Hello, it is not exactly Wednesday but I am back with a new chapter! I didn't upload yesterday as I was off writing something that I felt really excited to tackle. It was a spontaneous moment of creativity and with life these days, that hasn't always been possible so it was fun :D However, I am back now and uploading this chapter which took a fair amount of editing as it was written a while ago now! Today we revisit Justin and Eli in the height of their summer romance and it is filled with it's own spontaneity and everything that I love about their hidden love :P I hope you enjoy!

Disclaimer: I own the story and the OCs mentioned!

It is quite something how just a phone call can sometimes lead to much bigger things. This is one of those stories.

Justin didn't know what to expect as he held his phone to the curve of his jawline, and he waited for the recipient on the other end to pick up. He couldn't quite imagine that person ripping him a new one per se. But something about making this call sent an electric, almost naughty shiver up his spine.

It hardly was forbidden. But he gathered that it was not encouraged. So, for this, he felt an itching scrambling all around him that eventually made a home in the pit of his stomach as he waited. He anticipated hearing a voice. Maybe one like the ice of a frozen lake. But maybe, the sun shining down on it instead.

Because he received neither of these things when the other end finally picked up, at first, he didn't know quite what to do.

"Heeeey." The low, uninflected tone spoke to him, and Justin had half a second to absorb the fact that neither a gnarled tone nor a bubbly one had responded to him.

Bubbliness took over his own being and unable to stop the smile from taking over his face that was soon smothered with the biting of a lower lip, he grabbed the bull by its horns and set a proper conversation in motion.

"Hey, you." Justin's fingers roamed to his lips with a blush of a peony in between words, imagining an invisible phone cord connecting the two voices from different regions. The urge to fiddle with that connection was a big one. "How is your morning going?"

Though he hadn't been greeted with any sort of fury, the way that his touch didn't drop down from his mouth as time passed indicated that he still couldn't relax quite yet. Anything was possible, he told himself, there was still time.

Instead, Justin just heard the crackling from a line connecting from Kanto to Unova and some rustling on the other end of the phone before a voice that caused his heart to soar higher than any plane he could catch to reach his lover.

"It's good. I can't complain." Eli answered, his voice still appearing like he was on a whole other planet rather than region. Then, when after a couple more rustling sounds could be, sound as imagined that he leaned further forward into his chair as he properly relinquished into the conversation. "I'm just having some breakfast." That explained some of the noises. "I was thinking of you."

If Eli had been leaning further forward in his office chair, then it seemed only natural that Justin sank backwards upon hearing this! Though he stopped tugging at his lips and the invisible phone cord breaking the distance between them both grew ignored, those fingers of his were used then to roam through his locks.

It was a tough one for Justin to try and battle against feeling his cheeks warming as pink as his lips, light radiating in his eyes as if he had absorbed the sun that had been burning in the summer Kanto sky since it had properly risen.

In the end, Justin was a martyr to his reactions, and he continued swooning while on the phone with Eli. He didn't bother to ask any other question.

"You were thinking of me?" he inquired. Some would have been deterred from the nonchalant mm noise that could be heard on the other end of the phone but not Justin. His irises could hardly contain their own sunbeams at this point. "What kind of things were you thinking about?"

A silence came and then a crinkle followed. Recounting this story, I still imagine Eli taking his time in dipping his spoon into his honey covered granola, mixing more of the seeds in with his oats. Perhaps his own glint took over his eyes, but he was more successful in swallowing his smile. But only just.

Leaning back in his chair all over again, Eli managed to conceal his true instincts in the same way that he would hide his teeth as he smiled while feeling self-conscious.

Justin had halted breath as he waited, that same feeling as when he dialled the older male's number tugging at the pit of his stomach. Things could go either way and he relished in that.

Eli's reply came finally, a shrug rolling of his elegantly broad shoulders.

"Just wondering what you were up to." He replied as if he was simply asking if something needed to be fetched from the shops, another flicking motion of just one of his shoulders before he allowed his spoon to completely submerge in his breakfast, abandoning it there. Apparently, he had better things to divulge in. "Wondering how you were feeling. And if you were ever going to wake up!"

From the line in Kanto, Justin switched his mobile phone from lingering against one ear and placed it against the other instead, revealing flushed tips and a small hoop earring that sparkled but became dulled in comparison to the radiance that he omitted while in conversation.

Though the two men became separated for a breath as the phone moved from one ear to the other, Justin for one felt that nothing could sever them completely. He acted out this notion by knowing exactly what Eli was on about, continuing the conversation.

"I did lie in a little bit, didn't I?" he admitted, imagining the bobbing of the head that would occur from his lover as the word rang true to him as much as they did coming out of the lips of Justin. Teal orbs with an added blend of green darted to the clock on the wall. But then they ducked, as if the time were nothing in comparison to the time of hearing Eli's voice. "So, you're only just eating breakfast, are you?" he reverted. He wondered if a slower nod would respond. "What, you didn't feel like soaking your toast in the shower this morning like usual?"

Justin's body reacted in suit to the way that his throat formed a teasing tone, leaning forward in the armchair that he was lulling in while still adorned in pyjamas from the night prior. He pictured the way that Eli's naturally bulbous eyes were surely going to squint in that mercurial way that they often did and the smirk that couldn't help but etch across his face and this made him glad that he had leaned forward.

He could limply yet intentionally grip onto the edge of the coffee table! He waited for words of a similar teasing nature to occur. But he instead heard a tone that oozed with confidence.

"I've got it down to a fine art, my toast never gets soaked." Eli defended, his tone, however, not altering a single inch. This made Justin's lower lip fall into his mouth as if he were hungry for his own breakfast. He focused on the breathing noises of the older male before he just had to listen to the words that kept on coming. "But no. I couldn't stomach breakfast so early this morning before my flight." A pause. Again, Justin knew exactly what was being discussed so it could be left there. But it was not. "Are you surprised after the night we had last night?"

Initially, the images that were darting through Justin's mind were the memory of Eli over the past couple of their mornings together and the way that he chaotically got ready before leaving for work.

