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The journey to the apartment that Nessa had arranged for him was both the longest and shortest trip Leon had ever made in his life. 

On foot, it was only a ten minute walk, especially with the streets empty of nosy passersby and Charizard leading the way. Yet even an instantaneous trip would have felt like an eternity to the stressed champion, and despite running five kilometers several times a week on a regular basis, his heart was racing fit to burst as he clamored up the building’s external stairs and fished around in the planter pot where Nessa always left the spare key. It was right near the top, yet Leon’s hands were shaking so badly that he nearly spilled all the dirt out of the pot in the process, and he made a mental note to clean it up the next day as he unlocked the door and practically stumbled across the threshold.

Being a busy model as well as a gym leader, Nessa had several ‘hidey holes’ across Galar to house her during business trips, and she was always willing to loan one out to Leon for his own when he didn’t want to ask Macro Cosmos for accommodations. As he walked into the entryway, the comforting smell of the vanilla, honey, and lemon cleaning products she preferred wafted into his nose, making his eyes moist and his legs almost boneless. Leon threw his bag in the vague direction of the living room, locked the door, leaned against it, and slowly slid down to the floor in a tangle of limbs and hair.

Am I dreaming? Leon wondered. With a shaky half-sob, he brought his knees up to his chest, buried his face in the tops of his thighs, and hugged himself into the tightest ball he could. He’d be rocking back and forth if his back wasn’t pressed against the white-painted door. Am I going to wake up on the train to Motostoke all alone?

The thought was as distressing as it was irrational, and Leon allowed himself to sink onto his right side, resting his head on the comforting coldness of the marble tiled floor and closing his eyes. His right hand slid into the pocket of his sweatshirt, toying with the small, folded-up piece of paper with Raihan’s mobile number and a request to “ send me a cute picture when you get the chance. ;) ” The dragon tamer refused to let Leon leave again without his cell number, and as Leon stroked the ripped edges of the notebook page, his muddled and anxious train of thought began to solidify into something more coherent and calm. The physical note was grounding. Tangible. Real . It was proof that the events of the past day were not a dream.

“ Raihan,” Leon whispered under his breath, liking the way the name sounded on his tongue. He wanted to say it again. He could say it again. He knew his name now. “ Raihan Karimi. Raihan, Raihan –”

There was the sound of little feet scampering towards him, and even though Leon knew it was coming, he still jumped a little at the feel of a branch poking his cheek. He cracked open his eyes, peering up at the concerned little monkey hovering next to him, readying his stick to poke again.

“ Hullo, Grookey,” Leon greeted, smiling reassuringly. “ I’m alright. Just tired.” He let his eyes fall shut once more and giggled at the feel of a little wet tongue lapping at his nose. “ Yes, yes, just give me a moment and I’ll get up. I’m guessing Nessa left a while ago?”

Grookey chirped in affirmation, and Leon heard him scrabble away, looking for something or another. Since his newest Pokemon wasn’t trying to bite his nose off out of hunger, Leon guessed that Nessa must have fed him before she left for Hulbury. He’d invited her to stay there with him that night before returning home from her gig, but Nessa explained that she had to be at the gym early to let the league architects in; there was something going on with the switches for the water pipes she used in her trial, although Leon couldn’t remember the exact details. Honestly, as much as Nessa fussed at him about being Rose’s ‘plough Mudsdale’, the gym leader was willing to run herself almost as ragged without a peep of complaint. 

As if sensing his thoughts, the pitter patter of little paws on tile signified Grookey’s return, and Leon opened his eyes to see the little monkey hold out a folded piece of paper as if it were a missive from a foreign dignitary. With a fond smile and a tired groan, Leon pushed himself into a sitting position before taking the note, allowing Grookey to get comfortable in his lap as he unfolded the paper and began to read:

Leon,

Sorry for missing you. I was hoping we could catch a bite after your match, but it obviously took longer to start than we expected, and I had to catch the last train home. If you read this before your match, then good luck; if it’s after, then I hope it was a good fight for once. Not sure what we’re gonna do if we don't get someone to fill Yaren’s spot in time for the Gym Challenge preparations.

I ordered a takeaway for dinner and got you one as well. It should be in the microwave, so all you have to do is turn it on. I don’t think Grookey has figured out how microwave doors work, so it should still be there. I made sure he was fed too, and that he had plenty of water before I took off.

I’ll shoot you a text on your personal once I get to Hulbury so you know I made it safe. Don’t feel pressed to answer tonight if you’re not up to it, just give me a ring tomorrow if you can. I want to hear how things turned out. Again, kind of pulling my hair out at the whole ‘vacant eighth gym’ thing we have going on.

Pot calling the kettle black, but try not to work too hard, okay? And get actual sleep tonight!

Love,

Nessa

PS: I noticed you forgot your toothpaste, so I got a spare and left it on the sink.

PSS: If Grookey eats my curtains, you’re replacing them.

Leon snickered and rolled his eyes as he folded Nessa’s note back into a neat little square. Leave it to Nessa–the big sister he always wished he had–to leave him dinner on the very night he had a date.

A date. Oh my God, he had a date . With Raihan . Yeah, forget about eating; Leon was afraid he’d throw up anything he tried to put in his stomach beforehand. He’d just pop the takeaway in the fridge for tomorrow, and if Grooky got his surprisingly deft paws on it beforehand…well, a little white lie wouldn’t hurt, would it? He didn’t want Nessa to think he was unappreciative!

“ I’ll save it for a meal later.” Leon nodded before giving Grookey a pointed look. The little bugger looked way too innocent and it was entirely deliberate.  “ You hear that? The food I am going to put in the fridge is mine, and if I find any of it gone when I get to it tomorrow, you don’t get Pewter Crunchies for a week.”

Grookey glared at him and Leon glared back.

“ Nix that–a month.”

The little monkey wilted and whined petulantly, and Leon knew that he’d won the battle of wills…for now. Grookey was going to be an absolute terror once he reached his final evolution, and the champion couldn’t wait to see it.

“ Now that we’ve reached an understanding,” Leon began, slowly pushing himself back to his feet. Grookey tucked his stick into his hair and–once Leon was upright–wasted no time in climbing up Leon’s left leg and sweatshirt until he was perched on his trainer’s left shoulder. Leon gave him a few absent pats as he wandered over to the living room and grabbed his discarded bag. “ I’ve got things to do tonight and places to be. So you’re going to have your bath, then you’re going to play nicely and politely while I call Hop and get ready, and then you’re going with me to the battle cafe to meet up with Raihan because I don’t trust you with Nessa’s upholstery.”

Grookey chirped indignantly, and Leon chuckled before nuzzling the monkey’s cheek.

“ It’s part of your charm,” he soothed, flicking on the lights with his free hand as he made his way to the guest room at the end of the main hallway. “ But it’s the facts. I don’t think Raihan would mind meeting you, anyway; I still haven’t gotten a chance to properly introduce myself to his Goomy.”

“ Ooo-ooo?” Grookey, having never heard the name ‘Raihan’ before, was clearly confused. “ Aaaaah?”

“ It’s a long story.” Leon made his way to the (frankly gorgeous) bathroom and began to fill up the sink with warm water. Knowing what was coming, Grookey clamored off Leon’s shoulder to stand on the edge of the sink, pulling his stick out of his hair and setting it near the toothbrush cup. “ You know how I had to put you in the Pokeball for the train ride here because I was afraid you’d terrorize the other passengers or escape and blow my cover?”

“ Groo.”

“ Yeah, and you would have, too.” Leon rummaged through the Pokemon cleaning supplies Nessa kept in the cabinet underneath the sink and pulled out a bottle of bath bubbles and a few floating toys. If he didn’t have something to stimulate Grookey’s interest, the little bugger would never sit still for a wash. “ Well, I…I met a guy on the train. A really, really nice guy. His name’s Raihan, and he’s the one you’re going to meet with me at the battle cafe tonight?”

Grookey hummed and cocked its head to the side. Leon gave him another pointed look as he squirted a generous amount of bubble soap into the sink.

“ That’s right; I expect you to be on your best behavior, because Raihan is…well…” Leon felt  his neck flushing puce. “ He’s perfect, Grookey. He’s just…handsome and kind and smart and happy. He just seems so… calm off the pitch, but when I fought him at the exhibition match today, he was so fired up.” Leon shook his head and began to muddle the sink water with his hands. “ I’ve never fought anyone like Raihan before. I went in blind, sure, but so did he, and did you know he got me down to one Pokemon? It was just me and Charizard at the end, and while we still won and I wasn’t super worried…no one’s had me on the ropes like that since Master Mustard.”

It was clear that Grookey was far too entranced by the soap bubbles dancing on the surface of the water to pay attention to Leon, but the champion continued to ramble on regardless, knowing that sorting out his thoughts before he talked to another human would help.

“ Don’t get me wrong, the other gym leaders are extremely talented, and I’m just…a freak, really.” With a sad smile, Leon turned off the spigot, picked up Grookey, and plopped the excited little Pokemon into his makeshift bath. Grookey immediately began splashing and screeching in delight, and Leon left him (somewhat) to his devices as he reached into his pockets, pulling out his two phones. “ Yet Raihan didn’t make me feel like a freak. I won, but he wasn’t sad at all; in fact, he actually told me that he considered me his rival! After what happened with Sonia, I never thought I’d have a rival again, but Raihan… wow . He’s incredible. He’s gonna beat me one day, you know that? I’ve got to make sure I don’t make it easy for him!”

After giving Grookey the floating toys to play with, Leon sat himself down on the toilet to go through his phones, not wanting to give his newest Pokemon the chance to turn Nessa’s bathroom into a contractor’s future mildew-rotted nightmare. He opened up his official, Macro Cosmos-provided smartphone (not a Rotom Phone; per Chairman Rose, Leon lost his phone so often that a Rotom Phone wasn’t cost-effective) and pulled up his notifications, relieved to see that his only message was from Chairman Rose. It was obvious after the match that his mentor was pleased as punch, and his text to Leon was full of praise and pride, with promises to ‘lighten his schedule’ over the next few weeks as a reward for ‘locking down the eighth gym leader’. Did that mean enough time for a proper, official, sanctioned visit home? Oh, Hop was going to be thrilled to bits!

With hope dancing in his heart, Leon typed out a quick message in return, thanking the chairman for his generosity and wishing him a good night and pleasant dreams. After Rose acknowledged the message with a thumbs up emoji, Leon switched his phone on silent and put it back in his pocket, making a mental note to leave it on the nightstand before going out. While he never had concrete proof of its reality, Leon often wondered if Macro Cosmos could track his location with the phone, which is why he always ‘forgot it’, ‘lost it’, or simply put it on airplane mode if he had anything personal or clandestine to take care of. Much like Leon couldn’t prove that Macro Cosmos had a tracking function on his phone, they couldn’t prove he was anything but a scatterbrained klutz.

Given how often he got lost, Leon could understand keeping tabs on his location when he was a child, but it was a little ridiculous to do so with a legal adult. Oh well; of all the fights he could pick with the chairman, a tiff over an unfounded suspicion was at the bottom of the list. He’d make do–just as he had for the past eight years.

With the ‘business’ stuff out of the way, Leon turned his attention to his personal cell phone–a two-generations old, pre-Rotom smartphone that Professor Magnolia had given him for his fifteenth birthday after he voiced his suspicions about his official cell phone. It was an older model, but a sturdy one that lacked much of the newer tech that allowed phones to be tracked, and Magnolia paid for the service herself through what had been an unused line in her family data plan. While Leon was careful to never take it off airplane mode when on ‘company time’, it was always tucked away somewhere in his travel bag, and it was the only one of his phones that he refused to lose (no matter how genuinely addled he was on a particular day).

