Mrreow! Double Ash

 

If Giovanni almost had a heart attack, it was warranted. First, he saw Ash run into the burning building like a lunatic, and then –like some movie heroine –she emerged some time later out of the burning wreckage with Erika in her arms and a determined, serious look on her face.

 

He could almost admire the image of her and the burning backdrop, if he wasn’t so worried about her.

 

He and the others ran towards her, and Lt. Surge helped take Erika from Ash’s arms and put her down on the ground on her feet, steadying her.

 

“Are you okay?” Ash asked Erika, though that was what he wanted to ask her. She did run into a burning building after all.

 

“I-I’m fine,” Erika coughed slightly, staring at Ash with an odd look in her eyes that made Giovanni frown.

 

“Ah, good,” Ash smiled tiredly. Then she collapsed.

 

More than one person, Giovanni included, leaped to catch her and they all nearly crashed into each other, stopping only just and all of them managing to somehow grab a hold of her and keep her up.

 

“Alright, hospital! Everyone –now,” Nurse Joy happened on the scene, two ambulances with her. “Pokémon are heading to the Pokémon Center. Anyone else will go straight to the Celadon Hospital for at least a checkup. Ash especially needs to go, so get her onto a stretcher and into an ambulance.”

 

Ash’s friends reluctantly relinquished her to the EMTs that came over with a stretcher. Then the group looked at each other.

 

“So who’s going to go with her into the ambulance?” Misty was the one to ask it aloud.

 

“Normally, I would say Professor Oak should –ah, Sam,” Brock said, though he corrected himself on Oak’s name at the looks of everyone. “But since he’s supposed to be low key, Giovanni should probably go. He’s used to this paperwork stuff and getting everything organized and taken cared of, so as much as I want to go, he’s probably the best option.”

 

“You know, we’ll probably have to set you up as her primary contact sometime soon,” Oak mused. “I can be her secondary, if things don’t work out for you for some reason or other in some instance, and it can’t be helped. Probably by then, I’ve worked up a good alibi and can go around as is.”

 

Pleased, Giovanni nodded and accepted that responsibility.

 

“What…what’s going on?” Erika, who had been forgotten, asked in confusion, trembling slightly.

 

Misty and Brock grabbed onto her, ignoring her question.

 

“Hospital,” Misty said. “Now.”

 

“But –”

 

“We’ll fill you in on the way,” Brock compromised and that was the last Giovanni heard. He himself headed over to where Ash was being prepped to go onto the ambulance and informed the EMTs he was coming with her.

 

In the back of the ambulance, Giovanni watched over her and wished she was awake. Though she looked peaceful, he was sure that she felt anything but. He was listening with half an ear to the EMTs and knew that she was suffering slight burns on her arm, and they needed to get oxygen in her after inhaling all that smoke to clear up her lungs and oxygenate her brain. There were also slight rashes starting to form on her skin.

 

“There were perfume in the gym,” Giovanni spoke aloud when he heard them discussing what they were from. “She’s allergic to them.”

 

One of the EMTs nodded. “I see. Perfume bottles probably broke and they spread through the air, probably exacerbated from the fire’s heat and making them more potent in the air. She has slight inflammation in her nostrils and down her throat, along with the rashes. A shot of Benadryl should help.”

 

Giovanni continued to watch morosely and was thankful when the hospital came in sight. Soon enough, Ash was heading into it and Giovanni followed, before he was made to stay in the waiting room and wait for the others. He began filling out what he could of Ash’s information, before he had to use his phone to call Oak and get his help in filling in the rest. By the time he was done and had turned the papers in, the others had arrived.

 

“She okay?” Lt. Surge asked with a frown.

 

“She has some burns and an allergic reaction, but it sounds like she’s doing okay. We’ll get to visit her soon,” Giovanni informed the group. The collective sigh of relief was expected. “She can leave tomorrow, to make sure she receives proper treatment for her burns and to monitor her allergic reaction and make sure it completely goes away.”

 

“So we’ll just have to wait now,” Oak said.

