Drew rushed into the Pokemon Center headlong immediately after hearing Paul's words. As much as he hated to admit it, the purple haired trainer was right. What the hell was he doing moping around all depressed-like while May was abandoned and alone? What kind of friend was he? He saw how upset she was. He saw her crying after he left. But his stupid pride made him walk away from her. He wasn't mature enough to just stick around and sort out the problems they had. He just turned around and blamed everything on May. Heck, he didn't even wait to hear the explanation as to why she didn't tell him!

So now, he had to go back. He had to go fix everything. He had to go be a friend.

*BAM!*

Groaning in pain, Drew clutched his nose. Massaging it as an attempt to lessen the throbbing, he cracked open one eye. In front of him was the back of a kneeling bluenette. A light "ow" was heard as she gently rubbed the back of her head. She turned her head ever so slightly, looking up at Drew from the floor. Her eyes widened as she jumped to her feet, staring into his eyes. She was clearly shocked by his sudden appearance, though she tried to hide it as she faked sheepishness. Scratching the back of her neck, she forced out a laugh.

"D-Drew! Heh, I didn't know that you were coming in so quickly! I, er, I was just thinking of, um, I-"

Ignoring her useless blathering, Drew shot her an extremely puzzled look, which may or may not have come across as suspicion.

Dawn interpreted it as the latter. Immediately shutting up, she sighed and let her head hang. Turning her head away in shame, she closed her eyes. She was wringing her hands anxiously behind her back. Though they were out of Drew's line of vision, her hands were progressively turning a sickly shade of white. They were being wrung extremely tightly; in fact, she was actually stopping her blood from flowing into the veins of her hands.

"I-I," she blurted out, allowing the tense atmosphere to finally get to her.

"I know what you're going to say!" Ducking her head, she refused to look Drew in the eye. Blood rushed to her cheeks (and to her hands, as she finally released her death grip) as Dawn practically bowed in front of him. Her long hair hung in front of her face and acted as a curtain, blocking her view of anything besides midnight blue locks. Scrunching her normally oh-so-bright cobalt orbs shut, she opened her mouth again as a torrent of words rushed out of her mouth.

"I should be in there! I-I should be apologizing and listening to what she has to say! I should be calm and mature and composed! But I'm not! I'm still absolutely nothing but a child!"

At this point, the blubbering bluenette was incapable of noticing anything except the fact that her voice cracked. She didn't realize that Drew had led her to the fluffy, pink sofa in the Center's lobby. She didn't realize that the volume of her voice had increased by such a large amount that a few trainers had come out of their rooms to see what the commotion was. She didn't realize that her shoulders were shaking as violently as they were, nor that she was sniffling at some point in every sentence. However, the biggest thing that she didn't realize was the fact that large tears were rolling down her face.

"I-I was so upset and d-depressed about losing a contest- a contest- that I unconsciously made the decision that my pride was more important than my friend! And speaking of that, my thought process is so immature! To think that I actually need to win a well-known and notable in order to start winning again! It's so, so childish that the only way I can regain confidence in myself is by winning something famous! I feel so guilty! How can I possibly face May like this? She was trying to help me feel better, and how do I repay her? I get mad. I blame everything on her. I know that I came here to try and fix everything but-"

Dawn abruptly cut herself off. For a moment, the only sound that could be heard was her heavy yet quick breathing. She just stared at her hands, quickly balling them into fists to keep them from shaking.

"I'm scared."

Though the small girl had been practically shouting the entire time she was speaking, the very end of her last sentence came out as nothing but a whisper. Her petite nose was scrunched up and wrinkled as much as humanly possible. She bit her lip hard as her facial expression slowly melted from an angry and agitated one into one of guilt and fear.

"I'm scared, I'm scared, I'm scared, I'm scared." Her voice cracked as the blunette managed to repeatedly choke out those two words. The pitch of her tone of voice fluctuated continuously, going from a normal tone, to irritatingly high, to a trembling low one. Burying her face into her now uncurled hands, Dawn's shoulders shook violently as she cried silently. The beating in her chest seemed to pound harder after she spoke those words, each beat feeling like a punch in the stomach.

