Chapter Text
Hop didn’t know if this whole thing was Gloria’s idea, or if she’d simply agreed to it.
Both options seemed…distinctly off, at least for the Gloria he knew.
But here Hop was anyway. Helping his longtime friend and rival (well, one of them) steel her courage and tidy up a few last-minute touches on the obscenely pink, heart-decorated booth set up directly outside Wyndon Stadium for the day.
It stood out, and not just for having top placement, among the other Valentine-themed decorations put together on the regular booths that lined the plaza. What a holiday about chocolate and hearts had to do with Pokémon battles, Hop had no idea, but it hadn’t stopped the Pokémon League from cashing in.
The holiday tourney wasn’t that old a tradition. But it had stuck around, even after Leon. The twins (who, to Galar’s infatuation and amusement, traded off the Champion’s title in some kind of record relay competition every two or three weeks or so for how evenly they were matched) were always eager for battles. Regardless of the season.
Hop was certain they’d both battle barefoot in a sandstorm or a blizzard and not realize the difference unless it chipped away at their Pokémon’s HP, which he dryly liked to tell people who were stunned at the intensity of how Victor and Gloria often battled, as if they saw nothing else going on in the world while it happened.
Both were also glassy-eyed, docile puppet-heads that could be more than happy to smile and nod for the board meetings, Hop was told, whenever the Macro Cosmos League organizers held meetings to hash out upcoming tourney with any would-be participants or hopefuls, Gym Leaders included. According to said board members (or so the notes read; Victor at least made an effort to keep the time and could write in his sleep, a feat Hop was not sure he had ever observed before except in certain Pokémon attacks) a seasonal tournament was still good way to bring in fans and revenue.
That timing was important, during the start of the Gym Challenge’s slowdown season. When most of the challengers had been whittled down, and good matches were few and far between on television.
A Valentine’s Day exhibition also helped set up the preliminary brackets for the finals tournament, not to mention the Leader rankings for the next season after—but that was neither here nor there.
Hop wasn’t competing today. Which was why he was happy to help Gloria in her bravely taken-upon fundraising effort, considering the funds from the booth she was hosting would be going directly to Hop and Sonia’s Dynamax research. When Magnolia complained, the Pokémon League listened, and it could never be said that even the (sometimes) champions of the organization wouldn’t do their share.
Hop didn’t need to compete today simply because he’d already secured his place in this year’s final tourney. The regular way, he might add. He’d used the two months’ vacation he’d taken from Sonia’s lab in August to complete the Gym Circuit once more—Hop’s badges were earned and secured for a second time in half the vacation period allotted, himself back home and ready to start on the real work by the time Sonia had the pair’s next project outlined for the Wild Area. That was where he’d spent most of the intervening months.
Gloria agreeing to run the booth was surprising in more ways than one. And not one of them having a bit to do with her not being the current Champion, the title currently held by Victor who was hosting the day’s tourney in the stadium.
Gloria had her spot in the final tournament in May. Hop snickered, remembering she had her need for a Gym Challenge completion waived finally as a matter of course. That was the only way the Gym Leaders didn’t have to deal with one of the twins rolling in every other month to get another damn badge, interrupting all traffic and tourism in their city for a good week after and their Gym Trainers’ work ethics.
For all Hop knew, Gloria might well have taken on Victor and become reigning champ again by the time the Gym Challenger season’s end rolled around. She could probably do it twice, if Hop were to place a bet on it.
A kissing booth, though? Hop would have lost all his Watts in a heartbeat, if anyone asked him prior to a couple of days ago whether or not he’d catch Gloria one day standing red-faced behind the temporary wooden booth they’d finished wiring pink lights over with some help from the MC employees. It was adorned with constructed hearts and flashing stars and hearts, and (of course) a card machine to swipe your well-earned Watts through. All to go toward Wild Area research at the Pokémon League’s urging.
Hop felt kind of awful, the longer he thought about this, actually.
“You really don’t have to do this,” he stressed, gripping Gloria’s hands in his own and making her gape, flushing scarlet on her side of the booth that she stood behind.
His poor friend must have been more nervous than Hop realized, at going through with this.
Hop winced in guilt, and blabbed on, trying not to sound as dumb as he felt. “It’s—I mean—I don’t know who thought of this, but I swear, Gloria, really! We can raise the money another way. You know you’re more important to Sonia and I, than—”
Before Hop could finish, unfortunately there was a shout for their attention that startled the pair of rivals out of their mutually, now, red-faced little heart-to-heart.
“Who…?” Hop asked, dumbfounded, but the white sports gear and sunglasses said it all once he turne around.
An MC worker in League getup was running up to them from the stadium entrance, calling out frantically to Gloria. She was needed for something inside, the man explained while gasping for air, and quickly. There had been some kind of mix-up in the tournament roster, what with the weather near Stow-on-Side causing a power outage near the abandoned plant, and so of course the Gym Leaders in the area had taken a delay to help with the mess. And there was the matter of the ecosystem near Glimwood Tangle being so fragile this time of year, meaning the next town over was caught up in the accident, as well as…
Gloria protested, even as she was pulled along inside by the League employee still chattering away, apparently deaf to her insistence that she had a prior commitment as well. Hop was left watching in confusion, as Gloria finally disappeared into the stadium doors with a quick call back in Hop’s directions that she’d be back as soon she could, and would he please keep an eye on the booth in the meantime?
Hop gave her a quick nod, more occupied wondering what on earth could be so important that the Champion inside couldn’t handle it himself. Victor was more reserved, but that usually meant he was good at contacting people and rounding them up in emergencies…
Later, Hop wished quite thoroughly he’d simply left Gloria to be only one there after they’d finished the booth. Not wasted time on reassurances, just imparted upon her a firm good luck before disappearing then when he had the chance.
While Hop could still conceivably have made a break for it, with his view of…okay, pretty much every person in his life still blissfully, innocently intact.
Why a kissing booth? he had to ask himself once more, with a bad stirring in his gut after Gloria disappeared from sight. Hop kept trying to reassure himself that nothing bad was going to happen and she’d be back soon enough, and then Hop could try to talk her out of this.
At least the other booths outside the stadium had chocolate.