Everyone in the room was silent.
Finally, Keith repeated the question he'd asked earlier. "Kate," he pressed, "do you know this guy?"
"Childhood friends," Kate whispered.
"Summerland," Sven muttered.
"Four years since we…" they said together. Then Sven finally got over the shock and laughed, "Katie! How are you? It's been so long!"
Kate jumped at her address, but then smiled back. "I—I've been great, but look at you! I never would have guessed you were a Top Ranger!"
Sven blinked. "Really? I'm in a lot of teen girl magazines…" Then he checked himself and laughed more. "Oh, but I guess you don't read those, do you?"
"N-no, n-n-not r-really…" Kate stammered while still keeping her smile on. Her face was flushed light red and she kept stumbling over her words as she tugged lightly at her clothing with a nervous air, storm signs that everyone but Sven seemed to notice.
"You turn thirteen soon, right?" grinned Sven. "Wow, I've certainly missed a lot in the time we've been apart."
"I—I guess, yeah." Said Kate. "But what about you, Sven? You must be at least sixteen by now."
"Correct! I'm sixteen. Which means I was only twelve last time we saw each other," Sven said wistfully, "and you must have been no older than eight years old…?"
Kate fell silent as she smiled slightly and looked towards her feet. Rhythmi was in awe of the fact that Kate was acquainted with the figure that had appeared countless times in her magazines, but Keith was little less than impressed with his sudden discovery, scowling slightly at the whole scene. Idiot though he was, it was hard to miss Kate's blush against her pale skin, the way her hands were shaking in front of her, the way she kept on tripping over her words as she spoke…
Keith shook his head and scolded himself on the fact that it was none of his business.
Finally, Chairperson Erma cleared her throat. "Well, if that's the case, would you please take Katherine, Keith and Rhythmi to the laboratory to be fitted for their Fine Stylers? And Linda, Marcus, please show Rhythmi to her new workspace." She commanded. "I have some matters that need attending to. Gwendolyn, if you would follow me please…"
Wendy flinched as she walked after her grandmother. As she passed Kate's group, Sven muttered, "Good luck."
"I'll need it" was Wendy's mumbled reply as she disappeared with Erma.
Once the two were out of sight and the rest of the group had dispensed, Linda and Marcus took Rhythmi away to where the Top Operators worked—something she obviously wasn't happy about due to the sudden revealing of Kate and Sven's relationship.
When the Operators had left, Sven grinned. "OK, you two, let's get going. You all need your Fine Stylers!" He stated happily.
"Yeah, I guess." Keith said with a dark tone to his voice. "Let's go to the lab."
He walked off ahead of Kate and Sven. "K… Keith?" Kate asked worriedly. "Is something wrong?"
"It's nothing. You just keep catching up with your friend," grumbled Keith.
.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.
When they entered the lab, they were quickly greeted by a girl with brown hair and green eyes. She was also fairly short. "Sven!" She bubbled joyfully. "Is this Kate and Keith? The new Top Rangers?"
"Hey, Misha," said Sven, "yeah, this is them alright. Where's Nage?"
"Ah, Nage is just putting the finishing touches on Kate and Keith's Stylers," Misha answered happily.
Kate was confused. "…How do you know our names?" She asked curiously.
Misha smiled. "Oh, well, do you know Momoko Harukaze from Altru Incorporated?"
"Brunette, short hair, purple eyes, extremely annoying?" Keith offered. "Yeah, we've met."
"Well, she's my boss—I MEAN FRIEND!" Misha stammered as she let something slip. "Y—yeah, she's my friend! Just a friend! Nothing else! Anyways, she told me all about you and so I recognized you when I saw pictures of the new Top Rangers."
Kate nodded carefully, then commented, "You look familiar."
"Small world," Misha said quickly. "Maybe you know someone who looks like me!"
At that moment Nage, the young scientist who Kate and Keith had met when they'd visited the Union before, walked up to the group. "Something wrong, Misha?" he asked.
"Ah! It's nothing~!" Misha giggled as she took Nage's arm. Nage smiled and kissed her on the forehead lightly before turning to the other three.
"I see you two have met my girlfriend, Misha." He smiled.
Keith blinked. "G—girlfriend?" He choked. Kate was also fairly shocked. "Is that legal?" She asked, alarmed.
Nage sweatdropped. "I—I'm only sixteen, you know…" He laughed awkwardly. Misha beamed up at him. "Nage's like a boy genius! He helped design the Fine Styler with Professor Hastings!" She chirruped adoringly.
"Boy genius, huh… Kinda like Isaac, right, Keith?" Kate commented, turning to her redheaded partner. Keith nodded in agreement.
