Season: I know this took a bit longer than promised but it was a bit hard writing the actual proposal. But I think I did a good enough job that even I cried writing it. Ufff! I'd take Ash as a husband too.

Next chapter should be up soon. Enjoy this one. I sure did.

PS: The game Cilan gave them is a actual thing that happened where my family is from. It's called 'Gofio' and from what my mom and aunts tell me it was HILARIOUS. I never got to play it but I wouldn't want corn powder all over me though so it's all good.

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Stupidity Does Not Earn You Heaven

by: Season Of Magic

{~}

It took half an hour for their food to arrive. Ash ate the noodles and drank the broth from his soup before Brianna could get a fourth of her fries down even with all the quick nibbles she gave and Dawn wasn't even halfway through her chicken.

Brianna could only stare in awe at Ash.

"Dad, slow down before you choke." She stated, but she realized that he really wouldn't since it was mostly broth he was drinking. She sighed.

Dawn stared at Ash in disbelief. Wiping her mouth with the napkin provided with the utensils, she too couldn't help but sigh. "She's right you know."

"I'm fine." Ash stated, clearly not aware of the damage he was causing. This was a high class restaurant, their image could be destroyed just like that.

"I honestly don't mind," Dawn said with a shrug, "but we're out in public." She couldn't help but remind him.

"Manners dad. Manners."

"Perhaps we should add him to a social etiquette class." Dawn said to Brianna.

"Would he survive?" Brianna asked.

"No." Dawn couldn't help but say

"Let's do it." Brianna said, but then reconsidered. "It would be too late by then." She added giggling.

"Good point."

"I can hear you two you know." Ash said when he was done with his broth. He placed the bowl down and wiped his face. "I don't need etiquette classes, I have class, thank you very much."

Dawn and Brianna glanced to each other. "We'll see." They said laughing lightly again.

"If it was someone else I'd feel offended." He said as he grabbed his fork and stabbed the remaining half of Dawn's chicken. Grabbing a knife he carefully cut a slice and offered it to Dawn, who ate it with a blushing face. He cut another and did the same for Brianna. Then cut another for himself and ate it.

"Did we just get indirect kissed by dad?" Brianna couldn't help but utter after she chewed her piece of chicken.

"It was mychicken so consider it my kiss."

Cilan finally came back and brought Ash his own chicken a la cordon blu. "Sorry it's so late. It's been hectic in the kitchen."

"No worries Cilan it looks great!" Ash said as he grabbed the plate and placed it closer to him and began to cut it.

Cilan refilled their glasses of sparkling wine and pink lemonade. "If you need anything else you know who to call."

"The ghostbusters?" Ash asked.

"No, I'm afraid those are out of town until next week." Cilan responded back. He was used to Ash's humor.

"Darn it, I guess I have no other choice than to call you."

"Sorry." Cilan said grinning. He took his leave afterwards.

"At least from here I could pretend I don't know him." May could only state as she gawked with complete and total amazement.

"They went to Kanto's Delight for their first date right? How'd he not mess that up?" Gary replied also on awe.

"I don't remember if I asked how that went." May uttered.

"Neither do I." Tracey said.

"Well, let's just hope the rest of the night goes okay." May said.

"It's Ash, something will definitely go wrong again." Gary stated as he munched on his fries.

"You have too little faith in him." May said.

"And you too much." Gary said.

"I think deep down we all believe in him." Cilan interrupted as he brought drink refills. He set them down and then smiled. "He has that effect on people."

"That he does." Gary couldn't help but agree.

"It'll be okay, you'll see." Cilan said as he once again left.

"I agree with Cilan." May said as he placed her hands on the table.

"Me too let's just watch and see what happens." Tracey said.

Gary took the chance to steal a couple fries from May. "Yeah, let us do that." May swatted his hand away before he reached for her bowl a second time.

"You're dead to me." May said with a nonchalant voice.

"I love you too." Gary replied.

"Hmph! Love is the last thing I feel for you." May said as she crossed her arms and glanced away, a light blush on her face.

"Sure it isn't." Tracey replied as if he believed her.

