[Welcome Home]

Chapter 1: The house

LaRousse City! The famous metropolis where confluent rivers surround the Battle Tower and greater part of its beautiful land, famous due to its modern architecture and clean auto-sufficient energy system; an impressive place constructed by men and nature, the high technology core of Hoenn continent.

May was certainly feeling very anxious about all of this; leaving the train station, the young coordinator smiled to herself, having loads of fun watching the lively unstoppable city move around her feet. Cute Block Bots being helpful and nice, informative signs blinking colorful alerts, automatic streets flowing silently to their correct routes - all machines were working just fine. It was good to be back to this place in such peaceful days... No chaos and trouble with Rayquaza, Deoxys or any other mystic legendary creatures - enough with random epic fights in the skies of LaRousse!

To make this trip even better... Summer holidays time! A small break from the exciting but highly tiring and strict training routine; no need to worry and stress about registering for Contests and winning ribbons. Seven days to dedicate her free time enjoying the sunny city and joining the "Contest Week", the biggest and most important Contest-related event in the world! Lots of new people to meet and stuff to discover... That was certainly going to be a memorable vacation.

Dududun, I wanna be the very best... Like no one ever waaaas...

May was in ecstasy. Traveling and Contests, what else could she ask for? Dancing and singing an old favorite song by heart, the brunette jumped around the fountain with her imaginary microphone, as if she was singing on a crowded dream stage full of spotlights.

Hello... Earth to May, Earth to May... May, are you listening?

Suddenly, the glamorous rock star daydream faded away faster than a finger snap, crushed by an elegant mocking hand wave of disapproval. Back to real world, the girl scratched her head with a sheepish smile. Drew sighed, flicking his hair in a snobbish manner.

"Stop being a five years old kid, alright? People are staring at us with strange looks. I mean, maybe you could help... At least pretend you don't know me so they won't pity me as well. Any option is fine, pick the easiest one. Deal? Now stop being silly."

"Aww... You ruined my showtime!" May stopped her song and glared at the green-haired teen, answering his scold with a disappointed sigh. "Why can't you try being a little bit more imaginative and fun? That would be so nice..."

"Okay, then I will pretend I don't know you." The boy declared, shrugging his shoulders. "Starting your little bit more imaginative and fun request in three, two, one..."

"Here we go." Drew snapped his fingers and blank-stared at the horizon, as if he could see through his rival. "Alright, it's so much better now."

"Dreeeeeeew!" In reaction to the mocking answer, the coordinator girl furrowed her eyebrows and inflated her cheeks like an angry Jigglypuff. May felt her head getting hot under her green bandanna. "Argh, you are exaggerating stuff only to annoy and make me feel bad, aren't you?"

"Hahaha... Trust me, when you get lost in your own world... I think you attract curious glances as much as Harley does when he breathes."

"What?!" The girl shouted back in surprise, not happy with such dreadful comparison. "No way!"

"Why would I lie to you?"

"I won't fall for that this time!..." May pouted, putting her hands on her hips. "Drew, stop trying to fool me. C'mon, I am not that weird! Prove me that I am a freak... Besides, you can't blame me for being impressed with your city, it's so incredibly cool and-"

Hearing some loud voices, the brunette turned her head to the left and saw a small group of children laughing and pointing fingers at her. Giving them a very awkward and embarrassed smile, she didn't bother (or better saying it, she didn't want) to watch Drew shrugging his shoulders in victory and walking away from her.

"I have no idea to whom are you talking to, I don't know you and you don't know me..." The boy grinned, singing each word to drive his rival crazy. "Just keep following my lead..."

"Ahhh, yooooou!"

"My place, my rules... Fair, isn't it?" Without looking back, Drew teased her speaking in a cocky tone, "I am only helping you, you can't really complain about this, right? Want to spend all your pennies in a lame poor hotel?"

The boy smirked. "Go ahead, Pokemon Centers are full and LaRousse is a quite expensive city. And because of CW, I'm pretty sure all places are also full anyway. Or else... I see, so you want to start a new legacy being the first homeless airhead living in LaRousse streets? How depressing..."

He didn't need to turn his back to know his dear rival was boiling like a Magmar in rage from the tip of her toes to the top of her head. Drew was quite aware the tickets for the Contest Week were painfully expensive to obtain; offering May his place made his good boy side smile... After all, that would be a great opportunity to have fun and watch the brunette enjoy her summer trip.

Of course this simple invitation was also an incredible chance to provoke his favorite girl all day long - without being interrupted by Ash, Brock and Max or Harley and Solidad; his bad boy side also got a smile on his face.

Bigger than the one from the good boy side.

"You're just awful. Heartless rich jerk. Mean greasy grass-haired monster. Ugly green arrogant poisoned jelly Tentacool. Cruel b-"

"Glad to know I am still sharp..." Drew waved a red rose in his hand, still not looking at her. "Do you like roses, May?"

"Huh? I... Yeah, they're pretty. Wow..." Amazed by the beautiful flower, May got a little bit distracted and lost in her words. "I mean... W-Why, is that rose for-"

"No, this one is not for you neither for Beautifly... I'm only teasing you." As expected, the green-haired teen heard the sound of someone gagging in surprise and tripping on the floor. "Oops, did I disappoint you? Guess I crushed somebody's dream. Oh well, isn't that funny?"

