So March 4th is Girls' Day in Japan! It's been forever since I wrote a one shot about this, but I had a fun idea for a new one and today was, of course, the perfect day to upload it!

Aiden: 8 years old

Elizabeth: 2 and a half years old


Girl's Day Disaster

"Dolly!"

"Mom, Lizzie's trying to play with her dolls again!"

Normally, that would sound like a completely bizarre thing for a brother to tattle on his sister for. Elizabeth was a two-and-a-half-year-old girl; of course she loved playing with dolls, and usually, that was just fine. The dolls Aiden were referring to, however, were not meant to be played with.

Elizabeth, again, was a two-and-half year old girl; no matter how many times she'd been told this, she didn't seem to listen.

Sighing, Misty strode into the living room, where she found Aiden holding his little sister back from her collection of hina dolls. There were two sets on display; one belonging to Michelle, and the other to Elizabeth. Amazingly enough, and much to Michelle's relief, Elizabeth had only tried messing around with her own dolls so far.

Misty supposed she should have been grateful that Elizabeth was at least listening to that.

"Lizzie," Misty warned her young daughter as she knelt beside her. "What have Daddy and I told you about those dolls?"

Elizabeth frowned and shrugged her shoulders.

"They aren't meant to be played with!" Misty reminded her. "Those dolls are fragile, so they're only to look at. You've got lots of other dolls you can play with!"

"Dolly," Elizabeth repeated, pointing at the intricate display. "Dolly's pwetty!"

"Yes, those are very pretty dollies," Misty agreed, smiling at the toddler. "Daddy picked them out special for you, just like he picked out Michelle's!"

This seemed to throw Aiden off, who raised an eyebrow. "Dad actually picked all these dolls out?"

"Well…Grammy helped him," Misty admitted. "But he knew to go out and get them before your sisters' first Girls' Day! And he wanted them to be a surprise for me, so I never saw them until he brought them home."

Such a sweet story didn't really have much of an impact on Aiden. He was a textbook boy, so he had no interest in things like fancy dolls or romantic actions.

"Girls' Day sure is a weird holiday," Aiden scoffed, somewhat changing the subject. He no longer wanted to conjure up an image of his father doll shopping.

"No, it's sweet!" Misty refuted. "I used to love Girls' Day when I was growing up! Now I love watching your sisters get to celebrate it."

"I don't get to celebrate it," Aiden grumbled, folding his arms.

"Is that why you think it's so weird?" Misty giggled. "We don't really leave you out, buddy! You still get to eat all the special snacks and tag along with whatever we do as a family. Besides, you do have Kids' Day!"

"Kids' Day is so much better!" Aiden exclaimed. "You don't have to go to school, and you get gifts, and there's still special snacks and stuff! Also, I like the Pokémon banners way better than the dolls."

"Well, you'll get to celebrate that in a couple of months," Misty reminded him. "For now, Girls' Day is coming up, so we want to make it special for your sisters!"

CRASH!

Misty and Aiden both whipped their heads towards Elizabeth's doll set. The little girl was standing beside it, staring at the floor with one finger in her mouth. At her feet was the doll that had previously been sitting on the right end of the bottom tier; a Togepi wearing a light pink kimono and holding a bowl of food. That would've been alarming enough…if the Togepi's head hadn't snapped off and rolled hauntingly towards Aiden and Misty.

"Uh oh," Elizabeth babbled, slowly looking up towards her mother and brother.

Aiden tried to stifle a laugh but failed and quickly began to double over. "That was like something out of a scary movie! Maybe Girls' Day isn't so bad after all!"

"Elizabeth!" Misty groaned, reaching over and grabbing the doll's decapitated head. "This is why Daddy and I kept telling you not to touch the dolls!"

"Toge-peep!" Elizabeth cried, pointing at its headless body. "It bwokeded!"

"Yeah, you broke it," Misty sighed, crawling closer to Elizabeth in order to collect the Togepi's other half. "You've got to listen to us from now on!"

"Fix Toge-peep?" Elizabeth pleaded, sounding rather forlorn.