Being two generations old, his second phone couldn’t support newer apps, but Leon could look at videos, scroll through his friends' social media channels on his shadow account, store his photos, set up events on his calendar with at least four sound-and-vibration reminders each, and play Alcremie Cakewalk Kingdom on his downtime. It also allowed him to safely have casual text chains with his friends–well, Nessa, Sonia, mainly; he only spoke to his mum if absolutely necessary, and Hop was a little too young to have a cell phone. Opal had the ability to text, but she preferred to use Facebook Messenger, and the other gym leaders–

Leon’s throat got tight.

Well, it was a phone he used to text his friends, after all. The other leaders’ numbers weren’t in his contacts list.

Before Leon could sink too deeply into self pity, he remembered the paper in his pocket, and the malcontent he experienced whenever he thought about his fraught relationships with the other league members was eclipsed by the joy of adding another number to his Friend Phone! It wasn’t just any number, either; it was Raihan’s number! Who needed Gordie and Piers’ numbers when he had Raihan’s?! Leon was going to be able to talk with Raihan all the time, and the thought set him rocking back and forth with delight, unable to keep himself from giggling as he clutched his phone to his chest and held tight. Raihan, Raihan, Raihan!

–first things first, though. There was a more important matter to attend to–far more important than dragon-type trainers with fangs and arms perfect for cuddling.

The moment Leon flicked off airplane mode, he was immediately assaulted with a cacophony of text alerts from Sonia and Nessa, filled mainly with smash-text, exclamation points, emojis, and ‘oh my god’s’. They obviously saw the match, and Leon grinned as he opened his text chain with Sonia and began to type, deciding to be deliberately disingenuous.

‘ Hey, Sonia! Sorry I’m texting so late. I only just now got back to Nessa’s flat. Is Hop still up to talking?’

It took only a few seconds for the three flashing gray dots to appear, and Leon’s grin crept to his ears as he waited, watching Grookey as they pulled one of the spare toothbrushes out of the holder and began to bat it on the rim of the sink like it was the surface of a drum. His other hand was waving around a little rubber Quaxly, and it was so dang cute that Leon couldn’t help but snap a photo or two, knowing that such precious moments would be few and far between once Grookey started evolving. Not only would he be an adult, but he would be much too big for a sink bath.

Hold on a tick, Leon thought, reaching into his pocket and pulling out the piece of paper with Raihan’s number. He wanted me to send him a cute picture, right? Well, I can’t really think of anything cuter than this!

Leon had just finished adding Raihan’s number to his contacts profile–bringing his grand total of stored contacts to seven–when Sonia’s message flashed across the screen.

‘ lol are u fuckin serious, leon??? u nearly get bodied by some instagram influencer and u dont even mention it??? honestly u never change.’

Leon frowned and decided to take the last bit of Sonia’s text as a compliment. He quadruple checked to make sure he’d spelled Raihan’s name and input his number correctly, added a little heart emoji after ‘Karimi’, and saved it with a giggle and a squirm of awkward bashfulness. Once that was settled, he began typing out his reply to Sonia, only to be interrupted by another message.

‘nvm, hops still awake and is helping gran out with setting up her plant lights before bed. i’ll tell them ur gonna call in 15’

Leon ‘awed’ at the mental image of Hop trotting behind Professor Magnolia while carrying her still-too-big-for-him watering can and felt his annoyance at Sonia floating away like so much nothing.

‘ I mean, I wasn’t ‘nearly bodied’, but whatever helps you sleep at night. Lol.’ The last bit was a little mean, maybe, but Leon didn’t have the mental or emotional energy to walk on his usual eggshells around her ego. ‘ It was a fantastic fight, though! One of the best I’ve ever had! I’ll tell you about it tomorrow once I’ve gotten some sleep. I’m pretty beat.’

As he waited for Sonia’s reply, Leon opened up a new text chain, selected Raihan’s number, and pulled up one of the pictures he’d just taken of Grookey in the bath. As he anxiously twirled his hair with his left hand, he typed out a quick message with his right:

‘ Hi! This is Leon! Since you asked, I’ve got a cute picture for you!’

It was only after Leon sent the message and the photo that he realized that oh , Raihan probably wanted a cute picture of him , not of a random baby Pokemon playing in the bath. A whine of embarrassment passed his lips, and he had to resist the irrational urge to fling his phone at the opposite wall, settling instead for dropping his phone to the floor and using his now-free hands to hide his face in his hair.

Great. Fantastic. Bloody fantastic . Leon had only met his (crush? boyfriend?) love interest a few hours ago and he was already falling flat on his face!

The standard ‘chime’ indicated a text that wasn’t from one of his original contacts, and Leon reluctantly peeked through his fingers a the screen, only to immediately relax as he read Raihan’s reply:

‘OMG you are absolutely right, that is so fucking cute, holy shit. Please tell me that’s your Pokemon and not some stock photo.’

Leon laughed so loudly that Grookey nearly jumped out of the sink in surprise, but he couldn’t help it. What else was he going to do with the adoration and delight filling his chest? If he didn’t express it somehow, it honestly felt like he would explode, and that wouldn’t do anyone any favors. It also meant he wouldn’t be able to go on his date (an actual date! With someone that wasn’t just after clout or looking for a door into the Pokemon League!), and honestly, that particular thought was a little upsetting.

Still laughing, Leon snapped a picture of Grookey’s bewildered, soap-covered face, and sent it to Raihan with another message:

“ He’s mine! It’s a Grookey, one of the three starters we give to new trainers here in Galar! I got him a couple weeks ago from the nice couple that owns the local Pokemon hatchery, and while he’s just old enough for a Pokeball, he still doesn’t like them. I kept him at the apartment where I’m staying while I fought you.”

Just as Leon hit ‘send’, he received Sonia’s reply:

‘lol whatever u say, guy who was down to his last pokemon in a 4 stack. ;) i kid, i kid, kinda, but i wanna hear all about this guy tomorrow. maybe we can get on a 3 way call with nessa if you have the time, cause im sure she wants to hear about it too!’

The idea made Leon giddier than he already was. He was quick to type out his reply, even as he received a standard ‘ping’ indicating Raihan’s own. Leon would have to find his…his… rival a more fitting alert sound.

‘ That sounds fantastic! I should be able to do something early after dinner tomorrow! Just text me when you’re free to chat and I’ll see what strings I can pull! But I’m gonna go finish washing up Grookey while I wait for Hop and your gran to call! <3’

Remembering that Nessa promised to text him when she returned to Hulbury (and being acutely aware of how fussy some of his friends got when he didn’t reply as soon as humanly possible), he sent off Sonia’s message and opened Nessa’s text log. One of the best things about texting with Nessa was that, unlike Sonia, she liked to use proper grammar and punctuation. It made the words swim less.

‘ Back in Hulbury, and please, please tell me this guy’s going to say yes, Leon. I may or may not be on my hands and knees praying to Arceus here.’

Then, a minute and some seconds later:

‘ Gran’s hoarse from how hard she was hooting during your fight, and I’m pretty sure the conductor of the train thought all the passengers were suffering from mass hysteria. We ended up watching it on some bloke’s iPad, and I was going to ignore it, but you were actually having a hell of a fight.’

Leon blinked, chewed his lip, and looked up at Grookey–who, mercifully, was still engrossed in popping every single bubble floating in the air with a second toothbrush to cause trouble. He hurriedly typed out a reply:

‘ Have a lot to talk about. I can’t talk for long tonight, because I’m knackered and still have to say goodnight to Hop, but if you’re free to talk for ten minutes or so then you can call.’

No sooner had Leon set down his phone on the toilet tank and got up to finish washing Grookey that it began to play a familiar Spice Girls song. He grinned, answered the call, and hit the speaker button.

“ Leon!” Nessa’s strident voice made Grookey jump–again–and slosh some soapy water on the bathroom floor. Leon sighed and grabbed a few of the spare towels Nessa had hanging up. “ Is he going to stay?! Is Raihan going to say yes?!”

“ Hello to you too,” Leon smarmed, laying a towel at the foot of the sink before grabbing a washcloth, attacking Grookey’s face and ears with gentle fervor as the monkey squirmed and whined. “ Is anyone else around to hear this?”

“ No, I’m alone in my office.” Leon heard Nessa cover the phone, which barely muffled her shout of ‘Gran, take out your hearing aids for a few minutes!’ Then there was the slam of Nessa’s office door being kicked shut before the phone was uncovered. “ Okay, now we’re definitely not being overheard.”

Leon hummed in approval, wiping off a few spots of what looked suspiciously like dried jam from Grookey’s back. “ This stays between us. I mean it. Not even Sonia knows we’re having this conversation.”

“ Lips are signed, sealed, and delivered.”

“ Okay.” Leon briefly debated turning down his phone’s volume, but his hands were all wet and dripping, so he decided to just brace for impact. “ If things go the way I’m expecting them to, we’re going to have a new Hammerlocke Gym Leader just in time to start preparations for the challenge.”

Leon had barely finished his sentence before Nessa was howling at the top of her lungs through his phone speaker, making him wince and flinch instinctively. Gah, his ears were going to be ringing for the rest of the night at this rate.

“ Oh my God, Leon, I fucking love you! ” Nessa’s words were mixed in with the sounds of her jumping from her desk chair and flailing around as she paced around her den. “ I mean, I loved you already, but I love you even more now! Kyogre of the depths, I think you’ve added five years back to my life just by telling me that!”

Despite Leon’s increasing unintentional annoyance at the loudness of her tone (he didn’t blame her! It was super exciting and Nessa loved it when she was genuinely excited! And he loved her for it! It’s just that people screaming reminded him too much of when Mum and Dad were living under the same roof, and it still kind of made him want to go hide in the closet. Which wasn’t Nessa’s fault, but still!), he couldn’t help but rock back on his heels with his own happiness, and even Grookey seemed pleased despite his master manhandling him with a washcloth.

“ I’m pretty sure your Gran can still hear you!” Leon chided fondly. Nessa gasped and seemingly plopped back down into her chair.

“ Shit, sorry, you’re right, and I’m probably blowing out your ear drums.” She sighed, and Leon didn’t need to be there to guess she was rubbing her free hand through her hair. “ I’m just… fuck , I was really starting to wonder what we were going to do. As much as I don’t want to tank Galar’s reputation in the IPL when we’ve just started gaining traction, I was tempted to tell the Chairman to just…pick someone halfway decent and to stop scaring candidates away with you.”

Leon knew Nessa didn’t mean it in a mean way, but he still couldn’t help but feel hurt at the last part. It wasn’t Leon’s fault that Rose had insisted on having Leon be the only audition fight. It wasn’t Leon’s fault that the past candidates were clearly only scrabbling together a dragon-type team just to fight him. It wasn’t Leon’s fault that he was a freak.

“ I was wrong, though,” Nessa admitted, and Leon felt the knot in his stomach loosen ever-so-slightly. “ In complete confidence, I’m not sure if any of us gym leaders would have been able to put up an interesting-enough fight to get Raihan to stay. Like, this is a guy who fought his way to Lance by the time he was ten, and the fact that he managed to knock you down to just Charizard speaks volumes.”

“ You know about Raihan, then?”

Nessa scoffed in disbelief. “ You mean you…don’t tell me you went in completely blind, Leon!”

“ I did!” Once he was satisfied that Grookey was as clean as he was going to get, Leon unplugged the sink and turned the spigots back on, adjusting the temperature while waiting for the bath water to drain completely. “ Cripes, Nessa, I was so bloody bored with it all! You know I love a good challenge, but it’s not a good challenge when you know they’re faking it half the time, and there are only so many times I can beat three stacks with nothing but Aegislash before I start to lose my bloody mind. When Rose told me about Raihan, I decided to not look up anything about him, just so I could have some sort of challenge.”

“ I was wondering why you didn’t seem super-prepared for once in your life.” Nessa giggled. “ Honestly, watching you fight Raihan reminded me of when we all were in the Gym Challenge, when you still didn’t know what you were doing half the time other than having a blast!”

