Chapter 65: Laundry

I got back to the Pokemon Center, my new dress clothes sweaty, wrinkled, and covered in Haunter's saliva.

Formality wasn't appealing in any sense.

"Hey!" the kid who had begged to play with Salamence called from atop of my Dragon's head as I walked by. "Hi!"

I really didn't need to talk to him right now. Salamence gave me a "what happened to you?" look before grinning at my clothes, knowing I was not the type to dress up.

"I told you to say nothing," I restated for what felt like the hundredth time, walking into the Pokemon Center.

Dawn was nowhere to be seen when I got back to our room, which was a relief because I'd wanted my stupid shopping trip to be a surprise. As soon as this night was over I would have to dispose of all formal wear. I was tied between either burning the wretched clothes or sending them to Reggie, who would then ask me a dozen questions on why I had needed dress clothes in the first place and why I was keeping them.

The option involving fire seemed much more satisfying.

I decided to wash all of my clothes that Haunter had touched and headed to the wash room after changing into my spare pair of clean clothes. My jacket, shirt, and pants were comfortable and felt more like a second skin than the straitjacket I'd been forced to buy. I roughly threw everything into the washer, not bothering with dry clean or checking the labels. I was still debating letting Salamence himself decimate my clothes and following the irritating descriptive tags would be pointless.

I walked back to our room, sat myself roughly on the bed, and decided to support my head with my hands, leaning on my knees.

What a day.

I thought about how I hadn't even been awake until around noon and yet how it was still 'one of those' days.

"That's it," I said out loud to myself. "I'm not wearing the stupid tie."

And with that out of the way, the next few hours of wearing dress clothes seemed a bit more bearable to think about.

When I went to the laundry room to put my clothes in the dryer, I stopped at the door. A brown haired girl had her arms crossed and was glaring at a washer that I assumed held her own clothes. Normally, the sight of someone who seemed as angry with the world as I did would be amusing, but I knew this girl and she'd been a part of a group I'd never wanted to see again.

I counted my blessings. At least her flirty acquaintance wasn't around.

My thoughts stopped. He had to be here, I had no idea where Dawn was, and I was here in the laundry room knowing that hours' worth of nonstop interaction could have occurred since I'd gone to the store. Not to mention she'd been in her new dress when I'd left.

I was about to run out of the room and find Dawn, wondering if locking her in our room to keep her away from him was an overreaction when the girl turned around. "Oh. It's you. I'm guessing you're here to battle Anthony, the only worthy opponent, right?"

I gripped the door, wishing I could leave, but it was too late. I turned back around. "Hello."

"Hi," she said a bit sharply.

I didn't remember her being so snappy the last time I'd seen her. "Your name is Emma, right?"

"Yeah. And you're Paul, the hotshot Trainer who thinks he's too awesome to battle me. Why?"

"What in the world happened to you?"

Emma started laughing suddenly. "What happened? Oh, you don't even want to get me started on that subject."

Before I could comment, she began explaining the entire day she'd been having, "And if the Stun Spore wasn't bad enough, as soon as we got away I ended up falling in this huge mud pit! Daniel knew it was there but he didn't warn me in time. He'd been leading the way and he let me freaking face plant into a giant mud puddle!"

I stared at her. "You think that's bad? Try being stalked by a Haunter that keeps trying to steal your clothes and embarrass you to death in front of a crowd."

"No way."

"Way." I crossed my arms. "He ruined my clothes."

"Well, I think you win," Emma said. "Mud isn't nearly as bad as public embarrassment."

"I'm so glad I made you feel better," I said dryly.

My machine went off. I moved my clothes to the dryer. Emma watched and commented, "So, dress clothes? You don't seem the type."

"I'm not."

"Then what are they for?"

I closed the lid and began programming the machine, letting the words come out of my mouth automatically, "I have a date."

"You? A date?" Emma grinned. "Good for you. With Dawn, right?"

"How'd you-?"

"It's obvious." She rolled her eyes. "Believe me."

"Aren't you an expert," I said wryly. "Always so quick to see the obvious."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"If you were as observant as you said you were, you'd know about the romance between and mud boy."

"Daniel?"

"Exactly."

Emma gaped at me. "You're kidding me! Come on, he's a total idiot!"

"I agree with you there."

She began trying to form sentences, but was too shocked to say anything that made sense.

"I'll be back in about an hour if you have anything to say on the matter that doesn't resemble gibberish." I studied her surprised faced for a second before walking out, telling myself it'd be a perfect idea to stroll around the Pokemon Center to check out the scenery and see if any Trainers who were too confident for their own good were looking for fights.

I found Dawn outside. I didn't bother her and was so quiet that she didn't notice me watching from the shadows of the Pokemon Center. She was with Piplup, enjoying the day together. Safe. No boys in sight.

Good.

I didn't run into Daniel, though in the kitchen I did hear a lot of loud conversation which could have been coming from his big mouth. I decided to avoid the kitchen from then on until I knew they were no longer staying at the Pokemon Center.

The one thing about traveling through a region was you were bound to run into people you didn't like on a daily basis. It'd been the worst part of a Pokemon journey ever since I began in Kanto.

