Chapter 19: The Harvest Festival

"There we go. That's the last of them," Brendan said as he hung the last of a of a white small doll at the Petalburg gym windows. He wiped the sweat off his brow then looked over at May's direction who looked just about done with her doll hanging as well.

Norman had them set up the small decorations around the gym's windows for the upcoming Harvest Festival. Max was in town helping both Caroline and Lisa set up their stall for the festival.

Their stall sold a variety of home baked goods that the families had made beforehand. This year they hopefully wouldn't run out of goods like the previous years as their goods were recognized as being some of the best in the festival. They had worked tirelessly over the past couple of days to make sure that everything went on without a hitch.

"So, May, wanna go check how our parents are doing on their stall once you're done hanging your Teru Teru Bozu?" Brendan asked. He made his way over to May, carrying an empty box in his hands.

"Yeah sure, this summer heat can really get to someone," she said, raising herself up and wiping the sweat off her brow.

They had changed into clothing that was more appropriate for the blistering Hoenn heat. Both brunettes were wearing khaki shorts, though May's shorts were much shorter than Brendan's, along with a light blue t-shirt with a small white emblem to the right that read 'Petalburg Harvest Festival.'

"Tell me about it. It was tough getting fieldwork done when it feels like you're being roasted alive," Brendan joked. He had just returned from placing the empty box inside the gym. He stretched his arms high above his head as May took her empty cardboard box back inside the gym and came out a couple seconds later.

"I'm just glad you were able to make it this year," May said as the two walked down the street where the festival was to take place. There were multiple people already outside setting up their stalls.

The stalls included those that sold food, those where you could play for prizes, those that sold goods, and theatrical stalls where one could sit down to enjoy a play.

"Yep, it took a lot of work but I finally was able to convince Dad to not take me to the researcher's convention," he responded. The sound of bustling people was heard as they made their way down the street.

"Yep, looks like you'll finally be able to attend after seven years of living in Hoenn. I'm glad," she said, with a grin on her face.

"Where was that nerd convention of yours taking place anyway?" She asked a moment afterwards.

"Oh, this year Lumiose City is hosting the convention, and I wanted to go, but ultimately it's better to attend the festival."

"Didn't you say that friend of yours lives in Kalos? The tall one in the picture in your room?" She asked inquisitively.

"Yeah, I was hoping to see him again, but I guess we will meet up some other time. I just hope we hung enough Teru Teru Bozu so that it doesn't rain this year like you said it did last year," he smiled as he envisioned May wearing her festival kimono on a rainy day.

"I really hope it doesn't otherwise the festival will be ruined," she responded back glumly.

The books had told Brendan that the ancient people of Hoenn created and hung Teru Teru Bozu after the pokemon castform. The ancient people had seen how castform changed with the weather and began to associate it with the coming of good or bad weather. Most of the Teru Teru Bozu were modeled after the sun form of castform so that they would bring sunny weather, but sometimes the dolls were modeled after the rain form when the ancient people needed rain for their crops.

However, this was considered by many an old folktale as the Hoenn Weather Institute is said to have created castform, while others claim that they didn't and that the pokemon had been a major part of Hoenn even in ancient times.

Brendan had also read that the Petalburg Harvest Festival dated back centuries when the city used to be an agricultural region. The people of the city would gather around at the end of summer after successfully harvesting their crops and thanked the pokemon that had made it possible. The most common pokemon included grass type legends such as Celebi and Shaymin, to others such as Ho-Oh that are said to bring plentiful harvest while many others also gave their thanks to the castform for bringing great weather.

The festival was generally only held on years where the harvest had been plentiful, but as time went on, the festival became an integral part of the town. The festival would now always occur at the end of August in response to the beginning of summer's end even if the harvest had been good or bad.

"By the way Brendan, make sure Skipper doesn't water gun me again," May threatened, pointing a finger at Brendan's face.

"He's already water gunned you today and he only does it once a day so don't worry about." He tried to reassure her, though she didn't seem to believe his wide grin as she raised her eyebrows.

"Just make sure he doesn't do it or you will both get it," she threatened.

"Yeah yeah," Brendan responded, hardly fazed by her threat.

Just make sure you don't say anything bad about him or he might use a blizzard on you, he internally commented. The thought of such thing happening caused his smirk to widen.

They kept walking further down for another minute when their reached their parent's stall. They were also all wearing khaki shorts and a light blue t-shirt.

"Oh are you two done with the gym's decorations?" Caroline asked. She was carrying around large carboard boxes.

"Yep mom, do you guys need any help?" May asked.

