Another Road Repaved - Coordination

Chasing You

"I hope Dawn's not too mad that we bailed..." Ash mused aloud, carrying several paper bags loaded with to-go meals on his wrists, some of them visibly greasier than others. After a roundabout through the commercial stands set up about the island's populated areas, Ash was on his way back to the Wallace Cup dome. Pikachu and Rosemary walked along at his side.

"Pika Pika chuu." Maybe a little, he thought, but some of her favorite food would probably make a good apology.

~...I'm not so sure about that.~ Rosa voiced. Her already feline ears folded lower to frame her head. ~I'm getting some serious bad vibes.~

"Bad vibes?" Ash grimaced, stopping in his tracks. "Rosa, do you mean Team Rocket?"

The Riolu shook her head. ~No. I mean from Ma. She feels very upset.~

"Dawn...?" Although his wariness for danger waned, an uneasiness still hung in his gut. He ran in the direction Rosa seemed to be facing, with his two partners following, until he spotted two other figures coming their way. "...Dawn! Empoleon!"

Dawn was also running, with her starter trailing behind her. That was enough reason for Ash to stop, holding up each of his arms to show off the bags. "Hey, sorry. I got us dinner—"

"He's such a jerk!" Dawn shrieked. She stopped short of Ash, stomping the cement below her.

"...What?" Ash frowned. Rosa had been right. But, where had that come from?

"Kenny!" Dawn spat. "He told me he was in love with me... But, everything about it was all wrong! It was the worst!"

Ash's lips pulled thin. Kenny had gone and spilled it...? And it'd ended this badly? An unenviable feeling of guilt found itself in Ash. He'd been the one to encourage in the first place. But, how? "Dawn, what-"

"That battle you had with him... Back in Sunyshore City! It was a sham, Ash! Before it, he told me... He said that if he won, then we'd travel together...! I never told you, but I never, just—"

Dawn clenched a hand into a fist to the point where it trembled. Looking about for any target for her frustrations, she didn't find one. She swung a punch at the air in a futile attempt to relieve her anger. "He... I was just a prize to him! He battled you because he was jealous of you! He called me names to get my attention! Ash, he... He even became a Coordinator to win me over!"

"...Pika-ka." Pikachu trailed off sympathetically, as his ears drooped.

"He what, now!?" Ash made a face in disgust, and genuine disbelief. "He didn't tell me that part."

"Yeah! And he—" Dawn paused. Quiet for a moment, she turned her eyes back to Ash. They were wide, and her brows low in disbelief. "What do you mean, he didn't— Ash, you knew about this!?"

The look of betrayal on Dawn's face gave Ash the immediate feeling that this sounded a lot worse to her than he'd meant it to. "...Well, I mean, yeah, but-"

She gasped. "When you said it's something I should've heard from him... You knew all the way back then!?" Dawn didn't know what to make of anything she felt, right then, but anger was definitely bubbling up. It was enough to make her snatch his off-white collar in her grasp. "And you let me just... walk around, not knowing any of it!?"

"Hey, hey, hold on!" Ash put his hand over hers, if only to gently pry it from his collar, and take it in his own. "I told him the same thing I told you — that you should hear it from his mouth."

"I was running around like an idiot. Hanging out with him, thinking we were still friends...!"

"You're not friends, anymore...?" Ash realized immediately that this was the wrong question to ask.