Disclaimer: I do not own Pokémon or any of the characters that are included in the story.

This story includes and references events that took place in Pokémon: Omega Ruby and Pokémon: Alpha Sapphire. It does not, however, attempt to tell a story that took place the aforementioned titles.

Stronger, Chapter 3:

Wally felt like things would not end up in his favor. After all, he usually had poor luck, why would today be any different?

He was certain that he would go up to his parents, beg to go on a pokémon adventure with May, and get turned down. But something about being around someone so overwhelmingly positive gave Wally a small burst of confidence. Enough confidence to make his case that a pokémon adventure would be just as good for his health as moving to Verdanturf would.

While Wally was thinking about all of this, he was still hugging May, as tight as his little arms would allow. Very soon after, he felt lactic acid building up in his arms and had to let go, rubbing his arms tenderly. He sat down for a second to catch his breath before walking back to Petalburg to see his parents, and May sat down beside him.

"Are you okay?" May inquired. "You seem a little winded, I didn't hug you too hard did I?"

Wally laughed. "N-no, but I think I was hugging you too hard."

At this, May giggled and stood up to stretch. "You know, I didn't say it earlier, but I'm very thankful to have met you. I met this other guy, Brendan, and I was thinking he would come with me on my pokémon journey. But he had his own plans, which I respect."

Wally nodded thoughtfully. "I-I guess it's really a s-spur of the moment type thing, going on an adventure, and who you decide to go with. I-I'm just glad that you seem so accepting of m-me into yours!" As Wally said this, he came to the realization that someone had finally accepted him. Even if it was not unsimilar to becoming a first mate to a pirate on a whim, it was something he suddenly realized he enjoyed. Wally suddenly wondered if he had made his first friend.

"C-c-can I call you m-my f-fr…" Wally tried to get out.

May, a little astonished, replied, "Friend? Of course! I thought it was obvious that we're friends now!"

Wally suddenly felt as if a weight had been taken off of his chest. His first friend, his first person with whom to share his feelings with, his first training partner, maybe eventually his first crush. All of these aspects in one person, it was something unfamiliar yet pleasant to Wally

He felt tears build, but he fought the urge to cry, even if it was from happiness. "I have to be stronger." he thought. Instead, he smiled.

Wally got up, and together the two walked to Petalburg City. Wally explained that he needed to see his parents before he left, to which May replied that she would talk to her father in the meantime.

Wally, very nervous about the upcoming conversation, entered his house slowly. When his parents saw his facial expression, his mother stood up to hug him. "It's okay, sweetie, you'll be able to catch a pokémon in Verdanturf…"

"O-oh, I actually caught one!" Wally replied, and his parents were relieved.

"Then what's the matter, son?" his father asked.

"W-well… I was thinking… could I g-go on a pokémon j-journey?"

His parents were a little stunned. "Now, Wally… you know that walking all around the region could be dangerous. What if you passed out in the middle of a route?"

"M-my partner would help me!" Wally said, somewhat confidently.

His parents, taken aback, inquired about who this partner was. After some back and forth discussion, they concluded that they would consider it, so long as they could meet the partner and verify that he/she was responsible. Wally understood, so he went outside to get May.

While Wally was talking with his parents, May had been telling her father about the move over to Littleroot and how her pokémon was already so strong. Of course, she also told him about the boy who she asked to accompany her on her journey.

"N-no, it's not like that! He is sweet- don't look at me that way!" May argued with her father.

"I'm just teasing, May!" Norman said. "I've known Wally since he moved to Petalburg, he's a very sweet boy. I think it's admirable that you want to help him get stronger."

At this point in the conversation, Wally stumbled into the gym, looking for May. "O-oh, s-sorry to interrupt…" Wally said as he walked back out slowly.

"No, no, it's fine! May was just talking about how handsome she thinks you are!" Norman said with a chuckle.

Wally and May both blushed, and May stuck her tongue out at her dad. She didn't want to outwardly deny it, even though she really wasn't talking about that. She just really didn't want to hurt Wally's feelings.

The two walked together back to Wally's house, where Wally introduced May to his parents, who requested a private chat with May, sending Wally to his room.

