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Dawn will be the first to admit that she knows nothing about love.
It doesn’t matter, she supposes, whether she knows what love is or if she'll forever be kept in the dark. It isn't as though not knowing that one word is a unique case. There are words she’ll never know the meaning of, phrases she’ll never understand, and that’s okay. There are a hefty amount of things she already knows.
She knows how to fight, it is the case to say it, future Champion of Sinnoh in a few years. She wished to wait a little before taking the place of Champion of Sinnoh, to travel, to discover more the region and especially to gain in age, because Arceus knows that it is hard to be respected as a Champion at such a young age.
Iris for her part took a lot of time to be respected throughout the world as "Champion of Unys".
Dawn knows a lot of things, whether it is about pokemons, the culture of the different regions, science and even literature, there's no need to question everything. Still, she does question, and because love and its counterparts aren't included in its knowledge, there is a ardent for her to know.
In first, she thought about her memories when she was still a child, she thinks it’s affection when her mother would hum a tune and brush her hair many times. She also thinks of the kindness when her mother took all her time to teach her to read and write or when barry lent his toys.
She also heard about love from Maylene, and how much she loves fighting sports. But also by Volkner, and how much he loves technology these days, and finally by Cheryl, where she told at Dawn, the day she'll finally fall in love, get married, and have children.
So many people have talked to her about it as if it were something trivial, but she still doesn't understand. Yet she is sure that love is complex, after all, love has a central place in human psychology. Which also makes it one of the most common themes in art....behind the pictures and paintings on pokemons of course.
"Love is such a complicated thing"
Dawn could have left it at that...but she wouldn't. If she doesn't know what love is yet, she might as well go back to basics, that's what her mother often told her when Dawn couldn't learn her lessons when she was still very young.
On a beautiful sunny afternoon at Lake Valor, Dawn took a notebook, and wrote down all the major relationships she had with other people. Maybe by understanding the different friendships she has with other people, she could finally unravel her mysteries.
4 hours...it took her 4 hours to just write and think about each of her MAIN relationships. My Arceus...over the years Dawn had established several relationships that were important to her, whether it was a mentor/discliple relationship with Cynthia, a brother/sister relationship with Barry, a purely taste-based relationship with Marley, and even a a rivalry relationship with Brendan, Ethan, Gloria, Iris and Serena.
These six trainers, of which she was a part, were called "the new generation", because despite their young age they had managed to thwart an evil organization and had defeated the Elite Four and the champion of their respective region.
These six trainers, although strong, were still less strong than the "leader" of this new generation: Red.
Dawn knew the legend of Red, but unfortunately she never met him. Later she hopes that she will be able to make a fight against him.
To come back to the five other trainers of this generation, Dawn had become friends with them, especially Serena. They had the same tastes and interests, and over time they had even become best friends (although Serena was also best friends with Shauna). Thinking back, Dawn remembers that Serena had told her that she was in love with her neighbor...Calem he was to be called ? The next time, Dawn will have to ask Serena why she fell in love with her neighbor, she should have a reason, right ?
After reviewing all his relationships, one seemed... weird... in a good way.
He was a very close "friend" of her, his name was Lucas and he was Professor Rowan's assistant. Lucas had helped Dawn during her journey, giving her advice, giving her new gadgets and gifts and most of all supporting her in all her trials. This last part made her blush, indeed, Lucas was a true Angel, despite some flaws, like his perfectionism in every work he undertakes for Professor Rowan or his rather dangerous passion for casinos.
Even if when he goes there, Dawn is never far away and she secretly observes him, just in case he abuses a little too much his luck at the casinos... yes...just like a good friend would do... nothing more !
Despite what many people like her mother think, Lucas, Dawn and Barry spent little time together. Dawn spent her time training with Barry, Marley, Cynthia and other trainers, while with Lucas, when they were out of the laboratory, they preferred to talk about everything from what they liked and what their future projects would be...these moments were strangely precious to her...
So why ? why when he was close to her, Dawn changed her attitude and started to stammer her words, why her heart beat faster and why her face became as burning as the flames of a Moltres ?! She did not understand...she felt for Lucas something other than friendship...is it "love"?
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One day, Dawn had the answer to all her questions, because she understood what love was.