"Nah, don't worry about it you two, we got this covered," Lisa said as she was writing something down on her clipboard.

"Why don't you guys take Max and go eat? It should be around lunchtime," Caroline added, setting the boxes down on the tables.

"Sure thing. Call us if you need any help," Brendan said as Max made his way over his older sister.

"Just make sure you don't get kicked out of another restaurant," Lisa joked.

"No promises," May joked as the three made their way out of the street and looked for somewhere to eat.

"So Brendan how is that treecko you told me about doing?" Max asked as he walked besides Brendan.

"Well he's umm… doing a bit better you could say," he sighed. "He keeps getting returned to the lab because his trainers said he was uncooperative. I was really hoping my friend Tom would have been able to bond with him, but it seems like Treecko didn't like him as Tom returned him to the lab a week later."

"What do you think caused that Treecko to act like that?" May asked.

"Well, since I can't talk to pokemon I can't give an accurate conclusion. Maybe he doesn't like other people, but he acts just fine with me for some reason. Maybe he's waiting for the perfect trainer or he just likes the lab…" Brendan continued as the three made their way to a ramen restaurant.

Naturally May and Brendan ordered multiple large bowls of ramen while Max had a small bowl. Brendan had let out his two pokemon so they could eat as well. Skipper eyed May for a second before downing some of his ramen while Drake ate like there was no tomorrow. Maybe Drake was taking after his owner a bit too much. Max eyed Drake with slight fright as he was remembering the time the dragon type bit his hand, but he let it go as the dragon type offered him a toothy grin.

They ate for the next half hour, or rather two certain people gorged themselves, before getting their bill and heading back to the gym. They had a couple of hours before the festival began so they could spend some time helping out their parents if they needed it, but they spent most of their time playing games.

Brendan was leading both May and Max by a mile when they were playing Pokemon Trivia. His face had been smug for the past fifteen minutes making it painful for both May and Max to see, well mostly May.

"Hah that's another win for me," Brendan declared. His smirk was growing wider by the minute.

"You're such a cheater Brendan," May fired, disappointed that she hadn't won a single game.

"Nah Sis you're just really bad at this," Max joked which earned him an ear pulling from his sister.

The next couple hours passed on with Brendan's smug face as he was winning almost every game the three played while May and Max only claimed a couple of victories for themselves. They hadn't gotten a call from their parents so they assumed everything must have been going well.

After checking the clock, the three decided that it was time to get changed to enjoy the festival. They each pulled their bags off the ground with May heading to the bathroom to change while Brendan and Max stayed behind.

"Brendan can you help me with this knot?" Max asked. He was struggling to tie his dark blue obi on his blue kimono. Since it was a traditional Hoenn Festival, many people wore traditional clothing while many others were their regular clothes. Brendan wanted to wear traditional clothes as this was his first time attending.

"Yeah sure," Brendan said. He crouched down tying Max's obi around his lower stomach. After a second he said, "there ya go all set. You look like a little emperor," while giving the younger boy a thumbs up.

"Thanks," Max responded.

May had quickly exited the bathroom after the two males had changed. She was wearing a dark blue kimono with various small white floral designs along with a floral-patterned light green obi around her stomach. She also had her blue bandana tying her ponytail which created a small bow on the top of her head.(A/N the outfit May has on in the cover image).

She saw that her neighbor and brother were done changing. She first noticed her brother who was wearing a simple blue kimono and a dark blue obi. He kept his large framed glasses on.

She then noticed her neighbor who was wearing something similar to her brother other than the fact that his kimono had multiple large orange and red flower and pokemon designs. She noticed that it fit him pretty well, but she couldn't help but think there was something missing.

"Brendan do you still have that black and red bandanna I gave you for your birthday?" she asked as she made her way over to them. She placed her bag back on the floor.

"Umm… yeah, I think I have it somewhere in here," he said as he went into his bag and after a minute he took out his black and red bandanna.

"Why do you need it for?" he asked as he handed the bandanna to May.

"I think your outfit is missing something," she responded. She got closer, taking the bandanna from his hands and began wrapping the bandana around his temples and part of head covering only part of his messy brown hair. As May was tying the bandanna she noticed that the boy had grown a bit taller. He only lead her in height by a couple centimeters not too long ago, but now he lead her by several centimeters.

Had she been paying more attention to his face, she would have noticed that he was deep red while he tried to avoid eye contact. May only realized this after she was done tying the ends into a small bow at the right side of his head. Her face grew red as she her hands retreated. She turned around hiding her blush and said, "there ya go, that's what you were missing."

