And it's done, after about five re-writes it's done! Now with more fluff to make up for the lack of ExpressShipping goodness from me : D

In other news: Who else is super excited for the special this week? I know I am! I'm telling you, this month has been good to me. Subway Master episodes, nice new expressshipping pictures over on Pixiv, possibly a con coming up, and I've finally started classes! I have a good feeling about the rest of this year C:

15. Escape

For all his stoicism, his unflinching, emotionless mask and his "rules are the key to a good life" way of thinking, even Nobori needed to get away from it all; White knew this about him all to well. The Trainer liked to think that she knew Nobori almost as well as Kudari did -although that was probably wrong, since the Subway Masters had spent their whole lives together- and that she could pick up on his little quirks: an eyebrow twitch to express annoyance, pinching the bridge of his nose to express exasperation, the corner of his mouth twitching upward ever so slightly to express happiness or him being calm, little things like that. His eyes always told more than his seemingly limited amount of facial expressions, and whenever a furious storm was raging in his eyes White knew something had finally pushed him over the edge.

He never yelled out in his native language and threw his hat to the ground like Kudari did whenever someone pushed his buttons too many times, no. Nobori always kept his emotions in check, locked up inside him until he could release them in a place where they couldn't hurt anyone else -or how other people perceived him. Nobori's place of escape was the roof of Gear Station, as everyone who worked there knew, and more often than not if Nobori's hat and coat were hung up in the break room then he was up there.

Any other person would have just let the Subway Master be by himself -several Depot Agents had told her this- but White wasn't any other person. Nobori wasn't her superior, and she wasn't another one of the dozens of challengers who couldn't give a damn about his feelings. She was Nobori's friend. And since Kudari was busy with him own battle schedule that left White to confront the older of the twins.

White was met with a breeze of cold, crisp winter air as she pushed the last door open, the snow-covered expanse of the roof in front of her, along with a gorgeous view of the ferriswheel, still running despite the fact only a few people went to the amusement park that time of year. As much as she wanted to just stand there and take in the view she focused on finding Nobori, although it didn't take much to find him, since he was standing just a yard to the left of the door. He didn't even notice White's appearance, which was concerning in its own right, since Nobori was usually alert to everything.

His posture was as pin-straight as it always was, the only thing different was the cigarette dangling from his lips. Nobori wasn't a big smoker, despite having an ashtray on his desk, and only humored the bad habit when he was either incredibly stressed, frustrated, and in less common occurrences: deep in thought.

"You look like a teenager in those bad high school dramas." White joked as she let the door swing closed behind and approached the Subway Master. Nobori didn't respond, he didn't even seemed shocked at the girl's sudden appearance, he simply took the cigarette from his lips, blew a cloud of smoke out and said evenly,

"You are not allowed up here."

"Yeah, but I'm not allowed in the break room or the same subway car as you or Kudari without battling first, either. Does anyone care? No." The brunette shrugged as she stood next to the Subway Master. "Soooo... you feel like telling me what's got you so riled up?"

"Not particularly."

"Figures." White snorted, looking towards the expansive view of the city they were able to see from their perch. "Y'know, if you bottle up your feelings all the time it can have adverse aside effects." The brunette started, twirling a front lock of her hair around her finger idly. "Stress, gray hair -not that you need to worry about that- sickness, it even increases the chances of you going batshit insane. Or, so I've read."

"Oh really?" Nobori asked around another puff of smoke, a hint of amusement sneaking into his voice. "Vhere did you read this?"

"Internet."

"Of course." Nobori said a barely-there chuckle coming from his throat, muffled even further by the object in between his lips.

"Well we can't all be bookworms like you, especially in this day and age."

"You say zhat now, but just vait until you ruin your eyesight from staring at a screen all day."

"I'm not gonna ruin my sight!"

"Are you sure about zhat?"

"Jerk." White said humorously, throwing a handful of snow at her rooftop companion although he didn't seem to pay much mind to the flurry of snow thrown in his direction. The Trainer smiled at Nobori before kneeling down, packing some snow together to make a mini-snowman. At least he wasn't as tense as when she had first found him, and that was always a good thing.

