Hello :P It is Wednesday and I am back with a new chapter. I only wrote this at the beginning of the week actually so it's unusual for me to be uploading something so quickly. But the first Christmas chapter I wrote way back in September or so, I wanted that to be the last winter one uploaded so I had to make sure I got this written in time! I enjoyed it though and I enjoyed reading it through. It was fun to go back to the Team Rocket training days and also tackle a flashback of Jessie's parents, Isaac and Melissa. I hope you enjoy :)
Ages:
Jessie: 17
James: 16
Butch: 19
Cassidy: 19
Chris: 15
Melissa (Past): 24
Isaac (Past): 24
Jessie (Past): 2
Disclaimer: I own the story and the OCs mentioned! There's some adult themes in here like drinking and smoking so just a heads up.
"Merry Christmas, everyone!" the cat Pokémon broke the momentary silence that fell over the gang in the Team Rocket dormitory room. It hadn't been the type of silence that caused the oncoming aching of the stomach, though. And because it had just been the sort of one that happened in between conversation and chuckles, the words soon enough were reciprocated.
Drinks didn't clink together in their glasses but they were held up by most. Many heads nodded. Some eyes temporarily shut as a gesture of sincerity but soon opened once more. It took another second or so for the actual words to be repeated. But not much time at all passed for the holiday cheer to be offered in return.
"Merry Christmas, all." The magenta haired woman looked at Meowth who had been the original one to offer these words and then her blue eyes swung around to the other people in the dormitory. James. Butch. Cassidy. Chris. All there and all present.
Almost as soon as Jessie took in their faces and nodded to them all, drinks glass still held upwards in her hand, all of the people also in the room started to say similar words back but didn't quote either she or Meowth verbatim. Well, almost everybody else in the room offered seasonal greetings in return! Some of them even started to pat each other on the shoulders.
However, it became obvious when there was one person who didn't join in with this sort of thing. I'm told that he wasn't rude nor was he distant; he was just occupied with other things. While he didn't grunt, the male's silence rang out and it became clear when he didn't speak wintery words of well wishes back to the rest of the gang.
Reactions were split. Some people drew their brows together and waited. One person's eyebrows rose upwards on their face. Someone smirked! And then eventually someone else spoke, very clearly addressing the green haired male's lack of response.
It was none other than his yellow haired Team Rocket partner. Her perfectly plucked and arched brow rose further than anybody else's and putting her drinks glass down briefly, she waved her hand in his direction. She didn't need to touch him. The sting of her words made contact enough.
"Merry Christmas to you too, Butch!" Cassidy told her team mate in a vinegary sarcastic tone and Meowth watched as Jessie and James shared a glance, both of them thinking the same thing but managing to forgo smirking further. Chris was none the wiser. It seemed that the same could be said for Butch.
Not catching on to the reason that Cassidy had said this words to him and certainly not bothering to say them back to her let alone anybody, the green haired male remained sitting right up close to the open window of the dorm room.
A swift silence happened. Then that silence was broken by a light puffing sound. Butch exhaled the cigarette that he had been smoking in the corner of the room, by the window and slightly away from everybody else. He kept that cigarette near to his mouth and in his clutch for a couple of seconds and then he casually rested his wrist on the window sill, allowing the ash to drop down.
Cassidy continuing staring, her eyebrows continuing to shoot so far up her face that they might as well rocketed off her features. Jessie and James' quirking of the lips eventually began to die down as they looked to Butch themselves. Chris' head began to tilt. Meowth merely shook his head but didn't say anything, him almost being the one to start smirking again.
The green haired male was as oblivious to all the attention as he was to the fact that it would have been polite to return the holiday cheer. Or maybe he was really that good at pretending.
Missing a beat and one fleck of ash dropping down onto the ground from the end of his half smoked cigarette, Butch at last reacted.
"You want a drag?" his gruff voice sounded, referring to the way that all eyes were on him. At that moment, Meowth didn't resist grinning and his feline mouth curved upwards. James couldn't refrain from copying, sat cross legged on the carpet and pushing his hair from his eyes. Butch was forced to reconsider his attitude when more than just Cassidy's words stung him that time! "Jeez, Merry Christmas to you all too! I hope it's a good 'un."
Nursing the sore slapped spot on his arm with the palm of his hand while his two longest fingers held the cigarette, Butch's words sounded understandably gruff and not with too much festive cheer at all. In spite of this and the expression that was bitterer than the thing he was smoking, his offering was received by everyone else.
Cassidy calmed her expression down enough to show good spirits to James first before working her eyes around the room like Jessie had, sending blessings to everybody. Everybody else did the same to everybody else in the room.
But unlike how it had been Butch to not join in the first time, it was someone else to do this during the second round. That someone was Chris, the youngest of the clan. Apparently he had only heard one particular part of the green haired man's words!
"I'll take a drag." piped up the brown haired boy and he no longer copied the lavender haired male, untucking his legs from being crossed and beginning to lean closer to the oldest man in the room. His expression was all innocence and sunshine as he did exactly that.
As I look back from being told this story, more than ever I know that Team Rocket and the days of all their Team Rocket training were most certainly not filled with innocence! But it was clear that there was comradery all the same and almost a parental concern that cropped up occasionally too. There could be a very real level of protection.
That was proven by Jessie inviting herself into the conversation before Butch's cigarette could move even a fraction and be held out towards Christopher.
