Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

She woke up, alone, in a hospital. It must have been nighttime, because the sky outside her window was pitch black. 

She blinked at the window in confusion. She wasn’t supposed to be alone, a feeling in her gut told her, and it wasn’t supposed to be nighttime. How did she know that? 

How had she gotten here? 

She blinked out at the window again, and frowned. While she was at it, what was her name? 

“Champion Gloria?” 

She turned at the sound of a voice, and saw a nurse walk into her hospital room. “Champion Gloria, you’re awake!” the nurse said, a smile blossoming over her face. “How are you feeling?” 

Champion Gloria. That must have been her. She opened her mouth to speak, couldn’t get a word out, cleared her throat, and tried again. “How did I get here?” 

The nurse’s smile faded. “You were ambushed by Team Exit,” she said. “Your pokemon were scattered, but your partner is out rescuing them now.” 

Pokemon...the word reverberated like a bell inside her head. She shot upright in bed and shouted, “Cinderace!” 

“Never left your side,” the nurse said. “It was quite worried about you when you were brought in, but Professor Hop managed to calm it down before anything was accidently burned. It went with him to help re-capture the rest of your team, but they should both be back as soon as they can.” 

She bit her lip and stared at the nurse. “Who’s Professor Hop?” she asked quietly. “I can trust him, right?” 

The nurse’s face fell into an unreadable mask. “I can answer the rest of your questions when we’re finished the medical examination,” the nurse said. “Please answer these questions as honestly as you can, Champion Gloria. What’s the last thing you remember?” 

She shrugged. “Waking up here, I guess.” 

“I’m going to go find your doctor,” the nurse said, and then left. 

Gloria - Champion was just a title, the doctor had explained - didn’t know what today’s date was, or how she got there, or who she was. The only things she could describe as missing was Cinderace by her side and the weight of five other pokeballs on her hip. She was led down to the lab and was in the middle of some kind of brain scan when there was a loud boom, like thunder, and the sky suddenly brightened back to high-noon blue. 

There was the sound of cheering from out in the hospital walls. 

“He did it!” said one of the lab techs. 

“Of course he did,” said the other one. “He helped Gloria catch it the first time, after all, and they’ve both only gotten stronger.” 

“I didn’t realize how strong he was, what with the Champion around all the time. This is a relief.” 

The doctor entered the lab again, a big smile on his face. “The scan is complete, Gloria. Are you feeling any differently?” 

Gloria shook her head and got up off the lab table. “No. Should I?” 

The doctor shrugged, his smile fading slightly as he consulted his clipboard. “It was a long shot, but we were concerned your head trauma may have been exacerbated by the return of the Darkest Day. However, it seems like Professor Hop has managed to take care of things, so if you’re still experiencing memory problems then it is likely unrelated.”

He started leading the way back to her hospital bedroom. “I’d like to keep you here overnight for observation, as well as to consult with the Professor.”

“Alright,” Gloria said. “When should I start remembering things?” 

“It’s different in every case,” the doctor said. “It may come back as you heal from your physical head trauma. It may come back when you see a trigger. It may come back to your at your own pace, or it may never come back.” 

“Never come back?” Gloria echoed. “I would hate to abandon my Pokemon like that.” 

The doctor sent her a shrewd look. “I’m sure they’ll forgive and accept you as you are,” he said. “Absolutely no pokemon battling until you are medically cleared, no matter what that partner of yours says. Understood?” 

Gloria frowned. The only partner she really remembered was Cinderace, and she didn’t think Cinderace could push her into something like that. “Understood,” she said anyways. 

The nurse was waiting back at her hospital room. “How are you feeling, Champion Gloria?” 

“A little sore, but that’s all,” Gloria answered. 

“I have some of your things here,” the nurse said, putting a backpack on the nightstand. “Professor Hop just called - he still has to find your Appletun, but he promised to be back here immediately after that.” 

Gloria squirmed as she sat down on the edge of her bed. She didn’t like the idea of a stranger handling all her pokemon, but she kept the thought to herself, as the rest of the staff seemed to have a very positive opinion of the guy. But really, what kind of name was Hop?  

“I recommend going through your pokedex, as well as recent journals, if you have any,” the doctor said. 

“Your Rotom Pokedex is right here,” the nurse said, pulling a tablet out of the backpack. “And your remote is at the side of the bed. Page us if you need anything, alright?” 

“Yes,” Gloria agreed, hastily grabbing the tablet and pulling up her recent records as the doctor and nurse left her room. There were clear details of training plans, team compositions, and battle records, but very little information outside of the realm of pokemon. Her recent battles were all names of people she didn’t recognize, so she sighed and switched over to her collection of trainer cards instead. 

There was no ‘Professor Hop’ listed under the P’s, and no “Hop” listed under the H’s. 

“Oh, come on,” Gloria muttered to herself, staring at the only professor card she had - one Professor Magnolia, a stern-looking old woman that seemed to radiate disapproval through her picture. 

Professor Hop must be new, then. Hop - what a short, scrimpy name for a probably short and scrimpy professor. She could practically picture him, small and balding and just eager to get her hands all over her poor pokemon. Why else would he have taken Cinderace away? 

“Gloria!” a voice called out from the door, and she barely had time to turn her head before she was tackled by someone in a jean jacket with fur lining. She stiffened, and the man -

(the amazing smelling man, for the record. Best smelling hug she’d ever had in her 1 hour of memory) 

- pulled away a few inches, just enough space to give her room to think. “Gloria, I’m so glad you’re okay,” he said, voice wobbling. He had tan skin, dark hair, and gorgeous caramel colored eyes that seemed to be... watering?  

Beautiful eyes or not, Gloria was not in the business of being tackle-hugged by strangers. She pushed him away a few more inches and said, “I’m sorry, sir, I’m actually waiting for a very important guest.”

The man blinked adorably. “What?” 

Maybe the attractive man could help her. “Pokemon Professor Hop, if you know him,” she said. “He has all my pokemon.” 

The man let out a sigh of what seemed to be relief, and swung his own backpack off his back. “Yeah, yeah, I’ve got all six right here,” he said. “Should have known who you’d want to see first. Cinderace is positively dying to check up on you - it took a lot of sweet-talking to get him to not burn down the lobby of this place out of anxiety.” 

Gloria frowned. “Wait. You have my…?”

The man was pulling a pokeball out of his backpack as she spoke. “Go, Cinderace!” he shouted, and then suddenly her only memory was here in the flesh. 

“Cinderace!” she cried, and her best friend immediately jumped into her arms and started hugging her. Pokemon now in her arms, Gloria stared back at the man who’d brought it to her. 

“You must be Professor Hop,” she realized out loud. Far from the short, mean old man she had pictured, Professor Hop was tall, with short spikes of purple-black hair and long eyelashes and frankly overall good looking. 

His smile faded. “Not funny, Glo. I know you’ve had it worse, but I’ve had kind of a rough morning too.” 

“Do I have your trainer card?” Gloria asked. “I couldn’t find you in my records.” 

“What?” he said 

She shook her head as if to clear it, and Cinderace got off her and sat down between her and the professor on the bed. “I’m sorry, I should explain. I have amnesia from the attack this morning, and I can’t remember anything. People told me that you were out re-catching my released pokemon, but that was all I knew and I couldn’t find your trainer card in my collection.”

“Amnesia,” the professor said, and suddenly he grabbed her hand and held it in both of hers. “Do you remember me?” 

She frowned. “I’m sorry,” she said earnestly. “I don’t.” 

He dropped her hand like it was a hot coal, and stood up and took a step back away from her. “I...I’m going to go find your doctor,” he stammered, looking anywhere but at her. 

She frowned. “Okay, but-”

He bolted out of the room before she could complete her sentence. 

“-the rest of my pokemon,” she finished out loud to the empty space. Sighing, she looked at Cinderace. “Hey, buddy. I’m glad your back with me. I remember you.” 

Cinderace’s ears flicked down behind its head, and it blinked up at her with sad eyes. 

“I’ll be okay,” Gloria said. “I’ll get the rest of you guys back from the mad-dash professor over there, and then we’ll all be together again, ok? It was nice of you to help him track down the others.” 

Cinderace hopped forward and stuck out its head, and Gloria smiled to herself and raised her left hand to pet it. As she raised her hand, something caught her eye. 

“Is that...a wedding ring?” she wondered out loud, pulling her hand closer to her. It was a simple band, a cool silver with no embellishments, nothing that could snag on a pokemon. She slid the ring off her fourth finger to find a small inscription on the inside: Sword and Shield. 

What the heck kind of wedding inscription was that? 

She heard footsteps outside her room and quickly slid the wedding ring back on, just in time before Professor Hop made a reappearance inside her room. “Hey,” the professor said roughly, reaching up to rub the back of his neck with one hand. The idea struck Gloria suddenly that he might have a matching ring on, and she felt herself warming to the idea.  “Sorry I ran out on you like that.” 

“That’s okay,” Gloria said. “My pokemon?” 

He pursed his lips. “The doctor recommended returning to your work slowly, and I agree with him. There’s a reason that Gym badges are a requirement to control higher level Pokemon, and if you don’t remember anything…I’m afraid an incident might occur.”

She frowned. “You can’t keep them from me forever.” 

“I’m not going to,” Professor Hop reassured. “Starting tomorrow, I’m going to go after Team Exit - they’ve been assaulting people and kidnapping and releasing pokemon all over Galar, and they need to be stopped. You can’t just drop a confused, scared, and powerful pokemon in the middle of a dynamax-capable city and expect there not to be-” he cut himself off, and clenched his jaw. 

Gloria glanced at Cinderace, and was struck with a quick vision of her pokemon, as tall as a castle, blasting fire from the heavens. Dynamax. “Right,” she said, a bit disappointed. 

“Do you want to come with me?” 

Gloria looked back at Professor Hop sharply. He was wringing his hands and had the most hopeful expression on his face. “Yes,” Gloria breathed instantly - she was powerless not to, not with him looking at her like that - and dropped her gaze to his hands. 

His left hand. 

He wasn’t wearing a ring. 

She inhaled sharply, but he didn’t seem to notice, as he leapt forward and swept her up in a hug again. “Yes!” he yelled into her ear, and then pulled back, blushing a little but not hiding the ecstatic smile on his face. “Sorry, I know I’m still a stranger to you right now, but if we stick together I know you’ll remember everything you need to. This is going to be ace, Gloria. A real adventure, just like when we were kids.” 

She swallowed, her head still reeling like she’d just been kicked in the gut. She'd been so sure that he must have been her husband. 

Professor Hop sat down on the edge of her bed, swinging his dangling legs and grabbing her Rotom Tablet. “I am positive you still have my trainer card,” he chattered, pulling up her collection and flicking through it. “Just where - aha! You’ve still got me under rival, that’s adorable.” 

“Let me see,” Gloria demanded breathlessly, and he passed the tablet to her. She stared with wide eyes at the image below - it was Professor Hop from at least 10 years ago, a foot shorter and making an expression too fierce to really fit his face. Rival Hop, her label read. “We really were kids, Professor,” she said out loud. 

His smile flickered. “Call me Hop,” he said, and then turned back to her collection. “Oh, look, you’ve still got Bede and Marnie filed under rival as well. Don’t you ever update these things?” 

“I like it,” Gloria blurted out, and then froze. 

When Hop turned back to her, a small smile playing on his lips, it felt like a million Butterfrees were flapping in her stomach. She fought back a blush and looked down again at her trainer card collection so he couldn’t see her face. 

She could not have a crush on someone who was not her spouse. 

Hop spent the next few hours going through the basics with her - Pokemon types, Galar geography, a rudimentary plan to weed out Team Exit. She screwed up her courage and finally asked the question she’d been dying to ever since she saw the wedding ring. “Hey, Hop - what about my family?” 

He looked up and snapped his fingers. “Shoot, you’re right. In all the excitement of today, I completely forgot about it. I can take care of calling your mum and everyone for you, if you like.” 

Gloria nodded, and then asked softly, “Can I see them?” 

Hop winced. “No, unfortunately. The entire Galar region is on lockdown after the Corviknight taxi service was attacked. No travel allowed except for special circumstances.” 

“Like you going after Team Exit?” she asked. 

“Us going after Team Exit,” he corrected. “You’re the champion here, mate. I’m with you.” 

“That seems silly,” she said. “I don’t remember anything. How much use am I going to be?” 

“You’re a great Pokemon trainer,” Hop said. “The best there ever was. I’m lucky to be on your team.” 

“I’m lucky to have you,” Gloria said, and then bit her tongue. “I mean, for my recovery and everything. Showing me stuff. That’s it. Nothing else.”

His eyes looked gold from the light of the setting sun filtering in through the window. “Right,” he said, searching her face for something. “Well, visiting hours are almost over. I’ll pick you up here tomorrow?” 

