This one is the second part of the previously published Ikari-shipping One-shot, named 'Forced'.

I hope that you, contestshipper2003, enjoy!

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Force | Dawn x Paul

May and Leaf had taken Misty with them to Dawn's place, and we're now standard under her porch. Dawn's house was small enough for a family of 2 parents and their 2 children.

The house resembled the ones from a fairy tale, the ones which little girls love to have. A small house, with pastel peach paint on the outside. The porch had a small roof, which had little flower pots hanging; a few wind chimes in one corner; while the edges we're decorated with streams of leaves and dandelions.

May was fighting her urge to play with those dangling wind-chimes. Misty, on the other hand, was taking in the information which Leaf was giving her about their current situation.

After what seemed like an hour to Misty, though it was just fifteen minutes, Leaf suggested that she would knock on the door.

And as if, when she had taken her hand back after knocking, the door swung open and collided with the wall behind it with a bang!

In front of them stood, the girl with marine blue locks with tips shaded purple. Her usual alluring angle blue eyes were now like the dead-end of an ocean. They were dark as if there was nothing inside it to live for. No life. Her bubbly and glowing aura was replaced with a one filled with tension and sorrow.

The girl didn't even bother to change her clothing manner since the episode from the day before. She looked like she was ready to have yet another bout of crying her heart out, but she still had it under control.

At least for now, since she is in front of her friends.

"Oh my God, dear, Dawn, what happened to you, sweetie?" Leaf's voice showed no attempt of hiding the pain and concern towards the girl in front of her. Who wouldn't concern for their die-hard friend?

Leaf was considered as the mother figure for the girls' while Gary was the father figure for the boys'. So it was obvious that they would take everything seriously if anything had happened to one of their friends. The two considered the rest of their gang as their own kids. Though the difference in their ages wouldn't be more than a few months or maybe even a year.

"Ah, it's nothing, really Ane." Dawn forced a smile to her lips as she leaned back to make way for her friends to enter her house.

"Are you sure?- May! Stop playing with that, and come inside!" Misty implored, but her attention was caught by May tinkering with the wind-chimes. After all, what could she have done? She was actually trying to behave like she didn't care what had happened to Dawn so that the latter could easily open up to them.

"Yeah, yeah fine," May uttered softly as she bulged her cheeks and stood behind Dawn, hiding from the fake-anger which Misty was showing towards her.

Because of these little acts, Dawn seemed to have relaxed a bit as she exhaled the air which she didn't even know she had clenched in her throat, as a smile danced on her lips. This time it was not the one which had to be forced.

Though, Leaf was still troubled. She knew Dawn would never address her or any of the girls who were older than her, here in this case May, Misty, and Leaf, as Ane.

"Okay, are we just going to stand here and have fun-talks or?" The older girl, called her hands to get the attention of the others as she slowly joined them in their laughter.

"Oh yeah. Come on, sit on the couch while I bring some snacks to munch on." Dawn pushed the girls towards the living area as she went made them sit and went inside the kitchen to bring some snacks for them to have.

The walls of the living room were painted completely white; with small patches of paints decorating it like blooming flowers in an empty field; there were a few lamps on the corner table and their desks were filled with a bundle of books and magazines. In the front, from the doorway, there was a huge sliding window, and curtains were draped in a messy manner. The sunlight from outside seeped into the room through the slits of the curtains. There was a big couch, enough for three people to sit and one small couch adjacent to it. Two bean-bags were lying behind the small couch. There was a big 62 inch TV in front of the big couch; attached to the wall. And two small counter-table right under the TV. The room, all in all, was breathtaking but still, the atmosphere around the house somehow didn't add up to it.

Dawn went inside the kitchen pulled out the third drawer from the cupboard next to the fridge; took some biscuits and chips with one hand; while her other hand opened the fridge, taking out a bottle of Sprite.

'Misty loves Sprite!'

She thought to herself, and the thoughts of the previous day went behind the curtains of her eyes as she blinked at the cold air gushing out right on her face when she had opened the fridge.

"Du-Du~" May moaned the nickname she and the other two had given to Dawn, as the latter flopped in her seat on the couch, practically sending the vibrations to Misty who was sitting just nearby.

Dawn completed placing the food items in the plate; the drinks were poured in the glasses and were decorated with ice cubes as waves of chill air danced upon the glasses. She swiftly brought the meals out in the living room and made herself comfortable in one of the empty bean-bags. She had her glass of Sprite while the rest were about to take theirs when Leaf again noticed the sudden change in behaviour of the girl.

She nudged May to start a conversation so that they could bring up the topic for which they were actually assigned to.

