Hello, and welcome to another installment of THE 151 Pokeshipping Stories! The last part was a poem written by Misty about the twenty-six things she loves about Ash from A to Z. It will easily be the shortest one of these 151 Pokeshipping Stories clocking in at less than one thousand words. Anyways, yesterday was an important day for fans of the anime. According to Takeshi Shudo, head writer of the anime during the first couple seasons and the one who confirmed Pokeshipping to be canon, May 22nd is Ash's birthday. And what better way to honor the best trainer in the world in one of my stories than having his family surprise him for his special day? How will they surprise him? Well, you all know what to do! Read the chapter to find the answer out for yourself! Anyways, let's get going with the chapter for Ash Ketchum's birthday!
It was a nice day in Cerulean City during May, and a trio of children was sitting around the house, bored. These three kids were all five, and their names were Aoi, Ariel, and Ashley. They were the children of Pokemon Master Ash Ketchum and his wife, Cerulean City Gym Leader, Misty.
"Ugh…" Aoi said as he hung off the couch.
"What is it?" Ariel asked her only brother.
"He is bored," Ashley said to her older sister, "And so am I!"
"What should we do?" Ariel asked as she looks at the calendar. She saw that the fourth Friday of the month was in a big red circle. Every day before that circled day was marked out with a big letter "X", meaning that day had already passed. "I wonder why mommy circled that day."
"How about we go and ask her?" Aoi suggested.
"But mommy is at work right now," Ashley pointed out, "And she knows how she feels when we interrupt her on the job."
"True," Aoi said, "But due to this thing that I heard mommy and daddy talk about a lot called 'coronavirus', not many challengers are taking on Mommy's gym."
"Big bro is right," Ariel said to her pink-haired sister, "So I am in favor of my brother. Let's go!"
Ashley sighed, "Fine." The triplets then got up. As the place where their mommy worked was right next to their house, they did not have to walk long.
Meanwhile, in the Cerulean Gym, Misty was just finishing a battle against a trainer. She had a reputation for being one of the most athletic gyms in the Kanto region. Compare that to her sisters, who ran the gym before her. They were some of the worst gym leaders in the history of Kanto.
"That was a good effort you put in there," the opponent said as he returned his Pokemon, "Return." He then returned the Pokemon to his Pokeball and went up to shake Misty's hand.
"That was a great battle you did," Misty said to the other trainer.
"Yeah," he admitted, "But I did not win."
"That does not mean you will not win next time," Misty said, "Try harder, and you will someday be able to challenge the league so you can face my husband."
"I will!" the trainer said, "Goodbye, Misty!" He then rushed out of the gym just as the triplets came in.
"Mommy?" Aoi said.
Misty looked up at the triplets. "Aoi? Ariel? Ashley? What are you three doing here?"
"We just came to ask you a question…" Ariel said.
"Well, can it wait until the gym closes for the day?" Misty asked her children.
However, Ariel already asked it, "Why is today circled on the calendar, mommy?"
Misty gasped. She totally forgot about today. Today was a momentous day for her husband.
"Well, twenty-five years ago today, your daddy was born," Misty said to the triplets. "So that means it is his birthday today!"
"It's his birthday?" Aoi asked.
"Cool!" Ariel said.
"Does that mean we will have a party for him?!" Ashley asked her mommy.
"Uh…" Misty said, "I am not too sure, kids… I mean, it will take a lot of work, and you know I don't like taking time off from the gym for things that are not important."
"Come on!" Aoi said, "This is daddy's birthday we are talking about!"
"How is the gym more important to you than daddy?" Ashley asked.
Misty pondered that question for a little bit. Ash was just as important to her as the gym was, and hopefully, the league would not mind if she closed the gym early today. After all, it was not that they were getting a lot of trainers this year anyways.
"We could just do something small, like make him a cake," Ariel said to her.
"I'm not sure about abandoning the gym for that, kids…" the gym leader said to her children.
"Please?" Aoi said with Baby Doll Eyes.
"Ugh," Misty said. "Don't give me the Baby Doll Eyes, Aoi."
His younger sisters did the same to her sister, which made Misty sigh more. One of her kids giving her the Baby Doll Eyes to get their way was bad enough. But all three of her kids. Finally, Misty gave in and sighed.
"Fine," Misty said, "But we will make the cake, and that is it."
"Okay!" all three of the triplets said to their mommy. Misty smiled as she led her brood out of the gym. Right before exiting, she put a sign on the door. It read, "The Gym of Cerulean City is closed today. Please come back tomorrow if you wish to challenge me. I apologize for the inconvenience." Under that message was Misty's signature.
