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The cold, hard ground is harsh against her tailbone when she lands on it.
James follows too, and so does Meowth, tumbling into each other beside her in a mess. His black turtleneck is dusty with dirt because they took their standard-issued white jackets.
“They can’t fire us!” Jessie screams. They completely can, but after all their contributions?
(Which were, in retrospect, not much.)
What makes this whole ‘firing’ ordeal even more humiliating is that it’s a bunch of rookies that joined three months ago tossing them out of headquarters. “Yes, they can,” one of them said. She had a ridiculous squirrel-like face that makes Jessie want to punch her even more.
It sucks, tremendously so, that she’s right. Giovanni can fire anyone if he wants to. “You guys are more trouble than you’re worth.”
They toss some of their belongings - not even the entirety of it, with all their outfits; the audacity! - to them in a box, landing with a massive thud. “And stay out!”
The door slams and Jessie wants to scream a bit, cause a commotion, because how dare they - until: “Maybe this wouldn’t have happened if we started that union years ago.”
Now is not the time to think about that. Jessie throws the box of her belongings towards Meowth’s direction to shut him up.
-
“Ugh, what a day,” she groans, toeing off her shoes at the entrance. Once her feet make contact with the shitty floor of their shitty apartment, Jessie sighs, feeling the cool flooring under her almost-mangled soles from a nine-hour shift since they had to make advance payment for their new place tomorrow.
When she gets to the small bedroom they all shared, James is already face-down on the mattress with Meowth sprawled on his back after what she assumes was a busy day at the mechanic shop. This is their fifth odd job after moving around, and Jessie’s sixth. They were moving closer and closer to the smaller towns away from Kanto since rent was cheaper, but that didn’t mean work was easier to find for a bunch of ex-Team Rocket members.
Pallet seems to be their sweet spot of okay work opportunities and manageable rent floor prices. Hopefully, their new place will be better than this pigsty.
Jessie collapses on to the stiff bed with a thud, making her body hurt in several places more than it already is. Tomorrow is another day.
-
It’s James’ stomach that makes a terrible, gurgling sound first. Followed by Meowth’s. Then Jessie’s own. Pallet was smaller than they’d initially predicted, which means it should be harder to find a place to eat on their way to their new flat.
“If we don’t get something to eat right at this very moment, my stomach is going to devour itself,” James says, a hand to his forehead.
Meowth rolls his eyes, and so does Jessie even though she is, admittedly, also a drama queen on most days. “Alright drama queen, let’s make a detour over there. No need to faint into a divan, jeez.”
It’s a small shop, really, and the first one they spot. There aren’t a lot of people inside considering it’s three PM, so it’s perfect. The tiny bell by the door rings when they step inside, Meowth taking a seat already while she and James look for a bell to ring to summon the owner and let them know they’re here for a meal.
A woman steps out, wiping a wooden ladle with a cloth. “Hi, welcome to Delia’s , how can I —”
Oh no.
Of all the places they could have wound up in it had to be the little twerp’s mom she’d seen on multiple occasions when they’d follow those three meddling kids around for official Team Rocket business is currently brandishing the wooden ladle like a weapon.
“Not one step closer,” she says, her eyes squinted at them. Jessie distinctly remembers her name to be Delia . For blackmail purposes, of course. Not at all because she thought she was cute all those years ago. “What do you want from me? You’re lucky Ash and his friends aren’t here to kick your sorry behinds.”
The wooden ladle should not be threatening in any way, but Jessie and James hold their arms up anyway. Had this been a situation they’d been in a few weeks ago, she’d have it in her to say something snarky at least.
Now, they’re just tired. All of them.
“We’re not here for him or you,” James says, sighing. “Well, not the way you’re thinking anyway.”
The soup ladle is lowered somewhat slightly. “What?”
On cue, their stomachs grumble, and Jessie and James share an embarrassed, subdued look. “We’re not with Team Rocket anymore.”
“Fired!” Meowth pipes up from behind them.
That’s when Delia lowers the ladle completely. Jessie looks away from what she recognizes is pity from the woman’s face. “Oh. I’m really sorry. It must be difficult.”
