Chapter Six: French Vanilla– In which Drew finally has some positive things to say.

Author's Notes:
- Don't expect rapid updates soon. I start finals on Monday and they'll dominate my entire existence for the next nine days, at least.
- If you don't know what a Keurig is, it's basically a coffee filter that makes one single cup of coffee. You put a little flavor cup in it and ta-daaa.
- I own and adore my Keurig for the most part, but I'm also totally against them because they're pretty bad for the environment. I expressed my passive aggression in this story.
- I started this chapter thinking I was going to hate it, and ended up having a lot of fun with it. It might be my favorite conversation chapter yet. Let me know what you guys think as well.
- French Vanilla Coffee: a coffee which embodies the French style of making custard with vanilla, cream, sugar, and egg yolks in coffee to create a sweet aroma and a buttery vanilla flavor.


"Honestly, this isn't even coffee," Drew scowled into the paper cup. "It tastes like it's trying too hard to be coffee, but with unnecessarily added vanilla flavor, which also tastes like it's trying too hard to be vanilla."

"What does that even mean?" Solidad laughed at him, shaking her head.

"It means I hate Keurigs, apparently," he concluded before trying another sip. "Ugh, seriously; this tastes like someone mixed cheap coffee with straight vanilla syrup. It's nowhere near strong enough. I also strongly doubt any vanilla in this drink actually came from France, thus further proving my point that this is a horrible attempt at French vanilla coffee. If it wasn't for the fact that this is the only option I had in this center, I wouldn't drink this."

"I think you have a caffeine problem," Solidad smirked. "Seriously, what other 12-year-old likes coffee as much as you do? I didn't even start drinking it until I was 16, and even then I had to load it down with sugar and milk to make the taste bearable. But Keurigs are great; you're just crazy."

"I've been drinking coffee since I was eight," he shrugged, placing the cup back onto the nightstand. "When you've tried as many kinds as I have, you learn what's good and what's not. Keurigs are not."

"We'll agree to disagree."

"Don't we always?"

It was about 8 p.m. in Hoenn when Drew finally got to call Solidad.

After the contest, the first thing Drew did was find food. He'd missed breakfast and lunch, and although he liked to give off the impression that he didn't function like normal humans and didn't have to eat, because he was too cool for that, he couldn't deny the pangs in his stomach anymore. So he stopped into a local deli he'd found and ordered some soup and a sandwich to hold him over until the next morning when he would leave town.

When he'd first arrived back at the Pokémon Center, Nurse Joy – having arrived back from the contest – greeted him and told him she wanted to run just a few more tests with his Roselia. That involved the three of them going out back behind the Center, and letting Roselia fire off moves on the practice fields. When he asked if Nurse Joy should be away from the front desk for too long, she told him Chansey would handle it until they were done. Roselia had been more than eager to get out of bed, and she practically skipped out onto the middle of the court, waiting.

Nurse Joy had told him to call out all of her moves, one at time at first. She held a clipboard and studied each and ever movement Roselia took carefully. Drew started out slow, and called for a petal dance, to which Roselia responded by flooding the air around them with a blizzard of pink petals and calming scents. It was a huge display, and he assumed she'd stored up a lot of energy from sitting in the bed all day. Magical leaf and stun spore followed, which she also pulled off fabulously. He saved solar beam for last, because he knew that would take the most effort on her part, especially since there was no sunlight to help her charge it up. But despite that, she outdid herself as she always did, shooting out a pillar of devastating light and bowing her head when Nurse Joy applauded her lightly.

Next she asked Drew to call for a few basic combinations, just to be sure. Although Roselia looked great, Nurse Joy didn't want to miss anything. So Drew asked for some stun spores and magical leaves, and petal dances and solar beams. Pretty soon, there was no doubt Roselia was feeling much better. Nurse Joy told them to stay and rest up for the remainder of the night, and she would happily discharge Roselia with a clean bill of health the next morning.

Both Drew and Roselia were thrilled at the news, and thanked her graciously. Nurse Joy told them thanks weren't necessary, and that she was just glad she could help them both. With a polite goodbye, the pair made their way into the cafeteria of the center, the dinner rush of trainers over by then. He fixed Roselia a bowl of some vitamin-packed food for Pokémon, and searched for the coffee pot he'd seen earlier in the morning. His heart almost broke when he first spotted it was missing, a sign indicating entire pots of coffee were only made in the mornings to reduce wasting any resources. In its place sat a Keurig, and a bowl full of little cups of flavored coffee mix to go inside the single-cup dispenser. Drew had yet to have a pleasant experience with a Keurig, but seeing as it was his only choice for coffee, he went for it.

