Chapter Text
Camera flashes pop through the arena like fireflies flickering in the dark. The wind whips between the massive red steel petals and the ground shakes as the gathered thousands clap in unison. Every stomp, every yell urging the combatants before them to give it their all. It’s an assault on Juno’s senses and yet she has to do everything in her power to drown it out. She can’t afford to be distracted. Not if she wants to win. It has to only be her, her opponent, and her pokemon.
A gust of air whips through her long, tangled brown hair and nearly knocks the glasses off her face as her opponent's Urshifu thrusts a massive paw forwards in a horrific display of its strength. Energy from the punch surges across the field and careens directly towards her perched Corvinknight.
“Look out, Dame!” she shouts at her partner, seconds before the blow falls. For a split second she’s sure she’ll see her treasured companion splayed out on the ground, eyes blank and body bruised from the bone shattering attack. Yet the fleet footed creature surprises her as it has countless times in the past and launches from the earth just in time. The massive black wingspan carries her Croviknight high into the cool night air, its shape outlined in the flashing phone cameras. “Ok, Dame!” Juno shouts out as loud as her lungs can manage. “Now it’s our turn. Use brave bird!”
At the command, her Corviknight, Dame, flaps her powerful wings and climbs even higher into the cold, dark night sky. Try as she might, even Juno loses sight of the massive bird for a moment or two until she sees it - a small shower of golden sparks. The shower gradually grows, until Dame is fully outlined in them. No, not outlined but consumed. The little sparkles, each like its own little star, scatter across Dame’s massive body and give it an ethereal appearance like an avian star has dipped into our atmosphere and outshone its brethren, lighting up the night sky. At the height of her glowing arc, Dame turns her wings and dives towards the waiting Urshifu. Juno watches the brilliant golden shape tuck its wings tight to its side as it gathers speed, its razor sharp beak angled precisely enough to find its foe and she knows that this should do it. As Dame makes the strike against Urshifu’s chest, Juno feels her breath catch in her chest. She squints through the glowing attack and eagerly looks for some sign that it was enough to fell the fearsome foe. To draw forth her opponent, Gloria’s, final pokemon and bring Juno just one step closer to being named the new champion of the Galar Region.
When the glow is extinguished, Juno frantically scans the massive field for some sign of what has happened. Did it work? Is Urshifu defeated? Suddenly she catches a glimpse of the massive ursine pokemon standing there, dust settling around it. Blast. She thinks. It must’ve withstood the blow, type difference be damned. She would have to send Dame in again, should it survive the powerful opponent’s next salvo but then - Urshifu waivered. Its knee slips and it comes tumbling to the ground, knocked out of its senses and elation floods Juno. She and Dame have done it, she thinks. They’ve defeated one of the most powerful pokemon in Gloria’s arsenal and even though she knows what lies ahead she thrusts a fist triumphantly into the sky. She’s not sure if it’s the breeze or the crowd, but it sends an excited shiver throughout her small frame all the same.
A red beam of light blasts over from the champion's side and strikes the Urshifu, shrinking it, and recalling it back to the ultraball in Gloria’s hand. Gloria whispers something, no doubt words of reassurance to her fallen friend, before depositing the ball back in her bag. In a swift motion she withdraws the next one and it enlarges in her hand as she shouts out, “Go Cinderace!” Gloria hurls the pokeball into the center of the field in front of them and out of it springs her agile and dangerous pokemon, excitedly prancing from massive foot to massive foot.
Although she’s tempted, Juno knows it would be a disaster to leave Dame out in the field given the terrible type match up. She gives a congratulatory pat to her powerful friend before recalling her to the pokeball and promises the avian creature that a nice, hot bowl of curry is waiting after this fight. She’s only got one more Pokemon left in this contest and even though the type matchup isn’t ideal, she knows she can win this. Especially if she triggers her gigantimax at just the right moment.
