Disclaimer: I do not own Pokémon! Now quit pestering me, or else!
Thanks to sykilik101's pressure, I've decided to actually attempt a valentine's day one-shot, again! What is the world coming to?
Also, I think I'll dedicate this to sykilik101, since it was his fault I started this.
"Come on, you can do this. It's easy, right? Just go up to her and…yeah." Ash contemplated to himself. Today was his least favorite holiday, Valentine's Day. The mere thought of what he was about to do made him cringe. To think he was going through all of this trouble just for HER. Why? Simply because she was a great friend…and his mother would probably kill him otherwise. Speaking of which, that was just the person he was going to visit. If buying a gift for a girl was Pokémon training, he would have no idea where to start, let alone go through with it. He went around to the back of his house, finding his auburn haired mother working on the garden.
"Hi honey! Did you come here to help me with the gardening?" Delia asked, still tending to her work.
"Sorry, but I'm kinda busy. That's why I need your help though. You see…I'm trying to think of a good gift to give Misty and…" Ash heard the sound of a small gardening tool falling to the ground. One look at his mother's surprised face and he knew it was immediately a bad idea to ask her about anything relating to girls, or Misty for that matter.
"Oh Ash! I'm so proud of you! You're just growing up so fast! Falling in love and going out of your way to give Misty a Valentine's gift!" Delia cried dramatically.
"W-w-wait a minute! Who said anything about me being in…in…ick! I just wanted to do something nice for a friend of mine. That's all, really!" Ash corrected, hoping his overactive mom wouldn't get the wrong idea. Him? In love? The idea of it was just plain…icky!
Delia nodded, not believing a single word he was saying. "Alright honey, whatever you say. I do have a voucher for a great gift Misty would love."
"Great! Can I get it from you so I can give Misty a gift? Please?" Ash begged.
"Sure honey, but I need some supplies for the gardening. If you can get me a bag of flower seeds, I'll gladly give you the voucher."
"Okay. I'll be back soon." Ash left to go to the greenhouse not to far from his house.
10 minutes of walking later, Ash arrived at the greenhouse where Delia often got her gardening supplies. The place was quite large and housed rows upon rows of plants, fertilizer, and other such things. Ash saw a young woman there, wearing a neat gardening outfit, taking take of the facility.
"Um, excuse me, miss?" Ash called. The woman turned around and greeted Ash with a pleasant smile.
"Hello, may I help you?" The lady asked.
"I would like to get a few pounds of your flower seeds."
"Oh, um, I would like to help you, but because my wheelbarrow is broken, it would be troubling to get my work done. But if you can get me a wheelbarrow, I'll gladly give you some seeds for free."
"Sure. I'll be back with it." With that, Ash left to go to Professor Oak's laboratory. With all the Pokémon the professor was taking care of, surely he would have a wheelbarrow.
A few minutes later, Ash arrived in the backyard of the laboratory, where the large field set up just for Pokémon was. There, he saw the professor doing some research on a pair of roaming Tauros and went over to him.
"Hey professor, do you have a spare wheelbarrow I can borrow?" Ash requested.
"A wheelbarrow? Sure, I have one you can borrow for awhile…" Professor Oak said.
'Yes!' Ash cheered mentally.
"…Unfortunately, one of the wheels is loose and I can't repair it without a wrench.
Ash fell over in surprise. 'No!' He sighed, having a bad feeling about how this day was going to go. "Do you know where I can find a wrench?"
"Why yes. Tracey should be inside the lab. Go ahead and ask him for one."
"Alright." Ash went inside the laboratory and soon found Tracey. The raven haired Pokémon watcher was sitting in front of a computer, looking at something interesting. "Hey Tracey, whatcha doing?"
Tracey turned and greeted Ash. "Oh nothing. I was just taking a break and checking out this story."
Ash's brow scrunched in confusion. "Story?"
"Yeah. Apparently, some loser in this story is going everywhere, doing all of these errands and request, just to get some girl a Valentine's Day present. I tell ya, that kid got some bad luck." Tracey laughed.