I decided to shower and make sure I didn't have any Haunter germs on my body before tonight. When I got out of the shower, my clothes were not missing, which was a relief.

I went back to the laundry room, finding Emma still there.

"Do you have nothing better to do than stand here for hours on end?" I asked her, going over to my dryer.

"Who died and made you Slaking?" she accused.

"That's a great way to greet people. I should try it sometime," I said out loud, not really wanting to have the conversation she wanted to have.

She ignored what I said, copying my strategy. "Nothing is obvious. "

"Your anger certainly is."

She sighed.

I can't believe I'm doing this, I thought to myself. "Do you want to talk about it?"

"About him you mean? No. I don't."

"Fine. Be like me and ignore every feeling inside of you until you lose it and make the wrong decision. There's no guarantee you'll end up getting a second chance like I did," I stated bluntly.

"Actually I think I'm on my five hundredth chance or so by now," she said quietly, looking down at the tiled floor.

Hm. I didn't peg Daniel to be the patient type. Or her to be that insanely stubborn. This group continually showed me that there was no way to instantly categorize a person because the assumptions would most likely be wrong.

"Then take your chance before you drive everyone insane," I said. She glanced up at me to see me smiling.

She smiled back. "I needed to hear that."

"I live to shut people up," I said, dreading my life as I got out an ironing board.

Emma started snickering at me. "Ironing?"

"Shut up."

"You must really love her."

I plugged the iron in. "She's never made me fall into mud before."

"It was actually pretty funny. Daniel ended up getting slapped in the face with some. He had a mud mustache and beard and talked with an accent for about an hour after that."

"How romantic."

"I'm not judging you, am I?"

"Yeah you are." I sprayed my dress shirt with water from the iron and began focusing on the task at hand, smoothing out wrinkles, which wasn't as difficult as I'd envisioned, yet it was still a pain and I was hardly used to the chore.

"So where are you going for your date?"

"To flop around in the mud."

"Seriously, where are you going?"

Doesn't everyone want to know? I grumbled internally.

"Why would I tell you this?" I asked irritably. "Do you want to double date or something? That sounds awful."

"Wow, no. Let's not do that." Emma looked like she'd rather jump into a few hundred mud puddles before that happened.

"I'm glad we're on the same page."

"Emma!" Daniel jogged into the room, stopping at the sight of us facing each other with only an ironing board between us. He eyed my dress shirt before breaking out into a huge grin. "Hey, date night!"

I opened my mouth, my loathing vanishing as surprise took its place. "How did-"

"Dawn told me," he said airily. "So, where are you going? Huh? It's your first one, you better have something good in store. A nice romantic stroll on the beach maybe?"

All I could do was stare at him.

Emma noticed and seemed just as keen as I was for him to leave. "Daniel, my clothes are almost done. Why don't you-"

"I think I'll stay right here." Daniel went over to an unoccupied washing machine and made himself comfortable sitting on top of it. "So, pick out a ring yet?"

"Daniel!"

"I'm kidding, Emma. It was just a joke." He rolled his eyes. Before I could respond, he touched her shoulder. "You have some mud caked on you still. Hold on."

He jumped down and got a rag, rinsing it in the small sink by the cabinets where all the detergent was. He walked back over to Emma and began scrubbing gently at the dry mud, his eyes scrutinizing her shoulder tenderly.

Emma looked away, avoiding looking at me and Daniel. Her posture was rigid besides her fingers, which fidgeted against her leg.

Daniel straightened, inspecting her shoulder once more. "Got it, but you have a spot on your cheek. How'd you miss that?"

"Daniel-"

"You've been walking around all day with mud on your face. Just let me get it."

Emma sighed and stood still, deciding not to comment and instead crossed her arms impatiently. Daniel brushed the cloth against her cheek, his face only a few inches from her own. I couldn't help but be smug about how uncomfortable she looked.

To get back at her for annoying me so much, I pressed the steam feature on the iron. It let out a puff of steam with a hiss. Emma noticed, her eyes scanning the steam before looking at my smirk. She glared at me, her cheeks red.

"Got it," Daniel said a few seconds later, putting the rag on top of a dryer. He noticed Emma's fury. "What's up?"

"I supposed it's too steamy in here for her," I said, using the steam again. It was very useful for getting out unwanted creases.

"No, everything's fine," she said quickly. "I just can't believe the dryer is taking so long."

"I guess your clothes are just as stubborn as you are," I said with pity, thoroughly enjoying myself now.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Emma's voice got a bit higher pitched.

"What in the world did I miss when you two were talking?" Daniel asked, staring back and forth at the two of us.

"Nothing," we both said at the same time.

I finished ironing my shirt and put it on a hanger. All I needed were my pants now, which were far easier to manage.

"Hurry up," Emma urged the dryer.

I chuckled under my breath, glad Daniel was too confused by Emma's unease to actually talk.

Emma's dryer began beeping, "Yes! Finally!"

She pulled the clothes out quickly, hugging them to her body as if they were a winning lottery ticket.

