Author's Note: Let me begin by saying that losing a bet against Rave the Rich is probably the best way to lose a bet, given the circumstances.

That being said, welcome to the official prequel for Giving of Yourself! This has been on the concept table since the Ravens creamed the Redskins, whom I foolishly placed my hopes in, and as a result, Rave and I have hammered out the rough concept for this story. The rest is my imagination running amok in his established "All Roads" universe, specifically concerning how Kelly and May's relationship got started on a fateful night during a lunar eclipse. MinamoShipping isn't my main interest in the Pokémon franchise, but I will admit that thanks largely to Rave's works, it's fastly growing on me.

Many MANY thanks go out to both Rave the Rich and JbstormburstADV for volunteering their valuable time and considerable minds to beta-editing this story. Without these two, it's unlikely that WMRM would have ever become anything more than a fanciful notion talked about between good friends over instant messenger. I just wanna take the time right now to say "Thanks Guys! Couldn't have done it without you!" ^_^

Without further adieu, let us begin.

*****

Act One

*****

Wednesday

August 13, 2008

14:23 HST

Petalburg City Gym

May sighed loudly as she hefted yet another of the boxes containing her possessions back into her room. She knew that she'd been putting this off for a reason and being the only one home today wasn't really helping matters as she went about unpacking all of the belongings she brought back from her stay in Lilycove City.

This was the sixth box she's brought up from the garage since she started this morning in an attempt to find a place in her room for all the stuff she packed up in her temporary apartment that she stayed in all two months while she attended a class taught by her old acquaintance, now an assistant professor, Kelly Cruz-Marin.

THAT had been quite the shocker for her nearly two months ago, seeing Kelly waltz into the lab where she, and about nine other people, had been patiently awaiting the arrival of their instructor and proceed to write her name on the whiteboard in blue erasable marker following the title 'assistant professor'.

To say that May's jaw had unceremoniously unhinged and slammed into the ground with bone-jarring force would be putting it lightly. In all the time that she'd known her, May had never pegged Kelly as a wunderkind outside of her passion for Pokéblock. It seemed like May hadn't really known her at all in the brief time they'd met all those years ago back when she had just gotten started on her journey.

Shaking her head in an attempt to banish that somewhat embarrassing memory, May began to unpack the box she sliced open at her feet, taking a moment to assess its contents. This was her study box, containing two thick textbooks and a number of graded papers as well as her notebook from the class that she'd nearly filled to its limit.

As she unpacked all the accumulated summer schoolwork, she smiled at the thought of Kelly scribbling endlessly on the whiteboard, her hand struggling to keep up with her explanations as she rattled off the intricacies of Pokéblock and its creation in a manner similar to how most people would talk about the weather. To say the least, she and her fellow students had felt like they were getting carpal-tunnel syndrome keeping up with their young, but knowledgeable professor.

May had been very impressed with the air that Kelly had in the classroom, simultaneously projecting a commanding aura that always seemed to guide their discussions and lectures in the right direction while also demonstrating the amount of care she had for all of her students. She never failed to recognize when a student's hand was raised and sometimes even beat them to the punch, pointing to them and acknowledging that they had a question when their hand barely made it to shoulder-level.

It had been weird for her at first, sitting in a classroom being taught by someone a year younger than herself, but Kelly had effectively blown any notion of incompetence out of the water within the first fifteen minutes of setting foot into the classroom, almost like she had done so countless times before.

May opened her notebook to a random page and instantly recognized what occurred on this day of class, since it was covered in Kelly's unique shorthand scribble that May had gotten all too skilled at deciphering. It had been roughly two weeks into the course and May had been struggling with one particular recipe that she had been tailoring specifically for fire-type Pokémon; more specifically, her Blaziken.

Kelly had taken a quick look, spent another two minutes scribbling all over the page, and then proceeded to spend an entire ten minutes explaining to May that the reason it wasn't as appetizing as she thought was because the mixture of berries she'd chosen wasn't acidic enough, leaving the flavor bland and lacking in the eyes of the Cyndaquil who served as a taste-tester that day.

Moments like that had quickly become some of May's fondest memories this summer, where only months ago, she'd been abysmally depressed over her ex-boyfriend's betrayal of sleeping with another girl behind her back. A girl she KNEW and had RESPECTED no less, Dawn Berlitz herself.

She shook her head violently. That was too close to home right now. If she went down that road, she was certain it would drive her crazy or turn her into a junkie of some kind. She looked around her room at some of the few available spaces on her few bookshelves and decided that these deserved the last open spot above her desk. When she realized they wouldn't all fit, she hastily took stock of what else was on the shelf and discarded about ten large volume fashion magazines without giving it another thought.

Before she threw them aside to later add to the family recycling bin, however, she took a moment to consider specifically what was in the volumes. She thumbed through five of them often enough when she'd been dating Drew to throw them aside instantly, knowing that the reason she'd kept those in the first place was for ideas on how to add a little zing into their relationship. Some of the numbers sported by the models in those magazines were pretty racy with exposed backs and mid-slit legs; among several other ways to reveal the female form while not appearing trashy.

The other five she hadn't sorted through in several months, long before her break-up with the emerald-haired idiot. They had been more to her personal taste, emphasizing comfort and more subtle senses of style than the first five. Oddly, enough, this brought Kelly into her thoughts, with May imagining her in some of the magazine's attire. After all; jeans, loafers, and white button-up shirts were things that Kelly often wore to the lab during class.

One day, and one day ONLY out of an entire eight weeks, she dressed in a skirt, button-up shirt, and suit jacket. Everyone wondered exactly why Kelly had gone to such lengths and why she arrived so early to the classroom, requiring everyone else to as well, and explained that another professor would be sitting in on their class today to evaluate her as per the University's Teacher Evaluation Standards.

