Melody Time
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- Feb 15, 2021
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- #1
When we say, "Goodbye, December"
Merry bells no longer chime
We'll remember once upon a wintertime
- "Once Upon a Wintertime", Melody Time (1948)
Once upon a 2020, I was able to write MikuNagi fluff. And then I became a whumpster. This is a fluffy oneshot with mild angst, specifically dysfunctional family, briefly implied eating disorders, and hypothermia, though it's not enough to be rated higher than an "Everyone".
Family was a funny thing, especially for Wallace. It became especially funny during Saizón Rekkoúza.
There were four main Rounékyo holidays during the four-month season: Rekkoúza Feast Week, the most important Feast Week of the year, the Festival of Arousésou, a celebration of the arts, Látiosou and Látiasou Feast Day, a day of repentance, and Tziráchi Feast Day, a day of wish-making and gift-giving. Wallace’s opinions on the holidays ranged from “a happy day of painting and presenting” to “grandparents and uncles and aunts and everyone insisting that Wallace needed to fast until he cracked from a panic attack”.
The stress of October bled into November, until he couldn’t take it any longer. And so, after apologizing in advance to Látiosou and Látiasou, on a calculated whim, he boarded a flight to Sinnoh and booked a room at the Snowpoint Hotel, but not before writing up a check of 1,500,000 Pokédollars and sending it to the Sootopolis Children’s Hospital, as an early gift for Tziráchi Feast Day.
Who would expect Wallace to go to Sinnoh? The Wallace Cup was the only thing connecting Wallace to Sinnoh, and even then he didn’t always host it in that specific region. His rivalry with Cynthia was well known across the country, and he wasn’t known to be friends with Sinnoh’s resident Water type Gym Leader. It was the perfect place to seek refuge from his family.
It was such an out of character move for Wallace to disappear without a trace. Usually, it was Steven or Winona who would run off, the former going off to some cave and the latter standing on the highest building or transmission tower she could find to feel the wind. Wallace loved them both, quirks and all.
But Wallace didn’t share that particular quirk, so when he vanished, he received a panicked call from, surprise surprise, Steven.
“You can’t just leave Hoenn unannounced!” Steven said. “That’s my shtick! Keep your disappearing act on the Contest stage!”
“Sinnoh’s very nice around this time of year,” Wallace said, knowingly dodging the question that Steven was implying. Steven was aware of Wallace’s… family issues, but that didn’t make it any less of a sore subject. If he could just keep it off for as long as the conversation would last—
“Why on earth would you go to Sinnoh?!” Steven demanded.
Damn it.
“To spice things up,” Wallace lied.
“‘Spice things up’??? Don’t you have family?!”
Wallace forced a chuckle. “Huh. I forgot.”
“YOU FORGOT?! YOU HAD?!?!?! A FAMILY?!?!?!?!?!”
Wallace sighed, smile falling. “Fine. I didn’t forget. Though I think it would be better if they forgot I existed than… well, whatever they’re doing to me now.”
Silence filled the distance between the two.
“Do you have anyone else you can spend the holidays with?” Steven finally asked. “I know it can get pretty busy for everyone around this time with all of the different holidays going on, and I’d hate for you to be alone.”
“Elizabeth is with me. All of my other Pokémon have… families. Good families.”
“What about Elizabeth?”
“Her parents are dead, and Victoria didn’t want me to be alone.”
Wallace could hear Steven gulp. “Oh. Well… no wonder you two… um… shit that’s mean…”
Wallace smiled. “It’s okay, Steven.”
“Well, I’ve got family in Sinnoh,” Steven said. “What about you?”
“I don’t.”
“Uh… friends?”
“None.”
“Well, I won’t be able to come out this time, sadly. Devon business. But a certain someone else called me and said she was coming to Sinnoh with a present for you.”
“Who might this person be?”
“A person with family shit in need of another person with family shit.”
Wallace’s Pokénav started ringing. His smile grew wider as he saw the name on the screen.
