Be Good

 

Giovanni wasn’t sure what to say or do. His three most stupidest (if loyal) agents had just implied that they believed that he was married. That they had, despite him saying not to, sent in the marriage certificate to be processed officially, instead of sneaking it into the offices to be placed into the records.

 

This was a nightmare.

 

He couldn’t believe these three! Of all the idiotic things they could have done, messing up on this was the worse. And there was still -

 

He looked over at the sleeping girl on his couch.

 

Shit.

 

There was no way in hell he could let her know what these idiots had done. The marriage was fake. She wasn’t so bothered by it if it was fake. If she found out that they were really married...he could just imagine her reaction. She would be chasing after him in a heartbeat, and not in the way he wanted her to. He’d find himself six feet under if he or these three ever let slip the truth.

 

He quickly strode over to his…wife and waved a hand in front of her face, and gently shook her shoulder. Seeing no response, he whirled on the three.

 

“You idiots!” he yelled as quietly as he could at them. They cringed back and stared at him with wide eyes. “That’s not what I told you three to do!”

 

Then he told them, in a continued restrained yell, exactly what he’d wanted them to do and what they were supposed to do. The more he talked, the more the look of dread grew on their faces.

 

James threw himself on the floor at Giovanni’s feet. “I’m so sorry, Boss! It was a mistake!”

 

“Um, present?” Jessie held up the present again, smiling fearfully.

 

Meowth opened his mouth, but before he could say anything, a minor Thunderbolt hit him and he yelped. They all looked at the culprit, with Pikachu giggling as he stood on Giovanni’s desk.

 

“It’s the twerp’s Pikachu!” Meowth gaped.

 

It was almost an instinctive reaction for the three to throw themselves at the electric mouse, attempting to catch it, only for them to crash into Giovanni’s desk while Pikachu nimbly jumped away and went to Giovanni himself. The yellow mouse snickered at the trio.

 

Giovanni sighed, though he was amused by Pikachu’s behavior and mocking of the others.

 

“Leave my wife’s Pikachu alone,” he said dryly, letting the mouse’s bribing nuzzling be allowed. He gave Pikachu a look, only for him to give a big smile back to the Rocket Boss. “You’re so cute, Ash lets you get away with pretty much everything, doesn’t she?’ he continued in that dry tone.

 

Pikachu just continued to smile.

 

“Boss doesn’t know –the cuter that thing gets, the more dangerous and destructive…” the trio were muttering things like that to each other.

 

Giovanni stared at them strangely, though he glanced at Pikachu, who only gave him a cute giggle.

 

“You wouldn’t happen to have evil tendencies, do you?” Giovanni muttered to it.

 

“Pika?” But there was a very slight mischievous edge to that smile.

 

Giovanni stared at him incredulously, before inwardly shrugging. “I approve, I suppose,” he was muttering again, taking Pikachu into his arms and holding him carefully.

 

Just then there was a flash and someone’s pokéball opened, and without warning something came out of it and practically glomped Giovanni.

 

“WOBBUFET!”

 

Giovanni twitched once. Then twice.

 

“Get out! Get out, you fools!” he screamed at the three, who scrambled out of there.

 

Wobbufet was quick to follow as Giovanni all but threw it at the trio. Giovanni set Pikachu down and pointed out the door.

“Pikachu, Thunderbolt,” Giovanni deadpanned.

 

“Pikachu!” the electric mouse cheered, running out the door and repeatedly shocking the trio as they ran away.

 

“W-what?” Ash started to wake up, yawning. She blinked and gave Giovanni a strange look.

 

“Did you actually give orders to Pikachu?”

 

“Yes. And he’s a very good right-hand pokémon. He listens well and knows how to punish idiots perfectly,” Giovanni deadpanned.

 

Ash laughed. “Let me guess, those idiots wouldn’t happen to be a red-headed hot-head, a bluenette metrosexual male, and a talking Meowth.”

 

“I’m hearing that as a statement,” Giovanni smirked at her.

 

“Please, I know those three like the back of my hand,” she said with a snort. “They’ve followed and dogged my steps from the moment I practically started my journey. You can have them back by the way.”

 

Giovanni scoffed. “No, I’m fine. You can keep custody of them.”

 

Ash threw up her hands. “Oh hell no! I may have joked in the past that it was like we’re a divorced couple and you forced ‘custody’ of those three on me–even never having met you before –but it was just a joke! And take custody of them back! They’re your kids! Take responsibility of them.”

 

He blinked at her before he slowly began to grin. “You really had a joke like that before? And given we’ve only met a couple of times, to say you had a private in-joke like that before we met –are you sure you never had a crush on me before now?”

 

“Ugh! Shut up! I told you it was a stupid joke I shared with Brock and Misty!”

