I started writing this about a week ago, when I found that I had run out of new Rocketshippy stories that I hadn't read. I realised that there aren't very many people who still write for this pairing, but I still like it, so its mainly written for my own benefit. Please take into consideration the fact that I stopped watching pokemon after what must have been the second sort of series- basically, I only ever saw it where it was either Ash, Misty and Brock, or Ash, Misty and Tracey. Also, I never even realised all this stuff about Jessie and James' past until I read other fanfics. So I've written this with the knowledge I've got, but sorry if any of it is wrong.

Anyway, enjoy, and please review. They make me happy. :D

Disclaimer: I don't own pokemon, or any of the characters in pokemon. So please, don't sue me.

James stared up at the dark green roof of their sagging tent

James stared up at the dark green roof of their sagging tent. He could hear the thunder rolling outside, and the tent seemed to dip with every drop of rain that hit the side of the tent walls.

They had failed. Again. They had been trying for so long to get that damn electric rat, and, no matter how many times they tried, no matter how many plans they made or gadgets they used, they could never quite get it.

He sometimes wondered if it was even worth it to stay with Team Rocket. How hard would it be just to stop chasing the twerps and go their own way. The boss wouldn't even notice they weren't reporting- and even if he did, James doubted he would even care. They were pretty much the worst team ever in the history of Team Rocket, and everyone knew it.

He had never realised that this was what being a Team Rocket member would be like. Sure, he hadn't imagined that it was the best job in the world, and definitely not his first choice, but he'd been assured that it wasn't that bad. To a point, the people he'd spoken to made it sound almost fun. Sure, they'd told him, you had to steal a few kid's pokemon, but the boss put you up in five star hotels, paid for top restaurants, and paid you fairly.

Well- over the years, James had learnt that, although this was perfectly true, this treatment was saved only for Giovanni's favourites. And he, Jessie, and Meowth certainly weren't. Sure, they used to be, but since they'd met those damn twerps and their freakishly strong pikachu, their Team Rocket career had plummeted.

Really, the only thing that tied him to Team Rocket anymore was Jessie.

Jessie. What would he do without her? She was the one reason he got up in the morning, the thought of her kept him awake at night. She was amazing, and perfect, and amazingly perfect, in every single way. He lived for her, breathed for her, in such a way that he was sure it was unhealthy- but he didn't care.

He slowly rolled over in his sleeping bag, leaning up on his left elbow. A few feet away lay Jessie, sleeping peacefully, all huddled up in her sleeping bag. Behind her, near the entrance of their tent was Meowth, sleeping in his own child's size sleeping bag. His front paws were scrabbling around in front of his face, and James could only guess that Meowth was dreaming about yarn balls again. He chuckled to himself before turning his attention back to Jessie.

The way she looked whilst she was asleep captivated him, almost literally taking his breath away. The worries of the days seemed to leave her face and she looked pretty much carefree. Her hair came out of its usual style, her super strength hairspray relinquishing its hold on her long magenta tresses.

The things that mesmerised him the most were her lips. She always slept with her mouth set in a small smile, and he always thought that she looked like she was having a good dream.

Sometimes he let himself even think that she was dreaming about him.

Watching her peaceful expression, his mind wandered back to a night almost three months ago...

Three Months Ago

James was lying awake, as usual, and turned over to see that, although Jessie was still asleep, there were worry lines creasing her forehead, and her mouth was pulled down into a small frown. As he looked more closely, he could see that she was trembling slightly, and that a few tears had already made their way down her beautiful face.

Just as he was about to lean over and wake her, her eyes snapped open, and she gasped, sitting bolt upright. She frantically looked over to her left, and gave a small sigh of relief when she saw Meowth sleeping quietly. She turned and looked to her right at James, before doing something that surprised him. She practically threw herself onto him, flinging her arms around his neck and buried her face into his shoulder, breathing heavily. He cautiously put his hands on her back, patting her in what he hopes was a soothing manner.

"James, you're here, oh thank goodness, you're here..." she mumbled, her voice muffled by his shoulder.

"What's wrong, Jess?" He asked, concerned- this was so unlike Jessie.

"Just a bad dream- well, a really bad dream - but it's okay, 'cause you're here, and Meowth here, and you're both fine.." She said shakily, her arms tightening their vice on his neck.

