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The fire’s nice, he thinks. Warm against his skin, as Kalos’ autumn chill is starting to set in.
They’ve got a bigger group than normal, tonight. They ran into Shauna, Trevor, and Tierno. They’re so fun. It’s great.
So now it’s late, probably - the sun set a long time ago, and Bonnie went off to bed an hour or two ago, and the stars are high in the sky. Everyone’s laughing and talking. It’s lovely.
“Ash,” Shauna says, and then she says something else, but he’s not quite sure what it is. Something about - how battling has been going? He caught the world pokemon in there, pretty sure, although that’s easy because it’s the same in every language he’s learned.
He smiles, and laughs, and gives a thumbs up, which seems to appease everyone, and they move on.
It’s usually great. It’s usually so great. It was fun, earlier today. But there’s something about the fact that it’s really late and everyone’s talking so fast and interrupting each other that Ash’s brain has just - stopped being able to comprehend Kalosian, right now.
Something sparks in his chest, and it’s that deep ache that’s been reserved solely for Misty and Brock and no one else.
He likes his friends here; he really does. But it’s just so easy with his older friends. He never has to worry about messing up a pronunciation, or getting some idiom wrong, or something else. He loves languages. He’s great at them. Professor Oak’s always been fluent in a bunch of them, which meant Gary was too, and so Gary would yell at Ash in Unovan until he forced himself to grasp it.
And he’s good at Kalosian, too, usually. Sometimes he has to ask his friends to repeat what they say, especially Bonnie, because she talks really fast, and Clemont, when he starts talking science, but for the most part he gets what they’re saying, which means a lot, because no one ever taught him that, not the way they did with the other languages.
But right now, they’re all talking around the fire and he can’t understand anything they’re saying. Their mouths are moving and he catches the odd word here and there. Tierno makes a joke and everyone laughs.
He catches something about standardized tests they took when they were younger? They’re from different cities, he knows that. He can catch the words of their hometowns when they fall from their lips, and maybe a few words after that, but not the whole thing. Trevor says his name, and Ash looks to him. “Yeah?” he prompts. “I said,” Trevor repeats, and there’s a question in there. Ash can only assume it’s about his experience with standardized tests, so he remembers back to before he became a trainer, all those years ago. “I had them every year,” he says, and he’s at least glad that his tired brain has no problems forming the right words in his mouth. “I could never sit still during them, you know?”
Everyone laughs at that, and Serena makes some sort of side comment towards him, that while he can’t comprehend it he can guess it’s some sort of jab about how he still can’t sit still, so he smiles sheepishly.
The next thing he catches, Shauna’s talking about a - bloody nose? And then he tunes out for a bit, and then he catches the word surgery and realizes he’s completely lost.
He takes a breath, in and out. Come on. He knows this stuff. He closes his eyes and focuses only on the sound of the words coming out of people’s mouths. It’s maybe a little more successful, but the words just fall through his brain like sand. He can maybe catch a bit of it in his hands, but then it slides right through his fingers. Come on!
“Ash?” Clemont asks, and when he opens his eyes he realizes everyone’s staring at him. Oh. Right. Closing your eyes like that’s not normal.
Clemont says something else. This, thankfully, catches in his brain. “Are you okay?”
“Yeah,” he reassures, and almost lets it slide before speaking up again. “Actually, I wanna be in tip top shape for battling and traveling tomorrow! I might just copy Bonnie and call it a night, you know?”
He starts to stand up, and everyone smiles and says something along the lines of agreeing. Serena’s looking at him a little - sadly, maybe? But she doesn’t say anything.
Serena - knows some Kantonian, right? She must, if they had that summer camp together like she said. Or was that in Unovan?
He can’t bring himself to ask her, though. What if she forgot, anyway? It was a long time ago.
So he smiles, and he tells them all “Goodnight,” and “It was really fun to see you all,” and “Let’s have some battles in the morning,” and opens the zipper to his and Clemont’s tent.
Pikachu’s looking at him, and Ash is worried, for a moment, that his brain won’t be able to comprehend what Pikachu says, either. But then he talks, and parsing the meaning is as natural as breathing. What’s happening, Pikachu says. Ash rubs his fingers under his partner’s ears. “It’s nothing, buddy,” he says. “I think I’m just tired - can’t really understand what everyone’s saying’, you know?”
It feels relieving to speak in Kantonian to Pikachu. He feels guilty about it. “But that’s not fair - I’m the one coming into their region, you know? I should be able to speak their language.”
But you can, Pikachu says. You can. You’re just tired.
Ash purses his lips. “Yeah. Yeah. Gosh, it’s probably even harder for you, yeah? You had to learn how to speak human language at all, and then you’ve gotta learn all the different ones.”
I can’t understand half of what people say here, Pikachu says. Not words, anyway.
“Not words?” Ash asks.
We’re hardwired to understand some of what you mean, rather than words, you know? It’s how wild pokemon can understand commands, even if they’ve never met a human before. It’s how I always understand what you’re saying, no matter where we are.
Ash blinks. “That’s…really cool, Pikachu. Wow, pokemon are really awesome, you know that?”
His buddy breathes a laugh. Knew you’d say that.
Ash scratches Pikachu’s head and lets his eyes close.
“Ash?” Clemont whispers, suddenly, zipping the flap closed. Ash opens his eyes.
He says something Ash really does try to understand, but the words just fall through. “Are you really okay?” he finishes with.
“Yeah, I promise,” Ash tells him.
Clemont says something else. His eyes are furrowed. Ash catches the word “distracted.”
“What?”
He repeats himself. This time, he catches more. “You seemed distracted tonight.”
“Just - long day,” Ash says. “Lots of brainpower.”
“Lots of?” Clemont cuts himself off. It’s silent for a little while. “Lots of brainpower?”
Ash shrugs. Clemont looks at him. “How many languages do you know?” he asks, and suddenly Ash can understand him a lot more. It takes him a few seconds to realize they’re using Unovan, now.
Ash shrugs, again. “I don’t want to count,” he says. “You don’t have to - change languages just for me.”
Clemont smiles. “Well, you’re better than any of the tourists I usually get in the gym, you know? Most of the time they just barge in speaking - whatever language, expecting me to understand them. Especially in Lumiose.”
Ash laughs. It’s a funny image. “Well - thanks,” he says. “I’ll be better tomorrow.”
He’s turning away, and closing his eyes. “Good night,” Clemont says.
Yeah. He’ll be better tomorrow.