There are many ways to start a story.

I could start with "In the beginning was…" or I could write "It started with…".

Fairytales usually start with the line "Once Upon A Time…", but you see, fairytales have a line they usually end with, too.

This story is not a fairytale.

This story is not a fairytale, because this story doesn't end like a fairytale does. And since it doesn't, there is no reason to begin it like one, either.

So let's go back to where it started.

Let's go back to how it begins.

She meets him when she is fourteen.

The world is still bright and beautiful; she has only started her journey and is eager to have an adventure.

Steven is nice and handsome and probably the weirdest person she has ever met.

In a good way.

She finds him in a cave, digging for rocks and gems; even though he's the son of Devon's President. He should be wearing fancy suits and talking all high and mighty, not crawling in the dirt like that.

He should be, she guesses, but she's never been a fan of logic or common sense, and his grin makes him look like he belongs there, right among those rocks, anyway.

She guesses that makes it okay.

She strolls over to him with confident steps, and asks: "Are you Steven? Steven Stone? I have something for you." And she grins, too.

"I am. Thank you."

"I'm May."

"Steven. But you already know that."

And this is where the story really starts.

Not with her moving to the Hoenn region.

Not with her choosing her starter Pokemon.

No, it starts in a cave, with a twenty year old boy (man) in dirty clothes, who has the most captivating smile she has ever seen.

(The start of what?"

"The start of a story, my darling.")

The next year is spent travelling and training; meeting new people, making new friends and rivals (enemies, too).

She meets Steven again every now and then, sometimes by chance, sometimes not.

Gathering badges and fighting new trainers every day, May gathers lots of experience and sees a lot of things.

Things that make her glad she decided to go on a journey.

Things she wished she didn't.

Steven is there, though. Helping her, guiding her.

She's sure that she can rely on him, is sure that they are friends.

He doesn't talk much, doesn't really say anything about where he came from or what he's doing when he's not exploring caves or collecting rocks, but that's okay.

May trusts Steven. Who he is or where he came from wouldn't change that.

("The thing about falling, you see, is that you have to count on someone to catch you. Have to count on the fact that they are ready to.")

When she is sixteen, May has defeated and disbanded Team Aqua. She has fought Kyogre, has battled Rayquaza and caught Latias. She challenged the Elite Four, found out that Steven is the Champion and fought him, too. (Was. 'Was' the Champion, they always correct her.) She won.

She has saved the world.

And she's tired.

The world doesn't look as bright or beautiful as it used to, anymore.

She thinks of the anguished cries of Kyogre, the Great Storm that made the world look like it was about to meet its ending (And it was), thinks of her father's strange look when she defeated him and her mother all alone, waiting for them to come home.

She thinks of the trainers she defeated, whose dreams she crushed to fulfill her own, and with every thought her steps grow slower and wearier.

Her Pokemon are worried, too.

She has considers talking to Steven, but when she visited his house, she had found it empty, except for a letter, telling her to take care.

(Telling her Good-Bye.)

The hand clutching a PokeBall tightens slightly as a single tear rolls down her cheek.

She meets Brendan, once. He takes a look at her Pokemon and praises them, praises her, because she has grown so strong and independent.

"Oh, did I really?", she says and grins at him, when all she really wants to do is scream and cry, because she's not strong, because she's not independent.

Because she needs Steven.

So she leaves, travels to other regions and challenges other trainers, everything to keep her mind off of things. Everything to find a clue about Steven.

She's trying very hard to find that beauty; find that light that she had loved so much about the world.

She can't.

("And this is how it ends."

"Just like that?"

"Just like that."

"But that's no ending for a story!"

"It's no ending for a fairytale. But this is no fairytale. And this, whatever it is, ends like this.")

She doesn't see Steven again.

She keeps expecting to find him on her journey(s) somewhere, keeps expecting to find him in the Room on the Champion when she has beat the Elite Four (yet again), but he never does.

May has travelled Kanto and Johto, all over Sinnoh and has just gotten her sixth badge in the Unova region, but she has yet to find Steven.

There is no "Happily Ever After" for this story.

There are no lovers who could experience it.

May grows up.

Steven stays away.

There is no "they" for the two of them.

(„It wasn't supposed to end like this."

"It did, anyway.")