“Speak of an angel and she’ll hear your prayers,” Wallace chuckled. “I’ll talk to you later, Steven.”
“Goodbye, Wallace. Love you.”
“Love you, too.”
Wallace hung up, then answered his other lover’s call.
“Hello, Winona darling. How are you?”
“I’m doing good. And you?”
“Less stressed than when I left Hoenn, that’s for sure. Steven implied that you were here in Sinnoh.”
-
They agreed to meet near the city’s Pokémon Center. It was out in the open, but talking inside a closed environment would certainly attract more attention than talking outside, where passersby were busy with shopping and their own conversations.
Wallace, not wanting to be noticed by any fans but wanting a sense of elegance, dressed in a dark blue Inverness cape and black beret. No one would ever even imagine Wallace wearing any other hat besides his white beret.
Winona was wearing a light blue coat and a chartreuse scarf. She looked much taller, and at first Wallce thought she was wearing high heels. It turned out that she was wearing white ice skates. She was also holding a box wrapped in silver paper.
They looked at each other for a few moments, then Winona spoke: “Want to walk with me to Lake Acuity?”
-
The late morning sun shone on the snow and rust red rooftops. Snowpoint City, being the home of an Ice type Gym, went all out for the holiday season: Lights were up everywhere, though they weren’t on yet. Beautiful displays of candles, toys, and pine needles sat in the windows of every building. Bands were playing music everywhere.
“What prompted you to join me here?” Wallace asked.
“I didn’t want you to be alone for the holiday season,” Winona said.
“Don’t you spend Celemas with your family?”
Winona’s smile fell, and she looked down at her feet with a melancholic gaze.
“Not this year.”
“What happened?”
“Don’t want to talk about it.”
“I see. I… understand.”
The two walked in solemn silence the rest of the way to the lake.
It was no secret to Wallace that Winona had a rocky relationship with her family, especially her mother and stepsister, but she always insisted on staying with them for Celemas. Not for any religious reason; Celemas wasn’t even much of a religious holiday like Rounékyo holidays. It was more of a spiritual, secular holiday about gathering with family during the colder months. Being named after the forest spirits, and Winona being one with the wind and birds, it was preposterous to think she would skip such a holiday… unless your name was Wallace, Steven, or Aurora.
Winona and Steven were wanderers. Steven and Wallace had heavy expectations placed on their shoulders from a young age. Wallace and Winona had dysfunctional families.
Snowpoint City was beautiful, but just as beautiful was Acuity Lakefront. Snow frosted the ground and every tree, and even more snow was falling from the sky. Snorunt waddled by in a single file. The temperature got colder, and for the first time in his life, Wallace could see his breath. He held Winona closer to his side to keep her and himself warm.
“The winter winds and water of the heavens combine,” Wallace mused as he watched the snowflakes fall. “The result: one of nature’s most beautiful creations.”
Winona stuck out her tongue a little, letting snowflakes fall down on it.
“Taste like water,” she said.
Wallace laughed. “Well, I would hope so.”
Eventually, the two reached Lake Acuity, which was covered in a layer of ice. Wallace stepped towards it and pressed his foot on the ice.
“What are you doing?” Winona asked.
“People in movies do this,” Wallace replied. “I think it’s to make sure the ice is strong enough to hold a person for skating.”
He began slowly walking on the ice. Winona held her breath and reached her hand towards Aurora’s Pokéball. If the ice broke under Wallace and he fell into the freezing depths… she didn’t want to think about that happening.
Wallace walked around the lake some more before breaking into a sprint and sliding towards Winona. When he skidded to a stop in front of her, he smiled and extended his arm. Winona placed the box in his hand.
“You’ll need these,” she said.
-
Wallace sat on a rock as Winona tied the laces of his white ice skates into little bows. His cape was off, and he wore a blue cardigan and pants underneath. Being from Hoenn, he and Winona weren’t used to the cold, so layers were essential.
