Hey guys I'm back! Here's chapter 2! I hope you enjoy
Disclaimer: I do not own Pokémon…I wish I did though
Ages (sorry I didn't add them in chapter one)
Ash: 14
Iris: 14
Chapter 2: Stration's Mall of Wonders
'Oh, no, no, no please no!' Ash thought in misery. Iris having a firm grip on his wrist was leading him the place where he dreaded.
"Come on Ash, hurry up that mall opens up in a few minutes and I don't want to wait in any lines!" Iris said looking back at him with a smile on her face.
"Heh heh…right," Ash said with a halfhearted smile, he didn't want to disappoint Iris but he sure as hell didn't want to go shopping!
When they got to the building, females surrounded it like an army of Drants, they were all chatting away and showing off all the neat stuff they got in the previous hours before.
After Iris wedged her way into a good spot to stand in the crowd, she turned to her raven haired friend and asked, "Hey, Ash what do you think of Princess Festival Day?"
"I hate it," Ash said out of habit, but sweatdropped as it caused a few girl look at him with a frown on their face, "uh, I mean it's because I uh-"
"It's okay I understand," Iris said, "you're a guy and all, you probably think it's unfair that girls whatever they want all day-"
"What do you mean it's unfair?" Iris turned only to be facing the blond girl and her two friends from the hair salon, "we've been waiting all year for Princess Festival Day, and you think it's unfair?"
Iris blinked then looked quickly down at the ground, "Oh I didn't mean it like that…I just said it cause he's a guy an-and I thought it make him feel a bit better about-"
"He's your friend?" the blond girls said cutting Iris off.
"How come he's not caring anything?" the girl with green hair asked.
"Haven't you've gone shopping yet today?" the girl with the pink hair questioned Iris.
Iris, still looking at the ground, "Um, no not yet," she looked up at the girls, "but we're planning to, as soon as this mall opens!" Iris answered sweatdropping as she gave a lopsided smile.
The blond girl arched an eyebrow, "Okay...uh sure whatever, come on girls let's find Jason, ugh that dumbass is probably lagging behind somewhere," they started walking off into the crowd, but didn't get too far before Iris heard:
"We've been up since like 5 this morning," said the pinked haired girl
"Yeah, and that weirdo just started shopping? What kinda girl waits that long to start shopping on Princess Festival Day?" asked the green haired girl
Iris frowned a bit as messed with her fingers, seeing this Ash asked, "Something the matter Iris?"
She looked at him those brown eyes gleaming, "Huh, oh no…I was just thinking…"
Just then the doors of the mall opened and in a frenzy of squealing females rushed inside, Iris grabbed Ash by the wrist.
"Come on, Ash let's go!" Iris said giving him a wink
Ash felt himself blush, "Right, coming,"
As they entered Iris started to explain this mall, "You see Ash this is Stration city's Mall of Wonders! It has ten floors, four food courts-"
Does it have a lot stores?" Ash asked halfheartedly looking around the building's massive interior
Iris nodded, "Yeah, I heard this place has like over three hundred shops!"
Ash groaned, and then bit his tongue to keep himself from begging her not to take him to all those stores.
"Now come on, this way," Iris lead the way to the elevator.
"Where are we going?" Ash asked as the entered the elevator.
"To the basement," Iris said causally pressing a button that had the letter B on it.
"The basement?" Ash asked, "Why are we going down there?"
Iris laughed, "Whoops, I forgot to tell you, in the basement, there's an awesome movie theater!"
Ash eyes widened, "A movie theater?" he asked as they started going down, "but I thought you said you wanted to go shopping,"
Iris blinked and bit her lip, "Uh, we will," the elevator door opened, "but right after we see a movie!"
Like Iris had said a movie theater was located in the basement of Startion's Mall of Wonders. There was a concession stand, with tons of yummy smelling popcorn and other snacks and there was the listing of the movies showing on a large screen on the main wall. All ready lots of girls had flocked to the front desk asking for tickets.
"Whoa this place it's packed," Ash said aloud as they stood in line for the tickets, he looked at Iris, "um so what movie were you thinking about seeing?"