“Sounds like a plan.” 

“Right,” Hop said again, and then cleared his throat. “Night, Cinderace. Goodnight...Gloria.” 

She couldn’t read the look he was giving her. Hop made an aborted motion with his head, and then turned on his heel and walked out the door. 

She stared at his back the whole way out, and felt guilt bubble up in her stomach. Guilty because - when Hop said her family couldn’t come see her, she was relieved.

As long as Hop was with her, she didn’t want to meet whoever her real spouse was.

Chapter Text

Hop met her around noon the next day with a fresh change of clothes and a list of instructions from the doctor to keep her away from too much vigorous activity. 

“No wild area,” Hop read off from a piece of paper. “Well...no wild area for at least two days, doc, I can give you that.” 

Gloria tightened the straps on her backpack and hurried after him out of the hospital. The city streets were deserted. “Where is everyone?” 

“Lockdown,” Hop answered distractedly. “I think you going down and the Darkest Day really shook everyone up. Alright, first stop Hulbury, I think - Nessa just reported a problem down at the port.” 

“Hulbury - a lot of water-type pokemon around there, yeah?” 

“Nessa does lead the water-type gym,” Hop confirmed. 

She glanced down to the singular pokeball on her hip. “Cinderace is a fire-type.”

“I’m aware,” Hop said. 

“Can I have one of my other pokemon?” 

He sighed. “Are you sure you’re up for it?” 

“I’m not made of glass, Hop,” she said. “In fact, I’ll challenge you for it. One-on-one pokemon battle.” 

He stopped in his tracks, turning around to face her. “Now that’s interesting,” he said. “Are you sure you know how to battle?” 

“I did some reading last night,” she answered coyly. 

“It’s on the doctor’s not recommended list,” he said. 

She leaned in even closer, looking up at him - wow, he was tall. “I’m sure you’ll be gentle with me,” she said. “It being my first time and all.” 

Hop took two steps backwards and started coughing explosively, pounding on his chest with one fist. Gloria jumped at the loud noise and looked down at the ground. Yeah, she definitely crossed a line there - Hop was clearly uncomfortable. “We don’t have to, though,” she said to the pavement. “If you don’t think battling is a good idea-”

“Whoa, whoa, hey,” Hop interrupted, plucking a pokeball off his belt. “What kind of rival would I be if I didn’t give you your first pokemon battle?” 

She looked up, her gaze flying to his. “Yeah?” 

“Of course, “ he said. “You know, our very first battle ever was against each other, too. You had Scorbunny, back then, and I had - Dubwool, go!” 

Gloria’s face broke out into a grin. “Cinderace!” she said. “Use Pyro Ball!” 

“Double edge!” Hop ordered. “Reversal-”

“Flame rush!” Gloria suggested, and Cinderace was faster, and just like that Dubwool had fainted. “Nice work, Cinderace!” 

Hop recalled his pokemon, and he had a small smile playing on his lips despite the loss. “This really is just like old times,” he said. 

Her heart was pounding. “We’re good rivals,” she observed.  

“Yeah,” he said, rummaging through his backpack and pulling out another pokeball. “Well, a deal’s a deal. One more pokemon, coming up. If I remember correctly, you guys met just outside Motostoke when we were kids, so this is pretty close.”

He tossed it to her, and Gloria caught the pokeball with eager hands. “Perfect,” she breathed, allowing Hop’s words to stroke her memory, and she suddenly knew exactly what name to call. “Toxtricity, go!” 

Toxtricity was thrilled to see her, tapping its chest so quickly that a low baseline thrum came out almost like a purr. Gloria laughed and pet its head, glancing up at Hop to see an almost wistful smile on his face.  “Hey, Hop,” she called out, and for the first time she remembered a clear memory of him - young, surrounded by orange brick, staring at her with the same wistful face. “You had a Toxel once too, didn’t you?” 

He raised his eyebrows. “Yeah, actually,” he said. “Once. Briefly. You remember that?” 

“It just came to me!” she announced, gleeful. 

“Do you remember anything else?” 

She froze. All the other details - where the orange brick town was, what they were doing there, why past Hop had been looking so down - they were still missing. “No,” she said. “Sorry.” 

Hop blinked at her, once, and then snorted and shook his head. “Not your fault. No apologizing for stuff like that, you hear? All that matters is that we’re together.” 

How was her heart not supposed to flutter when he was as kind to her as that? “Alright,” she agreed. “To Hulbury, then?” 

“Let’s be off,” he said, and they started down into Galar Mine 2. 

Where Motostoke had been full of red brick industrial buildings, Hulbury was bright blue all over. 

“This sun,” Hop groaned, squinting as he pulled a pair of sunglasses out of his bag. “It’s like its going straight for my eyes.” 

“You could get a hat,” Gloria suggested, pulling her own lower over her brow. 

“It’s too hot for a hat,” Hop said, shrugging off his jacket so he was down to a black t-shirt. “Plus, eugh. I don’t want to look even more like Leon than I already do.”

“Leon?” she questioned. 

He turned to her, eyebrows raised behind his glasses. “Le - oh, right. My brother. He was the champion before you. He’s still pretty famous - he’s chairperson of the league, now.”

“So he looks like you with a hat?”  

“I like to think I’m prettier,” Hop said, sweeping a hand through his hair dramatically and tossing his head.

Gloria laughed. “I guess I’ll have to meet him and see.” 

“We’ll make it to Wyndon eventually,” Hop said. “If you don’t remember him by then. He’s the one who originally sponsored the both of us for the gym challenge.” 

“That’s nice of him.” 

“I certainly begged him enough,” Hop said, looking around. The streets were once again deserted, despite the gorgeous weather. “Okay, if you were Team Exit, where would you-”

An ear-piercing shriek filled the air. 

“Was that a Gyarados?!” Hop shouted, and then he took off running. 

“Hop, wait-”

“Rillaboom, GO!” 

If there was anything faster than a sprinting Hop, it was Hop’s ginormous monkey companion. Gloria cursed under her breath and started running after her rival - down the hill, around a fence, down some more stairs, onto a creaky wooden dock where Hop had skittered to a halt next to a dark-skinned woman with long hair. They both stood, on the dock that looked like it could collapse any second, in front of a red Gyrados the size of a stadium. 

They could die here, Gloria realized suddenly, reaching for her belt with shaking. “Toxtricity!” she yelled, and took her place next to Hop on the dock. “Overdrive!” 

“Drum beating!” 

Both moves hit - Toxtricity’s shock in particular seemed to enrage the Gyrados, singeing the tips of its fins. It roared even louder - enough to shake the doc under their feet - and sent out a giant tsunami towards them. 

The dark-skinned woman on Hop’s far side had her Quagsire throw out an ice punch, freezing the tsunami in its tracks and sending it crashing back into the sea. Little specks of ice hit the Gyrados right in the eyes, and it flinched, roaring in pain. 

“It’s weak, now’s our chance!” Gloria shouted to her teammates. “Toxtricity, use Boomburst!” 

Hop turned to her, eyes widening, as Toxtricity let out a terrible, explosive sound. 

The Gyrados went down. 

The soundwave went wide, and dock next to her crumbled with it.

The last thing she saw of Hop and Rillaboom were them falling down into the sea. 

“HOP!” the woman next to them screamed, pointing her Quagsire down into the bay. She threw out another Pokemon, and a Drednaw appeared and was quickly ushered into the ocean as well. 

Gloria was shaking. Toxtricity was looking back at her with wide, alarmed eyes. “I - I - it’s not your fault,” Gloria stammered to it. “I - oh god, Hop-”

The Quagsire burst back onto the surface, Rillaboom hanging onto its back. Rillaboom climbed back up onto the concrete ledge, shivering, while Drednaw came back up a second later, holding a gasping Hop in its jaw by the back of his shirt. 

“Hop!” the woman said again, running over and helping pull Hop up out of the water. He was only using one hand himself, the other wrapped around his soaking backpack. “Are you alright? Can you breath?” 

Hop heaved himself up into a sitting position, pushing the woman away, and dumped out the contents of his backpack out onto his lap and frantically started counting pokeballs.

“Search for anyone else that needs help,” the woman ordered her pokemon, and Quagsire and Drednaw dove back into the water. The woman then rounded on Gloria. “What were you thinking?!” 

Gloria was frozen in place. “I - I - ”

“You could have gotten him killed with a stunt like that!” 

Hop let out a wheezing cough and interrupted, “I had an egg! There was an egg in my bag, it’s not here-”

The woman turned back around, and pulled one more pokeball off her belt. “Barraskewda, there’s a pokemon egg in the Harbor. Bring it back to us.”

Hop slumped. “Thanks, Nessa.”

“Thank you for coming,” Nessa said briskly - Nessa, the water-type gym leader here, Gloria remembered. “Team Exit got the jump on one of my gym trainers and kidnapped her Gyrados. It got confused and Dynamaxed - but Gloria, really, how could you do that to an ally?” 

Gloria blinked, and her eyes started to water. 

“It’s not her fault,” Hop said, and started depositing his pokemon back in his bag. “She has amnesia, I shouldn’t have given Toxicity back without explaining everything.”     

“Amnesia?” Nessa said, turning from Hop to Gloria and back again. “Is she qualified to use those pokemon?” 

“She just has two,” Hop said, and pushed himself to his feet. “I’m supposed to be looking after her. It’s my fault, really.” 

“No,” Nessa said simply, narrowing her eyes. “There’s a reason we have the gym system here. If she’s not qualified to use a pokemon, she shouldn’t have it.” 

Gloria’s eyes filled up with tears, and she screwed them shut. Nessa was right - she should have remembered that Boomburst went wide, she should have known all the facets of all moves by heart rather than just memorizing a movesheet, she could have killed her closest friend-

“We’re fine,” Hop’s voice, suddenly closer than normal, and she opened her eyes to see Hop standing right in front of her, placing a hesitant hand on her shoulder. “I’m fine,” he repeated, squeezing the top of her arm slowly. He was still soaking wet, water dripping off his hair. “It’s okay, don’t cry.” 

“I hurt you,” Gloria said, words tumbling from her mouth. “I’m sorry, I’m so so sorry-”

“Quaaaaa!” a cry came from the water, and they both turned to see Quagsire pop up with a Pokemon egg in its fins. 

“You found it!” Hop exclaimed, dropping his hold on Gloria and rushing over to the edge of the water. “Great job! Thank you so much!” 

“Good job, Quagsire,” Nessa added. “Are you good to surf?” The pokemon nodded as Hop gently took the egg, and Nessa turned back to the two of them. “I’m going to go after that Gyarados again - it’s a regular size now, and it probably misses its human. The port is closed, and there are no more members of Team Exit in Hulbury - my staff took care of that.” 

Hop nodded distractedly, cradling the egg to his chest. “Got it, Nessa. I think we’re headed off to Hammerlocke next to check in.” 

“Raihan could use the help,” Nessa said, and her eyes darted to Gloria. “But only the help. Gloria, I mean no disrespect, but after this Team Exit fiasco is taken care of I will be forced to recommend you re-complete the gym challenge in order to remain as champion.”

“Oh, come on,” Hop said. “She’s still recovering-”

“She’s right, Hop,” Gloria interrupted. “I could have really hurt you, and then I’d never forgive myself.” 

“Rubbish,” Hop muttered, but he looked back down at his egg, and started to scrub some of the sand off it with the edge of his still sopping t-shirt. Nessa shrugged, and with a soft word stepped onto the back of her Quagsire and started surfing off out onto the bay. 

“Hop,” Gloria repeated, now that it was just the two of them. “I’m so, so-”

“Don’t apologize,” Hop interrupted, still scrubbing at the egg. “You saw an opportunity, you took it.” 

“I shouldn’t have. You’re more important.” 

“I’m fine,” Hop snapped. “I’m fine, Rillaboom’s fine, all our pokemon are fine - eugh, that Drednaw ripped my bloody shirt when it was carrying me up-”

“Hop-”

Hop shoved the egg into her arms, and Gloria fumbled with it, surprised, as Hop reached up with both hands and pulled his t-shirt off his body in one fluid motion. “Big gaping hole in the back,” he muttered, ringing out the shirt onto the ground. 

It was all Glora could do to not let her jaw drop as she gaped at his half-naked body. 

Hop glanced up at her, and his scowl deepened. “What are you looking at me like that for? I’m fine, I’m swell, I could go for a swim again right now if you like. It was an honest mistake, Glo. Stop beating yourself up about it.” 

She swallowed, and tore her eyes away from Hop’s chest. “Don’t tell me what to do.” 

Hop snorted, and reached for his still-soaked backpack. “That’s my girl,” he said. “Just chalk this up as a learning experience, all right?” 