"Exactly!"

Cilan dropped by Ash's table with a plate that had a purple, blue, and pink wrapper. He passed each of them to Ash, Dawn and Brianna accordingly.

"We're almost to the last plate of the night, dessert!" Cilan exclaimed happily. "But before that I have a game for you."

"A game?" Ash asked curiously as he took his wrapper and stared at it. It was full of some sort of powder.

"It's a game I used to play as a child. You either win a prize or you lose but either way you have fun." Cilan said. "I used to lose most of the times but that made me get closer to my siblings." He said as he recalled his fondest memories.

"How do you play?" Brianna asked.

"Well, the goal is to find a token. You start at the same time and whoever finds it first wins."

"Token? Is that the prize?" Brianna asked again.

"Nope! Whoever has the token wins a free dessert of their choosing from the restaurant."

"I don't get it." Brianna was stumped.

"There aren't any specific rules it's just fun to eat and the sugared corn powder is fun to throw at people too. Used to get scolded all the time because it's so sticky."

"I can't wait that long to see who has the token the anxiety will make me lose my mind." Brianna said and got up.

"I'm very impatient." Ash said as he stood up too.

Ash and Brianna both dumped the powder into the plate that Cilan brought the wrappers in.

Dawn was munching on the powdered corn happily until Ash and Brianna looked at her.

"Mom, you have the token!"

"Cho-ken?" Dawn asked.

"Weren't you listening? Whoever finds the token gets a free dessert."

"Both me and Bri's was empty that means yours has it!" Ash said as he leaned in to grab the wrapper from her. Dawn didn't budge but all of a sudden she was choking, she quickly leaned in for her glass of wine chugging it down. Ash took the opportunity to grab the wrapper and dump the remaining powdered corn into the plate.

"There it is!" He said as he took hold of the golden coin. He passed it to Cilan. "One free dessert please."

Cilan sighed. "You three are no fun." He said shaking his head. "Dawn, what would you like and are you okay?"

Dawn pressed the glass down and it almost broke. "Yeah I'm fine. Chocolate cake sounds good to me if you don't mind I need something fluffy."

"Roger that." He said as he passed the coin to Dawn and took the plate with him just in case, to prevent any of them from further choking. "Here, it's a chocolate coin."

"A slice of cake? Mom, you could have asked for the tiramisu. It was free! We could get you a slice of cake anywhere."

"It's not going to be as good as here I promise I picked a good choice."

Ash shook his head and sat down again. Dawn handed him the coin. "Here."

"This isn't helping, we could have had anything else on the menu." Ash was practically sulking.

"Chocolate cake was the next best thing."

"Whatever that is I don't want it." May said as she stared.

"Get the lucky wrapper with the golden chocolate coin token inside and win a free dessert." Gary stated as he read from the menu. "Huh, so besides a free chocolate coin you get to choose another sweet thing? Awesome! I'll have yours if you get it May."

"Free dessert? That token is as good as mine." May said as she heard what the prize was.

"It's random."

"Not particularly." Tracey said. "As you clearly noticed, Cilan handed each of them out it was obvious to me that Dawn would get it."

"Well aren't you mister Sherlock." May said.

At that moment Cilan walked back towards them with a plate. "Don't be like Ash and make one of you guys choke on the powder due to your own recklessness."

May grinned. "I won't make Gary choke if you give me the one with the token."

"Don't listen to her." Gary stated.

May glared at Gary. "Haven't you heard of ladies first?"

"Haven't you heard that I don't care?" Gary retorted.

Tracey sighed. "Typical." He said with a shrug. Then he called Cilan towards him and leaning in whispered. "If you accidentally give both of them tokens I'll pay for one of the desserts."

"They won't give up unless we do that huh?" Cilan said as he passed the plate to Tracey and gave him a chocolate coin. "Put it in the purple or blue one." He said as he leaned down, pretending to re-tie his shoelaces.

Tracey did as such and handed the plate back to Cilan when he stood up.

"Are you two done bickering?" Cilan said shaking his head.

"We're not bickering." May said as she stuck out her tongue. "This is the way we talk."

