Finally, I'm free-I mean, on Winter Break! I can go ahead and write to my heart's content! And what better than to celebrate by submitting a short, fluffy Christmas one-shot. I've actually been meaning to write one for a while now, but I wanted a good idea. So instead of studying for finals like I should have (though I did eventually), I sat in my room and brainstormed up some ideas. Actually, not brainstormed, I pretty much forced myself to come up with an idea just by looking around my room. Yeah... that's how desperate I got.

I at least hope it makes sense and that it didn't go all over the place. It started getting hard to write after some time.

Disclaimer: I do not own the rights to Pokémon. Pokémon is copyrighted to Satoshi Tajiri, GAME FREAK, and Ninendo.

Enjoy!

He stared for the longest time at it. It was really all he could do until he finally figures out her reasoning behind it. It didn't help either she remained where she was with her trademark smile and squirmed with happiness every few minutes. That only added to the skeptical atmosphere present around him; it was never a good sign if Mew gives a gift.

Actually, he mentally amended, that was a lie, it was just her being thoughtful and generous as always. And by thoughtful, it meant she really put thought into it. There was something about her gifts that held special meaning to whomever she gave it to. Mewtwo had yet to figure out why it was she was like that, whether it was because of her Legendary status or not. Most gifts he had seen her give to others were rather obvious, but they made the receiver overwhelmingly happy or joyfully cry, which resulted in many "thank yous" and hugs—the females, anyway. Males weren't as prone to emotion, and yet it'd tug a heartstring whenever she showed up, present in hands, and they had to have alone time to squeeze out a few tears.

So they'd say. All the males had a reputation to uphold. The less one cried in their lifetime, the more "manlier" they were. But everyone knew this act of kindness made them bawl on the inside.

Mewtwo wasn't even close to tears, or feeling a tugging sensation for that matter. He was honestly more annoyed that he was interrupted from his thoughts by his happy counterpart squealing out a "Merry Christmas!" in his ear. This was followed up by bouts of confusion the more he tried to get his mind around it. All he could make out from it was that Mew was trying to make a mockery out of him. He wouldn't be caught dead with it in his entire life, it had never even crossed his mind he'd even touch one. It was something he'd see small children carry around from time to time, not the older generation. Heck, it was more of Mew's taste, something that would be in her toy collection. He kept glancing between it and the feline before him, brows twitching in frustration. He gave it a squeeze for the third time, feeling the white fuzz under his fingertips and the implication of cotton stuffed inside the small body. The red and green ribbon tied around its neck was distracting, but not as bad as the little bell attached to it. He was going to grow mad from its tinkling if the guessing didn't first.

His violet gaze locked back on Mew, whose grin never once faltered. "A Flaaffy doll?" he flatly noted.

"It's not a Flaaffy," she giggled, shaking her head.

"A sheared Mareep regrowing its wool?"

"Nope!"

He loosely crossed his arms (flinching at the bell's ring). "Why did you give me a sheep?"

"It's technically not a sheep."

"Oh, Arceus, Mew, why did you give me a child's stuffed animal doll?" he groaned, fighting back the urge to yell at her. "Worse, why did you come to bother me at this hour? Are you not supposed to be asleep right now?"

Mew grinned mischievously. "For one thing, Mewtwo, it's not just a doll, and second is I decided not to go to sleep until after I gave this to you."

"Well, you gave it to me. Good night." He turned to leave.

She swerved back into his line of sight. "Come on, Mewtwo, can't you show a little more gratitude?"

He snorted. "What for? I have nothing to be thankful for. Unless you would give me a moment's peace, then I suppose I can."

A small scowl fell in place of her smooth features. "It's Christmas, Mewtwo," she sighed, forming a heavy mist of her breath. "The season to be jolly, of giving. What's not to be thankful of?"

"If you would hold this toy for me, I will count off my many reasons not to."

She barely looked at the doll. "I know that trick, Mewtwo," she huffed, sticking out her tongue for a split second. "You're going to Teleport the instant it leaves your hands."

Mewtwo only raised a brow. "I was not planning on it, I was being sarcastic the whole time."

Her stupid smile made a comeback. "So you've actually liked it the whole time?" He just stared, causing her to shiver. "Aw, come on, Mewtwo, believe me when I say you were rather difficult this year. I was going to get you either a Pikachu or Meowth doll, but when I realized it wasn't meaningful enough, I had to come up with something else."

"Trust me, I would rather have either of the two than this," he confessed with growing ire. "This is targeted for children, Mew, not grown Pokémon such as myself. Next to the fact the 'cute' factor of it makes me less intimidating than I want it to be."

