WARNING: THIS STORY CONTAINS BROCKETSHIPPING, the shipping of James/Brock from Pokémon. If you do not like this couple then do NOT read this fanfic.
Rating: PG-13. For mild language, alcohol, and sexual themes (nothing too bad).
Note: This is the sequel to my story called "Rejection."
Brock had gotten up before the others, as he usually did, and was making a meal that took longer to make then the things he usually made. Ash, May, and Max were all still snug in their sleeping bags, fast asleep. He had been thinking a lot about what had happened between he and James, the Team Rocket member who was supposed to be his sworn enemy but whom he couldn't help but love.
He had never thought that he would fall in love with another man. He had chased after woman all his life, to no avail. And now he had fallen for a man. It was kinda strange, but he really didn't mind it all that much now that he thought about it. It was what others would think that he was worried about. Would they accept it, or reject him? He was so afraid of being rejected by his friends that he didn't want them to even know about it.
That's why he had left after that first night they had spent together, warm in each other's arms. He was scared Ash and the others would find out about it and kick him out of the group. Brock had been with them for so long he didn't know what he would do without them.
He heard a rustling noise and looked up to see Ash crawling out of his sleeping bag. "Mornin', Brocko," he said, after letting loose a large yawn. "What ya making, it spells good," he inhaled the aroma of the stuff bubbling in the pot Brock was stirring.
"You say that about everything I make," Brock said. It somehow annoyed him that Ash was always the same. It never had before. Strange, maybe getting up so early had addled his brain a little. "And it's corn chowder."
"But it's true, your food is really good!" May said, coming up unnoticed to join them. "I don't know what we'd do without you, Brock." She smiled warmly and ran a brush through her brown hair.
Max soon followed after his sister. "Chowder, for breakfast?" he rubbed sleep from his eyes but lost the battle and leaned against May's shoulder and closed his eyes. She poked him in the ribs and he woke up, "Hey!" he said irritatedly as he rubbed where she had poked him.
"It's your fault for falling asleep on me, Max," May said unsympathetically.
"Why not? Who cares what time of day it is, Brock made it; it's guaranteed to be delicious!" Ash enthused, staring hungrily at the pot of thick potato and corn soup.
It was nice to be appreciated. Brock got the feeling that they often took for granted all the things he did for them. Heck, they'd probably starve to death without him. It would be a bad idea for him to leave them before they could care for themselves.
The soup was done in a few minutes and he dished it out for the four of them. He also set out food for all their many Pokémon. The food was devoured much sooner than the time it had taken to prepare it, which almost always was the case with food.
Once they were done feeding their faces they continued on their journey to Ash's next Gym battle. It was taking longer than it would have because Ash stopped every trainer along the way and challenged him or her to a battle. He won most of them, but a few he lost. But he didn't let the losses get to him; he continued on, as determined as every to achieve his goal.
Brock lagged behind his younger companions, hoping to catch a glimpse of Team Rocket following them, as they usually did. He was getting a little worried; they hadn't seen Team Rocket in a couple weeks. And they usually ran into them at least once a week. What if James had been hurt by his sudden leaving and didn't want to see him ever again? Or maybe Jessie was forcing him to stay away. She had sounded against the two of them being together. Whatever the reason was he planned to find out.
When James had declared that he wasn't in Team Rocket anymore he had cast off his uniform and donned plain old blue jeans and a green T-shirt. He was now deep in a vast woods; totally lost. Also, all the food he had had only lasted him about a week, so he was very hungry now. A few berries were all he had managed to find in the last few days.
He didn't know what to do with himself now that he wasn't in Team Rocket anymore. He wished he could at least have Brock, but no, the little Twerp had chosen the other Twerps over him. He slumped down under a tree and leaned against the trunk. Maybe he should just stay here until he starved to death.
But that wouldn't be fair to his Pokémon. He let Cacnea and Mime Jr. out of their balls. "Sorry that I don't have anything to feed you guys, but you can go find food for yourselves. I'll just stay here, drowning in my own self pity." He lay down, curling into a ball.
The two Pokémon exchanged worried looks then came closer, worried about their trainer. "Mime, mime?" Mime Jr. asked, tilting its head to the side questioningly.
The two dived at him and gave him a hug. Cacnea's hug made James jump up and try to tear the spiked Pokémon from him. It was excruciatingly painful to have large needles drove into your skin. But it did wake him up a little. "Well, I guess I'd better help you guys to find something to fill our tummies."
