Summary: "You changed my life and I changed yours, because when we met sparks flew, flowers bloomed, love blossomed. Forget the IOUs; we were destined to be together, forever and always."
Thanks to Ju5t An0th3r H3d63h06, GuiltyCrown09 and malory79080 for reviewing. :')
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~ d◦e◦s◦t◦i◦n◦y ~
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~ Chapter 4: Just Fine, Just Dandy ~
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"Wait, so let me get this straight: what you mean to say is that you're actually a member of the Elite Four?"
It was late in the evening and they had tucked in for an early night in their cabin. Well, at least that was his idea. Dawn merely went along with the promise of getting to dissect his life.
Paul shuffled uncomfortably under her curious stare, cursing himself for even opening his mouth. The gleaming eyes unnerved him. He tried to distract himself by pouring himself a glass of water from a nearby jug, but he knew she wouldn't let it go that easily.
Why did this topic even come up again? He blew his bangs out of his face and scowled unhappily at his reflection in the glass.
"No. I'm not officially part of the Elite Four yet but-" And, cue being cut off unceremoniously.
"But why?" Dawn drew out the syllables in a screechy level-up to being whiny and looked confused. She evidently didn't get it. Paul pinched the bridge of his nose in annoyance, making her pout. He made his way to the bed slowly and sat down next to her sprawled self with a thump. He set down the glass on the side table and turned to give her an exasperated look while she just smiled back at him.
"Will you just let me finish? Geez…" Talking with this annoying girl was more troublesome than he thought it could ever be. He gritted his teeth but complied to her actions of tugging his sleeves and rattling him like a puppet.
Wait— why was she on his bed again?
…Never mind that now.
"The League didn't want to replace Bertha just yet. They wanted her to retire in dignity and what-not and give her a good send-off and all that shit. Plus she wanted to see if I was 'good enough' and all that blah-blah, so I was on a probationary period-"
"Which is why you were with Cynthia- oh, I get it now!" And once again, hello excited interruption.
Understanding had dawned on her and she looked at him excitedly. He snorted inwardly at the lame pun. He definitely was losing it. Her stupidity must be rubbing off on him.
"Oh Mesprit, I know a celebrity!" she squealed in the next second and made him slap his palms over his ears. But it didn't affect her in the slightest.
"Well, more like to-be celebrity, but still!" She shrugged at the thought but couldn't help it and began bouncing on the bed like an excited five year old.
Paul let out a sigh and lay back comfortably at the head of his bed, having adjusted his pillow behind him. Even with the ruckus and the fact that he had done enough talking for a few lifetimes— he was deathly tired for Giratina's sake— he was strangely getting used to it all.
Yeah, he was totally going nuts.
Bonkers.
But before he could be allowed to get back into his comfort zone of complete and utter silence, Dawn broke the spell.
Again.
She still couldn't contain her curiousness.
"But how come you were in Unova then, hm?" She peered at him, inching closer and closer, the shine in her blue orbs almost blinding him.
Paul's throat went dry.
The flashback of the entire time now fell onto him like boulders and he felt queasy. But it wasn't like it had disappeared completely; it was just that he didn't know how to convincingly word it out of his system.
He wasn't used to this sort of a… thing. This talking, these feelings… it was alien to him. For someone who preferred to keep to himself, this was too much of a change to stomach.
However, he did know that no one could isolate themselves completely. Everyone needed someone. And nothing could be bottled up forever.
Even stupid, pointless things.
Yeah. He wasn't a sore loser now, was he? No. He just had to get over it, learn from his mistakes and be better the next time, that's all.
He wasn't known as a brilliant tactician for nothing. He smirked inwardly at that and felt relaxed.
Dawn meanwhile, tilted her head innocently, waiting for a response, but she was given none.
"Paul…?"
A touch on his shoulder and he snapped back into reality and looked at her confusedly. He then remembered that she was waiting for him to speak and drew in a deep breath.
He was ready to answer her, he decided. It was better than having his brother egg him on to spew everything out to him. He snorted again.
"Like I told you, I was there on a probationary period, and Cynthia invited me to Undella Town. She probably wanted to get me away from the paparazzi in Sinnoh, since it became a huge thing for some stupid Arceusforsaken reason, but at the same time, she wanted me to know how to combat them best, which is why I was scheduled for a press meeting there." Though I have no idea what happened to it, he muttered under his breath.
"Pardon?" Dawn thankfully didn't catch the rest of his statement since she was busy trying to unwrap a lollipop, her tongue slightly out as she concentrated hard on ripping the plastic wrapping off carefully. Paul coughed.
