A/N: This is the first time I've ever really written about the Japanese characters. I'm aware of the fact that they're different to their dubbed counterparts, but since the only episodes I've ever seen are the banned ones, I'm not as familiar with Musashi, Kojiro and Nyasu. Hopefully this won't be too painful to read because of it. Also, I wasn't sure if it should be Rocket-dan or Rocketto-dan, so I would very much appreciate it if someone could tell me either way. :)

The title comes from the dubbed episode Training Daze. I couldn't think of anything else, and it kind of fit, so...xD

Disclaimer: I do not own Pokémon in any way, shape or form.

The World at Our Fingertips

The crowd around Musashi, Kojiro and Nyasu exploded into elated screams as Satoshi turned to them, grinning madly and waving. So euphoric was the crowd that they didn't notice the trio push their way to the front to get a better view. Though Rocket-dan was rather well known in this area, the gathering was too excited by this event to realise that three such members with blazing red R's on the front of their shirts belonged to such an organisation. This afforded Musashi and Kojiro the leisure of observing the goings-on with a contemplative intent.

"Hey, let me through!" they heard Nyasu whine behind them, pushing them behind their legs. "I want to see, too!"

Kojiro snickered to himself, thought about ignoring the cat but then decided against it – it would only result in Nyasu's claws tearing into some part of his body. So instead he reached down, took Nyasu by the scruff of his neck and lifted him onto the railing they were standing behind.

"Thanks," he said, peering down at the stadium below him.

The three of them stood in silence for a few minutes, watching as Satoshi congratulated Pikachu and his other Pokémon, the huge grin still cracking his face in two.

Musashi sighed, so quietly that Kojiro wouldn't have known she had if his shoulder hadn't been pressed against hers, feeling her shift as she exhaled.

At once he turned to scrutinise her. "What's wrong, Musashi-chan?"

She could feel him staring, but didn't turn to meet his gaze. "Oh, it's nothing."

Kojiro didn't think it was simply nothing, but before he could press the matter further, Nyasu piped up again, "I must say, I think everyone should be congratulating us on a job well done."

Kojiro raised an eyebrow. "What do you mean?"

The cat Pokémon swept a paw in the direction of Satoshi. "Well, Pikachu and the others owe their strength almost entirely to us! How much experience do you think they've gained in the battles he's had since he left home? Not much at all when you compare it to how many times they've defeated us!"

"I suppose you're right," his male partner agreed. "Don't you think so, Musashi?"

"Hmm?" at the sound of her partner's voice, Musashi glanced back at him. He was staring at her strangely.

"Are you sure you're okay?" he asked.

"Yeah," she sighed, then added, "I was just thinking."

"Thinking? About what?"

Nyasu turned his head curiously, hearing the wistful tone of his female companion's voice. Now that both of her partners were studying her with a questioning gape, Musashi could no longer pretend that she couldn't feel their gazes burning into her.

"Well?" Nyasu prompted, as Kojiro cocked a questioning eyebrow.

"It's just that…well, that's it, isn't it? It's over. So what do we do now?"

Nyasu frowned. "I don't get it."

"Neither do I," Kojiro admitted, clearly nonplussed. "We'll do what we always do. Carry on trying to steal Pikachu."

"But that's just it, isn't it?" she swept her arm in a wide arc, gesturing the boy on the field below them. "How are we going to carry on like we've always done when this has happened?"

Kojiro was beginning to feel the first seeds of real worry planting themselves into his stomach. He didn't like what she was getting at here.

"Nothing needs to change," he told her as forcefully as he could. His heart pounded sickeningly in his chest. In his mind, the last time they were separated burst forth startlingly clearly in his memories. He shuddered. It was not a feeling he wanted to live through again.

"Something has to change," Musashi shot back at him, though he noticed it wasn't in the argumentative tone that she'd used so frequently in the past to provoke his own frustration. That was something else he'd noted about her in the weeks following that incident. Musashi had barely raised her voice to him once. In fact, she hadn't been irritated with him even one time since. It was a strange phenomenon considering the magenta haired woman's tendency to lose her temper at the slightest thing. Still, he was rather grateful for this, especially since he'd had a world-changing realisation a couple of weeks back – a world-changing realisation that he just might have feelings for his best friend. It was too bewildering and terrifying for words. At the time he'd half-wished that Musashi would begin to yell at him again, just so she could cut through his thick haze of confusion and make him realise how ridiculously stupid he was being.

But she had not heeded his silent, half-hearted plea, totally oblivious to his inner turmoil. And now here they were, at another possible crossroads in their lives.

One thing was certain: Kojiro couldn't leave Musashi. Not now. Not when these feelings had sprung up inside him and made him feel alive in a way he never had been before.

"What do you think needs to change?" Nyasu asked, genuinely intrigued as he gazed up at his human friends.

