Hello, it is the 28th and I am back with the second chapter of this story! This was the first idea that I had for this new story when I was coming up with ideas. When writing it, I worked on it for longer than I anticipated, and it felt a challenge. But reading is through, I don't think it feels too long, even though it was longer than intended. This chapter basically explores a little note sharing habit that Jorginho (he's my Team Rocket bounty collector/hunter OC and appears a lot in Pikachu Tales. Read a brief description of him in my bio.) and James share at the beginning of their friendship. And that carries on right until the TRio leave the organisation. I hope you enjoy this chapter. It's certainly one of friendship - and heartache!
Disclaimer: I own the story and the OC mentioned.
James remembered how it started. One day he was washing his hands in a bathroom of Team Rocket headquarters that some people knew about, but some people didn't. He looked up as he shook his hands dry before moving over to the paper towel station and saw something looking straight back at him. A message.
I know it's you that is using this bathroom too, the message seemed to grin back at him.
James didn't smile and moved onto the act of drying his hands. But his breath set free an airy sort of noise. He knew who had written this message.
A few weeks later, the message had long since been wiped off but then there was a new scribbling in its place. Printed black handwriting in a brushed marker asked him:
You going to the dining hall for dinner tonight?
For another occasion, James didn't write a response back. It wasn't as if he took a fine brushed pen to the bathroom with him. And the person that he was corresponding with didn't leave one of his. He instead walked straight up to the fellow Team Rocket member and said yes, I'll be at the dining hall tonight.
Jorginho had grinned back, just like his words had done from the crumbling patch of wall. But neither of them addressed the note scribbling shenanigans. Any hint of what they were a part of stayed a secret. But it was shared between a private glint in the iris, as is often the case with secrets.
As Jorginho grew bolder, James did too. About a month after the first impish note that had been written on the wall, for the first time James remembered to take a pen with him so he could swirl a message in return.
Do you, Jessie and Meowth want to come over for a movie this evening?
A second sentence sloped underneath. An afterthought. Jorginho didn't need to add details, but he still did.
Oz is out for the night.
His own pen poised in the air as he didn't wipe the wall clean before adding his own response, James wondered why Jorginho added that. Did he think that the three of them minded his withdrawn roommate? Did he want to prove a point that he could have other options with Oscar away but didn't?
James shrugged. He responded like he didn't have a handful of questions. Jorginho's face was filled with sunbeams even though it was then late afternoon when he saw James' first ever reply to him.
We'd love to.
Jorginho stroked the smiley face that had been left with his thumb. Because he smudged it, he had to wipe the wall clean of the entire exchange. His own smile faded away when he realized this.
In time, messages began to leave the confinements of the bathroom even if they still did occasionally find themselves there. Their secret spot. No one was dared allowed in there after what had happened the year before.
Ridding himself of his gloves after a long day chasing a trio of children and a particular strong Pikachu to no avail, James returned to his dormitory to a message on the fridge. It was the first time that he allowed himself to smile at something Jorginho wrote.
You'll get him next time.
How did he know that they had failed? James didn't let his own mind answer this. He had a feeling that they would fail and fail and fail some more! But privately, he didn't mind this.
His eyes dropped down to a second addition. Why did Jorginho have the same feeling as he did that, he always had to explain everything? Always had to say more? It was never enough.
Just say the words and I'll sort it out for you.
Some men would've taken this to heart. But not James. Some people would've felt that this was a dig at their incompetence. But James didn't.
After smiling openly at a message for the first time, it seemed that he was suddenly hitting all new milestones and began to laugh as he reached for the pen lingering on the coffee table.
I'll let you know! - James.
He felt it necessary to clarify that it was him. He had a feeling that Jessie or Meowth wouldn't take Jorginho's remarks on the chin. This made James chuckle even more as he tossed the pen away again and opened the graffitied fridge to fetch a snack.
How come Meowth or even Jessie had a frailer masculinity than he did?
This was a question that went unanswered, of course, because it was never sent out into the ether. However, a week or so later came James' turn to ask something. It was his first time writing to Jorginho without it being a response to one that he had left him.
We're going to be in Mauville City next week. Will you be flying over in your remodeled jet pack?
Jorginho practically dropped his pen from in between clammy digits at the realization that James was communicating with him unprompted.
His eagerness caused him to scribble three separate messages. He hoped that he didn't come across downright pathetic.
I'll be there!
Jorginho intended to add a second message that didn't sound so keen as mustard.
Even if I'm not in that city I'll make sure to come and see you guys.
Dammit!
