Alright, as promised: Here's the next chapter!

Quick little note: I'm having a few internet problems at the moment, and some other major school projects and tests and such. Because of this, There won't be any updates until this weekend. I'm really sorry about this, but that's the way the cookie crumbles.

Cookies...

Chapter 6: Awakening

Steele could not believe his eyes. It was her. The one in his dream. How the heck did I dream her up? I've never seen her before in my life! He thought.

But no matter who she was, it was her nonetheless. Steele rubbed his eyes, and managed to sit up from his spot. He looked down, and saw that it was a sleeping bag. A sleeping bag? Where the hell am I? He wondered to himself.

But before he could contemplate any further on his current situation, he was assaulted by a ridiculously painful pounding on his head. He winced and rubbed his temples. "Gah...my head."

He glanced at the girl, who had an expression of worry on her face. She spoke. "Are you alright? We found you in the woods...you got wanged on the head somehow."

Steele raised an eyebrow. "Hit on the head? That can't be right..." He trailed off. He looked behind him, and saw his backpack. He sighed with relief, and turned around, going on his knees. He grabbed the zipper that enclosed a small pocket on the left side of the pack, and opened it up. He dug around for a moment, before pulling out a pretty small box from the pack.

The girl blinked. "What is that?"

Steele looked at her. "It's acetylsalicylic acid."

All he got was a blank stare.

He sighed, and rephrased what he said. "My bad. Its headache relief meds. Aspirin really. I always carry a few boxes with me. Apparently, this is my last one. I should stock up on some more soon..." he opened the box, and pulled out a grid of plastic boxes, closed off with aluminum, each individual box containing a pill of sorts. He placed a thumb and his forefinger on the plastic covering around two pills. He pushed on them, and the aluminum gave way, releasing the two medications, which dropped into his hand. He replaced the grid into the box and placed it back in the bag. He looked around for a moment, before turning to the girl. "Uh...do you have any water?"

The girl giggled for a moment, and answered. "Yep. Stay right here, I'll be a minute." She got up to her feet, and ran off.

Steele raised an eyebrow. She certainly is nice. I should ask her name once she gets back.

After a few minutes had gone by, the girl had returned with a bottle of water. Steele thanked her and opened up the bottle. He took the pills that he had in his hand, and he placed them in his mouth, quickly taking a drink of water with it. He felt the pills crawl down his throat as he swallowed, and he sighed once they hit his stomach. "I needed that. Thank you."

The girl smiled again. "No problem."

"I never really caught your name." Steele asked, placing the water bottle beside him. The girl offered a hand to shake. "May. May Maple."

Steele shook the offered hand. "Steele. Steele Cratos."

May nodded. "The guys will be glad to see that you're awake." She smiled.

"You have friends here as well?"

"Yep!" She replied cheerily. "I'll go get them!" May sped off before Steele had a chance to protest.

-------------

Meanwhile, Ash, Brock and Max were sitting around the campfire, discussing the day's events. Surprisingly enough, the moon was almost at the top of the sky, its crescent gaze descending upon the boys. It was mystical.

Or at least it was to Brock, who had the mental capacity to acknowledge these sorts of things. Ash was too busy gobbling down his dinner, as was Max.

Ash gulped down a carrot piece, and looked at Brock. "The food is delicious! Once again I am amazed at your culinary genius." He grinned and continued eating.

Brock smiled. "Thanks Ash, for the 10th time tonight." He looked to his side, where there were 3 bowls of soup sitting.

Max took note of this, and asked Brock. "Who are those bowls for?"

"These are for me, May and the boy." He replied.

"Why aren't you eating yours?" Ash spoke up.

"I want to wait until everyone else eats before I eat." He said. "It's only fair, especially for the boy. He probably hasn't eaten in a while, from what I could tell from his condition."

Ash nodded in understanding. "Alright then." He gulped down the last bit of soup, and handed the bowl to Brock. Max had finished as well, and handed his bowl to Brock as well.

As soon as this act had been carried out, May suddenly sprouted out of the bushes, panting like mad. She ran towards Brock, waving her arms and hands in excitement. "He's awake! He's awake!" She cried.

Brock quickly stood up, and ran towards May, and placed a hand on her shoulder to try to calm her down. "Easy there May!"

Ash was immediately at May's side, and blinked. "What's going on?" He asked.

"He's awake! The boy's awake!"

"He's awake?"

"He's awake!"

"Awake, is he?"

"Awake, he is!"

"Is he awake?" Max suddenly inquired.

