_______________________________DAY 3___________________________

Today was the day they were going to the mall for clothes. Their friends who didn't make it decided to come along anyway, the girls to help with the outfit choices, the guys because their wasn't anything else to do. Dawn was back to being her happy-go-lucky self, as you could tell by her bouncing. They got to a different store than last time and Dawn stopped bouncing.

She turned and glared at Paul, "You aren't buying my clothes this time." she said. The others snickered from in front of the store. Paul raised his hands in a surrender gesture. She smiled happy again.

While looking for clothes though, an unexpected visitor showed up. Dawn was looking for a dress, when arms wrapped around her waist and a voice whispered, "Hello sweetie." in her ear. She froze, luckily Paul saw this and came over, again pulling the ponytail on the back of James head.

"You know ponytails are really odd looking." Paul said. James growled.

He started pulling Dawn with him out of the store, "Looks like it's time to go." he growled. Paul being quicker, managed to get in front of him. May had seen the three and was getting the others.

"I agree. Let's go, Dawn." Paul said, pulling Dawn behind him again after James had let her go because Paul was in the way. At that point the rest of them had showed up.

"Why don't you just give up?" Reggie asked.

"Why are you doing this?" Maylene asked.

"Can't you just leave Dawn alone?" Kenny asked.

`"Can you just go away?" Jesse asked, agitated.

"Seriously, Just give up!" Solidad said.

Everyone was asking or saying something at the same time. James glared at them all and started towards the door, Paul moving with his actions so Dawn was never near him and he was always between James and Dawn. His normally dark purple eyes had turned onyx, something James had the talent to make them do.

Dawn took a shaky breath, "Well...let's finish shopping and we can talk about it afterwards." she said. Everyone nodded and Paul followed Dawn like a shadow, never once leaving her side. They finally found clothes after getting back on topic.(A/N: Again major descriptions coming up.)

Maylenefound a black short dress with a white front and black criss-cross across the white. It also had black ruffles at the bottom.

Reggie got a white shirt with a black criss- cross design and black pants.

May got a plain red strapless dress except were it puffs out at the bottom and a layer of white is on the bottom.

Drew got a red shirt and black pants with a layer of white on the bottom.

Misty's dress was gray with a creased top and a puffy bottom.

Ash got a gray top and gray bottoms.

Dawn's dress was blue and loose until it got to her thighs were it tightened.

Paul got a matching shirt and black pants.

After that they went to Reggie's and Paul's eyes were still onyx and stormy, even after the long time it took to find clothes. It was about lunch time, so Reggie ordered Chinese. It was silent.

Paul finally broke it, "See! It happened again! We need to go to 'extremes'" Paul said, he put air-quotes around extremes.

Dawn shook her head, "I think he'll eventually give up. I don't want to get him in trouble." she murmured. Paul rolled his eyes agitated.

"And until he gives up?" Paul pointed out, "I think we need to beat some sense into him." he continued. Dawn just rolled her eyes and smacked him upside the head.

"Stop." she commanded, while Paul rubbed his head.

"Even, after he gives up on you, he'll just go to someone else." the original James, the good one, pointed out. Dawn sighed, but nodded.

"Fine, we can tell the cops." she relented.

Paul sighed, "I guess that means I can't hit him." he asked and said. Dawn shook her head. She also yawned and leaned her head against his shoulder.

Reggie smirked slyly, "Do you want us to go so you can cuddle?" he teased.

`Dawn immediately shot back, "Do you want to make food so you and Maylene can make out?" she teased.

Paul on the other hand glared and said, "Just a warning, I have a lot of pent-up anger, and according to Dawn I can't take it out on James, so I wouldn't make comments like that." he suggested. That shut everyone up on teasing the two. They decided to just spend the rest of today practicing and go to the police another day, so that's what they did and everyone sounded amazing. Reggie and Brock also had a conversation about Paul, it went something like this.

