One last story for April! It's been a while since I wrote one that specifically focuses on Aiden, so here it is!
Aiden: 4 years old
Running the Bases
"Lookit my he-met, Mommy!"
"Oh, that's way too big for you, little man."
Aiden frowned as his mother removed the red, camouflage printed helmet from his head. "But I like it!"
"I know you do, but it doesn't fit," Misty patiently explained to her son. "And the whole point of a helmet is to protect your head! It won't do you any good if it's falling off."
"Or covering your eyes," Ash added, smirking at his still disappointed son. "You know that was happening, buddy."
"Nuh uh," Aiden grumbled, only cheering up once Pikachu jumped into his arms and began licking his cheek.
After (finally) succeeding in getting their son to try a sport in order to expend some of his boundless energy, Ash and Misty had left their daughter in the care of Delia so they could take Aiden shopping for all of the equipment he'd need.
And naturally, the only sport he was remotely interested in (baseball) required a crazy amount of it.
Misty had refused to look for anything else, however, until they found a batting helmet. She hadn't been shy about letting Ash know how worried she was about Aiden getting hit in the head by a ball, and requested they track down the safest, most protective helmet they possibly could.
Aiden, of course, didn't actually know anything about how his equipment should actually fit, and thus far had only been picking out things he liked the look of. And unfortunately for him, he was too small for pretty much all of those things. But even his parents hadn't had much luck yet…everything they'd put on Aiden so far was just too big.
"How can we not find him a helmet that fits?" Misty complained, putting the latest, ill-fitting helmet back in its place. "The kid has a pretty big head! Trust me, I would know…"
Ash smirked. "I know we joke about his giant head all the time, but he is still only four years old."
Misty raised an eyebrow. "Who said I was joking about it? I'm completely serious."
"Either way," Ash sighed as he scanned the shelves in front of him, "I think I might have finally found something that'll fit. Let's see…"
He pulled out another batting helmet, this one glossy and solid red. Aiden only looked slightly interested, but that didn't deter Ash from walking over to the boy and sticking the helmet on his head while Pikachu watched on in interest. When his father moved away, Aiden blinked and tilted his head forward, the helmet not budging an inch.
"Look at that!" Ash crowed. "It's perfect!"
Aiden continued shaking his head, trying to see if the helmet would come loose, but it was no good. While he thrashed his head around, Pikachu wriggled out of the boy's grasp and returned to his trainer's shoulder, a little fearful the boy might drop him with all of his jerking around. Ash grinned at his partner and then at Misty, who just smirked and rolled her eyes. "It's definitely the best one we've found so far!"
"Of course, because of the rest of them didn't even fit," Misty reminded him.
"I like it!" Aiden cried, placing his hands on the helmet.
"Yeah?" Misty asked with a giggle, Aiden nodding in response. "Alright, then that's the helmet we'll go with!"
Aiden grinned. "Now what? Ooh, I know! I want a glove!"
"A glove?" Ash repeated with a laugh. "Sounds good! That's definitely an important piece of equipment to have."
"I want it to be red to match my helmet," Aiden continued, tilting his head back to look at his father.
"We'll see what they have," Ash replied.
"I like blue, too," Aiden chirped, scurrying after his parents as they looked for the gloves. "If they don't have red, then I'll get blue! But not light blue like Michelle likes. Dark blue!"
"Okay, champ," Ash chuckled. "We'll keep that in mind!"
Misty giggled at the two. Aiden really was a little clone of Ash, and not just because they looked so much alike. The two had extremely similar personalities, and just about the same amount of energy, too. When it came to Aiden, it really was like someone had taken Ash's DNA and simply created a smaller version of him.
It didn't take them long to find the gloves, and a black glove with red stitching quickly caught Misty's eye. "What about this one, Aiden? It's got red on it!"
The boy took one look at the glove and frowned, shaking his head.
"No?" Misty asked, taking another glance at the glove. "It's got red on it!"
"Not enough red," Aiden replied.
"Remember, buddy, there's no guarantee that we'll be able to find you an all red glove," Ash reminded his son. "So, I think that glove Mommy found could be a good choice!"
