Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Leon wakes up to Rotom poking his nose insistently, and he bats it away with a grunt. He grumbles at it when it doesn’t let up and start poking his forehead instead.

It takes him a while to wake up enough to understand why it isn’t just waking him up by flying around his head and loudly going “Wheeeeeee!” like usual, but then he turns his head and sees Gloria’s brown hair spread out on her pillow.

They’ve moved apart sometime during the night, and she’s facing away from him. He tells Rotom to give him another five minutes and shuffles over to Gloria’s side of the bed again. She sighs gently when he puts his arm around her and snuggles closer. He buries his nose in her hair, and the scent of her and the heat from her body nearly makes him fall back asleep.

Unfortunately, Rotom does as it’s been told and starts poking his cheek exactly 5 minutes later.

Rude.

He kisses her bare shoulder gently and slowly leaves the bed to prepare for the day, dragging his feet across the plush carpet. He pats himself mentally on his back for having the idea to install floor heating in the bathroom when his feet aren’t immediately assaulted by the piercing feeling of cold tiles like they usually are in his childhood home.

The bathroom lights are way too sharp. He has that same thought every morning. Every morning, he thinks about buying new lightbulbs that aren’t as powerful, and every day he forgets.

He takes off his boxer-briefs and kicks them in the approximate direction of the hamper before going in for a quick shower, hissing when he realises that Gloria was the last one to use it the night before and it’s still at the same temperature setting. He wouldn’t be surprised if the skin of his shoulder got second degree burns.

Okay, maybe that’s a bit dramatic, but he feels entitled to a bit of drama at five thirty in the morning.

He put his hair up before he went in, not wanting to get it wet. He has a photo shoot as the first thing anyways, and there’s definitely going to be a hairstylist who will want to do stuff to his hair. Plus, while he does love it long, drying it is a pain.

After his shower, he feels a bit more alive. He wraps the towel around his hips and crossing the bedroom on the way to the closet, he smiles when he sees that Gloria hasn’t moved at all since he left the bed.

The smile stays when he sees the section of the closet that he cleared out for her. It’s not full or anything; not yet, but given the amount of clothes they bought yesterday, he decides to move a few more of his own items to make more room for her just in case she’d want to hang up some more.

Breakfast is a cereal bar he grabbed from the same shelf he stores Pokémon food in the pantry. He eats it while writing a note for Gloria.

He stumbles a bit at the ending of the note. He wanted to write “Love Leon.”

He doesn’t know why he suddenly hesitates. It’s just a stupid greeting. He'd write the same to his mum! It’s just different because this is an entirely different realm of caring for someone and he knows that the first time he tells her cannot be in a hastily scribbled note.

With a little smudging and a carefully drawn line through the circle, ‘o’ becomes ‘e,’ and he ends the note with a simple – Leon.

He leaves the keys he’d had made for Gloria on the counter with the note. He can’t help but run a finger over the cheek of the little Charmander keychain he got for her. It’s cute.

The cape is heavy when he picks it up from the chair he'd dumped it on, and he sighs when it settles across his shoulders.

It’s going to be a long day.

He arrives on set on the other side of Wyndon at seven, and as predicted, two stylists are ready for him. The hairdresser’s name is Sharon. She’s one of the permanent stylists with the League. She’s nice, and doesn’t pull his hair, which is always a bonus. A lot of them underestimate how thick it is and will rip their brush through the tangles. It brought him to tears as a kid, but he’s become somewhat desensitised to it over the years.

Sharon is nice though. She’s nearing retirement, but her granddaughter wants to follow in her footsteps and shadows her grandmother when she isn’t in school.

He nearly falls asleep in the chair as Sharon works on trimming his hair, snipping away with her scissors even though he hasn’t had time to get any split ends since the last time someone did it.

Make-up is ugh. He hates it. He hates the way it feels on his skin, and he hates the way it smells. He wants to wash his face before the make-up artist even finishes with the foundation.

After that, he’s shuffled further along into the studio, which in his opinion is way too white. He’s placed on a white box, and a stylist fusses around him with a lint roller, grumbling about the velvet of his cape which has a tendency to pick up any and all dust particles.

The photographer is a Kalosian woman he’s worked with previously, and while she isn’t the worst, she also isn’t his favourite.

“Come on, Champion Leon, give us that winning smile!” she encourages, and Leon does as he’s told, pasting on a bright smile. The woman’s Ampharos works in perfect tandem with its trainer, creating the flash the photographer needs.

“Shit!” he swears, when a sudden, much brighter flash completely blinds him. His eyes hurt all the way into his brain, and he pinches them shut on reflex. He can hear several people running towards him with various exclamations of worry, and he can hear the poor Ampharos crying and setting off even more flashes while the photographer tries to comfort it until she eventually recalls it.

“Champion Leon, are you okay?” the stylist from before asks.

“Just Leon,” he corrects automatically, “I uh – I’m okay, I just –“ he cuts himself off and blinks a few times. “I can’t see,” he realises.

He hears the photographer snorting. “Pardon,” she apologises. “I have tried this many times. You’ll be fine,” she dismisses, and he can hear the camera going off again.

Leon sighs. He wasn’t expecting to be able to leave the set anytime soon anyways, so he might as well just remain seated and wait it out. Given that she’s raised an Ampharos, he’ll take the photographers word for it. He just hopes the Ampharos will be fine as it sounded rather distressed.

“So, we’re continuing?” he asks. He doesn’t really get a response, but he can hear the photographer still snapping away. It’s fine. He’d honestly like to get it over with. The last thing he needs is to add a re-do to his schedule. Besides, if they reschedule, it gives them time to get new ideas like adding a model to the shoot.

He should probably talk to Gloria about models, actually. He rarely gets a choice when it comes to things like this, and sometimes they like to pair him with a female model. It’s okay when it’s someone like Nessa because they’re friends and they can piss about. He knows she knows that it doesn’t mean anything when he looks at her the way he’s instructed to, and vice versa.

But sometimes they’ll bring someone in whose touch makes his skin crawl. Sometimes they’ll spread rumours about sexual encounters that never happened and sometimes they’ll... well, they’ll try to make those sexual encounters happen.

It’s not even just models, really. Just before the start of the season, he had a shoot with the Minor League Gym Leaders and Klara, the new Poison-type Gym Leader threw herself at him and would not take “no” for an answer. He had pawned her off on Eddie, the Steel-type Gym Leader who had taken over for Peony way back in the day. He’s a great no-nonsense kind of man, but his leadership skills mainly consist of demands for robot-like discipline from his trainers which isn’t the greatest for morale. He’s great with Pokémon though.

Klara had not been amused by having to stand next to old Eddie, however, and had pretended to fall into Leon’s lap during the shoot. He had only just touched her enough to make sure she didn’t fall flat on her arse, but somehow, she had gotten hold of the pictures taken during the incident and posted them on Instapic.

HR handled it before it got too out of hand. Leon hadn’t wanted to report it, not wanting to rock the boat too much. Klara is a new Gym Leader after all. Melony, Gordie’s mum wasn’t having it though, citing that she’d seen way too much over the course of her career to accept any double standards and pointing out that if the roles were reversed, the man would be in cuffs. She was heavily backed up by the rest of the Minor League Leaders who had all been there too.

He has to admit now, looking back on it, that had it been Gloria who was forcefully pulled into the lap of a male gym leader, his feelings on the matter would probably be different.

They did end up handling it internally on Rose’s insistence. Melony wanted to go public but had changed her mind after talking with the Chairman. He still wonders what he told her as the Ice-type Gym Leader rarely changes her mind.

He needs Gloria to know about this kind of stuff before it happens, and new rumours start circulating so she hopefully won’t doubt his loyalty. He probably also needs to warn her that people might try the same with her, as much as he hates the thought of that.

It sucks badly, but he knows it comes with the territory. Chairman Rose told him about that part of the job early on. He assured him that they have a very thorough screening process and that he’s protecting him from the worst of it though. He also really doesn’t want to whine, or be too demanding, so he puts up with it for the most part. Chairman Rose always hates when he upsets the sponsors.

He hopes that he’ll get to stick around when he’s done being Champion so that maybe he’ll get to deflect some of all that unwanted attention for the next one. Rai is used to it in his own way, but he gets more autonomy as a Gym Leader than Leon gets as a Champion. He doesn’t get that Leon can’t just tell people to “fuck the fuck off.”

The photographer shouts orders at him, on how to pose and where to look, but he can’t actually see where the hell she wants him to look to her increasing frustration and with every barked order, her Kalosian accent thickens.