Alarm blaring for even the neighbours to hear. Rushing out from underneath the covers to the kitchen to pop toast down while the kettle boiled. Coffee stewing in the pot and those two rounds of toast snatched up in two hands as soon as they pinged up, taken to eat in the shower. One hand then was used to wash while the other was to be eaten.

He brushed his hair, and he brushed his teeth at the same time. He swallowed the first few piping mouthfuls of coffee while dressing. A kiss planted between a couple and then one of them would be left in the others wake as the door slammed. They would see each other at five fifteen on the dot that evening, give or take a second or two.

Justin was forced to forget all of that and try to focus on the hazy night that they had shared only just. He spoke of how little he remembered as he continued engaging in conversation, thumbnail resting in between his lips as it would go onto flick between his teeth while the talking waned.

"I don't have a single clue what happened last night." He replied before reconsidering, the very visceral image of Eli's naturally wide eyes becoming more like saucers when he heard this. "No, I did." Justin conceded. He couldn't conceal a chuckle and he couldn't hide him gnawing on the thin edge of his thumbnail either. "It was wonderful. But you paid for it when your blood shot eyes had to wake up with no more than an hour or two of sleep."

Among other things that bound the two of these men together, one of their most similar streaks was their fertile imagination. Just like Justin had been doing in moments before, Eli started to get all sorts of images filling his mind. the corners of his mouth quirked upwards.

The two of them sharing a bottle of wine in the living room. Faces as tickled pink as the hue of the alcohol and that blush spreading out to more than just their cheeks. They headed to their bedroom. Clothes became strewn across the floor from other reasons than the warmth of the wine filling up their bellies.

The rest of it was a bit of a merry haze! But Eli remembered talking afterwards. And he remembered laughing. He remembered enjoyment. However, he didn't find it necessary to articulate any of this with words even as Justin waited from his end of the phone and the older male's smile spread further across his face, gazing out of his office window and the vast city that hovered below.

His innermost thoughts and adorations announced with a sigh. Then words he went on to say made any of this completely undiscovered.

"So how are you going to spend your day recovering?" Eli asked and Justin was so elated to hear his voice all over again that he didn't bother to piece it together whether his rustling noises from his end were from a discarded breakfast or something else was being tucked into. "What are your plans, my darling?"

A rush of more than just feeling whooshed from the tips of Justin's toes to the base of his throat, lingering there to provide adrenaline for any words he wished to speak in return. At first, though, he was rendered utterly speechless, and he revelled in this instead rather than any of his own words he could produce.

He had only noticed that Eli hadn't uttered any pet moments until that moment when he finally heard one once more. A knuckle dominated hand fell to his cheek as he tried to swallow his blush even though not another single person in the house could look at him.

Then Justin was eventually able to pipe up in return, feeling a bit of tension growing in the centre of his forehead from just how high his eyebrows rose in delight.

"Oh, I don't know, darling. The day is wide open." He like a child who had just disembarked from a merry-go-round, allowing his difference in accent to the Unovan male to prove of a point of the usual playful disagreement between the two of them of how to pronounce the one specific, endearing word. Then, Justin sunk into the reality of his day. "I really don't know. It might get a little dull without you." His knuckles bedded further into his cheek for a different reason."

Not that Justin then had the clarity to be able to picture this, but Eli's lips that so were used to threatening to reveal a smile when it came to Justin started to draw together instead. In the same instant, well-groomed eyebrows of his closed the distance with each other too.

He held his breath as well as his tone. He knew exactly what this meant. But he tried to steer the conversation elsewhere, encouraging him.

"How exciting to just let the day unfold." He prompted Justin. If the two of them had been together longer, then the younger male's eyes would surely roll in his sockets! Eli spun around nonchalantly in his office chair, filling his gaze with the frosted glass instead that lead to the hallways of the vast building. "You could always go and chill out at your parents' house. See sweet little Jorgie." It's easy to gather that Eli's expression was far brighter than Justin's at this point! "That could be fun."

Justin's right eyebrow possessed the slightest of twitches at the word could. Unlike Justin prior, his silent words rang out for all to understand.

Yes, it could be fun. But it also could be very tiresome! For such blatant and simple sentences to concoct, Justin took a good couple of moments before speaking to them, that time twirling the ends of a long front bit of his hair around his index finger as if he were in the past and that was his phone cord.

"I don't think I'm quite that bored to offer free babysitting services, Eli." Justin answered, causing two lines to come between Eli's eyebrows and not at the way that he had uttered his name instead of a pet one. The reason for Justin's prior pause would soon make itself clear and it would make Eli's brow knot together further. Justin twiddled his hair tighter around his own finger, not caring that the tip throbbed, and a mark remained. "I miss you." He restrained a deep sigh and a fragment of one instead escaped before words of admittance followed.

As if these were words that were an insult rather than a compliment, Eli's expressive eyes drew together with eyelashes like butterflies coming together. Since he had spun around in his chair, he had left his phone on the desk and Justin's voice ringing out in loudspeaker. Justin had not cared if he had even noticed anyway.

Yet now he had said these formidable words, it was not just that that lent distance between them both. He knew that they were a risk from the moment that he formed them. But he couldn't lie. He would never lie. Not even for Eli.

"Ugh baby, don't hit me with that." Eli took his time but finally responded, spinning back around in his chair and the edge of his chair pressing up against his ribs. It was the younger of the two who felt more winded, of course. His lips promptly puckered together at how the older male could make his choice of words seem like a dreadful thing. "You know this is what I have to do." At least these words felt better than the last. But they still didn't console Justin much. Hardly. "This is what's happening. You don't need to miss someone who will be coming back."

Those puckered lips of Justin managed to prize apart by a thumb wedging between them. Still, before he could even think about sinking his teeth down into the scarce line of his thumbnail, he thought of a response.

He stubbornly muttered:

"You don't need to tell me the conditions of missing somebody." He retorted. He had started to gather that he was on loudspeaker but then he also believed that that wouldn't be possible. Eli would have rather died than having someone hear them on the phone together. Apparently, he also would have rather died than hearing sweet and honest words from Justin. It was this latter notion that caused Justin to feel his chest simmering underneath his bed t-shirt. "Am I not allowed to feel this, Eli? Am I not allowed to say it…?"

