“Faris?”
    The red-eyed Rocket glances over her shoulder at James. “What?”
    He sits down next to her on the outside porch. “I…I’m sorry for what they said. They didn’t mean it.”
    She raises an eyebrow, then looks to the morning sky. “Why are you apologizing for them?”
    James looks startled as a cool breeze brushes his hair in front of his face. “Huh? What do you mean?”
    “I meant what I said. Why are you apologizing for Jessie and Starr? You didn’t have anything to do with it. And how are you to know if they meant it or not, James?”
    James considers this. “Well…I don’t…” he admits. “But I didn’t do anything to stop them. I guess I’m apologizing for that.”
    Faris turns to stare at him. James notices, and stares back. They continue to do this for a moment.
    Then she smiles and laughs. “You’re really whipped, you know that, James?” she grins, tousling his hair.
    Normally, James would be freaking over anyone touching his hair, but Faris’ touch makes him smile shyly. “I guess so,” he replies, not really knowing what ‘whipped’ means but assuming it’s a compliment.
    Faris stares at him for a couple of seconds, then laughs again. “You’re cute, James.”
    James’ smile gets bigger. “Thanks.”
    She stands. “Hey, James, you up for a walk through the woods?”
    He awards this arbitrary question with yet another startled look. “What? But we don’t even have our shoes on!”
    She shrugs. “Oh well. If you don’t want to go with me, I guess that’s that.” She heads for the woods with an indifferent air about her.
    “Hey, wait!” James yells, getting up. He catches up with her and follows her into the woods, just in time to leave Starr, Jessie, and the others behind. “I’m going with you!”
    Jessie, Starr, and the others watch them leave. “Should we follow them?” Ash wonders.
    “No, let’s leave them be,” Starr replies quietly. “They should have some time to themselves.”

    “Wow…” James breathes, awestruck by the view.
    “Chou sugoi, ne? This place is the midway point between Lenna’s house and the ocean. Because of that, you can see them both on opposite ends,” Faris smiles. “Ever since I was a little girl, I called this place ‘the rock’, even though it’s not just rock. As for the views, I don’t know which I like more.”
    Blushing slightly, James says shyly, “It doesn’t matter to me what view it is, as long as I can share it with you…”
    She gives him a sideways glance, not smiling. “…” She looks away, to the ocean. “…”
    An uncomfortable silence falls between them, and it dawns on James that maybe that wasn’t the right thing to say.
    “Err… sorry,” he amends, blushing, but for a different reason than before.
    “For what?” is the monotone reply.
    “For… um…” James struggles with the words as he tries to figure what exactly he is apologizing for. “…Making you uncomfortable…I guess.”
    Her ruby eyes slide over to him. “For letting your feelings be known?”
    He stares at her. “Huh?”
    Faris looks away, eyes downcast. The shade of the tree they’re standing underneath, the sole tree on the expanses of ground between boulders, makes rustling noises in the wind. “Never mind. It’s nothing.”
    James gazes at her, then takes a step towards her. “Faris… I… you know how I feel about you…”
    “Unfortunately,” she returns mildly. James flinches visibly, but Faris’ back is to him.
    “So… why?” he queries. “Why…”
    Faris turns to him. Looking into his sad face, a sudden urge to walk up to him and kiss him overtakes her. However, she only shakes her head. “Because all I can do is run away,” she answers. Faris smiles wistfully, and adds, “Looking at you now, I feel as if I’m not alone…”
    “You’re not alone,” he says quietly. “I already told you: You have me.”
    Faris sighs; a long, drug-out sigh. “But,” she says equally quietly, “do I want you?”
    James reacts to this as if he’d been slapped in the face.
    There is a long moment of silence between them.
    “You’re being intentionally cruel, aren’t you.” It’s more of a statement than a question, and James knows it.
    “Maybe, maybe not. I’ll leave it up to you to decide.” Vague as ever. Deliberately eluding it. But then, it wasn’t a question to begin with, and Faris knows it.
    He closes his eyes and bows his head slightly. “I love you…”
    She stares into eternity, stares into nothing. “Do you?”
