Of course it would turn out that as soon as Kepler has Real People to Interact With (friends?) he would spend his time giggling like a little girl. How embarrassing. Was this why no one liked him?

His shame was quickly washed away by Isaac’s very passionate spiel about Why Trainers Were Good, Actually.

“Are you sure the League didn’t try and recruit you?” he asks, in the brief silence that follows while both he and Ash are too busy being stunned by the sheer charisma power to say anything. “You’d make a great public speaker.”

He did have one thing dead on.

“That’s all Sinnoh is-- legends and dusty books. That’s why I got out.” And because Rocket was paying him money that Alamos U Research and Development could only dream of offering, but they didn’t need to know that.

Ash mentions Bongo is his other brain cell and Kepler giggles at that, too, before he can stop himself.

“But only one of the braincells has hand-eye coordination?”

Isaac Merlo Ashley Shepard

☉

“Mmhm. Alamos U is my alma mater.” He rolls his eyes, relaxing enough to stretch his legs down from the couch. “They had me working on sound acoustics for the concert hall before… well, before I came to Hoenn.”

Before Lulu Flint swept in and rescued him. But Ash was already having tragic second thoughts about being out of Rocket. Kepler didn’t want to add more fuel to his freedom funeral pyre.

He waves Isaac’s concerns away with a twitch of his hand. “I’m always cold, so it doesn’t really matter.” He had the circulation of a glacier.

There’s a ding and Ash announces the food was done. Kepler was thankful, not because he was tiring of the conversation, but because in the time between when they’d gotten here and now, he’d genuinely gotten hungry.

Ash offers them the sushi after what Kepler is pretty convinced is just some showing off. He takes a piece and pops it into his mouth in one go, because, again, he’s hungry, and also… he’d feel bad if he tried it and didn’t like it after all the effort Ashley put into it.

“‘Sgood,” he says, covering his full mouth. “‘S very good.” And it is-- it basically melts in his mouth and he takes another roll before anyone can stop him.

He pauses with it halfway up to his mouth, face heating. No one’s ever asked for his number before. He forget what it was, so he digs in his pockets for the device to cover his tracks.

“S-sure.” Thumbing to a new contact, he holds it out to Ash. “That way I can definitely let you know if I get sick.”

And then he shoves the other sushi roll in his mouth to stop himself from saying anything worse.

Isaac Merlo Ashley Shepard

☉