The fic is the result of an "OTP Quote Challenge" and the prompt is bolded so you'll know what line spurred this little fic. Thank you so much for the submitting this prompt, mpsrocket! I had fun writing it.

"Where are they?!" James mumbled through clenched teeth as his hands haphazardly grasped around the bottom of his closet. He silently cursed himself for not having the foresight to include a light source inside it when he designed and built his team's Alolan hideout. At this point, he'd been searching for a very specific pair of shoes for what felt like hours, but their whereabouts continued to elude them.

His frustration gave way to bewilderment as his fingers collided with an unforgiving surface. Ouch. That certainly didn't feel like a shoe.

Upon sliding the object in question out of the darkness and into his lap, his shoe search became a distant memory. The small wooden chest between his hands held a wealth of fond memories and sentimental feelings, and though he insisted on keeping it with him as his team traveled to between corners of the world (much to Jessie and Meowth's chagrin as it took up precious space inside their cramped balloon basket), he hadn't actually taken the time to examine its contents in years.

A feeling of warmth crept through him as his fingertips glided along the smooth mahogany frame of the chest. He savored the way the keypad buttons shifted beneath his fingertips and enjoyed the satisfying click as the latch released and revealed the contents within.

He rubbed his palms together eagerly and grinned wildly at the sight of his treasures. The rarest bottle caps he had managed to get his hands on, a pair of sapphire earrings he had pilfered from his mother's jewelry box long ago because them reminded him of someone's eyes, the collar Growlie wore when he was still a puppy, and various other objects he'd found intriguing enough to collect during his formative years despite other people deeming much of it "junk." Those people had no taste.

Buried beneath the goldmine was an old photo album James had all but forgotten. When he recalled what it held, he found himself unable to suppress a euphoric squeal. A fraction of a second later, he had scooped the album into his arms and stumbled through the threshold of Jessie's makeshift bedroom in a cloud of gleeful energy. He found her exactly where he had expected during a mid-afternoon rainstorm: reclined lazily on her bed with a set of tangled headphones in her ears while her outdated iPod blared music at a volume he could detect from across the room. Through her eyes were shut and her expression was serene, a swaying leg signaled that she was indeed awake.

Too electrified to even consider a more gentle way to interrupt his companion's quiet time, James flopped onto the small empty space beside her and blurted "Jess! Jess, look!"

Jessie grumbled under her breath as she peeked at her partner through one eye. Though she knew she should be irritated by this disturbance of her well-deserved relaxation, she couldn't help but find these animated, childlike mannerisms endearing as his eyes sparkled and a wide grin stretched across his face. However, she wouldn't dare let him know she felt that way.

Removing a single earbud, she responded in a flat tone. "What, James? Can't you tell I'm busy?"

James wasn't phased in the least by her bland reaction as he continued to ride the waves of nostalgia. "I found a bunch of old photos of us from when we kids! I thought I'd lost these eons ago."

Unable to quell her curiosity, Jessie abandoned any remaining promise of a moment of peaceful solitude as she rolled over to get a better view. She quickly found herself matching her partner's enthusiasm as she was greeted with a treasure trove of childhood antics, ranging from their time at Pokemon Tech to their stint in the bicycle gang together. The memory of an awkward, gangly teenage James wielding his cheap Polaroid camera everywhere he went flashed in her mind with such clarity, she almost felt as though it had just seen it the day before.

Each photo of toothy grins and peace signs held a wealth of stories, sending both Jessie and James finto a fit of giggles as they recounted the misadventures of their younger days. Younger days when their futures felt as limitless as the skies above. Younger days when they swore they were as invincible as superheroes. Younger days when they chased sunsets rather than an overpowered pikachu.

James' eyes lit up as he pressed a finger against one of the pictures. "Oh, remember when you used to wear that all the time? Good times." Jessie realized he was gesturing toward her old charm bracelet which, as evidenced by every page of this photo album, had been just as much a of staple to her wardrobe as undergarments. The waves of childhood joy began to recede as her heart ached in a way that was painfully familiar.

Her shift in demeanor, while subtle, wasn't lost on James. And while he detected it rather easily, he found himself floundering in how to respond. Fortunately, he wasn't left wondering for long as Jessie answered the questions his mind struggled to put into words. As she stared into the bright eyes of her younger self, the fiery spirit she saw there spurred a thought to leave her mouth before she could fully consider it.

"My mom gave me that bracelet. Not long before she left."

Such unprovoked transparency was rare for Jessie and always caught James off guard. Though he knew bits and pieces of her history prior to their meeting, there were certain topics that always seemed to be off-limits. Her mother was at the top of that list. James learned early on in their relationship that any mention of the topic would result in Jessie locking herself firmly behind the thickest of walls with no way for him to reach her. Beyond her mother disappearing when she was very young, James was privy to almost nothing and had accepted it as one of the many laws of the universe. Much like the pull of gravity and the steady passage of time, there was little sense in questioning it. The fact that Jessie had dared to shift their conversation in that direction on her own accord left him in a speechless stupor.

He longed to ask Jessie to share stories about her early childhood and relay any moments she recalled sharing with her mother. He longed to know what sort of person she had been like, and whether Jessie's contagious optimism and limitless spunk had come from her. But each of these questions hung in his throat, which had gone dry as he stared at her sullen expression.

So he said the only words he could manage to grasp in that moment. "Well, it's beautiful. Your mother clearly had impeccable taste, just as you do."

