Merry Christmas!

(and a Happy New Year!)

Disclaimer: Dear Santa, all I want for Christmas is the legal rights to Pokémon. Unless you have the power to make Pokémon real... no, I didn’t think so. (sigh)

Summary: Misty decides to spend the Christmas/New Year break with in Pallet Town with her friends.

Note: Okay, time to re-format my Christmas story. It’s in five parts, and they’ll be uploaded in one go, so this’ll be the only time I mention it, okay?

Speech. Thoughts. Pokémon.

Part 1: Twas the night before Christmas...

Delia Ketchum hummed happily to herself as she bustled around the kitchen preparing for the big day. “Boy, your mum sure is happy.” Max commented, looking over the back of the couch. “Yeah, I haven’t seen her like this in a long time.” confirmed Ash, looking as well. “It’s probably because she’s happy that you’re home for Christmas.” Brock said as he came in from the hallway. “Anyway, May, Max, I’m done with the phone.” They jumped up. “Great! Now we can call our parents and wish them a merry Christmas, too.” May raced past Brock into the hallway. “And a happy new year!” Max half-shouted as he pushed past, trying to be the first to the phone. Brock nodded at Ash as he sat down. “My parents, and my little brothers and sisters told me to wish the same to you, as well. I told them you said thanks.” Ash grinned. “Thanks, Brocko.” He looked around the house at his friends; May and Max talking on the phone; his mother in the kitchen; Brock on the couch next to him; Tracey just coming in through the kitchen door; and Pikachu asleep on top of the TV. “Man, this is gonna be the best Christmas ever! There’s just one thing missing...” Brock looked at him curiously. “Yeah, what’s that?”

KNOCK, KNOCK!

“Now, who in the world could that be?” Delia wiped her hands on a dish-cloth as she went to answer the front door. “Maybe it’s Gary? He did say that he might come over later...” Tracey guessed. Ash shook his head. “No, Gary’d just walk in through the kitchen door, like you did.” They heard Delia’s excited squeal, then footsteps coming up the short hallway to the lounge-room. “Who was it, mum?” Ash called out. “Oh, nobody important...” Misty grinned as she came in and leaned on the edge of the doorway. “Misty?!” Ash jumped up, excited. “I was just thinking ‘bout you! ... I mean, uh...” he stopped and blushed. Misty raised an eyebrow. “Yeah? Nothing bad, I hope?” Ash shook his head frantically. “No, just how it’d be great if you were here, and... hey, why are you here, anyway?” Misty shrugged as Delia came up behind her and smiled. “Well, my parents are out of town, and there is no way that I’m gonna spend another Christmas with my sisters, not after last year...” she shuddered. “So, I figured, why not come here? At least I can be sure of having at least one person that I can talk to without getting into an argument.” She grinned. “I’m obviously not talking about Ash, here.” She added with a wink. “Hey!”

Delia looked around at her charges. “Okay, we’ll meet back here at the Pokécenter at two this afternoon, okay?” “Okay!” everyone chorused before dashing off in different directions. They’d come to Viridian City for some last minute Christmas shopping when everyone realized they had nothing to give Misty as no-one had been expecting her to come visit. Misty slowly walked around the city. ‘It’s a good thing I did all my shopping before I left home.’ She mused with a smile. ‘I think that I just might have found the perfect gift for Ash. And I think Brock will be very pleased with what I got him, too.’ She chuckled quietly, causing a small boy near her to look up at her strangely. Misty smiled at him and quickly walked away. ‘Okay, I’ve gotta stop doing that...’

Ash walked along the street, looking in every shop window, trying to find something, anything that Misty would like. “High heels?” he asked Pikachu. “Pika.” He shook his head. Ash sighed. “Man, why are girls so hard to shop for? You can’t just asked them, cause they get mad if you don’t know what they like. But if you get the wrong thing, they blow up.” He groaned loudly. “And when Misty blows, she takes out everything, and everyone around her.” Pikachu patted the back of Ash’s head. <Just don’t get her anything to do with bugs, and you’ll live through Christmas> Ash sighed. “Well, that just leaves another fifty-seven gazillion things left to choose from...”

“Hello, may I help you?” Delia looked up at the assistant behind the counter. “Um, yes. I was just wondering if you do engravings.” The assistant nodded. “Yes, we can engrave special messages on certain objects. Did you have anything in mind?” Delia smiled and took out a pen. “Yes. Can you engrave this on that...” she wrote something down on a piece of paper and pointed at something in the display case. “And this, on that.” She pointed at a second object as she handed the piece of paper to the assistant. The assistant read the messages over and checked the items. “Yes, we can manage that. Anything else, madam?” Delia nodded with a relieved sigh. “Yes, can you have them ready and wrapped up by two this afternoon? They’re gifts.” “Sure thing.”

Ash stopped walking and stared in the window. “Yes! That’s it!” he raced inside and started looking about the store. “Girls love that jewellery stuff. Misty’s a girl, so...” Pikachu hopped down onto the counter in front of him. <Have you ever seen her wear any jewellery before?> Ash stopped short. “Well, no, but...” he waved a hand to indicate all the various pieces around them. “There’s gotta be something here she’ll like. Besides...” he dropped his hand and sighed. “It’s the only thing I can think of...”

Misty sighed and glanced at her watch. ‘Man, I didn’t know I was so hard to shop for.’ She shrugged and took another slurp of her hot chocolate. ‘Oh well, at least I know they’re really thinking about it, and I’m not just gonna get something lame, like several pairs of socks.’ She frowned. ‘One pair, just one pair, and I’m returning that person’s gift, someplace they WON’T like it!.’ Misty smiled and wiped the chocolate off her top lip with her napkin. ‘Eh, at least I get to relax while they’re all running around. If it wasn’t for Ash’s mum’s cooking, I’d get another one of these hot chocolates.’ She sighed. ‘I’m gonna need to go on a diet when I get home, that’s for sure.’

Later... “Well it’s about time you lot showed up!” Misty glanced around as everyone spun and desperately tried to hide their presents behind them. She rolled her eyes. “Please! I’ve been standing here long enough to know that nobody’s brought me anything bigger than my hand.” She shrugged. “Anyway, we’d better get going. I was watching the TV earlier, and it said that’s there’s gonna be a snow-storm coming pretty soon. We don’t want to get caught in it.”

Sometime later, after barely getting through the door before the storm hit... “Hey, Misty?” “Yeah Ash?” she replied, stamping the snow off her boots. “What’d you get me for Christmas?” Misty smiled and secretly grabbed a handful of snow from the hood of her jacket. “This.” She shoved the snow down the back of his shirt. “AHHHH!” Ash jumped around the room, yelping, whilst everyone laughed. Finally, the snow melted and he turned to Misty. “Why you...” Misty’s grin faded. “Uh-oh... I’d better run now...” “Come here!” Ash yelled as Misty dashed upstairs. “Can’t you take a joke?!” “Apparently not.” Tracey mused. “Here we go again...” Brock sighed.

Okay, that’s part one out of the way. Next time, we get to see what they brought for each other. In case you were wondering, this is set after the Sinnoh League, so Max is a trainer now. I didn’t know enough about Dawn to write anything about her, so let’s just say, I dunno, she decided to spend Christmas at home or something. Part two is called, ‘The Season For Giving’. Enjoy!

Okay, even though I know more about Dawn now, I really don’t like her that much, or at least, not enough to put her in here. Quite frankly, she’s a bit of a brat. Way too sure of herself, seeing as she’s a total rookie. Even Misty wasn’t like that. Most of the time...

AUSSIE WOLF

18-Oct-08. (fixed)