Dawn went running down the stairs, she almost tripped a few times. She went into the lobby and sat on a bench on the far side of the room. She wanted to try and figure out these feelings. She was looking at how Ash cleaned up, and he did a good job. Dawn, of course, has cleaned herself up before just as well, and sometimes even better. But she has never actually 'wanted' herself during those times. Could it be because he was in a boys body and all those boy hormones are affecting her behavior? It seems pretty...
Dawn looked outside a window to see a far'fetched land on the street.
"Excuse, are you Ash Ketchum?" a soft voice spoke up.
"Hmm? Oh Nurse Joy. Yes, I am Ash." Dawn looked up at the nurse.
"You have a phone call for you."
"Who is it from?" Dawn got up to follow Nurse Joy.
"A girl from Hoenn, May Maple I believe."
Dawn froze for a while. May? She remembered her from the contest they competed in. She must have called just to say hello.
"Hey Ash!" her cheery voice came through the small speakers.
"Hey May. How are you doing?
"I'm just fine Ash. I'm coming later today to come and visit you."
"Really? What's the occasion?"
"Just to visit, why? Is that a problem?"
"No no, it's just... random for you to visit."
"Oh don't worry, I want to say hi to Brock and pikachu too, the whole group!"
"Okay I will see you soon, bye."
"Bye!" The phone clicked off.
Dawn got up and started her way up the stairs to tell Ash, when she remembered...
"The contest!"
She checked her wrist, and sighed. She didn't have a poketch. She began checking her pockets, hoping Ash kept a secret watch on him or something. She then noticed a clock on the wall, it was ten minutes after the contest started.
"Oh no!"
Dawn ran from the pokemon center to the contest hall. She entered and quickly found Brock sitting with pikachu.
"Ash where have you been?" Brock called out.
"Sorry I lost track of time when May called."
"May called? Oh tell me later, Dawn's starting soon. You made it just in time."
Dawn saw Ash run out and give a little heroic jump that he usually does when entering an arena. Dawn sighed. But after his appeal, she must admit, Ash did pretty good. It seems that her coaching yesterday really helped Ash, everything went perfect. Ambipom did a new trick where she would use her swift to form a design, then use double team and focus punch to hit every swift star at once and cause the hall to be covered in the sparkling dust.
Ash made it to the contest battling round. Dawn relaxed a little more now. She knew Ash was a good battler, she was only scared of him not getting past the first round. Ash won all his battles with buneary, who would throw a kiss or a wink at pikachu whenever she won. Pikachu just blushed. The finals, Ash made it. Dawn saw the finalist compete. She was good, but Ash was better, at least she hoped he was. Good thing he was. It was a close match, but luckily the ice beam trick she taught Ash yesterday worked. Buneary would use dizzy pounch as a faint attack to force the opponent to jump up to dodge, and then use ice beam where the opponent couldn't dodge anymore.
"Congratulations Dawn Berlitz" the announcer proclaimed to all the cheering fans, Dawn included, "here is your ribbon!"
Dawn was so happy she was jumping with joy. She was one ribbon closer to entering the grand festival. She looked at Ash with pride, but whats this? Was Ash crying?
"Congratulations Dawn!" Dawn went and met up with Ash, with Brock not far behind.
"Yes Dawn, it seems your training is really paying off" pipped up Brock.
Ash looked at Dawn, "hey you made it, I was wondering if you were going to show."
"No need to worry"
"Oh Ash, what did you say before the contest", Brock spoke up, "about May."
"Oh that's right" Dawn remembered now, "May called earlier and said she would come and visit."
"Really, maybe we should head to the pokemon center to see if she has arrived yet."
They entered the pokemon center to see May sitting on a bench waiting. When she saw them enter she got up.
"Ash!" She went up and hugged Dawn. Dawn felt a little strange hugging May, she liked the warmness the radiated from May, but at the same time she didn't want to like it. She almost pushed May away from herself.
"Hey May! What's up?" Ash asked.
"Oh hey Dawn, I haven't seen you since our contest together, how are you?"
"The same as always."
May laughed, "How about you Ash?"
"Oh you know, collecting badges, beating rivals..."
"That's good, what about you Brock?"
"Just taking care of these two knuckleheads."