Surely the graceful broadness of Eli's shoulders had started to falter when he first heard Justin's introductory words. Then the more that he went on, the more the breadth of him resembled his state when he was a far younger man.

Paired with a hollowed-out jaw from his youth, Eli's eyes started to flicker together at just how wrong the younger male was reading at him. Because they were early on in their romance, the Unovan male corrected him.

"Of course, you are. Of course, you are." He spoke. The certainty of his voice, however, did not console. Hurt was still rushing through the veins of Justin and causing that flushed chest of his to move inwards and outwards. Eli exhaled out of his nostrils as if he was unwittingly trying to call the redness of his lover down. "It's just hard for me to hear. Because all of this is hard for me too." Now this started to pique Justin's interest. Slowly, the thorn flowered hues started to drain away from his collarbones. "I feel the same way, Justin. I would have packed you away in my suitcase and taken you with me this morning if I could have my way. You know that."

Sitting up slowly and shakily from the red of the armchair that had paled to insignificance by the mottle of his chest, Justin listened. A very real part niggled at him at the very beginning that longed for him to say the words do I in response to Eli's words.

But as if this petulant behaviour were a bit of an unwanted seed that he could at that point rinse away, Justin forced himself to do better than speak the words that first came into his mind.

Unbeknownst to him, Eli waited anxiously and a heart rapidly thudding in his ears as he considered how he waited to proceed. If he had known, he might have hurried up the process. Or he might have prolonged it, depending on the mood!

"Really?" Justin settled on saying at last and saying this instead of any other words. Moreover, this was the only word that he came out with. His spiny back from through a single layer of a white t-shirt felt the plush of the armchair enveloping him once more.

He waited for a response. Karma worked a little bit of magic, and he was forced to feel his eyebrows drawing closer together when Eli took his time as well. But at last, he decided that he might as well get it over with.

Switching away from loudspeaker once more and having a mobile phone pressing up against his ear, Eli looked out the window of his office and ahead at the view as he spoke. Perhaps he was imagining that it was just a city between them rather than region upon region.

"Mmhmm." He confirmed. And for a second time that day, Justin wasn't offended by the choice of word that he had decided to articulate himself with. And furthermore, he didn't grow discouraged by any more words that tumbled out of Eli's lips. For the first time since his departure, he felt inspired. "Now go and crack on for the day, you." He started to try and organise him. In my opinion in hindsight, he was taking a risk from how badly his previous guidance had gone down. "Go do whatever it is that you'll find yourself doing. And do it well. Okay?"

It was rare for the two of them to sign off from the phone without speaking a story of adoration filled words and promises of what would occur the next moment that they were able to lay more than just eyes on one and other.

On that occasion, however, the two of them bid goodbye with just a single word each. Justin responded to Eli's okay with a repetition of his own one. And then that was that. The phone call disconnected. The two of them had to crack on with their lives without each other for the next day or so.

Or would they?

The lack of words would have usually been agitating for Eli but this time as he heard them, he believed that he knew Justin and read his tones well enough that there wasn't the feeling of stinging dismay running through him anymore.

So, for this reason, a hint of a smile was tugging across his lips as he prepared to continue his work on his computer. As for Justin, he had a different kind of smile as he finally allowed himself to bask in the inspiration in which Eli had offered him.

That inspiration did not cause him to leave the comfort of the armchair and head to another part of their house that they were then sharing together and start tinkling on the ivories or start plucking at one of the strings of his guitar.

A currant running through him as for a second time that day, it dawned on Justin that he was preparing to do something electric and naughty, he picked up his house keys off the coffee table before heading off to the bedroom to change. What he wanted to do most certainly was forbidden and far from encouraged. But he did not care at that point.

The world was his oyster, and he was encouraged to spend the day how he wanted. He knew what he wanted to do. And if anyone was going to make his visions a reality then it was Justin.

It was the same wave running through him that took him from plane to plane to spread his music worldwide that caused him to move forward as he boarded a plane on that day. He really was running the greatest risk. While Eli was none the wiser. Well, he soon would be! And he could make up his mind then how he felt about it.

A few hours later, Eli with raw pads of the fingers from typing and strained eyes was really starting to regret eating his breakfast so early because he was simply starving! And he knew that if he left the office to fetch something from the cafeteria or a nearby café or even vending machine, then the flow would be utterly ruined, and he would have little to no desire to continue.

His motivation was already wearing thin with his phone call with Justin. Unlike how it had been for the younger male, he had sucked Eli dry of all inspiration. He knew that he hardly had meant to, and it wasn't his fault at all.

Not that he could ever have the nerve to tell him, but all he had wanted to do since that phone call was pack up his things in Unova so he could touch down on Kanto soil and have Justin murmuring things directly into his ear, feeling his breath tickling his ear while his fingers roamed places he had hardly let another person discover before.

But he couldn't do that. he knew that he couldn't. he had to find inspiration somewhere. Or he had to quieten down the silent groans of his stomach at least.

This was the final acknowledgement that led Eli to hesitantly pry himself away from his work for just a brief minute and touch the intercom of his office, connecting him with one of the only other people in the building that he respected. He knew that it was cheeky. But he knew he of all people understood why he couldn't leave his bubble of an office.

"Hello." Eli replied with that same word but in far less of a questioning voice than the man who had initially put forth this word. One hand still lingering near the intercom and his bottom permanently glued to his chair as if even leaving it would cause him to walk straight out of there, the corners of his prominent nose crinkled at how he was sounding. He didn't usually care! "I know this is incredibly impolite, but do you think you could send a sandwich or something up to me? I'm starving!" his voice inflected for a rare time while working in that office. He didn't need to tell his colleague his thought process behind his reasonings. "Anything will do, man. I massively appreciate it."

His hand finally slipped away from loitering near the box as if his palm had grown sweaty from the sheer agony at seeming obvious. At that point even he had noticed that that was knew for him and he was starting to wonder where that side of him was coming from!