There were several sign :
The first, was a year ago, Dawn was quietly lounging in her villa and cuddling her pokemons. She decided to listen to music and doze off on her sofa, the one Lucas also prefers, then she had a dream. She saw a woman and a man, about thirty years old, who were sitting in an identical sofa that she has in her villa. The room they were in was also identical to the living room in Dawn's villa with some differences, especially on the layout of the furniture..
The man had slate gray eyes and hair, and was doing research on his computer, while the woman had blue-gray eyes and hair, and was sitting next to the man, cuddling a Leafeon.
A few seconds later, Dawn saw two children enter, a smiling boy of about seven years old with some dirt on him (he must have been playing outside with pokemons) and a girl of about five years old following him, she too was a bit dirty, but she was also laughing with a Clefable at her side, who was guarding and watching the two children.
The parents sighed a little when they saw them come into the living room covered in dirt, but came anyway to clean their children with a towel and a smile and a look full of tenderness. Although she noticed that the mother seemed to scold the children a bit.
Dawn thought about how happy this family was, she had never had moments like this with her family, since her father had left when she was still very young. She always wanted to live a life like this later...
But every dream has an end, she woke up confused and happy at the same time, every dream had a meaning, but for now Dawn just felt strangely happy to have lived a dream like that and hopes she will live these feelings one day...
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The second, was a few months ago, and it is less "pretty" than the previous one. Dawn often came to see Lucas in the evenings at the lab when she was visiting west of Sinnoh, sometimes they ate together, or sometimes they hung out in town and talked. These were simple moments, but for some reason...they were very precious to Dawn, she even went so far as to come in the morning and hope to spend the day with him. That's something close friends do, right?
Yet, as time went on, the more time they spent together, the more often Dawn found herself looking at him, to the point of being engrossed in his gaze, even when he was talking about something that interested Dawn.
When they lightly touch each other, she blushes and starts stammering her words, while absolutely deflecting her look so pure and warm at the same time.
All her reactions made Dawn feel warm in her body, which was nice in itself, but made her feel confused.
All of them? no...there was an inexplicable feeling that invaded her for several days and that severely tormented her.
This lasted for about three weeks, Professor Rowan had welcomed two new assistants for some research. These two new assistants spent a lot of time with Lucas on various research projects.
Normally, Dawn wouldn't care about this kind of person, but strangely enough, she felt angry at these girls and also at Lucas. However, these girls were nice and were older than Lucas and Dawn by about 2 years. But she really...REALLY didn't like the closeness between them and Lucas, Dawn didn't understand why it made her so angry...
One evening during this period, she had dinner with Lucas in town. She remembers that night very well, it was one of the worst of her life, she got carried away for everything and nothing, which is not in her calm temperament. She was angry at Lucas for things that she didn't understand. Even though Lucas was nice and understanding, he got angry because Dawn kept yelling at him for things that were so trivial and didn't make sense. Like for example, that he should live his life with these girls since he works with them...or leaving Sinnoh just to annoy Dawn...poor Lucas didn't understand. The evening ended quickly and badly, the two trainers left each one of their sides and being annoyed against the other.
Dawn had taken a room to sleep in a pokemon center, and had fallen on her bed. She was frustrated, she was so mad at both girls and Lucas...but she didn't understand why?
And this lack of understanding added to her frustration led her to grab a pillow, bury her head in it... and silently cry for the second time in her life. The first was when her father had left home.
Dawn never cried, even in the face of any obstacle, she had to stay strong no matter what, her dad always told her that, and now that she was going to be the Champion of Sinnoh...she couldn't cry. So she wiped away her tears and knowing that she wasn't going to find answers to her torment, she decided to sleep.
Lucas was too nice, even he knew that, Dawn always told her to be careful because even if it was a quality, it could be a disadvantage with other people. But he couldn't help it, he was like that, he wanted to talk to Dawn again and he was angry with himself for having reacted badly, he should have been more understanding towards her, maybe she had just had a very bad day ? Certainly he was angry with her because she yelled at him for nothing. But he didn't want to destroy their relationship just because of a vulgar argument.
The next evening, the two trainers had met again and had both apologized and forgiven each other. Their relationship was back to the way it was before, to the happiness of both trainers. But after these events, Dawn was still wondering why she had that reaction yesterday....
