Hi for those reading this! This fic was written for Smash King24's Christmas contest. Just to make clear, I don't own SSBB or any of its characters. Hope you enjoy!
RING RING!
The alarm clock on Pikachu's bedside started to ring and the pokemon lazily opened his eyes, trying to remember the dream he was having with no avail. Giving a yawn, he stretched his back, got up from his white bed and went to take a look at the snow from his window. The yard was entirely white, same for the tall pine trees. Soft snowflakes could be seen falling outside and a big snowman was standing in the middle with a silly smile on its face, courtesy of him and his friends.
RING RING RING!
Pikachu suddenly snapped back to reality. He went to turn off the alarm clock when he saw the hour.
"(11:00 AM?!)" he exclaimed.
Joy, he lost breakfast. "(Stupid deregulated alarm)" he murmured to himself and turned off the device. Once he finished all his hygienic needs, the Pokemon went downstairs and headed towards the kitchen to see if he could still get something to eat. He just needed to cross the living room.
Surprisingly, everything was really quiet; no living soul could be seen there. Weirder than that, was that the walls were decorated with strings of colorful lights. And not only the walls were decorated in a funny way. Various trinkets and candles could be seen on the room's corner tables. Snow globes, small reindeers, funny looking guys in red suits, there were everything. The inactivated fireplace was surrounded by socks of all kind of colors.
That was everything a little awkward for him, and he hoped someone would appear and explain what was going on. What he didn't expect though was to be greeted by a shiny red ball hitting his face in the middle of the living room.
"(Oww…)" he whined as he fell because of the shock. He got the red ball with one pall while rubbing his forehead with the other, "(What the…)"
"Ha ha! Missed me! And you hit Pikachu instead!" he heard someone taunt from behind the couch.
Pikachu turned his head and saw Toon Link making a face and sticking his tongue out to someone. The pokemon turned to the opposite direction and saw Popo standing by the side of a 9-feet-tall pine tree and some opened boxes. How couldn't he notice that before?
"Sorry Pikachu. I was trying to hit Toony, I swear!" Popo exclaimed and helped Pikachu get up.
"(I-It's okay…)"
Before anyone could react, another red ball hit Popo's head. From where it came from, Ness was leaned against a wall, smirking. "You forgot about me!" he laughed.
Popo gritted his teeth. "You're so dead!", he shouted and threw the object back at Ness, only to be hit by a small stuffed bear thrown by Toon Link.
The three continued their small war, completely ignoring the confused yellow mouse standing in the middle of the "battlefield".
"What the heck are you doing with the ornaments?!" shouted Nana as she entered in the room carrying a box. She was being followed by Lucas.
The three boys froze at their spot. They turned their heads to the duo, embarrassed, and started to pick up the ornaments.
"Guys, these things are for the tree, not for a brawl. Plus, some of them are broken now!" Lucas said.
"It was Ness who started!" Popo said and pointed his finger to Ness, who was putting the last ornament in a box.
"Did not!"
"It doesn't matter now. Listen, why don't you go help Diddy and Kirby preparing the food? I'm pretty sure Kirby might be eating the ingredients and Diddy is having a hard time trying to stop him", Nana said as she put the box she was carrying next to the pine tree.
In fact, some weird noises were coming from the kitchen. It looked like some plates were being dropped and some shouts who said "Poyo, poyo!" could be heard. "Kirby, you can't eat the ingredients yet! We need to use them to bake for the grown ups!" Toon Link shouted as he ran to the kitchen, followed by Ness.
"Go decorating the tree while we take care of the cookies." Popo said and followed them.
Wait… decorate the tree? Pikachu looked again at the strings of lights. Of course! How could he forget? It was Christmas Eve! It was the day when the grown up smashers (including R.O.B) and Master Hand would go spend the day at Smashville, buying gifts and stuff like that, so then the kids could decorate the place and show off their work to them later. Then, at night, everyone would gather together to eat a bigger meal than they had normally. The grown ups would distribute gifts, and everyone would let out giggles and thank for what they have received.
Not that he really cared about that anyway. He would help his friends on decorating the mansion and would participate on the celebration, but he never felt anything special about that date. Pikachu couldn't understand why they always got so happy on Christmas. He was a Pokemon and that was a human holiday after all, so it was kind of understandable. However, Jigglypuff seemed to enjoy it, and so did Lucario, Charizard, Squirtle and Ivysaur. He one day went to ask them why, but they couldn't explain it very well.
