"So here we are." Brock said, he looked to his left. There stood the body of Ash, pikachu on his shoulder, standing up straight, arms crossed, and eyes closed.

Brock looked to his right. Dawn body was standing there. Standing rather cold, he hardly moved, or talked anymore. But his eyes, his eyes were still warm.

"You guys ready to go?" He asked. None of them replied, or made any motion of them understanding what he said.

The boat was going to be docking soon in the now visible and upcoming Snowpoint City. The group was outside watching the land grow larger as they approach it. It began to snow a couple of hours ago. It was quite cold, but neither Ash nor Dawn could feel the frosty embrace.

"Land HO!" A sailor called out. He lowered the bridge between the boat and the dock to allow the passengers to get off. Dawn went first, then Brock, and finally Ash.

"So here we are." Brock said, he was trying to lighten the mood.

"You ready for the gym battle Ash? Only one more badge after this one."

Dawn just kept walking.

"How about you Dawn you ready for your contest, just one more ribbon right?"

Ash just kept walking.

"So do you guys want to go check into the pokemon center?"

They just kept walking, but shifted their direction toward the pokemon center.

"I will take that as a yes." Brock said defeated.

All three of them walked up to the counter. A happy nurse joy smiled down on them.

"Welcome to the Pokemon Center." The chansey behind her also cried out a welcome.

"Yes." Brock talked and acted calmly and respectable, now isn't the time for trying to charm Nurse Joy. "We need a room-"

"Two rooms." Dawn cut in.

"Right. Two rooms, and our pokemon to be checked in and rested."

"Of course" Nurse Joy replied as she handed Brock two keys. In return all three trainers handed over their pokemon. "Oh, you wouldn't happen to be Dawn Berlitz would you?" She asked Ash.

"Yes."

"Your mom sent a package for you."

Brock took the package and opened it in their room. It was jackets for the cold, one for everybody.

After trying them on, Dawn asked Ash to talk with her privately. Both stepped into the room Ash would be sleeping alone in.

"You ready to go?" She asked. She pointed out the window, toward the direction that the lake was supposed to be in.

Ash followed her hand to the direction she was pointed, he sighed, and said wearily, "Not really."

Ash and Dawn made their way down the city streets. There were many sights and markets, each offering different and varied things. They only had to ask a man quick instructions to how to reach the lake.

They began walking down the main path until, Dawn spotted an opening. "Through these trees." She edged her way into the thicket. She was going off the main path, like they did when they first met manaphy.

Ash nodded. He followed suit, and kept behind Dawn, who seemed to know the way to a forbidden part of the lake. Honestly she was just guessing and exploring. The tension that hung around them, blended well with the atmosphere. The trees were more clumped together than the other lake they traveled through, making darker, colder, lonelier. They spent a good half hour traveling like this. Until Dawn began to show signs of worry, Ash could tell, they were lost.

Ash didn't say a word to her though, he really had nothing to say, he didn't know the right path or where to go.

Mental anguish came to Dawn as she was leading, even though Ash was following her, she felt alone. She was lost and she knew it, she didn't know what direction they came from, and what direction the lake could be. She was about to snap, when she heard it.

Water. The magic, life giving water. Ash heard it too and turned his head in that direction. Both of them headed toward the noise of water.

They jumped and ran through the thickets of trees and bushes. It was exhilarating, the water, in some way, gave them hope or at least for Ash. They pushed and shoved there way, until they ended up falling into the lake itself. The trees and bushes seemed to be the edge of the lake. This was an unfavorable condition though. Being drenched in cold weather is not something longed after. Both swam toward the same shore that had somewhere they could sit and rest that wasn't surrounded by trees and bushes.

They were both shivering violently.

"Fire" Dawn said through shivering gasps, "We need to make a fire."

Ash moved in between himself and Dawn, he began quickly digging a hole. Dawn watched him curiously as he dug underneath the snow, creating a shallow hole. He then got up, rather heavily, and headed toward the trees. He searched around for a few minutes before he returned with various sticks, pieces of bark, and moss. He arranged it all that to a camp fire. He then took off his gloves, and searched inside of them. He pulled out the lint and added it the center of the pile. He then got two rocks he dug around in the shallows of the water, he then began to scrap them together over the pile of wood, moss and lint. But he began breathing in heavy, his vision was slipping, he was losing energy. Before he could start a fire, he passed out.

