Disclaimer: pokemon, any and all characters(except mark), and the locations(except the mall) do not belong to me!

anything in italics=thoughts

alright! i recently finished my first ever contestshipping fanfic and I had an idea for a quick ikarishipping, which is the second strongest shipping i support. I'm planning on a oneshot, but we'll see what happens. this is an attempt at something funny and cute but i don't know how well that theme is going to work out sooo......

All of the rules are through Dawn's POV and she's telling the rules after her experience.

something i should probably mention before hand is that this story takes place when Dawn and Paul are older. Like maybe when they're 16 and 17. Paul being older of course.

So many shoes, and so little time. How was she possibly going to choose just one pair from the store in twenty minutes?

Rule 1: Always make sure you have enough time to thoroughly decide on a pair of shoes. In other words, never go shoe shopping last minute for anything.

Dawn was at the mall shopping for some new shoes to go with a dress she had bought for a date she had with Paul later. He had invited her to go to dinner with him. The two of them had been dating for about two months and she had expected that it would be just another small date. Thus, she had been very willing to accept and didn't think too much of it. Her acceptance had come before she learned that they were going to the Grand Lake Hotel.

She had been there once before when she was traveling with Ash & Co., but the group eventually dispersed and went their separate ways. She smiled now, as she remembered her fight with May in order to be able to eat.

Dawn didn't have any fancy clothing packed with her, and, in general, she did not own any fancy clothing.

So, she had gone to Paul and asked if they could go shopping. At first, like he always was, the purple headed boy had been reluctant. Dawn had set her mind to buying a new outfit, and when she set her mind to something, she got it done.

Paul had had to put up with several hours of Dawn begging him to go to the mall. Eventually, he had consented. That's where they were now, at the mall. Dawn was in the shoe shop while Paul...well, actually, Dawn didn't quite know where Paul had gone.

Where she stood currently, was in front of an entire wall covered with a large variety of different shoes. There were flats, high-heels, boots, and a few pairs of sneakers here and there. Going through all of the different choices was not going to be easy, and deciding on just one pair was going to be even harder. To make matters worse, she only had twenty minutes before she had to leave for the short train ride to Lake Valor.

"Start looking for shoes that actually match the dress. That seems like a good plan." Dawn said as the thought of the new dress she had bought popped into her head. The dress was strapless and came down to her knees, which was longer than Dawn normally wore, but she hadn't found any dresses that she liked nearly as much as the one she had bought. It was hot pink and had a single pastel blue band that ran down the lower half. Finding shoes to match was going to be easy. Or so she had thought.

When Dawn located a pair she liked, she pulled them off the shelf. Hot pink high-heeled sandals. She checked the size of them.

"Drat they're size 9. Now I'm going to have to find someone to help me." As she finished saying this, a store clerk walked over to her.

"Excuse me miss. Would you like help finding anything?" Dawn looked at the person who had spoken and her mouth dropped. Now standing beside her, was possibly the most handsome guy she had ever met. He was tall (but not as tall as Paul), broad shouldered, had long brown hair, and extremely dark brown eyes. She quickly averted her gaze back to the shoes she held in her hands.

Wow...this guy's pretty hot, she thought. Wait, no! Paul's your boyfriend. You love Paul, she told herself. Paul. Paul. Paul.

Rule 2: Never gawk at a sales clerk for any reason what so ever. The silence confuses them and they end up thinking you're messed up in the head or something.

"Um yes! I was wondering if you had this shoe in size 7." The clerk took the shoe from her and checked its identification number. She risked a glance at the name tag that was pinned to his shirt. Mark, it read.

"Let me see what I've got in back. Hang on just one moment." He smiled a dazzling smile before walking away to the back of the store. Dawn sat down in one of the chairs.

If the store had the pair of shoes she wanted in her size than the entire trip would have been a lot easier than she had expected.

She was wondering how much time had passed from when she arrived at the store to that very moment, when Mark returned from the back of the store with a box in his hands.

"You're in luck! We had one pair left in size 7." He handed her the box and stood waiting for her to try them on. Dawn glanced at him once before slipping her pink boots off her feet. Taking one of the shoes out of the box, she slid her foot into place and re-did the strap that wrapped around her ankle.

