I AM SO SORRY THIS HAS BEEN WAY LATE AND MAN I'M A HORRIBLE AUTHOR FOR MAKING YOU GUYS WAIT. But I am so happy because I have finally found time to upload this and write it, and although it isn't quite like i would have liked it to turn out, It's all I got, so I hope you enjoy! You guys haven't given up on this right? I will say in advance that there isn't any pokeshipping or Oldrival in this chapter, but lots for the others, so yay! Sorry pokeshippers and olrivalshippers, next time, okay. Anyway, time for the thanks.
Shout out to the reviewers: pokeshipping4EVA, Cutiepiepo2, Dow, n00dlemporium, QuartzClaw, guess who, Sapphire2112, Lapiz14, MistyKetchum2211,QUEENSPELLER67, TheeFirstEvil, Ern Estine 13624, and jg13145. YOU ALL ARE WAY TO NICE TO ME, SERIOUSLY I READING OVER THESE BRINGS SUCH A GIANT SMILE ON MY FACE! THANK YOU ALL.
THANK YOU EVERYONE ELSE WHO FOLLOWED OR FAVORED MY STORY, geez I had no idea this would get such positive feedback!
Reply to guests: (guess who) Thank you for another sweet review, and thank you for the good luck! They went well!
(Saphire 2112) Its not too hard to post stories on here, trust me! I can help you out if you need! Thank you for the review as well, you are too kind. Sometimes, I do get a little stressed out because, well, I feel like I'm not making you guys happy enough, but I would never let that interfere with how I want to write the story. Trust me, I write what I want ^-^ Hope you enjoy
(Pokeshipping4eva) Another pokeshipping fan! YAY I love you! Sorry this chapter doesn't have any... I wanted to put some in but I couldn't find some space, but don't worry they are my OTP and they will get some spotlight soon enough!
thank you all again, and I hope you enjoy. #embracethecrazy (yo theefirstevil!)
May was entirely frustrated.
And why wouldn't she be? After all, it seemed like every good thing in her life was suddenly crashing together and exploding into one fiery mess of doom. Drew had betrayed her in one of the worst ways possible, ripped her heart out of her chest, and destroyed what little friendship they had. Not to mention the fact that he claimed it was all one big misunderstanding. He was completely messing with her head, and it almost felt as if May not forgiving him was making her the bad guy.
The whirlpool of those emotions inside her gut was making her sick. In fact, seemed that the whirlpool was only going to get bigger as she thought of all the other crap she had been put through. If Drew wasn't enough, she was caught in the middle of one of the biggest fights Misty and Ash had ever had. Not being able to come to them for comfort felt absolutely horrible. Sitting by herself at lunch time felt just as bad. It was as if she transported back to middle school when she knew no one.
Only, those two things were the least of her worries in that moment. After all, they weren't placed right in front of her in the form of flesh, blood, and the soul of a book loving brunette.
That's right, the thing that made her the most frustrated, that made her blood boil, her visage darken, and her fingers clench themselves into fists shaking with as much intensity as the anger threatening to spill over, was having Leaf show up; out of the blue, back into her world, asking her to talk. The same girl who took her friendship for granted, and threw all the trust she had in her right out the door.
And for it, she was completely, and utterly frustrated.
So much so, that the only thing May had done was stare dumbfounded at the brunette with her eyes as wide as saucers. "Wh-what?" she faltered.
Leaf blinked, an embarrassed look crossing over her features. "I need to talk to you," she repeated quickly.
Minutes had passed in complete silence with May staring incredulously at Leaf. The swings they sat on both creaked with their weight, and the wind caused their hair to whip across their faces. The park was void of other people, which was why May wasn't afraid to snap. "You have to be kidding me!" the coordinator yelled exasperatedly, throwing her arms up in the air as she did so. May's eyes were as wide as a stantler caught in headlights. She felt so vulnerable in that moment.
"May-" attempted Leaf, only to no avail.
"No!" May was so fed up with everything-so sick of people doing this to her. "You must all think that I'm some kind of pushover, huh? You think that you can betray me like that, and just shrug it off like nothing happened. You think that you can just have a friendly chat, like you didn't hurt me!" Her eyes were beginning to water, and Leaf's face dropped. "I don't understand. First Drew, and now you! At least he tried apologizing right away, it took you the whole week to get the nerve to talk to me!" It was true, at least Drew tried calling, texting, and talking to her in person.
