Cough cough. I said I was alive and that I wasn't abandoning the story, now didn't I? Too bad all of my readers probably forgot it existed by now, but hey. I want to update for me too : ) And I feel awful, but I'm warning you right now that this chapter isn't very eventful/is far from one of my favorite chapters. It's one of the reasons I haven't wanted to post it right away. I know, a 'meh' chapter sucks after the wait, but please stick with me. All will come together.

Also, I am uploading this as a split second decision at 12 am because this story hasn't been updated since 2016. Absolutely ridiculous!

Chapter 27: Sweet Sorrow

"I still say that camerupt would've been flippin' awesome on my team," May said, shooting Brendan a pointed look over the gray head of Vicky Winstrate, who was crouched in the floor, rolling May's ankle around experimentally.

Brendan paused in glancing inconspicuously around (she strongly suspected it to be for Vivi Winstrate) to roll his eyes at her. Since the Winstrates had insisted they stay the day before, the twelve-year-old girl had taken to following Brendan around, talking his ear off, which he obviously loved. May, of course, thoroughly enjoyed every second of it.

Vicky harrumphed, and her hands jerked against May's foot a bit too roughly for it to be completely accidental. She said, "Please. That pokemon would've fried your scrawny behind for breakfast."

"Scrawny?!" May exclaimed, which was drowned out by Vito's loud snort from beside her on the couch. In her peripheral, she could see that Brendan was smirking widely.

"Didn't your daddy teach you not to catch a pokemon more powerful than your team?" Vito said, oblivious to May's evil glare. "Seriously, newbie. Do you have a death wish?"

"I ask myself that every day," Brendan muttered, seeming mildly disgusted to agree with anything coming out of Vito's mouth. The two boys hadn't exactly taken a shining to one another since their confrontation yesterday (Well, technically it was Brendan who hadn't taken a shine to Vito, and Vito who just didn't really seem to care).

May just crossed her arms. Okay, so she knew they were right, but that didn't mean that she wasn't a little bit annoyed every time she was reminded of Brendan's blunt refusal to agree to her catching that camerupt the day before. At the time, it had seemed like a legitimately great idea, so his reaction had stung a bit.

Especially after he'd basically told her that he believed in her, and especially after her dreadful display of a battle against Vito.

So she hadn't technically lost, but as much as she hated to admit it, she would have. Pretty badly. It had been a very long time since she'd felt so helpless in a battle, and she didn't like it. She didn't like it one bit.

What if her winning streak in the gyms was just luck? How could she ever expect to become Champion if there were trainers out there like Vito with years of experience, trainers who could bat her aside like a baby skitty if she even managed to make the Ever Grande Tournament?

"Well, you're good," Vicky's voice said, drawing May out of her rather dark thoughts. "You can keep the brace off, so long as you don't have any more moronic ideas like battling a fully grown exploud. Or a camerupt."

"Seriously?" Despite the jab at the end, May's mood brightened considerably. Finally! She'd been restricted to that ridiculous brace for what felt like an eternity, and as soon as she'd discovered that Vicky used to work at a Pokemon Center, she'd jumped at the opportunity to have it re-examined. "Hallelujah!"

She wiggled her foot, and true to Vicky's word, there wasn't the slightest hint of pain. Her lips stretched into a wide grin.

The moment was interrupted when Vivi ducked her head into the room, black pigtails swishing with the motion. Her gaze honed in on Brendan, who sunk deeper into the loveseat at the sight of her.

"Mom said to tell you guys that dinner's ready!" Vivi fluttered her eyelashes. "Oh, and I baked cookies. Hey Brendan, I might be able to sneak you one before dessert if you want."

"I want one," Vito demanded, and May sniggered into her hands.

"I didn't ask you."

"Brat."

"I'm good," Brendan said, in a small voice. He cleared his throat awkwardly. As if Arceus himself was giving him a break, a loud tune rang out from his pocket at that precise moment, and he frantically tugged out his Pokenav. "It's my dad. You guys go ahead, but I've gotta take this."