Leon smiled fondly at the memory. “ You’re not wrong there. I had…fun fighting Raihan. For the first time in a long while, I had a lot of fun.” He blinked, choked, and immediately tried to backtrack. “ It’s not that I don’t have fun fighting you all, don’t get me wrong, but–”

“ Leon, it’s okay.” Nessa’s voice was firm but gentle, soothing him instantly. “ I get it, mate, I really do. It looked like you were playing rather than doing your job and wiping the carpet with us, you know? There’s a different vibe to that kind of fight.”

“ Yeah.” The champion blinked back the heat from his eyes and began to rinse Grookey (who was now screeching indignantly) underneath the tap. “ Don’t mind the noise; I’m giving Grookey a quick bath before Hop calls.”

“ Good idea. He accidentally got into a jar of mago berry preserves my great-gran sent with me and I didn’t have the time to clean them all off of him before I had to catch my train.” Before Leon could apologize, she cut in: “ Don’t worry about it. There are still plenty left for me to enjoy.”

Leon nodded to himself and rinsed Grookey with a tiny bit more firmness than before. “ Thanks for watching him when I was gone. His trip in the Pokeball on the train back from Postwick near killed his patience for the day. I was genuinely worried he’d force his way out of the ball and wreak havoc in the middle of the match if I tried it again.”

Nessa laughed fondly, and if she were in front of him, she would probably be giving Leon a fond noogie. “ It’s just part of raising a baby Pokemon. If you could put up with Chetwle trying to use your legs as chew toys back in the day, I can put up with a bit of a jampocalypse.” She cleared her throat, and from the soft squeaking sounds Leon could hear over the phone, he could tell that Nessa was spinning around in her desk chair. 

“ Anyway, Raihan. We’ve never interacted, but I follow his Instagram account, and I’ve watched a few of his battle supercuts on Youtube. He’s good, Leon–really bloody good. I love and miss Yaren, don’t get me wrong, and I’d give my left arm for her to still be here and inflicting her rotten baked goods on us; but as strong as she was, I don’t think she could have held a candle to Raihan.”

Leon nodded, rubbing his hands vigorously through Grookey’s short fur to make sure he’d washed out all the soap. Once he was satisfied, he turned off the tap, plucked the primate Pokemon out of the sink, and set him on the towel laid out on the floor. He stepped back just in time to avoid the spray of water caused by Grookey’s enthusiastic shaking.

“ I think you’re right.” Leon admitted softly, trying to ignore the pang in his heart at the admission. 

Of all the gym leaders who had been proper adults when he, Nessa, and Sonia had gone through the Gym Challenge, Yaren has been his favorite alongside Opal, and she never complained when Leon had called her in the middle of the night a not insignificant amount times after becoming champion, hyperventilating and melting down at the weight of his responsibilities at such a young age. When unable to run to Postwick on his off time to care for Hop in person, Leon would gravitate towards Hammerlocke, and despite her too salty and dry baked goods, he would still accept any dinner invitation offered when he was still too young to cook his own meals. Choking down a few salty biscuits was a small price to pay to sit at a table with a real family and a warm meal. Even after he’d grown up, he stayed close to Yaren, and Leon even got along well with the triplets (who were three years younger than him) despite his very existence as Champion slowly eroding the casual nature of their relationship over time.

Leon could still recall every word of his last conversation with Gym Leader Yaren a handful of days before her death: completely frivolous, but warm and fond, with promises to meet each other on the pitch for the final match of the Champion Cup at next season. Yaren had been declared missing three days before her body was found, and he’d been searching one of the deepest, oldest catacombs of the complex with the triplets when a Macro Cosmos worker had come bursting through the dimly-lit passageway to find them, face pale and voice quivering with terror and tears. Aria, Sebastian, and Camilla had immediately run for the power plant, and Leon had arrived at the cordoned area (led by the very helpful if traumatized power plant employee) to see the triplets curled around each other as tight as they’d been in the womb, screaming and crying as their world crumbled into dust around them.

Rose, Oleana, and a few Macro Cosmos employees had been standing off to the side as the police scoured the room, silently watching and enduring the deluge of the triplets’ grief; and Leon had been briefly struck by how he’d never seen the Chairman or Oleana cry before that moment, despite having known him for almost a decade. He’d pointedly ignored (what was reportedly) the charred, nearly unrecognizable body of Yaren beyond the caution tape and gathered the triplets in his arms, shoving his own grief into the farthest corner of his mind so he could properly take on the big brother role of the comforter and rock. Once they’d processed enough grief to function, Leon had helped Chairman Rose guide them home, and he’d stayed until the rest of their family had arrived before going back to his hotel room. 

It was only when he was curled up in bed in the darkness of the room that Leon had finally allowed the numb fog of his emotions to grow sharp and jagged, and the next thing he remembered was the sun coming through the curtains the next morning and a red-eyed Nessa coaxing him out of bed, holding him as he cried himself raw and hoarse for what felt like a short eternity. Once he had calmed down enough to not be a mess in public, she whisked him back to her house in Hulbury, and Leon spent most of that day and the next silently sitting at her kitchen table, holding a cooling mug of tea in his hands as he watched Nessa skip from phone call to phone call like a stone on steady water, working with Oleana to make the funeral arrangements Rose had forgotten while mired in dueling internal and external investigations.

Over the next few days, Nessa’s house had become the unofficial gathering ground of the gym leaders, and Master Mustard had chartered a plane to take him to the mainland the moment he’d been notified of Yaren’s death (with Honey staying behind on the Isle of Armor to manage the dojo).Things had gotten…easier once his mentor had arrived, and with Mustard and Opal aiding Nessa and the other gym leaders with their newfound logistical hurdles, Leon said goodbye to Nessa and slipped back to Hammerlocke to continue supporting the Renault triplets. Aria was doing her best to hold herself together for her siblings, Camilla was constantly in tears but able to go about her day to day life, and Sebastian had locked himself in his room and was barely able to be coaxed out for dinner. For the first time in their lives, the Renault family lacked a head, and the trio seemed more than willing to let Leon take temporary command.

Slipping into a role he could do with his eyes closed gave Leon the time and energy he needed to process his grief, and he was more than happy to do anything to help ease the hardships of what he considered to be another family. So he made their meals, reminded them to eat and bathe, went shopping with Aria and Camilla to help them pick out funeral outfits, and kept them supplied with copious amounts of hot tea. He’d even done his best to help the sisters sort out Yaren’s final affairs, even though a seventeen-year-old knew next to nothing about how last wills and testaments worked. 

On the eve of the funeral, Sonia had made her way to Hammerlocke to act as Nessa’s plus one, and she’d brought Hop along to be Leon’s plus one since she knew how much better he felt when his Hoppip was around. She was right, of course, and his then six-year-old little brother had even done a bang-up job of keeping Aria and Camilla entertained with exaggerated stories of Wooloo farming and oodles of questions about Pokemon training. When not trying to soothe the Renault sisters' woes, Hop stayed quietly glued to his elder brother’s side, and Leon spent the majority of the day with Hop on his hip as he and Sonia puttered around, tending to various household chores as they discussed the more snarled league issues Nessa had been sharing with the both of them. Having his oldest and dearest friend keeping him company was almost as wonderful as having Hop in physical proximity, and Sonia had even managed to use her Smart Powers™ to bring Sebastian out of his room a few times, leaving Leon to wonder if one could be a human professor as well as a Pokemon professor.

Due to the legal issues surrounding the formal inquest into Yaren’s death, Chairman Rose was unable to attend Yaren’s private service, but he had given a wonderful eulogy two days before at the public wake held on the Hammerlocke Gym pitch. Per the news reports, hundreds to thousands of people had traveled to the service from all corners of the Galar Region, and the drawbridge and pitch were still bedecked with the countless flowers, candles, cards, and blue ribbons they left behind on the day of the private funeral. It was just the triplets, Yaren’s extended family members, Mustard, Peony (who had flown in from Hoenn at the last minute and left immediately after to avoid any possibility of seeing his brother), the other gym leaders, Leon, Sonia, and Hop, standing in a dour, black-bedecked half circle in front of the urn of Yaren’s ashes as the officiant gave the last rites. 

Per Yaren’s wishes, there were neither speeches nor music, and the funeral was punctuated with the scattering of her ashes. Quietly (and with Hop held in Leon’s arms due to the length of the walk), the group followed the triplets as they ascended to the top of the spire, with Sebastian cradling his mother’s urn as if it were a newborn. With a few private, whispered words shared between the triplets and their mother’s remains, the last physical traces of Yaren Renault were scattered from atop the peak of her city, and that was that. The Renault siblings returned home with their extended family members, the gym leaders went back to their hometowns, Mustard and Peony went back to their families, Sonia took Hop back to Postwick, and Leon tried to figure out what to do next.

It took three months for ‘next’ to reveal itself, because once the internal and external investigations had cleared Macro Cosmos of all wrongdoing and the coroner’s inquest declared Yaren’s death to be the result of ‘misadventure’, the chairman had called Leon to Rose Tower to discuss their next steps. As reluctant as both Leon and Rose were to fill Yaren’s position, they knew she would want the Gym Challenge to continue as soon as possible, and Rose would only be able to delay the Gym Challenge for a year before they were penalized by the International Pokemon League. Yaren was one of the powerhouses of the Gym Challenge, and her international notoriety as an expert of all things dragon-type had helped them gain significant footholds in the IPL, so Chairman Rose ran a real risk of lowering their recently-acquired standing if he hired anyone less capable. Therefore, not only would the audition matches begin immediately, but Leon would be the one to test their mettle. In normal circumstances, a potential candidate would face a gauntlet of other gym leaders, but special circumstances called for special measures.

At first, Leon was fine with the arrangement, in spite of the grousing of gym leaders like Piers and Gordie and the angry verbal tirades from Sebastian when first announced. After all, Leon felt a personal responsibility to help choose the best successor possible for Yaren, and having them audition against the Champion of Galar was both a test of character as well as a draw to a region that some would consider less-than-ideal. Yet the months began to drag on and on, and as Leon faced one lackluster candidate after another, he found himself becoming unspeakably frustrated and anxious. The interviews could happen at any time, and while the off-season was normally lighter on Leon’s schedule than the Gym Challenge season, he found himself busier than ever as he was called to Hammerlocke time and time again to vet candidates at the last minute. He’d missed Sonia’s birthday, then Hop’s birthday, and countless planned visits home had to be cancelled or cut short due to a last minute applicant who only had a limited time they could spend in Galar.

It wouldn’t have been so bad, really, if the candidates had been worth fighting. Yet a few legitimate contenders had presented at the beginning, Leon eventually found himself facing down trainer after trainer who had obviously cobbled together a half-assed dragon-type team just for the purpose of challenging him; but Rose had vehemently struck down Leon’s suggestion at replacing him with the standard gym leader gauntlet, saying that he and Leon owed it to Yaren to find the best replacement possible, and only someone who could stand against the Hero of Galar would do. Leon had been irate at his refusal, then hysterical, and then Rose talked him down and made him see sense (like he always did). By the time Leon left his office that day, he was once more proud and beaming at the idea of finding a worthy replacement for Yaren, even though he had immediately gone back to his hotel room, hid under the covers, and cried himself to sleep from loneliness.

It wouldn’t be forever, the chairman had promised, but the months continued to pass and Leon felt more and more like a taut string fraying in the middle. Sebastian was refusing to speak to him more often than not, his nausea worsened whenever another pretender dirtied Yaren’s pitch, and a tenth planned trip home had to be canceled because Rose had extended an invitation to some… social media influencer , and it wasn’t like Hop was going to go anywhere, Rose had insisted. Leon could always reschedule for after the match. But Leon was always rescheduling, and he was always having to cancel in spite of the rescheduling, and he missed Hop so damn much that it was making him physically ill; and he finally reached the point where he’d arranged a clandestine trip home on the eve of his match against said influencer because he refused to miss every single one of Hop’s performances in his first ever school play.

