girls' hearts won't hold steadfast (Dawn+various, flash fic)

[koyuki]

Title: girls' hearts won't hold steadfast
Rating: G
Word Count: 560
Genre: General, character study
Series: Pokémon
Characters: Dawn, Barry, Lucas, Riley, Cyrus, Cynthia, Dawn's mother
Warnings: potential spoilers for Platinum
Summary: Like most girls, Dawn's heart is always changing.
A/N: For pokeprompts prompt 003: harbor. Partially inspired by my conversations with Freddy where he always says, "You know how girls are." So, yes. Yes I do. (I think.) Basically this is terrible and I'm just. Going to disown it. And stop writing at 4am.

girls' hearts won't hold steadfast
(or, five people dawn could have loved, and one she always has)


8.

Dawn does not remember a time before Barry, and once upon a time, could not imagine one after him. Still, Dawn realizes that Barry - and her friendship with him - is not perfect. It was never much fun when he teased her for crying over mud stains on her dress or preferring to play house rather than tag.

Dawn would cross her arms, huff and get mad, and swear she would never, ever forgive him, but then he would wander into the tall grass and return with an armful of flowers for her and a smile wider than the sun, and Dawn would decide that maybe she could, again, for one last time.



10.

Lucas is charming and cultured and smart, and in every way the proper lab assistant to Professor Rowan should be. Dawn thinks that he would probably be the type of boy her mother wouldn't mind her bringing home - and, if she'd let herself think that way, someone who would make a good husband one day.

"Thank you for helping out with our research," he would say before smiling and handing her another present. Logically, Dawn knows they're from Professor Rowan, but it rarely feels that way. Sometimes Dawn likes to pretend that they're from Lucas instead, and lets herself accept that all too easily.



11.

Riley, Dawn thinks, is the type of prince every girl has always dreamt about. And even if Dawn is a little too old, too wise, and too pragmatic for that now, she can still feel her heart skip a beat when he smiles.

"I'd like you to show the Pokémon that's inside the egg all sorts of new places," he tells her when he hands her a mystery egg, their fingers barely brushing.

Dawn nods, once, and holds it close to her heart.



12.

The first time Dawn sees Cyrus address Team Galactic, she feels shivers run up her spine. Sure, Cyrus is a bit insane and all of his plans are so strange, but there something beautiful about his mixture of insanity and power.

Still, after she defeats him and captures Giratina in the Distortion World, Dawn realizes it is all a lie. Maybe Cyrus has a presence that commands the same type of attention Dawn only gets on a competition stage, but there is no use to power if it is only for one's self.



15.

Dawn thinks that Cynthia is beautiful. She has long, pretty blonde hair, and is tall and graceful. But even beyond that, she's strong and independent and the type of woman Dawn wants to be when she grows up.

"You're perfect," Dawn tells her, and blushes, because after all, Cynthia is the best.

"I'm not," Cynthia laughs, which only makes Dawn believe it more.

But Cynthia is beautiful and perfect because she is strong and independent, and Dawn knows that if she wants even the smallest chance of being like that - like Cynthia - she has to let go of this, too.



20.

When Dawn returns to Twinleaf five years after becoming Champion, and ten years after she'd left home, she is not greeted with much fanfare.

Still, her mother is there, waiting for her. "Welcome back," her mother says, and pulls Dawn into a hug.

Dawn hugs back, and realizes that she's never been happier than when she's home.

Comments

[insanepurin.livejournal.com]

This is beautiful stuff. You hit the nail on the head how I imagined Dawn would think of those people in her life. :)

[koyuki]

I think Dawn has a bit of a wandering heart, though there's nothing wrong with that~ I see her as the type who could fall in love many times throughout her life, but it makes her life exciting and an adventure. :D

Thanks for reading!

[kitsuneasika.livejournal.com]

Absolutely gorgeous. ♥

[koyuki]

Thank you~~ ♥

[teafortwelve.livejournal.com]

This was so heartwarming. <3 You captured her feelings for the various characters perfectly.
My personal favourite has got to be Dawn and Riley. I love that couple, they're absolutely adorable.
Wonderful work here!

[koyuki]

Riley is so... -- I have this giant crush on him. *buries head in arms* And then when he was like "Please take care of this egg and show it lots of happy things int he world ^_^" I almost exploded.

I do like Riley/Dawn, but I feel like Riley is the kind of person that all these girls have crushes on because he's so nice and gentlemanly, but he's just like that and doesn't have any special feelings towards you. But who knows? Haha, they'd make a pretty couple.

Thank you for reading!

[heylalaa.livejournal.com]

THIS IS SUCH A REALLY, REALLY LOVELY AND BEAUTIFUL AND HEARTWARMING FIC. ♥ ♥
I love number 8, 9, 10, 11 - uuuuh, basically, I love everything in this fic.

thank you so much! (:

[koyuki]

There is no 9? XD They're ages~ Thank you though! ♥

[heylalaa.livejournal.com]

R-r-r-really?

