A/N: Thank you for the suggestion, guest reader, those have been helpful and I've made notes.
Dawn sat on a bench, the time now being 2:55 PM. It's been one month since Ash has left for the Hoenn region for some sort of confidential business on the request of Professor Birch. With 3 o'clock oh so near, she closed her eyes and replayed that day again.
It's been a magical week after Christmas because not only did she get a lovely locket containing two pictures of them, but became the girlfriend to her best friend in the whole world, Ash Ketchum. The whole seven days seemed to have passed by so quickly because they've spent what felt like hours of everyday just kissing and snuggling with each other. While they had to show restraint when there was other people, but when alone, all bets were off. And they sucked face everywhere. Their homes, the outside, the lake, Sandgem's beach behind a boulder, under a tree or in the tree branches, the Pokémon Center, everywhere. Pretty much the only places where they avoided were other people's houses and Rowan's lab. But on the second of January, that's when the bad news for her struck. After a knock on the door, she opened it to see the love of her life, Ash. And his shiny Pichu, Zappy resting on his head.
"Good morning, Ash." They kissed on the lips, the girl still feeling the electric zap like the first time they kissed. She then giggled at the adorable Tiny Mouse Pokémon. "And hello Zappy."
"Pichu!" He greeted.
"Hey Dawn, there's something I got to tell you. Get dressed and prepared to fly." And he said that with a serious face. This was... certainly different.
"Oh, okay." Taking a few minutes to get her winter clothes on, the two mounted on their Staraptor and Togekiss and took off.
"So, what's happening?" Dawn asked.
"You know Professor Birch?"
"Hoenn's top researcher. Yeah, why?"
"Yesterday, he requested for my help on something. He was discreet, so for the most part I don't know what he wants, but from what I could tell, it was important."
"And he asked that I come with you?"
"No. He asked for me alone." This took her aback.
"But why?" The female researcher asked incredulously.
"That's one of the things I don't know. If I could, I would've invited you and Barry even if he didn't request it."
"So how long will you be gone?" She asked sadly.
"I don't know precisely, but at the most, Birch said it would take over over a month. Maybe 2."
"What?! Then you would miss my birthday?!" Dawn cried out at this terrible news.
"When is that?"
"February 3rd."
"Well, I wouldn't worry too much about it then." By the time they reached Canalave City, there was already a two person speed boat on the docks with a sailor waiting.
"Ash, what about your mom and Barry? Don't they know?" The trainer turned to his girlfriend.
"I've told them yesterday. I only told you this now because I didn't want to give you an additional 12 hours of worry. You're aware that this is very short notice."
"Will you at least be able to contact me?" Dawn asked hopefully, tears forming in her eyes.
"I'll try, but I can't make any promises I might not be able to keep. I wish I could bring you but Birch has strictly requested this be a solo mission." Hearing that, Dawn lunged to give Ash a big tight hug, trying to hold back her sobbing.
"Pi." Zappy said solemnly with sad eyes.
"I'll miss you so much. I love you."
"I love you too Dawn. Hey..." Using his hand to move her face upwards towards him, he said, "Here's looking at you, kid." The researcher snorted from amusement as she pointed out,
"You took that from Casablanca."
"The way that I see it, the roles are reversed." He chuckled back. "I'll see you in a while. I love you."
"I love you too." The two heroes kissed each other on the lips for a solid minute before they separated and Ash got on the boat. They waved at each other goodbye with tears running down their faces until she couldn't see him.
It was very hard going through the month without her boyfriend. Without Ash to trade friendly insults and not wanting to burden the girl with his energetic personality, Barry left Twinleaf Town to continue his Pokémon journey, restarting it by running from city to city, training on the run while challenging trainers and gym leaders on their sixth hardest level. Still wanting to take a break from anything serious, Dawn spent her time at Sandgem Town resuming her what feels like now basic research assistant duties with Prof. Rowan and Lucas. It all seems to have lost its previous luster, but at least it gave her something to do at home, and it was fun to play with Lucy with the evolved Pokémon pets they had. Lucy loved Bebe's tail as it lightly flipped her around and thank goodness for Sparky's X-ray vision. Now they no longer had to worry about Lucy being lost if they couldn't find her. It was simple, but without Ash, simple wasn't as fun.
