Hey guys! Welcome to Family Matters: Volume 2! I am so excited to be bringing you the same one shots you all remember from the original collection, but in a new set! As I wrote in my A/N at the end of the original Family Matters, I'm posting this on the 6th anniversary of posting the original collection, so I thought now was a great time to start anew!
Now, please enjoy the first chapter of the new collection of Family Matters!
Aiden and Michelle: 9 years old
Elizabeth: 3 years old
Oh Brothers
"Weaw this bow!"
"What? No way! I'm not putting that girly thing in my hair!"
Elizabeth pulled back with a pout on her face. She was standing in front of the couch Aiden was sitting on, holding a red bow in her hands. It was one that she had picked out specifically for her brother because of the color.
"But you wike wed!" Elizabeth cried.
"Yeah, but not when it's a bow," Aiden grumbled. "Bring me a baseball hat and I'll wear that."
Elizabeth scrunched her nose up at the suggestion. "I don't has that!"
"Well, I'm not wearing that bow," Aiden scoffed.
Elizabeth scowled in response. "You hafta for the tea pawty!"
"I already said I don't want to play tea party," Aiden groaned.
"Why?" Elizabeth whined.
"Because it's girly, just like your bow," Aiden replied. "And I don't like girly things!"
"Would you guys keep it down?"
Aiden and Elizabeth looked towards the doorway of the living room, where Michelle was standing with her hands on her hips.
"I'm trying to work on a project and you're both distracting me," Michelle huffed.
"Oh blah blah blah," Aiden droned. "We don't all live for homework like you do."
"Yeah!" Elizabeth squealed. "No homewowk!"
"Elizabeth, you don't even go to school yet," Aiden grumbled.
"It's not a project for school," Michelle sighed. "It's a personal project!"
"That just makes it worse," Aiden remarked.
Narrowing her eyes, Michelle continued, "One of the best ways to learn about Pokémon is to study them. Right now, I want to learn more about the differences between boy and girl Pokémon. So I'm comparing a bunch of different Pokémon to see what the differences are between the boys and the girls!"
"That's it?" Aiden deadpanned. "Why couldn't you do something more interesting?"
Michelle dramatically rolled her eyes. "This is interesting. Just because you don't get it doesn't mean it's boring."
Elizabeth suddenly squealed and flitted towards Michelle, her green eyes sparkling with excitement. "I wanna help, Shelly!"
Aiden's brow furrowed, while Michelle's face lit up. "You want to help me with my project?"
Elizabeth emphatically nodded her head.
"Great!" Michelle giggled. "I was just going to start comparing Nidorino and Nidorina. You can help me find all the differences!"
"One's pink and one's blue!" Elizabeth cried.
Michelle gasped playfully and set a devious look on her twin brother. "Look at that. She's already great at it!" Reaching down, Michelle gently grabbed her sister's hand and beckoned, "come on, Lizzie. Let's combine our girl power and get to work!"
"Yay!" Elizabeth giggled, happily following after Michelle into the kitchen.
Aiden growled and sunk deeper into the couch. The front door then opened up, Misty walking in through the foyer with Vaporeon trailing at her feet. The two had just finished their morning run, as evidenced by the workout clothes Misty was wearing. She entered the living room and let out a tired breath before smiling at her son. "Hi, Aiden!"
The boy turned his head and frowned at his mother. "Why couldn't you have had two more boys instead of girls?"
Misty's smile turned into one that was far more wry. She certainly hadn't been expecting to walk in and get that question. "Well, that's not really something I got to decide, you know."
"I'd have a lot more fun if I had brothers," Aiden grumbled.
"I wouldn't be so sure of that, Aiden," Misty replied.
"Michelle and Elizabeth don't like any of the same things I do!" Aiden cried. "Michelle's too calm, and Elizabeth's too girly. And then they team up and I'm outnumbered!"
Misty smirked and sat down on the couch beside her son. "You know, I wanted the exact same thing when I was younger."
Aiden raised an eyebrow. "You wanted brothers instead of sisters?"
Misty hummed and nodded her head.
"But why?" Aiden asked. "You're a girl. It must've been fun for you to have sisters."
"No, not really," Misty refuted. "My sisters have always been a bit too girly for my liking. I wanted to play outside when I was a kid, not try on a bunch of different clothes and experiment with make-up. I thought that if I had brothers, I wouldn't be surrounded by glitter and squealing all the time, and I'd have people who wanted to do the things I liked."
Aiden narrowed his eyes in thought. "Wait, so if you never liked glitter and all that other girly stuff, how do you put up with Lizzie?"
Misty snickered at the question. "It's easier to deal with when it's your own kid."
"Oh," Aiden murmured. "I guess that makes sense."
"My point is, your sisters love you, and you love them," Misty continued. "I know that sometimes you can all get on each other's nerves. That's what siblings do. But that doesn't change the fact you all care about each other a whole lot."
