Hello, it is Wednesday and I am back with a new chapter! This one was written a little while ago and actually took quite a bit of editing. I just really wanted to write some more about Dylan who is Gary's son with Jayme. And write him interacting with Eli because I thought it would be an interesting dynamic. And, of course, because it takes place during a particular time frame, there's something small (or big, in hindsight) going on with Justin and Eli! I hope you enjoy :)
Ages:
Eli: 34
Dylan: 9
Justin: 21
Disclaimer: I own the story and the OCs mentioned!
Though he tried to ignore it like it was an unnoticeable cloud passing through the sky, Eli could feel his palms moisten at what he felt was a huge surge of people and he arrived in the airy warmth of a typical family Sunday lunch. I for one was far beyond indifferent. While I had attended many in my time and the ones that took place in the home of Josie and Noah's were of a whole other degree, the contentment which they brought was not taken for granted.
Instead of checking in on the deep violet haired male which I probably should have done in retrospect, I took a seat in between Eddie and Melissa. Nevertheless, I saw Eli's naturally wide eyes giving the dinner plates all the more of a run for their money as time passed and more people bustled past him, taking their seat around the long dinner table.
Jessie. James. Jayden. Jaxon. They all suddenly were bees as they buzzed towards seats which they had all taken a million times before. But not after they had given the table an offering of something in which they had bought to kit out the seemingly never ending table even more.
Lifting my head and trying not to become distracted by the stroking from the two teenagers on either side of me that I was feeling, I watched and I knew Eli felt continuous people bustling past.
Rupert and David. Their entwined fingertips and perhaps own jellyfish palms at their previous closeness parted from one and other and they seated themselves as they often did, their eyes already searching for the wine bottles.
The host himself, Noah, at the age of almost eighty doddered past as well, his features weathered from how many people in his life had come and gone but a sparkle alighting his irises at how even more people congregated at his house, showing him that they still held him in high regard.
Eli's shoulders hunched closer to his ears and his head turned, seemingly watching James forget his own seat immediately at the presence of his grandfather and, devoted as ever, pull his chair back for him and helping the grey haired hold man comfortably down into it.
What he was actually doing, however, was feeling a multitude of thoughts rushing through his mind.
So many people here, he thought to himself. But where is…? He didn't let himself finish that sentence. He tried to instead remind himself of all that he felt he should remember.
Don't worry about it if he doesn't like you, it will be made perfectly clear but it's not a problem. Don't intentionally upset him, though.
Before Eli could shake his head for a different reason towards himself, coming to the conclusion that he would never, with eyes resuming scanning the area; he couldn't help but feel a crowd bustling behind him and into the room.
That time he felt a brief cupping of some of their hands on his shoulder which, unbeknownst to them, made him flinch. They had only been greeting him, though, just before they took their seat at Noah's Sunday Lunch. It was Jazmyn and Leo.
Seeing those two people seat themselves with the rest of the Morgan clan, a wave of new thoughts shot through Eli, apparently penetrating him even though his shoulder was still clenched from the previous touch. His mind didn't understand that there wasn't time for that either.
Where should I sit? I can't just help myself. What if someone else goes there? Worse, Eli's palms began to very nearly flow like the alcohol that David and Rupert were pouring for each other, what if I take his seat and upset him from the get-go? What if-
A thought that didn't have time to come to fruition. One more person bustled past but unlike the other gaggle of people, this one didn't leave Eli in their wake. In actuality, in the split seconds after he too entered the room, the deep violet haired male felt a sensation on the back of his shoulder, where his shoulder blade met his spine.
All of his thoughts dissipated - every single one of them.
"Help yourself to wherever." Justin told Eli with a smile that could have competed with the crystal glasses and won. Although he prepared to move on ahead, his touch lingered and then when the recipient of his words lingered still, he naturally changed his tune. "Come sit with me."
His touch abandoned Eli but it gave him a reaction like he had experienced an electric shock. He jerked for a different reason than before. His eyes finally shrunk in size and his eyebrows danced on his face.
How could he see through him like that? An inward question that would go unanswered. He couldn't leave Justin hanging either.
Encouraging a smile to take over his face that was, in his mind, utterly uninteresting in comparison to Justin's, he ran a hand along the straightened and coiffed part of his hair and proceeded at last to take a seat at the dinner table with everybody else but most importantly - Justin.
I shot him a smile that was maybe a bit too closed eyed after my enjoyable rub and greeting from Eddie and Melissa and even back then I knew it caused Eli to promptly look away. In truth, he focused very hard on not looking at anybody other than the person who had invited him to sit with him. If he observed the ever growing numbers, he would have sweated so hard that his glass in front of him would've crashed down to the floor!
When he had settled a little bit and a couple of minutes into being seated with Justin, I noticed he started to slowly stop resembling a cardboard cut-out and actually take in the interactions that were happening around him.
David and Rupert were a quaint couple, he observed. However, he didn't have a chance to make up his mind whether he thought they were unusual in the way he liked when some more people joined the scene, bustling in from the kitchen with extra bottles of wine and cartons of juice because there never seemed to be enough to go round!
