Rating: G
Disclaimer: I would dearly love to say that I owned Team Rocket. Well, I might imagine it sometimes, but I don't own them. ^_^;
Cracking the door open a tiny bit, Jessie peeked inside. They were still there. Well, of course they were. Why would they have left?
She opened the door all the way and stepped inside, shutting it quietly behind her. The sight she had seen looking through the door was that of James curled up on the single bed, and Meowth sitting on one of the two chairs, looking up at her. This hotel room was an almost unheard-of luxury, but they had been fortunate to scrape up enough money to pay for it, even though they could only afford a single. Jessie was just grateful not to be sleeping outside on the hard ground as she plopped into the other chair.
"Finally back, eh?" Meowth grinned across at her. "Find anything good?"
"Of course. They're heading northeast on Sepia Road. We can cut them off easily if we take the balloon out in the morning."
"In da morning? Ya sure? Ya wanna sleep at all?" the cat Pokémon teased. Jessie glanced at the clock at last; it was 3:00 a.m. She groaned loudly.
"I had no idea... So why aren't you asleep?"
"Me? I slept already. Don't ya remember how we spent half da day driving ta get here?"
"True. You snored so loud that James thought the tires had popped at least a dozen times." Meowth just rolled his eyes at this, but he didn't deny it. Smiling, Jessie sank deeper into the chair and looked over at her other partner. He had his face pressed into the pillow and was snoring lightly, one of the blankets from the bed barely draped over his legs. She raised an eyebrow, then looked back at Meowth. "So why's he so zonked?"
"Heh. He stayed up waitin' for ya 'til about an hour ago. Said he wanted to make sure ya got back or somethin' like dat." This made Jessie glance back at James with a bit more respect before Meowth continued. "I tried ta get da blanket on 'im, but I couldn't get it up much farther den dat on hi... what?"
Jessie hid her mirth behind her hand. "Oh, nothing. You that worried about James?"
Meowth's ears flattened back against his head briefly in irritation, but the grin returned quickly. "Nah. He was just shiverin' so much that it was drivin' me crazy. I got so annoyed sittin' on da bed wit' him doin' dat."
"Of course," Jessie replied, still covering up her smile.
"So, what now?"
"Well, I'm going to sleep. Did you have to ask?"
"Okay, okay," Meowth yawned, curling up on the chair. "Wake me up when it's time ta go." He closed his eyes and fell asleep almost instantly.
"Oh, to be a cat," Jessie commented, only a touch of sarcasm coming through her tone. She stood up, pulling off her long black boots and dumping them unceremoniously on the floor where James had dropped his. Her gloves were next. She stood for a moment next to the bed, watching James, before she shook her head and pulled the blanket up to his chin, then crawled in next to him as close as she dared for warmth. He would understand. After all, it was cold in the room.
The only thing left to do was to shut out both of her partners' snoring so she could actually sleep.
"Ohhh... the sun's too bright... why is it so bright in this tent?" Jessie groaned, lifting a hand to shade her eyes. Then she remembered she was in a bed in a hotel, not in a sleeping bag in a tent. The sun streaming through the wide-open window was the source of her agony.
Flopping onto her right side, she could see Meowth still snoring away in his chair. With a disgusted snort, she rolled to the other side; she could now see James where he was sitting at the very edge of the bed, staring raptly at the television set while eating something out of a white box on his lap. Curious, she got up and crawled over to him, but his attention wasn't broken from whatever it was he was watching. She peered into the box.
"Donuts? Where the heck did you get those?"
"Good morning, Jessie," was his only response as he waved a hand in her general direction without looking toward her.
"Hey, snap out of it," she commanded, looking over at the TV. "Anime, James? Aren't you a little old for that?"
"No," he answered defensively, finally paying full attention to her. "You're never too old for this stuff." Jessie merely reached out to turn it off. "Hey! I wanted to watch the rest of that..." he whined at her.
"Oh, cut it out. You've seen that one already, anyway."
"Oh yeah... right." He grinned, holding out the box to her. "Donut?" She looked inside again; there were only two left.
"You pig," she sighed, reaching in for one. "Where did you get these?"
"They had them downstairs. I wanted to get us something to eat, and these looked pretty good to me."
"Yeah, so good that you ate the whole box."
"I left you both one..." he offered back sheepishly. "Oh, I was going to ask you what you found last night. You... did find them, didn't you?"
Jessie told him what she'd told Meowth the night before, and he nodded slowly. "Sounds good... but are you sure we can't put it off another day?"
"What's with you? You know we need to get that Pikachu," she scolded lightly, polishing off the rest of her breakfast.
"Yeah, I know... it's just that we this every day, and..."
"And you're getting tired of it?"
"Well... I guess." He sighed, setting the nearly empty box on the floor and propping his chin on his hands. "Think we'll win this time?"
"Of course we will," she replied, leaning back and studying him.
"You know, you always say that."
"I always mean it. We'll win some day. One way or another. Say, do you remember how many flares we have left?"
"...Six. Why?"
"And how much rope?"
"...Ten feet. Why?"
"The old ladder?"
"We still have it. Umm... why?"
"Team Rocket special Pikachu bait?"
"Yes! But WHY!?" By this time, he was practically nose to nose with her, his eyes demanding an answer.
"For the plan," she giggled rather uncharacteristically. "I've got an absolutely delicious one already cooked up," she added, tapping him on the nose. He blinked.
Oh. .....Did you hear that? It sounded like the heater exploded."
"James, that's Meowth's snoring."
"Oh... yeah, that's it..."
In spite of herself, Jessie fell backwards on top of the bed, laughing. It felt good to laugh. Maybe she wouldn't be laughing by the end of the day, but for now... in between those bad times, everything seemed so much better. Then she noticed that James was staring at her, a puzzled expression on his face. She bounced back up so she was sitting next to him, reaching over him so that she could grab the box from the floor, not minding the fact that she nearly had to lay on his lap to do so. He obviously minded it, but she didn't notice that.
"Here, James," she said with a devilish smile. "What do you say we eat this before Meowth wakes up? He doesn't have to know about it..."
"I don't know..."
"Oh come on, don't be such a sissy." She broke the donut in two, stuffing his half into his mouth. "Now chew," she giggled again.
"Boy, you must be in an awfully good mood today," he managed to get out around a mouthful.
"I suppose so... Don't talk with your mouth full." He made a face, and she laughed again before she ate her half. "Okay. Who wants to wake Meowth up?" She looked at James as though he was the only volunteer. He sighed.
"Oh alright. But if he scratches my face or runs under the bed and doesn't come out for an hour, I'm blaming you."
Jessie shook her head. "Never mind. How about you turn your show on again? Let him sleep awhile. We still have an hour or two."
"Oh..." He did as she said, but looked baffled about doing so. "Jess? Is there something wrong?"
"No... nothing's wrong." She waited until he was watching TV again before she smiled and settled in to watch with him. She just wanted to feel happy like this a little longer...
