Hello! Is is Wednesday and I am back with a new chapter. I wrote this one at the very end of last year and although it needed quite a few changes made to it, I didn't want to alter it too much because it felt very real and intended to be a certain way at the time so I didn't want to get rid of all of that. Today we are revisiting Justin and Katie and a discussion following their very brief romantic relationship. It tackles a big moment. One that was sweet to write. And really nice to re-read and edit. I hope you enjoy :)

Ages:

Justin: 23

Katie: 17

Disclaimer: I own the story and the OCs mentioned!

It was another of those occasions where an orange haired female and a deep purple haired male snuck out of their houses to see one and other. I knew of it hours after it happened, the story giddily being whispered to me in a hushed voice from Katie. However, unlike some of the previous times that this had occurred, they were not as interlinked as they once were. All the same, feelings were there. Emotions were preparing to burst through hearts. And they simply couldn't wait to see one and other.

When the time finally came, they were face to face and the door to the Ketchum Household parted from the frame. Apart from the light bouncing off wide eyes and mouths trembling as they longed to quirk upwards in disbelief and a manner that did all of the talking, words didn't come for the longest time. Words could not be formed for such a long time.

The two of them with not much grace made their way through the house, managing to somehow not make too great noise with star lit sky outside of the windows and nothing got knocked over in their wake. They ended up in the kitchen with the moonlight shining, and stars winking at them if they looked any further.

In an utter twist of fate and in contrast to how it would have been when the two of them were innocent friends, Justin became perched on the counter top.

Hands fell to a lap. Katie's own were fingering the material of her night shirt. Wide eyed gazes continued to search for each other but still nobody's lips fully moved. Halted breath and disbelieved exhales was the only thing that continued to sound for quite some time. No doubt were their hearts hammering in their chests and in their ears greatly noticeable to them.

And although it was Katie who was often the one to utter the least words between the two, her eyes had continued to be moons of her own most of all and her brow started to crease with giddy doubt. Because of this, she was to one to eventually speak.

Moving gradually closer Justin as he sat upon the counter top in her Mom's kitchen, his legs beginning to gently tap back and forth, she didn't dare reach either of her hands to his knees. Her fingertips clasped together. And she questioned.

"Did… Did you really mean what you said?" Katie asked and almost immediately, her brow began to crease further though she managed to prevent her own head from shaking at herself.

She disliked how her voice sounded. She disliked this question too. It sounded so… needy. It was like she was yearning for validation. That wasn't the truth. Yet a part of her just couldn't believe the words that had come.

Thankfully, out of all the ways that Justin could have reacted, one of the first things that he wasn't was offended. And he was the one to feel his head twitching from side to side while the younger female couldn't. And she didn't mistake this for a taking back of his words which he had typed to her.

After a long, soundless kitchen that put distance between the two of them, he didn't hesitate to come out with words of his own after Katie had demonstrated how.

"Of course. Course I meant it." he spoke so earnestly that just for a second; his voice appeared like he had scripted these words and slid them into his pocket. He heard it almost as soon as she did and in the same way. "I… Yeah. I've wanted you to know for a while."

After his legs tapped against the cupboards below the counter top for a couple more seconds, he had added, the corners of his mouth at last widening. No doubt did Katie's heart miss a beat at his and the sight of his decorative dimple.

She slowly departed backwards from him when she heard what he said to her and in hindsight I wondered whether it was to look at him properly. She wanted to look at him totally. She wanted to see it all. She wanted to see him at such a distance that she could spot the trace of a lie long before it came.

But that stinging of painful truth never came. Though Justin's eyes were glossier and darting more than she had ever seen and in moments he appeared to hardly be able to look at her at all before being unable to look away from her, she knew that he was being honest. She knew him well enough to know that he rarely said things that he didn't mean.

So he was obviously telling the truth. But still, the truth he was telling for her was hard to believe!

Resisting questioning him all over and forgoing accusing him, Katie changed tactic. I gathered that she didn't intentionally do this. It just was what happened.

Nodding cautiously and swallowing in the same manner, she played with her own fingers all over again while Justin's elated grin died down and his eyes fell to hands scrunched against his lap.

After the clock continued ticking on the kitchen wall that night time dulled its usual sunshine and a hand swung past one o'clock in the morning, Katie's voice joined it in being the other sound that filled the air.

"Well… Why didn't you tell me, then?" she questioned him of a different matter but still, she inwardly winced at every word that she was saying once more and the sound of her own voice. Katie may have given herself a hard time a good chunk of the time but she knew that she wasn't foolish.

