So I decided to be an idiot and not bring my laptop on holiday with me, so I'm doing this from my phone. I'm still active though! 😊

Anyway, this is a request from suga_anarchy. Enjoy!

Ash sat slouching on the wooden bench, under the bright sun of Unova. Usually, on a day like this, he would be in a great mood. Maybe he'd even do some training. But today, he couldn't be in that mood as he'd just lost the Unova League.

He wasn't surprised, however. Ideally, he wanted to win, but a part of himself expected that wasn't going to happen. Each year he entered a new league. Each year he lost. He lost the motivation and confidence to go on. And after all, who could change that? It's not like he really believed in himself as much as he said he did, and all of his friends are way better trainers than him, in his opinion.

Often he'd ask himself questions like 'Am I wasting time with this?', or 'Should I move on?'. But he couldn't decide the answer to himself. As of now, he found it difficult to comprehend almost anything, since he'd been awake for more than a day straight, training for what he saw as a lost cause. He knew a boy his age wasn't really supposed to be exhausting himself like that, but what can he say? He has, or rather had, a dream.

For hours he just sat and watched people pass by, some of them giving him looks or snickering. He might as well just run as far from the world as possible and start a new life, since he was pretty sure he'd screwed up his first one. Gradually, his vision started to get foggier, thought he didn't notice because he was concentrating on how unusually dizzy he was and how the strength required to move was increasing by the second. Next thing he knew, just after he figured out what was going on, the floor seemed to sway under his feet.

Ash's eyes fluttered open as a white room came into view. A table...a bed...a window? He sighed, both annoyed and distressed at the realisation that he was in a hospital. Did he ever mention to anyone how exhausted he was? Well, obviously not, since a scared and worried Trip was standing in the corner. It wasn't the feeling of being in a hospital that disturbed him, because he'd had that feeling many times. It was the feeling of the worst person possible standing in front of him while he was in the hospital. It's not like he could just run away. Pretty sure a nurse was standing outside the room at that time.

Trip walked over and sat on his bed, staring into his dull eyes. 

"Hey, I was worried about you, you know?", he scolded with an aggressive tone. He was waiting for Ash to clap back at his angriness, but instead, he got a response as empty as his heart

"Don't be. I'm fine", Ash replied, not even smiling.

Trip's eyes widened in shock as he thought. Wait, of course he'd react like that. He's tired. Right?

"So, um, do you know what happened?"

"Not really"

"Well, uh, you passed out at the park. I was there too, and I saw you first. You looked kinda sick, so I called the ambulance and they told me you collapsed from exhaustion and needed to stay the night here"

"Thanks"

Ash, I know you're tired, but at least take a moment to question why Trip was at the park at the exact moment you collapsed, and why he saw you first.

Trio didn't know what to do. He was expecting at least a little bit of emotion from the younger boy. Sharply, he took a deep breath, building his courage.

"So, I'm gonna stay with you"

And now he got the emotion.

"What? No, Trip, I'm fine. Don't waste your time, please", Ash argued, with wide eyes.

"If you were fine, you wouldn't have fainted. I'm not leaving until you at least tell me what's wrong. You've been out of it all day"

"No, no, there's nothing wrong with me. Honestly, Trip, you don't need to-"

Ash's suddenly lost the ability to speak when Trip grabbed him by the shoulders.

"Well I'm going to!"

Slowly and carefully, Ash wrapped his fingers around Trip's wrists and pulled them off of him, while nodding in agreement.

"Okay, Trip. You can stay", he concluded, almost out of breath.

However, his plan of trying to get Trip physically further away backfired, as his last sentence made the man jump onto him with a hug. Truthfully, he felt like he was going to pass out again if Trip hadn't constantly rubbed his back, which was, what he assumed, a gist of comfort. However, he didn't push him away this time, because he knew he needed it. I'm fact, he took it with grateful silence.

Trip wasn't feeling as pleasant as Ash at that moment. He was thinking back to what he did right after Ash had lost.

"Hey, loser! You may have beat me in the first round, but too bad you couldn't make it far from there! I knew it! You're just a pathetic little loser from Kanto! I bet your win against me was rigged, anyway, because, let's be real, how would a trainer like you make it against a trainer like me?"

'Is it possible...', Trip thought, 'That what I said pushed him over the edge?'

"Uh, Trip?"

He snapped back into reality as he heard Ash's voice calling out to him. Quickly, he regained his tough facade.

"Yeah? What do you want?"

He watched in regret as Ash drew back in fear.

"Oh, I was just checking if you were alright. You were staring into space for, like, five minutes"

Silence hung in the air until Ash drifted off to sleep. As soon as Trip was sure he wasn't awake, he  positioned him so that he was sitting up, then buried his face into his chest as he looked around the room.

Aha. Got you there, didn't I? A table, bed and a window. But how do you know it was necessarily a ghost? How do you know the nurse outside was a nurse? A uniform or hospital equipment was never mentioned. That's right. Ash wasn't actually in a hospital. He was currently being held hostage by Trip in his house. The person standing outside the room? That was a police officer trying to figure out how the hell he was supposed to get in. Ash could tell from the sounds, not from the window. Because on the other side of the window was actually the outside of the house .

Cackling, Trip wrapped his arms around the smaller boy's waist, inwardly laughing at the police who were unaware of the strongly barred door. And how his crush hadn't seen him stalking him at the park, and, as a bonus, throwing a such type of grenade that, instead of exploding, released a certain gas that could make anyone fall unconscious if they were tired enough. Oh, yes, he'd had it all planned out.

"Change of plans, Ash. You're gonna have to stay here for a little longer", Trip mumbles to the sleeping boy as he slammed his lips against his, "I love you"

Unexpectedly, he felt him kiss back.

"I love you too"

I hope you enjoyed and I hope this is okay for you, suga_anarchy. 

If anyone has ideas, suggestions or requests, I am always open for them!

Byeeeee