A/N: Hello everyone, here's another chapter! Finally. I apologize for the lack of updates, and you guys deserve an explanation. It would be very easy to blame this on real life – school, social life, other distractions – and while that definitely played a part, I can't deny that I haven't been interested in working on this story anymore. This story has been going on for too long, my writing has changed (and hopefully in a good way), and I'm just generally unhappy with the direction of this story. That isn't to say that it doesn't have it good parts, because it does and I enjoy those very much, but I feel this story could've been so much better, which makes it pretty hard to find the motivation. The only other solution would be a total rewrite, and I definitely don't have the motivation for that.

Buuuutt… I have the whole story already written out, I've invested so much in this story, you have invested in this story – so I just refuse to leave this story without a proper ending. So despite the irregular updates and the (according to me) low quality of the chapters, this will be finished. And I felt my loyal readers should know this, because you deserve that at the very least. I truly appreciate every little bit of support I get, and I promise you it won't be wasted. I can't thank you enough for that, you guys are absolutely wonderful readers :) I hope you all understand, and once again, my apologies. Thank you :)

Now, that was depressing, so have some IkariShipping fluff to cheer you all up :P

Disclaimer: I don't own Pokémon.

Leave It To Brocko

Chapter 26

"Bun, buneary."

"Again? Oh, fine, there you go."

"Mm." I opened my eyes as the conversation drifted towards me. My sleepy eyes were met by the sight of Dawn handing Buneary the Pokémon Egg, who then hopped away, cradling the Egg in her paws.

"She's been getting more and more motherly," Dawn said, and I blinked at her, before realizing she was talking to me. "Maybe it's going to hatch soon?"

"Possible," I agreed, my hazy mind slowly starting to work. Apparently the combination of closing your eyes while sitting in the warm sun on a softly rocking boat was very sleep-inducing. I blinked again and mentally shook myself more awake, and then mustered up a more helpful reply to Dawn's question. "It differs per species and Pokémon. How long have you've had the Egg?"

"Oh, uhm... It took me a while before I caught up with Paul again, so… at least a week," she said, her fingers touching her lips in thought.

"It's possible," I repeated. "Don't get too excited though, it can still take a while before it hatches. Sometimes it takes a month or even longer."

"Yeah, but I'm already so excited!" She grinned. "I'm sure Buneary will be a great mother, and I'm really glad that everything worked out with Paul and Weavile and Buneary. Now we can be a real family."

For a short, horrifying moment, I flashbacked to a few days back, when I had thought that Dawn was pregnant with Paul's baby, before reminding myself that, thank Arceus, this wasn't the case.

"Buneary," Dawn suddenly hissed, her eyes narrowing and her posture tensing. "Buneary, get back here!"

Following her line of sight, I saw Buneary waddling over to Paul, the Egg in her paws. And to Dawn's growing horror, the Pokémon continued on, completely ignoring her Trainer's subtle attempts to try and stop disaster from happening. Dawn undoubtedly wanted to prevent anything that could tick Paul off and make him come back on their agreement – and bothering Paul while he was reading was definitely tick-off-worthy.

"Bun buneary buneary!" The Normal Type Pokémon had reached Paul and was now pulling on his sleeve. Paul looked up from his book, before staring down at Buneary, one eyebrow slightly raised.

"Neary buneary!" Paw gestures were added to the conversation, the Egg carefully balanced in her other paw.

Then Paul looked up, staring straight at Dawn, his face unreadable. She sucked in a breath, her panic barely hidden beneath a nervous smile.

Paul looked back down at Buneary, the corners of his mouth momentarily quirking upwards, and then clicked a Pokéball off his belt and released Weavile.

Dawn exhaled heavily, relief and surprise obvious on her face. She shot Paul a grateful smile, and he nodded at her once, his face seeming blank to me again, before turning back to his book.

Hm. I blinked once, then chewed on the inside of my cheek in thought. Maybe our conversation had been effective after all…

On that note, I still had to tell Dawn about it sometime, but it appeared that moment wasn't now, as Buneary – after having handed Weavile the Egg – was now busy pulling Dawn with her.

"Okay, okay, I'm coming." The girl laughed, before smiling slightly apologetic at me. "I'll talk to you later, Brock."

"See ya," I said, giving her a half-wave she didn't see anymore. I watched as Dawn was being ushered to a place further from the railing and more in the sun, before being given the Egg and sitting down. She smiled at the two Pokémon conversing in their own language.

Her calm smile morphed in a panicked grimace when it became clear what their next step was.

Once again tempting fate, the two of them had approached Paul, and Buneary had gone as far as pulling at Paul's sleeve. Weavile jumped from one foot to another in nervous apprehension, standing slightly behind his mate. Buneary was smiling pleasantly at the purple-haired boy, chattering in her own language and pulling at his sleeve in what seemed to be an invitation to join them.

