Work Text:
Kaname sat on the subway, scrolling through her music. Nothing sounded good. Which was fine, she didn't really feel good. She tapped the bottom of her phone against her backpack in her lap; fiddling with the little Brycen-Man keychain on her bag with her other hand.
"Kanaaa!" She heard a voice over her music. She looked up to see Emmet approaching her. She pulled an ear bud out of her ear.
"Emmet?"
He handed her one of the two coffees in his hands as he sat down next to her. "Yes, I am Emmet! I forgot Ingo wasn't with me! Ordered two out of habit," he laughed.
"Why isn't Ingo with you?"
"He has more a couple more battles today! I decided to head home by myself," he told her.
She found that odd. It was also odd that he would get on this line to go home but she didn't say anything. She sipped on the coffee he gave her.
"Did I see your name on the Battle Subway roster today?" Emmet asked, "Did you have fun?"
"Eh I lost to Roy and Claudia again..." she answered woefully.
"They are a tough pair! Also not the question I asked!"
Kaname couldn't help but roll her eyes a bit, "I dunno," she answered truthfully; he wouldn’t stop talking if she never answered anyway, "losing to the same people multiple times in a row isn't fun. It's like I'm stuck... I dunno what to do anymore."
"It's simple rrreally," he declared, "if you're not having fun any more, try something different. For example! Try the single battle line instead."
She made a disgusted face, "that's a whole different style of battling, we'd have to change everything, that could take weeks of training."
Surprisingly Emmet didn't say anything for a moment, he looked away from her, "Ingo said you put in your two weeks notice after your shift today."
"Yeah..." she answered quietly, "we're moving to Alola."
"You don't sound like you think that's fun," he watched her sip her coffee, waiting a moment to see if she'd say anything. The train came to a stop at the next station.
"You're an adult, are you not? You can get on the train by yourself, to your own destination."
Kaname still said nothing.
"Sometimes you're stuck because there's something on the track. You don't always see it until you hit it at full speed. It has to be cleared before you can continue safely."
He was right. One of her persistent problems was getting out of her parents' shadows. People expected a lot from the only daughter of former gym leaders; especially since her younger cousins were running a gym already. Maybe she was hoping being in a different region would just take that all away.
The train rattled along.
"Apologies, I shouldn't pry! After all, I am Emmet, rrreally just a coworker." He put an oddly heavy emphasis on the last word, like he was throwing it into the ground. He took a big sip from his coffee. Kaname gave him a puzzled look; they had worked on the subway for almost 8 years, he was hardly just a coworker. He was being very odd today.
"Just a coworker? Would I send just a coworker..." she scrolled through the chat on her phone, "fourteen pictures of Joltik I found today," she said, elbowing him.
"They were adorable!" He declared.
"C'mon, Em... 'Just a coworker'.." Kaname mumbled, mostly to herself, leaning over to hit her shoulder against his, “you know that’s not true...”
The announcer declared that the next stop was Striation City.
"You're right though about the other stuff, okay?" She admitted, elbowing him again, "Maybe I'm stuck because other things are on my mind, maybe I'm scared to actually do my own thing," she stood up and swung her backpack over her shoulder in preparation to get off at the stop. "Thanks for the coffee, Em,"
The train came to a stop and the doors opened. Kaname stepped off onto the platform, out of the corner of her eye she saw Emmet getting off behind her.
"What're you doing?" She asked as he approached her again.
"I'm not done talking to you! I haven't made you smile yet!"
"Emmet..." she sighed. She wouldn’t be able to get away from him now...his legs were too long. “If I smile for you, will you get back on the train? The next one’s not for another hour.”
“I do not mind waiting!”
Emmet hated waiting.
"Besides! Forced smiles are no fun!" he added.
She sighed. “Well you can try I guess, but I’m gonna keep walking.”
They made their way past the turnstiles, and up the stairs to the street. Emmet strode up them two at a time. The Pokemon Gym and the cafe next to it lit up the street. Shops on the opposite side of the street were already starting to turn dark for the night. Kaname refused to change her walking pace. Emmet would end up walking past her, walking a circle around her, and catching back up to her.
“It’s very serene here at night!” He observed.
“Emmet, what do you want?” Kaname sighed again.
“Hmm?” His tone said that she should know. “I haven’t made you smile today! I would like to help.”
“What do you think you’re helping with?”
