This is my first fanfiction, and it is the first of a running saga that it is my honor to present. It involves Pearlshipping mainly, but others may manifest. I will update often but infrequently, so that I'm not predictable but captivating. Have a fun read!

Disclaimer: I have no rights to anything involving Pokemon and the characters, and while the story arc is mine, a significant plot point used was inspired by sykilik101 and their story I Don't Mind.

Dawn wanted to go swimming. Why? No reason in particular. But for some reason, she was determined to go swimming that night. Maybe it was because it was going to be a nice night. Maybe it was that she hadn't been swimming in forever. Maybe it was a reward to herself for winning her fourth ribbon a few days ago. She didn't know, nor did she care. She was going to go swimming. Even if the guys were inadvertently trying to stop it from happening.

Dawn had decided around lunch time that she was going to swim on the river that was just beyond the woods next to the trail they were on. But by 6 o'clock, the group had realized they were lost. Again.

Brock turned to Ash with an irritated look on his face. "I told you that we were going the wrong way." Brock shook his head. "This is the last time I am ever going to listen to your directions."

Ash smiled, "Aww, come on Brock. You don't know that for sure. If we keep going…"

Brock stopped him. "No, Ash, we are definitely going the wrong way." He points to the map in his hand. "This says we are going to the middle of nowhere."

Dawn piqued in," How do you know for sure Brock?"

He points to the river that she wanted to swim in later. "Well, we are still next to the river over there," he then points to the map, "and the map shows that nothing is on this side of the river. No towns, no Pokémon centers, nothing!"

Dawn was afraid to ask, but she had to. "How far back would we have to travel to actually get going where we need to go?"

Brock took a minute to calculate the time. "About… 2 days."

Dawn and Ash dropped. "Two days?" They both exclaimed. Ash get back up, "How is it two days? We have only been walking this way for a couple hours!" Dawn nodded her head.

Brock shook his head," Actually, it's been closer to 8 hours. And we were walking downhill the entire time. So about two days sounds right" Ash and Dawn groaned loudly.

Brock continued on. "I think we should set up camp here for the night, and we can get to walking first thing in the morning."

Dawn groaned again, but quickly perked up. She realized that she would definitely have the chance to swim tonight! She squeaked out loud, loud enough so Ash and Brock turned to look at her. Dawn turned a bright red, embarrassed that they had actually heard that. There was an awkward silence, with everyone unsure of what to say.

Ash broke the silence. "Was that…a squeak, Dawn?"

"Wha…Wha…What are you talking about, Ash?" Dawn was still red.

"I'm pretty sure that was a squeak, right Pikachu?" Ash turned to Pikachu, who nodded in agreement. "So what was that squeak about, huh Dawn?" Ash got close to Dawn, trying to make her uncomfortable. Surprisingly, to Dawn, she wasn't bothered at all at how close he was.

"Um, nothing Ash. Nothing at all." She became pink at how much she was blushing. She didn't want them to know she was going swimming. Ash might take it is an opportunity for training, and Brock would probably say that they should spend the time sleeping rather than swimming. But honestly, it was for another reason. Though Ash didn't realize it since he was so dense, and Brock wouldn't care since he was so much older, Dawn realized that was growing into a woman who was pretty hot. Though she was pretty sure that they wouldn't, for said reasons, she didn't want them to be looking at her, like that.

"Mmm hmm. Right Dawn," Ash didn't believe her. He knew for a fact she squeaked. He just wasn't sure why, but…wait a minute, unless it was because…

"You were laughing at me for getting us lost, weren't you!" Ash yelled at her.

"No, I wasn't." she yelled back. She thought for a moment, and slapped him in the face to boot. That took the wind out of Ash, and he began to rub his red cheek.

"What was that for?" he asked, almost innocently.

Dawn looked at him, dumbfounded. "Hello, you yelled at me, in my face!"

Ash just stared for a second, and looked at his feet, "I'm sorry Dawn. I didn't mean to yell in your face." He kept looking at his feet, with a kind-of guilty look on his face. Dawn almost felt guilty too. Almost guilty enough to apologize. ALMOST guilty enough.

"Well you did." Dawn wanted to keep yelling at him, but she saw Ash's face again. Now she felt guilty enough to apologize. Somehow, she managed to blush again. "It's ok, Ash. I still shouldn't have slapped you." She smiled at him. "Friends?" She asked.

Ash looked up and shook his head. Dawn frowned. Not…friends? "Best friends!" Ash said this while wearing a huge grin. Dawn grinned too, and they did their high five. Dawn and Ash kept grinning while Brock shook his head.

"Hey guys, if you want dinner, then help me set up camp for the night." Ash always wanted food, so he was quick to help. Dawn was slower, but that was because she was thinking of when she could sneak off to swim. She figured she would have to wait until after they all fell asleep, which she hoped would not be too late.

A few hours later, her hopes were right as she head the snores of Ash and the sleep-talking of Brock. She began to laugh at some of what Brock, pretending not to know how dirty it was. That was the exact reason why she didn't want Brock to see her in a bikini. She did not want Brock to be talking like that about her in his dreams. That would just be creepy. She knew that he would never purposely think like that about her, but in his dreams, he had no control of what he thought about. Dawn shivered at the thought. He grabbed her backpack with her bikini and towel in it and snuck out of her tent. She checked to make sure that both Brock and Ash were asleep in their sleeping bags, and not just half-sleeping. She didn't want to accidentally wake them up and have them follow her. Once she was sure that they were actually asleep, she made a quick pit stop, and put her Piplup into his pokeball. She didn't want him to wake up and alert the others of her escapade. Finally, sure that there was no way she would be caught, she left for the river.

