Covet with Compassion

As always, Ash drew them in like a magnet. And as always, I'd get roped into it.

Though, there were some changes this time. For instance, it may have been Team Rocket, but it wasn't our Team Rocket, the ones who came up with ridiculous plans that we easily disposed of one way or another. No, these were top of their game, a duo that none of us had seen before. They called themselves Attila and Hun, they'd been transported from the Johto branch to follow a legendary pokemon, but coincidentally ran into Ash practicing with Pikachu.

Another difference was that it wasn't just us three, and I would have preferred it that way, because it was Paul who was stuck with us. He always dragged down the upbeat mood we kept, upsetting Ash and insulting me whenever I had the courage to speak up. Now he was busy insulting Attila and Hun, who weren't best pleased.

The grey haired man named Hun turned to Attila, he had a horrific scowl on his face that made me tremble as I huddled Piplup closer. I heard him growl to Attila in his menacing voice; "Take them all out."

"Will do." It seemed Attila was the muscle of the duo, with his huge biceps and pecs that made him look so intimidating, while Hun was the brains. They seemed to make a good team, if only they were actually good. I saw Ash move in to ready his stance for a battle, and Pikachu did likewise. Brock held his hand over a pokeball, most probably Sudowoodo's, and Piplup wriggled free of my grip so it could fight too. Paul, however, did nothing. He didn't seem to care we were about to be attacked, he was smirking at the ground without a care in the world.

Attila sent out a Skarmory, which made quick work of Pikachu, and a Muk came to suck up the poor fainted pokemon. Ash went after it, but ended up getting stuck too. The steel bird pokemon then began to fly at Sudowoodo, who countered with double edge.

"Piplup! Bubble Beam!" I called quickly, and Sudowoodo moved to the side quickly so Piplup could land the attack. It squealed in pain, so I knew I was getting somewhere. "Now Whirlpool!" Piplup set off to work, running closer to the recovering Skarmory, and creating gushing waters to engulf it and render it useless. I turned to Brock; "You get Ash and Pikachu free! I'll hold off Skarmory!"

And a Steelix, it appears. I backed up a little, wondering who to send out. Only Mamoswine could take on a huge pokemon like that, but an ice type against steel? That would be stupid.

Whilst pondering, I hadn't realised Piplup was being attacked by the Steelix in question.

"What are you doing?" I heard Paul's voice behind me, but I ignored him and called to Piplup instead; "Piplup! Bide!"

I felt a rush of energy shoot straight past me, whipping my hair into my vision. Then a huge fire type I'd only seen once before appeared in front of me to block my view again. I turned to Paul, who was frowning furiously, and he shouted; "Flamethrower, now!"

I flinched at the sharp movements of Magmortar, and had to step away as it fired blistering heat towards Skarmory and Steelix, and of course, Piplup.

"Move Piplup!" I squealed, unable to see. I ran over to Paul so we could see the field together, even though he didn't seem the type of person to tag battle. I saw that Piplup had stepped aside, but had taken damage, despite its type advantage over all three.

"Add a bubble beam!" I called, and Piplup nodded with the determined look on its face that made me so proud. Paul scowled at me, but let us continue. Yes, he didn't like me interfering at all. He allowed Magmortar to add the flamethrower into the mix, and the two attacks spiraled together, towards the opponents.

I balled my hands into fists, partly with anger, partly with anticipation. I hadn't used this combination since May was here. In the corner of my eye, I saw Paul blink with shock, seeing the power of the combined attacks for the first time. His reaction would have been similar to my own if he lifted that frown of his.

I pulled my eyes away quickly to look to the battle again. Our Pokemon had stopped attacking, because they no longer had anything to attack.

"You're easy to distract." Attila laughed, stepping into the flying machine that was too far away for me to catch. I tried anyway, and Paul grabbed onto my arm; "Are you stupid? They'll just capture you too. It's a trap!"

I wriggled free from his stupidly strong grip; "I have to try, I can't just leave Ash and Brock there!" I turned to run again, but I had only slid free from his grip on my elbow, he caught my wrist before I could move a foot away from him.

"Don't be an idiot." He growled, but I was far too focused on how he was holding my hand. As soon as he noticed, he dropped it like I was diseased. It kinda stung, though I knew I shouldn't have been surprised.

"Piplup!" My pokemon squealed and leapt for me to catch it. I did so absentmindedly, still watching Paul as he kept his eye on the machine that was carrying my best friends away quickly. I started walking for it quickly, and I heard no movement behind me.