Jorginho could've swiped his writing away and started again to sound more chilled about the whole thing. But he didn't. It was quarter to the hour. And he needed to begin a new training session to perfect flying in that new jet pack of his.
Say hi to Jessie and Meowth.
Jorginho ruminated on this third message in particular for most of his training session. Why did he have to say that? It made it sound like he didn't care about seeing James. And worst of all, in his mind, it seemed to point to his eagerness in neon, bold letters.
But James didn't care. Because it wasn't his own scribbling, he didn't overthink it. And as the seasons changed and leaves forgot about how they had fallen from trees after turning golden and produced new foliage, messages between the two Team Rocket members became increasingly frequent.
Some of them scribbled on neon sticky notes. Some of them painted across the fridge. Without saying anything, they purchased note pads for their dormitories in case the other so happened to write a little anecdote. Of course, they often seized the opportunity.
One day a message was left for James on those familiar fraying walls. The bathroom was back in business. James smiled when he saw what had been left for him. But more so than his mouth, his eyes glittered as they examined the multiple paragraphs that had been left.
Jorginho had once confessed that he liked to write verses in his journal, but he had been very drunk, and James didn't wish to bring it up again when he was sober. Like their note exchanging shenanigans, this was kept as only a glint in the eye. Kept as a secret bit of knowledge between the two of them. But would never be spilled.
Something had seemed to spill inside Jorginho. He wanted to know what James thought about an idea he had had at the crack of dawn when he had meant to be dressing himself in his armor for the day.
His heart had been left unguarded. That was why he left something so very vulnerable to James with this sentence at the end of it:
Any good?
It was James' turn to trace those letters with a gloved hand. How dare that son of a bitch ask if it was any good! In his mind it was if Jorginho himself was scribbled across those walls, so how could he say it was anything other than fantastic?
Even if he didn't have a growing affinity for the other Team Rocket member, he would still congratulate him on the piece. Jorginho's bravery encouraged him to take a leaf out of his book and take the time to slope something back in even neater handwriting than usual.
His old calligraphy teacher would have been proud!
Stunning. I particularly enjoyed the last line of stanza two and the whole of stanza three. You should write this down somewhere before scrubbing it off because I certainly don't have the heart to do so!
But funnily enough, despite all the praise, it wasn't this that warmed Jorginho's cheeks to the red shade of his baseball cap that he was wearing on his day off. It was the tiny etching that James had left in response. It wasn't hardly a masterpiece. But it was this what Jorginho wished he could trace into his journal rather than his own poetry.
James had drawn a heart to him after all of his kind words. And Jorginho felt like he was walking on air. Other guys weren't usually so nice to him. They thought he could take playful ridicule, so he was often met with this. Other guys weren't like this. James was different. And Jorginho was so glad that he had written that first note.
Time continued to pass, and notes continued to be shared. Unfortunately, after someone else had sneaked their way into the bathroom and used one of Jorginho's poems for their own gain and admiration within Team Rocket, those walls of the room stopped being their note pad.
James was never given the chance to share his own talents there. But they started to reveal themselves to Jorginho. On his fridge. On notepad after note pad that he purchased. On the mirror of his bathroom after he had used his shower when his own one had gone on the blink.
But it was still never James' penmanship or his more intricate drawings that were rather fantastic that impressed Jorginho. It was the way that he was able to make him smile with every single note that he wrote. And that didn't seem to stop after James got together with Jessie and began writing notes – love notes – to her as well.
Do you want to grab food with me and Jess tonight? She doesn't mind.
Jorginho's mouth stretched wide as he pulled the sticky note from off his fridge before openly chuckling at the second addition.
Meowth is coming too. But don't let him think it's a double date!
Jorginho had never worried that their friendship would change after his two close friends fell in love. He was one of the people who had wanted it to happen from the beginning. But he was glad to see he was still important to them, as they were to him.
Jorginho could never have imagined that as James' heart opened wider to fit every piece of Jessie inside of it, that his own heart would expand and set aside spaces. It was lucky that he had done that. Jessie and James hadn't been together long when she had taken a test, and two bold lines indicated a whole new adventure.
Jorginho was the only one to write a formal congratulations in as neat handwriting as he could muster when the two of them told him that Jessie was pregnant.
You two are going to make the greatest parents.
He hated how he couldn't find the words for all that he wished to say. His thoughts were too much. His heart was too mushy. But he hoped that he got his point across.
I'll be here if you need me for anything and at any time.
He did get his point across. Jorginho kept the note in response tucked inside his journal for many years.
You're going to make the greatest uncle.
