I'm in a love/hate relationship with this chapter. One minute I'm writing paragraph after paragraph then the next I go and do something else. Icky. Personally, I blame the actual contest appeal I had to write. :D Anyway, I'm not sure how six pages of this chapter is just Wally and Brendan being annoyed with contests. Whatevs. It's a bit longer than I expected, but that's mainly due to dialogue (as always).
I also genre added/swapped this (suspense → friendship) since Brendan and Wally's friendship will probably play a bigger role than the suspense I have planned. That being said, it'll still be suspenseful in terms of plot (and not in the OMG IS HE GONNA BE WITH HER? way either). ;P On a similar note, I also bumped the rating from PG (K+) to PG-13 (T) for the sake of someeee sexual innuendo. No, I don't plan on cussing (besides the "a" word occasionally or "damn") or making the sexual stuff obvious. Just for safety precaution really.
Enjoy!
...
Friday – May 4th, 2012
...
"... So why am I being dragged somewhere against my will ... again?"
Brendan rolled his eyes as he pocketed his hands to protect them from the cold, nipping wind. "All you do is complain, Wally. Can we try doing something other than complaining? How about singing? Singing would be nice."
"Fine." Rolling his eyes, Wally reluctantly obliged Brendan's request. "So whyYyyY am I being drAaAgggeD somewhere aaAgaainssst my wiIiIll ... AGAIN?" He ended dramatically, stopping in his tracks, thrusting one open hand in the air and the other against his chest, his head pointed up and his eyes closed.
"I said sing, not mimic the cries of mating Wailmer."
A day had passed since Brendan's "date" with May completely flopped (and it was a long, ridiculously boring day as Brendan would add), but before he knew it, Friday was here. A glorious, sunny, cloudless Friday. Trees swayed to an unknown music. The small pond rippled slightly in the light breeze. Taillows twittered. It would be a fine day to spend with May.
Of course that brat Wally had to rain on his parade with his grumbling and cracked voice. No matter. Nothing would bring him down. Absolutely noth–
A couple of chattering little kids brushed past the daydreaming Brendan, knocking into his legs, and he buckled like a domino. Time slowed, and the world was silenced as his face twisted from contentedness to bewilderedness. His arms flailed about before they positioned themselves in front of him, his fingers spread wide and his palms flat. Then life, being that funny, quirky thing, caught up with him and sped up his actions, causing him to fall swiftly and painfully into the hard, grainy road. The hard impact kicked up the dirt, swirling and clouding the air space around Brendan in a fine, brown dust. Although muffled, Wally could distinctly hear Brendan groan in agony.
All right. Kids literally bringing him down didn't count, and he meant figuratively anyway. Besides, kids are smelly. Smelly things don't count.
Pondering how smelly did not equal bringing him down (or whatever the hell he thought), Brendan pushed himself up, wiping off the tiny pebbles that embedded themselves into the palms of his hands. He then brushed the fine dust of his clothes, though it was still noticeable on the dark denim of his jeans, and ran a hand through his thick locks, shaking it free of dirt. "How do I look?" he finally asked after grooming himself up.
"Hmm ..." Wally quickly evaluated his friend, his eyes quickly sweeping over Brendan's tall frame. "Okay," he answered eventually and plainly after rubbing his chin profoundly. He then gave him the thumb's up, smiling cheekily.
"Okay?" Brendan exclaimed ludicrously, his eyebrows raising. "Just 'okay?' I can't look 'okay' if I'm going out with May. I have to look my best!"
Wally snorted. "Who cares? You're not going on a blind date with her or anything. She already knows you look like crap all the time."
"Har har."
With a small eye roll from Brendan and a smug smile from Wally, the two continued down the path toward Verdanturf Town where May's Pokémon Contest was being held, the pebbles crunched underneath their sneakers. Brendan took the time to observe his surrounding. A shimmering pond surrounded by various grass types was to his left while a yard full of playful Pokémon that the Pokémon breeders housed was to his right. It was peaceful picture, yet nervousness began to build in his stomach anyway. Anxious, lip biting, stomach wrenching nervousness. Wally noticed the look of distress on Brendan's face and promptly punched him in the shoulder. The white-haired man yelped and swiftly turned his head toward Wally, glaring daggers.
"What was that for?" Brendan snapped, rubbing his shoulder soothingly.
