Finally! After ten long years of torment from the three sadistic, condescending, overbearing bitches that dared call themselves my older sisters, I finally have something to show them I'm not the scrawny little brat they treated me like; I have finally triumphed in the arena of the Princess Festival. Oh how I wish I could see my sister's faces when they open the big package delivered by Pidgeot airmail to find the neat rows of perfectly hand-painted porcelain Pokemon dressed in the very finest kimonos!
I grinned as I watched the truck speed away, the definitive trail of dust lingering behind just after it, and I couldn't repress my peals of joyous and triumphant laughter. I had won! Finally I was someone to my sisters! I looked back to Ash and Brock, who looked rather bored and annoyed by the whole experience, and attempting to change the mood, I put my arms about both their shoulders affectionately.
"Hey guys! Cheer up! I just kicked the crap out of and publicly humiliated Team Rocket, won the dolls, and bought a whole new spring wardrobe! I'm in a great mood! Let's go for a walk in the park to finish off the day with my best friends!" I beamed, turning toward the opposite end of the street where I could see the whole world walking by.
Ash sighed, and I felt him shrug beneath my arm.
"Whatever," he muttered and barely even caring what he had said, I immediately bolted for the nearest crosswalk.
I joined another small group of girls from the festival that already had the opportunity to cross, leaving Ash and Brock in the dust. If they were going to be Slowpokes, then that was fine with me, but I was getting to that park and fast! Togepi trilled from my backpack as I entered the lush green, and I laughed in exuberance as I pulled the little egg and broke into a light jog.
God it felt so good just to run! I felt like an elusive dryad, who had just tempted the explorers with my infinite beauty and seductive grin, and they were now doggedly chasing me through a land they knew they could not follow. I also knew they would never catch me, and I would never allow myself to be seen by them again, leaving them with lustful thoughts of the gorgeous nymph they weren't sure existed.
My breath soon came short in my chest, and I slowed to a walk, stopping ever so often to pick a beautiful and fragrant flowers, lingering much longer in the path lined with Sakura, which had begun to fall in a gorgeous shower of rich pearls. I eventually left in want of exploration in a different part of the park, as I knew I wouldn't be able to see it again for quite some time, if ever. Ash's stupid obsession with moving through a city in one day, simply to get his pathetic ass kicked once by a gym leader, whine about it, and get help from someone a lot smarter than he is usually keeps me away from such rare and undeserved pleasures. Ash and Brock are my best friends, but god that kid can get annoying sometimes!
I began to frown as I entered an emerald green grove as I thought about Ash finding me, and complaining that he had to get to whatever town to challenge some leader whom no one had beaten or whom it was claimed was incredibly difficult to beat, and stopped putting Togepi down on a nearby rock for a rest. "Ya know Togepi?" I began, "wonder if Ash would mind if I stayed here a while."
My beloved egg Pokemon merely blinked, trilled overzealously and reached up to me, begging to be picked up. I chuckled and scooped him into my arms, cooing softly, which delighted him, until my peace was interrupted by a small noise coming from behind me.
Confused, I placed the now sleeping Togepi into my backpack, and crouched to my knees to peer inconspicuously from the bushes at whatever was creating the sound. As I gently shifted through the glossy emerald leaves, I realized what it was. Crying! Not wanting to frighten or further upset whoever it was, I remained beneath the canopy of the bush, and gently parted the last layer to reveal the biggest shock of the day. Behind the foliage, crouched with her back to me and sobbing her eyes out; was Jessie of Team Rocket.
It was all I could do to keep from keeling over backwards and laughing my ass off at her! I couldn't believe it! First they had been utterly defeated and humiliated by being completely annihilated by my pathetic Psyduck, then they had gotten "blasted off again," and now big tough Team Rocket Jessie was sobbing like a little kid over a set of dolls! Boy she certainly deserved it though! I couldn't think of a colder, more heartless person than her. I really did feel sorry for James, because he seemed like such a sweet, gentle and caring guy, and Jessie constantly beat on him, yelled at him, and when she was done with that, beat and yelled at him some more!
Man, if I had a guy like that around me all the time, he'd be way more than just my partner.
I kept my snickers to myself as I looked back to watch Jessie cry some more, her moonstone tears sliding to the ground in front of a very forlorn looking Likitung. Worthless tears, like moonstones. I always wondered why no one bought them, because they are after all pretty, but then I discovered diamonds, rubies, emeralds and sapphires. All rarer, more beautiful, and more wanted than moonstones. Such were her tears, created in such abundance, yet James and Meowth were nowhere to be seen, in search of something more valuable.
