Twenty Questions

Fandom: Pokémon XY (Anime)
Genre: Romance
Summary: A compilation of vignettes showing Ash and Clemont's relationship develop through a series of questions, from friendship to infatuation to something more. Fluff, drama, Diodeshipping, mostly Clemont-centric POV, equal parts Season 17 and post-XY speculation, almost all chapters rated for general audiences except where noted.
Current Rating: M
Warnings: Dub names and boys' love

Improvisation, Part 2: Never

"Are you awake yet? Clemont— hey, Clemont!"

Clemont felt himself smile through closed eyelids as the sensation of being enveloped by Ash lifted him gently from sleep. He stretched and rolled over onto his back, and Ash adjusted his customary greeting by rising up on his hands and knees to straddle him, becoming the support structure for a warm, exceedingly comfortable blanket fort. Ash was looking down at him, his face a picture of deep contentment.

"G'mornin'."

"Good morning. Did you sleep well?"

Ash leaned over, his forehead resting lightly against the inventor's. "Like a Rock-type," he said, grinning. "But I'm sure y'already knew that."

"I probably could have guessed."

"Well then, you also know," Ash continued, shifting his hips in a very pointed manner. "That there are some things even better'n sleeping, and one of 'em is wakin' up next t'you."

Clemont felt his smile widen as he reached up and around, wrapping his arms around Ash's shoulders and drawing him in for a long, luxurious kiss. "Likewise."

This arrangement— the two of them really living together and being open about it; equally sharing gym leader duties; having enough time to devote their energies to all the things they loved, be it inventing or Pokémon or battling or each other— even if it wasn't new anymore, it was no less wonderful than it had been the first day, the first week, the first month… Clemont could see a great, golden future stretching out before him, each day filled to the brim with the only thing that really mattered anymore: Ash. The two of them stayed wrapped in their self-made cocoon for a while, neither wanting to hasten the moment when they knew they really should be getting out of bed, but in the end, the tempting promise of a brand-new day was all the motivation they needed. They rose together, transitioning with ease into the next phase of their morning routine.

"So, how many challengers d'you think we'll get today?" Ash asked from the bathroom, his words muffled by a toothbrush. "Personally, I'm hopin' for a new record. The League's comin' up pretty soon, after all."

"It's always possible," Clemont said, finishing pulling on a fresh change of clothes. "Although this time of year, it may be just as likely that—" but the rest of his sentence and the peace of the morning was instantly shattered by the sound of a huge explosion, coming from outside and extremely close by.

"What in th'heck was THAT?!" Ash shouted as he bolted for the balcony, a smear of toothpaste still clinging to the corners of his mouth.

Clemont's hands were still on his ears as he followed Ash outside, eyes drawn to the charcoal outline of an impact crater marring the once-pristine balcony of the Tower. His chest was suddenly constricting with age-old dread. Was this somehow Lysandre's doing? Had Yvelttal been re-awakened? Or was it… was it…

It was then that he heard a familiar refrain floating upward on the air, as memorable and foreign to him as a half-forgotten song. No. No, it wasn't. It couldn't be...

"To protect the world from devastation!"

"To unite all people within our nation!"

"To ensure happy endings don't end up boring!"

"To make an appearance you shan't be ignoring."

"Jessie!"

"And Ja—"

"YOU guys?" Ash said, leaning over the balustrade, staring in indignant disbelief at the three figures standing in the plaza several stories below. "Seriously?! C'mooon, gimme a break!"

"Ah HA!" the speck that looked like Jessie crowed, addressing him triumphantly through a Tauros-themed bullhorn. "There you are, Twerp!"

"Do you have any idea how difficult it was to track you down?" James asked, scowling.

"What on Earth are you talkin' about?" Ash shouted back.

Jessie pointed up at him. "Don't play dumb with us, Pipsqueak, you know what you did. We were following— er, tracking you just like always, everything was going swimmingly, and then POOF— you up and vanished! We searched high and low…"

"Far and wide…"

"Region ta region…"

"…Looking for so much as a trace of you and Pikachu!"

