Contestshipping one shots

12.) 7 Kisses part 6

The Kiss That Aired On National TV

May couldn't believe she had made it this far.

The final stage of the Grand Festival.

It felt so surreal, like it was all a dream-a dream that couldn't last long, because she had possibly one of the toughest battles of her coordinating career ahead of her, and she needed to focus and pull herself back into reality. Drew wanted that ribbon cup just as bad as she did, and he and his Pokémon were going to put up a hell of a fight for it.

There was a part of May that couldn't help but think that she had had it easy getting here. She hadn't faced any of her main competition in the battles leading up to this one. Harley was taken down in the first round by Solidad, who was later defeated by Drew in the semi-finals (after a grueling battle that quite literally went down to the last second; Drew only won by a breadth of a point). Meanwhile, May had faced all coordinators who, while proving to be talented competition, were nothing compared to Drew, Solidad, or even Harley. That was just the luck of the draw, she supposed.

"Miss?" One of the backstage managers approached May, who was sitting alone on a bench in the almost-empty coordinator's lounge. Grand Festival participants were always welcomed to stay in the lounge even if they had been eliminated, though many chose to join the main audience. Nevertheless, some preferred the air conditioning and remained inside.

"Yes?" May answered politely, looking up.

"Just a heads-up that you'll need to be on stage in 10 minutes from now for your match against Mr. Hayden."

Ten minutes would fly by in no time. She rubbed the palms of her hands nervously together, but offered the manager a crooked grin.

"Understood. Thank you." The manager nodded and walked away, probably off to find Drew and inform him of the same detail.

Drew...

She honestly hadn't seen much of him since the opening ceremonies of the festival. Well, that wasn't exactly true. She'd seen plenty of him when Solidad or Harley or both were around. If either of them so little as tried to leave them alone (Solidad was usually guilty of this, but Harley started doing it too on the second day of appeals, which had led May to believe that they were in cahoots with each other), she and Drew would simply separate. Neither could risk letting whatever was going on between them (and at that point, May definitely couldn't deny there was something going on between them) distract them and cause them to lose their focus, especially if they ended up facing each other in battle.

And, as fate would have it, they would.

May knew their avoiding each other wasn't permanent, however. She had worried for the first couple of days of the festival, but she changed her mind last night after Solidad suggested the four of them head out to dinner as a way to clear the air between all of them in light of Harley's and her own loss and May and Drew's upcoming battle.

"You know, we should have more cute family outings like this," Harley suggested amicably with a grin. He had been handling the loss against Solidad surprisingly well, although, May guessed, he was only handling it well because it was against Solidad. If it were to Drew or herself, he'd probably be a lot more bitter. He continued, "Solidad and I always go out together, Solidad and Drew always go out together, and Drew and May always go out together... Let's just save ourselves the trouble and start going out as a big group."

May flushed pink upon Harley's declaration about herself and Drew. Drew, on the other hand, didn't seem to mind as he continued to unconsciously stir the ice cubes in his water with his straw, though he was indeed paying attention to the conversation. He looked up at May and offered her something that was a mix between a smirk and a smile.