Chapter 28.5: Christmas Special!
(A/N: My break has begun and since the story is currently in the Tower of Mastery Arc, I want to write a little special chapter that takes place in a slightly different timeline to celebrate the holidays. Here in the US we celebrate Christmas (and ofc this is the case in some other countries), I wish y'all a happy holidays in general and hope you enjoy the chap.)
General
(This story takes place in Snowpoint City in Sinnoh region during Christmas time.)
The team was facing perhaps the biggest challenge that they had encountered in their journey so far.
It was a dilemma that had the potential to severely disrupt the bonds that had been painstakingly built over the year the team had spent together.
A third party onlooker might wonder, what could possibly push a team that had gone through multiple struggles with international criminal organizations, life-threatening experiences, and innumerable love troubles?
As it turns out, the author really wasn't underselling the "innumerable love troubles" aspect of the struggles.
Christmas was fast approaching and the whole team, besides Red, was currently gathered in a large dining room as part of a large lodge owned by the Berlitz (Platina's) family.
Red was currently outside with Pika and the rest of his pokemon building snow-laxes as one wasn't going to get packing snow on this scale back in Pallet Town.
The rest of Red's team was currently trying to figure out what they were going to do for Christmas.
More specifically… what gifts to get each other.
Even more specifically… they had figured out gifts for each other but there was currently a growing dispute on who was going to give a certain gift to Red.
It had started innocently enough, as everyone was sharing gift ideas for Red, Yellow expressed earnestly that she wanted to dress up as Santa for Red.
Unbeknownst to Yellow, that seemingly minor suggestion somehow escalated to a bloodbath.
It started with Blue latching onto the idea immediately.
"That's a great idea Yellow! How about I join in too? I think Red would enjoy a more mature Santa even more." Blue said in an unintentionally provoking manner.
Before Yellow could even register that this was a slight flex from Blue, Mei and Platina latched onto the idea and put in their two cents about how he'd probably prefer a girlier and pure Santa.
Of course, Serena wasn't going to take this lying down and she chimed in with how Red would certainly prefer a Santa that he had known the longest.
As the arguments continued to "evolve" into higher levels of nonsense, somehow Sapphire, Crystal and White got dragged into the competitive spirit of the argument and this is how the team ended up in the spot they were in now.
Which is to say, this is how they ended up in the bloodbath that would become known as the (hopefully not) annual "Who would be the best Santa for Red?" contest.
Red was not remotely aware that a battle to the death was brewing a few meters away from him, but Pika could sense that something was amiss through his finely tuned instinct for his master's love problems.
Pika could only sigh quietly to himself as he could feel a silly storm brewing.
Back at the scene of the battle royale, the girls were trying to figure out how they were going to go about this contest.
Platina offered to have her family provide costumes that they had for the maids on hand. She even mentioned that there were costumes for pokemon as well.
Blue latched onto the latter part of the message, "If we get our pokemon involved then we could get Red to be the judge without thinking anything would be weird about our little contest."
The other girls solemnly nodded and Platina sent a message to her maid to help find the costumes that fit Pika and the other pokemon.
After this had been decided, the sound of a door opening and wind whooshing through the main hallway of the lodge could be heard.
Red entered the room a few moments later with Pika in tow.
For reasons unbeknownst to Red, Pika seemed reluctant to see everyone which was rarely the case as Pika got along with the whole team very well.
Pika even spent time alone with some of the girls at times so there shouldn't have been any problem with him seeing everyone today.
Too bad that Red couldn't read Pika's mind only at times like this, where Pika knew that love troubles was the topic.
The girls froze when they saw Red enter the room. Clearly, there was no protocol for Red coming back this early.
Luckily, Serena saved the situation with some quick thinking.
"Hey Red, we're planning something for the Christmas Party tomorrow, can we borrow Pika and… can you go build more snow-laxes for the party?"
Red wasn't sure what was going on but as he was still oblivious as ever, he replied with "Sure I can go make some more with Lax and everyone else, good luck with the preparation Pika!"
Red then turned to go back outside, as he was turning his head, he could have sworn he caught a look from Pika that said "HELP ME!"
Red reasoned to himself that that'd be a ridiculous read on what Pika was trying to say, he concluded that Pika was probably trying to say "Help them!"
"Pika's such a good helper!" Red said to himself as he closed the door to freedom (outside the meeting room).
Pika on the other hand, nervously looked around as he tried to assess what the best escape route was.
Too bad Yellow took a gentle but firm grip onto him and Chuchu helped console him as he realized his fate was sealed.