Her eyes had been slowly darkening during his short rant, her cheerful nature being replaced with rare irritation he was naturally unaffected by. "Well, I suppose you never heard the expression 'don't look a gift Ponyta in the mouth'," she snidely phrased, tilting her chin up. "But I take it you have, there would be no other way for you to show such ingratitude toward me."

"I never asked you to get me anything, Mew," he scoffed, shaking the doll in her face. "I never wanted one in the first place."

"Giratina has a jollier attitude upon receiving gifts," came the snap.

"Just hear me out, Mew."

"Oh! So now you want to explain yourself! What, are you afraid your 'friends' are going to catch you with this on your person?"

Mewtwo's oculars flashed in warning. There then came a small tearing sound, and the two glanced down at the doll he had been subconsciously squeezing in a fist. Almost immediately, she swiped it away from his hold and looked it over. It didn't take long for her to find the rip in the neck area underneath the ribbon. Her eyes froze in a mixture of shock, anger, and sadness—the clone wasn't sure if there was a known emotion or a proper word to describe it. "Upset" was the only word that came to mind when he watched her hold back a sob and to calm her breathing. She pressed its soft head against the lower-half of her face, closing her eyes tightly and letting out a slow sigh. A cold breeze whipped by, carrying a few flakes of snow to update on an up-coming snowstorm, but they disregarded their shivering. The city noise began to distort to a hum in the background.

Carefully, Mew spoke up, quiet against the fuzz. "You were the hardest when it came to getting a gift, Mewtwo. There are too many things you question over that even the simple things were too simple. In fact, you are so difficult, this took a record time of ten years since you were admitted to our circle of Legends. Most of the time was on getting to know you better."

His face loosened, recalling the many times she had visited him since the beginning of his nomad lifestyle. The questions she always insisted on asking tended to bother him, especially if it dealt with his past, which was often. She had never given her explanation for her many visits, and it was left up to him to figure it out for himself. He marked her as a nuisance without questioning why. Though strangely enough, he kept her around (and alive) this long he was surprised he hadn't gone insane from it all.

"I'm not sure why you don't care much for Christmas, Mewtwo," she continued, pulling him away from his thoughts, "it's a beautiful tradition. I've held it dear to me ever since I first heard about it."

A husky frustrated sigh escaped him. "You want my reasons?" he asked for permission, to which she nodded. "I know the human nature, I have experienced it firsthand. It differs in the age-groups, but they all lead up to the same thing at some point or another: greed and hypocrisy. They may claim to celebrate peace and goodwill for this one month, and yet they are the ones causing the very opposite the other eleven months." He spun around and walked to the roof's edge, peering over at the glaring city lights. "It sickened me enough I lost faith in all of mankind and in this tradition you call Christmas. How can someone celebrate such lies with as much conviction as they do? Do they not see the world before them? Do they not know what is going on?"

Mew slightly hung her head, dropping her gaze to the doll. "That is why I chose this for you, Mewtwo. I was hoping you would know more about it, maybe even think about it so you can figure it out. Guess it didn't work..."

He glanced over when she trailed off, watching as she brushed her fingers delicately through the curly fuzz. Puffs of breath from her nostrils alarmed him she was fighting the urge to cry. Something threatened to break inside him the longer he watched. Then he thought back to his previous actions, at how harsh he was. His gaze fell on the stuffed animal, and the moment his thoughts turned to it, a cold, guilty feeling rose up in him. "Why not tell me what it symbolizes?" he brought himself to whisper, hoping it would dismiss the tension between them.

She looked up at his voice, large eyes thinly veiled over with forming tears. A small smile found its way onto her pinking face, which only threatened to collapse the shimmering wall. "Well, at least you know it's a symbol, I'll give you that," was her sigh with the hint of a giggle. She ran her paw through its fine fluff. "For one thing, there's the bell. Do they ring bells here?"

"I have not heard any." Unless the radio music counts, he thought to himself.

"Guess they don't have a big church, then." Mewtwo wanted to correct her by saying the city didn't have one, but held his tongue. "Well, other towns do ring bells this time of year, I recommend checking them out. They're used to announce the coming of Christmas, just like they announce big happenings." She tapped the silver before tugging on the ribbon. "The colors here are to remind you of Christmas. But do you know why they chose these colors?" When he shook his head, she replied in a happier tone, "It's quite simple, actually. Green represents life, and red is sacrifice."

He blinked in surprise. "Sacrifice?"

