Hello Again! I know this was originally supposed to be a one-shot, but I got several requests to make a continuation, specifically, Steven giving his gift to May in the same universe, so here it is! I know it's a little late, as it's based on New Year's Eve, but I hope you can still somehow enjoy this piece! Thanks for reading!
New Year's Eve. That's when she'd see Steven again. New Year's Eve. Wallace was having a party at his place in Sootopolis, and naturally they had both been invited. So, naturally, that was the original intention of when they were planning on exchanging gifts for the holidays, was at said party. Of course, due to a complete meltdown caused by a lack of sleep and high levels of infatuation (or at least, May was fairy certain that was the cause of it), those little details had completely slipped her mind when she decided that she needed to give her gift to Steven on Christmas morning.
Which, in turn, led to high levels of mostly innocent but still embarrassing eye contact and hand-holding. So really, one might say that the little all-nighter she pulled ended up being completely worth it.
Which was why, strongest trainer in the Hoenn region, May, could not settle her tizzy brain and stomach on her flight from Littleroot to Sootopolis. The party was meant to start at 8:30, so she left with Latias at 8:30, in hopes of the party already being populated and busy by the time that she got there, and not being one of the first awkward few at the scene. And by first awkward few, in her mind, she really meant herself and Steven. She knew Steven would be there on time if not before, as there was no doubt in her mind that Wallace would've wrapped him into helping him get ready for the party. And it wasn't that May wasn't wanting to see Steven, either, but in fact, quite the opposite. However, she was definitely nervous.
When May eventually got to Wallace's place, she was somewhat surprised at what she saw. There were maybe 12-14 people there, all sitting in the living room (which was also covered in cheesy decorations, no surprise there). But what was surprising, was the format of the room. Some people were paired off in discussions, but the small majority of guests were settled around a table playing some game. May didn't know what she had expected, but she found herself feeling relieved with both the number of people there, and the layout of the "party." TV and movies always made parties out to be huge and loud and dark. The room was decently lit, there was some background music underneath the sound of somewhat loud conversation (people were drinking, after all), and there was a table set up against the wall full of party foods and spirits. This was definitely more of May's scene.
As May entered the room, it was easy for everyone to momentarily pause and welcome her presence, and the whole room chimed in a resounding and excited, "May!" Wallace immediately stood up and walked toward her, arms wide, "Welcome to my humble abode, champion of Hoenn! Please, help yourself to something to eat and let me get you a drink!" Now walking towards the make-shift bar, he continued, "What will you be having tonight? Our house punch this evening is Poliwrath Punch, a delightful blend of pamtre berry juice, rum, sitrus berry bitters, and topped off with belue berry wine!"
"Wow, then it's not even a question, I'll have a glass of that!" May said, her pep returning, grateful that he offered. May wouldn't have known what to ask for, anyway. She pulled out a tall brown bag and said, "I also brought a bottle of Luvdisc Blush for midnight!" She pulled the pink bubbly champagne out of the bag and set it on the table next to all the other bottles. For the amount of people here, it seemed like they sure had a lot of liquor. It was actually May's mother who told her to bring a bottle of something, too. Apparently it was customary to bring a bottle of something for a New Year's Eve party. May didn't drink much, so she had consulted Lisia when she was trying to decide what to buy for the evening.
"Oh, I see you went with my suggestion!" Lisia exclaimed. May's attention was immediately brought to her, who was sitting at the table, and May began to approach. Also at the table was Winona, Brawly, Flannery, Phoebe, Sidney, Roxanne, and of course, the one she was the most anxious about seeing, Steven Stone. And respectively, May shared greetings with everyone at the table. When May got to Steven, he just barely raised his hand and cheekily waved at her, giving a sheepish side-smile. May just lifted her shoulders and grinned back at him.
