This takes place shortly after Surprise Gift. It's the 'event in Snowpoint' that was mentioned.

MISC: Ages (as of end of year, Gold and Crystal as basis):

Red, Green, Blue: +4
Yellow, Silver: +1
Gold, Crystal: 0
Ruby, Sapphire: -1
Emerald: -2
Platinum: -3
Diamond, Pearl: -4

Primary: Gold & Crystal.

Ski Trip:

Route 217, Sinnoh…

Crystal looked through the window of the bus as she headed towards Snowpoint City. There was a lot of snow on the ground, thus the bus was going slow for safety. According to Green, for her birthday party, Platinum and Blue had planned an event in Snowpoint. Platinum had rented a bus to be used for the trip and made arrangements for a lodge and whatnot.

Apparently every Dex Holder was going on a ski trip. Crystal was a little worried because… she didn't know how to ski. She didn't like the cold either. The boots, hat, gloves, and the winter coat she received as birthday presents and the winter pants she borrowed from Blue (she had extras) kept her warm. She looked at Platinum, who sat beside her. Crystal couldn't believe how her junior could wear such a light coat and a skirt for skiing… and she even kept her coat off. In fact, she seemed a little hot… She had some ridiculously high tolerance for cold…

Crystal looked over at Blue and Yellow, who sat in the seats in front. Her seniors were also dressed warmly and seemed to have similar tolerance to cold. She looked behind, where Ruby and Sapphire sat. The two Hoenn Dex Holders wore really thick winter clothes, but still trembled from the cold. For once, they weren't bickering.

On the other side of the bus, Diamond and Pearl were silently practicing their comedy acts, Silver was asleep, and Gold was busy eating something while slowly reaching for the windows. Emerald, who sat beside him, was curled up into a ball, shivering. Red was dozing off as Green was reading a book. Those two didn't seem to mind the cold that much either.

'I wonder how many of the Dex Holders know how to ski?' Crystal thought, as she looked out through the windows once again.

"Um… excuse me, senior Crystal," Platinum suddenly started.

"Yeah?"

"Would you mind if I open the windows? It is quite hot."

Sapphire suddenly kicked the seat from behind. "Y – You w – w – want to do what?"

"Sorry, Platinum. It may be hot for you, but it's quite cold for the rest of us," Crystal said, shuddering at the thought of opening the windows.

But to her horror, she heard the sound of a window opening. She looked around and saw which window was open. Apparently Gold had decided to open the windows for the sake of torturing Emerald, who grumbled as he tried to shield himself from the harsh wind.

"Shut the window! You're letting all the heat out!" Crystal yelled.

"R – R – Relax, Super S – Serious Gal," Gold stuttered. "I – Isn't it n – n – nice to breathe some f – fresh air?" Despite shivering violently, he pretended to be perfectly fine. "I – Isn't that right, E – Emerald?"

"I – I – I'll get you back s – someday…" Emerald stuttered out from his wind-shield. "I'll n – never come back to northern S – Sinnoh…"

A few hours later, the bus arrived in front of the lodge. It was three stories high, and seemed quite big overall. It must've cost a lot to rent such a lodge for… however long they were staying.

Crystal groaned silently. There was no way she would be able to repay Platinum for this birthday event. All she could do was take better care of her.

Next day, 5 am…

Crystal groaned as she woke up. She was very tired and very cold as well. It was a hellacious night, and due to… a prank by someone, she only slept for two hours. That prank had almost given her a heart attack… She sighed and after checking the cut and bruise on her cheek with a mirror, made her way to the bathroom to take a shower.

Half an hour later, she stepped out of the lodge where some of the Dex Holders were waiting. It was still dawn, and it was very cold. And Platinum wanted everyone to meet her outside so they can walk to the ski resort.

Crystal let out another sigh; she could see her breath slowly rising towards the sky. She zipped up her coat and walked towards the small group of Dex Holders waiting, namely Red, Green, Blue, Yellow, Silver, Pearl, and Platinum.

Platinum seemed quite tired. Crystal understood; the heiress had to share a room with Sapphire, and when extreme tolerance to cold met extreme intolerance to cold, there were bound to be problems. Crystal assumed that Platinum kept the heater on at maximum power to keep her senior warm.

