Chapter Text
Of all the new sights in Alola, Ash wasn't expecting to see the person who sat on Hau'Oli Beach, overlooking the water, a roselia at his side.
Ash ran to greet him, hoping Pikachu and the rockruff they'd recently befriended were keeping up. "Drew, is that you? Hey!"
Even donning a pair of dark sunglasses, he was unmistakable up close--he looked about the same as Ash remembered him, right down to the outfit; he must've really been committed to that aesthetic to be dressing the same way five years later. Upon noticing Ash, he let out a small sigh of resignation. "It starts."
Drew stood, and Ash noticed that Drew was several inches shorter than he was. "If you're after an autograph, you'd better have a pen on you because I don't."
"Oh, I'm not a fan," Ash said. He saw Drew frown--in confusion or annoyance or what, he couldn't tell. "Wait, that came out wrong. I mean I'm a friend. You don't recognize me?"
Drew pushed his sunglasses up to the top of his head, blinking as his eyes readjusted to the bright sunlight, and studied Ash. "Not gonna lie, I have no idea who you are. Name?"
"I'm Ash." Did Drew really not know who he was? Maybe the mention of Drew's old rival would help. "I used to travel with May, back in Hoenn and Kanto, remember?"
Sure enough, recognition sparked in Drew's eyes. "Oh, that Ash. It's been a while." He looked Ash up and down. "You've gotten taller."
"You haven't," Ash said. Drew's eyes narrowed. "Hey, easy, I'm kidding. Sorry. Anyway, how have you been? How's May? Is she here too? What're you doing in Alola? Contests aren't a thing here," he added the last part with a note of confusion. He was pretty sure contests weren't a thing here, but Drew's presence made him doubt it.
Drew closed his eyes and pinched the bridge of his nose. "I'm well aware that contests aren't 'a thing' here, as you so eloquently put it. If you must know, I won a grand festival in Johto, competed in the Sinnoh contest circuit, and now I'm taking a break from coordinating." He paused and his expression softened. "May's not here, but last I heard she was doing well."
"Taking a break?" Drew, who had always seemed relentlessly ambitious and driven, was vacationing in Alola? "That doesn't sound much like you."
"A lot can change in five years," Drew remarked coolly. As Pikachu jumped onto Ash's shoulder, Drew added, "Though I see your pikachu hasn't."
"Neither has your roselia," Ash said. "I guess we've got that in common. And what're the odds that we'd both end up right here at the same time?" A brilliant idea struck him. "We should explore Alola together! It's gotta be fate, us running into each other again after so long."
Drew frowned. "I don't travel with other people." Rockruff was pawing at Drew's leg to get his attention, but he didn't seem to notice.
"The Drew I knew didn't take vacations either, but here you are," Ash pointed out. "Maybe it's time for another change."
"Hard pass." Drew looked down at his partner. "Let's go, Roselia. We have places to be." He turned his back on Ash and started toward the city, Roselia following closely.
"Well, see you around," Ash said. Then, to Pikachu, "What is up with him?"
Drew had managed to avoid Ash and his questions for the rest of the day, but even as night fell and he retired to his motel room he couldn't shake the thought of what had happened. As he went to his bed and sprawled ungracefully on his back, hands behind his head, his mind was still racing. Between this and the jet lag he was still feeling, he figured sleep would be a long time coming; if it came down to it, he might have Butterfree knock him out with sleep powder again.
He never would've expected to run into one of May's old friends in Alola of all places. Maybe that was why he hadn't recognized Ash at first--well, that and the fact that (no matter what Ash said) they had both grown since they last saw each other; Ash was taller and tanner, leaner with broader shoulders. Drew almost envied him--he himself had never quite grown into his height. (You'll fill out once you hit puberty, people would sometimes try to assure him. I'm sixteen, he would reply.)
"Rose?"
"I'm fine, Roselia," he assured his partner. "Say, do you think I should've taken Ash up on his offer?"
Roselia didn't answer. So this was his problem to solve. He groaned, moving a hand to cover his eyes.
He had always traveled alone in the past--apart from Roselia and the rest of his team--and didn't have plans to change that. But he hadn't planned to see Ash again either.
And he had come to Alola because he needed to make some changes. His recent run through the Sinnoh contest circuit had been the worst of his entire career--he was burned out, and he needed time off to try something new and find the spark he once had again. Was Ash the way to do that?
Drew doubted it. If he wanted to keep his head down and avoid media attention, hanging around with someone who did so much shouting would be a bad move. And all he knew Ash as was May's loud and cheerful friend who had, when Drew was like eleven, made him realize he might like boys too--not that that meant anything now. The two of them weren't even friends.
Still, something needed to change.
"This isn't accomplishing anything." Drew recalled Roselia with a sigh, reaching for the poké ball that held his butterfree and giving it a careless toss.
"Free?" Butterfree looked at his trainer with concern.
"Can't sleep," Drew said. "You know the drill."