Aiden grimaced. His mother wasn't wrong. He did love his sisters. But…that still didn't stop him from wondering what it would be like to have brothers instead.
"Do you at least think Lizzie will ever stop trying to put bows in my hair?" Aiden questioned. "Or forcing me to go to her tea parties?"
Misty hemmed and hawed for a moment before slowly (and unsurely) responding, "Maybe in a few years?"
Aiden groaned and buried his face in his hands.
XXX
"You're lucky you have any siblings! I wish I had a sister to hang out with."
"Fine, you can have one of mine," Aiden replied before tossing the baseball to Brandon. The two had met up in Cerulean Park for a bit of catch, and Aiden had recanted to Brandon his morning of having to deal with Michelle and Elizabeth.
"I'm not gonna take one of your sisters," Brandon chuckled.
"Why not?" Aiden questioned. "You can pick either one! Both have some good stuff and some bad stuff about 'em. Elizabeth takes a little bit more work, though. Just to warn you."
"Could you imagine if I came home with a whole –nother person?" Brandon wondered aloud, examining the baseball that was sitting in his glove. "My parents would freak!"
"They think my sisters are cute, I'm sure they wouldn't mind."
"I think if they wouldn't mind so much, they would've had another kid already," Brandon reasoned with his best friend, tossing the ball back. "I guess I shouldn't complain. I've got so many cousins that I can barely keep track of them. And I don't have to live with them!"
"See? Even my cousins are girls!" Aiden whined. "There are six of us, and I'm the only boy. Maybe somebody put a curse on my family or something."
"A curse?" Brandon repeated incredulously.
"Well yeah," Aiden replied. "I only have sisters, and girl cousins. My mom only has sisters. My dad doesn't have any brothers or sisters so he doesn't count."
"Then how'd your mom have you?" Brandon questioned.
"Cause I'm the one that was supposed to be cursed," Aiden sighed as though it were obvious. "I'm surrounded by girls all the time!"
"I'd love to be surrounded by girls all the time," Brandon scoffed.
"Yeah, until they start trying to put bows in your hair," Aiden grumbled, trudging towards a nearby bench.
"I don't know, I don't think you'd have as much fun if you had brothers," Brandon mused, running to catch up with Aiden. "I mean, isn't it kind of fun to be the only boy?"
"Kind of," Aiden murmured, shrugging his shoulders. "Sometimes I get extra attention and stuff. But I don't really care about that. I just wish sometimes I had siblings who were more like me."
"Hey, at least you've got me!" Brandon cheered, throwing his arm over Aiden's shoulders. The raven haired boy chuckled in return.
"Yeah, I do!" Aiden agreed. "And you're the best friend I could ever ask for, Brand-o!"
"We're kind of like brothers anyway," Brandon continued, tapping his chin with his opposite hand. "Since neither of us actually have one, we might as well be!"
"That's true too," Aiden conceded, his smile widening just a bit.
XXX
Still, as he lay in bed that night, Aiden just couldn't get the idea out of his head. He knew it would be a whole lot different if he had two brothers instead of two sisters. But he didn't actually know if it'd be as strange as everyone was insisting it would be. After all, he didn't know what it was like to even have one brother. And he did still wonder what it would be like to live with someone who was just like him. Someone aside from his father, at least.
Aiden yawned and rolled over onto his side, nestling his head deeper into his pillow as his eyes began to slip closed, and his mind continued to wander…
"Hey! Wake up!"
Aiden nearly shot out of bed as soon as he felt something roughly jab him in the back. The boy whipped around with a glare on his face, one that quickly melted away into shock when he realized he was face-to-face with another boy.
"Uh…what?" Aiden stammered.
"You're so lazy," the other boy scoffed, his bright red hair falling over his emerald eyes.
"Who are you?" Aiden questioned, sitting upright. "And what are you doing jumping on me and calling me lazy?!"
"Great, so now you're gonna play dumb too?" The other boy complained.
"Aiden! Michael! Breakfast!"
The other boy, Michael apparently, started to cheer and gave Aiden one final shove before jumping off his bed and running out of the room. Aiden just lay on his back and stared up at the ceiling, his brow furrowed.
"…what?"
He eventually managed to force himself out of bed and downstairs, still feeling very confused. He was definitely in his house, but Aiden had definitely never seen that redheaded boy before. That same boy was already sitting at the table, filling his plate with tons of food.
"Aiden, you'd better start filling up your own plate before your brothers eat everything."
The black haired boy blinked hard and looked over at the counter, where his mother was standing.
"Uh…my brothers?" Aiden repeated.
"Bam! Bam! Bam!"
Misty groaned and squeezed the bridge of her nose. "Eli, cut it out and sit down!"
It was then that Aiden realized another boy, this one smaller than him and Michael and with darker red hair, was standing nearby and whacking one of the legs of the table with a small baseball bat.
"But I'm pwayin- baseball!" He whined.