'Why does that sound so familiar…?' Ash shook off the thought. He had more pressing matters. "Hey Tracey, do you have a wrench I can get?"
"Sure. Lemme get it for you." Tracey stood up and left temporarily.
While Tracey was gone, Ash couldn't help but glance at the computer. He noticed something oddly familiar about that story, but couldn't put his finger on it. "Let's see who the loser character is…Satoshi? HA! What a lame name! Man, I wouldn't want to be in his shoes."
Tracey soon came back with the wrench. "Hey Ash, I got some bad news…"
Ash glanced at the wrench and groaned. "Aw man! A rusty wrench?"
"Yeah, sorry. But hey, if you could find some rust solvent, I'll gladly clean it and lend you the wrench."
Was it him, or was there some pattern going on? "Alright, where can I find a solvent?"
"Last time I remember, Gary had it. I think he's at his house right now, so if you can…"
"Don't worry. I'll go over and get you some solvent." Ash assured.
"Thanks Ash. See ya!" Tracey waved, looking back at the computer.
As Ash walked to Gary's house, he inhaled deeply, releasing a long sigh. "It's only a few things. No big deal. I'll just visit Gary, and then everything will be alright." He reassured himself. Five minutes later, he approached the front of Gary's house and knocked on the door. Moments later, the reddish brown haired soon-to-be professor answered the door.
"What's up Ash?" Gary greeted cheerfully.
"Hey Gary, would you happen to have any rust solvent on ya?"
"Um…yeah, but I kinda broke the special scalpel that you need to use it."
'Perfect. Just perfect…' Ash thought despairingly. "Where can I get the scalpel?"
"Let's see…there should be a place in Viridian that sells the scalpel…"
"VIRIDIAN?" Ash cried in surprise.
"Yeah. I was planning to go there a minute ago, but if you can get it, that'll be great."
"Oh fine…" Ash left Gary's house and headed for Viridian. It took 30 minutes of walking before Ash reached the utility shop. There, he saw the shop keep and walked up to him. "Excuse me, but do you sell any rust scalpels?" Ash asked, feeling a little desperate.
The old and scruffy looking man scratched his thick, grey beard. "Hmm…I'll be glad to sell ya a few. Unfortunately, we're out of material to make them, sorry."
"Aw man! This is just unreal!" Ash groaned.
"Hey kid, do ya happen to have any Pokéore?" The old man asked.
Ash blinked. "Pokéore?"
"Yeah, it's the stuff I use to make the scalpel. If you could bring me some, I'll make ya some scalpels."
"Pokéore…at what place can I find ore…" Ash came to one possibility of finding the ore and paled considerably. "You've got to be kidding me…" Knowing exactly where to go, Ash's shoulders drooped as he turned around to leave the store. He was about to exit when the old man called out to him.
"Hey kid, it's Valentine's Day, so cheer up." The old man attempted to cheer Ash up.
"Gee, that would help IF that wasn't the problem…" Ash left the store and continued his way to go to Pewter city.
It took Ash 2 hours to reach Pewter city thanks to getting lost in the Viridian forest. There, he met with Brock's father, Flint, who just happened to have a good set of rocks in front of the Pewter city outskirts.
"Hey Flint, do you have any Pokéore on you?" Ash requested, hoping desperately.
"Actually, I have the last few ones remaining, and I'll gladly give you some…for a price…"
Ash was on the verge of crying from frustration. When will this crazy quest end? "What's the price?"
"Hmm…how about a moonstone? I've been trying to get one off Brock, but the stubborn boy wouldn't give me a single one. If you—"
"Yeah, I know. I'll be back with the stone in a little bit. But please, keep a few Pokéore for me!"
"No problem." Flint waved as Ash left for Brock's home. After ringing the doorbell, Brock answered the door moments later.
"Hey Ash. Man, you look beat! What did you do, run in a marathon?" Brock inquired jokingly.
Ash tossed him a glare, showing he meant business. "Look Brock, I REALLY need a moonstone. Think you can help me out, please?"
Brock pondered Ash's request. "A moonstone huh? Well, if it's for you, I guess I could give you one…under one condition."
