Lies, Damned Lies, and Pokémon

I found a coda to this story I must have written years ago and thought that I'd share it mostly because I love the idea of Delia being all shrewd and manipulative.

Summary: For years and years people had been thinking them a couple and it was about time they did something about it . . . even if they hadn't exactly meant to. AAML.

Disclaimer: I don't own Pokémon.

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Lies, Damned Lies, and Pokémon

They say honesty is the best policy, but nobody's perfect

Delia Ketchum wouldn't describe her actions as manipulative per se.

She simply did what needed to be done; and if that required a few deliberate misunderstandings and heart rendering looks, then so be it. It was all for the greater good, after all – her son's happiness – and there could be no greater good than that.

She'd seen it building for years, since the first moment she met her son's redheaded best friend. Misty had been hopelessly in love with him then and Ash hadn't been all that far behind her, although he was too dense at the time to realize it. It was years before he understood what the fluttery feeling in his stomach meant or the real reason why his heart raced whenever she was near. It took him more than six years to discover his own feelings, and by that point he was mostly convinced that Misty would never feel the same, although by what she couldn't fathom.

It was clear the two had reached an impossible impasse. Misty was waiting for Ash to start noticing girls and make some sort of move, unaware that he'd already started noticing the fairer sex and just one member in particular. He'd put her in the platonic section of his brain, while still carrying a torch for her that would not reignite in another.

Now Delia was usually a patient woman, but this matter required her special attention. This was her future (redheaded) grandchildren they were talking about and Delia wasn't getting any younger herself, so it was up to her to get things going in the right direction.

Step one was playing the mother card. "Ashy, I just don't understand . . . why you won't tell me," she said with a watery gaze as the two shared a quite, mother-son dinner. "I thought we told each other everything."

Her son stopped mid-chew, swallowing thickly. "Ma, it's not you," he protested quickly, trying his best to appease her.

Knowing that Ash would do absolutely anything if he thought it would spare her from pain, she waited - making no effort to fill the silence - to see what he would come up with. It took only a second or two of awkwardness for him to come up with an off-the-cuff excuse for why he was keeping his relationship with Misty a secret.

"It's . . . it's . . . uh . . . Misty's family!" he finished eagerly, quite proud of the lie he'd managed to come up with.

Delia held back laughter, amused at where this was heading. She knew for a fact that Misty's family had nothing against a relationship between Ash and Misty. Daisy was nice enough to keep her up to date on matters just in case she missed anything from her end, and happily retold anything that Misty might unwittingly reveal to her sisters.

Her features creased in disbelief, making her expression easy for Ash to read. He quickly backtracked to a more plausible explanation. "Her grandparents," he said. "I . . . uh . . . I mean, we don't think they'll approve of me for her seeing as, you know, they're really . . . um . . . important," he finished weakly.

Delia couldn't help but be slightly impressed with Ash's explanation. It made a lot of sense, and might have even been true if not for Theodore Yawa Senior's easy manner. She knew of Misty's grandparents, both sets, having grown up in the same upper-class circles as Misty's parents. While Theodore Yawa was easy and unassuming, his wife Adelaida was judgmental and pretentious, and looked down upon anyone who couldn't trace their lines of peerage back five generations. Irrespective, she hardly thought Misty the type of girl to turn down the boy she loved simply because he didn't meet Adelaida's pedigree.

In fact, she thought that might just be reason enough for Misty to ride off into the sunset – just to feel the irk of Adelaida's disapproval.

Well Delia wasn't going to simply leave it at that. She would do almost anything for her son, and that included calling her own parents, Doctor Nigel and Daphne Goodwin, whom she hadn't spoken with since Ash was a baby. They'd turned their back on her when her husband went missing shortly before Ash's birth, seeing her solo-motherhood and spousal abandonment as a shame upon their family – she never forgave them for their elitism and hadn't spoken to them since.

"Cordelia, what brings you to contact us?" Daphne asked in a superior tone.

"I have a favour to ask you," she said simply, getting straight to the point.

"Of course you do," Daphne replied snarkily. "You only ever call when you want something of us."

Delia rolled her eyes, ignoring her mother's passive aggressive remarks. "Does father still keep in contact with Senator Yawa and his wife?" she asked, rather than reply.

"We just saw them last week," Daphne replied pompously, obviously proud of her connections. The Goodwin's were new money, at least in a way relative to Misty's family, and so lacked some of the good breeding that went along with a long pedigree and stopped most members of their class from committing such blatant name-dropping. "Adelaida and I share a tennis coach."

