A/N If you have a chance please listen to the songs before or during the portions where she is dancing. I wish I could describe Dawn's dance moves better, but hopefully the pokemon moves sound exciting :) Thank you all for reading! 

"Please be ready to present your tickets," an attendant shouted out across the pier at the hundreds of bodies that were trying to crowd onto one of the many ferries that were designated to take spectators to see the Showdown Tournament. 

I had nearly turned and left when I saw the massive crowd, but thinking of Dawn's sincere plea for me to watch her kept me unhappily in the midst of the chaos. When I was finally allowed to board one of the ferries I immediately claimed a spot where I could lean against the railing and I sighed as the feelings of mild claustrophobia left me.

Grimacing slightly I was glad I hadn't told any of my pokemon about me going to watch Dawn at the tournament today, because if the ferry was any indication I highly doubted there would be extra room for them to watch her. The ferry trip took longer than I expected and I sighed as we finally came up to the huge artificial island that was the home of the Aether Foundation.

I had done some basic research when Dawn said the tournament would be held here and found out that the Aether Foundation was an organization that tried to protect endangered and abused pokemon. However, the foundation had a bit of a checkered past and less than ten years ago there was a huge incident where the president actually opened several portals to other realms and released a group of destructive ultra beasts that wreaked havoc on the region. But apparently, the foundation was under new management and had regained its reputation in the past years.

As I waited my turn to disembark the ferry I glanced back at the ocean in the direction of Ula'ula island and wondered again if I was making a mistake. Just then someone in the crowd bumped into my shoulder, spurring me forward and I allowed myself to follow the crowd. This was the last thing she asked of me. I just need to stay in the back and leave as soon as I can, I told myself firmly.

Once I left the ferry I glanced around the underground docking area and saw several workers directing the crowd to the upper levels of the island where the event would take place. Within fifteen minutes I was ushered onto a crowded open elevator and rode it up with the other people buzzing with excitement. When we reached our destination I glanced around, surprised to see we were inside a building. I followed the crowd as they walked towards several large double doors that were open wide.

As I left the building with its white halls behind me I felt my eyes widen as I took in the scene before me. Three stages had been set up in the massive area in front of me. The main stage was massive and was situated at the very end of the grassy area that we were in and stadium seats had been set up in front of it. Two smaller, but still impressive stages were set up on either side of the large area and no formal seats could be seen in front of those. I wondered why they had been set up in the first place.

A strange sense of anxiety filled me and my feet came to a stop as I watched the people streaming past me to claim their spots in the stadium seats. Go forward or go back, Paul, but don't stand here like an idiot, my inner voice said somewhat sourly and I swallowed. 

I knew that if I went back then I would regret it. Even if the word "promise" hadn't left my mouth, I knew that Dawn would be looking for me and the thought of disappointing her or making her experience any added sadness because of me left me feeling queasy. So I gathered my courage and began to take small, deliberate steps forward.

"Paul?" Frowning at the faintly familiar voice I turned, trying to see who had called my name. "No way, it is you!" 

I didn't bother to hide my unenthusiastic groan as my eyes found the gangly form of Ash Ketchum as he pushed through the crowd to get to me. Why is HE here? I wondered with annoyance, taking in his casual appearance and the pikachu that seemed to be permanently glued to his shoulder. My eyes narrowed. That was the pikachu that actually defeated my Electivire, which there was no logical explanation for how that could have happened. I was still a little bitter about it if I was being honest with myself.

"Serena said that you would be here, but I told her I couldn't imagine you coming to something like this," Ash said with a wide grin and I felt one of my eyebrows raise in confusion as I tried to remember if I knew a Serena.

"I have my reasons," I replied gruffly, turning to walk towards the stadium, but suddenly a weight landed around my shoulders and I glared over to see Ash grinning dumbly at me.

"Why don't you sit with us? To be honest, Serena saved you a seat and told me to find you if I could," Ash said while pulling me to the left.

"Who is Serena?" I asked with a scowl, pushing his arm off my shoulders but reluctantly following after him.

"Serena's my girlfriend," Ash said with a broad grin and my heart squeezed as a strange feeling came over me. 

What would it be like to be able to say something like that? I wondered but quickly shut down that line of thought.

"Why did she save me a seat? I've never met the girl," I said gruffly, glancing around and wondering if I should try to slip away in the crowd, but being several inches taller than the average person would make me easy to spot.

"I don't know," Ash replied, looking briefly confused and glancing at his Pikachu as if he would be able to give him an answer. 

