#PalletShipping week

[inkymkk]

Palletshipping: Day 4

Got the prompts from @/shigerussato

(Repodting bc i fucked it up last time)

I personally hc Ash being like his mother, always blabbering and reminding stuff to theyre partner (or maybe child..)

[textpostmemespksp]

Meme #391

(Image description in ALT text, original images below the cut!) 

It's coincidentally palletshipping week right now! (I did not plan that!)

[palletofshipping]

alright it’s officially midnight so here’s day 2 of palletshipping week-I love you

For context: Gary and Ash have a traumatic experience during their research trip to Paldea’s area zero which results in some a confession from Ash ~accidentally~ slipping out.

As soon as they’re out of area zero, they process everything that happened including the confession, which Gary returns Ash’s feelings

[shigerussato]

PALLETSHIPPING WEEK INFO!!! PLEASE READ + (Reblogs Appreciated!!!) 

so as it’s been mentioned the past couple of days, palletshipping week 2024 is here! and these are the rules and prompts for this year! 

read carefully and please ask questions and don’t save them for last minute timing if you are participating. thank you. 🤍

DATES! :

Palletshipping Week Start Date : March 29th 

Palletshipping Week End Date : April 4th (Palletshipping Day) 

you can start posting your first fanfic whenever it is March 29th for your timezone. that writing piece must be for Day One of palletshipping week. so please post these as the chronological order i have organized them. 

POSTINGS/TAGS : 

When posting your fanfics PLEASE specify that it’s for palletshipping week! weather mentioning it on a note or tag under “Palletshipping Week” 

When posting your writing pieces you have two options : 

You may make this as a chapter book, example “Day One - Chapter 1 etc etc.” 

Second Option you may make it as a ‘Series’ Ao3 users you may be familiar with associating a fic to another as a part of a series so that’s a second option! 

other writing platforms are welcome, but since i only use Ao3 i don’t have familiarity with how others work so as you’d like to organize on other platforms is up to your preferences and knowledge. 

When posting your fanfics please specify the fanfics as Ex: “Day One - Childhood Memories” you may just title it with the topic you chose to do for that fanfic. 

NOTE : your fanfics do not have to be named after the specific day topic you may make your own title but just specify (as mentioned) that it’s an entry for palletshipping week and the day the fanfic is associated for. 

ALSO! : you are NOT obligated to do all seven days only the topics you’d like to write for! 

OTHER INFO :

to promote your fics on here or other social media platforms you may use the tag “palletshipping week” to do so. 

ARTISTS ARE ALLOWED ! 

these topics aren’t only potential for fics but art as well ! so feel free to post and tag under “palletshipping week” and specify the days the art is for. 🤍 

i will be reblogging and sharing fics, art, edits that are made for palletshipping week!

NOTE : 

everyone and anyone who loves palletshipping is allowed to participate. you don’t need to be following me, be moots with me or any way associated with me. you’re allowed to have fun and do this if you’d like, me being the organizer has nothing to do with you not being able to do so. 

feel free to ask questions under this post, inbox or dm’s! thank you and have fun with this, i’m very excited!! 🤍🤍

Topics Listed Below : 

art link

[rgbyshipper101]

Happy Palletshipping Week!

Day 7: AU Free Day

AU is instead of being rivals and at each other’s throats, they’re still best friends and are crushing on each other.

This is a redraw of this:

[savebatsfromscratch]

Oh be serious Gary - Palletshipping Week 3 (Jealousy)

Summary:

Gary runs into Ash after his Orange Islands journey. Unfortunately, Ash’s new walking partner is there too.