"Hey Dawn." His voice rang in her ears. She opened her eyes to see Ash in different clothes. He was wearing an unzipped thin bright blue and white coat with a black t-shirt underneath, blue jeans, and no scarf or hat. Zappy sat on top of his head like he did the last time she saw him.
"Pichu!" He called out in greeting.
"Ash." Dawn sighed, relieved that he finally came back, after getting the latest update that he was returning. And on her birthday no less. Standing up from the bench, she ran to her boyfriend and the two best friends hugged each other as tightly as they could, smiling the biggest grins.
"Pichu." Zappy awed at the display. Separating, Dawn asked the trainer,
"How was the trip to the Hoenn region, Ash?"
"Really warm. Even in the winter months, wearing autumn clothes was way too hot. Still needed a jacket as you can see, but much thinner."
"Can you now explain why you were needed?"
"Their government was dealing with the aftermath of their own criminal teams. I got to team up with their Pokémon Champion, Brendan."
"Wow! That's really cool! You got to be with another champion?!" Dawn marveled at the description. Ash looked away, sweating somewhat.
"Well, he's a little arrogant. His team is nothing special but the way he handles his swampert and manectric, they're quite something. However, he did say that if I wanted to fight him, I should return to Hoenn after becoming champion."
"Interesting. How about we return to your house. I'm sure your mom would love to see you again." Ash looked up to the sky remembering his mom fondly.
"Oh yeah. Let's go!"
Once the two made it back to the lightly snow covered Twinleaf Town, they landed right in front of his house and entered.
"Hey mom, I'm home!"
"Ash, dear! It's so good to see you again! I'm glad you let me know in advance, I made you a special breakfast." Delia mentioned as she presented him with a plate of pancakes with blue spots. "Oran pancakes."
"Yummy. It's been a while since I had those. Hey Dawn, want to share? I've already eaten on the way here."
"Sure." She answered, her mouth drooling from Delia's great cooking skills. "Breakfast smells awesome, Delia."
"Pichu!" Zappy agreed.
"Thank you dear." The mother smiled happily. Placing a plate in between the two at the table and pouring syrup on the stack, she then put two forks next to them. "Eat up."
"Thank you." Both expressed before taking the time to savor each bite. They even took the time to give each other a bite. Ash gave the final piece to Zappy on his head. After the first bite, Zappy cheered from the taste and gobbled down the last bit.
"Pichu Pichu Pichu!" He cried out in joy wanting more before accidently zapping himself, along with Ash for a half second.
"Ow!" Ash exclaimed from the shock before Zappy jumped off his head, running to the syrup bottle and sucked straight from the container.
"PichuPichuPichuPichuPichu!" The shiny Tiny Mouse Pokémon was practically screaming and running around in frantic jubilation, shocking himself every few seconds.
"Wow, he sure loves maple syrup." Dawn observed.
"Yeah, hopefully he doesn't become addicted to it." Ash chuckled with a bit of sweat. Eventually, Zappy tired himself out quickly since he wasn't trained like the others Ash had, so once Ash put on his signature hat and a thin red scarf, he placed Zappy on his head so that he had something comfortable to rest on. "So, shall we head out?"
"Definitely. Let's go to Prof. Rowan's place. When he told me that you were coming, that we should see him when you were ready."
"It'll be nice to meet up with the ol' Professor. Yeah, let's go."
"Have fun, Ash." Delia said to her son.
"I will. It's been great seeing you as well, mom. I love you."
"I love you too sweetie." They hugged each other for a second before the teenagers took a walk to Sandgem Town. Once they reached Rowan's lab, Dawn entered first calling out,
"Professor, Ash has returned!"