What was your dream about, Jessie?" He asked, his chin brushing her soft hair.

"It was so strange - we decided to try and quit Team Rocket, but then the Boss, he wouldn't let us. And then he got really, really angry. He... he-" Her voice seemed to fail her, and she choked back a sob.

"Shh, shh," James whispered, stroking her hair, "It's okay. You don't have to talk about it if you don't want to." He felt her shake her head against his chest.

"No, no, its fine." She said quickly, "It was just a dream after all. So, then, Giovanni, pulled out a gun and told us that we knew to much, so he was going to kill us. He was laughing in this sort of manic way, and swinging the gun around, pointing at each of us in turn. And then, all of a sudden, there was a shot and Giovanni had pulled the trigger, and.. and," She swallowed hard,

"He had shot Meowth. And we were just, you know, looking down at where he'd shot him, and Giovanni just kept laughing, and then he pointed the gun at you. And I couldn't do anything but just stand there and watch. And he pulled the trigger, and... and that's where I woke up." Her words were broken up by quiet sniffs or sobs. When she finished, he felt her bury her head further into his chest and he put his arms around her back, hugging her gently.

"That does sound scary, Jess." He said softly. She jerked her shoulders in a shrug.

"Not really, I mean-" He cut her off,

"Jessie." He said reproachfully, "This is me you're talking to. You can tell me." He said quietly. There was silence for a few seconds before she replied.

"It was horrible." She whispered. "I was so... shocked, when Meowth died- but when he pointed that gun at you, James... I was terrified."

Despite himself, James allowed himself a smile at the thought that she was scared of him dying. He squeezed her tight.

"Don't worry, Jess. I'm not going anywhere anytime soon." He said.

"You'd better not." She half joked, nudging him in the stomach. She then looked up him, her face suddenly more serious.

"Thank you, James. For not laughing at me- you know, about my dream." James was surprised by her comment.

"I'd never laugh at you, Jessie." He said softly.

"I know you wouldn't. But, thank you, anyway. I... I mean, you.." she tripped over her words, nervous all of a sudden. She swallowed, and after a second, she continued. "You're my best friend, James. I don't know what I would do without you."

James sighed almost inaudibly, before looking back at her and smiling

"You're my best friend too." He looked into her eyes, and his breath caught in his throat as he saw something in them that he was sure had never been there before.

Hope. She was looking at him, in an almost shy, very un-Jessie-like way. Unshed tears gleamed in her sapphire blue eyes, and she looked up him unblinkingly, her bottom lip caught by her front teeth in a way that made his pulse race.

He never had any idea what exactly happened in the next few seconds building up to what was to happen next, and to be honest, he didn't really care.

All he knew was that he found himself leaning over towards her, and before he knew what was happening, his lips met hers in their first, magical kiss.

After a few seconds, he was about to pull away, when he felt he suddenly kissing her back, and pulling herself in towards him. The butterflies in his stomach multiplied by 100 as one of her hands move up from his neck into his hair, her fingers pushing through the long strands of lavender.

Feeling completely and utterly intoxicated by her, he let one of his hands wander from her lower back, up her spine and neck, and come to rest on her jaw, and his other hand moved down slightly and he wrapped it around her slim waist, pulling her closer (If that was even possible anymore), his fingertips relishing in the bare flesh in between where her pajama shorts and top met.

After what passed like hours yet felt like seconds at the same time, their lips parted and the kiss finished. He simply looked at her for several long moments, before she whispered

"Wow." He smiled nervously at her.

"Yeah." He paused for a second, before continuing. "So, was that... good... or... weird, or-" She interrupted his nervously stuttering

"Oh, good. Definitely good." She said, her finger tracing the side of his neck, sending tingles down his spine.

"Yeah. Really good." He said, grinning. She stopped moving her finger and looked at him seriously.

"But," His heart stopped for a second before he noticed that her mouth had stretched into a coy smile. "Maybe- we should just... check."

He could only grin at her, and lean in to meet her lips once again.

Three Months Later...

Despite the fact that hardly anything had changed- neither Jessie or James had caught any new pokemon (or stolen any, for that matter), and they were still following the twerps around- but James' world was so different.

Their daily routines were still boring and fruitless, but secret knowing glances and stolen moments with Jessie made everything worth it- especially the moments.