Notes:

Prompt: Jealousy This hurt me to write. I LOVE Tracey and Tracey x Ash, and I think Gary and Tracey would be besties, but if I see whump I write whump. >:) Cws: Canon divergence, jealousy, angst with no happy ending, suggestive joke Words: 2,024 (HA)

Ao3 link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/54853867

As Gary watched the two traveling partners laugh, he felt something not so unexpected suddenly burn in his chest. Hot, hot jealousy. Furious enough to even rival the flaring fire that was shooting through the fangs of his rival’s Chrizard. Now tall and shining, the creature could have easily surpassed almost any of Gary’s own Pokemon, and he knew it.

Gary hadn’t seen Ash in quite a while now, and though it was clear that he must have spent some time training his annoyingly tough looking Charizard into one that actually obeyed, Gary wasn’t naive enough to think that that was the only thing he’d been spending his time doing. Gary’s hands balled up into fists as he watched Ash lean against that new traveling partner, practically begging to get punched as the two rubbed their shoulders together. (As usual, Ash had to stand on his tiptoes to even reach.)

Who did this new guy think he was, anyway?! Happily parading around the Kanto region with Gary’s rival as if they’d been the ones to promise forever rivalry to each other. As if they’d been the ones starting as “friends” from the start.

Gary ducked behind a tree to watch as the small group made their way away from the dock and headed towards the more traditional route to Pallet town. Misty was lagging behind slightly as she played with a very excitable looking Togepi. (Had Gary seen it before? Ash had been away for so long he could hardly remember. And, besides, even if he had, their meetings even before Ash’s rendezvous in the Orange Islands had been getting so few and far between that Gary had probably spent as much of the most recent one as he could just eying up his rival.)

Had he really known what it would mean when Ash went to the Orange League without him? Why hadn’t he gone along for the ride?

Gary narrowed his eyes as Ash hugged the new guy, burying his face in the green shirt of his walking partner like no one else at all was around. Maybe “ride” was a more appropriate descriptor than Gary had hoped.

He inched a little closer as the two stopped, waiting for a moment for Misty to catch up with them.

“Glad she didn’t see that,” Ash’s friend was whispering out of the corner of his mouth, “What was it that you said she did whenever Brock would flirt?”

Ash laughed, and though it was a clear and happy sound, Gary just felt sick to his stomach. Brock? Had he too been an option for Ash before Gary was? (And if so, why should he be so surprised about it? He just had to look at what he was seeing to understand a whole new side to Ash.)

“Tracey!” (so that was his name) Ash shook his head, “Brock was so much worse than you, and she never slapped him for flirting with me,” he paused, though the blood that pounded in Gary’s ears made his next words near unhearable, “At least as far as I saw…”

“Guys!” Misty called, running the last couple of steps to reach her friends, “Where are we going next?”

“Professor Oak’s Lab, right?” Ash said, somewhat unsure. He paused, and Gary suddenly realized that his cheating rival was thinking about him as he added, “There’s people I want to see there,”

“Professor Oak?” Tracey interrupted, his voice so full of wonder and excitement that Gary actually felt ill. This Tracey guy was even worse than Gary had first assumed. Gary rolled his eyes as Tracey continued to ramble about supposed “great feats” of research that the Professor had accomplished. If he was really any lover of Ash, he should have known that one of the only really commendable things Professor Oak did that hadn’t been done before or better by another researcher was his constant cheering on of Ash. (To tell the truth, Gary had recently been finding more and more respect in what his grandfather did for a living, but the childish excitement of this green haired nobody was quickly erasing those feelings. Such weak wonders paled under the crushing weight of Gary’s jealousy.)

“Should we fly there then, if you’re so excited to see him?” Ash laughed, gesturing to his Charizard, who looked like he was thoroughly enjoying being back in the forests of the mainland. Ash paused, and Gary would have been stupid to miss a hint of longing in his voice, as he said, “He’s the grandfather of my first rival, you know.”

First rival, was that all he was? (At the very least, Gary could be glad that Tracey stiffened with a hint of his own jealousy at that.)

“Oh yeah, Ash,” Misty interrupted, either not noticing Tracy’s discomfort or ignoring it, “Have you been keeping in touch with Gary?”

