It hadn't taken long for it to dawn on Maxie that for all of May's brilliance in battle and general worth where strategizing was concerned… the girl was something of a terribly klutz. This, however, seemed to stem more from the fact she seemed absolutely determined to bite off more than she could chew than actual, general clumsiness on her part.
Granted, this wouldn't have been an actual problem if she had been a slightly more selfish person;that is to say… May often time spent much more effort and resources on trying to make others feel adequate and comfortable than she did looking out for her own, general well being (which was more or less the problem). However, the girl was as selfless as they came, and for the most part, tended to ignore her own needs in favor of others'. It apparently didn't seem to matter in her mind if the one that needed help was a small, helpless Caterpie, or an adult human being; she rushed forth with all her might and glory, and though luck was usually on her side… her tendency to rush in without a plan did have consequences at times.
It was during such times that the Magma leader closed his eyes, raised his head to the sky and silently wondered how on earth she'd managed to jump in and stomp all over his careful, meticulously laid out plans with hardly a smidgen of effort, and he was deeply, deeply ashamed of himself for allowing her to do so. It was a rather conflicting sentiment, because the shame was coupled with gratitude; had she not managed to crush his plans, well… it was probable he wouldn't have had a future, full stop.
It was all rather frustrating, sometimes, but such was life.
One of the first times that Maxie had noticed May's tendency to overachieve was when she'd tripped and nearly fallen down the only staircase in the Magma hideout. The girl had been walking down the steps with not one, not two… but rather, a whole ten different book tomes in her arms.
The movement had caught his eye, and had thus, distracted him somewhat from the conversation he and Tabitha were having at the foot of the stair; he recalled looking up and… being entirely unable to see the girl's face, for it'd been hidden behind a tower of books. The scene would have been comical, and he felt a small comment beginning to form in the dark crevices of his mind (It was a small wonder she didn't seem particularly upset at his often time dark humor - though he did try to tone it down for her on occasion, fearful she'd one day grow sick and tired).
Tabitha's voice had slowly dragged him back to the conversation at hand and thus, comment forgotten for the time being, he'd slid his gaze away from the rather comical scene in order to answer his second in command. Unfortunately, in the time it'd taken him to shift his gaze away from her, May had managed to trip, and the fact her arms were full of books (which he honestly failed to understand what she was doing with in the first place - it'd have been much simpler to take one, read that, replace it and then repeat the process - sometimes logic didn't seem to apply to her or her actions and thoughts however), made it impossible for her to regain her balance or even grab onto something to stop her fall. The result was that she began to tilt forward, threatening to fall over and crash.
Maxie had acted entirely on instinct, apparently, as Tabitha had detailed later; all he could remember was that he was suddenly greeted with an armful of slightly-dazed-May. He'd managed to catch her with one arm, bracing his other on the wall, before she'd tumbled after the books and tomes that cascaded down the steps and onto to floor below
After righting herself, apologizing and helping Tabitha pick up the scattered tomes (all in an embarrassed, rapid flurry of words and movements), May had explained herself and then rushed off, all before Maxie had even had the time to collect his thoughts and jump-start his mind out of second gear.
Apparently, she'd been doing research into something or other, the specifics of which he hadn't quite caught, to be honest, (which was all fine and good; she'd proven herself to be intelligent and sharp enough to not only track him down when they'd been playing cat and mouse across the whole of Hoenn, but stop him, too). She had gained herself free access to his files, tomes and books, both old and new; what he hadn't expected was for her to try to move half a bookcase in one go, without help, all on her own. She'd later explained that his storage room was not the most comfortable place to sit and read, but still, he thought she should have asked for help. There was, after all, a base full of grunts around her, and all of them would have been more than willing to lend her a hand (some of them were even quite smitten with her, from what he'd seen), not to mention pokemon.
Granted, he could very well see how past events might have given her the illusion that she was, in fact, nigh invincible and completely capable of doing anything and everything under the sun, even when the laws of physics dictated otherwise, but still. Maxie figured someone was going to end up having to grab her, sit her down and explain to her that despite her best efforts, she was not going to be able to tame the laws of physics in the same way she had Groudon (not to mention his team, himself included). Physics, Biology and science in general simply didn't work quite like that, after all; sheer will power had little to do in such scenarios.
Given his less than stellar track record where awkward situations were concerned… the Magma leader also figured that that 'someone' would end up having to be him. And yet, at the same time, he didn't particularly think his track record in life gave him the right to sit the girl-whom-had-saved-the-world-twice and lecture her in such a way.
As such, time passed, and he did nothing of the sort, though perhaps… he should have.
The next, prominent time Maxie had been privy to May's strange need to be helpful was when she'd taken it almost entirely upon herself to spring clean the base.
He'd walked into the common room one day to find her standing precariously on top of her large Amaura's head, trying to reach the far-off Spinarak cobwebs in the cavernous ceiling up above. A rather agitated Tabitha was standing by the large fossil pokemon's side, wringing his hands as he looked up at her, insisting that there was no need for this.
