My first Ikari fic, written for a collection of oneshots I'm working around based on a party that Delia throws for Christmas. This is the one I'm most proud of. But if you want to read the others, they're on my FF account (link in sig).
Rating: G/PG
Pairing: Dawn x Paul (Ikari)

Now we join the Shinji brothers, who’ve just arrived at the scene of the party. The older of the two, Reggie, is characteristically excited about coming, but Paul…not so much.
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“Remind me again why I have to go?”
“C’mon, Paul. It’s a Christmas party!”
“And your point?”
“Because I said so, and since I’m your mean, scary older brother you have to do what I say.”
“As if,” Paul huffed. Reggie had dragged him all the way to Pallet from Veilstone, just to attend some dumb party that his rival was throwing. ‘I should be training,’ he thought, ‘or taking a nap.’ But he knew that there was no arguing with his brother; Reggie may be mild mannered, but he was very determined.
~
“Sorry we’re late, everyone!” the much louder, much friendlier of the two purple haired brothers exclaimed as he burst through the door.
“Reggie! Hey!” A boy about Paul’s age and height dashed over to greet him.
“Hiya Ash! Thanks for inviting us. The place looks great!”
“All the credit goes to mom and Mr. Mime for that,” he said with a laugh. “Did Paul come?”
“Oh yeah, he was really excited about seeing you guys again.” He turned around and grabbed his moping brother—who was still hiding out on the doorstep—by the collar and dragged him inside. “Weren’t you, bud?”
“Thrilled.”
“I see,” Ash said flatly. “Well, come in and join the party! Are you guys hungry?”
“No thanks. We ate a little while we were on the road,” Reggie answered. It was then that a teenage girl walked up beside Ash.
“Oh, hello,” Misty said, “I’m Misty, Cerulean’s gym leader and Ash’s friend. Nice to meet you.”
“The pleasure is all mine. I’m Reggie. This party pooper here is my brother Paul.”
“Hi Paul, nice to meet you too.”
“Hmph.” Paul said. He was dying to get out of here, and he’d only been at the party for two minutes.
“Are you sure they’re brothers?” Misty whispered to Ash.
“Maybe one was adopted,” he replied. “We’re not even sure if Paul’s human.”
After doing a bit of catching up, the two pairs parted ways. Now in the main room, Reggie noticed another familiar face.
“Hey bro, isn’t that the girl you’re always going on about?”
“The what?” He looked over to where his brother was pointing and sure enough, there stood the blue haired girl from Twinleaf. She was chatting with Zoey, who seemed to have noticed Paul staring and whispered something to Dawn, who blushed tremendously and shook her head. With a laugh, Zoey walked away towards the kitchen. “You mean Dawn? What makes you think I like her?”
“It’s my job to just know these things. Oh look, here she comes.”

*Dawn POV*

He’s really here. Really, truly here…at a party? Reggie must’ve dragged him along.
“I’ll just leave you two be. I’m sure you have a ton of catching up to do, right Dane?” Zoey winked at me and walked away, laughing hysterically to herself. Mew, that girl is weird sometimes. I suppose it’s inevitable; he’s already seen me. I take a few steps closer. Why am I getting dizzy? Must be the lighting. I take a deep breath—why? Am I…nervous? Nah…—and walk the remaining steps between us.
“Paul! Reggie! It’s great to see you here!”
“Same to you, Dawn! How are you?” Same old friendly Reggie.
“Fine, thanks. I—“
“Oh, hey! It’s my old friend Marina! Well, I’ll be seeing you guys. Have fun!” And faster than he’d came, Reggie was gone. Weird.
“Well that was odd…” Now it was just us. I suppose I was grateful…I have to admit, there’s definitely something about Paul that draws me in. It’s just so much fun pushing his buttons. “So, I heard you challenged the Indigo League. How’d that go?”
“Third place,” he announced proudly.
“Impressive. I’m not surprised, though. You wouldn’t give in easily.” I admitted. Of course, I’d already known where he’d finished; I’d seen the whole thing on TV. Not that I’d tell him that.
“You did pretty well in the Wallace Cup in Johto, too. Right?” How did he know I competed in the Cup…? I only told Ash, Iris and Cilan, right before I left Unova.
“Uh, yeah. I was first runner up. I lost to an old friend of mine.”
“Piplup did pretty well in the appeals, I’ll give you that. But you need to improve Buizel’s Aqua Jet. The timing of his rotation is off.” Wait, what?
“How did you—wait! Did you watch the contest‽”
“Don’t get your hopes up, troublesome. It was on the way back from the Plateau, so I dropped in for a bit.” For some reason he was smirking at me, and my cheeks were getting warm.
“I couldn’t care less whether you came or not.”
“I think we both know that’s not true.” Hey, no fair! I’m supposed to be pushing his buttons, not vice versa. “Anyways, do you have your Pokémon with you?” And then he changes the subject like that? The nerve!
“Buizel, Piplup, Buneary and Mamoswine, why? Do you want to insult them to their faces?”
He scowled. Point for me. “I wanted to challenge you to a battle.” A battle? Here? Now?
“Why?”
“I could tell by your performance in the Wallace Cup that you’ve come a long way since we last met. I want to test how much you’ve learned.”
“Even if I accept, where would we battle?”
“Outside, where else?” Outside‽ In the snow? He must be insane.
“But it’s freezing out there!”
“It’s not that bad. The snow’s letting up, anyways.”
“I’ll get you for this, Shinji.”
~

