A/N: Hey everyone! Wow I am so so pleased with the reception this fic has received both here and on tumblr! I'm glad you're all enjoying it and I've figured out how long this fic will be. There's roughly seven chapters left to it. This one was a long chapter, wow. But those of you that have been wanting to see more of Maxie and May's relationship, I think will be quite pleased with this~
Next chapter: Team Aqua and Magma decide to go on a camping trip, but how can Archie shape Brendan into a class-A fisherman, and how will the children escape from the ghosts in the woods?
"Sure you don't wanna come along, Maxie?" Archie asked as he hefted a suitcase into their boat. The ship rocked gently among the waves from the force and notably, Maxie hopped back as if it was acid.
"I'm certain. You're going to be on the ocean for three days, Archie. Do you really need to ask if I'd be comfortable joining you?" The very notion of three days packed with nothing but vomiting and salty sea waves made Maxie want to hide in the nearest volcano.
"Aren't you going to miss me?" Archie asked, with his most saucy smile. Maxie scoffed and tried to turn away as if the very idea was ludicrous, but Archie grabbed him around the waist and tugged him into him. After half hearted, rather playful struggles Maxie allowed himself to be cuddled, and even kissed.
"Miss you? It will be a relief to not have to smell the seaweed in your hair for three days!" He sucked in a breath to fight back a laugh as Archie dug his fingers playfully into his sides. "You know I hate that."
"Aye, I do, it's why I do it." Archie pulled back after another kiss, getting ready to lift the anchor. He gazed up when he saw May coming towards the dock, a sad expression on her face. Archie's face fell a little and he bent over the side of the boat to meet her.
"Why can't I come?" May asked, her wide blue eyes shining with sadness. "I'm always allowed to go on your sea expeditions." Her throat felt tight, but she forced it back. For some reason she didn't understand, she felt awful about him leaving and dreaded being alone with Maxie.
"You usually are scamp, but this one is a little more dangerous," he told her. "We're going to a different region and there's frequent storms. Storms that a little one like you aren't equipped for. We're targeting a Thundurus that's been causing a ruckus around the regions. He's causing hurricanes even, and all sorts of frightening things too dangerous for a kid."
"Yeah, a kid that took down a legendary herself!" May blurted angrily. Sometimes both men got so caught up in their protective parent appearances that they forgot what she was capable of. All the girl received was a loving hair ruffle.
"Besides, I'm sure you and Maxie will have fun!"
"Oh yeah," May mumbled under her breath. "I'm really sure of that." Maxie's idea of fun was cleaning the hideout, studying rocks and reading the newspaper. She watched dejectedly as the ship slowly pulled away from the docks, and part of her wondered why she didn't just hide somewhere in the ship as a stowaway.
Maxie watched the ship fade in the distance and turned his gaze to May- May who was gazing down at the sparkling waters miserably. Maxie couldn't help but feel insulted that the girl seemed to abhor his company so much. "Well May, have you cleaned your room like I asked?"
The girl winced. "Er no—I was hoping to go off for a few days, until Archie gets back. I don't know, visit my mom or something, or even see how Steven is doing."
Maxie narrowed his eyes. "You aren't going anywhere young lady, until you clean up that room! It's atrocious! And you didn't make your bed properly, the sides are not parallel! Didn't you use the measuring tape I gave you?"
May fought the urge to roll her eyes, but she didn't want to do anything to make the man even angrier. "No I guess I forgot, thanks for the reminder," she forced out in a dry-but-not-totally-disrespectful tone. "I'll go clean my room then."
"Very well. I have to tidy up the hideout as well. Your pokemon consistently track mud onto the floors!" May had to repress the urge to scream at him that they were living in a cave, but somehow she held her tongue and just stormed back to the cave.
"I'm almost like...a hundred percent sure that Maxie only puts up with me because Archie wants me around," May commented to her pokemon as she slid down against the door. The creatures scattered around her room gazed at her blankly. May's eyes trailed down to the faint prints of dirt on the carpet. "Maxie's right, you guys do track in mud." She sighed and made her way to the bedside.
"Sableye?" her puppet pokemon chirped with a tilt of its head and the glint of its diamond eyes. "Sable?" All of her pokemon gazed quizzically at the girl and her measuring tape, and May sighed. "I have to measure the sides and make sure they're parallel to each other."
