A/N: Remember at the end of the last chapter when I said that hopefully, I wouldn't forget to update for a year? Well... it hasn't been quite a year yet but I defiantly did wait for way too long to update this! i even posted and updated a new story before this... Sorry about that but I hope you enjoy the update now!
Disclaimer: I don't own pokemon and also am not creative enough to think of fun names for each chapter. Sorry about that.
Solidad had taught herself how to sleep through anything. She lived in a cramped house with a chatty grandma and equally loud aunt for her formative years, so sleeping like the dead was par for the course. The opposite was true for Harley. He was a light sleeper. Strong light and little noises could wake him up, and once he was up there was no going back to sleep until the sunset the next day. Because of this Harley was always grumpy in the morning (well at least more so than he was the rest of the day). Harley's morning started out with pesky knocking, caused by his little rival asking him for her veil, and now this grumpy man who didn't get nearly enough sleep was about to attempt to wake the human equivalent of a Komala.
Harley first tried just casually knocking on her door.
"Are you awake yet?" Harley asked with an annoyed, snippy tone. No answer. He banged a little louder.
"May wanted you to see her off!" Harley informed, but of course, there was no response. While others considered it rude to enter a room where a lady was sleeping Harley didn't have these hang-ups. There was no shame to be found as Harley burst into Solidad's room. He looked down at her lying fast asleep in the poke center bed. Her pink hair flowed all over the pillow and sheets. She didn't make a sound but her chest faintly moved up and down, proving she was at least alive under the covers. Harley pulled out his phone and opened the camera. He hoped to see her drooling or have gunk around her eyes. She might consider him a friend but he still needed dirt on all his competition. But alas, even in slumber Solidad's face remained perfectly peaceful and unblemished. You could even say she was glowing like the morning sun. It pissed Harley off. He tucked his phone back into the pocket with a sigh as he grabbed the edges of Solidads blankets. He tugged them forcefully off the woman. The force of this caused the woman to flip over and her brows scrunched up in annoyance. Soon her brows softened and her breath evened out again, she was determined to return to the land of dreams.
"Oh come on!" Harley said as he now grabbed Solidads arm and began to pull her up. Now her eyes were open as she tried stabilizing her feet on the ground. She gave Harley a bleary-eyed look.
"What?" She let her confusion slip out very quietly. It was barely a whisper. Harley didn't hear her, he was just focused on dragging her out of her room. His arm grasped her wrist as he quickened to the lobby. He does ONE nice thing for May and she treats him like an errand boy. Go wake Solidad, she said. He just wanted to go lay down again, even if he couldn't fall back asleep it'd be better than nothing.
Solidad looked down sleepily at his hand on her wrist. She thought about how her dramatic companion might react if she asked him to move that hand down a little lower. Would it be a look of disgust? Or would he be embarrassed like last night? Solidad smiled as she kept these mischievous thoughts to herself. Not even questioning why she would even want to hold hands with Harley.
"You look like you just rolled out of bed," Solidad's attention was suddenly brought to Drew speaking. Harley had let go because they had finally met the younger coordinators in the entryway of the pokemon center.
"Yeah I had to literally drag her out," Harley said. Drew glared at him in response.
"Oh, I'm sorry. If I knew you needed the sleep I wouldn't have asked Harley to wake you," May said, giving Solidad a sad look.
"I wouldn't necessarily say I needed the sleep…" Solidad said sheepishly. "But I'm glad I got to see you off."
Solidad pulled her young friend into a hug. "But since I am in my pajamas I'll just have to let Drew walk you to the ferry."
"That's fine," May responded. She broke their embrace and looked up to give Solidad a small smile. "You'll watch my performance on TV, right?"
"Wouldn't miss it for the world," Solidad reassured the girl. With that, the two bid each other farewell as Drew led his rival out of the pokemon center. Even half-awake Solidad could tell the green-haired boy's cheeks were a bit red and his heart was fluttering. But nowadays that was just common when Drew was with May. Something Solidad loved to bring up to see Drew turn an even deeper shade of red.
"Are you going back to sleep?" Harley asked.
"Mhm, I don't know…" Solidad said, crossing her arms. "I wanna eat breakfast."
"Well then you do that, I'm heading back to my room," Harley said as he began to walk away.
"To go back to sleep?" Solidad asked.
"...No," Harley admitted, his back still to Solidad.
"Then would you like to eat with me?"
