Gift for madiyasha
This takes place somewhere between "A Poached Ego!" and "A Tail with a Twist"
Is this all there is?
Peering out the cabin window with weary eyes, Jessie let out a long, heavy sigh. Her team had been traveling the Hoenn region for less than two weeks and this new journey was already proving to be more troublesome than any other. Ordinarily, Jessie felt renewed at the idea of exploring a new region, ripe with new possibilities, but everything about this situation was different. For a short time in her past, Hoenn had been a place she called home. A place where she discovered contests and fell in love with the dream of becoming a Top Coordinator. Now here she was, well into her 20s, no closer to achieving that dream or any other. What was the point of continuing this game of cat and mouse with a twerp and his pikachu?
Her melancholy was only amplified by the events of the previous day. In a life of so few constants, Arbok had always been a loyal and devoted companion. Her cornerstone. She had never even considered the possibility that they would ever part ways.
Though heartache hung heavy in her chest, she had yet to shed any tears. When her sorrow plunged to its deepest depths in the middle of the night and her throat ached with the urge to weep, she buried that feeling deep into an unseen space where all of her other losses and failures lied. A space where pain bubbled beneath the surface, still vaguely within her awareness, but invisible to the outside world. The moment she heard James writhing in his futon, mere feet away from hers as he wept Wheezing's name in his sleep, she knew it was up to her to be the strong one. More than ever, her team needed her strength.
On the bright side, James had managed to land himself a brand new pokemon the very same day as their agonizing separation from their oldest and dearest companions. While his methods of capture had been rather unorthodox by most people's standards, it hadn't surprised Jessie that he was able to win the cute cactus over with a bag of cookies in place of a battle. The beginnings of a smile crossing her face, she mused on the fact that his demeanor always seemed to put pokemon at ease. She was happy for him, of course, and prayed his new friend would help the wounds on his heart sting a bit less, but she couldn't fight the bitter ache of envy that was growing deep inside her. Why wasn't karma rewarding her for the sacrifice she made alongside him?
Scanning the meadow which lied just beyond the confines of the stuffy cabin, Jessie tried to focus on the way the sun sparkled and the grass danced with the breeze. The field was dotted with flowers, a smattering of pastels among waves of emerald green. As Jessie felt her mind going blank, movement in the corner of her eye suddenly piqued her interest and brought her back to the present. In the center of the meadow stood two flawless roses, identical in size and shape. One a rich ruby hue and the other a deep sapphire. As she marveled at their striking perfection, the roses suddenly tilted sideways and began to float across the grass in her direction
Is this all just a dream? Or have I finally lost my mind?
Before Jessie could spend more than a few seconds questioning her state of mind, she spotted three green spikes crowning what appeared to be a head. With a better view of the oddity, she was struck with a rush of nostalgia. Oh, it's a pokemon!
Though she couldn't recall its name offhand, fragments of an memory flashed in her mind. Bits and pieces of a contest she had watched in her youth, and a dazzling performance by a pokemon that looked much like this one. Now, gazing at it as an adult, she found that same youthful awe mixing with with an odd sense of affection, the source of which she couldn't quite put her finger on at first. And then it hit her. With renewed determination, she grinned wildly and clenched her fists.
That flower thing will be the most perfect addition to my team!
Flinging the cabin door open, Jessie raced outside and made a beeline for the meadow, eyes locked on her target. She rushed directly past Meowth, who was perched on a rock with a clear view of James in his attempts to train his overly affectionate new cacnea which had yet again wrapped itself tightly around his torso. All three of her comrades were startled by her sudden presence, her determination palpable though she didn't utter a word. After a moment of watching her with their mouths agape, James and Meowth exchanged a confused glance and shrugged before they were interrupted by Cacnea tightening his hold on James, eliciting another shriek of pain from him.
"Dese two got a long way tah go," Meowth muttered as he cringed and covered his ears.
A short moment later, another sound of distress was heard, but the voice was distinctly different this time. James froze, fear seizing him as he instantly recognized the source. Though he was quite familiar with Jessie's flair for drama, he had learned over time to differentiate signs that his partner was truly in duress. With a rush of panic, he peeled himself from his pokemon's firm needly grasp and roughly grabbed Meowth, who had remained seated with his paws pressed firmly against his ears.
As his feline companion began to mumble a series of curses in protest, James cut him off with a panicked "Jessie's in trouble!" Their eyes locked, identical looks of terror between them, as another wail hit their ears and they took off in her direction without another word.
