Chapter Text
The house is in the middle of some big ol’ clearing in the woods, a couple hours walk away from the nearest city. There is, apparently, a great forest cusping the outer edges of the property, and a lake visible from the back porch.
Ash tries to take it all in with fresh eyes. The ribombee buzzing among the wildflowers and the tall grasses trailing up to his knees on either side of the worn cobbled path. He could have sworn he saw some stantler in the distance, before his approach startled them off.
Their approach. Pikachu curls into his arms, dozing, hind leg wrapped carefully in bandages. The nap isn’t surprising: the pain medication it’s been taking has a side effect of drowsiness, and the past few days has involved a lot of carrying a cranky sleepy bundle of yellow. Ash doesn’t mind: he will take a little heavy lifting over his best friend’s tight whimpers any day.
It’ll heal. That’s the important thing. All it needs is a little time and a little rest, according to Nurse Joy, and then Pikachu will be right as rain and running around just like usual.
Unfortunately, it does mean that Ash is functionally by himself upon their arrival at the house. His shoes scrape against stone and he watches, out of the corner of his eye, as a small pack of watch dogs poke their head above the grass, big eyes curious and a little wary.
Ash waves, and the heads disappear back out of view. Cobbled steps give way to worn wooden porch.
He breathes. Pikachu shifts in his arms, perking up just enough to look around at their new surroundings. Grumbling, it nudges his arms, and Ash takes it as the signal it is to move Pikachu onto his shoulders.
Then they look at the house together.
His house, soon.
(Their house, but that’s a given.)
Ash didn’t even particularly want a house originally. It’s not like he has any plans to stop his migratory habits anytime soon, especially with all his new Champion duties and the exhibition matches and becoming a Pokemon Master and all the legendary stuff. Even without all that, though, life on the road just… it suits him. And at this point, if he needs a place to stay in his various travels, he almost for sure has someone who’s willing to take him in. He’s got friends scattered around the map, and he loves stopping by to see them all, catching up and sharing strengths. Sharing growth.
The only reason- the only reason- he’s doing this is because of his pokemon: you can have more than six pokemon hanging around at a time if you own the right kind of property to house them in. Professor Oak, for all his generosity and awesomeness, lives in Kanto and sometimes Ash spends ages and ages away from his home region and then he has to make do with video calls or transferring pokemon over five at a time and-
Yeah.
So.
House.
Ash Ketchum is getting a house.
Already got it, technically. Ash had money enough- exhibition matches, so many exhibition matches - for the purchase, and Dawn had helped him find listings. Although he didn’t really understand all the paperwork, his mom did, so she had helped him out with that, and now they’re here. All there’s really left to do is get the keys from the previous owner and then he’ll finally have a place to put as a permanent address outside of his childhood home.
“Ready for this?” he murmurs, and Pikachu gingerly shifts on its bad leg, leaning forwards to spark their cheeks together. That’s a yes, then.
One step, then another. There are some scratches and scuffs on the floorboards, but everything seems solid. He’s gonna have to be careful with his fire types, though. He wonders if there’s anyway to fireproof wood. Maybe he should ask Gary.
Ash knocks on the door. Hardly a second passes before a voice comes out from within. “I’m coming, I’m coming-”
Shuffling feet against carpet, and then an older man swings the entrance wide open. He’s balding, and shorter than even Ash, and has the sort of smile on his face that invites other people to smile along with him. It’s a good sort of smile.
“Well, you must be Ash Ketchum. The name’s Kenzo, and it sure is a pleasure to meet you.” All the words come out in one long rush, dark warm eyes looking keenly into Ash’s own. But then Pikachu shifts, leaning ever so slightly closer, and all that stark attention refocuses. “Oh! And who is this sweet critter?”
“This is my partner Pikachu,” Ash says, automatic, and then his brain catches up enough for a smile of his own. “It’s nice to meet you too!”
Kenzo invites them inside, gives them a grand tour. Ash takes in the high ceilings and the worn comfortable-looking furniture and the scattered nooks and crannies. He thinks, I can work with this.
While they walk, Kenzo talks. He's getting the sense that the older man is a chatty kind of guy.
"We bought this house as a summer home, my Zowi and I. Was always a huge procession, coming out here and making everything habitable again, but she loved it, she did… a very outdoorsy person, that woman…"
Ash winces, and Pikachu shoots him a worried glance. Waving the look off, he scolds himself for not considering the fact that this sale was a result of loss. "Did she, er, did she pass away? I'm sorry if she did."
