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Jessie, James, and Meowth were perched on a park bench in Lumiose City, doing their best to look like they belonged there.
They didn’t.
The December air had teeth. It slipped through seams and collars and made even Jessie’s pride shiver. She sat rigidly upright, polishing Gourgeist’s Poké Ball with the kind of devotion most people reserved for family heirlooms.
James, beside her, flipped through a glossy Kalos travel guide, lips pursed as he muttered under his breath about “seasonal markets” and “local delicacies.” Meowth, hunched at the end of the bench, sharpened his claws against the wood like a tiny, irritated knife.
“This city is too cheerful,” Jessie said, as if that were a crime in itself. “Even the streetlights look expensive.”
“It’s called ambiance,” James replied without looking up. “Some people enjoy it.”
“And some people,” Jessie shot back, “have never had their entire savings blasted into the stratosphere.”
Meowth snorted. “Yeah, and some people have never had to eat instant noodles three days in a row.”
Jessie’s stomach growled at the mention. She ignored it with discipline.
James turned a page. “According to this, there’s a Christmas market not far from here. The ‘largest collection of food and drink stalls in Kalos.’”
Jessie’s eyes narrowed. “Food?”
“Food,” James confirmed.
Meowth’s ears perked. “Free samples?”
“Possibly,” James said.
Jessie stood abruptly, sweeping her hair
back with the kind of flourish that suggested she’d been waiting for someone to offer her an excuse to move. “Then what are we waiting for? Let’s go.”
She took three dramatic steps, and immediately went the wrong way.
“Jessie,” James called after her with long-suffering patience, “that’s the fountain district.”
Jessie froze. Turned. Returned with her dignity held together by sheer force.
“Fine. Lead, then.”
James smirked and offered a gallant
little bow. “As you command.”
Meowth muttered, “As she demands,” under his breath and hopped off the bench to follow.
They hadn’t gone far when Meowth stopped suddenly, eyes catching on something that glittered faintly near a hedge.
“Huh? What’s that?”
James looked up. “What’s what?”
Meowth didn’t answer. He darted over, pushing aside a low branch, and his paw closed around something cold and metallic.
“Oh wow,” he breathed. “This has gotta be worth a lotta money!”
The word money worked like a magnet. Jessie’s head snapped around. James’s attention sharpened. They crossed the grass at the same time.
Meowth held up a diamond ring, grinning like he’d just caught Mewtwo.
Jessie’s eyes went wide, then predatory.
“And now it’s mine,” she said brightly, snatching it straight out of his paw.
“HEY!” Meowth yelped. “Finders keepers!”
Jessie slipped it onto her finger with zero hesitation. It fit perfectly.
She lifted her hand and admired it like she’d always owned it. “Look at that. Fate has taste.”
Meowth fumed. “You stole it!”
“I reclaimed it,” Jessie corrected.
“Besides, what do you need a ring for?
You don’t even have fingers.”
Meowth thrust his paws in the air.
“That’s not the point!”
Jessie leaned closer, voice honey-sweet and cruel. “It’s a perfect fit. Clearly it was meant for me.”
James tilted his head, studying the ring.
“It is… rather nice.”
Jessie preened. “Thank you.”
“I meant,” James added calmly, “it’s rather nice to see you not wearing something we stole from a museum.”
Jessie’s smile twitched. “Don’t ruin my moment.”
Her stomach chose that instant to growl loudly.
Jessie’s expression hardened, as if personally offended by her own hunger.
“James,” she said in a pained whine,
“I’m starving. Where’s the best place to eat around here?”
James flipped to the food section of the guide. “It says there’s a Christmas market nearby. Lots of stalls.”
Jessie was already moving. “Then let’s GO-”
“Wrong way,” James called again.
Jessie stopped mid-stride, glared at the universe, and returned. “I was testing you.”
Meowth muttered, “Sure ya were,” and followed.
The Christmas market was a riot of lights, steam, and music, everything warm and tempting, everything just out of reach if you didn’t have money.
Jessie, naturally, treated that as a personal challenge.
By the time they found a quiet corner to sit with their “bounty,” Jessie had somehow acquired three skewers of grilled meat, a bag of candied nuts, two pastries, and something that smelled like spiced chocolate.
Meowth stared at the spread. “How’d you pay for all this?”
Jessie smiled serenely. “Charm.”
James looked at the vendor’s stall across the way, then at Jessie’s expression. “You shoplifted.”