May watched him head outside into the warm dusk air for only a moment before trailing into the kitchen, the lone guest among the bustling Winstrate family. She perched in one of the chairs around the table, hoping Brendan would come back soon so that she wouldn't feel so much like the outsider. The family was very friendly, but they were certainly… interesting.

To her slight surprise, Vito plopped down next to her, his face already stuffed with macaroni and cheese. "So." He smirked. "About Norman. I heard his slaking is ridiculous. Is his strategy offensive or defensive?"

"I told you, I'm not spilling my dad's secrets to you," May said in a sing-song voice. She slipped some of her own macaroni into her mouth. Although she'd long since made Vito promise to keep her relation to Norman on the down low, that didn't stop him from pestering her about him every chance he got. "Besides. He's never really let me watch his official matches."

Vito's face fell. "But you have to know something! Which gym are you going to next? Maybe I can give you some pointers."

"Lavaridge," May said, despite the fact that her lips were sealed about her dad. No way was she helping this guy beat him.

"Dang it," Vito grumbled. "They've gotten a new gym leader since I got my badge."

"Brendan said something about that," May said, frowning slightly. Apparently, the original one had a blaziken. She couldn't imagine battling Orion, so hopefully the new one didn't have a similar team. She mock sighed. "Guess I can't help you then…."

Vito opened his mouth, clearly prepared to badger her until she caved, but his Grandmother Vicky beat him too it. "My Vito doesn't need any help," she said sternly. "He's the best trainer Hoenn has seen in decades."

"Nothing wrong with being prepared," he said, but he sat up a little straighter as his parents added in on the praise. Vivi rolled her eyes and glanced hopefully towards the back door. Unfortunately for her, Brendan was still nowhere to be seen.

Hmmm… He really has been gone for a long time, May thought, shifting in her chair as the rest of the family chattered.

With Brendan still gone, she couldn't help but drift into her own thoughts again. Although she wasn't totally convinced that Vito was as powerful as he or his family said he was, he was undeniably skilled. She'd have a lot of preparation to do if she ever hoped to face him, and she'd need top-tiered pokemon to do it.

May pulled her Pokedex from her shorts pocket and held it under the table, half to check the time and half to look over some of Hoenn's top ranked pokemon according to the League again.

It was 6:20, meaning Brendan had been gone for over fifteen minutes. Either what Professor Birch was telling him was really important, or he was more determined to avoid Vivi than she'd realized.

Sighing, May flicked somewhat absentmindedly through the League's top threats for this year's Ever Grande Conference on her Pokedex. Blaziken was there (Which only seemed natural after she'd met Orion), as were a couple no-brainers such as salamence and metagross, and to her delight, sceptile.

Her fingers paused over the page depicting an emerald winged creature that looked to be the cross between a dragon and an insect, of all things.

She didn't know what it was about flygon, but whether it was the fact that trapinch could be captured in the nearby desert or some sick desire to prove she could get over her fear of insectoid creatures, it stood out to her. And champions didn't catch just anything that came their way; they planned.

"Not bad." To her embarrassment, May jumped slightly at the sound of Vito's voice in her ear. He raised his blond eyebrows tauntingly. "You get a pokemon like that, and I might just give you a rematch someday, newbie."

"Count on it," she said reflexively, and she meant it. Next time, however, she was bound and determined to be ready for him. "By the way, have you ever seen any trapinch?"

"Not wild ones, I haven't." He flicked his golden locks out of his eyes for about the millionth that day. "Unless you count the shell of one that had gotten lost from the desert and decomposed for two weeks."

May wrinkled her nose, setting her fork down. She was glad she'd pretty much finished her meal already. "You won't go there either? I thought that was just Brendan being paranoid."

"I'm not scared," Vito was quick to say. "I just haven't wanted any pokemon that live there all that badly. I mean, mostly people go in there to do research, but it's just stupid to do for long unless you're a researcher or have some pretty powerful pokemon. There are all kinds of nasty things in there."

Great, someone else who doesn't think I can handle myself, she thought glumly.