For someone who felt that they had been a poor son and brother, and goodness knows what else – Jorginho was as elated for this new beginning as Jessie and James was – and Meowth too. When the little arrival joined all their lives – two little arrivals – Jorginho began to write notes for them too.
Long before they could read, he said to them:
I heard you guys screaming for most of last night.
His second message sloped underneath made even Jessie smile, baby Justin tucked under one arm and baby Jazmyn snoring underneath the other.
Let's hope we all get a better night's sleep tonight.
James kissed his newborn twins on the forehead when Jessie prompted him to see this message and he told his children that Jorginho had put a smiley face underneath. They couldn't smile yet. But if they could, then he was sure that they would smile back.
The two babies adored Jorginho like their parents did, and this was clear from the way that their eyes searched for him when they were awake and as well as his naturally entertaining personality keeping them occupied for hours. They even started to offer a few of their first smiles and laughter just for him!
James just knew that he had to write Jorginho notes on their behalf. Jorginho was on top of the world to receive notes such as these:
We miss you. Are you going to recite us the plot of your new favorite movie soon? - Justin and Jazmyn.
Happy Birthday, Jorginho. We can't wait to grow big enough to use your bounty hunter helmet as a seat.
Thank you for our birthday presents, Jorginho. You make us smile every day. But you especially did on our first birthday.
Of course, James wrote messages directly to Jorginho himself but about the twins as well. You would think that Jorginho would mind one in particular. But he really didn't. Not even after he and James had moved in together when the infant ruined their own sleep schedules for one and other.
I'm so sorry but the creche can't take the kids tonight. I know it's a rare day off, but would you look after them for a few hours? You can say no. You deserve a break as much as anyone.
Jorginho didn't give up his free time just for anyone. But Jazmyn and Justin weren't just anyone. Jessie wasn't just anyone. James certainly was not just anyone. Anyone could see how speedily Jorginho sloped his message across the fridge in the speediness of his reply.
He didn't need to be asked twice.
Of course. They're only little once and I'll enjoy this time with them.
Jorginho said this and he did mean this even if part of him believed that they would stop being little, but he would still be able to be around for them. For their parents and Meowth too. But things started to change. Just like the notes slipped away from the walls of the bathroom and that whole bathroom itself got demolished for health and safety reasons, things seemed to have to change.
It started slowly at once, like the first nip in the air to let you know that autumn was around the corner. Jessie and James and even Meowth too stopped seeming so happy. So carefree. They still grinned and they still laughed but it just wasn't the same. Jorginho thought it was the loss of Christopher. That was one of the reasons that he sometimes found it difficult to leave bed in the morning.
But it wasn't that. Or rather, it wasn't just that.
Jorginho started to see it coming but he pushed it out of his mind. He blocked it from his heart. This defense mechanism of his came back to bite him on the bum. His heart had expanded when Jessie and James' children came along. When he learned that they were expecting a third child, he foolishly took it that it meant that his fears were nothing. His fears were foolish.
He was foolish.
Jorginho didn't know what to do when James told him that they were thinking of leaving the organization. He didn't grow ice cold on him there and then and continued to be his usual warm self to the trio, but the notes stopped. They hadn't stopped when they started sharing living space. But they stopped on this occasion.
For a few weeks. The notes ceased to exist.
But then they started again. A simple thing to test the waters.
Do you, Jessie, Meowth and the kids want to come over tonight? Music or a movie, your choice.
Jorginho stood back to read his own message before adding:
Oz isn't home.
Jorginho pressed his hand against his forehead after adding that, cursing himself for several things. He knew that he had written a message like this a million times before. But for the first time, he nervously anticipated getting a response.
Part of him almost imagined that James was going to tell him that they couldn't, because they were moving out the next day. Jorginho breathed the biggest sigh of relief when his response wasn't this and he got not one but two separate messages.
We would love to.
Jorginho could have sunk into the carpet with relief there and then.
Make it a movie. YOU pick. The kids need to learn your taste.
Jorginho could have made a home and lived on that carpet of his. James had written that his children needed to learn his taste, not make the most of his taste. Maybe they were staying after all. Maybe it was a pie in the sky dream. What would they do without Team Rocket? Who would they be?
Like him, he was sure that there was nothing outside of the organization for them that would keep them so fulfilled.
Notes started to pick up again after that. Some of them simple. Sometimes a little more complex. Jorginho's poetry. James' responses. He never had criticism. He expressed only wonder. Curiosity. Needing to know, how on earth did he produce ideas such as these?
But mostly, the note exchanges were questions like this – questions like they had always sent:
Butch and Cassidy's tonight?