Juno takes a deep breath and digs her feet into the ground, steadying herself and trying to chase away all those feelings of doubt that lurk within. You can do this, she thinks to herself. All you have to do is trust yourself. She takes a deep breath and pulls the great ball out of her sack and gives it a little kiss. Ok, Agnes, let’s do this. She hurls the great ball as far as she can into the combat zone and when it strikes the turf it springs open and unleashes a blinding red light that forms into Agnes, her Gengar. The rotund creature prances playfully back and forth, its massive tongue lolling about in its gaping mouth. Juno knew that many people found Gengar’s and their evolutionary predecessors unnerving but she’d always loved the mischievous nature of the ghost Pokemon. Not to mention they were tough as nails if you gave them a chance. If Agnes could survive Cinderace’s first assault, Juno knew that she’d be alright.
Gloria takes a step forward then, now aware of the pokemon she’s up against, and raises her arm above her head in a familiar gesture. Music blares from the speakers all around them and the already amped crowd begins to stomp and clap in a frenzy, humming along with the familiar tune. A low, almost chant-like singing rises out of the seated thousands as Gloria taps the button on the bracelet around her wrist and sends all its mysterious power to her Cinderace.
The sparkling, multifaceted light arcs across the field and envelops Cinderace causing it to swell. The once human-sized creature is doubled and then doubled again. Its ears extend and grow long, falling down its back with the tips settling near its feet. It’s once placid face takes on a confident, smug look, like a shonen protagonist who’s holding back one last trick. Suddenly a massive swell of fire erupts from beneath its feet and swirls in a great orb of flames, projecting the creature up into the rafters of the stadium. The orb continues to expand and a cunicular face appears in the living flames, glowering down at Juno and Agnes. The red smoke billowing from the flaming ball settled in clouds around the massive rabbit standing atop it with its arms crossed.
Juno takes a step back as the heat from the transformation makes her skin feel dry and flush. Her eyes water in a futile attempt to extinguish the bright blaze before her and she can’t deny that it’s an impressive sight to behold, nothing like the transformations she’s used to seeing at home on her TV. For a moment she wants to panic, to call Agnes back and surrender the match but she knows she can’t. If she turned back now, she’d never be able to look any of her Pokemon partners in the eye after all they had gone through to get her here. So she does the only thing she can think of. She knew she’d have to use her gigantamax eventually, but she didn’t count on having to use it this early in the match up. Juno takes a step forward, raises her arm high in the air and can feel the crowd beginning to amp up once more. She squints up at her own wrist, the light nearly blinding her, and with every ounce of her being wills it to Agnes. The light tears across the field and streaks towards her partner when suddenly - a door buzzer.
And Juno wakes up.
Light shines in through the tightly closed blinds on each of her windows, creating small pools of light around the black room. Juno blinks her eyes open and stares at the walls of her messy abode, the proud faces of past Pokemon league champions staring back at her from the glossy posters taped to the walls. She gathers her comforters up and rolls onto her back to escape their gaze. As she does, her Rotom tablet digs into her back and she’s forced to pry it loose from her cocoon of coziness and toss it aside. The front door buzzer screeches out again and she lets loose a fearsome groan as she pries herself loose from bed.
So much for sleeping in, she thinks as she trudges out of her bedroom and towards the front door. She fixes her vision forward, intentionally ignoring last night’s dinner still on the kitchen counter and a bunch of empty soda bottles on the living room table. It’s a massive mess for such a small room but she can deal with that after caffeine. She flips on the hall light and wrenches open the door to reveal a delivery man.
Clad in a brown uniform, the squat middle aged man is flanked by a Machoke wearing nearly identical brown coveralls. Their uniforms have a small logo for the Pick a Peck of Colors flower shop. In the muscular creature’s arms is a massive flower arrangement contained in a beautiful vase that has prancing Flabebe’s etched into it.
“Are you Juno Kepler?” the man asks, reading the name from a little card dangling from the arrangement.
“Uh… yeah,” Juno blurts out. She’s still way too sleepy for this much human interaction.
A relieved smile flits across the man’s face as he nods in Juno’s direction and the Machoke dumps the heavy flower arrangement into her unprepared arms. The whole mess is surprisingly heavy but she managed to hold on, the stems and flowers jutting into her tangled mass of brown hair and getting stuck.
“These are from your parents,” the delivery man continues. “They requested that we wish you a very happy 25th birthday. Hope you have a good one!” The delivery man nods back down the hall to Machoke who follows after, its footfalls thudding hard against the floor.
