He didn't understand what was wrong with his mother when they left the doctors. She was laughing and crying at the same time, as if she couldn't make up her mind on how to feel, and he didn't know if he should comfort her to stop the tears or laugh with her. So he just walked beside her, his hand in his mothers, all the way home. And when they got home, she calmed down enough to tell him she was going to make a phone call, so to be quiet, and he asked if he could go play with Gary by the river, which she agreed to before going to make the call.

So he went to the spot by the river where he met with Gary every day to play. He was five years old now, and Gary was six, and in Pallet Town that meant they were old enough to be outside by themselves during daylight hours so long as an adult at least knew where they would be.

When he got there his friend was already there, sitting with his legs out in front of him and leaning back on his elbows.

"Gary!" He called to the six year old, who turned and smiled at him.

"Hey Ash! What's up?" Gary asks.

Ash sits next to Gary, cross-legged, and plays with a blade of moist grass.

"Mom took me to the doctor today, we just got back. It was to find out my second gender." He tells his friend.

Gary sits up at that.

"Really? Gramps had me tested last year, I'm an Alpha, so that means I'll be super strong when I grow up. What are you?" The brown haired boy asks excited.

"The doctor said I'm an Omega. Mom laughed and cried a lot when he told us, I don't know why though. Do you know why? Is being an Omega bad or something?" Ash asks.

Gary's cheeks turn red and he turns his face away.

"No it's not bad. It just has to do with when we get a little older." He says.

"Older?" Ash asks.

"Yeah. It might affect your Pokémon journey a little, you might have to wait an extra year or something, and you might not be able to get from place to place as quickly as an Alpha or Beta, because of something called heats. I don't know what those are, just that Omegas don't go out in public during them and they cause problems with Alphas somehow… And you being an Omega and me an Alpha will have stuff to do with us when where older."
Ash plucks the blade of grass and rubs it between his fingers, frowning at Gary's words, not liking how this Omega thing will affect his future traveling, and not understanding the rest, as most children his age don't.

"Okay, what kind of stuff with us?" Ash asks, dropping the grass and looking at Gary who was smarter than most other kids their age and knew about this kind of stuff.

"Well, our families made an agreement when we were born. If one of us was an Alpha, and the other an Omega, then when we're old enough, we're going to be mates and get married. If we were the same second gender, or one of us was a Beta, then oh well. But since I'm an Alpha, and you're an Omega, when we get older, we'll have to get married to each other and be mates." Gary says, "Gramps explained it to me yesterday. Probably because he knew you were going to be tested today."

Now Ash is blushing.

"Married…" Ash whispers and looks away and mumbles something else. Gary frowns.

"Huh?" The young Alpha asks.

"I said even if I don't get a say in it, if it's to you… Getting married doesn't sound so bad." Ash repeats looking at the ground, his face beat-red.

Gary blushes deeper. They both know their second genders now, their big kids already training for the journeys in a few years, and that means (according to his grandfather anyway) this is something that they would have to talk about no matter how uncomfortable it was. And if they didn't talk about it now, with each other, their families would know and they would have to talk about it with the adults which was worse.

"Yeah." Gary says after a second. "I feel the same."

Ash looks at Gary's face now and nibbles his lip.

"So, uh, does that mean that… When we go on our journeys, if something happens… You'll protect me?" Ash brings himself to ask.

Gary's head snaps to the side to look at his Omegan friend at that.

Their still young, and Ash is only just old enough that his doctor could safely preform the tests to find out his second gender, but even so the instincts paired with there second genders are some the first things to come in. And Gary has already had a year to develop most of his instincts. He might not be able to smell Ash's second gender yet, but he knew Ash was an Omega, and he already developing the need to protect the other boy. He didn't even need to be asked.

"Of course I will." He whispers and scoots over so he's closer to Ash and he can wrap and arm around his friends shoulders. Ash rests his head on Gary's shoulder then.

"Thanks. That makes me feel good."

Gary's cheeks dust pink again and he looks away.

"Geez, you just got your second gender and your already starting to really act like an Omega. Come on, lets play tag for a while." Gary says to try and save them anymore embarrassment for a while. Before this they would have played hide and seek, but he has this urge to just not let Ash out of his sight now and he doesn't understand it.

Ash nods.

"Okay." He says, and lets Gary help him up.

"So who's it?" Gary asks.

Ash smiles softly and gazes over the river to see the sun set. He saw something in one of those gross love story movies his mother likes so much that he thought would be good for starting a game, so he decides to use it now. Leaning over he whispers in Gary's ear.

"It's getting late, so we should head home for now. But tomorrow, when we do play…" He leans over and kisses Gary's cheek softly. "Your it!" Ash laughs and begins to run home. "Bye Gary!"

Gary touches his cheek and sits back down.

"Yeah, see ya later…"

Okay, so I wrote this, and wrote it the way I did for a few reasons. One, I felt I needed to write another little Palletshiping because it had been to long since my last. Two there aren't enough Omegaverse for Pokémon. Three, the only Pokémon Omegaverse aren't Palletshipping, or at least not till I wrote this. Four, I haven't really seen any Omegaverse, in any archive, that focuses on kids talking over or dealing with second gender issues and I felt like it was best to do that in Pokémon because, if a kid can leave home at ten I think they mature a bit faster than kids in other universes and thus deal with second genders at younger ages, which is also why the five and six year olds Ash and Gary sounded so mature in this despite their young age.

I hope you liked this. If you think it's good as is then let me know in a review, or if you want the I'm willing to expand this into a three-shot. Anyway, let me know what you think, feedback is amazing! And, Thanks again for reading!