Rolling my eyes I continued to follow him as he walked through the large crowd. As we made our way around the back of the stadium seats Ash started waving very obviously and I glanced up to see a beautiful girl with shoulder-length, wavy honey blonde hair standing up and waving back at him.

Glancing at Ash, with his unkempt hair, average height, and perpetual baseball cap, I couldn't help but wonder how he had gotten such a delicate beauty to fall for him. She's too short though, I thought absently as we got closer and I realized that she couldn't be more than 5'6". My throat clenched as I realized that I was subconsciously comparing her to Dawn and I quickly shook my head, trying to get the thought to leave.

"You must be Paul." Blinking I looked up to see the blonde smiling at me but I was surprised to see that her eyes were narrowed at me. "My name is Serena, I'm Dawn's best friend."

Slowly I held out my hand and Serena took it with a surprisingly strong grip. I studied her blue eyes, the color of a mountain lake instead of the darker sapphire blue I had grown accustomed to gazing into, and couldn't help but feel slightly guilty at the hint of suspicion and anger that they held. I wonder what Dawn told her, I thought with a feeling of acceptance. To be honest, if Dawn had told Serena everything that happened between us I wouldn't have been surprised if Serena slapped me instead of shaking my hand.

"I'm May! And this is my fiance, Drew. We're both pokemon coordinators from Hoenn so we know Dawn from different contests we've been in together over the years." 

I found myself shaking hands with an energetic girl who looked my age or a year older with hazelnut brown hair and chocolate brown eyes and I had to think hard about the name she said because for some reason I wanted to call her Nutella. Her fiance, a pretty boy with green hair and green eyes, nodded in greeting and I returned his nod reluctantly, wondering why I was wasting time meeting Dawn's friends.

"Is Dawn nervous, Serena?" May asked and Serena moved her gaze away from me to smile sweetly at May.

"We all get nervous before a performance, but I know she'll be okay," Serena said confidently and May nodded in agreement.

"For sure!" 

Serena, May, and Drew all began discussing their past performances and I sat down reluctantly in the open seat next to Ash. We were much closer to the front than I had been hoping for and I tried not to drum my fingers against my knee to let out my nervous energy.

"So how has your journey been in Alola?" Ash asked me and I shrugged, not really wanting to talk. "I loved traveling around Alola with Serena! It feels weird to be back here at the tournament since we were here last year, but Serena was the one performing instead of Dawn." 

Glancing over at Ash and then once again at the delicate blonde I reluctantly decided to continue the conversation.

"How did you two meet?" I asked and Ash looked over at Serena with a broad smile.

"We met when we were kids at a pokemon camp held in Kanto. We ended up traveling together when I went to Kalos when I was fifteen, but we split up and continued traveling around separately. About a year ago she called and asked where I was, so I told her in Alola. The next thing I know she shows up at my campsite and tells me she's been in love with me since we were kids." 

I knew my eyes were wide but I honestly could not believe that anyone could have harbored such a lifelong crush on someone like Ash.

"I didn't really know what to do at first since I'd never thought about stuff like love and relationships before. But she said she didn't need me to respond, she just wanted to travel with me. Of course I said she could and the more time we spent together the more I realized that I didn't want Serena to leave me. So, I kissed her and we became a couple," Ash said with a nonchalant shrug and a self-satisfied grin.

I quickly turned away, wondering if that's what would have happened with Dawn and I if I hadn't promised my mom to become a Pokemon Champion. It sounded so simple when Ash said it.

"Have you got a girl?" Ash asked suddenly and I was surprised to hear a scoff slip out.

"No," I answered firmly and Ash shrugged.

"Doesn't surprise me. What pokemon do you have now?" 

To my surprise Ash and I talked for nearly an hour without him annoying me to death. It was obvious he had matured as a trainer and I was surprised to hear about all of the different pokemon he'd caught and trained throughout his journeys. An amplified tapping sound interrupted our discussion and I looked over to see Keanu climbing the steps to the main stage in front of us while tapping her microphone into the palm of her hand.

"Alola!!" she called out cheerfully and I grimaced when nearly everyone in the audience answered her with a rousing "Alola".

"Thank you all so much for coming out to the Luau Showdown Tournament! And a special thanks to the Aether Foundation for hosting our competition today!" 

Everyone clapped as several people wearing all white stood up and waved at the audience before sitting again in their front row seats.

