It's Thanksgiving here, which happens to be one of my favorite holidays because I love food!

While I don't think Thanksgiving is something that would be celebrated in the Pokémon world, I like to incorporate the overall theme of the holiday, so I thought it'd be fun to take this route!

Aiden and Michelle: 12 and a half

Elizabeth: 7


The Dinner Party

Elizabeth yawned and slumped against the couch's armrest, watching through the doorway as her mother and sister bustled around the adjacent dining room.

"Don't you guys wanna take a break?" Elizabeth asked tiredly. She'd been helping them out before, for quite a while in fact, but she was beginning to lose steam. And for her, that was unusual. It was just really hard to keep up with Misty and Michelle when they were that frenzied, even for the bubbly and energetic Elizabeth.

"Lizzie, we don't have time to take a break," Michelle grumbled, straightening out the edges of the cotton tablecloth. It was a rich bronze color with an elegant damask design; a perfect match for the fall season. "Everything has to be perfect, and we're running out of time!"

"It looks fine to me," Elizabeth innocently squeaked, shrugging her shoulders. "No one's that picky about the way a table is decorated anyway!"

Misty's lips twitched into a smirk. "Sweetie, have you ever met Dawn or Serena?"

"They're not picky," Elizabeth refuted. "They just like fancy stuff! I do too. And I say the table is fine, which means they'll think its fine!"

Misty giggled and continued folding the matching napkins into an intricate fan shape, stuffing them through a decorative ring. "Well, since you're so confident about that, why don't you help me put these around the table?"

"Fine," Elizabeth sighed, getting to her feet. "Only because it'll make things go quicker and then you guys can take a break!"

"Maybe," Michelle quickly interjected, leading Elizabeth to roll her eyes. The younger girl started to gather the completed napkin sets, walking around the table to place one atop each plate. When she got the last setting, however, she realized she was out of napkins.

"Huh?" Elizabeth muttered before glancing towards her mother. "Mommy, you didn't give me enough napkins!"

Misty raised an eyebrow. "I counted them out, and I had just the right number."

Elizabeth held up her empty hands. "I don't have any more."

"Where could it have gone?" Misty sighed, rubbing her temple.

Michelle looked around the table, wondering if her mother or sister had accidentally left the neatly folded napkin somewhere. As her eyes wandered towards the floor, however, she caught sight of the missing cloth, and let out a huff.

"I found it," Michelle announced.

"Where?" Elizabeth squeaked, looking all around.

Silently, Michelle pointed towards the floor. Misty and Elizabeth both took a peek, eyes widening when they saw the little ball of yellow fur batting the napkin around like it was prey.

"Pichu, that's not a toy!" Elizabeth cried, kneeling down to retrieve the napery from the little mouse.

"Chu…" The electric type whined, holding her paws out towards the little girl.

"Come on, Pichu, I know they call you a baby Pokémon, but you're not actually a baby anymore," Michelle reasoned with her unhappy partner. "Don't you think it's time to stop causing trouble?"

Pichu quickly shook her head, large ears bobbing. Despite scolding the mouse before, Elizabeth started to giggle at the Pokémon's response to Michelle's question.

"Elizabeth, don't encourage her!" Michelle whined.

"But she's so cute!" Elizabeth squealed, picking up the small mouse and rubbing their noses together.

The sound of a door opening tore Pichu's attention away from her cuddle session with Elizabeth. The small mouse instead jumped onto the young girl's shoulder, and intently watched the front door as it slowly swung open. Ash appeared in the entryway, Pikachu on his shoulder and Aiden trailing closely behind. Both were carrying in several grocery bags, filled to the brim with various food items.

"Daddy!" Elizabeth chirped, running towards her father and attaching herself to his side.

"Hey, pumpkin!" Ash chuckled. "You missed me?"

"Uh huh," Elizabeth confirmed, letting go of him.

"Have you been helping out Mommy and Michelle while Aiden and I were gone?" Ash asked.

"Uh huh!" Elizabeth repeated.

"Did you guys find everything okay?" Misty called, still fussing over the dining room table.

"Of course," Ash chuckled. "I know the grocery store like the back of my hand!"

"That didn't make it any less boring though," Aiden scoffed.

Misty raised an eyebrow at her son's comment. "Would you rather have stayed here to help your sisters and I set the table?"

"No, definitely not," Aiden quickly replied.

Ash playfully rolled his eyes at the banter. "Come on, champ. Let's go put this stuff down in the kitchen."

"Alright," Aiden sighed.

"Oh, wait!" Elizabeth cried. "Can Pikachu stay here and play with me and Pichu?"

Ash turned his attention onto his partner. "That sound good to you, buddy?"

"Pi-ka!" Pikachu confirmed. He jumped off Ash's shoulder and, once on the floor, beckoned for Pichu to follow after him. The smaller mouse sniggered and leapt off Elizabeth's shoulder, while the young girl herself knelt down to join the two Pokémon.

"Lizzie, I thought you were going to finish helping us out!" Misty cried.

"Oh, I still can," Elizabeth squeaked, sheepishly pulling her shoulders back. "I just missed Pikachu was all! And Pichu did too, and Pichu always wants to play when Pikachu is around. And it's not good to work for so long!"

Misty smirked and shook her head. Her daughter may have been young, but she certainly thought she was persuasive. "Alright then. You don't have to keep on working. Have fun!"

