"Well done, Dawn," Olivia called from her side of the makeshift battle area. 

Dawn's battle ended up being almost three times as long as mine and her Piplup looked exhausted, but somehow she managed to pull out a win. She had sent out her Eevee at the beginning when Olivia sent out her Probopass. I wasn't sure if Dawn was lucky or if her Eevee was just naturally slippery, but by using Natural Gift and an excellently timed Wish Eevee was able to pull off the victory. Wisely, Dawn replaced her with Piplup for the anorith and lycanroc.

Anorith went down fairly easily, all things considered, but Lycanroc had been a much tougher opponent. When Olivia started doing the motions for her Z Move I had seen the fear in Dawn's eyes but I'd felt proud when she quickly did the move for her own Waterium Z move, finishing just seconds before Olivia. Piplup had been able to trap Lycanroc in the Hydro Vortex before it created the enormous rock to crush Piplup.

Dawn went to Piplup, who was teetering around dangerously as if he was drunk. She scooped him into her arms just as he was about to fall over and she smiled gently down at him, rubbing her nose against the top of his beak affectionately and I saw him raise a flipper in a tired salute.

She's used Z power twice now and I still haven't used it once, I thought and surprisingly I felt more accepting than annoyed. Seeing Dawn with her pokemon and all of the attention and unfettered affection that she lavished on them, it made sense that she could connect with them in a way that I had never even considered.

Olivia walked over to the two and handed her the Rockium Z, going through the motion that ended in a deep lunge to the side with both arms up in the classic 'show off your biceps' position. I rolled my eyes and once again wondered why the moves had to be so dramatic, but as always Dawn clapped politely. Olivia rose to a standing position and placed a hand on one hip, giving Dawn an adoring smile.

"Your performance really was incredible. It was so clever to use your opponent's rock type moves against them," Olivia complimented and I rolled my eyes. 

The "battles" from last night had been a joke. Dawn surprised the heck out of me when her Ribombee used Psychic for the first time, not to mention that she managed to teach her barely hatched Eevee Swift, but seeing her waste the move on making a sparkling rock cyclone had soured my mood a bit. Sure she got ooh's and ahh's, but it was still a waste of a potentially powerful move in my opinion.

"Paul, are you ready to go?" 

I blinked and then flinched back as Dawn leaned towards me, her face close to my chest and tilted up so she could meet my eyes which had been facing the ground.

"Don't do that," I snapped, turning from her and walking swiftly away from the kahuna battlefield.

"Good luck with your Island Challenge!" Olivia called from behind me.

From the corner of my eye, I saw Dawn turn and wave at her, walking backward without a care in the world. My eyes flicked to the rock in her path and for a second I considered letting her fall over. Remembering how easily she hurt herself though I growled slightly before wrapping an arm around her neck and pulling her gently but firmly towards me. She stumbled at the unexpected pull, nearly crashing into my chest, but I quickly let go and stepped away from her.

"What was that for?" she asked with obvious surprise but no anger.

"You were going to trip," I replied simply and Dawn's eyes found the large rock that she had been about to run into.

"You could have just told me," she countered with a teasing smile as she jogged to catch up to me.

I didn't respond, since I didn't really know why I hadn't done that now that she mentioned it. We stopped by the Pokemon Center and Dawn turned over her pokemon for a check-up with Nurse Joy. Nurse Joy started gushing about Dawn's win at the showdown and, rolling my eyes, I walked over to a bench in the hall and sat down, leaving them to their conversation. 

To my surprise as I closed my eyes the memory of Dawn dancing confidently last night came into my mind. Almost reluctantly I pushed the memory away. Instead, I focused on the list of moves that I still needed to teach my pokemon, as well as the list of pokemon I would like to catch on Ula'ula Island.

Even though she didn't touch me I knew right away when Dawn came to sit next to me since the faint smell of vanilla and honeysuckle that always seemed to hang on her reached my nose and made me a little hungry. This morning we found a sailor who agreed to take us to Ula'ula after Dawn finished her battle with Olivia and I was looking forward to moving on. When I paid the man for the trip Dawn had nervously asked if I was sure she would beat Olivia. I told her that if she didn't she'd have to pay the cancellation fee, but to be honest, the thought of her failing hadn't even entered my mind. As flighty as she could appear, she was surprisingly a solid trainer.

