Say That You Need Me - Hop x Gloria

Chapter 10

A/n - I used the conversion rate for Japanese yen to estimate prices, so if you're really curious you can go to a converter online.

Gloria saw the familiar yellow cap and tent poking out from the bottom of the Hammerlocke staircase. Galar's finest camping salesman, the Camping King.

She ran down the staircase and tripped down the last few steps. She landed on the dusty ground with a soft gasp, brushing off her plain outfit. It was just high waisted jeans and a cropped black t-shirt, with her hair in a romantic tuck. Round sunglasses were perched on her nose, completing the disguise. The only things that could give her away were the premier balls on her waist, but hopefully nobody would pay any attention.

"Are you alright, miss?" the man said, offering a hand to help her up. She waved it off, standing up and dusting off her rear end.

"I'm just a little clumsy, that's all. Don't worry about me," she reassured him. He seemed satisfied by her answer and started his pitch on the many services he offered. That was the best part of disguises: being treated as normal. No nagging about her well being, less fake smiles. Just doing what you go out to do and leaving. It's a shame it wasn't going to last long.

"Anything in particular you're looking for today?"

Gloria smiled. "Actually, I was wondering if you had any of those luxury camping sets on hand. My friend does a lot of camping, and I just want him to be comfortable, you know?"

The man smiled back and nodded, pulling material swatches out of his front pocket in various colors. "I've got plain black and plain white, too, but I assume you don't need the swatches for that. Base price for these is about 150,000 pokedollars, just so you know. Regular tents are only around 55,000, if you want that model instead. Same colors all around."

His favorite color has always been teal...

She held up two different tent swatches the traveling salesman had handed to her, one burgundy and one grey-teal.

"I'm going to go with this one. It's his favorite color," Gloria said, taking a picture of the swatch before handing it back. 

"It's a very nice color, very popular. Any add ons you'd like to add? It can have extra space, a thicker floor, mesh windows and window covers, and-"

Gloria pulled out her wallet and handed the man her black card and said, "I'll take it all on the luxury model."

The man did a double take at her method of payment, looking from the name on the card back to her over and over again. "Gloria Shosha..." he trailed off.

The people who had them could spend obscene amounts of money without batting an eye. Most people didn't even know Gloria had one, since she was so young.

"Ma'am, I d-don't mean to offend you but can I verify your identification, please?"

"Don't worry about it," she assured him, taking off her sunglasses and handing him both her league ID and regular ID. 

He looked at them, satisfied, and handed them back. "It really is an honor to have you buying from me, Champ-"

"You can call me Gloria," she mumbled, knowing she wasn't going to get through to him as he rambled. "Feel free to say whatever you want about me shopping here, just save it until after I leave so I won't get swamped."

"Of course, of course. Sorry I didn't recognize you before, you just look... different than I remember. But you look wonderful no matter what, Champion!" he said, swiping her card and handing the touchscreen over for her to sign. Her hand was shaky, leaving wiggles in her normally smooth signature.