A/N: Another chapter! Thank you all so very much for continuing to read this story, I appreciate it very much. Hope you enjoy this chapter!

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

Leave It To Brocko

Chapter 25

I was bored.

Yup, I was very, very bored. Sitting on a ship all day wasn't as interesting as they made it out to be, you know. There's only the sea, the sky and that's it. Yes, there was TV, but sometime during the night, we had lost the Kantonese signal, and now the only thing the screen seemed to show was a snowstorm. I had already finished the few magazines that had survived the plane crash in Unova, and crosswords got boring at some point too.

Now, all I had been doing was staring at nothing in particular, while busying my hands with scrubbing Croagunk. His reptilian skin was a pain to take care of, you know. Special brush, moisturizing soap without chemical moieties, cramped arms- But the Pokémon liked it, if his strange smile was any indication.

But admittedly, it was a rather mundane job, and I couldn't help but let my eyes and thoughts wander. An elderly couple was playing chess on the other side of the deck. A young trainer was brushing her Mareep. Dawn was sunbathing, sunglasses hiding her eyes. Paul was reading that Hoenn Pokémon book again, sitting several chairs away from Dawn. Ash was playing with Pikachu, seated on the ground, with Misty leaning against the railing not too far away from him. She was alternately watching Ash or looking out on the sea, her posture a lot more relaxed than yesterday. Gary was brooding in a corner, and Leaf had gone inside not too long-

Wait, what?

I glanced back at Gary, and confirmed to myself that yes indeed, he was brooding. Arms crossed, eyes glaring, face frowning, dark cloud hanging above his head – yup, brooding. I frowned slightly, looking back down at Croagunk. Gary had been trying to talk to Misty not too long ago, but she hadn't showed much interest – I'd like to think that it was because of Ash's actions yesterday night – but surely that couldn't be the cause of his dark mood?

For a moment, I considered going through all the possible scenarios that could've caused Gary's brooding, before deciding on the obvious and much more simple solution.

"Hey Gary!" I called out to him, waving the one hand unoccupied with the brush. He looked up, obviously annoyed at being disturbed in his deep, dark brooding, and I shot him a grin, beckoning him to come over.

He frowned, before sighing and getting up, and then plopped down next to me.

"What?" he muttered, not looking at me, but instead staring – more like glaring – in the distance.

"What's with the dark mood?" I asked, getting straight to the point.

He hmph'ed and turned his head away, posture tensing.

I kept silent, focusing on Croagunk again. Gary was someone who liked attention, even in these circumstances. Admittedly, he was also someone who kept his true personal issues to himself, but since he had already confided in me once before, I was hoping he would do so again.

I was not disappointed.

"I don't get her!" he finally burst out, voice low to prevent overhearing. "She's so confusing and she's giving mixed signals! Women!"

"Ah... Leaf, I take?" Please say yes. Please let it not be Misty. "You two seemed to be getting on well enough though, yesterday night."

His reaction was enough to calm my nerves, and I relaxed again.

"We were!" He threw his hands in the air in frustration before crossing his arms again and sinking back in this chair with a sigh. "I don't get it at all. We were watching TV, and then we started talking, and everything was going perfectly, and..." He trailed off, a wistful look on his face.

"And…?"

"We kissed."

I froze. Gary's voice was quiet, his eyes far away.

"I kissed her," he continued, still quiet. "I was sure she was leaning in, other- otherwise I wouldn't have done it. And- and she kissed me back." He paused again, seemingly returning to the present and a frown appearing on his face, his voice growing more frustrated. "And then suddenly she pulls away and says she isn't interested in me like that! What the heck! I don't get her at all!"

He breathed heavily for a moment, face set in a frustrated frown, before it smoothed out again and he fell back against his chair.

"Wow, well..." I finally managed out. "That's…" Unexpected? Progress? Painful? Somehow, neither of those answers seemed appropriate."…Ouch. Sorry, man."

"Yeah…" Gary rubbed his face.

