I love playing off the idea of Aiden bonding with wild Pokémon just like Ash...and of course everyone else sees it too ;)

Aiden: 4 years old


The Lonely Lanturn

"Mommy, did Uncle Dorian tell you what kinda Pokémon he found?"

"No, he didn't. He said he wanted it to be a surprise!"

"Oh…well..what kinda Pokémon do you think it is?"

Misty made an uncertain noise and inclined her head. "I'm not sure! The only thing I'm confident in is that it's a water type."

Aiden laughed. "I know that!"

"Fair enough!" Misty giggled. "Do you have any guesses?"

The little boy hummed and rolled his eyes up in thought. "Maybe it's Manaphy. Or Kyogre!"

"Those are some big guesses," Misty replied, raising her eyebrows. "You really think Uncle Dorian might have found a legendary Pokémon like that?"

Aiden confidently nodded his head. "Yeah! -specically if he wants it to be a surprise!"

Misty couldn't help but to chuckle at her son's response. He loved Pokémon, all of them, but always believed there would be a chance for him to see a rare one. Aiden knew they were out there, because his parents had told him as much. They'd met their fair share of legendary Pokémon, after all. And Aiden, who had a strong desire to meet and befriend as many of the creatures as he possibly could, of course included those mythical, elusive ones.

"I guess it's always possible!" Misty commented. "We'll have to see when we get there."

Her brother-in-law, Dorian, was the gym leader of the Coastline Gym in the Johto region. Back when they'd first met, the gym had been an unofficial one, but he'd worked hard to gain recognition with the Pokémon League and had now been an official gym leader for several years. But in addition to his duties as a gym leader, Dorian had partnered with the local Pokémon Center to help care for injured water type Pokémon found in the area. Whenever he received a new Pokémon to rehabilitate, Aiden and Michelle loved to go visit and spend time with the creatures. Dorian was all for it, as he'd found that these Pokémon were often more trusting of younger kids than they were with adults, and that the twins' visits tended to lift the Pokémon's spirits. Michelle was at a friend's house for the day, however, which meant that Aiden was going to get some solo time with Dorian's new mystery guest.

As a big Pokémon fan, Aiden was more than happy with this arrangement.

When they reached the gym, Aiden wasted no time running for the front doors. He entered the gym as soon as Dorian was turning the corner from another room, and the moment he saw his nephew, Dorian grinned.

"Hey there, little buddy!" Dorian greeted with a wave. "What's up?"

"Where's the Pokémon?!" Aiden asked excitedly, skipping the formalities with his uncle.

"Nice to see you too," Dorian chuckled sheepishly.

"Come on, Dorian. You know your nephew!"

Dorian's smirk widened as Misty finally made it into the building herself. "True, considering he even left you in the dust to get here."

"Aiden loves me," Misty refuted. "But when there's a chance of seeing a Pokémon, I know where his priorities lie."

"Uncle Dorian, I wanna see the Pokémon!"

Misty sighed and shot her son a disapproving look. "Aiden, you know it's rude to interrupt a conversation."

"Ah, he's just excited, that's all," Dorian scoffed. "I'll take you guys to see my new friend. Follow me!"

He led Misty and Aiden to the gym's secondary pool, which had been designated for the injured Pokémon he received. Aiden was practically bouncing as they got closer, just waiting to see Kyogre's bright flash of blue. When they reached the pool, however, there was no Kyogre to be seen, but rather a much lighter blue Pokémon…and a much smaller one too.

Aiden furrowed his brow as he moved closer to the water, hoping to get a better look at the Pokémon. As he drew nearer to the pool, Aiden was able to see a yellow mask-like marking around the creature's red eyes, and a two-pronged antenna with a pale yellow orb at the tip of each one.

"Lanturn?" Aiden murmured, tilting his head.

Dorian beamed. "You know your stuff! Then again, I shouldn't be surprised, considering who your parents are."

Aiden looked over his shoulder and frowned. "I thought it was gonna be a super rare Pokémon!"

