Chapter Text
Lebanne was checking the mail as was her early morning duty, she didn't mind it as much now but she remembers how much she used to hate sorting through the business offers, SBC applications and a mountain of ads and spam. It was oddly soothing the soft rustling of paper and the odd footsteps of staff unlucky enough to need to be awake at this hour. Everything is as it always was, Quasartico offering some multi-million dollar deal that went over Lebanne's head, ads for local restaurants and services soon to meet their fate in the shredder, the many personal letters between Jacinthe and Diantha, and- what's this? it's a letter addressed to her and not Jacinthe for once. Lebanne felt perplexed, the only people that she knew who was aware of this address would be her parents and even then they're much more the type to facetime over weekends. More peculiar still , there's no return address.
"Whatever, prob'ly those team MZ kids. always felt they were the type to text though." she muttered
Lebanne opened the letter and began reading.
Dear Lebanne Harujio
I, as the current Elder of the Draconid people, would like to formally invite you to our centenary Falling Stars festival. We would be honored to be graced with your presence once more especially after so many years. Any travel costs or travel complications can be handled by us. You may bring a partner along with you as well if you see fit. The festival will take place in but a week. It was quite the trouble to get a hold of you. I hope you take time to participate, as we are gathering all the Draconids across the globe to gather.
Sincerely Lance Wataru
Labanne couldn't believe it after all these years she assumed that her people had simply forgotten about her. She had certainly forgotten about them, somewhat at least. She couldn't remember the last time she prayed to her little Rayquaza shrine in her room. How long has it been, 6 months? Nevermind, point is she had a ticket at a once in a lifetime event, one she dreamed of since she was a little girl. The Falling Stars Festival it was an event she had heard so much about and-
"shit"
She had to get Jacinthe to agree to let her go to it somehow. well that's a problem for "in two hours" Lebanne. Right now "present" Lebanne has to clean up the remainder of these letters and be done and in Jacinthe's room with breakfast in... 30 minutes.
"double shit"
Lebanne rushed through the rest of the letters, grabbing only the essentials, shoving them into her designated mail bag, leaving the rest for tomorrow, and ran to the kitchen to make breakfast. Surely Jacinthe wouldn't mind a couple of rushed eggs and croissants, right? Lebanne's hands moved over the ingredients and cooking utensils like they'd never move again, throwing together a meal that should have taken 20 minutes into a mere 5. without a second thought she shoved it all onto pristine ceramics and threw it all onto a silver platter.
Lebanne bolted to the elevator, careful not to spill the tea or drop the eggs along the way. She ran past dazed and tired hotel staff as they tried to do their morning duties, nearly colliding with several as she passed.
Finally she reached the elevator, its stainless steel doors opening just as she approached. Lebanne slipped in with just enough grace as one can after full tilt running for the past minute, and smashed the button for “La suite de Jacinthe” because of course she named it that.
On the painfully long ride up Lebanne began planning how she could convince Jacinthe to let her go see the festival. She had to bring it up now before Jacinthe got distracted with all the other plans and reservations for the day. She had to be direct and to the point that she NEEDED to go. Besides after a whole 2 years of non-stop work and helping her save all of Lumiose, surely Jacinthe will find it in her heart to allow Lebanne one brief vacation.
Although the letter did say that she could bring a partner. Having Jacinthe being called her partner does sound nice, and imagine what she would look like in a traditional draconid robe. Lebanne halted these thoughts as soon as they appeared. Jacinthe is her boss and Lebanne doesn’t even know if she’s gay. Then again there were all those moments Jacinthe gave her those oddly alluring glares and her weirdly possessive attitude toward Lebanne when anyone tries to get too close to her. Surely it means nothing, she's just protective of her personal maid thats all.
All those thoughts were once again put on hold as the doors of the elevator swung open revealing Jacinthe's suite. It's an absolute sea of pinks, purples and golds in there with many professionally done paintings of Jacinthe and her pokemon lining the walls of the corridor. Notably however there is a large gap in between the dozens of paintings. Lebanne had asked about it once.
“So uh.. Jacinthe, can I ask a question?”
“Your request will be granted dear Lebanne, if you ask for it properly this time.”
Lebanne sighed she was new to the position at the time and didn't have all the fancy speaking bits down yet.
