Gareda stamped her way through the Luminty’s streets, as the rain deluged down from the darkened sky. The latest briefing from Patrina had put her well over her limits. Nothing but nonsense. If not for others waiting on her, she’d shuffle off to some dingy place in the city. Anything to forget the last few hours.

Luffy noticed her right away when she came onto the platform.

“Hey! How’d it go?” the Magmar said, only for all her excitement to die down when their eyes met. “...Did something happen?”

Gareda lumbered forward. Her talons practically itched with anticipation. If looks could kill, she would’ve ripped a hole through Luffy by now.

“It’s complicated…” ‘Grah! This absolute SHAM of a queen! Of all the damn times!’

Luffy was holding her claws in front of her chest, and nearby guards watched carefully, readying their weapons. Gareda let out the most exhausted sigh her body could produce.

“I’m sorry. You shouldn’t have to see this… but that’s just what happens after getting grilled for an hour straight.” ‘More like three.’

“What… what happened?” Luffy asked, then her mouth buckled inward. She continued on in a whisper. “What did the Queen tell you? Is… did she find out we were helping Cerben? You said she would have our heads if she did.”

Gareda let out a soft growl. “So I thought. Apparently, whether or not we were secretly helping did not matter,” she replied, before hushing Luffy and nudging her away. “They don’t need to hear us. Let’s go.”

“O-okay…”

Her impulses getting the better of her, Gareda had Luffy remove both their scarves and stuff them away, before taking her to a place in Luminity where no one would expect them to be. She thought of a bar at first, but settled on a park. Luffy was shaky enough as was, drinks and shady folk weren’t going to help.

After arriving at the park, they settled down under a tree, off in a corner where no one would look. No paths, no nosy people, not even kids yelling in the distance. It was perfect.

“Right… where were we again,” said Gareda as she stuffed the pouch containing their scarves in between them. “Patrina doesn’t know we were in the Ruby Province. Cerben kept the secret, so did the troops. The common folk didn’t recognise us, either.”

Luffy carefully nodded along. “That’s good. But that begs the question, doesn’t it? If she didn’t know we were there, then why is she angry with you?”

Gareda leaned her head against the tree’s bark, her tail curled around her side. She was sitting at an angle; the fin on her back wasn’t fond of being squished.

“You won’t believe this. She was spitting fumes because we weren’t there to help.” The Garchomp sighed. “Sword kept his word at least… that clanker. Anyway, she screamed every obscenity in the book at me for not ‘paying attention’. Apparently she forgot her own orders of staying in our lane… blegh.”

“Unbelievable,” Luffy said. “I’m confused. What did she want us to do, then?”

Gareda sucked in a breath. “Chase after the Othersider, since that had priority, apparently. Not that I can tell what she wants when she’s ranting away. Can barely keep track of what she demands in the first place… damnit.” She shook her head. ”In her mind, we let him roam around unhindered. Didn’t capture him, and because of that, the Alliance now has two flute pieces. Couldn’t use any of the things we did as a bargaining chip. Or the information they’re pulling out of that Darmanitan…” she growled.

“But then why didn’t she order us to help?” Luffy questioned. “We were already working on capturing the Othersider-”

“Beats me,” Gareda interrupted. “If you ask me… she’s losing her mind. Slowly but surely getting affected by it.”

“What do you mean, ‘it’?”

“The seal.”

Luffy blinked several times. “The seal? What are you talking about?”

Gareda tilted her head away, towards the white peak of Mount Stalwart in the horizon.. “Something only a handful know of. It’s a closely kept secret, and believe me when I say that you don’t want to know the full details. But here are the basics… somewhere deep underground sleeps an ancient power. It was sealed away long ago, no one knows when.”

Noticing the shift in Gareda’s posture, Luffy leaned into the Garchomp’s shoulder. She had to get a closer look herself. “Mount Stalwart?” she asked. Gareda guided her eyes with a talon to the peak in the distance.

“Yes. There it is… that ancient power sleeps deep under that mountain. Patrina sealed it herself back when we were young. There were consequences for her, however. She absorbed some of that power during the sealing by accident. And I think she’s struggling to hold it in.”

