A click followed by a hollow gust of air, and N stares at the Poké Ball in his hand filled with the vestiges of ambition and untouched dreams but is otherwise empty, and a vivid memory of Zekrom, Reshiram and the warmth between them comes to mind. He wonders about halves and wholes and remembers a story he'd read curled up along the sides of his old and beloved friends from a book Concordia had left behind; people were like the fated legendary dragons, people were once whole and complete and never knew loneliness until they were torn apart by circumstances powerless creatures like humans could never fight against. Thus they were doomed to wander the world in search of their missing halves, looking for completion, looking for something only a handful of them could find.
"I wonder," N clutches the empty Poké Ball in his hand, shuts it with a click, doesn't quite look up. "If we too were once one entity."
Hilbert hears this and looks up to try and catch N's eyes with his own, blinks curiously before offering a small smile. "Maybe."
The gaze isn't intense but N feels it somehow and looks up anyway, and for awhile he can't think of anything to say mostly because he hadn't intended to share his thoughts out loud, strange as even he thought they were. Here he was, however, coming undone by Hilbert's side and wondering what if, maybe we were, is such a thing possible and N quickly realizes that he's never been in love before.
"Was that not a strange thing to say?" N asks slowly, concern almost tugging at his features but not quite breaking through.
Hilbert's smile takes a sheepish turn to it and N can only anticipate the inevitable affirmation, as gently worded as it might have been since it's Hilbert and Hilbert's heart is the most ineffably kind thing N has ever encountered, but it never really comes.
Instead, there's a delicate silence while Hilbert is obviously deliberating on the right thing to say and the right way to say it, and N is surprised when he feels a soft warmth on top of his hand, curled protectively over something precious, and Hilbert pulls the extremity between them so that N isn't cherishing the warmth of a new life and the memories between them all by himself anymore.
"Maybe a little bit," Hilbert finally admits, but he squeezes N's hand and Reshiram's old Poké Ball, and softens his expression. "But I've thought about it too."
N is quick to avert his gaze and turns to watch his lap instead, leaves his hand where it is beneath Hilbert's, quickly realizes that he's never been in love until now.