Pikachu Tales

by AmyBieberKetchum

Ash and Misty's adventures certainly didn't stop when they fell in love and had a family of their own! As told by Pikachu, their lives and the lives of their family and friends are all full of ups and downs, love and laughter too. Come on in and read! Pikachu has lots of tales to share. (Original characters and OCs included. Collection of one shots.)

372. The One Within The Same Walls

Hello, it is Wednesday, and I am back with a new chapter! As you can see, this is a bit of a long one. But it contains an intro, three middle parts and an outro so I think it's chunked nicely to be able to read over time. This is a story that I really wanted to write, and not only did it take time, but it took lots of different editing sessions. I should say, stories, to be honest with you, because as you will learn, this tale describes three different occasions all taking place within the house of Johanna and Charlie Morgan, James' parents. I hope you enjoy. I'll let you learn who we read about today :)

Disclaimer: I own the story and the OCs mentioned!

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I didn't know whether to smile or not as I glanced over at James but in the end, because that seemed to be the most natural urge tugging across my lips, I let that present itself as I sidled towards him. He let out a sigh, holding onto one of the framed prints that he was meant to be sorting out as he sat cross legged on the floor of Charlie Morgan's study. He would probably regret that – the two of us weren't getting any younger!

In the end, however, the closer that I got to him, the quicker that I realised that James would probably go on to regret a huge amount of other different things. And that just had to be okay.

The man who was moustachioed until his final breath had stopped being a widow a couple of months ago and it had been time for James to say goodbye to both of his parents. What a peculiar feeling, he often mused to himself when he wasn't sighing. There had certainly been times where he felt he was destined to be an orphan. For a fleeting, few moments back when, he had even been certain that this was the case.

Now it was true. How very final is that?

The funeral of Charlie Morgan had been said and done weeks ago at that point. But James was struggling with letting go of more than just the print in his hold as he finally broke his attention away from that, giving me the briefest of looks and what he could manage of his own smile back before reaching for another, different one that was splayed out in front of his crossed knees.

Perching my bottom flat against the plush rug that his father once owned and now technically belonged to him, I was surprised when James spoke to me.

"I don't know what I'm going to do, Pikachu." He began and for half a second, I felt the flat of a palm press down between my ears. Then, like a whisper in the wind, it left me. Two ring clad hands instead clutched onto the white etched frame of a painting. "This all feels very weird." My own lips pressed together in another attempt of a sympathetic smile. James' mirrored by own before adding, a brave chuckle escaping from him as he let me know what was going through his mind. "I need to make a decision. I'll soon be in debt if I keep this place running but I'm not sure I wish to see the back of it. Peculiar."

Anyone who knew James like I did could easily understand why he chose to say this single word eventually. Looking at him and all of his family, really, they were hardly embarrassed about jogging on the weird side of the track! But I sympathised with him all the same.

There was a time in his life where if this has happened then he would have put the Morgan Mansion up for sale and not possessed another thought about it. An inheritance like that could sort his children's futures out for longer than his brain could even comprehend. But whatever this time was, it wasn't that one.

If James put the mansion on the market, then it wouldn't be just his memories going down the drain, but it would be his own children's memories too. Even his grandchildren's. When he was a child, he would have done anything to see the back of that place that was like a museum to some but was a prison to his young mind and body.

I wondered if that it was because he had been lucky enough to escape all that and make a name for himself in his own way that he was struggling to come to a decision. If the future had turned out bleak for him, there would have been no way he would have wanted to hold onto part of the thing that had set him up for failure. But he had lived a wonderful life full of lessons thus far. And even he couldn't deny that his tumultuous childhood had brought him the people that he considered his real family. Every one of them.

You'll know which path to take when you're presented with it, I finally broke my silence, telling James.

I was caught off guard for another occasion as James actually looked away from his eyes scanning the painting of the woman with not much on but a frown and surrounded by plants and greenery and he sent his gaze over to me. An invisible fishhook tugged at one of his eyebrows.

Since he had found his voice, he couldn't help but quip to my own response.

"Oh, will I?" James questioned, leaving my skipping heartbeat retreating up into my throat for a single second before both his tone and his hand fleetingly stroking the black tip of my ear reassured me that he hadn't found me impertinent. His next words tumbled out between a torrent of wind from his lips. "I'm not sure I knew my father well enough to know what he would have wanted me to do with all of this."

Rather than focusing on the fact that, from what I vividly remembered, Charlie hardly stopped himself from letting people know exactly what he thought (!), I couldn't help but notice the fact that James had reverted to calling him by the parental name all over again rather than his first name like he had slipped in and out of doing since becoming a father himself.

Funnily enough, I knew that this was not a new observation of mine and it certainly hadn't passed me by because when James stood up to give Charlie's eulogy with each of his two eldest son's on either side of him for support, he really had spoken of him as a son in his own right in spite of it all.

But still, for half a second it caused my heartrate to flutter at the tip of my bottom lip and I needed to bite it briefly to soothe it. James had lost more than just his other living parent when Charlie passed on. He had lost the chance to understand clearly whatever it was that his father actually thought of him. And whether he was worthy of being the only son of a Lord and a Lady after all.

I guess he would never know.

Of course, I didn't speak this to him. Instead, when I opened my mouth, I said: Don't rush into anything. You have time to decide.

He might have taken until he had switched another canvas into his hold before he found his answer, but it was clear that he actually thought of it rather promptly from the way that his brow furrowed together behind the thick lenses of his glasses.

"I have the gift of time." He agreed with me. I should have known that he was going to soon enough flip that on its head. His whole body turned to face me. "When you get to my age, it is a rarity so I should be thankful. But I can't help but think that maybe a deadline would be useful right about now." He shook his head at himself, thinking so much about his own words that they came across as a mumble before he finally groaned aloud, the painted print losing one companionable hand as it fell flat against his forehead with the smallest of thwacks. "If I sell this property then it's not just me who has to walk away from their memories. This place means a lot to a lot of people and I'm not sure I can make that decision for them."

In the same way that James thought about his words beforehand for a good couple of minutes before presenting them to me, my own words were simple enough when they popped into my brain like a comic magazine and their slogans. But I took my own time in saying them. I took my own time in saying these two words.

Ask them.

I knew immediately what James' counter response was going to be. He was hardly the most argumentative of souls but why, oh why, did he have to always point out a different perspective! I couldn't even be satisfied in my correctness when he pointed out that there were far too many people, some no longer in his life and some he hadn't spoken to in years, to go around asking how they felt about the decisions that he needed to make.

It wasn't like the time that he was about to ask Lynne to be his!

In the end, I intended to tell James to ask the people that he could quickly get a hold of. But in the end too, for some funny reason I couldn't get these words to escape out of my lips. Rather, I tilted my head on the one side and I surveyed the situation as James was plonked on the floor of a room that he had no doubt a lot of mixed feelings towards.

I can't be certain, but I almost feel like my silent message got sent out over to him and soon enough, his shoulders unclenched as much as they could manage to and James conceded, nodding, and adjusting his glasses with his spare hand.

Even he knew when a suggestion was reasonable, and a certain option was a very good bet. He realised as well as I did that while his reluctance to come to a concrete answer was the fact that he didn't have to make a decision so long as his own money didn't run out was a factor in his hesitance, but it was also because he didn't feel he had the right to turn his back on something that had been a part in lots of his loved ones lives, big or small.

James chose to stand up there and then, one particular canvas in his hold like it was a comfort blanket that he couldn't bear to be apart from, and he swanned his gaze over to the window and looked out at it over the cold and crisp morning with fresh knives of ice from the middle of the night before deciding to kiss the blades of grass for all to see.

