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You weren't exactly expecting a quiz before your elite four battles. You hoped all the quizzing was long behind you at the academy. You didn't need your test anxiety messing with the one thing that actually let you relax and have fun. Rika could sense your anxiety and gave you a small smile behind her very big desk. “Don't worry. The questions aren't that hard. There’s no math involved.”
You let out a sigh. That was a genuine relief.
For the most part she was right. A lot of them seemed to even be opinions. Rika didn't give anything away with her expression or reaction to your answer. You kind of hated that.
“Next one, in your opinion, which gym was the hardest for you to complete?”
You only thought for a few seconds before responding. “Medali.”
She checked something off. “Do you remember the gym leader there?”
“Larry.” You didn't have to think about that one. It was one of the only gym leaders you did remember the name of.
“And the type of the gym?”
You furrowed your brow. “Well, it was in a restaurant…”
Rika actually cracked a smile at that. “Sorry, no, I meant what pokemon type does he specialize in?”
“Oh, normal!” You said it almost too loud, as if to try and prove you weren't actually an idiot.
There was a pause and Rika looked fully at you instead of the paper. “Just out of curiosity, what made his gym difficult? Was it the test? It is a bit complicated.”
You waved your hand. “Oh no, the test was fine, It was really fun actually. It was, uh-” You froze as you suddenly folded back in on yourself with your hands in your lap. “-uh it was just …difficult generally.”
Rika raised an eyebrow. “Wasn't your starter part fighting type?”
“Yes. Quaxly.” You nodded and realized that didn't give you a good excuse as to why it was difficult. A long silence passed. Rika looked to be about to move onto the next question when your anxiety kicked in. What if you couldn't face the league because of some silly embarrassment? “Wait!” She paused and looked at you expectantly. “There was another reason um- maybe don't…tell anyone I said this, but I think the gym leader Larry is really handsome and it was kind of distracting.” You clasp your hands together and tapped your thumbs against one another, not looking at Rika.
There was an awkward pause of silence before you glanced back at Rika who looked a little taken aback. “Larry?”
“...Yes?” Was that the wrong answer? You thought this was one of the opinion questions!
“The guy with the suit and the cloud tie? And the-” She mimed slicking her hair back. “-hair?”
“Yes.” You felt your face redden even more than it already was.
Rika smiled with a shake of her head. “No, no it's fine you're not- you didn't say anything wrong. I just never had anyone answer a question like that before.” She had a wide grin like she knew something you didn't, before returning to one of professionalism. “Next question, are you aware of who the members of the paldean elite four are?”
You wracked your brain. “Well, I know there's you, and that little girl Poppy, and my art teacher Professor Hassle, and…” You drew a blank as your mouth hung open and you started sweating. Did someone tell you and you forgot? Oh no. Remember, come on! “I…um…I don't…remember who the fourth one is. I’m sorry.”
Rika shook her head. “No problem.” Her wide grin came back. “Let me just look over all of this for a moment.” She did just that before nodding. “Congratulations, you passed!”
All the stress left your body and you felt light headed. “Oh…great.”
Rika laughed and took off her glasses. “Oh come on, you're not tired already? You still got five whole battles ahead of you.” She patted you on the shoulder as you stood up. “Oh and I won't say anything, but personally I think Larry needs more adoring fans. He's a nice guy under all that gray.”
You felt yourself still blushing, but thankfully it was going down steadily. “Thank you.”
“Now.” Rika turned around and started walking backwards. “Ready to battle?”
You stopped where you were in the arena space and took a pokeball out of your holder with a spinning flourish, all previous hesitation and shyness gone. You knew this. You breathed battling. “Always.”
“Let's get to it then.”
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The battles weren’t easy against Poppy and Rika, but they weren't really hard. Maybe it was necessary, but you always thought making a gym leader or elite four member only use one type really handicapped them.
Onto number three. Maybe Hassel?
You couldn't help but freeze when you heard the name of the next member and saw him walking through the door. The confidence and ease with which you battle splintered as you were forcefully shoved out of your zone.
“Hello there…it's me, Larry.”