Almost as if Justin had been waiting for the arrival of his eldest sister and her partner as well as their youngest son too, he leapt up from his seat like an electrical current had made its way to his bottom and caused him to want to have as little to do with the chair as possible.
Contrasting this, however, Eli noticed, the smile which decorated his face was as faultless as ever when it was in the company of those that he held dear. But in typical Gary Oak fashion, it was him who got his words in first.
"So like your father. Here. Knock ya'self out." Gary told him and even I didn't know if he had genuinely misread Justin's reasons for getting up so quickly or was teasing him in a way that was highly indecipherable.
Whether or not Justin felt the same as me, I didn't know. All of a sudden, a bottle of dark red wine was thrust into his hold and a large glass too. Eyes the same circumference of Justin's glass were had by him but Eli did not meet his gaze in this moment, too busy wondering about the reason why James stopped checking in with his grandfather and his eyes rolled to the ceiling, his head shaking from left to right.
"Nice to see you, dude." The words tumbled out of his lips in a way that was arguably stiffer than the smiles that shone off his face during that Sunday dinner. Nevertheless, after he parted with the wine and the bottle easily enough and offered Gary a fist bump too, he turned and spoke far more to his sister. "I hear I'm eating your food this afternoon. Gramps must think highly of you to let you cook in Nan's kitchen."
It was as though an artist had smeared away any previous residue of paint from his canvas when, at the mention of his Nanny Josie, James' expression changed from frowning at Gary's remark and was smoother than any of the finest wines could offer.
Jayme surely felt the same way. Eli and I watched this together while sitting apart and then we saw her lips bow closer together, her arm moving away from guiding her son to the table and folding briefly over her chest instead.
"Oh, I think he just wanted a rest from cooking and I can't say I blame him!" she responded to which titters could be heard coming from everywhere. Then, her folded arms slid away from each other and then one hand gave a dual shaking and squeezing motion towards her youngest son's shoulder. "Get seated and acquainted, you. I need to get back in there."
She spoke and then with that, following a peck on the lips for Gary, she departed back to her duties and didn't make another single fuss about it. I couldn't help but feel like too little of a fuss was being made when the auburn haired Pokémon Professor merely watched his partner in life leave the room yet again, gave their son a mock balled fist against his jaw before he forwent taking his own seat and decided to hover over where James was with Jessie instead.
My mind longed to wonder whether that was his way of feeling bad about the comment that he had made. But soon enough, I was encouraged to direct my ears towards a conversation that was close to me and I could separate from everybody else's casual conversations.
"Take your seat, Dyl." Justin encouraged, back in his own seat at that point and the crisp white comfortable t-shirt that he was wearing found itself pressed straight against the wood of his chair behind him. Hands clasped together and resided over his lap. "There's someone here who wants to meet you."
I tell you this now in hindsight, that in that moment, I simply didn't know who appeared more like a rabbit in the headlights!
Fortunately, Dylan did have a little bit to focus on and he knew that if his mother had told him to get seated with words and his father did too in not so many words and now Justin was as well, he had better get to it.
Clumsily, his bottom fell down to the comfortable cushion of a padded wooden chair. And all the more thankfully, Eli and his wide eyes knew that he had to snap out of his own expression and engage with the young boy before his fingers started flicking together and lifting towards his own face.
Remember what Justin told you, he collected to himself. Think about everything that you were told. But not too much!
Before Eli could allow the words that he should remain natural to float through his mind, his body acted accordingly and he behaved in a way that seemed rather in ease. He leaned further forward across the able but not so much in a way to be suffocating.
As words tumbled out of him, his hand raised.
"Hi Dylan. I'm Eli. Jordan's cousin." He told him with the corners of his mouth lifting, a palm that had luckily disguised its moistness hovering in mid-air. He was met with an untouched expression and he wondered if Dylan needed someone to remind him who Jordan was and he hoped Justin would step in there to do it! "It's nice to meet you."
Eli added more stiffly that time. But it was only because his hand was lingering in mid-air for so long and he was wondering when and if he should lower it. He was also preparing to overthink when and if he should lower it.
Both Justin and I watched in entirely contrasting ways as Dylan's expression did remain blank for a good couple of moments and his fingers did flick against each other. Eyelashes felt the brush of those same fingers.
But then he too remembered things that he had been taught. Eli was taken aback when a hand stretched out to him.
"Hi." Was all he spoke in return to the older male but he held his hand out for him to shake it all the same.
Eli jolted into action. Those previously dinner plate appearing eyes of his made a comeback as his fingers brushed the younger male's digits while they shook each other's palms. But then he decided to take the physical contact as a good thing without turning next to him to look at Justin for approval.
If he had of done this, however, he would have started to see Justin resting an elbow on the table while supporting his chin with his curled fingers and notice his expression of eyes and dimples like crescent moons.
