"I still don't see why you wanted me to come with you," Viola said, fiddling with her camera as the bus to Azalea Town bounced along, making the ride an uncomfortable one. Alexa winced as the bus jolted over a particularly hard bump, which also made her Helioptile cower in fear between the sisters.

"Well," she started, clutching the seat out of fear because dear Arceus the ride didn't feel safe at all and she envied Viola for being so calm during it, "you did have a vacation, and I know you'd probably just-" She stopped when the bus clattered loudly over the road, her breath catching in her throat. She felt her face grow warm with embarrassment as Viola sniggered beside her at her behaviour, and when she continued, it was with a shaky voice, "You'd just spend your time taking pictures of the routes around Santalune, so I figured why not drag you along, let you check out some new scenery." Her sister nodded slowly.

"I guess that was pretty thoughtful. Thanks sis," she said with a smile at Alexa, who returned it weakly. Then the bus suddenly jumped over yet another bump, making Alexa's smile fall and her hands clutch at the seat tighter, and under her breath she hissed out an expletive in French, which in turn made Viola - the only one who'd caught the curse, and the only one who would've understood it had anyone else heard it anyway - burst out laughing, earning her several looks from others on the bus, as well as one old woman shaking her head and tutting, "Tourists."

Once they'd gotten off the bus at their destination, Alexa had collapsed with relief onto the bus stop bench, making Viola roll her eyes.

"So, do you want me to leave you here or..." she said, eyebrow raised at her sister. Alexa waved her hand as she panted, "Just...gimme a minute...gimme a minute and I'll be good to go, I promise." Her Helioptile, as shaken as its partner, curled up on her lap and shuddered, mumbling into her jeans. The woman smiled down sympathetically at the pokémon, then looked up at her sister and said, "Actually, if you really want to go on ahead, that's fine. Azalea Town is just down past the well, and Ilex Forest is just beyond the town. The area's pretty small, so I think you'd be alright on your own." This made Viola cross her arms over her chest and smile, amused.

"So you're saying I'd be hopeless otherwise?" she asked with a chuckle. Alexa smirked and cocked her eyebrow and said, "Well, how often have you been out of Kalos? Plus, I've been here before. I've been to Johto so many times now, I know it as well as I know Kalos." Viola snorted as she said, "I pity the passengers of the buses any other time you rode one then." Her sister blushed again and snapped, "Do you want to leave or not?" Despite being aware she'd hit a nerve, Viola couldn't help but snicker.

"Sure, I'll go on ahead. Might check out the town itself, see what it's like in Johto," she said.

"Fair enough," Alexa responded, petting Helioptile, who crooned at her touch, no doubt calming down as much as it trainer. As Viola turned to walk away, she called after her, "You know where to find me, right?"

"You'll be at the well working on your article, I know!" she called back over her shoulder. She'd almost disappeared from sight until Alexa shouting after her made her stop. Turning around, she strained her ear and barely heard Alexa shout, "There's a gym leader in the town. A Bug specialist, if you wanna meet him."

"I'll bear that in mind! Thanks!" Finally free to continue on - she was grateful for the knowledge of the gym leader but Viola was annoyed at constantly being stopped - the woman ran off, hoping to get away from her sister should she have anything else she wanted to say.

It was exactly as Alexa had said; the moment Viola had walked past the Slowpoke Well, she was in Azalea Town. And sure enough, she could see the route gate at the end of the road with 'Ilex Forest' etched into the sign above the gate. The area certainly was small, in every sense of the word. Not that that was a bad thing. Small wasn't an insult or some label, it just tended to suit places sometimes, and it was safe to say Azalea Town and its very immediate area suited the word.

It was small, yet it seemed peaceful. It reminded her of Santalune City, if she was honest. Frankly, this made her relax as she entered the town. She took a deep breath in then began walking, though she was hoping something would catch her attention before she'd run out of town. What surprised the woman however was just how many people she could see. Fairly large crowds were dotted here and there, and she could only assume there were yet more people indoors.