"Ah, Ash! The hero returns!" The old man's voice called from the other side of the lab. Come around back!" Taking Ash's hand, Dawn escorted Ash to the back of the lab where all of their Pokémon was kept. Rowan was currently tending to a drifloon that Dawn caught as a gift from that little girl in Floraroma Town. "Ash, good to see you, lad. How was Hoenn?"
"It was like summer came six months early." Ash responded.
"Hehe, yes. It can be quite hot for the unprepared. Want to show them to Dawn now?"
"Sure." Dawn was confused by this, especially when he yelled out,
"HEY! Come here everyone!" While some were recognizable to Dawn, such as Kangaskhan and Steelix and even his Bibarel, there were some she had no memory of Ash catching that she found really impressive. There was a swellow, a hariyama, a crobat, a manectric, an absol, a shuppet, a loudred, a skarmory and a marill. They each surrounded their master whom laughed from seeing all his own Pokémon. Pichu got scared and jumped off of him and hugged Dawn's leg. The girl was gleeful to see Pokémon from the Hoenn region that belonged to such an amazing guy. Once he was able to get back to Rowan and Dawn, he asked the professor, "So, do you have her gift?"
"Right here." Shawn replied with a visible smile as he took out a seal covered Pokeball.
"No way. You guys got me a Pokémon?!" The female gasped.
"Ash solely. I merely held onto it until this very moment." He answered as he gave the sphere to Ash. And he handed it to her.
"Happy birthday." Taking the ball, Dawn's eyes sparkled like stars as the smile on her face grew and grew until she threw the Pokeball. Flames surrounded the energy releasing the Pokeball to reveal an orange and yellow chicken with a small flame shaped crest on its head.
"Torchic." It chirped in wonderment.
"Aww! It's so cute, I love it!" Dawn cooed as she scooped the fire starter into her arms, snuggling with her present. Torchic chirped in joy being showed in such love. "It's so warm!"
"What do you want to name him?" Ash asked curiously.
"I think I'll go with... Phoenix." She decided. Zappy walked up to Phoenix.
"Pi?"
"Where did you get him? Starters are really rare you know."
"Yeah. I wanted to get you something but I couldn't find anything. I mean, there were a lot of cool stuff but none said 'the perfect gift'. That's actually a gift from Professor Birch to me so that I could give him to you."
"I'll need to say thank you to him then. Phoenix is just so warm and adorable!" The giggly girl gushed as she continued to snuggle with the fire chicken. Realizing something Ash asked,
"Say, where's Barry? I just now realized that I haven't seen him around and we didn't talk about him from our last talk on the video chat."
"He's restarted his Pokémon journey since you weren't around. Going all across Sinnoh challenging the gym leaders on their sixth highest difficulty."
"Definitely sounds like something he would do. Well, doesn't matter to me what he does on his own time." Ash shrugged. "Anyway, birthday girl, is there some things you want to do now that I'm back?"
"Oh I know what I want. Come with me." Dawn grinned as wide as she could. Taking his hand, the female researcher took him across town with Zappy climbing back up his head.
Throughout the day, they did everything Dawn wanted to do with her best friend. They went to the restaurant where Delia worked to each get a piece of birthday cake, they went fishing for some quality time and managed to catch a gyarados, a sky race to Lake Verity and back to see who had the truly faster bird(It was totally Staraptor, but Ash let Dawn and Spike win while still keeping it look real so that she didn't notice.) Now, they were looking up at the sky on a hill away from Sandgem, half cloudy and half filled with stars and no moon in sight. Likely a new moon at this point. To Dawn, today has been just perfect. Just above them, Zappy and Phoenix napped next to each other.
"This... was the best birthday... ever." Dawn sighed, completely content with her life. Snaking her arm into her jacket, she took out the special pendant and clicked it open to look at the photo of them together.
