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baby, it’s cold outside (PG-13, Dawn/Barry) for redwoodalchan
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redwoodalchan
Title: baby, it’s cold outside
Author:lilcrickee
Rating: PG-13
Verse: Games Gen IV
Characters: Dawn, Barry
Summary: Five times Dawn’s Infernape kept her warm in the winter and one time he didn’t have to.
01
When Dawn turned thirteen-years-old she picked a Chimchar from Professor Rowan’s collection of starters and started on a journey. Barry, who had chosen a Piplup, teased her incessantly.
“My Piplup will always beat your Chimchar, Dawn,” he’d told her as they left the lab. “Water trumps fire and all that; it’s just a simple fact of life.”
“Just you wait, Barry,” Dawn had replied. “When we’re battling it out for Champion we’ll see who really trumps who.”
“Whatever. My Piplup is still ten times cooler than your Chimchar. I’ll catch you later, Dawn.”
Barry had sped off in a blur of orange and white, leaving Dawn to herself in the big, wide world.
Except for how she wasn’t by herself because now she had her Pokemon.
Dawn had always had the suspicion that she and Barry wouldn’t travel together. Despite being best friends, Barry was always looking for the next big adventure while Dawn preferred to take her time and look around. They’d never work together and so now it looked like they would be working against each other: Dawn was always hearing about Barry’s triumphs as she traveled across Sinnoh.
The first time Dawn encountered winter on the road was just outside Hearthome City. The snow whipped her hair around and made her shiver, even under the coat she had pulled on.
“I need to find shelter,” she muttered to herself, barely audible over the howling wind. Dawn stumbled forward, tripping her way towards a small cave carved into the bottom of one of the towering rock formations along the route.
The wind could not reach her inside the cave, but the cold still could. Shivering, Dawn pulled her knees to her chest and tried to keep warm, watching as snow drifted outside the cave. If only she had a fire …
Fire. Of course.
Cursing herself over her own stupidity, Dawn drew a Poke Ball from her belt and released her Chimchar. There was no wood inside the cave but her Pokemon gave off enough heat that Dawn just cuddled Chimchar close to her and buried her nose in his fur. She instantly began to feel warmer, as if the cold was seeping out of her body.
For a moment, Dawn thought back to Barry, all those months ago claiming that his Piplup was the superior Pokemon. Glancing out at the cold wintry night, Dawn smiled. As far as she was concerned, Chimchar was definitely worth ten times more than any water-type Pokemon.
02
It’s always winter in Snowpoint City.
Set high in the mountains of Sinnoh, the snow never melts, and Dawn discovered that for herself when she traveled there in the summer to challenge Candice for her gym badge.
It had seemed that Candice had had other ideas, however.
“C’mon, Dawn,” the gym leader had called as they trudged through the wilderness of Route 217. “Believe me when I say nothing builds butt muscles better than a good romp through the snow!”
Dawn shivered as she followed Candice. “While I believe that to be true I have to ask: why does the snow have to be so darn cold?”
Candice laughed and Dawn grumbled and they marched into a small outcropping of trees, looking for berries.
“If you’re so cold, put on an extra layer to warm up,” Candice advised.
“I don’t have any more clothes!” Dawn complained. “I’m already wearing everything I own.”
“Wear one of your Pokemon then. I don’t care.”
The idea, no matter how stupid sounding, had a bit of value to it. With shaking fingers, Dawn reached a gloved hand into her pocket and withdrew a Poke Ball. Inside was her Monferno and as soon as she released him she felt warmth in the surrounding area.
Carrying him, on the other hand, was a bit of a challenge.
“Oh my God, Monferno, you weigh a ton!” Dawn complained.
Candice turned around and laughed. “At least you look a bit more dignified than the last person I took out here with me.”
“Yeah?” Dawn asked skeptically.
“For sure. The last guy I brought out here plastered himself to the back of his Rapidash. It looked like he was the princess and I was the knight in shining armor. Not that I would generalize like that because there’s nothing wrong with finding a guy as a damsel in distress.”
Dawn pondered Candice’s words for a moment before asking, “That guy … he didn’t happen to be Barry by any chance, did he?”
Candice glanced back at Dawn, her eyes twinkling. “Why yes, yes it was. Are you two …?”
“What? Oh, no,” Dawn said hurriedly. “Just childhood friends, that’s all.”
