Pokémon One Shots

A Clueless Matchmaker (FourthWheelShipping)

I did say that I'd be doing more FourthWheelShipping stories than the others, so here's another. Also, I'm sorry I left this for so long, but I was stuck for ideas. I have a draft for MorningSunShipping, but it's not going anywhere. I also have a request in my backlog, but I want to have this story alternate between straight and gay ships, so I'm uploading this straight one before I get to the request, which is another Aquariumplant story, and one that I'm not 100% confident that I'll be able to write well, since it's a wee bit out of my area of expertise. But, that's for future me to worry about, for now, enjoy this small fic for my favourite ship in the Pokémon anime. Not even I can explain why I love it so much, I just do.

For being a so-called "expert on love", Bonnie could be totally clueless about her own feelings. Ever since she began her journey through Hoenn, she found her mind steadily wandering whenever she wasn't focusing on battling. Specifically, her mind would wander back to her first day in Hoenn, when she met Ash's friends May and Max for the first time. She had no idea why, but something about Max had made her stop dead in her tracks when she saw him. When the two made eye-contact, her heart quickened considerably. And when Clemont had asked him to take care of her, she could feel herself going very warm. But that last one was probably due to embarrassment.

At first, Ash, Clemont, and May thought the pair would travel together, but they figured that since they both want to challenge the league, it would be better to go alone so they don't figure out each other's strategies. But for some reason, Bonnie found herself disappointed by this. Much to her dismay, Clemont seemed to notice her disappointment. He seemed to be enjoying this immensely, and Bonnie had absolutely no idea why. She was very confused by his reactions, but even more confused by her own reactions around Max. Like how the air suddenly got warm around him, or her heart suddenly beat very quickly at the mere thought of him.

Needless to say, Bonnie was somewhat relieved when the two of them went their separate ways after starting out on their journeys, with Bonnie heading straight for the first gym, while Max went off to Professor Birch's lab to get his starter. Apparently, the reason he was starting at 12 instead of 10 is because he wanted to be there for May when she became the Top Coordinator of Hoenn. Now that she finally was, he finally decided to head out. But then Clemont and Bonnie showed up, so he decided to wait a bit longer so that he and Bonnie could start together. Both of them agreed to meet in the first pokémon centre on the way out of Petalburg so they can have a battle together.

The two did so, with Bonnie winning easily with Dedenne. She decided to leave all of the pokémon she caught in Kalos with her father, and head to Hoenn with just Dedenne. After she defeated Max, they both separated again, with Max racing on ahead to Rustboro City while Bonnie hung back to catch her first Hoenn pokémon. After a few minutes of searching, she managed to catch a Wurmple. Then, she set off for Rustboro herself. 

As she journeyed through Hoenn, she and Max ran into each other at several points, having a battle every chance they got. The two were pretty evenly matched, with neither of them ever going above two wins before the other evened the score. But the weird thing was, every time she saw Max, her heart quickened considerably, and she'd feel herself grow very warm. Soon enough, her heart seemed to ache whenever she thought about him, almost as if it yearned for him. Eventually, after she narrowly avoided losing to the 3rd gym leader because her thoughts kept drifting back to Max, she'd finally had enough, and decided to talk to someone about it. 

She considered asking Clemont, but something told her he'd be unbearable about this, if his reaction to her 1st time meeting Max was anything to go by. Her next port of call was her father, but she didn't feel comfortable talking to him about it either. She briefly considered Ash, but then realised he'd probably be just as clueless as her, since he was kind of dense when it came to anything that wasn't pokémon battling or food. So, she decided to give Serena a ring, and hoped she wasn't too busy with her duties as Kalos Queen.

When Serena picked up the phone, she was delighted to see Bonnie, and started asking her about how Hoenn was. The two spent a minute catching up, before Bonnie finally decided to ask her question. "Hey Serena," she asked, "can I ask you something?" Serena looked confused. "Sure," she replied, "Go ahead." "I've been having these weird things happen to me lately," Bonnie explained. "Every now and then, my heart beats really fast, and I feel really warm, and I start stumbling over my words. Any idea what that means?" Serena laughed at this. "You're joking right?" she asked. "How can an expert on love such as yourself not recognise a crush?" 

Bonnie's jaw dropped. "A crush!?" she asked. Serena nodded happily. "Yep," she replied. "What you just described is called a crush. So who's the lucky guy?" Bonnie thought about that, and then she realised. "You know Ash's friend May?" she asked. Serena nodded. "Her little brother." Serena beamed at this. "Oh, I met him a few years back. He's such a sweet kid. He loves talking about pokémon, and likes to help his sister with her contests. Apparently he loves to read about pokémon as well, and is quite clever too. I think you two would be so cute together!" Bonnie went very red in the face at that. "Oh don't put that image in my head!" she said. "I'm getting flustered just thinking about it!" Serena laughed and apologised. 

The two girls talked for a little bit more about other things, and Serena told her about how well her and Ash's relationship was going. Then they said goodbye and Bonnie ended the call. Her mind was reeling from what Serena had told her. She had a crush on Max? Her first crush, and it was on her rival in Hoenn! Talk about luck. So, with this new information, Bonnie continued on her way to the next gym, plotting ways she could find out if Max liked her back. If he did, then she'd try to ask him out. If he didn't... the thought of that alone caused her heart to ache. She didn't think she could bear it if he didn't reciprocate. So, she'd just have to hope he did, and try to work up the courage to tell him.

Ok, so, quick explanation on what's going on here. Most of these stories are connected to this larger Pokémon fic I'm working on called The Trainer's Guide to the Pokémon World. You can find it on AO3 and Fanfiction.net. The only ones that aren't tied to that are the FourthWheelShipping stories. That's because Trainer's Guide is largely a FourthWheelShipping story, except the two aren't going to actually become a couple for some time. So, I've created this mini story within this one-shot collection to tie me over on that. So, all of the FourthWheelShipping chapters will be connected to each other, then the rest of them will be connected to The Trainer's Guide. Anyway, I hope this was a good chapter for me to return on, and I'll see you around with the next one. I'm not confident at all in it, but hopefully it turns out well.