“If I’m not the champion anymore after this,” Gloria started, “will you have a go at it?” 

Hop swung his bag over his naked shoulders and started leading the way back up the stairs. “La-la-la, I’m not listening!” 

“Hop,” Gloria said, and started after him. Toxtricity and Rillaboom followed in their wake. 

“I’m a pokemon expert. A professor. I’ve been given a doctorate and everything. I don’t have time to listen to nonsense,” he called back over his shoulder. 

“Hop.” 

“And as a professor, I know nonsense when I hear it,” he continued, not letting up with his long strides that forced Gloria to almost run to keep up with him. “You’re the champion, and that’s that. No doubting yourself, alright? That’s kind of my shtick.” 

“You could share!” Gloria said, jogging a few steps and finally grabbing Hop by the arm. “Stop, listen. Seriously. I couldn’t stand it if anything happened to you. I’ve only known you for two days, but…” 

Hop stared at her, and his eyes softened. “Two days. I thought I said no more nonsense from you. We’ve known each other decades, memories or no. I know you still know me deep down.” 

Gloria stared up at him. “Maybe,” she said. “Still. I’m sorry.” 

The corner of his mouth twitched. “It’s okay if you love me, you know.” 

Gloria froze, and she instinctively glanced down at the hand she was holding hostage. Hop’s left hand. There was still no ring on his finger. 

“As friends, right?” she forced out. 

Hop stiffened, and withdrew his arm slowly. “Of course,” he said. “Look, how about we go get a hotel for the night? I could use a shower, and then we can rest up and head out to Hammerlocke in the morning.” 

“Sounds good,” she agreed, but he was already turning away and stalking back towards the main street. She stared at the back of Hop’s head the entire way back to their destination. 

It’s okay if you love me, you know. 

It’s okay if you love me, you know. 

What does that even mean? Hop had just been talking about how they'd known each other their entire lives - Gloria wished desperately she could remember it. Then maybe she could puzzle out what he was talking about. 

Hop hadn’t looked like he’d been talking about loving a childhood friend. Standing there, shirtless, his eyes burning into hers- 

It’s okay if you love me, you know. 

There was no way he meant like that...right? 

She was married. 

Gloria blinked as a second possibility appeared in her mind. She was married...or at the very least, engaged. 

Chapter Text

Hop wouldn’t have a ring if they were just engaged. 

Gloria and Hop separated at the hotel, Hop practically stomping into his own room to dry out his things while Gloria flew into her own and immediately started hunting down the WiFi password. She was famous, right? The pokemon champion? Surely if she’d gotten engaged recently, it would have been news. 

The first result when she searched for her name was her profile on the Pokemon League website. Champion of the Galar region for almost ten years was her most important title; there were a smattering of other ones she didn't recognize, and then they listed her hometown, and her martial status - 

Married (1 year). 

Her heart sunk. She wasn’t engaged. She was married, just...not to Hop. (Stupid. He would have told her if they were together.)

It was a link. 

She held her breath as her finger hovered over the link. She could figure out, right now, who the mystery spouse was. She could go to them, and kiss them, and try to forget the image of shirtless Hop that seemed permanently ingrained on the back of her eyelids - and she could leave Hop here to deal with Dynamaxing pokemon by himself - 

She threw her tablet onto the other side of the bed in frustration and placed one arm over her eyes. Crush or no crush, she knew leaving Hop wasn't an option. 

After a few good minutes to sulk, she reluctantly picked up the tablet again and resumed her search. All the news concerning her was about the latest pokemon championship tournament, and then nothing else really until the season before that. She watched a video of herself battling - she really had been amazing back then, almost an extension of the pokemon she was battling with. Would she ever get back to that? 

Hop thought she could.

It was just a crush, she told herself. Just a teeny, tiny little crush. Married people could get crushes. Especially married people with amnesia. It didn't mean anything. 

Maybe if she told herself that enough times, it would come true. 

With the trains and the taxi service down, they had to cross through the wild area to get to Hammerlocke. 

"If we're lucky and the weather's good, we can probably make it through in one day," Hop chattered as they headed out of Hulbury and down into the woods. "Of course, the weather usually isn't, with all the pokemon and their abilities. I'm afraid my Rotom bike's fried, and they don't have any repair people in Hulbury, so we'll have to huff it on foot." 

"I'm sorry," Gloria said again. "Were they able to fix your pokedex?" 

"Yeah, they had repair for that at least," Hop said. "And my camping gear's dried out, so we'll be all set to set up shop for the night, if we get to it." 

"Is camping fun?" 

"You've always loved camping," Hop said. "We used to go a lot, when we were younger. We've definitely slowed down on it since I got my doctorate and we got - um. Old."

Gloria threw him an affronted look. "We're not old." 

"Why camp on the ground when there's a nice bed at home, you know?" Hop asked. "Plus, you know. Back problems." 

"You don't have back problems." 

"Oh, what do you know?" Hop asked. "I could have back problems. You don't remember." 

"You're way too cavalier with that backpack to have back problems," Gloria said. 

Hop stuck out his tongue and kept walking. "Fine. You're right this time, but don't get used to it." 

"I think I will," Gloria said, as she followed Hop into the wild area proper. 

A colony of wild Onix were having some sort of territory squabble in the valley below Hammerlocke, so of course there was a giant sandstorm going on through most of their day. 

"We've had way too much sand this trip," Hop said, turning around and observing their resting point 3/4 of the way up a hill. Between their new altitude and the line of trees sheltering between them and the valley, they were now protected from most of the storm, but there was still a fierce wind whistling around them. "Sandy water in Hulbury, sandy air here - I think the sand should being staying right on the ground where it belongs, thanks." 

"No arguments from me," Gloria said, slinging her backpack off the ground and immediately letting her two pokemon out of their balls. “Hey guys, new campsite! What do you think?” 

Cinderace seemed glad to be out in the open; it hopped up and down excitedly and immediately started playing with Toxtricity. 

Hop knelt down and started rummaging through his bag. “Can’t be a campsite without camp,” he said, pulling out a can of alcohol jelly and holding it out over his shoulder for her to take. “Here, for the fire. I’m sure your Pokemon will light it for you, that’ll work if you don’t feel like gathering wood. Just let me set up the tent and we’ll be all set.” 

“Tents!” Gloria said. “Right!” She took Hop’s canned fire fuel and put it down before peaking through her own bag. “That sounds really nice, actually. My feet are tired and I...I…” She looked again, but that section of her bag was definitely empty, and there was nothing else really big enough. “I...don’t have a tent.” 

Hop looked up at her. “You don’t have a tent,” he repeated, deadpan. “Of course you don’t have a tent, you...must have forgotten it.” 

“I don’t think I left it anywhere.” 

Hop closed his eyes and shook his head, looking pained. “You may have never packed it, since you weren’t planning on needing it...going camping, I mean.” 

“Team Exit ruins everything,” Gloria said. 

“Yeah,” agreed Hop, and reopened his eyes. “Well, you have a sleeping bag, right?” 

“Yeah,” she said. 

He let out a little breath and gave her a smile that didn’t quite reach his eyes. “My tent is big. We can share, yeah?” 

“Oh, thank you,” Gloria said. “I hope I don’t snore.” 

“I’m sure you’ll be fine,” Hop said, and looked back at the ground. “Why don’t you go get a start on dinner? I can handle this.” 

She felt like she had done something wrong, but she didn’t know what - it wasn’t really her fault she didn’t have a tent, was it? He had no right to look as disappointed as he did. “Fine,” she said shortly, and snatched the fire-jelly off the ground and went to find Cinderace. 

Their curry that evening ended up burnt, and Hop’s tent was big enough that she could have spread both arms and legs as wide as she could and still have not touched him. Hop slept on his side, facing away from her, and she didn’t know how he could be in her same tent and so far away at the same time. 

He woke up the next morning with bedhead so adorable that she had to bite her tongue to keep from swooning, even though the silence between them was still oppressively heavy. Gloria walked the rest of the way to Hammerlocke with new resolve; she couldn’t keep up being in such close quarters with Hop all the time. She was probably just imprinting on him like a baby Farfetch’d. 

She’d meet new people in this new city, she promised herself. She’d meet new people and she’d try to make progress remembering her real spouse. 

There was one guard standing in front of the gates to Hammerlocke. “Who’s that?” Gloria muttered to Hop as they approached. 

“League Staff member,” he answered. “They’re usually out here. I didn’t think any would be with the lockdown, but...good for him, I guess.” 

Gloria frowned and bit her lip as they approached. The silhouette of the man gave her a bad feeling...even though he was wearing a uniform, and sunglasses, and generally didn’t look out of place. “I don’t like it,” she said. “Do we have any pokemon that know sleep?” 

Hop threw her a sharp look, but reached over his shoulder to his backpack and pulled out a great ball. “No, actually, but you do have a Psychic type,” Hop said. “Why, do you want to…?” 

Gloria hesitated, and then shook her head. She had no real evidence against the League Staff member, and she didn’t quite trust herself with a third pokemon yet anyway. “You can hang onto it.” 

“Alright,” Hop said. “Stay close to me this time, just in case, alright? You’re still recovering.” 

“I will,” Gloria said, and together she and Hop nodded to the League Staff member and entered through Hammerlocke’s gates. 

Hammerlocke was breathtaking, with its sprawling castle with gold trim and dragon gargoyles on every corner. Gloria stopped in her tracks just to take in the sights. "Wow." 

Hop, several steps ahead of her, paused and looked back around. His face melted into a fond look. "I guess it is pretty impressive, isn't it?" he said. "Hammerlocke's been home to dragon-type pokemon trainers for centuries." 

"It's gorgeous," Gloria said.

"You're almost lucky," Hop said. "You get to see everything for the first time again." 

Gloria hummed noncommittally, blinking up the bright tower at the top of the castle, when the thudding of heavy boots on the stone path interrupted her thoughts. Her eyes flicked down to land on a young woman about their age jogging towards them. 

"Gloria!" the young woman called, slowing down as she approached them. "Hop! I'm so glad you it!" The young woman was beautiful - she land long, black hair tied up in a ponytail, with one pink streak running from the base of her neck to the tips of her hair. She'd tied her ponytail up with a silver ribbon, and she was wearing a silver dress with a black leather jacket. 

A gorgeous girl for a gorgeous city , Gloria thought to herself, and looked down at the young woman's hands. 

Her fingers were covered in rings.   

“Hey, Marnie,” Hop said at her side, shocking Gloria out of her blatant stare. “What are you doing here?” 

“Spikemuth’s locked up tighter than a Cloyster,” Marnie said. “You know how hard it is to get in there if the local folk don’t want you to.”

Gloria blinked, and an image came to her unbidden: young Marie, her hair in two pigtails, leading Gloria by the hand through a dark and narrow alleyway. You deserve a fair chance, Young Marnie said. We both do. 

“I remember you,” Gloria breathed out loud, and took a step closer to Marnie. 

Marnie blinked. “What?” she asked, puzzled. 

“WHAT?” Hop echoed behind her, but Gloria wasn’t paying attention. 

“Can we go somewhere to talk?” Gloria asked. 

Marnie frowned, and looked from her to Hop and back again. “Erm...I guess,” she said, leaning back and shoving her hands in her pockets. “What’s all this about?” 

“It’s personal-” she started. 

“Gloria hit her head when she was attacked by Team Exit,” Hop interrupted. “She’s been having some memory problems.” 

Gloria shot him a dirty look. “I’m not an invalid,” she said. “I can explain things for myself.” 

“You’re a little delicate right now,” Hop said. 

She scowled harder. “Can’t I go off and talk to our friend in peace without you hovering?” 

Hop opened his mouth, and then closed it again.

“Sure,” Marnie said. “Look, no need to worry about us. Gloria and I can watch out for each other while we’re having a nice little chat. Why don’t you go check in with Raihan?” 

Hop pursed his lips. “Are you sure you don’t want me t-”

“Yes!” Glora snapped. “Seriously, Hop. You aren’t my only rival, you know!” 

Hop reared back like he’d been slapped. “Fine,” he retorted shortly, and turned on his heel and started speeding away. “Text me if you want.” 

Marnie hissed as he stalked out of earshot. “That was tough to watch. Trouble in paradise?” 

“I don’t want to talk about him,” Gloria said, tearing her eyes away from Hop’s back to look at Marnie. Marnie raised an eyebrow at her, a delicate piercing decorating the arch, and Gloria sighed. “Ever since I woke up in the hospital, he’s the only person that’s been around. He’s trying to be supportive, but it's getting to be a bit suffocating.” 

“I’m sure you two will work it out,” Marnie said, and then jerked her head down the street. “Come on, we can talk at my place. Well, it’s my brother’s place, really, but I’m crashing there.”

Gloria started following her down the stone road. “Your brother?” 

