[attr="class","RANGER3"]

i will never be a memory

leah, being younger, had never had the spotlight too focused on her, but she'd enjoyed the look it gave others so she carved her own way of making it hers. whatever it took, from toxic laced smiles to pretty lies, to playing coy to blushing at the ground. it worked when she was a child, and she had anything she wanted. born with beauty and a mischievous outlook, as a toddler leah was loved and cherished, if not a hellish sibling to have. after all she could get anywhere she liked with her toothy smile, and that was one of the first things she'd learned.
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but pretty smiles and being generally adorable couldn't remain her main weapons for long, as she and adrien both grew older and what mattered now were results. but compared to the prodigy son, she couldn't exactly deliver. no, everything she did was spotless, perfect down to the last t, but it was simply less or never enough, she didn't know which but it didn't matter. people gave her encouraging smiles and best wishes, but what she did would never take someone's breath away, it wouldn't be miraculous. so she'd just tear it apart when she was alone, and start over again.
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despite that, she couldn't bring herself to dislike let alone ever hate adrien, simply because she couldn't stay mad at him for long enough. they had their fair share of arguments and differences, but they'd make up and laugh and sneak back out to the catacombs, the hall that would bear witness to countless secrets and whispered dreams and promises over the years.[break][break]
as much as she felt jealousy towards adrien, she also sometimes didn't; being the second child she was allowed whatever she wanted, but adrien had principle and training shoved onto his shoulders. and sometimes they'd have to spend hours apart studying different things, and it only got worse when adrien wasn't allowed to follow his chosen path of becoming a ranger. a year later, however, leah had gotten accepted into ranger school. she'd stuck her tongue out at him and laughed, but in reality it was a sort of promise that she'd carry on in his stead, a promise that she'd make the world a better place for him and them, just like he wanted. because as much as leah had her admirers wrapped around the little finger of her fake personality, adrien had the real her to himself.
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and then she turned twenty, officially joined the force, and the instant she did she was called to duty to kalos. she waved adrien a happy goodbye, because it really wasn't a farewell, moreso another promise to meet again when they were both stronger and further down the road. kalos itself didn't change her, but the people she worked with brought about a different side in her, one where she wasn't obligated to act like herself. and if she wanted to prove to adrien or to the arkwrights that becoming a ranger wasn't just an act of freedom as a second child, she had to get somewhere quickly. so she did what she could, and while she'd never claim to have the natural talents or abilities her older brother did, leah was always motivated by power, and power exuded from everything the rangers had to offer.
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two years later, and she's back in sinnoh. is it really good to be back, though?