"N! Come over here!" I was completely aware of how childish I sounded as I pointed out the window, grinning.
"Hm?" He hurried over, a confused look on his face.
"It's snowing!" And not only that, but it looked like it had snowed all night.
He stared at me, blinking once, before turning back to the window and letting out a carefree laugh. I pouted. "What?"
"It's just so nice to see you excited about something so simple as snow."
I looked away, feeling my cheeks heat up as I messed with a lock of hair. "It's just we're farther north."
An arm snaked its way around my waist, and I was pulled against N. I relished in his body warmth, because even though the heater was on, the castle was still a bit chilly. I felt his lips press against my forehead, and my cheeks heated up even more. I would never get used to that...
My attention went back to the falling snow. Everything outside was covered in white... it was beautiful. The snow was falling slowly, blowing around a bit before fluttering to the ground.
"Hey, N... Let's go outside."
My mind had automatically run through a list of the pokemon that N and I had, along with the ones that stayed at the castle. No ice types... Several of the grunts had Vanillites, but none of the pokemon that belonged to us directly would have enjoyed the weather very much.
I, dressed in a long pink winter coat along with a white scarf, stood facing a flustered N who seemed surprised by the snowball that hit him in the face. A smile appeared on my face as N huffed, then swept down to gather snow of his own. A laugh escaped me as I ran, ducking to dodge the snowball that he threw my way.
As we chased each other over the vast courtyard, my mind wandered. This was the first time I had ever seen snow... for myself, that is. When I was about eight, Black's family had gone to Snowpoint City over in the Sinnoh Region during the holidays. Black's dad was some kind of businessman, and had something he had to do their... That city is always snowy, but during Christmastime, they have some big festival. Black got to attend, and took a lot of pictures; which he proved by showing them all off to Cheren, Belle, and me.
Dammit, Black... Why was it that, ever since the visit with my mom over a month before, my mind always wandered towards thoughts of him? I hadn't seen him since... Well, since right before my battle with N. He had wished me luck, and then gave me a sad smile before running off. He didn't even ask if he could stay to watch the battle (which I probably wouldn't allow in the first place, so maybe it was better that he hadn't).
The thoughts got shaken from my head as a clump of snow hit me directly in the face. I brushed it off with gloved hands and sent a playful glare to N, who had almost doubled over laughing. He had had such a huge grin on his face this whole time... it was almost as if he also had never-
And then it hit me. Not literally, of course, since N was still too busy laughing to throw another snowball just yet. N had grown up with Ghetsis as his father. He had been trained to be a ruler. N had... never really had a real childhood, which was more than likely the reason why he was so childish now. That was why he was just as excited by being out here as I was... Not for the first time, I felt a twang in my heart.
Yet again, I found myself thinking about how much better it was that Ghetsis was dead (if my mother heard me say that about anyone, I would be in so much trouble). Though, this time, it wasn't because he had made my journey difficult and would have made my life a thousand times worse than that. It was because N honestly didn't deserve to be put through that.
We stayed outside for hours; despite the snow seeping through my clothes and giving me chills, I was too happy about this to care. I knew that, to onlookers, we would look strange. I mean, I was seventeen and N was nineteen, and here we were acting like six year olds and building snow forts. But I didn't really care, and it didn't appear N did, either.
When I started coughing, N made us go inside. After I had abandoned my wet clothes, he automatically forced me to lay in bed while he brought me hot chocolate. Even when I insisted that I wasn't getting sick, he still claimed that he did it because he wanted to, not because he had to.
We sat together on the bed, talking and laughing and drinking hot chocolate. In one week, we would be heading to Nuvema Town to spend Christmas with my mom... I had to admit, I was excited to see her, and excited for the holiday. Though, at the the moment, I felt that it would be difficult to make me any more happy than I already was.