“You really do have amnesia,” Marnie said. “I don’t think anyone could voluntarily forget Piers. I inherited the dark-type gym from him - he refuses to Dynamax his pokemon, and still kicked arse in the gym ranking tournaments at the end of the year. He only ever lost to Raihan, and they ended up in a little bit of a rivalry, but…” Marnie shrugged. “Piers moved here for him, so. You know. All's well that ends well.” 

Gloria blinked, searching the scraps of her memories for Marnie’s brother. She didn’t remember him - or any gym leader - or fighting in any gyms, at all. 

Marnie frowned. “Sorry for rambling. Normally, we’re...we get on pretty well.” 

“Don’t apologize,” she said. “I’m sorry. He sounds great - I wish I could remember him.” 

They stopped in front of a dark blue door with silver trim. “He’s back in Spikemuth now,” Marnie said, pulling out her keys. “Wanted to trade off with me. He ran around with you and Hop last time this type of Dynamixing shite went crazy all over the region. Said I could go out and do some legwork this time.” 

“Really?” Gloria asked, following Marnie into the townhouse. “I...what does he look like?” 

Marnie gestured with a hand a few inches above her head to indicate height. “About this tall. Super long hair that he dyes white stripes on - his hair appointments take all day in the salon-”

“Oh,” Gloria interrupted, as an image danced in front of her eyes. She was young and standing next to young Hop while an adult with waist-length dreadlocks slid in front of them. Get out of my way, Piers, I’m the champion. 

Champion or not, you’re like, 10. 

We’re 13!

Piers from her memory turned around to stare at her with the one heavily made-up eye not hidden behind his bangs. Oh, great, you’re going to die at 13 .

“Piers did come with us,” Gloria realized out loud. “He used to complain to hide what a worrywart he was.” 

Marnie threw her a look. “Remembered something?” 

Gloria smiled slowly. “Yeah,” she said, a little triumphant. “You should have lead with the hair.” 

“Will do next time,” Marnie said, smiling back and shoving her hands in her pockets. “So. What did you want to talk about?”  

Gloria took a deep breath to steady herself, and ticked off a few mental checkboxes from a list in her head that she was just realizing was there. Attractive, check. Good pokemon trainer, check. Brother, check. They were all traits that sounded familiar, that she thought her spouse would have, and Marnie felt...well, almost. There was nothing else to do but ask, right? “Are you married?” Gloria blurted out. 

Marnie recoiled in surprise, and then wrinkled her nose. “No. I’m seeing someone, but...what does that have to do with anything?” 

“Oh,” Gloria said, and nodded to herself. Not married - not her spouse, then. Marnie seemed like a good friend, but the knowledge that they weren’t married soothed a place in Gloria’s soul she didn’t want to acknowledge. “Nothing, really, just. I am.” 

“I know, Gloria,” Marnie said, still frowning. 

“I don’t remember to who,” she said, and decided to be honest. “I wanted to make sure it wasn’t you.” 

Marnie blinked, opened her mouth, and then paused. She quirked her head to the side and furrowed her eyebrows. “I...what? What the hell have you been doing since you got out of the hospital?”

“Traveling with Hop, mostly,” Gloria answered. “Trying to find Team Exit.” 

“You and Hop are just...travelling together,” Marnie said, sounding baffled, and then turned away from her. “Oh, hell, you’re really doing this song and dance again. What is he thinking?” 

“Region’s on lockdown,” Gloria defended. “My spouse couldn’t come see me even if they wanted to. I’ve been trying to recognize someone, as we go through places, but...no luck.” 

“I know your spouse,” Marnie said, pulling out her phone. “I can go text your spouse for you, right now-”

“Oh, no, you don’t have to do that,” she said quickly, rushing forward and covering Marnie’s phone with her hand. 

“Why not?” 

Gloria swallowed. “Well, it’s not like it would do anything. I have to stay with Hop until this Team Exit thing calms down, anyway.” 

“You have to stay with Hop,” Marnie repeated, deadpan, her face expressionless. 

“Yeah,” Gloria said, and then bit her lip. “He’s a bit of a mother Cramorant, but I can’t...I can’t leave him. 

Marnie stared her down, and then suddenly her expression softened. “That’s sweet,” she said. “Stupid, but sweet. Are you sure you don’t want to know? It’d be so much easier.” 

“It wouldn’t help,” she repeated. 

Marnie jerked her phone away from Gloria’s reach. “Fine,” she agreed. “I guess if you don’t want to know, I’m not going to force you to listen. I’ve got to tell someone about this, though. You cannot reasonably expect me to go through this whole fuss again.”

Gloria blinked. “What?” 

“Who knows you guys, but doesn’t talk to Hop?” Marnie asked out loud, seemingly thinking to herself. “Not Leon, obviously, not Sonia - oh, perfect. Bede. They still can’t stand each other.”

“Who’s Bede?” Gloria asked, and then remembered her trainer card collection. “Wait - is he another rival of mine?” 

Marnie snorted and started texting. “Yeah, I guess you could say that. He’s the leader of the fairy-type gym now, and he’s calmed down since our gym challenge days. Probably ‘cause us three all work together now. Hop’s never worked for the League, though, so he and Bede still go for the throat everytime they see each other. Bede’s going to eat this shit up.” 

“Is Bede nice?” Gloria asked hesitantly. 

Marnie snorted again, still texting. “No, I wouldn’t call him nice. He’s decent, though. You’ll like him.” 

“Will I?” 

“I can’t believe you two are doing this,” Marnie said. 

“Doing what?” Gloria asked, and then clarified, “Which two?” 

“You and that spouse of yours,” Marnie said, and put her phone away. “Obviously. Okay, let’s go find Hop again.” 

Hop met them back outside the Hammerlocke Gym. “Hey,” he said, mouth tight. “I just got an emergency call from a Pokemon center. They need a doctor, so I’ve got to go.” 

“Oh man,” Gloria frowned. “We just got here. We didn’t find a thing to do with Team Yell.” 

Marnie threw her a strange look. “You mean Team Exit?” 

Gloria frowned. “Yeah. What’d I say?” 

Hop started frowning harder. “Nevermind,” he said. “You want to stay here, Gloria?” 

“What?” she said. “Without you? Are you kidding me? You’ve still got my Pokemon.” 

He looked down. “Right,” he said. 

Gloria took a step closer, suddenly feeling guilty. “Plus, you know,” she added awkwardly. “We’ve got to do the mission. Even though we haven’t found much, so far.” 

“Sucking royally at this weeding out evil thing this time round,” he muttered in agreement. “It’s been a really sucky week.” 

“Well, at least we never unpacked,” Gloria said, taking a step towards Hop and hitching her bag up higher on her shoulders. “Bye, Marnie. It was nice to meet you. I’m sorry we have to run off like this.” 

Marnie shrugged. “Eh, it’s okay. There’s a stray gym challenger who got lost out on Route 6, so I was just going to be waiting around for them anyway.” 

“Say hello to Piers for us,” Hop said. “We’ll see you around, I’m sure.”

“Definitely,” Marnie answered. “Bye, Hop. And, Gloria-” she grabbed Gloria by the arm and tugged her close to whisper in her ear. “Hop hasn’t changed his hair.” 

Gloria threw Marnie a confused look. “What?” she whispered back. 

“Hop’s hair,” Marnie repeated, voice low enough that Hop couldn’t hear. “Hasn’t changed. He’s had the same style the whole time.” 

“O….kay,” Gloria muttered. “Uh, thanks? I guess?” 

Marnie dropped her arm and rolled her eyes. “Whatever. Say hi to Bede for me.” 

“I don’t…” Gloria started, but Marnie skipped away, waving over her shoulder at the two of them. 

“Alright?” Hop asked.  

“I guess,” she answered. “I’m good to head off if you are. I feel a little bad leaving without finding anything out about Team Exit, though.” 

Hop started leading the way out of the city. They were heading west, this time. “It’s been too quiet,” he agreed. “Like we just can’t find the center of the action, this time. How was your chat with Marnie?” 

“It was fine,” she answered. “Wasn’t exactly what I was looking for, but she tried to help. I think. It was a little confusing.” 

“Was she rude to you?” he asked, brow furrowing in concern. 

“Nah,” Gloria said, shaking her head. “She’s nice. Just a bit direct, is all.” 

He relaxed. “Yeah, that’s Marnie, all right.” 

“I’ll have to catch up with her again later,” Gloria said. “She mentioned her brother, Piers? Said we used to travel around with him?” 

Hop smiled, and looked off into the distance. “Yeah,” he said. “You, me, and Piers, those were some good days. You and me were off trying to save the region again, just like this, and poor Piers was trying to stop us from being trampled.”

“What happened back then?” Gloria asked eagerly. 

Hop regaled her in stories as they traveled, his words painting pictures so vibrant in her mind that she couldn’t tell if she remembered it, too, or if Hop was just that good a story teller. The journey passed quickly, as Hop had an anecdote for every landmark they passed and some they didn’t. “This route was fine, but the Tangle was my favorite,” Hop was saying. “We’ll get there right after we hit Stowe-on-side. I don’t want to spoil it for you, but magical place. Piers hated it. I think he was jealous that Bellonlea had such a pretty route heading to it while Spikemuth has a tunnel.” 

Gloria blinked. “We’re heading to Bellonlea? I forgot to ask.” 

“Yeah,” Hop said. “Hurt pokemon. Multiple, apparently. Nurse Joy didn’t say what species, but probably all fairy types, based on the area.” 

“Do you like healing pokemon?” she asked.

“I love healing pokemon,” Hop said. “Helping pokemon is the reason I became a professor.  Pokemon have helped me so much throughout my life, and being able to help them out back is a privilege, you know?” 

Her heart panged inside her chest as he got more and more animated. “That sounds amazing. Tell me more about your job?” Gloria asked hesitantly. 

“Sure,” Hop said, but then he paused and just stared down at her, the corners of his lips gently raised. 

She shifted uncomfortably. “What?” 

His eyes were so warm she thought his gaze might set fire to her soul. He licked his lips before answering. “Nothing,” he said softly, voice deep, and then cleared throat and looked away from her. “OK, so there are a lot of different speciality routes you can take to be a Pokemon professor…” 

Chapter Text

They tore down route 6, through Stowe-on-Side, and straight on through the Glimwood Tangle in one shot in order to make it to the injured pokemon waiting in the pokemon center in Ballonlea as quickly as possible. The Glimwood Tangle was beautiful (the way the light reflected off of Hop’s dark hair was particularly mesmerizing) but definitely earned its name - it would have taken Gloria three times as long to navigate through if she didn’t have an experienced guide showing her around. 

They exited the Tangle to find a bustling mushroom-lit town. Gloria’s eyes widened at the site of all the people going about their business; all of the cities they’d visited before had been dead quiet, citizens hiding in their homes because of the lockdown, scurrying from place to place warily from fear of attack. A little girl holding her mother’s hand stopped outside of a pokemart and pointed at her. “Look, mommy, the champion!” 

Gloria waved weakly as the mother turned around to look, and allowed Hop to pull her forward down the street. “What the…?” Hop muttered. 

“Do people not get the news here?” she asked. 

“They should!” he hissed. “They called me here!” 

They were interrupted by a loud clip-clop, clip-clop sound echoing down the street. Gloria looked ahead to see a man with hair as blond as corn silk riding a trotting Rapidash towards them. He was wearing a gym uniform the same color as the Rapidash’s mane.   

“Bede!” Hop shouted, his hands clenching into fists at his sides. “What’s going on here? Why are there people just running around?” 

Bede dismounted as gracefully as a fairytale prince. “Finally, you two made it. Took you long enough.” 

Hop rolled his eyes. “This is your doing, isn’t it? What, you just decided to ignore the lockdown?” 

“Ballonlea’s safe,” Bede dismissed with a wave of his hand. “The only way in and out is through the Tangle. Trust me, there’s no way Team Exit is getting here without me knowing.” 

Hop scoffed and started walking past him. “Whatever. I’ve got an injured pokemon to deal with.” 

“About that,” Bede said brightly, and Hop reluctantly turned around. “I’ve got some information for you right here,” Bede said, and handed over what appeared to be a scroll. 

Hop took it and unfurled it. It was a bright red banner, with the word INTERVENTION printed on it in white block letters. 

“What?” Gloria asked. 

Bede turned to her with a smile as big and as unnerving as a Mr. Rime’s. “Hello, esteemed champion! I heard you can’t remember the difference between your hand and your foot, is that true?” 

She sent him an unamused look. “You must be Gym Leader Bede,” she said robotically. “Nice to meet you.” 

“There is no injured pokemon, is there?” Hop asked flatly. 

“Very astute of you, professor!” Bede called out. “Let’s go head down to the pub for a drink, shall we? We’ve got quite a lot of business to catch up on.” 

