Hello readers! It's me again, back from the dead. ^^; I decided to go ahead and write this little oneshot after hearing a good idea from a reviewer. This story takes place in a different Hoenn than the one in So Glad You're Safe. Here we have May and Brendan starting off the New Year right… Hehe. Also, I've decided to experiment a bit with my writing style by adding a little more humor/drama to the story. I hope you enjoy the result! :)
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"Brendan! Come downstairs, it's time for breakfast!"
The sleepy brunette groaned and turned over in bed, ignoring the wakeup calls of his mother until a small pink cat-like Pokémon emerged from its ball on the desk nearby and crept near the bed, stopping to stretch and yawn before pouncing on its poor Trainer and buffeting him with multiple Wake-Up Slap attacks.
"Alright, alright, I'm up…" Brendan finally crawled out of bed as his Skitty giggled mischievously, pleased at its victory.
"You know, I really should replace that move…" The groggy Trainer mused quietly as he recalled Skitty and placed the ball back on the desk. Pausing to stretch, Brendan got dressed and made his way down the stairs and was surprised to see his father sitting at the table along with his mother.
"Good morning, Brendan," Norman greeted his son, motioning for him to sit down next to him.
Soon, the family was eating breakfast happily and conversing like any other, although Brendan was rather quiet as ever. Seeing this caused his mother to worry, but then another question entered her mind.
'I wonder how he and May are doing?'
"So, Brendan. What do you think about that little cutie May next door?" Norman suddenly asked, causing his son to choke on his breakfast and blush profusely.
"Eh… She's cool, I guess…" The white-hatted boy muttered, trying to play off the little spectacle that had occurred. Brendan had hoped that his parents wouldn't pry further. Oh, how wrong he was.
"Real cool, eh? What's the word you kids use to describe each other nowadays? Er, was it groovy?" His mother questioned, oblivious to her husband and son's cringing facial expressions.
"She's just cool. Nothing more," Brendan finished quickly, sipping a cup of juice casually.
"Then I suppose a cool guy like you and a cool girl like her could get together and do some cool things together sometime?" His father questioned, his tone of voice making Brendan uneasy.
"Now what's that supposed to mea-"
"Now, Brendan," His mother interjected, "it's perfectly fine to have feelings for a girl. What's not okay is to marry said girl and then leave her to work in a Gym all day."
An awkward silence filled the air, Norman coughing in a poor attempt to remedy the situation. Brendan meanwhile was completely confused. Feelings? Marriage? Just what in the world was his mother talking about? He didn't have feelings for May… Did he?
By now, the atmosphere in the room became far too awkward for anyone to stomach, and Norman excused himself to go for a walk (or work, as his wife suspected) as Brendan went back up to his room and collapsed on his bed.
"What if I do have feelings for May? How would I even go about telling her? Would it ruin our friendship? Does she even feel the same way?" All sorts of questions slipped into Brendan's mind until his train of thought crashed as he heard a familiar voice coming up the stairs.
"Brendan? You up here?"
Brendan nearly jumped out of his skin at this, but managed to recompose himself just as his neighbor walked in the room.
"Yeah, I'm here. Where else would I be?" Brendan joked, causing May to giggle a bit.
"I dunno, maybe saving the world? Or taking on the Pokémon League?"
"Now we both know I'm not one for rushing headfirst into danger," Brendan replied coolly, "that's your thing. And there's no way I'm ready for the League yet."
"Hm, true. Oh, I just remembered! My dad- er, I mean, Professor Birch gave me two tickets to the Litleonoid Shower in Mossdeep tonight. You wanna go?" May inquired as she pulled a pair of tickets out of her bag.
If Brendan were a smooth operator, he would have likely responded with something along the lines of "I'd go anywhere with you."
This was not the case.
"Wha-? You mean, you and me? Like, a date? A date date?" Brendan tripped over his words, his face growing redder with every passing moment. Seeing the confusion on May's own face, he attempted to remedy this.
"Uh, no, I mean… Just a casual get-together between friends, right?"
'Nice save,' Brendan thought to himself sarcastically.
May smiled sweetly at him, trying to hide her disappointment at hearing the word "friends".
"Sounds great! Meet me in front of the Mossdeep Space Center around 8, okay?"
"Sure thing," Brendan grinned, relieved that May didn't seem to notice his awkwardness.
"Awesome," May smiled back before checking her PokeNav for the time. "Well, I should be going now. See you there, Brendan!"
The cheerful brunette made her way down the stairs and out of her neighbor's house as Brendan plopped back down on his bed and let out a sigh of relief. Looking at his clock on the wall and seeing it was only about 10AM, he decided that this would give him plenty of time to mentally prepare himself so as not to look like a total dork in front of May.
If only she had asked him sooner.
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It was about 7:30 in the evening as Brendan examined himself in the mirror one last time. He didn't look any different from usual, but he still wanted to make sure he looked presentable. Satisfied with his appearance, the young trainer made his way down the stairs and almost out the door when he was suddenly stopped by his father, who seemed like he was holding something behind his back.
"Ah, Brendan! There you are," Norman started, "Since you're going on a date with May, I think it's time I gave you this."
