My next update might be a little late. I'm not finished with chapter 5 yet, and when I'm done, my beta will read it before I post it. I'll try to do it as fast as possible, though. I hope you enjoy this in the meantime. My amazing beta was a great help as always, and it should be a decent chapter now :)

Disclaimer: I don't own pokemon.

Chapter 4 – In Which She Endures

The dinner had been interesting, in a highly troublesome way. Questions about the forest, why didn't she come immediately to dinner, how did she cope with the Wallace Cup loss, how was Sinnoh, how did she like her new Glaceon and so on and so on. It felt never ending. The less sensitive questions were easy to answer. The rest, she avoided. The delay before dinner, why did it take so long? It's a secret (served with a smile). The loss? Dawn is a good friend, I'm happy for her (smile still in place). She didn't feel completely ready yet. The loss was not such a big deal anymore, but she wanted to have her autumn Chikorita to herself for now. Chika was not ready to meet them anyway, and perhaps she could present a fully revived pokémon, color and all, soon.

Shopping had been fun. All the next day she bought supplies, fixed new food for Chikorita, and ran the others ragged until they decided to excuse themselves. And then she had the whole afternoon with her pokémon. It was bliss.

A thought hit her like a bucket of ice water. She had managed to keep her precious pokémon a secret for roughly two days – she would not expose her poor, traumatized Chika to Harley, after all. But she would be travelling with Drew, and there simply was no secrets between companions on the road. At least not of that kind. But she didn't want to tell him how, instead of catching one of the green, healthy pokémon, she had opted for the brass one. The one in desperate need. The one without confidence. Insecure. Kind of like her.

Harley gave them his best intimidating glare. Well, Drew was the intended receiver, supposedly, but The Glare definitely touched May too. It only got worse as he turned to Solidad in desperation. "We can't let them leave alone together! Solidad!" Oh, it was impressive how he did that with his voice. But as Drew had implied, there was no help to gain from that direction.

"I think they'll be perfectly fine, Harley." She was just so wonderfully calm. But that 'knowing smirk' was a very unnecessary final touch, and May would have told her so, if only telling would not have solidified the reason for the smirk.

"NO, it will not be fine! Our little girl-" (What were they, her parents?) "-who is so lovely innocent, will not arrive in the state she is now." Scratch earlier embarrassments, she would never live this down. Drew was as serene and blank as always, just letting the Harley-craziness-loves-to-imply-a-relationship wave roll over and leave him, while she had to get all red and frazzled and drowning in it. Perhaps by leaving now...

"That's fine and all, but... we-have-to-go-bye." Grabbing Drew's jacket sleeve, a frantic pull and drag commenced. It was an investment in her future sanity. Drew would just have to go along with it, even if it hurt his dignity. This was his idea in the first place, and here were the consequences. They had made five meters, ten, there was the welcome back-sign – oh she was never coming back – and they would make it for sure.

"May, I will not allow this!" And then there was the purple and green leech, sucking on to her for dear life – or chastity, to be precise. Oh how he loved to humiliate her. Apparently he lived for this.

"I happen to have lots of experience with boys and travelling." That didn't come out wrong, did it? Lower that eyebrow, Drew! "I traveled with Ash, Brock and Max for two years, in case you forgot! And I'm still fine." In fact, her inner peace had never been assaulted with this ferocity in her former company, unlike the present.

"May, you've got to understand. There is a crucial difference between letting you journey on with a pack of boytoys, and letting you leave with your boyfriend." May went Mantra Mode: Please don't say the difference, don't say it, there is no difference, please don't say the diff- "I can't let you travel with someone who's in love with you!"

There was this silence.

But it was not really silent because her heart went really loud with the thump thump thump and they could all probably hear it. Her face was burning and they all knew it. She could not look at him. She could not look at Drew and see blank. And Harley definitely went too far this time, love was not a joking matter!

"That's enough, Harley." Solidad. Best friend, surrogate-journey-mother, voice of Sanity, worker of miracles. "Don't mind Harley, we're leaving too. Just... enjoy your trip." Her voice promised trouble for Harley, and it would have been sweet to see it. On the other hand, as May had just been publicly executed, some silence and alone time would be good. Solidad, with her few words, had concluded the whole conversation, and given them the opportunity to forget – well, ignore – the whole thing.

They set out together, her feet shuffling in the dirt as they went. Silence, blessed as it is, followed them for half an hour. She could have stayed that way all day, happy in her own, private misery.

"May, I know you're thinking of something, so just tell me, whatever it is."

"Am not!" She was not that easy to read!