“To your left! Non! Your other left! ‘ave you no sense of direction?!”

That one makes him laugh for real, and she snaps away again like crazy.

The dots in front of his eyes are finally starting to dissipate and when he can finally see properly, he sees Rose himself chatting with one of the newer League employees he doesn’t know the name of.

Oleana must have been right; he really isn’t eating or sleeping well. Others might not notice easily, but Leon has known the Chairman for many years now, and he likes to think of himself as a bit more than an employee, maybe even a friend. To him, the increasingly dark circles around his eyes, and the way his suit is a little bit looser than its normally perfect tailored fit, speak volumes about the stress the man is under; self-inflicted or not.

He raises his hand in greeting and ignores the aggravated huff from the photographer.

Rose gives him a small smile and approaches them, making the photographer do a double take.

“Chairman Rose!” Leon greets cheerfully. After all, it’s nice to see the man out of the Hammerlocke Castle basement for once. “What brings you here?”

“Why, I came to see you, of course,” he replies smoothly. “Might you be done soon? I’d like to have a talk with our Champion,” he adds to the photographer, who nods seriously.

“I believe I have all I need. I apologise again, Monsieur Champion,” she hurries to say, and starts packing away her equipment.

Rose gives Leon a questioning look, to which Leon shrugs.

“The photographer’s Ampharos got a little excited is all,” he explains.

Rose nods distractedly. “I have some things I need to follow up on. I need you to meet me at the Stables at two this afternoon.”

Leon nods, taking the order for what it is. He’s already mentally moving around meetings and thinking about what to tell Ned so he can meet Rose, who will likely want to check out his team. He’s glad that he remembered to take everyone with him.

Rose doesn’t say anything else. He just turns on his heel and walks away.

The Stables smell like an odd mix of dried grass, berries, and silver polish, and after a packed day with meet and greets with sponsors, a press conference along with the pounding headache he had since the photoshoot fiasco in the morning, the prospect of spending time with his Pokémon is so welcome.

Some of the Pokémon he has on his team, he can’t have at home with him. He tried having Haxorus at the house, but unfortunately it wasn’t the right environment for her. He learned that the hard way when she cut a large chunk off his kitchen counter, trying to sharpen her tusks. Same thing for some of the other Pokémon he doesn’t currently have on his team really, so he sent them to “the Ranch” just outside Wyndon where they can have all their needs met.

The Stables connected to Wyndon Stadium is their smaller department, out of the area that would normally be used for the Gym Mission in the Stadium layout. Since Wyndon doesn’t have a Gym Mission, they had the opportunity to turn it into a miniature habitat that Leon especially uses around this time of year to refamiliarize himself with the Pokémon on his team that he isn’t usually taking home with him.

He hears Haxorus shrieking in delight, and he can see her preening when Philip, one of the caretakers runs a whetstone over one of her tusks as he turns the corner. She lets out another screech when she sees him and Philip just manages to duck in time to avoid decapitation when she makes a sudden move and takes off in a charge towards Leon who also ducks before she tackles him, knocking him over entirely.

He laughs with absolute joy. It’s always good to see his Pokémon. Hopefully, he can get some downtime after the Cup so they can all go for a camping trip in the Wild Area.

Maybe Gloria could join them. He just hopes that their Pokémon can get along. It gives him an idea that he mentally files away for later.

“It’s good to see you too, Princess,” he coos at her when he manages to get up. She lets out another ear-splitting shriek when he gives her neck a good rub.

He can hear the hum of Aegislash, accompanied by a trickle of cold down his back that usually means that his Pokémon is right behind him. He turns around and puts a hand on the metal, admiring how perfectly polished and shiny his friend is, no doubt due to the other caretaker, Jolene, who must be hanging around somewhere.

He’s careful not to let his hand linger too long. It’s in Aegislash’s nature to drain the life force from people and other Pokémon which is the primary reason Aegislash doesn’t come home with him.

He’s happy that the ‘undomesticated’ members of his team can be well taken care of elsewhere. The Daycare on Route 5 and the one in Bridge Field are okay, but they’re both overcrowded and understaffed, and not able to provide the specialised care he wants for his Pokémons. The Ranch has specialists for all types of Pokémon and Philip and Jolene specialise in Dragon-types and Ghost-types, respectively. The passion and love they bring to their work is clear in the way his Pokémon are thriving.

“Leon!” Philip greets as he catches up with them. “It’s good to see you man! I take it you’ve been busy?”

It’s not a dig, even though it sends a pang of bad conscience through Leon. Philip knows that Leon would spend all his time with all his Pokémon if he could.

“Yeah,” he grumbles. “I’ve been meaning to visit more, but things have been really hectic.”

Philip nods in understanding “Yeah, no worries. Your Pokémon are doing great either way. Speaking of,” he adds with a bright grin, “I have that package for you!”

Leon’s stomach lurches with excitement, but before he can say anything else, the door slams open.

“Leon!”

Leon turns around to see Chairman Rose himself striding in, Oleana not far behind, stepping carefully not to get hay or worse caught on her platform stilettos.

“Chairman Rose!” Philip says, his tone tinged with surprise, which is understandable since it isn’t often that the Chairman hangs around these parts. He much prefers polished floors and… creepy basements, apparently, Leon thinks bitterly.

“Yes. May we have some privacy, perhaps?” Rose requests, but it’s clear that he’s not actually asking.

Phillip gives Leon a quick look and a nod and goes without complaint, taking an empty bucket with him, presumably to fill it with lunch for Haxorus.

“I wanted to talk to you about your team,” Rose starts once they hear the heavy door to the Stables slams shut.

Haxorus lets out a proud screech, making Rose grimace.

“Of course, Chairman,” Leon agrees easily, pulling out several more Pokéballs. It’s not often, but sometimes Rose likes to inspect his team. It’s not a problem, really, and he gladly lets them out. Dragapult is quick to zip over to join Aegislash, and the two strike up a conversation that sounds like a mix of happy trills and whatever the vibrating metal sound that Aegislash is making is called.

Charizard roars and preens a bit when he spots Haxorus who screeches in response. The last time they visited the Ranch was the day after returning from Circhester, and it looks like they’ll need to go soon again, regardless of the result of the previous visit. The two of them have been friends since they were Axew and Charmeleon respectively, but since they both reached their final evolutions, something started to shift between them. It’s sweet.

Once he gets the gang to settle down and stand (or float) in something resembling a lineup, Rose gives each one of them a look. Mr Rime studies Rose back warily, which is understandable as this is the first time he meets the Chairman. Inteleon eyes Rose with the cool indifference that he’s adopted since his final evolution.

“There’s been some developments,” Rose finally voices. “Through research, we’ve been able to further determine Eternatus’ typing, which is both Dragon and Poison, which is why I wanted to discuss your team.”

Leon frowns. Rose has often wanted to see his team configurations, but he has never wanted to discuss it or even offering his own opinion, always trusting Leon to know what he’s doing.

“Mr Rime will do well, of course,” he continues lingering in front of the Pokémon who moves back almost imperceptibly. “The two dragon types will be adequate as well. The Aegislash and Inteleon will need to be replaced and the Charizard will have to go as well, of course.”

“What?”

That what will what?

“I’m sorry, Chairman, are you suggesting I leave Charizard off my team?” he asks for clarification because Rose can’t possibly mean that. Charizard has always been a part of his team. There has never been a battle where Charizard hasn’t been with him. Ever. Charizard himself is moving closer to Leon, coming to stand a bit closer both in a silent request for protection, and as a show of support. He can feel the low rumble Charizard is making in his own chest.

Rose takes a deep breath, as if Leon is the one testing his patience.

“The battle against Eternatus will not be an easy one. You have to take it seriously. A Fire- and Flying type will not have any advantages against a Poison- and Dragon type. You’ll need to use Ice-, Psychic-, Ground-, or Dragon types.”

Aegislash gives off a thrumming sound of protest, and Charizard’s low growl intensifies. Leon can feel the heat from his friend increasing on his back and he runs a hand over his face in frustration. He humoured Rose by going to Hammerlocke at the drop of a hat, by standing in as both Chairman and CEO on top of his own duties, but this? This is crossing the line.

“Sir, with all due respect, there’s no way I can change my team so close to the Championship Cup,” he points out diplomatically.

Rose huffs in aggravation. “The Championship,” he sneers. “It’s no more than opium for the masses. A way to keep people distracted while our resources are depleting.”

It feels like a slap to the face. Battling, the League, the Championship; it’s all Leon is. Everything he loves.

