The New Kid: Year 1

Dense

A/N: Here's a longer chapter to make up for the week

Paul POV

"So what do you think about the group?" I asked the raven haired boy walking in front of me as we both shouldered a log. Dawn had asked me to get his opinions of her, and as much as I hated to, I had already agreed to help, and I'm a man of my word.

"I think they're great. Why? Don't tell me you hate them already, you should at least give them a chance you know." He said over his free shoulder.

"No it's not that. I just wanted to know what you thought about them, especially... the girls." I said, feeling sweat drip down my forehead. 'Smooth  Paul, smooth...'

"The girls? Well I like them all." He said in a casual tone and I nearly tripped on my own feet. He liked them... all? 

"I like the guys too, as much as you in fact." I was so close to choking on my own saliva as he said that. Ok, so maybe he swings both ways, that's absolutely fine. Nothing wro— wait a second.

"What do you mean exactly by like, Ash?" I asked with my own suspicions, which were confirmed when he said, "What do you mean by that? I like them like friends do. Don't you?"

I facepalmed at this. Arceus, this boy was dense.

"But do you like any of them more than friends?" I prompted.

"Them? Like them more than friends... oh so like a best friend? Nah. I still like you the most, you're my best friend here and so are my Pokémon." He said with a sincere and innocent smile.

Yup, ok this was going nowhere. This guy said he travelled across Kanto, Johto, Hoenn and Sinnoh, participated in all those leagues, met so many people along the way, and didn't know what it meant to have a little crush on someone. That pretty much left me to build up this side of him from the ground up. But to lay the foundations, you need to drill into the ground, but this ground was way too dense. I was trying to keep a groan for escaping my mouth when Pikachu, who was sitting on the log we carried, ran across it and next to me before patting my shoulder and giving me a sympathetic look. Even his Pokémon know what's going on. 'Well, if it he had to start somewhere, better sooner than later' I thought to myself, and my sights changed from helping Dawn to educating Ash first.

"Ash do you know what a crush is?" I asked as we placed the log down. Weavile, who came to cut the log into what we needed paused and turned to me with a raised eyebrow, and I gestured for him to listen on.

"Is that where you... crush something?" And with that, my battle hardened dark and ice type fainted. What took Ash's sceptile about twenty leaf blades to do, took Ash one sentence.

"No. It means to like someone because they are attractive, and they become infatuated with that person."

"Infatuated?" He cluelessly asked as we stood up to get the next log, leaving Pikachu to try and fan Weavile awake. I suppressed a groan before turning back to him. I was at the end of my nerves with him and his density. Denseness? You know what who cares.

"It means, you want to date that person. You know? Like take a nice romantic walk in the park. Watch a movie. Kiss the person. All that lovey-dovey stuff." I had given up on subtlety. If I was going to get through that dense surface, it wouldn't be with a drill, it would be with dynamite, or even better, a nuke.

"Ohhhhh. So that's what Gary meant when he said Drew had a crush on May." Ash said in enlightenment and I just gaped at him. 

"So you got them together... not knowing you were getting them together?"