You all know what December 7th is: Aiden and Michelle's birthday! Of course, here's their annual birthday one shot!
Aiden and Michelle: 3 years old
Party Time
"Ash."
"Misty?"
"Aiden and Michelle have expectations now."
"Uh…what?"
"You heard me. They have expectations now!"
"But…how? And about what? They're toddlers!"
"Their birthday!"
Ash, not having realized how close to his face Misty had gotten until now, pulled back to create some distance between them. "But we've always been the ones to hype up their birthday. Are you telling me they know what that is now?"
Misty nodded. "I guess they've been around a lot of birthdays lately, and they started to realize they meant something. Aiden and Michelle have been asking me nonstop when their birthday is, and now that it's getting closer, they've been throwing all kinds of ideas out about what they'd like to do to celebrate."
"What kind of ideas?" Ash asked with a chuckle, unable to help himself. It sure was cute to think about his two little kids making their own suggestions!
"I think it might be easier to ask what ideas they haven't had," Misty quipped, smirking. "Just off the top of my head, they've suggested a party, their favorite foods, cake, cookies, toys, getting a Ponyta to ride around on, going to a hotel just to use the pool and then sleep there, some kind of time travel, flying to space…things started getting a little crazier the more they went on, clearly."
Ash laughed again. "Well, some of those are feasible! Maybe we should weed those out and focus on them."
"Yeah, that's fine, but you're ignoring the point," Misty sighed.
Ash blinked. "What's the point?"
Her eye twitched before tersely repeating, "they have expectations!"
"Okay, so?" Ash stressed. "You're worried that we won't be able to meet them?"
"No, that's not it," Misty refuted with a sigh. "I think they'll be happy no matter what. They're usually pretty easygoing when it comes to this kind of stuff. And there are plenty of options out there. It's just…I want to make sure they're going to like everything! It's exciting that they finally realize what's going on. But it's also a lot of pressure!"
"Hey, you just said it yourself: they're pretty happy kids who like a lot of stuff," Ash assured her. "They're also still very young! I don't think it'll take much to give them a great birthday."
"You're right…at least I hope you are," Misty sighed before grinning. "Okay! Let's put our heads together and start planning!"
XXX
"Daddy."
"What is it, champ?"
"Wan- p-za fow my birfday."
Ash smirked at his wide-eyed little son, who was currently scratching a content Pikachu between the ears. "You want pizza for your birthday?"
"Mm, ya!" Aiden exclaimed.
"That's easy enough!" Ash chuckled. "We'll get you some pizza, little buddy."
"An- a hat."
Ash's grin managed to widen as Aiden patted his head, Pikachu whining at the loss of contact. "Like a party hat?"
Aiden nodded.
"Okay, we'll get you a party hat too," Ash promised.
"An- a Gwoudon!"
That one caused Ash to furrow his brow, and Pikachu to look towards his trainer in surprise. The simple change of expression, as well as Pikachu's apparent disbelief, caused Aiden to burst out laughing, which led Ash to believe Aiden was just messing with him to get that kind of response.
…maybe.
"That one's not quite as easy as the other two," Ash laughed nervously. "Why don't we save Groudon for another time, huh?"
"Kay," Aiden chirped, seemingly unbothered by the deferral.
Thank goodness, Ash sighed internally. "You wanna go for a ride to find Mommy and Michelle?"
Aiden gasped and rapidly nodded his head, jumping to his feet as he began excitedly hopping around. Pikachu yelped and jumped out of the way, worried that Aiden might accidentally step on him in. Ash chuckled again and started to kneel, trying to get on a closer level to his son. But before he could get all the way on the floor, Aiden grabbed onto him and climbed up his back with alarming ease, wrapping his little arms around his father's neck as he giggled.
"Pika," Pikachu gaped, impressed by the boy's agility.
"Man, you're getting quicker and stronger by the day!" Ash remarked with a huff, clearly agreeing with his partner. "How am I supposed to keep up with you?"
"I dunno!" Aiden squeaked.
Ash pulled Aiden all the way up onto his shoulders and stood to his full height. Even though they were just in the living room, Aiden marveled at the sights from his new vantage point, his audible noises of rapture earning another laugh from Ash.
"Where do you think they are?" He asked the toddler, rolling his eyes up.
Wordlessly, Aiden pointed straight ahead; in the direction of the kitchen.
Ash raised an eyebrow. "You sure seem confident!"
"I know dey're dere!" Aiden cried.
Ash nearly faltered. "You knew this whole time?!"
"Uh huh!"
"And here I thought we were going to go on some fun little adventure," Ash sighed longingly. "Oh well. Let's go!"
He walked right into the kitchen, Pikachu following at his feet and Aiden laughing the entire (albeit short) trek. Misty and Michelle were indeed sitting at the table, its surface covered in crafting supplies.
"What're you two doing?" Ash asked with sincere interest, watching as Pikachu hopped on the table and immediately stuck his nose in a sprinkling of stray glitter, causing him to sneeze.
Misty giggled at the mouse before looking over her shoulder and smiling. "Michelle wanted to make some birthday decorations! She's making a sign right now."
"I awready made -fetti!" Michelle cried, gathering a fistful of ripped up construction paper and sprinkling it back on the table. "See?"
"I do!" Ash playfully gasped. "That's really cool, Shelly!"
Michelle giggled happily before pushing the confetti back into a neat pile. Misty smirked at the girl before turning around fully, setting her glimmering eyes back on Ash. "And what have you two been up to?"
"We were playing, but then Aiden wanted to talk about their birthday," Ash chuckled tiredly. "He had a couple more ideas for me."
"More?" Misty asked, her question accompanied by a worn laugh. "I'm almost afraid to ask what they were."
