Hello! It is Wednesday and I am back with a new chapter. I had the idea for this quite a long time ago and it was written at the end of last year. It focuses on the dynamic between Katie (Ash and Misty's daughter) and Sammy (Justin's long-term boyfriend). Although the two of them certainly spend a lot of time together and grow a very strong bond because of Justin, this one very much takes place without him. It shows a younger Katie and even a younger Sammy too, when she is a teenager being home-schooled by Delia and struggling with an assignment. I hope you enjoy :)

Ages:

Delia: 53

Katie: 14

Sammy: 27

Misty: 34

Disclaimer: I own the story and the OCs mentioned!

Though the orange haired teenage girl had her eyes glued to the book in her hold and she was furrowing her brow gently, her head lifted and her focus broke when she heard some distant noises in the house. It wasn't uncommon for Katie to react like that, nor was it uncommon for her to momentarily stop what she was doing and peer curiously.

Nevertheless, I had seen the way that she had been so absorbed previously and so for that reason, I offered her a smile and my paw upon her hand. In that moment I decided that I was going to listen out so she didn't have to worry about doing so. But although I could arguably hear the most with my acute earing and my long ears, she still did not allow herself to fully go back to her studies.

Katie's bottom inched closer to the edge of her chair as she heard someone knock at her grandmother's door and that same grandmother of hers answer it. Cheery voices soon filled the house and all four of our ears as well.

"Come in! Come in. I've left the package on the kitchen counter for you." Delia's easy-going and soothing voice filled the air and in spite of this natural level of calmness in her tone, Katie still did not edge away from the end of her seat. But she did lift her book up all over again in preparation to encourage herself to read once more. The sound of scuffing shoes could be heard and then the shutting of the front door before Delia's voice followed once again. "Sammy, you're a little earlier than I expected."

So, it was Sammy knocking at the door. I had a continuous smile on my face at my best friend's mother's voice floating into my ears but when I absentmindedly turned to look to the person next to me at this bit of news, our expressions were not the same.

Finally, she pressed her spine against the back of the chair. But her brow drew together all over again and her eyes widened a little bit. She obviously wasn't expecting the knock at the door to be down to the Alolan male. Holding the book back up to her face as if she was reading, her eyes darted thoughtfully rather than at the words on the page and she listened all the more studiously.

"Class got cancelled this afternoon. Not enough kids are going to show. I'll have to check the TV schedule and see if they've all got a more important occasion than my teaching." Sammy's voice came equally as laid-back and cheery as Delia's despite the words that he was saying. I imagined his almost elfish grin gracing his tanned features clearly as if I was already seeing them. "I'm sorry if being early is a problem though. I'll get Justin's package for him and get out of your hair."

He paused before adding, the sound of his boots lightly clicking on the wooden floor. From the corner of my eye and tilting my head in my best effort to listen for Katie (though she was continuously eavesdropping thoughtfully as well) I saw the way that her pupils danced within her irises.

So, it was Sammy knocking at the door and in order to pick up something that his deep purple haired boyfriend had accidentally left behind. Nothing to worry about. Nothing to worry about at all. She could relax again and go back to focusing on her school work.

But did she? Of course she did not!

The side of her face feeling the brush of her own fingers as it was propped against the table by her elbow and her study book clutched in her left, she stayed welcoming the conversation into her ears.

From the hallway I heard Delia somewhat girlishly chuckle and after yet another scuffing shoes sound, I imagined her hand briefly going to Sammy's shoulder before she said her next words.

"Nonsense." Soft but firm Delia's voice was. I gathered that she took a step back from the tapping noises on the wooden floor as well as the clicking that came afterwards. She was assumedly turning on her heel, waving a delicate and welcoming hand. "We'll have a cup of tea seeing as we'll be in the kitchen anyway. No trouble at all. It's very nice to see you."

Peering in the direction within the Ketchum household where most of the noises were coming from, I could have sworn that I saw a touch of a reflection bouncing off the glass panes in the double doors leading from the dining room to the hallway. And in that reflection, I believed that I saw Delia shooting Sammy a reassuring look before he returned her gesture by running a ring-clad hand through his long locks.

He followed this potential gesture by undoubtedly reaching down to take his heeled boots off of his feet; I heard the noises that accompanied the first possibility. After he allowed them to drop down onto the floor and then he bent them to tuck them to the side neatly, he straightened his spine and followed Delia along the hall to where the kitchen resided.