Dawn could only watch on with wide eyes as the scene unfolded. I leaned forward, pressing my lips in a tight line as nervousness coiled in my stomach. And as Dawn, I could only watch helplessly.

Paul had yet to respond verbally, only having one eyebrow raised as he stared down at the two Pokémon. Buneary switched tactics and turned to her mate, talking loudly and appearing to egg him on. Weavile seemed to hesitate, before somewhat puffing out his chest and stepping up to his Trainer.

Undoubtedly going against everything Paul had taught Weavile, the Pokémon put his paw on Paul's hand and almost seemed to plea with his trainer as he blabbered in his own language.

I sucked in a sharp breath through my teeth, tensing up. The outcome to this could only be bad – at the very least would Paul recall Weavile – and Dawn didn't appear to be more hopeful than I was.

Paul didn't respond; caught off guard by Weavile's out-of-character's behavior, perhaps? His face was the still the careful blank mask it always was, and I couldn't even begin to guess what was going on in that head of his.

Then his eyes flickered from Weavile to Buneary, before finally resting on Dawn. The girl was still sitting with the Egg in her lap, and she quickly hid away her panic behind an encouraging and even somewhat hopeful smile. Paul looked back at Weavile, stared at his Pokémon for several excruciating moments, before he relented. An almost unnoticeable sigh left his lips, his shoulders slumped forward the slightest bit, his gaze softened and the corners of his mouth relaxed.

My jaw dropped.

My mouth still hung open when he sat down opposite of Dawn, and she greeted him with a grateful smile – fortunately she was doing a better job at hiding her surprise than I was.

Weavile seemed absolutely ecstatic that Paul was there, and he and Buneary were chattering away, filling up the stretching silence between the two humans. Paul sat stiffly, and Dawn was looking everywhere but at him as she played with her hands.

C'mon Dawn, say something… I mentally encouraged her. Now is your chance. She took a few breaths, her posture going from uncomfortable to determined. Finally, she said something, and just like that both of them relaxed.

I relaxed back as well, a content feeling spreading through my body. My eyes were still on them, but my attention strayed. For whatever reason, I found myself thinking of the airport girl. She had blushed – blushed, no girl ever blushed around me! Well, except when I embarrassed them. But I was pretty sure I hadn't embarrassed her. I had only bumped into her, after all. That could hardly be called embarrassed-blush-worthy.

I knew her. I knew I knew her, but I didn't know who she was. I knew I had met her before, but the who or where or what or how escaped me. It was close, I knew it was, but the memory danced always just out of my reach. I rubbed my forehead in frustration, as if that would help me remember.

It didn't, for those of you interested in trying the method yourself.

A sudden lull in the conversation between Paul and Dawn forced my attention away from the blushing airport girl, and back to the romantic situation at hand.

For a moment I couldn't see what was wrong: the Egg was placed between Paul and Dawn, the latter holding it, and the Pokémon were standing next to Paul, both gesturing and babbling to him. But whatever they were asking him, his answer was very clear to me; crossed arms and stiffly shaking his head.

Then Dawn spoke up, and Paul tensed up even more. Not reading his Trainer's reaction quite right, and emboldened by his previous success, Weavile tried to pry Paul's hand loose, but the boy pulled it free with a scowl on his face.

Determination flashed across Dawn's face, and with a few words, she reached over, grabbed Paul's hand and placed it on the Egg. His eyes widened and it almost seemed as if he wanted to pull away, but Dawn's hand kept his firmly in place.

Dawn smiled, slowly letting him go. His hand didn't move from the Egg. The Pokémon had shut up, and Dawn was watching him in silent anticipation as well. He said something, and Dawn's smile widened.

And just when I thought it couldn't get any better, Paul smiled. Not a smirk, not a flash of amusement in his eyes, not the turning up of his lips, but a real smile. It was gone almost as fast as it had appeared, but Dawn had caught it too. She positively beamed as she started rambling on again.

A wide grin formed on my face.

Paul had smiled at Dawn.

Victory.

It had been late at night before I had been able to fall asleep. The earlier naps I had taken had made me quite energetic, and my mind had been buzzing with worries. Misty had returned inside this night, claiming she felt much better, and I had been arguing with myself whether that was because she spoke the truth, or because she didn't want to sleep with Ash anymore.

In the non-sexual sense, of course. I was pretty sure she still wanted to sleep with Ash in the- I had stopped my thoughts right there. Instead I had started to worry about the tense affair that had been dinner, with Gary and Leaf practically ignoring each other and Ash still being oblivious to Leaf's flirting and Gary's occasional death glares. Although that might have been because he had been sending death glares to Gary when Misty had struck up a conversation with the researcher.

