A/N: Hey guys! Long time no see... see a Pokemon fic (or any fic, really) from me, that is. I got the idea for this last night and I got it out quicker than I've ever written any other fic. I'm expecting this to be probably around 25,000 words (10 chapters at ~2.5k words each). That may vary.

This was inspired by ORAS coming out, obviously. There will definitely be some elements in this story that are from ORAS and may not have been in the original games. Oh, and for the sake of the story, we're going to assume that May was around 16 when she started her Pokemon journey and that Steven was around 19, so in this fic they're about 18-19 and 21-22, respectively.

Trigger warnings for rape/assault (implied by not graphically described), depression, anxiety and panic attacks, and post-traumatic stress disorder. This is some obvious Hurt/Comfort shit right here. On that lovely note, I hope you enjoy!

Lilycove comes alive at night. The lights of the department store shine throughout the whole city, reflecting on the water and giving an air of magic on even the coolest, windiest nights. The city where the land ends and the sea begins.

Tonight, it is the city where May's life ends and her worst nightmare begins.

A cough. A whimper. An attempt to pull herself up, fingers scraping at the cold wall and prying as if there was something to hold on to. A desperate cry for help, for someone to reach her and just fucking help, help her bring herself to her feet and help her forget what happened and help her wash away the feeling of his fingertips bruising her hips and-

Her fingers slip, and everything goes black.

Flash back hours earlier. May lounged on her couch, Skitty on the arm rest and purring against May's arm. It was late Saturday night, and May was living the life of a former champion- getting to spend as much time as she wanted lazing about and never really having to worry about working. She could live off of her championship money forever.

Despite this, she found it in her best interest to get a small apartment in the mostly-uninhabited part of Lilycove. It was close enough to Mossdeep that it would only be a quick flight over to Steven's house, and it took her out of the spotlight. It had only been about a week since she moved here, so the cameras hadn't yet found her. It was only a matter of time, though. Once you became a champion, you never went back to a normal life. Steven had tried, and he was still bombarded with interviews and paparazzi (being the son of the CEO of Devon Corp. didn't really help much, either).

May liked her new apartment. It was quaint. Humble. It gave her an excuse to disappear for awhile, focus on unpacking and decorating and all the things that people with new homes do. It gave her an excuse to stop battling for awhile.

When did it start to feel like each battle took something out of her?

A commercial for a new kind of chips came on the TV. Skitty mewled. May glanced over at it, and then back at the TV. Her stomach growled. She considered getting up to raid the kitchen, but knew it wouldn't yield much- she had been so busy unpacking boxes all week (and yet they were still piled up) that she had been living off of takeout and hadn't really had the chance to go to the grocery store.

Skitty mewled again. "Whaaaaaaat?" May groaned, rolling onto her back and pulling the cat Pokemon onto her lap. Skitty meowed and bounced, throwing its head towards the TV where the chip commercial still played. "You want food?" The Pokemon bobbed its head. May sighed. "Yeah, I could probably afford to pick up more PokeBlock, too." She glanced over at her Pokeballs on the counter. Mightyena, Blaziken, Latios, Gardevoir, Salamance. Most of them had been stuck in their Pokeballs for days. She hadn't left her apartment for days and there wasn't really enough room around to let them out just yet.

May pulled herself up from the couch and walked to the bathroom. She eyed herself in the mirror as she tugged a brush through her hair, cringing as it caught in the tangles. She didn't wear her hair in pigtails anymore; as a champion she had been expected to be mature and presentable, and the pigtails seemed a bit childish. Even after starting her temporary leave of absence from the position, the trend hadn't resumed.

The circles under her eyes were darker than they'd been in a while. When had she last slept?

She exchanged her sweatpants for some cut-off shorts, since it was pretty warm out. She left the same camisole tank top on, but pulled on a bra under it just for the sake of looking semi-presentable. She was just going down to the 24-hour corner convenience store. It wasn't like she'd see anybody she knows.

Skitty dashed around May's feet and mewled as she walked to the door and pulled on her boots. "Yeah, yeah, I know, hush," May said quietly, feigning annoyance but smiling all the same.

