Hi everyone and welcome back to chapter fourth-teen of this story. Hope you guys enjoy!

Chapter 14: Summer Heat

With the end of the Hoenn Spring came the end of the cool mornings and cool afternoons. The cherry blossoms had long since migrated their flowers, removing their pink coloration from the landscape as well as the many other flowers that blossomed during spring.

With the end of spring came the onset of the long Hoenn summer. The long summer that for some reason this year became almost unbearable. The scorching heat mixed along with the humidity gave people the sensation of being roasted alive like a turkey for Christmas.

Inside her home stood a brunette girl who was tiredly fanning herself with a paper fan. Out of all days for their AC to breakdown, it just had to be today, the hottest day of the year.

There were numerous fans placed around the living room and the rest of the house cooling the rooms only slightly, but the same unbearable feeling of being roasted was still present. She looked over to her right to see that her mother and younger brother were in no better shape. Her mother was sitting in the kitchen table hogging a fan all to herself while her little brother sat on the floor hogging is own fan as well. They had visited their neighbors earlier that day, hoping that they could stay at their house, but to their utter horror they found out that their AC was also malfunctioning. Apparently they had put too much strain on the cooling systems and were now paying the price.

Well, it could be worse, the young girl thought while still fanning herself. She would of gotten up from the couch to hog her own fan but all the sweat felt as if she had been glued to it.

I could be outside getting burnt up in this terrible heat, instead of being inside, she continued. Then a thought popped into her head. Oh wait Professor Birch and Brendan are outside today doing fieldwork. Hopefully they don't get burned up.

True to the girl's thoughts, her neighbors were outside in the unbearable heat doing their regular rounds of fieldwork. They had decided to wear clothing a bit more appropriate for the weather, but it wasn't making much difference. Professor Birch wore khaki shorts along with a dark blue shirt underneath his lab coat. He also wore brown sandals. Brendan was wearing khaki shorts as well, but instead of wearing his usual long sleeved button up shirt, he decided to wear a short sleeve, white shirt underneath his lab coat. He wasn't wearing sandals like his dad but kept on a pair of white and green sneakers. He also wore a black baseball cap to keep the sun out his eyes.

They had come out the creek where they had found a salamence mother, to observe how the heat affected the local pokemon. When they reached there, they were surprised to find that the creek was filled nearly to the brim with many of the local pokemon. The two most noticeable being zigzagoon and poochyena. They inferred that the reason for this was because the two mammalian like pokemon were having difficulties handling the heat. The wurmple on the other hand seemed to be enjoying the heat as they kept resting in their trees, with some sewing their cocoons, as if the heat wasn't an issue to begin with.

The young boy had returned his two pokemon to their pokeballs in an effort to spare them from the heat, so it was just him and his dad out scouting for data. The boy pulled out his water bottle again and greedily drank its contents. His father was soon to follow. He had already drank multiple large bottles in that short expanse of time, but who could blame him. He had already sweat through his outfit and he knew his father was in a same situation.

He looked up at the sky, careful to avoid looking at the sun, to see if there were any bird pokemon about. As it turned out, after observing for the past hour, the bird pokemon seemed to prefer staying in their trees rather than flying exposed to the sun.

"Guess we won't be collecting data on the taillow today," he muttered.

He lowered his head to face in the direction of the creek then noticed his father staring at the creek with those 'mischievous childlike eyes' after the man had taken a large gulp of water. He knew what his father was thinking and honestly he would of done the same if it weren't for all the pokemon in the creek.

"Dad, don't jump in there. You know the pokemon didn't appreciate it the last time you jumped in," the boy said in a dry voice. He remembered how in another hot summer day, his father had decided to jump into the creek to cool down and was chased away by the pokemon and the boy had to chase after him for the next half hour. Apparently they didn't appreciate humans and surprises in their creek.

As it turned out, the man was a pretty fast runner which made Brendan tired after chasing after him.

Professor Birch let out a long breathy sigh then looked at his ten year old son. He knew they wouldn't be able to get much work done with this heat so he said, "son, why don't we just call it a day? It's way too hot to be outside and I feel we are gonna get heat stroke."

The boy was more than ready to leave as he quickly packed all his supplies back into his bag then headed towards the jeep, his dad followed soon after. Although he had been excited to gather data, the constant feeling of getting roasted alive wasn't pleasant on the body and skin. He had noticed that he had been getting a slight tan due to spending so much time outside. Perhaps he would consider wearing sunblock more often.

The heat also seemed to have affected Professor Birch as he wasn't driving like a maniac today but like a regular sane person would.

"Did the heat affect you that much dad?" the boy teased which earned a groan from his father.

"Yeah my boy, heat can really exhaust someone," he answered back, not wanting to speak anymore.