 

Giovanni nodded, though he was tired of waiting by then.

 

Ash was antsy. She was sick of being on the hospital bed and just wanted to get out of there already!

 

“There’s TV,” Oak pointed out wryly.

 

“But I’m tired of being on the bed,” she pouted.

 

“Well, you still have to wait until tomorrow to leave,” Giovanni said firmly.

 

She sighed, but understood their protectiveness. Not that it stopped her from being bored or itching to run out of there.

 

“Um, hi. I guess we’ll be roommates for tonight?” she heard Erika’s voice.

 

She perked up. They weren’t in the other’s deathtrap of a gym! This was her chance!

 

“Erika! I challenge you to a pokémon battle for a badge!” Ash called out, starting to climb off of the bed.

 

“No!” everyone said at once and glared at her.

 

She pouted even harder than before.

 

“You’re in a hospital room, Ash,” Oak rolled his eyes.

 

“Yeah and you’re supposed to be recovering,” Lt. Surge gave her a look.

 

Giovanni just stared her down until she deflated in bed and shrugged. Damn it, he was always so good with looks. He never really had to say anything!

 

“Sorry, Ash,” she heard Erika say. “How about after we both get out? The gym will probably need rebuilding anyway, so we can’t do it there –though I promise from now on that it’ll have the store located further to the side and won’t be too close to the entrance in the future. How about if we can battle in front of the gym?”

 

Ash cheered. “Yes, please! That’s totally fine. Right, Pikachu?”

 

Pikachu startled everyone by crawling under the hospital bed and revealing himself, giving everyone a cute smile and a v-sign.

 

“Chu~!”

 

“Pikachu!” Oak admonished. “You’re supposed to be in the Pokémon Center! How’d you even get here?”

 

Pikachu coughed and looked away.

 

“I can’t believe you,” Lt. Surge was fighting back a grin. “This pokémon is just as crazy as his owner,” he teased the both of them.

 

Giovanni just let his Persian out, who went over to Pikachu and picked him up by the scruff of his neck using his maw and began to head out of there.

 

“Persian was never out of his pokéball, hence his not needing to be at the Pokécenter,” Giovanni told Ash. “Therefore he can drag your troublemaking pokémon back there.”

 

Ash grumbled. “Fine, fine. Bye, Pikachu, Persian.”

 

“Pika!” Pikachu grumbled with her, though with Persian’s mouth full, she could only hear a muffled sound from him.

 

“I think you should sleep and get some rest,” Giovanni then turned to her.

 

She didn’t really want to, but she supposed it would help. Well, help time pass by. She wanted it to be tomorrow already!

 

She yawned. “‘Kay, goodnight…”

 

Ash heard a quiet chorus of goodnight from everyone before she fell asleep herself.

 

When Ash awoke, she heard nurses whispering nearby. She kept quiet, listening in. Okay, she was being rude eavesdropping, but they were the ones choosing to talk right there near her! How could she not get curious and want to listen in?

 

“That’s so strange!” one nurse was saying. “And disturbing.”

 

“It’s sad too. The children are going missing and no one can figure out why,” another nurse replied.

 

“I wonder where they’re going or who’s taken them?”

 

The nurses walked off, but Ash already had a lot on her mind. This wasn’t good! Someone had taken the children. Or the children had gone missing somehow. She had to help! There was no way she could just let something like this go. What if those poor children were never found? Or what if they got hurt or worse?

 

Ash became determined. She was going to help out.

 

Of course, knowing the others, they would still be overprotective and refuse to let her do anything but rest. She would have to get out of there before they could catch her and haul her back kicking and screaming like a hissing cat.

 

Ha! She could do this.

 

She nervously looked around, before she heard a quiet “Pika~” and she saw her Pikachu crawling from under her bed again. He gave her a mischievous grin.

 

“Good boy!” she quietly praised with a grin back. “Let’s get out of here! We have a mystery to solve.”

