AN: This is a May/Drew story I've been planning out for a while. I'm glad I finally had a chance to start it. Enjoy the read! :D

Dear Maybelle Maple,

Congratulations! You have been chosen to attend a Grand Festival of a lifetime! This Grand Festival's sole purpose is to bring together the most famous coordinators of the world for a survival of the stylish and the strongest!

Also, another purpose of this festival is to reunite old friends. Perhaps you have a friend you haven't seen since your young coordinating days? Worry no more, as you, most likely, are going to receive the chance of meeting not only him/her, but people you thought you would never see again!

The Grand Festival takes place in Enfer City. What is Enfer City, you ask? Well, it's a new place that contains a large arena and resort, which will house you and the other dozens of competitors while you compete in the Festival there.

If you are willing to attend this Festival (we really hope you are – we're sure the whole world wants to see your coordinating skills at their best), then a bus – assigned to pick you up and anyone else who may come from your hometown – will be waiting on the last day of the month at exactly 8 AM at the main bus stop of your hometown. As implied, please consider that the bus has also been assigned to pick up other coordinators that are willing to attend the Festival along the way, so we hope you don't mind riding with a few more people.

The bus will take you to Lilycove City. There, you will board a train that will take you to Enfer City. Mind you that escorts from all over the other regions are carrying competitors of this Grand Festival to this exact location, as it is the only train that has access to Enfer City, so it will probably be more crowded than your bus. Nonetheless, just follow the directions of the event's caretakers and stay with the crowd, and you'll reach Enfer City with no problem.

Do not worry about packing anything else but your pokemon. We already have a large variety of clothes for your personal choosing once you settle into Enfer. Our city also bears shops and other forms of entertainment (including movie theaters and beautiful parks to take a stroll in) in case you have free time away from the competition. As soon as you reach Enfer City, a hotel room in the arena/resort center where the competition will take place will be assigned to you. Each room has a PC where you'll be able to exchange pokemon any time you wish, along with a pokemon center in the main loft if you need to heal your pokemon. This competition is planning to have a span of over a few months. This is because… well, there will be quite a lot of competitors, so we hope you don't get homesick easily.

We really hope you are able to attend, as this competition is meant to bring contest champions together to battle with the skills they have gained to determine the true champion of pokemon coordinating. We would love to see your skills at it once again.

And, who knows? Maybe this competition will help you discover new things and open up bright opportunities!

See you there!

Sincerely,

Katherine Verdana – Host of the Enfer City Grand Festival Championships and Mayor of Enfer City.

"This is the bus, right? The one to Enfer City?"

The bus driver turned his coal-colored eyes away from the letter I held out to him and looked at me, causing my muscles to tense. He didn't exactly appear friendly with his ursaring-sized hands, large amounts of arm hair, and unshaven stubble probably sharp enough to saw through steel. I didn't mention this, though, because if this was the guy who was involved in taking me to this Enfer place, I preferred not to be on his bad side.

So, I stood still at the top of the three steps that led up into the bus, the door still open behind me. Rain hit the pavement outside. I hunched up my shoulders from the cold air that rushed in and mentally hurried the man to shut the door.

"Yes," the bus driver finally said, tightening his grip on the steering wheel, the bus's engine purring in submission. The floor shivered, which I could feel through my boots. His voice was gruff, matching his rough visage.

"Right," I said. "Um. Thanks."

Quickly, I turned to face the rows of seats before me. Most of the seats were already filled, the coordinators that occupied them conversing with one another, entangling voices of various accents. I stuffed the invitation letter in my pocket and made my way down the bus. I recognized a couple of the faces I passed, faces of coordinators that had either beaten me or I had defeated in the past, but I didn't stop to catch up with them. I just wanted to find a place to sit for right now. The seat against the bus's back wall was empty.

I sat down against the window, watching the rain fall down over Petalburg City. I frowned, remembering what my mother had said when I had told her about the letter and the Grand Festival. She had insisted that I go. My father, who had been the gym leader of the local gym before my brother, Max, took over, also agreed that I should go. I had decided to go, evidently, but not for the reason of pleasing my parents.

I raised my eyes, seeing a faint reflection of myself in the window's glass. The gaze of a twenty-six-year-old woman stared back at me.

I had decided to go because of the usual reasons – win another contest, add more appeal to my name and pokemon, and inspire young children who were hoping to become coordinators when they were old enough. It had been a few months before I had participated in a contest, though I had been doing so for the last sixteen years of my life. My pokemon – the companions I had had ever since the old days – had stuck by my side for this long, and I knew they always enjoyed performing.

