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Snow fell on Lumiose city as the four of them walked from store to store, more window shopping than anything else at the moment.
“There’s gotta be something cool I can get my mom,” Ash muttered. “Something really Kalos-y.”
“I don’t know what that means, but what about something from one of these boutiques?” Serena suggested, stopping at a particularly cute display of coats and scarfs. They had set out to find gifts for their families, but so far she was finding more things she wanted for herself than for her mom.
Bonnie kicked at a pile of snow as they walked.
“Why don’t we just give Dad a bunch of old exploded inventions?” She suggested, scooping up some and holding it up to Dedenne. “He can probably make them into something or sell them or something.”
“We’re going to get Dad a real gift, Bonnie,” Clemont said patiently. “Just remember, we can’t let him know what we’re doing. He doesn’t know we’re coming home yet.”
Bonnie replied to his concerns by throwing the snow in his face, and laughing as he shrieked in surprise.
Serena shook her head fondly, as Ash looked into a shop window.
“Do you think she’d like earmuffs?”
“Well I don’t know your mom,” Serena said, looking at the accessory in question, “but I’m thinking she’ll want something a little less… bright orange.”
“I think they’re cool,” Ash said, nuzzling Pikachu. “What about you, Buddy? Maybe they’ve got them in another color.”
“I just wanna play in the snow,” Bonnie complained.
“We can do that after we find gifts, Bonnie,” Clemont said, more confidently then he felt.
Ash led them into the store, and they poked around the shelves, searching for the earmuffs. Along the way Serena found several things she liked, and Clemont made mental notes of them for future reference.
They eventually found them, and Ash decided to get his mom a sky blue pair. While they were there, Serena picked up a hat for her mom, both out of convenience, and because “she needs the fashion help”.
The store didn’t, however, have anything for the Citron siblings, and they moved on.
They had walked past about a dozen more clothing stores, when they passed the park and officially lost Bonnie.
She ran down into the piled snow and flopped onto her back, calling out to the others.
“Its super wet, guys! Perfect for snowballs!”
“Sounds like fun to me!” Ash exclaimed, running after her.
Serena and Clemont shared a look, then cracked, and decided shopping could wait.
They followed them, catching up as Bonnie got up to look at her snow angel, and Ash began trying to roll a snowman.
“Make a snow angel, Clemont!”
“Hey, Serena, wanna help make the head?”
Serena joined Ash, rolling her own ball alongside his. As he told her about techniques he had learned in Sinnoh from Zoey, (a girl who apparently lived in a town like Snowbelle), Clemont laid down in the snow, and immediately had a pile of it dropped on his face by his sister, lying in wait.
Clemont cried out, Bonnie claimed to be making hair for the snow angel, and Ash debated which of his pokemon would enjoy the snow.
Soon all their pokemon were released, though Fennekin had to keep some distance from their quickly forming snowman, for fear of melting it.
Bonnie tried to place Dedenne on the ground, only for the tiny rodent to immediately sink and disappear entirely. As she retrieved them, Serena and Fennekin set to melting it enough to find rocks and sticks for their snowman.
Ash had Serena's help putting the head on the body, while Clemont was shivering as he revealed his misshapen angel. He complained about snow down his back, and Ash laughed, comparing him to Brock.
They spent the rest of the day there, quickly dissolving into a snowball fight, with alliances that quickly evolved and changed as the day wore on.
By the time the sun was setting they were cold but happy, retreating to a pokemon center to warm up with the hot chocolate they were so fond of giving trainers on cold days.