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writing-through-the-snow · 4 days ago

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Diodeshipping pet shelter au final snippet

Since Clemont is forced to fulfill volunteer hours in order to graduate he is forced to spend a portion of his time after school every day volunteering at some lab named Professor Oak’s Ranch against his will. Along the way he becomes friends with Ash, the recent transfer student who got into Lumiose Prep on a track scholarship. Who also turns out to have the hobby of training animals to compete in obedience and agility competitions, and is trying his hardest to befriend the grumpiest, most destructive cat Clemont has ever seen, named Pikachu. This leads to Clemont gaining a group of friends, a new hobby, and maybe even a crush.

____

It took a week of after school studying, either going straight to Clemont's house and studying until an hour or two before Clemont's father comes home. Or on the days Clemont has to go to the shelter to work, after his shift is over heading straight to Ash's house where they'll study until it's nearly time for dinner at Clemont's house, and Ash will walk Clemont home.

Surprisingly, after the first day at the shelter there were only a couple questions about where Ash was. Apparently Brock, Tracey, and Misty, a friend from another shelter that used to work at this branch, thought Ash was dead if he didnt show up.

Which, well, fair. That would be Clemont's thought if Ash just suddenly stopped showing up to the shelter, but after Clemont explained Brock just rolled his eyes.

“We always told him he should get his grades up, otherwise he'd be grounded from the shelter sooner or later.” Brock shakes his head with an eye roll.

Clemont had explained that as long as Ash does well on the chemistry test on friday, he should be back to the shelter on monday.

The shelter days were mostly fine, though a little more chaotic now that Ash isn't there to keep the animals in line. Clemont didn't realize half of the things Ash does to keep the shelter running, how has Ash not dropped from exhaustion by now? And Pikachu has been an absolute menace, in a perpetual bad mood when Ash isn't the one to step through the doors of the shelter.

Pikachu has made more attempts to escape that week than any other week since Clemont has joined the shelter. There's been a few close calls with animal control nearly getting to Pikachu before they did, and Clemont may or may not have had to shove Pikachu into his backpack as he anxiously talked with the animal control people, Jessie and James, as they pestered him about where Pikachu was.

Thankfully, Pikachu wasn't picked up by Rocket Animal Control. Ash was already stressed out of his mind about getting his chemistry grade up and not being able to go to the shelter to help. If he found out how close Pikachu has gotten to being picked up by animal control and shipped off to another shelter where he wouldn't be able to find Pikachu, he might have broken his grounding to race over to the shelter, more punishment be damned.

But despite the slightly more stressful week, Ash was a bundle of nerves come Monday, as it was the day their test grades come back. If Ash gets at least an 85 his grade will be bumped up enough he can head back to the shelter on Tuesday, any lower and he's going to have to wait at least another two weeks for another chance.

Clemont, to be honest, was just as anxious as Ash. He knew his grade was fine, chemistry isn't his favorite subject, but it's not as bad as foreign languages. But he definitely wanted to see Ash do his best and get to go back to the shelter.

So he waits with bated breath, sneaking glances at Ash from across the room. Clemont got a 95, like he expected. But he watches as Ash's knee starts bouncing much faster as the teacher slowly makes his way to his side of the room.

Clemont offers Ash a little reassuring smile when they lock eyes, Ash gives a shaky smile back, before the teacher gets to Ash and he straightens up. The teacher places his test on his desk and immediately Ash snatches it up, looking at the score. The teacher moves on and Clemont watches Ash's reaction, holding his breath.

Ash's shoulders slump as he looks at Clemont sadly. Clemont;s own shoulders droop, Ash didn't make the cut. But thats okay, they can study extra hard for the next two weeks, maybe Clemont can make his lessons a little more visual, maybe make models-

Clemonts thought process is cut off as Ash suddenly bursts into a grin, turning the test so Clemont can see the 89/100 marked in red ink on the corner of his paper.

“What!?” Clemont squeaks, freezing as it comes out louder than he meant to and he directs eyes to him. He shrinks down a bit in his seat, bright red at the accidental shout, until he feels the eyes leave him, and he looks back at Ash.

Ash is looking at him with incredibly bright eyes, a triumphant smile on his face. Clemont beams back at Ash, proud of him. Clemont doesn't get much done that class, frequently glancing over at Ash to look at that proud smile again and again.

Oftentimes accidentally making eye contact with Ash, who looks like he's about to burst if the bell doesn't ring soon.

When the bell eventually does ring, Ash actually jumps over his desk to get to Serena and Clemont's desk quicker. Earning Ash quite a harsh glare from their teacher but he pays it no mind.

“I did it! I got an 89!” Ash grins victorious, showing Clemont and Serena his test. Which did say 89/100.

“That's great!” Serena immediately says, standing to give Ash a hug immediately, her cheeks a little pink at the action.

Ash is bouncing on his toes excitedly, making the hug Serena gave a little tough. Clemont thinks Ash's cheeks might split from how wide he's smiling. Though Clemont is sure he doesn't look much better.

“We should do something to celebrate!” Serena suggests, “how about ice cream?”

Clemont stands packing his bag to start walking to his next class as Ash enthusiastically agrees.

“Clemont, you're gonna come too, right?” Ash asks, looking at Clemont with puppy dog eyes.

“Well…” Clemont does want to, but he should probably be home in time for Bonnie to come home to make her a snack, even though his dad should be home in time to do it.

And, Clemont glances over at Serena, who was smiling politely. Serena probably wants this to be a date. And Clemont doesn't want to intrude on that.

But… how could Clemont say no to Ash's face, who was looking at him eagerly.

“I don't know…” Clemont says, trying his hardest to turn it down, but when Ash frowns and tilts his head his resolve crumples completely.

“I couldn't celebrate without you though…” Ash pouts, “I wouldn't have done it without you.”

“Okay.” Clemont agrees, knowing he couldn't turn it down now, “I'll go.”

Ash beams at him, and Clemont feels his ears grow a little warm. But soon Ash realizes that they were about to be late for their next class, and he runs out of the room, waving excitedly.

“See you after school!” he says happily, and Clemont waves back with a fond chuckle.

He finishes packing up his stuff, before he notices Serena staring at him with slightly narrowed eyes.

“What?” Clemont blinks, a little uncomfortable. Was she mad at him for not turning down coming with them so Serena could go on a “date” with Ash?

Serena shakes her head, her smile coming back to her face.

“It's nothing,” she says genuinely, and walks with him to their next class, which they happen to share.

____

After school Clemont waits outside the gate for Serena and Ash, ignoring the weird looks he gets for holding some materials for a new invention. His engineering teacher let him bring some home, with the caveat that whatever he makes he has to bring back to school so his teacher could check out whatever he's made. His engineering teacher was always supportive of his inventions. His home is on the way to the ice cream parlor, so he can quickly pop in, drop off his stuff, and make Bonnie a snack, before heading to the ice cream parlor.

He perks up as he sees Ash and Serena coming out of the school, Ash dragging Serena by the wrist as he runs out to catch up with Clemont. Serena laughs brightly as she runs behind Ash, trying to keep up with him while he's excited.

Clemont laughs, shaking his head waving at Ash. When Ash makes it over to Clemont, Serena has to take a second to breath while Ash bounces excitedly.

“I thought you ditched us!” Ash grins, Clemont shakes his head, a fond smile on his face.

“Never.” he says, because him? Ditching Ash? That's just funny.

“Do you mind if we stop by my house so I can drop off my stuff and make an afternoon snack for my sister?” he asks, and Ash of course nods happily.

“Sure! I'd love to get to see Luxray again!” Ash agrees, and Serena nods next to him.

“You have a pet too?” Serena asks, Clemont nods.

“Yeah, a cat. Though at this rate I think if Ash keeps coming over Luxray will be Ash's pet more than mine.” Clemont nudges Ash's shoulder as they start walking to Clemont's home.

“Nah, Pikachu would get too jealous,” Ash shrugs, and Serena looks over at Ash curiously.

“Do you have any pets, Ash? Besides the ones at the shelter?” Serena asks and Clemont tilts his head. He doesnt think Ash has a pet, though Pikachu is basically his.

“No, mom didn't want to take care of another living being when I was a kid and we could barely make ends meet, and I'm usually at the shelter anyway.” Ash shrugs, that explains why Ash hasn't adopted Pikachu yet. Ash adores that cat, and Clemont thinks that if it was up to Ash Pikachu would probably already be adopted by him.

“Man, I'm so pumped to go back to the shelter!” Ash grins happily, a pep in his step.

“Yeah, a certain furry demon from hell has missed you.” Clemont laughs, continuing to fall into step with Ash and Serena.

“Oh yeah, has Pikachu caused too much trouble this week?” it was the same question Ash has asked everyday for the past week, he was definitely missing Pikachu the most out of all of the animals Ash hasn't been able to see after being grounded from the shelter.

“...Not too much chaos…” Clemont says softly, knowing it was a lie. But if he didnt Ash would have been redirecting them to go to the shelter right that second.

He just hopes Pikachu isn't raising too much hell for Brock and Tracey right now.

Oh who is he kidding, Pikachu has probably set off at least two electrical fires between the time they left school and now.

But Ash doesn't need to know about that until after he gets to the shelter on tuesday.

They make it to Clemont's house quickly, and he unlocks the front door, gesturing for Ash and Serena to come inside. He would feel awkward leaving them out when he might take a bit to make snacks for Bonnie.

When he enters though, he realizes he may have made a mistake. Considering both Bonnie and his dad were home, and they immediately notice the two figures behind Clemont.

“Ash is back!” Bonnie beams, running past Clemont to hug Ash. Who laughs happily and returns the hug.

“Really feeling the love Bonnie,” Clemont rolls his eyes, stepping further into the house. Bonnie pulls back from the hug long enough to stick her tongue out at Clemont.

“Hey,” Clemont waves to his dad.

“I'm just gonna drop some materials out before going to get ice cream with Ash and Serena?” he phrases the last part as a question. Asking permission to go out.

Clemont blanches as he sees his dad tear up again.

“Dad…” Clemont whines, please don't embarrass him, he silently pleads.

“Im fine, im fine.” Meyer says, wiping his eyes before he starts openly sobbing, “it's just- you're growing up so fast!”

And he's sobbing. Clemont looks back to see Bonnie dragging Ash to watch cartoons with her as Serena stands a little awkwardly, but was smiling a little too wide at his fathers crying.

Clemont goes to his room to drop off the materials and change out of his uniform, before heading back to the living room as quickly as he could.

“Are you my brother's girlfriend?” he hears Bonnie ask, and Clemont quickens his pace.

Ugh, please Bonnie wont start!

Despite his silent pleading, Bonnie doesn't hear it. And when Serena obviously corrects her, Bonnie sets her sights on Ash. Who somehow got roped into making Bonnie the animal shaped apple slices and comforting Meyer as he cries.

“What about you Ash? Are you my brother's boy-” Bonnie doesn't get to finish the sentence as Clemont finally makes it to the living room and plucks her up from the couch.

Holding her by her arms Clemont tries to redirect her, “and that's enough of that. Bonnie, why don't you show Serena Dedenne?”

Bonnie's eyes widen as she gasps, she wiggles out of Clemont's grip to run out of the room, “good idea!”

Good, now that Bonnie is distracted all they have to do is finish up the apple slices and Clemont can get out of there with limited embarrassment.

Though Clemont can't help but think this was the reason Bonnie didn't embarrass him with Ash earlier, she was waiting to tag team with dad.

They manage to make it back out of the house with only mild embarrassment on Clemont's part. Now that Bonnie was distracted from pestering Clemont and his friends about his love life, and his dad was mostly tear free. Ash managed to get Clemont's dad into a conversation about his work, and Ash listened eagerly.

Ash has won over his entire family in only a week. Yeah that's about what Clemont expected from Ash.

Serena was much quieter in comparison, but she entertained Bonnie. Bonnie and Serena played with Dedenne as Serena taught Bonnie who to make little bows for Dedenne and how to put it on the little mouse without hurting it.

Bonnie loved her. And Clemont's dad quickly warmed up to Ash. Especially when Ash was open to learning something new about mechanics. It took all of Clemont's convincing to have his dad let Ash finish the snacks for Bonnie. And as soon as Ash was done he was practically dragging them out of his house.

As much as he enjoyed seeing his family like his friends so much, if he let either of them get roped into doing anything else with one of them they wouldn't get to eat any ice cream. And Clemont is pretty sure his dad was three seconds away from busting out Clemont's baby photos to show Ash. Clemont is pretty sure that's something for at least the second time you meet the family.

As soon as Clemont drags them out the door Serena bursts into giggles, while Ash stands there with a smile on his face.

“That went well!” Ash chirps, “your dad is pretty cool!”

