When Giovanni had his Executives over and was mulling over the new security measures they were going to undertake for the way they were now handling pokémon, he didn't exactly expect anymore company that night. But his doorbell rang and he looked to the direction of where he knew the front door to be.

"Expecting company tonight?" Ariana asked him dryly.

Giovanni threw her an exasperated look. "No," he said sharply. "I was not. Proton, answer the door."

Proton twitched, but got up and left the living room to go see who it was. In the meantime, Giovanni continued to consult the others over how they were going to need to retrain agents if they were going to now handle pokémon with more 'kid-friendly gloves'.

"Domino's going to be a problem," Ariana said sourly. "She's too violent sometimes."

"Handle her then," Giovanni muttered, marking down something on the map laid out.

"Why me?" Ariana grumbled. "She worships you."

He was going to snark back when Proton announced his returned presence. "Um, Boss?"

Rolling his eyes, he turned around in irritation and opened his mouth to berate the other, when the words practically died in his throat.

Standing next to Proton, was a silent and very bruised and bleeding Ash Ketchum, his Pikachu steadfastly clinging to the young man's leg with a little paw. Snapping his mouth closed and clenching his jaw, he moved forward at a brisk pace, only to slow it down when he saw Ash flinch.

"Ariana, Proton, take care of this mess and put it away. Petrel, camera. Archer, follow me," Giovanni barked out his orders, inwardly sighing at seeing another flinch from the raven-haired trainer. He purposely gentled his voice. "Ash, come with me."

"Okay," Ash answered dully.

Giovanni showed his hands, moving them slowly to Ash, who was watching him closely. He lightly placed his hands on Ash and started to lead him out of there and to his study on that floor. In there, he ignored Archer and Petrel, and looked directly into Ash's face.

"I'm going to have Petrel take pictures of your injuries," Giovanni told him seriously. "We need to gather evidence for the police."

If he could have laughed hysterically at the irony, he would have. A criminal like him gathering evidence for the police? It was insanity.

"Police?" Ash's voice went high. "I don't want the police!"

That gave Giovanni pause and he frowned. "Even so, you might change your mind later on. At the least, we need to be able to take photos now, when everything's fresh."

Ash became skittish, but his Pikachu started to tug at his jeans and chittered something. After a moment, Ash nodded. Giovanni stepped back and nodded at Petrel, while Archer left momentarily. Petrel began to take pictures, while Ash reluctantly helped show off where he was injured. Archer came back with a first aid kit and Ariana following with a rag and a bowl of water. Giovanni only glanced at them, before keeping his focus on Ash.

To be honest, he hadn't expected him to accept his offer for help when Giovanni had given it. In his experience, abuse victims unfortunately didn't usually find themselves escaping from their cycle of abuse with their abuser –they always thought things will get better, their partner will change, or even worse –that it was their fault they were being hurt. They deserved to be hurt.

He had almost expected that, in the long haul to come, that he would have to use his position as fellow gym leader to the Viridian Gym to have to take the time and effort to slowly convince Ash that his relationship was abusive and wasn't healthy. He expected for it to take time to get Ash to eventually accept help.

He didn't know if having to endure whatever happened that ended up actually convincing him to accept Giovanni's offer was any better.

After the pictures were finished, Ariana took it upon herself to take Ash from there to the adjoining room, intending to clean him up. Archer handed her extra clothes that no one had even seen him retrieve, and then he, Petrel, and Giovanni stood together.

"I managed to acquire a wire and quickly rig Ariana with it, so whatever's said will be recorded," Archer told him succinctly.

Giovanni nodded approvingly. "Good job. Return to base for now. You're in charge while I'm busy with this."

"Of course, sir," Archer gave a respectful acknowledgement and then left.

Giovanni turned to Petrel, but needn't have said anything.

"I'll have these backed up on a server, and I'll make copies," Petrel said seriously, all traces of his usual laziness gone. "Do you want me to send them to the police?"

He thought back to Ash's adamancy against the police and scowled. "Not now. Not yet at least," he answered irritably. "Have them on standby though."

When it was just Giovanni, he waited for Ariana to come back out with Ash, only to have just her appear (and not until for a long time after).

"I showed him to a room," Ariana said before he could ask. "He's sleeping right now, with his Pikachu standing guard over the foot of the bed. I got him cleaned up and bandaged, but he'll probably need a real doctor to look over him."

"Understood," Giovanni murmured.

Ariana looked at him, tilting her head. "You always were a little too invested and interested in the kid, Giovanni. You're sure you're up for this?"

He gave her an irritated look. "I have this handled."

She looked him over again, before laughing lightly and giving him a soft look. "Sure you do."