"Now, we have had a large group of performers young and old qualify for this tournament, so to make sure we can wrap up by the end of the day the first round of performances will have three performers going at once. A picture of the performer and the order they will go in will be shown on the large screen above each stage, like so." 

With that Keanu pointed up to the jumbo screen above her head where eight pictures appeared. I frowned when I didn't see Dawn's picture and I saw Serena nudging Ash and whispering in his ear before he stood up.

Figuring he was going to look to see which stage Dawn would be performing on I stood up with him. As Keanu outlined the schedule for the rest of the day we reached the bottom of the stadium seats and I turned to the left while Ash went right. I listened absently as I made my way to the far left stage while Keanu explained that after the first round the top sixteen performers would be chosen and they would have to perform with two pokemon. Then it would be whittled to the top eight and those would have to give a third performance with three pokemon. After that the top four would be determined and they would enter into the battle rounds, which would all be double battles.

As I rounded the stage Dawn's smiling face looked out from the jumbo screen and I swallowed as a lump formed in my throat. It was only a head shot, so I couldn't see what she was wearing, but to my surprise she had pulled two lengths of her blue hair forward and clipped them above each ears, which was the hairstyle that she had worn when I first met her back when she was ten and I was eleven.

I didn't have a way to contact Ash or the others so I found a spot on the grass and folded my arms, glancing around occasionally to see if Ash had figured out Dawn wasn't at the other stage yet. After a few minutes the four friends rounded the stage and Ash pointed towards me. I was slightly surprised to see the four walk over to me, but I simply nodded as Serena came to stand next to me and we all watched as the first performer came onto the stage.

"Will you tell me why you left Dawn?" 

My body flinched involuntarily at the unexpected question and I looked down at Serena who was looking at me with hard eyes.

"Dawn didn't tell you?" I asked, just loud enough to be heard over the music while glancing over at the others who seemed enraptured with the guy giving his performance. Serena shook her head, causing her wavy hair to swish fetchingly.

"She just said that there were circumstances that made you think you would hurt her if you dated her and she said I shouldn't be mad at you for it." 

Complicated emotions swirled through me when I heard that and I looked away, clenching my jaw to try and keep the flood of emotion from escaping me.

"You should tell her to forget about me," I said and nearly cursed when I heard the hitch in my voice as I spoke. Hoping that the music had hidden it I glanced over at Serena and saw her looking at me with a puzzled expression.

"Are you sure that's what you want?" Serena asked slowly.

I once again looked away from her, focusing instead on the guy dancing around with a Brionne next to him. I was grateful when Serena eventually stopped looking over at me and I watched the performances despondently, thinking that I had made a mistake in coming. Once six performers had finished their dances Dawn's picture grew slightly, showing that she would be next. I gripped my arms tightly as my eyes slid over to the stairs and I saw her.

She was wearing a dress so pale pink it looked nearly white. It had small spaghetti straps over her shoulders but was designed to be an off-the-shoulder with a bold, flowing piece of fabric that wrapped around her arms and chest to act as sleeves that reached just above her elbows. The dress was tight across her stomach and then flowed beautifully so that it shifted with every step that she took along that with her hair that was a wavy sheet of midnight blue cascading down her back.

As she took her position in the middle of the stage and lifted her eyes to glance across the audience it felt like our eyes were magnets with opposing charges and they instantly connected. Her eyes widened as I stared at her, telling myself desperately to look away, but as a smile that held so much sadness it nearly bowled me over spread across her face I didn't think I could ever look away from her. Luckily she was a pro and she tore her gaze away so that she could signal to the DJ that she was ready. For a split second before the song started Dawn's eyes met mine again and a lump formed as her expression turned to one of happiness.

Rather appropriately the song began by saying "let it out" and Dawn spun, lifting the Pokeball in her hand up and releasing Ribombee in a shower of pink, purple, and red hearts. She streaked around the stage in a circle, leaving a trail of hearts behind her and came to fly next to Dawn, following her as she began to dance to the side. The song picked up in tempo and I watched Dawn and Ribombee dance confidently and energetically up towards the front of the stage.

 Slowly I began to listen to the lyrics of the song and as the words, "I think you should know" were sung, Dawn and Ribombee pointed out to the audience. My eyes widened as the chorus sang out and I felt a strangely sad amusement go through me as Dawn danced, pantomiming some of the words of the song as Ribombee glided around her, letting loose a string of small green orbs that I thought might be Energy Balls.

