..:-:..
Delia Ketchum had just finished doing the chores for the day, and she was completely exhausted, even though she had Mr. Mime to help her. She laid down on her couch, and sighed. Closing her eyes, she thought of her son. Ash had left for his pokemon journey about a year ago. She had been so worried about him, but he was growing up, and he could take care of himself. Even though she knew she could do nothing about it, Delia had sometimes wished she could just go back, back to when he was still a young child. Opening her eyes, she glanced at the table with a number of picture frames resting on it.
One of them had brought a smile to her face. She picked it up, and observed how wonderful that one day had been. As she looked down at the people in the picture, four people smiled back at her. Well, two of them were forcing themselves to smile, and at that she chuckled to herself.
"Oh Ash, you were always that kind of boy… and you still are."
..:-:..
"Mommy! Mommy, mommy, mommy! Can we please go to the park today? PLEASEEEEE!"
Four-year-old Ash Ketchum, had gotten down on his knees and started to beg his mother for a day at the park.
Delia smiled down at her son, and nodded her head.
"All right sweetie, we can go, but you need to change first! Look how dirty your clothes are! You can't go looking like a muddy dog or something that crawled out of the garbage can, now can you?"
"Okay… but then we go?" asked the young boy eagerly.
"Yes, no go on!"
Ten minutes later, Ash came back from his room in the most peculiar of outfits. He had on a black tee shirt, but it was on backwards, and so were his cargo-type pants. His mother couldn't help but laugh. Adamant as her son was, he put his hands on his hips and looked at her angrily.
"What's so funny?"
"Oh sweetie, it's nothing, just, oh just come here dear. You seem to have… oh just come here and we can fix it."
Ash obeyed, and Delia corrected his outfit. The front of his tee shirt displayed the word Pokemon in bright yellow letters. After about five minutes of trying to get his shoes on, Ash and Delia were finally ready to go out to the park.
It was a beautiful day for a trip to the park. It was perfect in fact… too perfect. The sky was clear, with the occasional white puffs of clouds passing by, but yet the sun wasn't beaming down on them with blazing heat. The wind wasn't too windy; it was just the right kind of breeze to make you feel refreshed and ready for anything that came your way. The pair was walking hand in hand to the park, when suddenly a white rental car zoomed past them.
"Mommy, who was that?" asked Ash innocently and curiously.
"Hmm… I really don't know sweetie, but I guess they must have been in a big hurry."
Ash shrugged and the thought left his mind, as the feeling of playing in the playground filled his thoughts.
..:-:..
"Here we are! Enjoy your stay, and we will be back in a couple of hours. Have a nice time Mrs. Waterflower."
"Why thank you Henry. I'm sure Misty and I will spend our time here enjoyably."
The woman got out of her car with a young girl, around the age of five years old. The woman named Mrs. Waterflower had somewhat of a strange array of colors in her hair. There was some blue, violet, blonde and last but not least, some orange. Her daughter, Misty, wasn't as strange, (thankfully); she was orange-headed, but she wore a hat to cover most of her hair. All you could see out from under it was a pair of sparkling cerulean eyes. Her hair was tied back in a ponytail and it came out from the whole in the back of her hat. She wore a simple white tee shirt and some dark blue shorts.
Misty was ecstatic to be here with her mom. Since she had three older sisters, Misty didn't get to spend a lot of time with her mom, and so this vacation was a dream come true. And now they were at one of her most favorite places on earth: the playground.
"All right Misty dear, you go along and play. I'll be here on the bench watching, oh and be careful!"
"Mom… I know, don't worry. I'm a big girl now, I'm five years old!" Misty pointed out while showing her mom the five fingers on her hand.
Mrs. Waterflower smiled as she watched her youngest daughter run along.
..:-:..
"Ash! Come back! Oh… it's no use…"
Delia Ketchum sighed as she saw her son run excitedly across the street and into the vast playground. She looked to see if any cars were coming, but there were none, so she crossed the street with a quick walk, and sat down at the bench to watch her son playing. Next to her sat a strange lady, with a multi-color hair color.
"Um… hi, my name is Delia Ketchum. It's nice to meet you," said Delia with a smile on her face, as she extended out her hand.
"Oh! Hi there! My name is Lovely Waterflower! Nice to meet you too! Are you here with your son?"
"Why yes… but how did you…"
"Oh, why I see him playing right over there."
Lovely pointed towards the sandbox, where Ash was building a sandcastle. Delia smiled and nodded.
"Yes, that's my boy Ash. He's such a sweetie. Oh, so are you here with that cute girl over there?"
Both of the women looked over to the monkey bars where Misty was climbing left and right with fluid motion.
