Entry tags:
Exception (PG-13, Brendan+May, Brendan/Steven Stone) for evapples
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evapples
Title: Exception
Author:spoink
Rating: PG-13. warning for alcohol use and brief (nonsexual) teenage nudity
Verse: Game: R/S/E (slight AU, mostly the aging up of characters and extending their journey and blah blah)
Characters: Brendan Birch & Brendan/May centric; also includes some Steven/Wallace and one-sided Brendan/Steven
Summary: Brendan thinks about sexuality, friendship, and the similarities of ash and snow.
The ash was particularly heavy that day over Route 113; it collected on Brendan's hat like warm, light snow. May laughed at his disgruntled attitude over PokeGear. "You think this is bad? You haven't been up the mountain, have you?"
He could see it fall outside of the cable car windows behind her. Some was still caught up in her hair and bandana - he even saw one clinging to her eyelash. (Or maybe it was static? No, she shook a little as she giggled and it drifted down. Even over the fuzzy screen, the sight of her smile made him happy and a little uncomfortable.)
"Apparently not. Is that where you're coming from?" He asked.
She nodded with a bright grin. "Yep, had some champion duties to fill."
He knew better than to ask what those were. She'd been champion for three years and every time he asked, she never had more answers for him than a frown or nervous smile. Classified. She was eighteen - almost nineteen - and held all of Hoenn on her shoulders.
"Better be done now." He teased. "You promised me a good battle, and I'm not going to stand for any interruptions."
She shrugged. "They say it's done. You never know when Wallace'll need a check-up, though. Ex-champion? More like 'biggest baby I've ever met.'"
"Really? I'd expect that more from Steven." He said, cocking an eyebrow.
"Where'd you get that?" The question starts curious, but quickly her face shifts into mischief. "Do you have... feelings about Steven. You know, intuition--"
Nervous laughter. Lots of nervous laughter. "Just get your ass down here, May."
"See you soon, Brendan." She hangs up with a warm smile.
His heart swells.
###
On a quiet night at the age of fourteen, Brendan sees breasts for the first time.
It's two A.M. and the elderly town of Lavaridge is asleep while two teenagers sneak into the hot springs. He takes off his shirt and bag and decides to worry about his pants later - he's got spares - but May unabashedly strips to the bone and cannonballs in, splashing both him and his Pokemon. The Swampert is unphased. Brendan, not so much.
"Hell, May!!" He exclaims, looking away.
She merely laughs. "I'm sorry, am I accosting your virgin eyes?"
"Look, I don't know what the norms are wherever you came from are, but here in Hoenn we have this thing called decency--"
She blows a raspberry into the water. "Dude, there's less decency here than there is in Johto, believe me. It's so hot and all these girls wander around in swimsuits, boobs out--"
"At least they're not naked."
"Cher-ee berry, cher-eye berry."
He lets his eyes sneak over when she isn't looking. There isn't much to see, really; her form is more for athletics than sex appeal, but it's not... unappealing, to say the least.
"Besides," she says, looking at him. "You're gay, aren't you?"
There is a moment of silence, nothing but the splashing of his starter breaking it. Things are still, this late in the night in the mountains. Brendan's face flushes bright red, and it has nothing to do with the fact his rival is stark naked in front of him.
"H-how..." He mutters, shell-shocked. Another peal of laughter.
"You really think I couldn't tell?" She says cheerfully, before noticing his horrified expression. "Not that it's obvious, or anything! Just, I've been around you a lot, you know, and -- well, do you remember when we first met Steven? I had never seen you look at a girl ever, even though Hoenn has a lot of chicks with their assets in plain view, but you were definitely checking him out, and--"
"Okay, okay, I got it." Brendan says, cutting her off. The heat is starting to give him a headache. "Your gaydar is excellent. Yeah, I'm gay. Why does that mean you thought you could strip?"
"You wouldn't look."
"I'm looking now."
"Yeah, but it doesn't mean anything."
With a long suffering sigh, Brendan looks away. May's Combusten makes a soft displeased noise at the lack of attention, and she yells at it to calm down. They start a splash fight 5 minutes later, and then 10 minutes later a Nurse Joy shows up to tell them to leave the hot springs and inform May of the public indecency laws.