Ash came too, it was dark already, and it began to snow slightly. Being dark it should have been colder, but he didn't feel cold. He sat up and looked around. The fire that Ash tried to set up, was roaring, it was also bigger than what Ash had prepared. It seems that Dawn had continued where Ash left off.

The fire dried most of their clothing, so they weren't in danger of hypothermia, especially with such a huge fire.

"I saw how you prepped the fire, so I just expanded to that." Dawn walked into view throwing more sticks and a bit of moss on the fire. It answered back with a small, but steady stream of smoke.

She sat around the fire, to join Ash. The various nocturnal pokemon made noises, prominent among them were hoots.

"So where did you learn to make a fire like that." She asked.

"I learned a few things from Brock on all my journeys."

"Brock is a good guy."

The cackling of the flames took over for a while as both of them seemed to be staring at everything but each other.

"Did you find it." Ash asked.

"Did I find what?"

"Manaphy."

"No."

It was a thought that never quite entered their heads before. The book they read only mentioned that the Lake they were at could be host to a manaphy visit, but only that. How long would they have to wait before they find manaphy again. Dawn's face seemed to show despair that she was thinking.

"Hey don't worry."

His voice surprised her. "What?"

"Well be fine, we will find manaphy." Ash put on the best smile he could, under the conditions, nevertheless, it was a genuine smile.

"How can you be so sure?" She turned her head to face him, but he was still looking elsewhere.

"Because I believe everything will work out in the end."

Dawn turned away from him, and unwillingly, smiled.

"So you wouldn't happen to have collected any food, did you?"

She handed over his hat, it was full of berries.

"Um... You do know I used to wear this everywhere, no matter what right."

"I washed it first."

"Thanks."

The cackling of the fire became the prevalent sound again, Ash picked up a stick and threw it on the fire.

"I wonder if Brock and our pokemon are worried about us being gone." Dawn said, "It's not like we told them we would be gone for so long."

"I bet they're worried, but I'm sure Brock has got everything under control."

"So then, we are staying here for a while aren't we."

Ash got himself up, he pulled out a branch, with a big enough of flame and started to run it across the floor melting the snow that had accumulated on the floor. He then dug out a shallow trench that could fit his whole body. He then lined it with grass and moss and stones. He set fire to the trench.

"What are you doing?" Dawn asked.

"Making a warm, yet rocky bed."

After a couple of hours the fires in his bed went out, leaving the stones in there hot and steamy. Ash took off the jacket Dawn's mom made for her, and laid it over the hot stones.

"Dawn go to sleep, wrap yourself in the jacket, and sleep. I will stay awake during the night, keep the fire going, and watch out for dangerous pokemon."

Dawn looked from the bed to him. "No, I can't let you stay awake all night."

"For the first night at least. I have been resting all day. We will do shifts, but at least for tonight. Just sleep up."

Dawn looked at the jacket on the floor. "What about keeping warm, what about you."

Ash was now only wearing Dawn's usual outfit. He walked toward the trees again. He pulled a few branches down. Picked off the leaves, and stuffed it into her vest.

"I'll do what I can."

Dawn would have loved to argue more, but there was truth in Ash's words, and she did feel quite fatigued from making the fire, to keep Ash alive. She did as she was told, but just once, she promised to herself. Just one more time, for him.

Ash was tired, but he was nothing he wasn't used to. He loved putting back on his jacket, it was nice and warm. Dawn woke up and went to harvest more berries, as Ash warmed up. Ash also put out the fire, for now. They both decided to scan the coast, checking for manaphy. They were in a forbidden part of the lake again, so no one would find them, no one to disrupt them. Maybe that's why manaphy would hang around here. Ash and Dawn would walk along the perimeter of the lake. If there wasn't any kind of land to walk around, Ash and Dawn would wade in the shallow part of the water for as long as they could. Luckily they were wearing waterproof boots.

"So..." Ash said.

Dawn would have like if they kept quiet, to keep it less awkward. But the silence was awkward enough that she just had to talk. "Yeah."

