Hello again! Thank you for all of your lovely reviews for The Truth Comes Out. =) This is sort-of a sequel to that story (or short story), so same ages (16-ish), location (up to your imagination). . . You can understand it without reading The Truth Comes Out. If you don't like ContestShipping, consider yourself warned. I MIGHT potentially be turning this into a longer shot, but I'm not sure just yet. It isn't complete by any means.
Oh and I forgot to do a disclaimer on the last story but you guys realize that I don't own Pokémon right? Right? I certainly hope so. Anyway…
If It Were Really That Simple
Chapter 1
Even ten days after she left the Grand Festival May was still in a mild state of shock about the recent turn of events. It was the best type of shock- the sort that came with receiving the Ribbon Cup and finally kissing the guy she had harbored romantic feelings for since the onset of puberty all in under a week. Still, it was strange and moreover Drew had decided to travel with she and Solidad for a little while (he had never stuck around more than a couple of days before). After six years of rivalry/friendship, it was odd to transition into a new relationship. Although she had to admit, it certainly was a pleasant transition.
The trio was traveling by foot to a contest a couple of towns over and taking the long route since the date was still a while off. They had stopped en route for the night just outside a tiny town. Drew was making Poke-Block and Solidad was off buying dinner supplies at the convenience store while May was just lying on her back, watching Drew mutter to himself while he mushed up the necessary berries.
"Trying to steal my recipe?"He said, smiling at her when he finally looked up and caught her gaze.
May grinned back at him. Six days ago, this could have been rather embarrassing and infuriating, but now that she and Drew had finally gotten up the courage to admit that they liked one another, she was starting to realize that she enjoyed his teasing. Though, of course, she would never let him know.
"Why would I need your Poke-Block recipe anyway? Mine works just fine. Obviously" she said in mock arrogance, attempting to mirror his hair flick upside down. It didn't seem to work quite as well that way.
Drew smirked and put down his bowl "Of course it does,"
He leaned down and pushed a stray hair out of her eyes, before kissing her gently. May smiled against his mouth and returned the kiss. It was at that moment, of course, that Solidad returned, groceries in hand.
"You seem to have developed an annoying habit of doing that, you know," muttered Drew, rolling his eyes, while May turned away red-faced.
Solidad shrugged, "Maybe you two should go somewhere more private then." She paused for a second "Speaking of which, I found something that might interest the two of you." May saw her pull an issue of Pokémon Weekly out of one of her bags and toss it to Drew, before beginning to set up for their dinner. Curiously, May sat up next to him to see what Solidad could possibly mean. She wasn't a tabloid reader.
Placed glaringly on the front cover of what May had to assume was the latest issue, was an enormous picture of her and Drew, taken two nights before when Drew had found her in an insomniatic blur in the Pokémon Center Lobby, with the headline "Rivals?" in bold print. Except, of course, it wasn't just of him with his arm around her or something relatively innocent; it was a picture of them kissing, and very clearly not with the knowledge that they were being photographed.
"Oh my… I can't believe they would- who would take this picture!" May stammered looking back at Drew to see if he was as outraged by this as she was. To her utter and complete fury, he was laughing.
"DREW! Do you have any concept of how mortifying this is?"
"What?" he smirked, this one much more infuriating than the first, "This?" he held up the magazine, causing May to blush again.
"Yes, that! In case you failed to notice, that picture is of us! On the cover of one of the most popular Pokémon magazines in this region!" May looked at Drew incredulously, but he just shrugged.
"Which is mortifying how?"
"It's…well….it's just… Ugh, you know good and well why it's mortifying!"