"No you will not." she answered for Butch and Chris firmly, putting her drinks glass down on the carpet in front of her in case she needed both hands to stop the fifteen year old boy from taking the white rolled thing from Butch. But of course, he didn't dream of moving an inch either. And he most certainly didn't with the way Jessie spoke to him!
The brown haired boy's big eyes blinking, James got there first with regards to who spoke next. Switching which leg was crossed over the other as he sat on the carpet opposite Jessie; he tousled another hand through his locks as he replied.
"You will not." James naturally uttered in a tone that was far easier on the ears but even so and peculiarly, Chris was far more hesitant to look over at him than he was to look over at Jessie, his eyelashes fluttering. The fifteen year old boy didn't look at the lavender haired male until he had added. "You want to preserve your youth, don't you?"
That butterfly gaze of Christopher's fell onto James at that point and everybody else's own stares did too. While the two women picked up their glasses and had another sip and Butch took the final few drags of his own roll up, the brown haired male and the lavender haired older one wordlessly communicated.
Chris looked at James with a confused single line appearing between his two brows before he replied with a look as if to say 'it's too late for me'. Joining James' wordless look, a twinkle befell his meadow orbs. Chris then chuckled and shook his head.
Perhaps feeling left out and bewildered by the fact that one of Team Rocket's gofers could understand his lavender haired team mate better than he could, Meowth took hold of the conversation after that moment.
Forcing his feline brows not to raise, his voice did as he commanded the conversation.
"Cheers!" Meowth boomed and rather effortlessly despite his large claws, he held a glass in his own hand and at last intended to chink it with someone else's. Everyone surprisingly was unhesitant to follow suit compared to their slowness to catch on the previous times.
Even Butch encouraged himself to be done with smoking and shuffled on his bottom on the carpet to join the other five in clunking their drinks together. More holiday cheers were offered. Some jokes and sly comments escaped from mouths as well.
And continuing on from the light-heartedness that took over the group all over again, it was Jessie's turn to commandeer the conversation after she touched her glass against James' bottle.
"Speaking of all things diabolical…" she started and immediately, she garnered James' attention who had only just drawn his translucent drinks bottle back and looked in return to his team mate. At that point, Butch and Cassidy were having a very subtle truce over their previous actions and their shoulders had pressed against each other. "Are you sure you don't want a proper drink with us, James?"
Shoulders still pressed against each other, Butch and Cassidy looked over to the opposing team and their lips began to curve upwards. Meowth was too busy using his mouth to swig from his own glass to smirk himself. Innocent as ever, that expression took over Chris' face yet again and he merely observed with a craned next.
Although he occasionally possessed the similarly naïve gaze, James heard Jessie's words and after furrowing his brow contemplatively to himself, he vehemently shook his head. His top lip curling upwards on the one side did all the talking but he still offered back words of rejection.
"No thanks." James told Jessie and a twinkle took over her own eye. She was clearly messing around with him! Even so, the lavender haired male gave her an answer as if she was entirely serious. "Eggs and alcohol do not go together. It's messed up."
Cassidy rolled her eyes as if to say that James' words were a bit of an exaggeration but for once she held her tongue and merely continued enjoying her drink that James felt so offensive. Butch evidently thought it was a fine combination from the way that he took another appreciative swig. With Chris observantly watching, the magenta haired female pretended to lean forward and swipe her glass under James' nose to annoy him.
Instead of the lavender haired male showing off an eye roll and the yellow haired woman being unable to hold hers back any longer, it was Meowth whose pupils circled in their sockets. He spoke before Chris could pipe up and accept that offer from Jessie for himself. But then again, maybe he had a similar stance to James and was happy to be sipping on the same single lemonade as him.
"So what was everybody's Christmases like when they were kiddos?" Meowth took hold of the conversation and since he was the one who drained his glass the quickest, he pushed his away from him for good and started to sprawl out comfortably on the carpet. "Parents have any habits? Any traditions?"
I can't help but feel like the word 'parents' should have been a foreign one to all of those misfit Team Rocket members. Many years from that point, I would go on to get to know the experiences that Jessie and James had – even Meowth too. But even so, I still felt like it should have been a foreign word to them. It definitely should have been at that point.
That was kind of why they all gathered together and they all hung out. I suspected that they barely had enough memories of parents who were even half the way decent to piece together and make one, single actually good one. Apparently, I was wrong. Yes, I most definitely got shown.
Though everybody in the Team Rocket dormitory and on one of the days leading up to Christmas looked at each other with a bit of a puzzled look on their expressions, this was seemingly down to waiting for someone else to reply rather than anything else.
It took the cream coloured cat Pokémon to shoot his eyebrow upwards and looked quite impatient for someone to hurry themselves into answering! That person was Cassidy. After copying Meowth's expression so intensely that the cat Pokémon backed off and Jessie looked rarely impressed, she responded, swirling her drink around in her glass.
"Oh, you know my parents." She began and needless to say, almost everybody looked at her cluelessly so she would have to fill them all in! Withholding a sigh, she continued swirling her drink and tried to paint a picture as best as she could. "They went the whole hog. Over the top. What a wonderful time. So cheery and perfect. Sickening!" Cassidy paused and Jessie and James forced themselves not to snigger over at each other. "I much prefer how it is now. It's real."
Seeing as he had previously managed to refrain from looking over at his team mate, the lavender haired male's eyes wandered around the room after he heard Cassidy's words. I knew that no doubt the tiny Christmas tree in another corner of the room and barely enough circles of paper to make a whole row of a chain was a far cry from the holiday time he would have experienced in his mansion.
