Love Hurts [Legendary short story - CANCELLED]

Coincidence? I Think Not-

   It was only a couple hours until they reached Hammerlocke, in which Hop insisted that he split off from them again to explore the city - at least the parts that he hadn't seen yet. For instance, he hasn't gotten to see the inside of the infamous gym. Even the dragon-type sanctuary inside had a spot on his bucket list. Maybe it would take his mind off of things. Maybe.
   It wasn't like he was going to get jumped or anything. Sure, there were thugs around every town or city, but he had his pokemon with him. In fact, Cinderace was walking beside him, distracted by anything or anyone that passed. Of course, that caused issues for Hop, who was just itching to get to the gym to get a sneak peek of what he was in for later on. Sure, he had heard things from Raihan, but he had a tendancy to... well, add a little flair to his explanations of how over how ridiculously amazing he was that only very few challengers ever got past him. Yeah, says the man who's had a constant ten-nil streak against Leon. Hop would rather find out for himself than listen to Raihan exaggerate for hours.
   He stopped by the pokemon center to rest his newly caught Trevanant, which had almost swept his entire team before he caught it out of pure luck. If he had lost... He'd rather not dwell on that. There was a reason that the Glimwood Tangle had an infestation of Phantump. He still had leaves and branches stuck in his hair, which earned him a few concerned glances from the people he passed.
   Nurse Joy had happily taken his pokemon without even glancing up at him. Though when she did, her face went pale. "Oh, my. Whatever happened to you?"
   Hop shrugged. "Don't get in a fight with a possessed tree, I guess," he replied bluntly.
   Joy let out a small giggle at that. "It'll take at least half an hour for them to heal completely. If you want, you can take a room upstairs and take a rest yourself."
   "No, I'm good. Thanks anyways."
   She nodded, giving a little bow. And just like that, she turned to the next person in line, whose Rolycoly had fainted. A larger Carkol trailed behind him. Must be either a rock-type or a fire-type Trainer. Or they must really like Coalossal's evolution line. Either way, the Carkol seemed much too grumpy to have any interaction with.
   As Hop turned to leave his pokemon to rest, he nearly toppled over an Indeedee that was carrying a tray of pokeballs to the counter. The creature let out a startled cry, nearly dropping the tray. Luckily Hop swooped in in time to help, or else the pokemon would be all over the floor by now. The Indeedee straightened herself, chirping a little thank you before going on her way. That was the thing about pokemon centers; They were always busy, bustling with people and pokemon trying to make it to the next stop on the road to whatever it was that they were doing. Just a few years ago they added another station that allowed Trainers to teach their pokemon long forgotten moves, even forget moves if they wanted. That caused even more business in the small center.

   Not only that, Galar had gained a lot more tourists in the past few years as well. The reason for that was the introduction of the dynamax phenomenon, and everyone was absolutely intrigued and had to see it for themselves, despite not being able to take the ability home with them like a z-ring or a mega ring. Dynamaxing was only an occurance that happened in specific areas of the region, called power spots. Each one was controlled by Macro Cosmos - the company Chairman Rose owned - and had gyms built over them. Stray, smaller spots were called dens, in which wild pokemon wandered into and dynamaxed out of random. Trainers absolutely loved going into them to either capture or defeat said pokemon to train. Very rarely, a pokemon with the capability to Gigantamax could be found inside a den.
   Therefore, Trainers from all over came to see what was so special, and the audience count in national Championship Cups doubled their size. Last year, the stadium in Wyndon had been packed to the brim just to see Raihan slaughtered again by Leon and his Charizard. It wasn't anything special, unless you count seeing Leon's matches a glorious spectacle. He'd been Champion for how many years now? Although Hop promised he'd never miss a single match, he still got bored over the years. Always the same thing. Although two years ago Raihan had almost won, but of course Charizard had toughed out the critical hit that Duraludon had dealt, lashing out with twice the firepower due to his Blaze ability. Oh, Raihan had been pissed. He didn't talk to Leon for weeks after that, but eventually got over it mostly due to his crush on the brilliant Champion.
   Speaking of which, Hop still couldn't believe what had happened at last year's match. He was lucky he didn't stop watching when he did, expecting another one of Leon's "everyone in Galar has potential" speeches. Instead, he was greeted with live feed of Raihan and Leon kissing. In the stadium. In front of millions - no, possibly billions of people because the Championship Finals were always broadcasted through international television, meaning to all regions, for those who don't understand the sheer shock that the event put the world through. Hop had kind of figured they had a thing for each other by the way Raihan absolutely tried as hard as he could to flirt with Leon, though being the oblivious little shit he was, took it as a shower of compliments more than anything. There was also that period of existential crisis where Leon had questioned his life choices when he realized what Raihan had actually been doing. Though he hadn't told anyone if they were actually together or not. According to him, he just kissed Raihan to see if he felt the same. He was lucky Raihan did, because it would have devastatingly embarrassing if he turned the poor Champ down.
   So now they were a thing, Hop guessed. It wasn't a secret now, anyways, since the two spent every second they could together. Hop kind of felt jealous since he would probably never have someone that loved him like that.