("I don't care, you know. That you're gay." She says, while she sits in his secret base wrapped in towels. There's something a little too forced about her voice, but he doesn't notice. "You're Brendan. You're my best friend."
"Really?" He'd never had a best friend who wasn't his sister.
She smiled wide. "Really. I'm more concerned with the fact that you're a sexist asshole who's first response to a girl showing up in town was to ask why she wasn't a dude."
"Still wondering that."
"I'm going to kill you, Brendan.")
###
May arrived waving and racing towards him, kicking up plumes of ash as she went. He idly wondered if she had a soot sack to catch this stuff in.
"Brendan!! Brendan!!" She yelled. He stood up to greet her and she jumped, pulling him into a tight hug.
"Wow, friendly," he muttered.
She kicked his shin and backed off with a laugh. "I missed you, asshole! Seriously, when was the last time I saw you? In person, not over PokeGear."
"December 13th." He couldn't remember why he knew the exact date, but he was pretty damn sure that was about right. It'd been months.
"Oh, that was that Winter party, wasn't it?" She said, innocently. A dark chuckle followed. "God, that night was sure a mess, wasn't it..."
The reason quickly hit him, complete with drunk memories that were a little too clear for his own taste. Brendan quickly turned to awkwardly stare into the distance.
"I don't remember much of it." She said, a little awkwardly, like she knew that was the wrong thing to say.
"Neither do I," he lied, and started letting his Pokemon out, one by one. The cloud of cinders resulting from their landing blocked his vision for a minute, but when it cleared, he saw May had let hers out as well.
She inhaled ash, coughed, and then grinned at him with watery eyes. "Next best thing to snow, it's it?"
It was nothing like snow, really, but he didn't care at all, if he was with her. Suddenly beaming, he grabbed her and pulled her down into the grass to tussle like children.
###
At the Elite Four's annual winter party, the music is loud and the people louder. Brendan finds he doesn't mind, sipping down his fourth glass of wine with ease. There's a feeling like plastic wrap around his brain, and his steps are uneasy, but he's got a plan.
Steven chats a woman across the room cordially. His moves are fluid, his smile so gentle - god, he's gorgeous, a picture of perfect beauty. He would wax poetic about this guy any day. He'd been staring at him for years.
He's startled out of his moment by a light touch taking the glass out of his hands. May smiles at him sloppily. Maybe it's the alcohol, but she's gorgeous. Her eyes glimmer with mischief - and while that in itself is far from uncommon, he's noticing it more, noticing how pretty it is, how pretty she is, how much he really just loves being around her.
Platonically, of course.
"You gonna do it, Brendy?" Her words are slurred and a hint too quiet in the chaos, but he understands them anyway and responds with a nod.
"Good! You two... be a good match. Ever since he 'n Wallace brokit off... ya know, I think you'd be a good couple." She stops to hiccup. Brendan tries not to laugh. "You could look at rocks... n' Pokemon..... researchers, y'all."
"Thanks, May."
"Tell me how far you get! Get the d!" She claps him on the shoulder. "I'm... gonna hit up Brawley, haha!"
He smiles. "Good luck with that."
She sways away, the ruby of her dress sparkling in the light as she wanders up to the surfer. A moment too late, he realizes she's still got his glass, but by then he figures he's had enough. Not enough to be slurring his words like May, but enough to keep his courage. And that was what alcohol was for, right?
Brendan moves to him with unsteady steps. (When did they become unsteady?) Steven looked up from his guest, looking unsettled. (Was that wine or punch?) "Steven?" (His own voice sounds strange.)
"Brendan." He's smiling now, and that lights the younger man's heart like a Christmas tree. His stomach is a pit of nervousness and warmth, but mostly warmth - if he had known alcohol could make him feel so nice, he would have done it earlier - as Steven stands, whispering his goodbyes to the woman he's with. "Here, let's go somewhere quiet, alright?"
It feels like an invitation, and the warmth spreads to his cheeks. "O-okay." Steven takes his hand and they walk off to the men's bathroom, drawing a few stares along the way.