Luffy gulped. “That… that sounds terrible. Isn’t there anything we can do to help her, then? This is like letting someone choke on their food, and not even helping them.”

Gareda rolled her eyes. ‘Of all the people to call friend, Patrina. Great going there, duck face.’ “She does not want to be helped. And no one would dare imply she needs it in the first place. Do you want to get thrown in prison? Go ahead, tell the queen she needs help,” she grumbled, then bumped her elbow into the tree behind her. “Best to keep quiet, and not let anyone know. Besides, it is only a theory. She has ruled for over thirty years now.”

“Egh…”

Luffy clutched onto an arm in search of comfort. No amount of fresh air and park greeneries were giving her any. Gareda seized the moment.

“Don’t worry too much about this… we’ve got plenty worse on our plate now. The Othersider, for starters.” She carved a circle into the dirt, then scratched two triangles on top. “He is still with them. No other human has lasted this long…”

“I don’t know…” Luffy muttered. “This whole Othersider thing has gotten me worried. How are we going to get him out of there?”

Gareda pointed a talon towards the north. “We’re collaborating with Dritch. And she is not leaving anything to chance, like me. She has eyes everywhere, all the smarts one could ever need, and all the strength to crush whatever fools get in her way.” She scoffed, then spat right into a flower beside her. “Don’t believe me? Consider the fact that there is no Alliance presence in the north. None whatsoever, maybe some fools half frozen to death in some hole in the ground.”

Luffy tapped her claws against one another as she listened to Gareda sing Dritch’s praises. “That’s great and all, but what I wanted to know was how. What’s the plan?”

Gareda sighed. Of course, they hadn’t gotten that far yet. “We’ll see when we get there. I hardly established contact with her, and we’re not going north alone, of course.”

“Yeah.” Luffy leaned further back against the tree, stroking the side of Gareda’s talon with a claw. “Is Vli going to be there as well? We don’t talk that often, but I do care about him. He helped me while I was still recovering from that attack…”

Gareda kicked her legs at the grass. “He will be, don’t worry,” she said. Vli had set off for Whitiara earlier, Arceus knows why. She thought him a fool, but one devoted to his job, at least. If a tropical bird wanted to take a dive in ice water so badly, who was she to stop him?

And besides, there were bigger things to worry about. Like who was sitting next to her.

“By the way, Luffy… how are you recovering? You took one nasty hit back in Rustborough. And you also pushed yourself too hard in the Hall. That little Charmeleon scamp was not letting you off the hook so easily. It’s why I asked you to stay back. Sure, you wanted to be there, but I know my injuries. That is not something you’re walking away from so easily. You could’ve been hurt even worse.”

Luffy looked into Gareda’s eyes. She was somewhat nervous, and Gareda could feel it in her sensors. Though it wasn’t the kind of nerves one with something to hide has, far from it.

“I’m… doing fine. Really.”

Gareda nodded along, though she had her concerns.

“You are not just telling me what I want to hear, are you?”

“Of course not… it’s the truth. I would never lie to you.”

Gareda sniffed the air. Luffy was being honest, almost too honest. “Eh…” She bit her tongue while thinking of something to say. “If you say so, then I’ll accept it. Usually… that wouldn’t quite be the case. There’s a lot of Pokemon out there who’d try and sneak a rushed job past me, and I’d have to shoot it down everytime… but, I trust you.”

Luffy’s tail uncurled itself a little. “Thanks, I… you aren’t uncomfortable around me, are you?”

“What gives you that idea?” Gareda asked, her voice weakened in intensity.

“You have that sort of vibe about you right now,” Luffy said. “And it’s not something unusual either. It’s like.... like there’s things you don’t want to say near me, because you’re afraid of how you’ll come across.”

Gareda gulped. ‘How in the-! How did she?!’ “Y-yes, actually. I do feel that way around you. It’s an odd thing for me to admit, but I’m not going to hide from you. Not while you’re not hiding from me.”

Luffy sighed. Gareda felt strangely anxious as the Magmar’s claw moved up her arm. These feelings were supposed to be drilled out of her now, and yet here they were, loud and proud. From the corner of her eye, she saw the fire Luffy’s tail getting energised as well.