"Hey, Reggie. Have you noticed a change in Paul?" Brock asked, the two were watching Dawn and Paul practice, when Paul suddenly got a playful look on his face and picked Dawn up over her shoulder. She pounded on his back, but was laughing so they knew the two were just playing.

"Yeah, A major change, because of Dawn. He's more open and friendly and makes jokes and laughs now." Reggie pointed out, as Paul dropped Dawn on her butt and laughed at the expression on her face, before she tackled him and they started to play-wrestle.

"I can see that.." Brock murmured to himself watching the two, as was Reggie. Reggie smiled and went back with Maylene.

____________________________DAY 4______________________________

Just before the teams were heading to the contest arena, Paul came down the steps, "Hey, you can use my recorder. I know I don't want to wait in the huge line that's bound to be at the arena." he offered. The others nodded.

Reggie smirked, "You sure you and Dawn don't want to use it alone? You two seemed fine with that the last time." he said. Both Paul and Dawn turned bright red, Paul having close to no control.

"T-that was an accident!" Dawn stuttered out.

"What was?" Solidad asked.

Reggie's eyes brightened, "Oh! That's right I forgot to tell you guys!" he snickered. Paul glared at him and sighed pulling Dawn with him to the recorder set up in the living room, he already knew there was no hope that Reggie wouldn't tell them. Reggie told them the story and Paul and Dawn pointedly ignored the looks and comments, seeming very busy with the recorder.

"Why don't we listen to their side of the story first?" Joy suggested.

Dawn nodded and started, "Paul was being all unfair, yelling at me because I pressed a wrong button and then he was rude and said he had to do it. Therefore I waited for him to say please and stood in front of the machine and he pulled me towards his bed to move me, but what he didn't expect was for me to grab on to him to try and save myself. So, he ended up falling with me and on top of me, he was just about to get up when Reggie walked in and saw us." she explained. No...actually I had no intention of getting up... Paul thought to himself.

"Everything she said is true except it was probably the 100th time she pressed the wrong button and I told her to move, she didn't listen, soI nudged her. She being the klutz she is tripped and grabbed onto me, pulling me down with her. And we landed on my bed which was behind us. Everything else is true though." Paul changed the story. Dawn gasped and glared at him.

"I didn't trip! You pushed me!" Dawn objected.

"Your a klutz, you tripped." Paul continued.

"Pushed!"

"Tripped."

"Pushed!"

"Tripped."

"Pushed times infinity! Ha! Can't beat that!" Dawn goaded and stuck her tongue out, Paul rolled his eyes, and the others sweat dropped at the two arguing.

"Okay! Anyway...sure! We'll use your recorder! Thanks Paul!" Reggie said. The others also thanked him. Paul nodded in acknowledgment to the thanks. That's how the day was spent and they had lots of fun, just talking and listening to each others songs. Paul and Dawn still refused to sing, saying they wanted to surprise them. James didn't bother them today.

___________________________________DAY 5_______________________

Paul was again watching in amusement as the people freaked out, this time though, the teams who hadn't made it were also watching amused, and instead of being at a pokemon center they were at Reggie's house. Also, instead of arguing, Reggie and Maylene weren't here yet, probably upstairs making out. Drew and May were already practicing their dance in the house's backyard. Ash was, not surprisingly, eating. Misty was pacing and chewing her fingernails, looking deep in thought. Dawn was ranting to Paul, who again was ignoring her. Kenny, Brock, and Zoey had realized that he was ignoring her and were snickering.

"What are you three laughing at?!" Dawn suddenly glared at the three. They sweatdroped and looked at Paul for help.

He sighed, "Let's go practice at the field." Paul sighed again and started dragging her with him, again ignoring her was still worrying and complaining when they got to the field to practice.

"Paul....What if...if we lose?" she asked, her voice growing quiet. He looked at her.

"This isn't about the contest at all, is it?" he asked. She looked up at him, she had tears in her eyes.

"What if...we lose against James?" she whimpered. He hugged her close.

