Guys, I love Miraculous Ladybug. Like, seriously. I was Cat Noir for Halloween week in dance this year.
So then I started to think: what would the Pokémon version of it be? And would the kids love it? Yes, they definitely would. It would be one of the few things Aiden and Michelle would both like. And it would make no sense to Ash and Misty.
With that being said, please enjoy this year's Halloween one shot!
Aiden and Michelle: 4 and a half years old
Miraculous Ledyba
"Misty, where are Pikachu and Vaporeon?"
"Probably hiding."
"Okay…and where are the kids?"
"That I can't tell you."
Ash raised an eyebrow. "What do you mean you can't tell me?"
"Exactly what I said," Misty replied simply, briefly looking up from her magazine. "I was sworn to secrecy."
"By a couple of four-year-olds?" Ash droned.
"Yep!" She confirmed, returning to her reading. "And don't bother trying to bribe me. I'm not nearly as easily bought as our children."
Smirking, Ash sunk down beside Misty on the couch and rested his head on her shoulder, batting his eyelashes the way she usually did. "Really? Nothing could convince you?"
"No," she stated plainly, ignoring his face in favor of her reading. "Honestly, I just want to read this. If the kids are going to entertain themselves, then I'm certainly not going to complain…or give away their secrets."
"But…what if they're destroying the house?" Ash tentatively asked, hoping to get her all riled up. "Or getting themselves into some other kind of trouble?"
"My sixth sense would let me know," Misty assured him, earning a snicker from her husband. "You laugh, but trust me, I'm very intuitive."
"Right," Ash sighed. "Well, I'll remind you of that when we find a giant hole in the wall later or something like that."
Misty didn't respond, and instead, Ash was taken off guard when he was hit in the head by something. "Ow! What in the…?"
He looked beside him and found a yo-yo, red in color and printed with black spots. Its string was fully extended, falling listlessly off the couch and across the floor, all the way towards the stairs. It was there that Ash's brown eyes locked with a pair of green ones, covered by a mask that matched the offending yo-yo.
"Michelle, don't throw your toys around!" Ash scolded. "Someone is going to get hurt!"
The young girl jumped out into the foyer, placing her hands on her hips. "I'm not Michelle! I'm Miraculous Ledyba!" And then, pointing at her father, she cried, "get him, Torracat Noir!"
"…who?" Ash questioned.
Before he could process it, someone else ran towards him and jumped onto his lap, pressing their palm against his forehead. "Cat-em-cliz-mom!"
Finally opening his eyes, Ash furrowed his brow and muttered, "I didn't think this could get any more confusing."
"No! You didn't say it right!"
The boy who had pounced on Ash frowned and turned his head towards the girl. "It's too hard to say!"
"Nuh uh," she refuted. "It's easy! All you have to say is 'cata-calismic'!"
The boy narrowed his eyes, which were framed by an all-black mask. "That's not right either!"
"Well, it's closer than what you said!"
"No, it's not!"
Misty sighed and put down her magazine, frowning at Ash. "That's why I didn't want to say anything."
"You didn't!" Ash cried. "And I still got attacked!"
"You only got attacked -cause you're a bad guy," the boy on his lap informed him.
"A bad guy?" Ash repeated. "Aiden, that's no fair! I'm just sitting here! I don't even know what you and your sister are doing."
"I'm not Aiden!" He shouted. "I'm Torracat Noir!"
Ash blinked. "What are those? Are they characters you guys made up together or something?"
Aiden and Michelle both gasped dramatically, causing Ash to wince. Misty, on the other hand, chuckled darkly, muttering, "oh, you're in for it now."
"In for what?" Ash demanded, beginning to grow frustrated. "I literally have no idea what's going on!"
Scurrying into the room, Michelle grabbed her yo-yo and began to wind the string back into it. "We didn't make them up! They're characters from a show on TV!"
"Yeah, a really cool show!" Aiden agreed.
That only served to confuse Ash even further. "Hold on, you two hardly ever watch the same shows! You're always arguing over what to watch. All of a sudden there's a show you two will watch together? And both like?"
"Don't get too excited," Misty warned him.
"Why not?" Ash asked. "I think it's great that Aiden and Michelle finally found something they both enjoy! What's it about?"
"And here we go," Misty sighed, shaking her head.
"Miraculous Ledyba and Torracat Noir are superheroes that protect Kalos!" Michelle exclaimed. "And they don't know who each other is, but they also go to school together! And Miraculous Ledyba not in disguise likes Torracat Noir not in disguise, but Torracat Noir likes Miraculous Ledyba in disguise. It's a lot."
Ash snickered at Michelle's last statement before realizing, "wait…like? What do you mean like?"
"I mean like looove," Michelle replied in a sing song voice, moving her head from side-to-side before making kissy noises.
Ash's eyes widened. "W-who taught you about that kind of stuff?!"
"Daddy, everybody knows about love," Michelle scoffed.
"I don't care about that kinda stuff," Aiden casually commented. "I just like that they're superheroes! And that they always stop the bad guys!"
"Bad guys like me?" Ash asked teasingly.
Aiden giggled at his father. "Daddy, you were only a bad guy because the real bad guy made you that way!"
"Who's the 'real' bad guy?" Ash questioned.