"Well, that would be lovely. So nice to see you too." Out of habit, he ran his hand through his dark brown locks once more. "I don't want to trouble you though. Are you sure you're not busy teaching?" Sammy's voice came out polite and friendly and no doubt was he making sure that he came across in this way! As I listened and made assumptions, I wondered if this was an over-compensation to the way that he appeared to some people in his black and studded leather jacket. But then I focused on hearing his chuckle. "I'll go say hi to Katie real quick then, and then I'll join you."

Delia's shake of the head and slight reassuring glance must have been successful. Needless to say, in the middle of continuously eavesdropping and staring at the reflection of the glass panes and trying to observe everything, my head then turned to the person who was named in the conversation.

Katie had since gone back to holding her book in both hands and seemingly studying it but the way that her eyebrows rose high upon her face when she heard these particular words from Sammy made it clear that she had been listening just as hard as ever! And listening just as hard as me too.

She made some shuffling noises in her seat and I think this was caused by her making her opposite leg rest over her other one rather than in the way that they had previously been doing. The pages of her book grew tented by her thumbs.

Sammy changed the direction of his walking from the noises that floated into my ears. However, before he could casually hold onto his own studded leather jacket and bit his lower lip absentmindedly before he came and greeted the two of us, Delia got the last word and called back to him as she had already made it into the kitchen.

"Not too much noise and chatting though! She's working on an important assignment." Delia exclaimed and I couldn't help but fill fondness making its way into the pit of my stomach at the fact that that was Katie's grandmother putting her foot down in the only way she knew how.

She would always be soft, that lovely woman. And we adored her for it.

I quickly caught on to the way that Katie's eyelashes fluttered in between appearing to direct her gaze at the words on the page of her book and that was her way of rolling her eyes. I supposed that she felt like her school work and her assignments were a little bit lame – and were no doubt going to appear that way to Sammy.

Relaxing my bottom further against the dining room table where all of Katie's home-schooling supplies were splayed out, I couldn't help but smile and disagree. He of course didn't show any opinion of the sort and he was quick to indeed greet her once he had properly entered the room after chuckling again and waving an airy hand in response to Delia's warning words.

"Hi there, Katie. Pikachu." Sammy greeted true to his words and instead of just lingering in the doorway, he made a point of coming right into the room and where the rest of the chairs that Katie was not sitting on were. His hands casually rested on the back of one chair in particular. His almond eyes softening with friendliness, they locked onto the younger female and he grinned. "How is your day going?"

Following the wave of fondness washing over me for Delia, I then felt a twitch of amusement at the way that wordlessly and very subtly, Katie's eyebrows rose on her face all over and she encouraged them to widen. Her face expressed that she was surprised to see him. She acted surprised to see Sammy though she had heard him from the minute that he had knocked on the door!

He was evidently not put off by her lack of response other than the one written on her face and he was not put off by having to be the one to continue doing the talking. In fact, he seemed to revel in this as he reached a hand and patted me on the top of the head as another greeting before doing exactly that.

"I hear you've got an important assignment to do." Sammy repeated Delia's previous words and I listened. I wasn't the only one. I observed the way that she managed to not have even the slightest hint of an eye roll in response to Justin's boyfriend!

Instead, Katie pressed her lips together in a polite smile and after she pushed her hair out of her own eyes while Sammy continued to paw at my fur, she nodded in response to the words that came from him.

Sammy mirrored her nod. He appeared satisfied with that response even if he had heard no actual words. But Delia had obviously taken notice of her granddaughter's lack of verbal response and even though she didn't have a problem with it per se, after clicking the kettle on the putting teabags into cups, she came into her household dining room from the kitchen where she home-schooled Katie.

Her hands lightly on her hips but her eyes travelling over to her eldest grand-daughter to show that she had indeed spotted her silence, she offered Katie a nod of her own head and a smile too. Sammy's eyes wandered to Delia while his fingers dropped to my cheek and scratched there.

"She's going to do brilliantly." Delia's feminine voice grew firmer at the confidence that she was trying to instil in her granddaughter. Thankfully, Katie's eyes remained fixed in her sockets. In fact, they hardly seemed to move at all since they had focused on the pages of her book all over. Delia's mouth threatened to quirk upwards in approval as her hands remained on her hips but not for long as she thought of something. She approached Katie closer and with a bit of a subtle puzzled look on her face, she swiftly took the book out of her grandchild's hold. "Oh, Katie! Goodness me, girl. You're meant to be studying and then cracking on with your work, not reading this!"