"I've got something for you, actually." Eli engaged, the both of them not knowing how long the handshake should go on for by their palms still being pressed against each other when the older of the two, out of habit, initially tried to reach into hoodie pockets that were not there. "Give me a second."
Eli remembered that he was dressing far smarter than his black veil of a hoodie that could've offered him some comfort on that day despite the approaching summer months.
He had to let go of Dylan's hand in order to reach down into his checked grey trousers that he was wearing and to distract himself from looking as well as much as anything, Justin decided to turn his attention back to his nephew.
His chin continually feeling the curl of fingers while the oak of the table got used to the weight of his arm, he nodded his head at Dylan to get his attention and then spoke to him. After he uttered these words, he switched his bodily position.
"Shall I pour your juice for you?" he offered and then immediately sat straighter up while Eli rummaged next to him, already knowing that it was okay to momentarily take Dylan's glass away from him and get Jaxon from further down the table to pass along the apple juice.
It came to him quickly enough because the magenta haired male knew better than to tease Justin in front of their nephew. Justin was only just unscrewing the lid when Dylan came out with words that made it seem like he was doing him a great bother by pouring his juice for him!
"When are you going away again?" he asked, his middle and his thumb flicking against each other before they gave up that action and prepared to travel upwards towards his nose for a good root around in there.
He was promptly stopped by James gently reaching across the table and moving his arm down, allowing his grandson instead to swivel around the rings on his finger. Dylan frowned at his actions being stopped but was in a good enough mood so didn't kick off further about it.
Eli had lines pencilling between his eyebrows, his reason being because he caught the words in which Dylan had said to Justin and didn't understand why he would say something like that.
Justin, on the other hand, was seemingly unoffended. He continued pouring juice for him and even did half a glass full for himself before Jessie caught on to what he was doing and rolled the lemonade down for him to add as well.
"I'm just home a couple of days. So I had better get used to the hearty eating while I'm here, hadn't I?" he spoke back to his nephew and because he bobbed his head and showed off a smile that wasn't falsified as he poured his lemonade to make a more carbonated, zesty version of Dylan's own drink, the younger of the two found himself mimicking in return.
Dylan's head bobbed but his mouth didn't stretch wide. Still swivelling one particular ring around on his grandfather's finger while James' arm wrapped around his own grandfather in a continually devoted way, Eli was feeling more pressure growing between his brows, then at previous interactions. It was enough for him to finally produce whatever it was that he had for Justin's nephew.
"There you go." Eli began by talking to Dylan again, his voice not matching the situation at hand and not inflecting at all. He seemed as though he was giving him a grave document rather than something he had bought along to make meeting someone new a little bit easier. "I heard you like aeroplanes."
United a lot of us were in that moment by the way that our heads snapped so much in different directions that our necks might've cricked. Some of us looked at Dylan; some of us looked at each other. I couldn't help but notice Justin and James' shared look of bemusement most of all.
But then, we all wanted to see Dylan's reactions and hear his opinions. Apparently he was continually mimicking Eli by his nonchalant gestures as he accepted the little box that was a mixture of cardboard and clear plastic packaging.
However, when the transparent window of the present allowed him to see what was inside, this paired with the words that the Unovan male had uttered made him become more of the delighted child, like usual.
"I do, I do, I do." He said, his expression that of faultless sunshine as he clasped the gift, that same box flapping from side to side as his hands moved. Nobody thought anything of it and certainly not to tell him to be careful. Eli can't have spent too much on someone who had only been just a name up until that point. "Oh wow."
Crunching of the flimsy package bending inwards and outwards as it was frantically yet excitedly flapped by Dylan was the sound that dominated the rest of the dinner table but nobody seemed to mind. In addition to this, James appeared unbothered that his hand had been quickly let go of in replacement to whatever Eli had seemingly bestowed upon him.
Wine glass filled with something else other than wine in spite of Gary's comments, the lavender haired male held that within one ring clad hand of his and he told his grandson with a look, lightly reminding him.
"What do you say to Eli?" James encouraged Dylan, knowing that it was perfectly alright for him to nudge him in the right direction, even under the eyes of his father. I knew as much as him that he was probably glad to not be the one doing it. Both he and Jayme were in charge of it close to 24/7 after all.
Dylan suddenly scrunched his nose up and sniffed like he did mind being guided by his grandfather. But his continual hand flapping with the box in tow made it clear that it was water under the bridge. And making better eye contact with Eli than he could ever have offered in return even with eyes as fixed as his, he looked right at him as he came out with these words.
"Thank you! Thank you, thank you, thank you." He beamed at the newest guest at the table, his hand flapping still not slowing down in motion and everybody else around him having to get used to the table moving slightly as he gleefully reacted.
It was hard for anybody not to feel joy when Dylan glowed with it and though I knew him to be a somewhat mysterious and withdrawn man on occasion at that point, Eli nearly oozed as much sunshine as the younger male for a couple of seconds.
Justin's elbow was back on the table and his curled fingers were tightening around his chin as Eli engaged in return with his nephew.