“Why would I want to go for a drink with you?” Hop asked rather rudely, attempting to cross his arms without dropping the banner. “You’re wasting our valuable time, you know, what with the national crisis and all.” 

Bede just smirked and poked the word INTERVENTION . 

“Ugh,” Hop scoffed in disgust, shoving the banner back into Bede’s arms. “What do you know?” 

“Oh, I know lots of things, old boy,” Bede said, still looking much too pleased with himself. He turned to Gloria. “I’m afraid I’m going to have to take your... companion, here, by himself. You can entertain yourself for a few hours, can’t you? Feel free to explore, there’s a bed and breakfast up by the gym where you can stay for the night.” 

Gloria frowned. “Why can’t I go with you two?” 

“Yeah,” Hop echoed. 

“Guy stuff,” Bede answered elusively. 

“Marnie said you two don’t get on,” Gloria argued. 

“Marnie,” Hop echoed, and turned to Bede with a betrayed look. “Have you two been conspiring behind my back?”

“Hop and I go way back,” Bede said, ignoring Hop’s question entirely. He shared a look with his Rapidash, jerking his head, and the horse blinked and took a few steps forward towards Gloria. “Here. Rapidash can show you around.” 

“I have my own pokemon,” Gloria defended. 

Bede shot a look at Hop. “Does she really?” 

“Yes,” Hop defended, and swung his bag out in front of him and opened it. “She has two, and in fact, she’s going to get one more.” He pulled out a dusk ball and handed it to her. “Be careful with this one, alright?” 

Gloria took the pokeball carefully. “Are you sure…?” 

“Yes,” Hop said impatiently. “It’s all dark around here, Cursola with love it.”

Gloria clutched the pokemon to her chest. “Thank you,” she breathed. “We’ll bond for a few hours and then...meet up with you later, I guess?”   

Bede called Rapidash back to its ball. “Yeah, yeah, it’s just a few hours, you two, it’s not the end of the world. Ballonlea’s safe, I promise.” 

“It better be,” Hop muttered. He leaned forward and whispered in Gloria’s ear, “come find me if you want to, alright? I have absolutely no problems ditching this guy.” 

“He is a gym leader,” she whispered back. “Maybe he has something worthwhile to say.” 

Hop rolled his eyes as he straightened up. “If only you with your memories could hear you now,” he said. “Alright, Bede, let’s get this over with.” 

“Finally,” Bede said, and they split up. 

Gloria spent a few hours wandering around town, enjoying the unique scenery. It was refreshing seeing other people out and about, for once, even if she was stopped every so often for an autograph. She went to the gym to find a spare room to let out her pokemon in and experiment with some moves - Cursola seemed pleased to see her, and Gloria studied hard to make sure that she knew all her pokemon’s moves inside and out. 

Night had fallen by the time she exited the gym again. She made her way to the bed-and-breakfast Bede had pointed out, rented a room, and settled in with her Rotom tablet to catch up with the news. Bede, despite the lockdown, was still taking on gym challengers - one had beaten him two nights ago, in an exciting match that Gloria took the time to watch in its entirety. A Team Exit member had been caught by Raihan, Marnie, and a gym challenger back in Hammerlocke - the same challenger that had beaten Bede, she noted. They must have passed each other on the way. 

She sent off a quick text to Hop around 9 PM, but he didn’t respond. Figuring whatever Bede wanted was still taking up his time, Gloria shrugged it off and went to bed soon after. 

She woke up sometime after midnight to the sound of a key sliding against the lock on her door. She shook herself to wake herself up and called out, “who is it?” 

Whoever it was, it took them several tries to open the door. She sat up and squinted against the light from the hall when they finally got it open. “Hop?” 

“Mmm,” he hummed, staggering in and slamming the door shut behind him. “Oh, that was loud. Sorry, luv.” 

“What are you doing her-”

“Shh,” he interrupted, taking one step forward and tripping over her travel bag. “Oops. My bad.” He stumbled forward and collapsed heavily facedown across the foot of her bed. 

“Hop?” she repeated. 

“Uhhhhnnn,” he groaned into the cover, and then flipped himself over and started kicking off his shoes. 

Gloria leaned forward and took a sniff of his breath. Bede had mentioned going to a pub, but - “Hop, are you drunk?” she questioned. 

“Bebe’s fault,” he answered softly. Once his shoes were off, he pulled himself all the way onto the bed and started crawling up towards the pillow. 

“What are you doing?” she asked. 

“Shhh,” he said again, collapsing face-first onto the pillow next to her. After a few seconds, he turned his head towards her. “Know I’m not supposed to,” he mumbled, eyes closed. “Just...just for tonight.” 

“Hop,” she repeated. He didn’t open his eyes. “Hop, your jacket,” she repeated, resigned, and wrestled his fleece-lined jean jacket off his long arms. He could pass out here, she reasoned. It was late, and it would be too much effort to try to carry him to another room. 

“Mmm,” he groaned again and Gloria finally removed his second arm from the jacket sleeve. 

“It’s okay,” she said. “You can sleep now.” 

He fumbled with the covers with all the grace of a newborn Wooloo and finally managed to get under the sheets. “Lie down,” he ordered, patting the space on the bed immediately next to him. 

She hesitated. Sharing a large bed was one thing - it wasn’t too much different from sharing a tent. Cuddling, however, would be taking advantage of a drunken friend. 

“Gloriaaaa,” he whined, his eyes finally blinking open, reflecting some of the starlight coming in through the window. “Come here. Miss you.” 

Her heart stopped. “Miss me?” 

He reached up and grabbed one of her shoulders, gently pulling her down until she was laying next to him on the bed. “Sleep with me,” he ordered, softly. 

“No,” she said firmly, recoiling, scooting away as far as the bed would allow. 

“Glo, no, wait,” he said, flinging a hand out towards her in vain. “Stop, no, I didn’t mean it like that, just - sleeping.”

“We can just sleep on our own sides of the bed, Hop.” 

The hand reached forward dropped limp onto the bed between them. Hop sniffed, and rubbed at his face with his other hand. “O-okay,” he stuttered, voice breaking. “You don’t remember. It’s just...I miss you so much.” 

Gloria stared at Hop’s hand, his empty ring finger mocking her. Hop wasn’t her husband. Hop wasn’t her husband. 

He withdrew his hand suddenly, rolled back over onto his stomach and pressing his head into the pillow. He said something incomprehensible to the pillow, and Gloria rolled over to face the edge of the bed so she wouldn’t have to look at him anymore. She felt sick to her stomach as Hop cried himself to sleep behind her. 

Whoever past Gloria had been, she suddenly hated her for not choosing Hop, for putting her in this position. 

I miss you so much. There were only a few reasons Hop would say that to her. Either Hop was her ex-boyfriend, or...she was cheating on her spouse with Hop. 

It took her a long time to fall back asleep. 

Gloria woke up warm and snug. She was using Hop’s chest as a pillow. Her arm was thrown over his waist, while his were hugging the small of her back. Their legs were tangled together. It was the most comfortable she could ever remember being. 

She felt so guilty she could throw up. 

She extracted herself from Hop’s embrace gently, but he didn’t wake up - from how late they were up last night combined with the amount of alcohol in his system, he’d probably still be dead to the world for hours. Gloria freshened up, gathered up all her things, and snuck out of the room like a dirty secret. 

Whoever past Gloria had been, she wasn’t a cheater now. She couldn’t keep going on like this with Hop. And with his recent behavior, their muscle memory...he was either a very recent ex, or she had definitely been cheating with him. 

She’d been married for over a year. 

Oh, lord, she was cheating on her spouse with Hop. 

Gloria wandered over to the Ballonlea gym in a daze, hoping that its gym leader wouldn’t be as hungover as her traveling partner. She was right - Bede was there, bright and early, running drills with a few of his trainers. 

She marched over to him on the middle of the gym floor grabbed him by the arm. “You,” she hissed, squeezing his elbow. “I need to talk to you.” 

Bede jumped, shrugging his arm out of her grip. “What bug got up your arse this morning?” 

“Somewhere private,” she demanded, low enough that his gym trainers couldn’t hear her. “Now.” 

He sighed. “Double battles, everyone,” he announced to his team. “I’ve got to go have an audience with our Champion.” He led the way off to a small side room and closed the door behind him. 

She pounced on him as soon as the lock clicked. “What did you do with Hop yesterday?” 

Bede took a step back. “Just wanted to talk with him about some of his recent choices,” he said, looking uneasy. 

Her stomach lurched. She wasn’t sure what Bede knew. “Did Marnie tell you about my…” she pointed to her wedding ring. “Problem?” 

“Yeah,” he said. “Why? Did Hop say something to you last night?” 

“ Yes, he said something to me last night!” Gloria shrieked, and then took a deep breath to calm herself down and think through things logically. Marnie and her were close friends, so maybe Marnie knew about the cheating, and decided this would be a good time to talk Hop out of it? She could have asked Bede to do it, since Bede wasn’t close to Hop and wouldn’t be on Hop’s side...that’s why he had an intervention banner, and wouldn’t let her come. “Did you know about...me and him?” she asked, all nerves, trying to keep her question vague. 

“Yeah,” he said quickly, looking at her like she was an idiot. “Yeah, I knew about you and Hop. I spent hours with him yesterday trying to get him to come clean about it.” 

Gloria took another step forward and punched him as hard as she could in the arm. “Why did you do that?!” she wailed. 

“Ow, Gloria!” he exclaimed, jumping backwards and grabbing his arm. “What’s gotten into you? What’s the problem?” 

“The problem?” she asked. “I can’t be with him, that’s the problem!” 

Bede recoiled. “You what?” he said. “Why not? Don’t you love him?” 

Gloria flinched. Bede was on Hop’s side? Bede was encouraging cheating?  “You want me to be with him?” she asked. 

He rubbed his arm. “I want you to be happy,” he said. “I thought Hop made you happy. At least, he used to.” 

She bit her lip. That was actually sort of decent of him, and she couldn’t really fault him for that answer. “Did Hop and I ever date and break up...before?” she asked instead, just to sate her curiosity. 

Bede blinked. “Yeah,” he said cautiously. “You got together real young, the first time. We were all just fourteen. When we were sixteen, Hop went off to go apprentice under a professor with more veterinary experience off in another region, and you two broke it off. Not worth doing long distance, you said.” 

Gloria blinked, and wrapped her arms around herself. Hop was her ex-boyfriend and she was cheating with him. “I know old Gloria might have done this,” she said. “But I can’t...I can’t.” 

“Hey,” Bede said softly, and awkwardly patted her on the shoulder. “There, there. It’ll turn out...okay. Maybe wait and get to know him better, yeah?” 

She stared down at her shoes. “Bede,” she said sternly to the floor. “I’m married now.” 

Bede let out a long breath. “I didn’t know you felt this way, this strongly,” he said. “I’m sorry, I never would have pushed Hop into rushing things if I knew.”

“Doesn’t matter if it’s rushed or not,” she said, still not looking at him. “I’m not changing my mind.” 

“God, Gloria,” he said. “I’ve never seen you like this. If it’s that bad....look, don’t rush things, but if it’s that bad, you could always get a divorce.” 

Gloria froze as his words hit her. She could always get a divorce. Her spouse hadn’t so much as texted her in the days since her accident. Her spouse was probably terrible. Gloria didn’t feel curiosity so much as dread when she imagined the idea of them - for heaven’s sake, she was cheating. She, Gloria, champion of the Pokemon League, was cheating.  “I could get a divorce!” she exclaimed ecstatic. She threw her arms around Bede. “That’s a brilliant idea! Oh, thank you. Thank you. I’m an idiot. I can’t believe this never occured to me before.” 

Bede froze at her touch. “You’re...welcome,” he said, sounding pained. “Look, maybe you should hold off a bit. Just until you’re recovered a bit more.”

“I want a divorce,” Gloria repeated, sure of herself. 

“It’s going to be so complicated,” he warned. “Your husband is going to raise hell to keep you. He loves you.”

Husband. Gloria’s heart thumped. Her mystery spouse had a gender. “No, he doesn’t,” she answered confidently. 

“Gloria-”

“He loves the idea of me, if anything,” she hypothesized. “Whatever, it doesn’t matter. Based on his behavior so far, there’s no way he really loves me.” 

“You’ve got to be careful-” he started. 

Gloria reached out and grabbed both of his hands. “Bede, really,” she said. “He can have all my money. I don’t care. I really, really, want a divorce.” 

Bede looked at her and sighed. “It’s your life,” he said. “Look, just - don’t announce anything until you get to Wyndon, alright? Hop’s going to lose his shit, and then Leon can come pick up the pieces, because I do not want that job.” 