"Well then I'm sure you'd be happy to know that you might share a great-grandchild in the future," Delia responded blithely, seeing her mother's eyes light up. "Ashton is courting their youngest granddaughter."

"Your son is involved with a Yawa?" Daphne said, her features a mask of disbelief and awe.

"Don't you read any of the Pokémon magazines?" Delia asked with superior smile. "Of course, the girls are known by the stage name 'Waterflower' rather than 'Yawa'. Your grandson might be engaged to Mischa Yawa by the end of the year.

"Although, they've had to keep it quiet," Delia added, keeping her voice low like she was imparting some great secret that had to stay between the two of them. "They're worried that the Senator and his wife might not approve the match."

"Oh no," Daphne said thoughtfully, and Delia could practically see the wheels turning in her mother's head. "We can't have that. Ashton must meet them at once so they can see what a good match it will be, combining two of the great Kantonian families."

"I quite agree, Mother," Delia said with a smile. "I'd hoped you might arrange something in that respect. After all, you and Adelaida do share a tennis coach."

That part had been easy enough to formulate and her parents had quickly arranged a meeting between Ash and the Yawas. Her mother had insisted upon meeting with Ash herself first, probably so that she wouldn't be embarrassed later in not knowing her grandson's age or even the colour of his eyes when it came up in conversation with the impressive Adelaida Yawa. Delia didn't have to worry about how the meeting would go with the Senator and his wife – Ash had a strange, gawky charm that he had inherited from his father that she knew would win over even his toughest critics. Combined with the fact that the Yawas really did have their granddaughter's best interests at heart, it was an easy sell.

Step two involved much of the same as step-one; guilting her son into taking the next step by asking him in a small voice why he still hadn't come out to the media. When he said that he wasn't sure how to go about it, she gave him the name of Avery Linsey, who she hired about two months ago to start managing the gossip surrounding her son. With Ash now on board, it was much easier to start getting the right rumours spreading with regards to Ash and Misty.

Step three was probably the most devious. She went to Tiffany & Co. and bought a ring. It was a beautiful ring – the sort of ring that looked like it had been around a lot longer than it really had. She bought it in rose gold, because yellow gold just wouldn't do on Misty's fair skin and white gold looked vapid on her own. She picked a setting with multiple stones and a high quality diamond, sparing no expense on her future daughter-in-law. If he was going to ask the Yawas for Misty's hand, then he would need a ring that would impress Adelaida, so there would be no cutting corners on the quality of the diamond, even if the carat was probably a bit small for Adelaida's tastes.

Step four only required a deliberate misunderstanding and pretending to assume that her son's unwitting fiancée had agreed to his proposal. The rest he did on his own. Her son loved her so much and he would do anything to make her happy and he avoided disappointing her at all costs. It was only expected that he would ask her to plan his wedding, and she pretended to be oblivious to the reasons for Misty's uncharacteristic lack of involvement.

"So what colour would you like for the bridesmaids?" Delia asked when Misty came to see her a month later, finally sporting the rose gold ring on her left hand. Delia smiled and continued. "I was thinking something in the blue end of the spectrum. I have some swatches for you to see."

Misty was not nearly as easy to fool as her son. She gasped and narrowed her eyes, raising the ring bearing hand to her mouth. "You knew," she accused.

"Knew what?" Delia replied innocently.

"That he . . . that we . . . that it was just . . ." Misty started several times, but failing each time.

"I know my son," Delia said gently, saving Misty the effort of having to accuse her future mother-in-law of such underhanded tactics. "I might have given him the push he needed, but he wouldn't have asked you to marry him if it wasn't what he wanted."

"Yes, well," Misty began, flushing under the implication, though Delia was sure that the diamond ring on Misty's finger meant there had been some mutual confession of feelings. "I still wish you hadn't gotten my grandparents involved," she said with a pointed look.

Delia conceded that with a shamefaced smile, but ultimate put the blame squarely on Ash for not coming up with a better lie to begin with.

"Adelaida's booked the club," Misty added with a grimace that Delia shared, remembering that her own wedding had nearly been conscribed to the same venue.

In fact, there was only one thing for it. She picked up her binder full of wedding plans and dress samples and dumped the whole thing in the rubbish bin.

"Any thought about eloping?" she asked, watching as the surprise on Misty's face morphed into a sly grin to match her own. "I hear the Orange Islands are lovely this time of year."

~ FIN ~