His friend shrugged, tramping down the small sprouts of crab glass that broke through the hard earth, continuing the path toward the peaceful town. "To get your mind off it. I hear it's a psychological technique. You'll focus on your physical pain instead of whatever you're thinking."
"Hmm. Good idea. Let me try." Cracking his knuckles, Brendan swung at an unsuspecting Wally's face and closed fist met cheek in a powerful, almost sickening, collision. Wally stumbled but regained balanced, cursing while rubbing his cheek while a smirking Brendan wiggled his fingers to loosen his joints. "You're right. I do feel better."
"Sooo mature," muttered Wally, continuing his rubbing, his left eye twitching. He then dropped his hand, his left cheek flushed.
Verdanturf Town, a town both Brendan and Wally were familiar with, was usually a quiet, calm town, but today it buzzed with excitement. People were chatting amongst themselves while Pokémon were playing in the long, soft grass that swayed in the wind. There were balloons, a lot of them, colorfully decorating the street lamps and the skies. Among the tiny but quaint homes was the huge Contest Hall where most of the people and Pokémon gathered. Pushing past the crowds, Brendan and Wally managed to enter the busy and crazy building. Sunlight poured through the tall glass windows, making the rhinestones on the Pokémon's costumes shine brighter.
Now Pokémon Contests, if you could bother listening to his entire ramble on why they were so inhumane and disgusting, were not a thing that Brendan agreed with. Dressing up Pokémon in ridiculous costumes? Pampering them with ribbons and perfumes? Not letting them roam about in a natural, dirty state? It made him physically twitch. So it really was no wonder why he squealed like a pig and hid behind Wally when a Pikachu, its fur touched with silver sparkles and the insides of its cheeks painted with white hearts, bounced toward him, smiling, waving its tail tied with bows happily.
"Shake a can of pennies at it," he quivered, peering over Wally's shoulder and shuddering again.
Wally gave the side eye and shooed the Pikachu away with a small shift of his leg. "You should probably talk to a therapist about this," he muttered, brushing past a couple of coordinators to the hallway that lead to the seats.
"Hush, you," Brendan grumbled back, pushing past the heavy, red velvet curtain.
Not wanting to deal with the large crowds and the awkward moment of hushed whispering and pointing when trying to find seats, Brendan and Wally came early. Luckily, very few people were sitting in their seats (Brendan could only assume most of them were trying to meet the coordinators before the contest), so the two managed to get center seats in the third row. Brendan leaned back and put his hands behind his head to relax while Wally noticed a copy of that day's newspaper in the seat next to him and started to read it.
"Hoenn is such a boring region," the green-haired one muttered, his eyes scanning the back page. "Johto at least had some crime going on. That or overly heroic people jumping into fires to save babies. Not boring at all. Here though, the biggest story is –" he then flipped the paper toward the front where the headlines took place, "– some update on the space station. Latios, what a boring story. Hoenn is too clean ... Too boring ... Too friendly ... Too boring."
"Too repetitive," added Brendan, pulling out a notepad from his pocket and taking out the pencil he usually kept tucked behind his left ear.
"Yeah," Wally agreed, "and too boring."
Sighing to himself, Brendan began to keenly examine the stage where a couple of the coordinators were practicing. One was a young girl with a Roselia, its body also decorated with silver sparkles (though Brendan didn't mind too much this time seeing as the duo was far away) and the other was an older man buffing the shell of his Wartortle. Sketching Pokémon and jotting down notes about them was a habit he picked up once he decided to pursue the career of Pokémon researcher, and it allowed him to focus his attention on something other than his thoughts. Thinking about May made Brendan's stomach knot once again.
"Relax," he heard Wally state above the ruffling of his newspaper. "You don't need to research and observe every time a Pokémon pops out."
"I am relaxed!" Brendan replied sharply, lightly outlining the Wartortle on his notepad. "I just never really took the time to observe coordinator Pokémon – at least not at a competition anyway. It'll be a good chance to examine a coordinator Pokémon's reactions to their coordinator and their style of battle. That and it gives me an excuse for being here if someone I know catches me here." With that, Brendan looked back and forth frantically before sliding down a bit in his seat, his head bowed down.
"Really, Brendan, I can help you find a good therapist if you want."
