I MISSED YOU GUYS! Hope you missed me too. Seriously though, hang in there with me and I'll get the updates to you when I can!

This chapter is kind of uneventful after such a long wait, so sorry about that. Speaking of this chapter, it has a flashback. I know some people hate them, but I think it's pretty cute. We're just gonna roll with it, okay?

Chapter 14: Push and Pull

May gazed at the pokeball in her hand, her eyebrows drawn up in frustration.

Everything about the device was so clearly not hers. While her other two pokeballs were already lined with various bumps and scratches from her clumsiness, this one remained a smooth cherry red. There was even a tiny little fist etched in the symbol of the Knuckle Badge, marking its affiliation with Dewford Gym. Or its past affiliation, anyway.

Oh, and according to the center's nurse, it was also still legally registered in Tessa's name.

Just as May was contemplating how in the world she was going to work her way around this mess, something damp and very sandy rolled into her thigh. The offender laughed squeakily, wiggling around and rubbing the nasty mixture even more against her skin.

"Demi!" May cried. She wrinkled her nose and lifted her leg away from the azurill. Unfortunately, her efforts were in vain, for globs of wet sand clung to her. "Gross!"

Demi giggled again, and May's eyes caught on a sand dune nearby. A distinctive, azurill-shaped chunk was taken out of the structure, as if Demi had used it as a slide.

"They're going to kick us off the beach for habitat degradation or something," May hissed, standing and trying to wipe the sand away. She glanced around, hoping no one had noticed her pokemon's antics, but the only people she spotted were some surfers situated further down the beach. A crow made predominately of teen and preteen girls was gathered around them, squealing loudly every time a new wave washed in.

May scoffed. When she fangirled, at least she didn't act like that.

Right?

"Hey May, they sound like you when you're talking about Steven," a voice carried from down the beach.

Brendan was walking towards her from the pokemon center. Unlike May, who had abandoned her usual tank for her red bikini top, he had remained in his typical traveling attire. He was even wearing his beanie and sneakers. His smirk, of course, was also in place, but it was thrown off by the Band-Aid splayed across his forehead. The nurse from the center had forced it upon him the night before.

"Say that again, and you're eating sand for breakfast," May snapped, even though she had no idea how she would accomplish said endeavor. He was, after all, quite a bit bigger and stronger than her. She scowled up at him. "And take that hat off, would you? You're at the beach; live a little."

Brendan raised an eyebrow at her. "Pissy much?"

"I'm not pissy," May said, in a tone that didn't help her case in the least.

Yesterday had been one of the worst days of her life. First she'd been lost in a pitch-black cave, and then kidnapped in the exact same cave. She'd had to fight one of the hardest battles of her life, started the process of losing that battle, and gotten Soren stuck in the pokemon center from it. She had also realized that Team Magma and Aqua might just pose a serious threat to the world, not just the crime rate but the world, and both teams now had reason to hold a vendetta against her. As if things couldn't get any worse, she was stuck with a depressed meditite that she couldn't even own legally.

On second thought, she could admit that she was a little pissy.

"Well don't take it out on me, I'm just an innocent bystander," Brendan said. The smirk on his lips twitched, making him look anything but. However, his eyes trailed down her neck, and his expression became carefully blank.

May crossed her arms instinctively, feeling a blush fighting its way to her cheeks. It took her several crazed seconds to realize that he wasn't staring at her that way, but that he was focused on her new bandages. The nurse had helped her with them last night to make sure the scratches from Houndoom didn't get infected.

Oh.

For a single, wild moment, she felt something along the lines of disappointment, but she waved it away frantically. No way was she going there.

Brendan averted his eyes and cleared his throat, clearly trying to ignore the awkward tension in the air. His hand reached into his pocket, and after a moment of digging, it emerged. A familiar red pokeball rested in his palm.

"And here I was, doing you a favor," he said. The teasing in his voice was more forced than normal.

May's mood was uplifted in an instant. "Soren!"

In a flash, she had snatched the pokeball from Brendan's hand and released her starter onto the sand. Once he had materialized, May was once again struck by his new appearance. He seemed so different but so similar all at once.

Soren blinked up at her, and his golden eyes still held that underlying smugness she had grown to adore. "Vyle," he said, preening his newly grown leaves, as if he hadn't just been stuck in the pokemon center for a whole night.