"A lot of people for such a place," she murmured to herself, and as she was watching one group outside the Poké Mart - another thing that had caught her attention; the Poké Marts were separate from the Pokémon Center in Johto, something she'd also noticed in Olivine City where she and Alexa had gotten the boat into the region - she wound up bumping into someone from her not looking where she was going. While she was able to retain her balance and not fall ungracefully onto her behind, the person she'd bumped into didn't quite have the same luck.

"Oh I'm so sorry!" Viola gasped as she held out a hand for the young woman. She didn't notice the hand at first, too busy wincing in pain, however when she finally looked up, she took the hand with a grateful nod.

"It's fine, I was sort of rushing anyway. Not looking where I was going," she replied, surprising Viola with their tone of voice; still high-pitched sounding like one would expect from a woman, but at the same time, it sounded a little deep. Nevertheless, she respectfully didn't comment on this and instead responded, "No no really, I wasn't looking where I was going. I was uh..." She paused, not wanting to say she was just staring at some random people. Then she remembered the information Alexa had given her earlier.

"I was looking for the gym. I'm from out of the region, here with my sister and she said there was a gym in town. We both figured it'd be good to check it out, maybe even meet the gym leader," she said, leaving out the point that she herself was a gym leader because why bother telling a stranger? What would they do with the information? The woman's face lit up and Viola could've sworn something else had flashed in her lavender eyes as a smile appeared on her face.

"Really? What a coincidence, I was headed there myself. I can show you the way then," she said, and she took the lead, motioning for Viola to follow her. The Kalosian wasn't too surprised when she saw that she was being led toward the largest building in the town, though her thoughts were more focused on why the woman would've been going to the gym in the first place. Viola's first assumption was that she was a gym trainer, though her possibly being a challenger also crossed her mind.

The two entered the gym and the woman turned to Viola, saying, "Well here we are." The gym leader was actually quite impressed by the interior of the gym, and she found her hands itching to grab her camera and start snapping pictures of the Bug pokémon crawling among the trees and the bushes or with the gym trainers that were dotted here and there within the gym. Viola turned back to the woman and asked, holding up her camera as though providing extra emphasis for her question, "D'you think the leader would mind if I took some pictures?" An amused smile, similar to the one she wore earlier before leading Viola to the gym, stretched across her face as she nodded.

"I don't think he'd mind." With permission granted, Viola quickly got to work snapping photos. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw a man - the gym guide she assumed from the badge he wore on his shirt - run up to the woman and whisper something in her ear before disappearing again.

"That's a challenger arrived," she said, catching Viola's full attention again. The blonde bit her lip before saying, "In that case, I should go. I can always head to the Slowpoke Well to meet my sister." Her new acquaintance waved her hand, chuckling, "No no it's fine if you stay, really. You can leave if you like, but you're welcome to stay." Viola frowned, confused as to why the trainer was giving her permission to just hang around.

"Are you sure?" The woman nodded. "Of course. Now if you'll excuse me, I need to get ready." With that, she walked off, leaving Viola alone by the gym entrance. She shifted awkwardly, unsure of what to do, if she should just leave or if she should stay since she'd been given permission to do so. It was after a few moments that the gym guide re-entered the room, a young trainer following close behind him.

"Your goal buddy," he said with a warm smile directed at the nervous looking boy, "is to make it across the gym using the Spinarak karts. You'll battle the odd gym trainer here and there before you battle the leader himself." He then gave the boy's shoulder a comforting squeeze.

"Think you can do it?" he asked, bending down to the boy's height. The trainer shivered and pulled out a Poké Ball, biting his lip as he stared at it. Then his grip tightened around it and a look of determination came across his face. He nodded.

