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Honestly, it’s ridiculous. She’s an accomplished, functional adult who finally has a friend group she can call hers. Her achievements are so numerous they’re reaching the quantifiable limit. She has a fan club. There is no reason for her to be fixated on the past. The before.
Before she clawed her way up to the very pinnacle of society. Before she viewed indulging in the company of others as a pleasure. Before she wasn’t financially dependent on a mother so desperate in her loneliness she uprooted her family to move regions for a man who barely acknowledged them.
May knows she shouldn’t place the weight of her proverbial emotional 180 on the broad suit-clad shoulders on this one figure, no matter how appealing it may be. The (rapidly diminishing) rational part of her brain knows to attribute it to Wally and Brendan, for pushing past her spiky exterior, for finally getting her to go outside and stop languishing in her despair like a deep sea creature that never saw the light. But the irrational, unstable part of her mind, a final holdover from her time as a basement dweller, cannot help but fixate on him.
She begins drafting a pros and cons table about him in her head, like he’s a potential product to be evaluated before investment. Like she’d actually end up in something permanent with him. Like she’d ever even see him again.
Pros: made me famous. Can hold his own without me having to take pity and go easy. Gave me a Beldum.
Cons: Left the country. Doesn’t even care about me.
She’s well aware her thought patterns are resembling the kind of delusion Lisia likes to gush about, but what’s the harm in indulging just once? Once the thoughts come they can’t stop, like a gushing geyser of emotional turmoil.
When we went to Southern Island it could almost be mistaken as a date if he liked me and if not for the underlying miasma of anguish and I thought we had something when our eyes met in that final chamber and surely there would have been something deeper than trust after I saved the fucking world-
May’s phone chimes. What perfect timing. It’s not him, because that would just be too fortuitous after she’s practically been handed everything she needs for self-enlightenment on a silver platter complete with assorted ornamental dishware.
Family dinner back at Littleroot? Trying to get Dad to come. Mom xx
Yeah, right. She’s not going through that song and dance again. She hesitates before sending her reply, because she doesn’t want it to look like she’s glued to her phone 24/7.
I’ll see what I can do, but probably won’t be able to fit it into my schedule.
The phone vibrates with a reply but she tosses it into the corner of the room before she can read it. Instead, she fumbles around in her satchel before pulling out a gift that would have seemed romantic if not for the context. She’s always fought for what she wanted, so why should now be any different?
The flute’s notes ring out in the cool evening air. Latias swoops before her, and in a flash of light, takes to the skies reborn anew, its form sleeker, faster, stronger. She pats its back lovingly. Even if he didn’t regard her nearly as highly as she did of him, she’d surely earned a valuable place in his heart. One does not simply save the world together and not be friends.
“You miss Latios? Let’s go find him.” The vast sea stretches out before her. The world is her oyster.