Author's Note: I think I'll start off with Ikarishipping since I'm most familiar with it. *sob* I'm so unoriginal. Happy Reading. Oh, and seriously… Merry Christmas.

It's too beautiful, beautiful day

Make it a good day

Don't make me cry

Good Day, IU

Snow

Hikari hated the snow.

She hated how it was all white and lonely, and all it did was make everything colder; and Hikari hated the cold. The snow made her long for summer and her short sleeved shirts and shorts. She wanted ice cream and walks along the beach with her friends. All the snow did was make her realize how utterly alone she was.

This winter, her mother had made reservations in Hotel Grand Lake, one of the most popular resorts in Sinnoh, and had dragged her there to take a break from all her pokemon battles and contests, but she had vehemently protested. She just simply could not see what was so good about a view of a lake.

This day in particular was quite freezing but her mother had kicked her out and told her to "get some air" as she put it. Hikari was pretty sure that all her mother wanted was some alone time with that man she'd met while they were staying there. So all Hikari had at hand was her Pochama's pokeball and a few hundred Pokedollars.

She sat at a nearby bench, letting her Pochama out so he could play for a bit in the snow (because he loved it, something that she had found quite ironic) and pondered about her misfortune.

Her shoulders were hunched and her mitten clad hands were shoved into the pockets of her pink winter coat. She continued grumbling to no one in particular about the cold as people blurred past until her stomach started growling.

Hikari had tried to steer clear of the Seven Star Restaurant her mother had praised so highly. She'd spotted it when they had driven to the hotel and just by looking at it, she knew with one look that it was one of those places that gave you a small serving and charged you tons; but at this point, she was getting quite desperate for a warm place to loiter in.

She grudgingly shuffled over to the entrance, one arm around Pochama as he fought to play a bit longer in the terrible snow.

"Can't you be still for just a moment?" She hissed. The warmth rushed over her as she stepped inside and she could smell the delicious aroma of the different exotic foods being served. Pochama stopped struggling then.

A light blush brushed past her face as a rather charming waiter asked for her coat (she was quite unused to such frivolous acts of chivalry, even though he was being paid to do it).

"Are you going to meet anyone in particular?" He asked, and she looked around for a bit as she counted the number of couples scattered around the room. It was then that she realized it was Christmas Eve, and she wished that she would've just stayed with her mother.

"Well," Hikari started as she spotted a familiar face, "actually, I was going to meet up with that guy… right there." She smirked slightly as the waiter turned to look at where she was pointing.

This was going to be quite interesting.

He led her over to her "acquaintance" and said in an extremely polite tone, "Sir, your dinner date has arrived."

She tried and failed to hide a smirk as she sat in the chair opposite of Shinji the waiter had pulled out for her. "I hope you don't mind that I'm late." she said in a slightly teasing tone.

He just rolled his eyes and muttered "Whatever" before disappearing behind the huge menu he was holding.

"I'll be back with an extra menu and silverware, ma'am." The waiter said. "Oh, don't worry." Hikari said in a cheerful tone, waving him off, "I'll just share the menu with Shinji, I'm sure he won't mind. Isn't that right?" He didn't answer.

"I was hoping you wouldn't notice me." Shinji said suddenly as the waiter walked off to fetch her some silverware, "Only you would be able to think of something like this." She smiled at that.

"Oh, so you do recognize my face." Hikari said; the thought lifted her mood considerably. They'd met often even after she had stopped traveling with Satoshi, but whenever they bumped into each other coincidentally, he often acted as though she were a complete stranger; though she hoped that he was only acting.

Shinji looked over her disdainfully and rudely stated that it would be hard not to remember hair as blue as hers at which she simply stuck her tongue out.

After a few minutes of coaxing Pochama back into his ball which earned lots of eye-rolling from Shinji, she snatched the menu from his hands and started flipping through it. All he did was sigh.

Hikari often wished that he would react a bit more, which was the purpose of surprising him with her visit in the first place, but he always managed to successfully keep his mask securely in place. She was now 19, and it had become a sort of goal for her as opposed to when they had first met at age 11 when all she wanted was for him to remember her name correctly.

The waiter finally came back with her silverware and asked if they had found something they wanted to eat yet. Both of them placed their orders and just as it seemed like everything was going to go perfectly normal Hikari asked for their wine selection.

As soon as the waiter left, Hikari caught Shinji staring at her.

"What?" She asked as though she had no idea why Shinji was looking at her with a weird expression.

"Wine?" He asked.

"Is there a problem?" Hikari asked with an innocent smile as she spread the silk napkin over her lap.

"Aren't you, like, 15 or something?" He asked her to which she said in an offended tone, "I'm 19, actually." "And that makes a difference… how?"

"It's fine." She said, waving him off, "It's not like I've never done this before, and you're what? 24 or something?" "I'm 21, actually." He answered, though she already knew.

"Exactly." She said as though that fixed all of their problems.

