Difference and Acceptance

*Last time on Difference and Acceptance Shadowflame and Annabelle were trying to have pups. Let's see if they were successful*

`After a wonderful night filled with several matings Shadowflame and Annabelle fell asleep, exhausted but happy. Sometime in the early morning Annabelle's inner sense had told her that their efforts were successful. She was pregnant. When she woke up she was excited to tell Shadowflame the good news. Seeing as he was already up, she went to go find him.

Annabelle found Shadowflame sitting near their den and watching the pack. She walked over and sat down next to him, "Good morning love," she greeted him by licking his cheek. "Good morning," he nuzzled noses with her, "how did you sleep?" Annabelle shrugged her shoulders, "Oh, I slept fine," she couldn't hold her excitement in any longer and squealed, "Ooh, Shadow, I have wonderful news! I'm pregnant!"

Shadowflames eyes widened and he jumped to his feet, tail wagging furiously. "Really?!" he asked. "Yes! we're going to be parents, Shadow!" Annabelle said happily. Shadowflame howled joyfully at the news. "We must tell the pack the wonderful news!" Annabelle nodded in agreement and Shadowflame turned towards the park and barked sharply to get their attention.

The members of the pack turned to their alpha, muttering to each other, wondering what he wanted. Even the poochyena brothers sat quietly. Once everyone had quieted down, they watched as Shadowflame's stern face broke into an excited grin, as he said, "everyone, Annabelle and I have some exciting news...we are expecting pups!"

There was an outburst of noise as calls of congratulations and howls of excitement filled the air, causing several bird pokemon to squawk and flee the trees nearby. Even the poochyena and houndour, who didn't know what the excitement was all about, ran around, barking joyfully. "You hear that Leo? We're gonna have siblings! Oh, I wish Flick was here." Leo nodded, "Me too, but this is great! we can teach them all kinds of things as they grow up!" The two began to playfully wrestle one another.

*Meanwhile, away from the celebrating Houndoom and back at the Winter caves, Luna was having a bad day.*

Luna walked through the snow, scowling grumpily. She was cold (A tree branch had dumped snow on her), and she was mad (Lucas ruined her snow sculpture). Stomping through the snow she suddenly shivered, despite the fact her white fur had grown thicker during her time here to protect her against the cold. Sniffling, she sneezed, and a small flame exited her mouth.

Rubbing her nose and sniffling again, she growled and kicked at a snowbank. Her foot connected with an unseen rock in the snow and she screeched, grabbing her foot in pain and hopping around, tears budding at her eyes. Sighing, she limped to another rock and sat down. Drawing her knees up to her chest and setting her chin on her paws, she thought back to what had happened earlier...

*earlier that day*

Luna hummed happily as she scooped up some snow and smoothed it down on her creation. It had taken most of the morning, but soon she would have her surprise for Lucas done, she just needed to add the face, and it would be done. Luna carefully placed two stones in place for the eyes and used her finger to make the smile, then stood back to admire her work. A snow sculpture of a riolu smiled back at her.

Suddenly Lucas and another Riolu appeared out of nowhere. "Lucas, watch out!" Luna screamed but it was too late. Lucas hadn't been watching where he was going and crashed into the sculpture. Lucas shook the snow off his body and stood up, Luna was in tears. "You...you ruined it!" she wailed, "you ruined my riolu sculpture!" Lucas walked over, "what? I'm sorry, Luna, I didn't mean to..." "I worked so hard on it all morning and I was going to show it to you and then you ruined it!" Luna yelled at him.

Lucas tried to put a paw on her shoulder and calm her down, "Luna, I'm sorry," he tried to apologize again but Luna pushed him away angrily and stormed off, "forget it!" she yelled as she left, leaving Lucas confused and sad behind her.

Luna stomped through the snow, angry that all her hard work had been ruined. She wasn't watching where she was going and smacked into a tree, "Owwww," she moaned and rubbed her sore nose, until the tree branch above her dumped snow on her head. Shaking the snow off, she growled and ruffled her wings, and continued walking, which led her to where she was now.

Lucas walked up to Luna, he had worked hard on something special to make up for what he did and it was also an apology. "Um...Luna?" he walked up to her. "What?" Luna snapped, "I just wanted to apologize...and...I have something to show you." He pulled Luna to her feet.

"I'm sorry too, Lucas...it's just that I worked so hard to make that snow riolu for you, and then it got ruined. It made me upset, and then I got snow dumped on me and I hurt my foot." "Well, I'm still sorry. Does your foot still hurt?" Luna noticed that it didn't, it stopped hurting shortly after she sat down. "No, it doesn't hurt anymore, and it's ok, I can always make another one."

Lucas smiled mysteriously, "Actually, I have a surprise for you, no peeking!" he said and then went behind Luna and put his paws over her eyes. "Now, no peeking until I say so." Lucas led Luna back to where her sculpture had been and then uncovered her eyes, "SURPRISE!" standing where Luna's snow riolu had been, were two new snow riolu, one even looked like Luna.

Luna gasped, smiling and eyes sparkling, "oh...wow, Lucas, those are amazing!" She walked up for a closer look, "how did you make these?" Lucas smiled, "I got my friend Markus to help me." The other riolu appeared from the bushes, "he agreed to help me with this even though I was the one who ruined the one you made." Luna engulfed Lucas in a hug, "Thank you, Lucas!" Lucas smiled again and hugged her back.

"Friends?" Lucas asked. Luna nodded, still hugging him, "of course, we never stopped being friends." The two separated and just stood, admiring the snow riolus.

Now we'll get to see how Shadowflame handles Annabelle's pregnancy as it progresses and maybe Flick will make an appearance later on. And it was sweet of Lucas to cheer Luna up by making those snow riolus