Author's note: Hi again! Not much to say this time, except 'keep those ideas flowing!' I'm not saying that I'll definitely use them all, but, if an interesting idea strikes me from someone's suggestion, I'll probably write it.

Girl Troubles

It was a fairly warm evening in Sinnoh, with the clouds just beginning to darken the sky. Since Ash had recently won his beacon badge, he was currently sitting on the grass and shining it with a pink handkerchief, while Dawn brushed Buneary's fur and Brock prepared their food. Pikachu was standing proudly beside Ash, having helped him win the badge.

Once Dawn was finished brushing Buneary, the rabbit hopped over to Pikachu, still completely smitten over how well he'd done in that gym battle.

"(Hey, Pikachu!)" she said happily.

Pikachu smiled at her. "(Hey, Buneary,)" he replied.

Buneary blushed at the adorable smile and started giggling madly. "(You were amazing in that gym battle.)"

Pikachu chuckled, scratching the back of his head. "(Oh yeah, you were watching, huh?)"

"(Yep! I saw you beat Volkner's electivire, and really wear his luxray down!)"

"(Heh. Well, thanks! I did try my best out there.)"

"(Right! And you were even ready to fight Infernape when you thought he went out of control! Even though you'd already fainted once!)" She swooned. "(You're so strong and cool and manly...)" Unable to control the urge any longer, she hugged him. "(You're the coolest!)"

"(Um... thanks.)"

He gently pushed her away, which was rather disheartening. Especially since it wasn't the first time he'd done it.

When she looked at his face, however, she could see, with delight, that he was blushing rather hard. She giggled.

A while later, Pikachu was eating his pellets, with Buneary sitting next to him and eating her own pellets, and everything was going rather smoothly. The various conversations the two of them were having were rather interesting and, every so often, Buneary would give him a rather large compliment that always left his heart racing awkwardly. He'd never understand why she liked him so much, but he couldn't say that he didn't like the attention. It was really flattering. He felt oddly special whenever she came to sit next to him, specifically.

"Give that back!" Ash suddenly yelled. Pikachu snapped to attention and watched his trainer, curious to see what had made him angry.

Dawn giggled, holding the pink handkerchief away from him. "Oh," she said, "a bit protective of this, are we?"

Ash leapt towards her, across the table. "Give it!"

Dawn jumped to her feet just in time, laughing hysterically. "Lemmie guess, Ash... this is from your friend, Misty, too?"

Ash pushed himself off the table and dashed around it. "Dawn!"

Dawn ran away from the table, waving the handkerchief like a matador goading a tauros. "First the lure, and now the handkerchief! She must really mean a lot to you!"

Ash made wild grabs for the handkerchief, which Dawn dodged. "Shut up and give it back!"

Brock sighed with a tired smile. "Come on, you guys..." he said.

"Well, tell her to give it back!"

Dawn playfully stuck out her tongue. "Nyeh!" she said.

Pikachu smiled in exasperation. Why Ash had to get so protective over the little things that Misty had given him a long time ago, he'd never know. Next to him, Buneary giggled in amusement.

Suddenly, he felt something clamp around his waist and drag him backwards, into the bushes. He screamed in shock and slight terror. Before he knew it, he was trapped inside one of those accursed shock-proof glass cages and floating high in the air, in the all-too-familiar meowth hot air balloon. Team Rocket cackled their usual victory laugh.

"Listen," Jessie said, "is that a voice I hear?"

"It's speaking to me, loud and clear," James said.

"On the wind!"

"Past the stars!"

"In yer ear!" Meowth added.

"Bringing chaos at a breakneck pace!" Jessie said.

"Dashing hope, putting fear in its place!" James said.

"A rose by any other name's just as sweet!"

"When everything's worse, our work is complete!"

"Jessie!"

"And it's James!"

"Meowth," Meowth said, "now dat's a name!"

"Putting the do-gooders in their place!" Jessie said.

"We're Team Rocket!" James said.

"And we're in your face!" all three said at once.

Wobbuffet popped out of his pokéball and saluted. "(Thaaaat's right!) he said.