Brendan didn't bother to reply to the chuckling Wally, so Wally continued to read his newspaper. Flipping through the paper, his eyes narrowed a bit at the next story. "Does it surprise you that it has been eight years since both Archie and Maxie have been seen?" he asked, still scanning the page.
"Not really," Brendan replied absentmindedly, turning the page of his notepad to draw the girl with her Roselia. "Should it? They were on the lam last time we encountered them, causing them to get into even deeper trouble with the law. I'm more surprised that they haven't been caught yet."
Wally shrugged. "I suppose. So that means it has been eight years since they tried to ... you know."
"Kill me and seek revenge after breaking into the Team Aqua base and ruining their plans?" Brendan remarked thoughtfully.
"I thought they were after us both!" protested Wally.
"Pfft. You're not that important."
Wally stared at Brendan dully before turning his attention toward his paper. "'After having their plans flawed by a group of trainers, Maxie Igneous and Archie Oasiis have gone into hiding,'" he read out loud from the paper. "'It has been eight years since police have last seen the duo.' Hmm ... I wonder what they're doing ..."
Brendan snorted, ripping his eyes away from his sketch to look at Wally. "Why do you care? Don't you remember how they tried to put us against each other?"
"Well, we never were real good friends back then anyway, so it didn't really matter," Wally meekly replied, turning the page of the newspaper. "And it's not like I care about them ... I'm just curious, that's all. We left them on such an ... unfinished note, you know?"
Brendan only grunted in reply, sitting up straight when people slowly trickled into the auditorium, filling the seats around them. The stage lights flickered for a bit, filtering through a rainbow of colors, before settling on a bright white. Three people (the judges, Brendan assumed) walked toward a table to the side of the stage and sat down. One was the president of the Pokémon Fan Club in Slateport, the other was, of course, a Nurse Joy, and the last, surprising both Brendan and Wally, was a dainty May, her legs crossed and her fingers laced.
"Pfft! If she's not competing then I'm getting the hell out of here!" complained Wally loudly, quickly standing up only to be pulled roughly down by a disgruntled Brendan.
"Sit!" he barked.
Wally pulled his sleeve out of Brendan's grasp and pouted childishly. "You better get me ice cream after this," he muttered, his nose wrinkled.
"And I'm the immature one?" Brendan murmured back as Wally crossed his arms, his eyebrows furrowing together.
The lights that lit up the audience began to dim, instantly hushing the crowds. Brendan looked around, noticing that hundreds of people filtered in around him without him knowing. While the crowds weren't as huge as the ones at Pokémon stadiums that he had come to know, the fans were still as hyped up and crazy all the same. Many were holding neon posters with the name of their favorite coordinator written in glitter. Some painted their faces to look like Pokémon. Some even went to the extent of dressing up exactly like the coordinators themselves.
It was creepy.
A tap to the shoulder made Brendan turn toward the front where a kid no older than nine asked, "Hey! Didn't you get fifth in the Indigo League last year?"
Annoyance crossed Brendan's face as Wally snickered. "Fourth," he grumbled.
"Oh. Cool, I guess," the kid said simply before turning toward the stage as well, not noticing the glower coming from the white-haired trainer.
"One day I'll be important," Brendan continued to ramble quietly to himself, glaring at the back of the young kid's head. "One day I'll be a professor, and I'll distribute Pokémon to you new trainers, and when you ask for yours I'll say you came fourth and too late. Then I'll laugh. I'll laugh hard."
"Are you sure you want to push this therapist idea out the window?" whispered Wally.
A narrow beam of light directed itself upon a lone figure on the stage. With a microphone in hand, the figure shook her head, her curly, light brown hair bouncing. "Hello, ladies and gentlemen!" she cried into the microphone while shielding her eyes from the bright lights with her free hand, causing the crowds to stand up and riot. "As your official emcee, I would like to welcome you to Verdanturf's semiannual Pokémon Coordinator Competition!"
Brendan and Wally watched amused and confused as the people in the audience began to simultaneously wave their hands in the air like it were planned. Looking at each other and nodding, both Brendan and Wally stood up at the exact moment everyone decided to sit down.
"Oh." Brendan scratched his head as everyone looked at the pair of freaks still standing. "... What just happened?"
"Hey, I know that guy," he heard amongst the hushed whispers. "He got fifth in the Indigo League, I think."
"Wasn't it sixth?" he heard someone else mutter.
