Hi everyone and welcome back to my little fanfic. This chapter was originally planed to be released after the second but I thought I would give Brendan a bit of time with his pokemon. So here is the fifth chapter to this short story! Hope you guys enjoy

Chapter 5: Birthday Gifts Part Two

With May's birthday just a couple days away, the young boy had to find some sort of gift to give her like she had on his birthday. This left him to wondering what exactly the young brunette girl would want. He knew for a fact that she wouldn't enjoy reading about the wonders of Pokemon breeding, nor would she enjoy playing any of the video games he owned since for some reason no matter how much he taught her, she always seemed to lose.

She would often yell at him, accusing him that he had taught her the wrong buttons just to see her mess up, and although the claim was partially true as he had only done it once or maybe twice, he was actually quite surprised how easy it was to make her believe something.

"Guess that's what people call a child's naivety and innocence," he muttered to himself as he was making his way through the Littleroot Marketplace. He had left Skipper in his pokeball in an effort to spare the water type from the summer heat. Even though it was September, the Hoenn heat could sometimes be relenting.

His dad had sent them to the marketplace earlier to pick up some lab supplies that he needed for his research. He said, that although there were other businesses that supplied the lab with its supplies, their prices were incredibly high making the supplies sold my the local pharmacy way more appealing.

Brendan had also stopped by the bookshop asking the lady that ran out it, who was called Mrs. Adams, if the shop had received any new books. He was quite disappointed when she had told him that no new books had arrived, and that he had almost basically red everybook the shop owned that she was allowed to sell for his age. She told him that she had received strict orders from his father so he didn't buy any adult books.

He thanked the old lady for her time before he went back onto marketplace's street. The marketplace like the town was small and it was run by the people of the town with a couple people from the neighboring town. Since Littleroot Town was such a small community, everyone knew each other.

There was the sweets shop run by an old couple, Mr. and Mrs. Owens. The local grocery store which was run by a middle aged couple, Mr. and Mrs. Phillips. The electronics store, which was run a by a young man, Mr. Stevens. The toy shop, which was run by Mr. and Mrs. Clarke. The bookshop which was manned by Mrs. Adams and the small pharmacy that also sold lab equipment which was manned by Mr. Hayes. Over the past couple of months, the boy had become well acquainted with owners of the stores.

"Hello Brendan, did your dad send you get more supplies today?" Mr. Hayes asked as Brendan neared the counter.

"Yeah, morning Mr. Hayes. He gave a me list this time instead of just telling me like last time".

"I can believe that. How was his face when you handed him the 'Grumpy Old Man' medicine?" the older man asked as he took the list and began gathering the supplies written on it.

"He took it... quite well actually, as in by crying for the next hour saying he wasn't a grumpy old man," the boy said with laughter coating his voice. "Even mom couldn't stop her laughing fit".

"Ha ha, next time get a picture for me will ya? Oh! I also have some 'grumpy old lady' medicine as well if you want to prank your mom," he responded while taking the bag full of supplies and placing it on the counter.

"He-heh, I don't think mom would take it as well as dad did. I could be grounded for the rest of my life." He quickly grabbed the bag slightly scared of what his mom would do if he called her old. "Thanks Mr. Hayes, just charge it to the lab like always."

"Thanks Brendan, have a nice day," the old man responded; waving at the retreating form of the boy.

"Let's see that's all dad told me to do," the boy said as he made his way down the marketplace's streets. He let out a soft laugh, "I don't think Mr. Owens will give me free ice cream like last time".

He remembered about last week, when the sweets shop owners gave Brendan a free ice cream cone and asked how many scoops he wanted. Their eyes had widened when he said he wanted twenty and they stared in shock when the boy had eaten all twenty scoops effortlessly. They would probably end up going bankrupt if they gave him free ice cream again.

He walked for a bit more and entered the local toy store where he spotted one of its owners. She waved at him as he entered and he waved back with his right hand while his left was carrying the lab supplies.

"So what brings you here today Brendan?" she asked as the boy approached.

"Actually, May's birthday is in a couple days and I wanted to get a gift for her."

"Ah young love, reminds me of when I first met Mr. Clarke," the old lady gushed which caused the boy to go a bright shade of red.

" I don't love May, get your head out of the clouds," the boy managed to say through his embarrassment.

The old lady who had been laughing just seconds ago calmed herself down asking, "so any idea on what she would like?"

