It was time.

The Elite Four had been defeated, and the champion's doors were right in front of me. I was nervous, of course, but a strange feeling of excitement ran through my veins.

I could become my dream.
I could become one of the strongest trainors in Hoenn.
I could become the champion.

There was no room for failure, I realized that easily. It was now or never.

And I wasn't letting this oppurtunity pass by me without a fight.

I ran straight to the doors, watching them open slowly as I grew closer. My hands felt sweaty and my heart was beating a million miles a minute, but I couldn't care about that now.
It was time to fight for the right to call myself strong.

A blinding white light filled my vision, but I kept running.

I kept running and running until the champion's room was right in front of my eyes. I was here. I was where Dad had always wanted to be.

I hadn't met the champion before, but whoever it was – they should've been prepared to be defeated! I wasn't going to go out of this room until I've won.

The staircase in front of me was long and I walked two steps at a time, unable to contain my anxiety.
This was it.

Metal walls were the first thing I noticed. The room itself was plain and simple, perfect for a battle. The ground was the same as the staircase, but the flat ground was seemingly more intimidating.

I'd admit that I was scared, but I wasn't going to let anything stop me.

Not even...

Him.

A vast different scenario happened from what I was expecting. A sudden change from the rapid heart beats I felt changed into nothing. My blood ran cold.
Even though I was prepared to fight my hardest, I don't think anything could've prepared me for this.

Steven Stone stood in front of me.

He had been helping me since the beginning of my journey, and I was just bold enough to admit to myself that I liked him. We had became close friends throughout everything – even the awakening of primal Kyogre.

I honestly... I thought of him as a very, very close friend. Almost as highly as I thought of Brendan. To see him now, at the end of everything, I...

He turned around agnozingly slow. When he and I were finally face-to-face, he smiled that stupid cute smile of his.

"Welcome, May," Steven's voice echoed throughout the room.
I opened my mouth to say something – anything, but my throat was dry and what really could I have said?

He walked closer to me, to fill in the gap between us, "It's great to see you here. I knew that one day we would fight. I've been excited for this day since the day I've met you."
"Steven..." I was able to squeak out, embarrassed by the weak sounding of my voice.

Steven stopped just far enough so that our pokemon could fight, "I hope your travels across Hoenn have taught you well. I'm ready to see what you have learned."

"I, in turn, will teach you all that my pokemon and I have learned!"

He grabbed a Pokeball and got ready to fight.

"Let it begin!"

My heart was thrown into the battle. Even though it was against Steven, of all people, I threw every ounce of my training into this one moment.
Every battle; every lost, every win...

There wasn't anything that was going to hold me back.

Steven threw out his Skarmory first, but I was able to defeat it in a few hits with my Arcanine. I felt cocky at first with his first few Pokemon, none of them were anything too difficult for us.
He threw out his Aggron, though, and my intial cockiness was wiped away almost immediately. Half of my team had fainted only after a few turns.

I was beginning to feel anxious, too anxious. I made a few mistakes with my Pokemon, which had turned out to be almost fatal for us.

Thank heavens for healing items.

I only had my Swampert and Roselia left by the time Steven was down to his last Pokemon.

He threw out his Metagross – tall, big, and intimidating. My heart stoppped for the second time that night.

It was a feble attempt, but I tried to poison it using my Roselia. It failed. Miserably. I watched as she fainted along with my other, barely a dent in Steven's Metagross. I threw out my Swampert in a dire attempt to try to win, feeling nothing but anxiety as I watched the flash of my pokemon coming out.

"This is where it gets exciting!" Steven smiled widely at me.
"I won't lose!" I all but yelled, getting ready for my final stretch.

There was no losing.
There was only winning.

I watched as both of our Pokemon's health were slowly going down, and the earth shook violently underneath our feet. I could easily tell Steven was as into this as I was, and I had never felt more connected with him.

"Swampert, earthquake!"
"Metagross, hyper beam!"

Oh god.
Oh god.
Oh god!

The attack was harsh and fatal, and we both knew it. I prayed for dear life that Swampert could make it as I watched a bright, blinding light fill up the entire room.

The seconds afterwards felt like an eternity

"Swampert?" I spoke timidly, not wanting to see what had happened.

Swampert's health was just barely enough to keep fighting. I felt joy fill up my every fiber, as Steven's Metagross was the exact same. I could win; I could win this!

Swampert turned to look at me, and made a sound that was joyful. I smiled widely back at him.

With immense amounts of equal joy and happiness, I spoke the last words of the battle.

"Swampert, use waterfall!"

Steven looked at the ceiling thoughtfully, but then turned to me and smiled - brighter than ever.

"May," his voice bellowed, "You are a truly excellent Pokemon trainer. You deserve to be champion, and I'm so glad you've won. Thank you for giving this opportunity to me."

"Thank you for teaching me what you and your Pokemon know," Steven held his hand out to shake mine, "I've been able to know more about your ideals, your thoughts... I remember feeling such excitement when I first met you, and I know that feeling was not misplaced."

"Congratulations, May. You truly deserved this."

I looked at him for a moment and his outstretched hand, "Steven, I..."

I didn't shake it, instead I jumped up and kissed him.

He stiffened for a moment, and I was worried that I had done something wrong, but then he embraced me and kissed me back deeply.

It was a bit awkward since he was so tall, but you didn't care. It was your first kiss, it was Steven, and damn it all was great even though I had to step on my tippy toes.

I was the first to pull away, my face feeling flushed and I had to catch my breath.

Steven looked at me in surprise, his face blushing for the first time I had seen it.

It was frankly adorable.

"I needed to tell you that," I said shyly, "I thought I should become a better trainer before I did so. Steven, I really like you."
"May-"
"And it might be a bit weird," I cut him off accidentally, "But I don't care because I really think you're amazing and weirdly cute, wait that sounded bad. I think you're a really good friend and I've always really admired you and it was so weird seeing you here and-"

Steven laughed warmly and I paused, "May. I like you too."

My face blushed at least ten times brighter.

Steven's face was red too, so I didn't feel too nervous.
And I didn't feel too nervous when he picked me up and kissed me all over again.

In between silly kisses, I was able to say the last words all over again.

"Steven, thank you."