Archive of Our Own

The first time she meets Rose, it’s when he’s playing Chairman. Leon is standing with her, his hand warm on her back, and she’s trying her damn hardest to not seem as if it affects her, when in fact she wanted to lean into it. Rose gives her a smile, seemingly genuine, and she finds herself smiling back. “Oh, and what’s this? I see you both already possess Dynamax Bands! Be careful how you use the energy, it may cause some side effects,” she wants to ask how, and could tell that so did Hop, but, frustratingly, he seemed to have to leave, citing an emergency. She turns to Lee who laughs it off, telling her that he’s never had any adverse side effects, but, for some reason, she doesn’t wholly believe him; something that she keeps to herself.

Later that night, she and Hop are laughing in their room in the Budew Inn, and he turns to her, grinning, “hey you should totally battle the Chairman when you’re stronger,” for some reason her stomach feels as if she has an entire group of Butterfree in her at the thought but she pushes the feeling down, ignoring the way her cheeks heat up slightly, glaring at Hop when he snickers,
“I don’t know, he’s probably super strong, considering he’s the head of the company.” Hop frowned, clearly not seeing the connection, “don’t you remember how Lee said that corporations always train their heads to be strong in case something happens?” Hop sighed, nodding, and they both grimaced, knowing Lee had had to help out in training some of them; hearing the rants he let out to Raihan when he thought they were in their room, ranting at how incompetent that some of the CEO’s had become, to which Raihan had laughed at. “but hey, maybe when we finish our challenge we’ll be strong enough?” she didn’t think so, but she wouldn’t say that to him, not when he grins back at her, bouncing back as if it hadn’t disappointed him slightly.

Walking down the stairs, glad that the inn had a vending machine, she stops in her tracks as she sees the chairman, no longer in his suit, but in a vest top and silk pants that look really good. She hesitates, going to turn, forgetting the drink, but he sees her before she can and she grimaces internally. “challenger,” she smiled slightly, still not quite believing that she was actually competing, and he grins back at her, and something inside of her warms.
“hi, Chairman,” she said, mindful to keep her voice down, and he chuckles,
“nonsense, challenger, you can call me Rose,” he winks and she laughs, forgetting her resolve to be quiet, nodding,
“alright, Rose,” she teases and he chuckles, his voice deep and she feels her stomach warm, “only if you call me Tori though, none of the Challenger title,” she grins and he smiles at her, raising an eyebrow to which she laughs, knowing he had already figured out that her name was not in fact Tori, “it’s Victoria, but I hate how formal it sounds,” she admits to him, grimacing, and he laughs once more,
“hmm, I think it’s fitting, you seemed very sure of yourself in the stadium -maybe you’ll be our Victor hmm?” she laughs, embarrassed,
“I was actually really nervous,” she admits, and he nods, “but I didn’t want it to show on TV when my mother could be watching,” she says sheepishly, afraid that maybe he’d think it was silly, but he just nods once more as if he understood. He motions to walk with him and she wonders how the hell she had got his attention, but knew deep down it was because he had seen her with Lee -something she usually found annoying, but for some reason was thankful for.

“and how are you finding your journey? I recall the train got waylaid,” she laughed, forgetting how nervous she was for a minute,
“a flock of Wooloo had decided to lay down on the tracks and had fallen asleep,” he chuckled, and she realised she really liked how it sounded, “one of them woke up, and saw us, but instead of running from us, she ran and head butted me,” she winces slightly, remembering how much it had actually hurt. He does the same,
“i do not miss the times my Copperajah was like that before she evolved,” he paused then, and then turned to her, “I am right in assuming you caught the little one?” she grinned, showing him her second pokéball, nodding and he smiled, “well I can’t wait to see how strong she gets, with you as her trainer, I’m sure you’ll take her to new heights,” she flushes and can tell he knows, seeing the way he smiles at her, and is beyond grateful that he doesn’t call her out on it. She stops at her door and grins ruefully,
“this is my room, I’m afraid,” she says, and finds that she is sad to stop their conversation, and he chuckles,

“well, if you’d like to continue it, here’s my number,” she feels her cheeks flush, and takes, the piece of paper it was on, and he grins, “I expect a text, Victoria,” she smiles at him, ignoring the flush and nods, and he walks back. Shit, she commiserates, silently, she was so screwed.

She unlocks the door to find Hop looking at her sleepily, and winces, remembering too late that he’d bunked with her. She had forgotten with conversing with Rose. “where’s your drink?” she shrugs, as if nothing out of the ordinary had happened, glad she had at least thought to look at the vending machine,
“they were out of it,” she pouts and he laughs, tiredly, and turns back onto the side he was on before falling asleep, almost instantly. She lays down on the settee, picking her phone up, registring the number, and for some insane reason deciding to not tell Hop.

‘Hi, Rose, it’s Tori’ she hesitates for a while, before sending the message, debating on whether or not to put a smiley face, something she always did with Lee, but finds herself not doing so, knowing it may look childish. She doesn’t expect a reply, so when she sees the bubble telling her he was writing, she nearly drops her phone in surprise, only catching it just before it hit the floor; thankfully not waking Hop up.

‘Hello Victoria, I’m glad you messaged me’ she feels herself core warm slightly, remembering how nice it was to hear him say her name, and, unwittingly, an image of him groaning it floats through her mind, and she shuts her eyes. This was not the time to fall for the chairman, she scolds herself.
‘i see we’re sticking with Victoria,’ she replies, regretting it almost instantly, hoping he doesn’t take it the wrong way. Because, surprisingly, she actually liked him calling her that.
‘it’s more becoming for the victor, don’t you think,’ she feels her breath catch, staring at the screen for a few seconds,
‘a girl can definitely dream,’ and she knows it won’t be of being victor she dreams of tonight, but the little wait in his reply makes her think hope that he’s laughing,
‘i believe you will, Victoria. I’d love for you to prove me right,’ she wonders how the hell she’s meant to reply to that, her heart beating in her chest as if it’s trying to escape, but a moment later she’s saved, ‘and I think that you should be trying to sleep, victor, after all, victory will be harder if you’re exhausted,’ she giggles, before clapping her hand over her mouth, glancing at Hop’s form, holding her breath. After a few seconds of seeing his chest rise, she sighs quietly in relief,
‘alright then, Rose, I’ll text you tomorrow, your hopeful victor has to sleep’ she sends off, only realising that she said his when its sent. Fuck. Her. Seconds later a vibration alerts her to a new message, and she breaths shakily, hoping it isn’t telling her to not message him,
‘good girl, message more tomorrow’ she stares at the first part for far too long, hating the way it makes her feel, but also wanting to feel it more.

In the morning, when she wakes, she awakes to Hop’s face close to hers, starting her to let out a short scream, before he puts his hand over her mouth, lest anyone believe that she’s being kidnapped. After a few seconds she raises an eyebrow and he takes the hand away, and she lets out a huff, “Hop honestly, you nearly gave me a heart attack,” she says, no heat behind her words, and he laughs, clearly not worried,
“sorry mate,” she wonders why a flash of something crosses his face before he continues, as if nothing happened, “ready to head down for breakfast,” where Rose could be, she realises and hesitates,
“I need to get changed,” she says apologetically, “but you can go on, we can meet up at at the pokémon centre in Turfield if you’d like?” the same expression crosses his face but he nods, grinning and she smiles, watching as he goes out the door. Usually, she’d throw anything on but she finds herself putting on her pink dress, tying it up with a bow at the back, black knee high socks on because although it was summer, it was still chilly as hell, and she wasn’t leaving all of her legs bare, and then her other pair of shoes -her plain black pumps, and stares at the mirror, wondering why the hell she was so bothered if Rose saw her any other way. It wasn’t for Rose, she tries to tell herself, the excuse weak even to her, but holding onto it nevertheless, it was because the other challengers would think of her less if she didn’t look her best, she continued to try and convince herself, and sighed. Sure it was. She did her hair in a braided crown -may as well go all out, she thought -before grabbing her back, grimacing at how the bag didn’t match with her dress at all.

‘Good morning’, she texts Rose, and wonders if he will reply, but instead of feeling her phone vibrate, she hears one down the hall ping loudly, and looks up, seeing the man himself, and laughs softly, his head snapping up as if he heard her. That was impossible, she thought, she was too far away. Once she can see him more, she smiles at him, feeling a small stab of guilt at how she had waited even for a chance to see him, but it vanishes when he returns her smile. He glances at the text and chuckles, looking back up at her, “good morning to you too,” she smiles slightly, falling into step with him,
“had a nice sleep?” she enquired, and he chuckles, as if it was a joke, and shakes his head slightly, a strand of hair falling in his face, and her fingers itch to move it, and she stuffs her hands in her cardigan, berating herself for her stupidity.
“unfortunately not, Victoria,” he murmured, and she feels her stomach warm traitorously, as he says her name in the low tone, “but I did have an interesting conversation with someone,” she smiles at him,
“oh?” she keeps her voice light, as if her stomach wasn’t doing bloody somersaults hearing him say their conversation was interesting, and he smirks, and she feels her breath catch at how good it looks on him, her cheeks flushing, but he nods, and she hopes he doesn’t see.
“someone very interesting, I think that they’ll go far,” she feels her heart beat faster, as if it was a bird in a cage wanting to get out, and gives him a smile as if he wasn’t making her feel things she had never felt before,
“lets hope so, hmm?” she says it, laughter in her tone, a heat in her stomach and he grins at her.