"I bumped into Alder and…" Paul paused, revaluating whether he should really speak of it or not.
"And then…?" Dawn paused to look up at him and her innocent, curious gaze made him want to gulp hard, yet still managed to give him the confidence to spill out his guts.
Not really, but you get what he means.
"I lost. Pretty badly in my opinion, might I add, and then just left." He ignored her dry comment of, 'Why am I not surprised?' and continued to tell her of how he ended up in Castelia.
He might as well as close the circle he had started and bring the chapter to an end.
"Man, aren't you one messed up guy…" Dawn sniggered as Paul hung his head in shame. She then hooted with laughter and rolled off the bed, landing on the floor with a thud.
He just grunted and turned to look at the wall with fake interest. Oh, just what he would give to have his silence…
But Dawn wasn't having any of that. She swiftly got up, dusted herself, sat down straight and shifting the lollipop to her other cheek, she took a deep breath and Paul could just feel the nice, long, moral lecture coming.
"Like, you're such an idiot, you know that? You lose one battle and you think your world is over. Geez Paul, I think that's just silly. And-"
"I don't need you to tell me that, nosey," Paul interjected snarkily, sparing the plastic sticking out of her mouth a disdainful look.
"I'm not nosey!" Dawn screeched, almost spitting the lollipop out, inching him dangerously towards deafness.
Ah, bliss.
Not really.
Paul didn't think he was ready to be deaf any time soon, but this talk-a-thon could change a few things, no doubt.
"You are. Why are you so damn bloody curious about all this when it's obviously none of your business?" Finally. He had been waiting for an opportunity to at least get a little insight into her character, albeit in a roundabout, indirect, slightly unrelated, Paul way.
"Well…" Dawn was fumbling for words and left an annoyed Paul hanging while she grappled her thoughts and sucked hard on the candy. She wasn't used to being questioned herself and she found herself caught off-guard by that. It was unexpected and even he knew that. He smirked.
"See?" Paul said, with finality. He crossed his arms and gave her a look which screamed, 'I-told-you-so'.
He then ran a hand through his hair and slightly slumped into his pillow, his head hanging low as he rubbed his neck.
He felt a bit stiff and worn out, even though he had done practically next to nothing that day. Well, he could do with some good sleep. He popped his wrists, stretched his arms out front and yawned.
It certainly had been a long day, just not as long as the previous one.
He sighed.
"It's because I know how it feels to lose like that."
Paul looked up at Dawn with surprise. She had caught him off-guard with her words, and he was speechless as she stared into his dark eyes. He had expected her to stay silent while he mocked her, but it was like she had gone into a trance, her sticky lollipop in her hand as she waved it around animatedly for emphasis, slightly breaking the ethereal moment there, but not quite waning it. In fact, he didn't even pay attention to it.
He was that drawn.
"When you know you are supposed to win, a-and it just, it just, like, ends there. It just ends there and suddenly you feel like everything was in vain and it all, like, just ended for you. Like there is nothing left. I know how it feels and I know how you feel but-"
"Room service!"
The door had been rapped at loudly, startling both of them as they jumped in fright and surprise. Neither noticed the difference in distance between them before and after, nor did they bother.
Proximity was not something they really paid attention to, because there was nothing to it.
Nothing at all.
Dawn was the first to recover from the shock and she turned towards the door, leaving Paul to stare blankly at her blue head.
"Coming~!" She quickly bounded off the bed and wrenched open the door, patting her hair down before giving a bright smile to the nervous sailor, the candy still in her mouth.
"Um…" The poor soul didn't know what to say; to say he recognized them was an understatement.
This had been, by far, the worst trip ever to have been the part-time head waiter, and even the slightly fatter pay-check which awaited him month-end didn't make him feel any better.
"Oh, thank you so much for bringing our supper, mister!" Dawn said happily, pulling out the candy from her mouth with a sickening pop, oblivious to the fellow's supposed predicament, "This stupid guy over here didn't want to come down to the cafeteria tonight, the lazy bum." She pointed the lollipop towards Paul.
"So we had to trouble you and make you come all the way, even though you're hecka late, just look at the time; you're such a Late-Kate! Or even Late-Nate! Geddit? Haha, I hope your name isn't Nate, or even Kate for that matter, but then again, it isn't, right? Oh, and-"
But as soon as she had taken hold of the trays, he quickly scrambled away before his face burst from all the color accumulating. Dawn scratched her head in confusion at the sight. She stuck the candy back in her mouth, kicked the door shut and frowned.
