Hello, it is Wednesday and I am back with a new chapter! This is a story I didn't think that I would write. It's safe to say we know the character of Jorginho, Sammy's older half-brother and friend of the Team Rocket Trio very well at this point thanks to my brain really wanting to focus on his story at the moment! We know that he really is very close with the TRio, has a child he is estranged from, ends up being Misty's brother-in-law thanks to him marrying her sister, Daisy, and how before meeting her at the age of nearly 49, he was very much a lone wolf in terms of romance, going from unserious fling to fling most of his life. Here we see him, with the help of James, back in the days of Team Rocket, tackle something very personal. It's very on the nose and I never thought I would want to tackle all this in such a way. But it felt right. So, I hope you enjoy :)

The distant sound of the various thumping and chattering noises of the ongoing party became the last thing James was aware of as he focused on being sat with his spine pressed up against the dormitory door and with his guitar pressed against his thigh, embraced in a union.

Rather than wondering what sort of music that almost everybody else in Team Rocket was enjoying, James was practicing making his own, his tongue poking out between parted lips and his eyebrows plaiting together as his left hand moved up and down the fretboard, the right plucking and the tune licking like a feline.

If he had been surrounded by everybody else then his lips would have been pressed into a nonchalant line but because he was alone, as his tongue continued to reveal itself from out of his mouth, the corners quirked towards his earring adorned lobe.

This was where he was meant to be. This was truly where he was meant to be, not at yet another Team Rocket party and brushing shoulders with – for the most part – people he didn't even care about.

James would go on to learn that other people in the organization felt the same way. And because they so strongly related, contrasting how he never even showed up to the event, they left barely even halfway through, discarding their drink down on some random ledge before they turned on their heel, for once, liquor making the setting seem even more intolerable rather than the opposite.

Jorginho left the hugely gathering crowd all on the party floor of Team Rocket and pushed through the looming and swinging double doors which lead to certain living quarters. And when he had made this first step to doing what he actually wanted, not listening to the voice in his head and the ones ricocheting around his brain which belonged to his friends labelling him as dull, he knew exactly why he had been enticed away from there.

Seeing James, a good few foot up ahead of him and minding his own business, he knew who exactly had enticed him.

He too decided to let everybody else's music become uninteresting to him. He wanted to instead hear about what his friend's talent had to say. And so, both hands empty without a beer bottle or a cigarette butt to occupy them, they stuffed into blue fraying jeans and Jorginho strode towards the opposite end of the hall.

Funnily enough, he left the music thudding behind him and then when he took that final step towards James, those melodies drew to a halt as well. He had been sensed from the moment that he pushed open the doors. But now Jorginho was standing directly in front of and looming over the fellow Team Rocket member, James realized that his hands no longer had anything to say.

His mouth wanted to be the one to put things across when Jorginho forwent greeting him like they usually would do. He just sat down with him, nudging James over with his shoulder so they could both lean against that narrow door.

The guitar clinging against James' thigh, however, did not move away even if his attention was on somebody else other than its beige, slim curves.

"Dull party?" James asked, his strong jawline still visible in the low light of the hall when the bulbs flashing from the party room illuminated his face as he looked fully over at Jorginho. But then before his friend had a chance to answer, his fingers couldn't help but dance along the strings all over again.

Jorginho didn't hesitate to scoff out from his throat. His Adam's apple bobbed and his noise perfectly distinguishable from the way that, although James' right hand had been enticed back towards the strings of the guitar, out of politeness or perhaps even shyness, they didn't dare whisper out a single sound.

The fingers on James' right hand plucked silently like he was a child practicing on a homemade instrument.

"When is it not when it's hosted by Cassidy and the other one?" Jorginho answered back so promptly after his scoff that that throaty noise embellished his words as well as a shake of the head, his legs in his tattered blue jeans pulling closer to his chest as he sat with his friend. "What are you doing out here anyway?" He knew he had to clarify when James looked back at him again. Distant lights were bouncing off his eyes of green. "Not exactly your usual hotspot for making sounds."

Jorginho, as well as any other handful of people knew that James could take his guitar and explore alongside it almost anywhere. But that was usually in his own dormitory or at least somebody else's when people were gathering, sharing something to drink or something to smoke.

Sat outside one of the dorm rooms was entirely new and didn't seem the most comfortable option in the world.

But Jorginho would go on to learn.

That smile that had been decorating his lips subtly while he played his guitar fully stretched across James' mouth, pulling one of the corners of it even closer to his dangling earring. Both of his hands fell by his sides, the guitar still pining for attention as he confessed.