Back at the Birch residence, Lisa Birch had her head in her refrigerator in an effort to escape the oven that her house had become. She let out a loud groan as she heard the phone ring. She hesitantly removed her head from the cool appliance to answer the phone. She could already feel the heat getting to her once she left her icy paradise. She quickly walked over to the stand where the phone laid while holding a bag of frozen peas to her head. She wanted to return to her icy bastion as soon as possible.

"Hello?" she answered.

"Ah honey," the caller began. "Brendan and I decided to call it a day so why don't we go to the beach or the pool or something?"

Lisa looked over to the map of Hoenn noticing that Littleroot was quite near the beach, but due to the sharpedo having their migration during this time of year, it was advised that people stay out of the waters. "Well Edward, there's a pool in Oldale town we can go to. Caroline and May passed by earlier and they are burning up as well. Should we also invite them?"

"Yeah, go ahead, it would be a good way to cool us all down," he responded back sounding slightly tired.

"Alright, then I'll call them and we will head out. Bye honey," she said getting a similar response from her husband and then hanging up.

She then called the Maple home asking them if they wanted to join them and they enthusiastically agreed. Now she had to make sure to get everything she needed such as towels, sunblock, water battles, extra clothes, and snacks. She quickly got dressed in appropriate clothing and began organizing her bag. She made sure to take an extra pair of clothes for her husband and son.

The sound of the door opening and a "we're home" alerted the mother that her family had arrived. She walked over to the living room noticing that her husband looked like he had been drowned in a pond while her son didn't look much better. Brendan had removed his baseball cap and began fanning himself in an effort to cool himself down, but it wasn't helping much.

"Mom did the AC break? It feels like there's a camerupt inside here." He sounded exhausted and was still fanning himself.

"Yeah, I've called the handyman and he's coming by tomorrow to take a look at it. Our neighbors are also having similar problems."

"Their AC broke too? And out of all days in the year," Birch joked.

Lisa let out a small laugh before she said, "You two should get changed. You look like you fell in a pond."

"Well, I did tell Skipper to water gun us to cool us down," the boy shrugged.

Lisa could only laugh as she imagined the image of her husband and son getting a water gun to the face. She them remembered something and turned back to face them again, "the neighbors are also coming so make sure Skipper gives May a good one," she teased.

A smirk made a way on his lips, "aye aye mom," he answered back making his way upstairs to his room to change. As he was changing he remembered what his mother had said.

Wait May is coming along! What if she wears a… NO stop Brendan! Don't think like that! He mentally slapped himself as his face grew a slight shade of red. I'm sure she wouldn't wear something like that… I hope.

At the Maple home, Caroline was doing the same. She had just helped May pick her swimwear while also changing Max. She had also just finished packing her bag before she heard a knock on the door. She called for May to follow after her and handed the girl a bag while she carried her own bag as well. Max was walking besides his mother.

She opened the door to find a familiar boy with messy brown hair already wearing his swim clothes waiting outside her door. He had already changed out of fieldwork outfit and into a white t-shirt and dark blue swim trunks along with a black baseball cap and black flip flops.

"Hi Mrs. Maple, you guys ready to go?" He asked motioning to the jeep that was parked outside their home. Lisa and Professor Birch were already inside.

Brendan's eyes paused for a moment on May. He noticed that she wore jean shorts with a red tank top. He assumed that she was wearing her swimsuit underneath. He silently hoped she had decided not the wear the kind of swimsuit he was thinking of. He slightly blushed and turned his face away so that May didn't catch sight of him. May however created a smirk when she noticed his reaction. But if she had been honest with herself she too was slightly staring at him as well. She had noticed that he had gotten slightly tanner from spending so much time outside.

"Come on May, we're burning daylight, don't stare at Brendan like that," Caroline joked pushing May out the door and locking it soon after. May could feel her face growing red from her mother's comment. Brendan looked like he hadn't noticed, but his face was also red, May just couldn't see it since he was facing away. The boy lead them to the jeep where they soon reconciled inside.

"Isn't this heat just terrible, haven't seen this much heat since we've moved in," Lisa joked as the Professor drove to Oldale Town. The adults kept making small talk as the ride went on. May noticed that Brendan lacked his usual energy. Perhaps the heat had gotten to him she thought, or he was just embarrassed from earlier. Well anyway she was just glad that she had the opportunity to cool herself down.

The ride to Oldale town hadn't taken long, just about fifthteen minutes. Caroline and Lisa joked that Professor Birch didn't drive like was insane and he just said that the heat had drained all his energy earlier. Brendan had returned to his normal self as he began playfully teasing May like always. He didn't let his pokemon out yet since he was waiting for the perfect moment for Skipper to surprise her with water gun. They quickly made their way out the jeep and into the swimming pool perimeter. They were quite surprised that there weren't many people there especially in this heat. Perhaps people preferred to stay in their nice air conditioned homes instead of going out.

The families set their belongings down and prepared themselves for the cool pool water. May had removed her shorts and tank top revealing that she was wearing a light blue swim skirt with flower accents. She also wore a frilly bikini top with similar floral accents to her skirt (A/n I'm a guy so I don't know anything about female swimwear).