Jessie waved a hand. “Details.”
They were just about to tuck in when James stiffened.
He didn’t turn his head at first. He didn’t have to.
The voice that called his name sliced through the noise like a knife.
“James? Is that you?”
James went pale so quickly Jessie almost didn’t recognise him.
He looked up.
Jessebelle was rushing toward them in a flurry of rich fabric and manufactured delight, followed by James’s parents like they’d stepped out of an expensive portrait.
James’s blood ran cold.
“Mother. Father,” he said tightly, ignoring Jessebelle as if she were an inconvenient breeze.
His mother’s eyes flicked over him, assessing. His father smiled the way people smiled when they were preparing to control the conversation.
“We were bored at home,” his mother said breezily, as if that explained everything. “So we rented a penthouse for the winter season.”
“In Lumiose,” his father added, pleased with himself. “Naturally.”
Jessie’s eyes narrowed. Of course they did.
“We’re hosting a small Christmas party tonight,” his father continued. “You should come. It will give you and Jessebelle a chance to… reintroduce yourselves.”
Jessebelle clasped her hands. “James, darling, I’ve missed you.”
James looked like he might physically
gag.
His father’s gaze slid to Jessie and Meowth, just long enough to register them as “people James has collected.”
“Your… friends,” he said, the word strained, “are welcome as well.”
James forced politeness into his voice like swallowing medicine. “Thank you.
We’ll… consider it.”
His father handed him a card with an address. “We do hope to see you.”
James pocketed it without looking, expression dead.
The three of them walked away, leaving the air colder than before.
James didn’t move for a full five seconds.
Then he exhaled shakily, as if he’d been holding his breath for years.
Meowth leaned forward. “Hey, Jimmy… you okay?”
James laughed once, hollow and humourless. “No.”
Jessie’s brows lifted slightly. She’d expected him to deflect. He didn’t.
“I’m never going to marry her,” James said quietly. “And yet they keep insisting like it’s… inevitable.”
His fingers curled around the edge of the card in his pocket. “Like I’m something they can place into a life they’ve designed.”
Meowth’s ears drooped. “So we don’t go.”
Jessie’s eyes glinted.
“You’re joking,” she scoffed. “Pass up the richest party in Kalos?”
James turned to her, incredulous. “Jessie.”
“You heard him,” Jessie said, voice sharpening. “Penthouse. Rich guests. Expensive gifts. They probably have enough food to feed us for a month.”
Meowth hesitated. “I mean… a penthouse party is tempting.”
James looked at the both of them. “That house contains Jessebelle.”
Jessie smirked. “Then it also contains your parents. Which means it contains their pride.”
James frowned. “What are you planning?”
Jessie stood, ring flashing on her finger. “A solution.”
They “borrowed” what they could from their wardrobe stash and cleaned up the best they were capable of.
James emerged first, looking dapper in a black tuxedo with a purple shirt and bow tie. He adjusted the cuffs with stiff precision, like the suit was armour.
Jessie appeared a moment later in a slim, backless two-tone pink and purple cocktail dress. She moved like the hallway belonged to her. She always did.
Meowth stared. “Okay. Wow. But also… what’s the plan?”
Jessie held up her hand. The diamond ring caught the light. “This.”
James blinked. “Jessie… that’s stolen.”
“It’s found,” Jessie corrected. “And it fits. That’s the important part.”
Meowth squinted. “Are you seriously-”
Jessie’s eyes sharpened. “We are not going to that party and letting Jessebelle put her hands on him like she owns him.”
James froze.
Jessie’s voice softened by half a degree, still Jessie, still sharp, but with something protective underneath.
“We’re going to make it impossible for them to pretend he belongs to her.”
James swallowed, throat tight. “Jess… you don’t have to.”
Jessie stepped closer. “I know.”
Meowth’s eyes darted between them.
“Oh. Ohhh.”
Jessie snapped, “Don’t start.”
The penthouse was obscene.
Everything gleamed. Everything smelled expensive. People laughed too loudly and wore too much perfume.
James’s mother greeted them with a smile that didn’t touch her eyes.
“Oh, James,” she said with false relief.
“You came.”
“Of course,” James lied.
Jessie scanned the room, already mentally calculating what could be lifted. Meowth immediately spotted a table of hors d’oeuvres and began a covert operation.
Then Jessebelle appeared.
“James!” she cried, rushing forward.
“My darling!”
Before she could hook her arm through his, Jessie stepped in, intercepting like a wall.