“Right, sure,” Candice replied, waving her hand airily before continuing on. “So that means you’d be okay if I, you know, asked him out or something.”
The comment was so far out of left field that Dawn didn’t even notice the tree root poking above the snow until she tripped on it. She and Monferno tumbled into the snow, the frozen water managing to worm its way into all of the cracks of Dawn’s winter gear.
“Candice!” Dawn complained, attempting to shake the snow out from under her coat. Monferno wasn’t making matters any easier by attempting to climb onto her back again; despite being a fire-type Pokemon, he didn’t seem to appreciate the snow too much.
“You should’ve watched where you were going,” Candice admonished, but she helped brush the snow off of Dawn’s jacket anyway. “Besides, I didn’t think you’d care that much.”
“I don’t,” Dawn insisted. “I’m too young to date anyway and Barry and I never see each other. It’s fine. Seriously, it’s fine.”
By now, all the snow had been cleaned off of Dawn’s jacket and Monferno was secured on her back again, warming her more effectively than any article of clothing that Dawn owned. Candice, however, seemed to have other ideas.
“Gee, Dawn, I don’t think you’ll be needing your Monferno anymore,” the gym leader said with a laugh as she led Dawn back towards Snowpoint City. “Your face is probably hot enough to melt all the snow on this route!”
03
Six months after Dawn’s sixteenth birthday she became Champion of the Sinnoh League.
In all honesty, however, it wasn’t exactly Dawn’s dream job. It had always been Barry who had wanted to be Champion, to be the best of the best. Dawn didn’t complain too much though; for one, she had quite a substantial shopping budget that she tended to max out every month.
Plus, it meant that she got to see Barry more often.
Barry often came in once or twice a month, sometimes for a friendly battle and sometimes to actually challenge Dawn’s title. And while Dawn always won the battle as a whole, one thing still bugged her: Barry’s Empoleon always beat her Infernape.
“It’s just a fact of life, Dawn,” Barry commented one day when she had pointed this out to her. “My Empoleon is just too cool for your fire monkey.”
One particular winter afternoon, Barry stopped by the League for a friendly battle. They had long since stopped asking for Barry to challenge the Elite Four; he showed up so many times and had them defeated all in under half an hour that the officials didn’t see a point anymore. (Besides, he always came just to see Dawn.)
“Are you ready to be crushed to a pulp?” Barry crowed, spinning a Poke Ball atop his finger. Dawn laughed, pulling a Poke Ball from her belt.
“Don’t you know when to give up, Barry?” she asked. “You’d think you’d have learned by now all my tips and tricks. You still haven’t beat me yet, though!”
Barry rolled his eyes and released his Rapidash. “Yeah, yeah, whatever, Dawn. If you don’t release a Pokemon right this instant though, I’m going to fine you one million dollars!”
Another giggle escaped Dawn as she released her Togekiss. Classic Barry.
The battle was heated and fun, each trainer demonstrating plenty of skill and strategy. Dawn never had as much fun battling as she did with Barry, even if there was always the same end result.
“Empoleon, I choose you!” Barry said, bringing forth his last Pokemon. The water-penguin squawked and flapped its wings, the spikes on the ends of his flippers glittering in the stadium lighting.
“Infernape, let’s finish this!” Dawn called.
The two Pokemon squared off against each other, looking for openings and blocking their weak points.
“Infernape, use Fire Blast!” Dawn ordered.
“Dodge and counter with Hydro Pump,” Barry countered.
Dawn will always remember the moment with a certain clarity: both attacks swung wide of their intended target, a blast of water shooting towards the ceiling past Dawn’s head. Suddenly, the arena was plunged into both silence and darkness.
A pause. Then:
“What did you do?! Barry!”
“I didn’t mean it, I swear. Oh jeeze. Dawn, I’m sorry.”
The only source of light came from the flickering of Infernape’s flames; they looked strange bobbing around the arena without the rest of the Pokemon’s body illuminated.
After a minute, Dawn said, “It’s fine. I’ll just go check out the backup generator.”
“Do you want me to come with you?”
“Better not,” Dawn advised. “I don’t want you causing any more damage to my sanctuary.”
Despite the darkness, Dawn could practically hear Barry rolling his eyes. Smiling to herself, she called her Infernape to her side and the two of them trudged off to the basements where the generators were held.
