So here is my very first Ikarishipping story. I got inspired and just started writing. I've always thought this couple would have the most interesting stories considering Paul's behavior in the anime. So I decided to give it a shot, tell me what you think! Oh and I don't own Pokemon.
Dawn woke up startled. Her forehead was damp with sweat and she looked around the tent hastily. To her relief she saw that all her poke balls were safely in her bag and that Piplup was sleeping soundlessly. Her hand instantly drifted to her chest, breathing out in relief. She tried shaking off the thoughts of her nightmare. Dawn sighed and gathered her hair in a ponytail not bothering to see if it was stylish at all. After all it was the middle of the night, no one would see her. And with that in mind she stood up and decided to go for a nice midnight walk to soothe her mind.
As soon as she stood up she realized she was going to take a walk in pajamas. She was about to reach over to her bag and change but decided it wasn't worth the time. She did however put on some socks and sneakers. She giggled at the thought of how ridicules she probably looked knowing full well she would never be caught dead with this outfit on during the day. With a small smile on her face she stepped out of the tent.
The group had decided to set up camp somewhere between Pastoria and Hearthome. They had found a small but suitable clearing in the forest not too far from a creek. Dawn stood by the tent and saw Ash and Brock cuddled up in their sleeping bags. Pikachu had curled up on top of his master's chest. Dawn sneaked past them not wanting to disturb her friend's peaceful sleep.
As she got a good bit into the woods and away from the campsite she loosened up. She walked with soft steps knowing that the cute sleeping Pokemon that she saw cuddled against each other in the trees could easily transform into scary and pissed of little monsters if woken. But she enjoyed the silence and peacefulness of the scenery. After a few minutes she was getting rather annoyed with how baggy her pajamas were, she found it difficult to walk like that and pulled the legs of the pajamas up so they were above her knees. Satisfied she continued aiming to relax at the creek.
When she reached the creek she took off her shoes and her socks. Dawn dipped her long, slender legs into the creek. She winced slightly at how cold it was but soon relaxed. It was very surreal scene. The moon could barely be seen in its shining glory from above the trees that were behind her. Dawn loved traveling with Brock and Ash, but she was enjoying herself with no company. It was good to have some alone time.
She lifted her head away from the creek and was about to look up again at the moon when she caught two lavender eyes staring at her from the trees behind her. Dawn, bewildered, stood still afraid of who it was.
"Crap." the figure said harshly. Dawn frowned, her fear alleviated as she recognized the voice.
"Paul?" she said in disbelief. She stood up to try and get a better look, it was indeed Paul. Knowing he was caught the purple-haired boy stepped out from the behind the trees and glared at her. Dawn glared right back. He hadn't changed from the last time he was abusing Pokemon, Dawn thought to herself bitterly. Same old outfit, same long hair, same annoying glare, and same lavender eyes. Dawn had to admit, though begrudgingly, that his eyes actually complemented him nicely and they were gorgeous. And Dawn had always thought that that long shaggy hair was kind of cute...Dawn blushed realizing she had just paid Paul several compliments on how he looked in her mind.
"Great, its you." he mumbled. Dawn growled at the comment and stomped her foot impatiently.
"Excuse me! First of all my name is Dawn!" She muttered angrily. Paul raised his eyebrows and stared at her, bored. This only added to the girl's fury, which of course added to Paul's amusement.
"And whats wrong with seeing me!" Dawn added, only realizing how childish it sounded until after saying it. Paul smirked slightly before responding.
"Have you looked in the mirror recently?" he asked still sneering at her. Dawn would have exploded if it wasn't for the fact that it was the middle of the night.
"What!" she hissed, "I happen to look way better than you in your sweatpants and your messy hair." she rattled on other misgivings about Paul's appearance.
"Currently?" Paul interrupted to ask. Dawn, with her mouth still open, was confused by the question and was about to rebuttal when she paused with horror creeping in on her face. She hesitantly looked down and was instantly reminded at what she had worn on her walk. She looked up completely embarrassed.
"I'm in my pajamas." she said weakly. Paul snickered at her silently. It took her a moment to recover, her face fully flushed as she glared at Paul.
"Alright so what I'm in my pajamas." Dawn said confidently, but inside she was reeling at how awful her situation was. Paul rolled his eyes at her attempt to play cool.
"What are you doing here?" Paul asked, surprising himself in a sense by continuing the somewhat awkward conversation with the girl. But he was slightly curious and it didn't look like she was going to leave him alone any time soon.
"I just wanted to take a little walk and relax at this creek." She said looking thoughtfully back at the stream.
"In the middle of the night?" he asked skeptically. Dawn shot him an annoyed look.
"Yes, untill you interrupted!" She huffed before asking her own question, "What are you doing here?"
Paul shrugged, indicating to Dawn that he wasn't going to give her a proper answer anytime soon. Suddenly from the forest came a large Torterra grunting heavily. Paul looked at him with the same stony indifference he had when talking with Dawn. The Torterra looked thoroughly exhausted and looked up and his trainer not deteriorated from his gaze. Dawn, however, looked at the grass Pokemon with concern wondering why it looked like it was just in a battle. That is when she came to a simple conclusion.
"You pushed him too far!" Dawn accused pointing a finger at Paul.
"What?" the boy asked giving her a frosty glare.
"You probably didn't think that poor Torterra was training hard enough during the day. I bet you made him work all night long, just because you don't think he's strong enough." Dawn narrowed her eyes at him. She had enough of Paul torturing his Pokemon and she wanted to stand up to him.
Paul gave her a crazy and slightly angry look at her thoughts. Torterra didn't seem to care and was struggling to keep on his feet. Dawn didn't budge from her stance.