"I can't believe I lost the dolls," Jessie whispered to herself, not even bothering to wipe away a crystalline glint of moonstone from her cheek. I tried to smile in contempt, but something changed at that moment; I found myself frowning, and placing a hand over my chest as the sympathetic Pokemon licked her face, sending her crashing to the ground. Something about her tone had bothered me. Like her entire life's mission had been to win the dolls, perhaps prove herself to someone, like I myself had wanted.
"Thanks for trying to cheer me up Likitung," she muttered, closing her eyes as a gentle shadow fell across them.
She seemed to notice it, and we both looked up at the same moment to see a sweetly smiling James and Meowth, dressed in the odd ceremonial garb of the princess dolls.
"Jessie?" Meowth began, concern, compassion, and even love behind his voice.
"Since you didn't win the real doll set" James continued, blushing a bit as Jessie sat up.
"What are you Oh no" she breathed, closing her eyes happily with a content smile upon her lips.
James bent down and helped her up, draping another kimono about her shoulders as he gestured to a large stand, where Arbok, Weezing, Meowth and now even Likitung stood dressed in the same garb, greeting her with their respective cries.
"Oh, you're all just a bunch of living dolls!" Jessie cried, throwing her arms about James' neck, "oh James, Meowth thank you so much."
I gasped. Of course I'd seen Jessie and James hug each other before, but never like that. They sunk to the ground as Jessie burst into tears again, James hushing her softly, and even running his hands through her ruby mane of hair. I had always been jealous of her pure red locks, my own being a more rusty orange color, and just by the way hers always glistened in the light, I knew it was the silky texture my sisters had and I had longed for all my life.
"Jessie, it's okay, really, that little brat Misty didn't deserve those dolls! If her stupid duck hadn't been near the field, and she had sent out Staryu instead, you would have beaten her scrawny ass into the ground! She only won because of a fluke, you're the better trainer Jess!" James cried pushing her gently away to gaze into her gorgeous sapphire eyes. I was jealous of those too. I knew Jessie was far more beautiful than I was, and James was far more handsome than either of the boys I traveled with, but their mutual beauty had always been lost to me. Hidden behind their evil façade, were two gorgeous individuals, not only physically, but their personalities, and their hearts were obviously crafted with solid gold as well.
Gold. It represents purity, and goodness, but in it's pure form it's incredibly fragile, and easily bent, and easily broken, and by listening on what Jessie and James talked about later, I realized that their hearts had been broken for too long.
"You really think so James?" Jessie asked tearfully.
"I know so, and I know you never had any dolls as a kid, but you don't need them to prove yourself to me," he assured her, wiping the moonstones from her cheeks.
"I-I know I don't have to prove myself to you, but I wanted to prove to myself I could do it, that I could do my momma proud and get something I was denied so long ago!" she replied bitterly.
What was she trying to prove to her mom by being in Team Rocket? Living the life of a convicted and wanted criminal? The whole story just didn't add up in my brain, and for a brief moment, I thought the ruby haired girl insane, until James began to cry along with her.
"Jessie, it's okay, I know she's smiling on you from heaven, and that you make her very proud! You've grown up into such a gorgeous, smart, talented young woman, and you'd make any mother proud!" he sobbed, holding her close to him, "she loved you a lot Jess, and I wish I knew what that felt like."
Now I was even more confused! So, Jessie's mother was gone, but what about James? His parents were still alive, we had after all just seen them! Jessie now had a tearful smile upon her ruby lips, and she wiped the tears from both hers, and James' cheeks.
"James, don't let your parents get in the way of your life! You're out of there now, and you have me," she whispered tenderly, "I love you, I always have, and I promise you I always will! And Meowth loves you too! We're your true family!"
"Dat's right Jimmy! Don't cry!" the pearl cat added, climbing into their laps as the rest of the Pokemon joined the small congregation in the clearing.
I blanched as James smiled at last, and threw his arms about Jessie's shoulders, his moonstones cascading down his cheeks, but yet I smiled warmly, and realized they weren't the pale white of the solemn moonstones, but full of glittering joy, like diamonds, and it finally came to light as they both pulled away, their lips meeting only briefly, but falling nothing short of the most passionate kiss I'd ever seen in my life.
They honestly and truly loved each other.
Jessie ran her hands through James' azure blue hair warmly, and the diamonds stopped, emeralds meeting sapphires longingly as the duo's foreheads touched ever so gently.
"I love you too Jessie," James whispered.
The rest of the conversation became lost to me as Jessie and James kissed again, snuggling down into the warmth and security of the Pokemon that so obviously adored them, and I was forced to sit heavily on the ground.
Why had I been so blind to it before? She had it all! Jessie had everything Every precious stone I could think of, belonged to her! A lowly, bumbling, incompetent Team Rocket field agent! It wasn't fair.