"Uh, hey, Dawn, have you heard about those colour-changing beverages?" May mentally facepalmed at her choice of words or well the way she formed her question. Either way, the question was non-existent, so how was anyone supposed to know about some weird 'colour-changing' beverages? Anyway, Dawn didn't react much to the thrown question.

In return, she shrugged her shoulders; took a sip from her glass and replied, "I am not really into beverages nowadays. Though, Ane, black coffee can make an exception."

Once again, Dawn puts the reference of Ane, hoping that maybe one of the girls would catch the change in her conversing manner. Leaf wasn't one of them though, she immediately caught that Dawn wasn't doing this unintentionally, but it was all on purpose so that they could bring up the topic.

She elbowed Misty in her side rib and whispered, "Hey, did you catch what she did?"

When Misty didn't know what Leaf was referring to, she thought for a while when suddenly her eyes dilated, as she whispered back, "Yeah, Dawn doesn't usually refer us as Ane"

The two mentally agreed with each other and responded with a nod as they turned to face the Marine-haired girl who had her face hung low as if thinking over something.

Misty fake-coughed to get the attention of the latter and May as she began, "Dawn, do you mind if I ask why are you suddenly referring to us as 'Ane'? Is there something going on?"

"Yeah, you know that you can trust us, right?" May placed her glass of Sprite which was already finished, as she spoke.

"You call us your Ane, and you only will not share your thoughts and feelings with us, then how are your Ane going to help you?" Leaf said in a soothing yet firm voice. She stood up from her seat, walked to Dawn and wrapped her arms around her, bringing her head to lie on her chest.

It was at that time when Dawn realized that she had been holding back her tears which had already hindered her vision. She bit her lips hard, refraining herself to give in to the pain she has been withstanding since yesterday.

She felt Leaf's warmth hauling into her, yet it was still not plentiful to warm her cold physique crammed with stigma and grief. It wasn't long enough when gradually more warmth feast through her body. When she glanced at who did this, she found herself in the warming and heart-wrenching embrace of her sisters. And there, she knew she lost it.

Tears streamed down slowly from the bridge of her eyes, as she screamed in her sisters' arms. She was winged inside them but why did she still felt like she had lost everything? Was what she did today morning had such a great impact on her? Or was it yesterday's episode?

She didn't know which one to believe, and yet she cried for hours when she returned home after the incident in the morning.

"I can't. This is too much, Ane! I can't!" Her screams were the only one which echoed in the house, no one dared to stop her.

Because they knew if they did, it would come with a great price to pay; and they didn't want to lose their precious little sister to the cruelty of this world.

"Don't worry, speak it out... We are here to listen to you... Honey..." Leaf whispered softly in Dawn's ears. She too couldn't hold back her tears. It was too much for a Mother-like sister to see their little sister cry like there was no tomorrow. Like they would never survive if they didn't let their feelings get the hold of them.

Misty kissed the crown of Dawn's forehead. While hugging the girl even tighter in hopes of squeezing all those pain and sorrow out of her body so that she could have them kicked out of the poor girl's life.

May, on the other hand, hugged Dawn from behind and held onto her until she wasn't stable enough by herself. May didn't have to do anything, she knew what the girl would have felt. Because once she too had gone through the same suffering. Though at that time she didn't know Leaf, Misty or Dawn. Not was she aware of Drew, Paul, Gary or Ash. It was after that incident that she happened to stumble upon her path as their paths collide.

"Ane, I didn't mean to do any of it. I promise I didn't mean any of it!" Her voice cracked; tears never hoped to stop falling like rain, maybe even a storm.

"Shh... If you want you can tell us... Pumpkin..." Misty whispered softly as she rubbed Dawn's back. Dawn hiccuped every once in a while, still crying. But this time, she continued,

"I slapped him, Ane! I slapped Paul! I didn't want to, even though I did! He didn't deserve it yet, I couldn't hold myself back!"

"Tell us, what exactly happened... From when the problem started till what happened now." May spoke firmly. Her voice was ordering Dawn as she knew Dawn would never open up as easily as it seemed to.

The girl sneezed as she continued; still lying in her sisters' embrace, "Yesterday, when I left from the cafe, I saw Ursula on the ground, lying near the narrow valley of the cafe. I didn't know what happened to her so I tried to help her; understand what happened to her. She even agreed to take my help and even promised to tell me everything that had happened. But when I brought her home, she immediately fainted on the couch"

Dawn pointed towards the large couch and let out a small yell of anguish.

"I was so shocked, that I stayed by her side until she woke up. Then I offered her some energizer and consoled her. She was practically shivering, Ane, I never saw her like that.

