For Luky. Happy Birthday!

Author: Epicocity

Original Idea: Captain Luky Greace

Rating: K

Pairing: Amourshipping

DISCLAIMER: I don't own Pokémon. Nor do I own this particular AU; I'm simply putting the idea to words.

Daddy

A Pokémon Fanfiction

"Daddy! Daddy, look!"

Ash turned his head, placing the rather filthy dish down in the sink, now covered in suds as he looked at the little girl crawling along the floor like a Pokémon. He shook his head with a smile and quickly turned the water on to wash away all the suds and the grime on the plate's surface. By the time he had finished and placed it to dry, the girl was right at his heels, nipping at them like she was using a Bite attack.

"I'm a Yungoos!" Turning around after drying his hands, Ash quickly knelt down to pick the little girl up, her black hair shimmering under the kitchen lights while her blue eyes glistened. Pikachu came skidding into the room, looking almost exasperated that he had lost sight of the overenthusiastic girl.

"Celeste, what did I say about crawling on the ground?" Ash asked with a chuckle, though he wasn't really mad at her. Goodness knew he could be one heck of a rambunctious child when he was younger. But he had to make sure the little girl acted…well, acted more human than Pokémon.

"But Pikachu crawls on the ground all the time, daddy," Celeste pouted, her lip drawing up and making her blue eyes shimmer with fake tears. Scooping her in his arms, he held the little girl closer to his chest as he walked out of the kitchen, staring at her blue eyes that were so much like her mother's.

"Pikachu's a Pokémon, you know that!" Ash laughed with her, flicking her nose lightly.

"But daddy…" Ash's lips tightened into a thin line as he stared down at his daughter. Celeste continued pouting before sighing, kicking her legs up and down in the air. "But I wanna pretend to be a Yungoos! I wanna be a Pokémon!"

"A Pokémon?" Ash asked, flopping him and Celeste down upon a chair and blowing out at his bangs. Pikachu hopped on the armrest and touched his tail to Celeste's head. She seemed to like that, giggling a little as she reached out for Pikachu's tail, only for him to take it away. "Why do you want to be a Pokémon?"

"I wanna be a Pokémon like you and Uncle Greninja!" Ash blinked, a little taken aback by his daughter's statement. She was beaming so brightly at him that he couldn't help it, and he let out a laugh.

"So, you want to be like me and Greninja. What do you think of that, Pikachu?" Ash asked, reaching over to ruffle Celeste's hair. She giggled and tried to stop him. Ash continued looking at his best buddy; the one who'd stuck with him through everything.

"Pikapi, chu chu," Pikachu said with a sagely nod. Ash deemed that as relatively unhelpful given the situation, so he decided to make the best of it. Scanning the living room and all the pictures of himself and the little girl with him, he decided on the best course of action. Man, this is hard work…

"Well, you know, Celeste," he began to say to his daughter as she righted herself. She began to swing back and forth on his lap, her short, stubby legs kicking to and fro in order to hit the chair. "Greninja might be a Pokémon, but he walks on two legs like you and me. So, if you want to be a Pokémon like me and Greninja then you have to walk on only two legs!"

"But that's no fun!" Celeste whined. Ash ignored her tiny little pleas and stood up, taking her with him to deposit her on two legs. She instantly fell onto all fours. He quickly reached back down and picked her back up, sighing a little. Thinking back, he wondered if he was as much of a handful as she was right now.

"Then let's make it fun!" Ash insisted. "That way, mommy can be proud of you."

"Mommy will be? !" Celeste asked, her eyes now really shimmering with starlight behind her irises. "Okay! Let's have fun, daddy! Let's have fun!"

"Pikachu, can you get that old Snorlax costume that…that Serena made?" Ash asked. He swallowed a little, still tasting his all-too-inadequate dinner in his throat. Even years later, he hadn't become that great of a cook. He did realize, however, that he was still young; it was just his circumstances that made him feel like a failure in that department.

"Pika!" Pikachu assured him, running off to the closet as quickly as possible.

"Okay, Celeste, here's what we're gonna do," Ash said, turning his daughter to face him. She snapped to attention. "I'm gonna wear mommy's old Snorlax outfit and I'm going to chase after you with Pikachu. If we catch you, you lose the game…but you won't be able to escape us on all fours! And if you do, I'll have Pikachu use Quick Attack."

"Okay! I can do it!" Celeste said, pumping both of her fists as she remained steady on both of her feet. Pikachu returned moments later, the Snorlax costume draped across his body. Ash quickly showed his best buddy some mercy and took it from him to quickly get dressed in it. Celeste was clapping her hands happily. "Snorlax! Daddy's a Snorlax!"

"Okay, let's go, Pikachu!" Ash said cheerfully, pointing forward. Celeste heard his words and instantly began to run away from her father. Ash grinned once more and ran after her at a slower pace as she rounded the chair and aimed for the kitchen. Ash tromped after her all while watching her progress. To his surprise, she managed to never fall to all fours once, remaining running as usual. Soon he even noticed that her arms were thrown behind her, just like Greninja would when he ran. Ash offered a chuckle at that and continued inching closer. As she came near the table, he made a grab for her, but Celeste happened to spin out of the way.