“You know, Gareda… that’s the same way I feel around you too.”

Gareda let out a sigh. “Yes. You told me before. That you have feelings.”

“I…” Luffy gulped. “I do. I really do. I’ve felt this way for a while now, and no matter the tensions or stress or frustration or anything else, it hasn’t gone away. I… like you, Gareda. I like you a lot. And…’I don’t know if you can feel the same way about another woman, but-”

The way Luffy choked on her own words made Gareda want to intervene. Yet she had her own emergency, given how heavy her heart suddenly became. All she managed was to lean her head against Luffy’s, which got a yelp out of her.

“Men, women… Honestly, there’s no difference for me. I like both equally,” Gareda said. “Never felt any leaning one way or the other, never saw a reason to. On the off chance I did… well, plenty of attractive men and women out there to straighten myself out.”

“Straighten?” Luffy chuckled. Gareda scoffed.

“Ha, ha.” ‘Walked right into that one.’ “So… you want to try turning this into something bigger, don’t you?”

Luffy cleared her throat. “Yes. I… I do. And you don’t have to say yes, but… do you want to be my girlfriend?”

Gareda paused for a brief moment. So what if she could’ve seen this coming from a mile away? There was no way to prepare yourself for a question like that, let alone one she didn’t have much experience in to begin with.

“I’m… willing to give it a try. However.” She gave Luffy a stern look. “Do not tell anyone about this. And do not get too touchy feely in public. You know the law when it comes to relationships in the army. She is not going to look away if word of this spreads.”

The wind picked up, and something smoky crept up Gareda’s nostril. “Understood,” Luffy said. “It’ll be our little secret, alright? We might end up deep in the weeds, or hurt… but we’ll always have each other, right?”

“Always,” Gareda said, before turning her head towards the distant outline of Mount Stalwart, its snowy peak staying true to its name. “We can stay here for a while. We won’t leave until-!”

Luffy suddenly put both her claws on the side of Gareda’s face. Everything went by so fast. First Gareda was pulled in, then she felt the hot sensation of Luffy’s mouth on her own, as the Magmar planted a kiss right on her lips. Her heartbeat intensified, and she struggled to catch her breath even when Luffy made the space for her.

“D-duckface… what the heAHM!”

Gareda was awestruck. Shaking. Words didn’t describe how she felt as Luffy went and kissed her again, then retracted. She had such a lovely look in her eyes, like she’d been trapped underground for years and finally got to feel the sun shine upon her skin once again.

And Gareda felt so soft and mushy inside. She couldn’t be stern. How could she be to someone so dear to her? She’d been rude to her many times, for the sake of her job and her head. So… cruel. Even now the nudging was there, lingering in the back of her mind for engaging in forbidden activities. Yet there was no denying her feelings, and Luffy… deserved to know that much. So she leaned in herself… but couldn’t go for the lips. Instead she kissed Luffy right on the forehead, which made her squee and giddy regardless.

“G-Gareda!!”

Luffy buried her face in the Garchomp’s chest, as she squeezed the love of her life in as tight of a hug as she could. Gareda slowly followed, nudging Luffy’s back with the fins on her arms, careful to not prick into her by accident. It was a jubilant, yet conflicted time. As the ecstasy of their embrace wore off, that conflict raged wilder than ever in the Garchomp’s mind.

‘I’m not ready for this.’

Upon letting go, Luffy kept holding on to Gareda’s claws. Even as she was being carefully prodded to let go, she didn’t want to.

“Gareda? I… I love you.”

“I love you too, Luffy. But… please. Don’t make this obvious. You’d have every paper, town crier and gossiping fool in the army running their mouth if they see any of this.”

“I know… do you promise you… won’t let the army get between us?”

“Never,” Gareda said. “Just… you never know what might happen. Especially if the world spirals out of control.”

Luffy tilted her head. “You talk as if the world could end at any moment.”

Gareda elected a nervous chuckle. “Just nerves talking.” ’If you had any idea…’

With a shrug and another hug, the newly found couple remained under the tree for a while longer, enjoying the moment for all it was worth before the world came knocking.