@kitariauthor here is your RusAme Secret Santa 2019! Thank you for being patient—I wanted to make sure this was as good as I could make it before sending it to you.
For Christmas I got Pokemon Sword, so I was a million and ten percent inspired to pick your pokemon wish and combine it with cuddling after sad times.
The story is Ivan lives alone up in the winter wilderness near Snowpoint City in the Sinnoh region. Occasionally hikers and stupid trainers get lost in the snow, so he helps the ones that stumble across his cabin. Alfred, was up in the mountains to training to become the champion, overworking himself to exhaustion. Ivan found him in the woods, Alf’s pokemon trying to protect him from the cold. And as Ivan picked up Alfred to take back, the Slavic Firebird appeared over the sky—identified as Ho-oh. Getting back, Ivan finds Alfred has fallen ill and has to warm him up with a fire and cuddling with his pokemon. A couple of days pass, Ivan taking care of him for a while recovering (image depicted above). The two grow fond of each other, but Alfred has to leave to become the champion.
A few years later, Ivan hears a knock on his door, expecting a lost hiker. It’s Alfred. He’s much older now and shows off all of his gym badges from around the world and multiple champion metals. He was taking a “vacation” up north to visit Ivan again. The two start dating and Alfred has enough money to take Ivan on plenty of vacations (when the man wants to get out of his isolated home). Alfred visits a lot, always complaining that it’s cold as balls, but he enjoys cuddling with Ivan by the hearth with their pokemon.
Ivan’s Team:
Sunflora - given to him by his sister
Snover - accidentally starts hailstorms Sunflora puts out with sunny day
Alfred’s Team:
Snorlax “Big Apple” Gigantamax - curry eating champion
Appletun - resemblance of ol’ fashioned american pie
Bouffalant - buffalo of NA and roots in black culture
Xatu - based on kachina, a spirit being of Pueblo people in NA
Scrafty - based on urban youth, parallel to Alfred
and of course Braviary for obvious reasons - sports multiple scars on his front chest
Also I built their teams on Pokemon!Showdown, where Ivan has more pokemon and Alfred as a functioning team. If you want to look at their movesets and/or battle with them, DM me and I’ll send you them.
Enjoy!