"Swampert!"
"No trust me, if it's even slightly off Maxie will notice." A smile tilted at her lips. "They don't call him Nerd Boy for nothing I guess. We gotta like...make sure that everything is perfectly in place." She tugged a Skitty doll out of her Pikachu's mouth. "That means plushies are neatly on the bed too!"
"Pika..."
"Tedious work, I know," May giggled. Swellow's wing caught a CD player on her nightstand and flicked the switch. Immediately, music flowed from the speakers and May whirled to them. "Guys! Guys what are you doing? You know Maxie doesn't like loud music!" But she paused when she saw her pokemon wiggling their butts to the exciting beat. A smile broke over May's face and she started to giggle, more at ease. "You guys are silly."
The pokemon excitedly pranced about and danced about in a circle. Laughing, May could only join them and kicked off her shoes to dance on the bed. If Maxie knew he'd have her head, but she could hear the sound of a vacuum outside of the door anyway. May laughed and twirled around with her pokemon, not noticing her curious little Sableye had sauntered out of the room.
"You guys really know how to cheer me up! Maybe if I just stay in here with you five, these three days will fly by!" She fell to the bed laughing and her excited pokemon bounced along with her. Through her giggles, the girl noticed the empty spot her Sableye had stood in. "Hey...where's Sableye?"
It was then that May caught the sight of a purple creature lumbering towards a night side table in Archie and Maxie's room. May's heart caught in her throat and she darted rapidly towards the room, scooping up her tiny puppet. "Sableye, no!" She pulled back with the pouting pokemon and landed hard on her backside. "What are you doing? We aren't even supposed to be in here, Sableye! We're gonna get into so much trouble!"
She held a hand over Sableye's mouth and gazed around the room. Two different team flags hung from the wall, with a map of Hoenn and a sailboat in a bottle. Archie didn't mind either her or Brendan coming into their bedroom, but...Maxie did. He was very strict on keeping his private stuff away from her—save for the rare night she slept with them both if she was sick or had an awful nightmare.
"Sableye come on! Let's go!" The ghost pokemon wriggled from her arms and blatantly ignored her, climbing the bedside table and tugging open its drawers. "Sableye! Do you want to go into time out in your pokeball?" The naughty ghost responded by tossing a photo album to the ground.
"That's it!" May raised the capsule warningly. "I told you!" A page of the open album caught the girl's eye and she blinked as she reluctantly picked up the heavy album. "Whoa...hey, look at this!" She pointed to a photo, grinning. "It's Maxie and Archie!" It was a picture of them when they were children. Maxie's scientific goggles were replaced with large frames and Archie had an eye patch. Obviously even back then he wanted to be a pirate! "Look how cute they are!"
The Sableye pulled at more things in the drawer and gazed intently at a glass case holding something dark inside. She turned it around in her raggedy hands and May grabbed it back.
"Careful, Sableye! We don't want to break this...what the heck is it?" May squinted her eyes at the glass and turned it over. It was a rock formation, with some sort of interesting indents in it. "This is...really weird. Is this a rock of some sort?"
"May!" a sharp voice snarled from the door. The child was so startled the case fumbled in her hands. Both her, Sableye and Maxie made a grab for it at once, but the glass hit the ground, shattering into a million pieces. The fossil inside hit the hard ground and chipped, a crack splitting up it.
May heard Maxie's breath hold and her own heart thudded against her chest in a panic. She had no idea what that rock was, but it had to be pretty important to be in a glass case. "Maxie, I..."
"What...have you done?"
"It was an accident!" May cried, her voice trembling. "I didn't mean it Maxie!" He ignored her, pushing past her and trying to scoop up the fragments of what remained of the object. "I got—you scared me when you yelled and I dropped-"
"You weren't even supposed to be in here!" the man yelled. Somehow a tall spindly nerd struck more fear into the child's heart than any legendary pokemon ever could or would. "This is why you don't touch my things! Do you have any idea what this is?!" He didn't wait for her to finish and May could see genuine pain in the man's eyes. "This is the very first fossil I ever found," he told her, gazing sorrowfully down at the soiled relic. "The first fossil that Archie and I ever found together."
