Work Text:
Two minutes.
According to the clock in the corner of her computer screen, that was how much longer she had until she could finally be free of this office. Free to nurse the wounds on her mind and spirit without worrying about someone calling for her or being forced into another soul-crushing meeting.
It was almost agonizing, the way that the seconds seemed to drag on, reaching for the next moment and handing it off as slowly as possible. For the first time in her life, Geeta found herself hoping that time would go faster.
This break had been planned for months. She needed this. If an investor were to walk into her office at that moment and so much as make a vaguely insulting statement to her, she didn’t think that they’d be able to leave completely unharmed. Her Pokémon partners could sense their trainer’s anxiety, evident in the way that their Pokéballs vibrated in anticipation.
Two minutes. Only two more minutes until she was free to run far, far away from the reaches of civilization, until she was free to dive deep in the forest around Socarrat Trail, until she was free to disappear into the wilds, only to emerge on her own terms.
Geeta tapped her fingertips nervously on her desk, eyes flitting from the display in the corner of her computer screen to the email application still open. For the first time in a long while, everything was a dull grey, marked as read, everything that needed to be dealt with finished. She prayed to any being that might be listening that it would stay that way, at least for the next… minute, now.
Every other window was closed. She almost didn’t want to hit the refresh button, a feeling of dread pooling in her gut as the seconds ticked by.
Hypothetically, she could leave early. Shut down her computer and slip out back, change and grab her stuff from home before rushing northeast to meet Rika at the campsite.
(The rare times she and Rika could find space in their schedules to go off together, they always made sure to stagger their departures and arrivals. It would look too suspicious otherwise, and attract too much attention if they both went off the grid at the same time. Goodness knew how much the paparazzi loved to pounce on any little thing that they could. Neither of them would give them that satisfaction.)
But perhaps it was her pride stopping her. This was her region, her system, that she carved with her bare hands out of the hole that the previous champion had dug them into. She would not do anything by halves.
Paldea was her home, and she would always do whatever she could to make sure that it glimmered brilliantly.
So when a notification of a new email from Clavell popped onto her screen, Geeta simply clicked on it and started to type out a quick response.
One minute. Enough time to draft a suitable reply and add a reminder that she would be unreachable for the next three days.
One minute. And then the desktop was shut down, the blinds closed, the lights turned off, and the door locked. One minute, and then she was gone.
The flying taxi dropped her off near the Gracia Stones, which was as close to the campsite as Geeta was willing to direct the pilot to. She waited until they flew away before moving towards where she wanted to go, backpack secured tightly around her body. Underneath her feet, dry grass bowed with each step she took, and the only sound was that of the crashing waves and the wind in her ears.
Out here, silence was a song whose melodies were intoxicating. Compared to the hustle and bustle of life spent carrying the weight of everything, the quiet that might otherwise be unnerving was a joyous symbol of freedom.
She released her Gogoat from his ball, the Mount Pokémon immediately shaking himself off before looking around.
“Been a while since we’ve been here, huh?” Geeta asked softly. The Gogoat merely bleated in response, and the two of them set off towards the more established path of Socarrat Trail.
They walked side-by-side, unbothered by the amount of bug-types and the occasional Sudowoodo or Toedscool that crossed the trail. Occasionally, Geeta would stop to pick up a berry that was lying on the ground, tucking it into a pouch that her Gogoat had around his body. Since he didn’t battle competitively anymore, there really wasn’t much of a point in leaving him bare-backed when on outings like these.
She gutted her team for this particular trip, taking along only her Gogoat, her Glimmora, and her Avalugg. Her other partners either required too many resources than Geeta could feasibly carry, or they simply wanted to lounge around Los Platos and enjoy the sun rather than the chill that wafted down from Glaseado Mountain.
It was fine. They’d get their turn on shorter trips that Geeta would sneak in on the occasional weekend between Naranja Academy’s semester turnover. That and the rare training day where they’d all go to North Province Area Two to make sure that their battling skills did not dull in their inaction.
The problem of catching and training so many Pokémon was the responsibility that came with making sure that they were all properly cared for. Though that was a non-issue for her thanks to the fact that she was the Top Champion, and could afford to care for all of her partners.
One of her projects was a program that would help aspiring trainers pay for the supplies they would need to care for their Pokémon partners, but that was far away from becoming a wildly-available thing. Naranja Academy would be the first to test it, before it would hopefully be something that would be an option for those who didn’t attend the academy as well.
But that wasn’t what Geeta was working on now. Work had been left behind long ago in that office that drained her of any sort of life. Here, out in the embrace of nature, she was free to take a breath, to close her eyes and let her partner guide her along the path as she listened to the faint rustling of the wind through the leaves, or the scuttling of Tarountula as they scurried away from the form of a seldom-seen human, or the echoes of the ocean waves crashing against the cliffs.