Though they didn't have to run far before they found her, James still found his lungs burning and legs shaking as he stumbled into the meadow, feeling as though he had sprinted for miles. His heart, pounding in his ears already, only accelerated when he laid eyes upon the scene. Jessie laid rigid on the ground, desperately gripping a roselia as it blasted a stream of stun spore full force into her face. Any sense of control he possessed on the way over crumbled the moment he saw a familiar orange cloud floating over his partner as her body went limp. James fell to his knees, feeling as paralyzed as she looked despite the fact that he had been spared the attack this time.
His shaking limbs no longer registered in his awareness as his vision went blurry and his mind drifted somewhere far, far away from the meadow. Far away from Jessie and Meowth and anything that surrounded them. Before he could become too lost in the black hole of dark, distant memories, James felt himself roughly yanked back to reality by the sensation that resembled needles scraping across his face. Blinking a few times, his vision sharpened enough to focus on the source of the attack.
"JIM! WAKE UP! Jess's in bad shape. We gotta get her back to dah cabin pronto!"
With a wordless nod, James gathered every ounce of courage he could find in the depths of his soul as he approached Jessie and assisted Meowth in hauling her to safety.
Back in the cabin, James had taken Jessie's previous post, staring out the window in a desperate attempt to find something that might quell the anxiety coursing through his veins. It felt like hours had passed since Meowth departed to pick up the supplies Jessie desperately needed for recovery. James found the silence within the small cabin to be increasingly maddening with each passing moment.
He hadn't consciously realized he was chewing his fingernails frantically until one clumsy slip of his teeth drew blood. With a grumbled curse, he popped the finger in his mouth and knocked his forehead against the glass of the window pane.
These sounds were enough to stir Jessie, who began whimper and writhe on the opposite side of the room. James' head snapped in her direction, and the sight of her only served to escalate his worries. Her face was twisted in agony as her jaw clenched with a force James could sense from across the room. Though she was wrapped in a heavy wool blanket, her entire body shuddered and her hands gripped the blanket with such force her knuckles had lost all color.
While James' clouded mind churned, his body acted purely on instinct, rushing over to his partner and dropping to his knees at her side. She immediately sensed his proximity, gradually peeling her eyes opening to peer at him through heavy lids. As he studied her face more closely, James felt his breath hitch inexplicably, as if the wind had been knocked out of him. The way her cheeks flushed and tiny beads of sweat clung to her temples somehow made her porcelain skin and deep blue eyes even more striking than usual. The longer James admired each intricate detail of her face, the more he felt as though he was becoming entranced. For a moment, their eyes locked and James felt his limbs wobble. Though he desperately wanted to offer some semblance of reassurance to her, words eluded him.
Jessie finally broke the silence with a hoarse utterance of his name, the sound of which sent a jolt of electricity through him. With a slight shake of his head, James managed to regain a grip on his cognitive functions. "J-Jessie! Are you okay?" His voice sounded more frantic than he had intended, but his level of worry had reached a level which was impossible to disguise.
James knew his question was rather the stupid the moment it left his lips, and his regret only intensified as her tired eyes narrowed into a pointed glare. Despite the lingering effects of her paralysis, her voice managed to find an impossibly stern tone as she barked, "What do you think? Do I look okay?! I'm d-d-dy-" Her shouts were abruptly cut off by a violent fit of coughing, racking her entire body with its force.
James' instincts took over again as he leapt to his feet and retrieved a glass of water with speed and agility he wasn't previously aware he possessed. An instant later, he was perched at her side again, one hand cradling the back of her head and lifting it slightly as the other gently tilted the glass against her lips. Jessie accepted the water with small, tentative sips, grateful for the soothing relief of the cool liquid gliding against her ravaged throat. As the convulsions in her chest calmed, she let her head slump against James' hand as her heavy eyelids shut again.
"I don't need your help, James," she muttered weakly.
With a heavy sigh, he eased her head back onto the pillow and brushed a stray strand of hair from her face. After many years of living in close quarters with this woman- through her many colds and injuries- he was quite well acquainted with this charade.
"Of course not, Jessie. I have no doubts about your independence and strength."