He tried apologizing right from the get go, May thought distractedly, actually...he hasn't stopped. Guilt was beginning to wash over her. If he was just playing around with her, all of the apologies wouldn't have mattered. He would have given up long ago. Did that mean that he was telling the truth? Was it just one big misunderstanding?
Leaf's voice brought her out of her trance. "I know May! I've been a coward. You're right. But that's why I need to talk to you. Can you please just hear me out? I'm not asking for your forgiveness. I just want to have a chance to apologize," she admitted, desperation filling her voice.
May sighed, and nodded wearily. "Fine," she sighed, "just go." Maybe she was a pushover, but she was too tired to argue. She'd hear her out, and be on her way.
"You need to know the whole story, before anything else." Leaf cleared her throat, reading herself to talk. "When this project started, I was a part of the journalist club. Being a reporter is what I like doing. I enjoy it, and the job meant a lot to me, so when Jessie asked me to write a story, I couldn't let her down." Leaf glared after she mentioned that pink haired witch. She always knew she was evil, and after hearing what Conway said, well, it was confirmed. But there wasn't time for that now. She had to focus on May.
"So I told her I could get some gossip regarding our group," she continued. "Jessie was instantly sold. Then came the beach trip, and my time was running out, and...and Jessie was going to give up my spot as head journalist if I didn't! So I took the picture..." she trailed off, guilt washing over her features. "I know it was wrong, it was mean, and evil, and definitely not what friends do. No one deserves that, but I can't take back what I did. But trust me, I mean it when I say that I'm sorry. I'm so so so very sorry. If I could take it back, all of it, I would. I should have just quit the paper, I should have just told Jessie no. And why I didn't I-I don't know. I also should have apologized sooner. Keeping this from you, for this long was...a horrible thing to do a-and I don't expect you to forgive me. I don't expect you to just...forget about what I've done, but I have to tell you I'm sorry. I'm so very sorry."
May's eyes welled with tears. The thing was, Leaf sounded sincere. She sounded believable, and the shakiness in her voice told her that she really was sorry. But that didn't change the fact that she hurt her, right? May hadn't forgave any of them for what happened. Could she really forgive Leaf that easily?
And then, she remembered something.
(Flashback)
"My skitty doll!" cried a seven year old May, her eyes slowly filling up with tears. In her hands was a small stuffed skitty doll, its pink ears hanging by a tiny thread, and stuffing pouring out of its head. Standing beside her, cowering in fear was her little brother, Max.
"I'm sorry," he mumbled, adjusting his glasses as an excuse not to look at her. "It was an accident."
May screamed again. "How can this be an accident!?" Tears were pouring down her face in waterfalls. She ran out of the room in search of her mother. When Caroline's eyes laid eyes upon her daughter, they grew wide.
"May," she asked worriedly, "what happened?"
"M-Max, hic, h-he hic-broke my my sk-ski-skitty!" she wailed. Luckily her mother had managed to interpret her sobs into English.
"Oh, poor girl, come here." She wrapped her arms around May's small frame.
"He's such a-a jerk! I'll n-never forgive him! I hate him!" Her mother gave her a hard look.
"Hey, now. That's no way to treat your brother. I don't ever want to hear you say you hate someone ever again."
"B-but mom! He did it on purpose!"
"Now I'm sure that's not true."
"It is!" she insisted, balling her hands into fists. She sniffled more.
"Even if it was true, that's no way to treat another person." She waited to speak again until she had earned May's eyes. "Sometimes, we do things that we don't actually mean to do. We make mistakes. And you know what? It happens all the time."
"Mistakes?" May inquired.
"You know, mess ups. Like when you accidently color outside the lines in your coloring books."
"Oh."
"You see? So what Max did was just...a mess up! It doesn't mean it was right what he did, but we all make mistakes. Even you girly." May giggled, and Caroline smiled fondly. "Forgiving someone who hurt you isn't easy, but it shows a lot of guts.".
"I got guts!" May said proudly, reading herself into fighting stance.
"Good! So when Max says he's sorry, will you forgive him?"
"Well..."
Suddenly, Max came shuffling in with his hands behind his back. "May?" he asked bashfully. "I have something for you." He then held out one of his pokemon ranger action figures. "This is for you. I'm sorry I broke your doll."
May's face brightened up like a Christmas tree. "Don't worry Max! I forgive ya!"
(End of flashback)
And as Leaf was busy rambling her apologies, her face red and blotchy, and certainly guilty, May felt something painful growing inside her chest. She cut Leaf off mid-sentence. "Leaf," she paused until the dark haired girl met her eyes, "I understand. And...even though I would rather hit you over the head with one of your books, I...I forgive you."