"No, fifth. I'm sure of it."
Staring dully at the crowd, he sunk back down into his seat, ignoring the chuckling Wally who already sat down and was whispering, "Freak," to him.
"Anyhoo!" said the announcer, inattentively motioning her hand to the panel of judges. "Please help me welcome our judges for this contest! Of course we have our lovely Nurse Joy from Verdanturf town!" She moved her hand toward the nurse who waved at the cheering crowds. "Also joining us is the president of the Pokémon fan club, Mr. Pokémon!" Again, the announcer stopped to allow the crowds to scream. "And finally, we are honored and privileged to have the two-time winner of Hoenn's own Grand Festival, May!"
The audience screamed themselves into a frenzy, and the high pitched screaming and thunderous stomping and clapping pounded against Brendan's eardrums. He didn't mind though as he was one of the many that stood up, shouting mightily over the screeching teenage girls to his right. He was was then forcefully shoved back down into his seat by an eye rolling Wally when he was the last one hollering and clapping.
"Anyway, we have a lot of coordinators to go through and a lot of appeals to see, so let's get this show on the –"
"Boo! I want to see May perform!" shouted someone in the audience in a high pitched voice.
Brendan sighed; he knew it was Wally's "girly voice." The green-haired one used it a lot to scare Brendan during his ... "experimenting" with the female gender when he woke up in the morning, especially when this "experimenting" wasn't meant to last past the night.
He digressed though and nudged Wally to shut him up. It didn't work, though.
"Yeah!" continued Wally in his girl-like voice, causing the audience to murmur in agreement. "Let's see this ... um ... contestor –"
"Coordinator," corrected Brendan in a low voice, sighing again.
"– Coordinator in action!" Wally finished proudly, causing the audience to scream and wave their arms wildly in the air again.
"Oh, I don't know," said May into her own microphone, fidgeting with it a bit as the crowds cheered her name. "I don't want to hog the spotlight or make the coordinators nervous or anything ..."
"Nonsense, May!" urged the announcer as the spotlight focused on May. "It'll kick off the competition to an awesome start! Come on, everyone! Don't you want to competition to start off with May's remarkable appeals?"
She was answered by an onslaught of screams and stomping.
"Well, I guess I could do something real fast so we don't waste too much time. Though I don't really have anything planned so don't expect anything too dazzling ..." May remarked humbly, standing up and resting the tips of her fingers on the table. She then sighed a bit, licking her lips before nodding to the crowds, giving in.
Plucking a Pokéball from her purse, May gracefully walked around the table, her already slender legs looking longer from the red high heels on her feet. She brushed a loose strand of hair away from her face before throwing the Pokéball into the air, the two colors on the balls blurring together. The creature within burst through in a dazzling show of golden sparkles. With a flutter of her brightly-colored wings and the long antennas on her head waving back and forth like a metronome, a Beautifly took to the stage, her big, blue eyes blinking rapidly, not expecting to be greeted by cheers. She then turned toward her coordinator, confusion apparent on her face, and May only shrugged in return.
"Hmm ..." May rubbed her chin, thinking. "Start things off with Secret Power!"
The Beautifly cried out her name with a flutter to her voice before shifting her glowing antennas to the right side of her head. With a mighty flap of her wings, she thrust her head toward the left, and her antennas quickly followed. The movement caused the earth underneath her flapping wings to shudder before hard rock followed her antennas, forming an archway around the Beautifly. Brendan recognized the move immediately and knew trainers often used it to make makeshift tents out of the earth if they had no camping equipment.
"Okay! Now face the wall of the archway and use Stun Spore!" cried the coordinator.
The Beautifly nodded and turned to her left, facing the solid rock, and beat her wings rapidly again, releasing golden spores. With the help of the breeze produced by the huge butterfly and the archway, the spores began to spiral around and around in a fantastic loop of speckled gold.
"Great!" May cheered as the audience "oohed" at this. "Let's charge up and absorb some light for a Solarbeam!"
Again, the Beautifly cried out her name delicately before closing her big eyes and facing the audience, slowing down the beating of her wings, the speckles of gold from her Stun Spore floating about harmlessly in a daze. They were quickly swept up in the Beautifly's grasp as she absorbed light, her wings and antenna glowing in a bright light. The many colors of her wings began to glow their respective colors while tinted with a shimmery gold from absorbing her Stun Spore, causing the audience to "ooh" once more.
