Rating: G
Disclaimer: I don't own these characters or their likenesses, or... something... like that...
If there's one thing I hate, it's waking up in the morning. Especially when the first thing I usually see is nine pounds of fur and claws ready to take my eyes out if I don't do something about breakfast, and soon. Mercifully, however, the first thing I see this morning is a paragon of beauty still sleeping serenely a short distance away.
Of course I mean Jessie. Unless you were thinking that she was the one with fur and claws.
Long red hair flowing about her in gentle waves, tightly closed eyes, small perfect mouth open just the tiniest bit, soft, delicate breath I can almost feel against my cheek, that's how close she is. It's times like these that I wish I had my camera. That is, if I even had a camera, as well as a death wish.
What I mean by that is, Jessie would kill me if she caught me taking her picture in the morning.
She moves slightly, blue eyes blinking open and closed once, twice, before finally focusing on my face. Then she smiles, and it's like the sun rising at dawn - magnificent, breathtaking, and focused directly at me.
"Good morning," she whispers sleepily. The options of what I could say in reply race through my mind dizzyingly. "Good heavens, Miss Jessie, you're beautiful!" and "Did you pour glue in my eyes last night? They seem to be stuck to you" are among those I reject. Something more like "You're the only thing that makes my mornings good" might be a bit more suitable. But when I open my mouth, only two words escape my lips.
"...Good... morning..."
I never said I was Shakespeare.
She only continues smiling. In an effort to conceal my awkwardness, I sit up and stretch; I can feel her eyes watching me, tracing the musculature of my upper body. My face is burning red by this time, but I don't think she sees, as she is now standing up and stretching herself. I sit there twiddling my thumbs in indecision, not knowing whether to get up as well or just stay where I am.
So I am startled by Jessie's hand suddenly extending in front of me, her face still smiling at me above it. I reach up to touch her hand hesitantly, and finding that it is not an illusion, I grasp it in my own and allow her to pull me up. Reaching quickly for the small bag containing our personal items (living in a balloon for the most part means you have to travel light), she tugs my hand gently, pointing in the direction of the stream we had camped by the night before.
"Let's go," she grins at me. I risk a quick glance at Meowth before allowing her to lead me. Still sleeping. A miracle.
Sometimes I wonder whose idea it was to pick out nearly matching sets of pajamas - one pink, one blue. I certainly don't remember it being mine. And why this is what's going through my mind right now, with Jessie holding my hand, is a complete mystery. Maybe it's because I'm admiring how cute she looks in hers.
Fortunately, these thoughts are driven from my mind when we finally reach our destination. Jessie kneels down at the water's edge, fishing through the bag to find her toothbrush and our only tube of toothpaste before handing the bag to me as I kneel stiffly beside her. I can only assume she expects me to find my own.
I hunt through the bag in vain, only to realize that I had lost my toothbrush yesterday, in a silly incident involving trying to brush my teeth while in the hot air balloon, using a bottle of water. I had explained to Meowth the importance of having villainously gleaming teeth, but he had told me it was a dumb idea.
And I guess he was right, since my toothbrush is somewhere in between Viridian and Pewter City right now.
"Umm... Jessie? I don't..."
"Oh, that's right, you lost it," she says with that seemingly never-ending smile. "You can use mine." Use... hers...
Usually the only thing Jessie lets me borrow of hers is her clothes for disguises. But this... Use something that had been in her mouth... past those beautiful ruby red lips... Like I'm dumb enough to pass this up.
I manage to get the job done, but not before what had happened the last time I "borrowed" Jessie's toothbrush flashes through my mind. She had tied both of my hands behind my back, tied my hair to the bottom of the balloon, and then...
But this is ruining my peaceful image of the morning. I rinse out her toothbrush in the stream, then hand it back to her and watch until she is finished. She puts everything back in the bag very methodically, setting it aside once she is done to smile at me yet again. It might be my imagination, but I think she is leaning in closer to me.
At last, I open my mouth to ask, "Jessie? What are you... you..."
"You're so silly, James," she sighs breathily at me. "The reason I brought you out here and had you brush your teeth is so I could... could give you a kiss," she finishes, blushing faintly.
After marveling for a moment at her concern for morning halitosis, I blink rapidly in shock. She is leaning in ever closer, those lips only inches from mine. Now I'm thinking that this must be a dream, it can't possibly be real. Yet she's here... I'm here... she wants to do it... Lord knows I want to do it... we both have that great minty-fresh breath...
But still, things never work out this perfect, not unless you're a good guy. I have to be sure.
"Jess... Do you think you could pinch me?" She does. And of course, I wake up.
That's the last time I'll ever ask Jessie to pinch me in a dream.