As always, getting to spend time with his little brother made Leon feel like a brand new person (and he’d managed to avoid his mother and grandparents for most of the time, which was another plus); but just like that, the visit that he wasn’t supposed to be taking was over, and Leon drug himself back on the train wanting to…he didn’t know what. At the very least, he was going to go straight to the very last car (which was almost always empty at this time of day; Leon wasn’t intimately familiar with Postwick’s connection for nothing), curl into a ball, and cry the entire way to Motostoke, where he was going to get off, change, and fly on Charizard the rest of the way to Hammerlocke. Finding a private place to cry out months of bottled misery was a familiar routine to Leon; yet sometimes that wasn’t enough, and there was a part of Leon—as he walked through the train of people happier and more connected than he ever could or would be—if he was going to get himself lost before the match. He knew it wasn’t fair to the candidate, or the chairman, or to everyone expecting the match, but sometimes the only way Leon could continue to live with himself was to end up somewhere far away from his intended destination (and then blame his usual poor sense of direction when he eventually found the strength to let Charizard guide him to where he was supposed to be).

Then Leon had entered the last car, and…and…

“ Yaren would like him,” Leon said firmly, wrapping Grookey into a towel burrito before he could escape and get wet fur all over Nessa’s apartment. “ I like him. He’s a fantastic trainer and you can tell he loves his Pokemon and is passionate about his work. He’s also clever; you saw what he did with Turtonator, right?”

Nessa laughed at the memory. “ You should have heard the unflattering way I screeched when that happened, and the rest of the passengers weren’t any quieter. He knows his Flygon like the back of his hand, too; the Feint Attack he did to take out Dragapult wouldn’t have worked without that familiarity, or being quick on his feet in general.”

Leon opened his mouth to tell Nessa that Flygon had actually been Raihan’s starter Pokemon back when she was a Trapinch—then quickly snapped it shut when he remembered that oh, he wasn’t supposed to know that. He knew that Nessa would keep quiet if he told her about what happened on the train, but he….he really didn’t want to. He didn’t want to share that part of Raihan with anybody else.

“ He asked me to be his rival,” is what Leon said instead, figuring that was okay enough to share. He vigorously dried off his thrashing, screaming Pokemon with the skill of one who used to wrangle an excitable toddler after bath time, and—once he was satisfied with Grookey’s level of dryness—released him to hopefully play pleasantly and non-destructively somewhere else in the flat. “ There, all done; now go entertain yourself while I talk to Nessa and Hop! And don’t touch her curtains!”

Grookey was out the doorway and down the hallway to the living area before Leon could finish speaking, and he could hear Nessa’s bell-bright laughter through the phone. He sighed, shook his head, and began to pick up the wet towels from the floor.

“ Your rival, huh?” Nessa’s voice was light and teasing. “ Imagine that: a trainer declaring the great Champion of Galar, the Undefeatable Leon, his rival. Think he’s good enough for the job?”

The words came out before Leon realized what they were.

“ Of course I do. In fact, I think he’s the only one on earth that can be my rival.” His eyes flew wide, and he hurriedly clapped his right hand over his mouth, praying for Nessa to not dig any deeper into that statement than need be.

She did, of course. “ You mean, he’s the only one good enough to come close to you, right?”

Leon gulped and squeezed his eyes shut. At least his friend didn’t sound mad or sad about it—a bit disappointed, maybe, and even somewhat resigned, which made Leon want to cut out his heart with a butter knife.

“ I didn’t mean it like that.” Leon croaked out. Nessa laughed again—sadder but still fond—and began to spin around in her chair again and again.

“ You don’t have to protect my feelings, Leon,” she said somberly. “ Sonia may be too soft for her own good, but I like to think that I’m made of sterner stuff. Maybe the other gym leaders possess delusions of one day taking your title, but I’ve always thought of myself as a realist, and I’ve accepted the fact that I can never reach you.”

That’s not what I want , Leon wanted to say, but words were beyond him at that moment. I don’t want you to give up. I don’t want you to see me as the only reason to get stronger. I don’t want everything about the Regional Pokemon League to hinge on me and only me. I don’t want you to think you’re not good just because you can’t beat me. I’m a freak. I always have been. It’s not your fault.

Sonia’s chipper text tone interrupted his thoughts, and Leon opened his eyes and grabbed his phone from on top of the toilet tank, reading her message.

‘gran and hop are done. theyre gonna call u in 5.’

“ Is that Sonia?” Nessa piped up, and Leon couldn’t help but be selfishly relieved that she sounded back to normal. “ That’s right, you still have to say goodnight to Hop, yeah?”

Leon nodded to no one and walked into the guest room, flicking on the light and closing the door behind him so as to not be interrupted by a screeching monkey who loved to hit walls with his stick.

“ Yeah. I’m impressed he’s managed to stay awake so late; he really is growing up.” A wave of pride and longing made his throat taut and eyes scratchy. He blinked it away and took a deep breath. “ I have to go, but I’ll call you tomorrow; Sonia even suggested we should three-way so she can talk about the match.”

“ That’s a great idea!” Leon couldn’t help but smile at the way Nessa’s voice lit up at the idea of spending time with her long-distance on-again, off-again girlfriend. “ Maybe sometime after dinner. I’ll pin her down and see what works for her.”

“ Sounds good.” He should try to say something, shouldn’t he? “ Listen, about what you said—“

“ Don’t worry about it, Leon.” Nessa cut him off. “ You just keep doing your thing and we’ll sort ourselves out eventually.” She laughed as if the whole thing were some inside joke and not making Leon sick to his stomach. “ Just think of it like this: when it comes to the idea of beating you, most of us gym leaders below the age of thirty are stuck in the five stages of grief; it’s just that I’ve moved onto acceptance while everyone else is stuck in anger or denial. Melony, Kabu, and Opal, on the other hand, just don’t give a damn anymore.”

The five stages of grief. Leon wanted to scream, tear his hair out, and disappear all at the same time. Instead he forced on a smile for the wall and said: “ I’ll take your word for it, Ness. Doesn’t mean I’m gonna start going easy on you in our matches!”

Leon could hear Nessa snap her fingers on the other end of the line. “ Rattatas. There goes my grand strategy.” Then, in a fond voice she saved only for her dearest friends: “ Don’t fret your fuzzy head over it, Lee. You just do you and I’ll do me. Have sweet dreams, luv.”

“ You too, Ness.” 

Leon hung up the line, rubbed his eyes with the heels of his palms, and sighed heavily and pathetically. That was…a whole lot he’d probably spend a few hours trying to unpack before shoving it into the back of his mind with all of the other unpleasant things he couldn’t do anything about. At least Nessa didn’t hate him. That would be good enough for now.

The five stages of grief. The process of mourning. I never wanted this.

As he tried frantically to blink away the wet sheen covering his eyes before it could pool into tears, Leon opened up his text chain with Raihan, reading his latest message:

‘ Dude, I hope that means you’re gonna bring him with you to the cafe. I’ve never seen a Galarian starter before, but given that Duraludon was the only Galarian Pokemon I’d met until today, that’s not saying a lot.’

Just as Leon opened up the window to reply, another text came in:

‘ Don’t want to interrupt you if you’re on the line with your brother, so don’t feel pressured to reply. I just wanted to let you know that I made it to the hotel and am going to head to the battle cafe soon. Again, no rush.’

Leon’s heart swelled with something warm and sweet that he couldn’t quite put a name on, but he liked it all the same, and he wondered if he’d always feel that way when it came to Raihan. It was an especially welcome break from the baggage Nessa had inadvertently dumped on his shoulders just a minute ago.

‘ I feel like he’d destroy the flat where I’m staying if I didn’t bring him with me, and he definitely can’t tolerate another long stint in a Pokeball. I just got done bathing him and about to get on the phone with my brother. Since it’s so late, I don’t expect to be talking long, so I’ll hopefully be there in a half and a quarter or so.’ 

While waiting for either Raihan’s reply or the call from Professor Magnolia, Leon pulled his hairbrush out of his bag and began to attack his hair, trying to tame it into some form of equilibrium before he went out on his first ever date. Raihan hadn’t seemed to mind how poofy it had gotten after his shower, and Leon had especially not minded the way he’d combed it with his fingers in the locker room, but he hoped he could get it to shrink down a little bit.

Raihan’s reply came a minute later. ‘ No worries. I’m gonna drop off the squad at the Pokemon Center and make myself comfortable at the battle cafe. Do you want me to order you anything else to eat besides the sables?’

Leon hummed and thought about the takeaway sitting uneaten in the microwave. It had been one of those days where Leon really hadn’t had the time to eat anything other than a piece of bread with jam crammed into his mouth on the way out the door at Postwick and the two energy drinks he’d downed in the locker room while waiting for the match to begin. He left his hairbrush temporarily lodged in his hair and picked up his phone.

‘ I’m not really hungry right now,’ he said truthfully, ‘but that’s probably because of all the caffeine I drank while waiting for the match to start lol. I guess you can see if they have any sandwiches left and get me one. I’ll pay you back.’

The reply came an eighth of his hair later. “ Can do, and like I told you at the gym, it’s on me tonight. I want to treat you.’

Raihan wants to treat me . Leon wondered if Grookey could hear his loud half-laugh, half-squeal of delight through the door and at the other end of the apartment. He kissed me and called me gorgeous, and he doesn’t mind that we can’t do anything in public, and he wants to treat me. Me !

‘If you insist, lol.’ Leon’s reply was far more low-key than he felt. ‘ Thanks again, mate. I’ll let you know when I head out.’

Raihan responded with a thumb’s up, and Leon picked up the hairbrush again, wrangling his hair with a little more urgency than before. He had just gotten halfway done when the familiar wind chime ringtone began to play, and he quickly seated himself cross-legged on the bed and propped the phone up on a few of Nessa’s ungodly stuffed decorative pillows. Once he was confident the phone would stay up, he hit the ‘accept’ button and resumed brushing his hair while the call connected.

Just when Leon was beginning to wonder if Postwick’s one internet service provider had gone down yet again (and at the worst possible time!), Professor Magnolia’s living room came into view, and Leon grinned at the familiar, sleepy child sitting next to the professor on her blue couch, clad in his favorite Wooloo pajamas while fighting a losing battle to stay awake.

“ Hey, Hoppy,” Leon said, grinning at the way his little brother almost immediately woke up at the sound of his voice. “ Sorry for making you wait.”

“ Lee!” The big, brilliant smile his brother gave him added at least ten years to Leon’s life every time he saw it, and he watched as his brother wiggled from excitement on the couch, kicking his legs against the cushions and patting his hands against the tops of his thighs. Up until a year ago, Hop would always try (and sometimes succeed) to attack the phone whenever he had a video call with Leon, as if pressing his face close to the phone camera would somehow make his big brother’s presence tangible. Now that he was a little older, he was content to simply show his excitement in his face and gestures, even if he still had a habit of snatching the phone and running around the house to show Leon things. “ You called! I thought you’d fall asleep! Aren’t you sleepy?”

“ Not as sleepy as you,” Leon countered, chuckling as Hop let out a massive yawn. “ We can talk more tomorrow when you’re more awake; I just wanted to say goodnight.”

Hop pouted and shook his head. “ I wanna talk now.” He grumbled.

“ Now Hop,” Professor Magnolia spoke up, giving the little boy a fond pat on the head. “ Your brother is probably very tired after such an intense fight and long day, and he needs to go to sleep, too. He had a long trip back to Hammerlocke after visiting you.”

“ Mmm.” Hop rubbed his eyes and blinked blearily at the screen. “ ‘m sorry, Lee. Jus’ miss you a lot.”

“ It’s okay, Hoppip; I miss you too.” Leon smiled adoringly and successfully fought the urge to reach out and touch the screen. It was times like this–when Leon was so full of love and tenderness for his little brother that he wanted nothing more than to fly home that instant–that the Champion of Galar wondered if his leaving home all those years ago had been worth it. He refused to entertain the notion. “ I promise we’ll talk more tomorrow when you’re more awake. Cross my heart and hope to die.”