"Now release it!"
With a firm nod, Beautifly, her eyes glowing, gave one final flap of her wings before releasing two twin beams of light from antennas in a mighty cry, the attack breaking through the earth archway and cracking it into pieces. The two beams then met in the middle and merged together into one powerful beam until it disintegrated into nothing except speckled sparkles that slowly drifted and merged with the dust.
A happy May skipped toward the center of the battlefield and let her arm out so her Beautifly could rest on it, and she waved toward the crowd, beaming as the audience cheered her on. The wave of screams was deafening but well worth it. Brendan couldn't help but marvel as well, but not for the appeal but the beauty of its coordinator instead.
He then gagged at his corny thoughts. Ah, well ... It was true though.
The announcer interrupted his thoughts. "With our contest off to an awesome start, let's give it up for our first coordinator!"
It was going to be a long day ...
He was right. It was a long day. Scratch that. It was a ridiculously long day. It didn't matter though. The contest was over, and as soon as May was done changing clothes, they could spend the rest of the day together.
Brendan waited outside, leaning against the cold stone of the contest hall. The people had long filed themselves out thirty minutes ago, including a grumbling Wally who was the first one out the doors. Verdanturf regained its quiet, peaceful ambiance, the sweet wind whispering amongst the long grass that danced to its voice. The unusual breeze that swept through Verdanturf made everything move ... living even.
May emerged from behind the glass doors, clad in jeans and a red button up shirt – casual but comfortable. She then swept a hand through her thick locks and walked toward the nonchalant Brendan, grinning.
"Ready to go, B Boy?"
Brendan nodded, smiling fondly at the nickname again before pushing himself onto his feet. "You look nice," he said plainly but honestly.
"What? This?" May looked down at her clothing as the two walked toward the dirt road that headed toward Mauville. "It's nothing really. Just some clothes I had lying around."
"Doesn't matter. I still think you look nice."
May blushed a bit. "Well, thanks. You don't look too shabby yourself."
"I know," he replied arrogantly, running a hand through his hair. He then smiled. "I'm kidding of course."
"No you're not."
"I know, but I wanted you to think I became more humble."
"Please, Brendan." May stood on tippy toe (even though she was still wearing her red pumps) and knocked on Brendan's forehead playfully. "That hard head of yours will never soften. But that's what I like about you, I suppose." The two stopped in their tracks and looked around. "Anyway, what do you want to do? Want to go eat somewhere or do something?"
Brendan shrugged. The mere fact that he got to spend time alone with May was enough to send him over the moon. He wish he planned ahead though.
The man looked around, noticing a small lemonade stand pushed up to the side of the road (he assumed it was set up there to profit from the huge crowds from the contest) and nudged his head in that direction. "Well, a couple of days ago, if my day went according to plan, I just wanted to sit down somewhere nice and catch up. Nothing big. We can get a lemonade or something and just watch the Pokémon at the breeder's house if you want."
She nodded. "Sounds nice."
After moments of hassling with the impatient man working the lemonade stand and fumbling with his change, Brendan walked over toward May who was sitting on the fence that bordered the breeder's home, waving at the baby Azurills that playfully bounced at her feet. He handed her a drink, and she took it gladly, sipping it through the straw. She then twirled the straw it its plastic cup, watching as the lemon sunk below the ice cubes before emerging to the top.
"So where to begin ..." Brendan remarked, leaning against the fence and staring into May's eyes. "Uh ... How are you?"
May laughed a bit. "I'm fine. Thanks. Tell me, Brendan, what have you been up to since we last talked? Er, all those years ago I mean."
Brendan bit his straw before answering. "Well, as you know, I decided to become a Pokémon researcher, so I've been traveling around a lot while studying Pokémon in their natural habitat. I mean, I always had interest in it, but the dream of becoming Pokémon "master" was so alluring at fifteen. But then the more I traveled, the more I noticed how wild Pokémon reacted to each other, and it intrigued me. I got as up close and personal as I could to them without scaring them off ... Meh. I'm just like my dad. How annoying."
May snorted, taking another sip to clear her throat. "Were you chased by a wild Poochyena yet?" she asked amusedly.
"Nah," Brendan answered absentmindedly. "Does being chased by a pack of them count though?"
