AN: Thank you to everyone that is reading, following, favoriting, and reviewing! Shout to last chapter's lovely reviewers: Kelcifer, ladihawk, CrayonMelting, Eleos Argentum, Rodent2000XD, Ms. Lestrange Todd, JessieRocket, SuperGirlShipper, chipotlepeppers, IamSomething, ILIKECHICKEN, and KatSaysHi. Your comments are very much appreciated! Please enjoy chapter 10, everyone~

CHAPTER TEN: DISCORD

Later that night, Meowth used what little was left of his fake money to rent out a room for himself and Jessie at a cheap hotel near the ocean. The bed was dirty and the walls were thin, but at least the two had a nice view of the water from outside their window, and it was better than sleeping in the bushes or in the balloon, both of which they often had to do when they were in the midst of traveling.

Sighing, Jessie watched the tide ebb in and out under the black, starless sky. "Do you think they're still eating?" she suddenly asked as Meowth curled up at the end of the mattress.

"I dunno. Maybe they went back to her place already," he teased.

Jessie turned 180 degrees to face Meowth, frenzied."What?! No way! You think James is going to stay with her tonight?!"

"I dunno! Calm down, Jess! I was just kinda kiddin', but I mean, I dunno! How do humans go about des things anyway? You and Jimmy did da nasty without even havin' a date first…"

"Yes, but that's different!" Jessie insisted, hands balling into fists. "James and I…well, we've been friends for years! It's completely different!"

"Yeah, yeah, okay…Sheesh. Forget I said anythin'!"

But she couldn't forget. Meowth fell asleep effortlessly after having gotten comfortable on the bed, but although just minutes ago Jessie had felt exhausted by the day's emotionally draining events, the cat's comment woke her right back up. She once again glanced at the ocean but the soothing sight had no effect on her. Her heart was still racing, her body trembling.

Quickly, she reached for phone and sent James another text: "James, I don't know when you'll be done with your date tonight, but if you need a place to crash, Meowth and I got a room at the Waterfront Hotel. Room 214. We'll leave the door unlocked."

After sending it, Jessie sat on the edge of the bed and stared at her phone in anticipation of a reply. Which never came.

The woman sat there for a half hour, alternating her gaze between the sea and her phone every few minutes, before it finally became apparent to her that James had no intention of responding to her kind gesture. She then slammed her phone on the dresser-drawer next to the bed and laid down on the mattress, gripping the covers too tightly, her stomach full of an unpleasant mix of rage, fear, and envy.

'I try to do a nice thing,' she thought to herself, eyes wide open. 'And he doesn't even reply! So either he's deliberately and quite rudely ignoring my texts or he's busy fucking her and hasn't even seen it yet. But it's been a half hour, and James couldn't have lasted that long! Ha, no, he couldn't have…the inexperienced sissy he is…'

Slowly, she closed her eyes, hoping that she could fall asleep, desperate for at least a few hours of vacation from thinking about James. Instead, her thoughts of him kept her awake, though they did become more jumbled as she grew wearier.

'After one night with me, he becomes a man-whore…sleeping with that ugly nurse after only a day of knowing her…and she…she must be a slut herself if….but maybe they're just talking…or still eating…maybe…but I shouldn't care anyway…what is it to me if he sleeps with her? Nothing. Nothing to me. It doesn't matter. It doesn't matter. It doesn't matter…'

Her mind must have repeated this phrase about fifty times before it at last gave her the reprieve she craved and allowed her to drift off into the comforting superficial world of dreamland, a place where there was no James and there was no Joy. There were only Pokemon to steal. Riches. Luxurious fur coats and pink champagne.

It was in this blissful dream state that James found her when he opened the door to Room 214 two hours later. He immediately noticed that both his teammates were fast asleep, and by God did Jessie look beautiful when she was. Even in the dark of the room, he could make out the features on her face, delicate and innocent, so unlike how they appeared when she was awake. Her hair was messier, and her chest rose slowly and steadily with each breath that escaped her barely parted lips.

Turning away from the sight, he tried to be quiet as he shut and locked the door. He then slipped off his shoes and pants, remaining in his shirt and boxers as he slid onto the bed, his feet just inches away from Meowth's ears, his chest just inches away from Jessie's back.

The tension was instantly unbearable.

He couldn't count how many times he had slept next to Jessie like this, in forests and fields, in meadows and on mountains. But not once did it feel like this. Like just being close to her could turn him into an insatiable sex fiend if he let it.

But damn…the honeyed scent of her hair, the accidentally erotic sound of her heavy breaths, the simple knowledge that her ass was right there…

"James?"