"Well what do you want to see Ash?" Iris asked causally.
Ash felt confused, "Uh…I thought since it was Princess Festival Day you wanted to choose so-"
"Oh, right sorry I uh…" she let her voice trail off, and then seemed to have her attention absorbed into the movie lists above.
"Uh, Iris you're not going to make us see one of those love movies or chick flicks are you?" Ash asked cringing at the thought.
Iris shrugged, "Maybe, maybe not," she said and then held Ash's hand, "it doesn't really matter anyways as long as you promise to sit next to me; we'll both be fine,"
"Su-Sure thing, I'll sit next to you," Ash said feeling his heart pound as Iris held his hand in hers.
"What tickets will you like to have, Miss?" asked the ticket man
Ash braced himself for what Iris would say but to his surprise he heard:
"Uh…I'll two tickets for Wonder Launchers 3, please," Iris said with a smile.
The man in front of the purple haired girl blinked, "Uh, what was that, Miss?"
Iris rolled her eyes, "I said two tickets for Wonder Launchers 3,"
"Um, alright sure," the man give Iris a spectacle look before handing her the tickets
Ash stood there for a second; did he just hear what he thought he heard?
"Iris, you want to see Wonder Launchers 3?" Ash asked in disbelief as they started to walk again
"Yeah, I already saw one and two and it was epic and I've been dying to watch the third one!" Iris squealed, "besides didn't you say you like the Wonder Launcher series to?"
"Well yeah, the series was freakin' awesome and loved it but…" Ash rubbed the back of his head not knowing if he should ask this or not, "but I thought, you- I mean girls didn't like the Wonder Launcher movies,"
Iris laughed, "Oh come Ash, how can someone not love the Wonder Launcher series, I mean they're so cool! With all the action and explosions and-Ahh!"
The purple haired girl was cut off as she tripped and was sent flying forward.
"Whoa, Iris are you okay?" Ash asked catching the girl before she hit the ground.
Iris smiled, that smile that made Ash's legs feel like jelly, as he helped her up, "I'm fine, thanks Ash,"
"Oh, what a gentlemen," both teens looked to see a lady, probably late twenties, in stylish clothing looking down at the scene, "how sweet of you to help that lovely girl," she said pinching Ash's cheek,
"Yup, that 'cause Ash is such a sweet guy," Iris said cuddling his arm to her chest, making the raven haired teen's face go red
"Er, hehe, thanks Iris…" Ash said trying to ignore the burning in his face as he looked at the beautiful girl next to him.
"Oh, sweetheart, you dropped these," the lady reached down and picked up the two tickets Iris had gotten but before she handed them back she looked at them, her eyes widen, "oh…you two are going to see, uh, Wonder Launchers 3?"
"Yeah," Iris said with a nod taking the tickets from the lady, "the Wonder Launcher series are the best-"
"Wonder Launchers 3?" came a high pitched voice, coming over to the lady with a big bin of popcorn came a little girl, about nine or ten, with a Purrloin close behind.
The little girl looked up at Iris, "Why would you want to see Wonder Launchers 3, it's so boring!"
Iris blinked and frowned a bit, "Oh…um well I just-"
"Stacy, don't be rude," the lady said giving the little girl a glare
"It's was all your boyfriend's idea right?" the little girl said ignoring her mother and glancing over at Ash.
Ash rubbed the back of his head as Iris let go of his arm "Oh, uh I'm not her boyfriend I'm just-"
"No, I-I think Wonder Launcher's is cool," Iris remarked with a small smile.
The girl named Stacy tilted her head to the side, "But…but why wouldn't you like to see the final episode of Battle and Love? That's what we're seeing, right mommy?"
The lady sweatdropped, "Uh, right honey, now come along we need to get our seats," she started shooing the girl and her Purrloin ahead of her, "happy Princess Festival Day you two!" she said giving a nervous wave
"Wonder Launchers 3," Stacy said with a giggle, "why would a girl want to see that, it's for boys!"