Serena is still giggling, even as they finally start to walk towards the ice cream parlor.

“Apparently according to your sister we would make the best couple!” Serena giggles harder as she says this, nearly doubled over.

“Bonnie thinks that I should date any girl that comes within fifty feet of me.” Clemont deadpans, and Serena recovers from her giggling.

“She was adorable!” Serena smiles brightly, and Clemont agrees.

Clemont glances over at Ash, seeing him look forward with a small frown on his face.

“Penny for your thoughts?” Clemont asks, leaning forward to make eye contact with Ash. Ash smiles brightly at him.

“Just thinking about what toppings I'm gonna put on my ice cream! Im thinking mints.” Ash says and Clemont eyes him.

“You put mints on your ice cream?” he asks, definitely judging Ash.

“What? It's good! Especially when its orange ice cream-” both Serena and Clemont cut him off.

“Orange flavored ice cream with mints?” they both exclaim with horror.

“If you want to eat toothpaste flavored ice cream just say that.” Clemont sticks his tongue out in disgust.

“Think what you want, but don't knock until you try it.” Ash says indignantly. Sticking his nose in the air.

“I don't need to when I know the chemical reason for why that taste shouldn't work.” Clemont laughs, shaking his head.

“Serena, what's your favorite flavor?” Ash asks, and Serena hums, placing a finger on her cheek.

“Probably strawberry.” Serena says.

“oh figures.” both Ash and Clemont immediately say, making Serena squawk.

“What's wrong with strawberry!?” she questions and Clemont just laughs.

“Nothing, nothing. Just exactly what we expected from you.” Clemont shakes his head. Serena sputters.

“Well at least I don’t like toothpaste flavored ice cream.” Serena defends, making Ash squawk.

“You're right, we have a common enemy.” Clemont nods, turning back to make fun of Ash's taste in ice cream.

Ash sticks his tongue out at them, and Clemont laughs brightly.

They make it to the ice cream parlor and buy their ice cream. Clemont got a very respectable double chocolate chunk ice cream with cherry syrup on top. Ash did in fact get his orange ice cream with chocolate mints on top. While Serena got her strawberry ice cream, but she insisted on mixing it up this time, because of what they said. So she got whipped cream and chocolate syrup on top.

When they got outside Ash made them put their ice cream together like a toast.

Serena just giggled and went along with it.

“To being ungrounded!” They cheer, putting their ice cream together before starting to eat.

They sat outside to eat their ice cream, talking pleasantly about school and other topics. Serena was excitedly talking about her fashion class, where her main project has been the line of outfits she's made for the animals at the shelter. Her teacher has loved it so far, Serena has thought about challenging the beast, Pikachu. To try and at least make it a little bow. Ash grimaces at the idea, knowing how hard it would be to get Pikachu to tolerate it. But if Serena was really determined he would help.

She's about to bust open her design book when her phone rings, she struggles to pick it up while holding her unfinished ice cream and holding her sketchbook. Ash plucks the sketchbook out of her hands to free up a hand for Serena to use.

Serena steps away a few feet to pick up the phone, putting it to her phone.

“Yes mom?” she says quietly. “But why mom? Can’t I- ugh fine!”

When Serena is finished with the conversation she pops back over to them, pocketing her phone and taking her sketchbook from Ash's hands.

“Mom needs me home, apparently her horse has made a mess and we need to wash it.” Serena pouts, Ash frowns.

“Well that sucks.” Ash says, Clemont gives Serena a half smile. A little sorry.

After all, he crashed her sorta date and then she had to leave early.

But Serena simply sighs.

“Well, I guess I'll see you two tomorrow.” Serena says, waving with her full hands as she starts to walk back, “enjoy your ice cream!”

They sit in silence for a couple seconds, before Ash asks about the materials Clemont brought to his house and what he was planning on making with them, and Clemont went on to explain in great detail his next invention.

It was supposed to be a machine that could test you on your flashcards. It would scan your note cards and read the side out loud. When you confirmed our answer it would either light up green or red and sort the cards into a correct or wrong pile.

He talks all about the inner workings of the machine, and the coding he would have to do to detect the writing and register if a response was right or wrong.

He doesn't even realize how long he's been talking until he glances over at Ash, who was staring at Clemont, a fond smile on his face. Which he quickly covers with his ice cream.

“Sorry, I'm talking too much!” Clemont says, shutting up as he turns away, his ears burning red.

“No, it's fine!” Ash says quickly, “I think it's really cool!”

“You're really smart,” Ash smiles at Clemont, and Clemont doesn't bother to hide the smile that blooms on his face.

When he catches a glimpse at the ice cream in Ash's hands he snorts without meaning to.

“What?” Ash asks, leaning over to make eye contact with Clemont.

“Just, orange ice cream? With mints?” Clemont laughs, shaking his head.

Ash tsks, shaking his head. “You just don't get it.”

Before Clemont could respond however, Ash's eyes widen with an idea. And Clemont quickly finds an ice cream cone in his face.

“Huh?” Clemont blinks, and Ash grins at him.

“Try it!” Ash urges, “if you are so convinced it's gonna be terrible,”

Clemont looks down at the ice cream, his face flooding with color as he realizes what Ash wants him to do.

He looks back at Ash, as if making sure Ash really wants him to taste his ice cream. When he sees a sure smile on Ash's face Clemont's shoulders jerk a little.

“Alright,” Clemont says with a faux sigh, and leans forward to take a small bite from Ash's terrible flavor combination. Thankfully he doesn't get any mint off of it, and only tastes the orange flavor of the ice cream.

It was actually pretty good, though Clemont attributes it to the fact he doesn't get any mint. He likes the citrus flavor, and he can't mask his enjoyment of the flavor quick enough. Because Ash was grinning triumphantly, almost smugly, making Clemont roll his eyes.

“Fine, I guess it's okay.” Clemont huffs, Ash cheers.

“Aha!” Ash cheers, and Clemont laughs at Ash's over the top reaction. Ash almost knocks the ice cream out of his cone from pumping his fist in the air, but he quickly saves it at the last second. Ash grins at Clemont from the side at having saved his ice cream. Clemont just smiles fondly at Ash.

He looks down at his own ice cream, double chocolate chunk with cherry syrup. Before he looks away from Ash and tilts his ice cream towards Ash.

“Wanna try mine?” Clemont asks, trying not to grow flustered. This feels like a date.

“Okay!” Ash says and Clemont feels his arm dip as Ash bites a large chunk out of his ice cream.

“Hey!” Clemont squawks, that was way bigger a bite then Clemont took out of Ash's!

Ash laughs, even with a mouthful of ice cream. Clemont grumbles at Ash, but it's half hearted at best.

“It's good!” Ash grins at him cheekily, chocolate smudged on his cheeks. It reminds Clemont of how Bonnie always gets whenever she eats ice cream.

Clemont rolls his eyes, grabbing a napkin and wiping the chocolate off of Ash's cheeks before he realizes what he's doing. It's the same thing he does with Bonnie, but Clemont is quickly reminded that this isn't Bonnie when he realizes how close he is to Ash. They were face to face as Clemont wipes the chocolate off of Ash's face. Ash had one eye closed as Clemont rubs the napkin under it, his open eye locked on Clemont.

Clemont freezes, realizing what he did. But for once, he has the confidence to not pull away.

Instead he continues to wipe the chocolate from Ash's face, their eyes locked.

When Clemont is finished his hand stays pressed to the napkin for a few seconds, still touching Ash's cheek even as he grows still. Before he pulls back and looks away.

“You had chocolate on your cheek.” Clemont explains, not daring to make eye contact again.

“Ah!” Ash says, nodding and looking away.

They sit there in silence for a few seconds, and Clemont internally groans.

Way to make it awkward.

“So, you were talking about how you were gonna code the new invention to detect handwriting?” Ash prompts, and Clemont eagerly takes the prompt to make it less awkward.

Midway through Clemont's explanation Ash looks down the street with his brows furrowed, noticing something. Clemont looks over to where Ash was looking to see a yellow tabby running down the street.

A very familiar yellow tabby.

“Pikachu!?” they both shout as, no doubt about it, Pikachu runs past them. When Ash sees a familiar van drive around the corner he blanches.

“Come on! We gotta go after it!” Ash shouts, grabbing Clemont by the arm to drag him after Pikachu.

Their ice creams spill onto the concrete at the sudden running, but Clemont only spends a moment mourning the ice cream before he realizes why that van looks so familiar. It was Rocket Animal Control. And their eyes were currently set on Pikachu.

“We gotta get Pikachu before they do!” Ash shouts, still dragging Clemont along by the arm, because he knows Clemont couldn't keep up with Ash.

But Clemont was definitely slowing him down, Ash's pace was much slower then it would have been if Ash was running on his own.

“Ash! Go after Pikachu, I'll buy you some time with animal control.” Clemont says, making Ash look back at Clemont. Clemont can see how panicked Ash was, how worried about Pikachu he was.

“It'll be fine!” Clemont reassures, and Ash nods, once, before letting go of Clemont's arm. Clemont stumbles a bit at the loss of momentum, but soon Ash disappears around a corner, and Clemont follows close enough to see Ash and Pikachu disappear left down the street. And he comes to pause to catch his breath in the middle of the street, only to jump as the rocket van comes skirting down the street and nearly runs him over. He only isn't because the driver turns the van sideways, barely coming to a stop before Clemont.

Clemont braces for the hit, but when he isn't hit he opens his eyes and prepares for the confrontation he is about to have.

“To capture the strays and enforce the law!” Jessie, if Clemont remembers correctly, jumps out of the van.

“To tame the wild with precision and awe!” James jumps out from the driver's seat.

“To control the beasts that roam the land!” Jessie poses, Clemont just stares dumbly at them.

“And keep them in line, as we command!” James poses with Jessie to form an R.

“Team rocket, bringing order to chaos, one creature at a time!” Both Jessie and James say in unison.

A cat climbs out of the van, sitting on the top of the van and meowing loudly.

They are so weird. What kind of animal control is this?

“You're one of those twerps from the shelter!” James realizes, and Jessie mock vomits.

“Ugh, the one that handles animals with love, and care.” Jessie rolls her eyes.

“Like it should be.” Clemont deadpans.

“Whatever, now where did that tabby go!” Jessie demands.

“It's time we finally catch it!” James agrees, nodding along to Jessie's demands.

“They went to the left.” Clemont says, staring them in the eyes.

James cheers victoriously, “aha! Now we'll get Pikachu!”

Jessie glares at Clemont, and Clemont offers a smug smile to her.

“He's lying James, why would he tell us the truth?” Jessie leans over to slap James upside the head.

“Obviously he's trying to cover up where that cat actually went!” Jessie says with a smug grin, “if he says we go left, we go right!”

“You're right jessie!” James gasps, they dive into their van and Clemont quickly gets out of the way as the van flies past him, nearly tipping onto its side as they swerve to turn right.

Clemont snorts, he figured they wouldn't think to see if he was telling the truth.

When he's sure Rocket Animal Control is far enough away, Clemont wanders down the street he watched Ash go down. Looking around for Ash and Pikachu now that he knows it's safe.

He's not sure if it's safe yet to call out for Ash yet, so instead he looks around, scanning the street for Ash. He's about to give up and text Ash as he passes an alleyway before he feels the back of his shirt being grabbed and he's dragged into the alleyway.

He almost thinks he's being jumped and he braces for a punch only for nothing to happen. He hesitantly opens his eyes to see Ash grinning sheepishly at him, Pikachu held tightly in his arms.

“Hey.” Ash says, breathing heavily. He did just sprint quite a distance, even Ash would be a little out of breath.

“Hey.” Clemont smiles back, “Jessie and James should be driving at high speeds the wrong direction,”

“Howd you get them off our trail?” Ash asks, tilting his head.

“I told them the truth of where you went, they didn't expect that.” Clemont shrugs and Ash lets out a bark of a laugh.

“We should probably hold out here for a bit though, until we're sure they don’t drive back here.” Ash says, and Clemont nods, pressing his back against the brick wall opposite of Ash.

Ash looks down at Pikachu, a soft smile on his face as he pets Pikachu. Pikachu is purring contently in his arms, the first time Clemont has seen Pikachu happy all week.

“How's Pikachu doing?” Clemont asks, and Ash looks up to smile.

“He's doing fine now, a little spooked but fine.” Ash shakes his head.

“Now why were you out here anyway?” Ash asks, holding up Pikachu.

Pikachu cheekily meows, pressing its paw into Ash's cheek.

Ash laughs, going back to holding Pikachu close.

“I've missed you buddy.” Ash smiles, petting Pikachu.

