Note: Added a little prologue and changed a lot of stuff about this chapter. It's basically almost like a new one.

Dewford Town was an interesting place – there was a gym and a cave; what more could a girl want? Red – or May once again, she supposed – would have loved nothing more than to explore the small island which Dewford Town sat upon to her heart's content, but alas, she was supposed to deliver a letter here, and that came first.

May glanced at the gym longingly, wondering if she should go after she was done. It would definitely not be very ethical of her to abuse this chance in order to take on the gym challenge again, but… no one would have to know, right? No one would recognize her, and if she took care not to trounce the gym leaders too obviously and stayed out of the limelight…

She sighed, shaking her head. She'd already challenged Roxanne at Rustboro City on the day of her arrival at Hoenn. Back then, her excuse had been that she was testing whether anyone would recognize her. No one had – yay for her – so technically, there was no need for her to step into any Hoennian gym ever again. Technically.

But Dewford was such a small town, and would anyone notice if she took on Brawley? The island was small enough that there shouldn't be much gossip even if she did a little too well, and she could always go to the gym at two p.m., a time in which all spectators had usually gone home. Just one more time, then she'd stop…

May sighed and pulled the envelope out of her backpack. She chewed on her lip, eyes straying to the gym, until she finally sighed and made a bargain with herself: if she managed to deliver the letter before two p.m., she would challenge the gym. If not, she'd do the sensible thing and keep on looking for the letter's recipient until she managed to track him down. Steven, it was addressed to. Steven, Steven, Steven.

Now where was the man?

There were enough Stevens in Hoenn that, without a surname to go with, asking islanders where 'Steven' was turned out to be a rather pointless exercise. More than once she cornered someone she'd been directed to – Steven the grocer, Steven the bug-catcher or Steven the fisher – only to make a moron out of herself when they informed her that they'd never met President Stone in their lives.

By one p.m., May had looked all over the place for the elusive Steven, had shown the letter to the very inhabitant of Dewford questioningly, and yet none knew where to find Steven. Her Steven, anyway. She'd had about enough of random other Stevens.

Annoyed, she changed a longing glance at the rocky outcrops that could be seen in the distance, the sea crashing against the black ridges. What if Steven had gone to Dewford's cave system? She realized she was probably biased in thinking to look for him there, of all places, but hell, at this rate she'd never find Steven before two p.m. anyway. The gym would miss out on her challenge as per her promise to herself, so she might as well indulge this much and 'look for Steven' at Granite Cave. The fact that she'd been itching to go was irrelevant.

There were no steel types in Kanto and May wondered whether she might be able to catch one now. Yes, Steven could wait. It wasn't her fault he was nowhere to be found. And it was probably for the best that she didn't challenge the gym anyway.

Decision made, May trudged off to the rocky outcrops visible in the distance. Once inside Granite Cave, as the place was called, a bunch of people tried to stop her from entering the deeper recesses of the area because of an exhibit of some kind that was being set up within.

However, May had never been one to wait around on her bum, so she quickly snuck past the guards when they weren't looking, having pinpointed an alternate entrance that involved climbing up a few rocks and rappelling down a steep precipice for a little bit. Nothing much, really. She had enough experience with living on top of Mt Silver that this was a cakewalk for her.

Milkshake, the absol that had been trailing her since pretty much the day of her arrival at Hoenn, trudged into the "forbidden" area of the cave right behind her, and kept pace even as she rappelled down the precipice, much to her chagrin. May sighed with annoyance, quickening her step. The absol wasn't even trying to be subtle about stalking her anymore. She had read that the species were said to be omens of death because of their penchant for appearing only a few hours prior to natural disasters. May wondered what if said about her that an absol had been following her around since the moment she'd set foot on Hoenn.

By that point, she made it to the bottom of the precipice, and the lower area of the cave. Intrigued, she set about exploring the place and encountered some interesting pokémon on her way, such as a makuhita, and memorably a garchomp. Still no steel types in sight though. As she advanced deeper into the cave, she spotted light at the end of a corner and made her way over to it. Further exploration led her to an open space, electric lights illuminating a wide opening in the stone. It seemed she'd accidentally stumbled into the exhibit.