Sifting through his options in the bowl, he narrowed the choice down to the two least offense flavors he could find: French vanilla or hazelnut. He just wanted regular decaf, but it was nowhere in sight. He watched somewhat bitterly as the flavored liquid streamed into his cup.

Now he was lying on the bed with Roselia leaning up against his left side. The PokéNav was balanced at the foot of the bed in front of them so Solidad could see them both.

Instantly, Solidad asked him why he hadn't competed that day again. He'd explained that he hadn't entered the Pokémon contest for a few reasons. The first being how Roselia was injured and she was actually hurt enough to the point of being required to spend two full nights in the Pokémon Center. The second was even though he had other Pokémon to compete with, it wouldn't have felt fair or morally right to compete with Roselia in the state she had been in at the time.

"So why did you actually go?" Solidad asked him at one point. "I mean, obviously to watch, but why?"

"Roselia made me," Drew elbowed his Pokémon next to him.

"That's my girl," Solidad winked at her, and Roselia giggled next to him. "I'm glad I've got you to keep him in check when I'm not there."

"Neither of you own me," Drew informed them with an eye roll.

Both girls just laughed harder, and Drew smiled despite himself.

The conversation then flowed in the direction of Roselia herself. How she was feeling, how good she looked, how Solidad couldn't wait to see her back in the contest ring and so on. Roselia happily chatted with Solidad. Drew knew they had always been close since they met each other formally.

The second time Drew ran into Solidad face to face, she made a point to ask him if she could speak to Roselia; something about wanting to make sure Drew's Pokémon harbored no hard feelings towards her after their tough battle in the first contest. Solidad said she wanted to do so the first time, but was sidetracked with how long they'd ended up talking to each other.

When he first let her out of her Pokéball, Roselia seemed a bit confused, but then slowly recalled the girl in front of her as the coordinator she faced in the contest. Solidad kneeled before her and introduced herself, praising the Pokémon for how beautiful she was. The rest was history.

Roselia took to Solidad almost instantly, just as Drew had. But how could one not get along with Solidad? She was such a humble and kind person; a grade-A human being for sure. So whenever Drew saw Solidad, he made sure to let his Roselia out so they could see each other as well. It warmed him, to know that his Pokémon was so well mannered on her own, and could get along with others, too. And he was thankful to have two wonderful influences in his life; in a world full of people he didn't particularly like, they kept him sane.

"Well, I can't wait to see you two back at it in the next contest!" Solidad beamed, the ever-positive life force that she always was. "Which will be…?"

"Rubello Town," Drew answered. "But I'll be using Masquerain next time."

"Oh?" Solidad blinked a few times. "I assume you're both ready to compete together?"

"Yeah," Drew said. "We've spent a lot of time training together and I think we're finally ready. We came up with a few great combinations over the last few weeks, I'm pretty excited to finally use them and debut Masquerain."

"I'm excited to finally see your Masquerain in action," she agreed. "After hearing so much about this silver wind, I know it'll blow me away. No pun intended. But what are these other combinations that I should expect to see?"

"Of course," Drew laughed. "And sorry, Solidad; you know I don't reveal my secrets to anyone. You're no exception."

He reached over, grabbed the cup and took a sip of his drink then, letting his face curl up a bit in disgust. It wasn't getting any better.

"That's because you're no fun," she responded, to which Roselia laughed again.

He laughed into his drink quietly; their senses of humor was one of the things Drew loved best about these two.

"You two are ganging up on me and it's not okay," Drew deadpanned. "I thought best friends were supposed to be nice to each other?" He side-eyed Roselia. "And I thought you were supposed to be a mature 19-year-old."

"Again, you're no fun," Solidad laughed. "And I'm mature, don't worry. I just like to take breaks from being a grown up when I talk to you, because I know how much you love it."

"Whatever," Drew chuckled as well.

It was true, though; Drew never told anyone about his combinations or tactics. With Solidad, it had nothing to do with trust or anything ridiculous of the sort. She wouldn't steal his moves; she was like four levels about him anyway.

No, Drew's real strategy was that he loved to keep people in suspense; it was part of his overall appeal. The mystery of it all was what usually drew people into his performances, and he couldn't wait to see how people would react to him debuting a new Pokémon. What's more, he had a new Pokémon with new moves. He was expecting to blow Rubello Town away, and he was more eager to enter the contest than he had been before.

