"Nnn…" Kate mumbled as she opened her eyes.
She raised her head a little and took in her surroundings as she tried to remember where she was. 'What happened…?' she thought as she took in the unfamiliar area she was in. 'Oh, right, I moved to the Union… Sven showed Keith and me around the building… and then…'
Kate's body jolted as the events of the previous day came rushing back to her. She sat up straight and realized that she was still in her Ranger uniform. Kate looked around the room wildly, but eventually she saw Keith fast asleep in the bed across from hers. Treble was asleep at the foot of the bed with him. Kate sighed in relief (over what?), but her serenity was short lived as she remembered what had happened the other day again.
She'd been nearly distraught after being practically rejected by Sven, and had gone to her room with the pure intention of sitting in bed and taking several painfully deep breaths before coming back downstairs to the others, all with a bright smile on her face as if nothing had happened. That was how she'd always done things, so that she wouldn't have to burden others. Keith, however, had ruthlessly crushed those plans to pieces. He'd kicked the door she'd kept between her and the world down—literally—and sat down quietly next to her, listening to her story. In the end, she had cried relentlessly into his chest as he held her tight.
Kate blushed slightly at the memory, and yet she couldn't help but feel fond of it. She couldn't remember ever showing that much emotion in front of anyone before, not even her parents. It had always seemed so much easier to hide things behind her shy and sweet demeanor. Despite that, Keith had gently pried her shield away and allowed her to express the true agitation she'd felt over the feelings she'd had for her childhood friend. Strangely enough, the fact that Sven liked Wendy didn't bother Kate as much as it had before now. It was as if her worries had washed away with the tears she'd shed.
Kate looked at the clock next to her bed. They still had about an hour until morning briefing for Top Rangers…
She grabbed a clean uniform and walked into the bathroom to shower and change before waking up Keith.
A few minutes after she'd left, Keith stirred from the sleep he'd been in and slowly sat up. He rubbed his eyes wearily as he prodded Treble lightly.
"Yo, Treble," he yawned, looking over at the clock. "Get up. We've got morning briefing in an hour."
Treble opened her eyes and shook her head sleepily as Keith managed to wake her. She looked over at the other side of the room and blinked.
"…Don?" she cried questionably. Keith followed her gaze to see that Kate wasn't in bed. He worried slightly for a moment, but was reassured when he heard the sound of running water coming from the bathroom.
"Shower," he confirmed, pulling himself out of bed to get dressed while he had the chance. He allowed himself to ponder how long Kate had been up for a moment before dismissing the matter as he remembered that she tended to shower right when she woke, a fact that he voiced openly to Treble as he pulled a uniform out of his closet.
Treble looked at him suspiciously. "…Why did you make a note of that?" she inquired as she leered at him, eyes full of suggestion.
Keith felt his face burn slightly before retorting, "It was just something I made a note of! Don't try and turn this into something inappropriate! Now go into the bathroom or something with Kate, I need to change."
"So what, now you want me to spy on her for you?"
"JUST GO!"
Treble rolled her eyes and strolled to the bathroom door, grumbling, 'Well, somebody can't take a joke," and with that she pushed the already slightly open door out wide enough for her to go in and close the door behind her as well.
Keith sighed as he went over the events that had happened less than twenty-four hours ago. He'd known that Kate would eventually break down in front of him under the circumstances, but not to that extent. Seriously, she'd cried into his chest for a half-hour straight for Arceus' sake! Plus, there was the whole kiss on the forehead deal…
The boy scowled slightly at himself in the mirror, recalling that moment. His emotions had run too high, and he'd let himself get out of hand. What would have happened if she'd heard him say that he loved her? …She hadn't heard him, had she? No, of course not, she had definitely been asleep. She was as bad a faker as she was a liar. And she hadn't woken up after he'd… well… kissed her. On the forehead, not anywhere else!
Keith finished dressing and then turned to the mirror again to look as his hair. …Well, despite having just gotten out of bed, it looked the same as always. He'd tried brushing it straight before, but it usually ended with either having it messier than when he'd started or having the brush stuck in his hair altogether. Ever since then he'd left its natural unruliness alone.
