Steven waited for May to say something. But she didn't, and he lowered his mouth to hers.
The kiss was light. His lips brushed softly against hers, testing and teasing. It warmed her in the same way that the spring sun melted ice leftover from winter – slowly and gradually.
"I didn't…" She cleared her voice. "I didn't do this."
His mouth had moved to her jaw. "Hm?" His breath fanned his skin.
"You said this is payback," she said. "But in Rustboro, I didn't do… this."
"Oh? Are you finally remembering that after all?"
She wasn't sure she was remembering anything. His lips had moved to her throat, and her thoughts had grown fuzz around the edges.
"How…?" she started to ask.
"How…?" he prompted.
"How can you seem so…?" She trailed off again.
He was only too content to wait for her to finish. He continued to kiss her with a single-minded focus, his lips brushing the side of her neck, her corners of her eyes, the space between her brows.
"Unaffected," she finally said.
He paused, pulled back, and looked down at her. "What do you mean?"
Wasn't it obvious? "I turn bright red," she began. "I stammer. I can't even finish my sentences. But you…" Again, she trailed off.
He understood anyway. "You think I'm not affected by you," he said.
"Well…"
She got that he had that mask of his, and she got that he couldn't always control where and when it came off. And aside from their embarrassing mishap in Lavardige, she'd never seen his face turn red like hers. But wasn't something like this enough to do the trick? Wasn't something like this enough to make him just as breathless and dazed as she was now?
"May." He spoke her name in that too-controlled tone of his. "If you think this means that I'm not affected by you, then I'm not trying hard enough."
His mouth lowered back onto hers, but this time, the kiss had none of the soft and gradual warmth from before. It had deepened into something desperate. It had lit a fire within her.
He caught her bottom lip between both of his. He kissed it, pulled at it, turned it into something that belonged only to him. She let him lead, her mouth pliable and soft beneath his, while the heat within her grew hotter and the fuzz around her thoughts became thicker.
His lips parted hers, and his tongue gently caressed hers. A sound she'd never before made escaped her throat.
She turned her head to the side. Her thoughts had smashed into fragments. She needed to get them back in order, or she'd never think straight again. But his teeth grazed the crest of her ear, and the fragments of her mind scattered in every direction imaginable.
But she no longer cared. In fact, she found that she quite liked it.
What was this man doing to her?
Still holding her arms above her head, he brought her wrists together and held them in place with just one of his hands. With his free one, he turned her head back to his, and resumed the tender ambush on her mouth.
The room became its own world. It spun on its axis, again and again, faster and faster. But gradually, it slowed. And when it stopped completely, May realized that Steven had pulled away and was looking at her.
"Still think I'm unaffected?" he asked. He was breathless now.
Her mind began to put itself back together. She managed to shake her head.
"Good." He leaned in, gave her another deep kiss, and then moved off of her.
She slowly sat up. "Why did you stop?"
He was still trying to catch his breath. "Because if I didn't stop now," he said, "I wouldn't have been able to stop at all."
"What's wrong with that?" she found herself asking.
He smiled slightly. "Please, May. Don't test my limits."
He'd said something similar in Lavaridge. But she was only now beginning to understand what he'd meant by it.
"Get some rest, May," he said, turning towards the door. "I'll see you in the morning."
She watched him as he walked out and closed the door behind him. The fire that he'd lit within her had put itself out, but its embers still glowed bright.
She would most definitely test Steven Stone's limits again.
The gray light of the early morning seeped into the kitchen as May made her way over to the sink. She opened the cabinet above it, found a glass, and poured herself some water from the tap.
Sipping from her glass, she leaned against the counter and looked around the quiet space. Although she'd only been in this house for a few days and spent most of her time in it asleep, she'd come to love it. She loved how it overlooked the beach, how warm the breeze was here, how the crashing waves were the last thing she heard when she fell asleep and the first thing she heard when she woke up.
But most of all, she loved how the house's owner had finally returned to it.
Her gaze landed on the glass display cases that stood against the far walls of the adjacent living room. Each shelf held a valuable rock or gemstone. The cases had always been there, but she'd never before studied their contents up close.
She placed her now empty glass in the sink and wandered over to the glass cases.