Mime Jr. also popped out of his Pokeball. "(Sure is!)" he added.

"Pikachu!" Ash called out angrily.

"(Pikachu!)" Buneary called out in worry.

Jessie laughed. "Give it up, twerp!" she said. "Pikachu is ours now!"

"Dat's right!" Meowth added. "And he's goin' straight to de boss!"

"In exchange for huge promotions!" James added.

"We'll see about that!" Ash yelled. "Torterra, use Energy Ball!"

Torterra stepped forward, a green ball of energy forming in front of his mouth.

Pikachu watched in horrified fascination as Buneary began to power up her own attack at the same time, with no instruction from Dawn to do so. Launching the attack into the air, she froze the balloon basket in a block of ice.

"Buneary, what-?" Dawn asked, but she wasn't able to finish.

"(Eh?!)" Torterra called out in surprise, swivelling his head just as he launched the Energy Ball.

Now slightly off-course, the attack flew much lower down than it was supposed to, aiming for the basket, instead of the balloon. The moment it hit, it exploded on impact. As Pikachu was blasted out of his cage and hurtled through the air, he could just make out his friends down below, shrieking and covering their faces from a shower of icicles.

"Looks like we're blastin'-!" Meowth's voice said. "Huh?"

Pikachu looked to the side of him and saw that he was flying alongside a stunned-looking Meowth. Looking the other way, he saw Jessie, James, Wobbuffet and Mime Jr. flying in the opposite direction.

He groaned. "(Great...)" he said, "(just what I need...)"

It took Pikachu a few moments to regain consciousness after his landing. Once he woke up, he tried to get to his feet, only for the ground beneath him – which he soon realised was a tree branch – to give way and cause him to fall. He screamed, noting vaguely that someone else was also screaming, before hitting the floor rather painfully.

"(Owwww...)" he said, cringing.

"Ugh..." Meowth said from next to him, "landin's never get any easier, dat's for sure..."

Oh right, yeah. Meowth was here.

Pikachu slowly pushed himself to his feet and glanced around him. All he saw were trees and bushes in every direction, so he didn't have the faintest clue where he was.

"(Where are we?)"

"How am I supposed to know where we are?"

Pikachu looked over at Meowth, to see the cat sitting up and scowling at him. He scowled back. "(Well, you know blasting off better than anybody, so I figured you'd know.)"

"Hey. Just 'cause Team Rocket's used to blastin' off, it don't mean we always know where we land!"

Pikachu looked away again. "(Ugh. Fine.)"

After a few moments, Meowth walked over to stand next to him. "Well, I guess I better go look for Jessie and James. Dey're gonna be worrying demselves sick if I'm away for too long."

"(Yeah and I need to find Ash, Dawn and Brock.)"

"Well, den!" Meowth strolled past him, a bright smile on his face. "Let's go!"

Pikachu lowered his eyelids in distrust. "(How do I know you won't try to pull a fast one on me?)"

Meowth stopped and turned to give him a puzzled expression. "Pull a fast one on ya? Come on! I can't do squat to ya widout Jessie and James!" He shrugged. "You know as well as I do dat dey're de ones who oin de Team Rocket dough. When de boss pays 'em, dey can afford parts to build machines to capture ya wid. I don't oin no money... or have any o' de stuff on me... so dere's no way I can capture ya!"

Pikachu blinked his eyelids back open, realising that he was right. "(Yeah, I guess so.)"

Meowth smiled again. "Exactly! So, let's go!" He turned around and started walking.

Pikachu also started walking, soon catching up to his Team Rocket nemesis and walking alongside him. After a few moments, a thought occurred to him. "(If Jessie and James find us first, you're still gonna capture me, though, right?)"

Meowth laughed. "O' course! If Jessie and James find us foist, ya'll be back in dat cage and shipped straight to de boss!"

Pikachu lowered his eyelids again. "(Figures.)"

After a couple of hours of pointless wandering, it had gotten too dark for Meowth and Pikachu to continue, so the two of them were currently setting up camp for the night. Pikachu, who was lining up a circle of rocks, hoped that Ash would find him in the morning.