She was momentarily frozen by the gigantic wall-painting covering the entire gallery. It depicted a scene of doom – two legendary pokémon killing a bunch of humans and wreaking havoc on the world. She remembered reading about the legendaries of Hoenn from a guide at the pokémon center, but could not reconcile the amiable myths of the region with the art before her. It seemed that those legends had been around for a long, long time, judging from the age of this painting. The guide hadn't said anything about a pokémon ragnarock though. She noticed belatedly that some guy was in the gallery as well, though he seemed not to have noticed her. He was wearing a well-pressed suit, and being in a cave she guessed that the only reason for that could be that he was a tour-guide of some kind. As if to confirm it, he was giving the painting a laser-sharp stare and muttering. He must be preparing a presentation for when the public was allowed in.

As May would rather not get into trouble for trespassing with him, she promptly turned to go, but it was in this moment that a pokémon shot out from the shadows and chomped down on her backpack. May blinked at it for a second, her brain immediately kicking into overdrive. Its lower body looked cute enough, but the gigantic, salivating mouth larger than the rest of it put together added a spin to that. More importantly, it was a steel type.

May'd gaze sharpened. Perfect. She'd been meaning to catch one. The mawile thought it could challenge her? Well, challenge accepted. Forgetting completely about the fact that she was supposed to be avoiding the tour guide, she drew vulpix's pokeball and instructed her to fight. Normally, she wasn't a fan of giving audible commands, but vulpix wasn't trained enough that she could interpret May's silences and body language – to be able understand her instinctively, without the use of words, like her usual team. So she spoke, her voice confident and clear, albeit quiet. It still echoed in the silence.

A few minutes afterward, a makuhita joined the tussle. May was not interested in capturing one, but it would make things more fun, so she instructed vulpix to fight both of them at once. There was a reason why trainers weren't supposed to go into the gallery with the old paintings though. A pokémon battle could accidentally destroy some of the age old carvings of the pokémon raggnarock, after all, and though May was quite experienced, it was still better to be cautious, so she carefully led the battle outside of the room, all the while making sure vulpix's attacks wouldn't produce too much light, which would attract more pokémon.

Once the mawile was sufficiently outsmarted and outclassed, she took a pokéball out of her belt, pausing deliberately so the mawile would see the movement – their eyes met for half a second and yet it did not try to flee – and so she threw the ball with expert aim.

Blip, blip, blip – ping.

Soon it was caught, and May used her pokédex to quickly check on mawile's data – female, very young, a rather large specimen – before releasing the newly-captured pokémon again. May crouched in front of her, watching the steel type intently. The mawile seemed exhausted, but not too angry at being caught. May dug in her pouch and handed her a treat. She was just watching Mawile begin to chew, when–

"That was grand!"

May turned, startled, only to find the tour guide grinning at her. Right. She'd completely forgotten about him. Stepping closer, the man began to chatter her ear off almost immediately.

"What a beautifully-executed catch! I couldn't help but observe that battle you had and I must say, I'm impressed."

May nodded, irked by his fawning. She'd been a second away from rudely walking off, when the man changed gears and suddenly began to talk about steel types in general, listing facts about how to raise them, how to battle with them, how to train them – and immediately all of her annoyance evaporated. From the way he spoke, she realized quickly that this tour guide knew quite a lot about pokémon and the business of training them. He was well-versed in the ins anf outs of steel types in particular. May listened intently to memorize all of his shared knowledge about steel types. She had known most of the general, combat-centered things he told her, but there were many quirky facts she'd been unaware of. She was also secretly glad that he seemed to have forgotten about her trespassing.

"Here," he said, ruffling in his trouser pockets for something. She watched curiously as he pulled out a small disc – a TM. "It's for Ironhead," the man said happily. "I would give you Steel Wing, which is my favorite, but it cannot be learned by Mawile. Ironhead, on the other hand, would have her looking magnificent once she picks it up."

May nodded, picturing it in her inner eye. Mawile certainly would look grand – however, she was not about to accept such a generous gift from a stranger. She wasn't sure about Hoenn, a region much richer than Kanto, but at home TMs were extremely expensive and coveted. May was not the amateur this man must have assumed her to be – it would be completely unfair to accept such a gift from him.