May fought back the tears. The guilt made her want to throw up, and the thought that Archie could be just as angry at her was terrifying. "Maxie, I didn't know..."
"Of course you didn't!" the man snapped back viciously. "You'll never know just what it takes to unearth one of these, or how deep into Mount Chimney we had to venture to find this fossil!"
"I can fix it!" the child protested and tried to figure out in her mind if any of her pokemon's moves could somehow repair the cracks or even the glass. Maybe she could even get some super glue, but she wasn't sure if it would heal rock properties.
"You can't fix it, it's ruined!" he snarled and slammed the fossil down on the bedside table.
"You're just gonna break it more!"
"I don't need some stupid child to tell me what to do!"
May recoiled in shock and hurt, and became just as angry. "Don't call me stupid!" She felt awful for breaking something Maxie treasured so much but she was sick of the man's treatment of her, and didn't understand the complications or even impossibility of finding another identical fossil. "Can't you...just get another?"
"Of course you think it's that simple," he snapped. "Of course you think it's as easy as finding another one of these with your ignorant mind!"
May gritted her teeth. "Well I'm sorry I'm not a super intelligent scientist like you!"
"Of course you aren't!" Maxie's temper was boiling. "You're nothing but a child who would be nothing without her pokemon there to help her!"
May went completely silent after that and just stared at the man as if he was a complete stranger she didn't even know. She opened her mouth to speak but the tears filled her eyes and clogged her voice. Maxie turned to pick up the glass and looked back to find her gone. All that remained in the room was a sad, droopy little Sableye gazing up at him with disappointed and sad diamond eyes. Maxie smothered a sick feeling in his chest and waved to the ghost pokemon. "Go on! You leave too!"
May sat at the edge of her bed hiccuping out sobs as her pokemon tried in vain to comfort her. Swellow wrapped its wings around her and Pikachu tried to stroke her hair, but the distraught girl shook them off. "I can't believe he'd even say that to me," she whispered, pained. "I was right, he doesn't care about me. Maxie only tolerates me because of Archie. And now...I just made him hate me even more."
"Pika..." Pikachu crooned sadly, a yellow paw wiping her tears. The girl clutched the pokemon like a plushie.
"I should just go stay with Mom," May whispered into the soft yellow fur. "All I do is make his life miserable." Tear filled eyes looked to the door. Maxie was probably cleaning up the glass and brooding about how much he hated her.
"I don't know what's so complicated about finding fossils. If you go deep enough into a cave or something you can find one can't you?" Her pokemon exchanged looks and looked back at her, shrugging their shoulders in unison. "I may not be a scientist...but I think I can find a rock in a mountain!" She hopped up and sniffled. "I fought a Kyogre after all! I saved the world! If there's anyone that can do this it's me!" She pumped her fist.
"Swampert!" her Swampert exclaimed, slapping its claws together eagerly. Swellow crowed and the rest of her pokemon hopped around at the prospect of more adventuring.
"Of course!" May laughed, wiping her eyes. "It'll be another grand expedition for..."
"You're nothing but a child who would be nothing without her pokemon there to help her!"
May's heart twisted at the memory and her lip started to quiver. After a moment, her eyes hardened in foolish absolution. "No, you know what? None of you are coming with me." Her pokemon cried out at once. "Trust me on this, I can find that fossil on my own."
Her pokemon exchanged worried looks, a sinking feeling in their stomachs. Something felt ominous...
"I love you guys, but I'll really be fine. I know my way through Mount Chimney well enough..." Her eyes flashed. "And I can do more without my pokemon by my side!" She tossed things in a backpack—a little shovel, a map, rope—all things she thought she might need for some fossil digging. Luckily her backpack already had enough in it from previous adventures that she didn't have to leave to get stuff and have Maxie question where she was going. ...That is, if Maxie would even care.
"Maybe I make Maxie's life terrible, but I can at least do this for him to try and make it up to him somehow." Even if it was just a bit, maybe then she wouldn't feel totally useless. "I'll be back by nightfall." Before she left she grabbed her Eon Flute. She needed some way to reach Mount Chimney.
"It's around here," May said, eying the crumpled map in her hands. She should really know where it was already, but the girl had explored so many places that some of them just got pushed to the back of her mind. "Mount Chimney ahead!" May told her pokemon with a light pat to the Latias's head.