To his relief, a hint of a smile tugged at her lips as she hummed softly in reply. A faraway look remained in her eyes, and James longed for the ability to peek inside her mind and see where she was in that moment.

"Where is it now, anyway? I haven't seen you wear it in ages."

"I don't know. It just disappeared one day." The sigh that followed carried a heaviness that couldn't be explained by a lost bracelet alone.

Though he knew she did everything in her power to bury pain deep and hide any outward signs of it, James could detect hurt in the way her brows furrowed. For better or for worse, when she hurt, he hurt right alongside her. He was determined to find some way to make this situation right.

Jessie awoke with a strange sensation that something was off. As she extended her arms in a stretch, the pit in her stomach grew when she realized her elbow didn't make contact with another body as it usually did. Although her partner had a bed of his own, he could rarely be found in it. Instead, his nightly routine was to slide into Jessie's and curl up against her side without saying a word. Though Jessie hadn't addmited it aloud, she craved the comfort of his embrace and found sleep difficult without the security she found when his body heat mingled with her own.

As Jessie sat up and swiped her palms across her face in an attempt to lift the last bit of sleepy fog from her senses, she felt her stomach twist as she recalled that James had vanished the prior afternoon. It was unlike him to wander off alone for extended periods of time, but each time she began to feel the early signs of worry bubbling up inside her, she squelched it by telling herself he was just running a quick errand and would be back any minute.

She squinted at the bold red numbers on her bedside alarm clock as she tried to make sense of them in her half-conscious state. 12:59AM. That meant James was now out in wee hours of the night. Alone.

This was very unlike him.

Any remnants of grogginess were overpowered by a sick feeling knitting its way through her gut and into her throat. What of something happened? What if…

Jessie's frantic train of thought was interrupted by the sound of a door shutting. A distinctly familiar cadence of footfalls was the next thing to greet her ears and she couldn't imagine anything more beautifully soothing.

Moments later, she could vaguely make out James' figure delicately tiptoeing into her room, providing visible confirmation that she hadn't just imagined the sound his footsteps creeping through their base. He paused briefly at the bedside table before crawling beneath the sheets and sidling up next to Jessie in his usual nightly routine. Fully expecting to snuggling up to a serenely sleeping face, he was instead found a pair of sapphire eyes staring pointedly at him. While those eyes glowed like gems in the dim moonlight, they also held an expression that gave James more than just in inkling of their owner's irritation.

He tried and failed to suppress a yelp. "J-Jessie! I'm so sorry! I... I didn't mean to wake you!"

Jessie held his gaze steadily, expressing unchanging, which only served to increase James' feelings of unease. "Oh, you didn't. I was already awake because you've been MIA for 8 fucking hours!"

Her last words had raised into a shout that echoed through the entirety of the base. In the tense silence that followed, a faint "SHUDDUP" from their feline friend could be heard in another room.

For all the things he had yet to learn about Jessie and her past, there was still a wealth of knowledge with which he was intimately familiar. Within his book of Jessie Truths, he knew anger served as a shield. There was almost always something softer and more vulnerable hidden beneath, though very few people would ever be privy to it. James had become one of the select few and it would never cease to be his most cherished achievement.

His lips quirked into a sly grin. "Jessie, sweetheart. Were you worried about me?

Though her only reply was a roll of her eyes and a disgusted scoff, he needed no further confirmation. Silence filled the room as blue eyes glared into a pair of smiling green.

James was the first to break their playful staring contest as he rolled over and clawed blindly at the bedside table. After a few misses, his hand grasped the item he was seeking. His previous air of smugness melted away into sheepishness the moment his hand brushed against Jessie's. His fingers laced with hers for a moment before he pressed a small velvet box into her palm.

Jessie's brows drew together as she sat up, with James quickly mirroring her position. Not one to waste time, Jessie curled her fingernails beneath the edges of the lid and roughly yanked it from the base of the box. Soft moonlight spilled inside from the small window (or rather, a hole in the wall) above the bed, casting an ethereal glow onto silver bracelet that lied within. As Jessie carefully lifted it from the box, she discovered it was adorned with charms representing every pokemon she had ever owned, past and present. Her fingertips gingerly brushed each one as cherished memories flashed through her mind. Each charm held stories of fierce battles and roaring crowds and obstacles overcome. Each charm held a story of friendship and love.

James' voice, soft and meek, broke through her thoughts. "I'm sorry I left without saying anything. I wanted it to be a surprise, and it took longer than I expected to find some of the charms. Apparently the jewelers of Alola don't fully appreciate the allure of pokemon that aren't conventionally beautiful." He crossed his arms and lifted his chin in indignation.

Jessie remained uncharacteristically speechless, and James swore he saw a hint of tears forming in the corner of her eyes. He silently prayed this was a good sign and that he hadn't made a critical error.

Feeling increasingly uneasy with her silence, James began to chatter again. "I know it's not the bracelet, but I hope it can make a somewhat decent substitution for now?"

Without warning, arms wound around him in a crushing embrace as a strangled sob escaped his partner's throat. The sudden contact forced him to release a breathe he hadn't realized he was holding.

He was caught off guard again when her lips pressed against his with such force he was nearly knocked backwards. After a few seconds, she backed away just a fraction of an inch and whispered, "Thank you."

Somehow, James instinctively knew that somewhere beneath those two simple words was an "I love you" and he hoped she detected the same meaning in the gift now wrapped around her wrist.