"Alright then, please follow me to your Fine Stylers." Nage said, leading them to the back of the room with Misha still clinging onto his arm.
Finally, the group reached two glass cases, each holding a rectangle compact-like machine that was about a foot long. Nage took one out of its case and held it out to Kate. "Here you are!" He said proudly.
"Th—thank you!" Kate said gratefully. "Um… how do I get it on…?"
"Here, I've got it," Sven said, taking the Fine Styler from Kate and helping her strap it to her right arm. Keith didn't miss the fact that Kate's face was crimson through the entire procedure. He scowled and looked away from the scene.
Once Sven was finished, Kate stepped back to admire her Fine Styler in awe. "Wow… I can't believe I'm actually wearing one of these," she confessed as Keith strapped his new contraption onto his left arm without much trouble. "Right?"
Kate looked up in confusion at Keith. "…Keith, are you listening?" She asked. Keith blinked and looked up in surprise.
"Oh," he said, "sorry. I thought you were talking to Sven."
Kate smiled. "Why would I say something like that to Sven?" She laughed. Keith simply shrugged in response.
"I dunno," he responded in a mutter, "it just seems like you'd say anything to him."
Sven stared at Keith in interest at this comment, but decided to say nothing
When the three had exited the lab, they were suddenly greeted by a huge Luxray. "Luxray ray!" it roared.
"Ah, Dewny!" Sven grinned. "You finished eating?"
"Luxray!" The Luxray cried again. Sven turned to the other two.
"This is my one and only Partner Pokémon, Dewny." he explained. "Gorgeous, isn't she?"
"Dangerous too, by the looks of it," Keith mumbled as he kept an eye on the Pokémon's sharp teeth, but Kate was excited.
"Wow, Sven, you have an Electric-type Pokémon too?" she marveled. "I have a Pachirisu, Lyrical, but she's staying with my dad. I also have a Kricketot named Metronome."
Sven nodded in interest. "…And this is…?" he inquired, looking at her Croagunk.
"Ah! This is Falsetto! He's my newest Partner! Isn't he cute?" Kate smiled, gesturing to the Poison Type.
"Err… yes, Kate, he's adorable!" Sven laughed nervously.
"'Evil' is more like it!" Keith growled as he glared at the toad Pokémon, who simply stared back in response. "You have such a weird perception of 'cuteness', Kate."
"S—shut up!" Kate stammered in response. Sven's eyes widened.
"…What did you just say?" He choked slightly. Kate and Keith looked at him in confusion.
"Uh… she told me to shut up," Keith repeated uncertainly. "It's pretty much a regular thing for me to me told… something wrong?"
Sven blinked once, then twice, but then shook his head. "No, no, it's fine!" He said shakily as he tried to start grinning again.
The other two looked at him weird for a moment, but then looked at each other and shrugged the matter off. "Anyways, what now?" asked Keith.
"Now I show you to your room," Sven stated happily, and with that they headed up the escalator.
.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.
As the group walked down the hall to Kate and Keith's new lodgings, they saw Wendy come out of a particularly grand looking doorway. She looked tired and worn out.
"Hey, Wendy!" Sven grinned. "You OK?"
Wendy looked up wearily. "Thirty minutes," she said hoarsely. "I just got lectured for thirty minutes about the nickname Wendy."
"That's what you get for talking back to your grandma," Sven sang brightly.
"Do you know that you suck?" Wendy growled as she glowered up at him. "Like, seriously, totally suck."
"Yes, you've made that clear several times, partner." Sven replied happily. Wendy grunted moodily in response and slouched past them down the hallway, elbowing Sven hard as she passed.
"Ow," Sven gasped as he clutched the arm Wendy had attacked. Kate was looking after Wendy with a look of confusion and worry.
"S-Sven," she said slowly, "is she your partner?"
Sven straightened, still rubbing his arm. "Yeah, she is," he laughed slightly. "She's violent and has a short temper, but she's a pretty cool gal overall."
Kate nodded slowly, still not looking convinced of something. Sven watched her for a few seconds, but then he bent down a little and whispered, "Hey, want me to tell you something else?"
Kate looked up at him uncertainly, but then smiled a little. "S-sure," she said.
The next thing Sven said was quiet, but still loud enough for Keith to hear nonetheless.
"I think I might actually have a little crush on Wendy," He murmured. "But you can't tell her, OK?"
Kate's eyes widened as she felt something within her shatter.
Sven smiled very slightly and added, "I'm telling you this because you're like a little sister to me."
Keith was alarmed, "Hey—!" he started, but Kate cut him off.
"W-wow, that's great, Sven!" She smiled, but somehow the light in her pale eyes had extinguished. "I—I'm going to unpack my suitcase, then. It's already been taken to our room, right? 7-C? I'll see you guys at dinner, then!"