The look on Leaf's face, and the weight that had been pushing on her chest suddenly lifting up like air, was enough for May. And for the first time in a long time, she began to smile.
"We have no choice James, we have to take out this Paul character. I don't trust this information out in the open like this," Jessie told James, as the two of them made their way to the apartment they were renting out. Meowth was probably catnapping on the floor in front of the door again, and if he wasn't careful, she would end up hitting him with the door as she entered. Jessie did not want to be hit by another scratch attack, so she would make sure James would be in front of her on the receiving end.
The blue haired man frowned with uncertainty. "But we can't just take out the kid, I mean, how do we cover that up!?" he asked. She rolled her eyes.
"The boss knows how to deal with these kinds of things, okay? We do the grunt work, he takes care of the business, and everything works out." She jiggled the keys in her hands absentmindedly. When they entered the building, they made it to the elevators, and pressed one of the lower floor numbers.
"So when do we do it?"
"Tomorrow, on the last day before break. We will catch him after school." The elevator let out a satisfying 'ding' alerting them of their floor. The two scrambled out.
"And how do you want to get rid of him?" Jessie smiled wickedly at her partner.
"Easy, we will just-Ow!" she screamed, as someone stepped on her foot. She glared at the culprit who has passed, a lanky looking teen with dark blue hair and glasses. "Watch where you're going, twerp!" James glared right alongside her.
"Pardon me," he said in a somewhat mocking manner, too subtle to be noticed by Jessie or James. He pushed his glasses up further into his face, marching quickly passed them to hide his smile. Jessie let out a humph, before turning up her nose, and stalking off with James in tow.
Conway smirked, so Jessie was planning on taking someone out, huh? He guessed quite quickly who that could be.
It began with a steady drizzle, but of course as the evening wore on, it began to pour buckets. Drew scowled, thinking that the dreary weather matched perfectly with his mood, but could be better if there was a couple more thunderbolts flying around. He couldn't help but imagine his father stepping outside, and getting shocked, although the thought made him a bit guilty.
"This sucks," he said aloud to his room, the words bouncing off the walls. His father had pretty much grounded him to a point where he was pretty much locked up like a prisoner in his room. It was because Drew would get into a fight with him every night, until his father got too sick of his constant yelling. He pondered getting up to turn on his TV, maybe to watch a contest, but then reasoned that watching one would only piss him off more.
Drew was thinking this, and drowning in his sorrows like the rain, when a tapping sound against his window broke him out of his trance. Drew turned his head ever so slightly to his left. The sight made his heart drop.
May was outside, yelling something, her hair plastered against her face from the rain.
Drew thanked Arceus he was on the bottom floor.
Despite the fact that he was wearing pajama bottoms with little pokeballs on them, which he probably had since he was ten, Drew didn't hesitate as he booked it to the window. He unlatched it with the speed of a rapidash, before pushing the wooden frame upwards unleashing a soft squeaking noise. There before him was the sight of the brunette, her face red, red, red, and scrunched up to a point where he was sure she was crying, but couldn't quite tell because the rain was also splashing against her face. He had never seen something so precious, so beautiful, and never seen someone he cared so much for.
"May, what are you doing here?" he asked, kind of breathlessly, which was probably a stupid thing to say, because why should it matter why she was there? But he was still pretty shocked to say the least.
Her face contorted, and she let out a sob, leaning towards the window frame as she did so. "I'm sorry!" she choked out. "Arceus, I'm sorry for not believing you, and for not forgiving you. I'm so sorry Drew." He could feel his heart break with her words.
Damn, he thought, this girl's going to be the death of me.
Ignoring the rain, he pushed his torso passed the frame, and met her arms. "Stop," he told her sternly, "you aren't the one who should be sorry."
She didn't say anything, but instead wrapped her arms around his frame.
"What made you change your mind?" Drew murmured across her shoulder, after she had calmed down a bit, causing small goosebumps to rise against her skin.
"I guess a lot of things," she replied, snaking her hands up to the back of his neck where she could knit her fingers into his hair. "You never gave up trying to convince me once. I've thought about that a lot, actually. Truth be told, though, I've been doing a lot of forgiving lately, mostly because holding onto all of the anger hurts worse than letting it go." It was hard to make out her words with her face buried into his chest, because the sound came out muffled, and broken, but he understood.
"Just don't ever think about going near Brianna ever again, green bean!" she scolded. Drew laughed.
"Whatever you say April."
He held onto her for what seemed like hours.
