Ask and Receive
This is a series of one-shots that I wanted to do in between when I'm working on chapters of Hard Time. Just a little something to help get creative juices flowing, juices and I having a natural understanding of abhorrence and respect towards one another. Fair warning here people, I am the Helpless Rrrromantic and the following short stories are meant to be short, funny, and cute. You don't like it, GTFO…Enjoy!
Crazy today, the Helpless Romantic
Snow Day
The world was calm, peaceful, engulfed in blackness absolute. It was not sinister shadows, but comforting dark, relaxing and cool. For quite a while all was perfect in his world of tranquility, until the balance was shifted, the peace destroyed, by that most ancient of enemies and fiendish of villains: daylight.
A Lopunny drew back the scarlet curtains of a small window in an equally small room. The entire thing was furnished with nothing more than a thin mattress on the floor and a pillow, both of which were currently being used by a Munchlax on the floor to shield himself from the dreaded sunlight that now streaked into the room.
The Lopunny was less than pleased. "Cicero, are you still not up yet? It's after noon for Arceus' sake!" she put her hands on her hips and frowned.
"Already?" the Munchlax replied smothering his face with the pillow. "Give me a few more hours Grace and the day will be over with anyway."
The Lopunny, however was having none of that. She grabbed the mattress and flipped it over with an impressive show of strength. "Come on lazy, today is a special day. There's something I want to show you."
"Unless its breakfast, I'll pass." He said rolling unto his back.
"Just get up and come out."
After several minutes of Cicero physically and mentally preparing himself, he came out of his small bedroom. Truth be told, compared to the rest of Grace's apartment, his room was a closet. She's offered him a full room, but Cicero figured it was nice enough of her to give him a room in the first place, so he'd happily taken the small room right under Grace's.
She was already standing by the front door, waiting for him with an excited smile on her face. Cicero couldn't count how many times he'd tried not to stare at that smile. "So what's so important?" he asked.
"This!" Grace decreed triumphantly and opened the door. Cicero squinted at the light that hit him. At first he saw only white, then he realized that was all there really was to see. All around, the entire world it seemed was covered in some foul bright and white paint.
Cicero backed carefully away from the outside. "What the heck is that stuff?" he asked.
Grace smiled. "I thought so. You've never seen snow before have you?" He shook his head. Grace giggled a bit and went to the closet next to the door, the real closet, not the one Cicero slept in. She came back with a small pair of pink mittens oh her hands and a red scarf. She smiled as she kneeled down and wrapped the scarf around Cicero's neck while he tried not to stare too deep into her eyes.
Grace stood and stepped out into the cold winter snow. "Come on!" she called.
Cicero sighed tiredly once then stepped out onto the freezing sidewalk. He closed the door behind him carefully. While Grace ran across the road to the wide open field of snow laughing happily, Cicero followed stepping slowly on the icy ground. This snow felt weird on his feet, like he was stepping in a cold, crunchy puddle. He looked behind and saw they were leaving deep imprints in it like sand.
He looked up at the cloudy sky. Gentle winds blew and small wet stuff, a lot like rain, was falling from the sky slowly. He felt some of the stuff land on his face where they quickly became water. "Try catching the snowflakes on your tongue," he heard Grace say, "like this." She tilted her head up and stuck out her tongue, catching a few of the falling specks.
Cicero did the same thing, though opening his mouth wide and sticking his tongue out to a comical looking extent. Of course he caught several flakes and once he had done so he closed his mouth and stared forward.
"So?" Grace asked at his silence.
"They tasted like water and didn't fill me up at all." He stated plainly.
Grace giggled and grabbed his hand, pulling him across the snowy field. "Come on, I want to show you how to make a snowmon."
"Snowmon?" Cicero asked as he allowed himself to be pulled.
"Yeah, you make a Pokémon statue out of snow, it's fun!" she replied. Grace kneeled on the ground, the snow crunching beneath her, and gathered a large rise of snow with her arms. She built it up into a sloppy mound as best she could. She picked up two stones and added it to her creation making its face.