"Isn't Misty the cutest little girl ever? I love her so much, but you know, she has three older sisters, so she feels out loved sometimes. We're on vacation here you know; we live all the way in Cerulean City."
"Cerulean City?" a light bulb flashed in Delia's head, "Wait a minute, are you the Waterflower, leader of Cerulean City Gym? I've heard so much about you! And I've been to numerous shows!"
Lovely blushed slightly at the compliment and nodded her head.
"Yes, that's me, the one and only. I thought I wouldn't be recognizable in these parts of Kanto, but I guess I'm very popular!"
"Oh yes! Now I see why Misty is so graceful! Being around water all the time and what not! My Ash could learn a thing or two from her, he's so clumsy you know."
"Well, maybe they could become buddies or something. Oh look! Misty is walking over to him now! Let's watch!"
"Okay!" replied Delia cheerfully.
..:-:..
Misty had just done a summersault off of the monkey bars, when she spotted a young goofy looking boy in the sandbox. His black hair was really messy, and he didn't mind getting the sand in his pants or anything. He just sat there, playing joyfully without a care in the world. She thought he was kind of cute, so she decided to see if he wanted to play with her.
"Um… hi, can I play with you?"
Ash was too busy building his sand castle, so he just glanced up quickly, and all he saw was a hat, white shirt, and jeans, so he assumed it was some kind of boy that wanted to be mean to him. He looked back down quickly and went back to work.
"I said, can I play with you?"
"No."
"Well why not?" asked Misty, her fiery temper starting to kick in.
"Um, because."
"Because? What kind of an answer is that?"
Hearing the rise in the voice, he closed his eyes, and put his hands over his head.
"Please don't hurt me! I didn't do anything to you!"
Misty looked at him with shock on her face.
"Hurt you? Why would I do that? All I wanted to do was be your friend, and play with you."
Ash looked up carefully and saw that it wasn't a boy at all, but really it was a girl. His worry decreasing rapidly, he started to laugh. Misty's fiery temper came back in an instant.
"Why are you laughing?" she asked, putting her hands on her hips.
"Oh, well, you see… I thought you were a boy! Hahahaha!"
Ash fell onto his back, and he started to roll from side to side because of his laughter. Suddenly, he stopped as he was pulled up by the front of his shirt.
"WHAT DID YOU SAY? A BOY! I'M NOT A BOY! I'M A BIG GIRL, AND NO ONE IS GOING TO-"
"Misty! Put him down at once!" yelled Lovely from the bench.
Misty looked at her mom, and pouted as she put down the boy.
"Okay mom."
"Ash! Honey, are you okay?"
Delia came rushing to her son's side, and Misty looked at them confusedly.
"Mommy! This mean girl was going to hurt me!"
"Mommy? Mommy? Who calls their mom, mommy?" asked Misty, the role of laughing uncontrollably now on her.
"Misty, that wasn't very nice of you. Now please apologize to Ash."
Misty's face became blank, noticing for the first time that somehow this boy's mom, had known her name, and was talking on the bench with her own mom. This could only mean one thing; that her mom, and his mom were now 'friends', which meant that this boy, Ash, was now her friend too.
"I'm sorry… umm…"
"Mrs. Ketchum, you can call me that, and now apologize to Ash."
Misty turned towards the boy, and he was grinning sheepishly.
"I can't hear you…"
Misty forced herself to smile.
"I'm… I'm sorry, Ash. Please forgive me."
"All is okay! Now, you want to go play on the pokemon?"
Seeing that everything was okay, Delia went back to her spot on the bench.
"Play on the pokemon? What are you talking about?" asked Misty somewhat annoyed.
"Duh! The pokemon over there!"
Misty looked and saw that he was referring to the plastic replicas of different pokemon, on which you could ride. She rolled her eyes, and chuckled.
"I'm a big girl now; I don't ride on stupid… Oh my gosh!"
She out ran Ash, and found herself on a replica of a Tentacruel. Ash walked briskly towards the area, and leaned against a Pikachu. He sat there, staring at Misty, who was sitting and admiring the Tentacreul with admiration and love in her eyes.
Ash snorted.
"What's so funny now?"
"You. And Tentacreul."
"Tentacreul is the coolest pokemon ever! So what's so funny about that?"
"What? Are you joking? You're joking! Tentacreul, isn't cool at all!"
Those words stung at Misty's heart, and she froze. Seeing the effect he had on her, he decided to annoy her even more, so he sang about it.
"Tentacreul-is-not-cool! Tentacreul-is-not-cool! La-la-la-la-laaaa!"
"MOMMY!"
Misty ran away, tears running down from her eyes. When she reached her mother, she jumped into her lap, and squeezed her tight, not wanting to let go.
"Misty! What's wrong! What happened?"