She walked passed him and he glanced at the door where he'd last seen Ash go through.

~*~*~

Giovanni obsessively listened to the recordings again and again, his agitation shooting up with every playback.

He wasn't a nice person. He really wasn't. He could get violent too, and he could be pretty brutal if need be. He didn't like unnecessary violence, but he could handle it just fine. And he knew just the sort of person he was and always had been, and though he and his Team were changing things up and becoming less cruel due to demand and results, they and he could still be ruthless.

But you don't claim to love someone and hurt them.

Giovanni could be a bastard, he knew that. Even to his subordinates, or even his colleagues. He had a caustic personality and he didn't mind or really care if people like Lance Wataru or Misty Waterflower called him an asshole. He was an asshole and he had definitely (probably) at some point in his life acted like an asshole to them.

But for God's sakes, he wasn't going to tell someone "I love you" to their face and then smack them across said face.

"You're still up," he heard Ash say quietly and he looked up to see the younger trainer by the door, his sleepy Pikachu refusing to let go of his shirt while the pokémon was carried.

"I am," he said neutrally.

Ash came into the room and then sat across from Giovanni at his desk. He looked exhausted and his face was covered with dark bruises, and he could see the bandages peeking out from the slightly open button up shirt the other was wearing.

"I should probably head back in the morning," Ash murmured.

Giovanni's eyebrows flew up, but at the same time he couldn't be that surprised. Most abused tended to go back.

"Why?" he asked Ash challengingly. "What do you have there that is so perfect you feel you need to go back to someone that hits you?"

"I –"

"Love him," Giovanni finished with a scowl. "He doesn't love you. And if he does, it's twisted and fucked up."

Ash glared at him. "What do you care?" he cried out. "It's not like you like me! You've never minded hurting me before, and you even tried to kill me!"

"But I never claimed to love you," Giovanni said acidly.

And none of that had ever been in pleasure or to want to hurt him out of spite or anything. It was business and because Ash had been in the way. It had been how he and the Team worked back then. There was never anything about hurting him just to hurt him.

Ash quieted down at that and closed his eyes, hugging his Pikachu to him. By now the mouse pokémon was wide awake and staring at Giovanni, but it wasn't hostilely or angrily. If anything, it actually looked approving.

It probably hated the fuck out of Ash's so-called boyfriend.

"Besides," Giovanni started talking again. "I'm the villain. I'm supposed to do cruel things and be a bastard. He doesn't have that excuse."

"Why does this affect you so much? I don't understand why you care," Ash mumbled.

"You know," Giovanni poured himself a glass of brandy that he'd placed by him. "A lot of the kids that come into my Team, recruits that get taken in...a lot of them come from abusive homes. They either are the ones being abused or they see it happening in their family."

He took his glass and knocked it back, gulping down a huge swallow before looking at Ash seriously.

"I never accept that kind of thing happening," Giovanni said flatly.

Ash shifted in his seat, but he did end up looking thoughtful.

With a wicked smirk on his face, Giovanni put his chin on his hand. "You know, you could always just date me. If you wanted a bad guy to date, I'm already a villain."

That drew a small laugh and smile out of Ash, and Giovanni's smirk widened.

"That's probably something to actually think about, huh?" Ash asked, but he looked genuinely happy and bright like the young boy he used to be.

In the morning, Giovanni still wasn't surprised to see Ash gone, no sign of him in his house.

~*~*~

However, a week later and there was a call to his phone. Giovanni had barely glanced at it before he answered it, seeing the name flashing on his Caller ID.

"Ash?" he greeted out quickly.

"I was thinking about what you said...Could you," he heard a sob and his hand tightened around his phone. "Could you please pick me up?"

"Yeah," without noticing or doing it on purpose, his voice had gentled and Giovanni was already focused on putting on his shoes and getting his keys. "Same address on file?"

"Yeah...Please come."

"I'm coming."

And as he rushed through all the lights and the lanes, going as fast as he could to the condominium he knew Ash lived at with that man, he didn't think he was fast enough as he faced the door to the studio apartment and saw smoke coming out from the cracks outlining the door to it, or as he heard the loud, blaring fire alarm sounding through the entire complex.

But he readied himself and he rushed towards the door, ramming into it and breaking it open, letting out the previously locked in smoke. He looked around, coughing as he covered his nose and mouth with his clothed arm.

He saw the open doorway to the bedroom and the prone figures inside and ran towards them.

He wasn't a nice guy. He was a horrible man actually. But he really hoped karma wasn't going to tell him to fuck off right now.

Giovanni didn't want to be too late.

And maybe, just maybe, this story could still get a happy ending.