"So where you going to go?"

"Pardon."

"After you leave, where are you going to go?"

"Toward the next contest, then the Sinnoh Grand Festival, like my Mother before me."

"That's a good plan."

"What about you?"

"Thrive."

"Thrive?"

"Dawn like I said before, I'm not going to forget what happened between us."

Dawn remained quiet, until a question formed in her head that she had to ask. "You asked where I was going to go, does that mean you've accepted that I'm going to leave?"

They kept walking, always keeping at least one eye looking for manaphy. "Dawn, yes, I have accepted that your leaving. Do I like it, no. Dawn I do love you, and I know you love me. Just don't expect me to say goodbye, because if I say goodbye then that's it. Goodbye."

"Don't try to convince me to stay Ash."

"And why can't I?" Ash tone was serious.

"Because I don't believe just love will keep us around. In the end, you will leave, leave for a new region, leave for a new pokemon, leave for a new challenge. You may feel enlightened now, but when we switch back, you will return to your usual sense of denseness. You will be immune to everything, everything that could keep us together."

"You don't know that."

"Ash, did you know I had a crush on you since the beginning of my journey. Through out the journey however, you made no move, no shift toward wanting to be together. I back-seated my emotions. All the while everything that came upon us, fueled those emotions. I do love you Ash, that's why I have to leave, because I can't just stay in back seat."

"I think you are mistaken."

Dawn didn't say anything.

"If you love me, and I love you. There isn't anything that can stand in the way. Manaphy swapped our hearts, so even if we go back to our original bodies, that doesn't mean I will love you any less, I still have the same heart I did when I was me. Dawn, once I was trapped in a snowstorm, what got me through it was the love from my pokemon. Now I am asking for your love Dawn. Let's say we never see Manaphy again, I wouldn't care. As long as I have you with me. We may fight, make up, and fight again. But there is always something I wanted to say to you, through all my pokemon captures, through all my gym battles, through all my victories."

Dawn looked at him, differently.

"Thanks for being here for me."

The feeling in Ash's chest was back, he even felt a little of it in Dawn's.

"Can I have one chance, one chance to prove that, well that this is right, this is where we belong, this what were meant to be.

"I don't know."

"You have nothing to lose, but everything to gain."

"I just... don't want a repeat of last time."

"Last time?"

"You wouldn't be my first boyfriend Ash. There was another boy in our town. He was slightly older than me. But when he was allowed to become a trainer and leave, that's what he did. He abandoned me, and I don't want that to happen again."

"Dawn don't you know me by now."

"I thought I knew him."

"He didn't know what he had, I almost didn't either. But now I do, I'm glad we got switched, I almost missed out on the greatest adventure I could ever take."

"That's incredibly cheesy."

"Hanging around Brock all these years has an effect you know."

They got closer together, they looked into each others eyes, and they kissed. It ended almost immediately, both had the same thought in their mind.

"Not until we switch back, okay?"

"Yeah, I agree."

They both turned to face the direction they were walking. They were heading towards camp. But how was rolling around on the hot stone bed.

"Manaphy!" They both cried in unison.

Manaphy, surprised, used the flash attack. During the attack, Ash took Dawn's hand, she accepted.

"WHERE HAVE YOU GUYS BEEN!" Brock nearly broke the sound barrier.

All the pokemon also seemed to be happy too, all of Dawn's pokemon, except for mamoswine who acted as though she didn't miss Dawn, when he did, ran up and hugged Dawn. The same thing happened to Ash, except since his pokemon were bigger. It ended up with him on the floor."

"Sorry Brock." Ash got off the floor, "We just got caught up with something."

Brock had to double take. He saw Ash and Dawn holding hands. "Good for you guys."

"Thanks Brock." Dawn said.

"You know for a minute, I thought things were kinda..."

"No need to worry Brock. I'm just glad everything got resolved." Dawn said.

"Yeah." Ash looked over every creature in the room, then lovingly at Dawn, before kissing her for real this time. "Everything works out in the end."

And this is the end. I would like to thank those who kept up with me through this all. Sorry for being one of the worst updaters. I hope you enjoyed. Stay gold.