Silver awoke that morning, unusually groggy. He donned his bathrobe and fuzzy slippers, and zombie shuffled into the kitchen. It was still dark out, but he didn't turn on a light, as that would require moving his hand up to almost shoulder blade level. So he settled for brewing some of what he believed to be tea.

"Pbbbbbbbthttt!" he spat, looking at the bag, that he had gotten his tea from. "coffee."

he took another sip, and upon deciding that reaching up to the cupboard again was too much work, he settled for the beverage in hand.

He began to skulk into the living room, where he sat on the couch, and sat there. For ten minutes. Until he saw the clock.

"2:00?" he mumbled. And then he saw the calendar.

Circled in red, was December 14, with two smiley faces, and the words: Family Reunion! Written in the box.

Silver swore under his breath, and rushed to his room to get dressed.

He began to clean his house with godspeed, and decorate it with balloons, and banners, and what not.

Silver looked at his watch. And swore again.

"Crobat Go!" he strapped a note to his pokemon's leg, alongside a sack of money.

"Cherrygrove!" he shouted. His faithful pokemon flew away

glancing at his watch again, he swore in rapid succession.

He had just finished painting a banner that said, "WELCOME, FAMILY!", when Crobat returned.

"thankyouthankyouthatnkyouthankyou!" he said, embracing the purple bat. "return."

At that moment the doorbell rang. Silver smoothed his hair down, and opened the door.

"Hey little bro!" said the woman in the doorway. She opened her arms, encouraging a hug, and Silver accepted.

"Hi Mars, long time, no see", he choked.

His sister was an Olympic Gold Medalist, with her former fellow commanders from Team Galactic.

Since her days on Team Galactic, she had removed the frilly dress part of her uniform, for a more functional swimming design.

"Oh! There's someone I need you to meet!" she grabbed Silver's hand and ran down the front walk, to a Staraptor, with two suitcases strapped to it. The spikey haired man, beside it began to remove the bags from it.

"Saturn!" called Mars.

"I'm confused, I've met your boyfriend before."

"oh, he's not my boyfriend." said Mars, holding her hand out for Silver to see.

Silver was dumbfounded as he viewed the small, sparkly ring on his sister's finger.

"your... he... you guys are..."

"yep." said Saturn, who had walked up to them, suitcases in hand, while they were talking.

"Great! One more person to come to the family reunion!" Silver smiled.

The threesome went inside.

"Do you have anything to eat?", asked Mars, "we haven't eaten since Jublife, and I was just wondering if..."

"yeah, no problem!" said Silver as he went to the kitchen. He opened the refrigerator, and saw the lack of the cake that he had planned to make for the occasion.

"be right back!" he called, hurriedly

He knocked frantically on the door of his childhood friend Kris.

"KrisKrisKrisKrisKris!" he shouted.

"what!" she said, after opening the door.

"No tome to explain! Family is at my house and I need pie!" said Silver frantically, sinking to his knees.

"Okay, that's pretty pitiful. So here. Have this pie. It's boysenberry." she said, holding out a freshly baked pie.

"Good Gods, thank you!" he then planted a quick kiss on her cheek "You're the best person EVER!", and ran back to his house.

Kris just stood there for a minute, watching him run away, before going back inside.

"Pie sound good?" asked Silver.

"what flavor?" asked Mars.

"Boysenberry."

"I love boysenberry!" said Saturn.

They were happily eating their pie, when the doorbell rang.

"did you invite anyone else?" asked Saturn.

"no." replied Silver.

Silver and Mars exchanged looks.

"do you think it's?..." asked Silver.

"It can only be..." replied Mars.

The doorbell rang again.

"I'm confused. Whats going on?" asked Saturn.

"I'm gonna have to answer it sooner or later." said Silver.

"Let's get this over with." said Mars.

Silver stood by the door.

"Saturn, meet the parents."

"Prepare for trouble!"

"and make it double!"

"to infect the world, with devastation!"

"to unite all peoples, within our nation!"

"to denounce the evils of truth and love!"

"to extend our reach to the stars above!"

"Giovanni!"

"Ariana!"

"Team Rocket! Blast off at the speed of light!"