James blinked in the darkness as he heard her voice, snapped out of his progressively perverse thoughts. "Jessie? Are you awake?"

"Mm…now I am," she grumbled, turning over on her side so that she could face him. She rubbed her eyes and tried to make out his face in the dark. She couldn't see much but she too could instantly feel the startling electricity that buzzed between their bodies.

"I'm sorry if I woke you," he whispered, not wanting to do to the same to Meowth. "I was trying to be quiet, I swear!"

"It's okay." After a long minute, she added: "So how did your date go?"

James hesitated, mincing his words carefully. "It went quite splendidly, actually."

Jessie's heart dropped but she kept her voice casual. "Oh? What did you end up doing? Dinner and a movie?"

"Yes. Well, not so much the movie. It's a long story," he said with a small chuckle, rubbing the back of his head. Since she already knew the story verbatim, she was glad that he skipped repeating it to her. "Dinner went according to plan though!"

"Mm, and then what?"

James swallowed nervously. "You mean, uh…after dinner?"

"Mmhm…"

Sensing what she was getting at, he tugged at the collar of his shirt. "Jessie…"

"What? We're still friends, aren't we?" she said with a fake smile. "And since we're nothing more than friends, I see no reason why you can't tell me what you and that ug—and that nurse did after dinner."

"Jessie…" James started, wishing his damn heart would slow down at least a little bit. "I, uh…I don't know if we should talk about these kinds of things with each other! After all, even before any of this started, you never told me about the men you'd go out with. I knew you went on dates every now and then, but I never pried…"

"Oh, so you're saying I'm prying, huh?"

"Well, not exactly, but…"

"Did she do this to you after dinner?" Jessie suddenly asked, closing the gap between their bodies and wrapping her arms around James's neck.

"J-jessie…"

"And a little bit of this?" Looking into his eyes as much as she could in the darkness, she pressed her lips against his Adam's apple and sucked on its skin softly.

"Jessie, wait…"

"And I bet she couldn't resist doing a little bit of this…" she said next as she moved her hand down to James's boxers, rubbing his already well-formed bulge through their fabric. At this action, James could only moan in response, and Jessie smirked in the dark. "Mm, that's more like it…I bet the little slut loved your big cock, didn't she, James?"

Again, James replied with a moan rather than words and Jessie took this as her cue to guide his hand under her skirt and into her panties in return. "But her pussy wasn't as wet and tight as mine, was it? The whole time you were fucking her, you were wishing it was me. Don't deny it."

James instinctively slipped two fingers inside Jessie and whimpered when he once again felt the snug slipperiness she was bragging about. "Jessie…we shouldn't do this…" he protested, but even he wasn't fully convinced of his own words.

"And why not? You know, that text I sent you earlier…I meant it. When I said I'd give you another chance at fucking me."

"B-but you…you still don't love me. Right, Jessie?"

"No, I don't love you. But are you a man or not, James?"

James slowed the movements of his fingers, furrowing his brows. "What do you mean?"

"A man doesn't require love in order to have sex," she explained, feeling like she was teaching a sex ed course to a twelve-year-old.

Then the movement of his fingers stopped. "Well, if that's the case, then…maybe I'm really not man enough for you." He removed his hand from Jessie's panties and backed away from her touch.

"Oh, come on, James. Don't be like this..." she purred, snuggling closer to her friend and trailing her fingertips up and down his chest.

"Jessie, stop!" He grasped her hand harshly in his, impeding the motion of her fingers. "I can't do this. I can't! Joy is a wonderful woman with the capacity for real love, and I can't throw that away just to be snuggle buddies with you!"

"Snuggle buddies?" Jessie's eye twitched and she pulled her hand out of his. "Don't call it that! You sound like a child!"

"What I call it is irrelevant! The point is, I can't do it!" James turned his back toward Jessie and moved further down the bed, as far as he could get away from Jessie as possible without falling off the edge.

Jessie sat upright in bed and her mouth hung open. "I…I'm offering you hot, rough, passionate sex…and you're rejecting it?!"

"Yes!" James said firmly, and his penis hated him for it.

"You do realize that Joy would never even find out, don't you?"

"How do I know you wouldn't run off at the first chance you get to tell her?"

Jessie bit her bottom lip. "Well, you make a good point there…"

"That's what I figured!" He frowned. "But even if I knew with the utmost certainty that you wouldn't tell…I still wouldn't do it! It's immoral!"

"Since when do you care about morality?!" Jessie growled. "Doing bad things is what we live for!"

James was silent far too long for Jessie's taste before finally uttering the useless mysterious phrase: "Sometimes things change, Jessie."