May rolled her eyes. "You're still a trainer though, right?"
"I suppose you could say that. The older I got, the more ... silly, for lack of a better word, the dream of becoming Pokémon champion seemed. Dunno. I still try to win in the league for the sake of trying, but if I don't win, I'm not going to be hung up over it."
"Fifth place isn't bad," May remarked, grinning.
Brendan slapped his forehead. "Ugh. For the last time, I didn't get –"
"I know that you got fourth. I'm just teasin'." May nudged her disgruntled friend in the shoulder, setting her drink down next to her.
The two basked in the warm sunlight and the peaceful silence until Brendan asked, "What about you? What made you switch from trainer to coordinator?"
May hesitated before replying. "Well, I was always fond of contests, B Boy. I loved the unique styles and routines that coordinators had to come up with and it's such a different style of battling that I absolutely adored. It seemed ... right for me."
More hesitation. Brendan thought nothing of it though.
"Can I be honest, Brendan?" the girl asked quietly after listening to a baby Taillow chirp and watching its mama swoop into the nest and soothe it by sheltering it with its wing.
"Of course, May."
"When I left you that one day to go on my own, I realized I couldn't be a trainer anymore. It was too painful. It reminded me of you too much. I don't know ... I guess I wanted to forget it all, start anew. Don't get me wrong; I did miss you. I missed you a whole lot."
Brendan blinked a bit, surprised. She wanted to forget you. Wally's words kept repeating in his head.
"You missed me? I don't get it, May." Brendan tore his eyes away from May's and looked at the sky instead, thoughtfulness tracing across his pale face. "I wrote you every week, I called you almost everyday, I even offered to come to wherever you were just to visit ... But the letters stopped coming, you never answered my calls after awhile, you never told me where you were ... I ... Didn't you love me?"
He asked it so simplistically, almost innocently, without any malice or spite, yet May felt a lump form in her throat all the same, and she wiped frustratingly at her eyes to stop the tears. She then scrunched her nose, her emotions running wild in her. Didn't he know he was distorting her already perfect life? Didn't he understand this his return made her toss and turn at night? Didn't he know how nervous he made her?
How dare he. How dare he ask such a stupid question.
"No. You don't have to answer that if you don't want to," Brendan finally remarked quietly as May's soft lips parted to respond. "What's then is then, and it doesn't really matter now, I suppose. I'm just curious, that's all. It keeps me up at night. Ever since I saw you that one day, I've been thinking of what it would be like if we stayed in touch. Would we be together? Would we hate each other?" He then laughed at his next thought before lifting his cup and taking a sip of his lemonade. "Hell, would I be the one you were engaged to?"
May hesitated before replying, "I guess we'll never know."
"I guess not." Brendan smiled, swirling his cup a bit to hear the clatter of ice. His calmness was strange, almost too unnatural even for Brendan's comfort. He supposed concentrating on remaining calm was his only way of not breaking down and melting into a puddle of tears. God was he hurting inside.
"You hurt me."
What the ...?
He quickly snapped his head toward May's bowed one, confusion written all over his face. "I did – how the – what?"
"Yeah ..." May trailed off, dragging the tip of her pointed heel in a circular motion across the dirt. "With your letters, I mean. You'd always write about your new friends, your new adventures ..." She then huffed. "And then it eventually lead to you writing about your new girls. It hurt. You were mine. No one else's. So I stopped writing; I didn't want to know about your other girls anymore. I stopped answering my Pokénav; I couldn't take hearing some giggly girl in the background. I never told you where I was; I didn't want to see some other girl locking arms with you. I ... I didn't want to believe it."
Brendan gaped. Was she serious? "May, you were the one that left me. You expected me to wait for you until you were ready to come back to me?"
"That's what good boyfriends do!"
"In what world? Movies? Paintings? Stories?" He scoffed at this, causing May to get angrier. "The truth is I couldn't wait. I couldn't wait for you to be ready because I really had no idea how long it would be. Days turned into weeks ... Weeks into months ... And really, those months turned into years. I can't imagine having the same life as I do now if I waited for you, May. I did love you – really, I did! And I am sorry, but I couldn't do that – waiting I mean. It'd drive me crazy."
