This was my story for last year's Christmas on Wattpad, now I'm going to re-upload it. For those who have already read it, please expect both minor and major changes to the plot. And whether you have or haven't, I hope you like the story.

Focus: Agencyshipping.

Disclaimer: I don't own Pokéspe.

-11.00 pm-

Black was in White's room helping his president with her work and this had become a fixed routine for both of them lately. The BW Agency was invited to Striaton City to participate in an ambitious project. The short film was scheduled to be shot in a few days; thus, the agency president and her employee couldn't possibly go to sleep until a few hours after midnight with all the work and preparations they had to deal with.

White was working at her desk. It was full of papers, and the papers were full of figures, designs and detailed plans for the shots. Black could hardly imagine how White could handle all those things at the same time, but the girl was really into it. Black could tell so because she would turn to him and ask him to do this and that for her sometimes. He couldn't help but admire his friend a lot.

However much he admired her, there was this one thing that was bothering him. Black loved having her as company. The boy loved accompanying his president to many places and both of them could help each other pursue their dream. He respected the workaholic White who rarely missed any chance to bring fame to her agency. Even though he knew their dreams were quite different from each other, he enjoyed working with her every day.

However, he always felt something was wrong about the girl.

He was worrying about her. No. In fact, he was feeling sorry for his best friend. More than once, he found the thought suddenly strike him—poor White always worked so hard. She was really into her dream that she almost forgot to enjoy other things, trivial or not, as a normal girl of her age. Speaking of age, they were only 14.

And one of those occasions was coming soon. He couldn't believe that none of them had ever talked about this in the last few weeks. And until Black decided to discuss about it with his president, there were only a few days left. In fact, he wanted to take this chance to casually ask her out.

Because Black was too shy to confess to White that he liked her so much, and the boy really thought he would never have the balls to tell her unless she told him the same thing first. Or he swore—just a hint would be enough for him to gather his courage and confess his true feelings for her. However, he hadn't found even a smallest signal of it so far. Everything they had been doing with each other could only tell him that they were enjoying being best friends to each other, although he sometimes tried to catch the nuances behind her expressions but he wasn't sure. He wouldn't risk ruining their friendship due to a wrong interpretation, but he also didn't want to maintain this status quo forever. It was time for Black to make a move.

And now, he decided to be the one who broke the silence.

"Prez?"

"Yes?" said White, her eyes still being on the paper.

"Do you know Christmas is coming?" Black inhaled deeply before asking.

Her hand stopped writing. The girl looked up a little and said,

"Yes."

There's no turning back now, Black thought, and the boy decided to ask her the thing that had made him uneasy the whole time.

"So… do you have any plans for Christmas?" he slowly asked.

There was a short silence after the question and this made his heart beat so fast. The boy could smell something dangerous was about to happen. He anticipated her eruption of how much work they still had and how he could even think about wasting time on such a thing.

However, he immediately regretted for thinking wrong about his friend. White just put her pen down but her eyes were still on her paper. She said softly,

"Yes."

Black almost jumped from his chair. He examined her response carefully before asking,

"Really? Then… what is it, may I know?"

White flinched for a second before reaching inside her bag for something. She took out a small piece of paper which looked like a ticket. She then turned to Black and handed him the paper.

"Here you go."

Black took it from his friend. It was actually a ticket as he guessed—a plane ticket, with his name on it, to this region called Kalos which he never heard of before.

"There is this newly opened ski resort in a city called Snowbelle. And I think… well… it's a good way to spend Christmas, right?" the girl said with a smile.

Black couldn't believe it. He never imagined his boss actually had a plan for both of them. Just the idea of staying at a luxurious resort simply blew him away. He wondered how long she had hidden this from him but it didn't matter; he was being speechless.

"Wow… woowwww… wwwoooowwwww… I can't believe you prepared all of this for us!" he gasped, his hands trying to cover his mouth falling open. "I mean, this is not what I've ever expected at all, to be honest. It's just… Wow! PREZ! You won't believe how happy I am now." He grinned from ear to ear.

"Ahh… don't mention it Black! I'm glad you are happy!"

"So we're leaving in five days, huh? Wait, is it the day they will finish filming? Perfect! Everything is perfect!" Black almost yelled, punching the air ecstatically.