And even at that point, he might've wondered how anyone could prefer that simple Christmas compared to one with a real family. But then again, he reminded himself, not everybody's families were all that. Perhaps that was why he let out a quiet exhalation of breath and continued looking at the yellow haired woman, even when someone else was encouraged to put their two cents in.
"Butch?" Jessie spoke the name of the green haired male, indicating that he should be next to tell all if he wanted to. Meowth had a bit of a surly expression taking over his features but then as he pressed further against the carpet and the warmth of his drink continued to kick in, he looked as if he couldn't be bothered!
In hindsight, I wondered if Butch could be bothered to tell the rest of the gang about his experiences as well. However, soon enough after rubbing his fingers together and possibly rubbing the lingering cigarette smoke from them; he shrugged his broad shoulders before he answered Jessie.
"Oh, well." he started in his typical gruff tones and Chris inwardly wondered if this was to buy himself time. His fingers continued meeting each other, massaging against one and other. "A very traditional time I would say. Unbearable if you hadn't been good for the rest of the year. Parents saved all year to go all out on just that one day."
While Cassidy nodded understandably, her fingers wrapping around the stem of her glass all over again and Jessie and James' eyes squinted together but for very different reasons. Chris nodded for the sake of doing so and Meowth didn't look at anyone, his eyes shutting together entirely in order to simply listen to everybody else.
I can't say if Butch could feel Christopher's eyes and his gaze honing in on him as he listened far more than anyone else, but for whatever reason, after sharing a little bit of his experienced, he turned to the youngest male in the group.
Butch invited Chris into the conversation.
"What about you?" he asked as he looked at him and although there was no mistaking that it was him being addressed, his naturally innocent eyes widened some more! And then he thought about a few things, absentmindedly scooting nearer to Meowth and listlessly running his fingers through his fur as he pondered.
Chris shook his head but this wasn't because he didn't have an answer. After his bangs fell evenly on either side of his angelic face, he conversed. He was the only one to have a slight smile as he did so.
"We didn't have a lot. But my parents made it special too." he gave himself time to ponder some more and then more words came, admirably his eyes reflecting some of the light of the basic Christmas lights in the dorm room rather than growing darker. Chris continued. "They always made sure that there was a gift for everyone. Even if it was just one. Not any of my siblings or I ever went empty handed."
Despite that everybody nodded and listened and looked at Christopher – that is, except for Meowth who nodded his head but didn't look at anyone as his eyes continued being pressed together – they all most likely had very different thoughts running through their minds. Looking back long after I heard this story for the first time, I can't help but wonder about them again.
I supposed that James couldn't relate to the lack of gifts being handed out. But as well as this, he probably didn't relate to it being a special time either. And if Cassidy did have memories of it being a special time, then it wasn't the kind of thing that she was into! Maybe she had become rather teenager-y early on in her life and any sort of effort her parents made, she labelled as lame.
As for Butch, the traditions most certainly weren't his cup of tea. But he still respected that his parents were entitled to the sort of Christmas that they wanted and he should be grateful that the effort was put in.
Breaking my thoughts even now, I remember what happened next after Butch got a tiny tale of his across. It was Meowth's turn. And he reluctantly revealed his eyes in order to answer but continued sprawling out on the carpet, undoubtedly the Christmas drink quickly getting the better of him!
"I don't have no Christmas memories at all. Parental or otherwise." Meowth announced in a surprisingly jolly way to contrast the words that came tumbling out of his mouth. Fortunately, everybody else in the room managed to stifle their laughter and keep it just to a shimmying of the eyeballs in case the cat Pokémon stopped being quite as laid back. "I think I just appeared on the earth one day. Bit of a miracle, me."
Jessie and James couldn't keep their amusement to themselves at that point. Whether it was his dreamy expression as he took a surprisingly large amount of space on the carpet or it was the words themselves, they let out chuckles at their other team mate and respectively played with their hair.
Chris' caring self, continued running his fingers through Meowth's fur all the more and this too was most likely in case he stopped feeling so good about the words that he was saying. Before Butch and Cassidy could commit to a proper response to the cat Pokémon, James' expression was filled with even more amusement when Meowth revealed just one eye open to look back at him.
"How very apt for this time of year, Meowth." James told him and he couldn't stop the continual light in his eyes nor his smirk even when he brought his bottle of lemonade to his lips and had a swig before handing it over to Chris who was still lingering near the cat Pokémon.
Although the lavender haired male didn't look at the brown haired boy and he didn't look back at him either as he accepted the drink, he continued observing his inward jokes with Meowth. Meowth didn't need to be bewildered when it came to a bit of a wordless language between James and Chris. It was clear that the cat Pokémon had a similar dynamic with James as well.
Jessie, too, from the way that she invited herself into the conversation. She was very much welcomed. She was looked at by Meowth who had both bleary blue eyes open at that point.
"Maybe we should put you on our Christmas card instead." The magenta haired female told him and her words were decorated with giggles as she said them, her hand covering her mouth slightly. Nobody could know for certain but the cream coloured cat Pokémon's eyes lit up when he heard this! Or maybe it was Jessie appearing daintier than usual.
Either way, his cheeks glowed warmer than his stomach after the alcoholic drink had ended up there. He shut his eyes all over again, nodding his head in a way that was trying to be modest but he couldn't hide how much he believed that that should be the case.
But of course, like how it was typical in every group, not everybody agreed with the antics. While Chris merely sat back and sipped on the drink he had been sharing with James, and Cassidy raised her brows but didn't say all that much, Butch's expression had started to grow sour again.
