Note: Yes, I admit it. I was bad. I wrote this instead of writing the next chapter of Switch. Bad [insert name here]! But oh well, right? 'Cause I like this lil one shot, okay?! And THAT'S what matters!! :) Rocketshipping all the waaaayyyyyy! Also, credit to xPikachu-Princessx for PokeTube! And check out her story when you're done, or no cookies for you!

Disclaimer: I don't own any sort of Pokemon stuffs and that. Although I do own Thomas, Tess and Celeste :3

PS: Giovanni is a bit out-of character. Who cares?! :) ~ Gao

"You're fired," Giovanni said simply. He had called Jessie, James and their Meowth into his office so that he could talk to them about their lack of focus on every mission he had ever sent them on. He had summed up all their failures in just two simple words. After all, why would he keep them employed? They were useless to him; if anything they were holding him back. Giovanni had no other choice but to cut them loose. Jessie turned to her companions and said smugly:

"Ooh tough break, you two. Looks like I'm on my way to the top!" Giovanni shook his head at her.

"I mean you're all fired." Jessie stared at her boss for a moment before bursting out laughing. Surely he wasn't being serious? Jessie knew that she was the best Team Rocket bandit ever to live. Giovanni couldn't fire her! It was preposterous. Meowth nudged her leg.

"He's serious," he muttered out of the corner of his mouth. Jessie froze. S-serious? Jessie didn't know whether she should start crying or yelling. It didn't take her long to decide.

"YOU CAN'T DO THIS TO ME! I'VE WORKED FOR TOO LONG AND TOO HARD FOR YOU TO FIRE ME NOW! I WON'T STAND FOR THIS KIND OF TREATMENT!" Giovanni silenced her with a look that said there would be serious consequences if she didn't shut up. Jessie's face formed a deep scowl, and she crossed her arms. She was going to be quiet – that didn't mean she was happy about it. James was just stunned; Giovanni had seen it in his face from the moment he had fired them all. He felt a bit bad for James, but quickly brushed away the feeling. James was a useless bandit, as was Jessie, and Giovanni had to wonder why he hadn't fired them sooner. They hadn't caught a Pokémon for him in years and were always exposing themselves at the most inappropriate times. Giovanni pressed a small button that was on his desk and secret door off to his right opened. Two mature teens walked out, along with a Skitty. The teens were of opposite sexes; the boy had shoulder-length magenta hair while the girl had long lilac hair. They both wore the Team Rocket uniform. James thought they looked like someone he knew, but he just couldn't place it.

"This is Thomas and Tess. Your replacements," Giovanni introduced them. Tess grinned slyly at the older couple before her.

"Jeez, I can see why we're replacing them. They must be ANCIENT!" she and Thomas snickered, while their Skitty wandered over to Meowth. She cocked her head to one side and smiled at him. Meowth shyly returned the smile, which was when the Skitty swiped her paw across his face, cutting him.

"WHAT DO YOU MEAN "ANCIENT"?! I'M ONLY TWENTY-FIVE!! HOW OLD ARE YOU TWO – TEN?!" Jessie fumed, shouting once again. She couldn't believe the nerve of this kid. Jessie felt like knocking the girl out for that comment. No-one called her ancient! She wasn't old – was she? A wave of insecurity washed over Jessie. Meowth covered his face with his paws; clearly in pain. No-one paid him any attention and the Skitty sauntered back over to her side as if nothing had happened.

"Twenty-five? Are you sure you're not halving your real age?" Tess shot back. They laughed harder, and Jessie looked like she was ready to attack. Giovanni saw this and clicked his fingers; a Feraligatr appeared seemingly out of nowhere and held Jessie back. She tried her best to fight her way out of his grasp but the Feraligatr was too strong for her. James and Meowth watched her with bored expressions. They'd seen her overreact like this one too many times. Typical Jessie, letting two kids get the better of her, James thought warily.

