The Best is Yet to Come (A Pokemon Fanfic)(OC x Leon)

Chapter 4: The Realization

TW; Mentions of blood, mentions of violence (last section)

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Four months had gone by, Ru mostly spending her time either in the wild area with her studies or at the Wedgehurst lab hanging out with her friend Sonia and her grandmother. Ru was really enjoying her time on Galar, especially since she had a bit of help with her research from both Sonia and the man she often bumped into in the wild area, Leon Rowe. She still somehow had yet to find out just who Leon was. Every time she and Sonia got to talk about him, Sonia was often interrupted as she was about to tell her. Ru saw a few magazines and clips of him on tv but never had the chance to read what people called him. Laika, on the other hand, did find out a lot sooner; but as a Pokémon, she couldn't exactly tell her trainer flat out. She just had to watch in agony just how oblivious Ru truly was. Even poor Sonia was shocked just to see how long it was taking for the researcher from Johto to catch on that Leon was the CHAMPION of Galar. It was such a miracle she never saw the words 'champion' anywhere when she saw Leon on papers or the telly.

But not all things were great and fun for Ru. Her nightmares that at first only haunted her in Alola were suddenly more frequent again. At least twice a week Laika had to wake her up from the nightmares of that Guzzlord nearly killing the two of them. Half the time it was the same dream of the Ultra Beast actually killing her, and then the dream more like a flashback of exactly how it happened. Ru lost a lot of sleep and even Laika. But it was Laika's job to keep Ru from suffering too long from those nightmares. Since they had been so frequent, Ru had been a bit jumpier lately, almost as if the incident in Alola was just days ago. But even so, the young woman still refused to tell Sonia, even though they had grown closer as friends since the first time she had those nightmares since arriving in Galar. But Sonia did her best to at least help cheer up Ru when she had one of those mornings. And what better way to cheer up someone than to take them to a cafe?

The two friends sat in a cute little cafe in Hulbury, carefully taking their menus and reading through the various selections of drinks and treats. It was honestly Ru's first time in Hulbury, so she often looked out toward the vast ocean, looking over to the lighthouse too.

"Oh, by the way, I hope you don't mind I also invited a friend to join us." Sonia said with a grin, "You're gonna love her, she's the gym leader here and also a model. Her name is Nessa."

Ru looked at Sonia and nodded, smiling back at her; "Oh, I don't mind! Any friend of yours is a friend of mine. I look forward to meeting her." She patted Laika on the head, "Thank you for taking me here. I'm glad to get to see more of Galar with someone. I just wish I could visit with Leon more often so we can be better friends. He's been a lot of fun to visit with in the wild area, and he's taught me quite a bit about Galar too."

"Yeah...Leon's probably one of the busiest people in Galar being the-"

"Sonia, hey!" A woman ran up to the two women in the back of the cafe, bright blue eyes looking at Ru first. "Oh, you must be the Johto researcher Sonia mentioned. I'm Nessa." She held out her hand to offer Ru a handshake.

Gladly accepting the handshake, Ru bobbed her head politely, "I am. Nice to finally meet you, Nessa. I'm Ru."

Nessa's dark hair bounced while she finished greeting Ru, then immediately taking her seat between both the girls, the bright blue streaks in her hair dangling in front of her face as she looked down at the menu.

Laika walked around the table to sniff the water-type gym leader, then looked up at the woman, panting happily.

Nessa paused to examine the houndoom, elevating a brow with curiosity at the fire-dark type Pokémon. "Oh, I've never seen this Pokémon before. I take it she's from Johto too?"