That day alone had convinced May that Kelly could easily sport any kind of attire she wanted, since she made every effort to keep in shape and maintain her health.

"Well, sport any attire so long as it doesn't clash with her unique shade of hair," May giggled at the thought.

Now as she broke down the study box and folded it up to use again another day down the road, she grew a little saddened at the continuous thought that had seemed to permeate her life over the past year.

"All good things must come to an end," as they said.

First had a been a seven-contest losing streak, not even making it to the quarter finals, though she could now admit to herself that particular SNAFU was due to her relationship troubles with Drew that had been building up at the time. Next had been the breakup itself, which tore her asunder both physically and spiritually, but most of all emotionally. Now it was time to part ways once again with a dear friend, after only two months of being reunited.

Although to be honest, at this point, parting ways with a friend on good terms was something far, far easier to take than the previous two. She felt herself grow a little light headed and she lied down on her bed, concentrating on something basic to keep herself from falling back into the dark pit she'd ostensibly labeled 'DREW'.

Oddly enough, it was her recipe for May's Pink Surprise, something that was so far removed from Drew that it quelled the thoughts almost instantly, remembering much fonder times in much fonder company. She could move the rest of her boxes tomorrow as there were only four left, and right now she was on the verge of wanting to take a nap.

After about thirty minutes of laying around, sleep evaded her and she grew bored enough to wander down the hall to her parent's office, where they kept a very basic computer available for trainers to do things like check e-mail and browse the internet, but that was about it. It was the closest thing the Petalburg Gym had to a public computer, but it was more for her and Max to use whenever they were home.

Logging into her e-mail account, she found a few new messages in her inbox. The very first was obviously spam mail as they somehow managed to misspell her name, so into the trash it went without another thought. She did, however, huff a little in offense at being called "Yam Maple." The second was a quick note from Max, finally having arrived at a Pokémon Center and asking her about how her summer class had turned out.

She drafted him a quick reply, saying that she'd gotten a 'B' for her efforts and a very happy reaction from her Pokémon. While they had liked her recipes before, there had really been little variety in their selection of Pokéblock until just recently. Needless to say, they had ALL vowed to triple their efforts to help their mistress overcome the harsh times that settled upon her and bring them all back into the spotlight where they belonged.

After sending the reply to Max on its way, she erased three more in the junk mail category and found the last new message, arriving sometime early yesterday, was from her old acquaintance Zoey. Opening the e-mail, Zoey's message went on to explain that a little bird, whose name somehow correlated with Max by some miracle, had mentioned she was taking a class on Pokéblock composition and that the class would end around the beginning of August. She described that many of her own Pokéblock weren't bringing out any kind of results with her Shellos and if any of her studies might be able to provide any type of solution.

May immediately went back down the hall and located the appropriate notebook, as she knew almost exactly the type of problem Zoey had described she was having with her water-type Pokémon. Locating the appropriate notes, May spent another ten minutes writing out a very specific solution to the problem, as the Pokéblock recipe alone called for some eight different berries in very specific proportions.

Kelly admitted that she didn't want to fathom how long it took the guy who invented this recipe had spent perfecting it and the proportions and timing in the recipe were frustratingly specific, even requiring a stopwatch for three of the critical steps. Even a deviation as little as three seconds would ruin the entire batch and you'd have to start over.

May also referred Zoey to a website about the disorder her Shellos might start manifesting symptoms for and advised she get it to the closest Nurse Joy possible if she wasn't already at a Pokémon Center. The disorder was treatable though, so she didn't need to panic, just move as fast as her legs would carry her. The earlier the disorder was caught, the less time it took to recover from.

After sending off that massive e-mail to Zoey, marked 'URGENT', she gathered up her books and returned them to their new place above her desk before returning to the room to log out of her e-mail account when she heard a faint sound effect and glanced at the bottom right corner of the screen, which indicated she had just received a new message.

Having nothing better to do, she clicked the icon and opened the seconds-old message and smiled brightly when she saw it was from none other than Professor Kelly herself! The note wasn't very long, but the Subject line had only one word in it that instantly piqued her interest, Eclipse.

Dear May,

First off, I hope things are going well for you now that you're settling back in at home. Congratulations on your final exam, which I have in my hands right now! You got a 97, which shouldn't surprise me, but I feel congratulations are in order since it was the highest grade in the class and your first test grade was a not-so-flattering 69. Now then, off comes the professor's hat!

I know I enjoyed having you as a student, but for obvious reasons of ethics I couldn't allow myself to show favoritism. So let me first say that if I ever made you feel like I was ignoring you or acted condescending towards you, I apologize. I know I must have come across more as your teacher than your friend, but now that we no longer have a conflict of interests I'd like to make it up to you with a REAL reunion between friends.

This Saturday night, August 16, marks the first time in ten years that a lunar eclipse will be visible in the Hoenn region and I would like to extend you an invitation to come and watch it with me. I know the perfect place at the highest point outside of the Lilycove City Limits that will give us the best view and there'll be some other watchers that I know out there along with us, so I know we'll be in good company.

Since you mentioned on your last day of class that you just moved out of your apartment here in Lilycove, I'd be happy to provide Room and Board for you. I have a flat with a guest room all made up about twenty minutes from the university. I've already got most of the stuff we'll need to view the eclipse, so all you would need to bring is a few changes of clothes and any personal affects you typically need while traveling. Since I know it's a day-long bike trip either way, I was hoping we could make a weekend out of it with you hopefully arriving sometime Friday evening, watching the eclipse on Saturday evening, and departing sometime Sunday morning at your leisure.