Difficult is an understatement. She wants to say more but her stomach, which makes another ridiculous sound, can’t wait any longer.
Delia, an actual angel if Jessie has ever seen one, takes all of their orders. It’s a big order, several plates and courses, because they haven’t eaten for a day to save on some funds.
(They still don’t have funds, but they postpone the worry until after they’re eating.)
The three of them burn through all the meals in less than thirty minutes as Delia watches, part-awe and part-horror and part-sympathy. Jessie can’t deny it’s the best meal she’s had in years, and from the way James’ pants buttons are about to pop and Meowth falling asleep next to him, she can safely say that they’re thinking the same thing.
They ask for the check because now that they’ve worked several times in the service industry, any other option is not acceptable. Had they been still a part of Team Rocket they’d dined and dashed, but they weren’t now and they pay her what they have left in their pockets - which is not much, but it’s still something.
Delia, however, has other plans. “On the house,” she says, smiling. Somehow it was hard for Jessie to believe this was the woman ready to murder them with her wooden ladle. They stare at her in disbelief. “What? You guys said you were laid off. I don’t want to charge you.”
In a matter of milliseconds, they’re all on their feet in a 90-degree bow. The flush crawls up Jessie’s neck when she speaks, James and Meowth nodding. “We refuse to leave without paying you in any way you see fit.”
“Thank you for your hospitality,” James adds.
Meowth, too. “And your kindness.”
She can’t see Delia’s face from this position, but she hears her clearly. “It seems like you lot won’t leave until I come up with something, so why don’t you three help out clean this mess?”
They’re on it before she knows it, and spend the rest of the evening at the dirty kitchen cleaning up the mess and cleaning up after some more customers that drop by until Delia closes shop.
They bow, once more, when it’s time to go, and Delia giggles. She’s ridiculously nice and pretty, unlike her twerp son. Ugh.
Outside, they go their separate ways after Delia locks up for tonight. “You know, if you guys are serious you aren’t with Team Rocket anymore, you can stay over at our place. It’s just Mimey and I back home,” she offers. “You’d save up on rent while you get back on your feet in a new place.”
James scratches his head. “That’s lovely, though we already paid a deposit for our new place.”
“Where?”
“Just down the road,” Jessie says, pointing towards it. It was situated a few ways away from Professor Oak’s laboratory.
“Oh, Mr. White’s place? I’ll talk to him to let you off the hook. Come stay with us instead.”
They don’t say no to that. Instead of parting ways, the three of them follow Delia to her home, thanking her profusely along the way.
Delia gives them a room each, and the bed is the nicest one Jessie has had the pleasure of laying on. She falls asleep in record time, and it’s the best sleep she’s had in years.
-
“I called all of you to this house meeting because I have a gameplan to get all of you back on your feet,” Delia says, brandishing a tiny whiteboard with small diagrams and ridiculously charming drawings of the three of them. “I think I’ll be able to get Meowth to work with Professor Oak. James, I think you can be a big help back at the restaurant. Jessie,” she turns to her and Jessie curses the way she blushes under her excited but thoughtful attention. “Maintaining the house with Mimey and I is a big task I need help with.”
She sets the whiteboard down. “Now you have to promise me that there will be no Team Rocket business, alright?”
Instead of responding, James throws himself around the smaller woman. Meowth too. Jessie blushes, again , at the thought of being too close to her. Meowth, the little shit he is, pulls her in close until her front slots into Delia’s back. Oh, dear.
“No more Team Rocket,” they promise, and Jessie tears up a little bit at the unparalleled amount of care and compassion that wraps around her in Delia’s lovely home.
-
“Delia, can I ask you an honest question?”
The other woman folds laundry, humming an attentive ‘yes?’. So Jessie continues, letting the lip she’s been biting nervously for the past minute. “Why’d you help us? We spent years doing… not good things.”
Delia looks up at her this time. “Well, are you doing terrible things now?”
“No.”
“Do you feel sorry for things you did?”
“Yes, absolutely.”
Delia smiles, returning to the laundry. “Well, that’s your answer. I think everyone deserves another shot, don’t you think?”
Jessie feels a lance through her heart at that.