Professor Birch was the first to remove his blue shirt leaving him in red swim trunks and jumped into the cool water creating a large splash. Lisa was soon to follow as she set her bag down and jumped into the water once she was in her swimsuit. Caroline had to take extra precautions since she had a little one with her. Luckily for her, she had brought a yellow life preserver for him to wear.

Brendan too had removed his white shirt and cap leaving him in his swim trunks. He noticed May standing by the water dipping her toes in first like she was afraid of the water's coldness. He considered he would be doing both of them a favor by pushing her in. He wanted to feel the cool waters while May looked like she was hesitant but still wanted to cool down. He let his pokemon out allowing them to do as they pleased. Drake took a seat on one of the chairs while Skipper made his way to the pool, undetected by May.

Before he could do anything however he felt hands clasp his shoulders and a cool feeling on his back. When he turned around, he found that the hands belonged to his mother and the cool feeling was coming from her rubbing sunblock on his back. She had made her way out of water without her son noticing as soon as she remembered that she forgot to apply sunblock.

"Mom," he groaned.

"Oh come on honey, you can never be too safe," she said as she kept rubbing sunblock on his back. Lisa noticed how her son had lost his pale appearance and had been replaced with a slightly tanner one. It honestly made his look a lot better but she just wanted to make sure her son didn't get any sort of skin disease.

Brendan sighed and applied sunblock to his body while still eyeing May from the corner of his eye. Much to his amusement, May was still reluctant to enter the water as she was dipping her toes in the water and quickly retracted them.

After the entire sunblock ordeal was over, a grin pulled on Brendan's lips as he called out "Hey May!" and ran towards her. She barely had time to register his approaching figure as he tackled her into the water with both of them fell in with a loud splash.

The cool feeling overwhelmed her senses. She was shocked at first but soon she let the cool waters remove all the heat she had felt during the day. She opened her eyes to see a familiar brown haired boy practically hugging her beneath the water. He seemed maybe a bit too pleased with himself. She shoved him off and pushed herself to the surface. She pierced the surface wiping the water from her face. She patiently waited for the boy to arise, ready to splash him in the face. When she saw his head rising to the surface she was quick to splash him which earned laughters from him a, "stop May."

"Brendan you jerk! You deserve this!" Forcelly splashing him further in an effort to get revenge. This caused the boy to unleash his own splash attack at the girl. She was angry about him pushing her in, but she was also glad that she was able to have fun.

"Hey I did that because it looked like you wouldn't be going into the pool today," he defended, grabbing her shoulders and dunking her under the water. Due to their similar height she was able to quickly resurface and dunk him. She was actually a couple centimeters taller than he was.

"That's what you get shorty," she teased as he resurfaced.

"Hey I'm not much shorter than you!" splashing her again.

"Yeah you're pipsqueak," she teased.

The boy seemed to have given up on the kiddy argument as he didn't say anything else. Skipper had resurfaced from the pools depths ready to splash May. May had expected a water attack, but she didn't know when she would be getting it. She smiled deviously on the inside as she was already wet so she didn't care. Much to her horror, she realized the Pokémon and boy knew this as well as heard her neighbor shout "ice beam". Her eyes widened as the water type let out a low powered ice beam turning her head into a popsicle. A water gun she could handle, but an ice beam was different.

She could hear Brendan snickering in the background about her predicament. She walked over to him and punched him in the arm which did nothing to calm his laughter down.

"Ugh Brendan, I can never catch a break can I?"

"Nope, as long as Skipper is involved you'll never catch a break."

They continued playing and teasing each other for the following hours. Lisa was wise in bringing snacks as the two ate their usual portions by the second hour at the pool. By the time the sun was setting, the lifeguard notified all the patrons that the pool would be closing soon. May was the first to get out drying her hair and placing her jean shorts and red tank top back on. Everyone else followed soon after.

The slightly cool night wind was surprisingly refreshing even if it was still hot outside. Brendan dried himself off and put his white t-shirt back on. He didn't place his baseball cap back on as the sun was no longer there. He recalled Drake, but Skipper refused to be recalled as he wanted to sleep on the boy's head like always.

The ride back to Littleroot was shrouded in near absolute silence. Max had fallen asleep in his mother arms while Brendan and May had fallen asleep on each other's shoulders. Skipper had since migrated to his trainer's lap.

"It's moments like these that I always carry a camera around," Lisa teased causing Caroline and the professor to snicker. She snapped multiple pictures of the sleeping children saying, "these are keepers."

"Make sure you send me those Lisa."

AN: A little fun fact about this story. When I did my first outline, the story was only meant to be fourteen chapters long, but as a I continued writing, I thought of more little shenanigans our pair could get involved in. As it stands now there's about ten more chapters left until the end. As usual our pair's ages

Brendan: 10

May: 9

Hope you guys enjoyed and I hope to see you guys next in the next update!