I stopped and turned; "aren't you coming?"

He frowned up at me; "Why would I?"

My teeth clamped down onto my bottom lip, and my eyes fell to the ground. I guess I shouldn't expect him to follow me the way Ash would. I was just terrified of leaving on my own.

"I just thought you would-"

"You thought I'd follow you like your pathetic friend." He interrupted me, and I blinked in surprise. My frown formed to match his as I growled defensively; "if Ash is so pathetic, why do you keep battling him?"

"Because even the weakest battles make my pokemon stronger." He replied simply, along with an annoying careless shrug of his shoulders. I felt my teeth snap shut together and grind as I bared them. He just smirked at me.

I huffed and turned to walk in the right direction again, shouting over my shoulder; "I don't want some heartless jerk's help anyway!"

"Piplup!" My little water pokemon agreed.

I smiled when I heard footsteps crunch through the long grass behind me. I turned and widened my eyes innocently; "What are you doing?" I questioned, keeping my tone light. I could see it annoyed him, his left eyebrow rose up in surprise, he looked at me like I was stupid. I had to work to keep my blood from boiling in anger.

"Do you really expect to catch them alone?" He asked equally as light. Well, as light as his low voice would allow. I pushed my lips to smile; "I was, but I wouldn't mind the company." Of course that was a lie, I could feel the dumb note in my voice when I said it. I wanted him there for support, I was scared to be alone. He grinned at my falseness, and just walked by my side silently.

I had no idea what to say when he refused to help me start a conversation. We were walking for a while, it seemed even longer without socialising. I began to lose hope a lot faster than I usually would, even Piplup seemed down. I returned it so it didn't have endure the awkwardness.

I eventually came to a stop, and he did too, looking at me curiously. My eyes were blank as they moved to stare up at him, a tear slid slowly down my cheek; "We're not going to find them, are we?"

He frowned at me, not that it wasn't unusual, but he actually looked like he listened to what I had said. A hand moved up to catch the salty fluid on my face, and I flinched away, my breath catching as I froze in place. His thumb pressed along my skin to wipe away the tear, and I moved my widened eyes to follow it. I wasn't sure what to do, or say, it was very bizarre and unlike Paul to do something like that. When he did nothing else and kept silent, I flicked my eyes back to his, my mouth open slightly after the shock. His were the usual emotionless black pools that seemed to dry for them to be healthy, but he did not blink to fix that problem. I felt mine water again, as if to make up for his lacking emotion, but he made no effort to stop me. He turned and continued to walk, so I trundled after him like we had a hope in hell.

"Paul?" I whispered, half hoping he wouldn't hear me. He turned his head a little to indicate that he had sensitive hearing, and I sighed. "Do you hate Ash?"

He turned his head back, snorting as he did so; "Do you think I'd be wasting my time looking for him if I did?"

My feet came to a stop, not from shock, not from concentration that I had to put in to register the longest sentence I'd been told in hours, but it genuinely hurt; "We're wasting time?" There was no hope? Were we now aimlessly wandering? I was stuck with Paul, to always wonder if Brock and Ash lived?

He'd carried on walking for a while, obviously ignoring my confusion. He eventually realised I was no longer following, and turned back to me; "If you're going to get all sensitive I'm not going to bother comforting you anymore."

"But you said-"

He interrupted me; "I meant that I didn't hate him. Not that it's any of your business."

"Oh." I looked back down at the long grass, it swayed towards him along with the wind that pushed my hair in my face. I looked back up to see his hair being pulled away from his face.

"If you keep stopping then we're never going to find them." He huffed, turning to walk again, so I had no other choice to follow. I found I'd rather have Paul's company than be alone. How strange...

His words rang through me, as if my subconscious was pointing out something that I hadn't payed enough attention to, and I realised he was doing this for me. I stared wide eyed at him once again, dazzled with confusion of this development, or my enlightenment to Paul's real nature.

"Why did you comfort me?" I asked quietly, knowing I needed no more than a gentle whisper. He scoffed; "Because you were crying."

I smiled weakly and looked down to my path, my shyness catching up; "Thank you." I muttered. He hummed, and I took that as I was welcome. My smile widened without my conscious demand, it took me by surprise.

It took a while, but I eventually found the courage to speak up again; "Can I ask you something?"

He looked to me, his eyes bored. I took it as a yes, so I continued to ask, "do you enjoy traveling alone?"

"Why?" He said quickly, defensively. I blinked in surprise and it took a moment for me to collect my thoughts, like I'd dropped them in shock, and they scattered everywhere.

