📚Goodnight

Renee stays late at work, and gets a visitor.

Characters: Renee, Zinnia, Pearl, Steven

Warnings: None

Wordcount: 1,553

Vibe: Stressed/comfort

Original AN:

theres probably like 6000000000000000000 spelling and grammar errors but i do not. i do not care.

idea i got at work, i wrote like half of it one mnight and then the other half a few days later. idk where i was really going other than ‘zinnia is there’

i wanna say pearl is maybe 4-5 here

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The quarter-yearly league summit had finally come to Hoenn, and Renee was exhausted.

She’d never directly dealt with a league summit in her own region before, and this was a moment she’d loathed ever since she became the lead chair of Hoenn’s league. Nights were long and filled with paperwork, but there was at least one upside… in the form of Renee’s biggest fan.

Despite Emmy and Renee’s protest, Pearl would often insist on waking up to meet her mother when she got home. And no matter how exhausted she was, it’d manage to calm her nerves just a little bit. But this time, it was different.

“Mamaaaaaaa!” Pearl would say as she grabbed onto Renee’s leg. Renee was just about to get ready to leave for work, but she’d been stopped by Pearl.

“Hey, what’s up?” Renee said, ruffling her daughter’s hair a bit.

“I wanna come with you this time!!”

Renee simply shook her head.

“It’s adult stuff, Pearl. I don’t think you’d find it very interesting.”

“Pleeeeeeease?”

Emmy was still in bed, so she couldn’t back Renee up. Renee didn’t really have the energy to fight over it, so with a defeated sigh, she agreed to let Pearl come in with her to work – to Pearl’s joyful cheers.

Pearl would come to the office with Renee… semi-frequently. She actually had some toys set up in a corner in her mother’s office, but she was shy to the point of hiding and not speaking around strangers in the building.
The office was relatively empty at this time in the morning, but it was likely due to the fact that it was a weekend. Pearl had no problem skipping through the empty halls up to Renee’s office.

It was a generous space – given Renee had reclaimed it from the Stone family, who were always known to be extravagant. Speaking of which, that was who she had to call – Steven.
He’d denied the position as the manager of the Hoenn league from his father for a multitude of reasons, but he was still the face of Hoenn’s glamour. Renee just needed to catch up with him to see if he was preparing all right.

Pearl would look on with doe eyes as Renee sat down at her desk and grabbed her desk’s phone.

“Who ya calling?” Pearl asked, looking over the desk on her tip-toes.

“Uncle Steven. You can say hi, but just for a second.”

The phone ringed a couple of times before Steven picked up.

“Hello? Renee?” he said, his voice a bit winded.

Almost immediately, before Renee would say hello back, Pearl grabbed the phone and enthusiastically greeted Steven. Renee just sighed and put the phone on speaker so she didn’t have to fish the receiver away from Pearl.

“Oh! Hey Pearl! You in the office today?” Steven said, as a woman’s laughter could be heard on the other end.

“Who’s that?” Pearl asked, though Renee already knew.

Some shuffling could be heard on the other end

“Gooooooooood morning Pearl!”

It was Zinnia. Because of course it was.
Pearl seemed quite surprised to hear Zinnia on the other end, and said good morning back, before Renee spoke up.

“What on earth are you two doing this early?”

There was a brief pause and more shuffling.

“Zinnia thought it was a bright idea to wake me up early to train… I swear, it’s-” Steven said, though he was cut off.

“It’s a GOOD IDEA!! It gets the blood pumping early! It makes you alert!” Zinnia interjected.

There was some banter between the two before Renee cut them both off. It was at this point that she asked for the receiver back from Pearl, who seemed satisfied with listening in on whatever Steven and Zinnia were talking about. Still, Pearl wouldn’t go to her toys, and instead watched intently as Renee put the call off speaker and continued to talk.

Renee was happy to hear that Steven had been training early, but she was more concerned about if he was emotionally getting prepared. Before more often than not, the world championship would leave Steven completely burnt out on a mental end.
Steven admitted that the anxiety was getting to him, but that Zinnia and Wallace were helping a lot… and the fact that the pressure from his father wasn’t present helped bunches, too.

Renee ended the call with a satisfied look, and turned to Pearl as she set the phone receiver down.