"Oh, hi Pikachu! Finally awake?" Nana patted his head, "I was starting to get worried. You're usually a morning guy"
"(It's the alarm's fault.)" he shrugged.
"Well, now that you are up, why don't you help us decorating the tree?", Lucas asked, "We need it beautiful for tonight and tomorrow!"
"(It's either this or helping in the kitchen anyway. Alright, I'll help.)"
Nana took out from the box another string of lights and gave one tip of it to Lucas, who used his telekinesis abilities to put the tip of the string on the top of the tree and make it go all the way down in a colorful spiral.
"Okay, we already have the lights," Nana smiled, "Now we need the garland"
Pikachu took the garland out. He felt the white synthetic fur on his paws. The material was so soft, why did they need to put it on the tree? It would be more useful if he used it as a pillow. Hesitantly, he gave the garland to Lucas; a spark of irritation grew on him. Lucas did the same thing he did to the string of lights.
"Now we can put the ornaments." Lucas said once he finished his job.
The children started with the red balls that Ness, Toon Link and Popo were using for their fight. They were so round and shiny that it was kind of a waste to use them as decorations. It would be better if they were used as toys! Once they have finished with those, they started to put random trinkets and stuff, such as ribbons, small bears, plastic music notes and candies, reindeers and small music instruments.
"(Why do we decorate the tree with these anyway?)" he asked, annoyed.
"The grown ups and Santa Claus will be so impressed with our piece of art!" Nana commented happily.
"(Santa… Claus?)" Pikachu asked.
"I know! It will be a great reception for him. I just hope he brings what I asked him." Lucas said.
"(Isn't Santa Claus your twin brother Lucas? You mean he's alive?)" now Pikachu was really confused.
Nana put a music note in one of the branches. "Sure he will. Santa Claus brings presents for good people, and you're one of them" she smiled.
"(And he is your brother.)" Pikachu added.
After some minutes decorating and chatting, they finished decorating it. The tree looked like a total mess, yet beautiful. Lucas got the plug of the string and plugged it on the nearest outlet. The colorful lights went on and the tree looked like it was filled of life. Nana and Lucas high fived each other, while Pikachu just shot them a confused glance. They were acting like two happy, dumb children! It was just a tree, for Master Hand's sake!
"Great, now to finish it, we need the star". Nana got a shiny yellow star and gave it to Lucas. He gently floated to the top of the tree, put the star there and gave a thumbs up.
"Let's see if they have finished with the cookies." he said once he got back to the floor.
"Pikachu, you coming?" Nana asked.
He shook his head. "(No, I'll just stay here)". The children shrugged and went to the kitchen.
Pikachu kept glaring at the tree. What made that thing so special? Why they just couldn't play with the decorations instead of putting them there? Or better yet, why did they feel joy with that? It's not like that was one of the most fun thing to do. The pokemon was feeling extremely irritated. Maybe because he lost breakfast. Maybe because he couldn't play with the shiny trinkets. Or maybe because he couldn't understand the so called "Christmas spirit".
"(Stupid tree…)" he mumbled. Something about that THING needed to be done.
"What was that sound?" Lucas asked, after hearing a loud crash.
"Let's find out." Toon Link said as he put a plate full of cookies on the table.
The children ran to the living room. Their jaws dropped as they saw the tree on the floor, destroyed, with the most delicate ornaments broken, including the star. Pikachu suddenly popped his head out of it, with a small teddy bear in his mouth. "(Uh oh…)", was all he could say.
"PIKACHU!" everyone shouted.
"Dude, I can't believe you did this!" Ness exclaimed.
"What will the grown ups think when they arrive?" Popo asked.
"We worked so hard, for nothing…" Nana shook her head.
"Poyo, poyo." Kirby showed his tongue.
"(Oh, c'mon! The way you're saying this is like this was the most important thing in the world!)"
Most of the children left with a sorrow expression on their faces, only Lucas and Nana stayed. "Pikachu, you did the mess, you will clean it." Lucas scowled like he was his father.
"And you better think on what you did!" Nana yelled.
Lucas patted her shoulder. "Come on Nana. Maybe Red wants some help hanging up the lights in the entrance." they left, leaving the mouse alone in the living room. Pikachu was silent for a few seconds, until he let out a chuckle.
"(Wow, they got really mad. I just wanted the bear, but this tree was asking to fall)," He got out of the pine tree, "(Heh, but it was fun)".
He looked at the broken ornaments, and remembered the sorrow faces of his friends. A spark of guilt hit him. He didn't like the tree very much, but his friends did. Popo was right: what would the grown ups think about that? And that tree looked so sad in that state…
"(It's just a tree, geez!)," Pikachu tried to deny it in vain.
