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“You know people are calling us the ‘Power Couple’ now,” Tetsurou lilts in a way that barely manages to hide his giddiness. “Saw it on a bunch of tabloids in Unova.”
Kei smirks. “Really now?” He pushes his palm against the cool grass to use as a boost to shift closer to the other’s side. “Well it’s not every year that two regional champions just happen to be in a relationship.”
Tetsurou’s smile is that little bit brighter at the gesture, returning it tenfold by slipping an arm around the other’s waist and half-snuggling into Kei’s side. The blond rolls his eyes with a small chuckle. So much for subtlety – thankfully they’ve picked a spot where no camera could reach them.
“But what about Bokuto and Akaashi?” Tetsurou hums. “I mean the Pokemon League Champion and the Pokemon Contest Starlet should have some credit.”
“Maybe they’re causing a stir in Hoenn tabloids,” offers Kei, not missing the way Tetsurou’s smile hasn’t wavered - and, if anything, grown bigger since he last chanced a glance at it. “But you don’t seem to mind the attention.”
Tetsurou snickers, popping a kiss on Kei’s temple. “Hey, I get to dazzle the Unovian presses and spend time with you in the same day.” He jabs a thumb at himself. “How’s it feel to have a famous boyfriend?”
Kei sports a smile of his own at that. Damn, it must be contagious. “Shouldn’t you know that already?”
“Don’t I know it.” He snorts. “You have quite the fanbase, you know? You don’t say much during interviews and all that shit, but the amount of times people have asked me to get an autograph from you in Kanto is insane.”
“You get bugged by my fans?” Kei scoffs, raising his eyebrows. “I had a girl come up to me and ask to rate your performance in bed the other day.”
“Man, I got some shameless followers out there,” Tetsurou remarks with an impressed whistle. “Everyone already knows I’m a straight up ten anyway.”
Kei snorts. “Out of a hundred.”
“Hey!”
“Oh please, you set yourself up for that o—ha!” After a second of recovery, Kei immediately smacks the hand that’d just pinched his side, giving his boyfriend a stern look that looks a lot more like a pout than he wants it to. “Don’t do that.”
“Sorry, sweetheart,” Tetsurou apologizes after a few seconds of laughing. After settling down he moves to rest his head on Kei’s shoulder, pulling him just that little bit closer. “You just make it too easy.”
“Mm,” is all Kei can suffice to that, his previous retort disgruntled by the ministration and the fact that Tetsurou’s snuggling is causing his bedhead to brush against his neck and jaw. “You’re just too persistent.”
“But you love it.”
Kei rolls his eyes, not making an effort to suppress his smile. “The presses love it too. At least they move on to some other topic in the next week or two.”
“Aww what?” he whines, squeezing Kei and wiggling around a bit to further accentuate his petulant displeasure at the idea. “I kinda like being the ‘Power Couple’. I mean, who else are they going to give that title to?”
Kei hums in consideration. “Other than Bokuto and Akaashi, there are those two newbies causing a stir in Kanto – some redheaded shorty and his travelling companion.” A fleck of annoyance flashes onto his face. “They’re still counting up their badges, but apparently they’ve been beating leaders and trainers into the dust.”
“Oh?” Even if he can’t see his face at the moment, Kei knows Tetsurou well enough to visualize the shit-eating grin that he’s got on as he speaks. “Is the one and only Sinnoh Pokemon League Champion Tsukishima Kei feelingthreatened in his golden seat of fame?”
The blond averts his eyes to the side. “…Maybe.”
Tetsurou blinks. It’s one thing for Kei to actually care about his fame – not the popular assumption, given that he treats it like a fly that’s taken a liking to buzzing about in his personal space. But it’s another thing for him to actuallyadmit it.
A feline grin grows on Tetsurou’s lips. Man, he has it bad.
Tetsurou lifts his head from its idle position on Kei’s shoulder, moving his arm from around the other’s slim waist to around his neck.
“Then maybe we should dazzle the paparazzi with a show of our own?” With the way his eyebrows are waggling, Kei might take the proposition to be more on the suggestive side, but they both know that isn’t what this is about.
They didn’t get to where they are through just battling, after all.
“What are you proposing?”
“Well,” he begins, drawing on the vowel while rolling his eyes, “Unova’s Pokemon League season is just about to start…”
Kei hums, his current expression of distant disinterest the same one he puts on for all those interviews. “And?”
“Which gives us six, maybe seven months to pummel all those leaders and trainers into the dust before the championships begin.” His tone is somewhat aloof, but it’s all part of the character.
They both fall into place: the externally reluctant blond whose plain demeanor masks his internal drive to crush his opponents to his own victory, and the lanky-looking bedhead whose aloof personality is a façade to get his opponent’s guard down before giving them a beating so hard their ancestors would feel it.
The Inter-Region Power Couple who’ve fooled everyone but themselves.
“So, we take the first ship to Unova and set out from there?” clarifies Kei, jumping straight to the plan. “It’ll be big news once the presses find out - ‘The Inter-Region Power Couple goes head to head in the Unovian Pokemon League’.”
Though his tone feigns reluctance, there’s a spark in his eyes and a small grin teasing at the corners of his lips that Tetsurou’s only seen when Kei’s about to engage in a good battle.
Unable to resist, he gives Kei a quick peck on the lips.
“Then let’s give ‘em a good one, sweetheart.”