Dodging droplets; Barry/Dawn, "thunder before the storm" for Foxkaiyalivejournal. Gameverse, Pokémon Platinum.
dodging droplets
In the distance she could see the skies darkening even more. Which wasn't that big of a problem; she could handle rain. She didn't like it all that much, but she could deal. But she could hear the thunder and if she looked at the sky long enough, she could see it light up as streaks of lightning shot down towards the Earth.
The last thing Dawn wanted was to get caught in a lightning storm. She'd just gotten out of Oreburgh City a day ago, it was way too soon for her to be dealing with this sort of problem.
There wasn't much grass here, and she was able to make her way to the rocky areas by the time the rain started. She ran her hands along the cold rocky ledges, looking for any crevices or small caves she could duck into and hide out in. The storm was moving towards her too fast; she wouldn't make it back to the town quickly enough. Her fingers caught on to the side of a large bulge, and as she moved around it, she found that underneath was a small cavern out of the way of the rain.
She smiled, pleased with herself, and prepared to duck down into the nook when something sped past her. Dawn looked up and saw that it was Barry, running at breakneck speed towards Oreburgh. She called out to him and he skidded to a halt. Or rather, he tried to. The ground beneath his feet was too wet and muddy, and he slid forward on the heels of his feet a few inches before toppling backwards and landing on his back. Dawn was at his side quickly, pulling him up, getting both of them covered in mud. "Barry! What do you think you're doing?"
"Outrunning the storm!" the boy shot back, trying to regain his balance. "Come on, come on, we've got to go before we get fried!"
"We won't make it back in time," she said, pulling him back towards the little cave she'd found.
"Wait, Dawn, wha-"
"Just come on!" she insisted, pushing him down in front of her and shoving him into the small cave. She ducked down herself and clambered in after her.
It was small and cramped, barely enough room for the both of them, their wet and dirty knees bumping against each other as they tried to situate themselves against opposite walls, facing each other. Barry was still trying to catch his breath from running, and Dawn was doing her best to fix her coat and pull her skirt down.
Once they were both slightly more comfortable, Barry said, "What are you doing out here?!"
Dawn rolled her eyes. "I was on my way to Eterna City. Isn't that where you were headed?"
"Yeah, yeah, but then that storm came!" Barry replied, nodding. "You saw it, right? Talk about a lot of lightning, I don't think I've ever seen that much before in my life!"
"Sure you have," Dawn said, softly. "Remember that one time you got rained in at my house? We went upstairs to my parents' room to look out their window and there was all that lightning. Remember? Two seconds would go by and another bolt would come down."
"Oh, yeah! Yeah I remember that!" Barry's eyes widened and he laughed. "You got so scared you hid under your parents' blankets! They had to come in and drag you out and everything, you wouldn't even move! Not me, though, I thought it was so cool."
"You would."
"So you beat Roark, then?" Barry said, changing the subject. "It was pretty tough, huh? But no, no, probably not, you got it easy, didn't you? You have Piplup, and Roark's rock type. My Turtwig had trouble dealing with it, but we pulled through and beat him! No problem!"
She kept it to herself that he'd just contradicted himself more than once in his little spiel and just said, "Yeah, we beat him. It wasn't as hard as I thought it would be, for a first Gym Battle, but like you said, I have Piplup. So that's probably why. Gardenia will be more of a challenge, I think."
Barry nodded, enthusiastically, and opened his mouth to speak when suddenly the rain outside started pouring down much heavier, the sound ringing in their ears. They both turned to look. The ledge over their little cave blocked most of their view, but they could see the rain hitting the ground, everything turning to a thick, brown mud. Dawn was going to need a good, long shower after this.
They heard a loud clap of thunder outside and Dawn flinched. Barry turned towards her, eyebrows raised. "Oh come on, you're not still scared of a little thunder, are you? Come on! How do you expect to be a great Pokèmon trainer if you're still so afraid of the elements! This is natural stuff, happens every day! You gotta be tough like me and face it head on!"
"Weren't you running away from the storm?" Dawn pointed out.
Barry shook his head, firmly. "That doesn't mean I'm not tough, it just means I'm not stupid! Seriously, who runs headfirst in a lightning storm?! That's just asking for trouble! You'll be shocked in no time and then where will you be? Not the Pokèmon League, that's for sure. You'll be in a coffin, going six feet under, all charred up. Terrible!"
"Thank you for that vivid mental image."
"No problem!"
They lapsed in a momentary silence, as Barry folded his arms and frowned at nothing. And then Dawn let out a terrified screech and suddenly started to pull her hat down as far over her head as she could get it. Barry jumped at the sudden noise, hitting his head hard against the ceiling. "OW! What?! What is it, what's wrong?! DAWN!"
"My hair is frizzing!" Dawn yelled, horrified, ducking her head down to hide from him.
Barry blinked. "…WHAT."
"It's. Frizzing!"
"I should fine you a million for scaring me like that! You just screamed and I thought maybe you'd cut yourself on a rock or or or a Pokèmon was crawling on you or something but this is about your HAIR?!"
"My hair is very important," Dawn said, peering up at him, irritated. "It's a very vital aspect of my appearance. I love it, alright? And rain like this makes it unmanageable. It won't be right again for at least two days now. I'll have to shower repeatedly."
The cave suddenly lit up as a bolt of lightning hit somewhere outside and the both jumped, startled. Dawn tried to inch a bit further into the cave, while Barry recovered a bit quicker. "You. I don't understand you. I don't understand girls! How can you care so much about hair?!"
She shot him a glare. "Are you telling me if your yellow flop was messed up, you wouldn't be distressed!"
"No, of course not!" He paused for a split second, and then, "Maybe a little! I mean, well, how messed up are we talking here? Just a mess, or like if I had mud in it? Because right now I have mud all over the back of my head and it feels pretty gross but I don't care how it looks but if someone, I don't know. Put dye in it or something weird, like Lucas tried to do once, I'd be upset, but not like you!"
"What would you do, then?"
"Beat him in a Pokèmon battle!" Barry folded his arms over his chest and raised his chin proudly.
Dawn shrugged. "I can't exactly challenge the weather to a battle."
"That's true," Barry said, deflating a bit. "Yeah, that. That would be a bit difficult, but still! You don't have to scream about it!"
Another lightning bolt hit even closer, the thunder roaring in their eyes and Dawn shut her eyes, flinching and ducking her head down. Barry looked over at her, curiously. "You aren't really scared, are you?"
She nodded. "It just makes me nervous. That's all."
He blinked then reached out and patted her hand, awkwardly. "It'll be fine, don't worry about it," he said with a light laugh. He probably had no real idea what he was doing or what to say to her in this kind of situation, but his efforts comforted her nonetheless, and she tilted her head up to smile at him. "So now we just wait this storm out, and then we'll be set to keep going!" he went on, eyes suddenly ablaze with determination. "It'll be great, just you wait and see! We're missing a lot of valuable training time because of this, so we'll both have to work hard to make up for it, right?"
"Right."
"And then we'll battle Gardenia and we'll win, and then I'll challenge you to a rematch! And I'll definitely win, this time!"
She rolled her eyes, still smiling. "We'll see."