With all the electricity cut in the building, the temperature quickly dropped. It wasn’t long before Dawn was shivering in strange glow of the emergency backup lights.
“Where is that darn generator?” she muttered to herself, scanning the large expanse of basement before her. The Champion rubbed her arms, trying to get some blood circulating to her extremities again, and huffed out a breath. She was only mildly alarmed to be able to see it.
“Let’s hurry,” she told her Pokemon.
It wasn’t too long before Dawn was able to find the generator. She crouched down next to it, examining the buttons and levers carefully.
“Hey, Infernape. Can I get a little light over here please?” Dawn asked, squinting in the gloom. Infernape came trudging over, the glow from his fiery mane illuminating the small area. There was also a certain touch of warmth and before too long Dawn didn’t feel the chill anymore.
Dawn worked swiftly and surely and before too long the generator was pumping temporary power back throughout the building. The rumble of the heater filled the still air and Dawn smiled. Barry was probably freezing upstairs.
“C’mon, Infernape,” she said with a smile, gesturing towards the stairs. Her Pokemon stayed close to her side, heating the air as the excitement of battle returned.
“G-good j-j-job, Dawn,” Barry chattered as they set up to finish off the math. “B-but, I’m st-still going to beat you!”
“Don’t count on it, Barry,” Dawn replied. “I think fire is going to be winning this match tonight.”
And she was right.
04
It was ten days before Dawn’s third Christmas as Champion when she fell into Lake Verity.
The water was frigid and the shock of it made Dawn’s mouth open in a gasp, bubbles floating past her face as her oxygen made a mad dash to the surface.
There was a brief moment when Dawn thought that maybe this was the end, but then her instincts kicked in and she made a scramble for the surface, every fiber of being stinging with the chill of the water.
The air almost seemed like too much when Dawn finally managed to break the surface of the water, the oxygen penetrating her lungs like a punch. The trainer gasped, almost sinking back under the water, before she managed to make her way back towards the edge of the bank where she had initially slipped and fallen in. She hauled herself out of the water and collapsed on the snow, trying to catch her breath. It wasn’t long, however, before she began to feel the cold again.
Great, Dawn thought to herself, trying to push herself to her knees. I didn’t drown but I will die of hypothermia. Her attempts at moving were futile and she soon found herself back in the snow, her body going numb and her eyes slowly drifting closed …
A flash of light made Dawn open her eyes again. Her Poke Balls, after taking a dip in the lake, seemed to be malfunctioning. Before too long all her Pokemon were surrounding her, making worried noises and trying to help her up.
“Togekiss,” Dawn murmured, beckoning her winged Pokemon to her side. “Find Barry. Tell him … tell him that if something happens to me he should challenge the League. He’d make a great champion.” Her Pokemon looked at her worriedly but took to the skies, disappearing against the gloomy grey skies.
The remainder of Dawn’s Pokemon gathered around her, trying their best to warm her up.
“Infernape,” Dawn muttered, beckoning for her fire Pokemon to come closer.
By the time Barry showed up, panic stricken and tripping over his own feet, Dawn was dry, warm, and asleep under a pile of her Pokemon. Barry collapsed into the snow, rubbing a hand over his face and sighing in relief. “At least that Infernape is good for something,” he murmured.
05
“Did you know that coal is formed from dead organisms? When sediment and mud are layered over each other, the organic material in them decays and forms coal …”
Dawn nodded her head from under her hard hat as Roark led her on a tour of the Oreburgh mines. It had been a rare day off for her sometime in the early spring after her fall into Lake Verity and Barry had suggested she spend it learning something that he didn’t know.
Because apparently he knew everything that had to do with Sinnoh.
“If you can find out one thing about Sinnoh that I don’t already know, I’ll treat you to ice cream for an entire week straight,” Barry told her. “And if you can’t, then you get to treat me instead.”
It was a friendly competition, but Dawn always knew that a competition with Barry was more than just bragging rights and ice cream. It was the chance to prove herself.
“Is it always so cold down here?” Dawn asked, rubbing her hands up and down her arms. She hadn’t thought it would be so chilly in the mines but now she was regretting not bringing a sweater.
“Unfortunately, yes,” Roark replied. “The sun doesn’t penetrate the mines so there’s no source of heat…” The gym leader droned on as he continued to lead Dawn through mazes of the underground tunnels, explaining different types of rocks and the new fossil restoration project going on at the museum.
