Wai~!

Disclaimer: Pokemon belongs to Nintendo and Shogakukan Comics. This non-profit, non-copyright infringing fanfic belongs to me. Do _not_ take my work!

Notes: <> for telepathy, ** for thoughts, and italics if a pokemon talks!

Recap: Lance visited Ash in Cinnabar

Chapter 7

“Happy birthday to you, Happy birthday to you, Happy birthday dear Ash, happy birthday to you.”

Lance, Ash’s pokemon, Blaine, and Delia finished the song as Ash blew out all twelve candles on the two-tiered white chocolate strawberry mousse cake.

Ash smiled shyly as Delia cut the cake. When he’d been little, he’d imagined crowds of friends at his birthday party. This small gathering was perhaps a step down, but no less sincere for their actions.

He knew they were all real friends after all.

They all sat quietly around the kitchen, munching on individual slices of cake. Occasionally, someone, usually Delia, would bring up an incident in Ash’s past, which would cause blushing on said trainer’s face and laughter from the others. However, it wasn’t mocking laughter, so Ash didn’t’ mind too much.

The presents, however, more than made up for it.

Blaine had gotten Ash a Ponyta. Ash was a bit surprised, since he already had a bike. On the other hand, he wasn’t sure if he wanted to ride the yellow monstrosity for the rest of his life, so it seemed good enough.

Ponyta was quite affectionate, licking his face and giving him a quick trot around Pallet to prove himself. Blaine smiled. Ash was like a child, or maybe a grandchild to him. He’d gotten used to having the slightly clumsy boy around and he enjoyed his company. Maybe Ash would come back to Cinnabar after he fought the League?

Riding horseback was preferred to a bike after all… this way he didn’t have to exercise!

Ash grinned.

“Here.” Lance handed over a small package wrapped in Dratini-print paper. “Open mine next.”

Ash cheerfully obliged. The wrapping revealed that inside there was a Water Stone and a Good Rod.

“Sugoi~!”

“Well, I figured that since you liked water-types so much, this might help.”

“Thank you very much Lance!”

“Hey, it’s nothing. What are friends for?”

Ash grinned. He was careful not to open Delia’s package though. She always gave him underwear, and that was something he wouldn’t be comfortable unwrapping around a friend.

He still remembered his fifth birthday when she had given him Charmander-print briefs and Gary had hung them from the school flagpole.

Bad thoughts there… he quickly derailed that train of thought.

Afterwards, Blaine flew back to Cinnabar on his Moltres, while Ash and Lance sat on the porch, drinking lemonade and playing cards.

“I add on my ace of hearts to your three aces and I bomb you.”

Ash sighed despondently. “Let’s play again.”

So far, Lance had won three games of gin rummy while Ash had only won one. Was this a talent too?

Oh well.

Ten minutes later…

“Yay! I win again!” Ash cheered.

“I can’t believe you had five to ten of the spades all in your hand and you were only waiting for the seven.”

Ash beamed. “See? I can be sneaky too!”

“As if I didn’t know _that_!”

It was going well until Lance’s cell phone rang. His face was fixed in a scowl as he picked it up.

“What’s wrong?”

“My sister Violet got hit by a car. She’s in Cerulean General Hospital right now. I have to leave.”

Ash couldn’t help feeling a stab of annoyance, it was his birthday party, but nodded. “Bye then, Lance.” * Family’s still important I guess, more than this. *

It didn’t make him any happier.

“Violet?”

That name sounds familiar.

Wasn’t she one of the Cerulean City gym leaders?

I think so…

“But she’s Lance’s sister… wow!”

Well, he’s a better trainer by far. Wooper nodded.

“I wonder if Lance is related to the other gym leaders then... or Misty.” They both had red hair and blue-green-some-sort-of-shade eyes…

Why not?

“So how is she, doctor?” Lance asked. Their mother had died giving birth to Misty, their father was still wandering around somewhere…

The Cerulean group members were Lance’s half-sisters. Their father had been a male prostitute, he had been paid to impregnate one of the girls in the Blackthorn Dragon Clan because they needed an heir and he looked strong. Lance’s mother had raised him for seven or eight years before pneumonia knocked her off one winter.

After being paid, the prostitute had left Blackthorn, wandered around, a few months later had met a young water trainer named Rose and married her. Three daughters had been born initially, as triplets, but two years later, when Misty was born, Rose had died and he had fled, not wanting to deal with the responsibility.

Rose’s parents, the Cerulean City gym leaders, had taken the grandchildren in, but now both had retired to Nursing homes.

Therefore, Lance was stuck here making medical decisions.

“I’m not even her full brother.” Lance muttered under his breath as the white-coated professional consulted his chart. “Well?”

“There’s no internal bleeding, luckily, but she did break an arm. So she’ll need a few days to recover and then she can go home. Fortunately, the bone only fractured in one place and a cast will suffice.”

“And the cost?” He demanded without preamble.

“I think trainer’s insurance will cover it. Don’t worry.”

“Fine.” Lance stopped to check in on Daisy. He saw that she and her boyfriend were busy consoling each other over the misfortune, so after one peek in the door, hightailed it out of there.

What a day…

Ash climbed into bed, yawning. His mom had gotten him a complete set of pokemon encyclopedias, which was useful, and some more underwear, as he expected. Therefore, it was very fortunate he had not unveiled that particular gift in front of guests.

Some things had to be kept private after all.

“Good night, Ash.” Delia called up.

‘Night, mom.”

Tomorrow was another day…

End Chapter

Completed 10/29/04

Pika-Chan: Hi!

Ash: What are you doing here?

Lance: Probably evaluating fluff level.

Shoyko: No darkfic. ^-^