As with Pokeshipping week, I had intended to do all new pieces for this week, but it just so happened that I have a one-shot that I wrote awhile back about May and Drew and their twin daughters getting ready to start their journey that I actually really love, so I’m going to use it!
Some background on my future HC’s here to give this piece some context: May and Drew have three kids, identical twin girls named June and Juli (pronounced Julie) and a son, Braylen. Also, June’s favorite color is pink, and she wears it almost exclusively. For Juli it’s baby blue, and the color difference is how most people tell them apart.
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"We have something for you!" May beamed, and June's face took on a mixture of confusion and delight that really only she could pull off. Juli shrank back a little farther, not wanting to be seen as her father moved around to her twin's other side. She knew she shouldn't be spying; their parents had asked to speak to June alone. That almost never happened. The two of them separate from Braylen sure, but try as she might Juli could not come up with a reason her parents would need to speak to just June.
Then she remembered that they would be leaving home soon, and even though they were going together, they wouldn't be doing the same thing. June would start entering contests, following in their parent's footsteps with her dream of becoming a top coordinator. Juli would be challenging gyms, hoping to dethrone Uncle Ash as Pokémon Master. She'd never given it a second thought, that maybe her parents would have more interest when it came to June's journey. As soon as it occurred to her however, she could think of nothing else and had high tailed it back to eavesdrop.
Now she tried to reign in whatever it was that was bubbling up inside of her (jealousy? anger? sadness?) and not give herself away.
"We wanted you to have something very special to us." her dad said, reaching for something she couldn't see.
"Sort of like a good luck charm!" her mom added. Her dad shot her a look of mingled exasperation and adoration, the default look he had with her.
"Or inspiration, because-"
"Luck is just good preparation." June recited out loud as Juli mouthed along out of habit. Drew nodded, and May rolled her eyes.
"Anyway, we thought you'd like…" Their parents each held a hand out toward June, but Juli couldn't see what was in them. June filled in the blanks.
"Are these your ribbons?" she breathed, reaching out to touch their mother's.
"Our first ribbons." May clarified. Juli's eye's narrowed as June squeaked excitedly.
"That's so amazing!" June looked up at their smiling parents. "and one is pink and the other is blue; it's perfect!" Juli straightened, more curious now.
Blue and pink…just like..
"We thought you'd like that." Drew said. "Here." They each stepped toward June, and they pinned the ribbons to the straps of her tank top. The pink one blended in, but the blue one stood out against the pale fabric.
"We're so excited for you." May said, standing back and admiring her handiwork. "You're going to have so much fun." June beamed at her.
"You're a natural, you'll have your own ribbons in no time." Drew put in, looking prouder than Juli could ever remember seeing him. She bit her lip, then scurried off back to their room. She didn't think she could watch anymore without giving herself away.
She hadn't thought her parents would show a bias like that. Of course she knew they were both top coordinators, and that they'd probably always have more insight into June's journey than hers, but she had been expecting equal investment in her own. Their father talked to Sakura about her gym challenges almost every two weeks for goodness sake! Obviously she had been wrong. Obviously June following in their footsteps meant more to them.
She flopped down on her blue bedspread and glared over at the pink half of the room. How could she have been so stupid?
The door opened, but she didn't look up. She didn't want to take this out on her sister, after all this wasn't her fault, but if she looked at those ribbons she wouldn’t be able to stop herself from snapping at her.
"Jules."
It wasn't her sister.
She sat up sharply, not bothering to hide her glare.
"Done with the heir to the contest throne?" she said airily. Her parents exchanged a look, then fixed their confused gazes on her.
"What is that supposed to mean?" her father asked gently. Juli glared at him some more, and didn't reply.
"Okay…" he said, looking imploringly toward May, who stepped forward.
"We just wanted to give you a going away present." she said.
"Oh?" Juli spat. "and what might that be? A new watch? Some Pokeblock…no, sorry, that's for contests." she huffed, ignoring the looks of comprehension that flashed on her parent's faces.
"I knew we should've given them their stuff together." Drew said. Juli glanced at him from between her green bangs.
"I thought it would mean more if we gave them theirs individually." May pouted. Juli felt guilt wash over her in spite of herself.
"Juli, you saw what we gave June, didn't you?" her father asked. Juli nodded.
"And I guess I should've known better than to think I could not do contests and still be just as important. But gyms weren't your history. Gyms aren't you, so-"
"Gyms are just as important." May interrupted. "I grew up in a gym after all." Juli frowned. She had chosen to ignore that detail in her rush to feel slighted. "And your uncle Max is a gym leader now too." Juli blinked.
"I-" she took a deep breath. "Still; it's not like you can give me-"
With his ever present flair for the dramatic, her father cut her off by holding out his hand, something small and silver resting on his palm.
"My first gym badge?" he said with a smirk. Juli's mouth opened and closed like a Magikarp out of water. Her mother giggled.