"You're welcome." Eli went on to copy Dylan's way of speaking very purposefully but with no hint of a mocking nature. "You're welcome, you're welcome." His eyes lingered on every single one of his antics for a handful of seconds more and then he himself leaned further across the table, reaching back for the present but only to direct his proper attention there. "I hope you like it. And I hope that you don't already have it. I took a chance."
Eli's eyes flickered for half a second towards Justin with a quality about them that wanted to stare some more but they weren't given the opportunity to. Dylan without hesitation noticed his hand reaching back towards the present that he had been given and thought that it meant otherwise so he did not bother to refrain from snatching it back out of his way.
Then again, Dylan didn't stop himself from doing much!
Justin felt a rush of energy through him when he had half of a second glance from Eli and it wasn't due to the concoction of drink that he had made for himself, though he could tell himself that it was.
Inviting himself into the interaction and the conversation because he had been looked at, he reassured Dylan even though he couldn't stop himself from chuckling in the same manner as Eli.
"He's not going to take it from you. Eli got you that to properly say hi." Justin explained, resulting in Eli feeling someone running over his grave a second time at being so noticed but he managed to prevent his body from reacting. "What is it that you've got?"
Another sip of his drink was had by Justin and the next couple of moments he reacted to every part of his interactions with that gaggle of people by raising a glass in his hand. Eli had the opportunity to look over at him yet again while his attention was taken up and at first, he seemed to focus on him far more than Dylan who at last prepared to give the present his full attention, rather than being overcome by unbridled joy that he had been treated to anything at all.
"It's… It's amazing." He complimented, starting to clutch his gift in far gentler hands and both this and his words coming across as all the more lovely to see by the way he couldn't quite get his tongue properly around that one word. "Amazing."
But it didn't stop him from saying it. The softness than being shown by Dylan in contrast to his (often) energetic antics bought a level of gentility and even ease out in Eli as well.
Both of his elbows on the table while just the one of Justin's lingered next to his, the two of them managed to ignore any longing to look at each other and continue having Dylan mainly at the forefront of their attention.
Eli's head tilted in an educative way, his fingers locking together before parting again, his thumbs then waggling as they explained what was actually inside the box.
"It's the aeroplane that used to fly passengers from Mistralton City in the Unova Region to Goldenrod City in Johto. It did so way back in the 80s." he watched as Dylan's eyes became as sky high as the aeroplane model in his hand before glazing over at the last part. He chuckled. "Long before you were born. I flew on that one and it's one of the reasons I could live in the Johto Region."
Despite the fact that Eddie and Melissa were engaging in some amusing antics on either side of me, I was able to hone the two of them out and focus on the sheer wondrous feelings that I was having surrounding their younger brother.
How indescribable it was to see how quickly Dylan could lose focus but when it came to the things that he was truly interested about, he could listen and engage for hours. No doubt must've Eli felt flattered when, in that moment, his eyes were not the most fixed in the room.
Jayme and Gary's son fixated his eyes onto Eli's and he listened with all of the attentiveness in the world to everything that was being said while he clutched his new gift, already adoringly it and taking care of it, even stroking it while it was still in the original packaging.
Naturally, Dylan's wasn't the only attention that the Unovan male had garnered. James from close by continued listening and observing and after he heard everything that Eli had said about his travels from a region he once called home to his family making an even better life for themselves, he turned to wrap a devoted arm around Noah all over again.
No doubt would the nearing eighty year old man be simply and utterly content with allowing all the conversations to be the soundtracks of his happiness. But I hoped he would have been flattered by being brought into the conversation too.
"You must've been aware of that plane, huh, Pops?" James looked at him with a curve overtaking his lips and eyes as tactile as the lace of the white table cloak enveloping the dining table. When he knew that blank look that he received from Noah all too well, he elaborated. "The aeroplane that used to take people from Unova to Johto? The real one of the model that Eli just gave to Dylan now?"
James had been sure that his grandfather had been listening. After all, like him, his still angular face had been contorted in the direction of that same bubble and his moustache had been quivering on his upper lip as he observed it all. Hadn't he…?
The touch of a hand from his grandson in a cheery manner did not leave Noah. And regardless of the fact that his blank expression faded away to a smile that was still mischievous even at the age that he was, his uttering utterly contrasted all of this!
"Who is Eli?" Noah asked with innocence in his eyes and a whisker decorated smile but that was not because he was playing a joke, no. A lingering blankness was within his alight eyes, even if a smile denominated almost all areas of his expression.
Eli for one couldn't refrain from snorting and a single hand of his pinched over his face, with his forefinger and thumb cupping over his eyes as he tried (and failed) to disguise his unoffended amusement.
Understandably, James and Justin were filled with far less glee and their lips pressed together in polite smiles for the sake of everybody else around them and especially Dylan who was often affected by his great-grandfather's forgetfulness the most.
Taking care of him all the same, in ways that he would have done for him when James was just a little boy, he rubbed Noah between the shoulder blades and mumbled soothingly that it didn't matter and offered to pour him a drink instead.
