"I'm calling in a favour."

Misty's pixelated faced glared back at him. Her arms were crossed in front of her chest and she looked as ready to hear him out as he was ready to end the call.

After a few seconds of agonising silence, Ash continued.

"Every two years Pallet Town has this big weekend thing. It's kind of tradition and a little mandatory, y'know? Like, 'shame on your family if you don't turn up', and all that. Okay, maybe not that bad but I might have skipped the last like, five, or something because I've been in Johto, then Hoenn and Sinnoh, and now I'm in—"

"I know where you've been, Ash." Misty replied as her eyes narrowed into slits. "What I want to know is why you're asking me for a favour, out of all the people you could have asked. Out of the people who owe you favours, maybe? If you haven't forgotten you owe me something."

Ash sighed and rubbed the back of his head, leaning back in the plastic and uncomfortable pokémon center chair. He was positive they made them as unappealing as possible to discourage anyone from using the video phones for too long. At that thought he shot a look towards the nurse at the front desk. Joy gave him a disapproving look. He swivelled back to Misty quickly.

She looked angrier, somehow.

"Sorry. Well, I figure you're pretty close, right? And you could probably get one of your sisters or even Tracey to look after the gym for a weekend. I'd have asked Iris but she's a little, um, young?" he told her hesitantly.

Misty looked disgusted. "What exactly does this favour entail?"

"Oh, fuck." Ash groaned and dropped his head into his hands. Nurse Joy shushed him, and he valiantly ignored her. "It's nothing sexual, I swear. It's a festival, Misty! I'm not doing anything illegal."

"But you need a female who is over a certain age and close to Pallet," she deadpanned. Her arms were still crossed. "Not that I don't appreciate that you asked me, but it's not like you to be so hesitant to go to a party – even a family safe one. You're usually the first one to jump at these kinds of things. You're Ash 'life of the party' Ketchum."

He said something into his hands, muffled – whatever he said, Misty didn't deem it necessary to continue the conversation.

When Misty didn't say anything for a full minute, Ash raised his head to catch a glimpse of her. Her arms were unfolded and she had a pensive look on her face – hardly what he wanted to see, but beggars couldn't be choosers.

"It's just for this weekend!" He jumped on the opportunity as quickly as a pikachu's thunderbolt hit its target. "You come as my date, say hi to my mother, we get some food and light some fireworks, and you can be back in your gym by Sunday night – promise."

Misty sighed and shook her head, "You didn't say anything about a date, Ash, though it wasn't too difficult to work out. Why do you even need a date to this thing?"

"Ma." He said blandly. "She was crying and everything – dunno how genuine it was though."

"Ah." She paused. "Why is it so important anyway? You go home to see your mother enough."

"It's a big thing," he said swiftly. "I mean, most of the people in Pallet are recluses. They don't go to Viridian's big carnival every year. They just hold their own one with all their family and friends so no one has to leave their businesses closed for too long. Everyone is invited – all of Pallet goes to this thing. It's our way of getting together and like cementing the bonds of a small town or something."

Misty chuckled. "Yeah, don't know much about that. In Cerulean you'd be lucky if your own neighbour knows your name."

"Everyone in Pallet had seen me naked by the time I was one," he deadpanned back at her. "I think Gary still has hard copies for future blackmail."

"Smart boy."

Ash paused, and snuck a look at her with a raised eyebrow, "Y'know," he started. "Gary's going to be there, too, if that sweetens the pot for you."

"Thanks for your consideration," she said dryly. "But I don't need you hooking me up with Gary Oak while acting as your date – I'm hardly that desperate."

"Oh yeah?" He teased. "Getting a lot of swimmer tail now that you're a gym leader with a new haircut and everything?"

Misty huffed and smoothed down her hair, free of its usual ponytail, and said nothing.

"So will you do it?" He pleaded after a pause. "You'd be more like back up anyway – my extended family can be a little bit of a handful."

"Aw, you've got an aunt who likes to pinch cheeks? No wonder you need me to save you." Misty teased. Ash smiled, glad to be momentarily free of her ire. She was smiling, too.

"Less like aunts and uncles, more like a few older siblings who like to rub their accomplishments in my face whenever they can." He said hesitantly, and smiled wistfully. "I figured you'd be sympathetic."

Misty glared. The ire was firmly back in place.

