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The Doubles Train was on its way back to Gear Station after the last trip of the day. Emmet sighed as he took a seat on the bench in the back car.
Kaname kicked his foot.
"C'mon, you didn't lose that bad," she said.
"They were verrrry strong! But it was still fun," he declared, smiling up at her, “right?”
“Em,” she sighed, “don’t give me your script.” Emmet’s smile faded. "What have you really been thinking about all day?"
He just looked at her.
"Em, c'mon, what's wrong?" She kicked his foot again.
"I feel dumb. I guess! Like I'm not good enough. I'm not--” he sighed, good enough for you. He couldn’t bring himself to say it.
Kaname sat down next to him, even though the train came to a stop at the station. She put her arm around his shoulder and lifted his hat off his head as she pulled him down to her shoulder.
"I'm just an idiot," he declared, his face in his hands.
"No, you're not," she gently kissed his head. "Em, every day I come into work and I get to pick the section of the train I judge,"
"You guys get to pick?"
"I get to pick. Every day I get on this train, and I get to watch you do what you love the most. I've been judging your matches since you were a Depot Agent. You’re very good at it, and you’re fun to watch - it’s fun to watch you interact with passengers. I get to talk with you like this on the ride back every day.”
Emmet said nothing. 8 years was a long time to ride with someone every day.
“My grandpa would always say I lived for the performance, but not in the same way the rest of my family did - I didn’t want to be the Gym Leader or the Subway Boss, I just wanted to be there to experience their fleeting moments like audience members who return to the same show night after night. And every day I come back to yours.”
Emmet lifted his head from her shoulder, sitting up again.
“You know that’s why he picked you, right?”
He continued to be silent.
“You create those experiences that make people want to come back and battle again.”
“You could say the same thing about Ingo,” he pointed out. Was that what this was about? She knew that he saw Ingo as the “better” brother, and occasionally that would bother him, but he usually wasn’t stuck on that feeling for so long.
“Maybe,” she shrugged.
“You’re a lot like him, I think you know,” Emmet said. “You get along verrry well.”
This was true. While she worked with Emmet every day, she usually also saw Ingo every day in some capacity. When she was with both of them, Ingo and her usually talked the most though that was just because Emmet didn’t always like to talk so much.
“Hmm, I get along better with you,” she reassured him. This was also true, she found Emmet a lot easier to just be with and hang out.
“We look the same. You can’t tell me you’re not attrrracted to him,”
Ah.
She’d be lying if she said otherwise, though - they were identical after all.
“You’re both hot,” she declared, “obviously I can’t argue with that. But you don’t look exactly the same.”
Emmet side-eyed her in disbelief. When he wasn’t smiling it was very difficult to tell them apart; they smiled very differently, but most other expressions were almost identical.
“Really!” she laughed. “Your hair is thicker,” she said, sliding her fingers into his hair, “your eyes are slightly more blue, the lines on your facial hair aren’t always as straight.” She laughed again.
Emmet rubbed the hair on the side of his face self-consciously, blushing a little bit.
“You’re cuter when you’re embarrassed,” she said gently, not wanting to sound like she was making fun of him.
His face flushed more, he couldn't help but smile when she looked at him like that.
"Why do you look at me like that." Emmet said.
"Why do you look at me like that?" She asked back. Emmet wouldn’t look at her. "Because I love you, idiot," Kaname answered; her voice got quieter as she talked, as she realized she hadn't said that to him before.
“Ah! So I am an idiot!” Emmet declared.
“No-! Emmet!” she scoffed as she rolled her eyes.
He chuckled and reached over and kissed her; both of their laughs muffled by the others' lips.
“Em, you don’t have to say i--” Emmet gently pressed his thumb over her lips.
“No, Kaname, I--” he started. She forgot to breathe for a second. It felt so intimate when he used her whole name. Emmet let out a little embarrassed laugh; he straightened up a bit, towering even farther over her. “I am Emmet, and I do love you.”
He went to bring his lips to hers again, but she was laughing.
“Did you really have to start with the--” Emmet pressed more of his hand over her mouth this time.
He darted his eyes away, embarrassed, “you like it.”
Kaname could only giggle in agreement.
"I love spending time with you everyday," she added, a bit sheepishly. "Don't ever feel like I'm here because I have to be or anything."
“I know,” he sighed. “I’m sorrrry, Kana.” She didn’t think he had anything to be apologizing for, but she just accepted his apology. “Thanks for putting up with an idiot like me,” he added.