“I'll be coming back to the shelter tomorrow, you know” Ash says, “so we can get back to training you on that obstacle course for the adoption event soon.”

Pikachu meows, though it's half hearted at best.

“You have to get adopted at this adoption event.” Ash says, a frown forming on his face.

“What's so special about this event in particular?” Clemont asks, frowning as he sees Ash's frown.

Ash is silent for a few moments, petting Pikachu, before he sighs and looks away.

“Pikachu is gonna be transferred to another shelter soon if it doesn't get adopted shortly after the event. To make room.” Ash says sadly, holding Pikachu tighter.

“I don't want that to happen, what if the other shelter doesn't tolerate Pikachu's antics as much as we do? What if they don't search for Pikachu when it escapes and just lets it get shipped around from shelter to shelter until it ends up in a bad one? What if Pikachu doesnt like its new shelter?” Ash questions, his brows furrowed as he grows more and more upset the longer he goes on.

“If Pikachu gets adopted before that happens, I can have a say in it. I can know if Pikachu is being taken care of. But if Pikachu gets shipped off…” Ash trails off, looking more upset then Clemont has ever seen him.

Ash huffs, frowning.

Clemont blinks, unsure of what to say. But he finds that it's easier to act. For once in his life.

He pushes off the wall to stand next to Ash, throwing an arm over Ash's shoulder. Ash takes the invitation and places his head on Clemont's shoulder.

“You've been working really hard for the past few weeks. And Pikachu has been getting a lot better. I'm sure that Pikachu is gonna wow everyone at the event. And there will be a line of people signing up for the chance to adopt it.” Clemont says, leaning into Ash.

Ash nods, still pressed into Clemont's shoulder.

“I really hope so.” Ash says quietly, Clemont looks down to see Pikachu's ears are down, a sad look in its eyes.

But it buries its face into Ash's arms, and they just stand there for a while. Clemont isn't sure how long, but he doesn't care to try and find out. He just lets himself soak in the moment, together with Ash.

Before eventually Ash's phone starts to buzz, and Ash realizes it's his mom. He freezes, a startled look on his face, and glances at Clemont.

“We've been out here for so long.” Ash grimaces, showing Clemont his phone to check the time. And sure enough, the entire time between school letting out and now was roughly four hours. Clemont looks up at the sky to see the setting sun.

Ash picks up the phone to his mom, and quietly talks to her, Clemont can hear a very stern sounding woman lecturing Ash about staying out so late. Ash chuckles and calms his mom down, saying that he'll be home soon, and that no mom he's not at the shelter, you can ask Brock and Tracey-

“Do you think you could take Pikachu back to the shelter? Mom would kill me if I went there now.” Ash grins, and Clemont agrees without thinking.

“Thank you!” Ash beams, he gently moves Pikachu into Clemont's arms. Pikachu lets out a protesting meow, and Ash pets Pikachu when it is put into Clemont's arms. Making it settle down a little, though Pikachu still looked a little perturbed.

“I'll be back at the shelter tomorrow Pikachu, be good okay?” Ash smiles at Pikachu in Clemont's arms. Pikachu huffs and looks away. Not a confirmation, but not a denial.

Ash seems to take it anyway.

“Thanks again Clemont!” Ash says, starting to run back home.

Clemont smiles, waving at Ash as he flies down the street, proving why he deserves to be on the track team.

He turns to walk down the street towards where the shelter is, pulling out his phone to quickly text his dad where he was going and that he would be home soon.

Pikachu squirms in his arms, making it a struggle to keep Pikachu in his arms.

“Come on Pikachu, don't you wanna be at the shelter so you can see Ash tomorrow?” Clemont tries to plead.

Pikachu just complains in his arms, struggling harder.

“You know how hard Ash is working to help you, if you got caught by animal control you wouldn't see Ash again.” Clemont says loudly to the cat, making Pikachu slowly stop struggling. And Clemont huffs, continuing to walk towards the shelter.

“Ash cares a lot about you, and he's trying his best to get you adopted.” Pikachu huffs grumpily at that.

“If you don't get adopted you'll be taken to another shelter that won't be as kind to you.” Pikachu's ears droop, and Pikachu lets out a low purr.

Clemont sighs, “I know we're not Ash, but everyone at that shelter just wants the best for you. Just work with us a little.”

Pikachu closes its eyes, curling tighter in Clemont's arms, and Clemont smiles. He softly pets Pikachu.

“Ash cares a lot about you, and he's been working hard for you,” a little too hard at times, Clemont is worried he's doing too much. “And I know you care about Ash.”

Though, that brings an idea to Clemont. How could he help Ash so he's not doing so much?

Clemonts eyes widen as he starts to think of a new invention, two actually.

He should have enough supplies for it, sorry study bot! This is more important! The entire walk to the shelter and back home is filled with Clemont thinking of the idea for these new inventions. And he's silent during dinner with his family.

As soon as dinner was over Clemont clears his desk of any other ideas he had, and pulling out new blueprints for him to sketch on.

He works all night, not even caring that by the time he was finally settling down to sleep it was 3am. But he got the inventions done.

Say hello to the automatic ball thrower 2000 and the automatic feeder 3000!

It's perfect for the shelter! It could cut their day to day chores in half! And it would leave Ash with more time to train the animals.

Clemont grins as he runs a hand over the automatic ball thrower, curling in bed with his blanket over his shoulders.

Ash’ll love it.

At least, Clemont hopes he will when he gives it to Ash tomorrow.

You can read the rest of this on ao3 by Dashing_through_snow

https://archiveofourown.org/works/62767867

#diodeshipping #ash ketchum #pokemon #clemont #fanfic #fanfiction #pikachu #modern au #pet shelter au

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writing-through-the-snow · 7 days ago

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Diodeshipping pet shelter au snippet 2

____

The shelter has been a complete flurry of activity as the three girls work to update all of the posts on the shelters social media, apparently there was an adoption event coming up and the shelter needs those posts to draw people to it.

And Clemont's school life has definitely gotten better, now that they all had a common interest, he, Ash, and Serena talk a lot more in school. Becoming actual friends.

It's been really nice for Clemont, to actually have close friends. Though he's definitely not as close with Serena as he is Ash.

Ash is just a lot of fun, and when they aren't at school, or the shelter, Clemont finds himself thinking about Ash very frequently. Maybe he'll see a stray animal that he just knows Ash would have lured close to pet it, and be best friends with after just five minutes. Or maybe he’ll see a particular math problem that he knows Ash will ask about the next day, knowing what Ash struggles with in math, and start thinking about how he'd teach it to Ash. Or maybe he'd be working on a new project, and he wouldn't be able to stop a smile blooming to his face as he thinks about what Ash would say about it.

And given that they spend almost every day at the shelter together (Clemont has even started going on his off days, just to help out,) and they've taken to sitting together in classes and lunch, Clemont has had a lot of time to get to know Ash. And he enjoys it.

Not only that, but he enjoys the shelter in general. It's just such an opening place, and he's gotten to know plenty of the animals and people.

He never expected he would start going to the shelter on afternoons he wasn't scheduled, trading his technology for the animals and people. But he's glad for it.

And Serena was nice, he enjoyed her company.

Though, Clemont eyes Ash and Serena from across the room as they talk, Serena's cheeks were completely red as she laughs just a little too hard at a joke Ash makes, aren't they just a little too close?

Clemont shrugs it off. He knows Serena has a crush on Ash, it's the worst kept secret in the school. And literally everyone including Pikachu clocked her crush as soon as she entered the shelter. Everyone except for Ash that is. He's somehow the most oblivious person in the world.

Though he's found that the crush has gotten a lot less amusing as time goes on.

He doesnt get why, it's just a little weird to him. His gut would churn whenever he would see Ash and Serena talking quietly with each other when they got a quiet moment between all of the preparation. He was usually just as busy as everyone else now that he knows the ropes of the shelter, no longer following Ash around as closely. So he does the exact same with Ash and Serena whenever he gets a moment of peace with either of them. So he doesnt get why it's so weird for him to see it with Ash and Serena in particular.

Just something about it makes Clemont feel a little restless, maybe it's the way Serena's eyes light up when she looks at Ash, eyes full of admiration and joy. Maybe it's seeing how she obviously tries to dress up a little for these shelter visits, despite the fact that dressing up doesn't make sense for an animal shelter where youre gonna be active and dealing with slobbery and dirty animals.

It's not like Clemont didn't expect to see that sort of stuff from Serena, but for some reason it just feels… off to him.

He doesn't really get why, so he tries not to focus on it much.

He only really has the time or understanding on what was going on while talking with his little sister, as she watches a cartoon.

He's trying his best to understand what's going on, but the plot is so weirdly complicated that he doesn't get what's going on.

“Okay, I give, what's going on?” Clemont asks, looking at the screen, Bonnie sighs loudly, rolling her eyes and pausing the show.

“Why is she acting like that?” Clemont asks, the main character was acting weird, whenever she saw two of the other characters talking, getting too close she would barge over and think of an excuse to break them up. And she just got really weird whenever one of them expressed interest in the other.

“Okay, so Flora likes Draco,” Bonnie spells out to her older brother, pointing to two of the characters on the screen.

“Okay…” Clemont prompts.

“Draco likes Nanami,” Bonnie continues, “and Nanami used to like Colin, but she's starting to also like Draco.”

“And Colin likes Flora.” Bonnie finishes explaining.

Clemont tilts his head as he looks at the screen, paused as Flora looks uncomfortable and restless as Draco and Nanami get closer.

“Then why is Flora acting like that?” honestly it kinda reminds him of how weird feeling he gets when Ash and Serena get close like how Draco and Nanami were. Maybe Flora just doesn't like seeing all of that weird love stuff shoved in her face.

Bonnie looks at him like he's dumb, “it's because she's jealous of Nanami. Duh.”

Bonnie rolls her eyes and continues playing the show. Honestly he would be a little offended if he wasn't too busy thinking about what Bonnie just said.

Was he jealous? Of what? Of his two friends talking to each other? Even though it's obvious Serena has a crush on Ash and is trying to work up the courage to make a move. And maybe Ash might have a crush back, though Ash is a little hard to read for Clemont.

Is he jealous of that? Is he jealous of Ash for Serena having a crush on him?

That feels weird, and wrong.

He doesn't want to feel that way, isn't that pretty shitty of him to be jealous of his closest friend?

Oh god, does he have a crush on Serena? Clemont feels so wrong for it, and he can't stop the face he makes at the idea.

But it does make sense for why he feels so restless when he sees Serena and Ash too close. It's just weird to feel this way for Serena.

Clemont tries desperately to not think about it, even though he can't stop feeling a little unusual whenever he's around Serena and Ash now. He doesn't want to get in the way even though he, ugh, has a crush on Serena.

And he would feel terrible if he got in the way of Ash and Serena liking each other. But even then, Ash is still Clemont's closest friend. And even though he feels so terrible about having a crush on the girl Ash might like. But his worries tend to fall away quickly whenever it's just him and Ash.

But he can't stop from feeling a little uncomfortable when it's just him and Serena. Is that because of the crush? Or because he feels bad about being jealous? Clemont doesn't know.

Clemont looks up from his blueprints as he notices Ash flop into the seat across from him with a groan.

“What's wrong?” Serena asks, looking at a sullen Ash sitting across from them.

“Im dangerously close to failing chemistry,” Ash groans, “if I do fail I might get kicked off of the track team and thus the school. And mom isn't letting me go to the shelter until I get my chemistry grade up.”

Clemont looks at Ash concerned, “what about the upcoming event? If you can't train the animals what would they do?”

“I'm not sure.” Ash huffs, crossing his arms and putting his face into his arms.

“I could help tutor you!” Serena offers quickly, her cheeks a little red as she looks at Ash.

Clemont frowns, his gut churning again. He can't stop himself from speaking, if only to get the feeling to stop. …and it's better for the shelter too, after all if Ash can’t train the pokemon then they have less of a chance of being adopted.

“Aren't you also not doing very well in chemistry?” Clemont asks, looking over to Serena. He's pretty sure she's teetering on a C herself.

Serena deflates, realizing that Clemont was right.

“Then what about you Clemont, you're super good at it right?” Ash asks, looking at Clemont with wide, pleading eyes, “could you help me?”

Clemont looks away, knowing he can't make a good decision when it comes to those big brown eyes.

But he quickly finds that the little defense he had, not having enough time for his inventions, felt weak at the idea of going to the shelter and not seeing Ash there.

And he agrees.

So just like that, he agreed to tutor his crush’s crush. And his best friend.

But he won't regret it, not when he sees Ash's beaming smile.

They decided to study immediately after school, today Clemont didn't have to volunteer for the shelter, and even though he usually would go anyway, without Ash there Clemont wasn't as excited.

