#chamption cynthia

Ingo, one of the Nimbasa Cities subway bosses disappearing without a trace, is bound to have attracted a lot of attention, and efforts to find him were likely very public. Which was probably hard for Emmet who struggles to express himself verbally under the best of conditions, let alone while dealing with the stress of losing his brother and trying to keep the subway running in his absence. He doesn't really crack under the pressure, but he struggles to answer reporters' questions and doesn't exactly react with grace with people suddenly crowding the subways in a ghoulish, tho somewhat well-intentioned, attempt to find Ingo down there.

Enter Elesa. As a supermodel, Elesa is used to the spotlight. Used to standing center stage. Used to having to deal with sudden unexpected, sometimes even invasive, questions from the paparazzi. Whether at her own behest, at the request of the city, or even Emmet requesting aid, she ends up hanging around the subway a lot to help run interference between Emmet, the media, and the public image the city wants to keep up.

Officially, she's there in her official capacity as gym leader to ensure the safe running of one of Nimbasa's most popular attractions, and to help with the initial investigation of what happened to Ingo. Which unfortunately doesn't get very far. As far as ANY evidence can tell Ingo quite literally vanished into thin air and the search gets called off probably about a year after he disappeared.

Course, things don't get easier for Emmet just because the official media outlets drop the story. Rumors abound about why Ingo disappeared, ranging from conspiracy theories about secret societies and wormholes (cough), to the benign. Merely suggesting, Ingo managed to get lost in the tunnels of the subway and fell down some deep shaft or something. (Emmet finds that ridiculous. Ingo knew the subway tunnels like the back of his hand and NEVER got lost. Even if he did, they have safety protocols in place that both he and Ingo followed like they were gospel.)

What hurts the most tho is probably the not-so-nice suspicions that Ingo ran away for some dishonest reason. Embezzlement, stealing, etc if there are an embarrassing white-collar crime (or even darker) corners of the internet accuse him of it.

Elesa has a helluva time keeping Emmet from commenting on the rumors on any public platform, since she knows by experience that that would only pour more oil on the fire, and cause it to spread faster. Thankfully, Emmet listens to her and even those rumors die down eventually.

Two years after Ingo's disappearance the whole city more or less moves on, much to Emmets initial frustration. Officially Elesa doesn't have to keep going to the subway since the media crisis is basically over, but she does so anyway. Both because the battle subway is a good way to train and as a gym leader she has to stay sharp, but also because spending all that time with Emmet ended up making them fast friends, and she'd grown to enjoy Emmets quirks and direct way of talking. Besides, someone has to make sure Emmet didn't overwork himself.

There's also the fact that Emmet is 100% certain Ingo is still alive. He has little to no evidence, and doesn't even have any leads on how his brother could have disappeared (he discounts that Ingo would have made a mistake in the subway tunnels, and he doesn't even consider any suggestion that his brother would just leave. Especially not without telling him). Elesa wants to be supportive since the whole situation is just as inexplicable to her, but she has no way to fully support Emmet on this because there doesn't seem to be an explanation that makes sense. The only thing she can do is keep visiting Emmet and trying to get him to take his mind off things by convincing him to go places with her, help her with photo shoots, or the gym, find trainers for him to battle since, etc.

It's difficult since Emmet is reluctant to leave the subway he and his brother worked so hard to create and maintain or do anything in his free time other than look for Ingo, but as time goes on Elesa's efforts bear fruit and Emmet is way less down in the dumps. He still gets uncharacteristically quiet and distant whenever Ingo is mentioned and he doesn't ever let go of looking for him completely but he learns to manage both his search, his duties with the trains, and his own well-being with Elesa's help.

Which, of course, involves spending a lot of one on one time together. Emmet quickly becomes one of the people Elesa spends most of her time with along with Skyla (who is VERY quick to tease Elesa about all the time they spend together), and over time Elesa comes to learn and understand Emmets passion for trains and battling to the point she starts trying to make a lot of train puns based on what Emmet has told her.

Emmet, for his part, groans internally at the puns and isn't afraid to tell Elesa when she made some mistake with the terminology. However, he never discourages her punning and his corrections are more of a way of actively encouraging her. Time just keeps going on and on and eventually, well... they end up being verrrry close.

So they start dating, right?

Well... no.

This is where we get into the dramaz.

Emmet and Elesa both independently, on some level, develop feelings for each other. However, neither of them ever act on or even hint at said feelings, though clever questioning from people in the know may cause a crack in the facade that reveals the truth. If anyone ever does find out, they both, independently, dismiss the idea of ever being in a relationship.

Emmet feels that he can't really burden Elesa with a relationship. For one thing, she's easily the most famous and popular supermodel in Unova and even beyond. She has a carefully maintained image that he doesn't want to complicate with a relationship. Especially since, after the whole incident after Ingo's disappearance, Emmet has grown wary of too much media attention. He fears if they were ever in a relationship, Elesa might feel pressured to compromise her career for his sake, and he doesn't want that. Beyond that, he fears his feelings are a result of Elesa's well-meant kindness after the disappearance of his brother and doesn't want to cause her undue emotional distress by 'misreading' her intentions.

Elesa for her part feels complicated about it too. Emmet can still be hard to read on a good day, and running the entire battle subway alone keeps him incredibly busy. He still has time to spend with her, but Elesa frets adding more to his plate with any flirting or romantic intentions. Though there are times when she gives in to temptation and tries to get... closer to Emmet it never seems to bear fruit (from her perspective at least. Emmet, for her part, does notice the attention but mistakes it for just well-intended kindness). Then of course there's his emotional state. Elesa can tell Emmet is still very much grieving and missing his brother, and a part of her feels the new closeness in their relationship is a subconscious attempt on his part to fill the Ingo-shaped hole in his life. Basically, she's scared that acting on her feelings would be exploiting his emotional vulnerability for her own self-interest.

And finally, on a deep subconscious level, both Elesa and Emmet feel secretly guilty about the whole thing for one big reason.

Ingo.

This whole one-on-one relationship they have largely developed in the wake of Ingo's disappearance, and both of them feel like being together would almost feel like they're taking advantage of his absence. Emmet, especially, feels wrong about 'abandoning' Ingo to start a relationship with Elesa. And, if we go with the idea that Ingo, Emmet, and Elesa have been friends for a long time, Elesa might feel similarly.

So the two of them are just left in a perpetual state of soft affectionate pining that drives the people around them who notice it absolutely insane and wishing Ingo would come back just to break the ice.

Of course...

In the games Elesa is one of the trainers who appears in Caitlins villa in Undella Town along with Cynthia of all people. It is not at all impossible that the two know each other and likely converse. Cynthia, at least to me, always came off as someone easy to talk to so its plausible Elesa would have told her about the missing Ingo, and Cynthia, being a history nut, might one day come across some interesting artifact or picture which, of course, Elesa would pass on to Emmet.