My Amour

Fanboy

Ash was a good kid. Kukui was sure of that. He was unusually passionate, driven, optimistic, and courageous. All things that he definitely wasn't at 16 years old.

Now all these were great character traits, but the one thing that Kukui admired the most about his young charge was his almost unnatural ability to roll with the punches.

No matter what the region threw at him, he just kept going, always pushing forward and trying to do the right thing. At the end of the day, it didn't seem like anything could faze Ash.

Which is why it was so strange that tonight, the boy seemed nervous.

It happened when they had settled in for the night to watch a movie. The Great Rattata Detective. The movie started well enough, but halfway through Kukui noticed something was wrong.

Ash was fidgeting.

Kukui would like to think that he'd picked up on most of Ash's habits by now. For starters, he was not even close to an early riser. He would wake up late, shoveling breakfast in his mouth then dashing off to the school.

The kid could put away food like nobody's business.

He had good instincts too. Whenever caught off guard, his first reaction was to reach for the Poké Balls on his belt.

It made Kukui a little sad to think what the kid had been through to have that sort of reaction.

He had nightmares too. Sometimes Kukui would wake up to the sound of thrashing in the night, walk out into the living room and peer out at the loft. He'd meet eyes with Pikachu, who'd be comforting Ash. The little mouse would shake his head at him, and Kukui took the message for what it was. If Ash wanted to talk to him about it, he would.

Ash had all sorts of habits and behaviors. Fidgeting wasn't one of them.

He kept an eye on Ash for the rest of the movie. It wasn't a nervous fidget, like he thought at first. It was more like Ash was... excited for something. He kept glancing at the digital display clock on the counter, and was positively vibrating by the time the movie finished.

"Well professor," Ash said, jumping out of the couch and making a big show of yawning and stretching, "I'm exhausted. We should hit the sack so that we can get an early start tomorrow!"

Kukui wasn't fooled. Ash wanted him to go to sleep, or at least to his room. Fine, he'd play along.

"Oh agreed, I'm exhausted and I've got a ton of papers to write." Kukui said, glancing towards Ash out of the corner of his eye. A very poorly hidden flash of excitement crossed the boy's face. Kukui smirked, then started heading towards his room. "I'm packing it in. Turn the lights off when you go to sleep"

Kukui closed the bedroom door behind him and immediately pressed an ear to it. Sure enough, a poorly whispered "Awesome!" Followed by the noises of a happy Pikachu came from the other side. Nothing but trouble, from what he could hear.

Kukui sighed and headed over to his desk. If he was going to be up anyways, he might as well actually work on his papers.

~~~

An hour later, and the professor was making great progress. His latest research was on the way that Rotom could bond with a Pokédex to speak English, and if other Pokémon could work with similar apparatuses to bridge the gap between human and Pokémon language.

An interesting theory. But it required working with ghost types, who weren't always the best research partners.

Little tricksters.

The professor was so engrossed with his writing that he almost didn't notice a loud whoop coming from the living room.

Almost.

Ash was a pretty loud kid.

The Professor slowly stood up from his desk and made his way over to the door. Cracking it open slightly, he took in the scene in front of him.

Ash was standing up while Pikachu slept on the couch, pumping his fists in the air as he watched something on the TV. It was a Hoenn contest, clearly coming to its end. A girl with honey-blonde hair was waving at the crowd, a beaming smile on her face. It was pretty clear that she'd won.

Kukui didn't know that Ash was a fan of contests. He never mentioned it.

Ash continued his excited cheers, and the professor grinned at his excitement. It wasn't very often that Ash was this pumped about something besides a good battle.

Oh well. One more thing that the kid could tell him when he was ready. Kukui wouldn't push him. He just hoped one day the boy would trust him enough to let off some of the load that was clearly on his shoulders. Alola was supposed to be a place to help soothe the soul, and Kukui hoped it would have that effect on Ash.

With one last glance at the excited kid, the Professor closed the door and went to bed.