I could feel a silly smile begin to spread across my mouth as Dawn and Ribombee danced cutely around and both made a heart shape and brought it to their chests as the lyric "this is not another song about love" sang out. An involuntary chuckle escaped me as Ribombee flew up and pecked Dawn's cheek when the vocalist said they wanted to "steal your kiss" and I watched as Ribombee began to release small Pollen Puffs to float up in the air around the two as they danced, interspersed between the gently spinning Energy Balls still in the air.

A short verse began and Dawn and Ribombee began to spin gently around the center of the stage. Quicker than I was expecting though the song picked up again and Dawn made her way to the front of the stage again, running a hand up her arm briefly on "touch", tapping her lips on "mouth" and then circling her arms down towards the stage as Ribombee whipped up a gentle Silver Wind that broke up the Pollen Puffs into tufts of green glitter and sent the Energy Balls spinning beautifully above Dawn as she continued to dance.

The melody changed slightly and I heard a collective gasp come from the crowd as Ribombee's eyes glowed and light outlined Dawn's body as she was lifted into the air. Dawn continued to dance, weaving her way through the energy balls as if she wasn't several feet in the air. Ribombee came over, mirroring her dance moves. Slowly the two began to lower back to the ground and Dawn stuck out one hip and used her two pointer fingers to draw the shape of a large heart as the lyrics changed to "just another song about love."

I watched in slight awe as Dawn continued to dance but Ribombee shot up towards the Energy Balls, spinning around them and gathering them into a circle. Once gathered she let loose what looked like shimmering green soundwaves that crashed into the green orbs and burst them apart, releasing a small firework display above Dawn.

My body froze as Dawn's eyes met mine and the revised words of the chorus floated between us as she continued to dance. Holding her hands to the side of her head and shifting her shoulders to the left and right along with her head as the words "you're all that I've been dreaming of" were sung and as she reached out to the audience I could almost imagine she was trying to reach out to me and me alone. But she turned back and finished off the dance with Ribombee letting out one last glittering Silver Wind that made Dawn's hair and skirt flutter beautifully.

Not surprisingly a huge cheer erupted from the crowd and Dawn curtsied before gesturing to Ribombee, who also did a mid air curtsy. The loud cheering continued and I couldn't help but frown as I heard several young men calling out her name, but then I quickly shook my head. You have no right to be jealous, Paul. Get it together.

"Wow, Dawn was amazing! What was that pokemon she was dancing with? I've never seen anything cuter!" I heard May yell over the cheering crowd.

"It's called a Ribombee. As far as I know they are only found in Alola. I wanted to catch one when I was here too, but I never did," Serena responded after whistling shrilly in support of her friend. "Wasn't her dance wonderful?"

"I'm glad you don't have to dance in contests. I would never have become a top coordinator," May said with a laugh and I saw Drew wince as if the comment had brought up a bad memory.

"We need more dancing lessons before the wedding," he muttered and May looked over at him with an abashed expression.

The last performer came on but didn't receive even half as big of a cheer as Dawn. After the performances finished I noticed that one of the four people who had been sitting in the judges tables stood up and handed an envelope to a worker, who dashed away. After a few minutes where the crowd chatted happily a picture of Keanu came onto the jumbo screen above the stage we were standing in front of.

"Thank you for all of your wonderful performances! The judges have given their scores and we will now show the pictures of the sixteen performers who will move on to the second performance round."

The image of Keanu disappeared and I watched as a picture of the little girl that sabotaged Dawn's surfing battle came on first, followed by Traavi's smug face, and then Dawn's. Serena jumped up and down in excitement, throwing her arms around Ash in excitement and he picked her up by the waist and spun her. I dodged her flying feet casually and tried to ignore the sense of pride that was bubbling up in me. Keanu came back on the screen after the sixteen finalists had been shown and the crowds quieted down.

"For the second round of performances we will use the three stages again but the outside stages will have five performers and the main stage will have the remaining six. After the fifth performance if the audience members not sitting in the stadium will make their way back respectfully and without distracting the final performer we would appreciate it very much."

Keanu disappeared again from the screen. After a brief pause I was glad to see that Dawn's picture showed up on the screen above the stage we were already at and it looked like she would be going first. 

It only took a few minutes for the performances to start up again and once again my eyes were drawn to Dawn's graceful figure as she walked back onto the stage. She glanced at me slightly and I saw a small smile cross her sparkling lips before she looked away and waved brightly to Serena and her friends beside me. Glancing down I flinched slightly as I saw that Serena was looking at me out of the corner of her eye and I wasn't sure if her expression was filled with more suspicion or confusion.

https://youtu.be/w-Ng5muAAcg

Before she had a chance to say anything though Dawn's music began playing and I was surprised that it was a song I hadn't heard before. She must have been training like crazy to learn three entirely new dances, I thought with surprise. 