"Thomas and Tess are both seventeen, at the prime of their game. They're the top youngest employers I have, and I want you to hand over your Pokémon to them," Giovanni ordered. "They'll put them to more use than you two ever could. You can keep Meowth though – I know you two have become attached to him." How generous of you, boss, Jessie thought bitterly. She hadn't gotten over the fact that they were being replaced by children. The Feraligatr put her down so she could get out her Pokéballs and give them to Tess. Jessie dropped them heavily into the young girl's palm and received a grimace in response. James was more reluctant to hand over his Pokémon. He didn't want to give them up. He clutched the balls tightly to his chest.

"I won't!" Giovanni sighed. He had expected as much from James, and snapped his fingers again. Feraligatr snatched the balls from James and tossed them over to Thomas, who expertly caught them using one hand.

"Nooo!" cried James.

"Yeees!" mimicked Thomas. Giovanni dismissed the two teens then and they left, but not before their Skitty ran up to Meowth and bit him, having just recovered from the scratch. Ouy vey!

"Shall we start packing?" James asked dejected. Giovanni smiled at him.

"No need! I had that taken care of already. Everything's arranged, all you have to do is leave in the morning. After all, I still want you to come to my birthday party tonight." Jessie didn't think that she was in the mood for parties just then but didn't argue with him. Meowth wasn't looking forward to it – he just knew that the Skitty would be there. James hadn't been looking forward to it, but he hadn't been dreading it either. Giovanni had organised a full on ball, complete with classical music, formal attire and slow dancing. Most people had been talking about it for months; it was said to be the event of the year. Jessie had never liked the idea of it from the moment she saw the invitation – there was to be no admittance to anyone who didn't have a dancing partner. As she and James had spent most of their time hunting the twerps; neither of them had had time to think about asking someone. Now it was too late. A slow smile stretched across Jessie's face. She wouldn't have to go to the stupid party, since she didn't have a partner. YES!

"I'm guessing you two are going together?" Giovanni asked. James nodded enthusiastically; Jessie shot him an annoyed glance and a vein throbbed in her head. She would definitely be having words with him after this. Giovanni dismissed them soon after and Jessie waited until they were a bit further down the corridor before she smacked James hard across the face, knocking him into the wall. Meowth cringed: it looked like it hurt. A lot.

"Thanks for nothing! Now we HAVE to go to that stupid party!" James sat up – rubbing his cheek where she had hit him – and looked up at his attacker.

"Don't you want to go?" he asked innocently. Jessie groaned and tried to kick him, fortunately for him, James moved out of the way just in the nick of time and she broke a hole in the wall instead of him. "I just thought it would be nice for us to do something together in Team Rocket while we could." Jessie stopped, surprised. It did sound nice, when James put it like that.

"Oh. Well, I suppose..." Meowth observed all of this with a smug look displayed on his face.

~Later...

Jessie had entered her room only to find a ruby silk dress – a proper prom-type dress – spread out on the bed. At the foot of her bed were matching red heels. Pleasantly shocked, Jessie tried it on immediately. She hadn't even realized that she had no dress to wear to Giovanni's party. The dress fit her body perfectly. It was gorgeous. Staring at herself in the mirror, Jessie decided that she looked beautiful in the dress. She turned to get a look at the back and a scrap of paper fell from the hem of the dress. Picking it up, Jessie saw that it was a note and read:

Sorry for annoying you for all these years. Hope it fits! James x

This surprised Jessie. James had written a note of...apology? And he had bought the dress for her...How did he know her dress size? How long ago had he arranged this? Jessie reluctantly changed her clothes again and sat on the edge of her bed. She was confused. What did this all mean? She couldn't remember another time where James had been this nice to her, and Jessie wanted to know what was going on. In all the years they had known each other, James had never done anything for her that was this excessive. Jessie thought back to all the sticky situations they had gotten themselves into over the years; most of them included them hugging in fear. Why did they do that? It was a force of habit now, but what about much earlier on? Had they made some sort of agreement that that would be their thing or something? Now that she thought about it, Jessie realized that she actually liked hugging James. He was always so warm and soft and ni–

What was she thinking?! Jessie shuddered; she didn't like the direction her thoughts were taking her. Glancing at the clock on the wall, Jessie saw that the party started in four hours. She had plenty of time, so she decided a short nap wouldn't make much difference to her...

