A/N: Hi friends! This is the final tale involving the Oak family in the main story. It's a little bit of insight into what Gary and Leaf's work lives are like, and how they deal with their busy schedules on top of taking care of two kids. Obviously, this contains Oldrivalsshipping, so if you don't like that ship, then feel free to move along.
Gary glanced at the clock. 1 am, it read. And he was still only a quarter of the way through the paperwork lying on his desk. He groaned. Leaf was probably asleep by now.
"Umbree." Umbreon hopped up on its trainer's lap, demanding attention that it had been lacking for the past few hours.
"Umbreon." Gary placed a hand on Umbreon's head, giving it a few strokes before returning to his work.
Umbreon pouted and hopped off of his lap. Its trainer had been so tired lately. Having 2 small children didn't seem to help anything.
A knock came at the door. Gary went to open it. He was greeted by Leaf, who was holding a plate of food that looked (and smelled) absolutely delicious.
"I made you...um...dinner...breakfast?" Leaf chided, offering a lopsided smile.
"It's 1 am...why did you-"
"You haven't eaten anything all day! C'mon, at least have a bite!" Leaf pouted.
Gary relented, giving into the mouth watering smell coming off of the food. Leaf looked just as tired as he did. Bags were quite noticeable under her eyes. Yet, she went out of her way...just for him.
"Thanks," Gary murmured.
A soft snore from his other side startled him. Leaf was asleep with Umbreon curled on her lap. She had a little smile on her face, like she was thinking of something wonderful. Gary quietly finished his food and brought it to the kitchen. Carefully, he draped a blanket over his wife's shoulders and kissed her forehead.
"Sweet dreams."
"Linden, you have to go to school," Gary said. His son didn't stir, instead letting out a small huff and going silent.
"Linden. Please."
"Don't wanna."
"I have work to do, and so does your mother. Please, just go to school," Gary groaned. It was like this, every morning. Linden was stubborn, and moody. Hating school along with that didn't make much of a good match.
"I'll stay at home alone, with Sky."
"That's not an option, Lin."
At that moment, Sky came bursting in, hyperactive as per usual.
"Can we buy the ukelele today? Please please please! I'll be good, and do all my homework, and, and…"
"No," Gary snapped. "We're not doing that."
Sky's face fell. "But…"
"No."
Gary didn't even realize what he said until Sky ran out of the room crying and Linden shot him a glare. Gary sighed, grabbed Linden's hand, and the two walked to school in silence. Sky would take the route herself and be late, most likely.
"Have a good day," Gary called as he stopped at the school gates with Linden's hand clenched tightly in his.
Linden shook, and held onto Gary's labcoat. For a seven year old, he had a strong grip.
"Please...don't make me go."
Gary hated the tone of voice his son used, the voice that made him give in to every little need, but he couldn't. Linden was too young to be left alone. Gary pushed him through the gate, and walked off.
"Bye, Lin. See you after school."
A look of betrayal crossed Linden's face before he turned around and lined up with the other kids. Gary's stomach twisted into a knot.
"He forgot! Mama, he forgot!"
Leaf stroked her daughter's hair. She was late for work, but she didn't even feel like going anymore. She felt like a horrible mother.
It was the 26th of November. The day before Sky's birthday. She was turning 9, which was, of course, exciting for her considering she only had a year left before she could venture out on her very own Pokemon journey.
"I'm sure...he didn't forget." But she knew he did. Work was heavy at the moment; it was as though there wasn't time for anything else. It was a never ending stream of papers, research, caring for the ranch's Pokemon, sending new trainers out on journeys, making sure Pokemon hunters didn't invade Kanto...it was as though it would never stop.
Sky stopped sobbing momentarily, and glanced up at her mother. Her eyes shone with a look of pure rage, and of betrayal. "You both forgot, didn't you."
Before Leaf could say a word, Sky had stormed upstairs and slammed her bedroom door firmly shut. Nothing would make her come out at this rate. Leaf put her head in her hands, and stayed in that position, her body not willing to move.
"Arceus, it's the 26th already?!" Gary nearly dropped the calendar. It was 10 pm. The kids had finally gone to sleep, after quite a bit of yelling and screaming.
