A/N: Thank you for continuing to support this story! It's really great to know that people are enjoying this :) Sorry for the lateness of this chapter… I do hope that I will be able to update more regularly again, but no promises, real life is busy! Still, thank you and I hope you enjoy!

To Guest (4-10-2020): Thank you very much for reading and reviewing!

To Eimi: I don't speak Spanish, but I let Google translate it for me and I'm happy to hear that you're enjoying the story. Thank you, and I hope you will continue to enjoy it!

To Guest (19-1-2021): Thanks for reading and reviewing, and here's the next one!

Disclaimer: I don't own Pokémon or the picture used as cover (though I did edit it).

Days

The day Mr. Contesta miscalculates

Dawn

Sunday, January 26th

Sinnoh had never seen so much water in such a short time before – or maybe, it had, but at the very least Dawn couldn't remember seeing so rain in Sinnoh in such a short time. She was sitting in the living room of Paul's house, together with most of the other barrack-less people staying at the Breeding Center. They were watching the Tournament battles on TV, but Dawn wasn't paying much attention and was distractedly looking out of the window.

While the rain was welcome because of the drought in the months before, it could have waited a few more weeks in Dawn's opinion. It had caused enough problems for the Tournament, and though the battles had now continued, they were still hindered by the bad weather. Of course one should be adaptable to their environment – as Paul had said – it did make creating pretty attacks a lot more difficult.

And now Shauntal of Unova had been killed. Not just found dead, but killed. And apparently her death was related to the deaths of Phoebe and Agatha, and some other victims spread over the regions, all ghost Pokémon Trainers.

Though, for some reason, there had been no victims in Sinnoh yet.

And while Dawn knew that it might be just a coincidence, it was still a comfort that Sinnoh seemed safe for now. That was probably the only reason Cynthia hadn't ended the Tournament yet, and Dawn was planning on making the most of it.

As long as Sinnoh stayed safe, and as long as the weather didn't get any worse, they should be able to finish this Tournament. A new barrack was almost done, the Stadium was useable even without the roof, and the battles that had been postponed should be all caught up by the end of today.

Both she and Paul had moved onto the Third Round without much difficulty, and May's battle would be today. Drew, too, had won his battle yesterday, to her and May's disappointment. But Dawn was fully confident that May would win her battle today so she could properly crush Drew later on, and otherwise Dawn would gladly do it for her.

Thinking of May and Drew inevitably led to thinking of herself and Paul and their situation (which Paul was fortunately still very ignorant about), but before those thoughts could really take off, the doorbell rang.

"Mr. Contesta!" Reggie's voice sounded from the hall, making Dawn and the other participants in the living room look at each other in surprise.

Dawn was the first to get up and hurry to the hall, the others following her. It was indeed Mr. Contesta, and he had not come alone, but there was a news reporter and camera crew now also making their way into the hall. Reggie was not looking happy with that.

"Please, everyone, come closer!" Mr. Contesta said happily when he noticed Dawn and the other participants. "I have some good news!"

Ah, that was the reason for the camera crew. Mr. Contesta never let an opportunity for some good media attention pass.

"Yes, yes, I have good news," he said, and Dawn saw how Reggie was pushed aside so that Mr. Contesta could stand in the middle of the hall, which was quickly becoming crowded with everyone gathering around.

Dawn made eye contact with Reggie and the older man gave her a look of resignation. It was lucky that Paul was not here – probably still in the Pokémon part of the house – because she doubted that he would have been happy with this. And he would have been more vocal about it than Reggie.

"The new barrack is finished!" Mr. Contesta announced, looking around expectantly. For a moment nothing happened, and then some people started clapping, and others started talking about what a good news that was.

Dawn smiled and clapped as well, because it was good news. They would no longer have to stay at Paul's house…

Mr. Contesta seemed satisfied with the response and looked around happily. "Yes, it's very good news. That means all participants can now stay again on the Tournament grounds."

He turned to Reggie. "Though we are of course very grateful that you were willing to temporarily house them."

With all attention (including the camera's) now on him, Reggie quickly smiled. "Of course. It was absolutely no problem."

The news reporter saw his chance and pushed a microphone in Reggie's direction. "How did you experience this time, Mr. Rebolledo?"

"Uh…" Reggie faltered for a moment, but before Dawn could think of how to save him from the attention, he recovered and started talking about how they had housed the participants.

While Reggie was talking to the reporter and the attention of the camera crew was on him, Mr. Contesta turned to Dawn and the others.

"Well, you ten, you should get packing, we've got some comfortable places waiting for you!" he said enthusiastically.

"Great!" and "Sure will!" sounded from around Dawn, and she was halfway through nodding when she replayed the words in her head.

