Rarely had a league challenger ever gotten to this point.
He could hardly recall, in the past five years of his reign as champion of the Hoenn region, the last time this exact situation had happened with any one of the many Pokémon League hopefuls to have been welcomed into these halls. Walls shivering, floorboards heaving, architecture raining debris while fearsome noises that screamed of intense battle reverberated throughout the entire structure.
Given the magnitude of battle he imagined to have taken place over the past few hours on the estate, he was impressed that the building had maintained its structural integrity as well as it was currently managing.
Wait. Few hours?
Blue-grey eyes blinked traces of fine dust out of its watering sockets before leaping to his wristwatch. Lifting his left wrist to his face, he took a closer look at the thin metal hands steadily working their way around the clock face.
Few hours? That was nearly nine hours ago!
Tracking the minute hand as it crossed, with its hour counterpart into a new hour, Steven Stone came to the abrupt realization that it was now less than an hour away from entering an entirely new day, directly bringing the company to almost a full twenty-four hours of unceasing battle since young May Maple had walked through the doors to Sidney's hall where the man eagerly awaited with his signature grin as well as his array of Dark-type Pokémon.
As a matter of fact, he had not been the only one looking forward to a battle against May. All of them have been so. Every. Single. One member of the Elite Four. Not excluding himself.
Again, he was not surprised. Hardly anyone worth his or her salt would have been able to resist the idea of a good battle against May Maple after having played witness to her extraordinariness. He himself had been incidental witness to more than just that.
He had been with her since before he had even met her, through the letter that his dear old man had entrusted to her. He had met her and spoken to her, briefly partaken in her countless endeavors and willingly traveled alongside her at various points of her journey, mentored her and gotten mentored by her.
He had even gotten to be around long enough to spend a part of her fifteenth birthday with her on the day she had first set foot in Mossdeep City.
Hold on a minute! Her birthday? Wasn't it-
A fierce rumble. A low roar, swiftly followed by grim silence in a decisive moment of acknowledgement. Then, the lightboard, which was fixated on the wall opposite of the Champion's Podium, flickered to life shortly before reading that one defining line, "Challenger May Maple of Littleroot Town shall now move to the Champion's Chamber".
He had barely had a moment to himself with that revelation when the great double doors to his obligation were slowly but resolutely being pushed open from outside by a pair of slender, visibly battle-worn arms to reveal an equally weary figure.
Steven stared.
What?
Wait, what? Now? Right now?
She was coming in here now? She wanted to fight now? She was going to take a breather, wasn't she? What happened to all that jazz about sharing that moment of finality with her accompanying team of Pokémon before inviting herself into the Champion's steely presence?
Glimpsing his wrist-wringing, face reddening self in the lightly reflective steel panels that were embedded in the surrounding concrete walls, Steven inwardly screamed, "What 'steely presence'?"
Swiveling around to face her, he thought he saw, in her, more of that than he ever did in himself.
Slowing, then stopping in her tracks few feet away, May Maple stared up at a stony-faced Steven Stone.
And felt her shoulders sag. Heavily. Almost as if in resigned expectance.
...What?
In that moment he found himself struggling to form the syllables to her name, the girl beat him to it, albeit in excessive formality, "Mr. Steven Stone."
With more force than required of it, he cleared his throat. "'Steven' will do." He began awkwardly, cringing to hear himself speak. All this pretentious act and talk did little for his image as Champion and more of that for his identity as Steven Stone. The way she was eyeing him only served to discomfit him all the more and it drove him closer to dropping the farce altogether.
"May," Inwardly, he gave himself a little nod of approval at the controlled evenness of tone when he addressed her anew. "May Maple of Littleroot Town." Uh oh. "You have come today to challenge the reigning Champion of the Hoenn Pokémon League." No, no, no!
Nitwit.
"Me," He hastily added as a lingering afterthought, out of overwhelming desire to salvage an unsavory situation as opposed to actual necessity, and lamented over everything to have left this inept mouth of his thus far. Embarrassedly squinted eyes darted back and forth between the furthest corner of the room and her dirt-streaked face.
Just once.
Nonetheless, it eased a window ajar through which Steven openly observed how her facial features radiated warmth and familiarity through the layer of grime that marred her skin as she replied, "Yes."
Her casually speaking voice was so light, it bordered on tease. Not in a distasteful way. "You." She did it again. "Steven Stone."
That. She really had to stop that, especially with him. It was not good on the stomach and the gents was quite a ways away, unhelpfully so.
"Please. Just 'Steven'." Invoking a hopefully neutral smile on his frozen face, he fiercely willed mobility back into equally inert limbs after it seemed to have all but drained from his body in the short span of their exchange. "If it's not too much to ask for?" Feeling the muscles loosen around his face, his smile naturally softened as well.
But it was no match for the grin May directed at him in mute response. Steven never thought he would live to welcome the day when he was able to appreciate the sun without reserve and without fear of consequence.
Such freedom was intoxicating.
"Oh," He breathed. "Oh... May...!"
His legs surrendered to the rush of movement before the rest of his body followed along, pushing him to the edge of the low platform from which he had yet to move in anticipation of her impending arrival. They made quick, easy work of the short flight of stairs that separated the Champion's Podium from hopeful ground, highlighting the journey between modesty and loftiness of experience. The crisp swiftness of his heels clicking to rhythm against the cool, hard flooring resounded emptily into the vastness of the room in stark reminder of the fact that they were two individuals completely alone here and now.
