I know little kids are usually really into shiny things...this is particularly dangerous in a world where Pokémon and their special evolutionary items exist ;)
Aiden and Michelle: 2 years old
Key Stone to My Heart
Aiden didn't generally have an interest in his mother's jewelry.
He wasn't the kind of kid who dug around in her drawers or her closet for those kinds of things. Neither was his twin sister. Misty's sisters had told her that their daughters showed a penchant for fine things like jewelry and make up from a young age, and frequently snatched theirs without their knowledge. As a result, Misty had worried her children would display the same interests, and was grateful that so far, they hadn't caused any trouble in terms of swiping things that would be considered pricey or, even worse, sentimental.
The twins only seemed to show an attentiveness in such things when their parents actually had them on. Ash's Z-Power Ring was quite popular for the children to look at, especially when he switched the Z-Crystals around. Michelle also liked to point out his wedding band, which Ash then always happily told Michelle all about.
One afternoon, Ash and Misty had gone out to lunch with Brock, and of course brought their young twins along. Brock adored them like they were his own, and he never passed up the opportunity to spend time with them. Aiden had started to fuss, however; growing tired and cranky after finishing his food. So Misty sat the boy down on her lap, hoping to calm him down or, even better, begin to lull him to sleep.
"It figures Ash's kid would get grouchy when he runs out of food," Brock snickered, watching as Misty rubbed the toddler's back.
"At least I know when to put him down for a nap," Misty giggled. "Even though he still tries to fight me on it…"
Sighing, Aiden turned to face his mother and took notice of her necklace. It was a silver chain attached to two silver bars. The young boy couldn't read yet, but if he could, he would've known that each bar was engraved with his and Michelle's names with a small, heart-shaped blue topaz beside each one.
Layered beneath that necklace, however, was another chain; one that was longer and dipped just beneath the neckline of Misty's shirt. Blinking, Aiden reached out with a small hand and gently tugged at the chain, freeing its pendant and causing his eyes to widen.
The small glass sphere, reflecting dazzling rainbow colors and the symbol of a DNA double helix in the middle, was something Aiden had never seen before. It was definitely more interesting than any other jewelry he'd ever seen on his mother.
"Mama!" Aiden cried, inadvertently interrupting the adults' conversation.
"What is it, baby?" Misty sighed, glancing down at her son.
The little boy clutched the rainbow pendant in his hand and squeaked, "What's dis?"
Misty let out a shallow breath when she realized what he was showing her. "Oh…that's a key stone, sweetie."
"Key –tone?" Aiden repeated.
"Mmhm," Misty intoned, gently taking the sphere into her own hands. "Mommy uses this to do something special with her Pokémon called mega evolution. You've never seen it before, but you will one day!"
Aiden's eyes shimmered at the prospect. He loved anything to do with Pokémon, so if this necklace involved them, then he was definitely interested.
Brock, meanwhile, was surprised by this revelation. "Misty, he's really never watched you battle before?"
Misty shook her head. "I don't think he'd be able to sit through it. Not yet, at least. He's really starting to get into everything related to Pokémon, but the battles are still too long to hold his attention. He and Michelle can barely sit through five minutes of Ash's battles, but at least then I can keep an eye on them when they start to wander off. If they were doing that in the gym while I was battling, I'd totally get distracted and be too worried about watching them."
"She's a great mom," Ash proudly boasted before taking a sip of his soda.
Misty blushed slightly at the compliment. "Don't get me wrong; I'm so excited for the day both Aiden and Michelle can sit through a battle! Then I'll consider letting them watch me. But until then, I've just got to focus on keeping them out of trouble."
Ash glanced down at his son, and his smile widened. "Well, you don't have to worry about that right now."
Misty too turned her attention onto the boy. He had fallen asleep on her chest, the key stone clutched in his tiny fist. It was very cute, but Misty frowned a bit, realizing that her son was now totally enamored with the stone. Suddenly, she was a bit more worried about the safety of her jewelry.
And worse, considering the power this certain piece of jewelry wielded…her son's safety.
XXX
That same night, Ash and Misty were at home preparing for bed. Pikachu had already made himself comfortable on his trainer's pillow and was starting to doze off. Misty giggled softly at the mouse as she removed her earrings and placed them on the nightstand beside her bed. She had already changed into her pajamas, and just needed to finish taking off her jewelry before removing her make-up and brushing her teeth. Ash was already in the bathroom taking care of the latter task.
As she removed her key stone from around her neck, the baby monitor on the side table went off with a cry. Misty raised an eyebrow and picked up the device, staring at its small video screen.
"Michelle?" Ash asked as he emerged from the bathroom.