"Poison Moth," Aiden chirped. "He's Torracat Noir's dad in disguise, but none of them know that either."
Ash furrowed his brow. "That sure sounds like a lot of secrets."
"But there's more!" Michelle exclaimed. "Like how Miraculous Ledyba can give her friends their own superpowers when she needs help, even though they also don't know it's her, and how Poison Moth's sidekick Renfenzant – "
"Hold on…what?" Ash interrupted. "This seems like a lot of information for a kids' show."
"That's why I warned you," Misty muttered. "The lore in this thing is nuts. I'm amazed Aiden and Michelle manage to grasp as much as they do. More than me, that's for sure."
"But Mommy, we -splain it to you!" Aiden cried.
"I know you do, sweetheart," Misty giggled weakly. "Still doesn't mean I completely get it, though…"
"But you know all the other superheroes, right?" Michelle excitedly inquired. "Like Vulpixie, Tirtkana, Queen Combee, Ekansperior…?"
Misty furrowed her brow. "Not particularly, no."
Michelle sighed and reached for the remote. "Guess we just gotta show you guys everything."
"Oh, put on the episode where Torracat Noir is the bad guy!" Aiden cried.
"No way, then they'll be even more confused!" Michelle argued. "We gotta start with the first episode."
"Hold on," Ash intercepted, taking the remote from a bewildered Michelle. "We don't have time to start marathoning a TV show right now! It's getting close to dinner."
"We don't have to watch the whole thing, just some of it!" Michelle replied, trying to grab the remote back. "And then we can watch the rest after dinner."
"I don't think my brain is ready for everything this show has to offer," Ash finally admitted, stashing the remote behind him. "But maybe I'll give it a shot after dinner. That okay?"
"I guess so," Michelle sighed. "Come on, Torracat Noir. Let's go keep an eye out in case any more bad guys show up!"
"Kay!" Aiden cheered, finally jumping off of Ash's lap and chasing after his sister.
"Michelle, be careful with that yo-yo!" Misty called out to her daughter. "If you break it before Halloween, I'm not going to buy you a replacement!"
"I won't!" Michelle shouted back.
"Oh, is that what they're being for Halloween?" Ash asked.
"Yeah, it's where the masks came from," Misty laughed gently. "They were super excited about their costumes, but I really didn't want them running around in them and potentially ruining them before Halloween even gets here. So, we compromised and I just let them wear the masks for now. And I let Michelle have her yo-yo. That one I kind of regret."
Ash sat silently for a minute before replying, "I'd like to say seeing them in the entire costume would've made this whole thing make a lot more sense, but then I'd be lying."
"Believe me, nothing about it makes sense," Misty snickered. "Don't get me wrong, it's a cute show! But when you start delving into all the details…it's pretty crazy."
"I'm just surprised Aiden actually watches it," Ash mused. "I mean, a show that has romance in it…?"
"Don't worry," Misty assured Ash. "He makes gagging sounds every time there's a scene that's remotely romantic, and Michelle yells at him. Much more par for the course when it comes to our children. Aiden's not lying when he says he's only in it for the action. That's the lone reason he started watching it with Michelle in the first place. He'd tease her for watching it every single time, but as soon as he saw one of those fight scenes, he stopped and got sucked in himself."
"So, you watch it with them a lot, huh?" Ash asked, thoughtfully rolling his eyes up.
"Yeah, but not by choice," Misty sheepishly admitted. "Like I said, it's cute. It's just…insanely confusing. And they like to spend the whole episode trying to explain to me what's going on."
"Well, they're obviously a lot smarter than I am," Ash scoffed. "I barely understand it now; I couldn't imagine trying to watch this and understand it as a kid." Realizing what he had just said, Ash's eyes widened, and he quickly turned his head towards an amused looking Misty. "Don't make a comment about how dense I was and still am!"
Misty pouted. "Oh, come on! How am I supposed to do that when you teed it up so perfectly?!"
Ash rolled his eyes and sunk deeper into the couch. "All I know is I'm not moving, lest I get another yo-yo to the head or another hand to the face."
"But…you got both of those things while you were sitting right there," Misty reasoned with him.
"I doubt it'll happen again," Ash puffed, earning an incredulous look from his wife. Gazing at her once more, Ash meekly asked, "got any other magazines I could look at?"
Misty raised both of her eyebrows. "You? Reading?"
"Yeah, it'll be nice to give my brain a break from whatever Aiden and Michelle were trying to teach me about," Ash sighed.
Glancing down at the coffee table, Misty replied, "I can offer you women's fashion, women's advice, or the parenting one."
Ash inclined his head and droned, "I think you know which one I'd prefer."
"Yeah," Misty affirmed, picking up one of the magazines and holding it out towards Ash. "Let me know what you think of the heels on page 35."
Not super strictly Halloween, but I thought it'd be a fun combination of a few things!
Also, one final fun fact before we go: I don't know if anyone else watches Miraculous Ladybug (and if you don't, I highly recommend it!), but a few weeks ago I was watching the new special, and I realized one of the characters (Nino) sounded a bit different. Turns out he got a new VA, and it's Goh's dub VA! I think they have a couple of other VA crossovers with Pokémon as well, so there's actually a natural connection there already.