*Regular POV*

“Mamoswine, spotlight!”
“Monferno, stand by for battle!” Two red beams of light shot out from each trainers’ Pokéball. ‘Chimchar must’ve evolved right after the league.’ Dawn thought. ‘He also has the type advantage, but Mamoswine’s power increases in this weather.’
“You can have the first move, troublesome.”
“Okay, but you’ll regret that later! Mamoswine, Ice Beam!” A radiant beam of ice shot from the massive Pokémon’s mouth. It made contact with the light emerging from the house’s windows, causing little crystals to shimmer and sparkle like magic dust. Paul was taken aback by the sheer beauty of the move, throwing him off rhythm and allowing the attack to hit dead-on before he could tell his Pokémon to dodge.
“Shake it off, Monferno! Hit ‘em with Flamethrower!” The blazing hot attack headed at their opponent with impeccable speed.
“Counter with Energy Ball!” The two attacks rushed at each other and created an explosion of light. Unfortunately for Dawn, Mamoswine’s attack was not enough to prevent Flamethrower from hitting. Though it wasn’t at full force, the fire-type attack caused massive damage to the ice type. Monferno was blown backwards by the aftershock of the collision of the two attacks.
“Okay, Mamoswine, hang in there! Give them Take Down!”
“Mamooo!” It charged at Monferno, fast as lightning. The combination of it being nighttime and the swirling snowflakes everywhere, Monferno was having a hard time pinpointing where its attacker would come from.
“Monferno! To your left!” But it was too late, and the attack was a direct hit. Monferno fainted, but Mamoswine was damaged by recoil. The additional damage was too much for it, and it fainted as well. Both trainers recalled their Pokémon. “Torterra, stand by!”
“Buneary, take the stage!”
A thrilling battle ensued. Torterra had the lead at the beginning, knocking Buneary around for a bit with Magical Leaf, but the rabbit Pokémon rebounded with an onslaught of Swifts and Ice Beams. It was coming down to the wire.
“Buneary, use Bounce and follow with Swift!”
“Torterra, don’t let it out of your sight! Use Frenzy Plant to grab it!” Giant vines shot from the ground as bright yellow stars rained from the sky. A vine found Buneary’s leg and wrapped around it, dragging the tiny Pokémon down. Buneary was flung to the ground with tremendous force.
“Buuun!” it cried as it fell.
“No! Buneary, return!” Dawn recalled the fainted Pokémon and reached for her third Pokéball when Paul stopped her.
“Dawn, let’s call it off. The storm is starting to pick back up again.”
“But then you win! Remember, ‘It’s not that bad’!” she mocked.
“I’m serious! Pretty soon we won’t be able to find our way back.”
“Sure we will! Their house is right over—Oh no. Where is it‽” She started to panic. In the heat of the battle, they had become so absorbed that they stopped paying attention to the weather. Now, flurries of snowflakes surrounded them and chilled them to the bone. Dawn shivered.
“Are you cold?” Paul asked as he approached her.
“Y-yeah, a little…” He reached for his thick coat and wrapped it around the two of them, but gave her a warning glance.
“Don’t even think it, Dawn.”
“I wouldn’t ever—wait, what did you call me?” ‘Hold on. He never uses my real name…’
“That is your name, isn’t it?” He hoped she couldn’t see his face at the moment.
“Well yeah, but you’ve never called me that before…”
“Is that so?” He paused for a second. “Well, it is a pretty name.”
“Y-you really think so?” She realized she was stuttering, and not from the cold. He didn’t answer her; rather, he pulled out a Pokéball from his pocket, brushing against her hand (accidentally) in the process, and sent out his Monferno once again.
“Monferno, lead us back to the house.”
“Ferno!” It walked ahead of them, using the light from its flame to guide them. ‘He’s…so warm…No! Stop that, Dawn!’ But she couldn’t help but wonder how she really felt about this predicament; was being alone with him really such a bad thing?