"That is not what happened." Paul insisted. Paul's eyes widened, he didn't need to explain himself to anyone. Especially the little miss perfect standing in front of him.
"Yeah I bet." Dawn scoffed. Paul suddenly had a wave of rage pass over him.
"How dare you assume that something happened and then accuse me of mistreating my Pokemon!" Paul said his tone completely different and much angrier than before.
"It wouldn't be the first time." she countered sharply. "Every time we ever saw you...you just seemed to think the only use for your Pokemon was for battles. You threw away love and compassion and just focused on strength. I don't think my assumption is too far off from your past behavior."
"So that's it, you see me a couple of times and you think that's enough to judge me." Dawn hesitated, he had a point. Sure they had seen him plenty of times. But she honestly didn't know that much about the boy.
"And who the hell are you to judge me anyway." Paul growled angrily. Dawn was taken aback from this, but she refused to give in to his intensity.
"I am a trainer who loves her pokemon and shows appreciation and support to them all the time. I don't see Pokemon as tools to be used during battle! They're my friends and my partners in my journey and I treat them as such. And I hate to see others mistreat their Pokemon." Dawn, breathing heavily, stared into the cold purple orbs with anger. He simply stared back not flinching at the comments.
"What makes you think I share a different opinion." Paul asked quietly. Dawn looked at him incredibly, her eyes widening in shock at his reply.
Dawn wanted to laugh. She wanted to roll on the ground and laugh hysterically about how preposterous the idea was. At how wrong he was. Her mind flashed to all the times they saw Paul berate his Pokemon and treat them like dirt. She thought of poor Chimchar, and the rest of the Pokemon on his team. Paul was always so awful to everyone and everything. To think that he cared for anything was absurd. But she didn't laugh. Dawn just stared into his lavender eyes, and wondered with surprise at the sincerity the glowed in them. And with all the evidence she needed to prove him wrong, Dawn felt like she believed him.
She broke off the connection and stared hard at the ground. Dazed and shaken from the raw power of his gaze. Was it possible that he did care about his Pokemon? But after everything she'd seen of him it seemed hard to overhaul all of that just because he looked truthful. Why was she so interested anyway?
Paul shifted his eyes elsewhere when she broke of their connection. Did she believe him? Were his first desperate thoughts, but they died down instantly. Of course not he thought. The better question was why he even bothered talking to her. He was fine with simply teasing her. He enjoyed the reaction she made from a simple insult. She got flustered and it was kind of...cute. If she was a cute person, which she wasn't! Paul shook his head to prevent himself from straying to such bizarre thoughts again. When she started questioning his training beliefs why didn'y he just let her do it. Paul glanced quickly over to her. Why did he feel the need to explain himself to her? What was so special about her?
The ensuing silence only made Dawn feel more uncomfortable. Taking a big breath she nervously looked up at his face. He had also drifted his gaze elsewhere. But his eyes shined with a different emotion, like a certain thoughtfulness. Dawn curiously watched him, for the first time his features soft and dare she say gentle? Maybe there was something behind all of this after all. and for some reason Dawn felt like she needed to know.
"I guess I'll go now." Paul said. He was about to turn around when Torterra let out a huge grunt and collapsed on the ground. The enormous weight of the pokemon caused the ground to literally shake equally as powerful as if he had used Earthquake. Dawn felt ground from underneath her feet slip and she started falling backwards into the river. She closed her eyes ready to splash into the icy cold water when she was suddenly steadied.
She opened her eyes to see that Paul had grabbed her right hand to prevent her from falling. She looked startled from Paul's face to his hand holding hers. With the slightest tint of red in his cheeks Paul pulled Dawn away from the river bank and released her hand. Dawn gazed at him not moving from the spot where he released her hand.
Paul headed back to where Torterra was comfortably relaxing on the ground, the combo grass/ground Pokemon completely unaware of what he had caused. Paul took out a pokeball and pointed it at his starter Pokemon barely muttering the words return. The purple haired boy, then cautiously turned around to look at Dawn. She blushed brightly when his eyes turned to her, and Paul seemed secretly pleased at this reaction if only slightly.
"What?" he asked with a bored tone. She looked at him with a slightly determined face before meeting him with her eyes.
"Thank-you." she said pleasantly a small smile on her face. Paul froze looking at her without a glare or scowl on his face. He then nodded his head and went into the woods disappearing.
Dawn looked from where he left wondering about the bizarre conversation they had. First it was simple teasing, then angry yelling, and then finally they seemed to almost be pleasant to one another. She didn't know whether Paul did care about his Pokemon or not. But for the first time Dawn was seeing Paul in a different light. and he certainly looked very good in that light.
Dawn glanced back at her right hand. Although it wasn't the most dramatic or brave rescue in history, Dawn still though it was incredible. And when he grabbed her...His hands were rough, his fingers calloused. But in those few moments where they were holding hands, it felt right. As strange as it sounded her hand seemed to fit perfectly into his. She sighed and bent her head into her hands. Dawn now knew for sure that she was crazy.
Paul walked through the woods trying to busy his thoughts with anything but the crazy events that had just happened. But he couldn't, he just couldn't get Dawn off his mind. She used to be one of Ash's annoying cheerleaders. But it seemed, even if it was for a split second, that Dawn was the only person who seemed to believe he was telling the truth. Paul scoffed, she was probably thinking about what a horrible trainer he was already.
There was one thing, however, that was true. Paul glanced at his left hand. Her hands were soft, her touch delicate. In those couple of seconds their hands seemed to be perfectly connected to each other. Paul closed his eyes and sighed, continuing on his path.
How is it so far? Should i continue? Please review!