“My… birthday?” Juno says to the empty hall. “But that’s not until Mon-DAMN.”
Juno practically drops the flowers next to the hallway closet and sprints back towards her bedroom. She leaps across the mountain of comforters still piled on her bed and reaches for her Rotom phone, unplugging it as she pulls it towards her. The screen lights up. It’s Monday. At 8:30am. She’s got work in 30 minutes.
Nonononono. She squeals internally to herself as she dashes around the room, scrambling to get ready as quickly as possible. A white dress shirt from the couch back. A grey skirt from the floor. A blue tie she didn’t even know she owned from the closet. Anything to look somewhat presentable for the day ahead. She pokes her head in the bathroom and wants to scream at the reflection staring back at her. Frizzy hair. Pale skin. Bags the size of Trubbish under her eyes. She practically pours the bottle of dry shampoo on her head and snatches a to-go bag of makeup, figuring she’ll do what she can to her poor tired face on the way. As she flies out the door she tosses her messenger bag over her shoulder and slips into the low heels she uses for work.
The whole elevator ride down seems to take an achingly long time after she’s ordered a Corviknight Cab - an expense she can only defend by telling herself that losing her job would be even pricier. She’s forced to stare at her exhausted reflection in the silver metal door ahead of her. Short and skinny, her tangled brown hair is like a head of cotton candy on a stick. Her slim features and the curves that never came give her a youthful appearance that she despises. After all, it’s hard to feel like one of the grown ups when you have to look up at nearly every person you meet. By the time the doors part she’s given herself such a complex that she’s not sure whether she’s running for her ride or from her reflection, but she’s running all the same.
By some miracle the cab is waiting for her outside and she can pile right into the back seat without waiting. She barely has a minute to snap her seatbelt before the whole vehicle soars into the sky leaving her mega block apartment building behind her and darting into the skies above Wyndon.
The city below is a bustling mass of people and Pokémon. Some folks, like Juno, are on their way into work, while others run around the streets training alongside their Pokemon partners. The latest season of the Galarian Pokemon League is about to start and more than a few folks are getting ready. Juno can’t help but feel a twinge of jealousy though as she watches the mass of trainers start their day. Not only has she never competed in any of the Pokemon Leagues but she hasn’t ever had a Pokemon partner.
It’s not that she doesn’t love Pokemon, she does. Heck, she even borders on being a poke-fanatic given how many hours she spends in front of the TV watching matches. She just never managed to get out there herself. Instead she focused on school and a career, which is how she ended up a 25 year old woman who’s never caught a Pokemon. Could she start now? She guessed so, but the thought of packing into one of the gym challenges alongside a group of 12 year olds made her want to combust from the embarrassment. She’d stand out like a sore thumb or, worse still, might blend in just a little too much given her youthful appearance.
Juno shuddered and pulled herself away from the window. She was being silly. She definitely didn’t look THAT young. It’s not like pubs barred her entrance. They just insisted on carding her every time she asked for a drink and spent an inordinate amount of effort pouring over her ID trying to guarantee its reality. Which, speaking of, she’s grateful that she finally remembered that today is her birthday. Her best friend from college, Meril, had made her promise that she would come out to their local pub tonight to celebrate and at least she hadn’t blown that. It would give her a little treat to look forward to at the end of work. Anything was better than returning to her empty little apartment alone with only old Pokemon matches to keep her company.
As the Croviknight Cab descends, Juno checks her phone and breathes out a sigh of relief. It’s close, but at least she isn’t late. She hops out of the cab and waves thanks to the driver and the swift Pokemon that had actually gotten her there on time and jogs up the steps towards the massive blue glass skyscraper that is GBC’s Wyndon headquarters. The entryway is a clean and functional series of grey granite stone steps that lead up to a series of revolving doors. It always makes a bit of a crush as all the employees arrive at once and Juno has to duck in and out of the crowd to get to the doors quickly. She pushes in through the revolving door and enters the lobby.
