Category: Pokémon

Rating: M

Couples: ?/OC

Warnings: AU, hint of rape/character death

Chapter: 7

Copyright: Characters & places © By Game Freak, Plot © by me

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"I warned you this mess was a bad idea." Wallace greeted his friend upon disembarking the plane that had carried him and Drake to Kalos.

"Welcome to you too." Stephen dryly countered. "Also, you did not warn me at all. Just saying."

"Let him, he had to cancel some Contest-appearances with his niece for this." Drake informed the Champion. "Who else arrived yet?"

"Unova arrived earlier today. Sinnoh should be through the checkout in a bit, actually… Kanto and Johto arrive tomorrow..." Steven counted on his fingers. "Most of the rest also tomorrow, or the day after that."

"You're all staying at the Kalos League castle, obviously." Diantha pointed outside. "I can call Wikstrom to pick you up or you can take a shuttle."

"Eh, we'll take a shuttle. You two are staying here to wait for Sinnoh?"

"Yup." Diantha shifted a bit. "Though you can join your League, if you want to." She added in an aside to Steven.

"I'll stay with you." He assured her. "It's not going to be that long, after all. I'll join them after."

Wallace and Drake headed for the League Castle.

It was half an hour later that Cynthia appeared with her delegation. To Diantha and Steven's surprise, the representative of the Sinnoh Gym Leaders was not Byron or Volkner as expected, but Fantina. The two waiting Champions exchanged a look at the sight. The Hearthome Gym Leader was standing out like a sore thumb in her purple dress, her suitcase being twice as big as the others.

Before the Sinnoh delegation had even reached their welcoming committee, she had already been distracted, starting a phone-call within moments of entering the open space where that was allowed and fell behind.

"Welcome to Kalos." Diantha resisted the urge to ask about the strange choice, instead offering her colleague a warm hug. "How was the flight?"

"Surprisingly calm." Cynthia answered, stretching lightly. "How are things here?"

"Okay, until now." Steven raised one eyebrow. "As I am sure you heard, considering you took her along." He gestured with his head to the purple-clad Gym Leader in the distance. It wasn't that he disliked the Ghost-type trainer of Sinnoh, but she was considered quite… flighty. Her habit of disappearing from her Gym for weeks at a time was well-known.

"I wasn't intending to." The blond Champion answered, looking over her shoulder. "But she called me in the middle of the night – like, at most a few hours after the official announcement – demanding I take her along. About how this is her home-region and all that."

"The rest of the Top Five heard her through the walls." Lucian dryly added. "I think Cynthia acquiesced in the end because Fantina would not have stopped otherwise."

"She was quite out of character..." Cynthia countered. "Besides, she is good at her job when she manages to remember to do it for longer than a few months. Biggest emergency, I'll send her back to Sinnoh and call for Volkner."

"I heard that, mon chou." Fantina joined them, deactivating her phone. "You are gone from the League more than me."

"But she can afford it." Steven pointed out. "Champion-challenges are a lot less frequent than Gym-challenges."

"Let's not start that right now, there's a bigger discussion waiting to happen." Diantha spoke up, stopping what she could tell would be a very insulted Fantina countering. "Are you staying with family or at the League Castle, Fantina?"

"My family lives near Anistar City and while I will certainly visit them – on an off-day..." She added at seeing Cynthia's face. "I think that is too far to stay all the time. The sessions will be held in Lumiose, will they not?"

"Yeah, in one of the conference rooms of the Kalos headquarters." They started to head outside, only to be greeted by a small blue blur passing them by and colliding with Fantina.

A small girl was squealing, chattering in quick Kalosian.

"Calme toi, mon chou-fleur." Fantina chuckled, her hand tousling the girl's hair.

"I guess your family found you already?" Lucian snorted in amusement, having caught his colleague's suitcase before it fell over.

"Oui." Fantina straightened. "My little niece. I did tell my family I was coming to Kalos. Où est ta mère?"

"I am here." A woman with a strong Kalosian accent spoke up, pulling back the girl gently. "Apologies, she got away from me when she saw your sparkle."

"Happens." Fantina snorted. "I did say you didn't need to pick me up though."

"Tell that to her." The woman warmly smiled. "She is the one that wants to go to Sinnoh for her Journey so she can face you, remember."

Cynthia snorted at that. "Let's hope she has better discipline than you, Fantina."

"No." The mother countered. "She worships my dear sister so much she is becoming like her."

"I am honestly not that bad." The Ghost-type Leader huffed in insult. "Viens ici, ma chérie, ils sont des méchants." She plucked her niece up, settling her on her hip and marched of.

"Tu as failli manquer mon mariage, chère soeur!" Fantina's sister called after her, causing Diantha to snort and nearly suffocate on held-back laughter.

"Subtitles, if you please?" Steven smiled gently at the scene, arms crossed when he turned to Diantha.

"Fantina nearly missed my wedding." Fantina's sister translated for him. "Though I suppose in her defence, she got stuck in traffic for six hours… somehow."

"And you believe that?" Lucian wondered, one eyebrow raised a touch.

"Well, I was in the car with her." The Kalosian woman shrugged with a smirk. "My husband has still not forgiven me for the heart-attack that gave him."