"No," Misty replied slowly.
Ash furrowed his brow. "Aiden? That's unusual."
"Maybe he had a nightmare," Misty murmured. She was just as confused as her husband. Aiden was a light sleeper, but he still didn't wake up too often at this point; especially not in tears.
Ash flashed a smile at his befuddled wife. "I'll take care of him! You keep getting ready for bed."
Although she was still confused, Misty was relieved by Ash's offer. "Thanks, babe."
As she disappeared into the master bathroom, Ash walked down the hall and into the twins' bedroom to check on Aiden. He was still crying by the time Ash made it to the crib, which caused him to frown.
"Hey, buddy," Ash whispered, leaning over to gently rub the boy's chest. "It's okay, Daddy's here now."
The severity of Aiden's tears eased with Ash's voice and touch, but he was still sniffling and whining. Sighing, Ash picked his young son up, hoping that might soothe the toddler. Hugging him and bouncing him didn't do anything either, and after a while, Ash was worried that all of the noise Aiden was making would wake Michelle up. Wanting to avoid having to deal with two crying toddlers instead of one, Ash decided to bring Aiden back into his and Misty's bedroom and try to calm the boy down there instead.
Carrying Aiden into the room, Ash gently placed him down on the bed, intending to sit beside him. Aiden, instead, had other ideas, and chose to crawl up towards the pillows at the head of the bed, where Pikachu was settled. The electric mouse could sense the toddler coming towards him and opened his beady black eyes, watching Aiden carefully. As soon as Aiden locked eyes with Pikachu, the little boy began to laugh, and Ash let out a sigh of relief, happy that his son was no longer upset.
"What happened, champ?" Ash gently asked his son, regaining the boy's attention. "Did you have a bad dream? Is that why you woke up?"
Wordlessly, Aiden nodded his head.
"Aw, I'm sorry," Ash murmured. "Do you feel better now?"
Aiden nodded again.
"I'll go get you some water, does that sound good?" Ash questioned.
"Ya!" Aiden squeaked.
Ash chuckled, unable to help himself. His son was so cute. "Alright. I'll be right back!"
He stepped into the bathroom, leaving Aiden and Pikachu to their own devices. Misty was just toweling off her face when he walked in, and she looked up at him as soon as she realized he was there.
"Did you manage to calm Aiden down?" She asked.
"Yeah but I brought him in here because I was worried he'd wake Michelle up," Ash replied. "He's hanging out on the bed with Pikachu now, and I told him I'd get him some water."
"We'll just have to make sure he doesn't spill it everywhere," Misty replied, putting her wash cloth down. "He seems to spill anything not in a sippy cup almost instantly."
Ash chuckled, knowing from experience that his wife was correct. "Don't worry, I'll help him out."
After filling a small paper cup with water, Ash walked back into the bedroom, this time with Misty trailing behind. Pikachu had fallen back asleep on Ash's pillow, while Aiden was lying on his stomach on top of Misty's.
"What is my silly little guy doing?" Misty cooed, walking over to the bed. She picked the toddler up, causing him to giggle, and rubbed her nose against his. "Oh, you're so sweet."
Ash, meanwhile, approached the two and held up the cup in his hand. "Here's your water, champ!"
He put the cup to the child's lips and gently tilted it back so the boy could drink the water out of it. Aiden managed to finish pretty quickly, considering the small size of the cup, and once he was finished, appeared to be growing sleepy again.
"I'll put him back in his crib," Misty offered, casting her eyes down towards Aiden as he rested his head on her shoulder.
"Sounds good," Ash replied quietly before ruffling the boy's hair. "Night, buddy!"
"Nigh nigh," Aiden mumbled, much to Ash's delight.
Misty too was smiling, and placed a hand on the back of her son's head as she carried him out of the room. "Come on, sweet boy. Time to go back to bed."
XXX
The rest of the night went uninterrupted, much to Ash and Misty's relief. Though the twins were getting older, and generally slept throughout the night, some evenings were more difficult than others. They had feared the night before would be one of those, after Aiden's rare nightmare, but it ended up being a one and done situation.
Ash and Misty were instead woken up by sunlight pouring through their bedroom windows, and they were quite alright with that. Both decided to get dressed for the day before waking the twins, and that's when the trouble started.
When Misty reached for her jewelry, she instantly realized something was missing. She sifted through her rings, and her bar necklace…
"Uh…" Misty muttered.
Ash heard her low voice and raised an eyebrow as Pikachu jumped up on his shoulder. "Something wrong, Mist?"