“Lady Jacinthe, may I pose an inquiry”
“Much better and yes you may.”
“Why is there a large gap in the middle of the paintings leading to your quarters?”
Jacinthe seemed to pause at the question, a small nearly imperceptible blush spreading across her cheeks.
“That space is reserved for when I find a partner I’m ready to devote my life to. It’ll be something special for someone special. A large custom commissioned painting of just the two of us, I can’t think of anything more romantic than our love and devotion immortalized for generations to come.”
At that passionate explanation Lebanne blushed a bit herself. What type of person would Jacinthe want to dedicate her life to? Other than maybe some SBC bigshot Lebanne couldn’t think of anyone.
“Lebanne, Dearest!”
Her lady’s call brought her back from the memory and reminded her that she was still very much running late with breakfast.
When Lebanne reached Jacinthe’s quarters she truly realized how late she was running as Jacinthe was not only fully dressed for the day but even had to do her hair herself.
“Lebanne, would you please explain why I had to curl my own hair today.”
Lebanne paused for a moment, gathering her words. One wrong inflection could be the cause for another hundred battles in Jacinthe’s accursed tournament. After a few moments she responded slowly.
“In this morning’s mail there was a letter that caught me by surprise, Let's call it, and in reading it and… acknowledging its contents I had failed to realize that I had let time slip away from me. I must offer my utmost apologies and promise to be better in the future. It won’t happen again.
“Is that also why our breakfast seems to consist of undercooked eggs and burnt croissants?”
“Again lady Jacinthe I offer my utmost apolog-” Jacinthe simply raised her hand cutting off the woman mid sentence.
“It matters not Labanne. I forgive you this time, but as part of your forgiveness you must tell me what was in the letter that could cause this much of a disruption to your duties.”
Lebanne once again took a moment to think of what to say. She had to tell Jacinthe about this trip far before she was ready to and what's worse is that she had to convince Jacinthe to let her go on it in the first place. Lebanne didn’t like her odds but with a heavy heart and doubt filled mind she began.
“The letter was from my family in Hoenn, The Draconids. I know I have not spoken much about them but they are quite special to me and my life. The letter itself was an invitation of sorts to a festival. It’s quite important to our culture I assure you, and I was wondering if I could have just one week off to visit for the festival. After which of course I would get back to work without any issue.”
The two stared at one another for a good long moment. Lebanne carefully studied Jacinthe’s expression, hoping to see a crack in her lady’s poker face. There it was, faint nearly imperceptible, a blush spread across Jacinthe's face ever so briefly. Had lebanne not spent the last two years in close proximity to her she doubted she would ever notice. She wondered what it could mean she was considering granting her time off, or was this going to be twisted into some game? Jacinthe took a deep breath in before speaking again.
“Perhaps. Perhaps, I can let you go on this trip, IF you tell me more about this festival. I will most certainly not be sending my best maid out to an unremarkable festival just to get time away from her duties.”
“Most certainly my lady.” Lebanne answered a hint of worry in her voice
“The festival is called The Falling Stars Festival and it happens once every one hundred years. It is a celebration of the day that the Draconids cries for help were answered by Rayquaza, guardian of the sky, who then set the two legendary pokemon Groudon and Kyogre down to slumber in their respective domains. Sadly I couldn’t tell you what will happen during the festival as since it happens once every century the practices change dramatically each time.”
“I see, it does in fact seem very culturally significant to your people” Jacinthe said with a slight pause.
“But I feel there is still something you are neglecting to mention."
Lebanne choked up for a moment. What had she forgotten? She mentioned the cultural significance, the rarity, and the mystery that the festival offered so what could she have missed? Then it hit her.
“Quite perceptive as always lady Jacinthe.” Lebanne said once again taking a moment to find the right words
“There is one detail about the invitation itself I subconsciously omitted.”
“Yes go on” Jacinthe said, mild annoyance rising in her tone
“It’s that I have been granted permission by my Eldar to… bring someone with me.”
“Splendid, I shall pack my bags right away! I always wanted to go to Hoenn, you know.”
Lebanne hadn’t known that but that didn’t occur to her in the moment. All she was thinking about was that she was going to visit her family with Jacinthe as her “partner”.