Walking through the Eternia Forest, a blue-haired man of about twenty was making his way towards the city. His reason for going to the city was visit an old friend he left behind.
"I just hope he remembers me," said the man to himself.
As he came closer to the forest's exit, he heard a rustling sound that was slowly getting louder. Before he could call out his Pokémon, he was pounced upon by something that seemed to be covered in thorns.
"Aaaah!"
"Cacnea!"
"Cacnea! Where did you run off to?" called a female voice.
The man looked up to see the woman run into view. She had short orange and black hair and orange eyes. Her clothes consisted of a green leaf-like cloak over a long-sleeved black shirt that showed off most of her stomach, brown khaki shorts that stopped just above her knees, and green boots. When she made it into the clearing, her eyes landed on the man and widened in surprise.
"James?"
"Hey, Gardenia. Long time no see," greeted James as he stood up with Cacnea still attached to him. Of course, as soon as he stood, he was glomped again, but this time by the woman.
"James! It's so good to see you again! What brings you here to the Eternia Forest?" asked Gardenia as she looked up to the man.
"Well, I recently was given some time off and thought I'd take the time to see how Cacnea was doing," said James as he pried Cacnea off of him.
"I see," said Gardenia with a smile, but inside she wasn't. After her encounters with James she developed a small crush on him that grew into something more as time went on. The way he treated and respected his Pokémon was one of the reasons she loved him.
"What about you, Gardenia? How come you're in the forest? Shouldn't you be at the gym?" asked James innocently, breaking the woman out of her thoughts.
"Huh? Oh! I just needed to check on something in the forest," said Gardenia, now acting nervous.
"…Are you okay, Gardenia?" asked James, his voice filled with concern.
"Never better! Hey, would you want to help me on the task I need to do?" asked Gardenia, hoping he'd say yes.
"I supposed…"
"Great!" interrupted the Vivid Plant Master as she grabbed James' arm and started to drag him away.
Soon, the two trainers were standing in front of the gates of a dilapidated looking mansion. James turned to Gardenia and raised an eyebrow when he noticed that she looked scared.
"Um, what is this place?" he asked. She jumped at the sudden question.
"Th-This would be the Forest Manor. It is m-my job as the Eternia Gym Leader to m-make sure no one d-does anything to it," said Gardenia with a stutter. She hugged Cacnea close to her for comfort.
"Cac?"
James didn't like what he was seeing. He always saw Gardenia as a very courageous woman, but now she was acting the very opposite and that didn't sit right with him. Just as he was about to say something, a white light popped out of the Poké Ball on his belt, revealing the only Pokémon he had on him.
"Yamask!"
James was surprised that Yamask would just come out on his own like that. He looked over to Gardenia and Cacnea to see what they thought of his newest friend. Cacnea seemed to like Yamask. Gardenia on the other hand looked like she wanted to run very fast and very far.
"Gardenia…"
"Ghost!" screeched Gardenia.
She ran back towards the forest and hid behind a tree. She peeked her head out and looked over to James.
"Wh-Where did you g-get that P-Pokémon and wh-what happened t-to C-Carnivine?" asked Gardenia shakily.
"Well, Yamask here joined as my newest Pokémon when I was in the Unova Region. As to where Carnivine is, I had to leave him and Mime Jr. back at headquarters in the Kanto Region since they're not native to Unova," explained James. His voice took on a saddened tone towards the end as he missed his two Sinnoh Pokémon.
"Wh-Why didn't you c-catch a Grass-type instead?" questioned Gardenia.
"…I didn't really think to. Plus I didn't really see any that peaked my interest," said James with a shrug. "Anyway, what's with you, Gardenia? First you don't want to go into the manor and now you run away from Yamask."
Gardenia mumbled out something, but it was too quiet for James to hear. When he asked her to repeat it, he was surprised by what she said.
"I'm afraid of Ghost-types," she said, her head down in shame.
Because her head was down, she didn't see James walking over to her, so she jumped a little when he placed his hand on her shoulder.
"There's no reason to be afraid, Gardenia. Everyone is afraid of something. Take me for example, I'm deathly afraid of my fiancée," said James.
"I don't think it's the…wait, since when have you had a fiancée!" demanded Gardenia, surprise on her face and pain in her heart.
"Trust me, you don't want to meet her. I've been avoiding her ever since I was a kid, but she's still persistent on trying to marry me even though I don't want to marry her," said James, his looking as if he ate something bitter.
"She's that bad?"
"Think Jessie, but ten times worse. Enough about that though. You said that as the Gym Leader that you need to check on the manor, right?"
