Hey everyone it's been a long time *dodges tomato* Yeah I know I've been absent for a while, about 7 months to be exact. I'm so sorry I took so long but I have a good reason:

I got caught up in school, YouTube, and lots of other things that I'll explain in the author's note at the end. I also procrastinated...a lot. Hey it happens to everyone and I'm just glad to be on spring break so I have some free time. Man so much has happened. Well I shouldn't keep you waiting any longer.

On with the fic!

Dawn was a little caught off guard by her mom's question. "W-what?"

Johanna sighed with a smile on her face as she knew Dawn would react this way. "Do. You. Love. Ash?" she said more clearly.

A crimson red started to creep up on Dawn's cheeks as she thought about the question. "Do I love Ash?" she thought to herself. I mean there's no question that the boy has a special place in her heart, but love him? She had a small crush on him, but she didn't know if she loved him. After a lot of thinking she finally answered her mom, "Well…I'm not sure how love is supposed to feel. Tell me what you felt when you were in love with dad."

Johanna nodded her head and said, "Gladly." Johanna thought for a bit before she started. "Well when I first met your father, we were both in middle school. At first we didn't get along. He would tease me, he and his friends would prank me and I hated it. Little did I know that he had his reasons for the way he used to treat me. When we were freshman in high school, a food fight broke out in the cafeteria one day. There was food flying everywhere and I didn't want to get involved at all. Then, your father grabbed my hand and shielded me against any projectiles, and we took cover behind a toppled lunch table." Dawn noticed the smile on her mom's face as she recalled the incident, like she cherished those kinds of memories. "Then," Johanna continued, "I asked him why he had taken me like that and that I thought he hated me. He responded by saying that he never hated me. He actually admitted he had a crush on me since they first met, and that he always got nervous around me and didn't know how to deal with it."

"Hold up," Dawn interrupted, "he teased you because he had a crush on you? That's kinda messed up."

Johanna chuckled at Dawn's reaction. "Yes I know it seems that way," Johanna said, "but I found it cute. So I gave him a peck on the cheek and said that we can talk more about this over dinner. In time, I fell in love with him. I knew I was in love with him because I would always love to be with him, my stomach twisted into a knot every time I was around him, but most importantly…he made me happy."

Dawn sat there thinking about her mom's feelings when she was in love and thought to herself, "Do I love being with him? Yep. Does my stomach twist in a knot when I'm with him? Yep. Does he make me happy? Yep." Dawn had finally come to a conclusion.

"Yes," she said out of context.

"Yes what?" her mother replied.

"Yes, I love Ash."

Johanna was beaming inside, but on the outside stayed relatively calm. She said to Dawn, "Well my work here is done."

Dawn smiled and said in the most sincere tone, "Thanks mom, I would've never figured this out without you."

"That's my duty as a mother."

Dawn rolled her eyes and headed up stairs to go to bed. As she laid in her bed, she found it weird to say that she loved Ash. She had to repeatedly say it in her head to get used to it. But now she was faced with the challenge of confessing her love to Ash. She also should keep her feelings secret from her friends for now, but she was sure they already sensed that she had a thing for the raven haired boy. Soon she slowly slipped into a deep slumber, with warm thoughts of Ash floating around in her head.

6:30am

Dawn was rudely awoken by her alarm clock buzzing. She groaned as she turned her alarm off and sat up on her bed with her hair all frizzy. She then remembered it was Saturday and abruptly laid down to get more sleep.

9:30am

Dawn awoke once again, this time a little more refreshed than and not as grumpy as earlier. She trudged down the stairs, making a subtle thump after each step. As she carried herself to the kitchen, she found a note from her mom on the table:

Dear Dawn,

Your grandparents needed my assistance and I didn't think you needed to come. I'll be back tomorrow morning. In the meantime, the house is yours for the day. I made you breakfast and covered it, and left $50 just in case.

Love,

Mom

The house to herself? For a whole day? Dawn thought of the possibilities. The first thing that popped into her mind was inviting Ash over and maybe confess her love and get it off her chest, but she immediately shook those thoughts and decided to let it boil over the weekend and if she still loved Ash by Monday, then she would try to muster up some courage to tell the boy how she felt.