I hope this invitation finds you well and gives you enough time to make a decision, since I don't know if you already have other plans. If you could let me know for certain either way, I would greatly appreciate it.

Ciao for now,

Kelly

May smiled warmly as she leaned back in the chair and thought about the invitation. She had no plans of her own for this particular weekend and even if there had been a contest she could have entered, she knew that she was nowhere near having her "A" game back on after the fallout with Drew. She figured she'd give herself at least another month before getting back on the road and getting back to Coordinating. She owed her fans and her Pokémon no less after the lousy year she's had.

Despite her certainty at accepting the invitation though, something was niggling in the back of her mind, subconsciously connecting dots that included all the letters they'd written to each other over the years as well as the time she'd spent around Kelly these past two months and now this invitation to the eclipse...

"This...almost sounds like…a DATE," May thought aloud, her head tilted slightly to one side, the expression on her face halfway between stunned and disbelieving.

*****

In an instant, May flashed back to the moment she had caught Drew and Little Ms. Bitch-litz. She briefly detoured to another city on family business for her father's gym and finished that up earlier than expected. She made her way to rendezvous with Drew, fully intent on surprising him at the contest a full two days ahead of schedule.

After arriving at the Pokémon Center, she gave all her Pokémon to Nurse Joy and asked which room Drew was staying in. With that information, she rode the elevator up three floors and stepped off; turning left as she did so, and got the biggest shock of her young life.

There was Drew, stroking his right hand between another girl's legs with her back up against the wall with that TART'S legs wrapped around his waist, her arms around his neck, and her skirt hiked up so far, she was practically flashing the entire hallway as her hips bucked in time with the motions of Drew's hand. In a state of near-total shock, she recognized the girl was none other than her friend, Dawn Berlitz.

So great was May's shock, that it took a full five seconds for Dawn's enthusiastic moaning to finally register in her brain. With it, finally came the gut-wrenching sense of betrayal she would come to know well over the next several weeks. There never have been and never will be words that could accurately describe that feeling. Infinite sadness, infinite pain, infinite anger began to addle her brain.

She must have stood there for a full three minutes, her body begging her to make some kind of response. All the tension, all the shame, all the disappointment that had been steadily increasing over the past several months suddenly reached critical mass. May Maple finally reached her snapping point.

Something inside of her broke.

No.

Something inside of her SHATTERED, beyond any hope of immediate repair.

"DO YOU MI-" Drew's voice died in his throat as he glimpsed the form of his enraged girlfriend, with Dawn following his lead seconds later, her grip tightening on Drew when she saw who had caught them in the act.

Most responsible, sane men would have immediately cowered before her and accepted whatever punishment she deemed fit. It seemed that on that day, Drew was neither.

"May?!" he said, eyes darting between his girlfriend and the young girl currently still wrapping her legs around him. The fact that he hadn't removed his hand from Dawn's panties yet didn't help his case either. "I-I can explain..."

May's response was a bestial roar of outrage that was heard by the local Officer Jenny some ten blocks away as she threw the shopping bag she'd been carrying at the time directly at the offensive pair.

In pure terror, Drew's knees buckled and the bag went rushing right over his and Dawn's heads, heavily denting the vending machine that was directly behind them.

"IF I EVER SEE YOU AGAIN, I WILL CASTRATE YOU AND SHOVE YOUR BALLS DOWN YOUR THROAT!!" May shouted at the top of her lungs before turning and walking towards the stairwell since she didn't trust herself not to continue the assault whilst waiting on the elevator.

May barreled through the stairwell door, slamming it loudly against the reinforced concrete wall, not caring whatsoever if she damaged anything. In a split-second decision, she took the stairs two at a time upwards for the next five floors. Already, she could feel her eyes watering and her sinuses congesting. She didn't have much longer.

Reaching this Pokémon center's top floor, she noticed a door leading up further still, even better. Thankfully, this door was also unlocked and she burst through the door into broad daylight, finding herself on the center's roof. She slammed the door behind her just in case Drew...

She couldn't even finish the thought as the image that had been unscrupulously burned into her mind's eye appeared even behind her tightly shut eyes. She only had enough strength left to stumble off to one side of the door, her back against the cold rough brickwork. Once clear of the door, her muscles gave out on her and all she could do was huddle up into a ball as she broke down sobbing.

She had no idea how long she lay there on her side, the brisk wind biting into her cheeks and neck as she cried out her despair into the chilled sky. Nurse Joy found her there over an hour later she was told, but to May, it had felt infinitely longer.

*****

May shook her head, throwing off that sense of betrayal that still weighed heavily on her and thought a little more on the potential significance of Kelly's invitation.

"I mean…this is KELLY..." May thought aloud, as if that expression alone should effectively make the entire point.

"Is it really worth taking such a risk...what if this IS supposed to be a date or a precursor to one? I'm afraid...afraid I might not make it through if that happened to me again..." she thought, sadness evident in her gaze.

"We're friends, but I've spent all of two months and some change with her. Not like Ash or Brock, who I've known for years. I don't really know Kelly as well as I thought I did. Occasionally, we've written letters back and forth, but we hadn't met face to face in YEARS before this summer." May said to herself, continuing the train of thought.

Yet May couldn't deny an underlying attraction to the young purple-haired professor. Be it personality, physique, or sense of style, Kelly was someone whom May had discovered over the past two months that she enjoyed spending time with on a regular basis. Whether this was or wasn't supposed to be a date shouldn't really factor into the situation. It could be just as simple as a young girl wanting to spend some quality time with an old friend and achieve a small bit of normalcy in her life.

May didn't know what was expected of assistant professors, but she knew Kelly deserved some time to just be herself among friends, something that she didn't seem to get nearly enough of in her position. Whether there were strings attached to this invitation or not, May knew in her heart that there really was only one way to find out for sure.