"It's a simple solution, we won't lose. Dawn...don't worry, I won't let him hurt you. What is it you always say?...No need to worry. If there is ever a time not to worry, it's now. He won't get to you, because for anyone to ever get to you...they have to pass me." he comforted. She started sobbing quietly.

"T-thank you." she managed to say.

"Awww..poor little thing! You have a case of the nerves don't you?" a voice asked. Dawn sobbed harder into Paul. Paul turned around and glared at James.

"Leave now." Paul summed it up quite nicely. James just laughed and came closer. Paul raised a fist and with the look in his eye, if you were sane, you would run away as far and as fast as you could, but it turns out James isn't sane. Shocker, right? He came closer and smirked. Paul punched him, a loud crack could be heard. James stumbled back in shock, holding his now bleeding nose, cursing as he went. Finally having a correct reaction, there was fear in his eyes.

"W-what is it y-you want?" he stuttered.

"I want you to leave Dawn alone!" Paul yelled. Dawn flinched, but her eyes were hard.

"I can't do that." James said, turning his head, not wanting to meet Paul's evil eyes.

"Why not?!" Paul yelled again.

"I'm interested in her!" James yelled back.

"So?! Maybe I'm already in love with her!" Paul yelled back, his eyes widening and his hand coming to cover up his mouth. Dawn froze, and stopped sobbing.

"Oh...I'm sorry, dude....I'll leave her alone." James said, his eyes portraying how apologetic he was, even though he was still holding his nose.

"And...I feel like I should leave...you obviously didn't tell her that... No hard feelings?" James said awkwardly. Dawn and Paul both nodded. He backed into the trees and away.

"Let's just practice." Paul growled and turned away. Dawn put a hand on his arm. He turned to her. Dawn's eyes were wide and she had tears in them.

"Paul...is it true?" she asked quietly, looking down.

Paul sighed, "Yes! Okay! Yes! I love you! I've loved you since we were 6! And no one could love me because I'm a cold, heartless jerk! I get it!" he yelled, as much as he tried to stop it, a tear came down his face. He swore and turned a way, swiping his face as he did so.

"Let's just practice." he muttered, when he turned around though, he was shocked by the arms that wrapped around his neck and warm lips that were on his. His eyes were open for about another second, before he shut them and wrapped his arms around her waist. He licked her lip for entrance which she eagerly granted. When they broke apart for air, Dawn was leaning with her back against a tree, Paul pressed against her, their foreheads together.

"In case you can't tell...I love you, too." she panted.

Paul laughed and kissed her again, when they stopped this time, she said, "Let's change the song!" Paul's eyes widened when she pulled out a notepad, and scribbled on it furiously.

"W-what?!" Paul managed to utter.

"You heard me! Come on, help me with the lyrics!" she called, still writing quickly.

"Not for our song tomorrow...right?" he asked, he still hadn't moved from staring at the tree.

"Of course for tommorow!" she said. That snapped him out of his shock and he moved over to look over her shoulder. It's a good song...but will we have enough time to learn it and everything? Paul thought.

He said this out loud and Dawn replied, "Oh! I believe we can!" she said.

"Fine...we can try, but if we don't feel safe with it...we're going to the original song.." he sighed. So, an hour and a half later, they had the song lyrics memorized, and when they were running into Reggie's living room, starting up the recorder, the others were curious.

"What are you doing?" Ash asked.

"Shut up." Paul commanded, pressing a few buttons on the recorder.

"But-" started Misty, but Dawn went, "Nnnnn" and waved her hand in the air, watching intently as Paul spun a dial and pressed more buttons.

"I thought you already recorded your song?" Jesse said, but it came out as a question.

Paul sighed, "Dawn, explain, you don't know how to use this thing anyway." Dawn sighed, but nodded.

"We're recording our new song we thought of." she said.

"Oh! So I guess your done practicing for the contest?" Maylene asked.

"No. The song we're recording is for the contest." Dawn explained, glancing at the recorder.