“Chairman, I can’t just change my team now. We can talk about it after the tournament, maybe, but either way, Charizard stays with me,” Leon argues. He looks to Oleana, because surely, she can see the lunacy in this. She meets his eyes for less than a second before she looks away, suddenly finding the straw covered floor interesting.

He watches as Rose’s face darkens into a deep frown. The Chairman takes a step forward, moving into Leon’s space and for just a moment, Leon is afraid. Fear that hasn’t gripped him for years, takes hold around his spine, making him freeze in place, dreading whatever Rose is going to say or do next, but too scared to actually brace himself for it.

Then Rose seems to understand what he’s doing. The angry expression falls, and the man simply looks tired. It knocks Leon even more off kilter when the tension drains as if it were never there in the first place.

“I’m disappointed in you, Leon,” Rose says tiredly, and Leon isn’t sure, but he feels like maybe a slap would’ve hurt less. He stays silent because he doesn’t really have anything to say. He’s not benching Charizard. Ever. No matter the consequences.

“After everything I’ve given you; all the opportunities I’ve offered you, and the possibilities I’ve given you to grow to become the strongest trainer in Galar, and still, you won’t take this seriously,” Rose continues to scold, making Leon’s heart drop deeper with each word. “It is your duty as Champion of this region to act in the best interest of its people. What I’m telling you is the best interest of Galar.”

Leon swallows hard and nods. “I promise, I’m taking it seriously, but I –“

“You’re distracted,” Rose cuts him off. “Something has been going on with you these past few months. I suggest you get your head back on track.”

The breath Leon takes is a shaky one. “I’m not distracted, Chairman, I promise,” he says even though his thoughts automatically stray to Gloria. “And while I can’t change my team before the Tournament, I’ll look into options once we get on the other side,” he tries to placate. “Charizard still stays on though,” he adds carefully.

Rose looks like he’s about to get angry again, but Oleana cuts in.

“Chairman Rose, you have a meeting with the Transportation Committee in fifteen minutes,” she informs him as impassively as ever.

Rose keeps eye contact with Leon a few more seconds before turning around to follow Oleana.

As they reach the door, he turns to face Leon again. “We’re not done talking about this.”

As the door slams shut behind them, Leon breathes a deep sigh and sits down on a bale of hay.

He has no idea what the fuck he’s supposed to do. He literally can’t change his team at this point. They’re all registered for the Cup, Rose had to know that, right? And even if he could change it up, he built this team around Inteleon, in hopes that he might go up against Gloria or Hop. The two Pokémon he has that aren’t currently on his team, matching Rose’s demands are Seismitoad and Rhyperior and if he uses that many ground types, he’ll definitely be accused of nepotism if he goes up against Hop and people find out that he was the one to give him Grookey; a Grass type.

Rose is just so impatient. Surely the solution to a problem that isn’t supposed to be relevant for another thousand years can wait a couple of weeks? He knows that Rose is concerned about the future, but this obsession can’t be healthy.

He looks over his team, and he doesn’t miss the way Inteleon shifts, even though he still tries to look cool. Aegislash looks nervous too; like he’s on the cusp of doing a Stance Change.

“Don’t worry guys. You’re all still on the team,” he tries to placate. “Rose can huff and puff all he wants, but I’m still the Champion, and I’m still your trainer. I have faith in this team. Rose doesn’t know what he’s talking about.”

All his Pokémon seem a bit more at ease, but there’s still somewhat of an undercurrent of tension and insecurity. Rose should have known better than to bring it up in front of his Pokémon. Morale is going to be low now. He runs through a couple of drills with them. Moves that they know well and have mastered to perfection in order to boost their confidence.

Philip returns eventually, his bucket full of berries that are quickly devoured.

He lets his Pokémon play around for a bit, and he smiles when Charizard and Haxorus seek each other out, having a conversation in gentle rumbles.

“You had a package for me?” he prompts Philip whose wide grin returns.

“Everything went off without a hitch,” he informs him. “Now you just gotta wait a few months.”

Leon follows him out into the back where a large box is waiting for him along with an inch worth of paperwork which he sighs heavily at.

Philip snorts. “I can have it sent over if you can’t take it yourself. The papers too.”

“That would be great,” Leon says with a smile. “Can I convince you to hold onto it for a bit longer though? I have a guest at home at the moment, and –“

Philip waves him off. “Don’t worry about it, Leon. Just send a text when you want it.”

“Thanks mate. I appreciate it.”

“Just let me know how it goes, yeah?” Philip asks with a grin.

Leon returns his Pokémon to their Pokéballs, except for Aegislash and Haxorus who still have to stay behind.

He leaves the Stables, going directly to the monorail station. It’s only three stops before he’s at Rose Tower. He needs to drop off some Macro Cosmos papers he’d forgotten. He also wants to touch ground with Ned about the schedule for the next week. He’d like to make sure that the evenings are still cleared. As much as he wished, he really can’t take the entire week off at this point. A lot of his sponsors that come from other regions are only sending representatives one time per year around the Championship, and it’s understandable that they’ll want to meet the one they’re sponsoring. He’d just rather spend time with Gloria.

When it comes down to it though, it’s better that she gets some space too at the moment. He’s not the only one who has to prepare for the Championship, and honestly, he’d rather not know her strategies or watch too much of her training. He doesn’t want that kind of advantage if he meets her on the pitch. Besides, some of his favourite parts about watching Gloria are all the surprises she brings to the matches. The idea of facing her in battle and having no idea what might happen next fills him with excitement and makes his heart race.

It’s almost enough to make up for the shadow Rose cast with his unrealistic demands. Almost.

The thought of it brings his mood back down when he drops the papers off at Rose Tower. He’d like to spend more time with his Pokémon, but Gloria probably has all hers out of their balls, and there’s no way of predicting if they’ll all get along.

He visits the bakery near Rose Tower for some Poffins. In his experience, nothing smoothes over clashing attitudes quite like good food. In addition to the large box he’s taking home, he makes sure to have some sent to the Stables and the Ranch. They shouldn’t be missing out just because they aren’t with him at the moment.

He texts Gloria about dinner so he can stop by the little Kantonian place close to the monorail. He picks up a little bit of everything, making sure to keep everything marked and separate, not wanting a repeat of the night before.

Charizard has to help him get back to his house when he loses track of where he is on the way home, and with carrying the take-out bags. His friend noses the box of pastries excitedly, and Leon has to move it out of his range. Or try to, at least.

“Sorry, buddy, you have to wait for the others,” he laughs when he has to push Charizard away with a foot because he needs both hands to hold the box.

Charizard grumbles a disgruntled “Gawaaar,” and Leon laughs.

“It’ll be more fun to enjoy with the others. Gloria and all her Pokémon are waiting for us at home,” he reminds the giant lizard, and that perks him right up.

No longer protesting, Charizard turns around and walks as fast as he can. His wings make small, excited flutters behind him as if he’d much rather be in the air where he can go considerably faster. They should go for a fly sometime soon, but not when they have their arms full of treats and take-out.

The house is quiet when they get home, but Gloria’s shoes are still there in the hall which gives him some reassurance he didn’t even know he needed. Charizard moves further into the house, and Leon follows him to put the take-out and the Poffins down on the counter. The gate to the community garden is open, and he sees a black-and-white blur shoot past the opening, giving him a good clue as to where Gloria might be.

“Wait for me,” he tells Charizard before running up the stairs. As impatient as he is to see her, he’s been in the Champion’s uniform all day. He throws it off in a hurry, and after giving the shirt a quick sniff, he deems it acceptable enough to wear again, so he dumps it on the chair before going to the bathroom to freshen up a bit. Even though his shirt wasn’t stinking, he'll still feel better after washing up. Besides, he finally gets to scrub off that fucking makeup.

He grabs a t-shirt from the “not-Champion-uniform”-pile he has his shirts sorted in, and a pair of trackies to throw on and in less than five minutes, he’s back downstairs, and out into the garden.

He doesn’t immediately call out to Gloria. She’s playing with her Pokémon, running around, laughing. She’s so full of unrestrained joy, that it spills over into everything around her. It spills into him, filling him with warmth and he takes a moment to bask in it.

It’s not that he hasn’t thought of the concept of having someone to come home to, but when Gloria turns around and her smile brightens even more when she sees him, it strikes him exactly how much it means. But then again – it’s not just about having someone. It’s about having Gloria.

He needs to enjoy it while it lasts; it’s only for a week, after all.

She calls Gyarados back in his ball with an apologetic look, and Corviknight flies up to make herself comfortable on the roof. He hopes his little Rookidee won’t be too much of a nuisance to her. He’s protective of his territory and has been known to chase out the occasional Pidove that gets too close. A few reporters too.

