Chapter Text
“Blaze! Blaze, ziken!”
Han only rolled their eyes at their Blaziken as she picked out a maroon puff sleeved dress with a square neckline, “Blaziken, that’s like date night wear, this is a boring ass dinner hosted by Rose!”
Blaziken huffed as she put it away and went digging through their closet once more to find something more suited for their trainer to wear. Eventually the muttering and grumbling ceased from Blaziken as she quickly picked out a pair of dress pants and a black silky button up with a little bit of shoulder padding to square up their figure a little.
“That’s more like it… you think I should dye my hair before the season fully starts?” Han asked as they held up the shirt and pants up to their body as they looked in the mirror. To which Blaziken happily chirped in response, almost as if saying that they didn’t have an opinion, and Han nodded in response, “Dad would have a heart attack,”
“Eevee~” Han and Blaziken looked over to the bed, the baby Eevee waking up from his nap as they stretched and sat up. A temporary addition to their team as they were hatching Eevees to help boost the local eevee population.
Han laid their outfit down as they walked over to pet Eevee, “Hey bud, you have a good nap?” The Eevee quietly purred in response as they nuzzled into Han’s hand. Han quickly glanced at the clock, flashing 7:00 right now. Giving Eevee one last pet, they walked over to change into the outfit that Blaziken had picked out and then sat down at their vanity. Picking out a single tie clip with a small firestone from their accessory box, they clipped it to their button up and grabbed their phone and wallet and went to go touch up their face and hair. Feeling more masc, they opted out of any lighter makeup and went for a bit of eyeliner and smoked out the wing. They fixed their hair into a small half up do, sticking a traditional Kanto hairpin into their hair to keep it up.
*Knock knock*
“花火(Hanabi)？Heading out?” Kabu stuck his head in to check what was going on.
“Chairman Rose invited us out for dinner, it feels weird that I’m not going with you as your plus one like Melony and Gordie…” Han looked back at Kabu through the mirror. He gave them a gentle smile and walked up behind them.
“Well, I think I need a break from seeing Rose anyway, so you would be doing me a favor. The man is so hyper focused on his achievements he doesn't realize he's running his champions thin,” Kabu sighed, walking over and readjusting the hairpin and adding a chain of firestones to the end of it, “Make sure Leon is eating, and Raihan isn’t too exhausted. The two of them created an unhealthy codependency on each other…”
Han rolled their eyes, nodding anyway, ”Listen at least they aren't as self centered as Gordie, you see how he treats Melony now?”
“He’s a troublemaker, you know this quite well,” Kabu shook his head, pushing out the hair out of their eyes and tucking a few strands behind their ears,”Perhaps Melony will put aside her preference for his typing… but I am glad that you chose to keep to fire types for the gym,”
“Yeah well there's not much else I can do for Motostoke to be honest, papa,” They pointed out, "First three have to be fire, water, and grass, league rules,”
Kabu sighed, gently pushing their head forward, teasing them a little, “Well if you didn’t take up my position one of the other minor league gym leaders would take it, so at least you kept it in our family is what I'm trying to say, Hanabi,”
Kabu quietly rummaged through their accessory case and found a small stone, a small holo shift inside. He rolled it around in his hand and tried to find the clasp before clipping it to the end of the hairpin. The trainer nodded, looking around for their poke balls to grab a partner for the evening.
“Blaziken?”
“Nah, I’ll bring out Talonflame today, he needs to not nap all day, and I think he’ll want to play with Raihan’s Flygon,”
“Okay then, be safe,”
“行ってきます！”
“行ってらっしゃい,”
The Corviknight taxi was uneventful, a quick flight from Motostoke to Wyndon was more or less a straight path, avoiding a few flocks of pidoves in the air before landing.
The fire master fed the Corviknight a few berries and paid the taxi coordinator, thanking them with a slight bow as they stepped out of the carriage and fixed up their attire to go inside the Rose Tower and go to the dinner.
Stepping through the doors, the league receptionist greeted the fire master with a smile, “The dinner party is on the 4th floor, there’s a set menu with options for you and your Pokémon, please enjoy your night,”
Again with a quick thank you, the fire master made their way to the elevator and set the destination to the fourth floor, the doors halfway closed before a particular turquoise-eyed gym leader showed up inside the elevator, ”Heh, hey, Firework, how’s it going?”
“It's… It's going, I’m fine for the most part but you know how my dad is, he's on his break. I think he's full in his mid life crisis and here I am barely at my quarter life crisis because I just wanted to travel and potentially move into Pokemon Conservation,” The fire gym leader rambled on, making Raihan chuckle a little.