She leaned forward again and began composing her reply.

*****

Wednesday

August 13, 2008

16:08 HST

Lilycove City University Faculty Offices

Assistant professor Kelly Cruz-Marin stared blankly at her computer screen, trying valiantly to focus on preparing the syllabus for her fall semester class. Specifically, she was trying to write up the assignment sheet that was going into the syllabus for a group project that would be worth thirty percent of her students' final grade for the class.

She was, as they say, going nowhere fast.

The reason for this was because a mere twenty minutes ago, she had sent an invitational e-mail to her recent student and old friend, May Maple. And while she couldn't honestly have expected an immediate reply, it didn't make the waiting any easier.

She leaned back in her office chair and rubbed the irritation from her eyes, briefly entertaining the notion of calling it a day since she was one of very few professors that were still in the building. One of the perks about being a professor was that aside from assigned class times, her schedule was her own to make. She kept office hours when she chose, decided whether she wanted to work on something in the office or at home, and on the off-chance that she ever got assigned a midday class, could even sleep in as long as she was adequately prepared for the day's lecture!

But there were times that the job positively SUCKED, with the prime example being the recent summer internship where May had enrolled as her student, effectively reuniting them after having drifted further and further apart over the years, but forced her to keep the Petalburg native at arm's length. She couldn't praise her like she wanted to or even something as simple as talk shop with her. Sure they could meet up afterwards, which they'd done multiple times, but Kelly had always been on the lookout for anyone related to the university who might report Kelly's many meetings with May to be inappropriate.

And Kelly's simple motive for praising May where she could was entirely platonic. Kelly would have to have been blind and deaf to not hear about May and Drew's breakup on the news and Kelly, as May's friend, wanted to help rebuild the young girl's confidence and self-esteem. May was one of the rising stars of coordinating, albeit she had a pretty substantial losing streak as of late, and Kelly knew that few others could offer May the right kind of sympathy she needed. The sympathy shared by those who had gotten their hearts broken by a former lover's betrayal, if she understood May's story correctly.

Sadly, that wish couldn't be granted while Kelly was also May's professor, and so she had been forced to watch her every move around May so that nobody could claim that she was showing favoritism. Thankfully, her arms weren't totally tied and May had given her ample reason to praise her on her improvements and achievements. After all, nobody really questioned a teacher who inspired their students to do better tomorrow than they did today. It was a fine line, but Kelly walked it gladly knowing that eventually May wouldn't be her student and there would be no conflict of interests, and THEN she would be able to be more open with her affections.

But that train of thought opened a whole different can of worms for her personally. She had been down this particular road before, and it did not end well. Not only that, but Kelly had known for a while now that her romantic preferences leaned specifically towards the 'fairer sex', whereas May was a total unknown to her.

The only dating experience that Kelly knew May to have was with Drew and she believed there was no quicker way to damage her friendship with May than telling a potentially exclusive straight girl that she was both gay AND romantically interested in her. Well, that's part of where this idea for a weekend eclipse viewing had come from. For all the letters over the years and the last two months, not to mention her own budding feelings, she still knew very little about May in the romantic sense.

It had simply never come up in their letters or conversations over the past few months. Although to be fair, Kelly had to admit that shortcoming was due to the fact that she purposefully avoided that line of questioning.

"Yeah, that would've looked REAL great. Dean of the School sees Professor Marin talking to a current student about her sexual orientation. NO, that's not a lit stick of dynamite taped to my hand at ALL!" Kelly thought to herself.

That was part of the reason Kelly hesitated so much this week. She composed the letter on Monday, two days ago, but chickened out for two days straight, and even today, her mouse pointer had been poised over the 'Send' key in her e-mail folder for nearly ten minutes until she had taken a deep breath, and pressed down on the left button.

For a brief moment, she almost couldn't believe that she'd done it, but the more sensible side of her simply pointed out that if she didn't send the letter today, then she would REALLY be pushing her luck as sending someone an e-mail about a weekend the DAY BEFORE said weekend would occur was just plain ludicrous and irresponsible.

Especially since she was asking someone to pedal a bike clear across the Hoenn region just to watch an eclipse that person could just as easily see in their own backyard. Kelly blanched at that realization.

"Oh my god, what if she says it's simply TOO FAR?" Kelly thought aloud, slapping her forehead in utter bewilderment as to how this had only just occurred to her. She herself was in excellent shape physically, but a bike ride to Petalburg was still a bare minimum eight-hour ride depending on the route you took and how fast a speed you maintained.

After she had composed herself and accepted that what was done was done, Kelly was forced to admit, if only to herself, that her fears and doubts about this entire endeavor could efficiently be summed up in one word, Marina.

"NO. I am NOT reopening that wound. It's not worth it."

Simply put, one of her primary fears was that her feelings for May that had been growing stronger since she showed up in her classroom nearly four months ago now, wouldn't pan out. Or that she'd screw something up, say the wrong thing at the wrong time, or most of all that May would come to the conclusion that, even if she WAS romantically interested in other girls, Kelly simply wasn't the one for her.

"Am I being selfish by trying to pursue this?" Kelly thought, asking another burning question that was at the center of the issue. Even in her most heartfelt dreams, where May reciprocated her feelings completely, Kelly knew that she would always fear the potential for homosexuality's negative stigma to cause May's already battered heart more emotional pain. And there would be no point in hiding a relationship since May was in the public eye much of the time. She, however, had been down this road before and also worked in an industry that was far more accepting of such a lifestyle. Such a relationship wouldn't have anywhere near the impact on her life that it would on May's.