"Well I got to check into my room but afterwards lets meet up for dinner, okay." May turned and left. Dawn couldn't help but stare at her as she walked away. Something about May looked... No! She mustn't have those thoughts!
"You okay Ash?" Brock noticed the way Dawn looked at May.
"It's nothing to worry about." Dawn tried to wave him off.
They all went to a local burger joint. It wasn't anything special, but it allowed them to talk. About May's contests, about Dawn's contests, about Ash's latest gym battles, about anything. The whole time Dawn couldn't help but look at May's beauty. She almost hated herself for it. Dawn took a walk alone through the city to think this over after dinner. She was feeling a sudden change within herself. Why was she now checking out women? She was straight, she liked men. Men!, she thought to herself, I like men. I like men!
"I LIKE MEN!"
She found herself yelling it to the town. She looked around and realized she was Ash, and got very odd stares from people on the street. Dawn embarrassed herself, and maybe Ash's image. She made her way to the pokemon center now, and began thinking again. She didn't have a problem with lesbians, she just wasn't one. All though, she was in a guys body, so is it really gay to like girls then? And if she kept liking guys, since she is in Ash's body, would it be gay as well. Is Ash going through the same thing she is, does he sort of feel like liking guys now? She would never ask, because she didn't want to asked herself. Well anyway, she wanted to hold onto liking guys, so she wouldn't be sexually confused when switching bodies. So she began to think of guys she knew. There was Paul, but he was too cold hearted and mistreated his pokemon. Kenny, no he is too annoyingly clingy. Barry, he was fine if not a little too annoying. Ash, is-
"Hey Ash." Brock's voice cut off Dawn's thoughts. She walked into the pokemon center without realizing it, and ran into Brock.
"Oh Brock, what are you doing here."
"Well we are staying here for the night. But I want to talk with you."
"Sure, what's on your mind."
"Well, I noticed the way you have been looking at May recently." Dawn gulped, "Do you have a crush on May?"
"I don't know. I mean, I see her and I get these weird feelings, but at the same time, I really don't want to have these feelings. Do you know what I mean?" Dawn decided to be honest about her feelings.
"Well Ash, you might have accidentally fallen in love with May, so to speak."
"Accidentally..." she repeated, "So it was an accident."
"Maybe you should talk with May about this."
"You know, maybe I will."
Brock was surprised by his new attitude to work out problems like this. "Really? Wow, you know you should have done this with Dawn."
All of Dawn's current thoughts were deferred when hearing this. "What about Dawn again?"
"Really Ash, sometimes you could be so clueless, even about yourself. Don't you remember when-"
"Excuse me" a soft voice spoke out, "It is getting late and it's time to cl-" It was Nurse Joy's turn to be interrupted.
"Oh no Nurse Joy, The night air, and sparkling moonlight are the perfect complement to the beauty you possess that brings light to the darkness outside! Hurr-" Croagunk popped out of his ball and started to drag Brock away after a dose of his poison jab.
Dawn was outside of May's room, she knocked and entered her room.
"Am I interrupting anything."
May and Ash were sitting on the bed. Ash was blushing.
"Oh thank you!" He said, he got up and left in a hurry, leaving Dawn in a daze, May was just giggling.
"What was that about?"
"Nothing just girl talk" May said to Dawn. "So Ash what brings you up to my room so late."
"I just...I wanted to talk to you about something." There was an emotion in her voice that made May stop giggling and made her more serious.
"Sure Ash, we could talk about anything."
The authors original notes are as follows "At the time I felt like I was getting somewhere being an author. The reviews I got from this fic really helped keep me motivated. They said I keep character well and such. Now reviews basically praise my story telling ability. I like that. I was actually stuck on this chapter. I really didn't know where to go here. I knew I wanted to explore the situation Dawn was experiencing last chapter but I didn't know how. Then one thought came to my head. May. At the time, I wasn't a Hoennshipper. Anyways I had trashed a rendition of May and Dawn talking on the phone. I started off with May giving obvious hints that she likes Ash and also subtle dissing of Dawn. Dawn listening to her being trashed was a little angry but couldn't show it. Anyways it didn't feel right so then I trashed it and took it a different way. This way. And then it just wrote itself from there. Anyway later."