Christmas This Year

It was a cold night. The harsh winter of Sinnoh had set in, and even the master of space Palkia found himself shivering, despite the fact that he prepared for the storm in advance. He slowly made his way through the streets of Jubilife City, passing by the Global Terminal on his way to the mall.

"Man." he shuttered. "Out here is colder than even one of Articuno's storms! Certainly a feat in itself…"

At he expected, when he finally approached the mall, the place was absolutely PACKED with people. He saw people trying to barge into the mall through a swarmed entrance. He wasn't surprised, because after all, it WAS Christmas Eve. Palkia sighed, knowing that he would have to plow his way through all of these people. They were no doubt here trying to buy last-minute Christmas presents before the shops would close up. Much like Palkia himself.

In his human forme, he had white-spiked hair and a white shirt, also sporting a heavy purple coat and blue jeans. He awkwardly made his way through the crowd, though it was made a little (emphasis on the little) easier for him due to some enhanced strength Legendaries had. It was still difficult, because Christmas Eve shoppers in Sinnoh had quite the reputation for going absolutely bananas. He stepped into the mall, embracing himself for the worst…

The humungous mall, holding two stories and a plethora of shops, was overflowing with crazed shoppers. Palkia knew he had to be careful, because Legendaries in their human forme are weaker than their regular forme. With the way the Christmas Eve shoppers were going, Palkia knew he could become one of those people you hear about getting trampled to death.

Palkia pushed his way through the crowd, trying to reach one of the stores on the other end of the mall. Of all places in the mall, it simply HAD to be on the other end, didn't it? He shifted awkwardly around people as he slowly made his way to the clock shop.

"I need the perfect gift for her." thought Palkia. "She's had her eye on that diamond encrusted pocket watch for a while. I think I just barely have enough money for it…"

As he continued, a song began to play on the overhead speakers throughout the entire mall. Palkia had a hard time picking up the words, but he picked up a few tidbits about 'let the world rejoice for Christmas this year' and 'a savior born on a midnight clear'. Though, said song benefitted from an excellent tune. As Cilan, the Grass-type Gym Leader of Unova would put it; it was 'a delicious mix of energetic, yet catchy tunes of Christmas-flavored hip-hop!' Palkia easily found himself humming the tune as he progressed to the clock shop, despite not knowing much about this 'savior'.

Eventually, the song died down and switched to a new one. Palkia ignored this one as he finally approached the clock shop. He looked through the store window and saw the exact item he was looking for. It was that diamond-encrusted pocket watch. Even though it only had ½ karat to its' name, it was still gorgeous (not to mention, it was all Palkia could afford).

"Dialga's gonna love it."

He walked into the shop, ready to bring that baby home. He approached the store clerk.

"Yes, what can I do for you sir?"

"I'd like to purchase that diamond-encrusted clock you have in your store window. The ½ karat one."

"I'll get it out."

The store walked over to the store window and opened the glass case from the inside of the store. He took it out and showed it to Palkia.

"This one?"

"Yes." Palkia grinned. The store clerk came back and set the pocket watch on the glass counter, ready to exchange the money.

"That'll be nine hundred and ninety-nine dollars, please." he requested politely.

"Yes, of course. I…" Palkia stopped himself. "A THOUSAND DOLLARS?" he screamed in shock over the high price. People took a few weird glances at him, but Palkia didn't care at the moment.

"B-But that's impossible!" he flustered. "In your ad, it was HALF that!"

"Yes, well… this IS the only one left in Sinnoh. It's VERY valuable now."

"B-But… I-I don't have that money!" he started stuttering again.

"Then I'm afraid I can't sell it to you."

"But… I…" Palkia sighed. He saved up the money he earned from Arceus doing various things for her all winter. Did he help clean the ocean waters, renovate the Hall of Origin for Christmas, and fix rips in the time-space continuum all for nothing? Could he steal it? No, that would label him a thief, and would look pretty bad for himself AND his mother. There had to be SOMETHING he could…

He had an idea. "Could you hold onto that for me for a minute?" Palkia requested the store clerk.

"Sure."

Palkia stepped away from the store clerk and made his way to the small clock shop's only bathroom. He locked himself in. Closing his eyes, he morphed his left hand back into a sharp claw and his right shoulder back into the single pink pearl-encrusted in a gray rim.

He hesitated. "Should I really do this?" he questioned himself. "…Yes. I worked this hard and I'm not about to let it go by. She deserves this much."

