A/N: Oh wow, it's a miracle, the chapter is actually on time! The world must be ending, guys :P Thank you, thank you, thank you for reading, for your follows and favorites and especially for your reviews! You guys are awesome and I truly appreciate every little bit of encouragement :)

Now, onto the chapter – an extra long one too – I hope you enjoy it!

To LeChick: Thank you so much! And yeah, poor Ben… :P

Disclaimer: I don't own Pokémon or the picture used as cover.

Leave It To Brocko

Chapter 17

Their expressions were almost comical. Wait, not almost, totally. Whatever they had been expecting me to say, it hadn't been that.

"You're… you're the matchmaker of Kanto…?"

Well, that disbelieving tone hurt. I mean, I am a matchmaker after all. I managed- wait, nothing yet, Cilan and Iris fell apart. Dang it!

"Hah!" Cassidy let out a laugh. "That's the most pathetic excuse I've ever heard! You, a matchmaker? You can't even match your socks!"

For the sake of our Pokémon, I was going to take that insult as a man and ignore it. I needed to distract them, and as long as they weren't looking in the other Rockets' direction I was doing fine.

"Yes, I am a matchmaker! The greatest of Kanto!" Don't exaggerate it. "And I can see that, in fact, you two would be perfect for each other!"

That shut them up. Their expressions mirrored each other's perfectly, though I found it difficult to say what exactly their expressions were. It seemed a bit of disbelief, fear, embarrassment and shock, mixed together with a healthy dose of annoyance and anger.

Mitch's expression broke first. He glanced nervously to the woman next to him, his cheeks growing red.

The next thing he said took me completely off guard.

"Is it really that obvious?"

Wait, wait, what?!

"Butch!" Cassidy hissed. "Shut up!"

She was flustered, not in control of the situation anymore, which was a rather amusing sight to see. Nonetheless, I definitely hadn't expected this. I quickly gathered my wits again to continue with my act, swiftly processing this new information and acting accordingly.

"Of course!" I said jovially, and very loudly. Panic appeared on their faces, and they hissed angrily at me to stay quiet.

Despite that they had lost control of the situation, they were still my 'captors' and for my own safety and the safety of my friends, I quieted down a bit.

"Of course," I repeated more silent. "It's obvious as the day! But why would you want to keep it silent, huh?"

I was truly confused by that. After all, they were adults, weren't you supposed to get more mature when you got older? And no longer care about what others think? Surely they didn't care about Jessie and James's opinion, right?

"Ah, it's uh… complicated," Jotch finished lamely, still slightly red.

I raised an eyebrow.

Cassidy growled slightly, before answering my question. "We have a reputation to think of, you know."

"Ah, so you do care what Jessie and James think about you." I smirked. It seemed that it didn't matter whether you were an adult or not, you still cared about what your 'rival' thought about you. People don't get more mature when they get older, they just get better at hiding their childishness. And Hootch and Cassidy, well, they sucked at hiding.

"Shut up, we don't care what those pathetic thieves think about us," Batch snarled. He obviously didn't like being made fun of, especially if it was on a touchy subject like this.

"Who are you calling pathetic?!" Jessie's voice suddenly roared. She ran forward, launching herself at Flush. "That's it! I'll show you, old-fashioned way!"

Her fists were about to collide with Bob's face, when Cassidy threw Jessie off her partner, jumping on top of her as soon as the magenta-haired woman was on the ground.

"Jessie!"

James came running to the commotion, flapping his hands around uselessly. He didn't show any indication or desire to join the fight, nor to stop it. Well, actually, he did show the desire to stop the fight, with those flapping hands and the yells of "Jessie, Jessie, be careful!" but no real action on his part.

Biff was more assertive, and after pushing himself from the ground, he quickly joined in, trying to pull Jessie off Cassidy.

And then someone pulled me away into the bushes.

"C'mon Brock, we have to hurry, before they notice we're gone," Misty hissed, pulling me further into the forest. "You did great, by the way."

"No thanks to you," I muttered. I was still a bit angry for her pushing me into the lion's den like that. It had truly been dangerous! "Why did you do that?"

"We needed a distraction, and you-"

"Brock is right, Misty," Gary interrupted, a stern look on his face, and suddenly I could see the similarities between him and old Professor Oak. "Although it luckily went fine this time, it really was dangerous. You shouldn't do that again."

She looked at Gary, puzzled, before her face screwed up in a frown. She sent Gary a death glare, before releasing my elbow and stomping off deeper into the forest.

"Hey! They're stealing da Pokémon!"

Ah, they finally noticed we were gone. Meowth – who up until then had been watching the fight and cheering Jessie on – had noticed our leave, and the screams of the Rockets echoed through the forest.

"They're too late, they won't get our Pokémon anymore." Ash grinned, our Pokéballs gathered in his arms, pockets and bag. Although the Rockets were still close, we had the Pokémon now, and with that, the upper hand in a battle, if it came to that. Even Buffy, Cassidy, James, Jessie and Meowth wouldn't be stupid enough to try.

Of course, we'd rather be safe than sorry, so we continued jogging slash walking slash wading through the bushes. The lack of a real path made it difficult to actually run, but it would slow down Team Rocket as well as it did us.