Before May had fully registered what was going on, the female Winstrates had stood and begun to clear the dishes. Vivi hovered over her plate. "You done with this?"

"Oh." May blinked. "Yeah. I should probably just go train my pokemon a little." And check on Brendan, she added mentally. Plus, she clearly had even more training to do that she'd initially thought.

"Is that Birch boy starving himself?" Vicky grumbled, pursing her lips at his untouched meal.

Before May had a chance to respond, the light sound of the door clicking shut reached her ears, and Brendan slunk into the room. His snow-colored hat seemed to be pulled even further down over his face than usual, as if he had been tugging on it in agitation, and his brows were etched into a deep frown.

He coughed when he noticed everyone's attention on him. "Sorry. My dad called."

Although the Winstrates simply shrugged and went about their own business, May felt her chest flutter nervously. Something was definitely off.

"What's wrong?" she asked immediately.

He stared at her for a moment with his deep, dark brown eyes before letting out a soft breath of air. Both Vito and Vivi paused to watch him curiously, and he tensed.

"Nothing," he mumbled, before sliding into his seat on the other side of May.

She narrowed her eyes at him, silently vowing to interrogate him as soon as she got him alone. Brendan might be a pro at brushing people off by this point, but she wasn't about to let him do it to her this time.

"So, May," Vivi began, a glint in her eye as she passed a chocolate chip cookie to Brendan. She held another a couple inches from May's nose. "You battled Vito, but you haven't fought me yet."

"Or me," the others chimed, practically simultaneously.

May started to smile, her worries about Brendan being pushed to the back of her mind for the time being. She ignored the lingering fear that maybe her loss against Vito meant something. What if she couldn't beat his family either? "You're on!"

The Winstrates hurried out of the house, shouting about getting their makeshift battlefield fixed up, and May was about to follow when she felt a strong hand wrap around her elbow. She looked down at Brendan, surprised.

"Wait," he said, despite the fact that she was already frozen on the spot. He hesitated, whether it was to make sure the Winstrates were really gone or due to reluctance, she couldn't be sure. He avoided her probing gaze for a long moment.

After taking a deep breath, Brendan finally spoke. "Look, uh. I'm sorry, but you're gonna have to make it to Lavaridge without me."

May could only stare at him. Her face was blank. Her mind was blank. Everything was blank.

"That's not funny, Brendan. For real, what's wrong?"

"I'm being serious."

Unfortunately, there was no way to misinterpret the strained expression on his face. May swallowed, struggling to contain the sick pit brewing in her stomach. If someone had told her months ago that she'd feel this upset over the prospect that stupid, smirking Brendan Birch wouldn't be with her on her journey, she'd have laughed in their face.

"Why?" was all she managed to say.

Brendan yanked his hat off of his head and crumpled it into a ball, leaving his dark hair standing up at odd angles. The sight didn't make her smile to herself like it usually did.

He peeked out the window at the Winstrates before answering, and even when he did, his voice was low. "Dad has a colleague in Fallarbor Town that thinks he's made some huge discovery about where mega stones come from, but Dad's waiting on his PPA inspection any day now. If he's not there when they come they'll be all over him, and none of his assistants are really cut out to go all the way to Fallarbor by themselves."

"Except for you," May acknowledged dully. She frowned. "So I'll come with you. No big deal."

"Do you have any idea how out of the way Fallarbor is? And I don't know how long this'll take." Brendan stared down at the table as if he were counting all the dark shapes in the rugged wood. "No way. I'm supposed to be your coach, so it wouldn't be fair to tell you that's a good idea. If you want to make the Ever Grande Conference this year you should get all of your badges as soon as possible. You know, just in case you get held up later. You've only got nine months."

May couldn't believe what she was hearing. Brendan didn't want her to come with him? Who was she going to argue with? Who was going to tell her off when she was being stupid? Who was going to coach her through all of her problems?

She didn't know how to put it into words, or if she even had the guts to, but she had a strong feeling that they were meant to be on this journey. Together.

"Don't make that face," Brendan pleaded, and she got the sense that he didn't know how to react when she wasn't either all smiles or biting his head off. "We can meet back up as soon as I'm done."

