They’d been through everything together. Just the three of them. Through thick and 
thin. Jessie, James and Meowth. The unbreakable trio.
	They’d been together such a long time too. Just over four years to be exact, 
and never had they spent more than one day apart during that time. Jessie and James 
had been in conjunction even longer than that; for eleven years of their lives! Much 
longer than the brats had, Meowth reasoned.
	It hadn’t always been easy for them of course. They’d been chasing the same 
damned Pikachu for roughly three years, and each futile attempt at stealing it had 
somehow backfired, and they’d nearly always been on the receiving end of its 
electrical attacks. If not the Pikachu, some other Pokemon had been set on them by 
the twerps, and quite frankly Meowth was sick of it.
	The fire crackled, gaining warmth with every second that passed. It cast a 
friendly glow around its surrounding area, lighting up the cat’s face. Meowth sighed, 
and plucked at the dying grass by his feet. Another day and another loss at the hands 
of Ash Ketchum, the biggest idiot in town. It figured. The good guys always won in 
the end, no matter how bleak the situation. The little feline scowled, and balled his 
paw into a furry fist. How he hated him! They’d get that damned rat if it was the last 
thing they ever did!
	That’s what he had told Jessie. Not that she’d listened; she had been too busy 
beating James up for giving away their true identity before they were ready to. 
Meowth supposed it wasn’t completely James’ fault, but he wisely said nothing, 
preferring to watch James get slapped with fans and whacked with mallets rather than 
getting a share of the hits too.
	Jessie and James. Meowth glanced across at them now. Jessie had calmed 
down somewhat, and had her own eyes turned towards her best friend. He was 
seemingly oblivious to this as he cultivated the fire that accommodated their rather 
pathetic dinner; his head bent low, his brow furrowed with concentration. Mime Jr 
was perched tenaciously on his shoulder, imitating his every move perfectly. James’ 
long lavender hair fell into his eyes as he stooped even lower over the dinner, 
ensuring that the tiny piece of meat they had managed to steal from the butchers was 
cooking thoroughly. Satisfied that it was, he looked up, to find both his team partners 
staring at him.
	“What?” he whined, running a gloved hand nervously through his hair.
Jessie scowled. “I’m not looking at you, numbskull!”
Meowth coughed to cover a snigger. If she wasn’t looking at him, what was she 
looking at? The ‘interesting’ tree behind him?
	Jessie continued to frown as James cautiously crept forward to sit beside her. 
She deliberately turned her head the other way, on the pretext of watching the Pidgey 
that was flitting about on the branches above Meowth’s head. For a few moments 
there was silence, punctured occasionally by the spitting of the fire and the rustle of 
the leaves in the breeze.
	“I’m sorry,” James said softly. “I’m sorry I screwed up today,”
	“I t’ought we’d already bin t’rough dis?” Meowth questioned. “It’s OK. I 
forgive ya,” 
	James sighed sadly, and glanced miserably at Jessie. Meowth understood at 
once. Until he was forgiven by Jessie, James would never even consider himself 
acquitted.  Which, unfortunately for him, seemed a long way off. Poor bastard, 
Meowth reflected, pulling his whiskers ruefully, didn’t understand the way women 
worked; Jessie wanted to forgive him, but if she did, James would think her soft. And 
she couldn’t have that.
	That was what love did to you.
	Yes; Meowth would be the first to admit it. Jessie and James, idiots that they 
were, were hopelessly in love with each other. Not that they knew how the other felt. 
On several occasions now, Meowth had played the wretched agony uncle; having 
both his friends confess at some point to him of their undying yet unrequited love for 
their best friend. Recently he had taken to hunting for Pidgey, degrading as it was, 
every time one of his companions had hovered ominously around the campsite while 
the other was out of the vicinity. The chances of them actually hooking up were like a 
zillion to one; Swinub would fly first, Jessie had said so herself. Quite frankly, 
Meowth was proud of how long he’d managed to keep from screaming the whole 
story out to them; after all there was only so much a cat could take, and having 
someone like James wailing in his ear about his failing love life was enough to make 
Meowth suicidal.
	After a silent meal of bread and beef, James started to fiddle with his 
Pokéballs, every now and then his eyes darting towards his female accomplice. The 
campsite was a mess; their backpacks were dumped unceremoniously against a tree, 
the dirty crockery was in a haphazard pile near the fire, awaiting their wash in the 
morning. Mime Jr was slumped across Meowth’s lap, sound asleep. Meowth patted 
his stomach.
	“Dat was whisker – lickin’ good,” he sighed.
	“I’ll say,” Jessie agreed drowsily.
James shot the cat a look that plainly said he wanted time alone with Jessie. Meowth 
smirked knowingly, but acknowledged his friends wishes by feigning a yawn.
