DISCLAIMER: If you look back on my other fics you'll see how many times I've written this. It's a lot anyways, so once again - nada, don't own Pokémon. Oh the fun it would be if I did though, lol!
A/N: I don't really have much to say…I've just been thinking about this fic and I've sort of decided to change the dynamics of it a bit. Nothing drastic, but the way I was gonna do it before would've been too rushed. So just bear with me, I'm figuring this out as I go along, no bullet points or plans or anything for this one. Should be interesting!
I would be lying if I said, two years on, that married life with Ash was total bliss. We had our arguments now and then, usually about things that were resolved within minutes - money, what to make for dinner, vacation spots…
But most days I woke up with a smile on my face and every day I woke up next to Ash, which was a feeling beyond words. My life took on a solidarity I had never felt before. After years of traveling and roaming different lands, I expected to be sort of restless at the routine of married life. But every day was different. If I wasn't running errands, I was inviting friends over for dinner parties. If I wasn't cleaning, I was soothing Ash about his hard days at the Pokémon League Union, which he was vice-president of thanks to his past training skills.
And every Friday night would be spent on the couch in each other's arms, either watching videos or looking through old photo albums or simply talking about anything that came to mind. Doesn't sound like much of a Friday night when there were parties and to-dos everywhere else possible, but it was our time and we reserved it especially for each other. The days took a toll on us and we desperately needed those Friday nights to be in each other's presence without any other worries or hassles.
One particular Friday night a subject arose that I had, in truth, only slightly touched upon in my thoughts. We were flicking through Ash's scrapbook of all his victories and headlines that he'd made as a trainer. I was curled up in his arms in complete contentment as he stroked my hair in between different pictures.
"Oh God, that was when I lost to Ritchie" he mumbled at one point. I looked at the headline, which screamed out 'Pallet's Peak Punctured.' I frowned.
"That was a bit harsh."
"It's the paparazzi. They'll pounce on any story if it means money" Ash shrugged non-chalantly.
"I still remember how upset you were when you first saw that though. It must've hurt" I said sympathetically, rubbing his arm as a gesture of my compassion. He smiled and kissed the top of my head.
"I was a kid. Things were different back then. Kids take things on a lot more than adults do" he pointed out.
"Yeah" I sighed.
"Speaking of kids…" Ash started, to which I immediately froze in his arms. I knew what was coming next. We'd had this discussion before but it had only ever been very brief before I made some weak excuse to duck out of it.
"Um, y-yes honey?" I said innocently.
"Don't worry, I can tell you hate the idea before I've even said anything" Ash sighed. This instantly put me on a guilt trip, though I wasn't sure if that was his intention or not.
"What idea?" I asked. I knew exactly what idea it was.
"The idea of us having some of our own. Little Ketchums to raise as great Pokémon Masters, to let them show the world what we're made of, to -"
"Now don't get carried away there" I laughed. "That's a very nice dream you've got going but did it ever occur to you that our kids might be allergic to Pokémon or, God forbid, not even be interested in the creatures?"
"Our kids" Ash repeated softly. Oh God. I'd blown it now. I'd said two fatal words and he was gonna play on it for all it was worth. "Doesn't that have a nice ring to it? Our kids…"
"Ash…" I started uncertainly. "I dunno if I'm ready to have kids right now. I mean, they're so much work, it would mean an end to our social lives and…stuff" I finished weakly. Ash laughed after hearing this.
"Darling, not one to be a smart aleck but we hardly have any sort of social life. Dinner parties once a month shouldn't count cos we don't go out."
"Okay, well we'd never have this time together. We'd be tending to a crying baby or just too exhausted to care about anything else but sleep. Did that ever occur to you?" I asked.
"Well, yeah, but don't you think it would be worth it? A little piece of you and me, a true family" Ash said. I raised an eyebrow at him.
"I didn't realise you were so keen to be a family man."