“Thank you, Wino—”
Wallace tripped as he tried standing up, but Winona caught him before he could faceplant in the snow.
“Such elegance,” Wallace joked. “How do you walk in ice skates with the grace that you do?”
“I think part of it has to do with walking around on my tiptoes or in heels all the time, but I once tried wearing skates to stay away from the ground.”
“What’s wrong with the ground?”
“It’s scary.”
Wallace pecked her on the nose. “Is it less scary with me?”
Winona covered her mouth, snickering. “Maybe.”
“I’m a bit scared myself—of tripping on my feet and making a fool of myself. Would you mind helping me to the lake?”
Winona leaned Wallace against her side. “Of course.”
The meter-long walk was slow. Very. Very. Very. Slow. Two Buneary watched the two, laughing whenever Wallace fell. At several points, Wallace wanted to give up and just crawl over to the lake. But snow, as he had come to learn, was cold, and Winona was warm. Besides, he had an image to keep up to these funny bunnies and his lovely lady.
His biggest worry was that the ice would be worse, that he would slip and fall and be colder. But somehow, gliding on the ice, wobbling in Winona’s arms, all of that was much better. He felt a sense of… a weight being lifted off of his shoulders. He didn’t need to be great at skating, because he was skating with Winona, and Winona would love him no matter how good or bad he was at skating. His family would have made fun of him for being anything less than perfect, but Winona? Steven? They would never make fun of them. They would help him back up and let him lean on their shoulders—
Cracking of ice replaced joy with terror.
Instinctively, Wallace held Winona tightly. As he looked around for the source of the noise, he felt Winona tapping his shoulder, so he looked up.
A Gyarados emerged from the ice in front of them. Silence, then its mighty roar shattered it.
“Run!”
Wallace spun Winona around and flung her away from danger. Before he could take out his Luvdisc’s Pokéball, the Gyarados sent out a Hyper Beam. Wallace tried skating away, but the ice below him shattered from the attack, sending him into the freezing depths of the lake’s water.
Winona’s voice was the last thing he heard before the plunge:
“WALLACE!”
-
The sudden sensation of cold water shocked Wallace out of his ability to feel much of anything. As he took in the darkness around him, he fought the urge to panic.
Sure, Wallace was “Prince of Water” and all that, but that didn’t mean he could breathe underwater. But as a “Prince of Water”, he knew enough to know that hyperventilating would only spell doom by making him inhale deadly cold water, but it was hard to keep himself from breathing and panicking and panicking . He was going to die. He was going to die he was going to die he was going to die—
He managed to regain his sense of direction from his anxiety quick enough to try to make it to the surface before suffocation or the cold got him.
He gasped for air as his head escaped the deathly grip of the lake. It wrapped its arms around him and dragged him back down. Cold. Cold. Cold. It hurt to move his arms, but he had to make it to the surface. He had to make it back for Winona.
He came up again, his lungs arching as he breathed in the cold air. Before he could plunge back into the water, he felt a hand and claw grab his arms and pull him out of the water. The next minute, he felt himself being carried bridal style by Winona.
“Aurora!” Winona yelled. “Dragon Breath!”
Aurora sent out a blast of multicolored energy at the Gyarados, striking it with a critical hit. With one last roar, the Gyarados fell back into its kingdom in the waters below.
Wallace felt Winona moving, then he felt the warmth of his cape being wrapped around his body.
“Wallace, can you hear me?” she whispered.
Wallace opened his eyes. They stung, and he worried that they would freeze over, but after blinking a few times, he could see his beloved. Winona was kneeling by his side as Aurora wrapped her wings around the two. He was shivering. Winona was shivering. Wallace’s head spun, though he managed to hold onto Winona’s hand.
“I’m here, darling, I’m here. I’m here,” he said to reassure both her and himself.
“We need to get you to the ER.”
With shaky hands, Winona took out a small bottle of greenish-yellow liquid from her coat.
“Aspear Berry juice,” she said. She held it to Wallace’s mouth. “Drink.”
