A/N: Thank you for your support! I'm so happy to see that people are finding this story again :) I hope you enjoy this chapter!

To Desertdawn101: I'm glad you found the new chapters, thank you! Battle scenes are not my forte, but who knows, it might be good practice to write them more. Thank you for taking the time to review!

To Lyre27: Thank you so much for that huge compliment! I hope you will continue to enjoy this story!

Days

The day with morning bliss

Paul

Friday, February 7th

For a change, Paul woke up slowly, instead of being harshly awoken by his alarm clock. Usually, he would jump out of bed and train, but not today.

Paul smiled languidly, stretching and then slowly got out of bed. His bedroom was bathed in a soft light, telling him that it was about halfway of a cold winter morning.

But that was okay. Today there was no rush. Today would be a day of resting and enjoying their victory, and then planning for the next step.

He had won. They had won.

His smile widened.

Paul took his time doing his morning routine, a luxury he usually didn't allow himself. But he had won.

They had won.

Paul couldn't fight the smile that kept popping up on his face and he didn't bother anymore. He and his team had done their absolute best yesterday and they had been on top of their game, and they had won. Hah.

So, he and his Pokémon would have a day off today. He would ask Reggie's help in preparing a special meal for them and he would give them a good brush, and that would all he would be doing today. Paul nodded to himself, satisfied with the plan.

He made his way downstairs and was unsurprised to find that Reggie was making breakfast; his brother seemed to have a sixth sense for knowing when it should be ready. He had also somehow already managed to do the dishes from the party yesterday.

Reggie beamed. "Good morning, Paul. Pancakes?"

"Good morning, and yes, please," he said, gladly accepting the food.

Reggie continued to grin at him and Paul dug in his food with a satisfied smile.

"Did you sleep well?" Reggie asked.

Paul nodded; his mouth full. His brother was a great cook.

Yesterday, after the battle and the ceremony there had been an afterparty. He had not been looking forward to that part, knowing that it was mostly meant for networking. It all felt like a lot of talking and handshaking to him, at least.

Fortunately, he'd had Dawn. She had a gift with those kinds of situations, and she had somehow managed to handle the situation so that they could go home early. They had spent the rest of the evening with a small celebration at home, with just her, Reggie and Maylene.

"You look happy," Reggie remarked.

Paul nodded again, though he found it unnecessary to confirm the obvious.

Reggie chuckled, seeming to sense his thoughts. "And you should." His brother squeezed his shoulder. "I know I've already said it a thousand times, but I'm really proud of you."

Paul shortly patted Reggie's hand, giving no further reply. He knew what his brother meant. Not just the victory yesterday, but everything that had happened these past weeks.

"I could not have done it alone," Paul said.

Reggie squeezed his shoulder again before letting go.

At that moment, Dawn came downstairs – she was still staying with them after her barrack had been destroyed by the storm.

"Good morning," he greeted her, and Dawn smiled at him, although she looked somewhat tense.

"Did you sleep well?" he asked, while Reggie put some pancakes on Dawn's plate.

"Good morning, and yes, I slept perfectly, don't worry," she said quickly. "I bet you slept great, too, right? How are you feeling today?"

"Yes, and I feel very good," Paul answered honestly. Dawn gave him a quick smile and then started to hurriedly dig into her breakfast.

After putting some dishes away, Reggie hurried to the Pokémon area to give some of the younger Pokémon extra food, and that left Paul with Dawn. They had since long developed the habit of comfortable silence, and together they ate their breakfast.

However, as the silence stretched on, an uncomfortable feeling started gnawing at him. Was something more going on? Usually it was Dawn who would break the silence with some chitchat, but she stayed silent even when they were cleaning up their dishes.

Paul was not good at chitchat. However, he had been intending to-

"I would like to talk to you," he said, at the same time as Dawn said, "Paul, I want to-"

Dawn flushed, her eyes growing wide before she looked away. It seemed like an overreaction to Paul, but then again, what did he know. This was Dawn, after all.

"I wanted to thank you," he continued. Dawn's gaze snapped back to him and Paul found it easy to smile at her. "I know we made a deal to help each other, but you went beyond that. So, I wanted to thank you for everything you have done for me."

Paul knew he was not good at his expressing his feelings, but in his opinion, he was doing rather well. His smile widened a bit, a strange feeling settling in his stomach, as Dawn looked at him with wide eyes, filled with surprise and something he couldn't decipher.

"We won, and your help was invaluable in that. I'm going to challenge the Elite Four soon, and then the Champion. Before the League starts," he said, with growing excitement, "I could be the next Champion, the one the winner of the League has to face."

A slow, hesitant smile had made its way on Dawn's face, and Paul interpreted it as a sign of appreciation for his words.

When no other response came, he asked, "What did you want to say?"

Dawn gave a small start and she flushed again, her gaze returning to the floor while she sheepishly laughed.

"Well, I, uh… It's not, well, I mean… Uh, that is," Dawn stuttered a bit, before taking a deep breath and looking him in the eye. "I'm leaving. I'm leaving, that's it."

Paul raised his eyebrows slightly. "The Grand Festival is at Lake Valor, isn't it? Are you not participating?"

He knew she was, so her words about leaving confused him.

"Oh yes, I am!" Dawn quickly said. "So, I'm not leaving! I mean, I am leaving, I'm leaving here, but I'm not leaving the area- that is, now the Tournament has ended, there's more place in the Pokémon Center again, so I'll be staying there… For the Grand Festival, obviously."

He was not great with interpreting other people's emotions, but Dawn seemed… nervous? That didn't make any sense, though.

Paul nodded slowly. "I understand, that's a logical choice."

Dawn's stance relaxed and she gave him a smile.

"We could still train together," Paul offered.

Dawn's smile changed, a touch of something he could not define. Fear? Hurt? Disappointment? Thinking back on his words, he realized that she probably didn't like to hear that he only wanted to train.

"Or we could do something else. Together."

They were friends, after all. Friends did things together, other than training.

Dawn's smile came back in full, faded a moment, and then came back again.

"Yes! I mean, yeah, I suppose we could do that," Dawn said.

Paul smiled and nodded, feeling like a balloon of happiness was inflating in his stomach.

He didn't consider that balloons eventually popped.

A/N: And another chapter done! IkariShipping this time ;) I hope you enjoyed it and please leave a review!

Thank you!