	“Gee, I’m tired,” he said, rubbing his eyes for greater effect. “T’ink I might 
have a catnap…”
Jessie eyed him suspiciously, but let it slide. “Okay…”
He winked at James as he settled down, causing him to blush. “G’night youse two,”
	“Goodnight Meowth,” James glared. If looks could kill, Meowth would be one 
dead cat. Jessie stared at both males, but the cat just shrugged evasively and turned 
away from them.
	All was still for a few minutes, with Jessie and James sitting together in 
silence, each lost in their own thoughts. It was James who spoke first.
	“Jessie?”
	“Hmm?”
He looked at her sideways profile, tracing the curve of her perfect face with his eyes. 
Oh, how he longed to reach out and touch her…
	“Well?” the question was accompanied by a slap upside the head. 
Hurriedly he tore his eyes away and considered the fire instead. “I was just 
wondering… if you ever… you know,” he looked awkward. “Think about leaving this 
life behind you. Starting afresh,”
Jessie sighed and fell back to contemplate the smattering of stars above her. “No. I 
mean, I have no family left, do I? This freaking place is the closest I’ve ever come to 
having it,”
	“What about me?” James glanced at her, pushing the stray strand of lavender 
hair out of his intriguing emerald eyes. 
	“You’re my best friend James. You can be a pain in the ass… but you’re the 
only one who’s kept me believing these last few years,”
James blushed, unable to stop the proud grin from spreading across his face. If you 
erased the whole ‘pain in the ass’ thing, that was quite a complement coming from 
Jessie!
	“Anyway, what about you? Ever thought about bailing out? Leaving this crap 
behind you, as a figment of the past?”
	“Well, there have been times when I thought about leaving,” he admitted 
guiltily. “Only for a second tho-”
	“Oh yeah, that’s right, I forgot about that. Forgot that you’re freaking rich 
bastard!” she cut in contemptuously. 
	“Jess, don’t say things like that…” he said softly, reaching out to her.
	“What’s it matter to you anyway?” Jessie said bitterly, turning away from his 
gentle fingers. “You could get out of this hell hole at any given time! And all you’d 
have to sacrifice is your freedom! All you’d have to do is marry a psychotic bitch! 
That’s more than a fair trade. You’d have everything money could buy, instead of 
living in near poverty!”
	“That’s not true,” James interjected softly, the blush that marred his face 
brighter than it had been all night. “Money can’t buy everything. There are much 
greater things in life, things that I could only have here, living this life. Do you want 
to know what they are?”
Jessie was suddenly caught by the intensity of her lavender haired partner’s gaze. 
	“Yes…” she hardly dared breathe that one simple word. One loud intake of the 
sky could have the heavens cascading down on them, ending their special moment for 
ever…
	Slowly, carefully, he edged closer to her. “Friendship. Trust. Love. This is the 
only place in the World where I can have all that,”
	“Love?” Jessie was confused. “You mean…?”
His face was a burning furnace, and he seemed to think that he’d gone too far, 
mumbling random words incoherently. Jessie was pretty sure that she caught things 
like “Sorry,” and “Went too far,” but for the most part Jessie’s brain was numb. He 
loved her. James loved her! It was literally her dream come true. Ever since she’d 
been old enough to understand feelings such as love, Jessie had been certain that was 
what she felt for James, even stooping to the unexplainable low of telling Meowth 
what she felt, simply to get it off her chest. But now she didn’t have to worry.
	“James,” her voice was gentle, surprising even herself.
At once her colleague fell silent, hands clamped over his head, ensuring that he didn’t 
receive full blow of the mallet whack that was sure to come for him being so stupid.
	It never came.
	Perplexed, James lowered his hands, and found himself staring directly into 
Jessie’s beautiful face.
	“You love me,” it was a statement.
James was compelled to nod. 
	“I’m so sorry,” he said contritely, a tear slipping down his cheek. “I never 
meant to fall for you…”
Jessie sighed, and flopped onto her back again. “It doesn’t matter,”
	“It doesn’t?” 
	“No,”
	“And can I ask why…?” James probed tentatively, unsure of what her reaction 
would be.
A slow smile spread across her face. “Yeah, if you want,”
	“And…?”
The smile became a wide grin. “I love you too James,”
A kaleidoscope of colours erupted inside James’ head, a goofy grin brightening up his 
own features. “Y – You love me too!?”
	“That’s what I said,” Jessie looked slightly impatient. “Now are you 
gonna…?”
	She didn’t need to finish her sentence.
@-->--
	Meowth peeked through his half-open eye at his two best friends. Jessie’s 
arms were around James’ neck, and his were around her waist. Their lips were locked 
together in a passionate liaison.