The distant caws of a flock of Murkrow was the only thing that made Geeta open her eyes again, and the pair sped up a bit to try and reach the campsite before the sun dipped fully underneath the horizon.
Not that they had to worry much. They soon crested a hill and set their sights on a clearing around a stream that reached all the way towards the cliffside and flowed off the edge to feed into the roiling sea below. Just across the stream and a bit towards Glaseado Mountain was a muted brown tent with a bright orange flag tied to the top, flapping slightly in the breeze. Nearby lay a familiar Camerupt, who was watching the flame of a camp stove intensely. The roar of boiling water became all the more audible as the pair made their way closer to the campsite, and the Camerupt was quick to notice their presence and stand up.
Geeta’s Gogoat didn’t waste a second, bounding his way across the river to playfully butt heads with the Camerupt, both of them careful of the open flame next to them. Still, the noise of their collisions stirred something within the tent, and the screech of a zipper quickly followed, preceding the appearance of a glorious face framed by mint green hair that was unbound from the band that usually kept it in a tidy ponytail.
“What’s going-“ came a concerned voice as the figure struggled slightly to slip into a pair of beat-up, rubber clogs before glancing up and seeing exactly why her nap had been interrupted. Her expression immediately brightened and she waved Geeta over.
“Well, well, well, and here I thought I had this place all to myself,” Rika said teasingly. “Y’know what though, this place’s big enough for the both of us. How ‘bout you stay awhile?”
“I would love to, but I’m afraid that I take off first thing in the morning. I wouldn’t wish to inconvenience you,” Geeta bantered back indulgently.
“Why, that’s the same plan that I had! We must be meant to be! Please, I must insist that you stay!”
Rika grinned and waggled her eyebrows unironically, which almost elicited a laugh from Geeta. Almost. She’d have to work harder for that.
“Oh, I don’t know, I couldn’t possibly intrude on your trip…” She said, even while she started to unbuckle her backpack.
“Nonsense!” Rika replied, gesturing back to the camp stove and pushing her hair back. “I’ve got plenty of fresh… boiled water to share…”
Rika seemed to realize how ridiculous the hole she dug herself into was, but it was too late to back out now. She knelt down to turn off the stove, and with a flourish, took off the lid to a cooking cup with still-bubbling water.
“See? Filtered and piping hot…” She cleared her throat. “Ready for dinner! You, uh, remembered to bring the food, right?”
Rika was met with a bag of a freeze-dried pasta dish hitting her in the face, followed in close succession by a Babiri berry that definitely could have hurt if Geeta threw it with any more force. Still, the Elite Four member kept her expression as a grin, even as Geeta unhooked her Gogoat’s satchel from his body and placed it down next to her backpack, shaking her head back and forth.
“I forget names, not supplies,” Geeta said wryly. “Especially not for something that I’ve been looking forward to for the past… three months.”
“Touché.” Rika turned around and busied herself with preparing their dinner while Geeta unpacked her sleeping bag and a change of base layers to sleep in.
By the time that Geeta changed and reemerged from the tent, the pasta had rehydrated for long enough, and the pair enjoyed spaghetti with tomato sauce and diced Babiri berry.
There was a bit too much water added to it, but neither of them really cared about that, sitting up against the rocky wall and passing the bag back and forth to share while their other Pokemon indulged in dinners of their own.
Later, they would recall their partners to their balls with the disappearance of the sun beneath the horizon and fall asleep to the faint song of the ocean waves and the whistling winds. Later, they would deconstruct their tent, pack up, and start the hike further into the forest, forgetting the reason for the trip in the first place as they basked in the other’s presence. And later, they would have to return to their lives and concern themselves with emails from Clavell and projects for the betterment of Paldea’s trainers.
But that was something to worry about for another time. Now, they simply watched as Rika’s Camerupt and Geeta’s Gogoat playfully butt heads, crunching leaves and tearing up grass in their wake. Now, they listened to the delighted splashing from Rika’s Clodsire as he frolicked around in the stream, dousing Geeta’s Avalugg in icy cold water while she lay on the riverbank. And now, they laughed at the antics between Rika’s Dugtrio and Geeta’s Glimmora as the two chased each other around the campsite in some sort of game whose rules evaded the understanding of their trainers.
After all, what was the rest of the world to them, when their souls were fed and healed by the comfort of the other and the embrace of the quiet untouched by human motions?
What was the rest of the world to them, when they could exist in this little bubble of calm, bask undisturbed in the other’s presence, secure in the fact that for the next few days, there would be no problems to wrangle or fires to put out?
What was the rest of the world to them, when they could finally rest and recuperate, when they could recover their wits and maybe sleep in a little bit come morning?
Maybe those questions could remain unanswered for the time being. For now, they were content to just be with one another.
After all, in order for Paldea to retain its brilliance, its leaders would have to be in top form.