Soon, the Ketchum kids and their mother arrived back to their home and went into the kitchen. Misty then pulled out a box of recipes that Ash's mother, Delia, gave her when she married Ash. Delia said it would help Misty make some of Ash's recipes better. The triplets were told when their parents were on their first journey together, Misty once made Ash and herself dinner when their usual chef was not able to. The end result was… to put it in the kindest possible word… inedible. With forty-seven secret ingredients, it was a mixture of foods that should never go together.
"The only people who ended up liking it were Team Rocket," Misty said with a laugh whenever she told that story.
Anyway, she has since gotten a lot better at cooking. Every Sunday, while she was away from Ash, Misty took some cooking lessons from the person Ash said made the best food: his mother. Eventually, she got good at making food, and even made a better version of her Misty Surprise!
"Uh, mommy, which kind of cake will we make for daddy?" Ariel asked, which snapped Misty out of her daydream state.
"Oh…" Misty said as she looked at the box and pulled out a card marked, "Ash's Favorite Dessert." "I thought we would make this for Ash," she then showed the card to the triplets.
"What does that say?" Aoi asked as neither he nor his sisters knew how to read yet.
"It says 'Chocolate Cake with Cherri Berry Filling'," Misty said to the triplets.
Ashley licks her lips, "As in our favorite dessert is also our daddy's?!" she asked her mommy.
Misty chuckles, "It sure is." She then asked the kids if they could help get the ingredients from the pantry. The kids smiled and nodded. Aoi came back carrying the baking cocoa, sugar, and flour, while Ariel went into the kitchen with the butter, milk, and eggs. And Ashley was the one who got the baking soda, salt, and Cherri Berry Filling. The Ketchum triplets put the ingredients on the table right next to their mother.
"Good job, kids," Misty said before asking them to get some mixing bowls so that they could, well, mix the ingredients together.
"Where are they?" Ashley asked her mother, "Were are the mixing bowls?"
"They are in that cupboard over there," Misty said as she pointed to the cupboard that was beside the kitchen sink.
"Okay then," Aoi said as he went over to the cupboard to open it up. Ariel then got a pair of mixing bowls, one for the dry ingredients, and the other for wet ones.
"What are we going to do now, mommy?" Ashley asked Misty.
Misty read over the recipe and asked for the butter and some sugar.
"Here you go," Aoi said as he handed her a stick of butter and the entire bag of sugar.
"Alright, but I don't need THAT much sugar, Aoi," Misty said with a smile.
"Should I get some measuring cups for you, mommy?" Ashley asked the Ketchum matriarch.
"Of course," Misty said, "We need a cup as well as a third cup."
"Alright," Ashley said, "And they are under the place where the forks and spoons are, correct?"
"They sure are, you smart girl!" Misty said with a smile. This caused the pink-haired girl to smile and got the two cups from the drawer and handed them to her mommy.
"Thank you," Misty said as she scooped one full cup of sugar and two more third cups. She then poured the sugar into the bowl alongside the butter. She then got out an electric mixer and creamed the two ingredients together. "Ariel, do you mind if you crack the eggs into the bowl, so I do not have to turn off the mixer?
"Of course, mommy!" Ariel said as she cracked a single egg.
"Also, be careful not to get any eggshells into the bowl," Misty said, "After all, we don't want anyone to have a crunchy part of their cake!
The girl who was the spitting image of her mother nods. She decided to crack them in a separate bowl in the event she accidentally gets eggshells into the egg. That way, it would be easier to fish out if she broke them straight into the bowl. Thankfully, not many eggshell bits got into the yolk, so she smiled and handed the cracked eggs to her mommy.
"Thank you, my little mermaid," Misty said as Ariel pours the eggs into the butter and sugar mixture.
"What should we add now, mommy?" Aoi asked his mother.
Misty looked at the recipe before asking the spitting image of her husband for the flour, cocoa, baking soda, and salt mixture.
"Good thing we already mixed them all together before we put them with the wet ingredients!" Ashley said as they hand the bowl that contained the dry ingredients to their mommy.
"Thank you, my little helpers," Misty said as she added a bit of the dry mixture to the other one. She said in a bit before adding a splash of milk. Pretty soon, she got a smooth combination of all of the ingredients, and she turned off the mixer. "Alright, now we need to bake this for at least thirty-five minutes."
"Thirty-five minutes?!" Aoi asked.
