"Are you sure these are going to work, Cam?"
…said Keith as he looked down dubiously at the outfits his older brother had given him and Kate. They basically looked just like the regular outfits, except the jackets were now long-sleeved with hoods, and the shorts were now pants.
Kate smiled nervously at her partner. Cameron scoffed as he glared slightly at his younger brother.
"Of course they're going to work!" he insisted. "These outfits were specially designed through medial and scientific knowledge to make sure you guys don't freeze your asses off in Hia Valley. Would I ever steer you wrong?"
"Yes," Keith answered bluntly. Cameron growled slightly, but then his features relaxed slightly as he turned to Kate.
"I put extra insulation on your outfit, Kate, so you shouldn't totally fall asleep when you get to Hia Valley," he assured. "You don't have to worry."
Kate blinked. "What…?" she said, confused. "How did you know I get tired in the cold?"
Cameron blinked back at her. "Err… my brother," he responded as he pointed at Keith, who was making exaggerated gestures behind Kate that would usually be determined to mean 'shut the hell up'.
Kate looked back and stared at Keith, who just turned away to hide his now red face. "It'd be a problem if you fell asleep on this mission," he said defensively, "so I mentioned it to Cam."
Kate stared a bit longer, but then seemed to realize what she was doing and immediately looked away.
"T-thanks," she mumbled. Keith made some hybrid of a mumble and grunt in response.
Kate wasn't exactly sure what had come over her these past couple of days—maybe even weeks. She hadn't been aware of it before, but ever since the previous day—her 13th birthday—she had been exceedingly nervous around Keith. Ever since that incident…
'GET YOUR HANDS OFF OF MY GIRL!'
She knew it had just been a maneuver to get those boys away from her. But… when Keith had yelled that phrase, those words, she'd felt something strange. Her heart had swelled, feeling as if it was about to burst, and then it had started beating so fast she felt like her ribs were going to break.
Plus, there was the kiss. The forehead kiss. Kate didn't understand why, but for some reason she couldn't shake the nagging feeling that she'd felt the same sensation of rough, coarse, and yet somehow incredibly gentle lips on her forehead sometime before.
…But where?
Meanwhile, Keith's head was also filled with similar thoughts to the brunette's. However, his mindset was more resembling of this:
Oh-my-Arceus-why-the-hell-did-I-even-try-something-like-that-aauugghh.
Somewhere along those lines.
He'd already pushed the boundaries when she was asleep after the whole Sven deal. But kissing her when she was conscious? Was he going INSANE?
Well, let's review the events of that dream and/or nightmare of a day. He A) wiped chocolate off of her face at a restaurant in full view of what was possibly at least ten or twenty people—B) yelled at a bunch of delinquents to get their 'hands off of his girl' when they weren't even touching Kate, much less 'his girl', and C) freaking kissed her on the freaking forehead when she was fan-freaking conscious.
Thank Arceus she was dense as a rock.
"Make sure you keep in touch with Voicemail on a regular basis," Cameron instructed, jerking Keith out of his thoughts, "and be careful about all the Ice-types that live up there. They'll be a little tricky to capture at first, but you should get used to their tactics before long."
"Thank you, Cameron!" Kate smiled.
"Yeah, what she said…" Keith mumbled half-heartedly as they started for the door.
The two walked in near deadly silence down the halls as they headed for the escalator, and Keith was scrambling for something to say, anything, to break the tension. He was about to make an oh-so-intelligent comment about the weather when—
BAM!
"W-whoa!" Kate exclaimed, falling backwards. Keith caught her effortlessly with one arm, looking up to see who had just collided spectacularly with the brunette, only to find Rhythmi sitting dazed on the floor.
"Rhyth?" Keith said. "Why are you in such a rush?"
Rhythmi seemed to be exhausted, and she had to pant out the words in her struggle to get them out. "Professor Hastings… crazy," she gasped. "Top Operators contacting… all the labs… in Almia."
Kate blinked as she straightened up. "Is this about the whole blue jewel reacting to the Dark Shard thing?"
Rhythmi nodded wordlessly in response, unable to verbally communicate at this point.
"Be careful not to wear yourself out," Kate worried aloud.
Keith grinned, a visage of pure evil, adding, "Yeah, Isaac would hate it if you got too stressed out."
Rhythmi whapped Keith over the head with a paper folder she was carrying, her face a fine red. "I—do—not—like—him!" she spluttered. At that moment, though, she suddenly looked a bit thoughtful.
