The kids freaking Misty out on an airplane has always been a favorite of mine. Elizabeth's probably the best at it, as this chapter proves!

Aiden and Michelle: 9 years old

Elizabeth: 3 years old


First Class Fears

"Lizzie, don't lie on the floor like that!"

The toddler picked only her head up, gazing at her older sister. "Why?"

"Cause it's gross," Michelle grumbled. "People are stepping on it all day with their dirty shoes and rolling their luggage all over it."

Elizabeth didn't seem bothered by such a fact. "Denny's got diwty shoes."

Michelle sighed and reached down, picking the little girl up beneath her arms. Elizabeth didn't protest and allowed her sister to pull her up onto her feet.

"Mommy and Daddy wanted me to keep an eye on you while they went to get something really quick," Michelle reminded her younger sister. "So that's what I have to do!"

Elizabeth giggled and nodded her head. She was very young, but she adored her older sister and could always tell when she should really be listening to her.

"Do you want to sit up here next to me?" Michelle asked, motioning towards the seat next to her that was currently occupied by a small backpack; Elizabeth's.

"Uh huh!" Elizabeth chirped.

Michelle picked Elizabeth up again, this time to sit her down next to her. Once she was seated, Elizabeth pulled her backpack onto her lap and unzipped the back compartment, digging through it.

"Are you looking for something?" Michelle questioned. Elizabeth didn't answer, however, and just keep her head down. Frowning, Michelle began to look around, taking in the surrounding sights of the gate. There were lots of people waiting to board the plane just like them, mostly adults, thought there were some kids. She didn't have much of a desire to socialize, however. Michelle was looking for one kid in particular, and when she didn't catch sight of them, she furrowed her brow, muttering to herself, "Where did he go?"

"I'm right here."

Michelle shrieked and jumped in her chair. Elizabeth finally looked up from her backpack, and the voice of the latest arrival started to laugh wildly. The older girl snarled, her eyes darkening. "Aiden!"

"Man, that was so funny!" Aiden guffawed. "You should've seen your face! I wish I'd taken a picture of it."

"You're such a pain," Michelle growled, lowering her hands as they balled into fists. "And you're supposed to be watching Lizzie with me!"

"Yeah, I know," Aiden slowly replied, scuffing the toe of his sneaker against the floor. "I just needed to do something. I wasn't gone that long."

"What did you need to do that was so important?" Michelle grumbled.

"I saw a Rufflet and I wanted to take a closer look at it," Aiden innocently explained.

Michelle blinked hard. "Seriously?"

"They're really rare here!" Aiden whined. "I got so excited when I saw it! Its owner was really cool too. He's a trainer from Unova and-"

"I don't care where he's from!" Michelle hissed. "That's a lame excuse, Aiden. Try lying next time like you always do with a better reason."

"What?! I don't lie!" Aiden snapped.

"Yes you do," Michelle scoffed.

"No I don't!"

"You do!"

Elizabeth shifted her eyes back and forth, watching her older siblings argue. As she was looking between them, her eyes stopped in the middle when she saw something that sparked her interest.

"Mommy! Daddy!" Elizabeth squeaked.

Aiden and Michelle instantly stopped fighting and looked over their shoulders, finding that their parents were, in fact, walking towards them.

"Let's act like nothing happened," Michelle declared.

"Good idea," Aiden agreed.

"There are my sweethearts!"

Misty was beaming at the children, her eyes practically shimmering. "Was Lizzie good for you two?"

"Yeah, she was fine," Michelle assured her mother. "She's been pretty quiet, actually."

"Must be because she's hungry," Ash chuckled.

Someone's stomach growled, and Ash grinned almost goofily in response. Elizabeth, however, quickly pointed at her brother, who blushed.

"Um…guess I'm hungry too," Aiden admitted.

"No surprise there," Misty giggled. "It's a good thing we brought enough food back here for all of you!"

"Yes!" Aiden cheered. "I was hoping that's where you guys were going!"

"It's not a whole meal, just some snacks, but it should be enough to hold you over for now," Misty added.

Ash pulled a soft pretzel out of a paper bag in his hands and passed it over to Aiden. He then took out another one and gave it to Michelle.

