Yay! This one's for my friend Momo-chan!
I.
There was something strange about his new rival. Butch couldn't place it, but he couldn't shake it either. As thin, pale, and pathetic-looking as James was, he had a supernatural aura.
Butch snorted. He may have a pretty face, but I'm the one all the girls go after and that will never change.
Right now they were supposed to be weight training. The scrawny teenager next to Butch now had his too-big emerald eyes trained on the face of his female counterpart, Jessie. He fought back the urge to laugh as he noticed the look in James' eyes.
"Good luck with that, shrimp," he commented, half to himself. James turned to him, his shaggy lavender hair swirling around his face, attempting in vain to conceal his sensitive vision from the bright afternoon sun.
"With what?" he asked, genuinely curious. Butch jumped. He had never heard him speak before, but the fact that he had a perfect voice as compared to Butch's froggy one made him want to grind James' face into the ground.
"With the girl," Butch answered, waving his hand vaguely. The lavender-haired teen tilted his head somewhat stupidly. "Never mind. With training." He nonchalantly tossed a fifteen-pound dumbbell, smirking as it sailed at James' head. He flicked up his pale wrist and caught it with ease, non-blinking and non-hesitating.
"Thank you," he said innocently. Butch growled a few swear words, angry with himself and the naive pest. He had turned back to watch Jessie, who was now joined with her rival, Cassidy. The two of them had now begun to fight amongst themselves about who was better-looking.
James did not understand all this. He preferred to keep to himself, even as he entered manhood. He absentmindedly patted the talking Meowth's head, keeping his head down, his hair an impenetrable curtain around his face.
"Hey!" protested Meowth. "You can look, but don't touch. At least wash yer hands, dey're all wet wid sweat." James withdrew his hand quickly with a hurt expression, and Meowth sighed and went to go find some more food.
His only mission in life was to find somewhere he belonged. That was it - no riches, fame, or fortune for him. He could find those things at home, and he didn't really want them anyway, for even inheritance comes at a price. He just wasn't willing to pay.
Butch glared at James, who was gazing at the dumbbell with a faroff look in his eyes. He briefly wondered if he was retarded, or just really really stupid. Maybe both. Either way, he had a very strong urge to punch him. Butch huffed and stomped over to the bishonen, who didn't even glance up.
He drew back his fist, and let fly at the back of James' head. Butch swore as it made contact, cracking his joints in the process. He fought the overwhelming sense of pain as tendrils of it pulsed up and down his hand, wrist, and forearm. James, however, hadn't even so much as flinched, instead turned to him, rage blazing in his once-apathetic gaze.
"Why'd you hit me?" he shouted, raising his voice above the murmuring around the training area.
Jessie hadn't watched any of this until James' voice broke through the barrier her and Cassidy's heated argument had created. She felt goosebumps as she realized he wasn't the puny kid who idolized her and she defended him anymore. Things were changing, but one thing remained the same - obviously bullies still liked to pick on him. Instantly she swiveled her head, surveying the battlefield.
Instead of a crying little boy on the ground, clutching his broken arm, she saw only two things: James' anger and Butch's fear. The two elements didn't add up somehow. Butch? Afraid? He's the best fighter here. And I can't ever really picture James angry... She gave herself a small little smile as Cassidy's eyes widened at seeing her partner back away from the smaller resistance.
Butch couldn't believe it. He knew that beating up on James would aggravate a black eye from Jessie, but that wasn't what he feared at this moment. His intuition had been right.
For at the corners of hhis rival's mouth, the tips of two fangs gleamed prominently, almost mocking him.
Butch fled from the training area.