It was the last day of school before winter break. Paul strode through the halls with one purpose, and one purpose only: to survive the rest of the day with his sanity still in check. The thing was, his body was still in shock from the news he had heard. Knowing that Jessie and James were in the school ready to steal the pokeballs right under everyone's noses, made him completely crazy, and to think that they could do it at any moment was making him even crazier. But Paul knows what Team Rocket is like, and because of this, he knows he has to play it safe. He can't just prance up to any old teacher and tell them what's going on, because for one thing they probably wouldn't believe a damn word he said, and the other thing, he didn't know who he could trust. The police wouldn't be much of a help either, since Paul didn't actually have any cold hard evidence to give out.
That meant from every direction he was screwed.
All he knew was sometime after the winter break they were planning on stealing the pokeballs. It would only make sense that it would be then, since they are kept locked up tighter than a drum when school isn't in session. But that was beside the point. He needed to come up with a plan, quick, and only had the break to do it. He shoved his hands in his pockets, a brooding expression overcoming his features. It wasn't going to be easy.
Out of the corner of his eyes, he saw a figure adjust his pace, slowly matching up to his own. It was Conway. Paul regarded him for a moment, before grunting out something along the lines of: what do you want!? He didn't really enjoy Conway's company, to say the least.
Conway snickered to himself a little, before dramatically looking around to make sure no one was watching. "I have news for you, Paul," he said. "News you'll gladly be interested in."
"Really?" Paul prompted. Knowing Conway, it was either something incredibly useful, or something incredibly useless. "Don't care."
"I wouldn't make up your mind so fast, my friend. From one powerful trainer to another, you'd better take my word for it."
"I don't need to play another one of your stupid game, four eyes!"
Conway raised an eyebrow. "Touchy are we? Listen, I'm doing you a favor here."
"Yeah, and charging me for it," Paul fired back. He didn't have any pokemon cards, and as far as he knew, his brother had sold his own collection long ago. He wasn't about to give Conway any money either.
"Who said anything about charging you for it?"
"I know how your business works."
"Consider this one on the house then." A smile stretched across Conway's features, taking up about half the size of his face. Paul stopped in his tracks.
"Why's that?" Paul didn't like where this was going.
"Oh it's nothing really...I just feel bad about seeing a dead man walking."
Paul's politeness gave out. He pushed Conway against a set of lockers, and demanded that he talk. Conway didn't seem the least bit worried. In fact, that same smile was still smacked onto his face, as if someone had come over and superglued it on.
"Heard Jessie and the janitor talking about talking someone out, and I can tell you for a fact that it wasn't about dates or garbage," enlightened Conway.
Paul's heart skipped a beat.
"And how do you know that's me?" he asked, his voice shaking with anger.
The smile never faltered.
Paul would be lying if he said he wasn't apprehensive. Conway's words, true or not, broke down to his core, allowing a feeling to take over that he hadn't felt in a long time: fear.
Don't get him wrong, Paul is not one to be afraid, but there is something deathly nerve wracking about having a member of a secret organization out to get you. Especially if this organization is one that kills for money, and kills for pokemon. He didn't know how good Jessie was at her job, or James for that matter, but there were probably more than them in the premises, and that thought alone was enough to make the hair stand up on the back of his head.
Trust no one, he thought.
Did they know he overheard their plan? Did they find out it was him at the warehouse? Why were they out to get him?
Paul clenched his fists hard against his sides. He had to get out of this Mew-forsaken school. He had five minutes left of class, five minutes before he would book it out of there. His fingers drummed against the edge of the desk.
Lance looked at him with a raised eyebrow from across the room. "In a hurry are we, ?"
Paul gritted his teeth. "No sir," he grunted out, "just looking forward to the break."
When the bell rang, Paul carefully packed up his things, a bead of sweat rolling down his neck. He cursed Conway for getting him so nervous. He was probably just messing with his head, right?
Wrong.
As soon as he exited the door, Jessie's voice rang out to him. "Oh Paul, there you are! I've been looking for you all day!" She planted a sickeningly sweet smile on her face. Paul swallowed nervously. He glanced up to meet her eyes, his face like stone. "I've been meaning to talk to you," she informed him. She slowly led his body away from Lance's door.
"About what?" he asked. He had to get out of there, he needed to find some kind of opening. Paul could see it in her eyes, that talking wasn't what she had in mind.
"Nothing too important," she said slowly, smiling brighter.
Before she could say anything more, however, Paul's opening appeared.