You did kind of like how he always introduces himself. You were horrible with names. But the problem was that you did remember his name. You glanced at Rika. She smiled evilly, but not unkindly and gave a double thumbs up. She knew the whole time. You glanced back at Larry. Did he know? Did he overhear anything? He was so hard to read. Was he wearing gloves? Has he always been wearing gloves? Were you blushing again? You definitely felt like your heart was punching the inside of your chest. Has it always been this warm here? You changed a glance at the man ready to face you and you noticed a slight dust of pink on his cheeks. He could school his expression, but not blushing. Why did he have such nice cheekbones? He totally knew 100%. You were going to die.
You quickly healed up your pokemon. “You did a great job out there guys keep it up we can do it let's go.” You spoke way too fast to them and your gardevoir gently hit you on the top of your head. You took a second to take a deep breath. “...Thank you.” The psychic type nodded and you gently hit your cheeks, getting your head back in the game. It would be even more embarrassing than this already was if you lost because of a crush
“Hello, it's me. Let's do this.”
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You did it. You are a champion now! It got a little dicey with La Primera but you and your pokemon pulled through. Hassle was understandably crying with Rika patting his back gently. Larry was giving you a slight smile and Poppy was running and dancing around happily. Geeta was the same kind of subdued professional amount of happy she always seems to be but her eyes were sparkling a bit more than usual.
You kept glancing at Larry, but thankfully had not made eye contact with him in a while. Maybe he forgot? Maybe everyone forgot? Maybe you should forget too?
Shit, he was walking closer. You wondered if his back was okay. He always seemed to be hunching over. “Hey…congratulations on-”
Rika came out of seemingly nowhere and put her arms around both of you, catching both of your necks in the crick of her arms. “Nice work guys!” The height difference forced Larry to hunch over even more in what looked to be a very uncomfortable angle. “No one’s beat la primera in a while, we should celebrate. Let's all go out to eat!”
Larry didn't mention the painful angle. “I have to get back to-”
La Primera smiled easily. “I believe we’ve all earned the rest of the day off.”
Rika smiled widely. “Yeah! Let's go to the Treasure Eatery.”
Larry sighed before he gave a shrug. “...alright.”
“Great. You guys can share a cab.” Rika shoved the both of you together causing you both to stumble.
“Wait, why?” You squeaked without thinking.
Rika shrugged. “Not enough room for us all to take one. And Poppy needs enough room for her booster seat.”
“Don't you want to sit together? I thought you liked each other?” Poppy asked innocently in a small pause in her scampering around.
You cleared your throat. “I mean-”
“Poppy, I don't think they-” Larry tried to start.
“I would be okay with it, but I don't want to make him uncomfortable.” You chanced a look at the businessman who stood up a little straighter now that he wasn't being held down by Rika.
“It's alright with me.” He answered unreadably.
“Oh, uh…alright then.”
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Two awkward people. Sitting in a cab. Trying not to look at each other.
It felt like the cab was slowly crushing in on you. You had to say something. “Did you hear everything I said during the interview?”
The man nodded stiffly. “Yes.”
You shook your head regretfully. “I’m sorry, I didn't mean to make everything weird.”
“...It's alright. I don't understand, but I try to look professional.” He adjusted his tie and you realized he was still wearing his gloves.
You needed to distract yourself from the gloves. “I like the cute little clouds on your tie.” You pointed at your own neck as if to illustrate.
“Thank you. I didn't want anything eye-catching. But my Staraptor liked it.” You did recall it was on both of his teams. He must care about it very much. Cute.
You couldn't help but laugh. “Yeah, my pokemon are constantly trying to mess up my outfits. Mostly by splashing me with water or grass.”
“Keeping my suit clean while battling can be difficult. Staraptor is constantly trying to fuss with my hair.” He brushed one of the gray strands out of his face.
“Quaquaval is always doing the same thing. Must just be a bird pokemon thing.” This was good. You knew this. Pokemon were easy to talk about. “Speaking of pokemon, you have a Komala. Have you ever heard the theory that the log is actually what does everything while the Komala sleeps?”
Larry leaned back in his seat, holding his bag in his lap. “No. I’ve never thought about that. Komala can be more or less asleep. People do things while half asleep all the time.” He got a softer look in his eyes thinking about the pokemon.
“I wonder what they're dreaming about. Maybe pokemon battles?” You wondered aloud.
You fell into silence as the soft rocking of the cab flew. Eventually, Larry spoke again. “You don't have an answer, but what did you mean that I was distracting? Was my tie too much? I look fairly average.”