Hours later, Jessie was woken up by a loud banging noise. Someone was knocking on her door, so she got up and opened it. No-one was there. Jessie rubbed her sleepy eyes but still no-one was at the door. She was about to come to the conclusion that she was hearing things when she heard someone clear their throat far below her. She looked down to see Meowth standing at her feet.

"Oh. Hello Meowth."

"Jessie! What are you..? You have seven minutes to get ready for the party!" Jessie gasped; had she really been asleep for that long? Jessie hurriedly thanked Meowth for waking her up and shut the door. As she jumped in the shower, she kept muttering "crap" over and over under her breath. She'd really done it this time. How was she supposed to get ready in seven minutes?! Unfortunately, Jessie couldn't find the time to dry her hair after her shower so it hung behind her, out of its usual style. By the time seven minutes were up, Jessie was on her way to meeting James and Meowth outside. James was sitting on a bench opposite the building, checking his watch. He was wearing a crisp white tuxedo with a tie that was the exact same shade of red as Jessie's dress. She had seen James wearing tuxedos before and so was used to him looking as handsome as he did now; it was nothing new to Jessie that James was an attractive man. The fact that he was looking at his watch made Jessie uncharacteristically nervous – was she late? If she was, how long had she kept James waiting? Wait a minute; why did it matter?? But it did, and that was what was important.

"Am I late?" Jessie asked, biting her lip. She noticed that Meowth wasn't with James, and wondered where he was. James looked up when he heard Jessie's voice and he suppressed the urge to smile when he saw her – she'd probably think he was laughing at her.

"No, I was early," James said, and he did smile then. Jessie's face relaxed.

"Where did that good-for-nothing Meowth get to?" James explained that he had gone on ahead as Pokémon didn't need partners and Meowth was trying to avoid running into the Skitty from earlier.

"Shall we?" James said, offering Jessie his arm. She nodded once and with a look of pure determination, ignored his extended arm and stomped off in the direction of the hall where the party was being held. It wasn't very far so Jessie was able to get there before James, even in heels. Only when she arrived at the door did she take James's hand, almost crushing it in a death grip. They entered the hall together.

The music hit them first, same as the light. It was so loud, so bright, so different to the dark quiet of outside that it took them both by surprised. They took in the scenes of the party; all around them Team Rocket bandits were laughing, dancing, flirting, eating. Jessie had never seen so many happy criminals in a room as big as this and was slightly in awe of it all, as was James. Off in a far corner, they caught sight of Giovanni dancing with a girl who looked almost 15 years younger than him. Talk about sleeping your way to the top, Jessie thought sourly. She still felt rather bitter about being fired the way she had been. Not to mention those rotten teenagers! Jessie hoped that she wouldn't see them for the duration of the party. She and James stood by the entrance of the hall, not speaking to each other, and only moved to one side when a couple forcefully pushed past them from behind. Jessie stared after them angrily even though they didn't look back: they were too distracted by each other to notice her. James put one hand on her shoulder and she faced him quite defensively, her arms folded across her chest. James smoothly removed his hand from her shoulder and offered it to her.

"Care to dance?" The anger was wiped from Jessie's expression and as if on auto-pilot, she placed her hand in James's. They immediately got into the flow of the music – thanks to James being a fantastic dancer – and moved fluidly, blending in with the other dancing partners around them. The song was relatively fast and involved little body contact; of which Jessie was glad. The most contact she had with James was his hand and occasionally his foot, although she tried her best to avoid that. Going with the music, James easily spun his partner and in her short absence caught a glimpse of Meowth by the dessert table. The Skitty from earlier looked rather cosy snuggled up to him, and Meowth didn't appear to be bothered by her at all. The sly cat, James thought as he span Jessie back, catching her for a second in his arms. In that brief moment, their eyes met and James felt a tingle shoot through his entire body. He doubted Jessie would want to see him after tonight – after all, she didn't have to.