May gave off a strong first impression since she was the daughter of Norman and very sweet. It was clear that such a person was trustworthy, especially since she explained that Wally had opened up to her a little. She also reassured them of her credibility in being Wally's travel partner by acknowledging that she knew he was sickly, and wanted to see him improve and become stronger.

After the brief interview, Wally was called back out, and he was given the 'OK' to actually go on an adventure, under the condition that he had to bring his inhaler with him at all times.

Wally grabbed some personal belongings and hugged his parents goodbye.

The two began to travel to Route 104, where they spent almost two hours training against the wild pokémon. Quite often, Wally's Ralts would be slightly too weak to defeat a wild pokémon, so Treecko would step in and rescue it. By the end of the training session, they had visited the Pokémon Center eight times, Treecko evolved into a Grovyle, and Ralts was now easily able to defeat Route 104's wild pokémon with one quick 'Confusion' or 'Disarming Voice' attack.

Though Ralts had become significantly stronger, Wally himself was exhausted. May noticed his fatigue and decided that, since the sun was already setting, it was time to call it a night.

"D-do we just go back to our h-homes?" Wally asked nervously. He knew it would be awkward, as he had said his goodbyes on that same day.

"No, of course not, silly! We're on an adventure, we have to set up a secret base!" May replied.

"H-how do we-" Wally had begun to ask, but May answered his question with a glint of light reflecting off of a disk in her hand.

"My father knew that I would need to sleep during my journey, so he gave me his. It's a TM called 'Secret Power." May brought her Grovyle out from its pokéball and handed the disk to it. It began to look closely at the disk, as if reading an inscription that was visible to it and it alone. Grovyle and the disk began to glow, and as its glowing dissipated, as did the disk's.

Wally was left dumbfounded. He had never put any thought into how pokémon learned from TMs; he certainly would never have expected that.

Wally shrugged it off. Despite the stunning display, his question was still left unanswered- how and where would they find someplace to sleep?

May, as if reading his mind, said "Now we'll find an entrance to a secret base, use Secret Power to enter, and spend the night in it!"

"How and where do we find one?..." the two thought respectively. "S-should we split up and look for entrances?" Wally suggested.

"Yeah, good thinking Wally! It'll look like a little crevice in a wall or on a tree, but it won't look particularly natural!" May explained.

Wally nodded. "G-good luck, let's meet back here in ten minutes?" Wally suggested.

"Smart thinking yet again, big brain!" May said with a giggle, making Wally hide a blush. "Alright, I'll see you in ten minutes then!"

May went to check along the large rocks near the shoreline before going into Petalburg Woods, so Wally had a little bit of a head start in the forest. It was not yet nighttime, but the sun was setting and Wally was getting nervous. He tried his best to steel his nerves and keep walking. He checked every large tree, but he found nothing. As he progressed, he thought her heard two voices.

He was completely correct, he found a man in a laboratory coat begging to be left alone, as a brawnier man in a blue outfit was clearly harassing him.

"Oh, Arceus, oh Arceus, here goes nothing…" Wally thought as he moved himself away from the tree he was hiding behind. "S-s-stop it!" He commanded somewhat nervously.

Both of the people in the situation stared at him. Wally was expecting to be laughed at by both of the men. While the man in the blue did laugh, the man in the lab coat moved behind Wally and begged for protection. "I can do this, I can do this, I can do this..." Wally thought and whispered under his breath as he threw out Ralts, challenging the man in blue.

"Are you lookin' to get your butt whooped, boy? Fine then, be my guest!" He said as he threw what Wally recognized to be a Poochyenan out of his pokéball.

Wally knew this would be easy. He may be trembling out of fear but he knew he was going to win. "R-Ralts, use Disarming Voice!" he commanded. Ralts made a loud shriek, which was accompanied with glowing pink sound waves, all of which slammed into the opposing pokémon. It was no contest, Wally had just won by using only one move.

The next part was a blur to Wally. The man in blue left, the lab coat man thanked Wally and left, and Wally withdrew Ralts and began to run back to meet May and tell her what happened.