Also…

I felt for the invitation letter in my pocket. Then, I pulled it out and smoothed out the wrinkles. As I was doing so, my thumb grazed over the paragraph that explained one of the purposes of this Festival, and I stopped to reread it:

Also, another purpose of this festival is to reunite old friends. Perhaps you have a friend you haven't seen since your young coordinating days? Worry no more, as you, most likely, are going to receive the chance of meeting not only him/her, but people you thought you would never see again!

I closed my eyes and sighed.

A friend I hadn't seen since my young coordinating days…

I had a few, actually, but there was one that stuck out from the rest.

I hadn't seen him in ten years, yet the face he had when he was young was fresh in my mind. It always stayed fresh; his countenance was hard to forget.

I slipped the letter back into my pocket. Ten years. Had it really been that long? The day he left…that memory was fresh, too. I hadn't forgotten it. I could never forget it. We had met when we were both ten. He was a coordinator trying to become the best. I was a coordinator trying to become the best. We became rivals, but as time went on we became friends as well.

For six years we stayed that way – friends who were still rivals, but yet always remembered what was important when, at the end of the day, we would depart with smiles on our faces, just glad that we had run into each other again regardless of who had won the contest. However, shortly after I turned sixteen, we had competed in a Grand Festival. I had won, and even though he seemed happy for me, the words he had said next contradicted it:

"I'm leaving…"

I asked why and he answered that he needed a break. I asked if he was just going on vacation, but then he said that it was a bit more complicated than that. I asked nothing more, not wanting to impose on any personal business and instead decided to take my own break. I returned to Petalburg to relax, but, at the same time, I waited for him to contact me to tell me what was really going on. He never did.

Life had taken over after that. Helping my brother, helping around the house, and other daily issues had dragged me away from it all. Soon, the need to try to find out what had happened to him was lost in a pile of other things, and it wasn't until now before I finally had another chance to wonder about him.

To worry for him.

To miss him.

Maybe, I had thought, he would get his own invitation letter about this Grand Festival – maybe he would come and attend and I would meet him there, and I would be able to learn what had caused him to leave that day and never come back.

Maybe. Just maybe.

I put the letter in my pocket and leaned back against the seat. The bus was moving now. I watched as Petalburg passed by right outside my window, and I hoped everything would be okay while I was gone. I would call home once I reached Enfer, anyway-

"Hey! You're May Maple!"

I blinked, escaping my trance. I looked forward, noticing that a man was staring at me from behind the back of his own seat. Bangs hung limply over his face, the rest of his blond hair just as messy, and if we weren't sitting on a bus designed to escort top coordinators, I would've assumed him to be a goofy college kid.

"Hi," I said, unable to think of anything else to say. When I was young and traveling, it was always interesting to run into a fan. However, I couldn't quite place this man's face; it wasn't recognizable at all.

"Nice to finally meet such an amazing coordinator," the man said. He reached forward and I shook his hand, noticing that multiple rings covered his fingers, various gemstones shining in their centers. Also, he wore a suit of some sort, a blue suit that made him appear as if he was about to attend a fancy party.

He looked down and seemed to realize what he wore. He grinned sheepishly, pulling his hand back. "Sorry. Elegant-looking stuff kind of runs in the family."

"Have we met? You don't look familiar…"

The man chuckled. "Nah. We haven't. The name's Lionel. Lionel Zaranous."

"Well, you seem to know me," I said.

Lionel nodded. "I watched you a lot on the television when you were still traveling around. Of course I would know you." He grinned a goofy grin.

"Nice to meet you, Lionel," I said, smiling. "Call me May."

"Sure thing, May," he replied. It appeared as if he was about to say something else, but the bus coming to a halt interrupted him. He turned his head to look out the window.

I gazed past him, down the aisle. "We can't be at Lilycove yet…"

"We're not," Lionel said, still looking out the window. "I think we're picking up a new person."

I knew that we weren't far from Petalburg, so perhaps the coordinator we were picking up was someone who was either traveling to or from the city. The doors opened, the bus purring and shaking the floor. The person outside walked up the steps and stopped in front of the bus driver. His clothes, consisting of a short-sleeve buttoned shirt, long jeans, and black boots, didn't seem like rainy day attire, but the simple black umbrella he had brought saved him from being drenched. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a piece of paper – his own invitation letter, I could tell, which was also miraculously dry – and showed it to the driver, who nodded a few seconds later and pointed his thumb at the bus's seats.

The man slipped the letter back into his pocket, closed his umbrella, and tossed it into the storage compartment. A white hat, tilted to the side, hid his face, until he turned to walk down the aisle.