Gloria smiled. Hop probably would freak out - when she got divorced from her stupid mystery husband, then they could actually be together. “Does it have to be Wyndon specifically?” she asked. 

“I should hope you’re heading there,” Bede said. “Team Exit just took over the battle tower, so I think you have a lot more fighting to do outside the courts as well, champion.”    

Gloria froze. “Why didn’t you say so earlier?” she demanded. “I have to go!” 

“We’ve been busy!” he insisted. 

“My personal life is not as important as the entire region of Galar!” 

“Oh, come on, Gloria,” Bede dismissed. “You’re not the only strong trainer in the world.” 

“Goodbye!” she shouted, running out of the gym to go wake Hop.

Chapter Text

Hop was obviously hungover, and was not exactly cooperating with her plan to make it to Wyndon as soon as possible. “Come on,” she insisted, pounding on the bathroom door. “We’ve got to go!” 

“If we go now I’m going to throw up on the road,” Hop told her from the other side of the door. 

“Take a full heal!” 

“Those are for pokemon!” 

“We have to get all the way to Wyndon as soon as possible,” Gloria said. “We’re so far away, we have to go all the way back to Hammerlocke and then walk up the train tracks-"

“You’re a menace,” Hop interrupted. “And no, we’re not doing that.”

“There’s no other way!” 

“Go into my bag and grab the pokemon in the purple master ball,” Hop said. “It and its partner can help guide us over the mountains, even without a route.” 

Gloria frowned. “Are you su-”

She was interrupted by the sound of Hop retching rather violently, so she quickly abandoned her post by the bathroom door and retreated to Hop’s bag. It still had a faint seawater smell, but the contents were well organized: camping gear, a folded Rotom bike, an Egg, a well-read book. She eventually found three pokeballs in a secure pocket near the front. One of them, a premier ball, rattled ominously as her hand passed over it - she grabbed the master ball quickly and retreated, deciding not to snoop through the rest of Hop’s things or dwell on why one of her one pokemon radiated such a foreboding feeling. 

“Hey,” she said softly to her master ball. “It’s me.” She squeezed her eyes shut and tried to picture who was inside this ball, but...she couldn’t recall anything. “I really wish I had my memories back,” she confided to it. “For so many reasons. Ok, I’m going to let you out. Please be room sized. If you don’t fit in the room, I’m very, very sorry. Alright - go!” 

She threw the pokemon up in the air, and there as a red flash of light as a red dog-like Pokemon appeared. Her jaw dropped; its mere presence radiated tranquility, just the opposite of that other pokeball, and the Pokemon looked over at her and blinked like it was pleased to see her.  

“Wow,” Gloria said. “You’re just beautiful, aren’t you?” 

The toilet flushed loudly from the bathroom and Hop fumbled out, sucking down water from a water bottle like no tomorrow with sunglasses covering his eyes. “Nice, you’ve reacquainted with Zamazenta,” he said. “I’ll get out Zacian once we’re outside so it doesn’t have to suffer through the doors. Then we’re off directly to Wyndon, as promised.” 

“We’re certainly going off the beaten path,” Gloria said, leading Hop out of their room. “Way, way, way off the beaten path.” 

“I trust our pokemon,” Hop said. “You remember anything about them?” 

She frowned. “No, unfortunately. I’m sorry, I tried.”

Hop waved a hand in her direction to dismiss her apology. “It’s not your fault. You’re injured. I know you’re trying.” 

They exited the bed-and-breakfast, and Hop summoned his own legendary pokemon - a blue equivalent to her own, with soft pink accents. Gloria explained the situation to the two as best she could, and before she knew it Zacian and Zamazenta were leading the way out of the back of Ballonlea and through the dark, impenetrable forest. 

“Crikes!” Hop muttered, tripping over a root in the pitch-black forest and hitting Gloria in the back. “Sorry, I can barely see my hand in front of my face.” 

“Hold my hand,” Gloria ordered, reaching behind her before she could think twice about it.

Hop inhaled sharply. “You sure?” 

“Of course,” she said, and tried to ignore her heart beating wildly as his hand slipped smoothly into hers. “I’m closer to our pokemon, I can see more than you.” 

“Thanks,” Hop said, and squeezed her hand gently. 

She squeezed it back. “Hey, do you remember anything from last night? You seemed pretty out of it when I tried to wake you this morning.” 

Hop groaned. “I remember I started going shot-for-shot with Bede,” he said. “Huge mistake. I thought I could handle my drinks well, but he’s a madman. Insane. And that was around 10pm, so...nothing much past that, no. Why? Did something happen?” 

She smiled. “Well, well, well, now who’s the amnesiac?” 

“I obviously made it back to the hotel,” he said. “So I turned out alright.” 

“I had my own talk with Bede this morning.” 

“I’m sorry you had to suffer through that,” Hop said seriously.

“Oh, shut it,” Gloria said, squeezing his hand again. “It was actually really helpful. I’m not allowed to tell you about it until we get to Wyndon, though.” 

“Mystery news?” Hop said. “Very cryptic.” 

“It’s good news,” she promised. “Everything’s going uphill from here, you’ll see.” 

“I suppose I will,” he answered, and continued following her through the forest.

They camped out that night in the mountains, the high altitude resulting in a drop to frigid air temperatures. They made a spicy curry for dinner that night to keep warm, and retreated back to Hop’s tent soon after to get an early night of sleep. Hop fell asleep fairly quickly - still not completely recovered from his night out before, if she had to guess - but Gloria stayed awake for a while, staring at him as much as she could in the dim light. 

Why had she ever married anyone else? Who could possibly even hold a candle to Hop?

Soon, she promised herself, watching the way his long eyelashes fanned across the top of his cheeks. Soon, she’d get a divorce, and they’d be together. Nothing would ever stand in their way ever again. 

After two long days of hiking and a few short flights courtesy of Hop’s Corviknight, they finally made it over the mountains and intercepted route 10 - they’d managed to shave about a day and a half over what the journey would have taken them. 

“Wyndon,” Hop muttered as they scuttled down one last hill on the path that led directly to the city’s from gate. “Home sweet home.” 

“You live here?” 

“Yeah, set up my practice here after I got my doctorate,” Hop said. “Battle injuries tend to be the most intense, so it worked out.” 

“I live here too,” Gloria said. “I mean, the champion has to, right?” 

“Basically,” Hop said. 

“It must have been nice, living in the same city as one of my best friends,” she tried, seeing if she could get Hop to confess something while sober. “Especially since Marnie and Bede are so far away.” 

“We see each other a good bit,” Hop said, not looking at her as he dashed forward and pulled open the city gates. Gloria smiled at his back. “Okay,” he continued, “Wyndon, here we are!”

The city gates swung open, creaking on their hinges. Hop led the way through eagerly, looking around and pulling his phone out of his pocket. Gloria looked around the empty market square. There was a monument in the middle, and not a soul in sight. 

“Do you like it?” Hop asked. 

She swallowed. “It’s...big.” So big. She could see nothing but urban structures, as far as the eye could see, but not a single other living person. After the relaxed nature of Ballonlea, it was incredibly unnerving. 

“You have any calls on your phone?” he asked. 

Gloria tore her gaze away from the empty streets - she almost swore she saw the white of an eye peeking out from a faraway window, but that was almost worse than the city being completely empty. “Nothing,” she answered, scrolling through her phone quickly. “Hey, the city’s mostly evacuated, right? Not just people hiding all day?” 

Hop didn’t seem to notice the atmosphere at all - he paced around the square, a dark expression clouding his face as he stared at his Rotom tablet. “Leon was supposed to meet us here,” he murmured as he typed onto the screen. “He’s not answering his phone. Are you sure you haven't heard anything from him?”

 “Positive,” she answered. “Maybe he just got lost?” 

He dropped his phone down and glared at her. “Are you serious?” he asked, voice frustrated. “You remember Lee now?” 

“I don’t,” she said truthfully. “What did I say? It was just an expression-”

“Whatever,” Hop said. He glared at his phone one more time before shoving it in his pocket. “Let’s just get moving.” 

“Hop,” she said, half-running to keep up with his determined march through the city. “Don’t worry, okay? We’ll find him.” 

“Sure,” he said shortly. 

“Remind me what he looks like?” 

“Me,” Hop said. “Me, if I was a little shorter.” He paused, and then added: “and if I went to the gym.” 

“Buff you,” Gloria said. “Nice. Okay, we can find him.” 

“He’s an idiot,” Hop said. They were quickly approaching a neck-breakingly tall skyscraper - the battle tower, she presumed.  “Maybe he did just lose his phone.” 

There was an unfamiliar logo graffitied in purple spray paint on the Battle Tower’s front door. Gloria had a sudden vision of herself and Hop, much younger, bursting through these same two doors. “We’ve done this before,” Gloria surmised. 

“Yup,” Hop said, kicking the door open with his foot. “There is no one in this lobby. Shit, where are the stupid grunts?” 

“We’ll find him, Hop,” she said. “Calm down, I’m sure everything is alright.”  

“You don’t know that,” he said, dashing into the building. 

“He’s your brother,” Gloria said, following behind more cautiously. “He has to be tough.” 

“He is tough,” Hop said. “But so were you.” 

She frowned. “But I’m fine. And Leon’s going to be fine.” 

He opened his mouth, and then closed it with an audible click. “This place is huge,” he said eventually. “We better get started.” 

“Do you want to split u-”

“No,” he said before she had even finished the last word. 

“It’ll be faster,” she pointed out. 

“I don’t want to lose you again,” Hop said. “I’ve already lost you once.” 

Gloria scowled instantly. “You didn’t lose me,” she said. “I’m sorry I let you down before.” 

He sighed heavily, and ran a hand through his hair. “I’m sorry, I’m just worried. You didn’t let me down.” 

“And you didn’t lose me,” she repeated, trying unsuccessfully to catch his eye. “Hop - Hop, look at me -”

He lengthened his stride so he didn’t have to look at her. “Haven’t I?” he asked to the wall. 

Gloria’s stomach fluttered. “You do remember that night in the hotel,” she accused softly. 

“We should probably take the stairs-”

“Hop, I’m sorry I couldn’t that night,” she interrupted. “I’m going to settle it, I promise.” 

He stopped suddenly, and she stumbled to avoid running into his back. “Do you remember me yet?” he asked, his voice wavering somewhere between hope and helplessness. “Anything?” 

Gloria swallowed. She remembered first realizing she had a spouse, and looking at this man she’d known for all of 30 seconds and hoping desperately it was him. She remembered the ice punch to the gut when it wasn’t. She remembered how the firelight from their campsites reflected in his eyes and how her stomach would flutter whenever their hands accidentally brushed as they hiked side by side across all of Galar, and waking up tangled together with him and never feeling so complete in her life. “Not exactly,” she answered truthfully, and screwed up all her courage. “But I know enough to know what I want our future to be.” 

He whipped his head around to look at her. “Our future,” he echoed, his gaze boring into hers. “Gloria, I…you’ve probably already figured it out by now, and I didn’t want to pressure you into anything...but I…” 

Looking at Hop made her heart heat up like she had a miniature sun residing in there that only shone when she was facing his direction. “I did figure it out,” she said, and reached out to take his hand. She squeezed it, and announced, “Hop, I’m going to get a divorce.” 

He wrenched his hand out of her grasp so fast it hurt and stumbled backwards. “You WHAT?!” 

She frowned. “I thought you’d be happy-”

“Why the FUCK would I be HAPPY ABOUT THAT, GLORIA?!” Hop bellowed. 

“Shush!” she ordered, her heart starting to pound. “Team Exit - I was trying to give you good news-”

“On what PLANET does getting a DIVORCE count as GOOD NEWS to you?!” he shrieked. 

Her heartbeat was thudding so loudly in her ears now, drowning out the ringing effect of his screaming. “A planet where you and I wouldn’t have to sneak around!” she answered. “A planet where I could ditch my deadbeat husband and-”

“Deadbeat?” he interrupted. “I’m right here!” 

It was getting harder to breathe. “You want me to stay married?” she asked incredulously, her eyes screwing up. 

“Of course I do!” he said. “Maybe you don’t remember them, but there were vows! In sickness and in health, for better and for worse, all that jazz!” 

She squeezed her eyes shut in a futile attempt to stop tears from leaking out. She tried to spit out accusations - she would not be someone’s dirty secret - but words wouldn’t come. 

“Oh, that’s not fair,” Hop said in front of her. “You don’t get to do that. You don’t get to tell me you want a divorce in the middle of my brother being missing and then start crying, ok?” 

“Fuck off!” she forced out. “I thought you loved me!” 

There was a loud slamming sound, and Gloria’s eyes flew open see Hop shaking out his hand off from where he’d just punched a wall. “I do love you,” he said - growled - cradling one injured hand with the other. “Did you think that would make this easier? I’m not going to be your fucking doormat.” 