Aiden still didn't seem convinced. Misty, however, quickly intervened, "well, there's still plenty more gloves to look at. Maybe we'll find one you like better! But for now, why don't we hold onto this one just in case? We can always put it back. How's that?"
"Okay!" Aiden chirped, perking right up.
"Easy enough," Misty giggled, winking at an amused Ash.
They continued looking through the gloves, but Aiden had lost interest pretty quickly, choosing instead to pull the batting helmet off his head and look at his reflection in its glossy surface as he made all kinds of silly faces.
"When do I have to go to practice?" Aiden suddenly asked, looking up from his helmet.
"Tuesday and Thursday," Misty replied, looking over her shoulder and tearing her attention away from a tan and black glove.
"That's two days," Aiden chirped.
"Yes, it is," Misty confirmed with a smirk. "You're such a smart boy!"
"And that's every week?" Aiden asked, hugging the helmet against his chest.
"Mmhm."
"And when do I get to play?"
"Saturday," Misty answered.
"Every week?!"
"Yes."
Aiden grimaced. "How come I can only play once but I hafta practice twice?"
"Cause practice makes perfect!" Ash crowed, winking at his son. "You won't be able to play well if you don't practice enough beforehand. That's like going into a big Pokémon battle without training!"
"Oh," Aiden breathed, his eyes widening. Ash just smirked; further proof that he could use Pokémon to make any and all analogies!
Returning to the gloves, Ash spotted a black and gray one that really stood out. "Hey, this one is pretty cool! What do you think, Aiden?"
Once again, the boy turned it down rather quickly. Ash groaned and hung his head, resuming his search.
"Since when does Aiden care so much about what he's got on?" Misty whispered to her husband. "Any time I've tried to get him to pick his own clothes out, he either refuses or puts together a total eyesore!"
"Probably because this isn't just clothes," Ash surmised. "Aiden's pretty excited about starting baseball, so he probably just wants to look cool. Which is why I thought he'd like that last glove…"
"Cool?" Misty repeated, wrinkling her nose. "He's four!"
"Four-year-olds can be cool," Ash reasoned with her. "Or, at least like cool things. Might not be the same stuff we think is cool, but still. Especially when he's gonna be using this stuff for a while! It's not like clothes where you have a bunch of them and change what you're wearing every day. He's just gotta keep using all this stuff until he outgrows it."
"I guess…" Misty murmured.
"Who's gonna be my coach?"
Ash and Misty looked over their shoulders, Aiden expectantly staring at them. Apparently, the questions weren't done yet.
"We don't know yet," Misty replied with a sweet smile. "I think they're still deciding that!"
That must've been welcome news to the young boy, because a giant smile overtook Aiden's face as soon as he heard it. "I want Daddy to be my coach!"
That declaration, however, caused Ash to frown, and Pikachu to look at his trainer with a sympathetic expression. The idea wasn't one that he was against, but the reality of the situation was that he would never be able to. Ash's job was demanding, and it took up a lot of his time, weekends included. It wasn't even likely that he'd be able to come to all of Aiden's games, let alone be there for every single one so he could coach.
But actually saying that to his son was something that killed Ash. Aiden was generally more understanding than Michelle, who took a lot of those things personally and upset easily as a result. But that fact didn't make it any more enjoyable. Even just the quick flash of disappointment that would tend to appear on Aiden's face was enough to break his heart. After all, Ash loved his job, and it wasn't something he wanted to give up. But he also loved his children, and he never wanted them to think that he valued his job more than them.
"I think there are people a lot more qualified to be your coach than me, champ," Ash chuckled, a hint of uneasiness behind it. Misty cast her husband a side eyed glance but said nothing.
"Nuh uh!" Aiden squeaked, rapidly shaking his head. "You're the best at everything! That means you'd be the best at baseball, too."
"No, no," Ash playfully refuted. "I haven't played baseball in a very long time! Not since I was a kid. And I wasn't even that good at it back then. I bet you'll be better than me!"
Aiden lifted both of his eyebrows. "Really?"