Musashi did not answer straight away, eyes drawn to Satoshi. But the answer she eventually gave tore Kojiro's heart into a bleeding mass of muscle. "I think this is the end of Rocket-dan. We can't keep working here, not now this has happened."

"We can get a new mission," he said at once, the faintest trace of a tremble working its way into his voice. "We don't have to go after Pikachu any longer."

"I don't think Sakaki-sama would be very thrilled about that."

"What's with the despondency?" Nyasu frowned.

Musashi shrugged. "I just feel like our time in Rocket-dan is up. Something tells me that now is the time to go out and make something of ourselves."

The world around Kojiro pulsed in varying shades of black. For a horrifying moment, he actually thought he was going to pass out. She couldn't be suggesting it…not now, not after the way she'd clung to him after that incident…

That incident.

Wasn't it supposed to have changed the dynamics between them forever?

He could still remember the emotion in her voice when she'd called his name as though she could barely believe that he was back. He could still remember how her voice had quivered, as though she was going to break down. He could still remember the way she'd embraced him as though nothing else mattered in the whole world, her cheek pressed harshly against his top, over the frantic beat of his heart in his chest. He could still feel her arms wrapped tightly around his neck, as though she would lose him again if she let go. And he could still feel the way her body had been crushed against his, with not even an inch of space between them.

Once the initial surprise at Musashi showing so much emotion had passed, Kojiro had crushed her in his own hug, his arms around her waist, his own cheek pressed against the top of her head, where the reassuring smell of her shampoo and hairspray swirled lethargically through his sinuses, reminding him that they were still together despite everything that had transpired, that she was warm and alive and oh so beautiful.

The latter thought had caught him off-guard, his eyes widening as it hit him harder than her mallet ever had. Of course he had fleetingly considered her beauty in the past, but in no other manner than a vague passing rumination. However, after the incident that had just happened, his way had been illuminated, as though by a Chonchie's light. It had become startlingly clear that she was the most breath-taking sight he had ever known.

He had stiffened as all of these realisations hit home, and feeling the change in his demeanour, she'd lifted her head up to look into his face. His heart had leapt to hammer somewhere in the region of his throat as he saw her eyes shining with watery emotion; but then his own vision had blurred, and by the time he'd blinked, the tears trickling down his cheeks, her eyes were clear again. She'd brought one of her hands from around his neck to brush those tears away, looking at him in a way she never had before. He'd been disorientated and confused, his mind torn in two; the only thing he'd been able to focus on was the way she'd looked at that moment.

Beautiful.

It had been enough to make him want to kiss her.

But then the moment between them had been shattered by the cry of Nyasu, and they pulled away from each other to watch as he bounded up to them, leaping into their arms. The two of them had squeezed him tightly, burying their faces into his soft fur, and he hadn't even complained when he'd felt the tears soaking into his coat.

The moment had been broken, but in the days to come Kojiro had not been able to forget the feelings that the moment had dragged up. The nights following it, with the two of them sleeping back-to-back (it seemed as though they didn't want to spend any time further apart than they needed to), dreams had plagued him, dreams about kissing Musashi breathless, of sliding clothes from her body, of pressing kisses against every inch of soft skin which was revealed to him, gilded silver by the moonlight…

Of making love to her.

He had awoken the following mornings to find a huge problem straining against his front, sweat beading his hairline, both horrified and aroused to think of Musashi in such a way.

It wasn't as if his feelings towards her had changed – they hadn't. They had merely intensified, to the point where he thought he'd go mad if nothing was done about them. And he was fairly sure that Musashi was noticing the shift in their relationship, too – many a time over the past few weeks they had caught each other's eye and blushed, or made contact that wasn't necessary.

But here she was, standing so close beside him that their shoulders were touching, staring blankly ahead, telling him that Rocket-dan was over.

"W-What are you proposing?" he asked, his voice unsteady, pretending to be mildly fascinated by Satoshi's celebrations. By contrast, Nyasu had now abandoned all interest in the events taking place on the field, his eyes sliding from one human to the next, as though watching a ball of yarn rolling.

In the seconds that it took for Musashi to formulate an answer, Kojiro began to brace himself for the worst. They had been together for a long time now, and perhaps it was only natural that she needed space to figure out what she wanted from life, perhaps

(perhaps she hadn't noticed the change, perhaps that was just his hopeful imagination)

they both needed to figure out what they wanted.

Although, right now, Kojiro only wanted her.

"I don't mean that we can't still be together."

For a few moments, her words didn't register. Then Kojiro's eyes widened as they hit home, wheeling around to stare at her. She was smiling in that self-assured way of hers, eyebrows raised. Nyasu was grinning.

"You look like a Koiking," Musashi quipped, and Nyasu snickered. "Close your mouth."

Kojiro didn't even realise he'd been standing with his mouth wide open. Quickly he clamped it shut, flashing a smilr of his own at his partner.