An hour passed and Meowth still hadn't returned, much to James' chagrin. He sat cross legged next to Jessie, watching her sleep as he absentmindedly drummed his fingers against the now empty cup. Though she appeared to be resting somewhat peacefully now, her face still bore a heavy flush as beads of sweat trickled down her temples. James was all too familiar with the entire process of stun spore poisoning, knowledge he longed to forget. He recalled with alarming clarity the way every muscle in his body stung as the initial paralysis worse off. The sensation was akin to the pins-and-needles feeling of a limb "falling asleep", only the pain was amplified to an unfathomable level as it consumed every muscle in his body. With a small degree of relief, he felt certain Jessie had made it through that most agonizing stage already. Then comes the fever. The chills. The heaviness in one's chest as lungs desperately try to expel every last bit of the toxin.
As he continued to watch his partner closely, he was hit with an overwhelming sense of shame. His mind drifted to the last time they had been in this position.
"Jessie, I think you've blown this little temperture you're running totally out of proportion." Standing at her side with hands on his hips, James regarded her with irritation as she writhed against her futon. Just moments before, he and Meowth had been informed that their mission to fetch the brightest, reddest apple, a mission which nearly resulted in mortal injuries to both, was driven by nothing more than vanity.
Jessie's gloved hands flew over her face as she cried in distress, shoulders lurching in time with her sobs. "What if there's something terribly, terribly wrong with me?" The fear in her voice pierced James' heart, instantly transforming his ire into guilt.
For a moment, she seemed to pull herself back together as she turned her back to her companions. "Beautiful things are very fragile. Soon, I may be gone with the wind, like that tender, lovely little leaf." Her voice sounded uncharacteristically weak despite the dramatics of her word choice. Though James didn't have a clear view of her face, he deduced that she was gazing longingly out the small window that hung above her.
"Jessie, all you did was sniff a little vileplume stun spore."
The moment those words left his mouth, he inwardly cringed and silently berated himself for being so cold and detached. Had his youth really made him this desensitized? His best friend desperately needed his comfort and care, and he loathed himself for being so incapable of providing the level of tenderness she deserved in that moment.
James' chin hit his chest as a bitter pang of self-loathing burned like bile in his throat. He knew this pain and misery first hand, better than anyone. Somewhere in the back of his mind, he reasoned that perhaps his response had been perfectly logical considering the sheer number of times he had survived similar episodes. And in the end, she had survived just fine as well. Nevertheless, guilt continued to gnaw at him, and he silently prayed for the courage to be better this time. She deserved so much better.
James hadn't realized he'd fallen into a trance of sorts until he was jolted back to consciousness by a familiar voice bursting through the door of the cabin. Turning his head away from Jessie for the first time in at least an hour, he was greeted by the sight of Meowth stumbling toward the kitchen, his paws struggling to control a sizeable mound of salveyo weed, nearly as big as he was, and a plastic grocery bag which dragged the ground due to his short stature. His gait was limited to an awkward shuffle as the bag hindered the range of movement his legs could manage without tripping. If James had been in a different state of mind, he would have found this entire spectacle amusing.
Before he could fully process the scene unfolding in the kitchen, he was jolted again by Meowth's shouting, "Hey, Lazy Bones. Ya gonna make yourself useful anytime soon?"
In an instant, James was on his feet and stumbling toward the kitchen. Autopilot kicked in again as he brought a pot of water to a boil and dropped a generous amount of salveyo weed into it. Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed Meowth's face twist into disgust as the scent filled their small living space. James was well aware that the tea had a rather… pungent aroma, but it was one he found so deeply comforting that he couldn't begin to fathom being revolted by it. The smell of salveyo weed tea signaled relief. It signaled recovery. He only hoped those things would soon be on the horizon for Jessie.
Remarkably, Jessie managed to sleep through all the commotion of Meowth returning to the cabin and James attempting to work some medicinal magic over the stove. With a gentle sweep of the back of his hand across her forehead, James leaned inches from her face and murmured, "Um, Jessie?" There was a hint of apprehension in his tone as he was uncertain how she might react to him forcing her back to consciousness. To his relief, a pair of blue eyes slowly opened to rest on his face as a weak smile tugged at the corners of her mouth. But it was short lived, her face quickly morphing into an expression of repugnance as the tea's odor hit her nose.
"Hey, Jess. Sorry to wake you, but I have something that should make you feel better." He tilted his chin to gesture at the mug. "I'm sure you remember this from last time."
Jessie's expression become unreadable while she silently battled two conflicting thoughts. On one hand, she longed for this sort of care and attention, especially in a situation like this where she was down for the count. On the other hand, she despised showing any semblance of weakness and hated James for having the nerve to insinuate that she couldn't care for herself.
