Chapter 38: Victorious

"Congratulations, Dawn!"

"You did so well, Dawn!"

"Wow, Dawn, I'm so happy for you!"

Everywhere backstage I heard the same thing. Contests sure were different from battles- all sugarcoated and dramatic. Still, I waited for Dawn, deep in the belly of the beast that I disliked. I now had more respect for Coordinators, but if it weren't for Dawn I would never set foot in a Contest Hall again. Soon, I'd be back in my element, training my own Pokemon to do something more meaningful than twirling like ballerinas, and continued chanting this inside my head so I could deal with another hour or so of Contest Land.

After a couple minutes, Dawn broke free of the well wishers and reached her makeup table that I was hiding next to, trying to avoid detection by casually leaning against the wall. The second she saw me a dazzling smile stretched across her face. She ran, picking up bundles of her dress in her hands, and barreled into me.

Her hug was suffocating. I could barely breathe, but wrapped my arms around her all the same; enjoying seeing her so happy, wondering if my rose had added anything to her euphoria.

She finally let go and I took a deep breath and said, "Congratulations."

Dawn trembled with excitement, grinning at me. "Because of the moves you inspired, Paul. And all those training sessions really helped in the battle portion. Without you, I-"

Her face was flushed, from giddiness, winning, or nerves I did not know.

"You deserved it." I paused, drinking in her features, the way her blue hair wove in a bun, wavy locks resting against her smooth skin. "The three hours of work on your hair did wonders."

The compliment made me turn away. I pretended to watch other Coordinators pack up their things.

"Thanks, Paul." Dawn said shyly after a brief moment of silence.

I was about to ask about the rose that was standing in a vase by her mirror when a voice came through the crowd, "Hey, Dee Dee!"

Dawn, sour faced, turned around to see Kenny strolling toward her, arms pumping confidently at his side as he grinned stupidly.

My eyes widened slightly as Dawn muttered, "Crap."

She looked like she had just seen a dead, flattened Durant on the floor and shifted herself a little behind me, ducking her head as if Kenny would fail to see her. I grimaced as Kenny strolled towards us. I would have preferred him sulking like a loser after his catastrophe on the battlefield, but he seemed to revel in his pathetic nature.

"Congratulations." Kenny held out his hand and Dawn, trying not to cringe, stepped out from behind me and shook it. I noticed how she tried to pull away quickly and he refused to let go for a second too long. My eyes narrowed as Kenny continued talking, "So... what's Paul doing here?"

Kenny refused to look at me, though I doubt he would have let his eyes drift from Dawn anyway. An anger that felt so much hotter and unrestrained than normal grew inside me. I had no idea what it was, but I knew it disliked Kenny even more than I did, so I accepted it instead of batting it away like most other meaningless emotions.

"Paul came to watch me in the Contest," Dawn answered.

Kenny laughed. "I thought he hated Contests."

I cut in, "Actually, I'm just extremely picky. I only watch the best Coordinators, like Dawn, who understand what strength can contribute to the performance and don't think too much of themselves like some other Coordinators do. You know, like the ones who focus too much on things like unnecessary flare that make them lose their battle portion in a landslide... or should I say eruption?"

I stared him down and he flinched like a coward, his cheeks turning red. He recovered. "You still don't know anything about Contests."

"Actually, I've been teaching him. He's a fast learner." Dawn beamed at me. I gave her a small smile, which turned into a smirk as I saw Kenny's shocked expression in the corner of my eye.

Dawn had turned to face her mirror, busying herself with her bag, while Kenny whispered furiously to me, "I know what you're trying to do."

"Really? Do tell," I whispered back casually, amused.

"You're trying to steal her from me!" Kenny exclaimed.

I rolled my eyes and snickered once, quietly. "You're a fool. She despises you and you're too childish to even notice."

Kenny opened his mouth to retort, but Dawn interrupted and we turned faced her, no longer looking ready to kill but instead looked as innocent as Igglybuff. Well, at least he did. I threw on my casual frown as Dawn asked, "Hey, did you guys see this?"

I peered at what Dawn was pointing at- my rose.

Smugly, I was about to tell her I'd left it for her, imagining Kenny's anger, but was cut off by Kenny who exclaimed, "That's from me!"

Stunned, my lips pressed together in a tight line.