When Nurse Joy called Dawn's name ten minutes later she walked silently away from me, but the scent of vanilla seemed to hang in the air beside me. Blinking my eyes I stood, hoping that I wouldn't forever associate the scent of vanilla with Dawn, and looked over to where she was clipping her Pokeballs back onto her hip. She spoke with Nurse Joy for a moment as she released Piplup and wrapped her arms around her partner. They both waved to Nurse Joy and I felt myself nearly smile as she turned her happy expression towards me.

"Let's go!" she said as she walked up to me. Piplup lifted a flipper in the air and peeped excitedly in response. 

We made our way to the small pier and soon found the sailor we had talked to this morning.

"Neither of you landlubbers gets seasick, do ya?" the sturdy man asked. 

I shook my head and Dawn giggled quietly, ducking her head behind my shoulder to hide her reaction. Shivers went up my spine as her forehead brushed against the back of my shoulder and I quickly took a step forward.

"Are you ready to leave?" I asked and the sailor nodded.

"Welcome aboard the Sweet Anne," he said with a wink. 

I climbed into the small boat and walked towards the front of the deck feeling a desperate need to not be close to Dawn for a while. The boat was small enough to be manned by one person but big enough to accommodate five or so. If you were looking down on the ship it would look kind of like a U, with the cabin in the middle of the back of the deck with the front of the deck being split, leaving an empty space in the middle.

I made my way to the left side of the open space, sitting down and dangling my legs above the ocean. Soon a pair of thin legs began dangling next to mine and I bit back a groan, wondering why Dawn seemed to always want to be next to me.

"If we get to Ula'ula early enough do you want to go shopping tonight? Or would you prefer to go tomorrow?" Dawn asked suddenly, breaking through my thoughts. 

I narrowed my eyes, wanting to act as if I had forgotten my promise to go shopping with her for her birthday present, but lying was too much trouble so I shrugged.

You don't have to come with me if you don't want to," Dawn said gently, looking over at Piplup who had gone onto the other side of the open space and was lying on his stomach, staring down at the ocean.

"I promised I'd go," I replied dully and she frowned, looking up at me with slight annoyance.

"It's not going to be fun if you're acting grumpy the whole time," she stated tersely and my hand twitched as I repressed the urge to flick her forehead.

"This is how I always am," I retorted and she shook her head.

"Nuh uh," she said petulantly and I had to try really hard not to laugh at her. "Sometimes you can be really nice and gentle." 

Blinking mutely I gave her an incredulous look, never having thought of myself as 'gentle'. My expression must have been amusing because Dawn's petulant pout immediately melted into a grin and she laughed happily. 

She is such a happy person. Even when she's angry at me she can let it go within a second, I thought to myself. Dawn began to kick her legs up and down slowly as she turned her attention back to Piplup across the gap.

"I didn't have any plans for tonight anyway," I found myself saying, reminding myself that I owed Dawn for weeks of meals and the dozens of poffins that she'd made for my pokemon.

Besides, if I go with her then maybe I can convince her to buy some less revealing costumes for her showdowns, I thought as I remembered the comments that I overheard from some of the guys watching the showdown. A strangely protective anger had gripped me when I heard the guys around me ranking each of the girls coming out, and I knew there was going to be trouble when Dawn walked out in her outfit. When she had been surrounded by a group of persistent guys as she left the tent I was tempted to have Torterra use an Earthquake attack to make them move, but there were too many people in the park so I went in after her myself.

"Really? Thank you, Paul!" Dawn said with a bright grin and I blinked, pulling myself out of my thoughts and nodding awkwardly at her.

"We're about to shove off. You two might want to hang onto the railing," the sailor called from the helm and I could feel the boat rock to the side. 

I stood up and reached for the railing. Dawn followed my lead but the boat suddenly jerked forward and Dawn squeaked, losing her balance and beginning to tumble backward. Almost on autopilot, I lunged forward, snaking an arm around her waist and pulling her against me while gripping the railing tight with my other hand and pulling us both back into a standing position.

As the boat settled into a gentler swaying motion I loosened my grip on both the railing and Dawn without completely letting go. One of Dawn's hands was gripping my upper arm while the other pressed loosely against my chest. Her forehead was resting against my jaw and my mind seemed to be moving more sluggish than if I had just been woken up in the middle of the night.

"Sorry about that," the sailor's friendly voice called out and it snapped me out of my mild case of paralysis. 

I quickly dropped my arm from Dawn and took a step back, turning around and leaning my arms against the railing to try and feign nonchalance. Out of the corner of my eye, I could see that Dawn hadn't moved, her arms still held up as if she was still leaning against me. 