He smiled as he watched her sleep, her long hair framing her face, her mouth turned up in a smile that seemed to happier recently (and when he thought of why it was that she was happier recently, his heart seemed to do flips inside his chest). She had her sleeping bag pulled up to her neck to try and keep warn in the cold November air. He glanced back at up at her face, and was surprised to see her blue eyes looking back into his green ones.

"What is it with you watching me sleep?" She teased, and he laughed quietly, trying to keep the noise down so that they wouldn't wake Meowth up- he wanted this moment between just the two of them to last as long as possible.

"I just can't help it- you're far too beautiful not to. He replied, and Jessie giggled, blushing.

"You're so sweet sometimes, James." She said.

Jessie was so different like this. She might act tough and indifferent around the twerps, but he knew that that wasn't the real Jessie. This Jessie, his Jessie, was the real Jessie. This girl, the one that wasn't constantly trying to devise more ways to steal pikachu, or hitting him over the head with a mallet every other minute. Not, of course, that she stopped hitting him when they were around the twerps, but she did always seem to find some way to make it up to him.

James was brought back to earth when he noticed Jessie was shivering.

"Cold?" He asked.

"Freezing." SHe replied, pulling her sleeping bag closer to her. He opened his arms towards her, and she blinked dumbly at him. James chuckled.

"Oh, come on. You know these things are massive."

It was true. You could have fit five people into their mammoth sleeping bags. Jessie laughed gently, reaching to undo the zip on the side of her sleeping bag. She glanced up at him.

"I'm gonna do this quickly- 'cause, in case you hadn't noticed, it's positively subzero out there." He nodded, unzipping his own sleeping bag for her to climb into it.

"Three.. two.. one!" She whispered, before diving the five feet between them. She quickly scrambled into James' sleeping bag, giggling, and James tried to muffle his own laughter with his hand and he tried to the sleeping bag zip up.

Her giggling slowly fizzled out, and she wrapped her arms around his neck, putting her head on his chest with a contented sigh. He hugged her tight, resting his cheek on her head ad smiling to himself. For tonight at least, he would be able to forget all of his worried- money, work, the twerps- and just focus on this perfect moment.

With Jessie in his arms, all of his worried and problems seemed to pale into insignificance anyway.

"Still Cold?" His whispered, and she shook her head.

"No."

"Good." He replied, kissing her hair gently.

"I love it when we get moments like this. You know- time when we can just be us. No pretending." She said.

"Me too." He murmured. A few moments of comfortable silence passed between the two of them.

"I love you."

What he had said didn't even register with his brain for a full three seconds after the words had passed his lips. He blinked into the darkness, wondering what on earth has persuaded him to say that.

The he realised. He had said it, because it was true. He did love her. More than anything.

Still, it might have been the truth, but had he just made a big mistake? What if she didn't love him?

He had been worrying so much that he didn't even realise that she had lifted her gaze up to look at him.

"James?" She whispered, gently touching her fingertips to his jaw. He looked at her, startled, his eyes wide in nervous anticipation. She gave him a small smile.

"James, I love you too." His face broke into a grin, and he breathed a sigh of relief. She laughed quietly, before leaning up to press her lips to his. He returned her kiss fervently, all of his passion going into this one kiss.

They kissed for several minutes before their lips broke apart. James grinned at Jessie, a michevious glint in his eyes. Before Jessie could ask what he was thinking, he lowered his lips down to her neck. She breathed in sharply when she felt him focus on one spot just above her collar bone, imagining how red it would be in the morning. Not that she cared.

He trailed his lips along her collar bone, before raising his head back up and kissing her on the lips once more.

"I love you." Now that he'd said it once, he couldn't stop. He loved the feeling of the words coming out of his mouth, and the way that she would squeeze her arms tighter around his neck when he said, and sigh contentedly into his chest, before repeating the words back.

Every five minutes, he would say those three words to her, each time sending a tingle down his spine, and she would sigh, and say them back, making him smile and hug her tighter.

It carried on for more time that he could keep track of, their voices becoming quiter, and more and more sleepy as it got later and later (or earlier and earlier, depending on how they chose to look at it) until they finally both fell asleep in each others arms, not caring who saw them in the morning, or what happened the next day, or the next month, or even in the next year.

Because they had each other. And that was all that mattered.

Hope you enjoyed my first pokemon fanfiction. Please review!