Misty shook her head. "Aiden, that was only your guess! I told you that Uncle Dorian didn't say anything about what kind of Pokémon it was."

Pursing his lips, Dorian began to survey the pool. "To tell you the truth, I don't even think this thing would be big enough to hold a Kyogre…"

Misty sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose. "That wasn't quite what I was getting at…" Lowering her hand, she asked her son, "does that mean you're not interested in spending time with Lanturn?"

"No way!" Aiden cried, his eyes widening. "Lanturn's still cool!"

Turning back around, Aiden kneeled beside the pool, closely observing the dual type Pokémon. Misty smiled at her son's reaction before taking a look at the rescued creature herself. After a few quiet moments of staring at the creature, she was struck by realization.

"I don't think I've ever seen a Lanturn that small," Misty noted.

"Me either," Dorian agreed. "Of course, we all know that not every single Pokémon is the same size, but they generally still have standards. Nurse Joy also said this is one of the smallest Lanturn she's seen. It's probably a result of being newly evolved and still having room to grow."

"Lanturn evolves from Chinchou," Aiden recited to no one in particular. He was still crouched down, watching the light Pokémon swim around.

"That's right!" Dorian chuckled. "And you can find a lot of them here in Johto. Sometimes at night, I look out at the water and I can see it glowing from all the Chinchou and Lanturn that hang out there!"

"Whoa, cool!" Aiden gasped, looking up at his uncle with sparkling eyes. "I wanna see that!"

"I'll have to show you one day," Dorian replied. "Once your mommy lets you to stay up late enough to see it, that is!"

The redhead sighed as her brother-in-law smirked at her. "I don't know what I expect every time I come here."

"How'd it get hurt, Uncle Dorian?"

Aiden's eyes hadn't left the Lanturn. Frowning, Dorian answered, "we're not totally sure. Nurse Joy's best guess was that it might've been attacked by one of its natural predators, like Frillish or Sharpedo. And since this Lanturn is pretty newly evolved, it probably didn't have enough strength to fight back."

"Oh," Aiden murmured, watching as Lanturn came to a halt in the corner of the pool. "That's not really nice."

Misty smiled sympathetically, walking over to her son and kneeling beside him. "No, it's not. But wild Pokémon don't really think of it like that. They have to find ways to survive, after all."

"But Lanturn's really small," Aiden continued. "Those Pokémon are a lot bigger! That's not fair!"

Misty reached out and delicately touched her son's cheek. "You are just like Daddy, you know that? Always wanting to stand up for people and Pokémon. It's so sweet!"

The boy blushed and sheepishly turned his head away. "I just don't like that Lanturn got picked on and hurt. I know they're wild Pokémon, but I still think that's mean. What if Lanturn doesn't trust other Pokémon now?"

"Well, maybe Lanturn just needs a good friend like you!" Misty warmly suggested. "You might not be a Pokémon, but if you can earn Lanturn's trust, then maybe it'll see that it can trust other Pokémon, too."

Aiden seemed to think about it for a moment before a big grin appeared on his face. "Yeah!" He cheered. "I'll be Lanturn's new friend!"

Inching closer to the pool's corner where the dual type had settled in, Aiden leaned towards the light Pokémon and greeted, "hey, Lanturn, let's be buddies!"

The creature sighed and averted its gaze. This discouraged Aiden for a brief moment, but he was quick to plaster on another smile. "It's okay, I'm not gonna hurt you! I would never do that, because I don't think that's nice. And I'm nice!"

Lanturn nervously turned its gaze onto Aiden, who was still showing off a huge grin. By this point, Misty had stood back up and was rejoined by Dorian, who was sporting a contemplative look.

"You are right, he is just like Ash," Dorian murmured. "It's almost scary."

"It is," Misty agreed with a smirk. "Though you shouldn't be fooled: he still has plenty of my personality, too."

"I'm goin- in!"