"Just another hidden secret about yours truly. Plus two years of marriage, Mist. Mom is getting anxious" he pointed out. I giggled at the very true statement and sighed as I snuggled back into his arms.
"It is a nice thought."
"Really?" Ash asked in surprise.
"Yeah, our children running round our house under our watchful eye." I couldn't say the word 'our' enough. Everything we did now we did together, and children were definitely no exception to that. I knew Ash wasn't planning to just leave the brunt of all the work on me but I'd heard horror stories about wives taking on the traditional housewife thing and just staying at home with the kids all day while the husband went out and made money. Sounded simple enough but my life needed variety.
"The dream family huh?" Ash said. I slowly nodded, feeling my eyes starting to droop in weary defeat. "Oh no you don't, no sleeping until you gimme your final verdict" he said teasingly.
"Verdict on what?" I asked sleepily.
"The idea of us having kids."
"It sounds…wonderful" I yawned. I could tell Ash was surprised, as I had in the past usually avoided answering such questions, but I knew through my fatigue that I meant it. Talking about it with Ash had actually made it sound a lot easier than when I thought about it on my own. I went to sleep that night with visions of how our children would look and act.
I woke up late the next morning, mostly due to the fact that it was a Saturday and Ash hadn't woken me as he got ready to go to the union. But he still wasn't beside me when I looked over and, wracked with curiosity, I grabbed my robe and walked into the lounge to find him reading a book.
"Good morning. You never read" I started. He looked up and then flashed the cover at me, which brought me to a fit of giggles. It was a baby name book. I couldn't believe he was being this serious about all of this already.
"I read when it concerns my children" Ash replied while I continued to laugh.
"Ash, I don't know how many times I've told you this, but don't get carried away. The poor child isn't even conceived yet" I pointed out. Ash shrugged and bookmarked the page he was on before showing me something else. A piece of paper which had different scrawlings all over it.
"These are the favourites at the moment. I didn't realise there were so many names in the world, every time I turn a page I get a new fave" he grinned. I sat next to him and read over the list. Adam, Alicia, Nathan, Paris…that was just to name a few. I sighed and looked at him with a small smile.
"You really are excited about this, aren't you?" I asked softly.
"Hey, if I'm writing names before the kid's conceived then excited is probably an understatement" Ash replied. "I was just thinking about it when I woke up and thought there would be no harm in being a little bit prepared."
"Prepared for what, me waking up and magically discovering I'm pregnant?" I grinned.
"It could happen" Ash shrugged. I shook my head in mock dismay and ruffled his hair playfully.
"You want some breakfast?"
"I had breakfast three hours ago" Ash pointed out. Oh yeah, I had slept in. I laughed a little to shrug off the embarrassed flush my cheeks were taking on at having forgotten something I realised only moments before.
"Of course you did. I'll go make myself some brunch then" I announced, starting to walk away before Ash grabbed my hand. I turned back to face his inquisitive eyes.
"Um…what ya making?" he asked innocently enough. I placed my hands on my hips and raised an eyebrow.
"Why do you care?"
"Cos, I dunno, might be able to help you or something" Ash mumbled.
"Yeah, you'll be able to help me eat it" I laughed. Ash grinned up at me and I sighed in mock exasperation. "Okay, fine. How does bacon and eggs sound?"
"Sounds more like breakfast than brunch" Ash commented. Nonetheless, he followed me to the kitchen via the tight grasp I had on his hand. I started rummaging round the fridge for the necessary ingredients when I was unexpectedly pulled into his embrace from behind.
"What the hell" I laughed in surprise. His arms were held fast around my waist and I slowly stroked them as I felt his kisses on the back of my neck. "What's this all about?" I asked quietly after a moment's silence.
"I can't believe we're going to be expanding what we have together. A bit of you and me to love as much as we love each other. It's incredible" Ash replied, now playing with my morning-frizzed hair. The thought was incredible. As little as a few days ago I had seemed dead set against the idea of having a family and now here I was, celebrating it with my husband when it hadn't even happened.