"La!" the flying pokemon crooned, eying the large structure with both excitement and trepidation. Smoke poured from the mountain's opening and the rim of the rocky edges glowed a fiery red. "This goes without saying, but don't dive into the opening of the volcano," May laughed. "I know it seems like an easy option—but it's definitely a deadly one."
The Latias snorted and flicked it's head wings into her face in response, diving down to touch down on the rocky base outside of the mountain. May hopped off her pokemon's back and shrugged her backpack onto her shoulders. She gazed up to the top of the mountain. Somehow it seemed even larger and more foreboding then before.
"Well...here I go, I guess." The Latias flew up in front of her, chirping happily. "No, no...you need to stay here."
"La?!" the pokemon cried in alarm. It eyed her belt. It wouldn't be so worried were it not for the fact that May's belt was empty. She didn't have her pokemon with her. "I'll really be okay. I won't be there long—in and out! And I know my way around well enough." The Latias looked doubtful. "Stay here," May told her.
Latias trilled in distress, but May gently tied the end of the rope around the flying pokemon's waist and tied the other edge to a rock. "So you won't be tempted to follow me..."
"La..."
She shuddered as she climbed the steps of the mountain, feeling cold despite the boiling lava that lay underneath the rocks.
Maxie growled as he swept the last of the glass shards into a dust pan and tossed it into a trash can. "Cleaning the base has taken even longer than usual thanks to that meddling girl!" he huffed. "A whole expedition, ruined..."
He replaced the damaged fossil a best as he could on the bedside table and up righted something that had been knocked over. He felt a pang when he saw what it was: A photo, of him, Archie and May wearing their silly costumes at the father-daughter picnic. He tried to ignore the photo, but something in him compelled him to pick it up.
Expression softer and gentle, Maxie gazed over towards May's door. He hadn't heard a sound since the girl ran off to her room. There had to be something he could do to make things up to her...
"May?" Maxie called, knocking on the girl's door. "May, are you in there?" He hesitated. "I'm...I'm going to have a cup of tea—hot chocolate, and some cookies. Would you like to join me?" He didn't receive a response, so Maxie opened the door.
The room was dark and when he switched on a light, all the man saw were five pokemon, curled up on the bed and floor. For some reason, despite the fact Maxie knew very well that the girl could be anywhere in their large base, an irrational panic seized him. "Where's May?"
The five pokemon exchanged worried looks and that was enough for Maxie's heart to plummet. Something was wrong. May didn't go anywhere without her pokemon on her belt. "...She isn't in the base, is she." It wasn't even a question.
Swampert and Pikachu exchanged looks with the other pokemon. For Maxie that was enough. "I know where she is..." Barely having the time to scoop up his pokeballs, Maxie darted from the hideout, and no increment of time could measure just how fast he did it.
May never felt fearful when entering Mount Chimney before...but she never left defenseless either. She had her pokemon with her and this time, she was equipped with nothing but her shovel and some rope.
"...I don't even know where to start," she realized, staring about the volcano in a dumbfounded stupor. She was standing in the middle of a volcano with a little shovel in hand and only now did she realize how stupid she looked. Good thing no one could see her. The pokemon that could were probably laughing at her.
May heard a small grunt and she turned to see a wild Numel. Her blood froze and she knew she needed to move very cautiously so not to provoke an attack. The camel pierced her with its gaze.
"Numel..."
"Yeah...okay." Slowly, May backed up and put her hands up to assure the camel she meant no harm. "Look, you just go on your way okay? You don't bother me and I won't bother you." The camel narrowed its eyes but May broke eye contact and moved towards the rocks.
"I didn't even ask Maxie where the heck to find fossils! I'm not an arche...archeo...oh, I can't even say it!" She almost threw the shovel to the ground, but Maxie's stinging words hounded at her skull. "...I can prove to him that I can do this." Determinedly, May turned back to the rocks and tried to calculate a way to scale down the rocks without tumbling into the boiling lava.
"Maybe I should just...start digging." She had no idea how deep she was supposed to go and wanted to avoid the lava if it was at all possible.
"Numel..." May turned to glare at the camel, wary to see the wild pokemon had drawn even closer to her. It snorted at her. "Numel!"
"I'm not going to do anything to you!" May grunted at the pokemon, shoving the shovel even deeper into the rocks. "Get out of here alright?" The camel started stamping its feet.