If he wanted a fight, she would give him one. “Where are my last two pokemon?” she demanded.  

He let out a bark of incredulous laughter. “Your last two pokemon?!” he shouted to the ceiling. “You don’t remember them either, do you? Because one is too dangerous, and one you apparently don’t even want anymore!” 

“What the hell does that mean?!” 

“One crisis at a time!” he yelled. “I’m going to go find my brother. Stay here, okay? Since you apparently can’t stand me.” 

“Hop-”  

He pushed through the door to the stairwell and bolted up the stairs, taking them three at a time, as fast away from her as possible. Gloria ran after him, staring up at him after she collapsed against the railing after the second story. There was no way she could keep up with him, not with how long his legs were and how determined he was to get away. “HOP!” she repeated. 

There was a bang from somewhere above her to indicate he had slammed a door open somewhere above her, but there was no way to tell which floor it was. Gloria clenched her fists at her sides in frustration, and started through the door to the first floor above the lobby to continue her search.

She pulled a pokeball off of her belt and summoned Cinderace so she wouldn’t be alone. 

Cinderace hopped around the room curiously, before coming up and sniffing in Gloria’s direction, frowning a little as if to ask why there were tear tracks on her face. “Don’t look at me like that; it’s not my fault,” Gloria said crossly. “ He left me.” 

As soon as the words left her mouth, she was hit with a strong sense of deja vu. She shook her head to clear it. Cinderace just flicked an ear in her direction, and bounced around the empty offices cautiously. 

“We’re looking for Leon,” Gloria called out, hoping Cinderace had a better idea of who they were looking for than she did. “Maybe Leon will be able to explain what’s going on in that stupid brother’s head of his.”

She swept through the floor they were on, and then the floor above that - both deserted offices. Gloria picked up some jelly beans from a bowl on someone’s desk and ranted to Cinderace as she searched. “What is up with that boy? One day, he’s crawling into my bed. The next, he doesn’t want me to ditch the other man? I thought he loved - he said he loved me, Cinder. He said he loved me and I was too busy fighting to even notice it.”

Cinderace turned around and opened its mouth. Gloria tossed a jellybean in its direction. 

“Why wouldn’t he want me to get a divorce?” Gloria asked. “Why would Hop want to sneak around cheating with me when we have the chance to really be together, you know? I...I want to be with him, Cinder. I do, I...I just need him to stop running away!” 

Cinderace flicked an ear in her direction and followed her up the next flight of stairs. 

“Who the hell am I married to?” she wondered out loud, opening the door to the next floor. This floor finally seemed to be battling fields - not regulation size, but small ones, for sparring or training.  “Who am I married to that Hop wouldn’t want-”  

“Ace!” Cinderace chirped, running over to a field in the far left corner. “Cin, cin-”

Gloria broke into a run, sprinting across the floor to the farthest battlefield. There were a lot of soot and scuff marks on the floor, and a man lying unconscious in the middle. “Whoa, whoa, whoa,” Gloria said, skidding to a halt next to him and dropping to her knees and gently turning the man over. She was struck instantly by his long, plum-dark hair that washed over his features until she brushed it back. 

“Ciiiiiiiin?” her pokemon asked hesitantly. 

“This must be Leon,” Gloria said, setting him down in a more comfortable position on his back and staring at his face. He and Hop shared the same skin tone and insanely long eyelashes. Their jawlines were probably similar as well under Leon’s strange beard. “Leon? Can you hear me?” 

She shook him tentatively, but he didn’t wake up. 

“Of course you’re unconscious,” Gloria groaned, swinging her backpack around to the front and rummaging through it for something to help. “Nothing’s ever easy for me, is it. Why do I have so much pokemedicine, and nothing for humans? Would something bad happen if I gave Leon an awakening?”

Cinderace jumped over to Leon’s other side and nudged him gently in the ribs with its foot. 

“I have some berries,” Gloria said, pulling a chesto berry out of her bag. “Those are safe to eat, right?” She held one over Leon’s mouth. “Will he choke on it if I try and feed it to him?” 

Cinderace made a whistling noise. 

“Maybe I used to know more about first aid and I’ve forgotten,” Gloria said, reaching down to pick up one of Leon’s hands and leave the berry in his palm, as though he could feed himself. “I wonder what happened to…” 

She felt a strange texture on one of Leon’s fingers and looked down at the hand she was stuffing a berry into. 

There was a ring on the fourth finger of his left hand. It was gold, and the same style as hers, and Gloria’s stomach dropped away. 

“Oh, no,” she said out loud, eyes wide as she looked up at Cinderace. “There’s no way. There’s no way in hell I’m married to him. ”

Cinderace looked around, as if to find whatever was panicking Gloria. 

“I wish you could speak English,” Gloria said, dropping Leon’s hand abruptly as she pulled her phone out of her pocket. The time for romanticizing being single and available for Hop was over; she needed to know who her husband was now. “Please don’t be Hop’s brother,” she muttered, trying to pull up internet. “Please, universe, please don’t let me be married to Hop’s brother.” 

No signal. 

“Damn,” she hissed, and glared over at unconscious Leon. “We are not married,” she announced, picking up the berry she’d left in his palm and crushing it, letting the juices leak onto his lips. “There is no universe in which I would date Hop as a teenager and end up with you.” 

You don’t even know him, a voice inside her head suggested. 

“There’s no way Hop would fool around with his brother’s wife,” Gloria muttered. “There’s no way. There’s no way. Bede wouldn’t condone that.” 

Bede was Hop’s friend, not Leon’s. 

“Eugh,” Gloria said, burying her head in her hands. The facts, she needed the facts. What was everything she knew about Leon? He was Hop’s brother. He was champion before she was. He’d been in contact with Hop ever since her accident. 

He…

He’s wearing a tuxedo, standing in front of her at the end of a long, red carpet. She’s wearing a wedding dress. “You look beautiful,” Leon said, and offered her his arm. 

She recoiled so hard that she fell backwards off her knees onto her arse. “No,” she breathed. “There’s got to be an explanation.” She leaned forward again and grabbed Leon’s left hand, tugging at the ring so she could pull it off and read the inscription inside. It was no use; it wouldn’t budge up past his knuckle. “Come on,” she growled. “Please, no, no, no-”

Under her, Leon groaned. His eyes fluttered open. They were the same color as Hop’s. “Gloria…?”

Chapter Text

Leon had a bump on the back of his head, hidden under his wild mane of hair. He also definitely had a concussion. Feeding him a persim berry only made him fall back asleep, and since she couldn’t carry him Gloria had to make do with supporting a man who couldn’t carrying a train of thought for more than two seconds at a time. 

“Hop,” Leon insisisted, slurring his words. He had one arm slung over her shoulder as she trudged along through the battle tower. 

“We’re looking for him,” Gloria answered wearily. This was the seventh time he’d asked. 

“E’erna’us,” Leon said. 

“I still don’t know what that is.” 

“‘eam exi’...free…” he broke into a groan, bringing up his free hand up to his face and pinching the bridge of his nose. 

“Where is Team Exit?” Gloria asked. 

“Vic’a,” Leon answered. 

“Who was the victor?” she asked, and then stopped herself. “Obviously not you.” 

“Ow,” he said. 

“I’m sorry,” Gloria huffed. “I’ve got a potion. Do you want a potion?” 

Leon let out a pained grunt. “Nah...po’emon.” 

“That’s what Hop said,” Gloria muttered. 

“Hop!” 

“We’re looking for him,” she repeated. 

“Hop,” Leon repeated emphatically. 

“I’m doing my best,” Gloria said. “Say, Leon, you wouldn’t happen to know who my husband is, do you? Who I’m married to?” 

“Hop.” 

Gloria rolled her eyes. “Yeah, yeah, I know. Hop. Next time I find your brother, I’m putting him on a leash, you understand me?” 

Leon crossed his eyes, as though it cost him to concentrate two full sentences at a time. “Exi’,” he said finally. 

“You think Team Exit got to Hop?” she asked. 

Leon let out a frustrated breath and slumped sideways, resting his cheek on the top of Gloria’s head. “Bro,” he whispered forlornly. 

She gulped, trying not to think about how close in contact they were as they trudged along. Leon was shorter than Hop was - she came up to about his chin, rather that his shoulders - but he certainly had the weight to make up for it.  “Hop’s going to be fine,” she reassured. “Don’t worry about him. He’s tough, okay? Tougher than you.” 

“He-uh Hop,” he repeated. 

“We’ll find him,” Gloria said. “I promise you. If I have to search every inch of this tower-” 

Leon made a frustrated noise and planted his feet, stopping them both in their tracks and grabbing Gloria by both shoulders to make her stop and face him. “No,” he panted, squeezing her shoulders so tight they hurt and staring her right in the eyes. “Top.” 

She blinked in surprise. “Team Exit’s on the top floor?” 

Leon smiled, sagging in relief - no, wait, he was sagging away because he was fainting. “Leon!” she shouted, darting forward to catch his head before he could crack it open against the floor again and get in even bigger trouble. 

She laid him down on the floor again and reached into her bag, but she was out of chesto and lum berries. “Useless,” she muttered. “I can’t - I can’t carry you, I’m sorry, I don’t-” she looked around with wild eyes for Cinderace. “What do I do?” she whispered. “I don’t want to leave him. He’s hurt, and he might be my…” 

Cinderace hopped up, and nuzzled Gloria’s hand with its head. 

Her eyes started to water again. “Thanks, buddy,” she whispered, and wiped her eyes quickly. “Hop probably went up to the top floor, didn’t he?” 

Cinderace bounced backwards and stared up at her.  

Gloria sighed, looking at the unconscious Leon and then over at the elevator. “I choose Hop,” she decided, and then darted over to the elevator. “I don’t care about anything else,” she confessed to the empty air, tapping the button repeatedly as fast as she could. “I don’t care if I married his brother. I don’t care that he only wants to sneak around with me. I choose him.” 

Cinderace whistled cheerfully. 

“Yeah,” Gloria agreed. “Let’s go rescue our boy!” 

The Battle Tower’s elevator was more like a series of elevators, stopping periodically to interface with other sections of elevators rising and falling through the tower. The elevator was also crawling with trainers dressed in blue that shouted and charged when they saw her. 

“You’ll never stop us!” a Team Exit grunt shouted at her. 

Gloria rolled her eyes and didn’t say anything as Zamazenta Behemoth Bash’d his pokemon into submission.  

Even with only four pokemon, she was able to keep them all in good shape and defeat everyone in her way as she made her way up to the top of the tower. The elevator finally opened up to the roof, where she saw Hop standing between four trainers and a boy in a red pull-over with an arm outstretched. 

The closest enemy trainer - a tall man with a blond mullet - turned to her and sneered. “Oh, look, the champion’s here. You finally found us, your majesty?” 

“Champion Gloria!” the kid Hop was shielding shouted, his voice filled with wonder. He turned to the four Team Exit trainers and shouted, “you guys are screwed!” 

“There’s more of us than there are of you,” announced a middle trainer, a skinny woman with long grey hair and a flared white trenchcoat over her team exit shirt. “Hand over Eternatus and no one has to get hurt.” 

“Who is Eternatus?” Gloria demanded, stepping forward to align herself next to Hop in front of the boy.  

“Oh, don’t play dumb, Gloria,” the woman drawled, “It’s beneath you.” 

Gloria glared. “Do I know you?” she demanded. 

“That’s Oleana,” Hop muttered next to her. “We have a history.” 

Oleana sneered at her. “Eternatus is the Professor’s last pokemon,” she said. “And also what my team will be taking home tonight.” 

“You can’t do that,” Hop said with authority. 

“And you can’t keep him locked up because you’re afraid of him,” Oleana said. “Free him. We will exit this era and enter a new one-”

“Blah, blah, blah,” the boy behind them interrupted. “I’m so sick of this exit stuff.” He took a step forward, between Hop and Gloria, looking at each of them eagerly. “I still have my team! I think we can take them.” 

Gloria’s gaze flew to Hop over the boys head. Hop was grimacing, but he held up a hand to show her a premier ball. She vaguely recognized it as the same one that had given her an ominous feeling from his bag. She looked from the ball to Hop’s eyes, and nodded once. 

They could do it. 

Hop nodded back, and turned back to Oleana. “Fine,” he said shortly. “Have it your way. Eternatus-”

Hop didn’t even finish the name before the ball leapt open in an explosion of magenta lighting. Dark clouds started to gather from nowhere above them as a skeletal dragon unfolded its wings and roared, the sheer volume pushing everyone back a few feet. 

“HEY!” Hop shouted, running forward and waving his arms, and Gloria realized suddenly with abject terror that Hop could not control this pokemon. “HEY! IT’S ME!” 

