"Christmas Eve" by Aetherling for Hickorynose

[pokemod]

Recipient: hickorynose, blanchenoire
Title: Christmas Eve
Author: aetherling / aetherling
Rating: G
Verse: post-game gen ii
Characters/Pairings: Gold and Silver
Summary: After getting shut-in by a blizzard, Gold and Silver decide to put aside their differences for the time being to try and enjoy their Christmas Eve alone in the Pokemon Center.
Author Notes: ihavenoideawhatimdoing.gif. Remember kids, don't drink and drive. Also the real Christmas miracle this year is pokemod not murdering me for turning this in so late.
Content Tags: Gold being a jerk (or just being Gold)

"Hey! Heyyy! Anyone there?" Gold shouted, pounding the frosted glass doors of the Pokemon Center. What started as light snowfall turned into a roaring blizzard in a matter of minutes, and of course Gold found himself caught in the middle of it. Luckily he spotted the Pokemon Center nearby, but to his misfortune the sign on the door read:

Pokemon Center Mt. Silver Branch will be closed Dec. 25.
We wish you a joyous holiday season!

“Why do they have to be closed? It’s not even Christmas yet,” he complained to the grey sky.

“Because it’s already past their business hours.”

“But it’s barely mid-afternoon - “ Gold started before realizing his question was actually answered by someone. Not just anyone, but his old rival Silver, the last person he ever expected to hold the door open for him. “Silver? What are you doing here?”

“Are you going to come inside or not?” Silver asked irritably. Gold rushed into the building and just as Silver closed the door, Gold asked again, "What are you doing here anyways?"

"Why do you have to know so badly?" Silver asked in reply.

"Okay, fine, I won't ask anymore," said Gold, already feeling apprehensive around the redhead. And as if he weren’t unlucky enough, they were likely the only two people present. A brief scan confirmed his suspicions; not a single nurse was in sight. It looked like he will have to wait out the storm all alone with his rival.

Not that he disliked Silver or anything. Sure, they got off with a rough start, but things were better now. Gold knew Silver trained his Pokemon hard with the intent to best his rival someday, but with more kindness and compassion than before. After many battles, he finally acknowledged Gold as a worthy opponent and maybe even respected him a little. At the very least he treats Gold more civilly than when they first met.

But Gold could never call themselves friends. There was an invisible, giant barrier between them that normally went unnoticed, but it manifested after every battle as awkward feelings bubbled uncomfortably inside Gold. Maybe he should reach out to Silver more aside from the occasional battle. Maybe he should get to know the trainer behind the Pokemon. But then before he could take that step, Silver would leave, clearly uninterested in dealing with Gold any further. And Gold would think, maybe it was for the best. Some Pokemon don’t want to be caught, and some people don’t want to be friends. Some battles simply cannot be won.

“Do you need to heal your Pokemon?” asked Silver, who noticed Gold’s searching glance.

“Ah, yeah… No one's around though,” Gold said, but Silver shakes his head.

“Here, let me.” To his own astonishment, Gold readily handed his Pokemon over to Silver, and watched him place each Pokeball carefully onto the tray before sliding the whole thing into the machine behind the counter. He flipped two switches and pressed a few buttons, and the machine came to life, healing Gold’s Pokemon in seconds.

“Wow, thanks,” said Gold as Silver handed him his Pokemon back. “How did you learn how to do that?”

Silver’s expression darkened slightly and Gold couldn’t figure out why at first. But it hit him a moment later; to heal his Pokemon, Silver must have had to carefully observe the nurses for a long time, and wait even longer until they left for the day. A young boy wanted by the police couldn’t stroll into the nearest Pokemon Center and ask for his Pokemon to be healed without risking arrest. An arrest would surely mean a background check, and Gold knew Silver of all people definitely could not afford his identity, his link to Team Rocket, to be discovered.

“Sorry, I mean, you’re awesome and um. You really don’t have to answer that,” Gold said quickly, trailing off at the end. An odd expression briefly crossed Silver’s face, which, Gold noted, was a definite improvement from the one before. Silver didn’t say anything else, so Gold continued, “Well, I’m sure this blizzard won’t last very long, but let’s see what food they have here just in case.”