“But what about you, darling?”
“I’ll save you before you save me.”
“But—”
“Please, Wallace.”
By now, Winona was pressing the bottle against Wallace’s lips. He managed to wrap his almost frozen hand around the bottle and drink the contents. The liquid was slightly sour (in stereotypically Beauty Coordinator fashion, Wallace preferred dry flavors), but Wallace felt his body warm up as soon as he drank it.
“I hope you have some for yourself,” Wallace said.
Winona took out another bottle. “Of course I do.”
She drank from her bottle, then looked down at Wallace.
“My lips are cold,” Wallace said, smiling. Even he knew how cheesy he was being.
Winona smiled. “Mine are, too. Maybe I can help us both.”
She lowered her head and kissed Wallace on the lips. She pulled away too soon.
“Wait—”
“Wallace, I don’t want your lips freezing to mine. Also… I don’t want you dying.”
-
“Do you drink coffee?” Wallace asked.
Winona shook her head.
“Neither do I,” Wallace said. “How about hot chocolate?”
The two were back in Wallace’s hotel room. Fortunately, they had managed to get to the ER before they and Aurora could get severe hypothermia. Unfortunately, Cynthia had been passing by the building just as the two left, and she gave Wallace quite the earful about “going out alone when you know how dangerous Sinnoh can be” and “you’re not used to the cold”. She had a point, but she talked his ear off for an hour.
Winona rested her head against Aurora’s fluffy feathers as she sat on the sofa. She was wearing Wallace’s turtleneck and her lounge pants. Wallace wore a sweater that was three sizes too big, one that Winona had bought for him on the way back to the hotel.
Wallace checked the milk in the pot on the stove. It seemed warm enough, so he opened the hot chocolate pouch and poured its contents in.
“None of this would have happened if I hadn’t left like a nervous wreck,” he joked as he stirred the hot chocolate. “I apologize for making you come out here only for you to almost freeze.”
“Wallace, don’t be sorry. I understand the stress. I would have left Hoenn anyway. The only difference is that I’d be spending the holiday alone with my bird Pokémon, which is fine, but I’d much prefer to also be with you.”
Wallace poured the hot chocolate into two cups, picked them up, and walked over to the sofa. He gave one of the cups to Winona.
She took a sip of the hot chocolate. Her smile grew just a little bit wider. “I didn't know you were trying to give Siebold a run for his money.”
“Funny you mention him: he’s the reason I can cook more than Pokéblocks.”
His eyes widened. “Speaking of which…”
He took a small box from the side table and opened it, revealing several Poffins.
“As long as we’re in Sinnoh, we might as well try them.”
Winona took one of the sweet Poffins.
“I figured as much,” Wallace said. “You’re one of the sweetest people I know.” He touched his finger to the tip of her nose. “You’re also cute—adorable, even.” He stood up. “Of course, I have another present for you.”
“An engagement ring?”
“No, not yet.”
He gave her a rectangular package wrapped in white paper.
“I managed to be friends with Cynthia for a short while to get this for you.”
“That’s sweet of you.”
Winona took the package and, carefully, unwrapped it. Inside was a light blue, rectangular plate.
“A Sky Plate,” Wallace explained. “It increases the power of Flying type moves. Cynthia said that it has a connection to the legend of the Pokémon Arceus. Apparently, it can change its type from Normal to Flying.”
Winona stood up and hugged Wallace.
“Thank you.”
“I have to thank you for following me all the way here.”
“I’m a Flying type trainer; I’ll fly to the other side of the world if it means helping you.”
She kissed Wallace’s lips. “And next year, maybe we can spend the holiday in Hoenn.”
Wallace walked over to the window. As he opened the curtains, he said, “But snow is so pretty, especially during this time of year.”
Snowpoint City was aglow in warm white and blue lights. It was truly a sight to behold. Winona walked over to Wallace’s side, staring in awe at the world outside.