Eternatus shot a burst of fire into the sky from its mouth and then turned down to stare at Hop. 

“I BROUGHT HER BACK!” Hop shouted, and gestured at Gloria. “I DID WHAT I PROMISED.” 

Gloria’s eyes darted from the dragon to Hop and her blood ran cold. This was one of her pokemon? She was supposed to control it? 

The dragon turned its head slowing in her direction, bones creaking against each other as it fixated on her with pupiless eyes. 

“Um,” Gloria said. “Hi?”

Eternatus roared, and Gloria realized very suddenly she’d done the wrong thing. Hop leapt away as Eternatus fired a dragon beam at him, escaping by the tips of his toes as he scurried to stand behind Gloira. 

“Capture it!” Oleana shouted, and she and her team turned towards Eternatus and sent out their pokemon. 

“No!” the boy shouted, and ran forward too, summoning an Inteleon. 

Gloria took a step towards the battle, but was stopped by a strong hand on her forearm. “Gloria, be careful,” Hop warned, leaning forward. 

“We’ve captured this thing before?” she asked incredulously. “How?” 

“Zacian and Zamazenta,” Hop said. “Zacian’s fainted. I can go revive him - just buy me time?” 

“You got it,” Gloria promised. “Be fast.” 

His face hardened. “I will,” he said, and let go of her arm. 

“Hop,” she said quickly, reaching out and snatching his hand before he could go too far. “In case I die-”

“Don’t-” he interrupted. 

She jumped up to grab the back of his head and kissed him, forcing his head down with her as she landed. He stiffened with shock, but his lips were still soft despite how hard and desperately she pressed her own against them. She released his head and stumbled backwards. “Come back soon,” she ordered, her voice carefully even. 

His eyes were about to bug out of his head, but he nodded breathlessly and ran off. 

Gloria swallowed, and then turned and threw her first pokemon into the fight. 

It was her and the boy versus Oleana and her lackeys versus Eternatus, who seemed equally likely to fire at anyone. Gloria sent out Cinderace and Toxtricity first, who darted in to fill the gaps between the boy’s Inteleon and Sirfetch’d. 

The boy was good. Really good. They managed to beat down two of the Team Exit trainers, and not get burned to a crisp by Eternatus, and almost got a third before Cinderace fainted and she had to sub in Cursola. 

“You will not stop me a second time!” Oleana shouted. “I will free Eternatus and-”

“I don’t remember who you are!” Gloria interrupted, and had Toxtricity use boomburst to take out the last of her pokemon, and everyone else’s while he was out it. The boy shot her a hurt look as the soundwave went wide and hit his Inteleon, but it was worth it in her opinion. 

One more move, and the last team exit trainer went down. 

“Gloria!” a voice shouted behind her, accompanied by the padding of multiple sets of feet. She whipped around to see Hop and Zacian again. Zacian looked a little different than he had in the woods - he was holding a large sword now, which tugged at something in her memory that she didn’t have time to examine. 

“Hop!” she said, and pulled another pokemon off her belt. “Zamazenta, go! I think we can take it-”

“Hit it with all you’ve got!” Hop echoed. 

Eternatus shook itself free of the last echoes of the boomburst, and snarled maliciously at Zacian and Zamazenta as they approached. Ancestral enemies, if Gloria had to guess.”Zamazenta, use-”

“STOP!” the boy shouted, running in the middle between Eternatus and their pokemon. “Why are you attacking it? It’s scared!” 

“We need to catch it again!” Gloria said. 

“It’s not going to go down easy!” Hop added. “I barely convinced it last time, and now it thinks I’ve lied to it-”

“It’s our friend!” the boy insisted, and pulled out an empty pokeball out of his pocket. “We don’t need to fight it. Watch-”

“CAREFUL!” Hop shouted. 

He was too late - the boy had already maxed his pokeball and had thrown it at Eternatus. Gloria flinched instinctively, watching for the inevitable explosion of a maxed pokeball being rejected and thrown off by its target. The explosion was sure to send the boy flying in three - two - 

The pokeball’s latch flashed green and closed with a small click. 

Hop’s jaw dropped open in shock as the boy reached forward and scooped it up. “See?” the boy said. “You don’t need to be scared of it!” 

“I can’t believe that worked,” Hop said faintly. “That move just about killed Leon when he tried it.” 

The boy trotted back over to Gloria and held out the ball. “I think this is yours,” he said. 

“...you can keep him,” Gloria said, looking at the pokeball with wide eyes. “You’ve earned it.” 

He beamed up at her. “Thank you, Champion!” 

“Call me Gloria,” she said. 

“Okay, Gloria,” he said. “My name is Victor. It’s nice to meet you.”

“Hello, Victor,” she said. The name sounded familiar. “Are you a gym challenger?” 

He rocked up to the tips of his toes. “Yeah!” he said excitedly. “I’m going to be the champion someday. You better watch out!” 

The corner of Gloria’s lips twitched upwards. “I better,” she agreed. 

With Eternatus back in its ball, the sky seemed brighter. She looked from the boy to Hop, and frowned, because Hop was still frowning at Eternatus’s pokeball. “I found Leon,” she blurted out. “He’ll probably need to see a doctor, but I think he’s okay. We’re all okay.” 

Hop blinked and tore his eyes away from the pokeball. “Oh, good,” he said softly, staring at her instead. His eyes were molten amber, and she was stuck suspended in his gaze until he away. “Eternatus is holding something, isn’t it?” he asked. “I’m sorry, Victor, but I do need that back.” 

“No problem,” Victor said, reaching a hand over Eternatus’s pokeball and pulling out something small and shiny that she couldn’t quite get a good glimpse of. “Whoa, I’ve never seen a battle item like this.” 

“It’s mine,” Hop said smoothly, snatching it back and sliding a silver ring down his - 

His - 

-his ring finger - 

Her breath hitched as Hop slid his wedding ring back on the ring finger of his left hand. It matched hers perfectly. He looked over it once to make sure it was on securely, and then held that very same hand out to Gloria. “Walk out with me?” 

She’s five years old and racing to the ice cream van, and she’s holding Hop’s hand as he shows her a shortcut- 

She reached out and took his hand, feeling light-headed. 

She’s thirteen and lost in the woods, and she’s holding Hop’s hand and staring down her death- 

He sent her a small,nervous smile and squeezed her hand. “We can talk about everything at home. I’m sure we’ll figure it out. We always have.” 

She’s eighteen and leading the way back to their hotel room, and she’s squeezing Hop’s hand desperately and she has to leave in the morning- 

He took a step forward towards the elevator that would take them off the roof, but she remaining ingrained to the spot. “Gloria? You alright?” 

She’s twenty-two and Leon walks her up the aisle at her wedding, and Hop smiles from ear to ear and takes her hand - 

“Oh,” Gloria breathed softly. “You’re my husband.” 

Hop turned to her. He was the only person in the world. “What’d you say?” he asked. 

“Well, no wonder you were so upset about the divorce,” she said, still mostly to herself. She readjusted her grip on his left hand gently, rubbing his ring with one of her fingers. 

He watched her, warily, like one might watch a wild Meowth that had a history of scratching. “What are you talking about?”  

“I remember you,” she said. “Why’d you give Eternatus your wedding ring?” 

He blinked. “You’d been attacked, and all your pokemon escaped,” he said, voice guarded. “Eternatus had created another Darkest Day. He didn’t want to go with me, but I promised that I’d bring him right back to you. He wanted proof, so...I gave him my ring.” 

“You’re the stupidest man in the world,” Gloria confided. “I didn’t know I was married to you.” 

He recoiled. “I’m the what? You - what?” 

“It’s okay,” Gloria said, and squeezed his hand. “I’m the stupidest woman.” 

“I don’t understand,” Hop said. 

“I’ve never been so relieved to be wrong in my life,” she told him. “Do you still love me?” 

His eyes flickered. “Yes,” he said. “Always.” 

“Good,” Gloria said. “Because I’ve been in love with you since the moment I saw you.” And then she grabbed him by the front of his jacket and kissed him again. 

He kissed back, this time. 

“Um,” Victor said, an indescribable period of time later. “Should I...go?” 

Chapter Text

“Let me get this straight,” Hop said. “You knew you were married the whole time, you just thought it was to someone else?” 

“Well, I had the common sense not to take off my ring,” Gloria said, pressing the elevator’s button for the floor she’d left Leon. 

“You based your entire judgement of our relationship on my not wearing a ring?” Hop asked. 

“You didn’t say anything!” Gloria said. “You backed off when I flirted-”

“You didn’t remember me!” 

“-and you didn’t tell me we were husband and wife when you flirted with me!” 

“I didn’t want to pressure you,” Hop said. “You hate being pressured into a relationship. Historically, that is a terrible option for me. I just didn’t want you to run away screaming - which you did at the end, I might point out - ”

“I wasn’t trying to divorce you,” Gloria said. “Look at it from my point of view: I was in love with you. I was married to not-you. Obviously, I was going to divorce whoever-it-was to be with you.” 

“Obviously,” Hop echoed. He looked down at the floor, a pleased smile blooming his face. 

“You knew part of it,” she said. “What did you even talk about with Bede?” 

“Talking with Bede is an oxymoron,” he said. “Bede made fun of me for three hours for not being brave enough to confess to my wife and got me plastered.” 

“He had a point.” 

“You knew you were married, you could have asked at any time,” Hop said. “Me, or Marnie, or Bede, or the internet-”

“Didn’t matter who it was,” Gloria said. “It wasn’t you.” 

“Wow,” Hop said, beaming. “You really did fall for me instantly. You didn’t even know me.” 

“You were the only person I knew,” Gloria pointed out. 

“Still,” Hop said. 

She rolled her eyes. “Oh, don’t get a big head about it-”

The elevator beeped as it stopped on Leon’s floor, and Victor (standing as far away from them as he could in the elevator) sighed loudly in relief and dashed out. 

“How was Leon looking?” Hop said. 

“Knocked out,” Gloria answered. “Hey, Hop - why does Leon have the same kind of wedding ring we do? It’s just like ours, just gold.” 

“I recommended a brand,” he answered automatically, before stopping in his tracks and staring at Gloria. “Why were you looking at Lee’s wedding ring?” 

“Just curious,” she answered quickly, blushing and looking away to try and hide it.

“No,” he said, sounding morbidly fascinated. “Gloria, you did not-”

“I didn’t say anything!” 

“That’s my brother!” Hop said. “That’s disgusting!” 

“I did not think I was married to Leon,” she lied. “What a depressing thought-”

“My brother,” he repeated. “You were so desperate for a matching ring that you thought-”

“Bede’s the one that recommended a divorce!” she interrupted. 

Hop’s teasing disappeared instantly. “He what.” 

“Uh, guys?” Victor said, staring down at Leon on the floor. “Maybe you can discuss this later?” 

They dropped off Leon at Wyndon Central hospital, and had a quick chat with the police regarding Team Exit’s arrests before Hop and Gloria went home - a good size townhouse, downtown, across the street from the park. 

“Man, I’m exhausted,” Hop said, peeling off his jacket and hanging it on the coat rack. “I think I’m going to go to bed early so that I can get back to Leon as soon as visiting hours open.”

“One last question,” Gloria said. “So, Eternatus made five, but...you still have my last pokemon, right?” 

He chuckled and dug through his bag. “Sure do,” he said, pulling out a ball and placing it in her hands. “Go nuts. I’m going to go take a shower.” 

“Thank you,’ Gloria said, and Hop kissed her quickly on the cheek before he started upstairs to where the bathroom presumably was. 

She wandered around the ground floor of their home - a living room, kitchen, dining room, and a small washroom made up most of the space. It was all fairly neat, but lived in - plants growing on the windowsill of the dining room, a dirty laundry hamper in the hall, a fridge full of magnets on its door, a picture of Gloria and Hop on their wedding day hanging over the fireplace. 

Gloria collapsed down on the couch, and decided to summon her last pokemon. She recognized an Appletun immediately, and the accompanying scent of warm pie filled their home beautifully. “Hi, buddy,” she greeted. 

Appletun smiled at her, lumbering over for some scratches. 

“Did you miss me?” Gloria asked, petting Appletun with one hand while she picked up her phone with the other. She swiped back through her previous records - Appletun had started appearing on her team a little less than two years ago. She clicked on the link to the species description. It evolved from Applin - 

-Hop, holding out an Applin and blushing bright red - 

-"Yes,” she answered breathlessly, “but only if it’s forever-”

She blinked, and looked upstairs. If she listened closely, she could faintly hear the sound of water running. 

“I think Hop forgot what happens when you give a girl an Applin,” she said to her pokemon. 

Appletun nodded, and she laughed. “I’ll be back to play later,” she answered, summoning it back to its ball. 

And then she went upstairs to join her husband. 

THE END