Pokémon Ultra Sun 2 (GladionXReader)

Chapter 4

"Gladion... what are you...?" I said as I stared at him.

"I think that should be obvious," he said and walked over to me. My breath caught in my throat and part of me thought it was to see me. "I came to challenge the champion. I didn't think it was still you, though."

I felt my heart sink and my expression changed from an awestruck look to a blank one. "Still the same old Gladion, I see."

"Same old, _____," he said.

Without another word about that, I held out my hands. He looked at them strangely. "Give me your Pokémon. I'll heal them."

He blinked before detaching the six pokéballs from his hip. He placed the small balls in my hands and I walked back to the throne. Behind it I had one of those restore tables they had in the Pokémon centers installed, so I didn't need to make the trip down from Mount Lanikila every time I needed to heal my own Pokémon between battles. I pressed the buttons on the balls, expanding them before placing them in the slots and turning the machine on.

Within seconds they were done. So I brought the balls back to Gladion before returning Silvally to its pokéball and doing the same with my own Pokémon. I could feel Gladion looking at me as I did this, not saying a word. Maybe he was calculating the next thing to say, just like I was. Or maybe he just didn't get the message that he should just leave. When the machine was finally done healing my Pokémon, he spoke.

"It is good to see you again," Gladion said. "I thought that I'd have to go looking for you."

"Why didn't you join the party on Iki Island after I became champion?" I blurted out without thinking.

Gladion blinked, looking rather taken back by the question. "Think back to what I said before you helped me save the Aether Foundation," he said. "Remember what I said?"

I nodded and put a hand over my eye, deepening my voice to mock him as best I could. "I know we aren't friends, but we aren't enemies either," I said in my mock Gladion voice. "Something to that effect."

"Exactly. We were enemies, and then partners in battle. But we were never really friends. I didn't think it would matter if I didn't join in," he said.

"Maybe it would have been different if I hadn't noticed you in the background," I said and looked to the side, sticking my hands in my pocket. "You looked like you wanted to join in, but instead you just smiled and left. Not so much as a good bye. I had to find out from Lillie that you took off to Kanto. And then you told Ms. Wicke to give me Type: Null. You could have just given it to me yourself you know."

Gladion rolled his eyes and shook his head. "It's really not that easy," he said. "We're not friends. We never really were. What would you have thought if I just went up to you and gave you the pokéball with Null in it?"

"I would have thought that we were friends," I said. "I already thought that we were."

"You're still the same little girl from ten years ago. So naive," he said and sighed. "God, _____, why are you so..."

"So what? Infuriating? Childish?" I put my hands on my hips and gave him a hard look.

"Trusting," he said. "Stuff like that, powerful trainer or otherwise, will just get you hurt. You didn't even have the good sense not to tell me who you were the first time we met."

"Well sorry I like to look for the good in people," I said and motioned to him. "And what do you know, I was right. You're a good person and I wanted us to be friends."

"I'm back now," he said and crossed his arms, looking to the side. "I'm a different person then I was back then--"

"Could have fooled me," I interrupted.

"Can I finish?" he said and looked at me out of the corner of his eyes. I made a motion with my hand for him to continue. "We can try being friends now, if that's what you really want."

I eyed him, looking him up and down. I played on the act that I was still upset with him for just up and leaving before I simply shrugged and relaxed into a more comfortable, less aggressive standing position. I grinned at him.

"I think I can live with that," I said. "So have you seen Lillie yet?"

Gladion just stood there for a moment with the dumbest expression on his face. Almost like he believed that I was actually upset. I waved my hand in front of his face, snapping my fingers a few times, to which he swatted at it with his own. He let out a sigh and shook his head.

"No. I haven't been back to the Aether Foundation yet," he said. "I came right to the Pokémon League. Didn't know you'd still be champion though after all these years."

I opened my mouth to say something but was cut off when another voice spoke.

"She won't be for very long," the voice said.

It was feminine and Gladion and I both turned. Walking up the steps was a woman with a cloak wrapped around her body. There was a hood over her face as well, but even if we tried to see under it, it wouldn't matter. She was wearing a mask as well. I frowned and stepped in front of Gladion. Not to protect him, but because I was the champion and this was my battle.

"Care to share your name with me, then, Challenger?" I said. "If you're so certain you're going to defeat me."

The woman laughed and I frowned. I felt Gladion move to take a step forward but I threw my arm out to stop him. He wasn't the Champion and I could take care of this myself. Both of us watched as the woman started to laugh before she grabbed the tie of the cloak and pulled it, throwing the garment to the side.

Underneath the cloak was the telltale uniform of Team Sun. she wore a white crop top with the insignia of the ruins where we saved Nebby and raised Solgaleo. A flared out black skirt hung on her hips with knee high black boots. Over the crop top was a black short sleeved zip up jacket. I glared immediately.

"How did you get into the Pokémon League?" I said and reached for my Pokémon.

"Disguise, obviously," the woman said. "And since I'm here and I'm a challenger, I, proud member of Team Sun will usurp the Kantonian Champion of Alola and become the new Champion, dawning a new era of revival for Alola and the Alolan Pokémon!"