if you're with me, then everything's alright

He knew it would be a finicky process. Growing Berries bred for Berry Pot planting always was – without a full tree or bush to support them, the gardener had to provide extra attention to make them flourish. But he had successfully grown Berries with this method for years, even more unusual types like Yache and Charti Berries. He had been certain that he was prepared for this.

He had been wrong.

All of the Berries he grew turned out wrong in one way or another – too small, too hard, too sour, too stringy. His research made it clear that it wasn’t something he was uniquely doing wrong. Mago Berries were just like that. They needed just the right amount of sunlight, just the right amount of water, just the right soil, and just the right amount of luck. If any factor was even slightly off, there’d be no recovery.

Drew decided that, if he wanted to get this done, he’d have to devote an entire day to it. No training, no traveling – just him, Roserade, and the Berry Pot. All for the sake of two or three Berries, depending on what sort of yield he got.

One might ask why Drew was going to all this trouble in the first place. The answer was embarrassingly on-brand for him: it was for May Maple.

She had seemed sad the last time they met. He thought that was odd, considering she had just won the Icirrus Ribbon yesterday. So he asked her what was wrong.

“Promise you won’t laugh?” She asked.

“Only if you promise it won’t be funny,” he quipped. He soon realized that he misread the situation, as she genuinely looked hurt at the remark. “I’m kidding. I won’t laugh, promise."

“... I had an awful Mago Berry at breakfast.”

True to his word, Drew didn’t laugh, although it took some effort on his part. Leave it to May to get so depressed over food. “That’s a shame.”

“Isn’t it?” Now that he encouraged her, she seemed ready to go on a rant. “It was sour, but not in a tasty way. And it was all stringy! The man told me that they had just gotten a shipment in from Hoenn, too. Is this really the best we’ve got to send?”

“The Berries were probably good when the farmers sent them,” Drew said. He remembered reading something about how different methods of transportation impacted the flavor of Berries. Air transit was the fastest and produced the best tasting results, but the environmental impact made it impractical. So those Mago Berries probably arrived in Unova by boat. “The journey from Hoenn must have been too long for them to stay fresh.”

“Probably,” May muttered. “Still, it’s unfair! I thought it’d be a nice taste of home, but all it did was remind me how far away we really are.”

Oh. So it wasn’t just about the Mago Berry. “I didn’t know you had been feeling homesick.”

"What? I’m not sure - I wouldn’t say that I’m homesick!” She quickly said. “But, well… every other region I’ve travelled to has been on the same continent as Hoenn. I love how different everything is here in Unova, don’t get me wrong! But I guess I’m just having some… slight hiccups adjusting. It’s no big deal.”

“If you say so.”

Truthfully, he wanted to say more on the topic, to make sure she really was okay – but he had no idea where to start. So he let the matter go and changed the topic to upcoming contests. It turned out that they both had plans to attend the Nimbasa Contest in a few weeks. They exchanged typical banter on who would win (“It’ll look perfect next to the Icirrus Ribbon!” “Please, don’t let one little win go to your head.” “Oh yeah? Bold words for somebody lost at the 1st Battle Round!” “Only because I was matched up against you.”), and then went their separate ways.

That should have been the end of it. But Drew kept thinking about that conversation. And while he couldn’t fix her homesickness (or whatever it was she wanted to call it), he could provide her with a fresh Mago Berry. He thought it’d be pretty easy, all things considered.

But of course, it wasn’t. His weeks of effort had all turned out as failures. So that’s why Drew – with only 3 days left until the Nimbasa Contest – planned to spend an entire day cultivating a Mago Berry.

When he explained the plan to Roserade, she replied to him in a teasing but affirmative tone. As his partner Pokémon, Roserade knew all about his feelings for May and supported them. She even helped him grow the roses for her.

“Okay Roserade, use Sunny Day!”

Feeling the natural warmth of Sunny Day while inside a hotel room was… an odd experience, to be sure. But Drew couldn’t trust the fickle Unovan weather to provide the right conditions, so he would have to make do.

“Perfect. Now, use Growth!”

Roserade complied, sending a beam of green energy towards the soil of the Berry Pot. Some gardeners thought it was cheating to use Pokémon moves to assist in their plants' growth. Drew couldn’t agree less. In his experience, the best results came when he worked together with his Pokémon.

Finally, he poured some water (pre-measured, to ensure the perfect ratio) into the Berry Pot. Now he just had to wait. If he did everything right, the Berry would be ready in 8 hours.

“Let me know if you get tired of keeping up the Sunny Day, Roserade,” he told her. “I can always have Larvesta take over for a bit.”

“Rose, Rose-Rade!” she said pridefully, unimpressed at the idea she’d need relief, least of all from the newest member of the team.

Drew spent the day in his hotel room, keeping Roserade company and checking on the Mago Berries every so often.

(Okay, he checked on them about once every 10 minutes – could you blame him, after everything he had gone through?)

He didn’t want to count his Torchics before they hatched, but he thought the 3 Mago Berries were developing nicely. They were curling in on themselves just like they should, and their reddish-pink hue was exactly the shade he was hoping for.

Finally, 8 hours had passed, and it was time for the moment of truth. The taste test. He took a cautious bite, and…

It was perfect. Sweet, juicy, and refreshing. The flesh of the fruit was soft without being mushy. It tasted just like a proper Hoenn Mago Berry. His hard work had finally paid off.

“Do you want some, Roserade?” As tempting as it was to finish the entire Berry on his own, he thought it was only fair that his partner Pokémon taste the fruits of her labor.

Roserade trilled in excitement, and extended a vine from her bouquet to grab the Mago Berry and place it in her mouth. The joyous look on her face made it clear that she enjoyed it.

May arrived at the Nimbasa City Pokémon Center the next morning. For all the planning he had put into growing the Mago Berries, he hadn’t actually thought much about how he’d offer them to her. He really wished that he had – surely there was a more suave way than seeing her at the breakfast buffet and telling her not to eat yet.

He hurried back to his room and retrieved the Mago Berries. He returned to the buffet area, where May stood with her arms crossed and an annoyed expression.

“You better have a good reason for this,” she said. He understood why she was peeved, but hoped that her mood would soon change. He held the two Berries out in front of him, each one big enough to fill his entire hand. He’d never forget the awed look on her face – the shock and confusion which quickly turned to utter glee. “Wait – Mago Berries? For me?”

“No, they’re for your Beautifly,” he said dryly. “Yes, May, they’re for you. I did a taste test on this batch, so I can promise you they won’t disappoint you like the last one did. Go on, eat up.”

She didn’t need him to tell her twice. She took the fruit from him and took a bite. “Drew! This is soooo good! Thank you, thank you, thank you – you know what? I’m gonna eat these first, and then I’m gonna gush about how amazing and sweet and wonderful you are.”