After an hour, however, Dawn had had enough. She reached for a Poke Ball on her belt and released her Infernape. Immediately the cold dissipated and Dawn began to feel warm again, the tips of her fingers tingling.
“Dawn, what are you doing?!” Roark exclaimed. He had just turned around to point out another rock formation when he had spotted the fire-type Pokemon. “Coal is extremely flammable! Do you want to send us all up in flames?”
“No, no, definitely not,” Dawn replied hastily, recalling Infernape to his Poke Ball. Already she missed the light and heat that he provided, but she figured that she could last a little longer in the cold rather than being blown up in the mines.
“If you were so cold, you could’ve just told me,” Roark grumbled. He rummaged around in the bag at his waist and pulled out a brightly coloured scarf before tossing it to Dawn. “We’ll cut the tour short, which is a shame. I didn’t even get to show you our newest section, which we believe will hold precious gems.”
“Thanks. And some other time, perhaps,” Dawn replied. She tugged the scarf around her arms and followed Roark back up to the surface.
(Later, Dawn would be able to tell Barry that Roark kept women’s scarves in his satchel. She won the bet.)
+1
Fast forward to the present.
Dawn can’t remember a Christmas when she wasn’t freezing. But now she’s sprawled out on the couch, watching bemusedly as Barry tries to weave his way past their Pokemon with a tray of hot chocolate balanced precariously on his hand.
“C’mon, Infernape. Move already, would you?”
Dawn’s Infernape screechs, attempting to knock Barry’s legs out from under him. With a terrified yelp, Barry jumps over Dawn’s Pokemon and stumbles his way towards the couch. Miraculously, the hot chocolate is fine.
“I think your Pokemon is jealous,” Barry grumbles, squeezing himself behind Dawn so that he can wrap his arms around her.
“Clearly,” Dawn replies, sipping at her drink. “It’s usually his job to keep me warm in the winter.”
“Not anymore, buster,” Barry crows delightedly. “You can find a new day job because I bet I can do a better job at keeping Dawn warm than you have!”
It was clearly wasn’t the smartest thing to say because that’s when Infernape sets Barry’s tree on fire.
redwoodalchanTitle: baby, it’s cold outside
Author:
lilcrickee Rating: PG-13
Verse: Games Gen IV
Characters: Dawn, Barry
Summary: Five times Dawn’s Infernape kept her warm in the winter and one time he didn’t have to.
01
When Dawn turned thirteen-years-old she picked a Chimchar from Professor Rowan’s collection of starters and started on a journey. Barry, who had chosen a Piplup, teased her incessantly.
“My Piplup will always beat your Chimchar, Dawn,” he’d told her as they left the lab. “Water trumps fire and all that; it’s just a simple fact of life.”
“Just you wait, Barry,” Dawn had replied. “When we’re battling it out for Champion we’ll see who really trumps who.”
“Whatever. My Piplup is still ten times cooler than your Chimchar. I’ll catch you later, Dawn.”
Barry had sped off in a blur of orange and white, leaving Dawn to herself in the big, wide world.
Except for how she wasn’t by herself because now she had her Pokemon.
Dawn had always had the suspicion that she and Barry wouldn’t travel together. Despite being best friends, Barry was always looking for the next big adventure while Dawn preferred to take her time and look around. They’d never work together and so now it looked like they would be working against each other: Dawn was always hearing about Barry’s triumphs as she traveled across Sinnoh.
The first time Dawn encountered winter on the road was just outside Hearthome City. The snow whipped her hair around and made her shiver, even under the coat she had pulled on.
“I need to find shelter,” she muttered to herself, barely audible over the howling wind. Dawn stumbled forward, tripping her way towards a small cave carved into the bottom of one of the towering rock formations along the route.
The wind could not reach her inside the cave, but the cold still could. Shivering, Dawn pulled her knees to her chest and tried to keep warm, watching as snow drifted outside the cave. If only she had a fire …
Fire. Of course.
Cursing herself over her own stupidity, Dawn drew a Poke Ball from her belt and released her Chimchar. There was no wood inside the cave but her Pokemon gave off enough heat that Dawn just cuddled Chimchar close to her and buried her nose in his fur. She instantly began to feel warmer, as if the cold was seeping out of her body.