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The last sign, It was a month ago, Dawn had a Glaceon that she obtained during her journey, after she had put her Eevee in contact with a mysterious stone that was completely frozen on route 217. Through her research and with the help of Lucas, she had discovered that some Eevee evolved by coming in contact with certain stones. Dawn's various explorations throughout Sinnoh, one day led her to a stone similar to the one located on Route 217, which was located in the Eterna Forest but compared to the stone on Route 217, this stone was covered with moss and various plants. After several theories that she shared with Lucas, they had concluded that this stone in the Eterna Forest could turn an Eevee into a Leafeon. If a frozen stone could turn an Eevee into a Glaceon, then a stone with moss and various plants could turn an Eevee into a Leafeon, right ? However...to have a Leafeon, you must have an Eevee. Since these pokemons are rare in this region, Dawn had considered reproducing her Glaceon with Marley's Jolteon.Not knowing anything about pokemon breeding, Dawn decided to go to the region where the study of pokemon eggs was important: Johto !
She could at the same time understand the system of pokemon reproductions, discover the Johto region and fight the best trainers of this region.
Once there, she made friends with four people in particular: Ethan, Kris, Lyra and Silver.
Like Dawn, Ethan had decided to wait a few years to become the the champion of The Indigo League. Silver had become Gym Leader and replaced Pryce in Mahogany Town. Lyra had taken over her grandparents' pension and Kris was Professor Elm's assistant for the moment.
Dawn's main goal was to find out more or less how pokemon breeding works, her stay lasted for a month and with the help of Kris and Lyra, she managed to understand almost everything about the subject. She took advantage of her stay to explore various places in Johto and faced the "elite trainers" of this region. She spent a lot of time with this quartet and one thing of Dawn noticed about this group, was their different relationships. They were all friends, however, it was noticeable that Ethan and Lyra considered each other like a brother and sister.
Ethan and Silver as rivals/best friends and Kris and Lyra as just best friends.
But...Ethan and Kris had a strange relationship...in fact it seemed familiar, the two young trainers when they were both alone, were passionate about what the other said and sometimes when they looked into each other's eyes, their faces would turn red and they would look away. Dawn thought it was strange but didn't think much of it....
Finally, kris and silver had a mentor/advisor relationship. Why ? Well, Ethan and Kris explained to Dawn that Silver was a bit of a "tsundere" who at first glance seems distant, haughty, even violent, but who is actually affectionate and tender but has trouble expressing it. Of course Ethan, Lyra and Kris were sociable, but Kris was the only one who was able to take the "easy way out" to make Silver more "open". And even though Ethan and Silver were best friends, Ethan couldn't talk about it with him because Silver found Ethan too "expressive and boisterous".
Ethan and Kris really wanted Silver to be more "open", for other people, but especially for Lyra. Because after Ethan introduced Lyra to Silver, the redhead began to have feelings for her as time went on. As for Lyra, being too preoccupied with taking over her grandparents' pension on her own, she didn't have the time to develop a romantic relationship with a man, so she hoped one day to find love by luck (typical of her character, says Ethan). When Kris and Lyra were talking, Lyra herself was quite undecided about her "type of boyfriend", having had few in her life. But she was sure of one thing, she wanted to keep her man close to her, not necessarily someone who would run the pension with her, but just someone who would stay with her in Johto and educate their sons together. This may seem normal to many people, but in itself many fathers leave their families to live a new adventure...Lyra hated these people, and did not understand them. Dawn didn't think so, her father left early, but she never blamed him, she just regretted that they never kept in touch.
Dawn at that time always wanted to know the meaning of "love", and wanted to ask Silver about his love feelings for Lyra. But...even though they had become friends, Silver still had a hard time expressing his " feelings " to others (not to mention courtesy). Dawn still didn't understand "love", and began to despair. This thing was complicated and also difficult to explain ?
"Love" seemed to be more negative than positive for her.
Lyra had just recovered Dawn's Eevee egg and gave it to her "Now that you have an Eevee egg, you have to wait a while before it hatches. You're going to have to keep it warm in your bag, next to your pokemons and you're going to have to be with it as much as possible when it hatches, but especially its parents !"