"Well come on, sit, sit!" Lisia cheered at her, patting the now empty spot between her and Steven, which was clearly where Wallace was sitting prior. May naturally hesitated at first, but before she could even look back to check with Wallace, she heard him say, "Don't worry Miss Champion, I'll pull up another chair." May did her best to look pleased as she worked her way over to sit between Steven and Lisia, and not let it show that her head was actually spinning about sitting right next to Steven. At least, May figured, this could prevent them from having awkward eye contact from across the table. Yeah, now it was just going to be full of awkward "am I too close," bumping elbows, grazing hands, and accidental thigh touching.
Accidental.
Right after sitting down, May couldn't help but turn towards Steven and flash him a shy smile and ask "How was your Christmas?" As soon as she looked at him though, she noticed, his eyes were downcast towards her hands and forehead was just slightly creased. He turned his head and raised his eyes and eyebrows after her question though to meet her face, and his expression changed from somewhat dazed back to his usual princely stature with a smile.
"I had a marvelous holiday. Pleasant company, and definitely better food than what I eat regularly, that's for sure," he answered, chuckling a bit after, "and yours?"
"I ate too much like I always do and went right into a food coma! Granny's food kinda always has that effect on me," May said, also giggling after her response.
"Well," Steven responded back, lowering his voice just a touch, "You had also had a long day so far at that point too, so it's understandable that you fell asleep at some point."
Just in time to prevent May from getting too blushy at Steven's nonchalent reminder of their last encounter, Wallace had returned to the table with May's drink and another chair for himself. "May, you're just in time to join us for a game of Shots and Ladders!" Wallace proclaimed.
May looked down at the table. The board definitely looked like the childhood game of Shoots and Ladders, but the game pieces were definitely shot glasses. There was also text on a lot of the squares. Some were clear with "Truth" or "Dare," but some of them just had nonsensical messages on them.
"But don't worry," Phoebe chimed in, "if you're not comfortable taking shots, you can take a sip of your drink instead when you go down a slide, or if you land on something else that requires a shot, you can have your drink instead."
May was definitely relieved to hear that. She definitely didn't drink very often (or ever? Maybe just a martini or something on her 21st, but nothing major then or since then), so at least this way, even playing a game, she could try to monitor her intake somewhat.
They began to play, to drink, to eat, and to overall be merry. Roll the dice, move that many spaces, follow any directions you might have, the game was simple enough to understand. One round, everyone had to put their Pokénav on the table in a pile and the first one to go off had to drink.
It was during a round of waterfall while May was watching Steven to finish drinking, that she noticed the ring she gave him was still on his ring finger on his left hand.
So he wasn't able to get it resized yet, okay, not a big deal. It had only been five days, after all, and everyone is usually still caught up in the spirit of the holidays during that last week of December. Still, May felt her cheeks get hot, although it could definitely be the punch she was still drinking during this seemingly forever round of waterfall.
And of course they bumped elbows for every thumb master in attempt to sneak their thumbs onto the table.
Another round, Wallace got stuck "speaking with Archie's accent" until his next turn.
"Aye? Fancy I better fix meself another…grog?" Wallace said with the most awful pirate-esque accent anyone had ever heard, and everyone laughed vicariously in their tipsiness as Wallace dismissed himself to get another drink.
It wasn't until this momentary pause in the game that May noticed that her side-chats with Steven were becoming fewer and shorter. At this time, he was turned to his right, having an engaging conversation with Roxanne.
No, don't be dumb, don't be stupid, don't be jealous.
Besides, it wasn't like she hadn't been getting girly-chatty with Lisia at her left all night. It was so nice to see her outside of the contest hall. Sure, she wasn't in her Contest Spectacular attire, but she still looked amazingly fabulous as always. May was definitely grateful for becoming friends with Lisia for things like that. It was thanks to her that May had an outfit for the party, brought a suitable table offering, etc etc. Lisia was quite the socialite.
What also probably helped May and Lisia have uninterrupted girly side-chat was that every time Brawly attempted to snag her attention, Wallace eyed him down.
"Alright, so," Lisia started up again, this time grabbing May's hands to turn her towards her, but holding onto them while she talked, "I was obviously too sober to ask about them before, and now that Steven is distracted, now's the perfect time."
Oh my gosh what. Lisia no what are you about to say next?