I suspected that just like anybody else, he had his parents still ringing in his own ears and sometimes that racquet caused him to retort.
"You shouldn't say things like that you know." Butch scolded and he did so almost as firmly as Jessie had warned Christopher against sharing a cigarette with him. And speaking of those cigarettes, he was so disgruntled by Jessie and James' antics with Meowth that he pulled the packet out of his pocket all over again.
Regardless, he didn't disappear to the window to smoke one. He merely continued shaking his head in a disapproving way, not looking at anybody. Because his head swayed from side to side and he looked down at the white cardboard box rather than anybody else, nobody could gage or ask him about his reaction.
Everybody was clueless. Everybody appeared clueless. And then some people appeared baffled. Those arch browed and parted lipped looks changed to quite a scrunched up expression. But then the subject was changed. They moved back to the previous subject at hand because that had apparently been working.
At the same time that Butch lifted a cigarette from the packet and put it between his own parted lips, moving over to the window again – and James absentmindedly reached for a guitar that had been propped up against the wall close to him – eyes moved over to that lavender haired male rather than the green haired one.
Cassidy not only looked over at James as well but she was the one to speak to him, with her eyes encouraging him to the the one for the next slight story telling. Although he was lifting the curve of the guitar against his upper thigh and positioning his fingers on the fret board and the string to begin thoughtlessly plucking a tune to himself, he caught on to the way that the yellow haired woman was looking at him.
James answered in a way that was colder than the breeze that was let in again by Butch and the open window.
"I've got no Christmas memories either. I'm an orphan, you know that." he half muttered but he still looked over at Cassidy and everybody else, his fingers tapping against the fret board. And while his voice came out unmoving, it didn't exactly cause a sting. And it didn't have an air of emotion either.
In actuality, it sounded as if he was reciting the most boring thing in the world. It was like he was reading aloud a shopping list. Meowth's eyes remained closed and he didn't change position on the carpet. Butch and Cassidy looked over at each other as if they should be offended or at least uncomfortable by James' response. But James himself didn't seem uncomfortable. So they decided to act as if he had ignored Cassidy entirely, shrugging and going back to drinking and smoking.
Christopher looked over at James with glistening orbs but even he didn't find the right words. And it goes without saying that Jessie looked over at the lavender haired male as well. But her gaze was different than anybody else's look and maybe different to one that he had ever received off anybody before.
Pressing her lips together, Jessie's head didn't need to nod. She let out a soft exhale. The lavender haired male copied this. After he too breathed silently outwards, that moment happened between them and he replied words himself. It was like it was only those two in the room at that point.
"What about you, Jess?" James' voice was naturally laid back and soft at the best of times but it took on a whole new quality of that when it came to the magenta haired woman and the secret language that they too did indeed share. Yet his guitar strings didn't make a single sound. They too waited.
Jessie shouldn't have been surprised when her turn of that little game of sharing had taken over the group had finally come but she still looked a tiny bit taken aback. Maybe she thought like nobody would remember to ask her. She should have known that James would. And Meowth would pipe up to ask her if he hadn't. And for various other reasons, Chris, Butch and Cassidy would too.
Jessie ran her fingers through those locks of hers, not saying anything initially. And it wasn't because, like when someone else in the group was sharing, all eyes were on her. The last thing that Jessie was was shy in the company of others and quiet when it came to speaking in front of others.
But still, she had a rare bit of quietness. However, it didn't last all that long. Her fingers tumbling out of her locks and taking hold of her very nearly empty glass for something different to occupy her hands with, she found her voice and replied to everyone as much as she replied to James. Her tone was for him though.
"Everything that I know about my parents is from asking around in Team Rocket and even then, everything is few and far between." Jessie started and the pads of James' fingers began plucking against the strings of the guitar, lending a soundtrack to her musings. After everybody else in the room carefully nodded, an extra wave of thoughtfulness ran over her face. She found herself adding first and speaking as memories came to mind. "But I suppose there is one occasion that I might be able to remember…"
And as Jessie's voice trailed off, her mind wandered to and came across a long forgotten place in her brain. It was a long forgotten memory in her mind. Part of her could not be certain it was real at all. But the more that the lavender haired male's fingers moved on the strings, the more that she knew that she had discovered something.
For once, she could not stop sharing. She could not stop sharing more than anybody else had done on that day. A Christmas memory was alive in her. A Christmas memory of her parents was alive once more. She had been reunited with them in thought.
A purple haired woman sat in another, different Team Rocket dormitory that was far more luxurious than ones that the organisation could also be known for. In fact, it could hardly be called a dormitory at all. It was practically an apartment in truth and because of the season that the story took place in, the building room was decorated in all sorts of green and red and gold colours.
Although there was a variety to festive galore to look around at and the large Christmas tree, the hanging tinsel, the candles and the wintery plaques longed to be admired, the only thing that the lady in the Team Rocket room was looking at was her daughter.
As Melissa's magenta haired daughter continued sitting on her lap, clapping her hands nonchalantly and occupying herself with the sort of thoughts that two year olds pondered, she could not stop looking at her. She could not stop staring! She could not stop smiling to herself.
Feeling the adoration for her child growing even more in the pit of her stomach and shooting upwards towards her chest, the purple haired woman managed not to squeeze her any tighter or smile any wider. But still, the more that this look and this feeling took place, the more chance that there was that the child was going to notice it.
And because the two year old girl was very much an aware sort of thing, it shouldn't have been surprise that she started to notice when her mother had gone quiet and begun looking at her with that funny look on her face.