At this remark, Ash saw Iris's face fall, "Uh is something the matter Iris?" he asked; the smile she once wore was now gone and replaced with a frown.
Iris looked up "Uh, yeah I'm fine," she gave a quick smile, "now come on Wonder launchers 3 doesn't start for a few more minutes, let's grab some popcorn!"
"Do want me to get it?" Ash offered, "the line's pretty long, and uh-"
"Nah, we can do it together," Iris grabbed his hand, sending that electrified feeling rushing though him, and lead him toward the concession stand line.
After getting a large tub of popcorn Ash and Iris made their way into the movie theater. As they debated on where to sit Ash noticed that all the other people that were in the theater were guys.
"Um, Iris don't you notice something?" Ash asked, wondering if Iris felt uncomfortable knowing that she was only female in the room.
Iris looked around, her big brown eyes scanning everything, "What? I don't notice anything," she turned to him, "do you notice anything Ash?"
Well that answered that question, "Er, no I was just…I mean-"
"Hey how 'bout we sit there?" Iris suggested, pointing to some seats near the front of the theater
"Sure," Ash said, trying to ignore the strange glances they were getting from the males in the theater.
"Awesome, right at the front," Ash said with a smile, plopping down into the chair
"Yeah, I want to be right up close when all the explosion happen!" Iris remarked sitting beside him and nestling the popcorn tub between them, but just as she got comfortable in her chair a voice said
"Damn it; dude your blocking my view!"
Ash turned at the sound of the annoyed sounding voice, only to see a teen with blue hair and black highlights, a nose ring and ear gages. He glared at Ash with piercing blue eyes, "Hey, dude tell your friend to his gigantic head of his!" he pointed to where Iris's mass of dark purple was blocking his view.
Ash frowned, but before he could snap back any response Iris whirled shooting the guy an angry look.
"Who are you calling big head?!" Iris hiss angrily, an anime vein popping out on her head
The guy jump back in shock, "Holy crap!…Y-you're a girl?!"
"Yeah, she's a girl and if you need to see better, you can just pick your ass up and move," Ash said continuing to glare at the guy.
The guy didn't seem to hear Ash, "Why is a girl doing in a theater that's playing Wonder Launchers 3?"
Ash opened his mouth to answer for her, but Iris answered instead, "The only reason I'm here…because I-I like the Wonder Launchers series…that's all," she was about to turn around when the guy reached and grabbed her shoulder.
"So," he said giving a sly grin, "you like Wonder Launchers 3? Which makes you like…like one of those… tomboys, right?"
Iris's sweatdropped a bit, "I…I uh, yeah I-I guess-"
The guy gave a small laugh, "Oh, a tomboy…" he looked at Iris and gave a wink, "that's hot…really hot,"
Ash felt his face redden with anger, "Hey, back off jerk! She's with me!" he blurted out
The guy arched an eyebrow, "Oh, so that chump is your boyfriend, huh?" he asked Iris
"Chump?" Ash cried and anime vein popping out of his forehead, "Who are you calling chump?!"
Iris laughed, ignoring how the raven haired teen was glaring angrily at the blue haired guy, "Oh, Ash, no he's not my boyfriend; he's too much of a little kid!"
Ash slumps over amine style, "Iris…" he groans
The guy gives a chuckle, "Oh, so you're not taken?" he smirked, "so your Iris right?"
Iris nodded, "Yup that's me, Iris Dragonlight,"
"So, Iris Dragonlight" the guy continued, "I was wondering…uh you won't mind me being your prince for a lovely princess like you on Princess Festival Day, would you?"
Ash felt his heart drop down into his stomach as he watched Iris blush, "Oh, well I'm flattered, but I don't think my kind of prince in my fairytale have a nose ring and ear gages,"
The guy blinked then sweatdropped, "Uh…well I-I-"
Ash had to choke down a laugh; the guy shot him a nasty glare.
"But thanks for the offer," Iris said with a quick smile before turning around and giggling
Ash smirked at the guy, who glared angrily at him. In return Ash blew a raspberry as the blue haired guy as he got up to change his seat.