"You've got to tell me what's going on with these rings? I didn't want to ask Steven cause I figured he'd go off into a nerd rant but when you got here and I saw that you had the same one, I just HAD to ask you! They're so beautiful! Where did you get yours?"
Oh my gosh she had NO IDEA. May had a slight moment of relief while her partially inebriated mind scraped for how to explain the one-of-a-kind jewelry, while at the same time trying to keep her ear trained on the conversation happening to the right of her, so far only being geology jargon she didn't understand. Oh well I made them myself with my Pokémon and they're made of a special stone and designed to represent a Legendary Pokémon that we have a special bond over. Oh and also he's wearing his on his RING FINGER.
But actually, May might have said all of that had they been a little more private.
"Oh, well, ah," May jumbled, but decided it was okay to disclose a little bit, since the conversation behind her was definitely still rock-talk, "It's hand-crafted, and modeled after Latias…"
"Hand-crafted? Oh my gosh that's so cool! And based on a legendary Pokémon, huh? Too cool!" Lisia gushed, still holding May's hands and examining the ring, "It's just so beautiful, and I was hoping I could get one like it, but I guess not if it's one of a kind. Bummer! But still really awesome!"
And in that pause of dialogue, was when May's ear picked up the question.
"So you've got to tell me about this ring! I know it's new and I've wanted to ask all night. Where did you get it? What stone is set in there?"
May could feel all the blood rushing to her head. Her face felt hot enough to cook an egg, and she knew this was all nerves, because she had been drinking only water for the past hour (much to Lisia's dismay).
She could feel Steven shift slightly behind her before he answered. Did she turn around? Or did she continue having a conversation with Lisia so as to not make the rings with Steven an entire thing? Would Steven make it an entire thing?
May couldn't help herself but to turn ever so slightly to the right and the moment she did, she felt Steven do the same. To Roxanne, she probably felt like she had asked a perfectly acceptable and normal conversational question, but May felt like the world slipped into half-time. Did everyone around them see how awkward this was, or were things just moving more slowly for May in her mind? Steven was already giving an answer and she felt her brain wipe clean so she could listen to his response.
"It's set with Soul Dew, the stone of myth surrounding Latios and Latias, and the ring itself has much history surrounding it. I'm incredibly lucky to have come into ownership of this piece."
Had she heard him correctly? Steven had just given an explanation that was both flattering and ambiguous? The lump in her throat started to dissipate but there were approximately 23 Beautifly in her chest fluttering about. The fact that Steven worded it so articulately, so precisely without including her or the actual meaning in the explanation, implied the understood implications of those rings.
Wait. That was definitely a large and warm hand that covered May's right hand. And that hand definitely grasped her hand from underneath and gingerly lifted her hand. He was holding her right hand, which had her matching ring on it, with his left hand, where he still had his ring on his ring finger. Yup, he was definitely showing everyone. That was exactly where this was going.
Or was it? May tensely turned to look at Steven, and in the process, realized that, as she looked around the room, everyone was having their own side conversations and the only people particularly paying them any attention were Roxanne and Lisia, but it looked like Roxanne had already moved on to Brawly. When May looked at Steven, he was looking at her hand, gently gracing his thumb over her fingertips. He then lifted his gaze to meet May's eyes, and his cheeks were definitely flushed, causing May to dart her eyes toward the table to identify his glass, which was empty, so she could correlate the color of his cheeks to that.
"May…" Steven started, holding eye contact with her. May was trying to sort through her debacle of just how much she had to drink tonight and how much of what she was feeling right now in this moment was due to how much she drank tonight (which wasn't that much? She had maybe two glasses and water after each but she had no idea what time it was) or the scenario that was unfolding before her that she also had no idea quite what said scenario was. All she knew was that she was looking into Steven's eyes, and he was holding her hands yet again, and looking at her with some form of longing in his eyes.
"I…still need to give you your Christmas present," Steven said, somewhat cautiously, somewhat searching May's face with his eyes. "Is it okay if we go outside? It's getting kind of loud and warm in here."