"But, I…" I really don't want to split up. "I really don't mind going to Fallarbor. I could go visit that waterfall. You know, where you found Iris. Isn't that close by?"

"Nah, just go get your badge. I don't wanna get you off track," Brendan responded after a moment, his voice significantly more relaxed than hers. He didn't seem particularly happy, but at the same time, May couldn't help but notice he wasn't quite as bothered as she was.

Was he maybe… A little bit relieved to get away from babysitting her for a bit?

Latias, she really hoped not.

But then the corner of his mouth flickered downwards, and she realized with a small amount of relief that he was far from thrilled at the circumstances. He was just being more rational about it than she was.

"Alright," she agreed, because she wasn't about to get down on her knees and beg. She didn't want Brendan to know how much she'd miss him.

"Alright," Brendan repeated. "Good. Um-"

"Hey, May!" Vivi's voice screeched from the living room. "Are you scared, or something?"

May hesitated only a moment before yelling back. "No way! I'm coming."

However, as she fingered Soren's pokeball, thinking over how easily he'd be able to take out Vivi's little goldeen, her heart wasn't fully into the approaching battle for once.

Wally held his breath as he stared down at the object in his hands.

It was a much older model Pokenav than the one he had at home, as made obvious by the peeling yellow paint and bulker-than-usual width. The tiny screen was also marred by a long scratch, which was the main thing about it that worried him.

Oh, please work, please work, he prayed. After a couple of seconds longer than should be expected for a Pokenav to come on, it buzzed with life, and he beamed. He fiddled with the apps for a bit, he discovering with relief that they were all functional, if a bit dated.

Not bad for a seedy little resale store in a corner in downtown Rustboro. He would've much preferred to use his original, as it was not only superior but also would have helped preserve his meager supply of money, yet he couldn't risk his parents using it to track him. He'd had to leave it behind, one possession among many required for training that he'd missed out on starting with.

"Guys," Wally cried, glancing down at his cramped pokemon center bed. "Guys, it works!"

Alastair looked up from where he was levitating a pillow above his head. His psychic energy was growing steadily more powerful each day, and it was the main thing that had carried them through their battle earlier that very day when he'd finally mustered up the courage to challenge Roxanne.

And they had won.

It was something that Wally was still having difficulty comprehending, but he knew one thing; he had barely been able to stop smiling, even when he'd had to spend almost all of his savings on his new Pokenav and his ticket to Dewford Island.

The pillow fell to the ground with a soft thump, and Alastair grinned. "Raaa." A small mass wiggled around underneath the covers beside him, emitting a meowing sound.

A strong feeling of happiness probed at Wally's brain, followed quickly by obvious curiosity.

"I'm gonna call Wanda with it now," he explained, after a brief moment of thought. Although Alastair's telepathy hadn't yet reached a lingual level, it had gotten surprisingly easy to understand what he was trying to say the majority of the time. "I promised her I would before I left."

Wally pulled out a small, crumpled piece of paper that he'd hastily scribbled on before leaving his aunt and uncle's house those weeks ago. It had only three numbers on it: Wanda's, May's, and Brendan's, who he didn't know as well as May, but was someone he at least trusted not to turn him in to his family.

Wanda picked up on the fourth ring. "Hello?" she sounded confused and slightly wary, as if she were preparing to hang up on whichever telemarketer was bugging her today.

"Wanda, it's me," Wally said, his voice coming out in a whisper. He knew that no one aside from Wanda should be able to hear him, but his nerves were running high nonetheless. If any of his other relatives found out that his cousin was talking to him, his journey would be over before it really started.

"Wa-oh." She gasped. "Um, just one second."

He could hear several things being shuffled around from the other side of the line before she spoke again. "I'm so glad you called me! Thank Groudon. I've been waiting for ages. Are you okay?"