Each stone had an engraved label beneath it. There was schalstein, from Mt. Coronet in the Sinnoh region. Pitchstone, from Mt. Mortar in the Johto region. Chert, from Mt. Pyre in the Hoenn region.
She almost didn't see the last stone, which did not have a label underneath it and was much smaller than the others; the other ones were roughly the size of a grown man's fist, but this small one wasn't much bigger than the upper portion of May's thumb.
It was a dark and muted blue, almost the exact shade of the blue orb.
"Sapphire, from Granite Cave."
May jumped. She looked back, and then placed a hand over her fast-beating heart. "Don't sneak up on my like that," she said. "You nearly scared me half to death."
"Sorry," Steven said. "I thought you heard me."
His face was close to hers, and she was reminded of the night before.
Feeling herself warm, she looked back at the small stone. "You said this is sapphire?"
There was a short pause before he answered. "Yes. Well, raw sapphire."
"Did you mine it?"
"No. My father did. It's impressive, considering how rare sapphires are in Hoenn. It's even rarer for them to have such high clarity, like this one."
"Huh." May studied the stone closer. She hadn't known sapphires were rare in the region. "That was nice of him to give it to you, then."
"Well..." The word sounded weighted, reluctant.
Puzzled by his tone, she turned around to look at him. The lines of his face were tense.
He looked back into her eyes, and whatever he saw in them seemed to make him relax a bit.
"He wanted to give this as a gift to my mother," he said. "After it was cut, of course."
Steven's mother. May had never heard anything about the woman, and as such, had always assumed that the worse had happened to her.
Steven confirmed her assumption. "She died when I was young," he said. "Car accident, when she and my father went on a trip to Unova."
May swallowed hard. "I'm sorry," was all she could say.
"It's alright," Steven said. "At the time, I was too young to understand what had happened to her. But…" Again, he sounded reluctant to speak, but he did anyway. "I did understand that my father was never the same after that day."
Clearly, this wasn't an easy topic for him to discuss. May said nothing, giving him the chance to decide if he wanted to continue or stop.
But, after gazing into her face for another beat, he decided to continue. "There's… an emptiness in him. An emptiness that I know wasn't there when my mother was alive. He never let it get in the way of his work, or his raising of me, but I still see it in him every so often. He'll have this distant, faraway look on his face, and as soon as he catches you looking, he'll turn back into the outgoingman everyone has come to know him as."
Steven looked at the sapphire. "And, of course, there's this. I hadn't even known he'd had this until he gave it to me a few years ago. Once he told me where it had come from and why he had it, all he said was, 'Just take it.' I don't think he could bear to keep it any longer."
May wondered if Steven realized how similar he was to his father, how both men could so easily cover up what they were truly feeling.
"Growing up," Steven continued, "I never, ever, wanted to feel for someone what my father felt for my mother. I'd seen what it had done to him, what it's still doing to him. But now…"
"Now…?"
He twined his fingers in hers, and brought her hand to his lips. "Now," he said, "I'm afraid it's too late."
Hours later, May and her Swampert were drifting along the surface of the ocean.
"No, we haven't found anything yet," May said into her nav while black, choppy waves washed over her and Swampert. They'd come up to the surface when her nav had started to ring. It had been much warmer underwater than it was up here, and the harsh wind was making her teeth chatter.
The afternoon sky overhead was dark gray, but the day's search was still going strong. Groups of cops were in the sky and in the water.
"A fisherman said he'd seen Wally around here," May continued. "But it's been days, and still, nothing."
"Well, he must still be in the area, right?" her father asked. "You probably would have heard something if he'd been seen somewhere else."
"Yeah, I'm assuming so," she said. "But we haven't found anything to account for the missing Pacifidlog residents, either."
She heard her father blow out a deep breath into his nav. "Yeah, that is something, isn't it? First Fortree, and now, this."
"I'm guessing you haven't heard anything, then."
"Nope. But I'll be at Slateport within the next hour. I'll ask some of the sailors there if they have any information for us."
"Okay. Let me know if you hear anything."
"Will do. But May," he said.
"Yes, Dad?"
"Your mother said she'd seen something about you on TV last night. Something to do with the paparazzi?"
