Birthday
James sighed loudly while he gazed up at the sky. He had Chimecho in his arms and his friends lying in the grass beside him, but he felt empty inside. The sun had started to set.
"It was a pretty crappy day t'day." Meowth commented on his left.
"I'll say. The only thing worse than blasting off is blasting off twice in one day." Jessie agreed grumpily.
"Oh well, at least we're still in one piece and we can always try again tomorrow." James said, forcing himself to smile for his teammates' sake.
His partner sat up straight and looked at him incredulously. "How can you say that, James? It's your birthday and we failed to catch a single Pokémon. Aren't you even a little disappointed?"
James swallowed the lump in his throat. If only she knew, he thought, but instead he mumbled.
"I am. But there's no use moping about it, is there?" It was quiet between the three friends for a while, until Meowth suddenly jumped up.
"It's gettin' dark real soon. How's about we set up camp, Jess, and let James rest for a while?" Jessie nodded with a tiny smile, and both of them left the blue-haired boy to his thoughts to collect some wood.
James' face fell the moment they were out of sight. He clutched his dozing Pokémon tightly to his chest as gloomy thoughts invaded his mind. Constantly getting pushed around by those twerps did get him down, especially on a day like this. He felt like he hadn't accomplished anything at all in the past year.
Besides that, the one he loved was miles away and probably didn't even remember his birthday. His vision got blurry as he felt tears welling up in his eyes. The last rays of sunlight reached him and all he wanted to do was lie there and wallow in self-pity.
He blinked the tears away so he could see the sun disappear, when he spotted a bird-Pokémon on the bright yellow horizon. It seemed to come straight towards him. James gasped when the Delivery Delibird landed next to him. He sat upright and wiped his face dry as it chirped happily. It handed him a plain brown box out of its bag before flying off again. Chimecho had woken up from James' sudden movements and looked at the box in his master's hands.
"Chime?"
The Rocket agent didn't answered, too busy opening the box with his trembling hands. Inside was something round and fluffy. Chimecho's eyes widened when he recognized a replica of his congener and he gently poked it to see if it would respond. The yellow ball remained motionless.
"It's a Chingling doll." James whispered, astonished, holding the plushie up.
Not a second later he felt his phone vibrating in his pocket. He quickly checked the text he'd received. It was from 'Bill' and simply said 'Happy birthday', but it was all James needed to see.
A huge grin rapidly spread across his face while he hugged the soft toy enthusiastically. Chimecho continued to stare at his master.
James turned to him smiling and explained, "It's a present from Butch. Don't tell anyone, ok?"
Chimecho chimed cheerfully, glad to see his master so happy. The blue-haired boy held onto the doll while he watched the sunset with his Pokémon, until he saw two dark figures walking towards him with a big supply of wood. He quickly hid the plush in his backpack and got up to start the fire. The rest of the night an idiotic smile was plastered onto James and Chimecho's faces.