The girl flinched when she heard the distant crow of bats; Zubats, Golbats, Crowbats... As long as she stayed away from the dark parts of the mountain she should be safe. Maybe if she went closer to the lava she could avoid them all together. Cautiously, May began to dig around, sticking the shovel into the easier parts of the rock. She wasn't even sure what she was looking for, but figured if she found a rock that looked weird maybe it'd be a fossil.
She chipped away more at an opening in the rocks until pieces started to chip away. Suddenly the distant screeching grew louder. May's heart started to pound. A deafening flap filled her ears and she was knocked back by a sudden swarm of angry Golbats that filled the air. The sounds they made were absolutely deafening.
"Latias!" May tried to scream to be heard over the screams of the bats. They swooped at her and May's hands flailed towards her belt to find nothing. No pokemon. "Stop! I didn't mean it! I can fix your home!" She batted uselessly at the swarm, but it was no use. A piercing pain punctured her neck and May found herself instantly immobilized as the creature started hungrily sucking at her neck. May's limbs quivered and her knees buckled, the energy starting to leave her and her vision started to fade.
"Numel!" Suddenly, the same little Numel from before charged as fast as its slow little limbs could muster, sending a blast of fire towards the bats. They screeched and withdrew from the girl, a few of them starting to target the little fire camel.
One of the Golbats sent a blast of supersonic towards the camel and it shook its head furiously to try and shake off the fog from its mind. May however was not quite so fortunate. Pokemon attacks that hit a human were twice as effective and dangerous for them, and harder to recover from, so May's eyes glazed over immediately.
Already dazed from the attack, May started to stumble around. It sounded like she was under the water and all she could hear was a combination of noises: screeching from the Golbats, the ringing of her ears—something that sounded almost like someone shouting her name in the distance? She stumbled, disoriented, to what she thought was the exit of the mountain.
"Nume! Numel!" But it was the edge of the formations leading to the lava instead, and Numel could only watch in shock as the girl tumbled off the edge, and to the lava below. "Numel!" The little pokemon stared over the edge below and saw the girl in a crumpled heap, motionless on the rocks at the edge of the lava.
"Camerupt, use ember!" A shot of fire suddenly soared into the air towards the angry bats above. They screeched in pain as the flames touched their wings and hurriedly flew away from the entrance, letting Maxie make his way through the swarm. His Crobat attacked the remaining swarm, but was hardly a match for dozens of angry bats. "May!" Maxie desperately called out. He couldn't see the girl anywhere. "May!"
"Numel! Nume!" the wild Numel grunted. Maxie turned his head towards the little fire camel, seeing the desperation on its face. "What is it?! Have you seen a girl with a red bow?" The Numel waddled as hurriedly as it could to the edge of the rocks, and fearing the worst, Maxie shakily peered over the rocks.
There was nothing to describe the terror and agony that slammed his chest at once at what he saw. Maxie had to wonder, as he scaled down the rocks, if this was what a heart attack felt like. "May!" he screamed to the motionless form on the rocks. He faltered in his steps, his knees shaking. Maxie fell to the ground and threw a hand to his mouth. The image of the child he was certain was dead blurred behind a wall of tears. "Oh Arceus, no..."
This was his fault, all of his fault...
"Numel!"
A loud crack shook Maxie abruptly from his grief and his head shot up to see the ground May was laying on was beginning to crack and break away. "May!" With a loud tear of the earth, the ground broke away and the foundation May had laid on was now a teeter totter in a deadly sea of red.
"Nnn..." The child on the rock shifted. Slowly, her eyes opened. The ringing in her ears started to fade and the sounds around her and her surroundings became more clear. May could see the frantic man and the pulsing, steaming liquid around her. She sat up, terrified, and she screamed.
"It's alright May!" Maxie tried to soothe the terrified child, even when his own heart was in danger of beating out of his chest. "Stay still! You're going to be alright, just listen to my voice!"
It was the most bitter and frightening sense of irony that Maxie had ever experienced in his life: To have the thing he loved and studied, volcanoes...become something of his worst nightmare in less than a second. The rock that May was on began to slowly break away, and screaming, May withdrew her legs to try and keep them away from the lava.