"Okay, thanks Lyra for all your advice ! Not to mention Kris for her egg theory part." Dawn recovered the egg and gave it to her Glaceon and Marley’s Jolteon
"Don't worry we are friends after all, it's normal to help each other" she says with her usual carefree attitude. "Besides, you said you were staying for a month, right ? Your egg will have time to hatch".
"Yes you are right !" Dawn answered her with enthusiasm. “Also, do you want me to help you today at the pension?"
Lyra looked around to see all the things left to do in the pension, "I never say no to help, but aren't you going to train with other trainers today ?"
"Not today, you said friends should help each other, right? So let me help you today at the pension" then Dawn went to the to-do list.
Lyra smiles and thanks her, then the two girls talk about their respective lives, their passion and their future...Dawn helped Lyra and they talked all afternoon. It was getting late, they were finishing putting away some things in the boarding house before lunch, when the fateful question is asked....
Lyra wanting to know more about Dawn's personal life, asked her a question, "Dawn, I never asked you, but do you have a boyfriend or a crush ?"
Dawn paused for a moment at the question, but she suspected that sooner or later Lyra or maybe Kris would ask her. She thought several times about her words and their consequences, and spoke up. "To be honest...no, I don't have a boyfriend, I've never really been interested in it and most of all...even though I'm a little ashamed to say it....I...I don't understand...love"
When Lyra heard this, she started to laugh a little and began to smile mischievously, she didn't really believe in what she was saying."~Come on~, hasn't a girl as cute as you already had advances or don't you just have a relationship that seems "weird" with a particular person ?"
"Any advances?" Dawn took a few moments to think about it. “I guess so, some of the flirtatious trainers have tried to make a pass at me, but let's be honest, most of them are womanizers and the others are needy people who just want to be loved by any girls or by as many girls as possible, in short, people I don't really see myself having a relationship with. And...for a "weird" relationship...what do you mean by that ?"
Lyra began to be surprised at how thick Dawn's head can get sometimes, "Well, a relationship that seems more than friendship to you"
That last part made Dawn blush slightly, she immediately thought of Lucas. Having seen Dawn's reaction, Lyra jumped at the opportunity.
Lyra with bright eyes ran to her "Go ahead and develop~, I can tell from your reaction that you are developing this "weird" relationship with someone".
Dawn began to blush and stammer "N-no...it's not what you think! I do indeed have a slightly more "special" relationship with a friend but...."
Lyra still patiently waiting for her answer " ~buuuut ~"
Dawn recovered her spirits and took a few moments to think about her relationship with Lucas,"...He is very precious to me, but is it love? I mean...we have the same interests, we also have a great affection for pokemons and we both want to discover all the mysteries of this world and live in a peaceful world. Sometimes when I'm too close to him, I stammer my words, not to mention my heart starts to beat very fast, but still all the moments that he and I share are very precious to me. Would this be love for you ?"
Lyra looks at Dawn with a desperate look and with some pity : " *sigh* my poor girl how can you be so smart and stupid at the same time....Your relationship reminds me so much of those idiots Ethan and Kris"
This time it was Dawn who was perplexed, could Lyra teach her more than she thought ?
Lyra looked up with a touch of nostalgia, "Well not to go into too much detail, Ethan and I have been friends since childhood, we have a bit of a brother/sister relationship and I have helped him on his trip to Johto sometimes. I know him well, and I know that he likes to "hit on" girls from time to time, even though you know he's not a braggart or a daredevil. Every time he had a new "girlfriend", it lasted barely one month, because he never had the "symptoms of love" and so he preferred to have fun with them"
"the symptoms of love ?" Dawn almost thought it was an idea from a fairy tale, because it seemed so strange, or maybe it was cute?
Lyra thinking that Dawn thinks she is crazy, started to panic, "Wait, I'll come back to this later...so Ethan collected the failures in terms of love and began to despair...until one year ago.
That day, I was invited to Professor Elm's lab to take care of two of his pokemons, and before leaving his laboratory, I met his new budding assistant: Kris !
She had just returned to Johto because even though she was born there, she had to leave when she was very young to another region.
She helped the professor especially on the ecosystems and the mechanisms of the evolution. She and I became fast friends and she even explained me that her dream would be to understand the mind of the Pokemon, to know what they think and what they feel and especially to understand their emotions in order to become even closer to them and to create a world more similar to what they want. Afterwards, I introduced her to Silver and Ethan.....A few months passed and Kris and Ethan developed what we call the symptoms of love".