"Mine too. This was the first time I ever actually enjoyed my own birthday." Ash admitted, looking lost in his memories now.
"Ash, hey..." Dawn scooched over to the boy and kissed him on the cheek. "Don't think about your childhood if it's uncomfortable. It's just you and me. Right here and right now under the stars."
"Have I ever told you you're amazing?" Ash asked her with a smile. The girls' cheeks glowed pink and felt her heart flutter. With a giggle, she responded back,
"I can't take all the credit. You're just as incredible. You taught me stuff just as valuable as I've taught you. You taught me how to battle like a trainer, I... passively, maybe, taught you how to be more emotionally open, I think? I show you how to skip rocks and you showed me how to ice skate. And we both inspired each other to be the best we could be." The trainer mirrored her smile and looked back up at the stars.
"I'll never forget any of the time we spent together. I love you Dawn."
"I love you too." They then shared a kiss as Dawn partially climbed on top of Ash's body, letting her fingers feel both the hair on the back of his head and the slight amount of muscle making his lower abdomen. Ash did the same, rubbing the small of her back, making her shiver when the cool night air entered her clothes, and played with her dark grey hair, loving how it felt like strands of silk to him. She disengaged the kiss to giggle.
"What?"
"I remember when you would have those nosebleeds. Seemed like as we travelled together they happened less and less."
"I just got used to hanging out with a beautiful girl is all." Ash answered as he placed a hand on her right cheek.
"Really?" The female researcher asked, her heart swelling with love.
"Yeah. You have no idea majestic you look everyday to me." With great passion, she kissed her boyfriend again to get all the pent up emotion at the moment out, expressing it in the truest form she knew. This continued a couple of minutes until they needed to breath. Panting, she told Ash,
"Ash, you are just so... nice to me. Nice, generous, incredible... I just can't find all the right words to express how much I love you, or how happy you make me by just being you. I missed you so much while you were in Hoenn. You're the best friend I could ever ask for." Ash rolled his eyes in romantic embarrassment with a stupid happy grin, not used to being complimented this much in several sentences.
"Oh stop, you're getting me all jittery with that." He laughed.
"Well it's true. I know, tell me, how do you feel about me?" She inquired, curious to his response. He breathed out like he was asked a hard pop quiz question.
"Oh boy, where to start? When you... smile, it's like everything is great and stuff. If... you cry, it compels me to do everything I can to make everything better. Your laughter is like music to me. This entire journey is much more amazing than I could've ever imagined, because you were there with me 100% of the way. Heck, I took a break to be with you even more, and if you weren't there, I'd have likely earned my 8th gym badge long before now." Then his eyebrows turned downward. "Or I guess I wouldn't have if Team Galactic had their way." Shaking his head to get that thought out of his head, he turned his face to the love of his life. "And when we kiss..." Taking a second to lick his lips, he concluded with, "...There's nothing else more special than that." Hugging his girlfriend as close as they could get, he pecked her on the nose making her giggle.
"I don't want this to end."
"Let's give it five minutes. We don't want to freeze out here from hypothermia." He compromised. Giggling again from his remark, the girl snuggled to him.
"Let's make every second count then."
A/N: Sorry that it's been so long. The last couple of weeks before school have... not been great to say the least. I've been really bummed out. But now I'm good enough to continue writing. Anyway, thank you for the suggestions for making Iris a better character. Although, when I eventually do my stories of Pokémon B&W and B&W 2, there will be no 'Negaishipping' directly. For Ash B&W I'm going for what's called 'Imaginationshipping' with Ash and Bianca. I wonder why it's called that(tell me if any one of you knows or can at least guess)? And the continuation spin off of B&W 2(working title) will have the protagonist Nate and Iris being together. I have my own ideas on that. Please give me ideas on what name that particular ship could be. ;)
Let me know in the reviews below what you think of the chapter and my ideas for the B&W stories. Even if you don't like the ships I still consider your opinions and suggestions very valuable.