route_1065 | We are anything but unremarkable

Entry tags:

We are anything but unremarkable

Who: Johan and Kay
Where: Goldenrod City
When: Thursday, September 30
Summary: Revenge of the Date.
Rating: PG-13, but since it's these two, who even knows if it'll get that high.
Log:

It was cold, and she was without her muffler, because Kay was now certain that one didn't wear mufflers on dates. And this wasn't a practice date, according to Johan-- which was something she'd been trying to understand ever since he'd asked her. Sure, they'd had fun on the first one, but that had been practice for 777 (and she was beginning to wonder if that would even happen), so what was this for?

Kay didn't know, but she didn't make a habit of dwelling on things that she didn't need to dwell on, and she wasn't about to start now. Fun with her friend was fun with her friend, and if fun meant letting her hair down (as Kaito had recommended) and actually finding a decent non-white dress (she'd learned) and potentially freezing, then she'd do it! This was but a minor trial of adversity!

... No, Kay, it was a date, not a challenge. She could picture Mr. Edgeworth shaking his head at his assistant's competitive mindset already.

Once again she stood outside, though the urge to return inside where it was at least twenty degrees warmer was growing stronger by the moment. Maybe she should have at least grabbed a jacket... not that this was going to bother Johan, having attended school in Glacier Central (darn him).

"Round Two, huh?" she muttered to herself, and stretched up on her toes. "This should be fun!"

And she meant it.

Leaving her man-hating Crobat behind in the inn would probably be of some help, too.

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At the invoked memory of practically snuggling in her friend's arms, Kay faltered in her leaping. It wasn't anything too noticeable, thankfully, but just thinking about that part made her face grow hot AGAIN.

"For now and forever," she insisted, and took another hop. "I can handle anything anyone throws at me!"

Luckily for Kay, Johan had just turned away to take another step up, thus he missed the quick flush of her cheeks that surely would have egged him on further to some degree or another. Remembering that part had him in fairly good spirits, however, so he continued his climbing, keeping sure to not go too far as he was still holding onto Kay's hand.

"You might want to be careful what you wish for!" Johan warned, sounding almost serious. Still grinning, though now not facing her, he continued. "Someone might try to throw a Pokeball at you someday! Then what would you do?"

"Duck," she said immediately. Followed by a more thoughtful "Or steal it, maybe. It's not like I'm a Pokémon, so they wouldn't be able to catch me with it, and if they're throwing it at me in the first place, that's as good as handing it over! The perfect theft!"

Except "handing it over" wasn't "being stolen from", but she wasn't too interested in specifics just then. If anything, she was more focused on getting up the seemingly-neverending spiral of stairs.

... Well that hadn't been anywhere near where Johan had been planning to go with that remark, but that was probably for the best. At least one of the two of them was thinking a little before they opened there mouth - for some reason, Johan was finding things like that coming out a lot faster and with less thought than they might have normally. Weird.

"Is that really perfect?" Johan mused, hopping up another two steps and wondering just how many floors they'd gone up already. "I mean, I could think of a few ways to catch you."

At least there should only be another flight or two before they got there.

Kay raised an eyebrow at her friend, taking the same two steps he just had, but with more of a spring to her movement. She'd have to content her inevitably tired legs with the fact that going down was bound to be loads easier than it was going up. She settled for one step on the next one, though. This was only their first stop, not their last, and she didn't want sore legs halfway through the date. She was pretty sure that was bad protocol in some way, shape, or form.

"I don't know about thaaat," she drawled. "I don't think any kind of capture idea you could come up with could cage this bird."

"Either you're underestimating me..." Johan began, turning back to shoot her a wink as he turned a corner and continued up another step. Ahead of them was one final set of stairs, and beyond that, a simple door - beyond which surely was their goal. "Or you're overestimating yourself-- And both would just be a dangerous combination, don't you think? ... Not that I'd ever want to cage you, hehe."

And with that out of the way, Johan let go of Kay's hand and began to pick up speed - one last thing in mind.

"Race you to the door!"

"I'm not," Kay began indignantly, but the rest of her protestation once again went unsaid when Johan... was Johan and sped up. Of course. Kicking herself for having let him get a surprise headstart, she only stood there for a few seconds before she was racing after him.

"It's not a race if you cheat from the beginning!" she called out, but she didn't seem to mind the little challenge from the grin in her voice. He did tend to do things without any warning, but she couldn't truthfully say that she didn't. Maybe that was one reason they got along so well.

"Call it a trap card!" Johan called after her, a matching grin not only in his voice but, of course, still on his face as always. He wasn't done yet though, as he raced up the stairs he was recalling previous similar circumstances and conversations, albeit ones in reverse, and his grin began to widen. He'd been waiting for a chance like this. "Or call it my thief's training starting to pay off!"

And with that, he gave his all towards hitting that door before she could.

Imitation was the highest form of flattery, wasn't it? Kay knew how familiar it sounded the instant it left Johan's mouth, but that didn't prevent her from grimacing good-naturedly. There was a sense of pride in her friend, too, of course; as her partner, he really was improving.

Unfortunately, that improvement meant she was probably going to lose, and lose she did-- but at least it wasn't because she hadn't given it her all.

Her all just kind of translated to attempting to leap three stairs and tripping over the second one, that was all.

Victory was in sight - as a matter of fact, victory was a few inches from his grasp. Just two more steps, now one, and it would be his--

... And then came the sound of Kay toppling over the stairs behind him, which lead to the rather comical image of him dramatically taking the last step, his hand just brushing the edge of the door, and his head slooooooowly turning around to see what had happened. It was almost as if the movement would make a creaking noise.

And for a second, he just stared. But it was just for a second, and then he promptly let out a yelp and moved down the stairs to check on his partner.