As Dawn snapped out of her thoughts, she looked at the table to find a plate covered in aluminum foil and 50 bucks in the middle of the table. She sat down at the table and uncovered her platter to find scrambled eggs, rye toast with butter, and her favorite bacon. She always dreamed of building a palace made entirely out of bacon ever since she was a little girl. She ate her breakfast and headed to the couch to see what was on. As she flipped through the channels, she felt her phone vibrate in her pajama pants' pocket. She slid her phone out of her pocket and saw a text from Leaf:

Hey girl u wanna go to the mall today? :)

Dawn thought for a moment. She had nothing better to do, so she thought it wouldn't be such a bad idea.

Sure ;)

It didn't take long for Leaf to text back:

Ok great! Meet out in front of the mall at 11:30. Also, Misty and May are coming too.

Dawn smiled at the thought of a girls' day out, it would probably help her think about something else other than Ash. She eagerly went upstairs to begin getting ready for today. She usually was fast getting ready, but on weekends she sometimes would let the hot and steamy water hit against her for several periods of five or so minutes. After her relaxing shower, she wrapped a towel around her head and had one covering from her chest to her upper thigh area. She spent what seemed like forever picking out an outfit, but eventually picked out daisy yellow capri pants, a sleeveless blue and white striped crop top with a small white jacket to cover her shoulders, and a pair of Converse sneakers. She spent a while on her hair, which always gave her a hard time in the morning, and by the time she had put on her makeup it was 11:00.

"Shit I gotta go," Dawn said to no one in particular, as she rushed down the steps, grabbed her car keys, and drove off towards the mall.

A certain raven haired boy awoke groggily to the sound of his phone ringing on his nightstand. He blindly groped for his phone until he felt it in his hand and answered it, not even bothering to look who was calling.

"Hello," he said as if he was still half asleep (well he actually was).

"Sup Ashy boy," Gary answered in a little more upbeat tone.

"Dude it's…" Ash looked over at his clock which read 9:00am, "…9:00 in the morning. Why are you calling at this ungodly hour?"

"Well," Gary started, "9:00 isn't that ungodly," Gary said while also chuckling a bit. "Anyway, you up for hanging out at the mall today. Ya know…you, me, Paul, and Drew?"

Ash was thinking about seeing if Dawn wanted to hang out today, but I guess time with the guys would be fine. "Yeah sure, why not," Ash replied as a statement more than a question.

"Great, meet at the front entrance at 11:30."

"Aight, see ya then," Ash said as he ended the call. He didn't take that long to shower and get ready, so he decided to loaf around a little.

Dawn arrived at the mall parking lot and luckily, since it was still a little early, there were a few parking spaces open. Once she locked her car, she headed over to the entrance area where she found Leaf and Misty chatting with each other. They both noticed her and waved, and she waved back.

"Hey girls!" Dawn exclaimed.

Leaf and Misty responded back, but Dawn noticed someone was missing. "Hey where's May?"

Just on cue, May walked up right behind them, "Sup girls," she greeted nonchalantly.

"So what are we going to do?" Misty asked.

"I'm so glad you asked that," Leaf said, "because we're going to check out that new handbag store that opened last week."

The four of them got real interested and strolled over to the store.

Ash, Gary, Drew, and Paul were all hanging out around the lounging area of the mall, complete with a few chairs and a couch. Ash and Paul were sitting on the couch together, while Drew and Gary were each sitting in a chair across from them.

"So how'd you guys like karaoke last night?" Gary asked in a casual tone.

"I think Ash had the best time," Drew responded with a cheeky grin glanced towards Ash. Gary, Paul, and Drew seemed to get a good laugh out of this, but Ash was a little annoyed.

"And what's that supposed to mean?"

"Well you and Dawn were hittin' it off pretty well. I think you got a thing for her." Drew smirked and got Gary to join in on the fun.

"So Ashy, how was the drive home with her" Gary asked in a seductive yet playful tone.

"Ah shut the fuck up," ash said as he blushed a light pink, remembering his intimate hug with Dawn last night.

"Ahhhhh he's blushing, something must've happened," Drew exclaimed laughing.