Idiot, Paul. She hasn't even had her first kiss, she could fall for you if you keep saving her like that, my inner voice berated me but then I scoffed. There is no way a girl like Dawn would be dumb enough to fall for a guy like me, I told the voice firmly.

"Thanks for catching me, Paul," Dawn said a few moments later.

I shrugged, stubbornly looking at the ocean. I heard her footsteps walk away from me and I breathed a sigh of relief, glad that she hadn't made a big deal of it.

Dawn avoided me for the thirty minute boat ride from Akala to Ula'ula Island, which was fine by me. As I stared out at the ocean I did my best to envision different battle strategies I could try for my upcoming battles. When we left the boat Piplup waved energetically to the sailor as we walked down the pier towards Malie City.

"Ahem. So, did you want to go to the PokeCenter first or should we just go shopping?" Dawn asked after clearing her throat.

"Let's get it over with," I said glumly and tried not to flinch when Dawn's shoulder bumped into my upper arm. Turning to look at her I saw her frowning and shaking a finger at me.

"You can't be grumpy when we're shopping. This is your birthday present to me, remember?" she said, but I noticed that her cheeks were slightly pink. 

Is she angry or embarrassed? I wondered.

"Would you prefer I be impassive or annoyed?" I smirked down at her and she blinked then laughed. 

Piplup glared up at me from his spot in Dawn's arms and I raised an eyebrow at him. He turned away from me and folded his flippers moodily.

Dawn led us past the Pokemon Center and the entrance to the Malie Garden before we got to the shopping district of the city. Malie City wasn't as big as Hau'oli, but Dawn seemed to be in awe of all of the little shops and boutiques that littered the area. My attention went to the large library that was easily the biggest building in the square of shops, but I followed Dawn as she peeked into the windows of all of the shops before choosing one and walking in. 

The shop only had a few other customers and the attendant greeted us cheerfully as we came in. Dawn politely refused her offer of help and immediately began combing through the racks of clothing. 

I don't think I've bought new clothes for over a year, I thought to myself absently as I followed behind Dawn.

"Come here, Paul," Dawn said, gripping my jacket sleeve and pulling me towards the back of the store where the changing rooms were located. "Sit here, I'll be out in a minute," she instructed with a smile and I looked at the plush chair she had indicated.

"You don't need to show me," I said, feeling a little awkward but she frowned petulantly at me.

"I want to know what you think. You're supposed to help me choose a new outfit, remember?" she pointed out and I grimaced.

"Fine," I said, sitting down slowly.

She smiled at me before stepping into the small stall with her armload of clothes. For the first time, I realized that Piplup wasn't with her anymore and I glanced around to see that he was waddling around the store. Oddball, I found myself thinking as I leaned back in the comfortable chair and blew out a quick breath, wondering why I felt so jittery.

"How about this?" 

Turning from my casual observations of the store I looked at Dawn and did my best to keep my face straight as I quickly looked her up and down. She was wearing a collared mini dress. It was dark brown on the top and then from below the bust line to her thighs it was black with decorative gold buttons going down two lines in the front. She had long black socks on that stopped an inch or two below the hemline of the skirt and had a zigzag pattern that was see-through and showed her pale legs underneath.

"I'd need to get some boots and maybe a hat to make the outfit look right though," Dawn muttered, looking at the mirror in her changing room and turning this way and that. I quickly turned away from her and folded my arms.

"Traveling in a dress isn't very practical," I pointed out gruffly and Dawn gave me a considering look.

"I guess... but it's so cute!" she said, twirling around in her stockinged feet.

That annoying squishy feeling inside me was growing more persistent and I had to remind myself that I owed her to keep myself from walking out of the store.

"Ula'ula Island has a mountain pass that we have to ride Mudsdale to get through. Will you be able to do that in... that?" I asked glancing at the extremely short length of the skirt and then quickly looking back up at her face. Dawn sighed and shook her head.

"Fine, fine. I'll try something else," she said and closed the door. 

If someone had told me six months ago that today I would be waiting outside of a changing room for my female travel companion that I invited to train with me... I probably would have thought they were delusional. I thought to myself ruefully. 

The click of the lock sliding from the door made me turn back and I frowned as Dawn pulled it open. This time she was wearing a purple off-the-shoulder shirt with small straps over her shoulders to hold it up and khaki shorts that were only a little longer than her shorts from last night's performance. My eyes went to a small scar on her right knee cap and my frown deepened.

