the moment the door opens, the dog trainer would find noelle collapsed by mateo's bed-side with his pillow hugged close to her, and she sobbing into it. "m-mateo-" her happy, relieved face quickly turned into one of dismay when she realized it was just kyle. her expression immediately sunk once more, "oh...it's just you kyle." she didn't meant to sound so disgruntled and disappointed to see him, but...she sighed loudly, idly rubbing her eyes. "i can't find bry or mateo and its...so lonely," she complained with another wail. the household was deathly silent, and she had neither bryony around to bother or lounge around, or mateo to trail after. chancelor was god knows where and morgan...who knew.

"where'd they go?" she felt like a dejected puppy.

the icon is the perfect portrayal of his expression when he sees her in this sorry state.

"is this your first time being left alone?" he asks. the tone on his voice suggests it's an honest question despite his sarcastic choice of words. "maybe he took her out on a date or something," he follows up, this time, malice was present along with a soft chuckle at the end of his statement.

he enters the room, cracking his knuckles as he did. "it's the perfect time to raid his room then." the first thing he notices is a piece of paper on the corner of the room, something written on it. "look, he left you a note. he rarely writes stuff so maybe it's special." kyle, however, doesn't see it as anything special and dismisses it despite hyping it up for noelle.

in the meantime, he goes for mateo's shelves. he squats down for the lowest shelf and plucks the plastic casing of a game out of the other garbage in there. "he said he lost this!" his hand dusts it off. it's been months since he lent him the game.

"Wha- no, but even Bry's gone. You know how you're always around Mateo?" Noelle questions him surprisingly sharply, perhaps having grown almost offended by his own, "that's me and Bry." Although, the thought of Mateo and Bryony going on a date made her eyes widen, a look of disbelief and betrayal showed on her face. "W-what? No way, never! Absolutely not! She doesn't even like him in that way! It...it wouldn't ever happen!" She quickly shouted, burying her face back into the pillow, and feeling quite disturbed by the thought.

when the brown-haired man stepped into the room with the intent of 'raiding' it, noelle stiffened,
prepared to usher and force him out. except, the idea of it all sounded so tempting. seriously, she rarely got the chance to ever seriously look around mateo's room, let alone be in it without getting chased out. "huh." she blankly stares at him as he mentions the note before perking up all at once and scrambling towards it with a smile. unfortunately, she got her hopes up for nothing.

an...adventure? why didn't he take the rest of them then? there was a slight twitch to her eye, as she slams the note back down onto the nightstand with enough force to nearly break it. thankfully, she didn't. was that jealously in her eyes? if it was, she didn't say anything. nope, not a thing. but, what she did do was begin to rummage through the 'dragon kings' things without another word.

"take it back and then take one of his other games." noelle suggests with a vibrant 'smile' as she rummaged through one of his drawers. "why's the friendship bracelet I made him last week in here? lets put it back where it's supposed to be," she quickly placed the little, and very pink, bracelet back onto the top of his dresser. "that's the last time i make him something." she was lying. 

the sound of the slamming got him to turn around, flinching when her fist hits the surface of the furniture. curiosity makes him want to read it, but priorities come first.

returning back to the game, he heeds noelle's advise and takes it, as well as browse for a game to pilfer. "don't mind if i-- i already have all of these games..." a disappointed look was on his face, realizing he won't be playing anything new from mateo's collection. he takes one anyways, the one released the latest, just because he can.

he tilts his head towards noelle back once he has two games on his hand. "hey, what's the note say?" he stands up from his position and goes to read the note. the paper is crumbled, the text almost beyond recognition, and then he realizes that mateo's handwriting is just bad.

"he did mention having a lead on his rayquaza stuff," he comments. "he took bryony on his rayquaza quest? wow. he really wants to die." while he wasn't protective around bryony, he knows everyone who lived here did. he turns to noelle as he asks the question.

