Disclaimer: Yeah. I totally own Pokémon. This is why I have to write Fanfiction about it, see. (Please tell me you caught the sarcasm there.)
Author's Note: Somehow, Candice/Volkner just seems like it would work. What with Candice's outgoing personality and all, Volkner would probably at least not be totally bored. Anyway, some credit once again goes to the Moss Shipping discussion thread on Serebii, as someone there mentioned a Christmas Party for the Gym Leaders. Applying that to Candice and Volkner was totally my idea though. (shifty eyes) Yeah. Mainly C/V, but there are many, many implied pairings too. (Flint/Dawn is not one of them though.)
Icy Beginnings
"Flint. What is this?"
Volkner frowned as he held the brightly-colored envelope out in front of the red-haired Elite Four member. Flint sheepishly scratched the back of his neck and grinned, leaning dangerously close to one of Sunyshore Gym's many electrical outlets.
"It is what it looks like, buddy!" Flint laughed. "A Christmas party invitation! Candice says she's been sending 'em out since the beginning of the month but you haven't answered yet! You know she looks forward to these kinds of things, right?"
The blonde Gym Leader sighed. He'd only actually met Candice a few times at Gym Leader gatherings, but she did seem like the outgoing type. She probably would like a party, a Christmas one being no doubt even better for the Ice-Type trainer…
"Look, Flint, then why don't you go and just tell me how it goes? You know I've been wanting to upgrade the Gym's power sources again, and—"
"And cause another power outage?" Flint finished, sniggering.
Volkner narrowed his steel-blue eyes dangerously, and Fling instantly silenced. He quickly nodded, albeit a bit dismissively.
"All right, I get it, pal. You don't wanna go. I mean, how can we have an Elite-Four-and-Gym-Leader-party if we only have seven of the Gym Leaders?"
Volkner paused, turning away from Flint for a moment. Sighing, he folded his hands behind his back and stared at the ceiling for a moment, thinking.
If I go, I won't get to experiment with the Gym again. I also won't be able to get some nice, quiet training in.
But, if I don't go… I'll never hear the end of it from my idiot of a friend. He'll probably try dragging me to every place imaginable if I say no.
"Hey, Volkner, my man! You totally spaced out there. You making up your mind, or what?"
Volkner gave a long sigh as he turned back around. Flint was looking at him rather hopefully, and even the man's afro seemed to be perking up.
"…All right. I'll go."
"Yes!"
"But on one condition."
"Aw, come on, man! What?"
"No eggnog this time. Got it?"
Flint turned about as red as his hair. "Got it."
"Oh, and fill out the RSVP for me. I'm going downstairs to check my gears."
"Okay, okay… As long as it gets you to come."
Flint sighed and pulled the letter out of the envelope, digging a pen out of his pocket as Volkner left the room. Looking around quickly, the Fire-Type trainer decided as long as his friend didn't know he was writing on top of the circuit box, he'd be okay…
- - -
Several days later, on Christmas morning, Volkner found himself trailing after Flint towards Snowpoint Gym. He sighed as he crossed his arms across his chest—it was most likely his own fault for heating up Sunyshore so much with all the excess energy, but he seemed to be having a lot more trouble with the frigid temperature than the redhead was.
"Come on, Volkner! You're lagging, man!"
Volkner frowned silently as he sped up slightly. Flint was still several feet ahead of him, although how was a mystery—Volkner wasn't the one wearing flip flops, after all.
As Volkner caught up with the other man, Flint grinned over his shoulder. "We've gotta be the last ones here, you know?"
"Yes, Flint. I know. Don't remind me."
Volkner sighed as he remembered tearing through the gym looking for his sunglasses, until he realized they were on his head, and had had to endure Flint's horribly unfunny teasing. Then he'd thought he'd lost his invitation, until Flint had finally realized he still had it in his pocket, and had proceeded to present Volkner with the waded up piece of stationary.