It became clear why she had been fixed at it for so long. Nothing usually ran past Delia Ketchum!

It was revealed what exactly Katie had been reading when not just one book but two tumbled down with a bit of a rumpus. The bigger, exterior study book fell down onto the ground. The smaller, interior one slapped against the table and its cover tilted for all eyes to see.

The inside of my belly twitched all over and I tried not to smirk. Oh Katie, indeed. She had tucked one of her favourite fictional story books inside her English Language study book!

Sammy's clueless smile switched as he held back his laughter but he mostly showed it by his hand remaining on his cheek and continuing to grin, keeping that up for as long as possible before Delia gave him a bit of a look as well.

Although Katie's own cheeks became the hue of the flowers on the kitchen table at getting caught out as well as the disappointed head shake that was being bestowed upon her, she spoke up for herself.

After reaching down to pick the larger book off the floor though she probably cared for it a great deal less, her shoulders bobbed and her eyes travelled to her grandmother.

"I… I w-was studying though. I was fig… figuring out someone else's inner voice so I could know how it's meant to be… b-be done." she protested and then after these words filled the air, she closed both books and pushed them away from her, her arms loosely folding over her chest.

I broke away from Sammy's touch and moved closer to the teenage girl, ready to offer comfort in the middle of her home-schooling in case she started protesting too much or flushing for real.

Delia let out a bit of a sigh and her hands remained on her hips for a little bit longer before they slid away. Sammy and I watched as she shook her head. But then she tried to instil some more light confidence into her granddaughter, leaning a little bit forward and her chocolate brown orbs which she passed onto Katie's father looking right at the fourteen year old girl.

"I'm interested in your voice, Katie. And they are too." Delia told her, referring to the exam board who were going to be the ones reading and marking all of her hard work. She continued not looking away from her granddaughter to which Katie broke the gaze and her lips puckered, concealing oncoming embarrassment by coming across disinterested. She was known well enough by Delia for her to understand she relaxed on her and leaned back. Nevertheless, she remained direct, patting the top of her grandchild's head just the once. "Start it properly now, please. Say hello to Sammy because he's come in here to see you. Then we'll be in the kitchen while you crack on."

She pulled away from Katie for good after leaning close to her and then resting her palm on the top of her head. It was after she did this that I noticed the way that the eldest Ketchum daughter's bordering on lip curl started to falter and she swallowed, a soft but very real hotness filling her cheeks.

It goes without saying that Sammy had watched the whole thing, every interaction between grandmother and granddaughter. Though his hand had reached out to me a good few times, he had remained attentive. And then, because he could gather that Katie was reluctant to crack on and she was also uneasy at the way that she had been almost reprimanded in front of the older male, he didn't think twice about having a turn to speak up.

"Katie said hello to me already." Sammy informed Delia with very brief eyes locking onto her before his hands moved to the back of the chair all over and he pulled it out, inviting himself to sit down. His eyes left her for good. They searched for and they found the pink cheeked face of Katie instead. He addressed her, his arm thoughtlessly resting on the table in his leather jacket. "What is it that you have to do exactly?"

As I glanced at Katie after my gaze was occupied with Delia proceeding to leave the room before she lingered in the door way, not quite exiting just yet, I could effortlessly see the way that Katie didn't know where to look for the first couple of seconds. My lips partnered together.

However, there was a great possibility that she could sense the natural curiosity in Sammy's voice and it wasn't him trying to make things less awkward for her and it wasn't because he was being patronising either. He wouldn't have told Delia that he wanted to say hi to her if he didn't mean it. Sammy often did what he meant. And he meant what he said.

Katie allowed silence to be the only thing that spoke for a good few moments. She tentatively touches the pad of her pointer finger against a good few of her study supplies. Her pencils. Her eraser. Her ruler. Her ballpoint pens. They all were graced by her touch.

Then, after Delia leaned against the doorframe and still hovering in the room although the kettle had since boiled, Katie looked over at Sammy and replied to him, picking up a pencil for something to fiddle with as she found her voice again.

"I… I have to w-write an essay all about my… myself. But I h-have to do it in the f… form of a s-speech." Katie began stiffly and then the last of her words tumbled out before she could stop them. "I don't need any help." Her words rang in her ears like tinnitus and it caused her to swallow once she heard the way that they came out. She felt the hotness pricking her cheeks all over. While Sammy nodded his head and merely listened, his arm still casually stretched across the table, Katie corrected. "I don't… don't think you would be allowed to help me."