    A sudden, unexpected surge of anger wells up in James from out of nowhere. With an inner strength he’d never known he had, James marches forward, grabs Faris’ arm, and spins her around to face him. “Why do you always take me lightly!?” he demands, holding onto both her arms so she can’t turn away. She stares at him in shock, and he continues, “I confess my deepest feelings to you, and you just LAUGH at me!! Why can’t you take me seriously!? Just ONCE!?!” His eyes begin to tear up, and his grips on her arms tighten. “Just once, I’d like to be taken seriously!!”
    She winces from both his grip and his verbal assault. Attempting to divert his attention, she whispers, “James… you’re hurting me…”
    In a wash of white feeling, he realizes what he’s doing, and promptly lets go. “Oh… I’m so sorry, Faris, I didn’t mean it… Please, I’m really sorry, please forgive me!” His voice holds a pleading note, sharply different from how he’d been talking before.
    Faris turns away from him, arms crossed in front of her chest. “…”
    Feeling a deep sense of shame, James hangs his head. “I’m so sorry…” he whispers.
    With a significantly different note in her voice, Faris returns, “Are you?”
    “?” James lifts his head in time for Faris’ hand to crack onto his cheek in a resounding slap.
    He falls over from the force of the blow, holding a protective hand to the assaulted cheek. His jade-green eyes fill with tears, and spill carelessly onto his trembling, tender cheeks.
    Looking up at the object of his affection, looming overhead, Faris suddenly seems dangerous and threatening, like a thunderstorm growing on the horizon. Lovely and charming and ever so dangerous… When she kneels down and reaches out to pull his hand away, he cringes back, shutting his eyes tightly. When she gently pulls his hand away from his cheek, he realizes with a start that his hand is shaking, and prepares himself for the worst.
    What he does not prepare himself for, though, is what comes: A gentle kiss on the afflicted cheek.
    He opens his eyes wide. “Wh—wh, wha…”
    Faris kneels down and cups his face between her hands. She slides her arms down his back, pulling him into a hug. Hesitantly, like a small, frightened child, he hugs her back. “James…” she whispers in his ear. She pulls back a little so that they’re looking at each other face to face; he can now see that there’s a gentle, apologetic smile on her lips. “Don’t apologize. I’m the one who should be sorry.”
    James hesitates a second, then simply does it because he knows if he hesitates any longer, he’ll lose his nerve.
    He kisses her.
    Only on the lips, yes—Faris would kill him if he brought tongue into this. But James figures this is his only chance for any sort of kiss from her, so…
    And while it’s only on the surface, the emotion, the deep need he feels for her, communicates well enough.
    “…!!!” Faris is, to say the very least, completely caught off her guard. She never figured he’d be this bold or this passionate… A flurry of emotions ranging from embarrassment to anger to a shy happiness storm in her body as he refuses to let go of her, as if she is his source of life.
    ‘Maybe I am…’ she thinks almost drowsily, giving up the idea of resisting and instead flowing into the kiss.
    It’s James who breaks away first. They stare into each other’s eyes, pausing for breath. He gains a guilty expression, and turns his face away. “…Sorry…” he mumbles.
    Faris sighs. “It looks like just words aren’t going to convince you,” she says softly, tilting his face back by the chin. She places her hands on his shoulders as he stares at her, flabbergasted. Lips parted slightly, she kisses him.
    “…!!!” James is, to say the very least, completely shocked. He’d never expected her to kiss him, especially like this… He closes his eyes, relaxing and enjoying the feel of her cool, firm lips against his, her tongue caressing his. Who cares now? So what if his heart is racing so fast it might explode? If he dies, he’ll die happy. He wraps his arms around her, one around her waist, one on her neck, and kisses her back. Although he isn’t very experienced at this—this is only his second kiss—James does his best to follow along.
    When they break off at the same time for air, it’s obvious by Faris’ expression that he’d followed along quite well.
    As they gaze wide-eyed into each other’s face, a slow blush creeps over them both.  Faris is the first to glance away. “I don’t know why I did that,” she admits, smiling a little. “You know, James, you’re a better kisser than I thought you would be.”
