Writing oneshots #2 and some art

Mindy x Pud'n

Trigger warning: Talk of pageants, comparing yourself to other people, not feeling validated, putting beauty over everything else, and someone calling themselves an idiot in a non-joking way.

Pud'n was walking into his office building. Despite his personality and despite how much he loves animals, he landed himself an office job because it was stable and despite his good luck charms, he didn't know whether or not it would be stable. It was too much trust to put in good luck charms, as he said.

He walked in, said hello to the secretary, and went onto the elevator to get to his office level. After a few minutes, somebody walked in, somebody he never saw before. This girl's name happened to be Mindy.

Now the reason why Mindy was up there was very different from the reason why Pud'n was there. While Pud'n was there to work, Mindy was there to take pictures around the office. Despite not working there, her dad was the head of the corporation, so she got allowed access since she had him wrapped around her finger, even when she grew up to be 20.

Mindy looked up at him, and after looking at him, she tried to subtly scoot away from him, to the edge of the elevator. It wasn't him specifically, she's not scared of people but...weary of...well everyone really. She doesn't want to be objectified unintentionally, and she has been by men and women.

Pud'n, being the extrovert it is, he still decided to talk to her, or at least try to.

"So...tell me a bit about yourself."

Mindy wasn't going to talk to him, since she still kinda thought he was a gross nerd, but she didn't want it to be awkward so she responded.

"W-Well uh...I have 50 thousand followers on my Instagram..." She pulled out her phone and showed it to him for 'proof'. He stared blankly at her for a moment before responding.

"I mean about you."

"Oh erm..." She didn't really know what to say, since people usually asked her out or about her looks, not about the real her. "Well, I used to be in the pageants..."

"The ones that objectify the people involved and the ones that teach young boys and girls that beauty is everything, well maybe not teach, but that's what they 'gain' from the experience of being in them at all?"

She bit the inside of her cheek as she looked down at the ground. Nobody had said that to her before, nobody understood what she was going through. He was the first and only one but, because of the welling up in her throat, she didn't want to respond.

Pud'n noticed her expression and asked, "Are you ok..?"

"..." She stayed quiet for a few moments before choking out "I-I'm fine.."

"Look...you don't have to talk about it but you can talk to me if you want to..." He said genuinely meaning it.

That's when she could it in no longer, she started crying. Not a lot, but enough to make her embarrass her as she cried.

Pud'n looked over to her and hugged her. "It'll be ok..."

She smiled, hugging him back. Though they had only conversed for a short amount of time, he was the only one who understood what she went through. She was merely smiling until her heart began to ache in his arms. She thought it was the worry of being seen with a nerd, but he was more than a nerd to her now, and she knew it at that moment. However, as a way to not think about the possibility of that, she stood by the thought process she had.

It's just because he's a nerd...right?

Nonetheless, she got off of him awkwardly, still smiling. They stood there for a moment or two until Pud'n spoke up again.