Soon enough, Meowth returned with a pile of firewood, which he threw into the circle of rocks. "Okay," he said, "now, we need to light fire to dese babies..." He sighed, got on his knees, picked up two sticks and started rubbing them together.

Pikachu sighed and scratched his head at the cat's stupidity. "(Meowth...)" he said.

"Don't bodder me now, Pikachu!" He rubbed the sticks faster. "I'm tryin' to light a fire!"

Pikachu watched his fruitless attempts for a few moments longer, before deciding to save him the trouble. He charged up a tiny amount of electricity in his cheeks. As he let it loose, a small spark flew over to the firewood and instantly set it on fire. Meowth jumped backwards with a yelp. Pikachu couldn't help but chuckle in amusement.

Meowth didn't look amused. "Heh. Neat little trick ya got dere, Pikachu. A shame ya didn't use it sooner!"

Pikachu smiled mockingly. "(Well, you looked like you were having so much fun, I didn't know whether to intervene or not!)"

"I was not havin' fun, and you know it!"

Pikachu stuck out his tongue. "(Heh.)"

Meowth sighed again. "Let's just get dis fire stoked, okay?"

Eventually, the fire was rising high enough to keep the two pokémon both well lit and warm. Pikachu thought it was a bit of a shame to have to spend the night with Meowth, instead of Ash, but he'd done it before, so there was little harm in doing it again for one night.

After a while of warming himself up in silence, his thoughts drifted back to Buneary and her strange behaviour earlier. She was the main reason that he was here, now, stuck in the woods overnight with Meowth. He couldn't help but ponder her motives.

"(Why did she do that?)" he asked himself.

"Hmm?" Meowth asked from across the fire. "Why did who do what?"

"(Buneary. Why did she fire that Ice Beam, when Dawn didn't even tell her to?)"

"Why did Buneary fire dat Ice Beam?" Meowth paused, then laughed. "Ain't it obvious?"

"(Not really.)"

Meowth shook his head with a smirk. "Jeez..." He stopped shaking his head. "It's 'cause she really likes ya, Pikachu! She probably got so worried about ya bein' stolen that she wanted to save ya herself."

"(But Dawn didn't tell her to use Ice Beam...)"

"So, de twoipette didn't tell her to. So what? Love can make a pokémon do crazy t'ings, ya know!"

Pikachu blushed slightly at the thought of Buneary loving him, but ignored it. "(She still shouldn't have done it, though. It's a pokémon's job to listen to their trainer, after all.)"

Meowth waved a paw in dismissal. "Eh, you and yer law abidin'! Just because ya got a trainer, it don't mean ya need to wait for deir approval to use moves."

Pikachu sighed, realising that he wasn't getting anywhere with this conversation, and decided to drop it. It wasn't like Meowth would understand, anyway, being the freelance pokémon that he was.

"(You and your law breaking...)"

There were another few minutes of silence. "So... have you gotten anywhere wid Buneary yet?"

Pikachu's head snapped up in surprise. "(Huh?)"

Meowth smirked at him. "That goil's completely crazy over ya. I'da t'ought ya'da gotten somewhere wid her by now."

Pikachu blushed again. "(Uh... no.)"

Meowth laughed. "No?" He stopped laughing. "Well, I suppose not. I'da noticed if ya had, since I follow ya around all de time."

"(It's not like that! I mean... I know she likes me, but... I dunno if I'm ready for a girlfriend yet. I wanna... enjoy my travels and battles, you know? I'm still young and all...)"

Meowth stared at him for a long moment, blinking once, twice, three times, before bursting out laughing. The laughter got so out of control that he fell over, clutching his stomach.

"Ya wanna... enjoy... battles! Yer not... ready!"

Pikachu felt a stab of annoyance, as the laughter continued. "(What?)"

Meowth was too busy laughing to reply.

Eventually, when the cat calmed down, he sat up, rubbing his eyes dry. "Man... yer more like de twoip dan I t'ought!" He cackled. "And dat guy wouldn't know love if it danced da conga naked in front of him! Heck, he'd probably challenge it to a battle!" He continued laughing.

