A/N: Thank you so much! I'm really happy everyone is still enjoying this so far :D Time for some ContestShipping, people! :D

To Guest: Thank you very much! I hope you continue to enjoy this story :)

Disclaimer: I don't own Pokémon or the picture used as cover.

Leave It To Brocko

Chapter 32

"Hey Drew!"

Ash greeted the unexpected guest with his usual friendliness, obviously not seeing how much Drew's presence would mess up our plans. "Watcha doing here?"

Misty smiled politely at him, and I gave him a half-hearted wave. "Good to see you."

Not.

Ash plopped down next to Drew, and Misty sat down opposite him, while I placed myself next to her. May was rummaging through the kitchen cabinets in search for food, while Max filled a kettle with water.

I glanced back at Drew, a politely curious look on my face to disguise my wariness as the Coordinator answered Ash's question.

"I participated in the Mossdeep City Contest last week, and while I was actually planning on travelling to Mauville City, May convinced me to take a break here," he said.

"And it was needed, too," May jumped in immediately. "He looked horrible, and honestly, his performance in the Contest made it very clear he needed one." She threw him a smirk.

Drew rolled his eyes, but not missing a beat, he replied straight away, "Please, May, gloating doesn't make you any more attractive." May's triumphant smirk changed into a frown. "Besides," he added, leaning forward conspiringly, "I bet she just couldn't miss me for that long."

Ash looked confused, but Misty grinned widely and Max let out a hearty laugh at that comment.

"Why you-" May looked infuriated, and Drew smoothly avoided the cupcake that was thrown his way.

"Ah May, don't make the food innocent victims of your fury." Drew leaned over and picked up the mostly unscathed cupcake from the ground, before inspecting it. "Hm, doesn't look too bad."

"I'll take it," Ash offered, and Drew shrugged as he handed Ash the confection.

"But the Contest didn't go too well for you, then, Drew?" I asked, wanting to support May a bit. The kettle whistled, and Max hurried over, while May had just finished raiding the cupboards.

Drew shrugged, but I could see May's face brighten again. "I'll be a good sport and humbly admit I lost to May in the quarter finals. Sadly our resident Cacturne-fanboy beat her in the finals. It's a shame." He didn't sound sincere in that statement at all, but was smirking at May, who in response slammed the tray with cookies, muffins and cupcakes down with more force than needed.

Ah man, this was really ridiculous. Those two were still at it.

Even though this was going to mess up my plans majorly, I couldn't help but admire Drew's perseverance. After all these years – the roses has been an obvious sign – and he still hadn't given up.

"This should keep you on your feet 'til dinner," May said, ignoring Drew's remark as she sat down. Ash was already busy devouring the cupcake May had used as a weapon, and he shot her a grateful grin. At least he had the decency to not talk with his mouth full.

"Yes, thank you," I replied politely, Misty repeating my answer.

Max handed us each a cup of tea, before sitting down as well, quickly snatching a cookie from the tray.

"Where are your manners, May? You still haven't introduced me to your friends." Drew flipped his hair, smirking at her.

Oh Arceus, they were really still at it.

May glared at him, but swallowed her comeback in favor of a sickly sweet smile. "Well, Drew, I believe you remember Ash and Brock, and this is Misty, a good friend of theirs." She gestured to each of us, before turning to Misty. "And Misty, it's my greatest displeasure to introduce you to my rival and biggest jerk on this planet, Drew Hayden."

Drew kept his cool, and reached over the table to shake Misty's hand. "She doesn't mean that." He grinned. "She just can't stand it that she can't keep up with my wit."

Misty smiled vaguely at him, as May's face once again turned red.

Drew flipped his hair and coolly regarded May, and with an ominous feeling in my stomach I watched Misty's narrowed eyes and the devious smile that was playing around her lips.

This was definitely not good. Obviously, it hadn't taken her long to figure out what was going on between May and Drew, and now she was probably planning a scheme to use that to her advantage.

Misty leaned forward and started a conversation with both May and Drew, politely curious about the workings of Contests and their experiences with them. Her devious grin widened throughout the conversation.

