Thank you everyone for reading this, especially to I-Am-Lu for her nice words and shout out on Tumblr. It means a lot and I'm incredibly thankful. I hope you enjoy the rest of this!

Chapter Two

Don't Want To Fight Love Away

"What are we?"

A simple question. A simple question with a huge answer. Paul looked down at Dawn, standing while she sat on a bench. The boat they were waiting for was just on the horizon, a tiny black dot against the blue sky. It was the boat that would take them to Lily of the Valley Island, where Paul's last battle in claiming the Champion title was waiting to be held. The biggest battle in his life as a trainer.

A slight breeze blew Dawn's hair from it's place behind her ear but she made no move to return it. Instead she just continued to gaze at the ocean, face indiscernible.

He knew she was waiting for an answer and Paul needed to give her one. But the answer he wanted to give and the answer he was going to give were two very different things. Truth be told, he had expected this question. He supposed it was only a matter of time before she asked it. But even after mulling it over himself, he wasn't too thrilled on the reply he needed to respond with.

He crossed his arms and looked out at the boat too. "Friends."

"Is that your brain or your heart talking?"

Damn it. If there was anything he could point out as an annoying part of Dawn's personality(and there was a list), it would have to be her ability to read people. What irked him more is that he had mastered the art of hiding emotion, but Dawn in turn, had mastered the trade of seeing through facades. Paul was probably the reason she was so good at it.

She sighed and finally tucked her hair back in its place. But she still didn't look at him. "I want an honest answer Paul."

Paul narrowed his eyes. "We are friends. Nothing more, nothing less."

"That's bullshit and we both know it." Paul's eye twitched and Dawn sighed again. "We've been dancing around it for at least a year now and I want confirmation that it's not all in my head."

Silence overtook them as he absorbed her words. She wasn't wrong. It was three years ago that they met each other in Santalune City. It was three years ago that they had dinner and went their separate ways. But over the course of their time in Kalos, they had bumped into each other numerous times in numerous places. They would go out for a meal, sometimes he would pay and sometimes she would, others they would split. She would ask him for advice on how best to use a power move during a contest battle and he would ask how to do a combination that could maximize his Pokémon's potential. It was a symbiotic relationship, one helping the other. It was a balanced relationship that helped them over the next three years.

But somewhere down the line, something had changed, and it was obvious that the change was in them both. Paul was always aware that Dawn was attractive, he wasn't blind. But he had never seen her in that light. Until, of course, about a year ago.

They had been in some town in Sinnoh and Dawn was on her second contest circuit there. Their paths had crossed in that town and Paul stuck around to watch her contest, wanting to see if the tip her told her about Pachirisu's Discharge would pay off. He had the unfortunate luck of being seated next to teen who didn't know the definition of quiet.

As soon as Dawn took the stage, the kid wouldn't shut up about how pretty he thought she was. That and some other more… crude things. With every word that came out of his mouth, Paul had to mentally restrain himself from doing something. He had no idea what that something would have been(he had gotten up from his seat and chose to lean against the wall in the back to watch the remainder of the contest), but he had the intense urge to physically make that kid shut his mouth.

That's where it started for him. The beginning of the end. Over the course of the past year, as each encounter with her occurred, he grew more and more certain of his feelings. It wasn't love, it was something far from that, but it was still something.

He had noticed that the something was happening with her too. He had become increasingly aware of the blushes whenever she asked him to lunch. Or her twirling her hair around her finger whenever she listened to him speak. He heard every word or comment that could be interpreted as something else. He noticed her and it became increasingly obvious that she noticed him as well.

The people walking around them remained oblivious of the building tension between the two. The boat was getting closer which meant their departure time was inching closer. But at the same time, it felt like the clock had slowed down to Paul.

"Why now?" He asked her. "If we've been 'dancing around it' for a year now, why bring it up now?"

Dawn, as it seemed, wasn't expecting the question as she didn't answer right away. She bit her lip and looked down at her shoes, her cheeks reddening slightly. "Because…" she mumbled. "This is my last chance."

He glanced back at her with an eyebrow raised. "What do you mean?"

Dawn gripped the bench seat for a second before standing up, finally facing him and looking him in the eye. "This is the battle you've spent the last eleven years of your life preparing for. This is it for you. And I know, I know that you'll beat Cynthia, there's no doubt in my mind." She sucked in a breath. "I'm scared that once you become the Champion, we'll go back to being just acquaintances who only know each other because we knew the same person." They stared at each other. Dawn averting her gaze under his intense eyes and Paul at a loss for words. "I really don't want to go back to that…" she muttered.

Paul exhaled after another breeze blew past, this one slightly stronger than the last. "It wouldn't work. We both know that."

"But we don't." Dawn locked eyes with him again, only this time they were narrowed slightly and her voice was sharper. "We have no idea if it would work if we don't try."

"And if and when it fails it'll be impossible to go back to anything." He said coldly. Her eyes widened and he immediately regretted saying it. But he firmly believed it was true. They were too different, opposite in pretty much everything. A romance between them would fail before it began.

That didn't mean he didn't want to try, but he wanted to spare her(and himself admittedly) from inevitable heartbreak.

The boats horn could be heard now but neither even seemed to register. Paul stared at her with a cold gaze, wanting this conversation to be over. And Dawn looked like she was battling something inside herself, the conflict reflecting in her eyes.

Then she did something he wasn't expecting. Just like when she rose her mega stone into the air in Santalune, he was caught off guard.

She stood on her toes and kissed him. It was light and quick, a small peck that was over in an instant. His eyes widened while hers were closed. They didn't touch except for their lips.

She pulled away and went back to being flat footed on the ground. Her eyes opened again and found his, both of the their faces dusted pink. "I'm willing to fight if you are Paul."

Then she bowed her head and walked away, mumbling something about getting a lemonade from the stand.

Paul stood there stupidly before he snapped himself out of it and turned around to watch her leave. Emotions he had never felt before were beginning to swirl to the surface and that feeling of something became all too real.

He still didn't believe in fate. Nothing would ever make him think otherwise. But he supposed that this was a detour from his beliefs. He wasn't willing to change his course entirely but was okay with going down the untraveled path.

He watched Dawn bend down and pick up a rattle that a baby had dropped, giving the child and mother her trademark smile. Without even realizing it, a tiny smile appeared on Paul's face. He changed his gaze to the boat that was inching closer, the boat that would lead him, and her, to the next step.

If she was willing to fight against the inevitable, he had no choice but to step up to the challenge himself. He wasn't gonna let her fight this battle alone.

And it would take awhile, but that feeling of something, would bloom into something far more powerful.

End

Thank you for reading. Hope you enjoyed!