When she stood to appreciate her work, the whole thing looked more like a very large Ditto. She laughed embarrassingly. "I guess it's harder than it looks, but I'm sure you can get the hang…..of it."
She turned around as she spoke and saw in front of her a larger than life Snorlax made of snow sitting and looking down at her. Cicero was sitting on the Snowlax's shoulder; carefully knocking away what he thought was excess snow. "Uh, Cicero?" Grace asked mouth agape, "How did you do that?"
The Munchlax looked from her to the Snowlax and back again, before simply shrugging his shoulders.
Cicero jumped down from his masterpiece and landed with a very loud crunch of snow. He looked up at the Snowlax's face that smiled down at him though his own face remained stoic.
"Hey Cicero, there's something else great about snow that I haven't shown you yet." Grace said.
Cicero turned around slowly. "What's tha—" something cold, wet, and kind of hard hit him in the face.
"Snowball fights!" Grace cried triumphantly.
Cicero wiped the snow off his face and saw the Lopunny crouched behind her snow-Ditto another white ball already in her hands and a smug smile on her face. "So the idea is to throw balls of ice at each other?" Cicero asked plainly.
Another ball hit him in the face. "Don't be such a party pooper!" Grace said.
Again Cicero wiped snow off his face, still not looking angry or amused. Grace was ready yet again with another snowball and threw this one with much more force. It came whistling right at Cicero's face, but he did not move or flinch. Just as the ball was about to make contact with his head, Cicero opened his mouth widely. He swallowed the snow ball whole, adding a loud gulp for good measure.
Grace watched with mouth agape yet again. "Hey, you can't do that! It's cheating!" Cicero stared at her eyes squinted in lack of interest. "You have to throw or get hit by it, not eat it." Cicero gave a grunt before walking back to his Snowlax. He reached a small hand into its belly and with no apparent effort, yanked out a snowball the size of a sofa.
Grace shrieked as Cicero hurled the mighty ball high into the air and it fell right on top of her. Her legs poked out of the large embankment of snow that was left. Soon her head popped up too. "Maybe we should try something else." She laughed as Cicero helped pull her out.
Grace ran out into the field again and again Cicero followed. He'd follow her anywhere. She stopped by the beginning of a small. In front of them the sun was staring to make its decent, lighting up the sky in oranges and purples. Without ceremony Grace fell to the icy ground on her back, she began flailing her arms and legs. "What are you doing?" Cicero asked dryly.
"It's called making a snow angel." She giggled.
"You're already an angel." He said softly without thinking.
"What?"
"I-uh…sh-show me how to one." Cicero blushed violently.
He laid down next to Grace quickly, not letting her have the chance to respond to anything else. "It's easy. You just wave your arms and legs back and forth, like this." She demonstrated a few times. Cicero copied though his movements were slower and more careful. After a few seconds they both stood to marvel their work.
Grace's was much larger of course, and had the imprints from her large ears. Cicero's was much smaller, and sloppier, despite his careful movements. "See? Angels."
Cicero looked at her. The sky swirled with color, the snow fell softly around her, he could see the setting sun reflected in her eyes. "I don't think that's what angels look like." He said.
Grace smiled and looked out at the sunset. She sat down to stare at it and Cicero followed suit. They sat in silence for a while, just watching night slowly morph out of day. A strong wind came by and rustled them, Grace shivered, Cicero did not. "Aren't you cold?" she asked.
"Not really. I guess I'm…suited for colder weather." He replied slightly embarrassed.
Grace came right next to him and rested her head on his shoulder. He could feel the fluff of her ears and fur against his body. "Yeah, you are warm." She said, not noticing that his face was practically crimson and steam was coming out of his ears.
They sat in silence yet again till at last the sun disappeared to that wonderful place the sun and moon go in between shifts. "Grace?" Cicero asked softly.
"Yeah?" she asked. Her head still resting on his shoulder.
"I think I've decided I like snow."
Grace smiled. "Me too."
There I did it, get over it. And soon because there will be more to come.