They wondered about the trees, finally finding an apple tree. It didn't have that many apples left on it, other Pokémon had eaten a lot of them, but there were still enough to fill their stomachs. James felt a little less down and depressed with a full belly. He still was pretty lonely, he even wished for Jessie and Meowth, enough though they had been less then supportive of him.
"There he is!" He heard pounding footsteps and suddenly a rope was flung and tightened about his shoulders.
"Who the hell do you think you ar-" James started, but then saw that it was Jessie, with Meowth close at her heels.
"You, James, are a total idiot. I didn't think this would last so long. We've been looking for you for so long, now we finally found you!"
"Then why did you tie me up?" James asked coldly.
"Because we's thought yous would try t' escape!" Meowth said, hopping onto James' shoulder.
"Doesn't that tell you that I don't want to be caught?" He tried to knock Meowth off by shaking himself, but it didn't work. "Just leave me alone!"
"This is for your own good, you're gonna die out here by yourself. Come back to the camp, we have some food." Jessie pulled on James' rope.
"Not hungry, let go of me, you jerks!" He thrashed around, but Jessie had pulled the rope rather tight, so tight that it was starting to dig into him. There was nothing he could do against them, Jessie was stronger than him. So, unwillingly, he went with them to where they had lit a campfire.
"Come on, Jimbo, this isn't likes yous. We want ours happy, bottle cap obsessed buddy backs." Meowth rubbed his head against James' arm.
"Not when I'm losing all feeling in my arms." His arms really were starting to go numb.
"Oops, I didn't think that they were that tight." Jessie untied him, stowing the rope who knows where.
James made a break for it, but Jessie was too quick. She had him floored and was sitting on him before he even had made it to his feet. "Come on, James! Stop it and come back to us!"
James groaned under her weight. "What is there to come back to? We don't even do anything anymore. The Hoenn region doesn't even know who we are!" He didn't even try to struggle anymore.
"We can change that! Make a newer, stronger Team Rocket that doesn't get its butt kicked by little kids all the time! We can make this work!" She pumped a fist into the air.
James had heard this speech before, but somehow it ignited something in him, making him want to try it. "OK, fine, Jess, we can try it, but if it doesn't work I'm out."
"Oh, we'll make it work. I have the perfect plan." She got off of James, letting him breath. "But first, let's go have some fun! I have just the place to make you forget all your troubles."
Jessie's trouble forgetting place was indeed a bar. She had planned on a gay one, to try to make James happy, but the town they found didn't have one so they settled for a regular one. They had some trouble getting in though. First off, they didn't allow Pokémon in unless they were kept in their Poke balls, something about not giving alcohol to creatures that could level a whole city. But after Meowth showed that he could talk, and that made him practically human they let him in. James got in because he still had one of the ID's his parents had made for him on him. Jessie on the other hand couldn't get in; she didn't have an ID to prove that she was old enough. She managed to get in by threatening to break the guy's neck. This apparently amused him and he let the three of them in.
Jessie drank a whole glass of some sort of purple liquid in one gulp and got drunk rather quickly; James had to stop her from going home with several guys. James on the other hand didn't drink much, he didn't know what the heck he'd start doing if he did. And since this bar had mostly straight people in it he didn't think it was the greatest idea to start hitting on anyone.
"Hey, James, lets dress up in tight black dresses and sing karaoke!" Jessie said, managing not to slur her words yet, but still swaying a little.
"What was that stuff you drank?" James was a bit worried for her health. What if that stuff she drank was too strong and made her do something really stupid? Or killed her.
"I dunno, it was purple!" She giggled and grabbed his arm; dragging him off to the ladies room to dress up in little black dresses she had stashed somewhere.
The two of them sung songs off key at the top of their lungs while Meowth freaked people out by walking around and letting people pet him then talking. James did drink something after their little singing session, his throat was dry, and the only thing to drink was alcohol. He got a bit tipsy, but not nearly as much as Jessie.
He found a cute brown-haired guy and decided to see how far he could get it to go. In the black dress, and a padded bra, he made a pretty convincing woman. The guy didn't seem to suspect at all. He sat down on the stool next to the guy and introduced himself. "Hi, I'm Jamie. And you?" He reached out a hand to shake.
The guy looked up; a little surprised that someone was talking to him, especially a pretty girl. "Oh, hello, my name is Billy." He was kinda shy and didn't know what else to say.
"Oooh, you're just so cute!" James cooed. He seemed a little unused to this, but he was pretty cute, like a shy little Pichu. "I take it this is your first time here?"