“Not so fast,” Jessie warned, smile bright and dangerous.
Jessebelle recoiled. “Excuse me?”
Jessie tilted her head. “We have something to tell you.”
James’s parents looked intrigued.
Jessebelle looked suspicious.
Jessie’s hand slid to James’s arm, light contact, but deliberate. A claim.
James’s mouth went dry.
He felt Jessie’s fingers tighten, not from panic, but from certainty: Trust me.
James lifted his chin and met his father’s eyes.
“Mother. Father. Jessebelle,” James began, voice steady despite the hammering in his chest. “I’m afraid I cannot marry you.”
Jessebelle’s smile cracked. “And why
not?”
Jessie lifted her hand slowly, letting the ring catch the light like a blade.
James drew a breath.
“Because,” he said, “I’m engaged to
Jessie.”
The room went silent.
Jessie didn’t waste the stunned moment.
She tugged James forward, straight under a sprig of mistletoe hanging above the doorway to the sitting room, tied with an elegant ribbon that looked like it had never been touched by ordinary hands.
Jessie looked at James once.
He looked back.
And then she kissed him.
Not timid. Not gentle.
It was a statement.
Warm and sharp, a kiss with teeth,not because it was cruel, but because it was fearless.
James stiffened for half a heartbeat, shocked by the audacity of it, and then he melted into it, because the truth was that Jessie had always been the one standing beside him when the world tried to own him.
When she finally pulled away, she turned her ringed hand outward, letting Jessebelle see it clearly.
“Sorry,” Jessie said sweetly. “Your loss.”
Jessebelle stood frozen. James’s parents stared like their world had cracked.
Meowth, mouth full of stolen canapé, whispered, “Oh, that was beautiful,” and immediately regretted speaking.
Jessie spun on her heel. “We’re leaving.”
James didn’t argue.
They walked out of the penthouse like they owned it, shoulders squared, hearts racing.
The elevator ride down was silent.
Meowth tried to hum to fill the space.
Jessie glared at him until he stopped.
When they stepped into the cold night air, it hit them like a slap, sharp, real, cleansing.
They didn’t stop walking until they reached a quieter street. Lumiose lights glittered around them, the city still festive, still bright.
Jessie finally spoke first, voice brisk.
“Well. That solved that.”
James swallowed. “Yes.”
Meowth looked between them. “So… you’re engaged now?”
“NO,” Jessie and James snapped in unison.
Meowth lifted his paws. “Okay! Okay! I’m just sayin’ you kissed him like you meant it.”
Jessie’s cheeks tinted faintly. “It was strategy.”
James cleared his throat. “Yes. Strategy.”
Meowth squinted. “Uh-huh.”
Jessie stopped walking abruptly and rounded on Meowth. “Go find somewhere warm to sleep. And if I hear one more word out of you-”
Meowth backed away quickly. “Okay! Okay! I’ll… scout!”
He hurried off down the street, tail flicking, leaving Jessie and James alone.
For a moment neither of them spoke.
The city noise filled the gap. Footsteps. Music. Distant laughter. Somewhere, a bell chimed as a shop door opened.
Jessie stared ahead, jaw set as if daring the universe to comment.
James glanced at her hand, the ring still on her finger.
Then he looked at her face, softer in the streetlight than it had been in the penthouse.
“Jessie,” he said quietly.
She didn’t look at him. “What.”
He hesitated, as if the words were unfamiliar. “Thank you.”
Jessie’s breath caught. She scoffed automatically. “Don’t get sentimental.”
“I’m not,” James said, but his voice was honest. “You didn’t have to do that. You could’ve just… taken the food and left.”
Jessie finally turned her head, eyes narrowing. “And let her touch you like she owns you?”
James didn’t answer.
Because he couldn’t.
Jessie’s gaze flicked down, just for a second, to the space between them, then back up.
Her voice dropped, quieter. “You’re not theirs.”
James’s throat tightened. “I know.”
Jessie’s mouth twitched, something almost vulnerable trying to break through her usual armour. She pushed it down with a familiar sharpness.
“And you’re welcome,” she added, brisk again. “Try not to get us invited to another one of those things.”
James gave a small, genuine laugh. “I’ll do my best.”
Jessie looked away first. “Good.”
They started walking again, shoulder to shoulder.
And if James stayed a little closer than usual, and if Jessie didn’t complain about it once, well. Some things didn’t need to be announced to be true.