Skipping one contest along with following the loss he'd faced in the prior one meant Drew was not where he expected to be in his ribbon count. Before getting to that point, he'd been banking on the idea that he was going to have all five of his ribbons after the Verdanturf Town Contest. Then he would have been going off to secluded parts of Hoenn for months of solid Grand Festival training.

Now here he sat with terrible coffee, a recovering Pokémon and only three ribbons to show for it.

But over all things considered, the strangest part was that May was the one who held what should have been his fourth and fifth ribbons. Well, held wasn't the right word…she earned them. He couldn't deny that she had worked hard and she had earned them. Especially considering she had to beat two coordinators who had bested him to get them.

"May did well today."

The words were out of his mouth before he even realized what he'd said. He immediately realized his brashness and looked down, suddenly all too interested in the folds of the sheets on the bed beneath him. Solidad, who had been taking a sip of her beverage, choked slightly, clearly shocked as well. Usually, she was the one who brought up May's contest performances, and Drew would attempt to dismantle every positive comment Solidad would say about the young coordinator in question. Now here he was, complimenting her totally unprompted and with slightly tinted cheeks.

She was so, so proud of him for it: for being open and unguarded for a single split second. For being honest about what he was thinking rather than trying to write off the emotions he felt. For being so openly and unashamedly human.

Drew had always seemed like the little brother she'd never had but always wanted to her. As an only child, Solidad had always wanted a sibling to look over and after. From the moment she met him in that contest hall over a year and a half ago, comforting him while he held tears in his eyes as he'd faced defeat from her hand and her Pokémon, she'd found that bond with him. And from day one, she'd always wanted the best for this young green-haired boy with big ambition and a secretly big heart. He had grown so much since that day he walked into her life, and she felt her heart swell at the thought.

Above all else, Solidad knew this new coordinator, May, had been the biggest reason for Drew's recent character development, even though Drew didn't seem to realize it himself. And she knew it wasn't her place to tell him. For one thing, he'd deny it all and do everything in his power to prove her wrong, because Drew was against getting attached to most people. Second, this was something he needed to discover and deal with on his own. For whatever reason, Solidad knew and could see this growing into something beyond a rivalry; he could find a friend in her; Drew could grow to find a great friend in May. Solidad would not let this opportunity pass her by. The first thing, though, was making sure Drew recognized her as a rival.

It was extremely rare for Drew to compliment someone completely unprompted, and even more rare for Drew to admit he might have been wrong about something or someone. Yet here he was, having done it again, and about the same girl. May had gone from a shy nameless coordinator who wore a red bandana and tripped her first time on stage to such a powerful influence in this boy's life, and she had to know that; Solidad vowed she would tell her that. Solidad didn't personally know May, but she swore to herself she would meet her one day, and she would absolutely thank this girl for all that she had given to Drew, whether she knew it or not.

Meanwhile, Drew was overcome with embarrassment; his whole persona of being a cool and careless coordinator had crumbled for a mere second, and in front of Solidad, no less! He didn't know what forced the words out of his mouth, but after he said it, his whole mind had been consumed with flashbacks of May's performance that day. How she'd created clever comeback counters, managed to pull off several successful assist attacks and even mastered the use of an all-new attack she had failed to pull off previously, all on the spot, too.

On top of that, he realized that May had impressed him. Not only once, but multiple times, in multiple contests. She'd caught him off guard with witty remarks. She'd thrown him off with beautiful moves. She'd proved herself by thinking on her feet. She'd shown him on more than one occasion that she was on her way to becoming a great coordinator. She'd proved him wrong.

And he'd be lying if he wouldn't admit that.

But at that exact moment, none of that mattered. What mattered was the mistake he'd just made, and correcting it as quickly as possible.

He rationalized with himself that had he not said it, Solidad would have brought it up anyway. Their conversation up until his blunder had been about Roselia getting better, him going to the contest without any real reason to do so, and the atrocity that was a Keurig. Outside of his observational presence, they had barely even touched on the contest itself, and they always talked about the contests.

Solidad seemed particularly keen on bringing up May in performances ever since she first appeared in the contest circuit back in Slateport. Now, Drew had brought her up first, which he had never done before. He also commended her talents that contest without any reason too, which he had also never done before. And now Solidad was watching him with a big stupid grin and shining eyes while he kept a hard stare at the bed below him, trying to stop the slow spread of warmth in his face and ears.

This didn't mean anything. It had to be Drew's subconscious wanting to get the inevitable conversation out of the way, because he absolutely knew that they would have talked about May winning. It was his pride trying to show Solidad that he wasn't afraid to talk about the girl with the red bandana.

But why was his face so heated at the thought of it? Had it always been this hot in this room?