The guilt grew bigger. Pikachu couldn't believe he would do that, but he just couldn't leave things like that. He dashed to Red's bedroom, easily entered in, since it was always unlocked because of his Pokemon. The dorm was bigger than the others because of Red's pokemon. There, he saw Squirtle and Ivysaur having some late breakfast and Charizard playing with Red's GBA.
"(Guys, I need help on something!)" Pikachu said. They all turned their heads to him, curious.
At the entrance, Red was hanging a holly. Nana was helping by holding firmly the stairs he was on, so he wouldn't fall, while Lucas was putting some Christmas candles on the corner table. The two were telling what happened before.
"Wow, so he really screwed things up this time, didn't he?" Red asked as he finally finished his job.
"Yeah," Nana put the stairs in a corner, "Red, why do you think he would do that?"
"I don't really know. Sometimes it's hard to understand what's passing on a Pokemon's mind, even for me."
"Don't you think that we were too tough on him? Maybe it was an accident," Lucas walked to them, "Besides, how is he supposed to clean that mess if the tree is bigger than him and heavy?".
"Let's help him. It Christmas Eve after all, it isn't time to hold grudges.", Red said and headed to the living room, followed by the duo.
For their surprise, the 9-feet-tall pine tree could no longer be seen. Instead, a 4-feet-tall tree took its place. Pikachu and Squirtle were decorating it with Pokeballs and re-using some of the ornaments of the other tree. Ivysaur was using his vine to hold a broom and clean the place. Charizard helped on getting rid of the old tree and was now relaxing on the sofa.
Nana and Lucas stayed at the entrance of the room, while Red walked to Pikachu and Squirtle to help them. "W-What?", Nana asked in shock.
"Pikachu, you did this? It's pretty cool!" Red accomplished.
"(Hey, we helped too!)" Squirtle said and put a gingerbread man on a branch.
"A-And it's even decorated with real snow." Lucas said. In fact, there were smithereens of snow on the branches.
"(You better take a photo before it melts.)" Squirtle added.
"(Sorry for ruining the other tree,)" Pikachu apologized, "(Hope this is almost as good as the other.)".
"Pikachu that's amazing! I wonder where you got this tree though." Nana said with a glimmer of happiness in her eyes.
Charizard let out a chuckle and Pikachu gave an embarrassed smile. "(Just wait till Master Hand search for that pine tree he was cultivating on the yard,)" he said and then pointed to a mistletoe above their heads, "(By the way, Ivy hung a mistletoe there.)"
Nana and Lucas looked up and saw the familiar green plant with red berries dripping from it. Their faces turned bright red and since they couldn't go against the tradition, they kissed each other. Everyone let out a giggle, including Pikachu. Popo and Ness came in by another corridor and had their jaws to drop when they saw Lucas and Nana kissing, but nobody noticed them.
"W-W-Well, sorry for yelling at you, Pika," Nana said when they broke apart, "Your tree is really impressive."
Everyone came closer to examine their work. It looked perfect, but still, one thing was missing. "We need a star," Ness said.
"(Oh, yeah! I was thinking on asking Stafy or Staryu if they wanted to do the job of being the star, but…)" Pikachu was cut off by Nana gently raising him and putting him on the top of the tree.
"Now we have the perfect star!" she said and smiled.
Everyone nodded in agreement and a huge grin crossed their faces. Pikachu grinned too. What was that warm feeling he was having? And why was he feeling so happy that he would laugh for no apparent reason? He couldn't understand why he was feeling like that, but he would take a shower in the dark and say that that was what they called "Christmas spirit". It was the feeling of joy and generosity. So why did they need presents? Pikachu didn't really want to know that at that moment, he would think about that later.
Maybe that was how people felt on Christmas, and it wasn't all that bad and senseless like he thought.
"Merry Christmas Pikachu!" Lucas said.
"(Merry Christmas,)" he said, "(Just don't forget to take me out of this later, okay?)"
Agh! I tried… I tried so hard to make it not cheesy in the end! Anyway, that's all I could get. I originally wanted to make Pikachu question why the smashers celebrated Christmas, since most of them weren't Christian (I bet most of the people who write Christmas fics never stopped to think about it. I'm pretty much sure that Zelda isn't Christian), but I just wanted to avoid religious references, so I made some changes. XP
I hope you all have a merry Christmas and remember: NanaXLucas are pure win (as well as NanaXPopo)!