As she did most mornings, Dawn awoke with a loud yawn, sleepily rubbing her eyes. But, waking up in anything but a sleeping bag or a Pokémon Center was a nice change of pace. Instead, she found herself waking up on the top of Ash's bunk bed.

She once again found comfort in realizing the sheets smelled a bit like him. Blushing at that realization, she looked for a distraction, peeking over the bunk. Cracks of light filtered in through the blinds, casting bars of sunlight over Ash's sleeping bag on the floor. Peeks laid flat out on his back, still sound asleep and snoring quietly. The little "cha's" that slipped past his lips were adorable.

But, notably, Ash wasn't there. He was sitting in the corner of his room, cross-legged. Rosemary was beside him. They were certainly meditating, as usual, surely in their own little world.

She smiled, and descended down the stepladder quietly, while slinging her bag set at the bottom over her shoulder. "Morning, you two."

"Oh, Dawn! You're up early," Ash exclaimed out of his supposed trance, before Pikachu started to stir at his voice. Dawn shushed him, and he quieted. "Sorry, heheh."

~Morning, Ma.~ Rosa greeted Dawn without so much as opening her eyes.

"I've been waking up early," Dawn replied. "I've had so much extra energy built up from the hospital, I feel like I'm going to explode. All this laying around… I'm not a fan," she pouted. "But, at least it gives me more time to get ready for the day." She lifted up her bag. "I already showered before bed, so I was just going to get a headstart on my haircare routine."

"Yeah, who could blame you," Ash muttered. He furrowed his brow, then, pausing in thought for a moment. "Hey, I know. As long as you're doin' that, you wanna come outside with me?"

"Huh? Do my hair outside? What for?" Dawn frowned.

"Well, it's… you know." Ash looked off, scratching his cheek. There was a lost, almost sad look in his eyes, Dawn noticed. "...The League's coming up soon, and the Grand Festival is next month."

Dawn felt the same pang of sadness, then. At least, she was pretty sure it was the same. "...Yeah. I guess they are creeping up, huh."

~Oh, for the love of… He wants to spend time with you!~ Rosa huffed in frustration.

"...Yeah. Alright. I'll bring my mirror and handle it outside," Dawn agreed.

"You gonna be alright here on your own?" Ash asked.

The Lucario rolled her eyes. ~I've braved the fields of war in my heyday. I think I'll be okay without my parents attached at the hip for a few minutes. Besides. I don't want to be there when you're making googly eyes at each other.~

Ash snorted. "Sorry, Sir Rosemary. I didn't think you'd be scared of a little PDA."

"She's growing up, now!" Dawn giggled into the back of her hand. "Would you want to see your mom acting like that with someone?" She suppressed her laughter for Peeks's sake when she watched the color drain from Ash's face.

"...Yeah, let's go outside."

They sat on the steps of the small deck outside the Ketchum home, surrounded by bushes, small trees, and a white picket fence. They all cast a stark shadow in the wake of the rising sun.

Beautiful brushstrokes of pink, purple, orange, and yellow rose over the horizon, and painted Pallet Town in much the same light. It was a little distracting for Dawn, and she kept adjusting the angle she sat at to keep the glare out of her mirror, but it at least highlighted her features well. It would do, while she painstakingly ran a brush through her long, wavy locks.

"You're up early every morning these days, huh?" It was less of a question than an observation.

"So're you," Ash replied.

"We didn't spend very many of those hours together, did we."

The days were getting longer. Time would march on, and they would get shorter again, too.

"Yeah, well…" Ash anxiously rubbed at his neck. Dawn realized it sounded a bit more like an accusation than she'd meant it to. "I didn't figure you'd wanna be bothered when you're getting ready for the day. You always get seriously focused on your hair."

She'd been no better.

"Well, I… I need to be showing absolute perfection! Nothing less than the best," she justified.

Ash belted out in that rancorous, almost silky smooth laugh of his. His voice dipped to a fairly new low that made Dawn's heart flutter. "You're insane."

"Oh, like you're any better," she pouted. "Who even gets up at five in the morning? How do you even get through the day!?"

"It's really not that bad," Ash shrugged. "I thought I'd be stir crazy when I had to sit down to meditate. At first, I was. But, when you get used to it, it's like… you're practically napping. You're like, floating on air, wrapped up in a fuzzy blanket."

"You're kidding," Dawn turned to him, wide-eyed. "I thought it'd involve a lot of deep thinking, or something! Like, the sort of introspection you'd see from the wisest of philosophers."

"Alright, you can't give me two big new words in a row. One at a time."

Dawn rolled her eyes. Right. He didn't do a lot of reading. "Well, what is it like, then?"

""Sometimes, it is a lot of deep thinking… especially lately," Ash admitted. This evoked Dawn's attention. She waited for the pain that would creep into his voice through the cracks that he'd try to hide. The trembling of his lip, or his body hugging into itself.