"No! May!" It was no use. The child was at too much of a distance from the man, and the boiling lava made it impossible to navigate. One wrong move, one single roll and the child would tumble into the lava. That'd be the end of her. "Numel!" he shouted to the little fire camel. "Get...get help!" The little camel waddled off as fast as it could go. Maxie had no idea where he even sent the little thing.
"Maxie, I'm scared!" May sobbed.
"I know..." Maxie held out a hand as if he could magically soothe the girl in some way. "I'm afraid too." He searched around desperately for some way to fish the girl out, but his Crobat was unconscious from the fight with the Golbats and there was no other pokemon near him that could fly.
Both were stranded at different lengths and May was running out of time. Maxie looked around desperately for some way to pull the girl out, but there was nothing. The platform drifted closer to land and Maxie did some quick calculations in his head. If she jumped now, she might just have enough distance...
The ground rumbled and the rock split more. No time for calculations. "May, you need to jump!"
"What?!"
"You're close enough that you can jump to safety!"
"No!" May sobbed and balled up more. "I can't do it!"
"Yes you can!" Maxie told her urgently, but his expression softened to something that May had never seen before. "I won't let you fall..."
They locked eyes; twin fearful orbs gazing right at each other. "Trust me," Maxie coaxed to the girl. He leaned over the edge of the rocks with his arms outstretched. "You're going to be okay."
The child's tearful eyes darted from the lava to Maxie. The ledge she was on crumbled more, until she was practically tottering on the edge of it. She shut her eyes tightly and took a huge lunge. She grabbed onto the side of the rocks and Maxie quickly took a hold of her arms, tugging back with all his might until he pulled the girl to safety.
They both fell backwards to the ground and May sobbed uncontrollably as she clung to Maxie as if he was the last remnant on earth. Without a second thought, Maxie's arms wrapped just as tightly around the child, practically crushing her to his chest as she sobbed harshly into him.
"Oh May..." the man whispered, his voice a weak croak. "I thought you were..." He couldn't even say the word.
Her hysterics calmed slowly, comforted by the man's surprisingly warm arms. She still shook like a leaf. "I... I thought so too." Something dripped onto her forehead and May looked up, shocked to see Maxie's eyes filled with tears. "Maxie, are you...crying?"
"I..." He didn't even bother to rebuke the question and he brushed his hand over his eyes to find them wet. "It appears so. A sight you were certain you'd never see, hm?" The girl giggled softly.
The tearful reunion was interrupted by an increased and constant rumble of the mountain. It was so intense at this point that the two could hardly stand and Maxie tried to stagger to his feet with May in his arms. The lava near them began to bubble and slosh like an angry sea.
"La! Laaa!" The two gazed up from the rumbling to see Latias flying above, with the wild Numel on its back. The rope around its neck was burned at the edge from the Numel's escape effort. It trilled in distress when it spotted the two and dove down to them.
"Latias!" May cried joyfully from Maxie's arms. The pokemon dove forward and grabbed them both just as a geyser of lava splashed the spot they were standing in. Safe away from the eruption, Maxie and May watched with morbid fascination as the area they were in mere minutes before filled with lava.
"I hope the pokemon living there are alright," May murmured. "Even those stupid Golbats."
"They'll be fine, child. Pokemon can sense when there's going to be an eruption and that's probably why the mountain was barren compared to what it usually is." He placed a hand gently on the girl's forehead. "In the meantime, let's get you home and tend to your injuries."
May nodded and was barely able to get out a mumble of thanks before the exhaustion and ordeal took a toll on her and everything faded to gray.
She awoke surrounded by warm, soft flannel and quilts, and she felt a pressure sitting on the edge of legs. May flickered her eyes open and winced at a blinding pain that made her shut them again.
"Easy now," Maxie spoke gently. "Welcome back...you passed out on our way back here. I should have figured that the ordeal you went through and the combined adrenaline would be more than what your little body could handle."
"It wasn't a good type of adrenaline," May mumbled and Maxie chuckled.
"I wouldn't imagine. By the way...there's a lot of pokemon of yours that are quite worried for you." He leaned back as every one of May's pokemon climbed the bed (the two that were too big stayed by her side to nuzzle her face).
May laughed as she scooped up and cuddled her Pikachu and Sableye. "I missed you guys too." She looked over them to Maxie. "I thought you didn't like pokemon on the bed."