-
She sits on the couch, her chin on her hands. There was nothing to manage back here. It’s quiet and spick and span. Delia’s doing such a great job already.
Jessie sighs, feeling useless. She can't exactly help at the lab with her unfinished nursing degree. The restaurant is clearly not an option given that she’s next to useless anywhere in the kitchen even in her previous job.
A photo of Ash on the side table stares up at her in mockery. Ugh. Jessie takes the frame and flips it around for her peace of mind.
At the corner of her eye, she spots a square door on the ceiling. Maybe that needs some cleaning. She finds the cleaning stuff Delia had shown her earlier this morning before she went off with James and Meowth to the restaurant and lab respectively and gets to work, despite Mr. Mime’s insistence to stop what she’s doing at once.
Jessie’s will, however, to impress this beautiful woman with the kindest heart letting her stay over is stronger. So of course, she makes it to the dusty attic, which seems like a lot of work to do.
It’s not too difficult to pile up the dust bunnies from the covered furniture into a corner for her to sweep up and dispose later, but since the attic is cramped up she bumps into a box that topples over on.
“Ugh, Jess, you really can’t do anything right, can you?” she says to herself, frowning but she remembers briefly that Mr. Mime waits for her downstairs. Hearing her make a ruckus in the attic would probably make him even more stressed, and Jessie smiles at the possibility.
Nothing fragile is in the box anyway, just some pictures that she tries not to look at, but curiosity, as always, gets the better of her. As Jessie picks them up to stack them neatly, she looks through them.
She doesn’t know why she’s surprised that Delia was as gorgeous as she was then. They’re old vacation pictures that Jessie feels a little bad for snooping into, but the smile on Delia’s face is ridiculously pretty as she flips through them. Though it’s a given to grimace whenever she encounters several pictures of Ash, who still looks like the little twerp he was back then.
There’s one, with a man, whom she assumes is her husband? Was her husband? Delia doesn’t wear a wedding ring, so…
It’s really not her business to wonder or ask but… huh.
Jessie sets the images aside and finishes her work. She has a ridiculously pretty mom to impress with a dustless attic that no one will see.
Stepping down from the attic, one hand holding the cleaning materials and the other on to the tiny ladder, she slowly descends, completely ignoring Mr. Mime throwing a little silent fit, and okay, why is there a missing step —
The tiny ladder detaches from the wood.
Ouch.
“Alright, I get it, you can stop now,” Jessie says, waving off Mr. Mime, who is apparently not done lecturing her silently. He gestures violently in front of her as she bandages some splinters on the side of her leg. It’s nothing serious and some antiseptic and protection will do the job. “I won’t do it again, fine.”
The front door unlocks and Jessie looks up to see Delia’s smile drop, seeing her sorry state seated in the middle of the hallway, bandaging her leg.
“Jessie, oh dear,” Delia says, as a greeting, dropping the bag to kneel beside her. She’s so close and suddenly Jessie’s heart rate picks up at a ridiculous rate. “What on earth happened? ”
“Fell,” Jessie says, tries to say more but she can’t, not when Delia is that close and smells like the sweetest perfume and clean laundry. So she does the next best thing and points to the attic. “I’m really sorry, Delia,” she apologizes, some tears almost prick at her eyes. This woman has shown her nothing but kindness and here she is, damaging her property and getting injured. “I’ll fix the ceiling and the ladder. I promise.”
“Oh, you poor thing. Don’t worry about that.” Delia tuts, inspecting Jessie’s leg. She hasn’t even spared the ceiling a glance. “You did a really good job with this. Wow.”
Jessie chuckles, the heat rising up to her neck. She tries to rub it away to no avail. “I studied to be a Pokemon nurse,” she says, shyly. She doesn’t want to get into the details of what happened, but Delia doesn’t seem intrigued by it out of politeness. Maybe someday. “It appears I still remember a good few things.”
“Well, that’s lovely,” Delia smiles, and gosh , Jessie is a goner. “Did you clean the attic?”
Jessie nods, biting her lip. “I saw some photos,” she says, and when Delia doesn’t react negatively in any way, she continues, her intrigue getting the best of her. “What happened to your husband?”
