Fifty Two - Snowflake

Skylar - Clemont

"It... It can't be..." Sky mumbled, looking at her father in shock.

Her father quickly double checked, nodding. "This has got to be a Galladite. Now all I have to do is test it on a Gallade- Do you know a trainer who has one?"

Sky took a deep breath. "I do, Dad."

"Really?" The Professor's expression brightened. "Who?"

Sky laughed, full of excitement. "I-I meant I have a Gallade."

His face was on of surprise, then glee. "Perfect! We'll test it right away-"

"How about we wait until tomorrow?" She offered. "Then it could be Gallade's Christmas gift."

Professor Sycamore sighed. "Okay, Sky. I was being much too eager, as always. Go on and spend time with your friends- I'll do some more research on the stone. Oh, and and I'll contact Korrina and her grandfather. They'll get some sort of accessory for Gallade soon." He smiled, turning to do some more experiments on it.

Sky nodded, then headed back to the living room.

Serena was out of the kitchen, and Ash was talking to her. Bonnie was still playing with the Pokémon, but Clemont gave up on that to stare at the blank TV- Sky wondered why he was so lost in thought, so she plopped herself down on the couch right next to him. However, doing so scared him out of his trance.

"You startled me-" He said with a surprised expression, then gave her a warm smile. "Nevermind. What is it?"

"Clemont, what's wrong?" She asked, concerned.

"It's nothing." He shrugged. "Just worried about you..."

Skylar shook her head. "I've told you a bazillion times that I would be okay. And I will be." She stood up, and quickly kissed him on the cheek as well- while blushing. "I-I need to go upstairs and- uh, wrap some gifts, yeah!" She excused herself quickly, then frantically went up to her room.

She slammed her bedroom door behind her, breathing quickly. 'Why did I do that?! He's gonna catch on, and he's probably mad, or... Or...'

She shook her head to interrupt her thoughts, and became more focused. Out loud, she spoke: "Okay, no more procrastinating. I need to get this done."

So she went through the process of wrapping everyone's gifts. Then, she put on some holiday music to get into the "mood". After awhile she heard a knock on the door; and went to answer it. Yet whoever it was barged in before she could cover up the gifts and she quickly slammed the door in their face. "I'M WRAPPING!" She yelled, not wanting any of her unwrapped gifts to be seen.

"Sorry, kiddo!" The voice of her father said muffled through the door. "I'll just leave it outside the door." She could hear his footsteps going away, so she opened the door thinking the coast was clear.

Bonnie was peeping through the doorway in a millisecond, Dedenne upon her shoulder. "So, Sky- what'd ya get me?" Her eyes were wandering over all the gifts.

Sky blocked the doorway. "It's a surprise! You have to wait for tomorrow, Bonnie."

She sighed. "Fine... Oh, what's this?" She picked up the package Professor Sycamore had left on the floor, and her eyes went wide. "No way! Another one Mega Stone?! Sky, where's you find this?"

Sky quickly took it from her. "Shh, Bonnie! It's Gallade's present. Please, please, please k-keep it a secret!"

Bonnie nodded. "Alright. I will, promise. But... Gallade's gonna love it! I can't wait to see it!"

Sky smiled brightly. "Thanks, Bonnie. But go back downstairs!" She said in a joking matter. "I don't trust you over here with all the presents n-nearby."

"Okay." She huffed, and began to descend. "Just make sure you got my big bro something realllyyyyy special to show how you feel." She commented, then disappeared.

Sky closed the door, then blinked. 'What was that supposed to mean?! I know she teases us and all... But does she know...?'

Once again shaking shaking off those thoughts, she tried to focus. After some more time and thankfully no more interruptions, she was done. All the presents were neatly wrapped, ready to go to their owners by tomorrow.

Since everyone would be staying overnight in her room, she stashed them away in her father's bedroom, knowing he wouldn't mind at all. She knew Bonnie would probably keep her promise of not peeking, yet she had to be careful for any other possible snoopers.

The door was opened again, and in walked Sylveon. It had opened the door with its ribbons. A frown was upon its face, and Sky frowned at that as well. "Sylveon? What's wrong?" She asked.

The fairy type jumped gracefully onto Sky's bed, looking up expectantly at its owner with a saddened face. Sky then realized the problem.

"Oh, jeez... I-I just realized that I've been leaving you alone so much!" She picked up her partner, hugging it close. "I'm so sorry, Sylveon... C-can you forgive me?"

"Sylvie!" It changed, a happy expression on its pink face as it wrapped its ribbons around Sky in a hug-like manner.

Sky laughed, spinning around a little. "Haha, that's great! Just wait until you see your-"

She was cut off by a knock on the door. Sylveon took its place on Sky's shoulder, and she opened the door to reveal Ash.

He leaned to the side a little, and was staring down at the ground as he scratched the back of his neck. "Hey, uh... Sky... Can I ask you something...?" He asked hesitantly, acting nothing like himself.

