T-nooki's rambling place

The girl looked embarrassed.

“I knew,” she said. “My name’s Penny.”

“And this is Pikachu!” Ash went on, and his starter nodded.

“Pika chuu!” he said, politely, and offered a paw.

“I… hmm,” Gary said, clearly not sure if he should tell Ash not to introduce Pikachu or not.

“What Pokémon do you have?” Ash asked. “If you know who I am then I guess you know my team, or some of them anyway, but I’d love to meet your Pokémon! Oh, do you have an Eevee? Gary had an Eevee but she evolved.”

“I’ve got an Eevee, yes,” Penny said. “He’s at home, though. And I’ve also got a Vaporeon, Jolteon, Flareon, Umbreon, Leafeon and Sylveon with me, and Glaceon and Espeon are with Eevee at home.”

“Wow,” Gary mused. “Now that’s a theme.”

“I like Eevee,” Penny admitted.

“I’ve never had an Eevee, but I like them anyway!” Ash said.

“Ash, you like all Pokémon,” Gary pointed out.

Pikachu nodded. “Pika kachuu, pikapi pika ka chuu!”

“Yeah?” Ash replied, shrugging. “I do like all Pokémon! That doesn’t mean I don’t like Eevee, I like all the Pokémon I’ve ever met in their own ways and I like Pokémon because of the things about them! Though Pikachu is right up there as the best, obviously.”

“Chuu!” Pikachu said, proudly, and Penny hid a smile.

“Well, if you do like evolved Eevee, then I could introduce you to some of mine,” she said.

“Sure!” Ash agreed. “Hey, maybe we could have a battle!”

Penny seemed to consider that, taking out some Pokéballs, then Ash frowned.

“That’s a funny sticker on that Pokéball,” he said. “The one that’s got blue and white and pink stripes on it. Is that Sylveon’s Pokéball? How come none of the other Pokéballs have a sticker like that, is that because you like Sylveon the best?”

Penny looked down with a quick, jerky motion, then blushed, but before she could react further Gary made an incredulous noise.

“Seriously, Ash?” he asked. “How could you of all people not recognize that flag?”

Ash looked at Gary, just as confused.

“Huh?” he asked. “Why would I recognize it?”

Pikachu looked back and forth between Ash and Gary, then exchanged a look of mutual incomprehension with Penny.

“Chu?” he asked, then Sylveon came out of her Pokéball and pressed against Penny’s leg.

“Ash,” Gary said, sounding very much like the long-suffering friend dealing with an idiot. “Didn’t you think it was a bit weird when your best friend disappeared and I showed up the same age with the same parents? I’m trans, you idiot, that’s the trans flag.”

“Well, yeah, but I promised,” Ash replied, so matter-of-factly that it took the wind entirely out of Gary’s sails.

“...what?” he asked.

“Remember?” Ash replied. “When you came out, you said not to let on that you were trans to anyone who didn’t already know. And the only reason why I know what that flag is is because you told me, so if you weren’t trans then I wouldn’t know what the flag meant so I’d have to ask about it. If Penny said then I’d know what it meant and I wouldn’t have to explain you were trans to explain how I knew what being trans was or what the flag meant.”

Gary went cross-eyed for a moment.

“...uh,” he said. “Okay, I guess… I can kind of see how that works. But anyway-”

“And you’ve stuck with the same name for years, now,” Ash went on. “You know, after you went through that phase when you were trying out all those names, like Catchmasta and Zeraora and stuff, I think even Professor Oak couldn’t keep track, because I know he had to ask me what you were called at one point. So there isn’t even a way I could have explained it as because I wanted to know all the reasons someone would change their name!”

Now Gary looked embarrassed.

“I’d forgotten about that,” he said. “Or… I’d tried to forget about that. Some of those names were awful.”

“Zeraora?” Penny asked. “Really?”

“I struggled to come up with a good name, okay?” Gary defended himself. “Did you hit on Penny first?”

“Yeah,” Penny said, with a shrug. “It was when I decided to commit to this. I was in for a penny.”

She made a face. “Come to think of it, it sounds stupid when I say it like that.”

“I’m called Ash because I introduced myself to Professor Oak when he was ten and I was twelve!” Ash said. “And so when Mom was about to have a kid she asked for name suggestions and Professor Oak suggested my name, so I guess my name’s a time paradox! Cool, huh?”

“How the hell could that happen?” Penny asked.

“Three rules of Ash Ketchum,” Gary said, ticking off on his fingers. “Yes, he is that smart. Yes, he is that dumb. And yes, his life is that weird.”

“Hey!” Ash protested, as Pikachu giggled. “I’m not that bad!”

“You are,” Gary countered. “You so are. Didn’t you tell me you once got killed?”

“Which time?” Ash replied. “One of them I only know about because I got the memories back after I got my mind wiped, and then there was this time when I don’t know if it counts because the universe was sort of unhappening… but that one was thousands of years in the past, and if you die before you’re born does it even count?”

It was Sylveon’s turn to exchange a baffled look with Penny.

“Anyway, are we going to have that training battle?” Ash asked. “Hey, we could do a double battle, Gary!”

Gary looked tempted.

“Can you do Terastilization?” he asked. “I’m technically here to study that.”

“I know Sylveon’s Tera type,” Penny volunteered.