"Exactly!" Gary said.

Tracey simply stared in disbelief and leaned in again, taking the blue wrapper for himself. "While you two are doing that I'll be enjoying this." He gulped down the powder, and instantly began to choke.

May passed him a cup of water. "Take it easy man!"

Tracey drank the water and when he could speak again all he said was; "I just wanted to see if I won the token."

"You know what? If anyone deserves it it's you. Me and Gary have been nothing but jerks all night."

"I have not been a jerk. Rude, maybe. A jerk? Never."

May glared at Gary to shut up. She refilled the cup for Tracey.

"There's no need to rush the point of the game is to have fun."

"That may be true but do you know us? We like to win." Gary stated.

"Yeah!" May agreed.

Cilan sighed and took the remaining two wrappers from the plate and began pouring the corn powder on to the plate. Two chocolate coins fell on top of it. "That can't be right." He said with a gasp.

May and Gary stared. And blinked. And stared once more.

"Two coins?" Tracey said with a gasp.

May and Gary high fived and grinned. Cilan handed them over. "There must be some mistake but I never go back on my word."

"What do you want Tracey?" May quickly asked. "We don't have all night so hurry up and pick something. Dessert's on me tonight."

"No Tracey, it's on me." Gary said.

Tracey glanced to the menu. "You two pick whatever you want for yourselves I'm buying myself a flan."

May pouted. "But Traceeeeeeyyyy!"

"One flan to the order Cilan please."

"Are you sure?" Cilan asked.

"I'm sure." Tracey said with a nod.

"Alright, what about you two?"

"I'll have a double fudge chocolate brownie." May said.

"Red velvet cake." Gary said.

"Okay I'll be back in a bit." Cilan said as he took the wrapper from Tracey and once again left, taking the plate of powder with him.

"You two realize that you could have ordered whatever you wanted right?" Tracey said with a deadpan glare.

May and Gary stated at each other. "We know." They said in unison.

"I don't have emotions but you can say I kind of felt bad." Gary stated.

"Same." May agreed.

Tracey shrugged. "At least you sort of get it."

Cilan brought Dawn her chocolate cake and set it down on the table then went and handed the brownies and red velvet cake to May's group.

"You might want to eat that quickly." He suggested as he ran back to the kitchen.

May was already biting into her brownie and Gary was hitting his cake with the fork when they glanced at each other again and began to eat faster.

"Done!" May said less than a minute later.

"Not fair." Gary said as he gulped down his third bite. "This is a giant slice."

May sighed as she grabbed her fork and poked into the uneaten part of the cake. "Here, I'll help."

"If you two can stop flirting for two seconds to look at what's actually going on around you." Tracey uttered. He had his Poketch set to record.

May and Gary glanced up and quickly hit record on their own watches.

Dawn's eyes sparkled at the sight of the cake. She cut it into three parts and placed each into plates, passing one to Brianna and Ash each.

They each began eating the cake, when Cilan had returned with another plate.

This time, he placed a funfetti slice of cake in front of each other.

"For the princess." Cilan bowed.

"I didn't order this." Brianna stated.

"It was already placed on the reservation." Cilan stated.

Dawn glanced to Ash. "If you had already ordered dessert why didn't you say anything?"

Ash shrugged and simply moved his hands, encouraging Brianna to cut the cake. "Go on, go on."

Cilan bowed again as he placed the cake on Dawn's side. "For the queen."

Brianna smiled when she saw her mom had one too. She grabbed the fork and was going to cut into her slice when all of sudden she noticed the writing. "My slice has a question mark on it."

Ash looked at his slice. "Oops. Wrong one." He said as he switched with her.

"Eh?" Was all she said, as she glanced to the one she now had, which said the word 'me' on it.

"Me... question mark?" Brianna said as she tilted her head. She stared over at Dawn to see if her mother's said anything. Dawn stood there frozen. She glanced up to Ash.

"Tell me you didn't." Was all she could utter, speechless.

Ash blinked. "And if I did?"

"You are seriously too much." Dawn said.

