounter made Professor Oak poisoned or something, like he took in some sort of radiation, and that it transferred to you-"

I'm about to continue but Gary is on his feet, suddenly very upset, and angry.

"Don't say that," he hisses at me. "Make up whatever you want in front of me, but don't bring Grandpa into it! Keep these ideas to yourself!"

I can sense that his anger is making him tense, and tension is usually what sets him off. I stand up too.

"Gary…"

"Just shut up."

He squeezes his eyes shut and has his hands clamped tightly over his ears. It reminds me of a lot of times when we were younger; when we got into fights like this he'd often stop listening to me once he'd had enough, screwing his face up and shutting me out completely. I remember fighting over stupid things: fishing rods; sunhats; who got to go on the swing set first; who should get the biggest slice of cake. And then I remember the bad times too: the day I got worked up over a prank that Gary took too far; the time we accidentally broke one of the beakers in Professor Oak's lab; the funeral; when Gary threw my gameboy into the river.

His hands are chipping away and I watch with fascination. I've only ever seen it happen a couple of times before and I feel both amazement and disappointment, because things have ended on a bad note for Gary and myself and he still doesn't believe me, even as he's fading right before my eyes. He feels his hands are no longer there and wrenches his arms so they rest in front of him, plainly disappearing.

"Oh my god…"

"You're going to be okay-"

"Shut up, Ash!"

His tone has gone from fearful to aggressive in a heartbeat and I sit back down again as Dawn stirs. A few moments later she is at my side, mumbling, "Ash? What time is it…? And who were you talking to?"

"Oh… no one," I say, and we both examine the empty clearing, devoid of blue pyjamas and bare feet, lacking a frightened and pissed off time traveller, quiet.

A volbeat dances in the distance.

The Oak Laboratory

The Kanto Region

2006

[Gary is 14]

Gary:

I stand there, seething in anger, wanting with all my might to take Ash by the shoulders and…

And do what? Shake him, scream at him? No, I don't want to do that. Yes I do.

What the hell is happening to me? One moment I'm normal, boring old Gary, the next I'm some sort of time travelling freak and Ash seems to accept this without questioning it? And he's saying I'm some sort of… some sort of genetically altered freak? Like a mutant kid? What the hell is that all about?

What the hell.

I inhale and when I exhale it comes out as a scream rather than a sigh. It's a rather impressive scream, actually; my head is pounding from the power in it, my voice rattling. The sound carries all over the lab. In some rooms it sounds like a wail, a weeping banshee scream that scares the crap out of me, while in others it sounds like a battle cry, like something I once heard in an old war film set during the Heian Era.

And then in the hallway I'm kneeling over in, it sounds as I intended for it to: a sad and frustrated howl.

I hear shuffling and footsteps above my head and a few moments later both Grandpa and Tracey emerge from their rooms. Tracey looks a little haunted by my impressive scream, while Grandpa looks oddly composed, but still very weary and very worried.

"Gary? What happened to you?" he says in a voice that indicates he already knows. My stomach lurches.

"I've been here before, haven't I?" I squeeze out, furrowing my brow. I stare back at him, sweaty and clammy in the August heat, a stark contrast to the coldness of being in the forest with Ash. "You're in on it too, aren't you? I mean, you already know what I'm going to say, right?"

Grandpa hesitates for a few moments, uncertain, before slowly nodding, and that's all I need to know, that's all it takes.

I lean over and throw up.

Tracey yelps and calls, "Oh no, Gary, are you alright?" to which I respond, "I'm fine," once I've caught my breath, wiping my mouth on the back of my sleeve. Grandpa helps me to stand while Tracey sprints off to get a mop and some disinfectant.

Grandpa sits me down on the couch and gets a bowl for me and it reminds me a lot of when I was a kid. I tended to make myself ill a lot after the funeral, when I was still getting used to things. Grandpa liked to call it a grieving phase.

I look down at my hands and picture them disappearing and I can't stop physically shaking as I think of it. I'm not ill. Maybe in my head, but not physically sick. I'm just out of sorts. Disappearing and then reappearing is a sickening feeling in itself, without having to face the fact that this isn't the first time Grandpa has seen me like this.

