Together

Summary: Barry starts to feel like he's no longer needed in Dawn life. Dawn says otherwise. (Barry x Dawn, based on gen four Games.) (one shot)

Note: The following story is based on the gen four games rather than the show. Dawn team is also based on my current team of Pokémon Platinum. This story is also a one shot.

Disclaimer: I don't work for Game Freak and I also don't own Pokémon.

Growing up as a kid and watching your father be one of the Sinnoh Battle Frontier.

Barry father was always his hero and he wanted to be just as strong as his father and bolting to get a Pokémon was just one of his many goals. Barry though always had a problem and his problem was he couldn't wait. So, when word on the news said that Professor Rowan was back in Sinnoh he was out of the house in no time. Dragging an unwilling Dawn with him head first.

With no Pokémon with him and heading into the tall grass could only bring chaos and he was always thankful when Professor Rowan himself had stop the pair. Dawn being Dawn at the time did warn him, but he never did listen to her. His head in the clouds with the only thought of Pokémon and finally get a team and be as strong as his father.

Professor Rowan wasn't that bad though and he had his first team member and off he, want on the road, collecting gym battles and always one step ahead of Dawn. Despite starting at the same time, she was always behind, but that's because she was always slow.

At least that was Barry thoughts when he was much younger was Dawn was slow, she was caution, she only spoke when needed to and often times that was a yes or no or given commanders to her Pokémon in battle.

That was Dawn, the shy, the quite one, the caution one while he was loud and as outgoing as the sun. However, Dawn had one thing that Barry didn't have she had a stronger bond with her Pokémon. Taking the time to bond with them and train them to be just a little stronger than Barry, okay that wasn't the case. Dawn was a lot stronger than Barry even without the one extra gym badge. She could always KO his team and she mainly kept ground type Pokémon with her.

All, but her started whom was given an everstone to stop evolving despite its weak states and its many weakness being the grass type it was, Dawn always had a plan to ensure that the started had a victory. While Barry was busy trying not to get hit and making sure his moves hits the target, Dawn had other ideas and she didn't waste time.

While having a team full or rock or ground Pokémon her Pokémon always had a move on them that could handle a weakness type and they were stronger in defends allowing them to stand the strongest grass or water attack.

Or, had that dam quick claw and that Golem really knew how to pack a punch.

Barry father would always be his hero, but Dawn slowly gained his respect especially after learning that she had been dealing with Team Galactic a lot longer than Barry had. While he lost to his first Galactic fight, Dawn would win against them every time saving the world in the process. She was strong and somewhere in the cause of his life Barry had fallen for her. His mother must had known longer then he had noticed his feelings as he often went on how stronge Dawn was and how she became Champion.

He did, however felt a little down from time to down as he watched her grow distance from him. Back at home the pair always spent time with one another, Barry dragging her into whatever sorts of events or games he had in mind and Dawn being Dawn followed.

Now, though he felt more like a side character in her life. Just someone that she battles with because he can't keep his dam mouth shut and loses over and over again, to different sort of rock or ground Pokémon or the same turtwig that likes to cause flinching to his Pokémon with one bite. All he can do is watch her grow.

He on the other hand had felt like he had stop growing.

He was no longer one step ahead of her like he used to be and Dawn was out of his league. With Champion duties on her shoulders she didn't have time to spend time with an old friend because that what he was. She never said it herself, but Dawn didn't speak often and Barry had learned to read her well. He was just an old friend and Dawn had new friends, new Pokémon to train or new trainers to battle that were all ten times stronger than Barry ever will be.

And off he went back home no longer the busting sun as he was when he first had started, but Dawn was Dawn and always followed after him. Heading into whatever trouble he would cause. As he thinks on what he should do with his life. Since it's cleared to him that his only best friend in the world no longer needed him anymore. He didn't hear his mother calling out to him as he locked himself in his room nor did he hear Dawn unlocking the door or seeing Dawn peeking her head in.

It's only as he stopped staring at his arms does, he sees her standing there with that worried face on her. He tried not to cry because he was Pokémon trainer and Pokémon trainers didn't cry, but let he did. His tears rolling down his cheeks as he told her everything he had been feeling and thinking since she saved the world.

He was meant to be Barry. Bolting around and bumping into people because he didn't see them as he ran, always wanting to battle, always smiling and chatting now he was crying. Crying because he loved his best friend and fearing that she didn't want him, didn't need him anymore.

Dawn was never good with words, but she showed it in action and one hug was all he needed to feel like he was wanted again. To feel that he was needed again, to tell that his best friend was happy with him that she was proud of him. It didn't take long before Barry found himself once more on the road.

For a change she was the one that drag him about, their teams spent more time with one another and the pair of them were the toughest strangers together whenever someone challenged them to a double battle.

He felt happy again no longer a side character, but one of the main characters in Dawn life. She smiled at him and showed him to some new trainers that she knew and him being Barry wanted a battle with each and everyone. He got stronger, his Pokémon got stronger and now it was his term to be able to KO those that he battles or those that he challenged.

He was a test against Dawn as will, his team no longer was KO to one move anymore, turtwig bites wasn't a problem and the little grass Pokémon found itself being knocked around a few times before it was able to one shot his team once more.

He got the passion again to battle, to get stronger because he was no longer behind Dawn anymore and he also wasn't in front of her. He walked beside her, yapping away about Pokémon or any new ideas to win battles. Dawn listened. She always listened, but the feeling for her only grows and he wanted her more as a friend, but Barry being Barry didn't even know where to start. His Pokémon often watched their trainer make a fool of himself as he thoughts of ways trying to impressed her or how to tell her.

Dawn noticed though and gave him worrying looks at his sudden strange behavior of making himself look like a fool. He spoke to other trainers out of Dawn ear shot for any ideas, or suggestion they just told him to be himself and tell her how he felt.

How can he do that if he tripped over his own feet just being around her?

Barry was a mess.

Until one day he decided to try his luck and just tell her. Dawn didn't speak much unless spoken to, she was better with actions rather than words and so when he was ready to say what was on his mind and what he felt in his heart. Dawn was one step ahead she held a rose her face slightly blushed and Barry knew what she meant because Barry could always read Dawn.

He cried not because he was sad, but because he was just overjoyed. He went for a hug while Dawn kissed him on the cheeks with a smile on her face. Barry father would always be his hero and while his father went off leaving his mother behind to raise a kid, Barry wouldn't. He loved training his Pokémon, he loved being a trainer, but he loved Dawn a whole lot more.

His father was one of the strongest strangers and seemed like the man had everything, but Barry had one thing his father had forgotten. He had love and together, side by side the two became strong.