Luckily, none of the above came to pass, this time. He looked more thoughtful than hurt.

"With everything going on, and the stuff in Rota… I've actually been catching up on my memories. It's really weird," he laughed.

"Oh! I've been meaning to ask about that," Dawn said with widened eyes. She prayed that her wild bedhead would smooth soon, because she was frankly more interested in the topic of conversation than fixing another curl. "So it's like, you're Sir Aaron, right? So, you're remembering stuff from centuries ago?"

Ash nodded with a hum. "I actually dove right into one this morning," he started. Then, he looked like he'd gotten something caught in his throat. He didn't choke, but Dawn could swear he was about to. "It got like— crazy stuff. Heheh."

"Ash, that wasn't even a sentence." Dawn frowned. "What's with you?"

"It's just… this one might be kind of weird to talk about," the youth said, scratching his cheek.

"C'mon, Ash. Don't you remember what we promised?" She prodded. "We agreed to always be honest with each other. Even if it is a little weird, you know you can trust me!"

Ash hesitated a moment longer. "...Promise you won't get mad?"

"Pinky promise." Dawn raised her hand, pinky outstretched. That seemed to do the trick, drawing a belly laugh out of Ash as he locked his pinky with hers. "Now, spill the deets."

"Okay, okay!" Ash relented. "...It was about Queen Rin."

"That was the Queen at the time of Sir Aaron and Lucario, right?"

Ash nodded. "I… er, Sir Aaron definitely had something going on with her."

"Wait, seriously!?" Dawn dropped her mirror, clasping her fingers together. "Tell me more!"

"It's still a little foggy… but, from what I remember, I, uh, he? Yeah, he definitely had the hots for her. Butterfree in our stomach, and everything. She acted like it was mutual. But, that was totally improper by the rules of the Kingdom, or something, so they always danced around it."

"Oh, that is… Thrilling!" Dawn cooed. The morning sun reflected in her eyes.

"Thrilling?" Ash echoed, puzzled.

"Think about it! A forbidden romance between a queen and her most trusted knight… That's a thing of poetry! Of tales put to pen and paper, only to be discovered long after their time! And, heck, if you think about it, they really were! Only, there's no hidden diary to dig up and flip through… It's all in your heart!" Dawn reached for Ash's shoulders, gazing excitedly into his eyes. "You're their diary! Oh, that's… I just have to write that down. Remind me to, okay?"

"I'm… their diary?" Ash blinked. He had that same sort of lost expression that he had when he was taking in something entirely novel. Some might misread him for being stupefied, or Arceus forbid, dumb. But, to Dawn, it was something different. He was like a blank canvas, on a constant stride through the world's many tales and sights. All of those experiences came to be in the form of a single person. There was a world behind those dark copper eyes.

A world, constantly evolving. They were anything but empty.

"Hey, that's some cool poetry and all… and I guess I'm happy to share with you. But, like, aren't you bothered at all?" Ash asked, breaking her from her musings.

"Bothered?" Dawn echoed, caught off-guard. "Why would I be bothered?"

"I mean, that's me," Ash answered. "All that stuff with Queen Rin? I remember it like it happened to me."

Dawn laughed. She had to laugh, even as his face soured.

"Hey, what's so funny!?"

"You're funny!" She giggled behind her hand. "Ash, that was hundreds of years ago. It'd be pretty silly to get mad about someone who's in the history books."

"Well, when you put it like that…" Ash's shoulders sank in real time with relief. "I guess that does sound pretty stupid."

"See? I told you," she said, with a smug sense of self-satisfaction. Any barrier between her and Ash's honest thoughts would be torn and charged through, like a stubborn Tauros, in the wake of Dawn Tsumura. With that settled, though, her thoughts were allowed to wander again.

"You guys told me that Peeks and Rosa are from that life too. I wonder if that was me?"

"You mean Rin…?" Ash held his thumb and forefinger to his chin in thought. "Well, I definitely got the same jitters from her that I get from you. But, Rin was really super fancy and queenly."

"Oh, no." Dawn shuddered. "No way was that me." She still shuddered in terror when she recalled the tedium and embarrassment of acting as Princess Salvia for a day. No, thank you.

Ash laughed again. "Yeah, no way in hell." If Dawn weren't so deadset in agreement, she might have taken offense. "I'm halfway wondering if I should apologize. You not being there, I mean."

"Hm… Nah." Dawn smiled, shaking her head. She picked up her mirror again, and continued with her brush strokes. "It's way more important to me that your Pokémon were with you. Besides… I don't think I really care that much if I were with you then, because I'm here with you now! I get to be part of your life for as long as we both want me to be."

"I don't think I ever want that to change," Ash said.

"Then, it won't," Dawn simply replied.

