Newer Days *Spark x Reader*

7 - Gyms

AHH SORRY GUYS I LIVE AT A BOARDING SCHOOL AND THEY BLOCKED WATTPAD I'M SO PISSED BUT ANYWAYS HERE'S SOMETHING

"Mmphf..." I groan, stretching in bed. I check my watch - 8 AM. Not too late, I guess. I roll onto my side and see Spark staring back at me. What the-

"Hey, you're finally up!" Spark yells in my ear.

"WAH!" You roll off the bed and land on the floor with a thump. Deja vu much?

"C'mon! All I did was say good morning... again." he peers over me from the edge of the bed as I lie there in defeat.

"Thanks," I say sarcastically, squinting in the darkness at his silhouette. "Wait... Spark, why aren't you wearing a shirt?" Again, I can feel myself blush a bit, but then again, I'd never really noticed how fit he was before. Girl, stop.

He fake pouts. "What? I always sleep like this. Besides, you didn't seem to have a problem with it last night." Oh crap. Oh crap oh crap oh CRAP. What happened last night?

I facepalm and sigh, exasperated. "I don't remember what happened last night, but I'm sure I want to keep it that way."

He frowns at me. "Well, at least do you need help getting up? It's eight already, but I still need to show you how to take over a gym."

"Spark?"

"Yeah?"

"Go put on a shirt."

"Okay."

I uncomfortably get up from my fallen position, pick out my clothes for the day - pretty much the same as I wore yesterday - and head downstairs for breakfast.

*le time skip*

"So... how do these gyms work?" I ask.

Spark shrugs on his jacket. "Well, you have to battle against Mystic and Valor with your own Pokemon. If you manage to win, their gym loses revenue, meaning that they go down by one level. When they're down to no levels, then you can add your own Pokemon in." he explains.

I look at the four pokeballs I have in my bag. "I... don't have a lot of Pokemon. They're not exactly the strongest, either." I say sheepishly. 

"Don't worry! You just started, so nobody's expecting you to beat Mystic or Valor or anything like that." he pats me on the back and gives me an encouraging grin. "That doesn't matter right now. You're going to be great someday, I know it."

We turn down the road and come across a gym. It's not exactly the kind of gym I would imagine going to and getting all the glory or being carried away by a praising mob or some shit. It's relatively utilitarian - battling platform, elevator to get there, large bold colors and a gym symbol at the top of it - it gets the message across. It's huge. It's pretty early, but there's already a crowd of trainers taking their shots at knocking each other off the block. I laugh and shake my head.

"How the hell am I supposed to compete with this lot?"

"Oh, you're not just competing against these kids, you're battling against the world. That's how these things go!" he exclaims. I gulp. Competing against the world? Against other people? With more people watching me? For Instinct? Uh... okay, sure, whatever, I guess. Game on?

I watch and admire other people's Pokemon - a Gyarados, a Dragonite, a Charizard, a Vaporeon, a Rapidash, an Arcanine... everything and everyone looks so cool when you're just a really low leveled player like me. I want to be like them. I want to be the very best, like no one ever was... I smile as a song rolls through my head like a familiar friend. But then, I'm startled out of my thoughts by the horrendously large cheering coming from the crowd. Spark makes his way through the crowd and steps onto the elevator, waving to the team. He glances towards me, sees me standing apart from the crowd, and gives me a wink. I shove my fists into my pockets and mutter, "Showoff.", while giving him a quick smile back.

Spark gets to the battling platform, facing off against a pretty talented trainer from Valor. The Valor trainer stands with his Arbok, looking a little anxious but otherwise not showing much emotion, while Spark sends out his Jolteon, which appears under the name... 'Donglord'. Oh. My. God. I can't help but facepalm and giggle to myself. That's such as Spark thing to do, though...

None of the spectators from below can see what exactly is happening in the gym. All we can see are the two flickers of purple and yellow, and all we can do is look up with craned necks as the vivid glow of lightning lights up our faces in broad daylight. People in red shirts make bets and exchange wads of dollars with people in yellow caps, while people in blue jackets chatter loudly and shove each other out of the way to see who's battling who next. Everybody seems to have impossibly strong Pokemon here - as I make my way through the crowd, I pick up incomprehensible strands of sentences and words, such as 'CP 2380' or 'Dude, I beat you in the last round, pay up!'. All of it is just so new and scary and strange to me. I look over my shoulder at my bag, which contains my pokeballs. What if I'm not ready for it yet?

There are a few gasps around me, then the crowd erupts into a fusion of cheers and boos. I look up. The red from the gym melts into yellow, and some people come up to me and give me a high five. Like the awkward person I am, I give them an awkward smile, an awkward high five back, and awkwardly turn away. Spark steps off the elevator, his blonde hair ruffled by the wind, but otherwise pretty okay. You'd expect him to be a little more tired than he is after a gym battle. I run up to him and give him a short hug. "Wow, um.... that was really impressive. I'm proud of you." I say, beaming up at him. I don't even know how weird I look with such a big smile on my face. Spark blushes, shrugs, and scratches his head.

"Ah, you know, I've been doing this a lot. It's just a whole lot of thinking, you know? Spend a few years as a team leader and that's what you get." he pauses. "How'd I do?"

"Well, to be honest, I couldn't see you all that well."

"I guess there's not much you can see when you're standing from below." He says as he puts one arm around me as we walk away from the crowd.

"It doesn't matter. Just know that I'll be waiting for you at the end of every battle, okay?" I lean my head against his shoulder, suddenly comfortable with the prospect of being openly in a relationship with my team leader in the middle of a crowd, but also surprised that what I said was actually decently flirtatious. Aaawkward. I definitely didn't mean to say that. 

Spark chuckles. "Sounds good to me."