The lobby is a grand marble floored enclosure with a massive blown glass sculpture of a Ho-oh with its wings splayed out hanging from the lofted ceiling above. A large security desk is placed in the middle of the room and has a pair of guards manning it, their Growlithes quietly snoozing at their feet. Juno gives a little wave in their direction as she beelines past and gets in line to go through the security barriers that cordon off each bank of elevators. She digs into her bag for her security badge and as she prepares to swipe in when a burst of red appears in her periphery, demanding her attention.
Juno glances over and her heart nearly jumps into her throat as she lays eyes on Kelly Findley. Kelly is everything Juno isn’t. Tall. Statuesque. Curvaceous. If an archaeologist were to come across a statue of Kelly in some long forgotten ruin, he could be forgiven for thinking that she must’ve been a goddess of beauty. Not to mention that her head was topped with an explosion of fiery red hair that seems to set every room she enters ablaze. It’s fair to say that she’s an attention grabber and she has every bit of Juno’s. If Juno hadn’t exercised some small measure of control, her jaw would’ve been on the floor.
Even though Juno’s gradually approaching the security barriers, her eyes are stuck, glued to Kelly. Even though she works for the same company as Juno and on the same floor, Juno has never worked up the courage to say more than a couple mumbled words to her. The couple times she’s been fortunate enough to grace the same space as the redheaded beauty she’s felt herself melting into a pink faced, simpering pool too intimidated to make eye contact. Gods above did Juno have a massive crush on this woman.
Suddenly Juno is stirred from her reverie when Kelly casts her electric blue eyes across the lobby and settles them on Juno. They’re filled with a quizzical, almost confused look and Juno suddenly becomes intensely aware of how long she’s been staring. Doing her best to play it cool she shuffles even closer to the security gate and casts her eyes straight ahead, hoping the beautiful woman won’t think she’s some kind of freak. Juno starts to panic. How long had she been staring? Had anyone else noticed. Gods, she’d be mortified if she had made Kelly uncomfortable. What if she thought that Juno had been objectifying her? Had she been objectifying her? No, thought Juno, no, right? You were just appreciating her beauty. Surely there’s no harm in that, right?
Juno can feel panic sweat gathering in her pits and beneath her bra as she hurriedly swipes her badge and beelines it for the elevators before she can make an even bigger fool of herself. If she can just make it up to her quiet little cubicle in the corner no one will notice her and she can wile away the day till it’s time to have fun again with her friends. Juno crams herself into the tight elevator and nervously taps her feet until it reaches the 15th floor, her floor, and she practically scampers down the hall until she finally feels safe and unseen at her desk.
The office is busy this morning so no one really seems to notice as she strides across the room. Some days she’s stopped multiple times before she can even sit down but today she’s lucky enough to go on unimpeded. The office is long and narrow, like a rectangular shotgun with big offices lining all the walls. In the middle of this long stretch is a cluster of open air cubicles that provide just enough cover that someone of Juno’s stature is only barely poking out the top. She sets her bag down next to the computer and wiggles the mouse to activate the computer. She has to sign in as part of clocking in this morning and wants to make sure to do that before anything interrupts her.
Work is sort of odd for Juno. She dedicates most of her life to it but depending on the day she’s either the most important employee in the whole place or an afterthought. When she was deciding on a major for school and eventually settled on journalism she’d always thought that she’d make a good reporter. Chasing down leads, writing copy, and bringing down corrupt institutions. Unfortunately for her everyone else had thought her strengths lied in research and so that was where she’d stayed. She’d contributed to a number of big reports on government corruption or metropolitan crime but never under her own byline and certainly never in front of a camera. She told herself this morning, like she did every morning, that it would only be a matter of paying her dues but somehow that rang a little more hollow today than it normally did.
After settling in and getting herself a strong cup of tea - black with a single sugar cube - she settles in to work on her current story. There’s been a number of reports coming out of Motostoke that crime was ticking back up and authorities thought that it might be Team Yell’s doing. What had originally started as a group of overzealous Pokemon hooligans had purportedly begun to shift into more criminal activity and authorities had even begun to believe that they were forming into more of a mafia. While Juno doubted the veracity of these claims, her own intuition wasn’t anything that a story could be formulated from. So she’s been spending her days trolling through fan forums trying to get past the superficial layer of fandom and into something a bit more substantial. Hoping for a contact that might be a little more willing to give her specifics about what the group has been up to. Thankfully this meant watching a lot of Pokemon matches for work, which is never a bad thing.