I noticed the way that Katie's eyes wandered to her grandmother and she spoke these words while looking at her when they were for the other person in the room. I understood in a way.

She was one of the biggest people who oversaw her education. She had been the one to tell Sammy that she was busy with that assignment and she was the one to discover her putting it off as well. I supposed that Katie saw Delia as the authoritarian figure in it all. She was, really.

Nonetheless, although Delia took note of this pointed eye contact with her granddaughter and she returned it sturdily, without saying a word and without much harsh awkwardness at all, she left the room for good and headed off to make the tea.

In actuality, she rather breezily headed off. Katie's eyelashes fluttered once more. She was encouraged to look at Sammy all over. A beat happened. And then he continued the conversation without much stiffness at all.

"Well, I can't guarantee that I would be any help anyway, Katie." he addressed her directly with a smile taking over his features, his arm finally retracting and he propped his elbow on the wooden table, pressing his closed fist against the side of his cheek. I saw from my own position on the table the way that Katie was unable to stop herself from smiling a bit too, ducking her head down and looking at her lap. Sammy tilted his head curiously, his fingers still pressed against his skin. "What have you got planned to say so far?"

Katie could often be discovered using actions – well thought out actions – in the place of words at the best of times. And in that moment she used that trait of hers rather effectively and comically as well! She pulled her essay notebook out from the clutch of the heavy study book and held the blank line decorated pages up for him to see.

Though she didn't need to, she spoke of its wordlessness.

"Not a single thing." She articulated herself and Sammy switched which elbow was propped up on the table and which hand was pressed against his face. The corners of his eyes creased and he nodded his head.

The stretch of his fingers still pushing into his own cheekbone, his eyes creased a little bit earnestly rather than in amusement and he told Katie.

"I'm sure you'll think of something." He began but she didn't know that this was merely the beginning. She couldn't stop it from being decorated all over her face the way that she respected that he might not know how to help her anyway – but that was taking the biscuit a little bit. "I don't know… I think that you can be better than the other kids." Her eyebrows rose on her young face and caused creases to form above her brow. "They're probably going to write a list saying where they were born, when they were born and who they were born too. You know better than anybody that what makes a person are many things other than that. If it even is that at all."

Katie hesitated. I turned to peer. Did she even know that? Or was Sammy starting to help her even though he said himself that he probably wouldn't be much good at it? It was a possibility that he was merely stating what he was thought and he was expressing things with words the way that he saw them.

They evidently did something to her though because she tilted her head, her pen still in her hold. She listened. These words filled her ears. Then almost forgetting that she was meant to be studying and she was meant to be focusing and she was meant to be thinking how she was going to articulate herself, she replied to Sammy, engaging in conversation with him.

"You… You know… It w-would be a whole lot easier for a… a book character or a movie character or s-something to be doing this essay." she told the male opposite her with a delicate arch in one of her eyebrows and a light of knowing in her eyeballs. "They always go through such adventures and know who they are by the end… So… So this would be easy for them."

However, that look of irony faded away when Sammy reacted the way that he did. He stopped relaxing so much in his chair and his hand was pulled away from his cheek. He blinked as he thought about Katie's words.

Then, he didn't smile for his lips did not slant upwards at all. But his eyes showed off a glint in the same spot in his eye's as the younger female but in a whole other, shimmering way.

"That's a fantastic point, Katie, you actually should say that." Sammy told her seriously and while my eyes glanced between the two of them, privately nodding my own head to myself, Katie's lips threatened to curl all over again. She thought that she was being teased but he didn't break his gaze away from hers, his palm flattening out on the wooden table. "You so should say that. That's obviously what you think. So it's definitely one thing you should say. Make a note."

She continually looked over at Sammy with a tilted head and a squint in one eye while he suggested to her. But then the more that she thought about it, the more that she believed it wasn't such a bad idea. He wasn't exactly an English professor, granted. But in the assignment email, she had been asked to put her own spin on it and after all, she had to write an essay all about her. That probably included personal beliefs and truths and opinions as well.

Katie's eyes found my own in an effort to receive that last little bit of comfort and after I too smiled at her and nodded her head, she decided that she would go for it. After all, she had to at least try and get some notes written down before she set to work with her actual essay.

In spite of the fact that she had had her pen in her hand for some time and she placed the notebook in front of her, preparing to scribble down in it, something washed over her and prevented her from doing so. Somehow, she kept losing grip on her pen. For some reason, words kept disappearing from her mind each time she pressed the pen to paper and attempted to articulate herself.