There was a quick, awkward pause, which Ash tried (and failed) to cover by picking up Pikachu. “Um,” he struggled, while Gary scoffed to himself. Of course he hadn’t. “Well-,”

“Ash!” Misty gasped, somewhat appalled, though to Gary’s displeasure Tracey looked downright relieved. 

That couldn’t possibly do. In a split second, Gary knew what he had to do. Even if it protected his unreliable rival, so long as he made Tracey upset, he was happy.

“Of course he did!” Gary interrupted Misty right before she began one of her tirades, stepping out of the trees and smirking at Ash, who looked somewhere between nauseous and relieved to see him. “Didn’t you, Ashy boy?”

Honestly, even he couldn’t tell if his tone was threatening or flirty, but either way it seemed to work, at least, if Tracey’s unconscious hiss was any indication of how he was feeling.

“Were you listening in on us?!” Tracey asked, almost accusingly, “Is that why you come up so much? Because you might be behind us?”

Gary narrowed his eyes, but his smirk did not falter. He was liking this guy less and less by the second, clearly he had been right in popping up to annoy him. And as for Ash…

Gary turned to his rival, completely ignoring the question as he drank in the expression of utter embarrassment on Ash’s face. Oh yes, this was what he lived for.

“I’m glad to see you again!” He said cheerily, pulling Ash into a hug that copied the way Ash and Tracey had embraced before. (To his surprise, Ash actually hugged back, and though it was faint, Gary’s face twitched in surprise. Despite everything, it truly seemed that Ash really had wanted to see Gary again.)

Gary pulled back, suddenly unsure.

“Do you need a guide?” he asked, and then, once he realized how pathetically unsure he sounded, he added, “You were away for so long I thought you might have forgotten the way to my place,”

Ash made an awful whimpering sound, and Gary felt his smirk widen even further, even as Misty scoffed and interrupted him.

“Oh be serious Gary,” she said (Gary turned to see that her hand was resting comfortingly on Tracey’s shoulder), “Any Pallet Trainer worth their starter knows the way to the lab, and besides…” She narrowed her eyes, “You don’t even live there, you’re a trainer like the rest of us,”

Gary opened his mouth to speak, looking on as one of Tracey’s hands twitched slightly, but Ash grabbed Gary’s shoulder, catching him off guard as he dug his fingernails in. “Um,” he interrupted, “Excuse us,”

Before Gary could even protest, Ash was dragging him away and into the woods, leaving the sounds of Tracey mumbling in shock and Misty quietly comforting him behind them.

Once they were relatively out of earshot, Ash spun around and glared up at Gary. He felt his heart skip a beat, while Gary had grown in the time Ash had taken on the Orange League, Ash had not, but even so, the anger in his now black eyes made Gary take a shocked step back.

“What is wrong with you?!” He spat, though Gary just stared back at him, shocked, “Do you think everything is about you? Who do you think you are?! You don’t own me you know!”

Gary opened his mouth, but no sound came out. He closed it again.

“Answer me, come on,” Ash commanded, still angry, “I know how smart you are, I know you have an answer, so give it to me!”

Gary tried again, but again nothing came out. Cold wind rustled through the trees.

“Gary…” Ash said, surprising Gary with a sudden shift into pleading, “Please…”

“I-,”

Ash looked up at him, his eyes faded back from coal black to soft brown. Gary swallowed hard. He had to say it. There was no way around it.

“I- I love you,”

His words hung in the air like an awful smell, Ash’s eyes widened as their color darked again.

Gary’s heart sped up. He wasn’t wanted here. He had to get out of here. He turned, hot tears suddenly threatening to spill down his face, but Ash’s voice stopped him. Quiet at first, and then growing louder and more confident as he went on.