To her vexation, the muscles in her neck still proved too shaky and unstable for her to lift her head more than an inch or two. Despite her best efforts, her head dropped back against the pillow as an exasperated groan escaped her. Without a word, James' hand cupped the back of head just as it had earlier when he helped her with the glass of water. The feeling of his fingers lacing through her hair and gently caressing her scalp soothed her in a way she had thoughts possible and she found herself unwilling and unable to protest this time. Fully resigning to his tenderness, she allowed him to left her head as the warm ceramic mug greeted her lips.
Jessie found herself astonished at how quickly the elixir worked its magic on her aching muscles and burning lungs. She wondered if her inability to recall the details of her last stun spore incident and subsequent recovery was due to the illness clouding her mind, or her tendency to repress the memories of her weaker moments in a desperate attempt at self-preservation. Either way, she welcomed the warm sense of relief that had begun to flow through every muscle in her body.
Unfortunately, that feeling of warmth soon faded as night fell and the temperature plunged. Wrapping herself tightly in the blanket like a wurmple weaving its cocoon, Jessie desperately tried to seal herself away from the cool air surrounding her.
James watched with concern as his partner shivered beneath the blanket. He cursed under his breath at the cabin for lacking any basic source of heat beyond the meagre stove, but an idea suddenly flashed in his mind. An idea that seemed brilliant on the surface, if only he could predict the mercurial redhead's reaction to it.
Whatever her reaction, he decided it was worth the risk.
With a shaky breath, James gently unwrapped the blanket and was immediately greeted with two sapphire eyes, pointed directly at him in seething glare. Before she could verbally protest, James slid underneath the blanket and sidled up to her, wrapping his arms around her waist and resting his chin against the top of her head. To his pleasure and relief, her shivers subsided almost immediately as his body heat mingled with hers.
With a contented sigh, Jessie nestled into the crook of James' neck, relishing the feeling of his skin, which felt refreshingly cool against her fever-flushed face. Between the sweet relief the salveyo weed was beginning to bestow upon her and the security of James' embrace, Jessie couldn't recall ever feeling as peaceful as she did in that moment.
As if James had read her mind and had taken that thought as a challenge, he whispered against the top of her head, "Hold on. I'm going to roll you over." Jessie watched his face intently as his hands glided to her sides, his grip gentle yet sturdy as he turned her so that her back was against him. Before she could question his motives, his hands began to rub a series of firm circles into the muscles of her back and shoulders.
Jessie couldn't was unable to fight the small moans that escaped her throat as James' hands worked every knot out of her stiff and achy muscles. His body reacted on impulse to these sounds, increasing both the pace of his movements and the level of pressure he applied, eliciting louder moans from her. James felt heat rise into his cheeks and butterfree dance in his stomach as he willed himself to focus every ounce of his attention on his hands in a desperate attempt to quell the strange feelings bubbling inside him.
Despite his best efforts, his mind wandered into thoughts about how incredibly beautiful this woman was, and how unbelievably lucky he was to have his hands on her.
Stop it! He silently chided. Jessie's sick! This is no time for nonsense!
To his horror, while he mind had drifted, so had his hands, which were now clasped against the firmness of her ass. He felt her entire body tense and knew instantly that had made a deadly mistake. His eyes screwed shut and he braced himself for the worst as he felt her turn back toward him. But a moment dragged by and the blow never came.
With cautious apprehension, James opened his eyes a fraction of an inch before they snapped open in shock. He had been fully prepared for rage, but instead found himself staring at an expression that looked strikingly like… desire?
No, it couldn't be. I must be delirious. Second hand stun spore poisoning, perhaps?
Another moment passed with both partners staring at the other in silence, an undeniable magnetic pull between them with neither certain what they should do about it. James found himself hopelessly captivated Jessie's face once again as he felt his own burning, certain he was now wearing a crimson hue deeper even deeper than her fever-flushed face.
Their eyes remained locked and neither dared utter a word for fear of breaking the trance. Jessie was the first to slowly tilt her face closer to James', leaving mere millimeters of space between their lips. The feeling of his hot breath against her skin drove her mad, and her last bit of restraint broke as she closed the last remaining space in a heated kiss. James was more than ready for this, meeting her with equal force and passion. Their kisses quickly deepened, fingers tangling in hair as their breaths mingled.
When Jessie broke away for a moment to catch her breath, James took the opportunity to plant a trail of kisses across her ear and down the column of her neck, emboldened by the taste of her mouth still lingering in his. He felt intoxicated by her scent, jasmine with a sweet hint of vanilla, which clung to her skin despite the ordeals of the day. The feeling of her smooth skin against his lips and her hands gripping his chest made him certain he was going to combust at any moment. Years of pent up feelings has finally come to a head and James felt as though no amount of contact could ever even begin to quell his thirst for this woman.