"That's if you still want to stay with me." Her tone was light, but he knew her so well that he could detect the disquieted trepidation underlying her words, and he could discern the uncertainty brewing behind her eyes like a storm. He knew about the heartache and loss she had faced in her life, knew that the people who she'd loved and lost had traumatised her deeply.

But he wasn't about to add himself to that list.

"I think it's best if we stick together," he said nonchalantly, all too aware of how his heart sang at the prospect. "We've always functioned much better as a trio than we have as individuals. Besides," he added, a light blush spilling over the bridge of his nose, "you guys mean the world to me. I don't know what I'd do without you."

"That's so sweet," Nyasu sniffled, clambering onto Kojiro's shoulder. "You guys mean everything to me, too!"

Musashi raised an eyebrow, before exhaling huffily. "Oh, what the heck, you two are special to me, as well."

The three of them exchanged smiles with each other, before the cheers from the crowd drew their attention back to the pitch. It looked as though Satoshi was being presented with his prize for becoming an official Pokémon Master.

Nyasu tore his gaze away from the revelries. "What are we doing, standing here like this? Who cares about what he's achieved? We should be focusing on our own future now!"

"You're right!" Musashi and Kojiro said in unison, each looking to the other and grinning. As one, they turned around and pushed their way through the roiling congregation towards the exit.

Once there, Nyasu hopped back onto the ground. He glanced up at his human friends. "So where do we go from here?"

Musashi shrugged, a faraway look in her eyes. "Wherever the wind blows us."

"It'll be like a journey of discovery," Kojiro added. "This way we can find our true paths in life."

"Then what are we waiting for?" Nyasu said enthusiastically. "Let's go!"

The trio of thieves began to walk away from the stadium, the raucous shouts from the gathering quietening with every step they took towards the future.

Their future.

Suddenly, Kojiro felt a hand slip into his – Musashi's hand, to be more precise. He started at once, jerking his head around to stare at her with wide-eyed astonishment. He could feel his face turning red. Musashi herself kept her steady gaze locked straight ahead, as though the two of them holding hands like lovers was the most natural thing in the whole world, but Kojiro could see a half-smile, half-smirk tugging at the corners of her mouth. She did not look inclined to speak about her rather curious behaviour, and Kojiro was too frightened of ending the moment to question it himself. All he knew was that he loved the way it felt to have her slender fingers linked with his own, their palms pressed together. He just wished his Rocket-dan gloves weren't preventing him from truly feeling the softness of her skin.

He had a feeling that the two of them would be more than just best friends in the very near future. It made his heart race in heady anticipation of that moment when he would be able to kiss her for the very first time.

Nyasu glanced back once to find the two of them clasping hands. A smile of his own overtook his feline features. However, he did not crack a joke about it. Instead, he simply said, "it's about time."

It's about time. Nothing more, nothing less. The magnitude of those words hit Kojiro like an Ebiwalar's punch, and he found himself silently agreeing with the cat. It had taken far too long for him to realise what Musashi truly meant to him.

He was tugged away from the beginnings of those brooding ruminations by the feel of Musashi squeezing his fingers. She was still staring straight ahead, but he knew she was addressing him when she said, "let's go and make our future."

Kojiro nodded, squeezing her fingers in return. "Yeah."

A future where they wouldn't be shocked by Pikachu or attacked by any of Satoshi's other Pokémon. A future which would have the three of them following their own dreams instead of somebody else's. A future where Musashi and Kojiro could be together in a more than platonic sense, with Nyasu there to keep them grounded.

For the first time in a very long time, the three of them felt excited about what was to come.

The world was at their fingertips. They could achieve anything they wanted to if they put their minds to it.

The three of them looked at each other, the same thing crossing their minds. As one they took a deep breath and said, for the very last time as Rocket-dan agents:

"Ii kanji!"

A/N: I've spent too much time lately thinking about how the characters of TR will be written out of the anime. I can't see them leaving until Satoshi/Ash does, and that probably won't happen until he's become a Pokémon Master. This in turn led me to thinking about possible shippy endings for Musashi/Jessie and Kojiro/James. I can't see it being overly shippy because of the type of show that it is, and although I would love to see the duo kiss more than anything else, I don't really see it happening. So I decided to attempt to write my own interpretation of how it could happen. I've deliberately left it as vague as possible in the hopes that it might not stray too far from the canon (yeah, right...). I see that incident, which is referred to throughout, as being something that makes the two realise how terrible it would be to lose the other, and how much the other actually means to them. It doesn't have to be life-threatening, just something which could bring this on. I can even see Satoshi/Ash and co. being present, probably with the girl making it more obvious to the audience that something in their relationship has shifted. Then there'd be a few more episodes making it even more obvious, and then the finale where they'd hopefully get together.

And that's how I see it, more or less. Too bad I've probably waffled on too much. :P

Reviews are much appreciated.