"No, I don't think I do" he flicked his hair without so much as a blush "Enlighten me"
May glared at him, but he just looked back at her in feigned stupidity. Damn Drew. "Hmm... well let's see. For starters, there is the tiny fact that my parents read Pokémon Weekly, which means that my dad is most likely plotting your murder right now, while my mother is having a heart attack at seeing that picture of her daughter on the front of Pokémon Weekly, as she, like I, am aware that oh, I don't know, perhaps ALL of the Pokémon world has a subscription to it. Then of course, there is my little brother who is never going to let me live this down. Not to mention all the people we compete against, who are going to take me so seriously now that this has come out. Oh and on another note there's some random person who took this picture without our knowledge… which isn't disturbing at all." She paused to take a breath
"May" said Drew still infuriatingly calm "Your parents are already aware that we are dating. Everyone else was going to find out eventually, and considering the fact that up until two days ago you claimed to hate me, I'm sure they were going to wonder about us anyway. As for the random photo, you just won the Grand Festival, there are going to be plenty of random photos of you cropping up. Besides" he finished changing tones and smirking at her wickedly "You started it"
"Excuse me!"
"You heard me."
"Drew Hayden I did not- you were the one with who started it!" she declared indignantly.
"Hmm… that's funny. Because I have a pretty clear memory of you- what's right the word here…- flinging yourself at me as I was walking away. And kissing me. Like this." He held up the magazine for emphasis.
"Because you kissed me first, and then went all sulky and tried to walk off!"
"Still doesn't change the fact that you started it"
"I DID NOT START IT! You would have done the exact same thing. And like I just said, you kissed me first."
"I most definitely did not start this. Hey, I'm not complaining about it" he added, when May opened her mouth to argue back "I'm just saying…"
"Well then stop saying!"
"May, that made absolutely no sense"
"Well neither did what you said before that" she retorted, looking away from him
"That's because you wouldn't let me finish. I was just saying that there's no reason for you to get all worked up over this."
"Then why do you keep arguing with me!"
Drew smirked at her "Because it's fun."
"So you think its fun that I'm upset?"
"No" said Drew, sliding over and putting an arm around her waist "I think it's funny because you overreact to everything I say. Besides, you're sort of adorable when you're angry."
May huffed at him. Drew leaned over and tried to kiss her, but she moved as far away from him as his arm would allow.
Drew sighed, "Are you really that embarrassed about the picture?"
"Yes, as a matter of fact I am"
"Care to explain why?"
May turned and checked his expression "I'm pretty sure I just explained that to you," she said, icily. "Most normal people don't want pictures of themselves making out with their boyfriends on the front of major news publications. Unlike you, obviously"
Drew shrugged "If it was anybody but you I probably would care"
"Brilliant line" muttered May, rolling her eyes
"I'm being serious, May" he said. She caught his gaze, finally, and sighed.
"If there was a picture like this of you with any other girl, you'd be in big trouble"
"I wouldn't even dream of it" muttered Drew, leaning down and kissing her on the forehead.
May smiled in spite of herself "Why is it you always have to wait until I'm annoyed with you to be so charming. It's irritating."
Drew chuckled "Is it really?"
"Yes" she answered, leaning towards him "Incredibly"
"I see" he moved his left hand so that it was resting on the top ridge of her spine, and began rubbing the back of her neck with his thumb, smirking when she laid her head on his shoulder. When she looked up at him to say something else, he let his hand trail down to her lower back before kissing her deeply. May didn't seem to object.
"Irritated yet?" he mumbled when they finally broke the kiss
"MmhHmm"
He smiled and kissed her again "I'm glad"
The next seven days passed uneventfully. They made it into the next town in good time for the contest they were all three planning to enter, and stayed at the Poke Center, training for their upcoming matches. May and Drew managed, for the most part, to avoid being accosted by curious admirers, since they both knew at the contest it would be pretty much unavoidable. Solidad stayed contently in the background, letting her two friends be in a way in which they could only be eternally grateful for.
Mostly, all three of them just focused on their Pokémon, Drew thinking about his loss to Solidad, Solidad about hers to May, and May concerned about maintaining her top coordinator status. And of course May and Drew thinking about how their new relationship might affect their own statuses. They had already agreed that on stage, they were first, and foremost still bitter rivals, which of course was easier said than done. The two of them were professional enough to pull it off, but the rest of the coordinators and spectators… well, that was a different story. The Pokémon Weekly incident, if nothing else, had certainly proven that point.