"Jessie told me that if I was insisting on being boring tonight then I was still banned from sitting in my room alone." He said before his hands lifted from plonking on the floor near Jorginho's and his own backside, gesturing behind him to where they were sitting together. "Well, she can't accuse me of doing that, can she?"

And with that, James waited for his friend to laugh. He wasn't usually the type to await a reaction but oftentimes when he said things – and they could be the most mundane things of all – Jorginho would soon enough burst into chuckles, his good natured and naturally wide mouth widening even further and crows' feet showing their mirth by attaching themselves to the skin around his eyes.

On that day, however, as James turned to him rather than the guitar against him, he watched as Jorginho merely took in this statement, his eyebrows shooting closer to his floppy hairline.

At least he nodded. But his head only bobbed once.

"Oh, I see." He managed and then he uttered just a few more words, perhaps realizing how mute he was being for once. "I guess she can't." he agreed, his two hands clasping together against his kneecaps pulled to his chest, his head moving backwards and resting against the door.

For half a second, James shot a glance back towards where he had come from, the double doors leading to the party room where no doubt fellow Team Rocket members were drinking, smoking, eating, dancing, and hooking up too.

When he inconsistently filled his vision back with his friend, his pupils flicking as he didn't want to stare too hard, he wondered if somebody had accused him of being too much of a loner on that night as well.

He had seemed to quieten down furthermore and too noticeably for someone who felt mere protection in his heart. Maybe he related. That wouldn't have been too off the cards for the two of them.

James' mouth beginning to press into a line as if he had decided to join the party after all and was growing weary with the mindless conversation all around him, two cervices appeared on either cheek of his as, to the guitars mighty dismay, it was placed down on the floor in front of the two guys.

With the clamoring of his guitar becoming a thing of the past, James' attention turned to his friend even more so. His shoulder nearly brushed up against his as he looked over at his wordless disposition. But he didn't go that far.

"Really shit atmosphere, huh?" he wondered, his lips only just moving away from each other in order to speak but then they formed a union all over again. The fact that he did not choose to add more words to this as well as his intuitive tone of voice spoke even more than his words did.

Regardless of how momentarily lost Jorginho seemed in his own thoughts with his knuckles clasped together and his head back against the wooden door of Room 335, the careful tone of James did not fall on deaf ears.

His head swung to the side in response, his own chiseled jaw illuminated by the flashing lights coming from the distant room before darkening, that whole sequence going on and on for as long as they were both there.

Jorginho looked past his strong nose at James and his shoulders couldn't be convinced not to move upwards towards his ears and then down nearer to his hips, a torrent of gentle wind escaping from his parted lips as well as words.

How good it felt that somebody had actually noticed his melancholy.

"Really shit company more like. My friends suck sometimes." He began and, James watching the way that Jorginho's shoulders broke the distance with his ears before adding to it, felt his own shoulders unclench at the reassurance that he wasn't part of the problem. "This whole time of year sucks." Jorginho's legs broke away from him as well, shooting out across the floor and fortunately missing giving a swift kick to the abandoned guitar. "All everybody can talk about is pairing up for that stupid dance that happens every new Team Rocket Quarter."

Despite the momentary wave of anxiety that had washed over him in case he had been included in the gaggle of people not to Jorginho's liking, James couldn't help but allow a chuckle to escape from him there and then, his hand moving from having nothing to do by his side and running through his hair.

For half a moment, he wondered if it had been something truly problematic if it had caused Jorginho's sturdy shoulders to be weighed down. Not that he wished to invalidate what was irking his friend. He privately felt almost comforted that it was a relatable matter.

It made his self that usually allowed everything to roll off him like water off a duck's back seem… softer? No, James didn't wish to label him as that. He just seemed more personable, that's all.

This time, James made the effort to briefly knock his shoulder against Jorginho's before pulling away again, that fleeting touch being more than enough for him.

"Oh, don't worry about it so much, it'll all be in the past before you know it." He spoke. He could then tell what Jorginho was thinking from the way that he looked over at him, his nose not quite scrunching up, but he could see his nostrils quivering. "Look." James tried again. "You can always do what I did last year and conveniently get very sick right on the eve of the new term."

And with that, James made another, bolder move for the sake of companionship and gave Jorginho another bump against the shoulder with his own one. The slightly older of the two might not have been wearing his angular armor like he would have been clad in if he were out about on the field and tackling his next mission, but James went on to privately wince as if he were!

He knew at once that he was right to not use the word soft synonymously with his newest friend. No matter how much he was speaking about what was going around in his head, he could never have the guts to tag him with that – and certainly not in the physical sense.