The gym leader looked nervously over her shoulder. "My key stone is missing…"
Ash's eyes widened, and Pikachu's head shot up. "Seriously?"
"I left it on my nightstand last night, like I always do," Misty grumbled, looking back over at the small table. "But now it's not here."
"But where could it have gone?" Ash asked rhetorically. "We were in here all night…maybe Vaporeon knocked it off? You know sometimes she likes to swat things around."
"Vaporeon slept downstairs last night," Misty sighed, shaking her head.
"Maybe she snuck in here at some point?" Ash tried.
"No, she pretty much stays in one place," Misty refuted. "Besides, I've become such a light sleeper with the twins that I definitely would've heard her come into our room. Or anyone else, for that matter."
"Pika…" Pikachu breathed. He jumped right off of Ash's shoulder and scurried atop the bed towards the nightstand, sniffing its surface where Misty's key stone had been the night before.
"That's right, Pikachu could probably track it down!" Ash gushed. "He's great at finding things, especially when the twins lose them."
That caused Misty's eyes to widen. "The twins…"
She got to her feet and marched out of the room. Both Ash and Pikachu appeared confused by Misty's sudden departure, and without a second thought, they followed after her; straight into Aiden and Michelle's room.
The little girl on the left side of the room was still asleep, but her brother was awake and standing up, beaming at his mother as soon as she walked in.
"Mama!" Aiden squeaked.
"Good morning, baby," Misty crooned sweetly, though she still had her hand nervously clutched in front of her chest. She walked up to the crib and peered inside, looking around. Aiden laughed at this, unaware of what his mother was actually doing.
"Mist…" Ash tried.
"Oh, I know it's got to be in here somewhere," Misty groaned, cutting him off. "Aiden's the only one who could've taken it! He was in our room, after all, and he was really interested in it at lunch. I'm not gonna be mad or anything…he's just a baby, after all. But I do need to find it! It's definitely not safe for a two year old to have…"
Pikachu's nose suddenly twitched, which caused his ears to spring up. The mouse climbed right into Aiden's crib, causing the toddler even more delight. Nudging the boy's pillow away, Pikachu's eyes shimmered when he spotted none other than Misty's missing key stone.
"There it is!" Misty gasped, grabbing the piece of jewelry. "You're the best, Pikachu!"
"Pi-ka!" Pikachu chirped, smiling at the gym leader.
Aiden frowned when he realized his mother had reclaimed the key stone. Whining, he reached out for the small rainbow sphere, which Misty wound up hiding inside her fist.
"I knew he was starting to love Pokémon more and more, but this is getting crazy," Misty sighed. "I'm just glad Pikachu and Vaporeon can't mega evolve! I'm almost positive he would've tried that by now."
Ash chuckled and knelt down in front of his young son. "You're a smart little guy, aren't you?"
"Ya!" Aiden laughed, finally cheering up.
"Ash, come on," Misty groaned, slipping the necklace back around her neck. "This is serious! We can't have our kids messing around with things like key stones. What do you think would happen if Aiden managed to get his hands on one of your z-crystals?"
"Not much," Ash replied with a shrug. "He doesn't know how to do the poses. And without those, a z-crystal won't do much of anything."
"Pi-kachu," Pikachu confirmed, hopping back up on his trainer's shoulder as Aiden watched.
"Well if he starts paying attention during battles, he's gonna pick it up pretty quickly," Misty reasoned with her husband.
"Probably," he admitted, much to her frustration. "But the good news is he doesn't really pay attention right now! So we don't have to worry too much."
Misty sighed as Aiden began to fuss. Knowing what he wanted, Misty lifted him out of the crib and instead held the boy against her hip, which settled him down.
"I think you should try and wake Michelle up," Misty informed her husband, deciding she no longer wanted to discuss their son's emerging affinity with her key stone. "I'll bring this little guy downstairs and start getting breakfast ready."
Ash was about to agree, but stopped when he saw what Aiden was doing. "Uh, Mist…"
Realizing where her husband was looking, Misty glanced down and noticed that Aiden was once again clutching her key stone in his hand. "Oh, Arceus."
For what it was worth, Ash appeared quite proud. "He already knows the good stuff when it comes to training Pokémon!"
"Yeah, and he knows how to freak his mother out," Misty grumbled.
Aiden held the key stone out towards Pikachu, who tilted his head in response. "Pika, mega ev-ove!"
Pikachu, who of course couldn't do that, simply blinked his eyes and squeaked, "chu?"
Misty groaned and lowered her son's hand. "Let's not show him any battles involving mega evolution until he's 10."
"Can we show him z-moves then?" Ash asked hopefully.
"Um, no, definitely not."