"Are you alright, Brendan?" Steven asks, ushering him to a seat. God, the bathrooms here are fancy. There's a picture of a Clampearl on the wall and there's padded chairs in it. He would laugh but he's got better things to do with Steven still holding his hand, this is wonderful, he just has to get his mouth to work-
"Fine," is what comes out.
"How many?"
"What?" is what comes out.
Steven puts his hand on his forehead, like a mother to a child. "How many drinks. Have you even had alcohol before? You look--"
He doesn't trust his mouth to speak, so he pulls Steven into a kiss instead.
There is no reciprocation or movement. When he pulls back to a confused and far from romantic facial expression, Brendan's world stops. (It's funny, because aren't things supposed to spin?)
"Brendan."
"Steven." is what comes out.
"I-I'm sorry." Is the ex-champion's voice actually a little studdery, or is that another effect of the alcohol? "I can't. I'm ... not interested in men, I'm sorry, I--"
His stomach feels like it's about to flip. It promptly does, in the form of vomit on his crush's shoes, and the night is a blur from there.
###
They laid in the ash, bruised, laughing, and hacking up their lungs. The noises of their Pokemon playing filled the dusty air. "That wasn't the kind of battle I was thinking about, buttmunch."
"Really?" Brendan quipped. "That sounds more like you're just pissed you lost."
"Those are fighting words, dude. Do you really wanna go?"
"Anytime, girlfriend." Her snorts of uncontrollable laughter made the comment worth it.
She sat up, more cinders raining down. "God, we're covered in this shit now though."
"Oh, is the champion worried about her pretty little outfit?"
May nearly hissed at the insult and grabbed his hat.
"Woah, not that! You know the rules, May."
"So do you!"
"So teasing is off limits now?"
"I am going to murder you and feed your corpse to Magikarp."
"Kinky."
###
In the morning, he wakes up in Steven's house, where he's given "the talk." Actually, make that two talks. The first was a lovely lecture on the effects of alcohol.
The second is a terribly embarrassing and humbling conversation about orientation.
"What do you mean by 'not interested in men'?" He finally brings himself to say.
Steven's response is clear. "Exactly how it sounds. I'm not interested in engaging in romantic or sexual activities with males."
"Bullshit."
He lifts an eyebrow. "Excuse me?"
"You dated Wallace." Brendan replies, brushing his hair out of his eyes with a flick. Hangovers are miserable. "If you're turning me down, at least come up with a good excuse, like how I'm younger, or not manly enough, something--"
The clatter of his cup on the table cuts Brendan short. "Brendan."
"Steven."
"I understand you're bitter, but I'm telling the truth. I am not, for the most part, interested in men."
Brendan scowls. "So you're only into the girly ones? I've got a more 'feminine' figure than him, do you want me to dress up pretty too, I-"
"Brendan."
He stops.
"Look. I understand you've probably not had much... formal education on this topic." Steven phrases the topic ever so delicately. "But it is entirely possible for someone of any orientation to have exceptions."
"Exceptions?"
"I am, for all intents and purposes, straight. I have never been attracted to a man other than Wallace, ever. He will probably be the only one." His voice is cool, but it's clear he's upset. Maybe about Wallace. "With such, I am still straight, and therefore there is no way I could return your affections. I am not attracted to you. Your age does play a part, but your gender is a far larger concern. And no, I am not attracted to Wallace for his delicate fashion sense."
Brendan stares at him, trying to parse this knowledge. His PokeGear rings, and he looks at the screen. A picture of May is displayed, giving a huge grin with a straw up her nose. He remembers the day he took that, how May took him to a party. She got drunk and kissed him and then apologized profusely for half the night. When she started getting sick, they went back to his secret base and crammed together into his bed. She clung to him while they fell asleep.
He lets it go to voicemail and takes a deep breath.
"Do you have any other questions?"
He lets it out in a heavy sigh.
"No. I think I understand."
###
They squabbled for a while longer, but soon the ash was piling higher and the sky was getting darker.
"We should go somewhere," she said, observing the twilight. "It's getting dark. Do you still have your base around here?"
