Happy [late] Thanksgiving~! Missed you guys, it's been so long... D':
Thank you to XMidnightPrincesSX, SpecialxGirl (guest), spiceypepper, eeveeluvr, KittyKatLovesBooks, Cheep the Hedgehog, Guest (guest), malory79080, Iloveikari, Leafxgreenx3, LunarEclipse22428, MusicalEscape, and you-are-reading-my-username for reviewing chapter 7! Cyber cake for you all~! :D
Disclaimer: I do not own Pokémon.
To recap since I'm horrible and update so scarcely; Drew doesn't know what the game 'tag' is because of his lonely childhood :(, Leaf is a failure at cooking, Misty and Ash are working on the project (yeah, only ones XD), and Paul and Dawn are playing The Game of Life.
"Okay, operation 'tag' will now shortly commence!" May declared as she and Drew stood beside each other in running positions at the end of one of the various hallways of his home.
"Those were some pretty big words, April," Drew slyly commented.
Ignoring her nickname, she folded her arms and tilted her head up and away to the cream-colored wall in annoyance. "I've always known big words such as those." Drew shot her a disapproving glance. May huffed. "Fine, I saw them last night on TV, okay?"
Drew nodded righteously.
May cleared her throat and switched her glance in determination ahead of her. "Okay, ready?"
"Wait!" Drew interjected. "To recap; you run away with a ten-second head start and I just have to run after and then, as you say, 'tag' you when I am close enough?" he questioned in all seriousness.
May sweat-dropped and nodded. "Yep, is just as simple as that…any other questions?"
Drew shook his head thoughtfully. "Nope. Ready, set, go!" he quickly mentioned.
"Huh?" May frantically asked, caught off guard.
"I said 'go'. Eight more seconds left of your head start!" he smirked mischievously.
The brunette squealed in surprise and hurriedly ran off one way. "That was a cheap shot, Hayden!" she called behind her while turning a corner.
Drew chuckled slightly. "Oh, May," he fondly mumbled to himself and sighed in content. He took a while to snap out of his trance and checked his watch. "Damn! I gave her twenty seconds!" he realized while taking off sprinting down the hall.
. . . . .
"Heh heh, I wonder what's taking him so long." May jogged in relaxation down the hallway. She sighed. "All of this running is making me hungry…what a workout." She fingered a strand of hair away from her eyes.
"Go, Flygon!" a voice from far behind her called.
"Huh?" May raised an eyebrow in question. She slowed to a stop and turned around to see what all of the commotion was about, only to be greeted by a large, green dragon Pokémon flying into her.
"Oooff!" May grunted as she fell backwards against the plush carpeting. Flygon hovered over her happily, proud of obeying its trainer.
"Good job, Flygon!" Drew praised as he walked up to them.
"Drew!" May narrowed her eyes. "That's not how you play tag!"
Drew's eyes widened slightly. "How so?"
"You can't cheat and use your Pokémon!" she elaborated.
"You never said that."
"Well most people can understand that. I'm sure even Ash would."
"Well then!" Drew huffed and crossed his arms. He reluctantly unfolded them submissively and recalled Flygon to its Poké Ball. "Fine. We'll have a redo. Ready, set, go!" he quickly said.
"UGH!" May grumbled at his same trick over again. She shot up and sprinted off down a different hallway.
"One…two…three…four…five…six…seven…eight…nine…ten!" Drew counted tediously to avoid another distraction. "I'll definitely win this time!" he smiled determinedly while racing down the hall after her.
"Okay," Gary started. Leaf stood beside him, analyzing his actions closely. "Now, first thing that you need to do is remove the plastic from the cheese," he slowly explained. Leaf watched quizzically but nodded as she grasped the concept. "Okay, now hand me the bread, butter, and a knife."
Leaf sauntered across the tile to grab the specified items off a counter. "Here you go," Leaf said as she handed the items to him.
Gary stared at the blade in disappointment. "Why do you have a machete?" he suspiciously asked.
Leaf shrugged. "For the butter, right?" she innocently inquired.
"I was thinking of something more along the lines of a butter knife."