"If she were to become cowed by an insanely negative amount of bad press...if it got so bad she couldn't bear to set foot out the front door from all the slander and calumny...I would never forgive myself...I'd rather die than watch her life be torn apart by something I brought into it," Kelly thought.

As if ordained by the creators themselves, when that rather morose thought manifested in Kelly's mind, her computer chimed an alert, informing her that she had a new message. Quickly glancing at the clock, she noticed that not even an hour had passed since she sent off May's e-mail, so she was puzzled at who could possibly be e-mailing her so close to quitting time...

This, of course, made her eyes nearly bug out of her head when she noticed that the letter was indeed, from her former student, May Maple. She took a very shaky breath as she opened the message and began to read.

Dear Kelly,

Your sense of timing is impeccable, I must say. Right when I've finished clearing out all my other mail, yours pops in with some awesome news and a nice offer to boot. Thanks again for taking the time to hold onto my test since I know some professors just shred them without even asking us.

And since you so kindly took off the professor's hat, I feel compelled to tell you that you never once made me feel ignored or acted condescending in any way towards me. It's true you acted more like a teacher than a friend, but there's a time and place for everything and girl-talk in the middle of class time wouldn't have been very useful to either of us.

That being said, I humbly accept your gracious offer. My family already has plans of their own and my schedule is clear for the next month as I prepare to return to coordinating full time, so there is no issue of time or prior commitments. Sure it's a long bike ride, but quite frankly I feel like I've gotten slightly out of shape while taking your class, so a long ride will do me some good. And all things being equal, Ash and Pikachu are nowhere to be found, so my bike should remain intact this time around.

If you could send me another e-mail with directions to your flat from the university, we can check one more box off the list. They do allow bikes in your building, right? I've checked the weather, and there shouldn't be any complications except for some scattered rain showers outside of Mauville City.

Since Dad is always on me about bike safety, I have to let you know which route I'm taking in case of unforeseen accidents. I'll be using Routes 102 and 103 to get over to Cycling Road 110, and from there to Mauville City. After turning west on Route 118, I'll head North on Route 119 before cutting across to Route 120 over the mountains via the Dundee Mountain Trail I learned about a year ago. That'll cut some 20 miles off my trip and hopefully speed up my arrival. Once I hit 120, it's a simple hop, skip, and a jump over to Route 121 and into the Lilycove City limits. I plan on being on the road by 8:00 am and with an hour or so for lunch, I should be there around 5:00 pm.

I'm looking forward to our weekend, even if it's a little short-notice, and just wanted to say thanks for thinking about me and I'll be waiting for the directions to your flat.

See you soon,

May

Kelly read and reread May's response at least four times with a smile on her face, feeling lighter than air each time she did. There was nothing weird or awkward in her response, contrary to Kelly's fears and concerns and May seemed genuinely interested for all intents and purposes. The potentially weird/awkward part of this idea was now over and done with and all that remained was in the details. She was good with details; find a need and fill it, find a problem and solve it.

Kelly immediately set to work typing up a set of directions from the university to her flat. The university was closer to Route 121, so it was easier to simply inform May how to reach the flat starting at the university entrance and ending at her building's lobby. It took her all of five minutes to confirm her directions were as accurate as she could make them and confirmed that her building did in fact allow bicycles in the building. She usually ended up taking the bus to work every day, but the 20-minute figure should be almost accurate for a bike rider.

She bundled the directions into another e-mail and sent it to May along with a short reply.

Dear May,

Here are the directions to my flat, starting from the university entrance.

I also found out that bikes are allowed in the building.

I'll see you on Friday afternoon and I'm looking forward to the weekend as well.

Sincerely,

Kelly

P.S. – I know what you mean about Ash and Pikachu! In the time I've known them, they've fried TWO of my bikes. Remind me to tell you about it when you get here! ^_^

*****

Friday

August 15, 2008

06:30 HST

Petalburg City Gym

May sat at the dining room table after having cooked herself a medium-sized breakfast of scrambled eggs, an apple, and a multigrain bagel with strawberry cream cheese. Digging in with gusto, she was pleased at her efforts on the stove and deemed her scrambled eggs as 'better than tasty' as she took a huge slug from her glass of orange juice.

Her newest bike sat by the door, well oiled and checked out the day before after she had unpacked the last four of her boxes from her apartment in Lilycove. She was actually pretty excited about the weekend when she decided not to place too much weight on yesterday's thoughts. Above all else, she knew she just needed to be herself and have a good time. The simple truth was that if Kelly hadn't invited her to watch the eclipse with her, then she likely wouldn't have done anything more than hang around the house and nap all day after she'd gotten her boxes unpacked.

"I thought I smelled something cookin'," May turned to smile at her father as he came down the stairs, both he and Caroline had gotten in late last night and seemed barely awake even now.

"How was Date Night?" May asked her father, of course referring to the one night a week Norman and Caroline set aside for themselves now that both May and Max were only around the house infrequently at best.

"Your mother suggested a new jazz club last night over in Oledale Town and it turned out to be a real winner; great food, nice music, and a dance hour on top of it all. We're definitely going back there," her father explained, gesturing dazedly with his hands as he did so.

"That's great Dad! I'm glad you two had fun," May responded genuinely.

"So what's this I hear about you heading back to Lilycove? I don't think you forgot anything from your apartment when you were there?" Norman asked.

"You remember how my old friend Kelly turned out to be my professor, right Dad?"

"That Pokéblock girl from Lilycove with the purple hair?" Norman asked, still hardly believing someone could be an assistant professor at age 15.

"The very same. She's something of a whiz kid, and I think she already has her Master's and is working towards her PhD," May continued, scratching the back of her head uncertainly, as if she wasn't sure whether her information was current or not.

