Chapter 18: Remember

Drew slowly approaches May from behind. She had run out of the Pokémon Center a bit ago after hearing the news that he has no memory of her. She's sitting on a bench.

"Um…" Drew started. "May…right?"

May nods.

Drew sits beside May. "I'm sorry…"

"You don't have to apologize." May sniffled, still not looking at Drew. "It's not your fault…it's mine."

"…yours?"

"I started to fall off a cliff, and you jumped off to save me. You took the impact instead of me…"

"I…"

May sighed. "I wasn't expecting you to lose your memory of me…" She starts sobbing. "We've been through so much together, Drew…"

"I…I'm sorry…"

May finally looks into Drew's eyes. "Thank you. I know that you don't remember saving me, but I wanted to thank you for it. I don't know when your memory would come back…or if it ever would…"

Drew watches as more tears slide down May's face. He reaches into his backpack for tissues, but instead… "Huh?" He feels something thin and pulls it out. In his hands is a gorgeous golden necklace with a heart charm.

May recognizes it from when she had healed Drew after he got attacked by a Pokémon Hunter.

"A necklace?" Drew questioned. "Why do I have something like this?"

May smiled softly. "I assume you bought that for your girlfriend…"

"My…girlfriend?"

"Her name is Julianna. She's an actress and Coordinator." May reaches in her fanny pack and pulls out a copy of Coordinator's Weekly. She flips to Drew's page, and shows him it. "See? That's your girlfriend."

Drew looks at the pictures. "She's…really pretty."

May smiles softly. "Yeah…you really like her…"

"So much I'd get her this beautiful necklace?"

May nods. "Yeah…" She stands up. "I've…got to get going…" She looks away to hide her sadness from Drew.

"So soon? But I was hoping you'd help me get my memories back."

May shakes her head. "There's nothing I can do about that."

Drew and May notice Julianna entering the Pokémon Center.

May looks at Drew. "You'll…get your memories back soon." She sniffled. "I…I'll see you around." She starts walking towards the automatic doors.

Drew looks at the necklace before looking in Julianna's direction. He takes a deep breath before walking to her. "Hey."

Julianna turns around. "Hi, Drewy!" She wraps her arms around his neck to hug him. "I missed you!"

"Umm…me too…"

Julianna pulls away. "After the argument, I thought we were done, but I know that you wouldn't do that, huh?"

"I…guess not? Anyways…I got you this." He holds up the necklace.

May stops at the doors and looks in Drew and Julianna's direction. Julianna gasped. "Oh my god, Drew. It's so beautiful!" She accepts the necklace and puts it on. "Thank you so much!"

May frowns and leaves.

Julianna looks on the back of the heart charm. "Aww…it says 'To my Princess…'" She embraces Drew. "That's so sweet!"

"To…my Princess?" Drew muttered to himself. He closes his eyes.

Brunette…

Coordinator…

Sapphire eyes…

Rival…

Friend…

Princess…

…

…

…

Drew shot his eyes open. ("I remember now…")

Julianna pulled away, grinning. "I'm so lucky to have you, Drewy."

Drew stares at the necklace he gave Julianna. He blinks. "Where…did you get that necklace from?"

Julianna giggled. "Oh, Drew…you just gave it to me right now. So sweet…"

"I…I'm sorry, Julianna. I can't explain right now, but…that necklace isn't meant for you."

"What? But you gave it to me. Could there be some other girl you wanted to give it to?"

"I…"

"Well…fine. It doesn't even matter." She takes off the necklace and gives it back to Drew. "I'm sure you'll give me an even prettier necklace."

"Not likely."

Julianna crossed her arms.

"I'm still pretty upset that you kissed me."

"You're so confusing! First you give me that gift, and now you're still mad?!"

Without saying anything, Drew only turns around and walks away.

"Hey! Don't walk away!"

Drew ignored Julianna and left the Pokémon Center. He starts to run. He's got to catch up to May.

…and there she is.

"May! May!"

May heard the voice and she stopped. She turned around. "Drew?"

Drew stopped to catch his breath. "May…I'm glad I caught up with you before you left."

"You…remember me?"

Drew smiles. "Yes, May. I remember everything."

May smiled with watery eyes.

"I thought that we travel together now."

"Oh. You didn't remember anything, so…I decided to leave on my own. To not make you feel weird about it…"

"Well…if you still want to…would you like to still travel with me?"

