As the stew finished, spilling the fragrant aroma of a home cooked meal through his house, Ethan got to work on his pokemon’s food. Sometimes, he felt bad about how he made meals and that some of them couldn’t actually eat what he cooked. Chatot, for example, ate berries, fruits, and seeds; Shuckle, berries and only berries. As this stew had meat in it, they couldn’t have any. Sooner rather than later, he’d work on expanding his recipes.

  Ten minutes later, Ethan was circling his kitchen table with bowls filled with his latest creation, placing them in front of his dinner guests. All of his pokemon were sitting on the floor in the kitchen or in the living room, enjoying their own meals with idle chatter flowing amongst them, creating a lively environment.

  As he sat down with his own bowl, James was the first to take a bite. With a content sigh, James smiled and sank down into his seat. “Wonderful!”

  Joyce helped herself to a spoon, with a squeal of delight following not long after. Jessie ate like she was starving, not giving away any of her thoughts.

  Ethan took his first bite and gave himself a nod, happy with the outcome. A hearty, flavorful, filling stew. As he took a bite of the meat, he tilted his head. He wasn’t sure what he expected Starly to taste like—Maybe something like chicken—but it tasted… foreign. It was meat, and had a meaty taste… but there wasn’t a comparison he could make. It was just different. Good, but different.

  As he took another bite, Jessie looked his way. “Are you going back to chopping that wood after you finish eating?”

  “Yup,” Ethan dabbed his mouth with his trusty hand towel. “Do you need some wood as well? I can spare some.”

  Jessie looked to the living room toward Ursaring. “Why don’t you just get your Ursaring to swipe all the limbs away? It’d save you so much time. Or have your Smeargle use Psychic to carry the branches away?”

  “Well,” Ethan started with his hasty excuse. “I need to make sure I know what I am doing so I can explain to them what I need their help with in the future.”

  A lie. In truth, Ethan had just… not gotten used to his pokemon helping out with their moves. The Oddish and Gloom worked out of sight and out of mind, and Emolga and Pachirisu charged his solar batteries only when they ran out of juice—which was one time so far.

  “I think you could have them help out now! It’d be great for bonding.” Joyce added, causing James to nod in agreement.

  Ethan looked over to Ursaring as she watched her two Teddi’s eat alongside Litten. Litten was eating a raw piece of Magikarp while the two cubs ate some stew themselves. Ursaring didn’t eat anything he provided, instead choosing to watch and observe.

  “Ursaring!” Ethan called out, “Want to help me with the wood after we eat?”

  Ursaring turned half her body to face him, and nodded without much fanfare. She instantly turned back around to watch her kids.

  “Well, that was easy.” Ethan thought.

  After they all finished their meals, Ethan said goodbye to all his ranch friends as they left out the front door. Once they were at the bottom of his steps, Joyce tucked her warm coat snuggly around herself to keep warm. “Are we going to celebrate Christmas together? I know you two can’t really go back home for the holidays, and a trip to Kanto is a little too far out of the way on such short notice.”

  Ethan noted she didn’t mention him, as he didn’t have any family anymore… but, more importantly… “You guys celebrate Christmas? Like, the birthday of Jesus and all of that?”

  Three blank stares were the answer to that question. Joyce was the first to speak, quietly and unsure. “Uh… No. Christmas is when Santa comes to give gifts to everyone in the world. Who’s Jesus?”

  Not wanting to get offtrack, Ethan ignored the Jesus bit. “Well, yeah, we have ‘Santa’,” He air quoted, “too. But I didn’t know people in this world celebrated. When is it?”

  “A little over two weeks away.” Joyce looked at Jessie and James, Meowth was already way down the road grumbling about being cold. “So, are we celebrating together?”

  “Sure.” “I guess.” They mumbled, obviously not having anticipated this conversation, let alone being included.

  Seeing as he was the last to answer, Ethan nodded. “The more the merrier.”

  ------------------------------------------------------------------------

  The next two weeks blending into a flurry of hyperactive prepping. His cellar was filled to the brim with foodstuffs, he had enough wood to last this winter and probably the next, and he’d made some trips into town with his earnings from Jessie and James’ escapades into Floaroma town selling berries.

