Beep Beep Beep
Beep Beep Beep.
'Ugh…' Dawn kept her eyes closed as she subconsciously pressed the button to stop the alarm.
She let out as she groan as she turned on her side, only to run into Paul. Dawn was still half asleep and only knew one thing, whatever there was next to her, it was warm.
She wrapped her arm around Paul and rested her head on his chest, feeling his rhythmic slow breathing. It was now, (even with her eyes closed) that she realized where she was and fully woke up.
Dawn was lying on her side; her face pressed up against Paul's chest with one arm around him. And she now noticed that he had an arm around her shoulder. Dawn Blushed as she rolled back on her back. Paul was still asleep and Dawn's movements didn't seem to have an affect on that.
Trying to subside her blush, Dawn sat up, now feeling dumb for blushing for something as simple as hugging Paul.
She took a deep breath, attempted to fix her hair, and went to go get changed. She looked in the mirror to check her self, and was reminded of how much she missed Piplup. She sighed and put on her white hat and decided it was time to wake up Paul.
It was just after sunset and Dawn was kissing Paul just like last night. He felt something in his chest, and he knew what to do, he, needed to tell her…
'Dawn…' he faintly whispered, here goes everything, '…I love you…' he barely managed to mumble the three words as Dawn kissed him.
Then she stopped.' W-What?' she breathed. His heart sank as a look of confusion and disbelief were portrayed though her eyes.
Paul could see himself sitting there like an idiot, watching her walk away.
His heart was beating faster as she ran.
He stood up and was going to run after her.
But he was stopped by something brushing against his lips.
Paul opened his eyes to see a cheerful blunette smiling over him.
"Good morning." Dawn said with a smile. She then proceeded to gather all of her things.
Paul sat up and placed his hand on his forehead. 'God what a nightmare…' he felt blood rush to his face as he remembered how he woke up. Paul got up took a deep breath and went to go pack up.
"I really miss Piplup…" Dawn said out of the blue. Paul didn't look up; he just continued to roll up his sleeping bag.
"We'll get them back" he said in a plain tone. And despite that he said it with no emotion, it made Dawn feel better. After everything was packed and ready to go, Dawn was reminded of something important.
Food.
Both Dawn and Paul were out of food and they had not eaten anything science they woke up.
"Ugh… I'm hungry…" Whined Dawn as they started walking. "Brock has all the food and I don't have any. I bet my pokemon are hungry too. I wonder if piplup has had anything to eat. Ash must be starving, he always eats so much. Ugh I'm so hungry…"
"Will you stop complaining, we're going to the next town to get some food, and its right by the river that your friend was talking about."
Dawn let out a sigh, "are you suuurrreee you don't have any food?"
Paul stopped walking and turned around to face Dawn. It sent a shiver down her back. "No, I don't have any food, because you ate my last sandwich."
"Hey, you gave me that sandwich"
"I know, now stop complaining."
"Fine…" she mumbled. Dawn did not stay in a bad mood for more then ten seconds, she was soon her bubbly, happy go lucky self.
Paul was observing some of the pokemon around the area and could tell they were getting close to the river.
Dawn looked at her poketch, 'ugh, it's already 11:30, I'm starving!' "Are we almost there Paul?" She asked, trying not to sound like a nuisance.
Paul was cut from his train of thought and he remembered how hungry he was too. "Yeah, were getting close" he said.
Dawn sighed, "Well then…" straightened her posture and began marching, "lets go straight to the town!" Her new found enthusiasm was surprising to Paul as she marched passed him. Dawn kept marching, and after about a minute, the river was in view. A smile crossed Dawn's face "We made it!"
Paul was amused by her excitement over such a small event like finding a river.
Dawn turned to face Paul who was a few steps behind. But as she did Dawn was knocked on the ground. "Ow!" She cried as she immediately grabbed her right arm. Upon seeing this Paul ran over to Dawn and faced the big robotic machine that pushed her to the ground.
He was in front of her with his arms at his sides, ready to grab his pokeballs if needed. The big robot's head opened, Dawn knew exactly who would be inside. 'Stupid team rocket' she thought as she griped tighter on her arm.
But as the head opened, to her surprise, no one was inside. Instead there was a big monitor. Jessie, James, and Meowth came on the screen.
"Listen, is that a voice I hear?" Jessie started the motto. (I won't go through the whole motto…)
"Meowth that's right!"
The motto ended, with the chime in of "Wabaffete!"
"What do you want?" Dawn demanded.
"We want you to keep your noses out of our business. Your Piplup and Pikachu are ours now and there's nothing you can do about it." Jessie explained.