Misty yelped as Aiden tugged off his shirt and strode towards the pool. "Oh no, you don't!" She swooped forward and snatched the boy, causing him to whine and kick his feet.

"Oh, yeah, there it is!" Dorian guffawed, leading Misty to narrow her eyes.

"Mommy!"

Quickly, Misty turned her attention back onto her son. "I've taught you enough about water safety that you know better than to do something like that, young man."

"But I know how to swim!"

"Yes, you do, but this pool is deep," Misty sighed. "You need your water wings to go in there."

"A bathing suit might be helpful too," Dorian noted to his nephew with a nod.

Misty looked over her shoulder at her brother-in-law. "He's wearing a bathing suit."

"Yeah!" Aiden chimed in.

"What, he showed up with them on?!" Dorian rubbed his temple. "Why am I not surprised?"

"He always wears swim trunks when he comes here," Misty snickered. "But he doesn't always try to jump in the water without asking first."

She turned her scowl back onto Aiden, who still seemed frustrated that he'd been stopped. "Where's my water wings?"

"Back home," Misty replied.

"Huh?! Why?!"

"I didn't think you'd actually try to go in the pool!"

"But I have a bathing suit!"

"Yes, but you don't normally go in the water!"

"But I wanna!"

"Alright you two, that's enough," Dorian interrupted with a smirk. "Seriously, I feel like I'm listening to a classic Ash and Misty argument. I've got water wings here for you to use, buddy."

"Really?!" Aiden gasped, his eyes sparkling.

"Sure!" Dorian chuckled. "Lola used to need them too, after all. And I guess at some point I decided to keep them around for you and your sister!"

He went into a nearby storage closet to retrieve them. Aiden, meanwhile, begin to kick more valiantly, grunting as he did so.

"I get it, you want to go down," Misty grumbled. "Could you at least ask nicely?"

Tilting his head back to look at his mother, Aiden cooed, "please can I go down?"

Misty smiled at the boy. "Yes, you can. Thank you for asking so sweetly!"

She placed the boy on the floor, to which he chirped a quick, "thank you!" of his own before running off in the direction of the storage closet. Dorian was just emerging, however, with a pair of orange water wings in his hands.

"Oh!" Dorian gasped in surprise before smirking. "Mommy set you free, huh? Well, here you go, little guy. Go make friends with Lanturn!"

He passed the water wings over to his nephew, who slid them onto his arms before giggling as he took a running leap into the pool. Misty watched on with a wince, while Lanturn sheepishly swam backwards. When Aiden popped up from beneath the water, he beamed at the Pokémon, unaware that it was still rather afraid of him.

"See?" Aiden pressed. "I like the water, too! My mommy taught me how to swim when I was really little. I can swim just like a water type! Watch!"

The boy forged ahead, kicking his legs and moving his arms in and out of the water. Lanturn watched him but didn't try to follow. Eventually, Aiden realized that the Pokémon hadn't moved, and he swam back over to the wary creature.

"What's wrong? You don't wanna swim with me?"

Lanturn frowned and mumbled unsurely. Once again, Aiden began to feel disheartened. All he wanted to do was be friends with Lanturn, and it made him sad that the Pokémon didn't feel it could trust him. Despite that, Aiden was not a boy who gave up easily. Building up his courage once more, Aiden bobbed in front of Lanturn, giggling as he floated up and down.

Misty and Dorian, meanwhile, watched on from outside of the pool, closely observing the interaction (or lack thereof) between Aiden and Lanturn.

"Not going as smoothly as I would've hoped," Dorian mused.

Twisting her mouth, Misty wondered aloud, "maybe Lanturn just needs more of an example."

Dorian raised an eyebrow as he looked towards the Cerulean gym leader. "What do you mean?"

Winking, Misty pulled out one of her poke balls and teased, "I'll show you!"

Tossing the ball up in the air, Dorian watched as Misty's Vaporeon appeared before him and her trainer, swishing her tail side-to-side in patient anticipation.