And when I had finally, finally, managed to fall asleep, it had been fitful at best. My dreams had been filled with completely nonsense scenes of Ash claiming to be in love with Paul, Leaf and Misty getting married, Dawn changing the diaper of a Pokémon Egg, and Gary making out with my blushing airport girl.

So when I heard a metallic sound, I ignored it at first. A soft click, followed by the creaking of wood managed to pull me out of my sleep, and I half-opened my eyes. The room was lighter than before, light from the corridor coming through the crack of the door, and suddenly I was on high alert.

Someone was in our room.

Adrenaline shot through my veins, and I forced myself to stay still and clenched my eyes shut. My mind raced through the possibilities- a thief, a hungry Ash, a Pokémon with unknown intentions, Team Rocket with not-so unknown intentions, Paul returning from somewhere-

"Paul... Paul..."

A female voice. My body relaxed instantly when I recognized it to be Dawn's. I opened my eyes slightly, though I kept still, not wanting to alert her to my awake presence.

"Paul!" she hissed louder, and I could see her silhouette in her bright pink pajamas making its way through the room.

"Hmm... What-?" Paul sat up in bed, forcing himself awake. His voice held a rare confused note. "Dawn? What?"

"C'mon!" she whispered, grabbing his upper arm. "The Egg is going to hatch!"

To my surprise, he immediately got up. I shut my eyes in fear that they would notice me, and after listening to some shuffling, a soft click of the closing door signaled that they had left. My eyes flew open and I sat up straight, not hesitating about following them.

I had a perfectly reasonable excuse too. I was not following them because I wanted to see their romantic developments – because that would be rather stalkerish – but because I was a Pokémon Doctor in training, and I needed to be there in case something went wrong. It was my duty, my responsibility. And because I, with my superior human knowledge, was detecting an intimate moment between Paul and Dawn, I would keep myself hidden and give them the privacy they needed and deserved.

Yes, that was a completely reasonable excuse.

Right.

After quietly shutting the door behind me, I hastened through the lit corridor, following Dawn's fading voice.

"-was growing restless, so I got the Egg out. Then she started insisting that we should outside – I don't know why exactly, but she wanted out, so I went along with it. It's a bit cold, but I'm sure Buneary has a good reason for the decision."

Paul made a non-committal sound, and as they neared the stairs leading to the deck, Dawn continued, "Maybe she wants the baby to be born under the stars or something. Well, I'm pretty sure at least the baby is going to be born now. And Weavile needs to be there, of course. You don't have to stay awake, you know, if you don't want to, it might take really long, I have no idea, and I'd totally understand. Not that I don't want you to be there, I mean, I don't mind, and I'm sure that Weavile and Buneary would appreciate it, but you don't have to feel obligated-"

Arceus, she was nervous. And rambling. Poor Dawn. And poor Paul.

"I'm staying," he cut her off, saving Dawn from further embarrassment.

"Oh sure, great, that's really-" The door closed behind them, preventing me from hearing any more.

After sneaking up the stairs, I waited a few moments, before slowly opening the door. Peeking outside, I ensured that the coast was clear before slipping outside and hiding in the shadows, just as I had done last night.

Hm. This spying-on-possible-couples thing was maybe getting out of hand lately.

Contrary to Ash and Misty, Dawn and Paul didn't stay in the well-lit areas, but instead opted for a place further in the shadows. Despite the distance and the darkness, I could still see them fairly well, but I didn't dare getting any closer out of fear that they could see me just as well.

Paul and Dawn sat down on the floor, the Egg in the center. Weavile was released, and upon seeing the situation, he went straight in a panic attack. He ran around in circles around the Egg and the humans, his screeching getting louder with each passing moment, until a snap from Buneary managed to calm him down.

Paul frowned at his Pokémon, but Weavile wasn't paying any attention to him, instead he appeared to be following Buneary's suggestion of taking deep, calming breaths. When Weavile was finally calmed down, Dawn took over and continued with her nervous chattering. Paul was frowning.

Fortunately for all parties involved, we didn't have to wait very long.

The Egg was cracking.

A sudden silence fell over the group, and everyone seemed to lean a bit closer, myself included. Despite having been interested in the Breeding field for very long, I hadn't often witnessed this little miracle, and I doubted it would ever cease to be such an entrancing experience.

The slightly cracked Egg continued to crack, before starting to glow as well. It was getting really close.

The glow disappeared before returning more intense, and it repeated this process until it was too bright for me to continue looking. Then, when the light had disappeared completely and I was able to look back, a Buneary was sitting curled up in the circle of four.

A smile tugged at my lips. Iwas not close enough to see everything that was happening, but I could hear Buneary and Weavile cry out happily, followed by Dawn's cooing.

