The Twins At Paldea Univeristy (Pokemon Scarlet and Violet)

The Wild Hunt Part 1

Juliana found herself in quite the storm in the past few days.

Penny and Florian broke up.

As lunchtime was fully underway, Juliana left the school entirely. While Team Star were all back in school, Penny herself was actually the exception, mostly because her studies were more or less done plus she had her stint at the league, which was where she was headed. Juliana walked up to the northwestern portions of Mesagoza which had a tunnel that held a simple dirt path up to the league headquarters proper.

Up there, right before the building's entrance, was a simple pokecenter. Lo and behold, by one of the simple tables were two familiar faces, Nemona and Penny.

Nemona, now Paldea's iudex as Geeta decided to further her skills, just sat across the red-and-blue-haired girl as they had their lunches. She couldn't believe that Penny actually did it, breaking up with Florian on her own terms, or just breaking up with him in general. It was a gutsy move, and honestly she couldn't help but respect it. That did mean Florian was free again however, but she had a whole new job to do and a new wave of challengers on top of it. In time, perhaps. The tan girl glanced to the side and saw Juliana walking over to them.

"Well well well, looks like someone's here for you" Nemona nodded over to Juliana, and she could see Penny freeze as the brunette walked over. Nemona stood up, giving them a wink before walking off. 'I'll leave this between the two of you. Say hi to mi leonito for me."

Juliana sat across from Penny, the girl was unable to look her right in the eyes, instead looking down at the table as she ate her little bowl of pasta.

"Hey Penny..."

"H-h-h... Hey, Juliana"

"So... you broke up with Flor..."

Penny remained silent. She closed her eyes, feeling the bitter sting of that night.

"Listen, Penny, I'm not going to ask you to go back to him"

Penny had to open her eyes again on that one, looking at Juliana right in the face with a flabbergasted expression.

"You went your separate ways, and I'm sure you had your reasons. Those reasons are between you and him. I just... I just hope this doesn't stop us from being friends."

"It... It won't, Juliana. I... I'm going to be honest with you, a piece of me still does love him. I just hope we can keep being friends too, like you and me" Penny sighed, "I don't really feel like much of a weight was off my chest to be honest. I thought there'd be one. That's how light novels and anime like to portray it. Maybe it's because ours was different? Special? I don't know. Florian left me hanging some time near the end."

"Flor's never been great with his emotions. I don't even think it's a masculinity thing either. Y'know how boys are always told not to cry or show emotions or all that junk? Well, dad's never taught him that. If anything dad was trying to teach him to emote more, share more. He just... doesn't. He's weird that way, isn't he?"

"Y-yeah..." Penny gave a small smile, remembering the brief time they were together, "he is."

"But enough about him, how about you?" Juliana leaned forward a bit. "How have things been on your end?"

"It's just me for a while. Nemona's the only companion I have, and you too I guess" Penny shook her head. "I honestly don't want to see the others of Team Star right now, as weird as that sounds. I... I just want to go back to work. I think I'm almost done with what I've been tasked with, and Nemona seems keen on letting me go once it's all been wrapped up."

"Then what?"

"Then... Then I just live my life I guess. My gig here does count as work experience so I can always use it when I'm applying for a different gig, or better yet a whole job. Or maybe I can just rest for a while. Go back home even, see my father again just because I can... Or maybe I'll just binge watch anime." Penny continued, "maybe Atticus can make me an eevee suit or something, that would be funny. I just want all of this done with, reassess everything."