"surrender now, or prepare to fight!"

"Hi mom. Hi dad." said Silver.

"Well, aren't you going to invite us in?" asked Ariana.

Silver walked away from the door.

"fine."

they promptly trotted into Silver's room.

"But! Guys! That's! Where. I .sleep." his voice got increasingly quiet.

"Here!" said Silver, discouraged, and tossing Mars and Saturn two premiere balls.

"what're these for?" asked Saturn

"dunno. But, he bought them for us, so, let's be nice to him." replied Mars.

Silver was long out the door, when that happened, and he was going forth to ask his neighbors if they had extra space in their house, or a cot, or some other sleep related thing that he didn't have.

"Hey, Gold, do you have any extra room in your house, because, my house is kinda, full."

"sorry, but, no. check with Kris, or Heart."

"Okay, thanks."

His plight was for the most part unsuccessful, except for Kris who gave him a collapsible cot, and returned the favour given earlier.

He returned home with it, and put it on the floor.

"umm, bro?" asked Mars

"yes?"

"why don't you just sleep on the couch?"

"the butt divots make it hard to sleep on."

"oh."

"I had some stuff planned, but now that they are here, I don't know if that will work out."

"what kind of stuff?" asked Mars.

"I got us tickets to the safari zone over by Cianwood."

"oh. But why can't we just go without them?"

"I really don't want to leave them here unattended."

"that's understandable.

Silver began to dress the cot with a pillow and an extra blanket from the linen closet. At that moment, Giovanni and Ariana returned from their unpacking.

"So! What sort of fun, family games are we going to play!"

"uhh... what?" asked Silver dumbfounded.

"Oh, come on m'boy, what do you mean 'what?' families play games!" said Giovanni holding up a parenting manual.

"umm... okay?"

Silver approached the coat closet, where he kept his board games, (he had very few, as there was generally no one who wanted to play them with him.)

"let's see... we've got, Monopoly..."

"Great!" Giovanni exclaimed.

Many hours of awkward family fun later...

"Wow, is it ten already?" asked Ariana

"Yep! Let's all turn in! G'night!" cried Silver, rushing his parents down the hall.

That night Silver dreamed a very strange dream.

the next day...

Silver crept carefully toward his room, unsure if his parents would be there. They were not.

"Yessss!" silver said triumphantly. (albeit quietly)

beaming with the giddy that not having his parents about brought, he strode to the kitchen to make waffles only to discover...

"They took my waffle iron. Wonderful." his glee fled from him like the friends in his many one-sided friendships. "I'll have to make do with pancakes." when he was done, he brought them to his sister and her fiancee in bed. He then saw them doing something that he wished he had not seen.

When he closed the door, he looked sown at the smiling pancakes he had made in their likenesses and shuddered. He'd give them their breakfast later.

Later...

"so their gone?" asked Saturn.

"yep." replied Silver.

"any idea why?" asked Mars.

"no." Silver kept his answers short, as he found that he could not remove the disturbing image from his head.

"these pancakes are delicious!" exclaimed Mars upon first bite.

"Yeah, they're Mrs. Elm's recipe."

"really? Why did she give you a recipe? She didn't, I just heard that they're really good, so I stood outside the window and copied it."

"oh. That's nice."

After breakfast it was time for Silver's family to leave.

Mars hugged her little brother, "It was so good to see you again!"

"you too sis."

"Lemme in on some of that!" said Saturn, forming a group hug.

Saturn and Mars broke away, and as they tied the last suitcase to Staraptor, Saturn turned around and said:

"Sorry about your waffle Iron though." and with that they flew off.

As Silver stood in front of his house watching his family fly off, Kris walked up beside him.

"so that's your family."

"yep."

"they seem nice."

"they are."

"look, Silver, I was thinking that maybe you'd like to go to town with me sometime for pizza or something sometime."

"really?" Silver's eyes lit up.

"yeah. When is good for you?"

"I'm free Tuesday."

"Tuesday sounds great." replied Kris.

"Tuesday then."smiled Silver.

Kris gave him a quick peck on the nose and walked back to her house. Silver went back inside, happy to know that one of his friends liked him back.