"What in the name of Groudon…?" upon entry, Maxie had been reading some reports, and thus, when his mind slowly focused on the scene in front of him, he was obviously slightly confused.
At the sound of his voice, his second in command had turned sharply towards him, his crimson eyes wide open, "She won't listen to me!" he said, sounding very obviously and openly frustrated (though Maxie did note the other man was doing a rather impressive job at keeping his temper in check - he didn't even stomp his foot), "I told her," he continue, "I TOLD her this wasn't necessary! That we'd tend to those cobwebs ourselves! But she just won't listen!"
By this time, Maxie had managed to wander over to the Amaura's side, looking up to watch as May stretched her arms in an attempt to reach the webs, "Ah, yes," he drawled slowly, just loud enough for Tabitha to hear, "Welcome to my world," he then raised his voice for the young Champion to hear, "Your position is precarious," he told her, "I strongly advice you come down from there."
"But…" and here she seemed to hesitate; apparently what he had to say had a stronger effect on her than what Tabitha had been telling her for the past half and hour, "I want to help."
"We can send Crobat and Weezing up there later," he told her, a hand reaching out unconsciously to pat the Amaura's side, "They will be able to take care of it without putting their lives at-"
Maxie never got to finish his phrase, for when the girl turned to look down at him from over her shoulder… she lost her balance and slipped from her perch on the Amaura's head.
Her landing was… nowhere near as neat as her previous one down the stairs, and although both Maxie and Tabitha reached out for her (not to mention her own Pokemon), the end result for Maxie was, yet again, an armful of very daze, slightly panicked May. Granted, this time he'd stumbled back a few paces, collided against Tabitha in the process, and then against the wall, knocking the back of his head painfully against it.
After a few moments of silence, Maxie finally lifted his head off the wall, where he'd been resting it in an attempt to clear the red haze of pain clouding his vision, "We," he said, much more calmly than he felt (both the adrenaline rush going through his system, and the girl in his arms not really contributing to his general need to keep a straight face and a calm tone of voice), "Are going to have a serious talk about overachieving."
Unfortunately, despite his conviction at the time, said talk had never really ever happened.
Which of course, brought him to his current predicament, and the source of all the introspection and reminiscing; he had a sofa full of very distressed, upset May, whom seemed determined to end her career as Champion of the region, and instead spend the rest of her life cocooned inside a what he could only describe as a fortress of cushions, pillows and blankets.
When she'd walked into his study, Maxie had only just barely lifted his gaze off from the papers on his desk (it was such a common occurrence now-a-days, that he actually noticed her absence more than her presence). However, the sight of her dragging a cushion, a pillow and what looked like a large, long, heavy blanket… made him falter somewhat.
He watched in silence as the girl climbed up on top of the sofa and then proceeded to cover herself up, from head to toes inside the blanket and other items she'd procured from only Arceus knew where. His gaze turned towards his Crobat, whom had been perched on the back of the sofa, and the creature blinked back at him, his confusion reflected within the large bat's golden, glowing eyes.
Long, silent moments passed, during which the Magma Leader attempted to work, figuring that the girl would, in time, emerge from her self-made cocoon if he let her be. However, when the minutes turned into an hour and she had not yet spoken, he finally figured it was time for some sort of an intervention, "May?"
"May does not exist," came the muffled reply, "Only shame."
Well, that was… new.
His Crobat offered him yet another glance, and he finally pushed himself away from his desk in order to take a seat on the sofa, careful not to re-arrange or otherwise disturb her little fortress, "Would you care to elaborate?" he said as he sat down, and though it did take a few moments of silence, her face did finally peek out from under the bulk of the blanket.
"I was called to make a speech at the inauguration of some new, Devon Corp installations," she mumbled unhappily, and while interesting news (he hadn't had time to peek at the BuzzNav), it didn't really explain her current state. As such, Maxie remain silent, waiting, patient, as he had learned that this behavior was all the prompting usually needed to make her elaborate, "I fell off the stage," her voice sounded absolutely devastated, and her blanket soon enough came up to cover her face; the rest of her words were muffled by the barrier between them, "I fell off the stage live and the whole of Hoenn saw it," the movement under the blanket seemed to indicate that she'd assumed a tighter fetal position as she spoke,"I was feeling kinda sick before the whole thing. I don't know if it was stage-fright or something I ate, but I still went up there, and I made a mess of things, and I'm never coming out," her words, rushed and losing coherence seemed to indicate she was near tears, "I think that from now on, I'll just live here."
He made a small motion with his head, a small gesture towards the Crobat, still perched on the sofa, a silent order, really, and the large bat moved its body to join that of the girl's. It nuzzled her through the blankets and chirruped at her loudly, obnoxiously demanding her to pay it attention; an obvious ploy to get her to come out from under her fortress of blankets. After all, the bat could do what he could not.