After trying to awkwardly return the TM for about two minutes straight being denied, the tour guide paused, as if only now realizing she hadn't said a word. May knew she was supposed to speak now, even if it made her uncomfortable, but she had always been leery of talking to strangers. Even if she no longer had a reason to keep quiet, she'd gotten so used to never speaking unless in the company of those closest to her, that she was still rather bad at it. Needless to say, all those years living in solitude at Mt Silver hadn't exactly helped her social skills, either.

Suddenly, nerves and stress took over and May took a step back. The tour guide seemed surprised; she couldn't blame him. A part of her was embarrassed but a larger one had turned into a ball of anxiousness and she had to go. Now. She chugged the TM at the guy and turned tail to flee.

"Hey, wait! I'm sorry," he called after her. "I'll keep the TM. Please excuse me if I've said something to offend you!"

Finally, he had pocketed the TM and May reluctantly stopped. She knew she was acting even more oddly than usual. Damn it. If she could get through Victory Road without using potions, she could damn well hold a conversation. Feeling bad for making the poor toor guide feel like he'd offended her, May reluctantly turned on her heel and retraced her steps to him. The man had been the perfect gentleman while she had acted like a crazy person. Blue was going to end up being right about his cave woman jokes if she kept this up.

Get it together and say something already!

Thank god for the dim lighting, because May's face had started to heat up uncomfortably. Resigned, she muttered: "uh, look. You didn't offend me." Her voice came out a little off.

"Oh. That's a relief. I know I can be overbearing sometimes, or so my father says," the tour guide replied. "He claims I get too excited when one of my favorite topics comes up in conversation."

May frowned. What a thing to say to your son, geeze.

"No, it's fine. I thought everything you mentioned about steel types was fascinating. I just don't like talking."

His mouth dropped for a second, then he blinked and he was back to looking composed. "Ah, shoot – am I making you uncomfortable then? I've heard about selective mutism, I'm sorry, I should have stopped ranting your ear off when I realized you weren't replying… we're complete strangers. Gods, this is embarrassing."

"I don't like talking," May repeated. "Doesn't mean I don't enjoy listening." She eyed the harried-looking tour guide pointedly.

"You… uh. You don't have to do that," he told her. "Trying to make me feel better. It's fine, I get it."

May frowned. "I'm not lying to make you feel better. The fact that prolonged exposure of water attacks can lead to the steel type coverings oxidating is well known, but I'd never heard about Meloc tree resin helping in preventing that," May informed him bluntly. "And I just caught a steel type. This information will be very useful, thanks."

The tour guide's eyebrows rose. "Ah, well… thank you. I'm actually surprised you chose to focus on that, because it pertains to some discoveries I've made that haven't been published yet."

May nodded. That made sense. She made it her business to know all the new discoveries that were published, after all.

"I know professor Oak personally," she revealed out of the blue. "He mentioned that he was doing some research about different trees' sap properties." While not one to do this sort of thing usually, she liked him for some reason. "Do you want me to give you his number? I'm sure he could add your discovery to his paper – and give you proper credit, of course."

The man's eyes widened. "Professor Oak's number? He's notoriously hard to reach. I've already gotten a hold of his lab's telephone, but I couldn't get through…"

"It's broken," May said sheepishly. "My pikachu threw a fit a few years ago and the lab's telephone didn't survive. The professor never bothered to replace it."

Steven blinked. "Oh. Wait – you have a pikachu? Are you from Kanto then?"

Shite. She was supposed to keep a low profile, what was she doing? The one time she decided to actually converse with a stranger and this happened.

"I am," May admitted reluctantly.

"Ah, makes sense. Pallet Town?"

"Um. I spent my late childhood there."

"Amazing. I've always wanted to visit. They say Pallet Town is Red's birthplace."

It wasn't, not that that was any of his business. Even so, the current topic of their conversation was too close to getting out of hand, so May decided she needed to end it – and soon. She dug around her satchel until she found a piece of paper and an old pen, then scribbled Oak's personal number on it.

"Here," she told the tour guide. "That's Professor Oak's number. Just tell him about your discovery and he'll listen."

"Thank you," he said. "I really do appreciate it. I was already working on a paper of my own, but I'll be sure to give him a call."

"Oh." May flushed in embarrassment. He was already writing his own paper? Damn. She'd assumed that, being a tour guide, the man would need help getting anything published. But wait, did that mean he wasn't a tour guide?