“definitely, I’ll be keeping an eye out and watching how far they go,” she feels her cheeks heat up, and he laughs softly, but glances at the door, and sighs, “and now I go back to Wyndon,” she feels her smile fall slightly, but nods, pasting another one on her face as if it hadn’t fallen in the first place,
“well, I hope you have a good day,” he smiles at her, almost indulgently, and squeezes her shoulder, leaving behind a warmth that wasn’t there beforehand.
“thank you Victoria, don’t forget to message me,” he says, winking, and she grins glad that his body was shielding the people from seeing her so lovestruck before nodding.
“of course,” her tone is teasing, as if she isnt falling for someone who is completely and utterly a out of her league, “who else is going to keep you interested?” she says, feeling like the foot in mouth was never more literal as she says it. He laughs though, giving her a smirk and walks. She doesn’t think she’s meant to hear the ‘no one, no one else will, victor’ and feels her stomach flip.

+ + +

The second time she sees him is entirely by accident. ‘My Wooloo is sick’ she types out, her vision blurry, and wonders why Leon isn’t replying when she needs him most. But then her phone rings and she sighs in relief, her breath shaky, the nurse giving her a sympathetic look.
“Lee?” her voice was just as shaky as her breathing and she grimaces.
“Victoria?” she feels her breath catch for a whole other reason then, and knows that he heard it, “are you okay?” she hesitates but realises that no one else knows,
“no,” she hates her voice for breaking as she says it, her free arm wrapping around her stomach as she sniffles, “my Wooloo is sick and I don’t know what to do, and the nurse says that she has to put her down,” the tears fall, in time with her heat breaking, and a sob escapes her lips, the nurse turning, an illusion to privacy that she appreciates more than she can say, and she hears a soft curse, and she blinks, surprised, as for some reason she hadn’t expected him to swear. Or care, she admits in her mind.

“can you ask the nurse to keep her sedated?” she wonders why but relays the question and the woman nods, seemingly understanding, even when she herself doesn’t.
“she’s sedating her now,” her sniffle was a bit quieter, and he hums, and she hears footsteps as if he’s walking.
“where exactly are you, Victoria?” his voice is calm and collected, everything she isn’t at the moment, and it takes her a few moments to hear what he said,
“Hulberry,” he chuckles, and somehow, even in the clusterfuck of a situation she’s in, she feels the fucking Butterfree. Fly away, already, she thinks annoyed.
“I’ll be there in ten minutes,” she feels her jaw drop slightly,
“oh, you don’t h-” she hurries to say that he doesn’t have to, but he cuts her off,
“i know, Victoria,” his voice is low, soothing in a way she hadn’t expected, and she thinks that that’s

why she feels slightly light headed as he says, “however I want to be there. I’ll be there for you in ten minutes,” and she nods, before realising that he couldn’t see her, and agrees, and he bids her a goodbye, reiterating that he’d be there soon, comforting as it was, and she closed her eyes when she hears the silence, feeling the weight of the situation fall onto her again.

“is your sponsor coming here?” the soft tone of the woman causes her to open her eyes, and she sees the understanding in them and wonders how many times this has happened to the woman.
“not exactly, but someone is,” the woman nodded. She’d been told that whoever had sponsored her would need to be informed, in case she had reacted badly -and privately she wondered how the fuck else she was meant to react, but hadn’t been able to say anything, her throat closed at the thought of never having her baby there with her -and so she wasn’t alone. Well, her sponsor would have to find out later, she thinks, because it turns out she had text the wrong person.

Ten minutes later, and the door opens, and looking up, hardly daring to hope, she sees Rose there in all his glory. She hears the sharp inhale of a breath from the nurse, but other than that she doesn’t say anything. Somehow, even windswept, he seems unfairly attractive. He strides over to her and gives her a hug, and she lets herself fall into the embrace, feeling more reassured as he rubs her back, speaking lowly to the nurse, who replies just as quietly, and she closes her eyes, letting him take control, because she didn’t know how. She hears the nurse’s footsteps fade away and a sigh from Rose, and pulls back, flushing slightly at how stupid she’d been but all she gets is a gentle smile. “there’s nothing?” she whispers, feeling her heart break a little more, and he winces, before nodding, confirming her words.

“I’m sorry, Victoria,” he murmurs, and she nods, wondering how the hell she was meant to continue with this happening. Seemingly understanding her train of thoughts, he gently pulls her back into a hug, and she rests her head on his chest, raising an eyebrow as his heart picks up, hope blossoming in a small part of her heart at the sound, and wraps her arms around him.

“thank you,” she whispers, wanting nothing more than to stand up on her toes and kiss him, wrap her arms around his neck, and let him know how much it means to her, “I’m glad I’m not here alone,” she finishes, squashing down the urges. He’s silent for a few minutes, before resting his head on top of hers.
“you will never be alone, not with me, Victoria,” he murmurs to her, low enough that the nurse won’t hear and she lets out a shaky breath causing him to chuckle.

“will it be painless,” she doesn’t know why she asks, but it’s all she can hope for. There’s silence before he hums,
“it’ll be likes she’s drifting off to sleep,” she lets out a breath of relief, and wonders how she got lucky enough to be cared for by him.
“do I have to watch,” she didn’t know if she could bear it, but he shook his head slightly, and she felt the beard stubble move as he did,
“of course not, but would you like to say goodbye,” he murmured, and she hesitates, because fuck. Saying goodbye meant it was real. But she couldn’t say no, and so she nods, and whispers a quiet ‘please’ and he pulls away, and then wraps an arm around her, leading her to the table. Up close, she sees how pale her baby is, and suddenly she’s grateful that Rose is there, because if it weren’t for the arm holding her up, she thinks she’d fall to the ground. The woman looks at her sadly. The sedative is just kicking in and her baby looks up at her, trust and love in her eyes, but also pain (so much pain, and she can tell that her baby was trying to downplay it, even now) and she thinks it’s that that gives her the strength because this wasn’t what she wanted, but she didn’t want her baby in pain. She bends down, and like she usually did, as if nothing was out of the ordinary, presses a kiss to her nose, blinking back tears. Like clockwork, her baby wrinkles her nose like always and she laughs softly before giving her another kiss before moving back, running her hand through her wool near her face to calm her down.
“don’t worry,” she whispers, trying to not break down, knowing that it would terrify her baby, “you’re just going to sleep for a bit until nurse joy gives you some medicine to make you feel better, okay? I love you honey,” her Wooloo let out a quiet ‘meep’ before a small smile appeared on her face as she closed her eyes.

“I’m going to inject the euthanasia in her now,” the woman said quietly, and she couldn’t help but release a shaky breath, her hand automatically reaching for Rose -who seems to understand and lets her grip onto him tightly, and so she nods, and turns away, pressing her head against his shoulder, wanting to wake up, yet knowing that she couldn’t.
“I don’t want to watch,” she whispers, and he rubs her back, never judging her, silently being there for her and she wonders how he’s so fucking perfect -surely he should have some faults. The steady beating of her Wooloo’s heart slowly stopped and she pressed her lips together, determined to not cry, hating herself for not finding any other way. After a few minutes of silence, she lets out a shaky breath, running a hand through her now freely down hair. “can we leave,” she asks quietly, and she wasn’t going to look at her Wooloo. She couldn’t do that. She was going to remember her baby as if she was asleep, not motionless and dead.

“of course, let’s go,” Rose’s voice was quiet, and she glances at him, expecting him to be angry at her and yet, surprisingly, there’s no judgement, and, strangely, he seems proud of her. She nodded, and walked out, visibly shaking, not wanting to be near her Wooloo when she was like she was -and sees Nessa. Of course, because she’s the Gym leader. Luckily she hadn’t broken down yet, and so the woman gives her a nod, as if it was any normal day, and continues on; as if she wasn’t dying inside and everything was perfectly fucking fine. A few moments later, just before she’s about to go back in, Rose walks out, and offers his arm to her, and she takes it, unthinkingly, and he smiles at her gently. “let’s go get some food, huh?” his voice was still quiet, but calm and soothing and she nods, even though food is the last thing on her mind, and all she wants to do is curl into a ball and cry.
“can you stay for a while,” she asks, feeling selfish but he laughs quietly, looking at her, a soft look in his eyes, that makes her want to turn away, yet soak it up as much as she can,
“I’ve just cleared my schedule. The next few days are free,” she looks at him then, shocked, not knowing what to say, and settles on giving him a small smile, trying to convey how thankful she was for him. He returns it, warmly, and she thinks that maybe he understands. Walking in Hulberry, she wonders why everyone is so cheerful? How can they be so happy when she feels like a part of her is gone?