He sits down beside me and watches me with a face of concern.

"Is everything alright, Gary?"

"I wonder," I grumble. "Lets just say, Gramps, that today has been very eventful. But you'd know about that, right?"

He sighs.

"Gary, I…"

"How could you do this to me?" I am seething; Grandpa is great and I respect him and I love him, but all this time he has known things about me that I haven't been aware of and he's carried on like it's not something to be fucking concerned about and I'm afraid and scared and he's trying to justify this by giving me a long explanation about how he was going to tell me but the timing was off-

"How could you leave me in the dark about this? You knew, you already knew, I can tell, and you're treating this like it's not important at all! When were you going to tell me? How the hell is this happening?"

As I continue to fire questions at him, Grandpa sits back and rubs the bridge of his nose. The darkness outside indicates it's very late and normally I'd feel bad for waking him at this hour, but I am too furious to be considerate.

"What year is this, anyway? Am I even back in the right time again?"

"Enough, Gary, enough," Gramps cuts in with a frown. He puts a hand on my shoulder and I shrug it off, sitting back in my seat, quiet and fuming. He sounds tired. "If you're concerned, the date is the 18th of August 2006. You are fine and you are back where you were to begin with." He pauses for a few moments, allowing time for the information to sink into my mind, before continuing.

"Though it sounds very farfetched… it's true. About two years ago, an older version of yourself visited me one day in the lab. It was unnerving, of course, but I had no choice but to believe then, didn't I?" Grandpa frowns. "He - you - told me that you'd come from the year 2010, 2010! And I thought, how strange, how amazingly strange, and how peculiar. But it was too late to be in denial because - well, you were already stood right in front of me. How spectacular indeed."

"Then-"

"He said," Grandpa cuts in quickly, "that I shouldn't tell you, because that wasn't how things were supposed to be. That, and he wanted you to spend as much time as you could without knowing. He said that you'd be happier that way… and I agreed."

"That doesn't give you the right to leave me in the dark!" I protest, but then I stop struggling and fall silent.

That wasn't how things were supposed to be, huh?

Does that mean I can't change the past? Isn't that the exact purpose of a time traveller?

Grandpa watches me coolly.

"You're right in that you had the right to know. However, if a future version of my grandson tells me it's best to wait, I think he's probably right. After all, nobody knows what's best for you better than yourself, eh, Gary?"

I frown and lean back, sighing heavily.

"This is going to take some getting used to," I murmur. My head hurts and my skin feels hot. Maybe I am ill, after all.

"Tell me about it," Gramps chuckles. "Just try not to throw up the next time it happens, alright?"

"Got it," I mutter, and the two of us share an uneasy laugh as the weight of the future bears on our shoulders. I hand him back the bucket, walk around where Tracey is cleaning, head up to my room, curl up under the covers.

I know now that whatever happens from here, things will never really be what they once were.

...

The Next Day

...

Gary:

I wake up in familiar surroundings and breathe a sigh of relief despite myself. The same yellow walls, the same polished floorboards, the same blue bed sheets…

As I lie in bed, a nagging headache drilling holes in my forehead, I close my eyes and listen to the pidgey crowing overhead, inhale the faint smell of burning toast and feel the warmth of the sun, intense and overwhelming. When I open my eyes I see a photograph of me, Grandpa and Daisy smiling at me from the frame and I smile back, a sickly grimace that matches the sickly feeling in my stomach.

I decide that there's no chance I'll get anything done feeling like this so I dress low-key, disregarding the lab coat hanging from the hook on the back of my bedroom door, and leave my room behind. For whatever reason the lab seems even more quiet than usual and it's a little unnerving.

Then, as I descend down the staircase and amble towards the kitchen, I hear more voices and tense up.

Mrs Ketchum is sitting at the kitchen table when I enter the room, drinking a cup of coffee and telling Gramps a story about planting some forget-me-nots and forgetting to water them, and how funny and very punny the situation was, but she stops to glance up at me as I make my presence known.