Once everyone is gathered in the garden, he pulls her in for a deep kiss. He missed her. Compared to the previous weeks they spent apart, his workday was practically nothing, but he still missed her.

“You look tired,” she remarks once they part which isn’t great. He’d hoped to hide it from her a bit. Not because he likes to keep secrets, but because all the mess is his mess, and he doesn’t want Gloria to worry about it.

“Long day,” he admits, and pulls her in for a hug. Everything feels a lot more manageable when he’s with her, but there’s still so much pressure. “There’s still so much to get done before the Cup tournament, and Rose is – Ugh.”

Nope. He can’t tell her. Part of him wants to. Wants to unload it all. Part of him wants to tell Gloria everything. About Rose, about his demands, about the fucking thing in the basement of Hammerlocke Castle. But he can’t put that burden on her shoulders. It’s his mess to deal with.

“Don’t worry about it,” he says instead, followed by a quick kiss before leading her into the kitchen where the food is waiting. “We should eat before it gets cold.”

They talk as they eat. Leon tells Gloria about his day, and she tells him about hers, which was fortunately considerably more relaxing than his, which she somehow feels guilty for because she feels like she should be training rather than playing. He assures her that she has nothing to worry about. The last few Gyms in the Gym challenge aren’t impossible by design, but they’re still damn difficult and the margin she beat Raihan with was exceptional. She worked hard, and taking breaks is important not to burn out. Besides, a lot of training is playing. Playing strengthens the bond between trainer and Pokémon which heightens that intuitive connection. It also builds the creativity that makes battles really interesting. Other than that, spending time with Pokémon is just great.

“Speaking of –“ he continues when they’re done eating and pulls the Pokéballs of the three partners that usually roam his house. “I thought maybe we could all hang out?” he suggests. “I brought bribes in case anyone doesn’t get on at first.”

Gloria’s eyes practically sparkle with excitement, and it makes something bubble in him too.

“I’d love to meet your partners, and I’m sure everyone else will too.” she agrees immediately. He’s never met anyone quite as excited to see his Pokémon as himself. (Maybe the occasional Pokémon fanatic, but those don’t count)

“One of them you already have,” he teases her before releasing the three Pokémon in the Pokéballs.

Dragapult comes out upside down, but zips right side up faster than he thinks anyone notices. Either way, for quite a few moments, Gloria simply stares at Inteleon clearly struggling to comprehend the Pokémon in front of her, which is fair. He came a long way since he was a shy and nervous little Sobble.

“Oh, look at you! You’ve come along brilliantly, haven’t you?” she says when she snaps out of it.

Inteleon closes his eyes and gives her a slow nod, in that calm, confident way he’s adopted since his last evolution. Cinderace comes up to him and immediately starts chatting excitedly, clearly introducing Inteleon to the rest of Gloria’s team.

Leon then introduces Gloria to his team, who seem to warm up to her instantly, which isn’t at all surprising. They know how he feels about Gloria. He’s gushed enough about her to them after all.

Mr. Rime is immediately drawn to Gardevoir, who looks less reserved than he’s ever seen her. Neither of them makes much sound, but seem to have a great conversation going regardless, judging by the way Gardevoir’s eyes crinkle. Psychic types can be fascinating like that, able to communicate with their minds alone.

Dragapult studies Gloria closely before going upside down again, and floats over to Boltund whose tail starts wagging at the two Dreepy who are practically vibrating in their positions.

“Maybe we should take this outside for a bit,” Leon suggests, having a good idea of what’s about to happen.

His house is Poképroofed, but it does still have its limits.

Gloria shrugs and indeed, as soon as the glass door is opened, a Dreepy is launched out into the garden, and Boltund is in hot pursuit. Damn, that dog is fast.

A Dreepy launched from his Dragapult is still faster, but Boltund makes a hell of an effort, and Linoone is right at his heels. However, where Boltund runs in a straight line, Linoone isn’t afraid of fighting dirty and leaps onto the patio table, using those strong hindlegs to launch himself into the air, only just missing the Dreepy who is squee-ing with joy.

“We have made a terrible mistake,” Gloria groans, but Leon just laughs.

Even though his friends and Pokémon can be loud, he doesn’t think his house has ever been this full of life. It’s everything he never knew he dreamed of.

Grateful, he hugs Gloria from behind and kisses her neck.

“On the bright side, I don’t think we need to bribe anyone to get along,” he points out.

Boltund who had given up pursuit in hopes of catching the other Dreepy which is launched shortly after the first one, sprints, tearing up the grass. He misses a surprised Charizard with a hairsbreadth, and Leon can’t help but admire the absolute control Boltund has over his speed and reflexes. Evidently inspired by Linoone, he uses the wall to launch himself higher to have a chance of catching the Dreepy.

Cinderace scolds him but is ignored entirely. It’s funny how rowdy their Pokémon can be; Linoone and Boltund, and his own mischief-makers (Dragapult), when he knows how disciplined, and diligent they are in battle and in training.

“But no sense letting them go to waste, yeah?” he chuckles and goes back inside. His own Pokémon, who know what’s in store, follow immediately, and Gloria’s team take the cue to come along as well.

When he opens the box, Gloria cocks her head and squints at the content.

“They’re mostly a Sinnohan thing,” he explains as he passes them around. “They haven’t really caught on here yet, but there’s a shop near Rose Tower that makes ‘em. I’m pretty sure I put it on the list,” he muses, but he might have forgotten to put it down. Once all the Pokémon present have gotten theirs, he closes the box back up and slides it towards Gloria. “For Gyarados and Corviknight,” he explains. Rookidee is the only one of his Pokémon who doesn’t like them, but he’ll give him some berries later.

As the evening progresses, he’s able to put the day more and more behind him. It’s so perfect and domestic and everything he knew it would be. They spend some time on the sofa with Gloria wedged between him and the sofa cushions and her head on his chest with her hair tickling his nose.

Both her and their Pokémon are staring at the tv with rapt attention, keeping up with the League recap. Leon is having trouble concentrating though, and his eyes keep straying around the room to simply enjoy the scene.

The recap is short. The last challenger has gotten their badge from Raihan (Just managing by the skin of their teeth. Hop and Gloria are leagues ahead,) and there isn’t anything else planned. The next days are going to be filled with interviews of the Gym Leaders, and himself about the upcoming Tournament, and naturally speculations on who will reach the top to challenge him.

Once the recap is done, Leon is fully ready to retire and carry Gloria to the bedroom, but Inteleon keeps nudging his arm with the remote.

When Leon explains Detective Pikachu to Gloria, she luckily agrees to watch it even though they’re starting at the end of the third series, and they seem rather invested even though they don’t know the significance of the pictures they find on the drive that had been disguised as a locket.

He thinks they’re going to end up rewatching the episode at some point in the daytime, because most of their Pokémon have fallen asleep. One of Dragapult’s Dreepy is trying to snuggle into Gloria’s hair like she’s a Drakloak. It’s blinking blearily when Leon gently picks it up and returns it to Dragapult who makes a slight purr when the Dreepy returns to its proper place.

He picks up Gloria, who snickers when he almost stumbles over Boltund who makes a disgruntled huff. He steps around and over their Pokémon to get to the stairs.

Having sex with Gloria is amazing, but it’s like the more they do it, the less it feels like sex and the more it feels like… something more.

He nearly says the words when he comes in her for the third time that night. She’s so incredibly beautiful with her rich brown hair fanned out over the pillow, her flushed face, and those bright eyes that he admires so much. He’s still inside her, breathing heavily as he slowly goes soft. Her legs are wrapped around him, and their faces are close, nose to nose.

“I –“

He cuts himself off by kissing her, and he closes his eyes tightly. He can feel Gloria smiling into the kiss and her arms wrap around his neck.

She hikes her legs up higher when he’s about to slip out, in an effort to keep him inside her a little bit longer, and it makes him chuckle a bit.

“You’re amazing, you know?” he mumbles against her lips and her smile stretches into a grin before she kisses him again.

“You too,” she whispers when they break apart.

He runs a hand from Gloria’s hip, down her thigh and to her knee to make her release him so he can lie down next to her rather than risk crushing her with his weight. Gloria isn’t having it though, and she tightens her legs around him which has him losing his balance, so he falls down on top of her.

She lets out an “Oomph” followed by a slightly wheezy laugh when he lands, and he finally manages to roll off her.

He loves it all. He loves that he can laugh with her, that they can laugh together.

He pulls her up to lie on top of him, and she melts against his body. They’re both sticky, filthy beyond belief, covered in both come and sweat. It’s amazing.

