Casino Crazy
"…do they even know how to gamble?"
"I know Drew doesn't. What about Ash?"
"Not a chance in hell."
"And Kenny?"
"Kenny barely knows how to play Go Fish."
"Cilan?"
"He calls himself a 'casino connoisseur,' but he calls himself a connoisseur of basically everything else in the world, too. So who knows."
"Maybe Brock or Forrest is teaching them. I know they're both very good with card games."
The five women were all gathered by the division that separated the casino from the rest of the hotel, peering over the partition in order to keep an eye out for their perspective husbands, who had all run off without warning to test their luck on the slot machines and at the card tables.
"We should get in there and gamble ourselves," May huffed.
"We can't," Misty sighed. "We got stuck with all the kids, remember?"
From inside her own gray and light pink stroller, May's young daughter Rosie shrieked and chucked a handful of cheese crackers at her mother's face, causing May to scowl.
"How could I forget?" May muttered.
"At least the older kids are behaving," Iris commented as she choked back a laugh at May's torment.
"Um, guys…" Dawn squeaked, "Look around…"
May, Misty, Iris, and Olivia, Forrest's wife, did just that, and quickly realized that all of the children who were not confined to a stroller were nowhere in sight.
"They ran off again?!" Iris fumed.
"This is getting pretty old and odd, err," Olivia agreed with a sigh.
"Look at me, Mommy!"
Misty, who immediately recognized that squeaky little voice, whipped her head around and gasped at what she found. It was Aiden, trying to scale a quartz statue sticking up from the ground in the middle of a circle of marble benches.
"Aiden, get down from there!" Misty hissed.
The young boy smirked and began to climb even higher. Growling Misty stormed over to where Aiden was creating his mischief. Fortunately, she was a tall woman, and was able to just reach up and grab her son before he could get any further.
"Hey!" Aiden whined.
"You know you shouldn't be doing that!" Misty scolded her son.
"But it's fun!" Aiden giggled.
"If you keep that up, I'm going to put you in a stroller," Misty threatened, causing Aiden to gasp.
"Noooo!" Aiden whined. "Mommy, strollers are for babies!"
"They're also for naughty little boys who don't know how to behave themselves," Misty muttered.
Aiden huffed, but didn't give any actual response to his mother's warning. He did, however, allow his chocolate brown eyes to fall back to where he'd previously been climbing the quartz, and caught sight of Damien poking his brown haired head out from behind one of the marble benches.
At the same time, May also caught sight of her young son.
Narrowing her eyes, May motioned for the boy to come over to her. At the action, Damien scoffed, but still slid off of the bench and trudged over to his mother. Having inherited his mother's personality instead of Drew's.
"Whaaat?" Damien whined.
He could also be quite stubborn when he wanted to be…just like May.
"I know that you're up to no good, young man," May replied sternly. "I don't want you running off anymore! Just because Daddy isn't here to rein you in doesn't mean you can just ignore me!"
Damien snorted, narrowing his sapphire eyes, but staying in one place. At least he understood when his mother had had enough with his antics and when to stop.
"Where's Brandon?" Olivia wondered aloud. "He's almost never apart from Aiden when we get together!"
"Isn't that him over there?" Dawn queried, pointing towards the nearby ice cream shop. Indeed, the young boy was standing in front of two young girls, both of whom were holding ice cream cones and looking highly confused. It was clear, even from that distance, that Brandon was flirting with them both.
"Just like his uncle," Olivia groaned. "And his father!"
The woman scurried over to her son and apologized to the bewildered young girls before pulling a visibly flustered Brandon away from the duo.
"Mommy!" Brandon complained.
"I don't know how many times I have to tell you, Brandon: no flirting!" Olivia sighed. "You're too young for any girlfriends!"
She placed the boy in front of Aiden, causing the raven haired boy to smirk out of both amusement and satisfaction.
"How come you didn't come with me?" Brandon questioned broodingly.
"'Cause you know I don't like girls," Aiden replied simply. "They're boring! I like climbing stuff."
"Basil, Sage, Kokum, and Michelle are still missing, I can't imagine how will Ash react if he gets to know about this," Misty grumbled.
"Well, I can guarantee you that Sage and Michelle are together," Iris noted. "But Basil and Kokum? I just hope they haven't killed each other yet."
Michelle and Sage, fortunately enough, hadn't gotten themselves into any trouble. They had simply become enchanted by the candy store, and had wandered inside without permission from either of their mothers. It was Dawn who located the two, after spotting them with their hands and faces pressed against one of the display cases near the door.
"Now it's just Basil and Kokum," Iris moaned. "It would be my sons. And to think, they take after Cilan. Yeah, right."