Fortunately, Sammy was there with reassurance and suggestions. Maybe he had been hoping for attention when he said that he would probably have no ideas!

"Here. I can jot it down for you if you'd like. It's surely not breaking any rules to do that." he put forth and it could have been a bit of a risk when after he tugged his own leather jacket off and left it pressed behind him, he reached for Katie's home-schooling notebook and took a pen for himself.

Before she could oblige or she could resist, he had slid the notebook towards himself and he was pressing the pen to the paper himself. Granted, he did look at her before he actually wrote anything. She shrugged. And so, Sammy started to write down on the page for her.

Katie couldn't help but lean forward in her chair all over again when she saw the black ink that was words forming on her own page. Her palm flat out on the wooden table with slightly bitten down nails, she peered forward and watched as each word got jotted down. While she didn't exactly feel an upward slope of her lips, I could almost feel the fondness beginning to ooze from her at Sammy's very slapdash and messy writing that was somehow very precise and thoughtful all the same.

However, he mistook her palm flat out on the wooden table near to his as something else and he misread her leaning forward again. He looked up and over at her, definitely taking a risk that time by pulling her own pen out of her hold. Sammy told her.

"You just forget about writing entirely. I'll take care of that. Talk to me." Sammy told the younger girl bordering on sternly. "Tell me about what you'd like to say." Katie plopped down in her own chair again, growing silent. But after I peered backwards and made sure, I could see that she wasn't upset. She couldn't argue with his firm ways when he was helping her. "Do you reckon that a person's likes make up a big part of who they are?"

Sammy's kindness shone through once again. After writing down the first bullet point by pressing perhaps a touch too hard on the paper, he inquired.

From moving to climb onto Katie's lap as her chair was halfway under the table just to make sure that her silence was not down to upset, I was taken aback by how quickly she piped up all over again.

Both hands in front of her on the table with nothing to play with after Sammy had taken all of her supplies for himself, she answered him.

"I r-reckon so." Katie nodded her head, her outstretched hands drawing closer together and her fingers playing with each other instead of reaching for anything else. She looked over at him and they met each other's eyes. In the middle of beginning to write that down as well before any other notes that followed, Sammy looked back at Katie and he smiled.

I couldn't help but ponder some things. I wondered whether he could see that Katie had the potential to write down so many of her own wonderful words but just needed that slight little nudge to believe in himself. Maybe Sammy was the exact same way.

It was true that he really liked to help people. But one had to question why. Did he like it because it made him feel good about himself? Did it give him confidence? I expected so. I knew a good few people like that.

After not having a class of his own to teach that day, it was almost funny that he ended helping Katie out. But maybe it wasn't funny at all. Maybe he was meant to be there. Sammy had unwittingly sought out his next teaching session.

"It's obvious that you like movies. And books too." That same person spoke all over and it broke me away from my thoughts. With my behind pressed against the lap of Katie and as I peered over the table at him, my thoughts got tugged out from underneath me. She didn't have to nod for him to continue. "So what do you reckon you would say about that? How come you like them so much?"

The more that time passed and the more that I was in the midst of that almost study session, it became clear to me what exactly what Sammy was doing. I saw as clear as day. I saw right through him. However, the same could not be said for Katie anywhere near as immediately.

With a hand reaching back to take one of the pens back away from the older male as she longed for something to hold while she pondered and she conversed, her expression couldn't help but be displayed on her face all over. Her expression scrunched up and her upper lip appeared fuller than her bottom one. She shrugged in a different way that time.

"I just like them." Katie retorted, her voice somehow still coming out quiet and gentle despite their certainty. After running a hand through her own hair, she rolled the pen between her left hand and her right one. "This… this essay really is going to be dull if I have to list that sort of thing."

More than anything, that was a bit of a sly dig at Sammy's suggestions rather than herself! Nevertheless, he took it as something else and he took the pen away from her all over again to prove a point. He looked right back at her and he told her with as little hesitance as her prior reply.

"Don't put yourself down." He responded and after he had all of the pens in his hold all over again and he rather intriguingly switched his posture so he was leaning fully back in his chair, his legs stretching out across the table and his notepad and pen resting on his knee cap, he shook his head and his almond eyes squinted all the more at the younger girl. "You must know why you're so drawn to them. What they do for you. How they make you feel. How they don't make you feel."

Katie and I had the same exact gesture in response to the words that tumbled out of Sammy's mouth. This was funny to me even though we were as close as we were. As our heads slanted and our mouths said no words after our initial belief that we would make some noise or other at Sammy taking charge, we both couldn't help but feel that he did know what he was talking about after all.

