Chapter Text
Chapter 1
You're my Etoile
Looking up at the sky, what I want from that brightest star is that may your heart be filled with happiness today
I can feel it, I'm not alone. Warm hearts are here
Dawn threw herself on the couch near the fireplace. Her simple eco bag fell on the ground on the process her Pokeballs rolled out from the bag. It was a good thing that she left her phone, or else it would be exploding with various alarms and calls. After staring at the empty fireplace for a brief moment, she reached out and picked one of her Pokeballs up and called out her Pokemon.
"Quilava, can you light up the fire for me?" She ordered and her Pokemon quickly set up a fire in the place it was asked to.
After she could feel the warmth slowly taking up the place, she told Quilava to make fire in the bedroom as well. She pointed upstairs and watched her Pokemon crawl up.
Then Dawn finally looked around the living room of the small cottage. She was lucky that it was empty. While looking for a place to hide, she remembered that Zoey's parents kept winter houses near Lake Acuity. Unfortunately, most of them were going under remodeling but there were two cottages that were fine and one of them was unoccupied. Zoey called her parents to have Dawn stay there and tell no one that she was there. Of course, they were kind enough to agree and let Dawn take accomodation there.
It was very quiet. She could only hear the fire cracking at the fireplace. If there weren't any fire, it would've been quiet enough for her to hear the snow falling. She couldn't remember the last time she was in silence. Last 6 years was very busy and long. Not that she regretted any moment, but sometimes she wondered what would've happened if she had rejected the offer.
She was 14 years old when she won the Grand Festival in Kanto. And right after she returned to Sinnoh, an agency in Jubilife City scouted her to become an idol star. She thought it would be a new challenge and accepted the offer after pondering over it for a few months with her mom and Zoey. For the following 2 years, every day was filled with harsh training. All those dance lessons and vocal lessons made her part away from contests. No matter how much she wanted to rejoin the contests, she just couldn't. She felt sorry for her Pokemons and trained whenever she could, but it wasn't enough.
She trained.
She trained, not her Pokemons but herself.
She trained.
And was finally able to stand in front of the crowd again, but on a different stage.
Dawn sighed and fidgeted the balls between her fingers. She managed to bring her balls with her when she left for Snowpoint. It was such a rush decision and she left out many things back in Jubilife. She closed her eyes as she brought her memories back. After her debut, it took her some time, but she climbed up to the top. Knowing what to do and having a goal certainly helped her forget about all the tiredness. But it had been less than a month ago when she saw her song on the top of the chart. For 8 weeks straight. Her calendar was filled with schedules her manager didn't bother telling her about. Her SNS was always buzzing on notices.
She was finally on the top.
Then, now what?
She bit her lips, trying to get rid of the negative emotions that were trying to creep into her.
Her mind was about to drift off to deciding which bath bomb she was going to use, but her eyes shot open when she heard knocking on the door. She gulped when there was another knock. It wasn't a polite knock. It was rather hard and rash. She clenched onto her pink cardigan as she slowly walked toward the door. Quilava followed her.
"If I scream, throw a Flamethrower at it, okay?" Dawn told the Pokemon in a low voice.
Quilava nodded.
She cleared her voice and opened the door. There was a very tall man standing there. She looked up at his face and froze, recognizing his coal eyes and purple hair, which was tied back into a short low ponytail.
"Paul?" She called out her old crush's name.
It was obvious that Paul was also surprised to see her there.
"Troublesome." He tried to sound as indifferent as possible, but Dawn could see the apparent surprise in his voice.
"What are you doing here?" She gasped.
"I'm your neighbor. The house owner called me to help you check the oil and woods and things like that." He replied dryly.
"Oh, I see." She nervously fidgeted her cardigan.
"I just didn't expect to see you here." She mumbled, looking down at Quilava. The last time Dawn saw Paul was 10 years ago, during the battle between Ash and Paul at Sinnoh League. Dawn had an obvious crush on him, which only Zoey knew about, but never had enough courage to tell him that. After she parted away from Ash and Brock she never had a chance to see him again. Of course, she saw him on TV a few times when they were airing Pokemon League battles but never in person.
"Neither did I. Aren't you busy?" Paul asked and Dawn looked up, surprised. She didn't expect Paul, out of all people, to care about her career.
"Huh?" Dawn replied.
"I saw you on TV." Paul answered simply.
"Oh, right. I'm taking a break."
"Mmhm."
"What about you?" She asked.
"I'm here to train."
Dawn peaked outside. It was snowing. A lot. It was almost a blizzard. She couldn't believe that Paul was attempting to train his Pokemons in this weather.
Then Dawn realized that she was making Paul stand out in cold weather. She quickly stepped aside and let Paul in.
"Thanks." Paul said sarcastically as he entered, dusting off the snow on his green field jumper.
Paul took off his jacket and hung it on the clothes hanger next to the door. Then he headed straight to the kitchen and Dawn followed him. He crouched down in front of the stove and checked if it worked or not.
"It's nice of you to help out Mr. Nozomi." Dawn commented, looking at his back.
"Hmm? Oh, he gave me a slight discount on the rent for helping out his chores."
"Oh." So much for a compliment. Typical Paul.
Paul stood up and headed to the basement, and Dawn followed him down. Quilava came along.
"You need more wood. How long are you staying here?" Paul asked when he saw the pile of wood.
"Umm…." Dawn never thought of it. "I don't know."
Paul paused and turned to look at her. "What do you mean?"
"Well… I kind of ran away."
Paul stood there, staring at her for a moment. "Ran away?"
"Ran away." Dawn confirmed.
"Why?"
Dawn tilted her head. She didn't expect Paul to care about her this much. She would've been excited if she was still 10 but no, she wasn't. She wasn't 10 anymore but she could feel a small excitement in her heart.