"Well," I stuttered; "I have never traveled alone, Ash met me on my first day. I was wondering why you prefer it."

"Who says I prefer it?" He frowned, not like the frown had ever left anyway, but my eyebrows imitated his; "Well I just assumed..."

He interupted me; "I travel alone because there isn't anybody to travel with."

"Oh."

My lips pouted as I frowned to the floor, I'd never seen it the way he'd described. I'd always thought he wanted to be alone, he was always so irritable when in the company of us, never once did I think he didn't want it that way. From what I could now gather, he drove people away unintentionally, nobody wanted to travel with him, being Paul and all... It caused a sudden rush of sadness and sympathy: Two feelings I never expected to feel for the boy.

"Well..." I muttered, already knowing what he would reply with when I asked him; "You could travel with us?"

"Unlikely." He scoffed, he didn't even pause to think about it. An odd stabbing sensation punctured my stomach, it wasn't like hunger pains, or anything I was used to, it just left a sting when my gut twisted oddly. He seemed to notice me wince away from the pain, and came to the assumption that I'd done so because of his rejection. Oddly enough, he felt the need to justify himself; "I don't know how you put up with him."

So full of implications, I read into his words too easily, too much... I could be wrong, but then again, I could be right. I could help him when he struggles to explain himself through lack of needing to. He looked at me with the rare apologetic emotion in his eyes, and I instantly knew that I was right.

"Err..." I questioned myself, but I'd already thrown myself out of the frying pan, may as well hope the fire doesn't burn too much... "I could always travel with you."

"What," he snorted, amused; "just you?"

The heat burnt, just like I'd been hoping it wouldn't. It made my face turn red and hot, I sweatdropped; "well if you want, I don't have to, I mean, I'd have to tell Ash and Brock once we've found them and they probably won't like it and-" his whole palm pressed to my mouth and restricted my airflow, therefore forcing my silence, just as he wanted.

"You'd do that?"

I nodded gently, pulling my head away from his hand, it was hot too, I could feel my cheeks growing hotter, I could get heat stroke at this rate. He dropped his arm to his side and his hand automatically slid into his pocket out of habit. I boldly took it back out again and braved his heat. I realised we'd stopped walking, so I tightened my grip and continued on. "You could have just asked." I smiled, though my whole body was trembling in a state of shock. I think my mind must have been too focused on everything happening then to have really thought it over and gone into shock too. I assumed that was yet to come, when it all caught up with me.

I turned to look at him, he was frowning at our contact. I realised it wasn't something he was used to, so I dropped his hand, knowing he was moving again. He stepped closer and took my hand again, I looked at it before up at his face, he forced his smirk to look a little less smug, and aimed for a happy smile.

"I liked that." He complained, watching for my reaction. He laughed when I blinked in shock, stepping away a little.

Was this happening? Was I dreaming? I shook my head, I usually dreamt for things I actually wanted, I'd never consciously wanted this. I'd never had a crush of Paul at any one time. I'd instantly thought he was a big headed jerk, but now I'd matured a little, seen more of the world, I realise that boys are like that. Boys are competitive, and struggle to be friends with their rivals because they want to beat the living daylights out of each other. Even Ash was like that, I could tell.

I wasn't in Paul's way, I'd taken a different path that didn't obstruct his dream, and vice versa I guess. So does that mean we're compatible? By our contact, I assumed Paul thought so. I'd never seen him make contact with anybody in this way, he hadn't even embraced his brother once.

"So, once we find your friends, we can travel together?" He asked, quirking his eyebrow, it seemed oddly out of place there.

I nodded; "As long as you don't mind supporting me in my contests."

"Hmmm... I'll think about it."

"Hey!" I nudged him playfully, like I would have done with Ash. He seemed surprised by the gesture, friendship wasn't as easy to him as it was to me. I continued to tease anyway; "I'll support you with your gym battles, I'll even put my cheerleading outfit on."

He laughed; "That I'd like to see, deal."

I blushed at his semi-compliment, and I realised we'd been talking for so long that we were no longer in the countryside. We'd reached a small, urban area that I knew Team Rocket would hideout in.

He dropped my hand and stuffed his into his pocket, revealing a pokeball; "Let's go find your friends."

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Find me on FF.net: [link]
Yeah, I'm an Ikarishipper at heart.
I really tried with my art this time, I followed Pokemon's style shading, I used tutorials for the background. I used the proper colours instead of making it up. I even did the correct eyes for Dawn this time!
Hope you like it. ^^