Here's a tiny happy drabble because I love this ship.
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Drew expected a lot of things when he first met her. And on the surface, she certainly met all of his expectations.
When he saw her on the beach that day, she was honestly a disaster. Watching her act was almost physically painful. He didn't usually pay too much attention to rookies like her, amateurs with big dreams and nothing to keep their feet on the ground. They were always the ones to go down first, misled by the pretty pictures and success stories. People always thought contests were "easy."
They weren't.
To participate and succeed in Pokemon contests required rigorous training and perseverance just as any other aspect of Pokemon training did- and Drew was certain that May didn't have what it took. Just like so many of the other aspiring coordinators he'd watched fail, he expected her to quit once she saw that it wasn't as easy as it looked.
But May surprised him. And he started paying attention.
At her first contest, she did her best, and her performance was decent. She didn't win. But that only pushed her to work harder, and when he saw that, Drew understood something.
She did have what it took.
And if she kept going, if she kept dreaming, if she kept putting in the work to back up those dreams, then she was going to get somewhere.
So yeah, on the outside, she was exactly what he had expected her to be. A hopeful girl with an unrealistic view of Pokemon contests, overemotional, and not the most talented.
But when it came to what counted- the perseverance despite her losses, the hard work, the passion for becoming better- he'd been dead wrong about her.