Shinji looked like he was ready to argue, but the waiter had come back with the wine selections and had asked for an ID to which Shinji reluctantly handed over his trainer card as he saw the expectant expression on Hikari's face.

"You've done this before?" He asked her, revealing a little bit of his curiosity when they had picked their wine and the waiter had walked away.

"At this day and age," Hikari scoffed, "the drinking age should be lowered to 18; especially for a social person like me. I've got the fake ID and everything." "Isn't that, I don't know, illegal?" Shinji asked. Hikari stared at him pointedly with a 'what's-your-point' expression written all over her face. He decided not to press the matter after that.

Dinner arrived a lot earlier than Hikari had expected and few minutes after that the wine appeared.

She clapped her hands softly as the waiter expertly poured wine into her glass. She tentatively sipped a bit before sighing in satisfaction.

They spent their dinner with lots of annoyingly personal questions from Hikari and curt answers from Shinji. ('What's your favorite color? Food? Pokemon?' 'None of your business.')

After a while, the questions became a bit uncomfortable to answer ('Are you still a virgin?' "Where can you come up with a question like that!') and Shinji realized that she was quite drunk; after all, she'd drank 4 whole glasses of wine. Her speech was a little bit slurred and her face was very red.

He quickly waved the waiter over and asked for a check and after all was paid for (obviously Shinji paid for Hikari's though he muttered something about making her pay back double when she was sober), he put one arm around her waist and one of her arms around his neck and hefted her up, accepted the coat she had handed to the waiter, and dragged her out of the restaurant.

"Seriously," he said, as he packed a snowball so she could cool her face down, "what am I going to do with you?"

"Well, I can't go home in this state." Hikari said, lying back on the bench with her head tilted up towards the sky, "My mother would kill me." "It's not like you don't deserve it." He said, making no effort to hide it.

"Oh, shut up," She snapped and hurry up and hand me a snowball, my head hurts like hell."

He rolled his eyes and with a sigh handed her what looked a little bit like a ball.

Hikari snorted at the sad attempt, but accepted it graciously anyways. Shivers ran through her body as she gently placed the snowball on her temple.

"Better?" He grunted. "Much," she sighed, "Thanks."

He patted the snow off his pants as he rose and made a move to walk away.

"You're really going to leave a vulnerable 19 year old girl alone in the middle of the night?" Hikari asked in a tone full of disbelief. "You have your little penguin friend." He pointed out. She just raised her eyebrows and patted the empty space on the bench next to her. He hesitated a little bit before he sat down a little further away than Hikari would've liked.

As stated before, she hated the cold.

Hikari stared at the falling flakes for a few minutes before she sprawled across the bench, resting her head on Shinji's leg.

"Seriously?" He said in a monotone voice.

Hikari gave him a tiny smile and he noticed her eyes become just a bit of a brighter blue. She shut her eyes to the falling snow and said, "I hate the snow." A comment that caught him off guard.

"That's weird," He said, "I'd think you'd love the snow. It just seems like you."

"Winter's a bitch and snow's her bastard." She muttered in a disgusted tone.

The corner of Shinji's mouth twitched upward. He couldn't help it. "I think it's alright." He said simply.

She tilted her head curiously, staring at him, before closing his eyes once more. There was a pause as the earth slowed down and Hikari took in everything around her. Suddenly, she smiled.

"What?" Shinji asked, amusement coloring his voice.

"I feel like Sleeping Beauty." She laughed.

He looked down at her.

Her long lashes were coated with snow and her rosy cheeks stood out against her pale skin framed by her cobalt hair. To him, she looked more like Snow White. Suddenly, she opened her eyes, and Shinji could feel himself drown in them.

"So, what happened to my handsome prince who'll whisk me away after kissing me from my sleep?" she asked teasingly.

He simply covered her face with her coat and grunted at her to go home.

And although she knew it was just a joke, she wished he'd actually did it.

Finally, he led her back home to a worried mother and without either of them looking back, they parted ways.

The next morning, Hikari looked out the window and let out a sigh as she saw the light snow falling from the sky. She absentmindedly stared out the glass pane with a head on her hand. As she stared, she spotted a familiar silhouette in the white and wiped her window for a clearer image.

She stared at Shinji, not strangely out of place in the snow as he walked step by step, further away from her hotel room. She was sure that he was getting ready to leave Grand Lake Hotel and was a little disappointed that she wouldn't be able to spend more time with him. Who knew how long it was before they would coincidentally meet again?

Then, as though he could feel her stare piercing his back, he turned around and their gazes locked.

After a stunned silence, she put up an overly cheerful smile and waved at him enthusiastically before blowing him a teasing kiss. She laughed as she imagined him rolling his eyes.

He simply turned around and continued walking.

Soon, all that was left was his footprints in the snow, and Hikari sighed as her thoughts started drifting to different topics.

She still hated the cold.

She still hated the snow.

But at least it didn't remind her of loneliness anymore.