"Ash stop being such a little kid and turn around," Iris said grabbing Ash's shoulder and forcing him to turn around, "the movie is about to start!" the lights in the theater start to dim.
"That guy was total jerk," Ash muttered as he slouched down a bit in his seat, he heard Iris laugh her cute laugh.
"Oh come on Ash don't worry about that guy, pffth, there is no way in the world I'd go out that guy like that," Iris said stabbing two straws into the large soda she had in her hand, "now will you stop talking about it?"
Ash felt himself blush, "Oh, sorry," he took a sip from one of the straws
In the darkness of the theater, Ash felt Iris shift slightly, "But…if you were wondering, Ash…I-I uh, put my standards way higher than that guy,"
"Really?" Ash asked slowly, but Iris didn't seem to hear as the movie began to play.
'Since, her standers are higher that ear gage guy…where does that put me on Iris's standard list?' the raven haired boy thought.
Throughout the two and a half hour period Ash found out the answer to his question. During the movie Ash noticed how Iris cuddled close to him and how she didn't hesitate to rest her head on his shoulder. To make thing better Iris didn't get mad at him when he accidently drank soda from her straw and to his surprise she even feed him pieces of popcorn a few times.
'Man, I must be pretty high on Iris's scale if she liked hanging out with me that much,' Ash thought as the two walked out of the theater when the movie had finished
"Come on Ash there are still a whole bunch of other things I want to show you in Startion's Mall of Wonders!" Iris said leading him by the hand back to the elevator.
"Okay, Iris," Ash said giving a smile, he loved it when Iris held his hand
Ash and Iris managed to squeeze into an elevator with a whole bunch of other passengers, all female.
'Ugh, it smells horrible and it's so damn loud in here,' Ash thought to himself, it smelled like perfume and other girl junk who were talking loudly to each other, he looked over to his left to see Iris smiling and complementing a girl that was showing off her new collection of bracelets and earrings. As the girl pulled out bracelet after bracelet and earring after earrings out of the multiple bags she he noticed that Iris seemed less and less interested in the girl's new jewelry.
"Here, you must have one set of my earrings," the girl insisted holding up big hoop earrings
Iris sweatdropped, "Oh, um no thanks, uh but earrings aren't really my thing-"
"What? Why not?" the girl asked looking confused
"Uh…i-it's because uh," Iris looked briefly at the earrings, "it's because I-I kinda d-don't have my ears pierced so…"
The girl's eyes widen, "Wh-what do you mean?" she reached and pulled back Iris's purple hair to show that Iris didn't have those little holes in her earlobes, the girl blinked, "Oh I guess you don't have your ear's pierced"
"Yeah…" Iris said giving a sheepish grin; she moved closer to Ash. Her left hand shot up and she quickly covered her ears with her violet hair.
"Oh, well you at least must have one of my bracelets!" the girl pulled out a sparkly pink one and slipped it onto Iris's wrist
"Oh, no that's nice of you but-" Iris started, but elevator door open and a few girls rushed out.
"Sorry, this is where I get off," the girl said, "happy Princess Festival Day!"
"B-But-" Iris stammered, but the girl was already gone, the elevator door closed and it started moving
"Uh…you okay Iris?" Ash asked, the purple haired beauty nodded as she fiddled with the bracelet the girl had given her, "uh, okay, so you never said what floor you wanted to get off on,"
Iris looked up "Oh, right we're getting off at floor eight,"
"Okay," Ash pressed the button marked eight, as he did this he noticed the chattering of the other girls in the elevator had stopped, he looked to see them all staring at Iris.
"What?" she snapped when she noticed them staring, most of them gave nervous laughs before turning back to their conversations.
Ash gave a shaky smile as a few gave glances at him then to Iris who was staring at the floor. As the elevator climbed higher and higher each passenger filed off at the floor their desired, by floor seven Ash and Iris were the only ones on the elevator. The raven haired teen stood there, it was really awkward, with elevator music playing Who Run the World(girls) (TG2012: what that song just happen to pop in my head at I thought it be nice for Princess Festival Day oh and all rights to Beyoncé) and the clink clink sound as Iris messed with the bracelet that random girl gave her.