    “You’ve kissed before?” he asks quietly, still holding her.
    “No. You’re my first.” With a (slightly shaky) sigh, she turns her face back to him, and places a hand on the wrist that’s resting on her neck. “But I have a lot of secondhand experience on what a good kiss is supposed to be like. Have you ever kissed before?”
    He shakes his head mutely. “You’re my first, too…” He gives her a shy smile. “I’m glad you were.”
    She runs a hand through his hair, smiling back. “I’m glad you were, too.”
    He sighs contentedly, pulling Faris close. Playing with her hair, James murmurs in her ear, “Faris, are we in love?”
    Faris closes her eyes, leaning on him. “I don’t know for sure, James,” she admits. “But I think so.”
    They lie down on the smooth rock surface and together gaze up at the clear blue sky.
    “Our relationship is complicated, ne?” Faris comments.
    “Yeah,” James agrees.
    They spend several moments together in each other’s arms, enjoying the sounds of the forest—birds chirping, streams flowing, wind rustling, people shouting…
    “Eh?” Faris blinks, getting up. She walks to the end of the rock towards the source of the voices, and sees Starr, Jessie, and Meowth approaching, all three of them calling for James and herself.
    She blinks in surprise. “Are?” Faris checks her watch, and sees with some surprise that it’s past noon. “Ara… they must have gotten worried…” She half-walks, half-runs back to James, who is sitting and waiting expectantly for her.
    “What is it?” he asks.
    “Jessie, Starr, and Meowth,” she replies. “I guess they got worried when we didn’t come back. C’mon, let’s hide up in the tree and see how long it takes them to find us.”
    “Are you sure we should do that?” James queries with some doubt, getting up.
    She shrugs. “You don’t have to if you don’t want to, I guess.” She proceeds to climb up.
    “Hey, wait!” he protests, following her.
    Both of them make it a fair distance in the tree, enough to be shrouded by the leaves, by the time Starr, Jessie, and Meowth make it to the rock.
    From the tree, Faris catches the tail end of something from Starr as she and Jessie sit down on the rock.
    “…It does seem like that. She’s a good friend of mine, but I wish she’d stop being so scared of what we’ll say if she admits she loves James. It hurts them both.” Starr sighs.
    Jessie looks relieved. “So I guess you feel the same as me…”
    Meowth looks at the both of them wildly, a huge grin plastered all over his kitty face. “Don’t tell me you two are in LOVE with James!?!”
    “Anooooooo...” Starr says as she and Jessie turn approximately as red as Jessie’s hair.
    Meowth laughs in disbelief. “You ARE!! Jeez, who’da thunk it? Now, STARR I could understand, but JESSIE? No way, no WAY I could ever guess it, not with the way you treat him!”
    Starr acquires a frankly immense sweatdrop.
    Jessie proceeds to strangle Meowth. “YOU KEEP YOUR BIG MOUTH SHUT!!!!!!”
    Meowth scratches her till she lets go. “Cut it out!” he coughs. “It’s not like James is HERE!”
    Faris murmurs to herself in the tree, “Oh, the irony of it all...”
    James only listens.
    Meowth looks at Starr. “So how in the world’dya fall in love with James?”
    Starr pokes Meowth in the head. “He’s thoughtful, he’s innocent, he always makes me laugh, he’s determined, and he’s really sweet. That’s how.”
    “Whaddabout you, Jessie?” Meowth coaxes.
    Jessie is silent. She looks up at the sky.
    Starr hugs Jessie gently. “Don’t worry. You didn’t laugh at me; I won’t laugh at you.”
    Jessie looks grateful. “Thanks, Starr.” She leans her chin on her hand and sighs, deep in thought (as deep as Jessie ever gets). “Hmmm… how many years have James and I been together? Three? Four, maybe? In all those years that I’ve known him, he’s never hit me, not even once. He’s yelled at me a few times, but he’s never hit me. I guess that’s one reason why I love him. But… there’s something more… I don’t know how to describe it…” She looks frustrated as she pauses to search for the right words, then goes on, “I guess… I guess it’s because we’re on the same level. We’re both outcasts, so we have nothing to hide from each other. I don’t have to be shy or embarrassed around him, because he knows what I’m like, and he still likes me. Most people, when they get to know the REAL me, they don’t like me anymore…” She sighs again, sticking her lower lip out, then picks up a small pebble and turns it over in her hand.
