So, it turns out I miscounted the amount of chapters I had to write for this half of Hoenn. So because of that, instead of this half ending at chapter 50, it's going to end on chapter 49. Meaning this volume will have 98 chapters instead of 100. So, I'm going to try to see if I can divide any of the current chapters I have planned, in order to get that 100 chapter mark. Thank Arceus I'm looking for an arts degree, not a maths one. Anyway, let's get on with the chapter shall we.

Chapter 44:

Normal Interactions

The journey from Larousse to Petalburg is uneventful, much to Max's relief. After spending much of his journey through Kalos and pretty much all of his Hoenn journey so far avoiding Team Terra, he's grateful for the mundaneness of the walk. Looking at Bonnie, he can tell she's grateful for it too. Whenever they stop, May uses the time to try to use her powers as a Blaziken Mask, but they don't come out. Once again, she starts to grow frustrated, and Drew has to be there to keep her calm. Brendan watches this with confusion. "Why is May punching that tree?" he asks Max. "She's training for the Ribbon cup this year," Max replies. "She wants to try something out for it I believe." Then, he goes back to writing in his notebook. Brendan just shrugs and goes back to tending to his pokémon.

Eventually, they arrive back in Petalburg once more. As they do, Drew suddenly becomes nervous. "What's wrong?" May asks, putting a hand on his shoulder. "We're going to have to tell your dad about us," he replies. "How do you think he'll react?" May stops as well, suddenly nervous. But before she can say anything, her phone rings. She checks to see who it is, and smiles. "Looks like we may be able to put off that conversation for a bit more time," she tells him, before answering the phone. "Hey," she says. "Did you arrive ok?" the sound of someone talking, probably a woman, Max can't tell, comes from may's phone, but he can't make out what she's saying. "Excellent," May replies. "We'll meet you there, then head to my house. Thank you so much for this." More talking from the phone. "Yes, I hope so too," says May. "But we can only hope. See you in a few, I've got big news for you." After a bit more talking, May hangs up the phone. Then, she turns to the others. "Before we head there, we need to head to the airport first," she tells them. "There's some people we need to pick up.

May simply refuses to tell them who she was talking to, telling them that they'll see. Eventually, they arrive at the airport, and see who May was talking to. Ash and Serena are standing there. Serena is waving enthusiastically, while Ash just looks at them. He looks dreadful. His eyes seem more hollow then normal, with dark circles under his eyes. The kindness in his face is gone, replaced by barely contained rage. Perhaps it's just Max's imagination, but there seems to be a faint blue hue around him. But the most surprising factor is Pikachu, who's riding on Serena's shoulder instead of Ash's. "Woah," Bonnie comments, with all the tact of a sledgehammer, "Ash you look awful. Are you alright?" Despite the look on his face, Ash can't help but chuckle. "I'm fine," he says, "don't worry. Just tired." His voice has a gruff sound to it, almost like a growl. May gives Serena a look that says, "Everything alright?", which Serena returns with one that says, "I'll tell you about it later."

With Ash and Serena now accompanying them, they now head on to Max and May's home. As they travel, May tells Serena about how she finally asked Drew out. Serena is delighted to hear this, and in turn, she tells May and Max, who's listening in, about her troubles with Ash. Bonnie hears this and looks horrified. "Are you going to break up!?" she exclaims sadly. "No, no," Serena reassures her. "At least, I don't plan on it yet." She glances behind her at this, where Ash is walking alone a few steps back. "He's changing, and not in a good way," she tells them. "He's really let what happened in Kalos to get to him. Ever since he killed that Team Terra guy, he's been actively suppressing his Aura, hoping to make it go away so that he doesn't hurt anyone with it again. But all it's doing is turning him into that." She points to him again. "Even Pikachu has become wary of him." May put a comforting hand on her shoulder. "Hey, don't worry about it," she tells her. "We'll talk to him about it and figure out a way to stop him from doing that." Serena gives her an appreciative nod.

They arrive at the Maple residence just as Caroline is coming out of the door to feed some nearby Taillow. She catches sight of her children and their friends and immediately brightens. "We were wondering when you'd return here," she calls to them, before pulling both of her kids into a big hug. Bonnie and Drew can't help but snigger at this. Then Caroline spots them and grins. "You two are included in this," she adds. "No matter what either of these two say, I see you as becoming family." Both of them blush, while Serena and Brendan laugh. Even Ash is able to chuckle. "Actually mum," says May, stepping next to Drew. "I finally asked him out. We're together now." Caroline practically squeals with delight at this and hugs the two of them tightly. "Well, you took your time with that," she says. "But I'm so happy for you both."

May is about to request that Caroline not say anything about this to Norman, but before she can, the man himself steps out of the gym. He sees Drew and his eyes narrow. May swallows nervously. "Hey dad," she says. "How's the gym going?" Norman ignores her and looks at Drew. "So," he says sternly, "if I heard correctly, you're now dating my daughter. Is that correct?" Drew looks at May nervously, then nods his head. "Yes, sir, I am," he replies. Norman doesn't drop his piercing stare. "Well, I'm sure May has waned you about this, but in order to date my daughter, you need my permission first," he says. "The only way to get that, is to beat me in a pokémon battle, while I use my strongest team." He pulls out three pokéballs at this to show he means business. "So, do you accept my challenge?" Drew looks at the balls, then at May, who gives him a nervous look. He meets it with a look of determination, then turns back to Norman and gives his answer. "No."