She hadn't told him either. And it didn't take a genius to figure out that her reasons were probably the same as his.

Nevertheless, he didn't seem to have the tiniest problem with her asking these words, nor did it flash across his mind that he felt like a bug Pokémon under a magnifying glass. That was fortunate with how often he felt that way when it came to a lot of other people casting a skeptical eye towards his affections for Katie!

Justin seemed to quieten down somehow even though he cleared his throat and started to shuffle his bottom on the countertop, clearly contemplating. Katie's fingers merged with each other while his teeth sunk down into his lip. A crease began to form in his own brow. His eyebrows appeared thicker, his mind wandering through a multitude of reasons.

Why had he never spoken aloud to Katie those words that would've surely sent a cascade of butterflies taking flight from her stomach and into her chest? They had done exactly this when they had only just been done in typed format. But why hadn't he actually said the words to her? When they were together and then in the few months when they had returned to being friends?

Justin's bottom scuffed against the counter top some more and after his hands sought refuge in his own lap yet again, pressed against the material of his jeans, his brow appeared to relax as he told the truth.

"I… I didn't know it until we were no longer together." he began and the hesitancy in spite of feeling it was the natural and right thing to do to be truthful showed that he was worried about his reply causing hurt. Still, he continued while glancing back at Katie and trying to get an idea of the meaning behind her composed, unreadable exterior. "And then I didn't want to complicate things further. I didn't want you to feel torn. I didn't want you to feel like I was making you choose…"

Katie's straight backed and stable disposition faded away like the moon outside growing concealed by a cloud. After these words floated into her ears, her chest fell inwards and her hands seemed to break apart from one another. They landed down by her side. Justin watched each and every one of her movements, his head beginning to tilt after he ran his hand loosely through his chin length locks.

A pang made its way into Katie's stomach and then clutched at her heart. The answer from him caused a knot to form in both her belly and her breast. She had to shut her eyes momentarily. No doubt did Justin feel worry settling in after the initial elation. Though he didn't need to worry about his own worry.

Katie's eyes soon were butterflies and fluttered open all over again and her teeth pressed against her own lip. She reacted in ways like she wasn't even acknowledging she was reacting at all. Like it often was when it came to the two of them when they were together and in each other's presence, she moved like it was the most natural and under-thought thing in the world.

There was a touch resting on the kneecap of Justin as words glided out of her mouth as well.

"I never wanted you to keep things to yourself, let alone that sort of thing. That would surely be the thing to tear at my heart." Katie told him and while he was looking down at her and he was trying to contain the hitch in his throat at her fingers on his knee, her eyes were not meeting his. "Your words could have never complicated things."

Her eyes had fluttered shut all over again and for longer that time. But it was in order to get more words out. She had shaken her head.

A very real yet an imperceptible silence was the only thing that sounded following these words. The two of them both knew that this was a lie. For a rare occasion between them both, a fib was told. But then again, was it actually that? Surely it couldn't be defined as that?

I am certain that Katie wished that they were true. I'm sure that as all of the complications of them being together and the even more complicated things of them being apart filled her mind, she wished that the things that she had spoken were actually true.

However, somehow she managed not to let her thoughts wander too far to complex places and areas of her mind that caused her stomach to knot. The things that entered her mind after the other ones settled down were the reality of Justin feeling very tender emotions for her while they were together in the hotel.

While she thought that they were just being very close friends. While she knew that she thought of him far more than just that but never dreamed that he was starting to feel the same way. And he felt wonderful being carried away with those emotions and sensations, even if he never sat down and thought about what they meant.

The sweetness filled Katie's mind and Katie's heart that he cared for her in ways that she had never predicted. And so, after her eyes fell open all over again and they met the gaze of Justin's, she thought about this.

These musings and these musings alone caused her eyes to shimmer yet again. While the corners of her mouth didn't lift up and her own dimples didn't appear either, she glowed from the inside at all of these possibilities and all of these thoughts and all of these realities.

"Hmmm…" Justin embarked, addressing the little white lie that had been expressed between them. Yet one that did not wound. It did not cause any bursting of bubbles. Her nose crinkled just a touch and her head tilted but her hand didn't leave his leg, to show him continual closeness as well as feel it herself. "You… You get it though, right? You didn't tell me either…"

She was compelled to nod when she heard this. That was one of the reasons why she had disliked the words from tumbling out of her mouth at all. She didn't feel she had the right to ask Justin why he didn't when things were the exact same way for her.