Still, it filled me with warmth in the core of my being when Katie didn't exactly give Sammy the satisfaction that he was doing a lot of it himself. Copying one of his previous actions and pressing her own balled fist against her cheek and the table feeling contact from her bent elbow, she responded back to him, softness still lingering in her direct gaze.

"Well how does music make you feel? A… Answer me that and s-see how difficult of a question it is to sum up." She made a point of saying and fortunately I managed to withhold any noise erupting from my throat! Sometimes that girl was the polar opposite of her mother at a similar age but sometimes, oh boy, did those family traits come out.

My mouth had a mind of its own and quirked upwards. It was the same for Sammy too. You could very much tell that he wasn't expecting an easy ride of it. One had to wonder whether he was so focused and steady at the age of fourteen! Probably not with how understanding he was when it came to all sides of Katie.

Peculiarly relaxing into his seat more at this bit of friendly competition, his eyes gleamed over at Katie and he allowed his eyebrows to dance upwards before he found his own voice.

"It makes me feel everything." He began and I was the one to rotate my eyes while Katie did not. All the same, it was not done with meanness. I listened too. The pen twitched in Sammy's hold as it longed to jump between finger to finger while he articulated himself. "It's probably my very favourite medium because you're equally facing up to your problems when you listen to it as well as escaping from them. It can make you forget. But it can also make you think." He wasn't just speaking in the hope of encouraging Katie. "It's probably one of the only utter paradoxes in the world that I can live with and actually works in the world."

I felt almost bad for my previous eye roll there and then even if it had been a fond one. I found it easy to confess that I certainly had thought a lot about different things since Sammy had come into our lives through Justin. I gathered that it was the same for Katie.

I for one thrived on meeting people who made you think a different way about certain things, as well as thinking wholeheartedly about things that I hadn't given much thought at all. I definitely had not given that certain subject much thought as well. Along with many other folks in the world, I merely enjoyed it as one of the beauties of life.

But I was left feeling refreshed by Sammy's point of view. Soon enough I saw a similar look on Katie's face and enlightenment in her eyes. She didn't refrain from answering back in response. Nodding her head, she acknowledged the words that had been offered to her.

"I… I would say that's the same for me and my books and my movies." Katie replied and I saw the way that her cheeks became a soft rosy pink at agreeing with the older male. She didn't want to seem like she was agreeing simply to do so. And she didn't want to come across as stupid either, like she was stealing his answers for her essay. "You watch or you r…read about all these people going through things that would never happen to you. But… But you still take those l-lessons away with them. You learn them together…" A pause before her confidence grew like a budding flower. "Maybe write that down t-too?"

Sammy did not need telling twice! With a similar glint in his eyes to the younger girl after she had listened to his thoughtful explanation moments prior, his head bobbed and he didn't hesitate to write down the words that Katie had expressed as well.

I couldn't help but believe he tried to capture some of the way that her answer had made him feel in the bullet point sentences that he wrote from the way that his scribbling speeded up and grew ever more entangled. And I also couldn't help but feel really mesmerised at how well they were working together.

Katie didn't really like too many people getting involved with her home-schooling life. I still didn't really know whether it was out of shyness or not wanting too many cooks to spoil the broth. Whatever the reason, I really enjoyed the moment of it transcending from being the dynamic of one person feeling beneath even if the other never really felt above and the two of them simply shared ideas.

That was something that I had not witnessed between Katie and Delia. So it was really sweet to be apparent between Sammy and Katie.

"So… So you would say this kind of thing i-if… if you were doing the essay?" she bashfully asked for reassurance and after it was given to her with not only a nod of the head but Sammy also making a point of looking away from the page and right at her, she continued, a different rosiness taking over her face at the appreciation for his time. "What else? What… what else do you think builds a person?"

Sammy mouth opened but soon changed its mind. With his pen slanting across the page and more black words being formed on top of the straight lines in the book, he thought about the words that had been put forth. He took his time, lifting his pen away from writing entirely and pressing the end of it against the end of his nose rather than chewing on it thoughtfully.

Finally, he thought of something and he expressed it. He shrugged even though he seemed to know what he was saying the entire time.

"I think… I think having opinions is important. It gives confidence." He replied matter-of-factly in some ways and after he could see the glint of consideration in Katie's eyes as he glanced back over to her, he switched his posture yet again and sat cross legged on the chair in the Ketchum dining room, the notepad on his lap. "Do you have anything in particular that you think that not a lot of people do but you feel strongly about?"