"May..." Narrow eyes, the serious voice... He wanted a straight answer. What to say? Well... She had this other thing they could discuss. She had a Chikorita now. A not so green Chika. That was a nice and semi-safe topic.

"Drew... I have a new pokémon-"

He did not expect that, if his face was any indication. Surprise never visited him for long though. "You do? What kind?"

"-but the thing is, you can't meet her yet."

"Why?" She just loved that frown. This time – just this once and it didn't happen too often so she deserved it – the conversation was on her terms.

"She's got issues with greenness." So true, with those siblings. Come to think of it, green in general was just so troublesome. Hardly worth the effort.

"What?!" He looked extremely affronted, with that nice touch of bafflement. Her laughter began to spill, and his glare intensified.

"Just kidding... maybe." He was still scowling. Perhaps because she couldn't seem to stop giggling. But, in all seriousness... "She is extremely shy. She was even scared of Nurse Joy, you will probably frighten her to death."

His gaze turned dry, but crinkling at the edges. "Why, thank you. I'm now officially a scary person."

"No, just the green. Um... That's actually not true. The Joys are the most benevolent, non-green family in the world, so in comparison, of course you're scary!" Just stating the facts, after all.

"Ok. So, your new pokémon aside, would this greenness be a good thing?" Crooked smile, flipping the upper hand. Or hair. Damn, he was good at it. Well, she had no intention of answering that. She would simply... skip it.

"Anyway, I'll have to condition her with someone less intimidating. Perhaps Glaceon, or Warturtle." Ah, the master of deflection, at work again.

"Okay then. Tell me when she is ready to meet me." Ugh, somehow that sounded like a 'meet the family' thing, which it was not. Damn Harley, putting her on edge like that. Everything just sounded so wrong now. Time to escape this conversation.

"I will. I'm working on it... But it will probably take some time, so until then I'll have to be alone with her when we train, and eat and stuff."

Things were somewhat less awkward after that. Hours went by in friendly companionship, and those were some fine, unremarkable hours indeed. Finally alone, and perfectly happy with that, May had found a nice little clearing away from camp, with sheltering thickets and forest around her.

"You can come out now, Chika."

A bright light, and her arms were full of autumn pokémon. "Chi-ka!" Her leaf swayed enthusiastically, reflecting the warmth of the sun.

"Hey you. I have your dinner Sweety." May held the Bayleafean food out temptingly. Chika took some bites, chewing leisurely. "I was thinking, we could perhaps try something new today?"

"Ka?"

A flash went off, quickly followed by several others. Chika cowered against her sweater, and tried to hide inside it, food forgotten. "Aw, don't worry. It's not dangerous, it's just Drew. He likes sparkly techniques." Chika cautiously stuck her head out and followed May's glance in direction of flashes and camp. "See?"

Content again, Chika let out a soft "Chi" as she cuddled close, sun spilling all over them both.

May placed Chika in the grass. "You seem to be done eating." The sad remains of a meal half eaten had joined the baby in between the clovers. "Could you show me your moves, Chika? We ought to start training." Chika eased into a snug position, happily directing a sleepy gaze up to the sky. "Chika? You going to do any attacks?" A yawn was her response. May looked up, trying to spot what was so interesting up there. All she could see was fluffy clouds in the blue. "As honored as I am that you can relax like that with me, could you please do a move?" Chika met her gaze affectionately, and stroked her leaf against May's leg. That was a no, then. Great. No training. No battles. No contests. Not that any of those were possible at the moment anyway, but still...

"Fine. We'll start with the social skills instead. Who do you want to meet first, Glaceon or Warturtle?" Alarm made itself evident in the eyes of one Chikorita, and she protested with a pitiful "chiii". "Too late for that. Glaceon it is."

"Glaceee" May's beautiful ice pokémon made her entry as the star she knew she was. The eyes of one Chika grew comically large, and she cowered in her tufts of grass. A panic attack of autumny razor leaves spurted forth, right into one glacy, foxy face. Glaceon shook the annoying leaves away, and pushed the other pokémon down in the dirt with a paw of vengeance. She must have noticed, however, how the baby quivered beneath her. Her whole stance softened, and she prodded the other with her snout and started an extensive and rather motherly grooming. Chika went from rigid, to compliant, to exceedingly satisfied.

May watched as her pokémon groomed and snuggled each other, and she felt a smug, envious-but-conceding smile surface. Which made sense, in a way. Although she was not included in the bonding time, she had made huge progress. She even got to see an attack, sparkly and unique with brass color. Which was the color of her pokémon at the moment, so that was no huge surprise. Although soon her Chika would be green again.