Having waited out here almost a whole day to receive her at these ostentatiously-decorated doors to be steadily closing the distance between themselves now, he felt more than ready to indulge in her presence at this moment.
May very nearly flung her arms around him when he stepped within reachable distance, retracting her arms shortly after they had snapped into movement. Down her sides they hung, as though they had never known that intent in the first place. She could go on hoping against hope that her girlish transgression had conveniently gone unnoticed by a sharp-eyed Steven but they both knew that he had seen it. Whatever had possessed her to do it, she did not know but what she did know for certain was that it was only after she saw him reach out first for her, did she attempt the same.
...It was probably one of those hugs anyway, Obligatory, polite and encouraging. From Champion to hopeful. From mentor to mentee.
From Steven Stone to May Maple? Probably just those few minutes when he had opened his arms to her on the night of her fifteenth birthday.
She recalled a visibly disgruntled Combusken burrowing its way between their bodies in a... rather heated attempt at separating its confused owner from the older man and could not help beaming at the memory. Warmth suffused her cheeks, setting the tanned skin softly aglow and freezing an unsuspecting Steven in the middle of movement to see it.
Could a simple action, like taking a handkerchief to her face, possibly have brought about such charming reaction from her?
His hand remained where he had left it to hover uncertainly in the air, mere inches away from grazing her skin. "May," He ventured delicately. "Your face. You have dirt all over your face. Shall I, perhaps, clean it off for you?" When she did not shy away from his advance, he moved in with precision. Watching her squeeze both eyes tightly shut at the first physical point of contact through the square of handkerchief he gently held to her left cheek, he pressed down on it in earnest, wondering if he was going to wind up doing more than simply siphoning dirt off of her skin.
"...Don't laugh."
Sensing the reproach to her speaking voice, he pursed his traitorous mouth so firmly, his lips scarcely moved as he choked out, "Sorry... I'm sorry...-"
"-Just say it. Go on."
"Well, it just so happened that I was thinking about us. About how we seemed to always be meeting like this, with me like this, with you looking like this." Spying the faintest ripple of movement from an unmoving May beneath curtained eyelids, he knew exactly how she was just dying to roll her eyes up at him. Coupled with the knowledge that she was not going anywhere until he decided to let her out of his grasp, it tickled. "Come to think of it now, when have I ever seen you put together and clean of mess?"
"Ask Drake." May pouted in a petty show of petulance, eyes closed and chin tilted still. "Man's the one with the bunch of fire-breathing Dragon-type Pokémon spewing ash and smoke everywhere. It'd be hard to stay spick-and-span after spending a good three hours in the same space as them."
"Yes, you do smell a little charred."
Wrinkling her nose in obvious distaste at his teasing, she decided against relating to him that horrible moment, during which a painfully well-placed swipe from Salamence's tail had, in the heat of ongoing battle, sent both herself and poor Altaria hurtling straight into a nearby pit of steaming hot charcoal. Instead, she settled for huffing her displeasure while dramatically folding her arms in front of her chest, much to Steven's amusement.
It would seem that they have all had great battles with his little mentee here...
"Can I open my eyes now?"
"You may open your eyes now."
Each little stroke along the slope of her jawline drew the roving eye to the tanned skin beneath. Every single lift of the handkerchief from her awaiting face had him swelling with relief to perceive its flawlessness. Engrossed as he had been in studying her facial features, he neglected to look away in time before startlingly violet eyes fluttered open to fixate on startled blue-grey ones.
Oh...
Well, at the very least, he had had good sense to take his hand off her face before she could see that as well.
May stared up at Steven's face, watching it flicker between inscrutability and mortification while wondering if hers was doing the exact same thing right now.
"Do all Champions do this to their challengers? Or is it the other way around?" Perhaps, talking would distract.
"I do not speak for others, before or possibly after me. Nor do I care to. But I myself find it impossible to turn a blind eye to you, May Maple, no matter the circumstances." Smiling, without laughter, he met her questioning gaze and emphasized with grim conviction the following, "No matter the circumstances."
Now, she was distracted.
Rarely did he ever take that tone with her however, she had been around him often enough over the past year to recognize it when it rang out to her ears, raised goosebumps along the length of her exposed limbs and instilled profound regard in her.
"Steven Stone." Bowing her head in unspoken understanding, May stepped backwards in a respectful move while opposite her, Steven mirrored her movement. "May Maple?"
"May Maple..." Taking a leaf from her prior experiences with the Elite Four, she kept her voice steady and devoid of personal attachment as she newly, officially addressed the coolly-watching individual standing before her. "I am May Maple of Littleroot Town. Here I stand today, alone and assisted by the best, before the Elite Four in formal opposition to the Champion's Throne. Do you, Steven Stone, Champion of Hoenn's Pokémon League, accept my challenge?"
"I accept."
"Thank you!"
His unwavering sense of duty and position as reigning Champion insisted that he maintain his aloof stance however, it would do nothing to either dampen her spirits or dull the brilliance of her beautifully smiling face. Righting her petite frame from its precise bow, she appeared to stand far taller and straighter than he remembered of her when she first entered the room.