Closer: Hoennshipping
When May returned to Petalburg, the only thing on the Coordinator's mind was to drop off her little brother and then immediately continue on her journey to Johto. Well, no, there was the matter of dinner and getting to sleep in her bed. Making a change of clothes couldn't hurt. And there was nothing wrong with spending some time with her mother to go shopping for a Coordinating Outfit...
Okay, now that she thought about it, there were a lot of other things she needed to take care of before she could continue with her journey to Johto. There wasn't any real rush.
Barring any Legendaries waking up to resume their eons-old war, the region would still be there tomorrow and the week after.
With a noticeably less frantic pace, she and Max entered the Petalburg Gym. The siblings were surprised to find nobody was around but they could hear the distinct sound of a gym battle going on.
"Looks like dad's busy with work," May observed.
"Let's go watch! It's been a while since we watched him battle," Max suggested, already heading for the gym.
Her travels had given May an appreciation for battling and she knew she still had a lot learn before the next Ribbon Cup came along. "You know, Max, now and again you have a good idea," she grinned, following after her little brother.
The siblings arrived in time to catch the tail-end of the match. Norman's Slaking had just taken a hard blow and was teetering unsteadily before it fell backward with a heavy thud.
Kenny raised a flag, declaring, "Slaking is unable to battle! The winner of the match is Brendan Birch!"
May perked at the name and her gaze darted toward the challenger. She recognized him or the outfit at least. She'd been all over Hoenn and Kanto and not once did she ever spot another person wearing that white hat.
Of course at the time she'd been more preoccupied with other things such as Coordinating, encountering Pokemon, and dealing with Team Rocket's latest ridiculous scheme of stealing Pikachu. But still, looking at the older boy proudly shaking her father's hand, May could hardly believe it was the same kid who once tried to make her jealous that he was going on a Pokemon journey ahead of her.
Back then she was jealous, not because he was going to learn to be a Trainer but because she wanted to travel. She wanted to see the world for herself, dreams of hosting a travel-tour show filling her head. Pokemon were just an excuse.
How far she'd come since then.
Max ran up to their father, complaining that he missed what sounded like an incredible battle with May not too far behind. She gave her father a quick peck on the cheek and Brendan a friendly wave. She wondered if he remembered her.
The gym's assistant greeted them and volunteered to inform Caroline of their arrival but May insisted on doing it herself.
"Let me go with you," Brendan offered, falling in step with her as they walked out of the gym towards the house. "I have some magazines from Sinnoh Caroline might like."
"You've been to Sinnoh?" May sounded impressed.
"Yeah and I gotta say, there's no place like home."
"What are you doing in Petalburg then? Don't you live in Littleroot?"
"You remembered?" his grin grew wider. "Dad's in the city for some symposium, I figured I could accompany him a bit. Maybe see if I could finally beat your dad, too."
"And you did," May pointed out.
"It feels weird to be honest," he admitted, rubbing the back of his neck. "Like, I guess I sort of knew I changed but I didn't realize how much until then."
"Well, you got taller since I last saw you," she added.
"Or you got shorter," he joked then ducked her playful swat, conceding, "You got taller too, I guess."
She stuck her tongue out at him, "I've done a lot of growing up since I went on my journey."
"Oh?"
Before May could elaborate, they ran into Caroline who immediately declared Brendan was to have dinner with them that night. A sweet smile cuts off the immediate protest from Brendan, "Your father just called me a moment ago. His symposium was going to run later than he expected so I told him you could definitely do with a home-cooked meal."
And that was settled. Brendan was staying for dinner, which wasn't going to be for a few more hours.
May, who was accustomed to and sometimes missed her mother's ways, took it upon herself to keep Brendan company. She even reminded him about the magazines and the bewildered trainer gratefully handed the aforementioned literature to the Gym matron.
"Oh how thoughtful! Thank you, Brendan, it's nice to see someone who remembers me on their travels."
May chose to ignore the dig at her less-than-regular rate of phoning home. She'd been preoccupied with other things then, Coordinating, new Pokemon, and etcetera. Still, she mumbled a half-hearted apology before quickly dragged Brendan away under the pretense of keeping out of her mother's way.
"I bet you don't have that trouble with your parents," she grumbled despite the fact she was actually glad to be home.
"My dad often forgets about me if I don't call home," he shrugged, no bitterness in his words, just a sort of sad resignation.
"I think we just... get caught up in things," May said lamely, leading Brendan out into the backyard well out of anyone's way.
"Yeah, traveling and researching definitely does that," he was back to grinning and sat down on the grass without a second thought.