“Yeah,” Silver simply said, and the two walked towards the back of the building. Gold had never been in this part of the Pokemon Center before, having conducted his business exclusively at the front, so he was pretty surprised to see the back was substantially bigger than what he was used to. If Silver was just as surprised as he was, he did not let it show. Gold could never tell what the other boy was thinking anyways.

It didn’t take too long to find the cafeteria. Silver flipped on the light switch and Gold’s first impression was how warm and luxurious it looked compared to the exterior of the center. It was like he walked from a hospital into a spacious wooden cabin complete with wooden chairs, dining tables, plush sofas and a stone fireplace standing in the middle of it all, waiting to roar to life. There were an abundance of Christmas decorations all around too; wreaths hung off every wall lantern, 2 giant Christmas trees decorated with gold and silver baubles stood in opposite corners, green and red garlands intertwined with white incandescent lights hung above the windows, and holly festooned everything that could be festooned, including the candlestick holders atop of every table. But more importantly, a kitchen stocked with not one, but three refrigerators lined along the back wall behind a long wooden counter, and Gold headed there first.

“Ooh, nice,” he remarked, opening each fridge door and examining the contents. “We could have a whole feast with all this.”

Silver opened a storage room door. “There’s Pokemon food in here.” He began to pull out cans and bags of food. Gold caught himself smiling; he rarely got to see this compassionate side of Silver. It was such a change from the bad-tempered thief he met when he first started his Pokemon journey.

“Let me help,” said Gold, and together they placed food and water bowls, opened cans and emptied a whole sack of Pokemon pellets as carefully as possible, but Gold was a little clumsy and a few spilled out here and there. Silver gave a good-natured snicker and helped clean up Gold’s mess with nary a negative remark.

When they finally finished preparing enough food for their parties, they both let their Pokemon out of their Pokeballs, and the spacious dining room became lively and noisy as 12 fully evolved Pokemon emerged at once. They were confused to see each other out at the same time, and indoors to boot. Typhlosion and Feraligatr even crouched down hesitantly in preparation for a battle, but Silver pulled his Pokemon up, laughed and said, “No, we’re not battling him this time.” It was the first time Gold ever heard him laugh. He hoped it wouldn’t be the last.

“C’mon everyone, dig in!” said Gold, and their Pokemon were happy to obey. Typhlosion lit a flame into the fireplace and the logs crackled and burned. Soon the room was bursting with warmth and the sounds of Pokemon eating merrily filled the air.

“You should eat something too,” Silver said to Gold.

Gold’s face grew warm but he swore it was only because of the fireplace. “Um...do you want to cook something with me?”

“Oh.” Silver looked mildly astonished and a little uncertain. “Sure.”

They both decided to make relatively simple dishes to conserve the food that wasn’t theirs to begin with (Gold left some money and an apology note on the counter). Silver was in charge of making pasta while Gold chopped ingredients for some stir-fry. The kitchen came to life with the two of them working together, and while his hands were busy slicing vegetables, Gold chatted amiably about whatever popped in his head. Mainly holiday-related memories.

“And one year, Lyra and I spent Christmas at her grandparents’ place. You know, the Day-Care Couple on Route 34? Well when we got there they didn’t even have a Christmas tree or anything up, so we took a chainsaw from the shed - “

“That’s concerning,” said Silver, stirring the pasta.

“ - shush, nothing bad happened. Well,” Gold looked up deep in thought. “Her grandma nearly had a heart attack when she found out we used their chainsaw, and Lyra was grounded for the rest of the year, so...that’s how we saved Christmas.”

Silver briefly snickered.

“Did you ever celebrate Christmas?” Gold asked.

Silver was quiet for a while. Gold wondered if he crossed yet another border, but it turned out Silver was just concentrating on making the sauce. Watching his rival, he realized he was going to taste Silver’s cooking for the first time. That thought somehow brought more excitement than it should.

“Yes...we did,” Silver said carefully. “Around Christmas we invited lots of other families for dinner. The adults would sit at a round table and talk about business. Making negotiations and settling disputes. Sometimes there would be children my age present. I never got along with any of them; they were all twats.”