"wanna look for them?"

there was an incomprehensible mutter from her as he questioned the note, the woman's face was still buried in mateo's drawers and shuffling through the items in them. however, she pulls her head out to stare at kyle with an agreeing look. "right? seriously, what was he thinking?! ah, do you think she remembered to take her medicine with her!?" the usually nonchalant, 'go with the flow' woman sounded quite concerned and motherly as her brows furrowed. "i'm gonna punch him. that idiot," she huffed irritably. maybe she should try calling her? but, would they even get service all the way out in arceus' knows where? another irritated sigh left the girls lips as she drew a hand through her hair.

his questions makes her pause.

a small part of her wants to say yes, and for a moment, it shows in her eyes as she gives kyle an almost hopeful look. at the same time though, she collapsed onto mateo's bed with yet another huff. "why should we?" she stubbornly stated, "...do you think we should? do you think they're in trouble?" she usually had a pretty good feeling on this type of stuff. 'priestess powers' was what she called it. but, she felt nothing but...numbness.

"maybe we should do somethin' together? like, go get ice cream or something. who needs them?" she mused aloud, draping the upper half of her body off of the bed so her head nearly touched the floor.


kyle lopez

"trouble? yes. we might as well start planning for a funeral."

kyle goes to rummage his drawers, taking the choker mateo used to wear a lot and trying it on. it felt weird on his neck and makes him overly conscious of his breathing for some reason. he goes to question the kind of fashion choices the man makes, but then he realizes he doesn't make any reasonable ones and decides to just ignore thinking about it.

"wanna go on an adventure too?" he says as he tries to get the wretched choker off of him, his fingers fumbling about. "i have a trip to johto in a few days if you wanna go. it's work related, but it's still an overseas trip. much better than their thing, whatever it was."

he almost wanted to rip the choker off, but he manages to take it off just before he snapped.

she...didn't take very well to that.

the pinkette sputtered, nearly falling off of the bed completely. "f-funeral!?" she gasped out. were they really in that sort of trouble? no, no, they couldn't be. mateo was dumb and an idiot and completely irresponsible for bringing bryony of all people with him, but, she still respected and acknowledged his strength. he'd keep both himself and bry safe. 'he'd better,' the woman thought grumpily to herself. "kyle, stop being over dramatic," she complained, and rather hypocritically at that. she failed to notice his choker situation until he abruptly stated his offer.

"h-huh? really, you'd...let me come with you?" in a matter of moments, noelle was tearing up, sniffling and everything. completely oblivious to his growing frustrations with the stuck choker, she continued to grow more and more emotional. "s-seriously? a little adventure with just us...i...yes! let's do it!" without blinking an eye, she'd sprung up, launching herself at the man into a hug. well, it was more so like she was clinging to him, but, it was a hug nonetheless. "it'll be way better than their stupid adventure, right?" she didn't let go just yet, as her expression briefly faltered, and her grip tightened.

"....we're not searching for dead people, are we?" 

"oi. that's not all i do."

he helps out with things such as that sometimes, but it's not necessarily within the scope of his new job description. besides, he prefers cities over the wilderness despite taking jobs for rangers once in a while. he'd only take those whenever there are those that won't since those are important too.

kyle wanders over the other drawers, taking a cape out and trying it out. he walks over the mirror and judges his appearance with him wearing it as he talked. "it's just a little pet project that i took over from a friend--" said friend being the former champion. "--so it's just gonna be a short-ish visit, unless something else comes along."

the subject wasn't anything important as it was simply them probing the unknown. the moment of peace was the perfect time to work on it, if anything.

"it'll be in ecruteak though. it's not much of an adventure, but i like that place so it'll be fun." he brings out his phone and takes a picture of him with a cape with it.

she tilted her head, listening to him and nodding once or twice. "can we visit blackthorn while we're there?" she asked after a moment, before pausing. going back home after basically dipping probably...wasn't the best idea, actually. she wasn't in the mood to get yelled at. and, for all she knew, they might've put her on house arrest and forced her to stay. "more specifically, the dragon den. i wanna visit it." as priestess, she, of course, had an explainable connection to the place that was more spiritual than anything. less about its inhabitants, and more about the peace of mind the den offered in itself. while she was positive it was still being kept up with by her grandmother, she missed it. preforming the rituals, to even the annual kagura dance. through and through, she was a bellemoore.

