"Thank you for coming. I apologize for making you fly so far on such short notice and in such poor weather."
"That's alright, uh, Mr. Stone." The teenager wasn't quite sure how to refer to the silver-haired man. He didn't seem old enough for a stuffy term like Mister, but at the same time he was also the Champion of the region, and that made the boy hesitant to use just his first name.
"You can call me Steven. Come in."
Brendan Birch stepped quickly out of the pouring rain and into the small house. When he had received a letter that morning from Steven Stone asking him to come to his home in Mossdeep, the professor's son had been more than a little confused. What on earth could the Hoenn Champion possibly want with a kid like him? Brendan had almost not gone- half convinced it was some sort of prank. It had been weeks since he had last seen Steven during the Groudon incident. He hadn't even thought that the older man had remembered who he was after all this time, but it seemed he had been wrong about that.
"Please sit down." Steven motioned to one of the chairs at the table. Brendan took a seat and waited for the Champion to speak. He didn't have to wait long.
"I don't have time to spend on formalities, so I'll get to the point. Tomorrow I will be leaving the Hoenn region."
What? Brendan wasn't sure what he had expected the man to say, but it certainly wasn't this. "Leaving Hoenn?"
"Yes," Steven nodded, "and I will not be returning for a very long time."
"Does May know?" Brendan asked immediately. Then he silently rebuked himself. Of course she would know, she'd be the first one he'd tell-
"No."
Brendan's eyes widened. "You didn't tell her?"
The Champion crossed his arms and gave Brendan a hard look. "The only ones who know are my father, Wallace, and now you yourself. I'd rather this not be something widely known until I'm already gone."
"But - I mean, Steven… why are you telling me this?" Brendan couldn't think of a single reason why the Champion thought he was important enough to know this information, and especially why he was more important to tell than May. Sure, he had met him with his father when was a kid, and had spoken with him several times during the Team Magma crisis and aftermath, but he still barely knew Steven Stone.
"You and May are close, yes?" Seeing Brendan's confused nod, Steven continued on. "She talks about you often, you know. She's very fond of you. So I knew that you would be the right person to speak to."
She talks about me? To him? Briefly Brendan wondered what she had said about him, but quickly pushed the thought away and focused back on the older man's words.
"I'm going to leave these," Steven pulled out a long white envelope and a pokeball and set them on the table, "here in my house for her. Inside this envelope is a letter, telling her that I'm off to see the world and that I'll be gone for some time. When she realizes I'm missing I know it won't take her long to come here and find them."
"You're not going to tell her personally?"
"No."
"Are you sure that's a good idea? She's going to freak out." Brendan knew that May would see this as a betrayal- the man she adored running away without even a goodbye.
A look of regret passed over the Champion's face. "I know. And that's why I'm asking you to be ready for her when she does. Be there for her. She'll recover fast- she never stays unhappy for long, but all the same…"
"I-I'm not really that good at comforting." To be honest Brendan knew he was usually a bit too blunt normally. But around May it was the opposite: he usually had a hard time figuring out what to say, overthinking everything and usually ending up looking like a moron. He didn't know the first thing about comforting a dejected person, especially in this kind of situation.
"You love her." It was a statement delivered as casually as a remark about the weather. Brendan felt his face growing hot.
"Y-yeah? And so what if I do?" He said defensively.
Steven smiled. "You're right for her."
Brendan couldn't believe what he was hearing. Was Steven Stone, Champion, heir to the Devon Corporation, and most sought after man in the entire region actually saying that an average kid like him was a better match for May?
"I don't know about that, but in any case, it doesn't matter. She doesn't love me, not like that." Brendan said the next part with some difficulty, because he hated to admit it out loud. He hated to realize that in competing for May's affections with the handsome, suave, and intelligent older man he was destined for failure. "She loves you."
The confession hung in the air between them.
Steven smiled ruefully. "I know. And I love her. And that's why I have to leave."
Brendan looked up at him, perplexed. "What?"
"The way things are right now, it can never work between us." Steven walked over to the window and gazed outside at the sea. The storm outside was making the waves crash fiercely against the shore. "To begin with, I'm too old for her. I hardly think Norman would be pleased to see his daughter with someone almost twice her age. But that's not the only reason."
Not the only reason?
"People are starting to whisper, saying that it wasn't talent alone that led to her victory. Saying that for a girl her age to beat the Champion there had to be an underhanded deal going on." He looked disgusted. "It's my fault; I suppose I'm not as good at hiding my emotions as I thought. But May earned her championship through her own effort and hard work, not through any association with me. I won't let any fictitious rumor tarnish her reputation. "
The Champion sighed again. "At any rate, it's best that I exit the picture sooner rather than later."
"But you can't just leave and make May the Champion!" Brendan knew that despite the fact that she had beaten Steven weeks ago and earned the title, she had not taken the full responsibilities and regulations and instead had entered into a sort of shared rulership. But with Steven gone she would be the sole Champion of the Hoenn region. "What if she needs help, or advice, or-"
"May will not be the full Champion. Not immediately. It's still a bit too much for a fourteen year-old to handle on her own, even one as talented as she is."
Then who?
"I'm leaving Wallace in charge until she's ready to accept all the responsibilities."
Brendan shook his head. "She won't take this well. At all." He could only begin to imagine what his friend's reaction would be.
"True. I imagine she'll be quite furious with me for some time. But I have to do what I believe is best for her."
Brendan couldn't comprehend that he was having this conversation with the man he had always considered a romantic rival. Of course he knew how May felt about the steel-type trainer- he saw the way her eyes lit up when someone mentioned his name, saw the way she smiled when she talked about him. It had always made a part of him wince with jealousy, and made a small voice in his head wish the Champion would just disappear. But to be standing here with the very man he had silently cursed so many times telling him that he was about to do just that… He should have felt happy. He should have felt relieved. Instead he just felt numb.
"You know, once she finds out the real reason you left she'll probably come after you."
"Yes. So I'm asking that you don't tell her. Please."
"What? But-"
"Better that she hate and forget then spend her time bemoaning what might have been. Don't tell her. Promise me."
The boy saw that Steven wasn't going to change his mind. He heaved a sigh. "I promise."
Realizing that the conversation was now over, he stood to leave.
"Thank you for everything. I sincerely appreciate it. I know you'll be there for her." The Champion gave him a small smile that didn't reach his eyes.
Brendan kept trying to wrap his head around how far Steven was willing to go for May, and the depressing fact that she might never even know about it. That she might resent him for leaving her and believe he didn't care, when in fact nothing could be farther from the truth.
He couldn't compete with a love like that.
He glanced back one last time as he walked out and saw that Steven had gone back to the window, staring with cold eyes out at the raging sea.
A/N: My first Hoennchampionshipping fic and May isn't even in it! I always assumed it took around a year and a half for her to get all 8 badges and become champion and for the events of the Delta episode to happen, and this story takes place a while after that, so in this May and Brendan are 14 and Steven is 27. Thanks for reading!