I called Jessie and James into my office that morning with a plan in mind, but ever since they got married there’s just no communicating with them.
“I have an important assignment for you two… oh, for heaven’s sake look at me, not each other. I feel like I’m teaching junior high here!”
They snapped to attention and said, “Yes!” but I knew they were faking.
“And stop holding hands when you think I’m not looking,” I added for good measure.
“Well, when are you ever not looking? You’re psychic after all,” snapped Jessie.
James looked a little sick. “Does that mean…”
“I’ve told you before, I don’t have the slightest interest in… in what you two do at night.”
James looked blank. “Well, last night Jessie did her nails and went to sleep early and I read Harry Potter…”
“Well, I’m not interested in that either,” I muttered. “Now listen… I need you to steal a Pokemon.”
Now I really did have their attention, or what I could get of it.
“I thought we were finished stealing Pokemon,” replied James.
“This is a special case. I want one of Koga’s Pokemon,” I said.
“Koga?” replied Jessie. “We already tried to steal his Pokemon, it didn’t get us very far… anyway, why would you want you steal from him? He’s a pretty powerful guy.”
“Exactly, he’s powerful and when he figures out I stole from him he’ll realize that I’m more powerful!”
“You want him to figure it out?” asked James. “That will come in handy, subtlety has never been our strong point.”
“Still, why Koga?” pursued Jessie. “Can’t we start with someone easier, like, say, Misty?”
“Oh, you just want to get a dig in at that girl,” said James. “Even since we chased her around with Meowth you’ve been jealous of her.”
“Jealous? Why should I be jealous of that little…”
“Not of her looks,” interrupted James, “I mean, no one could be more beautiful than…”
“Oh, stop making me sick!” I yelled. I had to interrupt them; Meowth was off on his own honeymoon and wasn’t there to do it. That was all I needed, now I’d have a couple of cats gazing in each other’s eyes all day too.
“Koga has always snubbed me, thinks he’s too good for me… I’ll show him!”
“Er, Sabrina…”
“Yes, Jessie?”
“Um, has it occurred to you that this is one of the less, um… mature assignments you’ve ever given us?”
“Don’t call me immature! I’m older than you are!”
Jessie blinked. “Really?”
I nodded. “I spent a few extra years looking around twelve, due to my… family problems.”
I meant turning my parents into dolls, of course, and that evidently reminded Jessie she shouldn’t antagonize me.
“Well,” she said briskly. “I guess James and I will go practice getting back into stealing mode… which Pokemon are you after, anyway?”
“I don’t think it really matters,” I replied. “Just so long as I get back at Koga!”
They left, and I could hear them whispering to each other much too loudly as they went down the hallway.
“Well, it’s perfectly obvious…” James was saying.
“But he’s a lot older than she is…” Jessie replied.
“Trust me, there’s something…”
I almost ran after them to ask who they were talking about, but decided it couldn’t be me.
I sat there remembering the last time I had seen Koga. He had shown up at my gym, in a ridiculous black outfit, claiming he wanted to see it. I wanted to show a fellow gym leader proper respect, so I offered to show him around personally.
“I refused to come when you were still having your little psychic tantrums,” he had said. “But I’m interested to see what you’ve done with the place now.”
He spent very little time in the rooms where the other psychic trainers were practicing. “Yes, just about all the others enjoy having hangers-on to fawn over them too, but I never cared for it.”
I couldn’t believe he had said that. I went to show him my Pokemon. He barely nodded at the Alakazam I had recently evolved, and he wasn’t at all impressed by Haunter’s antics either.
“Well, you keep them healthy; I suppose that’s what’s really important. I never made special Pokemon food like you do though, a little rice and water and some meat for Arbok is good enough for me.”
I glared at him. “Well, Pokemon training has changed a bit since your day, sir,” I said.
He just laughed. “And when was my day?”
I shrugged. “You must be close to my father’s age!”
He laughed again. “Closer to his age than yours, maybe! Not by much though. You’ll find my day isn’t over yet.”
He stalked off.
I yelled after him “And the ninja routine is getting old, too!”
But he didn’t even turn around. And the only time I had seen him since was in some rather disturbing dreams about Pokemon battles. I hoped the dreams would disappear when I finally defeated him.