“it does get easier,” she looks at Rose who has an understanding look on his face, and not for the first time she thinks that maybe he does understand -except this time, she thinks it’s from personal experience. “maybe not for a few months, but if you focus on training, and maybe take a small break before challenging the next Gym, then you’ll find it easier to breathe soon enough.” she wonders when he lost his first pokémon, but can’t bring herself to ask, and so she nods, curling her hand around his arm a bit tighter, wondering once again how the hell she was so lucky to have him there to support her, “you also have a good support network,” he continues on, as if he had somehow heard her thoughts and she can’t help but say out loud,
“well, yes, you are a good person,” and he turns to her, shocked, and she finds herself flushing, as he laughs softly, reaching a hand out and stroking her cheek; and she finds herself leaning into the touch, closing her eyes. She thinks she hears him chuckle, low and deep, the sound almost washing over her, something that she finds fitting considering the city that they’re in.
“you have much more faith in me than some people do, Victoria,” he murmurs, and she opens her eyes to find him looking at her, and she wants to say it’s almost like how she looks at him, but that’s stupid, because her feelings were reciprocated.
“I think I have the right amount of faith,” she finds herself saying back, and this time she knows it isn’t wishful thinking when he gives her the same look. Because she means it, she does have the right amount of faith in him, and he’s proven it, more than most would.

“i have an apartment in Hulberry, if you’d like to stay there for the next few days,” she doesn’t look away this time, even as she feels her breath get caught in her throat, and nods, making him smile, a pleased look flickering across his face for the briefest of moments, before it’s gone, so quick she thinks she imagined it. When they arrive to where his apartment is, she wonders why she was even entertaining the idea of him having a small apartment, when she realises he has the entire top floor to himself. She hears a laugh and looks to him, and he smiles at her all soft, “didn’t expect that much?” his tone was questioning, and yet his eyes stayed gentle the whole time, no maliciousness in them, laughing at her expense, just curiosity, and she thinks that this, if anyone asked her, would be when she realised she’s in love with him, and yet, forces herself to nod, and he chuckles.
“it’s beautiful,” she whispers, and he smiles, a genuine look of happiness creeping onto his face, even though all she had said was the truth. It was open and airy, and as she walks around she can tell he had taken down a few walls to make the large space, and wonders why, but decides to not question it. There’s no shortage of pictures, and as she passes one she sees that it’s Rose when he was clearly on his journey, two others by his side, and a Cufant next to him. She feels her eyes widen as she glances at him, “is that your-” he grins nodding, and toys with his pokéball,
“would you like to meet her?” she does, she realises, and nods, without thinking. He smiles slightly, and releases his now very much bigger Copperajah and she smiles softly, and lifts her hand up to her trunk, the pokémon in question wrapping said trunk around her arm slightly and she grins, “huh, you like your trunk being stroked, huh?” she heard a quiet groan, quiet enough that she could have believed it was a figment of her imagination -except for the fact that the Copperajah’s eyes flickered to her trainer and showed amusement. She supposed that did sound like an innuendo.

“would you like a drink,” she nods, and Rose seems to take that as an excuse as to leave the room, and she finds her lips curling up slightly, the Copperajah’s eyes mirroring her amusement.
“I think that effected him,” she whispers and the Copperajah let out a huff of air, something akin to a laugh and she giggled quietly, thankful that she wasn’t alone. “in my defence, I didn’t realise that I’d said an innuendo until it was too late,” she confides to the pokémon, and it lets out another laugh -or it’s version of one anyway -and she doesn’t see Rose at the door, “although I’m not entirely fussed about it. I mean, I’m pretty sure it’s obvious that I feel an attraction to him,” the pokémon bobbed her head down slightly, a version of a nod, and she laughed sheepishly, “yeah, I’m not too great at hiding my feelings,” she admits, and the pokémon laughs.

“i have the drinks,” she turns to see Rose, standing in the doorway, and she smiles softly, untangling her hand from his Copperajah -and Arceus damn it, now she was thinking in innuendo’s -and walked over to him, giving him a grateful look as he passes hers, “don’t worry, there’s nothing alcoholic,” she laughs, because as much as she knows this is him trying to be nice -or responsible- she’d been drinking in the slumbering weald with Hop since they turned fifteen. She doesn’t say this and nods,
“thank you, I don’t think Leon would be happy if he found out I got drunk,” she says an amused tone in her voice at the end, and he chuckles, pointing his drink at her, and after a millisecond of doubt, she leans over and smells it, and laughs when she smells the alcohol, “I suppose you can’t say there’s no alcohol in yours,” she teases him, and he laughs once more, not bothering to deny it.
“no I think I’ll need it,” she smirks slightly, and he rolls his eyes, no anger or frustration in them, just amusement and fondness. A few hours later and she’s browsing his books, surprised that he has some of the classics, as she hadn’t taken him for a fiction type of person from their regular conversations. She picks one up, and raises an eyebrow as she realises it’s a first edition. Arceus hell, she thought, that must be treasured. She gingerly places it back on the shelf and hears a quiet laugh, and turns to her left, finding Rose leaning against the bookshelfwall, having changed out of his suit and tie, now in sweatpants and a tee shirt and she wonders how he looks so good in everything he wears, whilst he stares at her amused. “It won’t break, don’t worry,” she smiles and wants to tell him that she loves it here, that she thinks she could gladly drop the challenge and live here with him, and she’d be just as happy -if not happier - but nods, instead, and picks it back up, gesturing to the settee. He seems to understand and is the one who seems to find it more difficult to breath for a second, but just as quickly as the reaction happens, he regains composure. Once he had sat down on the settee, she curls her body against his, and feels his chest rumble with a laughter, and leans back, knowing he’d catch her before she falls, and looks at him, “it’s comfy,” she didn’t make any excuse and he smiles at her indulgently, and nods, as if he can’t say no to her. She smiles back and lets her head rest on his shoulder as she reads.

The first time she sees him truly loose some of the collectedness he projects is that night, ironically. She hesitates as she knows he’s just entered his bedroom, having parted ways, and grimaces, before gathering up whatever courage she has, and picks up the phone. ‘sorry to be a bother, but is it alright if I borrow a shirt? I was planning on going down today to the market as I threw out my old Pj's but obviously got kinda sidetracked and completely forgot. I completely understand if you say no!’ she wonders how the fuck she had forgot that? She’d thrown out her Pyjamas in the morning, completely done with all of the holes in them, and had planned on using the money she used -or at least a little of it, anyway-to buy some new ones. She sees the bubble and holds her breath, only realising that she was doing so when the bubble stops and disappears. Shit, she curses, she’d definitely messed up. A knock on the door brings her out of her thought's, and she crosses over to it, opening it to find Rose standing there, a black tee shirt in his hand, a smile on his face; except this time she could tell it was more strained. She gives him a sheepish smile. “I really am sorry, I completely forgot,” she says once again and he laughs, and she can hear the strain and wonders why.
“it’s entirely fine, Victoria,” he murmurs, his voice deep and she gives him a smile, trying to not show that she really fucking likes him saying her full name. “we can go tomorrow if you’d like,” she doesn’t miss the way he says ‘we’ and wants to say yes, that she’d like that, but the idea of going out after today seems far too much, and he seems to realise that. “how about you tell me your size, and I can ask for some pyjama’s to be delivered here,” she nods, unable to articulate how much it means to her that he’s doing this and can’t speak for a few seconds,
“thank you,” she murmurs, “I’m a size six,” he smiles at her, no annoyance evident in his face, and passes her the tee shirt, and she feels her lips twitch, “and that is a very soft tee shirt,” she says, laughing quietly, him joining in, and she grins, “I am definitely going to be sleeping in this comfy,” he grins at her, strained again, and she as she takes it, and he turns she flicks her gaze down to see that he’s hard. Prominently so. She decides not to say anything and pretends to not see, and once he gets to the door, she gives him a small smile, “night, Rose,” she murmurs, and he nods, before closing the door. A minute later, and she hears his door close as well, and she breaths a sigh of relief, and sits down on the bed.

After she’s changed, she slips back into bed, curled up, and has just closed her eyes, when her phone vibrates on the bed side table, and she raises an eyebrow, curious, and opens her messages, feeling her breath catch.

‘Good night, my hopeful victor.’