“ Really?”

“ Really.” Leon drew his right index finger over his chest for emphasis. “ Did you have a good day?”

Hop nodded enthusiastically. “ Mhm! Mum’s busy with the Wooloo shearing an’ Grandpa’s knees are acting up, so Professor Magnolia and Sonia invited me to stay for the weekend!”

“ Did they now?” Leon asked, as if he hadn’t specifically instructed Sonia to make up an excuse to spirit Hop away for a few days; because had come down the stairs of his family home that morning to see his mother sitting motionless at the kitchen table, coffee cold and eyes haunted in a way that made Leon’s skin crawl. It was going to be a rough couple of days at the Mishra household. “ I think that’s a wonderful idea! Did you do anything fun after I left?”

Another nod, albeit a bit more sleepy. “ I helped Sonia feed the Rookidee chicks the special food they’re studyin’, an’ I taught her how to brush out a Whimsicott’s fur without gettin’ the comb stuck all the time.” Hop yawned adorably and patted his cheeks before continuing. “ Then I helped Sonia make spicy coconut curry for dinner, and I helped Professor Magnolia with her plants while we waited for your match to start.”

The old woman chortled and stroked the top of Hop’s hair. “ The joints of my hands were acting up today, and your big and strong little brother carried my watering can for me as I tended to my indoor plants. We then spread some compost around my seedlings in the garden and I taught him how to wrap cardboard tubes around tomato stalks to protect them from cutworms. Then, after your match and his bath, he helped me set up the plant lights. He was very helpful.”

Leon couldn’t help but chuckle at the way Hop preened at the professor’s praise. “ Good job, Hop! I’m very proud of you and how kind you are!”

Hop was practically glowing at his brother’s praise, even as he allowed himself to slump against Magnolia’s side, and Leon could tell his eyelids were starting to droop closed despite his best efforts. 

“ I like him,” Hop murmured, blinking blearily at his brother’s picture on the screen. “ The guy you fought in your match today.”

Leon’s heart soared. “ You did?”

“ Mhm! He looked cool, and his dragons were cool, and the way he fought you was super cool!” Hop tried and failed to sit up a little straighter and resigned himself to dropping his head into Magnolia’s lap. The old woman smiled fondly and began to stroke his hair. “ ‘m glad you won, Lee.”

“ Me too, Hoppip.”

“ Sonia was worried you were gonna lose, but I wasn’t,” Hop declared as proudly as a seven-year-old could when half asleep. “ She was all ‘oh no, Yamper, Leon’s on his last Pokemon! This isn’t good!’, like she completely forgot your last Pokemon was Charizard, and Charizard never loses.”

As if sensing they were talking about her, Leon heard the sound of footfalls coming down the stairs of the home, and Sonia walked into the screen a few seconds later. While the professor’s assistant was quite fashionable during daytime hours, her nighttime look was a different story, and Leon wondered if one of the reasons she never had Nessa over was to keep her from seeing Sonia in her worn blue gingham pajamas and Bunnelby slippers, with her face smeared with one of her favorite cream masks and hair done up in rollers. 

“ Well, if it isn’t Mr. ‘Not Nearly Bodied’,” Sonia teased, shifting Yamper from her hip to hold him at her chest. The little white, yellow, and green pup gave a happy yip when they saw Leon’s face on screen, its stubby little tail wagging a kilometer a minute. “ Blimey, it took you long enough to call, didn’t it?”

“ Hey! It’s not my fault the match was delayed,” Leon retorted, feeling himself start to blush. “ There was a mix-up with the tickets when the Macro Cosmos representative met up with Rai–Mr. Karimi at the airport, and he ended up being put on what was probably the slowest train line in the region. I think he had to sit through at least five Wooloo stops.”

Sonia whistled appreciatively as she walked around the couch and plopped herself down in the free space next to Hop. Yamper immediately flopped over in her lap, whining for belly rubs, and the young woman was quick to indulge him despite rolling her eyes. “ Surprised he didn’t just get on the train back to the airport before he even reached Hammerlocke.”

Leon licked his lips. “ Yeah, me too, but I’m glad he didn’t.”

Sonia snorted, and Leon ignored the way Magnolia was suddenly looking into the camera, as if she’d caught something on his face at the mention of the train fiasco. At least–thank merciful Arceus above–Sonia and his nearly passed out brother hadn’t been nearly as keen as the professor.

Speaking of which…

“ ‘was tellin’ Lee that you thought he would lose,” Hop muttered, giving Leon a sly wink that nearly set him right then and there. The squawk of alarm Sonia emitted in response really didn’t help the pain in abdominal muscles.

“ I did not!” Sonia fussed, looking at the phone camera as if she had been caught with her hand in the cookie jar. “ I mean, of course I wondered aloud a few times, but can you blame me?! No one’s ever gotten you down to just one Pokemon since you first started out!”

“ Traitor.” Hop mumbled.

“ Am not! ”

Magnolia sighed and slipped off her glasses, pinching the bridge of her nose in fond exasperation.

“ Children,” she chided gently, “ I believe we should save delving into the semantics of whether or not Leon was ‘in the process of getting bodied’ for after we’ve all had a good night’s rest. It’s clear that Leon’s exhausted, and little Hop is drooling in my lap.”

“ Am not,” Hop protested, even as he ‘stealthily’ reached up to wipe his mouth. Leon loved him so much that he could explode.

“ I think it’s bedtime, Hop,” Leon insisted in a gentle but firm voice that brokered no argument. Hop groaned pitifully but pushed himself up to a sitting position regardless, rubbing his eyes with his hands.

“ Mmkay,” he relented, dropping his hands from his face to beam tiredly at his big brother. “ Night, Lee. Love you lots.”

“ I love you too, Hop.” Leon blew a kiss at the screen and was met with Hop blowing him at least five with both hands. “ Beyond the moon and stars. Have sweet dreams.”

Hop nodded, already wobbling back and forth where he sat, and Sonia chuckled as she stood up and shifted Yamper so that she was holding him underneath her right arm.

“ Come on, Hopscotch,” she said perkily, sliding her right arm under Hop’s bottom before picking him up and resting him on her right hip. Leon would never get over how deceptively strong his childhood friend could be. “ What do you say we cuddle up in bed together and fall asleep while watching The Great Galarian Bake-Off ? ”

Hop smushed his face against Sonia’s shoulder. “ Kay. Love you, Lee.”

“ Love you too, Hoppy,” Leon said, swallowing down his unreasonable jealousy at Sonia being the one to tuck in his little brother. “ Have a good night, Sonia, and thanks.”

“ My pleasure, Leon. Always.” Sonia winked at the camera before walking off screen with her two precious bits of cargo under each arm. She bent down in transit to kiss the top of Magnolia’s night-capped head as she passed. “ See you in the morning, Gran. Love you!”

“ And I love you as well, Sonia dear. Pleasant dreams.”

Both Leon and Magnolia remained silent as they heard Sonia thunder up the rickety stairs, with the professor craning her head to confirm that she was heading to her bedroom. It was only when they heard the sound of the door slamming behind her that Magnolia turned back to Leon, smiling in a way only grandparents can.

“ Semantics aside,” she said quietly, reaching for her ever-present mug of tea, “that was a spectacular battle, Leon dear. As you fought, I could tell you thought so as well.”

Leon nodded, pulling his hair over his left shoulder for easier access.

“ Raihan was– is –incredible, Professor Magnolia.” He confessed, making sure to thoroughly brush out his ends before making his way up the rest of his hair. “ It’s been a long time since I’ve battled someone as strong and clever as Raihan. It almost felt like we were dancing, if that makes any sense?”

Magnolia nodded sagely as she sipped her tea.

“ It was as if the pitch were built for the two of you alone.” She remarked, dropping the mug from her lips to her lap. “ Well?”

“ Well what?”

“ Don’t play coy with me, Leon. Is he going to take the position?”

Leon swallowed and looked towards the edge of the camera where the stairs were. Seeing his hesitation, Magnolia craned her head around to look at the stairs herself, listening intently.

“ From how quiet the house has become, I assume that Sonia didn’t make it through the first minute of the episode,” Magnolia remarked, turning around to face the camera in full. “ What you say will remain between us and the rafters, Leon.”

Leon relaxed slightly and gnawed at his bottom lip, dragging the hairbrush through his hair with a little more force than necessary.

“ That’s…kind of what I wanted to talk to you about,” Leon confessed, bashfully casting his eyes to the side. “ The gym leader thing. I mean, it wasn’t part of what I originally wanted to talk to you about, but…so many things have happened today, Professor Magnolia.”

“ Like what, Leon?” She pressed gently. Leon sighed and dropped his brush in his lap so he could use both hands to fidget with his hair.

“ I met someone.” Leon said after mulling carefully over his word choice. “ On the train to Motostoke.”

“ Was it Mr. Karimi?” Magnolia barked out a laugh as Leon nearly launched himself off the bed in shock. “ Don’t be so startled, little lionheart; it was merely an educated guess.”

“ But…how?” Leon said dumbly, swallowing thickly. “ And does Sonia–”

“ No, I can assure you that.” Magnolia said firmly. “ I myself merely came to the conclusion when you were discussing the match with Sonia and Hop. After all, the standard train from the airport passes directly through the Postwick-Wedgehurst connection, and I remembered Sonia telling me how your train had been delayed several hours by the time it arrived. It was inevitable that you and he would be on the same train, and given the look on your face…I take it you actually met on said train?”

Leon chewed the inside of his left cheek and twisted his hair between his hands. Magnolia clucked her tongue in disapproval.

“ Such a filthy habit, my dear, and one that will ruin your beautiful hair.”

“ I know. I’m sorry.” Leon immediately dropped his hair and attacked the hem of his sweatshirt instead. “ You won’t tell Sonia any of this?”

Magnolia nodded. “ I swear on my beloved Liatris’s grave. Now, what did you wish to discuss, Leon?”

“ Um. Yeah. Okay.” Leon took a deep, steadying breath and came out with it. “ I’m going on a date after I get off the phone with you. That’s why I’m fussing with my hair.”

Magnolia blinked in surprise, and she slowly set her tea mug down on its coaster atop the coffee table, steepling her fingers together in her lap. “ A…date?”

Leon nodded mutely, studying her reaction for even the slightest trace of disapproval.

“ With Mr. Karimi?”

“ Yeah.” Leon swallowed. “ Raihan. I…um…asked him on the train, actually. I, um, didn’t know who he was until right before the match.” He waited a moment to see if Magnolia wanted to say something, but she remained silent, and he pressed on. “ See, I kept myself as blind as I could about my opponent before the match, so when I met this guy on the train…well, he was the only one in the rear car, and I was pretty torn up about leaving Hop behind after such a short visit.” He laughed anxiously and kneaded his sweatshirt with more vigor. “ I didn’t know who he was, but he seemed really annoyed that I was disrupting his privacy, but I…I couldn’t go anywhere else on the train, because I couldn’t keep myself from crying and I knew that I’d blow my cover if it did it anywhere else.”

Magnolia’s expression softened. “ Oh, Leon…”

“ I’m okay now, though!” Leon said, and he couldn’t keep himself from smiling, because he meant it. He really, truly, genuinely meant it, and he could tell from the relieved smile on Magnolia’s face that she believed him as well. “ But I wasn’t then, so I just. Sat down and started crying, but when I said sorry to the stranger–to, well, Raihan–he got angry, but not really at me? He told me that I had no reason to apologize because I wasn’t doing anything wrong, and that I was lucky to have someone I missed enough to cry.” He watched as Magnolia narrowed her eyes and clarified: “ He left home at the age of nine to start his Pokemon journey and hasn’t seen his family since. They weren’t good parents, so good riddance to the lot of them, honestly.”

Magnolia nodded solemnly. 