He smiled, his top lip caught on his tooth as he bumped hips with Han gently, “Think of it this way, Han, you take on the load of the Fire Gym for a bit, Kabu gets over his mid-life crisis, and then you’ll be free to go to Alola and see the Aether Foundation! With me and Leon following, obviously~” He reassured Han as he called out Flygon, scratching his chin. Han gave a half hearted smile as they called out Talonflame.
The two pokemon sniffed around each other before happily playing as the Elevator reached the 4th floor, Raihan languidly leading Han into the Ballroom for the Dinner Party. The party was lowkey enough, just a few round tables with Piers and Nessa off to the side chatting.
“Heh hey, Piers, Nessa~” Raihan two-finger saluted the two as he walked over with Han, the latter waving at them in greeting.
“Hey you two!” Nessa smiled and waved, Piers doing the same as their Pokémon also ran up to greet the two Pokémon railing behind Raihan and Han.
Nessa had brought her prized Dredknaw, and Piers had brought his Scrafty, the two greeting Flygon and Talonflame cheerfully as they all went over to the Pokemon play area. The four of them chatted until the rest of the Gym Leaders showed up, Melony and Opal coming in together, Allister and Bea showing up with Milo, presumably their Guardian for the night as the two were still the youngest Gym Leaders of Galar, having proved themselves early in their own Gym Challenges a a year ago. The 8 gym leaders chatted amongst themselves, as Han gravitated towards Allister and Bea.
“Hey guys!” Han greeted warmly, waving at the two as Allister waved quietly and Bea nodded in acknowledgement.
“Hello,”
“Hi…”
“Any tips you guys have for the busy season?”
The two looked at each other, tilting their heads at each other, making Han slightly uncomfortable when the pause continued.
Bea suddenly spoke up, looking Han straight in the eye as they stood up straight, "You're meant to be an obstacle.”
“Not completely stopping them from moving on.” Allister continued, tilting their head as they continued on, standing side-by-side with Bea.
“The challengers will see your defeat as a stepping stone to Leon’s seat,”
“We’re meant to be a trophy, a fond memory, but that doesn’t mean you are a bad gym leader, after all, we are required to keep our pokemon at levels fitting for new challengers,” Allister warmly reminded, though the boy was cold with his words, Han could truly feel the hope and happiness he had for them.
Bea eventually smiled, patting Han on the back reassuringly, “Kabu did it well, so we believe in you, Han,”
“...” Allister’s head tilted up to Han for a moment before switching back to the ground, causing Han to furrow their eyebrows in confusion.
“Yes, Allister?”
“Are you still raising the baby Eevees for repopulation?”
Han nods, bringing out their Rotom phone,”Yeah! Here’s the newest litter of Eevees that hatched a few days ago,”
Though Han couldn’t tell the exact reaction, based on how Bea was also excited, they could tell that Alliter was more than ecstatic about the Eevees they were raising right now, “This one really likes to sleep, had to put them back into the main play area beforeI left,”
Han pointed to the Eevee with a fluffier scarf, Allister hummed in response, nudging Bea gently, pushing her forward to ask, “Would we be able to adopt them? I know there’s a whole problem with inbred Eevees being sold but-”
“Because of that market and the very… unethical practice of “shiny hunting”, the Eevee population has been driven down to an extremely low level, so any of the Eevees I raise are meant to go back to the wild once hatched,” Han replied apologetically, shaking their head, “I can certainly ask, but it’s likely that its impossible to get just from me, you’re welcome help in hatching more eevees from the nursery though!”
Allister practically wilted at the news, with Bea giving Han an apologetic smile as well, “That’s fine then, well go see if they have any for us! We’ll catch you later, best of luck on your first season,”
The two walked away, leaving Han alone as they frowned at their Rotom phone, there wasn’t anything… Wrong with the interaction but it still left a bitter taste in their mouth. They understood the appeal of eevees, an evolution Pokemon brimming with possibilities, hell, they had their eeveelution as well, a small little Flareon who wasn’t the best at combat but had done well during their Contest Days. Back then, they weren’t really focused on how the desire for eevees quickly led to the saturation of inbred eevees and often resulted in many passing early on in their lives.. They quickly shook their head, getting a grip back on reality, as Han wasn’t alone for long, with Leon finally arriving with the Chairman and he made a beeline for the fire master.
“Hanabi, please tell me you guys are having more fun than I was,” The purple haired boy practically sent an earthquake throughout the young trainer’s body as he violently shook them.