The morning of the contest came too quickly for May's liking. It wasn't that she was not looking forward to competing again-she certainly was- but the fact was that this was going to be her first contest appearance since the Grand Festival was nerve racking on several levels. It was scary enough to be defending her title- defending it against her boyfriend ,whether professional or not was just going to be an experience. If she lost she'd get twice the flack and if she won, it was because Drew went easy on her, or something equally ridiculous. Honestly, May just wasn't seeing a bright side to this situation.
"It'll die down" Solidad told her reassuringly when she expressed this frustration to her traveling partner and mentor over breakfast "Once everyone in the contest world actually gets used to the idea that you two are together, something else will come up and everyone will go back to just talking about your battles. I mean it will always be interesting to see you two battle- it was before this- but there won't be all the hype. Right now just let everyone get it out of their systems."
May sighed "I hope they get it out soon."
Solidad laughed and they walked down to Contest Hall together. Drew had already gone for some last minute training. They got several strange looks; May could tell everyone was wondering where Drew had gone, but she ignored it. She was here to compete. If they were going to get distracted by something this petty, well, that was their loss.
When they reached Contest Hall, Drew was sitting in the lounge, ostensibly waiting for her and Solidad to arrive. He smiled at May who blushed and smiled back. Solidad rolled her eyes.
"You two are worse than pre-teens, honestly."
May's blush deepened, but she managed to pull a face at Solidad before Drew got up and walked over towards them.
"I'm going to go to the restroom" muttered Solidad, slipping off before May had a chance to argue back.
"Soli- Oh hey Drew." She mumbled, studying her feet
Drew rolled his eyes "Good morning to you too" he leaned over and kissed her on the cheek. May looked up at him quickly.
"I-I thought we said we were going to act like rivals still"
"No." Drew answered, looking bemused "We said we were going to act like rivals if we end up facing each other in a battle. Otherwise, I mean, what's the point?"
"B-but won't that cause, you know… a fuss"
"If we act like rivals, people are going to think we broke up and that's going to cause even more of a fuss. Besides, it's not like we're starting any rumors here. I mean we are actually dating now." He gave May a genuine smile, and wrapped his arm around her waist. She could see the people around them watching the two of them closely, and whispering.
"Have you registered yet?" he asked still smiling.
May shook her head feeling off-balance.
"Typical" he said "Come on, you're going to miss the deadline" He slid his hand into hers and lead her to the front desk.
"Everyone seems… well … okay" mumbled May as she handed the lady her contest pass.
Drew nodded in agreement before adding "Yeah, that's true but we haven't seen…"
"May! Darling, I just knew you two were going to be here! Congratulations! That magazine cover was just smashing! I knew there was something going on between you two!"
"Harley" Drew finished, sweatdropping and turning around.
"Hey Harley" muttered May studying her feet once again
"Oh hon! And they are holding hands!"Sigh.
Drew gripped May's hand tighter, as though predicting that she was about to drop his. "We are going to have to deal with him eventually," he mumbled in her ear.
"So this" he wagled his fingers at the two of them "How long have the two of you been, you know, together?I suppose you didn't want to make a scene at the Grand Festival? You must have been so glad Solidad defeated you Drewsy. Imagine having to face your girlfriend?"
Drew shrugged and flicked his hair with his free hand "It's all the same to me. A battle's a battle. And we weren't dating at the Grand Festival."
Harley smiled at them in false benevolence "Of course you weren't. I suppose that picture was the first time you two kissed as well?"
"Second." Drew answered matter-of-factly. May felt her face burn. Thankfully, they were saved from further conversation by the reappearance of Solidad.
"Hello Harley" she intoned cheerfully, ignoring the pink faces of her traveling partners "Glad to see you here today"
"You too hon." He said, still eyeing Drew and May in a way that made them both enormously uncomfortable. "How long have you been in town?"
"The three of us got here four days ago." She answered, "We've been staying at the Pokémon Center training until the cont-"
"Wait the three of you!" Harley interjected loudly, pointing to Drew and May "So you two are travelling together?"
