Happy Easter, everyone! Things still feel so weird that I almost forgot it was this weekend, lol. Good thing I remembered and was able to write a story for it! Easter one shots might be among my favorites to write.
Aiden and Michelle: 9 years old
Elizabeth: 3 years old
The Happy Hunter
"Ugh, Elizabeth is so bad at egg hunting!"
"…she's three."
"So? She's still bad at it."
Michelle sighed before switching her gaze onto her younger sister. The little girl was moving very slowly, her head down as she scanned the grass.
They were currently participating in the annual Pallet Town Easter egg hunt, as they did every year. But Elizabeth had been slowing her older siblings down quite a bit, and it was frustrating Aiden to no end, as was evident by the non-stop complaining he'd been torturing Michelle with.
"When I was three, I was basically already an egg hunting master!"
Rolling her eyes, Michelle looked back at her twin brother. "You're such a liar. You don't remember anything from when you were that young!"
"Yeah I do!" Aiden argued. "I remember everything!"
Michelle shook her head. He was absolutely not telling the truth, but arguing with Aiden was like arguing with a rock. Sometimes she was happy to keep going, largely because she liked to frustrate him, but at the moment she wasn't in any mood to indulge his stubborn attitude.
"Lookit what I found!"
Elizabeth had finally made her way over to her older siblings and was holding up a tiny purple flower. Aiden groaned and smacked a hand against his face, while Michelle instead chose to smile kindly at the younger girl and kneel in front of her.
"That's so pretty!" Michelle exclaimed. "You should put it in your basket for safekeeping."
Elizabeth nodded in agreement, dropping the flower into her pale pink basket.
"Lizzie, that's not an egg!" Aiden cried, throwing his hand down in defeat. "You're supposed to be looking for eggs!"
"I am!" Elizabeth chirped, reaching into her basket and pulling out a plastic egg the same color pink as her basket. "I found one!"
"Yeah, one," Aiden stressed. "And everything else in there is junk!"
"Nuh uh," Elizabeth calmly challenged. "I find good stuff! I find this!"
She went back into her basket, this time retrieving a small white rock. Although Elizabeth looked particularly proud of this little treasure, Aiden was less than impressed, instead turning to shoot Michelle a deadpan look.
"Seriously? You're fine getting stuck with this?"
"She's a little kid!" Michelle snapped at her brother, narrowing her eyes. "Besides, you know I don't care about this egg hunt half as much as you do. And honestly, you take it way too seriously to begin with. Don't you think you're getting a little too old to be so excited about some silly little tradition that we've been doing since we were toddlers?"
"Um, no," Aiden shot back. "I can't help it that I'm both competitive and great at almost everything I do! Why would I not want to compete in a competition?"
"Because when that competition is an Easter egg hunt for kids, it kind of makes you seem like a loser," Michelle plainly stated.
While Aiden's face turned a fierce shade of red, Elizabeth giggled, tossing the rock back in her basket. "Let's go!"
"You want to keep looking?" Michelle giggled, earning a nod from Elizabeth. Smirking at Aiden, Michelle added, "you know, you could learn a thing or two from Lizzie. She doesn't take things so seriously, she just wants to have fun!"
"You can want to win and still have fun," Aiden huffed, crossing his arms and turning his head away. "Because winning is fun!"
"Sure, whatever you say," Michelle drawled teasingly, once again rolling her eyes. "Listen, if you want to run off and be an egg hunting weirdo, be my guest. I'm more than happy to stay with Lizzie myself. After all, she doesn't irritate me nearly as much as you do."
Aiden's eyes lit up, the offer of being able to go off on his own far more tantalizing than acknowledging the jab his sister had made along with it. "Thanks, I will!"
Michelle shook her head as Aiden rushed past her, but switched her attention pretty quickly once she felt Elizabeth tugging at the ruffled trim on the skirt of her blue and white dress. "Okay, Lizzie, where do you want to look next?"
Elizabeth looked around, suddenly beaming as she pointed straight ahead towards a large hill. "There!"
"Over that hill?" Michelle surmised, causing her younger sister to nod. "Got it! Wanna race there?"
"Ya!" Elizabeth excitedly cheered before taking off ahead of a stunned Michelle.
"Hey! No fair!"
Michelle wasn't actually that upset about it, however, as she started to giggle and chase after Elizabeth. She was still older and had longer legs than the toddler, of course, and was able to beat her out to the top of the hill. That didn't do much to bother Elizabeth either, because the girl still celebrated when she finally caught up to her older sister.
"You're pretty fast for such a little thing," Michelle laughed. "I don't know why that still surprises me, but it does!"