"Maybe something did, maybe something didn't," Ash responded ignorantly, although he had just realized that he basically gave it away at this point. Ash wanted to get the spotlight off him so he said, "Fine maybe something did happen-"

"Ha I knew it!" Drew screamed, causing other people to stare at them.

"But you guys have to tell me what happened while driving home your ladies last night. Even you, Paul."

Paul had that pissed off expression as usual in this kind of situation. "Fine," he grumbled.

"Alright Drew you start can start since you started this whole thing."

"Fine I got nothin' to hide. May and I had a nice conversation about the game and karaoke on the way home. I tried to talk smooth, but she played it off as if it was nothing." The whole gang was silent until Drew finished, "but she did give me a little wink as she said goodnight." The rest of the boys said in unison, "Ayyyyyy!"

"Paul you're next," Drew said.

Paul sighed and said, "Alright if you guy will stop this nonsense. Misty kept trying to talk to me, which was a little annoying because she was asking so many questions. I answered some of them, dropped her off at her place, and politely said goodnight." Paul gasped as if he just explained something for the millionth time.

All the guys were silent until Gary said, "You know Paul I think Misty's got the hots for you."

Paul was a little shocked by this and answered back in what seemed like offense, "What makes you say that?"

"Well," Gary started, "she really wanted you to sing with her last night, and I see how she looks at you. It's almost a look of lust." The group, excluding Paul, started cracking up.

"Whatever," Paul mumbled. "How 'bout you hot shot?" Paul asked pointing at Gary.

Gary had a confident look on his face as he started. "Well Leaf was practically falling for me. She couldn't resist me." The rest of the group had a dubious look on their faces, which made Gary confess. "Fine, I tried to woo her, but she was playing hard to get. I have a feeling she low-key has a thing for me though," Gary finished while smirking. The rest of the group thought it was more convincing, but was still skeptical of the last part.

"Alright boys," Gary started, "the moment we've all been waiting for….how did it go with Dawn, Ash?" All the guys focused their attention on the raven haired boy and began giving him seductive grins to try to get him to spill the beans.

Ash gulped a little, trying to piece together his thoughts and express them so the guys wouldn't be suspicious. "Well," Ash said nervously, "we talked about the game and she commented on how I almost lost the game for us, and that Paul basically saved all our asses." Paul did a half smile at that comment, because he knew it was true. "Then," Ash continued, "we joked around about karaoke, I dropped her off at her place, and we kinda hugged."

Gary and Drew exploded at that last remark and pumped their fists in the air. "I fucking knew it!" Drew screamed.

"Shut up you're drawing attention to us," Ash said in a whisper.

Drew grew quiet but still had a smile on his face, "So what do you mean by 'kinda hugged'? Did you hug or not?"

"Yeah bu-"

"For how long?" Drew asked enthusiastically interrupting Ash.

"Like 45 seconds or something like that."

Gary and Drew were trying to contain their laughter, while Paul was chuckling louder than usual.

Ash was so embarrassed and annoyed, until he felt someone leaning on his head.

"Those purses were so cute!" Leaf said as she Dawn, May, and Misty walked out of the handbag store.

"So what do we do now?" Dawn asked.

May's stomach grumbled and the rest of the group laughed. "Well I guess it's on to the food court," Misty said answering Dawn's question. Just as they were walking there they all heard someone scream, "I fucking knew it!" They all tried to find the source of the exclamation and found the Paul, Gary, Ash, and Drew sitting together. Ash seemed kinda embarrassed while Gary, Paul, and Drew were laughing their asses off.

"Hey look!" Dawn said excitingly. "It's the guys."

"I wonder what all that commotion is about," Misty asked.

As they walked over they heard Drew ask "For how long?" and Ash responding "Like 45 seconds or something like that." Then the rest of the boys, excluding Ash, erupted in laughter. The girls approached the guys without neither of them noticing them. Dawn rested her arm on Ash's head and interrupted them saying in a suspicious yet playful; tone, "What was 45 seconds?" All they guys eyes grew wide, and there was an awkward silence for about five seconds until Paul, Drew, and Gary started laughing even harder.

"What's so funny?" Dawn asked annoyingly.