Ash irritably ran his hand through his air. He was just about at wits end. "And just WHAT is it you want?"
"Well…there's this cute girl who I want to ask out for Valentine's Day, but the only thing I can find out is that she liked cat Pokémon. There's no cat Pokémon around here, and I want to impress her, but I don't know what to do. Think you can find one?" Brock requested.
"Oh yeah, sure. Just leave everything to me…" Ash said nonchalantly. But where on earth would he find a cat Pokémon in time? If anything, was there at least someone he knew who had a… "Oh man, you gotta be kidding me! What were the odds?" Ash cried out. With a VERY long sigh, he left Brock's house, promising to be back soon.
Outside, Ash stood in an open field and glanced around. When he found the coast was clear, he held his hands over his mouth to create a microphone effect. "PIKACHU FOR SALE! PIKACHU FOR SALE!" He yelled loudly. A second barely passed when a series of furious stampeding could be heard from the distance, signaling the arrival of three very familiar guests.
"Did someone say Pikachu for sale?" Jessie, James and Meowth asked simultaneously.
"Yeah, it was me." Ash said.
"Oh? So you're finally selling your Pikachu?" Jessie inquired excitedly.
"Nope. Just wanted to get your undivided attention."
"Well that wasn't very nice," James said, "What does a twerp like you want from us?"
"Look, I need a favor from you guys. I need to borrow Meowth for just a short awhile…"
"What?" Team Rocket exclaimed. The three turned to each other and nodded. "Group meeting!" They stepped back a few meters and huddled, trying to come to a decision. After a minute, they broke the huddle and went back to Ash.
"How about this? We'll let you borrow Meowth…and—"
"No, I'm not going to give you Pikachu." Ash said flatly. Jessie snapped her fingers in disappointment. "Look, is there something else besides Pokémon you want? I've got about a million different errands to run anyway, so I might as well be consistent." The three rockets glanced at each other and ran back to huddle again. A few more minutes later, Team Rocket came back to Ash, smiling widely.
"Alright twerp, we've got two conditions for ya!" Meowth started counting off his paw. "First: We demand that we go at least one day without blasting off!"
"Okay. What's number two?" Ash asked, getting impatient.
"And second…" This was followed by a growl from Meowth's stomach. "…Treat us to Valentine's Day dinner!" Team Rocket shot their fist in the air, cheering.
Ash blinked twice, very surprised. "…That's it? No weird errands or some special task?"
James eyed him questionably. "Why? We're just hungry. Anyway, it Valentine's Day, which means half off chocolate and ice cream!"
"Yes! Let's do it!" Ash was so happy with finally ending his arduous quest he couldn't wait to treat Team Rocket! After spending almost all of his money filing Team Rocket's stomachs, Meowth agreed to be Brock's temporary Pokémon. Brock was ecstatic and happily gave Ash the moonstone, which was then given to Flint. After getting the Pokéore from Flint, Ash made his way to Viridian city and delivered the ore to the Utility shop's owner, who constructed the scalpel and gave it to Ash. Ash then arrived in Pallet town to get the rust solvent and take both the scalpel and solvent to Tracey. Tracey cleaned the wrench, which allowed Ash to give the item to Professor Oak, who fixed the wheelbarrow. Ash took the wheelbarrow to the woman in charge of the greenhouse and received the flower seeds, FINALLY able to give it to his mother and receive the voucher.
"About time! Now I can finally get that present!" Ash had to hurry since time was running out. As he traveled past Viridian city, he managed to find a bus leading to Cerulean and took it. The entire trip from Pallet to Cerulean took over 3 hours, coming close to sunset. The voucher was made for a specific jewelry store in Cerulean and Ash visited the store. There he saw a plethora of beautiful rings, earrings, bracelets, necklaces, and many other kinds of jewelry. Though all of the items were gorgeous, none of them managed to catch Ash's eye. At least until he noticed one in particular, a gold, thin chained necklace with a tear shaped emerald hanging down the middle. He pictured Misty wearing the necklace and found it perfect for her.