The next thing he knew, he was in a bed, in a dimly lit, stone room. May was sitting on a bed across from him, with a worried expression. "Wally, are you okay? I found you in the entrance to the woods, passed out and drooling on the floor!"

Wally was unbelievably embarrassed. "I drool? Oh Arceus I'm such a slob…" he thought as he covered his face. The embarrassment subsided as Wally remembered why he was running in the first place. "M-May! I got into a trainer battle, there was a j-jerk trying to steal from someone, I s-saved him!" Wally recounted.

May looked astonished. "Woah, really! And you won? That was your first trainer battle, and you won? I'm so proud!" May ran over to his bed and hugged him, something that Wally was very fond of and becoming used to.

"Y-yeah!" He said as he returned the hug as best as he could; him still sitting on a bed made it a little awkward. "H-hey, w-where are we exactly?"

"Oh, I found a Secret Base, it didn't take that long! They're like free hotel rooms that you can find anywhere! There's even a bathtu-er… I mean a hot spring!" May gestured towards a large, steaming puddle that had water trickling down into it. "I even took a bath while you were asleep!"

Wally blushed madly at the thought that she had bathed in the same room as him, but he tried to hide it. "H-h-how long w-was I out?" He said, changing subjects.

"About fifteen minutes!" May responded. "I didn't want to get out of the hot spring but I didn't expect you to begin moving around so early!"

"It felt like only a few seconds to me..." Wally thought.

"Oh, and I brought us towels for our journey by the way, so whenever you need to bathe, feel free to!"

Wally gulped hard. He was sticky with sweat from training so much all day, but he was too scared to get in the hot spring with May in the same room as him.

"Don't worry, silly! Your body will be submerged in the water, I won't see anything! Besides, I'll close my eyes if it makes you feel any better." May said as she covered her eyes with her hands.

Wally shakily undressed to his boxers. There was nobody watching him, so why was he so scared? May obviously respected his privacy, and he knew he had to keep good hygiene for his personal health. He also didn't want to gross May out by smelling bad, though he had never had any body odor problems before.

He nervously stripped himself of his boxers after reassuring that May couldn't see a thing, grabbed a towel to have closeby, and went into the water. "I-I-I'm in the water! Y-you can open y-your eyes now!" Wally said nervously.

May uncovered her eyes. "That water is almost as tall as he is…" she thought and giggled to herself.

Wally felt embarrassed, not knowing what she was giggling about, so he sank himself a little lower in the water, to reassure himself that she could see nothing.

"So, Wally. I feel like I need you to address something since we're partners." May started. "Your lungs aren't that good, right? So why were you running out there?"

Wally wanted to hide from this conversation, but he was trapped in a tiny hot spring. "I-I don't know… It was an impulse…" he said, ashamedly.

May laid on her bed, facing towards Wally. "Don't be nervous, Wally. I'm here to help you. I just don't want to lose you. I don't want you to accidentally hurt yourself. I don't want to start thinking that you're not fit to travel with me, in fact I really want to help you get stronger. But right now, you are very limited. So please, for me, take care of your body." May said emotionally.

Wally could not help but cry a little, he felt like he was close to losing his first and only friend. Thankfully for him, the water hid the tears. "Y-y-you're right, May… I'll be more c-careful. I'm s-so sorry…"

May looked as if she just accidentally stepped on a small pokémon's foot. "P-please don't apologize to me! I just want you to be safe, is all! I was just really worried about you!" she stammered.

With that, Wally felt better. "A-as your p-partner, I p-promise I won't be so reckless anymore!" Wally said to reassure both May and himself.

Both feeling more at ease with each other, Wally and May continued chatting for a few minutes, before Wally was done in the hot spring. May closed her eyes, and opened when he gave the 'OK.' She giggled, as Wally was wearing the towel like a girl. "W-what?" Wally asked as he covered his 'swimsuit area,' worried that the towel was not hiding it well enough.

May covered her eyes as he put on some clothes then crawled into his bed. They both let out their respective pokémon to sleep on the soft fabric of the beds. They both nodded off, but May woke up an hour later due to a weird dream about trampolines. She saw that Wally had thrown his covers off to cool down. She blushed and closed her eyes again to try and sleep.

"He didn't tell me he slept shirtless…"