Give and Receive: 10 Years Ago
It was Christmas eve and the Riese family had an habit of only decoring the Christmas tree on that day, Lyuri and Sakura were of course helping with it, both looked really happy while doing it with their parents. Both sister were in winter clothing due to how chilly it was, they were even using Christmas caps.
"So! What do you want for Christmas, sis? That fancy dress that you saw in that store?" Asked Lyuri, looking really excited as she put some more decorations on the tree.
"It's a surprise~" Said Sakura, as she happily handed her mother another box full of Christmas balls "But I did ask for a few things for Grant, some toys so I have more things to do with him! And you?"
"It's... Um... A secret"" Said Lyuri, she looked a bit embarrassed, maybe it was something funny.
Grant then came with his own Christmas cap on head, it was painful for Sakura to manage to put that on him, but alas, she did it, just the sight of the Growlithe made both sisters smile.
"I'm so excited, I don't think I'll be able to sleep tonight!" Said Lyuri, with the biggest smile on her face.
"But if you don't, you will be too tired to play with what you'll get dear." Said their mother, putting some of the balls in the higher parts of the tree since it was a pretty big one.
"So, try to have a good night of sleep so you'll have a lot of energy tomorrow!" Said their father
"But it's hard to sleep with all the suspence, maybe we'll get something more other than what we asked!" Said Sakura
"Yeah! Maybe I'll get a Pokémon as a bonus!" Said Lyuri
"So you DIDN'T ask for a Pokémon?" Said all three of them with a genuine look of surprise in their faces.
"Why the surprised look?" Asked Lyuri, giving all of them a stern look
The three of them laughed a bit at Lyuri's expense a bit, embarrassing the girl as they did so. Time passed and they finished decoring the tree and the sister went to sleep at their's own rooms, but Sakura was just sitting on her bed with her legs out of it while Grant was just looking at her from the bedside as both were unable to sleep.
"Hey Grant, do you think I'm going to get something else other than that?" She asked, swinging her legs and looking at the ceiling still with her cap on her head.
Grant, who still had the cap on, simply shot her a rather confused look, not knowing exactly what she was talking about, Sakura just smiled upon seeing the Growlithe's reaction and laid on her bed, taking the cap off.
"Nevermind... Good night, Grant." She said as she turned the lights off and started sleeping.
Time passed as Sakura slept, but she waked up a bit after that due to feeling a bit thirsty, coupled with the heat she was feeling thanks to the clothing she was wearing, she opened her door to go drink some water at the kitchen, but she ended up waking Grant up, who just reacted with a yawn.
"Oh, sorry for waking you up, if you want, you can come with me." Whispered Sakura, as she walked off
Unsurprisingly, Grant followed the girl downstairs, upon going there Sakura decided to not turn on the lights since it could end up waking up somebody, but she stepped on something that made her stop to see what it was: the star that somehow fell down from the tree not that she looked at it, she also saw something under it, the presents!
"The presents! They arrived!" Exclamated Sakura, in a low voice so she wouldn't wake up anybody, "Should I look at them...? But... There's no way to know which one is mine, I don't wanna open Lyuri's by accident." Wondered the girl as she then saw the star she was carrying "Oh... I'll just put the star back, get my drink, and wait until it's morning!"
Sakura then moved to the tree, and with the help of one chair she dragged near it, she tried to put it back into place, however one bark from Grant, who was pretty worried about her and thought she was going to fall, was all it took to startle her and make her fall of the chair and she grabbed the tree to not fall, however the extra weight made the tree fall over her and one of the presents. Like any normal five year old, Sakura started to cry as loud as she could and of course that woke up her parents and sister, who immediatelly came downstairs to see what was going on just to see Sakura next to the tree since Grant helped her out.
"Sakura! What happened?!" Said both of her parents, clearly worried and looking at all the mess.
"Hey! The presents arrived!" Said Lyuri, who lost her focus completely upon seeing one of the gift box.