"I…"

Drew holds the necklace around his fingers behind his back, ready to surprise May with it.

"I don't know, Drew…"

Drew frowns.

"You still like Julianna, even when you lose your memories of her. She just…has the power to charm you, I guess."

"May…"

"I don't want to be in the way of your relationship with her…"

"You won't be. I swear. I won't ever think that you are."

"Drew…can I ask you something that's been on my mind since the first day you were unconscious?"

"Sure."

"Are…you and Julianna a real couple?"

Drew doesn't respond.

May looked down. "I was just wondering since…I didn't think you were the type to move on quickly…"

Drew took a deep breath. He slowly slipped the necklace into his pocket without May noticing. "May…I…I'm not allowed to tell you…"

"Tell me what?"

No response.

"Drew? It's…it's true? You two aren't real?"

"I…I…w-we are." Drew lied. "Why would you think that it's fake?" He chuckled nervously.

"Solidad gave me the idea…I guess I'm…" She smiled slightly. "Happy to know that you aren't lying to me about this whole thing."

"I would never lie to you." Drew lied again with a fake smile.

May smiles. "I'm glad you healed your relationship by giving her that necklace."

"Yeah…me too…"

"And…thank you."

"Hm?"

"For saving me."

"Oh." Drew smiles. "For you…I'd do anything."

May blushes. "You're my hero, Drew. And I'm glad you're okay."

"Shall we be on our way?"

May nods. "Yep! Oh! But I forgot to do something!"

Buneary hops onto May's shoulder.

"We need to catch Buneary!"

"Oh yeah…"

"Let's go back to the Pokémon Center."

May takes Drew's hand and starts dragging him, laughing. He chuckles, running with her.

("It's not the right time to give May that necklace I got for her.") Drew thought. ("I'll give it to her someday…")

When May and Drew entered the Pokémon Center again, May immediately went to the phone booths to call home. Drew had gone to get the latest copy of Coordinators Weekly, realizing that he didn't get it yet.

Drew went to join May, standing behind her. The phone screen lights up, and Caroline shows her face. "Hi, Sweetie! And hi to you too, Drew."

Drew smiles.

Norman walks to Caroline. "How are you doing over there, May?"

"I'm great!" May beamed. "I'm calling to ask if I could send over my Bayleef. Drew gave me a Buneary to catch, but I already have six Pokémon with me."

"Of course you can send over your Bayleef." Caroline said. "I'll get the transporter ready." She walks off the screen.

"Hey…didn't we hear something about you two breaking up?" Norman asked.

"Umm…" May said.

Drew stepped closer to May, placing a hand on her shoulder. She looks up at him. "We are broken up, sir." He told Norman.

Norman narrowed his eyes at Drew.

May faced the screen. "But wait, Dad. I know you told Drew a long time ago to take care of me, and he is! He's super sweet, and he actually risked his life to save me!"

Drew chuckled nervously with pink cheeks.

"Risked his life?" Caroline questioned, walking back to Norman.

"It was nothing…" Drew said.

"It was everything." May corrected. "I feel so safe when I'm with him."

Drew smiled softly at May.

"Very well then." Norman said. "I hope you continue to look after May, Drew."

Drew nodded. "I won't let you down."

"We're ready for Bayleef." Caroline said.

"Okay." May placed Bayleef's pokéball on the transporter. She clicked a button and watched it get zapped and disappear.

"Safe and sound." Caroline showed Bayleef's pokéball to May.

"Great! It was nice catching up with you, Mom and Dad! Drew and I gotta hit the road now."

"Okay. Take care!" Caroline said, waving.

"Bye!" May hung up.

May stood up and faced Buneary. She smiled and tossed a pokéball into the air. Buneary happily hopped up, tapping the button with its head. It went inside. The ball automatically clicked.

"We better get going now to Lake Acuity." Drew said. "We lost some progress when we fell off that cliff. We're way behind schedule."

"Did you say that you're going to Lake Acuity?" Nurse Joy asked from behind Drew.

"Yeah." May said.

Nurse Joy smiled. "If you want, I can take you guys up Mount Coronet in my car. It can handle snow really well. I was just about to head up there to visit my sister at the top anyway."

"Well…if it won't be too much trouble…"

"No trouble at all."

"Then let's go! Thank you, Nurse Joy."