"Wha- no! No, course not, boy. Nothing so drastic as that. We got a divorce a few years ago, after our boy moved out. Realised we just didn't fit each other anymore. Got married young, thought it would last forever, you know how it is."
Ash did not. Ash really, really did not, but he tries to smile anyway. Kenzo prattles on, quite oblivious.
"Anyway, it was all quite amicable, She lives up further north, now, closer to her side of the family. Bet me I wouldn't be able to maintain the property, knew I had no green thumbs. Said I don't have the heart for it either. And what do'ya know? She was right. Owe her fifty dollars now I do…and o'course half the sale price..."
They're in some sort of drawing room. Curtains cover the windows, but Ash can imagine this place when the sun comes in. There, Lycanroc would love to stretch out long on that fern patterned couch. That corner could be made into a climbing structure of some sort. Somewhere to roost for his birds, maybe, or somewhere for Sceptile to lounge.
Ash wonders if he can grow something here. He wonders if he can plant his hands in dark soil and coax out of it something new.
Pikachu hops down from his shoulder, managing to stick a three-footed landing and proceeding to tentatively limp around the room. It sniffs at a dusty cushion, sneezes, and peers back at him as if it's somehow his fault.
"Anyway, boy, enough about me!” Kenzo says, turning on him abruptly. Ash cocks his head to show he’s listening even as he watches his best bud make his slow way across the floor back to him. “Strapping young lad like yourself, what brought you to buy my house? Hmm? Little far from the city, eh?"
Teasing. It's all just teasing. Pikachu's tail would be less jaunty if it was actually annoyed.
"I don't know," Ash says, swooping his best buddy back up into his arms, "just felt like the right time, I guess. And it's pretty out here."
And quiet, he thinks, but he doesn't say it.
For a moment, all there is between them is silence. Just breathing lungs and creaking floorboards and the world spinning round outside. Kenzo stares at him, considering, and Ash shuffles awkwardly on his feet. Unconcerned, and apparently already exhausted from its little stroll, Pikachu is halfway back to sleep.
“Well, it’s as good a reason as any. I should introduce you to Esther. You’d get along with her, I think.”
“I look forward to it,” Ash says, and then they move on to examine the bedrooms upstairs.
That night, sleeping outside because the stars were bright and calling to him, Ash breathes deep and studies the silhouette of his new house, the way it cuts out a jagged shape from the horizon. Tomorrow, the rest of his pokemon will be coming. They’ll be fixing up the greenhouse, retiling the roof. Maybe they’ll take a break to go explore the woods or swim in the lake. They’ve got time.
His mom had called him earlier, and he had shown her the grounds, the bedrooms and living rooms and the hallways in between. They had talked about plans. This is where a good roost could go. There could be a perfect place for some kind of homemade battle field. Yes, he’ll make sure to come back and visit her in Pallet Town, too.
“It’s a big house,” she had said.
“I have a lot of pokemon, mom.”
“I know, I know, honey. But won’t you get lonely? Up there all alone?”
It hadn’t been the first time she asked about his apparent loneliness, and it probably won’t be the last. She worried about him, how he sometimes went travelling without human companions. His lack of intention to settle down. She doesn’t quite get why he doesn’t date, for all that she loves him and he knows it.
Pikachu shifts, curled up on his chest. Breathes and breathes and breathes. Ash counts his buddy’s breaths and doesn’t quite understand his mom in turn. He’s never lonely. He’s got Pikachu. He’s got a whole wide world of friends who love him.
This house is set in the foundations of that love. It’s gonna be full to the brim with his pokemon whenever he’s here, and he’s ecstatic to see them more often. Brock and Misty have already made noise about coming down to visit him, helping out while they get everything set up. The probability of Team Rocket leaving a house warming gift is high.
Scrolling through his messages on his phone, he sees that Serena has invited him to her wedding, that Bonnie wants another battle and Traci has a research exhibition. Cynthia is asking about hosting a charity event. Kukui has sent him some pictures of Lei, who is getting so big and happily carrying a large litten in his arms.
Ash switches out of his messages tab and starts looking at flights. Hums, quietly, when Pikachu shifts in his other arm. Scratches behind one long yellow ear and listens to how the bandages scratch in turn against the material of the sleeping bag. In about ten minutes he’s gonna have to fish out another dose of pain meds.
But for now they lay there in the quiet and this great big world spins round. “Pikachu,” he murmurs. “I think we’re gonna be just fine.”
Pikachu’s eyes open in slits. It adjusts, reaches just far enough that it can lick the closest piece of skin, which just happens to be the underside of Ash’s chin. Croons, softly, upwards and outwards and out into the night air.
“Yeah. Yeah, bud, I love you too.”