"Thank you!" They both chirped.

Elizabeth, on the other hand, frowned and began to wiggle in her seat. "Hung-y! Hung-y!"

"Hey, it's okay!" Ash chuckled, retrieving a third pretzel. He ripped off a small piece and held it out towards the antsy toddler, who gave it a short look before taking the morsel and nibbling at it.

"I got juice for you too," Misty informed the toddler. "Do you want some?"

Elizabeth happily nodded her head, her mouth full of pretzel.

"Pi-ka!" Pikachu cheered from Ash's shoulder, hopping off to dig into one of the family's bags. He pulled out an empty sippy cup, holding it up towards Misty in his little paws.

"Thanks, Pikachu!" Misty giggled, kneeling down to take the cup. "You're such a big help!"

"Chu!"

"Wow, a sippy cup and everything, huh?" Ash marveled. "You're really going all out in this airport."

Misty shot her husband a side eye. "I can't trust her to not spill the whole bottle on herself."

"Oh, right, because she's a little kid," Ash mused.

"Well, yeah, but also because she's your little kid," Misty teased, smirking at him.

Ash groaned and rolled his eyes. "You know, that joke stopped being funny when Aiden and Michelle were little."

"I still think it's funny," Misty asserted, shrugging her shoulders before pouring some of the apple juice from its original container into the sippy cup. "Besides, I have to try and keep Lizzie as neat as possible. You know the whole 'flying first class with kids' thing makes me nervous."

"Still?" Ash chuckled.

"Come on, be serious," Misty whined, handing Elizabeth the sippy cup after making sure the top was twisted on good and tight. "It's bad enough to have all those rich snobs glaring at us because we're putting a bunch of kids in their special air space. I don't need them thinking I'm a lousy mother on top of it."

"No one thinks that," Ash assured her.

"They will if I bring on a kid covered in juice," Misty muttered.

"She's not even three years old," Ash laughed. "She's supposed to be messy! She's not a robot baby. That'd be pretty cool though."

Misty playfully rolled her eyes as she stood back up to her full height. "Yeah, we get that because we're normal people. The normal first class clientele is a different breed."

"Mowe?"

Ash and Misty turned their attention onto Elizabeth, who was holding onto her juice with one hand and pointing at the pretzel in her father's grasp with the other.

"Oh, sorry, pumpkin!" Ash chuckled, ripping off another piece of pretzel. "Of course you can have more!"

"Yay!" Elizabeth squealed, grabbing the piece and shoving the whole thing in her mouth, eliciting more laughter from her father.

"You're so cute," he crooned.

"Of course she is," Misty agreed with a giggle.

Michelle suddenly looked up from her pretzel, an eyebrow raised. "Hey, Lizzie, did you find what you were looking for before in your backpack?"

Ash inclined his head. "What do you mean, Shelly?"

"Elizabeth was going through her backpack before with some serious concentration," Michelle explained with a giggle. "I guess I'm just curious what she was so focused on!"

"Oh, that makes sense," Ash chuckled. "What was it, Lizzie?"

The little girl swallowed her latest bite of pretzel and smiled as she reached into her backpack, pulling out a stuffed version of one of her favorite Magical Ponyta characters. She squeezed the toy's stomach, causing it to giggle while its pink mane and tail started to glow. The toy was surprisingly loud, and it had managed to catch the attention of a few other passengers nearby.

"Elizabeth, turn it off!" Misty cried urgently.

"I can't, Mommy!" Elizabeth giggled. "She has to stop on her own."

It seemed that a vein would appear in Misty's forehead at any given moment. "You really think they'd put an off switch on those kind of toys…"

Ash smirked at his wife before adding, "nah, because then they wouldn't be as annoying for the grown-ups, and that's no fun!"

"No kidding," Misty grumbled.

Now boarding Flight 1121 to Hoenn.

Misty blinked and glanced up towards the gate. "Oh, looks like we have to start getting ready to get on the plane."

Aiden swallowed the rest of his pretzel before letting out an excited whoop, grabbing his backpack and slinging it over one shoulder. "I can't wait to get to Hoenn! Maybe I'll get to see some really cool Pokémon!"