But of course, Justin was not offended. If anyone was well practiced in the ways of the heart and understood human sensitivities and complexities and innermost feelings, then it was definitely him. It was he who wrote lyrics straight from his core and performed music that burst out from the purest parts of his being.

After all Katie did was nod her head and her touch loosened on his kneecap, he didn't touch her in return at all with his own hands but his words touched her. With their straightforwardness, she was touched and reached out to.

"Why did you decide to tell me now…?" wondered Justin and it put a quiver in Katie's throat to hear this from him. Somehow she was able to remain her fixed gaze at him and it grew all the more prolonged and faultless even though she broke the distance between them again.

The fact that he didn't even need to ask why she hadn't told him either. The fact that he didn't feel the need to ask this question at all because he knew and he understood without having to say the words. In actuality, he understood the feelings and the answers from her without having to ponder too hard on them. They were the same for him, after all.

He didn't feel like the chapter had been closed on their story too early because he utterly felt like their pages had been ripped out in the middle of their chapter. They had never even made it to the ending that was meant for them. Even if they did head on their separate ways anyway. Even if they did go back to being with whom they were currently trying to make things work with at that moment in time.

Justin felt like the pages of their story had been ripped out right in the middle of their chapter. Right in the middle of a dialogue. A sentence. A word.

So sometimes he didn't dare say another word. He never wanted to do the same thing for anybody else. He didn't want to put his foot in it and ruin someone else's day either.

He empathized more closely than anything why Katie had never said anything. And in truth, he wasn't really interested in that sort of answer anyway. He was far more taken by the one that he spoke aloud. That was why exactly he had asked of it.

And thankfully, Katie managed to speak through the clamping within her throat and answer him after thinking a few moments of what she was going to end up saying to him.

"I… It… It just came rushing out of me. I couldn't not hold it back anymore. I just had to tell you…" Katie began in a way that was lamely in her mind. It didn't come across that way to Justin though. She was telling the truth. "I've felt that way for such a long time when I hear you sing… But this time around it wasn't just friendship. This time around, it wasn't just for me to feel. I had to tell you…" She couldn't stop the truth from being spilled. "Even if you didn't feel the same way."

Honesty was something that not only had she taught him to do without trying to, but it was something that she made him comfortable with. So for this reason, Justin's eyes and his whole face positively softened as he listened for more. His head tilted with quiet adoration as his growing chin length locks cupped his face.

And although Katie's words came out so very thoughtfully and in a hushed manner and as much plainly as they were honest, there was quality to them like too much air filling a balloon all the same. And in retrospect I knew that it was because of this that caused Justin to react in the way that he did.

The look of love stopped simply being in his eyes. The wordless look of love and the silent admiration channeled through his being and propelled him. It propelled him into action. At last, he made his way down from the Ketchum kitchen counter top. He hopped down! He made Katie's shoulders come to life in their own way as she was growing distant with the ponderings of her own heart.

Justin no longer resided on the counter top and instead he stood right in front of her, looking down at her and the moonlight shining in from the window and reflecting in his orbs, causing them to almost appear like cat's eyes in the dead of the night.

He may have looked feline but to Katie, his charm was only growing more and more. His arms lankly hung by his sides in his plaid loose fitting blue shirt. She looked up at him and was mesmerized by him yet again even though he was not singing.

"Of course I feel the same way. Of course I feel the same way." Justin spoke and those words from more previously on in the night came back, but that time, any hint of robotic-ness in his tone was a thing of the past. He was beginning to smile all over again and electricity was shooting through his veins and causing the hairs on the back of his neck to stand up. "Of course I feel the same way, Katie; you mean the absolute world to me."

Katie had spoken of that awe for his direct energy when he performed but it was clear that he felt some of that pure elation when he was in the presence of her. No matter what they were doing. Whether they were friends or more than that.

I am told that Justin's eyes widened with certainty and became the expansive, round shape of the globe as he said those two words. However, it was not this that caused Katie's hands to reach out for each other all over again and her fingernails to knock against each other in sudden anxious disbelief. It was not his gesture that caused this. It was not his gestures at all.

In particular, it was just one of his words. Her name. It was her own name floating out from between the lips of the person that she had looked up to for so long and had kept tucked away in her heart for the same amount of time. It was her name being formed on Justin's lips that caused her to grow mildly restless.