"Yes. I'm sorry," Wally said guiltily. He wanted desperately to tell her about his badge, about Grace, about all the things he and Alastair had done, but he restrained himself for the moment. "Even with all my savings I didn't have enough for a Pokenav until I won some battles…"

"Oh my gosh…" Wanda fretted. "Are you sure you're okay? You have enough to eat, don't you? If you want to come home, I can talk to my parents for you."

"I can't come home, Wanda. I just can't," he responded, his voice filling with emotion. The fact that his family was probably worried sick over him was eating him alive, but at the same time, he knew he'd never be okay with himself unless he did this. For himself. For Alastair. Even for Grace, now. "… How are they?"

"Scared to death, but I've tried to keep them calm. But you should be careful. I think your parents might issue a missing child report if they don't hear something soon."

Wally's heartbeat quickened. If they did that, every pokemon center and police station nearby could plaster his face onto a poster for everyone to see. He couldn't let that happen.

"I'm going to Dewford tomorrow," he said, as much to himself as to Wanda. "I'll send them a letter telling them I'm alright before I go…"

"Good." Wanda hesitated. "Listen, I've been helping Miss Waters at the flower shop some lately so I can save up for that apartment in Rustboro that'll put me closer to Riley. I have a little extra that I can-"

"No, don't, please," Wally said at once. Wanda was already risking way too much by helping him cover his tracks, so the last thing he wanted was to put a burden on her financially. "I'm getting better at battling. I might be able to make some money from it."

"Better?" she repeated, and although he knew she didn't mean it that way, the uncertainty in her voice stung.

"We won a badge today," he answered, his giddiness overcoming any hurt he'd felt from her doubt. "We did it. We really did it!"

"Oh, that's so amazing! I'm happy for you," Wanda said. She might not understand his desire to challenge the gyms, but her words were nothing but sincere. "Congratulate Alastair for me too, will you?"

"Raaaa, ralts," Alastair cooed, letting her know he'd heard. He waved his stumpy arms around happily, likely in remembrance of how he'd felt after defeating Roxanne's nosepass.

"There's someone else, too," Wally said, and he set the Pokenav down to fish around under the covers.

Something sharp latched around his fingers, and he winced only slightly before tugging back. His offender, a pink ball of adorable fluff, slid out of the blankets with a cheerful meow. Her tiny claws were still pricking at his skin.

"Say hi, Grace," Wally said, and she meowed again. The pokemon was distracted, however, by a thread dangling from his coat button. She abandoned his fingers to paw at it, transfixed. "We never could've done it without her."

"A skitty? How sweet," Wanda guessed, going off the sound Grace had made. She sounded pleased for him. "Hey, have you talked to May?"

"No." Wally stroked Grace's head, flushing a bit even though Wanda couldn't see him. May was busy with her journey, and no matter how awed he was by his own accomplishments, he was still nowhere near the trainer that she was. He didn't want to bug her.

"…. I'm sure she'd love to hear the good news," Wanda pressed. "And I know she's probably worried about you, too."

"I know. I-I just…" Wally sighed, but a small smile flitted across his face when Grace reached up and licked his cheek out of the blue. Her tongue was unexpectedly rough, almost like sandpaper. "I'll call her when I've got more than one badge, okay?"

"Okay." He could tell from her tone that she didn't agree with his decision, but she clearly didn't feel like it was her place to argue, either.

He just couldn't get May's hopes up. She believed in him so much, and… He wanted to make doubly sure he was someone worthy of that faith.

"It should be just up here," Brendan said, taking a quick glance at the map on his Pokenav. For once, his breathing was slightly labored, and May could see the strains in his (rather defined) leg muscles as he pulled himself over a particularly steep rock. She swallowed and averted her gaze.

Several days after departing from the Winstrates' (And after May had managed to defeat all of them except for Vito), they'd finally arrived at the foot of Mt. Chimney. It had been a steady uphill climb for half an hour now, and it only seemed to be getting worse. Brendan kept reassuring her that no, they didn't have to climb the real mountain, but she was almost convinced he was lying to save himself from her whining.

He glanced down at May out of the corner of his eye, watching as she scrambled clumsily over the same incline. A sharp bit scraped across her thigh, leaving a long, white scratch, but not quite breaking skin. She pretended it hadn't happened.

