A New Dream

Mostly Ghostly: Dawn's POV

"You should know better than to start a war you can't win," Paul's amused voice grumbled against my ear and I tried to stop laughing so I could answer him.

"Pu-- put me down!" I gasped out. 

He shifted slightly so that he was holding my arm pressed against my stomach with his own arm, but then he let go of my wrist and began to tickle my sides. I shrieked as he tickled my side incessantly. Squirming furiously I tried to push against his hold on me to break away, but I was too distracted by his tickling and couldn't get free. 

Thankfully he apparently took pity on me and gently set me back onto the ground and released me. Laughter tears dripped from my eyes and I dropped to the ground, laying on my back and rubbing my side while I waited for my laughter to stop. My eyes were closed but I could feel Paul sit down next to me and I heard him chuckle lightly.

"We should probably go eat breakfast so we can get to the league stadium on time," Paul suggested after my breathing calmed and only a stray giggle escaped me every so often. 

Wiping my eyes I looked up at him and was surprised at the tender affection that softened his sharp features as he looked down at me. I met his eyes and wondered how I had been lucky enough to bump into Paul right when I was at my lowest point in life. Swiftly I pushed myself up on my elbows and pressed my lips against Paul's in a brief, happy kiss. I pulled away and echoed the small smile that Paul gave me.

We picked ourselves off the floor and left his room to go and grab a quick breakfast. To my delight, Paul held my hand as we left the cafeteria and walked into the large crowd of trainers that were all heading toward the stadium. The sun was bright, but the top of the mountain was still frigid and I pressed myself against Paul's side to share our bodyheat. He squeezed my hand and graced me with a small smile, but then turned his attention back to the gigantic stadium. I was sure that he was going through all of his mental preparations for the battles we were going to be fighting in less than an hour so I remained silent and went through all of the moves that each of my pokemon had mastered in these last five months of training.

The opening ceremonies finished by 8:30 am and all of the trainers gathered in the middle of the four battlefields to see who they would be up against in the first preliminary round today. The announcers greeted the spectators as all of the participant's pictures were displayed on the screen and then shuffled before pairing off trainers on one of the four big screens above each battlefield. I scanned the screens on my left but I didn't find my picture until I turned to the back right corner. The boy in the spot next to my picture looked smug and confident in his picture, but he couldn't have been more than 15.

"My first battle is over here," Paul said while nodding to the battlefield diagonal from my own.

"I hope I get to see your battle," I said with a small frown, not wanting to let go of his hand yet. He squeezed my hand before letting go and patting my head.

"You'll do great. We should line up in our own fields though," Paul said reasonably and I sighed but nodded. 

Waving sadly I walked away from him and towards the corner of the battlefield to await my turn for the first preliminary match. The pokemon league shared some similarities with the Luau Showdown Tournament since the first round was a battle with only one pokemon, the second round was with two, and the third and fourth rounds were three-on-three battles. Whoever survived all four preliminary rounds would be the top eight trainers and those last eight would battle the next day in full six-on-six battles.

Standing on my tiptoes I tried to see if Paul was still waiting for his turn at the other battlefield, but it was too far and I couldn't catch sight of his purple hair. With a sigh, I sank back to my feet and kicked lightly at the ground. I wonder when we'll get to battle each other, I thought to myself.