A/N: I was in the mood to write some Contestshipping and I found an amnesia prompt that seemed to fit these two pretty darn well. Plus, the song "1000 Ships" by Rachel Platten is really good contestshipping writing music. So, ta-da! Here's my semi-edited final product.
Disclaimer: I don't own Pokemon, any of it's characters, yada yada. You and I both know I don't own shit.
More Confused Than Usual
The first thing May learned today was that getting hit with a Confuse Ray will give a human amnesia; the second thing she learned was that she was in love with a boy named Drew Hayden.
"Wait, wait, wait," May said, her face screwed up in disbelief. "There are magazine articles? About me and him?" She leafed through about a dozen different tabloids Max had (quite conveniently) kept in a box under his bed. "Is that us on the cover?"
"Yep!" Max said smugly. "There's interviews of you two as well. You always deny it, and Drew normally avoids the question or just flips his stupid hair. But you definitely love him."
"His hair is pretty stupid," she responded almost angrily, which made Max laugh out loud.
"Are you sure you don't remember anything? That sounds exactly like something you would say."
May blew out a frustrated breath. "Nope, nothing. When is this gonna wear off again?"
"Dad says not until tomorrow, probably. That Slowbro was pretty strong. Maybe you should go to your room and look around? It might jog your memory."
May nodded seriously and stood to leave her brother's room. When she made it to the threshold she hesitated just long enough for Max to state "Down the hall to your right. There's a torchic sticker on your door."
When May opened her door, she was greeted with an absolute mess. Clothes cluttered the floor and hung from doorknobs and bedposts, and Pokémon plushies adorned her bed and the floor surrounding it. She wanted to be angry that she was such a slovenly person, but the room felt homey, even if she couldn't remember it. On her dresser was a case filled with the loveliest ribbons she'd ever seen, not that she could remember any specifically, but still. She knew she must have earned them from Coordinating, which made her proud of herself in a way she couldn't understand.
As May's gaze continued to scan her room, she noticed the wall next to her bed was covered with about a thousand tacked-up photos and a sign reading "May's Expeditions," and May tip toed her way around the clutter to get to it.
Most of the pictures were of her on her travels. May recognized Max, the boy who introduced himself to her as her brother about a minute after she woke up from being stunned by a Confuse Ray. He had sounded oddly resigned about it, like he was used to these antics by now and no longer surprised about May getting hit by Pokémon attacks and losing her memories. He seemed very knowledgeable about Pokémon and was able to calmly tell her that she would be okay after a short period of time, but further reassured her by taking her to the Pokémon Center nearby with their father, where a polite young nurse told her the same.
A big portion of the photos with Max in them also had two other boys who May assumed to be Ash and Brock. Max had given a short explanation of them when trying to recover her memory, and May had seen some small articles about Ash in the magazines Max had forced upon her like he had been waiting for the opportunity to loudly point out how in love she was.
Right….in love. At least a third of the photos were of her and the green-haired boy Max assured her was her almost-boyfriend: Drew Hayden.
It was very weird looking at pictures of herself that she had no knowledge of taking. May and Drew next to a waterfall eating ice cream. May and Drew sitting in stadium seats for some sort of show, May sticking her tongue out at the camera and Drew rolling his eyes. May's out-of-focus hand throwing a Frisbee at Drew, who looked aghast as he tried to duck. May's arm around Drew's shoulders, her smile caught in mid-laugh, while Drew looked at her with a softened expression.
She had to admit, they looked adorable.
And they weren't dating? Why not? And why was this, of all things, the most pressing thing on her mind when she got amnesia? Shouldn't she be asking her parents about childhood memories? Or meeting her Pokémon for the first time? Or rereading all of her favorite books so they'd be new to her again?
But instead, here she was, typing her name next to Drew's in a popular search engine on the internet and looking at all the results.
"Miss Maple, we hear that you've been travelling with Drew Hayden through Johto. How has that effected your rivalry?"
"Oh, we only cross paths every once in a while! And we're still just as competitive as ever, that's for sure!"
"I don't know, Miss Maple. Sources show the two of you on multiple occasions cuddling up for pictures near Johtan landmarks. Looks like love is in the air, if you know what I mean!"
"Ha ha, what?! Drew and me? Me and Drew? That's ridiculous. He's—he's my rival! I don't—"
May snapped her laptop shut. She didn't think she could take much more of that embarrassment.
That was it. It was time to take some decisive action. That's something that the old May would do, right? Whatever.
After a bit of searching, May found her house's video phone in their den. Checking to make sure the room was clear of her bustling family (she was pretty sure she only had a mother, a father, and a brother, but she wasn't positive), May dialed the number to Drew's home. The internet-stalking she had done informed her that Drew should be at his childhood home during the off-season for Contests, so May was fairly sure this was where he would be.
