AN: Set in late season 1/early season 2. Rocketshippy. Rated T for now but will turn to M for future chapters. Please enjoy, and review!

CHAPTER ONE: EAVESDROPPING

It all started off with a little eavesdropping.

And James didn't even like to call it 'eavesdropping' exactly, because it wasn't his intention to spy on Jessie and Meowth, or anything of that sordid sort. Initially, it had been a complete accident that he overheard their conversation that fateful summer evening.

Team Rocket had just finished blasting off again. This time, after being foiled by those pesky twerps yet again, the threesome had descended from their glistening star in the sky to land in a desolate forest. For an hour, they searched the area for unsuspecting people to trick and unsuspecting Pokemon to steal, but they found no trace of human or animal.

"Jessie, I'm tired and my entire body is aching," James complained after the failure of their day had set in once again. He collapsed against the nearest tree trunk he could find.

"Stop your whining, James! It's only five o'clock! We have to keep scanning this forest until we find something that's definitely not ours and definitely should be!"

James sighed and ran a hand through his hair, which somehow always managed to avoid becoming unkempt. "I know, I know, but…all this running around! Hopelessly trying and eternally failing to catch Pikachu. Failing to catch any new Pokemon at all. It's thoroughly exhausting! Can't we just take a break? For a little while?"

Jessie stood still, her hands settled on the bends in her waist. She stared at James with a raised eyebrow and an icy look in her eyes until she finally uttered a word: "Fine."

"Fine? Really, Jessie?"

"You can stay here and take a nap if you want to! But I'm going to hunt for more Pokemon. Meowth, are you coming or not?"

Meowth looked up from a pile of leaves he had been batting at. "Eh? What's goin' on?"

"James is going to stay here and rest his delicate, weakened body," Jessie explained, and the sarcasm dripping from her voice was obvious even to James and Meowth. "I'm going to continue looking for Pokemon to steal. Whose side are you on?"

Meowth looked from James to Jessie and back again. He wanted to stay and rest up with the man, but the woman was looking far too intimidating at this point for him to betray. "I'll, uh, go with you, Jessie! Yeah! Let's go get some Pokemon for the boss!"

With that, Jessie and Meowth headed off into the deeper and darker part of the forest. James huffed at Jessie's attitude but after a few minutes, he had fallen into a deep, happy, and much-needed sleep. In fact, he slept for more hours than he could ever remember sleeping for since joining Team Rocket.

He dreamed of catching Pikachu and delivering it to Giovanni and hearing Giovanni sing his praises (literally, in a bizarrely operatic voice) and of getting insanely rich and bathing in golden coins and of Jessie kissing him…and of Jessie breathing hotly down his neck…and sliding her long soft fingers up his stomach to his chest…and pressing her body roughly against his until there was no space between them-

Wait, what? James jolted awake just seconds after the image of his team member's seduction had imprinted itself on his mind. He blinked his eyes rapidly, his cheeks burning. What was that? He had never had a dream like that about Jessie before.

Or about anyone. He had never been much of a sexual person. While he was going through puberty, he was more focused on figuring out a way to escape his controlling family and had little time to worry about dating. After he managed to escape them, all his thoughts and time were consumed by coming up with (and failing to properly execute) nefarious schemes for Team Rocket.

At twenty years old, he figured that his sexuality would have emerged on its own by now, and if it didn't, perhaps he was simply not meant to be with anyone in that special way. He didn't care. 'Why be tied down by someone that will inevitably try to control me?' he thought.

But such lifelong apathy toward romance and sex only made this dream that much more unsettling to him. Jessie? Kissing him? Touching him? Why would his brain have concocted such a bizarre scenario?

And why did his pants feel so insufferably tight all of a sudden?

"Well, dat was a big waste a' time." Meowth's voice. James could hear it coming near. Not ready to face Jessie so soon after dreaming about her and without having any time to figure out what it meant, he quickly closed his eyes again and pretended to be fast asleep.

"Yes," Jessie agreed with a sigh. "I suppose James was right for once."

"Yeah, I guess so. Where is he anyway?"

James closed his eyes tighter and faked a snore. "Oh, there he is. Still sleeping like a baby." Jessie's voice sounded closer now. In fact, she was only a few feet away from where James lay, and after spotting her still-resting teammate, she began setting up camp for herself and Meowth.

