Chapter Text
Postwick is the type of place people go to disappear.
It's one of those small, middle-of-nowhere kind of places, with nothing to its name. If you've seen one, you've seen them all. Rarely does it even show up on regional maps - with its meager population of less than fifty, there’s hardly anything more notable than the kitschy-cute welcome sign hammered into the beat up dirt path that meanders through the hills before reaching town - the only road to town, in fact. The population painted onto the sign is peeling off, shredding into little confetti-thin pieces. Leon would know, he passes by it every other day to meet Sonia.
(Well, they do have wooloo. So, so many wooloo).
Postwick has never produced anyone of significance, not for lack of trying.
Maybe it’s just the climate of the place - maybe a no-name town breeds no-name people. Maybe it’s the sleepy atmosphere that swallows you up, or maybe all the myths about the Slumbering Weald are true after all.
Between the two of them, Sonia decided to take it upon herself to investigate that latter point. She walked out of the broken-latch maw of the forest with a backdrop of mist curling behind her, as if trying to draw her back in. She says she doesn’t remember anything that happened, but Leon would like to think she’d remember seeing the beast of the Weald, should it exist.
(Leon’s learned not to heed any of the stories Professor Magnolia tells them, when she has the energy to leave her lab. The Slumbering Weald can’t go on forever, because the bordering mountains would keep it from doing so. Postwick is just some back-water town that has to make up its own drama to keep everyone entertained. And scared.)
So, no, Postwick isn’t anything special, and neither are its people.
But he’s holding a pleasantly-warm egg in his arms, and he thinks maybe we can change that.
He’s eleven, of course, and every eleven year old has ambition too great to be contained in the size of their palms, but he just… knows it. That bone-deep kind of knowledge, like he knows that the earth rotates around the sun and that Sonia will be waiting for him at the sign tomorrow and that he loves his baby brother Hop so much that it scares him.
Magnolia gave him the egg for his eleventh birthday, claimed that it was in exchange for him fixing her fence, even if he would’ve fixed it without the incentive. She wants to know if there’s any genetic predisposition for the Dynamax phenomenon, and she got special permission to import a Kantonian-Charizard to breed.
So the egg is either a Charmander or a Gible, and he’ll be happy with either.
In the distance, through the sea of wooloo, one of the older kids is trying to shear one for the coming summer months. Leon knows from experience that wooloo do not appreciate being sheared. At all.
Sonia kicks her legs in sync with him, hands finding purchase on an ivy-covered wall. Her hair is pulled back in those braids she hates. She says it hurts her head, but her Mom thinks they’re pretty.
“Shouldn’t you be helping him?”
“He doesn’t need my help.” Leon huffs. And he’s not too inclined to help, either, because last time one of those little monsters nearly took his head off. “He’s doing fine.”
He’s wrestling the wooloo and losing. He pretends not to see.
Sonia snorts. “So, you thought about it, right? The journey?”
“‘Course I have.”
The idea of leaving home fills him with a sort of anxious, anticipatory static. Wanderlust squeezes his throat tight. The furthest he’s ever gotten away from home is Professor Magnolia’s house, because he can’t manage to get anywhere else without getting hopelessly lost.
“Mom thinks I’m too young.”
“Grandma gave you an egg.” She nudges him, pouting a little. Clearly jealous he got… whatever is in the egg, and she didn’t. “She thinks you can go on the challenge.”
Mom had a few choice words about that, too. Words he’s not allowed to repeat.
Magnolia is from ‘another time’, when it was ‘more acceptable’ for ten year olds to embark on life-changing journeys unsupervised. There’s no legal restrictions on age - oh, no, there’d be too much public backlash to touch that social precedent yet - but most people wait. Leon doesn’t want to wait.
“Of course I can do it.” He nudges her ankle. “So don’t leave without me.”
“I won’t leave without you! Then you’d never make it past Wedgehurst.”
He shoves her, and then they both laugh, because she’s probably right. Below them, her Yamper barks.
Leon needs to get out of here soon, if he doesn’t want to get swallowed too. He can’t imagine spending the rest of his life wrangling the flock of wooloo their family owns. Can’t imagine accompanying his mother into town and trying to auction the wool off. Can’t imagine that this is what his life amounts to, that it begins and ends in this town. For some people, it’s good - but for him, it’s just… different.