You thought he might be joking but you decided to just take anything he said at face value unless explicitly stated otherwise. “No, no, it wasn't the tie.” You could lie and say it was the tie, but that felt even worse than just being embarrassed. “You just look very…handsome.” If you spoke about it like it wasn’t embarrassing, then it was embarrassing, right? Just be like Larry and act normal. You saw his eyebrows pull together in confusion. “I’ve definitely seen people who look more average than you.” He still looked confused and so you kept talking even though you were begging yourself to shut up. “Your eyebrows are really thick and you have a really strong chin and sharp cheekbones. And your hair being two toned and styled by being pulled back looks good. Maybe it's just my opinion that you look handsome, but you definitely don't look like the most average person ever.”
You finally let yourself breath and you saw the man was staring at you with surprised eyebrows and a slight blush on his cheeks. “Oh. Thank you.” Dammit, it was awkward again. “You look nice as well.”
You weren't expecting any reciprocation and it threw you. “Oh! Thanks.”
He cleared his throat, his face mostly schooled again. “You always seem happy and at ease when battling. Wearing your emotions on your sleeve. Without having an issue with how others might think of you because of it. Not many adults are like that.” You cared a little bit but we're glad you care across as confident.
You tilted your head as it was your turn to be slightly confused. “Well, if I didn't let people know how I was feeling that would make things a whole lot harder, wouldn't it? It would just lead to miscommunication. Even if it's considered embarrassing or immature, ignoring and burying your feelings won't help anything. Communication and honesty is important in any kind of relationship.”
You got unexpectedly serious in that last response. You didn't mean to get into your whole life philosophy on this cab ride. Larry was silent for a moment as he looked down at his bag in thought before nodding as if deciding something. “Yes. I can understand that. Even if I can't do the same. I have to stay professional.”
“Even when your not at work?” You'd never seen him not working.
“I'm always at work.” He just stated it like a fact, not like how distressing that actually was.
“You're not right now.”
He looked to the side and through the cabs window to the pretty landscape below. “I consider this part of my elite four duties.”
“But Geeta said you were off.”
He closed his eyes for a moment before opening them again to stare at you intensely. “Why do you care?” It was asked evenly and in all seriousness. He wanted to understand. Had no one else pointed this out to him?
You rubbed your arms as it was a little cold in the cab with the wind whipping past. “Look, just putting how I feel aside, the way you talk and act does not seem just professional but also unhappy. You don't need to be happy all the time, but from the way you talk it seems like you don't enjoy being a gym leader or an elite four member. A lot of people seem to talk over you and boss you around more than is warranted, without considering how you feel at all and I just think that's not fair.” You inhaled and puffed your chest up. “If you just don't want to make a fuss, I'm willing to tell people to be nicer to you, so you won't get in trouble if they try to retaliate.” You wilted a little. “If you want me too. I wouldn't do it without your okay. I just know what it's like to be treated like that and ignored and, dang it, you deserve as much respect as the rest of the gym leaders and elite four. And just as a person.” You hadn't realized you'd been thinking all of this subconsciously until you were forced to vocalize it.
He took in your words carefully, some understanding coming into his eyes. “I need to make a living somehow and battling is the only thing I'm above average at.” He shrugged. “I appreciate it, but I'm used to it. It doesn't bother me.”
You frowned and made a slight displeased noise in your throat. “I just…want you to know you deserve respect. You're worth it, is what I'm trying to say I guess? You’re a nice person.”
His eyes seemed to soften. “Thank you.” He looked out the window again and you noticed he was blushing slightly once more. You wondered if he'd say anything beyond that, but as the silence stretched on and his eyes bore into the clouds outside, you realized he wouldn't.
You slumped down in your seat, trying not to feel like an idiot for everything you just said and did. It wasn't any of your business. Larry probably didn't even like you in the slightest; he was just obligated to be around you. He couldn't even look at you.
You didn't know how long you had been staring out the window in despair before he cleared his throat. You thought you might have been at the restaurant already, but you could still see the city a little ways away in the distance. You looked at him and he looked slightly nervous which was shocking because it was a look of some kind that wasn't a blank stare. “What kind of food do you like?” A fairly basic question, but you saw what it was. He was trying to reciprocate. To meet you in the middle of both of your social weirdness. You had to keep yourself from smiling too wide. Oh, what asking questions could do.