Hello! This is a drabble from a drabble tag thread :). Prompts used were Child, Pin, Gamophobia. This one didn't change much: mostly just the last line.

Disclaimer: If I owned Pokemon, then I would have all the professors at my disposal...Muwahahaha...

Gamophobia

"I found my inner bitch and ran with her." - Courtney Love

Her father always asks her why she hasn't married yet.

Aurea Juniper gives him the usual excuses: she's too busy to be dating right now, she doesn't feel ready, all the guys around here are either ugly or obnoxious or both. But she knows the truth: gamophobia. She's terrified of marriage.

She wasn't a promiscuous or indecisive person by any means. Far from it. Nor was she scared of commitment. Her job proved that much. But she had worked so hard to be a strong, independent person. She wasn't anti-social, but she didn't want or need too much attention either. It had been tough raising the ranks within the (mostly male) Pokemon Professor population, but she had done it. And to throw away all that hard-earned respect and effort for the sake of love? So she could be babied (smothered) while she tried to do her work, be herself? To become like a Beautifly on a pin, admired in a glass case as she was encased in her house with a little child that with just a moment's distraction could -

She didn't live for love. She lived to be a Pokemon Professor, to help people all around the world every day. That was her purpose in life. That's why she existed. She didn't exist to become yet another wife.

Would that one person come into her life, and change everything anyway? Probably. In a way, that was the biggest part of the fear: that it was inevitable, along with death and taxes.

But it wasn't that time yet. So she throws on her white lab coat, and struts out to another day of free life.

IIIIII

This drabble was tricky, b/c I wanted Juniper to be strong and free-spirited without being a feminist. The issue isn't with men, but with wanting to be unfettered by romantic relations. What do you guys think? Hope you enjoyed either way :)