In order to diffuse the situation, the old man introduced himself to his new guests (at least, 2/3rds of them), while writing his signature on the book held out by the over-eager third. "If your friend here hasn't told you my name yet, I am Ramon, author of the Red Knight series." Looking over at May, he quickly corrected, "Co-author, I mean."
Just as Ash and Max are about to introduce themselves, Ramon's legs gave away, and he almost stumbled forward. Fortunately, his granddaughter was there to catch him in time. "No, not again," she said with a worried tone. She turned to the guests. "Would you mind helping me bring Dad back inside? His heart's been acting up pretty bad."
The kids immediately complied with Sam's request, and all four of them tenderly carried Ramon inside, straight to his bed. While Ash and May helped Sam get him comfortable, Sam told Max where they were keeping the medicine. Max returned to them in an instant, a small pill bottle in one hand, and a glass of water in the other. Sam immediately popped a pills into her hands before administering them to her father, and then gave him the glass to drink.
A few minutes of silence followed after Ramon took his medicine. He knew that things are getting tense for him, then asked May nonchalantly, "So, how's about that autograph? Are you still asking for it, my young friend?"
While May did hand over the book to Ramon, she did it reluctantly, thinking like he was about to die from the smallest of movement. He actually survives, but, from the looks of everyone else, they seem to be thinking the same thing. To the point that, after Ramon finished signing, it was Sam who (gently) took it from him to hand to May.
"Why not just take a seat," Ramon said, as nonchalant and more cheerful as an ill old man should be. "I wouldn't mind having some company aside from my daughter and in-law."
Not one to refuse an old man's hospitality, the trio decided to stay. Sam didn't bother to wait taking any cues, she headed straight for the kitchen to prepare tea, having welcomed the prospect of new guests. For a while, there was an uncomfortable silence permeating the room, with Ramon only staring at the window at his bedside while Ash, Max and May sat fidgeting awkwardly in their seats.
May was the first to break the silence; there's a question she'd been meaning to ask Ramon. "This might be a weird thing to ask," she began, "but-" For some reason she cast a glance at Ash's direction; oblivious as usual, his eyes are closed while he was yawning like his jaw is about to fall off, with Pikachu mimicking him (Max, meanwhile had to cover the side of his face closest to Ash for some reason). "These past books you wrote...to me they feel like they have a tragic feel recently. It's not my place to ask, but..." She cut herself off again. "Did you write your stories from your own experiences?"
Turning his head away from the window to face the girl, Ramon looked at her sternly, but then he broke into a smile, if a rueful and sad one. "Are you a critic, too?" he asked teasingly, giving a weak laugh. "Yes, most of the stories I write are based on events from my own life. But not all of them."
"It's still kind of depressing. In the last volume of 'Tale of the Red-Black-Red Knight', he had to sacrifice his life to save everyone in the kingdom, and his princess never got to tell him her true feelings, helplessly watching his final battle against the wicked sorcerer. Then there's 'Flowers of the Dying Sky', which for me is worse, in which the girl loses her memories and her life while saving the man she loved from a bunch of savage beasts."
While May started biting her lips while reminiscing about those scenes playing in her head, Max shook his head ("Here we go again."), having seen this side to his sister before. Curious Ash, on the other hand, snatched the book from May's hand (there wasn't too much resistance from her, she was focused intently on Ramon at the moment) and decided to have a look-see.
"Didn't know you could even read," Max snarked. Ash replied by briefly shutting the book then slapping its binding side on the top of Max's head ("Ow!" he cried, grabbing the part where he was hit with both hands.), then he resumed reading as if nothing happened. Ash's face was unreadable the whole time.
Having ignored that one-sided exchange, May was listening intently to her favorite author's explanation. "Well, I guess you don't like my work anymore because of their tragic feel?" Ramon asked, smiling faintly. That he said it in a melancholic tone that didn't amuse May one bit.
"Well, I really was hoping for a happy ending in either book series, and not the endings I got," May replied, pouting. At that point, Ash shoved the book back on to May's arms, and she still didn't notice. Or rather, she glossed it over, since there's a lot of things going in her head at the moment. "I'm really disappointed, to say the least, that I didn't get to see the couples that I came to love ever actually get together in the end." She looked downcast.
"I can't help it, really," Ramon said. "I just write them the way the whole story goes through my head and into my fingers. And I did say that I took a few inspirations from my own life."
"Wait, what? Don't tell me you actually fought an evil sorcerer?" Max piped up. This earned him another book-chop to the top of his head, this time courtesy of his sister. And she wasn't even looking. "Ow! Again with the chops!? I'm telling Mum on you two, you know!"
Ramon let out a weak laugh, which degraded into coughing fits. Sam ran into the room in an instant, having finished preparing tea, and also had some pills ready just in case. After drinking his medicine, Ramon seems to have calmed down somewhat.
"I'm afraid that I didn't actually fight one back when I was your age, fortunately enough. However, may I interest you in a story that I have yet to put into print?" he suddenly asked. "In fact, I don't want to share it with anybody at all so it's not going into any of my novels."
Still rubbing the sore part where he was hit (twice!) with both hands, Max asked, "But then, why are you going to tell us?"
"Because I like you three," Ramon replied, also laughing (although more softly this time). "Well, what do you say? Or are you in a hurry?"
The three looked at each other. "We're not really in a hurry or anything," May said slowly. Never mind that she is supposed to be trying to earn her last Ribbon to qualify for the Grand Festival. Or that Ash is supposed to be on the hunt for the Battle Pyramid. No rush, indeed...
"Plus there's our friend who we kinda sorta left behind back in Cerulean City," Max continued, also trailing off his words, "but I'm sure he wouldn't mind, having an extended stay at the Pokémon Center, next to Nurse Joy..."
"That settles it, then." Ramon reached for a glass of water from the desk at his bedside, and Sam rushed over to help, both so Ramon could reach the glass easier as well as to help him drink its contents. "Perhaps I should give you a warning first, especially the emotional one over there." He nodded in May's direction, surprising the latter. "My tale may just be as sad as the ones from my books, if not moreso."
May put a hand to her chest, and then took a deep breath. "Is it inappropriate to say that I'm ready in a situation like this? Because I am."