Chapter Text
“I’m back,” Marnie announced, the door to their house creaking open. Piers could hear the familiar jingle as she dropped her bag unceremoniously in the front hall and tossed the mail onto the kitchen counter.
“Welcome back,” he called, turning on the old couch to face her. “How was the day?”
Marnie wrinkled her nose, heading through the kitchen. “Just fantastic.” She pulled the fridge open. “Some gym challenger had a real powerful muddy water that hit me more’n it hit morpeko.” Piers chuckled, and Marnie grumbled. “Well - what’ve you been up to today, huh?”
Piers turned back to the TV and gave a half-hearted shrug. “League archives, I guess.”
“Whatcha still watchin’ them for?” Marnie was rinsing off an apple. “You haven’t done any battling since the championship.”
He gave a similar-sounding grumble to hers. “Dunno. Just...research, I guess.”
“I think you should go outside instead,” Marnie piped, coming to lean over the back of the sofa. Piers shot her a look. “C’mon, you have so much free time now you’re not runnin’ the gym. Why don’t you go catch me a sneasel? You know I really want one.”
“Not runnin’ errands for ya,” Piers said, plucking the apple out of his sisters’ hands and stealing a bite. “Besides, still gotta get ready for shows and all that.”
“Like you’re doing now.”
Piers ignored her and her attempts to grab her apple back, and looked at her petulantly until she stomped back off to the kitchen to get another, muttering something that was probably lazy arse under her breath. “Hey, wait, there’s a real letter for me here.”
“Are you sure it’s not just your holiday issue of Baby Pokemon ?” Marnie ignored him, flipping it over before eventually popping open the (rather baroque) seal. “Well?”
Her face was rather unreadable, as usual. “‘s an invitation, I guess. Assumin’ it’s from Leon, because the stationary has pictures of him in the corners.” Piers snorted, but Marnie brought over the letter to show him, and - yep. Of course he would have that.
“Exhibition match, huh? To celebrate the battle tower opening?” She nodded, flipping the invitation over. “Sounds fun,” Piers added, “and it’ll be your first one of these things as leader, so that’s exciting.” Marnie’s face looked as close to excited as it ever got, which was not much of a difference, but a noticeable shift to those who knew her nonetheless. Piers grinned.
“Says it’s gonna be in ‘historic Hobston stadium’,” Marnie continued, still scanning the invitation.
“Huh,” Piers said, “Wonder how Leon managed to get that approved. Don’t think that stadium’s seen any use in almost a century other than for those dumb ‘Story of Galar’ events.”
“I’ve never been that far out in the countryside…” Marnie’s eyes were sparkling. “‘n Victor and everyone will be there.” She turned to Piers. “You’re comin’ too, though.”
“Wasn’t exactly invited ...” Piers began, but by Marnie’s expression he knew there was no getting out of it without feeling terrible afterwards. Plus, he’d want to be there to support her, and maybe it wouldn’t be half bad to see the rest of the leaders in person again. Well, most of them. His mind lingered on one specific face and the promise of a rematch...but it’d been a while. He probably didn’t even remember...“Right.”
Marnie’s face lifted minutely again just as her phone chimed. Her brow furrowed. “Oh. It’s Leon.”
Beep. “All right, Marnie! Did you get my invite?” The former champion sounded incredibly out of breath.
“Uh - hey, Leon. Yeah, I...I just got it here a moment ag-”
“Oh, great news!” Leon said, his excitement palpable even through the phone and despite the fact he’d apparently run a marathon by the sound of it. “Been flying around all day to drop them off myself, seeing as I wanted to give you all proper notice, and you know how the post can be…”
That explained the breathlessness, then. “When - oh.” Marnie flipped the letter over again, and Piers leaned over her shoulder. “....a week from Sunday?”
“Sorry ‘bout that,” Leon continued, “but it took an age getting it all approved through the League. They just let me know, but it’s all sorted now. It’ll be an absolutely ch- it’ll be great! You can come, right?”
“Uh,” Marnie said, exchanging a glance with Piers and shrugging. “Well, if it’s all sorted with the League, then...yeah. We don’t have plans, uh-”
“BRILLIANT!” Leon shouted. Marnie almost dropped her phone. “Oh, Marnie, thank you! It’s going to be so great. You’re the first person that picked up, but we’re all going to have such a great time. Been planning this for almost a full month, now.”
Piers raised his eyebrows, mouthing a month? incredulously. The man was something else. Marnie shook her head, trying not to laugh. “That’s tops, Leon.”
“Oh! And I almost forgot - d’you think Piers would come too? Raihan told me to ask. He’d be more than welcome, of course!”
Marnie raised an eyebrow.
“Uh, yeah - he’s here and he’ll come, if it’s alright, ‘course,” she continued. Piers was leaning in close enough to hear, and blinked at her, then shrugged. Maybe Raihan had been serious about a rematch. That made him feel better about the whole trip already.