Meowth has made a new noodle recipe. You want to try?
Good luck with your shift! You'll smash it.
Better luck next time. You'll get the mission that is meant for you in no time.
Jorginho thought that things were picking up again. Thought that they were getting back to usual. No, better than usual because they were all closer than ever and there was no frightening possibility that he would be left on his own.
And then one day, Jorginho got a note that changed everything. Or rather, it was not the note. It was everything that followed.
You going to the party tonight?
James didn't need to clarify which one. Everybody in Team Rocket knew about it. Atilla and Hun were throwing this whole big bonanza after they had done particularly well at a mission. There was going to be music. Dancing. You could smoke. Boogie. Drink. Do anything that you wanted. Meaning anything.
Jorginho turned up to have a fun time and let loose. Not to have his heart shattered. For some reason, surrounded by hundreds of people and as Jorginho came to the end of one of his famously long dance routines that he concocted from nowhere, James decided to tell him what he had done. What he, Jessie and Meowth had done.
They were quitting Team Rocket.
Jorginho tried to leave the party. He had been up so high but was suddenly crashing so low and he needed to leave. James followed him. Tried to make things right. Tried to talk to him. Jorginho didn't want to talk. He did something that he hoped would make James stay. Did something stupid.
Jorginho had done many a stupid thing in his lifetime but in his mind, this one took the biscuit. He knew that James would never look at him the same again. Let alone ever want to send him notes ever again. He couldn't believe what he had said. He certainly couldn't believe what he had done.
In the after math, Jorginho didn't know if he would miss the entire trio and their children more or miss the little note exchange. Who on earth would do all of that alongside of him? Of course, the sadness was blurring all into one. He was focusing on the wrong thing. The small thing, really.
He wasn't just losing a hobby. He was losing everything. A family. And he just didn't know what to do.
The abandonment of the note exchanging lasted longer than the earlier drought but once more, it was Jorginho to try again, to test the waters. He knew what he was doing. He could see straight through his own actions. He knew James could as well. For once he didn't care. He just had to try.
His words pleaded with James, even if he wrote him a question he always had done.
Do you want to come over for a smoke? I bought a new lighter.
Jorginho believed that he was risking his heart by simply writing to James. Somehow, he felt that even asking this was a bigger risk than the idiotic thing that he had done. It was stupider than that time outside of the party that James didn't wish to go to. Stupider than when Meowth had knocked on the door, realizing that they weren't actually the only two people in the world as his hand abruptly left James.
He didn't realize that the true wound was going to be the response. Or lack of it. He couldn't remember a time that James had ever written such a short one in return.
Not tonight.
Jorginho didn't know what to do with those two words. But that didn't stop him from trying. At least he was trying. He had been a fool. But he was determined not to be one anymore.
Do you want me to mind the kids tonight? I figured you and Jessie could use some time just the two of you before the third little one comes along.
Jorginho added a smiley face at the end. He imagined James smiling when he read it. But his heart warned him that he could be rejected. He wasn't, fortunately, but the reply made Jorginho show off a sad smile rather than the sun beams that he often could muster.
That would be great, actually, thanks.
He could somehow sense that there was more to come – more disappointment to come – before his eyes even dropped down to take in the second message.
We need to spend the evening in the computer room researching accommodation outside of the organization. That still okay?
He was given the chance to say no, to tell James that he could go to hell. James was mostly expecting this response. But Jorginho acted like it was fine. He said that it was more than okay. Jorginho just needed to hold onto whatever this was. The letter writing. The note exchanging. He just had to hold onto it. He didn't know what he would do without it. He didn't know who he would be without it.
Notes continued like this for quite some time. Both Jorginho and James kidded themselves that they were okay with it. Everybody around them didn't say anything, acting like they believed that the two of them were okay with it.
Jorginho believed that he was being reasonable. He was sending decent notes, wasn't he? Kind notes. Even thoughtful ones. And not just to James but to Jessie and Meowth and of course the twins as well. Jorginho didn't have the heart to write any to Justin and Jazmyn's unborn baby brother or sister because he had a feeling that he wouldn't be around for them like he was with the older two.
When it was confirmed that this was the case, he made an even bigger point not to send a note to the child who was to be born outside of Team Rocket. But, in his mind, his other notes remained decent. Remained kind. Stayed thoughtful.
However, it was of course everything that he was saying outside of the notes that caused them to dwindle. It was the snide comments. Jessie and James would never find work outside of Team Rocket. They were all disrespecting the very motto that Team Rocket members have in common. To put it how Jorginho did – they were shitting on their morals and everybody's.