Jorginho tried to allow a chuckle to escape from his lips at the way that James was trying to help him see on the bright side but inside his mind he knew that he had not been around the year before to begin a new term and newbies ended up having an even harder time if they didn't muck in and at least make an effort with everybody else.

The uncertain puff of air that escaped from Jorginho's mouth instead of a laugh spoke exactly of these thoughts. But he managed to hide his private wonderings of if James had ever cared about what people thought of him.

Apparently not if he was gladly abandoning not too bad of a party in order to lounge against a wooden door with him.

"It's not just the upcoming dance, sometimes it's all a lot of those guys can talk about." Jorginho spoke again, that time as he found his words, his head turning away from James to look ahead and his usually amiable face screwing up with judgement. "Everything is always pairing up and who has a thing for who and who you have a thing for." His expression didn't unclench even if he took a pause. "C'mon."

The last word that Jorginho uttered said everything without having to say much and it caused James to nod, realizing that his friend, for all that he might have been ranting a touch too much, did have a point.

However, instead of James finding the words that pairing up in Team Rocket hadn't always been allowed so no wonder everybody was going a bit wild – and even knowing that that kind of thing bothered him as well so it was no wonder that his closest companion was an independent woman and a hostile cat – couldn't help but understand why this sort of subject was always spoken about to Jorginho.

Fortunately, Jorginho was looking down past his sturdy nose and at his fingers interlocked with each other rather than a significant other, so James could cast his gaze over to him and truly ponder without being spotted.

Although it didn't catch him off guard that they felt similarly regarding pairing off talk growing a little dull, it did surprise him just how much it bothered Jorginho because he wasn't exactly the type of guy to keep to himself!

Almost more than anybody else that he knew, Jorginho had a twinkle in his eye for the ladies in Team Rocket – and outside of it, quite honestly – and he was infamous for those big brown eyes of his and goofy deeper layers to his character making them equally as smitten.

It had become second nature to not only James but Jessie, Meowth, Butch, Cassidy and even Christopher too to witness Jorginho set his eyes on the next person that caught his attention and see them exiting his own dorm room barely a lengthy twelve hours after.

He was one of the most talked about members in Team Rocket whether he liked it or not.

But there and then, Jorginho was wondering why it was taking James so long to find his own words, so he had to hurry, running another, this time more careless, hand through his own locks.

"Is this your way of saying that you don't have a crush on anyone right now?" James questioned, his neck slanting towards Jorginho on the one side as he looked at him and resulting on him needing to run another hand through his hair, a long lock of his untucking from behind his ear in the process.

In that moment, Jorginho wondered why he had wordlessly hurried James up to find an answer if that was all that he was able to come up with!

All over again, the scrunched-up piece of paper expression was back paired with a slight shake of the head but this time, it was towards James and what James had chosen to say. That was a bit of a rarity.

In the end, Jorginho retorted back to him with a thumb slipping into the corner of his mouth to chew upon a loose hang nail to soften his sentiment but that didn't exactly work.

"A crush?" his bilingual tongue still managed to wrap around his own thumb and spoke faultlessly. "I don't get crushes on people, and you know it." Jorginho answered and then, his head moving from side to side, spoke more about how he felt although he probably should have left it there. "A crush. Please."

This time, it was James' head leaning back against the door in which connected them. His own legs shot out from still being crossed from when he was playing his guitar, being more careful than Jorginho had done by avoiding contact with that instrument and accidentally booting it against somebody else's door.

He also was more careful with his limbs than he had been with his words. But as he took a moment to think about it, ignoring Jorginho's change in disposition because he knew he meant no harm, he couldn't help but think it was the other one of them who should have probably second guessed what they had chosen to say.

James alongside Jessie and Meowth had been bestowed the privilege of getting to know Jorginho on and off over the past year and it was this day-to-day life which made him understand what he meant in ways that would have led other people to have quite strong words for him in return!

Despite taking some time to find his voice again after learning from the last time, James' head bobbed just once. He had to agree with Jorginho. He had never really seen him doe-eyed over anybody in the way that Christopher followed Jessie around or how Meowth followed any woman around outside of Team Rocket that was nice to him and, in marvel of his eloquent tongue, gave him free scraps of food like he was a loyal creature the opposite of his feline truth.

James had seen Jorginho interested, sure. But he seemed to happily have a wonderful night with his companions and then send them on their glad way before any longing, blushing, or worse, pining, could take place.

It was this realization that caused him to find his voice all over again and hopefully, now that Jorginho had rid himself of the pesky hangnail clinging to the side of his thumb, his own demeanor would soften in response when the time came.

