Unity

Chapter 1

"It's just a bruise. I was helping Milo with moving a couple of Wooloo to another field." Gloria explained while scratching the back of her head uneasily.

Hop snorted and looked at her with a teasing glimpse in his eyes. "So the all mighty Champion bruised her face from a few teeny Wooloo's?"

Gloria placed both her hands on the table and moved her face forwards. She took one last sip from the tea and looked at Hop with intense yet excited eyes.

"Actually, there was someone taking pictures of me! Like, in a different way than the usual interviewers or fans do!"

"What do you mean?"

Gloria glanced around the room before leaning in closer to Hop. She was hanging over the table and her hand was covering her mouth.

"I think the person was taking pictures, like, up my dress and stuff." she whispered in Hop's ear.

He immediately slammed his hands on the table with anger and looked at Gloria, who was sitting back in her seat, with worried eyes. Her hands were resting on the table.

"Mate, that's really gross!"

Gloria nodded twice and looked away awkwardly. "I wanted to throw hands at the person once I noticed! But Milo held me back, saying that it'll bring down the name of Macros Cosmos or somethin'."

Hop sighed and grabbed one of Gloria's hands tightly. He squeezed it quickly as he moved his face closer to hers. "If I was there, I wouldn't have let him get away with that! Ya should've thrown hands at him mate, who cares about the good name of Rose's company."

Gloria giggled and moved her face closer to her best friend. They noticed someone standing in front of their table. The two trainers looked up with their caps covering their faces. There was a guy standing in front of them, he was tall and seemed only a few years older than the duo. He cleared his throat and put one of his hands on the table.

"I... I'm sorry to be a bother, but..." The guy suddenly pointed at Gloria while clearing his throat once again. "Are you perhaps the new Champ?"

Gloria and Hop both gulped at the same time and glanced at each other. Gloria sighed and looked up at the guy with a forced smile on her face. She held her finger against her lips and nodded at him. With her other hand she lifted up cap a little bit to reveal her face.

"You gotta keep quiet tho!" Hop muttered softly.

The stranger nodded. He had orange hair and eyes.

"I will! It's really cool to meet you! My name is Cane, I was a gym challenger along with you two, but sadly couldn't made it past Kabu... " He awkwardly introduced himself.

Gloria just smiled sweetly and tilted her head.

"Nice to meet you!" She cheerfully said.

"Is it true about Eternatus? Did you really manage to catch it?"

Hop cleared his throat to get Cane's attention. "Of course she did! Gloria's truly amazing!"

The two boys both looked at each other with shining eyes of agreement. Gloria awkwardly sat back and glanced around. "Oh please, I couldn't have caught him without you!" she said as she nudged his arm with her elbow.

The tall ginger lowered his body so he was at a face to face length with Gloria. Hop did his best to hold in a groan. He didn't like it when the strange boy got so close with her. There was an odd twinkle in Cane's eyes that Hop didn't seem to trust.

"Is it true that Eternatus has put its trust in you as a trainer completely? Does he tend to be aggressive to you?" The ginger haired boy curiously asked.

Gloria backed down and let go of Hop's hand. She uneasily shared a look with Hop before glancing around the room one more time. There were a couple of eyes focused on them. People started to whisper and point at the two teens, recognizing that the Champion was among them. Hop shove back the chair he was sitting in and forcefully grabbed back both of Gloria's hands. He pulled her up from her chair and let go of one of her hands to grab some money. The purple haired boy slammed the money on the table and started to pull Gloria away with him towards the exit.

"It sure was nice meeting ya. Let's go Glo we have urgent business to attend." Hop sarcastically said as he stormed through the door.

Gloria quickly waved to the strange guy before she left through the exit. Hop was pulling her along with big steps. Gloria pulled the hem of his sleeve softly and stopped walking. Hop turned around, still with an annoyed look on his face, to see Gloria playfully smiling at him. The young girl took off her cap and started to wear the vest around her waist.

"Let's just be us for the rest of today!" Her voice was joyful as she took a step closer to take off Hop's head for him.

She let out a soft giggle and turned around. Her hands were holding the cap behind her back. She turned her face to look into Hop's eyes.

"Were you perhaps... Mad... That someone interrupted our date?"

Hop turned beet red and took one step closer to his best friend. He reached out with his hand to take back his cap, but Gloria took a small jump backwards before he could take it back.

"Hey!" He shouted playfully.

Gloria just grinned and placed her finger quickly on top of his lips. Hop froze. He the young boy could feel his body heat up. His cheeks started to flush red, his eyes fixed at hers. Gloria pulled back her hand and put her arms on her waist. She pointed her finger at her best friend and closed one of her eyes.

"You'll have to race me back to the station in order to win it back mate." She teasingly said as she finger gunned at him.

Hop snickered.

"You're on, mate."