"Well we are dating," muttered Drew rather sarcastically
"But you never travel with other people! Is this public knowledge yet?" he asked, a little too eagerly
Drew shrugged "Does it matter?"
"That's okay hon." Harley finished, over-loud, ignoring Drew and grasping May's hands "Your secret is safe with me"
"Um, well it's really not a secret Harley but…"
"Well in that case I must say I'm am beyond excited for you both! Well I need to go train! Ta-ta darlings! Behave your selves" And with an unnerving wink he was gone.
"Ugh. Why is he so creepy? My head hurts now." muttered May, laying it on Drew's shoulder.
"He's Harley. What did you expect?" asked Drew, sounding amused, and putting an arm around her.
"That" she answered before picking up her head and looking at Drew "Do you really think people don't realize we're travelling together? I mean I thought it was sort of obvious."
"Drew's pretty well known for travelling alone," answered Solidad. May jumped, having forgotten that Solidad was still standing there. Drew snickered, and May turned to glare at him. Solidad continued, conditioned to ignoring their outbursts "Maybe people just haven't thought of it yet."
"I guess…," she mumbled, twiddling with her gloves.
"Don't worry about it May" Drew looked up in the direction Harley had just run off to "If they didn't know before, they know now"
"Yeah" she said quietly "I guess you're right"
"How long do we have before the contest starts?" Drew asked Solidad, although he already knew the answer
"About an hour. Why?"
"Because" he grinned wickedly at May "You need to work on your Solar Beam with Munchlax. The one at the Grand Festival was awful."
"W-What? It was not! If I remember correctly I placed above you, Mr. Perfect!" yelled May, wrenching out from under Drew's arm.
"Sure, sure" Drew waved his hand at her absently, and turned to walk back outside "By pure luck"
"Drew Hayden! Come back here! I swear I'm going to…" May ran off after him.
Solidad grinned as she watched them leave "And to think, I thought if they started dating they might actually have to grow up. I suppose that was a notion"
She followed to do some training of her own
The contest went on without too much fanfare. Drew kept his arm around May for the majority of the appeals round, which attracted attention, although for the most part people left them alone. He, May and Solidad made it through the appeals easily, with Solidad in the lead. May then defeated her first opponent with ease. Drew had already won his battle, and Solidad was on right after her them. May was making her way back to the coordinators lounge to watch the battle on the TVs, when Drew cornered her in the hallway.
"Drew!" she protested when he kissed her "Solidad is on like now. And we're missing her battle."
"You've seen Solidad battle a hundred times, May" he muttered, kissing her collarbone "I'm sure one miss won't hurt"
When she tried to protest further he took the opportunity to stick his tongue between her open lips and silence her. It seemed to be a rather effective method.
"We" mumbled May, pulling back after a minute "Are in the middle of a hallway, at contest hall. You do realize anyone could walk in here right now?"
Drew shrugged "They're watching the battle. Solidad will come off before the next person walks through"
"Drew" she muttered sounding only partially annoyed
"You know you want to" he whispered in her ear, wrapping his arms around her waist and pressing his body into hers.
"Because we really need another picture plastered across Pokémon Weekly"
"What about Coordinator's Monthly?" he muttered moving up and kissing her neck
"Sometimes I really hate you Drew"
"No you don't"
"Yes I do"
"No I really don't think you do" he mumbled without taking his lips off her skin
"You keep telling yourself that"
" I have to" he said looking up and meeting her eyes, his face centimeters from her own "Because I love you"
May looked at him a second longer before the impact of those words caught up with her.
"D-Drew? You what?"
"I. love. You" he said again smiling "Just thought I'd clarify"
"B-But we haven't been dating even a month yet h-how can you…"
"It's not that hard really May. I've had feelings for you since I was ten."
"Oh" she mumbled blushing and looking down "Right"
"You don't have to say it back you know. It was just for your information"
May mentally cursed Drew for being so infuriately calm. "Yeah, but now I feel bad"
"Please don't say it back out of guilt May"
"Well then what do you what me to say!" she demanded, blush deepening.