For just a moment, it was just the two of them and the lights of the winter night.
Merry bells no longer chime
We'll remember once upon a wintertime
- "Once Upon a Wintertime", Melody Time (1948)
Once upon a 2020, I was able to write MikuNagi fluff. And then I became a whumpster. This is a fluffy oneshot with mild angst, specifically dysfunctional family, briefly implied eating disorders, and hypothermia, though it's not enough to be rated higher than an "Everyone".
Family was a funny thing, especially for Wallace. It became especially funny during Saizón Rekkoúza.
There were four main Rounékyo holidays during the four-month season: Rekkoúza Feast Week, the most important Feast Week of the year, the Festival of Arousésou, a celebration of the arts, Látiosou and Látiasou Feast Day, a day of repentance, and Tziráchi Feast Day, a day of wish-making and gift-giving. Wallace’s opinions on the holidays ranged from “a happy day of painting and presenting” to “grandparents and uncles and aunts and everyone insisting that Wallace needed to fast until he cracked from a panic attack”.
The stress of October bled into November, until he couldn’t take it any longer. And so, after apologizing in advance to Látiosou and Látiasou, on a calculated whim, he boarded a flight to Sinnoh and booked a room at the Snowpoint Hotel, but not before writing up a check of 1,500,000 Pokédollars and sending it to the Sootopolis Children’s Hospital, as an early gift for Tziráchi Feast Day.
Who would expect Wallace to go to Sinnoh? The Wallace Cup was the only thing connecting Wallace to Sinnoh, and even then he didn’t always host it in that specific region. His rivalry with Cynthia was well known across the country, and he wasn’t known to be friends with Sinnoh’s resident Water type Gym Leader. It was the perfect place to seek refuge from his family.
It was such an out of character move for Wallace to disappear without a trace. Usually, it was Steven or Winona who would run off, the former going off to some cave and the latter standing on the highest building or transmission tower she could find to feel the wind. Wallace loved them both, quirks and all.
But Wallace didn’t share that particular quirk, so when he vanished, he received a panicked call from, surprise surprise, Steven.
“You can’t just leave Hoenn unannounced!” Steven said. “That’s my shtick! Keep your disappearing act on the Contest stage!”
“Sinnoh’s very nice around this time of year,” Wallace said, knowingly dodging the question that Steven was implying. Steven was aware of Wallace’s… family issues, but that didn’t make it any less of a sore subject. If he could just keep it off for as long as the conversation would last—
“Why on earth would you go to Sinnoh?!” Steven demanded.
Damn it.
“To spice things up,” Wallace lied.
“‘Spice things up’??? Don’t you have family?!”
Wallace forced a chuckle. “Huh. I forgot.”
“YOU FORGOT?! YOU HAD?!?!?! A FAMILY?!?!?!?!?!”
Wallace sighed, smile falling. “Fine. I didn’t forget. Though I think it would be better if they forgot I existed than… well, whatever they’re doing to me now.”
Silence filled the distance between the two.
“Do you have anyone else you can spend the holidays with?” Steven finally asked. “I know it can get pretty busy for everyone around this time with all of the different holidays going on, and I’d hate for you to be alone.”
“Elizabeth is with me. All of my other Pokémon have… families. Good families.”
“What about Elizabeth?”
“Her parents are dead, and Victoria didn’t want me to be alone.”
Wallace could hear Steven gulp. “Oh. Well… no wonder you two… um… shit that’s mean…”
Wallace smiled. “It’s okay, Steven.”
“Well, I’ve got family in Sinnoh,” Steven said. “What about you?”
“I don’t.”
“Uh… friends?”
“None.”
“Well, I won’t be able to come out this time, sadly. Devon business. But a certain someone else called me and said she was coming to Sinnoh with a present for you.”
“Who might this person be?”
“A person with family shit in need of another person with family shit.”
Wallace’s Pokénav started ringing. His smile grew wider as he saw the name on the screen.
