he closes the door behind him as he goes in. "probably global warming or something like that," he guesses.

he rubs his hands together and then breathes on his hands to warm up. eyes search the inside of the small building. it had a single room, with probably an outhouse outside. old dusty furniture and a clear desk suggested that the place wasn't getting any use. he finds no heater, nor a fire place to warm up with, since this is hoenn.

the weight of his clothes suddenly come to his attention only after they slowed down. it clung onto his skin, wetness inviting more of the cold in his system. it starts to get chilly. with the threat of hypothermia setting in soon, kyle tries to find a way to keep warm.

"noah," he calls, "can you find anything to get us warm?" he takes his phone out of his pocket as his freezing digits attempt to dial a number on his phone. "i'll try to get help."

kyle lopez

there were no signal bars on his display. the phone keeps dialing, but it doesn't go through.

"n-no..."

he slowly returns the phone to his pocket, pausing when noah mentions his turtonator. while he doesn't have anything similar, he has the next best thing in his disposal. from his pockets, his hands move to his arsenal of pokeballs.

his eyes move around to find anything to contain a possible fire. everything on plain sight seems to be made of wood, however, though he may not just be looking around enough.

"a-are you freezing, n-noah?" he suddenly asks, seeing as he's less adequately prepared for this situation than him. "cause i'm ready to burn something for warmth if you're not gonna stop me."

kyle lopez

his hands dig into his pockets as well, finding anything to add to the fuel. old receipts from convenience stores, along with his own lint, were the only materials he found. still, it was better than nothing.

still, they needed more.

he goes over to the desk and rips its drawer off and immediately tries to lodge it inside. while it doesn't fit, having an earthen container would at least prevent the whole place from going down in flames.

finally, he releases his smeargle, who cringes from the cold the moment he appears.

"sacred fire."

whipping his tail in the air, he produces a different kind of fire. the makeshift fire pit catches the bluish, almost ethereal, flames and fills the otherwise unlit room in an unnaturally captivating light. it brings warmth, providing the much needed reprieve from the cold weather. kyle recalls the smeargle afterwards.

"this was supposed to be my trump card or something," he says in jest.

he takes off the snow-drenched coat and hangs it on the back rest of a chair, revealing a fitting black shirt underneath. while he was only away for a short while, he hurries back to the heat, not making any effort to hide his own discomfort. he rubs his sides as he huddles closer to the flames.

"but i suppose i can show it to you. looks fancy, right?"

kyle lopez

"it's from a faithful encounter," he answers his query cheekily.

while he wasn't sure if it was a dream or not, the experience of being engulfed by the same flames still burned fresh in his memories. the fire in front of them reminds him of such, and while it provides comfort from the cold, the sight alone makes him anxious.

the compliment makes him drag noah closer to him, dragging him along with him to the wooden floorboards. "y-you should stop about the compliments!" he sits with his legs apart, noah in the middle, where he wraps his arms around him, not unlike when he tries to steal heat from his mightyena, to keep his body temperature high.

"you're not supposed to say that to me." not that it matters anyways. kyle doesn't trust his tired mind to recall things anyways. "you're gonna need all the help you can get if you're challenging the elite four," this time, he adds with a taunting tone.

a yawn escapes him. he leans closer to noah, pushing more of his weight towards him as he rests his chin on top of his head. he starts to muse on his previous statement, attempting to keep a conversation going to kill time.

"say, have you even challenged any of the gyms yet?"

kyle lopez

"distracted?"

he starts to wonder what exactly does noah do on the periods of time they were away from each other. did he have any hobbies that he should be aware of? as far as he is concerned, the only image painted in his mind was him running around in circles, chasing after his imaginary tail or something.

he makes a mental note to stop associating noah with his mightyena, no matter how uncanny the similarities are.

"what's distracting you?"

while he wasn't the type to pry over personal things, he tempts himself to reach forward, testing the waters with an inquiry.

kyle lopez

the answer nets a mixed reaction from kyle. the answer wasn't specific and it gives him a reason to start listing any shortcomings he has as a tutor.

"i, uh..."

his arms loosen and his hands move to noah's shoulders. his grip was firm, but not tight and forceful. it takes him a while to speak, swallowing before he makes an attempt to take a shot.

"is it the dog sitting? did i put too much on your plate? i can rework the schedule to lessen your work if you want!"

an obvious hint of desperation comes in the intonation of his voice should one be familiar with kyle's collected demeanor. he didn't want to be a hindrance to someone else's dreams.

on retrospect, his job description was exactly that.

kyle lopez

"a d-d-date?"

his voice shakes, though he can blame it on the cold should he need to. while kyle thinks he may have taken it out of context, it still manages to get his face flushed. he panics, but in their current position, he is at least thankful noah cannot see the look on his face.

maybe he's thinking too much on it and that the date wasn't really what he thinks it is.

"uh, sure. why not? i aim to please."

he hopes that the way he said hid his previous thoughts and made him sound cool about it.