“ As is often the case for children who use Pokemon as an excuse to leave home and never return. At nine-years-old, though?” She huffed disapprovingly and sipped her tea. “ He was a year younger than you when you set out, Leon, and you had Sonia and Nessa at your side.” She sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose. “ It remains so incomprehensible to me that we push our children to go so far and do such things when they are so very young.”

Leon frowned and tried really hard not to imagine little Raihan all by himself in the big, wide world with no one but Trapinch for company, because he really did not want to break down crying for the upteenth time that day. He was only a year and a few months older than Hop is now.

“ Well, after he said that, he…came over and sat next to me, and he offered me a hug.” Leon could only pray the warm light of the room hid the rubor creeping up his neck like vines on a trellis. “ And I should have probably said no, but I realized that he…he didn’t know who I was, so he wasn’t offering because I was the Champion of Galar; he was offering because he was kind and wanted to comfort me.” Leon felt tiny tears pricking at the corners of his eyes, and he hurriedly scrubbed them away before they could grow. “ So he just…he just sat there and held me when I cried, and eventually he pulled me onto his lap and kept holding me, and he…he didn’t say a whole lot to me when I was crying. He just let me cry it all out.” He rubbed his eyes again. “ He’s a lot taller than me, you know, and his arms and legs are really long, so I felt like I was being wrapped in a big blanket when he was holding me.”

Leon sniffed, rubbed his nose, and then added bashfully: “ I felt safe in Raihan’s arms. On his lap. With Raihan. Even though I had no clue who he was. Does that make sense, or is that silly?”

“ Oh, dearest,” Magnolia said soothingly, picking up her mug once again. “ That’s not silly at all. I’m relieved that the stranger you encountered on the train was one so kind and gentle.” She took a sip of tea and swirled the contents around the cup. “ Is that when you asked him on a date?”

“ Oh! No!” Leon coughed and went back to picking at his sweatshirt. “ After I calmed down, I thought he was going to kick me off his lap, but he just…let me stay there. We talked for a long time after that. I told him about Hop and how I hated being away from home, and he just kind of…listened and empathized with me. He didn’t try to offer me solutions like Sonia always does. He just…understood. He understood and agreed with me, and that felt really, really good.” So good, in fact, that Leon felt his shyness about the whole thing start to evaporate. “ We then talked about Pokemon–don’t laugh, Professor, please–and we talked about how we met our first Pokemon and just about how great they are in general–it’s not funny!”

Rather than stopping her laughter, Leon’s petulant whining seemed to increase Magnolia’s mirth, and she took a few seconds to clean her glasses and get herself together as Leon pouted on the other side of the screen.

“ Forgive me, Leon,” Magnolia chortled, “ but I cannot help but find the situation tremendously funny–if only because of the irony of it all.” She daintily wiped the tears of mirth off her lashes with her finger before picking up her mug and smiling placatingly at Leon, who at least looked less put-out than prior. “ So, you were talking about your Pokemon, and then…”

“ Oh!” Leon blinked. “ Yeah, so, the train arrived in Motostoke around that time, and Raihan…really acted like he didn’t want me to leave, and I didn’t want to leave, but I had to because I needed to head to Hammerlocke to fight someone who turned out to be him. ” He sighed in defeat and grabbed his hairbrush. “ It is a little funny, I guess.”

“ That’s the spirit, dear,” Magnolia said encouragingly. “ So, what happened next?”

Was it Leon’s imagination, or was the professor enjoying herself? He shook his head like an agitated Shinx and continued.

“ He said he wanted to see me again.” Leon ducked his head in an attempt to hide his face behind his falling hair. “ And I…since he said he was going to be in Hammerlocke tonight—I know, I know, it’s really obvious looking back at it—and I told him to meet me at the battle cafe later tonight if he wanted to see me again. If he didn’t, then there would be no hard feelings.”

“ You didn’t think he would?” Magnolia asked. Leon shrugged.

“ I knew he was gonna find out how I was the moment he stepped off the train,” he said simply, “ and I didn’t want him to feel obligated to go out with me if he got weirded out by my position. He said he would be there, though, so I…I guess I was feeling hopeful, and…”

“ And?”

Leon gulped.

“ I kissed him.” Leon buried his red hot face in his hands at the memory. “ Before I left the train. Please, please, please don’t lecture me about kissing random strangers, because I already know what Sonia and Nessa would say if they knew, and I know I was being silly and childish and…and impulsive, and who just kisses a stranger out of nowhere— “

“ Leon.”

Leon peeked through his hands to look at the professor, and rather than appearing disappointed, she almost seemed intrigued. At the very least, she wasn’t disapproving, and the soft, reassuring smile on her face made Leon drop his hands back into his lap.

“ You’re letting your worries carry you away.” She gently reproached. “ And you’re putting words in my mouth. It’s a filthy habit, my dear—just as filthy as twisting your hair.”

Leon nodded sheepishly. “ I know. I’m sorry.”

“ It’s alright, Leon; just try to work on it in the future.” She took a sip of tea and stared into her cup for a few seconds before looking back at the man she considered her second grandchild. “ You wanted to kiss him, yes?”

He nodded.

“ Raihan was—is—handsome,” Leon confessed, reaching up to pat his cheeks a few times. “ Kind, calm, smart, passionate about his Pokemon, and he…he didn’t do anything because I was the Champion, you know? I really, really liked him, and I wanted to kiss him…so I did.”

“ You don’t have to justify your actions, Leon,” Magnolia said softly. “ However, I can understand why you wanted to kiss him; and in a way, I’m proud of you for seizing what you want.” She chuckled under her breath. “ Obviously, Mr. Karimi didn’t mind, either, given the trajectory of your story.”

Leon licked his lips.

“ I felt bad at first…for kissing him without asking and then just…running off the train. But he actually shouted at me out the window before I could leave the platform, saying he was going to return the favor during our date.”

“ Did it take that long?”

Leon choked on his tongue. “ Professor!”

Professor Magnolia laughed gaily and poured herself more tea from a nearby teapot while she waited for Leon to remember how to talk. She was enjoying this, wasn’t she?

“ Oh, forgive me, Leon; I’m not trying to poke fun at your own expense.” Professor Magnolia added two sugar cubes to her mug of tea and stirred it with one of the little silver tea spoons that Leon had loved to polish for her when he was a child. “ It’s just…nice to see you like this.”

Leon coughed and rubbed his throat. “ Like this?”

“ Enamored. Completely and utterly enamored.” She hummed and took a sip of tea, swishing it around her mouth before swallowing with purpose. “ However, I do have a question…or, perhaps, an observation.”

“ Which is…?”

“ You certainly looked calm for one who’d just discovered that the man they had kissed on a whim was their opponent for an exhibition match.” Magnolia said plainly. “ As someone who has known you for a not insignificant amount of time, I find your composure during your match…impressive, if not a tad bit abnormal.”

Leon smiled sweetly and ran his brush through his hair.

“ That’s because I didn’t find out on the pitch,” he explained, nearly laughing out loud at the blatant, unabashed curiosity on the professor’s face. It was times like these that reminded Leon that Sonia was, in fact, her biological granddaughter. “ Well, I got off the train, changed my clothes at Motostoke, made my way to Hammerlocke through the Wild Area, and arrived with a couple hours to spare. So I was waiting in the challengers’ locker room to avoid all the staff running around, and around thirty minutes before the start of the match, Aria—one of the Renault triplets—ran into the locker room and handed me a note, and she forced me to read it while she was standing there."

Magnolia’s eyebrows crept towards her hairline. “ Was it from Mr. Karimi?”

Leon grinned and nodded.

“ He hadn’t even gotten out of the train station in Hammerlocke before I figured out who I was, and made Aria deliver a note to me so I wouldn’t be…well, as surprised on the field, you know?” He fussed with a particularly stubborn knot as he narrated. “ It was a really sweet note, actually; he swore that he hadn’t known who I was on the train, and that he didn’t deliberately help me because he secretly knew I was the champion or some rubbish like that. He also wrote that he wanted to battle me even more now that he knew who the champion was, and that he wasn’t going to go easy on me just because I was crying on the train, which was a huge relief.”

“ I take it he also kept it quiet from Rose?” Magnolia’s tone was suddenly deathly serious, and Leon nodded with equal solemnity.

“ He did. I’d mentioned on the train that I wasn’t supposed to be on my trip, and he promised me in the note that what happened would stay between us.” The smile returned to Leon’s face. “ He wrote me a postscript that said ‘as long as you’re still down, then I’m down.’” He paused. “ For the date, I mean.”

Magnolia chuckled fondly. “ I understand, Leon.”

“ Ah! Right! Well, at first I was…pretty shocked, but he really kind of addressed all the things I’d have normally been worried about in his note, and…as silly as it sounds, I trust him. I trust him a lot. Especially after reading the note, because he didn’t have to warn me before going onto the pitch, but he went out of his way to reassure me. That…”

With his hair now as de-frizzed as it was going to be (which wasn’t by much, but a slight improvement was still an improvement), Leon took the handle of the hairbrush between his hands and wrung it like he had the sweatshirt.

“ It meant a lot to me.” He said finally. “ Everything he’s done today meant so much to me, and he didn’t do any of it because I was famous. It wasn’t because he wanted to get close to me or advance his own career by pretending to be nice, y’know?”

If it were Sonia, she’d call him silly, give a mini-lecture on how ‘you can’t trust a complete stranger just because they’re nice, and you especially can’t fall in love with them’ while also demanding to know Raihan’s location. Nessa would roll her eyes at her sometimes-girlfriend but agree otherwise, regaling Leon with strangely appropriate stories that she’d observed or overheard during her modeling events. 

‘Playing it safe never hurt me’, Nessa would declare, even though it had hurt her relationship with Sonia more times than Leon could count. ‘You should consider doing it yourself.’

Yet this was Professor Magnolia—his second grandmother, the only stable parental figure outside of Rose that he’d had in his childhood, and a wise woman who seemed to know him better than himself sometimes—and she simply chuckled and shook her head in bemusement. There was also a hint of sadness, and Leon—who had grown up listening to stories of her late wife, Professor Liatris—could guess why.

“ No wonder you seemed so at-ease during your battle.” She remarked, taking a deeper sip of tea and dabbing her lips with a nearby napkin. “ Have you spoken to him since?”

Leon nodded, flushing all the way up to his ears, and the wry smile on Magnolia’s face indicated that it was noticeable.

“ I…um…wanted to talk to him about a few things before I left the gym.” Leon twisted the handle of the brush hard enough for it to emit a crack in protest. “ The contract thing, and um…the trans thing.” He looked up from his lap at Magnolia’s picture and added: “ He said he was taking the job after the cameras went off, and that one of the reasons he was staying is that he wants to be my…” He gulped. “ My rival.”

“ My, my.” Magnolia remarked. “ It seems Mr. Karimi moves almost as fast as you.” She studied what she could see of Leon’s face through his curtain of violet hair. “ Tip your head up, dear; there’s no need to be embarrassed or to hide from me.”

“ Ah, okay.” While he didn’t straighten his neck completely, Professor Magnolia was at least able to clearly see his face, and she nodded in approval. “ It’s not that I…I don’t want him to be my rival. I think he’s the only person on earth that could be my rival.” His eyes widened. “ Um, uh—“

“ I won’t tell Sonia.” Magnolia assured the flustered Champion, although the downward twist of his lips illustrated her frustration with her granddaughter, which began after she returned home from the Champion Cup and had only grown over time. “ However, I will say that she is fully aware that she is no longer your rival, and there is no reason to pretend otherwise. Any discontent she may feel if you take a new one is her burden to bear—not yours.”

Leon nodded mutely, guilt forming fissures in his heart. He tried to block the memory of thirteen-year-old Sonia’s bewildered, tear-stained face from his mind and pushed forward.

“ Even if I want to be his rival—which I do; I really, really do—I was afraid that he…well, that he was accepting the job because of me, and I wasn’t sure if he…if he really knew what he was getting into when it came to me. Like, there’s the contract thing, but also the fact that I’m trans and haven’t had bottom surgery, you know?”

