How Mistletoe saved Christmas



Disclaimer: The Pokèmon characters belong to Nintendo. It's not harder to say than that!

This is, odd enough, a manga/anime crossover. And not to mention a completely PWP ^^;;
And as an extra bonus, it sucks!


********

Gary had always loved Christmas. It used to be him, his grandfather and his sister alone the entire day, good food, Christmas presents...
Now, it was him, his grandfather, his sister, his grandfather's assistant, his grandfather's wife and Ash Ketchum, his grandfather's stepson. Gary wanted Christmas back to what it used to be. And he would bet all his Modern Talking CD's (and that was a lot for him) that Ash did as well.
He scowled over at May, blushing and giggling as her boyfriend sketched her. Stupid girl. Now, except the fact that he was sort of nerdy, Gary didn't have anything at all against Tracey... but he was his sister's boyfriend, which led him straight into Gary's ten top hate list. Ash was a good number two.
He'd never understand that girl. Never. Ne-he. What was so great about being _sketched_ of all things? It wasn't like she was all that pretty, he had even said that he only needed to improve his drawings... well, he could at least improve them on something else than Gary's sister!
When May for about the 10th time in 10 minutes closed her eyes and sighed with a giddy smile on her lips he turned around, not being able to look at it anymore. But then again, she had always loved showing off... she had even posed with that moron of a stepuncle Gary now had on a picture.
Ash was scowling over at them as well. Well, Gary thought, then they at least had _something_ in common... even if it wasn't much more than a hate of love.
He really hated love at that moment. If it hadn't been for his stupid grandfather marrying stupid Delia and stupid May falling for that damn Tracey, they could actually have celebrated Christmas the REAL way. Not like this. Not with Ash.
Gary was looking forward to bedtime.

This was so indeed NOT the happy Christmas Ash was used to. It would be him and his mother, and now they had Tracey and the entire Oak family there as well. Maybe Ash was a part of the Oak family now, but...
He looked over at May again. She put a hand in front of her mouth to hide her smile, and Tracey imiditately reached out and pulled it down in her lap again, but not without leaning forward and kissing her first. Oh yes. Ash looked out the window and wished that Tracey was Brock, because if he was, then he wouldn't have been together with May at all.
Ash disliked being ignored like that. Under normal circumstances, his mother would coo over him all the time, Tracey would be delighted to see him again, May would at least talk to him and Professor Oak would put a more into showing Ash how his pokèmon were doing than show the keys to the lab into his hand and run inside for dinner.
Now, the only one who seemed to reply something more than "mmmhmm..." to something Ash said was Gary, and his replies weren't all that great either.
Yes, Ash was a depressed boy that evening. So depressed that even when his mother entered the room telling it was dinner he barely registered it, and moved to raise up just because all others did.

"It's served!" Delia chimed from the doorway, and the faces of everybody else lit up. Except Ash's, who remained in the same pout as he silently raised up and went into the dining room.
"Ah! It smells lovely!" his grandfather said and kissed his wife's cheek before he seated at the table. By the door, Tracey was showing his drawing to May, before he ripped it off his sketchpad and handed it to her, and she blushed even deeper and hugged him.
Gary looked over at Ash, and discovered, to his surprise, that Ash was looking at him as well. And that brief moment it felt like he could see straight into Ash's thoughts... or at least deep enought to see that he wasn't alone about finding the entire situation inbearable.
The dinner was nice enough, Delia wasn't a bad cook, and everybody made a big deal out of complementing the chef. Except himself and Ash, who silently sat showeling the food into their mouths and chewed it without really tasting it at all. The worst part was how nobody else seemed to notice it at all.

After the dinner was over and everybody was delightfully stuffed and drowzy, everybody who happened to be in love with somebody else was comfortably snuggled up with whoever it was. May had fallen asleep in Tracey's arms. Ash wanted to leave, but he figured it probably would be rude, and he'd get a good lecture about it afterwards if he did, so he stayed in his chair, his legs crossed in front of him and the only fact to seek comfort in was that Gary looked to enjoy it just as much as he did himself.
Ash felt like crying. His friends, or the ones that weren't busy cuddling his fromer crush, had both left to their respectable families, his mother had looked at him about two times since he came home for Christmas, and all over the entire day had sucked. Now he had eaten too much too.
"I'm going for a walk." he announced, only Gary actually bothering to look up at him as his mother muttered:
"That's nice..."
Ash waited a few seconds for more of a reply, and then sighed and turn to leave.

Gary couldn't believe what he heard. Ash was planning on leaving him? Leaving him alone with all those lovebirds?! Gary might not been the biggst fan of Ash ever, but he had been the thing that had kept him from going completely insane during the last days.
He knew he would crack if he had to spend any more time alone with them, and quickly raised up as well.
"I'll go too." he said.
"Mmm..."
Ash looked puzzled at him, but didn't say anything.

He didn't say anything as they walked through Pallet town either. Which didn't took too long, considering that it consisted of ten houses and had thirty inhabiters. But still...
Ash's nose grew cold, and he buried his hands in his pockets to at least keep his fingers warm, and he gazed into the living room of somebody living in a pretty red house. Whoever it was, he kissed the woman there with him. He quickly looked away again.

Gary felt lonely. He actually had the entire week, but now it was worse than anytime. Everybody else seemed to have somebody to kiss or hug or at least talk to them during the holiday... everybody except Gary.
There was Ash... but Ash was his rival, not to say a complete looser who couldn't train pokèmon worth a damn, and looked really cute with the hair hanging wet down over his face because it melted in the mild breeze and...
His thoughts suddenly stopped. Ash looked cute?!
Gary wasn't only lonely. Now he was greatly confused as well... and not only just a little annoyed at somebody up there.

They were down by the docks when Ash finally spoke.
"Do you think we should go home?" he asked silently.
"Why?" Gary replied, barely looking up at him.
"Your hair is starting to get wet, and my mum says you'll get ill if you're outside with wet hair in the winter." He didn't mention anything about the fact that he was freezing as well.
Gary just nodded and silently turned around, not bothering to point out that Ash's hair was wet as well.

His rival was in deep thought.
He thought Ash was cute? No. No no no. Something was wrong. Namely that Ash was not a person to be considered cute, at least not when he was a considerable big thing that stood between himself and the title of Pokèmon master.
The Oak lab was getting into view through the snow.

Ash was just about to walk through the door when he felt Gary tug his sleeve.
"What?" he asked, and Gary silently pointed upwards. In the doorway hang a tiny spring of mistletoe.
"You know, there is nobody here to see if we..." he started, but his words were silenced by Gary's lips on his own.
He just didn't see the use in struggling away. At least this meant he wasn't _completely_ forgotten. It also felt sort of nice to be kissed...

What Gary actually noticed, or at least remembered afterwards, was that Ash's nose was really freezing. Not that Gary bothered too much with thinking just then, although he _did_ remember that kiss.
Or maybe he just remembered that Ash did kiss him after that too.

********

I did say it sucked, didn't I? I wrote it in half an hour because I had nothing better to do... shesh, writing is art and art shouldn't be hurried. But then again, I'm not an artist, I do kitch (is that how it is spelled?)... I'm even too lazy to give Gary a reason to kiss Ash...