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It’s really not a big deal, he thinks, trying to mop up the water with some paper towels. It is an endeavor he very quickly abandons once he realizes how hopeless it is to clean up a mild case of flooding with paper.
So, he has to solve this some other way. Does Professor Kukui have a bucket? He could always scoop the water and pour it out on the sand. And if they don’t have a bucket, he can use a bowl. Except that will probably take hours and while Ash doesn’t really see a problem with that, water damages wood, probably, and he doesn’t want to damage Professor Kukui’s floors.
If he does, of course, he will just pay to have them replaced, but that is a big job and Professor Kukui will probably want to have a normal house by the time he gets back.
No biggie, then, right? Surely there must be people who know how to deal with this sort of situation.
Suddenly, Ash remembers the time that Team Rocket had this elaborate plan of pretending to be plumbers to get Pikachu, somehow. He doesn’t remember the details of most of their plans, seeing as they’ve happened nearly every day for the past several years. What he does remember is that it blew up in their face, eventually, but he was surprised at how good they were at plumbing.
They really are good at everything they disguise themselves as. Really, Ash thinks, Team Rocket would be able to make a nice living if they just tried their hand - for real - at any of the things they pretended to be. They do it here, it seems, with the malasadas. Ash hadn’t recognized them at first but then Pikachu did; it’s not like they were doing anything bad, anyway, and Ash likes to encourage them when they engage in non-criminal behavior.
Anyway. So Ash thinks that Team Rocket will probably know what to do.
He doesn’t have a way to contact them from the house, which means that he will have to go and find them, and hopefully they are where he thinks they are. Otherwise, this will turn into a process long enough to probably irreparably damage the floors, if it hasn’t already.
Oh, well. Here goes.
Team Rocket is exactly where he thought they would be, and he tries to sweeten the deal by buying some extra malasadas. “So, guys…” he starts, and they immediately get this sort of long-suffering look on their faces and Jessie says “What did you do this time, Twerp?”
He explains the situation to them and Meowth starts laughing very hard. Jessie looks pretty exasperated and James is staring at Ash with this look that Ash can’t quite figure out the meaning of.
Meowth refuses to help, at first, saying that maybe this is what will make Professor Kukui finally kick Ash out of the house, but then James convinces the two of them to help out. “Come on, guys,” he says, encouragingly. “I’m sure the Twerp has some way to repay us, right?”
And, honestly, Ash thinks that they owe him for how many times they have tried to kidnap Pikachu and his other pokemon and sometimes even him (looking at you, Indigo League), but they like to think they’re real bad guys and so they won’t do it without any sort of payment, even if they will definitely feel bad tonight, and so Ash tells them that of course he will pay them. Besides. He wants to support their non-criminal behavior.
And so he leaves, extra malasadas in hand, as they close down shop and prepare. He’s finished with them by the time he gets back to the house, and his pants had just started to dry and now they are all wet again, but it’s okay because now he has a solution.
He’s wading through the water trying to figure out how to help the situation when Professor Kukui comes through the door, blinks at the fact that his feet are now wet, and stares back up at Ash.
Professor Kukui is kind of confusing, Ash thinks. He says weird stuff that doesn’t really make sense, but Ash kind of assumes that there are a lot of things about settled life he doesn’t understand, so he trusts Professor Kukui on this. Besides, he’s a teacher, and teachers know lots of stuff.
Well, except for the fact that sometimes you just gotta do stuff to learn about it, rather than having a book teach you about it. Books are stupid, sometimes, but Ash is the one who chose to go to school, and most of the time Professor Kukui is real great at making learning fun, so Ash can excuse it.
So, he messed it up by trying to put too much in. Oops. Well, what’s done is done. When is Team Rocket getting here, anyway?
Professor Kukui looks strange. He’s got this weird expression on his face that looks kind of like he stubbed his toe and is trying hard to hide it. He’s looking intensely at Ash and the eye contact is almost so much Ash has to look away. But it’s fine, anyway. Professor Kukui is great. If a little strange. Not that Ash would ever say anything like that, of course not. Even he knows that is rude.
The weirdest thing is, though, that Professor Kukui really loves doing laundry.
They’re leaving the house when Team Rocket finally comes, dressed for the job and arms full of supplies. Jessie winks at him and he smiles, thanking them the best way he knows how, and he trusts that they’ll fix it, somehow.
Really. Team Rocket is amazing.
Professor Kukui takes him out to dinner and won’t really stop staring at him the whole way through. He looks really - confused, concerned, maybe? But he doesn’t look very angry or worried about the house, anyway, which is good because he shouldn’t, since Ash is fixing it. Anything that can be fixed shouldn’t be worried about.
He doesn’t end up eating much of his food, so concerned with watching Ash as he is. But they get through the dinner nonetheless, and Ash tells him about training, and he’s smiling by the time they leave, so Ash counts it as a win.
By the time they’re back, the water’s gone. The floors are replaced, and Professor Kukui is silent except for a desperate “How???” and Ash makes sure to give Team Rocket a very generous tip.