My breathing stopped.

The man – appearing no older than I was – had green hair. Chartreuse, to be exact.

My fingers slowly began to clench. The man's expression was calm as he walked down the aisle, some of the coordinators he passed eyeing him from their seats. His hair was long enough in the back to reach below the collar of his shirt. His bangs helped his hat in obscuring his face, even forming a curtain-like formation on one side. A small tuft of green hair protruded from below his bottom lip and ended at the curve of his chin, a mixture of a goatee and a soul patch. His eyes glowed. Emerald.

What I was seeing – who I was seeing – could not have possibly been what was but a few feet away from me, slowly approaching the back where I sat.

It couldn't be him. It could never him. How could it be him? Ten years. It had been ten years. Impossible. It wasn't him.

I sighed, tearing my gaze away from the man.

It couldn't be you…

"Is this seat taken?"

I paused, turning my eyes back around, swallowing hard when I met the gaze of that man. He looked down at me, his emerald eyes appearing reptilian, dragon-like, sending a shiver down my spine that made me question my denial. He didn't seem fazed by how I bit my bottom lip, keeping his eyes on me, yet not seeming to be able to recognize my identity, if he knew who I was.

"No."

I had spoken that word before I realized it, and I mentally cursed at myself.

"Thanks," I heard the man say, and I watched him as he sat down against the opposite window, resting against the seat, adjusting his hat so that it no longer covered half of his face.

I slowly breathed out. It couldn't be him. I closed my eyes, repeating it over and over in my head.

Ten years. Ten long years. He couldn't just show up in my life again after so long!

He couldn't!

…could he?

"Hey!" Lionel said, his head poking up from his seat. His azure eyes were fixated on the man sitting next to me. "You're…um…ooh! That's right! You're Drew Trandafir!"

I froze again, slowly looking at the chartreuse-haired man.

The man's gaze switched from the world outside his window to Lionel, appearing unfazed by the man's words, and his frown tightened.

"Just call me Drew."

I nearly fell back.

It was him.

It was him.

It was him.

Andrew Trandafir, the coordinator I had first met when we were both ten. The coordinator I became friends with and stayed friends as we became teenagers. The coordinator who left, abandoning me in a void of bewilderment and hurt that would later separate us for ten long years. But now, he was here. He was actually here.

The person I had missed so much.

Drew.

"Sorry," Lionel said, putting on another sheepish grin. "I know a few Drews…so…"

Drew waved his hand in a nonchalant manner, his tone matching it. "No big deal."

His voice. It was deep and smooth. He sounded so different than when he was a teenager, but at the same time I could recognize his voice no matter how many years it had been.

I wondered if I should say something, anything, just to let Drew know that I was sitting right next to him and that I was still alive, that I could still pick out his face from a crowd even with the large amount of time we spent apart. But, I didn't know what I could say. Hey, Drew! Long time no see! Seen any good movies lately? No. I couldn't just say hello and act like the last ten years hadn't happened. And not just because I had missed him…

But also because I was angry with him.

We had been friends for six years. Why hadn't he told me where he'd gone? Why hadn't he told me why he hadn't kept in contact, why he seemed to have forgotten about me? If there was an important reason, like a family tragedy, then I could understand, but the fact that we had been close enough where he would've told me such a thing made me doubt that that was the case.

What had happened to the Drew who cared? The Drew I knew?

I couldn't help but feel offended. Here he was, showing up after ten years of absence, sitting next to me in a casual manner as if nothing was wrong. Did he even recognize me? I had to wonder…

I muttered a curse under my breath, remaining silent afterward as the bus continued to move. Lionel had retreated back to his seat after he – I presumed – talked to Drew for a few more minutes. I had been so lost in my thoughts that I hadn't noticed their conversation, but I hadn't exactly been in the mood to introduce myself and join it.

Instead, I kept my gaze away from Drew, wondering what was destined to happen now. What would I do? What would he do?

"Do you honestly think I can't recognize you?"

I paused. Drew's words hung in the air. When I realized that no one else was raising their heads in response to his question, I turned my eyes to him.

He looked at me, his gaze shaded by his bangs. It was then when I realized that he had said those words at me. To me.

"P-pardon?"

Drew smirked. "Even if you were ninety, I would still know who you are, May."

My heart skipped a beat. My eyes grew soft, my voice shaky with disbelief. And happiness. "Drew…"

Drew's smirk turned into a smile. "It's been a while, rival."

At that, everything was forgotten, and I smiled, too.

"Indeed it has."