He answered on the second ring, and his voice was so unexpected that May jumped a little bit when he started immediately speaking.
"Arceus, May, are you okay? Max just texted me telling me you were hit with a Pokémon attack!"
"Wait," May said. "I thought you were my rival. Why do you and my brother text each other?"
The worried look on his face did not go away. "He was texting me on your phone, May. Now, like I asked before—"
"I have a phone? Then why am I using this thing? Why didn't Max tell me I had my own cellphone?"
"May!" Drew yelled to the camera, looking slightly frazzled. "What's going on? Are. You. O-kay."
"Oh! Oh, no, I'm fine. I was hit with a Confuse Ray. I got amnesia from it. It should be gone by tomorrow, I think."
May didn't even notice how tense Drew had been until he let out a big breath, slouching back against his chair and pushing his bangs away from his eyes. "Thank Mew." May was almost touched by his concern. "Almost" being the operative word, since It was only a few moments later that he was falling apart in a fit of hysterical giggles, for no reason that May could possibly fathom.
"What's so funny?" she asked sincerely, which only managed to make him laugh harder.
"This would only happen to you!" he said between breaths. "You're already the most confused person I know, and yet you somehow managed to make it worse!" The longer he continued to laugh at her expense, the crosser May became. Wasn't this guy supposed to like her?
And so, she said just that.
"Is this any way to treat your crush?"
Drew stopped laughing so fast he choked on his spit.
"What—did you—just say?" he asked, with quite a bit of coughing.
Amnesia May was seriously starting to reconsider her decision-making skills. The boy before her looked completely shell-shocked. This did not appear to be something Old May ever seriously brought up with him.
But. It was too late to go back now.
"You heard me. According to just about the entire world we're like, disgustingly in love with each other, so it seems pretty rude of you to laugh at my Trainer injuries!"
He looked like he was struggling to regain his composure. Did they ever mention their crushes to each other even jokingly? Why did he look like he was going to throw up?
"Who told you that?" he asked, raking his fingers through his bangs again. May watched them twitch, like they wanted to flip his hair on their own accord.
"Max. And my mom. And about ten magazine articles and thirty websites and a really embarrassing taped interview! Even Nurse Joy at the Pokémon Center brought you up when she diagnosed me after I was hit by that Slowbro attack!" She made her voice higher and added a comical amount of politeness to it. "'Oh, don't worry dear. You'll be up and battling that Drew Hayden in no time! I'll probably see you two in an issue of Coordinator's Weekly in a few days.' What does that even mean! Why is everyone so obsessed with us?"
"It kinda sounds like you are too, May."
"Drew!" May practically growled. It was this action, of all things, that made him smile a bit. "You know what I mean! If the whole world thinks we're supposed to be together, then why aren't we?"
"I don't know!" he said, throwing his hands out either side of him. "It's been our thing for so long to avoid it that I figured that's just how it would always be. You always deny it so vehemently that I thought maybe you weren't interested."
May thought about the photos tacked to her wall. That certainly didn't look "not interested" to her.
"So," May said slowly. "You do like me?"
Drew rolled his eyes just like he did in that picture, and while May felt she should have been put off by his attitude, she had to admit she found it a bit endearing.
"Of course I do, May. Even an amnesiac could see that."
She giggled a bit at his joke then stopped when she realized what this meant. Drew Hayden just said he liked her. Drew Hayden, the guy that Old May appeared to be hardcore crushing on for years. May had just uncovered possibly a big secret about this boy, but without any sort of context she had no idea what Old May would do with this information. When she got her memories back tomorrow, would she remember this conversation? Oh, Mew.
The frozen look on Drew's face showed that he just realized the same thing.
May let out a nervous laugh. "Well, I'm glad we got that out of the way, huh?" Drew did not respond. "…Well, I guess that's all I needed to talk about. I guess I'll call you when I get my memory back in a day or two. I just—uh—It was really nice meeting you?"
"Likewise," he muttered, then put his head in his hands in what appeared to be disbelief. At a loss for what to say, May turned off the camera and softly hung up the phone, wondering what exactly this would mean for her tomorrow.
She didn't have long to ponder before Max was collapsing on the floor behind her and roaring with laughter.
"How long have you been in here?!" she shrieked, sounding very much like a big sister for someone with no memory of being one.
But Max ignored her in favor of literally rolling on the ground with laughter. "Oh Arceus, I can't breathe! I can't believe you just called him up and asked him!" He beat his fists on the floor in glee. "You just yelled at him to admit it! You have so much more backbone when you're an amnesiac!"
May groaned and put her head in her hands, unable to face the fact that she had just made her supposed long-time crush admit that he had feelings for her.
May had learned two more important things that day: she should never be trusted with communication devices of any kind when she lost her memory, and Drew Hayden loved her back.