I actually like grocery shopping, but I imagine most kids don't. Especially rambunctious kids like Aiden and Michelle (although Aiden more so than Michelle...)

So...I came up with this!

Aiden and Michelle: 8 years old

Elizabeth: 2 years old


Supermarket Madness

Aiden and Michelle both looked like they were on their way to be tortured.

Elizabeth, on the other hand, was quite cheerful, but that really wasn't unusual for the toddler. Her disposition was usually very cheery no matter what.

The twins couldn't understand that, especially when their parents were dragging them all to the supermarket. Well…their mother was. Their father wasn't exactly thrilled with going either, but he tended to complain a bit less since this kind of shopping was at least for food, which he was actually passionate about.

"It's not so bad," Misty reasoned with the pouty twins as they walked up to the sliding glass doors, which delighted the little girl in her arms. "Maybe you two will find something new to try!"

"We always want to buy candy but you don't let us!" Aiden whined.

"That's not true," Misty calmly argued. "I don't let you buy all of the candy."

"That's just as bad," Aiden muttered.

Misty sighed and sat Elizabeth in the seat of a shopping cart. "I promise it won't take long. Does that help at all?"

"No," Aiden quickly replied.

"Didn't think so," Misty puffed. "Ash, maybe you could try and find a way to keep those two entertained."

No response.

"Ash?"

Misty raised an eyebrow and looked over her shoulder. Ash had somehow managed to wander away from her in the span of 30 seconds, and was currently standing in front of a cookie display, mesmerized by it. Misty pulled up behind him, her brow furrowed.

"Seriously?" She breathed.

Ash whipped around, obviously startled, but that quickly gave way to a sheepish smile. "I can't help it; they look really good!"

"So I'm assuming you didn't hear anything I just said to you," Misty said, crossing her arms.

Ash hummed thoughtfully, then scratched his chin as he furrowed his brow, before shrugging and admitting, "Nope, guess not."

Pikachu, from his perch atop Ash's shoulder, rolled his eyes and jumped into the back of the cart instead, much to Elizabeth's enjoyment.

Misty groaned and rolled her eyes. "Aiden and Michelle are both miserable and we haven't even stepped foot in the store yet. I was hoping you could try and put them in a good mood, considering you're not the biggest fan of the supermarket either."

"That's not true!" Ash cried. "The supermarket is great! It's filled with nothing but food."

"Yeah, but spending an afternoon here isn't exactly your first choice," Misty replied.

"Fair enough," Ash relented.

While his parents were speaking to one another, Aiden reached into his pocket and pulled out a fistful of Pokémon food, scattering it on the floor. Michelle watched with a raised eyebrow, but otherwise said nothing.

"Just keep them happy," Misty pleaded. "Or at least out of trouble."

"That I can do!" Ash assured her, throwing in a playful salute for good measure. He sauntered over to the twins, who were both still sporting miserable expressions. "Come on, guys. The supermarket isn't that bad! You can always find some really cool stuff here."

Michelle scurried up to her father's side, grabbing his hand with her own and gazing up at him. "Can we get fruit snacks?"

"Yeah, sure!" Ash replied.

"And apples?"

"Of course!"

"And candy?" Aiden chimed in, wiggling his eyebrows.

"We can get some candy," Ash reasoned with his son. "Not the whole aisle, kay champ?"

Aiden didn't seem completely satisfied with that clause, but he let out a long sigh and gave in with a weary, "okay."

The two children followed their father into the store, Michelle still holding onto his hand. Elizabeth, who from her seat in the shopping cart, was tilting herself to the side to look around her mother at her father and older siblings. Ash caught sight of her and laughed, giving the toddler a small, playful wave. She unleashed a sharp, near shrieking laugh, leading Misty to smirk.

"You're so easy to entertain," Misty giggled.

"Daddy!" Elizabeth squeaked, pointing in front of her.

Misty turned her head and caught Ash waving at their young daughter. "Oh, I see. Daddy is playing with you! You like that, huh?"

"I –ove Daddy," Elizabeth commented.

"Me too," Misty agreed, her voice dripping with sweetness.

