@darkpulse061 sent for borthday :
On Leon's desk, sat unceremoniously amongst the miscellaneous papers is a birthday card. How'd it get there? Who knows! It's clearly store-bought, maybe generic enough to be missed if Leon's birthday gift pile from fans is especially large this year. The inside is equally as unremarkable as the outside, no added note besides the pre-printed one aside from a barely-legible '-Piers'.
on this day, leon always felt significant guilt for the mail person who would come to his door.
janet, as he had come to know of her first name, always delivered through this route, and usually would just pop in to deposit everyone’s mail at the apartment’s group slots down below, and then carry on her merry way.
but on day’s like today, her mail sack was doubled, if not tripled, requiring multiple trips back to her parked vehicle outside (and some aid from kindly delivery pokemon), all because of one man.
‘ i’m so sorry again, ‘ he gushed, chewing delicately on the pad of his thumb as he watched the cheery machokes deposit down the loads.
two separate deliveries, organized by the holiday.
one for valentine’s day, and the other, his birthday.
leon watched a partly deflated balloon tumble out of the bag as they were gently shaken out and emptied.
‘ you know i don’t mind this, leon, especially now i know that it’s coming. ‘
janet shot him a teasing grin as he flushed and looked elsewhere, gnawed thumb replaced with a twirled strand of hair to partly conceal his face.
‘ first year was a real shock, but, sometimes i need the workout, y’know? ‘
her tablet was offered to him, and quickly did leon accept it, not wishing to take up any more of her time with just a signature.
habit nearly had him leaving a little crown at the end, but he managed to catch himself, gently smiling as he returned it to the fold of her hands, and waved the pair of machokes goodbye as they marched on off to their next task.
‘ who knows, since i’m not champion anymore, maybe i won’t get so much of... this, ‘ he remarked, making a sweeping gesture to his now covered living room floor.
cleo, emerged from where she was glowering in the kitchen doorframe, began to snuffle at one of the cards.
‘ doubt it, ‘ janet scoffed, ‘ but maybe once you stop being a cutie, we’ll talk. ‘
the door shut, and he felt his face practically scorched from how flushed it was.
‘ gods, cleo, i really don’t get how every year--huh? ‘
with a card held as delicately as she could manage, she poked it against his elbow.
leon chuckled, accepting it.
‘ oh, is there something special about this one? did you somehow manage to get somebody to mail you a card for you? ‘
it didn’t look as fancy and special as a card paid-off by a luxray to be made.
the envelope was a plain pale blue, with strangely no return address and a couple extra stamps, one of which featuring a beaming galarian zigzagoon.
that alone was enough to make leon smile, but at cleo’s nudging behest, he pressed on, carefully peeling back the envelope’s fold and tugging out the card.
‘ cleo, look, it looks just like you! ‘
cleo seemed rather unimpressed as he showed her the roaring luxray on a clifftop, giant bubble letters spelling out HAPPY BIRTHDAY in the sunny sky.
‘ haha, oh, this is cute, cleo, hope you have a roaring good time of a birthday, signed-- ‘
he froze, expecting a smudged paw print or something denoting who it was from, but instead, scrawled barely legible in the corner was a name he distinctively knew was neither cleo, nor someone who would think of helping a pokemon send a card.
in fact, he was very well sure he had never seen a card sent by this particular individual, peering in between the card, to cleo, the card, and then cleo again.
‘ did you... smell something on this, and that’s why you wanted me to open it? ‘
she gave a huff, a disinterested, cursory glance of the remaining piles, and walked off to go and find her oversized bed for a snooze, leaving leon with his head utterly spinning over the potential implications of a simple birthday card with literally nothing more added to it besides a name.
but for piers, that spoke thousands, millions even.
during both of their time in the league, neither really were on friendly speaking terms beyond light, professional chats, and leon had never thought twice of it, merely assuming that their personalities were just too opposite to mesh.
nevertheless did it mean piers was not a common face at times like this, on holidays and birthdays and these little intimate moments of sending silly little cards well-wishing someone you cared about a pleasant day.
leon glanced back down, back at the scribbled name.
was this a gesture of friendship, an extended olive branch after years of not really caring to get to know one another?
or was this merely courtesy, given how they’ve begun to chat more in recent time?
‘ ... i think i’m gonna give him a call, and thank him. this was very sweet. ‘
the remaining piles of luxurious gifts, letters, and sweets were all forgotten, replaced in his mind by the simplest card of all that still outshined each and every one of them.