"I'm going to ignore the latter and ask that you please go back to the former. You have siblings?" She asked slowly. "Why haven't I met any of them? Why haven't you even talked about them? Jeeze, Ash, I've known you for five years and I only now discover you've got brothers and sisters?"

Ash could only shrug helplessly and attempt to answer the question he'd been asking himself for just as long.

"They're difficult, y'know – family. I love my mother, but everyone else is... they're too much," he said, struggling to put his feelings into words. He looked around the pokémon center again and noticed less people there than before. It was dark outside and he felt a yawn coming on.

"Mist," he said slowly. "I'm sorry for not telling you, really. If it's any consolation, no one else knows. Well, Gary knows. But it's not like I told him."

She sighed from her end of the line, and for a second even she looked like she couldn't form the words she wanted to.

"I just always figured that I'm your best friend," she said helplessly. "You go away to these far off regions and have all these adventures, but I've always known that you come home. That we can still hang out like we used to and talk and do stuff together," Misty murmured.

Ash watched her quietly. He could hardly console her over the video call – he was bad enough with sad people in person. He watched as Misty bit her lip and clearly steeled herself.

"I'll do it," she said quickly. "You have your reasons, right?"

Ash nodded hesitantly, "of course."

"Fine, I'll be your date. You said this weekend, right? I'll see you in three days at Viridian's pokémon center – don't be late," she warned.

Ash smiled sadly, "thanks, Mist. I knew I could count on you."

"No problem. But Ash–" she said quickly as he went to end the call. "I expect my own favour due."

At that, she ended the call on her end leaving a very bewildered Ash. He stood up slowly, and laughed once it hit him.

Once he was back in his room at the pokémon centre, he picked up his sleeping pikachu and cuddled him close to his chest. Pikachu cooed and shifted but didn't wake up.

"Where am I going to get a bike?"

—

"Just for the record," she told him as soon as he walked through the doors of Viridian's pokémon centre three days later, Pikachu perched on his shoulder. "I'm still not one hundred percent on board with this whole idea."

Ash stopped in his tracks a few steps from the doors and looked at her blankly. This only aggravated her more. Pikachu jumped from his shoulder and bounded over to Misty happily. She immediately picked him up and placed him on her lap, scratching the pokémon behind the ears.

"I've gotten over the family thing, but I'm a little annoyed about it still. I mean, I've hardly demanded to see any aunts or uncles or grandparents, but these are your siblings. You grew up with them," she blurted out. "Not to mention that I've been to your house more times I can count – your mom is the mother mine never was. It's just so much to take in, especially over video call," she berated as he walked the last few steps to her where she was sitting. She paused and looked down at the chipped and worn red table as he sat down across from her wearily. "Well?"

He groaned in response and pulled off his cap. "Yeah, yeah, I know," he muttered as he ran a hand through his messy hair. "Gimme a break – it's been a tough week. I'd still be in Unova if my mother didn't decide my life for me."

The frown that blossomed upon the girl's face was deadly.

"You know I didn't mean it like that, Misty. I'm always happy to see you," he said with a smile.

Against her will a similar smile appeared on her face and she relaxed. "I'd hope so."

Ash grinned and leant back against the uncomfortable chair. "I am sorry for springing this on you. I just have some issues, y'know? I'm the baby," he laughed at himself unkindly. Misty looked at him with a furrowed brow. "I actually have three older siblings like you."

"Why have you never talked about them before? I mean, my sisters can get on my nerves but I used to always talk about them."

Ash raised an eyebrow, "I know it was five years ago now, but you didn't exactly tell me and Brock about your sisters when we first met. We sorta just found out on accident."

Misty sent him a sharp look. "You met my sisters after we had known each other for a week, Ash. I've been your friend for five years and I've never once even suspected that you had any other family than your mother."

He winced and nodded, "yeah, uh. Sorry. Again."

"You can stop saying sorry," she said wryly as she got up and grabbed her bag. Pikachu jumped from her lap to her shoulder, and Ash shot the pokémon a betrayed look before following her.

"So," she said and grinned. "Got my bike?"

Ash laughed, "of course I do! Who do you take me for? Someone who'd put it off for five years like a jerk?"

Ash and Misty rode their bikes – a brand new, sparkling red one for Misty – all the way to Pallet Town and didn't speak of family once.

