Ash started when he heard the lock click. He hadn't even moved from his spot on the edge of the bed. He watched Giovanni walked in holding a cage. The cage looked like it had rubber lining yet Giovanni had rubber gloves on. Ash wondered why until he saw it. Pikachu was using so much power it was actually coming threw the first layer of rubber. Ash couldn't help flinching at the sight of the lightning, if Giovan noticed he didn't say anything. Beside Giovanni was his Persian, it was with him on and off throughout Ash's stay. Persian currently had his eyes fixed on the mouse and Ash felt a familiar protectiveness stir in his gut.
Giovanni sat the cage down on the chair he had previously occupied and crouched beside it. Glaring at the mouse as the mouse glared at him he spoke, "if you shock me Persian will nullify you and Ash will never get his hat back".
Pikachu looked shocked that Giovanni would go so far, Ash himself let out a strangled gasp and sat up straighter. Giovanni just smurked with his Persian before reaching toward the latch of the transparent rubber cage. As soon as the door popped open Pikachu bolted out toward Ash. Ash's mind instantly went to the nightmare and he put his hands up protecting his face. Pikachu slipped under the guard and started cuddling Ash's midriff. Ash hesitated but then he started cuddling Pikachu back and he rolled onto his side curled up not caring what Giovanni thought.
Giovanni watched all this out of the corner of his eye, Persian blatantly watched them thought he was mostly thinking of his stomach. When Ash curled around Pikachu and fell onto his side he smiled. Ash had forgotten one of the pieces. Walking over Giovanni reached into his pocket and straightened the item he pulled out. "You forgot something" he said calmly dropping in onto the side of Ash's face.
Instantly Ash's hand went up and grabbed it shoving it into it's rightful place on top of his head. Giovanni smirked and almost laughed, Ash hadn't even looked up and he wasn't moving his hand from the hat like he was afraid Giovanni would take it again. Shaking his head Giovanni grabbed the cage and patted his leg to get Persians attention. Noticing the cue Persian went to Giovanni's side as he walked toward the door.
"Thank you".
Giovanni stopped and every so slowly he turned around. Ash was watching him over Pikachu's head. Giovanni squinted at Ash, "for what this was purely beneficial". Ash actually scoffed, Giovanni froze completely. Ash had...
Scoffed?!
How dare he!
Giovanni glared at Ash, "do you have something to say"? Persian caught the tone of his voice and turned back to Ash ready to defend his trainer.
Ash eyes widened a bit and he sat up still holding Pikachu but letting go of his hat. "Wait, wait, wait" he was silent for a moment gathering his thoughts "you thought I was actually that dumb, it's plain as day that this benefits me more than it could ever benefit you, and the cage and gloves showed that you did in fact have Pikachu under control". Ash went silent watching Giovanni. Giovanni just stared at Ash blinking a few times and Ash understood completely. He stood up gasping "I can't believe you, I've taken down most of your Kanto bases and you still think I'm an idiot".
Giovanni started chewing on his lip, a habit he had when thinking. "Honestly you shouldn't be that surprised" Giovanni started "I've been listening to Jessie and James and they always belittle you so they don't look so bad". Giovanni considered whether he should add the rest of his thoughts or not eventually he thought 'to hell with it'. "That and you haven't even taken out half of our Kanto bases" Giovanni said with a small smirk.
Ash stared at Giovanni this time. "Say that again" he said then quickly held up his hand "no nevermind I would rather not hear it again". He flopped onto the bed and Pikachu, who had fallen to the floor when he stood up, jumped back onto his stomach. Ash sighed and threw an arm over his head as the other arm wrapped around Pikachu again.
Giovanni couldn't help chuckling "you honestly didn't know that did you"?
Ash glared at him "of course not why would I be here if there were other bases to take care of"
"I thought you were trying to cut of the head or something".
"I thought you thought I was too dumb to think of shit like that".
"Yeah I was trying to be nice, but since you shot that down I'll say what I actually thought, I thought you were dumb enough to think you might have a chance here". Giovanni was slightly surprised to hear the trainer curse to someones face, sure he had done it plenty of times behind the door but Ash had always seemed to goody-two-shoes to swear in front of people.
Ash was silent for a bit still glaring at Giovanni but he noticed that his thoughts seemed to be blurring and his words slurred sleepily when he talked again "well whatever you thought it would be lovely if you would leave right now cause I'm tired and you're keeping me up".
Pikachu added his thoughts to the mix with a "pika pika"
Giovanni rolled his eyes at his half asleep captive "whatever" was all he said before walking out with the cage and Persian.
