The Only Exception

58. [Nightmare Arc]

I'm sorry this took so long. I was going through a really tough time and I wanted some time away from everything. I'm feeling a lot better now and I'm doing my best to write this for you guys. I hope you all enjoy and thank you all so much for the love and support for my stories. <3 They mean a lot to me.

It was the next morning and Ash had woken up and stretched a bit. He never did have that nightmare again, he had to thank Dawn for that. His eyes widened when he realized that he was still laying in her lap, not only that but the girl in question was still awake.

"Good morning." She yawned. "Did you sleep well?"

"Dawn? Did you stay up all night?" He asked her.

She nodded her head at him, too tired to say anything. 

Ash sighed at her, "you should've slept." 

"Someone needed to watch over you." She yawned once more. "What if Darkrai came around here?"

Ash furrowed his brows as he gave her a soft smile. He then took her into his arms and carried her. "Let's get you to bed." He told her.

"I'll be fine." She smiled sleepily.

"Your eyebags tell me otherwise." He chuckled as he went over to her sleeping bag and placed her down. "Get some sleep, okay?" He said as he placed a small kiss on her forehead. Before he could leave, he felt her grab onto his hand as he looked down at her.

"Stay with me? Until I fall asleep at least." She asked him.

He smiled at her as he sat down beside her and ran his fingers through her hair the same way she did with his last night. "Okay, as long as you fall asleep." 

She smiled at him as she held onto his other hand feeling him rub his thumb on top of it. "I'm glad you were able to get some sleep last night." 

"It's all thanks to you." He smiled as he picked her hand up and placed a kiss on top. "Now it's your turn to get some sleep."

She chuckled at him as she closed her eyes and felt herself drifting off to sleep. Ash still ran his fingers through her hair wanting to make sure she was actually asleep. He couldn't believe she actually stayed up all night just to make sure he got a good night sleep. Well, maybe he could, since she practically stayed up with him the whole night when he was training Gliscor. He smiled at the memory as he placed a soft kiss to her forehead and quietly left her side.

"Did Dawn stay up all night?" Serena asked him with a yawn.

Ash looked over at her, "yeah. I feel kind of bad that she had to do that." 

"She'd probably do it regardless of what you said anyway." Serena chuckled as she got up and stretched. She then went over to Bonnie and Clemont's tent as she opened it up to see the two siblings awake.

"Morning. Had a good sleep last night?" Serena smiled.

"Sort of. I was still kind of scared about Darkrai coming here and giving us nightmares." Bonnie said as she got out of the tent with her brother following out. "Hm? Dawn's still sleeping? Oh, Dawn! Wakey wake-" Before Bonnie could finish her sentence she was stopped by Ash.

"Bonnie, let Dawn sleep in some more. She's been up all night." Ash told her.

"Oh, I'm sorry." Bonnie pouted.

Ash gave her a soft smile, "no worries."

"Well, considering what just happened last night, I think I'll work on a new invention that'll be able to prevent us from having nightmares whenever Darkrai is around!" Clemont smiled confidently.