Brendan shook his head, scattering more flakes to the rising wind. "Could make one, though."
"No, let me do it." She insisted. He gave her a look. "I'm the fucking champion, I can have as many as I want... as long as Wallace doesn't find out and yell at me for wasting space and resources."
He smirked. "Lifestyles of the rich and famous."
"Do you want to fly to your dumbass base alone tonight, buddy? I don't need your sass. Do you remember who won half of those fights?"
"Half and half is a tie, May."
"Fuck you!"
He laughed, stealing her bandana with an easy swipe. She stole his hat in turn - another fight almost broke out, until her Blaziken cried into the night for them to stop. They sat and laughed for a while about that ("wow, even our Pokemon are done with our shit") before standing.
"I'll be shaking this out of my clothes all night." May complained. Brendan paused, looking into the wind, considering something briefly.
"... Wanna got to the hotsprings?"
"The ones in Lavaridge?"
"No, the ones in Sinnoh."
"Shut up, smartass. Aren't they closed on Sundays?"
He snorted. "Aren't you 'the fucking champion'?"
May considered his point for a moment. He loved her eyes when they were thinking, the way she broke out into a mischevious snicker anytime she had a leg up on him, the way she would play-fight with him, the way she battled, the way she drank. The way she would always be his closest friend.
"Let's do it," she decided.
(They're kicked out for causing a nuisance, but it was worth it. It was always worth it.)
###
They're twelve when they meet. "Who are you?" He asks.
"May." She looks like a tomboy, flat as a board with a wirey, athletic form. He's a little jealous of those muscles. "Norman's kid. I moved in next door."
"You're the gym leader's kid?"
She fidgets with her shirt. "Yeah."
"I thought you'd be a boy."
May looks at him, confused. "Why's that?"
He struggles for an answer. Because he had wanted a best friend like they showed on TV? Because he wanted to have a boy friend?
"W-well," he stammers. "All gym leaders' kids I've ever met are boys."
He sees her legendary laugh for the first time, and it's glorious. "Well then, I guess I'm an exception."
evapples Title: Exception
Author:
spoink Rating: PG-13. warning for alcohol use and brief (nonsexual) teenage nudity
Verse: Game: R/S/E (slight AU, mostly the aging up of characters and extending their journey and blah blah)
Characters: Brendan Birch & Brendan/May centric; also includes some Steven/Wallace and one-sided Brendan/Steven
Summary: Brendan thinks about sexuality, friendship, and the similarities of ash and snow.
The ash was particularly heavy that day over Route 113; it collected on Brendan's hat like warm, light snow. May laughed at his disgruntled attitude over PokeGear. "You think this is bad? You haven't been up the mountain, have you?"
He could see it fall outside of the cable car windows behind her. Some was still caught up in her hair and bandana - he even saw one clinging to her eyelash. (Or maybe it was static? No, she shook a little as she giggled and it drifted down. Even over the fuzzy screen, the sight of her smile made him happy and a little uncomfortable.)
"Apparently not. Is that where you're coming from?" He asked.
She nodded with a bright grin. "Yep, had some champion duties to fill."
He knew better than to ask what those were. She'd been champion for three years and every time he asked, she never had more answers for him than a frown or nervous smile. Classified. She was eighteen - almost nineteen - and held all of Hoenn on her shoulders.
"Better be done now." He teased. "You promised me a good battle, and I'm not going to stand for any interruptions."
She shrugged. "They say it's done. You never know when Wallace'll need a check-up, though. Ex-champion? More like 'biggest baby I've ever met.'"
"Really? I'd expect that more from Steven." He said, cocking an eyebrow.
"Where'd you get that?" The question starts curious, but quickly her face shifts into mischief. "Do you have... feelings about Steven. You know, intuition--"
Nervous laughter. Lots of nervous laughter. "Just get your ass down here, May."
"See you soon, Brendan." She hangs up with a warm smile.
His heart swells.
###
On a quiet night at the age of fourteen, Brendan sees breasts for the first time.