Again, Leon wakes up to Rotom poking him. This time it isn’t an alarm though, but an incoming call that Rotom is keeping silent.

Gloria is lying under his arm, plastered up against his side, with her head on his chest and her leg hooked over his. He tries to be careful when he extracts himself from Gloria’s hold, but she still makes a disgruntled noise when he slips out of bed. She doesn’t wake though, but her arms are still stretched out in front of her like she’s reaching for him.

He ignores the phone for now. Whoever is calling him can leave a voicemail or wait until he has taken a piss.

When he’s done, and has washed his hands under Rotom’s watchful eyes, he makes his way downstairs. He passes through the bedroom and the walk-in on the way for some trackies, and chuckles quietly to himself when he sees that Gloria hasn’t moved and is still lying with her arms stretched out. She really sleeps like a Snorlax when the need strikes her, but then again, he did wear her out the night before.

He’s startled when he walks into the living room to find it full of Pokémon. He’d somehow managed to forget that they’d left them all out the night before. It’s especially startling because he had no idea they could even be that quiet.

He suspects it has something to do with the television that’s on at low volume. Inteleon catches his attention with a low hum and confirms by gesturing at the remote.

Especially Boltund and Linoone are quieter than he’s ever seen them before, both their noses almost touching the screen as their eyes follow Detective Pikachu jumping on top of a table to accuse a Pokémon Center employee of stealing Pokémon’s items while they’re in their care.

Boltund bares his teeth when the Nurse denies the claim. He has good instincts. Leon watched this episode already and he knows the Nurse attacks them with a Mightyena in about ten minutes.

He takes a picture of Boltund and Linoone, making sure to capture the nose prints left on his tv. They’re adorable, and he’s sure Gloria will love to see it later.

He figures he might as well make breakfast now that he’s already up, so he grabs a hair-tie, because no-one, Pokémon included, ever liked hairy food.

The pantry is full. He had to move his own cereal bars last night to make room for all the food they bought for Gloria’s Pokémon that he insisted they unpack. He gets out the personalised bowls for his own team, and then plates for their guests. He knows his own team’s dietary requirements by heart, and he’s very careful about following the instructions for Gloria’s Pokémon, including their food and their new supplements. It’s not the end of the world if they have them later, but the nutrients do get absorbed better with a meal.

Nine portions of Pokémon breakfast take up his entire counter space. He serves the food in the living room, which is gratefully received if Linoone’s slobbering is anything to go by, before he grabs a plate along with a small saucer with seeds and a couple of berries and makes his way back upstairs.

Gloria is still asleep as he sneaks through the bedroom to the balcony and up the stairs to the practice pitch on the roof where Corviknight is roosting.

The massive bird ruffles her feathers and clacks her beak warningly when she sees him, and he freezes in place.

“Easy,” he tries gently. “I brought you some food,” but Corviknight only seems to puff herself up further.

He hears his own Rookidee give a little trill, and then tiny talons dig into his scalp, as the small bird lands on top of his head. Corviknight seems to take that as a seal of approval because her sharp, menacing feathers are slowly lowered, easing down to their normally smooth state.

He slowly moves forward, showing the bird the massive plate of food, he has for her.

She gives a low caw, and ever slowly, and careful not to make any sudden moves, he puts the plate down in front of her. He backs away and puts the saucer down for Rookidee who immediately hops down to stuff himself with seeds and berries.

Corviknight keeps an eye on him the entire time he’s there, and it isn’t until he’s out of sight that he can hear her beak pecking at the plate.

He tip-toes through the bedroom again, past Gloria, and downstairs where their Pokémon are still busy eating.

His Rotom zooms over to meet him with another call, which he decides to take out in the garden.

“Lee!”

He grins at Hop’s excited voice, and at the video feed Rotom is showing him. Hop looks like he just took a tumble down a hill. He’s covered in dirt, his hair is in all directions, he has a scratch on his chin, but he’s beaming from ear to ear.

“Hi Hoppip,” Leon laughs. “What happened?”

Hop’s grin doesn’t fade a bit, and Leon can feel his own smile stretched wide.

“I just taught Rillaboom an awesome move,” Hop gushes. “It’s going to be so sick standing on the pitch in Wyndon! I can’t wait!”

Leon laughs. “I can’t wait to see you. I know you’ll do brilliantly! Do you know when you’ll get here?” he asks, feeling guilty because while he does want to see his little brother, a big part of why he’s asking is so he can make sure that Hop doesn’t suddenly turn up to find Gloria at his house.

“I dunno. I’m doing some great training here in the Wild Area, and I think I’ll keep at it as long as I can, y’know. I need all the training I can get if I’m gonna bet the greatest Champion,” he remarks with a rueful chuckle.

Leon gives him a smile that he hopes is encouraging. “Don’t worry about it. Try not to overwork yourself and your teammates too, okay? Burnout is a thing.”

Hop rolls his eyes. “Whatever.”

“Just remember to register those new moves, yeah?” Leon reminds him. “I want to see them, so it wouldn’t do if you couldn’t use them because you registered the wrong four,” he teases a bit.

“’Course I’ll register them! What do you take me for” Hop laughs in mock offence. “Oi, tell Gloria I said hi if you run into her again! I saw your pictures on insta. It’s great that you could take care of her for a bit.”

Leon’s heart stutters in his chest as his brain unhelpfully jumps to how he took care of her just the night before. “I uh – it’s the least I could do? I did endorse her.”

“I’m just happy my best friend and my big brother get along! Really, that’s all I could ask for!”

Leon clears his throat, feeling uncomfortable. “Have you talked to mum?” he asks, desperately trying to change the subject.

Hop’s eyes widen in panic. “Fuck!” he exclaims, and immediately ends the call.

Leon snorts and pockets his phone. He hears a caw from above that he assumes is happy as he walks back inside.

In the kitchen, sausages, toast, milk, and eggs are set out, and he can already hear egg being whisked. Mr Rime is working happily in tandem with Gardevoir to cook breakfast that Leon will happily wake Gloria up with.

Mr Rime can be quite ornery when he wants to be and is always fretting about the house when things aren’t exactly the way he wants. And boy does that Pokémon have standards; he forced Leon to start using coasters. It’s lovely to see him letting Gardevoir work in his space. Maybe she can mellow him out a bit.

He figures he might as well make himself useful. Mr Rime and Gardevoir clearly have food handled, but what would complement the meal nicely would be a nice, freshly made juice.

He pulls the juicer out of the cabinet, but when he goes to open the fridge to get the berries, he’s stopped by a walking stick.

“Oh, come on!” he protests exasperatedly. “I’m not gonna start an electrical fire or anything.”

He feels the scepticism rolling off the Pokémon in waves.

“Promise,” he adds.

He’s never seen Mr. Rime actually do it, but he gets the feeling that he’d roll his eyes at him if he could. He moves the walking stick though, letting Leon gain access to the fridge.

He has a big bowl of Pinap berries that are nice and ripe and would make for a nice juice. He gets the machine started and throws a couple in.

At first it goes okay, but at the third berry, it starts making a crunching sound that it isn’t supposed to. The same grinding noise that broke his last juicer.

With a groan and a curse, he pulls the plug on the machine so he can take it apart. There’s always so much gunk that builds up in the thing and it’s annoying how much work it actually is to clean it. He scrapes the Pinap berry peel and what looks like crushed seeds out into the rubbish. He reassembles the juicer and tries to feed another berry through it. It takes it, only protesting slightly, but the next berry has it jamming entirely before he can put one more in.

He curses loudly, but before he can do more, he hears a small snort, and he sighs.

“This was supposed to be breakfast in bed,” he laments. He gives up on the juicer and turns around to see Gloria.

Gloria who… is wearing his shirt… and seemingly nothing else. His eyes linger at her bare legs before going to the sword and shield on her chest where her nipples are visibly hard underneath the thin polyester.

“Good morning,” she says, and he can hear the laugh in her voice. She’s grinning at him like she knows exactly what she’s doing to him.

He’s drawn to her like a Frosmoth to the northern lights.

“I’m guessing you don’t mind -?” she says at the same time as he says, “I’m taking all the other clothes back. You’re not allowed to wear anything else ever again.”

She giggles and leans up for a kiss, and it’s so easy to just lift her by the hips. He puts her where he wants her, right on the kitchen counter and immediately gets down on his knees to worship her, ignoring the ache in them.

He was right that she wasn’t wearing any underwear. He can’t help but take a deep breath through the nose once he’s there between her folds. The scent of her is always so powerful in the morning, and with all the cum he left in her the night before, it’s even more so. He can’t help but groan at the thought.