For a moment, Dawn thought back to Barry, all those months ago claiming that his Piplup was the superior Pokemon. Glancing out at the cold wintry night, Dawn smiled. As far as she was concerned, Chimchar was definitely worth ten times more than any water-type Pokemon.
02
It’s always winter in Snowpoint City.
Set high in the mountains of Sinnoh, the snow never melts, and Dawn discovered that for herself when she traveled there in the summer to challenge Candice for her gym badge.
It had seemed that Candice had had other ideas, however.
“C’mon, Dawn,” the gym leader had called as they trudged through the wilderness of Route 217. “Believe me when I say nothing builds butt muscles better than a good romp through the snow!”
Dawn shivered as she followed Candice. “While I believe that to be true I have to ask: why does the snow have to be so darn cold?”
Candice laughed and Dawn grumbled and they marched into a small outcropping of trees, looking for berries.
“If you’re so cold, put on an extra layer to warm up,” Candice advised.
“I don’t have any more clothes!” Dawn complained. “I’m already wearing everything I own.”
“Wear one of your Pokemon then. I don’t care.”
The idea, no matter how stupid sounding, had a bit of value to it. With shaking fingers, Dawn reached a gloved hand into her pocket and withdrew a Poke Ball. Inside was her Monferno and as soon as she released him she felt warmth in the surrounding area.
Carrying him, on the other hand, was a bit of a challenge.
“Oh my God, Monferno, you weigh a ton!” Dawn complained.
Candice turned around and laughed. “At least you look a bit more dignified than the last person I took out here with me.”
“Yeah?” Dawn asked skeptically.
“For sure. The last guy I brought out here plastered himself to the back of his Rapidash. It looked like he was the princess and I was the knight in shining armor. Not that I would generalize like that because there’s nothing wrong with finding a guy as a damsel in distress.”
Dawn pondered Candice’s words for a moment before asking, “That guy … he didn’t happen to be Barry by any chance, did he?”
Candice glanced back at Dawn, her eyes twinkling. “Why yes, yes it was. Are you two …?”
“What? Oh, no,” Dawn said hurriedly. “Just childhood friends, that’s all.”
“Right, sure,” Candice replied, waving her hand airily before continuing on. “So that means you’d be okay if I, you know, asked him out or something.”
The comment was so far out of left field that Dawn didn’t even notice the tree root poking above the snow until she tripped on it. She and Monferno tumbled into the snow, the frozen water managing to worm its way into all of the cracks of Dawn’s winter gear.
“Candice!” Dawn complained, attempting to shake the snow out from under her coat. Monferno wasn’t making matters any easier by attempting to climb onto her back again; despite being a fire-type Pokemon, he didn’t seem to appreciate the snow too much.
“You should’ve watched where you were going,” Candice admonished, but she helped brush the snow off of Dawn’s jacket anyway. “Besides, I didn’t think you’d care that much.”
“I don’t,” Dawn insisted. “I’m too young to date anyway and Barry and I never see each other. It’s fine. Seriously, it’s fine.”
By now, all the snow had been cleaned off of Dawn’s jacket and Monferno was secured on her back again, warming her more effectively than any article of clothing that Dawn owned. Candice, however, seemed to have other ideas.
“Gee, Dawn, I don’t think you’ll be needing your Monferno anymore,” the gym leader said with a laugh as she led Dawn back towards Snowpoint City. “Your face is probably hot enough to melt all the snow on this route!”
03
Six months after Dawn’s sixteenth birthday she became Champion of the Sinnoh League.
In all honesty, however, it wasn’t exactly Dawn’s dream job. It had always been Barry who had wanted to be Champion, to be the best of the best. Dawn didn’t complain too much though; for one, she had quite a substantial shopping budget that she tended to max out every month.
Plus, it meant that she got to see Barry more often.
Barry often came in once or twice a month, sometimes for a friendly battle and sometimes to actually challenge Dawn’s title. And while Dawn always won the battle as a whole, one thing still bugged her: Barry’s Empoleon always beat her Infernape.
“It’s just a fact of life, Dawn,” Barry commented one day when she had pointed this out to her. “My Empoleon is just too cool for your fire monkey.”
One particular winter afternoon, Barry stopped by the League for a friendly battle. They had long since stopped asking for Barry to challenge the Elite Four; he showed up so many times and had them defeated all in under half an hour that the officials didn’t see a point anymore. (Besides, he always came just to see Dawn.)