She snuck a glance at him: at his designer socks and his poised posture and at the cufflinks attached to his sleeves. Now from up closer, it was apparent that, while he was wearing a business suit, it wasn't quite what a tour guide might wear. It was rather eccentric, actually, as far as business suits went.

"You mean you're not a tour guide?!" May blurted, before realizing what she'd said and almost hitting herself. More embarrassingly, the man's utterly gobsmacked expression let her know that she'd just majorly put her foot in her mouth.

"Uh. No."

"…right."

They stood in awkward silence for a minute.

May was cringing very hard at herself. Oh, if Blue could see her right then he'd have a field day. "Er. Sorry," she breathed.

"It's fine… I don't mind," the not-tour guide said with a chuckle. "I'm rather happy you thought I was a tour guide, actually."

Well, that was weird. But okay. May could sort of empathise, even though his reasons were probably wildly different from what she had in mind. But at least in her case, she would have been relieved to be confused with a tour guide because if people thought she was a tour guide, then they wouldn't think that she was their illustrious champion Red and hound her for autographs.

This guy likely had his own reasons, but maybe they were similar. Could it be that he was somebody well known?

"Uh, sorry, was I supposed to know who you are?" May hazarded. "I kind of don't check the media a lot." Especially the champion gossip rags. It made her nervous, seeing her name plastered over so many speculative articles, even in tabloids that we're supposed to talk about other regions' leagues, to the point where these days she barely knew any of the hot gossip involving any of the champions. She didn't even know who Hoenn's champion was, now that she thought about it. Either way, seeing as the guy she'd confused with a tour guide wore a suit, perhaps he was an important business man or hell, a mob boss or something.

"Ah, it's fine," he replied. "I actually steer clear of… some aspects of the news as well, so I more than understand."

May's eyebrows rose. "So you are a media hotshot, huh?"

"It's… you could say some people might know me," he hedged. "But it's really no big deal. I never liked that aspect of my job. Honestly, it's a relief to meet someone who doesn't immediately recognize me. Could I trouble you to remain oblivious?"

May snorted. "You can remain a tour guide in my mind till the end of my days, if you want."

"That would be appreciated," he chuckled.

"I won't look you up then. At least, not in purpose."

"That's all I ask." He offered her his hand. "I'm Steven, by the way."

She shook it, pausing to examine the cufflinks. "Steven the tour guide. I like it. Has a ring to it. Also, where did you buy those?"

Steven poked his cufflinks. "Uh. I… I think you could buy then anywhere these days. The, er, the champion has similar cufflinks, so most shops sell them as a souvenir."

"Oh, right," said May drolly. "Kanto's the same with, er, Red's cap. Seriously, it's just a cap. You'd think they'd be a little less fanatic about it."

"Uh. I do have one of those," Steven confesad in a small voice.

May flushed.

Way to put your foot in your mouth again…

It was a little strange that she should even care, though. Normally fanboy behavior annoyed her to no end, but just this time… for some reason the idea that Steven had gotten her merch didn't bother her all that much. Heck, he had merchandise from Hoenn's champion as well so it probably wasn't anything special… but it did kind of warm her that he liked her, that he liked Red, enough to get a version of her cap.

And technically, she owned the damned cap as well.

"I mean, I have Red's cap too," she said nervously, pulling the cap out of her satchel and showing him. "I bought it before all the craze about it started though." Steven took the cap and admired it.

"Oh, you must have. I can't see the league logo on it that marks it as a replica."

May almost lost her shit right then. Say what? There was a logo?! What the heck?

She chuckled uneasily. "Y-yeah. I mean, as I said, I bought it before the caps started selling so much…" Change the topic, now, you idiot! Harried, she cast around for something to say. "Um. Maybe I should buy some of those souvenir cufflinks at some point. I don't even know who the champion is but I'm already liking his style. Something Stone, right?"

Steven issued an odd choked noise, which prompted her to glance down and realize she was still holding his hand. It had been so warm and pleasant that she'd subconsciously held on without realizing. Horrified, she let go as though signed.

"Sorry! I – I just! I forgot I was holding your hand when you brought up the whole merchandise thing."