"I don't want to!" said Gardenia, her fear creeping back in.
"Gardenia, not all Ghost-types are scary. Take Yamask for example," said James, pointing towards the Spirit Pokémon.
"Mask Yamask!" cheered Yamask as he came over towards the two humans.
Gardenia left her hiding spot behind the tree and clamped onto James, hiding her face in his chest. James' face became a faint shade of red when he felt the woman pressed herself against him. He looked over to Yamask, who looked very confused. The blue-haired man could only let a sigh as he wrapped his arm around the woman's shoulders.
"I know you're scared, Gardenia, but you have to do this. If you're that afraid though, I'll gladly help you get through this," said James softly.
The Gym Leader looked up at the man she was clinging to and saw that he was indeed willing to help her. She still didn't want to go into the manor, but with James by her side, she could probably do anything.
"O-Okay then. Let's get this over with."
A now blushing Gardenia started walking towards the manor with James right behind her. Reaching the door, Gardenia hesitantly reached out to the doorknob and opened to door. Both James and Gardenia walked into the manor, James with amazement in his eyes and Gardenia with fear. Cacnea and Yamask to the opportunity to go explore.
"Wow. This place looks like it would be a nice place to live if it was kept up to code," said James as he looked around.
"Please say you're joking. This manor would be a horrible place to live!" exclaimed Gardenia.
"Why would you say that?" asked James, looking over to the Gym Leader.
Since he was now looking at Gardenia, he did not notice that something appeared floating behind him. Gardenia did though and went pale when she saw the floating black and purple Pokémon.
"J-James…" stuttered Gardenia, pointing to the spot behind the Team Rocket member.
"Hmm?"
James turned around, but saw nothing there. With his back turned, the Pokémon now appeared between them right in front of Gardenia. With her fear getting the best of her, the Vivid Plant Master could only do one thing…
"Eeeeeeeekkkkkkk!"
…She screamed.
James jumped in surprise from the sudden noise and quickly turned around to see Gardenia cowering on the floor with the Pokémon floating around her.
"Gastly!"
"Get it away!" screamed Gardenia.
"Yamask! Use Night Shade, quick!" called out James.
The Spirit Pokémon heard his trainer's orders and quickly appeared and shot multiple pink rings at Gastly after his eyes were surrounded in a purple aura and then glowed pink along with his body. The Gas Pokémon though quickly got out of the way from the attack and started to escape, but Yamask was right behind him. With the Gastly out of the way, James went over to Gardenia to check if she was all right.
"Gardenia! Gardenia! Are you hurt? Speak to me!"
Before Gardenia could answer, Yamask came hurtling back into the room. Looking over to the hallway Yamask came from, James and Gardenia paled when they saw not only more than one Gastly, but a few of Gastly's evolved form, Haunter, and one mean looking Gengar.
"Gengar…"
"A G-Gengar?" stuttered Gardenia, her eyes wide with fear.
"Gardenia, do you have any Pokémon that could possibly fight?" questioned James. "It looks we'll have no choice, but to fight."
"Y-Yes."
"Then send it out!" said James as he, Yamask, and Cacnea got ready for battle.
"R-Right. Go Roserade!" called out Gardenia as she threw the Poké Ball.
Out of the Poké Ball came a green humanoid Pokémon that looked to be wearing a cape, had white rose petals on her head that looked like hair, and a red and blue bouquet as her right and left hands respectively.
"Roserade!"
"Yamask! Use Night Shade again!" commanded James.
"Roserade, use Flash on those ghosts!" commanded Gardenia.
Yamask once again blasted the enemy Ghost-type with more pink rings while Roserade's entire body started to shine brightly. The army of Ghost/Poison-type Pokémon moaned in pain from the combination of bright light and ghostly energy. The Gengar though didn't seem phased by it and sped forward, ready to attack.
"Cacnea, use Pin Missile! Yamask, use Shadow Ball!"
"Cacnea!"
"Yamask!"
The Cactus Pokémon raised his arms and fired off many glowing needle at Gengar, hitting right on the mark and slowing the Shadow Pokémon down. This gave Yamask the chance to hit point blank with his Shadow Ball attack.
"Gar! Gengar Gengar!" exclaimed Gengar in pain as it slid back.
"Cacnea, start up a Sandstorm!" called out Gardenia.
"What exactly will that do?" questioned James as the little Grass-type started spinning around and whipping up sand.
"Watch. Roserade, use Weather Ball on Gengar!"
"Rade! Roserade!"