"What?!" the others all asked-yelled.

"We changed the song, we like this one better then the other we had made." Dawn again explained.

"You can't do that! How are you expected to memorize it?" Kenny asked.

"Already did." Paul answered this time.

"But...Hun...You can't get everything accomplished in one day!" Harley objected.

"Watch us!" the two said in sync, Dawn turning back towards the recorder.

"Well...I know we won't convince them to go with the other song so let's give up." Reggie suggested.

"Thank you." they again said in unison.

"Okay...that's getting a little freaky...stop please." May asked.

"Okay." Dawn and Paul again said in sync, causing May to sigh and the others to snicker. Those guys then left to go out to eat, it was about lunch time, around twelve. After about two hours, they had the instrumental part of the song finished and were practicing. The others came back about an hour later, around three, laden with bags. They had gone shopping.

"Hey! You guys done?" Reggie asked, Dawn and Paul were on the couch watching tv, Paul had an arm around her shoulder.

"Yup." yet again, Dawn and Paul said in unison, causing May to stomp her foot and cross her arms, and the others to laugh, even Paul was snickering. The others joined them and they had light conversation while watching TV, that is until a knock was heard. Paul got up to get it.

James walked in, causing the others to stiffen, "Dude, Dudett...Lauren's after you two...I told her about what happened in the forest...and she didn't like it one bit. Oh! And Dude! You broke my nose!" James warned, James had a white cast on his nose. He plopped down in one of the empty chairs.

Dawn and Paul both laughed, " Oh! So scary! The Vielstone Barbie!" Dawn added, this caused James to burst into laughter, and Paul continued laughing also. Lauren had bright blue eyes and wavy blondehair, way to much make up, and...well most of her was made of plastic, from cosmetic surgery. The others looked at the three laughing together with wide eyes, they were all wondering why Paul didn't have Dawn behind his back, her sobbing, James attempting to punch Paul and then Paul scaring him away yet again.

Then Paul smirked and said, "And about the nose, consider it payback." James rolled his eyes and sighed, Dawn giggled.

"Um....is something wrong with this picture?" Reggie asked.

"They didn't tell you?" James asked. Reggie looked at him with guarded eyes and shook his head.

"I'm guessing that means they also didn't tell you about their little get together in the forest?" James asked with an odd glint in his eyes.

"Hey! You didn't actually leave, did you!" Dawn realized. James shook his head smirking. Paul's mouth dropped and both him and Dawn realized at the same time what he must have seen and started blushing. The others saw the two blushing and were suspicious.

"Okay! We loved that you visited James time to go!" Paul growled pushing him out the door.

"Hey! Come on! Dude!" James objected, but Paul slammed the door in his face.

"What did he mean? And why were you nice to him?" Misty asked. All of them were suspicious.

"Oh! Well..he apologized and um...yeah..." Dawn muttered, looking away, still blushing crimson.

"Ok....That's all? He apologized and that was it?" Solidadlooked at the two, they were both blushing crimson, looking in opposite directions, Paul attempting to control his blush, but the events from the forest just kept coming back to him.

"Yes!" the two anwsered too quickly.

"Do we have to go get James?" Reggie asked.

"Nope!" came a voice through the window. A knock on the door was followed. Paul opened it cautiously, and James slipped in again before he had a chance to kick him out. "I have the whole confrontation on video! Thanks to Lauren, she wanted to see how close you two were." he continued, pointing at Dawn and Paul. He popped the DVD in the player and said, "Watch this." Dawn and Paul both tried to object, but the others shushed them.

____________________________________VIDEO______________________

"Okay! Lauren this is a stupid idea. If you want to see how close they are, go confront them yourself!"James yelled at Lauren who was pushing him out the door

"Just Go!" she yelled back. James stumbled outside as she gave one final heave to push him out. They heard James grumbling insults at Lauren as he walked through the forest, coming up to a picture of Dawn sobbing into Paul and Paul stroking her back.