“Are you ready to be crushed to a pulp?” Barry crowed, spinning a Poke Ball atop his finger. Dawn laughed, pulling a Poke Ball from her belt.
“Don’t you know when to give up, Barry?” she asked. “You’d think you’d have learned by now all my tips and tricks. You still haven’t beat me yet, though!”
Barry rolled his eyes and released his Rapidash. “Yeah, yeah, whatever, Dawn. If you don’t release a Pokemon right this instant though, I’m going to fine you one million dollars!”
Another giggle escaped Dawn as she released her Togekiss. Classic Barry.
The battle was heated and fun, each trainer demonstrating plenty of skill and strategy. Dawn never had as much fun battling as she did with Barry, even if there was always the same end result.
“Empoleon, I choose you!” Barry said, bringing forth his last Pokemon. The water-penguin squawked and flapped its wings, the spikes on the ends of his flippers glittering in the stadium lighting.
“Infernape, let’s finish this!” Dawn called.
The two Pokemon squared off against each other, looking for openings and blocking their weak points.
“Infernape, use Fire Blast!” Dawn ordered.
“Dodge and counter with Hydro Pump,” Barry countered.
Dawn will always remember the moment with a certain clarity: both attacks swung wide of their intended target, a blast of water shooting towards the ceiling past Dawn’s head. Suddenly, the arena was plunged into both silence and darkness.
A pause. Then:
“What did you do?! Barry!”
“I didn’t mean it, I swear. Oh jeeze. Dawn, I’m sorry.”
The only source of light came from the flickering of Infernape’s flames; they looked strange bobbing around the arena without the rest of the Pokemon’s body illuminated.
After a minute, Dawn said, “It’s fine. I’ll just go check out the backup generator.”
“Do you want me to come with you?”
“Better not,” Dawn advised. “I don’t want you causing any more damage to my sanctuary.”
Despite the darkness, Dawn could practically hear Barry rolling his eyes. Smiling to herself, she called her Infernape to her side and the two of them trudged off to the basements where the generators were held.
With all the electricity cut in the building, the temperature quickly dropped. It wasn’t long before Dawn was shivering in strange glow of the emergency backup lights.
“Where is that darn generator?” she muttered to herself, scanning the large expanse of basement before her. The Champion rubbed her arms, trying to get some blood circulating to her extremities again, and huffed out a breath. She was only mildly alarmed to be able to see it.
“Let’s hurry,” she told her Pokemon.
It wasn’t too long before Dawn was able to find the generator. She crouched down next to it, examining the buttons and levers carefully.
“Hey, Infernape. Can I get a little light over here please?” Dawn asked, squinting in the gloom. Infernape came trudging over, the glow from his fiery mane illuminating the small area. There was also a certain touch of warmth and before too long Dawn didn’t feel the chill anymore.
Dawn worked swiftly and surely and before too long the generator was pumping temporary power back throughout the building. The rumble of the heater filled the still air and Dawn smiled. Barry was probably freezing upstairs.
“C’mon, Infernape,” she said with a smile, gesturing towards the stairs. Her Pokemon stayed close to her side, heating the air as the excitement of battle returned.
“G-good j-j-job, Dawn,” Barry chattered as they set up to finish off the math. “B-but, I’m st-still going to beat you!”
“Don’t count on it, Barry,” Dawn replied. “I think fire is going to be winning this match tonight.”
And she was right.
04
It was ten days before Dawn’s third Christmas as Champion when she fell into Lake Verity.
The water was frigid and the shock of it made Dawn’s mouth open in a gasp, bubbles floating past her face as her oxygen made a mad dash to the surface.
There was a brief moment when Dawn thought that maybe this was the end, but then her instincts kicked in and she made a scramble for the surface, every fiber of being stinging with the chill of the water.
The air almost seemed like too much when Dawn finally managed to break the surface of the water, the oxygen penetrating her lungs like a punch. The trainer gasped, almost sinking back under the water, before she managed to make her way back towards the edge of the bank where she had initially slipped and fallen in. She hauled herself out of the water and collapsed on the snow, trying to catch her breath. It wasn’t long, however, before she began to feel the cold again.