“Speak of an angel and she’ll hear your prayers,” Wallace chuckled. “I’ll talk to you later, Steven.”
“Goodbye, Wallace. Love you.”
“Love you, too.”
Wallace hung up, then answered his other lover’s call.
“Hello, Winona darling. How are you?”
“I’m doing good. And you?”
“Less stressed than when I left Hoenn, that’s for sure. Steven implied that you were here in Sinnoh.”
-
They agreed to meet near the city’s Pokémon Center. It was out in the open, but talking inside a closed environment would certainly attract more attention than talking outside, where passersby were busy with shopping and their own conversations.
Wallace, not wanting to be noticed by any fans but wanting a sense of elegance, dressed in a dark blue Inverness cape and black beret. No one would ever even imagine Wallace wearing any other hat besides his white beret.
Winona was wearing a light blue coat and a chartreuse scarf. She looked much taller, and at first Wallce thought she was wearing high heels. It turned out that she was wearing white ice skates. She was also holding a box wrapped in silver paper.
They looked at each other for a few moments, then Winona spoke: “Want to walk with me to Lake Acuity?”
-
The late morning sun shone on the snow and rust red rooftops. Snowpoint City, being the home of an Ice type Gym, went all out for the holiday season: Lights were up everywhere, though they weren’t on yet. Beautiful displays of candles, toys, and pine needles sat in the windows of every building. Bands were playing music everywhere.
“What prompted you to join me here?” Wallace asked.
“I didn’t want you to be alone for the holiday season,” Winona said.
“Don’t you spend Celemas with your family?”
Winona’s smile fell, and she looked down at her feet with a melancholic gaze.
“Not this year.”
“What happened?”
“Don’t want to talk about it.”
“I see. I… understand.”
The two walked in solemn silence the rest of the way to the lake.
It was no secret to Wallace that Winona had a rocky relationship with her family, especially her mother and stepsister, but she always insisted on staying with them for Celemas. Not for any religious reason; Celemas wasn’t even much of a religious holiday like Rounékyo holidays. It was more of a spiritual, secular holiday about gathering with family during the colder months. Being named after the forest spirits, and Winona being one with the wind and birds, it was preposterous to think she would skip such a holiday… unless your name was Wallace, Steven, or Aurora.
Winona and Steven were wanderers. Steven and Wallace had heavy expectations placed on their shoulders from a young age. Wallace and Winona had dysfunctional families.
Snowpoint City was beautiful, but just as beautiful was Acuity Lakefront. Snow frosted the ground and every tree, and even more snow was falling from the sky. Snorunt waddled by in a single file. The temperature got colder, and for the first time in his life, Wallace could see his breath. He held Winona closer to his side to keep her and himself warm.
“The winter winds and water of the heavens combine,” Wallace mused as he watched the snowflakes fall. “The result: one of nature’s most beautiful creations.”
Winona stuck out her tongue a little, letting snowflakes fall down on it.
“Taste like water,” she said.
Wallace laughed. “Well, I would hope so.”
Eventually, the two reached Lake Acuity, which was covered in a layer of ice. Wallace stepped towards it and pressed his foot on the ice.
“What are you doing?” Winona asked.
“People in movies do this,” Wallace replied. “I think it’s to make sure the ice is strong enough to hold a person for skating.”
He began slowly walking on the ice. Winona held her breath and reached her hand towards Aurora’s Pokéball. If the ice broke under Wallace and he fell into the freezing depths… she didn’t want to think about that happening.
Wallace walked around the lake some more before breaking into a sprint and sliding towards Winona. When he skidded to a stop in front of her, he smiled and extended his arm. Winona placed the box in his hand.
“You’ll need these,” she said.
-
Wallace sat on a rock as Winona tied the laces of his white ice skates into little bows. His cape was off, and he wore a blue cardigan and pants underneath. Being from Hoenn, he and Winona weren’t used to the cold, so layers were essential.
“Thank you, Wino—”
Wallace tripped as he tried standing up, but Winona caught him before he could faceplant in the snow.
