Previously...

No words were exchanged between the two of them as they left the contest hall. She had no doubt that Drew was well aware and probably mad at the mistake she had made by hesitating. Ever since the Wallace cup she had become less confident in herself, and if she didn't snap out of it she could ultimately cost them the Grand Festival. Even though he wouldn't speak to her right now, it's not like she could either. She didn't know what to say and she was too deep in a headspace of guilt and self pity to even try. So they just walked in silence back towards the Pokemon Center.

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By the time they finished eating dinner and made it up to their room, it was a little after 6:30. They still hadn't really talked much during dinner other than a few words here and there. She still felt awful about the contest and that maybe a shower would make her feel a bit better. So May rummaged through her things to gather what she needed.

"Hey, I'm sorry,"

The apology caught her off guard and she froze. His tone was heavy with guilt. When she turned her head to look over her shoulder, he was making it a point to stare her right in the eyes.

"Why are you sorry?" She asked curiously, breaking the eye contact and turning back around.

"I've been a big jerk to you. I've been saying one thing and doing another, taking advantage of your feelings. I've got to get my own under control because I know I'm only hurting you right now. I don't want our feelings to get in the way of our partnership but I know my actions as of recently have been upsetting you," he said softly. May sighed and set her clothes down, turning around to face him.

"You say you want me, but that you can't have me. The only thing that's stopping this is you! How many times do I have to say that you don't have to torture yourself like this? I understand that you are trying to make the smartest decision, that you want to make it somewhat easier when you leave, but think about it this way. Would you regret it? Would you regret not giving in to your heart for once in your life?" She said exasperatedly.

"I've got the rest of my life to try and get used to not getting to have you. Please, don't make it harder for me than it already is," he said, avoiding her gaze and running his hand through his hair in frustration.

"So that's your final decision then? You won't give this a chance?" She asked, a heavy weight settling on her chest, it made her throat tighten. He was only silent. She had never seen him look like that, his head turned away and looking down, his face scrunched in some sort of agony.

"I-," he took in a deep breath. "I can't," she knew how he was going to respond, but it still hurt, just like the times before that they'd talked about it.

"Okay," she said dully before scooping up her clothes and heading towards the bathroom. Before she entered, she stopped in the doorframe. She turned around and locked eyes with him. Her stomach churned. "I can work on accepting that this is where we are going to stand, but you've got to stop acting like you want me when you don't. We'll just find ourselves back here again and again and again," she closed the door behind her before she could see his reaction.

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Of course things didn't magically get better.

In a different regard, they actually got worse.

She was running as fast as she could through the thicket and around the trees, trying to keep Drew's back in sight. They had gotten too lax and when they had least expected it, those men Drew's family had hired popped out of nowhere once again. They didn't have much of a head start this time and it didn't take long for them to catch up to her. She was breathing heavily, but let out a scared shriek when one of them grabbed her by the wrist and yanked her backwards. She kicked and struggled as the large man picked her up. He had one arm holding her neck to his chest, while the other was tight around her stomach.

She barely registered Drew yelling her name over her own screams and pleas to be let go. She was panicked and no matter how much she fought, she couldn't break free.

"Let her go! She's got nothing to do with this!" Drew growled, out of breath as he came into sight.

"It's a trap! Don't let him gra-" May tried to worn him, but her captor stifled her words with his hand.

"It's not a trap. It's an exchange," said the other. Drew eyed them carefully.

"What do you mean?" He asked firmly.

"It's very simple. You, for the girl. It's a win for us either way," the other guy seemed to be more of the talker.

"What do you want with her?" Drew glowered at the guy who was doing the talking.

"I know where she would give us a hefty reward," the guy grinned. May watched as the blood drained from Drew's face. They were going to sell her? She landed a kick to her captor's knee causing him to lose his footing slightly. She festered up all the courage she could to bite down as hard as she could on his hand. The man yelled in surprise and dropped her to the ground. She scrambled to her feet as the talker lunged at her. Drew was quick to react, holding out his hand for her to take.

She yanked him deeper into the woods, but she had only bought them a few seconds. It was unspoken between them, but they knew they either had to find a place to hide, or outrun them. There wasn't enough time to get Flygon to fly away, they would just catch up to them. Suddenly, Drew reached into his pocket and launched one of his pokeballs as far as he could in front of them. By the time Quilava had materialized, they were almost to him.

"Smokescreen! Quick!" Drew ordered in desperation. Quilava jumped up to perch itself on Drew's shoulder before spitting out a nasty smokescreen behind them.

"Good job," Drew whispered as he took the Pokemon from his shoulder to hold him in his free arm.

They ran for a few minutes, changing their direction so that they weren't going straight ahead from where they had lost the men. To their extreme luck and relief, they found a small cave where they could catch their breath and hide for a little while. There was a bend where the cave curved and changed direction. They slumped down against the wall where the cave turned. They could only see the light from outside through the shadow it cast on the cave floor.

"I'm so sorry. My mess put you in danger," Drew rasped, his voice raw from being out of breath, or from emotion, maybe even a bit of both. She couldn't tell.

"We should've expected something like this to happen," May said, not sure of what the effect of her words would be.

"I was arrogant. I thought that because they were only after me you would be okay. I thought that I would be able to keep you safe from them," Drew admitted, pulling his knees to his chest to rest his head on them. She pulled on his shoulder, making him pushing him up to face her.

"Hey, it's okay! It's done and over with and we can't change it, we just have to be more careful," May comforted, trying to inject optimism into the conversation.

"They were going to sell you!" Drew exclaimed.

"But they didn't, so it's alright," she said, just wanting him to calm down.

"No it's not!" He said stubbornly, gently grabbing her hand that was resting on his shoulder. He brought his other hand, to cover hers. His grip tightened into a squeeze, a physical plea to not let go, to listen to him.

"Drew, don't you think they would have said anything to get you to come with them? I highly doubt they were actually going to," May said as she grabbed his hand on top of hers with her free one and pulled it off, withdrawing her hands from his grasp. "They did it to mess with you, make you think that I wasn't safe from them,"

He looked slightly offended that she had broken the contact, like a kicked puppy. He crossed his arms, and let out a deep sigh.

"You're right. Sorry. I got really shaken up and I wasn't thinking straight," he said quietly.

"It's okay, let's just calm down for a bit," May said. "The faster we calm down, the faster we can get moving again. We need to get as much distance from them as we can,"

Drew ran his fingers through his hair, knitting them into the green strands, then blew out a heavy breath. "I'm so tired of this," he whispered. May opened her mouth, trying to think of something to say, but bit her tongue. She couldn't think of anything that would maybe make him feel better.

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A/N

Hey guys! It's been a little bit! School's been a pain and I've been trying to watch Dream Smp streams in my free time, I started it this year in April and I'm still on the July streams ಠ_ಠ The time I've dedicated to writing has been in my car before school which is about 30 minutes a day. Sometimes I get a lot done, other times I get a bit stuck. Anyways, that's how I've written this chapter, over multiple days in my car. You do what you've got to I guess.

I'm also planning on making the chapters longer because I really want to finish this soon. That means updates will be random. I did make an outline for the rest of this story so I just need to lump events into chapters together. This chapter is 500 words longer than what I typically write, and I'm thinking my new chapters will be about 2,000 words. I have about 19 more main events planned, which will probably translate to 10-15 more chapters. Things like contests and the grand festival are going to either be longer chapters or split into multiple chapters. This is the plan for now :) until next time,

YouDontKnowShipping