"I know it is" I finally whispered. I tilted my head to meet his eyes, which I didn't stay focused on for very long because I soon found myself melting into his familiar kiss. As always with this notion, the world was spinning in my head but it was abruptly halted by the sound of the phone.
"Go get that. I'll start the bacon" I said. I didn't have to say that though, Ash was already striding towards the ringing device that was only a few feet away. I heated up the frying pan as I heard Ash eagerly greet Brock, who we hadn't heard from in a while lately.
My mind raced into excited overdrive as it flowed with thoughts of our children. Would we have to move into a bigger house? Well, probably not right away…
The frying pan sizzled as the heat and bacon collided and, out of the blue, I felt a surge of nausea rise up within me. I had never been a big meat eater but the smell had never made me feel sick either. I clutched the side of the bench and mentally willed my body to pull itself together. Ash noticed my actions from where he was standing with the phone and he raised an eyebrow. I managed to smile and shrug it off for a second before I automatically found myself running to the bathroom.
God I hate being sick. I truly hate it because it happens so rarely to me but when it does it's a shocker. I don't know how long I was there for until Ash ran in and knelt beside me which, I will admit, was very brave of him considering I was heaving up most of last night's dinner.
"Mist…um, what happened?" he asked, the awkward tones subtle but evident in his voice. Of course I was in no condition to reply until I'd finished, which came to pass about two minutes of Ash rubbing my back later. I sat back and tried to catch my breath while nearly gagging again on the taste in my mouth. Oh yuck.
"Urgh…" It was all I could manage, a weird moan of disgust that passed through my lips.
"Did you have something bad to eat last night?" Ash asked sympathetically.
"I had what you had. You would've been sick too" I said faintly. Ash paused at this remark and then, for some absurd reason, a grin crept across his face. I looked at him wearily, wondering where this was going. "What are you looking so happy about?"
"There can only be one other explanation Misty" Ash said, kissing my cheek and still smiling broadly enough to slightly scare me.
"Um…you wanna elaborate on that?" I asked.
"You just had morning sickness. You must be pregnant" Ash beamed. He sat there grinning like I hadn't just upchucked my whole dinner and I managed to splutter out some sort of reply.
"Don't be so…ridiculous. I'm not pregnant."
"Yes you are! You must be! You threw up in the morning and your periods stopped a couple of months ago -"
"Hey hey hey" I interrupted sternly. "How do you know that?"
"You haven't been getting your monthly rampage of PMS" Ash said casually. I nearly glared him to death but it obviously didn't affect him because he proceeded to take my hands in his and eye me seriously. "Mist, don't you even think it's a remote possibility?"
"No, I don't" I replied calmly.
"Well there's only one way you can prove that." I raised an eyebrow at him and, from that point on, the day transpired into a whirlwind I'll never forget. The first thing that happened was he actually walked himself down to the chemist and bought a home pregnancy test, which I immediately protested at.
"I'm not pregnant, dammit!" I exclaimed when he showed it to me. "I only threw up cos I got a whiff of that bacon. It must've been off or something."
"It wasn't off and this is the reason you were sick. I'm willing to bet large amounts of money and possessions on it" Ash said.
"For God's sake, Ash I can't be pregnant. This isn't a fairytale movie where we discuss our future family and then magically discover the next morning that I've got a bun in the oven. It just doesn't happen" I said wearily.
"Well don't you wanna prove me wrong then?" Ash asked mischievously. I sighed and swiped the test off him.
"Fine. If I do this and prove to you that you're wrong, will you shut up about all of this until I myself discover that I'm pregnant?" I asked curtly.
"After this it's all yours, baby" Ash grinned. I rolled my eyes in exasperation and walked into the bathroom with apprehension finally starting to make an appearance within me.