As Juno continues to scroll through the forum pages she catches a glimpse of her boss, Mr. Torrey, sauntering in her direction. A thicker man with a long, jowly Snubull-like face he has a habit of speaking just a little too slowly for comfort. It’s like perpetually dealing with an ignorant tourist who thinks the key to breaching the language barrier is to yell louder and speak more slowly. Juno tries to look extra busy, hoping that whatever task he’s bound to impart on her will fall to someone else but it quickly becomes clear that’s not going to happen.
“Good morning, Ms. Kepler,” he says, leaning against the cubicle wall. His considerable girth makes the cheap structure groan but it dutifully remains in place. “How was your weekend?”
“Uh, hello, Mr. Torrey. Good morning to you too,” she says with a petite bow. “It was good. Refreshing.” Juno doubts he cares even a little bit. He’s likely hoping that the niceties will soften whatever blow he’s about to deliver and make her a little more pliable. He’s always asking her to take on extra work and she’s always enough of a people pleaser to say yes. She marvels at the fact that he still even tries to be kind at this point. He could spit in her face while telling her to work unpaid overtime and she’d still do it.
“Excellent,” he responds. “I was hoping you might be able to help me out of a bit of a… pickle.” It was always a pickle or a sticky situation, some excuse that required extra effort from her and more credit for him.
“Of course,” she says. “Tell me how I can help?” She’d rather do literally anything else, but what choice did she have? This was one of her bosses after all.
“Well, I know how hard you’ve been working on the Team Yell piece, and it is important, but I was hoping you might be able to put together some sources for this piece I’m doing about supplements being imported from the Sinnoh region. I’m afraid I’m not having much luck.”
Juno does her best not to sigh loudly and roll her eyes. She’s a master of the placid face. Never let them know how truly exasperating they are.
“Uh, yeah,” she says, considering her next words carefully. “Have you tried reaching out to the Union of Galarian Poke Mart owners' spokesperson yet?”
“I haven’t. Perhaps that could be where you start?” he replies. “You have a relationship already, yes?”
“Yes,” she responds. “I can definitely give them a call for you and get a quote.” That’s not too bad, she thinks to herself. At least it won’t eat up a ton of my time.
“Excellent,” Mr. Torrey exclaims. “Truly top notch stuff. If you could get that, maybe an extra quote or two on top of it and drop it into my latest draft for me, that would be amazing. I’ll send it over. Maybe you could also clean up the language while you're working on it?”
“Clean up… the language?” she chokes out. “You want me to write?”
“Yeah, that’s not a problem is it?” he replies.
“No, no, sir. Not at all,” she proclaims. This is gonna be her first big writing assignment since joining the paper out of college. “I’m just thrilled you’re giving me an opportunity to share your byline.”
“Share my…” Mr. Torrey mumbles before breaking into a hearty laugh. “I think you misunderstand me here, Ms. Kepler.” He removes his weight from the cubicle and takes a slight step back, like he would from a homeless person who asked for a coin. “I can let you spruce things up, but the byline is still mine. Think of this as practice. Cutting your teeth for when it’s finally your moment. After all, it’s still my column. You understand, right?”
Juno is shocked. She knows whatever draft she’s going to get is going to be half-written slop that’s nowhere near ready for print. That line about “practice” was hooey too. He might as well have said he was going to pay her in exposure for all the good practice would do her. She could write and write well if anyone would actually give her a shot. It makes her so angry she wants to stand up and scream. She wants to jerk that stupid tie of his and yank his jowly face close to hers as she gives him a few choice words.
“Fine,” is all she can muster though. “When do you need it?”
“Tomorrow. First thing,” he replies casually.
“But… it’s my-“ she can barely choke out, slowly seeing the plans she’d had tonight beginning to evaporate before her eyes.
“It’s not a problem, is it? I can find someone else, if need be. Someone more… dedicated,” he says. The implication being that the only thing that would prevent an employee from completing the task was dedication.