+ + +

The third time she sees Rose is after the incident in Hulberry, her stay being one of the only times she’d been relaxed. They’d been messaging still, and she still hasn’t told Hop, for some reason, even though normally, she tells him everything. She sighs, grimacing at the pain in her cheek, and Hop glances at her, and grins, seemingly unnerved by the entire showdown with Team Yell. “it’s always Motostoke, isn’t it?” she laughs at that, because, alright, that’s true. Inside the pokémon center, she tells him that she’s going for the toilet and he nods, not having any reason to doubt her. She snaps a photo of her face and hesitates, before shrugging and sending it to Rose once she’s in the toilets. Unsurprisingly, a few seconds later, her phones ringing and she grins, picking it up, and accepting the call.
“what happened,” his voice holds a note of panic and she raises an eyebrow, and laughs softly,
“I’m alright, I just had a showdown with some Team Yell grunts that’s all,” she reassures him and he groans, making her laugh once more,
“honestly, I’m fine, I’m pretty sure I did more damage to the guy than he did to me,” she winces as she says that, because during her stay, she’d heard his thoughts on males hitting women, and he was… vocal about how he disliked it.
“oh?” his tone was light, but she could hear how he had to force it to be so, and winced.
“I kicked him in the balls,” she muttered, knowing he’d heard her when he laughed, freely, and she felt herself smile, the Butterfree once again making their home in her stomach.

“good,” she grinned, “I’m glad you didn’t take it lying down, although I am annoyed that you got into that situation at all,” she smiled slightly, before sighing.
“they’d blocked off the bridge, and wouldn’t let us past,” she could hear the frustration she had felt bleed into her voice, “and when we beat them, fairly, may I add, they decided to push us. I tried to move by without starting anything and then this guy who is at least Leon’s height, punched me,” she hesitates, “and so I kicked him in the balls,” he laughs again, a vindictive sound in his tone as he does.
“I’m tempted to reward you, I wont lie,” she feels her breath stutter, and could tell he heard, by the little chuckle, “how about I fly into Motostoke, and I treat you to a meal,” she groans,
“that… actually sounds really nice because I’ve been living off of noodles for the past few days,” she says, huffing at the end and he chuckles,
“you need proper food,” she rolls her eyes, bringing her feet up to sit criss crossed on the toilet seat. How hygeanic she thinks, sarcastically.
“I would but proper food costs a lot and I’m constantly stocking up on revives and potions because Cinder keeps getting into fights,” he’d evolved during her fight with Hop, and she’d filmed it, and sent it to Rose, who had congratulated her but now he seemed to want to pick a fight with anything that so much as looked his way.

It was silent for a few minutes, and she frowns, holding the phone away from her, seeing that she was in fact still on call, “Rose?” she says his name hesitantly, hoping he hadn’t fallen asleep, and she heard a curse,
“sorry, Victoria, Oleana is messaging me saying that I have an impromptu meeting,” she grimaces, knowing just how much he dislikes them, “but I am sending some money over to you, and expect you to use it for proper food,”
“Rose I -”

“no.” she groans at the firm refusal, and he laughs, “I am coming there tonight remember?” she winces and sighs
“I feel guilty,” she mutters, and he chuckles,
“please, don’t. I have more money than a lot of other people -more than Leon, in fact and I know you know how much he has,” she laughs, because she does. Whenever he sees her and Hop he never fails to splurge on them, as he doesn’t have to worry about that, and she feels her guilt ease slightly, “and I like doing this for you, surely you want to make me happy?” she stops breathing for a second, because fuck, that was the closest he’d come to admitting that there was something between them,
“I do,” she breathes, and winces at the breathlessness, and heard a quiet groan, and then an, impossibly, quieter ‘fuck’ -something she hadn’t expected from him.
“we’re talking tonight.” His voice was low and she had a feeling that she knew what he meant by that and couldn’t help but smile slightly,

”of course, Rose,” she murmurs, and hears him stop walking —pacing, she thinks, as she hadn’t heard a door open —and puts her hair into a messy bun, “any time particularly that you’re arriving,” she says, trying to go for teasing but when she hears the hope in her voice knows she’s failed completely. 
“how about seven?” She nods before realising that he can’t see her and quickly agrees. He goes to say something else but hears Oleana and chuckles, 

“Duty calls, I’ll see you at seven,” she says and he laughs -albeit a little strained -before ending the call.

“you took a while,” she looks at Hop and chuckles, as if the harsh beating of her heart -as if it were trying to escape the cages of her ribcage -wasn’t happening right then and gives him a small grin,
“sorry, I didn’t actually quite realise how much I needed to go,” she said, hoping that she looked sheepish and he grinned, shrugging,
“it’s fine, I got a burger from the café across the road, quickly, and it’s delicious,” it does in fact smell really good, but she thinks that if she has to endure anymore junk food for the next few days she’s going to go insane. It shows on her face and he snickers, knowing exactly how she feels after the long rant he had had to walk with her through. She raises an eyebrow two minutes into their walk to the shopping market, and after another minute of him practically bouncing on his heels she stops in front of the market, causing him to walk, ready to go in before seeing that she has in fact not gone inside. He looks at her bewildered, and she sighs, “Hop what is going on with you? You’re normally energetic, but,” she motions to the fact that he had started bouncing again, “never normally this much!” he laughs, pure and free, not caring if anyone looks at them and she wishes she could be like that, not so self conscious.
“Lee said he was coming tonight!” she could tell that the shock is showing on her face as he grins, and spins her around briefly, and she shouts an apology to the woman who they nearly bumped into. “he’s going to spend a few hours here,” she hears a scoff, and groans internally, knowing already that it was Bede. Although he didn’t say anything, the fact that he always looks at her with judgement in his eyes, she always gets the feeling he knows about her talking to Rose -not that anything is wrong with that, she tries to convince herself.

“Bede,” she says flatly, and hears Hop chortle, no doubt ready to intervene if she decides to tear the blonde into pieces, however the boy in question just smirks, tossing his hair and she rolls her eyes.
“Gloria,” he says, and she groans, running a hand through her hair. How many times did she have to say that wasn’t her name to get it through his head?
“It’s Victoria,” she grits out, correcting him, and he smirks, and she hates how she feels as if she’s walking into a trap, even when she hasn’t done anything wrong.
“what do you want, Videns?” she doesn’t miss the flicker of rage as Hop says the boys last name and he scoffs,
“I just wondered how much you must hate Gloria,” she glared, and he smirked at her, “to not want her to be near you and the Champion, if this is how happy you are,” and she feels her breath catch, knowing he heard as he looks exactly like the Purrloin that got the cream, because fuck, that means he knows. Hop scoffs,
“what the fuck does that mean, Videns?” He looks as if he’s two seconds away from jumping the boy and punching the living daylights out of him and she wonders why this boy of all people was able to get under their skin when pretty much no one else could. And all the while Bede looks nothing more than smug, and turns to her, and sees the anger in her eyes, so evident, he actually takes a step back. She wonders if he does actually have any self preservation but then there’s a glint in his eyes, as he shoves his hands into his pockets,
“why don’t you ask her,” he takes one of his hands out motioning to her, as if she’s nothing but a speck of dirt on his shoes, and she suddenly has the urge to punch the asshole in the face.

And Hop turns to her, looking at her so hurt and she wants to punch the smug asshole beside them in the face even more than she did before. “I was planning on going back out into the Wild Area tonight to train some more before we battle Kabu,” which was a load of Rapidash shit, but Hop didn’t know that. Clearly though, Bede, did, as he scoffs quietly -just loud enough so that she hears, but not loud enough that Hop does -and then the blonde boy chuckles, and turns away. Once he’s gone she turns to Hop who looks crestfallen, and she feels the guilt crash down on her and she resists the urge to cry -but barely.

“you could always use the time to catch up with Lee on your own, and have a guys night with beer and the stupid soccer,” she says the last part teasingly, and she watches as he hesitates, clearly wanting to include her, and she thinks her heart is going to break because fuck she didn’t want to not tell him but every time she tried, it was as if the words got stuck in her mouth, and she wonders why she’s so afraid of telling someone she’s spending time with Rose, “think about it. No questions about who’s on who’s team,” his lips twitch at how she just didn’t understand the sport, “and you can talk about anything without me correcting you,” he looks slightly more excited and she wonders absent-mindedly who he wants to talk about to Lee that he doesn’t with her, but realizes that that’s also really fucking hypocritical, and pauses, before adding the thing she knows will sell it, “you can also eat a shit ton of junk food together without me moaning about it,” he laughs then and grins, clearly excited then, and she laughs with him, all the while feeling like the worst friend in the world.

“you know what, that sounds awesome,” he enthuses, and she smiles, nodding along, “and hey, maybe next time you two could have a chill night,” she grins then, genuinely this time, because that would be awesome.
“face masks, spa day maybe,” she muses, because it wasn’t just her that liked them. Lee loved going to the spa and having the whole works and doing face masks with her, and whilst Hop liked them, he just could not sit still long enough to enjoy them. He nodded,
“and you can talk about healthy shit,” he teases her and she rolls her eyes good naturally, “and even ask for advice on Cinder,” she smiles then, because that actually worked out well. They fist bumped and agreed, not even checking with Lee, knowing he’d agree to it anyway.