Great, Dawn thought to herself, trying to push herself to her knees. I didn’t drown but I will die of hypothermia. Her attempts at moving were futile and she soon found herself back in the snow, her body going numb and her eyes slowly drifting closed …
A flash of light made Dawn open her eyes again. Her Poke Balls, after taking a dip in the lake, seemed to be malfunctioning. Before too long all her Pokemon were surrounding her, making worried noises and trying to help her up.
“Togekiss,” Dawn murmured, beckoning her winged Pokemon to her side. “Find Barry. Tell him … tell him that if something happens to me he should challenge the League. He’d make a great champion.” Her Pokemon looked at her worriedly but took to the skies, disappearing against the gloomy grey skies.
The remainder of Dawn’s Pokemon gathered around her, trying their best to warm her up.
“Infernape,” Dawn muttered, beckoning for her fire Pokemon to come closer.
By the time Barry showed up, panic stricken and tripping over his own feet, Dawn was dry, warm, and asleep under a pile of her Pokemon. Barry collapsed into the snow, rubbing a hand over his face and sighing in relief. “At least that Infernape is good for something,” he murmured.
05
“Did you know that coal is formed from dead organisms? When sediment and mud are layered over each other, the organic material in them decays and forms coal …”
Dawn nodded her head from under her hard hat as Roark led her on a tour of the Oreburgh mines. It had been a rare day off for her sometime in the early spring after her fall into Lake Verity and Barry had suggested she spend it learning something that he didn’t know.
Because apparently he knew everything that had to do with Sinnoh.
“If you can find out one thing about Sinnoh that I don’t already know, I’ll treat you to ice cream for an entire week straight,” Barry told her. “And if you can’t, then you get to treat me instead.”
It was a friendly competition, but Dawn always knew that a competition with Barry was more than just bragging rights and ice cream. It was the chance to prove herself.
“Is it always so cold down here?” Dawn asked, rubbing her hands up and down her arms. She hadn’t thought it would be so chilly in the mines but now she was regretting not bringing a sweater.
“Unfortunately, yes,” Roark replied. “The sun doesn’t penetrate the mines so there’s no source of heat…” The gym leader droned on as he continued to lead Dawn through mazes of the underground tunnels, explaining different types of rocks and the new fossil restoration project going on at the museum.
After an hour, however, Dawn had had enough. She reached for a Poke Ball on her belt and released her Infernape. Immediately the cold dissipated and Dawn began to feel warm again, the tips of her fingers tingling.
“Dawn, what are you doing?!” Roark exclaimed. He had just turned around to point out another rock formation when he had spotted the fire-type Pokemon. “Coal is extremely flammable! Do you want to send us all up in flames?”
“No, no, definitely not,” Dawn replied hastily, recalling Infernape to his Poke Ball. Already she missed the light and heat that he provided, but she figured that she could last a little longer in the cold rather than being blown up in the mines.
“If you were so cold, you could’ve just told me,” Roark grumbled. He rummaged around in the bag at his waist and pulled out a brightly coloured scarf before tossing it to Dawn. “We’ll cut the tour short, which is a shame. I didn’t even get to show you our newest section, which we believe will hold precious gems.”
“Thanks. And some other time, perhaps,” Dawn replied. She tugged the scarf around her arms and followed Roark back up to the surface.
(Later, Dawn would be able to tell Barry that Roark kept women’s scarves in his satchel. She won the bet.)
+1
Fast forward to the present.
Dawn can’t remember a Christmas when she wasn’t freezing. But now she’s sprawled out on the couch, watching bemusedly as Barry tries to weave his way past their Pokemon with a tray of hot chocolate balanced precariously on his hand.
“C’mon, Infernape. Move already, would you?”
Dawn’s Infernape screechs, attempting to knock Barry’s legs out from under him. With a terrified yelp, Barry jumps over Dawn’s Pokemon and stumbles his way towards the couch. Miraculously, the hot chocolate is fine.
“I think your Pokemon is jealous,” Barry grumbles, squeezing himself behind Dawn so that he can wrap his arms around her.
“Clearly,” Dawn replies, sipping at her drink. “It’s usually his job to keep me warm in the winter.”
“Not anymore, buster,” Barry crows delightedly. “You can find a new day job because I bet I can do a better job at keeping Dawn warm than you have!”
It was clearly wasn’t the smartest thing to say because that’s when Infernape sets Barry’s tree on fire.
no subject