He was like a broken faucet; he couldn't stop pouring his heart out. "And why should have I waited for you? Why should I wait for some girl that selfishly left me because I tried to protect her from something bigger than her? Because I 'didn't understand,' right? Isn't that what you told me when you left? What bull. Goddamn, May, I understood perfectly. I understand that I underestimated you and your strength, and I was wrong in that. So that's why I waited. I waited for you to forgive me. I waited, and I waited, and I waited, but you were just too stubborn to let it go even after I apologized. So I gave up because it seemed like you gave up on me. I was a lost cause to you, wasn't I?"
She said nothing, her eyes swimming with tears, and Brendan, his fists clenched tightly, muttered, "I would have come back the minute you wanted me back, you know. But you never told me to. You didn't even have the heart to keep contact with me. So I moved on. And now ... Latios, May. The minute I think I'm finally okay living without you, you have to reappear in my life and make me remember why I'm so crazy about you."
May bit her lip. What was she suppose to say?
"You're ... you're terrible!" she finally replied, her heart racing and her cheeks flushed with rage. "Don't you dare pretend what you did to me was ever okay! Fine! I get that you wanted to date someone else as I wondered if I wanted to stay with you or not. I understand that completely, and it would be creepy if you did wait for me all these years. But did you have to rub it in my face about how you were seeing this girl one minute and another girl the next? Did you have to constantly remind me about how well you were doing in your relationships while I was having tennis matches in my head about whether I wanted to forgive you or not? Latias, Brendan! How do you expect me to stay with you or forgive you if you keep dating these other girls? That's just so – ugh! I wasn't the one to move on first; you were! And now ... God, now I'm so frustrated I can't even talk right now!" She hopped off the fence, knocking over her drink, and stomped off toward Mauville. Before she did that though, she fished into her bag and thrust a pair of cream-colored envelopes into Brendan's chest a little too forcefully. "And here! These are my wedding invitations. Give one to Wally."
Brendan groaned, grabbing the invites before they dropped to the floor and watched May's slender figure form into a black silhouette and then nothing the further she walked away. Even though they fought, he felt better. He was glad he finally told May how he felt all those years ago.
But now what?
"Hmm ... You're here early. How was the 'date?'" asked Wally when he heard Brendan enter their room after jiggling the door of their motel room open. He leaned back comfortably in his chair, one hand resting on the keyboard of his sleek, black laptop placed on top of the polished wood table. The white-haired trainer only murmured an inaudible response and trudged in, closing the door with a lethargic push of his foot.
"I ... learned a lot," he admitted truthfully. Brendan dragged himself toward the other chair near the table, throwing Wally's own invitation for May's wedding toward him, the paper envelope skidding and crashing into the back of Wally's laptop. He then pulled the chair over toward Wally's side of the table to see what he was doing. "What's this?"
"Databases of trainers, breeders, coordinators ... hell, everything really," answered Wally, scrolling down with one hand while jotting down notes on a sheet of paper with the other. "It's required you update your information every couple of years if you own or work with Pokémon as you know, so I've been kind of curious if Maxie or Archie have been updating there's. Despite being leaders of eco-terrorist groups, they were still trainers."
Brendan curiously looked at another sheet with Wally's nearly illegible writing. "And did you find anything?"
"Of course not. Nothing recent anyway. The last time either of their profiles have been updated was eight years ago. I also looked up their immediate families, but their profiles haven't been updated in years either." Wally scratched his head with the back of his pen. "People just don't disappear like that. Anyway." He clicked out of a browser and restored another one. "This somehow lead to me researching on that Sean guy you're so flustered about."
This made Brendan sit up a bit. "And?"
"Well, he's no trainer," he began. "He's not listed in the trainers' database ... or the coordinator one ... or the breeder one ... Any occupation really. I remember May said his father owned a water Pokémon reservoir and that he was going to inherit it, but I looked up at the water Pokémon reservoirs in the Hoenn region and found none owned by the Sidio's. There's something funny about this Sean A. Sidio guy, and not in the cool, clown like way either. Hell, there are tough laws and licenses about owning Pokémon for just recreational use, like a trainer – you and I both know that when you lost your I.D. a few months ago back in Kanto. Imagine running a reservoir where you must care for dozens of Pokémon. Hiding your identity like that is no easy task."