Kate stared. "Something wrong, Rhythmi?"
Rhythmi jolted. "A-ah! W-well… it's just… you went to Altru Incorporated the other day, right?" she asked. "Did… you see Isaac?"
…
"PROOF!" Keith suddenly shouted after the silence that had followed. "I HAVE PROOF THAT RHYTMI SONG IS IN LOVE WITH ISAAC CALLIDUS!"
"YOU BASTARD!" Rhythmi screeched, whacking him with a hardcover binder now.
Kate looked puzzled. "Isaac?" she mused. "Come to think of it, we asked Momo about him when we were there…
"Isaac?" Momo blinked, her eyebrows shooting up to hide behind her dark brown hair. "Sorry, he went out in the field for company research and experimenting. Haven't seen him in weeks."
"Oh, I see…" Kate nodded, ignoring the songs Keith was currently mumbling over his breath about Rhythmi and Isaac kissing in a tree or something of that sort. "What sort of project is he on?"
Momo frowned. "Sorry, but even I don't know that, and I'm the head secretary here," she sighed, seeming a bit miffed at this fact herself. "But if I do find anything out, you'll be the first to know, OK?"
Kate smiled. "OK!"
Rhythmi looked dismayed at this information. "Oh, I see…" she mumbled.
"Don't worry, Rhythmi," Keith assured in mock consolation, "I'm sure that wherever he is, no matter how long the distance, you will always be on his mind—"
Rhythmi then pushed Keith down the escalator.
Kate looked after the redhead as he tumbled down the steps, his fall becoming slightly permanent due to the fact that he was hurtling down an 'up' escalator.
"R-Rhythmi, don't you think that was going a bit too far…?" Kate said shakily.
Rhythmi simply shrugged as she turned to walk away. "Nope," she said. "He pissed me off, and besides, his skull is too thick to effectively damage anyways."
.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.
"I still can't believe she pushed me down an up escalator," Keith mumbled irritably as he and Kate walked down the streets of Puel City.
"You had it coming," Kate sighed in response, "and besides, you didn't fall for that long."
"I fell for twenty minutes!" Keith cried in protest. "And you didn't even help!"
"…That's because it looked kind of funny," Kate mumbled.
Keith glared at her, ignoring Voice's cheers of 'See? She enjoys your pain as much as I do!' in his head.
Kate sweatdropped at the glare, but was quickly distracted as they walked into the main square. There was a large sign posted, apparently advertising some event or another in the coming weeks. "Hm? What's this…?" she mused, scanning the board over with her eyes.
"Probably some stupid cheesy event…" Keith mumbled, but blinked when he saw Kate's change in expression. "Kate?"
Kate's eyes were now sparkling, and a faint blush had overridden her cheeks. Keith stared. "Kate?" he repeated.
"OH MY ARCEUS!" was her reply.
"W-what the—" Keith stammered at the sudden outburst, but Kate was thoroughly ignoring him.
"It's them! It's them!" she was screaming. "Oh, my Arceus, it's them!"
"It's who?" Keith questioned angrily, turning his head to look at the sign. He blinked when he read the large, over-stylized text.
GO ROCK QUADS
IN ALTRU SQUARE FOR ALTRU INC'S ANNIVERSARY
ONE NIGHT ONLY!
Keith stared. "Go Rock Quads, Go Rock Quads…" he mumbled, "where have I heard that name before…?"
"What? How can you not know the Go Rock Quads?" Kate exclaimed. "They're only, like, the biggest thing in Fiore! They're a band, but they actually used to be former criminals! They changed their ways, and now they're touring the world to show off their music…"
She shocked Keith by actually swooning slightly. "I just have to meet Billy! He's my favorite!"
Keith felt a twinge of annoyance at this comment. Not wanting to know who 'Billy' was for the fear that 'Billy' would suffer some severe injuries if he found out, he kept his mouth shut and continued on. "Whatever, let's just go…" he mumbled.
Kate was sparkly-eyed throughout the entire walk, occasionally mumbling things under her breath like, 'I want to hear them play' and 'Billy…'
Eventually, the two reached the river they were supposed to go through in order to reach Hia Valley. Kate quickly captured a Floatzel, and Keith climbed onto it in the water, taking his shoes and socks off and placing them in his small belt compartment.
Kate nodded. "OK, you go first, and then send Floatzel back for me," she said.
Keith blinked. "What? Why?" he inquired curiously.
Kate huffed. "There isn't enough room on it for us to go together!" she insisted. Keith simply stared.
