Unity

Chapter 9

Gloria was staring into the fire that her brother set up, slowly flapping a fan to keep the flame burning as big as it was now. She still wasn't feeling well from what happened earlier today. First what happened in the tower with Hop and secondly the weird headache and the two brainwashed Tauros that nearly hurt her twin brother! She quickly glanced over to Hop, who was sitting across of her, cheerfully chatting with Victor. She let go of the fan with one of her hands so she could rest her chin on it. She was feeling so confused! She had been feeling different already whenever she got close to Hop since they finished their Gym Challenge. She lifted up her head and stretched out her hand to look at it. She always tried to repress her feelings, although Victor always had to point it out for her. But now, she was sure. The brown haired girl glanced at Hop once again through her stretched out fingers. She had a crush on her best friend.

"Gloria... Gloria!"

The champion snapped out of her thoughts. She lifted up her head and saw that Victor was standing up in panic. Gloria tilted her head. The smell of burning wood filled her nose, not weird since they were readying a fire to make curry anyways. Suddenly she jumped up in the air. The fan she was holding had caught on fire!

"Gloria let go of it! You'll hurt yourself!" Victor scolded her with his voice full of worry.

He grasped for the fan to jerk it out of his sisters hand, but she already threw it onto the ground and was kicking out the small flame. Victor stared at his sister with his arms crossed. Gloria sat down again and let out a small awkward laugh.

"I guess I got distracted!"

Hop and Victor were just looking at her with worried eyes. Gloria looked back at the fire. She just totally ruined the mood. This behavior felt so unlike her. Even the events of the darkest day weren't able to bring her mood down like this. What was it what made this so different?

"Are you okay, mate?" Hop kindly asked her while putting a large pan filled with ingredients down on the fire.

Gloria nodded and smiled at him. "I am!"

Hop smiled and started to stir the curry together with Victor. He glanced at her a few times, making eye contact with her.

"Ya know, Sonia actually taught me a thing or two about making curry!" He proudly told her.

Gloria rose up and looked into the pot. With shining eyes she took a sniff. It was already smelling delicious! She started to impatiently jump up in the air.

"I'm so hungry! Sonia's curry is the best! Hurry hurry!"

The curry was finally finished. They all enjoyed eating it together like the good old days. After cleaning up the cooking necessities they gathered around the fire again, enjoying their stuffed belly. Gloria was sitting close to Victor, leaning against his shoulder in comfort. Hop was sitting across of them, staring into the fire. The brown haired girl glanced up at the night sky. She had to tell Victor and Hop about the thing she saw in the tower, it had to be important! She lifted her head up from her brother's shoulder. She glanced at Hop. The purple haired boy sat up straight immediately, as if he knew what she was about to tell them.

Looking at him gave her a warm fuzzy feeling in her stomach. She felt dumb that she just realised how she felt towards him. She unwittingly was  treating him different than everyone else after all. Since the darkest day their bond felt even stronger than the one she had with her twin brother too. Gloria used to think that it was because of their roles as heroes, but now she knew it was more than just that.

She cleared her throat. "I want to talk about what happened to me in that tower."

Hop scooped himself closer towards the two twins. Victor took a little bit of distance from his sister so he could listen better.