"Those are mine," I said to Ash as I took my Pokéballs from him, a huge smile forming on my face. The red and white spheres felt so familiar in my hands, the little scratches and slight dents comfortable as I checked them for any more damage.

Miraculously, aside from some dirt that hadn't been there before, my Pokéballs had remained unscathed.

The others were also taking their respective Pokéballs from Ash, checking them for damage and releasing and recalling Pokémon. In short, there was a lot of smiling going on.

"It's so great to have them back again." Leaf grinned, placing her Pokéballs back in her bag, with more care than usual.

"Absolutely," Iris agreed, putting hers away as well.

"No, these are all mine." I heard Ash say, and I turned to look at him. He was holding up his Pokéballs for Cilan to see, five of them, while Cilan stared at him, confusion, fear and growing panic visible on his face. He looked back at the two Pokéballs in his hands, controlled his pockets thoroughly, before looking back at Ash, desperate.

"You- you don't have any more with you?" He sounded as someone who knew the answer already, yet was hoping for the opposite.

"No." Ash shook his head. "I'm really sorry, Cilan, maybe I've dropped it while we were running… we could go back and check."

"That… or Team Rocket still has it..." the green-haired man muttered, looking at the ground.

"What's going on?" I asked, slightly afraid of the answer I was going to get. It seemed obvious what was going on, but I needed the confirmation before I jumped to the wrong conclusions.

Cilan swallowed, before taking on a posture of forced calmness. "Pansage is missing."

Leaf sharply inhaled. "That's..."

"So either Team Rocket still has it, or Ketchum lost it somewhere." Gary's voice was harsh, and Ash cowered slightly.

"We'll get it back, okay? I'm sorry Cilan, I was sure I didn't forget any, I-" Ash stopped talking when Cilan held up his hand to silence him. But instead of saying the expected 'It's not your fault' with a sad look on his face that showed that he still thought it was Ash's fault but that he was just too nice to say it out loud – c'mon guys, we all know everyone thinks that despite their words – Cilan reacted totally different.

His eyes went over the group, glanced up and down, a sharp green gaze inspecting us and our surroundings.

"Where's Iris?"

His question was unexpected, but very valid. I glanced around, but I knew it to be fruitless. Otherwise Cilan wouldn't have asked.

"Maybe she's in the trees..." Ash offered, craning his neck to look straight upwards.

"Iris? Iris!" Leaf yelled, also looking around for the other girl.

"She won't come," Ash said, and Cilan nodded in agreement. "She's great at hiding and sneaking away, and she won't come out unless she wants to. Which means she isn't close here anymore, otherwise she wouldn't be hiding – there's no reason to hide from us, after all."

"Or Team Rocket took her," Misty finally spoke after a short silence.

More silence, this time a more pressing one.

"We would've noticed. She'd have put up a fight, she has her Pokémon – she can't have been taken by Team Rocket," Cilan said firmly, his voice leaving no room for doubt, and shutting all of us up.

But there was always that possibility, however small it might be... But it seemed Cilan didn't want to see it.

Plus, logically seen, that possibility was really, really small. In fact, it would be pretty impossible. Team Rocket were quite some distance behind us, plus it was not like them to attack so soon after a failed attempt. At least, not our Team Rocket. I didn't really know much about Billy and Cassidy, I hadn't seen them in ages. Kinda sad really that they were still stuck in Team Rocket.

And why would they want Iris, anyway? Unless they mistook her for a Pokémon – hey, Ash did it once, and Team Rocket somehow manages to be even more stupid than Ash, so why not?

"Should we go look for her?" Leaf asked tentatively, breaking the silence. We all looked to Cilan, then to Ash, expecting them to answer and take the lead. They knew her the best, after all.

Cilan glanced at Ash for a moment, before shaking his head. "No, we should continue, for now. Iris very probably went off on her own-"

"To get Pansage back," Ash supplied, a small smile on his face. "She's doing that, absolutely."

"And she will find us, easily," Cilan finished. "If we go after her, we would only give away her position. However, if she takes too long, we'll go search for her. She might've run into trouble with Team Rocket, or a wild Pokémon."

"But she's a tough girl, she can handle herself." Ash grinned, showing us he wasn't worried about Iris.

"Well, in that case-" I started, wanting to say that we'd now continue, but I was interrupted.

"You're still here?" Iris's voice questioned, and a moment later the rest of her dropped from the trees. "We probably should hurry, I think I made them angry, heh-heh."

"Iris!" we chorused, our voices a mix of relief, surprise and curiosity.

"Yeah, yeah, let's hurry!" She grinned, but her eyes were serious. She was right, we did have to hurry, we'd had enough Team Rocket for the rest of the month. She made shooing motions with her hands, and Misty took the lead, followed by Gary and Leaf.

"Team Rocket had it?" Ash asked, eager to hear the story, as he wrestled himself a way through the bushes. Somewhere in the back of my mind, I knew we had to find our way back to the path, but at the moment, I had other things to do.

