Chapter Text
holy fucking shit.
it'd been a long journey, and koga finally took in the imposing woods in person. as he breathed in, the air smelled of tree bark and damp soil. he'd seen images of this place online, but actually being there was a whole new experience.
knightshade town-- known for its ghosts and overall vaguely frightening environment.
it was daytime though, so the woods were probably a lot less intimidating than they could've been. not like koga would've been scared either way, though.
he definitely did not jump in surprise at his loyal yamper's sudden yapping. trying to figure out what was upsetting the normally peaceable dog, koga looked around and noticed a person asleep under one of the tall, dark trees.
it didn't seem like the scary trees of these woods would bear fruit, but there's always room for suprises. near the sleeping figure lay a basket of picture-perfect berries, some appearing to have been knocked to the ground.
koga could not tell from the environment if the boy had purposely meant to fall asleep or not. better to wake him up than to leave him there for the ghosts?
walking over to the snoring stranger, koga crouched down and cautiously poked him. "uh, hello?"
no answer, not even a stir. he may have run into a heavy sleeper.
koga tapped him again. "helloooo, ya sure this is a good place ta sleep?"
a low grumble filled the brief pause between them. yamper took that as a sign to absolutely go ham in attempt to speed the waking process. excitedly, the dog pokemon got to licking the sleeper's face like it was his job.
red eyes hurriedly flicked open. these red eyes reminded koga of someone else-- namely, the ghost gym's leader, rei sakuma.
the person before him even had that same trademark dark hair, too. it suddenly occurred to him that this was ritsu sakuma, rei's brother.
the elder brother was on the receiving end of more fame; it came with the territory of being a gym leader. according to however many articles, though, ritsu hadn't chosen the same path as his brother-- he wasn't even a pokemon trainer. but if the rumors were true, wild pokemon would flock to and befriend the chronically sleepy boy, unbound by a feeling of ownership and coming and going as they pleased.
"eugh..." the boy whined, trying to wipe off his face as yamper squirmed around in his personal space.
"uh, sorry 'bout that. he gets excited..." koga said lowly, ears going a tad warm in embarrassment over yamper's outburst as he retrieved the wriggling dog.
ritsu sleepily blinked, looking up at pokemon and trainer. "did you two wake me up on purpose? i was having such a good dream..."
"uhh... yeah? jus' wanted ta make sure ya weren't a corpse? didn't wanna leave ya out ta become ghost possession material? didn't realize you were ritsu sakuma until too late, though. if i'd have recognized ya, i would've let ya sleep," koga sheepishly explained.
it takes a lot for koga to feel shy, and frankly it was a little embarrassing to not recognize a semi-famous person with a well known passion for sleeping wherever the hell he wants. that very well met the criteria for a more reserved, less confident behaving koga.
however, it didn't appear that ritsu felt slighted over koga's blunder as he simply said, "hmmm... well, with that corgi face of yours, i can hardly be mad~"
he hadn't taken ritsu to be a dog person. this was an unexpected (albeit positive) development.
"ah, yeah. this is my yamper, leon. he's a real champ. he likes travelling around with me 'n stuff. he's a good boy."
the dog stared at his owner, eyes deep and sparkling with that dog-typical content emptiness. what a good little guy leon was, indeed.
ritsu sakuma sweetly smiled. koga couldn't decipher if it was purely kind in nature, or something a little more impish.
"i wasn't talking about the dog, i was talking about you. although, leon is a cutie too, aren't you, boy?~"
leon barked excitedly, doing a little joyful twirl as ritsu lightly laughed. meanwhile, it took koga a solid 3 minutes to process what was said, and even after that he got absolutely nowhere.
"uh... with all due respect, that doesn't make any fuckin' sense ta me," koga finally admitted.
"it doesn't have to, don't worry about it~" he chirped, punctuating the roundabout statement with a wink.
weird. it was weird how that made him feel.
"anyway, are you here to challenge my brother's stupid gym?" ritsu inquired, carrying on the conversation for some reason. sitting up on the ground now, he gently picked up his fallen berries. cleaning off any imperfections with his shirt, he gingerly placed them back in the basket.
"yeah, that's the plan... between you an' me, i've got a bone to pick with your brother there. i'm totally gonna kick his ass 'n get that gym badge...that'll show him..."
ritsu looked up from his basket of berries, now filled. "oho~ i like your spirit, little corgi. i hope you'll make good on that, for both of our sakes. i always love watching my brother go down in battle~"
oh, right. the brothers didn't have the best relationship. koga wasn't even trying to start a sibling rivalry here, but his agitation with rei sakuma had accidentally opened the door to that possiblity. was it dangerous to get on a gym leader's bad side?
oh well, koga didn't care. whatever happens will happen. rock 'n roll, baby.
but also...
"w-who are you callin' corgi? if you're talkin' to the dog, i told ya he's leon! 'n my name's koga oogami." koga exclaimed, crossing his arms with a huff.
ritsu finally fully got off the ground, dusting himself off a bit. "i don't care. anyway, i need to get these berries back, i guess i napped long enough. catch you later, corgi~ maybe stop by the bakery if you've got the time later, i'll give you the attempting to beat my brother's ass in battle discount."
and with that, ritsu and his berries were gone. leon watched forlornly as his new friend(?) left.
"weird fuckin' character, that's for sure..." koga muttered, otherwise uncertain of his thoughts on ritsu sakuma.