Bolt and Inferno were standing on their toes, poised and watching the shiny Eevee as his tail vanished behind the ice. Inferno's tail swished, and Bolt bounced on his paws, glowing brightly. "Almost time... I got the best present," Bolt muttered.
"Bet mine is better than yours," Inferno said, a challenging smile on his face. Bolt, surprisingly, ignored him.
Surf inched closer to me so that our sides were touching. "I haven't seen you put anything in there."
"I know," I said, keeping my eyes on Three. "It doesn't need a package."
He watched me for a few seconds. "...Are you going to tell me, or are you going to make me guess?"
"Neither!" I slapped his flank with my tail. "That would ruin it. You know how into this Snow, Clover, and Bolt are."
He shrugged. "Fair enough."
Finally, Three bounded back out. "Ok! Done! Sorry about that!"
Bolt shot to his paws. "Can we start now!?"
I tried to resist laughing. "Sure! Everyone, get your Snow Day present!" In the following stampede, I was one of the three Eevees who didn't get stepped on or tripped over. The other two were Bolt (who got in, grabbed his present, and got out before anyone else even stood up) and Espeon (who simply lifted her gift telekinetically). I just waited until the chaos had subsided, then walked in and taken my leaf-swaddled gift.
Inferno put his package down. "Who goes first?"
Snow looked around at the assembled Eevees. "Let's let the kits go first."
The three Eevees cheered as Sunbeam tried to regulate. "Go backwards, ok? Five first."
"Oh boy!" the excited kit squeaked, tearing the leaf wrapping off. Inside was a beautiful headband of flowers, woven with effort and care. The main color was pink, but there were also white, blue, and yellow flowers spun in. Five gasped in delight. "It's beautiful!" she yelled excitedly before spilling it onto her head. "And it fits! Clover, was it from you?"
The Leafeon shook her head. "Close!"
Five's eyes instantly moved to the Glaceon beside her previous suspect. "Snow?"
Snow broke into a smile, nodding happily. "I'm glad you like it."
"I love it! I'll wear it all the time!" She bounced around happily, kicking up powdery flakes as she danced with her wreath. I smiled warmly. How was she so cute?
She finally stopped, bounding back towards her other siblings. "Your turn, Four!"
Four was less energetic than his sister, but his crackling buzz betrayed his excitement. His gift looked like a squashed blob on the outside, but once the leaves were torn away, a plush Eevee was revealed. Four looked confused. "Why...?"
Surf stepped forward. "It's so you can have someone to cuddle with at night. I know you always sleep outside your nest, and I also know you want to sleep next to someone." Four broke into a smile, looking back at the toy Eevee. "I also asked Bolt and Inferno to set it up so it would stay warm."
Four gave it an experimental hug, then pushed himself right up against it. "Thank you, Surf. It's perfect," he said, beaming. Espeon smiled, lifting her son and his new toy back to the rest of his siblings with her mind so that Four didn't have to move.
Three broke away to get to his present, tearing the leaves off as Surf sat down beside me again. Under the leaves was a deck of human cards. I knew who had given the gift because he was swishing his very fluffy tail back and forth as Three pawed through the deck, coming to a note at the end. He read aloud. "I'll teach you to play if you figure out who gave this to you." He looked up and around at the assembled Eevees. "Inferno?"
"Lucky guess!" he replied enthusiastically. "I's a game called Go Fish, but I'll have to teach you how to play after everyone opens their presents. I'll teach all five of you."
"Thanks, Inferno!" Three chirped before collecting the cards and stumbling back to his spot, losing quite a few of them on the way. Sunbeam helped him clean them up as their shiny sister started unwrapping her present, her face neutral. I felt bad for whoever pulled her name. She'd be hard to find a present for...
Whoever got the present had clearly overcome the challenges, as Moonlight unwrapped a painted canvass depicting a magnificent blue moon shining over a forest. Moonlight's eyes widened as she studied the detail. "Who made this? This is... This is amazing."
"You like it, sis?" Sunbeam said as she took a step forward. Moonlight could only nod. "Well, thank Five and Snow, too. They're the ones with the real artistic talent. I just helped."
Moonlight turned around. "Thank you. All three of you." The smile on her face gave away how happy she was.
Sunbeam helped her sister move it back to her spot with telekinesis before opening her own present, which was a metal thing much like what I had gotten Surf the year before, the incense like the sea. Except Sunbeam's was pink and purple, and I couldn't quite place what it smelled like. Sunbeam smelled it for a while before slipping it around her neck and looking around. "This is neat. I really like the scent. Was it... Four!" she said, not even trying to hide the usage of her telepathy.
Her radioactive brother sat up, smiling. "Well, I wanted to find something pretty for you, because you're pretty, and it smelled cool, so..." he trailed off as Sunbeam smiled warmly at him.
"Aww... Thanks, Four! I love it! I have no idea what it smells like, but it's good, and I love it!"
Inferno didn't even ask who should go next. He just started ripping the leaves off as soon as Sunbeam sat down. I rolled my eyes with a knowing smile. I knew it was going to be him or the other troublemaker.