"But all our searching was for naught," James said heavily. "There were days, even weeks when we thought about giving up!"

Meowth grinned, baring his teeth. "But quittin's never been a part'a our vocabulary, so we kept on lookin', and lookin', and lookin'... an' after what felt like a lifetime of soichin', we finally got da lead we'd been waitin' for: Ash Ketchum had gone back ta Lumiose City!"

"We were shocked, quite shocked," James continued. "And then to hear you'd been shacking up with the Science Twerp?"

"Running a gym together?"

"It's almost like you grew up— fer a second, we was almost proud o'ya!"

Jessie's expression darkened. "But then we caught wind of a truly disturbing little tidbit..."

"The final indignity, as it were..."

Meowth took the opportunity to point dramatically at Clemont. "...His bratty kid sister trew youse guys a party, an' didn't even bodder ta invite us!"

Jessie crossed her arms. "Well. That was the straw that broke the Camerupt's back. We were furious—"

"Really, quite incensed!"

"—Because we deserve to offer our congratulations just as much as anyone else! And besides, Team Rocket is the life of every party. We would have behaved ourselves!"

"Probably..."

"Maybe!"

"...Eh, maybe not."

Clemont's eyes darted to Ash, who was rubbing his temples in exasperation. "I don't believe this," he muttered, and then, louder: "You guys are seriously bothering us right now because of some stupid party invitation?"

Jessie huffed and stamped a foot. "Of COURSE we're not," she said. "The time for filing petty complaints has long since passed!"

"But we had to let you know we weren't going to let you take yourself out of the equation that easily," James added.

Meowth gave a nod. "After all, what fun is it bein' good-lookin' antagonists if there ain't no one around ta antagonize?"

Jessie smirked. "So now that the two of you are happily settled down…"

"Livin' life widdout a care in da world…"

"We just wanted to inform you that…"

"…From now on…"

The three of them struck a pose and spoke as one. "You're going to have to deal with Team Rocket knocking on your front door!"

Jessie shot Ash a severe smile. "You'll never make a clean break from us, kid— not 'til your dying day!"

"And so, in the spirit of renewing old bonds," James said. "Why don't you hand over Pikachu and any other Pokémon you've got stashed away in there, and we'll try not to damage your precious Prism Tower too much while we wait." He hoisted a bazooka-like device over his shoulder and it hummed menacingly, ready to fire.

"Meeeeowth! Dat's right."

Clemont listened to all of this with one eye on Team Rocket and one on Ash, who was now leaning slumped over the balcony wall. "If I didn't know better, I'd say they really missed you," Clemont observed, some part of his terror giving way to tepid amusement.

"Why me," the dark-haired trainer moaned, paying no attention to the theatrics down below. "Why can't they just leave me alone?!"

Clemont took a quick mental inventory of their options. "Hey Ash," he said, getting an idea. "I think we are actually in a position to deal with this, if you'll recall some recent improvements to a certain top-secret project."

Ash raised his head, picking up on Clemont's confidence. "You mean…?"

Clemont nodded, glasses sparkling in the sun. "Indeed. I'll let you do the honors."

"Wow, thanks!"

Several stories below, the trio of villains squinted upward as they watched the two boys retreat indoors.

"What are they doing up there?" Jessie asked.

James pondered. "Do you think they're giving up?"

Meowth shrugged. "Puh-lease, when have we ever been dat lucky?"

Jessie tossed her hair. "Whatever. But if they're planning to retaliate, now would be the perfect time for us to strike."

James nodded, lowering the weapon. "Agreed. Do you have those decoys ready, Meowth?"

"What was I, born yesterday?" Meowth said, producing three cardboard cutouts of their likenesses, right down to the last detail.

"No time like the present to get the jump on twerpish intervention," James grinned. "If it looks like we're out here, they won't be expecting it when we turn up in there!" The three of them formed a circle, two gloved hands and one paw in the center.

"Operation Infiltrate Prism Tower has begun— success, of course, is guaranteed!"

"We're blasting off to victory!"

"Tee-hee!"