Jessie tilted her head and let out a cooing noise before she slapped her hands together. In an endearing sort of way, she mumbled the word 'mama'. However, before Melissa's heart could expand any further and then burst or she could draw her toddler daughter even closer to her, a mischievous grin took over the child's face.
Suddenly wiggling her legs on top of her mother's lap, she intended to dart across the room and use those chubby clapping hands of hers to grasp something else and investigate it properly. But Melissa knew little Jessie very well! She knew her very well indeed. Apparently, it had been the sort of antics that she had been trying to stop her from getting into all evening.
The well respected Team Rocket agent let out a gasp and promptly held Jessie under her armpits, stopping her from moving one step further.
"You are an absolute rascal." She told her and immediately, she burst into fits of giggles at the way her mother was holding her in front of her face and the words that had escaped from her lips too. Jessie seemed to think that she was above being told off and so she just laughed. Melissa tried to frown. But instead her eyes became quite dewy. "Why do you have to be so stinking cute? But you are naughty. You can't open your daddy's present without him."
The magenta haired toddler started seeing her mother at an angle and not long after she did this, instead of her fists reaching outwards, one found refuge by curling through her own locks and the other went into her mouth. With very big and very blue eyes; Jessie looked confused, as if she didn't understand why she couldn't open her father's present without him. Or maybe, she wondered why her father wasn't there at all.
Melissa sighed. Melissa sighed an agreeing sigh.
"It'll soon be too late for you to stay up. Even on Christmas Eve." The purple haired woman spoke to Jessie but she spoke to her in such a way that wasn't the usual tone that she spoke to her daughter in that the toddler didn't react with giggles or innocence. She spoke words that the toddler couldn't understand either. And kept that up for a little bit longer. "I had believed he would just be doing the afternoon shift. But it seems as though it may very well creep into the night shift too."
Melissa spoke to herself as much as she spoke to Jessie and as if to comfort herself like her child was doing, she started to circle her finger around in her daughter's hair, getting wisps of it tangled around her index finger. She sighed again. But that time she sighed a different sigh and afterwards, she encouraged her brow to knot together and her head to nod.
She reminded herself.
"No point staring at a clock." She spoke just that sentence more in a grown up way and then her tone of voice changed, her voice elevating and growing sugary in a way that happened to people when they were talking to babies and children. Melissa's eyes softened as she looked back at her daughter. She jiggled her slightly as she continued holding her under her armpits. "Are you excited that it's Christmas? You're excited that it's Christmas, are you?"
And before a cheeky or an endearing grin could appear from little Jessie behind her fist that was continually being sucked on by her own mouth, Melissa stood up with her and began wandering with her around the room, showing her all the festive delights that there were to see. Needless to say, she had probably been shown them a million times before! They were probably very old to her at that point.
Or maybe they weren't. Maybe they were just as exciting as ever. It certainly appeared to be that way when it came to Melissa. Jessie's hands finally fell away from her hair and her lips respectively and they stretched upwards as she was held under a string of Christmas fairy lights to appreciate them.
"Do you like these best? Your daddy tried so hard to hang them neatly but in the end I had to do it." Melissa informed little Jessie as she bounced her some more. And going along with the possibility that she had been shown all of the apartment decorations a great many times already, the magenta haired toddler gave her mother a bit of a look. Apparently that had been pointed out to her a great many times too! After catching on to this and leaning to inhale close to her daughter's head, Melissa moved on to another area. Jessie grabbed a fistful of a sprig of plant. "Your daddy loves to kiss you under here, doesn't he?"
However, that time, the purple haired woman didn't appear to catch on to the way that her two year old daughter was looking down at her all over again, in between holding a fist full of mistletoe and secretly wondering how it would taste.
In spite of the fact that Melissa was trying not to wait for her husband to get back from his Team Rocket duty shift on Christmas Eve, there was a part of her that couldn't help but do so. She didn't like to wait for anybody. She especially didn't like to wait around for a man. But he wasn't just any man. They were a little family, those three. And that was what Christmas was about, wasn't it? Spending time with your loved ones.
Melissa tried to tell herself that it would work out well in the end, and they could use the money that Isaac earned by putting it away and keeping it for next Christmas. But it wasn't about the money of course, was it? It was about his presence.
Though she didn't tell him nearly as much as she felt inclined to do so, she didn't like to be away from him for too long at all. And she didn't like seeing her daughter and Isaac away from each other for too much time at all either. She tried not to wait. But she found it harder than she let on.
Still, she tried not to make it known that she was waiting. She tried not to make it obvious that someone was missing.
Drawing her toddler daughter closer to her hip again rather than having her held out towards the decorations so she could see the ones that were higher up, Melissa brought the child's attention back to the festive sort of feeling. But of course, it had been her mind that had wandered, not Jessie's.
"What is your favourite, then?" the purple haired woman asked her in a bit more of a prosaic voice but then the way that her forefinger and thumb reached out to squeeze her daughter's cheek made it clear that not only was she talking to her, but she was doting on her. Practically immediately, little Jessie's wide blue eyes grew all the more spherical and her head swung around. And then she pointed. Melissa was encouraged to smirk slightly and ask again, the palm of her hand brushing over her daughter's magenta locks. "What is your favourite?"
And like could often be the case, Melissa understood what Jessie's toddler self was getting at almost straight after uttering these words herself. The sound of 'oh' escaped from her lips as the two year old continued not only pointing but her dangling legs began to kick against her mother's waist as well.