Justin looked over at Eli in a very different manner than before during those seconds and it was this among other things that encouraged him to quieten down his laughter, even waving an apologetic hand even if he didn't actually utter words of remorse.
A clearing of the throat sound could be heard coming from him and his eyes resuming some of their own usual antics by flickering around the room softened Justin all over again. He probably would have found it funny too if he was in that position. But he wasn't. Noah was his grandfather. And the more that he forgot the small things, the more likely it was that he would soon enough forget bigger things like he sometimes did too.
Justin tried to forget this. And thankfully, it was made a bit easier by Dylan, naturally, resuming fawning over his new gift and swivelling the cuboid packaging in his hands and even allowing aeroplane noises to drone out of his parted lips.
I moved over to sit between James and Jessie rather than anybody else, for the lavender haired male needed a little bit of extra company, and I noticed that Dylan's noises drummed other things into Justin.
He suddenly furrowed his brow and he nudged his shoulder so it collided with Eli's at the same time that Dylan did a truly touching thing by handing the package back over to him. It was so he could open it for him. But still.
"You didn't spend an extortionate amount on that, did you?" Justin wondered aloud to Eli, managing to overcome his boldness by taking a sip of his drink in between and acting like that had any alcohol in him to offer him special courage. "If it's from the 80s…"
He trailed off. He had been speaking quietly enough but all the same, he decided that it didn't seem right to start discussing price – perhaps an enormous price – in front of Dylan and his new gift. As well as this, it didn't seem right to make it seem like what he had done hadn't been incredibly nice.
While he was bewildered why Eli had gone to this effort now that he thought about it, he still decided that he couldn't bear the idea of asking too many questions.
Eli didn't say anything, only offering a shrug in return to Justin after he had felt a current buzzing its way through him after their shoulders touched. Instead, he focused on opening the box for Dylan, even effortlessly keeping that box in brilliant condition in case he wanted to store it back there in the future.
Justin had the smallest of curves tugging at his lips following quietness towards himself at the family trait of both Eli and Jordan being the masters of fiddly things.
"Oh no, it's no trouble at all." He answered and the flash of a smile in which Justin received immediately made his own adrenaline shoot through the roof in the same way in which it had done for his nephew receiving the present. But then he realised, he hadn't actually been settled. "It was only a couple." It was a rollercoaster of emotions when Justin's shoulders dropped down, relaxing, before he almost sent his glass crashing down to the floor. "….hundred."
It goes without saying that in that moment, I was met with dozens of rounded plates staring back at me! It was the same way for me and my eyes widened so much that I could feel the air rushing into them.
Justin believed that it was crude to discuss money at the table at the best of times but it certainly was when Dylan, the recipient of such generosity, was right there.
But it seemed that the eldest Morgan son needed to react, verbally conveying everybody's dismay and words that they were thinking. He still did it in a hushed enough manner.
"A couple of hundred…?" Justin's exhalation in surprise did more than enough of a good job in keeping Dylan none the wiser. In fact, his words were so disguised by a rush of air that he believed that he was making plane noises and did them in return. "No doubt will he treasure it and you've got a friend for life now but…" he tried to continue when his nephew was distracted. Justin ended up concluding bluntly. "Are you mad?"
I expected a flinch to ripple off Eli's shoulders and the rest of his being in that moment. But I was heavily stood corrected. With other people too busy looking at each other in disbelieving and inwardly wondering an ulterior motive behind what Jordan's cousin had decided to do, that same man was free to look wherever he chose. And he looked right at Justin.
His eyes and his head seemingly rotating like an owl, a shrug rippled off his shoulders. He wasn't offended by Justin's scepticism. And he seemed even less offended by the last words that Justin decided to say.
And before he had the opportunity to reconsider his words in some way – or change his tune entirely and offer an apology for being so blunt – Eli matched his intention and he somehow surpassed his words.
"Decidedly so." He responded without missing a beat and those inquisitive yet sunken eyes locked onto Justin, leaving him frozen to the spot and glad that he was sitting down. He only had a chance to exhale when he finally looked away, waving yet another hand and pointing to the vocal noises that were escaping from Dylan now that the plane was back in his hold and he was zooming it towards Eli across the table. "And what is that? That is priceless."
He added, not looking at Justin and not looking at anybody apart from Dylan even though this response was for everybody who wondered why he would do such a thing. Why wouldn't he? Like he said, that child's joy was the reason enough for it. It might've been given away freely and very often, but that didn't make it any less valuable.
In fact, I believed, there was unbridled worth was in something that seemingly had no limits but was given away and offered and held dear like the treasure that it was.
The only sound that I heard there and then and in that moment following Eli's conclusive words were more hand clapping and more hand flapping from Dylan and ululations of his vocal chords as well.
Naturally, nobody told him to pipe down and nobody encouraged his hands elsewhere, agreeing with Eli that it was those sounds that made everything worth it to everyone.