But still, Jorginho's notes continued. James' own handwriting replied. He never wrote a note first, but he did reply. Seasons changed. Winter turned into spring. Jorginho's heart continued to break and to cope, he broke everybody else's.
Suddenly, it was Jessie, James and Meowth's last week in Team Rocket.
Do you have everything packed?
Jorginho had the guts to scribble to James one morning. It took him aback when he saw this note scarcely sticking to his mirror. He managed a reply in return. Why did he have anything to be sorry about?
Nearly.
Jorginho's splintered heart nearly fell out of his chest with what he read next.
I'd pack you as well if I could, you know that.
Jorginho didn't know why he wrote that after everything. James didn't know why he wrote it either. After everything. But something spilled out of him and onto the page. Maybe it was his younger self reaching for the younger, more forgiving self of Jorginho. Before everything went wrong. Before they both – they all – experienced such loss. Such turmoil.
But it wasn't like things were back to normal after this. Jorginho's heart may have nearly fell out of him, but he still didn't know how to reply to this message. So, he didn't.
James still wrote again after a couple of mornings. He didn't usually double write a message. But he had a question.
You coming to the gathering that Butch and Cassidy are throwing?
James didn't say the words send-off, but this is what it was. It was the trio and their children's send-off. Jorginho barely needed to reply with the single word that he scribbled in response, but he still did.
Jorginho said yes.
James' questions didn't stop. He suddenly had a lot. Things like:
Do you know where I can find more cardboard boxes last minute?
Can you check the children's car seats are secure?
Did you get Jazmyn and Justin's drawings for you?
This last one broke Jorginho in whatever ways he had left to break. He had somehow taken the send-off party on the chin and been a decent sport, but he couldn't handle this. He couldn't handle little doodles and indecipherable words from children he wasn't sure he would see again.
Jorginho suddenly didn't know if he could handle any of it. Actually, he knew that he could. This is why he said yes to things other than James' questions. This is why he said yes to a mission that he had previously turned down because he wasn't sure if he would return in time to say goodbye to Jessie and James as their car drove off.
Jorginho knew that he didn't want to say goodbye to Jessie and James as their car drove off. This is why James' last question went unanswered. This is why James' last note didn't have a response. Well, it did. But not in the handwritten way. Not even in the verbal way.
Jorginho's lack of interest – lack of presence – said everything that needed to be said.
James' note on his last morning of Team Rocket hung miserably on Jorginho's fridge for months, unanswered and unloved. Quite actively despised. But still not loathed enough to be removed.
James' handwriting would haunt Jorginho for a while but not as long his memory would. The memory of all of them. Not as long as the unanswered question.
Are you going to wave us off at the gate tomorrow?
Jorginho didn't respond. And he certainly didn't wish to wave. Jorginho did not respond. But this lack of response, in James' mind, was a response.
Notes had dwindled into nothingness. Friendship had too. What had started so full of glee was now so full of confusion. Even disdain.
Team Rocket was meant to be the best years of James' life. They had been at one point. But there was an entire world out there. A whole new chapter awaited him. It was sad that he had to close a chapter on something – on someone – to turn the page.
But that was life.
He was lucky to have any sort of chapter with Jorginho at all. But as he moved on, he knew that he wished to close the book that was a certain part of his life. Jorginho, however, always kept it open. Never forgot. Even if he didn't look at the wad of each other's notes stashed at the end of his journal.
James and his family would alive be alive in him somewhere. They stayed as an ache. But like the expression goes, a heart that hurts is a heart that works.
And if that is the case then, well, unlike him, Jorginho's heart was never going to retire.
The End.
There you go, thanks so much for reading and I hope you enjoyed! So yes, what started off as a fun habit, comes to an end when the TRio decide to leave for a better life for their family and Jorginho can't handle it. I didn't really mean to portray Jorginho as a friend who secretly hankers after James - a bit of a school boy crush - but now that I think about it, I think that absolutely is the dynamic! Nothing like that ever happens during this portion of their lives. (Or does it?) But it's no secret that Jorginho's sexuality is very fluid - and James' too but as he gets older and discovers that about himself. Jorginho loves and admires the entire TRio and their children but certainly James. Like it states in different words, I think Jorginho admires James' gentleness, his softness. And that in turn gives Jorginho the strength to be gentle too. But not when they all leave! That brings out a distasteful side of him, to be sure :P Thanks again for reading and I will be back on October 4th over on Pikachu Tales so perhaps see you there!
Amy signing out :)