"Good morning, senior Crystal. Did you sleep well?" Platinum asked after a polite bow.

Crystal smiled and nodded. "Yes, I… had a good night's rest. So… how far away is the ski resort?"

Platinum covered her mouth as she let out a yawn. "… Excuse me. The ski resort is roughly a half an hour walk from here. And we shall leave once all the other-"

"I can't wait any more!" Pearl hollered.

With several snowballs, he barged into the lodge. Crystal walked towards the group of Dex Holders and waited. Soon, she heard some loud yelling and furniture being tossed around from inside the lodge and Pearl came back out.

"Well, that worked great," he muttered with a smile.

Another half an hour later, the remaining Dex Holders came out, and the group headed towards the ski resort. At the ski resort, after renting all the necessary stuff, Crystal waited at the base of the hill, hesitant to get to the top. The ski course was quite… big. While she stared blankly at the course, Gold came up to a halt in front of her, after having snowboarding down from the top of the hill already; of course, coming to an abrupt halt right in front of her sprayed slush all over her.

"Hey, Super Serious Gal, what're you doing?" he asked with a smirk. "You've been standing here for quite some time, you know. I think it's been 3 hours."

Crystal grumbled as she tried to get the snow and slush out of her eyes. '3 hours? It's been that long already?' "Gold…" she started in a lecturing tone, brushing the snow and slush off of her clothes now.

"Just like last night, huh?"

"You almost gave me a heart attack yesterday!" she yelled.

"Hey, your heart's not that weak!" Gold started. "Unless, of course, you've been over-eating or something. I warned you, though. I told you not to eat too much and get fat. Remember that?"

Crystal clenched her teeth and tried to smash one of her ski poles over Gold's head. He blocked it with his billiard cue, which he had been using as a ski pole while snowboarding. Crystal tried to smash the other pole, but he blocked it as well.

"Whoa, you're too violent, Super Serious Gal. Relax! I was only joking!"

Crystal crossed her arms and turned away. She seemed rather offended, so Gold tried something different.

"Say, let's go up that hill," he said, pointing to the tallest ski course in the resort.

"Eh? But…" Crystal suddenly looked around, and after ensuring that no other Dex Holder was in the area, she whispered. "I never skied before…"

Gold started to laugh. "Don't worry, I'll hold your hand."

True to his word, he grabbed her hand and started to drag her towards the ski lift. Crystal started to protest, but suddenly fell mute when he kissed her in the cheek.

"Relax. Nothing bad will happen."

At the top of the hill, Crystal carefully stood away from the slope.

"Isn't this slope too steep?" she asked. "I mean… it says it's the hardest ski course here…"

"Look, Super Serious Gal, even Platinum is riding down this slope," said Gold, pointing downhill.

Crystal inched her way over and looked. Platinum really was skiing down this slope, very fast. Well, she was going very fast, until she fell. Crystal shuddered as she watched her junior crash-roll downhill. After a particularly painful looking crash into a tree, she slowed and rolled the rest of the way down. But soon afterwards, she rose back to her feet and after gathering her skis and ski poles, headed towards a different slope. The snow must've softened her crashes.

"Excuse us," came Ruby's voice from behind.

Crystal turned around and saw both Ruby and Sapphire. They both seemed to have adrenaline running through their veins, as they weren't shivering. She stepped aside and let her two juniors get ready to ski downhill. Sapphire, despite having a bandage wrapped over her left eye, seemed to have no difficulties skiing.

"Remember. The first one to reach the ski lift down there wins," she said, her voice full of determination. "Ready, set…"

"Go!" Ruby yelled.

The two Hoenn Dex Holders raced downhill, using their ski poles to accelerate as much as possible. Crystal watched as the two sped down… until they suffered similar fate as Platinum. But in the end, Sapphire crawled towards the ski lift first, thus winning the race.

"Um… Gold, I don't think we should ski down here…" Crystal said. "Everybody's crashing near the end…"

"I said relax, Crys," Gold said. "Here, I'll go first."

