James: Greetings, everyone! Meowth is gone for a while and he asked me to stand in for him. So… he told me to tell you a lasting memory about the three of us. The fact is I don't really know which story I should tell you… Oh, yes! Maybe that time when we were summoned at HQ for our first skills assessment. We had to spend the night there and we were so nervous that we couldn't sleep. Fortunately, I had a great idea!
James sighed deeply and rolled over in his bed for what appeared to be the hundredth time that night.
"James, will ya stop stirring about?" Meowth yelled at him and nearly clawed his eyes out.
"I can't help it−I can't sleep…wait a minute. You're not sleeping either!" James noticed as he sat up in his bed.
The young and stunningly handsome young man could barely see his furry friend through the darkness of their room. Meowth was at the other side of it, curled up into a furry ball on top of a pile of pillows.
"No. I tink about what's going ta happens tomorrow… And dat's making me anxious," he moaned.
"Yes, that's the same for me. You think it's the same for Jessie, too?"
The room was so dark, they couldn't see anything, but the scratch cat had the ability to see in the dark; so he stood up straight on his tip-paw and tried to catch sight of his pink-haired friend who was on the top bunk bed.
"Well, no. I tink she's sleeping."
The young woman yawned loudly and rolled over on her bed.
"And as usual, you think wrong," she sneered.
As a result of her last sentence, the whole room went silent a few seconds. Then, James got an idea:
"I know what we're going to do in order to sleep!"
The amazingly cute young man got up to take something out of his bag and then went back to his bed. He had sat against his pillow, against the bedhead. But, as soon as he lit up his bedside lamp, a voice from above shouted at him:
"James, turn that thing off right now! How do you expect us to sleep with that on!?"
"But I need the light on to read us a story." James pointed out.
Hearing that, Jessie didn't know what to say. As for Meowth, he jumped up, and in one leap, he landed on James's bed.
"Really Jimmy? What are youse gonna read us?"
"It's Grimm's Fairy Tales. I borrowed it from the library. My grandparents used to read me that story every night when I was young."
"No one evah read me stories for mes tah sleep." Meowth despondently said.
"Well, get comfortable and enjoy!" The tremendous young man happily answered.
James observed the scratch cat curling up into a ball against his legs as he purred noisily and looked up toward Jessie's mattress.
"Hmm… Jessie, do you want to come as well?" James asked.
When he didn't get any answer, he opened the thick leather-bound book and added for his red-haired friend:
"I'll just speak louder than usual so you'll be able to hear it anyway."
James couldn't see it, but what he just had said made Jessie smile a little bit. The magnificently attractive young man was staring at the mattress above him, with the hope that she'll come with down to join them, but Meowth was getting more and more impatient.
"C'mon James, just read the story!" The scratch cat attempted to sway him.
After a last glance towards Jessie's mattress, James choose a story and began to read:
"The title is Rapunzel. There once lived a man and his wife, who had long wished for a child, but in vain. Now there was at the back of their house a little window which overlooked a beautiful garden full of the finest vegetables and flowers; but there was a high wall all round it, and no one ventured into it, for it belonged to a witch of great might, and of whom all the world was afraid. One day…"
But he stopped when he heard a noise and looked up once again. He suddenly felt Butterfrees dancing around in his stomach as soon as he saw the shape of his best friend climbing down the ladder. She stepped forward and said shyly:
"Can I come with you?"
The extremely elegant young man's eyes enlightened and he moved back to make room for her. But he bumped into Meowth.
"Hey! Bes careful, Meowth's there too!" The scratch cat protested.
But James ignored him and answered his human friend:
"Of course, Jess. Just take your pillow and get comfortable."
He didn't dare to open up the blanket, suspecting she would rather sleep on the floor than going under the sheets with him. Jessie sat right next to her teammate, leaning against the pillow she placed onto the bedhead as well. James waited for Meowth to settle down against him, and continued the story:
"One day, the wife was standing at the window, looking into the garden. She saw a bed filled with the finest rampion that looked so fresh and green that she began to wish for some; and at length she longed for it greatly. This went on for days, and as she knew she could not get the rampion, she pined away, and grew pale and miserable. Then the man was uneasy, and asked, "What is the matter, dear wife?" "Oh," answered she, "I shall die unless I can have some of that rampion to eat that grows in the garden at the back of our house." The man, who loved her very much, thought to himself, "Rather than lose my wife I will get some rampion, cost what it will." So in the twilight he climbed over the wall into the witch's garden, plucked hastily a handful of rampion and brought it to his wife. She made a salad of it at once, and ate of it to her heart's content. But she liked it so much, and it tasted so good, that the next day she longed for it thrice as much as she had done before; if she was to have any rest the man must climb over the wall once more. So he went in the twilight again; and as he was climbing back, he saw, all at once, the witch standing before him, and was terribly frightened, as she cried, with angry eyes, "How dare you climb over into my garden like a thief, and steal my rampion! It shall be the worse for you!" "Oh," answered he, "be merciful rather than just, I have only done it through necessity; for my wife saw your rampion out of the window and became possessed with so great a longing that she would have died if she could not have had some to eat." Then the witch said, In his distress of mind the man promised everything; and when the time came when the child was born the witch appeared, and, giving the child the name of Rapunzel (which is the same as