May took the spot beside him, staring up at the afternoon sky. "It's been how long? Two years?"
"Twenty months and nineteen days, give or take an hour." When he saw she was staring at him he brought out his PokeNav, pressing the buttons and showing her the calendar function. "I keep count."
"Why?"
"I don't know. I guess I like being able to look back on something definitive."
"Your badges should be pretty definitive. I mean my ribbons feel like that."
"Ribbons? You mean you're a Coordinator?" he sounded genuinely surprised.
"Wha- I thought you knew?"
"I, uh, don't really follow the Coordinator circuit," he sounded sheepish. "All that strutting and stuff, it wasn't something I got into."
"I'll have you know Coordinating isn't just about looking pretty and being fancy," she huffed. "There's even a battle portion so your style needs substance to back it up."
"Oh? Well, at least now I'll have a reason to keep up with it?" he sounded apologetic.
"It's fine, Brendan," she sighed, lying on her back, still staring up at the sky. "Actually, I don't really watch the Pokemon Leagues unless I knew a friend was participating in it," she admitted. "That was more of Max's thing."
"Honestly, I'm just surprised you took being a Trainer seriously. I mean, when I left you said you were going to be a travel-expert and go on all sorts of expeditions to faraway places."
She smiled at how he actually remembered her telling him all that. "I still plan on traveling. I'm just here to drop off my brother and rest up a bit. And then I'm off to Johto for Contests. I'm going to be a Grand Festival Champion one day, you just wait."
They don't speak for some time, content with the silence between them.
"You going to Johto alone?" Brendan eventually asked.
"Yeah, I'm a little nervous about it actually."
"Would you mind some company?"
"Why? You offering?" she was joking.
"Yep," he wasn't.
"Oh. Wait, you're going to Johto too?"
"Yeah, and after that Kanto. My dad was saying how similar Johto and Kanto were with each other and I figured it would be interesting to see for myself where they were similar and different. Of course there's the Pokemon too, do they affect the region or does the region affect them?"
May didn't remember this sense of fascination and analysis from Brendan. He used to just charge into things because he wanted to, sort of like Ash really. Had he changed since he left or had he always been like this and she never really bothered to notice?
"So?" he prompted.
"Uh, I don't know. I always thought the Pokemon were a reflection of the land..."
"No, I meant me going with you to Johto," he laughed, "Although I wouldn't mind knowing why you think that about the Pokemon."
"Well..." she trailed off, turning the question in her head, "I really wouldn't mind going with someone. And I think my parents would worry less but..."
"But what?"
"I sort of wanted to go on my own so I could learn my own style of Coordinating. I might end up copying your style of battling by accident."
"What's wrong with that?"
"I said I wanted to learn my own style of Coordinating," she repeated, unsure how she could say it any clearer than that.
"And I said what's wrong with that? Experimenting, practicing, it's all part of discovering your own style. You pick up on things that you think will work for you, try it out, and if it works for you, great! Keep it! And if doesn't work try to figure out why for next time," he said in one long, seemingly practiced spiel.
"It sounds like you've given that a lot of thought..."
"When you travel alone with only your Pokemon with you, you either find something to occupy your mind or you start talking to yourself," he grinned. "Or in my case, I had meaningful monologues while my Pokemon listened and pretended their Trainer wasn't going stir-crazy."
"Oh so you're more interested in me keeping you company?" she teased, sitting up to flutter her lashes at him, expecting it'll rile him up.
It didn't. He laughed instead.
"I wouldn't have said no if you'd asked." He reclined back, resting on his elbows as he peered at her, "But I hope you don't feel pressured to say yes. You have to decide what's best for you."
She pulled her knees to her chest, arms wrapped around her legs in deep thought. Then, finally, she answered, "Okay. We can go through Johto together."
He rose back to sitting, about to say something when she pointed a finger at him, "But! My Contests come first for me."
"You got it," he gave her a thumbs up and added, "You've really changed a lot since we last saw each other. It's like I don't even know you anymore."
"I could say the same about you, Mister land-affects-the-Pokemon," she countered.
He laid back down on the grass again, eyes closed and smiling, "True, very true. But we've got the whole of Johto to get to know each other again, don't we?"
"Yeah," she nodded, following suit.
Both content to let the sentiment of looking forward to it go unsaid between them.
Author's Notes: An attempt at reconciling game-verse logistics with anime-verse events. It's probably inaccurate and non-canon compliant but I have no regrets. Last one for a while. As always, reviews are loved and appreciated!