It's two A.M. and the elderly town of Lavaridge is asleep while two teenagers sneak into the hot springs. He takes off his shirt and bag and decides to worry about his pants later - he's got spares - but May unabashedly strips to the bone and cannonballs in, splashing both him and his Pokemon. The Swampert is unphased. Brendan, not so much.
"Hell, May!!" He exclaims, looking away.
She merely laughs. "I'm sorry, am I accosting your virgin eyes?"
"Look, I don't know what the norms are wherever you came from are, but here in Hoenn we have this thing called decency--"
She blows a raspberry into the water. "Dude, there's less decency here than there is in Johto, believe me. It's so hot and all these girls wander around in swimsuits, boobs out--"
"At least they're not naked."
"Cher-ee berry, cher-eye berry."
He lets his eyes sneak over when she isn't looking. There isn't much to see, really; her form is more for athletics than sex appeal, but it's not... unappealing, to say the least.
"Besides," she says, looking at him. "You're gay, aren't you?"
There is a moment of silence, nothing but the splashing of his starter breaking it. Things are still, this late in the night in the mountains. Brendan's face flushes bright red, and it has nothing to do with the fact his rival is stark naked in front of him.
"H-how..." He mutters, shell-shocked. Another peal of laughter.
"You really think I couldn't tell?" She says cheerfully, before noticing his horrified expression. "Not that it's obvious, or anything! Just, I've been around you a lot, you know, and -- well, do you remember when we first met Steven? I had never seen you look at a girl ever, even though Hoenn has a lot of chicks with their assets in plain view, but you were definitely checking him out, and--"
"Okay, okay, I got it." Brendan says, cutting her off. The heat is starting to give him a headache. "Your gaydar is excellent. Yeah, I'm gay. Why does that mean you thought you could strip?"
"You wouldn't look."
"I'm looking now."
"Yeah, but it doesn't mean anything."
With a long suffering sigh, Brendan looks away. May's Combusten makes a soft displeased noise at the lack of attention, and she yells at it to calm down. They start a splash fight 5 minutes later, and then 10 minutes later a Nurse Joy shows up to tell them to leave the hot springs and inform May of the public indecency laws.
("I don't care, you know. That you're gay." She says, while she sits in his secret base wrapped in towels. There's something a little too forced about her voice, but he doesn't notice. "You're Brendan. You're my best friend."
"Really?" He'd never had a best friend who wasn't his sister.
She smiled wide. "Really. I'm more concerned with the fact that you're a sexist asshole who's first response to a girl showing up in town was to ask why she wasn't a dude."
"Still wondering that."
"I'm going to kill you, Brendan.")
###
May arrived waving and racing towards him, kicking up plumes of ash as she went. He idly wondered if she had a soot sack to catch this stuff in.
"Brendan!! Brendan!!" She yelled. He stood up to greet her and she jumped, pulling him into a tight hug.
"Wow, friendly," he muttered.
She kicked his shin and backed off with a laugh. "I missed you, asshole! Seriously, when was the last time I saw you? In person, not over PokeGear."
"December 13th." He couldn't remember why he knew the exact date, but he was pretty damn sure that was about right. It'd been months.
"Oh, that was that Winter party, wasn't it?" She said, innocently. A dark chuckle followed. "God, that night was sure a mess, wasn't it..."
The reason quickly hit him, complete with drunk memories that were a little too clear for his own taste. Brendan quickly turned to awkwardly stare into the distance.
"I don't remember much of it." She said, a little awkwardly, like she knew that was the wrong thing to say.
"Neither do I," he lied, and started letting his Pokemon out, one by one. The cloud of cinders resulting from their landing blocked his vision for a minute, but when it cleared, he saw May had let hers out as well.
She inhaled ash, coughed, and then grinned at him with watery eyes. "Next best thing to snow, it's it?"
It was nothing like snow, really, but he didn't care at all, if he was with her. Suddenly beaming, he grabbed her and pulled her down into the grass to tussle like children.
###
At the Elite Four's annual winter party, the music is loud and the people louder. Brendan finds he doesn't mind, sipping down his fourth glass of wine with ease. There's a feeling like plastic wrap around his brain, and his steps are uneasy, but he's got a plan.