"Get back here, Basil!"
"Nuh uh!"
"BASIL! KOKUM!" Iris shouted. The two young boys both skidded to a halt, knocking into one another in the process. "Get over here right now! I mean it!"
Not wanting to experience anymore of their mother's wrath (which they both knew through experience to be legendary) both boys ran over to Iris, looking parts bashful and parts terrified.
"Don't do that again!" Iris growled. "I didn't raise you both to be a couple of maniacs! You know better than to be running through a crowd like that! Daddy wouldn't be very pleased to hear about this, now would he?"
"Don't tell Daddy!" Basil and Kokum cried simultaneously, causing Iris to smirk. Both boys really admired their father, and never wanted to do anything that would purposely upset him.
"I suppose I won't," Iris hummed teasingly. "As long as you both stay out of trouble from now on."
They both nodded eagerly. That was easy enough to accomplish, after all.
"I really do wish we could go gamble like the guys," Dawn muttered.
"Nothing is stopping you, Dawn," Misty remarked with a raised eyebrow. "You're the only one of us who doesn't have a kid!"
"Yeah, but I feel bad leaving you guys out here while I go play with the guys," Dawn replied. "It's not necessarily fair, you know."
Olivia twisted her mouth in contemplation before picking her head up, a lock of light brown hair falling in front of her hazel eye.
"You know, there is a babysitting place here," Olivia commented. "The kids could still all play together, but at least they'd be contained. And then we could go into the casino!"
"Come on, let's go!" May giggled as she began to push Rosie's stroller along. "I can't wait to go show those boys a thing or two!"
"May, do you know how to gamble?" Iris asked curiously.
"Not really, but I'm a much faster learner than the guys," May chirped, causing the rest of the women to sweat drop nervously.
XXX
"Okay. Aiden and Michelle, you two behave while you're here, okay?"
The two children watched as their mother smiled at them and stood back up to her full height, looking towards the door where the rest of her friends were waiting for her.
"Come on, Misty!" Dawn giggled. "They'll be fine!"
"Right," Misty sighed, a confident but somewhat shaky smile appearing on her face. "Of course."
They all left the room, leaving the children behind with the employees who worked the babysitting service. Aiden and Michelle exchanged curious glances before turning to their friends, who seemed just as bewildered as they did.
"What's this place?" Damien squeaked.
"It looks boring," Sage complained, looking around the room.
"What do we do now?" Brandon questioned.
Basil twisted his mouth and looked around before setting his green eyes on the door at the head of the room. "Hey, the door is wide open!"
This caught all of the children's attention. They too looked towards the open door, and all seemed to come to a quiet agreement.
"Are you thinking what I'm thinking?" Brandon playfully asked Aiden, who slowly nodded his head in agreement.
"But what about Rosie?" Michelle questioned.
"The ladies that work in here can watch her!" Sage chirped.
Before Michelle could respond, Rosie let out a shrieking laugh and ran straight out of the room, her Beautifly printed skirt flying behind her like a cape.
"Rosie!" Damien gasped.
"We have to go get her!" Kokum cried.
Their original plan already forgotten, or perhaps now put even further in motion, the older kids all bolted out of the room, running straight after the little grassy haired girl who had managed to escape before the rest of them.
"Rosie!" Damien kept yelling.
"We have to get her!" Damien wailed. "Mommy will kill me!"
"Me too!" Aiden whined.
"Oh, shut it!" Michelle argued. "You wanted to leave anyway!"
"I think this is fun!" Sage laughed.
"Not really!" Brandon argued.
XXX
"Alright! I got a seven, a cherry, and a horseshoe!"
"…Ash, that doesn't mean anything."
"Uh…it doesn't?"
"Nope."
"In fact, it means you lost."
"What?!"
Forrest smirked and shook his head, while Drew started laughing so hard he nearly fell off of his own seat. Ash growled and narrowed his eyes at the top coordinator, who didn't seem affected by Ash's harsh glare.
"Come on, you suck at this, too!" Ash argued.
"Maybe so, but at least I know that three different symbols don't mean anything," Drew remarked.
"Man, I'd love to go play at one of the card tables, but I'm afraid to leave you four sad sacks here alone," Forrest commented, pointing his finger between Ash, Drew, Kenny, and Cilan.
"Hey, I know what I'm doing!" Cilan whined.
"You got scared when the lights went off on the machine, so I don't think you really do," Forrest replied with a snicker.
"I'll admit that I'm not very good at slots, but I do enjoy all of the free alcohol being passed around in here," Kenny piped up, sounding completely unapologetic for his confession.
"I second that!" Drew agreed. "But I don't admit that I suck at gambling."
