Chapter Text
Every day since she’d started at Uva Naranja Academy, 6-year-old Miyaki Jueru had left a single dandelion on her classmate Poppy Herrera’s desk. She wished she could do more, but since she’d only just moved from Johto with her parents, Jueru didn’t know how to speak Paldean well. Or at all, really.
“Mr Salvatore,” Jueru asked in Otonese during a morning language class, rocking back and forth on the balls of her feet, “How do you make friends when you can’t talk to someone?”
“Well, giving gifts – small tokens of affection – is one way,” Salvatore replied after a moment’s thought.
Poppy was in Jueru’s homeroom. Poppy was pretty, and silly, and was always nice to everyone. She was always chattering about Pokémon, or art, or her grandpa, uncle, and big sister who she got to see a lot. And Jueru didn’t understand most of it, but she was learning more every day. And every day, before class started, she left a dandelion on Poppy’s desk.
Steel-Types were Poppy’s favorites. Jueru figured this out after a couple weeks of her special language classes with Salvatore, when her Paldean vocabulary had expanded enough to understand more of what Poppy was saying in their classes together.
Every day after that, a drawing of a steel-type Pokémon was waiting for Poppy along side the dandelion.
Jueru was getting better at understanding Paldean every day, but she had yet to say a word to Poppy. Something about the other girl made her nervous. Made her tummy hurt when she looked at her too long. Made her go pink when Poppy smiled at her. Made her get up early and look for the prettiest dandelion she could find so she could make sure it was on Poppy’s desk before she arrived at school.
“My big sister has a girlfriend, and they’re going to get married,” Poppy shared excitedly one Monday morning after the Treasure Hunt had started, “But you can’t tell anyone okay?”
Jueru frowned, carefully taking Poppy’s sentence apart in her head. “Girls? Both?”
“Yeah!” Poppy smiled that shiny smile and her and Jueru went pinker than ever before.
The next day, Jueru pulled on Mr Hassel’s jacket during art class.
“Oh! Miss Miyaki, how are you today?” Hassel said in rather rusty Otonese.
“Mr Hassel, how do you marry someone?” Jueru asked.
“Well, you love them very very much, and you tell them. And then you decide to spend your lives together.”
“Can you tell them with a drawing?”
“I don’t see why not.”
The next day, Jueru left a drawing of her and Poppy holding hands with the dandelion.