"You could start by admitting that you don't hate me" He smirked.
"Oh yeah. Well I don't hate you."
He smiled "I know"
May was about to retort when a loud voice announced from the stage area "And Geodude is down! Solidad and Slowbro are our winners!"
"That means I'm up next" mumbled Drew, kissing May on the forehead
"Good luck" she said
"Like I need luck" Hair flip. May groaned.
"You know I was being serious right?" he asked, looking at May again.
She gulped and looked away "Yeah, I got that"
"May?"
"Yes"
He reached under her chin and tilted her head "I love you" And he leaned down, kissing her on the nose "Seriously"
"I heard you the first two times you know"
"I know. I've got to go now" he kissed her once more "Good luck to you too. You're the one who's going to need it"
Drew pulled himself from May and walked away before she came back to herself enough to reply. May touched her lips again, then shook her head, and walked back to the lounge to watch him battle
-So he's loved me since he was ten years old May mused only half watching the battle Well I guess that's true. I don't even know how long I've lo-liked him. He made it so hard to tell. I mean, when I first met him he was such a jerk… but then he helped save those berries from Team Rocket. Ugh, he was always doing confusing things like that. Insulting me, then throwing roses at my Pokémon, saving my friends from Harley and Team Rocket, pushing me in his weird way to work harder. It was so easy to brush it off. But then my mom made that comment at the Grand Festival, and that made me actually think about it- the roses and everything. And Brianna kept talking about how I was the only female trainer he had any respect for, before she flat out accused me of liking him. But that wasn't totally a lie what I told her; I really did make a conscious effort not to think about him like that. You can't go around lov-No- liking your rival. After I beat him in the Kanto Grand Festival, and we shook hands… that was so weird, it was like neither of us wanted to let go. I guess that explains it.
But love? I mean Solidad has been bugging both of us about how we feel about each other since we went to Johto… but she never said anything about love. Neither did Drew for that matter. I mean the guy kissed me and tried to walk away! It took him almost six years to admit he had feelings for me. Then less than a month later, he loves me?
Maybe he loved me all along. Somewhere along the way of that annoying crush, our feelings changed and we didn't want to admit it? May shook her head. Ugh. Why is he so confusing?
"And time is up! That was a valiant effort by Carrie and her Skitty, but it looks like our winner is Drew! He'll be facing the winner of the next battle in the finals"
May sighed and grabbed her Pokeball. She'd have to think about this after the battle.
"And next up we have Grand Festival Champion May versus runner-up and former Champion Solidad! They have five minutes on the clock! Now let's get busy!"
"Lapras let's go!"
"Blaziken take the stage!"
"And May starts out this battle with a distinct type disadvantage! This should be interesting"
"Alright Blaziken, let's start this off with Fire Spin"
"Lapras counter with Water-Gun"
"And May's points take a major hit!"
"Lapras use Psychic!"
"Blaziken Mega Kick"
Both Pokémon went flying backwards with the impact.
"Lapras Tackle!"
"Blaziken Sky Uppercut!"
And the battle continued like that for the next four and half minutes. May managed to use her so called professionalism and forget about her Drew issues long enough to secure a very, very narrow victory.
"Congratulations" said Solidad, smiling as they exited the stage "I see I have more work to do"
May grinned back at her "Not too much. I thought you had me for a little while"
"But that's all the difference isn't it? A champion pulls through in the end"
May shrugged "I guess so" She had managed to stop thinking about the love incident with the distraction provided by the battle, but now it was starting to come back to her. Which probably wasn't such a good thing.
"May, is there something going on?" asked Solidad, looking at her friend with a knowing kind-of glance.
"Not anything to do with the contest, if that's what you're asking" May answered, having had had learned from experience the futility of trying to deny anything to Solidad. The best she could usually manage was to buy a little time by playing dumb.