He dives right in, and the tangy flavour of her is overwhelming in the best way, and it has that bitter aftertaste of his own cum.

It feels so erotic, especially since there’s so much of it. The thought of how he filled her up the night before has him groaning again, and the way her thighs shake under his hands where he’s holding them apart has his dick hard as a rock.

As much as he’d love to just fuck her, he can’t stop himself from pushing his face more into her folds, pushing his tongue in as far as he can.

“Lee!” she moans and tighten her hands in his hair. “Oh god, do that again!”

He pushes his tongue in again, making sure to curl it upwards where he knows her special spot is.

She’s writhing, chasing more, but he keeps her in place even though she’s whining and getting more and more desperate.

When he thinks she’s reached her breaking point, and he no longer tastes himself in her, he quickly swipes his tongue up towards her clit, giving it just a small nudge.

He keeps his eyes on her, carefully studying the way she throws her head back. Her breathing is laboured, and every breath she takes, and every twitch she makes, move his shirt. He loves her tits, he really does, but for once he doesn’t mind them being covered.

The loud grunt she lets out and the way her hips jerk against his face at the gentlest touch of his tongue on her clit is something he knows he’ll frequently revisit in fantasy later once she leaves.

“Gonna get noisy for me, bright eyes?” he teases, giving her clit a kiss, and sucking it a little.

She whimpers again, and fuck she sounds so desperate.

“That’s my girl; fuck, I love to hear you –“ he moans and dives back in.

He pushes two fingers into her, curling them upwards, and sucks her clit into his mouth.

She cries out loudly, and it’s the best sound he’s ever heard. She’s so unashamed, and so fucking free and full of fire, as she’s lying there spread out on the kitchen counter like his favourite meal.

She’s so amazing, and she chose him. She’s there, wearing his shirt, in his home, and something about that just sets him off. Turns him into something feral.

She moans and gasps and cries, and when she comes her entire body goes taut. The moan she lets out is guttural, and probably just as feral as he is. He draws out her orgasm as long as he can as she goes boneless on the table, but he doesn’t give her long to recover.

He needs her so badly.

He shoves down his pants, and pushes himself into her, with extra encouragement from Gloria who wraps her leg around him, clearly not intending to let go of him yet.

He goes in easily, helped by how sopping wet her cunt is.

He’s not quite tall enough to be able to thrust properly when she’s sitting on the counter like that. He has to stand on his toes, and that just isn’t comfortable and doesn’t give him the leverage he wants to properly fuck her, so he pulls her off the counter entirely.

She’s so tiny and light that it’s easy to move her. She wraps her arms around the back of his neck and tries to help by moving closer into him even though it isn’t really necessary.

He loves how much she wants him too. Every time she moves with him, he feels like they’re becoming impossibly closer.

He kisses her hard, their tongues tangling together. He doesn’t stop fucking her; he doesn’t even slow down.

“Can’t believe you,” he mumbles.

She has to know what she’s doing, right? Every kiss and every touch, every time she shows how much she wants him too, it makes him fall more. She’s here, in his house, she’s wearing his shirt –

“You look –“ he starts and tries to stop himself from saying the next words.

He doesn’t want to be that guy. He doesn’t want to be possessive. But seeing her in his shirt, and knowing how she’s choosing to be with him; choosing to surround herself with him is –

“You look like mine,” eventually leaves his mouth, the words leaving without his say-so. Maybe he can admit that he might be that guy, just a little bit.

“Am yours,” she replies immediately. So fast, and certain like he should feel silly to ever doubt the notion.

He feels so damn vulnerable. He feels flayed open, like Gloria can see every thought, and every single one of his emotions, and just accepts him for who he is anyway.

Hearing her calling herself his, does something to him that he can’t articulate. It makes him lose control entirely, and he abandons all restraint, fucking her ever harder, deeper, and faster, intent on making the two of them become one.

“Fuck!” he swears because he’s so incredibly overwhelmed that he can’t contain himself.

“Gloria –“

He doesn’t say anything else. He can’t, because now his composure really falls apart. He knows he’s holding her too hard, might even be hurting her, but his body is out of his control.

He presses himself in as tightly as possible and comes inside her. He stops breathing, and it feels like he leaves his body along with his cum for a moment or two. Waves of bliss crash into him as he empties himself in her.

Gloria reaches down to rub herself and reaches her own peak along with him. The rhythmic contractions of her cunt feels like they squeeze every remaining drop of cum out of him.

His legs turn useless and disappear underneath him. He only just manages to make sure that he lands first so he can cushion the fall for Gloria.

He kisses her again and again, grinning like a loon in between.

He knows that they need to do that again.

He just needs to convince her to put on the hat as well.

She stays for a while in his lap, straddling him while he softens inside her.

He has a realisation that makes him chuckle a bit and Gloria cocks her head in question.

“It’s just, now I know I have to beat you. If you walk around in this all day, every day, I won’t ever be able to keep my hands off you,” he remarks.

Gloria snorts and shakes her head. “All the more reason for me to win, isn’t it,” she banters back with a smirk.

Leon leans his head back to knock it against the floor tiles. “Arceus, you’ll be the death of me.”

She leans forward to give him a kiss, and he winds his arms around her, sneaking them up under the shirt to caress the bare skin underneath.

She hums into the kiss and pushes herself back up. “I need a shower,” she groans. She shifts a bit, and given the slippery feel where they’re connected, so does he.

His face is also sticky with cum, both hers and his own.

“Wanna save some water?” he suggests, bucking his hips a bit to make her bounce on him. “I’ll make sure you’re extra clean,” he adds with a suggestive eyebrow waggle.

Gloria rolls her eyes at him, but the fond smile that accompanies it is something he lives for.

She gets off him just as a breeze drifts through the open patio doors, making him shiver. Once he gets off the floor, he’s glad to see that their Pokémon tidied everything up while they were caught up in each other.

Cum is running down Gloria’s thigh, and even though he loves the sight of it, he hurries to grab a clean tea towel from the drawer to wipe it away. He kisses her gently, relishing the morning softness.

“I really do need that shower,” she groans as they part, and he lets her go with a quick swat at her bum which is still naked under his shirt, making her giggle.

“Go ahead, I’ll be right there,” he promises, wanting to check on their Pokémon first.

Boltund and Linoone are chasing each other, tearing up the grass in the garden. He’s not sure, but he thinks they’re already showing some benefits of those vitamins.

He pulls his trackies back up and goes to the living room to check on the rest, and as he enters, he’s immediately hit by a wave of what he can only describe as ‘nice’ something warm and good that settles in his gut coming from Gardevoir. It’s immediately followed by an ice cold feeling of absolute despair powerful enough to make him stumble to his knees. He looks up at the Pokémon who is pinning him with a look of severity.

“Message received,” he wheezes, and the feeling immediately lets up, replaced again by that feeling of warm goodness. Gardevoir’s eyes crinkle in a smile.

He gets up, feeling a little wobbly, and he needs to take a deep breath before going to join Gloria in the shower.

Gardevoir does not play around. It’s a good thing he has no plans to hurt Gloria. Ever.

The following week spent with Gloria is everything he ever dreamed of. He always wanted a family. Always wanted the kind of relationship his parents didn’t have, and for the first time in forever, he feels that maybe that isn’t so impossible to achieve. He has never felt this free with anyone else, except for maybe Raihan. But even if the media has speculated a lot, Rai just doesn’t really have the… right parts… to get him going.

With Gloria he doesn’t have to miss the League recap in order to watch “It’s Me or the Pokémon” or some other reality show he has no interest in watching.

He doesn’t have any arguments about whether his Pokémon should be loose or not because it’s a given, and hers are out along with them. (Even though even he can admit that it’s maybe starting to be a little bit crowded sometimes.)

Having Gloria to come home to at the end of the day makes work bearable. Coming home to find her in the garden with her Pokémon, playing after what is no doubt training sessions, judging by the bags from Wyndon’s Best Trainer Supply, and how her team just seems to get stronger by the day.

Sometimes his smile isn’t even fake when he’s talking to investors or journalists.

Ned has proven invaluable too, making sure he gets where he needs to go and preparing him for what he needs to do. He really needs to talk to his lawyer about hiring Ned full time, outside of the Macro Cosmos connection. The guy is smart as a whip and has overall made Leon’s life infinitely easier. Both with his knowledge of business as a general, but also about the inner workings of Macro Cosmos. He knows exactly who Leon needs to talk to about what, and most importantly how to talk to them. He knows everything about everyone. It’s honestly a little bit scary.