"I'll try!" he said, and the gym guide laughed, patting his shoulder and saying, "Then go on, kiddo!" As the boy ran off and jumped onto the first Spinarak kart, the gym guide joined Viola in the corner, nodding after the trainer and saying, "He's got a lot of spunk. Needs to have more confidence though, I heard from my buddy in Violet City Gym that it took him a few tries to beat Falkner. Must've been hard on him." Viola nodded.

"Yeah," she said quietly, then she paused before asking, "Actually, who is the gym leader? I was hoping I could maybe meet him." The gym guide regarded her closely, and asked, "If you don't mind me asking my own question first, are you that Bug leader from Kalos? Cause if you are, I hear you're the first female Bug leader, am I right?" Viola smiled, amused at how that fact always seemed to be the first thing people noticed about her and her speciality.

"Yes that's me. How'd'you guess?" The man nodded slowly, then said, "Call it a lucky guess. Plus a bit of common sense; why else would someone want to meet the gym leader if they don't want to challenge them." This made Viola chuckle, "Fair enough then." The gym chuckled himself, "Well then, since I got my answer; the gym leader's Bugsy. A real enthusiast, though a bit...unlucky in the looks department."

"What do you mean?" Viola asked, confused. The man opened his mouth to respond, only then focus instead on the trainer and say, "The boy made it. You'll see Bugsy in a second." They didn't wait long, as a curtain of vines at the back of the gym parted and out walked the woman that'd led Viola to the gym, to the Kalosian's shocked confusion. While Viola regarded the newly emerged leader, eyes wide and mouth flapping open and closed like a Magikarp, the gym guide chuckled to himself, "Figured the minute I saw him today, he must've forgot his net at Morty's or Falkner's. Wherever he was at last night."

"But wait...isn't that..." Viola started, trailing off as she realised she'd mistaken him for a girl the entire time. Sure she hadn't said anything to his face but just the very fact that she'd done it made her own face turn bright red.

"See what I mean by him having unfortunate looks?" The gym guide laughed. Viola just wanted to sink into the floor or blend into the walls, anything to disappear at that moment before the battle ended.

One long battle later and the trainer left victorious, a large smile on his face, his battered yet proud Chikorita and Pidgey by his sides and the Hive Badge in hand. The blonde watched as the guide congratulated the boy, muttering to herself with a small smile, "I'm impressed."

"You are?" Viola jumped, whirling round to see Bugsy walking up to her. She flushed, remembering how she at first mistook the young man for a woman. She could only really nod in response to his question, to which he then said, "Yeah I'm pretty impressed myself. Considering his team, I didn't think he'd manage first time." He shook his head with a smile as he watched the trainer run out of the gym and added, "Guess he realised he needed to train up after how long it took him to beat Falkner."

"He was at a disadvantage if Chikorita is the stater he chose, " Viola said, "He was here too, even more so actually." Bugsy nodded.

"All the more reason for him to celebrate getting a win first time then." The gym leader then said, "Oh yeah, I never really introduced myself earlier." He held out his hand, wearing a welcoming smile as he introduced, "I'm Bugsy, the gym leader." Viola took the hand and said with amusement, "Yeah I sort of figured." His eyebrow arched as he responded, "You didn't earlier though." She blushed again, and muttered, "Yeah I'm aware." Shaking her head, the woman said, "I should probably..." She trailed off, her intent obvious. A nod from Bugsy prompted her to continue, "Well, I guess now would be a good time to introduce myself."

She cleared her throat before saying, "I'm Viola, from the Kalos region. And the gym leader of Santalune City." The man's eyes widened with realisation. "Santalune? So you're the female Bug specialist?" Viola couldn't help but roll her eyes on hearing this, though she still wore a smile as she did so.

"You wouldn't believe how often I get that when I introduce myself," she said dryly, which made Bugsy scratch the back of his neck and chuckle nervously, "Sorry. It's just pretty impressive; most women aren't really interested in Bug types. Most female type specialists are usually Flying or Ghost specialists. Which reminds me," he smiled anxiously, "if you ever get the chance to meet Falkner or Morty, don't tell them I said that."