He moved his claw up to his right shoulder. Cautiously, he inserted his sharp claw into the gray rim that held his encrusted pearl. He slowly reached past the pearl and grasped his claw around the entire pearl. He tried to pull it out with 1 hard tug, but the pain of it was immense and left him wincing in pain. The pearl was slightly shifted though, indicating that at least he was getting somewhere.

He tried a second hard tug. This time the pearl became even looser, but Palkia screamed in pain. The pain in his shoulder was comparable to having your shoulder blade yanked out. He knew that one more tug would free the pearl and would get him Dialga's present.

"Sir?" someone asked on the other side of the locked bathroom door. "Are you OK? I heard your screaming and…"

"No!" he lied. "I'm fine. Just slipped and fell that's all."

"…OK." Palkia heard the footsteps of the man leaving. He sighed in relief, almost having been found out. He placed his claw back into the gray rim, and yanked as hard as possible to get the pearl out. It came out, with some of the pearl covered in blood. He resisted the urge to scream out in complete torture. Succeeding, he switched his right shoulder and left claw back into human forme to hide the injury. He wiped the blood off of the pearl and came out of the restroom, holding his shoulder.

He walked back to the clerk and talked to him. "Umm, Mr. Clerk?"

"Yes?"

"I… don't have the money, but… will you accept this pearl?" he showed the pearl to the clerk. The clerk, in awe, observed the shining flawless pearl.

"My goodness…" he whispered. "This pearl… is absolutely incredible. It's perfect."

"So, you'll take it?" smiled a hopeful Palkia.

"But of course!" the store clerk switched the diamond-encrusted pocket watch for Palkia's pearl. After the trade, Palkia walked out of the store.

"Sure," he thought. "I had to trade part of my own flesh for Dialga's gift, but it's all worth it… right?"

Elsewhere in the mall…

Dialga made her way through the mall, also in a human forme in order to avoid attracting obvious attention. She carefully dodged stray shoppers still searching for the Christmas bargains while making her way to a nearby GameStop. Palkia was a devoted video gamer, but aside from the money he saved up for Dialga's gift, he couldn't really spend it for his own leisure.

Her charming looks of her human forme, long blue hair that went to her back, and a simple blue shirt and pants with coat, caught the attention of quite a few guys. They were promptly punched out by their wife / girlfriend for ogling at her. She ignored most of them as she made her way to the mall's GameStop.

She arrived and every guy there looking for a video game for their father / son / gamer girlfriend stopped to look at her. Dialga, along with every female there, rolled their eyes. She walked over to the portable gaming section. Palkia preferred portable gaming to console gaming, and spent more time on his DS than anyone else Dialga knew. Looking around, Dialga saw the Zelda 3DS bundle with Ocarina of Time 3DS packed in. If they was one series Palkia likes the most, it's Zelda. He enjoyed Zelda games even more than Pokémon games. Smiling, she picked it up and walked over to one of the store employees behind the desk.

"A girl?" asked the weirded out employee, a guy socially awkward around girls. "We don't see many of you around here…"

"…Yeah. Anyway, I'd like to purchase this." she handed the empty box over to him.

"Uhh… okay." he took the empty box and walked over to an area behind the desk, putting in the Limited Edition Zelda 3DS in, along with the Ocarina of Time remake.

"That'll be 200 dollars, please."

Unlike Palkia, Dialga had enough money to pay for the gift. She reached into her pocket and pulled out 2 Benjamins. Handing them off to the employee, she traded the money for the 3DS.

"Thanks." the employee said. "You know… I could use a date to the Christmas Day Ball tomorrow. Would you like to…?"

"No." she answered. She took the 3DS and immediately left the store, leaving the clerk to wallow in her rejection.

"I can never get a date…"

Having a creepy guy unknowingly ask the commander of time out on a date was the least of Dialga's worries. As it was Christmas Eve, the 3DS supply was low and she had picked up the last 3DS there. Unfortunately, this made her a prime target for people yet to pick up a 3DS.

As a Legendary, she had acute senses and something that was almost like a sixth sense. Using it, she could sense many of the male shoppers looking at her… well, not exactly HER per se, but that precious final Limited Edition Zelda 3DS Bundle…

She physically turned around to see many male gamers coming towards her at a rush that would even impress a Speed Forme Deoxys… and Dialga knew what they were after…

BANANAS!

…

…

…Just kidding.

She hightailed it out of there as fast as she possibly could, but she wasn't very quick. For a Legendary Pokémon, her speed was only mediocre… this trait, unfortunately, carried over to her human forme. Before she knew it, she was overtaken by the male gamers, not caring AT ALL that they swarmed over an innocent (well OK, not really innocent) woman. All that matter was the 3DS.