...I - I'm sorry. I accidentally typed that because there's 8 and there's 10 and I always think that there's always 9 between them.

S-s-sorry. /fails

[koyuki]

Haha, don't worry about it. You don't fail~~ i would've done the same thing. D8

[patcchi.livejournal.com]

So beautiful <3 I absolutely loved it, the way you express her feelings, and the way she sees the other characters. Dawn is one of my fave pokegirls :)

[koyuki]

Dawn is really pretty and shiny. Thanks for reading. ♥

[kouriko.livejournal.com]

I read this at least three times and meant to comment each time... ;----;

But now I finally am!

♥ I loved this. Dawn meets so many interesting characters throughout these games, and I can imagine her feeling this way about all of them.

And I am so incredibly glad (I may have already said this xD) that the mom has feelings and emotions and is not... creepy and hollow and gives hugs. ♥

[koyuki]

I think Dawn(/Lucas)'s mom in the game is probably the least creepy throughout all the games. Like, in HGSS I had my Eevee following me and it's like EEVEE HAS A FLOWER THAT IT WANTS TO YOUR MOM when to talk to it and Mom is like 8D HI HONEY IS THIS ABOUT YOUR MONEY. Inside, my soul is like WAAAAAIIIIII

щ(ﾟДﾟщ)

[kouriko.livejournal.com]

LOL. Daylight savings time, AMIRITE?

anfsjfnj nfjanfjsnjsd xDD I can't stop laughing at that emoticon. I just can't.

I just burst out laughing and my roommate thinks I'm nuts but... ngajsn xD

[koyuki]

Does she ask that? o_o I wasn't aware! /hasn't had Pt for that long.

I am the purveyor of great emoticons. ♥

Also, you are some ninja. I've seen you sign off like 2-3 times the last week without seeing you sign on. XD

[kouriko.livejournal.com]

I'm not sure, it's been a while since I played Platinum, and I'm not sure I even finished it... xD

I always only sign on for about a second and then sign off again after I remember I have homework to do.

But I give up. xD

[bay115.livejournal.com]

Quite like this a lot. Great job putting Dawn's thoughts on the people she encountered and also I like the last part a lot.

Cyrus part though I think you could expand slightly more, though, like have a short dialogue of the two. Maybe it's just me though wanting to see a bit of Cyrus and Dawn's interaction being shown, though (and no, not a CyrusxDawn shipper :x). XD

[koyuki]

I probably should've, but Cyrus was actually the character I picked last because ... I'm not very comfortable with writing him. I probably could've made it four people, but I think there's some beauty and fascination to dark power as well, and I can imagine Dawn being attracted to that. Dialogue is actually a good idea! I just can't remember any Pt/Cyrus dialogue off the top of my head, though, and I was writing it at 4am and was like OH GOD CAN THIS BE OVER so. Cyrus unfortunately got the short of the stick this time, haha.

I'll keep that in mind next time!

[blackjackrocket.livejournal.com]

All his DP dialogue and most of his Platinum dialogue is on Bulbapedia.

[koyuki]

I read bulbapedia to review for this? But I was writing this at 3am so it wasn't like I had much time to think about or analyse his character.

[blackjackrocket.livejournal.com]

Ah, you said that you can't remember it so I thought you meant "during the fic-writing process" rather than in general.

[koyuki]

In general, I'm not particularly comfortable taking canon conversations out of context, because the protagonist is silent. :\ So it's more like characters (Cyrus) talk AT the PC rather than TO the PC. I 1) wanted to keep it short and 2) couldn't come up with instance where there'd be an exchange between the two of them outside the context of what's already in canon (because I really wanted to sleep T_T), so I just decided to forego the conversation, even though I probably could've worked it in... if it wasn't 3am.

[blackjackrocket.livejournal.com]

Hahaha. Yeah, it's tricky having a character that's assumed to be talking but has no canon dialogue.

[ibuberu.livejournal.com]

This fic has a certain unique charm that just makes you really enjoy it (: While I don't feel completely satisfied because I felt you could have expanded on Hikari's relations with each character even more, the shortness of each part kind of corresponds to how quickly her heart changes, and that's what I actually like about this.

You were able to capture her thoughts/relationship with the person in a few lines, so that's cool (: I especially liked 'And even if Dawn is a little too old, too wise, and too pragmatic for that now, she can still feel her heart skip a beat when he smiles.' haha, very cute!

[koyuki]

I think a lot of it is also that, other than Jun, that Dawn doesn't know much about these people either. Her feelings are based on what little she does know, so that makes them kind of short too~

I love the Riley one. Riley is totes my Pokemon crush haha. /ashamed.

[onew.livejournal.com]

After finally gathering enough courage to hit the comment link, I'd like to ask for permission to remix this fic for pokeprompts! I'd understand if you didn't want me to, though. Hoping for your consideration :)

[koyuki]

OMG I would be so honored ;~;

[onew.livejournal.com]

Aaaaaa flailing irl! Thank you so much! I hope I won't disappoint :) /worships