Roselia snickered to herself beside him. He studiously ignored her and raised his gaze back to his PokéNav.

"I mean, granted, it was a lot of luck pulling off that many assists," Drew added to his earlier statement, trying to cover his tracks and redeem some of his pride.

Solidad just looked at him smiled softly, encouragingly; she was urging him to continue. There was no teasing or no "I-told-you-so's" or rebuttals on her part like he would have expected. She just looked at him warmly, like she genuinely wanted to hear him say more; like no comment she could have added or said would have mattered nearly as much as the things she knew he was thinking. There was no hiding from Solidad; she could read people. She could always read him. He looked back, knowing that she wasn't judging him for anything. Her smile was so reassuring and it calmed him down. And suddenly, this conversation didn't feel like it was a mistake anymore. He knew he could be open with Solidad about this girl who had surprised him quite a few times now, because she had surprised Solidad as well.

And there were no snide remarks he could make – no criticism or commentary he could spew – that would make the fact that she'd won any less true. She didn't deserve anything less than honest praise for her performance today. He knew that.

"Her appeal was a disaster at first," Drew said. "That failed blizzard should have knocked her straight out of the competition, honestly. I was expecting her to crack under the pressure right then and there, but she didn't. She got herself together, and she had an entirely different strategy to use. Like once that first thing didn't work out, she instantly snapped out of that and went into something else that would work for her. I've never seen a coordinator with as little experience as her recover from a blunder like that.

"And you know how I'm more of a stickler for more traditional contest appeals? I'm not a fan of props; not at all, really. I think they're tacky and corny and stupid; totally take away from the point of showing off what your Pokémon can do on its own, not what it was do if you give it some hoops to jump through. I hate them, and I've never figured out how to use them to better what my Pokémon can do on their own. But May knew that the strongest thing she had going for her Skitty was how much of a cuteness appeal it had to it. And that juggling routine she pulled really highlighted that. It just…it worked. It's something I definitely wouldn't have thought of. To me, double slap is an attack for battles and only battles. You can't use it in appeals unless you're goal is to combine it with something – like a shadow ball, maybe… – because it doesn't work on its own. But she made it work. How did she even think that up?

"And then there were her battles. That first one, against that Wartortle? She took care of it so quickly. It was surprising; she had no type advantage, and by sheer appearance, that Wartortle looked so much stronger than her Skitty seemed. But Arecues, that Skitty was fast. I know you watched the contest on TV; remember that part when she used double slap to bat away that rapid spin? And she actually reversed it and caught them both off guard? Or what about when her Skitty was too fast for those tackle attacks? It's obvious she's raised that Skitty well.

"Then came her last battle in the final…wow. I mean wow. She was all over the place with that Dusclops. I really didn't expect her to get far in the battle, either. I mean, she had a normal type against a ghost type. Normal against ghost! Is there even a worse matchup possible? Maybe a fighting type? I mean May was just so outmatched today it's almost hilarious.

"When I was watching her call for double slaps and tackles, I was thinking 'this is over.' I couldn't think of one way she could pull any kind of counter attacks or defenses. Did you see her face, by the way? Her face when she realized using normal attacks was useless? She looked like she'd given up, and I definitely had given up on her by that point.

"But when she called for that double slap to send that shadow punch back, something changed, and I started thinking if she was able to think of clever stuff like that on the spot, she should be more than capable of winning the fight. And…well, she did that. The thing that changed after she called that double slap counter was that she realized she could do it if she believed in her partner. I know you could see it too; when she got confident in herself, everything changed.

"I said it earlier and I'll say it again: it was bold to call for assist at all. Those assist attacks were total and complete risks. There's no other way to describe them: it was 100 percent total chance because the user NEVER knows what assist will produce. But the thing is, was it all really a risk? It felt like those chances were all offset when she came to realize that her Pokémon could do incredible things if she chose to believe in her Skitty. And she did.

"Not only that, but that Skitty really showcased the appeal of all her Pokémon in that battle. That couldn't have possibly been her underlying intentions with calling that attack so many times, but that was definitely the end result, and it worked out beautifully. It was like her whole team was working together to take down her opponent. I've never seen anything like it.

"I mean, she just–she did well. She did so well. I was surprised several times throughout the whole contest, all because of her. From her appeal to her final battle, the girl kept me on the edge of my seat wondering just how she'd manage to recover from every setback she faced. And she did comeback, every single time, Solidad! Every single time! She displayed herself as a professional coordinator today. She handled pressure and managed to think on her feet when situations seemed close-ended. I just– she did well. May did well. May did really, really well…are you crying?"