"Um, yeah… You can let her know that she has nothing to worry about."
"What happened? She tried explaining it to me but I don't think I followed. Some guys were pestering you?"
"Uh… sure. I mean, you know how the paparazzi can get. There were just a couple of guys who wouldn't leave me alone, so I just… got a little stern with them. But seriously, it's nothing she needs to worry about."
"Alright," Norman said. "But how are you with everything else?"
"I'm fine, Dad."
"Are you really? Because you've got a lot on your plate right now, and your mother doesn't want you stressing over this thing with the paparazzi, or about your low approval rating, on top of everything else."
May frowned. Low approval rating? This was news to her. But she supposed she shouldn't have been surprised. She hadn't publicly addressed what happened in Fortree, and then she'd sent two men out into the sea with the entire nation as witness.
She realized then that for the first time since she'd become champion, Hoenn no longer worshipped her. And she found that she didn't mind it one bit.
So again, she told her father, "I'm fine." She did have a lot on her plate now, more than she'd had at the start of this journey, but her anxiety levels hadn't spiked in days, and the darkness had stayed well away from her thoughts. She could focus on what needed to be done.
"I'm being helped, Dad," she continued. "I have you, the other gym leaders, my friends – everyone, really. I trust that we'll all get through this eventually."
"Atta girl." She could hear the smile in her father's voice. "I'll call you if anything comes up. And be safe, May."
As soon as the line disconnected, a Wailmer surfaced next to Swampert. The trainer on its back took off his air mask.
"Who was that?" Brendan asked.
"My dad." May placed her nav back into her bag.
"Has he heard anything?"
May shook her head.
"Damn." Brendan ran a hand through his wet hair, making it spike up in every direction. "Either we all suck at searching, or Wally and Pacifidlog are really good at hiding."
A shrill cry came from overhead. May and Brendan looked up as Lisia, who'd finally used the HM Winona had given her, flew overhead on her Altaria. She waved down at them, and they waved back.
"I'm glad you and Lisia made up," May said. "I've been meaning to tell you that."
"Thanks," Brendan said. "I'm glad, too." But he was frowning as he watched Altaria fade into the distance.
"What's wrong?" May asked.
"Nothing. I mean, not nothing, it's just…" He sighed. "I'm worried. I feel like I shouldn't have encouraged Liz to teach Altaria how to fly last night. Is it too soon for her to be on her own like this? I mean, she's never even been in a real battle before."
"Of course you're worried about her," May said. "But I think she's got this. She's made amazing progress these last few days, and it's not like she's completely by herself. There are a lot of us around right now."
He threw her an exasperated look. "There were a lot of us around yesterday, too, but you seemed to wind up on your own somehow."
"Okay, yes, but only for a little bit, and I wasn't in any danger."
"Does Steven agree with that? 'Cause boy, he was pissed with those two guys. I could tell."
"I wasn't in any danger," she repeated.
"But Steven was still pissed, wasn't he?"
"He was a little upset, yes."
"A little upset," Brendan scoffed.
"And there was no reason for him to be," she said. "Besides, I don't think those guys will be back any time soon."
"No, they won't," Brendan agreed. "Steven's making sure of that."
"What do you mean?"
"What, you haven't seen him? Or heard what he's been saying?"
"No. I've been underwater until now."
"Oh. Well, a few times when me and Wailmer came up for some fresh air, I noticed that Steven was talking to some of the cops. Like, he would say something to one of them, and then fly over to another. Once, he was hovering right over me. I heard him saying that if members of the press were seen around here, they're to be asked to leave."
"What? He's been saying that?"
"Yup. And then he said if that didn't work, then he would personally see to it that they left." Brendan grinned. "The dude's hell-bent on keeping them away from you."
She saw Steven then. He and his Skarmory were far away from the rest of the group, just flashes of silver against the dark backdrop of the sky.
He was always looking out for her, even when she wasn't around. What had she done to deserve such loyal devotion from such an amazing man?
"So I guess things are going well for you two," Brendan said.
May shrugged. "Yeah, I guess."