"It doesn't have anything to do with whatever you and Drew were doing in the stage entrance during my battle, does it?" she said, eyes glittering wickedly
May just glanced down at her feet guiltily
"Come on you are going to have to battle him in a minute. What happened?"
May shrugged "It's really not that important"
"Hmm… well then you should have no problem telling me what happened" She had her there.
"Umm…Well" mumbled May going back to studying her feet "He and I were just talking and stuff, you know, and I started to say that maybe we should go back so we didn't have another Pokémon Weekly incident. And he sort of ignored that, so we kept standing there, and joking around and then Drew got all weird and serious and he said… hesaidthathelovesme" she finished quickly, face heating up.
At first she thought she might have to repeat herself but Solidad somehow was able to interpret her answer "And what did you say back?" she asked knowingly
"I-I didn't. He didn't want me to answer out of g-guilt or o-obligation"
"So you don't think you love him?"
May looked up at Solidad sharply "How would I know if I loved him or not? I haven't even been dating him a month"
"But you've liked him since you were what, ten?"
"So! That doesn't mean that I love him! I mean love, love is. . .love is a big word. I mean not literally, obviously because it only has four letters, but you know. . .Love is a big deal. And it's scary. And not something you can take back."
Solidad smiled "Of course. You should wait until you know it's the truth"
"Or until you're ready" mumbled May looking back down
"Ready?"
"Yeah, until you're ready to love someone"
"I wasn't aware it was a choice"
May blushed "That's not what I meant, Solidad"
"That's good, because when you meet someone who's worthy of your love and they earn it, they have a right to know the truth." Solidad looked at May with a strange glint in her eye "But of course you already know that"
"Yeah, of course" May mumbled
"Good luck in your battle"
"Thank you"
"You might want to head towards the stage"
May stopped and glanced back towards the coordinators lounge "I will, I just have something I need to take care of really quickly" She ran towards the lounge. Solidad smiled and walked back towards the audience.
Luckily, Drew's hair was not hard to spot. May ran up behind him and yelled his name. He stopped, turned and smirked at her.
"Good luck, May. You'll really need it now" he flicked his hair and produced a perfect red rose, which he tossed to her. She caught it in a developed reflex, grinning; it had been awhile since the last one. When she didn't respond immediately he moved to turn. May stopped him again.
"Hey Drew" she said, playing the comment off more calmly than she felt.
"Yes May" A hint of a smile played on his features
"I have something important I need to tell you"
"Okay" he answered, smirking "But no psychological warfare please. Not that it would work."
"No" May said nervously "I wouldn't do that"
"Okay…" he looked at her expectantly. May took a deep breath and looked him straight in the eye.
"I love you too"
He glanced at her appraisingly "Seriously?"
"Yeah"
"More so than fifteen minutes ago?"
"No, not really. I was just sort-of caught off guard" May smiled a genuine smile which he returned before flicking his hair once again.
"Well you'll really be caught off guard in a few minutes"
She rolled her eyes "Maybe, maybe not. Still doesn't change the Grand Festival"
"No, I'd prefer the Grand Festival remain unchanged" his eyes glittered slightly "When I beat you today, it won't matter who won last time"
"If our two finalists would please report to the Second Stage!"
"That's us," said May
"It is"
"Well Drew, let's give them a battle to remember"
"Have we ever not?"
"That's true"
Drew extended a hand, which she accepted.
"Like I said before, good luck, you'll need it May Maple"
"You too, Drew Hayden"
The hand shake was a bit too lingering to be between true rivals, but they let it slid. They let go of one another's hands and walked in opposite directions to the Second Stage, May with a red rose tucked behind her ear, and Drew with an uncharacteristic smile.
A battle to remember… that we can do. Yeah, that we can definitely do.
Fin!
Didn't like? Please review. I got a bunch of hits on the last one, and some very nice reviews, but I keep wondering if people just didn't want to be mean, so they didn't review if they thought it sucked. Of course I love getting positive feedback- I mean who doesn't- but if you found anything wrong with it, even something nit-picky, do not hesitate to tell me about it.
Peace, Love, and Contestshipping!