The ash blonde haired man on the other end of the intercom didn't seem to overthink it, even if he would usually do that to most things. In fact, he had a smile threatening to tug on his mousy features at the way that his colleague was behaving.

After a concealed cough-like noise that was him holding back his unrequited fondness, Eli's colleague answered.

"Sure, of course. I can do that, yes." A hand of his that had previously been working hard on his own computer roamed to his sparse stubble and he allowed his hand to linger there for a few moments as Eli settled more normally into his office chair. At the same time, Tybalt left his chair a little more. "Actually, you have a visitor here for you so I will send them up as well."

Eli had before been so determined not to edge his bottom away from the chair in the slightest out of fear of losing what little drive he had left. However, upon hearing this, he couldn't resist the urge that took over him that lead him to walk over to the window in bewilderment.

He didn't know why he did that. But when he had the chance to stretch his legs after a couple of hours of sitting, he relished in it, eyes and mind not relaxing as much as his limbs as he wondered what Mr Wallis was talking about.

"A visitor? Why would I have one of them, hardly anyone from the company knows I'm in Unova right now?" his question came. It went unanswered for he hardly gave Tybalt a minute to draw breath before he added more, a hand roaming through the curls at the top of his head and loosening them. "Why would anyone come and see me?"

Mr Wallis thought about saying that he didn't know but he swallowed this urge back! He knew that reading cues was hard for Elliot at the best of times and not being able to see each other made it even worse.

He resisted the clown-like smile that threatened to tug at his lips. And he instead changed his tune to Eli, unbeknownst to him looking at the visitor up and down and remembering that they had asked not to explicitly tell Mr Anderson who was stopping by.

"…Actually, it's a package for you down here." Tyrell changed his choice of words, and it caused Eli to wish that he had remained seated at the sheer confusion of everything that was going on. If his hearing had been as acute as his eyesight, then he would have heard the indeed visitor – or package – whatever he wanted to be called – murmuring from the other end of the intercom also. "I'll just send it up first and then get a sandwich for you. No worries, buddy."

And with that, the line of the intercom disconnected! Eli had taken a little while to make himself familiar with that building but at least having an old colleague there gave a bit of familiarity. Then, however, he wasn't quite feeling that same way as Mr Wallis had left him more dumbfounded than ever before.

But he had hardly even a moment to ruminate on this or the fact that he had been called buddy by Tybalt for the first time in his life. That word taking shape on his lips, his head turned towards the door when it was knocked upon in the next few questions.

Proceeding like he often did when he was expecting something regardless of how quickly that time had come, he moved towards the door and answered it. He expected to see that mop haired colleague of his standing there with a box of some sort. Something for his office.

In time he would find some use for the object there in his office! But the truth was, it was not an object after all as it was not a parcel. It was a person. And Eli looked as though he had never seen that person before in his life when it was quite the opposite as they were standing there.

"Justin? Wha…? What are you…?" Eli hardly seemed able to finish a single of his words or sentences apart from his lover's name as he was standing there, hair done and much more preened for the day than he had been when they had been on the phone. His smile glowed far more than his hair gel. "How did you-"

Another sentence that Eli could not finish and that time it was because Justin interjected him. He had thought for the entire plane journey of what he was going to do when he first saw the older male again and he hadn't come to a conclusive decision while thousands of feet in the air and was even less curtain when he was standing there.

In the end, instead of embracing him, kissing him, or finding his body pressing closer to his as he made up for the prior distance, at first, he just barged himself into the office. Eli watched as with one swift kicking of the steel capped boot, he slammed the door behind them and dropped his backpack down onto the floor.

Evidently, he was staying.

Justin's grin didn't falter.

"You should have seen how confused I was when that guy downstairs let me into the building but didn't know you were an Eli and called you Elliot instead." He began, garnering an expression from Eli that scarcely moved an inch. Calling him fish-like on any occasion was a bad call. But he resembled that creature then with his gaping mouth. "I guess I forgot that I'm not the only other person who has different names for you."

And with that, Justin's grin started to die down just a little to allow his lower lip to travel into the rest of his mouth, guarded by his teeth. He finally made a bit of actual contact with Eli. The older male felt two hands squeezing over each of his shoulders and then a body was merging into his.

His top button hidden loosely beneath his blue round neck work jumper flicked open before he had a chance to catch onto much else. But he made sure that he stayed firmly in reality, lightly pushing Justin away before he could lose himself in the rich spice of his neck.

"Justin, wait…" Eli started, and the younger male felt a touch mirroring the one that he had offered, bigger and stronger hands wrapping around the entirety of his narrow shoulders. It felt wonderful so he had no qualms about pulling away from his lover. "What are you doing here?" he tried again. He couldn't seem to wrap his head around anything as his two eyebrows formed a close union. "Why did they even let you in here? That's not allowed. Did you tell them that you had a package for me?"

A single moment of pause passed. Justin was hesitant about holding his true inclinations away from Eli at the best of times, but he especially was after he had come all that way. A sparkle captured within his youthful gaze, one hand of his left his lover's muscular shoulder and unadorned fingers started to trace the side of his neck where lips had previously longed to attach.

Justin coquettishly clarified.

"I told them that I was the package for you…" he teased, and his fingers were not the only things that wanted to linger against the skin of Eli anymore. He attempted to wrap his arms around him and press into him for good.

However, he was prevented again, this time with a firm grip around either of his wrists that had the potential to offend or egg on, depending on the mood that he decided to pursue.

Continuously, Eli's austere dropped to the jaw. He was rarely good at concealing his horror and it was written all over his face there and then.

"No, Justin, please tell me you didn't say that. My God…" he didn't even have the capacity to fully groan at that point or even flicker his eyelashes together. If his hands hadn't been used to restrain Justin, then one of them would've surely clapped over his own mouth. "You can't do that. Nobody here knows I'm-"

A rotating of the irises in Justin's sockets caused Eli's jaw to clench together with hurt. He knew that look perfectly well.

Fortunately for him, the caustic moment of Justin was a brief one and he shook his head but didn't shake his wrists away from the gradually loosening grip of Eli.

