Gary untied the shoelaces and began coaxing the shoe off of Ash's foot; however, when Ash was unable to stop whimpering, Gary sat back and sighed. "Maybe we should get your mother, she'd know more than I do with this kind of stuff."

The raven-haired boy stiffened. "No!" He shouted before he could clap his hands over his mouth.

'Ugh, mulish as always,' Gary thought exasperatedly to himself. However, frantic footsteps towards the pair told them that Ash didn't quite keep himself as quiet as he would've liked. Soon after, Delia's 'mother-voice' rang through the house as sharp as a Scyther's claw: "ASH KETCHUM! I TOLD YOU TO BE HOME NEARLY TWO HOURS AGO." Delia appeared in the doorway. "Where have you been? I told you that Professor Oak is having G- Gary!" She had paused long enough in her ranting to finally notice the other young man sitting in her living room. "I'm sorry honey, if I'd've known you were here, I would have had supper ready."

Gary shook his head dismissively. "That's alright, but I think Ash hurt his ankle. If you would be so kind as to-"

"Oh of course! I'm sorry I didn't see it earlier," Delia apologized as she bustled over and knelt beside Gary, tsking to herself as she joined him in front of Ash. "I'll need you to fetch me a bowl of ice water and a clean rag. The bowls are to the left of the refrigerator and the washcloths are under the sink," she listed out before Gary scrambled to do as she said.

Moments later, Gary returned with a few rags and the ice water. He set them beside Delia, walked over to her left, and sat. "Alright," she said authoritatively. "You're going to have to give him your hand, Gary."

"What?!" The two boys were each as hesitant as the other to... Hold hands.

She sighed tiredly, "it's going to hurt him a lot less if he has something to squeeze," Delia explained quickly.

"O- oh," they replied together. Ash looked away in the other direction as he slowly held his hand out for Gary to take.

The other, equally as reluctantly, grasped Ash's hand in his own.

'It's so tiny.' Gary was shocked as his hand dwarfed his former rival's. He glanced at Ash's face and his apprehension faded slightly when he noticed a bright pink blush that was slowly creeping its way up from Ash's neck.
'He really doesn't know how cute he's acting, does he?' Gary smirked to himself before his eyes widened and he shook his head as if the act could dislodge the very thought that Ash could be seen as cute.

Delia cleared her throat again to get the brunette's attention. "I was asking if you needed my help with tending your scrapes." She repeated.

"No, I'll be fine. Thank you, Mrs. Ketchum." Gary declined with another shake of his head.
Delia smiled wryly. "Mrs. Ketchum is my mother-in-law's name. Please call me Delia."

Gary returned her smile. "Oh, I'm sorry Mrs. Ke- I mean, Delia." The young boy stuttered before Ash's mother chuckled.

"You're fine, Gary. Alright, you've obviously got a sprain here, Ash. Now I'm going to need to get your sneakers off so I can bandage it. I'll try to be as quick and painless as possible; so by the count of five, I'll have them off, okay?"

Ash nodded and clenched his eyes shut, and Gary was almost shocked to realize that Ash's hands where trembling more than the last leaf on the oak tr-

I mean, rowan-no, wait, birch tre-.

Oh, never mind. His hand was shaking, okay?

Gary returned his attention to Delia just in time for her to start counting down:

"Here we go, Ash. On~e. Tw~o. Thr~ee. Fou-." She all but yanked off her son's shoe. Ash bit his bottom lip hard enough to make it bleed as he clutched to Gary's hand for dear life.

Delia set the shoe down and reached over to soak the cloth in the ice water, then laid it on her son's ankle. "There, that wasn't so bad, was it?" She reassured Ash before she turned to the other young man. "And Gary, our guest room is kind of in shambles as of now. So if it's alright with you, I'll just have you bunk with Ash. That is, unless you'd rather sleep on the couch?" Delia would never let someone stay over without them having their own bedroom, but she felt as if it was necessary to voluntell Ash's room to this particular guest.