If she'd been in her normal outfit, in her normal shoes, this never would have happened. But sadly... that was exactly what had happened, and so Kay was stuck in a very interesting position. Both hands had instinctively shot out to grab onto something (like a stair above her), while one leg was extended straight out in the air and the other one was slooowly sliding off the edge of one of the stairs.

She felt rather like a piece of modern art.

Johan might have laughed out loud, had he been another person, or at the very least pointed at her. He did, at least, laugh just a little bit at her situation as he bent down to look at her and offer her a hand, while his other hand was reaching for... something, anything to help steady her. With just a little bit of a grin on his face.

"It's too bad I don't have my PokeGear on me," he murmured after a moment, hoping the brighten the situation. "This would make a great picture."

Kay moved a hand to place it in Johan's, and she was grinning even more than he was. Not that she wasn't embarrassed, but she wasn't hurt and if she couldn't laugh at herself, then she deserved to be laughed at by everybody else.

"No blackmail," she pleaded, laughing a little breathlessly. "If you need a laugh, I can come up with something else!"

"I'll hold you to that," Johan promised with a few more chuckles, and with them, he gave her hand a good squeeze and leaned back onto a stair above them, pulling her up and forward onto him so she could reposition herself from there, still grinning widely. "Better now?"

Her head collided with his chest until she took another step up, but no harm done there. It didn't take long to adjust her position and she smiled up at him with a rueful shake of her head.

"I guess you win this one, Johan."

Had other people found themselves in this position on a date, they might flush bright red and stumble away. Others might make some kind of comment about. Johan, on the other hand, hadn't really picked up on the idea that there was anything off about this other than the fact that Kay had fallen on the way up the stairs and he'd helped her up. Simple as that, really.

"There's always next game," Johan, always the duelist and competitor, told her without missing a beat. And he was sure she'd pull something to get him for this stunt at one point or another before the night was over. "On the bright side, we made it, didn't we?"

Oh, she was definitely going to seize victory before the date ended. She just had to figure it how to do that, but she had time. And, as Johan had so wisely pointed out, they'd made it to the top!

"Hey, we did!" The sheepish grin transformed instantly into a happy smile. "The climb was long, but we made it straight to the top! Good job, partner!"

"Couldn't have done it without you, partner!" Came the cheerful reply, leaning back, standing up, and heaving Kay up along with him - it was an awkward looking sight at first, but Johan managed to pull it off with no problems. He gave her a pat on the arm, making sure she was steady, then turned towards the door ahead of them.

"So, are you ready to see the top?"

Was she ready to see the top? Did birds fly south for the winter (unless they were penguins)? Did the Jammin' Ninja always triumph over evil? Did Mr. Edgeworth make the BEST FACE EVER when he was stressed? Was Gummy nearly always broke? Did the night sky have stars?

... Well, the answers to all of the above were fairly obvious, as was the look on Kay's face when Johan posed the question.

"You don't seem too sure," Johan remarked, almost sarcastically, at Kay's expression. That was all he said, however, because the real answer was more than clear enough for him to take her hand, turn, and head up the last few stairs so together they could open the door (well, Johan was pushing open the door) and see what was beyond.

And what was beyond, you ask? Well, the best view in all of Goldenrod, that's what. Clouds, endless sky, little ants of people going by on the ground... There were even some bird Pokemon up here.

"This is amazing..."

Kay's breath caught in her throat when she saw just how high up they were-- not out of any sense of fear, because there was very little Kay Faraday feared, and heights had never been among those few fears. Still keeping her hand in Johan's, she stepped a little closer to the edge and just... breathed. The clouds, the way it felt as though the air itself was wrapped around her... her eyes were sparkling when she looked back at Johan.

"Amazing? It's beautiful!" She couldn't even find a moment from her favorite show to compare it to!

For a brief, completely out of character moment, Johan found himself stunned - not particularly by the sight, because beautiful as it was, nothing and I mean nothing would ever top the first time he saw Rainbow Dragon - but because of Kay again. The movement from her to the edge, then her looking at him with those eyes of her.

There was something stunning about it that made his breath catch for a moment.

... But the moment was gone soon, because this was still the oh so confused Johan after all, and while he pondered just why he felt like there had been a lump in his throat, he looked back to the view, nodding in agreement to Kay's statement. "Yeah. Beautiful."

She caught sight of his expression, wondering only briefly if something seemed off about it, but she soon returned her gaze to the view. She couldn't help it; she'd missed heights like these (not that she'd ever been this high up) and being high up gave her a feeling of contentment that not much else could.

"Thanks," she murmured, responding a little more quietly this time. "For bringing me up here."

"Hmm?" Johan, who's gaze had kept jumping back and forth from the view to Kay (and back again), albeit at a somewhat slower pace than "jumping", finally turned to settle on her as she spoke softly. He blinked a few times, as a gust of wind blew past and caused their hair to dance in the air for a brief moment. "Thanks?"

He paused, thinking over a proper response to that. After another moment of silence, he put a hand in his pocket and grinned over at Kay.

"You don't need to thank me. It's natural to want to bring a bird up to a place like this, isn't it?" He took a breath. He felt tongue tied for some reason. "And besides, I thought you would like it - and I wanted to see it with you. So I'm getting something as much as you are, you see?"

Oh, not another gust of wind, she'd be shoving her hair out of her face all day! Kay appreciated a good dramatic breeze as much as anybody, but it was more convenient when her hair was in an easily-tamable ponytail. Just like... how it wasn't now, and she gave her head an irritable shake in the hopes that it would convince her hair to behave.

"Fair's fair?" Maybe that saying didn't exactly apply, but it made her grin anyway. "I do make good company, though, don't I?"

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We are anything but unremarkable

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