May dropped to her knees and looped her arms around his neck. His scales were still cool and smooth, although she had to be careful of the damaged ones on his right leg. She noted that his muscles had grown harder under her touch, but it was his size that would take the most getting used to. It was very strange to think that he wouldn't be riding around on her shoulder anymore.

"Congrats on evolution," she said, unable to really put her feelings into words. She was so happy and proud and relieved all at once. She'd never really thought that one of her pokemon would evolve so soon!

"Grovyle." His voice held even more pride than usual.

Demi nudged her way in between May and Soren then. Joyfully, she snuggled up against Soren's red belly, which smeared it with brown sand. Soren's face soured, and he only allowed her to be near him for a brief moment before pushing her away.

May wondered how Demi would be after she evolved into a marill, assuming they reached that point in their relationship. She thought they would, but azurill only evolved when they had a very strong bond with their trainer. Demi seemed to like her a lot, at least.

May was still intently observing the unique 'family' reunion when Brendan spoke again. "How's Meditite?"

"Well," May began, biting her lip. She stood, and she once again stared at the pokeball that was still clutched in one hand. "He still seemed really sad whenever I let him out, and Demi wouldn't leave him alone when I tried. He's not really mine anyway, so I don't know what to do."

"You'll just have to get Tessa to sign a transfer form," Brendan said. He frowned. "You know, to make it official."

May snorted. "No way. I'm not talking to her."

"But you have to if you want to keep him!"

"No," May said, crossing her arms resolutely. If there was one thing she certainly wouldn't be doing, it was crawling back to Tessa and asking her to sign a form. The girl would probably try to take Meditite back just to spite her.

"You're being stupid."

"So what," May said stubbornly. "She wouldn't talk to me anyway."

Brendan groaned. The boy looked very stressed out, and May tried not to feel bad about it. Much to her displeasure, a smidge of guilt swam rebelliously in her stomach. Brendan did have a point, and she knew she technically had to do something about her situation with Meditite.

"I have an idea," May said. She smiled sweetly up at Brendan, and his eyes immediately narrowed.

"What?" he asked.

"You could go get her to sign."

"What? No! Are you crazy?"

"You wouldn't even tell me your Latias story," May said, huffing. As she thought he would, he had pretended to be asleep as soon as she returned to their room last night. That morning, he had simply told her he didn't want to talk about it. "You owe me."

"Really, that again?"

"Please, Brendan," May begged. At her tone, she could already see his shoulders slumping. His gaze traveled to the bandages on her chest again, and to her surprise, something eerily similar to guilt flickered in his eyes.

"Fine." Brendan groaned again.

May beamed at him. "Thanks! I bet she's in the gym."

"Great," Brendan said unenthusiastically. He slumped back towards Dewford Town, and May caught him add, "Can't wait to see Brawly again."

Now that one thing was (hopefully) taken care of, May had another issue. Meditite needed cheering up, and pronto. Her other pokemon were out roaming the beach, while the poor thing was stuck in his pokeball. She pressed the release button on the ball, aiming the beam towards the ground right in front of her.

Meditite's two-foot-tall body formed, and he stared up at her with his sad black eyes. Whether he missed his old trainer or simply wasn't used to May yet, he wasn't thrilled to be there.

May studied him intently. She didn't know very much about meditite as a species. All she knew was that they had a fighting and psychic typing, and that this one was a male, as demonstrated by the high placement of his ears on his head. Judging by their name, she also supposed they meditated a lot.

Demi greeted him with enthusiasm, having already met him the night before. She trod over to him, slinging sand as she went, and Meditite shifted away from her.

"Med…" he mumbled.

Soren, on the other hand, hadn't been aware of Meditite's existence prior to this moment. The leaves on his wrists twitched, and his arms tensed. He wasn't pleased.

"Be nice," May warned. The last thing she needed was for Soren to frighten the poor meditite even further.

"Gro," Soren hissed grouchily. Thankfully, instead of making any overly rude or intimidating gesture, he leaned forward and took a whiff of the anxious Meditite. He then stalked away to stand on May's other side as if the other pokemon carried an unwelcome stench.

May was used to his behavior, so she ignored him in favor of racking her brain about Meditite. What did one do to cheer up a sad pokemon she barely knew?

Oddly enough, a memory of she and her father popped up in the forefront of her mind.