"Last time you wore shorts like that your legs ended up looking like roadkill," I said harshly and Dawn blushed then scowled at me.

"It's not like I planned to go rock climbing when that happened," she retorted and I raised an eyebrow.

"So what will happen if another poor pokemon is stuck and your motherly instincts prompt you to go save it?" I asked dryly and her blush deepened.

"Fine then. No shorts," she muttered, closing the door and clicking the lock firmly back into place. 

I felt a small smile spread and I turned to the side, feeling accomplished for winning an argument against her.

"Lup lup pip?" 

Blinking I looked down at Piplup who was standing by my chair and glaring at me suspiciously. I felt my face return to its normal expressionless state as I met his glare.

"What do you want?" I asked and he turned away from me, folding his flippers. I rolled my eyes, not particularly caring what he was thinking. 

Dawn took longer to open the door this time and the jittery feeling that had been plaguing me since we first walked in here began to get worse. I had just stood up to stretch my twitching arms when the door finally began to open. The first thing I noticed was that Dawn was wearing the same layered, red beanie she had been wearing at her performance last night with it positioned behind her ears so it left her bangs to frame her face. I then reluctantly moved my gaze down.

She was wearing tight white pants with a glossy black belt to hold her Pokeballs and her shirt was mainly pink. It had long, flowy sleeves, but they had a slit going from the top of her shoulder down to just below her elbow so that the top of her arms were exposed. There was a line of three progressively smaller red hearts from the bottom of the slit down to her wrists and there were two red hearts laying against both her shoulders. Thin pink strings attached to the bottom of the hearts on her shoulders fell all the way down from her shoulders to her thighs, which she had looped through her belt loops to keep them in place.

"What about this?" she asked smugly. I closed my eyes and blew a long breath out of my nose.

"Do you really think I'd want to walk around with you wearing a bunch of hearts like that?" I asked blandly.

She scowled at me, placing a hand on her hip and drawing attention to the fact that the shirt showed a small sliver of her midriff.

"Oh please. This is cute! The hearts are just decorations. Besides, if you insist that I wear pants then I need my shirt to be airy, or else I'm going to melt," she proclaimed, waving her arms around to show that the slits served as ventilation. "Plus, it matches my beanie!" she said, putting her hands up to touch her beanie and tilting her head while giving me a cutesy smile.

The squishy feeling inside me seemed to rise up from my stomach into my throat and I quickly looked away from her expression, telling myself that adorable should not be a word that could pop into my head without permission.

"Piplup lup!" Piplup peeped while walking up and hugging her leg affectionately.

"See, Piplup likes it too!" Dawn said and I turned to see her smiling at me smugly.

"You're going to let your pokemon influence your fashion choices?" I asked with a raised eyebrow and Dawn stuck her tongue out at me.

"He's got better fashion sense than you," she retorted and I didn't respond since that was probably true. "Do you really hate it?" Dawn asked, her confidence visibly slipping as she looked down at herself and played with one of the strings falling from her shoulder.

"If you like it you should get it," I stated, turning and acting like I had seen something interesting on the other side of the store.

"You won't feel embarrassed walking with me?" Dawn asked after a few seconds and I glanced over to see her regarding me suspiciously.

"I don't get embarrassed," I scoffed and Dawn giggled, her face relaxing back into a happy smile.

"Then I'm getting this! You can wait for me outside the store if you'd prefer," she offered as she patted Piplup's head and stepped back into her changing room. 

Immediately I turned and left the shop, taking a deep breath of the late afternoon air. There was a bench just in front of the shop so I sat down to wait and pulled out my Pokedex. I reviewed the information for the first island trial challenge which took place in the Hokulani Observatory. It was an electric type trial apparently but it didn't list what the totem pokemon was.

"Alright, I'm ready!" Dawn announced while walking out of the shop with a shopping bag in one hand and Piplup in her arms.

"Great. If we hurry we might make it before the bus leaves," I said, snapping my Pokedex closed.

"Bus?" she asked, falling into step with me. I nodded as I led her out of the shopping section of the city, taking only a second to glance longingly at the library.

"It's the Exeggutor Bus. It'll take us to Hokulani Observatory where the first trial is.

"Are you wanting to take on the trial today?" she asked in surprise and I nodded firmly.

"The only ground type pokemon on this island are found in the Haina Desert, which we can't get to until we beat this challenge, so I am as prepared as I can be for the trial. I'd rather get it over with and move on to the mountain pass," I explained as I walked swiftly down the street.