Ash and Aiden, meanwhile, had already walked into the kitchen. Aiden had been just about to place his grocery bags on the table when Ash swooped in and stopped him.

"Not there!" Ash warned.

"Why not?" Aiden groaned.

Ash wordlessly nodded his head towards the table. The whole thing was set up in a similar fashion to the dining room table, if just slightly less elegant.

"Oh yeah, the stupid kids' table," Aiden grumbled. "Do I really have to sit in here? I'm not actually a kid, after all."

"You're not actually an adult either," Ash teased, accompanied by a playful smirk on his face.

"Pokémon trainers are adults," Aiden replied quite seriously.

"And you're right, by law," Ash chuckled. "Unfortunately, in this house, we follow your mother's laws, not Kanto's."

"I don't think Officer Jenny would like to hear that," Aiden commented, reaching into one of the grocery bags to pull out a carton of milk.

"You're gonna call Officer Jenny on your mother?" Ash deadpanned.

"No," Aiden quickly scoffed. "I enjoy living, thank you very much."

Ash laughed, walking a bag of tomatoes over to the counter. "You know, it's really not that bad sitting at the kids' table! The younger kids all look up to you. It'll be like having dinner with your biggest fans!"

"That's always what you said about Elizabeth," Aiden muttered, digging through the next bag of groceries. "Now all she does is make fun of me and acts like it's so funny."

"Maybe, but not when she was younger," Ash reasoned with his son. "Besides, you know she still loves you!"

"None of this is making me feel better about getting stuck at the lame kids' table," Aiden informed his father.

Ash finally walked away from the groceries in order to place a hand on his son's shoulder. "It's only for one night. This dinner party is a really big deal for your mom. She's super excited to have all our friends together, but she's also pretty nervous about it."

"Why's she nervous?" Aiden asked, raising an eyebrow. "They're your friends. Actually, they're more like our family."

"That's why she's nervous," Ash stressed. "She just wants everything to be perfect. So we have to help her out as much as possible. You can do that, right?"

"Yeah!" Aiden replied warmly. "I'm crazy helpful!"

"That's my boy!" Ash practically cheered, removing his son's hat to ruffle his hair. "Come on, let's go see if the girls need any help."

Aiden begrudgingly took his hat back but didn't put it back on, knowing he shouldn't be wearing it inside, and followed his father into the dining room.

"It looks really nice in here," Ash commented, observing the fully decorated table. "You guys did a great job! Need anything else?"

"No, I think we should stop for tonight," Misty decided, slumping her shoulders. "The longer I look at it, the more frustrated I get."

"Why?" Ash asked innocently. "Everything looks awesome!"

"It does," Misty conceded. "But could it look better?"

"No way!" Ash calmly argued. "There's nothing better than awesome, Misty. You've pretty much hit the peak here."

"Are you just saying that?" Misty demanded, folding her arms.

"No," Ash refuted once again. "Why would I just be saying it?"

"Because you're my husband?"

"So? I know we had to sign stuff when we got married, but I'm almost positive none of it said I had to make stuff up just to appease you."

Misty smirked. "Fine. You win."

Michelle's whole face suddenly lit up. "Does this mean we're done?"

Misty seemed about to disagree, so Ash quickly cut her off. "Yep, all done! You kids should go hang out for a bit and relax. I know this whole thing has been pretty stressful for all of us."

Aiden and Michelle both nodded happily before heading in the direction of the living room, where Ash assumed they were going to watch TV. Elizabeth had already disappeared with Pichu and Pikachu, the three of them off playing somewhere.

"Ash, I'm starting to think this dinner party was a big mistake," Misty groaned.

"Come on, Mist, it's gonna be so much fun!" Ash pressed. "It's been so long since we were with all of our friends!"

"That part is fine," Misty grumbled, wrapping her arms around herself. "It's every other aspect that's freaking me out. I mean, it's not easy to cook for 30 people."

"I don't think it's easy to cook for two people," Ash agreed. "But Mallow already agreed to help you out! Actually, she begged. I honestly think she's coming all the way from Alola mostly because she was so excited to help in the kitchen."

"It's very nice of her, but she's a professional chef," Misty sighed. "My cooking doesn't hold a candle compared to Mallow's."

"Well, it's a good thing no one is coming for a cooking contest," Ash quipped.

Misty arched an eyebrow. "You are in rare form tonight, aren't you?"

"Only because I don't like to hear you beating yourself up," Ash laughed softly. "That's not the confident, strong Misty I know and love!"

"Believe me, I am that Misty," she sniffed. "I'm just also smart. So, I'm smart enough to know that this is going to be a big challenge."

"Challenges are fun," Ash countered.

In one swift motion, Misty strode forward and pressed her lips against Ash's. He was taken off guard at first, but managed to settle himself and reciprocate quite quickly. After a few beats, Misty pulled away and laced her arms around Ash's neck, fluttering her eyelashes at him.

"Not that I don't appreciate it, but what was that for?" Ash asked huskily.

"To get you to stop talking," Misty answered seductively.

Ash pouted, which caused Misty to giggle.

"I should've known."


There'll be a Part 2 featuring the actual party (and all your favorite characters!) but I wanted to get the story out before the end of the day, and because condensing the whole thing was making it a bit too long.

So be on the lookout for Part 2. It's coming your way soon!