Part Four: Eve

She went to the living room. Or tried to. She kept getting lost. Who WANTED this big a house?!

Finally, she found the living room.

"Hi," said Ash. "You just missed him."

She noticed that he was still not calling him Dad.

"He said we could go down to the basement and 'amuse yourselves with the entertainment devices within'. What a--"

Whatever it or he was, however, would remain a mystery, as Ash cut off his sentence. "So, let's go to the basement," he said.

"If we can _find_ it," said Misty.

"Let's see, he said second door to the right... " He opened a door which led to a flight of stairs leading down.

"Why do I feel I should have gathered some pebbles?" Misty quipped.

"Ha ha. Very funny."

They traveled down, after Misty made sure the door could be opened from within. At the bottom of the stairs, they came to a door. Therefore, they opened it.

Inside was a lot of video game equipment and game tables.

Misty stood there for a second. "I was almost expecting something else..."

Ash replied, "Yeah, like instruments of death..." When he saw Misty staring at him oddly, he cleared his throat and went in. Misty, shaking her head, followed.

Ash and Misty opted for the more physical games like air hockey and pool. Pikachu came in and played Zelda 64 while Togepi and Poliwag watched in awe. Unfortunately, he blew up the system when he got sick of Navi. So he switched to Pokemon Puzzle League.

Finally, they got bored stiff and went back upstairs, just in time for dinner.

The conversation (if you could call it that) was rather one-sided. Ash's father talked about all the great captures he had made today. Even Ash was bored stiff. It just added to his store of anger at his father, from what events she did not know.

But one day, all heck was going to break loose...

~*~*~*~*~*~*~

She woke up on Christmas Eve. They went shopping at the mall, where everyone exclaimed, "Oh, I didn't know you had a son!"

Misty's opinion of this man was rapidly deteriorating. He sounded like a chauvinist pig who couldn't care less about his son. But she kept that to herself.

They went home and decorated the tree. Everything looked perfect and sparkling.

But something was missing...

Love.

There was no love here. That was what Christmas was all about. So it was all just a play, a show.

"My world is changing,

I'm rearranging,

Does that mean Christmas changes?"

The lyric came to her out of the blue. But it was something to think about it.

Were they just getting too old for Christmas?... No.

"Christmas is here, if you care!"

Christmas was here, but what did it matter?

"If you have love in your heart and your mind,

You will feel that Christmas all the time."

It was love, she had known that. But what could she do?...

Ash came in, followed by his dad.

"I think this room is fine," said Ash.

"No, it needs some garlands. I'll go get some." He left.

And in Ash's eyes, she did not see love.

She sighed. This was just wonderful.

"Christmas is here, if you care!" she sang under her breath.

~NOTE: I don’t own the song, Faith Hill does. ^^ Hope you like it! And my name isn’t Satoshi Tajari! ^_^ Please R&R!!~