Disclaimer:

Question: Also, who's excited for X/Y?

My Answer: Although I was holding out for an R/S/E remake, I am!

Characters: Isshushipping. (N X Touya.)

Summary: When they finally do find each other again, it's in the throne room in which they had said goodbye.

Ice

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"I've been worried about the people that believed in me."

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It is cold in the throne room.

N Harmonia steps in through the frozen doors, boots crunching across a carpet stiff with frost. Snow falls across the windows like drapes, the crumbling walls useless at keeping out the chill.

Despite it all, he feels warm. His cheeks are flushed, his head hot from all the formulas running through it—formulas that are falling apart on him, that are shattering and oxidizing and splitting like atoms as the name finally leaves his lips.

"Touya."

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"Is it because of that trainer that my heart wavers now?"

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It is cold in the throne room, but the words N speaks feel like branding irons on his tongue. "It seems that I've… found you again," he says, and his voice breaks. He had never rehearsed what he would say- never thought out the perfect equation for their reunion- but Touya's here and N's here and N doesn't quite know how to feel now that they're both together. "I wonder if you made your dream come true?"

He's talking too fast, and he knows it. The words are tangling in his throat, coming out in all the wrong order, but his body's flashing hotcoldhotcold and he has taken off his cap and is twisting it in his fingers. "No, I'm sure that you have. If anyone could, it's you."

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"There is a trainer I want to tell how I feel."

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It is cold in the throne room. It's such a far cry from their last battle together, when the room was filled with fire and shouting and the clashing of wills. N grips his hat tighter and bows his head, long hair falling forwards to hide his face.

"It has been two years since we fought. Despite having opposed each other, you still believed in me. Do you remember? No, of course you do." He takes a quick breath, and says again, "Two years. Two years since we rode the ferris wheel together, and two years since Team Plasma disbanded. I never would have believe that Ghetsis would return. Especially with such a hideous formula." He finds that he can't meet the other boy's eyes, and turns his gaze to the ice crystals that hang from the ceiling instead- ice crystals formed by Ghetsis's abuse of kyruem's powers. "To harm the pokemon and people that live here in Unova... When I was informed, I found that I was… worried for you. And so I came back."

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"I will search for that trainer I battled two years ago, and…"

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It is cold in the throne room, but the tears that spill down N Harmonia's face are hot.

"I had never imagined that he would go this far. I am so sorry, Touya." N presses his fingers to the ice crystal, against the place where Touya's are sealed in ice, and looks into eyes that have been lifeless for far too long. "Ever since I left, I have been searching for you. I just… I'm sorry for being too late." He doesn't understand love- has never had it explained to him, has never seen it while growing up in the castle- but he does understand that without Touya his theorems will forever be incomplete.

"I'm sorry for finding you like this, Touya," he says, and his tears drip onto feet encased in ice as he tries to hold a hand that will never be able to hold him back.

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"…I plan to say thank you."