"Anyway, she invited me to come watch the eclipse with her and some friends tomorrow night since it's the first time in ten years an eclipse has been visible in Hoenn. I'm heading out in about an hour and I should be there by mid-afternoon."

"Okay then, have you let somebody know where you'll be going?"

"Yep, Mom and Kelly both have my route and I'll give you a call around 6:00 this evening to let you know I made it."

"That's still a long trek, sport, you up for it?" Norman asked, grinning slightly.

"Of course, I just gotta make sure I stretch out before I go and pace myself. It's not like it's a race and I even gave myself an hour for lunch."

"Alright then, if you've got it all worked out, then just make sure you don't do anything I wouldn't do, okay?"

"Like stop and ask directions if I get lost?" May asked smugly, a knowing grin on her face.

"I swear your mother is never gonna let me live that one down," Norman thought aloud.

"Nope," Caroline replied, seemingly materializing out of thin air, startling May slightly, but Norman was used to his wife sneaking up on him at all hours of the day.

"Alright then, Gym opens in an hour, so I'd better get busy, love you, honey," he said as he kissed Caroline, "be safe, Princess," he said, kissing the top of May's head as he passed.

"I will, Dad, love you."

"Back at ya!"

Now it was only mother and daughter in the room, and Caroline asked the same thing she did about this time every week.

"How are you doing May?" She wasted no time on pleasantries, but her voice was soft and firm. She would support her daughter as best she could after such a tragic turn of events concerning her ex-boyfriend.

"Better. It helps that I have something to do and somewhere to go; keeps my mind off less pleasant thoughts."

"Mm-hmm." Caroline agreed, idle hands never cured anything. "It was nice of Kelly to invite you over on such short notice. I had actually forgotten that there was an eclipse taking place this weekend, to be honest."

"Me too, Mom."

It pained Caroline to see her usually vibrant daughter in this state. A pale shadow of what she had been only a year ago. Times were certainly being harsh to her little girl and she helped wherever she could, but May needed to live her own life and get through her own tough times, just as she and Norman did when they were May's age. She had no doubt her daughter would pull through eventually; she just wished things would get better sooner rather than later, but then wasn't that true in all aspects of life?

"It's about time for me to get my stuff together and head out. Thanks for listening, Mom," May said as she hugged her mother tightly, glad for the simple fact that if all else in her life was going wrong, she could still turn to her family and they would help her wherever they could, no questions asked.

"Alright then, have a safe trip, May. Have fun!" Caroline called as May went back upstairs to grab her overnight bag and her toiletries, double checking to make sure she hadn't missed anything glaringly obvious, like deodorant. After making it back downstairs, she clipped her overnight bag around her shoulders and placed the toiletries bag in the front basket and walked her bike out to the front of the Petalburg City Gym, waving to her father who was checking the breaker box in the back as she went.

Once outside, she put the bike's kickstand down and then proceeded to carefully stretch out her leg muscles that hadn't seen strenuous exercise in maybe two months. After about five minutes of stretching, she popped up the kickstand, mounted up, and started the long journey back to Lilycove City.

She was in for one final surprise that morning as she rode past the front of Petalburg City's Pokémon Center, seeing two very familiar faces approaching its entrance.

"Max! Harley!" she yelled, accelerating to catch them before they entered. It proved unnecessary as they both heard her shout and stopped in the entryway to wait for her.

"What are you two doing here?" she asked, genuinely surprised to find her brother and her former rival in the Petalburg City Limits, let alone together.

"We bumped into each other in Rustboro City and figured that we'd pay Mom and Dad a visit since we were this close," Max explained.

"I showed Little Maximus a shorter way to trek through Petalburg woods to get here in a reasonable amount of time. Don't be fooled though, Maybelene, he wanted to see you just as much as his parents," Harley commented as Max just pouted slightly with a light blush on his face.

"I'm sure. Well you guys, I've got to be in Lilycove by this afternoon, so I can't stay more than a few seconds. Just wanted to say 'Hi' before I skipped town," May explained. Harley's pet name 'Maybelene' had sort of grown on her by now. It wasn't a bad name, nothing at all like what he used to call her behind her back when they'd first met. She was glad he'd chilled out significantly since she'd called him to help her little brother, who was fresh out of the closet himself. And unless her eyes deceived her, there might be something else going on here as well. She shook her head, banishing those thoughts. If it happened, then it happened; she had bigger concerns of her own to deal with. And besides, in her opinion, this new Harley that was slowly emerging from within his shell might be good for Max.

"Lilycove? Why are you heading all the way over there?" Max asked, puzzled.

"Ask Mom and Dad about it, I'm sure they'll tell you. I gotta run guys, Ciao!" May remarked as she pumped downward on one of the pedals and began moving forward again, headed out of the city, waving back to them.

It was starting to look like a really great day.

*****

Friday

August 15, 2008

17:12 HST

Yorktown Flats Apartment Building – Lilycove City

Kelly glanced at the lobby's oversized clock for what seemed like the thousandth time to her since she sat down over an hour ago. She'd already thumbed through every magazine on the coffee table in front of the chair she settled into and she was quickly wondering if perhaps that clock was wrong. However, she pulled out her cell phone numerous times to check the digital clock against the one hanging across the room and to her mounting frustration, it proved accurate every time.

Kelly had taken off from work pretty early today, skipping lunch and working straight through until three o'clock or so, nibbling her brown-bag lunch as she worked throughout the day. She had arrived back, changed clothes, tidied up the guest room one last time, and then proceeded down to the lobby simply so that she would be there when May arrived. Sure she could have just buzzed her in, but she felt this would be a more personal way to start the weekend off.