"I'm going to do my best to fix Togepi," Misty assured the toddler. "But you cannot keep going near these dolls, understand? I don't know how many times we told you not to touch them. It was a lot, wasn't it?"

Elizabeth appeared bashful, but slowly nodded her head.

Misty got to her feet, but as soon as she did, the front door opened up, Ash and Pikachu walking in. The man seemed quite cheerful, but his expression changed very quickly when he saw the broken doll in Misty's hands. "Whoa, what happened here?"

Elizabeth let out a short whimper and hid behind her mother's legs, but Misty was having none of it. Taking a step away to put the little girl back out in the open, the mother instructed her young daughter, "Elizabeth, tell Daddy what happened."

The toddler glanced up at her mother and frowned, shaking her head just once.

"Elizabeth," Misty repeated, shooting the girl a pointed look. "You know you have to tell the truth."

Once again, the little girl whined and tried to hide behind Misty's legs.

Ash, meanwhile, allowed his eyes to trail from the broken doll onto Elizabeth's hina display. When he saw exactly where the empty spot was, at the lowest and most easily accessible spot, Ash sighed knowingly and turned his attention onto his young daughter.

"Lizzie, were you touching the dolls?"

Elizabeth timidly poked her head out from behind her mother's leg and, after a long beat of silence, slowly nodded.

Letting out a long breath, Ash knelt down and motioned to the girl, beckoning her towards him. Elizabeth ran out towards her father, who gently grabbed the child by her sides.

"Didn't Mommy and I tell you those dolls were only to look at?" Ash patiently asked her.

"Uh huh," Elizabeth tearfully mumbled.

"See what happens when you don't listen?" Ash continued.

"Uh huh," Elizabeth repeated, finally breaking down into sobs.

Ash let out another sigh, pulling Elizabeth closer to him in order to hug her. "It's okay, baby. I'm not mad at you! I just want you to listen next time, alright?"

Elizabeth buried her face into her father's shoulder to continue crying, but still managed to nod again. Ash stood up with the girl still in his arms, giving her a kiss on the forehead before rubbing her back. Glancing back over at Misty, Ash calmly asked, "think it can be fixed?"

"More than likely," Misty replied. "Just a little glue and it should be good to go!"

"See?" Ash cooed to the wailing toddler in his arms. "Mommy's gonna fix Togepi!"

Misty walked up to Ash, gently stroking her daughter's hair to get her attention. "You want to come watch me fix it?"

Ash gasped. "We can play Pokémon Center! How does that sound?"

Elizabeth looked up and sniffled, muttering, "kay."

"Aw, okay," Ash murmured, still rubbing the toddler's back. Looking over at Aiden, Ash called, "what about you, Aiden? You want to play too?"

The boy shot his father an incredulous look. "No way! I want to remember that doll's head falling off forever, not it going back on!"

Ash hummed and nodded his head. "That's…very dark, champ."

"Dad, you weren't here, but it was really funny," Aiden marveled.

"It wasn't that funny," Misty assured her husband.

Sighing, Ash asked, "Pikachu, mind staying here with Aiden? We don't need any more doll incidents today."

"Pi-ka," Pikachu replied, scurrying towards the boy whose jaw was currently dropped.

"Hey, I'm not gonna break a doll!" Aiden cried. "That's Lizzie's job!"

"Aiden…" Misty sighed.

The boy chuckled, sounding remarkably like his father. "I'm only kidding! I'll hang out in here with Pikachu. You want to watch some battles, buddy?"

"Pi!" Pikachu squealed, running circles around the amused boy.

Feeling comfortable with that arrangement, Ash and Misty headed into the kitchen to begin work on fixing Elizabeth's broken doll.

XXX

Sitting on her father's lap at the kitchen table, Elizabeth watched carefully as her mother spread some superglue on the bottom of the Togepi's head and then pressed it against its lower half, holding it like that for a few seconds before delicately placing the doll on the table. As soon as Elizabeth saw the doll was back together, her face lit up, much to her parents' relief.

"Toge-peep!" Elizabeth squeaked.

"Yeah, Mommy fixed it!" Ash cheered, bouncing the happy toddler up and down. "She'd make a really good Pokémon doctor, huh?"