 

“Oh, that’s just perfect,” he snickered. “Well, since we’re ‘married’, I guess we’re sharing custody now, huh?”

 

Ash glowered at him, but he was enjoying himself too much.

 

“Hey, speaking of this marriage, are the rest of your minions gonna know?” she asked curiously.

 

“I suppose,” he thought on it. “They’ll need to, in order to follow along with the plan, if we run across any of them. So yes, my ‘minions’ will have to hear about it, so we’ll have to hold an announcement soon.”

 

“Can I order around your minions then?” Ash suddenly sounded eager, and was strangely reminiscent of Pikachu’s behavior earlier.

 

“Sure,” Giovanni agreed, feeling like he might come to regret that.

 

“And technically since we’re married –even if it’s fake, they won’t know –that means I like…half-own Team Rocket.”

 

Giovanni stared at her.

 

“So I’m, like, co-boss.”

 

He opened his mouth, but she was speaking again.

 

“Which means Team Rocket is mine too.”

 

Honestly, her trail of thought was baffling him, and he was starting to feel very wary and uncomfortable about where she was going with this.

 

“Right?” she asked him, sounding too eager.

 

“Although I would have thought you wouldn’t want anything to do with Team Rocket, as we’re ‘married’, I assume that is correct,” he reluctantly agreed.

 

There was a glint in her eyes that made him all too uneasy. It made him wonder even more what she would do if she knew they really were married.

 

Ash cleared her throat, and was back to looking normal. “Well, I know we’re not really married, so anything I think of or do is temporary anyway. Just until this whole charade is over, right?”

 

“Right,” he muttered.

 

A loud grumble was heard and Giovanni glanced at Ash, who laughed in embarrassment and rubbed her stomach.

 

“Um, I guess I’m hungry?”

 

“What do you want?” he inwardly sighed.

 

“Apple pie!” she beamed happily at him, and his lips twitched upwards.

 

“Fine, but why don’t you just order a Rocket agent, test out your new ‘powers?’” he asked, half sarcastic. “Order around Jessie, James, and Meowth for once.”

 

She did look interested, but oddly not too much. She shrugged at him.

 

“I guess. But…” When she didn’t elaborate, he gave her a look and she sort of returned it with a strange one. She did start talking again though. “I just want you to take me there, and you be the one to buy it for me,” she sort of mumbled, although he heard fine.

 

Well, if it was like that…

 

Not questioning her odd turnaround and rather attached behavior, Giovanni grabbed his jacket and headed for the door.

 

“Well, come on then.”

 

 

And she hid a smile, following after him closely.

 

They’d found a diner not too far away from the base, which luckily enough had an apple pie as part of its desserts. Ash eagerly ordered and was quick to dive into it, sitting at a booth with Giovanni. It was late at night, and there were almost no other patrons in the diner, minus a few night owls.

 

When Ash cut a piece with her fork and held it out to him, giving him an expectant look, Giovanni supposed he was too tired to make a fuss about it and simply leant forward and accepted the piece as he opened his mouth and let her carefully lead a piece of pie into it.

 

She seemed extremely happy about that for some reason.

 

“This is really good,” Ash hummed happily.

 

“…It sure is.”

 

The more he thought about this weird late night outing, the more weird he felt about it. Especially with Ash looking shyly at him every so often…

 

 Ash tugged at his sleeve slightly and he refrained from yawning, giving her his attention. When she didn’t speak up, he raised one eyebrow at her, prompting her to talk about what was on her mind.

 

“Can we go for a drive?” she surprisingly requested.

 

Honestly, the night was getting stranger and stranger, but at least she wasn’t yelling or attempting to throttle him. With that said, Giovanni shrugged to himself and agreed to her request, paying for their food and heading out with her sticking close to him. Inside the car, he turned to her and was about to ask where did she feel like going, when he saw her yawning and then sleepily cuddle up to his side. Deciding to just aimlessly drive around, he started the car and drove.

 

“Giovanni?”

 

“Hm?”

 

“…When you’re like this, you’re really nice…”

 

“…Okay. Go to sleep, Ash.”

 

Giovanni wouldn’t admit to anyone how uncomfortable and oddly at ease she was making him at that moment. Suffice to say, as she nodded off and grasped onto his arm, laying her head against him, he was very aware of how the scene looked. Well, they were playing at being married (notwithstanding the fact that they were actually married)…

 

He took his arm from her and placed it around her instead.

 

With her asleep, it was probably best they headed back to base now. He’d probably have to carry her all the way to the room though, since she was asleep. He could have one of his subordinates grab her and carry her for him, but the thought of it irritated him and he just didn’t like the idea of someone…doing his job for him. If anyone was going to carry her, it was going to be him.