Ash smiled as he stood up, placed the slices together, and held his arm out to take a picture with his Poketch. "I want to remember this." He said as he got on the middle between Dawn and Brianna. "Cheese!" He said as he snapped a picture. Brianna and Dawn glanced up confused but smiling and holding a peace sign.

That's when Brianna noticed the other word. Together the three slices said the phrase, 'marry me?' As soon as her brain processed the words she squealed.

"Are you for real?" Brianna asked and Ash nodded. Brianna's smile alone could light up the entire restaurant. Dawn was still in shock.

Ash took notice and got down on one knee. "Bri, I couldn't ask such a question without asking you first. Do you give me official blessing to ask to marry your mother, and in doing so becoming your father legally?" He brought it a box and opened it, revealing a blue diamond cut into the design of a Pikachu.

Brianna's eyes welled up. "Yes!" She uttered, leaning in to give him a hug. "Of course dad. You have all my blessings."

He smiled and leaned into the hug, then stood up and placed the ring in her finger. "The design is to commemorate our first meeting."

"I love it." Brianna said as she held the hand with the finger to her heart.

Ash smiled as he stayed where he was and looked over to Dawn.

Dawn was already bawling her eyes, silently recording the scene between him and Brianna with her Poketch. She placed her wrist down and glanced over to him. "I swear Ash if it's what I'm thinking..."

Ash's smile got wider as he brought out another box. "Dawn, I've said it once, that with you two I have it all. And no matter how many times I have to say it I will. Because with you two I have it all and the only thing missing is to make it official. So will you make me the happiest man and marry me?"

Dawn thought she had no tears left to cry. "How many more times do I have to say yes until you understand it's a yes?"

Ash laughed a bit at that. "Sometimes I'm too stupid to understand a yes. But you only have to say yes until the ring is in your finger."

Dawn held out her hand. "If it's in the shape of a cup of lemonade I'm saying no."

Ash giggled, remembering that's how they met. "It's not." He said as he opened the box and showed her. The ring was a blue diamond like Brianna's but the cut was in the shape of a ribbon. "Is that a yes or a no then?"

Dawn laughed as she wiggled her hand. "I was joking silly, I wouldn't care what the design was. But I love it. Now shut up and put it on me."

Ash took the ring out the box and placed it on her finger. He lifted the hand up to his lips and pressed kisses to it. He then pushed her to him and pressed a kiss to her lips. "Congrats Mrs Ketchum." He said.

Brianna was the one recording with her Poketch now and she giggled uncontrollably. "Congrats!" She said then sat back down. "Now if you excuse me, I have cake to eat."

May ran from where she, Tracey and Gary were hiding recording the scene together and went to hug Ash and Dawn. "Congratulations guys!"

"Congrats, I guess." Gary said as he patted Ash on the back.

"He means he's happy for you." Tracey said. "As am I."

Brianna glanced up from her seat. "When did you guys get here?" She asked after she swallowed the piece of cake she had eaten.

May grinned. "That's for us to know and you to guess. But we'll be leaving now."

"Yeah, just wanted to show our support." Gary said. "Not that you needed it or that we really wanted to be here."

"You're the one paying the bill." May said as she grabbed her purse and pretended to run out. "Thanks for everything Cilan it was lovely!" She said as she waved to Cilan.

Cilan laughed. "Thanks for coming May. Hope to see you again."

"Perhaps you won't." Gary said. "Now give me the bill so that we can get out of here."

"Please." Tracey said with a shake of his head. "He means please and thank you. He'll definitely be coming back."

Cilan laughed again. "No worries I know what he meant."

"Can we get our bill too Cilan? Brianna has school tomorrow so we should be heading out as well."

"Of course." Cilan said.

"Can we get these to go?" Dawn asked as she passed Cilan the slices of chocolate cake she cut and the two slices of funfetti cake she and Ash didn't eat.

"Certainly." Cilan said as he took the plates and went to get them wrapped up to go. He came back two minutes later with a bag and the two bills.

Gary took them both. "I'm feeling generous tonight." He said as he glanced at them and slid his credit card over as he signed his name with a flourish on both copies.