‘Man, she’s cold. I almost feel bad…No. I’m sharing my jacket with her; what else could I do? She’s just going to have to tough it out.’ But when he noticed she was still shivering, something inside of him protested. ‘Does she really deserve this? It was my idea to come out here…’ That realization dawned on him, and he knew that it was his fault that this had happened. In a moment of sympathy (maybe also courage?), he slid an arm around her waist and drew her closer to his side. She flinched; what was he doing?
“What?” she asked.
“You…you looked cold.”
“Oh…uh, thanks…” ‘I can’t believe it…could this really be Paul?’
“Fern! Mon, monferno!” sounded a cry from ahead.
“Look! I think he’s found it!” exclaimed Paul. They dashed towards his Pokémon, which had run back to them to lead them back. Once they’d caught up, it showed them to the front door. “Thank you, Monferno. Now rest.” Monferno was sent back to his Pokéball, and Paul removed his coat from Dawn’s shoulders. Had they not already have been pink from the cold, he would have suspected that the redness of her cheeks was in fact a blush. They reached for the doorknob at the same time, hands meeting on the cold metal surface. They jumped back like they’d been shocked. Dawn bowed her head and laughed awkwardly, and Paul reached again to open the door. They were greeted by a very worried-looking Reggie.
“What were you two doing outside‽ Are you CRAZY‽”
“We’re sorry. We went out to battle and we got lost…” Paul explained.
“You have no idea how worried I was! At least you’re safe now. But don’t you EVER try something like that again!” They nodded and hung their heads in embarrassment. “Weren’t you cold at all? Dawn, you’re not even wearing a thick jacket!” Dawn’s navy blue eyes met Paul’s deep black ones momentarily, and they both blushed furiously. Reggie noticed this and was confused. “What’s going on?”
“Nothing.” They answered quickly…in unison. “Sorry, but I’ve gotta go find Zoey…See you around!” Dawn zipped out of the room and found the only place she could think of for privacy: the bathroom. She stood in front of the mirror and stared at her reflection, deep in thought.
“You’re in quite a pickle,” the girl in the mirror stated.
“I’ll say…I just don’t know what to think!”
“What does your heart say?”
“I don’t know! Ask it!” She realized she was arguing with herself. “I-I don’t know. I think…But that’s wrong! I can’t like him!”
“Why not?”
“Because! Because…I just can’t.”
“I think you’re scared to love him, Dawn.”
“I am not!”
“…”
“Maybe…Okay, so what if I am‽ What do I do then?”
“The best way to conquer a fear is to face it. Embrace your feelings, Dawn.”
~
“Are you gonna tell me what that was all about?”
“I already said it was nothing.” ‘Bug off, will you?’
“You expect me to believe that?”
“I expect you to figure out that I’m not gonna tell you.”
“Touchy much? Let’s grab a bite to eat and then we’ll go.” They grabbed plates off of the table and began loading them with sandwiches, finger foods, and snacks—or at least Reggie did. Paul’s plate only held a handful of carrots and some pretzels. “Aren’t you going to eat more than that?”
“I’m not hungry.”
~

*Dawn’s POV*

I know what I have to do. I grabbed a napkin and wrote something down and looked around for Paul. There. Heading out the door. No! I have to give this to him first!
“Paul! Wait!!” I ran over to him as fast as I could, waving the napkin in the air.
“Huh?” He whirled around, and his gaze softened a bit (just a bit, I swear!) when he saw me.
“Here, take this.” I shoved the paper into his hands started to leave him, but impulse got the best of me. I gave him a hug and muttered “thank you” into his ear before giving him a peck on the cheek and running off. I turned around to see him standing there, a confusing expression on his face, then turned back and entered the kitchen to look for Zoey.
~

*Paul’s POV*

I stared, dumbfounded, at the spot she’d just been. The side of my face tingled and my heart pounded. I didn’t even acknowledge Reggie, who was standing on the front steps, muttering “Thought so” and shaking his head in amusement. Hesitantly, I looked down at the crumpled napkin in my hands. A brief message was written on it:
We’ve got a battle to finish
~Dawn Hikari
Below her name was a phone number.