“Alright, I’m gonna be doing some… serious adult stuff now, so I’m going to need you to let me keep focused.” Renee said, to which Pearl replied with a nod.

So, Renee got on to work… it was a lot of shuffling through applications, reading, approving, denying, writing notes… who gets what sponsors, is that even allowed?; it was tedious, to say the least.
Pearl was intent on watching her mother work, but got bored after a while, so she went over to her toys.

And so started the waiting game.

After the first two hours, Renee would ask Pearl hourly is she wanted Emmy to pick her up, but Pearl was adamant about refusing, saying she wanted to stay with Renee.
Hour after hour, Renee’s patience dwindled. When lunch came, she almost felt like begging Pearl to go home, in fear that her daughter would become fussy if she had to stay at work for too long… but Pearl insisted she was ok.

Papers, webpages, smudges in pen… it all started to blur together as Renee’s eyes grew increasingly tired. But she knew she couldn’t rest yet.
Dinner passed, and Pearl was still keeping herself perfectly occupied. Renee was honestly amazed that Pearl’s attention span for her toy’s storyline was better than hers for her paid job.

The sun set, and Pearl was getting tired. She started asking Renee when they’d be going home, and, while giving her stack of paperwork an exhausted look, Renee would have to tell her daughter she had to stay later. Again, Renee told Pearl that Emmy could come pick her up at any time, but Pearl was dead-set on going home when Renee did. Emmy’s texts grew more and more worried as Renee’s typing tone became blunter and her projected stay at the office stretched later and later.

Eventually, Pearl got comfy on a couch in the office and fell fast asleep. It was hard not to feel sleepy watching her, the only thing going on in Renee’s head at the moment was a swirling headache and exhaustion.

Trainers, vendors, approvals, sponsorships… it never ended. Renee felt like screaming, flipping over her desk, something to let out how frustrated she was… but her body was so tired she couldn’t get herself to do anything.

Then, when she least expected it;
A buzz at her office’s door would jolt Renee awake.

Curious, she’d check the camera… to see a familiar face.
It was Zinnia, of course. Renee let her in, though her expression didn’t change.

“Heyy! Emmy told me you were stuck here late today.” Zinnia said, before Pearl asleep on the couch caught her eye.
“Wow, she’s still here?”

“Yea, refused to go home… did Emmy send you here to take her, or whatever?”

“What, no. I came here outta my own volition – I wanted to try and help ya out!” Zinnia said with a smile, pulling up a chair next to Renee’s desk.

“This is all confidential paperwork of the league…” Renee mumbled.

“And so what? Not like this is my first tango with stuff I shouldn’t be looking at. Besides, I’m technically a champion here too, and it’s not like mom’s gonna kill ya for it.”

“Mmmm… fine.” Renee said, sliding over half of her work pile to Zinnia, who gladly started immediately.

While Renee was completely drained, she was still able to hold small conversation with Zinnia, though Zinnia was doing most of the talking. Renee came to realize that Zinnia was burning through the papers at quite the pace… which she guessed must’ve been easy for someone who was perky and well-rested.

“I’m kinda surprised with how familiar you seem with all this…” Renee said, tapping her pen against her current paper a bit.

“I do all Steven’s shit! I thought I told ya?”

“Right. Right, fuck. My brain’s drawing a blank.”

Zinnia’s usual smug grin turned to one of worry.

“Hey, look, Renee, it’s late. And as much as I believe in you, you’re only going to push yourself closer to the edge if you keep going tonight.”

“But if I want to keep on schedule…” Renee replied, her words drifting off.

“Pshh, who cares about that! Say what, I come in tomorrow morning with you, and all this bullshit is finished by lunch.”

“Are you saying that like it’s some kind of challenge?”

“Sure! Why not! Gives me something to spice up the week, plus I get to help you out.”

Renee stood up from her chair, stretched, and rubbed her temples.

“Ok. Alright. I’ll stop for the night.” she said, looking to Zinnia.
“Thank you. Thank you from the bottom of my heart, truly.”

“Hey, it’s cool!” Zinnia said, a bit flustered. She gave Renee a pat on the back before walking over to lift up a sleeping Pearl.
“Let’s go home.”