But it was all for good reason. It was all for very good and sweet reason. Her heart rate elevating in her chest as she swallowed the dryness in her mouth and Justin caringly looked down at her from his tall height at her jittery actions, she started to compose herself. Well, her body and her anxious actions steadied themselves. Her heart rate still increased as if time was speeding up.

She took it in her stride though. And soon enough her face scrunched up with that disbelieved doubt all over again and her brow creased on her face, puzzled. I imagine that Justin caught on to every part of this and suspected what was coming before it actually came. He must've felt soft air escaping his lungs like a puncture.

"But… But really? Like really, Justin? Me?" the articulate and intelligent young woman that was Katie all of a sudden found it very difficult to string a sentence together as the whole of her face continued scrunching as well as her nose. Justin in her vision swayed from side to side out of her disbelief. "Me?"

Just one single beat passed and then a harsher sigh came erupting from the deep purple haired male. Still, annoyance didn't dash across his face at all. Instead, his eyebrows rose and hugged together with care, his face appearing very soft in spite of his sucked in, hollow cheek-boned appearance.

"Yes, you! For god's sake, Katie, you're one of the most wonderful people that I've ever known and it tears at my heart that you would even question it for a second." he told her and while there was no annoyance or irritation on his face or in his tone, Katie's expression momentarily stopped looking so creased in a carefree manner and started to genuinely look a bit worried. Justin allowed her to press her fingers together a few more times before her reached out for her clasped hands, running his thumb along her knuckles before holding her digits up close to his thudding heart. A third sigh happened. It was another one like that of the wind on a summer's day. "You look after my heart so well. Of course it was going to fall for yours."

Silence washed through the air and then something peculiar happened. In the same way that sometimes people laughed at inappropriate times and fell about laughing at unusual things – in the same way that people cackled after ridding themselves of a huge burden – Justin's own face creased following the words that he had spoken aloud.

His face scrunching up was due to laughter. Giddiness had returned. That same giddiness from the beginning had come back yet again. Shaking his head and still clutching Katie's hands close to his heart and her expression relaxing all over again, her eyes searching and yearning for his once more, he couldn't stop himself from talking.

"You've always looked after me, Katie, I'm not even kidding! From going away on tour for the first time and knowing that I had the loveliest friend to come back to. From putting out music that I worked really hard at and believing that you had my back no matter what. All sorts of life events. Heartache. Complexities. Confusion… And that's not even mentioning us in the hotel together." Justin spoke with Katie's hands firmly against his chest and then he finally drew breath. But almost as soon as he did that, he started up all over again, concluding with the same giddiness yet with the same certainty. "You healed my heart. I know you did."

I'm not sure why what happened next happened. I'm sure that Katie isn't sure either. Yes, I know for a fact after she told this tale to me that she definitely isn't sure why it happened.

Though her fingertips were absolutely overjoyed to begin pressing against the chest of Justin through his layers of shirt and t-shirt as he firmly yet adoringly held her wrist and her fingers remained there, something made Katie look right up at him and speak the following words.

The light in her eyes and gladness and mutual feeling for everything that he was saying greatly contrasted the need for these words to come tumbling out.

"We're not together anymore, you know…" Katie told him and the words that escaped her lips were more of a shock to her own system than they were to his. Her head tilted and her neck jerked, her eyes not pricking with tears but at the very least pricking with something. She could hardly swallow all over again.

However, these words seemed to roll off Justin like water off a ducks back. He was unfazed. He was unfazed by even that. One had to wonder whether it was at the giddiness of the unification of two hearts or he was simply continually spewing out everything that needed to be said and had needed to be said for a good few months.

Justin bobbed his head, proving that he had indeed heard her words and he had not become deaf in the process of finally speaking so fully from his heart. And although her hand started to slide away from his chest, they didn't let go of one and other. Their palms pressed very endearingly against each other's instead.

"I know! I know, and trust me, I'm just as giddy about my little brother and that you're going to be with him again." he said these words and at first, the creasing and the scrunching up of his face came from recognizing the loudness of his voice in the Ketchum kitchen during the early hours of the morning.

And then, after his own words continued to sink in and he cleared his throat to set the intention of being a bit quieter from that moment onwards – and Katie's head continued to tilt and her eyes remained longing for his – his face shrank for a different reason.

He had heard his own words all right. He knew that they were peculiar. He knew it. They didn't make very much sense. And they could have been him trying to hide all sorts of things. They could have been him trying to hide pain and hurt and jealousy and the strange ache of time moving so very quickly.