"Really?" Dawn sounded disappointed. She cast a fleeting glance at me as if pleading for help with her dilemma. I stared back at her with as much indifference as I could despite the growing desire to begin yelling that he was a lying bastard and that I hated his guts more than she could imagine. I didn't want to give him that satisfaction of seeing how much it bothered me that he was using my own gift, so I didn't dare say it was from me.

"Of course I got it for you. I know we always compete against each other, Dee Dee, but I can't help but want you to win every time. You really deserved it," Kenny finished, looking solemnly at her.

"Oh, well," Dawn seemed flustered and began fidgeting with her dress absentmindedly. "I don't know what to say."

Kenny, taking this as a good sign, continued talking, "I was wondering, do you want to go celebrate your victory? A bunch of Coordinators are getting together and-"

That did it.

He stopped as I stepped in front of him, glaring, blocking his view of Dawn who spoke rather quickly, "I'm going to go say hi to Zoey. I'll be back."

She must have sensed the friction. I had to admit- Dawn actually did pick up on things faster than I had first realized. We watched her grab the bundles of her dress as she hurred away. Good, one less witness to watch me murder the maggot.

As soon as Dawn turned the corner, Kenny shouted, "Hey, what's your problem?"

"I'd like to ask the same of you," My voice was deadly quiet as I stared down at him. "You're a lying piece of Shinx. You didn't get Dawn that rose. There isn't a party tonight and if there was one, an idiot like you wouldn't be invited. You just want her all to yourself so you can convince her to travel around with you."

"So what if I do?" He puffed out his chest. He was still wearing his stupid suit. "It's not like you understand her at all. I've known her my whole life, I've been nice to her, and we have the same interests. All you do is insult her. I don't even know why she's traveling with you-"

Kenny fell into a steaming silence, his hands clutched into fists.

"She's traveling with me because I don't follow her around like a stupid Lillipup, wanting to lap up her affection." I crossed my arms.

Kenny gritted his teeth together and I doubted he even knew what a Lillipup was. "I deserve her."

"No, you don't. You want her for selfish reasons and you would lie to her just for the chance to get into her good books," I hissed. "I don't trust you and Dawn dislikes you more than you can possibly fathom. You have no business here. Leave."

I continued glaring at Kenny who refused to back down.

Kenny remained naively stubborn. "So she doesn't like me, huh? Do you know what she said about you, Paul? The day we met at the Pokemon Center in Rustboro City after you left?" He smiled, relishing the silence, the withholding of information. "She said you were the meanest, cruelest person she knows."

My nostrils flared. I didn't even consider if what he said was true or not- everything he said was false. It was obvious he was making this up. "You're a lying imbecile."

"I didn't even get to the worst part yet." Kenny chuckled. "Right after you left, she leaned in so close to my ear that her lips were practically touching me and said that you, Paul, are incapable of love. She'd never love y-"

But whatever else he had to say was caught in his howl of pain as I punched him right in the face. Kenny's body twirled as he fell backward, collapsing onto the floor, his pathetic girly green ruffled suit in a misshapen jumble. He'd probably be pissed that I'd wrinkled his perfectly ironed outfit.

I breathed rapidly for a moment as I took in how satisfying Kenny's groaning figure was, how my knuckles burned with both the ferocity of the punch and the desire to hit him again.

"Paul!"

I turned to see Dawn running to the scene, followed by Zoey, staring rapidly from me to Kenny. Her hair was disarrayed from her pace and I thought she might get a crick in her neck from the whiplash-like motion she was doing. Her voice was strained, "What happened!?"

"He insulted you and lied to you, which insulted me in the process," I said smoothly.

"So you hit him!?" Dawn yelled. I shrugged. I still felt like hitting Kenny again, but Dawn's disapproval was so intense that it rolled off her in waves. Zoey stood behind her, watching the scene with a raised eyebrow. She remained quiet, which I was glad for. I didn't need anyone else interfering.

"You can't just go around hitting people, Paul." Dawn frowned sternly.

"I know. He's the first I've ever hit." Because I was defending a girl and he really deserved it, I added in my thoughts. I'd punched several people before, but Dawn didn't need to know that.