"We're horrible parents," Leaf murmured, burying her head in her hands even further.
"No, we're not. We still have time, we can-"
"Even if we were able to pull something together, I doubt Sky would care. We both forgot. That does something to a kid, you know?"
Gary gently squeezed his wife's hand. She was right, as always. There wasn't really anything they could do to make things better.
"We can try, though," Gary thought out loud.
"How? Both of us barely have any free time, remember that? We can't take her on some day trip to another town, we can't buy her a gift, she'll just have to treat it like it's any other day! How could we do this? What've we gotten ourselves into-" Leaf's rant was stopped when Gary gently pressed his lips to hers. She exhaled deeply, but pulled away rather fast. "What...should we do?"
Her eyes were overshadowed, but Gary saw the tears dripping out of them. Leaf had sworn to put her children's needs above her own; whenever she broke that promise, it was as though something broke inside of her, too.
"I know what we'll do," Gary muttered, draping his arms around Leaf's neck. "We'll take the day off work tomorrow, just once. We'll take the kids out of school, and we'll have fun as a family, like we used to. I'm sure Kanto can manage itself fine without us for one day, right?"
Leaf sniffled. "I- I guess."
"It won't be perfect, but we'll have fun, right?"
"What about the lab?"
"Don't worry about that. I have an idea," Gary replied.
It occurred to Gary that he'd never properly shown Sky and Linden where he worked. They'd walked around the ranch a bit, sure, but they'd never really seen how it functioned day to day. They'd never seen how the Pokemon interacted with one another. It was Sky's birthday, though, so she got to call the shots.
"Can we ride Ash's Tauros?"
"Yes, just be careful, because-"
"Can I help trainers get starter Pokemon?"
"If some come in today, I'm not sure-"
"Can I feed the Pokemon?"
"Yes, you can."
Sky bounced up and down in the Oak ranch field, mesmerized by the opportunities present before her. Linden sat on the ground, his nose happily stuffed in a book about prehistoric Pokemon. To him, anything was better than being at school. Gary looked over at his wife, who still seemed on edge. While Sky was busy saying hello to a Weedle, Gary grabbed Leaf's hand, giving it a reassuring squeeze.
"It'll be fine. Look how happy they are. And technically, we're still working," Gary winked, and Leaf giggled.
"Mama! Daddy! Linden! I challenge all of you to a Tauros race!" Sky proclaimed.
"Sky, I think I'll just sit this one out-"
Before Leaf could finish her sentence, Sky was bounding over to the Tauros and had hopped on one with surprisingly little struggle. Linden cringed, but relented when his sister started yelling about how she was going to absolutely destroy him.
"I guess we have no choice…" Gary sighed. He was beginning to regret saying yes to Tauros riding.
"You're going down," Leaf asserted, elbowing Gary's side.
"Not if I get there first!"
"Hey, wait up!"
Trainers passing by for conferences that day were met with a sign that said "unavailable" and screams of laughter and joy in the distance, along with the rumbling sounds of clomping hooves. However, life went on; Kanto could go one day without the Oaks. And the Oaks could certainly go one day without Kanto.
A/N: Hehe, it's been a while. I deeply apologize. I've been super busy this past month with drama club and learning my lines and having anime and manga to catch up on (does that count as busy?) And school and stuff. Writing was hard to squeeze in.
On the bright side, I liked how this turned out. Gary and Leaf, in my headcanon, are great parents with busy schedules, lol. Gary's a Pokemon professor who's constantly being bombarded by trainers and Leaf is a cop whose main job is to catch Pokemon hunters. So not much time for anything fun, lol. I guess the lesson of this story would be to not let work take over your life. Leave some time for yourself and your loved ones. We all need a break sometimes. Tysm for reading!
Edit: OMFG I'm so sorry! The story ended up formatting weird and sections that weren't supposed to be together ended up coming right after each other and- ugh. Oh well. Lesson for the future, I suppose. I fixed it...I think. Again, I'm not super familiar with this sight lol. Anyways, have a great day/night!