He walked in front of her again, and turned around to walk backwards while he talked to her. “I think you need help reading your schedule! Others' expectations of you cannot rewrite it.”
“Emmet, my cousins are younger than me. They run the gym,” She jabbed her thumb behind her, in the general direction of the gym. “We were raised with the expectation that we would all be gym leaders--”
“But you don’t want to,”
“No, I don’t--”
“They don’t have gyms in Alola,”
“No, they don--”
“But I know,” he turned back around and slowed down to walk next to her again, “you love the gyms, the battle subway, double battles, and referrreeing so many matches every day. And your legs are so tiny!” He walked around her to be on her other side. Kaname rolled her eyes. "I know many things! You love baseball, and kendo, and!" He lowered his voice: "you're vice president of Brycen's fan club."
Her face went red, "who told you that??"
"I hear many things on the trains," he said wisely, draping an arm around her shoulders, "Definitely not jealous! If you would stick to your schedule, I think you'll find you're already at the correct station."
Kaname stopped walking suddenly, catching Emmet off guard, pulling on his arm. He turned around to face her. She was staring at her feet, which made it hard for him to see her face but in the streetlight he saw something shimmer down her cheek.
"Kana," he lifted up her head, wiped the tears from her cheek, "please don't cry."
"You're right," she sniffled, "I know that everything I love is here. But there are also problems and maybe part of me hopes living in a different region will magically solve all of them..."
Emmet held out his hand, mostly as an invitation to keep walking: "But won't you be lonely? You'll have to find new friends."
"Yeah.." Kaname quietly agreed, taking his hand. Emmet led her down the street.
They came to an intersection, where Emmet confidently chose to go left. "The other way, Em.." Kaname reminded him.
"I'm usually so good at rememberrring directions," he commented.
He really wasn't.
In front of her parents' house, he turned to face her again.
"I still didn't make you smile, quite the opposite actually!" He laughed.
"But you're still smiling," she noticed.
"Of course! I have to smile to help other people smile!"
Kaname couldn't help but smirk a little bit as she rolled her eyes.
"See! Verrry close!" Emmet brought up both his hands and gently pushed on the corners of her mouth with his thumbs.
"Emmet..."
He moved his hands a tiny bit, bent down and kissed her. The long hairs on his muttonchops poked at her cheeks. A heat welled up in her chest briefly, though her heart rate didn’t increase; she felt oddly relaxed.
"What do you think you're doing?" She asked, defensively. Despite what she said, she didn't fight him or move away. She deliberately tried to not smile, though she could feel her cheeks flushing.
"Making you smile," he reminded her.
"You might have to keep trying, I don't think it's work--mmm," she giggled as he kissed her again. He could feel her smile on the corner of her lips, which only made him want to kiss her more. She unconsciously lifted herself up on her toes a tiny bit when he moved away.
"Working verry well, I think," he laughed as he pulled her closer, pulling on the belt loops on her jeans. She could feel his belt buckle pressing into her stomach.
“Emm-et..” she giggled, not looking up at him but into his chest, embarrassed. She was definitely smiling now though.
He went to kiss her again but a voice came from the front door: "Emmet, honey! Do you wanna come inside for a bit??"
"Thank you, Mrs Nakajima! But I must continue on to my destination!" he saluted her in parting.
Emmet looked back down at Kaname. Her face was bright red; she wouldn’t look at him, but she still had a silly little smirk on her face.
“Think about the things I said, alright?” he told her quietly. That was his serious voice. Kaname nodded. “Maybe apologize to Ingo...he was rrreally upset.”
“Sure,” she agreed.
Emmet was smiling of course, but there was something forlorn about how he was looking at her.
"Don't look at me with that face after you kissed me like that," Kaname chuckled, hitting his arm.
"Sorry," he laughed a bit but it was still the serious voice, "you just...haven't smiled this much in a long time."
He was right, though she really hadn't been aware how long it had been...she struggled to remember...which was a bit worrying.
"I'm sorry if I was worrying you, Em,"
"It's okay," he declared, "I'll just have to keep making you smile!" He stuck a thumb into a corner of her mouth again; she laughed. "Have a good night, Kana."
“You too, Em,”
Emmet saluted Kaname’s mom in the doorway again before heading back down the street, back towards the station. Kaname walked up to the house. She turned back around to watch him for a moment, mostly to make sure he went the right way, before going inside.