Katie gathered this. Katie understood this. She also understood that Justin truly rarely said words that he didn't mean. But still, she had to make sure. She just had to make sure. He hadn't summarized his affections to her in those three miraculous words before that day so she had to be certain that he wasn't hiding other things either.

Her palm finally slid away from Justin's but before he himself could overthink it or wonder what the reason for it was, her hands did something else entirely. Lightly, one of her hands started to rest on his shoulder, cupping over the various blue shaded check pattern of his shirt. And the other reacted out to his face. The other reached out to one particular part of his face.

As his lips pressed together at the uncertainty of what she was going to go on to say and formed a dimple, Katie's thumb got lost in its softness as her hand resided on the side of his face. She didn't look away from him. She asked him, her eyebrows rising and her forehead forming lines in caring attentiveness.

"Are you sure…?" was all she asked and no doubt did this soft directness pierce Justin right in the core of his heart. No doubt did this message get across to him entirely with such a sucker punch. Even so, it didn't flatten him. It didn't render him breathless. It just caused him to think.

Justin's eyes naturally bounced the light off them all the more and his eyelashes flickered. His breath hitched in his throat. He tried not to think about the fact that he couldn't exactly be blamed if he took these words in a different way.

If he took these words as an opportunity to have the conversation with her about them finally being together – like they were going to have before someone walked in and heard them and made their business known before they had a chance to share it – he hardly could be blamed.

His chest rose and fell as he allowed these thoughts to pass through his mind. Not only did he know that it was too late but he knew that it was too good. He knew where his heart belonged. He knew where Katie's did too. It was true that they belonged together once and for the time that they shared together.

But for how long after? Their time was over. Yes, it had been ripped out prematurely. Their story had been cut short entirely. But their story being cut short was their story.

It was time for the next chapter. It was time to move on. Yet there were more words to say before that time properly came. There were still more words to come before the beginning words of the next page.

Saying everything that he needed to say on that matter, Justin allowed out breathy noise which was a sigh and smiled wanly. While Katie's fingers remained on his shoulder and on his face too, Justin's hand very briefly yet very purposefully brushed through some of her locks. His touch was so fleeting. His touch was far more fleeting than it had ever been. But like it always did, it left its mark.

Katie's touch managed not to falter on him. Katie's touch managed not to falter on Justin as he finally answered her question, his eyes flickering for a good few seconds into his own reply before steadying themselves.

I suspected that this couldn't help but be the case when he was gazing into the soul of the person that had truly captured every part of him.

"I have never meant anything more when I say that I have been so happy to see you become who you have always meant to be and I will be even happier to see that keep happening as the journey continues… The journey that will continue with Jayden by your side." Justin began and as his eyes steadied themselves, he had a moment to chew on the inside of his cheek before he spoke again. "I've always wanted you to be happy, Katie. And if it's happy with him then I am the first person to be that platform so you can leap off it and into his arms."

Breath had hitched in Katie's throat. It was correct that she had chosen her path but she still inwardly and achingly sometimes mourned the times that it was with him. Justin had yearned to smile. And because of this, Katie found herself doing so as well with a heart that was aching yet soaring.

I know that Justin's words were sincere. I know that Justin's words were this and they were well thought out and they were true. I gather that he was probably expecting a whole array of responses from Katie. However, he was probably not expecting the one that came.

She sniggered! Her head suddenly bowing and her shoulders lifting to her ear lobes while her hands threatened to slip away from him in amusement, she started to laugh. Katie's eyes were butterfly wings that drew together and both her dimples fully appeared in suppressed giggles.

She knew him so very well so she was certain that his face was going to be a prolonged picture. She caught the ends of it when she finally opened her eyes but didn't stop snickering and his eyes were darting left to right in confusion and his lip was beginning to curl in dismay.

In between amusement, Katie was compelled to reach out to him all over and so she did. Nevertheless, her laughter did not decrease and with one hand back on his shoulder and her palm pressing flat out against his chest as she broke the distance between the both again, she allowed all of it to be apparent in her tone while Justin started to tilt his head, highly confused.

"That was… so cheesy." Katie informed Justin and she mirrored him by tilting her head, her lips pressing together to cut off her laughter at last as her eyes wandered upwards to meet his.

Ah. Ah. So that was the reason for her chuckles. His earnest and heartfelt words had amused her! Justin tried not to feel wounded. In fact, that was pretty easy because that wasn't often his reaction when it came to her.