Blue had a mischievous face as she explained the plan to Pika.
He couldn't help but roll his eyes when he learned about the plan.
[Of course, it was something like this] Pika thought.
With Pika (reluctantly) on board, the plans for the "Who would be the best Santa for Red" contest went full speed ahead.
Platina's maid came in with the costumes for everyone.
It seemed like they only came in one size and they consisted of a cropped red top with furry white trim on the bottom and sleeves, the cropped nature obviously left the navel exposed which was a detail not missed by Yellow and some of the girls there.
It got better (worse?) from there, the skirts were a Santa themed miniskirt in the same style as the top.
To top it off, there were traditional Santa hats on top of each set of outfits.
Yellow was the first to exclaim, "Wait, when I was talking about becoming Santa for Red, this was not what I had in mind!"
Blue on the other hand was in the other camp, she thought to herself "this is going to be perfect, Red can't ignore me in this."
Platina was secretly happy that it was something a bit more risqué, but openly she was embarrassed too "Sorry everyone… this was obviously meant for the maids of the Berlitz house… I hope you can spare me the comments on my dad's… tastes." She said as she shook her head with reddened cheeks.
No one decided to press further and with insufficient time to get new costumes, it looked like the competition was heating up in more ways than one.
The costume seemed to be a bit big on Yellow and it ended up barely covering her stomach thanks to her small build.
This was not the case for everyone in attendance.
Sapphire for example, was having the opposite problem that Yellow had with the costume, especially with the upper part.
This wasn't something that had actively bothered Yellow in the past, but in the face of everyone having uniform costumes, it was hard to avoid the pair of realities currently struggling with the Santa costume.
Yellow despaired for a bit but decided she would compete elsewhere to get Red's attention.
Without much more fuss, the girls got dressed up and prepared the festivities for the Christmas party.
Surprisingly, Serena actually had a plan for the Snow-laxes that Red was currently fervently building.
She got some spare Santa hats from the maids and when preparation for the rest of the party was ready, she put on a large snow trench coat and went out to help adorn the snow-laxes with the proper festive headgear.
After the task was finished, she guided Red back to the room where the party had been prepared.
When they entered the room, she removed her coat in a hurry, and Red was greeted with many pleasant sights.
All the girls and their smaller pokemon + Pika, had dressed up in Santa costumes.
The difference was that the girls' outfits were on the provocative end of the spectrum while the pokemon had much cuteness-oriented costumes.
Red wasn't sure where to look but he did manage to utter out "I didn't know everyone was preparing a party, I should have helped out!" as he looked away in embarrassment.
"You helped with the snow-laxes outside, but if you really feel bad about it, we do have one thing we need you to do to help complete today's party." Serena said as she gave a mischievous glance at Blue who returned the same one.
In unison, the two of them said "Judge who the best Santa in the room is!"
Red was stuck processing their words for a moment, before replying "wha?"
It was probably too much to expect Red to have a clear response to such a situation.
Blue repeated what Serena had said for good measure and by then, Red seemed to have gotten the message.
For him, the problems really started when he had processed the message.
For some reason, the survival instincts that had saved him many times before against Team Rocket and Neo, were kicking in right now.
They were currently strongly telling him that if he answered wrong here, he would not be having a very peaceful Christmas.
It was only 12:05 am by now, so while the Christmas spirit was going around most of Sinnoh, the storied Berlitz Snowpoint Lodge was currently the most tense it had ever been.
Red looked around the room at his normally close teammates and felt like his head was spinning as he tried to make a decision while also taking in the sights.
He wasn't a big fan of judging people on their looks but he also understood enough to know that the girls wanted a decision, so his philosophy here wouldn't really apply.
As the pressure mounted, Red felt like there were no right answers. Even if he said a name, there was no way he could avoid hurting feelings.
The indecision and confusion built up as he scanned the room for an escape route.
As his eyes met with the individuals in the room, he eventually locked eyes with someone he had known for a long time and had gone through tons of trials with.
The individual in question widened their eyes in shock and looked like they wanted to convey the idea of "oh god please no", but Red had made up his mind.
Red took a deep breathe and looked at the room and said "If you want to know who I think wore the Santa costume the best…"
The tension raised as the girls unconsciously leaned in towards Red in unison as they awaited his final judgment.
"I choose you Pika!" Red blurted out!
(A/N: And that was how Team Red spent their Christmas. Hope y'all have less tension with your family, friends and loved ones than the team did this Christmas. And before anyone has any doubts, yes this was canon. Have a happy holidays and Merry Christmas, see you in the New Year!)