Harley never even said yes but somehow he was sitting in a booth with Solidad. She was having toast with Moomoo Milk and Tepig roasted bacon. Harley just absentmindedly sipped on some coffee with one cream and two sugars. They sat in silence for the most part. Harley had no idea why Solidad would ask to eat with him only not to say a word. It didn't even cross his mind that she just enjoyed his company.
"So only coffee today? No breakfast?" Soledad finally inquired.
"You already gave me breakfast last night," Harley joked.
"Just cause you had an omelet at night that doesn't change the fact that what you had was dinner," Soledad told him. But really Harley never understood the desire to eat breakfast foods at different times of the day. He remembered some days the school would have "breakfast for lunch" days where pancakes were served.
"Breakfast food doesn't taste as good later in the day as it does in the morning," Harley defended himself. "And besides, the best remedy for me right now is just a simple cup of coffee."
"Fair enough," Solidad said before returning her attention back to her food, leaving the pair in silence once again.
But Harley realized he would have preferred silence over what came next. Drew came over to them after dropping May off at the harbor.
"I decided to stay to watch your contest," Solidad announced. Drew seemed very happy as he slid into the booth next to Solidad.
"Ugh just go away," Harley thought. But he didn't say it out loud, he just angrily finished his coffee. "Anyway didn't she say she would stay because he had asked? She must have already decided to stay for Drew and tried to make me feel better. She always does annoying little things like that."
As Drew and Solidad cheerfully quipped away as usually Harley stood up and began to walk back to his room.
"I'm gonna lay down for a bit, I have a headache," Harley excused himself.
"Rest well," Solidad said with her sweet voice. It made Harley feel worse.
"Don't wake up," Drew said dryly. Harley knew it was just a jest but he was slightly tempted to take him up on that offer as he sauntered back to his room.
"What's up with him nowadays?" Drew asked Solidad. "He's usually a dramatic pain in the ass but he's been saying less lately."
"I think he's just tired," Solidad stated. "He was like this the morning of the grand festival too if I remember, even when I first met him…"
Solidad could remember her younger self anxiously leaning against a wall in the waiting room of the Wallace Cup. She was afraid to sit down. She worried that if she sat down her nerves might lock her in place and she wouldn't stand up in time to arrive on stage. A young man with purple hair however almost had the opposite disposition. He sat down on a bench facing the TV and yawned. Solidad knew this coordinator was going up on stage soon but still, it looked like he could pass out any minute. She decided to talk to him, maybe his sleepiness could calm her own nerves.
"Too excited to sleep?" Solidad remarked. Her sudden appearance briefly shocked Harley but he just turned around anyway.
"I guess you could say that…" Harley remarked with a yawn.
"Are you from around here? I've never seen you in a contest before," Solidad struck up a conversation.
"I'm from Slateport city, this is just my first contest," Harley's teal eyes never met Solidad's gaze as he spoke. He instead held an intense gaze on the screen as he studied the coordinators before him. Solidad was surprised this was his first contest. He already held himself like a pro. She soon found out he had the cocky attitude of one as well.
"This is my fifth contest. I've won two ribbons so far," Solidad shared with him.
"Well you'll have to stay with two ribbons today because I'm going to win," Harley said with a matter-of-fact tone.
"We'll just see, make sure to stay awake for the appeal round," Solidad said light-heartedly. But little did she know that she had poked a stick at Harley's petty little mind. Harley gasped at the audacity.
"I have no intention of falling asleep!" Harley protested as he stood up to face Solidad for the first time that day. "My performance will be so inspiring and endearing that nobody will be able to fall for hours after watching it! Just you see!"
And just like that Harley stomped out of the waiting room to head to the stage, leaving a dumbfounded Solidad behind. Some coordinators turned to look at Solidad, wondering why such a confrontation took place. "What's his problem?" Solidad could practically hear their thoughts out loud.
As she was left to stew in this awkward silence Solidad soon found that she couldn't contain her giggles anymore. She laughed and laughed, it was as if an invisible pokemon was using tickle on her. But her attack wasn't lowered, rather her spirits were lifted as she was excited to see just what type of opponent Harley would be. She couldn't wait to find out.
A/N: Sorry this chapter was much shorter than the first. I actually stopped halfway through this chapter after initially writing it because I had a crisis on what people in the Pokemon world would even eat for breakfast. My usual break meal consists of scrambled eggs but I didn't want to address this in the text of Pokemon fanfiction. Instead, I went with Tepig Bacon and worded it in a way that bacon either roasted the bacon with his fire or was roasted into bacon itself. You decide.
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