"Relax." Was all he said at first. Haunting eyes flickered to him straight away and for a rare occasion, it was the whites of his eyes that were more expressive than any other part of his vision. Justin's chest moved inwardly but you couldn't hear his inhale. "I would never do that to you. I said I was a friend who was just in the neighbourhood and thought I would pop by after a record label meeting."

As Justin started to see the older one from an angle, he finally had a problem with Eli's continual hold on his wrists, putting his palms flat out against his chest as an indicator to be let go of. His hands dropped away. This moment of brief contactless behaviour allowed the Eli to absorb everything that had been said.

Furthermore, he honed that haunting gaze of his directly onto Justin's face and tried to spy any trace of a lie. He couldn't find it. So, because of that, his jaw started to hang a little looser and his eyes didn't need to protrude so bulbously in his head.

Soon enough, he was welcoming that touch and that contact that he had previously pushed away for good reason. His chest was then stretching outwards to contrast Justin's prior concave torso.

"You can lie to them all you want but you must never lie to me." He began in a way that was half as a hidden way of thanking him for not outing him. In hindsight, it appears like a warning. But either way, Justin melted into the embrace of Eli as he was held, and a kiss planted to the hollow of his cheekbone after these words had come. "I hope I treat you better than just a friend."

And with that, the two of them greeted each other properly and they now both didn't have a reason to miss each other because they were in each other's company once more. It was quite something how in moments when their dynamic longed to be in that specific way, the tall frame of Justin somehow was dwarfed by the broadness of Eli's back and chest and he wanted nothing more than to remain there, almost hidden.

But then youthful confidence pounded through Justin's veins, and he wanted to wrap the older male around his pinkie finger, he stood even higher than him than usual and introduced him to feelings that were new to them both but better spelled out by the more streetwise younger male.

In those moments, it was Justin who was in Eli's arms, and he was so very giddy about it. Plentiful kisses and touch not faltering for a single second, Justin showed of this flushed quality as he was held by his lover, more delighted than he ever could say.

"How amazing is this." Justin initiated, causing Eli to realise it would be polite to stop pressing soft kisses near to where his silver earring hung and look into the eyes of his darling as he was spoken to. "I set off from Kanto after breakfast and I'm here with you well past lunch." Eli listened to his voice, a crane in his neck rather than a neck in his own fingers. "Madness."

The way that Justin concluded was an interesting one. And the Unovan male couldn't stop himself from teasing him about this, his charming squint on display yet again as his tongue poked just gently from the corner of his lips before uttering mocking words.

"Well, that is how travelling by plane works, baby…" he said, immediately garnering a mirroring eye squinting motion from Justin but for vastly varied reasons. It was the younger male's turn to feel his jaw hanging closer to the ground. This was even more so the case as after a kiss planted to his forehead; Eli broke the distance between them. "I'm contented that you're here. But you'll let me get on with my work, won't you? I've got a bit of a deadline to get in the bag before the end of the day."

Justin knew that looking over to the clock could undermine his lover but nevertheless, he chose to do exactly this. But he covered it up well enough with the shrug that soon rolled off his shoulders. He wanted to catch hold of Eli before he sat himself back down, but he moved surprisingly fast and gracefully and put it down to making up for the fact that he always had to take the most strides of across any room.

Instead, Justin had to rest a hand on each of Eli's shoulders as he properly sat down, watching him begin to type again and quickly complying even if most of his gestures could lead one to believe otherwise.

"I'll do my best not to distract you." Justin humoured him, able to bend his spine surprisingly low for such a tall thing and he seemed to lull around Eli's shoulders as if he were a feline draping his tale all around him. Understandably, Eli's middle finger hovered mid keyboard key as he too observed this. "What is it that you have to do anyway?"

Justin remained low but he also stopped his touch from roaming all over Eli's back in his tactile blue sweater and both hands nestled into the trapezius muscles of his form instead, head drawing nearer as lips would soon brush above the white crisp collar that his lover was wearing underneath the first layer.

A hitch in Eli's breath and he felt the need to take a moment. But he knew that missing a deadline would be fatal and he was not going to let the younger male have the satisfaction of being able to lure him away from important work.

He remained firm and he turned around to look at Justin in the eye, disguising the fact that he had shrugged his touch away.

"Do you really want me to explain it to you?" he asked. Some things were communicated with words, but other things were shared in a countenance. Justin caught on quickly for someone who hadn't noticed that his hands had slid away from the older male.

The same place against one of his own shoulders was touched by his own fingers, rubbing there sheepishly. He, however, had no reservations about admitting.

"Not really. I never understand any of this stuff." He confessed brightly enough. Not much time at all after it had been drawn there, that hand of his left his own body and that one paired with its twin reached back out to Eli all over again. Eli tried not to stiffen out of fear becoming completely distracted or something else entirely. "I think I would be better use to you over there."

And with that, while Justin's fingernails had dug into the material of his lover's sweater, he soon planted a kiss to the back of the curls before moving over to the vast window of his even more spacious office, giving him the space that he needed to crack on with his work.

Eli hated that he had encouraged him to leave him. A part of him wanted nothing more than to do a big middle finger to the work on his computer and join the younger male lingering by the window and looking out at the vast city below. He had never thought all that much of Castelia City other than that it was home in the most mundane and familiar way.

He knew, however, that one moment looking out onto the never-ending city with his lover then he would grow to have as much passion for one of his homes as he did for him, falling for each and every inch of the skyline in the same manner that he had the potential to go head over heels for Justin.

If he ever allowed himself to do that, of course.

Still, he needed to remember his life before that chance meeting with Justin again in that lonesome pub in Kanto and the truth was that forming a branch of his company in that same region was a dream come true. It was more than a dream come true. It was everything he had ever wished for to be able to have a base nearer to his loved ones and maybe even live there for part of the year.

He had to nurture that dream even if he had new ones that were blinding him like the bright lights of Castelia City as soon as the skyline started to dull in hue as night-time drew nearer.