"Um, yes, how'd you know?" He swished his drink around his glass nervously.
"You just have that air about you. You kinda scream noob. Lighten up, here; they're starting to play dance songs. Let's go join them!" He tugged on the guy's arm.
"Um, OK." He let James drag he towards the dance floor.
Jessie staggered up to them, obviously more drunk then she was before. "I dee tha ya gots a bo, Jamie-kins," her words were slurred, and James was really wondering if he should get her out of there before she did something they'd regret.
Billy blushed a little, staring at Jessie. "Who's she? She's kinda hot."
"Oh, that's my friend, she's rather drunk at the moment, so I wouldn't mess with her." James tucked a little harder on Billy's arm. He didn't want him going after Jessie; not after he'd set his sights on him.
The two of them joined the other people on the dance floor. The first song was a slow one. It became obvious that Billy didn't know how to dance at all; he kept stepping on James' feet. James tried to be patient and teach him how to dance. He didn't get all that good at it; but at least he didn't step on James' feet anymore.
After the slow song they played a faster one. Billy ended up tripping and falling on his butt. James gave up on the dancing after that and led them back to a lounge chair. He sat down, crossing his legs; looking rather sexy.
James rubbed his chin and asked, "How old are you anyway?" This guy seemed more and more like a little kid.
"Um, uh…" There was a long silence before he finally said; "Seventeen."
"I thought you were too young to be in here. I really should tell on you. But I won't." He pulled the boy down onto the lounge chair next to him. "At least not until I get what I came here for." He kissed the kid, pulling him in close.
Billy squirmed a little, this was probably his first time, but James didn't stop, he had wanted something to get his mind off of Brock, and this was working. When he came up for air, Billy was looking up at him with large, blue eyes that he couldn't decide whether they were asking for more or begging him to stop.
"I guess you're too young to go any further without getting in trouble." James stood up; he'd better get out of there before he changed his mind.
"Wait," Billy gripped onto the hem of his skirt. "I want more." So that look had meant that he didn't want James to stop.
"Sorry, kid, my conscience kicked in, I have to go." He took a step towards were Jessie was getting a little too close to two older men.
"Please, I've never had a girlfriend before, and you're so….awesome." He stood up next to James, a few inches shorter than him.
"You still haven't. I'm a man." James walked away. He needed to grab Jessie before she went home with those men.
"What, but, that's not possible, you're a girl!" Billy's eyes were huge. He looked James up and down, not believing it.
"No, I'm not. Now stop annoying me. I need to find my friend before she gets laid by men three times her age." He kicked off the heels he was wearing so that he could move faster and made his way over to Jessie.
Billy was still stammering. "Bu-but…..Prove it." He still looked confused, and a little put off.
"Why should I?" James said over his shoulder. He had made it to Jessie and was pulling her away from the older men.
Billy gained more confidence then he seemed to have before and ran towards James, gripping his arm. "You don't even care about me, do you? You're just some sick, cross-dressing freak who came in here to get some sort of thrill out of tricking people, aren't you?" He raised his voice, almost shouting.
James glanced around quickly; people were starting to notice them. He had to get out of there. "Kid, life is tough. Just shut up and live with it." He had managed to drag Jessie away from her suitors and was heading for the door. He made it outside and thought that he had got rid of Billy.
Too bad that wasn't the case. The kid had followed them outside. "Listen, Billy, following me won't do any good. I'm not going to strip down for you or anything, so get lost."
"Woo dat? E yae bo…." Jessie made unintelligible noises and promptly threw up. Fortunately she missed James and only hit the ground.
Billy took the opportunity to tackle James to the ground. He pulled at James' dress, trying to find out if he really was a man. A blinding flash of brown came out of nowhere and landed on Billy's back. He let out a cry of surprise and pain as the thing dug a set of claws into him.
"Leave Jimmy alone, ya jerk!" Meowth hissed and made to take another swipe.
"OK, OK! Keep your weird friends!" Billy high tailed it away from the angry Pokémon as fast as he could.
"Wat was dat all about?" Meowth asked, looking to see if James was OK.
"…..I don't think you want to know. I just want to go to sleep." James ran a hand through his tousled hair.
"What happen to Jessie?" Meowth asked; seeing her lying on the ground, fast asleep.
"She got really drunk and passed out." He picked her up and started off in the direction of their camp in the woods. "Urff, you need to lose some weight, girl."
