A/N: As a Team Rocket fangirl at the age of ten, I was obsessed with the thought of Jessie and James getting together, getting married, settling down and having a couple of cute little kids. Now, as a Team Rocket fangirl who is almost eighteen, my views have changed drastically to the point where I don't want them to get married, settle down and have kids (although wanting them to get together has certainly not changed in the slightest!). However, since this first prompt was children and I'm an unoriginal sod, I thought I'd revert back to my old ways just for a short while for the sake of this chapter. This might have been a mistake, but what's done is done.
The title of the series comes from the Ingrid Bergman quote, A kiss is a lovely trick designed by nature to stop speech when words become superfluous. N'aww.
Disclaimer: I own several annuals, far too many GBA/DS games to count, a couple of keyrings, a couple of necklaces, movies one through six plus the Chronicles and Mewtwo Special...but alas, I am not the creator of Pokémon. Sucks to be me.
Lovely Tricks
1. Children
It started with an innocent comment from Meowth.
"Say," he said, "what do ya t'ink ya kids'll look like?"
James spat out a mouthful of coffee and stared at the cat as though he'd grown another head. "Kids?" he spluttered, looking horrified at the mere concept.
Jessie looked equally disturbed, a forkful of egg suspended in mid-air.
"Yeah, ya know," Meowth said, "dose little t'ings what walk an' talk like regular sized humans, da ones what like drawin' pictures an' takin' dancin' lessons an' trainin' Pokémon…ya know what dey are yet?"
"There's no need to be sarcastic," Jessie muttered. "Your question just took us by surprise, is all."
"Why?" Meowth frowned. "I t'ought youse'd be t'inkin' 'bout mini-Jessie an' James' by now. Ya don't want ta leave it too long now, do ya?"
James shuddered. "I'd have to be married to have kids of my own…that's not something I relish thinking about!"
Jessie rolled her eyes at her partner's comment, choosing to ignore it. "Why would we be thinking about having kids? We haven't even managed to snag that Pikachu yet! Until we become the best team in Team Rocket, I don't intend to think about things like children!"
Meowth shrugged with a cheeky grin. "No need ta get angry, Jess," he said. "I was just wonderin' if yer plannin' ahead. Dat's always da best t'ing ta do in dese kinds of situations. Den nut'in' can take ya by surprise."
"What kind of situations?" Jessie snapped. "I have no idea what you're talking about."
"I'm talkin' 'bout…" Meowth lowered his voice dramatically, "da situation dat yer in now. Ya don't want ta be known as da new Henry an' Starr situation, do ya?"
James frowned. "The what situation?"
Jessie, however, was narrowing her eyes in understanding. "I'm warning you, cat, don't even go there."
"Why?" the cat said innocently. "'S'not like youse have anyt'in' ta hide, is it?"
"Would someone just please tell me what the Henry and Starr situation is?" James whined.
He didn't get an answer, however; both Jessie and Meowth seemed only able to hear each other.
"You know I don't have anything to hide," Jessie growled, although the scratch cat could tell from the way her cheeks were colouring delicately that that wasn't necessarily the case.
"So youse have never t'ought about what it would be like ta walk hand-in-hand in da park, ta share ice cream, ta make love under da moon an' da rest o' dat corny stuff? Youse have never t'ought about da two of youse as parents, bearin' his kids?"
Making love under the moon? Bearing children? James couldn't comprehend the conversation at all. "Who the hell are you talking about?"
"None of your business," Jessie snapped at him, shooting him a glare that told him to keep his mouth shut. James heeded it at once, pouting a little. It wasn't fair that both Jessie and Meowth knew who Meowth was talking about! Surely he – Jessie's best friend in the whole world – deserved to know who she sometimes fantasised about making love to?
You know you'd be happier not knowing, a treacherous part of his mind told him as he sat there. Because you'd be jealous.
Meanwhile, Jessie and Meowth were continuing their own conversation.
"I poisonally t'ink dat any kid o' yers would look more like him," Meowth was saying. He was screwing up his face as though he was thinking hard. "He's got very distinctive features, after all."
"So have I!" Jessie remarked indignantly. "My beauty outshines everyone else's!"
"Ah, so youse t'ink dat da kid would look more like youse! What about da eyes, dough?"
"For the last time, Meowth, I have never thought of him in that way! And I can't say I've ever taken notice of his eyes before, either!"
"Don't give me dat! In all dose times when ya gazed into his eyes like a love-struck Growlithe, youse never once t'ought, man, does eyes are gorgeous!?"
Sensing that Jessie really was going to explode in a way that she hadn't done for a very long time, James took it upon himself to step in. "Okay Meowth, that's enough. Leave Jessie alone now."