And while he did that, as I slowly decided to approach the window as well as knowing I had fond memories of my own of frolicking through the large grounds of the Morgan Mansion, in the end I chose to look right at him – straight at his eyes that were looking everywhere outside rather than back at me – I knew that I was meant to be gazing there instead.

No sooner as I had come to this decision of my own, I was seemingly rewarded for it because my mind couldn't stop itself from strolling down the hallways of memories. And whether James was thinking these same things as me or not, I knew that I had to sit with them. I knew that I had to reflect. And I knew that one day I would have to try to really remember, and recount all of them.

Neither of us were wrong. The expanse of the Morgan Mansion had done wonders for some very happy beginnings and some rather tender middles too. No wonder it didn't feel right that, for the Morgan Mansion, something was coming to an end.

Or was it? Maybe we will let those fresh beginnings and those lovely middles decide what the end of the story will be.

The first tale that flickered through the corridors of both of our minds was one of those stories not meant to be shared. And it portrays one of the times when the house of Charlie and Johanna was not so vibrant and raucous – in fact, it was nearly the complete opposite of when those great balls of that couple were being held.

It was the middle of the night. And Justin hadn't been able to fall asleep. How on earth could he? How on earth could he when he knew that Eli was in the room next door and instead of clutching onto the narrow frame of his hips, he was grabbing onto his own pillow for something to do.

Because at the age of twenty-two, he was not quite the intuitive that I prided myself in being regardless of age, when he gave into his tossing and turning and pondering and yearning and decided to pad his feet along the great halls of the mansion as softly as he could, he quickly discovered that all of his ruminating had been for nothing.

Eli wasn't even in the room next door to him! But Justin could not relax back into his skin as he hadn't had to get himself so worked up into a desperate state after all. Immediately, a frown of concern puckered between his eyebrows and his lips appeared fuller than usual, worrying that something had happened, and his new lover was no longer under the same stars, let alone the same roof as him.

Running a hand through his delicately damp locks, he promptly reminded himself that that was foolish. And after he had got this worry out of the way, he had another, different thought to run with.

The man who was beginning to daze him more and more each day had taken a shine to the vast galleries within the home of his grandparents. If he knew Eli like he was beginning to know him, then he could be certain that the sensation of not quite receiving his fill had kept him up in similar ways to Justin and needed to find himself the satisfaction of going after what he wanted.

Justin had a smile that was bordering on a rookie wolf stalking nearer and nearer to his prey as he noted this within himself, at that point thinking that the both of them were etchings on the same playing card and how very exciting it all was. But most of all, he scurried along the hallways as silently as he could, making his way towards the gallery without alerting anybody else.

Not that there would have been any devastating effects anyway. All of the staff were on a summer break and with Johanna way unpicking some sort of mess that Charlie had got himself in regarding his work, it was only Justin's grandfather present. And he might have put on an act out of loyalty towards Eli and made out that he wanted to keep what was going on between them a secret too but – he couldn't help but wonder – would it be so bad if someone else knew…?

Yes, it would, he always tried to tell himself.

But in the hushed moments and even in the bolder ones too, when with nobody else around them and Eli so eagerly and devotedly took to discover all that was to discover when it came to Justin, he couldn't deny that he wanted to scream from the rooftops of how magical everything was.

Maybe it would have been more appropriate to scream along the gallery, hearing his giddy secret bouncing off all the frames and watching portraits come to life as they smiled because nothing was ever hidden from those kinds of entities. But even Justin managed not to do that either as he poked around the door frame of that same gallery and indeed located Eli, for half a moment watching him swan up and down the hall like a specter, his hand inadvertently twitching as if it had a mind of its own and was conducting an invisible orchestra.

In fact, his fingertips were probably playing to the non-existent music of his own voice as he inwardly had nothing to say other than awe of each and every piece that he was seeing. Of course, it was the utter caught off guard portrayal of Eli that made Justin unable to just stop and loiter after locating his lover, and he knew he needed to be right there with him, appreciating everything that he was appreciating because he desired nothing more than to be one of the same.

Justin didn't know how he was going to do it or how he did it, but he managed to sneak along the floorboards behind Eli with the stealth and grace of a preying feline and before Eli knew it and before Justin himself could relax into getting what he wanted, he was his lover's shadow. One that wrapped their arms around him, lips pressing along the trail of a neck that told him where to go and a flat stomach feeling the curve of a spine nestling into it.

"You weren't in bed." He whispered to Eli who, in spite of his wary nature and his solace in his own company and his own thoughts, did not exactly jump, out of fear of otherwise.

Instead, Justin wasn't given the pleasure of being granted his own way as two hands lightly removed his own ones from wrapping around Eli's middle and that same man rotated on his heels towards him.

Immediately, the younger of the two was wounded by the fact that his lover was not looking at him like he too was one of the many artefacts hanging in the gallery of Lord and Lady Morgan.

"You're not in bed now." Eli whispered back and because he did so with the beginnings of a smile curling up the corner of his lips, Justin decided to unclench and ignore his prior actions, trying to wrap his arms around him from the front now that he was positioned there. Eli put a stop to this too, shaking his head and trying to step out the way before Justin got other ideas. "Not now. Your grandfather could sneak up on us any minute like you did to me."

During the day, even I know that Justin would have often puckered his lips with remorse and promptly come out with some sort of apology, understanding that it was unfair to try and wrap Eli around his pinkie when he knew that they had both agreed to keep their blossoming dynamic away from prying eyes.

However, night-time often changed Justin Morgan. Whether it was the stars filling the sky and giving him the urge to write about the more private, intricate weavings of his heart or whether it made him far less reluctant to be anything other than himself when it came to Eli.

Eli watched through a slightly twitching pair of eyelashes as Justin's lips did appear rosier and fuller than usual but even, he didn't need a worded response to know that he was feeling less than pleased. He still got one though!

"I just wanted to see you, baby." Justin countered and it caused Eli's thick eyelashes to groove all over again but in a different way at the way that his mouth wrapped this pet name, savouring it all by himself as if he had received a mouthful of honey along with it.

You might have thought, from Justin's previous attitude and the way that Eli was reacting to it, that this word was completely intentional on the younger male's part. But he tells me that even he didn't overthink things at that point all too much and things just happened that way.

Regardless of what Eli might have been sceptical of, even he couldn't stop the whites of his eyes showing more prominently against the room that was lit only by the less than half moonlight and Justin's presence and darting from side to side in not just a way to check whether they were truly alone or not.

For once, Justin was none the wiser, but Eli's shoulders fell down a little closer to the rest of his body after he was done looking around. And while he didn't reach for Justin himself, even his lover at that point knew better than to try reaching for him a third time so he met him halfway in his own way.

A slight bout of wind escaped from Eli's parted lips and Justin watched as his hand raised towards the curls on top of his head pushing them backwards.

"Well then you could've waited for me." He pointed out, the curls at the top of his head seemingly the most important focal point of his attention until, causing a breath to quickly hitch in his throat; he obviously was comfortable that they were both alone because he couldn't stop himself from breaking some distance with Justin. "Think about how quickly I would have come knowing that you were there waiting for me."

I know Justin in the same way in which I know his father, so I possessed the knowledge that he preferred to label himself as driven rather than stubborn. However, a wave of nothing else but this less preferable word washed over Justin there and then, as, for a split second, he thought about proving a point to Eli by pulling away from him himself, showing that if there was a boss between the two of them then it certainly wasn't the Unovan male.

In the end, though, that glint in his eye from when he had initially padded out of his room occurred all over again as he understood that he should probably not let this sort of thing go to waste. For a heartbeat that felt like missing a step on a staircase, Justin fluttered his eyes shut and inhaled as if he was trying to snort Eli's presence into him as well as compose himself.

But then, Justin might not have chosen to give Eli a taste of his own medicine, but he decided to prove that just because he was younger it did not mean that he was subservient. He moved out of the way of his lover's silhouette but only with the intention to tilt his head on one side, goading him coyly.