  And finally, with some help from Meowth, Ethan had yoinked some Christmas lights from their ‘secret’ storage and made a Christmas tree. While there weren’t pine trees in Eterna Forest, he made due with a smaller oak found nearby. Ursaring had jammed it straight into the ground a little past Shuckle’s den, and he spent a whole day stringing up lights and connecting them with an extension cord to his own home to power it up.

  While searching for said Christmas tree, Ethan had also found a surprise nearby.

  A wild walnut tree.

  Walnut harvesting back home was a tried and true tradition he’d partaken in many times before. Like clockwork, Ethan had gathered and processed the fallen shells and currently, he had many bags of drying nuts hanging up in his cellar. By Christmas, they should be ready.

  The real trouble during the days leading up to Christmas was keeping all his nosey pokemon finding where he hid his gifts. Emolga and Tinkatink thought they were sly, but he’d spotted Tinkatink taking the low ground while Emolga took high ground in search of his hiding places. With his empathic nonsense, they knew he had gotten them stuff and was hiding them.

  Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

  His first hiding spot wasn’t very hidden at all. It was simply under his bed, but it was Smeargle’s gift. Knowing his humble painter, he wouldn’t sneak around searching for his gift early. Tinkatink’s gift was hidden within his piles of wood stashed underneath his patio. Wood isn’t metal, so she wouldn’t be interested. Emolga’s gift was actually with Joyce in the Pokemon Center, under guard from a fierce and protective Chansey.

  On Christmas Eve, Ethan made some Oatmeal cookies after buying some milk from town and using one of Chansey’s eggs. Chansey, ever since making Berry Falls her home, has been giving Ethan at least one egg every other day.

  God bless that pink blob. He can make so many different dishes now that he has eggs and milk.

  His plan was to eat a few of the cookies he left out on the table so that his pokemon would think Santa ate them on his stop by the ranch. Thankfully he never had children back on Earth, but he supposed this is what it would have been like to keep the myth of Santa alive.

  Late at night, once all of his pokemon were asleep, Ethan collected all of his hidden gifts and placed them outside under his Christmas tree for the morning surprise. When he finally made it to bed, Munchlax was rolling about in his spot mumbling while dreaming. It took effort to scoot the heavy eater aside and reclaim his spot, but it all worked out in the end.

  When Ethan closed his eyes and drifted off to sleep… the jungling of sleigh bells jingled outside.

  —----------------------------------------------------------------------------

  Being awoken to the sound of pokemon wasn’t something particularly new to him, but the sheer excitement that droned out through his home made this rude awakening an enjoyable one. Ethan trudged into the bathroom to brush his teeth and his door slammed open, his pokemon swarming inside in a rush of joy and expectation. Even Ursaring joined in with a sharp smile.

  Right as Ethan finally finished putting on his pants after his morning routine, Ursaring scooped him up underneath her arm and hauled him outside. Apparently, he was being too slow. “I can walk! Put me down!”

  Alas, she did not put him down until they were at the Christmas tree, where Joyce, Jessie, James, and all of their pokemon were out and about with squeals of joy and festive cheer. Even some of the wild pokemon meandered over to partake in the morning festivities!

  After Ethan righted himself and finished throwing his glare to Ursaring, who wasn’t bothered in the slightest by his Mean Look, he finally saw the presents underneath the tree…

  There were a lot more presents than he put there, and he doubted Jessie, James, and Joyce bought so many. If he was supposed to buy gifts for their pokemon, then he failed. If they did for him, then he had undershopped by a wide margin.

  The next five minutes were spent sitting on a block of wood next to Joyce while watching all the pokemon sort the presents into piles for everyone to enjoy. Emolga, Pichu, and Tinkatink squealed and shook every time Smeargle passed them a present with their name on it, and Munchlax searched the snow for an extra minute or two trying to sniff out lost presents. Once all the presents were sorted and everyone was sat ready, everyone tore into their gifts with reckless abandon.

  Wrapping paper, ribbons, and glitter flew through the air as everyone and all pokemon unwrapped their gifts. Ethan went slower than the rest, chuckling as many of his pokemon opened the gifts he’d given them. For example, Tinkatink opened up her tiny anvil and gave it a hug of joy. That warmed his heart.