Meowth hopped to the floor with a scathing sound. "Mighta known dat youse'd stick up fer her."
The lavender haired man looked confused, but said nothing.
"Well, I'm gonna go use my smarts ta concoct our next evil scheme," Meowth said. "Youse two can stay here."
Silence was left behind.
"So, uh…" James really couldn't think of anything to say as he self-consciously began to clear the table of their unfinished breakfasts. "Meowth can be a real pain sometimes, huh?"
"Understatement of the century," Jessie muttered, still glowering.
More awkward silence. Nothing but the sound of clattering cutlery passed between the duo as they set about tidying the kitchenette.
Finally, however, James could take it no longer. He told himself that he was stupid for wanting to know, that her reply would probably only end up hurting him, but he just had to know.
Because recently, something had changed between them.
He couldn't pin an exact date on when he had started to slowly but surely fall for his best friend in the whole world, but that didn't make it any less true. At first he had not even noticed that his feelings for her were changing, for he was too busy rejoicing in their newfound closeness to really stop and think about anything else. But changed it had, and this had become all too clear about a month ago when Jessie had begun to strip casually in front of him like she had done a thousand times before. Only this time, instead of thinking nothing of it, James had been unable to tear his eyes away from her. A heated blush had made its way across his face as she'd bent down in her bra, exposing her lovely cleavage in all its glory, and he'd excused himself then with a choked sound, both terrified and reluctantly aroused at the feelings she had evoked within him. Since then he had avoided her changing like the devil.
It seemed like he could no longer pretend nothing had changed, however.
"Can I ask what the Henry and Starr situation was now?"
"Do you really have to?" Jessie sighed wearily, rubbing her temples.
"I don't like to be kept in the dark. And Meowth isn't here anymore."
Jessie sighed with the air of someone discussing a subject that really made them feel uncomfortable. "The Henry and Starr situation refers to the two Team Rocket agents who started having it off and ended up with more than a little problem, if you catch my drift."
James stared. "As in, they ended up with a kid?"
"Well done, James. It seems that you finally found your brain." Although Jessie's words were harsher than they usually were nowadays, James took them easily, knowing that this particular conversation had struck a raw spot with her. Why was something he didn't know.
"What happened to them?"
"Starr was forced into a Team Rocket office job, doing all of the menial crap out of contempt for her situation. Henry was forced to stay out in the field with a new partner. As far as I know, Starr was allowed to keep her kid but Henry wasn't allowed anywhere near her."
"Wow, that's pretty harsh," James mused sadly. "If I was a father, I'd want to see my kids."
"You would?" Jessie seemed surprised for some reason. "I thought you said that kids meant commitment, which you definitely didn't want?"
"But I'd have a duty to the children," James said, his green eyes piercing hers with their seriousness. "I wouldn't be able to just abandon them."
"If you got a Team Rocket girl pregnant, the Boss wouldn't let you see them."
"I'd find a way around it."
"James, you're terrified of the Boss."
The lavender haired man shrugged. "So? I wouldn't be a very good dad if I couldn't even stand up for them."
Jessie was shocked. Somehow it was difficult to imagine him standing up to the Boss in any way. And yet James was being so mature about the conversation, acting as though he had given the topic some real consideration. Whether she was the Rocket girl in question was something she really didn't want to think about, but it was refreshing to see James actually taking something seriously for once instead of goofing around.
Noticing her expression, James smiled slightly. He could read her train of thoughts, but he wasn't offended.
"Do you want kids?" Jessie asked suddenly, which caught her partner completely off-guard. True, they had been discussing them, but he hadn't been expecting her to blurt something like that out so directly. He thought back to the horror he'd felt the first time that Meowth had brought them up mere minutes ago.
"Well," he said carefully, "the only way I can see myself having kids right now is if I have them with Jessibelle, and she's a mother I would never want to inflict on a child."
Jessie shuddered, vaguely recalling the last time they had met that deranged harpy. "Good point. But what if you fell in love? Would you want kids then?"
"Well, that's a whole different matter," said James, feeling decidedly uncomfortable discussing a subject that was getting far too close to the knuckle.
"How so?"
James hoped the flush that he could feel steadily diffusing across his face wasn't too obvious to his female partner. "Well, it would depend on what she wanted, too. If we felt ready, if we were financially able to support a child comfortably…"
"You really have given this some thought, haven't you?" Jessie mused, sounding surprised that her prior thoughts had turned out to be truer than she'd initially thought. "I never thought you'd be mature enough to."
James almost opened his mouth to say that he hadn't ever given it any thought, but something stopped him. Instead he said, "haven't you?"
She shrugged a little self-consciously, twirling a strand of her still-unstyled hair around her finger. "Maybe. But I can't very well get pregnant while in Team Rocket."