So they head to Clemont's house to study, his father shouldnt be home until later, and Bonnie has her shows running tonight so she should be pretty quiet.

They get to Clemont's empty house and try to get a few hours of studying in, since Bonnie wasn’t home from school yet.

“No Ash, AG isn't gold, it's silver on the periodic table.” Clemont corrects, setting the flash card down into the wrong pile. The pile was much larger than the correct pile. At this point, Clemont has changed into more comfortable clothes then his school uniform, and Ash has abandoned his uniform jacket on Clemont's desk chair. Even as the two have migrated from the desk to Clemont's bed.

Ash groans, flopping onto Clemont's bed and jostling Clemont a little with the movement, as he was also on the bed.

“Hm.” Clemont frowns, trying to figure out how to explain chemistry to Ash without confusing him more. Maybe he could find a song online to do it? But Ash has no sense of rhythm. What would be helpful to a guy whose entire life revolves around animals? Maybe he could get the animals at the shelter to represent parts of the periodic table? But how would he show that in a way Ash could understand.

Clemont huffs, massaging his nose a little. As much as Ash isn't good at chemistry, Clemont is even worse at teaching it to someone.

Maybe Serena should have taught Ash instead. Clemont thinks a little bitterly, she always seems to be so good at the things he's not.

Clemont flops onto the bed as well, lying next to Ash.

“Ready to get back into it-” Clemont starts to ask, turning his head to look at Ash. Only to find him dead asleep.

Clemont can't stop the snort that bubbles in him at seeing Ash so peacefully asleep, they were supposed to be studying.

But Clemont does not move to wake him up, he just can't find the will to. Ash has been stressed lately, he has not directly said it per say, but Clemont can tell. Between their exams at school, competitions in track, and getting the shelter ready for the adoption event, Ash has been more than a little busy. He's been working extra hard at the shelter to get all of the animals trained so they can show off their tricks at the event. Pikachu has even been on its best behavior and letting Ash train it.

But that means Ash has been doing a lot in the past few weeks, maybe a little too much.

So Clemont just lets Ash sleep, instead of waking him to go back to studying. Ash needs a break.

Clemont smiles softly as he sees how relaxed Ash is, practically melting into the bed. Ash is turned onto his side, facing Clemont his hand half opened half way between him and Clemont. Clemont can feel Ash's soft and slow breaths on his cheek. His messy hair falling across his face as his mouth is slightly parted in his sleep. Clemont notices small freckles he normally can't see from any farther back on Ash's face, barring the weird squiggly mark lines on Ash's face.

He wonders what they were, are they just weird freckles? Or a birthmark? Or somehow matching scars?

Clemont nearly reaches out to touch Ash's cheek, just to feel it, but he freezes just before he touches Ash.

That's weird right? Touching his best friend's face while he's asleep.

Isn't staring at his best friend's face really weird too?

Clemont pulls back his hand, tucking it close to his chest.

He's being so weird right? Like this isn't what normal people do when they have best friends?

Clemont can feel his heartbeat against his hand, fluttering and quick. And his face feels warm, like it does when he's embarrassed.

What's going on with him lately?

Clemont turns to face towards the ceiling, still lying on the bed next to Ash. A frown firmly on his face. He adjusts his glasses, having been pressed uncomfortably in his face when he laid on his side.

Clemont chews on his cheek, thinking.

Why'd he have to have a crush on Serena. Of all people.

What changed now? Sure they've gotten a little closer now that the two of them both are pretty passionate about the shelter, but other than that nothing has really changed.

She's always been pretty, but Clemont never really thought it was really a big deal. At first he thought maybe she just wasn't his type. But if he has a crush on her then maybe she is?

She's objectively pretty but he never feels all of that fluttering feeling, butterflies in his stomach, ‘wow’ feeling when it's just him and Serena.

He guesses that while he understands she's objectively pretty, she's not his type of pretty.

Clemont turns his head to look at the still sleeping Ash.

Not as pretty as he's found Ash is, at least.

His face grows warmer at the thought, but it's true. He tries not to think about it much, but Ash is really pretty.

He doesn't know when he realized it, but it was obvious when Clemont thought about it.

His messy hair is the perfect amount of messy to not look completely ridiculous and unkept, but cute enough that Clemont doesnt think he could see Ash with neat hair. And Clemont can feel a warm gooey feeling in his stomach whenever Ash smiles at him, whether it be a brighter than the sun smile, or one of Ash's softer smiles. He's found that it's impossible to not smile back when Ash gives him one of his smiles, especially the softer smiles. The ones where his eyes look so warm and his eyes crinkle, and he almost always tilts his head slightly as he smiles. But he also can't help but smile when Ash gives one of his beaming smiles, especially because it almost always is followed by physical contact of some type. Whether a clap on the shoulder that sometimes knocks Clemont off balanced if Ash is a little too excited. or Ash reaching over to ruffle Clemont's hair, usually making both of them laugh, even if Clemont feels his face growing a little warmer at the embarrassment of his hair being all messed up. Or a half hug, where Ash slings an arm over Clemont's shoulder to pull him tight against him. So close Clemont can feel Ash's wild hair tickling against his neck, no doubt his hair is doing the same against Ash's neck. And their cheeks are practically smashed together.

Clemont doesn't get it.

Why does he feel like this?

He's fairly certain this wasn't just what you felt for a best friend.

Well, he doesn't have anything for comparison but still.

Is he really jealous of Ash? And did he really like Serena?

Because he doesnt think he likes Serena that way, Bonnie tried to explain what love felt like to him. Even though she only knew love from the cartoons and stories she read.

The elated, butterfly feeling has just never been something Clemont has felt with Serena before. But he did feel it constantly with Ash.

And he's certain he did feel jealousy when he saw Serena looking so flustered around Ash, but was it really because he liked Serena?

Clemont glances back at Ash, and suddenly realization clicks.

Oh. he doesn't like Serena. At least not like that.

The reason he feels so jealous when Serena looks flustered around Ash was because he liked Ash.

It immediately makes more sense to Clemont than him having a crush on Serena. He laughs as he thinks about how wrong he was.

This is why he sticks to inventions, rather than feelings. He'll leave the feelings to Ash and Bonnie.

Liking Ash makes so much more sense to Clemont. After all, Ash is his best friend. He loves spending time with Ash, be it studying together, working at the shelter, or just hanging out. And when they aren't together Clemont finds that he thinks about Ash all of the time.

Clemont replays Ash's laughter in his mind, finding that he can't stop the smile coming to his face even when he's just thinking about Ash's laughter.

Yeah, he has a crush on Ash.

Clemont can't wipe the smile off his face even as his eyes start to droop against his will. He turns over onto his side, to face Ash again.

He really, really likes his best friend. Clemont acknowledges looking at Ash's hand in between them. With confidence Clemont has never felt before he reaches out and places his hand on top of Ash's. His hand twitches as he does, but it quickly relaxes as Clemont melts into his bed.

He likes his best friend, and it feels so right to Clemont.

____

Clemont doesn't know when he drifts off to sleep, but when he wakes up the setting sun was drifting through his window. He looks around his room to see the still abandoned study materials on his desk and flashcards strewn around his bed. Clemont rubs at his eye, noticing Ash is missing from the room.

Did he go home?

Clemont sleepily stumbles out of his room, his clothes rumpled. He only slept for an hour or so, Bonnie should be home by now. To be honest he's surprised she hasn't broken down his door in demand of her afternoon snack. He should probably get started on that, but as soon as he opens the door he hears Bonnie's loud giggles and a familiar voice talking to her.

Clemont frowns questioningly before he turns the corner to get into the living room and he spots his little sister… and Ash.

Bonnie was currently using Ash as her own personal playground climbing over him as he lets her. He lets her mess with his hair, a plate of what looks like apples sitting nearby. Occasionally Bonnie will dart away from Ash to shovel an apple slice or two into her face before darting back to continue braiding Ash's hair. A cartoon of Bonnie’s was booming in the background, from what Clemont remembers its My Little Ponyta, Friendship is Magic. Bonnie has a beaming smile on her face and Ash smiles at whatever Bonnie is rambling about, adding his two cents here and there.

Clemont blinks, stumbling a few feet closer and drawing Bonnie's attention.

“Clemont! Look at how I did Ash's hair!” Bonnie proudly shows off what she's done to Ash's hair.

Poor Ash had chunks of his hair braided, sticking up in random directions, a few strands here and there pulled back by Bonnie's bright hair clips.

Ash gives him a sheepish grin only adding to how cute he honestly looked. Clemont can't stop the laughter that bubbles up in him. And soon he's doubled over laughing making Bonnie squawk in offense.

“Hey! What are you laughing about!?” Bonnie asks, outraged. Clemont laughs harder, hands on his knees as he wheezes.

When Clemont finally catches his breath he looks up to see Bonnie crossing her arms, very irked and exasperated. Ash is just giving him a grin, not nearly as embarrassed as Clemont would be in this situation.

Bonnie huffs, turning back to her apple slices and chomping on them.

“So I guess the two of you met while I was asleep.” Clemont gives a half grin and Bonnie perks up again nodding.

“Yeah!” Bonnie hops on her toes, Clemont notices Dedenne and Luxray in Ash's lap. Luxray looking more relaxed in Ash's lap then Clemont has ever seen it be with a stranger. Figures. “You didn't tell me you were bringing a friend over,”

“Well, I wasn't expecting him to stay this long.” Clemont shrugs, nudging Ash with his shoulder as he plops down onto the couch next to him.

“Yeah, sorry for falling asleep while we were studying.” Ash sheepishly apologies, scratching the back of his neck.

“It's fine, I know you've been working hard between exams and the shelter.” Clemont shrugs, besides, he fell asleep too.

Clemont glances over at Bonnie, he kind of wished he was there when these two met, but it seems like they hit it off quickly. Like he was sure they would.

Clemont glances at the apple slices Bonnie was eating and tilts his head squinting.

“What are on those apples?” Clemont asks, it looks like they had dark spots.

“Oh Ash made them for me!” Bonnie squeaks, bouncing on her toes as she shoves one of the slices in Clemont's face. He pulls back, not particularly wanting to be slapped in the face with an apple slice. He reaches up to grab the apple slice, adjusting his glasses as he looks at it. Instead of being cut into the eighths like Clemont usually does for Bonnie, it was cut straight through the middle, a bit of peanut butter on it and used to give chocolate chips something to hold onto. The chocolate chips were used to make two little eyes on the slice, with the peanut butter being neatly placed to create a little mouth and whiskers. Two little pieces of apple cut into ears and attached using more peanut butter. The apple slice was a little mouse.

Clemont smiles at the apple slice, looking up at Ash impressed. No wonder Bonnie seems to like Ash so much.

“Isn't it so cute!?” Bonnie asks loudly, eyes practically sparkling.

“It is,” Clemont agrees, handing it back to Bonnie so she can bite into it and turning to Ash, “you made that? How?”

“My mom taught me when I started being left home alone when she had to work late nights, so that when I made them I would think of her.” Ash explains and Clemont thinks that's really cute. Thinking of a young Ash, watching carefully as his mom taught him to make animal looking apple slices. A young Ash that had just as much enthusiasm for animals as he does now, and just as caring.

Clemont leans over Bonnie to get a better look at the apple slices to find a couple other animals on her plate. There were of course plenty of mouse slices, which makes sense considering Bonnie's favorite animals were mice. But from what Clemont could see there was a cat, with spots to look like Luxray and Pikachu, a dog, and a bird. All decorated to look cute and with attached apple slices for the ears and for the bird, wings.

“I don't think I could eat one of those, they look too cute,” Clemont grins at Ash.

“It took my mom two years to get me to eat one of those, because I would burst into tears every time she gave me one to eat.” Ash chuckles and Clemont snorts. Somehow Clemont can see that clearly.

“I think Ash's snacks beat out yours Clemont.” Bonnie says with a snarky grin.

Clemont snorts, rolling his eyes, “then I guess Ash better come here after school every day just to personally make you a snack.”

“You would!?” Bonnie shrieks excitedly, whipping her head to ash, Clemont shakes his head with a laugh.

“I was joking, I'm sure Ash has better things to do than to come here after school everyday.” Clemont shuts down before Bonnie gets too excited.

Ash tsks, shaking his head, “I don't know, I think Luxray here would miss me too much to not visit every once and a while.”

Ash gestures to the very comfortable Luxray in his lap, who was purring. It took Clemont weeks for Luxray to get comfortable with him, of course Ash managed to do it in less than an afternoon.

“Oh yeah, what's Pikachu gonna do if it knows you've been seeing other cats?” Clemont snarkily grins and Ash blinks, his face draining of color.

“Pikachu is going to kill me.” Ash realizes.

