she has a blanket under her desk. she resists, not for the first time, the urge to pull it over her head and curl up right there in her office chair. no, instead she stretches her fingers and types up a few more emails, reads through the newest list of amnesty recruits, and reviews the painstakingly slow combat protocol for sootopolis. 

the meeting on her calendar hangs like a shadow over her head for most of it. when the knock finally comes to her door, she leans back, bleary-eyed from staring at her laptop screen for so long. 

"it's almost noon, isn't it?" she says and looks down at her watch. gods. it's only 10? she eyes the colorful stack of papers in his hands and suppresses a groan. 

"you seem well."

paxton concordas

☉

"that sounds like a dream," she says dryly, lacking the ability to disguise her envy in the slightest. sleep continues to elude her and when it does, it is dreamless. or worse. the foundation under her eyes and mascara on her lashes helps hide the worst of the purple bruises, but you can only do so much to hide exhaustion. 

he surprises her with a gift. she takes it and then stares down at it, panicking because she's not sure if she should open it here? or? the card is flipped open, text read, and then she wriggles off the lid to the box. 

she snorts when she sees what lay in the box, but a wry smile crawls up her lips. his follow-up sentence makes her drop the flask back into the tissue and lean back in her chair so she can fish for the keys laying on the bookshelf behind her. 

a snick, followed by a clinking of bottles. she presents two glass tumblers alongside a bottle of bourbon. 

"yeah, well, we might need this." she's already pouring his glass. 

paxton concordas

☉

he really has no off switch, does he? she leans back in her chair, hand hovering over the entirety of the glass, fingertips around the top of its curves. the brown liquid rolls around as she turns her wrist. her brow raises at the mention of silph and she wonders idly if this is some thinly veiled remark about penny being left out. 

"ah, yes, the next time we have one of those," she says, already dreading it. what will their leaders have to tell them in a few more months? that they're corroborating with rocket? that arceus has come down to gift them avatarship itself, but it must be kept secret lest someone find out? 

"i'd be more than happy to tell navidson as much if he brings up another summit." she finally takes a sip. and he's right - it is smokey, like the smoldering embers of a strong oak. warmth travels down her sternum and she sighs. 

"the situation between hideo and alexei is, in my opinion, quite different. i don't know much about hideo's past, but we're talking about a child here. alexei, on the other hand, has no excuse." she makes a face. "not that that didn't stop him from coming up with excuses."

another sip. "i've always hated them, you know. meetings like this. we talk in circles until we tire of hearing our own voices. their stratagems were all sent to me, but how successful will they be if they don't accept things as they are? both ivanov and devlin expressed severe discomfort with the idea of dynamax."

paxton concordas

☉

"to hold a gym leader position," she bites back. their last conversation within these four walls comes to mind. long gone are the days when a gym leader was meant only to test the mettle and might of a trainer. they're not warlords now, by any means, but more often than not they're trusted to take care of their citizens. they're leant on in times of strife. and hoenn has a lot of that. 

"i'm not wasting resources of that level to make sure alexei doesn't lie. he does so again? his gym leadership will be removed from him, end of story." she takes another, heartier sample, and feels it burn. 

at the news of the elite four knowing, her brows shoot up and she very nearly snarls, "who?"

he speaks to the choir with all else and she at least has the satisfaction in knowing she's not insane for thinking how she does. partway through his spiel, she leans over the desk and tops off his glass. 

"i used to crow about the incompetence in the league, but witnessing it firsthand is - it sucked."

paxton concordas

☉

"good, yes," she says with a wave of her hand. "whatever you need." security checks are no doubt already in place, but additional measures to ensure none of their employees are undercover rocket operatives will hopefully be enough to dissuade anymore closely kept secrets. 

"melody?" she repeats, surprised. after their discussion in her elite four chambers, she would have hoped she could have at least trusted her with that information. it could have slipped her mind, she thinks, but something of this magnitude is too important to simply forget.

her glass is, yet again, surprisingly empty when she goes to take another sip. she sets it down on the table and massages her temple, grimacing when he brings up the discussion surrounding sootopolis. 

"i had no idea we were opening a discussion of attack to the leaders. they're not military operatives; you and i know that. things are getting muddied. i'm not a godsdamned pencil pusher who can draw lines in the sand, but i feel like they need a damn flow chart at this point to understand their own duties."

paxton concordas

☉

this falls on her. the negligence of others and the failings in the system now, ultimately, fall on her. it's an uncomfortable and unfamiliar feeling and she treacherously finds herself asking how fernando of all people might have dealt with it. 

sufficiently, at the very least. and with a cold detachment. 

"yes, you've made it very apparent what a bumble that was. we monitor for leaks and if it's discovered one has been leaked, we change course. we surprise them."

her lip curls when he brings up Hyakkaryōran Tsubaki. she rolls her whiskey tumbler on its axis, watching the liquid shift around the edges, and when he's finished with his summation, she takes another sip and licks her lips. 

"i won't apologize for her outburst, nor condemn her for it, concordas. we were behind closed doors and half that damn room needed to hear what she was saying. i'll take dealing with half a dozen tsubakis than one two-faced coward or a wishy-washy yes-man."

paxton concordas

☉

her claws unsheathe, ready to rise back to the occasion of defending her assistant, but paxton moves on to other topics of discussion, ready to let it lie. and what good would it do, to pursue an argument here? she meant what she said - she won't punish tsubaki for her outburst. if paxton and penelope's office want to reprimand her, they can certainly try.

"i'll follow up in the major cities we deem priority and ensure we're as equipped as we can be to utilize the power spots there."

the rest of the meeting goes on succinctly and without tension, both of them made more malleable with the slowly draining bottle of whiskey shared as they work.

paxton concordas

☉