Say That You Need Me - Hop x Gloria

Chapter 3

A/N - I'm so sorry this took so long. My wifi router broke over the weekend, and we just got the new one about 20 minutes ago. I'm making a Galarian new year's special to be released soon, as an apology and just something fun. Anyways, enjoy!

In the months after Hop had left, Gloria's apartment felt more empty than usual. She rarely had company before, but that one day with Hop had reminded her how much fun it could be. Saturday was as slow as ever, her freed-up schedule not doing much for her spirits. Her running helped occupy her time, but somehow she still had a surplus of it most days. Today was the gym challenge opening ceremony. It wasn't until the afternoon, but she wanted to be in Motostoke early, with her team ready to go.

It was strange - before he left she didn't spend a whole lot of in-person time with him or anyone, but now that he was gone, all that she wanted was someone to be there. She was tired - yet bursting with energy she couldn't hope to contain. Gloria wanted to go out in the world, but she also wanted to stay home. Trapped in a paradox of her own construction.

Gloria walked slowly towards the bathroom after returning from her run, not wanting to wake the pokemon that were still sleeping. She ditched her sweaty clothes in favor of a relaxing hot shower, leaving her undergarments on while the water warmed up. After some messing around with her hair, she took it out of its ponytail and let it cascade over her shoulders while she brushed it out. She had never been confident in her her appearance like Raihan or Nessa. But she didn't quite realize how much she hated it before.

She took in every inch of her pale skin in the cold mirror, finding more and more fault in herself the longer she looked. Gloria thought about stopping, but it was disturbingly addictive - finding fault in yourself and wanting oh so badly to change it. She had been dieting, and had shed the extra weight she gained and then some, but oddly it didn't feel like enough. She wasn't one to focus on these sort of things, but now that she had, she saw so much more that needed fixing. My legs, arms, stomach, hell even my face would look so much better just a bit slimmer...

She sang softly to herself in the shower, trying her best to banish the thoughts from her head. The more she thought about it, she felt confident she could handle herself. She was going to be 17 by the end of this year's gym challenge, the official adult age of Galar. What kind of soon-to-be adult can't handle a little self-inflicted self-improvement?

She got dressed up in one of her official champion outfits - the same one as she wore to the meeting, but with her cape and fancier shoes. It was a little loose, so she'd have to pin it for the ceremony. She walked out to start grabbing things she'd need throughout the day, and saw she had mail waiting on the balcony. Most days she didn't get anything, but today there was a large brown box waiting for her. Intrigued, she put down her compact bag that matched the outfit to go investigate.

Gloria looked over the machine-printed shipping label and saw it was from Raihan's address, but the sender was Leon. Next to it was a handwritten label, in Hop's familiar handwriting, addressed to her but to Raihan's address again. More excited than confused, she opened it (making sure not to tear the handwritten label) and took out the letter waiting in the top of the box.

Gloria - 

HI! Sorry I haven't called or emailed or anything. And I'm sorry I started off the letter with an apology. The Tundra has been great - Peony's a big help with the dynamax den/ultra beast research. Calyrex and the other legendaries have been so kind as to letting me study them, too, and I really have you to thank for that. That journal really helped progress! Although, Peony doesn't seem too keen on Calyrex's possession, of sorts...

Anyways, I wanted to give you stuff when I come back in 7 months, but I just couldn't wait!

In the box, there's 2 new Crown Tundra t-shirts I thought you'd like. They had a dark teal style and a grey style. I just got both because Raihan gave me so much spending money! There's some other little things in there I thought you'd like, too, but I'm too tired to write them all out at the moment. You'll see once you've opened up the rest of the box!