 

“You’re such a handful,” he grumbled to her, as he carried her to their room when they finally made it back to the base.

 

 

But then again, so was he. He guessed that meant they really did match just fine and suited each other.

 

When Ash thought back to the night, she wondered if it had been all a dream. But she was in bed, when she hadn’t remembered being in bed, and the leftover apple pie was still in its box and over to the side of the room.

 

“Good morning,” Giovanni greeted, walking through the bedroom door normally, as if last night hadn’t been weird enough. He carried a tray with two plates of food, and she was astonished at the gesture and that he would bring breakfast in bed. “Hungry?”

 

“Yeah,” she said quietly, sitting up in the bed. “Are you eating too?”

 

He gave a noncommittal answer, but sat down beside her and handed her a plate. After grabbing his own, he put the tray aside and started in on his food.

 

“You’re actually eating breakfast,” she murmured, watching him.

 

He glanced at her briefly. “Hn, well a little birdie told me I should eat breakfast.”

 

Ash smiled a little to herself. “And you should,” she poked his side and then began to eat her own food.

 

She’d always thought, as a result of her own parents, that marriage was probably hectic and too troublesome. But this was different and unlike her thoughts…It was probably because it wasn’t a real marriage…

 

“So, you know Jessie, James, and Meowth are idiots,” Giovanni said out of nowhere.

 

“Yeah?” Ash wondered where he was going with it.

 

“They’re idiots. Simple. What’s not so simple is they screwed up my orders on illegally processing our marriage certificate, so technically we’re really married after all.”

 

Ash stared at him, hand holding her spoon frozen above her plate.

 

He looked over at her finally, obviously gauging her reaction. “I thought about not telling you, and I actually wasn’t…but I thought about it all night and decided you’d be more upset about me not saying anything about it, and probably attempt to bury me alive somewhere where no one will ever find my body.”

 

Ash couldn’t help crack a smile at that.

 

Giovanni put his plate away to the side, on the side dresser, before looking at her again. “And well, you told me to just tell you things, instead of doing whatever my mind comes up with. I suppose another hickey wouldn’t help.”

 

She started to giggle a bit at his words, before calming down and giving him a small smile.

 

“You’re taking the news much better than I thought you would,” he noted.

 

She looked down at her plate, moving food around before looking up at him shyly.

 

“You told me outright this time, and I told you I can be a good listener,” she felt the need to hide. She grew a mischievous grin. “I’ll just punish those three and make their lives hell too, since per your words, it’s all their fault.”

 

He barked out a laugh. “That’s my girl,” he said proudly, and she tried not to blush too hard in front of him.

 

She supposed married life wasn’t that bad after all.

 

“What’s that?” she pointed at the gift right next to the apple pie box, finally noticing and giving attention to it.

 

Giovanni grimaced. “Those three got us a ‘congrats’ present.”

 

Scooting off the bed, Ash went over to it and placed her plate onto the table, taking the gift instead. Taking off the bow and then the gift wrapping, she opened it and cocked her head to the side.

 

“What is it?” Giovanni asked curiously, heading over to her side.

 

He peered over her shoulder as well.

 

“It’s, um, not a bad present,” Ash said hesitantly, still rather put off by it.

 

“I don’t know whether to be insulted or roll my eyes,” Giovanni scoffed.

 

Inside was two tickets to Pokémon Land, of which Giovanni owned and had rebuilt after last time’s disastrous events.

 

“I’ve never been there for fun,” Ash shrugged. “Last time I was there, I just escaped being shipwrecked out on sea and thought it was an island full of giant pokémon and was running for my life.”

 

Giovanni grunted, because he was still sore over having to spend even more money rebuilding the amusement park, when it had taken him an enormous amount to build it in the first place.

 

“I own the place,” he revealed to her in a bland tone, making her wince and remember the chaos that she and her friends (and the Rocket Trio) had caused to that amusement park (and consequently what they probably caused him in money to rebuild the place). “We could go there anytime. They probably used their Rocket clearance to get these tickets for free.”

 

Ash couldn’t help laughing. “That’s so like the three. I can’t really be surprised.”

 

Just then there was a knock on the door, and Giovanni irritably strode over to it. When he opened the door, said trio was standing outside, looking rumpled and disorganized, and with leaves and sticks peeking from out of their hair or stuck to their clothes and fur.

 

They held up a cute, puppyish-looking pokémon sheepishly.

 

“Um, we were kind of scrambling for a gift yesterday, so we got you tickets to the park, but uh…we thought we’d go find you a real gift in the meantime,” Jessie smiled tentatively.

 

James grinned happily. “Yeah! We actually managed to get a pokémon for you! It’s a Litleo.”

 

“Pika.”

