Hello, it is the 28th and I am back with a Christmassy chapter of Rocket Daze! I mentioned in the previous chapter that the character of Christopher from the episode Noodles Roamin' Off (also the same person of Mondo from the Team Rocket Radio Drama in my stories) has been on my mind lately and that continued this month too. To get into the holiday cheer, I wanted to write a letter from him because he is a real gem and an uplifting POV to write from. I hope you enjoy :)

Disclaimer: I own the story and the OCs mentioned!

Dear Jessie and James and their little ones, Meowth, Jorginho, Domino, Butch and Cassidy and little Bonnie – dear all of my Team Rocket friends, really:

I'm having the best time. It's funny because when I quit Team Rocket in order to pursue the pie in the sky dream of my noodle resturuant, I felt that my time in the organisation was up. Though I knew in my heart that my fondness for all of you would prevail, i believed that it was time to pursue a new dream.

It wasn't that I was wrong. More, it was that I didn't have the full picture.

Now I realise that this is where I belong. At least partially. And I cannot believe that for a single second I was brave enough to put all of my memories with you all behind me. Now I realise that I want you all to be a part of a lot of my memories. Especially at Christmas time.

I know that it's not ideal. Christmas in Team Rocket can be a little funny sometimes. A lot of people have a lot of differing ideas. A lot of differing traditions. A lot of different ways of seeing in the holiday season – or not seeing it in at all.

There are people like you, Jessie and James and even Meowth, who are even more frugal around this time of year in order to give your friend a special gift. Whatever you can spare. It's even more like that now that you two are together, isn't it, Jessie and James?

And even Meowth's heart softens this time of the year. I know he will claw me for saying that but it's true. I see the way that he becomes extra generous. Extra careful. He wants to give little Jazmyn and Justin a truly special day almost as much as you do, Jessie and James. Even though they are barely even one year old at this point. He wants to do right by them both. Right by his two dearest of friends.

Butch and Cassidy get nicer this time of year too. They're always nice. Underneath it all. But they've got little Bonnie now and they suddenly realise why Jessie and James don't mind getting skinnier this time of year. They've got more money to be able to treat their princess but they still make their sacrifices. I see it. And I see how much you enjoy being a little family.

You sigh a lot this time of year, Domino. Christmas is a pretty romantic time of year, huh? I'm sure one day the right person will sweep you off your feet and kiss you underneath the falling snow and brush his frosty nose against yours. I know what your Christmas Wish always is. For you, I hope that it comes true.

Jorginho, at Christmas time you light up any room far more than the Christmas lights. I love how into everything you get! You get quite a lot of time off duty this time of year but I admire that you still work hard. Walking into your kitchen and seeing Oscar silently sitting on the counter top while you hum and bake is a very comforting image for me. It speaks of Christmas to me. It's one of the best sights I could witness.

Most of our gang get stuck into things, whether we have the same beliefs or not, whether we came from the same kinds of families or not. These days and now there are little ones within our group, it's less about the dance floor and the music and the glee as the days blur into each other and everything seems hilarious.

But for some of Team Rocket, that's what the holidays are about. Letting loose.

I'm happy to go with the flow, and do whatever everyone else wants to do. But I'm glad we mostly choose to only drink and maybe smoke and just spend time together. I'm definitely glad that we could do that this year. Even with little ones taking priority, it's nice for it to feel like those early days in Team Rocket.

I know that there's other things that you could have chosen to do. But I'm glad you decided to spend special moments all together. I'm glad that you decided to spend precious moments with me.

Truly, I can't believe that I ever dreamt about anything other than this.

James, I know that it's a shame that you couldn't spend Christmas with your Nanny and Pop Pop like you planned because there was a threat of your parents crashing the day looming! I'm sure you were really looking forward to your children spending the time with your sweet folk like you used to when you were a child.

Butch, Cassidy, Bonnie and Domino, you had the opportunity to go back home to Cassidy's parents which would have been a rare treat for them to be willing to host you all! But it's nice that you chose to stay here. It's nice that you made that choice. Not to hold it against you, James, that you didn't. It's nice to have you all.

I know that you, Jorginho, can't help but find your mind wandering to the Christmases of the past and that's why you like to become such a light for everyone else, making new memories for them like you used to have. Not that you don't make good ones now. But Christmas was special back then, wasn't it? I know that you miss your brother. And I know that you'd rather I call him your cousin. I love you. But I can't do that.

What I'm basically trying to say with all of this is that, despite all the different dreams that we all have and the different traiditons that we cling onto the the different kind of families that we came from – and even the different kind of families that we had the opportunity to spend time with – I'm grateful that we could all gather here in this orhanisation together.

I know that it's not everybody's dream. But I'm realising that it is my dream.

I know that you all had different plans. And I know that a lot of you would have this Christmas be different. But I wouldn't.

You all have given me the idea of what it means to be part of a family. You, Jessie with your stern, big sisterly ways. You, Meowth with the way that you have the patience of a saint with me. Domino – how you make me want to dream big alongside you. James – how you make me want to be even kinder. Jorginho – the way you light me up from the inside out. You, Butch, by allowing me to learn alongside you what it means to be a man. And you, Cassidy, by showing me your gentler side.

And of course you three too, Justin, Jazmyn and Bonnie – you remind me of innocent times. My family before didn't allow me such a privilage. So I am grateful that being part of a family like this has brought all that to me and more.

You all are my family. On this Christmas Day. And every day.

I know that you all had different plans. And I know that you sometimes wish that things would be different. But I don't.

I feel like all of my wishes come true when I am in the greatest company of all. Let alone my Christmas ones.

All of my sincere love,

Christopher Mondo.

There you go, thanks so much for reading and I hope you enjoyed! So yeah, this chapter shows the Christmas after Christopher reunites with the TRio in that Sinnoh episode that I mentioned and by which time I headcanon that not only does he re-enroll in the organisation, but Jessie and James have their twins and Butch and Cassidy have their first child, Bonnie. It's a pretty good time in all of their lives. Things go wrong as time goes on and that is partially because of the loss of this lovely character, Christopher. I really want to write more of him in the New Year! :D I hope everyone has enjoyed their holiday season and that you all have a great and safe New Year. I'm going to be taking a break from uploading in January so I will see you in February over on Pikachu Tales - but I'll update this story at the end of next month! I need to get my chapter storage stocked up with some new content ;) As always, thank you for everything this year, and for reading stories depicting the world that means so much to me :) See you soon!

Amy signing out :3