Gold jumped onto the slope and snowboarded straight downhill. There was a big jump in the middle of the slope, and unlike the other Dex Holders who avoided it, Gold raced straight towards it. And after soaring through the air, he landed on his back and like the others before him, rolled the rest of the way downhill.

Crystal gasped as she tried to find Gold in the cloud of snow. When the cloud of snow cleared, she couldn't see him anywhere. Starting to get worried, she wanted to get to him, but didn't want to know what would happen to her if she went down the slope.

Meanwhile, Gold, despite covered in snow, was riding the ski lift back up to the hill. He hoped that he created enough 'smoke' so that Crystal couldn't see him getting back on the ski lift. At the top of the hill, he could see her still looking downhill, so he knew that his plan worked. He carefully hopped towards her.

"Hey, Crys!" he suddenly yelled, as he nudged her from behind, pushing her down the slope.

Crystal shrieked in surprise. "GOLD!"

After laughing for a few seconds, he jumped back onto the slope and raced after her. Crystal was desperately trying to slow down, but to no avail. Gold easily caught up with her and slowed down just enough to stay at the same speed.

"See? You're doing good," he yelled.

"HELP!" Crystal screamed back.

Gold grabbed her hand. She seemed to relax a little already. She turned to look at him. He grinned and pointed ahead with his billiard cue. She looked at where he was pointing; the big jump. Gold was leading her straight towards the jump…

"No, no, please don't!" Crystal shrieked out. She tried to move away but since Gold was holding onto her, she couldn't go anywhere. "Gold, don't!"

"Let's fly!"

"GOLD!"

Without warning, she and Gold soared through the air with no ground below them. Crystal shut her eyes and braced herself…

15 minutes later, at the ski lodge…

Blue entered the VIP room (appointment made by Platinum), brushing the snow off of her clothes. She wanted to take a short break and… maybe eat something. She didn't eat anything yet, and was starving as a result.

Inside, there were already quite a few Dex Holders. Apart from Red, Green, Gold, Silver, Crystal, and Pearl, everybody else was there.

Emerald sat in front of the fire while eating a burger, Sapphire was talking to Yellow while sitting on top of Ruby, who was doing push-ups.

"49… 50!" Ruby counted. He tried to push Sapphire off of him when she slammed her fist onto his back.

"You're not done yet!" she yelled angrily.

"What? The bet was up to 50!" Ruby complained.

"Do 50 more!"

"Why?"

"For last night, you jerk!"

"I told you, that was an accident! And why mention it now? You were fine with it earlier today!"

Sapphire glared at Ruby through one eye. "Accident? Yeah, right. You did that on purpose! And why do you think I made this bet in the first place? So I could make you pay for what you did!"

"Look, I'm sorry! I didn't know that the branch would hit you like that!"

"Whatever. 50 more push-ups, you!"

Blue shook her head and looked over at a table, where she could see another interesting sight. Diamond, despite having a plate full of food in front of him, was frozen in his place, barely breathing. Sitting next to him was Platinum, who had fallen asleep and was now leaning against his arm, her head resting on his shoulder. Not only that, her hand was resting on top of his.

Blue smiled and sat by the table adjacent, watching the two Sinnoh Dex Holders. She wondered whether Diamond would stay like this until they headed back to the lodge, assuming Platinum didn't wake up.

Suddenly, the door opened and Pearl stepped in, hollering.

"Dia! I just thought of a great comedy act! Let's…" he trailed off upon seeing his friend frozen in place.

Diamond looked at Platinum. She stirred slightly but was fast asleep. He could feel her gently squeezing his hand. He smiled and looked back at his getting-cold food; despite starving, he never felt so happy before.

Seeing his two friends, a thought occurred to Pearl. Blue, as if she read his mind, went over to her bag and pulled out a camera, which she then handed to Pearl. He took several pictures of Diamond and Platinum from various angles, and once he thought he had enough, he moved the camera right in front of Platinum's face.

"Hey look! Dia's kissing someone!" Pearl hollered.

As expected, Platinum snapped awake and Pearl took a picture of the reaction. She looked somewhat confused and she looked around a little… hastily. Then, realizing that Pearl was joking, she shook her head and pushed the camera away from her face.