And I was encouraged to glance upwards when Katie started to shuffle in her seat, sitting on top of her bent legs in the chair before she endearingly rather quickly came to an answer. Although she ducked her head and smirked sheepishly, she then didn't look away from the older male.

"Lots of things." She told him and then I had to focus on the reason for her shuffling when she lightly placed me back on top of the wooden table rather than being hugged to her lap and she got out from her seat, tugging it round to the side where Sammy was sitting. Her lip bite told me that she was doing something a little out of her comfort zone and bold for her. But she went with it. "I… I want them to like me though. I w… want them to like what I say."

From trying not to feel heaviness in my brow that I was back on the table rather than the soft and comforting lap of Katie, I watched as Sammy's expression showed that of rounded eyed look at the younger person's words. And then he smiled at her closer presence before laughing at her words that followed.

For the first time that whole little spontaneous study session, he relinquished control of the notepad and the pens after he felt like they had gotten somewhere and he pushed the pages over to her, so she could read through it and add some more of the things that they had discussed.

Wordless thanks were given and in that gesture, she was showing gratitude for everything. It assumedly felt really nice to be doing studious sort of things with someone other than Delia. It was true that she often had a couple of other people helping her out. But she couldn't help but feel that Sammy had never intended to nor dreamed of doing this for her. And because of that, it was most welcome.

She didn't want to seem like the damsel in distress or the only one her age who was home-schooled and needed extra assistance. She just simply wanted to seem like herself. Though her nervousness and her hesitance about the essay proved that she wasn't exactly entirely sure who that person was, she just wanted to be accepted. Didn't we all?

Sammy was quiet for one of the first few times during that whole little session and from recovering from my bewilderment, I observed this. I watched him run a single hand through the back of his untangled locks and fill his eye-line with Katie. I understood that his silence wasn't down to watching her have her turn to write on the notebook, her swirly and precise easy-to-read writing forming below and on either side of his heavy pressed scribbles as she added her own notes to herself and them both.

The older male looking over at the younger girl, he remained with not a word in his throat and thoughtful for a good few moments before he broke the silence, sunshine glittered on his face. A smile without any attempts to try and convey kindness. It simply shone out that way from within.

"What you have to say is very important, Katie. It will always be well received. Because you don't do anything without really thinking about it." Sammy's voice at long last came out in a level tone and this was down to the sincerity of his words. His own eyelashes fluttered and his eyes threatened to widen when he heard the sound of his own voice and it surprised him.

This could've put a bit of a lump in my throat if I wasn't still hankering over the warmth of Katie's lap! Still, I saw the way that he had meant what he said and I saw the way that Katie responded to it as well. Though she ducked her head and her pale cheeks grew vibrant in colour for another time, her face screwed up as if the words were rolling off her like water off a ducks back.

Even so, Sammy didn't try and insist to her. His mouth merely remained quirked and continued glancing over at her as she sat close to him, cupping his own face. Maybe it was this that caused her to absorb his words more. Yes, it was definitely this that caused her to absorb his words more.

They propelled her in equal measure too, in the same way that his genuine offer of help with her word and his patience when it came to her did. Katie continued filling her vision with her feet tucked under the table but then after she encouraged her eyes to look over at him at their close distance, she came out with her own words in response.

Her nose scrunched and her eyes were a sunny day.

"You'll… You'll be the first one to r-read my essay when I f… finally finish it." Katie told him with bright eyes going in between darting and fixing right on him. Contrasting this, Sammy's remained steady. I wondered if this that caused the younger girl to have her own bouts of a focused gaze. She added, her hand absentmindedly reaching behind him to where his black leather jacket lay curled up and she fingered one of the silver studs. "You'll be the f-first to know my result."

And upon hearing this, Sammy expression matched the quality of Katie's eyes. He didn't need to say the words that came next because his expression and his being greatly expressed it but he still did so.

Nodding his head and his dark, soft and straight locks framing his face and cascading down past his shoulders, his own nose scrunched so the silver rings in his nostril quivered.

"I would be honoured." Sammy told Katie with a smile and instead of speaking anymore about it and simply allowing that sincerity to be the thing that transpired between them both, he reached across the table for the book that she had secretly been reading when Delia had discovered her doing so.

Sammy pulled that book into his hold and rested it against the table and started reading it, his other hand shooting out to cup me on the cheek all over. I had forgotten about Katie's warm lap at last. And Sammy had evidently forgotten about his cup of tea with Delia, let alone the parcel for his boyfriend!