"Oh, hello there, Gary," she smiles, talking in a gentle voice. "Professor Oak told me you weren't feeling well after your little trip. Poor thing. I hope you feel better today."

I catch Grandpa's eye and he replies with a shrug, "Don't give me that look, young man. The thing is, Delia has known for quite some time as well."

My mouth falls open, and Mrs Ketchum beams up at me.

"The truth is, Gary, Ash told me some time after you revealed your gift to him, and I was a little sceptical. But you know, I've seen it. I've seen you." Then, noting the expression on my face, she quickly adds, "But please don't worry, sweetie, I'm not here to say or do anything other than have breakfast with Professor Oak. Your secret will remain safely with me."

"Great, what a comfort," I mumble. "Who else knows? I'm not trying to sound bitter but it's a little annoying when I'm the time traveller here and I'm still the last to know about it."

"Tracey still doesn't know yet," Grandpa chimes in helpfully. I glance around.

"Where is Tracey, anyway?"

"Well, he was so worried after the episode last night that he decided to go to Viridian City to stock up on some medical supplies," Grandpa informs me, taking a sip of his coffee. "You should probably thank him for being so concerned."

"I will do, once he gets back."

I sit down at the table and Gramps passes me a cup of coffee. It tastes bitter but I drink it anyway, wondering what happens from here.

"So I'm a genetically altered kid who can time travel." I look up. "Gramps, last night Ash told me you were the one who travelled in the first place. He told me something happened that messed up the both of us."

Grandpa is silent for a few moments, before nodding.

"That is true. However, I didn't get quite as nauseated since I wasn't the one doing the actual travelling; I was just a passenger."

I watch him, holding my coffee in both hands.

"So you were transported to the future? When was this?"

"Forty years ago for me," he says with a shrug. "For me this was a long, long time ago. Although the time I actually appeared in was about three years ago, give or take a few months. A lot of things were different… I remember being very scared."

"I guess when you put it that way, travelling only one year into the future isn't so bad," I mutter. "Even so… how did all of Celebi's time travel juice get into your DNA? Why don't you time travel the way I do? Or are you a time traveller as well?"

"All good questions. And all good questions I don't have definite answers for. My best guess is by being directly in contact with the celebi during its travel through time. Not many people meet a celebi directly, and even fewer are able to time travel. We simply don't know the effects of its powers on people. The same goes for all legendaries. I recall there being some trouble in the Hoenn region a while back when man absorbed the powers of pokemon."

"Yeah, but that doesn't seem like the same sort of thing," I put in helpfully. "I'm pretty sure that it was to do with ancient artefacts. There was an article sent to me about it while I was still studying on the island."

Mrs Ketchum leans forward. "So Gary, is this the first time for you? You know… your first time travelling?" Her voice has lowered, as though she expects hidden cameras and tape recorders to be stashed into every cupboard and cereal box in the kitchen. I blink.

"Last night was, yeah," I say. "It was strange. It's like… it's like I was crumbling away. First my hands went, then my feet, then it kind of cornered me, ate away at me. It's like… I could feel my body going, but it was in two places at once, and I could feel both those places - at the same time, as I was disappearing. It was such a weird feeling…"

Mrs Ketchum appears sympathetic.

"I'm sure you'll get used to it over time," she tries, and that, if possible, makes me feel worse.

"I don't think I wanna do it again. It was bad enough the first time."

"The truth is, I don't think you have much of a choice, Gary," Grandpa says, his eyes filled with a mixture of amusement and pity. "But I'm sure there's a meaning behind it all. For whatever purpose it may serve, I'm sure you were born with this ability for a good reason."

I picture Ash's face lighting up, amused, anxious, oddly patient in the glow of the campfire, and I try for a weak smile.

"Yeah. Maybe."

17 Kanto Route 1

The Kanto Region

2012

[Ash is 20]

Ash:

I wake up the next day and Gary still isn't back yet. As I open my eyes and see an empty space beside me, disappointment surges through my chest. In these recent months his time travelling has been very abrupt, lasting for a maximum of five to six hours. He's been gone since yesterday afternoon and although I tried to keep myself occupied with various new techniques for incoming trainers fighting for frontier symbols, it's difficult to come up with anything when my mind is so full of what ifs.

