I turned to look at the worker who'd approached me with the news. Behind him was a portrait of a sexy, wild-haired blond looking handsome as ever. I smirked at it, then turned back to the window I'd been looking out of. From the eightieth floor of a crystal tower, I gazed out upon a vast landscape that for all my years working there had been a well-kept grassy park and reception area. It was a gathering place for people who'd come to the northern-most islands of Sinnoh to try their luck in the famed Battle Tower. Now the grass was contained in a small square in the middle of the new busier area, comprising of four newly completed arenas, each one designed specifically as the hand-selected Frontier Brains who would work in them has asked.
I smiled. "Thanks for letting me know." The worker bowed and quickly departed, and I looked upon my empire for another minute before turning and heading for the elevators. I passed that same portait - did I mention it was a portait of me? I am the Tower Tycoon - the strongest trainer in Sinnoh - and anybody who says otherwise is batshit insane. I built this empire, and now, all of the arenas had been fully tested and confirmed operational; the Battle Frontier would open the following week.
Most of the Brains were already moved in and had therefore become acquaintanced with me, but as the Battle Factory had been plagued with glitches and accidents from the start, I'd not yet met the Factory Head, who was apparently a boy genius inventor from Western Sinnoh. Now the factory was finished and operational, and the dream would finally be realized. MY dream.
My long coat flapped behind me as I stepped outside and skipped eagerly down the stairs in front of the tower, only to climb a second set up to the factory, whistling a little in approval. The workers who had finally solved all of my headaches were packing up to go, their job completed. Huh. I frowned at one of them who was merely sitting crosslegged in the grass. He had to be a worker; he had on the white helmet and uniform.
"Hey," I nudged the guy with his shoe, then tapped my foot impatiently. "Break's over. You guys gotta move out, we've only got five days before the grand opening."
He looked up at me and his unnervingly large, aqua colored eyes gave me a sense that despite this person's small statue, he would not be easy to bully, even for a veteran battler such as myself.
"I'm sorry. It's just, I've only just arrived, and I am the one who fixed the glitches." The worker stood up, smiling serenely up at me. Damn, he was short. "I'd actually be pretty grateful, if I was you, and allow me a few moments to admire my work."
I furrowed his brow. "You fixed it, all by yourself."
"Yes."
"And what did those other guys do, sit around picking their noses?"
"Yes, basically. And they also screwed up lots of wiring and mis-read important parts of the blueprints." He paused to wave and smile at the others as they left, ignorant to his insults.
I continued tapping my foot, agitated by this know it all short stack. Who did he think he was - who did he think was giving him his minimum wage paycheck?? "Thanks for your work. You can pick up your paycheck at the main office. Sorry, but we have a LOT of work to do still, and I'm in a big hurry to get it done."
"What, might I ask, is the hurry?"
Jeez! I felt like my foot might burn a hole in the grass, it was tapping so fast, and now my fingers were drumming on my crossed arms. "Well, I've got to inspect the place to make sure it's ready for the Brain who's going to be working here. I haven't met him and need to make a good first impression."
"Is that so."
"Yeah, and I can't have workers sitting around in the grass cloud-gazing when he gets here. So you've got about ten seconds to scram. I'm tired of this. This is my property and you're annoying me." I pulled my sleeve back, counting the seconds off on my watch. "Ten. Nine. Eight. Seven. Six. Fi- hey!!"
For the worker had turned and marched, not after the others, but right through the front doors of the factory. I hurried after him, grabbing his arm and yelling. "What the hell are you doing! Go home, you finished your job!"
Now that we were so close, I could see how truly short and thin, not to mention young, the person was. What the hell? I gaped slightly. "Are you even old enough to have a job?! What's your deal, huh?"
The worker smiled. "I turn eighteen next month, actually, and no, I'm not really old enough to have this job. I just wore the uniform for protection." He removed his helmet, and I felt an odd twinge of familiarity at seeing his odd black and green hairstyle. I had seen this guy before - where? Working on another arena? The worker paused, observing me. His eyes were so big and bright...
"Don't you even look at the photos of your new colleagues?"
I blinked in surprise. "What do you mean - of course I do!"
The worker snapped. "Well, that's obviously a lie. Nice first impression, Tower Tycoon, I am the Factory Head and that means you are in MY Factory. I have a lot more work I'd like to do on it, if you don't mind, I'm very busy."
What.
The fuck.
Are you fucking kidding me!
I jumped back, my arms flailing madly. "You're KIDDING!"
"I don't make jokes."
"But you're... you're..." I felt flabbergasted. This had to be him. A genius teenager... fuck! And he'd fixed the glitches himself - of course, it was his design, and he was also supposedly an inventor. I didn't realize my arms flailing as I realized all of this, but he was watching me with his odd, serene gaze.
I continued to panic over my mistake until suddenly I felt a small hand close on my wrist. My coworker - oh god, and I'd talked to him like that - was looking straight at me. I stepped back a little.
"Look, I am REALLY sor-"
"I'll forgive you." He stepped closer, and I stepped back again. I had to look down just to see him, he had to be over a foot shorter than me. I cannot believe this little shrimp had made that big a fool out of me. I looked suspicious as I answered him.
"Yeah, right."
"No really, and I won't judge you, or act like this ever happened." He was smiling now, but it was a bad smile, a smug smile. I snorted, and he laughed. "This isn't really the time for you to be snide, is it?"
"It's just that-"
His hand was on my collar, yanking me down, forcing me to bend over until we were eye level. His voice was stern. "I'll forgive you, and act like this never happened, but you have to promise to do the same."
