"NO! Dawn you're not doing it right" shouted an angry Ash to Dawn trying to teach her to do a good double performance move for her contest.
"Well I'm SOR-ry for trying my hardest"Dawn said sarcastically tucking a piece of her bright blue hair behind her ear.
"Well maybe you should try HARDER!" Ash yelled.
Dawn let out a huff as she returned her Pokemon as Brock called them for lunch. The two of them sat apart from each other which was very unusual and only spoke when Brock spoke to on they did some more training for Dawns contest which involved more yelling and bickering.
"What is wrong with you?! You're so weak!" screamed Ash as he stomped his foot in anger which made Dawn jump. She just whimpered fought the urge not to cry but did anyway. Tears poured down her face.
"Oh yea go ahead cry it'll totally solve it!"Ash yelled in sarcasm.
"Ash just stop I can't help it" Dawn sobbed wiping her eyes.
"Ugh what is your problem?! OMG you are so needy sometimes I wish I never met you!" Ash yelled.
Dawn gasped in shock at what came out of his mouth.
"Ouch Ash!" sniffed Dawn.
All of a sudden she felt something smack her across the face. She held her face in pain just staring at Ash with his hand in the air. "A..Ash.." She moaned. Ash then pushed her making her fall on the ground scraping her arm. "Get out of here I never wanna see you again" Ash screamed as he took off leaving Dawn on the ground trebling and sobbing in pain. He went back to camp and sat on a log. "Hey what's going on? I heard yelling" asked Brock.
"Dawn and I had a fight.." Ash mumbled as he went silent feeling instant regret flow through his body thinking of the things he said and did and poor shaken Dawn on the ground.
"And I should go make it right" he added as he took off and ran back in relief to see Dawn still there crying. "Hey" he said softly reaching out as she cried harder and turned away from him
"P..please don't hurt me!" She whimpered.
"I didn't come to hurt ya..I came to apologize" said Ash bending down to her.
"We'll it's too late for that! Look what you've done!" sobbed Dawn moving her hand from her cheek to reveal a bright red mark.
"Ash you don't understand why I wasn't doing so well today..a year ago today my dad died and its really hard right now" Dawn cried
"Oh Dawn I didn't know that ! Why didn't you tell me" said Ash touching her back.
"I thought you wouldn't listen" Dawn said.
"Oh Dawn I'm so sorry!" Said Ash beginning to cry and reached out and hugged her tightly as she buried her head against his chest crying with him
"I'm sorry I hurt you I take back what I said and when I hit you"Ash trembled.
"Me too I'm sorry" said Dawn.
"Hey now don't be you have the right to be upset" said Ash as he held her tightly and close as he rocked her gently back and forth. He traced the mark he made on her face from when he hit her and began to sob." I can't believe I did that I'm a monster!" Cried Ash
"No you're not don't say that Ash. You made a mistake but you owned up to it everyone makes them" said Dawn as she stroked his messy black hair. "Don't blame yourself I was involved too even though I'm grieving I shouldn't take it out on you" she added
"Awe I don't blame ya one bit for being upset its a way of hurting, I know what it's like I lost my dad as well"said Ash.
"Really?" Asked Dawn.
Ash nodded "Car accident along with my little sister Demetria or "Deme" (DEEM-MAY) me and Deme were goofing off in the back seat of the car and dad got distracted and we crashed and rolled in a ditch, I was fine but with a lot of wounds and him and Deme gone in seconds she was only 8 would have been 14 this year, it all happened...so fast" Ash sobbed as the tragedy replayed in his head.
"That's so tragic and sad"said Dawn
"It shook me for the rest of my life. Dad was a great man of wisdom and was my hero and you remind me so much of Deme" said Ash
"Awe really"said Dawn
"Yea I bet you too would have been good friends she was a very smart,sweet,beautiful,fun to be around and stubborn just like you" said Ash as they giggled.
"So just wondering what happened to your dad?" asked Ash.
Dawn began to shake and just burst back into tears
"He was on his way home from a night shift for his work and...a drunk driver hit him and he was gone instantly and I remember the police...knocking on our door telling mom the news and her screaming exactly one year ago at 3am" Dawn sniffled
"Dawn..oh man that breaks my heart to hear I'm very sorry" said Ash squeezing her in his arms as she sobbed into his shoulder.
"Oh man I'm so happy to hear that you understand what I went through"said Dawn
"Me too!"said Ash smiling. He leaned in close to her face and kissed the red mark he made from slapping her earlier.
"What was that?"asked Dawn with a grin.
"Just my way of taking back what I did" said Ash
"Guess kisses do make things better" said Dawn giggling.
Ash reached out and pulled Dawn into his lap as she curled up against him like a small child.
"I love you! Don't you ever think I don't" said Ash kissing her forehead.
"I love you too Ash!" Said Dawn as she reached out and clung to him and cried some more as Ash talked to her softly saying comforting things like "it's ok" and "no need to worry" while hugging her back and rocking her gently.