“Besides.” Sonia starts again. “We’ve gotta prove Bailey wrong.”
Bailey, the same twelve year old who’s taken it upon himself to ‘teach them their place’ ever since the two of them scored better in the mock battles than him. Leon is from a no-name family and he lives in a no-name town, which didn't make him any happier. At least Sonia is the professor's granddaughter.
“He’s…” She leans in conspiratorially, and her voice drops to a whisper, “An asshole.”
During Magnolia’s stunt as a trainer, she picked up quite a few things - her tendency to mouth off was one that she never quite grew out of. Sonia inherited some of those things.
“Don’t tell my Mom I said that.”
“I won’t.” He hugs the egg closer to his chest.
His mom ducks out of the front door to wave at the two of them.
“Sonia! Your grandma just called, she wants you home before dark!”
She looks up at the sky and blows her bangs out of her face. “Aw, man. That sucks. I guess I gotta go.”
She leaps off the wall and Zeus weaves between her legs. “Bye!”
He waves as she goes.
The egg moves ever so slightly in his grip.
“Leon! Can you help me clear the table?”
“Yeah! Coming!”
He slides carefully off and trots inside.
The egg turns out to be a charmander.
It happened sometime during the night, and he’s so lucky that the main elemental starters are relatively low maintenance. Some of them need help - sometimes wooloo can’t quite get out and you have to break the shell for them (you can’t let the dubwool do it, he learned the hard way, because eggs break easily), but it seems charmander had no problems. He wakes up at three in the morning to find smooth, white eggshell pieces scattered across the throne of blankets the egg had been propped on.
On the cushion it sits, blinking big black eyes at him.
And then it sets the blankets on fire.
She has a strange fascination with the fireplace. She sits and pokes at the wood and the crackling coals. He’s terrible at coming up with nicknames - he’s the reason why half the wooloo are just named after food (Cupcake and Cherry are prime examples). Mom suggests ‘Hearth’. Sonia leans forward with way too much excitement and declares, “Vesta.”
And she seems so sure of it, so, “Vesta!”
Vesta turns curiously.
“You like that?”
She makes a hissing sound like popping coals, and he coos.
Vesta it is.
Vesta decides to take personal issue with Bailey’s face, and decides to make this public knowledge by launching herself at him. Violently. To be fair, he did instigate, but Vesta just doesn’t… like people. Not like Zeus likes people. She can be friendly, she just chooses not to.
And it was kinda mean, sure, but Leon laughed. It took Sonia a good ten minutes to calm down, she was laughing so hard she was crying.
Vesta looked very proud of herself.
Neither Bailey nor the principal are as amused.
And it just so happens that Bailey is Chairman Rose’s nephew. Because of course he is. And so Chairman Rose comes to Postwick. Because of course he does.
(He's told that the Chairman makes his rounds every other year looking for promising trainers to sponsor. The way he says 'charity cases' makes his stomach turn).
And his career is over before it’s even started.
Chairman Rose is shorter than he looks on TV - but otherwise the same, right down to the suit, and he has a different proposal.
“The two of you both have pokemon, don’t you?” He asks, and out of the corner of his eye, the principal’s eyes widen, and he’s not entirely sure why. “How about you settle this like trainers - with a battle.”
If no one else, Vesta seems to accept this alternative. She’s hanging off his shoulders, her tail curled carefully around his arm, the burning tip held away from his arm as not to burn him.
“You can beat him.” Sonia says, so he shrugs.
“Okay. I accept.”
Vesta makes quick work of Bailey’s timburr.
He tells her which way to dodge and how to do it, and when to retaliate. She just learned ember, and she’s not quite good at it yet, but timburr are slow and no matter how sloppy the attack is objectively, it can’t escape the flames.
The battle ends with Leon the uncontested winner.
Rose smiles on the sidelines.
“Young man.” Rose calls. His assistant - Oleana - trails behind him, a little like the ghosts from the Weald. “You said your name was Leon?”
He turns. Vesta shifts restlessly in his arms, glaring at him through narrowed eyes. She’s also bitey. The professor says that’s normal for that age, and that she’ll grow out of it. That would be all well and good if his hands weren’t covered in bandages. He’s considering using oven mitts to handle her.