"Right, because that Rufflet from before wasn't enough," Michelle grumbled, getting up from her seat and picking up her own bag.

"What?" Misty asked her daughter, raising an eyebrow as Aiden glared at his twin sister.

"Nothing," Michelle sighed, shaking her head.

Ash, meanwhile, tucked the rest of the soft pretzel back in its paper bag before smiling at his youngest daughter. "Okay, Lizzie, time to get going! Can you put your toy away and get your backpack on?"

Elizabeth happily nodded her head and stowed the now quiet Ponyta plush away in the back compartment of her bag, zipping it up and slipping the pale purple straps adorned by rose gold accents over her shoulders.

"What a big girl!" Ash complimented, picking her up in his arms.

Pikachu climbed up to his trainer's shoulder and licked Elizabeth's nose, eliciting joyful laughter from the young child.

"Alright, does everyone have everything?" Misty asked, carefully eyeing the other family members.

"Yep!" Aiden confirmed.

Ash took a survey of the seats that they had been occupying. "I don't see anything. I think we're good to go!"

They walked up to the gate, getting their boarding passes checked before entering the walkway that connected them to the plane.

"I call the window seat!" Aiden announced, throwing his hand up in the air.

"What?! No way!" Michelle cried. "Mom!"

"He did call it first," Misty reasoned with her daughter, earning a pout from the girl. "You guys have to take turns! You're old enough to understand that, aren't you?"

"I guess," Michelle grumbled.

"You can have the window seat on the way back," Misty declared. "How's that?"

"Fine," Michelle sighed.

Misty groaned and squeezed the bridge of her nose, Ash watching her with a furrowed brow. "Man, you really are stressed."

"I'd be way less stressed if Scott would just break down and book us seats that aren't first class," Misty grumbled.

"It's been 10 years and he hasn't given it yet, so I wouldn't bank on that happening any time soon," Ash replied.

"It was great when we didn't have kids," Misty continued. "I love these three more than anything, but they aren't always the best travelers, and I really could deal without the judgment of the elite."

Ash smirked, despite his wife's distress. "Don't let 'em phase you, Mist. I have to be around those kind of people all the time, and I never let them bother me! Just isn't worth it, you know?"

Misty grimaced and furrowed her brow as they walked closer to the entrance of the plane. "I wish I could be as carefree as you are. I'm just not built that way, unfortunately."

Ash blinked and tilted his head. "Built? You make it sound like you want to be a robot, like the rich people want our kids to be!"

Misty finally smirked herself and shrugged her shoulders. "Maybe it does sound kind of cool."

The family finally boarded the plane, heading towards their seats. Elizabeth, who was still in Ash's arms, locked eyes with an older woman who was already sitting down. The woman smiled at the little girl, who quickly returned the action.

"Here you go," Ash murmured, placing Elizabeth in the window seat. She didn't seem happy there, however, and quickly climbed over to the aisle seat, confusing her father. "Hey, what's up, Lizzie? Don't you want to sit next to the window?"

Elizabeth shook her head. "I wanna sit wif you and Mommy!"

"Well, one of us has to sit with Aiden and Michelle," Ash reasoned with her.

"You sit hewe," Elizabeth instructed, pointing at the seat right next to her before pointing at the next seat across the aisle. "Mommy sit hewe."

"Oh, you want to sit between us," Ash breathed.

"Dat's what I said!" Elizabeth cried, raising her voice a bit too much for her parents' liking.

"Okay, okay!" Ash fussed, quickly inching into the aisle and sitting down beside his daughter. "That good?"

Elizabeth beamed and nodded.

"Good," Ash sighed, sinking deeper into his seat.

Aiden quirked an eyebrow at the conversation. "If Elizabeth isn't gonna take the window seat, can I?"

"No, buddy," Ash sighed. "One of us has to sit with her, just like one of us has to sit with you and Michelle."

"I can take care of Lizzie," Aiden offered.

Ash smirked at his son. "It's not that easy. Don't worry, Aiden; you'll get a window seat on the way home, just like Mom said!"

Aiden frowned and slunk back in his seat. Misty, on the other hand, let out a long breath and rested her head in her hand. "This is going to be a long flight."