"Fine then," Leaf huffed as she walked away, seeing nothing wrong with what she had previously given him. She returned with a much smaller knife.
Gary nodded in approval. "Good, Leafy." He condescendingly patted her on the head.
"Pat me on the head again, and you'll find out why I have that machete, Oak!" Leaf warned deviously.
Deciding that he valued his life very much as The Great Gary Oak, he cautiously withdrew his hand and turned back to the stove while a certain brunette smirked in victory.
"Okay," Gary sighed after a few minutes. "I've made this very simple and I'd like to think that even you could do it."
"Machete…" Leaf grumbled quietly.
"What was that? Did you say, 'Gary is so hot and cool I'd totally love to go out with him!' just now?" he taunted playfully.
Leaf mischievously reached for the knife container a bit off to her left while Gary was too busy laughing at his own joke. She thought she was in the clear until his hand had clamped down on her wrist suddenly. It wasn't harsh enough to cause any pain, but her head snapped up in surprise.
"You're more observant than I though." She blew at the nails on her free hand haughtily. She stopped when she noticed how his expression looked a bit hurt. "What happened to the Great Gary Oak?" she teased.
He sighed lightly and turned his head to look away. "You really don't like me at all, Leafy."
Leaf froze as what he said echoed through her mind. She felt confused for whatever unexplainable reason and kept her eyes locked solemnly on the hand that gripped her wrist. "Oh calm down," she spoke in almost a whisper. "You know it was only a joke, I'd never stab you."
Gary turned back around far too suddenly. "Glad to hear, Leafy!" he cheered with a smirk. "I'm surprised I was able to break through your regular sarcastic and witty remarks!"
"You were faking?" Leaf yelled angrily with reddened cheeks. She finally broke her wrist from his grasp as Gary continued to smirk victoriously. "…I'm slightly impressed." She crossed her arms.
"Well of course, now let's feed Leafy's little tummy, shall we?" he gently prodded at her stomach, an action which she ignored, still wallowing over his sinister trickery. She was forced to recognize him as he abruptly took her by the waist and held her close while standing in front of the readied stove.
"Wh-what are you d-doing?" she froze on the spot. She mentally groaned. She hated this. She absolutely hated how someone could do this to her; make her freeze on the spot; have her immobilized just by a simple touch. And, even worse, that someone just had to be the biggest player in school. She refused to let someone have this effect on her who did not even care for her, but only the entire girl population in general. Yet even with this great resolve, she was still rendered powerless and frozen in place.
"I'm teaching you to cook, duh," he explained while resting his chin on her right shoulder.
"I-I don't see how this is h-helpful!" she pointed out.
"Aww, is someone stuttering?" he lightheartedly brought to attention.
"N-no."
...
Well that was convincing.
Gary sighed. "You know you just did it again, right?"
Leaf decided on not responding again since she would likely only contradict herself in the process.
"Since you're in agreement, we shall begin!" he declared smugly, placing his hands over hers as puppet strings and moving them skillfully across the counter, carefully picking up the pan by the handle and placing it on the stovetop. "So the real key is," he began, guiding her hands to lift up the piece of cheese and bread, "to cook the cheese unwrapped between two slices of bread, not just cheese alone."
Leaf nodded thoughtfully. "I guess that would make sense."
"Uh huh," he agreed, glad he had gotten his point across. "Then all that's really left is to cook the cheese between the two pieces of bread."
Leaf almost sweat-dropped. "Pffft, I can do that in my sleep."
"…Maybe you should try it awake first."
"Okay, I get it now. So I will!" she declared with determination. The brunette began doing various simple tasks such as turning on the burner and stacking the cheese between the bread.
"So you're enjoying this?" Gary slyly mentioned.
"Sure, it's nice knowing how to cook something without a microwave." She smiled and continued watching the bread and cheese vigilantly as it cooked.
"I can tell." He let out a small chuckle.
Leaf became suspicious. "What's so funny…?" she cautiously questioned. "That I'm enjoying this? I don't see your sense of humor, Gary."