“Such elegance,” Wallace joked. “How do you walk in ice skates with the grace that you do?”
“I think part of it has to do with walking around on my tiptoes or in heels all the time, but I once tried wearing skates to stay away from the ground.”
“What’s wrong with the ground?”
“It’s scary.”
Wallace pecked her on the nose. “Is it less scary with me?”
Winona covered her mouth, snickering. “Maybe.”
“I’m a bit scared myself—of tripping on my feet and making a fool of myself. Would you mind helping me to the lake?”
Winona leaned Wallace against her side. “Of course.”
The meter-long walk was slow. Very. Very. Very. Slow. Two Buneary watched the two, laughing whenever Wallace fell. At several points, Wallace wanted to give up and just crawl over to the lake. But snow, as he had come to learn, was cold, and Winona was warm. Besides, he had an image to keep up to these funny bunnies and his lovely lady.
His biggest worry was that the ice would be worse, that he would slip and fall and be colder. But somehow, gliding on the ice, wobbling in Winona’s arms, all of that was much better. He felt a sense of… a weight being lifted off of his shoulders. He didn’t need to be great at skating, because he was skating with Winona, and Winona would love him no matter how good or bad he was at skating. His family would have made fun of him for being anything less than perfect, but Winona? Steven? They would never make fun of them. They would help him back up and let him lean on their shoulders—
Cracking of ice replaced joy with terror.
Instinctively, Wallace held Winona tightly. As he looked around for the source of the noise, he felt Winona tapping his shoulder, so he looked up.
A Gyarados emerged from the ice in front of them. Silence, then its mighty roar shattered it.
“Run!”
Wallace spun Winona around and flung her away from danger. Before he could take out his Luvdisc’s Pokéball, the Gyarados sent out a Hyper Beam. Wallace tried skating away, but the ice below him shattered from the attack, sending him into the freezing depths of the lake’s water.
Winona’s voice was the last thing he heard before the plunge:
“WALLACE!”
-
The sudden sensation of cold water shocked Wallace out of his ability to feel much of anything. As he took in the darkness around him, he fought the urge to panic.
Sure, Wallace was “Prince of Water” and all that, but that didn’t mean he could breathe underwater. But as a “Prince of Water”, he knew enough to know that hyperventilating would only spell doom by making him inhale deadly cold water, but it was hard to keep himself from breathing and panicking and panicking . He was going to die. He was going to die he was going to die he was going to die—
He managed to regain his sense of direction from his anxiety quick enough to try to make it to the surface before suffocation or the cold got him.
He gasped for air as his head escaped the deathly grip of the lake. It wrapped its arms around him and dragged him back down. Cold. Cold. Cold. It hurt to move his arms, but he had to make it to the surface. He had to make it back for Winona.
He came up again, his lungs arching as he breathed in the cold air. Before he could plunge back into the water, he felt a hand and claw grab his arms and pull him out of the water. The next minute, he felt himself being carried bridal style by Winona.
“Aurora!” Winona yelled. “Dragon Breath!”
Aurora sent out a blast of multicolored energy at the Gyarados, striking it with a critical hit. With one last roar, the Gyarados fell back into its kingdom in the waters below.
Wallace felt Winona moving, then he felt the warmth of his cape being wrapped around his body.
“Wallace, can you hear me?” she whispered.
Wallace opened his eyes. They stung, and he worried that they would freeze over, but after blinking a few times, he could see his beloved. Winona was kneeling by his side as Aurora wrapped her wings around the two. He was shivering. Winona was shivering. Wallace’s head spun, though he managed to hold onto Winona’s hand.
“I’m here, darling, I’m here. I’m here,” he said to reassure both her and himself.
“We need to get you to the ER.”
With shaky hands, Winona took out a small bottle of greenish-yellow liquid from her coat.
“Aspear Berry juice,” she said. She held it to Wallace’s mouth. “Drink.”