"You probably should. It would save you a lot of aggravation and embarrassment in the long run."
Drew's eyes widened as he whipped around and found his wife to be standing behind him with her arms crossed and a smirk plastered on her face.
"May, what in the hell are you doing here?!" Drew gasped. "Where are my kids?"
"I left them at the resort's babysitting center," May replied easily. "The girls and I wanted to gamble, too!"
"What do you mean you and the girls?" Ash muttered, his brown eyes shifting from side to side. "WAH!"
"Gotcha!" Misty giggled, waving a hand in front of Ash.
"Misty?! Why are you here? And how come you are not watching the kids?" Ash shrieked.
"Well, May already explained that," Misty hissed.
"Misty, you know full well that Michelle doesn't like to be left with people she is unfamiliar with," Ash argued.
"She was perfectly fine with it, now shush, and I know for a fact you don't know what you're doing," Misty teased, pushing Ash off of his seat. "Here, let me show you how to work the slots."
Ash folded his arms and cocked an eyebrow as he tilted his head to the side. "What do you know about gambling?"
Misty turned her eyes up and threw Ash a demure expression. "I grew up with three sisters who were constantly dragging random boys into the house and drinking before noon. Believe me, I know a thing or two about gambling."
While Misty was busy "teaching" Ash about the fine art of gambling, Kenny glanced up at Dawn, who smiled sweetly at him in response. They, of course, had no children, so Kenny couldn't be upset with her as the rest of the men could. In fact, he didn't really mind that Dawn was there. Sometimes, hanging out with the guys could get a little rough for him. He liked that Dawn was more gentle and calm.
"Do you know how to do any of this, Dawn?" Kenny curiously questioned his wife.
"No," Dawn replied with a sweet laugh. "But, I do like all of the free alcohol!"
"Hey, that's just what I said!" Kenny chuckled.
Dawn's eyes sparkled as her joyous smile increased in size. Reaching out, she ran a finger down Kenny's chest and purred seductively, "well, don't you and I have the same mind, hmm?"
"Heh…you could say that…" Kenny murmured, his whole face turning red.
"We don't need to play these silly old games, now do we?" Dawn whispered.
"Uh…no…"
Glancing up with her blue eyes, which were now narrowed like a sneaky Purrloin's, Dawn hummed, "I see a nice little spot over there with lots of alcohol and lots of open space. Shall we, my big, strong Empoleon?"
Kenny snickered amusedly at this. "Of course, my sweet, little Piplup!"
As they snuck away, Iris was busy trying to work the controls of Cilan's slot machine, causing the connoisseur to cry out in protest.
"Iris!" Cilan whined.
"Cilan, move!" Iris growled. "You don't know what you're doing!"
"But I'm a-"
"You are not a casino connoisseur!"
Olivia, on the other hand, found herself smirking at Brock and Forrest, who seemed unaffected, or at least unsurprised, by everyone else's actions.
"So, how's it been going in here?" Olivia asked mischievously, her tone indicating that she knew full well of her husband and brother-in-law's plight.
"About as well someone challenging me in the gym with a Suicune," Forrest muttered with a defeated sigh.
"They're certainly not the most proficient gamblers I've ever met," Brock added.
"Well, at least they're trying to understand," Olivia sighed laughingly.
"Yeah, except for Kenny," Forrest noted. "That guy doesn't really care."
"Speaking of which…" Brock murmured, looking around his brother, "where is Kenny? And Dawn, for that matter?"
"Huh?" Olivia hummed, looking over her shoulder. "But…Dawn was just here!"
"ROSIE!"
The adults who were all gathered at the slot machines stopped immediately, whipping their heads around and looking confusedly all around the casino.
"Uh…did someone just yell my daughter's name?" May quipped curiously.
As if on cue, the little girl came storming past her parents and all of their friends, giggling and running like a mad person.
"Rosie?!" Drew and May shrieked simultaneously.
As soon as the young girl ran past them, Damien was soon behind, obviously chasing after the younger girl. The rest of the children were right behind, each one looking more frantic than the last as they tried to catch up to their two friends.
"Uh…" Ash muttered confusedly.
"HEY! YOU KIDS GET BACK HERE!"
A security guard was the next person to be seen running past the group of bewildered, and now mortified, adults. He was in hot pursuit of the trail of children running through the casino…a place where they were not even supposed to step foot in. He and the children were so busy running through the casino, in fact, that none of them took notice of Dawn and Kenny standing by the bar in the middle of the room, a drink in each of their hands as they both made out and ground up against one another on the wall, getting far too hot for a public place.
"We're in trouble, aren't we?" Drew sighed.