"Excuse ma'am, but I would like to purchase this necklace." Ash gave the woman on the counter his voucher. The clerk glanced over the voucher and raised an eyebrow.
'This…this expired a few days ago…' She looked up at the boy and was about to tell him the bad news when she saw how dirty and tired he looked. It looked like he traveled halfway around the world just to get here. "Sir? May I ask who this is for?"
"This is for a great friend of mine. I still can't believe I'm going through all of this trouble for her, but I guess it's for a good cause. Anyway, she deserves it and…oops, I kinda rambled there. Sorry." Ash apologized sheepishly.
The cashier glanced back and forth between Ash and the voucher. "…Alright, here's your necklace and thanks for coming." She gave Ash the golden necklace.
"Awesome! Thanks a lot!" Ash was on the verge of skipping in happiness. Finally, his luck was shinning through! Ash wished the woman a happy Valentine's Day as he ran out of the store.
"Happy Valentine's Day…" The lady said, sighing wistfully. If only she was several years younger…
Ash walked towards the Cerulean gym, whistling a happy tune. Just when he was about to knock on the door, he heard someone sniffing close by. Curious, he walked around the corner to find a young boy crouching against the gym, hugging his knees and sobbing. Ash knelt next to the boy, concern etched in his face.
"What's the matter?" Ash asked.
The boy sniffled before answering. "I had a great gift for someone, but before I could give it to her, it got broken. I really wanted to get her something, but I don't know what to do…"
"There, there…" Ash placed his hand on the boy's shoulder, trying to soothe him. He really felt bad for the kid. It's never fun to lose an important gift for someone you care about just before you could give it to them. If only there was a way to help… "…Here, take this and give it to your friend…"
The boy gasped when he saw Ash handing him the beautiful necklace. "But…but isn't that for someone special you care about?"
Ash nodded. "Yeah, but it wouldn't be fair if you can't have a good Valentine's Day. Now here," He placed the necklace in the boy's hands, "Take this and go. Also, wish your friend a great Valentine's Day."
The boy dried his tears and smiled gratefully at Ash. "Thanks mister!" He stood up and started running. "I'll never forget you…!"
Ash got off the ground and sighed heavily. All of that trouble to get Misty a good present, just to give it to some kid because he felt sorry for him. "Oh well, at least I made someone's day. Let me at least say hello to Misty."
"Hi Ash!" A voice suddenly greeted from behind.
Ash turned around and stumbled back in shock, clutching his chest. "M-M-Misty! What are you doing here?"
Misty pointed to the building next to her. "Uh…I live here."
"Oh…right. Um, how long were you standing behind me?" Ash asked fearfully.
"Long enough." Misty took a step forward, making Ash step back. "You bought a gift for me, waiting until almost the last minute, just to give it to some random kid in trouble." She took another step forward. "And you're all messy to boot! You know what I got to say about that?"
'Uh oh, I'm gonna get nailed…' Ash closed his eyes, hoping the wrath of Misty's mallet would be swift.
"Ash Ketchum…" Misty stepped up to Ash's face and…embraced him. "That was incredibly sweet of you…"
"I'm sorry! I didn't mean to…say what?" Ash blinked, stupefied.
"I'll admit, at first I wasn't expecting you to go through so much trouble and just give that little kid the present you were going to give me. But, I should've known a great guy like you would do something so dumb, yet sweet." Misty placed a soft peck on Ash's cheek, making him blush considerably.
'I suppose I will take that as a compliment…' Ash figured. Misty started leading Ash to her home by the hand.
"Now let's go. It wouldn't be fair to let my valentine to go without a gift from me. How does donuts and chocolate sound?"
Ash smiled widely. "Sounds good to me!" He couldn't stop grinning as he was lead to the impeding buffet. Though the end result was better than he expected, today turned out to be one long day.
I hope this makes you feel warm and fuzzy inside. Oh, and Soft Flame Matthias, I would like to enter this one shot in your BA awards for one shots if you consider doing so.
Also, I know that it probably takes awhile longer to get from one city to another, but hey, this is a fiction. I can dream, can I?