—

The dusty main road through Pallet was quiet as they biked into town. The streets were empty and stores were closed. The pair stopped their bikes in the middle of the street and looked around in confusion. They shared a worried look before pushing their bikes to a nearby park bench. Pikachu jumped out of the basket in front of Misty's bike and ran off to explore his first home.

"Where is everyone?" Misty asked breathlessly, breaking the silence. Ash brought a water bottle out of his bag and tossed it to her before answering.

"Not sure. I usually avoid Pallet this time of year, so this could be normal. Maybe it's a new traditional thing."

"Maybe that's why when people think of Pallet they think of me, while you're the poor fourth Pallet trainer who was always miles behind me?"

Misty squeaked, spun around – nearly knocking her bike over in the process – while Ash could only groan. "Still stuck fantasising about your glory days?"

Gary smirked, and reached up to pet Pikachu who was perched primly on his shoulder. Ash failed to muffle a mocking laugh as Pikachu bounded over to his trainer.

"Every time I see you in that lab coat I think you're playing dress up with the professor's clothes."

He can faintly hear Misty sigh in the background before his former rival responded with a look of mock hurt on his face. "Damn, that one really cut deep. Been sleeping on that one for a while?"

The unimpressed look on Ash's face was more than an answer. He was just about to open his mouth to retort when Misty jumped in between them, held up her hands to both and shook her head quickly.

"Nope. Nu uh. No way. This is technically a holiday for me, so you two are not going to ruin this by squabbling like my sisters!" She exclaimed forcefully, looking between them as she said so. "Got it?"

The two boys could do nothing but nod. Misty let out a relieved sigh before announcing that she was going to have a look around, and to behave while she was gone.

Once Misty was out of sight Gary sat down on the seat next to Ash. The two boys eyed each other for a few seconds before smiling slightly and relaxing. After everything they'd been through together, and the years that had passed since their ill fated rivalry at age ten, they had warmed to each other if only a little – enough to make stunted conversation at least.

"So," Ash started as he stroked the dozing pikachu in his lap. "Do you know why it's as empty as Lavender Town on Halloween?"

Gary laughed, "Yeah, looks the way, doesn't it?" He shook his head in amusement and hooked his arms around the back of the seat before stretching out. "Nah, nothing that weird going on. Today is a public holiday."

"Public holiday? Since when?"

Gary scoffed. "Since five years ago when the whole town complained that they never got enough time to spend with family during the festival. They caused such a ruckus they got their way. So everyone just spends today at home, catching up with visiting family and stuff like that. Everything should be back to normal tomorrow."

Ash narrowed his eyes at Gary suspiciously. "How do you know that?"

"Because I'm a good boy who goes home for the holidays."

He received a blank look in return. "Good boy my ass."

Gary laughed loudly before a comfortable silence settled over the two of them. The two boys hadn't had the time to see each other in a while – certainly not as much as they did when they were both travelling Kanto and Johto.

But they both understood that neither of them had as much time as they used to. With Ash conquering whatever region was next on his list and Gary jumping from laboratory to laboratory it was a miracle that they had both made it home for the holidays.

At that moment, Ash could almost say he missed the simpler days. Until Gary opened his mouth.

"Gingerbread, huh?"

Not quite seeing where Gary was going, Ash furrowed his eyebrows in question. The grin plastered on the brunet's face made him more confused.

Gary elaborated. "I thought Dawn would've been more your type."

"Wh– huh? No way, Dawn's got a contest on – not to mention she's in Sinnoh. That's way too far away for just a weekend."

"I meant – ugh, I meant bringing Misty home to meet the family as a girlfriend. Boy, you are dense."

Ash groaned and ran his hands through his hair. "It's not like that and you know it – you're trying to get me angry, it's not gonna work!" He exclaimed.

Gary laughed. "You have grown up! What a surprise. But real girlfriend or not, it's gonna be an interesting reunion." He said and laughed. "I can't believe you brought a girl as your girlfriend in the first place."

"I asked Misty because Mom said I had to bring a date. Dunno why, though."

"Probably because of the rumours," Gary sung. Ash looked at him suspiciously, but the other boy didn't elaborate.

