Totally frustrated w/ Fanfiction lately- it won't let me update any of my stories! This idea has been bouncing around in my head in a while, so today, when I really wanted to publish something new, I thought of this and this drabble/oneshot came out. It's a loosely connected drabble-fic series about May and Drew in Johto. It is chronological and no, I'll never make them travel together for an extended period of time- I just don't realistically see that happening...

Enjoy!

Hello Again!

He was walking out of the Cherrygrove City Pokemon Center, Pokemon all fully healed and ready to go, when he caught sight of something he wasn't supposed to be seeing.

It was a bright, red bandanna with a swirling white pokeball design.

No…it couldn't be?

There was only one person in the world he knew who would wear something like that.

Smirking, he walked closer to it until he could see the figure of the girl of whom it belonged to. Short and skinny, caramel brown hair parted straight down the middle, red dress, black tights, red sneakers— it was her alright.

With her back turned towards him, it looked like she was apologizing profusely to a young boy with sandy hair and square glasses who was drenched with water as her Squirtle looked abashedly on.

Typical May…

It was the perfect opportunity.

He tapped her on the shoulder.

"I thought you said you were going to stay in Petalburg City?"

"Drew!" Crystalline blue eyes stared at him with shock. "What are you doing here?"

He raised an eyebrow at her quizzically. "I could be asking the same thing of you. You were the one who told me that you were going to stay at your Dad's gym in a completely different region with your brother for a while, "to figure things out"," he drawled.

She blushed, a pale red color and chuckled sheepishly. "Yeah…I guess that was a stupid question to ask….you just startled me, that's all."

"Hmph, it's expected."

Her face got much redder. "Hey! It's your own fault for scaring me like that! You could've given me some warning you were coming up like that!"

He chuckled. "That would kind of ruin the whole element of surprise thing, May."

"Oh my god, it really is you! Drew, coordinator from LaRousse City!" the boy gushed excitedly. Truth be told, Drew nearly forgot he was there. "I can't believe it's really you— Your combinations are amazing, you really know how to show off your pokemon's natural abilities—Wow, May, you never told me that you knew the Drew!"

"Yeah, well" she laughed, but looked a tad bit uncomfortable, "We're good—"

"—Rivals"

"—Friends, I guess," she smiled. Shocked, he gaped for a minute before hastily regaining his composure. For all the time he had known May, giving advice, participating in contests, a couple of nasty run-in's, he wasn't sure he'd consider them friends. Rivals definitely and maybe something a little bit more, but friends?…

May, thankfully, hadn't noticed his momentarily lapse of focus. "We met up a lot in contests beforehand and a couple of really weird situations, but we won't get into those now," she smiled wistfully at first, then energetically.

She grabbed the boy's arm and then pumped her fist in the air in an uncanny imitation of Ash Ketchum.

"Come on, we have a lot of work to do!"

Hurriedly, though, the boy broke free, grabbed a black notebook from his backpack, and held out a pen towards him.

"Can you sign this please?," he blurted out.

Drew blinked. "Umm…sure…"

He took the pen while May giggled beside him.

"Make it out to Timmy please!"

He wrote out his signature and handed it back to the kid, who gleefully started exclaiming how all his friends would be jealous that he got a signature from a top coordinator.

"So who is this kid anyways?" he whispered to May.

"This is Timmy. He lives here in Cherrygrove City and wants to enter in the Pokemon contest tomorrow. It's his first contest and he was practicing here when his Pidgey accidently tackled into Squirtle's water gun. I've been helping him out since!" she beamed proudly.

He pretended to look shocked.

"You? Teaching him?"

"Hey! I'm a great teacher! And I'm a whole lot nicer than you are too!"

"Hmph…this kid's not going to make it past the appeals round if you're the one mentoring him," he smirked, "Face it May, you're terrible at explaining things, let alone at giving advice— he ignored her indignant splutterings, as amusing as they were-Anyways, I feel bad for the kid with you as his mentor, so I might as well help out some too."