Things were going very well. She thought back to her and Steven's conversation from that morning. It seemed to her that he was making more of an effort to let her in, to share the thoughts that were usually hidden beneath his calm façade.
"You guess?" Brendan repeated. "The other day, did I not walk in on you two K-I-S-S-I-N –"
"Shut up, Brendan. And stop walking in on us."
"Then start locking the door." Brendan shook his head. "You know, I can't believe it took you two so long to get to this point. Your feelings for each other were so painfully obvious that I was starting to wonder if you guys were going blind or something."
"Okay, thank you for your brilliant insight, Brendan." She reached into her bag for her air mask.
"You're welcome," he called after her as she and Swampert dove back underwater. He put his own air mask back on and dove after her.
They didn't search much longer after that. A group of divers approached them, and motioned for them to swim to the surface.
As soon as she was above the water, May tore the mask off her face and asked, "Did you find something?"
One of the divers took off his own air mask and shook his head. "No, ma'am. The chief told us to come get you. It's not safe to search here anymore – storm's a brewin.'"
In the distance, a bolt of lightning, thin and small like a piece of white thread, pricked the dark water below.
"Where's Lisia?" Brendan asked. "She's still around, right? Does she know that a storm's coming?"
The diver nodded. "We're making sure everyone's out of here before it's upon us. Chief Lucia says it should be over by the morning."
May felt a sting of disappointment. The search had, once again, reaped zero results. "Alright, then," she said. "Guess we'll call it for the day."
As she and Brendan headed for shore, she looked back at the vast, dark waters. She hoped that if Wally were still here, he would stay far beneath the lightning's reach.
"Hey," Lisia greeted Brendan and May as they walked into Steven's house. "Guess we couldn't find anything today either, huh?"
"Guess not," Brendan said. He and May were still sopping wet, and they were drip-drying on the mat at the front door. "How were you today with Altaria?"
Lisia smiled. "Good, I think. Ali's still a little hesitant about carrying me, but I think we did pretty well today."
Brendan smiled in return. "That's great, Liz."
May looked around the house. "Where's Steven?"
"Not here yet," Lisia said. "He should be soon, though."
It began to pour. The rain, from inside the house, sounded like the muffled applause of a thousand people.
"I'm gonna hit the shower before the lightening gets here," Brendan said as he headed for one of the house's bathrooms.
"Same here," May said, taking one of the other bathrooms.
She took a short but much needed shower. The hot water melted away the chill of the wind and ocean, and she allowed her muscles to relax.
Once she was clean and dressed, she stepped back out into the kitchen. Lisia and a freshly-showered Brendan were sitting on the sofa in the living room. The TV was on.
May looked around. "Steven's still not back yet?"
Her friends shook their heads.
"He'll probably be here any minute, though," Lisia said.
But the minutes came and went, and still, no Steven.
May went to her room and dug her nav out of her bag. She dialed Steven's number. The nav rang six times, and was then forwarded to an automated voicemail message.
"Hey," she said after the beep. "It's me. We're all back at your house, wondering where you are. There's a storm coming, so the search is being put on hold for now. Um… Give me a call back, please." She hung up.
With a sense of unease churning in her stomach, she walked back out to her friends. "He didn't answer my call just now."
Brendan had moved to stand near the window. "Maybe he's just –"
Lightning flashed outside the home. A following peal of thunder made the walls vibrate.
And Steven was still out there.
For the first time in days, May felt her throat begin to tighten. "Maybe we should go out and look for him."
"Look at this weather, May," Brendan said. "We can't go out now. Steven is probably on his way back right now."
"But –"
There was a knock at the door.
May knew, in the back of her head, that it was foolish of her to think it was Steven. He wouldn't knock on his own door. Still, she couldn't help but hurriedly race to the door with a sense of eager anticipation.
She swung the door open. Her anticipation burst.
"Champion May," the cop at the door greeted. He was flanked by two of his colleagues. They were all wearing the hoods of their raincoats over their hats. Behind them, the rain continued to pound into the earth with the speed of bullets.
The cop at the front introduced himself. "Chief Lucia," he said, extending his arm out to May. "I don't think I ever got the chance to formally introduce myself."
May took his hand in hers. "Chief Lucia. Please, come in." She stepped to the side. The three cops walked past her.