“You know,” he murmured, “I never could forget you,”

“Oh come on Ash,” Gary could tell that he was pleading as he spoke, but he didn’t care, “Don’t lie to me, you don’t have to-,”

“No, I mean it,” Ash said, almost scared, but more confident now, “I was only out of the region for a year, but I never stopped thinking about you,” He began to pace, twigs crunching and cracking up his feet, “I know it’s not right, but I can’t help it,”

He stopped, and there was a pause as the distant roar of Ash’s Charizard echoed through the woods. Pikachu purred as Ash scratched behind his ears, clearly trying to calm himself down more than he was working to quiet the little yellow Pokemon.

“What about Tracey?” Gary whispered, dreading the answer.

Ash stopped petting Pikachu, and closed his eyes like looking at Gary hurt him. “I think I love him,” he said, voice shaky and weak again, “But you- I-,”

He stopped.

“I what?” Gary breathed, stepping forward and reaching up, stopping right before grabbing Ash’s hand, “What do you mean?”

Ash’s voice was still shaking when he finally responded.

“I think I love you too,” His eyes were pleading.

Gary’s hand dropped to his side. His mind racing and spinning through emotions and memories. Anger? Jealousy? Relief? Joy? What was he feeling?

What was he feeling?

“So. What now? What now that you’re back here?” Gary asked, his voice now so soft that it surprised even him, “Back in Kanto, what will you do?”

Ash took in a shaky breath, and brushed a hand through his hair. “I want to keep adventuring, I have more league to win,”

“With Tracey?” Gary breathed

“He said he wants to stay,”

“With where?”

“I don’t know,”

“Will you go with me?”

“You’re my rival, I can’t do that,”

Gary bit his lip. How had this become so complicated?

“So what are you going to do?” He asked, fearing an answer for the second time that conversation, “Traveling alone isn’t safe,”

“I don’t know,” Ash was almost whispering, looking at the forest floor with sad eyes. His gaze hardened, and the brown left his eyes once more. “But it can’t be without you, you know that,”

Gary froze, though he’d known it was coming. “Ash, please,” He reached out, but Ash brushed his hand away.

“Come on Pikachu,” Ash murmured, not meeting Gary’s eyes as he began to walk away, “Let’s get back to the others,”

Gary’s knees shook as he watched him go. What was going on? He couldn't just leave like that! It had been so long since they had seen each other, this couldn't be their reunion, there was no way! But Ash's words rang in Gary's head. “You don't own me,” he had said.

He knew that, didn't he? 

Didn't he?

This time, Gary waited until Ash was out of earshot before he crumpled to his knees and began to cry.

Notes:

Palletshipping angst save me… Save me Palletshipping angst…

[wallflower-koharu]

I couldn't do that much for Palletshipping week, but here is an edit I made ^^

[pikawrites]

think i might be going crazy

[deamsgirl]

Title: Sore Loser (1/1)

Fandom: Pokemon

Pairing: Ash/Gary

Summary: For Palletshipping Week, Day One: Childhood Memories/Rivalry/Bickering/Teasing

“Honestly, I’m kind of surprised Gramps never told me off for vandalizing the local route markers.”

“Yeah, ya always did like to leave me notes,” Ash says, the roll of his eyes belied by the fondness in his voice. “Used to piss me off like ya wouldn’t believe.”

Gary snorts. “That was the point, Ashy.”

[inkymkk]

Palletshipping: Day 7 (last day)

Got the prompts from @/shigerussato

Oh? A free au day? Yeah Fuck it, Makes an animation,

Yes on flipaclip (im still new to this bs anf i made it in like 2 days so not the best but okay!)

Not sure if this counts.. Btw its like Au-Ash (from journeys, Gary is just made up here) ETP Ash and Gary (mangaa) and Eevee Gary and Pichu Ash (they evolve..)

Err goodnight!!

[summerandfall]

Palletshipping Week 2023 Day 1: childhood memories

Gary misses his own grandfather's pokemon camp twice. Both of them feel bad about it, but no worries, Ash has the perfect idea to cheer him up.