The boy was racking his brain for a perfect gift for her. He had deduced earlier that books and video games were out of question. He also did not know anything about dolls, so he would rather not risk it by buying her a doll she already owned or one that she didn't like.

Then something clicked in his mind. He remembered not too long ago, after Skipper hatched, that he showed May a book on the three Hoenn starters. She pointed at the picture of the Mudkip calling it "ugly" in an effort to spite the water type, who was laying on Brendan's head. The water type of course responded the usual way by water gunning her in the face. She was still convinced that Brendan had somehow trained the pokemon to do that, while Brendan said that the pokemon just didn't like her. After she had dried herself off for what was maybe the twentieth time that evening, she went back to the book pointing at the red chick pokemon, torchic. She said that the pokemon was really cute and would like to have a plushie of it.

"Mrs. Clarke, you don't happen to have two torchics would you?" the boy asked the old lady. The reason for two was because Brendan didn't have the torchic plush to add to his collection, so he was hoping that they would have two. Every time he came to the toy store to look for plushies, they were all sold out. Apparently the kids from Oldale Town didn't have a toy store, so they would come to Littleroot Town instead.

The old lady nodded heading towards the back of the shop to check his request. Brendan meanwhile walked around the store observing the multiple displays it had set. Although he had been to much bigger and fancier toy stores when he lived in Olivine City, the one in Littleroot seemed more friendly and calm.

Mrs. Clarke came back holding an orange chick plush in her hands.

"Sorry Brendan. Looks like we only have one," she said with a small frown on her face.

"It's ok. I'm sure May will like it," he responded taking the plusie from her hands.

"Why did you want two anway?"

"Well, because I also want one. They were all sold out whenever I come, so maybe lady luck isn't on my side," chuckling as he went to the gift bag display picking out a pink bag with Happy Birthday across it.

"Oh I see, well I can hold onto to one for you when we get the next shipment".

"You will?! Thanks Mrs. Clarke," he exclaimed, running up the lady and giving her a hug.

"No problem Brendan," she said as she walked over to the register to pack his things for him. "So that will be 2,500 pokedollars(A/N a pokedollar is equivalent to a Japanese yen so it's like 25 USD)," she said sternly.

"What? They're that expensive? Can't I just get a discount?" he pleaded looking at the old lady with his best puppy dog eyes.

"Brendan this is a business, not a charity, so 2,500 or you don't get the toy," she sternly responded to his plead.

"Fine," he told her. Under his breath he muttered,"grumpy old lady."

"What was that?" she asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Nothing," the boy responded in a sweet voice taking his small wallet out of his pocket. Over the past couple months his dad had been paying the boy for his jobs in the lab. It wasn't a lot, but his father reassured him he would get paid more once he was more experienced. He pulled out most of what he had from his wallet and handed it to the old lady. She accepted it a smile, giving him his change shortly after.

"Thanks Mrs. Clarke" he said grabbing both the bag from the pharmacy and the new bag from the toy store.

"Come back soon," she beamed as the boy was exiting the door.

I bet May is gonna like this gift he thought to himself as he walked back home.

Just like in Brendan's birthday, both the Maple and Birch families along with a couple other residents of the town gathered around the Maple residence dining room where May was standing on a chair eyeing the large cake with six candles on it. A loud "congratulations" was heard before she blew candles and everyone clapped. This time it was Lisa who was helping cut the cake while Caroline stood behind taking pictures.

As promised, Brendan didn't let Skipper out of his pokeball on that day, so May was spared from soggy clothes and hair. Once May was done eating practically a third of the large cake she went to the table where all the presents were. She began opening them savagely, revealing anything from dolls, to clothes on the table. Brendan who hadn't put his gift on the table earlier walked up to her carrying the pink bag behind his back.

"So May… congrats. Here's my gift." He handed his neighbor the pink bag.

"Brendan, Skipper better not be inside this bag," she said with a fierce glare although Brendan looked amused at the idea of having Skipper inside a birthday bag. She pulled out the small orange chick pokemon from the bag and her eyes widened. She hugged the small orange plush and grabbed Brendan as well enveloping in a hug. "I love it. Thank you Brendan."

"You're welcome," returning the hug.

Caroline, who was standing to the side, looked on with a smirk as she had taken a picture of the two children's moment. Lisa walked up to her noticing her devious smile before noticing the picture on the digital camera screen. "Send me a copy of that Caroline," a similar smirk on her face.

"Sure thing Lisa," she responded, her smirk grew wider.

Hope you guys enjoyed that little short chapter and I'll see you guys on the next update!