“And you were getting so far with it, all that progress down the drain.” Clemont tsks, shaking his head disappointedly.

Ash groans, leaning back on the couch.

“My Little Ponyta is back on!” Bonnie squeals, hopping back onto the couch in between Clemont and Ash.

“So which ones your favorite Ponyta Ash?” Bonnie asks, Ash smiles softly down at her and hums, like he was genuinely thinking it over.

“I like Flamesky,” Ash says, “I like how she takes care of all the animals.”

Bonnie hums, nodding. Before looking at Clemont with narrowed eyes, Clemont raises an eyebrow, trying to figure out why she's looking at him like that.

“What about Ember Glimmer? What do you think about her?” Bonnie asks, Clemont tilts his head. That's not Bonnie's favorite Ponyta, her favorite is Blazeflash, the tomboy one. Ember Glimmer was the main character and a bookish type. Why would she ask specifically about Ember Glimmer?

“I think she's really smart, and interesting to watch.” Ash actually sounds genuine. Clemont wonders how many episodes Ash has been forced to watch with Bonnie.

Though Clemont can't help but be glad Ash is tolerating Bonnie's antics, even going along with her. Watching the show at least enough to know that Flamesky takes care of animals, and the Ember Glimmer is a bookworm. And letting Bonnie mess with his hair, some of the braids are starting to come loose, but Ash hasn't made a move to take out any of the barretts in his hair.

He cares a lot about his sister, and he knows she can be a bit much at times. But he's glad her enthusiasm doesn't bother Ash, like he's sure it would have if Ash was any other person at school.

Clemont doesn't bother to hide his staring at Ash, as Ash is too busy entertaining Bonnie and watching the cartoon to look over at Clemont.

He was incredibly relieved Ash and Bonnie got along, he expected it but he wasn't expecting it so quickly. He thought either Bonnie would be a tad protective of Clemont, after all he's never brought a friend home before. Or she would embarrass Clemont and Ash would feel uncomfortable. Or the two of them would be best of friends. One thirds shot.

But he was glad it worked out this way, that the two seem to enjoy eachothers company, and Clemont can slot in with them perfectly.

The banter felt perfectly natural, and Clemont could see thanksgiving, or even christmas morning with Ash in their little family perfectly. Ash and Clemont would be sitting next to each other, maybe a little too close for just being best friends. Sharing a chair or even just being close while sitting on the floor, their shoulders jostling each other with every movement. Bonnie would be close by, excitedly filling the room with her chatter, Ash responding back and forth, with Clemont occasionally adding a comment or two here and there. But most content to let Ash and Bonnie fill in the silence. Never feeling like he has to awkwardly continue the conversation or fill in the gaps.

He bets his father would like Ash's kindness and enthusiasm. And Clemont bets his father would love to have Ash over for dinner, his first friend. Even if his father didn't know about Clemont's… feelings, for Ash. Even as weird as thinking that is, it still feels right.

Everything with Ash feels right. The way Ash so naturally fits in with his family, some of the most important people to Clemont.

Clemont feels so warm when he sees how comfortable it was. He would love for this to go on forever.

Bonnie squeaks as she rushes out of the room, “I gotta show you my new stuffed animals!”

“You know how dad feels about running in the house.” Clemont calls after her, shaking his head when Bonnie just pops around the corner to blow a raspberry at him and continuing to run.

He looks back at Ash, sharing a smile with him only to stare a few beats longer than normal.

“Got something on my face?” Ash tilts his head and Clemont shakes his head.

“Just admiring that beautiful hair style.” he grins, and Ash nods seriously.

“I know, I look great,” he agrees and Clemont laughs.

He looks over at Ash, his smile softening.

“You look very pretty, Ash.” Clemont says genuinely, though Ash doesn't take him seriously.

“Thank you, I know,” Ash says very confidently.

Clemont smiles at Ash, pulling his legs up onto the couch to wrap his arms around. The two of them just pause, for a long second, staring intently at each other.

Clemont doesn't know what it means, or why. But he doesn't care to question, just enjoying the moment. Before Bonnie comes barreling back into the room and the moment is broken. As Ash's attention shifts back to Bonnie as Bonnie excitedly shows Ash her stuffed animals.

They end up being on the couch as they watch My Little Ponyta, stuffed animals placed on the couch to watch with them, the apple slices slowly running out. Bonnie shifts from rambling about My Little Ponyta to animals, with Ash sharing stories about the animals at the shelter. And eventually back to Bonnie's other favorite cartoon Legend of Flora. Apparently the love polygon was resolved, with, plot twist, Nanami and Flora liking each other and starting to date.

Clemont didn't see it coming, but he also doesn't tend to watch the show much.

Eventually though, Ash checks his phone and realizes the time.

“I should get going before mom gets home from work.” Ash says, making both Clemont and Bonnie pout. Ash looks at them and laughs, shaking his head.

“The two of you are so similar!” he chuckles, making both Clemont and Bonnie blink.

They've never been described as similar before.

“Really?” they both question.

Ash shrugs standing up, “sure. You both have the same passion for the things you like, and it's pretty obvious how much you care about each other.”

“I don't think we've ever been called similar before.” Clemont says, standing up as Ash collects his stuff to walk him to the door. Bonnie shakes her head, a calculating look on her face as she looks between Ash and Clemont.

Clemont eyes her, a frown on his face. She's gonna do something, isn't she?

Ash pops out of Clemont's room, his backpack over his shoulders and ready to leave.

“It's been nice coming here,” Ash says genuinely, tilting his head to smile softly at Clemont.

“Yeah, we should do it again soon. At least until your chemistry grade is brought up.” Clemont agrees, trying to will his stomach to not turn to mush as he looks at Ash's smile.

Bonnie narrows her eyes at Clemont.

Clemont leads Ash to the door before Bonnie pops in front of Clemont to stare at Ash with narrowed eyes. Ash blinks down at her.

“You and my big brother are friends, right? Like best friends?” oh god where is she going with this.

“Yeah?” Ash nods, looking up at Clemont questioningly. Clemont has no idea where she's going with this either.

“Good.” Bonnie nods, “then listen up!”

“Clemont is the best big brother, but he's not that strong!” Bonnie please don't do this, Clemont silently pleads.

“So you've gotta be strong for him!” Bonnie declares, Clemont feels his face growing warm and feeling mortified, “you gotta stand up for him when he wont! You gotta be interested in what he likes, even if you think it's weird! And you gotta keep him company when me and papa can't!”

“Bonnie…” Clemont whines but both Ash and Bonnie pay no attention to it.

“I promise I'll take care of Clemont,” Ash agrees, leaning down to be the same height as Bonnie, “at least as long as he lets me,” Ash says, peeking up at Clemont with a half smile.

Clemont smiles a little back, even though he still feels a little embarrassed.

Bonnie stares at Ash for a long moment, as if to assess if Ash is being genuine. And to his credit, Ash does look genuine. When Bonnie seems to decide that that's good enough for her, she beams brightly before running off to continue watching cartoons.

Clemont watches her run off as Ash stands back up, and he turns back to Clemont.

“I'm sorry about-” Clemont tries to say before Ash cuts her off.

“I found another similarity.” Ash says, a soft smile on his face.

“Oh?” Clemont blinks, wondering what Ash could have seen out of that mess.

“Your smiles,” Ash points to his own, “they're both super cute.”

Clemont freezes, anything he was going to say completely fleeing his mind as he processes what Ash just said.

“Ah.” is all Clemont can say, Ash grins at him one last time, before waving as he turns and leaves the house.

“See you tomorrow Clemont!” Ash says cheerfully, and walks down the street, even though by now it was dark out.

“Bye Ash.” Clemont finally manages to say, even though by that point Ash had disappeared from sight.

His cheeks are bright red and he can't help but smile like a fool.

Apparently his smile was cute. Ash thought his smile was cute.

He doesn't even bother to hide his goofy smile as he walks back into the living room, plopping back onto the couch next to Bonnie. He doesn't even notice Bonnie staring at him with calculating eyes.

Bonnie changed the channel to watch the next episode of Legend of Flora, but Clemont doesn't pay it much attention. Just putting his elbow on the arm rest and hiding his smile in his hand.

He lets the cartoon fill the silence of the room, Bonnie for once deciding to stay silent. Luxray yawns from its spot on the couch and climbs over Bonnie's lap to lie on Clemont's lap now that Ash is gone.

Clemont softly scratches Luxray behind the ear, before he feels his phone buzz in his pockets.

He pulls it out to see a text from Serena. Clemont tries not to grimace at the idea of talking to Serena. Now that he knows he doesn't have a crush or Serena but Ash, he doesn't know if it'll feel awkward around her.

He hopes it's not, even though he's sure he'll have to sit through a rant or two from Serena about how much she likes Ash. Reminding him of how little of a chance he actually has with Ash.

Because while Serena is certainly the most obvious with her crush, she's far from the only person in school who likes Ash.

Clemont can't blame them, afterall Ash is funny, charming, and quite pretty. At the surface level that would be enough to make someone fall. Even though Clemont fell for Ash's compassion and enthusiasm for everything he did.

Still, Clemont gets why someone would have a crush on Ash. Believe him.

He figures he's fine with just being Ash's best friend. because when half of the school has a crush on Ash, why would he go for Clemont?

He checks the message from Serena and is relieved when he finds that it isn't about Ash. Instead she texts excitedly about how they finally figured out a photo to put online for Pikachu.

Pikachu has been less than cooperative at the photoshoots to update the social media for the upcoming adoption event. No matter how much Ash and the girls try, Pikachu refuses to sit down for a single photo. And when they do, Pikachu is either blurry, or glaring so viciously that it would scare off anyone who would want to adopt it.

They need a somewhat decent picture for Pikachu before the adoption event, Pikachu just needs to cooperate a little.

He raises an eyebrow and responds back. How'd you get Pikachu to cooperate if Ash wasn't there?

Serena responds back quickly. we didn't, we just found a photo from one of our shoots that we think would be good.

Then she follows it up with a photo. When it loads Clemont blinks at it.

Pikachu was standing on Ash's shoulders, Ash smiling brightly at Pikachu. Clemont remembers this, this was when Pikachu managed to finish the obstacle course for the first time and Ash was so incredibly proud. Pikachu in the photo was looking downright fond at Ash and was more relaxed then Clemont has seen from Pikachu when it's anywhere other than by Ash's side.

Clemont smiles at the photo, and he saves it before he could even think about what he's doing.

“Whatcha looking at?” Bonnie asks, leaning over to look at Clemont's phone. He lets her see the photo and she shifts to look at Clemont with narrowed eyes. Clemont raises an eyebrow at her, what's with the look?

Bonnie turns back to her cartoons and Clemont shrugs, turning back to his phone. They stay like that until Luxray perks up and Clemont hears the lock on the front door start to jiggle. He puts his phone away (which shifted from texting Serena to Ash, Ash complaining about not getting to see the shelter animals. Pikachu has probably rioted by now.) as Bonnie leaps to her feet, running up to the door to hug their dad as soon as he makes it through the door.

“Ooh!” Meyer says as he's immediately tackled by Bonnie, but he returns the hug easily, like he does everyday.

Clemont gives a small wave from over the couch and his dad smiles back. Clemont turns back to his phone when he feels it buzz, Ash responding to the joke Clemont made.

“How was school?” Meyer asks.

before Bonnie can burst out with enthusiasm Clemont calls out “it was good!” knowing that if he didnt Bonnie would talk over him.

“It was so good!” Bonnie says excitedly, “the teacher picked me to read my story out loud, and I saw a bird during math, and-”

Clemont tunes out the rest of Bonnie's rant, but keeps his fond smile as Bonnie excitedly retells her day.

“Oh! And Clemont brought a friend over!” Bonnie says excitedly, making Clemont look up again.

“He's really fun! He watched cartoons with me, and told me stories about animals he's seen, and made me apple snacks!” Bonnie cheers, bouncing on her toes.

“Really, a friend?” Meyer asks, looking up at Clemont.

Clemont nods, and oh god is his dad tearing up?

“I'm so proud!” Meyer sobs, reaching over the couch to bring Clemont in for a bone crushing hug.

“Dad!” Clemont whines, “it's not a big deal!”

“Of course it's a big deal!” Meyer insists, hugging Clemont tighter, “my baby has a friend!”

“Dad…” Clemont whines, though he can't keep a smile off his face, even as his father sobs.

“Hey dad…?” Clemont and Meyer hear Bonnie start, and Meyer pulls back from hugging Clemont to look at his youngest.

“Can boys like other boys? Like a boy liking a girl?” Bonnie asks innocently, Clemont can't help the choke and jerk of the shoulders as Bonnie asks that. He can barely stop the embarrassed squeak that tries to escape his lips.