"Um. It's, uh. It's fine. Happens to the best of us." Steven was staring at the ceiling, his hand fiddling nervously with the chains tied to his fingers.

Mesnwhile, May's face still felt ridiculously hot. Just damn it. She'd liked Steven. It wasn't often that she met people, and even more rare that she got along with them so quickly, especially with people her age. Her friend list was literally limited to Blue – who was a prick – and Professor Oak. She also got along with Lance, but even he had no idea about who Red really was. Most people didn't. Most people didn't know May. And now she'd gone and met someone really interesting, someone whom she had met as May rather than as Red, and yet due to her awkwardness, Steven probably thought she was a creep. Wait–

Steven.

"Did you say your name was Steven?" she exclaimed, suddenly excited.

"Uh. Yes," he appeared dismayed. "I imagine you must have figured out –"

"–great! Yes, I can't believe I didn't realize this sooner! You wouldn't happen to be working for the head of Devon, would you?"

He blinked. Right. She'd interrupted him. Now he thought she was rude on top of everything.

Before she could start apologizing, he'd already replied. "Ah, I'm not quite working there as such, but I do… know the president."

"Finally." May squinted at her watch. "That means I can challenge the gym after all."

He stared. "I'm sorry?"

She blushed. "Nothing, nothing. Just a bet I made with myself. I have a letter for you, by the way."

"A bet?"

"If I found you before two p.m., I decided to challenge the gym." Steven looked like he was about to ask her something, but by that point, she'd produced the letter and handed it to him. "Here, this is it. Do you think you're the recipient? Mr Devon assured me that the Steven this was addressed to was somewhere in Dewford, but Steven the greengrocer, Steven the fisher and Steven the bug catcher all begged to differ. So. Is it for you?"

Steven took the envelope into his hands and examined it. "Uh… yeah, that's for me, alright." He seemed sheepish now. "I'm so sorry you had to come all this way to find me."

May waved him off. "It's fine. I'd actually sort of given up on looking for you and came here to take a break. It was lucky that you talked to me like that or I wouldn't have realized I'd found you."

"Ah, yes. You thought I was a tour guide."

May couldn't help it, she laughed. The sound surprised even herself. She usually spent her days in quiet contemplation… what the heck was happening to her? And yet she laughed, loudly, too. She laughed and exclaimed: "I did! I honestly thought you would scold me if you saw me skulking around. There were guards outside; I kind of snuck in."

"Scold you? So that's why your footsteps were so quiet." He grinned. "That'd be rather hypocritical of me to do, believe me. I had a permit today, but I've done more than my fair share of skulking in the past. Especially around caves."

May could definitely sympathise with that. "Caves are the best," she agreed. And then her watch beeped. It was the alarm she had set earlier, an alarm which was supposed to remind her that it was almost two p.m. already. Damn it. May almost wanted to chug the damn watch out of the metaphorical window, but refrained.

"Oh," said Steven. "Right… you were going to challenge the gym…"

"Yeah. I… I should go. Or I won't make it to there before two."

"You know, um, you could just go later, if you'd rather, erm, keep exploring. I don't think this gym is quite busy enough to warrant appointments."

"Oh." May flushed. "That's not it. I'd just rather not have a lot people watching me."

Steven nodded slowly. "Ah, are you new to training, then?"

For some reason, May didn't want to answer. She knew she had a cover story she needed to stick to, but if she did that, she'd be lying to him, and she'd have to dumb herself down (experience was) significantly.

"Um, it's a long story."

Instead of lingering around to field more questions, she hastily turned and briskly flipped over the rock entrance she'd climbed in through. Pausing before taking off up the steep wall, May hesitantly glanced back. Would it be weird if she waved?

"It was nice meeting you, tour guide," she offered as a goodbye, unable to contain a shy little smile. Then, before she could do something else to embarrass herself, she grasped the rock wall stretching out before her and nimbly began to climb back the way she'd come from. It wouldn't do for the guards to catch her now, after all.

On his part, Steven stared after her with a slightly gaping mouth. "Wait, what's your name? Hey!"

But May was already long gone by then.

Steven,

please give me a call at your earliest convenience. I cannot reach you.