The Electric-Type trainer realized he'd been spacing out (again) as Flint opened the gym's door. Volkner blinked as he and Flint entered the building. It had appropriately been filled with mistletoe, strings of lights, and wreaths, and the pit in the middle of the room had been filled with snow. Candice's Abomosnow was even standing grudgingly over in one of the corners with decorations hanging from her body.
"Hey, guys!"
Candice waved excitedly as she dashed over to Flint and Volkner from her drinks table. She waved her cup of punch around, narrowly missing the two males, and grinned.
"Sorry, we already started eating and stuff, but you're the last ones here," she shrugged.
"'S all right, we should have been earlier," Flint shrugged back, shooting another teasing look at Volkner. When he got a glare back, he laughed sheepishly. "Okay… I'm just gonna go over there and… Hey, Daaaaaaaaawn! What's uuuuuuuuup?"
Flint sidled over to the snow pit, where the newly crowned Sinnoh Champion was shaking snow off of her hat as she crawled out. Nearby, the former Champ, Cynthia, was laughing gently at the shorter girl's extremely concentrated expression, while Lucian handed the blonde a cup of coffee.
Volkner merely sighed, resting his forehead on his palm. Candice cocked her head to the side as she took another drink of her punch.
"Well, um, Flint sure seems to be fitting right in."
"Indeed. Now, if you don't mind, I'm going to get something to drink."
Candice blinked as the blonde man excused himself over to the drink table. Not only had he been the last one to return his RSVP (which, suspiciously enough, looked like it had been filled out in Flint's writing), but he was also apparently one of the least sociable people in the group. Heck, even Aaron had managed to "join the party," so to speak—he and Maylene were off to one side of the room, apparently discussing whether or not it was really a good idea to start throwing snowballs at various members of the group.
However, the black-haired girl merely grinned as she looked back over at Volkner. By the end of the party, she would get him to do something if it was the last thing she did…
- - -
"Please, Volkner," Flint whined.
"No."
Volkner calmly took a sip of what had to be his fifth cup of punch. They'd been at the party for at least an hour, and the blonde man had mainly been hanging around the snack table. He'd managed to avoid all of the "games" that had been played so far, which included a typical Dirty Santa exchange. Flint groaned as Volkner set his punch down.
"Come on, man, look at everyone else! They're all having fun."
The redhead gestured around the room in a large sweeping motion, and Volkner sighed as he gave an obligatory glance around. Byron and Fantina seemed to be having quite a bit of fun teasing Roark and Gardenia in one corner of the room. Maylene and Aaron had pulled Dawn into their snowball plot, and the three were pelting snowballs at Crasher Wake at the snow pit in the middle of the room. Most of the rest of the group seemed to be watching with varying degrees of amusement, although Lucian and Cynthia were standing back a few feet with their arms around each other.
Volkner paused, trying to come up with a witty remark. "Abomosnow isn't having fun."
The Grass-and-Ice-Type had not budged an inch from her spot in the corner of the room, and her branchy arms were folded across her chest as best she could. However, she didn't seem to be making any attempts to remove the ornaments Candice had hung on her.
Flint rolled his eyes, however. "You've always been such a party pooper, man."
Volkner sighed as he put his cup on the table again. However, before he could come up with a way to (politely) tell Flint to leave him alone, a stray snowball crashed into his shoulder. Wincing, he turned to look at the group in the middle of the room. To his horror, though, Flint bent down, reformed the snowball, and hurled it back across the room.
Of course, Flint's aim was a considerable amount off, and instead of hitting Aaron or Maylene, he'd managed to strike Candice. Volkner, however, tried to shake off the proud look in his friend's eyes as Candice grinned and threw a snowball at him.
"Flint!"
"What? You've been hit, now you have to join in!"
"I don't see what that has to do with—"
"Just come on!"
