Amourshipping // Christmas One-Shots

❆ 16 ❆

One-shot by @iamourship

Hot Chocolate

     There was an undeniable smell of Christmas and it usually came about as soon as winter did. It swelled you with bubbling excitement and was most certainly addictive. Serena could get used to the simple cheeriness that seemed coupled with mid-winter breath.

The streets of Lumiose City were not only encrusted with snow but ravished with seasonal decorations. Sweeps of pine and ribbon drooped from the rooftops of flanking buildings. Wreaths were hung at every door and candy canes were sold at every store along the main boulevard. Serena loved the whole animated ambience of it all.

The honey haired girl strode along the side walk, admiring street decorations, heading homeward. She was only dressed half appropriately for the weather; a jacket and mittens flung around her normal attire in a haste. But Serena never minded the cold. For the frost came hand in hand with Christmas, and she was more than okay with that.

Serena watched amusingly as her breath mingled before her eyes in a wisp of white vapor, then it suddenly dissipated into nothing. There were so many beautiful and frankly undermined things about winter. She thought it was physically impossible to squeeze anymore joy into it. How terribly wrong she was.

There was a series of apartment blocks near the heart of the city where there assuredly was no lack in decorations. That was where Serena was headed, to the small yet spacious apartment on the fourth floor near the left wing. It was big enough for him and her, and that's all that mattered. 

Their front door was adorned with a wreath, which was infested with mistletoe under Ash's command. He claimed that he wanted to kiss her every time they entered the house. The wreath was his insightful solution to having no place to hang the festive fern. It made Serena smile gently as she unlocked the door.

The well-lit apparent was still utterly empty. Too barren and still for a date such a Christmas Eve, Serena thought. But she knew Ash would be back in half an hour. He was out maintaining his duties as region champion because with joy, the season also brought a healthy side dish of stress.

She preoccupied herself in the technicolored kitchen, with the ingredients for sugar cookies surrounding her. As she baked, half an hour passed and Ash never came home. The cookies were baked and finished and Ash still never came. One cookie was eaten and Ash never came home. Three cookies were eaten and still no Ash.

Serena gazed out the window mindlessly, watching as the setting sun painted the sky with shambles of lilac and vermillion. Dimness began to wash the entire apartment. The curtains still were not drawn closed as the moon took its reign. She always closed the curtains as her and Ash settled down on the sofa to discuss their days. And Ash was not home to do that, so inevitably the curtains remained open.

She was pulled out of her elusive state of mind by the distinguishing click of the front door being unlocked. Serena sprang to her feet, happiness crawling through her once more and twisting her lips into a listless smile.

Ash entered the apartment hastily, hands and full and shrouded with snow. He dropped flurries of the frozen stuff onto the front door mat, though, after his late arrival with no former notice, Serena didn't care enough about the mess.

"Where have you been?!" Her smile had now vanished once all her suspicions of him being hurt were irradiated.

Ash glanced sheepishly at his girlfriend. He displayed a tray of steaming foam cups to her in redemption of his lateness. Serena looked back at him, perplexed.