Hey guys, and welcome to my new story! I'm really, really looking forward to this one.

Just so you're aware, these are the ships that will appear in this story:

PokeShipping (Ash/Misty)

ContestShipping (Drew/May)

LuckShipping (Brock/Lucy)

IkariShipping (Paul/Dawn)

WishfulShipping (Cilan/Iris)

FourthWheelShipping (Bonnie/Max)

GaryxOC

SerenaxOC

If any of these pairings offend you, leave now. Hate comments directed toward any of these ships will absolutely not be tolerated.

That aside, I hope you enjoy this story!

Dawn's hand glided effortlessly across the paper, the fountain pen inking her perfected signature against the flowery background. After blowing on it to dry the ink, she slipped it into a small, pink envelope.

"There!" she cried, setting the freshly-sealed letter down on the stack. "The last one's done. Now I've just got to get them in the mail by tomorrow, and we'll be all set!"

From his place on the couch, Paul took another sip of his drink and sighed. "Is it really necessary for us to have this thing? You don't even know if half of the addresses are still the same, let alone if these people will even come."

Dawn shot her husband an irritated glare. "First of all, Mr. Pessimist, I checked the Internet and verified that the addresses are in fact the same. And second, 'these people' are old, very good friends of ours. Of course they'll come."

Paul shook his head. "I only ever said that I liked Gary and Drew. The rest are real bums."

"Paul!" Dawn snapped. "We talked about this, remember? About you trying harder to not insult my friends!?"

The purple-haired Trainer opened his mouth to retort, but opted not to as soon as he caught sight of his wife's expression. She looked about ready to rip a tree out of the ground. Paul may not always understand his wife, but he definitely understood that.

"Fine," he conceded. "Do whatever you want."

Her look of fury quickly melted into a smirk. She always knew how to get under his skin.

After double-checking to make sure that the letters were all properly stamped and sealed, Dawn got up from her seat and headed upstairs.

One quick turn had her in the nursery. She swiftly brought herself over to the crib in which her tiny baby lay, sound asleep. Her heart, as it always did, melted at the mere sight of him. His precious little face looked sweet enough when he was awake, let alone when he was tucked underneath his blankie lost in some kind of dream.

She leaned against the crib, careful not to shift it. As cute as Matthew was, he could be a nasty little thing when his nap was interrupted.

At times she could scarcely believe that she and Paul had made something so beautiful. Between her temper - which somehow had worsened with age - and Paul's frequent pessimism and sardonicism, she was surprised that the baby was anything beyond demonic.

She was so focused on her young child that she failed to notice Paul enter the room. The young man watched his wife in silence for a few moments, taking in the innocent moment that she was sharing with their son.

As callous as he could be, Paul really did care about them. He'd been honest, of course, when he said that he hated the great majority of the people Dawn called her friends. And yet, he knew that he'd wind up going and "enjoying" himself- just for her.

He never would have guessed as a teenager that he'd end up married to Dawn. She'd annoyed the shit out of him during his journey through Sinnoh. Somehow, though, she managed to grow on him when they met again in Kalos.

He still didn't really understand how it all happened. One minute, he's irritated that she keeps following him around like his shadow. The next, they're talking under the moonlight and he's wondering why he can't pull himself away. He refused to admit to himself that he liked her for the longest time. Looking back, he supposed that it was his way of coping with such a drastic turn in events.

She honestly got more tolerable as the two of them grew up. Either that, or he just learned to look past her frustrating exterior and see the qualities underneath. Paul refused to even consider the fact that he was capable of such deep, emotional thinking, however.

Finally, he drifted over to his wife. She was still staring lovingly at their son, seemingly unable to tear her eyes away. Slowly, he came up from behind and wrapped his arms around her.

She jumped a little inside- not because she thought it was anyone else, but because her husband usually didn't do things like that. The most romantic thing he did on a regular basis was tell her he loved her before he went to work.

Paul glanced up at the clock. "Isn't it time for his feeding?"

Dawn shook her head. Paul sniffled as the tips of her blue locks swept across his nose. "He's fast asleep. I don't want to bother him. You know how he gets when his nap gets interrupted."