"I've never seen you so excited about laundry and I've known you since we were five," Daniel said.

"I want to get out of here." Emma began folding them hastily. It really was a pleasure that I was that repulsive that people wanted nothing to do with me, which I found ironic considering I'd attempted an actual conversation with this girl. Perhaps I hadn't lost my touch to repel people.

"What in the world did you do?" Daniel asked me again, incredulous.

"I have no idea what you're talking about," I said suavely.

Daniel went back to studying Emma as if just looking at her would solve the mystery. Really, the way he stared at her I didn't doubt that he would figure it out. He was more observant than I'd thought considering he'd noticed a layer of mud underneath her hair, which had been blocking her skin from view as far as I could tell.

Emma finished folding her small pile of clothes, picked them up, and scurried past me. "Bye, Paul."

"A pleasure seeing you again," I said, somewhat meaning it.

Daniel stayed where he was, staring at me seriously. It was odd. I hadn't thought he'd be able to be so still and quiet for longer than five seconds, not to mention pull off being borderline intimidating. "What freaked her out so much?"

"Aren't you used to her freaking out?" I asked, feeling like it was a very common occurrence between the two of them. He didn't seem to have a very developed sense when it came to personal boundaries.

"True, but I wasn't around till..." Daniel began rubbing the back of his neck, his eyes landing on the small rag he'd used before looking at me again as the realization hit him. "Oh."

"Oh indeed."

"Good to know." Daniel sighed, leaning up against a washer. I was expecting him to leave, but he didn't. Instead, he said, "You know, Dawn's kind of nervous about tonight."

"Is she?" I asked, intrigued, annoyed, and a bit afraid all at the same time. So they had talked to each other. Leave it to him to sniff out the only girl I cared about and possibly get her to talk about things I didn't even know about her.

"Yeah. So don't blow it."

"I was expecting a better pep talk than that from you."

"I've got other things on my mind."

"I really hate this laundry room," I stated. "People keep talking to me about relationships."

"Tough life," Daniel grunted.

Why was it that I didn't like seeing him uncheerful when I'd wished so often during our first conversations that he would lose some of his peppiness?

"Just stop making her walk into mud and I'm sure you'll be a lovely couple."

"I didn't make her walk into the mud!"

"She said you did."

"I got a bit distracted..."

"No more mud."

He sighed angrily. "I'm the one who had saved her the time she embarrassed herself at the pool."

"What happened?"

"I can't even begin to tell you. She'd kill me."

"My interest just increased. I need to hear the story now."

"Very funny."

Daniel seemed drawn into a moody silence.

"Glad we had this talk." I broke the abnormal quiet that he'd allow to form, checking the time and finished inspecting my pants, hanging them.

"Well, it's better than you glaring at me I guess," Daniel said. "I noticed how protective you were of her, you know. I'm used to people glaring at me."

"I bet you are." I put the iron and ironing board away.

"Did you think I was trying to steal your girl?"

"Did you think I was trying to steal yours?" I countered, knowing the thought was absolutely ridiculous.

"No." Daniel laughed. "You've got to be kidding."

"I was."

"You thought I liked Dawn though."

I met his eyes, which had now filled up with amusement. I wished he was down in the dumps again. "Bye."

"You didn't answer!"

I gathered my clothes. "Bye."

"Psh. Fine. Have fun on your date."

I walked out of the room. If the date went anything like today had, I had no idea if I'd make it through the whole thing.

Hi Readers!

Well, Paul's day couldn't get more topsy turvy, right? WRONG. He's having all sorts of new experiences, isn't he? Ironing. Does anyone else hate ironing? I certainly do.

I hope you enjoyed this chapter! If you did, make sure you vote and comment :) And follow if you aren't already. I don't know why anyone could get this far into a story and still be undecided about following me, but hey, whatever floats your boat.

Pokemon Question of the Day: How many people would you like to travel around with on your Pokemon journey? Would you bring your friends, siblings, random people you just met despite stranger danger? Like Ash traveled with Cilan who practically jumped on the table at the idea of traveling with a little boy that's at least 5 years younger than him. At least Brock had a motive to meet girls so it wasn't creepy towards Ash. Please make good decisions, all you people.

Dedication Question (by the way, I feel like if you've already won it'd be best if you didn't answer since it's only fair to let other people get a chance to get a dedication. If you know the answer and you've won you can PM me so I know how awesome you are. Thanks for understanding!). Here's my reference: "Is this haunted room actually stretching? Or is it your imagination, hm?"

If you know what it's from, be the first to comment to get the next dedication! This chapter is dedicated to lucyyy8 who guessed my Dumbledore quote. Ten points to Gryffindor! I'm glad you people know your Harry Potter.

Let's see... not sure if I'm posting next Friday. If I do, it will probably be Next Gen because I'm still working on the next chapter. School makes life so much busier. Oh, but I would like to let you know I wrote another Dawn pov about what happened that Paul has no idea about during her conversation with Daniel, which I'll post once First Light is over in order of Dawn POV's.

Have an awesome day! Thanks so much for reading. You're all my inspiration and the reason First Light is getting written. <3

-Flips