Ash took a breath before inching a bit closer to his dragon loving friend and saying, "Uh, i-if it makes you feel any better, um that bracelet looks really nice on you Iris,"
"Oh, you really think so, Ash?" she asked looking up from her wrist.
Ash blushed, her big brown eyes made his face turn red every time she'd look at him with such a pretty smile, "Uh, yeah I really do,"
At this Iris looked back down at the pink sparkly bracelet and laughed.
Ash sweatdropped, "Uh…d-did I say something…funny?"
"No. Never mind don't worry about it," the elevator doors opened, "now come floor eight is waiting!'
As Ash stepped out of the elevator he couldn't believe his eyes the whole place had arcades and gaming stores all over this floor! Not a sparkly, pink thing in sight, it almost seemed as relief to the raven haired teen who had been around girly things all morning.
"Do, you like it Ash? Floor eight is awesome isn't it?" Iris giggled as she reached out and holding his hand.
As they started walking around Iris explained something very important about Stration's Mall of Wonders. Like she had said before there were ten floors but the floors were designed to fit customer's wants and needs so that sales would go up. The basement was the movie theater and then floors 2, 3, 5 and 7 were all floors that attracted female customers while floors 4, 6, 8 and 10 attracted male customers. Floor 1 and 9 were mostly for the malls management, food courts, big events and performances.
"This is floor 8 it's a floor people go for gaming," Iris told Ash, "it's so much fun to play video games almost as fun as battling and being outside!"
Ash stopped his face bearing the expression of confusion, "I-Iris, y-you like video games?"
Iris looked back at him and laughed, "Ash, come on haven't you ever heard of…of a tomboy?" she seem to quiet her voice on the last word.
"Tomboy? Iris what do you mean-"
"Ash let's not think about that," Iris said, and then winked, "now come on let's go have some fun!"
Throughout the next three hours Iris led Ash around to arcades where she showed him her favorite games. Each one she played she rocked at, there was a dancing one were Iris moved and flowed beautifully with the music and then there was Fruit Ninja (TG2012: I love Fruit Ninja it rocks!) where her finger flew over the screen slicing all the fruit like it was nothing! Many bystanders and even Ash were shocked by how good she was at video gaming and all the tickets she won showed her passion for them. After playing almost all the games on floor eight Ash followed the purple haired girl down to floor four where they race go karts and they even rented skateboards and had a blast on the outdoor skate park on floor ten on the roof of Startion's Mall of Wonders.
"Hey, Ash are you hungry?" Iris asked when they were both exhausted from all the fun before
"You bet I am, wanna go to one of the food courts?" the raven haired boy suggested
Iris shook her head, "Nah, I got a better idea, why not go visit Cilan at the Startion Café?"
"Oh, yeah I almost forgot about Cilan," Ash said, remembering how the green haired connoisseur had ditched him earlier this morning, "sure let's go see how Cilan doing and grab a bite!"
As Ash followed Iris through the doors and out into the streets of Stration city he could help but think, 'She's different,' he thought as she walked beside her and stealing a glance at her dark chocolate face, 'totally different from all the other girl's I've traveled with,' all morning the raven haired teen had been waiting for Iris to drag him to some super girly store and force him to stand there and watch her pick out all this girly crap, but to his surprise it never happened. At first he thought Iris was playing a trick on him, he thought she was waiting to get comfortable and then bam turn all girly and force him to go to all the floors with boutiques and stuff, but it never happened.
'But why...' Ash thought, 'why is Iris acting so different from all the other girls?'
Okay yeah I know a sucky way to end a chapter. It was a bit short, I think, but if I made it any longer you guys wouldn't have anything to look forward to in the next one! So hoped you liked it if you did review!
Bye: Toadettegirl2012
PS: did you guys see my little notice at the end of chapter two of Give me Your hand! I mean t every word of it and really want to see the negaishipping section of fanfiction grow so if you have ideas for negaishipping, post them please! Or for more information you can Pm or review to me about it