    Starr nods. “I worry the same thing…but so far it’s never happened...even when I’m at my worst on purpose, my friends never push me away.”
    Jessie laughs sharply, bitterly. “You’re lucky! At least you HAVE friends! James is the only one I can really consider a real friend. He doesn’t judge me. And I don’t judge him, because we’re the same. I just feel—I feel RIGHT around him. Like I actually belong, instead of being an outcast, like I’ve always been. Collecting friends for social purposes, putting on a pretty face so all the other pretty faces will like you—I LIKE being pretty, but nobody cares about ME!”
    To Meowth and Starr’s surprise, Jessie starts crying frustrated tears. She pitches the small rock exceptionally hard. “Only James cares!! THAT’S why I love him!!! Are you happy now, Meowth!?!”
    “ …” is Meowth’s only reply to this.
    Starr hugs Jessie again. “It’s okay.”
    Meowth looks guilty. He gazes up at Jessie imploringly, making sincere Big Cute Eyes. “…sorry, Jessie. I didn’t mean to hurt your feelings.”
    Jessie isn’t comforted, though. She rushes on, “And THAT’S why I hate Faris!!! She doesn’t have to do ANYTHING and James trips over himself to make her happy! She doesn’t even want him, doesn’t even CARE about him, and he’s her SLAVE! I hate her! I hate her!! I HATE HER!!!!” She starts sobbing again. “It’s not FAIR!!!! We’ve known each other for so long—he should just KNOW how I feel about him!!!”
    “No one can just know how you feel,” Starr says. “You have to tell them.” She looks sad. “I wish I had told James.”
    Said blue-haired Rocket now looks as though he’s about to faint out of the tree. Faris shakes him to snap him out of it.
    He stops looking green, but the shaking knocks Faris off balance and she has no choice but to jump out of the tree.
    THUMP.
    Jessie, Meowth and Starr jump three feet off the rock.
    “Faris?????” Jessie exclaims, identifying the dazed figure sitting under the tree.
    “Hi,” Faris says mildly, getting up.
    No one bothers to ask how much was heard.
    “Where’s James?” Jessie asks, enunciating her partner’s name pointedly.
    Faris shrugs. “Probably wandering around someplace. I ditched him in the forest when I ran off—I didn’t want to deal with him. In other words, I have no clue where he could be right now. You guys go back to the house and get something to eat.”
    “Faris…” Starr says quietly.
    Something in her voice tells Faris Starr knows that’s not the truth.
    Jessie glares at Faris with eyes to kill before turning away. Before Faris can react, her hand moves lightning-fast and cracks across the cheek.
    A split window showing James, Starr and Meowth, and Faris’ shocked faces flashes across the screen before Faris regains composure. Holding her cheek lightly, she glares back at Jessie.
    “That was for James,” she states flatly. “How could you do such a thing to him when he loves you!? You stay away from him!!”
    “Bakame,” Faris growls in reply. “That’s what I’ve been trying to do from the beginning—and just look what good it did any of us.”
    Having no other retort for that, Jessie snarls and whirls around. With an electric air of restrained fury swirling around her, she stalks away into the forest. Starr and Meowth spare Faris a worried glance before they chase after her.
    As soon as they’re out of earshot, there’s a sudden sharp *CRACK* from above Faris.
    Seconds later, James and a large tree branch plummet from the tree and crash to the ground.
    “eeeeeeeeeeeeeigh…” James whines.
    Faris smiles. “Hi.”
    James blinks, eyes changing back from kawaii little swirlies to angular jade green. “Why did you lie to them?”
    Faris shrugs and mumbles something.
    James nods, though he has no idea what she’s said.
