Early one morning, Ness and Lucas were talking about the new tournament over breakfast.
"Are you sure you want to stay out of this?" Ness asked between mouthfuls of buttered toast and bacon. Lucas nodded.
"Yeah, I think one tournament was enough for me," he replied. Lucas took a big bite of his omelet. "I could always come back to fight, but I'm happy enough to stay on the side to cheer you on."
"Alright, but could you at least teach me PK Freeze? I always loved that move," Ness asked. Lucas was slightly taken aback.
"You wanna learn PK Freeze? Why?" Lucas asked. They both knew almost all of the same types of PSI powers, but PK Freeze was known only by Lucas. "I had Kumatora teach it to me before I left for the Smash Bros. Tournament. She said I needed some more offensive techniques."
"Well, it'd be a piece of you I have in the fights, y'know. Like, I know you're gonna be in the audience, but I'd like something a little more closer." Lucas flushed bright pink and hunched over his breakfast plate. Ness laughed and finished off his breakfast
"I'll teach you after breakfast..." Lucas muttered.
Ness had cleaned his plate and went up to his room. He changed out of his pyjamas and attempted to comb his hair. The thick curls on top of his head have claimed many a combs life, and Ness knew this was an exercise in futility, but he tried it anyway. He quit combing because he felt that the comb would lose a few teeth if he continued, and he eyed himself in the mirror. Ness was a tall, chubby kid with a round face and deep purple eyes. Lucas, on the other hand was a shorter, wiry boy with straight blond hair that looked and felt like spun gold and large, melancholy blue eyes. Ness put on his baseball cap and ruminated on his appearance before heading down to the training room.
Lucas was already there, as well as Little Mac and the female Wii Fit trainer. Both of the Wii Fit trainers seemed to live in here, and Little Mac spent a lot of his free time in here when he wasn't fighting. The three of them were really dedicated to keeping their physique up, but everyone else came in once in a while. Little Mac was very involved in a conversation with the Wii Fit trainer.
"... You're tellin' me you can conduct your 'sun energy' through those hula hoops of yours?" Little Mac asked her.
"That's right. If you like, I can show you how. But, I'm going to warn you that this will be a long training process, and to start it, I will need to hurt you, but it's for the better." Little Mac pondered this for a long while, before reluctantly accepting.
"Hey, Lucas! I'm ready to learn PK Freeze." Ness said, waving to the smaller blond.
"Okay, Let's start. First-"
"AAAAAGH!" Little Mac screamed. Lucas jumped and wheeled around, extremely startled. Ness looked past Lucas at Little Mac.
Dang, he's got some pipes, Ness thought.
"What did you do to him!?" Lucas squawked at the Wii Fit trainer, who had one hand on her hip and the other was around the height of Mac's chest, her fingers together and rigid.
"Don't worry, I've simply knocked the wind out of him. I did this to modify his breathing patterns so he can properly learn the ways of the Ripple." Ness blinked, the gears turning in his head.
"Rip... Ripple? That's what your sun energy is called?" Ness finally asked.
"That's right. I learned it from an old friend in Tibet," she responded. Lucas had calmed down a bit since Mac screamed, and he said that he and Ness will let them get back to their training.
"D'you think she'll teach me how to do that Ripple junk?" Ness asked rather cheerily.
"Ask her brother," Lucas replied. "Anyway, you wanted to learn PK Freeze, yeah?"
"Oh, right! Right, I did wanna learn that," Ness laughed. Lucas shook his head and laughed to himself. Ness had a tendency to get easily distracted by stuff once it caught his interest, but that was just an endearing trait in Lucas' eyes.
"So you can do PK Fire no problem, right?" Ness nodded in response. "Well, PK Freeze is similar, but obviously, you need to focus on the cold. Can you do that?"
"I think so," Ness replied. "Let me try." Ness concentrated as hard as he could, thinking of the coldest places he knew. He felt the PSI power surge up his arms, blazing through his fingertips. He felt the air around his arms flash freeze, and then he shot his arms forward. "PK FREEZE!" A loud crack echoed through the training room, and a bright blue light flashed. "LUCAS~! I DID IT!" Ness was jumping up and down for joy, when suddenly, his friendly round face was full of sheer horror. The scrawny blonde was encased in ice. "SHIT! Shit, shit, shit, shit, shit!"
Ness shot a large bolt of psychokinetic flames at Lucas, melting the ice slowly but surely. Once all of the ice was melted, Lucas staggered out of the puddle of water, extremely numb from the misfire.
"H-h-hey, at least y-y-you d-did it..." Lucas shivered. Ness flung himself on the other boy, in an attempt to warm him with his embrace.
"I am SO sorry!" Ness squawked. "Lemme help you there, Luke." A warm glow emanated from Ness' palms, warming up Lucas from his middle to his extremities, and loosening his joints. Lucas slowly stopped his shivering, and laughed.
"Luke? Since when did you start calling me nicknames?" His cheeks and nose were still bright red, but he was definitely warmer now after Ness used his healing PSI.
"Let me make it up to you. Burgers and fries, all on me."
"Oh, Ness... you don't have to...!" Lucas blushed.
"It's the least I could do, y'know since I nearly froze you to death. I'll even throw in a milkshake, if you want one." Ness pulled Lucas closer, and Lucas put his arm around Ness' midsection, feeling safe and warm in his soft embrace.
"Alright. It's a date, Ness." Lucas smiled. "But I think a big mug of hot chocolate is all I need." Ness tousled Lucas' soft blond hair and kissed his forehead.
"Alright, I'll buy us some extra-large hot cocoas. I think you should change into some dry clothes first, though."
