"First day of work, huh?" Sebastian grinned, startling Leonie with a clasp of his hands. The girl was putting on the last piece of her armour, her Pawniard, Arthur, drowsing lightly next to her. He managed to fit into Leonie's act well, to her luck – Arthur resembeled a soldier, and who would choose to bond with a Pawniard if it wasn't for purposes of being a soldier? Leonie only ever saw Pawniards as partners to knights and soldiers. She assumed Arthur escaped some trainee facility that had soilders-in-making bond with a Pokemon if they hadn't already. Pawniards were strong, and good at listening to orders if trained since hatching, so they were a good first pick for them. There weren't any Pawniards in the wild either, so it seemed like the only possible solution to the mistery of Arthur's past. The only thing that didn't fit was that Leonie's Pawniard would rarely listen to her orders, but as they didn't get into many Pokemon battles, she just let Arthur do as he pleased most of the time.
"I won't hesitate," Leonie threatened, grasping a spear that was leaning on the wall. Sebastian took a step back, but his grin didn't falter. She sighed, nudging Arthur with the back of the spear, the Pawniard grudgingly getting up. She twisted her palm in a manner that would be interpreted as a silent 'what?' when the Pokemon glared at her. Leonie took a short scarf and put it around her neck, to cover up the lack of Adam's apple. Not that it couldn't be heard, but when she tried, she could sound like a guy. More like a prepubescent boy, but it had to be good enough to have carried her all the way. "I'm not sure what I have to do, to be honest," she confessed. Why did she have to be so weak to Seb's dares? "It was kind of cryptic..."
Her friend just shrugged, yawning lightly, but Leonie noticed how he tried supressing it. It was early morning, after all. "Try finding other Peacekeepers, and do what they do. That's what I'd do," he said. Leonie rolled her eyes, wondering if she would even find another Peacekeeper. It wasn't a small area to patrol, she wouldn't be surprised if none of them met. It was a good suggestion, though, not that Leonie would admit that to Sebastian.
"Yeah, yeah," she said, absentmindedly. She was tired as well, and envied Seb for having an evening shift. Guards like Sebastian would change a few times a day, since all they did was stand. The pay they got for that was outrageous. Three times what Leonie would get at the Miltank farm. Lucky idiots. "I gotta go, I guess," she finally said. "We'll see each other later."
"Bye, Benjamin," Sebastian said with a wink, and all Leonie did was stick her tongue out at him. She had to live with his teases as well.
––
Unevevenful was what Leonie would call this job, even if she was only half an hour in. She just walked around, greeting the rare villager that was awake (was she supposed to do that?), and not even Arthur did anything. Arthur, who always caused trouble of some sort, never giving Leonie any rest. What curse of boredom was lay upon this job?
Suddenly, she felt a sharp poke in her lower leg and Yep, there it is, she thought. "What is it?" she asked the Pawniard. With his blade Arthur pointed to a boy dressed similarly to Leonie. Another Peacekeeper. Upon further inspection, Leonie concluded that it wasn't any other Peacekeeper either. Her chest tingled, and she took a sharp turn to the other side, telling Arthur how she didn't understand what he meant. Of course, the Pawniard wasn't stupid. He poked her again.
"You'll make me bleed," Leonie said, more quickly than usual. But Arthur wasn't having it. The girl sighed, wanting to walk away anyway, but not moving. She glanced to the distance, and it was unmistakably him. Junzō. The Croagunk gave it away. Leonie sighed again, leaning on her spear. There were many cute boys in the army, both older and closer to her age, experienced or who joined around the time Leonie did, but most of those crushes passed after a week. The crush on Junzō undoubtedly lasted the longest. Arthur snickered, and Leonie wanted to smack him. What kind of spawn of Giratina was he? She wanted to see another Peacekeeper, sure, but she wasn't counting on it being Junzō.
He was the first person to accept the Warlord's pledge, but Leonie chose to play it cool while Sebastian was around – she wouldn't be able to live if he was to tease her about everything. It helped that Leonie didn't realise it was actually Junzō until the end of the meeting, thanks to her only being able to focus on one thing (during the meeting, it was 'what the hell did I get myself into'), so her reaction would've been belated. But what were the odd of seeing him first?
Arthur poked her for the third time, and that was when Leonie started walking. "Alright, sheesh," she said, hesitantly making her way towards Junzō. She could play it cool! Definitely. Now, should she act like she didn't see him and wait for his reaction, or greet him when he's not paying attention? Leonie scrunched her nose. This wasn't cool at all. But, maybe Leonie didn't have any reason to be worried – after all she was Benjamin. A boy. That calmed her down a bit. Until she realised that what was worse than Junzō finding out Leonie had a crush on him, was finding out Benjamin had a crush on him. Back to panicking. She was sure she'd be obvious enough for someone to tell, even if she was a dude.
It was too late to backtrack now, as she was already close to the boy, and before Arthur could poke her for the fourth time-
"Junzō!" she said. Too high pitched. She coughed. Talking as a boy was harder than looking like one. "Hi," she fixed her act up. It was getting warmer, even though it was a rather chilly morning with a constant, soft breeze. It was just her face then. What was she doing again? Oh.
"I didn't expect to see anyone else on duty!"
