Work Text:
Penny had formed Team Star to protect her and her friends from the bullying they endured. They made sure no one else could hurt them like that again. Team Star was infamous at the academy. Even the teachers didn’t interfere too often.
But Penny regretted forming it.
She and her friends still kept to their initial goal. They kept themselves safe. But some of the other students recruited for grunt work got too big of heads. That put her friends in danger again. Penny did not want to be the reason they got expelled.
So she took everything upon herself. She knew they way they had set up the system meant she couldn’t just disband everything. She needed someone to take down all the bosses in fair fights.
And then she found Juliana.
A brand new student, and brand new to the Paldea region. At first, she was just a convenient target to manipulate for her goal. Brand new and full of spunk, she was willing to take on not only Penny’s whole mission, but Arven and Nemona’s as well.
But, as time went on, Penny fell hard for this girl.
She was so…honest. She was adamant about helping Penny, er, Cassiopeia, and never once faltered. Even when she had issues with some of the tougher Team Star bosses, like Eri, Juliana never backed down. She would confide in Cassiopeia, promising the girl to help fix everything. With how smart Penny learned the girl was, it was no wonder she’s been able to connect the dots and see that Cassiopeia and Penny were one in the same.
Penny expected some backlash…something. The entire year, she’d been tricking this girl just to get her to help.
But Juliana didn’t care at all. She hugged Penny for goodness sake, telling her how happy she was that Penny felt up to going back to classes.
And when the whole…debacle with the AI Professor happened, Penny got to see just how caring Juliana was. Keeping Penny looped in with the group, guiding Nemona back on track to their goal, comforting Arven after finding out his parent had died.
It was amazing to Penny. Here was one girl, so full of life and love for everyone around her, including every single one of her Pokemon; it was amazing to witness. And Penny was so glad to be part of that girl’s life now, and hopefully for the future as well.