Eli's head was immediately mirroring Justin's with his own incline, dilated pupils and quivering irises proving while not saying a thing that he was attentive to his every word straight away.

"And miss all of this?" replied Justin, unaware of the hitch that he caused in Eli's own throat, bobbing up and down from the way that he saw his hand wave towards him. But then it swanned upwards towards the silvery moonlight of the ceiling and all around him in every direction. He was teasing him. His next words made that perfectly clear. "Oh, Eli, you should have known that I would want to see my grandfather's gallery too. Show me your favourite piece."

And with that, Justin's hand stopped being almost a mockery of Eli's own one as he was alone and admiring the artwork and instead the side of his smallest finger nudged against his before he stood to his full height, deciding to commit fully to the teasing by walking away. He pretended to wander around the room, admiring all the pieces in the silvery light that the luminous less than third quarter in the sky was offering.

Or maybe he really was doing that. After all, appreciation for artwork was not merely a tactic for Eli to desire him more. He might have been a lot of things, but he was not shallow enough to be a phony when it came to matters of the heart – or urges of the body.

Eli tried to conceal it but, in the end, he couldn't stop the air that escaped the side of his mouth following these words and his head swinging from side to side too. In the end, even his own self that was a bit of a bull in a china shop in his own way couldn't deny Justin what he wanted. Even if what he wanted was to be educated with what he knew rather than dazzled by what he could do.

He made strides to catch up with Justin and then once he had, he decided to get the younger man's attention by doing more than brushing the side of his pinkie up against his. All he did was briefly slink his fingers around Justin's wrist before letting go. Yet it made Justin feel like his heart had been turned into an apple that quickly got lodged in his throat.

Rather than choking, however, he had to focus on listening. He spun around with Eli as the Unovan male pointed out a relic that was not too dissimilar from a life he had lived.

"You know this one was bought from the Nacrene City Museum in the Unova Region, don't you?" Eli posed, crouching down slightly in order to look at the silver name plate that hung below it to double check that his knowledge was correct. Justin had to focus on nodding rather than watching the way that Eli's hand grazed up and down the pillar of the podium lovingly, knowing that he couldn't touch the piece of art in front of him so had to make do.

Justin felt as if he could relate! His hand slid into the round collar of his own crisp white bed shirt and found himself massaging the back of his shoulder blade as he nodded. After Eli stood back up to his full height, his touch remained on himself as he wholly listened.

He heard about the seeming mask made from stone that had been discovered nearly at the dawn of time in the Unova Region and how, in spite of its likeness, it was no way a Yamask mask because all of the technology over the years had told them that it was otherwise. But what kind of other it was, scientists had argued about and never really come to a concrete conclusion.

Eli liked to believe that someone had tumbled so quickly down one of the sinking sand dunes in Desert Resort that they had fallen flat on their faces there and crashed so hard that their facial features were imprinted on stone for all of eternity. He liked to believe this even though there had never been any reports of other remains being left near it. In fact, nothing had been discovered within miles of where that peculiar relic had been discovered.

Justin could have nodded all over again as he listened, but the truth was, he couldn't do any of this because he had stopped listening. He might have been staring directly at Eli standing to his full height a good head below him with another slope of his neck but even the male who hailed from Unova himself could tell when the younger male was drifting away from the present.

He usually could tell what he was thinking but this time he couldn't. Well, it was usually the same thing in the presence of Eli anyway!

"What…?" Eli's voice asked, eventually trailing away from his story, and casually bedding his palms into his pyjama bottom pockets as he told Justin everything that he believed to be interesting. For half a second, he wondered if he could have possibly bored him, not quite into tears, but into a trance-like state.

That might have been possible from the fact that it took Justin a moment or two to come back to life! But after a couple of seconds, the blush that took a stand on Justin's cheeks that could even be revealed in the darkening light as the moon sunk behind a cloud deepened and nothing other than mischief pulled apart his mouth.

Justin grinned.

"I really like admiring what you've chosen to admire, and I so enjoyed hearing you telling me all of that." he began, and if anyone was savvy to detecting a but then it was Eli. He did not need to tilt his head on the one side to encourage Justin to get on with the truth of the matter. "But I would be lying if I said this right here wasn't the biggest piece of art that I was seeing."

And with that, Justin was wise to the fact that it was a bold move and there was a little bit of anxiety as well as adrenaline coursing through his veins as he wondered as if his next actions would make it seem like he was trying to shut Eli up.

He kind of was! But it was only in order to encourage his mouth into doing other things.

In the hushed centre of the gallery and against the silver, almost icy tone of the room, if Justin and Eli's auras had a hue then they would have been burning a brilliant red against the desaturated spectre all around them both.

Justin's fingertips of both hands fell to the face of Eli as they gently encouraged his head to slope in a different manner before his lips pressed against his, leaving it just as that straight away but then deepening it, pulling Eli ever closer to him when he felt him not repel away from him but instead melt, knowing that even his cursed heart wasn't strong enough to dispel the thudding in both his heart and Justin that was then making him feel so alive.

They were breathless when they pulled away from each other and Eli especially so, not that they really wanted to depart from each other though. Justin couldn't help even more of a bigger grin that was somehow more boyish when this moment was done and dusted, and as for Eli, a chuckle escaped from his lips and, as if to soothe himself, he ran a hand through his own hair that was quickly dampening like Justin's was.

In the end, he couldn't stop the words from tumbling out of his lips, addressing the words that Justin put forth before and putting it out of the younger male's mind that he could have brushed him the wrong way by basically shutting him up with a kiss.

I suppose that was the kindest way to get someone to stop talking when it was consensual!

"Justin Morgan, stop it…" he said to him, the corner of his mouth twitching and elevating and encouraging himself to look down at both of their feet to compose himself, that hand of his finding itself in his hair all over again because the previous bout of consolation hadn't quite done the trick.

From reading his stance, Justin could tell that he wasn't offended. But he knew that things could change as quickly as the weather in Kanto when it came to Eli, so he decided to make sure, breaking the distance with him in a different way and using his fingers to lift his face back up again but not with the intention for another kiss. That would surely come later!

Justin's hands clasped together in front of his own frame.

"I do really care about what you have to say and would like to hear more about what you know." Justin said, and Eli didn't have a choice about looking at him from the way that he had encouraged his gaze there. Even so, he didn't switch things up and decide to hide in the shadows again. He decided to hear Justin out. Again, he sensed the word but coming, even if it wasn't spoken aloud. "First, though I've got something pretty amazing to show you. And the room might not be as brilliant as this one, but it does give it a run for its money." It was Justin's turn to ramble. And it was Eli's turn to take every word in. And he did so with a head sloping towards Justin's eager one. "Okay, maybe it's equally as wonderful in its own way."

Justin didn't know it there and then, but there were a great many things about him that Eli couldn't resist and funnily enough, this was one of the reasons that he longed to hide in the shadows with him. He wanted that rambling mind, that enthusiasm and that eagerness all for himself.

Eli might not have spoken that on this day – he might not have spoken it truly on any of their days together – but it was this recognition within his own self that actually caused him to surge forward and take hold of more than Justin's wrist.

"I don't care what kind of room it is." Eli began, his tone of voice appearing like the kiss with Justin had sucked all the air out of his lungs and rendered him breathless in the best way. "Whatever kind of room is, it's my favourite one all over again because it will have you in it." Justin heard the second part of his words before he could frown at the first.

And before he could have all of his wits about him at all, Justin felt the sensation of Eli's touch drifting away and his fingers no longer entwining with his and began to notice that both of his hands had got to work. The drawstring of his pyjama bottoms had become untied!