finally sliding from off of him and letting him escape her hug, she hummed to herself in thought. "we should also grab some johto snacks while we're there. like a rage candy bar or ponigiri. oh, maybe we'll find some dragon flakes!" she was nearly drooling at the thought. hoenn was great and all, but, nothing could beat johto cuisine.

when he takes a picture of himself with the cape on, she joins in to take a 'selfie' with him, invading it. "should we leave a note? or, just dip?" usually, she would've never suggested just disappearing without telling someone, at the very least Bryony, first but...she was still a bit upset. 

part of him wanted to pry noelle off the moment she wrapped her arms around him. kyle wasn't a touchy-feely person and doesn't really enjoy physical contact as much as any other person, but he knows of her capabilities and fears for his life. the next best thing to do was try to ignore it instead.

a sigh of relief comes when she comes off.

while he isn't very picky with food that comes to his mouth, kyle can still appreciate the distinct difference of johto food from the usual hoenn dishes he gets to taste on the daily. "good call," he approves her statement. "we're getting local snacks from johto for morgan and chance then."

the image is captured and somehow, noelle manages to make herself blend in the composition despite only having a few seconds to get herself in the picture. she's just that photographic, he supposed.

"we're sending mateo and bry regular updates from this johto trip instead if you want," he answers her, turning to her as the softest smile forms on his expression. he finds pleasure in doing this. kyle then sends the picture he took to both mateo and bryony, with the caption 'bry's closet next'.

"do you want to bring morgan and chance along though? we can leave them a note if you don't."

a bit selfish when it came to food, the though of buying it for multiple people slightly dismayed the woman. there was a good chance she'd eat it before they even came back. but, sure, why not? "i...guess," she hummed with a little nod.

while she still huffed slightly at the thought of updating them at all, she couldn't deny the small smile that curled on her lips. and so, even though she tried to let out an uncaring, "mhm", it didn't really work. she peered over his shoulder as he began to send yet another picture, bristling slightly at the mention of Bry's closet being next. bristling slightly, she gave the man an almost warning look, a very clear - 'no'.

"oh, sure, we can bring them along. it'll be like a family trip!...well, half the family....a family plus a friend because you're...you're...you." she didn't want to explicitly say he wasn't a family member - but, he was, at the very least, an honorary one! "when do we leave? today? please say today? let's go today!" like a child hyped up on candy, she began to badger him.

he responds to her with a nervous smile as he brings the phone back to his pocket. even without the threat, he wouldn't do it. bryony getting a warning was enough to intimidate her, and that was enough for kyle.

though he somewhat feels the same as noelle about his place in the group, it still feels bad when it was pointed out like that. the awkward smile remains, a bittersweet feeling lingering within. he forces a response out of him, trying to jump start his mood once more, faking a facade as words come out of his mouth.

"eh? now?" he asks, trying to make sure he heard her right. "are you even ready? we still need to book the flight and i haven't packed my shit yet." they haven't even told chance and morgan yet, but kyle doesn't remind that part since they're noelle's problem.

his voice was dissuasive and unsure, but in the end, he gives in. "but we can, sure." his shoulders gave way to a shrug.

usually perceptive to others changes in emotions to the faintest change in another's temperament, the pinkette felt like there was something different, but, was a bit unsure. kyle was...weird to her, honestly. she couldn't put a finger on what he felt, more often than not. which was another reason why she was looking forward to this trip. she wanted to understand him a bit better, less because he was the 'bff of her fiance' and more because he was a friend. and she cared for him. she didn't say anything aside from giving an almost apologetic smile.

as he continued to list problem after problem with why they couldn't leave immediately, noelle simply stared up at the brown haired man with an intense, pleasing stare. unblinking. unflinching. "please," she whispered after each statement, until, finally, he gave in. a wide smile quickly spreads her lips the moment he did, and, her hands clasped around his own for a moment. "we're going to johto!" she shouted out in enthusiasm.

"i'll get ready - and get chance ready - and we'll shoot you a text." it seemed like she'd already forgotten to include poor morgan in. "i'll let you handle the boring pa- booking the flight and stuff." she let go of him, pausing in her movements to the door to finally say, "oh, and uhm...thank you kyle!"