"Aiden!" Misty called to her son, getting the boy's attention as he turned around in the water to face her. "I think maybe it would help if Lanturn saw you playing with another Pokémon. Since it was a wild Pokémon before it came here, it might not be entirely sure how to act around people. But if Lanturn sees you and Vaporeon together, maybe it'll understand!"

Aiden's face lit up. "Yeah, I like that idea!"

Misty smiled and nodded her head, glancing down at her partner. "Sound good to you, Vaporeon?"

"Vay!"

"Alright then," Misty decided. "Go ahead and join Aiden in the water!"

With another mewl, the water type dove gracefully into the pool, popping back up beside Aiden shortly after.

"Come on, Vaporeon!" Aiden urged. "Chase me!"

He started to swim away, and Vaporeon was quick to follow. Lanturn continued watching, but now with the addition of another Pokémon, it seemed a little more intrigued. After all, it had never really seen a Pokémon interact with a human in such a way, especially one as small as the boy. It seemed as if Vaporeon really trusted the little human…and might have even been very good friends with him. Its eyes trailed along Aiden and Vaporeon's path, observing as the bubble jet Pokémon dove in and out of the water to keep pace with the boy. Of course, Vaporeon was a water type and incredibly well trained, so she shouldn't have any problem catching up to Aiden. It quickly became clear to Lanturn that Vaporeon was holding herself back in order to appease the human, and all of these factors combined were enough to mystify the light Pokémon.

Opening its mouth, Lanturn let out a melodic cry, stopping Aiden and Vaporeon in their tracks. Once the duo was halted, Lanturn slowly swam over to them, softly chattering something to Vaporeon. The bubble jet Pokémon listened intently before smiling and responding with a hearty, "vay! Poreon!"

And with that, Lanturn joined in on Aiden and Vaporeon's pool game as if it had never been scared to begin with.

"Would you look at that," Dorian marveled. "Those two really got Lanturn to come out of its shell!"

Misty nodded, not surprised by the development. "Aiden's really good at this kind of stuff. He's just got a way with Pokémon!"

Dorian smirked at his sister-in-law. "Like his father."

Misty sighed as her eyebrow twitched. "Yes, like his father. You don't have to constantly rub it in my face, you know!"

"I'm not!" Dorian calmly argued. "I just like to remind you how strong your husband's genes are."

"I don't need a reminder, thank you very much."

After a long beat of silence, Dorian added, "well…in fairness…it wasn't all him."

Misty's eyebrow stilled, and she raised it instead. "What do you mean?"

"You had the idea to bring out Vaporeon to help Aiden appeal to Lanturn," Dorian explained. "He may have the enthusiasm, but you've got the details!"

She turned her head to watch Aiden and the two Pokémon again, smirking. "Are you actually being complimentary, or were you afraid I was going to stomp on your foot if you kept teasing me?"

"A little bit of both," Dorian quipped. "But more so the first one! I try not to be as cutthroat as you and your sisters, after all."

Misty kept her eyes on the pool. The little trio had stopped swimming and spread themselves out in a circle, the orbs on Lanturn's antennae starting to glow. Aiden audibly marveled at the sight, while Vaporeon chattered approvingly.

"Mommy, Uncle Dorian, look!" Aiden cried. "Lanturn's lighting up!"

"That means it's happy!" Dorian called back to his nephew. "Looks like you and Vaporeon made Lanturn feel comfortable!"

"Good job, you two!" Misty trilled, earning a toothy grin from her son.

"We did it!" He cheered, turning to beam at the bubble jet Pokémon.

"Vay!"

"Laa!"

Aiden giggled as Lanturn joined in on their little celebration. "Come on, let's race again! Whoever wins will get a bunch of treats!"

Dorian froze. "Uh…from who?"

"You!" Aiden laughed wildly, the Pokémon following suit.

Dorian puffed, and Misty couldn't help but to giggle herself. "You said it: he's just like Ash!"


Aiden will come to your home, play with your Pokémon, demand treats for everyone, eat those treats, and leave. He's a simple boy with simple desires!