Unbeknownst to Hop, she had asked the security guard if he could quietly look after her basket, and the man nodded, and she had quickly gone to the clothes part of the store, hoping that the dress she had seen was still there, and in her size. Luckily, it seemed luck was on her side for once, as the dress was still in stock, and she quickly brought one, keeping the receipt on top in the bag, in case anyone asked her, and then jogged back over to the security guard who just gave her a grin. She quickly grabbed a load of tinned fruit -knowing it would last longer and at least wasn’t junk -before grabbing anything else she could think of, and then jogging over to where Hop was and resisted the urge to laugh, because he seemed to have taken her advice to heart, and had what looked to be the biggest pile of junk food. He glares at her, no heat in the glare, and points a finger, “nuh uh, you are not allowed to make a comment,” she laughs then, before nodding, and he grins. Arceus help Leon she thinks, amused, and barely flinches as Hop pulls out what is most definitely Lee’s card, and pays for the whole thing.

After he’s finished with his bagging, he gives her an easy smile, “see you at the stadium if I don’t see you tonight,” she nods, agreeing as she watches the total of her, and, thanking Arceus Hop doesn’t see the total, and then he’s gone, rushing out as quickly as he entered, and the woman laughs, not unkindly.
“lots of energy that one,” she laughs and agrees, and the woman smiles at her kindly, “your boyfriend, then?” she looks at the woman in shock, and shakes her head quickly,
“no, no, he’s just my best friend,” the woman laughs as if she’s not believing her, “we’ve been best friends since reception and decided to try and do most of the big cities together,” she smiles at her as she’s missing something, but nods along, and Victoria hates the sense of condensation she’s getting but grits her teeth before wincing at the total, making the woman chuckle. She quickly checks her balance, tapping her fingers as she hears the others in line mutter annoyed, and the woman quickly silences them with a glare that rivals Sonia’s.

And then she promptly chokes because when she agreed to Rose sending her money she didn’t think he’d send over £1,500. the woman looks at her worried, and she gives her a tight smile, and quickly puts her card in the machine, paying for the things, and sighs in relief when she’s outside. Quickly pulling up Rose’s information, she goes to call him before realising he could still be in the meeting. 'Thank you for the money', she starts, so awkward she wants to throw her phone into the damned river, 'I got enough to last me for a few months', she sends. She hesitates, before deciding fuck it, 'should I send the excess money back for you as there was quite a lot', she sends and hopes he isn’t offended. She glances at the time and lets out a startled ‘shit’, something that a woman looks at her disapprovingly for, as her kid looks delighted with the apparent new word, and she sends a guilty look back.

Once back inside her room at the centre, she takes the quickest shower she has ever taken in her life, and then steps out, and uses the Roti-Hairdryer, and sighs in relief, as the dryer gets her hair done in ten minutes. She steps into her bedroom and glances at her phone and frowns when there’s no messages, but decides that she can wait until she sees him if he can’t answer her, for whatever reason that may be. She slips into the dress, cliché patterned with roses, but she couldn’t help herself, and slips on black heels, grateful for the height they give her. She glances at the time and sees that it’s half past six and she now has half an hour to spare. She spends ten minutes on curling her hair and sighs, grabbing her clutch purse, and shoving her fob key into her clutch, grateful the doors wouldn’t let anyone else in when she locked it until she pressed the fob key against the door, and locked it. She walks across the centre, seeing Marnie who looks up and raises an eyebrow, but gets a hesitant thumbs up from, to which she smiles at her, her nerves easing almost tellingly, and Marnie winks, mouthing ‘get some’, making her laugh, as she walks out of the door.

And walks right into Rose, and she winces, slightly, making him laugh. “well, that worked out wonderfully,” he murmurs, and she lets out a shaky laugh, because, yeah, it did. He takes a step back and looks at her, and she flushes, making him smile, wrapping an arm around her waist. If she looked back, she could see Marnie looking shocked, but she was too wrapped up in the fact that Rose was here. He gestured for her to climb into the cab, and she smiles, grateful as he offers his arm to help her up. Fuck, he’s perfect, and she knew this but she had almost forgot that. Once the Corviknight cab took off, Rose wrapped an arm around her shoulders and she smiled, letting her head rest on his shoulder, smiling as he pressed a kiss to her hair.
“I missed you,” she breathes, and he chuckles, squeezing her into his side, and she wonders idly if she could stay like this all the time.
“I missed you too, my hopeful victor,” he murmurs, and she feels her breath hitch, and hears him chuckle, “never change, Victoria,” he continues, and she laughs quietly, nodding.

“in answer to your question,” he says quietly, and she knows instinctively it’s so the driver doesn’t hear, “I do not. I hadn’t intended for their to be excess money,” she raises an eyebrow, and he smiles at her,
“if you got enough, then use it on something else. Treat yourself,” she hesitates but nods, finding that she likes the idea. He sees it on her face she thinks as he smiles, a pleased look on his face.
“thank you,” she whispers, and he gives her a such a smirk, something that makes her shift, and he notes this letting his hand rest on her thigh, making her breath hitch. His eyes are boring into hers though, and she can’t won’t  look away, because this was already more than she’d hoped for. She gulps quietly, and he laughs softly.
“tell me if you want me to stop,” he says quietly and she lets her head lift to his, even as his hand pushes her dress up, ghosting over her stomach (and oh, it feels as if she’s on fire, her nerves alight in a way that is somehow different to when she does this), and slipping into her underwear, his finger rubbing circles on her clit (and it fees so fucking good she thinks, as her breathing gets shakier), and she opens her legs wider, not even caring how it looks, leaning up, finding the bravery to kiss him.

He kisses her back, and she moans into his mouth, grateful the cab driver wouldn’t hear, and he smirks against her lips, increasing the pressure, and she whimpers, bucking her hips up, trying to chase the feeling because fuck, fuck it was so good. “please,” she whispers, and he smirks, before shifting fingers, and slipping one into her, causing her to moan even louder, her head falling back, and he quickly kisses her, silencing the sound. She grabs onto his tie, deepening the kiss, and he lets his tongue glide across her lips, to which she parts with no hesitation. His tongue enters her mouth and she lets hers caress his, grazing her hand across his now prominent bulge, and he groans quietly into the kiss, pulling back, causing her to gasp slightly, his hand automatically covering her mouth. She holds his gaze as he continues to finger her, feeling her core clench around him, and his gaze intensifies, “please,” she begs him, and he nods adding another finger, causing her to clench around him once more, her eyes closing in pure pleasure, and she feels it, the crescendo of pleasure washing over her as she comes, as he curls his fingers inside of her, a come hither motion, and presses down onto her clit, and doesn’t even attempt to hold back the loud moan, grateful his hand is there to silence it.

He pulls his fingers out of her and she’s shaking, and doesn’t even try and hide it. The smug look on his face is well deserved and any reservations she had maybe had, flies out of the window, as she leans forward and kisses him once more, smiling into it as he kisses her back, pulling back after a few moments. She realizes that the cab driver is silent and she flushes, shifting, causing Rose to raise an eyebrow, curious. “he’s probably just heard me cum,” she whispers, mortified, and he smirks, leaning forward, kissing her deeply, and, automatically her eyes close as she returns the kiss.
“don’t worry, you were wonderful,” he whispers, and she lets out a shaky laugh, letting her head rest on his shoulder, and he smirks, wrapping an arm around her. She lets his cologne wash over her, and closes her eyes, hoping she doesn’t wake up to find that it’s just a dream, granted, it wouldn’t be the first time she has had dreams like this of him since they met, she admits privately, and leans up, kissing his jaw, feeling the beard. He pulls away slightly, and she worries she’s somehow overstepped her boundaries now, but he just kisses her hair again. “we’ll talk about this later, I have some things I want to discuss,” he murmurs, and she nods, content to just stay how she is and he smiles into her hair.

Once they’re outside of the cab, the driver stiffly tells them the total, and she feels the mortification well up inside of her, but Rose, steadfast and calm as ever, just nods, and tells him to put it on Rose’s tab, to which the driver nods, and gets on top of the Corviknight, and flies off without bidding a goodbye. There’s silence for a few seconds, before she groans, and Rose laughs, wrapping an arm around her once more. “oh my god,” she says, not bothering to keep her voice down, as it was the top floor which was Rose’s apartment and work office. “he totally heard me cum,” she says in disbelief and Rose chuckles, not bothering to deny it, before tapping her on the nose,
“maybe, my darling, but I was the one who got to see it,” she smirks, and pulls him to her by his trousers, and he chuckles lowly, “darling,” he murmurs, and she looks at him, knowing her gaze had darkened, “if you keep tempting me, I’ll take you out here, for everyone to see,” he says, his voice firm, and she can’t help but squirm, making him smirk. Because she shouldn’t want that, she shouldn’t find it hot, but the fact that Rose would take her so everyone could see? That was doing far more than it should to her, something he could gather. “now,” he says, as if nothing had changed and he hadn’t just told her he’d be more than willing to fuck her in front of everybody, “lets get inside shall we?” she nods, curling her arm around his, smiling as he offers it like a perfect gentleman. Who had just made her cum after fingering her in the back of a cab, she thoughts, tampering down the impulse to laugh.

