A/N: Yes, I can admit Dawn being in Brock's position is not normal. But as I've said, this is mostly following the game canon rather than the anime canon, so this is a duo team of a trainer and a researcher. And since I'm not a creative genius to do the whole coordinator shtick, being the professor's research assistant felt more fitting and easier for me. Now doing the whole cheerleader and friendship thing, that's part of the anime I'm keeping here, but that's just one of few anime elements being used. I thank you kindly for putting up with my ideas as you and many others are interested. Leave a review on what you think. Anyway, let's get started.
As Ash and his new traveling companion Dawn were walking through Sandgem Town, Dawn was talking and asking him some questions every now and then.
"In between meeting you on Route 201 and you coming to Prof. Rowan's lab, he decided to give either me or Lucas Piplup. We played rock-paper-scissors, and I won!" She cheered joyfully. "And not only that, it's a rare female Piplup. Did you know that all Pokémon starters have a 7:1 male to female ratio? That's why they're so endangered." Her expression saddened for a moment. "That's so sad. We find as much as we can to preserve them." Then she went back to joy. "Piplup is a real cutie. It's my favorite starter of the Sinnoh starters. Say, how about we introduce our Pokémon as friends? Piplup has been kept separate from the other two because she's really quiet and shy while the others were too extroverted."
"Interesting. Let's do it." Ash agreed, getting mildly excited.
"Okay! Piplup, come on out!"
"Go Turtwig!" They each called out, summoning their Pokémon. Turtwig came out first, and second was the blue Penguin Pokémon, Piplup. When Piplup looked at Turtwig, it gasped before running behind Dawn's legs, quivering.
"Piplup, he just wants to be friends with you." Dawn tried assuring the little penguin.
"Pip." The Pokémon whispered in worry. Ash dropped a knee and put his hand on his Pokémon's shell.
"Turtwig, if you met this Piplup before, you should already know that she's shy, so try saying hi without too much energy. Okay."
"Twig." It said nodding its head before carefully walking to the other starter. "Turtwig." he greeted, in a calm, safe way.
"Pi-Piplup." It said back, still nervous.
"Turtwig Turtwig Twi-twig. Turtwig Turtwig Tur. Turtwig Turtwig?" After a few seconds of thought, Piplup said,
"Piplup pip."
"Twig?" It asked tilting its head."
"Pip Pip-Piplup."
"Twig." The Tiny Leaf Pokémon agreed nodding. Piplup also nodded as she took a few cautious steps toward the grass type and offered a flipper. Turtwig raised one of it's stumped feet to meet the flipper, shaking appendages.
"Piplup."
"Turtwig." They said at the same time.
"Aww, that's so adorable!" Dawn squealed. "The two made up and are now friends." Ash smiled.
"Hm, so they did." The teens decided to walk while letting their Pokémon have their first real conversation.
"Let's go to the Pokémon center. There's some things I want to talk and ask about in a place where there's no distractions."
"Okay." Ash shrugged as they went the Pokémon center. There were two guys and two women there, one of them being the nurse Joy. He and Dawn sat at a table while their Pokémon carefully played under the table.
"Ash, there's a few questions I want to ask you."
"Well, shoot."
"1. What else can you do aside from get your Pokémon heal at a center?"
"Store them in a PC or trade with someone."
"2. What sort of things are sold for trainers?"
"Pokeballs or different variations, potions, status potions, escape ropes and repels. But since I don't even have a badge, I only get the most basic of items."
"3. When should you catch a Pokémon?"
"When it's weak. Pokeballs doesn't work on unconscious Pokémon. For that reason, I don't know." Ash admitted scratching his head awkwardly.
"Neither does anybody else except Pokeball makers but they won't say." Dawn lightly growled. She shook her head to refocus. "4. Do you know you're Pokémon type tables?"
"Yes."
"5. What's your goal?"
"To be a Pokémon champion." Dawn's eyes opened up.
"Wow. That's a high goal. Why do you want to achieve that?" She asked with interest.
"Let me answer with another question. How was your childhood? In Sandgem?" Ash asked, now getting serious. Dawn wasn't expecting this.
"Oh, um... It was fine. I had a good childhood with my parents and my little sister. Lucas is my next door neighbor. He's a bit serious, but he's always been a reliable friend. Lucas and I started helping Prof. Rowan when we were 15 and 14 respectably. At first it was just simple helping, but it eventually became a full blown internship with no pay. Eventually he started paying us during our internship as thanks for all the help we did. $14.50 dollars an hour. Why ask me?" She answered. Ash sighed and lowered his hat.