Luckily for them, Elizabeth was quiet for much of the early flight. Aiden and Michelle were too, but they were older and at this point, they knew better than to anger their mother on an airplane by misbehaving. It got to a point, however, when Elizabeth decided she was hungry again, and began begging Ash for more of the pretzel he and Misty had bought in the terminal.

Pikachu was quicker to work than his trainer, his small size helping in the cramped space of the plane. The electric type wiggled his way between Ash's legs and the seat in front of him, retrieving the brown paper bag in his teeth and carrying it up to Elizabeth.

"Yay!" Elizabeth squealed, Ash's eyes widening at the volume.

"Lizzie…" he tried.

"Hewe, Pikachu!" Elizabeth continued, interrupting her father as she pulled out the pretzel and tore off a piece to give to him.

"Chu!" Pikachu chirped, twitching his ears as he accepted the offering.

"Pikachu, you're not helping!" Ash quietly whined to his partner.

The mouse contemplated it for a moment before frowning, realizing his trainer was right. "Pika…"

"Don't worry about it," Ash assured the Pokémon, a sympathetic smile gracing his face. "I just don't want Misty to freak out any more than she already is. I'm sure she's over there clenching her jaw right now."

Pikachu turned his head to get a better look at the gym leader. She did, in fact, have her eyes on Elizabeth, and they still seemed to be filled with the same trepidation as before.

"Pi," Pikachu murmured.

"I wasn't nearly as worked up as her until we got on this plane," Ash grumbled. "Now every noise Elizabeth makes sounds like it's a hundred times louder than it actually is, and my nerves are shot."

Elizabeth suddenly giggled again, this time even louder before. The older woman who had smiled at the little girl when they first boarded the plane turned to look at her, and Ash's heart began to race.

"Lizzie…" He began.

"Daddy, I wanna pway wif Pinky!" Elizabeth cried.

"Shh," Ash hushed the girl, his eyes finally moving from the older woman back onto Elizabeth. "Quietly, Lizzie. What do you want?"

"Pinky," Elizabeth squeaked, her voice actually lowering.

Ash appeared confused. "What's Pinky?"

"My Ponyta!" Elizabeth exclaimed, pointing down at her backpack.

Ash sucked in a breath; his daughter was getting too noisy again. "Alright, you can have it. But don't squeeze it so it laughs, okay?"

"Okay," Elizabeth agreed, nodding her head.

Ash unzipped the girl's backpack and pulled the toy out, handing it to her. Elizabeth beamed and hugged the plush, tightly enough that it set off the obnoxiously loud sound chip inside of it. The stuffed Ponyta's high pitched laughter filled the plane, and Misty and the twins all whipped their heads towards Ash and Elizabeth.

"Not that thing again!" Aiden gasped.

"Mom's gonna lose it…" Michelle warned in a sing song voice.

Ash was too afraid to look at the rest of his family. Instead, he glanced up and realized that the same older woman from before was looking at Elizabeth again, opening her mouth to utter what Ash assumed was going to be a complaint.

"She is just precious!"

That's all it took for Ash's heart to stop pounding in his ears. The woman's smile widened, looking up from Elizabeth to Ash.

"Oh…uh…thank you," Ash murmured. He wasn't used to people in first class complimenting him on his children. All he usually got was dirty looks.

"She reminds me of my granddaughter," the woman continued. "Such a happy little girl! And so well behaved."

"Well behaved?" Ash repeated, as if he couldn't believe what she'd just said.

The woman nodded her head. "A lot of people worry about bringing children on a plane, especially in first class, but I haven't heard a peep out of your daughter! She must be a very good traveler."

Elizabeth looked up at her father and grinned. Ash smirked at his young daughter and replied, "Yeah, she's pretty good at it."

Just as the older woman turned around, Misty raised an eyebrow at her husband. "Who are you talking to?"

"Just a fellow first class passenger who thinks Elizabeth is a perfect traveler," Ash replied, puffing out his chest.

Elizabeth stuck her tongue out of the side of her mouth and turned to stare at her mother before announcing, "I'm the best!"

Misty sighed before smiling at her young daughter, suddenly feeling much more relaxed. "Yeah, but Daddy and I already knew that."