And suddenly the girl let out a long breath. Black slightly stopped his movement in the air as he sensed something unfavorable to come. White, now looking straight into his eyes, said with a sad tone,

"It's not 'we' that I'm talking about. It's 'you' only."

The boy's grin faded.

"W-what?"

"I'm so sorry Black."

Black had no idea what was going on. He couldn't keep his mouth close when White suddenly apologized to him.

"Wait, Prez, for what? What are you talking about?"

White placed one hand on her chest and inhaled deeply as if she was about to say something that had also troubled her for a while.

"Yesterday, during a meeting, the director said the date of filming has been changed. There are some problems with the preparations so it will be delayed for one day. And…"

She hesitated a little but Black already knew the rest. She meant—

"That'll be on Christmas day, huh?" he slowly completed her sentence.

All those happy emotions quickly disappeared and he started to feel empty in his chest. The boy tried to figure out why his friend didn't tell him about this extremely urgent situation until now but he couldn't think of any reason.

"So does it have anything to do with 'me' and 'we'? he asked.

White was now playing with her fingers. She kept fidgeting on her chair, refusing to look at Black in the eyes.

"Prez?"

And she was made to look at him. The girl managed to answer in her tiny voice,

"Because I don't want to ruin your Christmas. You've been helping me a lot, not this time only but the whole time, and from deep inside I'm so grateful for that. You deserve a vacation for yourself, so I… booked this trip for you only in gratitude for what you've done for me. I was about to tell you but since you asked me first, um… yeah…"

Black looked at the number on the ticket one more time; his head was now filled with buzzing tinnitus from nowhere. He needed to think of something to say but there were being so many things happening in his head right now. Musha's pokéball was out of reach and he found himself freezing at where he was. The boy could swear that he wasn't angry at all, but he was somewhat disappointed at the situation and at the girl's offer.

Yes, Christmas was supposed to be a special occasion when you spent time with the ones you love, either family or best friends. But what if he could only enjoy it by himself while the one he really wanted to spend time with had to work her ass off without his aid? And she even paid the whole thing for him. Until then, Black found no significance whatsoever in her offer—nothing. It would be just a normal day like any other day.

"If that's the case," Black said after having thinking it through, "I don't need to go anywhere and leave you behind with everything. If there's no 'we', there's no 'me' either."

"No!" White replied immediately as if she had foreseen this. "Black, listen to me! I can work every day, but it'd be unfair if you have to, and what's worse is it's because of me. You have already helped me a lot. And I don't want you to force yourself to stay."

"No. You listen to me, Prez!" Black said, trying to keep a neutral tone of voice. "You can't say I force myself to stay; it's not true. I still owe you for everything, you know that, Prez! It's the least I can do for you now. We are best friends, right? I can't just leave you to handle all those things alone. I'm absolutely not fine with that. Just let me stay, I want to."

"Black," said a consistent White, "please listen to me. Even if you're willing to stay, I'll still feel very bad if you don't understand me. This whole business—I appreciate every single help from you, but I can't just drag you along every time. There's something I must handle alone, because I'm the president. And you are my employee, right? So you have my order, you will not work on Christmas day and you'll leave for vacation, the one I've already planned for you."

"But…"

"Please, Black! If you ever consider me your friend, listen to me just once!"

And there she used that tone again. Every time she wanted to end an argument, she would use it. Most of the time Black had no problems with it because he knew he was fine with everything if she didn't want to keep an argument going forever. However, when he was ready to persuade her, it wasn't something he expected to hear.

But he still stopped it.

Again, there was a silence between them. But this time it was longer.

Black just couldn't make it. He failed in his attempt to either persuade her to stop working or just casually ask her out to have fun as friends, both of which actually never had a chance to be mentioned. And he knew that if he kept reasoning with her, it would lead to nowhere. His argument was strong, but hers was immovable.

Eventually, he said,

"I don't want you to be alone on that day just because you will send me away to have fun by myself. It doesn't feel right, Prez. Aren't you afraid you will feel a bit… lonely?"

"Oh, it's okay, Black. Don't you worry about me!" She grinned, looking surprisingly happy. "I'm never lonely with my work and my dream. I also have Bubu-chan, remember?"

"Hmm… alright," Black mumbled.

"Your trip—It'll be fun, Black. I promise."

"If you say so… but it's not what I mean, you baka!"

Those last few words he kept for himself only.

After that, the agency duo went back to work and they only stopped working until a few hours after midnight.