"Twinleaf Town is a nice quaint place, but it was a very boring and sad childhood for me. Dad left us, leaving just mom and I. Mom works online so I spent hours outside every day as to not disturb her. The hours where I do stay inside mom cries a lot. Don't worry, she's still functional, supportive and still attempts to spend time with me, but most of the time I was alone. Barry was the only other kid in that tiny town, and as you know, he can be too much for anybody. So for most of my life, I've been alone surrounded by six other people and my mom. Occasionally we had enough money to go to the beach, but we didn't have anyway of contacting anybody remotely so I only played with my mom. I want to be a Pokémon Champion, because not only do I get to make friends along the way, and create myself a Pokémon team, but I'll get all the attention I've always wanted. I want to be more than just a lonely kid from a tiny village. I want to be someone everyone respects." Ash looked up to see a teary eyed, sniveling Dawn staring at him so emotionally.
"Oh... my... god." She scooted over and hugged him tightly. "I'm so sorry you've been so alone for most of your life. It must've been so hard." She sympathetically said. Ash was used to his eternal boredom and not feeling strong emotions except for every once in a while, but to have someone not only listen but hug him with compassion, he could feel his dulled sadness sharpen and sniffed while feeling his eyes get wet. He returned the hug.
"Yeah... it was." They stayed there like that, silently crying, Ash letting out some of his bottled emotions while Dawn was just there for him. At some point A Nurse Joy came up to them.
"Umm, is there anything wrong here?" Noticing that everybody looked at them with various expressions, Dawn backed away while Ash wiped his eyes and nose.
"Uh, no. We were just... letting some feelings loose, is all." Ash explained. "Everything is fine. Thank you."
"Well, if you're sure." She walked away, and everybody else stopped paying attention to them, though a couple of people still kept an eye on them. The two teens then looked down at their Pokémon who also looked at them worried.
"Turtwig Tur?"
"Pip?"
"Oh come here you." Ash chuckled as he picked up Turtwig and played with him. "I was just having a much needed cry is all. Don't worry, I'm better."
"That's right Sweetie." Dawn cooed as she picked up her Penguin Pokémon. "I was helping Ash with a... thing he had. Everything is okay now. Now, who wants a tickle?" She asked as she tickled the water type, making it chirp and laugh by the interaction. Ash and Dawn laughed from how adorable it was laughing. At some point, they walked out of the Pokémon Center, to which Dawn gasped.
"Oh yeah, I need to let my parents know I'm going to go see all of Sinnoh with you. Stay here, and don't leave town. I'll be right back." Dawn then dashed away heading home. Ash looked to his left and saw the local mart. He went inside and was greeted by the cashier.
"Hello. How may I help you?" Ash checked his wallet. It looked like he had $9.30
"I'll have 3 potions please."
"That'll be $8.34." After paying for the potions, he exited the mart and looked in his inventory. Well, with that one potion that one guy gave me and three potions I just bought, that leaves me with five potions. And... 96 cents. We're practically broke." Ash groaned as he slumped down. "I probably should've gotten 3 bags of chips instead." It was then he noticed Dawn skipping happily along. "Well, might as well tell her the news." When Dawn greeted Ash, he said,
"Hey Dawn. So, I-"
"Hold that thought. I have something urgent to tell you." Dawn interrupted him. "Not only did I get my parents approval, the Professor already sent me a weekly check in advance. We now have $1,150 dollars on us!" That got rid of any shame on Ash's conscious. $1,150? He couldn't have an allowance because that went to essential things like the house, utilities, groceries and other stuff. But even then, it seemed like something that would take years to accumulate at less than 5 a week, and they had that instantly all of the sudden? Noticing his shocked face, she explained,
"Don't you remember? Prof. Rowan said he would double my salary by doing this. I had $14.50 dollars an hour and I work 5 1/2 hours everyday. Even on weekends. That's what I used to work for. Now we're getting paid a solid $30. Given my usual working hours, that's now 165 a day, and thus, $1,150 a week.
"Wow. That's… amazing!" Ash cheered as he bear hugged Dawn and picked her up. "This is great. Now we don't have to worry about becoming broke!" Dawn was laughing with him.
"Ash, put me down!" Ash complied.
"Sorry. It's just... wow! I never held so much as a $20 bill before. Now we have over a thousand?"
"Well, there is something we need to discuss about that." Dawn said, lowering Ash's mood but no less making him happy. "We do need to limit how much we spend. We can't just spend it as much as we can up to 0 by the end of the week for the new check. We need to budget how much we spend. Considering what we'll be spending on a daily or weekly basis, 5% goes to utilities like internet and such, 20% goes to supplies, 5% on new clothes, and 10% on ourselves. That means we need to spend only about 40% of it. So that means on average we should only spend $460, leaving us a buffer of $690 if we need it." Dawn explained in detail. Ash was silent before saying,
"Wow Dawn, I knew you were smart because you worked under the professor, but you're quite intelligent in more than just Pokémon, are you?" He asked in amazement. Dawn blushed from the compliment and smiled looking away.