Once inside she turns to him, not bothering to lock the door, and leans up, kissing him hard. He groans into her mouth, wrapping an arm around her and she presses against him more, knowing that even though she’d just cum, she was more than ready to have another orgasm. She slides her hand down his shirt, and undoes the buttons on his pants, letting her hand slip inside his boxers. She pulls back from the kiss, and smirks, because he may think she looked good when indulging in whatever they had, but he looked ten times better. “tell me if you’d like me to stop,” she mirrors his words from the cab, and his eyes open and lock onto her, and she smirks at him, sightly testing him, she knew, as she wraps her hand around his cock. He lets out a moan and she feels herself get wet again from the sound. She jerks her hand up, slowly, and he moans once more, his head tilting back. “Victoria,” he groans, and she lets out a quiet moan herself, feeling herself getting wetter as he moaned her name, and squeezes his cock slightly, rubbing the pad of her thumb over his tip, as he bucks up, and she smiles, increasing the pace, until he’s practically fucking her hand, something she’d always shied away from. She smiled, dropping to the ground, already knowing that yeah, she really did want to suck his dick. She let her hand keep moving, however slowed it down, and as she moved upwards, followed her hand up with her tongue, causing him to grasp at her hair, and she moaned, suddenly wanting him to be rough. She swirls her tongue around the tip, taking it into her mouth, closing her eyes slightly, moaning around it. “Victoria,” he grunts, pushing forward, causing her to take more of him in her mouth; and she sucks, making her cheeks hollow as she moans, and she doesn’t even get a warning, before he’s grabbing her hair in a fist, pushing her mouth down and she chokes slightly, and then, with that serving as the only warning, he comes in her mouth. She swallows the load, her eyes fluttering close at the taste; something she hadn’t expected to like, but she does and she thinks that maybe that’s because it’s Rose.

When she pulls away, her mouth coming off of him with a ‘pop’, she glances up to find him staring at her with so much heat in his eyes that it surprises her. She gets up off of the floor, and wipes her mouth, the corner of her mouth having some of his cum there, and he groans, pulling her forward, and kissing her deeply, and she smiles, not hesitating to kiss back. After a few seconds she pulls away, and gives him a shy smile, to which he laughs, softly. “was I good,” she doesnt know if she wants to know but he looks at her in disbelief, before shaking his head,
“Victoria, that was the best blowjob I’ve had in years,” she flushes, then and he laughs, not unkindly, pulling her close to him once more, and she smiles, resting her head against his chest.
“it was my first time,” she admits, embarrassed, knowing that nearly every other girl her age knew how to do so. He pulls away from her, pushing her hair away from her face, and gives her a proud look, and she wants to do it again if she gets that look -she’d do anything for it.

“you were perfect, my darling,” he murmurs, and she smiles at him proudly, and he kisses her forehead.

“i was going to take you to dinner though,” he comments amused, and she feels her cheeks heat up, embarassed, and he smiles at her, “I think that was more enjoyable don’t you,” he teases her and she grins, agreeing, making him chuckle. “although I do need food now,” he says, and as he does, she finds her stomach rumbling making her laugh, him joining in.
“we could always order food here,” she offers, not wanting to be near anyone other than him. He nods, and wanders over to a cabinet, opening it to reveal leaflets on the top shelf.
“Kantonian?” she nods, knowing that right now she’d eat anything. So much for no junk food, she thought amused.
“can I have the imimeat Torchic balls with sweet and sour sauce,” she asked, and he chuckled, walking back over to her, pressing a kiss to her forehead, and she smiles.
“darling, you could have anything you wanted,” she wonders how the hell she’s supposed to not fall in love when he says things like that. She settles for kissing his jaw again, and he chuckles, leading them over to the settee in the room, and he lays down, Victoria joining him moments later, after taking her shoes off, and curling against him, resting her head on his chest. “I’m also going to fund your journey,” he says lightly, as if he hadn’t just said that he’d pay for everything she’d need. She leans up, propping herself on her elbows, and gives him a curious glance, to which he smiles at her softly, “I do not doubt you with your abilities to battle, I have in fact seen two of your gym battles,” her eyes widen and he chuckles, “but I do want to do this. She hesitates, as, oddly, it’s Sonia’s voice in her head, making a crack of ‘well he may as well be your sugar daddy,’ and she flushes, making him give her a curious look,
“I,” she hesitates, because how the fuck is she meant to bring that up, “that could be a lot,” she settles on, because there’s hotels in the cities, and she always prefers them to the centre, but he merely nods, as if he had expected that,
“I know, Victoria,” his voice was soft, no judgment in his eyes, “think of it as,” he hesitates, and she couldn’t help the quip of,
“a sugar daddy I have feelings for,” which came off teasingly (barely) but he looks at her seriously, nodding. She doesnt know what to say, and surprisingly sees some nerves in his eyes, and so she nods, and he lights up, looking as if she had just given him the world, and not said she’d take his money.

She lets her head fall onto his chest again, taking comfort in his heart beat, and his hand strokes her back lazily. “thank you,” she says, content, and he presses a kiss to her hair again, his hand still stroking her back and she thinks she could fall asleep like this. She says as much, and he laughs softly,
“darling, if you want to sleep, go ahead, we can always have dinner some other night,” she thinks she hears him say something else, but she’s already drifting off into a blissful sleep. and when they wake up, they do have dinner, but they also go for rounds three, four and five, and she doesn't think life can get better than it is for her.

+ + +

The next time she sees him, it’s after Bede has destroyed a mural, something that, however silly it sounds made her want to scream. Bede looks like he’s one second away from crying, and suddenly she feels bad for him -because Rose was saying that he was disappointed in him, and she knew that if she heard that from him, she’d want to curl up in a ball and cry, however stupid that may be. She glances at Sonia, who’s looking at her, and she silently begs her to help. Sonia gives her a look of sympathy. “Chairman,” she murmurs, and Victoria is confused as to why, before realising that not everyone got to call him Rose, and he looked at her, every inch the chairman he was posing as. Or maybe he was one first and she had deluded herself into thinking that he was normal first and then chairman. He glances at her, almost ignoring her with how quickly it was, but she sees the something in his eyes that should be sadness but seems anything but and realises he doesn’t want to help Bede but just wants to save face, and she feels as if her heart is plummeting to the ground, free falling with no one able to catch it. He apologises to Bede, and tells him that he rescinds his endorsement, and Bede, the guy she had verbally sparred with her whole journey up until now (something she didn’t realised she’d enjoyed up until now), doesn’t say anything, and, shockingly, is silent even after t-Rose has left. She glances at Sonia, who seems lost as to what to do, and so, like before, like all of the times, she steps forward, and lets him glare at her, be angry at her, hate her instead of whoever else is with them. “I bet you found that amusing,” he says, scoffing, and Sonia goes to say something but she taps her thigh, their silent signal ever since she was a kid to back down and let the other one handle it, which, unfortunately, is her,
“I didn’t actually,” she admits, quietly, and he seems to see the sincerity, as he stops, and looks at her shocked, and Sonia leaves quietly as they stare at each other, and suddenly it’s just them to up there, “I didn’t want him to do that,” she repeats, because hell, it had left her sick to her stomach, “it’s made me feel,” she hesitates, and he seems to understands as a sardonic grin appears on his face.

“never seen him like that before, huh?” she glares, and he laughs bitterly, “let me guess, he seems all gentlemanly like,” she flinches slightly, recalling what she had thought of him, and he laughs humourlessly, pointing at her, “acts as if he can do no fucking wrong,” she turns her head slightly, not wanting to see that he was right, and he scoffs, and she knows he’s rolling his eyes, even if she can’t see, “he’s nothing like he shows you, like he shows everyone else, I swear to God, and I hope someday you see it before you’re in too fucking deep,” he says, bitterly, and she looks at him then unwittingly, and he gives her a grim smile. “See you around,” he pauses, before laughing, “my hopeful victor,” he leaves then, almost instantly gone, and she’s somehow fucking thankful because not a second later, she’s throwing up everything she’s eaten that day, feeling as if someone had dumped a bucket of ice cold water over her head. Because that was his name for her, and somehow Bede of all fucking people knew it. She hears steps and tries to control her breathing,

“Tori?” And she’s so inexplicably glad that it’s Sonia, and not Rose, because she didn’t think she could handle seeing him at the present moment. Not when she knew -by Bede’s throwaway comment -that he’d told him about her (how much, she realises, her hands coming up to her throat, feeling the bile rise. How much had he told him? Had he told him about that night?). She hears a shocked ‘oh fuck,’ and looks up to see Leon there with Sonia, and all of a sudden, she lets out a sob, the events that had led to where she was crashing down on her. Almost like it’s instinctual, Leon’s strode over to her, wrapping her in his cape, and she lets him. She lets him and cries, feeling everything crash down on her andohgodshecouldn’tdothis. Leon’s rubbing her back and she realises that it’s almost similar to how Rose had that night, and now she doesn’t even know if it’s real or if he’d been pretending all this fucking time and feels herself cry all over again, and all the while Leon is there with her, never once leaving.