"Your loud voice surprised me, Pearl," she said hastily. "Please do not do that again."

"Uh… are you okay?" came Diamond's voice from beside.

Surprised, Platinum looked to the right where Diamond was looking at her. Realizing that she was holding his hand and was leaning on him, she quickly pulled away and straightened herself. She blushed in embarrassment, but luckily, had an urge to yawn, and while complying to do so, covered her mouth and cheeks to hide the blush.

"Y – Yes, I am fine, Diamond. I am slightly tired, is all," she said shortly after. "I apologize if I was a nuisance to you."

"No, no. No problem at all."

"How long was I asleep?" Platinum asked.

"Two hours maybe?"

Platinum looked at the food on the plate in front of Diamond. The food looked quite… congealed now. 'Did he not eat at all during that time?' "… Thank you for what you did."

Diamond turned to look at her, and she looked at him. Their faces were quite close to each other… But after a few seconds, they both turned away. Diamond focused on his hardening food while Platinum struggled to hide yet another embarrassed blush.

Blue smacked a hand onto her face. The two had just missed a golden opportunity… 'Maybe one day…'

Within a few more minutes, yet another interesting sight came through the door. Gold, covered in snow, was carrying Crystal in his arms, also covered in snow. He had his snowboard slung across his back and she held her skis and ski poles in her arm.

Seeing everyone staring at the carrying pose, Crystal quickly rammed her elbow into Gold's chin and got back onto her feet. She winced at the pain coming from her right knee and limped towards a seat.

"What happened?" Blue asked, smiling at the expressions of her two juniors.

Crystal pointed at the ski course through the windows. More specifically, she was pointing at the giant jump in the middle.

"I think I sprained a knee…" she grumbled out. She glared at Gold. "I told you that I shouldn't go down that slope! Especially not that jump!"

"Hey, but it was fun, wasn't it?" Gold said with a grin as he un-slung his snowboard.

Crystal grumbled some more and turned away. He was right; it was fun… until the painful crash, anyways. She looked at Platinum who was looking at her with a worried expression.

"Hey Platinum, could we go back to the lodge once everyone returns?"

"Oh, certainly, senior Crystal… I am terribly sorry. I had thought that a ski trip would be fun for everyone…" Platinum said in an apologetic tone. "If I had known that you have never skied…"

'Great… did I hurt her feelings?' "No, no, it was fun," Crystal said hastily. "This was just an accident, caused by someone. It's not your fault; don't be so hard on yourself. I just feel like returning to the lodge so I can rest and not put any strain on my leg."

Platinum nodded. "Of course. Once the other seniors return, we shall return to the lodge."

Within an hour, Red, Green, and Silver returned, having conquered all the slopes in the resort. After eating lunch, the Dex Holders prepared to return to the lodge.

Seeing Crystal massaging her knee while looking at everyone else getting their stuff, Blue approached Gold and whispered something into his ear.

"… What? There's no way I'll do that!" he yelled, gaining everyone's attention.

Blue stepped on his foot and whispered something again.

Gold sighed and turned to face Crystal. "… Since it was my fault that you sprained a knee, it is apparently my duty to carry you back to the lodge…"

"Come again? … … I – In public?" Crystal stammered.

"Oh well, I tried," Gold started. Blue kicked him in the ankle. After another sigh, he grabbed Crystal's hand and lifted her onto her feet before lifting her onto his back.

"H – Hey! What are you…"

"Pretend to be asleep or something," Gold whispered.

Hiding her embarrassed blush, Crystal did as she was told. It certainly felt less embarrassing…

Blue slung her bag over her shoulders and smiled as she watched Gold carry Crystal out of the room, with Emerald following (carrying their stuff). She then turned to look at Platinum. The heiress was glancing back and forth between Gold and Diamond before she smiled and turned to find her bag. Directly after, Diamond glanced back and forth between Crystal and Platinum, before he too, smiled and followed Gold and Crystal out of the room, with his bag slung over his shoulder.

Blue sighed. Yet another missed opportunity. 'These two really need help… Maybe tomorrow…'