“I told you, you’re not an idiot,” she said again, standing up. She held out his hat to him. “C’mon, let’s get off the train before Ray comes around and yells at us.”
“The day’s not over til Ray makes us get off the trrrain,” Emmet declared, taking his hat. The custodian had the job he did because he didn’t like talking to people, and hated that Emmet and Kaname took forever to get off the train.
“Okay, let me rephrase: I don’t really want Ray to walk in here on us making out,” she pointed towards the door. Not that it would be embarrassing (it would a little bit...) but they were technically still at work.
“A’rrright,” Emmet agreed as he got out of his seat.
They passed Ray as they made their way across the platform.
“Wow,” the old man said, “y’all can get off the train.”
“Have a good night, Ray,” Kaname told him. He waved a quick salute towards them.
Emmet walked across the station ahead of her; he would occasionally stop and wait for her to catch up or walk circles around her, like a Lillipup that didn’t want to get lost. He walked so fast.
Ingo was waiting for them in front of the employee locker rooms. He looked up from his phone as they approached him.
“A little early today, aren’t we?” he mused.
“Not too much though,” Kaname commented as she turned her key in the lock on the women’s locker room.
Ingo grabbed her arm to stop her, and waited for Emmet to enter the men's room. Kaname just looked up at him and waited.
"Apologies," he said quietly once the door had closed, "you do not work tomorrow, right?"
Kaname nodded.
"I have been trying to get Emmet to ask you to spend the night for, like, 3 weeks," he told her, "if he doesn't ask you when you come back out, I'm going to."
"Maybe careful how you word that though," she cautioned him. "He was..hmmm...” she trailed off.
"Why? Did he say something?”
"He was, uhh, he might be mistaking your insistence for interest," she told him.
"Well that’s a little silly,” Ingo said, “though I suppose I do experience desire occasionally, and you do have a lot of desirable romantic traits,"
Wait, what
"But I'm not about to take something so precious from my brother, even if both of you are, hmm, a bit behind schedule."
"Called clueless by the ace guy, amazing," she mumbled, opening the locker room door. She looked up at Ingo again, thought about saying something but decided against it, and went into the locker room.
As she removed her uniform in front of her locker, Kaname couldn’t help but think about what Ingo had said. What desirable romantic traits did she even have? Emmet could be romantic in his own way, but from an outside view the way they interacted barely looked like romance. Ingo would probably bring her flowers, and random little presents, and take her out to nice dinners....
She was getting embarrassed at the thought; she shook her head. That stuff was dumb. She pretended he hadn’t said anything.
She pulled her shirt over her head, and smoothed out the front as she pulled it down. It was a limited edition shirt for the latest Brycen-Man movie, with unique art; she admired its coolness for a moment. She looked up at her overnight bag on the top shelf of her locker, and decided to pull it down.
There were 4 knocks at the door. Kaname closed her locker.
“What, Emmet?” She called out as she went over to the door; she opened it for him. Emmet pushed her back into the room as he stepped in; the door shut behind him. She ended up very close to him.
“Are you rready to go?” he asked; she could tell he was looking over her instead of directly at her, she felt his hand gently tug on a belt loop on her jeans.
“And where am I going, handsome?” she asked as pulled at his collar.
There was a small pause. Ingo was right, what the hell were they doing?
“Where ever you want,” was what Emmet decided to say.
Kaname smiled up at him.
“I want to go home,” she told him. She pushed herself up on her toes and gently leaned against him; one hand still on his chest, she slid the other up his neck and into his hair. “All the way home,” she sighed.
Emmet took a deep breath and yanked her hips into his; he shoved his lips against hers. The longer hairs on his muttonchops scraped against her cheeks. He wrapped an arm around her waist. He was leaned so far over her, Kaname couldn’t arch her neck any more and she had to lean into the arm around her waist; one of her feet came off the ground as she tried to adjust herself.
A longing moan slipped out from Kaname’s mouth as he moved away. She threw a hand over her mouth, embarrassed, and shrank away from him.
“That’s what you’re embarrrassed about?” Emmet laughed. She couldn’t help but smile a tiny bit; she had waited all day to hear that full, actual laugh. He took the hand that she had up to her mouth. “C’mon,” holding her hand, he pulled her out the door.
Neither of them looked at Ingo when he asked if they were finally ready; both of their faces were still red. Emmet held Kaname’s hand and walked next to her as the 3 of them made their way back across the station to the Anville Town platform.