Their first stop was the produce section, filled with fruits and vegetables. Michelle was instantly drawn to the apples; easily her favorite fruit and probably one of her favorite foods period. She excitedly scanned the selection, a wide range of every color apple from red to yellow to green. Ash bent down beside his daughter, grinning at her obvious exuberance.

"See any good ones?" He asked.

"There!" Michelle quickly replied, pointing at one of the red apples. It was front and center of the whole bunch, perfectly round with flawless skin that was the color of a ruby.

"Oh yeah, it does look good!" Ash agreed. "We'll definitely get that one."

Ash stood back up to his full height just in time for Misty to hand him a plastic bag to begin collecting the apples. Aiden, meanwhile, was allowing his brown eyes to wander all over the place, and they finally settled on some intricate looking technological contraption a few feet away. Blinking, Aiden walked towards it, trying to examine it more closely. He stood on his toes, gazing up at the machine's screen which was currently blank. Finally, Aiden gave up trying to figure out what it was himself and turned his head towards his parents.

"What's this?" Aiden asked bluntly.

"It's a produce scale," Misty answered. "You use it to weigh your fruits and vegetables to see how much you'll have to pay for them!"

"Here, check this out," Ash added, walking over next to Aiden and placing the now full bag of apples on the scale. The screen suddenly jumped to life, much to Aiden's fascination, and displayed the total weight of the gathered apples. "What's it say, buddy?"

"One," Aiden squeaked.

"Yep, these apples weigh one pound!" Ash replied, taking the bag off the scale. "So now we know they'll charge us for one pound of apples."

Aiden contemplated this for a moment. "So can you weigh anything on that scale?"

"Yeah!" Ash chuckled. "Fruits, vegetables, nuts…anything you want!"

Aiden's eyes lit up, and Ash puffed his chest out just a bit. Maybe he actually could get Aiden and Michelle to like being at the supermarket! That was quite the accomplishment, in his opinion.

"Ash, will you help me pick out some vegetables?" Misty requested. "The kids will just tell me not to get any of them."

"Sure thing," Ash laughed, knowing she was right. "Can you two keep an eye on your little sister while we go look at the vegetables? We'll just be right over there!"

He pointed to a display a few feet away, and Aiden and Michelle both nodded their heads. As soon as his parents walked away, Aiden lifted Elizabeth out of the cart, causing her to giggle happily.

"What're you doing?" Michelle asked, folding her arms.

"Don't worry about it," Aiden replied, carrying Elizabeth right past her.

"I am!" Michelle cried, following after him.

Aiden brought the toddler right over to the produce scale he had been examining shortly beforehand. Lifting up onto the balls of his feet, Aiden sat Elizabeth on the scale, earning more delighted laughter from his little sister.

"Aiden!" Michelle gasped, her eyes widening. "You can't do that!"

"Then how come I am?" Aiden fired back.

"Cause you're bad!" Michelle snapped.

Ignoring his twin's insult, Aiden glanced up at the scale's screen. "Look! Lizzie weighs 21 pounds! Boy, that's really light! I weigh a lot more than that!"

"Yeah, cause you're older," Michelle grumbled. "Now get Lizzie off that thing!"

"Let's weigh me next!" Aiden gasped, his smile widening.

"Aiden, stop!" Michelle whined. "You're going to get us in trouble!"

"Quit worrying so much!" Aiden groaned. "You're never any fun."

"Aiden!"

The boy hardly had any time to look over his shoulder before his mother swooped in and yanked Elizabeth off the produce scale.

"That isn't for weighing people!" Misty scolded.

"But it worked!" Aiden cried. "Lizzie is 21 pounds, Mom."

"Good to know," Misty sighed. "But you're not supposed to put anything on there other than food, alright?"

Aiden scowled, while Michelle leaned in close to him and whispered tauntingly, "told you you were gonna get in trouble."

"Mom, Michelle is being annoying!" Aiden practically shouted.

"Aiden, inside voice!" Misty hissed. "And Michelle, be nice to your brother."

"I didn't do anything!" Michelle cried. "I told him he was gonna get in trouble for putting Lizzie up there but he didn't listen to me!"

"Yeah, so she rubbed it in my face," Aiden grumbled.