Crap. She hates the thought of doing his work for him and blowing off her own birthday party but she hates the thought of being considered an undedicated worker even more. She tries to tell herself that there will be plenty of birthdays to come and that she can celebrate then but those thoughts feel more than a little hollow.
“No, it’s no trouble at all,” she lies. “I’ll make sure it’s finished tonight and on your desk for deadline tomorrow morning. First thing.”
“You’re the best, Ms. Kepler!” he exclaims, giving her a way-too-hard slap on the back before strutting off across the office.
Juno whips out her cell phone and immediately taps out an apologetic note to her friends that tries to explain why she can’t make it to the pub tonight. After pressing send, she lets her head thud against her desk and tries to ignore the flurry of concerned responses that have her phone practically jumping off the desk with vibrations. It’s going to be a long, long night ahead of her.
The lights around the office are dark and the janitor has come and gone. Every cubicle is empty and the whole space is dead silent except for the clicking and clacking of Juno’s finger strokes on the keyboard. Her vision is blurry and her eyes are dry, irritated by hours of staring at this infernal machine in front of her. She’d thought she would be finished with this assignment by 10:00p at the latest but, if the clock on her computer was to be believed, it’s pushing 11:00p and the piece in front of her isn’t anywhere near finished.
Her head is bobbing up and down, almost like her neck is trying to quit under the weight of exhaustion. She slaps herself a few times and really tries to knuckle down, promising herself that it’ll be bedtime soon but the silent oaths don’t seem to persuade her tired body and so she decides to get a cup of coffee. Sure, it might not allow her to sleep later but it wouldn’t be the first time she’d sacrifice sleep for work.
Juno pushes away from her desk and sways slightly as she rises from her desk. She lifts her glasses up and rubs them on her shirt as she reaches the end of her row of cubicles. She’s still wiping away at them as she rounds the corner on the break room and runs into something hard. The contact sends her sprawling to the floor and her glasses go skittering off into the darkness.
“Dang, my bad,” says a familiar voice. “Let me grab these for you.”
Juno is almost too busy rubbing her sore nose, which made hard contact with whoever she walked into, to notice that the same someone was handing her her missing glasses. However, she recovers and snatches them from the blurry figure and slides them on her face, pushing the frizzy brown hair out of her eyes and stares up into the beautiful face of Kelly Findley.
Those big beautiful blue eyes are locked on Juno in a mix of confusion and sympathy that sends her into a panic. Her heart is racing, her throat dry. Juno can feel a crimson blush flooding across her face as she scrambles to her feet and attempts to bow before the much larger woman.
“Please excuse my clumsiness, senpai. It’s late and I was not being careful!” she practically screams at the other woman.
A look of confusion winds its way across Kelly’s face for a second as all she can manage is a few blinks in response. After what feels like an achingly long time to the prostrating Juno, Kelly finally speaks.
“‘Senpai?’” she spits out plainly as she breaks down in a fit of laughter. It's sonorous and like a cheerful song, which is good because if it hadn’t been so pleasant Juno might’ve just died of embarrassment. “Oh dear, you absolutely don’t need to be so formal. Now quit bowing, ya bampot.” Kelly’s voice was nearly as musical as her laugh. A sweet and almost melodious tenor, her accent was almost covered but occasionally her northerner accent crept in towards the tail end of her speech. Kelly reaches an arm over and grasps Juno’s shoulder, practically forcing her to stand upright.
Juno stares wordlessly up at the beautiful woman before her practically petrified to say another word. She’s desperately hoping that Kelly isn’t in any way insulted by the honorific. Using honorifics in the Galar region isn’t uncommon but generally isn’t popular amongst younger people these days. Especially not amongst peers. Juno is just so used to everyone at work having seniority that she makes a habit of deploying them. Better to be overly formal than overly familiar.
“Now,” says Kelly. “Remind me yer name again?”
“Juno,” Juno squeaks out. Part of her is heartbroken that Kelly doesn’t know her name, but why would she? It’s not like Juno has made any great impression in her time at the office. She mostly just sticks to her corner cubicle and hides.
“Juno!” Kelly squeals with delight. “If that isn’t as cute as a wooloo’s nose! I’m Kelly but my friends call me Kels.”