"That's a long time!" Ariel said.
"Yeah, but you know you can all make daddy some birthday cards, right?" Misty asked the triplets.
"That's a good idea, mommy!" Ashley said to her mother, "Come on! Let's go make some!" She and her siblings then rushed off to make some birthday cards for Ash.
After washing their hands as it was a messy job to bake anything, Aoi, Ariel, and Ashley returned to the kitchen. They held a box of crayons and a stack of paper for the cards they were going to make for their daddy. The three kids folded a piece of paper each to make it look like a card and drew a picture of themselves with their daddy. They then opened up the cards and wrote the word "Happy" on them.
"Uh, mommy," Aoi asked, "How do you spell birthday?"
"B-I-R-T-H-D-A-Y," Misty said, "That is how Birthday is spelled, Aoi Wowy."
"Thanks," Aoi said as he wrote the word onto the card before signing his name in barely legible scribbles. He was just learning how to write, after all. His sisters copied what he wrote, only using their names instead of Aoi's to make sure their daddy knew who made it for him.
"How do our cards look, mommy?!" Ariel asked as she showed Misty the card that she made. The front of the card had Ash standing in front of a birthday cake with flaming candles on it. On Ash's shoulder was his Pikachu, and his children were standing beside him with smiling faces.
"That looks good, Ariel," Misty said.
"By the way, how old will daddy turn this year?"
"Twenty-seven," Misty said to her spitting image.
"Wow, that will be a lot of candles!"
"I don't plan on using that many, though," Misty explained, "I think we will use two candles of one color for the tens place, and seven candles of another color for the ones place."
"That makes sense," Ashley said. Now all they had to do was wait for their daddy to get home.
Ash Ketchum was heading home to his family in Cerulean City after a long day at work at the league. Although he wanted to have a day off to spend his special day with his family, there was just so much work at the Pokemon League.
"Can't you just wait to see the triplets?" Ash asked his Raichu. (The former Pikachu evolved on vacation to Alola with his trainer and Misty before the triplets were born.)
"Of course," Raichu said telepathically with his psychic powers, "I am sure they have been missing us all day!"
Ash chuckled, "I bet they have," Ash said as they arrive at their house and open the door. To their surprise, it was really dark.
"Aoi?" Ash asked, "Ariel? Ashley? Are you guys here?"
Then, all of a sudden, the lights turned on to reveal his wife and children standing there. "Surprise!" they all yelled.
"Happy birthday, daddy!" the triplets said as they all ran towards their daddy and hugged him.
Ash smiled and hugs his children back, "I am surprised you knew today was my birthday," Ash said.
"It is because I told them," Misty said with a smile, "In fact, they pulled me out of the gym just so that I could help them make your favorite cake."
"Chocolate Cake with Cheri Berry Filling on top?" Ash asked.
"Yep!" Misty said as she led her husband to the kitchen table where a cake with nine unlit candles (two of them yellow and the other seven blue) was sitting in the center.
"Wow…" Ash said, "Thank you!"
Misty and the triplets smiled as the former lit the candles. Then they all sang "Happy Birthday to You" to Ash. ASh blew them out in a single blow.
"What did you wish for, daddy?" Aoi asked his father.
Ash thought about it and said, "Honestly. I didn't wish for anything. I already have everything I ever want or need in the form of my loving family!"
Misty smiled, "Oh, and here is another birthday gift for you, Ash!" She then leaned into his face and kisses him on the lips passionately. The triplets cringed and looked away.
And that is it for the chapter for Ash's birthday! You know, I wonder why not many fans of the anime know Ash's birthday is May 22nd. Because that day should be celebrated every year as a national holiday in at least Japan. I mean, if we celebrate the birthday of another fictional character, Jesus, every year, then why not Ash? Hell, why does Jesus get all of the special treatment when nobody knows who he is anymore, let alone even cares about the work he is from?! Everyone in the world knows who Ashton Satoshi Ketchum is, but nobody celebrates the day he was born. Not even hardcore Pokemon fans. The best male character in any medium does not deserve this treatment! Yet EVERYONE celebrates the birthday of an insane nobody who claims the be the son of Arceus! Anyways, time for the question of the chapter! And that is: what do you like to do for your parent's special day? I enjoy bringing my dad to Vikings games, as his birthday is when the NFL playoff race is just starting to heat up. Anyways, I will see you all next time, happy birthday to you, Ash Ketchum, and dare to Pokeship! I will see you all next week for another story, same Northstar time, same Northstar website!