"But…you never…" she squinted at the badge, which was two circles connected by a thin bar. "That's a balance badge!" she exclaimed. Drew's smirk morphed into a smile, and May grinned.
"But that can't have been your first. You have to have four badges to be able to challenge the Petalburg Gym." Juli pointed out.
"Very astute." Drew commended. "I was a bit of a special case." he glanced toward his wife who was still smiling immensely.
"Your grandpa accepted his challenge without the other badges. He seemed to think he needed to prove that a coordinator could be just as tough as a gym leader." she sounded amused, and Juli couldn't help but grin at her parents.
"So you beat grandpa Norman in a gym battle?" she clarified. Drew nodded, and Juli reached forward and took the badge, studying it.
"You come from a long line of gym leaders." May said. "It's just as important as contests."
"You come from a long line of strong trainers," Drew pointed out, "who can do anything." Julie sniffed, and blinked rapidly, refusing to cry.
"So, you don't care more about June's contests?" she asked. Her mom surged forward and engulfed her in a smothering hug.
"Of course not!" she shouted. "All three of you are important, no matter what you do." Juli peaked up at her dad over her mom's shoulder. He nodded and smiled. Juli buried her head into May's hair.
"Oh, what did they give you?" June entered the room and strode over, plopping herself down next to her twin. Juli held out the badge as their mother released her.
"So cool!" June clapped her hands together, then threw her arms around her sister. "I'm so excited!" she yelled, laughing. Juli joined in.
"Me too." she returned the hug, noticing as she did the small flash of movement from the doorway. She frowned a little.
If her parents were giving them their firsts as good luck charms to start their journey…
What was going to be left for Braylen?
May and Drew sat in bed that night listening for the twins excited chatter to die down. May, for one, couldn't be prouder of herself. They had managed to come up with the most amazing good luck charms for the girls. But, as usual, Drew had to spoil her fun.
"You know we just painted ourselves into a corner, right?" he said, glancing at her.
"What?" she asked, putting on her best confused face.
"May, I know you saw him too." Drew observed. She bit her lip, but Drew continued. "Don't try and pretend, I'm serious. How did we not consider that?" May frowned.
"We've still got at least three years to think of something." she ventured. Drew scoffed.
"Three years doesn't make new firsts appear May. We both know he's going to want to battle too, and the badge thing was already a stretch with Juli." May scrunched her face up in concentration.
"Maybe we can…um…we could…" she had nothing, and Drew knew it. "Why is this so hard?" she pouted.
"Hey, you're-"
"Nu uh!" she cut him off. Joking or not, she hated when Drew pointed out that he'd only ever wanted one kid in the first place. He frowned, but his face did hold a hint of an apology, so she let it go.
"Okay, but the point stands. We don't have anything left for Braylen." he said.
"Juli was really upset." May changed the subject, though admittedly probably not in the right direction. She didn't want to dwell on Braylen anymore, and she was actually really worried about what Juli had said. Drew only shrugged.
"We should've done them together." May added.
"That would've only made it worse." Drew said. May looked at him quizzically. "She wasn't upset because we did them separately. She was upset because she thought our first ribbons were more meaningful."
"To our careers maybe, but that badge means way more to us." May said. Drew raised an eyebrow at her.
"How is a ten year old supposed to realize that on her own? Someday she'll understand, but today she was just a kid who saw her parents giving her sister something with much more obvious emotional value." May huffed.
"I thought we made it perfectly clear that we are just as supportive of her gym battles. It doesn't matter if she doesn't want anything to do with Pokémon." Drew rolled his eyes.
"May, you lied to your parents about your journey to keep them happy for how long?" she smiled sheepishly. "Exactly." he added. "We just have to give her more time, and make sure we show just as obvious of an interest in her progress as June's, give her just as much help and advice." May looked up.
"Are you sure she's going to be alright?" a loud peal of laughter echoed through the walls, and Drew smiled at the sound of his daughters.
"I think she'll be fine. They've got each other after all."
Well, I knew this one was going to get away from me, and it did. Into a multi-chapter fic, did. So…here is an excerpt for now, and then I will post the full version on ff/ao3 at the end of the week.
Day 3- Meeting the Family
They were silent as he guided her through the vast hallways. May couldn't help but be amazed, despite everything running through her head at the seamless blend of the technology LaRousse was known for and the ancient flair the house had. Finally Drew threw open half of a set of double doors and slung her forward, probably a bit harder than he meant to, and slammed the door shut again with his body.
"What just happened?" May asked, worrying a little over how agitated Drew looked. "For about thirty seconds there I thought it was going great and you'd been exaggerating about how horrible they were, but then…"
Drew sighed, and moved past her into the room. May followed as he made his way to the massive canopy bed and flung himself face down onto it.
"That actually was pretty tame." he mumbled into the duvet. May huffed and shoved his shoulder so that he rolled over onto his back.