I asked then what had happened to her, and his did she ended up lying on the ground near that valley. She told me that she was abducted by some of the goons of her father but she successfully knocked them out; her stamina wasn't left much and so she ended up lying on the ground."

"Did you ask why her father bribed some goons to abduct her?" Misty asked slowly, and Dawn nodded; wiping her tears which were now dried.

"Yeah, I did. She said that her father wanted her to have a nightstand with someone from our academy. And when I asked who her father wanted that person to be, the name which she gave had me dying. It was Paul. Her father wanted her to have a nightstand with Paul, out of all students! I could not believe it!" Dawn's face was already pale while explaining the episode of yesterday, the other girls could've never thought what she had gone through when she heard that.

"What? I... I... This..." The words were all mixed up inside their throat and they didn't know how to respond to that.

"Though one thing surprised me more than the fact that the guy was Paul. And that thing was that Ursula was completely against her father's decision. I didn't ask her why, because it seemed to be way more personal so in the end, we both agreed on one thing that her father the one wrong here and not Ursula. And after that, she apologized to me for this and that she wasn't, in any way, planning to come in between Paul and me. She then hugged me and then immediately left.

I couldn't sleep that night because of it and Ursula's change in behaviour. And so I decided to text Paul about this. He didn't react much after my text. So I thought maybe he knew about this. He just replied with a simple 'Oh' and 'Hmm'. Now, what do you suppose I would think when he does that. He rarely replies like that, every time it is either him cursing or maybe the texts are in bold, but never once he replied with such simplicity!

I couldn't take it so I slept in instead of bringing up the point. Then in the morning, I woke and decided to take a walk, so maybe I can have a talk with him in person to exactly see his reaction. I went to the silent area of the street where he usually goes to calm his mind. As I was strolling through the side-lanes, I spotted him walking silently, his hoodie covering half of his head and he had his hands tucked inside the hoodie's pockets.

Before I could signal him to come over, he called me. I walked towards him and he suddenly babbled something. I asked what he said, so he repeated again.

'I don't think Ursula's father will let us be together, he wants me to be with his baby girl'

And that was when I lost it. He was saying this so straightforwardly that I got angry. Angry at why was he being so emotionless. At least he could've shown some pain that Ursula's father's words hurt him. That he was afraid of losing me because of him. But NO!

He didn't! And that was why I slapped him and ran back home, weeping like a baby... Ane, I swear I wasn't on my right mind when I did that. I was just so angry over the fact that he was still so composed and calm while telling that to me, that I slapped him. Please..." Just as her story finished a new set of tears flowed like rain from her eyes. The new tears trailed down the same path created by the previous ones, yet this time they felt saltier.

Saltier, because this time, Dawn wasn't just the one who was shedding them. She saw her sisters crying too. And that hurt her so much; she was glad that she had them as her sisters, even if they all met as friends, their relationship was more than that.

"Don't worry, Dawn. We had this sort out..." May spoke, her voice was cracked though it never left the charm.

"Yeah, Paul and the others know about this, and Paul knows you haven't done this on purpose... Honey...", Leaf said and she was the first one to broke their hug; as she wiped off her tears with the ruffled sleeves of her long tee.

"You think so...?" Dawn asked while going to the table and snatching out a box of tissues; taking several for herself she gave it to Misty.

"Yeah. He was the one to tell the other guys and that was how we got to know about it, and so we came here to know your side of the story... Sweetie, you know we will always be by your side, so never hesitate to tell us." The words which left Leaf's mouth was so soft and warm, that Dawn's heart had started to warm up. She realized that because of the episode, she became so distant whether it be for a while, but she realized her mistake.

"Oh.. Sorry... Ane..." She whispered and took the chips what had been left abandoned for God knows what time.

"Okay, so now we can tell the good news to the boys so that they too can celebrate!" Misty punched the air in excitement as she jumped off the ground; landing on her butt in the process.

"Woo hoo!" May yelled as she hopped on the couch to have some fun for herself while stuffing several chips in her mouth.

"Wanna enjoy now?" Leaf asked as everyone nodded and they cheered.

"We love you, Du-Du~" All the there girls sang, while Dawn replied, "Yeah, and I love my Ane~"

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Whoa, this was such a big plot for a one-shot. You may have noticed how I changed the way of writing it, but I felt like this would be the best way of expressing it.

Also, if you are wondering what the word 'Ane' means, then it actually is a Japanese word for older sister, though there is another one too 'Onee-san'.

But in the end, I hope that you enjoyed this one-shot. Thank you for reading this.

Also, please Vote and Comment

ARI