"Thank you. There's more to knowledge than just Pokémon facts. How do you think humans got so far in society?"
"Right."
"Well, with that settled, let's get going. It'll take a full day to walk to Jubilife City."
"Yes. Let's get going." Ash agreed, and the two teenagers set off." Once they left Sandgem and were on Route 202, Dawn spoke up.
"Oh yeah, you just left the mart, did you? What did you get?"
"3 potions. I spent almost all my money. I worried about us not having food until you mentioned your salary."
"That's good initiative. Even if we had food, if we couldn't heal our Pokémon, we'd have to go back to Sandgem multiple times, making the trip longer."
"Yeah. I still don't have any Pokeballs though." Ash complained.
"Oh, you can use mine. I have spares." Dawn said happily as she presented to him 5 Pokeballs.
"Whoa, seriously?" Ash asked surprised.
"I mean it. I have a load of spares. You need to when you're a researcher. I also have permission to own more than one Pokémon since I'm a researcher. I have Star the Starly, Doofy for Bidoof, Sparky for my Shinx and Krikky for my Krickitot. And now Piplup's on my team. 3 girls and 2 boys. See if you can find your own team."
"Thank you Dawn." Ash nodded as he took the Pokeballs and ran off with Dawn following behind but keeping her distance.
Night eventually fell, and Ash had just successfully started the campfire.
"I brought more wood." Ash turned to See Dawn and her whole Pokémon team bring a lot of wood to the site.
"Thanks everybody." Ash thanked as some of the pile was put away while some went into the fire. Ash then prepared a dinner filled with beans.
"Wow, you did a lot, did you? I'm impressed with how much you did in one day."
"Yeah. I captured a starly, a bidoof and a shinx, and then used them to battle two guys and a lass. Today was very productive. I'm definitely glad I got those 3 potions." After a few minutes of silence, enjoying the fire, Ash asked Dawn, "Dawn, how long have you had those Pokémon of yours?"
"Star and Doofy are a couple years old. Why?" She asked confused.
"How strong do you think they are?"
"Maybe a little stronger than when I caught them but not by much. They've been more like pets and helpers in Rowan's experiments than anything else."
"I wouldn't mind training your team for you." Ash invited.
"Really?" She asked intrigued.
"Yeah. I'm a trainer so that's no problem for me. But you're still a novice in battling skill, right? You should be able to defend yourself as this journey gets harder and harder. You may catch some super strong Pokémon later down the line, but that's pure power and talent. And as good as those two are, they don't compare to skill and iron clad bonds. Let's have a deal here. You can be my mentor in anything that is more than basic Pokémon knowledge, and I'll be your mentor in Pokémon battling so that you're not just able to defend yourself, but be strong and skilled at once. Do we have a deal?" Ash offered extending a hand. Dawn eagerly took it. "Yes, we have a deal! Thank you so much!"
"Alright then. Let's change into our pajamas while dinner is cooking." Ash suggested.
"Alright. Look away while I change over there." Dawn instructed. Ash nodded as they each changed behind a tree. Ash wore a green t-shirt and green shorts with a yellow stripe down the t-shirt.
"Okay, you can look now." Dawn called out. Ash walked out from behind the tree and received a huge blush when he saw what she was wearing. She looked like she was ready to run a marathon since her pajama's looked like a track suit. Pink pajama bottoms and a pink zip up top. Both had yellow stripes going down the middle. She looked so majestic with her face, her hair, her physique. But one area that caught his attention was... was...
"Ash, your nose is bleeding!" Ash was brought out of his thoughts when he swiped a hand under his nose and noticed blood.
"Oh geez!" Ash panicked and went to his backpack to get something.
"Ash, are you okay?" Dawn asked in worry. Ash turned back to her, his right nostril plugged up with a napkin.
"Everything is okay! Let's just eat dinner!"
"O-okay." Dawn obliged, sweating a bit. After eating a bowl of beans and some fruit, the two teenagers were entering their sleeping bags.
"Goodnight Ash." She then closed her eyes.
"Yeah. Goodnight." Ash replied, not going to sleep immediately. The only thing he could focus on looking into the night sky was, ("I think I'm crushing hard. For a girl I haven't even known for a full day.")
A/N: So, what did you think? While there's fanfics of Pokémon so much more inclined to real life it's pretty freaking scary, I thought a little realism wouldn't hurt. Also, dear guest review, I tried looking for this MrSarril person, I couldn't find him. Nor you to tell you that in the PM box. Sorry. Anyway, tell me what you think of this chapter. Sayonara.