rampion), she took it away with her. Rapunzel was the most beautiful child in the world. When she was twelve years old the witch shut her up in a tower in the midst of a wood, and it had neither steps nor door, only a small window above. When the witch wished to be let in, she would stand below and would cry, "Rapunzel, Rapunzel! Rapunzel had beautiful long hair that shone like gold. When she. heard the voice of the witch she would undo the fastening of the upper window, unbind the plaits of her hair, and let it down twenty ells below, and the witch would climb up by it. After they had lived thus a few years it happened that as the King's son was riding through the wood, he came to the tower; and as he drew near he heard a voice singing so sweetly that he stood still and listened. It was Rapunzel in her loneliness trying to pass away the time with sweet songs. The King's son wished to go in to her, and sought to find a door in the tower, but there was none. So he rode home, but the song had entered into his heart, and every day he went into the wood and listened to it. Once, as he was standing there under a tree, he saw the witch come up, and listened while she called out, "O Rapunzel, Rapunzel! Then he saw how Rapunzel let down her long tresses, and how the witch climbed up by it and went in to her, and he said to himself, "Since that is the ladder I will climb it, and seek my fortune." And the next day, as soon as it began to grow dusk, he went to the tower and cried, "O Rapunzel, Rapunzel! And she let down her hair, and the King's son climbed up by it. Rapunzel was greatly terrified when she saw that a man had come in to her, for she had never seen one before; but the King's son began speaking so kindly to her, and told how her singing had entered into his heart, so that he could have no peace until he had seen her herself. Then Rapunzel forgot her terror, and when he asked her to take him for her husband, and she saw that he was young and beautiful, she thought to herself, "I certainly like him much better than old mother Gothel," and she put her hand into his hand. She said: "I would willingly go with thee, but I do not know how I shall get out. When thou comest, bring each time a silken rope, and I will make a ladder, and when it is quite ready I will get down by it out of the tower, and thou shalt take me away on thy horse.""
"If it is all as you say you may have as much rampion as you like, on one condition - the child that will come into the world must be given to me. It shall go well with the child, and I will care for it like a mother."
Let down your hair!"
Let down your hair."
Let down your hair."
Jessie interrupted him as she tapped him on the shoulder:
"Look," she whispered as she stared at Meowth's position.
The two of them burst out laughing as they looked at their furry friend, curled up into a ball on his back and snoring loudly. Jessie leaned against James's shoulder and told him:
"Go ahead. Keep on reading."
A little surprised by her reaction, James's radiating emerald eyes met Jessie's sapphire ones. She was all sleepy and her eyes were half-closed. After a while, he smiled at her and went back to the story:
"They agreed that he should come to her every evening, as the old woman came in the day-time. So the witch knew nothing of all this until once Rapunzel said to her unwittingly, "Mother Gothel, how is it that you climb up here so slowly, and the King's son is with me in a moment?" "O wicked child," cried the witch, "what is this I hear! I thought I had hidden thee from all the world, and thou hast betrayed me!" In her anger she seized Rapunzel by her beautiful hair, struck her several times with her left hand, and then grasping a pair of shears in her right - snip, snap - the beautiful locks lay on the ground. And she was so hard-hearted that she took Rapunzel and put her in a waste and desert place, where she lived in great woe and misery. "Rapunzel, Rapunzel! Then she let the hair down, and the King's son climbed up, but instead of his dearest Rapunzel he found the witch looking at him with wicked glittering eyes. "Aha!" cried she, mocking him, "you came for your darling, but the sweet bird sits no longer in the nest, and sings no more; the cat has got her, and will scratch out your eyes as well! Rapunzel is lost to you; you will see her no more." The King's son was beside himself with grief, and in his agony he sprang from the tower: he escaped with life, but the thorns on which he fell put out his eyes. Then he wandered blind through the wood, eating nothing but roots and berries, and doing nothing but lament and weep for the loss of his dearest wife. So he wandered several years in misery until at last he came to the desert place where Rapunzel lived with her twin-children that she had born, a boy and a girl. At first he heard a voice that he thought he knew, and when he reached the place from which it seemed to come Rapunzel knew him, and fell on his neck and wept. And when her tears touched his eyes they became clear again, and he could see with them as well as ever. Then he took her to his kingdom, where he was received with great joy, and there they lived long and happily. END."
The same day on which she took Rapunzel away she went back to the tower in the evening and made fast the severed locks of hair to the window-hasp, and the King's son came and cried,
Let down your hair."
James couldn't help but smile when he observed that everything ended well, and looked back at Jessie. He winced as he saw she was sleeping against him. Even if he could be able to sleep with the body of his friend pressing against him, she surely was going to pummel him as soon as she woke up in the morning. However, he preferred not to think about that and laid down, trying his best not to wake her in the process. At the end, he nodded off pretty quickly, soothed by Jessie's regular breathing.
Jessie: Stop talking nonsense James! Since when are you "amazingly cute" or "stunningly handsome"? As for this story… That's not how it happened!First of all, you begged me to join you; and since I couldn't stand your pathetic whines, I came down!
James: You're wrong, and you know it! And anyway, why are you telling lies?
Jessie: I'M NOT LYING! And… Oh, there's Meowth! You'll see who the liar is!