"What about Ash?" She asked, wincing in pain.
"That little twerp is a nuisance, we'll get rid of him later, but right now," A mechanical arm was heading toward Dawn on the ground. "We're going to take care of you so you twerps don't get in the way." The arm was getting closer, but Paul jumped in front of it and smacked it away.
"Don't. You. Dare. Touch. Her." He ordered, throwing out a pokeball in the process.
"Aww look Jessie" James said "The purple headed twerp is protecting his girlfriend."
This statement only caused Paul to get even madder. "Torterra! Use frenzy Plant."
Dawn observed all of this while holding onto her injured arm. She watched Paul defend her, again, and order Torterra to attack. She watched Torterra's frenzy Plant easily take down the lame robot, causing it to explode.
Paul recalled his pokemon and walked over to Dawn. She sat, waiting for what he was going to say, though she already had an idea. She braced her self for a lecture of some sort.
"You're so troublesome" He said sarcastically with a smirk.
He stood over her, looking at the girl who was staring at the ground with watery eyes. The smirk left his face, 'It was just a joke…' "Dawn-" He was cut off by the words that he least expected to hear from her,
"I'm sorry…"
He knelt down to her level
"Why?" Paul was genuinely confused as he could see Dawn fight back tears.
"I don't mean to be troublesome all the time."
A pang of guilt flooded through Paul. "Dawn, I was being sarcastic"
"I know, but, this is the second time you've saved me in 2 days. And I know I complain a lot and I'm talkative, and I get hurt… I'm just… troublesome."
This made Paul sigh, "Those things don't matter Dawn. I knew all of that before. But I'm still here."
Dawn looked at him, her hand still clutching her right arm. "Yeah, you're right."
"Are you ready to go?" Paul extended an arm; she took his hand and let him help her up. "Yeah, I'm hungry"
"I know."
The two began walking.
"The town is only 20 minutes away"
"Well the river is right here, and I don't see Brock, Maybe he's at the town too."
When they arrived at the town, Dawn's arm was starting to hurt less and less. They stopped at a pokemon center, healing their pokemon and grabbing some much needed food. It was one 'o clock and Dawn was worrying about Ash, Piplup and Pikachu.
"We should go find Brock" She said, coming back from throwing away her trash. Paul nodded as he stood up from the table they were sitting at. They got all of their pokemon from Nurse Joy and left the Pokemon center, ready to look for Brock. And they didn't have to look very long, the spotted him sitting on a bench feeding his pokemon some food.
"Brock!" Dawn shouted as she ran over to him.
Brock turned to look at her, "Hey Dawn" he said with a smile standing up.
"We were hopping to find you in town, that way we could go save Ash."
"We?" Brock asked.
But then Paul walked up casually with his hands in his pockets. "Oh, Paul's here too." Brock said noticing him. Paul was not interested in the small talk that was going on.
"Yeah, Paul and I ran into each other in the forest and we came here, looking for you, and some food. You know Brock, I only had one sandwich and a barely enough pokemon food for my pokemon."
"You must have been starving last night and this morning." Dawn decided not to tell Brock that Paul shared his sandwich with her. She had a feeling that he was already suspicious, and she didn't want to give him any ideas.
"Yes I was, but I just ate, what about you? I know you had all the food."
"Yeah sorry, I wasn't counting on the fact that we would be separated."
Paul now looked annoyed, this was a waste of time, and they were supposed to be traveling by now. Brock took a notice at Paul's slight impatience and agreed that they should go.
"Well, anyway, we should get going" He said looking at Paul and then Dawn.
"Yeah, but where are we going to look?" Dawn pondered. "Hmmm…"
There was a small moment of silence before Paul spoke up. "The river" He said. Brock and Dawn looked at Paul in puzzlement.
"Why the river?" Dawn spoke up.
"If team rocket attacked us there, they can't be too far."
"Team rocked attacked you guys?"
"Yeah," Dawn said rubbing her arm. "But they just sent a robot, and we were able to get rid of it."
"Oh, well I hope you guys didn't get hurt" Dawn remembered the whole scene in her head, how Paul protected her like that, and didn't get mad at her for being hurt.
"We're fine." She said with a smile, "Let's go."
"Okay." Brock grabbed his backpack and returned his pokemon. Paul started walking first, with his hands in his pockets of course. Brock and Dawn were walking side-by-side behind him. Brock was asking Dawn questions about the robot attack, which just made her think of Piplup.
She really missed Piplup. It made her more determined to beat team rocket and save everybody. And that was her last thought as they arrived at the river.