How did she know!? Was he that obvious?

Meyer slowly blinks, looking closely at Clemont's reaction before turning back to Bonnie.

“Well, yes. Some boys like other boys instead of girls. And that's perfectly fine.” Clemont can't look near his father, his face flaming red, embarrassed.

“Why?” Meyer asks, “did something happen today?” He asks, more in Clemont's direction then Bonnie, even though his oldest is looking firmly in the opposite direction.

“Flora and Nanami in my show Legend of Flora started to date. And I was wondering if the opposite could happen.” Bonnie shrugs, and Clemont can't help the sigh of relief. She didn't know.

Bonnie walks off, content with the world. Like she didn't just nearly give Clemont a heart attack.

She leaves Clemont and Meyer there, Clemont just wants to curl up into a ball.

Meyer and Clemont just stay still for a few seconds, before Meyer awkwardly pats Clemont's shoulder.

“You know… if you or Bonnie ever decided you were gay that's fine right?” his dad says, quite awkwardly.

“Okay!” Clemont says, standing up abruptly.

“Thanks dad, I've got homework!” he says as he races out of the room and into his own. Leaving his dad there to make dinner.

He crashes onto his bed as soon as he gets into his room, not caring for the flash cards still scattered on the bed that he crushes. Instead he just groans into a pillow, his face burning red from embarrassment.

Great. So his dad probably knows about his little realization. And Bonnie probably also does, even if she hasn't quite fully connected all of the dots. She will soon.

“Ugh!” Clemont groans. Why is he like this?

Clemont looks up, pouting. Only to catch a glimpse of a navy blue jacket that definitely wasn't his. Because his navy blue jacket that was a part of his school uniform was currently hung up on the hook on the back of his door, for him to grab when he leaves for school in the morning. And this one was on the back of his desk chair. Sitting there innocently.

Ash must've forgotten his jacket, as he abandoned it pretty early into their studying. Clemont reaches out to grab it off his chair, moving to fold it so he could bring it back to Ash tomorrow.

He runs his hand over the shoulders of Ash's jacket, smiling at the claw shaped holes left by, no doubt, Pikachu. As Pikachu is the only animal allowed on Ash's shoulders. A couple of the birds have tried, from what Clemont has seen, but Pikachu chases them off quickly. Ashs shoulders are Pikachu's property and it refuses to share.

Clemont notices himself smiling like a goof, and he groans, burying his face into Ash's jacket.

Yeah, he definitely likes Ash.

Him and like half of the school.

Fuck.

#pokemon #ash ketchum #diodeshipping #pikachu #pokemon clemont #clemont #pokemon bonnie #modern au #pet shelter au #fanfiction #fanfic #you know for a scientist clemont does sure come to a bunch of incorrect conclusions huh

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writing-through-the-snow · 8 days ago

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Diodeshipping pet shelter au snippet 1

Clemont frowns down at the paper in front of him.

It was something he knew was coming up, and yet he never paid it much mind.

He needed to choose someplace to volunteer to achieve his graduation requirements at Lumiose Prep.

Mandatory volunteer hours sounded stupid to Clemont. Weren't people supposed to volunteer not for credit or reward. Making it mandatory completely threw out the notion of volunteering. Mandatory volunteering is an oxymoron and stupid to Clemont.

Totally not because Clemont would rather keep his head down and do his own thing until he graduates this place and could finally head to college.

Clemont huffs, tapping his pencil on his desk. He needed to get his hours finished this semester so he could take the robotics course he wanted to take next semester. Unfortunately Clemont really didn't want to do this whole volunteering thing.

Couldn't he just create an invention or something instead of volunteering? Couldn't he do something more productive with his time instead of doing some boring job that wouldn't get him any closer to college so he could become an engineer.

He's not even getting paid for it!

A quick glance over the list of places revealed that there were no scientific labs or research centers available. Which was expected, most labs don't want bumbling highschoolers to be in their space. And even if they were, they were already snatched up by Lumiose Preps best and brightest. The early birds who immediately turn in their applications the minute it opens up so they could get the spot that opened.

Unfortunately Clemont isn't one of those people, which means he's stuck with the scraps.

With a sigh, Clemont circles his least worst option. Professor Oak's Ranch. It was a semi popular animal shelter downtown. Clemont has had no interest in it, he's not one for animals besides his pet cat Luxray. And even then, Luxray is more of Bonnie's responsibility, along with her mouse Dedenne.

Clemont huffs again as he submits the form for volunteer hours at the small shop. At least Bonnie would get a kick out of it, she loves animals.

At least it'll be mostly easy work, Clemont assumes, it'll just be feeding and playing with animals.

What could be busy about that?

"Did you pick your volunteer hours?" Clemont’s one friend asks as she plops down in the seat next to him as she gets ready for class.

The two were mostly friends simply because they sat next to each other in science, so whenever they had group work they decided to partner up because it's easier then finding anyone else in the class.

Not that Clemont thought Serena would have trouble finding a partner should she need one, Clemont would have to be blind, dumb, and deaf to not notice half the stares Serena got. And she was pretty, Bonnie made that very clear the one time she and him went to his house to work on their project. Clemont just didn't really care about it much. He mostly just wanted to keep his head down and not draw attention until graduation.

But Serena was nice with their friendly conversations. Clemont is not sure he would really call her a friend, more like an acquaintance that happens to veer very close to the line of friend. A friend by convenience, when taken out of the convenience they weren't exactly friends.

But that didn't mean Clemont didn't know a lot about her. Serena tended to talk a lot between assignments.

Which was why Clemont knew a lot about her passion for sewing and fashion. How she wanted to work for a modeling company, either as the seamstress making the clothes or as the model itself. How she creates a lot of outfits that she models on her blog, her most popular posts being matching outfits of her and her cat Fennekin.

Her volunteer hours were to make blankets and clothes for the homeless. She had already finished them but she still likes doing it in her free time in between other projects with scrap fabric.

Clemont sighs, "Yeah, I'm volunteering for an animal shelter."

Serena blinks, "with how late you submitted your paperwork I'm surprised it was still open."

Clemont shrugs, still seemed as bad as the others.

"Well at least you get to play with cute animals after school everyday!" Serena claps.

"Yeah at least it'll be easy." Clamont shrugs, Serena goes to open her mouth before she gets distracted by someone entering the room.

Ash Ketchum. Arguably the most popular boy in the school. A friendly smile always on his face, and friendly words to anyone he meets. He got into Lumiose Prep on a sports scholarship last year, and promptly turned the entire social hierarchy on its head. Despite not being great at academics he does try his best and manages to get by on decent grades. He's always got these weird scratches on his uniform. Mostly around the sleeves and shoulder area, strangely. He's managed to win the heart of almost every girl in the school (and even quite a few boys) despite being completely oblivious to the glances they give.

Clemont doesn't really know him, the two don't really have spaces they interact very frequently. But Clemont swears no one can be that perfect. That there has to be something about him that isn't so great.

Serena sighs loudly next to him, melting into her hand.

But Clemont has certainly heard quite a lot about him from other people. Particularly Serena.

It was obvious just how big of a crush she had on him, arguably the biggest one in the school. Apparently, as Serena tells it, the two went to the same kindergarten and Serena has been head over heels ever since.

Clemont rolls his eyes. Serena doesn't even need to look before she lightly smacks his arm with her hand.

Ash must've noticed their staring because he glances over, smiling brightly at the two and waving from across the classroom. Clemont mindlessly waves back while turning back to his blueprints he was supposed to be working on. Serena squeaks when she sees Ash's wave and struggles to wave back as her face turns red.

Clemont rolls his eyes again.

As the teacher comes in and starts class, Clemont just hopes that his volunteer hours will go smoothly and quietly.

For some reason he feels he may have jinxed himself.

____

Clemont stands outside the small animal shelter, dreading the idea of going in.

He doesn't want to do these stupid volunteer hours. He would rather be at home, holed up in his room working on a machine. His father thinks this is Clemont's chance to make new friends, but at this point Clemont has given up on the idea of making friends until he heads to college.

The kids in Lumiose Prep tend to be mean, catty, and loud.

There's two main ways to get into luminous prep. You can get in on an academic basis. Either by passing the entrance exam or by being scouted from your regular high-school. Lumiose prep wants the best and brightest, so they scour the country for anyone academically gifted. Clemont got in at elementary school, having passed the entrance exam in the first year.

The other way is simply by paying your way in. This doesn't always guarantee your spot, but it's a pretty good way to confirm it. There's plenty of rich snobs who prance into Lumiose prep and won't care about their grades. Of course they have to care at least a bit, as otherwise they wouldn't keep their spot. But their money helps them skate through well past a normal student's limits.

These people almost always tend to be the bullies. The ones who stick their nose up at the hard working students who got in because they actually had talent.

Lumiose prep tends to be very competitive if you're one of the actually smart students, otherwise it's pretty lax if you have money.

Of course there's also the sports scholarship. But there's very few in the school. In fact, Clemont thinks Ash is the only one in their grade. Lumiose prep wants to be the best school at everything, which is why they scout out at other schools. If someone is found to be exceptional at a skill, they tend to be snatched up. But they don't pay much attention to sports unless someone is truly exceptional. Like Ash, apparently. In fact, they almost never offer someone a scholarship. For smart students, or for rich students. So for someone to have a sports scholarship is rare, exceptionally rare.

All this to say, Clemont doesn't really want to be friends with most of the people in Lumiose Prep. Either they're rich jerks who don't have to work for anything, or they're smart students but have a tendency to always compare and give backhanded compliments or give bad advice to get ahead.

Clemont doesn't care for either.

Even Serena is kinda awkward to talk with for Clemont. So he doesn't really have friends.

He has very low hopes that he'll make any at this animal shelter.

But Clemont has a little hope about this whole venture. The owner is Professor Oak, one of the leading scientists in animal behavior and technology. If Clemont could manage to get an internship with him he could do great and might even have a job once he gets out of college.

He just has to volunteer here first.

With a sigh Clemont pushes the door, only to be met by an odd sight. One boy, a few years older than Clemont, at the front desk has his head in his hands, looking like the picture of gloom. He has a green shirt and hair pulled out of his face with a headband. There's an abandoned sketch pad and pencil on the desk next to him. Meanwhile another boy, also a few years older than Clemont, chases around dozens of birds that were flapping around the front area of the shop. He also had a green shirt. But he had spiky brown hair that was currently housing what looks to be a barn owl as it sleeps.

Clemont looks at the scene, contemplating turning around and leaving before his volunteering even begins. But the boy at the front desk seems to notice him, and perks up.

"Hey, you must be the new student volunteer! Lumiose prep, right?" He says, waving Clemont over to the desk. Clemont glances at the birds again and the boy sweat drops.

"Don't mind Brock and the birds, our tabby just opened all of the cages when we weren't looking." He says as he steps away from the desk to gesture to the back, leading Clemont, "I promise it's not usually like this." He sounds a little desperate as he says this.

Once Clemont is led to the back, in a small room with just a desk and two chairs, he sits down and gestures for Clemont to do the same.

"I'm Tracey, the manager here at Professor Oak's Ranch." He says, extending an arm.

"Clemont." Clemont shakes his hand a little awkwardly.

"So for your volunteer time you'll mostly be shadowing one of our workers. One of 'em is Brock, he was the one chasing the birds." Tracey says and Clemont nods along, looking around the room. It looks like there were a few trophies, when Clemont looks closer it seems it was for different animal training courses. He guesses it's like those dog agility courses he'll sometimes see his sister watch when none of her cartoons are on.

"He'll mostly focus on the care aspect of the animals," Tracey says offhandedly as he scribbles on a name tag.

He spelled Clemont wrong, calling him Clement.

Clemont is about to correct him when Brock shouts. Tracey pales, looking torn between helping Clemont or Brock. Eventually Brock wins out.

"The other you'll meet right now, he mostly focuses on training and getting the rescues comfortable here, he'll take you through the store." Tracey says, standing and leaning out the door.

"Ash! You finished with Pikachu?" Tracey shouts out the door.

"Am I ever!?" A familiar voice shouts back. Weirdly familiar.

Tracey pauses, before sighing. "Can you take the new volunteer around and introduce him to all the animals?"

"Oh sure!" The familiar voice says again, much closer this time.

A familiar face pops up next to Tracey in the doorway, and Tracey turns back to Clemont.

"This is Ash, he'll be the one training you." Tracey says, gesturing to a very familiar person.

"Oh hey Clemont!" Ash greets with a smile. Clemont gives a shaky smile back.

Oh, great. He thought he wouldn't find anyone he knew at school here.

Most people at Lumiose Prep wouldn't be caught dead here, but he guesses Ash just has to be the outliner in everything.