Two days later Jessie and James returned wearing elaborate red robes and carrying a Venonat.
“A Venonat?” I asked, disappointed.
“Well, you said it didn’t matter!” replied Jessie. “You were expecting maybe his prize Arbok? Or an Electrode to blow up the place? Anyway, you’ve got to hear what happened, it was so much fun!”
“Fun?” Evidently I was destined to hear about this, so I crossed my arms and sat back.
“Well, we couldn’t wear kabuki theater costumes again so I made us these genuine feudal period robes…”
James started giggling. “You have no idea if they’re genuine, you copied them out of Inu-Yasha.”
Even I had to laugh at that. “Where are your Inu-Yasha ears then, James?” I asked.
He pouted. “Jessie wouldn’t let me.”
“Anyway!” said Jessie pointedly. “We made our usual dramatic appearance and recited some period poetry. Koga was absolutely stunned.”
“I’ll bet,” I said dryly.
“He sent out his Arbok so I sent out mine… I knew she would lose but she held him off for ages, long enough for James to grab that Venonat and get out of there.”
“Venonat didn’t put up much of a fight,” admitted James. “He’s a pretty friendly little guy, you can basically play basketball with him.”
He demonstrated by dribbling the cheerful Venonat. I just rolled my eyes.
“I’m surprised Koga didn’t chase you all the way here! Well, it’s known you work for me, he’ll show up soon enough.”
“You’ll be so glad to see him,” murmured James.
“What’s that supposed to mean?” I snapped.
But they were leaving already.
The next afternoon we were sitting in my office discussing Haunter’s training. (Well, I was, they were giving each other looks again.) There was a knock at the door, and I just knew it was Koga.
James opened the door, and there Koga stood, wearing black jeans and a cream-colored sweater.
“What’s with the outfit?” I asked.
“What’s with my Venonat?” he replied.
I pointed to James. “Inu-Yasha here has been playing basketball with him or something. And you have to admit, I beat you at something.”
Koga shrugged. “I was so impressed by their performance I didn’t want to ruin it.”
“Hey, that’s not true!” James yelled. But Jessie was pulling him out of the room by the ear.
Koga turned to me as they slammed the door behind them.
“Fine, you beat me at something, are you happy now?” he asked.
“It does seem sort of pointless now I suppose,” I admitted. “But it is a bit funny.”
He gave a little smile. “It was interesting seeing those two again. That woman has given her Arbok excellent training.”
“They’re not as incompetent as they used to be. But they still dress well,” I replied.
“Better than me?” he asked. “I got rid of the ninja outfit today in your honor.”
He was staring into my eyes as he said that, and I began to feel very nervous.
“The ninja clothes are kind of cool, really….” I stammered. “I just, I felt like you were making fun of me…”
He moved closer to me, and my heart started pounding.
“I didn’t mean to make fun of you. I’ve got this stern and unapproachable image to keep up, you know.”
He wasn’t acting unapproachable now. In fact he moved forward and put his hand under my chin. I was really trembling now, and part of me wanted to back away from him but I didn’t.
He leaned down and kissed me on the lips. Despite all my protests about being mature, I had never been kissed before, and it was nice. Eventually I pulled away and sat down.
“I have an image too, really,” I said. “When you’re a powerful psychic, people are afraid of you but you don’t tend to get much affection.”
Koga smiled. “I’d be honored to give you some affection,” he said.
He pulled me up out of the chair and pulled me close to him. I stood there with my face against his sweater. It was quite a warm moment until Jessie and James came bursting in with the stupid Venonat.
“I brought your Venonat back…” he began, then started giggling. “I told you so, Jessie!”
I hoped Jessie would pull James out of the room again but she didn’t. They just stood there staring at us as I blushed and backed away from Koga. Koga was still just standing there smiling.
“Maybe you should keep the Venonat for a while,” he said. “I foresee future cooperation between our gyms.”
“Maybe you’d like to borrow Haunter then,” said James cheerfully.
“Let Haunter in here and I’ll hurt you,” I replied. “And get lost before I change my mind and start interrupting your romantic moments after all.”
That got Jessie to grab James by the ear again. But it took Koga quite a while to quit laughing and kiss me.