Sky nodded, surprised. She opened the door wider for him to come in, then closed it behind him. It seemed that whatever he wanted to talk about would have to be private. Sylveon understood, so it curled up and took a nap.

"Listen, uh-" Ash sighed, meeting her eyes. "You're really the only person I could come to here. Because you'd know Serena better than Clemont, and Bonnie... Well, Bonnie's always teasing us. So I just wanted to ask, well-"

Sky tilted her head, the faintest knowing smile on her face. "Go ahead, Ash. I-It's okay."

He nodded. "I wanted to ask you if you think this would be something nice for me to give her tomorrow." He said with a red face, showing Sky a package that hasn't been wrapped yet. She opened it, revealing a chain necklace with a ribbon pendant- this ribbon was pink, instead of her normal blue one.

Sky smiled, placing it back in gently. "Of course she would love it, Ash. Don't stress over it. Y-you know how much she loves that blue ribbon."

"I know, but..." Ash grinned. "I just want her to be happy, y'know. Same with you and Clemont, I'm sure you guys got each other something special. So me and Serena would do the same." He responded, taking the package back.

Now it was Sky's turn for her face to go red. "I g-guess so."

"Anyways, um... Can you wrap this for me?" He asked, chuckling a little. "Whenever I try to wrap something, I rip it."

Sky sweat dropped. "Yeah, no problem."


After helping Ash with wrapping some of his presents (he told her that he'd get Bonnie or Serena to wrap Sky's), Sky and the others began to prepare for bed after a nice supper made by the Professor and Clemont.

They (specifically Bonnie) wanted to go to bed early just so they could wake up extremely early and get the most out of Christmas Day... Yet their plan backfired. Everyone else stayed up later than they were supposed to, just chatting.

As everyone laid down in their respective places inside of Sky's room, finally asleep, Sky sneaked up up to the roof after the others were asleep- and heard Clemont behind her. She smirked to herself but didn't turn around as she repeated the process she had done ages ago with him. She climbed up to the roof, then finally turned around to help Clemont up.

They sat side by side, yet closer than they had before. Despite being best friends- they had grown even closer over the past year of Sky traveling with them. Her and Clemont spent a lot of their time together, leisure time or no, and their bond only strengthened.

Sky looked up to the stars. They had done this almost every night, and it never became boring. She always looked forward to her time with her best friend under the stars.

They sat in silence for a few moments until a grandfather clock-like chime rang from down below, continuously dinging to signify that that another hour had passed. Sky thought, then wondering what time it was- then it clicked. Midnight.

"Merry Christmas, Sky." Clemont spoke up, drawing her attention to him. This was something different, however; he leaned over and kissed her on the cheek, blushing madly.

Sky's eyes widened. The only few amount of times they had done that, she had started it and then quickly ran off to avoid confronting the problem. This time, she had no choice as her cheeks went red.

"M-Merry Christmas, Clemont..." She stammered, still surprised. Yet she turned her head to him with her face hidden by her dark hair a little.

"Uh, sorry about that..." Clemont said, scratching the back of his neck after noticing her red face.

"No, d-don't apologize. It's fine..." Sky responded, blinking.

Silence overcame them once more. Until after they both recovered from the almost awkward incident, Sky smirked and turned to face him. "You'll never believe what I got you."

"Shh, Sky! You can't tell me, it has to be a surprise." He laughed a little.

"I know, I know." She rolled her eyes slightly. "I wasn't going to tell you. I'm just saying I'm almost positive that you'll really like it."

"Well, that's good, as long as you didn't get anything too big... You don't need to spend much on me, y'know."

She nodded. "I didn't spend anything, actually..."

"So you made something." Clemont stated, fixing his glasses.

"Uhh... Scratch that. It's hard to explain, really." She chuckled sheepishly, hoping it didn't degrade her present in any way.

"Well, if it helps, I made you something too." Clemont responded, smiling brightly.

'He looks so adorable when he smiles like that-' She quickly shook her head, trying to snap out of it. 'Not now! Stay cool...' Yet that didn't work out, because her face went completely red again.

Sky shivered, finding it cold as snow began to fall from the sky. Clemont quickly picked up on that, and moved closer- then draped his arm over her shoulder.

'W-what did I just do?!' He thought. 'I hope she doesn't mind this... I only did it on impulse...'

She instantly felt warmer, and moved even closer. Taking a deep breath, she watched as the snow began to make the scene even more beautiful.

Some snow landed on top of them, and she laughed when she saw how much snow was in Clemont's hair. He blushed even more, yet continued to smile.

Sky stuck her tongue out playfully again, but a snowflake landed on it, instantly melting. That caused Clemont to laugh a little as well- until they were both laughing continuously, leaning into each others embrace.

She didn't want it to end, but eventually they went back down and back into bed. Sky closed her eyes, wondering what tomorrow would bring.

Clemont fell asleep while studying Sky's sleeping face. He felt completely at peace, not even nervous at all for tomorrow.