Steven chats a woman across the room cordially. His moves are fluid, his smile so gentle - god, he's gorgeous, a picture of perfect beauty. He would wax poetic about this guy any day. He'd been staring at him for years.
He's startled out of his moment by a light touch taking the glass out of his hands. May smiles at him sloppily. Maybe it's the alcohol, but she's gorgeous. Her eyes glimmer with mischief - and while that in itself is far from uncommon, he's noticing it more, noticing how pretty it is, how pretty she is, how much he really just loves being around her.
Platonically, of course.
"You gonna do it, Brendy?" Her words are slurred and a hint too quiet in the chaos, but he understands them anyway and responds with a nod.
"Good! You two... be a good match. Ever since he 'n Wallace brokit off... ya know, I think you'd be a good couple." She stops to hiccup. Brendan tries not to laugh. "You could look at rocks... n' Pokemon..... researchers, y'all."
"Thanks, May."
"Tell me how far you get! Get the d!" She claps him on the shoulder. "I'm... gonna hit up Brawley, haha!"
He smiles. "Good luck with that."
She sways away, the ruby of her dress sparkling in the light as she wanders up to the surfer. A moment too late, he realizes she's still got his glass, but by then he figures he's had enough. Not enough to be slurring his words like May, but enough to keep his courage. And that was what alcohol was for, right?
Brendan moves to him with unsteady steps. (When did they become unsteady?) Steven looked up from his guest, looking unsettled. (Was that wine or punch?) "Steven?" (His own voice sounds strange.)
"Brendan." He's smiling now, and that lights the younger man's heart like a Christmas tree. His stomach is a pit of nervousness and warmth, but mostly warmth - if he had known alcohol could make him feel so nice, he would have done it earlier - as Steven stands, whispering his goodbyes to the woman he's with. "Here, let's go somewhere quiet, alright?"
It feels like an invitation, and the warmth spreads to his cheeks. "O-okay." Steven takes his hand and they walk off to the men's bathroom, drawing a few stares along the way.
"Are you alright, Brendan?" Steven asks, ushering him to a seat. God, the bathrooms here are fancy. There's a picture of a Clampearl on the wall and there's padded chairs in it. He would laugh but he's got better things to do with Steven still holding his hand, this is wonderful, he just has to get his mouth to work-
"Fine," is what comes out.
"How many?"
"What?" is what comes out.
Steven puts his hand on his forehead, like a mother to a child. "How many drinks. Have you even had alcohol before? You look--"
He doesn't trust his mouth to speak, so he pulls Steven into a kiss instead.
There is no reciprocation or movement. When he pulls back to a confused and far from romantic facial expression, Brendan's world stops. (It's funny, because aren't things supposed to spin?)
"Brendan."
"Steven." is what comes out.
"I-I'm sorry." Is the ex-champion's voice actually a little studdery, or is that another effect of the alcohol? "I can't. I'm ... not interested in men, I'm sorry, I--"
His stomach feels like it's about to flip. It promptly does, in the form of vomit on his crush's shoes, and the night is a blur from there.
###
They laid in the ash, bruised, laughing, and hacking up their lungs. The noises of their Pokemon playing filled the dusty air. "That wasn't the kind of battle I was thinking about, buttmunch."
"Really?" Brendan quipped. "That sounds more like you're just pissed you lost."
"Those are fighting words, dude. Do you really wanna go?"
"Anytime, girlfriend." Her snorts of uncontrollable laughter made the comment worth it.
She sat up, more cinders raining down. "God, we're covered in this shit now though."
"Oh, is the champion worried about her pretty little outfit?"
May nearly hissed at the insult and grabbed his hat.
"Woah, not that! You know the rules, May."
"So do you!"
"So teasing is off limits now?"
"I am going to murder you and feed your corpse to Magikarp."
"Kinky."
###
In the morning, he wakes up in Steven's house, where he's given "the talk." Actually, make that two talks. The first was a lovely lecture on the effects of alcohol.
The second is a terribly embarrassing and humbling conversation about orientation.
"What do you mean by 'not interested in men'?" He finally brings himself to say.
Steven's response is clear. "Exactly how it sounds. I'm not interested in engaging in romantic or sexual activities with males."