She had always been a strong, willful girl. She wanted to be and soon learned how to become independent and self sufficient throughout her journeys she made without Ash and Brock. She learned to secure herself in the most unstable situations. She learned to ignore the churning feeling in her stomach and hurl herself headfirst into dangerous situations, whether it be strolling through the most unsafe cities or towns in order to get to a contest, or climbing up a rocky, jagged mountain and down the other side for the same reason. She learned to put up a brave front and go through the most uncomfortable situations, no matter how afraid she was. Yet, she had never learned to embrace the frightened, fearful side of her. So, when the unwanted emotion became too overwhelming for the young coordinator, she didn't know what to do. There was nothing she could do. Nothing, except to cry, praying that someone would rescue her and bring her out of that awful frail and vulnerable state. Usually, she had no such luck.

However, this time, rescuing Dawn was exactly what Drew did (as Paul did to him, though neither would ever admit it.)

Grabbing one of the blue haired blue eyed girl's thin arms, he pulled her close to his body, gathering her up into a gentle yet secure hug. Her eyes widened immensely at the sudden action, rather dazed and confused as to what was happening. Her mouth was pressed up against his broad shoulder and her arms were stuck between his chest and her's, yet the awkward position somehow seemed... soothing.

She suddenly felt Drew's free hand reach up to tuck some hair behind her ear. Feeling him lean towards her ear, she semi-froze, not at all used to a male being at this close of a proximity. Closing her eyes in the oddest mixture of discomfort and security, she heard the green haired coordinator mumble something that she had never heard before.

"It's okay to be scared."

Her heart seemed to stop beating for a moment as his words sunk in. Snapping open her eyes, cobalt orbs looked as though they doubled in size as she felt the impact of his words. It was as if the realization that being scared was an acceptable thing had just stricken her.

The feeling of her beating heart returned to Dawn, feeling the familiar rhythmic pulsing in her body once again. Her body felt as though warmth was spreading throughout it. The warmth was indescribable. It had the characteristics of so many different emotions; happiness, relief, shock, gratitude- it would be a great challenge to put that feeling into one word. However, it didn't matter. At this unnamed feeling, she seemed to grow limp in Drew's arms, closing her eyes again. Her bottom lip trembled a bit before its corners slowly began to curve upwards, forming a small, but extremely happy smile. She slowly detached her arms that were wedged between their bodies and wrapped them around his back. One last tear found its way down Dawn's cheek before she whispered one of the only phrases that can never be said too many times.

"Thank you..."

Voices.

I hear voices.

Familiar voices.

Snapping immediately into an upward position, sending my brown hair flying as I turned to look all around me.

Where am I?

The sight of my green bandanna hanging over the back of a chair, my traveling bags resting against a wall by the door, the light pink blanket that I was covered in, and the side of a giant red 'P' outside my window acted as my reminder that I was in the Pokemon Center. While I sat by the window in the lobby, hopeful that Drew or Dawn would come wandering inside, time passed by. It grew late, and even though I was reluctant, Nurse Joy managed to get me into a room, bringing all my belongings inside. She told me to get some rest, saying not to worry about the cost of the room, that everything would be taken care of eventually. She sounded like she was trying to be casual about the whole thing, but I have a feeling that she just wanted be out of the lobby. After all, what kind of business would a puffy-faced, sniveling brunette shoving her face up against the window be? Either that or Paul set her up to it. He probably paid for the room and convinced her to bring me up here if he didn't get back at a specific time. Worrywart...

Placing a finger on my chin, I looked upward, suddenly very confused.

Now that I think about it, where was that purple haired trainer? I cried, he brought me to the Pokemon Center, I called Ash, he called him again after I hung up, I started crying again, he told me to stop crying, I ignored him, he said something about...

While I was recollecting the events that happened in the past few hours, the loud voice of a shouting girl echoed throughout the building. Startled, I jumped up, out of the soft Pokemon Center's bed and grabbed my bandanna (though, in hindsight, that wouldn't have helped me very much if it were an emergency.) As the voice continued to ramble on about something or other, I paused, trying to listen to what she was saying. It was in vain though, because whatever she was saying, she was speaking really fast. From where I was, it was really hard to hear anything except the way her voice sounded. Shrugging, I turned around to crawl back into bed.