Gary looked like he was about to say something, but Ash gave him a shut-the-hell-up look and he refrained from speaking. "Oh it's nothing," Ash said sheepishly. Dawn didn't buy it, but she decided to let it slide.

"So you what brings you guys here?" May asked.

"Just hanging out and talking about yesterday," Drew answered while laughing at the same time.

"What about yesterday?" Leaf asked curiously.

"Oh just about how Dawn and Ash performed last night," Drew said in response.

Dawn started blushing and tried to hide her face behind her hair. The rest of the group, excluding Ash, started laughing, while Ash pulled his cap down over his face to hide his blush.

"Sounds interesting," May said while still trying to calm down. "How about we all talk about it over lunch?"

"Sounds good," Gary answered and the eight of them headed over to the food court.

Ash and Dawn were falling behind the group as they were having a nice conversation with each other.

"So you enjoyed last night?" Ash asked Dawn.

"Yeah, except for the part when the night had to end." Ash started laughing a bit, which made Dawn's stomach twist in a knot. Her love for this boy was becoming a burden, even though she had only discovered it less than 15 hours ago. She had to confess soon, but now wasn't the right time. She wanted to be alone with him when she told him.

Ash noticed the troubled expression Dawn had and became concerned, "You okay Dawn?"

Ash's voice snapped Dawn right out of her thoughts she needed to stop worrying about this, although it was kind of hard when Ash was right here. "Yeah, no need to worry," Dawn responded nervously.

"That's when I worry the most," Ash playfully responded. He and Dawn both started laughing and realized how far they were behind the group, so they ran to catch up with them.

Trailing the gang was a boy a bit taller than Dawn and the same age as her. He had a grimace on his face when he saw Ash and Dawn laughing. "Yeah you keep laughing," the boy said in a dark tone, "you won't be when she's gone."

Okay well thank you for everyone who has been patient during my hiatus. I'm so sorry about the long wait, and pretty much a filler chapter, but the there will be more action in the next chapter, so I left you on a cliffhanger. What can I say I like being devious at times *laughs evilly*

Anyway I have so many things to share with you guys. I did get my driver's license, and about a month later I got my car. It's a 2005 Jeep Cherokee. It runs pretty smooth, but it's such a gas guzzler, I have to get gas like every week.

During my winter break, I decided to explore Avatar: The Last Airbender because all my friends kept raving about how good it was. I watched the first three episodes to see how good it was and I instantly fell in love with it. I binge watched the whole series in about five days. I had to have more of Avatar, so I read all the comics, then watched all of Legend of Korra in about a week. I am completely in love with this series and am a self proclaimed Avatard. I can't get enough of it. I don't know what I was missing. Btw, I am a Kataanger so I went absolutely nuts at the ending. I was sad that the series was over, but I was so goddamn happy Kataang was canon. As a Pokemon fan, it's nice to see your OTP actually become canon. Korra was great too, and in my mind on the same level as ATLA, but it gets so much hate and idk why. I loved Korra's character and the rest of the crew, and it hit me in feels the feels when characters from ATLA were mentioned or appeared. I could go on and on about this but I don't wanna type that much (and I'm sure you guys are getting tired of this).

I got responses from 5 of the 6 colleges I applied to. I got into Seton Hall University, Monmouth University, and University of Delaware, with scholarships from the first two. I got wait-listed by Miami University and UConn, but decided not to wait for their responses. I still need to hear back from Lehigh University, then I can make a decision.

I got a new phone, an iPhone 6s Plus to be exact. I didn't expect it, my dad just called me and asked if I wanted a new phone and I said yes. i had a 4s before so the difference in size made it weird to hold my new phone for a while.

Also, I'm going to be a third term senior! I finished my last exams in high school, since seniors don't take Final Exams. I'm so pumped that I'm almost done high school, but sad at the same time because I've created so many relationships with so many different people and I'm gonna miss them. I probably gonna cry at graduation, but I don't care. I'm on the stretch people.

Well that's it for this very extensive author's note. Again I apologize for the long hiatus and want to thank everyone who hasn't given up on this story. If you wanna chat about something or find I made a grammar mistake, don't be shy to send me a PM, especially if you wanna talk about Avatar because I could go on and on about that. This is Halo Ash signing out, peace!