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Jesse's Mysterious Picture
Rating: PG
Written: June '72. What? It's not the seventies anymore? Darn! '99.
Category: Humor, Romance
Disclaimer: You *know* they're not mine.
Summary: Who exactly was that boy in the picture in "Ditto's Mysterious Mansion?"
Author's note: Okay, this is *pathetic.* I watched the Ditto episode today and just *had* to write it. You know I did. I could not watch that episode without writing it.
Feedback: I'm a little scared of what you'll say, but… please? Allicatt3@aol.com.
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Jesse's Mysterious Picture
by Rocket Jesse
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Jesse sighed again at the picture of her first true love once James and Meowth were fast asleep. She kept her flashlight and that picture in her sleeping bag so she could look at it every night to her heart's content.
"Jesse, what are you looking at?" James asked in that sly voice of his, popping his head out from under his covers. However, it startled her; she had been certain he and Meowth were dozing. Both were sound sleepers, the cat even more so than James. Maybe she had sighed too loudly.
"Nothing, James. Go back to sleep."
"Is that the picture of your boyfriend you showed to Ditto?" Almost never did he speak in such a teasing manner to her, but she had to admit that she liked it.
"Maybe…"
"I never got to see it! I want to see your man!" Without warning, he lunged for the precious picture of the dark-blue-haired boy, but Jesse was too quick for him.
Pulling it back into her sleeping bag, she blushed for the second time that day. "Who said he's my boyfriend? Besides, I don't know if I want you to see it anymore. You would have if Ditto hadn't been so stupid!"
"But why can't I see it? Come on, Jesse, you know I can keep a secret!" Again, he tried to grab it by jamming his hands into her nest of blankets.
"No!" she nervously laughed. "I would show you if it were somebody else, but this one's special!"
"Special? How? Give it to me!" His hands had found the little frame which rested beneath her stomach, and he was now attempting to pull it from her grip. "Is it somebody I know?"
"Might be! But you're not getting it!" Giggling from his hands brushing against her ticklish tummy, she rolled over onto his arms and kept the picture under her crossed ones.
Before long, his arms were free again. This time, he yanked on it too hard for her to pull it back, and he stood up without looking at it quite yet. "Got it!"
"You can't see it without the flashlight!" She hopped to her feet with the beam of light pointing away from him and her picture.
Predictably, he surged towards her while she jumped out of his reach. He hit the ground, but on his way down, he managed to snatch the flashlight right out of her hand.
"No! James, give it back!" Luckily, the photo was face down in the dirt when he landed, and he had to brush it all off. That gave her time to leap onto his back and try to pry one of the two objects away from him.
The flashlight was suddenly in his mouth and the portrait in his hand as he got up off the ground to get her off his back. Her arms and legs were wrapped tightly around him, and even though he swung her around wildly, she would *not* let go. Not as long as he had that picture.
All his shaking had caused the soil to fall from the protective glass of the photo, so it was now completely exposed. Jesse noticed this before he did from her spot high up on his back, but she wasn't able to nab it.
He saw it.
Immediately, both froze.
"It's… it's me! I remember this! It was when I was in my testosterone phase, with the sporty outfits and the short, dark dyed hair… and…" He swallowed as it sunk in. "And *this* is your first true love? It's *me*?"
Like a sloth, she slowly slid off of his back and stood behind him without touching him. Meekly, she answered his inquiry. "Um… yeah."
"*Me*?"
"Mmm-hmm."
"You're kidding," he said, disbelieving.
"No."
Finally, he turned to face her. "I always keep a picture, too. It's a photo of a beautiful girl with long red hair and blue eyes that I kiss every night before I go to sleep."
She smiled when his fingers softly ran along her face. "Why don't you kiss the real girl?"
"I never knew I could."
As an idea formed in her mind, she devilishly grinned. "You're gonna have to catch me first!"
With that, she darted away from him, and he followed as fast as his legs would carry him.
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Meowth awoke in the middle of the night to a very annoying urge to go to the bathroom. No matter how he tossed and turned, it wouldn't go away.
With a frustrated huff, he realized he'd have to get up and go, so that's exactly what he unenthusiastically did.
Once he returned to the camp, he wasn't quite as groggy as he'd been before, and, instead of two separate sleeping humans where Jesse and James should have been, he saw one very big lump on top of their two sleeping bags.
Very cautiously, he walked closer to inspect the strange creature.
But… it wasn't a creature at all. Jesse and James had their arms around each other in sleep, and both of them had dreamy smiles on their peaceful faces.
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Allicatt3@aol.com. If you send me feedback, I promise I'll write you back! Well, unless it gets lost in the cyber abyss…
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