"I, don't want to talk about it right now." She mumbled, looking down at the floor.
"It's fine." He said, walking toward the main boiler to see if it was still working.
Dawn was a bit surprised that Paul didn't make rude remarks like he used to. He had softened up. Dawn carefully walked up to him and stood next to him. Watching him doing his work.
"How's your training going?" she asked.
Paul flinched. "Fine." He simply replied.
"You are still aiming for the Champion, right?" Since Paul asked a bit about herself, Dawn thought that it would be fine to do the same for him.
"Mmhmm." A dry reply was returned.
"To think about it, I saw you on TV last year. You were battling one of the Elite Fours. Bertha, was it?"
Paul turned around.
"I thought you would be challenging Cynthia, what made you change your mind? Are you trying out for Elite Four?"
It was a question out of pure curiosity. But Dawn could see that Paul was a bit offended from his scowl.
"That's none of your business." Paul replied, crouching down.
Dawn expected him to just leave but he didn't. He was still doing his job.
"I'm sorry. I was just curious." Dawn apologized as she crouched down next to him.
Paul didn't reply for a moment, but he soon grunted, seemingly accepting her apology.
Dawn carefully examined him as he did his job. He was taller than expected, about 6 feet 2 inches, and as she noticed earlier his hair was longer than she remembered. Not as long as Reggie's but still long enough to have it tied. Also, he seemed much calmer than when he was young. Time did its things, apparently.
"Okay, it seems good to use." Paul suddenly stood up, surprising Dawn and causing her to fall on her butt.
"Ouch! You scared me!"
Paul smirked and held out his hand toward her. Dawn stared at it for a moment, hesitant to grab it.
"Jeez, I'm not going to let go of it, Troublesome. How old do you think I am?" Paul rolled his eyes.
"It's not that, Plumhead." Dawn retorted back. But she did grab his hand and he pulled her up.
She quickly let go of his hand, but her hand missed his warmth.
"Thanks." She quietly said.
"Don't mention it," Paul said while turning on the boiler.
Dawn felt the heat emitting from it. She couldn't wait to take a bath.
"I'll be going now. Tell me if there's any problem."
"Oh, okay."
Following Paul up to the first floor, Dawn gathered up the courage she didn't have when she was 10.
"So, um, what are you going to do tomorrow?"
"Train." A dry reply came back.
"Right… Um, can I come and watch you?"
Paul turned around, "Don't you have better things to do?"
"Like what?"
"I don't know, film Tic Toc or take pictures for SNS?"
Dawn raised her brow, "You seem to know a lot about what idols do for their fans."
Paul froze. "No, I don't."
"I know, I know. You will find it a waste of time and pathetic to follow stars around." Dawn guessed.
"I…" Paul didn't continue his reply. He just turned around.
"So, can I come?"
Paul shrugged, "You are going to come even if I tell you not to, right?"
Dawn giggled, "Hey, I may be a help! My contest combinations might give you ideas for new strategies."
"Sure," Paul replied with uncertainty.
"Great! I will see you tomorrow."
Paul just nodded as he exited the cottage. Dawn sighed dreamingly without realizing she had just done so.
"Gosh, what am I doing?" She asked herself and she felt her cheeks warm up a bit. All those conversations felt more like a dream than reality. Dawn thought that she was over her crush. And she was too busy to think about dating for past few years. But now that she sees him again, grown so tall and handsome, her heart started to beat fast again. She squealed and Quilava jumped from surprise.
"Oh, this is going to be great!" She exclaimed, her eyes sparkling.
When Paul returned to his cottage, he just couldn't believe who he met. His face started to burn after realizing that really was Troublesome, not his hallucination or Froslass. His Pokemons, that were waiting for him in the living room were surprised to find Paul with red face.
They approached him, worried to find Paul in a weird expression. Paul sighed and shooed them away, indicating that he was fine. He took a deep breath and took out his phone to check if there were any articles about Dawn. But there wasn't any. He looked out the window, facing Dawn's cottage, and then looked back at his phone. She really wasn't Froslass, right?
Paul knew about Dawn. It was hard not to know when she was all over TV shows and commercials but it wasn't just that. Paul remembered watching a news report about Dawn winning Kanto Grand Festival. He recognized her, but that time he didn't really care much. She only brought back memories of the rivalry he had with Ash.
It was about 2 years later when he saw her on TV again. But she wasn't there for contests, she was singing and dancing on the stage. He first thought that she was pathetic for giving up being a trainer. He thought she did. But after unintendedly listening to her songs, thanks to Reggie, he started to pay more attention to her more than he wanted to. He found himself going through her clips from time to time, going to her SNS, and even buying her albums. He kept them hidden in a box in the corner of his room.
He kept his lines. He didn't watch some cheesy talk shows or listen to the radio where she was the guest, he was denying that he was a fan of her.
But his mind started to cross lines before he knew it. Just because he knew about her when they were just kids, just because they talked and argued from time to time, just because she looked so confident about what was doing, just because she didn't seem like that troublesome girl she used to be, he was starting to develop his little crush on her.
"Jeez…" And it just had to be at that moment when he realized that. All those stupid un-Paul-like actions he did were because he had a crush on her.
"Seriously? I'm 21 now." He complained to himself. Crush, at this age. Unbelievable. He was too busy with training at young ages that his mental puberty probably hit on late. He roughly ran his hand through his hair and sighed. He had always thought having those crushes on celebrities was pathetic and stupid. And rude as well. But there he was, suffering from the pathetic feeling.
And now she was here. In this isolated land. Alone with him. He shook dirty thoughts away and decided to take a shower. Maybe that will wash those thoughts away.
To make a long story short, it didn't.