Once the three of them got there, James put Jessie in her sleeping bag and promptly fell asleep himself in his own. Meowth curled up in between their sleeping bags.
Brock had slipped away from the other while they watched Ash battle with a random Trainer. He really wanted to know what had become of James. Did he hate him now? He really hoped not. But if he really did hate him there wasn't much he could do about it, he'd just have to forget about the whole thing and move on.
He walked for a good mile before he saw smoke from a campfire drifting up through the trees. He couldn't be sure that it really was Team Rocket, but it was as good a lead as any. As he got closer he saw Team Rocket's tell tale Meowth shaped hot air balloon. Two sleeping bags lay at either side of a campfire. A red head stuck out of one, and a blue out of the other.
Prancing in there unannounced was probably a bad idea. So Brock took the safer route and waited for them to wake up. And waited. And waited. He got very bored and started to prepare a meal out of the various food stuffs in the camp.
Meowth was the first to wake. He smelled the food and instantly ran to it. "Foooooooooddddddd!" He shouted in glee, pouncing for some.
Brock tapped his paw with the flat side of the knife he was holding. "Hold on, it's not done yet." He was amused by the Pokémon's enthusiasm.
"Hey wait, aren't yous that Twerp who's Jimmies boyfriend? What are yous doin' 'ere?" Meowth stared hungrily at the food, waited for Brock to let down his guard over it.
A rustling sound came from the sleeping bags. James crawled out of his and stumbled off into the woods to water a bush. He hadn't had that much to drink last night, but he could still feel it. Once he came back he automatically moved to were Brock was almost done cooking. "When did what Meowth cook start smelling so good?" He said sleepily, rubbing his eyes. They widened when he saw who really was cooking. "Brock….you, came back." He then averted his eyes, not knowing what to say.
So many things were running through his mind right now. Why would Brock come back? Hadn't he made it clear that those Twerpy friends of his were more important? If that was the case, why was he here now?
"You're probably wondering why I'm here right now. Well, the reason is that I still love you, I care about my friends, yes, but I couldn't stand not knowing if you hated me or not." Brock wringed his hands nervously, just missing dropping his knife on his foot.
James stayed silent for a long moment, and then flung himself at the younger man, pinning him down. He didn't need to say anything; the long passionate kiss he gave Brock was more than words could say. They finally untangled themselves when Jessie threw her boot at them and muttered something unintelligible.
"What's her problem?" Brock asked, seeing that Meowth was inching towards the food.
"She got really drunk last night. She must have a monster hangover." He couldn't really say he was all that sorry for her. She had, after all, done it to herself.
"Drunk? Are you guys even old enough to do that legally?" Brock looked confused; he apparently didn't know how old Jessie and James were.
"Yes, I'm twenty-three." He grinned sheepishly, rubbing the back of his head.
"Really? I thought you were a teenager?"
"Nope, can't beat these good looks," He grinned and flipped his hair over his shoulder. He hadn't gotten it trimmed in awhile and it was getting long.
"Muhmm," Brock pulled him in close and gave him a quick kiss.
"Are yous two lovebirds gonna come over heres and eat your grub or do I get yous shares?" Meowth shouted at them, barely containing his hunger.
Jessie let out a moan and hurled her pillow across the campsite at the noisy cat. Surprisingly, it hit him. "SHUT UP! I NEED SNOW CONES!" She shouted before turning over and falling back asleep.
"Does she always get like that when she's drunk?" Brock sat down next to the food and finally let Meowth have some. The Pokémon stuffed it down so fast he started to choke, and continued to choke. He gasped for breath, but couldn't get any. James and Brock were alarmed. James grabbed him and gave him a sharp whack on the back. Instead of dislodging the food, it only seems to make it worse.
"We need to get him to a Pokémon Center!" Brock announced. He knew were one was and they both ran there as fast as they could.
Nurse Joy fixed it quickly and they were out of there in less than ten minutes. "I'm glad he's OK," Brock said, petting Meowth's head.
"Yeah, he's my friend; I don't want to lose him. Or you." He sneaked an arm up and hooked it with Brock's. Brock snuggled closer to him, Meowth in between in his arms.
"I'd love to, but what about Ash and the others? They need me."
"Let them fend for themselves, they'll survive." He grabbed Brock's face and kissed him.
Meowth woke up just then. "Woulds yous mind doin' that somewhere's else?"
"Yes, we would mine." They both said at once. Brock dropped Meowth and returned James' kiss.
They walked off into the woods together, hand in hand.