She reached it with no issues, and took off her beanie, socks, scarf, and boots. She then reached into the bag and grabbed her first bikini that she had with her and was disappointed. She hadn't even realized that something was wrong with it, but there were huge gashes in the fabric, making it useless. The size of the gashes reminded her of the Peck attack of a certain Piplup that she knew. She would deal with him later, but for now, she went to the back-up plan, another bikini. She had taken off her vest when she realized something embarrassing. There were no changing rooms in the wild, no place for privacy, no place where she could hide herself from unwanted eyes. She looked for anything that could resemble a shelter, but nothing fit. She debated with herself if she should just do a quick change in the open, and she weighed the pros and cons. She would be (she blushed at the thought)… well clothes less in a spot where people could see here, but who was there to look? Ash and Brock were asleep, and no one else would be dumb enough to go this far out of the way. Except for Team Rocket, of course. Team Rocket would do anything for Ash's Pikachu. What if Team Rocket saw her? She thought about it for a second. Meowth wouldn't care probably, and Jessie was a girl herself, so that wasn't an end of the world situation. And for James… well, Dawn had come to the conclusion that James was either with Jesse or gay, so there was no reason to worry that much there. It was settled. Quick change it was.

She did quickly change into her bikini and was shocked. It didn't fit her! It was too small, but not as in a bad way. Her hips were too big and her chest too large for the bikini. Now that she thought about it, it made sense. That was a bikini she had used back when she was 10, and she had grown some, so of course it wouldn't fit. "Crap" was all she could say. She couldn't go swimming that day. She didn't want to swim in her underwear since it had given her a rash the last time she had tried it. So, resigned to defeat, she took off the too small bikini and began to get dressed again to go back to the camp. Right as she began, she had a thought. Do I really have to go? She realized she could always, well, swim like she was right now. Le natural. She gave it more thought, and realized that it would probably be perfectly ok, for the same reasons she had made before. Blushing at her actions, she put her clothes down, got a towel right next to it, and began to go swimming.

Dawn was fully into the swimming, as it was exactly what she needed. She was still being careful as to not let too much be visible, in case someone did happen to pass by, but she had all the fun she needed. But on the shore, something terrible for her was occurring. A clan of Burmy's coats had been destroyed by a flamethrower from a wild Monferno, and they were on the hunt for some new materials that were more resistant, when they happened upon Dawn's clothing, which they thought was perfect. One of the leaders used Bug Bite to tear them up so that everyone could get some, which they did. They happily took every scrap of clothing from the pile, and the towel, and left, fully protected. Unlike Dawn.

Around then, Piplup had a nightmare and escaped his pokeball to get comforted by his master, Dawn, but to his surprise she was gone! He began to cry, which woke up Pikachu. Piplup told Pikachu, who then hurried over to Ash, and shoved him a few times to wake him up. Ash kept snoring, so Pikachu was preparing to hit him with a Thunderbolt, but Piplup beat him to the punch, using a Bubblebeam to wake up Ash. Ash got mad at his rude (and very early) awakening.

"What the heck was that for, Piplup?" Ash yelled as softly as he could, aware that Brock was still asleep.

"Pikapi! Pikaka Chukachu!" (Ash! Dawn is missing!") Pikachu told Ash frantically.

Ash bolted up "What! Dawn's gone! You sure, buddy?" Pikachu and Piplup nodded. Ash got on his shoes and began to run into the forest, and began to call out Dawn's name.

Dawn meanwhile had just finished swimming and had gotten out of the river. That was exactly what I needed, she thought to herself. She went to get her towel when she realized, no towel. Or clothes, in this case. Dawn began to freak out at this. She began to run from rock to rock, seeing if her clothes were actually there, but she had no luck. "Crap." She was thinking over and over again. She went to her bag, to see if she remembered to bring anything else, but no luck. She had no clothes, in the middle of the wild, and had to walk through a path full of thorn bushes and what not in order to get back to camp. What could make this any worse?

"DAWN!" She heard her name yelled, but hoped it wasn't for her. "DAWN!" She knew that voice, and was praying she was wrong. "DAWN!" Ash yelled again, and said the first cuss word she had ever used in her life.

"Fuck!" she yelled, surprised at herself. She never thought she would use such bad words, but under these circumstances, it was understandable. One of her best friends was about to find her without any clothes on. Her search for anything, anything, to cover herself with became frantic. She didn't notice a Gloom hiding in one of the bushes, and she accidently hit it. Hard. Hard enough that it tried to protect itself with a Stun Spore. It hit Dawn right in the face, and she fell over, paralyzed. She landed on her side, as stiff as a board, literally.

She was now completely vulnerable, and had no way to cover herself from Ash. Everything but her hearing was paralyzed, so all she could do was listening as Ash got closer and further away until he was almost next to her. Finally she got movement in her head and neck, so she turned to where she heard Ash and yelled at him to advance no further, but it was too late. Ash had already walked through the final clearing and was facing a vulnerable Dawn.

So this is where I leave off for Chapter One of this saga, with an idea of its direction but no definitive plans. Hope you review!