Suddenly, he blinked as he noticed that the shower wasn't running anymore. He heard Kate's voice float out of the bathroom.
"Wha…? Treble, what are you doing here?" she asked, surprised. "Oh, I guess that if you're here then Keith must be changing…"
Her voice rose in volume as she called, "Keith, are you ready? Can I come out?"
"Yeah, I'm good!" Keith answered. Kate stepped out of the bathroom.
You'd think that by now Keith would have been able to control his heart rate. But no. The blood just had to start rushing to his face.
Kate was holding her red Ranger jacket in her spare hand while the other one held a towel to her head. She only had the plain white shirt and black shorts that came with the standard uniform on. Her feet were bare, and her hair wasn't in its usual pigtails, instead draping to about two inches past her shoulders and soaking wet.
She looked up to Keith, and a brief, awkward silence ensued between the two before Kate smiled. "Good morning!" she greeted politely.
"…Morning," Keith eventually replied. Kate walked over to the mirror to finish drying her hair while Keith watched her uncertainly. He was trying to figure out how she could act so normal after what had happened the previous day.
"Keith?" Kate said suddenly. Keith looked up.
"Yeah?" he asked. Kate stared at herself in the mirror for a few more seconds, holding the towel up to her head, but then she put it down and turned to Keith.
Next, she did something that totally caught Keith off guard. She wrapped her arms around his neck.
Keith froze in surprise. "W—what's this about?" he stammered, moving his hands slightly to hover above her back, unsure of how to react.
Kate's head was resting on his chest, and she pulled back slowly to look up at him. She blinked. When had he gotten so tall? He had over an entire foot on her now. It seemed as if just yesterday he'd been teased as the shortest boy in Ranger School… She shook her head clear of the distracting thoughts and spoke. "Thank you!" she blurted.
Keith blinked, his hands still suspended over her back. "For what?" he inquired. Leave it to him to be so distracted by the sudden hug that he'd forgotten about what had worried him endlessly not six minutes ago.
Kate stared at him. "F-for… listening to me yesterday, I guess," she answered, looking down embarrassedly. Keith stared back as the realization of what she meant sunk in.
"Oh, that! Right!" he laughed nervously. Then he looked down into her pale blue eyes.
(When had she gotten so short?)
"Don't worry about it. That's what friends are for, aren't they?" he smiled, finally letting one of his hands rest on her waist while the other moved to pat her head. Kate blushed slightly at the gentle expression on his usually joking or scowling face. Eventually, though, she smiled back.
"Y-yeah!" she nodded wholeheartedly. They stayed like that for a moment, just staring at each other, but then (surprisingly) Keith was the first one to come back to Earth, coughing nervously and saying, "Your towel?"
"Oh! Yes, I-I'm sorry!" Kate stuttered, stepping away as she gathered her dropped towel and moved it to her wardrobe to put away.
"Don't apologize to me," Keith muttered awkwardly.
After putting away her towel, Kate frowned slightly at her closet's contents. "Something wrong?" Keith inquired.
"No, it's just…" Kate sighed, closing her wardrobe. "It's just that I think I've grown a little since the last time I went clothes shopping. The clothes I normally wear on my days off are getting a little small on me."
Keith stared blankly at his partner, and then said bluntly, "You grew? I could have sworn you shrank."
Kate glared slightly at him. "Yes, Keith, I grew. People do that," she reminded. "The only reason you didn't notice is because you're, like, extremely tall now! Look at you; you've got at least a foot on me… Keith?"
Keith had looked confused at her comment on how he'd grown, but then he walked up to her. Kate backed up against her wardrobe. The taller of the two slowly smirked as the realization of his height advantage dawned upon him. He put both of his hands on either side of the smaller, pinning her to the wardrobe.
"Now I get it," he grinned as if he'd just solved an extremely hard math problem. "You didn't shrink. I just grew!"
Kate stared at him, but then laughed slightly at his incompetence.
"People do that," she repeated.
.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.
Erma turned to the two Top Rangers sternly. "This is a very important Mission," she warned, "so take it seriously! That means you, Mr. Evans!"
"Yes, Chairperson Erma!" Kate and Keith answered (Keith a little more grudgingly than his partner).