“ Are you even interested in sexual intimacy in the first place?” Magnolia, as always, was gentle but blunt. Leon swallowed around his tongue and ran his fingers over the bristles of his brush.

“ I didn’t think I was.” He confessed. “ Not until today. It sounds…strange, and maybe it’s just that I’ve been thick and oblivious, but something…something changed when I saw Raihan and got to know him. It’s like there was nothing, and then he showed up, and now I’m considering everything.” He shrugged helplessly. “ Silly, right?”

“ Not at all. There many ways people experience romantic and sexual attraction, Leon; and it isn’t unusual for people to not experience any or minimal attraction until they meet a specific person.”

Leon’s eyes widened. “ Really?”

Magnolia chuckled at the look of wonder on Leon’s face—as if she had revealed the secrets of Dynamax rather than educating him on the concepts of demisexuality and demiromanticism. “ Really. However, even if you are experiencing those feelings for Raihan, it is still important to make sure you’re on the same page—especially given your history of dysphoria.”

“ Yeah. I told him about that, too.” A delighted, dopey smile spread across Leon’s lips, and he instinctively brought up his hands to cover his beet-red dimples. “ It went…well. Really, really well. Like, he flat out said that he wasn’t thrilled about my contract restrictions, but he said that was more about him being mad for me than at me, and that he’s okay if we can’t be public right now.” He began to rock back and forth on the bed as he talked. “ He didn’t mind the trans thing at all, and he said that he has no preference for…for what’s between someone’s legs, and that he…um…’didn’t mind if he never got between them at all.’”

Magnolia’s eyes widened. 

“ Well ; that’s certainly an interesting way to describe things, but one that gets the point across.” She pursed her lips together. “ Is he asexual?”

“ No, but he said…um…” Leon dipped his head to hide behind his hair once again. “ That he’s a grown man that can just use his hand if he needs to.”

The startled laugh that burst from Magnolia’s lips bordered on a screech, and both Leon and she froze and grew silent immediately after, clearly waiting with bated breath to see if her exclamation had woken the other two occupants of the house. After a handful of seconds, Magnolia put her face in her hands and began to laugh uproariously, so Leon assumed that it was okay to continue.

“ Is it really that funny?” Leon murmured, feeling somewhat dejected but not knowing why. Maybe he didn’t like the fact that the professor seemed to be laughing at Raihan? Was he already that protective of the dragon tamer?

“ A…” Professor Magnolia gasped for breath, grabbed her handkerchief, and dabbed the tears of mirth from the corners of her eyes. “ A little.” She dissolved into another brief fit of giggles before making a second, more successful attempt at regaining her composure. “ My goodness, he’s certainly an honest sort, isn’t he?”

Leon cocked his head to the side. “ Yeah, he is. Is that a bad thing?”

“ Not in the slightest.” Magnolia said, picking up her mug of tea once again as she shook her head ruefully. “ In fact, such honesty is exactly what you need in a partner, Leon; I wouldn’t approve of anyone who wasn’t completely, embarrassingly honest with you at all appropriate times.”

Hope made Leon’s heart fly into the base of his throat. He hadn’t realized how desperately he had wanted Professor Magnolia’s approval of his new…his new rival until his arms were shaking from it. “ I know. I like it, too, I like it a lot.”

“ You like him a lot,” Professor Magnolia corrected, and she grinned—actually grinned—as Leon ducked his head and mumbled an affirmative. “ That’s quite alright, Leon. In fact—if he truly is as kind and honest as you’ve made him out to be—I may be coming to like him as well.”

“ You are?!” The brush dropped to the floor as Leon began to flap from excitement. “ That makes me so happy! I’m so…I don’t think anyone else I know would be happy for me if I told them. I mean, he’s a stranger, and I’m thick and naive and always trust people too easily; but I just had to tell someone, and I wanted it to be you because I felt like…it just reminded me so much of…”

Magnolia’s grin faded into a sad, nostalgic smile. “ Did it remind you a bit of how I met Liatris, Leon?”

Leon nodded exuberantly. “ Yes!” His flapping slowed to a standstill. “ Is that…is that okay?”

The wrinkles at the corners of Magnolia’s eyes crinkled with fondness. “ Of course it is, dearie. I’m sure Liatris would be as pleased as I if she were here.”

Professor Liatris Elmerrillia had been dead for a year prior to Leon meeting Professor Magnolia at the age of six, but he felt like had gotten to know her well through years of listening to Magnolia’s fond recollections while sitting at her dining room table over a cup of tea. Liatris had specialized in Pokemon Botany, and her research on photosynthetic Pokemon care had revolutionized the field and were still required reading for Pokemon professors studying at university to that day. Her favorite Pokemon had been Lilligant, and while she never completed a formal Pokemon journey, she had gone out and challenged every single grass type gym she could find for the ‘fun of it’ before focusing full-time on her schooling. She greatly preferred coffee over tea (which Professor Magnolia never forgave her for), ate crumpets without butter, and sang tunelessly whenever she tended to her garden. She would hog the covers and would buy Professor Magnolia flowers and gifts ‘just because’, and—per Professor Magnolia’s recollection—they knew they would probably get married within the first few weeks of knowing each other.

‘ We were both first year students in the Pokemon Research umbrella program at Hammerlocke University,’ Magnolia would begin, more than happy to reminisce about her love to an enraptured Leon. ‘ Liatris was from Sinnoh initially, but she wanted to travel the world from a young age, and she had chosen a university program at Galar based on photos from a tourism brochure. We had both been assigned to the same field work project, and our job as freshly-minted undergraduates was to collect soil samples from all over the Wild Area to document both their nutrient density and the presence of any environmental pollutants. The graduate student in charge of our group had sent Liatris and I to take soil samples from a nearby stream, and the first time I truly noticed her was when she was washing her muddy hands in the creek. After they were clean, she kept them in the water, and I could tell she was admiring the way the sunset was reflecting off the surface. She was wearing a dark green, burlap garden dress with a stiff brown cloth apron, and her brown, curly hair was pulled back, allowing me to see all the freckles on her cheeks. Something deep inside me knew that I had to know this woman.’

It seemed that Liatris had wanted the same, because the two ended up talking by the riverbank until twilight, and their first kiss—a quick, shy peck—had been shared on the path back to Hammerlocke. The graduate student had read them the riot act for being late, but neither Magnolia or Liatris had cared, and they’d spent the rest of the evening walking laps around the Lake of Outrage, neglecting their studies in favor of learning about each other. They had gone on their first date—a casual dinner followed by studying in the library—the next night, and within one week, Magnolia was struggling to imagine a future without her.

‘ I am not sure if it was love at first sight,’ Magnolia would say, ‘or if such a thing even exists; but I wanted nothing more than to know her, and I believe that is just as romantic—if not more so —than simple physical infatuation. Someone who wishes to look beyond the pretty exterior to explore all the hidden, musty corners is someone worth keeping for as long as you both wish.”

The pair had spent any spare moments outside of studying, classes, and field work with each other, and they had moved in together by the end of the month. Knowing that their families would disapprove of two people so young moving so quickly, Magnolia and Liatris were soon discussing a future together, and the only reason they waited for three years to get married was out of a desire to avoid criticism. The pair attended Wyndon University for their doctorates, then settled in Magnolia’s ancestral hometown of Wedgehurst. Their shared lab was cluttered with plants and strewed with dynite ore, and while Professor Magnolia’s research into Galar Particles lead to the creation of both Galar’s main power supply and on-command Dynamaxing, Liatris’s research into the symbiosis between plants and primarily photosynthetic plant-type Pokemon revolutionized Galar’s agricultural landscape. They raised a daughter, who became a geologist and married a miner, and their daughter, Sonia, had entered into the care of her grandmothers after their deaths in a mining accident four years after she was born. 

Professor Magnolia had been able to push through the grief of losing a child and stabilize her existence; Professor Liatris had not, and it had not been a surprise when she passed away four years after losing her daughter. She had simply laid down in her garden one lilac-tinted evening and let her broken heart lull her to sleep.

Magnolia wore black for a year and threw herself into her two remaining passions: research; and her beloved Sonia. Every Sunday morning, unless the weather was horrid or her rheumatism was acting up, Magnolia would take a morning stroll to the nearby glade in the woods where her wife, child, and son-in-law were buried, and she would spend an hour or two tending to the flowers and chatting with them about her thoughts and worries. Sonia wasn’t nearly as sentimental, but she would always visit their graves with Magnolia on their birth and death days, and Leon knew his childhood friend had spent a great deal of time in the glade following her return home from the Gym Challenge. Liatris’s favorite pin–gold filigree spun in the shape of a Galarica Cuff–had been Sonia’s good luck charm on her journey, and the last time he had seen it had been on the pitch in the semifinals, freshly polished and sparkling like stardust in the flashes of the cameras.

Leon wondered if Sonia still wore it on her person somewhere, or if she had retired it like her cap and travel bag, leaving it to gather dust in some forlorn corner of her room. He was too afraid to ask.

“ I always wanted to have a love story just like yours,” Leon blurted out, feeling embarrassed despite having told Professor Magnolia this multiple times since he’d first heard the tale of how she met her departed wife. “ Sonia and Nessa have always been into that romantic comedy and drama stuff, but I just get stressed out when I watch it, because falling in love always seems subtle or convoluted and there’s never any in-between. I can’t do that kind of falling in love. I always wanted to see someone and just know that I wanted to…to fall in love with them, you know? Like, maybe we’re not in love, but I want to be, and I hope we’ll be. Does that make sense?”

Magnolia nodded. “ You’ve always struggled with social nuances, Leon; it’s simply the way your brain works, and there is no shame in that.” She ran her right index finger along the rim of her mug as she held the handle with her left hand. “ If we’re being completely candid, I never thought you were truly asexual or aromantic, dearie. Rather, I thought you were quite like me in that you’d have to be smacked in the face with someone so compatible, so magnetic that you cannot possibly ignore them. Liatris was that person for me, and she remains to this day the only woman I have ever wanted to love.”

Leon whined under his breath and tucked his legs to his chest, wrapping his arms around his knees.

“ Is it bad that I want that right now?” He whispered, propping his chin on the tops of his knees to stare pitifully at the woman who was more his grandmother than his actual grandparents. “ I look at Raihan, and I think about how he makes me feel, and I…I want to fall in love with him. I want him to fall in love with me. Maybe that’ll change if he turns out to be, like, a serial killer or really selfish or something, but…but I don’t think he will be.” He hugged himself tighter. “ I know that you’ll tell me it’s fine, ‘cause that’s exactly what happened with you and Professor Liatris, but…I’m different from you.”

“ How so?”

“ I’m naive and oblivious.” The words were flat, heavy, and were almost formed without conscious thought. “ My head is always in the clouds. I’m too enthusiastic and too trusting.”

“ That doesn’t mean that trusting Mr. Karimi and having strong feelings for him quickly are mistakes, Leon.”

“ Sonia and Nessa would say otherwise.” Leon was too tired to keep the bitterness out of his voice. “ They’d say I’m rushing into things and that I’m mistaking catching feelings for being horny, or something.”

Magnolia’s face fell into an expression of flat, fatigued disapproval, which was becoming more and more of a common occurance whenever they discussed Sonia. Leon hated that look on her face. He knew he shouldn’t talk about Sonia behind her back like this, but who else could he talk to about his doubts, fears, and the things you should be able to discuss with your parents? Opal was busy, and his own mum...

No. Absolutely not.

“ Sonia and Nessa have been dancing the jitterbug between ‘besties’ and girlfriends since they were thirteen.” Magnolia’s tone was just as unimpressed as her expression. “ I don’t think they even know what their relationship status is from week to week. No one has the right to criticize your feelings in the first place, but if any two people have less of a leg to stand on than most, it’s Sonia and Nessa.