All the times that they had to step up. All the times that they had to do more than what was expected of them. All the times they altered their plans to include their young boy. His happiness and his joy? Worth it.
He flourished and developed in good conditions like a flower. Yet like the sun that grew those same flowers, he warmed everybody through and through too.
And he seemingly did that for Eli too.
It was in the moments that he started talking with Dylan, engaging with him and asking him questions about aeroplanes that he wondered why on earth he had fretted so much in the moments before his arrival to Sunday dinner. To be sure, he hadn't met the thundery side of him at that moment!
Yet regardless, he felt that it would roll off like water off a ducks back. It was refreshing to be in the presence of somebody who was utterly themselves and didn't think about being anything but. Eli felt like he could never relate. But he could admire. And that was enough.
All throughout dinner, the two of them chatted and the two of them engaged and things couldn't have gone down more swimmingly. Understandably, Gary and Jayme were tickled pink at how quickly their son had taken to the Sunday dinner guest who would start to show up more from then on.
But still, something didn't sit quite right with Justin. He knew that he should be filled with unbridled awe and admiration at the man who was certainly not a stranger to him but hadn't seen nearly all of the sides of him at that point either.
Justin knew that he should be as glad about it as anyone else. But something was nagging at him. And that was on the forefront of his own mind when the dinner at Noah and Josie's house that was then just Noah's house had been devoured and enjoyed and some of the guests had started to thin out.
Noise dispersed to corners of the house rather than collecting and gathering all in the dining area. Justin was no different and he too decided to fill another part of the house with his own sounds.
Quiet footsteps as they padded along the decking of the balcony and he followed the scent of smoke that he knew that would lead to the silhouette and the silhouette of the one person.
Sticking his head through the panes of wood and minding his steps as he crossed over the threshold, he saw that he was correct. He was soon approaching the turned back of Eli as one crooked elbow leaned against the wooden railings of the balcony and the other hand was invisible to him but no doubt raising the cigarette to his parted lips.
Justin allowed his presence and his company to do the talking rather than any words. Actually, when I nonchalantly trotted along the decking myself to have a bit of a peek, naturally curious at what other kind of things they would discover themselves talking about, I saw that it was the younger male's eyes searching the far corners of his own sockets in order to reach Eli's that did the speaking most of all.
Jordan's cousin was not ignorant. Eyes their naturally wide state and the gentle puckering sound as the cigarette was removed from his lips, he spoke actual words to Justin while inhaling the smoke. Or rather, he spoke an actual word.
"Hi." He greeted him, at that point seemingly indifferent to his presence and not lighting up along with his cigarette and certainly not darkening like the veil hoodie he often wore either. "You come for a smoke?"
Despite Eli's obvious display of generosity at the dining table all those hours before, maybe Justin had equally as much of a small short term memory as his great grandfather from the way that he seemed taken aback at this proposition. It appeared alien to him! And he reacted in a way that caused Eli's eyes to burn wider than the sun that had long since passed its midday spot and inhale another breath of cigarette before he overthought the younger male's peculiar actions.
"Um…" Justin's body to which Eli perceived to be always natural and confident – annoyingly natural and confident, at times – hunched over close to the balcony like he was peering over it for a lost item before his head completely turned direction, peeking back where he had come from. "I shouldn't."
His conclusion encouraged the eyebrows of Eli to draw closer together after dancing in a concentrative way on the top of his face. Following taking another drag of his cigarette and leaning both hands at the end of crooked elbows off the balcony and effortlessly flicking the ash on the end of it down onto the grass, he nodded.
Eli believed he understood.
"I see." He observed, his nod of the head causing Justin to think that he really did and already, the younger male forced his body to unclench like he was really the relaxed stature that Eli believed him to always be. Another flick and ash fell further to the ground. "I would never have guessed that your parents of all people would frown upon you partaking in a monstrosity such as this."
For half a second, Justin was clueless and he told himself that it was this that caused him to become as aflame as Eli's cigarette when he had managed to conceal it for all the hours prior. When he gave himself a couple of seconds to figure it out and he felt that he figured things out at last as he imagined more of the ash tumbling down to the ground like a perverse snowflake, he quickly shook his head in disagreement.
Then, he discovered his own eyebrows to be drawing closer together. Eli didn't know him and his family as much as he believed.
"It's not that." Justin tried again, one hand of his moving away from the edge of the balcony and tousling his locks in front of Eli who had a difficult job in focusing on the ignited item. But at least he had something in his hand to distract him. "Tour again soon. Vocal chords and all that. Gotta be smart."
He listed. For a rare occasion, although Eli nodded, Justin didn't think he was convincing anyone, let alone himself. He watched the cigarette make its way back into Eli's lips and the white tip be sucked upon, causing the end crusted in ash to ignite into a bright hue.
In hindsight, Justin did not know which he desired more. And he did not know which of the two he would rather be. Such a mysterious man with a heart of gold. And for what? Yes, that question was still firmly in his mind.