Dialga COULD have fought them all off, but as they say, there's strength in numbers. Numbers were not something that were on her side. The box ended up getting ripped from her hands, and the 3DS and Zelda game slipped out. Dialga managed to space herself from the crowd while they fought over the 3DS like animals. By the time the police were able to break up the insane crowd, the damage had already been done. The 3DS was broken into two separate screens, scratches covered the entire handheld, and the battery had sprung out, now crushed on the floor.

"Um, sorry about your 3DS, ma'am." the police officer apologized to her.

She sighed. "It's not your fault. At least, I still have the receipt."

"You should be able to get another one after the holidays are over." he said as he gave the torn-up 3DS and game box to her. She stuffed what remained of the handheld inside.

"Thanks…" she mumbled.

"Oh, and Merry Christmas!" he told her as he left.

"Yeah… what a Merry Christmas."

Dialga grumbled to herself as she headed to the exit of the mall. "Stupid, freakin', dumbass, Christmas Eve shoppers… I'm never going shopping on Christmas Eve ever again…" She was about to leave when something caught her eye.

A flower shop.

She looked in her wallet. She spent most of her money purchasing that 3DS for Palkia. Dialga had maybe… 10 dollars left? It'd be enough to buy a bouquet of flowers… though for a Christmas present, it seemed kinda cheap.

"Well…" she muttered. "It's better than nothing." She walked into the shop and was greeted by an overenthusiastic attendant.

"Welcome to Jubilife Mall Flower Shop! How can I help you?" she shouted, startling Dialga.

"Uh, yeah. Well… what's the best bouquet I can get for 10 bucks?"

The attendant ran over to a cool fridge where they kept flowers moist. She took a bouquet out and showed it to Dialga.

"Wow that looks kinda nice." Dialga said.

"Yes!" she smiled. "A bouquet of roses, lilacs, and tulips, from Floaroma Town for only $7.99! What do you say?"

"…I'll take it."

Using the last of her money, Dialga purchased the bouquet of flowers, silently praying that Palkia would like them. She took them and left the shop. Knowing that the cold outside would like freeze the poor flowers to an icicle; she made her way to one of the women's bathrooms in the mall. She locked herself inside and, with nobody watching, she teleported back to the Hall of Origin.

Back inside the Hall of Origin, all of the Legendaries were preparing for the Christmas celebration. Christmas was the biggest event at the Hall of Origin, and the only time Legendaries got a vacation from their 8 to 5 duties, since the world was never at peace. Arceus personally took it upon herself to run the Pokémon universe solo on Christmas Day. After all, everyone deserves a break once in a while, right? Rumor has it that Arceus was planning a trip around the world during the summer… but they were only rumors.

Lugia was flying near the top of the Hall of Origin, setting up some Christmas banners. He also hung gold and yellow wreaths from up high, enhancing the Christmas spirit of the Hall.

"Hey Rayquaza! How you doing over there?"

Rayquaza, who was so into the holidays that he painted half of himself red, was decorating the other side of the Hall of Origin. He grinned, looking over at Lugia.

"Going pretty good over here!" he shouted back. "Hey, how are your kids doing? Groudon and Kyogre are… still getting at each other's necks." he muttered, looking down nearby the Christmas tree to see Groudon and Kyogre beating each other up.

"What can you do? Kids will be kids, no matter how old they get. Articuno's being a self-centered jerk… as always. Moltres is… well, the favorite. Don't tell my kids I said that."

"No promises." smirked Rayquaza.

"Zapdos is doing well, but he's still a little… slow-witted, though."

"Can't be as slow as Groudon."

Lugia chuckled. "You got me there."

They continued to deck the halls while the Legendary Beasts were busy sweeping up debris from the decorations on the floor, with Raikou griping ALL the way.

"This sucks." he whined. "Why do we have to do this?"

Entei was brushing the floor with his paw, bringing the debris over to the dust pan being held by Suicune.

"Because Mom told us to." the Fire Beast told Raikou.

"No, Arceus told us to. She's our GRANDMOTHER."

Suicune dumped it in the trash can and dropped the pan, glaring at Raikou. "You know, you've been doing a lot of complaining for someone who hasn't lifted a paw. Actually, you know what? Why don't YOU do the other half, Raikou?"

Both Entei and Suicune smirked, leaving Raikou by himself. "Now THIS sucks." he complained. "Getting captured by Team Rocket couldn't be this bad…"

Reshiram and Zekrom were in the corner, lying against the wall with little Victini on Zekrom's lap. The two were reading a storybook to the Psychic / Fire-type who was slowly getting sleepy, but still wanted to hear the entire book.