Heh, no wonder it’s gone quiet! Meowth mused, a smirk spreading across his face. He 
decided to give them a few second’s privacy to get over the initial shock of their 
confessions, and the joyous wonders of a shared kiss. Meowth wasn’t completely 
oblivious to the fact that ones in love deserved their ‘Time Alone’.
	The few seconds were quickly transforming to minutes. 
	Despite his previous ‘Everyone needs Privacy’ attitude, Meowth was getting 
pretty fed up. It was all he could do to refrain himself from Fury Swiping them. 
Come on guys! he silently begged them, on the verge of spewing. Break it up already!
Unfortunately for the feline, the Rockets did not heed his telepathic pleas. They were 
far too engrossed with each other to even note that Meowth was now making rather a 
lot of noise for a cat that was meant to be sound asleep.
Jeez! Meowth thought angrily. Enough is enough! Surely youse need air!?
	“Oh James,” Jessie moaned as they finally broke apart. Meowth sent a silent 
prayer to the God who had made it happen. 
	He quickly took it back as James began a new game – exploring the contents 
under his new lover’s clothes. Jessie didn’t seem to mind; in fact she seemed to be 
catching on, guiding his hands in all the right places, and beginning to tug James’ own 
shirts off of his lithe body…
	“STOP IT!”
At the sound of the voice, Jessie and James started, and leapt apart; James attempting 
to pull his shirts back over his head, blushing wildly.
	“An ambush!” he squealed pathetically, clinging to the none too happy Jessie. 
She whacked him upside the head with a paper fan and scowled in the direction of 
Meowth.
	“What?” she said aggressively.
Meowth glared right back and pointed an accusing paw at them. “No sex in my 
presence! I know dat youse two wanna get it on, but now is not da time!”
	“We weren’t gonna do that!” James whined, the guilty expression on his face 
contradicting what he had just claimed.
Meowth snorted sceptically. “I don’t give a damn about dat, I’m surprised dat yer’ve 
finally wised up and got tagedda. An’ fer Mew’s sake, please don’t torture me!”
James stared wide – eyed. 
	“You knew!?” he squeaked. “You knew that Jessie loved me!?”
	“Yeah, you knew!?” Jessie repeated,
	“WHY DIDN’T YOU TELL ME!?” they screamed in unison.
	“Fer one particular reason. Youse,” he pointed at James. “T’reatened ta feed 
me tad a Boss’ cat an youse,” he rounded on Jessie. “Promised ta murder me an’ t’row 
my dead corpse inta da unforgivin’ depths of da deepest lake youse could find!”
James grinned sheepishly. “Oh yeah,” 
Meowth rolled his eyes. “Youse two dopes are impossible sometimes. But fer da 
record, I’m glad youse two have hooked up. Youse are da poifect couple,” he smirked 
suddenly. “An’ fer what it’s woith, yer kids are gonna be beautiful!”
He found himself facing a none too happy Jessie. Sweatdropping, he fell silent.
	“Who says we want kids?” she snarled.
	“Wid da look on Jimmy’s face? Ya could hardly deny dat cutie da privilege of 
bein’ a daddy could ya?”
Jessie huffed, and pulled James to his feet. 
	“We don’t need this,” she said, scowling darkly. “Let’s get out of this camp 
for a while; Meowth is doing my head in. We need more wood for the fire anyway,”
	“No we don’t,” Meowth pointed out. “We got a whole pile right dere!”
James opened his mouth to speak, but Jessie covered it hastily, and whispered 
something in his ear.
	“Hee!” James squealed characteristically, and leapt to his feet faster than a 
Rapidash,  Jessie expertly throwing the remaining logs into the burning inferno.
	“Now we need the firewood,” she informed the cat complacently.  They then 
dashed out of camp without a backwards glance, no doubt to satisfy their raging 
hormones.
	Meowth sat back smugly, careful not to disturb Mime Jr. Yes, he was right, he 
thought as he settled down. Those two were crazy.
@-->--

	It was several hours later before the duo reappeared, looking slightly worse for 
wear, leaves sticking to their clothes. Their faces were flushed, and both wore dazed 
grins. Meowth kept his eyes shut. He didn’t want them to think he was eavesdropping 
on their private conversation. They didn’t seem inclined to speak though, and after a 
few moments of unnecessary giggling and sounds of kissing, the World fell silent 
once again. Meowth opened his eyes and glanced across at his friends. They were 
snuggled up together, much more angelic than they really were. The feline took in the 
rest of the campsite. As predicted, not a single piece of wood had made it back to their 
temporary base. It figured. Dumb humans. Couldn’t rely on them!
	Now was not the time to mention their forgetfulness though. He would do it 
for now, but they’d owe him big time in the morning!
Well, Meowth reflected as he stood up and stretched, it seems ta me like dose Swinub 
might justa flown taday. Hey, who says it’s impossible?