"Oooh!"
Before Michelle knew it, Elizabeth had darted off again, this time down the hill. No longer as amused, Michelle once again followed behind her, trying her best not to stumble. Michelle was perfectly athletic, so running wasn't the issue, but running in sandals and a dresswas no easy task. It was even harder for her, considering she didn't really consider herself a girly girl and didn't like wearing the things to begin with.
She still managed to keep pace with Elizabeth, however, and when Michelle saw what her little sister had been running towards, her eyes widened. "Whoa!"
XXX
Aiden was so proud of his egg haul that he didn't even care his mother and father were less than pleased with him at the moment.
"I still don't understand how you just split off from your sisters without a care in the world," Misty grumbled, shaking her head.
Aiden grinned as he popped open a pastel green egg, finding some mini chocolates within. "I told you: Elizabeth isn't good at hunting for Easter eggs. She's slow and gets distracted too easily. I actually wanted to find some, and Michelle was more than willing to stay with her. It's not like I left them without one another!"
"That's not the point," Ash sighed, crossing his arms. "We told the three of you to stay together!"
"Well, it was Michelle's idea!" Aiden cried, giving a thrilled Pikachu one of his chocolates before picking up another plastic egg from his basket. "So, actually, she's the one who didn't listen."
Misty shook her head and locked eyes with Ash. "These kids are going to be the death of us."
In spite of his usual cheerful demeanor, Ash solemnly nodded in agreement. "I know how Aiden feels about the Easter egg hunt, but I really thought he and Michelle were old enough to be more responsible about it."
"They're both too stubborn for their own good," Misty grumbled. "And it's even more frustrating knowing they're that way because of us…"
Out of the corner of his eye, Ash saw his mother walking back towards them, and despite the disappointed look on her face, asked, "see anything?"
"Not yet," Delia replied. "I hope those two didn't get themselves into any trouble."
"I tend to doubt it," Misty murmured. "If Elizabeth was alone, I'd say possibly. But she does still have Michelle with her, and that girl is as straight laced as they come."
"Mommy! Daddy! Grammy!"
As if on cue, Elizabeth appeared, hopping towards her family while Michelle trudged behind her, in possession of both of their baskets.
"Michelle! Elizabeth!" Misty scolded once the girls got close enough, placing her hands on her hips. "What were you thinking telling your brother to go off on his own?!"
"I was thinking it'd save my sanity," Michelle deadpanned. "And I was right!"
"That's not funny," Misty seethed. "And it's not okay for you to not listen to me and your father when we ask you to do something!"
"Mom, Lizzie and I are fine," Michelle sighed, placing the baskets on the ground. "Actually, we're great!"
"Well, I'm glad, since we've all been worried sick about the two of you," Misty sternly replied, switching her gaze onto an unaffected Elizabeth.
"But look!" Michelle cried, tilting the baskets towards her mother. "Check out all the eggs Lizzie found when we were on our own!"
Misty took a quick glance, and although she wanted to stay upset, she couldn't quite hold onto that mood once she saw the baskets' contents. "Wow that's a lot of eggs."
Ash nodded in agreement, his eyes wide. "Definitely the most I've ever seen."
"What?!" Aiden shouted, jumping up from his spot and squeezing in between his parents. True to Michelle's word, both her and Elizabeth's baskets were positively overflowing with eggs, each one filled with more than Aiden's own, singular basket was. "How'd she find all of those?!"
"After you ran off, Lizzie and I went over a hill and she just spotted all of these eggs laying in a big pile," Michelle explained, shrugging her shoulders. "I don't know if somebody dumped all of them out, or if the person who was hiding them just got super lazy, but they were all just sitting there with no one else in sight. And no one ever showed up either, even though it took Lizzie and I forever to pack them all up." Looking back up at her parents, Michelle added, "that's why it took us so long to come back! We weren't lost or anything. Lizzie just likes to take her time."
Elizabeth nodded fervently to corroborate her sister's story. Aiden, on the other hand, was still in complete shock. "You're telling me this happened right after I left?!"
"Yep," Michelle confirmed. "It sure was lucky!"
Delia giggled. "I think that's a perfectly good explanation, dear! It certainly makes sense to me."
That was enough to make Michelle beam with pride. And while Aiden was still despondent, Ash hummed in interest.
"Well, if this isn't the universe's way of telling you kids to start listening to us, I don't know what is!"
I'm always saying Aiden is really a sweet boy, and he is! But competitions can definitely turn him into a brat, because he wants to win so badly. Just think of early seasons Ash and it all pieces together ;)