In a flurry of snowflakes she released Vulpix and Piplup, who landed gracefully on either side of her and they all stood silently as a haunting voice called out "What are you waiting for?" a twice.

As the song began in earnest the three all began dancing forward, with Piplup and Vulpix moving at a slight angle so that the three formed a shallow triangle. As the chorus burst over the speakers to my shock Vulpix raised her muzzle to the sky and dozens of individual purple flames burst from her body and began to float in a circle around the three. 

Is that Hex? Vulpix learned the move Hex? I thought in surprise as Dawn and Piplup began to dance in sync to the chorus.

But as they danced a small ring of water began to expand from around Piplup. My mouth fell open as the Aqua Ring continued to expand and I shook my head in amazement as Dawn dropped to her knees and bent her head back on the word "fall" so that the aqua ring could go over her. I watch as she got back to her feet and as the Aqua Ring expanded and touched the circle of fire created by Vulpix's Hex both moves evaporated in a burst of sparkles and steam just when the second chorus began.

Dawn and her pokemon began to dance around in a slowly expanding circle and Vulpix released a constant stream of Hex flames at the same as Piplup released translucent bubbles. The two moves began to disperse across the stage. As the chorus rang out for a second time the three all returned to the center of the stage and Piplup and Vulpix followed Dawn's moves from right behind her and I couldn't help but be amazed at the beautiful sight of the Hex flames being reflected in the floating bubbles.

As the bridge of the song began to play Piplup released a Mist across the stage and Dawn began to spin and leap gracefully across the stage. Vulpix was a step behind her and I smiled as beams of pink energy descended behind the two, courtesy of Vulpix's Extrasensory move, and began to pop the bubbles and put out the hex flames. Once the decorations were gone all three danced back to the middle of the stage for the final verse. Instead of dancing though Vulpix once again let loose a stream of Hex flames and to my shock Piplup let out several small burst of Ice Beam to freeze a crystal casing over the still burning and floating Hex flames.

Once a circle of those were flying through the air the chorus rang out and Dawn danced forward boldly, but slightly to the side so that we could see that Piplup was creating a Whirlpool behind her. He pushed the Whirlpool up and the ice encased Hex flames sparkled beautifully as they spun through the whirlpool. Dawn began dancing backwards so that she was standing directly below the floating whirlpool and Piplup and Vulpix began dancing towards the edges of the stage.

As the chorus began to soften the whirlpool burst apart, showering Dawn with a gentle splattering of rain drops and I watched as both Piplup and Vulpix began to create a gentle Blizzard attack. Snowflakes swirled around Dawn as she help her hand out plaintively and I thought I could see her mouthing the words "What are you, what are you..." as the vocalist sang. The Blizzard attacks became stronger and Dawn's hair began to whip around in the wind but she stood perfectly still, reaching through the thickening Blizzard and just as the last note rang out she dramatically pulled her hand back to rest against her forehead and she turned away as the Blizzard attacks crashed together in full force, whiting out the entire stage for a few brief seconds.

Whistles and cheers burst from the crowd as the snow calmed and melted. Dawn walked forward, brushing off her wet dress and reaching out her arms so that Piplup and Vulpix could jump into her waiting embrace. She curtsied while holding her pokemon and I could see Piplup puffing out his chest proudly while Vulpix seemed content to curl up against Dawn and ignore the crowd completely.

"Wow. I've never seen Dawn like this before," I heard Serena say and I frowned.

"What do you mean?" I asked as the crowd continued to cheer.

"Ever since I've met her whenever she is in contest she always looks confident and put together and her routines are always super polished but sometimes they could be almost... TOO perfect. Like she was trying so hard it wasn't even fun to watch," Serena remarked as she looked up at me. "But these performances... they are so raw and emotional. It's incredible to watch."

I turned my attention back to where Dawn was leaving the stage and I thought back to the very first performance I had watched of hers. It was true that she had been incredibly precise, like there was no wasted moment, but I could also remember the look of relief and even slight anxiety that she got after every performance. 

I hope she knows that she is talented no matter what the outcome of this tournament is, I thought briefly and couldn't help but wonder if I would be able to watch her perform in the future.