“Oh, he left Ash and I to be a trainer.” It’s said casually as if she were discussing the weather.
As expected. Anger bubbles up inside Jessie faster than she knows it. “Men can’t do anything right and can’t stick around,” she mumbles, seething. “They go about just doing about anything they want and leaving gorgeous women like you hanging. Ugh!”
Delia chuckles, a hand on her shoulder. It calms her, and maybe that’s Delia’s effect on her. She likes it.
“Calm down, tiger. It’s been years. I don’t even think about him anymore. I’m just happy I have Ash and my restaurant and this little town right here,” she says, smiling. But a glint makes its way to her eyes and she laughs. “And you think I’m beautiful? That’s an awfully nice compliment coming from someone as beautiful as you.”
This woman will be the death of her. Jessie can’t speak, can’t even look her in the eyes. Is she being flirted with? Is this how women flirt nowadays? It’s been too darn long and gosh, is it getting warm in here or something —
James and Meowth walk in, both holding some more groceries from today, and Jessie curses them for ruining the moment, but also thanks them for saving her from that internal meltdown she was going to have in front of Delia.
-
After that quiet moment in the hallway, it feels like the universe shifted. Or maybe something in Jessie’s brain chemistry.
Either way, it’s… nice. Getting to know Delia is nice and this nice home she has is the most loving environment she’s been in for more than a decade.
Somehow it’s gentler, quiet, contrary to the violent way Jessie’s insides knot when Delia looks at her, Delia smiles at her, Delia touches her hand when they’re washing the dishes side by side with the radio playing some soft tunes for people to mellow down to.
Jessie doesn’t know what to make of it, and she doesn’t fully understand what Delia’s presence does to her until she finds herself filling up an application to the nearest Pokemon nursing school.
Then it hits her, a brick to the middle of her ribcage: Delia makes her want to be better.
-
“You should do something about that,” James comments offhandedly when Jessie finds herself smiling like an idiot when Delia kisses her cheek goodbye. “Meowth and I are already moving out and you two are acting like lovesick teenagers dancing around each other.”
Jessie glares at him. “What would you have me do? Tell her what I feel? Ridiculous! I have my entrance exam to worry about.”
James isn’t having any of it. He flips through his book languidly, as he should on his day off. “This may come as a surprise to you but something can happen if you act on it. I mean, rejection is clearly on the table, but that’s the risk all the time. It happens.”
Rejection. Jessie feels the word drive a stake into her heart. She doesn’t want to hear any more, so she moves and takes all her reviewing materials with her to the next room.
-
“Okay, ready?” Delia says, and if Jessie were being honest, she really wasn’t, but she takes the dive anyway. She nods, and they open the envelope together, their bodies close as they stand in the middle of the kitchen.
The letter tells her she got in. She doesn’t really read anything past that, because there are tears in her eyes and Jessie has an armful Delia around her, peppering her cheek with kisses and praises that make her blush from her head down to her toes.
Their foreheads are pressed together, and Jessie wants to kiss her, she really does. Her heart thumps madly in her chest, begging her to do it. But what if —
Delia does it for her. She rises on her toes to kiss her, and it’s more a smile than a kiss, but it’s still a kiss and Jessie’s heart drops and then soars unbelievable heights when Delia wraps her arms around her neck, pulling her closer. It’s a sweet kiss, the sweetest kiss Jessie has ever had, and now she thinks she won’t ever have anyone else this way when Delia feels like this in her arms.
“You don’t know how long and how much I’ve wanted to do that,” Delia says, breathless. Jessie scolds herself momentarily but then she pulls Delia closer for more kisses as a quiet apology, the shorter woman leading her to the couch to kiss her better, and it honestly makes Jessie’s brain short-circuit and black out.
They kiss some more, that night, to make up for lost time. How can Jessie ever live without Delia’s kisses now? It’s all she wants to do.
Before it escalates further, Jessie turns Ash’s picture away before she lies back down with Delia on top of her.
That little twerp is returning soon, and she’ll deal with that later.
There are more important matters at hand, like the way Delia’s hand makes its way under her shirt. Jessie gives Delia her attention, and makes a quiet promise to keep doing so for as long as Delia will have her.