"Michelle, that's not necessary," Misty replied. She turned towards Ash, who was just finishing placing some vegetables in the cart. "Please help me."

He looked up at her with wide eyes and a completely clueless expression. It took everything in Misty's power to hold back a yell of frustration.

"You didn't see any of that, did you?" Misty deadpanned.

"Um…no," Ash admitted.

"Aiden was using the produce scale to weigh Elizabeth," Misty groaned.

Now exasperated, Ash glanced down at Aiden. "Son, that's not for weighing people."

"Then why'd it work?" Aiden asked.

"Just because it works doesn't mean you should use it that way," Ash sighed. "Come on, let's try and stay out of trouble, okay?"

Aiden whined, but decided to follow after his father without any vocal protest. Michelle sidled up to her father's opposite side, staring up at him as she batted her eyelashes.

"Daddy, can we pick out some ice cream?" Michelle asked.

Aiden's cloudy disposition changed instantly, and he showed off a toothy grin. "Yeah, ice cream!"

"We usually wait until the end to pick it out so it's not sitting in the cart and melting," Ash reminded the two. "Nothing worse than melted ice cream!"

"But can't we just go look at them so we can decide what we want?" Michelle pleaded.

Ash groaned. He figured it was a pretty harmless request, and if it could get the two out of Misty's hair for even a few minutes, she probably wouldn't object.

"Mist, is it okay if I take Aiden and Michelle to look at the ice cream?" Ash called.

Misty tilted her head ever so slightly, Elizabeth following the motion just to copy her. "We still have the whole store to get through. You're going to pick out ice cream now?"

"No, they just want to look and decide what they want," Ash explained. "I told them we have to wait until the end to actually put it in the cart."

"Oh, then sure!" Misty chirped. "You three have fun! Lizzie and I will keep on the course. Right, sweetie?"

Elizabeth beamed and nodded her head.

With that settled, Aiden and Michelle began to clamor around their father, shouting out various flavors of ice cream they wanted.

"Hold on, we haven't even gotten there yet!" Ash cried. "We have to see what they have!"

He started to head in the direction of the freezer aisle, with the twins still nagging him. This little scene earned them a few stares, most of which wound up lingering because it was the Pokémon Master and his children. Most of the citizens of Cerulean City were used to seeing them there, but that didn't mean they didn't still stare. It could be pretty jarring to see a celebrity just walking around a supermarket, even though Ash didn't think of himself that way.

"Guys, let's try and keep it down a bit," Ash requested. "We don't want to bother anyone."

"We're not, Daddy!" Michelle chirped. "We just wanna see the ice cream!"

"I know, and we're going," Ash sighed. "I just want you two to use your inside voices, okay? It isn't nice to be screaming and running around in a store."

Fortunately, that seemed to settle Aiden and Michelle, at least for the time being. They made it to the freezer aisle without any further incident, and the twins busied themselves with pressing their faces against the glass doors to get a better look at the ice cream inside.

Ash was just relieved that they had settled down and were no longer creating a fuss. As he took a quick breather, out of the corner of his eye, he spotted a wide array of frozen waffles. Turning his head, he saw from a distance all of the different flavors and his eyes widened a significant degree.

"You guys keep on looking," Ash called to the twins. "I'm just gonna head over here real quick…"

"Kay," Aiden and Michelle droned.

As Ash walked away, Michelle looked up and down the freezer and wondered aloud, "how cold do you think it is in there?"

"I dunno, probably really super cold," Aiden replied. "They've gotta keep all that ice cream in there!"

"I bet an ice type would like to live in there," Michelle noted.

Aiden thought about it for a moment before perking up. "Let's find out!"

Michelle furrowed her brow. "How? We don't have one!"

"No, but you know all about that kind of stuff!" Aiden replied. "You read about Pokémon all the time. So if you went in the freezer-"

"Nuh uh!" Michelle cried.

"Why?" Aiden asked. "It's probably a lot of fun!"

"Then you go in," Michelle grumbled.

"Kay!" Aiden squeaked.

Before Michelle could protest, Aiden opened up the freezer door and hopped inside, trying to close the door once he was in. She was alarmed, but he was giggling like a maniac, even as she pulled the door back open.