“Um, yes sir.”
“Your battle was exemplary.” He says, charismatic as ever. Leon preens at the complement. “I heard the professor gave you that charmander not too long ago.”
“Two weeks.” He says. “I mean, I hatched her two weeks ago.”
She nips at his fingers. He scratches under her chin to distract her. He’d really prefer if she kept her mouthful of razor blades to herself, thank you very much.
“Only two weeks?” He raises an eyebrow. “You two seem very attached.”
Well, she was currently trying to deprive him of his fingers, so. Very attached indeed.
“Hey, watch your tail.” He whispers. She cautiously moves her tail away from the flowering ivy covering this side of the school building.
“You have a lot of potential.” Rose continues. “I’m very impressed by your battling skill. Have you ever considered taking the gym challenge?”
He perks up. “You think I could?”
Rose leans closer. “I think you could win. If you’re interested… I’d be happy to endorse you.”
This… cannot be happening. Not to him. The only thing that could make this moment better was if Vesta would stop chewing on his fingers.
“I - I - yes! Yes, I’m interested!”
“Then it’s settled.” He smiles.
Leon walks away with a letter in his bag, and it’s the most valuable thing he’s ever held in his entire life. He’s probably going to lose it, or Vesta’s going to shred it by accident, or something like that, because he does that a lot, and Vesta likes clawing things up, like his curtains, and his mom’s favorite scarf.
“Sonia’s gonna lose her mind.” He whispers.
Vesta squeaks happily.
Mom isn’t thrilled, but she doesn’t have the energy to argue, really. She’s working two jobs since Dad died and they still just scrape by sometimes, and she doesn’t really want him to go, but she doesn’t want him to be unhappy here, either.
Leon is an open flame, he can’t help but burn.
When he shows her the chairman’s endorsement, there’s not much she can do but agree. After all, cost is no longer an issue - Chairman Rose has already agreed to pay for whatever equipment he needs, and that gets him out of her hair, and it gets him a shot at his dream.
The next day, Sonia comes into town waving an endorsement letter of her own - written by her grandmother, even though the competition doesn’t even start for another month.
“We’re doing this!” He says, swinging Vesta around in his arms. “Now you can bite all the pokemon you want, and not me!”
She exhales smoke and nips at his hair.
“You two stay together, you hear me? You’ve just got each other.” Mom says. Vesta squeaks. Mom smiles. “And your teams.”
His mom hugs them both. Sonia’s grip is almost stronger, her arm slung around his shoulders as she yanks him closer. “We promise! We’ll be fine!”
“Yeah, Mom!” He agrees quickly. “We’ll beat all the gyms!”
“And then I’ll become the champion.” Sonia grins at him out of the corner of her eye. Zeus barks impatiently. “We gotta go our we’re gonna miss the train!”
Sonia starts to drag him down the path. He knows that he’ll get lost otherwise.
“Stay safe!” Mom yells. Magnolia chuckles and lifts a hand to wave. “Good luck, children!”
Leon waves back and Sonia smiles so big her face might break in half. They’re on their own now, they’re on their very own journey, and that cobweb of abstract claustrophobia is beginning to ease, replaced by the thrill of excitement, of the unknown, spread in front of them. They have the world for their picking.
They stop at the train station - this is the only way to Motostoke, and he wants to spend some time in the wild area and if he ever wants to get out Sonia has to go with him.
They present their tickets and slide in the nearest booth. He’s never been on a train before, but Sonia has - to see her dad up in Wyndon. He owns a business there, he thinks.
The floor rumbles as it starts to move, and he shuffles. Vesta hisses at the floor, and hisses at everyone that passes too close.
He pats her head. “Be friendly.”
Sonia wrinkles her nose. “I think we chose the wrong name. Your lizard has never been friendly or welcoming in her entire life.”
Zeus makes a noise of agreement from her lap.
“That’s not true, is it?” He scratches her neck. “You’re nice to me.”
“She bites you all the time!”
“Out of love.”
She giggles and leans back against the seat, and stares out the window as they pass by the rolling hills.
He watches the hills flatten out, watches the countryside become dotted with trees, watches as he leaves everything he’s ever known behind him.