   Hop let out a sigh, shutting that thought away. He was too busy to think about things like that. Too young, even. He'd like a life beforehand, thank you very much. He actually was looking into the pokemon research career if he never got as far as becoming Champion. He had even been pulling out a few minutes of his time to study his own pokemon to get a head start, sometimes helping Sonia out at the lab. She made him promise to come back to her if he lost, so that was that. There was no arguing with that woman, despite her appearing sweet and harmless.
   He couldn't stop himself from yawning. He hadn't slept last night, since he had been up the entire time trying to catch pokemon for his team. Maybe he should rest for a while. He'd get to see Hammerlocke later, if he even made it that far. If he didn't, he'd still be able to explore it through Raihan's guidance, seeing as he and leon were so close that they were even talking about moving in with each other. So Hammerlocke was going to be a second home, so he'd have plenty of opportunities in the future.
   Hop frowned. He hadn't slept last night, and he couldn't remember the last time he actually did. Even as he thought about it, he felt like he hadn't had a good night's sleep in weeks. The gym challenge was stressful, to say the least. He couldn't rest until he knew he was completely ready for the next gym, which was impossible since he was constantly changing his team to try out new techniques. Therefore, he was always trying to get his newer pokemon up to par with the others, but he hardly made it through the next day. He had already keeled over a week ago due to too much pressure on himself. It was best if he avoided that happening again.
   "Nurse Joy?"
   The young woman looked up from her desk. "Yes?"
   "I'll take that room you offered."
   For extra measures, he texted his brother not to wait up for him if he was late.

   It was late afternoon when he returned to the first floor to collect his pokemon and be on his way. But Nurse Joy stopped him before he could walk out the door.
   "Oh! You have a special delivery," she announced, diving under the desk to rummage around in whatever she had under there.
   "Delivery?" Hop echoed. "I didn't order anything."
   "Must be a fan, then. I don't blame them." She handed a pokeball to him, smiling. "You are quite the battler. One of the best Galar's seen since your brother started his own challenge."
   Hop grinned. "Thanks," he replied, not sure on what else to say. His attention returned to the pokeball. "What's inside?"
   "Sorry, I'm not permitted to open someone else's pokeball without consent."
   He nodded in understanding. Though he was still hesitant. "What if it's something dangerous?" he fretted.
   "As far as I'm concerned, a pokemon unwilling to be captured won't stay in a pokeball at all," Joy ensured him. "Go on. I'm sure it's something special."
   The ball opened with a flash of blue light. Something small formed on the floor, and a couple heads turned to look at what was happening. Hop's heart jumped to his throat.
   An Applin. Someone had given him an Applin.
   "W-who left it for me?"
   "No clue. The mailman came with it and said that the giver had asked to remain anonymous."
   Well butter his ass and call him a biscuit. Someone out there was trying to get a message through to him and he had no idea who it was. It reminded him of one of Leon's gifts a year ago, where someone unknown had given him an Applin. Until now, no one knew who it was until Raihan began dropping hints. Leon still didn't know, but he still cherished the small wyrm with all his heart.
   Hop didn't want that. He wouldn't be able to handle going on without knowing who it was. It'd haunt him for the rest of his days until he finally figured out who it was. Even then, he didn't know if it was just a creep or someone he knew that had genuine feelings for him.
   He shuddered at the thought.