Lifting Aiden off of his shoulders and placing him in a chair beside his sister, Ash replied, "he wanted pizza, party hats, and Groudon." When Misty looked alarmed by the last detail, however, Ash quickly added, "I told him the first two were fine, but we'd have to try for Groudon another time."
"Maybe it's wrong for me to say, but I never realized just how imaginative kids are," Misty snickered. "Or maybe it's just ours."
"I think they're all like that, and ours just go that extra mile," Ash laughed, pulling out the chair next to her and taking a seat. "At least they make it pretty easy to play along!"
Misty glanced over at the twins and smiled. Aiden had now joined Michelle and was creating his own decorations, dragging a red marker across a piece of yellow construction paper. Pikachu had also moved closer to the twins and was keeping a watchful eye on them, offering up new markers whenever one of them wanted to change colors. "I think I've got most of it planned out. I was actually kind of going back and forth on what kind of food to get, so pizza is easy enough. And I can just add party hats to the list of party supplies I need to buy."
"Did you get them to agree on a theme?" Ash asked worriedly. He knew that might be a point of contention between the twins, since they had very different personalities and interests.
"Surprisingly yes!" Misty exclaimed. "They found a cute set with a couple of different Pokémon on it that they both liked. I know there was both a Squirtle and an Eevee, which they got very excited about. It only took about 10 minutes of looking, and once they agree on something, I know better than to keep pushing. So, we're going to go with that!"
"Sounds cute!" Ash cooed. "And good that you didn't have to play referee."
"Definitely," Misty laughed. "Oh, I almost forgot! Were you able to send out the invitations?"
"Yep!" Ash confirmed. "I dropped them off in the mailbox before I went to work a couple of days ago. Mom and Brock already told me they got them, so we'll probably be hearing from everyone else pretty soon!"
"Good!" Misty cheered. "Everything is going pretty smooth so far!" She hesitated for a moment, however, and allowed her eyes to shift from side to side. "Maybe too smooth…"
Ash couldn't help but to chuckle. They were total opposites: he the eternal optimist, and her the realist who had a habit of trending towards pessimism. "It's going to be fine; don't overthink it! Remember, as long as the twins are happy, that's all that matters."
"You're right," Misty agreed, smiling softly at Ash.
He, however, shot her a knowing look. "You're still not used to saying that, huh?"
"No," Misty admitted with a groan, folding her arms on the table and resting her head atop them. "And I don't know if I ever will."
XXX
"Well? What do you two think?"
Misty knew the question was kind of pointless, since Aiden and Michelle had both started squealing the second they stepped foot in the living room. Still, she felt it was cursory, even if her children were too young to understand any of that.
"I wove it!" Michelle cheered, having run up to a nearby streamer in order to pull on it.
"Oh, careful!" Ash breathed, scurrying over to Michelle and gently removing her hand from the streamer. "Those are pretty delicate, princess. We don't want to break them!"
"Kay!" Michelle squeaked before running off to join her brother, who was pointing up at the balloons scattered across the ceiling.
"Now you sound like me," Misty remarked with a giggle, sidling up to her flustered husband.
"We worked really hard on these decorations," Ash sighed. "Not to mention how long it took! And how much tape we used…I think if I saw anything fall off or get ruined I'd probably lose my mind."
"Guess you feel like me now, too," Misty giggled. "So, I'm going to remind you of the same thing you keep reminding me of: as long as the twins are happy, that's all that matters."
Ash instantly perked up, as though Misty had just solved every single problem that was plaguing him. "Yeah, you're right! I can't believe I forgot about my own advice."
Misty shrugged. "Stress will do that; even to someone who's usually as carefree and cheerful as you!"
"Being an adult sure is a lot," Ash murmured, rubbing the back of his neck. "I think that's probably why I still act like a kid so much!"
"Sure, that's why," Misty teased with a sparkling laugh.
"Mommy! Daddy!"
Ash and Misty both looked down and found Aiden and Michelle standing right in front of them, their faces glowing with pure excitement.
"You guys really like it, huh?" Misty asked sweetly, bending down to be at eye level with the twins.
"Ya!" Aiden exclaimed.
"Is the bestest evew!" Michelle agreed.
"Well, Daddy and I are so glad to hear that!" Misty cooed. "We wanted to give you the most fun party we possibly could with a bunch of your favorite things!"
"Let's get weady fow the pawty!" Aiden cheered, throwing his arms up.
"You want to start getting ready now?" Misty inquired, earning nods from the children. "But we still have a few more hours until everyone gets here!"
"Ya, weady now!" Michelle chirped.
Ash chuckled and knelt beside his wife. "Come on, Mist; we can totally start the party a little early on our own! After all, I'd like to think we're Aiden and Michelle's most important guests! Isn't that right, guys?"
Aiden and Michelle nodded again. Smirking, Misty conceded, "okay, that does sound like a lot of fun. Let's get you two all dressed and then start our own little family pre-party!"
The twins cheered and ran for the stairs, trying desperately to break past the baby gate that blocked their path. Ash and Misty both stood up, grinning at one another.
"Hey, they may have expectations now, but it looks like we met them!" Ash crowed.
"It does," Misty confirmed. "And look at the bright side!" She pointed towards their young children, who were still doing everything in their power to open up the offending gate, including wrangling a wary Pikachu to try and help them. "They might be old enough to have birthday expectations, but they're still not old enough to do that!"
"And it's much easier to plan a birthday party for toddlers than it is to keep them from hurting themselves?" Ash amusedly surmised.
Misty giggled and winked at him. "You got it!"
Such cute little babies! Maybe slightly less cute when you realize this is probably one of the last birthdays where Aiden and Michelle actually agree to everything and get along, lol.