Wait a minute... Her voice... That voice...

I felt my eyes widen as my heart began to race. Darting over towards the door, I yanked it open. I soundlessly walked to the staircase above the lobby, moving my feet as swiftly as I could. Sliding to a stop at the corner just before the opening of the stairwell, I glued my back to the wall. Closing my eyes, I listened carefully, allowing the noisy cries of incomprehensible words to flow into my ears. The corners of my lips began to twitch, curving them into a tiny smile; something that had not been upon my face in what seemed like forever. Slumping against the wall weakly, I sighed, feeling my heart swell with happiness.

I know that voice. I definitely know that voice! That's her! That's Dawn! She's back! Something is finally going right for once...

Joy seemed to take over the movements of my body for a moment. A lone, involuntary tear of mirth managed to find its way to the corner of my left eye. Reaching up shakily to rub it away, I felt my smile grow bigger. My heart began to pound even faster than before, and I had to bite my bottom lip in order to keep it from trembling. I don't even know if I'm making any sense right now. But, in shorter and simpler terms, I was so elated that it felt like I lost control of my body.

However, while I was busy being happy behind a wall, Dawn's voice seemed to have stopped speaking. Widening my eyes, I pushed myself off the wall. A pang of worry struck me in the gut as I moved to rush down the stairs.

What if she left? What if she decided to leave the Pokemon Center? How will I find her again? No, I have to go talk to her now! Hurry up!

Skipping down the stairs two steps at a time, I ran my fingers through my knotted bedhead. My stomach suddenly started to churn with panic, but I ignored it, trying to calm myself down. I couldn't let my nerves get the best of me... Not now... Not if I wanted to make up with Dawn...

Jumping down all last four steps at once, I made a sharp turn, heading towards the lobby. I faintly heard her soft mumbling from there, making me breath a sigh of relief.

Good... She hasn't left yet.

Darting around the last corner separating me from Dawn, I opened my mouth, despite the fact it had just gone dry.

"D-D-Dawn? Is that you? Are you th-"

My shoes squeaked loudly as I came to an abrupt stop. I felt my eyes practically triple in size, my jaw dropping slightly at the sight in front of me. My arms started shaking, my hands grew numb, my legs felt like jelly, my head started spinning... and I felt like I just got punched in the gut.

Oh, Dawn was definitely there in the lobby. She was standing there, looking at me with her surprised cobalt eyes... and her arms wrapped around Drew Hayden. One hand was in the middle stroking her midnight blue hair, the other around her body. He seemed to have been whispering something to her, for his mouth was next to her ear. I mean, right next to her ear.

All the joy and happiness flew out of my system as I let my hands fall limply at my side. Swallowing to the best of my abilities, I bit my lip again, only this time, much harder. My bangs covered my eyes, blocking my vision of their embrace, which I didn't bother trying to fix.

They looked like a couple.

I heard the sound of a hard shove, and someone falling onto the sofa. From what I could see from under my hair, Dawn's pink boots hurriedly move towards me as she frantically called out to me.

"M-May! It's not-"

Clenching my hands into fists, I looked up suddenly, swishing my bangs out of my eyes. Little did I know, made some unwanted tears glide down my face. Looking at Dawn straight into her cobalt eyes, which seemed to be filled with horror, I forces the brightest smile I could muster up.

"I-I'm sorry t-to interrupt!" I choked out before flying out of the center's exit.

Don't own Pokemon. Sorry for any mistakes, especially in the last half... Kinda rushed it. Kyaa... My family is having some whole big spat about dumb shit like clothes and birthday money... So, while I'm trapped in my room while they are all yelling bloody murder at each other, I had nothing else better to do... Hope you enjoyed it despite the circumstances of which it was written at. :T

Oh yeah, before I forget, special thanks to filipinochick! This chapter is for you! Your review helped me write this chap :)

No promises, but if you review an idea or suggestion to the plot, I may add it in here. (Though I already have a basic storyline that I'm following.)

Bye bye.