Elizabeth grinned and nodded her head.

"That's a nice compliment," Misty giggled. "But I think I'll stick to being a gym leader! Which means no more dolly accidents, right, Lizzie?"

Elizabeth pressed her lips together and nodded once more.

"We have to let the glue dry, but once everything's all set, we can put Togepi right back where it belongs on your display," Misty added.

"Toge-peep seep," Elizabeth chirped, pressing a finger against her lips. "Shh…"

"Okay, we'll be nice and quiet and let Togepi sleep," Ash agreed, getting to his feet and holding Elizabeth against his hip. He carried her back into the living room, where Aiden and Pikachu were still engrossed with a battle on the television. "You want to watch the battle, too?"

Elizabeth quickly shook her head and pointed towards her hina doll display. "Dollies!"

At this, Ash made a sound of disapproval. "Elizabeth, what did we just talk about with those dolls?"

"I no pway," Elizabeth refuted, waving her arm up and down. "I -ook!"

"Oh, you just want to look?" Ash asked, to which Elizabeth nodded her head. "Sure, that's fine."

He placed the toddler on the floor and watched as she situated herself right in front of her doll display, but still at a respectable distance. Sitting cross legged, the little girl quietly studied her dolls, her bright green eyes floating from tier to tier as she took in the details of each and every doll in the display.

Misty, who had just emerged from the kitchen herself, noticed the scene and blinked. Striding up beside Ash, she softly asked, "what's going on in here?"

"Elizabeth asked if she could look at her dolls," Ash explained, his lips bending into a smile. "I think the Togepi incident might have finally driven home what we've been telling her over and over again."

"At least it only took one near causality," Misty jokingly replied, smirking at her husband.

Ash returned her playful look before moving closer to their young daughter and sitting down beside her. His movements were enough to distract Elizabeth from the dolls, and she gave him a sweet little smile in response.

"Do you know who picked all these dolls out for you?" Ash asked sweetly.

"Daddy an- Gwammy," Elizabeth answered, turning back towards the dolls.

"That's right!" Ash chuckled. "We got them for you when you were just a baby."

Elizabeth pointed towards the top tier of the display, where only two dolls sat; one of a Pikachu, and the one to its right an Eevee, each one wearing the most ornate clothing of all the dolls. "Pwince and pwincess?"

"Close," Ash replied. "Those are the emperor and the empress!"

"Spefell?" Elizabeth babbled, glancing back over at her father.

"Yeah, they're the most special dolls of all," Ash confirmed. "That's why they're all the way on the top!"

Misty smiled contently and took a seat beside her son on the couch, catching his attention. Finally turning away from the TV, Aiden realized that she was watching Ash and Elizabeth sitting and chatting away about the hina dolls.

"Dad knows a lot about those things," Aiden marveled.

Giggling, Misty confirmed, "when he cares, he pays attention very well! And I might have taught him a thing or two along the way."

Pursing his lips, Aiden shifted his eyes towards the other doll display. "We got really lucky that Michelle was at swim practice when Elizabeth broke that doll. She'd probably be freaking out!"

"Well, your little sister's been good about not going near Michelle's dolls," Misty reasoned with the boy.

"Yeah, but I know Shelly," Aiden scoffed. "If she knew Elizabeth had been touching any dolls, let alone broken one, she would've been freaking out."

Misty grimaced. She knew Aiden was right. Michelle had some relatively nervous tendencies, and the very thought of the precious dolls from her father and grandmother being destroyed would have sent her into a tizzy.

Leave it to her son to inject some harsh reality into an otherwise tender moment.

"Alright, let's make a deal," Misty declared. "No one tells Michelle what happened with that doll. Deal?"

The boy could've brokered his silence with a bribe, and the thought briefly crossed his mind, but it was only fleeting. Although he still had no interest in Girls' Day, he figured it was only fair to keep it special for his mother. It seemed to mean a lot to her. Besides, she did everything for him, and his sisters, and even if he didn't say it as much as he should've, he really appreciated it.

And so Aiden simply smirked and made a zipping motion in front of his lips. "Deal!"