Mew nodded. "Red symbolizes the blood that is shed for the redemption of sins. It's the blood of the Lamb." Her eyes teared up again when she took a deep breath, the grin growing on her lips. "And that brings us to the doll, Mewtwo. The lamb represents Christ, who was born as a babe to represent peace and holiness. But most importantly, hope." She floated forward and took one of his hands into hers, pressing the doll into his hold. "But first, you need to have faith."

Mewtwo's gaze was locked with hers, hanging on to every word like he had willingly promised to do. He was rather taken aback at her knowledge of this, at how simple everything was, but the meaning was so deep it was difficult. A lecture he once overheard came to mind about how people refused to obey instructions if they sounded too easy to do, like they were expecting a challenge from it. He recalled the examples he had listed, such as doing a simple housework chore like cleaning their room, a simple homework assignment, and asking directions. The lecturer had even listed one other thing from what he said was from Biblical times, at how people died from snake bites because they refused to look upon a statue their leader had made to heal them.

That part threw him off. How would looking at a statue heal someone of poison? Though he left shortly after that, he heard one other sentence that he surprisingly never thought back on:

"O thou of little faith."

Faith. The word never did stick out to him like it was now. He had heard many different interpretations of "faith", and they all jumbled together, confusing or mixing up the definitions even further. But today, they all seemed to assemble themselves in a pleasing order, showing the many similarities in different phrasing.

Believing in things not seen.

Not hope, not guessing.

Believing.

Believing was simple enough. And thus people don't follow it.

With his free hand, Mewtwo quickly wiped at his eyes for any signs of tears. He shouldn't be seen crying—wait, why would he? Nothing was happening to spark it, was there? Was he feeling discomfited? His mind started to clutter again.

Mew then reached up and pulled his hand away, her face calm and bright. "Oh, Mewtwo," she murmured, shaking her head. "Thou of little faith." His heart must have skipped a beat if he was feeling a stinging sensation vibe through his chest. She leaned forward and nuzzled her nose against his, bringing out a peal of giggles from her. "But what faith it is." Meeting his wide-eyed stare, she quietly laughed before pressing a warm, swift kiss against his mouth and pulling away.

She was held back when he abruptly snatched at her tail, though he immediately let go and sputtered out, "Ah, w-wait... Mew, Mew. Do not go just... yet."

The small Legendary, though smiling, raised a lopsided brow. "Did your mind freeze up for a second there, Mewtwo, or is it about time you trimmed that cloak?" A small shrug of the shoulders. "Maybe both?"

He just shook his head to clear his thoughts. "I-I, uh..." A blush of embarrassment crept onto his cheeks, and he brought a paw to his face, having the impression he was being frozen in place. He closed his eyes and took a couple of deep breaths to calm himself, lips pursed. "Thank you for... visiting me," he finally said with a nod. "And for giving me such a," he glanced down at the small lamb in his clenching hand, "...thoughtful gift."

Mew's smile widened, and she used the tip of her tail to tilt his chin up. "You're welcome, Mewtwo. I will hope you do remember what it stands for." She started leaning forward again.

He stepped back a ways. "Please do not do that again."

"Do what?" A thought then popped into her head, and she flushed. "Oh... that... Y-Yeah, sorry about that... must have been the spur of the moment." Mewtwo's face fell a little when she laughed. He swiped a thumb across his mouth in attempt to replace the lingering sensation with his own touch. When she got her breath back, she sighed, shaking her head amusingly. "Well, Merry Christmas, Mewtwo. Stay warm."

He gave one last nod. "Merry Christmas to you, too." A moment's pause, and he added, "Stay safe."

Mew gave another warming smile, and after one final look at the lamb, flew into the gray clouds. Mewtwo remained where he stood eyes locked on where she disappeared for a few minutes before dropping them to the small doll. He picked off the stray snowflakes catching into its wool and ribbon, then he remembered the rip. Taking a peek underneath the ribbon, he blinked in puzzlement.

It was mended.

He looked back up into the sky to see a small gap in the clouds. Contrasted against the dark, a crescent moon greeted him with a bright smile, a star giving a twinkle through its silver halo. Then he watched as the silhouette of his counterpart twirled by, already lost in her little world.

As Mewtwo slowly beamed from the warm feeling creeping up inside him, flurries of snowflakes surfed by on a cold wind, but he didn't shiver. And the small tinkling had the beginnings of music to his ears.

A/N: Inspiration came from the stuffed lamb I was allowed to take home from my great-grandmother's room at the retirement home. It does have a ribbon, but it's light blue with polka dots, and it has a missing tail.

Have a Merry Christmas, everyone!