In all the time they had been working together for Team Rocket, James had known that if Jessie had a choice she would have a more...competent companion. James couldn't help being who he was, and wasn't ashamed of himself. James spun Jessie out and they continued to dance as they had before. The song soon changed and so did the lights; some were dimmed while others brightened. The change in lighting made a significant difference to James's view of Jessie. He became aware of her very blue eyes, making them not unlike precious sapphires. Jessie's expression remained vacant, as if she was thinking about another time and place. James noted that she looked somewhat like a Pachirisu: undeniably cute. When James was absolutely certain that Jessie wasn't paying him any attention at all, he sneaked a peek at her body, specifically how she looked in the dress.

Jessie looked divine. More beautiful than James had ever imagined she could be, in fact. The dress showed off all of Jessie's best assets (in James's opinion anyway) and he was pleased that he had bought it for her. Put simply: it was perfect. Jessie's hair also looked good; James was glad that she had decided to let it hang loose as it was a nice change from her usual thing, even if it was a little damp to the touch. Discreetly, James inhaled Jessie's sweet soap-and-perfume scent and his grip on her hand tightened slightly. She smelt wonderful.

"Jessie?" She looked up at him, her face filled with innocence – something that James had never even associated with her before – that was quickly replaced by forced "lack of interest" look that James easily saw through.

"What?" James smiled at her.

"You look beauti–"

"Mind if I cut in?" Butch interrupted, pushing James aside without waiting for an answer. Butch's green hair matched perfectly with his black-and-green tuxedo.

"Barney! Who do you think you are?!" James growled. Sweat drops appeared on Butch's head.

"It's Butch!" James waved a hand dismissively, a small smile playing on his lips.

"Yeah, yeah; whatever Bucko." Butch shook his fist angrily at James and then proceeded to manoeuvre Jessie away from him, leaving James with Butch's partner who had silently watched the scene unfold before her.

"Hi," she smiled brilliantly at him, almost knocking him over with the sheer gleam of her pearly white teeth. She was truly a stunning young woman with smooth skin, mid-length golden curls, chocolate brown eyes and the shortest aqua-coloured dress she could have worn without flashing anything.

"H-h-hi," stammered James, intimidated by such a gorgeous woman. She giggled delicately at him.

"I'm Celeste." Celeste forcefully placed James's hands on her waist and wrapped her arms around his neck, reminding James of Jessie's Seviper. Celeste's golden curls tickled the back of James's hands uncomfortably, and her brown eyes seemed to go straight through him. Mesmerized, James slowly understood that Celeste was asking him a question.

"Huh? Ugh...James," he replied dimly. His eyes wandered over to where Butch was dancing with Jessie. They were standing a bit too close for James's liking, and Butch seemed to be saying something to Jessie as they danced. James stared at them sourly while he pretended to listen to Celeste's meaningless rambling. Look at Barry. So snug with his arms around my woman..."My woman"?! What am I thinking?? Jessie is not my woman, she never has been and she never will be. As James watched, Butch leaned in as if he was going to kiss Jessie, and James felt inexplicably angry. He wanted to go over there and punch Butch in the face so hard that his nose broke, and would have done too except for one thing: Jessie beat him to it. She saw the kiss coming, stepped smartly out of the way and knocked Butch so hard in the head with her fist that he ended up on the floor with a large bump where Jessie's fist had connected. Satisfied, Jessie walked over his unconscious body and made her way back to James while a small crowd gathered around Butch. Some people started to take pictures, point and laugh, and one guy shouted:

"I filmed the whole thing! This is SO going on PokéTube!!" Jessie looked at Celeste with such hatred that no words were necessary for her to get the message; Celeste left James as fast as she could in search of her original partner without even saying goodbye.

James was intensely relieved when Celeste was gone – she may have been pretty but man was she annoying – and refocused his attention on Jessie. He didn't know how it was possible but she seemed to have grown even more stunning since Butch had stolen her from him.