May was sniffling back tears. Even as an eight year old, she hated crying. She hated feeling like she had disappointed her daddy even more.

"May," Norman said, kneeling down next to his daughter. His face was strained. He disliked tears even more than May did. "It's okay, really!"

She had just had her first practice battle at her trainer academy in Azaela Town, and she had lost. When the poor phanpy she was controlling collapsed, the winner, a boy called Willie, had laughed at her and called her weak. At the time, she had tried to punch him, but now she was letting it get to her.

Maybe it was true. Maybe she never would be a trainer like her daddy.

"N-no it's not!" May wailed.

Norman looked about ready to pass out. "Honey, really, it's fine!" he said desperately. His face lit up then, as if an idea had just come to him. "Please, if you stop crying, I'll buy you an ice cream at the MooMoo Café!"

May managed to stop sniffling at once. Watery eyed, she asked, "Will it be chocolate?"

A fond smile crept onto May's face. After it had worked once, Norman used that ice cream trick every time she got upset. And she had whooped Willie's butt in every battle since that day, but that was beside the point.

"Come on guys, we're going to the smoothie bar," May announced.

She started determinedly towards the tiny shack at the other end of the beach. Her pokemon followed behind her, probably resembling a circus to the other beachgoers. Soren walked by her side semi-normally, although Demi kept prancing around the sand dunes, and Meditite stuck strangely close to May's legs. Apparently, when it came down to it, he preferred her company over her other pokemon's.

Kyla's familiar blonde head perked up when she arrived. She had been gazing dreamily out towards the group of other teens, where one guy was still riding the waves. May didn't pay much attention to him, because she knew so little about surfing that she probably couldn't even tell if he was any good or not, anyway.

"Hi mainlander," Kyla greeted. She smiled slyly, although her expression held an undercurrent of envy. "Is it true that Steven Stone walked you back to the pokemon center last night? You guys aren't like, a thing, right?"

"What?! No!" May exclaimed, face burning. Where would someone get an idea like that? She really hoped Steven didn't hear about that rumor. He would probably think she started it for attention.

"Didn't think so." Kyla appeared satisfied. "I told Nikki that you were with that guy with the white hat, but she said she saw you and Steven-"

"No one is with anyone!" May blurted. Her cheeks were practically on fire, but the worst part was Soren's obnoxious laughter from behind her. "Can I please just get some ice cream or something?"

Kyla pursed her lips, disappointed. "Fine, don't tell me. And we don't have ice cream, sorry."

"Popsicles, then." May didn't care. She kind of just wanted to escape Kyla. Didn't any of these Dewford citizens have lives of their own to worry about?

Kyla sighed dramatically and counted out four oran berry flavored popsicles from an ice box. She looked as if she had just been denied a great treat. Finally, she handed the popsicles over, and May forced one in Soren's hand and one in Meditite's while keeping the other two (Demi couldn't take her own, because she didn't have hands). After quickly paying, she scurried away to plop down in the sand near the surfing people, thinking it would at least give them something to watch.

May held out a second popsicle to Soren, who was already licking his own frozen desert happily with his long tongue. "You get to hold Demi's for her," she said, when he paused to stare at her.

He made a face, clearly wondering if she had lost her mind.

May huffed. "You heard me."

She'd show him for laughing at her.

Grudgingly, Soren snatched the popsicle and held it out for Demi to eat. He glared daggers into the side of May's face the entire time, but she was more preoccupied with Meditite.

He was staring uneasily down at his own popsicle. May could tell he hadn't even tasted of it by the large drops of liquid already gathering across its surface, which would have been cleared away by a single lick. If he didn't hurry, it would just melt.

"It's really good," May promised. She slurped on her own popsicle for effect, but Meditite only slumped further down into the sand.

"Meditite, med," he said, shaking his head apologetically.

May tilted her head and eyed him closely, as if a better look would help her understand what the heck he was saying. It didn't.

"I'm sorry, but I-"

She was just about to tell him she didn't know what was wrong when a loud cheer erupted from the crowd watching the surfer. They were much closer than May had realized. She heard another excited yell, and then a wave cracked loudly against the beach in front of her. It washed in over her red-painted toes, leaving behind sea foam to seep into the sand.

May was so concentrated on the water that she almost didn't notice the guy on the surfboard. He came in, crouched low, and tumbled out onto the sand from his ride. A machop hopped off after him, grabbing the board so that it couldn't be swept back out to sea.