 

She got all the wires and stuff off her somehow, and then unsteadily made it to her feet. After making sure she was okay, she peered around the curtain separating her and Erika, and saw the gym leader still asleep. Finding some clothes that the others had left for her (wrinkling her nose at the feminine clothes that would surely get her in trouble), Ash took a quick shower to get all that grime and sweat from yesterday off of her. Then it was time for her and Pikachu to hightail it out of there, after she managed to leave a note on the whiteboard that was supposed to show her and Erika’s condition.

 

Ash headed outside and thought to herself. “We need a clue, Pikachu. Let’s see…if they weren’t taken, where would they go? We’ll think from there and then we’ll think about if they were taken. So where do kids like to go that they might have run away to?”

 

Pikachu tugged at her pants and pointed in a direction, to where she could see clumps of trees.

 

“Park!” Ash shouted. “Good job, Pikachu. Let’s check it out and see if we can find any missing kids. Er, ones that aren’t there because they’re meant to be there and not the missing ones.”

 

Eck, she needed to be able to differentiate. Good thing for her she just saw all the posters on the walls depicting missing kids. Coming over to examine them, she then took note of each kid and then set off to the park with Pikachu.

 

For a while she looked around the park with no luck, until she spotted an area with a lake and a lot of kids there pretending that they’re pokémon. She recognized all of them as being the missing children from the posters and went to them to try to get them back. Going over to one kid who was pretending he was a Squirtle, she gently took hold of him, ignoring how drowsy she began to feel.

 

“Hey, hey –you’ve got to come with me. You guys have been gone for way too long and it’s not the time for playing anymore, okay?” she said and was surprised when he just turned to her with a dazed look and kept acting and talking like a Squirtle. “What?”

 

After going to a few more kids and getting similar reactions, she realized that they were all not pretending but seriously thinking they were pokémon. They were all acting like they were all hypnotized –

 

Wait! That was it! Someone must’ve drawn the kids there and tried to hypnotize them. What pokémon could’ve helped (it had to have had one involved, with these many kids)? Let’s see…hypnotizing…hypnotizing…hyp –Hypno!

 

“I got it!” she exclaimed, thinking she had the mystery somewhat solved now. She had to shake her head a little though, feeling sleepy. Her eyelids grew heavy and she had to close them for a second…

 

“Pika?” Pikachu patted her leg, worried about her.

 

All of a sudden, Ash dropped to all fours and rubbed her face against him.

 

“Peeeerssian~”

 

When Erika called them from the hospital to let them know that Ash had gone missing, leaving only a vague note on the whiteboard about “going to solve a mystery!” (really, this girl), the whole group were all exasperated but also more worried.

 

“What mystery could she have gone to solve?” Lt. Surge griped.

 

“Three days ago, apparently kids began to go missing,” Norman supplied. “I heard some people talking about it. She could have wanted to help out and figure what was going on.”

 

“Sounds like her,” Misty quipped.

 

The doors to the Pokémon Center swooshed open and a few of them idly looked over, becoming alarmed and getting the others’ attention when they saw Pikachu rushing inside and chattering nonstop. Immediately, Raichu left her pokéball and left Lt. Surge’s side to try to calm Pikachu down. However, before anything could happen, the doors opened again and Ash revealed herself.

 

Only she was sauntering inside on all fours and purring and just what the hell is going on here –

 

“Persian?”

 

For a moment, everyone looked at Giovanni and even he had thought that his Persian had said something. But his feline pokémon wasn’t out and only deigned to leave his pokéball then, having sensed his owner’s uneasiness. And then everyone looked back at Ash, who lazily tilted her head, lifting a hand and rubbing the back of her hand against her nose.

 

“Peeerssian,” she sighed and everyone stood stock still.

 

Nurse Joy interrupted. “Is Ash imitating a Persian?”

 

“Pika Pika, Pikapi!” Pikachu burst out, wildly gesticulating with his paws.

 

Seeing Raichu and Persian becoming worried and then looking to Ash made all the others worry too, and wanting to know what was going on.

 

“How are we going to figure the heck happened, especially since Ash isn’t talking to us?” Brock gawped.

 

Ash sat on her haunches and blinked at them. “Per-Persian?”