Everyone stares dumbstruck at this. Even Norman looks perplexed. "No?" he asks. "You won't challenge me to a battle, to earn the right to date my daughter?" Drew shakes his head. "No," he repeats, "I don't." Norman returns his pokémon to his belt and smirks. "And why is that?" he asks. "Because that's not fair on May," Drew replies. "By challenging you to a battle, we're taking her choice in the matter out of the equation, which isn't fair on her, as it's her life. Besides, she chose to ask me out, so surely that's enough for you right?" Norman stares at him. "So, is that your final decision?" he asks. Drew looks back at May, then returns his gaze to Norman and nods his head. Norman smirks at this. Then, he starts to laugh. At first, both May and Drew are worried that this spells the end of their relationship, but then Norman begins to clap. "Congratulations Drew," he says. "You've passed my test."

Both May and Drew stare at him in amazement. "What!?" May exclaims. "You mean all those times you challenged those boys to battles, were tests!?" Norman nods his head. "I was never going to allow them to date you if they accepted," he tells her. "I was merely testing to see if they truly cared about you, or if they only wanted you because of your looks or title. But Drew here was the first one to get it right. As such, he has my permission. Although, he never needed it since you're the one who asked him." Both May and Drew look extremely relieved to hear this and embrace each other. Max watches this and can't help but laugh. "Dad," he says, "As sweet as that idea was, please for the love of Arceus don't do something like that with me!" Norman chuckles at that. "Well, you aren't Top Coordinator, so the chances of floods of girls coming to ask you out are much slimmer." Neither Max nor Bonnie like the idea of that, which makes Norman smile. "Besides, I don't need to do that. You've clearly had your heart captured by another trainer." Max flushes scarlet at that. "For the last time dad!" he shouts. "Bonnie is just a friend!" Norman chuckles at this. "Funny," he comments. "I don't recall saying her name." Everyone around them erupts in laughter, even Ash, while Max and Bonnie go redder than Blaziken and refuse to look at each other.

The Maple family and their guests head into the house, where May and Max tell their parents all about their journey so far, with Max leaving out the details of Team Terra hunting him and Bonnie, and May neglecting to bring up her new fire powers. Both of them also choose to not say a word about the incident in the river. While they catch their parents up, the others sit around and chat. More specifically, Serena and Bonnie try to convince Ash that withholding his Aura is a bad idea, but he just ignores them. Eventually, once he's finished listening to his kids' stories, Norman stands up and stretches. Looking to get out of this conversation, Ash points this out to Bonnie. "Hey look, Norman is done talking," he says. "Maybe you can challenge him to a Gym Battle now." Ash's trick works. Bonnie immediately forgets about what she and Serena were up to and runs over to Norman.

Serena glares at him for this. Ash just sighs. "That was dirty," he admits. "I'm sorry." Serena stands up. "I get it," she says. "You don't like talking about this. So, I'll stop. But know this, you will eventually have to make a choice. Accept your powers and start using them again, or grow more intolerable, and start losing a few friends. Myself included." Then, she walks off, with Pikachu going with her. Ash moves to call her back, but decides against it. Instead, he sits back down and silently stews on his anger and self hatred.

Meanwhile, Bonnie runs up to Norman excitedly. "Hey," she says to him. "Can we have a battle now, I wanna get my 5th badge." Norman laughs at this. "You've got fire kid," he tells her. "I like you. But unfortunately, our battle will have to wait." Bonnie becomes disappointed to hear this. "What, Why?" she asks. "Because the Hoenn Gym Leaders have been called together to do something about the Tremors." At this, Bonnie turns to Brendan. "Do you need to go to that?" she asks. Brendan shook his head. "I didn't summon it," he tells her. "It's only for the Gym Leaders. I called one with my Elite Four right before I brought you two to Larousse." Realising he'd just said that in front of Max's parents, he quickly turns to Caroline. "Sorry about that, by the way." Caroline waves him off, insisting that it's fine. Then, Norman bids farewell to his family and departs.

After that, the rest of them spend the day chatting and battling. May and Drew depart for Littleroot Town for their first official date together, while Serena gives Max a few pointers for his next contest. Bonnie does a bit of training, and Brendan gives her a hand. "Take it as an apology for locking you up in Larousse for so long," he tells her. Ash sits on the deck and watches them all. He tries to get Pikachu to sit with him, but the mouse pokémon refuses. Whether because he's angry with him or scared of him, Max can't tell. Eventually, Caroline calls everyone together for dinner. Just as she does, it starts to rain, hard. Everyone dashes inside quickly. They eat dinner together, then spend the rest of the evening chilling indoors, discussing the Tremors. But, since only four have occurred, and now Team Terra no longer know where Max and Bonnie are, it's become a lot harder to do something about them.

Their conversation is interrupted by May and Drew's return, both of them looking like they were hit with Brendan's Swampert's Water Gun. After the couple got dry, they join in on the conversation. But, by now it's getting late, and neither of them have anything new to add to it. So, they agree to call it a night and talk about it in the morning. Max heads up to his bedroom, which he offered to share with Bonnie, but she insisted on taking the guest room. She was going to share it with Brendan and Drew, but May insisted Drew share a room with her, on an inflatable mattress of course, and Brendan decided to take the couch. So, Max heads to his room alone, and finds himself hit with a wave of exhaustion. He doesn't even change out of his clothes. He just gets into bed and falls asleep immediately. He does this so soon after entering the room, that he fails to notice the giant shape outside of his window, or the man coming towards the house.

Of course I ended that on a cliff-hanger, because that's fun. Now, the next chapter may be split into 2 so I can get my fic to 100 chapters, but that depends on how small the chapter ends up. Also, who doesn't love a little bit of relationship drama? Let's hope that Amourshipping is able to last much longer. I'll see you all on Thursday.