"Yo," the guy said. He was sprawled out on his back, but that didn't stop him from grinning up at May through his shock of blue hair. "Sup?"

"Brawly?" May said blankly. Several of the girls from the surfing posse were stomping back off towards Dewford, scowling. Kyla's mouth went wider than a magikarp's from behind her deserted lunch bar.

"Totally, bro," Brawly said. His grin wavered only slightly, and he rolled over so that he was lying on his toned stomach. May struggled not to wince at the sight of all the sand clinging to his wetsuit. "I mean babe. So was my surfing rad, or what?"

"Uh, yeah. Rad," May said, stringing on an uncomfortable laugh.

Something sticky and wet dribbled onto her knee. May gasped and tried to wipe it off. Meditite hurriedly switched his melting popsicle to his other hand, blabbering profusely.

"It's alright," May assured him. She couldn't quite get the stickiness off her leg, but she'd live. "Why don't you want to eat it?"

"Meditite lay low on the eating," Brawly said in his deep voice, sounding almost philosophical. "One berry a day, I think."

"What?" May blinked, surprised, and Soren peered around to look at Meditite like he had discovered another reason to dislike him. She couldn't comprehend a pokemon not eating. Soren and Demi had never hesitated to inhale every morsel she offered them, that was for sure.

"It's just his way of training," Brawly said. Then he squinted his blue eyes, doing a double take at Meditite. "No way, dude. I swear I've seen this meditite before."

May grabbed two fistfuls of sand. She really didn't want to explain to Brawly that one of his gym trainers had abandoned her pokemon, but she didn't have much of a choice. Reluctantly, she described the situation to Brawly, trying her hardest to leave out any choice words she had for Tessa.

As May told her story, the frown on Brawly's face became more pronounced. The expression seemed decidedly out of place on him.

"No worries, babe. I'll take care of it," Brawly said, to her surprise. He winked. "On one condition."

"What's that?" May asked warily. She wasn't quite sure she wanted to know what he had in mind.

"You and your pokemon come by my place for lunch. I make rad food." Brawly's smile was blinding, and his laugh echoed deeply in his chest. "Oh, and bring Brendan. A bro can only take so much pokemon center food before going off the deep end."

"Um. Okay," May said, because she wasn't really sure what else to say.

"Awesome!" Brawly proclaimed, and then he was running after his fan girls with Machop on his heels. His actions slung yet more sand all over May, who moaned miserably. Some of it had even gotten in her popsicle.

We'll see, May thought, trying in vain to pick the dirt out of her frozen treat. Had she maybe found another friend, in a gym leader, of all people?

A shadow fell over May then, blocking the warm sunshine from kissing her skin. She looked up in annoyance, and her gaze passed over familiar gym shorts and a strangely drenched shirt. Brendan held his hat in his hands, and it appeared to be soaping wet with water. His face was livid.

"I hate her too," were the first words out of his mouth.

Brendan tried and failed to wring all the water out of his hat, and May had to bite her lip to keep from bursting into laughter. Soren was already sniggering into his hands, so she didn't think displaying her own amusement would help matters.

"Did you get papers?" she asked, miraculously managing to stay straight-faced.

"Do I look like I got papers?" Brendan snapped back. He shook his hair, which was also somehow drenched. Water droplets flew through the air, landing on May and her pokemon.

Soren hissed and kicked sand at Brendan, which Demi repeated, laughing hysterically as if she was playing a fun game. Meditite twiddled his thumbs and shrunk closer to May.

"Hey!" Brendan complained. He tried to shift the sand out of his shoes, but he was now wet and sandy. His brown eyes snapped towards Soren, who was smiling in a way that made May realize he was very pleased with himself. "Just because you've gotten bigger doesn't mean I can't have Orion burn you to a crisp."

"Grovyle, gro!"

May rapidly stood, dusting off her shorts and moving in between Brendan and Soren. Perhaps her pokemon was taking after her a little too much?

"Stop threatening my pokemon," she said, opting (As always) to direct her irritation towards Brendan. "What happened?"

"Well thanks for finally asking," he raved. "She cussed me out and threatened to sick her machop on me! And then, she dumped her water on my head. My head!"

May couldn't contain herself any longer; a loud snort of laughter escaped her lips. Brendan crossed his arms sullenly.

"I didn't think it was funny," he said.