He gets frequent updates from Hop, who sends him selfies every day. He feels guilty that he’s happy that Hop isn’t there, but at least Hop looks like he’s having fun in the Wild Area. He can tell from Hop’s smile that he’s gradually regaining that confidence he lost over the course of the Gym Challenge.

Overall, Leon is the busiest and the happiest he’s been in years, even though Rose is constantly pestering him. He won’t let up about Leon changing his team, but he still refuses. His line-up is known. If he changes it now at the last minute, people are going to speculate that he’s insecure or worse; that he’s throwing the battle.

He can’t let it bother him though. In between meetings and interviews, he keeps up with his team, letting them out at the Stables, to run drills and boost their confidence. He has Aegislash and Dragapult team up to help each other with their Ghost Type moves, and he works with Inteleon to improve his aim. He has a responsibility to them as his trainer, and changing the team now would devastate them when they’ve worked so hard. He doesn’t want them to feel that kind of rejection.

Inteleon learns Mud Shot so he has a ground-type move. That’ll have to do.

Rose will just have to deal.

The man seems more and more off though, and Leon keeps being on the fence on whether or not he should just contact Professor Magnolia. See if she can talk some sense into Rose. Or make sense of whatever it is he’s saying. Leon was never good at all the academic stuff, so the things that Rose is saying about containment fields, and radiation levels all just sound like rambling after a while to him. It’s clear that Rose is getting increasingly excited about his… project… in Hammerlocke, but Leon doesn’t really get it. He’s honestly not sure he wants to get it.

As they get closer to the time Gloria needs to leave, Leon tries hard not to be hurt every time she sighs and makes a comment about how she’s never going to fit everything into her bag. Or how she’ll have to take ten trips to get it all to her hotel room. Or one unpleasant time when she said how big a hassle it’s going to be to get it all shipped to Postwick. It helps that she’s wrinkling her nose every time she says it, and he tells himself it’s because she doesn’t want to leave rather than annoyance at the inconvenience. It also helps that even though she mentions it, she doesn’t actually start packing until the very last minute.

The morning before the day of the semifinals, Gloria wakes him up gently with kisses to his chest and his neck. The sex that follows is slow, sensual, and soft in the morning light. They cum together, like they did the first time he came inside her, and afterwards, they just lie there for a while, enjoying the closeness in silence.

He’s going to miss her so badly. He needs to be careful that it won’t put him off his game. It’s almost enough of a reason alone to hope that she makes it far enough to challenge him, because if it isn’t her, he isn’t sure he’ll be able to focus enough on his opponent. Gloria, however, has his full attention. It might not be this time around, but some day he’s going to battle her, and when that day comes it’s going to be explosive. The thought makes him groan and nearly gets him in the mood for round two, but unfortunately, they need to get ready for the day.

“We should have a shower,” he says instead.

Gloria snorts. “We?” she asks with a raised eyebrow.

He smirks at her and reaches down to run a finger through the cum that’s gotten smeared all over her inner thighs. “Are you saying you don’t need one?”

He can’t say he doesn’t like the idea of her walking around with his cum all day, but it can’t be comfortable.

He loves the way her cheeks go pink.

She shakes her head with exasperation. “What I’m saying is that we don’t have much time. If we have a shower together, you know full well that it’ll take too long.”

He only gives her a grin because she’s not wrong. It’s just that Gloria’s naked body covered in soap is incredibly difficult to keep his hands off. Not that he has an easy time of it when she’s fully clothed either.

“Okay,” he relents. “You go first, and I’ll feed the guys downstairs.”

She gives him a quick peck, before getting up. His eyes keep getting drawn to her glistening thighs as she walks to the bathroom, and he nearly follows anyways.

“I give up,” Gloria is groaning once Leon is done with his own shower. He enters the bedroom to find her sprawled across the bed, still only wearing a towel. She’s surrounded by piles and piles of clothes; all the things he’d bought her and then some.

It makes him feel something that he doesn’t like and doesn’t want to examine further.

“I put your keys over there, but I think I’m going to need to make another trip this afternoon. I could pop them through the mail slot once I’ve locked up?” she suggests, and it kills him just a little bit that she hasn’t apparently realised that him making room for her stuff in the walk-in wasn’t necessarily something he wanted to be a temporary thing.

He shoves down the irrational hurt because it’s not like he said that that’s what he wanted, having been too preoccupied with making sure he didn’t push her too much. He can’t blame her for not being a mind reader.

He kisses her, holding his hair back from dripping everywhere.

“Keep ‘em,” he tells her between kisses. “I had that set made for you anyway.”

She sits up to meet his kisses, and her towel unravels to reveal her naked body that he’d love to ravish that again, he needs to try to not let it distract him because he can’t let her go without making sure she knows he wants her to return. (Really, he’d prefer it if she didn’t have to go at all)

“You can make as many trips as you want,” he points out awkwardly. “Or I can get the rest shipped back to Postwick for you,” as much as it pains him, “Or…” He trails off, starting to second-guess himself, looking around at all the gathered clothes, all folded and ready. Not that he’s changing his mind, but he still feels so pushy, and he really doesn’t want to put pressure on her. And what if she says no? That’s a whole different can of worms that he should have considered, but –

“Or?” Gloria prompts, cutting off his overthinking, and it’s not like he can back out now.

“Or you could leave some here if you want,” he eventually suggests. “You don’t have to,” he assures her. “But if you want to,” he offers.

He looks up at her to find her eyes wide, and he nearly backtracks.

“All right,” she agrees, barely hesitating, and those bright eyes are just so sure.

They’re moving too far and too fast, and he shouldn’t be feeling the way he does, but every time Gloria looks at him like that, he can’t help but fall even harder.

He pushes her back down on the bed, shoving piles of clothes out of the way so he can snog her properly. (He’ll fold them later and put them back in the wardrobe. Where they belong.)

Important people from Macro Cosmos and their affiliates are out tonight, celebrating the start of the Tournaments along with several Gym Leaders from both the major and the minor league. There are a few new faces mixed in with the familiar ones. The only Gyms that aren’t represented are the Dark type Gym and the Fairy type. No one expected Piers to show, even though Leon privately thinks Piers would make it a lot more fun.

Opal not showing is unexpected though as she normally loves to show off in elaborate gowns that get more ostentatious each year. The rumours about her possible retirement are spreading faster than G-Max Wildfire.

He’s been working hard all evening trying to shake off Klara, the Poison-type Gym Leader, who seems to have forgotten all about the warnings from the League’s HR department. As soon as she saw him, she attached herself to his arm and “apologised” for the “misunderstanding” at the start of the season. It was a struggle not to roll his eyes. Eventually, he managed to wipe her off on one of the wealthy investors he doesn’t particularly like.

“Hey Champ!”

Leon looks up from his phone, a bit annoyed that he’s been found. He’d found a good spot tucked away between two enormous flower arrangements for some peace and quiet. The headache he got from Klara’s noxious perfume is absolutely brutal. It smelled like a weird mix of Sweet Scent and a Gloom in distress.

At least it’s not the worst person in the world who finds him.

“Nessa!” he greets back with a smile that isn’t entirely fake. “Your shoes look like murder weapons.”

Nessa grins at him. She looks gorgeous in a tight turquoise dress that’s so sparkly it looks like someone just dipped her in glitter. They both know she’s beautiful, but he also knows how tired she gets of hearing that all the time.

“Is it just me or do these things get more boring every year?” she asks him with a wry smile.

Leon looks around with a sigh. The top atrium of Rose Tower is gorgeous as always with the view of Wyndon below them, lit up by the glow of old-fashioned streetlamps and lights from people’s homes. Unfortunately, the stars aren’t visible due to the light reflected from the modern light installations spread around the large room. It’s tastefully decorated with red and white roses for the ‘little get-together.’ He prefers the kind of get-togethers that come with barbeques and beer, but the champagne isn’t too dry this time, and the cheese puffs and Veluza fillet he sampled earlier weren’t bad. Nessa has a point though; he’s certainly been more entertained previously.

Leon snorts. “I remember one year there was an ambassador from Hoenn who brought three Zigzagoons to show off their regional variant, and he released them in the ballroom at the Rose of the Rondelands,” he reminisces. “That was fun.”

Nessa hums. “I think that was before my time.”

“Yeah, Rose Tower was still under construction back then. I think I was twelve maybe.”

They fall into a comfortable silence as they watch people drift around to speak to whatever most influential person they can find. Which is why Leon is hiding. Chairman Rose was supposed to be there, but he backed out. Again. Which sucks for Leon.

