A New Dream

First Luau Showdown: Dawn's POV

My eyes flew open and I pushed myself up, wincing as my pulled shoulder muscle twinged at the sudden movement. Ignoring the pain though I glanced around in disbelief as I realized that I was laying in Mrs. Jun's guest bed still dressed in my traveling clothes. Scrunching my eyes closed I sat down on the bed and tried to recall what happened last night. The last thing I remembered was calling my mom and crying like a baby as Piplup tried to comfort me. 

I'm pretty sure I fell asleep outside... so how?

"Piplup lup!" 

I opened my eyes to see Piplup looking at me from the doorway. He quickly waddled over to the bed and jumped onto the edge, wobbling precariously as the mattress dipped from his sudden weight. I reached out a hand and caught one of his pinwheeling flippers to keep him from falling.

"Are you alright, Piplup?" I asked in concern and he immediately launched himself into my stomach, gripping me in a huge hug.

"Lup lup pip," he peeped into my stomach and I smiled sadly down at him as I stroked his back.

"I'm really sorry if I worried you last night," I apologized. Piplup let me go, sitting on my lap and looking up at me with a serious expression.

"Piplup lup piplup pip." Piplup pointed a finger towards himself, then towards me, and stared at me, obviously expecting an answer of some kind. 

I furrowed my eyebrows in confusion and Piplup sighed. Suddenly he looked up at me with a smile and hopped off my lap, waddling up and to the edge of the blanket that was still covering me up to my waist and wiggled underneath it, appearing to swim under the blankets towards my hip where he pulled at my belt.

"Piplup, what are you doing?" I asked with a laugh, flipping the blanket off of him and then freezing when I saw that he had taken his Pokeball off of my belt and was holding it with a serious expression. 

Fear gripped me but I said nothing as Piplup continued looking at his Pokeball. After a few seconds, he looked up at me and took a few steps closer to me, holding his Pokeball up towards me. Moisture began to gather in the back of my eyes and I felt my fingers begin to tremble.

"Are you saying... that you want me to keep being your trainer?" I asked quietly and Piplup nodded emphatically, still holding his Pokeball up at me. "Even though I keep failing?" I asked through trembling lips.

Piplup lowered the Pokeball so he could hold it against his side with one flipper and the other one tapped his chest firmly.

"We did not fail because of you, it was my fault! If I had better strategies and combinations then we wouldn't have lost so many times!" I said bitterly and suddenly my face was blasted with a stream of bubbles. 

Coughing from the shock I wiped the water out of my eyes as I looked down at Piplup in surprise. He looked genuinely angry at me as he once again held his Pokeball up and shoved it against my stomach. Guilt riddled me as I realized that Piplup was crying as he pushed his Pokeball against me.

Pushing my sopping bangs to the side of my forehead to keep streams of water from running into my eyes, I gently reached out and took Piplup's Pokeball into both of my hands. Piplup watched me with tears streaming down his round cheeks and I clutched his Pokeball against my heart.

"Thank you, Piplup," I whispered, knowing that the water dripping down my cheeks was tears and not residue from Piplup's Bubblebeam attack. With a happy peep, Piplup jumped up and down in excitement and I laughed, shrinking the Pokeball and clipping it securely on my belt. "I'll find a way to apologize to everyone when we get back to Sinnoh, but for now will you help me in the Luau Showdowns, Piplup?"