That caught Ash off guard and he stopped his pursuit of his daughter. Yet at the same time, he couldn't help the grin splitting his face. Like mother, like daughter. Soon after, he recovered and dashed around the other side of the table to catch Celeste who was giggling and screaming loudly at her father embracing her.

"Look, Pikachu! I caught a Celeste!"

"Pi Pikachu!" Pikachu chirped happily while Ash gripped his daughter closer. Celeste began to yawn loudly.

"Do you…do you think mommy will be proud, daddy?" Celeste asked. Ash cradled her closer and kissed her on the forehead while she yawned once more.

"She will be," Ash insisted. "Why don't we get you ready for bed so that we can tell her all about how awesome you were today!"

"Yaa…aaay…" Celeste once more yawned out, clearly exhausted from the day's events and running away from her father. Ash lowered the head portion of his Snorlax costume and continued to hold Celeste in his arms as he turned out of the kitchen. Pikachu raced ahead and up the stairs to get to Celeste's room. Celeste continued to yawn as she snuggled into her father's chest. Ash just shook his head and continued up the stairs until he was in her room, decorated with numerous assorted Pokémon paraphernalia.

"Come on, let's get you dressed for bed," Ash insisted. For once, Celeste didn't fight him on the issue and allowed her father a moment to get out of the Snorlax costume before being dressed in her blue pajamas for the night. Glancing over at his daughter's dresser and the little pictures there of her mother, smiling and dancing, Ash smiled back. Then he quickly laid her to bed while she stared up at him with wide eyes.

"Daddy, can you tell me a story?" Celeste asked all too brightly.

"Of course, I can," he said, stroking her hair that was so similar to his, all while staring into the eyes of her mother.

"Tell me how you met mommy…ooh, and Uncle Greninja! Pikachu, too!" Celeste said, suddenly filled with energy, though unable to stifle the yawn that came next. Ash ruffled her hair again as he looked back over to the dresser. Seeing the pictures there of Serena dancing and smiling alongside her Pokémon reminded him of their story and he turned to Celeste again.

"Just one story for the night," Ash told her with a finger. "Otherwise I won't get to share anything tomorrow."

"Fine…"

"So, mommy and I met in a forest when she was scared of a Poliwag," Ash started. Celeste, naturally, saw that as the perfect opportunity to interrupt right away.

"Scared of a Poliwag? But they're cool!" she said, almost like she was shocked (though Ash must have told the impressionable little girl this story a million times already). Ash looked down at her in admonishment and she smiled sheepishly.

"Yes, but when I next saw your mother, there was no way she was scared of a Poliwag, and after our adventures together, she wasn't scared of anything!" Ash insisted, tapping his daughter on the nose while she giggled with yet another yawn. He could tell she was close to falling asleep. "Of course, we had to go our separate ways, but that's okay, because we loved each other."

"Pi!" Pikachu insisted, confirming what Ash was saying to the little girl.

"And then there was you!" Ash said, reaching over once more to kiss his daughter on the head. Celeste smiled at that and snuggled into her pillow.

"Hope we can see mommy again soon…" Celeste mumbled out, sleep finally seeming to claim her in that very moment. Ash stroked her hair, breathing in softly so she couldn't hear the heaviness in it. Once more, he glanced over to the dresser and saw that old, musty blue ribbon upon it, forlorn and abandoned. He stood, walking over to it as Celeste fell into sleep and took ahold of it, remembering very acutely the day he'd given it to Serena.

"And one day she can have it, too, because it represents us. So don't give up until the end." Ash whipped around at Serena's voice, but saw that she wasn't there. He sighed loudly. She was never there. Never had been. At least, not since she'd had Celeste…or so he'd been told. Even looking back now, finding out he'd had a daughter was something he never expected. Finding out Serena was gone was something he thought he'd never recovered from. Yet…Celeste had needed him. That was enough to keep him going. That was enough to make him never give up, no matter how hard things got; she wouldn't want him to, after all.

Smiling sadly, and gripping the ribbon tightly, Ash made his way back over to the softly sleeping Celeste and Pikachu, laying down on the bed with them. Without thinking, Ash put the ribbon upon Celeste's wrist and then embraced her sleeping form. "We'll go see Serena tomorrow."

Then he fell asleep, thinking of nothing but taking his daughter to see her mother at the place she'd always be.

Author's Note: I know this was a rather short fic, but one that I still wanted to write to celebrate my friend Luky's birthday and thank them for their friendship! This AU idea, regarding Ash being a father and Serena being…well, dead, was theirs and I decided to write it for them. Giving words to the idea, as it were. It's certainly kind of sad, but I hope I did a nice job conveying the small slice of life topped with the reveal at the end. It was partially an exercise in writing something that wasn't my idea, completely different from what I usually do, that keeps them in-character. Ironically an Amour story without the Amour. I think it's good, but hopefully you think so as well.

More importantly, I hope that you think it's good as well, Luky, because I wrote this for you after all, ha ha. I hope I did justice to your original idea and that you enjoy it. I know you prefer the Japanese name for Ash, but I went with the trademarked English one for others' accessibility. Anyway, you gave me such wonderful fanart on my Ancienverse, and now I'm repaying the favor! Happy Birthday!

So, with this short oneshot complete, I ask you to please Review and Dare to Be Silly!