May simply nodded, and without a moments' hesitation, Steven stood up, still holding onto one of May's hands, and led her toward the front door. This was really happening. Steven was leading her out of the apartment, just the two of them. And it seemed normal, yet thrilling at the same time.
Once they got outside, they stood against the side of the house at first. He was still holding her hand, but was now looking up at the sky, so May joined him and looked up, too. It was surreal, looking up at the night sky from within the crater that was Sootopolis. While she was still looking up, she felt a release of her hand, and then a moment later, when she looked back at Steven, his arms were around her neck.
Yup, he was definitely fastening a necklace.
"It's not quite anything compared to what you got me…" Steven started, now that the necklace was fastened around her, bringing a shy hand behind his head and looking slightly lower than her face at the new pink pendant that hung around her neck, "but this stone reminded me of you, and I thought you should wear it," then, his face becoming an even deeper shade of crimson (which could totally be because of the chilly night air), he continued, now attempting to keep eye contact with her, "it would definitely go with your contest outfit, I think."
May looked down at her gift, seeing the new necklace that had been given to her. It was a pink gemstone, barely refined, minimally held by a tiny screw and on a silver chain. It was definitely pretty, May had to give him that, and she knew stones were a huge deal to Steven, and not just anybody was so lucky as to receive a gift from him that involved a gem stone he found, nonetheless one he said had reminded him of her.
"Steven, I really love it," May almost whispered, still looking down at the pendant and bringing a hand up to hold it and better examine it. When she tilted it in her fingers, it gave off a soft white glow thanks to the moonlight. It really was very pretty, she realized, now noticing the flecks of white and maroon. Maybe it wouldn't hurt to start showing some more interest in stones, if it meant that it was something she could talk about with Steven.
May watched as two hands joined hers at the stone that sat just above her breast, and would be surprised if Steven couldn't feel her heightening heartbeat with how close his hands were, because she felt her heart was about to burst through her chest. He was drawing closer again, and May tried to push through the embarrassment to look at his face, and he lifted his eyes to do the same, their faces only inches apart.
Steven let out a small sigh of relief, and grew a cheeky half-smile. "I'm thankful you like it," he voiced softly, now letting go of the stone and focusing both hands on her one hand, "it suits you quite nicely, and I hope you find occasions suitable to wear it."
"Hah, more like if I'm ever gonna take it off!" May chimed cheerily, unable to stop a small grin that she immediately covered with a fist of her free hand.
Steven's smile disappeared, and he looked at May with a touch of surprise. Wait, was what I said bad? Then Steven let go of her hand, and turned to lean back again on the side of the house, a fist over his mouth and head tilted down, brow furrowed and eyes focused on the ground.
"My apologies, May," Steven started, and thank goodness for that, because May was unsure of quite what was going on with him or how to address it. Why did he suddenly break their closeness? "I've had more to drink tonight than I initially anticipated. Those rounds of waterfall are definitely what got me."
Was that it? Beyond the color of his face, May didn't particularly notice his behavior to be any different or abnormal. May tried to push a small laugh and said, "You were always unobservant for thumb-master, too."
"Yes, my attention tonight has definitely been...elsewhere," he responded, even now still retaining a very flushed hue across his cheeks. "May, please tell me, have I been too...bold...tonight?"
Now was May's turn to look surprised. Bold? Interpreting that she might want to be careful of how she worded things as to not be misunderstood, due to Steven recognizing that he was in fact at the very least somewhat inebriated, May couldn't help but be forward in her next question. "Well, I don't know particularly about tonight, but do you realize what finger you've been wearing my ring on?"
At these words, Steven shot his eyes back at May, but his face immediately turned into embarrassment, and then he looked back down at the ground, now throwing his hand behind his neck once again, "Yes. I'm concerned that I've been misconstruing this whole ordeal. I noticed early on tonight that you had changed the finger of your ring and since then, I've been trying to anticipate how to have this conversation, which," Steven chuckled softly, now pushing his hand through his hair front to back, "I suppose the Poliwrath Punch took care of that?"