"Another thing," Erma added. "You are not to tell anyone about why you need the records for Kincaid. It would be a trouble if it got out to parents around the world that a criminal had been a teacher at the school. It's best to keep it confidential. Understand?"
"Yes, Chairperson Erma!" the two repeated, and with that they left the Union building.
"Come on!" Keith groaned once they were out of earshot. "Our first mission as Top Rangers, and we have to go to the Ranger School to gather information on old Kincaid of all people! Jeez!"
Kate sweatdropped and smiled. "Don't be such a downer," she chided softly, "this is important, too. We need to find out as much as we can about Mr. Kincaid in order to successfully apprehend him."
Keith glowered at the girl. "Stop calling him Mr. Kincaid," he huffed. "He's nothing but a crook who takes pleasure in stealing other peoples' Pokémon. Call him names like, 'that idiot Kincaid' or, 'that lowlife Kincaid!'"
Kate looked up at Keith with wide, anxious eyes, but then her face hardened in determination. "Um, OK," she said resolutely. She took a deep breath and tried again.
"T… that l-lowlife i-i-idiot… Mr. Kincaid…"
…
Keith burst out laughing. Tears had welled up into Kate's eyes before she'd even finished and she looked as if she was about to apologize to an imaginary Kincaid on the spot.
"T-t-that was priceless!" Keith gasped through his hysterics. "Absolutely priceless! Man, being rude to people really isn't your thing, is it?
Kate sniffed as her face was dyed red. "I-it's not my fault," she protested halfheartedly. "I'm just not good at teasing people. I can't take a joke well most of the time, and I overreact when I do things wrong and apologize too much."
Keith straightened up from his fit and grinned up at the sky. "That's because you're a good person," he stated plainly. "You're a little too nice for your own good, but somehow you wear pureness well…"
He looked over at Kate's half shocked, half embarrassed face and snickered again.
"You're really cute, you know that?" He laughed.
"C—!" Kate's face went an even darker shade of red as she stopped walking and looked at her feet.
"…Don't be stupid," she mumbled, "I'm not cute at all. I'm too plain. I'm not the kind of person you'd notice when she'd walk into a room. All I am is a fainthearted girl who can't even find the strength to tell a half-decent lie."
"So in other words, you're a modest, shy girl who will always tell the truth," Keith translated, stopping with her. Kate looked up at him in surprise and he smiled. She was adorable when he tried to compliment her, he'd have to do it more often.
"People all have different ways of interpreting 'cuteness', Kate," Keith sighed, starting to walk the path again. "For example, you believe that evil toad of yours is the cutest thing alive."
"Falsetto's cute!" Kate protested, her face growing hotter from anger as she ran to catch up with the boy. "How can you not call those innocent eyes cute?"
Keith glanced down at the Croagunk's yellow orbs, each with a sinister black pupil in the middle. He rolled his eyes so fast the world became a multicolored blur. "My point," he retorted. "Everyone sees cuteness in different things. I see it in you."
Kate stared at him with wide pale blue eyes. Keith had often wondered if that color was natural. They were just so bright and nearly colorless; he'd often looked secretly at her and accidentally seen her irises as white. Now, under the glare of the midday sun as they walked the path to the Ranger School, the tint of blue in them was obvious. Her eyes were stretched out like saucers, and Keith pondered for a minute if they'd always been that wide. No, normally her irises were large and calm looking. So why now? Her face was looking a little flushed too… Wait a minute. Oh. OH!
"I DIDN'T MEAN IT LIKE THAT!" Keith yelled suddenly, his face heating up violently. "I—it's just—what I mean is, it's kind of cute when you freak out and it's downright adorable when you're being polite and oh-my-Arceus-why-the-hell-did-I-say-that. Hang on, let me start over! What I mean is—is that you should have some more self-confidence, because you are kinda cute! But I don't mean it like—like—oh, Arceus, what the hell am I trying to say?"
Keith groaned and sat down on a nearby tree stump, bending down and burying his face in his hands. "I sound like an idiot," he mumbled.
"Uh, yeah, you kinda do," Treble managed through the fit of laughter she'd been having.
Kate, on the other hand, knelt down in front of the boy. Her face was red and her eyebrows were drawn together in confusion, but… but… was she smiling?