She laughed again and gave him a brief pat on the arm.

"It'll be okay, Brendan," she cooed, causing his expression to darken even further. This only spurred on her amusement. "Brawly said he'll take care of it anyway."

"Brawly?" Brendan didn't seem to be able to comprehend how the gym leader had become involved.

May shrugged, running a hand down Soren's back. He sighed in contentment and shifted a bit closer to her. "We're apparently going to his house for lunch, and he'll give them to me then."

Brendan's lips twisted into a scowl. "I am not going to Brawly's house. Ever."

"Fine. Eat krabby bites again," May retorted. Every breakfast, lunch, and dinner, the Dewford pokemon center seemed to revolve around serving the unappealing chunks of meat. May (And by now, even Brendan) had begun to lose her appetite at the mere sight of them.

The skin on Brendan's face tinted green, which gave May an unpleasant flashback to the time he'd been seasick. A great debate seemed to be going on in his head, and finally he said, "Whatever. I'll go."

"I thought so."

Brendan struggled for words for only a few seconds before his typical assured demeanor returned. He crossed his arms and stared down at May with that infuriatingly knowing look of his.

"You know, just because your dad might try to kill me if he finds out I left you alone with a guy," he said.

May flushed red, but she wasn't completely sure if it was out of anger or embarrassment. Probably both.

"You're a guy!" she managed to stutter eventually. "What about you? He doesn't care that I'm with you."

He faltered. "Well- Uh. Please. He knows you're not my type, obviously."

Much to May's dismay, the first and most prevalent emotion she felt was hurt. What was she, ugly? Did Brendan think she was ugly? She quickly covered up her doubt with a glare of pure venom.

Brendan's eyes were wide, and they had been ever since the words had slipped from his mouth. He knew he'd messed up. He opened his mouth to say something else, probably to try to correct his mistake, but she cut him off.

"What's that supposed to mean?"

She had never really seen Brendan Birch speechless before, but he seemed to be now. He kept opening and closing his mouth, occasionally letting lose a jumble of disconnected words.

Suddenly, a small burst of water erupted from near May's feet and splashed across Brendan's head and shoulders. As he sputtered in shock, Demi stomped her foot and glared in his direction.

"Ril," she said, and her meaning was clearly, "That's what you get." Soren lurked behind her, also glowering.

"It's twelve," May said, and her tone was still snappish. Without looking at Brendan, she turned back towards Dewford. She really hoped one of Brawly's fans could direct them to his house, because she didn't particularly feel like consulting her jerk of a traveling companion on the matter.

If May had tried to picture where Brawly lived, she figured that her imagination would've led her very close to the actual thing.

He resided in a small beach house right by the sea, and the inside was messily strewn with clothes, pokemon equipment, and workout tools. His walls were stacked with numerous surfboards of all colors and designs. She didn't know the difference between them, but they seemed to be the highlight of Brawly's home.

The floor was also, unsurprisingly, covered in tiny grains of sand.

"Make yourselves at home!" Brawly urged, pointing them towards a small kitchen table crammed into the corner. It was piled high with dirty swimming trunks, causing May to hover over it apprehensively for a moment. Noticing this, Brawly casually swiped the clothing onto the floor and kicked her chair out for her with his foot.

At his action, a rope necklace attached to a long, jagged fang clattered to the ground, having apparently been tossed carelessly atop the seat cushion. It was by far the largest, scariest looking tooth May had ever laid eyes on. It even made Houndoom's canine's look like those of a teething eevee kit.

"Sharpedo," Brawly explained, noticing her searching look. He grinned and said, "Well sit down!"

I hope I never get on the bad side of one of those, she thought privately. Out loud, she said, "Uh, sure."

May could practically feel Brendan rolling his eyes as he sat in the seat next to her, but she didn't know for sure. She was still refusing to make eye contact with him.

"Oh, here ya go!" Brawly dropped a set of official looking forms on the worn wood in front of her. May stared at them, from the League symbol in the top left corner to Tessa's angry scrawl at the bottom.

Meditite was official hers.

"Thank you!" she said, immensely grateful.

"No prob," Brawly assured her. He shuffled over to the stove, his wetsuit still dripping onto the tiled floor. Judging by the dirty smudges across his back, it was the same one he'd been in earlier. May observed this with an odd mixture of disbelief and amusement. Suddenly, she didn't know why she'd bothered to change out of her own beach clothes at all. Brawly certainly wouldn't have minded.