Pikachu grew more annoyed. Not only was he laughing at him, but he was also laughing at his trainer now, too. "(Hey, don't insult Ash!)"

Meowth calmed down again. "Awright, awright. No need to get yer tail in a twist."

Pikachu folded his arms indignantly. "(What makes you the expert on love, anyway?)"

Meowth smirked again. "What makes me de expoit? I like to t'ink dat me, Jessie and James know what's what, when it comes to love. See, de t'ree of us have a sixth sense in de business of romance."

"(Uh huh...)"

Meowth's smirk suddenly melted into a sad smile. "Besides... I've had my share of love in de past."

The change was so shocking that Pikachu couldn't help feel sorry for him. "(Meowth...)"

In an instant, Meowth shook it off and went back to smirking. "Anyway... I really t'ink ya should snatch up Buneary while ya got de chance. I mean, she practically t'rows herself at yer feet and yer doin' not'in' about it!"

Pikachu's temper flared again in defiance. He flung his arms out of their folded position and clenched his fists. "(Hey, I already told you! I don't think I'm ready for that yet!)"

Meowth shrugged. "Den I guess ya don't mind losin' her to some odder pokémon, huh?"

Pikachu paused, unclenching his fists, as he thought about this. How would he feel if Buneary fell for someone else? And how would he feel if that 'someone else' liked her back and became her boyfriend? Or even lover? He wasn't sure, but something inside him resented the idea, ever so slightly.

He shook it off. "(Anyway, who says I have to act now? If I'm not ready, it wouldn't be right to string her along.)"

Meowth sighed with a smile. "Pikachu, it ain't stringin' her along. If ya want my poisonal opinion, she desoives to be given a chance. Heck, if it were Meowth she was fawnin' over, I'd have made her my goil a long time ago."

Pikachu grew angry at this remark. If Meowth thought he was taking his admirer away, he had another thing coming. "(Don't even go there!)"

Meowth chuckled. "Cool yer britches. I ain't interested in Buneary, and she ain't interested in me. You're de one she has a major crush on."

Pikachu blushed and looked away in embarrassment. "(Right...)"

"I'm tellin' de truth when I say dat, dough. I've had plenty o' crushes in de past, but none of 'em have ever felt de same way about Meowth."

Pikachu looked back at Meowth, intrigued by the sudden depth of the conversation. The cat had never mentioned anything about his previous crushes, so Pikachu had just assumed that he'd gotten over them.

"(... Meowth?)"

Meowth stared down into the fire. "Foist, dere was Meowzie. I woiked my tail off, tryin' to please her... loinin' English, walkin' on two legs... all 'cause I t'ought she'd be impressed... but, in de end, she considered me a freak... and chose a poisian over Meowth."

Pikachu's ears drooped in pity. "(Oh...)"

"Den dere was dat human goil, Cassandra... de one wid the paras dat needed evolvin' for her medicine..."

Yeah, Pikachu vaguely remembered helping a girl with that, once.

"I woulda happily stayed wid her and been her company mascot… but she also ended up choosin' a poisian over Meowth..." The cat heaved a sigh, a frown forming on his face. "I swear, de more I encounter dose t'ings, de less I wanna evolve into one."

... Well, he supposed he could sympathise a bit there.

"Next was de Hoenn twoipette's skitty. I made de effort to save her from being on Team Rocket... save her from a life of failure and starvation... but I guess she was too dense to understand love."

"(Yeah...)" To be fair, May's skitty had been a bit low on the IQ points...

"De odder skitty I met might have been interested... but I'll never know, 'cause 'o dat accoised azurill, who kept gettin' in de way!" Meowth frowned deeper and shook his head. After a moment, it melted into a sad expression. "And I really t'ought I'd hit de jackpot wid dat glameow. She let me pamper her rotten, and even agreed to elope wid me! But, well..." He flinched. "She evolved and became a nasty, bratty, spoiled piece o' woik!" He paused. "... Not to mention, fat and ugly."

Pikachu couldn't help snorting in amusement at that. Darn it...