I glanced around, making sure nobody could see this little guy with such a strong grip on me. How was he so fucking strong? "Yeah sure, okay-"
His lips were on mine. I didn't even see it happen. I was too fucking shocked to even react at first. His tiny iron-like fist stayed closed on my collar, and even as I came to reality and attempted to jerk away, I was held there. The seconds ticked by. God - how many - like a hundred or two thousand seconds - but then I was free and gasping, wiping my lips on my sleeve.
"What the f-!!"
"Good day, Tower Tycoon." He gave me a short bow, and I really mean it was short. He's fucking short. I gaped stupidly as he turned and walked deeper into the factory, leaving behind only the white helmet.
I don't know how long I stood there.
I don't know what I was thinking.
I think maybe he was four-foot-eleven, or five feet tall.
Wait... what had just happened?
------
A day, three days, a week later, I couldn't stop thinking about that nerdy shrimp kissing me. Not like THAT, just like that. You know - confused. It didn't help I passed him every single day when I made my rounds. The Brains had arrived and were settled in, and on the Grand Opening day, our first flood of challengers came in.
Totally unprepared.
None of us Brains even got to battle. Actually, it sucked.
And Nejiki was in his Factory and I was in my Tower, and he probably knew I couldn't get THAT out of my head. Why had he done that? I told myself he was just gay and had a crush on me. But that didn't make much sense.
"Tycoon."
I was standing on the balcony inside the entrance hall, looking down at the people lined up to sign up. We knew the first day would be rough, but lines were out the door. Hotels on the Island were full of people preparing to stay all week until they beat us. They were so under prepared, I would have bet a thousand dollars nobody'd be done in a week.
The voice belonged to a dark haired man in a blue suit, his wide brimmed hat shading his eyes. I smiled at my old friend.
"Riley, come to see the new Frontier?"
"I came to see YOUR new Frontier," the thin man chuckled, and he stood beside me. We both looked over the railing at the lines, and I suddenly had to bite my tongue to hold back what had risen to my lips. Small talk first.
"Looks like it's going to go pretty well. Want the tour?"
"Must you ask?"
I gestured for him to follow, and we both headed downstairs and outside into the main courtyard. Surrounding us were the five arenas, and a few hundred people lined up to get inside them. I didn't even realize I'd been gazing towards the Factory until Riley tapped my shoulder.
"You seem troubled."
"What?! Me! No, no no no no, just the excitement of seeing this dream finally realized." I spread my arms wide, beaming around me, then realized something. "Say, how's my boy doing? I thought he might be here today."
"Oh - he's fine." Riley laughed a little. "Last I saw him anyway, it's hard to check up on him when he's so eager. He's not here today, Palmer, he's not yet gotten all his badges."
I stopped dead in my tracks, grabbing Riley's arm. "Are you fucking with me?"
"No."
"MY son, son of the highest ranked trainer in Sinnoh, has been on the road all year and hasn't - how many badges has he GOT, Riley?"
"Well why do you think I was able to answer you about how he is so quickly?" Riley looked irritated. "He was just in Canalave City, battling Byron. It took him a few tries, but he managed, or so Byron says. Then he went right to Iron Island to train. That's where I saw him. He's - he's only got four, Palmer."
"FOUR???" I felt like the ground was spinning. I clutched my hair and shook my head. "But - but!! But-!"
"I'm sorry." Riley shrugged, still looking irritatedly at me. I could tell he was holding something back.
"SO spit it out, whatever you wanna say! You know why I don't have time to train him or check up on him!!"
Riley shrugged and said nothing. The silent accusation was like a slap to the face, and I crossed my arms as he continued to walk. My voice was a mumble.
"Sorry I got.... frustrated, I guess I just-"
"-expected too much of your son who is a spectacularly bright and energetic and optimistic and self confident boy even without your guidance."
I grumbled. "You didn't have to say it out loud."
"I won't let you deny me that right. Maybe if people said it outloud enough you'd make some effort to be in his life."
"He's better off not expecting anything from - argh!!" I stopped dead again, glaring at the little nerd. Sitting in the grass with his little blue Pokedex thing, watching the line of people going into the Factory! I stomped away from Riley and stood right over the boy. "What do you think you're doing?"
"Observing my challengers," he replied calmly. I stomped my foot.
"Not doing much challenging out here, are you?"
"Not one person has gotten past their seventh battle. The best so far today lost at their eighth and gave up and went home crying." He shrugged. "I'll know if I am required in my arena. I'm observing them."
"You're making us look like lazy fucks." I glared at his blue Pokedex, then made a swipe for it. He dodged it aside. "Stop playing with your Pokedex, get back into your arena, now."
"It's NOT a Pokedex, I invented it myself and-"
"Get into your arena!!" I bellowed. The boy's eyes finally widened in surprise, but at the same moment I felt a gentle hand on my shoulder. Riley was peering down at the boy, who had now stood up.
"Palmer, are you being a lunatic as usual?"
"Who is this." The voice shocked me - it was cold and cruel, and it was Nejiki's. He was glaring furiously at Riley, who merely looked confused as he held out his hand.
"It's lovely to meet you, I'm Riley, a long time acquaintance of Palmer's-"
Nejiki stared at the hand, not returning the gesture, his expression one of shock and hurt. He looked at me, and I even stepped back, his gaze was so intensely emotional. His voice was shakey when he replied to my friend.
"I see. So that's why he didn't-" He turned away, and neither of us could see his face. "Sorry - I don't mean to be rude - excuse me ..."
He turned and ran past the line into the Factory. I looked at Riley. I didn't know what had just happened, but I had an idea. Riley obviously had none.
"Palmer... what....?"
"Look Riley - I need to talk... I need to ask your advice about something," I mumbled. I grabbed his wrist, leading him towards the Tower. It was a big building, and I knew we'd find a place to discuss - god only knows what.