This Ends Today

Summary: A Team-Rocket one-shot about Jessie's hair.

With much effort, James shoved the blanket off him and threw his legs over the side of the bed. A heavy sigh escaped him due to how tired he was and was shortly followed by a yawn.

Before he got up, he looked behind him at the double bed to see his partner, Jessie, fast asleep on her back, her long hair spread around her like a halo. After an extensive look, he realised he was actually sat on some of it, it was that long. If Jessie woke up now, he'd be dead.

As quick as he could, he stood from the bed and moved around it, heading for the bathroom. He turned on the light then softly closed the door, careful to not make too much noise.

He then slumped over to the sink that held a mirror above it. With as much effort as he could muster, he moved his eyes to look up into the mirror and see his tired face.

Turning on the cold water, he prepared himself for a harsh wakeup call, and filled his cupped hands with the water before splashing the water on his face. He refrained from squealing like a little girl for fear of waking up Jessie and facing her wrath so early in the morning, but he did do a funny little tapdance as the coldness seaped through his skin and woke him up.

Grabbing a bar of soap, he soaked a flannel and rubbed the soap on it. After placing the soap back down on the sink, he used the soapy flannel to rub his face and clean it.

As he was washing his forehead with the flannel, a loud thud came from the room next to him, his and Jessie's bedroom, and he stopped what he was doing to looked towards the door. He placed down the flannel on the side of the sink basin and opened the door.

It was only when he looked down that he saw Jessie sprawled out on the floor face first, like a starfish. Her hair covered her like a blanket and he could only assume that was why she was on the floor in the first place- she'd tripped on her hair.

"Jess? Are you alright?" James asked tentatively, afraid she'd get angry. "Do I look alright to you?" She lifted her face from the ground and glared at him. She started untangling herself from her hair so she could get up without it being pulled.

He itched his face when he felt soap suds popping, reminding him he still had soap on his face. "You know, you should really cut your hair. Even just a little bit," he suggested quietly. He'd been down this road with her before, and every time she lashed out at him and told him it was a stupid idea, that her hair was perfect at the length it was.

Jessie looked up from brushing herself off, her hair hanging around her face and covering some of it from view, "how many times have I got to tell you? I am not cutting my hair," she growled, moving out of the bedroom slowly to give him time in the bathroom before she could go in there.

oOoOoOo

A couple of hours later and both of them had changed out of their pyjamas and gotten into the TR uniforms. Jessie hadn't done her hair because they'd run out of gel. James' hair had a bit of hairspray in it, but he'd hidden that from Jessie so he didn't have to share- she used way too much.

Meowth was lounging on the sofa waiting for Jessie and James. James himself was hurriedly running around the living room trying to find his Pokéballs, whilst Jessie was walking around eating strawberries for breakfast.

As she was biting into one, she dropped another one on the floor. She looked disappointedly down at it and tsked. Placing the leaves of the one she'd just eated on the side, she crouched down and picked up the fallen strawberry.

Just as she was rising, she shifted her foot slightly, accidentally standing on her shin length hair. Not realising, she continued to rise until she felt a pull on her hair and she was toppling backwards onto the floor.

She dropped both the strawberry she'd picked up and the ones she was already holding as she fell onto her back with a thud. "Ow..." She moaned, staring at the ceiling. James walked passed with his newly found Pokéballs, clearly seeing her, but ignoring the fact that she was on the floor.

"Come on, Jess, we gotta go if we wanna catch up wit da twerps," Meowth called, and from the corner of the eye, she saw the door open and close as James and Meowth exited.

She growled and untangled herself from her mess of hair to follow her teammates and friends.

oOoOoOo

Meowth, James, and Jessie slowly trudged on down the dirt path. They'd left their balloon a while back so as to not be seen by the twerps.

Speaking of the twerps, they were literally down the path and probably already knew the trio were following them.

"How much longer until we actually confront the twerps?" Jessie grumbled, holding her stomach as hunger made itself known. "Not long now, Jessie," James promised, flashing her a confident smile. She rolled her eyes and continued walking, looking jealously at Meowth who didn't seem the least bit tired.

They soon came across a town and realised that's where the twerps were headed. They stood a few metres away from the town, watching the twerps walk in and get caught up in the crowd.

"We're gonna lose 'em if we don't hurry up, come on," Meowth declared, already running to catch up with the twerps. Jessie and James shared a look before following Meowth into the town and through the crowd.

They ran through bundles of people, trying to find the twerps until eventually, they came on the other side of the crowd and landed roughly on the ground.

The three climbed to their feet to see Ash and his friends about a metre away, looking at them. The thing is, they didn't even look surprised.

Jessie, James, and Meowth, deciding to go ahead with their plan already, walked towards the twerps. Well, they tried. Until Jessie, for the third time that day, got her hair caught and tripped.

"I knew something was different about her," Misty muttered.

"Oh, what's that?" Ash replied.

"She hasn't done her hair."

"Oh, yeah. It looks nice like that," Ash admitted.

"Jessie!" James and Meowth whined. "This is the third time today!" James pointed out.

"It's not my fault this stupid tree is here!" Jessie bit back, trying to pull her hair free from a tree branch. Having had enough, Meowth brought out his long claws and fury swiped the part of her long hair that was caught on the branch, making that part an uneven length compared to the rest if it.

Jessie froze in shock, staring at her pink hair on the floor. James, too, froze until he started backing away from the too-shocked-to-speak Jessie. Even the twerps had the good mind to stay away. Especially when she turned to Meowth with murder written on her expression.

Meowth blanched, suddenly realising the mistake in his actions and started running away. With a growl that sounded like a Growlithe, Jessie ran after him screaming bloody murder.

The twerps and James watched as Jessie chased Meowth all around the town. Every so often she would catch up to him and make an attempt to grab him, but he would quickly escape and the chase would resume.

Knowing this would go on for a while, James took a seat at the base of the tree Jessie had gotten her hair caught on. The twerps hesitantly joined him, admittedly wanting to know what would happen if Jessie caught Meowth. Or if James decided to interfere.