This was not going to end well.

My attention was forced away from the impending disaster when Max started to recount his adventures as a trainer, effectively capturing Ash's attention, and mine as well. And to be honest, it was actually quite to be engrossed in something other than teenage romance for a while.

Time passed quickly when you were having fun, and I looked up in surprise when Caroline, the mother of the two Maple siblings, walked into the kitchen. She greeted us warmly, before asking us to move so she could get started on dinner.

Now, usually, I would've jumped at the opportunity to help cooking – it would be great to cook in an actual, well-stocked kitchen – but I had to get May alone. And to my surprise, luck was actually on my side for a change.

Drew proved to be useful by offering Mrs. Maple a hand, and Max – whether on purpose or not – distracted Misty by asking if he could see her Pokémon. As the two of them went outside, Pikachu following them, I vaguely remembered Max looking up to Misty when she had visited us in Hoenn.

This left Ash, May and me, as we were shooed out of the kitchen.

And that was rather perfect, if I do say so myself.

Ash, too, seemed to have realized that this was the perfect time to talk about our plan, because he asked if we could talk to her, in a more private room than the hallway we were currently standing in. May looked confused, but she nodded anyway, and led us up to her bedroom.

We settled down in her bedroom, and I could hear Misty and Max talk outside, before May shut the window.

"So, what do you want to talk about...?" She glanced at us, uncertain.

"Well, you see, uh..." Ash started out hesitantly, before looking over to me for help. I sighed, and decided to tell her the short, simple version. No beating around the bush – in that aspect May was like Ash, rather dense when it came to certain subjects, and in those cases bluntness was preferred over subtlety. Otherwise it would just drag out the conversation and make it that more uncomfortable for me.

"Ash is in love with Misty-" Ash's face turned bright red at this exceptionally blunt approach, and now that I thought about it, we had never outright said it. "-and he needs your help to get her interested in him. And I thought it might be a good idea if you pretended to be interested in him. You know, romantically interested. To make Misty jealous. So… flirting. Fake flirting, of course, but Misty doesn't know that."

I couldn't make it any easier than that.

"Of course," I added. "If you wouldn't want to do it, we'd understand."

"Oh, uh..." May was still digesting the information, and looked rather conflicted – was she thinking about Drew?

Maybe when I got Misty and Ash together, I could help them- I stopped myself right there. I couldn't just keep matchmaking people!

Could I…?

I couldn't even find myself a girlfriend – Lucy's beautiful smile appeared before my mind's eye, before being replaced by the image of the car driving off, and I felt a sharp pang in my gut.

"Well, of course I'll help you!" May's voice pulled me back to the reality.

I smiled happily at the girl, who gave us a grin in response. Then I noticed the doubt in her eyes, and I almost felt my smile slip off my face.

"You sure about this?" Ash seemed to have noticed her uncertainty as well.

"I… uhm…" May looked down at her hands, biting her lip. She opened her mouth, closed it again, and then finally said, "I have no idea how to flirt..." She let out an embarrassed laugh.

I frowned slightly. It felt as if this wasn't what May had wanted to say, and it left me with an uneasy feeling in the stomach.

Nonetheless, I didn't prod. You know, for a change.

"Just laugh at his jokes, bat your eyelashes, touch him a bit..." I told her. "That kind of thing."

"Right, right." She nodded, before giving us a smile that was meant to look convincing. "I can do that."

"Right." Ash nodded, hesitantly smiling back. "Thanks a lot, May. That's really… really great of you." His smile widened in a genuine grin.

"Not a problem." May shrugged, looking a bit more relaxed now.

"Don't worry about it," Ash tried to reassure her once more. He threw me a grin. "If anything goes wrong, I'm sure Brock can fix it."

"Er…" I sweatdropped, before quickly pasting on a confident grin and giving them a thumbs-up. "Sure thing! Just leave everything to Brocko!"

"Great!" Ash jumped up. "Then that's settled!"

May shot me a bright grin as she followed Ash out of the room, and I was left there, staring after them and feeling the smile slip off my face.