"Hey! Wait…" she looked confused.

"Really, you'll do that for me?" Timmy asked, hope shining bright in his eyes.

He flipped his hair, and flashed a confident, winning smile.

"Don't worry about it."

Inside though, was a much different story.

What did I just get myself into?

…

"Now remember, don't forget that Gust has the property of knocking most physical attacks back at the user with twice as much damage and work on your Bellsprout's vine whip to get it faster and more accurate," Drew lectured.

The sun was just starting to set below the horizon, giving an orange tinge to the cerulean blue sky as Timmy and his Pidgey both panted from exhaustion and determination from a full afternoon's worth of practice.

"Give it a break, Drew." May sighed uncompromosingly. "Timmy's exahusted, Pidgey's exahusted, I'm exhausted. I think it's time to call it a day."

"No, No! I wanna practice more!"

"I hate to say it, but May's right." Drew called back his Pokemon. "It'll do you no good if you just wear your Pokemon out today."

"But...What if...I don't do well? What if I embarass myself in front of everybody?" Timmy asked worriedly.

"You're not going to. Look at all this practice you've done." he said bluntly, but with a hint of compassion, as he remembered the first days from when he was a beginning coordinator.

May's eyes softened as she probably reminisced about her early days as well.

"It's fine to be nervous," May gave an encouraging pat on his shoulder, "but you can't be too nervous or else your Pokemon will sense your fear and they'll get scared too. Just trust in yourself and your Pokemon, and you'll do fine, no you'll do amazing!"

"You think so?"

"I know so!"

"Yeah, yeah-You're right!"

Grinning, Timmy turned to both of them. "Thanks for all the help you've given me—I'm going to do super awesome in this contest—I won't let you guys down!"

He started to jog across the street, towards a part of town opposite from the Pokemon center. "My house is this way, I'll see you guys tomorrow—Thanks again, I'm gonna do awesome!"

And with that, he left May and Drew alone, in an increasingly awkward silence.

"Well, I guess I'll be heading back to the Pokemon center now, I'll see you tomorr—"she moved to turn away.

"Wait!" he reached out for her arm, and did not flinch at the electric current he felt when he touched her skin. She shivered, and he let go of her arm. "I'm going in that direction too, I'll walk you there.

"Oo-kay."

So they walked, although May kept looking down at her feet and scuffling, while his expression was blank, completely unreadable.

"You never answered my question you know."

Her head shot up. 'What?"

"Why are you here in Johto?"

"Well, I stayed with Dad, Max, and Mom long enough that I started getting a little restless, and wanted to compete and travel again…"

He frowned. "You didn't go with Ash and Brock, wherever they went? I'm sure they have contests in—"

"Sinnoh, they both decided to go to Sinnoh," she sighed, "but I don't know, I loved travelling with Ash, Brock, and Max, but I want to travel by myself for a while, to be completely independent and discover things about myself and develop my own unique style…and Johto seemed like a good, new place to come to…"

She peeked a quick glance at him, and sighed. "Go ahead, you can laugh at me," she muttered dejectedly, "I know it sounds kind of corny…"

But it didn't sound corny to him. Well, maybe a little, he thought sardonically. But still, he couldn't believe that she thought him to be so heartless to laugh at something personal like that. In fact, he understood because it was something that he felt acutely training or in the wild, with nothing but himself, the elements, and his pokemon.

Of course, he didn't tell her that.

"If I was going to laugh, I wouldn't be asking for your permission," he shrugged nonchalantly.

"I-Thanks…"

They walked in silence for a bit.

Then, May piped up. "How long have you been here?"

"Here? As in Cherrygrove City? I've been here since last weekend."

She shook her head, turning each chocolate colored pigtail ninety degrees. "No, how long have you been here in Johto?"

That was surprising. But as usual, he kept his calm. "Why do you want to know?"

She turned a purplish-red sort of color, and he bit the side of his cheek to keep himself from laughing. Was she embarassed? Sometimes, he really didn't understand her.