"I wonder what all that was about—oh goody! It's steak! I absolutely love steak! Once, when I was little, during New Year's Eve, this friend of mine, he-"
Paul sighed and slapped a palm to his face. Maybe someday he'd sit her down and explain everything to her.
But, not now, he decided, looking at his roommate positively gleaming with the happiness because of the food trays in front of her and crunching up her candy quickly so as to get started on her meal. Paul rolled his eyes and snatched one of them to have her pout at him.
"You meanie! You could just ask, you know. And I wanted to choooose," she whined.
Paul ignored her and started wolfing down his food— he didn't know talking could make one so hungry-- though unlike how Dawn had been at lunch.
Speaking of which, it had been the exact reason why he had had someone come and give it here. He didn't think he could face the other people on this ferry any more. He grimaced at the memory from a few hours ago.
Dawn sniffed and then began stabbing viciously at her own tray, stuffing in little portions into her mouth every now and then, glaring at Paul when he looked at her questioningly. His annoyance finally bubbled over.
"Stop killing the steak, you dummy." Dawn's hand froze midair as it hung over her plate stupidly. She scowled and landed the fork into it, but not as forceful as before, and continued to chew quietly. Paul smirked.
"So you actually can eat normally. Good to see you really do know your table manners," Paul commented dryly, ignoring her outburst of "Hey!"
He needed to get back at her in some way.
"You big, fat meanie, I'll have you know that I'm positively awesome. And an imbecile such as you can never come up to me!" She turned her nose up at him haughtily, and then looked away.
But earning no reaction from him made her even more irritated. She scowled and stabbed at her steak again.
Great. This is becoming an annoyance. Paul racked his brains to say something to rectify the situation, but was able to come up with zero results.
Except-
"So then, we're on the way to Sinnoh?" Paul knew he had succeeded, since the mere mention of her home region lit up her eyes and she beamed with happiness.
What Paul didn't notice was that her face fell for a second, but it was almost imperceptible as it quickly changed into a gleeful one, her eyes sparkling. It was in that split second and his sharp eyes didn't quite make the catch.
"Home," Dawn murmured, lost in thought, slumped over her tray. In fact, she was so out of it that even Paul waving his hand at least a million times in front of her face wasn't enough to snap her out of it. So he did the next best thing.
"OW!" Bingo.
Dawn straightened up quickly, clutching her forehead, her eyes all scrunched up. Paul had flicked her forehead back, albeit gently, but the shock was enough to make her moan in pain.
"Tch, you're a wuss if you even felt that," Paul said snidely, annoyed at her reaction to it. It wasn't like he'd made a bloody hole in her head or something. Stupid girl.
He looked away from her, ignoring her muttering and mumbling about how mean he was and suddenly stopped.
They were headed to Sinnoh.
Man, he was in big trouble.
Cynthia would kill him.
First, he just up and went onto a stupid walking tour around the idiotic region, and then this.
He was dead meat if he didn't do something about it.
He slapped a palm onto his sweating forehead and groaned. What an idiot he was. He should have known where this stupid boat was headed- which he did in a way, but then again, since when was his sub-conscience helpful?— and done something about it.
"Are you okay? You look queasy. Had too much steak? Haha, see! That's what you get for being greedy!" Dawn jeered, giving him an evil smile, having already scarfed down the rest of her food.
What the heck? How did 'greediness' of all things come into the picture?
She definitely had a screw or two loose.
He bet on them not existing, actually.
Anyway, back to the concerned topic: what now? He couldn't go back home because he'd be mobbed by his brother, or the League idiots, or the media, and he couldn't really go anywhere else unless-
"Just come home," Dawn said suddenly. Paul jumped at that, visibly startled.
"H-huh?" Damn that stutter. Stupid voice. Stupid him. Stupid everything.
She exhaled and repeated her offer again, patiently: "I said: you could just come home with me for the time being till everything simmers down."
Paul didn't want to acknowledge the fact that she actually had a point, but he had to agree that that made a bit of sense, although he wasn't completely convinced either.
"You could contact Cynthia, make up and all that, and then do as you please," she continued, eyeing him curiously. She found his expressions hilarious, but kept her trap shut, knowing that he was taking this seriously.
He still hated the implications he got from her speaking. How did she always manage to do that?
Not that he was desperate to know, but still.
Make up? Really? Really?
"Everything will be just fine," she added, in her best preacher voice, earning a faint smirk from him.
Victory!
She cheered inwardly, happy to see that he looked visibly relaxed again. It probably was a big deal to him, and she would never completely understand it, but if she managed to even help him a little, that was all she cared about.