Gary had kissed Leaf. Leaf had kissed him back. She had rejected him after. There were only two possible conclusions.

Either Gary was a really bad kisser, or Leaf still wasn't convinced of his faithfulness.

With the sinking feeling of already knowing the answer but not wanting to accept it, I asked, "And what did you do today? Did you talk to her?"

The puzzle pieces were falling in place. Gary hadn't talked to Leaf. Gary had flirted with Leaf. Leaf had left. And it had all happened right in front of my eyes, and I hadn't been able to do a thing about it.

Gary shook his head in response to my question. "No, I didn't. She rejected me!" I could hear the defensiveness in his statement – why should I talk to her when it's her fault?

Dammit, he wasn't getting it.

"Gary…" I said, carefully choosing my words. "Do you… Do you remember when we had estimated what Leaf's problem was with you? Why she didn't want to be in a relationship with you?"

Even before I had finished my sentence, I could see the realization and horror dawning on Gary's face. "Oh man... Oh Arceus. That was stupid. That was so stupid. Arceus! I'm so stupid!"

For a moment it appeared he wanted to jump up and run to Leaf, but then he deflated again, and his face disappeared in his hands. "Ah man, this is such a mess…"

"Not all is lost though, don't worry," I quickly reassured him. The solution was simple, after all. "Stop flirting with Misty, and talk to Leaf. Say that you respect her choice to stay just friends, but that it won't stop you from feeling that way about her."

He stared at me. "I- I can't say that! I can't do that! That's so, so…" His face screwed up in disgust. "…cheesy? Weak? And besides," he added almost as an afterthought, "I can't stop flirting with Misty."

"Girls like honest and nice guys, even if it hurts your pride-" I started, before snapping my head around to look at Gary in alarm as his second sentence registered. "How do you mean, you can't stop flirting with Misty?!"

"Well... I can't. We..." He glanced hesitantly at Misty, and upon seeing she was still occupied with the sea and Ash, he continued in a hushed tone, "We made a deal. Back in Kanto, she asked me to help her to make Ash jealous, since he was going to visit that May girl in Hoenn. That was your idea, wasn't it? To make Misty jealous by Ash pretending to like May, right?"

Surprised by this development, I didn't think of denying it, and instead just nodded.

"Yeah, well, Misty obviously fell for it, but c'mon, everyone with eyes in their head can see those two like each other. Ash liking May is complete rubbish, I'm surprised she didn't see that, I mean-" He paused, realizing he had gotten off topic. "But anyway, she asked for my help to make Ash jealous. I agreed, since I knew Ashy-boy was head over heels for her, and I thought this would be a fun way to make him see that. But then Leaf came along..."

"And everything got even more complicated," I finished for him, and he nodded grimly. "Well, talk to Misty then. She and Ash have been making great progress, maybe she'll let you off on your side of the deal."

He seemed to consider this, and I realized I needed to give him that last little push.

"Go talk to Leaf, Gary," I said, giving him an encouraging smile. "Talk to her, stop flirting with Misty, prove you're trustworthy, give it a little time, and I'm sure she'll come around." Of course I wasn't completely sure about that, but he needed the reassurance.

"You're right." He nodded determinedly and got up, shoulders pushed back and chin high. I smiled proudly, both at him and at myself.

And as if on cue, Leaf entered the deck again.

Gary's determined posture wavered a bit, faced with the reality of speaking to her, and honestly, I couldn't really blame him. But it didn't stop him.

He had only taken two steps in her direction when Leaf ruined everything.

Instead of walking to Gary, she didn't even look in our direction, but immediately marched over to Ash. Twirling a lock of brown hair around her finger and batting her eyelashes, she struck up a conversation with him – undoubtedly about Pokémon, because Ash, oblivious to her flirting, happily responded.

I wanted to bang my head against a desk.

Gary's face hardened and his eyes narrowed at Ash. I opened my mouth to do some damage control, but he ignored me and stalked straight past Leaf and Ash to Misty.

