"I can't believe you dragged me out here just to see the frickin' snow, Gary," Ash Ketchum hissed, hopping in place and shivering quite awfully. He had gone to see his best friend for the week when he got a call from Professor Rowan about the young researcher being quite ill and needing someone who wasn't a professor to take of him. Currently, Gary Oak was in the snow, rolling around and attempting to make snow angels.

Ash and Pikachu shared a concerned look with each other, then looked back at the auburn-haired boy who was on his back breathing heavily. "Gary?" Ash called, stepping reluctantly off the covered porch of the log house the two were staying in just outside of Snowpoint City. Gary started giggling and rolling again, which made Ash sigh in relief. As long as Gary didn't die, everything was fine, right? Right.

"C'mooooon, Ashy-boooooy, play wit' me!" Gary called, shooting up from where he laid into a sitting position and making grabby-hands at Ash. Gary heard Umbreon call from behind and turned around quickly, grinning from ear-to-ear to see her, "Umbreoooooon!" he laughed, "C'mere, babygirl!"

"Maybe you should get inside, Gary…" Ash mumbled, grabbing the other boy's arm. Gary protested, gripping at the snow in an attempt to stay where he sat. "You need to change out of those wet clothes or else you'll be even sicker." Ash nagged, yanking as hard as he could to get Gary to his feet.

"Buuuuut I wanna play out in th'snow, Ashy!" Gary whined. He rested his cheek on Ash's hat (or, really, beanie, since it was a little too cold for just a baseball cap) and threw his arms around Ash's shoulders. "Le'ss build a snowman!" Gary snickered, "Nonono, snow Nidoqueen and Nidoking."

"Absolutely not…" Ash grumbled, dragging them inside the cabin. The inside of the cabin was quite cozy and warm, but also quite small. It was only three rooms, which meant Ash had been sleeping on the couch so that Gary could have the warm bed. A fireplace was their only source of heat since the little log house had never seen electricity in its 50 years of standing. "Sit here, don't go anywhere," Ash commanded, dumping Gary on the couch. Gary groaned and called for his partner, who came inside and shook her black fur free of water before hopping up beside him.

Ash ran off toward the bathroom and got the tub filled. "Aaaaaash, when y'coming back?" Gary yelled, coughing instantly. Ash cringed and shouted that he was coming back in to help Gary to the bathroom. " 'M sick, not broke…" Gary complained, swatting the other boy's hands away when Ash tried to help him walk. Of course, five steps in and Gary was hunching over and holding his stomach because it ached too much.

"Yeah, maybe you could listen to me for once," Ash snickered, guiding Gary toward the bathroom. "Get in the tub, I'll bring clothes in for you to change into…"

Gary nodded as Ash left. He stripped down and climbed in, seething at the temperature before relaxing. His head was extremely stuffy and it felt ready to explode, so the steamy water was just perfect. Also, his hearing wasn't exactly the best and his ears were constantly popping. And Gary was fairly certain he got snow in his ears. Not that he regretted the snow; that was fun. Right?

"OK here's your clothes…dude you're just lying there. Don't go to sleep and drown or something, alright?" Ash snickered.

Gary looked over at him and smiled widely, "Aaaaashyyyyy, I need heeeeeeelp!" Gary cooed, coughing and hacking up mucus. "Ow."

"That fever's getting to you, huh?" Ash sighed. "Fine…" He stooped down beside the tub and poured water over Gary's hair. He washed Gary's hair, which was incredibly difficult because it curled when wet. Ash flat out refused to help any farther than Gary's back, yelling at him to wash himself because that was just weird. "Can you get up from all the way down there?" Ash asked.

Gary nodded, gripping the sides of the tub as he tried to stand. He fell flat on his butt and shook his head 'no', peering up at Ash expectantly. Ash grumbled to himself and reached for the towel, holding it in front of him as the tub drained. He grabbed under Gary's armpits with the cloth and pulled him up, almost falling back with Gary. "O-OK, get dressed, I'm not dressing you…"

Before Gary could say anything else, Ash fled the room red as a Cheri Berry. He stumbled around the bathroom pulling on the sweatpants and hoodie Ash had brought in for him then brushed his hair out as well as he could in his sleepy state. Ash called for him, which dragged Gary out of the bathroom and into the living room.

"Hot chocolate," Ash explained, handing a mug to Gary. Gary nodded, gripping the mug with two hands like a child. "Want some pudding or something?" Ash asked. Suspicious. "We're almost out of other stuff, but Officer Jenny came by this morning and said that supplies would come out this evening," Ash explained when he saw Gary's hesitant face. Luckily, the researcher was too sick to realize that that was a blatant lie and that Ash was trying to get Gary's medicine in him.

Gary and Ash sat on the couch, Ash holding a bowl of vanilla pudding (laced with Gary's prescription since Professor Oak said that was the only way he was going to get the meds in). "Open wide," Ash teased. He raised the spoon to Gary's mouth and fed the boy until it was all gone.

"That was funny-tasting…" Gary said accusingly.

Ash got up quickly and snatched the spoon from Gary's mouth, "It must've been near expiring or something…" he said, tossing the bowl in the sink. "Guess you should get to bed, right?"

Gary whined, grabbing the blanket from the back of the couch and rolling himself up in it, "No naps!" he shouted into the fabric. Ash had to hold in his laughter; it wasn't very often he got to see Gary in such a vulnerable and childish state and, needless to say, he was having the time of his life when there was no vomit. Umbreon grabbed the end of the blanket and tugged on it in her vague attempt to get Gary on his feet.

"See, even Umbreon thinks it's bedtime, Gary!" Ash fussed. "Get up!"