 

“I don’t think she’s imitating or pretending to be a Persian,” someone interrupted and they saw Steven Stone of all people coming into the Pokécenter and worriedly watching Ash. “I think she really thinks she is one.”

 

“We need to head back to the hotel, since there’s more space for all of us, and we can all put our heads together and figure this out,” Oak spoke up and headed over to Ash, reaching out to nudge her to hint for her to follow them.

 

Instead, Ash reared back and actually hissed. Then she lashed out with a hand and scratched his hand!

 

Everyone was looking at her blankly, especially Oak.

“Did she just…” Oak stared.

 

“I think this is the job for the Persian Whisperer,” Misty joked, giving a glance to Giovanni, who glared back at her.

 

Persian snickered somehow and smoothly traipsed over to the human-Persian, nudging his head against hers.

 

“Persian Persian,” the feline purred out.

 

“Per-Persian,” Ash nodded and followed after Persian.

 

“So the would-be Persian follows after the actual Persian,” Lt. Surge snorted. “Makes sense. Alright, let’s head out.”

 

“Wait! When Ash gets back to normal, could you let her know that there’s a certain Charmander here that’s been insistent on wanting to see her?” Celadon Joy asked.

 

“Sure, we’ll let her know,” Norman smiled kindly at her and then they were off.

 

Giovanni’s jaw clenched, ignoring every little jab his way about Persian and Ash. They could all laugh it up.

 

Misty had disappeared with Ash for a moment, and they were all discussing what they think happened. They were pretty sure that Ash went looking for those kids or for a way to help them, and instead got herself into this predicament. Right now they were thinking of how this happened to her and how to fix it –

 

“Ta dah!” he heard Misty exclaim and he looked towards her, only to stop short (missing how the others had as well) as he saw that Ash (still acting like a Persian) had been dressed up with kitty ears and a tail. Specifically looking like a Persian’s. And looking extremely cute.

 

No. He didn’t just think that.

 

Misty started chortling, shaking her head. “Look at you guys! I didn’t know you all were a bunch of gijinka lovers! Wait until I tell Ash all about this –!”

 

“You will do no such thing!” Oak barked out, face red at the girl’s prank on them.

 

“I don’t know. I kind of really like it and maybe Ash will do it more if she knew we did,” Steven commented, casually sitting in a chair and taking picture after picture on his phone.

 

When the hell did that guy get here?

 

Apparently he wasn’t the only one, as everyone else looked confused or blank at the young man’s presence there.

 

“When did you get here?” Brock asked, while Lt. Surge said after, “Better question –why are you here?”

 

“I followed after you guys from the Pokémon Center, remember? And I’m here to help Ash.”

 

“Don’t you have a Devon Corp. demonstration to focus on here?” Giovanni scowled.

 

“Ah, no,” Steven answered blithely, still taking pictures of Ash. “I finished that a long time ago, before Ash came. I’m just waiting for Ash to move on to the next city to follow her. I rearranged my demonstration tour to follow her schedule, you see?”

 

Of course he did. Giovanni grumbled in his head, though he had already suspected it once Oak had brought it up to him and Lt. Surge about the “strange coincidences” of Steven Stone being in the same places as Ash. Obviously not a coincidence.

 

“Alright, we need to figure out what to do right now,” Giovanni took control of the situation, despite the muttered coughs of ‘Persian-gijinka present’ from Misty, or the knowing and stupid looks on some of the others towards him. “Misty and Brock will go around questioning about the kids and what happened, and have those…Harem idiots help out. Lucien and Norman, head to the police station and find out what you can from there. Prof –ah, Samuel, if you could head back to the hospital and see if you can get more information there?”

 

“What do I do?” Steven raised a hand, asking cheerily.

 

Giovanni stopped himself from twitching. “Go with Samuel,” he reluctantly growled.

 

Sir Aaron just had to pop up then, scaring the crap out of everyone at his sudden appearance. “I’m here too! I would like to help! What should I do?”

 

“Pick a group and go with them,” Giovanni deadpanned.