Brendan pulled out the pencil from behind his ear and started to scribble on the sheet of paper in front of him. "So what do we know about Sean then? He obviously must like water types if he works on a water Pokémon reservoir ... He owns a Pelipper and is pretty tactical in battles if he tried mimicking my Pidgeot's Aerial Ace maneuver. So he must be some sort of trainer instead of coordinator since you don't need to get that tactical in contests."
"He's rich," added Wally. "The engagement ring he gave to May was huge."
"Right. I also noticed he had a pretty fancy watch as well," Brendan said, jotting this down. "So water types and rich. Being rich usually means you're pretty powerful. So he likes water, is rich, is powerful and is possibly a trainer ... Any ideas?"
Wally wrinkled his nose. "No dice."
"Same." Frustrated, Brendan tapped the eraser side of his pencil on the table, staring at the underlined "Sean A. Sidio" he wrote on the paper. He had to know more about Sean. Thoughts racing, Brendan tried to remember Sean's appearance. Black hair, blue eyes, small goatee ... Latios, it all seemed so familiar. But to who? Where had he seen it before?
His eyes then trailed off toward Wally's scribbled cursive where Wally wrote about Archie Oasiis and Maxie Igneous.
Wait.
Chains ... and dog tags ... Sean had them, and so did ...
"This is going to be a huge stretch, but I think I got something," Brendan stated hurriedly, flipping his pencil over so he could scribble. His eyes darted back and forth between the names, crossing out letters frantically as he did so.
"Brendan, what are you doing?" Wally asked curiously, peering over Brendan's paper.
Brendan didn't respond, too caught up in his thoughts, his heart pounding. That "S" is gone for sure. So is the "I" – both of them. The "A" too, and the second "S", and finally the "O." He then smirked; he finally got something on that seemingly perfect fiancé of May's.
"His name, Wally!" Brendan exclaimed excitedly, almost triumphantly. "His name has an anagram of 'Oasiis!' Holy – holy crap, Wally! This guy is related to Archie!"
"Don't jump to conclusions," argued Wally, grabbing hold of Brendan's paper and observing his work. "It could be pure coincidence."
Brendan snatched the paper back and looked at the remaining letters that weren't crossed out in Sean's full name, quickly fixing those letters into a proper name. "E ... A ... N ... D ... That could spell 'Dean!' There's no way in hell that this is a coincidence if you can spell a proper name with the remaining letters! It makes perfect sense! I knew Sean ... or Dean or whatever looked a lot like someone I met! He looks like a younger version of Archie!"
Wally rubbed his lips, opening the trainers' database again, typing "Dean Oasiis" in the search box. "It did say Archie had a son on his information ..." He trailed off when a beep was heard when the results of his search was complete. Sure enough, there was one result for a trainer by the name of "Dean Oasiis" who's profile hadn't been updated for eight years. "Fine, fine. You're right. He's related to Archie. So what?"
"So what?" Brendan cried ludicrously. "Wally, this guy is up to no good! He has relations to Team Aqua for crying out loud! If he really is taking over his father's 'business,' he can drag May down with him. We can't let him do that! We gotta figure out what this guy is up to, and why he had to changed his name."
Wally ripped his eyes away from Brendan's wild red ones, looking toward the floor. "I don't know, Brendan ..."
He gripped the side of his table impatiently, staring at the back of Wally's head, urging him to agree with him with his eyes. But after a few minutes of silence, he gave up. "Fine," Brendan sighed, releasing the table from his grasp. "Give me your epiphany."
Wally turned his head toward Brendan and raised an eyebrow. "My what?"
"You know," Brendan replied, leaning back on the hind legs of the chair. "Your daily reflection and advice for my love life and whatnot. That annoying advice that I never really listen to, but makes the end of the day so much more wholesome. For example, 'Don't bother trying to figure this out, Brendan. She's happy. There's nothing strange about him. Let it be.'"
"What? I wasn't going to say that ..." muttered Wally, his eyes shifting to the side. "Am I really that annoying?"
"Yes, but what were you going to say?"
Wally paused, looking up toward the ceiling. He then stared straight into Brendan's eyes and smirked. "I say we get to the bottom of this and kick some former Team Aqua butt."
Brendan let out a laugh and high-fived the grinning Wally. "Now that's the Wally I grew to somewhat like."
God, that was such a horrible, made up appeal. Not even sure if that's possible. Oh well. :3 The fighting scene felt good to write though. Lol.
LaTeR dAyZ!