"So you went crawling to Gingerbread?" He continued. "I could've hooked you up with one of my old cheerleaders, man. Then you would've been able to keep the deep, dark secret of your mom's demon spawn away from Misty." He failed to bite back a laugh. "She's gonna run screaming when she meets your horrible family, you know."

Ash's response was to bury his face into his hands and groan. Pikachu made a noise of annoyance as he was jostled before settling back down sleepily.

"Oh, don't you worry, I know." He stayed in the same position for a few moments before he sat up and looked at Gary with one eyebrow raised. "And those were your brother's cheerleaders and you know it."

The youngest Oak waved the insult off as Misty came back, holding a newspaper and a chocolate bar in her hand. "Cheerleaders? Who are we talking about?" She asked around her own chocolate bar in her mouth.

"Shitty brothers and even shittier friends," Gary snarked, grabbing the other bar as Misty went to hand it to Ash.

At Ash's lack of reaction as Gary tucked into his stolen candy, Misty raised her hand and placed it to his forehead.

"Are you sick?"

Ash shook his head, and leaned into her hand.

Misty sighed. "You must be worried."

Gary snorted. "He has good fucking reason to." Misty glared and whacked his arm as Ash sunk lower into the seat.

Gary chuckled and finished off the rest of the chocolate quickly. "Right, I want to avoid any more bodily harm, so I'm off to meet the rest of the family at Gramp's lab." He stood up, scratched Pikachu behind the ears, and waved as he made his way down the road. "Have fun with the Ketchums, lovebirds!" He called out, not being able to leave before getting one more dig in. His laughter could be heard down the street long after he was out of sight.

Once Gary was gone, Ash looked over at Misty and stifled a laugh at the sight of her bright red face.

"Shut up, Ash!" She yelled, and gave him his own arm whack.

The two sat in comfortable silence for a little while longer simply soaking up the afternoon Pallet sunshine. They revelled in the feeling of the cool sea breeze from the south wash over them, and hearing the pleasant chirps of the pidgey in the trees above them.

"You warned me about your family," Misty broke the silence quietly. "And Gary finds the idea of me meeting them hilarious. Are they that bad?"

"You have no idea."

—

There was screaming coming from inside the house when they approached. The Ketchum family home was never all that big – it was small and quaint and perfect for a single mother with a young son and Mimey. But apparently there were many more people who called the small cottage home than Misty had first assumed.

Misty tugged on Ash's sleeve. "How many people are going to be here again?" She whispered furiously. "Because it sounds like a rhyhorn got loose!"

Ash laughed and rubbed the back of his head sheepishly. "Well, we're a few days late so everyone should be here already, so that makes about, uh, five people? More if they brought dates. There's me and you as well – so around about eight or nine of us."

She shook her head quickly, "No way is there only five people in there, Ash!"

From within, a loud crash could be heard followed by a high pitched voice.

"You idiot you're supposed to go left, left, right, up, select, down not left, left, right, up, select, across!"

"Oh my god, shut up you hag, let me play my game my way!"

"Oh, hell no! Those psychic brats from Hoenn are not beating us again just because you can't remember the right move combo, you dolt!"

Misty sent a wide eyed look in Ash's direction but the boy could only shrug and step up to the door. Just as he went to turn the doorknob all activity inside the house came to a stop and became chillingly silent. Ash had turned around and looked at Misty, concern etched over his face, when the front door thrown open with surprising force.

Standing side by side in the doorway was a girl and a boy. They were in their late teens with caramel coloured hair, matching brown eyes, and identical mischievous grins. They were clearly twins, and despite the lack of colour similarities they were inexplicably Ash's siblings.

After a moment Ash broke the silence.

"So uh, hey guys."

He barely had time to get that out before the verbal attack.

"Long time since I've seen you, Ashy!"

"Been far too long, little bro! Where've ya been?"

"Jeeze, you didn't even think about ringing, did you?!"

"Pretty dickish move you pulled, leaving me with the harpy."

"Mom's been worried sick!"

"And you run off with this hot chick. She's the Cerulean Gym leader, isn't she? Yeah, I battled her sisters once! I won, too."

Once they had run out of insults and questions, the twins reluctantly let them go inside, eyeing them as they did so. Ash's Pikachu immediately bounded over to two larger pikachu who were sleeping on a set of pokémon beds near the couch.

"Aren't you going to introduce us, Ashy?" The girl questioned as she stuck her lip out into a pout and crossed her arms.