Leon giggled in spite of himself, and even Magnolia laughed, as dry and smooth as her favorite blend of earl gray tea.

“ Bring him to meet me when you have the chance.” She declared with a raise of her mug. “ Only then will I be able to grant him my full seal of grandmotherly approval.”

“ ‘Kay.” Leon grinned and uncurled his legs so that they were dangling over the edge of the bed.

“ And he should meet Hop, too. In fact, I believe that Mr. Karimi should meet Hop before he steps through the doorway to the lab, since no long-term relationship with you will be worth the time and effort unless he is accepting of Hop.”

“ Mhm.” Leon nodded and hesitated, anxiety falling over his face like a stage curtain. “ That means he has to meet Mum, though, and I…”

“ He’ll have to know your situation eventually, Leon,” Magnolia insisted as he trailed off, “and it’s better for you if it’s early into your relationship rather than later. Especially if Hop meets him and becomes fond of him, because then a dissolution would break his heart along with yours.”

Leon sighed in defeat. “ Yeah. Yeah. You’re right. Okay. I’ll see what happens.”

“ Good.” Professor Magnolia gave an approving nod with her sip of tea. “ It’s getting quite late, you know; I should probably head to bed shortly, and you should get ready for your date with Mr. Karimi.”

Leon glanced at the digital clock on top of his phone and blanched when he realized it was eleven forty-five at night. “ Gosh, yeah, you’re right! I don’t want to keep him up too late; he’s supposed to have breakfast with Oleana and Chairman Rose tomorrow.”

“ Will you be joining them?”

“ Dunno.” Leon yawned and stretched his arms over his head. “ I’ll have to see if anyone calls me in the morning. They may want to handle the business aspects without me hovering over their shoulders.”

“ Mr. Karimi has a contract lawyer, yes?”

“ It’s the first thing he mentioned after he said he took the job.”

“ Excellent.” The look of relief on Magnolia’s face was to be expected; after all, she had one time told Leon that while there were a multitude of reasons she would never like his mother, the nail in the coffin was when she rushed him into a twelve-year contract with Macro Cosmos without asking Professor Magnolia for assistance or advice (after Magnolia had specifically offered her help with procuring a lawyer the day after Leon became champion). “ He has no issue with your romantic…stipulations, you said?”

Leon nodded enthusiastically, unable to keep the dopey smile off his face at the memory of sitting next to Raihan on the bench, and then in his lap. “ He said he’s going to save up couples pictures to post when I’m twenty-three, but that he’d rather have me with stipulations than not have me at all; it’s the same thing he said when he talked about…well…”

Magnolia obviously saw Leon’s fever-red cheeks and decided to save him from his train of thought. 

“ I understand completely.” There was a hint of laughter in her voice, but it was immeasurably fond and as gentle as her hand on his cheek. Leon relaxed immediately and went back to his happy humming. “ You know, it’s quite ironic, because I was going to bring up Mr. Karimi even if you had not.”

“ Eh?” Leon blinked. “ Why?”

“ Oh, well…” It was Magnolia’s turn to look a little flustered, and she set her tea mug on the coffee table before moving her hands to her lap, idly smoothing out the creases and wrinkles in her night dress. “ The stream broadcast on Macro Cosmos’s page was primarily focused on you, of course, but it gave more screen time to Mr. Karimi as the match progressed. Near the end, before it ended, the drones captured you jogging across the pitch to speak to Mr. Karimi.”

Leon frowned in confusion. “ Yeah, I did. I don’t know why that would’ve stood out to you, though.”

Maybe she was interested by the way Leon had gone over to Raihan’s side of the pitch rather than waiting for him at the midline as was ‘proper league etiquette’. Yet there was no way Leon could have simply stood there and waited for Raihan to amble over with his long, long legs. He had been too worried that he’d ruined everything by winning; that Raihan would come in for the handshake and be as stoic and cold as Bea following their exhibition matches; or flippant as Gordie; or as blatantly bitter and resentful as Piers. Leon didn’t want to wait the extra few minutes to find out—especially as the seconds ticked by and Raihan remained rooted to his end of the field—and he couldn’t stop himself from running over to him to just get it over with: the disappointment; the anger; the frustration; the look in his eyes that would remind Leon, for the millionth time, that he was a freak of nature—

—yet Raihan had simply been standing there, looking up at the ceiling of the stadium with the dreamiest look Leon had ever seen (which was saying something, since Sonia could get pretty wrapped up in her own daydreams and fantasies). His shoulders were relaxed, his hands were tucked in the pockets of his hoodie, and the toe of his right trainer was dragging itself idly on the grass of the pitch. When Leon approached and said his name, Raihan had looked down at him, and—

“ It was the way he looked at you.” Leon was startled by the waver in Magnolia’s voice, and when he focused his attention back on the screen of his phone, he was startled to see her dabbing at the corners of her eyes with her handkerchief.

“ Professor, are you…crying?” Alarm bells began to ring in Leon’s head as he tried to figure out just what exactly he’d done and said to make her sad when she hadn’t shown any trace of sadness a moment ago.

Before he could get too caught up in a miasma of anxiety, however, Magnolia dropped her handkerchief down to her lap and smiled blissfully at Leon, who was…well, even more confused, but feeling much better overall now that he knew she wasn’t super upset.

“ Don’t mind me, dearie; these are simply tears one cries when they miss someone with all their heart.”

Leon swallowed down the knot of guilt from his throat. “ I’m so sorry. If I’d known you were feeling glum, I wouldn’t have brought up Professor Liatris—“

Magnolia held up her hand to stop him.

“ You were not the one who first reminded me of Liatris tonight,” she confessed, and laughed at Leon’s trademark ‘extraordinarily confused Bunnelby’ expression. “ It was actually Mr. Karimi who brought me back to the riverbank all those decades ago.”

“ Raihan?”

She nodded.

“ As I said, I would have brought Mr. Karimi up had you not, because the way he looked at you in those seconds before the feed stopped was the same way Liatris looked at me the day we met. I was going to warn you that Raihan Karimi was falling in love.”

The streets of Hammerlocke had been mercifully empty when Leon finally left the apartment twenty minutes later. It hadn’t taken him long to finish getting ready after he hung up with Professor Magnolia, mainly because he had nothing casual to wear outside of the sweatshirt and jeans he’d left Postwick in, and his greatest point of consternation had been whether or not to wear his hair down or to pull it up. He eventually settled on a high ponytail—wanting to give Raihan something different yet not too out of personal comfort zone—and he’d snatched up the gift he’d been saving for the new gym leader of Hammerlocke before plopping Grookey on his shoulder, activating his phone’s GPS system, and dashed out the front door, barely remembering to lock it behind him.

While Hammerlocke had a great deal of historical value, its night life was far from bustling, and the only people left on the street were officers patrolling the streets and teenagers and young adults streaming in and out of the city’s few nightclubs. With his hood pulled up and the stars hidden by a thin layer of cloud cover, Leon managed to make his way to the other side of Hammerlocke without being recognized or having to hurriedly change routes, and he managed to pay attention to the directions given by the GPS long enough to make it to the street the battle cafe was on before his attention inevitably drifted elsewhere.

Walking up to the location of his first ever ‘date’, Leon paused long enough to peer through the window, his heart leaping into his throat when he saw that the only other occupant aside from the owner was Raihan. The object of Leon’s new affection was sitting at one of the more ‘private’ tables in the corner of the establishment, clad in the same orange and blue ensemble he’d been wearing in the locker room, and he was idly sipping on some sort of iced coffee as he watched something on his phone. Glancing at the table, Leon saw a waiting plate of Shalour Sables next to what appeared to be a slice of some sort of chocolate cake, and he couldn’t stop himself from giggling like a teenager who’d just been invited to prom.

He came . Leon wanted to flap and rock through the giddiness popping in his stomach and chest like soda bubbles, but he didn’t want to draw any unnecessary attention to himself, so he settled for patting his cheeks and bouncing on the balls of his feet long enough to be able to think properly again. Raihan actually came—just like he said he would!

It wasn’t that Leon was afraid he would have gotten tired and left or not shown up at all, but…well, maybe he had been. Just a little.

Even though the owner had been drying off and putting away cups and glasses when Leon first appeared, he was quick to notice his arrival, and he gave a little smile and wave of welcome before commanding his Chikorita to open the door. The Pokemon brayed in agreement, and as she clomped towards the door, Leon saw Raihan look up from his phone at the noise. He watched Chikorita paw at the door for a second before looking out the front window, and goodness , the way he smiled at Leon made his insides feel like they were melting into his trainers. The champion smiled back, swallowed the flutters creeping up from his stomach, and waited for Chikorita to finish turning the lock with an awkward headbutt before walking to the door.

‘ I was going to warn you that Raihan Karimi was falling in love.’

Leon grabbed the handle, closed his eyes, and took a deep breath. Grookey hopped up and down on his shoulder before poking his cheek with his branch, making the trainer smile and bat it away with his free hand.

Contrary to popular belief, the decisions that Leon made impulsively dealt with mostly short-term consequences, and it was rare for him to act without analyzing and over-analyzing all of the pros and cons of a decision. When he’d asked Chairman Rose—who had been visiting his school that day to discuss Galarian energy production—for an endorsement, he had stayed up the night before chewing over whether or not to do so as much as a ten-year-old could. It wasn’t that he was waffling on doing the challenge itself; Leon had known he wanted to take on the Gym Challenge from his very first battle with Sonia on her grandmother’s front lawn. Yet he’d been warned by Professor Magnolia (as she politely rejected his request to sponsor him along with Sonia) that most children waited until the age of twelve before seeking out sponsors; and Leon was reluctant to leave his months’ old baby brother in the hands of their increasingly reticent mother and frail grandparents.

His final decision had been driven by money more than anything: the Wooloo wool market had been struggling at the time, and his father leaving them a year before had taken away their only other source of steady income. Becoming the Champion of Galar meant million dollar contracts and endless sponsorship deals—at least, that’s what the talk shows said—and Leon knew that being the youngest Champion in the history of the International Pokemon League would draw even more attention. Money meant replacing their failing heating and cooling system, refurbishing the barn, buying Wooloo with thicker and stronger wool, and hiring carers for his grandparents to allow his mother to focus more of her already dwindling attention and energy on Hop.

It was his hope for Hop, in the end, that drove Leon to stride up to Chairman Rose after class and politely demand a sponsorship for that year’s Gym Challenge; because as dearly as he would miss his baby brother while traveling across Galar, he knew Sonia would be with him the whole way, and making sure Hop could grow up happy, healthy, and properly cared for was worth every second of homesickness. For reasons Rose had never fully disclosed (other than ‘seeing Galar in his eyes’), the Chairman had agreed, and there had been no looking back.

This, however? Kissing a stranger on a train; asking him on a date; risking his contract for a man with sea blue eyes and a toothy smile? Leon wasn’t sure if it was impulsive so much as he’d been moving on some sort of autopilot, unable to do anything but to push himself towards a man who pulled him closer instead of pushing him away. It had been dizzying, exhilarating—almost like he was free-falling from Charizard during one of his ‘skydiving sessions’—but now that he had a chance to walk away and call the whole thing off, Leon found himself pausing at the door and re-evaluating the past twelve or so hours.

Raihan was a kind man. If Leon were to enter the battle cafe and tell Raihan that he’d made a mistake—or if he were to even turn around and go home before sending a text of polite rejection—he would accept it without getting mad. They could still be friends. Maybe they could even remain rivals (which was pretty bloody exciting in and of itself). 

Leon didn’t want that, however. For the first time in what may have been years, Leon found himself wanting something beyond whatever made Galar or his loved ones happy, and what he wanted was slouched shoulders, bony hips, and arms that already felt like home.

I hope Professor Magnolia is right about Raihan, Leon thought to himself, humming as he opened his eyes. Because I think I’m falling in love with him, too.

With one last breath and a pat to Grookey’s head, Leon pushed open the door and entered the cafe, allowing it to swing shut behind him.