(no subject)
On the whole, Kai thought that Lorelei's pokemon were given much too much freedom. His trainer and his trainer's girlfriend had raised their pokemon to be fiercer and tougher in battle, a fact of which he was particularly proud. He'd never had to face any of Lorelei's pokemon in or out of battle, however, so all he knew of them was from what he'd heard from Takumi: that they were a group of peculiar, individualistic pokemon who didn't look like they'd survive for a minute without their trainer watching over them.
So when he ran into the group of them after this whole ordeal started, he was a little surprised, though not as surprised as he was at the fact that Takumi was actually traveling willingly with his older brother.
"Takumi, you've gone soft!" he had smirked, immediately putting on his "I'm soooo cool" act.
Sadly, this act never worked on Takumi and as much as Kai wished he could wipe his slate clean with this new body and new life, it just wasn't going to happen. "I don't want to hear that from a penguin. You're perpetually soft and squishy."
Damn it all. One of these days he was going to get Takumi back. The problem was, he could never think up decent comebacks quickly enough.
The group stopped in Mauville city to look around and while everyone got situated inside the now-empty gym, Kai and Kazuya went out to scope out the surrounding area. "I don't think I sense anybody nearby," Kazuya shook his head when Kai asked him if there was anyone around.
"It's so weird that even the wild pokemon are all gone," Kai frowned. "So far I haven't run into anybody except you guys, you know?"
"Yeah, I think it was the same for us. Weird," Kazuya agreed. The Roserade was generally pretty soft-spoken and not easy to converse with, so Kai found it difficult to make small talk with him. Seeing thing else they could do, they went back to the gym where the others were gathered. When they got there, Kai saw Takumi's brother in a corner getting more or less beaten up by a purple-haired girl while Takumi looked on.
"What's going on?" he asked.
Takumi looked up. "Oh, you're back. Nothing much, I just let her have him for now. My older brother makes a pretty good stress release tool."
As Kai stared at the ensuing violence in the corner, the girl looked up and he was struck by how beautiful she was. "Wait ... who is that girl?"
"The girl? Raja? She's been here the whole time, did you just now notice? She's one of Lorelei's pokem--" Noting the look on Kai's face, Takumi suddenly looked smug. "Ohhhh. I see how it is. You think she's cute, do you?"
Raja suddenly made eye contact with Kai, stopping what she was doing momentarily. He reddened and turned away as quickly as possible. "I-I don't know what you're talking about!" he said to Takumi, though he could feel his heart rate start to speed up. "I thought Lorelei didn't have any female pokemon!" That fact alone had been why Kai had thought it'd be okay to travel with her team, since his gynophobia wouldn't be as much of a problem with them.
Takumi raised an eyebrow. "No, she's had Raja for a while now. Lorelei just doesn't use her as much in battle so maybe I never mentioned her."
"O-oh," Kai took a deep breath. "Uh, I think I need to go back outside for some fresh air... It's kind of stuffy in here."
"Yeah, sure," Takumi smirked. "I'll go with you. There's nothing else to do around here, anyway, so maybe we should go look for some food or something."
Loosening his tie ever-so-slightly, Kai nervously swallowed and nodded, fully aware that Takumi knew exactly what he was thinking and hating his friend for it. They got outside and Kai realized that his muscles had tensed up in all his nervousness, so he stretched a bit, his joints popping lightly. Now wasn't the time to worry about girls. They had a bigger problem on their hands. "Takumi?"
"Yeah?"
"Where do you think all the trainers went?"
Takumi frowned. "How should I know?" Blunt, as usual. It was good that Kai wasn't the type that only wanted to hear nice words because he'd always be disappointed here. "You know, I actually..." His voice trailed off as if he didn't approve of what he was about to say.
"You actually what?" Kai pressed.
"At first," Takumi said slowly, "I thought it would be nice not having the trainers around. We're free now, you know? But then I started wondering whether they were safe and it feels weird not having them here to guide us."
"Our trainers," Kai replied, thinking of Airi and Lorelei and Den, "were mere children, you know? They aren't any wiser or more capable than we are."
Takumi nodded, his face grim. "Yes, that's exactly why I'm worried about them."
A silence passed between them, a valley between their two mountains. Kai couldn't think of anything to say that wouldn't sound completely trite. Just when he started to feel a little awkward, a soft hand touched his shoulder and a sweet voice said, "Hmm? What are you two boys doing out here?"
"Ah, Raja," Kai nodded a greeting as Kai felt his body temperature go up, his face likely looking much like a tomato at the moment. "We were just talking. What's up? Done with my stupid brother already?"
There was a frown in her voice as she answered, "Don't tease me. I don't know what's coming over me lately... When I came to, he was in a heap on the ground and Kazuya was trying his hardest not to laugh himself silly."
"U-um..." Kai stammered.
"Hmm?" A light noise, as if she had just noticed that she'd been using Kai for an armrest this whole time.
"H-h-h-h-hand....."
"Hand?"
"C-c-could you m-move your h-h-h-hand p-please?" Kai felt like he was about to burst with embarrassment.
She let go without saying anything and Kai dove for Takumi, hiding himself behind his friend like a child would behind his mother. He looked up just in time to see a look of pain and a touch of annoyance cross Raja's face, her orbs starting to glow faintly. "I'm sorry, I didn't realize my hand had germs on it," she huffed before whirling around and going back into the gym.
Another silence descended. Kai calmed down a bit, but felt rather silly for what had just happened. Takumi whistled. "You know, I don't know where our trainers are, but I do know one thing."
"And what's that?" Kai snapped.
"You, my friend, are never going to be able to get a girlfriend."
『TITLE』 making contact
『RATING』 PG
『CHARACTERS』 Kai-centric + Takumi and others
『WORDCOUNT』 1,137
『NOTES』 Part of an "art trade" with lunawing! Kai and Takumi are not my characters so hopefully I wrote them okay and remembered stuff correctly. Takes place shortly after the "and so it begins" fic; Takumi and Blaze tagged along with the four Team Lore pokemon and they found Kai along the way, so no "omg i'm a human?!" freak-out scene this time around.
『SUMMARY』 Kai just never can seem to one-up Takumi, and now the Kingdra has the perfect leverage.