With a charming smile already on his face, he greeted Misty, a wink thrown in for good measure. First Misty appeared unsure, but then her eyes fell on Leaf flirting with Ash – and Ash enthusiastically replying. A dark look flitted across her face, but was swiftly replaced with a pleasant smile as she replied to whatever Gary had said.

Forget about that desk. Give me a wall.

Leaf noticed this new development almost immediately, jaw clenching and eyes darkening, before Ash pulled her back into their conversation.

Ash, who was still oblivious to this whole thing.

Arceus. Save me the trouble of moving my head and just slam that wall down on my head.

Maybe I needed to tell Ash that he really shouldn't talk so much with Leaf because it would make Misty jealous. Maybe I should tell Misty to stop flirting with Gary because it made Leaf flirt with Ash. Maybe I should tell Leaf that Gary was only flirting with Misty because of a deal.

Maybe I should just give up on this whole matchmaking thing.

Dawn pushed the sunglasses up from her eyes, and gave me a look. I sighed deeply, returned Croagunk, got up and moved to the inside.

I needed some aspirin.

Sadly, neither aspirin nor lunch had done anything to loosen up the situation between the four. Or to cure my headache.

Even after food, soft suggestions and careful maneuvers from me, they were still in the same position as this morning. Well, figuratively speaking any- Scratch that, quite literally as well. Both Ash and Leaf, and Misty and Gary were chatting, Paul was still reading that Hoenn Pokémon book, Dawn was still working on her tan, and I was still bored.

Huh. Talk about déjà vu.

The only difference might be that instead of scrubbing Croagunk, I had instead resigned myself to another crossword. And frankly, I was spending more time looking around than actually working on that thing.

It was during one of my many look-around, glance-at-the-crossword, pretend-to-think-of-an-answer-but-actually-look-around-again routines when I noticed something that could make my afternoon a whole lot less boring and my day a whole lot better, at least matchmaking-wise.

A few chairs to my left, after the one Dawn was occupying and several empty ones, the Team Rocket Trio was sitting.

I hesitated for a short moment. It didn't take more than one doubtful glance at my crossword and it was decided.

Time to match make.

I reached over to Dawn, softly touching her elbow to get her attention. Pushing her sunglasses up, she gave me a questioning look, to which I responded by motioning to Jessie, James and Meowth.

She grinned in understanding, and I quickly started my plan.

"Hey Dawn," I started, rather loudly, "have I told you about how our plane crashed in Unova? Team Rocket did that!"

I shot them a quick, inconspicuous glance, and I was happy to see I had gotten their attention.

"No, Brock, you haven't told me that yet! Oh my Arceus, did Team Rocket do that?" She sounded quasi-shocked, but there was amusement flickering in her eyes.

"Oh yes, Jessie, James and Meowth did that!" I did my best to sound as impressed as possible, my voice trembling slightly as if remembering how scary it had been. "I really have no idea how they did it, but they tricked us to get on their plane! And suddenly we ended up in Unova!"

"Oh my, and then they crashed the plane?" she asked, and she was so convincing that I wasn't sure if her misunderstanding was on purpose or not.

"Well, they first tried to catch our Pokémon, but they failed," I explained, daring to quickly look at them, just to see them turning their heads away quickly. All right, they were definitely listening. "So they sabotaged the plane, and escaped from it themselves by parachute."

"Oh Mew," Dawn said, eyes wide. "And then you crashed in Unova."

"And then we crashed in Unova," I confirmed. "But we all survived, and they still failed to capture our Pokémon, so..."

"Oh yeah, they always fail, don't they?" Dawn asked, laughing a bit. When I laughed in response, I could see James frowning, and Jessie looked downright angry.

Hm. We shouldn't make too much fun of them, or they might decide to suddenly jump up and start their stupid motto.

"Well, they do have bad luck," I said, half-defending them, and from the corner of my eyes I could see them nodding in agreement. "But honestly, I don't see why they're still part of Team Rocket." Frowns, looks of confusion, surprise. "I mean, they obviously can do better."