"Oh, uh, yeah. Misty, these are my twin siblings," he introduced and pointed at the girl, "that's Leaf," he pointed at the boy, "and that's Fire. There's only one year between us, but they act like I'm five."

Fire walked up to Misty before grasping her hand and smiling at her charmingly, "now, I'm not sure if you remember me, but I battled your sisters a while ago! I suppose I was just a precocious thirteen year old back then." He looked over at Ash and smirked. "Probably about the same height Ash is now."

The very much so sixteen year old boy glared at his elder brother, but otherwise said nothing as his sister inspected him.

"You really haven't done a good job in looking after yourself, Ashy. How long have you had this jacket? A month, I bet. It's practically falling to pieces." Leaf berated as she walked around him, plucking at his clothes as she went. Ash desperately wanted to go see how Misty was faring with Fire not so subtly hitting on her, but when Leaf started her ranting it was always difficult to get her to stop. "Ma's not going to be happy, you know." She remarked.

"Yeah, yeah, I know."

Leaf opened her mouth to continue when a blaring sound came from the television where a brightly flashing game was previously set on pause.

"Oh, damn!" She exclaimed, rushing back to her seat on the couch. "Fire, get your ass over here! Tate and Liza did their weird psychic mind tricks and unpaused us!"

Ash looked over at Fire but he appeared to be in deep flirtation with Misty, and it seemed as though he hadn't even heard her over the sound of the video game. Or he was just ignoring her. It was hard to tell.

The noise only escalated when Leaf started yelling at the screen, swearing that she would swim to Hoenn to beat the twins up if they defeated her.

Ash debated going over to help his sister for a moment before a new dainty voice chimed in with Leaf's.

"Ehehehe, yeah! Suck it!"

"Lyra?"

WINNER flashed on the screen and Leaf let out a whoop of excitement before running off to berate Fire. The other girl in question twisted around on the couch and threw a smile at Ash.

"Hey, Ash! Long time no see, huh?"

"What are you doing here?" He exclaimed and went to hug her. Last time he'd seen Lyra she was leaving to finish gaining all her Johto badges. The last place her expected to see her was here.

"Silly! I'm here with your brother but he's sleeping now, the big dork – right in the middle of the day, too. I tell him over and over that he shouldn't stay up so late! It's from spending all that time in caves brooding," She said, giggling. "Anyway, we met up in Blackthorn and he invited me to come meet his family," she shook her head, "I never expected that he meant you, Ash! Are you here with Dawn?"

Ash shook his head dumbly. "Uh, no, with Misty," he muttered and pointed at the red head, who had finally been released from Fire's yapping thanks to Leaf, and was making her way over to the couch. The twins could be heard fighting in the background.

"Oooh, she's the one you like, isn't she!" Lyra exclaimed. "Brock told me all about her!"

Ash sent a panicked look Lyra's way, silently begging her to shut up.

"You like who?" Misty asked suspiciously as she got closer. "You better not be talking about this person with me as your date! Even you have better manners than that, Ash." She said scornfully with her hands on her hips.

Ash could only mumble making Misty frown. Lyra simply grinned.

Misty opened her mouth to say something when the sound of the door closing upstairs made the Ketchum siblings freeze. Misty could see Leaf as she chucked an anxious look towards the kitchen where Delia was no doubt cooking lunch.

Misty turned to Lyra with a raised eyebrow, but she looked equally as confused. "Who is–?" Misty started to ask, but Ash quickly shushed her.

The floor boards from upstairs creaked as someone slowly made their way down the hallway, to the staircase, down the stairs and into the living room.

Misty knew there was going to be a few people in the house, and logically knew from what Ash had told her that a fair few of those people were going to be Ash's family – his siblings, in fact. Fire and Leaf were almost exactly what she pictured when she thought of Ash having an older brother and sister. They were brash and loud, they liked to tease Ash, and they were almost like copies of him with Delia's colouring. But this person, this person who Misty could only assume was Ash's eldest brother, was nothing how she imagined.

Misty never expected him to be so underwhelming. She never once thought he would have a perpetually bored look on his face, with lacklustre red eyes and smooth-not-spiky black hair. She never expected him to be so serious and unemotional, and she had certainly never expected him to be so famous.

Lyra was the first to break the silence.

"You're Red!"