He moved away from his wife, turning just a bit away from her. "Still, I don't think it's a very good idea for him to be off his schedule. He'll be waking us up at three in the morning, screaming for his bottle. He'll be cranky in the morning. It'll be hard to get him back on his schedule..."

He failed to notice that his wife, after sneaking a behind-the-back eye roll, had moved to the opposite side of the room. She began tidying up, rearranging some of Matthew's stuffed animals.

After finishing an exaggerated statement about how they'd lose hours of sleep by missing just one feeding, Paul finally realized that Dawn wasn't giving him even an ounce of her attention.

"Hey!" he snapped. "I'm trying to talk to you!"

"So I heard," she replied, somewhat amused. She carefully set a Teddiursa plush down beside its evolution. "Paul, we've broken Matthew's schedule before. Yeah, maybe he's gotten a little cranky, but we've always handled it. You always exaggerate. There's really no need to worry."

He shrugged. "Either way, I'm not gonna be the one who deals with him when he wakes up screaming and kicking tomorrow morning." After sneaking one last, quick glance at his son, he walked out of the nursery.

Dawn sighed. "That's really nothing new."

"Yes, and we'll be leaving on the 25th," Dawn said.

After hearing the cheeky receptionist's response on the other end, she added that every room should be charged to the same account. Despite the fact that she knew it would irk Paul, they had enough money to truly treat their friends in such a way.

After all, they hadn't seen much of anything of each other in almost four years. Sure, they called each other once in a while, but that was it. Life just kept them too busy. Ash was now the Indigo League Champion, May and Drew were teaching at a new coordinator school in Hoenn, Cilan had his own cooking show, and Gary was working on an incredibly important internship with Professor Kukui in Alola. Even Bonnie and Max were busy, with Max now being the leader of the Petalburg Gym.

As for Dawn and Paul, traveling with a two-month-old isn't exactly high on their bucket list. Not to mention how horribly Dawn endured the entire pregnancy, and the fact that she basically went from married to pregnant in a span of two weeks. And, of course, there was the small problem of Paul having to run the Canalave City Gym.

Despite all of that, however, every single couple on Dawn's invite list had RSVP'd a "yes". She'd gotten the invites out two months in advance, just to be sure that everyone had time to take off from work and make any other necessary arrangements. After all, some of them lived quite far from Sinnoh.

The event coordinator in Dawn was really coming out with this whole thing; she was going all out. She had spent hours researching the best resorts in the region, finally settling on a gorgeous place near Sunyshore City. The rooms were child-friendly, and the entire place was right on the water. Not to mention that they gave her a great deal for booking so many rooms at once.

In addition, she'd already taken care of the refreshments, decorations, and a reservation for sky-diving lessons for everyone. Hey, if they were going to have a reunion, they might as well make it worth it.

The only thing left was booking their flight from Canalave to Sunyshore. She wasn't about to drive the whole distance with a baby.

As much as she hadn't wanted to, she'd resorted to letting Paul take care of the plane tickets. It was something that even he could do (somehow, he'd turned into quite the technologically inept person), although she wouldn't put it past him to try and get the cheapest seats possible.

Not that saving money was a bad thing, of course, but "cheap" with Paul usually equated to "bad". On the flight to Cinnabar Island for their honeymoon, he'd booked seats that they literally had to race other people for.

Still, it kept him busy, which meant that he was out of Dawn's hair. That's all that really mattered, even if it did cost her a guaranteed seat on the plane.

After finishing a call with the Sunyshore Sunflowers to make sure that the flowers would be ready in time, she sat back and allowed herself a moment to reflect.

It would be so great to see everyone again. She and Paul hadn't even told anyone that they were married; as far as their friends were concerned, they still hated each other. She insisted on it being that way on purpose, this idea of a reunion already budding in her mind. She couldn't wait to see the looks on everyone's faces when they showed up together, child in tow. It might even beat the reaction to Bonnie and Max eloping together after Max won the Ever Grande Conference.

Oh, how sweet it could be. Everything was going to be perfect. She was absolutely, positively sure of it.

So short chapter, but this was mainly to set up the story. So the gang hasn't seen much of each other in almost four years... quite a long time. Life can get busy when you're successful! What will happen to our heroes when they get together again?

Lots of nostalgic references, fluff, and revelations ahead!

See you next time!

(P.S. Happy Pokemon Day, everyone!)