“i messed up so bad, and you’re going to hate me,” she wails, and she knows she’s near hysteria, but she can’t help it. Leon lets out a breath, as if her words confirmed something, and she feels Sonia near her stiffen, but she can’t think as to why because her brain is fried and she’s mentally drained. After half an hour of crying, she’s just done. She’s slumped against Leon who seems relieved that she’s not crying anymore and he sighs, kissing her hair, and she feels her resolve shake, her eyes welling up with tears. “you okay, Tor?” that was Leon, she thought, almost laughing, giving her a nickname from a nickname so no one else called her it. And she wants to nod, to tell him everything will be fine, but she can’t, and she doesn’t want to lie, not anymore, and so she shrugs, making him hum. “I’m sorry,” she whispers, and he lets out a laugh, but it’s not his usual one, and it sounds wrong. Its tired, and as if he’s somehow blaming himself for something.
“it’s alright, Tor, I should have seen it sooner,” he murmurs, and rests his head atop of hers. It’s with a startling clarity that she realises he thinks she’s been secretly seeing Bede.
“funny,” she says tiredly, not even caring if he finds out anymore, “that you think I’m seeing Bede of all people,” she tries for a teasing tone but it falls entirely too flat. She can hear Sonia’s startled ‘wait, what’ and Leon groans, pressing his face into her hair, as if it would make it so her problems went away. She really wishes it would.
“you gonna tell me who,” there’s no judgement there, just tiredness and she laughs, humourlessly, feeling as if she was Bede.
“maybe someday, kinda need to wrap my head around what the hell I do now,” he doesn’t say anything about her language like he normally would, and she wonders if he realises in this moment of just how different she is to the girl she was when she set off on her journey, and just nods, not even bothering to lift his head. Sonia squeezes her shoulder, and bids her leave, properly this time, and it’s silent then.

“I’m not gonna like it when I find out, am I?” his question is rhetorical but she laughs, incredulously, and hears a ‘fuck’ being muttered,
“Leon,” she begins, “you’re definitely going to either hate me or kill them,” she says and his shoulders sag as if he’s no longer surprised, and she can’t help but add on, “ Raihan’s probably going to go feral, too,” making him groan.
“great,” and still no judgement, she realises. “want to get something to eat, and something alcoholic to drink,” his voice sounds so hopeful that she can’t help but laugh, even with the clusterfuck of a mess they’ve had as a day.

Later that evening, she finds herself in the god damned dress that got her into this mess, with the same heels and because she physically feels as if she’s going to throw up (again) if she looks the same as she did then, she braids her hair into a crown, leaving two tendrils to frame her face. She walks down, and sees Raihan with Leon, and raises an eyebrow, as Leon doesn’t even look up, just knocks back another drink. She walks over to them, climbing on the seat, and climbing over Leon, making Raihan laugh, as she sinks down in between the two of them. “you do realise, little sister, you could have just asked me to move,” she tilts her head before groaning,
“fuck,” she mutters, and Leon snorts, “alright so I may have had like half of a bottle of vodka before I came down here,” she says shrugging, and Leon laughs, gone the responsible almost authority figure, and now someone who’s a young adult in their mid twenties dealing with shitty situations. Someone comes over to their table, and asks for a drink and, glancing at Leon, she decides hell to it, and asks for a bottle of Sitrus Vodka, making Raihan choke on his drink that he’d started to drink, and Leon nod, clearly not bothered by it. The man barley even hesitates, clearly thinking she’s of age, and Raihan asks for a repeat of his drink, and Leon just shrugs, and tells him the same as her.

Once they’ve got their drinks and the privacy wards are placed up, shown with the rippling of psychic powers, she looks at Leon who is drinking it straight from the bottle, which makes her wince. Even she’d asked for a pitcher of Diet Coke. “you’re really not taking this well, huh,” she says almost concerned, and he laughs bitterly,
“Tor, for the last eight years I’ve had to pretend for you and Hop but quite frankly, I don’t think you need coddling anymore,” she shrugs, deigning to not answer that, because fuck if she knew, and he continues on as if he didn’t need an answer, “Hops going into a depressive episode, you had a mini breakdown, I have to deal with Rose’s bullshit,” she flinches slightly at the name, and feels Raihan shift, curiously, “and Raihan has to, by League’s orders,” his voice was nothing more than a sneer at the last two words, “pretend he’s fucking people even when we’re fucking married to Sonia and can’t say anything,” he snarled, and she looks shocked for a second before realising that, you know what, that explained so much of their behaviour towards each other. She said as much and is rewarded by Leon smiling at her for a moment, nodding.

She takes a gulp of her drink, grimacing at the burn, and loving it at the same time, and shrugs, “I’m fucking someone I can’t say, because I’m literally not allowed, and today I just saw the fucking chairman take away someone’s only lifeline,” the last part is said so bitter she’s surprised by herself, but neither Leon or Raihan blink, and nod. Almost in tandem, her and Leon turn to Raihan, who rolls his eyes, good naturally, but takes a drink, before chiming in with their ranting,

“i’m married and can’t legally fucking show it, Rose is basically trying to fuck me,” she feels her mouth drop open and Leon closes it, like they used to do, resting his head on her shoulder which takes away the burning hurt hurthurthurting of her heart, feeling as if it’s dying a little more each passing minute of the day, “and two of my gym trainers quit so now I only have two,” she winces knowing that for the last challenge, that is undoubtedly shitty. “we literally have the worst luck in existence,” she says, disbelieving, and the two men nod, cheering their drinks, and for the rest of the night, until one, they’re drinking, as if it will solve their problems.

At one, she can’t ignore the fact that her brother is straddling Leon, and snorts, bowing out of the night. She goes to put cash on the table, when they both wave her off, saying they’d pay and she doesn’t even bother arguing. She makes it up the stairs -with much difficulty -and unlocks her door, closing it and locking it again, and stumbling into bed, wishing she had someone to curl up to, the thought bringing tears to her eyes. She checks her phone, glad she left it upstairs, and finds no messages, and stares at the screen in disbelief. Surely, he’d check on her to make sure she was okay? But no. No fucking messages. She lets out a frustrated scream, and realises he’d given her Bede’s number, and impulsively rings it, and bops her head as it rings one, two, three and then gets the accepted.

“hi,” she said, her words slurred, and hears a distinct groan, and wonders what’s wrong with him minus his entire day, but continues on before she chickens out, “I have two bottles of Sitrus vodka here, so if you want to come to the centre and ask for room 227,” she trails off, and hears a silence that almost seems stunned. It’s quiet for a few minutes, and she’s just about to change her mind when she hears a huff.
“Fuck it,” his voice is not slurred, and she suddenly wants to know what he’s like drunk, “sure. I’ll be there in a couple of minutes,” he doesn’t bother with pleasantries, and hangs up but she knows, somehow, he will actually arrive. Sure enough, five minutes later (and so what if she counted), there was a knock on her door, and she got up, nearly falling. “fuck,” she curses aloud, knowing that no one else was going to hear her, and hears a muffled laugh behind the door, and almost sprints to the door, wanting to see him smile. She opens it, grinning, holding up the bottle, and he snorts, “pity party for two anyone?” she cheerfully says, not seeing Leon or Raihan at the corner of the stairs, stopping in their tracks at the surprising scene unfolding in front of them. Bede laughs though, which is what she was aiming for, and walks in,
“sure, we sure as fuck need it,” he says bitterly, and she nods, more vigorously than she intends,
“amen!” she realises she’s still holding the door but she doesn’t really care. “there’s this bottle,” she waves the hand that has the started on bottle, “and then that one,” she points to the one on the dresser behind him, and he doesn’t glance at it as he undoes the lid, taking a swig and grimacing.
“to Rose being a manipulative bastard,” he says, holding his bottle up, and she laughs, tearfully,
“to Rose being a manipulative bastard,” she agrees, and stumbles as she lets go of the door, “fuck,” she groaned, and he laughs softly, his face not changing even when he does, before steadying her, and she grins at him, causing him to smile at her indulgently, the first time he’d really ever actually smiled at her.