And most importantly and gladly of all, Katie had forgotten entirely about her hesitancy and her nervousness and had been instilled within her the importance of her own voice and everything that she had to say.

She continued adding to the notes that she and Sammy had produced together and then she tore that page out, focusing on the one behind it and pondering how she was going to begin her essay.

Then with Sammy behind her and silently scratching my ears and looking down at the book in his lap, lost and engaged in absorbing each and every word, Katie was off! She started cracking on with her assignment. All had been forgotten.

The parcel had been forgotten. The tea had been forgotten. Nerves had been forgotten. Procrastination had been forgotten. All that was present was a quiet confidence. The quiet confidence that Katie had at least had some good memories figuring out her essay, so it didn't matter how greatly she succeeded. And the quiet confidence that Sammy had lent some assistance.

Because, to tell you the truth, that was as helpful for him as it was for her. And he relished in sitting next to her and listening to the sound of her pen scribbling while he read a book that he had never read as much as she enjoyed that moment too.

I was happy to glance up when I saw that that moment was being enjoyed by not only the three of us either. At first I believed that the person hovering in the doorway was going to be Delia, delivering the cup of tea to Sammy after at long last growing bored with waiting for him in the kitchen. But I was stood correct.

It was true that stood there was Delia. But Misty was there too, having come away from the Cerulean Gym on her lunch break to observe her daughter's home-schooling. What she was seeing was unexpected. But filled her heart with a thudding of love all the same.

She held a hand over the middle of her chest. She smiled to herself with light in her eyes.

But she turned to her mother-in-law standing next to her, a cup of tea in her hand and her own eyes fixed at the scene at her dining table. Misty nudged Delia, speaking words of teasing in spite of all the fondness she felt.

"I'm sorry to say but I think Katie might have replaced you as her tutor!" she announced for a good few people to hear but only a fraction of us reacted. My eyes lit up at the presence of more people I loved as well as the humorous words. Sammy smirked! But Sammy did not tear his eyes away from the page.

Katie didn't react at all. She was finally absorbed in an expressing and a creating of her own. And she was going with that flow and running with all of the ideas.

Being right next to her daughter-in-law, Delia couldn't help but hear the words that came from her. Almost immediately she chuckled, one hand of hers still holding the mug of tea and the other copying the younger woman, placing right over the centre of the heart.

While Misty continued elevating her lips and watching, silently and proudly curious of everything that her daughter was scribbling carefully down on the page, Delia smiled and had knowing in her heart. Delia smiled and had knowing right inside that beating heart of hers.

She kept her thoughts to herself for a few minutes. But then she finally expressed them. I nodded my head wholeheartedly when she did. She had obviously had a change of heart since her initial warning for Sammy not to distract Katie too much.

"Oh, that's perfectly okay with me, dear. I'm just glad that Katie has lots of influences to help her figure out to say what really matters to her." Delia spoke to Misty but for all to hear as well. And proving only this, she stopped lingering at the side of her daughter in law and pressed that hand that had been kept warm by her own heart and her own love by resting it on the shoulder of Sammy.

Naturally, that time he turned and acknowledged this and he smiled. His eyes creased with flattery. Yet he did not speak. He didn't need to. He felt content. He felt contentment in his heart. He was at peace with the knowing.

Katie had already and would go on to help him figure out a great many things too, as well as who he wanted to be and where he wanted to go. In his mind. In his life. In his faith. In his relationship. In his own skin.

And in due course, Katie would know that as well. But for the time being, he was content with the private knowing.

Delia knew a great many things as well. Her existence had been brought back to life all over again at the birth of each and every one of her grandchildren and that only increased as time passed. Her house had been filled with innocence and laughter yet again. And that was something that she knew all too well. And shared with me often.

The End.

There you go! Thanks so much for reading and I hope you enjoyed :3 So yeah, although Sammy is a very kind and attentive person who loves to help out, I loved throwing in the details about him saying things and Pikachu wondering if he is only saying that for attention! He can be that way sometimes. Over the upcoming year, I really am looking forward to delving into Sammy, both within his relationship with Justin and as a stand alone character. And perhaps his other romantic relationships too, in the past and future. His character has blossomed for me in my mind over the past couple of months. I thoroughly enjoyed writing him with Katie. And her homeschooling scenario took me back to my own experiences with it! Thanks again for reading and I will be back with another chapter on Wednesday so see you then!

Amy signing out :)