As I stare up at my ceiling, wondering when Gary's planning on coming back to the present, my mobile begins to vibrate. I reach over to my bedside table and press it against my ear.

"…Hello?"

"Ash, hi! How have you been?"

I sit up in bed, waking Pikachu with the sudden movement. May hasn't been in touch with me in months. For the past year or so she's been moving around a lot due to her careers as both a script supervisor and contest host, and most recently she landed in Unova, where as far as I know she's been situated for about six months. Being the kind of flighty person she is it comes as no surprise that she's taken so long to call.

"May? What's up? It's rare to hear you so perky at this time in the morning."

"Oh, be quiet," she says without a hint of malice. "I'm in Kanto again! Miss Vivian dropped out of the judging panel at the last minute for the Kanto Grand Festival and they called me to take care of things! How great is that?"

"That's awesome, May!" I put the phone on speaker before climbing out of bed.

"The thing is," she continues as I begin to dress, "the Grand Festival doesn't begin for another two weeks and I'm so bored! Can I come over to your place, Ash? Please?"

"You mean Drew isn't entertaining you?" I ask with a grin, opening the curtains. (No sign of Gary.) I can practically hear her scowl from the other end of the phone.

"Get real, Ash! Like Drew'd have any time to spare on me right now. He hasn't visited me in Striaton City in three months!"

"Is he still apartment hunting?" I wonder as I enter the kitchen. (No sign of Gary.) "I thought by now he'd have pegged down a place. I mean, he's a smooth talker no matter how you look at it. I expected him to waltz into any apartment building he wanted and have the owners in the palm of his hand."

"Well, that's Drew for you," she sighs. "Anyway, I'm at the docks in Vermillion City. I can catch a train back to Viridian for ten, so can I drop by, please? I mean, it's been ages. We need to catch up!"

There's a slight whine in her voice that makes me feel inclined to agree to her idea.

"Sure thing. I'll be waiting!" As I'm about to hang up Pikachu makes a frantic hand gesture and I say quickly, "Oh, and Pikachu says hi."

"Hey there, Pikachu," she calls, and I can hear the smile in her voice. "Oh, wait, I've got an incoming call from… Max? Hmm, okay. I'll catch you later, Ash!"

"See you." The line goes dead. I fix some breakfast for me and some breakfast for Pikachu. We both enter the main room. (Still no sign of Gary.)

It feels a little lonely so I tune into the radio to fill the house with some sort of noise.

"Welcome to Good Morning Kanto! This is Mary, your charming and sweet presenter for the breakfast show! I hope all you sleepyheads are listening carefully or you'll miss today's special song quiz from the soundtrack of Slateport Girls 2008 remix'd!"

...

Later

...

Ash:

Sometime leaning towards 11 I hear a knock at the door. Pikachu utters an excited cry and bounds over to the door, and I mark my place in the issue of Battle Network Magazine I've just been reading before heading towards the front door.

As I go to open the door May throws her arms around me and I take a step back. It's been a while since I last saw May and she's looking as perky as ever. The colour of her bandana changes every year; this year it's a burnt orange in the spirit of the zodiac, since if my memory serves me correctly 2012 is the year of the dragonite.

"Ash, it's been so long!" She pulls away and Pikachu hops onto her shoulders. "It's good to see you too, Pikachu!"

"Go on inside," I tell her, picking up her bags. They're quite heavy. "Do you have a place to stay yet or do you want to crash here for a few days?"

"No, no, I already have a gorgeous room booked in the deluxe suite at the Indigo Plateau," she sighs, face a little pink. "God, you should see it. It looks absolutely fantastic. Like something in one of those Celebrity Homes magazines."

"Complete with berry bowls and champagne?"

"Complete with berry bowls and champagne," she repeats, grinning.

May slips off her jacket and hangs it on the spare hook that Gary and I reserve for visitors, before following Pikachu into the main room. I set down her bags by the door and head into the kitchen.

