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After Eternatus, after the championship match, after the Battle Tower, Leon goes home. Not his league house in Wyndon; that belongs to Gloria now, technically, and he was never attached to it anyway.
No, Leon goes home to Postwick.
His mom and grandparents welcome him home, of course, making sure his Pokémon are well and offering them all something to eat.
(He has time to sit down and eat with them, now; he suspects he’ll be able to do this more in the future.)
Hop is there, as always, but it seems this time he’s the one visiting in between his duties. He’s the professor’s assistant now. It’s not what Leon would have expected of him, but it fits perfectly; his little brother had always been bright.
Leon listens to everything his brother says, but he has a hard time staying focused.
He knows what the core problem is. He’s exhausted. His body still aches from the fight with Eternatus. His right ankle, in particular, still hasn’t come close to healing.
Maybe it wasn’t smart to insist on the championship match right after being released from the hospital, but he had to prove to the people of Galar that their champion was strong enough for anything.
Even if that champion wasn’t him.
Gloria is strong enough to protect the region. She has to be. She and Hop managed to finish what he couldn’t, after all.
(We were so worried about you, Lee.)
He ruffles his brother’s hair and says he’s going to bed early.
In his room, Leon turns off the lights and closes the curtains. In the dark, he feels some peace. He flops on his bed. He needs some rest, that’s all. He’ll be back to his (former) champion self in no time.
He sleeps.
For a while.
Then he starts dreaming.
He’s back on the rooftop, Charizard his only ally, and they’re staring down Eternatus. Behind them the door opens —
“LEE!”
Leon turns, stretches out his hand —
But he’s not strong enough, not fast enough.
Leon watches as Eternatus strikes, piercing Hop cleanly through his chest. He watches his baby brother’s eyes go dark, and he knows this is all his fault for not being strong enough.
Rewind.
He’s back on the rooftop, Charizard by his side. Behind them the door opens —
This time, Leon’s legs work. He jumps in front of his brother, takes the hit he knows is coming —
and this time, he watches Hop’s horrified expression. In this dream state, his thoughts come through loud and clear: my brother is dying to protect me.
And that hurts more than the claw in his ribs.
Rewind —
(You’re supposed to be unbeatable, Lee —)
Rewind —
(Get out of here, you two! It’s not safe!)
Rewind —
(Hop, please, please, don’t die, it’ll all be okay, I promise —)
Leon forces himself awake.
He grabs for his phone and checks the time. 2:21AM. An awkward time. He’s not rested, but he’s not sure he can go back to sleep, either.
Leon gets up, careful to walk softly. He would do what he usually does when he’s stressed and train with his team, but he doesn't want to wake anyone else up.
He decides to go downstairs and make hot chocolate.
He leaves his room. Across the hallway, Hop’s door is closed.
Leon feels lost.
A part of his brain, the rational part, knows that Hop is safe and sound in his room.
The part that’s been dreaming worries, what if he was hurt and you didn’t notice, and now he’s bleeding out on the floor?
It won’t hurt to check, right?
Leon opens the door without knocking.
Of course, Hop is there. He’s alive. He’s safe. He’s —
He’s crying.
He chokes back a sob. “H-hi, Lee.”
“Hey, bro.” Leon hesitates by the doorway. “Can I come in?”
Hop nods.
Leon considers pulling out the desk chair and sitting next to the bed, but his big brother instincts tell him to sit on the bed. He thinks the big brother instincts know better.
“‘M sorry for waking you up,” Hop says.
“It’s no problem. I was already awake.” His little brother doesn’t need to know why. “What’s wrong? Did you have a nightmare?”
Hop shakes his head. “It — it doesn’t matter.”
“It matters to me.”
Hop is silent for a minute, sniffling. Then he says: “You know the Circhester gym, where you pass a floor an’ all the traps fall behind you and you can see how close you were to fallin’ in one of them?”
It’s been years and years since Leon has actually had to do that mission, but he remembers it vaguely. “Yeah?”
“Everythin’ worked out for us, but I keep thinking — thinking about what would’ve happened if me an’ Gloria hadn’t come to help you. Or if the legendary Pokémon hadn’t come to help us.”
There’s no speculation about possibility: if Hop and Gloria hasn’t come to help, Leon would have died. If Hop and Gloria came but the legendary Pokémon didn’t, all three of them would have died.
But out of habit Leon says, as he’s always said when Hop was scared, “It would've been fine, don’t worry. After all, I’m the unbeat —“
He falls silent.
He’s not the unbeatable champion anymore, is he.
It’s strange. Once upon a time, Leon had cultivated that image. Part of it was for the people of Galar, of course, but part of it was for his baby brother, so tiny and anxious then. Having an unbeatable champion made them all feel safe. Leon hadn’t thought about how that would change when he eventually lost.
“Gloria was gonna run after you,” Hop admits. “It was only ‘cause I asked her to come with me that we got the sword an’ the shield we needed instead.”
Leon has to smile at that, a small smile. He’s disappointed, but not surprised. Gloria was more like him that most people realized.
He wonders if she’s awake in her room right now, crying over a nightmare. She doesn’t have an older brother to talk to. Worse, she’s the Champion now; people will be expecting her to be unbeatable even in the face of certain death.
He thinks of the two bright-eyed kids he’d endorsed at the beginning of it all, and he’s sorry.
“I keep thinking… what if we weren’t strong enough?”
Hop’s breath wavers. He’s holding back sobs. Leon pulls him into a hug and starts rubbing his back. (They haven’t done this since they were kids.)
“It’s okay, you can cry. It’s okay.”
Hop breaks down. He squeezes Leon’s chest and sobs messily into his shirt.
It’s all the comfort Leon can give, right now.
It’s surreal, the idea that not everything can be solved by winning a battle. He was strong, and Gloria was strong, and Hop was strong — but the only reason they were all alive now was because Hop had the foresight to call on the legendary Pokémon. Where did that leave the Galar region? Where did that leave them?
Eventually, Hop calms down. Does he feel better, or does he simply not have any tears left in him?
Leon loosens his grip. “Tell you what. I was going to go downstairs and make hot chocolate. Why don’t you come down with me and have some, too?”
Hop nods.
They walk downstairs, Leon leaning on the hand rest to ease the weight on his hurt ankle.
If Hop sees the weakness, he doesn’t say a word.