Ash beamed and nodded his head. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw a spot of blue, and quickly turned towards it, his eyes lighting up. "Whoa, look at this one!"
He walked over to the glove and pulled it off the hook, holding it out towards Aiden. This one was bright blue in color, with red laces and red and white webbing. "What do you think? It's red and blue!"
The boy quickly became excited, releasing one of his hands from the helmet so he could grab the glove instead. "Yeah, this!"
"You like that one?" Ash chuckled, Aiden nodding in response. "Perfect! We're just cruising through all this equipment now, huh?"
"Uh huh," Aiden mumbled, too busy looking over his new accessories before he snapped his head up. "Ooh! Lookit that!"
He scurried off to a nearby display of baseball paraphernalia, Misty watching on and giggling as she strode up beside Ash. "It is adorable how excited he's getting over all of this. Almost makes me feel better about the fact he's going to have baseballs flying at him!"
"Mmhm," Ash intoned, suddenly sounding pretty distracted himself.
Raising an eyebrow, Misty turned her head to look at him. "What's wrong? You still upset because Aiden said he wanted you to be his coach?"
Ash shouldn't have been surprised that Misty always managed to know what was bothering him without so much as a word, but he always was. Still, that didn't make him any less stubborn.
"Kinda…"
"You know he didn't mean to make you feel bad," Misty reasoned with Ash. "He just wants to do everything with you!"
"I know, that's the problem," Ash grumbled, leading Misty to incline her head. "I can't do everything with him, no matter how badly I want to. I don't even have the heart to tell him I can't go to every single one of his games."
"He'll understand," Misty replied. "If it was Michelle, I'd be a little more nervous. But Aiden's pretty easygoing!"
"Yeah, but this is different," Ash groaned, shaking his head. "This isn't some random, weeknight dinner. Baseball seems like it's gonna be a pretty big deal to Aiden, and I'm worried that if he knows I won't be there all the time, it'll ruin it for him. Like he'll just look in the stands, see I'm not there, and think that none of it matters."
Taking in a deep breath, Misty decided, "then don't say anything to him about not being able to go to every single game. Not yet, at least."
Ash shifted his eyes back and forth. "How am I supposed to do that?"
"By not saying anything," Misty repeated. "I know you always want to fix everything, but there's nothing to fix right now. You can make it to his first game, can't you?"
"Yeah, but – "
"Then that's all that matters for now," Misty interrupted him. "And that's all that matters to Aiden for now. Trust me, he's not thinking ahead any further than that. We'll worry about the rest of his games as we get closer to them."
"I wish I could think like you," Ash sighed, smiling sadly at his wife. "Sometimes I just get too wrapped up in my emotions."
"Sometimes?" Misty teased, smirking at him.
"Alright, fine, most of the time," Ash corrected himself with a laugh. "But I can't help it! I want to be there for the kids all the time, and I don't want them to hate me when I can't."
"I don't think they could ever hate you," Misty assured him. "Honestly, I don't think anyone could ever hate you."
Holding up one finger, Ash replied, "Team Rocket."
Pikachu nodded his head in agreement. "Pi-ka."
Misty playfully rolled her eyes. "I wouldn't consider that 'hate' so much as…I don't know, like how rivals feel about each other."
Ash raised an eyebrow. "That can be hate."
"Yeah, but not all the time."
Their conversation was interrupted, however, by the sound of things clattering to the ground. Ash and Misty both whipped around, finding their son standing in a sea of baseballs, his hand holding up just one of the balls.
"I found a baseball to play with!" He cried, grinning at his parents.
Closing her eyes, Misty asked, "how have we not learned to not take our eyes off of him yet?"
"Not sure," Ash breathed. "But I think we should help clean up that mess before we think about it anymore."
Yes, Misty is terrified of Aiden getting nailed in the head with a ball, and no, she never gets over that fear.
Doesn't matter that the kid gets hurt all the time regardless and does it to himself. The image of him getting hit with a baseball just occupies her mind and freaks her out to no end.
Ash is just like "that probably won't happen but even if it does Aiden's skull is basically made of concrete so he'll be okay."