Dawn Berlitz bounded down the hallways with a clack of her heels, her blue hair whipping behind her. When her eyes met Paul's she opened her mouth to speak. "Paul!" she called out.
"Um excuse me," Jessie growled, "can't you see we are in the middle of a conversation." Dawn blinked. An embarrassed look had crossed her features.
"I'm so sorry!" she apologized. "I had no idea, I just needed to-"
"Remind me that I'm going to be late for our class," Paul finished for her. Dawn looked confused, but he sent her a warning look.
"Your class?" asked Jessie, unimpressed.
"Yes," Paul affirmed, "our class. You see our teacher is really strict when it comes to being on time, so Dawn and I really have to go. I'm sure you understand."
"But I need to tell you something," Jessie reminded him, a glare etched deep onto her features. She was not liking where this was going. Dawn, on the other hand, was looking utterly lost and confused.
"Okay, then tell me." Paul inwardly smirked as her eyes snapped to Dawn. Bingo, he had got her.
"Well you see, it's not for everyone's ears." She glanced again at the bluenette.
"Oh really? Because you told me it wasn't too important. Listen, we really have to go. Why don't you just have the school email it to me?" Paul began to edge away from the pink haired witch, his hand twitching near Dawn's. She looked from Jessie to Paul as if it were a tennis match.
Jessie growled. "But-"
"Right, well we'll see you after break then." Paul grabbed Dawn's arm, and booked it out the building. He had probably given the worst excuse in the history of excuses, but it was all he had. If Jessie would have got him alone, there was no doubt in his mind she would have skinned him alive.
"Paul!" Dawn protested behind him. "What are you doing? What class? Where are you taking me!?"
He didn't answer her. Instead he dragged her to the baseball field, behind one of the sheds not facing the school. He steadied her with his hands against her shoulders.
"Paul!" she protested again. She was ranting at him, but he wasn't quite listening. All he could think about was how Dawn had literally saved his butt.
This girl, in his hands, under his fingertips, had just saved his life. Without even knowing it, she had prevented him from being taken out by team rocket.
She had saved his life.
His eyes traced her features, from her bright eyes, to the soft strands of hair framing her face, to her small button-like nose, and downwards towards the pink of her lips. She was still yelling at him, but everything was tuned out. A heated blush crept upwards along Paul's neck, as he thought about her words.
"I would give you my everything."
He realized in that moment, that he was incredibly stupid for thinking that he would put her off until he had stopped team rocket. How much of an ass he was. Because the truth was, Dawn wasn't going to get in his way, or cause problems. She was going to save him.
Save him from himself, from his demons, from every bad thing he would ever do, and from every bad thing that was going to get him. Dawn Berlitz, was meant to protect.
She was something beautiful, special, and unique, something that woke you up from your stupor, and breathed life back into your soul.
And Paul realized something else in that moment. He really was in love with her.
"Paul!? Are you even listening to me!?"
"Yeah," he grunted out, along with something unintelligible. Without thinking he bent down to capture her lips with his own.
She squeaked in surprise.
Paul had just kissed her.
His mouth moved against her frantically, full of want and longing. Her eyes grew wide as she saw his eyes, dark and full of lust, smoldering like coals beneath a fire. And she was shocked because, oh-my-Arceus Paul was kissing her! And it was something she had been dreaming about, for quite some time, ever since that night at the warehouse. And it felt magical, as stereotypical as that sounds, because it was something she wasn't quite used to, because Paul kissed her like she mattered. He kissed her like she was the most important thing in the world, like he would die without her, as if her lips brought life. And he was gentle, but also rough enough to bring a purr out of her lips, because Arceus you never would have guessed it from just looking at him, but Paul was an amazing kisser. It took her even longer to realize she had been kissing him back.
In the heat of the moment he had pushed her up against the shed, her back resting against the cold metal, which was a life saver because everything else was incredible hot, hot, hot like she was burning. But Arceus she'd be a damn liar, if she said she wasn't enjoying it.
However, they both had to stop eventually, because there wasn't enough air to supply them for that long. Dawn's face had erupted in red, but it wasn't that bad because Paul's was flushed as well, which was adorable, mind you. Paul would probably killed her if she mentioned it though, so she didn't.
"I...I um..." Paul mumbled, swallowing hard, "Sorry."
"No, uh, it's okay," she said back, stumbling over her words.
They stared at each other for a long time, before a smirk tugged along Paul's features. "You can be really loud when you enter someone's room you know." Her eyes grew wide as she registered what he was implying, but before she could splutter some kind of incoherent response back, he spoke again.
"But I guess, it's something I love about you."