World; game-verse. future.
Rating; T
Disclaimer; Pokémon isn't mine
Notes; title from Michelle Branch, song: Breathe. Pretty song. Character study again. Trying to get May's character from the in-game May; she's all '…' Yep. ;D Also: not really romantic. More…testing the waters. Yeah. That.

breathe

.

Steven travels everywhere.

He really does—he sends May a random postcard from Johto, Kanto, or Sinnoh every now and again to tell her he's still breathing (she has to pass on the message to his father). He'd mentioned checking out a new place soon but was coming home first to see his aging dad.

May pulls the champion's cloak tighter around her shoulders. The postcards (five in total) are shoved into a drawer in her desk. Their ink has run in most places from where people rub their fingers over the words, hoping that the act would bring their wayward son back home, but May keeps them all the same. It's not quite sentimental; it's just that he never sends cards to anyone else.

(She's the only one who never tries to reply.)

.

His homecoming party is a small affair held in Mossdeep. Everyone knows he'll be leaving again so they hug him for minutes at a time and when he finally turns to May she only gives him a grin.

"They really love you," is all she says. There's just a gentle sort of acceptance in her eyes, the kind that comes with time and age (she's gotten taller in the time he's been gone).

"I won't be gone for so long next time." He says it like a promise and May nods as he gets swept away by red-cheeked kids who want to see his awesome Metagross. She leaves not long after that, claiming that there was a report of a red Pokémon around Dewford.

Steven watches her go and wonders if this is how she'd felt all those years ago whenever he'd randomly show up and leave.

.

It used to be that May could barely reach his chest in terms of height. Now Steven finds her at eye-level whenever he turns his head (and instead of trailing behind him, she's usually a step ahead). He mentions it and he finds that her rough laugh has been exchanged for a chiming bell.

"You've been gone for a while," she reminds him, leaning against a cave wall as he reaches for what looks like a Sun Stone. "A lot of things have changed… Tate and Liza are taller too."

The stone is just any old rock; Steven sets it back down, dusting off his hands. "I saw. And I heard that Wattson might consider retiring soon."

"Yeah… We'll need a new leader eventually. Wattson's not as young as he likes to pretend."

Steven glances at her, decked out in white and red and getting dirt all over her cloak in this little cave. Her legs are long, endless almost, and if he looks closely he can see the curves hidden by the white. So different from that little ten year old with those terrifying bright eyes. "…You're not that young either," he says eventually.

"Like I said; you've been gone for a while." May nudges a loose rock with her foot. "…We've been thinking. Me and some of the other gym leaders. That ah, that you might consider staying. Permanently. Wattson wants to spend more time on New Mauville, and I…can't think of anyone better to take his place."

He rolls another stone in his hands; it's an Everstone, practically worthless, designed to keep a Pokémon from evolving. Steven listens to the faraway drip-drop of water, thinks of that new place his friend had suggested, one only reachable by air or sea.

"I'll think about it," he tells her, and May dips her head. She wasn't expecting more.

.

He runs the idea by his father. It's met with great enthusiasm that belies the grayness of his father's cheeks, the hunched back that had once stood so tall before him as a small child holding onto daddy's coattails. Steven nods slowly and calls his friend, saying he'll have to cancel that plane ticket.

He goes to May next, catching her in jeans and without that cloak for once.

"Wattson will be happy. He really wants to make a playground in New Mauville." She tosses her newborn Taillow a berry and looks up at him with a hand shading her eyes. "But I doubt that's the only reason you came here."

The wind is a cool whisper on his cheeks. "Why didn't you ever write back?"

May blinks. "Would you have written back?"

For the longest time he doesn't say anything. May's Taillow flies around his head in half-hearted flaps of its tiny wings before collapsing in its trainer's arms. Finally: "I wanted some time away. To clear my head, to look for new stones…"

"Most people don't take a few years to clear their heads." Her tone isn't arch or cross; it's just fact, the way it's always been even when she'd tripped over her feet and stuttered on her words.

Steven laughs and sits beside her, grass stains cutting into his slacks. "You know, my dad's getting old. He'll want me to take over eventually… I don't have his brains though, not his creativity."

"So tell him," she says simply, and he laughs again.

.

Steven kisses her one day. The sun beats down on them and for a moment he feels fifteen again, kissing a girl for the first time.

"Spur of the moment," he explains as May stares at him. She's not wearing her cloak (he told her she looks better without it) and has nothing to duck under as her cheeks steadily turn a light red. Older she might have gotten, she's still just a kid (nineteen, she protests) and the sight makes his lips curve up.

After a moment, he ruffles her hair too—she's just a kid, and for all of her supposed maturity the fact won't change for a while.

Besides, he's planning on sticking around. He's got time to wait.

.

The next time he kisses her she is twenty-two with the world at her fingertips.

Some of the fire has come back into her eyes and Steven sends her off to Sinnoh with a wave. He had his soul-searching time; he figures May deserves the same.

("But you're not allowed to pull a Steven. You have to call and write and…stuff."

She laughs. "What happened to those pretty words of yours?" But she smiles too. "I'll write, and call, and stuff. I'll come back soon, running even, and with a championship in hand.")

He sets off for Mauville with that Taillow of hers perched on his shoulder. There are gym renovations to be done (he still finds random Mangemite stuck to the walls that mess with the power) and trainers to battle.

Yeah. He's got all the time in the world to wait.