With all the speed and grace of a herd of Rhyhorn, Jessie, James, and Meowth thundered up to the base of Prism Tower, pulled aside the grate of a ventilation duct they had unscrewed earlier, and, one by one, began to crawl inside.

"Schematics indicate that this particular shaft goes all the way to the top floor, if you can believe that," James called from the lead.

"F'real? Which one'a those chumps designed dis?" Meowth asked, cackling.

"They may as well have rolled out the welcome mat," Jessie concluded. "Maybe it's a sign that our luck is turning around!" The trio continued unimpeded for several minutes, finding several dimly-lit ladders and long, uneventful sections of ductwork that led them ever upward. At last, James reached out a hand and felt what seemed to be a dead end.

"Well, that's stra—oof. Wait Meowth, Jessie, we can't go any further!"

"Oh yeah? What's da hold up?"

"Now this is odd," Jessie said, feeling around on her hands and knees. "Is it just me, or is this section a whole lot rounder than the ones we were in before?"

"Hmm, it's kinda smooth, too. Sorta reminds me'a somethin', like the barrel of a gun, or a…" The three of them had just enough time to face each other with a shared look of foreboding, when suddenly the duct tipped forward ninety degrees and shot like an elevator through several hundred feet of empty space. With a final sickening lurch it stopped, blue cloudless sky now visible through the uncapped end of what had once been a smooth, rounded duct with a dead-end. Team Rocket found themselves at the bottom of a tall metal well, complaining loudly as they tried to sort out which body part belonged to whom.

"Ow— careful, that's my neck!"

"Whose arm is dis?"

"Meowth, please watch your tail!" Jessie demanded, inhaling a mouthful of short, tawny hair. But it was only another moment's pause before the mechanism gave a series of loud, shifting clunks, the wall inching down to become floor again, only this time at an incline, still pointing at the sky. And before any of them had a chance to catch their breath, they all heard a faint hissing followed by great rumbling, and then…

ka-BOOM.

"Ah, well, I suppose we should have expected something like that," Jessie said, wearing a resigned smile that matched her compatriots' as they all went sailing through the air. "But there's nothing like falling into a familiar routine to remind you of the good ol' days!"

"You said it," Meowth nodded, just able to glimpse the full picture of the scene they had just been ejected from: Prism Tower, the smoking barrel of an impossibly large cannon, and two teenage boys re-emerging onto the balcony. Despite the shock, he was unable to resist delivering the villains' parting shot. "You can try to hide, Twoips, but we know where ya live!"

"Team Rocket is like a bad rash!"

"We just keep coming baaaaaaaaaaack!"

Ash and Clemont watched Team Rocket fly off into the distance, growing smaller and smaller, turning into pinpricks of light reflecting the late morning sun— but only when they had disappeared completely was Clemont able to breathe a sigh of relief.

"Well, there's something, at least," he said, doing his best to sound cheerful. "The Protect-Prism-Tower-At-All-Costs Defense Mechanism is working within established parameters… though, if those three are going to make a habit of showing up, I might need to add a few more surprises, and some sort of early-warning detection system, too."

Ash wrapped an arm around Clemont's waist, and his smile was genuinely ecstatic. "Science is so amazing! And, well—" he tightened his hold, pulling Clemont closer. "You know."

"I know," Clemont said, returning the hug and relishing the feeling of losing his face in the wild muss of Ash's hair. "We can clean up the balcony later. Right now, I think we deserve a nice, big breakfast. Pancakes all right with you?"

Ash's eyes were wide with barely-contained excitement. "Uh, yeah— you bet!"

Clemont wore a faint smile as he followed Ash back inside, but he was unable to ignore the tiny sliver of fear that Team Rocket, for all of their meaningless posturing and general harmlessness, had given him. It was silly, he knew, but their sudden appearance had felt like a warning, or a portent of things to come. He wondered, vaguely, how many more complications from Ash Ketchum's former life might be trying to track him down; how many other loose ends there were in the world that would refuse to stay tied down, unable to let them live in peace.

And, for the first time since Ash had come back to Kalos, Clemont found himself wondering whether or not their future together would continue to shine with the same unobstructed brilliance as he had always assumed it would.