She walked with her daughter over to the window. Of course, what was Jessie's favourite was not something inside the apartment at all. It was what was beginning to flutter outside and cover the world in a transformative thick and powdery layer.
"You never change, do you?" Melissa humoured Jessie as the two girls lingered by the window. After the toddler girl looked over at her mother as if she perfectly understood these words and the sentiment behind them also, her daughter's locks were tufted some more before the window was slid upwards so they could get an even better view. "It is coming down rather splendidly."
Melissa didn't lose Jessie's attention when she said her sentence, let alone when she said the last word. Instead, the more that the magenta haired child lingered by the window with her mother and the more that she could see the snowflakes falling down onto the building and the ground and was just out of reach, the more excitable that she started to get.
She kicked her legs against her mother some more and possibly even started to hurt her a bit from the way that Melissa winced. But still, she gave her daughter what she wanted. She held Jessie out towards the window so she could reach her hand out and feel when the snowflakes came fluttering down. She had a tight, safe and protective grip on her but held her with all the care in the world too.
Jessie could not control her excitement. And she didn't bother to control her excitement. She started to clap her hands over the white flakes that floated down from above.
"Snow, snow, snow!" she chanted and with each word that escaped her rosy lips, her palms pressed together and caught snowflakes between them squashing them and melting them against her hands. But of course, given the age that she was, Jessie missed a couple of sounds out in the way that her words were supposed to be formed.
Melissa looked at her daughter as if she was the smartest thing in the world, though. And after privately sniffing to herself, she wrapped her arms more against her belly and pressed her own one against the back of her toddler. She looked at Jessie encouragingly, nodding her head.
"Yes, that's right. Snow." she told her and then for a few more seconds, she got lost in simply enjoying watching her daughter marvel in one of the things that she deemed the most majestic thing in life and that was also utterly free. But then, the more that Jessie continued her ecstatic act and a snowflake fell on her snub nose, causing her to sneeze, Melissa's expression creased and she chuckled. "Oh you're such an amusing little thing, aren't you? It is very pretty though, isn't it?"
Jessie nodded her head like she completely understood. But at that age (for most of the part) she probably would have nodded her head at anything that her mother uttered. She thought that she was the most wonderful woman. She loved all of her reactions that she got from her but she loved making her say strings of sentences that she didn't exactly understand most of all. That's how she knew that she did something particularly grown up. That's how she knew that she did something particularly impressive.
Even at that tender age, she couldn't wait to grow up and continue impressing her mother all the more. But not only that, but she wanted to learn alongside her and share with her the things that even Melissa didn't know.
Not that she turned around and hugged her and not that her mother even noticed why she was doing this anyway; she leaned slightly backwards and arched her back against her mother's front to be closer to her. Melissa took this for a different reason.
Letting out a bit of a noise and showing off a touch of an eye roll, the purple haired woman gave in to her daughter and complied with her. Jessie hadn't even realised she had been hinting at anything to comply with.
"You really do love the stuff, don't you, you peculiar thing?" Melissa told Jessie with a touch of an amused frown and before the magenta haired toddler had a chance to slant her head, she was held out even nearer to the open window but was still held in the safest way possible. Melissa wasn't Isaac, after all!
Because Jessie hadn't been asking to be even closer to one of her most favourite things in the world, she was surprised when she was given the opportunity to be. But of course being as young as she was, she didn't react with fear nor did she react with scepticism. She naturally reacted with joy.
The magenta haired toddler girl shrieked and squeaked and clapped even more as the opportunity presented itself to be even more covered in snow. She lapped it up! She lavished in that occasion. Jessie couldn't be happier. She was being held by her mother and getting to experience the thing that she was utterly fascinated by.
She was getting to experience the thing that she was utterly fascinated by while being held by one of the people that she loved the most. Could life get any better?
Showing that even two year olds just might be able to think these kinds of things, Jessie altered her little body all over again and after enjoying being absolutely sprinkled in snow and shrieking at the sensation of it melting down her neck, she threw herself closer to her mother once more.
For half a second, Melissa mistook the sensation for nearly dropping her daughter and quickly held onto her tighter than ever before! But alas, Jessie was throwing herself towards her mother rather than away. She burbled and she giggled as she nuzzled against her mother's neck.
The purple haired woman breathed out, forcing herself to recover from the possible scare that she had very nearly had and focused on the closeness with her daughter instead. She inhaled and exhaled, her hand going to the back of Jessie's neck and embracing her as closely as the toddler was doing to her.
Melissa must have recovered from things pretty swiftly because soon enough, she was smirking. She didn't address the tender moment with her daughter with words. But the fairy lights in the apartment bouncing of her eyes did all of the talking in that respect.
"Oh, you don't have to tell me that it would make you happy for me to send you off to a region that got snow every single day." she spoke to her daughter and even though she had gone back to stringing long sentences together that she couldn't actually understand, Jessie lifted her chin from her shoulder and gave her a bit of a knowing grin. In spite of this, it was Melissa who was washed over with the desire to cling even tighter. She half pulled away from Jessie to look at her as she said this. "But how could I ever bare being apart from you?"
And because Jessie looked back at her mother with a tilted head as if to tell her that a day of them being apart would never come and Melissa believed this in her heart also, the two of them soon enough cuddled even closer together and didn't let go of one and other. The magenta haired toddler girl would've very much liked to look at the snow falling out the window some more and her mother would have been happy to grant her wish but neither of them had any qualms over that moment coming to an end.