Justin gasped aloud. However, it was him to cover his mouth with his own hand and look around, taking his turn to make sure that there was nobody else there. Eli left this paranoia to Justin this time, too busy fully smirking at the reaction that he had garnered from the younger male.

He watched him to attempt to not only compose himself but retract his words, the twinge in his neck as it sloped because he was trying to defend himself.

"It's not that kind of room and I'm not so bold to claim myself as a piece of art so you can stop yourself, Eli Williams." Justin tried to backtrack, but I do trust that he was telling the truth. And surely Eli did too from the words that tumbled across his lips for only his lover to hear as he couldn't help but put his hands on either side of his face, a thumb dipping into the crevice of his dimple. "Let's go. This is something that we don't want Grandad Charlie finding out about."

Justin had been doing such a good job in defending himself but now, not so much! But it didn't matter. And it didn't matter how this little story began because it was then the middle that was important. It didn't matter that Justin had snuck to Eli's room for the night and he had not been there. It didn't matter that he greeted him with affection, and it had been shut down.

It seemed that more than awe for all that was around him had melted into the eyes of Eli. Seeing yet another thing put them both on the same page at melted into the heart of Eli. For just a few minutes, he did not need to hide in the shadows. And so, when his hands stopped lulling on the face of Justin and he nodded in compliance before the younger male's hand slid into his all over again and for good, he did not dream of pushing him away.

Instead, their fingers were the companion of each other, and their palms didn't need introducing as Justin led Eli in the direction of the private room of Charlie just a few doors away from his bedroom. He hoped that he wouldn't be disappointed when the saw the CD and vinyl record collection as well as the posters. You never know, but how could he be? Whatever Justin revealed to him, Eli would have loved.

Beginnings are pretty wonderful, aren't they? But stories cannot possibly remain there. Our next one and another occasion that shot through James and I's minds perhaps at the same time takes place right during a middle. A bit of a tricky middle. Another one involving Justin. But one worth telling all the same. And in its own way, one worth treasuring too.

Before heading into the next room with his dinner plate in hand, Justin stopped, peering in through the glass and debating whether he should head in there or not. He hated that. God, he hated that. Things had never been that way when he was heading into where Katie was and the same vice versa.

Even when she was suffering in silence, or he had a mind whirling with far more aggravating thoughts than song ideas – it was never like that between them.

It's easy to say in hindsight and it's easy for even me to say in hindsight that he should've probably realised that because things had recently changed between them in such a way that he could've ever comprehended that he would take this new difference in his stride.

But Justin didn't.

He, however, knew that he had to not let anything stop him. And after a great deal of dithering, balancing his dinner plate furthermore in the one hand and risking sending gravy splattering down onto his pale jeans, he finally headed in.

Katie looked up slowly at the sound of the door swinging open, but silently indicating that she was not surprised that it was Justin who was entering, her collarbones didn't fall underneath her sweater and they didn't rise either. For half a second, she felt her tongue poking at her lower lip, and she wondered if she would be rendered mute if he spoke to her.

Or worse, maybe they had found each other so intimate recently that he had taken that trait not away from her but still partially from her and cat will have his tongue as well as her own one.

Of course, like a great many of these things, Katie didn't need to fret. In spite of his heart drumming in his ears and underneath his t-shirt he experienced a prickly heat, Justin portrayed a polite smile that made a dimple appear like a ripe segment of fruit upon his cheek.

"Would it be okay if I came and sat with you?" he asked, having to do the balancing game with his plate all over again as he decided to push a loose strand of hair that wasn't entirely bothersome from out of his eyes with his right hand. "It's kinda loud out there."

In the end, Katie was somewhat right because, for a fleeting moment, Justin did feel as though a feline had swiped his tongue after he said the second words. Composed as ever on the exterior, Justin cursed himself on the inside, finding himself entirely stupid for uttering a lie.

That sentence couldn't have been further from the truth.

But for a rare occasion, Katie didn't see right through him, and she certainly didn't hear his ruminating thoughts echoing through the chambers in his mind. She merely used all of her energy to make sure that she would be able to speak, trying to use the display of his dimple as a reassurance rather than something that sent the butterflies lying dormant inside of her stomach into a frenzy.

"Of course." She answered him, managing her own polite smile at the same time that lined etchings appeared on her face, between the bridge of her nose and just underneath her eye. Justin had hardly moved before she added. "I… I would really like that."

Justin none the wiser this time, it was Katie who kicked herself for adding words that she feared were much too revealing. But from his point of view, they were comforting, and he didn't hesitate to take his own Sunday dinner on a plate right next to Katie and her own one in order to eat in the pantry with her rather than anybody else.

If you took only the briefest glances at one of the pantries in the Morgan Manor, then you would notice how differently it was decorated than the rest of the household. Much like Charlie's own personal study, this room was filled with mostly brown future, from the cabinets to the cupboards to the small table lurking in the corner.

It possessed a much larger degree of simplicity, almost inspired by the farmhouse that Noah and Josie used to own and the household in which Charlie grew up.

There and then, Justin and Katie filled their vision in all that was around them and their plates down on the laminate flooring rather than each other. Apparently, the herbs and spices which sat on the counter tops as well as their root vegetable pie and mashed potato with gravy were far more enticing to look at than each other.

And yet, when Justin was looking down at the mashed potato that he had inadvertently whipped into a creamier consistency with his fork and was still poking at it, he couldn't have known for certain, but he was sure that he felt Katie's gaze flickering like butterfly wings as it found a pollen rich flower to nestle against before landing on his silhouette.

Then a few minutes later when Katie was filling her line of vision with the different jars of dried fruit on the counter top – apricots, prunes, dates and raisins – and she was pretending to kid herself that she was thinking of all the kinds of fruit loaves she could make with them, she could have sworn that Justin's line of vision was on her, taking her in.

She drew in her breath and couldn't help but wonder or perhaps even hope that he was studying the rising and the falling of her chest as well as the way that her collarbones and neck hollowed in unison. Katie almost believed that she might have been right when she took a chance by looking over at him and she met his familiar gaze.

She, however, told herself it was due to something different when his dimple appeared at her all over again like a winking creature of its own entity and he promptly had words for her.

"Did it make you anxious coming here today?" Justin asked, leaving the dip in between Katie's neck and her collarbone appearing even more out of habit like an empty puddle without water at the question. "Seeing me?" he added, his mouth gently slamming shut afterwards.

Habitually, Katie's breath had ditched in her throat at such a question and then, as the hairs underneath her sweater sleeves started to dismantle, she began to realise that this question coming from him didn't make her feel under a spotlight at all. She didn't feel uneasy in the slightest.

She might've taken a moment or two to answer, stretching her legs outwards and accidently sending them closer to Justin's own ones in his pale blue jeans, but she did know how to answer him.

Katie's expression appearing like a crumpled, well-loved white shirt at the end of a pleasant day, her own dimples made an appearance as the corners of her nose crinkled all over again, shaking her head.

"It wasn't the idea of seeing you that made me apprehensive. It was… It was the thought of everybody else and what they might think." She articulated her words and Justin slowly nodded his head up and down, managing to glance over at her in between whipping the unwanted mash potato on his plate up into a pointed shape like a volcano. "What people might say if we were quiet with each other. Or worse, what they would say if we chatted."

Justin nodded his head more and more, but it didn't quicken in pace. He knew very well the kinds of things that people might say, especially when they realised that he had snuck away from the long dinner table with everybody else in the main dining hall of the Morgan Manor in order to find Katie.

That was why he had left as stealthily as he could.

He didn't find it appropriate there and then to fully smile. That was the reason his own features bunched together as one of his feet pressed against the ground, so he could wrap both of his arms around his bony knee while his other leg was stretched out towards Katie, as one of hers was towards him.