Gary smirked. "It's just very interesting that you haven't asked me to let go of you yet," he whispered into her ear. Leaf's eyes widened. "Or 'go jump of a cliff', or 'get lost', or to 'back off' before you 'show me why you have that machete—"
Her eyes appeared to fill with a menacing fire. "Oak, GO FALL OFF A DAMN CLIFF!" she shouted while fiercely jabbing an elbow back into him.
He stumbled back a few feet but managed to stay standing. "Ah, so you went for a variation of my second prediction. It was a little later than expected but—"
"Well…I…momentarily forgot, okay?!" Leaf huffed and folded her arms across her chest.
Gary raised an eyebrow. "Sure, sure," he patronized.
"Misty…?" Ash called.
Misty sighed.
"Mist—"
"We're not doing this again, Ash," Misty deadpanned. Honestly, how many times was he going to bug her? She pushed the desk chair away from the computer in defeat and turned attentively to face him with an air of annoyance. "Okay. What do you need now, Ash?" she questioned as patiently as she could muster.
Ash blinked. "…Nevermind, Mist." He redirected his attention to the laptop in his hands.
Misty raised an eyebrow curiously. "What were you going to say?" Ash shook his head. "Why won't you tell me? I actually was nicer this time come on!" she erupted.
"It's nothing. I don't wanna annoy you, anyways," the raven-haired boy decided and turned his concentration back to the research.
"Come on, Ash! Tell me, I already turned away from the essay, you'll just annoy me more if you don't." She folded her arms and waited with anticipation.
Ash considered the idea for a moment. "I guess you're right." He childishly smiled. "Well I was just wondering if you ever read this book I found online, since you love Water-type Pokémon and all. Maybe I could buy it for you and we could read it together! Ooh! Maybe it might help with the project!" he eagerly input.
Misty smiled. "That's so nice, Ash! Who knew you could be so sweet!" she gushed uncharacteristically. Misty mentally shot herself a questioning look. Usually, she was never so enthusiastic except when she was talking about Water-type Pokémon. She shook off the strange thought. "So what's the book called anyways?"
"Let's see…" Ash murmured as he pulled up the link again on the screen. Misty smiled naively as he did so. "Okay, it looks like it's called '50 Shades of Luvdisc'," he carefully enunciated. Misty's expression took a one-eighty degree transformation, which Ash had actually noticed. "What, have you heard of it, Mist? Tell me what it is about! Pleeeeease?" he innocently questioned.
The redhead immediately turned to grayscale with her jaw dropped in absolute shock.
Ash raised an eyebrow. "Misty…?" he waved a hand in front of her face.
Misty remained unresponsive. How was she supposed to tell the most utterly childish and innocent teenager she knew that 50 Shades of Luvdisc was a raunchy young adult novel she had heard about? She was quite puzzled how it interested her sisters so much. With great resolve, she took a deep breath and looked Ash in the eyes. Almost getting lost in the deep brown curiosities; she changed her gaze to the floor while fiddling with a pencil in hand.
"W-Well, you see, Ash, that book is about…um…" the unknowing boy waited patiently for a proper answer. Misty sighed deeply before blurting her response out. "50 Shades of Luvdisc is just a novel about raunchy and erotic romance!" she quickly said; instantly covering her mouth with both palms afterwards.
Ash looked at her quizzically while Misty just stared at him with a reddened face and an embarrassed expression.
"Question:" Ash tapped his chin with a finger in thought while Misty nodded slowly for him to go on, "what does 'raunchy', 'eroootic' and 'romance' mean?" he honestly asked.
"Erotic…" Misty corrected.
"Right, that too." Ash waited with eyes that matched a four-year-old's when asking about how babies were made.
Misty blinked and awkward silence surrounded the two for a few moments. Misty finally took in another breath before calling out, "MS. KETCHUM!"
. . . . . . . . . .
"Aw man…Am I in trouble?" Ash asked quietly. He, Misty, and his mother sat together around a small round dining table in the Ketchums' kitchen.
Ms. Ketchum shrugged. "I'm not sure, Ash. Misty is the one who called us all down here. So what is going on anyways, Misty, dear?" the older woman smiled delicately.
