Holiday Presents

By: Aubrie1234

Gary sighed. He was sitting on the front steps of his grandpa's lab, just watching the landscape. It was Mother's Day, but he couldn't exactly celebrate it; Prof. Oak was his only family, so he didn't really have anyone to celebrate on Mother's Day. It was at that moment that his PokeGear rang, to which he answered.

"Hey Gary!" it was Ash, "How are you doing?"

"Fine. How's your journey been?" Ash was in Kalos now.

"Great, but I was wondering if you could do me a favor." Gary raised an eyebrow at this.

"What kind of favor?"

"It's Mother's Day and I was hoping if you would...well...celebrate Mother's Day with my mom in my place." Gary was shocked.

"Why?"

"Well... You have no one to celebrate and I can't exactly get home in time, since it's already Mother's Day there, so..." Gary nodded, though Ash couldn't see.

"Sure, Ashy-boy." Gary hung up before Ash could protest, smiling. He supposed it was going to be a happy Mother's Day after all.

He was nervous as he knocked on the door to the Ketchum household. He had a bouquet of mixed flowers and a card; Gary guessed Ash had sent his own card, so he had gotten one to Mrs. Ketchum himself. He wasn't sure about this, though it had looked easy at first; he had known Mrs. Ketchum and Ash since he had been a baby, but taking Ash's place for Mother's Day? Gary wasn't so sure, but he couldn't back out now. It was soon opened by Mimey, who was surprised.

"Mime?"

"Yeah, Ash asked me to do Mother's Day in his place, so..." Mimey nodded in understanding, allowing him in. As he closed the door behind Gary, he pointed towards the back garden; Gary nodded, then walked out to the back garden. Delia Ketchum was trimming the flowers and was surprised to see Gary.

"Hello, Gary! What are the flowers for?" He fidgeted uncomfortably.

"Ash wanted me to take his place in celebrating Mother's Day with you, so... Happy Mother's Day." Delia smiled, then stood and hugged him, making him blush.

"Thank you, Gary. Let's go inside, okay?" He nodded and followed her to the kitchen. Gary gave her the flowers, where she put them in a vase.

"And, since I thought Ash would send you his own card, I thought it would be good to give you one from me." She nodded and took the card with a 'thank you.' It was a simple card in a pink envelope that Gary thought she'd like.

"To a Mom who takes care of me, you're special in many ways. You've taken care of me since I was small and you've shown me the good things through it all. You've made sure I go on my journey prepared, and you're always happy when I come home. You're the best mom anyone could have. Happy Mother's Day, Mom." she read the card aloud and at the bottom, Gary had signed his name.

"Thank you, Gary!" she hugged him, making him blush again, "I'll keep this in a safe place."

"You're welcome." he said shyly, "What are we going to do for the rest of the day?"

"I can tend to the garden later; why don't we go out for a bite to eat?" He nodded and, after Delia had put the card next to the vase, they walked out.

"It was nice of Ash to ask you to celebrate Mother's Day with me. He must miss me a lot." she said as they walked.

"Yeah. It's been a long time since I celebrated Mother's Day." Gary said.

"Well, why don't we try to have the best time we can?" He nodded and they continued to walk in silence. As they did, Gary unconsciously slid his hand into Delia's. She smiled slightly and let it be.

They arrived at an ice cream shop, where they each had sundaes.

"How has your research been going, Gary?"

"Fine. How have you been?"

"Well, Mimey's been cleaning all over the place while I've tended to the garden, and I've been helping at the local restaurant, and that's about it."

"Basically, the usual." Delia smiled.

"Yes. What else do you want to do today?"

"Well, I could help you in the garden."

"You don't have to, Gary." He shook his head.

"No way. It's Mother's Day, and I want to make it the best you've ever had." Delia sighed.

"Alright, but I'll need to show you how to do it. The flowers are delicate, you know." Gary nodded and they soon finished off the sundaes.

Once they got home, she showed him the ropes and he was soon getting the hang of it. It did take a while, though, so they were done by about 2 in the afternoon.

"What else do you want to do, Mrs. Ketchum?" Gary asked as they washed up.

"Well, why don't we dance?"

"Dance?" the question had caught him off guard. Delia nodded.

"Yes. Don't you know how to dance?"

"Uh..."

"It's alright; I can teach you, like I did with the flowers."

"Okay..." Gary was embarrassed to admit it, especially to her. But he guessed this is what mothers would do if their child didn't know something; it was going to be interesting...

She had set up a mat in the floor, showing different dance steps, but told him not to look at it. They would deal with it later, but for now, she wanted to know how he danced, so she up on Free Fallin' by Tom Petty. A few times he stumbled, but she thought he was still good; probably for encouragement for their child. He wasn't sure if it was that or if he really was a good dancer; he never had wanted to dance before, so... well, he just assumed he had two left feet...

"Now, when you're dancing like that, you don't want to move your weight too much while you dance. You know how you stumbled? That was because you threw your weight off balance..." Delia was now teaching him what do to while dancing so he wouldn't fall over, and Gary saw that he was actually learning from this, albeit happily.

Delia played the song again and this time, Gary didn't stumble. In fact, he was having fun. She played another song, Girls Just Wanna Have Fun by Cyndi Lauper, and Mimey joined in. They had fun, laughing as they danced, and Gary saw how much this Mother's Day was turning out to be happy, though he wasn't celebrating with his own mother. After they finished, it was 6 pm, and they decided to watch a movie together, or at least what ever was on.

Being tired from all of the dancing, Gary fell asleep at about halfway through the movie. The other two continued to watch the movie and when it was over, Delia noticed that he was asleep. She told Mimey that he could do what he wanted, just not to wake Gary; the pokemon nodded, then walked off. Delia slowly pushed him off of her and laid him back down on the couch, covering him with a blanket. He seemed to be smiling happily and brought the blanket closer around himself, and she smiled.

Delia walked back to the video phones, preparing the call Prof Oak about where Gary was going to stay for the night. It was nice of Ash to do that, and he also probably did it because he knew how left-out Gary would feel, so he probably had wanted to cheer up his rival. Well, it sure worked; this was going to be one Mother's Day Gary would never forget for sure.

Maybe Mother's Day wouldn't be so bad after all in the coming years.

Well, I am now finished, and I am sorry for not updating with the other holidays, but I will do them as soon as I can, but right now I've got another idea for a digimon story with the Hunters, so you'll have to watch out. Plus, I also got this idea because Gary and Rupert (Fossil Fighters: Champions) don't really have mothers that they can celebrate, so I wanted to make this story about at least one of them. Read and Review, readers!