"Aiden, get out!" Michelle hissed. "We're gonna get in trouble!"

"You always say that," Aiden muttered.

"Cause it's always true!" Michelle cried.

"Nuh uh," Aiden refuted. "Come on, it's fun! Just try it!"

Michelle did not seem convinced. Aiden just hopped out of the freezer and held the door open for his sister, who took a step back.

"I won't close the door on ya," Aiden assured her. "But I promise, it's fun! You get to feel like an ice type Pokémon!"

Michelle was still wary, but she finally climbed up into the freezer, clutching the side as she stared back at her brother.

"Well?" Aiden asked.

"It's nice in here," Michelle finally admitted, a smile appearing on her face. "It's really cold! I bet if I was a Glaceon, I could live in here forever!"

"Want me to close the door now?" Aiden asked.

"Okay!" Michelle giggled.

Just as soon as Aiden swung the door shut, however, someone stopped it right before it could close. The boy winced and glanced up, already knowing who was responsible.

"What are you two doing now?!" Ash cried.

"We're just playing!" Aiden whined.

"You can't play inside the freezer!" Ash hissed.

"But we were," Aiden commented.

Ash let out a frustrated sigh. "But you shouldn't be." He reached in with his free arm and pulled Michelle out of the freezer, closing the door once she was in his grasp. "Let's just go back to Mommy and-"

He was cut off by a ruckus; a mix of frantic cries and screaming and exclamations. Ash's eyebrows shot up at all the noise, while Aiden and Michelle both tilted their heads. Before they could even process it, a Pidgey soared right above the trio, causing them all to look up.

"Whoa!" Aiden breathed.

"Uh…what just happened?" Ash muttered.

"A Pidgey got in the store!" Aiden laughed, as though he were being helpful by explaining it to his father.

"Why'd it come in here?" Michelle asked.

"I'm really not sure," Ash replied. "It seems like a wild Pokémon, and they don't normally just go into crowded, indoor places like this."

Aiden thought about it for a moment, and suddenly, his entire face lit up. "My Pokémon food! It worked!"

Ash blinked hard and whipped his head down towards his son. "What do you mean your Pokémon food?"

Michelle gasped. "Aiden had Pokémon food in his pockets, Daddy! And he threw them on the floor when we came in here!"

Ash's facial expression suddenly reflected horror. Aiden began laughing wildly, his own face still glowing. "It worked! I caught a Pokémon!"

"Aiden, you didn't catch anything!" Ash howled. "All you did was got a wild Pokémon to wreak havoc in the supermarket!"

"Yeah, but if I had a poke ball I could catch it," Aiden reasoned with him.

"Why is everyone going nuts in here?"

Ash felt a violent chill go up his spine. Misty had suddenly appeared at the end of the aisle, an eyebrow raised. Elizabeth, who was still sitting in the cart, seemed blissfully unaware of the panic and was busy singing to herself as she held a package of Goldeen crackers in her hands.

"There's a Pidgey in the store!" Aiden announced, leading Ash to smack a hand over his face.

"A Pidgey?" Misty repeated, sounding incredulous.

"It flew right over us, Mom!" Aiden continued excitedly.

"How exactly does a Pidgey get into a supermarket?" Misty wondered aloud. "I mean, I know through the front door, but…why? They don't like to be confined. That poor thing must be terrified…which is probably why everyone in this store is terrified."

"Pokémon sure can be weird sometimes!" Ash laughed nervously, hoping his wife would stop thinking so much.

"Chu!" Pikachu protested from the back of the cart.

"Hey, I never said you were," Ash defended himself.

"This little shopping trip just keeps getting more and more insane," Misty sighed. "I think we'd better hurry up and finish so we can get out of here."

"Yes!" Aiden and Michelle cheered simultaneously, much to their mother's frustration.

"At least they're finally happy," she breathed, moving on with the cart in her hands.

Ash whined and looked down at Aiden again, who was still sporting a massive, goofy grin. "Not a word to your mother about that Pokémon food, understood?"

"Yeah, sure!" Aiden assured him. "As long as I get out of here soon, I won't say a thing!"