Oh god it's gonna be so awkward. What would the two even have in common?

"Oh you know each other?" Tracey quirks an eyebrow.

"We’re In the same class." Ash explains.

"I forgot you went to Lumiose Prep." Tracey hums, heading to help Brock, "snob." Tracey teases, nudging Ash. Ash rolls his eyes at Tracey.

"So you're doing your volunteer hours here?" Ash asks, gesturing for Clemont to follow him to the rest of the shelter.

"Yeah," Clemont confirms following Ash.

They enter a small kennel area, probably where all the animals are.

“Well all the animals are great, you'll love ‘em” Ash says, squatting in front of the first kennel, a large one that gives the animal inside free reign.

“It's about time to take a few outside, so we'll introduce you to them now.” Ash unlocks the kennel.

“This is Bulbasaur.” Ash says, stepping back from the kennel. A green tinted dog prances out and sits next to Ash. It seems to be a retriever.

“Why is it green?” Clemont asks, holding out his hand for the dog to sniff.

“Bulbasaur loves to roll around in the grass, we can barely keep it out of the garden. Which has led to it being almost permanently tinted green.” Ash huffs, scratching Bulbasaur under the chin. Clemont starts to scratch Bulbasaur behind the ear.

Ash steps back, calling attention to Bulbasaur.

“Free!” he chirps, giving the order with a hand signal, flicking his wrist like you would unlock a door. Bulbsaur perks up, bounding away before heading to the kennel next to it, flicking the lock up with its nose before bounding away to do the same with the other locks.

Soon the space in front of Ash is filled with many different types of dogs as they sit in front of Ash obediently.

“Bulbasaur knows how to unlock the kennels?” Clemont asks, impressed. “Smart dog.”

“Bulbasaur was the first animal I successfully trained here. Back when I was first learning how to.” Ash explains offhandedly.

“Later I'll take you to the obstacle course. A few of the animals do, most don't, but the ones who stay here the longest we tend to teach tricks to. That way they have a higher chance of being adopted.” Ash explains as he brings Clemont to an outside area with all of the dogs. They immediately start playing or doing their business.

“Bulbasaur has been here the third longest, it's taken to take care of the shelter and the other animals. It helps get a lot of the newer animals accustomed to shelter life.” Ash continues to explain.

Clemont smiles as he listens to Ash gush about all of the animals, as he shifts to talk about the other dogs. It seems he really likes this job. Clemont still doesn't really care about it, but it's kinda funny seeing someone so cool gush like a dork about something. Kinda like what Clemont does with his inventions.

“How long have you been working here?” Clemont suddenly asks, breaking Ash from his gushing about one of the older dogs, apparently one of the best in the agility course. A great dane with a tail of orange red like fire.

“Oh I've been working here since I was… six? I think? Professor Oak used to babysit me while my mom was working so I ended up helping out here a lot.” Ash explains. Clemont feels a little jealous that Ash got babysat by a great inventor, but he brushes past it quickly.

“That long?” Clemont whistles. Glancing back at the dogs, it was around time for the dogs to start coming back in apparently.

Ash whistles, a sharp sound and the dogs immediately look to Ash, obediently following him back inside.

“I'll teach you a couple of the commands later.” Ash mentions and Clemont follows him and listens carefully as Ash explains how to feed and clean the animals' kennels.

“Sometimes we'll get called out to other areas to help out with an extra pair of hands, the most common one is our sister location at cerulean city, they specialize in marine care, so make sure to bring a pair of swimwear just in case.” Ash explains as he pours some kibble into a couple food bowls.

Clemont mentally keeps track of all the things he'll need to do, noticing how it unfortunately keeps stacking up. Looks like this won't be as easy as he thought.

Ash is still so friendly, no one who goes to Lumiose Prep is so friendly. Everyone has a certain cattiness about them, it's unnerving to see someone be so nice and go to that school. There has to be a catch.

"We've got bath days every other day, each for a different type of animal." Ash says offhandedly as he shoves a bag of kibble into Clemont's arms for him to try and pour it into the bowls as well. He sinks with the weight of the bag, struggling to actually be able to hold it up and aim it to hit the bowls and not outside of them.

"Mondays are our dogs, Wednesday our reptiles, Fridays our cats, and Saturdays our birds." Ash says, picking up an armful of bowls like an expert waiter holding a dozen plates at one time, Clemont picks up the last three, nearly spilling one of them as he struggles to keep up with Ash.

"You'll be working with me a lot to wash the animals, but if we aren't washing any of the animals it means we are cleaning any of their enclosures that need to be cleaned, especially the reptiles and the birds." Clemont wrinkles his nose, sounds gross.

"It's really not that hard once you get used to it!" Ash says, smiling brightly at Clemont that makes him pause.

Clemont brushes past the weird feeling Ash's smile gives him as Ash starts to feed the dogs, they all circle around the two, nearly tripping Ash and succeeding in tripping Clemont. Clemont yelps as the kibble spills all over him, causing the dogs to pounce to grab as much as they could, even if it meant covering Clemont in slobber.

The dogs are all over him, everytime he tries to stand up he gets pushed down by another dog. Clemont is about to give up and lie down on the ground to let the dogs do whatever they want, before he feels a hand wrap around his wrist and jerk him up.

Clemont yelps again, stumbling as his knees almost buckle. He feels a hand rest on his shoulder to help sturdy him, he grabs onto Ash's hand on his wrist to further sturdy himself.

"Thanks," he says, feeling thoroughly disheveled with his clothes and hair being all messed up, and slobber all over himself.

"No worries, it happens to me all the time!" Ash grins. Before noticing something in Clemont's hair. He brushes a piece kibble from Clemont's hair, Clemont just lets him.

"Well they've got their food, it's time we introduce you to our other animals!" Ash beams, Clemont gives a wobbly smile, thoroughly unsure about how he'll enjoy his time here.

Ash takes him through the daily chores for the reptiles, the few fish and crab they have, apparently most go to the cerulean city shelter, the cats, and the birds. The birds had settled down at this point and were no longer being chased by Brock. The little barn owl that was sleeping in Brock's hair decided that its new place to lounge was in Ash's hood, which was pretty cute. The mice they had were cute too, he snapped a few pictures to show his little sister, he's sure she'd love to come here to play with the mice with her own mouse Dedenne.

It was interesting to see one of the birds Ash had named Pidgeot, it was apparently being trained by Ash in search and rescue. He wonders if he'll see Ash train any other animals here.

But soon enough they were done with the tour, and it was about time for Clemont to wrap up for the day. He was glad, we were still covered in slobber and wanted nothing more than to take a shower and to take a nap.

Unfortunately it didn't seem like it was all over yet as when Ash was bringing Clemont back to the front of the shelter Tracey looked over.

"You show him all the animals and stuff he'll be doing?" Tracey asks, Ash nods.

"Yup met with all the animals!" Ash cheerfully says, Brock leans over the counter dubiously.

"Really? You show him Pikachu yet?" Brock asks amused, "gotta say I'm impressed, no newbie has made it out of an interaction with that cat without a scratch or four."

Tracey shudders like he was remembering a terrible memory.

"No I didn't show him Pikachu, do you want me to break him?" Ash asks, putting his hands on his hips. Clemont feels confused, why would a cat break him?

Brock seems to notice his confusion and grins.

"Pikachu is the animal who's been in this shelter the longest, it's extremely troublesome and prone to causing trouble. It absolutely hates most humans, with a few exceptions." Brock explains.

"That cat can be downright cruel." Tracey whines, Brock pats his back with a solemn nod.

"Yeah Pikachu has a reputation." Brock sweat drops.

"Why doesn't Ash just show you!" Brock claps, Ash shrugs.

For some reason Clemont feels a chill down his spine as Ash reluctantly agrees and leads him down a hallway.

Ash leads him to a room next to the cat's room. It had a sign on it with 'danger, Pikachu inside'.

"Pikachu really isn't that bad once you get to know him," Ash tries to reassure, Clemont feels the opposite.

It's just a cat, what harm can it do?

Clemont will soon learn to regret those words. Pikachu is the most evil cat he knows, which isn't saying much considering Clemont only knows Luxray, but it's still quite terrifying.

Clemont creeps into the room as Ash opens it, feeling a sense of terror building at the horror stories Brock and Tracey were sharing loudly from the other room. As if they were trying to scare Clemont.

The room was pretty empty, just a single cage in the middle of it.

"We have to keep Pikachu here cause it keeps escaping every other enclosure, if it keeps escaping animal control will end up picking it up and sending it away. So we gotta be careful Pikachu can't escape." Ash says, "we take Pikachu out for a lot of play times and walks to make sure it's getting lots of energy out and not getting antsy, but it loves to cause trouble and escape anyway."

Clemont stares at the cage, he swears he can hear a faint growling sound coming from it as two red beady eyes stare out at Clemont from the darkness.

Clemont feels terrified. He feels terrified of a cat.

"Well, open the cage." Ash says, gesturing.

"Wh-what!? Me!?" Clemont shouts, whipping his head over to Ash.

Ash looks at him confused, like he was being the crazy one.

"Well who else?" Ash raises an eyebrow.

"S-shouldn't you do it? Since you have experience with the cat?" Clemont asks, still shaky.

"Well Pikachu isn't gonna like you if you don't introduce yourself, so you might as well open the cage." Ash tilts his head and Clemont bites his lip.

He really doesn't want to have to open the now trembling cage. But if he must.

He creeps forward, still terrified before he shakily touches the lock, only to yelp as the cage suddenly surges forward, the door crashing open as a blur of yellow comes bursting out of the cage. Clemont yelps, the yellow blur pounces on Clemont, scratching his face as it clambers up his head to jump off of Clemont and onto Ash.

"Oh come on Pikachu!" Ash groans, catching the tabby and holding it away from himself.

The tabby stares at Ash cheekily, letting out a loud meow in response.

Clemont picks himself up, touching the scratches on his face, they don't seem to be bleeding, but man can that cat scratch hard.

Ash stares unimpressed at the tabby, who drops its cheeky look to look grumpily at Ash. Ash lets the tabby curl to stand on his shoulders, curling around them like a fuzzy scarf.

“Well, Pikachu, this is Clemont.” Ash says, gesturing to Clemont, and suddenly Clemont feels like he's being judged by a cat.

“He's gonna be helping with your care.” Ash says, Pikachu stares unimpressed at Clemont, before sticking its nose in the air.

Oh great, Pikachu already hated him. That's a good start.

Though Clemont notices how Pikachu digs its claws into Ash's shirt as it rests on Ash's shoulders.

“Brock mentioned Pikachu had a few exceptions to those it hates, who doesn't it hate?” He asks curiously, Ash shrugs, jostling Pikachu.

“Well, he likes my mom,” Ash says, Pikachu agrees with a loud meow, “and my friend Misty.”

“She used to work at this branch but got transferred a little while ago to the cerulean branch, it's a shame cause Pikachu practically only listens to her.” Ash smiles down at the tabby, Who simply licks its paw.

“It seems like Pikachu doesn't mind you though.” Clemont notices and Ash again shrugs, making Pikachu give him a warning glance.

“More like Pikachu tolerates me, but it's better than anyone else here, so I take care of Pikachu.” Ash says, he scratches Pikachu's ear and Pikachu seems to have decided he pushed his luck too far and smacks him with his paw.

Ash simply laughs at the abuse and shakes his head.

“Come On, I'm gonna start training Pikachu for a bit, I'm pretty sure Tracey still has some stuff for you to go over.” Ash says, leading Clemont to the front before disappearing in the back.

“That Pikachu might be a lost cause.” Tracey shakes His head.

“Hey, don't say that. Ash has actually surprisingly trained it a few tricks. Of course it only performs those tricks when it wants to but still.” Brock immediately says to Tracey.

“but it has such an attitude I'd be surprised if anyone adopts it.” Tracey shoots back, “we might have to transfer it to another location if it doesn't get adopted soon.”

Brock huffs but Tracey turns to Clemont.

“Lets go get the logistics sorted Clemont.” Tracey smiles and Clemont nods and follows him.

He gets given his uniform, his schedule complete with the hours filled out on his volunteer form given he actually does All of the hours, general guidelines he has to follow, and a contract To sign. Once he does so he gets set on his merryway, Told to come back tomorrow after school.

Great…

This'll be an adventure to say the least.

Clemont sighs, walking home. Just means less time for him to work on his inventions.

_____

Clemont isn't exactly thrilled to walk to the shelter instead of home afterschool, but whatever. Hopefully the days pass by quickly so that by the end of the semester he can be done with his volunteer hours.

He honestly had no clue what he was supposed to do today at the shelter, having absorbed very little information Ash and Tracey dumped on him. But he figures he'd be told soon.