The baby Pokémon barely had a moment to look around, before it was being enveloped in a hug by its mother, and Weavile followed by hugging the both of them. Dawn clasped her hands together, squealing. She grinned widely at Paul, who, after some hesitancy, smiled back at her.

Weavile loosened his grip on his mate and baby, a wide grin on its face, and Buneary motioned for Dawn to come closer. The girl's eyes grew wide, and she fell silent, before slowly accepting the baby Pokémon in her arms from her own Pokémon.

A slow smile stretched on her face, her eyes glimmering as they locked on the Pokémon in her lap. Paul was holding back a bit more, and it took a bit of more coercing from Weavile before Paul crept closer to Dawn and the two Buneary's. With more care than I had ever seen Paul use, he reached out to the baby Pokémon.

Dawn said something, moving in his direction, and it caused Paul to back away immediately. Weavile pulled him back again, and after some more encouragement, he gently took the baby from Dawn, Buneary watching him intently.

Dawn sat closer to him, and adjusted the Pokémon slightly in Paul's arms. She didn't remove her hands from his arms. Beaming, she looked up to him, the stars enchanting her midnight blue eyes. Paul was staring at her intently, a smile softening his usually harsh features.

Bleh.

It was so sickeningly romantic that even I couldn't stand it. Don't get me wrong, I was really happy that they were making progress, but sitting outside in the cold in the middle of the night and watching them making googley eyes at each other while I could be warm in bed… After one last look at them, still sitting close together, I silently headed back inside.

The rest of my night was blissfully uninterrupted.

A glance at my watch confirmed what my gut had already been telling me: it was late. Alright, maybe it was not my gut, but my eyes – the thin curtain barely did anything to block the light. Paul's bed was empty and the sheets neatly pulled up, which must mean he had returned sometime.

I hurried through my morning routine, not wanting to miss breakfast. With a plate in my hand, I joined the six teenagers already sitting in the common room.

As expected, the baby Buneary was the talk of the morning. Misty and Leaf seemed to have temporarily forgotten about whatever was going on between them, and were both fawning over it. Ash too, didn't have any manly shame, and was very interested in the baby Pokémon, though not quite fawning as the girls. Gary kept a cool demeanor, but did remark that it looked very healthy. I had to agree with him.

While Dawn, Buneary and Weavile were proudly showing off the baby Pokémon to the rest of the group, Paul was just watching them in silence, eating his breakfast. I slid up next to him.

"So... Dawn and a baby Pokémon," I said to him. He looked at me disinterestedly. "That'll be quite a change in your usual travelling schedule."

"I guess." With that, he turned back to his breakfast and watching Dawn and the Pokémon. Mostly Dawn though, in my opinion.

Neither of them were acting awkwardly around each other, I observed during the remainder of the breakfast, and so I sadly had to conclude that nothing had happened between them last night.

When I got up to throw away my plastic plate, I noticed that the Team Rocket Trio was watching the baby Buneary as well. This was an opportunity for a subtle hint I was not going to let pass. Walking past them, I grinned at Jessie and James. "Babies are cute, aren't they?"

An inconspicuous look over my shoulder told me both of them had reddened, and my grin widened.

Brocko, something tells me today is going to be a good day.

A/N: Thank you very much for reading! I hope the chapter wasn't too bad. It was a pretty long one though, so I hope that helps ;) I know, it's again IkariShipping, but we'll be ending that arch soon enough. Also, I really wasn't quite sure how long Eggs take to hatch, Bulbapedia didn't really have a clear answer on that. Same for hatching, so I just combined anime and game. If anyone has more information on that it would be appreciated :) Anyway, let's hope the next chapter won't take as long as this one ;) Reviews make me write faster! :D

Thank you!

Recommendations:

Note: As of now, recommended stories might also be located on Archive Of Our Own. In that case it will be mentioned with 'AO3.' Stories found on fanfiction dot net will be labeled with 'FFN'.

Pokémon:Phantom by PinkFalcon. FFN. Amazing. That's all I can say about this PokeShipping multi-chapter. It's a modern version of the Phantom of the Opera, Pokémon style, and with a complete twist of its own. And I didn't think it could be done, but seriously, this is one of the best fanfictions I've ever read. Great writing-style as well. Definitely recommended.

Pokémon: No Need To Worry! by EmmyGWrites. FFN. If you haven't had enough IkariShipping fluff yet, this little one-shot might help. Dawn has to tell Paul… something… Fluffy and sweet and light-hearted, guaranteed to bring a smile to your face :)

Game of Thrones/A Song of Ice and Fire: The Slayer by jeeno2. AO3. SPOILERS for A Song Of Swords. One of the few Gilly/Sam stories in the fandom – and they're just so cute! Just a short adorable little story :)

Feel free to send me any recommendations of your own!