She ran off without waiting for a reply.
Keith immediately punched Sven in the arm Wendy had left intact, yelling, "YOU IDIOT!" before going after her.
Sven watched Keith disappear around the corner, and then turned to look at Dewny. "…I'm doing the right thing… Right, Dewny?"
Dewny looked up and shrugged. "How should I know?"
.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.
Keith stood in front of dorm C-7 uncertainly.
Treble nudged the boy's foot impatiently. "Just knock. It's not as if there's a bomb on the door," She assured irritably. Keith smiled down slightly at his gentle Partner, then turned back to the door and took a deep breath. Finally, he raised a hand to knock twice.
"Kate? Are you in there?" He asked. A short silence ensued before he got an answer.
"I'm fine here, Keith," Kate's voice wavered out shakily, catching in places it shouldn't have been. "Why don't you go check on Rhythmi?"
"Don't give me that crap," Keith retorted harshly. "You're crying, aren't you? I'm coming in!"
He put his hand on the doorknob and tried to turn it.
…
"…Katherine Cymbeline Lovett," Keith muttered, trying to keep the anger in his voice under control, "tell me that you did not lock the door."
"Yes I did" was the meek reply.
Keith stood silently for a few seconds, trying to pull himself together to think of a rational solution.
Then again, Keith wasn't a very rational person.
"Screw this!" He exclaimed suddenly, abandoning his useless attempts at thinking straightly, and with that he promptly kicked the door off its hinges.
Kate looked up from the bed she was sitting on in shock. There were no tears in her eyes, but her face was red and it looked as if she'd been hit in the stomach. Falsetto was sitting in a dark corner, looking at them both with blank eyes.
Keith looked down at the now useless door. "…Well," he said casually, "Chairperson Erma's not going to be very happy about that."
A slight laugh escaped from Kate's throat, but Keith raised an eyebrow at the girl as he stared at her. Finally, he sighed.
"You're a terrible liar, you know that?" He said bluntly as he strode over to the bed and sat down next to her. He looked her straight in the eye.
"Are you OK?" He asked concernedly. "Do you want to talk?"
Kate stared at him in surprise, but then she smiled that painfully fake smile again and assured, "I—I'm fine, Keith. You can go do whatever you want. I'm OK."
Keith looked her over a little more, and then he shrugged. "OK," he said, but instead of getting up and leaving, he flopped down onto his back and started playing a little with Treble.
Kate blinked. "…What are you doing?"
"Whatever I want," Keith answered plainly, not looking up from his Shieldon. "And right now, I want to play with Treble in my room. Got a problem with that?"
Kate jolted slightly as she raised her hands in defense. "No… I—that's…" She eventually fell silent.
About ten to twenty painful minutes passed in the room, Keith stroking Treble's head plate as if it was just a normal day, and Kate sitting next to him, wringing her hands in nervousness.
Suddenly, Kate spoke up. "I… I met Sven seven years ago, when I was five."
Keith sat up, and Treble made her way down from the bed. She grabbed Falsetto's arm by her mouth and dragged him out of the room.
"Finally decided to talk, have you?" Keith smiled lightly. "Alright, go on—oh, wait."
He walked over to the doorway and picked up the broken door, propping up against the frame like it had never broken. When that was done, he returned to his place on the bed and sat back down next to Kate. "OK, now you can go on." He stated.
Kate took a deep breath before continuing. "I met Sven when I was five, back in Summerland. He helped me out when a bunch of older men were trying to get me to go off with them."
"He called the police?" asked Keith.
"No, he kicked the biggest one in the ankle. Then he grabbed my hand and ran off while they were all distracted."
"Ah."
The corner of Kate's mouth twitched before she went on. "But after that, we were inseparable. We did everything together. Sven was just always so cool, funny, brave… I—I dunno, I guess I just…"
"Fell in love with him," Keith finished for her. Kate looked down, her face blazing, and nodded slightly.
"I know it's stupid," she confessed. "After all, I only knew him between the ages of five and eight. And he must have thought of me as a sibling. But… I… I really looked up to him. So for him to tell me that he likes Wendy, it's a little… shocking, I guess. It's kind of a big thing to take in. I mean… It's just…"
She suddenly stopped talking, and Keith looked over to see her pale eyes become glassy with tears that overflowed down her cheeks quickly. Kate raised her hands up to her face in surprise. Keith stared, but he actually didn't look as if he'd been taken aback by this.
"O-oh…?" Kate murmured quietly as she tried to wipe her eyes. "I wonder why I'm crying over something so…"
The brunette laughed a little through her tears brokenly as she added, "But… I—I can't stop. U-um, I'm s-sorry. J-just g-g-give me a m-minute and—"
She was cut off by Keith wrapping his arms around her body and hugging her tight.