"So you do want kids."
She looked a little defensive. "I'm not the sort of girl who goes around with her head in the clouds thinking about love and romance and marriage all of the time. If I'm with the right guy and it happens, it happens. I won't be fanatically planning ahead to make sure we have sex at the right time of the month, or eating the right foods to increase my chances, if that's what you mean."
"And…" he kept his eyes trained straight ahead, "have you got the right one in mind?"
A blush of her own spilled over her cheeks. "That's none of your business."
"If you're worried I'm going to tell Meowth…"
"I'm not," she said. "I just don't want to be talking about the right one." Sighing, she pushed her chair away from the table and began to make her way towards the door for another day of attempting to capture Pikachu.
Before she reached the threshold, however, she turned back to contemplate him.
"Have you been thinking about the right one?" she said quizzically.
"No!" James squeaked a little too quickly, feeling himself getting hotter around the collar. Jessie continued to stare at him. Sweat began to accumulate at his temples. He knew he had to say something – anything – to make her believe him. "And I certainly haven't been thinking about having kids with blue eyes and purple hair!"
"Okay…" she said in a tone that suggested that she didn't believe him. Her gaze was more intense than ever before.
James thought she would leave then, giving him time to compose himself before they set off to track down the twerps. Unfortunately for him, she came back towards the table. There was a strange glow in her eyes, as though she was aware of something that she hadn't been told.
Only then did he realise just what he'd let slip.
And I certainly haven't been thinking about having kids with blue eyes and purple hair!
Jessie had blue eyes and magenta hair. James himself had lavender hair. Lavender and magenta would naturally make purple…
Jessie had drawn the conclusion that James had concocted in his head.
For a moment, neither of them moved. They hardly dared breathe. All they could do was stare at each other wide-eyed, the spirit of a child that was not yet conceived standing in the space between them.
"You've been thinking about having kids with me." Jessie broke the silence at long-last. It wasn't a question. Her face expression was unreadable.
All he could do was nod; he didn't have a choice.
His nod bared it all: how he'd dreamt of dressing her body in kisses; how he'd imagined the feel of her skin pressed against his own; how he'd idly fantasised about the two of them raising a kid or two between them.
"Hmm." The noise Jessie made did not give an indication of how she was truly feeling. On the positive side, she hadn't started yelling yet. On the negative side, this could merely be the calm before the storm.
"I'm sorry, Jess," he was compelled to say at last when the silence stretched on to an unbearable level. "I really am."
She stepped closer. He winced irrationally; she hadn't hit him in a long time, but he wouldn't be surprised if she hit him now. And he'd deserve it.
She bent closer. James squeezed his eyes shut, waiting for her to begin screaming into his face.
For a few seconds, nothing.
And then he felt her mouth on his own.
James' eyes sprang open. Jessie was kissing him. Jessie was kissing him. It sounded corny even inside his own head, but this was literally a dream come true. His mind was too addled to try and work out just why she was kissing him, but he realised that after a few numb seconds that he wasn't responding to her. This jolted him into action, for he did not want her to think that he wasn't interested. Because he was. Hell, he was.
With that thought in mind, he began to kiss her back, slipping his arms around her waist and tilting his head back to give her even better access. He felt her shiver when his hands came into contact with the bare flesh of her midriff, and he couldn't supress a shudder of his own as he caressed the warm area with gentle fingers. Suddenly he had the answer to the questions that Meowth and Jessie's earlier conversation had brought up: it had been him – James – that Jessie had been thinking about making love to, and thought had gorgeous eyes!
Jessie's fingers were meandering through his hair, sifting through it like it was fine gold. Her mouth was warm and wet and so very perfect. He couldn't stop himself from whimpering into her mouth when her fingers brushed against the back of his neck. This was absolute heaven; nothing in the whole world could possibly ruin this moment –
Something squishy hit Jessie in the back and, with a muffled squeak, she pulled away from James. Her partner could only stare at her in a daze, a dopey grin forming on his face. She wanted to mirror his face expression, but settled instead for turning in the direction of the object's flight path.
Meowth was standing in the doorway, a feline smirk plastered across his face.
Jessie's eyes travelled to the object that had hit her.
Her face coloured as she took it in. James, recovering enough to follow Jessie's gaze, blushed an even deeper red.
"What?" Meowth said innocently. "If youse is gonna start practisin' da baby-makin' game, ya need ta be prepared. I'm just makin' sure dat we don't turn inta da next Henry an' Starr."
A/N: ...It was lame, I know. xD And Henry and Starr are terrible names, but I did not have a clue what to call them. :P
Have pity on me and leave me a review. I get my exam results back tomorrow and may be inconsolable. xD