"I see. The next showdown I want to go to isn't for another two weeks and it's in Tapu Village. I think that's on the other side of the mountain pass, right?" Dawn asked and I nodded slowly, recalling the image of the map in my mind briefly to make sure that she was right.

Dawn and I made good time and it wasn't even four o'clock before we made it to the bus stop. Scanning the schedule briefly I was glad to see we only had to wait another five minutes before the next bus would come.

The trip up the steep hill took less than thirty minutes and I spent the time visualizing strategies of how to defeat the totem pokemon depending on what it turned out to be. Frequently throughout the trip, I would find my eyes wandering. Annoyingly they would almost always land on Dawn, who Piplup had dragged to the other side of the bus so he could have a seat to himself next to her. Once in a while, I thought I would catch her looking at me but she would always duck her head towards Piplup, who was normally pointing at something outside the window, and I wondered if it was just my mind playing tricks on me.

We left the bus and I couldn't help but be impressed at the size of the observatory. The domed building was massive and shimmered a metallic grey. The bus dropped us off in front of a PokeCenter that was across the parking lot from the observatory but I ignored it and began making my way towards the double sliding doors that marked the entrance of the observatory.

"You don't want to do a check-up on your pokemon first?" Dawn asked, falling naturally into her spot by my side.

"No," I responded simply, breezing through the mechanical doors and looking around. 

The lobby was filled with people in white lab coats and surprisingly some construction workers. I glanced around, trying to determine who was most likely to be the trial captain. As I stood observing though, Dawn walked towards the closest scientist and greeted him warmly. The awkward man had thick glasses and seemed to think a young woman speaking to him was more nerve-wracking than combining unknown chemicals. I watched with amusement as Dawn patiently waited through his stuttering before bowing slightly to him in thanks and turning a bright smile on me.

"The Trial Captain is in the back. Dr. Gresham said we can just go back and ask for Sophocles." 

I nodded to Dawn and then to the scientist, whose face was turning as red as a tomato, before moving towards the back of the room. Another sliding door allowed us access to a hallway with multiple doorways. In front of one of them a short, chubby teenager was arguing heatedly with another scientist. Something about the trajectory of some star or another.

"Excuse me," Dawn called politely, seeming to glide as she walked towards the two arguing men. They both stopped and looked over at her with complete bewilderment and I found it a little difficult to keep from laughing.

"Do either of you know where Sophocles might be?" Dawn asked, her voice polite and kind and the teenage boy raised his hand slightly as if he had been called out in class.

"That's me," he admitted quietly and Dawn looked over her shoulder at me with a smile.

"Great! My friend and I would like to schedule a time we could battle the totem pokemon," Dawn explained and I walked up, looking down at the short guy who shook his head as if to snap himself out of his stupor.

"Oh! You're on the island challenge? Of course of course. No reason we can't do a challenge now right? I haven't been able to fire up my totem calling machine in ages! Yes, yes. This will be great fun," Sophocles babbled, walking in between Dawn and me down towards a door with yellow and purple panels.

I followed him silently, getting slightly annoyed as his constant chatter to seemingly no one continued. When he walked up to the door he clicked open a panel on the side and started inputting a password. As the door slid open he turned and then blinked.

"Uh.. ummm... Sorry, but only one person can come in at a time," Sophocles said, looking off to the side to avoid looking at either of us in the eye.

"Oh," Dawn sighed with obvious disappointment and I was surprised when I actually felt a little annoyed when thinking she wouldn't be there to watch. "I understand. I'll just go to the Pokemon Center and wait for you, Paul," Dawn said and I nodded in agreement.

"You can come tomorrow morning if you want. There aren't a lot of island challengers that come around this time of year, what with the Showdowns going on and everything. Not that I go to the showdowns. Too much to do. So many stars to map and identify...." Sophocles turned away while rattling off all of the things he did in a day.

I raised an eyebrow at Dawn with a slightly incredulous expression and Dawn placed a hand over her lips, giggling quietly.

"Good luck," she said after her giggles had stopped.

I nodded and followed Sophocles into the dimly lit room, the door sliding closed behind me and cutting off the scent of vanilla.

A/N So this is one of those slightly boring but necessary chapters to set the scene for the next arc of the story. Hopefully it wasn't too dull for you all. The picture at the top is what Dawn looks like in her new outfit. I think it's pretty cute personally and it felt pokemon-y in a way :P