Kate blinked in shock as she stayed unmoving for a minute, but then tried to wriggle loose. "K-Keith, what are you doing?" She protested, despite the fact she was still crying. "I-I'm fine, just give me a f-few m—"
"Don't act like that," Keith said firmly, holding her even tighter to his frame. "I said it before and I'll say it again. You're a terrible liar. Stop trying to make everything to come off to others as if it's no big deal, because it doesn't work. Not on me, it doesn't."
Kate's eyes widened as another wave of tears threatened to spill over.
"I know it's scary," Keith went on. "I know you're in shock. But don't keep everything to yourself. It'll drive you crazy… It drives me crazy." This last part was whispered, but Kate caught it nonetheless.
"You're not some huge entity that can take whatever life throws at you, Kate," Keith said with several notes of compassion and concern in his voice. "You can't handle everything. Not on your own. …Kate."
Keith loosened his grip on the girl slightly and pulled his head back to look at Kate. He pressed his forehead to hers.
"It's OK to cry," he murmured. "It's OK to cry in front of me."
Kate stared at him in shock. Keith didn't avert his gaze, keeping his amber eyes locked onto her pale blue ones determinedly.
Finally, Kate's eyes positively flooded with tears. She threw her arms around Keith's torso, buried her face into his chest, and she cried. And this wasn't just the occasional quiet sobbing or emotional tears. It was almost as if every small negative emotion Kate had kept hidden behind her demeanor was coming out now, which was probably a good idea that all the rooms in the Union were soundproofed. She completely bawled into Keith as he murmured quiet reassurances every so often, such as "You're OK" or "I'm right here".
Keith didn't let go of her for a second. He leaned back against the wall the bed was next to, giving himself better support as Kate clung onto him.
It had been over thirty minutes by the time the girl's wails finally subsided. Her full out crying eventually receded to quiet sobs.
Keith kept his arms latched tightly around her. A few moments passed, and then he finally deemed it quiet enough to ask, "Feeling better?"
No response.
Keith blinked, but when he looked down slightly to see Kate in his arms he laughed slightly at what had happened. She'd fallen asleep.
"You're hopeless," He snickered quietly as he pried the brunette off of him and laid her down on the bed. He hopped off, standing in front of her sleeping form. Finally, he bent down and brought his face close to hers, knowing full well that she wouldn't be able to hear what he said next.
"You'd be able to win the heart of any guy you wanted," He whispered confidently. "You're that great. So you'd better not mope over this too long."
He stared at Kate's black lashes that were still framed slightly with glasslike tears, her ivory skin that was flushed light pink from her recent crying, and the thin strands of brown hair that fell around her face.
Keith parted her bangs slightly and kissed her on the forehead.
"I love you," he murmured.
Then he got up and quietly left the room.
.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.
When Keith exited, the last person he expected to be standing there was Sven.
"What do you want?" He asked his senior coldly as he made sure the broken door behind him was going to stay standing.
Sven smiled lightly. "I just wanted to let you know that you're a pretty special guy," He said, "to get Kate to actually cry like that in front of you."
Keith turned away from the door and raised an eyebrow. "I'm special because she just cried spontaneously in front of me?" he said in sarcasm. "Gee, thanks. I'll be sure to put that on my resume. How'd you even hear that? These rooms are soundproofed."
"The broken door would help anyone who was standing right outside the room," Sven shrugged, but then his eyes became serious.
"I've known Katie for seven years," he said quietly, "and not once has she cried that much in front of me. In front of anyone."
Keith blinked in surprise, but then shook it off. "…I guess… I dunno," he muttered.
"You love Kate, don't you?" Sven asked.
Keith's head whipped up to look at Sven, and a brief silence passed before the redhead's gaze hardened into a glare and he answered.
"Yes."
Sven nodded slowly. "Thought so," he sighed. "…Katie is really like a younger sister to me. I love her, but not in that way. But… that girl has had her fair share of admirers. Still does. But you're the only one I've met that sees her for more than just a shy girl or a pretty face. And she must trust you a good deal too, to cry like that into your chest."
Keith glared at him a little more before blinking. "…How do you know it was into my chest?" He demanded.
Sven pointed at him, and Keith looked down to see that his shirt had gotten fairly wet. His face burned.
Sven turned and walked away down the hall with Dewny. "Don't screw this up," He called behind him.
Keith looked after the Top Ranger and retorted, "I won't!"
When Sven had turned the corner and was out of earshot, Keith mumbled to himself. "I won't."
Then he turned back to go into his room, partly to fix the door, and partly to get a new change of clothes.
