A/N: Thanks for clicking on this story, please enjoy! This is my entry for The Legend of Chocolate's challenge The OTP Week Challenge on the Pokémon Fanfiction Challenges forum. My prompt was love, and the theme was winter.

Disclaimer: I don't own Pokémon.

Once Upon A Time

Snowflakes

Girls want to hear they're loved. Tell them you love them as many times as you can.

It had been an advice from both Brock and Dawn, and even though Ash knew Brock had about as much experience with girls as he had, he tended to believe Dawn when it came to this subject.

Point was, he wasn't good with words, or with romance. He'd always rather show his feelings, instead of telling them. They had been together for so long, and never, ever had he been able to force those three words out of his throat. But if she really needed to hear it…

Ash smiled a bit as he saw her twirling around in the snow, her short red hair standing out against the fresh white snow. Misty was talking to him, but he wasn't listening, not really. Instead, his thoughts were still on how he was supposed to tell her. He knew he had to tell her, but he didn't know how. Maybe he first needed to do something romantic, take her out on a date, sing her a song or- or write her a love poem, something crazy like that. Or maybe-

Splash! A wet, cold snowball hit him in the face, thrown by his 'lovely' girlfriend.

"What was that for?" Ash spluttered, wiping the snow of his face.

"For not listening to me!" Misty told him, stamping with her foot on the ground, but a playful smirk visible on her face.

"I- I was," Ash disagreed, his usual stubbornness getting the best of him. "You were talking about- about, uh…"

She crossed her arms, looking at him expectantly and slightly mockingly.

"Okay, fine, I wasn't listening," the boy finally admitted.

The redhead smiled in victory. "What were you thinking about then?"

Ash took a deep breath. This was the perfect opportunity. He would tell her now.

Now.

This very moment.

Or now. Or maybe- Stop procrastinating! Ash told himself sternly.

"Just… nothing," he finally replied, feeling his courage slip away.

"Yeah, you tend to think of nothing." Misty laughed.

"Hey!"

"C'mon Ash, let's go back inside, I bet your mother is waiting for us," the girl said. After a moment she added, "With hot chocolate, probably."

Her cold fingers wrapped around his, pulling him back towards the house, and when he saw her cerulean eyes sparkle at him in a way only her eyes could, Ash realized that he didn't need to tell her.

She already knew.

A/N: I hope you enjoyed it, thank you very much for reading! Please leave me a review!
Thanks again!