Iris nodded silently, her eyes searching for Cilan's. Now was a good moment to strategically retreat to give Iris and Cilan some time alone. But since I doubted Ash would get the hint himself, I decided to take matters in my own hands.

"C'mon Ash, Iris will tell us later, okay?" I said, pulling him with me by his elbow.

"But-" he protested.

"Give them some time alone," I whispered when I was sure they couldn't hear us anymore.

"Oh..." Then his eyes widened. "Ooooh!"

Wow, he must be really maturing if he got it fast like that.

Hah, yeah, right. Ash maturing, as if. This was just lucky.

"Now, Ash, I saw Misty walking in the front, and I'm pretty sure she's angry with Gary. Why don't you go take your chance, eh?" I whispered. It wasn't a lie, because I did think Misty was pissed at Gary for scolding her like that. I had already forgiven her for pushing me into being the diversion – literally – or well, I was close to forgiving her, anyway. I never hold grudges for long.

Misty, however… she could hold grudges for pretty long. I could use this to my advantage when it came to my Misty and Ash scheme.

"Yeah..." he said thoughtfully. "Or I get used as a punching bag for her bottled-up frustration."

The Pokémon on his shoulder let out something alike a chuckle.

"C'mon Romeo, go get your girl," I said, and when Pikachu added his own words of encouragement, Ash was off.

And now was for me the chance to slow down and keep an eye on our two lovebirds. Yeah, I know I just got Ash away to give them some privacy, but they wouldn't notice me. Because on the contrary to Ash, I can listen discretely without being noticed.

Eavesdropping? Don't be silly, I don't eavesdrop, I'm too much of a gentleman for that.

As I slowed down and created more distance between the rest of the group and me, the soft voices of Iris and Cilan reached my ears. A quick, very discreet glance over my shoulder told me Cilan had just been handed Pansage's Pokéball, which he was now stroking carefully.

"Thank you for bringing Pansage back, Iris." He sounded sincere, though his voice was quiet and the thank-you lacked the emotions I had been expecting.

"You're welcome, Cilan," Iris replied, her voice equally quiet as his.

The silence stretched, and my hopes were starting to fade. C'mon, say something, Cilan, Iris, anyone! Don't let all my work be for nothing!

"Cilan, I-"

"Iris, I-"

They spoke simultaneously, and I let out a silent breath of relief. A few awkward chuckles followed.

"Me first," Iris decided.

Here it came. The speech. In which she would tell him how much she loved him, how long she'd felt like that and how she'd always hided it, and just the general lovey-dovey stuff.

"Cilan, I, I just..." Some silence, and she took a breath. "I'm sorry for how I acted, earlier. I just… I mean… Arceus, I'm horrible at this."

She let out an awkward laugh. "I'm not good with words, or with feelings, or… I just…"

Her voice got softer, and I was unsure if she was even saying coherent words anymore. The silence stretched on. And on. And on.

C'mon Iris, say it already! You can't mess up the speech!

Still silence.

"S-sorry," Cilan stuttered, and I had no idea what he was apologizing for. His voice sounded further away than before, and I realized they had stopped walking. I stopped too, then sneaked back silently, until I could see them.

They were standing close together, and both were blushing, though Cilan far more obvious than Iris. Her hand was raised to her mouth, her fingers touching her lips softly.

Wait, what…? What did I miss here? Standing close, blushing, touching lips… Did I freaking miss their first kiss?! Dammit, Cilan finally worked up the guts to do something like that, and I missed it?!

Life is unfair.

For a moment longer, they stood unmoving in their own little dream. Then the spell was broken. Cilan stepped away, still flustered, and stuttering. "I'm sorry, Iris, I shouldn't have, that- that was very ungentlemanly, I-"

And then Iris finally saved the poor boy with his stupid excuses by grabbing his shoulders, pulling him down and pushing her lips against his.

Momentarily, I stood frozen, but when Cilan placed his hands gently on Iris's waist, I quickly turned my head. I could be a bit respectful, you know.

A huge grin stretched out on my face as I skipped – yes, I admit it, I was skipping – to the rest of our group. Giddiness filled my stomach and I wanted to jump and squeal and do many other very unmanly things, but of course I didn't do any of those things, because that would be very uncool and unattractive. And Brock the Rock is everything but uncool and unattractive.

Besides, I had already done the skipping and the grinning-like-a-madman thing, that was enough unmanliness for today.

Nonetheless, I was still very happy. Yes, that was manly enough, right? Very happy. Very, very happy.

Brocko, success tastes sweet.

A/N: Woot! We have development! Finally, might I add. I hope the 'confession' was in character, just as Butch and Cassidy… I found them difficult to write, because we don't have all that much material to work with. Anyway, Iris and Cilan are fixed… or are they? *evil laugh*

Ahum, anyway, thank you, everyone who read this chapter, and I hope you liked it. Please, leave me a review! It really motivates me and it doesn't take all that long. Thank you, and see you in two weeks!

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Pokémon: Pokémon Haiku by ArceusGPG. Even if you have no interest in poetry, you should be able to appreciate the effort the author put into these haikus. I know I would never be able to do it. It isn't all that long, one haiku per first generation Pokémon, but definitely worth checking out!

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