Surprisingly, dinner continued with no further problems, everyone remained quiet and resumed eating their suppers. No one looked up from their plates, unless to grab a glass of water or a condiment. A heavy tension surrounded the group as they ate and almost everyone silently knew that if they started speaking they might warrant the fury of ether Ash’s girlfriend or mother, both of which had displayed fiery tempers. The only one unaware of the rising conflict was ironically the one that it was centered around.

“Great dinner, mom,” Ash said with his hands and face covered in spaghetti sauce. Since shrinking to a size where a fork could impale him, Ash had learned to accept getting a little bit messy. At first, it bothered him to literally wade through his own food, but after failing to lift up a table spoon, he had given up and let himself eat like an animal. It wasn’t a completely bad thing though, he might get messy, but cleaning up was always a blast. Whenever he got spattered with food, Misty always cleaned him up with her big soft tongue. Being so close to someone’s mouth might make a lesser man afraid, but Ash felt only a great deal of amusement when he was being Misty’s sucker. Also, it was always a blast for Misty. She told Ash that she loved getting a taste of normal food with a hint of Ash for flavor. Sometimes she joked about having Ash soak himself in all her food before she ate it.

“Dear, you really shouldn’t be making such a mess,” Delia scolded. Although wanting to win her sons affection, she couldn’t allow him to display such bad table manner.

“It’s cool, Misty will clean me up,” Ash scoffed before picking up a huge piece of pasta and taking a big bite out of it.

“And how will she do that?” Delia asked suspiciously. Misty’s body tensed up. Ash wouldn’t say it, he couldn’t say it, he can’t say it.

“She licks me clean really well. She can get that tongue of hers everywhere?” The reactions were mixed from everyone at the table. Casey flashed Misty the thumbs up for being so bold with Ash, that girl sure knew how to please a man. Daisy was in the middle of drinking a glass of water when Ash made his announcement; so of coarse she did a spit take all over Casey. Delia reaction was one of pure shock, hearing about her son getting licked all over broke her brain and she became catatonic. Casey was drenched to the bone in her over sized Electabuzz jersey and looked at her shirt in disgust as water continued to drip off her.

“Darn it,” she groaned at seeing how much saliva and spit was all over her.

“Sorry,” Daisy gushed momentarily forgetting the very personal comment Ash had just made. Rushing to Casey, Daisy took several napkins and tried to clean Casey off.

“It’s okay,” Casey said with a shrug. Grabbing the hem of her jersey, she pulled it over her head and started ringing it out. Everyone watched as Casey sat there topless, with only her training bra keeping her from becoming completely nude from the waist up.

“What the hell are you doing?” Misty growled, as she too forgot about Ash’s slip of the tongue about her tongue action.

“Ringing out my jersey, duh. I got to get it dry to prevent any damage.” Misty groaned in frustration and looked down at Ash. Her expression turned sour when she noticed that he was staring at Casey. With a flick of her finger to the back of Ash’s head, he went careening into their shared supper face first. Once Misty knew Ash’s eyes were off of Casey, she returned her attention to the topless girl.

“I mean, why are you doing it in front of all of us?” Misty clarified.

“What’s the problem?” Casey shrugged off Misty. “We’re all girls here, right?”

“Ash isn’t a girl!” Misty snarled. She knew that Casey was just being her usual funky self and it was nice to be with someone less feminine then her for a change, but surly she had to see what was wrong with stripping in front of her boyfriend.

“Yah, well he ain’t a man ether. Ash is a shrinkee and he might be my friend, but I don’t think he counts as a person honestly. I don’t feel at all embarrassed to strut around in my underwear before him. Hell, I wouldn’t be embarrassed if he got a full view of me in the nude. Oh yah, that reminds me, I think my bra needs to be rung out as well.”

Casey reached behind her back to undue her bra, but Misty pointed to the bathroom and screamed, “out!” Getting the hint, Casey huffed and walked away to the bathroom to fully get herself cleaned up.

“That girl needs professional help,” Misty muttered to her self. Rubbing her temples, she felt like what a mother must feel like after dealing with an obnoxious and ill-mannered child.

“I completely agree,” Daisy said, showing for the first time anger.
“”Saying that Ash isn’t a person, that’s completely ridicules.”

“Not totally,” Ash sighed after pulling himself free of his pasta prison.
“What do you mean?” Daisy inquired as she sat back in her seat and looked at Ash curiously.

“I’d have to say that about 90% of the people that I’ve met have treated shinkees worse then insects. The basic consensus among most people is that my kind are not even remotely human in any way.” Misty nodded to his comment sadly; she herself was one of those people.

“But that’s insane, shrinkees are just people but only a few inches tall. Their no different then you or me.” Daisy said.

“Your wrong, shrinkees WERE people. Now, they are tiny little critters that nearly everyone thinks have less right to live then Pokemon. You got to understand that all shrinkees are tiny and have little or no control over their lives. They are the weakest animals in the food chain. Hell, a Magicarp ate Ash once and they are considered to be the crappiest Pokemon in the world. No matter how you look at them, shrinkees are small shadows of former people, or at least most of them are. I think that Ash is the exception that proves the rule.” Misty finished by looking at Ash thoughtfully. She had yet to meet a single shrinkee with the same sparkle of life in their eyes as Ash. To her they all were insects with inferior minds and bodies, Ash was the only one she’d ever met that didn’t whine or cry or act like a pest. He might not be a normal human anymore, but he was closer to a human being then any other shrinkee she’d ever seen.

“And you think this too Ash?” Daisy asked shakily.

“It’s sad, but kinda true in some sick way. I’m never going to be the same Ash you grew up with and nothing will ever change that.” He sighed and got a far away look in his eyes. It was a hard reality to live with, but as long as he had his friends and most importantly Misty, he knew that he would be all right.