The Twelve Dilemmas of Christmas

The holiday season comes with good times and bad. It's important to overlook the dilemmas and enjoy the good times. Multiple shippings.

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Dilemma One: Decorations (Palletshipping)

Gary had many issues with Christmas, just one of which was the obsession people seemed to have with decorating for the holiday. Not only did many of the decorations look despicably tacky and childish, something always seemed to go wrong. It never failed – something happened every single year since he was perhaps three years old. His sister referred to it as the Oak Family Christmas Curse, and Gary whole-heartedly agreed with that title.

When he was three, his father had nearly caught the house on fire when he left the lights on the tree on all night, effectively – and literally – lighting the tree at about four in the morning. There was the time when his father's Growlithe knocked over the tree, nearly crushing a four-year-old Gary. And who could forget the time May Oak snuck downstairs in the middle of the night to meet Santa Claus, only to trip over a loose cord for some Christmas lights at the top of the stairs causing her to tumble down the stairs, pull all of the lights off the banister, break their mother's expensive nativity scene, and somehow knock all of the stockings into the fireplace. That was the second time the holiday season had been tainted by a fire in the Oak house. Then there was the time when Gary was seven and their pet Meowth choked on a piece of tinsel… Poor Shadow had been the only cat Gary had ever liked. Needless to say, he now hated tinsel with a shocking passion.

Family curse or no, Gary felt a shiver of something akin to fear when Ash appeared one afternoon with several strings of lights and a ladder; his ever-present Pikachu was on his shoulder holding a box of nails and a hammer.

"What exactly are you doing?" he asked warily.

Ash responded with his signature grin. "Christmas is in two weeks and we don't have any lights on the house," he said as if it all made sense. "We'll be the only ones in the neighborhood with no decorations." Pikachu squeaked his agreement and Gary groaned, wondering if he should call the ambulance now or wait for the inevitable accident to happen before doing it. Ash seemed to understand the groan and crossed his arms as best as he could while holding everything. "I can do it, Gary; I don't care what you say." The challenge in his voice was undeniable.

Shaking his head, Gary shuffled the lab paperwork that he was working on at their kitchen table. "I didn't say anything."

"You thought it," Ash pressed. He shifted his arms and promptly dropped all of the lights that he was holding.

Gary glanced down at the lights scattered across the floor and looked back up at his boyfriend. "Are my thoughts unwarranted?" he asked pointedly.

Ash huffed as he scooped up the lights. "I hate you," he complained.

"That's not what you said last night."

"Fuck you, Gary" Ash replied, heading towards the front door.

"That's a lot closer to what you said last night," Gary muttered. A thought occurred to him and he stood quickly, rushing to follow Ash. "Bring Blastoise with you! My grandfather will kill us if we burn down the house!"

"Thanks for the confidence," Ash said sarcastically as Gary attached Blastoise's pokeball to his belt.

Once Ash went outside with Pikachu and their decorating supplies, Gary headed back to the kitchen, where his work was currently spread across the table. Getting back to work was easy enough, but Gary simply couldn't shake the concern that something bad would happen. Despite this concern, a couple of hours passed without major incident – there had been a few loud bangs and thuds, a few yelps, but nothing too alarming.

Just as Gary was starting to think that Ash was out of the red zone, he heard the loudest bang yet, followed by the sound of a water attack hitting the side of the house. He let out a shaky breath and waited, silently hoping everything was alright. A moment later, he could hear Blastoise being recalled and Ash talking to Pikachu, so he figured all was well. Then Ash walked in some time later.

His boyfriend was dripping wet and shivering violently, but grinning enthusiastically. "I'm done!" Ash announced happily, his declaration accented by a dramatic shiver as his teeth chattered noisily.

"Ash, what the hell happened?"

"Nothing major. Do you want to see the lights?"

Gary gaped at him for a moment before finally finding words to respond. "Get upstairs and take those wet clothes off before you freeze!" He took a deep breath as soon as Ash left the room and suppressed a sigh. "Why couldn't I have dated someone with some sanity?"

Regardless of how much Ash's antics frustrated him, Gary realized rather quickly that he had just commanded his boyfriend to undress. Perhaps he could use this to his advantage…

Gary hurried up the stairs and found a trail of sopping clothing heading towards the bedroom; he couldn't help but grin. The grin widened as he entered the room and found Ash nestled in the blankets on the bed, his body completed concealed by the blankets.

"You didn't say what to do after I got out of my wet clothes," Ash explained innocently. "I was hoping you could warm me up."

Gary's grin faded into a fond smile as he approached the bed, slipping his clothes off as he went. "Tell me," he began as he climbed onto the bed. "Did you plan this out all along?"

Ash shook his head. "You're the one that plans ahead."

A soft chuckle escaped Gary as he slipped under the blankets on the bed and covered Ash's body with his own. As he claimed Ash's lips with his own, he had to think to himself, perhaps Christmas decorations weren't all that bad. At the very least, the Oak Family Christmas Curse hadn't shown its face this year – yet.