"I-well-it's not a big deal- I was just trying to keep the conversation going-yeah..."

"You know, you're the worst liar I've ever met, and that's saying something." he quirked his eyebrow, highly amused. "If you want to know how many ribbons I have, you could just ask. I already have one, by the way."

May looked shocked. 'How'd you guess?"

He smirked. Because it's all we really talk about. "You're an incredibly predicatable person."

"Oh yeah?" she challenged back. "Then what am I thinking right now?"

He scoffed at her as he flipped his hair. "May, you being easy to read doesn't mean that I can read minds or have ESP. You're probably thinking something like "I'm not predictable" or something about me being annoying and arrogant,"

"Nope!" she said cheerfully, although she looked a tad bit relieved. (if anyone would believe in ESP, it would be her) "I was thinking that waffles were blue, but the last part fits you pretty well, don't cha' think?"

"...You're so strange..."

But honestly, he didn't mind at all.

"Hey, Drew?"

"What?"

"You are entering in the Pokemon Contest tomorrow too, right?"

He rolled his eyes. "No, May, I'm here to go challenge the nonexistant gym leader."

She punched him lightly in the shoulder. "Haha, very funny Drew," she said exasperatedly, but with a smile on her face.

Then with a sudden cry, she exclaimed. "That's right, we'lll be facing Timmy tomorrow too!"

Drew smirked. "Scared of losing to him?"

"No, I just want to see how well he does in his first contest! He's really good, it's obvious that he's been training for this moment for a long time…"

He shrugged his shoulder noncomittantly. "He'll do fine, just won't make it to the finals."

"Hmm? Why not?" she asked, mildly confused.

"Because I'm here."

Now it was her turn to roll her eyes. 'Still the same Drew I see…"

"Well, anyways, even if you're entering it or not, I'm going to win my very first Johto contest ribbon tomorrow, and there's nothing you can do about it, mister!" she said as she stuck out her tongue playfully at him.

Smirk "Sorry May, but you're forgetting about the part where you lose to me in the finals,"

"Nuh-uh," she protested, "it's definitely the other way around!"

And it went on that way for the rest of the walk.

Before they even realized it, sunset came, the falling sun sending hues of deep gold and orange and fushcia across the sky like thrown like paint against a canvass. Neon red light ruined this picturesque moment in nature, as Drew realized, looking up at the giant red P and with a hint of disappointment, that they had reached the Pokemon Center.

It seemed like she'd noticed it as well. "Well...Thanks for walking me to the Pokemon Center..." she said shyly, suddenly scuffing the bottom of her sneakers onto the gravel.

He flipped his hair, trying to act like it was no big deal. "It's fine, it was on the way."

"Still though..." May seemed to be at a loss of words. "It was nice of you to do it anyways-I guess there's some hope for you after all," she teased gently, a strange expression settling over her face. Drew could feel a slight heat rushing to his cheeks, despite the growing evening chill, and could only wonder at why. There was something strange, almost magnetic in the air, that was making him feel something he'd never really felt before, and just by looking at her, he knew she felt it too.

"I should probably go now." he said a tad bit loudly.

"Ermm...yeah..." May trailed off lamely.

The gravel crunched loudly at his feet as he walked past the brunette, still conciously aware of the uncomfortable atmosphere around them.

"Hey-Drew! Drew!"she called out to him, hands cupped over her mouth.

He turned around.

A devlish glint reappeared in her eyes as she balanced her hands on her hip. "Just because you were kind of nice to me and Timmy today doesn't mean I'm going to go easy on you in the concert though! Get ready to lose tomorrow!" And just like that, the strangeness had gone away, and everything was back to what it used to be.

"Bye, Drew!"

He lifted his hand up in farewell and kept walking.

Surprisingly, he was looking forward to the new day.

Liked it?

Timmy's a random character that just popped into my brain while writing it, but he'll be in next chapter too.

Feedback on May and Drew?- I want to make their interactions as realistic/ canon as possible.

Next Chapter (if FF will let me put it up...) will be about the Contest.