Across the room, Pikachu momentarily turned away from its beloved bottle of ketchup to listen in on the conversation. Mr. Mime also set his broom aside for a brief instant to hear it as well.
With all eyes on her, Misty unwillingly spoke. "Ash, why don't you tell your very nice mother what you wanted to talk about a little earlier up in your room?" she half-smiled and redirected the discussion.
"Well let's see…" Ash pondered. He snapped his fingers in realization. "Ah, yes! I asked Misty about a book I saw online called 50 Shades of Luvdisc and then what the words 'raunchy', 'eroootic' and 'romance' meant."
Ms. Ketchum turned to Misty. "'Eroootic'?" she whispered in question.
"He means 'erotic'." Misty simply responded. "Hasn't he ever had 'the talk'?" she murmured.
The auburn-haired woman shook her head. "Nope, I figured that there wasn't much of any point. What girl would want to be with such a dense boy?" she smiled sweetly, though her words were full of melancholy.
Misty wore a shocked expression. "B-but, Ms. Ketchum, how can you say that! You never know…I mean, someone might like him someday. And you can't just skip out on telling him something like this. I mean, he's already like sixteen after all and—" Misty paused after observing Ms. Ketchum's smirk. Wait…since when does Ash's mom smirk? Misty wondered to herself.
"Does somebody like Ash now, Misty?" she mysteriously asked.
Misty's eyes widened. "W-Well I don't know!" she quickly defended.
"Mm-hm…" Delia grinned. "Mimey, why don't we go and clean the secret passageway and give these two some privacy?" she decided. My Ash is finally going to get a girlfriend! she thought eagerly.
"Mime, mime!" Mr. Mime agreed and followed the woman down a hallway of the house.
"Ms. Ketchum! Wait!" Misty called out desperately. She rushed down the corridor and tried opening several doors, but ended with no luck of discovering their whereabouts.
"She said she was going to clean the secret passageway, remember?" Ash pointed out.
"Ash!" Misty panicked and ran over to the clueless boy, gripping his shoulders tightly while leaning in a bit too close. "Please tell me that you know where that secret passageway is!" she pleaded.
Ash blinked and unnoticeably blushed at the closeness of his best human friend. Why was he acting like this all of a sudden? Misty had been close to him on multiple different occasions...even if it was for the most part to hit him...but what was going on with him now?! She awaited his answer, yet he still was thinking about this situation closely.
"ASH?" Misty demanded.
Ash snapped out of his thoughts. "Huh? Oh, yeah! I um...don't know where the secret passageway is."
Misty narrowed her eyes. "Are you serious? But this is your house!" she gruffly shoved him away.
"Well if I knew then it wouldn't be a secret."
Misty pondered the statement for a while. "That was actually kind of insightful, Ash."
Ash proudly grinned from the unusual praise. "Hey, so what about 50 Shades of Luvdisc?" he questioned.
Misty facepalmed. "Oh, Delia, you're much crueler than I had thought." She sighed to herself while Ash waited innocently.
"Hmm…I wonder which way she went." Drew tapped his chin in thought. "She'll probably get lost sooner or later or hit a dead end anytime now. It's inevitable for anyone outside of the family or who doesn't work here, after all," he reasoned to himself. While doing so, he caught sight of a sluggish figure from the corner of his eye who was moping down a narrow hall to his left.
"Need food…" May mumbled weakly. "Too much running…and this house is like a freaking maze…where am I?" she asked no one in particular.
"Gotcha!" Drew triumphantly called out from behind.
Hearing this, May naturally shifted to a full out sprint down the narrow hallway which seemed to be getting narrower and narrower, but surely there was some sort of room to take shelter in a little further down…or a different hallway…or something. But no, as the hallway's width eventually shrunk down to less than three feet, a dead end was what greeted her.
"Oh hell no…" May realized as she unwillingly turned around to see the grasshead running full speed straight at her. Drew never looked more pleased with himself about winning something.
"Tag!" he finally said and ran straight into the brunette, causing them both to fall over atop each other in the slim space. "Haha, I won!" he absently cheered.