"Bullshit."
He lifts an eyebrow. "Excuse me?"
"You dated Wallace." Brendan replies, brushing his hair out of his eyes with a flick. Hangovers are miserable. "If you're turning me down, at least come up with a good excuse, like how I'm younger, or not manly enough, something--"
The clatter of his cup on the table cuts Brendan short. "Brendan."
"Steven."
"I understand you're bitter, but I'm telling the truth. I am not, for the most part, interested in men."
Brendan scowls. "So you're only into the girly ones? I've got a more 'feminine' figure than him, do you want me to dress up pretty too, I-"
"Brendan."
He stops.
"Look. I understand you've probably not had much... formal education on this topic." Steven phrases the topic ever so delicately. "But it is entirely possible for someone of any orientation to have exceptions."
"Exceptions?"
"I am, for all intents and purposes, straight. I have never been attracted to a man other than Wallace, ever. He will probably be the only one." His voice is cool, but it's clear he's upset. Maybe about Wallace. "With such, I am still straight, and therefore there is no way I could return your affections. I am not attracted to you. Your age does play a part, but your gender is a far larger concern. And no, I am not attracted to Wallace for his delicate fashion sense."
Brendan stares at him, trying to parse this knowledge. His PokeGear rings, and he looks at the screen. A picture of May is displayed, giving a huge grin with a straw up her nose. He remembers the day he took that, how May took him to a party. She got drunk and kissed him and then apologized profusely for half the night. When she started getting sick, they went back to his secret base and crammed together into his bed. She clung to him while they fell asleep.
He lets it go to voicemail and takes a deep breath.
"Do you have any other questions?"
He lets it out in a heavy sigh.
"No. I think I understand."
###
They squabbled for a while longer, but soon the ash was piling higher and the sky was getting darker.
"We should go somewhere," she said, observing the twilight. "It's getting dark. Do you still have your base around here?"
Brendan shook his head, scattering more flakes to the rising wind. "Could make one, though."
"No, let me do it." She insisted. He gave her a look. "I'm the fucking champion, I can have as many as I want... as long as Wallace doesn't find out and yell at me for wasting space and resources."
He smirked. "Lifestyles of the rich and famous."
"Do you want to fly to your dumbass base alone tonight, buddy? I don't need your sass. Do you remember who won half of those fights?"
"Half and half is a tie, May."
"Fuck you!"
He laughed, stealing her bandana with an easy swipe. She stole his hat in turn - another fight almost broke out, until her Blaziken cried into the night for them to stop. They sat and laughed for a while about that ("wow, even our Pokemon are done with our shit") before standing.
"I'll be shaking this out of my clothes all night." May complained. Brendan paused, looking into the wind, considering something briefly.
"... Wanna got to the hotsprings?"
"The ones in Lavaridge?"
"No, the ones in Sinnoh."
"Shut up, smartass. Aren't they closed on Sundays?"
He snorted. "Aren't you 'the fucking champion'?"
May considered his point for a moment. He loved her eyes when they were thinking, the way she broke out into a mischevious snicker anytime she had a leg up on him, the way she would play-fight with him, the way she battled, the way she drank. The way she would always be his closest friend.
"Let's do it," she decided.
(They're kicked out for causing a nuisance, but it was worth it. It was always worth it.)
###
They're twelve when they meet. "Who are you?" He asks.
"May." She looks like a tomboy, flat as a board with a wirey, athletic form. He's a little jealous of those muscles. "Norman's kid. I moved in next door."
"You're the gym leader's kid?"
She fidgets with her shirt. "Yeah."
"I thought you'd be a boy."
May looks at him, confused. "Why's that?"
He struggles for an answer. Because he had wanted a best friend like they showed on TV? Because he wanted to have a boy friend?
"W-well," he stammers. "All gym leaders' kids I've ever met are boys."
He sees her legendary laugh for the first time, and it's glorious. "Well then, I guess I'm an exception."
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(Also you two are the only ones I paired directly to each other! It was an accident, but I suppose it's because you're both Hoenn folk? I just thought I'd point that out XD)
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(Make that three for three on the last line, btw.)
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