"Do you want a drink of anything? You must be thirsty. After all, Unova to Kanto is kind of a long ferry ride, and it is pretty warm today…"

"No, it's all good," she calls. "I bought some pecha berry iced tea at the train station, so my thirst has been quenched."

"So tell me what working in Unova is like," I say as I return to the main room and sit down beside her. "I mean, obviously I travelled there before, but it's such a busy place, you know? It sounds amazing."

"You should come visit me some time, then," she laughs, tucking a stray hair behind her ear. "It's… well, it's incredible. Like a whole other world. You'd love it, Ash - everything is so full of life."

I think back to Unova, and how busy everything was, yet how different and new it was as well. We had some good times there, Iris and Cilan and me. It's a shame that we had to grow up.

"Hey, so where's Gary, anyway?" May chirps, glancing around. "Don't tell me you guys had another fight again. Instead of skulking back to Pallet Town every time the two of you butt heads perhaps it's about time you guys tried talking things out."

"Hey, Gary and I are fine," I protest, a little annoyed at her tone. We may have had our fair share of disagreements since we began living together, but that's nothing for her to be concerned about. "He's… gone, again."

"Gone, or gone gone?"

"Gone gone," I repeat, and we sit in silence for a few moments before she says, "Oh. Any idea where?"

I can't help but smile.

"The Crabhammer."

May's mouth falls open. "No way! September 9th?"

"Yep. He hasn't come back yet, but when he does I'm sure he's going to find it funny."

We laugh a little. When we fall silent once again, May turns to me and says, "How do you avoid thinking about it, when he goes away?"

I blink. "What?"

She suddenly seems a little embarrassed and leans back against the jade green couch cushions.

"It's just… I mean, obviously how me and Drew see each other - it's not like with you and Gary. I know that, I mean - well, we're just rivals, even now, but like… we've been travelling together so long it feels kind of like things have gotten better between us. But now he's looking for an apartment, we haven't seen each other in a while. I feel like I'm slowly going crazy waiting for him to visit. Isn't that dumb?" She laughs nervously. "I keep throwing myself into work so I don't have to think about it, but when I have time to kill like now I always find myself wondering how I've gotten so needy."

May turns to me, expression serious.

"How do you do it, Ash? Every time Gary vanishes, how do you occupy the time?"

I frown and fold my arms. I haven't been asked this one before. If I knew she was going to ask me this I would've gotten an answer ready.

"Um… well, for starters, I have Pikachu to keep me company." Pikachu beams up at me and I rub behind its cheek bulbs. "I guess I do the same as you, sometimes; I go and face the challengers fighting for my frontier symbol, practise new moves with Pikachu, reward our efforts or train severely. When I don't have anything else to do I go for walks, or I visit my mom, or Professor Oak, or somebody else. I call people up, or I go shopping for groceries, or I attend conferences and meetings involving the Battle Frontier."

I smile.

"And sometimes, although it's rare, Gary comes back, from a different time, and we discuss. Though like I said, that's only happened a few times before."

May sighs.

"Lucky. Maybe if Drew was a time traveller I could kick his future self's ass for not visiting me sooner."

"Not lucky," I correct her with a dry laugh, "definitely not lucky. But not entirely unlucky, either. I guess when there's absolutely nothing else to do, knowing he's going to come back sort of inspires me to weed the garden."

She watches me for a few seconds, wondering if that was a joke or not, before dissolving into giggles.

"If my hotel room had a garden I'd probably do the same," she admits, and then we both burst into peals of laughter.

A/N: So this was updated slightly behind schedule but I made it a longer chapter to satisfy ya'll. I hope everybody was in character enough. Despite Gary's mature side shown in later episodes I still firmly believe he would freak out - as would anybody - upon discovering he is a time traveller, so I stand by the belief that he would get a little snappy.

Also, I hope I didn't disappoint all you contestshippers out there who were hoping for a more heavily implied relationship. I leave it up to you for now to decide whether May's comment of "we're just rivals!" is sincere or not.

(And I only just realised that I actually uploaded this on the eve of ContestShipping day 2013, so that's a freaky coincidence. So uhm, happy CS day to you guys, I guess!)