So, this was the reason that he forced himself to focus on what he was doing rather than the awe filling Justin's mind and positively erupting – albeit silently – from his entire being at all that he was spotting outside of the window.

Of course, like anything regarding joy, it was hard not to share it with anybody else. And although he had tried to keep his musing to himself, he started to tap against the glass that had grown fogged up with his excitable breath and he pointed.

"Baby, is that the record label headquarters over there?" he was since standing back up again after half perching his hip against the glass and crouching. The taps of his fingers were rhythmic against the glass. Without moving his eyes away from the screen and the tap, tap, tapping of his keypad prevailing, Eli replied with that typical noise of his. Justin knitted his brows together and turned to look where he wasn't being looked at but then his expression softened again, hips falling away from the glass and curling around his skin-tight black jeans. "Huh. I never would have thought it's right in the dead centre of the city."

If there had been anybody else overlooking the scene, then they would have been able to see the positive gritting motion that locked onto Eli's jaw as he knew that he must focus. But he also knew that it would eat him alive if he didn't give Justin the attention that he deserved.

As he pried his gaze away from his work, his eyes started to sting a little bit from looking more long distance. All the same, he was able to cajole the younger male, that same twenty-two-year-old feeling his gaze dropping to his articulate lips from the moment that they spoke to him.

"How in hell could you have been coming here all these years but not really know where it is?" Eli humoured him in the most uninflected tone, his eyebrows contrasting his playfully narrowed eyes and raising closer to his hairline.

Like Eli had managed to yank his gaze away from the glare of his computer screen, Justin was somehow able to raise his attention from the mouth of Eli and look into his eyes as he answered.

For half a second, the grip on his hips tightened as he thought about mocking him back. But then as the sun beat down more warmly into the office in Unova, his disposition grew sunnier, and he cheerfully shrugged.

"Not sure. I'm not particularly good at knowing where I am." He replied, his touch leaving his own hips for good and embracing around his skinny frame instead as if he were missing the sensation from his lover. More answers came, looking over at Eli properly as if he didn't care about distracting him then. "I usually just come here for the guitar and the guitar alone rather than being a tourist. In fact-" Nobody would ever know what he was planning to say. As his eyes continually bedded into the silhouette of Eli, they widened, and his face grew paler than usual and that was saying something. "Oh no! I forgot to bring one of my guitars. What am I going to do?"

There were a couple of passing seconds where Eli thought that he was joking – or at the very least, he was joking about his reaction. He began to sway his head from side to side at the younger male and feel a smile twitching his lips.

But the more that Justin stared straight back at him, the quicker it dawned on him that he was being deadly serious. Eli on the other hand didn't find it quite so easy to be as serious the younger male. A breathy laugh threatening to overtake his vocal sounds, he knew that he had to take an inhale or two to move past that and be able to reassure Justin.

He was still a little unsure whether he was going to suddenly tell him that he was taking him for a fool.

"Jeez, don't worry about that. I'll take you to buy a new one as soon as we are done here, I promise you." Eli began, a wave of his hand that intended to go back onto the keypad moved dismissively as he believed that that would be enough. When he realised that he was mistaken, his bottom twitched on his office chair. There were creases forming in the start of one of his eyebrows. "Oh c'mon, you silly boy." He continued, speaking to Justin's gaze that was flickering everywhere uncertainly. "I'm sure you'll survive a day and a half without it. Do you really need to play with that when you have me around?"

There would never be quite as much of a moment as that as Justin's ghostly, clammy cheeks suddenly grew more vibrant in colour as he gave himself the chance to properly focus on Eli's words. While a part of him was forlorn about leaving his dear friends behind and it was shown in his stance, he could not stop his cheeks from softening.

Then even his body followed suit. He started to erect his spine, leaving Eli trying to work out what was happening within him.

"Does that mean…?" Justin started. It was his turn to be unable to finish sentences. Immediately, Eli realised that it was pointless trying to continue his work. The younger male was a distraction across the regions, and he was even worse of a distraction right in front of his face! He was leaving his chair as Justin found his voice more confidently. "You know that I want to stay with you?"

It was hardly uncommon for the two of them to reflect at each other, for better and for worse. In that moment as Eli stood to his full short stature, he could feel the blood rushing to his own cheeks. A thumb twitched and tickled there as if that partial motion could console it.

But then, although he did try to keep some feelings back for himself, he let a few of them be known. And he showed it with a roll of his own expressive eyes! A wave of the hand then was used to gesture towards Justin's backpack discarded on the floor rather than to speak of dismissiveness.

"Oh, I think I know a Justin Morgan overnight bag if ever I did see one." He answered, his tone not changing nor revealing whether he was happy about it or not. But Justin knew the truth and I do too as I recount this tale.

No one knows the truth more than Justin, though, and there and then, he momentarily forgot about his fallen soldiers and wanted to focus on the words that his lover had said and the words that he had said alone.

No sooner had Eli broke the distance with him to make sure that he was truly all right, Justin made moves towards him too and then hurriedly embraced him, his light weight almost sending the Unovan male flying at the joy that was encapsulating him from head to toe.

Fortunately, his grip was so tight that he couldn't go anywhere, and his arms wrapped around his neck as he certainly didn't want to let go of him – not then and not ever.

Eli got his wish come true by the younger male draped all around him and his lips close to his ear in that moment. It took all his strength not to melt like butter on a sweltering day, but his eyes did gently flutter shut with enjoyment.

"We're going to have so much fun together." Justin told Eli innocently and he opened his lover's eyes back up with a soft kiss that planted to his lips. The older of the two, for every bit that he was a stubborn soul, didn't have a single urge to go against his inclinations so he reached out and stroked Justin across the cheek.

In turn, he nuzzled his face in return, then preparing to move his own face elsewhere. Eli was starting to find his own voice again as he did this.

"We are." He agreed. He then realised that Justin's mischievous and skilful fingers had flicked open another of the buttons of his shirt and his face was preparing to move to the centre of his throat before travelling downwards to the base of his neck. He wasn't an idiot. "Whoa, but not now!" he wanted to swoon. But he controlled himself. Justin was captured by the back of his own neck. "Justin-"

He probably would have liked to take control of the situation by himself, but fate had a chance to intervene when a knock sounded on Eli's office door. It didn't take the two of them more than a second to gather what – or who – it was and why they were interrupting.