She glanced at her Pokeballs on the counter. Five there, and Skitty's somewhere farther into the apartment. She'd take them, but she didn't have any pockets nor did she feel like searching through the few boxes left to find a belt where she could clip them on. She was just going down the street. She'd be gone ten minutes, tops. It was fine to go without them this once. It'd be fine.

May grabbed her wallet and keys and shut the door to the sounds of Skitty's cries.

Despite her searching, May couldn't find the chips that she had seen advertised. Oh well. She did manage to stuff two other kinds of chips, a few bags of PokeBlock, some instant Ramen noodle cups, and a six-pack of Mountain Dew into a couple of shopping bags. Not the healthiest of choices, but she could always go and do some real grocery shopping tomorrow. This was good enough for now. Now she could make her way home, get something to eat, and maybe get some sleep.

Or she should have been able to, except for that damn Poochyena. Just as May was walking by an alley, her apartment building in sight, the puppy Pokemon ran out, tangling up in May's legs and causing her to drop her bags. She swore quietly as the Pokemon ran off, yelping, and May's food- and the keys to her apartment- scattered.

She was just about to retrieve the last cup of instant Ramen when she heard heavy breathing behind her. Her hand froze, inches away from the cup.

"Hello, beautiful," a voice slurred. May's blood ran cold. Where were those keys? It was too dark to see anything- the street lamps overhead were dim.

Don't be scared, May told herself. It's fine. It's just a guy. He's drunk. You're fine. Get up. Make yourself bigger than him.

She rose to her feet and tried to stop her hand from quivering. She feigned a smile at the guy- she had gotten very good at that in the past year of her championship.

Her was tall- a lot taller than her, at a short 5'4". He had greasy blonde hair and wore a leather jacket over a tattered flannel shirt. She could smell the alcohol on his breath from several feet away. His eyes were glazed over and the smile on his face was unsettling.

"Hi, um," May stuttered. She pointed over her shoulder. "My apartment is, um, right there, so I'm just going to... to grab my groceries and leave..." Keys, keys. Where were they? Wasn't that what they taught young girls to do? Always keep your keys between your knuckles? Oh, and don't walk alone on poorly-lit streets late at night?

"What's the rush?" the guy asked, smiling even wider. It was open-mouthed, now, and May could see his yellowing teeth. "You could spend some time with me instead."

May's heart fluttered, and she tried to subtlety feel around with her foot for her keys. "I-I would, but I really need to get home to my Pokemon-"

"I had Pokemon once." The man's voice seemed to drop an octave and get much colder. "I had a wife once, too, but then she left me. She left me just like you're trying to leave and you don't even know me to know how fucked up I am." He laughed bitterly and took a step towards May. The former champion took a step back.

Could she make it if she ran? Maybe. The guy was drunk, after all. But he was still a good foot taller than her and much more muscular, so he could probably catch up to her in seconds. And without her keys, she wouldn't even be able to get into the building. There was nobody at the front desk this late.

Play it off cool. Stay calm. Breathe. Smile. "I'm sorry to hear that," May said, her TV personality still on full blast. "But I really need to be going. Have a nice night now." Smile.

She took a step back, and that was her mistake. He was on her in a second, pulling her into the alley, his fingers wrapped around her throat and ripping at her clothes. Behind the ringing in her ears, there was the faint sound of her groceries crashing to the ground.

"You look just like her," was the last thing she heard before her mind shut down and left her body alone to deal with this horror.

Blood. There's blood everywhere. There's blood dripping down her legs as her trembling hands scramble to grab at the fabric that used to be her shorts. There's blood in her mouth, either from that man biting her tongue or from cutting her own lip open when she fell on the ground, or both. There's blood on her hands, caked under her nails. Is it her own blood, or had she fought back enough to draw some of his? Either way, the crimson liquid stains her skin.

When she closes her eyes, all she can see is blood behind her lids.

She tries again to get up. When she goes to push herself up, her hand resists. Through the spots clouding her gaze, she can see the fingers of her left hand twisted in ways that don't look healthy. She doesn't remember the pain as he gripped her hand so tight and shoved it so hard against the wall that that happened. She doesn't remember any specific pain. All of it was pain.