"I tried to get out of it today too." Justin confessed himself, understanding what she was admitting. After a couple of moments, he realised that Katie had long since discarded her plate of food as well and they had left similar amounts on their plates. He decided that there was no time like the present. Now that he wasn't under any watchful eyes, he could be like himself again, like he always was with Katie. "Do you want to follow me somewhere?" he might have been away from the studious eyes of anybody else but that didn't stop their silent voices nagging in his ear, encouraging him to correct his words with a flash of a smile too. "I hear my grandfather has had a bit of a switch around in his gallery."

And with that, Justin decided to, whether Katie joined him or not, press his other foot down against the ground in order to stand up, leaving his dinner plate there. He didn't quite have the nerve to reach his hand out to the younger girl, but he met this wishful gesture halfway and ran another hand through his locks that were beginning to traipse down his neck for the first time in years.

Katie's gaze followed him up, trying to effortlessly focus on his face but taking a long time going up his legs and not just because of the sheer length of them. For half a moment, she was certain she was going to stammer a response, not that she knew what her response was going to be. She knew what she wanted. But like Justin, she wasn't unaware of the kinds of things that people might say if they were found and sadly, most of it were out of the mouths of relatives.

Her head twitched subtly from side to side to silence this wordless nagging in her mind, certainly not to dismiss Justin. She then showed what her answer was going to be by leaving her own plate left behind alongside his and standing up alongside him.

Justin's dimple beamed back at her from the second that her head bobbed up and down.

"That would be lovely." She spoke. And with that, Justin's hands fell into the pockets of his jeans and hers sought refuge in the pockets of her skirt but the two of them could kid themselves that this same gesture as they followed after each other was the two of them holding hands.

Katie had no qualms about following Justin if she went with what she wanted rather than living up to the expectations of what other people might have had for her. You see, it wasn't exactly unusual for them to find each other in this position and truthfully, she would have followed him to the ends of the earth if he had led her there.

Everything was the opposite of exciting when she was in his presence. It's not that things were dull because that definitely wasn't the case. It was just… easy. And for someone who woke up with the tickling of nerves in her stomach for sometimes no apparent reason, it really was just so nice to be around someone who felt like a familiar cardigan.

Following Justin into the gallery room of Charlie Morgan, Katie tried not to look down at her grey sweater which they both knew belonged to him. Ignore it she might have tried to do, but every time she inhaled, she could not ignore the distant scent of the aromas that had clung to Justin the last time that he had worn it, before he had handed it over to her.

Had she really been that brazen to wear it to a Sunday lunch where everyone would be, disapproving or not, and where she didn't know what she wanted to take place with Justin if she managed to bump into him?

Apparently, she had. But thankfully, she could not ruminate too much on this because they had arrived where Justin wanted to show her the new arrangements and when he turned on his heels towards her and offered her another smile, she felt that awfully familiar feeling like she was falling down from a cliff and being caught at the same time.

"I bet your observational self could point out all that is different about this room." Justin began, his hands fixed in his jean's pockets for a few moments more before they slid out, his shoulders appearing very narrow and taut in the second before. "What do you think about what he's done to the place?"

It always made Katie's skin crawl to be asked question after question but when it came to Justin, she didn't mind it so much and not only because she usually had answers for him. Getting over the smile that he had only just given her, she went partially against what she wanted and moved forward and away from Justin, getting a head start looking around the room.

Immediately her neck craned, appreciating the way that that chandelier that was always in the centre of the ceiling glittered and danced in the early autumnal light that they were experiencing on that Sunday and tracing her eyes along the coving that joined the ceiling to the walls. The architecture was beautiful. But that's not why they were there!

Katie scanned her eyes along the various art prints that clung to every inch of the wall, immediately noticing a thing or two that was vastly different and so, she bobbed her head up and down as the answer to Justin's point. But she had words to say because he had asked her that question that hadn't made her skin itch in the slightest.

"It's lovely. It feels very fresh in here." She complimented like Justin was the one who had chosen to give the room a new lease of life and the light from the chandelier ricocheted off the jewels and bounced into the irises of Justin as if he were choosing to accept the flattery on his grandfather's behalf. "Oh, I could just be in here for hours."

And with that, she inhaled such a deep bout of breath without self-consciousness that she could smell far more than the lingering aroma of Justin clinging to her body and what she had chosen to wear. To her, it smelt like the past inspiring new ideas and putting one foot in front of the other and having a complete leap of faith.

To Katie, she always enjoyed the artwork, but it was the essence that she truly appreciated so very much. If she closed her eyes – not that she did at that point – then she would still feel the same exact way about being there.

Justin seemed to understand. He was then back in front of her again, walking past a Desert Resort relic on a podium without so much as a graze of a fingertip reaching out towards the name plate and instead directing his strides towards one painting in particular on the far end of the wall, right near the double doors leading to a different room.

"Do you have a favourite in here?" he asked, for a brief moment looking past his narrow shoulder back at Katie viewing the rest of the vast wall from behind him before facing ahead all over again. His hands being in his pockets were a thing of the past and Katie knew where he was gesturing to from the second that those two hands of his cupped in front of the abstract artwork. "I like this one. It's so blue and grey and dreary and messy. I just can't make it out at all, and I love it for that."

Katie felt the same way about how Justin asked her a question before rambling himself. Some might have thought it was impolite, that he was only asking her something to appear interested while really wanting to find an excuse to talk of his own opinions. But she knew better. She knew that this increased the likelihood of finding her own passion. And it wasn't a game to Justin either. It was just him.

She knew that she shouldn't feel so drawn to him. After decisions that they had made recently as well as the ones that had led to them growing intertwined in his hotel room, she should turn around and focus on where her heart was telling her towards which it should probably move. But it wasn't something that Katie could easily ignore. Not now that she realised that these feelings had been there almost as long as she remembered.

In spite of what else was roaming through her mind, Katie smiled at the words that Justin had spoken and as well as this, she found herself stopping right behind him, resting her chin down on his shoulder and nestling there as she looked at the artwork as well.

She felt his narrow chest draw outwards. She told herself he wanted to be closer to the painting. She told herself this before her mouth allowed out another truth of her own.

"The painting looks like you." Katie observed, her hands not knowing what to do as they hung about her sides, not wanting to be suffocated by the insides of her own pockets but knowing that she couldn't wrap her arms around Justin from behind either.

Not yet anyway. She had to be truly sure about hinting towards that path again.

Justin made it almost easier for her when he moved away from her contact briefly in order to turn around to face her, his expression quizzical on his face as he wondered what on earth, she could have possibly meant by that. He questioned her of such.

"Are you saying I'm a bit scrambled?" he wondered. He then showed his lack of offence before Katie could even shake her head, moving back in front of her and then stepping backwards, encouraging her to rest her chin on his shoulder all over again. She complied. "I suppose I do have a hard time making my mind up what kind of direction I wish to go in." While Justin confessed, inadvertently, he found his arms moving behind him towards Katie and reaching for her hands. Soon enough, Katie had taken this as a hint and didn't shrug it off as Justin wrapped her arms around his frame, playing with her digits rather than his own ones as he thought some more. "I too can't decide if I'm up or down or left or right or everything in between."

For a brief moment, their hands broke away from each other as Justin pointed back towards the painting which was garnering their full attention. But soon enough, their digits were interlocked all over again and Justin could feel Katie's side plait swooshing from side to side even if it took her a good couple of moments before she found her voice again.

As she did, her mouth pressed down against Justin's shoulder for comfort as well as her chin, knowing that he wouldn't mind in the slightest if she left the smallest smear of make up there long after she was gone.

"I didn't mean any of that. More…" Katie may have found her voice eventually but when it came to saying the words, for half a heartbeat she didn't know how to. But then she decided just to sigh and go with however they came out, half mumbled against the material of Justin's shirt. "People are oftentimes wrong about you. They think you're a certain way. But you're not. You're the opposite."