“But what about you, darling?”
“I’ll save you before you save me.”
“But—”
“Please, Wallace.”
By now, Winona was pressing the bottle against Wallace’s lips. He managed to wrap his almost frozen hand around the bottle and drink the contents. The liquid was slightly sour (in stereotypically Beauty Coordinator fashion, Wallace preferred dry flavors), but Wallace felt his body warm up as soon as he drank it.
“I hope you have some for yourself,” Wallace said.
Winona took out another bottle. “Of course I do.”
She drank from her bottle, then looked down at Wallace.
“My lips are cold,” Wallace said, smiling. Even he knew how cheesy he was being.
Winona smiled. “Mine are, too. Maybe I can help us both.”
She lowered her head and kissed Wallace on the lips. She pulled away too soon.
“Wait—”
“Wallace, I don’t want your lips freezing to mine. Also… I don’t want you dying.”
-
“Do you drink coffee?” Wallace asked.
Winona shook her head.
“Neither do I,” Wallace said. “How about hot chocolate?”
The two were back in Wallace’s hotel room. Fortunately, they had managed to get to the ER before they and Aurora could get severe hypothermia. Unfortunately, Cynthia had been passing by the building just as the two left, and she gave Wallace quite the earful about “going out alone when you know how dangerous Sinnoh can be” and “you’re not used to the cold”. She had a point, but she talked his ear off for an hour.
Winona rested her head against Aurora’s fluffy feathers as she sat on the sofa. She was wearing Wallace’s turtleneck and her lounge pants. Wallace wore a sweater that was three sizes too big, one that Winona had bought for him on the way back to the hotel.
Wallace checked the milk in the pot on the stove. It seemed warm enough, so he opened the hot chocolate pouch and poured its contents in.
“None of this would have happened if I hadn’t left like a nervous wreck,” he joked as he stirred the hot chocolate. “I apologize for making you come out here only for you to almost freeze.”
“Wallace, don’t be sorry. I understand the stress. I would have left Hoenn anyway. The only difference is that I’d be spending the holiday alone with my bird Pokémon, which is fine, but I’d much prefer to also be with you.”
Wallace poured the hot chocolate into two cups, picked them up, and walked over to the sofa. He gave one of the cups to Winona.
She took a sip of the hot chocolate. Her smile grew just a little bit wider. “I didn't know you were trying to give Siebold a run for his money.”
“Funny you mention him: he’s the reason I can cook more than Pokéblocks.”
His eyes widened. “Speaking of which…”
He took a small box from the side table and opened it, revealing several Poffins.
“As long as we’re in Sinnoh, we might as well try them.”
Winona took one of the sweet Poffins.
“I figured as much,” Wallace said. “You’re one of the sweetest people I know.” He touched his finger to the tip of her nose. “You’re also cute—adorable, even.” He stood up. “Of course, I have another present for you.”
“An engagement ring?”
“No, not yet.”
He gave her a rectangular package wrapped in white paper.
“I managed to be friends with Cynthia for a short while to get this for you.”
“That’s sweet of you.”
Winona took the package and, carefully, unwrapped it. Inside was a light blue, rectangular plate.
“A Sky Plate,” Wallace explained. “It increases the power of Flying type moves. Cynthia said that it has a connection to the legend of the Pokémon Arceus. Apparently, it can change its type from Normal to Flying.”
Winona stood up and hugged Wallace.
“Thank you.”
“I have to thank you for following me all the way here.”
“I’m a Flying type trainer; I’ll fly to the other side of the world if it means helping you.”
She kissed Wallace’s lips. “And next year, maybe we can spend the holiday in Hoenn.”
Wallace walked over to the window. As he opened the curtains, he said, “But snow is so pretty, especially during this time of year.”
Snowpoint City was aglow in warm white and blue lights. It was truly a sight to behold. Winona walked over to Wallace’s side, staring in awe at the world outside.
For just a moment, it was just the two of them and the lights of the winter night.