Oh boy. This was so not going to end well.

The next morning, as we were all enjoying a wonderful home-made breakfast, Misty suggested that it might be nice idea if we went to visit the beach today. At that, the patriarch of the Maple family and Gym Leader of the Petalburg City Gym, Norman, looked up from his newspaper and added that it would indeed be great weather for a day outside.

No one had anything against going to the beach – Ash reacted very enthusiastically, probably going with the strategy 'whatever Misty likes, I'll like as well' – and so it was quickly decided. I was not particularly interested in going to the beach – I had seen quite enough of the sea after so many days on a boat – but I could see the upsides as well; perhaps there would be some pretty girls in bikinis sunbathing…

Strangely enough, that prospect wasn't quite as appealing as I had expected it to be. I almost sighed out loud, but managed to keep it in. It usually never took me so long to get over a girl!

But then again, it was Lucy. She wasn't just some girl.

And so, almost two hours later, we had arrived at the beach. It had been an eventful two hours, which included convincing Ash that his underwear were not a suitable replacement for his lost swimming trunks, last-minute shopping to find new swimming trunks for Ash, panicked searching for my own swimming trunks, and then once again really-last-last-minute shopping to replace my own disappeared swimming trunks.

But now, finally, some relaxing.

Following the example of the others, I released my Pokémon, and they quickly frolicked off with the others. I plopped down on the white sand, Drew placing his stuff next to me before sitting down as well. Ash had run into the water straight away, quickly followed by May. Max seemed unsure whether he wanted to follow his sister into the water, a bit awkwardly flitting around Misty as she unpacked her new fishing rod.

She had bought it in Oldale Town, I remembered, not wanting to be without one after she had lost hers in what hopefully would turn out to be our last encounter with Team Rocket.

"So, Max, shall I show you how a real fishing expert does it?" She grinned widely at the younger boy, and Max nodded enthusiastically.

The two of them walked off, leaving me and Drew alone to enjoy the sun. It wasn't all that warm yet, it was still early in the day after all, but I expected that later we would definitely need to move to the shadows or risk getting sunburned.

We sat in comfortable silence for a while, watching Ash and May as they trudged through the cool water and Max's awkward attempts at holding the fishing rod. On the far side of the beach, an elderly couple walked along, a Shinx following them, and a bit closer to us, two young women were jogging.

Very beautiful young women.

As they passed, I waved and grinned, but it felt rather halfheartedly. It also didn't help that they looked completely past me and giggled when Drew winked at them.

Yup. This was fantastic for my ego. A fifteen-years old boy was better at charming the ladies than I was.

An idiotic notion rose in my mind, and I squashed it without a second thought. That would hurt my pride way too much.

As the giggles of the young women faded, Drew leaned back with a smirk. Then, one girl looked back, smiled at him, and she got a cool wave in return. He looked even more smug now, hands folded behind his head as he rested against a slope.

Dammit.

My male ego was so not going to like this.

But, I needed to get a date – I needed to get over Lucy – and all the rejections I had gotten in my love life didn't exactly give me any confidence in my own abilities.

Besides, I was a matchmaker. And what was a matchmaker without a significant other?

That's right, a rubbish matchmaker.

"Say… Drew…" I started a bit awkwardly, my pride screaming about indignity and embarrassment, "You've got quite a way with the ladies, I noticed…"

He turned his attention to me, flipping his hair and a smirk on his face.

"You could say that," he replied smoothly.

You can do this, Brock. You can do this. Just get out the words. Move your mouth and form words.

Swallowing my pride, I forced out the question that made me inwardly cringe. "Could you perhaps help me in getting a date?"

Ah, Brocko, I was pathetic.

A/N: Poor Brock… I sometimes feel really sorry for him and what I put him through :P Anyway, thank you for reading! I hope you guys liked it :) Sadly, though, the next update will probably take a bit longer. I hope to have it up within two weeks, but I'm afraid it'll be more like three weeks. Sorry! The poll about the sequel is still up, too, so don't forget to vote! Anyway, I'd love to hear what you guys thought about it, so please leave a review!

Thank you!

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