Of Snowflakes and Roses

The sky was growing heavier by the minute, and flurries of snow were falling from the rapidly darkening sky. Jessie, James, and Meowth had just finished eating what little food they had managed to snatch the previous afternoon, and Meowth had crawled into the slightly insulated tent that they had spent the rest of their money on, after blowing it all on another failed contraption to capture Pikachu.

'Well, we'd better get to bed I suppose,' James said, standing up from the fire.

'Not quite,' Jessie replied, grabbing his wrist.

'But Jessie, I'm tired!' James whined, trying and failing to wriggle out of her firm grip.

Jessie pulled him away from the camp slightly, and to a clearing in the trees. 'I'm not tired,' she said, letting go of his wrist, and gathering up a clump of snow in her hand. 'And you, are going to play with me,' she smirked, hurtling the cold ball of snow at her partner.

'But Jessie, I don't like the cold!' Her whined.

'Oh, quit your whining, James.' Jessie said impatiently, and James was hit in the face with another snowball.

James sighed, and leant down to pick up some snow. Jessie crept up behind him and shoved the quickly melting snow down the back of his shirt.

'Too slow!' She said playfully, as he yelped and threw the little snow he had gathered in her face.

She dodged, and laughed as he pouted and tried to make another snowball more quickly this time.

With ease, she dodged all of the balls of snow James threw in her direction, and in turn throwing more at him.

'You win, you win.' He said, as he felt the icy cold wetness run along his skin for at least the twelfth time that evening.

'Is poor little James getting cold?' She teased.

'Yes he is actually.'

'Alright, alright, no need to get stroppy. Do you want to warm up?' She bit her lip, still clutching a final snow ball, not noticing as its size decreasing.

'Yes please.'

'But first...' She stood close to him, and delicately placed the last ball of snow on the top of his head, before rubbing it into his lavender hair.

'Jessie!' James almost squeaked as the cold water of the melted snowball trickled down the back of his neck.

'I'm sorry, I couldn't resist.' She grinned. 'Come here.' He leant his head down, and she brushed the remaining snow out of his hair. Before he could go anywhere, she wrapped her arms around him.

'Are you alright?' He asked, puzzled by her sudden display of affection.

She nodded. 'You're warm.' She said simply.

'I'm not, I'm freezing!'

'I could warm you up.' She said, looking up at him.

'Are you feeling alright?' James questioned, raising his eyebrows at her last statement.

Jessie nodded once more, and before James could realise just how close their faces were, the gap was closed and her lips were on his. And he didn't realise just how much he was enjoying it until he pulled away.

'I think the cold must be getting to you.' He said softly, as they broke apart. 'Let's go back to camp and warm up.'

He took her hand and they walked back to camp where Meowth was sleeping peacefully inside the tent.

It had stopped snowing, and so the fire was still burning as Jessie and James sat down by it, warming up.

Jessie leant into her partner, and smuggled her head into the crook of his neck and slung her arm around his chest.

He looked at her questioningly. 'You're warm.' She shrugged. And he put his arm around her too, as they sat in the warm glow of the flickering fire.

'What are you twose doing out in the snow?' A voice woke the two from their peaceful slumber.

'We must have fallen asleep after we got back...' James trailed off, looking to his partner who was only just opening her eyes to find herself in James' arms. Her eyes widened as she remembered the night before, and she too sat up.

'You twose went somewhere without Meowth?'

'Only a little way over there. We had a snowball fight, we knew you don't like the snow so we didn't ask you to leave the warm tent to join us.'

Meowth nodded and went back into the tent, shivering.

'So...' James began awkwardly.

'Sorry...' Jessie began, obviously referring to the previous night. I guess the cold really did get to me.'

'Don't worry about it.' He brushed the matter off.

'We should probably report back to the boss today. Considering we've run out of money, and we failed again...'

'I suppose so...'

Things were a little awkward between the two friends that morning, as they made their way to the nearest town so they could call their boss to tell him about their latest failure.

'It's about time you called in.' Giovanni said irritably, glaring at the three Rocket members.

'We're sorry, your bossness. The snow delayed our journey I'm afraid.' Jessie said, knowing that James didn't much like speaking to the boss.