"I'll make an exception this time," he said wryly. "Oh, and there's someone else who is curious on how you're doing." He looked over his shoulder, and the little Numel from before curiously made its way to the bed.
"The little Numel!" May pet the camel's head. "Hey, thanks buddy! If it weren't for you I'd probably be melted to a puddle!"
"Numel!"
"It seems the pokemon has taken quite a liking to you," Maxie commented. "Perhaps you should consider training it?"
"You'd let me keep it?" May asked, blinking.
"Of course, it's a fire type after all! Better than those water monsters." Swampert snorted, offended.
"You must be really angry, huh?" May sighed, not having the courage to look Maxie in the eyes.
"I am." She flinched. "At myself, not you."
"You are?" the girl asked, wincing at the pain from the bump on her head. "Oh, it hurts... You must think I'm the biggest idiot on the planet. But then, you already thought that."
"I never thought that," Maxie told her. "Even when you were out in the lava and looked like you weren't going to survive the conditions, you did," Maxie told her as he pressed a cold compress to the bump on her forehead. "You're special that way."
"I thought you said I was nothing without my pokemon," May muttered, her eyes lowered away from him and her tone bitter and hurt. His face softened into one of guilt immediately.
"I said that in a moment of extreme anger and for that I'll forever regret it, but I did not mean what I said. There was no way I could have." He pulled the blankets further up to her chin and tucked her in, a hand hesitantly resting on the girl's. After a moment of contemplation, May's fingers inched slightly over to his questionably.
"May, you may be the champion because of the strength of your pokemon, but that's not who you are and why you are strong and special." He smiled gently. "You're special because of your inner strength, your good heart. You're special because you opened our eyes and you saved us."
The child's skeptical expression became embarrassed and she drew the covers up over her mouth.
"Who knows what would have become of our world, what would have become of us..." He shook his head. "The countless lives we could have taken and destroyed, the endless pokemon and humans alike that would have suffered. You opened our eyes, showed us what we were doing was bringing harm...and you did not need your pokemon for that." His smile widened. "So perhaps you needed your pokemon to become the champion...but you only needed you to be the savior of our world. Archie and I will be forever grateful to you for that, for the rest of our lives."
May's eyes became dewy and her mouth creased. "I thought you hated me... I thought you just kept me around and looked after me because that's what Archie wanted. I thought if I did fall in the lava...you wouldn't care." Maxie's heart tightened.
"I wouldn't be able to live with myself if you had..."
May's eyes filled with further tears. "Really?" she asked, sniffling. "But the fossil... I broke it."
He shook his head, the value of the fossil now worthless to him compared to what he almost lost over it. "The fossil...is simply a meaningless rock. It's worth doesn't even begin to compare to yours. I would rather watch all the research I have ever done in my life burn in the lava than seeing you be hurt." And he meant every word.
"But I thought that fossil was the most special thing in the world to you," May said, smiling through her tears.
"No...the most special thing to me is who I almost lost today." He cleared his throat. "May, even when we just met I respected you, and we were enemies at the time. I saw a strong girl who'd fight for what she believed in, just as I would. And you became a dear friend to Archie and I after you helped us see. Lately you have come to mean even more to Archie...and until today I didn't realize..."
Maxie lowered his head. "I know I'm not as...open with my affection as Archie is, but I assure you that you..." He trailed off, not very articulate with matters of the heart. "I've grown...accustomed to having you around. No, I..." He paused and he looked at the curious and tearful girl. Finally, he gave a resigned sigh and a slight smile. "...I love you just as much." The old Maxie frown returned. "But don't let this get to your head!"
The girl tossed off the countless layers of blankets before Maxie could protest and threw her arms around his neck tightly. "I love you too." Maxie's hand faltered for a moment before he smiled and hesitantly folded his arms around her. The embrace was foreign to him, but he decided after the child fell asleep with her head in his lap and the pokemon curled around them, it was something that he could get used to.
A/N: I couldn't remember if Camerupts were able to swim in lava! I mean I know their bodies are volcanoes, but they still have skin and bones so for the safe side I didn't have Camerupt swim in the lava XD And since Mount Chimney doesn't have wild pokemon (since it's just this lava crater) I improvised