"Sure there is!" he said, grabbing Kate's wrist and pulling her forward. The brunette yelped as she was forcibly seated in front of the boy.
Keith leaned over and positioned her arms so that they were around the Floatzel's neck. He then placed his arms directly over hers and set his chin on her shoulder, his body pressing into hers.
Kate immediately felt as if her heart was ready to burst open. What was going on? What was this feeling? Was it good, or bad? She couldn't answer any of them, but she didn't have to, because Keith's voice cut through her thoughts.
"Kate? You ready to go?"
"Y—yeah."
The Floatzel took off, speeding through the water, and Kate prayed to Arceus that Keith would put the loud pounding of her heart to the fact that they were going nearly 100 miles per hour.
As they sped down the river, Kate noticed that it was slowly becoming colder—and with it, her eyelids becoming heavier.
'W-what the…?' she thought as the temperature dropped. Wasn't the clothing she had supposed to be insulated? That was what Cameron had said, at least… so why was she feeling so…?
"Kate?" Keith's voice broke through her thoughts. "Did you hear me? I said we're almost there.
"Y… y-yeah, s-sure…" Kate mumbled through her impending drowsiness.
What was going on? Her vision was getting dim. The bumpy Floatzel ride was now feeling more and more like a relaxing cradle. Why was she here again? Was she supposed to be sleeping? Sleep was good. She'd like to sleep. Just drift off into nothingness…
A few hours later (although it seemed like no more than two minutes to her), her peaceful mindset was interrupted once more.
"OK, we're here," Keith's voice registered dimly into her thoughts. She thought she heard another voice, but she didn't seem to have the brain capacity to focus on both at once. "Oh! Are you Murph's dad? …Yeah, we do need a place to stay… OK, awesome. That sounds great. Kate, hurry up! Do you need help getting off the Floatzel or something?"
Looking back, Kate would remember climbing off the Floatzel onto a dock, and standing in front of Keith and some other blurry figure.
Then everything went black.
.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.
"Kate! KATE!"
Keith's eyes widened as the brunette fell forward. Immediately, he caught her before she got a faceful of snow.
"What the hell…?" he muttered. "Aren't these outfits supposed to be insulated?" Sure, he felt cold, but not so much that he was ready to faint… then again, he wasn't Kate.
Murph's father, a kind-looking man who had introduced himself as Pamur (a rather odd combination of 'Pa' and 'Murph', strangely enough), looked worried.
"Oh, my!" he exclaimed. "Is your girlfriend OK there, sonny?"
"One: she is NOT my girlfriend," Keith scowled, ignoring the taunting remarks Voice was making in his head about how he wished that statement was false, "and two: she's fine, but I need to get her somewhere warm… where's that igloo house thing you were telling me about?" As he said this, he was lifting Kate up onto his back so that he was carrying her piggyback style.
"Right this way," Pamur said, leading Keith down a shallow snow path towards what seemed to be a mini-village of igloos. "It's late, so you can get some sleep before heading out on your investigation tomorrow."
Keith nodded. "Thanks… that sounds great."
Pamur smiled as he stopped in front of a small and yet somehow cozy looking (if ice could ever be considered 'cozy') igloo. "In here," he said, opening the small door and entering.
Keith followed, looking around the igloo. It was nice and quaint-looking; a few windows, an incinerator for heat, one bed, a small desk, some shelves—
Wait.
Back up.
"Why is there only one bed?" Keith asked cautiously, praying this was some kind of mistake.
Unfortunately, Pamur smiled sheepishly. "You see… all of the igloos are full right now," he explained, "so this is the only one available. We don't have any spare beds to move in here either, so… do you think you could share? It would be suicide if one of you slept on the snow."
"…Yeah… I-I guess we could share," Keith sighed, trying desperately to block the several fantasies he was having about sharing a bed with his crush before Voice was able to take a peek at them.
Pamur smiled more. "Great!" he said. "Well, I'll leave you to it. Goodnight!"
And then he was gone.
Keith sighed once more, then walked over to the bed and gently set Kate down so she was lying on it. He pulled the covers over her, then opened up his Fine Styler and started furiously punching the number of the man he was about ready to strangle at the moment.
"Hello?"
"Cameron Evans!" Keith hissed, staying just quiet enough so Kate stayed asleep. "What the hell is going on?"
Cameron blinked on the small Voicemail screen. "Excuse me?" he asked uncertainly.
"We're at Hia Valley, and Kate's completely knocked out! Your outfits didn't work, you ding-dong!" Keith growled.