'I see.' He said coldly. 'Well as we've had a weather report for fierce snow storms on the way, all Team Rocket members are to stay at Head Quarters until the storms blow over. You shall receive training starting tomorrow. No matter how pathetic you are we can't have you dying on our account.' He said rather bitterly.

'Of course.' Jessie's face brightened up - a comfortable bed and food! 'We'll be over as soon as we can.' She smiled as the call ended. 'Right. Let's go.'

It took them the better part of the day to get to the Team Rocket Head Quarters and Jessie and James barely exchanged five full sentences between them.

They hadn't meant for things to get tense, but they somehow had. And even when Meowth questioned them about it, they would laugh lightly and say it was nothing; if not feeling a little guilty inside.

However, they did finally reach their destination and they were greeted by Mondo who showed them to the room the three would be sharing.

Currently, James was in the shower, and Jessie was sat on the end of her bed staring at the navy walls wondering what on earth possessed her to kiss her best friend.

Yes, there was a lot of unnecessary touching in their friendship, and yes they did flirt a lot seemingly unaware, and yes, James had looked so very pretty in the dim light with snow in his hair, and yes the way he pouted about being cold had made her want to kis-

No, no, no, no, no!

They had a completely platonic friendship, and Jessie would prefer to keep it that way! And no they did not flirt, it was just harmless teasing. James was most certainly not 'pretty' or any other similar words Jessie probably could have come up with to describe him. And the last thing on earth she wanted to do was kiss his pouting lips!

Then why had she?

Jessie groaned, feeling a headache coming on. She was not, under any circumstances attracted to her best friend! This was James! Stupid, idiotic, blue-haired James!

Actually lavender, she reasoned. His hair is a soft lavender.

She was becoming close to hitting her head on the walls, at least these weren't 'lavender'.

She heard the bathroom door click open and she lay down, closing her eyes. She heard James getting dressed and sighed as she felt his weight on the edge of her bed.

'Where's Meowth?'

'He said he was going to get some sort of pokemon bath.'

'Oh.' He said, and after a few minutes of silence he started again, 'are you okay, Jess?'

She opened her eyes, looking at him. 'Why wouldn't I be?'

'You haven't been acting yourself.'

'If this is about last nigh-'

'Today. Never mind last night, we were tired and cold, let's just forget about it. You haven't been acting like yourself, you haven't hit me, or yelled at me all day or told me off for anything. Not even when I was scuffing my feet on the floor and I know how you hate that.'

Jessie didn't say anything. He was right. 'I'm sorry, I'll whack you twice as hard next time.'

He laughed lightly. 'Why thank you,' he said teasingly.

'But of course! You only deserve the best of hits and telling's off, James,' she replied, laughter playing in her eyes.

'I'm so flattered.' He hit her playfully on the arm, as she sat up.

'You should be,' she laughed and him lightly back.

'How long did Meowth say he'd be gone?'

'Well, he said afterwards he was going to try and find a female pokemon to make 'friends' with, knowing him he won't be back for hours,' she giggled.

'We should do something.'

'Like what?'

He offered her his hand, and she took it as he pulled her up. 'Can you dance?'

'Not very well...' she admitted.

'I'll teach you.'

He went to his bag and took out a single red rose. He stood before her, grinned and extended his hand. She took it and James pulled her close, he carefully slid the rose into her styled crimson hair and began to position them to dance. He placed one of her hands on his waist and the other in his hand. He began to dance, slowly at first so she could mirror his movements.

They danced around the room, Jessie was getting the hang of it quite quickly and although James had to suffer a few steps on his feet, it was very much worth it.

He twirled Jessie around, and dipped her, holding her up by his arm.

'I don't want to forget about it.' Jessie said quietly.

It took James a moment, but he realised that when was referring to his earlier comment about forgetting their kiss. 'Me neither.' He replied, equally as quietly, equally as frightened as she was.

They both cautiously leant in and pressed their lips together...

Minutes passed, and they stood there, engrossed in each other, tongues exploring mouths, hands roaming over clothes. Uniforms tugged at, belts and buttons undone.

A/N: So I had this idea a while ago, and I was going to make it a chapter story - but its going to seem really ooc and cliché and stuff and I quite liked this so I wanted to leave it as it was. I will do what I planned for this in another but im going to leave this as a one shot

Reviews are very much appreciated :)