The woman scoffed. "Don't tell me that after knowing this goody-two-shoes for one measly day, you've turned into an angel. The next thing I know, you'll be quitting Team Rocket and running off to make babies with her!"

"Maybe I will! What's it to you?" James yelled back, now sitting up in the bed and looking directly into Jessie's eyes.

"Maybe you will? James, do you even hear what you're saying? Talking about quitting Team Rocket for someone you barely know?!"

"Like you've never entertained the idea yourself? Jessie, you've had plenty of shots at finding love and a life beyond this job. Allow me mine!"

Jessie's body began shaking. "So that's all Team Rocket is to you? A job?"

The man hesitated and turned away from his partner. "No. It's months of going without a warm meal…months of getting new injuries just after recovering from the last batch…months of bathing in filthy rivers and muddy lakes…months of having even our most ingenious plans foiled by those exasperating twerps…and after what happened last night, you know what else it'll be? It'll be months of traveling around with a woman that I love that doesn't love me back. And that's the absolute worst of it."

Jessie forced back tears that suddenly threatened to make their way down her cheeks. "James…"

"Getting the chance to spend time with you and Meowth has been the saving grace of this job. If it wasn't for that, I would have quit long ago," James continued. "But now the one thing that kept me coming back day after day is the very thing pushing me away."

"James…"

James looked back at Jessie, waiting for a reply. For some small sign that she cared about him even half as much as he cared about her. For anything. But instead, Jessie shut her mouth and looked back toward the ocean.

At this, James got up from the bed, pulling his pants and shoes back on. "I can't stay here tonight. And the truth is that Joy did offer me the chance to spend the night at her place, but I…well, I got your text and…" He trailed off and shook his head. "Anyway, I think it's probably best if I take her up on it."

Jessie's gaze remained on the water. She couldn't let James see the water shining in her own eyes. "Okay. If that's what you think is best."

James quickly left without a goodbye. Jessie startled as she heard the door slam, and immediately burst into tears as soon as she knew it was safe to cry freely. She buried her head between her knees, a full-grown woman sobbing like a little girl.

"You numbskull!" Meowth suddenly screeched, causing Jessie to look up in a panic.

"W-what? Meowth, I…"

"Oh, save ya lies! I've been awake since you and Jimmy started touchin' each other all gross-like!"

"What?! Why didn't you say something?!" Jessie wiped her eyes with her forearm.

"'Cause as disgustin' as it'd be to listen to you and Jim humpin' like cottontails, I thought it'd at least make tings betta for da team! Instead, you went and made tings ten times worse! Now he's gonna go and quit Team Rocket! That's what we was tryin' to prevent!"

"I know, Meowth! I know that! Stop screaming at me!" As if the guilt and confusion wasn't weighing her down enough, she certainly didn't need the talking cat to make her hate herself anymore for what she had just done.

"Well, what's ya plan to stop it den?"

And now the pressure was really on. Jessie really hadn't given any thought to the plan she promised would finish James and Joy's relationship; she thought she would sleep on it and a brilliant idea would come to her in the light of day. But after what just happened, she knew she had to deliver something to Meowth quick before he lost all faith in her completely. "A Pokemon pageant!"

"Eh?"

"Yes! A Pokemon pageant! Tomorrow you and will disguise ourselves as expert Pokemon breeders. We'll host a pageant for all the Pokemon in Cerulean City, telling trainers that we'll be judging on beauty, talent, and battling skills, and that the prize for the contest winner will be…oh, I don't know…what's something trainers want?"

"For der Pokemon not to be stolen?"

"Something besides that!"

"Uh…elemental stones?"

"Fine, fine. We'll tell them that the contest winner will get a nice cash prize and a set of elemental stones! But in the meantime, while we're 'judging' the Pokemon behind the scenes, we'll really snatch them all up in our net and—"

"Yeah, yeah, I get it, but how will dat keep Jimbo on da team?"

"Well, think about it, Meowth! When James sees how many rare and beautiful Pokemon we've gathered in one place, his inner bad guy will resurface before I can say 'prepare for trouble'! He won't be able to resist helping us with such a fool-proof plan! And then…we'll just make sure that Joy is in attendance for the pageant and that she sees James for who he really is. She'll break up with him on the spot, further cementing his decision to stay with us, the people who love—I mean, support him!—for his true self."

"Hey, dat's not bad, Jess. Not bad at all!"

"It's perfect, isn't it? And I just came up with it on the spot too!" Jessie flipped her hair over her shoulder confidently.

"Yeah, it sounds like it'll work, but I just got one more question for ya."

"All right, what is it?"

"Exactly how long have ya been in love with Jimmy anyway?"

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