16. Challenge

"Today... is the day!" White declared, slamming her hand down dramatically onto the table of the break room, the sound reverberating throughout the room until the Trainer took her hand back with a quiet "ow" and shook it back and forth.

"The day for vhat?" Kudari asked, watching his friend's antics with an amused expression, although only Nobori and White could really tell he was amused.

"That day I face Elesa, of course! I've been putting it off for too long, it's time for me to get back on track!"

"Have you even trained?" Nobori asked over the rim of his coffee mug, his comment earning an annoyed glance from White.

"Of course I've trained! Just because you didn't see it doesn't mean I haven't." She defended, crossing her arms over her chest stubbornly. Unless White had done her training at night or the early morning, Nobori didn't see how she could have fitted training into the five days she had been in Nimbasa City, most of her time had been spent with himself and Kudari.

"Good luck~!" The younger twin encouraged, White looking towards him and returning his smile.

"Thank you, Kudari." She held up her hand, gesturing for a high five which the older man gave enthusiastically. "At least you're supportive, unlike some othernegative-nancy I could mention."

"I am not being negative, Miss. Vhite," Nobori sighed, setting his mug on the table. "I am being realistic. You have heard of Miss. Elesa's battle style, ja?"

"She... uses Volt Switch a lot?" The Subway Master sighed again and rubbed his forehead-White hadn't studied properly at all, had she?

"Miss. Elesa specializes in speed and evasion, your Pokemon vill be knocked out before you know it if you are not careful."

"That's what I have Jade for," White pointed out. "She's wicked fast and has good resistance." The brunette nodded to herself in approval, one finger drawing little circles on the surface of the table."

"Emolga is part flying, Jade vould be taken out in a few turns. Even if she did last longer, Lady Elesa's Zebstrika knows Flame Charge."

"... You can be a realsmartass sometimes. You know that, Nobori?"

"Zhink vhatever you vant." White clicked her tongue and drummed her fingers against the table, Nobori took another sip of his coffee and Kudari started playing with a Joltik he had hidden away under his hat.

"I've got it!" The Trainer suddenly yelled, standing up with enough force to knock her chair back, the Joltik in Kudari's grasp letting out a protesting squeak as his hands tightening around its small body in shock. Across the table meanwhile, despite nearly chocking on the beverage in his mouth, Nobori managed to swallow. "I'll make a deal with you," White began, placing both hands on the table and leaning closer to Nobori. "If I can beat Elesa then you take me to the amusement park for a day." The gray-haired man blinked and quirked an eyebrow in question, calmly placing his mug back down.

"Vhat does your gym challenge have to to vith me, exactly?"

"You were a smartass."

"...Zhat was one of the most ridiculous reasons I've ever heard." White huffed, a frown that could match Nobori's on her face as she continued to stare straight into his eyes- storm gray meeting cobalt blue.

"Humor me, would you? I'm probably gonna be in the city for a few more days days after I get my badge before moving on. Pardon me for wanting to do something fun."

"Zhis is her way of asking you for a date, Bruder!" Kudari said with a jovial laugh as he pet the tiny Pokemon in his hand.

"No it isn't!" White snapped, a prominent blush coming to her face as she looked towards Kudari. "When I win you're coming with us. So it isn't a date. So there." White finished her claim by sticking her tongue out at the other Subway Master, who only smiled widely and waved it off,

"Vhatever you say, Vhite~"

17. Cute

At first glance White didn't seem to be the type to like cute things. She seemed to lack any kind of talent in being a "real girl" or "cute," and honestly could care less about that fact. Her legs always had some sort of bandage on them from a bruise or scrape, she carelessly swept her hair up in a big, bushy high ponytail, and she certainly wasn't afraid to hit someone when they annoyed her enough.

For those aforementioned reasons, it was almost alien to see White skip up to the the older Subway Masyer with a Audino doll -easily a little less than half her size- in her arms and a huge smile on her face (it was almost as alien as the idea of Nobori being in the Amusement Park).