He groggily rubs at his blurry eyes, trying to find Ash in the dimness of his bedroom. When he finds him, he squints at how Ash is fully dressed in his hoodie and sneakers. “What…? Ash?” “Wake up, come on! Get ready!” “Huh, why?” “Go on an adventure with me!”

// finally got around to writing palletshipping yay! happy palletshipping week!

[palletofshipping]

palletshipping week day 1- moving in together!

First night in 😴

It always feels nice sleeping after moving into your first home together :)

[shigerussato]

💌 – PALLETSHIPPING WEEK 2024 !!!!!!! (read below!) – REBLOGS APPRECIATED !!!!!

seems to me that palletshipping week 2024 is for sure happening! i am accepting submissions for ideal prompts for this year. i would like to seek different prompts for this year but something that still is ideal for shigesato. here’s below i will provide some ideas i have so far, i will make changes if anything better comes up but for now thsi si what i got. 🤗

–how to submit prompt ideas! :

comment down below of this post

inbox this account

by dm

– prompts so far!! :

Telling Professor Oak/Delia or (both) about their relationship. 

Coming Home 

Domestic/Sickness/Cooking/Sharing Favorite Food! 

[rgbyshipper101]

Palletshipping Week 2023

Day 2: Realization of Feelings/ First Kiss/First Date/ Firsts Of Firsts!

[garyandash-trash]

PALLETSHIPPING WEEK FIC PART 2!! Love these two idiots

[savebatsfromscratch]

Hockey Watching - Palletshipping Week 1 (Roommates)

Summary:

Gary and Ash watch a hockey game together. (Au notes in final note in ao3 version, I put them at the top in this one.)

Notes:

Prompt: Roommates Note: The first thing I went to was watching a Hockey game together. …for some reason. I kinda made up my own Pokemon world teams, but feel free to imagine your favorite team I guess. (Though if it’s not the Sabers I don’t want you here. /light hearted) Also, for the record, they’re kind of American coded in this one. Whoops. I apologize for this look into my mind. Cws: Surprise kiss, sort of nonsensical writing Words: 1,791

End Notes:

…dude this is such a mess. (<- did not even try to edit it.)   Here’s a fun secret, I headcannon Blake (from Pokemon Adventures) as a Hockey player, and I made his number his dexholder number! :D I also headcannon Jun (from Pokemon Diamond and Pearl Adventure) as a Hockey player, and I made his number “3” because he has three total pokemon lol. I also put Hareta (from the same series) on his team and made him number “1” because that’s the number of my favorite Sabers goalie. :3 I also Headcannon Barry and Jun as triplets (the third being Pearl from Pokemon Adventures.) I also had to make up a last name for both Jun and Blake. For Jun I gave him “Aemilius,” because I went the roman route and it “was originally derived from the Latin word aemulus, which referred to equal or rival.” (iGENEA) And I gave Blake Rasmussen because it starts with an “r” sound and so does his Japanese name AND Rasmussen would look SICK on a Hockey jersey.

Ao3 link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/54803911

Prompts from here: @/shigerussato

Fic under the cut!

Gary plopped down on the couch in front of the already flickering TV, one hand clutched around a large can of some gross thing that Delia had bought them, and the other clinging desperately to an overfilled bowl of chicken wings. Already on the couch, Ash laughed and turned up the volume on the TV with the remote that he had apparently located. (Last time Gary had checked in, the two of them had been pretty sure that that thing was gone for good.)

“Is the game on yet?” He asked, setting the huge cup down on the coffee table (and releasing a short prayer that it wouldn’t spill) as he looked up at the current rush of ads across the television screen, “Who’s winning?”

Ash giggled and got halfway through a, “Not yet Oak,” before stopping and realizing that something was still missing from their Hockey watching spree. “Um, you did get us napkins, right?”