After he had heard her reasons and he continued seeing the light in her eyes despite the fact that she was most likely laughing at him rather than with him, he recovered well enough and he even started to develop rosy cheeks at her closeness as well as her touch. His lip forwent curling more and instead relaxed, his lower lip and his upper lip spreading apart to reveal his front teeth as he smiled.

Light bounced off his pupils too. He didn't all the way copy her previous giggles but his mouth moved and his throat bobbed in ways that showed he might as well have. He started to see her between swaying motions, his fingers innocently moved to where hers were still gently pawing at his chest through his t-shirt.

Justin shrugged. Justin shrugged and his earnestness returned. Not only that but he seemed to perk up considerably. Katie was shown and that caused me too to be shown how they were going to continue being them. They always had friendship at their core. That was one of their driving forces. And it was going to power them towards being in each other's lives forever.

"Yeah… Yeah, that was pretty cheesy, wasn't it?" he spoke good-naturedly with a smile and I presumed that it was Katie not needing to nod but her touch switching to one hand being closer to his neck on his shoulder and the other hand tucking his hair behind his ear before resting on the opposite one in the same position that caused him to add. "You bring it out of me, what can I say? I do mean it, though."

And as Justin had done this, his mouth had stopped grinning so much and sweetly smiled instead.

Katie nodded her head. She knew as much. She was content in that fact that she really knew Justin. She embraced how much she actually did. It was no longer her just looking up to someone that she had known all her life and it was no longer feeling infatuated with someone that she believed to be so artistic and mesmerising and a breath of home.

Those two had connected. Over the years, those two had connected in more ways than one.

Their bodies had connected, that was a pretty special thing. But their hearts and their minds had connected too and that's the thing that mattered. That's the thing that lasted. It would've lasted even if they remained together. But they didn't. So it was the thing that stayed in their reality. And it was something I had a great deal of gladness for.

After Katie softly bounced her head and felt eyes creasing for Justin, her touch itching to go elsewhere and run through his growing locks but managing to resist it, he discovered the instinct to say more things.

He went through with it when, after a few more moments, she couldn't refrain from her own inclination and she softly tangled her hair in the back of his chin-length locks. Justin audibly exhaled and the tips of his ears grew lightly rosy pink at her touch and his own words.

"Hey… I am sorry that I never said the words to you when we were actually having our little adventure." began Justin and I wonder if she almost tugged at his locks in the surprise of it all. Whether she did or she didn't, Justin's voice didn't change as he continued, trying to find the right words. "That was… foolish."

Foolish was the word that he settled on. He didn't say cowardly. He could have said cowardly. But I guessed that he hadn't recognised the feelings within himself so hadn't said them – it wasn't like he had known of them and hadn't dared say them.

But still, I don't think that he was foolish. And Katie most certainly didn't either. Her touch not faltering in his hair but her gaze doing so, she looked down momentarily as she started to steady her own breath while Justin inhaled and exhaled.

Katie silently swallowed. Katie silently thought a lot of things. Katie silently felt a lot of things.

Peculiarly, when she looked back at Justin again, all of this washed away. I supposed, most of the time when she looked at him, she saw things for the way they were rather than what they could have been.

Both her gaze and her touching fixing respectively towards Justin's eyes and in his deep purple locks, she spoke her own words of truth. With the tiniest yet the truest of smiles, she told him meaningfully.

"Well… It's like you said in that text of yours. It's nice to be told that you're loved, however and wherever you find out." Katie started and straight away he just had to squint his eyes at the grace of her words and he bit his lip, a grin forming as he listened. It was lucky he did so because more words came. "I'm just touched that you would feel that way at all…"

She had accepted the need to swallow and Katie added with a forefinger and thumb tracing the blushing tip of his ear.

And then reacting perhaps a tad unexpectedly for the moment, as her touch lingered on the small part of his skin as she said these words and her body naturally leaned in, his being started to lean back. And then it fully did so.

Katie just had to blink when Justin moved away from her completely. He moved backwards, not turning away from her and meeting her eyes. Though she had hardly leaned forward at all, the surprise of these actions and this rejection caused her to feel as though she had crashed into him.

But she decided to follow her instinct. She knew that her instinct had to mean something. As she searched his face and his eyes, bewildered and puzzled, she found something in his orbs. When he looked back her while continuing to move backwards and hopping back onto the counter top in her family kitchen, she was filled with realization.

