The sloshing of water around her was soothing. Quiet, measured sloshing as she adjusted her posture in the tub. May let a long and steady breath out through her nose and rubbed the back of her neck, a low whine hanging in the air as the sunburn stung beneath her water-wrinkled fingers.
She opened her eyes and stared down at the water around her as it grew steadily more murky. She was filthy. "I need to drain this and fill it up again…" she muttered. A breath of frustration fell from her mouth. "Should have showered first." She rose out of the water and flipped the drain open.
The glug glug of air bubbles breaking up to the surface of the swirling water echoed in her bathroom. She traced the motion of the bathwater with her eyes, then glanced down at her feet and scowled at the puddle of water that had pooled around her. By all means she should have been cold, but at this point she'd been soaked to the bone in whipping winds enough times that even naked and wet in a cold bathroom she could hardly tell the difference from being dry and clothed.
The last of the water drained out of the tub. She flipped the drain closed and began to fill it once more. Steam rose out of the faucet and hung in the air around her as the bathtub filled up. Her mind drifted to the fog that hung around Mt. Chimney. Uncontrollable shivers worked their way up her legs, along her stomach and across her shoulders. She took a shaky breath and swallowed, reaching out to shut the tap with trembling fingers.
As she settled back into the hot water, her body slowly came to its senses and calmed once more. Her breathing evened out and closed her eyes once more. A quiet croon filtered into the bathroom from the door. "I'm fine," she called out, though her tone was too harsh to be convincing, she was sure. "I'm fine. Just, just give me a bit. It's been a long day." She sank lower in the tub and felt a twang of guilt in her stomach. Her blaziken knew her so well.
She was up against the wall, her chest heaving before the clap of thunder finished ringing in her ears. The sound of rain against the window to the bathroom filled her head and she closed her eyes, fury welling in her chest. Her hands balled themselves into fists and May grit her teeth, furious at herself.
As she sat roughly down in the water again and pulled shampoo towards herself, the thunder sent it falling into the bathtub as she stood again and snapped her eyes to the window in time to see lightning light up the sky. "I can't even enjoy…" she mumbled. "I can't- I can't even enjoy a bath without something fucking happening?"
She had shouted the last few words, because the sound of the croon filled the bathroom once more, alongside several insistent knocks. "I said I'm FINE," she shouted, turning towards the door. "Just-"
May exhaled slowly. "Just let me clean myself up, okay? I'm sorry for yelling."
Another quiet croon filled the bathroom. The same one she'd heard so many times. When Groudon reared his infernal head and the threat of a world without water pressed itself to the forefront of everyone's minds. When soot swirled around her, heat bore down upon her - when May stared a fiery death in the face, that croon was in her ears.
Thunder boomed in her skull and a gasp fell from her mouth. She remembered the sight of the rising water. The screams and pleas that came as the air over Sootopolis became thick with pokemon and helicopters alike. Brendan tried to hide the reports from her. She found them anyway. No one would shield her from her failures.
It was bad luck to take Kyogre's name in vain, to say nothing of cursing the primordial force of water itself, but she did every time a thunderstorm rolled in. She'd stared down the Will Of Water itself - she would take its name in vain whenever she fucking felt like it. She slammed her fists against the tile wall behind her and raised her head to stare out the window.
The rain rolled down the glass as wind began to whip against it. The distant howl rose in her skull until it became a roar. Of the three, only Rayquaza seemed to have anything even remotely resembling empathy for her. At the very least it acknowledged that she existed. Floated by her, along with that croon outside her door. As they stared down something from beyond the stars. May felt her knees wobble and grit her teeth, furious at her own weakness.
She'd stared down two gods. Made a third her ally. She held a line alone at the edge of the world against a virus no one in all of Hoenn could possibly have been prepared for.
But not alone. Never alone. She stomped to her bathroom door and threw it open. Her blaziken stared back at her, his scaly talons balled up, ready to knock once more. That quiet croon fell from his mouth and became a grunt as she threw herself into his chest. Warm feathers enveloped her and she screamed into them.
Through it all, he was always here.