"when did you decide to call me 'dog boy'?" he grumbles. "anyways, tada. i'm here."

kyle breathes a sigh and welcomes himself in noah's apartment. as much as he claims never wanting to help other people in their problems, he finds himself too weak to decline any request directed to him. he suppose he owes noah for wasting most of his free time dogsitting instead of doing things he actually likes.

he didn't bring anything and assumes that noah has the things needed to clean his apartment out. his hands rub the back of his neck as he scans the interior, trying to assess the minimum amount of work needed to make the place look somewhat presentable. the boxes took up majority of the space, but what gets his attention is the posters on his wall.

"how much posters do you even have?" he walks past noah and goes to the wall where his bed stood against, staring at his face on the elite four poster. he suddenly sees how much he could have made his pose better. "you probably even put some up on the ceili--"

he cranes his head up.

"oh."

"uh-huh..."

he starts to muse on the idea of hanging posters on his ceiling as well since having too much on his wall seems messy. his eyes travel to the optimal position to look at the poster, and then back to the ceiling. the realization comes to him.

oh.

he gets brought back from messing around when the tips of the duster touch the back of his neck, flinching from the tickling sensation. he grabs for the duster in a snap, holds it in his hands for a while, before playing with it, tapping it a few times at each of his poster on the wall.

"how many of my merch did you even buy?" he grumbles. "i've always thought no one buys them cause they're too gaudy."

he travels from one poster to another, grimacing each time he sees his own face do a fake smile for the camera. looking at noah's poster alleviates his sour expression, however. he stops to stare at it before he starts to scratch the tape off of the nearest one. it appears to have been taped a long time ago however, since kyle has a hard time scraping it off with his newly cut fingernails.

"wait, you actually do fights?" he says, hoping the conversation hides his act of stealing. "you're bodyguard thing is an actual legit thing?"

"also for carrying groceries, walking dogs, moving furniture around and showing off, yeah," he continues noah's list of uses for his guns, missing the point entirely as he immerses himself on something else.

he continues to slowly make progress in removing the tape on the poster of noah's fight. he takes the moment to read the details of the fight on it, barely coinciding with his stay in johto. not that he would've watched it since he doesn't have any interest in martial arts or any sport relating to it.

"you sure? people say i'm a fast learner." they don't. kyle wasn't filtering his words at this point, focusing mainly on his handiwork in front of him and letting his subconscious thoughts hold the conversation for him. "i could beat you up after just a few tries. you'd like that, huh?"

the corner sticker gets finally taken out. getting the three other corners would be easy since he just has to work from within instead of from the outside. he has to work carefully though, to make sure he doesn't attract attention, but more importantly, to make sure he doesn't damage the goods.

kyle ponders if noah had better posters than this one. it was too late to switch targets, however.

noah's words turns to nothing but background noise as he comes further in his endeavor. with his last scratch, he catches only the last part of his statement.

the poster comes out as kyle scratches the last hold of the tape away from the wall. it flits down to noah's feet as it frees itself as kyle remains standing in front of the wall inconspicuously.

"yeah," he answers. he follows the poster, trying to keep his calm. "very dusty. i think i got most of it off though."

kyle acts as if nothing wrong was happening. a deadpan expression faces noah as he grabs the poster from the floor and focuses on rolling it up in front of him. he does it slow, eyes looking up at noah until he makes a reaction.

he takes the poster out of noah's reach when he tries to go for it. a step back matches noah's step forward, and as if in a dance, kyle tries his best to evade every attempt noah makes.

his eyes go up to the ceiling when he asks, before looking back to him. "nothing," he answers. he turns his back to noah, clinging protectively to the rolled up piece of paper. he takes a quick glance, opening it up for a moment, before closing it again and turning his head back to noah.

"you know what? we should clean. your apartment's filthy."

he attempts to change the subject, but with attention at him, he knows the distraction wouldn't work. still, at least he tried.

he quickly escapes noah's grab range and runs back to his corner where he took the poster. armed with a duster, he leans his back to the wall and points his weapon at his assailant. "let's do what we came here for, yeah?"

his eyes swishes to the arm beside his head. a bead of sweat rolls from his temple, and it wasn't because he feels like his face is in danger.

"t-this isn't boxing!"

kyle starts to get nervous when noah pins him to the wall. his composure gets broken down, the reddening of his face indicating his discomfort in the situation. his face forces a smile, a defense mechanism to hide his current anxiety of being put in a position.

still, he steels his position on the subject. his arms wrap around the poster protectively while the duster divides him and noah in a rather pathetic manner. his lips move nervously as he makes several attempts to form a sentence in his head before settling on one.

"w-w-why do you want this anyways?" he stammers defensively. "i-if you can have a poster of me, i can have a poster of y-you."

"that line doesn't sound as cool as you want it to be," he points out. "can i hang you on the ceiling, then?" he continues, raising a brow.

he stares at the rolled up poster in his hand, and then back to noah. "...i have posters from the mantine surfing contest last summer that weren't released cause i didn't allow them to. you can say that one's as exclusive too." his lips raise to a smirk as he finds himself winning the standoff. it doesn't last long however, since the sneeze resets his expression.

his hand instinctively moves to noah's head. it remains there, unsure of where to move it away. his lips start to move, uttering teasing words that weren't filtered out.

"too excited for the date?"

his face turns red as he realizes what came out. he forces his lips to a smile to play it off. he teases noah a lot. he'll look at it that way, he supposed.