Victini yawned. "What-What happened next, Mama?"

Reshiram smiled, continuing to read the book to him. "Well Victini, next after the baby was born in the manger, there were three wise men sent by the king to see him, who said he wanted to find and worship him. But they didn't know the king had lied to them."

"H-He lied? You're not supposed to lie! He-He…" Victini yawned, getting even sleepier and slowly drifted off to Dreamland.

Zekrom chuckled. "Guess it's past someone's bedtime, isn't it? I'll put him to bed."

Reshiram closed the storybook. "I guess we'll finish the story tomorrow." She stood up and left for her room, putting the book back into her suitcase.

Zekrom smiled as he walked off to Victini's temporary guest room in the Hall of Origin. "I'm looking forward to the end of that story myself."

Back in Dialga's spacious room with her back in normal forme, she looked at the bouquet of flowers and sighed. "Flowers… for a Christmas present. This is ridiculous." she muttered to herself. "I'm going to look so cheap."

Palkia, also transformed back into his Pokémon forme, was in his room, looking at the ½ karat diamond-encrusted watch he had bought. He felt his shoulders with his left claw. The pearl still wasn't there, and the shoulder joint was still in great pain from ripping the pearl out. "Well… it's worth it." he smiled softly. "Yeah, she'll love it."

Christmas Eve had finally come and the clock was ready to strike midnight. All of the Legendaries, save the young ones, were in the main hallway, ready to exchange gifts with their counterpart. Zekrom was eager to give Reshiram the new feather accessory, a Blue Feather, she had been wanting. Groudon, on the other hand, wanted to give nothing to Kyogre, because 'women shouldn't get Christmas presents'. Needless to say, Kyogre also didn't have a present for the sexist.

Dialga looked nervously at Palkia, with her bouquet of flowers hidden by her massive paw. Palkia also felt anxiety creep up on him. He had a great gift, but when Dialga found out that he used his own shoulder pearl to pay for it…

"I…I guess I'll go first." Palkia muttered. He held the wrapped gift in front of him, concealing his right shoulder from Dialga's view. "Merry Christmas, Dialga."

"Umm, thank you." Dialga mentally lifted the gift from Palkia out of his hands and in front of herself. She unwrapped the gift to see the item that she had always wanted.

"It's… It's that pocket watch you wanted. You like it?"

Dialga smiled, happy to see that she got what she wanted… but it only made her feel worse over what she got Palkia. "Yes… I-I love it."

Hesitantly, she lifted her paw to push the flowers she had gotten for him up to him. Palkia picked up the flowers, with an uncertain expression on his face.

"I'm a cheapskate. I'm a cheapskate. I'm a cheap-"

"Thanks Dialga. They're beautiful." he smiled back to her.

"R-Really?" she looked at Palkia, surprised. "I… I was going to get you that 3DS you wanted, Limited Zelda Edition too… but it… kinda got ripped up by-"

"Those crazy shoppers." they said simultaneously.

"Don't I know it?" smiled Palkia.

"Still, I feel pretty cheap." she muttered. "Hey, why does your shoulder look so disjointed? Wait, is it bleeding?"

"It's-It's nothing." he lied.

"I know when you're lying, Palkia. Women just know these things. Turn around."

Regretfully, Palkia turned around to give Dialga a clear view of his right shoulder. Blood was leaking, but not much, from the wound. Inside his shoulder blade… was no pearl.

"Palkia, what happened to your pearl?"

The master of space sighed. "Might as well tell the truth, you're too good at seeing through lies. I used my pearl to pay for that pocket watch. The money I had wasn't enough and… you deserve a really good gift. 'Cause you're a really great Pokémon."

"Palkia… you didn't… hold on." She levitated the pocket watch that Palkia gave her and mentally inserted it into Palkia's shoulder blade, where the pearl once was. It fit perfectly.

"Dialga, what are you…?"

"It means more to me than you gave up part of your own body for me, than the gift itself. At least let me return the favor."

Palkia smiled. "Well… thank you, Dialga. I do like gaming… but you're all I need for Christmas this year."

"Merry Christmas." she told him.

"And a Merry Christmas to you."

Pokémon © Nintendo / Game Freak

Yes, done with my first Christmas story! I think I did a decent job.

A/N: Oh, by the way, there are a few other references to my other stories scattered around in here. There's also a key Harvest Moon reference in here that could potentially hint to a future story/one-shot…

And for my readers, I wish a Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night!

…Or Hanukkah / Kwanzaa / Boxing Day / whatever else you celebrate.