A very eager Inferno tore the wrapping off of a huge cake, which the Flareon gazed at with wide, stunned eyes. "I love it," he furtively whispered. Clover tried not to laugh behind him. Though Inferno was in no state of mind to puzzle out who was the maker of his gift, it wasn't too hard to figure out who his Secret Stantler was, based on the decorative berries in the icing and Clover's happy smile.
Bolt watched his best friend stare at his cake. "...Can I open mine now, or are you still busy staring?" When Inferno only nodded, Bolt tried not to laugh, focusing instead on his gift, which was a carefully-wrapped pack of rechargeable human batteries. Umbreon had to tell Bolt that he was the Secret Stantler after several rounds on unsuccessful guessing.
The general vote was that Umbreon and Espeon open their gifts next, and Espeon let her mate go first. Inside the haphazardly-wrapped gift was a jar made of ice. Inside was a large collection of beautiful stones of all different colors. Umbreon bent down, looking inside, then immediately shifted his gaze to his youngest daughter.
She tilted her head, making her flower wreath slip to one side. "You really liked the pretty red stone I found, so I got you more!"
Umbreon smiled, walking over and nuzzling his daughter. "Thank you, Five. I love it."
Espeon waited patiently for him to sit back down with his jar, then opened her own present, which was a beautiful string of pearls. She immediately looked at me, but I shook my head. "Wasn't me."
She looked around with a small smile. Umbreon had already given a gift to Bolt, and Surf got Four his Eevee doll... Finally, she slipped it on. It hung a bit low, but it was still beautiful. Bolt looked at Inferno. "Told you my gift was better than yours."
Espeon turned around to look at the Jolteon. "Bolt?" He nodded, a bit sheepish. "It's lovely. Thank you very much." I noticed Umbreon looking critically at Bolt for a half second before returning to smiling at Espeon. I really hoped that this wasn't going to develop more drama... We had enough of that last year...
Snow let Clover open her gift next, which was a large, heated pan for water, which she could use to grow water plants during winter. Due to the gift's practicality, it was fairly easily placed as being from Moonlight. Clover still thanked her profusely.
Snow received a large tub of ice cream from Three, who had apparently discovered the sweet stuff, tasted it, gotten a brain freeze, and figured that it was the kind of thing that a Glaceon might like better. Snow laughed at his story. "Well, it's true. Thank you."
Finally, Surf and I were the only ones left. Naturally, he pushed me to go first. "All right, all right..." I said, trying to hide my relief that he had asked me to go first. He watched closely as I unwrapped a series of orbs on a stand, 12, to be exact.
"This seems like the kind of thing that a certain Psychic would make..." I said, looking at Espeon, who nodded.
"There's one for each member of the Clan. I included a list for which orb is which and what the colors mean."
I smiled. "Thank you, Espy. Practical, yet thoughtful and beautiful. Just like you."
"Why, thank you. Do you want some help with Surf's present?"
Surf looked at me. "Help? I figured mine was from you, but..." he trailed off, looking at me curiously.
Espeon walked up to the two of us. I looked at her seriously, but spoke so that everyone else could hear. "You're in charge until we get back, ok?"
"Back?" Surf asked.
I nodded just as Espeon teleported the three of us to the spot that I had brought her to a few days earlier. Soft sand, a sea breeze, and waves gently lapping at the shore. I turned to look at Surf as Espeon stepped back to give us room. "Do you remember this place?"
He could only nod.
I looked out at the ocean with him. "I kept thinking 'what would remind him of how much I love him?' And then I thought of something. We fell in love when we walked from this very beach to the spot where we decided to found the Eevee Clan. So I figured, why not make that same trip and fall in love all over again?"
I was dimly aware of Espeon smiling and teleporting away as Surf broke into a loving smile. "Splash, I love you so much." He stepped towards me and kissed me deeply with the smell of my last gift to him merging perfectly with the smell of the sea behind him.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Hello, readers! I know I usually post my author's comment in the comments section, but I have amazing news that I really, really, really want to share. First off, MERRY CHRISTMAS!! Happy holidays! Proof that my sister is the best sister ever: for Christmas, she got me the entire Eevee Clan in miniature!! I love them all and have fond places on my laptop for them to sit as I type my new posts (it's a thing I do to get inspiration, don't judge).
Secondly, SHINY POKEMON ALERT. Over the week before Christmas, I was hoping to get a little Christmas miracle, so I went Eevee chaining. Finally, after a lot of hard work, I find my first ever shiny Eevee! Then... I accidentally use the Masuda method and get ANOTHER shiny Eevee, and she, that's right, I have a shiny female Eevee, the odds of which of getting one is 0.00875% (yes, I did the math), is perfectly suited for being a Vaporeon, and I love her so much, and she is definitely going to feature in my blog at some point. THEN, as if that weren't amazing enough, I'm training a Jolteon when I just walk into a shiny Sandshrew. I can never win anything with a scratch-off ticket, and yet somehow I obtain 3 shinies within a week!? Thank you, Arceus, or whichever Pokémon regulates luck!!!
Finally, sorry about posting later than usual today. I didn't have access to my laptop until about noon. I hope the adorableness of this post makes up for it.
As per usual, comment, comment, comment, follow, follow, follow, and share this blog with everyone you know!
~Chief
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