Drawing the window back together and locking it as quietly as she could in case it was that that made her daughter realise that she couldn't see the snow anymore, Melissa moved away from the glass while Jessie's arms and legs wrapped around her. Following the very brief silence that took over the apartment and the scene when she had a quick moment to look at the clock, the purple haired woman felt it natural to fill that moment with a bit of noise of her own.
As Melissa took Jessie down to sit by the tree for some more cuddle time as the clock moved closer and closer to midnight on Christmas Eve, she nestled her toddler daughter down into the crook of her arm like she was a baby and began to hum to her. And as she hummed to her, she filled the peaceful albeit absence filled night with a song that Jessie would go on to soothe her own children with.
Like was the case when it came to her father as well when she unfortunately lost him too, it was those sorts of moments where Jessie would go on to feel extremely close to them both and be reunited with them both. Perhaps she couldn't reach out and hold onto them like she once could but she could find them in other ways.
But for the time being, in the time of that Christmas Eve and when Jessie was just a toddler, her parents – especially her mother – was very much in her reach. And she outstretched her arm and tousled her fingers in her mother's purple locks as her eyes started to grow sleepy and she listened to the song escaping her lips.
Yes, she really thought that she was the most wonderful woman. And they wouldn't ever be without each other for even a second, would they? The same went for her father. Though he was away on duty at that moment in time, she could handle that. She just couldn't handle them going out of sight for good.
Yet thankfully, she didn't need to worry about any of those things during that particular moment and on that particular day. And as the clock arms hugged nearer together and almost became midnight and Melissa managed to resist looking at it and reading it entirely, away went the moment that toddler Jessie had to fret over being apart from either of her parents.
As Melissa drew her child even closer and she brushed her hair out of her sleepy eyes even though the child still did not shut them, a key could be heard in the door of the apartment. Needless to say, both of their attention was quickly garnered. The purple haired woman was better at hiding it and she merely allowed her body to move, not allowing her body to turn.
Jessie wasn't as able to hide her reactions. And she didn't bother to hide her reactions either. Her body already wriggling in her mother's hold, she was on her tiny little toddler feet by the time that the key unlocked the door and the door swung open and someone else entered the apartment. Melissa's head turned when and only when her daughter cried out a name in particular and ran full throttle towards the magenta haired man.
Maybe Melissa hadn't been ready for the possibility that it wasn't going to be him. Maybe Melissa hadn't been ready for the possibility that she was going to miss him for a while longer.
"Daddy!" little Jessie shrieked to Isaac and like she had done when she welcomed the snow falling on the world, she clapped her hands and continually said this name to her father when she was scooped up into his arms. Her father held her close and didn't let her go. But then, rather breathlessly, he planted a kiss to her cheek before entering further into the room, of course searching for Melissa as well.
Plonking his heavy work duty backpack down onto the ground with a thud and with his spare hand, he didn't let go of his daughter while moving down onto his knees to be near to his wife on the carpet, intending to greet her as well.
"Home just in time for Christmas. Home to my girls." Isaac let these words be the only thing that breathlessly escaped his lips at first and switching which side of his body that Jessie was clinging onto and nuzzling, he wrapped a burly arm around Melissa and held her tight before she could object. His chest started to move against her as he tried to embrace her. Not that his girls knew it but it had taken a lot of effort on his part to actually be there.
The purple haired woman shut her eyes and allowed herself to sink against her husband but only just for a moment. She let him do most of the embracing and most of the affection. Then, as she pulled away, she had a frown on her face. But the expression wasn't down to him being late. Oddly, it was down to him being there at all!
"You better not have escaped early. You better not have told me that it was an afternoon run rather than a night run." Melissa told Isaac as she looked right into his eyes as best as she could while Jessie's chubby arm waved in front of her father's face, trying to get his attention. As her eyes searched for his, she already knew the answer. And because of this, she breathed out while her husband kissed their daughter's hand. "I hope you know what you're doing."
The sound of missing a beat was the only sound that could be heard initially. And then, finally putting his daughter down on the ground rather than holding her for himself like he very much would have liked, Isaac showed Melissa a charming grin.
Pushing his long and thick magenta locks out of his eyes, he then wiped his upper lip like there was sweat residue there from his escape and reassured his wife.
"My tracker and walkie-talkie are attached to a windmill in a field right where my duty is meant to be taking place." Isaac told her and Melissa managed to feign her reaction while Jessie stopped taking herself to the other side of the room and comically hiccupped. The magenta haired man grinned some more and breathed out again in response. "They will see me circling for hours, just like I'm meant to be doing."
And with that, Isaac didn't wait for another reaction from Melissa and he bundled her into his arms all over again, having both of them to hold her that time, and pulled her close. Even though the purple haired woman mumbled words of seeming resistance, I suppose the magenta haired male knew what they meant.
"I don't want you getting hurt. Not on Christmas." Melissa made her voice ring out in a half amused and half exasperated way. However, the words 'not on Christmas, and not ever' rung out after she had actually said some of the words that could be heard. And speaking volumes of the sentiment and everything that she said and everything that she had not said, she finally succumbed to her husband and she fell against him properly.
Melissa's own arms went around Isaac. Isaac's arms continued being around Melissa. They embraced. They embraced closely and they embraced unfalteringly. And when they pulled away, they pulled away with only the intentional to press their lips against each other's.
They didn't need mistletoe to do that. Their lips found each other and wordlessly, they told each other how glad they were to see each other, and how grateful they were to have another Christmas by each other's side. They would treasure it.
There didn't seem to be anything that could break that moment. But of course, something could. And of course, that something was Jessie!