    The lavender-haired Rocket rubs her cheek lightly as James rises to his feet, then says in a mild tone, “So, James, looks like you’ve got two other love interests in your life. Think you’ll ditch me for one of them?”
    He stares at her as if she’d just proposed they move to the rainforest and spend the rest of their lives studying the lifestyles of the pygmy tree-people. “Faris…”
    “Starr will treat you better, and, well, Jessie… Jessie, I’m sure there’s good points about her you know about that I don’t,” she continues in an equally mild tone. Her ruby eyes slide over to him. “What do you say?”
    James looks positively miserable as he replies in an almost-whisper, “But… Faris… I love you.”
    Faris’ eyes soften. “Oh, James,” she says gently.

    Dinner is an interesting experience for everyone in Lenna’s house. Jessie refuses to talk to anyone and takes a fourth plate of lasagna. Starr only talks rarely, pushing the croutons from her salad around on her plate to make interesting patterns whenever anyone asks her something.
    Soon, any conversation dwindles into awkward small talk, and that fades out into silence. All anyone can hear is crunching and occasionally Starr asking someone to pass the salt or Pikachu asking for ketchup.
    Ash reduces a crouton to dust and sighs, looking around the table at all his friends. James looks from Faris to Jessie to Starr nervously, as though he expects any or all of them to mangle him any second. Jessie looks even crabbier than usual. Starr’s expression is completely hidden by her long bangs as she leans over her plate. Faris doesn’t seem to notice anything and simply concentrates on her dinner.
    “This is very good lasagna, Brock,” she says, causing the former gym leader to turn red and stammer his thanks for the compliment.
    Jessie suddenly looks up at Faris and gives her a Death Glare that would cause Jenova to run screaming in fear (if that thing can run). Misty jumps and flinches. She whispers to Ash, “What happened? They were fine until they came back from looking for Faris and James.”
    “Maybe something happened while they were.” Ash guesses right on, though he doesn’t know it.
    There’s a loud crunch as Starr hears and looks up, accidentally squashing a crouton.
    Ash grins nervously. To his relief, Starr smiles back and for a second her emerald eyes regain their normal cheery look—but soon they cloud over again and she returns her attention to the ‘salad art’.
    Misty tugs on Ash’s sleeve again. “After dinner, I’m asking them what’s the matter. This can’t go on, it’s gonna drive everyone nuts.”
    Ash and Brock nod in agreement.
    Pikachu looks from Starr to Faris and back again. She’s really not sure what’s going on. She turns to Batts. “<Hey, you read minds. Can you tell me what’s the matter? I’m worried.>”
    Batts shakes his head. <Faris being stubborn about something. When she’s like this, I find it’s best not to enter her mind; she gets angry when I do. But, I can still skim her thoughts, and it seems to have something to do with James.>
    “PI PIKACHU!!?!”
    Everyone jumps as Pikachu exclaims.
    “Pi....” Pikachu puts a hand to the back of her neck and smiles nervously, then turns back to Batts. “<James?>”
    Batts nods. <I’m not quite sure…but I believe that…Starr, Faris and Jessie all love him.>
    “PIKA CHU!!!!!???????”
    Everyone jumps again.
    Raichu looks at Pikachu. “<What’s up with you, Pikachu?>”
    Pikachu relays the information.
    Raichu crashes to the floor in disbelief.
    “What ARE those guys talking about?” Starr inquires, poking Raichu gently in the stomach.
    Raichu leaps to his feet and looks innocent.
    After five minutes of total silence, Faris shakes her head. “Batts isn’t telling.”
    “Whoopee,” Jessie mutters. “Who cares.”
    Faris blinks, but ignores Jessie.
    Suddenly Starr closes her eyes. “Excuse me. I ate too fast. I’m going outside,” she states dryly, taking her plate to the kitchen and scraping it off, then walking out the door.
    Silence descends once again.
    Faris then gets up. “I know what this is. I’ll talk to her. Don’t worry,” she says quietly to James, who’s about to get up.
    James’s lower lip sticks out a little, but he reluctantly says, “all right.”
    Faris leaves as silently as Starr had.