Of course, May's outfit was the last thing on the gym leader's mind. He was busy laying out hamburger meat, of all things. For some reason, May had expected him to order a pizza, or to force-feed them some type of macho protein shake. She certainly hadn't thought he'd cook.

May's attention was pulled away from Brawly when a timid finger tapped her on the arm. Surprised, she blinked down at Meditite, who was standing just beneath her chair. He pointed to the other end of the kitchen worriedly.

Her first guess was that maybe Soren had gotten into a fight with one of Brawly's pokemon. He'd already seemed rather competitive when Brawly had introduced them, after all. However, her grovyle was still skulking nearby, eyeing Brawly's breloom with slit-like golden eyes.

Demi was the problem. She was buzzing around Machop and Hariyama, spitting bubbles at them whenever their backs were turned. Hariyama grunted in annoyance, and May immediately recalled Demi before he could crush her in his huge fists. She sighed as she reattached the pokeball to her belt.

Brawly chuckled, and her cheeks colored in embarrassment. "Sorry," she said. "She's young."

And she probably wouldn't outgrow it, but she didn't have to admit that to a gym leader.

He waved the comment off, as if it was nothing. When he turned his back, May was quick to shoot a warning glare at Soren and Meditite. One pokemon acting up was enough.

Absently, May realized she really ought to name Meditite. Now that he was hers, it didn't feel fair to continue calling him by his species name while her other two had special ones of their own.

"So," Brawly began, flipping a hamburger haphazardly and drawing May out of her thoughts. It missed his pan and landed on the stove eye, where it then turned to a smoldering black crisp within seconds. His eyes widened comically, and he quickly scooped the singed meat to the side like nothing had happened. "So babe. Since this dude isn't challenging me, does that mean you are?"

"Um, yeah," May said, watching the whole scene doubtfully. In her disbelief over what had just happened, she briefly forgot her annoyance at Brendan and shot a glance at the boy. His elbow was propped up on the table and he was leaning his chin against the palm of his hand, looking utterly miserable.

His gaze met hers, apparently having detected her movement, and she furiously looked away. She was still determined to make him suffer for his ignorant comment.

Brendan groaned quietly to himself, although May was sure no one but her could hear it.

"Awesome!" Brawly exclaimed. He finally managed to successfully cook a burger, which he tossed onto one of three plates. His face was overly satisfied, like he thought he should be considered a world-class chef after that. "You're like a big wave, waiting for the right moment to strike."

May stared blankly at him, not quite certain that she had absorbed any of what he'd just said. Brendan snorted under his breath.

"You should work on balance, though," Brawly continued, nodding his head thoughtfully. He seemed to be recalling what he'd seen of her battle against Houndoom. "Balance is the root of everything. Offense, defense, speed."

The word 'balance' struck a chord deep within May. At first, she thought of the figurative way her dad used the word. His team was well-rounded, and his pokemon knew a wide variety of attacks that could counter almost any opponent. He worked on defense and offense equally, among a wide variety of other things that May didn't know the details of.

Somehow, though, she didn't think Brawly was talking about the same thing. He was far too literal and in-the-moment for that.

May went over the battle with Houndoom in her head. Soren had been sloppy, unsure of his new form. She had no idea how Meditite battled, but she suspected it wasn't going to be easy for him to adjust to a new trainer when he was still grieving over Tessa's abandonment. Plus, all of them were iffy on their aim and form. They were literally unbalanced.

"How should I do that?" May asked, her thoughts shooting to balancing on thin beams or even balls. Brawly had finally finished the hamburgers, so he plopped down in the chair on her other side, handing them each their meal.

Brendan scowled into his plate. "I thought I was your coach."

May ignored him, focusing her attention on Brawly. She could deal with Brendan later, but for now, she was still kind of mad at him.

Brawly laughed. "Surfing, of course."

Surfing. A sport. On water. Which May had somehow agreed to give a try.

What was she thinking, again?

When the gym leader finally had her convinced that his special training technique was worth trying, she knew that her attempt would be a disaster she didn't want anyone else to witness. Therefor, she trudged through dense tropical weeds and muggy air to a small, isolated beach the very morning after her conversation with him. It was on the southernmost peninsula of the island, and it was far enough from the town so that she doubted anyone would stumble upon it while she was training.