Meowth looked up at him, his expression still sad, but he was now smiling a little, too. "So yeah. I'da given anyt'in' for even one o' dose goils to love me de way Buneary loves you... so you should t'ink yerself lucky... and snatch, while de snatchin's good." He yawned, then lay down on his side. "Well, I'm tired now, so I'm goin' to bed. Night, Pikachu."

"(Yeah, night...)"

As Meowth lay by the fire, slowly drifting off to sleep, Pikachu looked up at the starry sky, puzzling over Buneary. He knew very well – thanks to Brock, Dawn and May all pointing it out, and the rabbit being none-too-subtle about it – that she harboured strong feelings for him, but he'd never given it any serious thought before. Would things be better if he gave her a chance? Meowth's theory did hold some water, but he truly wasn't ready for that kind of thing. Maybe he did spend a bit too much time around Ash. He could admit that his trainer was rather dense when it came to love. He liked to think that he was more intelligent in that area, but the guy's naiveté and inexperience had, likely, rubbed off on him. He sighed.

Staring up at the few clouds that now dotted the sky, he noticed that one of them looked a lot like the fluff around Buneary's waist. He smiled fondly at it, thinking to himself that she was, in fact, a very cute, charming, oddly amusing and all-around fun pokémon to be around. The moment that he felt his heart skip a beat, he realised that he was thinking about it too much. Shaking it off, he lay down and closed his eyes.

The next day, Meowth and Pikachu had put out the fire and were, once again, trekking through the woods. Conversation was sparse, which Pikachu guessed had to do with their talk the previous night. He certainly had no complaints about that, though, as he didn't particularly want to breach the subject again.

"(Pikachu!)" a staraptor's voice called out.

"(Huh?)" Pikachu asked, looking up at the sky. Directly above him were Ash's staraptor and Dawn's togekiss, smiling down at him. The sight was a welcome relief. He grinned widely and waved his arms. "(Hey, Staraptor! Hey, Togekiss!)"

"Well, if it ain't yer poképals!" Meowth said happily.

"(Hey, Pikachu!)" Staraptor replied.

"(It's good to know you're safe!)" Togekiss said.

Staraptor glanced behind him. "(Ash! He's over here!)"

"Pikachu?!" Ash's voice called out.

"(Ash!)" Pikachu replied, lowering his arms and looking away from the flying-types.

"Meowth, are you there, too?" James' voice called out.

"Answer us, right this instant!" Jessie's worried voice called out.

"Jessie! James!" Meowth replied in delight.

"Pikachu!" Ash called out as he came into view, running towards Pikachu with a happy smile on his face.

"(Ash!)" Pikachu called back, running towards his trainer on all fours. Once he was close enough, he leapt into Ash's arms and received a huge hug.

"Good to see you again, buddy!"

"(You too!)"

Dawn, Brock, Jessie, James and the rest of the pokémon followed soon after. Jessie and James immediately bent down and hugged Meowth.

"You big lug!" Jessie said.

"You should learn to stop blasting off without us!" James added.

Meowth chuckled. "I'll keep dat in mind!" he replied.

Eventually, Ash put Pikachu back on the ground, where he was immediately tackled in a hug by Buneary.

"(Oh, Pikachu!)" she cried. "(I was so worried!)" She pulled away and looked him over. "(Did anything happen? Are you hurt? Tell me you're okay!)"

Pikachu blushed. Gosh, he'd been doing that an awful lot in the last two days, he realised.

He smiled awkwardly, as his heart raced inside his ribcage from her touch. "(I'm fine, Buneary,)" he replied. "(Don't worry, okay?)"

"(Are you sure?)"

He nodded. "(Yeah.)"

She beamed at him, blushing herself, and he couldn't help notice how adorable she looked like that. She nodded back. "(Okay.)"

Soon after, Jessie and James agreed to leave Ash, Dawn and Brock alone for the rest of the day, partly to recover from their recent losses, and partly to come up with a new plan of action. As Pikachu walked away from the area, Buneary by his side, he cast one last glance at Meowth, who was walking in the opposite direction. Turning around and locking gazes with him, the cat smirked and winked at him.

His face reddening in embarrassment, Pikachu quickly looked away again.

The End