It was still there even after he trailed off his own words, unconvinced in his own mind, and his throat let out a contrasting noise and his hand waved before stretching outwards.
Initially and for half a second, Eli wondered what the reason for this was and a part of him nearly stretched his hand out in return, not fully allowing himself to wonder what it would be like to trace his fingers along Justin's ones but certainly something enough to cause an eruption in his belly.
Eli at that point thought it was the cigarette. And he insisted to himself that this really was the case when he finally understood what Justin's prior noises and gesticulations had meant following the mumble of the word gimme and a cigarette was pressed into his palm too.
His black hued lighter which probably liked to embed himself in his even blacker hoodie when he was at home was pressed in Justin's hands in the following moments.
"Is my family really that much of a headache to deal with?" Justin spoke again in the seconds that he swapped both the lighter and the cigarette into his right hand, the former against his palm and the second tucked between two fingers that were close together. However, he did not make the move of actually smoking it until he clarified to Eli's bewildered face. "The smoking."
Aah was the noise that escaped from the Unovan male's lips and it was done so along with an exhale, a cloud of smoke oozing from his parted lips. Justin felt hypnotised by that sight, part of him wanting to hurry up and light his own one but another part of him needing to turn and peek again. So he did that.
I was low to the ground and only observing out of curiosity so I did not feel the need to duck. Eli, however, felt the urge to allow the corner of his mouth to quirk upwards towards the sky that possessed not a cloud and so, it was written all over his face.
A shake of his head was shown as well. Where was his confident streaking going, he thought to himself? Or was he really just that bad of an influence?
Eli hoped not.
Words escaped from him because he realised that he hadn't actually answered the younger male. Though if one had possessed access to his thoughts, they could have believed that he was trying to prove that he meant no harm.
"They're actually lovely people." He answered at last and again, that tone of his voice showed up that didn't match the words that he was saying. His eyes fixated on watching the cigarette and lighter go from left hand to right hand and back again, though he had spent enough time with him to know how Justin would do it if he finally decided to light it. "Loud occasionally. Intense. But not in an unpleasant way."
The cigarette and lighter in Justin's hand landed for good where it was going to be best put to use. And it was in these seconds that Eli uttered these words that something transpired between the two of them.
The younger of the two's naturally full lips fell together like the rolled up paper was already planted between there but it was not. His shoulders moving gently down told all. He had noticed his hesitance to pick a seat and he understood why.
But instead of smothering him with understanding – or worse – observance – Justin went along with the instinct of his that told him to lighten the mood with another rolled bit of paper containing tobacco.
"Maybe if some of my other family members were there, you would think otherwise." Justin decided to joke and in the moment that he did so, contradicting the words that he was saying, a smile flashed across his face like the Kanto evening sun when he mentioned that family of his.
Eyes flickering from the unused lighter and the unlit cigarette in his hand, Eli did not know whether it was his indecisive motion of the eyes that made Justin finally lifted both of these things towards his mouth.
Regardless, Eli watched one of his final few cigarettes being placed in between two lips and delicate, intentional hands rising to light it. As he stared, his mind was funnily enough actually elsewhere as he wholeheartedly knew what Justin was talking about. Or rather, he knew who was referring to.
Because of this, he received the mildest of tellings off on that balcony while Justin's hand cupped over the end of the cigarette to protect it from any breeze rolling in from the Kanto coast and he attempted to use his thumb to light the end.
"You shouldn't say such things, Justin. You're lucky." Eli warned but not really, in a voice that was, again, uninflected in comparison to his words that could have contained such gravity. Rather than focusing on the flickering of eyes that were a few metres to the left of him, he focused on a finger that couldn't quite correctly burst the lighter into a flame. "Extremely lucky."
Justin tried again. Over and over again, his thumb tried to light the cigarette and he tried to use the lighter correctly but moistness of his fingers made it roll straight off. And it was not long after he continually tried and he heard the second musings of Eli, his eyes felt the need to travel to his all the more so when he heard more words even though they had not been uttered.
It caused him to flinch how much he understood them and how much he had heard them even if Eli's lips didn't move. In fact, no part of him moved apart from him breaking the distance between the two of them and letting out a tutting noise that was like a breath in comparison to a cacophony of other noises, he took the lighter away from Justin and set to lighting his cigarette for him himself.
In the brushing motion of their two hands and the closeness in which they then shared with each other, blood pounded in Justin's ears and it hummed into him all the more so words that he knew Eli didn't need to actually say out loud because he got the message clear enough in the way that he had done it.
Justin felt as though his shoulders should be skyrocketing through the air as two of his fingers secured the cigarette in his mouth tightly along with the natural grip of his lips while Eli raised one of his own hands to shield from wind and effortlessly brought his cigarette to light with the other.
At this act, he should have been on top of the world. But instead, his shoulders dropped down an inch and after the heat between them passed and the lighter was stuffed back into a pocket, eyes dropped down as words decided to finally form themselves.
Justin hadn't put his finger on it. He hadn't understood why someone would be so generous to a family that wasn't even his. And then he got it.
