Hey guys! It must've been ages since I've posted the first chapter. Im really sorry about how long this took, I thought I'd of had it done by the time the story did reach 20 reviews (it surpassed that and I thank you for it). Then after that I ended up losing the file due to disk cleanup, that was the worst day ever.....and now it's finally here, Chapter 2, hope you enjoy, and review!

Chapter 2

Dawn blushed, not because what Paul said is necessarily true, but due to her sudden realization of that thought.

"So, am I right?" Paul asked.

Dawn immediately came back into reality replying, "Don't flatter yourself, of course not!"

"Oh, then why are you blushing?" Paul sneered.

"It's so not because of you, this whole thing's just been…so…so."

Dawn paused at the thought. Paul came up behind her, and hugged her.

"This whole thing's been so, what?" he asked.

Dawn's heart began beating rapidly. She knew it, and Paul could feel it. As a result he smirked, yet again. Now, Paul couldn't help but laughing. She had embarrassed him earlier, now he would do the same.

He let go of her and said, "Your heart's beating a bit much for someone you don't like."

"You were way too close to me! Haven't you ever heard of personal space?" Dawn yelled at him.

"Nope," he replied walking away.

'He's such a jerk! I'm not going to let him get to me.'

Paul was now walking through the forest and was hoping to find a nearby Pokémon Center. As he was walking, he heard a twig snap.

"If you don't like me, why are you following me?" he asked.

"I don't know where I am. After all, you know what they say. "Keep your friends close, but your enemies closer," Dawn answered pathetically.

"Yeah, but that can't apply to our current situation," Paul responded nonchalantly.

"Well, you seem to know where you're going, so, I'm going to follow you. Besides, you need to get your Electabuzz back, right?"

"I guess, but what does your following me have to do with Electabuzz?"

"More than likely, it's with Ash and maybe Brock," Dawn answered.

"No, more than likely, you're crazy in love with me," Paul replied.

"I'm not! Since when do you even care whether or not I liked you in the first place?" Dawn asked angrily.

"Since, you kissed me a little while ago," he replied.

"That, was an accident! I would never kiss you of my own free will," Dawn stated.

"Sure," Paul said sarcastically before walking off again.

Ash sighed as he leaned back towards a tree. He and Brock had spent their time trying to find Pikachu and Dawn. To add more difficulty to their task Paul's Electabuzz had ended up with them, and it wasn't getting along with the other Pokémon. At first, it tried to run away, but Brock convinced it to stay with some Pokémon food. After deciding to stay, it kept picking a fight with Chimchar, hitting it with random Thunder Punches. Ash's train of thought was broken as Brock called out to him.

"Ash, dinner's ready," Brock said.

"Not hungry," Ash replied.

"Don't kid yourself, you're always hungry. We'll find Pikachu soon. If you're going to find him, you will need your strength," Brock told him.

"Fine," Ash muttered in defeat as he took the bowl of stew from Brock.

"What worries me right now, is what happened to Dawn," Brock said.

"She's probably with Pikachu," Ash said spooning a bowl of stew into his mouth.

"Probably, what about Paul?" Brock asked.

"Don't really care what happens to him," Ash said bitterly before receiving a surprise shock attack from Electabuzz for disrespecting his trainer.

Ash shot a glare at the Elecabuzz, which received a few chuckles from Brock.

We'll probably just have to wait until tomorrow then," Brock said.

Dawn and Paul had yet to have found a Pokémon Center although they've been walking for hours.

"Could we please stop and rest?" Dawn asked desperately.

"We aren't traveling together, you've been following me all this while, so why should I?" Paul replied slightly annoyed.

"Please," Dawn begged.

"Fine, stop and rest here alone, Paul said coldly before walking off.

"No, wait! Please don't leave me here alone," Dawn replied almost crying.

Paul stopped in his tracks, glared at her and asked, "Why should I ?"

"I hate being alone! Especially in the dark, in the middle of nowhere!" Dawn stated.

"And I hate weak, whiny, pathetic, loser girls like you! I'm leaving!" Paul yelled at her.

"Fine! Leave then!" Dawn yelled back.

"Ok, I will," Paul said leaving.

"Jerk," Dawn muttered as he left.

As Paul walked he felt a slight twinge of guilt for leaving the girl behind, but this was one of the many things that set him and Ash apart. He travels with no one. He stops and rests with no one. Besides she'd only slow him down. After walking a good distance, Paul finally stopped and rested against the trunk of a nearby tree.

~Meanwhile~

Dawn sat herself down with her back against the trunk of a tree.

'He actually left me.'

"Who could leave behind a pretty, innocent, defenseless girl like me? Right, Pikachu?" Dawn asked.

"Pika!" Pikachu responded.

"Only a cold, heartless, insensitive jerk, like Paul!" Dawn shouted out. "What's worse is that jerk stole my first kiss!"

In frustration, Dawn kicked her foot against the tree, but quickly regretted it as a swarm of groggy, yet fuming Beedrill came out the tree seeing who it is that disturbed their slumber.

"Oh, I'm so sorry! I didn't mean to wake you!" Dawn said apologetically.

Dawn gulped as she spotted the glints in the eyes of many Beedrill.

Meanwhile~

Paul who just finally closed his eyes about to fall into deep slumber, shot open his eyes as he heard a loud shriek.

"Great," he said aloud.

After getting up from his comfortable position, he then spotted Dawn and Pikachu running from a swarm of Beedrill coming towards him.