“Fantastic. Just fantastic! Well, I’ll have train tickets sent off for you both quick. Sorry can’t stay longer and chat - I’m off to hopefully catch Milo next. See you soon?”
“See you,” Marnie replied, pulling the phone away from her ear just as a Charizard roar could be heard on the other end. She quickly hung up.
Piers gave a chuckle. “Oh, I hope Leon’s got folks helpin’ him out with this. For some reason I can’t place, he never struck me as the organized type.”
Marnie shook her head, flopping back onto the couch beside him. “Yup,” she sighed. “Why d’you think Raihan wanted you to come, huh?”
Piers shrugged, looking down. “Dunno,” he said, “but - well, bit after that championship cup, he did say he’d love a rematch.”
“Why? He won.”
Piers shrugged. “Said somethin’ about fighting without dynamax this time around. Didn’t think he was that serious about following through, though.”
“Thoughtful of him,” Marnie said. “So is that the reason you’ve been watching all his matches? Was wondering why I had to miss one of Victor’s for his.”
Piers frowned down at his hands. “Not all of ‘em,” he said defensively. “Just...been wanting to keep up when I can, is all.”
Marnie looked at him for a moment longer, then shrugged, apparently dropping the issue. “I want dinner. We have anything left?”
A day and a half later, it was Piers’ phone’s turn to ring. He had gone out - just to get groceries at the bigger market in Hammerlocke, but still. Marnie was (annoyingly) right about sitting indoors and isolating himself. Assuming it was their parents, likely giving some vague timeframe as to when they’d next be home that would probably be pushed back, Piers picked up.
“Piers,” a desperate-sounding and non-parental voice cried. “We have a problem.”
“Wh...who’s this?” Piers said, caught off guard. Even his own family rarely called him, so he hadn’t bothered to check the name.
“Leon,” the voice answered, “listen, I’m really sorry, but Bea’s got some karate thing going on apparently this weekend and she won’t be able to make it back for the tournament in time. I need someone else to stand in.”
“Oh...aren’t you gonna battle? You could pair off.” He dropped a box of spaghetti into the basket.
“‘Course I’ll battle,” Leon said, as if it was obvious, “but I can’t just pop out in the first round like that. Wouldn’t be right.”
“You’re not even champion anymore, Leon. You can stoop to our level now,” Piers reminded, but Leon ignored him.
“No, I’d like to ask if you’d come and fight in the bracket, Piers.”
Piers stopped.
“Me? Wh...why me?”
“Well, you were just a gym leader, mate! Why not? You’d be perfect, and you’ve already said you’d come anyway.”
Piers hesitantly started walking towards the till again. “Dunno,” he muttered, “Mean...I’m not in the best shape and all. ‘Sides, don’t you think doubling up on dark types is a little much?”
Leon laughed. “Don’t worry so much! It’s only an exhibition match, anywho. We’ll all have fun! Please?”
It was hard to let Leon down, because as infuriatingly irritating as he could be, he’d always seem genuinely sad about it. And, Piers supposed, he’d been hoping to battle Raihan at some point anyway, so...what was the harm in it? As long as Marnie didn’t mind. He’d probably lose quickly, but it’d be a good warmup.
“Have to ask Marnie if she’d be fussed over that,” Piers conceded, “but if all’s well, then...sure.”
“YES, oh thank everything for the two of you,” Leon said, heaving a sigh of relief. “And if you’re so worried about being out of shape, I could give you some champion tips this we-”
Piers hung up.
For some reason, the week leading up to the exhibition felt longer than usual. Piers spent most of the days training with Obstagoon, who seemed thrilled to be getting time to stretch his claws again. Marnie was practically vibrating with excitement, and she and Morpeko joined them every evening after challengers and trainers trickled out of the gym and they had the floor to themselves. It was nice - he remembered being this happy to be a gym leader before it’d all started to seem rather trite.
She’d been quite on board with the whole idea of him battling too, both to his relief and consternation. It was more fun to be back on the field than Piers wanted to admit, though. Marnie had outgrown his skills as a trainer immensely, but he was more proud than annoyed.
“It’s tomorrow,” Marnie said on Saturday night, breathless more from excitement than the battle they’d just had.
“Well, technically matches don’t start ‘til Monday,” Piers teased, but Marnie ignored him in favor of picking Morpeko up and giving the electric creature a squeeze. “Careful,” he chided, but he knew the small Pokemon was far too enamored with Marnie to ever give her so much as a shock. (Though he had been the one to catch her in the first place, he wasn’t sure the same courtesy extended to him.)
“I’m excited,” Marnie said, and Morpeko chirped seemingly in answer.
“Yeah. Me too,” Piers finally admitted. “Looking forward to this more than usual, I gotta say.” Battling without the pressure of having to run the gym every day or the stress of the championship circuit was always fun. He’d missed it, and so had his Pokemon.
It explained the lift in his heart since Leon had first called, of course.