"I-I tried to put the star back on the tree and then..." She then started to cry again, but that was enough to understand what happened.
After a while Sakura stopped crying and they all put the tree back into it's place, Sakura then looked at a completely destroyed gift box and began to open it with a look of guilt on her face as she did so, for her surprise what was inside was... Something broken, really broken beyond repair. Meanwhile Lyuri opened another box and found inside a bunch of plushies inside, of various mons.
"Um... Is this you-" She then noticed what Sakura was holding as she looked at her "AH! That's my present! You broke it!"
"I-I'm... I'm sorry sis, that was an accident." Replied Sakura, holding the box and looking ready to cry again.
"That's not fair! She messed up and I paid the price!"
Clearly upset, Lyuri bolted upstairs while Sakura didn't even look at her, Grant was feeling just as bad as Sakura since he was the one who caused that disaster, even when being comforted by her parents, Sakura still felt really bad at having ruined Christmas for her sister and after a while, she went upstairs feeling really down and went to sleep, or rather, buried her head on a pillow and started crying all night.
In the following day, it was snowing as Lyuri was at the doorstep of her house looking at the ground covered in snow, still upset over everything, her parents tried talking to her so she wouldn't blame Sakura for what happened, but she still didn't like what happened one bit. One of Lyuri's friends, a boy, then appeared at her home and saw her state.
"Hey Lyuri! You look mad..." Said him, a bit worried about what could've happened.
"Sakura destroyed my Christmas present before I even got to play with it, now she's all sad and avoiding me, not like I want to see her myself." She explained, still looking quite grumpy.
"Sad? I saw her just a few minutes ago and she was looking pretty happy." Commented the boy, looking rather puzzled.
"She already moved on then. Look, I really don't want to talk now..."
"Okay then... Later."
The boy then waved to her and left her alone. Lyuri stayed in the same place for a long time, not feeling like doing anything that day, she kept looking at the ground and didn't notice anything that was going on until suddenly she saw a pair of boots and paws that were way too familiar to her, she looked up and saw Sakura holding a gift box with a smile on her face, she was with her Christmas cap on her head, and so was Grant besides her.
"Is that..." Said Lyuri, with a surprised look.
"Yep! It's that game thingy you wanted for Christmas! I bought it for you myself!" Said Sakura, with a big smile.
"But... But that was way too expensive! How did you buy that?!" Replied Lyuri, in disbelief.
"Remember all that money I was saving, for when I was going to buy something really important? I saved a looot of money and I had just enough to buy this for you!"
"But... Didn't you want that really fancy dress? If you could buy this, you could buy that too." Lyuri was still in disbelief of what was just happening in front of her, her wide open eyes made it easy to notice.
"It's still Christmas sis, and Christmas is about giving and receiving, I already received, so it's time to give, it wouldn't be fair otherwise."
Lyuri was overjoyed by that, but she then looked at Sakura and started to look at the ground, "... Now I have to give you something too, and I don't have money to buy you anything..." She said.
Sakura then giggled "How about a hug? I sure need one after seeing that I could buy the dress and that now I have to save even more money." She joked, trying to keep Lyuri's spirits up.
Lyuri then smiled and almost immediatelly she glomped her "BEST SISTER EVER!" She said as the two fell to the ground, with the gift box landing on the snow next to them.
The sisters then sitted on the snow as Grant jumped on Sakura's arms and looked at each other as Grant started to lick Sakura in the face, they then started to laugh, Lyuri then put the gift box inside home and came back, much to Sakura's surprise.
"Aren't you going to open it?" Asked Sakura, puzzled.
"Later! I want to enjoy some time with my sister first!" Answered Lyuri, looking pretty happy.
Sakura then smiled and got up, the sister then started to play around in the snow together with Grant, having the time of their's lives as the snowflakes gently fell on the ground.
"Best day ever!" Said both sisters while they were making snow angels one alongside each other.