Loyal to the Game [Pokemon Fanfic]

Land Bound and Water Down

Gary Oak, grandson of the famous Professor Samuel Oak and aspiring pokémon trainer. That was who he was. His goal to be the best was what he needed to be focusing on. He needed to only think about beating everyone and proving he was more than a famous progeny, only known and thought of because of the people he was related to.

But Ash Ketchum, his rival, had always messed him up and turned his head all around.

He idly glanced over to where his fanclub was giggling and whispering to each other, before sighing and staring back over the river. He closed his eyes and pinched the bridge of his nose.

"Gary, are you really leaving already?" his grandfather frowned at him. "I thought you were going to travel with Ash?"

Gary glared off to the side. "No. I told her I didn't want to and that we were rivals."

Oak rubbed his neck slowly. "If you're determined. I just thought you'd promised her and that you were going to stay by her side. You know I wanted you to make sure she's alright and that she had someone to accompany her, so she wasn't all by herself and get into trouble. God knows the trouble that girl can get into…"

Gary guiltily shifted. "I know, okay Gramps? I promised her I wouldn't abandon her and all, like her dad and stuff, and I know she's got those kind of issues…and I promised to travel with her when we were going to go on our pokémon journey…but I just can't. I just…can't," he said again lamely.

The professor looked at him in scrutiny for a moment, before nodding reluctantly.

"This is your pokémon journey and it's your choices to make. At least keep up with her, alright? Call on her sometimes?"

"Yeah, sure, Gramps," Gary muttered, not admitting that he'd never given Ash his new number.

He said goodbye to his grandfather and left, but paused outside of Ash's home on his way out of Pallet Town. He stared morosely at it before hiding his face with one hand.

"Stupid Ash. Late as always. Wake up, you dumb girl," he said, though fondly.

His hand slipped down and he stared with a shaky smile at the house of the girl that was his best friend.

"See ya sometime, huh?"

He walked on and didn't look back.

And now there he was, with a gaggle of girls that got on his nerves and unable to move passed that moment. He was sorry he had to leave her behind, especially since she had problems about being left behind ever since her father left her…

But there was no way he had the stomach to travel with the girl he was in love with.

Maybe it was cowardly, but he knew how he felt and he was better off staying away from her.

God if he had to hear the words 'just friends' from her, he'd probably break into pieces. And traveling to all these places alone with her (so close and yet so far away at the same time), knowing how he felt about her and her being oblivious, Gary knew he'd be miserable and unable to do it.

It's why he left her behind in the first place.

~*~*~

It was going to take some time before Giovanni's helicopter would come to pick them up, so they waited around the docks. In the meantime, Ash had looked over the railings and spotted a pokémon.

"Misty! It's a water pokémon," Ash waved her over excitedly. "Don't you like water pokémon?"

Misty curiously walked over and grinned. "Oh, it's cute! What is it, Ash?"