Kenny moaned and sat up, feeling his face tenderly with his hand. His nose was bleeding a bit. Dawn hesitated as she looked at Kenny and his swelling eye, feeling the need to comfort him. She still didn't seem to want anything to do with him and remained planted upright, biting her lip. Zoey seemed to sense this and went to Kenny, helping him into a standing position. He glared at me, then winced.

Pathetic.

"I'm going to take Kenny to get fixed up," Zoey said slowly, placing an arm around Kenny, supporting some of his weight.

Kenny, however, stood still and continued staring between me and Dawn. My face remained impassive.

"Come on, Kenny," Zoey chided, pushing his side to make him turn around. He began walking, but glanced over his shoulder so often it looked like he had a twitch as he kept trying to intimidate me.

"Chump." I sneered, then glanced at Dawn who looked beyond words as she stared into the mirror on her makeup table. Her face looked tired and sad. Hesitantly, I went to stand next to her. She ignored me, obviously giving me the silent treatment which was, possibly for the first time, met with an emotion that wasn't relief.

Angry, I began, "Dawn, I'm not sorry for what I did-"

"Where'd you learn to apologize, Paul? Jail?" Dawn turned to face me, her blue eyes narrowing.

"Let me finish," I snapped. "I'm not sorry for hitting him- he's a jerk and you hate him too. Don't deny it. Plus he was lying to you to manipulate your feelings."

She blinked in surprise, but continued glaring at me.

I continued, "But I am sorry for blemishing your victory. I wanted you to win and to be happy."

The words escaped before I could stop them.

Dawn's voice was quiet, "I didn't know you cared that much."

I looked away. "Your annoying optimism is a virus."

She laughed and I felt it was safe to look back at her, somewhat surprised that she was so quick to forgive me.

A faint smile touched my lips. "Let's get out of here."

"Ok. Let me just grab all my stuff before I change..." She began packing it all, taking a couple minutes to sort through accessories that seemed pointless to me, but utterly precious and valuable to her. "Ok, all done."

My eyes swept over the table once more. "You forgot something."

"What?"

"The rose." I pointed at the vase, the rose still as brightly red as ever.

"Oh." Dawn wrinkled her nose. "But Kenny got me that. I don't want it."

"Kenny lied. He never got you anything." I tried to keep my anger out of my voice and shut down the urge to go and hunt him down to hit him again enough times to knock him unconscious. "I did."

"...You did?"

I nodded, words failing me as I studied her face. Her mouth was open in shock as she stared at me, searching for confirmation.

"Maybe it brought me luck." She smiled, looking away and touching the petals gently.

"You never needed luck, Dawn." I stuffed my hands in my pockets. "You're better than I let on."

Dawn blushed and wrapped her fingers around a lock of her hair nervously.

I kept my expression casual, but my brain was working on overtime. The past couple minutes had been so full of drama, something I used to avoid at all cost, that I felt like I was drowning, losing my head. I needed to return to training, something familiar, something normal.

"Let's get something to eat." Dawn interrupted my thoughts. "And spend the night one more time at the Pokemon Center. Tomorrow we can go back to training, ok?"

I nodded, though I felt that staying at the Pokemon Center would mean I'd run into Kenny again. Or Zoey. Or other people who wanted to annoy me in general, like Daniel and his friends. Still, Dawn beamed at my acceptance of her plan and piled all of her bags onto the table before announcing she was going to go a dressing room.

I nodded again, watched her grab the bag with her clothes in it and pause, smiling at my rose before walking to the dressing rooms nearby. I leaned back casually on the wall, feeling a bit fond of the batty flower lady who'd given me the rose.

Hey everyone,

Thanks for reading First Light :) I hope you liked this dramatic chapter. It was one of my favorites to write. I've just never liked Kenny (Sorry, Kenny fans. That's just my opinion). and writing about Paul punching someone was a lot of fun.

So, what'd you guys think? Please vote, follow, and comment if you did like it. :)

Pokemon Question of the Day: What do you think of Ash's new traveling companions? Serena, who he apparently has known since he was a kid (I mean, he still IS a kid.... and now I feel like Iris. Great.), Clemont, the Gym Leader of Lumiose City, and Bonnie, his little sister who apparently is trying to find him a wife even though he only looks to be 15, tops? (I feel your pain, Clemont)

I'd love to hear your opinions about everything. Have an awesome day!

-Flips