"Why me?" Paul said as he sighed.

"Hi Paul! Mind taking care of that for me," Dawn quickly said before hiding behind him.

Paul angrily sighed and said, "Pikachu, Thunder."

Pikachu actually obeyed Paul and managed to scare off the Beedrill.

"Thank you!" Dawn said happily before receiving a dark glare from Paul. "What?"

"Can't you ever stay of trouble? And what's more pathetic is that Pikachu was with you and you were still helpless," Paul stated.

"Well, maybe if we had stopped and rested like I suggested, this could've been avoided," Dawn replied.

"I travel alone, got it?" Paul told her.

"Yeah, whatever. But in the meantime, we should at least stick together," Dawn suggested.

Paul glared at her at first, but he only gave a curt smirk when he replied, "You don't quit do you?"

"Nope," Dawn answered determinedly.

"You stay at least 5 feet away from me, got it?" Paul explained.

"Thank you!" Dawn said before hugging him impulsively.

Paul slightly blushed before quickly pushing the girl off him. He then walked away to another tree trunk and sat against it; it just happened to be approximately 5 feet away. Dawn gave a quick giggle before settling down at the tree Paul was previously at.

~Early Morning~

Dawn had been sleeping peacefully before she had felt someone slowly breathing close to her face. She slowly opened her eyes and saw Paul staring at her really closely.

"What are you doing?" Dawn said freaking out.

"I tried waking you up, but you're a really heavy sleeper. I thought maybe if I got close to your face—," Paul said before being interrupted.

"You'd kiss me right? Typical," Dawn said.

"Wrong, actually I was going to yell 'Wake up, troublesome.' really loud," Paul said.

"Well, you're very lucky you didn't," Dawn replied. "Besides, it's really early, why would even wake me up for?"

"You're right, that was waay too nice of me. Next time, I'll just abandon you," Paul said as he picked his things up and left.

"What?! Wait!" Dawn said following behind him quickly along with Pikachu. "Do you really travel this early?"

"Of course I do, it's the only way to get another town in a day," Paul answered.

"Oh, I see," Dawn said finally catching up with Paul.

The two continued to walk for quite some time, and the sun eventually rose. A question had been boiling inside Dawn's head at some point, and she couldn't wait to ask it anymore.

"Why do treat your pokemon the way you do?" Dawn asked out of the blue.

"You know, it was stupid of me to even think there was chance that we'd walk together in silence," Paul retorted. "Besides, what kind of question is that?"

"You know what I mean, you treat them harshly and coldly. You don't commend them if they do well, but yell at them if they don't do well," Dawn explained.

"You can't speak for my pokemon," Paul responded. "Besides, I'm not looking for approval."

"That's not even the point. I just want to know why," Dawn insisted.

"Look, it's really not any of your business, but if it'll get you to shut up for once…it's because I don't want to be like my brother, Reggie," Paul answered.

"He's so nice! Why wouldn't you want to be like him, in fact you could learn a thing or two from him," Dawn commented.

"You don't even know what you're talking about!" Paul shouted at her.

"I'm sorry," Dawn said quickly.

"You know…" Paul said unsure whether he should start up the conversation again, "Reggie quit being a Pokemon trainer."

"Really?" Dawn asked astonished.

"He collected all the badges from Kanto, Johto, Hoenn, and Sinnoh, but his collection of Frontier symbols remained incomplete," Paul said.

"Frontier symbols?" Dawn said confused.

"You obtain them from Frontier Brains, leaders of their own specific battling facilities in the Battle Frontier. Before you ask, the Battle Frontier is a ring of battling facilities set up all over Kanto, in which they test your abilities in specific areas. Ability, spirit, knowledge, braveness, tactics, guts, and luck." Paul explained.

"So which symbol or symbols was Reggie missing?" Dawn asked.

"The Brave Symbol, from the Battle Pyramid. The Frontier Brain was Brandon, and as much as my brother tried to defeat him, he got defeated himself," Paul answered.

"Is that why he quit?" Dawn inquired.

"No. Brandon told him that he lacked a unique battle strategy, that's why he quit." Paul finished. "I think what he did was really pathetic, so that's why I believe Pokemon should be strong to begin with. But you wouldn't understand, after all you're only a coordinator."

"I do understand," Dawn defended. "Being a coordinator is not as easy as you think, it's hard enough trying to show off a pokemon's talent, but even harder to try and make it appealing to an audience."

"Well, I think it's a total waste of time. Besides, that's taking the easy way out," Paul said.

"Then, why don't you enter a contest if you think it's so easy, you big shot!" Dawn challenged Paul.

"Like I said, it's a total waste of time," Paul replied getting irritated.

"Hypocrite," Dawn muttered.

Paul would've retorted, but their very timely, if not enjoyable conversation managed to get Dawn to be quiet in the meantime. The two silently walked on until they finally reached a Pokemon Center.

Wanted to write more, but decided that the rest would start off chapter 3, so that's it for now. Chapter 3 will be out soon (real soon, I mean it this time), so please Review and thank you! Mata ne!

P.S. OMG I almost forgot....I made a new AMV for PokeShipping, and I think I did a really good job....Could you watch it and comment on it on YouTube that would be most appreciated!! By the way, in the search box just put in Pokemon Lost Without You....you should see it, my username is PikaPrincess (I wish I could change it, I regret that name now....) Thanks!