Roserade would always be the closest of Drew's Pokemon to him. She was his starter, and had been with him the longest. No one questioned that.

But Drew had formed a special bond with Masqurain and Absol, simply over the fact that that they all had something major in common. Several things, actually.

For one, they were all misunderstood.

Many people believed that Masqurain couldn't hold his own in battle, being the runt of the litter. And having a major weakness to electric types didn't help.

Absol... Where do I get started? Well, Absols in general got a lot hate being the disaster Pokemon, when in truth they only showed up at the sites of disasters to warn people.

But those same people beat him for it, or just plain ran from him. Everyone but one.

Absol had been really surprised by this boy. Absol had been caught up in the disaster that he was warning people about, but everyone was to scared to help him. Except that one boy.

He had joined his team willingly after that.

Drew himself was somewhat misunderstood. Almost no one got his hair. Almost no one got why he wanted to be a co-ornater. They pressured him to be a trainer, they didn't understand his dreams.

They said he was a disaster, somehow almost always managing to be the one to make things go not quite according to plan.

Like that time time someone tripped him, and so naturally he tried to grab something to help himself stay upright. Let's leave it at he got in major trouble for the unexpected fire drill.

Or that time on the canoeing trip when the river took his paddle, resulting in the packed lunch going overboard as he reached for it, narrowly missing tipping the whole canoe over.

It wasn't always his fault. Sometimes it would happen to anyone who was in that position, and it just happened to be him.

But that was not the main thing that they had in common.

They all had a hopelessly huge crush on someone.

And you know the saying Pokemon reflect their trainers? Well Masqurain and Absol had a crush on the Pokemon of the co-ordnater Drew liked.

The difference being Absol and Masqurain had already confessed to Glaceon and Beautifly respectively, whereas Drew was still stuck in the fear of rejection.

Both May and Drew's Pokemon had tried getting him to confess, but their efforts were in vain. He refused to tell her, and all the Pokemon were getting desperate.

'Okay. I've had almost enough of all this. If Drew won't step up, we're going to have to try a different approach.' Roserade said furiously, after a particularly failed attempt.

'I agree. We've been going for the classic approach, but Drew isn't doing it. Who wants to try to get May to make the first move?' Wartortle reasoned

Ten paws, flippers, wings, etc. raised. (Remember, Drew only has five Pokemon in the anime.)

'Blazikin, why don't you agree?'

'May is ten times more dense than Drew, and just as stubborn. If he won't do it, then it's unlikely that May will.'

'Good point... Good point...'

Suddenly Glaceon brightened. 'Hey, Absol? Is Drew using you in the battle round of the contest tomorrow?'

'Uh... Yeah? Why?'

She whispered something in his ear, and he grinned while the rest of the Pokemon were staring at them, confused.

'You'll see.'

--------------------------

"Now we find ourselves on the final stage of the Mahogany Town Contest!!" Vivian practically yelled into the mic.

"We find the two co-ordnaters known as Prince and Princess of Hoenn, Drew and
May facing off for the ribbon!"

The crowd roared as May and Drew's names were called.

"Now these two have a well known rivalry, so let's get this started!!!"

Of course everyone had heard of their rivalry, it was almost as famous as the co-ordnaters themselves.

"Absol!! Come on out!!!!"

"Glaceon!!! Take the stage!!!"

"Absol! Start it off with a flash iron tail com- what?"

"Glaceon, use ice bea- w-what are you doing?"

Absol and Glaceon ignored their trainer's commands and walked to the center of the stage.

Instead of attacking each other, they rubbed mussels and curled up, cuddling on the stage.

(Talk about PDA...)

"Absol! Stop this right now!"

"Glaceon! W-what are you doing?"

The crowd didn't seem to mind, though, as they let out a collective 'awwwwww...'

"Well, it looks like the Pokemon have slightly different plans than their trainers."

No truer words were spoken as both May and Drew were extremely embarrassed, though their reactions were quite different.

May's cheeks were turning red, while Drew just appeared to be angry.

They quickly ran over to their Pokemon. However, they were expecting that.

'We aren't moving until you two just give it up and confess already.'

Drew sighed. "Absol, can we at least do this backstage?"

'Fine. Party pooper.'

*sigh* "You realize that I'm not going to use you in a contest for at least a month after this."

'I kind of figured...'