"Thank you," she giggled slightly. "You're right, I should have more self-confidence, shouldn't I?"
Keith looked up slightly through his bangs and saw her blushing slightly, her eyes looking down a little in embarrassment, and the corners of her mouth pulled up in a slight, shy smile.
Either he liked her so much that he was exaggerating her cuteness, or all of it was totally natural.
"…You're damn right, you should," he muttered in reply as he cuffed her lightly over the head.
Then again, maybe it was both.
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"Mr. Kincaid?" Principal Lamont said in confusion. "But why do you need his records?"
"Because he—" Keith started in exasperation, but Kate grabbed his arm to stop him, shaking her head. Keith then remembered his orders.
"You are not to tell anyone about why you need the records for Kincaid."
…Erma had said. Luckily, Kate covered for him.
"I'm sorry, Mr. Lamont, but this is an ongoing investigation and thus everything must be kept strictly confidential for the time being," she said plainly.
How did she think up so many big words on the spot?
Lamont nodded and smiled. "Of course, of course, I'm sorry for asking so rashly," he chuckled. "But I see you're as professional as ever when it comes to your tasks, Miss Lovett."
Kate blinked, and then she blushed light pink as she looked down. "Oh, no, I'm not that…" she murmured quietly.
Lamont rummaged around in his desk for a moment before pulling out a folder and holding it out. Kate took it and read through the contents.
"College graduations are average, it doesn't look as though he had a criminal record—" 'Although all of this stuff was probably forged,' Kate reminded herself as she kept reading, "—no credit cards, no exceptional childhood accomplishments… …he was given an award for gentle and understanding behavior towards children…?"
"LIAR!" Keith shouted in aggravation.
Kate sweatdropped and read on, trying to find anything that stood out. "…No… no… …Hm?"
She stopped at one page and read through it carefully. Finally, she closed the folder and looked up at Lamont.
"Thank you, Mr. Lamont," she said. "This will help us a lot in our investigation."
"Of course!" Lamont answered good-naturedly. "I'm always happy to help former students. …Err, could I ask you a question?"
"Ask away," Keith nodded.
Lamont looked down slightly and took off his glasses, cleaning them on his shirt. "Chairperson Erma," he said, "how is she doing?"
Kate blinked. "She's doing great," she replied.
"And Wendy?" Lamont inquired further. "She hasn't been getting into too much trouble, has she?"
Keith sighed. "We've only worked at the Union for almost two days, sir," he reminded. "We wouldn't know about anything recent… but she's doing OK in my opinion. I saw her getting ready for patrol on her Staraptor this morning."
Lamont smiled and nodded. "Good… that's good," he sighed in relief. "Alright then, until next time!"
"Yes, sir! Thank you for your help!" Kate said happily as they left.
As soon as the two were off the school grounds, Kate's face became serious. "So what should we do about it?" she asked.
Keith blinked. "About what?" he asked, but Kate didn't seem to hear him as she rambled on.
"I guess we should start by looking up graduates under Mr. Kincaid's years of teaching, then look for ones with facial resemblance… maybe looking at parental relations of the students would help?" she mused.
Keith's eyebrows furrowed. "Wait, what?" he pressed. "What the hell are you going on about?"
"But then again, the form doesn't even say if it's a boy or a girl… Oh! We should probably try and find the mother too, once we find the—"
"Kate!" Keith yelled in exasperation, and Kate turned to look at him.
"Yes?" she asked innocently.
Keith growled under his breath as he tried to talk without losing his temper. "You didn't tell me what was in the form you looked at," he managed finally.
Kate jumped. "Oh, I'm sorry! I thought you were reading over my shoulder…" she apologized. Keith rolled his eyes.
"It's fine, just tell me what you found," he ordered.
Kate looked down at the folder. "…Well, according to this, he was never married," she confessed, "but he did have an affair with a woman some thirteen or fourteen years ago."
"OK, good for Kincaid," Keith said, growing impatient, "he hooked up with some lady. Your point?"
Kate looked up at Keith with slight confusion and seriousness in her features.
"That affair resulted in the woman becoming pregnant," she said. "Mr. Kincaid has a child."
