Prompt: 067. Thunder
Genre: Fluff, Humor
Rating: K
Word Count: 582
Summary: Who knew Mr. Cold and Serious Paul was so afraid of thunder? If only Dawn, Brock and Pikachu could see him right now!

Crack, Boom

I almost laughed.

Almost.

But I did smile; not in front of him, of course. I just turned my head a little this way, and silently giggled to myself.

It was too cute: seeing him huddled on his bed, looking away from the window. Lucky for him, we were sharing rooms tonight.

Trying to make my face look more concerned (which was pretty unsuccessful), I sat down next to him. Paul shook once but quickly put on his usual serious face, wincing a little when he noticed the lightning flash outside.

Before I could say a word, he plugged up his ears with his fingers and leaned against me.

Only moments later, there was a loud crack of thunder; he gasped and shut his eyes. "What do you want?"

If only Dawn, Brock and Pikachu could see Paul right now! They'd probably laugh, or go 'Awww' or something. Wouldn't blame them. Who knew Mr. Cold and Serious Paul was so afraid of thunder?

"I was gonna go to the dining area." He quickly sat up, giving me a frustrated look. I continued, "To get something to drink, something warm. It's kinda cold in here. ...I wanted to know if you wanted anything?"

Another flash of lightning, and rain and hail began hitting the window harder. Paul grimaced and covered his ears again. I waited a few seconds and cringed when this boom made the whole PokeCenter shake.

I'll admit, that one kind of scared me.

Paul sighed and rubbed his forehead, "You're leaving me?"

He made it sound so much worse than it really was. "Well yeah..." I looked over at the bedside lamp sitting on the table. "Not for long though, obviously. I'll be back soo--"

"I'll follow you." He interrupted, not looking me in the eyes. Paul bit his lower lip and then glared at me: "You think it's funny, don't you?"

"Eh, what?"

He shuffled closer to me, "That I'm acting like this. I know you do. I can tell by your face, Ash." He leaned in and I had to lean back.

"No, that's not it!" I quickly got to my feet, moving away from him. He kept his position on the bed and simply stared. "I think it's cute, that's all."

"...Cute?"

That wasn't the right thing to say. He looked about ready to kill me now. Thankfully, there was another flash outside and that stopped him from doing anything. By the time the thunder had come and gone, I was by the door of our room.

Paul glared again.

Eh, I was used to it.

"I told you that I was following."

I sent him a shrug, "That's fine. Just don't try to strangle me, please."

He didn't say anything to that. Instead, he just got up and began walking over to me–no wait, he started rushing when a streak of lightning came down again. Grabbing my shirt, he pulled the door open and dragged me outside right when there was another crash of thunder.

For a split second, his grip on me tightened; Paul slackened his hold moments later. Then, without saying a word, he shoved his hands into his pockets and started walking down the hallway.

...Oh man, I couldn't help myself. I ran up to him and wrapped my arms around his waist from behind. "You're so cute, Paul!"

He whirled around and punched me in the arm for that.

Hard.

And it hurt.

So bad.