“a-AH! Leon stop!” They quickly put an end to the violent shaking, glaring at the older boy as they pat themselves off, “For the most part year, but seeing as Rose is here, I’m guessing dinner is about to begin,”
Leon frowned, exaggerating his expression as Han drew their attention towards the dinner tables and dragged him over to go sit, quickly finding themselves being called over to Chairman Rose’s table. Leon followed suit and sat as a buffer between the two.
“So, Hanabi, how are you feeling about your first season?” Chairman Rose took no breaks, immediately getting into the thick of his desired topics today after picking his set meal.
Han quickly glanced over to Leon, who gave a strained smile as Allister and Bea also sat down at their table, “Well, I think I’ll be okay, just nervous I won’t live up to all of my father’s fans,”
Rose nodded, understanding the feeling quite well, “We all live to make our parents proud, but that pressure is much more heavy on you, as you have fans to satisfy as well, as far as I know, you’re the first of Galar to inherit a Gym from family, is that correct?”
Han shook their head, “Opal inherited the Gym from her mother, I believe,”
“Ah yes, Dame Opal,” He mused aloud, “One of the strongest trainers of her time, I believe, it's too bad she’s so strict on her requirements for her replacement,”
Bea made eye contact with Leon and Han briefly, confused as to why it would be bad as Rose continued on, “It’s good to be picky with the inheritance but still… To hold onto the gym for over 70 years is quite impressive, Perhaps it wouldn’t be Spikemuth that fell those years ago,”
The youngest of the table nodded, roughly understanding what had happened about five years ago. Spikemuth had been deemed unsafe for hosting the Championship Cup after a faulty power spot during a match caused both trainers to be unable to Dynamax their Pokemon. Since then, the Wyndon was built, and the power spot moved from Spikemuth to Wyndon.
From the next table over, Han could hear an audible scoff from Piers, as Melony and Nessa tried to shush him and go back to their conversation. Something was wrong. But nevertheless, Han gave a strained smile to the Chairman as he continued on rambling about how Wyndon was his final goal, next to the Rose Tower of course.
“So uh, Chairman, it’s possible for my dad- er Kabu to take up the mantle for Gym Leader of Motostoke in the future right?” Han finally spoke up, having taken up the position so that the gym challenge could go on smoothly.
“Hm? Oh, Kabu, yes, of course, he can take up the position if he can prove himself in battle, the benefit of being a Galarian Gym Leader is that if you so choose to be, you can come back and participate in the final season cup for the Champion seat,” Rose explained, pulling out a small hologram from his Rotom phone, projecting it for the table and showing the brackets, “From there, we will evaluate your victories and the league will devise a plan to reintroduce former Gym Leaders into their positions, of course this is all to accommodate for the ‘lack of an elite four’ but Galar’s Gym Leaders Pose a big enough threat to our challengers leading up to Leon of course.”
Han anxiously rubbed their fingers together underneath the table, their nails scratching other fingers as they considered other options, “So it wouldn’t be possible for him to just replace me again? Like how I did for him?”
“Well now, Hanabi, you too earned your spot. You’ve defeated multiple gym leaders at their prime including Melody, Piers, and Dame Opal for that matter!” Rose attempted to boost Hanabi’s ego a little, his praise going in one side and out the other as it just made them more nervous, “How about this, if he desires it, he can fight in the tournament at the end of the season, the one amongst old and current gym leaders, and if he can say… Defeat you, or someone else of higher rank, he may return to his post. How about that?”
The fire gym leader perked up at the offer, “As long as all Pokémon are in regulation, we can use them in those tournaments and exhibition fights, correct?”
“For exhibition matches, they are allowed. The tournament is limited to only what can be allowed of the power spots, after all, Wyndon was built to be a spectacle,” Rose explained briefly, nodding as the servers began setting out their plates to be served.
Leon made brief eye contact with Han, nudging them to reassure them, ' Kabu will do fine, he’ll figure it out,’
Han could only nod in understanding, saying a quick thanks to the waiter who brought over their plate for them. Once all the plates were served, Rose quickly stood up, his wine glass lifted as a toast for everyone.
“To celebrate a smooth Season for us all, and to Hanabi, we wish you a smooth first season,” Rose smiled at Hanabi, taking a sip of his wine while the rest of the crowd drank their respective drinks.
Since alcohol was not on the table for the youngest of the gym leaders, Han joined them in enjoying a glass of sparkling apple cider. Best to not have anything too flammable before the show began.