"I'll do you one better," Viola laughed, "I won't tell my sister you said it. Chances are, her editor might call her and ask her to snag an interview while she's here in the region." The Johto man blinked, suddenly curious. "Editor? Wait is your sister that reporter that's doing a piece on the well?" The blonde cocked an eyebrow and asked, "So I'm guessing news spreads fast around here?"

"Fast enough," he shrugged. He then added, "You'll probably want to go meet up with her now. Not much she can really say about the well, unless she also wants to add in something about the town." Viola nodded before checking her watch, grimacing as she realised the time.

"Yeah, meeting with her now would be smart, unless I want to wait for her to find me first. Thanks for having me," she said, giving Bugsy's hand another firm shake. The leader nodded back, saying, "It was nice meeting you, Viola. Maybe we can see each other again sometime? I know for a fact Whitney's been dying to go to Kalos so if I ever get a vacation, I'll join her."

"I look forward to it," Viola replied. Then, as she turned to leave, Bugsy suddenly said, "Oh, and don't worry if you mistook me for a girl." Viola turned bright red as she whirled round and snapped in a panicked tone, "You knew?" That amused smile was back on his face as he shrugged and said, "I didn't know if you actually thought like that, but I'm used to it by now, so if you had made the mistake - which it turns out you did - I wanted to let you no it wasn't a big deal." Viola frowned.

"Even if I never said anything, I still feel bad about it," she muttered, lips pursed in what could almost be a pout, which made Bugsy laugh.

"Yeah well, it's fine, so don't worry about it. You'd be surprised how often the mistake is made." Seeing that Viola still looked nervous about it, he then added sarcastically, "If it makes you feel any better, you're not the only "female" Bug gym leader." This managed to lift the Kalosian's spirits, and even made her laugh, and she left the gym wearing a smile.

/collapses

This took way too long to write. =_=;;

I started it on Monday and worked on it all week. I even got a Google Drive app for my phone just so I could work on it in school during my free periods. However whenever I worked on it in school, I'd just feel dead negative about it, like "Oh god it's dead repetitive" or "Help, this sounds awkward". It wasn't till today, Friday, when I read over it again that I realised it was actually alright. Well, decent enough to please me, and I'm surprisingly strict on myself. You can say I'm fishing for compliments all you want, but I have to admit I'm a self-deprecating witch and it bugs me.

Like, I'll re-read over these drabbles and have one of two feelings for them. Either a) "Oh I like this one, I'm so proud of myself!" or b) "Oh god what was I thinking just get rid of it ooh but I can't GDI."

Fortunately, re-reading over this one like I said I was actually quite already with it, just made the odd edit here and there. But this was seriously this close to being scraped, and I would've just started brand new.

...I should probably stop talking about myself now.

Anyway, this was requested by Tsukuyomi, who wanted to see Viola meeting Bugsy. :D And allow me to apologise, I couldn't help but have Bugsy be mistaken for a girl. Gold did it in Special and I'm sure plenty of players made the mistake themselves.

Now, I do hope you all enjoyed this. Thank you so much for reading, as always. Do review and leave any suggestions, and for any new readers, fave-ing and following are nice too.

Angel-chan x

Ps. I have a confession to make.

There have now been a few Hoenn-related requests made and by this point, I feel I need to mention this; I have never actually played any pre-GenIV game. I've always been a DS game. I never mentioned this previously, because I have read the Ruby&Sapphire arc of Pokémon Special, however even with this, since I'm sticking as close to original game canon as I can, I felt it would be better to experience the game myself as well as all the original game personalities, cause we all know both Special and the anime can do some tweaking of personalities as well as teams.

However! I have began trying to change this unfortunate predicament; I have downloaded a GBA emulator to my iPad and have made a start in Emerald. :D

So, much in the case of Black, all Hoenn requests are on hold until I have made sufficient progress in the game.

I am deeply sorry for this.

/hands out May and Brendan plushies