"Eli…" he suddenly began, taking himself by surprise the way that it was his name that easily and almost hungrily rolled off his tongue initially and causing a flick within Eli's being though the lighter was long since away.
Eyes locked. Words of understanding were going to be shared. But apparently, then was not the time. Apparently then was the time for other things instead.
You see, despite of his utter joy that was still coursing through all of him and at times causing him to ping off the walls, Dylan managed to sneak quite stealthily past me and make his way onto the balcony with the two older guys.
Straight away, Justin blew smoke out of his mouth in such a hurry that it was like a chimney ridding itself of any excess smoke before Santa Claus appeared on Christmas Day! A cigarette was hidden behind a slender back. But then, he was left wondering whether it was comforting or it was entirely unnerving that, when Dylan looked right at him, he shot a gaze through him that was indecipherable whether it was going to tattle to parents or not.
Then, he blanked his uncle for good. He had words for one person and one person only. Dylan made a beeline for him.
"I'm going home now." He announced and I was one of the two who observed that, from the nine year old boy's tone of voice, it wouldn't be surprising if those were the only words that he would utter as parting ones between him and Eli! I had never been gladder to be stood corrected. "Again. Thank you, thank you, and thank you."
And again, just as Dylan demonstrated there and then, I was shown that I didn't know every little thing and yet again, I could not be gladder about that fact.
It might have seemed that way but it was not actually presents that won their way to Dylan's heart but it was people taking the time of day to show an interest in what really made his world go around. He didn't really like doing anything that he did not want to do. So this is what made his departure to Justin and Eli all the more one to remember.
And certainly, in different ways for them both.
"Bye." Was the only word that Justin received off Dylan on the balcony and on that day and he would have been lucky to receive even a half-wave! But then he moved onto Eli. He uttered words at first. And then he went on to offer gestures. One that were a big deal to them both. "Bye, bye, Eli."
Dylan's barely even a fraction of a wave to Justin, who didn't have it in him to care at all or take offence and merely waved and smiled back in response, became a thing of the past and his hand genuinely waved from side to side.
But then he went the whole hog. And made more than the one day.
Eli had only enough time to quickly discard his cigarette away from his mouth and into the two parted fingers of Justin's left hand when Dylan made more than a beeline for him and embraced in a hug that could have been offered by a statue for it was so rigid but a statue that he been left in the sun because of the warmth it radiated.
Flinching at this sudden closeness became not a thing of the past for Eli, but moreover a thing that didn't occur with Dylan. Seemingly he understood how big of a deal it was for him too, so because of this, he didn't hesitate to embrace the young child in return, not having to bend down too much from his short stature and in the presence of the young man who would probably grow to be as tall as his uncle.
"Oh, it's my pleasure, Dylan. It was beyond wonderful to meet you." Eli told him and the youngest child of Jayme and Gary felt the rubbing between shoulder blades and his aeroplane was half hanging over the balcony while they were embraced. But he knew that it was in utterly safe hands when it came to the Unovan male.
And as for other hands – well, Justin's didn't know what to do with themselves when they were filled with two cigarettes! And it wasn't because I finally decide to allow my presence to be known and jump onto his shoulder before I too needed to head on home back to my own family.
A nuzzle of my cheek against Justin's pale one that felt warmer than usual bought him back to reality. And I'm guessing that he realised how lovely of an occasion that was.
It suddenly washed through him that he knew that he hadn't needed to warn Dylan and Eli about each other after all. When he knew they would be meeting, he wondered whether their blunt personalities would clash.
Now he realised that the two of them found someone else who didn't hesitate to tell the truth. And utterly didn't mind if someone was in a foul mood! Maybe Dylan was freer than Eli, it was true. But at least the younger boy could inspire that sort of quality in the older man.
It was certainly something to strive towards. And it was something that could be achieved.
I could only wish that I and other people could be as forward thinking and as direct talking and filled with unbridled joy that longed to be shared by all than Dylan. But then again, he was around. And that was enough, wasn't it?
It's bittersweet to know that during his early years, his parents wondered what sort of future he would hold. They always had to be one step ahead. In time, they realised that their steps ahead from him gave him a look into the future.
He would always be supported and loved for exactly who he is. And who knows, maybe he bought out that desire within Eli to find that for himself? No, I am certain of it. Two more unlikely souls found each other.
That is what life is about, and certainly my own one. Revelling in the eccentricities. Because, boy, we sure have them more than most!
The End.
There you go! Thanks so much for reading and I hope you enjoyed :) I liked portaying the different characters in this one, particular Dylan of course but also a glimpse of Eli's social anxiety yet how it eases when Justin comes around and he has to focus on being as present as he can with Dylan. There's a lot of little details in this story I would love to delve into more in the future. Also, it was fun to go back to that stage where Justin and Eli are not romantically involved but on the cusp of being so. You can certainly see the growing closeness here! :D Thanks again for reading and I will be back again next Wednesday so see you then :)
Amy signing out!