He hopes it's slow enough that he could do his homework, he would hate to have to go to the shelter immediately after school, then do homework for hours, and when he was finally done his father was telling him to head to bed before he could do anything else. But thankfully it's Friday, and besides an early morning shift on Saturday at the shelter, he doesn't have anything else to do. So he can hole himself up in his bedroom and invent all weekend.

His hopes are dashed when he walks into the shelter, chaos all around. Brock was lying on the floor, letting himself be trampled by the large amount of dogs running amok, while Tracey was perched on the front desk, sketching in his sketchbook. Ash was standing to the side, looking thoroughly amused at the chaos, with Pikachu on his shoulder looking bored.

"What's happening?" Clemont asks, carefully joining Ash on the edges of the chaos.

"Brock thought it would be a good idea to say the B-A-T-H word and got the dogs riled up right before their B-A-T-H. So I'm letting them get their energy out before we take them.' Ash shrugs.

"You can't say bath?" Clemont questions, fifteen furry heads whip around at him.

Clemont has never felt fear this strongly before.

The dogs start running around even crazier, barking loudly and obnoxiously.

"Yeah there's a couple words you can't say out loud, like B-A-T-H, or T-R-E-A-T, or W-A-L-K, or-" Ash says and Clemont shakes his head.

"Okay I get it," he says.

"But be careful, Bulbasaur knows how to spell." Ash says, pointing at Bulbasaur. Who was trying to get the other dogs to calm down for their bath, especially the great dane with a fire red tail. Charizard if Clemont remembers correctly.

"That's a smart dog," Clemont says again, Ash grins and nods, proud of Bulbasaur.

"Alright that's enough," Ash shakes his head, turning back to the dogs. He whistles, and the dogs return rank and file to sit in front of Ash.

But Charizard has a stern stare off with Ash, Ash returns it, raising a stern eyebrow.

Charizard eventually backs down, sitting down with a huff. But it doesn't look at Ash, looking like a pouting child.

Clemont doesn't even notice Charizard was sitting on Brock's face until he hears Brock groan.

"Let's go guys," Ash says, directing them into a room Clemont hasn't been in before. Clemont doesn't follow Ash, instead looking to Tracey for what he should be doing. Tracey finally looks up from his sketchbook to Clemont.

"Go help Ash with the dog's bath-" Tracey says, only to be cut off as chaos erupts from the dogs again.

"Oh come on!" Ash shouts from the other room.

Clemont snorts at the ensuing noises and crashes from the room Ash was in, but Tracey just looks at him expectantly and Clemont's face drops. He looks at the room, that he's pretty sure might burst from all the ruckus the dogs are creating.

Why can't these volunteer hours be normal and easy?

Clemont sighs, before braving a brave face and stepping in.

He sees Ash struggling to get the dogs calm, and he steps back to let Ash figure that all out. He's not an animal trainer after all, he's got no clue what he's doing here.

Eventually Ash gets two of the dogs, Bulbasaur and Charizard, to the raised metal tubs near the walls, and leashes them there. Then he gets the rest of the dogs to run outside and play with Brock until they were done.

"Alright!" Ash grins, putting on a triumphant smile, "we got this far!"

"...Is this far an achievement?" Clemont asks, and Ash shrugs.

"In under an hour? Definitely." Ash says, before grabbing some items from the shelves and placing them on tray tables nearby.

"Here's what we're gonna be using," Ash says, "some of the dogs have special conditions that you need to be wary of, but I'll make sure you get the right shampoo and conditioner for the right dogs."

He stands by Charizard and gestures for Clemont to get closer to Bulbasaur.

"Bulbasaur is probably the best fit for you to learn how to bathe the animals first." Ash comments, pulling out a brush.

"The first thing we're gonna wanna do is brush out the undercoat, Charizard needs a lot less brushing then Bulbasaur does but just loosely brush over Bulbasaur, don't worry about getting it all out yet." Ash instructs, as he starts to brush Charizard. Charizard begrudgingly lets him. Clemont quickly picks up a brush and follows how Ash is brushing Charizard on Bulbasaur.

"Don't worry Charizard, I wont get close to your tail." Ash smiles and pets Charizard who relaxes slightly.

"Charizard hates it whenever something touches his tail, we think it's something to do with what his previous owners did to him as a puppy before he came to us." Ash says with a soft smile as he pets Charizard.

"Charizard was left out in the forest as a puppy because his owners didn't think he was intimidating enough to be a good dog fighting contender." Ash shakes his head, his smile fading.

"When he eventually came here he was so scared he would cling to anyone that showed him any sort of kindness, but something, we think it was a burn, happened to his tail so he was never adopted." Ash says, carefully guiding the brush over Charizard, Clemont frowns as he looks at Bulbasaur, continuing to brush the dog out.

"But when he got older he got more aggressive, and bigger, so less and less people wanted to adopt him" Ash says quietly, before he shakes his head, perking up.

"But that's gonna change, right Charizard!? You're gonna go out there and show them your most awesome tricks right?" Charizard barks, deep and loud, but no less proud. Clemont smiles as he watches the two.

Ash seems pretty nice to these animals, if he's willing to work so hard to get them adopted.

Eventually Ash deems Charizard and Bulbasaur fit for the next stage, the blow out.

"Now Charizard doesn't need this, but for a dog with a double coat like Bulbasaur, you should especially while it's shedding." Ash instructs, giving him the vacuum like thing and turning it on, only for Clemont to realize it's a blow dryer.

"Just hold it close enough to the hair to flip, no farther" Ash yells over the blow dryer.

"Right!" Clemont yells back. Fur is thrown everywhere and Pikachu, still around Ash's shoulder, makes a disgusted expression when too much is flung towards its face.

Pikachu jumps off Ash's shoulder, curling up into a ball on a table far enough away from the bathing stations to escape the fur.

Eventually Ash switches the blow dryer off, and grabs the hose to start wetting the dogs.

Clemont copies what Ash is doing, but peeks over at him curiously a couple times.

"So what's Bulbasaurs story then?" Clemont prompts and Ash beams. Clemont can't help but smile at how happy Ash seems to be when talking about the animals.

"Bulbasaur used to be owned by a volunteer of the shelter, Melanie." Ash says, "I actually used to train under her when I was little."

"She planted all of the plants you can see outside decorating the shelter, she was really good at knowing which plants were toxic to what animals, and how to take care of them." Ash smiles as he continues to shower Charizard, but it's a bit sad.

"But Melanie was on the older side, and she started having trouble coming to the shelter, Bulbasaur took care of her, but eventually..." Ash's smile disappears for a few seconds and Clemont picks up on why.

"Bulbasaur was eventually brought to the shelter, without Melanie. And I started training it." Ash shrugs, "since Bulbasaur is on the olderside most people don't want to adopt it, but if we can show how helpful it can be, then I'm sure it'll get adopted real quick."

Clemont smiles, "then I guess we need to get them clean first."

"Yup!" Ash grins.

They turn back to washing the dogs, Clemont following what Ash was doing and starting to rub in soap into the fur.

It was largely quiet between the two of them, the only noise being the sounds of the water in the bathing stations. At least, until Ash awkwardly speaks up.

"So apparently besides volunteering for animal shelters, what else do you like to do, Clemont?" Ash asks and Clemont shrugs quickly.

"I only really volunteered here because it seemed like the least worst option, and I had to volunteer this semester so I could take the engineering class I wanted next semester." Clemont says, correcting Ash's view.

"I like making inventions, and robots I guess." Clemont says quietly, a little embarrassed. It's not exactly the most cool hobby, and probably pretty boring to someone like Ash.

"That's so awesome!" Clemont is surprised, looking over at Ash who practically had stars in his eyes.

"Wh-what?" Clemont blinks, he doesn't think he's ever found anyone else who's interested in his inventions.

"Yeah!" Ash smiles, "I always thought science was amazing!"

"Of course, I don't understand it at all," Ash chuckles, scratching his cheek and getting soap studs on his cheek, "but I think whoever can understand that stuff has to be super cool."

Clemont is stunned, but he can't help himself from being incredibly flattered.

He keeps his eyes on Bulbasaur, washing off the soap suds off on its fur, trying not to blush at being called cool.

"What kinda inventions are you making?" Ash asks, sounding genuinely interested.

"We-well I've recently finished a backpack that has arms to carry around heavy stuff that I can't carry." Clemont then goes on to ramble about his inventions, Ash genuinely interested and asking questions whenever he didn't understand what Clemont was talking about. Clemont took all of the questions in stride, finding that he really didn't need to dumb anything down for Ash, just explain them in a different way. It was so exciting to get to talk about his favorite hobby to someone who was genuinely interested.

His dad is usually interested, but he's also busy taking care of both Clemont and his younger sister and working to support all three of them. So Clemont doesn't get to talk as much as he wishes he could with his dad.

And Bonnie, well, no way. She would get bored so quickly and then start prodding at Clemont's love life (or lack of one).

And he's just not that close with Serena, and she's obviously not interested in anything he does even though she's nice about it. But Clemont can tell she gets lost and bored quickly when he talks about his inventions.

So having someone who genuinely cared about it, who not only wanted to hear Clemont talk about his inventions but also thought he was cool for them-

Well, maybe Ash isn't like everyone else at Lumiose Prep.

Maybe.

The rest of the time spent washing the animals was actually pretty fun in Clemont's opinion. After they finished Bulbasaur and Charizard, they moved onto two other dogs named Snorlax, a fluffy keeshond who just kept lying down to sleep, and Bayleaf, a golden retriever who absolutely adored Ash.

Ash would talk about the dogs, what he was working on with them. Apparently Snorlax would steal food from wherever it could get it as a stray, by the time they managed to get Snorlax to come to the shelter, the keeshond's fluffy hair was so matted it had to be shaved. Apparently, as opposed to most keeshonds, Snorlax is incredibly lazy, and mostly just wants to sleep and eat. But Ash has been working to train it, as it's very food motivated.

While Bayleaf is relatively young, just growing into its adult body size. As a puppy it used to jump onto Ash all of the time, and Ash would carry it around in his arms. But now that it's older Ash can't do that anymore and Bayleaf does not understand why Ash won't carry her around anymore.

He also learns more about Ash, how while he got into Lumiose Prep on a track scholarship, he's only really going because his mom thinks it's a good opportunity for him. But he preferred his old school with all of his friends. How he's being raised by a single mom, who's doing her absolute best and he loves very much. How he wants to train animals to be service animals as his job one day.

And Clemont is sure Ash learned quite a bit from him during it too. He knows he talked about his classes, complaining about the arts and language classes they have to take, the ones he's worst at. Though the ones Ash is best at, apparently.

He talked about his family, his little sister who's gotten it into her mind that if he doesn't get a girlfriend by the time he graduates highschool he's going to be alone forever. God knows where she got that idea from.

And he, of course, talked plenty about his inventions. Which Ash definitely seemed interested in.

Pikachu evidently got bored of waiting around for them to be done though, and set to work prancing around the room knocking everything over it could. Which led to Ash running around trying to stop Pikachu. Which led to Pikachu turning on the water at his bathing station, spraying water all over the room and soaking them all.

"Why is Pikachu out right now? Shouldn't it be in its cage?" Clemont asks, Ash hums, picking Pikachu up before it could cause more damage while Clemont shuts off the water.

"I don't really like putting Pikachu in its cage more than necessary, it gets lonely, and bored, so it acts out." Ash shrugs, keeping a careful eye on Pikachu as he places it on a table.

"We really only have Pikachu's cage isolated like that because if we didn't then Pikachu would escape, but Pikachu doesn't usually try to escape while I'm around." Ash explains and Clemont nods along.

"I think we need to learn how to work with Pikachu, rather than trying to suppress its mischievous nature." Ash says, smiling at Pikachu even as Pikachu bats his hand away.

"One day." Ash smiles, before turning back to the bathing stations.

Clemont smiles, turning back as well.

He was glad that conversation between him and Ash actually flowed really easily, and Ash was very fun to talk with. Much more than any of his other classmates at school.

So much so that later that night when his father asked about his friends, Clemont froze. When asked, his mind immediately flashed to Ash.

But were they friends? Or just friendly acquaintances? Would they ever talk if Clemont stopped volunteering at the shelter?

He found himself hoping that it wasn't just a friendship of convenience, that they could actually be friends. But he wasn't sure yet.

He hopes, at least.

You can read the rest of this on ao3 under Dashing_through_snow

https://archiveofourown.org/works/62767867

#diodeshipping #pokemon #ash ketchum #fanfic #fanfiction #clemont #pikachu #pokemon brock #tracey sketchit #bulbasaur #charizard #bayleaf #snorlax #modern au #pet shelter au

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