Liking the way the one shoe fit, she tried the other one on.

"Well, they look good! Now it's time to see if I can walk in them." Dawn joked as she stood up and prepared to walk around.

Rule 3: Like my mom always told me, make sure you're comfortable with a pair of shoes before you buy them!

Rule 4: Never, and i mean never, joke about not being able to walk in a pair of high-heeled shoes. I never used to believe in jinxing things, but I certainly do now.

Dawn took a few steps away from the seat and turned around.

"Wow! For high-heels these are pretty comfy!" Dawn started back towards the seat. One-two-three steps. She began her fourth, yet never finished it. Mis-judging the amount of distance from the floor and her shoe, she didn't lift her foot high enough. The heel of the shoe scraped across the floor and she fell forward.

Mark lunged forward and caught her arm. Helping to steady her, a smile broke out across his face.

Rule 5: If there is ever a cute store clerk and you went shopping with your boyfriend, what ever you do, stay away from the clerk!

"You okay?" he asked. At first, Dawn didn't answer. She was staring at the entrance of the store. Well it wasn't exactly the entrance she was staring at. It was more of the person who had just walked through it.

"Yeah. I'm fine." She broke his grasp on her arm and walked back to the seat. She pulled at the straps on her ankles. One of them came undone quite easily, while the other had gotten stuck.

Dang it, she thought. Dang it, dang it, dang it!

"Hello sir! Would you like any help with-" Mark was interrupted.

"Shut it, kid." Paul had arrived. Dawn was finally able to undo the strap on the shoe and she quickly slipped her boots back on. Putting the shoes safely away in their box, Dawn popped up from the chair with a large smile plastered on her face.

"Hi Paul! I found some shoes and I'm ready to go now!" Dawn tried her best to seem innocent, but Paul had walked in when Mark still had a grip on her arm. Paul gave Dawn a small smile before turning towards the store clerk that was standing there. His face instantly became stern.

"Who is this, Dawn?" His voice was dripping with venom. Paul looked at Mark, and Mark looked at Paul. It was obvious that they were each forming an opinion of the other inside their heads.

"This is Mark. He was helping me find some shoes for dinner later." Dawn explained. Paul and Mark's eyes met and Mark smiled. He held out his hand.

"Yup that's me! And I assume that you're Paul! I also got to say man, sweet hair!" Mark gave Paul a thumbs up with his other hand. The reluctancy of which Paul shook the other man's hand could not have been more obvious.

"Nice to meet you...I guess." Paul was trying his best not to be outright rude. "Dawn let's go. We're on a tight schedule." Paul took the box from Dawn and headed over to the cash register. Dawn followed him, and Mark tagged along behind her.

Mark printed out the receipt for the shoes, but before handing it to Paul with the shoes, he wrote something on it. Only then did he hand it to Paul. As the receipt was exchanged, Mark winked at him. Paul's eyebrows shot up. Dawn had missed the exchange and was quite confused when Paul shoved the receipt in his pocket, grabbed her hand, and quickly rushed out of the store.

The two of them were walking through the mall towards where Paul had parked the car, when he stopped and threw out the receipt.

"Why'd ya do that?" Dawn asked.

"Had his number on it. Wasn't any point in keeping it." Dawn gave him a confused look. Then she recalled how he had quickly rushed her out of the store and how red Paul's face had been.

"Oh." was all she said. Then she continued.

"Figures I guess."

"What does?"

"That he was, well you know, interested in you like that. All good looking guys turn out to be." Dawn stated.

"You weren't seriously thinking about him like that were you? And it's great to know that you think all good looking guys like other guys when I'm walking right here with you!" Paul shot her an offended look.

"No! You're the only guy I ever think about! And well of course I meant all of them except you!" Dawn quickly tried to fix her words, but her efforts were really all in vain. Paul had known what she had meant. Dawn only had to look at the small smile that was forming on his lips to realize this. When she did, her mouth snapped shut and her eyes narrowed into thin slits.

"Why don't you stop me when I go on a useless rant!" Dawn threw her hands into the air. Paul smiled and shrugged.

"Cuz I think you're kinda cute when you do." he replied.

Alright! just so you know this story was actually based on a real shopping trip i went on. it wasn't the best of my life. tell me what you think if you want, but thanks for reading!