Before he could protest further, Flint grabbed him by the wrist and quite literally dragged him over to the snow pit. Feeling rather ridiculous, Volkner ducked out of the way of one of Maylene's projectiles, causing it to hit Gardenia. Grinning, the brunette Gym Leader apparently decided to join in as well, dragging Roark with her. Soon, the entire gathering of Gym Leaders and Elite Four members had joined in the snowball fight.
Volkner felt his eye twitch as he tried to duck away. He wasn't entirely fond of large groups anyway, and adding flying snow into the equation certainly didn't make things any better.
"Hey!"
A rather large snowball hit Volkner in the chest. Frowning, he looked up to see Candice, who had an equally angry look on her face.
"What are you doing?" she demanded. "Come over here and hang out with the rest of us!"
"I suppose…"
Reluctantly, Volkner folded his hands behind his back and trudged back to the snow pit. He realized there was little point in trying to hide with Flint and now Candice watching him.
"I bet you'd have good aim, too," Candice suddenly grinned, forming another snowball.
"…And what makes you think that?"
Volkner sighed, kneeling down next to Candice to make a snowball of his own. Blinking, Candice seemed to be a bit surprised of what she'd just said. Fortunately, however, she ducked back down just in time to avoid a snowball.
"Oh, Flint just said earlier that you're good with your hands."
If you call fixing circuits and gears "good with your hands…" Volkner groaned inwardly.
Another small frown forming on his face, Volkner stood up quickly and took aim. His snowball, amazingly enough, managed to hit right on target—seconds later, Flint was sputtering and brushing the snow off of his face.
"That's what you get, Flint…" Volkner grumbled.
"See?" Candice smirked as she elbowed Volkner. "Hey, watch this!"
The dark-haired girl aimed her snowball carefully at Gardenia. She had a surprisingly strong throw, apparently, as Gardenia stumbled sideways into Roark. As the Rock-Type trainer blushed and helped her up, Byron burst into laughter a few feet away.
"Pretty good, huh?"
Volkner forced a grin, but rolled his eyes slightly. Deciding to keep playing along, he knelt down to grab another fistful of snow. Before he could, however, a sudden, eerie silence descended over the room.
"Candice?"
"Y-yes?"
"Why…"
As Volkner looked up at Candice, she slowly looked up and groaned. Sometime during the snow fest, Abomosnow had trudged out of the corner and had just passed the two of them. And what should be hanging from one of her branches but…
"Mistletoe," Volkner realized, resting his head in his palm.
"Uh…" Candice momentarily looked like she was having trouble coming up with something to say. She then grinned, however, and made another snowball, hurling it at Crasher Wake. "What are you guys doing? This is a snowball fight, you know!"
Instantly, the gym filled with noise again as the snowball fight resumed. Volkner sighed in relief as he looked over at Candice.
"Thanks."
"Hey, no prob," the girl grinned. "Besides, I figured you'd be embarrassed if everyone saw, and…"
"You mean this was your fault?"
Volkner practically felt his eyes bugging out of his head as Candice burst into laughter. She shook her head, her black ponytails bouncing slightly, as she brushed a tear from her eye. Then, Candice pointed to Abomosnow, who had since moved to the opposite corner of the room.
"The only thing I did was drag you into the snowball fight! That just now was totally Abomosnow's fault. I guess she got bored standing around or something and wanted to stretch."
"Oh." Volkner gave her a rather blank stare and slowly shook his head. "Well, then. We, ah, should be having a snowball fight, yes?"
Candice winked, and slowly stood up on her tiptoes. Before Volkner had time to blink, Candice kissed him on the cheek, and then started to dart away.
"Mistletoe, Volkner! Now catch me if you can!"
"Wha—?"
Volkner quickly made himself a snowball and threw it towards the shorter trainer, successfully nailing her in the back. As Candice giggled, a (very small) smile tugged at the corners of his lips. Maybe this party hadn't been such a bad idea after all…