May is sitting on a bench outside of the Pokémon Center gazing at all the twinkly stars.
She should be at the after party for the Grand Festival but she didn't feel like socializing. She was too preoccupied with what will happen after the after party.
Drew will leave again.
It happens every time. She greets him enthusiastically (which she is regretting right now, since she promised herself that she wouldn't do that this year.) and after the Grand Festival they travel to the same region but the icy distance between them will not thaw.
She tries to divert her attention on different thoughts. Like, maybe, that Harley of all people won the Grand Festival this year with, surprisingly, Timmy as the runner-up. May thought that this was the year that Drew would take it all the way.
May lost to Robert and ended up in the top six.
She always wonders if Drew is affected by their separation as she is. Not that they were together for it to even call it a separation. She goes along every day, travelling, training, meeting people, winning ribbons, but through all of that even when her face is smiling her heart hurts. If feels like something is just missing. A small hollow feeling in the middle of her chest. Not big enough to cause a sharp pain like a knife but more of a shallow constantly throbbing bruise.
She rubs her chest absentmindedly as if her heart has formed a physical pain there. Unless she's suffering from a heart attack, which she doubts.
Oh, how did she end up thinking about him again?!
She sighs and leans against the back of the bench more firmly, watching the constellation Pisces the Feebas.
Still staring at the sky she senses when someone joins her in her stargazing.
"Are you moping about losing the Grand Festival, June?"
She sighs at him. Part exasperation, part relief as the hurt in her chest lightened. "Nope. I'm moping about something else." Never even glancing at him.
Raising a brow but not saying anything Drew reclines next to her, comforted by her presence.
He noticed that she wasn't at the after party like she usually is. It made him a tad uneasy not knowing that where she was. Despite the assurances that she can take care of herself now he still has this irksome protective streak when it comes to her. She might not know it but he is always watching her contests, rooting for her silently. Always keeping some sort of tab on her in case she needed him, like asking the Nurse Joys asking their family members for a certain bandana clad brunette. He tries to stop (since it just seems extremely stalkerish) but he can't not know that she's okay or not.
After a beat of silence Drew speaks. "…So which region are you going to this time?"
She shrugs a shoulder. "I don't know." she breathes. "Maybe Sinnoh this time. I liked dressing up."
Drew clears his throat, remembering one of the audiences (and his) favorite costumes the last time she was in Sinnoh.
"Ahem. So… are you going to wear the desert genie outfit or something different?"
"Maybe something different. I was thinking letting Dawn choose for me. Something a little more conservative."
"Oh."
After a beat of silence May's compelled to ask him where he's going.
"Where are you going?"
He absently flicks his hair. "Sinnoh."
Of course.
Just like last time. And the time before that. And the time before that. And the time before that.
Drew is conscious of this. He knows that every time they go to the same region every year yet, they don't ever speak like they used to when they were 10. He just doesn't know how to break the mold they've been set in. That he set them in.
He stretches, feigning tiredness, but masking the lump in his chest. "I'll just head out. See ya in Sinnoh May." He throws her a crimson rose and makes his way to the doors of the Pokémon center.
May watched his movements, twirling the rose between her fingers. She bites her lip, somehow feeling that if this doesn't stop now, it never will. With each step he takes she can feel the chasm between them widening.
"Drew!" She calls from the bench, involuntary standing up.
He stops and his torso turns, his feet still in their set direction.
She looks at him with her guileless eyes, asking him… something. He turns all the way around.
"Please stay."
He gives a small smile to the ground before looking back up to her, the smile growing a little. He walks to her and wraps his arms around her, her hands wrapped around his rose clutched at her chest.
In her ear he whispers, "I'm not going anywhere."
A/N: How's that for a sappy sequel?! ;) Tell me, honestly, how bad is it?