May had no earthly idea as how to respond initially. Was that a...confession...that she just heard? At least now she understood all those gazes she caught of his eyes to her hands, and now they made some sense. Even though her entire face was hot and her brain and heart felt that they were about to melt at this potential realization, May knew she needed to try to push through with being as forward as possible, without completely losing it. She stepped back up to Steven, closing the division that he had created, and it was her turn to clasp both of his hands in her own, and intently look up at his face. Steven's eyes widened slightly and lips parted barely at the sudden surprise of contact and attention.
"O-of course," May blurted out, trying her hardest to maintain eye contact, "of course that was the intention of my rings...but..." Okay, that was enough. May turned her face to the side, but dipped her head in closer to Steven's chest, and continued on, "I tried to be somewhat ambiguous about it. I didn't think it'd go over as well as it did. I didn't want to assume..."
"that it'd be the greatest gift I received this year?" Steven finished for her when she trailed off. May snapped her face back toward Steven's, and he was staring at her with such intensity, that May felt a forest of vines and blooms erupt throughout her chest. Again, just like when Roxanne asked about the ring, a pleasant response, but one that still had a veil of ambiguity. It was that small amount of unsureness that caused so much anxiety, but somehow at the same time, some sort of obscure thrill that she craved.
They stood just like that for a moment, May still tightly holding his hands between them and the two awkward young adults silently trying to understand one another. Their faces were so close, May could just barely feel the heat of his breath when it reached her face. But Steven wasn't breaking away this time. May had to figure out how to make things clear. Then, in a split second, they heard the distant roar of "TEN! NINE! EIGHT!"
Steven slipped a small sigh, eyes slightly downcast and his small half-smile back again, saying, "Sorry, looks like we're about to miss it."
This was it. This was her chance. She had to take it. May giggled and, after taking a deep breath, whispered, "Why would you say that? No we're not."
"THREE! TWO! ONE!"
And the moment after "one" was heard, May pushed away her anxiety as hard as she could, rose to her tip-toes, closed her eyes, and made contact with Steven's lips with her own. The sudden change in temperature from the cold night air to his warmth sent an electric pulse through her body. She let go of his hands and reached up to his shoulders, bringing her hands to the sides of his neck with which she could better angle herself. With that motion, she felt Steven's body ease, as he then also shifted his head, and answered her lips with soft caressing from his own, naturally dipping his head to better meet hers.
His arms then encased around her, slipped behind her waist, pulling her in up and closer to him. May found herself completely immersed in that moment, as Steven's lips urged on hungrily upon her own, soft, yet firm. It was all so sweet, the taste of drink still on their lips, only heightening the anticipation. May found her hands massaging his neck in response, and in answer to that, as slight as it was, Steven uttered a soft moan into her mouth, shooting an indescribable jolt of energy through her body.
Taking that as a devilish opportunity, May slowly pulled herself back, but keeping her forehead tilted toward Steven. She watched as his eyelids flashed open, his silver eyes fixated on her rosy lips, and watched in moderate amusement as he took the time necessary to realize what had just occurred. Their bodies still entwined, and hearts beating hard enough to hear, May whispered, "See? We didn't miss anything. Happy New Year."
Be it the combination of how and when their moment of longing ended, or the realization that everything that happened, did happen, and was in fact real, Steven's face and neck were completely red, and that only continued to fuel May's hormones, knowing for sure this time, that the color was in fact thanks to her. "Yes, Happy New Year, indeed."
When they came back inside, everyone was just back to doing their own thing in small groups. Wallace was up at the food table again and called out to May for her to come to him. She felt her senses heighten as she approached him, because he definitely had a knowing look on his face.
"Dear, do you know what stone that is?"
"Uh," May was baffled, "No, actually, Steven just gave it to me and didn't say. All he said was that it reminded him of me." Amazing. Steven had given May a stone and didn't explain what it was? She should've asked.
"Well," Wallace responded, clearly attempting to stifle a chortle, "I've spent enough time with Steven to know that that is tugtupite, and you'll be doing yourself a favor if you learn a little bit about it if you're going to be wearing it."