“Well it’s a pleasure to meet you… Kels,” Juno manages to respond. Never in her wildest dreams did she think she’d actually be talking to this woman that she’d nervously watched across the room for years now. So many times she’d wanted to stride over and say a nonchalant hi only for her palms to go clammy and her pits to start sweating and her stomach to drop into her feet and all of a sudden she was hiding in the bathroom instead of looking super cool and - Breathe, she told herself. You’re gonna weird her out.
“Hello? Ya still with me?” Kels says, breaking through Juno’s spiraling.
“Yes, sorry, yes,” Juno responds.
“Good, I was gettin’ nervous you’d done your heid in,” Kels states with concern. “I said what’re ya doin in the office this late?”
“Oh,” Juno says, not entirely sure of how to respond. In truth she’d been bullied into doing work that wasn’t hers. She wanted Kelly - Kels - to like her and not just think she was some pathetic pushover. “I’m helping Mr. Torrey with a piece he’s working on. Occasionally he asks me to do a little editing for him when he’s working on a big piece.”
“Ach, that eejit,” Kels spits. “Dinnae be givin’ an inch to that man or’ll take a mile.”
“Yeah,” Juno admits, giving her cloud of frizzy hair a nervous flattening. “He can be a bit needy.”
“Well I dinnae think either of us should be stayin’ here another minute longer’n we have to,” Kels replies. “D’ya have anything goin’ on the rest of tonight?”
“No,” replies Juno sheepishly. “Well, not anymore at least. I was supposed to meet some friends for a birthday celebration but they’ll have wrapped up by now.” Juno checks her watch and her eyes go wide. “Oh gosh, it’s almost midnight!”
“Wait,” Kelly interjects. “You missed your friend’s birthday just to cover for Torrey?”
“Oh, no, no,” Juno says. “It’s actually my birthday.”
Kels looks gobsmacked. She throws her arms around Juno and pulls the smaller woman’s round face right into her ample chest, cradling her head. It takes all Juno’s willpower not to explode at the unexpected contact. It’s like touching a live wire and she can feel a wave of electric excitement surge through every cell in her body. It zeroes out her mind, banishing all thoughts and leaving only feeling. Juno’s knees go weak and her heart kicks it up to a gear that she didn’t even know was there. She wraps her arms around Kels’s waist to steady herself and leans into this hug, desperate to bury herself into the beautiful woman’s embrace.
“You poor dear!” Kelly exclaims. “That monster! On your birthday of all days!”
“It’s… ok…” Juno chokes out but she’s quickly cut off.
“Ok?” Kelly rages, pushing Juno’s little body out to arm’s length so that she can look her right in the eyes. “Ok? No, it’s far from ok. But I know how ta make it right. Come on, I’ll get ya a drink and the two of us will celebrate. Together, ya?”
Juno can only blink. She’s… going for a drink… with… this woman? A wave of excitement and dread rushes over Juno and she’s not sure whether to click her heels together in joy or run screaming from the room.
“What d’ya say?” Kelly continues, beaming down with an immaculate grin. “We still got a coupla hours ta get in some trouble.”
What should I do? Juno moans silently to herself. On one hand this is what she’s always wanted - a night out with her office crush over drinks. It’s practically a birthday miracle that such a thing would ever even present itself. On the other though she still had a ton of work left on that piece she was doing for Mr. Torrey. She shudders at the thought of what he’ll do the next day if he should come in and find it’s not completed. At best she’d lose her job and after all she’s sacrificed for it could she really give that up? For this?
What if… the thought subtly creeps into Juno’s mind. What if there’s a way that she can do both? Maybe she can just go out for a drink or two with Kels and then after parting ways sneak her way back into the office and wrap out that last little bit of work. She’s done all night cram sessions in the past and as long as she’s careful not to drink too much she shouldn’t have any troubles with it this time.
“Ok, fine,” Juno declares. “We can go for a quick drink, but not too late ok?”
“Yeah, yeah, whatever you say,” Kels blurts out as she grabs Juno’s hand and practically drags the petite creature towards the elevators. “I know just the place for us.” It’s all Juno can do to break free to double back for her purse and coat.