All over again, she had gotten hold of her father's gift from her and her mother underneath the Christmas tree and not only had she somehow managed to drag it out, but as she did so, she caused the gift to make a bit of a sound.
Isaac furrowed his brow and looked over at his daughter curiously, his eyes filled with amusement in case it was her that had somehow made that instrumental sound from her lips! Melissa gasped. And before Jessie could give away anything even more or she could take the chance to unwrap it herself, with an arm still lingering around Isaac, she told him with a giggle at last.
"I think you'd better hurry up and open that. It is Christmas now, after all." Melissa told Isaac and after the couple shared another peck on the lips, the magenta haired man scooped his daughter up all over again and together the three of them sat by the tree and intended on opening presents. There was no way that they could wait until morning with Jessie around!
And like Melissa had said, it was then Christmas. It was Christmas and she wanted to embrace every single moment with her loved ones. I'm sure that she probably still remembers this story as well. But I got to know it from Jessie. And everybody else got to know it from Jessie. It was all from her eyes. It was all from her memory. And she still remembers the exact same way that her father looked and she still remembers the exact same moment of when he unwrapped the slick and ebony coloured guitar from his daughter and his wife and the gasp that escaped his lips.
He wondered how they could have afforded it. He wondered how either of them could have known that he had been wandering past the guitar shop and looking in with awe at it for the past couple of months.
Jessie remembered all of this. His widening of his eyes. The sound that came from his throat. His awe. His emotion. But perhaps more than all of that and all the things that she saw, she remembered all the things that she felt. She remembered her toddler heart thudding with love and feeling as though it was going to burst as she pressed her cheek up against her father's sculpted arm as she sat down on the carpet and listened to him playing the first song that escaped from that guitar.
It was the same song that her mother sung to her. And it was somehow the same song that James had begun to play which prompted her to tell this story to him and the rest of the Team Rocket gang. There were parts of her that didn't know which part of that whole story that she had made up. There were parts of her that didn't know if it was just a story she told herself to just have something – anything.
But after she told it to all the people who listened to her and after the words escaped her brain and came out of her lips and hit the air, she was more certain than anything. It was a real story. And it wasn't one just for her anymore. It was one for everyone. That was something she remembered almost as much as that treasured day with her parents.
"That's a lovely tale, Jessie." Chris was the one to tell the magenta haired woman when it came to a close and that day almost came to a close. There was still a bit of time to go before it was Christmas Eve for that group but that day had come to a close and all of the story time had as well.
The rest of the gang in the dorm room nodded in agreement. Butch and Cassidy did as they finished off a top up off their drinks. Chris did following his own words. Meowth did and he made sure to look at Jessie in the eye even though he could scarcely keep them open!
The magenta haired female did as well but she remained understandably quiet after all of her story telling and maybe with the sensation that she had shared too much. The lavender haired male was similarly silent. He was still hugging his arm around the guitar as he plucked the strings and his hand rested on the fret board and he continually played that same tune.
Not that Jessie made it apparent, but she swallowed as she thought to herself. And it was at the same time that she did this that James decided to let his voice be known as well. It came out gentle and unmoving. But at the same time, it shot right to the core. And it most certainly got the magenta haired female's attention.
"Yeah. Thanks, Jess." was all James told Jessie and with that, he went back to playing that same ebony guitar and allowing that same tune to ring out.
In response, Jessie didn't look over at him. She didn't nod. She didn't shrug. She didn't even look over at him. But on the 23rd December in the Team Rocket dormitory, she stretched out her legs against the carpet. And not only did she know something, but James did as well.
When he shot her subtle and private looks when he knew that she wasn't looking, he knew something most real in his heart.
Holding that same guitar that Jessie and Melissa had bestowed upon Isaac all those years ago, he always gathered the importance that it held. It was unbeknownst to everyone else. But not to him. He knew. He then knew.
He knew the importance of the guitar and he knew the depth of the story also. And in that moment, he was all the more aware and certain of the gravity within that magenta haired woman in his life. Because of this, he had never felt gladder – no, he felt the absolute weight of gratitude vibrating through him – that he ended up with her.
He was still clueless as to where that partnership would go. Just like little Jessie didn't know that one day she would have to face life without her parents. But no matter what, yes, there was always a piece of them still around. In the hums that absentmindedly escaped her lips and from James' guitar. And the children they would go on to share.
Maybe Jessie sharing of that story on that day caused the path of things ending up in the way they did. Maybe that was a stretch. But I liked to think it was true.
Who needed Christmas wishes when it came to the two of them? The three of them, even? They were Jessie, James and Meowth. They would be present for each other no matter what. That was another thing that was for certain. Like Melissa, Isaac and Jessie regardless of the distance or what unfortunate twists of fate happened, they were family.
And that too lasted the entire year round. For them all.
The End.
There you go! Thanks so much for reading and I hope you enjoyed :3 I actually jotted this story down with the intention of doing it for 2021 but decided to make it Christmas themed ready for upload this month. It was enjoyable to write all canon characters in the beginning half but with some made up backstories. I pretty much came up with them on the day! I look forward to writing more like that in the upcoming year :) Well, thanks again for reading. I'm going to take a couple of weeks off from uploading in January in order to stock up on stories and honestly just take a bit of a break. I said at the beginning of 2020 I would upload less frequently and then the pandemic happened and Justin and Eli took off and I found myself able to upload almost every week. I do plan to upload slightly less frequently in 2021. But who knows? I said that last year! :P But for the rest of 2020 I still have some uploads to do. So see you Wednesday again :)
Amy signing out!