Business…in the loosest sense of the term, Gold reckoned, Team Rocket was a business. They put up the casino front to hide an underground crime syndicate with Giovanni in the middle of it all. The dinner party Silver was describing must have been one of many meetings between other crime organizations to reaffirm territory boundaries and promises to not get in each other’s way. But if Gold didn’t know Silver was Giovanni’s son, he probably would have assumed Silver’s family was a normal business.

“We always played cards. One year this green-haired kid lost so badly and we strung him up with lights like a Christmas tree. He cried for hours like the wimp he was.”

Gold was shocked. “You had him tied up for hours?”

Silver shrugged. “He had a Zoura with him, he could’ve easily told it to help him out. But he didn’t. That’s his fault.”

Gold refrained from passing judgement on Silver’s past self and started cooking his dish instead.

“They were all twats,” Silver repeated. And as an afterthought, he quietly added, “So was I.”

Gold finished preparing his dish the same time Silver got the pasta ready, and in no time they were dining together at a table next to their Pokemon. The meal certainly wasn’t Christmas Eve feast material, but Gold swore it was one of the best he’s ever had. Eating someone else’s cooking was a nice change. Not that his own cooking was bad or anything.

When they finished the meal, they settled in front of the fireplace with steaming cups of hot chocolate and Silver taught Gold a few card games. It wasn’t as exciting as a Pokemon battle, and sometimes Typhlosion’s cards would smolder, and Gold swore Silver’s Alakazam was cheating, but he still had fun. Most importantly, he and Silver were finally getting along. They talked, and played, and bickered, and talked some more until the logs turned to embers and most of their Pokemon have fallen asleep. By now Gold was starting to feel tired, and Silver could barely keep his eyes open or speak coherently.

“M’think I won,” Silver mumbled. “Again.”

“Nah,” Gold gave a huge yawn. “You were dozing off half the time.”

“Can beat you wi’ my eyes closed.” Silver’s eyes were shut and his head was kept up only by his hand.

“Go to sleep,” said Gold, and he gently shook Silver awake enough for him to make it to a couch. Silver let out a “Mmph” as he settled heavily into the cushions. Gold pulled out one of his spare blankets and drew it around Silver’s figure. Silver looked uncharacteristically unguarded lying like that, and Gold might have stared at his rival for longer than necessary.

“Thanks,” said Silver, and was silent until Gold settled in the opposite couch and was ready to doze off before he said, “You were there, weren’t you?”

“What?” Gold was certain Silver was sleep talking.

“When m’father left. Saw you standing there.”

Gold lay there speechless and uncertain. And tired. Mostly tired.

“Knew I recogniz’d you fr’m som’ where.” And just like that, Silver was asleep.

So he knew Gold knew. But Gold didn’t know what to do; he couldn’t un-know what he knew. In the end his muddled mind let sleep overpower him. Let it wait until tomorrow.

Hours later, he woke to the sounds of Silver getting ready to leave. The blizzard had stopped overnight, and fresh snow blanketed the trees and mountains outside. Silver’s Pokemon were long gone, and he didn’t even look back before exiting the room. In the distance Gold heard the sound of a door opening and closing.

So it ends like this, he thought, burying deeper into his blankets. Glancing over, he saw his spare blanket neatly folded on a too-bare couch. Well, he reasoned, they were eventually going to go off on their own ways, and he already knew it was too much to hope they could become close friends.

Then why was his heart so heavy?

Gold was about to go back to sleep when he heard the door open again. He opened his eyes in confusion and saw Silver walking back towards him. For what? Did he forget something? Or was he going to punch Gold for knowing his secret?

“I - ” Silver started, looking more uncertain than Gold has ever seen him. “On Tuesdays and Thursdays, I train at the Dragon’s Den.”

“But it’s Christmas. Even the nurses get the day off,” said Gold.

“No, I mean,” Silver was looking pointedly away from Gold, “if you want, you can um. Visit sometimes.” His cheeks were slightly pink and he looked like he was struggling to not punch Gold, who had a big goofy smile plastered on his face.

“I promise,” said Gold. “And later, maybe we can have dinner again?”

Silver couldn’t help but smile back. “Deal.”