He wasn't playing a game because she had been the one to offer the heartfelt words to him via text and he wanted to further prove that the ball was in his court. That wasn't his style! He wasn't messing with her because they had been so vulnerable and raw and he wanted to switch tactic.

Pure and simple, Justin was setting the conditions for what was going to happen next. Katie exhaled. It was a bit of a déjà vu. It was a bit of a nostalgic feeling. She could often be found in the kitchen of his home, hanging on to every word of his occasionally very mundane yet insightful conversation whether he had been back from tour for ages or only just settling in again.

Katie could often be sat there on a kitchen counter top, her legs swinging and feeling greatly at peace with how things were. In the twist of fate, it was Justin's turn. And summing the two of them up completely how they could really go with the flow with one and other even though their affections were pretty much fixed, there was a change in role when Katie softened and approached Justin.

When the invitation was there, she really didn't hesitate to seize it with both hands. She seized Justin with both hands. She embraced him. Her arms going around his back and running across the material of the shirt that they once shared before fixing at the same spot, her cheek submerged against his shoulder as she didn't let him go.

It was very much the same way for Justin. It was very much the same for him indeed. He hardly appeared to move at all. He hardly appeared to embrace her at all. But his mind was longing for her. His heart was longing for her. His mind and his heart were longing for her and their relationship in the way that it needed to be.

Even so, he did touch her and he did so by cupping his left hand around her cheek and the other lightly but purposefully resting on the back of her neck. He pulled her closer to him though he didn't need to. With legs in skinny jeans resting on either side of her body, she merged into him in the most innocent of ways. But it was the most telling. They had found a home with each other. And that was something that was never going to go away.

Needless to say, the two of them remained in a wordless silence for a good amount of time with the moon still shining into the room and the clock ticking on the wall. Seconds passed. Minutes passed. Inhales happened. Exhales happened. Heart rates happened. Thump. Thump. Thump.

All of them beating at perhaps the same time. Because they merged somehow more fully than when they were being intimate with one and other.

The truth had set them free. The truth had set them free in life. They could always come back to that moment. They could always come back to that notion. Even if it could eventually be behind them. Even if it all would eventually be behind them. It propelled them forward all the same. That was why they embraced. That was why they stayed close. That was why they stayed near each other.

But of course, like any good thing, all good things must come to an end. That moment was no expectation. And fortunately, it didn't come to an unexpected and extremely sudden end like the end of their relationship. And when it did come, it was because of the decision of them both. Well, it was because of the decision of Justin!

He had since switched positions and seeing as his chin had rested on the shoulder of Katie, he lifted it up again and he pushed her away very lightly and respectfully in order to garner her attention. Of course, he soon enough captured it. With a glint of curiosity rather than tiredness in her eye, she looked back at him and waited for him to explain.

Justin did without a moment of hesitation, his head tilting and his face filling with mischief, his two front teeth appearing as he elaborated with words.

"Just thinking…" he started and somehow Katie resisted her eyes being like a boat rolling in the ocean waves at the fact that he was beginning to play again! Chuckles erupted from Justin into the moonlit kitchen in the dead of the night. And then he added, his nose scrunching up and his eyelashes fluttering like wings. "I would have been my guess that you would have fallen for me while plaiting my hair, not while I was singing. You always seemed to love my hair more."

Justin humored Katie and funnily enough, though their affections truly were out in the open, she found it natural to act like a twelve year old with a crush of hers being announced!

A blush streaked across her pale nose and she narrowed her eyes. Justin managed to resist hooting. But he didn't manage to resist his grin widening.

Katie continued this expression and then she started to pull away from him. When she had removed herself from him completely and stopped pressing against him, she shook her head and offered curt words to him. But she could not stop her tone from quivering with amusement and fondness – love too.

"Go home, Justin." Katie tried to tell him sternly but ending up telling him with laughter too. Justin couldn't hold back his amusement anymore. He erupted out from the kitchen table but he did so in appropriate volume. He was joined in this.

In spite of the fact that her words were a joke, Justin acknowledged the time and that they were no longer embracing and hopped down from the counter all over again. Another childish inclination filled Katie. She wanted to take hold of his hand and tell him not to leave. Five more minutes. All that she needed was five more minutes.

But she had managed to resist doing this each and every time that he headed away on a musical adventure. She had managed not to do this when he got lost in heartache. She had managed not to do this when she knew she had lost him in the way that she once had him.

I knew that in that kitchen she learnt that she always had him. She had him in the best and strongest way that anyone could have Justin. And besides, she knew not to stifle someone like him. How could she be selfish with him when he did so much for others? How could she be selfish with him when he did so much for her? She simply could not.