"Brendan Birch," Chief Lucia greeted. "And Lisia, right?"
Lisia nodded.
May closed the door. Before the cops could say why they were there, May asked, "Have you seen Steven? Steven Stone? He hasn't returned back from the search yet."
Chief Lucia frowned. "He hasn't?"
May shook her head.
Chief Lucia turned to silently share a look with his subordinates.
"Did you need him for something?" Brendan asked.
Chief Lucia turned back. "No, but we were hoping he was here."
"Why's that?"
"Well, when we were clearing everyone out of the area, we realized that Steven wasn't accounted for. We figured he might have gone home, and we were swinging by to make sure, but…"
"But he isn't here," May finished. Her voice sounded hollow.
"Do any of you have his number?" Chief Lucia asked.
"Yes," May said. "I just called him now, but he didn't answer."
The chief's frown deepened.
"So…" Lisia stood up from the sofa. "What does this mean, then? Is Steven missing?"
Steven. Missing. The words shouldn't have ever been said together.
"Well, I don't want to jump to conclusions," Chief Lucia said in response to Lisia's question. "But presently, it would appear that way."
"How is that even possible?" May asked. Bit by bit, the darkness within her, the darkness she'd thought was gone, began to emerge out of its hiding place. "How could Steven have gone missing? There were dozens of you around."
Brendan moved to her side. "May."
Chief Lucia held his hands up. "Now, I understand you're upset, Champion May. There's a fierce storm out there, and your friend isn't here. It's very possible that Steven just simply ducked for cover from the rain, but…" He looked back at one of the cops, who promptly fished out a notepad and pen from his pocket, "we'll do our best to find out for sure. Now, do any of you remember seeing him recently? Maybe in the last hour or so?"
"I did," May said, and the cop with the notepad scribbled down her response. "I just saw him. Almost right before the search was called off."
"Do you remember where exactly you saw him?" Chief Lucia asked.
"Um…" She tried to recall what she'd seen of him. "He was far from the rest of us. I… I don't think he was too far from Sootopolis, but I don't know for sure."
Lisia dug her nav out of her back pocket. "Let me call my uncle and see if Steven's over there." She paced down the hallway.
Chief Lucia had another question. "Do you remember which direction he was flying in?" he asked May.
She tried to think. "The direction he was going in… He would've flown parallel to Pacifidlog if he'd gone a bit further down. So I think he was heading south of here."
"South?" Chief Lucia frowned, and looked back at his subordinates. "Not much land down south, is there?"
"No, sir," one of the other cops said. "At least, not from here."
"Hmm." Chief Lucia turned back to May. "Well, let's hear what your friend has to say when she gets back. For all we know, Steven is nice and safe in Sootopolis."
But when Lisia returned a few minutes later, she shook her head. "Uncle Wallace says that Steven isn't there."
"Hoooo, boy." Chief Lucia scratched his head underneath his hat. "Well, I hope he shows up soon, because I don't think the president of Devon will be too pleased if he doesn't."
"Will you look for him?" May asked.
The outside world flashed blue as another bolt of lightning streaked through the sky. A second later, the lights in the house shut off. Lisia gasped, and Brendan bit off a curse.
Chief Lucia looked around the now darkened house."A power outage. Just what we need right now."
May wanted to grab the collar of his shirt. "Will you look for Steven?" she asked again. And then, quieter, "Please look for him."
The chief shook his head. "I'm sorry, Champion May. We can't send our troopers out in this weather. It's too dangerous. But as soon as we get back to the station, we'll file a report."
It occurred to May that they probably wouldn't have filed a missing person report so soon after a disappearance if it hadn't been Steven Stone who'd disappeared. It was a perk of Steven's celebrity status, but it wasn't enough. Not for May. She wanted to find Steven now.
"I want you to call us immediately if you hear from him," Chief Lucia continued, "but if you don't, I promise we'll look for him as soon as the weather clears up. But my word." He shook his head. "The boy, Pacidiflog… Seems like everyone's going missing."
The boy. Pacifidlog. May had forgotten.