Even so, it was a conflicting reaction as Eli went from melting and surrendering to the affection of Justin to leaping half the office away from him from the second that it dawned on him that there soon would be someone entering the room as well. Or worse, they had somehow worked out the merged silhouette from behind the frosted glass and gathered all that had been going on.

Justin's brow throbbed and then drew together as not an act of companionship. Eli was none the wiser as he was too busy focusing on cooling himself and more importantly, getting orders across.

"That'll be Tybalt again. You make sure that you behave." Eli spoke and Justin's countenance was forced to soften though it didn't want to at the way that a demanding finger from his lover stretched out and told him what to do. That message was loud and clear. He didn't need to say anymore. "Don't-"

The message had been loud and clear. No more needed to be said. But Eli had still tried. Yet he had failed because Justin's two arms folded over his slim chest and interjected to prove a point, speaking from a place of hurt at their moment coming to a sudden end.

"I won't reveal anything." Justin obeyed and immediately, Eli breathed inwards and outwards, and it wasn't merely from trying to cool down his pulsating skin at everything that had been happening prior. He should have known not to relax from the second he saw the younger male's right eye twitch and squint. "In fact, I'll do you one better. I'll pretend that I don't even know you, let alone like you." Eli's skin threatened to flush all over. "Elliot Anderson is a stranger to me."

The words that Justin would not dare to do such a thing longed to trace over Eli's lips. Yet enough time had passed since Mr Wallis had knocked on the door and it was getting strange that he could hear dull chattering from inside but no voice saying that he was free to enter.

Eli didn't have the time nor the capacity to say the words that he longed to say. Instead, he had to do his best with the situation at hand and deciding that he believed that he looked decent enough, he sat his bottom back down in his chair and said the words that would lead Tybalt to enter.

The turning of the door handle occurred. The door swung open. Meanwhile, Justin folded his arms back over his chest and tried to resume his usual colour as he casually half leaned up against the door once more.

Two swallows occurred as Tybalt bustled in with a platter that was more than just a sandwich and came to boot with enough drinks that it looked as though he had raided half the vending machine from downstairs.

"I'm sorry I took so long, Elliot." He apologised yet Justin couldn't help but observe he didn't decorate his words with any sort of reason. That was a lot like Eli, he couldn't not notice. Mr Wallis bustled further in the room. The platter and some of the drinks were placed on the desk but far enough away from his gadgets. "I hope everything is okay for you. I couldn't do today without you and getting here early evening after a rough flight."

Again, Justin was studious even if his stance presented himself as just being a presence there. Eli hadn't told him that there had been anything wrong with the flight, he thought to himself. Then again, he hadn't asked, had he? And he hadn't even given him a chance for small talk when he arrived in Unova. He had gone straight for the shirt buttons.

As if Eli suddenly remembered these and worried that they were a giveaway even if they were concealed by a layer of jumper, he subtly fixed the lower of the two through the other layer that he was wearing.

But then he jumped towards doing not just the polite thing but the next instinctive thing. He had a smile just for Tybalt and he nodded his head towards him rather than anything that he had done for him.

"My pleasure. And thank you." He spoke as if Mr Wallis had offered him the most mundane thing in the world rather than bringing him a plate of food that seemed to be catered by one of the restaurants in the neighbouring street. Eli then out of his peripheral vision could feel Justin looking not at the platter that had been bestowed but his colleague himself. And in return, Tybalt was looking back at him. A rumble occurred in Eli's throat and then words came. "You must know Justin because you sent him up."

After the Unovan male cleared his throat, a hand stretched out and gestured between both Mr Wallis and Justin. He knew that it was the right thing to introduce them. But the way that Justin had been studying him and the words that he had spoken before, it suddenly dawned on him that he didn't anticipate what the younger male was going to do as he stopped leaning so casually against the windowpanes.

With bated breath while Tybalt merely smiled and nodded, expecting Justin to be shy like Eli and not offer more than that gesture in return, Eli's eyes could not help but flicker as he feared Justin would live up to what he had put forth.

For a split second, he kid himself that he could see Justin's vitriolic mind ticking and far more of an evil clown-like smile capturing his lips than even Tybalt could muster when he and Eli finally had a massive breakthrough in their work.

"Nice to see you again, dude. Thank you for letting me up here." Justin began as he touched palms with Mr Wallis, keeping it to himself how surprised he was at the limp touch that was offered from a man that bared an uncanny resemblance to Jordan, Eli's cousin. "As I said, I was just in the neighbourhood and thought I would be cheeky by swinging by. I appreciate you letting me see my mate."

It was Eli's turn to omit hawk-like eyes as he watched Justin and Tybalt's touch finally leave each other before the younger male made a beeline for him. He didn't know quite how to act when he felt a brief squeeze of the shoulder from a hand of Justin, and it made him wince. However, it could never make him as inwardly recoil as the word mate that had tumbled out from Justin.

How easy it had been for him to lie. While it was true that he encouraged him to lie to other people for the sake of whatever they had was, it made his blood run cold how unprompted he had called him just that.

Truthfully, it was never really about the lying.

Amid it all, Tybalt merely felt the corners of his slightly impish appearance from quirking upwards at the sight of Justin and Eli together. and then he got an idea. Or rather, he knew how the situation should be.

After all, as Justin had said, it was a flying visit.

"I'll make myself scarce and let you two catch up, then. There is enough food for you both." Tybalt explained though of course, he didn't really have to. Justin's face swung more appreciatively over to him even if his gaze was studious. He noticed how Eli didn't flinch as his colleague's hand touched his shoulder that time. "Buddy, just finish this segment of what you're doing and then transfer it over to me. You've done enough today."

Expected conversation happened next. Eli's eyes widened in surprise as he turned to Tybalt and made sure that, he was sure. In response, he reassured that he was more than happy. And after some small talk between them all, Justin and Eli really were left alone for good. They were free to enjoy the platter as Tybalt had left. Or enjoy each other, as they seemed to have wanted to do before!