"Thank Latios." She huffed, dusting some dirt off of her hands.

In truth, the fact that they were nearing the cable car station (Which transported travelers to the top of Mt. Chimney, where they could then climb down the mountain and to Lavaridge, which was on its face) was bittersweet. Sweet because she was going to get a break from the strenuous hiking, but mostly bitter.

She and Brendan were rapidly nearing the end of their journey together, at least for the time being. They'd agreed to go the rest of the way to Mt. Chimney together, where the plan was that May would take the cable car to its peek for Lavaridge while Brendan headed off through a shortcut straight through the mountain and towards Fallarbor.

Although she was sure it would have been easier for him to ditch her a ways back, he'd insisted on accompanying her to the station. "You hardly know your left from right, so no way will you find it without me," he'd said, and seeing as she wasn't eager to part, she hadn't put up much of an argument.

"You trying to bring out your inner slowpoke?" Brendan asked, looking back over his shoulder with a tiny smirk.

May stuck her tongue out at him halfheartedly, but the jab still managed to fall flat. His impending departure had bubbled beneath the surface with increasing persistence for days now, leaving things strangely out of whack between them. Their arguments were less heated, their conversations shorter, and the silence extended over longer periods of time.

The whole thing kind of reminded May of back when they'd first started traveling together, but this was somehow worse. She hated it.

"So," she started, unable to handle the quiet any longer. "Next time you see me, Demi'll have Neptune begging for mercy. We're gonna get that aqua tail and play rough so perfect you'll be wanting to call me coach."

Brendan scoffed. "We'll see about that- Oh."

May discovered the reason for the awkward break in his sentence upon glancing up. There, just ahead of them was a small, slightly beat up old building nestled into the mountainside. Out in front, a sign proclaimed, "For Lavaridge Town to the summit, please take the cable car." Despite its simplicity, it would be impossible to miss if one was following the directed path up the mountain.

They both paused, the tension in the air reaching its peak. "Well… " Brendan offered a weak smile, but it ended up coming out looking more like a grimace. "Don't do anything too stupid without me, okay?"

"No promises." May wrapped her arm around her opposite elbow awkwardly. She couldn't really bring herself to smile, and without really thinking, she added, "Only if you don't take too long with your nerdy mumbo jumbo."

"It's not nerdy," Brendan grumbled, but he nodded all the same. To her slight panic, his eyes left hers and roamed back down the mountainside, where she knew his separate route lay. "But I won't. Well… I guess I should-"

"Wait!" she blurted, and he gave her an odd look. "You should come get something out of the vending machines with me. We've only been eating junk food for days."

Thankfully, Brendan didn't immediately protest or call her out on her borderline pathetic excuses to draw out their separation for as long as possible. He glanced once more in the opposite direction before saying, "Uh. Sure."

"Great! Good," May blabbered, moving towards the building. "I've been craving some Hot Growlios. Ooh, and chocolate sounds good too! What do you think—"

"…You do realize that qualifies as junk food?"

"Whatever. Better junk food," May amended. She reached out a hand to grasp the door handle, but it wouldn't budge. Frowning, she tried to peer inside, but even through the glass, it was all muted shadows. "Um. You're sure this is the place? I don't see any people."

She knew the route was treacherous, but surely the cable car station had guests relatively frequently. Mt. Chimney had to be an ideal spot for sightseers.

Brendan reached around her and gave the door a tug of his own, but it remained firmly in place. "Huh."

"Hey, what do you kids think you're doing, snooping around? We're closed for construction!"

A pair of men in jumpsuits rounded the corner, waving their arms at May and Brendan. The one behind was more heavy set, although both of them had tired, dull eyes, like May trying to open the door had somehow awoken them from a long nap. Their outfits, although definitely akin to those of electrical repair men, hung off of them awkwardly in places, like they didn't quite fit right.

"Hey, move away from the door, little lady," the other said, scowling at May's hand on the glass.

Huffing, she pulled it back against her side. "Well sorr-y."

