Lotus and Stone (Steven Stone x OC)

7. the after

Luna was furious. She practically threw herself out of the bed and put on her clothes, the dress from last night. As quickly as she could she left the villa and flew to Twinleaf town, back to her home to change. She felt disgusting. She felt used and played with.

She hated Steven Stone's guts.

She stormed inside her house, ignoring Julia's welcome, and slammed the door to her room shut. She ripped off her clothes and got changed into a long skirt and handknit sweater and jumped on her bed, face down and screamed.

She heard Julia knock on the door.

"Go away." She groaned, not bothering to lift her head.

"What happened? Do you want to talk?" Jule said, worriedly from the other side of the door.

"No!" She yelled back. Luna felt awful. Steven stone was a pathetic jerk who had left her the morning after she slept with him. He was just gone.

Days went by and Luna didn't hear any word from Steven. Which actually made it worse. She was sure a week later, and after preparations to take town all the festival infrastructure had started, that he had just left the region and gone back to Hoenn. Without even apologizing or saying goodbye. She filled her days with work, both champion duties and work in the yarn shop. She even spent time on her farm shearing the mareep for the summer. But nothing could make her forget the hatred she felt for the man.

The truth was Luna never wanted to see him again.

---

The champion of Sinnoh was, for all intents and purposes, extremely busy. She had biweekly meetings with the construction managers of the Sinnoh centre, meetings with the gym leaders and elite four, and of course, challengers wanting to claim her title. Unfortunately for them, she proved hard to beat. She occasionally judged the finals of some Pokémon competitions in Hearthome, and rigorously maintained the yarn shop in Jubilife.

She hadn't told anyone about that night with Steven. Or the morning after, for that matter. It was her secret, and if it ever got out, Luna believed she quite simply would die or hide herself away in the distortion world for all eternity.

She had thought about the future though. The champions had four meetings a year. One of which was actually coming up in a couple of months. He would be there. And she would be forced to look at his face and speak, pretending nothing had happened even though she wanted to scream and throw things at him. Unfortunately, that was sort of the whole point of being an adult.

So, she did what any other anxious, emotionally unavailable person would have done. She threw herself into work.

---

Steven on the other hand, was sort of a wreck.

He had flown out of Sinnoh a couple of days after the event, guilt oozing out of him. Steven, that morning, had woken up by a buzz of his phone. His father calling him. So, Steven had gone downstairs to take the call, naturally, as to not disturb Luna's slumber. Steven's father informed him that some Devon employees had flown to Sinnoh, to attend some networking event in Veilstone. Steven had to pick them up and accompany them, as Devon's representative and heir. So that was how Steven came not to be in the house when Luna woke up.

The thing was that he knew it was wrong. He knew it was wrong to get dressed and just leave her there. But he did it anyways because he had never known anything more important than his work. And that was his problem. He knew it wasn't supposed to be like that. He knew Luna was furious with him, and Arceus he hoped she didn't feel as if she had done anything wrong. But he also knew she had been drunk, and that it had been her first time. He knew he had fucked literally everything up.

---

A month had gone by since the spring festival. The yarn shop was doing well, construction of the Sinnoh centre was going as planned, and generally things went well. Luna had put Steven mostly out of her mind and focused on planning the inauguration of the Sinnoh centre, set for a couple of months away.

That was, until she found a curious email dropped in her inbox.

She didn't know who 'Wallace' was but assumed he was a leaguer, considering he had her personal email.

'Dear Luna Renn,

First and foremost, I'd like to introduce myself. My name is Wallace, I am the Sootopolis city gym leader in Hoenn. Given your history in judging pokemon competitions, the Hoenn league formally invites you to the Hoenn summer pokemon contest championship. We'd like to invite only the best of the best, and chose you as a guest.'

The email continued on to talk about Hoenn's legacy in pokemon competitions and how Luna was a perfect judge given her previous performances at the spring festival bla bla bla. Luna wasn't interested. There was no way she'd step foot in Hoenn. That was simply it. She politely tapped out a reply on her laptop.

She was behind the counter in the yarn shop, eyes grazing over her personal emails when she noticed one from Maison Lumiose, a famous fashion house. It read:

'Dear champion Luna Renn,

My name is Laura Kent. I'm part of the communications team here at Maison Lumiose. I'm writing to you today because one of our designers participated in your knitting workshop at the spring festival and talking with you, Heather really liked your passion and flair for knitted work and art.

We're hosting a show here in Lumiose, Kalos, and we'd be thrilled if you could attend. We believe that your art and skills could be useful to Maison Lumiose, and we'd love for you to have a look at our Winter collection. In collaboration with designers from Snowbelle city, we've put together quite a special collection for you to see.

Here are the details for the special preview show: ....'

This caught her attention. Maison Lumiose putting out a knitwear collection? That was something she'd have to see. Her eyes scanned the details of the show. November. She had plenty of time to plan a trip.

Luna picked out emails one by one, one from the Lumiose art galleries, talking about a possible temporary installation in the Sinnoh centre, One from the Celestic historical organization about the eterna building, one from Jubilife University, talking about a possible lecture on sustainability and craftsmanship.

That was when she spotted one from Alexa, of Lumiose press.

Alexa had attended the spring festival and helped get many Kalosian tourists to fly into Sinnoh. Unfortunately, the champion had been far too busy organizing and supervising events to actually meet her in person. Luna read her email.

'Dear Champion Luna,

Outstanding success for the festival! I'm so glad Lumiose press could help out! I was wondering if you were available, even online, for a brief interview on the festival and the upcoming Sinnoh centre. Many say you have big plans for it, as it should be finished in a few months. What do you think?

Let me know,

Alexa

Lumiose press director.'

Luna caught herself smiling at the email. Alexa was a charming woman; she had been so friendly and helpful to her that she practically owed it to her. it was just another reason to book a trip to Kalos.

She tapped out a reply just before a customer walked into the shop.

"Hello! Welcome to Twinleaf yarns, how can I help?"