However, the mood had changed since then, and this had been put forth by Justin's antics before the knock of the door. Even so, it was Eli who broke the silence first and when he was confident that anybody was out of earshot enough, he left the leather of his office chair for yet another time with hands pushing against the rest to give him an extra lift.

Justin had since been lulling again against the windowpanes. He hesitantly looked up as Eli approached him, wondering if he was going to be in for one of his famous lectures regarding how he had behaved.

He figured that he deserved it. Not that he would have ever admitted aloud.

"I know that I said that you should lie to protect us…" Eli began, and this immediately gained Justin's attention. He felt a bit of a fool, but he couldn't help but be hypnotised by the word us after everything. Eli's fists bedded into his work trouser pockets as if communication skills could be located there. "But please don't ever call me mate again." To contradict the elevation in heart rate, Justin looked away. And he chuckled. Eli's fists faltered in his pockets, the corner of his lips quirking up too. "Thank you. For not outing me again."

Immediately, Justin couldn't quite gather the strength to look at Eli. He instead filled his vision with his black and shiny work shoes and noticed the way that his grey trouser legs hung around just so, perfectly tailored.

Soon enough, he could feel a body drawing closer to his and though he tried to fight it, he then couldn't help but look up. As he gazed into his lover's eyes, a sadness that could not be hidden showed itself as Eli felt the need to thank him for this fact a second time.

Nevertheless, he tried to breeze past it with a look of sincerity. The lack of touch between the two showed Eli how serious he was.

"I told you, I would never." Justin promised and Eli's head bobbed just once, his lips pressing together at the side of his face as he silently chewed the inside of his cheek. He often saw himself in the older male. This was no different and no matter how many years had passed, he knew that he had been there once before. This was why Eli then felt two cool hands at the base of either side of his neck. "So, are you really not sending me back home? I can stay here with you?"

Rather than sadness filling his eyes at Justin asking a question for the second time, Eli, unlike the younger male, was filled with fondness. He tried to get a hold of it, and he tried to control it. But then he relinquished. He had no hope while being in the touch of Justin!

Eli's own hands rose to meet Justin's and they stroked over his ones as they didn't leave the side of his neck, gazing into his eyes. He spoke steadily. Well, he spoke as steadily as he could muster while in the presence of the young man who had more charisma than the entire Unova Region, he believed.

"It would be bad for the environment if I was the cause of you taking two flights in one day, would it not?" he asked, his touch squeezing around Justin's for a couple of seconds before deciding that they had a mind of their own without needing to mimic.

Two strong hands wrapped around the upper arms of Justin, just below the shoulder blades. It was this touch that drew a body closer against another one. Their two foreheads got close without even touching. Their lips had such little distance between them that one single further move and they would be brushing.

But they didn't.

They remained in that paradoxically steady unsteady state for a good few seconds. And then Justin finally answered, seeing right through Eli and not just because he was as eye to eye as he possibly could with him given their height difference.

Eli's smile copied Justin; s immediately and it was habitual.

"Is that your way of saying that it would be bad for you if I went on my way?" Justin half humoured Eli. However, he was taking a leaf out of the older male's book, and he was behaving focally, his tone uninfected and he spoke and teased.

For half a second, Eli inhaled, and he wasn't just breathing in the scent and the presence of the younger male as he lingered close to him, wanting to take a part of him with him for always in case he decided to leave after all.

But eventually, the Unovan male knew when was to call it quits on the stubbornness. That was the beginning of their romance. So, it was a time when they knew when to relinquish the power.

Not letting Justin know what the truth of the matter was, the younger male watched and reacted as the touch of Eli skimmed from wrapping around his arms and slid upwards, roaming up his back to eventually cupping him either side of his face.

Justin wasn't clueless to what that kind of hold meant. He did everything in his power to keep his eye contact unmoving while melting into the embrace of Eli, surrendering himself entirely.

Yet at the same time, Eli surrendered in a similar fashion.

"Oh, whatever you say, lover boy." Eli answered at last and with that, the two sides of the couple engaged in what they had wanted to do from the moment that they lay eyes on each other once again.

For an exceedingly rare occasion instead, the blinds of the office were not drawn, and Eli did not fuss about anyone else from the opposing building seeing a display of affection as they lingered by the window and held onto one another, their lips merging but their body's finding each other even more so.

They pulled each other so completely into each other that it was uncertain where one of them ended and the other one began.

Of course, they would eventually know when they were severed from each other at the very apex of their relationship. But that was a little way off at that point. For the moment, they had the entire world stretching out in front of them. Quite literally as the entirety of the Unova Region looked on at them as they seized everything that they had always wanted right in their hold.

Their romance had started in Kanto and had taken them all over the world. And it's the kind of story that brings me out of myself and makes me think about all kinds of things. I only know about this one long in hindsight. But I feel glad that it happened in that way.

These tales are peppered with nothing but the truth. It might only be Justin and Eli's truth but at the end of the day, it is their one that matters.

Such a long journey they had. So many victories. So many losses. All their stories bleed out into my memory. It's certainly one that I can't help but revisit. At its heart, it's the story about a young boy born from the desert and breaking free of every chain and becoming who he was always meant to be. And not just to Justin.

But that's a tale for another day. That's something else for me to remember. I'll leave it here and I think of how they left it that day. Their lips pressing together with the whole Pokémon World smiling at them. The world was always for them rather than against them. They just needed to believe it themselves. And want it enough. As much as they wanted each other there and then. And always would. Underneath it all.

The End.

There you go! Thanks so much for reading and I hope you enjoyed :) I remember having so much fun at the time of writing this. If I remember correctly, I just simply wanted to spend some time writing about them and so came up with this at the spur of the moment! I think I had been writing a lot more about their "husband era" shall we say and missed when they were a touch more - as Justin thinks - naughty :D Thanks again for reading and I shall return on the 28th to begin my new story Letters That Changed Everything :3 See you then I hope!

Amy signing out :P