Gary looked around himself, and though he saw Ash’s fingerless glove clad hand already covered in Buffalo sauce, hovering unsurely about the rest of the chicken wings, he saw no napkins. “Oh dang it,” He let out an exasperated cry and smacked a hand to his forehead, “I forgot them in the other room, here, I’ll get them-,”

He went to stand, but all of a sudden the announcer sprang to life before them.

“Welcome to today’s game of Hockey,” he was saying, voice strong and accented like an old radio star, and speaking just as fast, “We’ve got a very interesting match up today,”

The second announcer interrupted, sounding just as excited as the first, “Thankfully for the Snowpoint Legends, it seems that number 3, Jun Aemilius, is back on the ice, after his injury on Wednesday we were getting worried that he might not be able to make it to the next game, but it seems the medics came through!”

“And based on today’s lineup for the Icirrus Truths, the Legends may have really needed the return. I mean, ever since number 16, Blake Rasmussen, was traded into the team from the Castelia Ideals, the Truths have been rising in power across the league,”

“However, the new goalie for the Legends, number 1, Hareta Rowan, might be able to match Rasmussen’s intensity,”

“Do you know who they’re talking about?” Gary whispered to Ash, who seemed to have given up on napkins and was instead licking his fingers clean. (Seeing this, he quickly flushed red and looked back to the screen, pretending to be looking for clues there, though he hoped Ash would not guess the true reason for his newfound focus. …though it wouldn’t have been a problem if he had known.)

“Number three for the Legends is triplets with one of my rivals from when I was in Sinnoh,” Ash commented, watching as the camera tracked after a very attractive blond offensive player as if it was a totally normal comment to make to his current rival.

Gary suddenly reached for a can on the table, suddenly realizing that his throat felt dry. 

“None of that,” Ash waved his hands back and forth, flinging a speck or two of leftover sauce into Gary’s face, “I still love you the most,” he looked down at the cans, “Plus, those are non-alcoholic,”

Gary put his head in his hands, laughing. Had Ash assumed he had been trying to get drunk? “I’m just thirsty Ash,” he said, “and you reminded me of what your mom bought us,”

Ash made a face, studying the cans critically, “I wouldn’t suggest trying those, they’re probably flavored, like, pumpkin pie or crayons or something,”

Gary studied the can in the brightness of the ice from the screen. “The first one,” he told Ash, making a face, “Pumpkin pie seltzer, are you kidding me? Where does she even get them?”

“The Viridian Pokemart I think,” Ash said, snuggling a bit closer to Gary under the guise of checking out the ingredients of the strange drink.

“Why would she go all the way to Viridian to get-,” Gary cut himself off as the game suddenly kicked into action on the screen in front of them. Ash too sat up, suddenly on the edge of his seat as the puck rushed from player to player, currently held by the Truths. Gary glanced over at Ash’s face, noticing that he didn’t look super happy about that fact. 

“Soo…” Gary tried, now his turn to scoot closer, “Are we rooting for the Legends?”

“Would you want to root for a team from Unova?”

“Fair point,”

The two sat together, watching as the action moved from player to player, occasional crashes and shrieks coming up from the players as they crashed together and into various metal walls. Gary found himself leaning forward and hissing in anticipation as the puck shot towards the goal on their side, but joined Ash in whooping when the (apparently not-so-rookie) goalie expertly blocked the shot, catching it under his glove and sending up cheers among the crowd on his side of the stadium.

Ash grabbed Gary’s arm and shook him, as if Gary had watched more than a couple of games before to understand quite what that meant for his team. “Did you see that?!” He asked, sounding almost as excited as he always had before their battles, “That was so cool!”

The fact that Gary didn’t quite understand the game did not stop him from sharing Ash’s excitement. (Though he suspected that was more due to the fact that his rival was all but climbing into his lap in nervous joy about the game.)

“Yeah,” Gary said, watching somewhat in awe as the players sped from side to side in the advertisement lined rink.