"Mr. Contesta?" she asked, walking closer to the man. She heard how behind her the other participants were getting back to the living room and bedrooms where they had camped out these past days to gather their baggage and Pokémon.

"Yes?" The grey-haired man smiled at her.

"Did you just say 'you ten'?"

"I did…" He frowned. "You are with ten people, right?"

"We're with eleven people, actually," Dawn said, and his eyes widened in shock; a strange expression to see considering how composed he usually looked.

"Oh, dear, that's problematic…" he said in a whisper, glancing at the news reporter and the camera crew. They had now moved on from interviewing Reggie and had walked into the living room, talking to some of the participants and filming how they were packing their stuff. "That means there is one room too few... Oh, oh, if the media finds out..."

Well, the Tournament didn't need any more bad media attention, and the solution was clear to Dawn.

"I'll stay here," she said without further thinking about it. "Uh, I mean, I have no problem staying here. I'll ask Paul and Reggie if they're okay with it..."

She glanced at Reggie and he moved closer to listen to their conversation.

"You know these men personally?" Mister Contesta asked, grasping at the way out she provided. When Dawn nodded, he grinned in relief. "Thank you so, so much. You'll just stay here with your… friends-?"

He looked at Reggie and Dawn questioningly.

"Dawn is always welcome to stay here," Reggie answered.

"Yes, we're friends," Dawn confirmed.

"Perfect! Then you'll stay here with your friends," Mister Contesta said with a nod. "Yes, and the others will go back to Tournament grounds." He nodded again. "Yes, that's a good solution. And once the selection of the next Round is announced, many people will leave again, and then you can move back to the Tournament grounds as well."

Dawn nodded. "It'll only be for a day or two longer then."

"Exactly." Mister Contesta said, and he looked around in satisfaction just as some of the participants were coming back into the hallway. They had gathered their belongs already, and the camera crew and reporter followed behind them.

"Well, that looks like it's our cue to start moving again," Mister Contesta said. He gave Dawn a firm handshake. "Thank you very much, miss Berlitz. You've been a real lifesaver."

The grin came naturally, and Dawn was happily surprised that he knew her name. Yes, she was a Top Coordinator, but that had been some years ago…

Mister Contesta elaborately thanked Reggie and gave him a long handshake, and he was followed by the participants, who thanked Reggie for his hospitality and the good care.

Of course, Reggie waved away all the compliments, but he was smiling widely and seemed to stand straighter than before.

After a lot more goodbyes and thank you's, the group of participants finally left, led by Mister Contesta and his media.

When they closed the door behind them, Dawn and Reggie looked at each other for a moment and simultaneously sagged in relief, laughing a bit.

"Well, that was quite a happening-"

"Have they finally left?" Paul entered the hallway, looking rather sour even for him.

"They didn't take that long to leave," Dawn said automatically in defense, taken aback by Paul's tone.

He looked at her in surprise, the sullen expression suddenly gone. "You're still here."

Dawn interpreted that as a question and nodded. "Yeah, Mister Contesta made a miscalculation and there was one place too few, so I offered that I could stay here…"

Paul looked at her for a moment and then nodded. "Alright. I prefer you staying behind over anyone else."

Without much of a pause, he continued, "I'm going to train outside. I'll see you later." And with that, he turned back around and left.

It was only then that the words properly registered in Dawn's mind and she blinked, realizing that this was probably as close to a compliment and saying that he enjoyed her presence as he would ever get-

"Believe it or not," Reggie said with a teasing smile. "But I believe you might have actually succeeded in capturing a Paul."

Dawn flushed, and then hurried after Paul, mumbling something about the Pokémon. She could hear Reggie chuckling behind her.

A/N: Thank you for reading! I had fun with this chapter, I like writing the interactions between Dawn and Paul. I hope you enjoyed the chapter! Sorry for the delay, and I hope to see you all again soon!

And as promised, the poll is now closed and the results are in… *drumroll* The subject was who you think will win the Tournament, and it was a close call, but according to your thoughts, the winner of the Tournament will be…

Paul!

Of course, we'll have to wait and see if he is really going to be the winner…

Thank you very much for voting! I'll see you hopefully soon with a new chapter, and please review!

Thank you!

Recommendation:

Star Wars: Reprise by Elfpen. AO3. This is actually a whole series that is still ongoing (though coming to a close, I believe). It's an amazing alternate universe story about Obi-Wan dying and waking up in the past – I know, it's done to death before, but here's a twist: he doesn't wake up in his younger body, but as himself… And his younger self is still around, too! A really amazing set-up for so many great changes and wonderful character development, with some really cool world building as well. Definitely recommended!

Recommendations are welcome!