Solidad threw her head back in soft laughter with his question at the end of his rant. She'd been holding back happy tears since before he'd started talking.

"No, no," she assured him, composing herself. "I just agree with everything. I agree. She did well."

"You look like you're crying," Drew challenged. "Or at least really close to it."

"I'm not!" Solidad laughed.

"You are."

"Okay, maybe just a little," Solidad finally relented, wiping her eyes with her sleeve. "I'm just– I'm happy for you."

Drew shot forward a bit. Her statement was extremely vague, and he didn't know how to take it. All he knew was that his face was starting to heat up again, and he didn't understand why. Maybe he was wrong with thinking he could talk to Solidad openly…

"You're 'happy for me?'" Drew repeated, looking a little taken a back and awkward, prompting more laughter from Solidad. "What in name of Areceud does that even mean?"

"It's just that for once, I didn't have to force you to be nice," she replied.

"I'm always nice," Drew huffed, looking away, embarrassed.

"Not like that you're not," she shook her head. "Yes, I've seen you compliment other coordinators before, but that's because you've appreciated the things they did and you left it at that. I've never seen you discuss the same coordinator twice, and then this girl came into the picture, and now you're watching her closely than you've watched anyone before. I'm almost a little jealous; you used to idolize me in that way."

"First off, I never idolized you," Drew combatted. "We're friends, and when I was starting out, I–I watched you a lot more because you knew what you were doing and I didn't. And from that, I found and formed my own style."

"Please, you totally worshiped me," Solidad teased him lightly.

"You wish," Drew rolled his eyes, but couldn't stop the smile from forming on his face. "Seriously, you're delusional. You gotta stop being so sentimental and– oh my Mew, Solidad, stop crying! It's embarrassing. You don't even know how long I'll hold this over your head."

"I'm not crying!" she shot back, chuckling. "I'm not, really. I promise I'm not. I'm just so proud to see how far you've come this contest season, and how much you're growing up."

"Yeah, whatever," Drew grumbled, reaching for his coffee cup on the nightstand again. "You're crying… Don't girls worry about smearing makeup when they cry or something?"

"I don't wear makeup, ever," Solidad reminded him. "I only use it if I'm going to closing ceremonies at a Grand Festival."

"You don't need to wear it," he stated as if it was the most obvious thing in the world, taking a small sip.

"Look at you, being nice about everything tonight!" Solidad chimed. "I'm definitely not crying, but I will admit I'm getting a little emotional. Had I known all we had to do was find you a cute girl coordinator to achieve this incredible feat, I would have tried to find one a long time ago."

"You're annoying," Drew deadpanned. "This'll be the last time I talk about performances with you. I can't have you getting all emotional on me, Solidad. Seriously, I want it to be a challenge when I beat you next time we face off."

"Now that would be the day I cry," Solidad shook her head. "Good thing it'll never happen."

"Count on it," Drew muttered, trying his coffee yet again, and noting with disdain that it just wasn't getting better.

"Like I said, though, I agree with what you said about May today," Solidad said after a moment of recovery, wiping the remainder of her unshed tears out of her eyes. "She did do well, and she is definitely getting better. I wonder if she'd going for the Grand Festival or if she's just trying coordinating out this first season…"

Drew realized at that point that they'd spent a lot of time talking about May. And by they, he meant that he had spent a lot of time talking about May. In the back of his head, he knew it felt good to get all of that out. He'd been thinking about her performance all day and he and Solidad always talked about coordinators who caught their eyes. It was just…it was the tradition. That was all. It was just another conversation between the two of them.

The fact that May had come up a few times now was just because he'd been seeing her at the last few contests he'd entered. And Solidad had seen her as well, so it was inevitable that she'd come up every now and then in their chats. But Solidad had been right: this was the first time he'd openly praised her performance. He'd talked about her before, but…something was different that day. Something that made his chest feel weird.

And he didn't really want to keep it going, because for some Areceus-damned reason, he felt his face heating up again just thinking about that look on her face when she won. That stupidly big smile as she and her Skitty spun around when they were handed the ribbon.

"I really want to battle May some day," Solidad commented off handedly.

He chugged the remainder of that terrible coffee to hide the red in his face he knew was there.

"I really hate this coffee," Drew complained when the cup was empty. "I don't think I'll ever like Keurigs."

Solidad smirked, something mischievous gleaming in her eyes.

"I think if you keep giving Keurigs a chance, you'll not only get used to them, but you'll actually grow to like them, too."

Drew's face burned worse than it had all night, and Roselia just laughed beside him, all too knowing.