My Heart Belongs to You

Chapter 1: Fearful Beginning

A young man of seventeen sat before his laptop; a look of fierce concentration was evident as he seemed invested to whatever he was looking up. He had spiky brown hair, medium pale green hued eyes and wore glasses with a white lab coat over a deep purple top and black dress pants.

This teen in question; he wasn't the most social of people and at times was pretty isolated from the rest of his family. Which was odd, considering his choice to follow the path of a researcher like that of his grandfather.

At times he could be very anti-social; almost to the point where he seemed to be caustic and tended to be more verbally abrasive than he intended when emotionally upset or felt backed into a corner. There were only a few people that could handle him whenever he was like that; actually...there were like five people only.

Three of them were here now; his grandfather, his sister, and the woman he considered his second mom after his own had passed. The other two; one of them worked for his grandfather, but currently was abroad.

The last person; he was the only one who could both calm him with just a smile or get under skin enough to agitate him very quickly.

So, he had made a few good and lasting friendships through the years despite his awkwardness and tendencies. Relationships that his grandfather approved of wholeheartedly and didn't continue to push him to make more of with others. He knew that his grandson wouldn't open the same to others as he had these individuals.

His name was Gary Oak, and he was the grandson of the famous pokemon researcher Professor Samuel Oak in the Kanto Region. Nearly six years ago, he had set out on a journey with his starter pokemon as a trainer. He and several others, but none of them were more special than a certain boy he grew up alongside of.

They went from friends who had practically done everything together; Gary having lost his parents mysteriously and been left with his sister on their grandfather's door to be reared after that and opening to the boy as he hadn't to others their own age, to rivals so easily after several bad choices he made.

Ones that he now fully regretted; ones he could never take back and knew that they had hurt them both as well as that stupid and childish argument over a rusted and broken in half pokeball that they had fished out of the river in their hometown.

He eyed the fragment momentarily on his dresser beside the photo of him and this boy from years ago while he smiled as he got distracted some. The fragment carried so many different memories and emotions for them both.

Ash was his name; Ash Ketchum and it had been several years since they last had seen the other for any prolonged amount of time. After Ash defeated Gary in the Silver League Conference; a battle that had been building between them for two years and ended with a clash the audience likely hadn't forgotten even now, Gary decided to quit being a Trainer and follow the path of a researcher like his grandfather.

Ash had been surprised by this decision when he had spoken to him after the battle and they agreed to be friends again. He seemed happy that Gary had chosen to follow his dream and he had easily accepted the change of his friend's path whilst he had wished Gary luck in his new goals.

They parted amicably for the first time in nearly two whole years. Gary had left; feeling like a weight they carried had suddenly vanished. However, he had also felt a new sense of loss and dread at the same time; one that he had not understood to this day of why it had occurred.

Both of them knowing they would one day be the friends they once were before the rivalry had gotten the better of them.

It would never be the same as it once could have been; he had no illusions that it would, but he felt deep down that what they could build now...even after all this; it would rival what could have been had they not separated years before in animosity and rivalry.