An exchange that, perhaps, went far beyond the little bit of consideration that either individual had put into their words. A pre-emptive promise to be bonded for life. It could have scared the life out of both of them, had they stopped to dwell on it. But, neither did. They were ever-moving.

"Sooner or later, we'll go our own ways again," Ash continued. "Once I win the Champion's League, and you win your Grand Festival, we'll probably have different places to be again."

"Even if that's true, we'll come back together," Dawn said. "We can do whatever we want with our lives."

"Good!" Ash said, turning to wink at her. "I won't be done cheering you on, anytime soon."

Dawn giggled. "The same goes for you, buster." After another cursory look in the mirror or two, she hummed affirmatively. "...Alright! That should do it." She put down the mirror, and turned to Ash with a grin, flicking one of her long locks of hair. "How's it look? Yay or nay?"

Rather than answer, Ash only stared. At first, she had to wonder if he was actually thoughtfully looking her mane over for any fringes or poorly-brushed spots, but that was unlikely. Particularly when he just… continued to not answer. For seconds at a time, he only stared.

"Hey!" Dawn snapped. "What's the big idea?"

"Huh!? Wha—?" Ash jolted up, like he'd been woken from a deep sleep. "Sorry, sorry. I honestly, uh… got zoned out on how cute you are." He laughed sheepishly.

"H-h-hey!" Dawn fumed, nursing furious red that blossomed from cheek to cheek. Under the rising sun, it was almost hard to miss. Her mortified expression wasn't, though. Nor were her hands frantically shaking Ash's shoulders. "Come on! You can't just say things like that!"

"Huh? What's with you!?" Tried as Dawn might, she could hardly jostle Ash, now. Was he made of titanium, or something? "You talk about how good you look, all the time."

"It's different when you say it so earnestly, like that!" Dawn said. "Besides, you get like that, too!"

"Well… yeah. I guess so." Ash rubbed his neck, once Dawn released him. "I've always talked a big game. I wasn't taken seriously when I was younger… So, I decided to fake it until I make it!" He admitted, flashing a toothy grin. Even the scar stretching up his cheek couldn't bring it down.

Dawn studied her boyfriend's sunny expression. The breeze, nudging his shaggy, unkempt hair. His optimism, having crawled back from the depths. Her eyes narrowed in a gaze of adoration.

"I think you've made it."

It was safe to say it was his turn to blush and fret, now, as Ash's face filled with red. "Hey! C'mon! You don't have to say it like—"

"Say it like what?" Dawn grinned, leaning forward to poke his cheek. "I told you that you get embarrassed, too! Your face is all red, haha!"

"Is not," Ash growled, pulling her finger away to point it towards herself. "Speak for yourself!"

"I'm not the one looking like this," Dawn enunciated, before clearing her throat. "I'm Ash Ketchum," she imitated in a mock-deep voice, with a look of wide-eyed exasperation. "And my amazing, talented girlfriend should stop telling me how great I am!"

"Oh, yeah?" Ash cleared his own throat, before pushing his hair down to frame his face, adopting a high pitch. "I'm Dawn Tsumura! Only I'm allowed to puff up my own ego!"

"Oh, that does it." Those were Dawn's last words, before she tackled Ash down the steps. She had no real plan. No ill wishes, for her precious, sunny boyfriend of all people. But, deep down, she was a Twinleaf gal. And, she'd warned him how they could rumble.

And, he was a Pallet boy, who'd rolled her over into the grass in a matter of seconds. Maybe it was his weight, or his monstrous strength. Maybe it was his Aura training, or even simply being two years older than Dawn. But, he'd pinned her in the grass, flashing the cockiest smile of all.

Any sense of shame had evaporated.

That was, until the clicking of a turning knob hit both of their ears, to their horror. Suddenly, they were up in the grass, separate, with greater haste than Peeks's best Quick Attack.

Just in time for the screen door to open to the Ketchum home. Mimey stepped outside, and began to sweep the porch, just as he did any other day. In fact, he didn't seem to notice them.

That didn't stop either from sitting frozen and silent, until he finished, and returned inside.

The chills didn't quite leave, even after they were alone again.

"...So," Ash started. His mouth was dry. He didn't know where to take his sentence.

"...Yeah," Dawn breathed out. She quietly cursed the interruption.

"Same time tomorrow?"

"Same time tomorrow." Dawn stood, and dusted off her pajamas. She was grateful that the grass stains hadn't touched her primary outfit. "I want to hear more of your stories."

Ash flipped to his feet, showing his clothing no such concern. He approached the front door. "In return, though, I wanna be the first to see your pretty face again."

"Careful," Dawn warned, "you may end up with another scrap."

Ash only grinned, and opened the door, gesturing playfully for her to enter. "After, you, Ma'am."

Of course, the only way he'd show any sort of chivalry was in complete jest.

"Thank you, Sir." Dawn stepped in, miming a curtsy. She preferred it that way.