Katie could've sworn that she felt Justin's chest deflate inwards as her arms continually wrapped around him and he encouraged them to do so. She prayed that she was incorrect. For a moment as her eyes fluttered shut against him, she prayed that she wasn't right.

She knew that truth was always the best option but that didn't mean that it couldn't wound. And she knew that it was better to be honest than say nothing at all. But then she wondered if maybe she shouldn't have said any of that.

Katie's eyes fluttered back open to the sensation of Justin leaning backwards against her, holding her hands even more fervently in his own hold while being the gentlest of grips. He let out the sigh from his lungs that had just taken in before he spoke his own words.

He didn't seem offended. But you could never be too careful with Justin.

"I see." He answered with a smile that couldn't be noticed because Katie was still lingering behind him. And because it was these words that he had decided to say, Katie decided to stop lulling behind him and moved to the side of him instead, her arm hooking with his so they could still have some contact.

She wasn't sure if she could ever let go. But she was sure that she could speak her mind better this time around.

"I see you too." Katie believed that she spoke clumsily but even if it was, it got Justin's attention and his neck sloped, inclining towards her as he listened. She encouraged those butterflies set free inside her again to be her strength rather than her weakness. "No matter what other people think. No matter what you think of yourself and how scrambled you worry you are." Katie paused. Justin tried not to inhale obviously for another time. "I see you. Always have done. How brilliant you can always choose to be."

Justin might have hidden his inhale at that point but when it needed to escape from him all over again after he heard these words, he couldn't stop himself from letting it out with gusto as his eyes shifted from side to side, unable to hide the quality that took over in his irises as well as the warmth to his skin tone that was if somebody had turned on a chandelier inside of him.

He looked down at his feet as his smile could not be swallowed back but it somehow made Katie see more of him. It was her turn to tilt her head as her hand remained in the crook of his arm and she watched him, waiting, and wondering what he was going to do.

She could have never predicted what was coming. Justin himself couldn't have at all because he didn't know until the last moment. He didn't know until he had cooled down his cheeks enough and composed himself up against the sweetness of her words and he was looking back at her, that ring clad finger of his reaching out to tuck back behind her ear a piece of hair that had escaped.

Not that he believed it ever needed fixing. He just wanted to be near her. He needed to be nearer. And that would be more and more apparent as he uttered his next words as earnestly as he possibly could.

He still squirmed at the idea of brushing any invisible spectators the wrong way.

"Do you want to find somewhere else to go with me, Katie?" he asked and for a single second, her own cheeks were being stung by a welcomed blush at the way that her name sounded as a gift from him so she hardly could remember what else that he had said. Justin unhooked her hand from his arm in order to clasp it in his single right one, only for a split-second glancing backwards where he knew those double doors lead. "I wish to show you that there is one thing I can make my mind up about."

And with that, for a fleeting second Katie could focus on the almost boyish flash of teeth from Justin before they were concealed by his lips and those lips of his pressed against the top of her hand that was being held within just one of his.

A blush traipsing like ivy up Katie's neck appeared and for a single ticking of the grandfather clock in another corner of the room, she thought – no, she believed that she knew – that there was no way that she could ever find her voice again if Justin kept up those kinds of words!

And she was partially right. Katie didn't know how to say yes with words because all of her words were scrambled even if that word appeared like a flashing light in front of her mind. But fortunately, she knew of another way that often went down pretty well when it came to Justin.

Katie decided that the kiss planted on top of her hand was equally enough as it wasn't enough in the same shuddered breath. Looking back into Justin's eyes, she showed off her own smile and before either of them knew it, just one of her hands was in the back of his growing hair and her lips had found his, saying everything that she needed to say in a single gesture.

It wasn't the grandest of kisses. Those were surely to come! But it was a kiss that meant a lot. It was a kiss that said even more.

And Justin tried to conceal it, but he was practically giddy when she pulled away from him all over again, his shy giggles conveying of such. But then he got a whole lot more serious. His hand intertwined with Katie's, and he held it tight. She felt a tugging on her wrist, and she knew that she didn't care where she was being led to, but she simply wanted to go.

She really would follow Justin to the ends of the earth if he wanted her to. But that was the great thing. He would never ask her to do that. You see, he was quite content to let her roam where she needed to go and him do the same and for them to meet where they were destined to find each other.

But on that day, there was a clear idea in mind even if everything didn't go according to plan after that.

But life never does, does it? That was one of the reasons that James was sitting on the floor in his passed-on father's study and mulling what on earth he was going to do with the property that both of his parents had left behind.

And life going beautifully unexpectedly is a highlight of one final tale. It is most recent of the bunch. And one I vaguely remember now that I do think about it too. Not that I wasn't completely naïve to it at the time!

Jorginho had been going around in circles as he tried to find his way back to the dining hall with everybody else. Eventually, with a little bit of a rumpled appearance due to just how long he had been trying to find his way back from the bathroom, he landed in a vast room with a chandelier hanging low and with the finest prints he had ever seen in a location that was not in an art gallery.

Rather than breathing out words of awe at the artefacts that he could fill his vision with, Jorginho couldn't stop himself from speaking with the woman who possessed hair the same shade as the centre of the flower which gave her name.

He wondered if she was in a similar boat to him.

"This isn't the bathroom, by the way." he began courteously at first, it not falling on his deep and studious eyes how the woman's shoulders gently twitched as she was no longer alone with her thoughts, turning around to face the voice. "I wouldn't recommend going in here."

Jorginho added, not usually needing a reason to be playful but he wanted to give her a reason not to need to twitch her shoulders a second time, his expression quickly beaming as if he himself was the chandelier that hung gorgeously for all to behold.

For half a second, Daisy studied the creases in the corner of his eyes and the way that his mouth naturally stretched wide with merriment. His smile sure was infectious. And it was this as well as his words that finally caused her to giggle herself, not feeling the need to wave a delicate hand in front of her own mouth to supress them.

She spoke back to Jorginho and as she did, her voice sounded like climbing into fresh, fragrant bed sheets after a very long day at work.

"I could say the same thing to you." Daisy responded, showing her good humour as well as her observant nature by understanding that he too had been lost in the maze that was the Morgan Manor on his way back from the bathroom.

Her gaze briefly dropped down to the slightly damp edges of his casual long-sleeved shirt, telling her everything that she needed to know and the kind from which he had indeed come. He smelled like hand soap.

Jorginho's eyes looked Daisy up and down from behind his thick rimmed glasses, but it wasn't in a way that made her feel like a creature under a magnifying glass. If his persistent look had brushed her the wrong way, however, he was quick to make more conversation.

He moved closer to her, away from the intricate vase on the podium that he had only just been pointing to.

"It's Daisy, right?" the tip of his pointer finger broke the distance with her as well before soon disappearing down to his side with his other hand doing the same, showing an incline in his neck while he waited for confirmation.

He may have managed not to say that he couldn't have possibly dreamed of forgetting after both Misty and James had introduced them across the veritable feast in which they had all been having but the way that his mouth puckered together less central to his face and his dark eyes possessed the beginnings of a diamond gave this little bit of knowledge away that Daisy's intuitive self just might have cottoned onto.

Seemingly, though, she did not. And she merely bobbed her head daintily before playing with the longest parts of her bangs.

"It is." She confirmed, not smiling with her mouth but her tone of voice sounding like this friendly gesture all the same. "And you're Jorginho, right?" she copied his speech pattern without thinking and he nodded his head. It was then her turn to take a step forward and her pointer finger to have a mind of its own. "I am saying that right, aren't I? You can tell me if I'm not. It's the worst when people do that."