"Great. Now get off of me!" May struggled. Drew glanced down to take notice that he was laying over the petite brunette under him. He quickly lifted himself off, suspended over her by his arms.
Drew hid the flush threatening to invade his cheeks somewhat well. "Jeez, May. I-It's your fault. Why would y-you pick this thin hallway to run down?" he stuttered in embarrassment.
May huffed and rolled her eyes. "W-why would you have a random, narrow, dimly-lit hallway with a dead end in your house in the first place? I didn't choose this on purpose, grasshead!" she argued awkwardly.
"Not sure. We might be adding another closet here or something…" he proposed thoughtfully.
"You still haven't gotten off of me," May blatantly pointed out. Drew was glad the lowlight hid his crimson flush. "Wait…don't tell me…"
"I can't get up." Drew answered her worst fears.
…
"Well why not?!" May broke the awkward silence between them.
"There's not enough space to roll off to the side and if I try and get up I might just fall back on you or touch something I don't need to…" he mumbled the last part quietly in embarrassment. May's face color now matched the roses he often gave her.
…
"I know!" an idea popped into May's mind. "Call out Flygon to lift you up!"
"Flygon can't fit in this space…" Drew reluctantly turned the idea down.
"Oh…then I'll just ask Beautifly to help out!" May decided. "Just let me reach into my back pocket here and…" she froze.
Drew sighed hopelessly. "Please don't tell me you can't reach your back pocket."
"Well if you weren't practically pinning down my arms then I could!" she refuted.
"Okay, here if I move this way a little then you could probably move your arm." The grasshead shifted over slightly to his right with the consequence of them being even closer to each other.
May fought off more color coming to her face as she pulled out Beautifly's Poké Ball. She pressed the release button and a butterfly Pokémon came out in a flash of light. "Okay, Beautifly, could you please get grasshead off of me?"
Beautifly snickered at the two's awkward position and eventually flew down to lift Drew. It succeeded momentarily, but promptly had to drop the teenage boy again.
"Ow!" May complained as he fell against her. Drew reddened and swiftly lifted himself with his arms to hover over her, but their lips were still only an uncomfortable inches apart. "Dammit, Drew! Why'd you have to be too fat for Beautifuly?!" she huffed. "Great, so what now?" she sighed in defeat.
"Maybe if my Butterfree and your Beautifly worked together…" he proposed thoughtfully.
"Perfect!" May decided. "Now call out Butterfree."
Drew tensed. "It's in my front pocket…"
"…Don't tell me you can't get it now…" May whined miserably.
"Obviously not, June! I'm using both of my arms to keep me from falling back on you!" he refuted.
"Why me, Arceus?" she sobbed briefly. "Fine. I'll get it." The dejected brunette gingerly lifted her delicate hand and reached into one of the front pockets of the boy over her. She grabbed the first thing she felt.
"May,"
"Yeah?"
"That's not a Poké Ball."
"…WHAT?"
Beautifly started having a giggling fit.
"ARE YOU SERIOUS, DREW?" May yelled with her face turning the color of a tomato.
"Why would I lie? You grabbed one of my bouncy balls, from my collection. I like to keep one with me at all times for good luck." He innocently shrugged. May sighed in relief. "You pervert…" Drew mumbled.
She scrunched up her eyebrows in annoyance while Beautifly just couldn't shut up down the hall. It was rolling in the air as if it had heard the funniest joke in the world. May quickly grabbed the Poké Ball and threw it at her disrespectful Pokémon a little farther away. It finally quieted down the first butterfly Pokémon, but then as Butterfree was released, the two started having a laughing fit together at another glance of their trainers' awkward position.
"WOULD YOU TWO SHUT UP ALREADY!" Drew and May yelled in synchronization.
Wiping tears of laughter from their eyes, the two butterflies finally flew over to their trainers and easily lifted Drew up and flew him a few feet away. May scrambled off of the floor soon after.
"So does this mean that you're 'it' now?" Drew questioned nonchalantly, trying to diminish the lingering awkwardness.
"Maybe we shouldn't play tag anymore…" May sweat-dropped.
