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James sank thankfully into a soft, upholstered chair. Kicking his feet onto the table in front of him, he put his arms behind his head and closed his eyes, relishing in the rare moment of peace that permeated Team Rocket Headquarters. Meowth was off in town somewhere, tallying up the costs of supplies for their next mission. Jessie was taking a shower, trying to get the mud off of her from this latest "full proof" plan. Those little brats always seemed to beat them every time they encountered them. James didn't mind so much - chasing Pikachu was a nice way to pass the time and it always made the day go by faster. The other jobs they pulled were serious and usually dangerous. Both he and Jessie had nearly met with their own demise all too often in the past few months. The police decided taking them alive wasn't worth it. Only recently did they start shooting back.
James began picking fluff of his black tanktop and brushed some dust off his white, spotless pants. Poor Jessie. Her uniform was going to need professional cleaning. His heart had leapt into his throat when he saw her sink under the mudslide that the brat's Squirtle had caused when it shot at them. She managed to come out all right. Good thing too. If she hadn't, James was certain he would have pulled out his revolver and blown that boy's head off. James smiled to himself. Those kids simply didn't realize how easy it would be for Team Rocket to kill them, if they were really trying.
"Ugh. Finally. I thought I would never get all that disgusting mud out of my hair." Jessie walked into the kitchen where James was sitting. Sporting a white T-shirt and James' gray sweatpants, she toweled her hair and collapsed into a chair next to her partner. "At least, my complexion will look great," she added with a wry smile.
"Your complexion always looks fabulous, my dear Jessie," chuckled James as he got up. He walked over to the stove and stirred the soup that he had been heating. Looking into it, he frowned and wandered over to the refrigerator, opened it and stuck his head inside.
"Flatterer," teased Jessie, tossing her towel on Meowth's chair. She breathed in deeply and got up to look into the soup pot.
"James, dear, I'm glad you can cook. That food smells heavenly."
James laughed again, pulling small container of chopped vegetables out of the refrigerator. He walked over and dumped them into the soup pot.
"Thank you, Jessie. But it's nothing special. Just your run of the mill vegetable soup. Anyone could do it," he shrugged, putting his hand behind his head as he laughed again. Of all the things in the world that James was most proud of, his cooking was at the top of the list. Surprisingly enough to those who didn't know him, he was also very modest about it.
Of course, Jessie knew James very well. Jessie shook her head.
"James, you know I couldn't boil water right to save our lives. Your cooking is exceptional," she murmured as she wrapped her arms around his waist. He sighed and leaned back against her. He was just so darn cute when he was modest about his cooking.
"Well," he said with a smile, turning around and kissing the top of Jessie's head, "we better eat." The members of Team Rocket disentangled themselves and served up the soup, eating in near silence. With the amount of shouting done at them by Meowth and The Boss, not to mention the police sirens and other loud obnoxious things that seemed to follow them where ever they went, silence was a small pleasure they both could enjoy.
"So, James, what's on the schedule for tomorrow?"
"Well," started the blue-haired bishonen masterpiece, a thoughtful expression on his face, "We are supposed to head over to Gen-U-Tech Enterprises and steal a genetic resequencer of some kind. I have it written down in the other room. That will probably take all day."
"Not to mention the time it's going to take us to shake of the police," added Jessie, a dark expression on her face. "We just hit Gen-U-Tech a few months ago. Going back so soon is terribly dangerous. I wonder what The Boss is up to."
James picked up his empty bowl, as well as Jessie's, and tossed them in the sink. It was Meowth's turn to do the dishes, anyway. He shrugged.
"All I know is that anyone who can engineer a talking pokémon, manage to buy the resources to build so many high tech devices, and keep up a worldwide crime organization is no one to reckon with." James shook his head as he sat on the table next to Jessie. "Sometimes I wonder what we've gotten ourselves into, Jess."
"It's not like we were given much choice in the matter," sighed Jessie. She stood up and grabbed James' wrist, dragging him out of the kitchen into the bedroom they shared. Closing the door, she reached for a brush that sat on their powder table and combed her hair. James collapsed on their bed, putting his hands behind his head, watching Jessie.
"You know," he said, "You should let your hair get curly again. I think it looks really nice that way."
Jessie scoffed and shook her head, picking up the blow dryer.
"James, it's much easier for me to have straight hair. It doesn't take as long to fix in the morning if I don't have to fight with curls. Especially if were camping out in the woods somewhere." She turned around and smiled at him. "Give me a day when we're not being shot at, shocked, shot off into the sunset, or running for our lives, and THEN I'll wear my hair curly."
James smiled back at her and watched her as she dried her hair. He couldn't help but smile even wider. Jessie was so… elegant in everything she did. Every movement she made seemed almost ballet-like. The smile fell from his face when he thought about all the hardships they had gone through since they "joined" Team Rocket. He reverently hoped that the next job they had was chasing that darn Pikachu again. Those jobs were so much easier and safer. It had sort of become a running gag for them - to see how they could anger those kids, who could make the worst puns, that sort of thing. It was a great stress reliever. They would catch that Pikachu eventually. Right now it was a, well… a game of "Cat and Mouse." James groaned out loud. That was a pretty bad pun, even for him.
"What was that for?" asked Jessie, a smile on her face. She crawled onto the bed next to him, resting her arms on his chest. He sighed and wrapped his arms around her.
"You really don't want to know," he chuckled, holding her tight against him. Jessie pushed herself up out of his grasp and lowered her face close to his. He shifted slightly under her to get more comfortable. Their lips met softly, inducing a long passionate kiss. James broke it off and opened his eyes. He opened his mouth to speak…
And the door flew open. Jessie groaned and led her head fall on James' chest. James just sighed and stared at the ceiling.
"Jessie! James! You guys had better get dressed right now! I just got a message from The Boss. We need to move out now. MEOWTH!"
Sitting up and rearranging their clothing, Jessie and James looked sadly into one another's eyes.
"Looks like Team Rocket's blasting off again," they said simultaneous with a sigh, closing their eyes and resting their foreheads together.