If anybody had been observing this casual scene, then they might have believed that it wasn't possible for Jorginho's – pronounced as if both the j and the g in his name belonged to the g in mirage - expression to beam as much as when he made a little joke. But in the seconds after Daisy asked this question, he came alive in a whole new way, his lingering eyes dancing around behind his glasses and his smile stretching wider than ever before.

This was Jorginho becoming a puddle. For a man with such a formidable presence even if his stature wasn't hugely impressive, he wasn't shy about being his true self.

Two strong hands clasped in front of a broad chest.

"You are saying it right. Perfect. Thank you." His head grooved from side to side as he spoke his gratitude. He didn't then understand why Daisy was being so understanding but he was thankful all the same. Agreeing words came next after his knuckles stopped their union. "It is a bit of a bummer, isn't it?"

Daisy nodded. She didn't exactly mean to break the distance with Jorginho after this interaction and she truthfully didn't want to, but she did, anyway, turning her body half away all over again in order to cast her eyes back onto the artefacts clinging to every inch of the vast white walls.

But then, as she felt Jorginho's thick rimmed glasses following her rather than everything else where was to see for the time being, she looked back to him. Her smile wasn't uneasy. It was comfortable and warm.

"You seem to know James pretty well, do you?" she asked. Privately, her bangs hanging around her eyes moved as they blinked once or twice, inwardly reminding herself that he wouldn't have invited him to his family's weekly Sunday dinner at Charlie's mansion if this hadn't been the case. "Do you go way back?"

Jorginho's chest seemed to broaden as he took the inhale in which he deemed necessary and then he let it go, giving himself a bit of a break from looking at Daisy in a manner that he meant no harm by. He loitered back close to the vase that he had just made a joke about, standing behind it this time and speaking back to her over it.

His answer came honestly because there was no reason for anything else back.

"Mmm, I used to know him very well when we were quite young. In our twenties or so. And then we lost contact for a very long time." Jorginho might not have possessed the urge to hold other things back, but he swallowed for a second rather than spilling that there had been a great amount of people he had lost contact with over the years for various reasons. "But now we know each other again. Because of Sammy. Do you know my baby brother?"

Daisy listened from the other side of the vase, taking it all in until it was her turn to react. When she did, she flashed Jorginho a smile of her own which promptly encouraged him to show off his dimples in return.

She needed a second or two then! But fortunately, she was able to function as though it was because she was contemplating. She did know his younger brother, Sammy, not extremely well because Justin was usually hanging around with her own sibling, Misty, if the three of them had crossed paths but she had certainly had a few conversations with him.

The image of his thick dark hair and warm skin with tattoos and piercings and a leather jacket either draped on him or the seat that he was perching on filled Daisy's mind. Then she couldn't help but set words of her own free, the nod of her head dying down and, in its place, showing a countenance that was like an artist studying a muse before they were interpreted in a very visionary way.

"I know him. You two aren't very alike." She commented, her head still seeing Jorginho on the one side and studying him. For a few movements of the grandfather clock hand, she hadn't felt uneasy under his watchful eye, but she was feeling very in control now that it was reversed. But then that jelly-like feeling came back as Jorginho adjusted his glasses on the bridge of his strongly sculpted nose. "Is that fair to say? I mean to look at, anyway. But you probably know better than me."

Jorginho had half an urge to disagree that she probably knew better than anyone, but he managed to hold it back, the deep rich orbs of his eyes swanning towards the swirling pattern on the ceiling which was a masterpiece in its own right as he considered.

Daisy's tongue traced over her lower lip as those brown eyes appeared more aflame like hues of autumn as the light of the chandelier bounced off them before she realised that she had better stop. She had only just applied a fresh coat of gloss before heading back from a different bathroom herself.

Jorginho looked away as his considerations came to an end, his wide shoulders bobbing up and down. His arms then folded over his chest contemplatively which only seemed to give his stature more breadth.

"We were born in different regions and it's only our mother that we share." He informed her, adjusting his glasses even if he didn't need to at the word only which came not long before mother. That was strange from him because now that the truth had been set free regarding, he and Sammy's relation, he didn't usually water it down. "Maybe you need to stare a little longer to see the likeness." Daisy probably didn't need encouraging! She didn't follow his instructions there and then, though, instead listening as his voice went through her as it deepened, speaking more seriously. "We are very alike on the inside, I have to say."

Daisy didn't hold her head back from nodding. She was no longer on the other side of Jorginho with the vase on the podium between them as he had come round to stand with her all over again, his arms relaxing away from his chest once he was standing by her side.

Him being there encouraged her to turn her own body towards him, tilting her head back and smiling relatedly. This time around, she spoke of the reason for her empathetic countenance, telling Jorginho with words why she could understand him.

"It's a bit like that with me and all my sisters. We all have our different appearances, but we've been through the same stuff that binds us." Daisy said and Jorginho hadn't even addressed this kind of thing verbally, but it was clear that they really were on the same page. He nodded empathically. "It's nice to have people close like that. Even if they do drive you insane!"

You might have thought that Jorginho would nod all the more determinedly upon hearing this, his smile stretching wide all over again as he knew just how much Sammy really did drive him crazy some of the time!

However, rather than focusing on this, Jorginho might have had a smile gracing his lips, but it was a close mouthed one this time, which caused the beard etching over his chin and cheeks to twitch and his dimple to appear furthermore. He could've laughed at how much Daisy seemed to understand. But something else washed over him instead.

He had been privately delighted when he had run into her on the way back from the bathroom.

What a gorgeous woman she was, he had thought to himself as he watched her move away from the Sunday dinner table. Now it was clear that the two of them could really talk to each other and he loved that.

It was this that encouraged his own body to mirror Daisy's turning around to face her, speaking to her all over again by not holding back from having another turn in dropping his gaze from the tip of her toes in her sandals to her eyes which contained far more soul in a person than he had seen for a long time.

"May I say that you're very beautiful?" he asked her, that smile of his stretching wider once more, but it was his eyes that offered the fully blooming appearance of his honesty. Before Daisy had a chance to answer, her cheeks warming to the hue of a different flower rather than the one she was named after, he didn't refrain from talking more. "I couldn't help but notice you from the minute you walked in the room to join everyone."

Daisy's heart lurched as well as the pit of her stomach. She didn't realise that she could feel that way at her age and so strongly too. Furthermore, she never would have expected that she had caught his eye upon entry in the same way that she had focused on him, unable to steer her eyes away from the tall and dark stranger.

She longed to say thank you and she did in her own way, rather than speaking these exact words. Their bodies had fully turned towards each other now that their interaction was growing intimate and because of this, it was easier for Daisy to move right in front of him. Jorginho watched, then reacting as while her hands thoughtfully moved to the open collar of his brown cotton long sleeve shirt, smoothing the ruggedness down, she decided to almost tease him of all things.

"You walked into a masterpiece of a house and yet it was me that you decided to focus on?" she humoured him with a blush, feeling her heart rate moving from her hollow chest to her cheeks when she heard the deep mm noise coming from Jorginho. "I'm flattered."

Jorginho could tell that she was. That was melting him in a way that he had never experienced before. Sure, he wasn't hesitant about showing off his true nature for everybody to see, not shy about surprising people that such a man with a job that put his life on the line far more than once embraced everything that was soft and gentle in life.

But letting people get close to him? Really close to him? Really knowing him? That's where things got kind of tricky.

But then there was Daisy in front of him. He could see right through her. He knew she could see right through him. It was scaring him. But in a way that made him want to dive in rather than run away. She could see right through him. And it made him see through himself. He knew what he wanted.

She had been gently teasing him by playing with the collar of his shirt but by not allowing her fingers to touch the bare skin that poked out from between then. Jorginho decided that she might hold back going for what she wanted but he wasn't going to.

He smiled and creases appeared at the corner of his kind eyes all over again. He asked Daisy a question.