May sighed, exasperated at the constant asking of whether he was awake, though she had said it about 10 times already. "YES! The kid's freaking awake! Now come on!" She suddenly sprinted back to where she had came from. Ash and Max followed after her.

Brock, however, quickly ran back to the campfire, and grabbed the three soup bowls that were standing beside the flames. He sighed, relieved that a wild Pokémon didn't try to get a free meal, and ran off after the others.

------

May ran through the pathway that led to the secluded area that Steele was resting in. She looked behind him, and saw that the others were a little bit behind her. She shrugged and kept running.

After a few minutes, she arrived at her destination. She sighed, and stopped running after seeing Steele. He was still sitting in the sleeping bag, head laid back against his backpack.

She saw the others follow as well and enter the area. She walked over to where Steele was, and noticed that his eyes were closed. She rolled her eyes and poked his forehead twice.

The boy's eyes opened up, and acknowledged May's presence. Steele rubbed his eyes and yawned. "Welcome back." He said.

"Thanks." Before she could say anymore, she heard exclamations coming from her friends.

"You're awake!"

"He's alive!"

"I'm still hungry!"

The three boys suddenly surrounded Steele, who blinked at the sudden surprise. May giggled. "Steele, these are my friends. Ash, Brock, and my dimwit brother Max." She pointed to each of her friends in that order.

"Hey!"

Ash blinked. "Steele?" he wondered.

The boy rolled his eyes. "That would be me. Steele Cratos is the name." He smiled. "I guess you guys are my saviours." His eyes widened. "Oh crap. Where's Flareon?"

Brock spoke. "Don't worry. He's with Pikachu."

Steele blinked. "Pikachu?"

Ash nodded. "My Pikachu. My best friend Pikachu." He added.

Steele nodded. "I see." He changed the topic. "So anyways, what happened? How did you guys find me?"

May kept her gaze straight on Ash through the time that the boys were talking about the day's events. She stared at his raven black hair, as his hat got stolen by Pikachu when he decided to talk to Flareon about random stuff. It was permanently messy, something that even he couldn't control, no matter what shampoo he tried to use. It didn't really matter to May. She always liked it that way. If he had changed it, she could sneak up behind him and mess it back up again.

His eyes were another thing that she noticed. Those deep brown eyes. They seemed almost black at first glance. They look like Steele's, though I doubt that they would notice.

"You know guys...you two seem to have similar eye colours." Brock suddenly said.

"You're right!" Max added.

Scratch that thought. She sighed, and stared at Ash more. She felt her eyes get heavy, but resisted the thought of sleep. Her eyes started to close, despite her trying to resist. They suddenly slammed down, and closed.

------

"May?"

The Pokémon Coordinator suddenly opened her eyes, and got a really big surprise.

She was sitting on the edge of a cliff against the sea. The moon was out, right in front of her, neither setting nor rising. It was so big! She could see the craters and everything! It was really romantic. If only...

"May." A voice said beside her.

May looked beside her, and her eyes widened at who was there.

"Ash..."

The Trainer smiled. "Are you alright?"

She nodded. "I am now." She smiled back at the boy. She pointed at the scenery that was in front of her. "Isn't it beautiful? Look at that!"

Ash looked at where she was pointing, and nodded. "It is beautiful. But I can think of something better than this."

May raised an eyebrow skeptically. "Oh really? And what's that?" She blushed as Ash poked her in the chest as an answer. Her blush deepened even further as Ash started to wrap an arm around her as they watched the sea and the moon.

May's eyes drifted over from the beautiful scene in front of her to Ash, who was still looking at the moon. It was like he was waiting for something...

That's when he laughed for a moment, and pointed to the sea. "Look!" He grinned.

May looked at where he was pointing, towards the sea. She saw multiple heart shaped things floating along the water. She blinked and looked at Ash. "What are they?"

Ash pulled out his PokeDex, and let it answer that question. He pointed the scanner light towards a certain heart that was floating closer to the cliff face. After a moment, the machine started speaking.

"Luvdisc, The Rendezvous Pokémon. It lives in warm seas. It is said that a couple finding this Pokémon will be blessed with eternal love. There is a custom from long ago of giving a Luvdisc as a gift to express one's feelings of love. Luvdisc live in shallow seas in the tropics. This heart-shaped Pokémon earned its name by swimming after loving couples it spotted in the ocean's waves."

May's eyes widened. "So that means..." She trailed off, facing Ash. The boy faced her as well, and looked sure of what he was about to do.

Their faces moved closer and closer to each other. May tilted her head to the left to prevent their noses from hitting each other, closing her eyes. Ash closed his eyes as well, and they kissed.