 

“What are you doing?” Misty asked slyly and Giovanni twitched then.

 

“I’m staying here with Ash, make sure she doesn’t get into trouble,” he said blandly.

 

“Are you sure you’re not going to just enjoy petting Ash like you pet your beloved Persian all the time?” Surprisingly, that was Norman who commented, even smirking a bit.

 

Giovanni ignored the red warmth that was growing on his cheeks. “Go on already,” he said irritably. “The sooner this is over, the sooner Ash is back to normal.”
 

Ash purred and rubbed her head against his leg, before settling herself by his feet and lying down on her front. The others began to slip out of the room, laughing and some continuing to throw jeers and teases his way about petting Ash and making sure to focus behind her ears and other stupid comments. He glared at them until they were all completely gone.

 

Then his own Persian ruined his perceived peace by turning on the radio and snickering at him full force.

 

“But I still stay ‘cause you're the only thing I know

So won't you take, oh, won't you take me home~”

 

“Oh, shut up you,” Giovanni griped, huffing about the song. But Persian stuck his tongue out at him and then sauntered over to Ash, nuzzling her cheek. “Just get back into your pokéball! She’s not even a real Persian!”

 

His Persian was laughing at him the entire time until Giovanni managed to grab his pokéball and return Persian to it. Then he plopped back onto his chair with a huff, twitching again when Ash lifted herself up and planted her head on his leg, watching him with wide eyes.

 

“Peeersian?”

 

Pikachu’s head slowly peeked out from under the room’s bed and Giovanni glowered at him. “Go hide back under there,” he snapped.

 

Pikachu pouted. “Chaaa…” but he hid back under and Giovanni closed his eyes.

 

But he felt a nose nudge against his hand and he opened them to see Ash still there and staring at him. He sighed in resignation and reluctantly reached out, rubbing the top of her head.

 

She started to purr loudly and close her eyes in pleasure, and Giovanni realized he should have just locked the room and left her in it and rushed out with the others.

 

Why the fuck didn’t he?!

 

In the end, though they managed to figure out what was wrong –a whole bunch of people from the Pokémon Lovers Fan Club had been using a Hypno to help them sleep, therefore getting the pokémon in the Center sleepy and accidentally making the kids think they were pokémon and had somehow found their way to an area in the park –Giovanni found that it was hard for him to move passed the incident. It shouldn’t really. But it did.

 

“So,” Lt. Surge interrupted, still grinning mischievously. “Enjoyed your petting time?”

 

Giovanni stubbornly looked away from him and the blond held up his hands.

 

“Okay, okay. I get it. You don’t want to talk.”

 

But he took a shuddering breath and glared resentfully at Lt. Surge. “I think it was a mistake that I stayed behind.”

 

“Oh?” Lt. Surge prodded curiously. “Does this mean you finally admit how you feel about her?”

 

Giovanni stayed absolutely quiet.

 

“Got it. You don’t want to admit to it aloud, much less to me. But you have to yourself,” Lt. Surge concluded.

 

“Where’s Ash?” he avoided answering.

 

“Ahhh…I think she said she was bored and went off to play games, especially since she’s finally released from the hospital and can’t battle Erika yet.”

 

Dread filled Giovanni as a suspicion entered him, and he excused himself to there. He knew exactly where he was going to go and hurried his way to the Celadon Game Corner, and unhappily saw that his suspicion was right.

 

There in front of one of the game slots was Ash, looking mesmerized and determined.

 

“Ash,” he quietly greeted and she tore her attention away from the slot machine.

 

“Giovanni!” she brightened up, though she took a moment to momentarily slip in a coin and pull down the lever. “What are you doing here?”

 

Feeling unnerved and upset that Ash was so drawn to here and the games, and feeling more than uncomfortable at that fact (more so when he put into account that he owned the place), Giovanni tried not to let feelings of guilt overwhelm him.

 

He remembered the song his Persian played.

 

“I’m going to take you home,” he told her softly.

 

‘I hope later on you’ll agree that I was the best mistake you ever had.’