She'd forgotten that she was already looking for them. She'd forgotten that the country was in danger, and that it was up to her to save it. She'd forgotten it all. All because of Steven. Steven, who was always looking out for her, who'd made her laugh when she hadn't laughed in years, who could make her feel like she glowed from the inside.
Steven, who wasn't here and wasn't answering his nav.
The roll of thunder outside sounded like the crash of a Fortree home falling to the ground.
The darkness in May's mind continued to flood her thoughts. Steven was alone out there. If he'd run into Wally by himself…
He might be hurt, the darkness told her. And if he was, she was to blame. She shouldn't have gone into the water again. She should have taken to the skies with him.
She was aware that Chief Lucia had continued to speak, but she heard nothing else. Her insides had been scooped out and replaced with the cold, howling wind.
Her friends took over for her. Brendan and Lisia carried on the conversation with the cops while she stayed still and silent. Around them, the lights and the TV came back on. Eventually, the cops turned to open the door.
"We'll look for him as soon as the rain stops," Chief Lucia said, and the door closed behind him.
Brendan put his hands on May's shoulders. "May," he said.
She looked at him.
"There's no reason to panic," he said. "You heard the chief – Steven might have just found a place to camp out at until the storm passes."
"He didn't answer my call." Her voice was wavering.
Lisia walked over to them. "His nav might have died," she said.
"But what if he's –"
"He's fine," Brendan cut in.
She looked at the door. "I should look for him."
"No way," Brendan said. "It's not safe out there."
But Steven was out there.
Brendan began pulling May towards the living room. "C'mon. Let's go watch TV and try to put our minds at ease, okay?"
Brendan plopped her on the sofa, and he and Lisia sat on either side of her. Brendan reached for the remote on the coffee table and turned the volume up.
May paid no attention to what was on the screen. She kept her eyes on the window next to them. She watched the rain continue to come down. She felt herself go tense with every flash of lightening.
Hours passed. May fought with the growing darkness in her thoughts. She tried to beat it down with rationality. Steven's fine, she told it. She envisioned him finding a cave within one of the many rock formations. She saw him watching the rain and lightning while he remained dry and safe. Maybe he'd even found the secret shore May had found the other day and was tucked away in there. But then the darkness would play images of its own, and May would see Steven flying too close to the lightning, or Wally lunging out of the water just as Steven passed above.
Her fingers gripped the couch cushions.
She looked over at the small sapphire in its display case. Joseph Stone had given it away because it was a reminder of what he had lost. Now, to May, it was a reminder of the person who'd just disappeared from her for a second time.
She didn't eat when Brendan and Lisia offered her leftover pizza from the fridge. But she noticed that they didn't eat either, and they, like her, did not retire to their bedroom, even as the world outside went black. They didn't say it, but they were worried about Steven, too.
And then, when the black skies lightened back to gray, the rain stopped so abruptly that the sudden quiet hurt May's ears.
"The storm's gone," Brendan said. The rims of his eyes were red with exhaustion.
"Steven might come back now," Lisia added softly.
May stood up from the sofa. She'd waited long enough.
Before she could even take a step towards the door, a scream outside pierced the quiet city.
"What the hell?" Brendan muttered.
He, May, and Lisia looked at each other, and as another scream followed, they all hurried out the door.
"Champion May!" A woman was screaming. "Champion May!"
May felt herself go cold. This woman was calling for her. What if this person had dire news for her? What if this person had found Steven, and he wasn't okay?
Her legs felt numb as she followed Brendan and Lisia, who ran towards the screaming voice. Their feet sloshed through deep, gray puddles.
"Champion May!" The woman was still shouting her name as the group found her running between rows of houses. "Where are you? We need you!"
"I – I'm here," May called. "I'm Champion May."
The woman turned around, and then stumbled over to the group.
"There you are," the woman said, panting. She braced her hands on her knees and keeled over. Her hair and clothes were soaked. "Thank Arceus. Shelly said she'd heard you were around here."
"Shelly?" May repeated. "So… you're a part of Team Aqua?"
The woman nodded. "Yes. And we need your help. We found him."
"Steven?" May immediately asked. "You found Steven?"
"What?" The woman looked at her as though she were crazy. "No. We found the boy who took the blue orb. And you need to come with me."