She had rubies! Her long shimmering hair, her gorgeous red lips that touched no one's but James', and Sapphire eyes to match! She herself was a beautiful, shimmering, elusive jewel, and what did I have? Hair the color of rust, and eyes the color of a sickly sea. James' emerald eyes and Azure hair were also hers, and my face grew as green they as I watched her gaze through the clear glittering jewels set into James' alabaster skin, and run her hands through the silken azure adoringly, letting it cascade through her fingers like liquid mercury.
James' lips again touched the rubies, letting the fabric crafted from them pour through his own fingers, and Meowth, their precious pearl, led the amethyst scaled snake and gas cloud, and the rose quartz away from the clearing to give the jewels of his life the privacy he knew they wanted.
The golden passion between the two grew, and I blushed slightly as Jessie gently undid the clasps of James' kimono, revealing his perfect chest and skin.
"There's no one around, I'm sure of it," Jessie whispered into his ear seductively.
"Good," was James' only response, sliding Jessie's brilliantly jeweled garb from her shoulders.
I watched him gently ease off her long black gloves and white Team Rocket jacket, revealing one last black layer of coal to be removed before her inevitably perfect and alabaster skin would be his and his alone.
I turned away then, my modesty, and new respect for the Rockets burning within my soul and my ears, for I could still hear their voices. It wasn't in any respect how I had expected it to be, instead of the silver, intense, almost violent kind of love portrayed so often on silver screens, this one I could tell, was made of gold, just as the two hearts joined the same as two bodies were.
I could hear each of them tell the other they loved them nearly continually, escalating to quiet, but satisfied moans of pleasure, and I suddenly became stricken with an intense urge to leave and give them the respect and privacy they deserved.
So I left the clearing where the only two people besides my sisters I had openly admitted to hating, had caused pale bitter moonstones to cascade down my equally pale cheeks by showing me exactly what I wanted in life, and what they had. I left them together, making love in the middle of the forest, so content with each other that they gave themselves, their bodies, their minds, and their golden hearts.
I let my moonstones back to the place of their origin as I ran again, this time, fleeing. I fled from the feelings, from the warm gold glow that radiated from the clearing where Jessie and James lay in each other's arms, secure in the fact that they owned all the world's precious stones, and they wouldn't have it any other way. Away from two people who were truly happy, and whose lovemaking I knew was that of two people secure in their love, and gave themselves to one another not for physical gratification, but simply for the pleasure of being a close as humanly possible to their soul mate
I stopped when I was far enough away from Team Rocket to keep them out of sight, but not out of mind, and not close enough to the park center to meet up with Ash and Brock. I stood completely still for only a moment in shock before collapsing to my knees, feeling the sickly limestone green of envy spread its vile poisons from my face to the rest of my body.
What was happening to me? Why had the limestone deepened so quickly into malicious malachite? A beautiful, deadly, and jealously green stone. Why were the gemstones plaguing my mind so? I was the victor wasn't I? I had triumphed in the ring, I had pulled through with the deadly fires of passion leading the willing Pokemon to a fabulous victory? Or did I feel so bad because I knew James was right, and I had indeed won because of an unfortunate fluke?
I lifted my still green hands to my face and simply stared, their true color hidden to my by a white blindness. A clouded, utterly imperfect and as far from crystalline as possible quartz shield. A common stone, it had blinded me from the truth, that I truly was unhappy. I needed something more, I needed precious stones in my life, and the dull brown and blacks that Brock and Ash possessed simply didn't fill the empty sockets in my gold heart that yearned for it.
They were my best friends in the world, and I loved them like brothers, but their humble, earthen stones were reserved for others, not mine. I yearned for emeralds, and diamonds, rubies, and sapphires, and not only because I knew they were beautiful, but because I wanted pure ones; like the ones that belonged to Jessie and James of Team Rocket.
James' emerald eyes were clear, and innocent, and they would stare and nothing but Sapphires, setting them close in the gold bangle that was his heart, Jessie setting emeralds in hers. They seemed part of one another, like a beautiful ring that needed both stones or else its beauty was simply lost in the blue or green flare that resulted from only one of the gems.
And I knew that my aquamarine glowed alone. Losing itself in a sea of a common metal that longed to be gold.
I lowered my hands at last as I finally saw my two best friends spot me, and jog briskly over, calling my name in concern as they noticed my forlorn expression. They beckoned me to come with them, and I reluctantly stood, brushing the back of my jeans off with a fiercely malachite green hand, and made no move to follow just jet.
The image of the rows of perfect porcelain dolls came to my brain yet again, and then it was replaced by Jessie and James undressing each other with such tenderness and love, and I closed my eyes as the realization suddenly hit me, and I knew who the real winner was.
I sighed deeply and looked to the deep blue of the sky, placing a hand to my aching metal heart. Perhaps the Princess dolls are worthless to me after all
Fin