He handed Brendan a small disc in a case, which upon examining Brendan found contained TM17, or Protect. A blush rose to the boy's face as he looked away from his father and stored the TM in his bag.
"It's not that kind of date…" Brendan muttered awkwardly, making his way past Norman and out the door. "Thanks, Dad…"
"Anytime, son! Show her a good time!" He called back, causing Brendan's blush to deepen as he called forth his Latios and asked it to Mega Evolve and fly him to the Mossdeep Space Center. Within seconds, they were off into the sky.
"So," Latios began telepathically, "TM17, huh?"
"Shut up…" Brendan muttered, beginning to wish that he had left the house earlier.
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By the time Brendan had arrived in Mossdeep, it was already 7:57 and the sky had darkened a considerable amount. The boy in the bizarre white hat quickly made his way to the Space Center and, not seeing May anywhere, decided to enter the building and see if she was already inside. He didn't get very far before he was stopped by an employee.
"Hello! Are you here to watch the Litleonoid shower?"
"Yes, yes I am," Brendan replied coolly, adding a nonchalant grin to his face for no apparent reason whatsoever.
"Wonderful! And may I see your ticket?"
Brendan sweatdropped. He had completely forgotten about the tickets! Why didn't he just ask May if he could hold onto his while she was still in his room?
"It's alright, he's with me," A kind voice replied from behind Brendan, causing the boy to turn around and see his neighbor holding both tickets with a smile on her face. Seeing this caused Brendan to blush and return her smile with a sheepish grin.
"Excellent! You two have fun now," the employee said while taking the tickets from them and sending a suggestive wink at Brendan, causing his face to take on an even deeper shade of red.
"Aha… So, now what?" Brendan inquired, scratching the back of his head. He was caught off guard when May suddenly grabbed his hand and began dragging him to a cardboard cut-out of an astronaut standing on the moon.
"C'mon, Brendan! Let's go take pictures," She said, a childlike gleam in her eyes. Brendan let out a small chuckle.
She is just too adorable, he thought.
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Before long, the pair found themselves sitting on a bench facing the windows of the Space Center, having just witnessed the beauty that was the Litleonoid shower.
"That was amazing," May breathed, still gazing out the window as if the meteor shower was still happening, "So those are the Litleonoids! Oh, they're so beautiful!"
"Yeah… They certainly are," Brendan replied, but his gaze was not out the window where the meteors had just been a few moments prior. Indeed, his eyes were currently focused on the Pokémon Trainer sitting beside him. When May looked back and found Brendan's eyes locked with her own, a light shade of pink graced her cheeks and she looked away bashfully.
"Y-You know, I really enjoyed seeing this with you, Brendan…" She stuttered as she looked down at her feet and fiddled with her hands, a small smile on her face.
'Alright, Brendan. It's now or never,' the boy thought to himself before finally racking up the courage to take May's hands into his own. Although this surprised her and caused her face to redden a considerable amount, May did not resist. Looking back up at Brendan's face, she could see that he was about to say something important.
"May… I-"
Before he could finish, Brendan was cut off by the sound of an announcement over the speakers.
"Thank you for visiting the Mossdeep Space Center! This center will be closing shortly. Please make sure you don't forget anything when you leave."
"Oh… I guess we should leave then," May muttered, looking rather disappointed as she and Brendan reluctantly let go of each other's hands.
"Yeah…" Brendan said lamely, feeling rather defeated at the moment. After exiting the Space Center, the two friends decided to fly to Oldale on their Pokémon and then walk home to Littleroot together just as they had done at the very beginning of their journey.
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The walk to Littleroot was quiet. Not because there wasn't anything to be said, but because both parties felt rather awkward about what had almost happened and neither really had the courage to bring it up. After a few minutes, the pair made their way back to Littleroot and stood on the path between their houses. Although neither really wanted to leave, they knew they didn't have a choice at this time of night anyway.
"Well… Bye then…" May said with a sad smile and turned to enter her house. Before she could do so, however, she felt Brendan grab her wrist and as she turned to question him, she found his lips pressed to her own softly. May's eyes widened in surprise for a few seconds until she closed her eyes and found herself returning the kiss, melting in her neighbor's arms. They remained like this for quite some time before finally pulling away from each other, both blushing heavily.
"Brendan… W-Wha-"
"May, listen," Brendan began, "Ever since our journey started, I've always felt something for you inside. It's definitely stronger than 'like', and I'm starting to think that maybe, just maybe…" He trailed off, not really knowing how to put it into words. Fortunately for him, he didn't have to.
"Brendan… I love you too." May replied in a gentle voice, smiling at him reassuringly.
They both knew in their hearts that things would be different from now on, but they had no doubt that it would be for the better.
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Hello again readers! I'd just like to say that I had meaning to post this a little earlier this week but had been having technical and creative difficulties as you can see by the arguably abrupt ending. :/ I wouldn't really consider this my best work, but I thought I'd give you Hoennshippers a little something while I work on the next chapter of So Glad You're Safe. I hope you all enjoyed this little oneshot and stay tuned for more!