The Bouquet Pokémon raised her arms and gathered energy from the Sandstorm. She then fired off the energy orb at Gengar, but the Shadow Pokémon used a Shadow Ball of its own to destroy it.
"Oh no!" cried Gardenia.
'This is not good. There has to be a way to take down this Gengar. Maybe…' thought James. He then turned to Gardenia. "Gardenia, have Roserade use Weather Ball again."
"But that didn't do anything!"
"Just do it!"
Gardenia flinched at James' yelling, but did as he said. James then ordered Cacnea to use Pin Missile, which combined with the Weather Ball. Unfortunately it was not enough as Gengar was holding it back its own version of Night Shade, a black shadowy beam from its hands.
"It's still not enough!" cried Gardenia, worried that the Ghost-types were going to win. She shuddered at the thought.
Yamask saw the fear on Gardenia's face and the worry on his trainer's. He may not have been as strong as Cacnea or Roserade, but he needed to do something. With a determined look in his large red eyes, he floated into position in front of the two humans.
"Yamask?" questioned James, noticing that Yamask's mask was glowing with a purple light.
"Yamask!"
The Spirit Pokémon sent out a huge gust of purple wind from his mask that connected with the Weather Ball/Pin Missile combo attack. The new triple attack was too much for Gengar and it was blast away, slamming into the wall behind it.
"Gen…gar," groaned the Ghost/Poison-type as it slid to the floor and fainted.
The Gastly and Haunter were surprised that their leader was defeated. Not wanting to end up like Gengar, the Gastly and Haunter took their leader and quickly left the Forest Manor.
"We won?" questioned Gardenia, surprise on her face. She then smiled widely and glomped James. "We won!"
"Looks like it, thank to Yamask's newly learned Ominous Wind," grinned James, putting an arm around Gardenia.
-:-
After the ordeal within the manor, James and Gardenia headed back to Eternia City. James looked over to Gardenia and saw that she had a smile on her face.
"You feeling better, Gardenia?" asked James.
"A little. I'm just glad that those ghosts left. Hopefully they won't come back," replied the Vivid Plant Master with a shuddered. She then stiffened when Yamask appeared next to her.
"Aww, I was hoping you had at least gotten over some of your fear," said James when he saw this, feeling a little disappointed.
"Well…Yamask is kinda cute once you get used to him."
"Yamask!" cheered the little Ghost-type. Gardenia let out a giggle at Yamask and then turned to James.
"James, you said you had some time off, right? How long exactly?" asked Gardenia. James raised an eyebrow at this.
"Surprisingly two weeks. Why did you want to know?"
"Um, I was wondering that if you needed a place to stay, you could stay at my place?"
James was shocked by the offer; mainly since it was rare someone was ever nice to him. The only people he could think of who were ever nice to him were Jessie, although albeit rarely, Meowth, and the twerps, even though they were technically enemies.
"Are you sure you'd want that, Gardenia? I'm a member of Team Rocket, group a of thieves, remember?"
"I don't care, James. You're not evil, you and I both know that," said Gardenia, looking away shyly with a small blush on her face. She glanced back at him. "Will you stay? Please?"
Again, James was shocked. He would never call himself the smartest guy in the world, but he was smart enough to see the real reason why Gardenia was inviting him to stay with her. He only hoped that Jessiebelle didn't find out. He really did not want to put Gardenia in any danger. Not wanting to upset the woman in front of him, he decided to take up her offer.
"Of course, Gardenia. I'll stay."
With a squeal of happiness, Gardenia glomped him once again, making him almost lose his balance. She then started to drag him towards her home at the gym.
"I promise you won't regret this, James," exclaimed Gardenia, her heart soaring.
James could only smile. Maybe it wouldn't be as bad as he first thought it could.
FIN
-:-
…Something tells me I might have to put a second part for this like I did with 'Lighthouse Love'.
I've wanted to write a GrassLoveshipping fic for a long time now. I first was going to write one when the Gen V Pokémon were first being put out, but was going to wait for a possible Grass/Ghost-type Pokémon. Obviously, that never happened (even though it should have) so the idea got shelved. It wasn't until recently that I remembered that James got a Yamask during the Unova Arc, to which I slapped myself for not thinking of writing this when James first got Yamask. So James' Yamask + Gardenia's ghost-phobia = this one-shot.
As to why it was called the Forest Manor instead of Old Chateau in this, since this was based on the animé I had to change some things around what with the Old Chateau apparently in Canalave City in the animé. I went with the Japanese name of the Old Chateau since it works better in this situation if the Old Chateau is in Canalave.