She doesn't know how she makes it back to her apartment, but when her trembling hands finally get the key into the lock, she falls into the kitchen and slams the door behind her. She ignores the blood left on the handle. It doesn't matter. Nothing matters.

Skitty runs up to her, mewling. The Pokemon quickly stops in its tracks as May hangs her head and struggles to breathe. Skitty cries out as May falls to the floor, grabbing the kitchen trashcan and heaving into it.

May doesn't know how long she sits on the floor. It could only be a few minutes, but it feels like ages. She doesn't even know how long she was unconscious in the ally. Her skin is cold, and she doesn't know if it's from the now-chilled sea air or her own sickness.

She can't keep her eyes closed for more than a second. If she does, she sees his face.

She moves through her apartment in a zombie-like state. Though the numbness in her hand has faded and her fingers throb, her mind remains empty. All she can hear is her heart beating in her ears and the scratch of Skitty's claws on the linoleum.

She doesn't walk into the bathroom. She doesn't need to see her reflection to know how bad she looks. She can taste the blood on her lips without needing to see it caked on there.

She can't be alone right now. She can't. She feels dead in her own mind and trapped in tainted skin and she's scared of what she'll do.

Somehow, mindlessly, her hand finds Skitty's Pokeball and she manages to call it back. With the fingers of her good hand still trembling, she grabs Latios' and throws the French doors open onto her balcony.

When she releases Latios from its Pokeball, its immediate reaction is to cry out happily. Then it notices its trainer, and pushes its head against May's, making a high-pitched sound of worry.

May signals for Latios to land so she can mount it and wrap her arms around its neck. "Take me to Steven's," she whispers.

Normally, May would have to fight to keep her eyes open on the flight from Lilycove to Mossdeep. Riding on Latios was nothing like riding on any other bird Pokemon. Latios flew smoothly and quickly, and if May kept her head down and tucked in against its neck, the wind didn't bother her. It would be easily to drift off to sleep for the entirety of the journey.

But that wasn't the case tonight. Despite it being days since she had gotten proper sleep, her eyes were glued open. The sickness in her stomach hadn't settled, and at this point she doubted it ever would. She felt as though she would probably throw up again as soon as they landed, and it wasn't from motion sickness. The pain in her hand and between her legs was excruciating.

And the cold. May hadn't considered how freezing it would be flying over the ocean at this speed in the middle of the night, wearing clothes that were already ripped and now hardly constituted as clothes at all. By the time Latios lands at Steven's doorstep in Mossdeep, May can't feel her hands at all anymore. But maybe it's better that way, as at least it's taking away some of the pain of her probably-broken hand.

She sways as she climbs down from the eon Pokemon. The island is pitch black, save for the ever-lit lights of the Pokemon Center. And though Steven's house seems to be dark, for most would expect him to be asleep at this hour (it has to be nearing four in the morning), May can see a small light on through the curtains and knows that isn't the case. She had known Steven long enough to know that he had never kept much of a regular sleep schedule. He was probably still awake studying rocks.

She has to lean against the door for a moment to steady herself before she can knock. Though she knocks lightly, it still feels to her as if that small action took away most of her strength. From inside, there is silence. May worries that she'll have to knock again and isn't completely sure her fingers will curl into a fist again. Maybe she can just lay down here at his doorstep, and if she's still alive by morning, Steven will find her. Then again, Steven is a bit of his recluse himself and can go extremely long periods of time without feeling the need to exit his house.

Finally, after a few seconds, movement. May counts his footsteps as he walks to the door, just for the sake of keeping her mind sane. Nine.

May didn't realize how much she had been relying on the door to keep her up until it was opened and her support was gone and Steven was saying, "What's going o-" and she was falling on him.

Please, dear Arceus, don't let me faint again... Don't let me faint again...

And suddenly her clouded thoughts are gone and the only thing there is the soft fabric of Steven Stone's cotton shirt against her face and a slight hint of cologne (or was it aftershave? shampoo? deodorant?) and Steven saying, "Oh my god, May, what happened? What happened? May? May! ..."

Warmth. Safety. Security. Sleep.