Ash smiled a bit as he drifted off to sleep.
He slept without nightmares.
/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/
Ash woke up to the door opening and he only grunted a 'go away' before he started drifting again. Ash's back was to the door and Pikachu was curled up on top of Ash, on his side. The person seemed to find this funny because they chuckled lightly. Ash sighed, he knew exactly who it was. He listened as the chair was pulled to the bed again and as Giovanni sat down before rolling over. He grabbed Pikachu and the blankets as he rolled so they were both still with him, his hat had been knocked off sometime last night and was laying on the corner of the bed near the Rocket boss. Ash had the blankets up to his eyes as he glared at Giovanni.
His voice is muffled as he growls out "why can't I just have uninterrupted sleep for once, it used to be mom, then it was Pikachu, then it was Misty and Brock, recently it was... nevermind, but now it's you" he put an extra dose of venom into this last part to cover up the thing he had almost said.
Giovanni raised a brow but didn't comment on the slip "just so you know you slept all through the rest of the day and night and it's morning now, our usual time for this".
Ash stared, his eyes losing the sleepy half anger that had been there a moment ago. He sat up making sure the blanket stayed around Pikachu "wait it's the next day, but it only feels like an hour or something" He whined letting his shoulders sag.
Giovanni smirk and reached over grabbing Ash's hat. Ash's hand shot out for it but it was already out of his reach and the swift action just hurt his healing bruises. Giovanni places the hat on his own head "maybe if you would tell me what exactly it was that was keeping you up recently you would be able to sleep better".
Ash's shoulders instantly tensed, he had thought that Giovanni was going to let that go. He tore his eyes away from his hat and meet Giovanni's serious gaze. Gulping Ash lowered his outstretched hand and wrapped it around Pikachu bringing the sleeping pokemon closer "it was nothing I'm just not used to sleeping in here".
"You didn't have a problem with it the first few days" came Giovanni's cold reply. He wasn't going to let it go this time, curiosity had been plaguing him since Ash had woken up screaming. Now Giovanni had a small idea of what had happened but he wanted assurance, Giovanni always got assurance.
Ash winced realizing that Giovanni was right "I just... it was nothing ok"? He half shouted the 'ok' and Giovanni was silent as he watched Ash. Ash could feel his gaze and he squirmed under it keeping his head turned away from the businessman. When he finally got the courage to glance over he saw Giovanni chewing his lip again and his eyes, while still on Ash, were slightly unfocused and glazed over. Both his arms and legs were crossed and he seemed deep in through. Ash was afraid to disturb him so he only watched, suddenly Giovanni twitched and shifted in his seat glancing around like he was reorienting himself. He meet Ash's gaze again and Ash instantly looked away, he only looked back when Giovanni sighed.
"Did it have something to do with your pokemon"?
Ash froze eyes widening, the truth practically painted on his face. Giovanni immediately saw it and nodded to himself. He stood up "unfortunately I can't do anything about that, but you have Pikachu now so that should help" he moved toward the door placing the chair back on his way out.
"Wait you're not going to ask were the masterball is" Ash asked confused.
Giovanni turned around with his hand on the door "I learned more today then I did when asking that so no, not today" with that he left.
Ash only had a moment to think about that before Pikachu jumped up. The electric mouse proceeded to try and explain something to Ash through charade. Ash had long ago become a master at interpreting Pikachu's actions so he found it simple. Pikachu pretended to sleep "sleeping" he made the outline of a cloud with his fingers "dreaming" then Pikachu made electricity spark above his head, they had used this before for "idea". Pikachu nodded proud of his trainer he then pointed to the door and mimed hitting "hit the door, with what" Pikachu pointed to his tail, Ash gasped. "Of course we can use Iron tail" he said standing up and smacking the side of his fist into his other palm.
"Pikachu that's a great idea, and you had it while dreaming, it's more productive than dreams I've had recently" Ash said sadly. Pikachu, ever the one to know his trainer, had already figured out why Ash was so tired and he hopped onto Ash's shoulder and patted his head. Ash gave Pikachu a grateful smile then he went back to business "we need to wait until night when the guards outside leave". Ash had learned the first few days that the guards were only there from 6 am to midnight. Explaining this to Pikachu they started grinning.
They were getting out tonight.
AN
OMG whats gonna happen... I got no idea! *sweatdrops* So I realized that my OOC Ash is really just a mix of Ash and Red so that's happening. Thanks for the reads guys, I love you all sooooo much T.T! So comment, read, jump in mud puddles, you know what I mean. *dances away* Bye.