Once grassy hills had turned to bluish beards, and the frigid wind that blew past them could only be a frost giant’s breath.[break][break]

Thankfully, Callan was toasty. He was mistaken if he thought cuddles would come later. Huddling for warmth was the basics of survival and Yujin was a survival… expert.[break][break]

Her boots crunched briefly on snow—salamence were large, and she was small. The steadying hand was accepted gratefully and easily, like there was no world in which he wouldn’t have offered it and she wouldn’t have taken it.[break][break]

“Alright,” she said, already inspecting the tent and the best way to lay their bags in or around it. [break][break]

Their breath came out in silvery mist as they trudged away from the camp.[break][break]

“I’m often in places like this for work, but what is your excuse, Mr. Young?”

It was true. There were a bevy of stereotypes about musicians, normally that they were poor, and/or did drugs, and/or were depressed, and/or were romantic. It was safe to say that the man wasn’t broke, but the rest were for her to discover.[break][break]

The next sequence of events started with being nudged back, her impressive pair of… cowlicks bouncing about. It ended with the giant worm being added (probably) to his already vast collection.[break][break]

“Because… you wanted me to yourself?”[break][break]

She put her hands on her hips. She wore a long and elaborate blue jacket, furred at the hood and cuffs. It was color coded against his red eyes, like nearly everything else about her.[break][break]

“Sorry, sorry! Let me try again. Because…” She looked about. After having seen the suspicious trap set by the orthworm, she was starting to notice other, conveniently close by anomalies. Like that thick wad of snow that looked like a buried evergreen, but was actually…[break][break]

Yujin tried to replicate the elite four’s throw down to the verve. I mean, might as well.[break][break]

And there went the second pokeball she’s ever tossed out, straight against the abomasnow’s backside. Brilliant flash of light and all.[break][break]

“...Because there’s something here that can’t be found elsewhere. Hopefully it’s not a lesson, Callan. You can teach me a lesson anywhere.”[break][break]

---

[break]
capture attempt on the abomasnow

He bent low for something; that little tongue thing he did, it was cute, and it was mischievous, and it was a splay of character much like her pointed tooth.[break][break]

Studying the pale strands of his hair, it struck her that rarely did she look down on someone. Except in the bedroom, or whatever other room, there were many options.[break][break]

These thoughts grew one degree closer to tangibility as he swept her. She let it happen, and she laughed, clear and light as a bell across the quiet icelands. “Scoundrel.” A grown adult, feeling like a teenager again.[break][break]

Check another one off the list. He was definitely the romantic type.[break][break]

But Yujin’s eyes dropped down to the snowball, and her lashes seemed longer and darker than before. The blues underneath them sharpen and crystallize.[break][break]

“That,” she said carefully, “sounds too good to be true.”[break][break]

Even against pokemon abilities? Was it infinite? Was it only stable locally?[break][break]

She looked back at him, trying to keep the subject simple and distinctly boring.[break][break]

“Well, there are a lot of industries that use cooling systems. If the source is limited, it wouldn’t be feasible for the consumer sector, but perhaps in industrial or shipping industries.”[break][break]

A frown. “Dependence on pokemon means we don’t have the best economies of scale. The more things we are capable of without them, the better.”[break][break]

She held up the ball.[break][break]

“...But I imagine this was made by one.”

She sighed, and a little bit of the breath of life went with it.[break][break]

The topic was relevant to her in a way that he wasn’t yet supposed to understand. When she glanced over the arctic sheen, she saw more fuel for the inexhaustible, inevitable machine—the Black Workshop.[break][break]

But his tone shifted, and she peered at him once more in a return to the personal, leaning into the cold against her neck. His thoughts etched themselves clearly on his face in a monolith of past, present, and to an extent, future.[break][break]

Then the crackle of electricity flashed over his shoulder.[break][break]

Yujin swept her leg forward against his and shoved against his chest backward with an arm; smoothly, like she’d practiced it many times on people larger. It would be enough to trip him, and she’d fall atop right after. She grinned down at Callan as the attack lit up the sky just above their heads.[break][break]

There was another flash of energy as a seemingly random pokeball had gotten loose. Out popped… the familiar drilbur of all things, who tanked the next bout of electricity with a squinty stare.[break][break]

They’d be graced to the sounds of a super duper effective drill move against metal, followed by another catch attempt.[break][break]

“So sorry, I didn’t catch what you said.” [break][break]

Yujin leaned forward, pressing down on Callan’s chest as her hair tickled his nose.[break][break]

“...What should I be interested in?”[break][break]

---

[break]

capture attempt on the magnezone

[attr="class","bottom"]Callan Young [break]

At life’s table, all players have their hand. Some hold because they want to keep having everything. Others hold because they want something, anything.[break][break]

By all accounts, this had been easy—two pairs eyes locking across the room the moment they met. On pure chemistry alone, there was something good between them.[break][break]

They were entwined like that for a time: exploring hands and lips, charting something new and exciting for the first time. Time seemed to tick slowly, or maybe quickly, and before long they had to revert back to the base instinct to breathe.[break][break]

But they still had their cards.[break][break]

“...No.”[break][break]

A finger played with the tufts of his clothing, slipping under to trace the line of his collarbone.[break][break]

“Not until you finish what you were saying.” She liked neither loose threads nor unfinished business.[break][break]

And with seemingly great reluctance, she slowly let herself roll off of him, landing on her back and flinging her now muted gaze to the disparate stars.

It must have been the rockstar in him—to say such vulnerable words and with a straight face.[break][break]

When Callan sat up to gaze at her she darted her head to the side and looked away. It wasn’t enough to hide the burgeoning red on her cheeks. Still, she didn’t let go of his hand. It was a lifeline that, per his own metaphor, calls all birds home after the long winter.[break][break]

“...Callan, do you ever think you’re too trusting?”[break][break]

It was an unexpected turn of events for her to feel concerned for the other party. She had come here with a mind like a steel trap. Now she wondered at the pain of a caught limb.[break][break]

“You hardly know me. What makes you think that this isn’t all on purpose?”[break][break]

She dared meet his gaze then. It was the start of their own Red vs Blue.[break][break]

“What if it isn’t just coincidence that the woman from Interpol had her first assignment to meet with you, and that so very quickly and suddenly, she’s ingratiated herself with one of the most influential and powerful men in the land?”