  Ethan opened his first gift, addressed from Jessie and James, and was pleasantly surprised. Jessie and James threw him a smirk and a nod, as he saw him open up their gift. With a flip of a switch, the screen of his new PokeDex flared to life.

  Without waiting a second, Ethan pointed it at Emolga and waited for the details… and the voice of a child came out the speakers.

  Emolga!!! is a widdle fwuffy sky-squiwwew who goes fwap fwap thwough da air using its big stretchy wimbs! UwU

  It makes fwiends by being ADOWABLE and then ZAPS YOU when you’re not wooking!!! ??

  Thweat Wevew: Smol but spicy.

  Slowly, Ethan shut down the PokeDex and placed it back into its box… for the time being, of course. As he did so, Pachirisu opened up his ‘#1 dad’ sweater and chittered with laughter as he pulled it on. Smeargle opened up his box of oil paint and placed it next to his acrylic paints with a content and happy smile.

  Ethan opened his next gift, one from Joyce. The box was small, but the gift was something he would probably use everyday. A pair of earbuds to play music through. He’d been using the speaker from Cynthia or just his phone speakers, but these would save some of the ears around the ranch from his screamo music.

  Joyce opened up his gift for her at the same time. He didn’t actually know what to get her for Christmas, so the nerves as he waited for a smile or any indication that she enjoyed her gift were grueling, but thankfully she laughed and gave him a one armed side-hug. He made her a home-made bracelet with painted stones. Smeargle had lent him his paint, and he had attempted to paint every one of her pokemon on a stone with the centerpiece being a pokeball.

  He also wrote her a note, but didn’t wait to see her reaction to that as he was slightly embarrassed. It said, “Merry Christmas, Joyce. Thank you for treating every pokemon like they’re someone’s whole world — because they are.”

  Simple and sweet.

  The second to last gift Ethan opened was from his pokemon. He wasn’t sure what they could have gotten him, but he was thankful for the thought. As he tore through the paper, color shone through the gaps and Ethan let loose a happy sigh as he got yet another painting to hang up in his home.

  It was a large painting of all of his pokemon lined up in front of each other like a school-class photo. They stood in front of the christmas tree, and Ethan knew that Smeargle had painted it, although he was in the picture as well.

  He looked up from the painting to spot all of his pokemon quickly looking away as they got caught checking his reaction. He chuckled, but that was soon ended as a bright white light blinded him from the side.

  Ethan barely had time to register the flare of evolution surrounding Munchlax as the light swelled up to encompass his soon-to-be new massive size. His gift, still in his hand even as he evolved, was a new pokeball with imprints and ridges showcasing colorful meals and snacks with a symbol of Munchlax and Ethan resting by each other in the middle where the button should be. The custom pokeball wasn’t cheap, but it wasn’t that expensive either.

  He would have given Munchlax—err Snorlax, food, but that wasn’t much of a gift.

  All around the Christmas tree was silent as the new Snorlax stood slowly, a tear trailing down his fatty cheeks and passing by his massive dopey smile. Ethan laughed, breaking up the silence as he stood with his arms held outwards. Snorlax, seeing the invitation for what it was, strode over. Each footfall of his heavy frame caused dull thumps as he crushed the snow beneath him into nothing.

  Then, Ethan was hoisted up and experienced the back-breaking strength of a Snorlax. Thankfully, he wasn’t damaged, but his new and improved friend was strong. Ethan couldn’t properly hug his friend back, as he was much too wide to even wrap his arms around, but it was Christmas. It was the thought that counted.

  “I knew this day would come eventually. Didn’t think it’d be today though.” Ethan mumbled into Snorlax’s chest as he was swung about. “Good news, Munc—Snorlax, I don’t think I need to watch how much you eat anymore!”

  Ethan was dropped to the ground as Snorlax raised his arms up high and let loose a bellow of victory. “SNOOOOOOOOORRRREE-LAAAAAAAAAXXXXXXX!”

  Ethan had the feeling that unlimited food was probably the best gift he could have given.

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