However, her patience was growing thinner by the minute, as she began to wonder about all the things that could possibly go wrong between Petalburg and Lilycove, a distance of around 150 miles. It would surely test whether or not May was in shape and the longer past her 5:00pm deadline that ticked by, the more worried that Kelly was becoming. The waiting was really starting to get to her because as usual, her mind started rattling off scenarios.

Inwardly, Kelly knew that even if May were in trouble right now and called the police to get aid to her; the sun would set in about an hour, making the task of finding any missing or injured person much more difficult. Even if May stuck to her planned route, it was a lot of freaking ground to scour after sun...

Kelly's train of thought was interrupted as the most beautiful thing she could possibly have seen at that moment glided to a stop in front of the lobby doors. There was May, obviously exhausted from her long trip as she appeared to straddle the bike's frame after coming to a complete stop, catching her breath as she did so. Kelly allowed her a moment for that as she crossed the lobby to a vending machine, purchasing her guest a Gatorade before moving towards the door.

Stepping out into the pleasantly warm air and unscrewing the cap to the Gatorade, she walked up to May's side leisurely and held the bottle out as May continued to breathe deep and evenly.

"You had me a little worried there..."

"EEP!" May squeaked, almost mouse-like, obviously startled at Kelly's presence.

"You're...here," May managed between two breaths.

"Well of course, what kind of host would I be if I left you out here, WAITING, after a ride as long as yours? Duh!" Kelly remarked, as if the very concept was beyond her remarkable level of comprehension.

"Just...hah...a minute," May replied, gladly taking the Gatorade from Kelly's outstretched hand without looking at the label and sipping experimentally. She grinned when she realized that Kelly, despite not being around her for so long, still knew her favorite flavor of Gatorade was Frost Glacier Freeze.

"Like I said, you had me worried there for a bit. But I suppose fifteen minutes late isn't too bad considering the ride you just finished," Kelly continued.

"Was really...pushing it...those last fifteen miles...on 121," May replied after another, larger sip this time, her breathing beginning to slow down.

"I can only imagine, since most of it is downhill. What say you to heading upstairs to cool off?"

"Sounds great; I took it easy within the city limits to cool down a bit," May said, flexing her legs experimentally to see how wobbly they would be after her long ride. Satisfied she wouldn't fall on her face, May dismounted while Kelly kept one hand on the bike and another under her arm, prepared to catch her in the event her knees buckled.

Luckily for May, her endurance held and Kelly started escorting her to the door, one hand on the bike and the other at her side, ready to reach out and steady her friend should she need it, which didn't appear to be necessary. May's concerns about being out of shape certainly seemed trivial now, since her trip didn't seem to have had any significant effect on her at the moment.

"Elevator's towards the back on the right," Kelly mentioned as they crossed the lobby in companionable silence. May only nodded in response.

After a brief ride up to sixth floor, Kelly swung open the door to her flat and ushered May inside. The hallway they entered diverged in two directions; one going right and leading back towards what May assumed were the bedrooms while the left fork opened up into a common area that included the kitchen and a sliding glass door that opened up to a balcony that was enclosed by light mosquito netting.

The main room was tastefully decorated, if a little sparse, with the centerpiece of the room clearly being the furthest corner that was right beside the balcony. It is obviously Kelly's workspace at home, featuring a brown-stained wooden desk that housed her home computer and work accessories. There was an attached bookshelf that was about three-quarters full with all sorts of textbooks, journal articles, and scholarly references with a large comfy-looking office chair completing the ensemble. May notices that everything is clutter free and in a clearly designated space, but she expected as much having seen Kelly's room back when they first met and it had been the same way.

Also tastefully arranged around this room is a couch, a coffee table, TV, and entertainment center that doesn't appear to be used often, with a square dining room table currently set up to seat three tucked away back next to the kitchen, which is medium-sized as far as kitchens go. Kelly immediately directs May onto the couch while she opens the sliding glass door and stores May's bike along one of the railings, tucking it securely behind a patio chair and using May's attached bike lock to secure it to one of the thick iron railings.

Moments later, Kelly is back in the main room and rolls her office chair out from under the lip of her desk and twists it so that she can sit facing the room before turning to face May. She places the bag she took from the basket on May's bike on the coffee table in easy reach as May gulped down the last of her Gatorade.

"Alright then, welcome to my humble abode! Since it's been a long day for you, I'll give you the dime tour while we settle you in and then we can go from there," Kelly began, extending her hand to May so she could help her up and stave off exhaustion that much longer.

"You're now in the den; feel free to help yourself to anything in here, and if you want to use the computer, use the guest account. The password is 'friend'. Next; in the back of the den, we have our combo kitchen/dining room," Kelly gestured. May noticed that the left wall of the entryway hall doubled as one of the kitchen walls and the kitchen itself was separated from the dining room by another wall that had a big square cut into it so that a person could wash dishes and speak to guests at the same time. Turning, May picked up her toiletry bag and brought it with her.

"Now then, walking back the way we came, the entryway closet is on the right as you walked in, all heavy coats or boots go in there to avoid tracking mud in on bad days and doubles as indoor storage in a pinch. Next, as we walk down the hallway further, the first door on your left will be the guest room. First door on the right is the guest's bathroom, and the doorway at the very end of the hall opens into the master bed/bath," Kelly directed, pointing to each in turn as she opened another, wider closet just before reaching the guest bathroom.

May watched as Kelly extracted a set of towels, a hand towel, and a washcloth from the second closet before closing it again and stepping into the guest bedroom, nodding her head to indicate that May should follow. May obeyed and was surprised when she laid eyes on the guestroom, which featured a full size bed, its own closet, a Chester drawer with mirror, and a small dresser all packed efficiently into the room. She even had her own alarm clock, but she had to admit that with all the furniture in here, the room would border on feeling cramped if one were claustrophobic.