"Okay, first of all, no, it wasn't. And second, you're going to have to do better than that, because I'm not going back into a room with them until I get some background."
Drew took a dramatic breath, and rolled slightly to look up at her.
"My dad doesn't think that training Pokémon is a real job. Especially not Contests. Like he said, they put up with it when I was younger, encouraged it even. They figured it would teach me responsibility, being out on my own like that. They were trainers themselves, even, but they gave it up for the "adult life", and when I turned 18 they told me I had to do the same."
May skipped and bounced as she landed on the bed next to him, settling in by leaning back on her hands.
"I remember that…sort of. You mostly just got really moody that whole year. That was also the year you won your second ribbon cup." Drew raised his eyebrows knowingly.
"I always knew that deep down they saw what I was doing as a hobby. But I thought, maybe if I was good enough, they'd see that I was serious about it. That that's what I wanted to do with the rest of my life. I never had any interest in what my dad does."
"But your sister has?" May asked. Drew sighed.
"Katie lives for it. She's amazing with business and tech, she's already running almost everything. Dad doesn't even realize."
"But he still seems to think that you need to walk away from what you love and take what your sister loves away."
"Patriarchy dies hard." He said, flinging his arms up and letting them crash theatrically back down beside him, crashing into May's as he did. She sighed, slid down so that she was lying next to him, and laced their fingers together.
"Hey, at least they approve of me." She said with a weak smile. She turned her head to look at him, and he turned too so that their noses were centimeters apart.
"Of course they do. You're royalty." May laughed once, and Drew smiled.
"Right."
"I'm sort of serious." He said softly. "You are about the only part of my life they do approve of. Unfortunately it's because they see you as a trophy, but I suspect they'll approve a little less when I let you yell at them later."
"And what makes you think I want to yell at them?" May teased, bumping his arm.
"You won't take them wanting to shut me up in an office building laying down. You won't take well to being used as a pawn in their game either. Also, you sort of already did." May narrowed her eyes.
"What if I like the idea of being a kept woman, huh? What if this was my plan all along? Retire from all that grueling training into the life of a LaRousse socialite?"
"Not funny." Drew said, and May dropped her eyes.
"Sorry." Drew sighed.
"I know you're just trying to help. And I know that in their own way they really are just trying to look out for me. I just wish they could see how stupid it is. They're so worried about legacy, but Katie is right there chomping at the bit and they won't see it. I'm happy the way I am, and they won't see it."
"They see how happy you are." May corrected, and Drew cocked an eyebrow at her. She sat up, and he heaved himself along too.
"Really, they do. That's why they're pushing it so hard." she explained.
"How do you know?" he asked. May rolled her eyes.
"You heard them. They think you bringing me here means you're ready to settle down. That's probably why they thought it was a good idea to bring it up even though that is horrible first meeting conversation." She rolled her eyes, and Drew smirked.
"Why does everyone say that, 'settle down?' What is it about marriage that means you have to stop your life in its tracks and stay in one place." he said. May shrugged.
"I never understood that either." she said.
"I mean really, I'm going to marry you, doesn't mean we're going to stop travelling." He grinned, but May lost control of her face.
"What?" she squeaked. Drew looked at her like she was crazy for a moment before realization dawned on his face.
"Oh! Well, I mean…if you…I just…and we…that is…" he was stuck, that much was obvious, but while he was stuck with words on, May was stuck with them off. She blinked slowly, and images started flooding her mind's eye like a movie. A beautiful beach at sunset, flowers everywhere and herself and Drew under a cute archway. The two of them making their way around contests circuits, just as they always had, but with a new sense of connection, and new rings on their fingers. The two of them holding hands and watching as a group of little kids with green hair and blue eyes ran around playing with their pokémon.
"Drew." She finally said when she realized he was still spouting off random verbs. He stopped.
"Sorry." he said.
"No." she shook her head. "Don't be." She grinned. "We aren't going to stop traveling when we get married. Your parents are just going to have to suffer with the utter torture of your perfect, amazing sister being in charge, because we're going to be living our own, fabulous royal lives." Drew laughed.
"You're going to marry me? Even with my crazy parents?" She said, knocking her knee into his and grinning at him.
"Only if that's not actually your proposal." He leaned forward and pressed his lips to hers softly before resting their foreheads together. They stayed like that for a moment before he leaned forward again and tackled her into the unbelievably soft bedcovers. She giggled as he burrowed his nose into her neck and attempted to tickle her before wrapping his arms tightly around her and holding her so that they were nose to nose again. She looked at him through her lashes. He kissed her nose, then smiled at her.
“Drew picked out new clothes for Alola!… They’re not much better than his old clothes.”
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Happy CS day everyone!!! this was a really neat collab to do with @glaycia! we didn’t have much so this became our final product lol, but enjoy!!