Joseph Stone

President of Devon Corp

Steven folded the letter with annoyance. His father was a pest. He wondered what that poor trainer had done to end up as his errand-girl. Just to spite the man, he waited a few days before giving him the call. He'd lingered in Dewford for a while, hoping to encounter her again, but she was nowhere to be found. He had heard from Brawley later on that an amazingly strong trainer had indeed challenged his gym a few days back – by his estimation, it couldn't have been but a few minutes after she'd left Granite Cave. He had known immediately that it was her. She was the challenger.

Normally, Steven was an introvert, more captivated by rocks and battle strategies than actual people, but it seemed that when it came to her, a new source of keen interest was forming. Their acquaintance spanned all of ten minutes and one conversation, and yet he couldn't wait till he saw her again. Would he? Rarely had he felt such a drive to meet another trainer. The only comparable case had been his obsession with the infamous Red back when he'd started out as a trainer all those years ago. Even now, Steven could admit, if only to himself, that he would love the chance to meet Kanto's 'shadow champion', as Red was referred to these days, but he could never quite work up the nerve to seek Red out, and, as the other never attended any international league events, meeting Red by chance was off the table.

If only it could be as easy as running into Red one day, just like he had with her…

He was caught off guard with how interesting he had found her, though; with Red there was a very obvious reason to feel so drawn in, but with her? The way she had walked confidently through the cave, climbing up steep rocks to sneak out like it was nothing, the way she'd seemed completely unfazed when she'd realized he was famous (if not quite why) and had continued talking to him as if it were nothing… the way she had commanded her vulpix with such preecidion and keen strategy… yes. She wasn't your run of the mill trainer, he could easily tell.

Despite her quiet demeanor, she had seemed very passionate as she'd captured that mawile… and she seemed to like steel types, too. Steven wondered whether he would meet her again. As a challenger to his title, perhaps?

When he finally did call his father, it turned out that the man only wanted to pester him about taking up control of the business after all. Steven repeated to him (as usual) that he was very welcome to find someone more suited for the job and who would actually appreciate it. Before his father could start arguing back in that implacable tone of his, Steven changed the topic and asked about his 'delivery service'. He grew even more vexed when he found out from his father that the man had met the girl because she'd apparently stopped some thieves – from the very criminal organization Steven was investigating – which had been trying to steal valuable company property. And as thanks, his dear father had apparently sent the poor girl on an errand to find him. He was thankful now he'd given her that TM on a whim, clearly the business of being a good samaritan was lost on Joseph Stone. As he finally shut his pokénav to end the call, Steven found he was thankful he'd called after all, though. Not because his father's harangue had in any way delighted him, but rather because now he knew her name: May.

It was such a simple name. He would have expected something grander, more mysterious and compelling… like Sapphire, or Celeste for her blue eyes, which he remembered noticing despite the darkness of the cave, or perhaps something fierce and memorable like Cynthia, Ashlin or Alaska, like the big legends… or even a name like Red. She had the same aura as the stronger trainers he'd met during his tenure as Champion, many of whom chose to use aliases for their pokémon ID. However, Steven found he wasn't disappointed. He had never used an alias himself despite debating about it many times; keeping his name rather simple and boring… he liked that she had a simple name as well. Unpretentious and straightforward. Yes. He decided May suited her just fine after all.

Hope you liked this story. I have other fics going on (with a lot more readers) so this took a bit of a backseat.

Also, some people were confused about May/Red's identity. I think the epilogue I added should help clear it up a bit, but: May is Red. Basically, due to circumstances May was displaced as a child and ended up growing up in Kanto. Her father is still Norman, she just has no idea. Also, I've changed a few things from canon, such as her still being the acting champion, or the fact that she's 26 when ORAS takes place.

Also, this story has taken some inspiration in Lamora's Game of Champions, world building wise. For example, the earlier mention of Kanto being much poorer than Hoenn. I also changed it in the sense that children from Kanto got their Pokémon licenses earlier than in Hoenn, so basically, while the same age, Steven hadn't even gotten his trainer license by the time May became Champion Red. He became champion a few years later than her.

Also, May thinks President Stone's name is "Devon" because she wasn't paying attention. And also because I want to keep her ignorant about who Steven is for a while longer. She knows from the David guy that the Hoenn champion is known as Champion Stone, so if she thinks Steven's name is Steven Devon, she'll have a harder time figuring out the truth.