A New Dream

You Forgot Your Promise: Paul's POV

For the next three hours, Incineroar showed no mercy against Metang and I noticed that Metang seemed to be getting frustrated, but I could also tell that he respected Incineroar's strength. We'll knock some sense into that metal skull of yours yet, I thought silently as Metang fell to the ground once again. 

I looked past his fallen figure and saw that Dawn had ended her practice and was now playing some kind of game with her pokemon. After checking my watch and seeing that it was already nearly 8 pm I returned both Incineroar and Metang to their Pokeballs and walked over to Dawn and her band of lilliputians.

"Are you ready to go eat?" I asked. 

Dawn looked up at me and smiled, but her expression suddenly turned shocked as both Eevee and Growlithe tackled her side and she tumbled over, laughing delightedly. Growlithe and Eevee began licking her uncovered stomach and she squealed and rolled away from them, curling up on the ground in a fetal position as all four of her pokemon converged on her and tried to tickle her.

"Oy," I called out, causing her pokemon to jump and look over at me guiltily. 

Dawn continued to splutter out laughs but she slowly uncurled herself and looked up at me with laughter tears in her eyes.

"Sorry," she said breathlessly, rubbing her stomach as if she had laughed so hard it hurt.

"Can we eat now?" I asked while quirking an eyebrow.

Silently she reached a hand up for me to help her up. I took it and gently tugged, helping propel her to her feet as her pokemon gathered around us. For some reason a strange urge to keep her slim hand in mine made me tighten my grip for a split second but I quickly dropped her hand and took a step back.

"I'm going to give Incineroar and Metang to Nurse Joy," I said, taking another step back from her as she smiled at me in that way that caused the squishy feeling in me to flare up.

"Do you want me to get you a plate of food?" she asked, walking after me.

"Sure," I answered shortly, turning and flexing my hand that felt unnaturally empty. 

We walked back into the Pokemon Center and thankfully the lobby was not jam-packed like it was earlier so I was able to leave my pokemon with Nurse Joy without any problems. When I entered the cafeteria it only took me a second for my eyes to find Dawn's blue hair spilling out from her red beanie. She looked up, noticed me, and waved me over. Dinner was spicy spaghetti, which we ate quickly. After we finished dinner we walked to our rooms and I said goodnight as I stepped into my room.

As I walked into my room I didn't bother turning on a light but instead sunk down onto one of the two twin beds in the room and leaned my head into my hands. I thought back to when Metang attacked Dawn's pokemon and the fear that gripped me when I thought he would hit Dawn. Without even thinking about it I had put myself in harm's way to try and protect her. 

But why did I do that, I thought angrily, jamming the heels of my palms into my closed eyes and rubbing. Dawn is becoming more than just a student to me. Heck, she's always been more than a student to me. But I can't let this happen. I can't let myself get distracted. I have a promise to keep. 

I don't know how long I would have gone in circles with those kinds of thoughts but I was interrupted by a knock at the door. Frowning slightly I looked towards the door, wondering if I was hearing things. A second knock sounded and I stood, flipping on the light before opening the door. I blinked twice rapidly as my eyes met the familiar sapphire blue ones I had just been thinking about.

"Oh good, I thought you left for your run already," Dawn said with a look of relief and I frowned.

"What's wrong?" I asked and Dawn gave me a sheepish look.