"Aren't you zuh one who said you didn't need things like zhat," Nobori gestured to the doll, "since you are traveling?" White hugged the toy closer to her chest in response, frowning over the top of the fake pink fur covered head.

"Yeah, but this is cute." White argued, like it was the easiest concept in the world and Nobori was slow for not getting it. "And it's so soft~~!" She squealed, hugging the plush toy tighter and nuzzling her cheek into the top of its head. "Feel." Nobori blinked and took a step back when the doll was shoved in his face, looking down at the sewn-together pink and cream colored face of the Audino toy. For a few awkward moments the two just stood there, the teenage girl holding a near life-sized plush toy towards a fully grown man, and the grown man looking at the toy like he had never need one before in his life. "Nobori, you know you want to." White persisted, adjusting the doll's weight before lifting one of the Audino's stubby little arms and pressing it to the Subway Master's nose with a small "beep." Nobori blinked and rubbed his nose when the offending item was taken away so the toy could be cuddled properly by its new owner.

"You've spent too much time around Kudari." He commented, causing White to laugh merrily -such a lovely sound...

"Speaking of Kudari, where is he? Visiting with Elesa?"

"Ja, I believe so." Now that she reminded him, Kudari had actually asked that Nobori not follow him into the gym -such an odd request from his usually clingy little brother.

"Figured as much." The Trainer said with a nod of her head, her tone suggesting she knew something Nobori didn't. She walked around the man, Nobori watching her movements (he convinced himself it was strictly out of habit, not because he liked watched her. Which he didn't) as she strode into the gym, leaving Nobori to his own thoughts once again.

Had White... always been that cute? He felt heat rising to his cheeks and put his face in the palm of his hand. Why did White have to make not thinking about her in that way so hard?

18. Up and Around

It was a pretty cliched way to end the day, riding the ferriswheel, and yet Nobori found himself sitting in the car with White next to him, although Kudari pushing him into the line with White might have also had something to do with the current situation.

A light snow had started falling after threatening to do so all day, and Kudari had decided that he would be happier on the nice, solid ground -snow or no- than up at least one hundred and forty feet and freaking out at the slightest movement of the car.

White set her Audino doll on the space next to her, wrapping an arm around it and waving to Kudari as the ride slowly began its ascent with a light jerk. "Well, this is much better than the last time I was on the ferriswheel," White commented as she looked around the Subway Master to look at the rising horizon.

"Last time?" Nobori found himself asking, mentally scolding himself that whatever White did in her spare time was no concern of his -as hard as it was for some people to believe, she did have a life outside the station.

"Augh, it was weird. Like really, really weird." White replied, "this guy I ran into in Accumula Town -N, I think- bumped into me when I was here about to get my badge. Now there's nothing wrong with that, 'hello, hi, I ran into you in Accumula a while ago.' The thing is he..." She paused, twirling a lock of hair around her finger.

"He?"

"He-kinda-sorta-forced-me-into-the-ferriswheel-with-him." White blurted, pausing to catch her breath afterwards.

"...In Englishplease, Miss. Vhite."

"Okay, fine, He shoved me in one of the cars because he needed to talk about something soooooo important," White replied, her voice dripping with mocking sarcasm as she drawled out the word "so" before making an irritated sound. Nobori's previously neutral lips curved down into a frown, his brow creasing slightly as a unknown -and not at all pleasant- feeling wriggled and writhed in his stomach, moving through his ribcage and prodding at his heart.

"Vhat could have possibly been so important?"

"It wasn't important," the brunette replied, far too rushed to be casual.

"Miss. Vhite-" Nobori began, his words dying on his tongue when the girl put a hand on his knee, leaning over his legs and pointing to the scenery on his side of the car with her free hand.

"Hey, look! You have a really nice view of the sunset from up here!" The Subway Master's brow creased further as he looked at the girl before following her finger to the view outside.

"So we do." Nobori mused, watching as the slowly falling snow caught in the fading golden-yellow light of the sun, making them shimmer lightly as they drifted lazily down to earth. Worry nibbled on his subconscious but he didn't acknowledge it and ignored the urge to pry his companion for further information about this "N" character.