Whatever she'd been expecting when Kelly said 'guestroom' hadn't really compared to what all this amounted to, and her expression showed it. It seemed all Kelly needed was a roommate.

"Now, what are you in the mood for May? I'm off for the day, so would you like to get something to eat or clean up first?"

"Are you trying to tell me I smell?" May asked, totally deadpan with slightly narrowed eyes.

"Not from where I'm standin'."

"Says the girl from across the room," May fired back.

"The 15'x13' room with a lot of furniture arranged along the walls," Kelly replied, her grin beginning to show.

May opened her mouth to retort, but halted for a moment, pinched the bridge of her nose in thought, and then replied.

"I don't know what you might have just insinuated, but I'm going to take a shower...right after I call my parents and let them know I made it here alright."

"Oh, RIGHT. Almost forgot about that. Landline's on the desk, right side. Anything special I can fix you for dinner while you're freshening up?" Kelly asked with genuine interest.

"Surprise me," May replied with a pleasant grin on her face at how easy their conversation was for a pair of friends who hadn't seen each other in years.

"On your own head be it," Kelly said as she moved towards the kitchen to begin whatever preparations she needed for dinner.

May set all her stuff down on the bed and unpacked her 'house clothes', which was really just a pair of athletic shorts and a baggy t-shirt, since she didn't expect they would go anywhere else tonight and selected one of the towels and washcloths, setting them all aside. After that, she opened her other bag and took out everything she would need for a shower before grabbing everything together and setting it on the guest bathroom's counter on her way back into the den.

After a quick five-minute phone call to her parents, they were content that May was safe and sound in Lilycove at a number they could reach all weekend and leave a message, certain that she would receive it. With that mission accomplished, May proceeded back past Kelly, who was already chopping something up on a cutting board, to the guest bathroom, where she shucked off her clothes and started the process of figuring out how the shower worked. After all, it seemed all showers these days functioned differently.

A few minutes of toying around with the various knobs and May was standing under a spray that was as hot as she could handle, feeling the heat seep into her strained and still-burning muscles. She felt slightly dazed from the sudden increase in heat, but washed her hair and scrubbed herself down as best she could in unfamiliar surroundings. At least the water pressure was good here, halfway doing the job for her.

She wasn't sure how much time had passed, but once she'd completed her normal shower routine, she cut off the water and toweled herself dry, being sure to apply a fresh layer of deodorant as she went, and slipped into her house clothes before gathering her stuff up and opening the bathroom door. She proceeded across the hallway, unable to escape the unmistakable smell of seafood, and set everything up to dry in her room.

After more thoroughly drying and brushing her hair into a quick ponytail, she emerged from her room in sock-coated feet and headed for the kitchen, feeling infinitely more human now that all that sweat and grime was washed off.

Stopping at the entrance to the kitchen, she noticed a clock on the wall and realized she'd been in the shower for just over half an hour.

"We're almost ready. Would you look in the furthest cabinet to the right and hand me the plates please?" Kelly asked.

"Sure," May replied, finding them easily and handing them to her host.

"So what's for dinner?"

"Spicy shrimp and Bok Choy noodles," Kelly answered immediately as she went about preparing the first plate before handing it to May.

May cooed loudly as she made one of her 'cute' faces, mumbling "Noooo-dles..."

"What would you like to drink May? I've got water, orange juice, pomegranate juice, regular cola, and hot tea," Kelly inquired, her look a little sheepish at May's behavior. She really should have known better than to fix May anything with noodles unless she was prepared for this kind of reaction.

"Hot tea please," she replied.

"Kettle's already on the table; help yourself," Kelly explained, having prepared her own plate and grabbed her container of parmesan cheese out of the refrigerator before joining May at the table. It wasn't long before May broke the silence around mouthfuls of food.

"So I was thinking on my way over here today, what exactly does being an assistant professor entail at LCU? I've always wondered what the teacher's side of things is..." May trailed off, chomping down on another bite of food.

"Oh let me tell you, it ain't nearly what I thought it would be when I was still a student. The main reason being..."

And just like that, the gap between the two estranged friends began to close. Kelly spoke about funny stories that had occurred during her Bachelor's education, how her parents' shop was doing, and some of the escapades involving her own students now that she was a teacher herself.

May countered with a bonanza of tales from her travels far and wide in the company of her friends. From their multiple dealings with Team Rocket, to her coordinating rivals, to recent developments within her own family that she hadn't had time or convenience to convey while they were professor and student. After all, most college students don't tell their professor about their younger brother coming out of the closet over a cup of coffee; a situation like that was normally only revealed to close friends who were trusted implicitly.

As the night progressed, May came to the startling realization that she had missed this kind of thing very much; close girl-talk moments that had occurred all too infrequently while she'd been traveling with Ash as well as her other friends and later on her own while in Johto. It had been ages since she sat down to talk with a girl her own age, let alone one as close to her as Kelly was.

Kelly was careful to note May's body language and speaking mannerisms. They gave her clues as to what was going through the older coordinator's mind and it helped her reconnect with May after so many years apart. One thing was for certain, they had a lot of catching up to do given all they'd been through separately in only a few short years. What the future held for each of them, she didn't know, but if their lives up until that point were any indication of things to come, then maybe there was a glimmer of hope on the horizon.

The two young friends talked well into the night, May's exhaustion all but forgotten in the glow of companionship that they were both rediscovering bit by bit. It wasn't until midnight that the two reunited friends could bring themselves to end their conversation, even if it was to get some well-needed rest less than twenty feet from each other.