"Thanks for your help you two—" Drew went to thank the Pokémon but stopped mid-sentence when he looked at them. Beautifly was doing some sort of odd, playful dance around Butterfree. He smirked. "Would you look at that, May. Your Beautifly seems to be flirting with Butterfree. Did you know that Pokémon often reflect their trainers?" he suggested.
May flushed. "Oh please, you're the one who purposely fell on me!" she defended.
"I told you it wasn't on purpose!" Drew argued back. He raised his eyebrows as he took another look at the Pokémon.
"Well lookie there, Hayden! Now you're Butterfree seems to be flirting back with my Beautifly!" May pulled down her eyelid and stuck out her tongue childishly. "Any explanation for that?" she slyly mentioned.
Drew was about to respond when the two butterfly Pokémon appeared seemingly out of nowhere from behind him and used their Gust attacks to send both trainers into the far wall, Drew hit it first and then May was then after sent flying straight into him, landing in a position that made it seem as though she was pinning him against the wall. The Pokémon snickered again and happily flew away down the hall.
"Hey! What was that for, you two!?" May called after them. She quickly backed away a good distance from Drew. "I wonder why they did that..." May honestly thought aloud.
Drew face-palmed and sighed.
"What? Do you know?" May questioned innocently.
With slight hesitation, he took a calming deep breath and smirked. Without any sort of warning he had her pinned against the wall.
"W-W-What are you doing?" May stuttered while her cheeks shaded a bright pink color.
"Oh May, you really are dense…" He slowly leaned in closer to her with closed eyes, until they were inches apart, then centimeters. But May couldn't bring herself to struggle. Instead, she tilted her head slightly to the side and naturally brought her arms up around his neck. As soon as their lips met she willingly gave in and kissed him back, growing disappointed when he was the one to break it. "…but I still love you." He smiled at her surprised expression.
...
"So you don't want to play tag anymore?" May joked.
Drew frowned. "Idiot, you're supposed to say it back!" he lightly mentioned.
"Hmm…" May pretended to think about it. She shoved him away with a lighthearted smile. "Only if you can catch me~!" she sang teasingly and started to jog back down the hallway.
Drew smiled and shook his head with a chuckle. "I'll definitely catch you fair-and-square this time, November!"
"We'll see about that!" May called back with a giggle.
A certain plum-haired male and peppy blunette were counting up their scores from The Game of Life. One of them wore a cheerful smile while the other was naturally scowling. See if you can figure that one out…
"I can barely read these numbers with this stupid lighting," Paul grumbled.
Dawn smiled darkly and waggled a finger at him. "No excuses~!" she melodiously warned, though her expression was completely different than her tone of voice. "We have to find the winner of this board game no matter what the circumstances."
"And then we can switch the power back on and finish our project."
The blunette childishly stuck her tongue out. "Downer."
He neatly stacked together the fake money to put away in the box momentarily. "I counted nine hundred thousand Life dollars." He sighed in boredom.
"I WIN!" Dawn cheered enthusiastically. Paul grunted in sheer annoyance as she got up.
What is she doing now? Paul thought curiously. Typical Troublesome antics. Wait…is she performing some sort of ancient ritual now? What is this? Oh. It's just a victory dance. He realized. His eyes moved nonchalantly down to her waist which was coincidentally getting a little too close to one of the several candles on a nearby coffee table. His eyes widened.
"DAWN!" he warned.
"Hm?" she asked obliviously just as her skirt brushed against the flame. Without much thought, he stumbled over to her side on his knees and swiftly ripped off the minor part of the fabric it had reached.
Dawn blinked with wide eyes. "OMG Paul, you perv! I know I'm irresistible, but really! Contain your excitement." She backed away slightly.
Paul reddened. "NO! It's not like that! Stop making rash accusations I just—"
"Could not resist my charm any longer?"
"NO!"
"You're secretly really into fashion and wanted an authentic piece of this fine material from my skirt?"
"Of course not!"
"Then it must be that you couldn't resist my alluring demeanor any longer."
"Troublesome!" he barked.
"I didn't hear any denying~!"
"You got it caught on that candle flame nearby, okay?!" he explained hastily.
