Work Text:
Somewhere in the Highlands area, Hisui
Ruka pulled his knees up closer to his chest with one hand as he poked at the remaining little coals in the fire with the stick in his other hand. He pulled his kimono tighter around his legs. Kaname's Umbreon, Kabe, sat next to him, his glowing rings bathed the dark cave in a soft yellow light.
He still felt awkward after getting caught in the middle of the argument Kaname had just had with Sneasler's Warden. He was amazed she had managed to fall asleep so quickly after he left. It was good that she was sleeping at least though.
There was a noise from outside. Kabe's ears flicked up, the light from the rings on them flashed before travelling farther through the cave. Ruka braced himself to get up, but he saw it was just the warden again.
"Oh, Warden," Ruka greeted him in a whisper, "Welcome back." He gestured for him to be quiet, and glanced back behind him at Kaname curled up in her blanket.
"I came back to apologize but I can return in the morning," Ingo told him.
"You have nothing to apologize for, in my opinion," Ruka told him. And truly, he didn't. Kaname was an idiot, and had been keeping things from him. The warden had done nothing wrong.
"This is the furrst time in two days that she has actually slept," he continued, "so I, at least, would appurreciate it if you came back later."
"She hasn't been sleeping?" Ingo asked, concerned.
"She told me she slept while I did last night, but Kabe said that wasn't true." The Umbreon nodded. Ruka looked behind him at Kaname again. "Something about the drrrreams she's been having are keeping her up...she normally doesn't toss arrround so much either," he added as Kaname fussed with her blanket in her sleep.
Ingo watched her, with a forlorn expression. He wondered if her memories were even more haunting than his own. After all, she could actually remember the people in them...He wanted to know what memories she had of him. Though. Also he didn't. He started to understand a little why she didn't want to tell him.
Both men perked up as Kaname started lashing out at an invisible foe, fighting with her blanket.
"Shishou--" Ruka grabbed her arm so she wouldn't totally entangle herself. He struggled to keep her arm in place. He yanked on it and yelled at her again. He grabbed her other arm as she brought it up to hit him.
"Ruka-!" Kaname yelled as she jumped awake. She tensed her arms. "Ruka," she said again, her eyes darted over to Ingo and back to him.
"Ruka, show me this is real," she demanded.
"Kaname.." he sighed. Tears poured down Kaname's face as she stared at him intensely.
"You will have to furrrgive me, Warden," he said to Ingo. Ruka let go of Kaname's arms and untied his obi. He removed his kimono and illusion simultaneously. The giant Hisuian Zoroark bent over Kaname.
Ingo felt a little silly, he had assumed they were romantically involved even though he called her "master". He wasn't particularly surprised to find that Ruka was actually a Pokemon, though he wasn't sure why. Perhaps it was because he was a bit odd. Though it seemed familiar to Ingo for some reason, a Pokemon that masquerades as a human...
"I'm right here," Ruka told Kaname, wrapping an arm around her. "You're not in the drrream anymore."
Kaname gripped the fur on his chest, and started audibly sobbing.
"I can put you back to sleep--" Ruka started to offer, as he laid her back down on her futon.
"I can sleep myself," Kaname snapped at him.
"Can you?" the Zoroark barked back at her.
Ingo removed his coat, and draped it over Kaname. He laid down next to her. Kabe came over and sat near her too, he made a soft meow sound. The light from his rings dimmed.
"Ingo...." she whispered.
"How about we all help you sleep," he said.
More tears poured out of Kaname's eyes. She had just been yelling at him and made him storm off, but here he was already being so kind to her again. He wrapped his arms around her; Kaname buried her face into his shirt and cried herself to sleep.
*************
Battle Subway Main Office, Nimbasa City Unova
"Kaname, are you alright?" Ingo asked her.
"Yeah," Kaname told him, rubbing her face, "I haven't been sleeping good."
"Ah, is your breakup with Elesa bothering you?" he said without thinking.
"No," she answered, unconvincingly. "I've just been sleeping weird, it's fine."
Ingo thought for a moment, and decided to drop it. "What line are you working today?" He was pretty sure she normally didn't work on days there was no Doubles Train.
"I'm just helping on the regular lines today," she yawned, and glanced at her Xtransceiver. "and I gotta head over there, I'll see you later, Ingo."
Ingo raised his hand in a wave as she left the room. He headed over to the Judge's desk.
Cathy, the Head Judge, was sitting at the desk watching battles on multiple screens. She glanced over at Ingo as he approached her desk.
"Cathy," Ingo said, "is it too late to request a Judge change for the Multi Train today?"
The answer was yes but Ingo never asked for anything. "If you want someone different for your section of the train, that's fine," she told him. "Who did you want?"
"Kaname said she was just on a commute line today." He said, "We still do double battles on the Multi Train, so she should be able to judge for us, right?"
"She's judged on the Multi Train before," Cathy reminded him. "I can get her on your platform on time."
As promised, Ingo and Emmet found Kaname in front of the first set of Multi Train doors checking challengers' team sheets before they got back on the train. She was definitely in customer mode but Ingo thought she still clearly looked absolutely exhausted.
"Kanaaa!" Emmet ran over to her as soon as she cleared the pair she had been talking to onto the train. Ingo just barely saw Kaname flash the tiniest little tired smile at his brother. Had anyone told Emmet that she had broken up with Elesa?
"You're worrking today??" Emmet was surprised.
"Clearly," she said, "do you have your team sheet?" She knew he didn't, she was already holding her hand out to Ingo as he came up to her.
"Ingo has them!" Emmet declared. Kaname took the sheets from Ingo.
"Is this right, Em?" she asked after looking at his write-up. Ingo was always amazed at her ability to actually read his brother's scribblings.
"Don't worry about it," he told her proudly, crossing his arms.
"Well, it matches your actual held items, right..?"
"Of course it does!"
Kaname was not convinced, "well remember this when I give you a loss later for your sheet not matching."
"You won't because they match this time," Emmet declared proudly again. This time?? Ingo hoped they really did match.
"Just get on the train," Kaname told them.
****
"I'm sorry we couldn't win today, Emmet," Ingo told his brother at the end of the day. He stood loosely holding onto the pole, gently swaying with the train.
His brother and Kaname were seated on the bench by Ingo. Kaname had fallen asleep. Normally she would frown upon sleeping on the clock but they let her snooze. Sleeping on the train probably wasn't the best for her, but Ingo was glad she was actually able to.
"It's okay," Emmet told him, as he gently removed Kaname's hat from her head. "Also not your fault." He hung her hat on his knee, and stretched his arm across the seat back behind her; her head naturally turned towards him a little with his arm behind it. "Besides, having a rrreally fun battle that made Kana smile is still a win."
Ingo hadn't even noticed, even though he had switched Kaname to their train in the hopes that it would lift her mood. She did not smile often, so if she did like Emmet said then his mission seemed to be accomplished. He felt a little bad, he didn't really pay attention to the judge unless they said something. They do so much and he never really paid them any attention. His brother did apparently. Though...did Kaname always judge for him?
Emmet wrapped his outstretched arm around Kaname in a little hug as the train pulled into the station. He placed her hat back on her head.
"Emmet," she said as she came out of her snooze, "why didn't you wake me up."
"You were tired," he told her. He stood up and offered his hand to help her up. Ingo decided to go ahead of them and got off the train.
"You still should've woken me up," Kaname said, taking his hand and standing up.
"Mind the gap," Emmet reminded her as he took a giant step off the train.
"Yeah yeah," she said, stepping off the train behind him.