"Well it's breakfast time, not baseball time," Misty scolded. "Sit down and eat, and then you can play baseball. I'm sure even Michael and Aiden will play with you!"
"Yeah, we can play baseball!" Michael assured, stuffing a forkful of waffle into his mouth and swallowing it just as quickly.
"Oh, so you guys like baseball too!" Aiden exclaimed, earning bewildered looks from everyone else in the room.
"Duh," Michael droned. "Especially since I'm better than both of you!"
Aiden raised an eyebrow. "Better? Than me? I don't think so."
"That's because you live in denial," Michael argued, causing Aiden to scrunch up his nose. "You're like the worst baseball player in all of Kanto! Anyone who's ever had to watch you play ends up wanting to gouge their eyes out."
"Michael!" Misty snapped.
"What?" Michael drawled, feigning innocence. "It's just the truth."
"Morning guys!"
Ash came strolling into the kitchen, just as he normally would. He ruffled Aiden's hair before sitting down at the table, eyeing the redheaded boy's plate across from him.
"I hate it when you get a head start," Ash sighed.
"You should get down here faster!" Michael snickered.
As Ash began to fill his own plate, Eli finally sat down just as Misty had requested, and began to copy every move Ash made. Aiden, who quickly recognized this as something he had done at that age, began to feel even more uncomfortable as he took his normal seat at the table. By the time he was ready to begin gathering his own food, however, everything was basically gone.
"Already?" Misty sighed, having walked over to the table. "That was even faster than usual…"
"Do you have any more?" Aiden asked, eyeing the counter from his seat.
"No, that's all that I made," Misty admitted. "I thought it was more than enough! I really can't keep up with your appetites. I'm sorry, Aiden. I'll get us some cereal."
Aiden's jaw dropped as his mother sauntered over to the cabinet. Normally he was the one gorging himself at every meal! Now he had to play second fiddle to everyone else and settle for cereal from a box?
"So Dad, after breakfast can we play some catch?" Michael asked.
"Of course!" Ash chuckled. "You know that's one of my favorite parts of the day!"
"Mine too!" Aiden agreed, momentarily forgetting about his disappointment over breakfast.
Michael, however, was quick to scowl. "Can't we go without Aiden?"
"Hey!" Aiden bit.
"Michael, stop it!" Misty warned.
"Sorry, but he just slows us all down," Michael groused. "Even Eli is better than Aiden!"
Eli started to laugh, food tumbling out of his mouth and falling all over the table. That was gross even by Aiden's standards, who winced at the scene.
"That's not fair, Michael," Ash sighed. "I'm not going to play without all of you."
"Fine," Michael grumbled, shoving the last bite of food into his mouth before pushing his plate away. "I'm gonna go get a head start!"
He jumped up from his seat and darted out of the kitchen, leaving a total mess behind him.
"Michael, wait!" Misty yelled. "Get back here and clean up!"
"Wait fow me!" Eli cried, shoving his own empty plate away and scurrying after Michael.
"Boys!" Misty growled, stomping towards the doorway. Aiden glanced down at the table, frowning once he realized he still didn't have his cereal.
Ash chuckled as Misty turned away from the doorway, rubbing her temples. "Man, they sure are a handful!"
Misty, on the other hand, just sighed and slumped her shoulders. "I really wonder what it would be like to have at least one girl…"
Aiden awoke with a jolt. Sunlight was streaming in through his window and stretching across his bedroom. Panic pulsating through his body, Aiden pushed the covers off and jumped out of bed, running out of his bedroom and straight down the stairs. He nearly skidded into the kitchen, having to stop himself by grabbing onto the nearby fridge. He glanced over at the table, and felt all of the anxiety leave his body as he saw Michelle and Elizabeth sitting there, both of them daintily eating their breakfast while Misty finished up at the counter.
"Thank Arceus!" Aiden gasped dramatically, rushing over to the table and gathering a stunned Michelle and Elizabeth into his arms.
"Aiden, what are you doing?!" Michelle whined, trying to wriggle out of her brother's grasp.
Elizabeth, on the other hand, simply giggled and attached herself to Aiden's side. "Hugs!"
Misty turned around and raised an eyebrow at the scene. "What's all this about?"
Aiden pulled away from his sisters and grinned at both of them before whipping around to give his mother the same look. "I'm just really glad I have sisters, that's all!"
Misty's confused expression turned into one of contentedness. Michelle, however, were still a bit thrown off by their brother's sudden revelation.
"Boys are weird," Michelle sighed, shaking her head.
I've always assumed that at some point Aiden would kind of pose that question of what it would be like if he had brothers instead of sisters. He is the only boy in the family after all (cousins included, like he said) so he can't help but to wonder!
It was also really interesting to write male versions of Michelle and Elizabeth :P
I hope you all enjoyed the first installment of Volume 2! I've got plenty more one shots saved up, so stay tuned!