Eventually, the ploy seemed to work, because the girl sat up, blankets wrapped around her frame, knees very obviously tucked under her body and then, she offered the Crobat some simple scratches. Apparently, she seemed simply unable to deny the creature the attention and love it sought from her, even if she was feeling horribly ashamed and morose.
"Would you care to tell me why you went on that stage if you were feeling sick?" Maxie had lowered his voice, softened it as best he could (which wasn't all that much, really - but he did try), "I'm sure Stone would have been more than happy to find some sort of replacement for that speech, if you were feeling unwell."
"I-I…" her hand, which had been scratching the Crobat behind its ears, stilled, "I wanted to help," this was said in a small whisper, "I just… everyone's working so hard. Steven, Archie, Brandon, you… everyone has something to do; something important, and I… don't have anything anymore. I feel like I'm done; like there's nothing more I can do, and I hate that feeling," she turned to face him then, looking almost fierce in her passion, "I want to be useful! I want to do things! I just… I just…" the fierceness dissolved away, and May let out a long sigh.
Her words came as a bit of a surprise for the Magma Leader; after all, if there was one person in all of Hoenn whom should not feel worthless, it was the girl sitting scant inches away from him. It was a baffling thought at first; how could she feel this way when she'd helped save the world? When she'd accomplished more in the span of a few years than many in their whole lives.
And that's when the answer came to him; she seemed to think she was expected to keep pulling off such stunts, and when life refused to toss her into such situations, she simply looked for ways to be useful. Hence her need to overachieve; she'd set her own bar of standards so sky high that the goal was impossible to reach, "May," her head remain bowed, her eyes closed, and so, he tried again, stressed her name out, "May," it seemed to work, because she finally lifted her head and looked up at him. Given that her attention was finally on him, he raised himself from the sofa and then offered her his hand to take, "I believe we have a pending conversation about overachieving, and it is high time we tackle it," when she seemed to hesitate to take his hand, he moved it in front of her again, coaxing, "Shall we?"
After a few seconds of hesitation, she slipped her hand in his, and allowed him to pull her off the sofa. Maxie offered the Crobat one look, and quietly told it to stay put before he led her out of the study and quietly down the halls of the Magma base. He led her through what was the entirety of the base, passing by most rooms, all the labs, and all the people working therein.
The tour was silent, but wasn't all too long, and by the time Maxie stopped, at the door of a particular lab facility, he turned to look at the young Champion, "What do you see?"
"People working," came the whispered response, "People doing important things."
"Yes," he said, "But do you know why?" this was very obviously not the question she'd expected to hear from him, because she turned to look up at him in confusion. Her expression was enough to signal him to elaborate, and thus, Maxie did, "Mainly due to you," he didn't wait for her to protest, and simply kept going, "You gave me… them, all of us, a second chance, when we didn't really feel like we deserved one; by all means, you shouldn't have even bothered to look our way and yet… you did. You are the reason they can work on what you deem as 'important things'. You are the reason this region has changed," he let out a sigh he barely knew he'd been holding, "You are important, just being you. You have accomplished more than most of us ever will, and as such, you are warranted a well deserved break," when she opened her mouth, he lifted a hand, as if to indicate he wasn't finished, and she closed it again, "You are allowed to make mistakes; you are only human, as we all are, and yet… I believe you hold yourself to higher standards than the rest of us. There is no need to overachieve, May; you will do many things in the future. Let them come at their own pace… there is no rush."
He watched as most of the sadness vanished from her eyes, and her shoulders, which had been hunched, lifted somewhat. Granted, she was entitled to feel morose once in awhile, but that didn't mean he had to like it; he felt a small surge of triumph, because he did that. He'd caused that change; that was his doing.
It was around then that her smile finally blossomed, and the sense of triumph doubled for Maxie, "Thank you," that was all she said before she reached and closed the space between them, offering him the first hug he could remember in ages. He wasn't a very physically inclined man, and it showed in the awkward way he blinked, his arms hovering over her body as she squeezed his middle section, unable to find a place where they should rest.
The triumph turned to mild panic, and he looked around himself for an answer that simply didn't seem to come. In his search for said answer, his eyes locked with Tabitha's, whom had been working inside the lab, and the other man had the gall to smirk at him and gesture that he should, perhaps, consider returning the hug? That was, after all, the social norm.
This thought led down a very, very slippery slope indeed, but thankfully, the rather panicked Magma leader was saved from having to actually act when the girl finally pulled away from him, "Thank you," she said again, and that said, she stepped away from him and began walking away, down the hallway. She stopped by a teleporter and looked over her shoulder at him, ducking her head shyly away from him when their eyes met, and then vanishing from sight through the teleporter. Maxie figured it was some sort of trick in the lighting system around the base, but he could have sworn she was blushing.