"That was rather nice of you Gary." May said.

"See? I can be nice." Gary said as he snapped his leather jacket and crossed his arms.

"Won't doubt it again." May said.

Tracey could only watch in agony.

"If those two could only notice how they're acting..." he uttered to himself.

On the way back from Cilan's restaurant, Dawn and Brianna couldn't stop staring at their rings. Ash simply watched with a smile and taking pictures. Seeing them happy made him happy as well.

The limo took them all the way back to Dawn's house. Ash got off first, taking their belongings and placing them on the front entrance then took each of their hands as they got off the vehicle. He gave the driver a tip before he left.

Dawn unlocked the front door and gasped in surprise. "How'd you get here before us?" She said as she saw May, Tracey and Gary sprawled out on the couch.

"Mister I'm-A-Reckless-Driver over there." May stated.

"You wanted to get home to rest your feet. I used a shortcut."

"Driving ten miles above the limit is not a shortcut."

"You've rested your feet for fifteen minutes, What can I say except you're welcome? So, I believe the word is 'thank you.'" Gary said.

"I see what's happening here... you're not getting it."

Brianna laughed. "Face to face with greatness and it's strange?"

"We're not getting into a singing competition. Bri has school and we have work." Dawn said as she sat down on the couch. "Now let me rest my feet for a bit so I can actually make it up the stairs."

"Great. Rest up and show me the bling girl." May said as she reached over to look at the ring. "Oh that is adorable." She gushed at it.

"Isn't it? The design is fantastic." Dawn said.

"Mine is a Pikachu!" Brianna said, also showing hers to May.

"Even more adorable!" May squealed.

Gary pretended to cover his ears. "Must you girls do that?"

"Oh let them be." Tracey said.

"What I want to know is how in the world did he manage to buy the rings and not inform either me or you?" Gary asked, pointing to Ash.

"Simple. I can keep a secret." Ash said with a grin.

"You can't." Gary said. "Remember when we were five and I made you fall off the swings by mistake and you told on me?"

"I was five, I was a blabbermouth because you pushed me off." Ash said.

"What a bully!" May said.

"Right?" Ash said agreeing.

"I'm not a bully... anymore." Gary said.

"Ha! So you do admit you were a bully." Ash said pointing.

"You made it fun." Gary said. "And easy."

"'Gary was here, Ash is a loser.'" Ash quoted. "Eighteen years later; engaged, a father, a decent job. Who's the loser now?"

"Still you." Gary said as he stood up and flicked Ash on the forehead. "But I admit you've gotten somewhat cool."

"Ash is a loser? That's so childish Gary." May said.

"We were ten." Gary said.

"And did you apologize?" May replied back

"What do you think I just did?" Gary said.

"That's not an apology." May said.

"I'm sorry I called you a loser back when we were kids even though you still are."

"Gary!" May said.

"What? I said sorry."

"You two are such good friends." Dawn said wiping a tear from laughing so much. "Kenny and I used to be the same way. We still are."

"It's not funny Dee-Dee. And we're not friends." Ash said crossing his arms.

"They're best friends." Brianna chimed in.

"Bri!" Ash said as if appalled. "I would never be besties with him."

Brianna pretended to roll an eye as she grabbed her backpack. "You two deny it all you want, I need to go shower and get ready to sleep. Good night everyone."

"I'd help you but I can't get up." Dawn said. She had taken off her heels and had her feet up on the couch.

Ash extended his hand out to her. "Come on, I'll help you my barefoot Cinderella."

Dawn glanced to the floor then to him. "I can't leave a prince waiting." She said with resignation. "I guess I'll have to wash my feet upstairs."

"You have to shower anyways mom." Brianna said from the staircase.

"Dawn took hold of Ash's hand and smiled. "True. Onwards my prince."

"Of course princess this way." Ash said as he helped her up from the couch and to get up the staircase.

"Now why can't you two be like them?" Tracey couldn't help but ask Gary and May.

"Because no!" May said.

"I would never!" Gary said.

"Denial." Tracey said with a shake of his head.