What if Ash was right? What if all the things he had calculated came to light and I really was pregnant? No, I couldn't be, it just didn't happen. I throw up once and he thinks I'm pregnant. I laughed to myself at this thought. He was still as naïve as he had been on our Pokémon journeys.
I came out of the bathroom a minute later empty handed. Ash raised an eyebrow at me and I shrugged.
"Gotta wait two minutes. I don't wanna wait by myself" I explained. "Plus I wanna see your face when you discover that I'm right and your wrong" I added.
"We'll see" Ash said. He walked back to the bathroom with me and glanced at the test, lying by the sink, motionless but about to do one of us damage to our egos. "Wish these things didn't take so bloody long" he muttered. Two minutes doesn't sound like long until you actually have to wait for something that big for that long. Then it feels like an eternity.
I stood there with my arms folded in front of my chest, looking around the bathroom, thinking the most random of thoughts at a time like this. The walls needed painting. We needed a new shower curtain. There was a disgusting cobweb in the corner that -
"I knew it!" I heard Ash yell in the middle of my thinking. I whirled round to look at his face, lit up in pure delight, and my shocked eyes fell to the test. It confirmed what he had thought all along. I was pregnant.
"B-but…I can't, um, I can't be…how did this…" I trailed off, feeling dizzy at what had just happened. I finally shook myself into some sanity and eyed him seriously. "You do realise that these things aren't always accurate."
"Oh come on Mist, they're 99.9% accurate. That doesn't leave a lot of margin for error" Ash pointed out. Seeing his face so overwhelmed by happiness, I felt a pang inside of me. I couldn't dampen his spirits when this obviously had him over the moon. And besides, how could I be so forlorn? I was going to have his child, our child, something I had gotten so excited over the night before.
"I really am pregnant" I whispered in shock.
"You really are" Ash smiled. "But I guess the big question is…are you really happy? I mean honestly, are you cool with this?" he asked seriously. I eyed him for all of two seconds before throwing my arms around his neck and holding him close, much to his surprise.
"For once I am happy you were right about something" I laughed. Well in honesty my ego had been slightly dented but if it was only by my husband I wasn't worried. We were going to have our first child and while I was dying to spread the word to everyone we knew, Ash had obviously taken in my words about home tests not always being accurate because he pretty much ordered me to the family planning clinic for a proper test.
"I can't just bowl in there without an appointment or anything" I pointed out when he brought it up half an hour after the discovery.
"Sure you can. They won't care and if they do you can make an appointment for another day, it's no biggie" Ash shrugged.
"Fine, whatever" I sighed. I didn't want to get into a dispute about it, I was too tired to really care, so he drove the two of us down about fifteen seconds after that conversation ended. Not a moment to lose according to Ash Ketchum.
As it turned out I didn't need an appointment - another small cavity to my ego but not that I cared right now - and their tests said the same thing. I was two months pregnant and I had only just caught on. In fact, it wasn't even me who caught on, Ash figured it out before I did. They told me I could come back in two weeks for a scan and routine check up and I walked out of there, my hand intertwined in Ash's and my heart lighter than I ever thought it could be.
It was like some sort of fairy tale. Only hours ago we had been discussing the mere possibility and now we had it confirmed twice over. A shock to my system to say the least.
Lying in Ash's arms that night, I smiled to myself at the news that still resounded in my brain. It was so surreal yet so exciting. I knew the dreams I would witness in my mind that night would somehow involve our unborn but already very much loved child. I sighed and fell asleep, knowing that I could get through any amount of morning sickness and mood swings for the sake of our child.
A/N: Finished this chapter on the 1st of November, look at that! Only four days till Guy Fawkes! Woo! Okay enough of the random crap, I finished this and now I'm tired so methinks it's bedtime. Reviews are nice, and there are still two more chapters to go and maybe an epilogue. Maybe. Every time I say I want an epilogue I think of how many chapters I could have in between and no, don't want another huge one to deal with, lol! Anyways I'm gonna be quiet now, thanks for reading!