"Hmmm…" Dawn paced momentarily, pondering his claim. "Likely story, Shinji," she skeptically commented.
Paul face-palmed. "That's because it's TRUE, Trouble—" An unusually loud bang of thunder interrupted his sentence.
"Eeeeek!" Dawn squealed in fright as the sound echoed across the sky. She involuntarily ran to the nearest corner of the room and huddled with her arms around her knees. Her face was buried in her arms and she was shaking ever so slightly.
Paul raised an eyebrow, able to get a clear sight of her when a bright flash of lightening illuminated her figure. "Figures, Troublesome's afraid of lightening," he muttered to himself. He folded his arms and tried to look to other way in boredom, but could not bring himself to ignore her terrified appearance. "Curse you, human emotions…" he murmured to no one in particular.
The normally apathetic and uncaring grape-head crawled over closer to her and uncomfortably sat beside her, still keeping a good distance of two feet. After contemplating it for several moments, he reached out and patted her reassuringly on the head.
Her eyes widened in shock as she slowly raised her head to see the sight for herself. It really was Paul…with eyes full of compassion that could be seen even in the dim candlelight.
"How typical of such a girly-girl like you to be petrified by just a little bit of thunder." Despite his seemingly harsh words, he was actually noticeably worried about the blunette as he withdrew his hand.
Dawn shook her head to clear her thoughts as she blushed intensely. "Me? Of course I'm not…afraid of a little bit of thunder!" she refuted. "I…I'm just…so sad that such a nice skirt of mine is ruined! How will I be able to sew that fabric back on if it's singed? And that was a designer skirt that coordinated perfectly with my outfit!" she rambled anxiously.
Paul's eyes enlarged briefly in astonishment. He quickly stood up and paced away a few feet. "Typical Troublesome, always overly concerned about fashion."
Dawn smiled, happy that the awkward situation had taken a different direction. "It's interesting how you pick up so much on how I 'typically' am." She smirked.
Before he could react or respond, another sudden loud burst of thunder, even worse than the last.
With a gasp, Dawn returned to her defensive huddle and shivered in fright. Paul took immediate notice.
"So you really are afraid?" he rhetorically commented. She ignored his insensitive words, still too afraid to speak. Paul sighed. "Nevermind that…" he nonchalantly bent down next to her and wrapped an arm around her shoulders. She blinked in utter surprise and would have remarked about how uncharacteristically he was acting, but kept the thought to herself, not wanting to end the rare moment.
"…Are you better yet?" he finally inquired with a slight blush.
Dawn smiled genuinely. "Yeah, I think so…thanks."
Paul abruptly stood up, returning to his usual stolid demeanor. Dawn frowned at this.
"Could you help me up?" she tried with one of her usual perky, optimistic smiles. She outstretched a hand expectantly.
"Hn. You've got two feet. Do it yourself." Dawn glared at him while he only crossed his arms. He would not let Troublesome get to him again. He was determined to keep up his solid, apathetic front.
Dawn sighed. "Typical Paul," she mocked. "Oh come on Paulie, I know you like me!" she teased with a wink, using her average flirtatious ways.
Paul turned away to hide the varying shades of pink invading his face. "Why would I like you?" he desperately shot back. "You're annoyingly perky and afraid of stupid things…I would never…"
His words were a major blow to the blunette's confidence. The impact of him saying them to her in particular was evident. She solemnly rose from the ground, bangs shielding her cobalt eyes as she stared downwards. "I'm out of here." She turned on her heels, headed straight for the front door. Paul raised his eyebrows as she did so.
"You can't leave in this storm, Troublesome." He skeptically watched to see if her course of actions would change, but she did not even hesitate, only trembling slightly.
"Hn," she grunted. "Watch me."
** Shout outs to Malory79080 and XMidnightPrincesSX! :) Your earlier reviews gave me some ideas for the Ikarishipping in this chapter, but I did tweak it a little to stay original. Thanks, you two awesome FF buddies~! :D **
And of course, as always, thank you to everyone who reviews. :') It really does give me inspiration :)
I know I pretty much finished up Contest here but there will be more in chappy 10...fret not, fellow Contestshippers. ;D