"Why did you hit Bradford?" James asked, feigning innocence. Jessie's eyes narrowed.

"I'd rather not talk about it, if it's all the same to you," she said snippily. That filthy creep! I can't believe he asked me if I wanted to go back to his room so he could...Yuck! And then he tried to kiss me! He had some nerve. James smiled to himself. As long as Jessie didn't like Butch, that was good enough for him.

Jessie hadn't forgotten that just before the cretin had kidnapped her, James had been in the middle of complimenting her – for once. She was almost 100% sure that he was going to say "you look beautiful", although she knew he would probably never say anything like that to her ever again. Ah well, Jessie thought. I guess I'll have to make the most of this moment since James is most likely going to go back to his family tomorrow. Maybe he'll even marry Jezebel. Something inside Jessie flinched when she thought of James marrying that monster, but Jessie ignored it.

Stepping closer to each other, Jessie and James were about to resume dancing when the song changed from the up-beat, fast-tempo it used to be to a slow, romantic one. Jessie felt awkward and asked James if he wanted to eat instead of dance, and none too subtly at that. James said in a soft voice that he wasn't hungry, and slowly put meaningfully place one hand either side of Jessie's narrow waist. Jessie blushed prettily. Unlike with Celeste, James felt comfortable holding Jessie like that. Jessie hesitantly put her hands on James's shoulders and in no time at all they were swaying to the music. The rest of the party seemed to fade around them until there was just Jessie, James and the music. His emerald green eyes connected with her deep blue ones and they both felt as if they had been hypnotised. James pulled Jessie closer to him, wanting to be as close to her as was possible. His change in attitude startled Jessie and every man she had ever loved flashed through her mind. None of them had ever stuck around or treated her right. Could she risk that now, and with – let's face it – her closest friend, of all people?

James was aware of Jessie's past and therefore didn't want to push her so hard that he pushed her away from him. Whatever happens, James decided, it will all be her choice. James wasn't strong enough to resist glancing at Jessie's soft, pink lips as they danced and the more he looked, the harder it was for him to look away. If I try anything then I'm no better than Bob, James reminded himself carefully. However, James couldn't stop himself from being drawn to Jessie and his lips very nearly made contact with Jessie's. Thankfully, he managed to pull back before he did anything he knew he would regret later, after Jessie had knocked him silly.

"Sorry," he muttered, resenting of his lack of self-control. Jessie stared at him, appalled by his behaviour.

"'Sorry'? That's all you can come up with is "sorry"??" Jessie was furious with him, and James glued his eyes to the floor, too ashamed to look her in the eye. He'd really messed things up now. James braced himself, waiting for Jessie to attack him. He was expecting her to hit him so badly that he flinched when Jessie's hand gently touched cupped his cheek.

"James," she half-whispered. With one swift movement Jessie pushed herself forward, crushing James's lips under her own and closed her eyes, enjoying the moment. James, for his part, was genuinely shocked and his face showed this; his eyes opened wide and his eyebrows were raised high. After a moment, he melted against Jessie's mouth and clutched at her upper arms in his capable hands as they kissed; his eyes closing blissfully. Around them, Team Rocket bandits that they had never met before stared at the couple kissing with reckless abandon in the middle of the hall curiously. Who were they? Why couldn't they kiss somewhere else? Why were they both crying? Tears leaked out of both of their shut eyelids as they wept. Neither of them knew the true reason why they were crying, they were only aware that it was an emotional moment and couldn't help but let their feelings out in this way.

Across from them, Meowth saw Jessie and James making out and thought to himself: well it's about time! Meowth's new Skitty girlfriend distracted him from them by tickling him under the chin, causing him to purr in pleasure and snugly up closer to her.

After a while, Jessie and James broke off their kiss and searched each other's eyes for their thoughts and feelings after what they had just shared. For a heart-stopping moment, James feared that he had done the wrong thing but was relieved when Jessie hugged him, resting her head on his chest.

They both knew that getting fired would not separate the two ex-bandits.