They continued to watch like that, whooping as number three on their team managed a goal and hissing as 16, Blake, on the other side finally managed one of his own. At one point, their hands met in the chicken wing bowl, and of course Ash couldn’t help but joke that it was the most affectionate they’d been since getting back to Pallet together. (Gary shoved him off his shoulder and laughed it off, but the entire next period passed before he was done blushing about it.)

Advertisements passed as Gary left to refill the snacks, and he found himself grinning with the draw to watch the game as he saw it starting up again.

“You have to admit that this is just as interesting as watching a Pokemon battle,” Ash said, between bites of chicken wing, looking expectantly up at Gary.

“And nowhere near as irritating,” Gary added, breaking off in the middle of his sentence to take a large sip of pumpkin pie seltzer. (Which was honestly even more interesting than Delia had advertised it as being.) “I’m not there picking through every mistake they make,”

They both cringed as, number three, the forward on the team they had decided to root for just barely missed an easy shot.

“For the most part anyway,” Gary corrected

“For the most part anyway,” Ash laughed, agreeing with him.

They looked forward, and the game went back into that comfortable blur as the announcers led the cheers (or boos) as players entered and left the ice. (Though Gary found himself realizing that the two rivals were getting oddly close again as the final period began to wrap up. Even if the “close together” in question was more like, “just about falling off the couch with how focused they were on the flashing screen,”)

They cheered as their goalie blocked yet another would-have-been goal, and then cheered even louder as their team managed to actually complete a goal of their own. They were back in the lead by one, and with only a couple of seconds remaining on the clock, and a major player of the Truths out for misconduct earlier in the match, it was looking good.

“Comeon comeon,” Ash muttered, his fingers digging into Gary’s shoulders as he leaned even further forward, “Just hold the goal for one more-,”

“No!” They both shrieked, watching as their goalie, the one named like his region’s professor, was knocked to the ground by an opposing player, allowing the puck to sail cleanly into the net behind him.

Making the game tied, and sending it into overtime as Ash jolted to his feet, taking two large steps forward and echoing the announcer as he yelped. “How was that not an illegal move!”

Gary stood and walked to meet him, but found his eyes similarly glued to the screen as the teams reset for the tie breaking move. In his still lacking understanding of the game, he couldn’t quite tell what was happening, but the energy in the crowd (and in Ash), was enough to tell him that, whatever it was, it was seriously interesting.

He squinted at the glowing ice, and then found himself jumping up and down as he spotted number three dragging the puck forward and towards the opposing goal. He was moving like lightning, skirting around nearly every other player as he raced for the win.

Ash and Gary watched in slow motion as 16, Blake, from the other team fought to catch up with Jun, and cheered as he crashed into a defenseman from his own team, clearly still at least a little shaken up from his apparent injury on Wednesday as the two skidded across the ice together, their balance lost.

It happened so fast that Gary almost missed it, but the puck banged against the net and the stadium exploded. Even with the TV on low volume, Gary truly felt like he was among the screaming fans as Ash jumped up and down beside him. Clapping his hands together and shivering in excitement. To Gary, the sight was almost funny, but as he opened his mouth to say something about it, he found himself the one taken aback as Ash jumped up and kissed him.

They hung that way for a moment, Gary feeling like he was floating in sudden joy as Ash’s arms wrapped briefly around his shoulders, only to be dragged back away again as his friend suddenly pulled back, face bright red.

“Oh I-,” he tried to explain himself, “I didn’t mean to-,”

Gary’s face was definitely bright red, but he didn’t care. “Well,” he said, grabbing Ash’s hands and leaning forward, “Do it again and I might think about coming back for the next game,” 

He smirked as Ash stuttered out a sudden, “I love you,” right before Gary pulled them back into a kiss as the cheers of the crowd echoed through the dark room. 

(Even if their mouths tasted like buffalo chicken wings and pumpkin pie seltzer.)