Dawn began to worry a little, "Is it dangerous?!"
Lyra was holding back with all her strength not to laugh,"No, absolutely not, you also have them for your friend"
"What ?!", More Lyra spoke, more Dawn had difficulty understanding what she was getting at.
Lyra finally stopped laughing and turned her attention back to Dawn, "Yes, it's when a person feels strong emotions for another person."
"Can you expand on that ?"
Lyra at the same time thinking, wondered what Dawn had done to be so ignorant all this time."Well...I would say it's when your heart beats faster in contact with him and your body mysteriously warms up very quickly, you stammer your words and you are easily distracted because you are thinking too much about this person. This person strengthens you, he doesn't limit you, you find him great and you want his happiness as much as your own, even his faults you don't really care because you love him so much. But despite all these qualities that love has, it can also cause jealousy if too many people are close to him and this can have consequences such as reproaches towards him, arguments, lowered self-esteem and lack of sleep. But yet, even though I myself have doubts if I have it or not...I am convinced that it is the best feeling in the world !"
Dawn understood that jealousy was the cause of her little dispute with Lucas in the laboratory, a few months ago.
Dawn always thoughtful, "hmm...I see, this is what Ethan and Kris are developing, but also Silver and you"
At the end of her sentence, Lyra didn't know how Dawn could have noticed this, but all she knew was that her face was gradually turning red. "Huh?! W-what makes you think I have this with Silver?! After all this moron can't express his emotions properly !"
Dawn closing her eyes and not being afraid to speak her thoughts out loud, "Judging by your increasing blush and stutter, I think I've seen right through you. Besides, wasn't it you who told me that even the faults of this person we love so much, is not important so much we love him?"
Lyra couldn't tell the whole story of Silver to Dawn, but it was really starting to freak her out, if she couldn't think of any other suitable excuses. However, Dawn had noticed that Lyra was getting redder and was desperately trying to change the conversation.
Lyra regaining her composure and having found something to change the subject of conversation,"O...otherwise you haven't told me this person you share these feelings for !"
It was Dawn's turn to blush...Lyra was her friend, she had to tell her, besides she felt she was starting to understand the love.
"…His name is Lucas, he's Professor Rowan's assistant, he's especially passionate about Mythology and the evolution of pokemons over the generations"
"Interesting, he's kind of like Kris, he's a teacher's assistant, but in the future he's going to professionalize towards his dream"
Dawn smiled at the thought of Lucas looking at Sinnoh mythology books during his lunch breaks, "That's right, in fact he's so passionate about it that he started to make me love the mythology and the evolution of pokemon through the generations"
This time it was Lyra who smiled as she understood more and more about Dawn's relationship with Lucas. "When people are passionate, we can really be interested in what they say, and I too, in view of your reactions in spite of your calm temperament, easily notice that there is much more than simple friendship between you and him. A word of advice, don't let jealousy get the better of you and make mistakes that could damage your relationship...But, if you love him and he loves you, then you'll get through it"
There was a silence, Lyra noticed that Dawn was meditating, but a few seconds later Dawn spoke up with a determined look and a slight blush on the cheeks, she was beginning to understand how she felt about Lucas.
Dawn felt like a huge weight had been lifted off her shoulders, and the fact that she now had a better understanding of what had been going on lately with Lucas made her happy. "Thank you Lyra for enlightening me, you don't know how long I've been plagued by these feelings. But now I'm starting to understand better why I loved being with him so much....because you are right...I have all the symptoms of love"
"Glad I could help, but let's not take too long, because otherwise we will have no place to eat in Goldenrod City "
Dawn with some haste to gather her belongings, "Yeah, sure !"
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On the last day of her trip to Johto, Dawn sat in the national park looking up at the sky with her new Eevee sitting comfortably on top of her, and came to the conclusion that, yes, she loved Lucas.
She loved him, because he was her happiness and she would never want to lose him
She loved him, because she knew that he was...the only person to make her feel..." the love".
She loved him...and she wanted him....because she doesn't know if one day...she'd get that feeling back....
And even though it may take years... she will continue to develop "the love", and if it is with him, she knows it will be in the best way possible.