A Troublesome Teammate

Training Flop

"Glaceon use snow dance!!"

The blue fox pokemon jumped in the air and spun in a circle forming snowflakes in its mouth. it surrounded itself with a circle of snow flakes and sparkles. It was a beautiful sight to see.

"enough!!!" Paul had grown irritated with all of dawns performing. "You're such an idiot! Why are your pokemon twirling like that?!"

"PRESENTATION counts for  1/3 of our total score. You worry about strength and I'll worry about style." Dawn responded

"Well you need to be faster. It doesn't matter how nice it looks if the attack doesn't land!"

"So you think it looks nice?

Paul blushed slightly realizing what he had said.

"I never said that."

"Look Paul," Dawn started speaking again. "Weather you like it or not, we are partners. I will NOT have a repeat of you and Ash's tag team battle a few years ago. Suck it up and at least TRY to work with me!"

"How can I 'work' with you when all your pokemon do is prance around and show off?!" Paul answered anger rising in his cheeks.

"Well we have to show off since your pokemon don't seem to care about looks....of course they do always say...'like trainer like pokemon'" Dawn answered with a smart ass tone.

"Ok, your pokemon can dance, but they need to cut it short. they are taking way too long to land their attacks and we do still need to actually win the battle. here I'll use Weevile, show us what it is you want to do."

"Ok we'll try again and this time ill be faster i promise." Dawn hurriedly gave Paul a small hug and then turned to her pokemon.

"Glaceon use ice beam on the field and create an ice rink."

the ice type eveeloution jumped in the air and began to dance. Dawn allowed it for a few moments before calling out

"Ok do it now, Paul said  we are taking too much time to land the attacks so we need to try doing it faster."

The fox pokemon nodded and smiled before blowing a cloud of dehydrated ice all over the area in which they were training.

"Ok Paul, in order for this to work you need to teach weevile to skate."
"what the hell is that going to do other than make her look like an idiot?!"

dawn face palmed.

"Ok i guess Ill have to show you. call out another pokemon and have a training battle with me on the ice rink."

"why would I practice on an ice rink? the stadium is indoors, it wont be frozen." Pauls patients was wearing thin.

"Just trust me. You'll understand in a minute."

Paul called out his Torterra  to join weevile and was ready to go, he wanted to show dawn that prancing around wont win battles. they both began calling attacks and the battle began. Pauls pokemon struggled to stand, let alone land a move. Dawns pokemon on the other hand glided gracefully across the makeshift battlefield landing every attack with ease.

Ten minutes later dawn called her pokemon back and walked on the ice over to Paul. he was shocked that she could so easily glide across the ice in her boots without loosing her balance. once they were face to face dawn began to speak.

"The reason i told you that i need to teach your pokemon to skate is because that's my strategy. our opponents are a rock type trainer and a dragon type trainer. If you use weevile and i use Glaceon we can beat them easily. ill turn the battlefield to ice and at least one of their pokemon wont be able to land attacks. It'll be too busy trying to stand. if one happens too be able to fly weevile can use psychic to keep them on the ice. if weevile can learn to skate, she can land physical attacks while using psychic. "

"When did you come up with this idea?" Paul asked

"Last night i couldn't sleep and decided to go to the library. I was doing some research on our opponents past battles and different strategies that would work using both our pokemon. I know your pokemon are stronger than most, and mine are more graceful than most. Thats why i figured you could do the manly type battling and i can do the girly type battling."

"Well i guess that head holds something in it other than hot air after all. " Paul said.

Dawn immediately looked frustrated but decided against arguing and chose to smile instead. she was shocked when Paul returned the smile. not a smirk like usual but a real genuine smile. granted it was small and lasted only a second, but dawn saw it and understood that Paul was actually making a joke.

Paul told weevile to listen to dawn and learn to skate. weevile ran over to dawn eager to learn to skate. dawn laughed at her excitement and began teaching her.

time skip 4 hours

"ok weevile i think you've got it. you did a really good job. its not easy to learn to skate in one day, it even took some of my pokemon weeks to learn what you've learned today. you should be very proud of yourself." Dawn was praising Pauls weevile.

"return weevile," Paul wasn't one to praise his pokemon.

"you really should give her credit Paul. its very difficult for a pokemon who's not an ice type to learn to skate in one day, hell even some ice types cant skate."

"i expect nothing less from her. all of my pokemon have been trained to understand that anything less than perfection is unacceptable."

"well it shows, you've trained them well. they're not gonna know what hit them tomorrow!"

"yea well just remember not to prance around so much you forget to attack. you need to focus on winning."

"right! you're 100% correct. but at the same time, don't forget to let weevile do her dance. i know you don't like them to be frilly but if you trust me we will definitely get those style points. and i trust you to get the strength points. together we can get the teamwork points if we stick to the plan. all in all im expecting an easy short battle tomorrow."

"hmmm for once I agree with you. now come on its nearly midnight and im tired." paul told dawn curtly.

"ok, to be honest i'm tired as hell myself. i'm hungry though." dawn said as her stomach began to growl.

"i figured you would be." Paul said. He led her to their suite and dawn went to change into her pajamas. when she came back out Paul had two bowls of homemade chili and cornbread on the table waiting for her. Dawn was sure the expression on her face reflected how confused she was. Paul smirked and motioned for her to sit down.

"I figured since you were training weevile i would save us some dinner. There wasn't anything edible left in the cafeteria so i went ahead and made something."

"th-thank you. I didn't know you could cook."

"well duh if i coudn't cook i would've starved years ago. just hurry up and eat, we need to sleep we have our first battle at 8am.

dawn nodded and sat down across from Paul. she ate the food he had prepared for her and she thoroughly enjoyed it, which surprised her. after they were finished dawn was far from sleepy. she practically begged Paul to watch a scary movie with her. he agreed reluctantly. mainly to get her to shut up. they sat together and put in a horror flick.

halfway through the movie Paul felt a weight on his shoulder. he looked down and saw dawn was asleep laying on him. he smiled and layed his head on hers strangely comfortable in the way he was laying.

"you are troublesome aren't you." Paul said as he drifted off to sleep.