“Aren’t you supposed to be giving a speech?” Nessa asks eventually, and Leon groans.

Yes. Yes, he is, but he’d really rather not.

Nessa gives him a look that’s half amused, half pitying and squeezes his arm in silent support.

He grabs a fresh glass of champagne from a passing waiter, thanking him politely. He downs half the glass on his way to the small podium at the end of the room and grabs a small cake fork to tap against the glass for attention.

Everyone immediately turns around, and he can feel his heart racing with anxiety. It’s ironic how he has no problem standing before thousands of people – if not millions including the ones who watch him on the telly at times, but when he’s battling, he sort of forgets that people are even watching sometimes. They’re a nameless, faceless crowd that he can easily tune out when he focuses on his opponent.

This is entirely different. People are looking at him expectantly. There’s about a hundred and fifty of them, and he can see all of them. It makes his palms sweaty, and he feels kinda shaky.

“Good evening!” he starts. “I know I’m not the one you wanted to see tonight, but unfortunately Chairman Rose was unable to join us tonight, so you’ll have to make do with me.”

He hears a few scattered polite laughs, and he takes a deep breath to steel his nerves.

“This year’s Gym Challenge has seen some incredible new trainers. We’ve seen some amazing battles already, something I’d like to thank our talented Major League Gym Leaders for!”

He raises his glass as the guests clap, their attention turning around the room for a few seconds to locate the Gym Leaders present. Nessa is easy to spot in her glittery ensemble. So is Gordie in what looks like a bright yellow tracksuit. Raihan is at the end of the room wearing a crisp white tuxedo. He should say hi to him later.

“It’s common knowledge that my dream is to see Galar’s trainers becoming the strongest trainers in the world and every season it feels like we’re getting closer to that becoming a reality. I want to thank all of you here tonight for making that possible. All the sponsors, the trainers, the many people working behind the scenes, and most importantly the Pokémon who give us their all! Thank you!”

All in all, not the best speech of his life, but also not the worst. That would be the time he won the Championship again at seventeen, got drunk, and then decided to make a speech on regional television. There are still memes of that flowing around the internet.

He finishes it off with another raise of his glass, and people clap politely as he steps down.

He’s immediately flooded by people who want to talk to him, who want to shake his hand, who want to thank him, to ask about his involvement with Macro Cosmos, if Rose is stepping down, and where is Rose?

He’s entirely overwhelmed until he feels a large hand grabbing his bicep and pulling him away hard.

“Whoops, sorry I need the Champion,” Raihan apologises insincerely as he pulls Leon through the crowd. He doesn’t stop pulling until they’re out in the hallway leading to the bathrooms where it’s quiet and cold.

Leon bends over with his hands on his knees and takes a deep breath.

“Thought you looked a bit stressed,” Raihan remarks. He leans casually against the wall. Whoever made that white tuxedo would have a fit if they saw how he’s treating it.

“Thanks mate,” Leon says after another deep breath.

Raihan snorts and shakes his head. “I saw you and your little girlfriend on insta –“

“Shh!” Leon cuts him off, frantically looking up and down the hall.

“You looked cute,” Rai finishes with a teasing smile.

Leon rolls his eyes at him. “I thought you only looked at your own pictures.”

Raihan rolls his eyes. “I know my media presence is doing perfectly, but someone has to look out for your sorry arse too.”

Leon snorts. He doesn’t understand how Rai does it. Reading all the stuff people write about him always made him uncomfortable.

“And how did my arse look then?” he asks half-joking.

Raihan shrugs. “A few extra squats wouldn’t hurt, but otherwise I think you’re doing okay.”

Leon lifts his cape and pretends to inspect his own butt. Gloria seems fine with it.

Rai hesitates before continuing. “I’m still not entirely okay with – you know –“

Leon nods. He didn’t expect anything else.

“- but you do look cute together,” he says. “Y’know, when you’re not defiling my door.”

Leon shrugs with pretend innocence. “You said no fucking on your bed.”

The deadpan stare he receives in return is perfect.

“I had to have my door repainted. You traumatised me!” he accuses, making Leon laugh.

Rai makes a snort and rolls his eyes and Leon’s laughter eventually dies down and they fall into comfortable silence. It’s nice to know that they can get back to their friendly banter. One of his greatest fears would be to lose Raihan as a friend.

“Lee, what’s Rose doing in my basement?” Raihan asks, breaking the silence and Leon’s heart feels like it drops to his stomach.

“I uh –“ he trails off, panicking internally.

“It’s gotta be important, right? For him to miss something like this? It’s gotta be big.”

Leon takes a steeling breath. “It is big. It’s – it’s hard to explain. I’m not allowed to explain, but even if I was, I’m not sure I could. It’s to do with energy.”

“Yeah. The name “Energy Plant” kinda gave that part away,” Raihan says, distinctly unimpressed with Leon’s not-really-an-explanation.

“It’s hard to explain. Like, I don’t even understand half of what they’re saying. I’m not good with that sort of thing, you know that. It has to do with Galar Particles and an energy crisis Rose predicts which won’t actually happen for a really long time, but it’s really important to him. Honestly, I think it’s mostly just him being passionate about a project of his. I mean, if I could battle instead of doing speeches, I’d do that too, y’know,” he points out.

Rai gives him a sceptical look, but ultimately shrugs. “Guess I can’t be too judgemental. I mean, I nearly didn’t come because I wanted to train more.”

Leon gives him a crooked smile. “Well, competition is fierce this year,” he remarks and raises his glass again.

Raihan snorts and shakes his head but raises his own as well to toast. “That she is.”

The rest of the evening passes by in a bit of a haze. He doesn’t really snap out of it until he reaches home after ditching out early.

His house is dark and cold in a way he’d forgotten it could be. He had a bit too much champagne, and nearly stumbles on the threshold. The silence makes the noise of his shoes hitting the side of the stairs so much louder.

There’s a distinct lack of noise from rowdy Pokémon, and there’s no Gloria humming in the kitchen. It’s all empty. There are little reminders though, as he makes his way through the house.

Gloria’s take-away which is still sitting in its container in the fridge, clearly marked with her name not to have any curry mix-ups.

Boltund’s second-favourite ball is lying out in the garden by the terrace door next to a pair of Gloria’s ballerina slippers that she’d been using for quick trips through the garden, and there’s black and white hair that Linoone has shed all over the grey tiles of the kitchen floor.

He gets out food for his own Pokémon, ignoring the extras of Gloria’s that the pantry is still stocked with. He fucks up when opening a new bag of treats for Inteleon, and they’re scattered all over the kitchen counter, some of it dropping to the floor. He’ll clean it tomorrow.

He lets his Pokémon out of their balls both for their company and in order to feed them. Mr Rime sees the mess and immediately goes for the broom. Charizard gives Leon a headbutt on the shoulder and a low rumble in sympathy, before lumbering off with his food along with Inteleon.

Dragapult is acting weird though. He squints even more than usual, looking around, and when he doesn’t find what he’s looking for, he hisses at Leon in a way he hasn’t since he first got caught. Then he fades to invisibility. The only reason Leon knows the Pokémon is still there, is because the food is steadily disappearing.

Leon chooses not to take it personally. Over the past week Dragapult and both Dreepy have taken quite a liking to Gloria, following her around whenever they aren’t busy playing with Boltund and Linoone. It would be logical that they would blame Leon for her not being there, which is technically the truth.

“I miss her too, buddy,” he tells the dragon and hears a huff in response. The food keeps disappearing.

A small tickle and a trickle of cold near his ear lets him know that a Dreepy is about to make a nest in his hair, meaning that Dragapult can’t be too upset with him.

He gives the Dreepy a light scratch under its chin and directs it back towards the food bowl.

Upstairs, Gloria’s toothbrush is still in the cup on the counter, and the scent of her shampoo is still lingering slightly from her shower that morning.

He goes about his business on autopilot, feeling weirdly empty. He brushes his teeth, brushes his hair, changes his briefs, and goes to bed.

He’s still buzzed from the champagne, and he should probably be all sorts of exhausted; he is all sorts of exhausted, but he’s also so off-kilter.

Everything is too quiet. The bed is too cold. He misses Gloria and for a few moments he lies on his back and lets himself be sad about the way things are.

He petulantly thinks that it isn’t fair that they have to hide. If he had his way he’d have taken Gloria with him. They’d get dressed up and they’d have fun. She’d be so beautiful! They could dance and laugh and sneak off together to snog. It isn’t fair.

He rolls over on his side, facing her side of the bed. He grabs her duvet and scrunches it up to hug as he wiggles over and buries his face in her pillow.