So while it was light-heartedly and while tiredness was beginning to set into her body and her eyes, Justin prepared to leave and Katie prepared to say goodbye. She had managed to each and every time before. So that day wasn't going to be any different. And anyway, letting each other go is what they did. They were content that they would always fly back to each other. Because they wanted to. Because they needed to. Because they did.

Even in the dead of the night and with everything that had been confessed between the two of them, when Justin prepared to exit with a smile on his face and Katie prepared to wave him off with the same expression, they made no promise of tomorrow. They asked no questions of reassurance for when they would see each other next.

Because they would see each other when they saw each other. They didn't need to plan. Everything between them had been so unplanned. They allowed their relationship to be what it was. Their friendship was no different.

Despite this, just before Justin actually properly left and before Katie's hand had a chance to slide onto his shoulder from behind and reach out to him just one last time during that blurry once in a lifetime moment of a December night, he spun around on his heel. No doubt did he surprise Katie. No doubt did her eyes become their own orbs in the sky yet again.

Never mind the mischief in his eyes and on his expression yet again, there was genuineness there. It was all of this that made Katie smile harder and love harder than she ever had before.

"You really meant what you said?" Justin humored her by questioning with a scrunch of his nose and a grin on his face but anyone could tell that there was a bit of realness there. Just one last time, he had to know. Though he hadn't expressed that part as much as she, there was disbelief within him too.

I understood why Katie's initial reaction was to roll her eyes properly after her surprised ones and open her mouth in preparation to make a smart comment. And then at the moment, something stopped her. Of course the thing that stopped her was Justin. The thing that stopped her was the utter duality within in his eyes.

In one eye she saw cheekiness. In the other, she saw softness. Oozing from him was an utter mix – an utter soup – of slyness and shyness. He had offered her so much. He had offered to her so much and delivered to.

There and then and in that moment she couldn't help but do the same for him. Of course she couldn't. She was always going to match him. Reaching her hand out to his shoulder, she leaned forward without a moment of hesitation and while she prepared her words, she planted a kiss right onto his forehead.

That spoke volumes before her words actually did. That said a lot. Justin caught onto it. His eyes fluttered shut as he felt the kiss and then his eyes wandered open as she pulled away. They wandered to her as he waited for words – if they were going to come.

They did, one of her hand lingering on his shoulder while the other hand of hers tracing a part of her bare skin where he too once touched. She didn't need to bob her head. She set him straight, her eyes searching and locking onto his in the darkness of the kitchen with their backs facing away from the moon.

"Never in the world have I meant anything more." Katie told Justin and although his face became sunshine to contrast the moonlight and he uttered the word 'cool' in response which could have potentially ruined the moment, somehow, it didn't!

Though while Justin grinned at his own reaction and Katie ducked her head in mock annoyed disbelief, then when she looked back at him and his grin died down a little more, it became clear that things were only going to continue transpiring between the two of them.

And it became clear that every word they had uttered that night was nothing but the truth. To be sure it was. They hardly offered anything less to one and other.

Words had reached out to them enough that night and so touch didn't need to before and when they said goodbye to one and other. No, no promises of tomorrow were made. No plans to meet up the following day were spoken. No yearning to see each other again as soon as possible were uttered.

Their hearts were the only sound as they parted until the next time they gazed upon each other again. Of course it was going to be soon enough, wasn't it? Their journey had yet to continue alongside one and other. Just like it always had done. And just like it would always continue to do so. Forever. As long as the sun shone during the day and the moon shone during the night – and the tides turned and clocks ticked – it would do so.

Broken things didn't un-break. And they didn't remain broken either. They become something else entirely. They transformed. Like a butterfly. Like Justin and Katie. Going from one time of life to the next. Going from one adventure to the next. No matter their path.

I knew that that was something worth remembering. And a tale worth holding dear.

The End.

There you go! Thanks so much for reading and I hope you enjoyed :) It was really nice getting to revisit this scenario after quite a bit of time and also recognise all the ingredients that went into this chapter. I see certain references towards songs in here and even moments of Mary Austin talking about Freddie Mercury which seems strange to say, but all of these things do make their way into the tale of Justin and Katie. Their dynamic will be one always close to my heart. I love the evolution of the two. And need to write more about even more of the adventures they take in the future :D Thanks again for reading and I will be back again next Wednesday so see you then!

Amy signing out :)