+ + +

The next time she sees Rose, it’s in Circhester, and she wonders why he’s there, briefly entertaining the idea that he’s finally come to explain to her what the hell happened. “hey, it’s the Chairman!” Hop points out and she doesn’t have the heart to burst his bubble at how nice he is, and so when Rose turns around, she gives him a normal smile, as if he hadn’t fucking broke her, and he nods. “Hop! Victoria,” she has a brief flashback to him moaning her name back in Motostoke, begging her to continue to ride him, and forces herself to not blush, “how are you both doing on your challenge?” she wants to tell him to go fuck himself, that if he answered her god damn texts then he’d know wouldn’t he, but she smile smilessmilessmiles as if he hadn’t hurt her,
“wonderful, Chairman,” if the tone in his title was a bit colder than usual, Hop didn’t notice, but she saw Rose raise an eyebrow at her, “we’ve just finished Melony’s and Geordie’s gyms, respectively,” laughing as if she didn’t want to punch him. He nods, and she sees a flicker of something cross his face, but decides she does not want to know. Nope. It’s totally not going to piss her off. And Arceus, her mood swings were a bitch.

“I’m glad. I had hoped that young Bede would be nearing this stage with you, but alas,” he trailed off and she grit her teeth, continuing to smile smilessmilessmile as if she hadn’t seen Bede screaming in anger at being thrown away like discarded trash. He makes small talk, and she forces herself to act normal, and Hop doesn’t see that anything is wrong because of course he doesn’t, and then after a torturous ten minutes, he makes his parting.
“huh,” she looks at Hop with a smile on her face, wanting to cry, “isn’t he cool?” she nods, lying through her teeth, because no he fucking wasn’t, but who was she to burst his bubble?

That night in the centre, her phone rang, and she’s suddenly glad she thought to get separate rooms this time. She picks it up, seeing that of course it’s Rose, and sighs, before accepting, putting it on loudspeaker, and back on the nightstand. “so you’re mad at me,” he says as if they were talking about the weather and she wants to scream.
“really,” her tone matches his, and she hears him grit his teeth audibly, “I’m mad at you? Of course I am. Did you know they aired the fact that he lived in an orphanage until he took the challenge on the speakers in the first gym? Literally every-fucking-body knows that and now because you stopped his endorsement, who knows where the fuck he’s going to end up?” she hears him suck in a breath, and wants him to shout. To match her anger,
“Victoria,” he starts and she hates it. She hates how it still makes her feel safe, “I did what I had to do.” she feels her eyes widen.
“you saved face by discarding him like trash!” she shouts, frustrated. She hears an annoyed sigh, and in a twisted way, feels better for it. “you did it so that you looked good, and saved your own ass, and just acted as if he meant nothing to you!” he’s silent, and she hates it because how the fuck is she meant to know how he feels if he doesn’t fucking talk to her, “is that what you’d do to me?” she all but demands, shocked the words left her lips, but realising that yeah, that was the crux of the problem.

“if I did something wrong, would you toss me aside and just not give a shit about me anymore?” her voice was bitter, and defensive and every bit of her eighteen years old and she hated it. She wants it to go back to being angry but she couldn’t, and instead found herself trying to not cry, “because I’m not perfect. I’m messy and fuck up, and I don’t know how to be perfect all the time, Rose,” her voice broke and she cursed, hating that she had tears falling from her eyes because of him.
“what room are you in?” he asks, in lieu of a response, and something breaks inside of her, and she started to cry on the phone and hears him curse, “Victoria,” his voice is sharp, something she hadn’t heard before, “what room are you in?” she sniffs, trying to not cry,
“227,” she says hating that her voice broke again as she started crying. She hears him sigh, and hangs up on her. She drops her phone to the floor and sobs loudly, curling up into a ball, pressing her face into her pillow to muffle the sound as best she could.

Her door unlocked and she didn’t even hear, too busy crying, but she hears him sigh, and locking the door. He crosses over to the bed, and picks her up, laying back down and she hates the way she automatically curls up against him, pressing her head into his shirt, trying to not let him see the tears. He presses a kiss to her hair, and it feels wrong wrongwrongwrong and she doesn’t know why because she liked it before, “silly girl,” he sighs, fondly, as if she was making a joke and wasn’t falling apart, “I don’t think I could ever get rid of you, Victoria,” he murmurs, and she sniffs, her crying finally stopping slowly but surely, “do you want me to prove that to you?” he murmurs and she shrugs, unable to answer verbally with how sore her throat is, and he chuckles. She doesn’t realise what he means until he’s got them in a position so that she’s underneath him, and she wants to say ‘no’, but he’s looking at her with so much love, and she closes her eyes as he kisses her, trying to pull back, not wanting to kiss him right now.

He misunderstands though, and takes it as an acceptance, and gently tugs her shorts down, revealing she’d gone bare down there, and he groans, making her almost throw up, knowing he’d think it was for him. She goes to say no, but he kisses her, even as she puts her hands to his chest, going to push him off of her, and then he’s fumbling with his pants, before he has his penis out, already sliding it in between her lips and she whimpers, wanting him to stop stopstopstop, and he groans before sinking into her, the feeling almost painful with how sensitive she is, but he has his eyes closed and is already rutting into her, harder than he ever did before, and she whimpers again, because fuck this wasn’t good, and it didn’t feel nice it felt painful, but he continues, going faster, and she starts crying again, quietly realising he wont stop, and he kisses her tears away, pulling out before slamming into her again, repeating it seemingly forever as she whimpers, and he kisses her to silence her. After he’s finished, he slumps onto the bed, curling her against him, and she realises she doesn’t know how the fuck to deal with this. “better,” he murmurs, his voice soft, as if he didn’t just take her without her consent and so she nods, something curling up and dying inside of her, and she wishes, so hard, that she could do the same. He strokes her hair for a good half an hour, as silent tears fall down, before pressing a kiss to her hair, “I have to go now, darling, but I hope this sorts things out,” she nods, even though it’s just broken them, and he laughs, seemingly not seeing a problem with her.

She waits with baited breath for a good half an hour, before breaking down and crying openly. She fumbles for her phone and dials the number she knows now better than her own. “Tori?” she can’t talk and explain and he seems to understand, asking if her room number was the same as last time and she manages a noise that confirms it, and he tells her he’s going to be there soon and to hang on, but she doesn’t know how.

Twenty minutes later, and her doors unlocking and she can’t help but still, crying but silently, and once it’s locked she hears him groan. “fuck me,” he mutters, and crosses over to her bed, nudging her over so he can lay down with her. And brokenly, choppy sentences form, telling him what happened. He doesn’t tell her that it’ll be alright, that everything will sort itself out, instead he rubs her shoulder, and tells her that he’s there for her no matter what, and she wonders when Bede of all people became the only person she could tell everything to.

+ + +

The last time she sees Rose, is when he’s trying to start the darkest day all over again. She can’t stop shaking and the only thing she’s thankful for is that she has current events to blame it on. He’s going on and on about how no one will think he’s bad anymore, and how even if they did, no one would believe whoever said he was, and then, gloating asks, rhetorically, “and who would say I am?” and before Hop can speak, she does,
“I would,” her voice was quiet, but it was steady in a way she didn’t think she’d ever been before. He looks at her shocked, “you raped me! I did not consent to what you did and you, you asshole,” she seethes, finally feeling the anger she knew Bede had been waiting for her to feel, “knew that. You knew I didn’t fucking consent. You knew I didn’t want you to fuck me. And yet, you ignored the multiple times I pulled away. You ignored the way I fucking whimpered in pain, and you took and you took and you fucking took,” she snarled, not caring that Hop was looking at her as if she had ripped the carpet out from beneath his feet. “you say no one will believe us? Fucking try me, I’ll tell everyone what you did, Bede will tell everyone what you did to him,” she said, and this time she wasn’t imagining the way he paled. “you want a battle? Fine. Lets fucking battle,” she snarled, finally letting herself feel all of the rage she had tried to push down. And in the end, they’d won. She caught Eternatus, and then she told him she’d lock his ball away and wouldn’t return him to it, letting him go back to where he first came from. She saw the understanding in his eyes, and wondered how the fuck her journey had come to this.

Sitting in the hospital wing, waiting for Leon, Hop and her were quiet in a way they weren’t before. “I’m sorry.” she glances at him, then, shocked, and he gives her a tired smile, grime all over his face, and his eyes older than they ever were before this whole ordeal. Just another thing to hate Rose for, “I should have seen it, I should have done something, I-” she shakes her head, cutting off his self blaming tangent she knew he’d go on.
“I think,” she says quietly, and sees all of the gym leaders, and Bede and Marnie walking to them quickly, “ever since the stupid conversation I had with him when all I wanted was water, I think it was always going to end up here, somehow,” she says, conviction running through her words, and he looks at her, and sighs, opening his mouth to no doubt say something, but before he can the Gym leaders are there, and Marnie is flinging her arms around him, in a surprise show of affection, hugging him tightly. She smiles at that, wearily, and feels a tap on her shoulder, causing her to look to her left, coming face to face with Bede, who looked at her as if she hung the sun and the moon and all of the stars. She gave him a tired smile, and rested her head on his shoulders, his arm wrapping around hers, and closes her eyes.

Neither of the two are healed by any means, and she knows that they probably won’t be for a while yet, but she was here and alive, and with someone who cared about her in a healthy way, and she sighs, feeling the tiredness that had seeped into her bones ebb, just a little.