"Can I kiss you?" Jorginho asked her, knowing within himself that he wanted to ask her that from the moment that he first laid eyes upon her but had restrained himself in a gentlemanly fashion.

He was glad that he had put it off. Now he knew that the attraction was for her presence and her disposition as well as what he saw. He knew what he wanted. But he was ready to walk away with integrity if he was shown the door. One thing that he had gotten used to in life was things not always going to plan.

Daisy's cheeks didn't sting upon hearing this as you would have thought and her hands moved away from playing with Jorginho's collar, her flat palms sliding down his covered chest and causing him to want to roll his eyes towards the ceiling, but he managed to keep his gaze in control and focused.

She might have showed the words thank you in a different way than verbally, but Daisy consented to Jorginho and his yearning actions with the word that flashed in the forefront of her mind. He hoped that he wasn't mistaken that the answer he hoped was coming when delicate hands went to two shoulders that felt like perfectly round boulders.

"Yes." She told him and in that single second, the gentlemanly countenance that Jorginho was portraying didn't exactly disappear, but he had been given permission to show off another side of him. Jorginho was about to be given what he wished but instead of feeling victorious over this, the adrenaline that surged through him was the desire to hold onto something that had been so very hard to find during the other years of his life.

Jorginho didn't hold back. With Daisy's hands now firm in permission and awaiting on his shoulders, his hands soon enough cupped to the sides of the face of the person that he was quickly becoming more and more thankful that had been set on his path and his own face leaned in towards her.

Daisy's eyes fluttered shut from the moment that he broke the distance with her, and her breath hitched in her throat from the second that his nose momentarily grazed against hers, let alone when he kissed her in the way that he kissed her.

It may be a cliché but it's true what they say when the earth appears to slow down in a moment of intimacy. Daisy felt as if it was only her and Jorginho on the entire planet which was wonderful, but it was even more spectacular for him to feel the exact same way because he had been to almost every corner of all of the regions. He knew how limitless it was.

And yet, now, it had slowed down just for him. It had slowed down just for him and Daisy. They both enjoyed every sensation as their lips didn't draw apart from each other for quite some time. Her hands had run down his chest all over again, then up to his tousled locks and then even the sides of his own face. His hands had left her hands after a couple of seconds, dropping down to trace the bones in her hips before both arms of his crossed over her back, pulling her nearer.

They felt nearer to each other than they had felt about each other right up until they pulled away for air. Daisy felt as though she was going to surely faint when they did, especially how Jorginho became the sunshine for her blossoming flower in the immediate second that they departed!

Swallowing, she needed to catch her breath. Then, after she caught more than this and caught hold of the words that she knew she needed to say, she didn't bother to hold them back.

All over again, Daisy found her hands roaming through Jorginho's hair, preparing to pull him closer. She found herself asking him a question this time.

"Can I ask you something that, I promise you, I have never asked someone that I've just met before?" she wondered aloud, for a second wondering if she had gone too far and that this statement would scare him away, him deciding that it was all too intense and he was actually far too busy and none of this was what he needed in his life at all.

But then, in the same way in which it had appeared after a joke and in the same way that it had presented itself with gratitude after a name being spoken correctly, the smile that washed over Jorginho's face there and then told Daisy everything that she needed to know.

In that beautifully genuine smile that she was gradually getting to know more and more about – and how he did actually share it a little bit with his little brother – she knew that she didn't need to be concerned. Nothing was ever too much for Jorginho and it was never going to be. Especially not when it came to her.

There was something so precious about someone who wasn't all that certain in love. For some reason, they possessed little boundaries and were eager to learn and eager to do. Jorginho was no exception. And, naturally, when it came to Daisy there would soon be nothing that he would not do, nothing he would not say no to!

Jorginho leaned back in towards her after her question and answered it in this way, brushing his nose against hers all over again as well as his lips, even if he did speak a single word back to her too. And we all know what that word was!

James knew what that word obviously was too. He learned about this story later on that same day. I learned of it after a couple of weeks! Nevertheless, it was the last tale that was in both of our minds as James felt that he needed to make a decision about his father's property.

But how could he? Now that he had thought about all of these things, he was even less certain, and he was inwardly kicking himself for that. Every single story was like a movie, and we had both pictured them exactly as such. And there were so many more, ones we had been a part of, ones we had known, and even ones we couldn't possibly fathom.

Charlie and Johanna getting the keys for the very manor for the first time. Them bursting in through the doors together as newly spouses. Little James' first steps on the great reception floors. Noah and Josie popping over to help in the garden. When Ash, Misty, Brock, and I visited for the first time and Growlithe had busted out of the doors of his own property within the manor.

Like we pictured in our minds, great romances had begun there, but other great dynamics had been solidified there too.

A cleaner who hadn't had the greatest string of luck in employment being happy with a long-term job there. A lonesome boy meeting one of his first few friends. A distant grandfather getting to meet his first ever grandchildren. Two brothers becoming closer as they had been once before because of a discussion at the bottom of the steep steps. A son maybe not feeling like that house was his home anymore, but it was still something to him.

His parents were still at least something to him, whether they were troublesome or a lesson.

Each and every moment was cinematic. And the house deserved to be preserved in such a way.

Ping.

There it was. An idea popped into my mind. I quickly looked over at James and I knew that he was looking back over at me because he had discovered the same one too. Oh yes! There it was. There was that look. The look that writer's get on the cusp of formulating a brilliant idea or when an artist discovers their new muse. That look in which directors show before they yell action ahead of a brilliant shoot.

A decision was close to being made. I had been right. It had presented itself when it wanted to make itself known and when and only when other lessons had been achieved.

I watched the corner of James' lips quirk upwards for the first time in quite a long while. Because of that, I hopped onto his lap. And because of words that he had said before flashed into my mind, I told these ones back to him.

A smiled up at him, feeling like a movie star in my own right.

You know your father more than you thought you did. Yes, James, that is exactly what he would've wanted.

He could see it now and I could too. The estate being rented out not to live inside but for camera crews to set up there and to tell many more stories with that house as a backdrop for years to come. That household had been presented with movie script tale after tale and now was its turn to do that to its full potential.

It was bittersweet that a household in which James felt so little love within growing up had been a catalyst for a great number of love stories which had taken place. But that was in the past, wasn't it? Now, only the future mattered. The future where all of those many walls and ceilings and acres of land were going to be appreciated in a whole new way.

I knew I was exactly right. It was so what Charlie would have wanted. Johanna too. And now, it was what James wished for too. A cycle had ended. A new one was beginning. Cue the cameras! A whole bunch of reels are needed for whatever will come next.

The End.

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There you go! Thanks so much for reading and I hope you enjoyed :) I feel like this may be a long author's note as this story certainly contains a lot! We see James facing a big decision, and it's while he is processing that that we learn about three very different tales. For Justin and Eli's segment, it was so fun to tackle their more hidden section of their relationship. I have to say, it was weird for me to call him "Eli" again as this takes place before it's known that it his real name is "Elijah"! And it certainly felt unusual having Justin not call him that either because, for all of their connection here, that is an intimate moment yet to come. Katie and Justin's section too really filled me with joy to write. I think they are so charming together, and always love the lessons they learn through their romance. And then there is Jorginho and Daisy's blossoming romance! They are the reason I am uploading this today, to be honest. I was meant to upload quite a revealing, different chapter focusing on Jorginho, but I decided that that secret isn't ready to be revealed yet, and another insight to his character is needed before we flip that on its head in the New Year :P I love his relationship with Daisy. It's fun to see people find true love even in their nearly 50s! :3 Thanks again for reading and I will be back on the 28th with Letters That Changed Everything - and then it will be PokeShipping Month for my other two stories in November commencing on the 2nd! See you soon :)

Amy signing out!