The blue haired girl stood on tip toes looking into the shop window. It was stupid and irresponsible. That was what she kept telling herself. He probably would not even remember her name. He never had before. She had to see him one last time. Not last, they'll probably meet up again. It was now or never. Her heart pushed her forwards but her knees gave up.

"Oh this is so stupid." She pounded the ground.

"Pip." Her blue bird asked worriedly.

"It's no use. By the time I worked up the courage to speak to him it's time to meet Ash and Brock up." She tried to blink the tears away.

Piplup slapped her across the face. "Pip pip lup pi." Piplup encouraged.

"Your right." Dawn stood , she went through the motions of re brushing and designing her hair. SO it looked just the same. "Right I'm ready." The tough exterior broke down. "Wish me good luck."

"Pip." Piplup puffed up.

The door slid open too slowly for her liking. She trailed him up and down the aisles. It just didn't suit him. Shopping, too mundane. Taking a few deep breaths. She glanced around the full shelves, she strolled over to him.

"Paul." She bite her lips.

"Wha…"

Dawn was already on tiptoes pressing her lips against his. Something felt wrong. He wasn't doing anything. By now in the movies they would have been passionately kissing and he would have swept her off her feet. She stood back. He still had that fierce look in his eyes. Why should it have bothered her so much? The tears had already started welling up behind her eyes. She turned and fled out of the doors and into Ash.

"Dawn what's wrong?" He attempted to hold her still.

Dawn slapped him and stormed off. "Stupid, stupid, stupid." She muttered under her breath. She ignored all the calls of her name and stormed off as ungracefully as possible.

"Pip?" Piplup sighed. She had followed Dawn all the way into the forest and now was lost. IT was also started getting dark. Piplup huffed and looked up. She frowned. What was a Honchkrow doing looking around the area for?

Something dark stood behind her. Piplup gulped and turned around. Only to faint.

Dawn sulked and cried into her skirt. If matters couldn't get worse, she was lost, miserable and it was raining. If Luck was a cruel person she must have been having the day off. Dawn lay her head against the rocky wall. Some shelter was better than no shelter.

"I shouldn't be crying. I knew this was going to happen." She whispered to break the silence. "I shouldn't be hurting this much. I k…" Dawn broke down even more.

Wood being dropped on stone. She looked up to be greeted by a blur. She followed it's movement for a while then hung her head and sobbed again.

The blur must have sat next to her. She could feel it's warm. Taking a deep breath she swung her fist with screwed up eyes. It never made contact. The blur had grabbed her wrist.

"Go away Ash." She screamed at it. She turned to have her back to him and carried on weeping.

Dawn didn't know when she feel asleep but she felt so much better for it. During the night someone had wrapped her up in sleeping bag.

"Pip?" Cried a very concerned voice.

"Hi." She smiled and hugged her precious bird pokemon. "How are you?"

"Pipp pip lup lu." Piplup tried to tell her off.

Tears started to roll down Dawn's eyes as she remembered why she was in the cavern.

"Didn't you do enough of that last night." The cold sinister voice caught her off guard.

Piplup squirmed out of Dawn's arms and puffed up protectively in front of her. Dawn raised herself upon her elbows to look at Paul. He was leaning against the wall watching her wearily. His cold hard look was gone. Dawn felt small and weak under his watch.

"Bet you think I'm a freak, right?" She hung her head. It wasn't really a question.

"No." It was so quiet she also though she missed it.

When she looked up Paul had managed to shorten the gap. He stood next to her.

Red blush invaded Dawn's cheeks. "I think I better go. Brock and Ash will be worried." Dawn stood up to quickly that she went light headed. Piplup tried to jump up to rescue her, but Paul beat her to it.

"Pathetic."

Dawn rolled her eyes as Ash exploded at Paul. A small smile came to her lips. There was no way in hell she was going to tell them what happened a couple of weeks ago but from the look Piplup just gave her. All the pokemon knew that something bad had disturbed Pipkup. Whether she said or not was up to Piplup to decide.