"That… boy… mean… I… Tentacreul… not… cool!" she replied in between sobs.
"There, there… calm down, and tell me what happened."
Misty's sobs died down, and she looked up at her mother with teary eyes.
"That boy over there, he is very mean! He said that Tentacreul wasn't… wasn't… cool!"
And the fireworks exploded again, as Misty began to sob. Lovely cradled her daughter in her arms, while Delia went to go play Mrs. Cop again.
"Ash, why did you say those mean things to Misty?"
"I didn't know that they were mean… I'm sorry mommy…"
Ash looked at her, pouting his lip, and Delia couldn't help but give in.
"Oh, okay, as long as you go apologize."
The two of them reached the bench, and Misty turned around to face Ash.
"I'm sorry Misty. I really am… and Tentacreul… are cool…"
"You… you mean it?" said Misty smiling weakly.
"…Yes… I mean it."
"OK THEN!"
Misty jumped off of her mother's lap and pulled Ash by the arm, and into the playground.
The two mothers sighed, and then laughed.
"Aren't they so cute together?"
"Yeah, too bad we have to go back today though…"
"Oh no! Really? And we had just met! Oh look! There's a photo stand! Why don't we all take a picture together?"
"Sounds like a great idea Delia! Hey kids!"
Ash and Misty ran up to their mothers and listened.
"We're going to take a picture! Isn't that going to be fun!"
Ash and Misty looked at each other, as they realized for the first time that they were really of the opposite gender.
"What? I'm going to have to stand next to her? She's got coodies!" replied Ash, squirming closer to his mother.
"Him? I have to be in the same picture as that… boy? No way!" replied Misty, even squirmier than Ash.
"Oh come on, it won't be that bad!"
Each mother pulled their child towards the photo stand, and when it came time for the picture, Ash and Misty had smug looks on their faces.
"Okay now kids, let's say cheese!"
Both of them rolled their eyes, and said unenthusiastically, "Cheese."
..:-:..
Delia looked at the time and saw that she was late in making dinner. She put down the photo frame, as she finished daydreaming about that day when she and Ash had met the Waterflowers. It was so cute how Ash and Misty had always gotten on each other's cases, always making the other one angry for some reason. That faithful day had happened seven years ago today. She was about to go into the kitchen, when she heard a ruckus outside the front door.
"Quit complaining! You don't even know how good my mom's cooking is!"
"Well, I'm tired, and I want to take a rest!"
"We're here aren't we?"
The door opened and in came Ash.
"ASH! YOU'RE HOME!"
Delia rushed to her son, and hugged him tightly while he tried to breathe.
"Mom! I can't breathe!"
"Oh! I'm sorry!"
She let go of her son, and took a step back. Suddenly, she noticed the other person standing there with them. 'It can't be!'
"Hey mom! I made a new friend on my journey! This is Misty!"
"Hi Mrs. Ketchum! It's nice to meet you!"
Misty shook Delia's hand while she stood there in awe.
"Misty! It's… nice to meet you too!"
"I heard from Ash that you are an excellent cook!"
Delia chuckled and smiled.
"Why yes! I guess you could say that I am! I haven't started dinner yet, but why don't you two come in and sit down!"
The three of them walked into the living room, and Ash and Misty started to argue again.
"Ash! I thought you said we would have food now!" Misty hissed.
"Misty! Be nice!"
She rolled her eyes, and the two of them sat down.
"Dinner will be ready soon!"
Delia quickly took the picture away from the table and went into the kitchen. She looked at the picture one more time, and then she looked into the living room, where Ash and Misty were still arguing.
"Looks like the two of you don't even remember. Well, I guess in the end, it was all just meant to work out somehow."
..:-:..
"Ugh! Ash, you get me so mad sometimes!"
Misty was retorting from an earlier comment, and Ash just rolled his eyes. Then, something caught Misty's eyes.
"Oh Ash! Is this when you were young?"
She showed him a picture of him, and his mom at a park.
"Yeah! I always loved going to the park when I was little!"
Suddenly, a chill went up Misty's spine.
"What's wrong Misty?"
"Oh nothing. I just got a chill, that's all."
She put the picture down slowly, but her gaze didn't wander away from it.
"Okay kids! Dinner is ready!"
"Okay mom! We're coming! You coming Misty?"
"Huh? Oh yeah… I'll be right there."
Ash left, and Misty looked at the picture once again, and finally, she chuckled.
"Hmm… when I was young, I liked going to the park too."
She shrugged her shoulders, and went into the kitchen to eat dinner.
..:-:..
THE END..:-:..
A/N: So you liked it? I hope you did! I thought that would be a fun way to see Ash and Misty and how they were like as kids. So, likes, dislikes? Tell me please!
OH AND HAVE A GREAT DAY!