"No," Gary mumbled. Ash groaned and marched over to pull on Gary's shoulders to get him sitting up. No such luck with that plan, so Ash grabbed his feet and started pulling his off the couch. "Noooo," Gary groaned weakly. He didn't really care at this point, he was too tired to put up a fight but he'd be damned if he was going to bed easily.

"Gary this could be a lot easier if you would just cooperate," Ash growled. He dropped the half of Gary's body that was off the couch onto the wooden floor and put his arms around Gary's waist. Well, if his Ashy-boy wanted cooperation, Gary could give it. He wrapped his legs around Ash's thighs and put his arms around Ash's shoulders. "W-what are you doing?"

"Cooperatin'," Gary giggled. He buried his face in Ash's stomach and for some reason he could hear the sound of pokemon laughter in the background.

"G-Gary, just get up! I can't carry you!" Ash groaned, heaving one leg away from the couch to pivot.

"Yes you can." Gary giggled, pulling himself up Ash's front as well as he could. Ash put his hands under Gary's bottom to support him so they wouldn't both do a gravity check. Once they made it to the bedroom, Ash flopped them both down and rolled away to get back on his feet. Gary wiggled under the covers and looked up at Ash expectantly.

"What?" Ash asked, afraid of what Gary could possibly want now.

"You hafta tuck me in an' give me a kiss g'night!" Gary smiled, again grabbing at the air in Ash's direction. "Please, Ashy?"

Ash was fairly certain at that point he was going to explode. He'd been dealing with Gary's cuteness bullshit for three days. He'd survived puppy-dog eyes that landed him in braving the snow to get some sappy Christmas movie they could watch on Gary's laptop. He'd survived Gary's whininess toward medicine. Hell, he'd survived Pikachu picking on him for having to be so close to his crush in some fairly awkward situations. But, he was absolutely sure that he was definitely die if he had to kiss Gary good night and tuck him into bed.

"Aaaaashy?" Gary drew out, pulling Ash out of his frozen, terrified position. "Kissyyyy!"

"Can't I just…tuck you in?" Ash tried, leaning over the bed.

"Uh-uh," Gary scooted down on the covers, "Riiiight here," he pointed to his cheek and tilted his head to the side. Ash reluctantly leaned over Gary's face, inching closer and closer to his face. But, as soon as he was about to actually kiss the other boy, Gary turned his head. Their lips met, and just like that, Ash started to freak out.

"What did you do that for?!" he yelled, "I know you did that on purpose, what the HECK, Gary?!"

Gary smiled and stuck out his tongue, completely unfazed by the yelling.

"Oh, yeah, really mature!" Ash shouted. "I thought you were the smart, mature one here! But nooo, you kissed ME. You don't care that you just KISSED me! Why'd you have to get sick, everything was just fine without me worrying about my crush dying because he's sick!"

They both froze. Did Ash just say-?

"Forget what I just said…" Ash said quickly, spinning around and getting ready to run out the room.

Gary grabbed his wrist weakly, making Ash halt immediately. "You have a crush on me?" he whimpered. Ash turned to look at Gary, whose eyes were watering and a string of snot was clinging to his upper lip.

"U-um…" Ash mumbled. He wasn't quite sure what to do, considering there was always the chance that everything Gary was doing was caused by his fever. But, that could mean he would forget everything, right? "Yeah…y-yeah I kinda like you um, yeah…" Ash mumbled. He hated feeling like this, nervous just didn't suit him.

"Good!" Gary shouted, yanking on Ash's wrist. Ash was caught by surprise, which was the only reason he fell onto the bed, "Then we can share a bed if we're datin'!" Gary giggled, clinging to Ash's arm and snuggling against him. Ash's face felt like it was on fire; he couldn't believe what had just happened. Did Gary just admit he liked Ash, too?

Ash could have asked, had Gary not fallen asleep. So, he settled for fixing the covers over them both and cuddling with his childhood best friend.

That next morning Gary woke up with an awful headache. His nose was stuffed to where he could barely breathe out it and his ears were clogged as well. Luckily that was a quick fix; he just held his nose and kept his mouth shut while trying to sigh, which pushed the air out his ears.

"Ow, yep, that was as bad of an idea as I thought it would be…" he grumbled to himself. He tried to think back to what he could last remember before the awful fever kicked in. Ash had come to help him, and could remember thinking holy shit he looks even better than last time I saw him when he saw the boy come in his cabin. Also, for some reason, Gary could vaguely remember rolling around in the snow…that had to have been his imagination…

As he tried to roll over onto his back, he realized there was a weight on his side. Figuring it was just Umbreon, Gary grabbed at it. But it was a hand. Ash's hand. "Ash!" Gary yelped, jumping to the side. Ash woke up and jumped, nearly falling off the bed, "What were you doing?!"

"Cuddling, obviously…" Ash mumbled, rubbing his eyes. "You made me," he explained. Gary blinked in disbelief. His heart hurt from the scare.

"Why would I do tha-"

"And you made me do a bunch of other crap like feed you or help you bathe!" Ash yelled. He could actually get through to the boy now that Gary was able to think normally. Gary blushed, thinking about all the situations that he had probably put them both in. "…Also you kind of told me that you like me…"

That one made Gary's heart stop again. Crapcrapcrapcrapcra-

"But you got lucky that I like you back…" Ash smiled.

"You do?" Gary asked in a small voice. Ash nodded, grinning ear-to-ear at the other boy. Gary smiled back and started leaning forward, just as Ash did.

Or course, as their luck would have it, Gary sneezed right on Ash's mouth.

"Yep, I was expecting that…" Ash sighed. Gary couldn't help but laugh, even if it hurt his stomach to do so. "Yeah, yeah, I'm still kissing you!" Ash shouted, crawling on the protesting Gary to kiss him with his own snot.

This was supposed to be short, not over 2000 words wtf

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