Max had been snickering the background, his hand to his mouth to cover his laughter. He mumbled, "so mom was right."

"Thanks May," the boy said uneasily, still madly blushing from earlier.

After an awkward caught from Max, the two came back to their senses as they put their shoes on and exited the gym. Their first visit was to the shrine where they would pay their respects to the pokemon that blessed them with a plentiful harvest.

As usual, the shrine already had a long line formed inside the grounds as people were ringing the bell and paying their respects. The three made their way to the wash station where they rinsed their hands and mouth to clean themselves from impurities before lining up.

The sun was slowly setting into the west as the shrine's lanterns were lit and the bright lights of the festival began to lighten the street.

They had decided to past the time by playing a series of verbal games. May found herself winning more games than usual and she thought that perhaps Brendan was going easy on her or that the gods had blessed her with good luck. She never got the chance to be declared the winner as they made it to the altar holding the large golden bell. They gently tossed a coin into the offering box then rang the bell, clapped their hands together then offered their prayers.

From there they made their way back to the city. The lights now shone brighter as the sun was no longer there to obstruct them. They walked over to their parent's stall that shone bright red while there was already a large line in front as they saw their mothers taking orders.

"Umm mom, do you need help?" Brendan asked. Lisa was running around frantically trying to fill in all the orders.

"Oh don't worry about us this honey, this is nothing," she responded as she finished taking another handful of orders.

"You sure?" May asked with concern in her voice.

"It's fine sweetie, Lisa I can handle this, you kids go have fun." Caroline winked which caused May's face to grow red.

"If you say so then, good luck you two," Brendan said with some reluctance. He knew that his mother was used to this kind of work as she used to work at a world-famous restaurant, but he couldn't help but worry. The tugging on his sleeve by Max snapped him out of his thoughts as Max was pointing at a stall with a large water tank filled with goldeen while two empty tanks stood to the left and right of the large one.

"Brendan why don't we scoop some goldeen?" Max asked.

"Ah sure, let's go. Come on May," he said motioning for May to follow.

Like Brendan, May was slightly reluctant in leaving their parents to work alone in the stall, but she figured that since they said they would be fine, she should at least have some fun.

They made their way to the Goldeen Scoop stand where and old mustached man handed the three a scooper which looked incredibly fragile like even the slightest touch could break it. The mesh inside was made of thin paper so it looked like the water could easily break it as well.

'Gah that's the fifth one!" May exclaimed. So far she had failed in catching even one goldeen.

"I feel you May, that's my fifth one as well," Brendan sighed. He held the broken scooper to his face, trying to come up with some strategy.

"This game is rigged," Max muttered which caused both May and Brendan to slap a hand over his mouth. The owner had apparently heard him as he was now glaring at the three. They knew the game was rigged but they wouldn't dare say it in front of someone as intimidating as the owner.

After a couple more failed tries of trying to scoop goldeen, they gave up and moved on with their lives. Brendan had vowed to taste all the food like at New Year's so he was carrying a large brown paper bag in one hand while using his other to treat himself. May was wise to bring more money this time so she could buy for herself and her brother and wouldn't have to ask her neighbor for money.

They spent the next couple of hours playing a variety of carnival games. Brendan was able to win himself a Zorua mask when he won a "Guess the Pokemon" game. He placed the mask to the left side of his head so his face wasn't covered. He had also won a ralts pokedoll after winning an arcade style game where he danced to famous boy groups and girl groups May managed to win herself a large blaziken pokedall after showing her strength at a high striker. And poor Max was only able to win himself a small pikachu plush when he didn't perform as well as May on the high striker.

Max was beginning to rub his eyes as the hours passed on. Brendan was the first to notice as he asked the young boy if he was tired and wanted to go to sleep. Of course Max denied, but after a minute his eyes were beginning to drop and he was having a hard time walking. May then took it upon her hands to lead her brother back to the gym so he could fall asleep while she sent Brendan to look for a spot for the fireworks.

"So how's Max doing?" Brendan asked as May made her way to sit next to him underneath a tree. Skipper was laying on his head while eating some of the food he had bought earlier. Drake was sitting on the floor while eating a large serving of food.

"He's doing great. He's just sleepy," she said.

After a moment of awkward silence she asked, "how do you like your first harvest festival?"

He turned around to face her, "I like it. It's a lot more lively than I thought it would be but the food is great." He gave her a bright grin.

"That's great to hear. Maybe you we can come back next year?" she asked.