"Awwww...Poor little thing! Got a case of the nerves? Don't Ya?" James asked stepping out of the shadows.

Paul glared at James, turned around, standing protectively in front of Dawn and threatend in a deadly voice, "Leave Now." The camera got closer, Paul reared back a fist and tilted his head in a questioning manor, eyes glittering dangerously. The camera got closer and the fist Paul was holding shot forward and a huge crack was heard.

The view from the camera went backwards and you could here James muttering, "Mother Fucker...Broke my nose! Ass!"

"W-what is it y-you want?" James asked and you could hear the fear in his voice.

"I Want You To Leave Dawn Alone!" Paul yelled, they saw Dawn flinch at the volume of his voice.

"I can't do that." the camera heard James object.

"Why not?!" Paul yelled, his face contorting in anger, looking as if he wished he could give James more than a broken nose.

"I'm interested in her!" James replied back.

"So?! Maybe I'm already in love with her!"Paul yelled, getting to caught up in the moment. Dawn's sobbing immediately stopped and Paul eyes grew wide with a hand flying to cover his mouth. The others were staring at the screen looking back between it and Paul, who was currently glaring at James for recording all this, blushing a brilliant shade of red. Paul then buried his head in Dawn's hair to hide his face in embarresment. Dawn, next to him was an even brighter shade. The went back to the video.

"Oh...I'm sorry, dude....I'll leave her alone." They heard James mutter just loud enough for Paul and Dawn in the video to hear.

"And...I feel like I should leave...you obviously didn't tell her that... No hard feelings?"the heard from his voice that James clearly wished he could disappear. Dawn and Paul nodded.

James walked away and muttered, "Well, Lauren. Your soooo gonna get your scoop..."

"Let's just practice." Paul growled, turning so his back was to her. Dawn put a hand on his arm. She was smiling through her tears.

"Paul...is it true?"Dawn asked and looked down. The non-videotaped Paul winced, he knew what was coming could visibly see from the camera, Paul sigh.

"Yes! Okay! Yes! I love you! I've loved you since we were 6! And no one could love me because I'm a cold, heartless jerk! I get it!" The others gaped at the on-screen Paul, even more so when he turned and swiped his eye for tears, muttering curses the whole time.

"Lets just practice."They heard Paul mutter again and turn around, before he was completely turned James paused the video.

"I think that's enough!" Paul growled, snatching for the remote, but James was too quick.

"I just wanted to warn them, that the next part isn't suitable for all ages." James smirked and dodged as Paul grabbed at the remote again, Dawn now joining in. Paul realizing, what they were doing just snorted, walked over to the TV and turned it off.

"Hey!" the others chorused.

"I wanted to see Dawn's reaction!" Kenny and Reggie both objected. It was like a soap opera the others wanted to watched. James then tackled Paul to the floor. James was quicker, but Paul was stronger.

"Go! Finish it before he manages to get up!" James smirked at the struggling Paul. They started the clip again, Paul got out of James grip quite quickly, but decided to just let them watch it. If he didn't they would just complain. When the long kisses were over and Dawn saying I love you too, so was the clip. Dawn and Paul were both fire engine red.

"AWWWWWW!" the others cooed.

"Ouw wittle Pauwie and Dawnie are gwowing up!" Reggie cooed, pinching Paul's cheek, who slapped his hand away quite quickly.

"Shut the hell up..." Paul muttered, finally managing to control his blush and turn his face back to it's normal color.

"AWWW!! You two make such a cute couple!" May squealed, Misty, Jesse, Joy, Kelly, Zoey, Maylene, Solidad, and Harley all nodding in agreement. Dawn's face continued to grow red.

"So are you two dating?" Brock asked. Dawn and Paul looked at each other and shrugged. The others sweat dropped. The red-haired James snickered.

"Want to go out to dinner?" Paul asked.

Dawn nodded, "Love too! Is it fancy or casual?" she smiled.

"Fancy." Paul smirked as she was carried away with the girls to go dress shopping quickly.