Their trusty tent went up in minutes. Jessie eased into her sleeping bag and shut her eyes. Outside, James began to relax a bit, under the impression that he wouldn't have to face either of his teammates until morning.

But then Meowth's voice roused both Jessie and James before either could get comfortable. "Wait, Jessie, why are these here?"

James's ears perked up and he glanced into the tent but couldn't make out what Meowth was holding. Jessie opened her eyes crabbily; she was more than ready to sleep now. "What now, Meowth? I'm tired!"

"These! Condoms!"

"Huh?!"

"Oh, I get it," Meowth said with a sly grin. "You and Jimmy boy have finally been gettin' more-than-friendly, eh?"

James's eyes widened further. Finally? More-than-friendly? Jessie scoffed and swiped the condoms from the Pokemon. "What on earth are you talking about, Meowth?! These are balloons! They're for the water attack we planned for Monday!"

"Eh, sorry, Jessie, but those ain't balloons. Those are condoms."

"They are not! Do you think I would buy condoms for no reason?"

"Not for no reason, nah. But because you and Jimmy-"

Jessie threw the box of condoms at Meowth's head. "If you say that one more time about me and James, I swear you'll wish you were unable to talk! First of all, these are balloons, and second of all, if I were to ever buy condoms, they would not be for James."

As he heard this, James furrowed his brows and quietly stood up from the tree. He inched closer to the tent and crouched down just outside it, listening carefully to every word.

"Ow! Sorry, I didn't know ya was so disgusted by Jimmy! I thought ya liked him!"

"I'm not disgusted by him, and I do like him. He's a loyal friend, and although he's an idiot that screws up more plans than he helps, I'm glad he's my Team Rocket partner," Jessie said. A small smile crossed James's face. "But I would never sleep with him." The smile vanished just as quickly as it had appeared.

"Not your type, eh?" Meowth asked, rubbing the spot on his head where the box had hit.

"Definitely not! He's whiny and dramatic and a giant pushover! He cries more than I do!" Jessie explained. "To put it simply, he's not man enough for me. And, if my assumptions are correct, I'm not man enough for him either."

James's heart fell into his stomach. Hearing these words, he had never felt so humiliated, so ashamed. Meowth, on the other hand, responded with a laugh. "Oh, ya think Jimmy bats for da other team. Yeah, that does make a lotta sense, come to think a' it."

Jessie giggled. "I'm quite sure of it. Which is fine, but I am very much a woman, in case you didn't notice! Oh, yes, I'm far tougher than most women, but when it comes to love, I'm just like any other girl. I need a man to totally dominate me…mind and body. James would never be able to."

"Okay, okay, that's a little too much info now, Jess!" Meowth covered his ears, red in the face.

A blush and a scowl. "Well, you're the one that brought all this up with your stupid accusation that I bought condoms!"

"It wasn't stupid! These are condoms! And it's kinda sad that a Pokemon knows more about this than a human do!"

Jessie huffed and lay back down in her sleeping bag, blushing lightly. "Whatever, Meowth. We'll use them as balloons, no matter what they may actually be intended for. Now go to sleep!"

After that, the tent fell to silence. James remained crouched outside and all he could hear was his heart drumming against his rib cage. Jessie's words circled around and around in his mind. Whiny. Dramatic. Pushover. Not man enough.

Not man enough.

He felt like his best friend had stabbed him with a sharp knife, repeatedly and mercilessly. With pain this intense, he was almost surprised that he wasn't bleeding out of his stomach, or heart.

He knew that she hadn't intentionally hurt him; she certainly didn't know he was listening in. However, that made it ten times worse. For to know that Jessie honestly viewed him this way, that this was her truth, the things she could only say when his feelings were of no consideration…it was almost unbearable.

Any self-esteem he possessed had been stripped away from him in less than five minutes, but he remained frozen outside the tent for far longer than that. He was in so much pain that he couldn't move.

It was only an hour later, when tears stung his eyes, that he finally rose from his spot. He couldn't let her, by any chance, hear him crying. He now knew she hated when he cried.

With sudden panic that she may wake up any second, he sprinted aimlessly into the forest, not knowing what awaited him in the darkness beyond.

TO BE CONTINED

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