Cameron's eyes narrowed.
"OK, one: Don't call people ding-dongs. Nobody says ding-dong. It's stupid. And two: the outfit's insulation takes time to work. It needs to take at least 10 hours to get used to the climate."
Keith huffed. "Then why didn't you mention that earlier?" he demanded.
"Oh, I dunno. Maybe because I'm a 'ding-dong?'" Cameron said sarcastically, looking away.
Keith rolled his eyes. "Cameron, you know I didn't mean to—"
"My feelings are hurt. I'm hanging up."
"Cam, don't you dare—"
Click.
"Ugh!" Keith groaned. He sat on the bed next to where Kate was lying down.
'When you think about it, this is actually a great opportunity,' Voice giggled in his head. 'You get to share a bed with the love of your life…'
'Yeah, and get slapped when she wakes up.' Keith groaned internally. 'She's gonna think I took advantage of her or something!'
'Nonsense. She's far too dense to think that.'
'Well, still!' Keith snapped. 'Where the hell are you, anyway? I haven't seen you or Lyrical since we got off the Floatzel.'
'Oh, we're hiding out in the forest with some nice Ice-types we made friends with,' she answered carelessly. 'Wouldn't want to interrupt your lovey-dovey time.'
'WE ARE NOT HAVING LOVEY-DOVEY TI—'
"…Keith…"
'Ugh, what is it now, Voice?'
'…That… wasn't me.'
Keith's eyes widened slightly. He felt some shifting beside him on the bed, and slowly looked down at Kate.
"…No way," he breathed.
Kate turned slightly in her sleep. She looked still, sounded completely silent, so much that Keith almost turned away and thought it was just his imagination.
But then he heard it again.
"…K… Keith…" Kate's lips parted to form his name. Just the way she said it, the way her mouth moved when she spoke, the perfect way her voice sounded wrapped around that one small syllable… it was enough to drive him crazy.
Keith's eyes were wide, and his mind was racing. Why was she saying his name in her sleep? Was she dreaming? If so, was it about him? No way. She couldn't be dreaming about him. But could she?
'She could,' Voice said quietly in his head, answering his question. 'It's… quite possible that she could be dreaming about you.'
Cue the mental scoff. 'Yeah, sure,' Keith snorted. 'Dreaming about beating the living daylights out of me when she wakes up.'
'You know she'd never do that.'
'Of course I do! It was a joke!'
Keith sighed and looked down at Kate's sleeping figure. Her eyes were closed, long, black lashes framing her eyelids, and her bangs were swept across her forehead, perfectly straight. He'd always been curious about that: While his bangs and hair in general were always impossible to tame, hers were always straight, accenting her ivory skin perfectly. Her cheeks were flushed a slight pink from the cold. Taking this in slowly, not wanting to miss a single detail, his eyes moved down to her lips.
Perfect, pale, and pink. Kate's lips were parted slightly, breathing in the cool air, and exhaling out so softly that Keith had to strain his hearing to pick it up. He knew what they looked like, he'd seen them hundreds if not thousands of times… but the one mystery that constantly plagued him was how they felt.
They looked soft, similar to velvet. He'd felt them against his cheek before, but that had been only a split second, and he'd been caught too off guard to properly take it in…
He couldn't think. Keith could hardly breathe. Slowly, he leaned down until his face was just inches from Kate's. She was still deeply asleep—he doubted whether a full-blown marching band could wake her up now.
'Keith,' Voice warned, 'I see what you're thinking of doing, and I do not think it is a good plan.'
'I don't either. Now shut up.'
Keith brushed her bangs out of the way slightly so he could fully view her closed eyelids. Arceus, what he would give just to see her eyes in that moment. Pale blue, large, and perfectly honest. It was impossible for Kate to lie with those two eyes—he would know.
He'd seen so many emotions in those eyes. The way they glimmered slightly when she smiled at him, the intelligent look they got when she knew something he didn't, the tears and anguish that built up when she was upset… she'd looked at him with almost every emotion under the sun with those eyes… every emotion except for the one he wanted to see most.
Keith leaned down a little further. His nose was bare centimeters from hers now. Voice was nervous now, knowing what he wanted to do, and that she wasn't going to be able to stop him. He gave a small sigh through his nose as he stared at Kate.
'…I love her, Voice.'
'…I know you do.'
Slowly Keith leaned down, closing the final gap, and everything seemed to fade as he pressed his lips against hers.