As he trailed his lips back up her neck in pursuit of tasting her mouth again, the sound of Jessie's breathing caught his attention. Of course they were both undeniable breathless in this moment, but he detected a hint of something else. Her hands began to dip from his chest and down his stomach, drifting lower still until-
"Jessie, w-wait." He voice was choked and sounded more frantic than he had intended. His hands gripped hers firmly and his body cursed his brain for being stupid enough to make her stop. For a moment, he was at a loss for words, his senses still overwhelmed by her.
"You… you're wheezing."
"What the hell, James?! I know you miss your pokemon, but what the fuck-"
"Nonono. I mean the way you're breathing. Your lungs still sound pretty bad."
The hurt in her eyes was impossible to miss, and James hated himself when he realized his actions were the source of it Rejecting her was the farthest thing from his mind.
"Please don't get me wrong, Jess. I'm really, really enjoying… er, this. But I don't want to take any risks with your health while you're still recovering." He averted his eyes from hers, cheeks burning and heart pounding so strongly it echoed in his ears.
Out of the corner of his eye, he thought he caught the hint of a smile. Flicking his eyes back to hers hesitantly, he discovered he was right. A small grin had crossed her face and her eyes seem to sparkle in the dim light of the cabin.
"You're cute when you're worried."
James mirrored her grin, swallowing his anxiety back down and forcing himself to appear as suave as possible as he purred, "Nowhere near as cute as you, dearest."
Jessie rolled her eyes and groaned in response, unwilling to admit that her stomach fluttered at the way the word "dearest" rolled off his tongue. Before she could dwell on the sensation, her stomach suddenly made another need known as it rumbled audibly.
"Ugh. I'm starving."
James' face lit up with a realization and in an instant he was on his feet, stumbling through the darkness toward the kitchen and tripping over Meowth in the process, unaware that he had curled up on a pillow in the middle of the floor. The cat pokemon grumbled loudly in protest of the disturbance, but had little difficulty falling back into a deep sleep within minutes. James returned to Jessie's side with a bit more grace, cradling items in both of his hands.
As he extended his arms toward her, Jessie immediately recognized a flawless, bright red apple in one and a pint of her favorite boysenberry ice cream in the other. James grinned shyly as he whispered, "We don't have much in the way of food, but I had Meowth snatch these while he was rounding up the salveyo weed."
Jessie felt that dreaded sensation of emotion bubbling up in her throat as her eyes went hazy with the threat of tears. He remembered. As much as she put on an air of despising sentimental gestures, beneath that facade was a woman who desperately craved tenderness but would never dare ask for it. As she pondered this situation further, she came to the realization that no one had been this loving and attentive of her needs since… her mother. In the cloudy haze that still clung to her brain in the wake of her fever, she found the cracks in her armor growing terrifyingly larger as the lump in her throat and the tears in her eyes grew more powerful than her will.
With a stifled wail that sounded somewhat like a "thank you", the floodgates opened and Jessie clung desperately to James, burying her face in his chest. While he was startled by her reaction, as he could count on one hand the number of times she had displayed this sort of emotion in their years together, he instinctively understood and held her tightly with one arm while stroking her hair with the other.
In typical Jessie fashion, she managed to pull herself back together quickly but dared to savor the comfort of her partner's embrace a bit longer. The steady rhythm of his heartbeat lulled her into a trance, almost meditative in its serenity.
James' velvety voice gently cut through the silence. "Hey, Jess. Why on earth did you go after that roselia in the first place?"
Lifting her head from his chest, she looked him squarely in eyes and responded with a startlingly earnest tone. "It reminded me of you."
James' breath hitched and he scanned her face for any sign that this was a joke. Finding nothing but raw sincerity, he brushed his fingers across her forehead to confirm that her fever hadn't increased to a point of delirium. The implications of her words rendered him stunned and speechless.
Jessie stared back at him, amused by her partner's slack-jawed expression and the hint of tears in his eyes. Few things in life were as certain as James' tendency to be a sentimental sap, and in this moment of weakness, she was willing to let herself experience that sentimentality alongside him.
With a playful grin, she tightened her grip around his neck and pulled both of their bodies back to floor in a messy heap. With a soft giggle from both, they closed their eyes and savored the warmth and security of each other's arms as sleep consumed them. Whatever the future held for them in Hoenn, they would face it side-by-side. Together.