This time I'm bringing a timeskip of what her little family is all about.
Tomorrow, I'll post art about the little girl and her friend xD
By the way, if you ask, yes, obviously the girl is a coordinator like her parents, while the little boy was more excited to be a gym leader like his uncle Max and his grandfather Norman, and he asks to be in Petalburg City often.
I was going to post the part about when May announced her first pregnancy, but I'll do it later.
Btw the girl is named Haruhi/Roselyn and baby is Aki/Loyd
Pokemon & characters by Nintendo /Creatures Game Freak /OLM studios
#7: siblings are having a fight and drag their parents into it
wc: 1 124
read on ao3 here
It all started with a snide comment about Kipper’s taste in boys.
Which, well…as harmless as Summer probably thinks it is, May can appreciate he’s at a sensitive age. Summer wasn’t much better when she was thirteen; really, she can only justify making sniping comments at her brother like this because she got over all her myriad romantic complexes—and it wasn’t even that long ago. May never appreciated Max’s opinions on her love life, and especially not his opinions on Drew when they were younger and both a little more volatile in their own ways.
But if they argued about it, it wouldn’t stick. They’ve been this way their whole lives: quick to fight, but just as quick to make up when the time came for it.
Except, where Summer might be content to let things go sooner than later, Kipper is a world-class act in grudge-holding. As much as May would like to believe he’ll grow out of it, sometimes the way her husband talks, even years later, about people who’ve caused problems for her or for their family makes her wonder.
It drags on a good few days, with countless passive aggressive remarks thrown like barbed darts over the dinner table that May does her best to ignore in favour of keeping up a lighter conversation with the rest of her family. Their fights are always like this, and they almost always pass on their own eventually.
But then Summer makes it worse, when three days later she says, “Oh, come on, Kip. Even Dad doesn’t like Hayate! Right, Dad?”
And the thing is, if he’d had a chance to rehearse it, Drew could have lied. He could have chastised their daughter for making such a claim and assured Kipper that of course he likes Hayate, Hayate is as good as family, if he likes Hayate like that, then he should follow his heart and ignore his sister’s teasing, of course.
But that’s not what happened. So, instead, his lips twitch up in an amusement he can’t quite hide, even as May sees him try to swallow it down two seconds later. And Kipper, sweet, sensitive Kipper—he sees it immediately. And he shouts, “Don’t you side with her! That’s so unfair!”
In an effort to quell him, May hurriedly reaches across the table to grasp his hand in hers. “We’re not siding with anyone, Kip. I don’t think this is really something we can take sides on, anyway…”
“Yeah,” Felicity chimes in. “You’re both being idiots.”
“Felicity,” May hisses, and they shrug. There is a decided lack of remorse in the thin-lipped smile they shoot her way.
“There are sides, though,” Summer points out. “All I’m trying to say is that you can do better than Hayate. How does that make me the bad guy for looking out for you?”
Kipper’s face goes red. As if burned, he snatches his hand away from May’s. “I can look out for myself.”
And with that, he rises from the table and storms off. It’s only the inevitable sound of his bedroom door slamming that snaps May out of her stupor in order to whirl on Summer and ask, “Do you really need to press his buttons so much?”
“I’m not the bad guy here!” she protests. “Do you really want Kip to be head over heels for some guy who won’t even give him the time of day forever? He should just move on already. Like, what about that guy from Verdanturf at the Grand Festival? He was cool, and he was definitely crushing on Kip!”
Finally, Drew seems to find it in himself to give Summer his best “disappointed dad” look, which, in May’s opinion, has never been much of a strong suit of his anyway. Still, she drops her gaze, looking chastened, when he points out, “If he could just choose who he had feelings for, I’m sure he would’ve chosen differently by now. Could you help having feelings for Lemon?”
“That’s different,” Summer mutters. “I’m just trying to help him.”
“I don’t think he sees it that way, though,” May points out. “I think you owe him an apology.”
A sigh, and then, begrudgingly, “Fine.”
Though it’s clear she is dragging her feet, Summer rises from the table and goes to follow her brother up the stairs to his bedroom. In her absence, her sibling gestures to the empty spaces at the table and complains, “How come Kip and Lime get to leave their dishes on the table?”
Despite herself, May’s lips twitch at that. She nudges Drew with her elbow, and jokes, “At least we know we have one kid who’s not gonna lose sight of the important things in life, right?”
“What important things? Dinner?” He smirks. “Must be your influence.”
“And the embarrassing crushes must be yours, right?”
His expression falls with a despairing groan. To Felicity, he says, “Promise us that when you get old enough to go on your own journey you’re not going to bring romantic drama home every time you visit.”
They scrunch up their nose at that. “Yeah, no thanks. Can I be excused now? I have to go write in my journal about what a traumatizing experience this was.”
“Go ahead,” May tells them. “Just make sure you clear your plate.”
They let out a long-suffering sigh at that—clearly, someone thought that just because their siblings left the table without cleaning up, they would be exempt today, too—but does as she asks. It’s only once they’ve left the kitchen that May lets herself sink back in her seat and let out the sigh of frustration that’s been brimming behind her lips since this whole thing started.
A hand on her arm has her turning to face Drew, who offers her a soft smile. It’s so easy to return it, even with the emotional exhaustion weighing down her limbs.
“He’ll be okay,” he tells her. “Believe me. I had a crush on someone who was pretty oblivious to my feelings once, too. It worked out eventually.”
A puff of laughter slips between her lips. “Who, me? I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Yeah, that’s pretty much what you sounded like all the time back then.”
She shoves her elbow against his side, making him shift away from her with a grin. At last, he rises to begin clearing off the table, leaning down to press a chaste kiss against her cheek as he reaches over to grab her plate. Her faux irritation dissolves in the wake of a pleased smile.
If things turn out half as well for Kipper and Hayate as they have for her and Drew, then, well…really, May thinks all this will have been more than worth it.
how about family road trip! if that interests you :)
(for the kidfic prompt meme, which i'm answering with headcanons about my contestshipping kid Joelle!)
Summer family trips are a huge tradition in the Maple-Hayden household!
Both May and Drew (but especially Drew) cut down on how much they work once Jo is born (contest judge for Drew, and either a contest commentator or journalist for May). They'll work at contests that are local to them in Lilycove, but they don't want to travel too much when Jo is so young. (When kids leave home at 10 years old, I imagine it's culturally normal to really cherish the time they are in your household.)
During the summer, though, when Jo is out of school, they'll take jobs in other regions and bring her along on the road with them!
(I am not going to figure out a schedule for the Contest Circuit throughout different regions. You cannot make me! I am living in the foolish hope that somebody else will do this and post a comprehensive headcanon and I don't have to think about it. Until then, just handwave and say that Yeah Sure All Of These Regions Have Contests In The Summer).
As a little kid, Jo always begged to fly to the new region on Flygon's back. When told that Flygon couldn't handle the weight of all their luggage, Jo asked why they couldn't just buy new stuff when they got there.
May, smirking: Yeah, why can't we just buy new stuff, Mr. Private Resort?
Drew: We've had a shared bank account for a decade you cannot keep teasing me about being a rich kid.
One year, after much teasing from both of them, Drew relents and lets them travel via Flygon for a weekend trip to work the Wallace Cup during a break in the school year. It reminded May and Drew how much they're happy that the days of roughing it on the road are over - and it made Jo even more excited to finally set off on her own journey!