"Drewwwww!"

May kept following Drew's indifferent steps in angry stomps until they reached to a lower part of the city, covered by few narrow streets and lots of green everywhere - several trees, bushes and arches.

Minutes later, few small houses popped up in the curious scenario. All painted in white and surrounded by a classic and nostalgic look, they reminded May of some dollhouses she used to love as a kid - pretty, delicate and filled with gorgeous flowers in their windows. This place was clearly less influenced by the technology that covered greater part of LaRousse; up in the horizon, the tall windmills were moving gently with the fresh breeze.

"Drew... Wow."

The coordinator girl shyly admired the residences, the nature and the deep blue sky above them. Everything looked so ideal and pretty that she felt a bit lost in her thoughts once again.

"Like it?"

"Yeah... It's the perfect scoop for May's fantastic journey!"

"Welcome to our show!" With fingers set as a photo frame, May started recording another episode of her dream TV show. She grinned to her rival, pointing an imaginary microphone to him. "How does it feel living in paradise, Mr Rose?"

"Mr Rose? What a lame nickname..." Drew sighed; however, a glimpse of a smile slipped from his lips. "This place is beautiful... Feels great living here."

He stopped walking in front of the girl, waiting for her this time. It was just a small gesture but it made her run after him without notice she was laughing in pure happiness.

May always imagined that her rival was an insanely rich kid who lived in a huge and expensive mansion full of loyal maids and butlers, lots of luxury and gold flooding through the infinite diamond corridors. She probably wasn't the first one to fall for that idea but...

Few steps later, the place they stopped at... Matched him perfectly as well.

"That's my house."

It was the very last house from an area that leaded to a small pier; not much bigger than the other houses but it was very classy and nice looking - so much like Drew. Unfortunately, the garden was surprisingly empty; it didn't have any flowers.

"Oh." Noticing May's disappointed glance to the empty spot, Drew quickly added. "Well, since I was going to stay away from home for a long time... I gave everything I had to the neighbors. I mean, I know they would help me taking care of my flowers but... I don't like leaving them alone, you know?"

The boy opened his bag to get the keycard and one of his pokeballs. He let his partner free while unlocking the door; Roserade quickly jumped to Drew's shoulder and stared anxiously at the flower vases from the window garden, feeling somehow calm and nostalgic. Judging by its happiness, the brunette guessed that Roserade used to live in that place during its Budew and Roselia days.

"Aww..." May smiled to the flower Pokemon, watching it play with Drew's hair in an adorable way. "Good to be back to home, huh?"

"Since we're staying here for a whole week and no major continental Contests are scheduled 'til next two months... I guess it's fine getting some flowers to this place again." The green-haired boy flicked his hair. "You can take them to Petalburg when you leave, how about that? Want to help Roserade with rose buds?"

"Can roses bloom that quickly?" The girl opened her mouth in surprise. "Wow... How?"

"You will see what Roserade is able to do besides being a great Pokemon for Contests."

"That would be great! Oh, by the way, can I release the others too?"

"Sure. They deserve some rest as well".

The coordinator girl grabbed the pokeballs from her purse and Drew's bag and threw them in the air.

They all found a special spot to stay as soon as May opened the capsules. Beautifly gently flew up to the sky gliding through the fresh breeze with Masquerain and Butterfree. Wartotle saw the pier and immediatly ran and jumped straight to the water. Flygon opened its wide stylish wings and sat next to Venusaur and Blaziken, both sunbathing nearby the pier - while Munchlax laid by their shadow ready to take a nap. The coordinator girl giggled watching Absol playing hide-and-seek with Skitty, searching and running after the crazy pink feline.

This is going to be great, I know it!

It was a very warm and good feeling... Drew poked May's arm lightly, waking her up from another daydream.

"Ladies first, please. Welcome home".

A/N: Hi, it's been some years since I stopped writing fanfiction in English... It's not my native language so forgive me for some bizarre mistakes, typos and phrasing style. I promise I'll try to do my best!

As the title suggests, this story will focus more in May and Drew's interactions in their free time than during the event itself... but don't worry, I didn't erase it off completely from the plot. The main draft of the story is actually here in my notepad ready to be uploaded, however I am planning to update each chapter in slowly and in small bits... I need to edit several stuff and fix some chapters.

It was supposed to be a collection of one-shots but then it ended up getting multichaptered and awfully long lol! I put some old shortfics of mine inside the main plot, it is a bit slice-of-life-ish so be warned if you find this kind of story boring :x I plan to make my next fic a bit more filled with adventure, I promise xD

Anyway, it is filled with tension, bickering, flufflyness and funny moments that we all love so much in Contestshipping: profit anyway ;) Enjoy!

About this chapter, at the moment Glaceon is not with May since trainers can only carry six pokeballs at once, the ice Eeveelution is at Caroline/Norman's care. And yeah, I personally think Drew doesn't live in a huge mansion neither with multiple older sisters xD

See you soon!