 

The three winced and stepped aside, with Pikachu darting through their legs and heading into the room.

 

“The rat helped us,” Meowth mumbled.

 

Giovanni blinked at them, and then took in the Litleo James was holding up. He took it from them, and examined it.

 

“Hm…Not…bad, you three. Good job and…thank you for the gift,” Giovanni reluctantly bit out, but decided the three did a good job and it was a good gift.

 

“We appreciate it,” Ash called out from in the room.

 

“Hey-hey, Boss,” James whispered to him, giving him a wink. “You should give it to her.”

 

Jessie giggled quietly. “Yeah~ You know…get on her good side. Maybe a little ‘compensation’ will come your way, if you get what we mean.”

 

Giovanni stared at them blankly before slamming the door in their faces.

 

“Idiots. Just…idiots,” he muttered.

 

“Oh! What a cute pokémon,” Ash saw the Litleo in his hands, coming over to him and taking it from him. “What is it? I don’t have a pokedex from this region yet.”

 

“We’ll get one when we reach Lumiose City,” Giovanni told her. “This is a Litleo. Apparently, the JJM unit went ahead and decided to look for a real gift for us, with the tickets as placeholders for whatever they could find.”

 

She scratched the Litleo’s chin, as Pikachu clambered onto Giovanni and curiously leaned over to see the Litleo.

 

“You can have it,” he said suddenly, deciding what the heck. “I already have five in my party, but you only have four.”

 

She looked taken aback by him. “Are you sure?”

 

“Yeah, it fits more to you anyway,” he decided, looking at the Litleo. Plus, he was also sure the boss of Team Flare had a Pyroar, and Giovanni didn’t copy anyone and had his own style, thank you very much.

 

It was also more ironic to him that his partner and “wife” had a Litleo (that he was sure he’d help develop into a Pyroar of her own) to go up against the very Team they were against, and whose boss had a Pyroar and was practically that Team’s signature pokémon.

 

“Hm, I think Litleo’s a female.”

 

A smirk slowly spread across his lips.

 

Oh yes –female Pyroar versus male Pyroar. His little wife was so going to win against Lysandre, and make that beauty-obsessed man bemoan his loss sorely.

 

 

Irony was so playing into his hands.

 

Having gathered the Rockets in this base into the main hall, Giovanni was getting ready to make an announcement. He would announce his presence in Kalos, his plans to take down Team Flare personally, and then of course bringing up the fact he had a wife. A real, actual wife.

 

The two of them had more or less settled they’d take care of that fact after this whole Team Flare business, but for now they were officially married and Ash really did pretty much co-owned Team Rocket.

 

“Rockets! As you know, I have arrived to Kalos and will be overlooking operations in each base as I stop by,” he started out, standing tall on the stage overlooking the huge gathering. “I expect complete perfection in your work! I do not want to see neglect in anything, nor will I tolerate laziness or subpar work.

 

“Now, as for my main reason in coming here, I am personally going to handle Team Flare and take them down,” he announced, and a loud blare of applause and cheers greeted him. “Be assured! Their pathetic attempts to take over the world will be ruined, and Team Rocket will continue to rise and stay at the top! Not once have we really been brought to justice and never had we disbanded and lost all sight of our goals. Aqua, Magma, Galactic, and Plasma –fallen and are just memories to people! But Team Rocket has yet to fall and Team Flare will be next!”

 

Another burst of thunderous applause exploded from his Rockets and Giovanni gave a pleased smile. He should be announcing Ash now, and have the rest of the Team recognize her and not ruin her part and role in the plan.

 

“Now, those Teams were brought down more or less by a single girl,” he said and a hush quiet went over the crowd, all knowing who he was talking about immediately. By now, she’d become infamous and beyond just “that girl the Rocket Idiots follow around.”

 

And actually, her reputation preceding her and being what it was, put so many points in his favor actually.

 

He smirked. “Ash Ketchum, known as the girl who’s been a thorn in every Teams’ side –is now actually my wife.”

 

Complete and utter silence met him as everyone tried to process the news in their shock. Giovanni turned to look behind him and get Ash to come out, only to find the area she’d been in empty. He was only momentarily confused, as the double doors in the back of the hall burst open and Ash stood front and center of it, and Jessie, James and Meowth holding the doors wide open and Pikachu hanging onto Ash’s shoulders.

 

“Damn straight, people! I own you all too now,” she practically purred, narrowing her eyes at the group gathered in front of her and wearing a very wicked grin.

 

“So bow and kneel!”

 

Giovanni, even in his own shock, decided that if his wife had decidedly megalomaniac tendencies and wanted to take over the world herself, then it was completely fine with him. It also just meant they had more in common now.

 

Plus, he was really just turned on by her right now.