Meanwhile, Paul gave the idea little thought. In fact, nothing she had said had really registered in detail or that well in his head since he himself was weighing out his options and making his plans.
He knew that he knew Sinnoh like the back of his hand and that slipping out and going anywhere would be a piece of cake and none would be the wiser. He could just loiter around the quieter towns till everything blew over, and everything would be just fine.
"Just dandy," he drawled in response, giving her an unimpressed look. The plan had many flaws, but it was the best he had at the moment.
"Then it's settled! You're coming home! Oh sweet Mesprit, my mom will be so happy! She absolutely loves visitors! She might even bake her special double chocolate chip cookies!" Dawn was ecstatic, and it showed brilliantly. Paul's eyes widened and he looked bewildered.
"Wait, what? I never said anything about-" But that was all he managed to splutter before it was drowned in another excited rush of running Dawn commentary.
"Those cookies are the most heavenly things in this world, you know that? Man, you are lucky; you'll be getting to taste them. It's a rare delicacy, you know! Even I barely get to eat them! Mom never makes them on a regular basis. Says the 'specialness' would go out of it. But I don't agree! I could just live on them my whole life and never grow tired of them! And she'll be so excited that I know a celebrity- but wait, I probably shouldn't tell her right away, right? I mean, I know she'll keep your secret for sure till everything blows over, but then again, she can be a bit of a gossip—oh dear, I shouldn't be saying this like that, but it is a fact that once she-"
Paul was in such a daze that he just slumped over in defeat. The girl just spouted nonsense constantly, endlessly, without a ruddy break. No stopping, whatsoever.
Just what did he get himself into?
After the giant chain-rush of gushing about practically nothing, she had tired herself out and had passed out on his bed.
She had probably been more tired than she let on. Well, it was natural, since she wasn't really an Energizer Bunny or something; she was also just human.
Paul snorted. With the way she bounced around like a lunatic, she was the very definition of alien to him.
Well, sort of.
He shook his head wearily at that and dragged himself off the bed, at a sickeningly slow speed. It was like his butt was stuck to the bed; he felt that tired all of a sudden.
After quite a bit of swearing, he finally managed to detach himself from the bed. He stood up straight and stretched, a big yawn escaping his lips. He ran a hand through his hair and looked down at the foreign object on his bed. The only coherent thought which came into his mind was: It was complete déjà vu.
Except this time he just wanted to sleep because he was tired. And he couldn't really run out when in the middle of the sea, or in his pajamas.
He sighed.
He pulled a curved arm from under her and straightened it, and then pulled her legs out straight. He put his covers over her and stuffed the pillow under her head. He then straightened up and scratched his stomach under his grey pullover, again yawning loudly.
It really was late.
He rubbed his eyes and again looked down at what used to be his bed. He then crouched down beside it— literally flopped down onto his haunches from all the exhaustion- and just blankly stared at her sleeping figure.
The even rise and fall.
The tiny pout.
The curled up lashes.
It was like time had frozen and his gaze had been fixed.
He then shook his head roughly and stood up. A little too quickly for his liking, since the blood came rushing back to his legs and he stumbled and almost fell into the side table, making the previously set glass wobble dangerously. Grimacing at his unsteadiness, and after throwing a furtive look at the glass to stop shaking, he shuffled over to her bed and landed facedown in it with a loud thunk.
Forget talking, who knew just listening could also be so exhausting? He turned his head towards the same side table, stretched out an arm and reached for the clock, tilting it to face him.
2:34 am
Well then, tomorrow was going to be another late start, he mused. He set the clock back and rolled over to face the other side, pulling her covers over his head, and curling into a partial ball, willing sleep to come. He scowled and punched her lumpy pillow into a more comfortable shape, making a mental note to tie her down to her own bed next time.
His sleep schedule was really going wacko. And to top it off, they'd be at their home region in just a few hours.
Twinleaf Town.
The thought made him purse his lips and wonder about the coming days.
It was going to be a real pain.
But his lips curled into the smallest of small smiles before he finally let himself into the arms of sleep.
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Ah, this update was harder to churn out because real life is choking me. Literally. I shall probably have to start skipping alternate weeks too. :'(
You may think of this as a filler chapter, but there's a bit of foreshadowing and a lot of implications for the future chapters in here. :)
Review for Johanna's mouth-watering, scrumptilicious, gooey centered, double chocolate cookies.
…Mmm, makes me hungry. Damn it all.
Dated: 19th October'13.