And now jaws had to picked up from the floor.

A little smirk told me Dawn had noticed their surprise as well, but she continued with her innocent questioning, "Oh really? How do you mean?"

"Well, first of all, those disguises... I mean, we never recognize them!" That was actually true, no matter how stupid it in hindsight was. "They must be really good to make those! And they're really great actors as well!"

Dawn nodded enthusiastically, and I continued, "They must be really smart too. With all those inventions they always manage to make – I mean, if they used their knowledge for something good, I bet they would be able to make loads of money!"

"You're right!" Wide-eyed with surprise, a grin forming on her face as she pretended to think of other positive things about our Team Rocket. "And- and those businesses they always set up! You know, as a cover to lure us in another trap! Those could've really worked out if they hadn't decided to throw it all away for another attempt to catch our Pokémon!"

"Hm-hm." I nodded in agreement, a wistful look appearing on my face. "If only they weren't so bent on being evil and thieving our Pokémon…"

"They would make really good good guys," Dawn agreed, sounding sad as well. Maybe she was exaggerating it a bit, but hey, we had to get our point across. "While as bad guys..."

"Uh-huh," I agreed, letting their previous failures hang in the air, and I saw the trio sharing looks. "I really don't get why they're still part of Team Rocket. The other members just make fun of them, while they're actually so much better than them."

Like I said, exaggerating to get our point across.

"And Meowth could make so much money as a Pokémon translator!" Dawn suddenly said, something in her eyes telling me that she had truly just thought of that, and wasn't pretending.

"Wow…" I said, comprehending the idea. "I actually never thought about that." I actually really hadn't. With his ability to understand both Pokémon and human language, he could easily make a fortune. "They would never have money trouble again!"

The faces of Jessie, James and Meowth, though still with shock and confusion written on them, had brightened significantly, and I held the hope that perhaps we had convinced them. Or at least make them consider quitting. And like Dawn had said yesterday – we just needed to plant the idea in their head, and they would do the rest. Hopefully.

"Besides," Dawn said, unable to resist a last comment, "Jessie and James aren't that young anymore. I'd expect them to want to settle down sometime. You know, buy a nice house, marry, have some children..."

I did my best to hold back my grin when I noticed that the mentioned Rockets were quickly looking in the opposite directions, with Meowth grinning widely.

"They definitely should. They deserve so much better than just a low place in an organization that doesn't appreciate their talents."

"Definitely," Dawn agreed wholeheartedly and she truly looked like she believed it. Man, she really was good. We were silent, momentarily stuck with how to continue our conversation, before Dawn picked it up again." And Brock, what would you tell them if they weren't, you know, always trying to steal your Pokémon?"

"Oh well, uhmm..." I paused, not having to pretend to think about it, as I honestly didn't know. I had to say the best thing to convince them to quit Team Rocket and get their own lives. And to please, please, please to leave us alone. "I'd say that they have so many other talents, and that all of those go to waste in Team Rocket, and that they deserve so much better. And I'd wish them luck with whatever they were going to do."

"Mm-hm… That's nice of you…" She trailed off, and with nothing else either of us could think of to say, our conversation died down. Hopefully this would be enough.

When the trio realized we weren't going to say anything more about them, they simultaneously got up and went back inside – and I'd like to think there was a hopeful expression on their faces, but I couldn't be sure.

"That… went surprisingly well," I said, and Dawn grinned.

"I think we did that very, very well." She nodded, folding her hands behind her head and leaning back in her chair.

Humming, I imitated her, closing my eyes and mentally agreeing. Yes, Brocko, very well indeed.

A/N: Thank you all for reading! Some LeafGreen, but not quite. Don't worry though, it'll happen in due time… or will it? *evil laugh* I hope you liked this chapter! Please, please, leave me a review! They truly do motivate me to write more and it's lovely to hear from my readers. Whether it's good or bad, I want to know. So, please, review!
Thank you!

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