"May I… I'll be probably be going on my journey soon so I might not be able to come next year," he said, his voice was getting softer as he continued. He looked down to avoid May's eyes.

"Oh I'm sorry Brendan, I forgot about that so sorry." She too looked down to hide her embarrassment.

"Don't be May," he commented. He picked his head back up took look at May. He noticed that the bright moonlight was making her shine beautifully. May also picked herself up only to be met with the boy's eyes that were sparkling in the white light. They both caught themselves staring and looked back down.

After a minute, Brendan picked his head back up and looked at the brilliant white moon shining over the city. Right then and there he decided to confess his feelings but he wasn't sure how to approach such a topic.

"The Moon is beautiful, isn't it?" he said as he looked at May's direction.

May slowly picked herself up and looked at the brilliant shining orb. After a moment she said, "yeah it's beautiful."

Brendan could have sworn he had heard someone snort from behind the tree, but he couldn't dwell on it too long as the sudden bang and lights lit up the sky as the fireworks were being set off. The sky was soon filled with the bright colors covering the moon's shine. May looked on in admiration, Brendan was internally cursing himself.

You are such an idiot! he thought. Why did I have to go all metaphorical on her? I don't think she understood what I said or she would have given me a different response.

He calmed himself down a bit before continuing his thoughts. Maybe it's best that I don't confess. Perhaps it's best that we stay as just friends. I'm not even sure if she feels the same way so I might ruin our friendship if I make everything awkward between us.

After a long sigh he turned to look at May who was mesmerized by the fireworks. He grabbed her in a headlock breaking the awkward moment and began to nuggie her. She yelled out in surprise but couldn't push herself off him as he was laughing his heart out.

"Dang it Brendan, that hurt," she said once he let go and began rubbing her head.

"I didn't do it that hard did I?" he joked. May gave him a glare.

The last of the fireworks lit up the sky in an array of bright colors as the two stood up and walked back to the gym.

As they walked back the empty streets May spoke up. "Brendan," she began.

Brendan who had been walking ahead of her stopped and faced her. He noticed that her face was shining a bright shade of red.

"Brendan… thanks for spending time with me." She paused for a moment taking a deep breath and then continuing.

"Brendan, I… I… really appreciate it, you're such a great friend," she said, though she wanted to say something else entirely.

Brendan started at her for a moment before responding. "Thanks May. Today was really fun." He then walked over to her and gave her a soft pat on the shoulder.

"Come on it's getting late our parents might be worried about us," he continued as they walked back towards the gym.

May nodded and followed behind him. She herself was also mentally cursing herself as she failed to say what she wanted to say. She thought that perhaps it would be best if they stayed friends instead of her ruining their friendship by confessing and learning whether or not he felt the same. To her the risk was too great to take so she was content with just staying with the boy she liked.

"By the way May would you like to light up some fireworks?" he asked as he took a packet of fireworks out of his robe.

"Are those the fireworks you threaten to light in the room if I woke up late again?" she asked.

"Nah these are a lot more quieter, I have the other loud ones at home if you ever decide to wake up late again," he teased. He opened up the packet and took out two of the firework sticks. He handed one to May while he kept one for himself. He lifted Drake to his shoulders where he commanded the dragon type to use a low powered dragon breath to light the sticks.

The pair stayed together admiring the small yellow sparks speaking on occasion. They stayed together for a couple more minutes as the last of the sticks went off. Then they made their way to the gym where they could retire for a night's rest.

Later that night Skipper and Drake were giving their trainer sly looks. They were making kissing faces as in to mock their trainer. May didn't understand what he had said earlier, but his two pokemon knew exactly what he meant and now they were having fun teasing him.

"Oh shut it you two," Brendan said as a blush was overtaking his face.

AN: the phrase, "The Moon is Beautiful isn't it," is just a fancy way of saying I love you. Unfortunately May didn't get the meaning behind it and she also failed to confess right then and there as well. As much as I would love for them to confess the feelings I've been teasing since chapter one, this is ultimately based of the anime and if they were to confess then May would have probably had traveled with Brendan as opposed to Ash. I know that I probably made a lot of shippers mad this chapter and for that I gotta say, "I'm sorry!" So to make it up here's a little preview on the next chapter.

"Wanna join in Treecko?" Brendan asked. He waved at the grass type who ignored him for a minute before he climbed down and ran at full speed towards the creek. From there the grass type tackled the boy sending him deep into the water until he resurfaced a second later.

"Hah hah, you're just a playful little one aren't you?" Brendan said giving the grass type a couple of head scratches.

Our pair's ages are as follow: Brendan- 13, May- 12