May didn't do anything with surfing on the first day. Soren was still supposed to rest his leg, and she kind of wanted to start them all out on the same page. Either way, she was going into this gym battle prepared, so she wasn't about to waste anymore time now that she could finally focus on it.

First, she went back over basic aspects of her pokemon by hovering over her Pokedex. Soren, thankfully, still retained his Overgrow ability upon evolving, and the new attack he had learned in Granite Cave was called fury cutter. It was a bug type move, which was kind of ironic, in May's opinion.

Demi's ability was Huge Power, something that May wasn't really sure how to work any sort of strategy around. She was extremely disappointed when she realized (From a combination of her Pokedex and finally cracking and talking to Brendan) that Demi couldn't learn any offensive fairy type moves until she evolved. Having that type advantage would've given her a huge leg up.

Didn't help me the first time I battled Roxanne, May kept thinking, before banishing those thoughts. This was a new opponent, and she was determined to be ready to face him this time. She wouldn't let herself be caught off guard like that again.

Meditite (Who, for some reason, May still failed to think of the perfect name for), had the ability Pure Power, which she also didn't know much about. As soon as she pulled him out for training, he immediately drew further into his shy, unconfident shell.

She learned the hard way that Tessa was right. He just couldn't seem to get a grip on his psychic powers.

"I don't know…" Even Brendan was stumped when Meditite couldn't so much as make a pebble float. Although she'd left him that morning, he had somehow appeared around mid-afternoon. She hated to admit it, but by the time he found them, her anger was forgotten and she was just relieved to see him.

"Come on, coach," May said. Her voice was whiny, but she was past caring at that point. Nothing she did seemed to help Meditite, and every time he failed he only became more and more subdued.

"Psychic powers are different," Brendan said uneasily. "Neptune can do some, but even he has trouble with it sometimes."

May gazed at her surroundings, from where Soren was slumped angrily against a palm tree, still forbidden from agitating his injury, to where Demi was supposed to be practicing her bubble attack. Key words being "supposed to be". She was too distracted to bother with her naughty azurill at the moment, however.

Meditite was sitting cross-legged on the beach next to she and Brendan, staring hard at a tiny rock. It stayed resolutely in place, still buried halfway in the sand just as it had begun.

"Ezra!" May announced suddenly. Her face had brightened into a smile in an instant.

"Bless you," Brendan grumbled, scooping up a handful of sand and allowing it to seep through his fingers. He still couldn't get over the fact that he didn't know the answer to her meditite's psychic dilemma, and he had been rather mopey about it.

May shot a look at him. "No, idiot. That's Meditite's new name."

Meditite—Ezra—turned to look up at her with very round eyes. "Med?"

"He's part of the team now, so he has to have a name," she explained, although her smile was directed completely at Ezra instead of Brendan.

His mouth lifted into the faintest ghost of a grin, and May could've sworn she finally saw the pebble twitch.

Either it was her imagination, or Brendan simply didn't notice. He looked at her wryly. For the entire morning, he had acted strangely cautious about pushing her buttons, but now that she was smiling again, he seemed to have abandoned that cause.

"So," he said, his tone mocking. "Ready to surf?"

It was going to be a long week.

AN: Surf's up next chapter. Literally. And poor Brendan, don't you know that crazy teenage girls get offended very easily?

I really never intended for this chapter to exist. I had a fight inside my brain over it (Basically World War III), and in the end I decided adding one laidback chapter for the sake of giving Ezra a proper introduction was worth it.

I inserted the bit about Kyla less for shipping reasons and much more for showing off just how little the Dewford citizens have to do with their time. They have nothing better to do than butt into random strangers' business. I also never particularly intended to give Brawly so much limelight compared to Roxanne, but what can I say? He's entertaining to write, and I think he secretly likes having friends who don't fawn over him.

Which part of the story are you most excited for? Personally, I'm DYING to write the Mt. Chimney Arc. I've got some exciting ideas that I can't wait to use!

Bonus question: Do any of you know of any good fics I should check out? Whether they're just getting started or are complete, I want some new material to read! Oh, and for those Hoennshippers out there, go check out some of the oneshots just your regular fangirl has been publishing. They're very cute, and her Brendan/May usually bicker as much as mine (Which I'm assuming most of you guys like at least a bit if you're reading this. Haha).