"What's wrong with the cable car?" Brendan asked, narrowing his eyes at the two men before turning back to the building. May could see a long, thick cable extending so far into the sky that the end of it was obscured by fog, but nothing was visibly damaged.

"What's wrong is we're have technical difficulties," the thinner man growled, moving to stand between them and the building, as if he was afraid they were going to try busting down the walls to get in.

"Can't I at least use the vending machine?" May pleaded, but the men shook their heads at once.

"It's not safe for you inside! If you wanna get around Mt. Chimney soon, you'd better find some other route. Now get outta here so we can finish our job."

May crossed her arms angrily over her chest. "Ugh. Fine."

Before she could say more, Brendan was dragging her further along the slope of the mountain. However, instead of heading upwards, they were staying level.

"C'mon, May," he said, voice irritated. Although a part of her wanted to stay behind and give those rude repairmen a piece of her mind, she found herself distracted by the feel of his hand on her bare shoulder. Suddenly, she wished it wasn't so sweaty…

"I'll bet those idiots are the ones who made that camerupt so mad," Brendan grumbled, pulling May out of her daze. Realizing they were now a good distance from the cable car station, she wiggled her arm out from under his fingers.

"Wouldn't doubt it," she agreed, sending a nasty look over her shoulder despite the fact that the men were too far away to see it. Suddenly, the real problem at hand struck her. "Wait. So how the heck am I supposed to get to Lavaridge now?"

Brendan scrunched his eyebrows up in thought. "Good question…"

"You mean you don't know another way?!" May cried, sapphire eyes widening in alarm.

"We'd better hope the cable car gets fixed soon," he said, peering back at the building. "It's the only way there, unless you want to become a mountain climber. Or hunt down a flying type big enough for you to ride."

She had to get to Lavaridge. All of the other gyms were on the other side of the region (Apart from her dad's, but she preferred not thinking of that one). Traveling this far had taken so long, so no way would she have time to backtrack and do another gym first. At the same time, she couldn't exactly just dawdle in the wilderness until the cable car was fixed. Her supplies would run out within a few days.

May bit her lip, struggling to keep her rising nerves under control. The Winstrates' home wasn't too far away… She supposed that as a last resort, she could always ask to stay with them for a few more days, but she hated to trouble them again.

The obvious solution dawned on her. "Hey! Why don't I just come with you after all?"

Brendan's expression remained contemplative, so she continued hopefully on. "I'm held up either way, so I might as well. If you take too long I'll come back here by myself, but I still have a lot of training to do anyway."

She paused again. Just say it, May, she urged herself, before forcing the words out. "…I'd really kind of like to. If that's okay."

May awaited his response with baited breath. Please say yes, she thought.

Brendan blinked at her, as if she'd caught him a bit off guard. She shuffled, her anxiety rising with every second he took to react.

To her surprise, he finally grinned. "I guess you can."

"Oh, good," she breathed, without thinking.

"I know you wanna spend time with me, but don't get too mushy on me," Brendan interrupted. May froze, horrified that he was on to her, but then she caught his smirk. It seemed significantly lighter than it had over the past few days, and she couldn't help but smile. She punched him playfully on the shoulder.

"As if."

AN: Out of all of my chapters so far, this is the only one that I've written and then completely rewritten. Like, literally, I scrapped 8,000 words, and it was painful. I had this big action scene and May/Brendan bonding along with lots of great moments for May's team and argh. It was probably some of the most exciting material I'd written. I just realized that this direction was better for the plot and May as a character (I felt like the original version was taking away a bit of her character development and ugh), no matter how much more satisfying the original was in general. Plus, this way gave the Winstrates some more screen time, and I quite enjoyed writing them. I also added in the Wally scene that I really ended up liking, so I hope you guys enjoyed it as well!

I did miss May and Brendan's pokemon in this more human-centric chapter, so they'll be back as usual next time.

Anyway, what's new with you guys? How is everyone doing? I hope everything is lovely with all of you.

Next time….

She swallowed. "Do you think he's really up there?

"The Draconids believe he is the savior of Hoenn."