"If it's bothering you that much, surely there's someone you've got your eye on that you can just take to the abominable dance and leave it just there?" James turned his attention back towards his friend, his hands sliding against his own legs in his jeans before more words tumbled from his lips. "Although knowing you…"

He trailed off, not needing to finish that sentence. And looking back upon future reflection once I learned of a rare tale from the days of Team Rocket, I can't help but realize that it was lucky that James left it there. Jorginho's body contorted with quite a lot of heat towards an unfinished sentence!

If his thumb had been loitering in his mouth for something to do, it would have surely been ripped out in the way that he decided to respond to James then and there.

"You're literally sounding as dull as everybody else right now." He barked, James' head rotating round towards him as he could barely count on the one hand the number of times that Jorginho had spoken to him in such a way. "Not everybody is like you and has a woman team partner who they have a hideous crush on but somehow disguises it as unfaltering friendship."

On several occasions back in those days and certainly when coming head-to-head with a bit of tension with another male, James would have shrunk into himself and not bothered with responding, avoiding conflict to do the kind of things that he did best.

And while it was true that he did not retort to this statement with fiery words of his own, the look which he offered Jorginho spoke volumes. It was one that worked very well! It was almost as if he needed to splurge this out and receive the curl of the lip and squint of the right eye from James in order to move closer to his calmer self, arms folding gently over his chest and relinquishing against the door that connected them both all over again.

Jorginho didn't exactly smile, insinuating he meant no harm after all. Yet the crow's feet around his eyes appeared and it was clear that he would be more reasonable again.

Even so, James made sure it wouldn't happen again from the way that he replied with words, his own hands in his lap as he looked down at where wrists bedded against the joining of thighs.

"I'm not going to bother to respond to that." He said and it was this that caused light to hit Jorginho's eyes that wasn't the mere glow from the party elsewhere. He felt that he had admitted everything by saying this! He was unaware of the mood that was about to be ripped away from him. "Seriously though, people don't actually care that much, and if they were honest about that, the dance would barely be a big deal." James swung his head back around to Jorginho whose expression had mellowed. "You'll find a girl who is exactly your type to tackle this problem with soon enough, I swear."

His head swung from looking down at his lap and then towards Jorginho so much that his ear nearly brushed against his shoulder as Jorginho had begun to slump since getting his attitude towards his friend out of his system.

Jorginho's expression had relaxed more so towards what it normally was. But then for some strange reason that James could not read straight away, his jaw hung lower and tighter from the second that he had spoken these words.

Then, it was James' turn to portray this exact display when these words trapped inside Jorginho had escaped.

"And what if my type isn't a girl?" he asked with fingers interlocked over his own lap. But then they ripped apart, not because of a movement or a recoil from somebody else but on his own accord entirely.

From the split second they were out in the ether, the breath lurched in Jorginho's throat. Those eyes of his infamous within the organization of Team Rocket and even further still were then wider than they had ever been before. The whites of them made the earthy tones appear like they were sinking into the rest of the globe.

Oh my god. Jorginho did not know why he had said that.

He practically scrambled, trying to give himself the higher ground again so his shoulder was towering above the head of James as they lingered together.

Anxiety rushed into two throats and James was of course one of them. This injection of adrenaline began because he suddenly wondered if Jorginho had moved away from him because he was showing off completely the wrong expression.

"O-Oh, it doesn't have to be a girl." James stammered and God, how he hated that his words were struggling to come out. Desperation was then in his own eyes as he scrambled to be level with Jorginho all over again if he wanted to be that way.

But he wasn't sure his eyes were going to meet his again from the way that a look he had never seen in him before had encapsulated him before he could even think about stopping it, let alone realize what was happening to him.

Causing James' own breath to hitch in his throat as he gathered how badly he had played that small wisp of conversation, Jorginho's flickering gaze did settle on him once or twice and he let out a chuckle that could only be described as nervous. Like he was a school child that had made a joke which would surely land him in a lot of trouble.

"I don't know why I said that. I don't even know what I'm talking about right now." Jorginho tried to wave a haphazard hand, but it had gone limp, and he hated that too. Instead, he acted as if he had an itch on his nose that couldn't be scratched with a finger and he rubbed it against his own shoulder to soothe himself. James caught his breath. And because he mistook this earnest look of stabilizing himself as him not budging at all in spite it all, Jorginho spilled a little more. "I don't like guys the same way I like girls. I've always thought to myself, why ignore a whole side of the population but, God, I've never said any of this aloud before."

And with that, James watched as Jorginho, with wrists feeling like they were weary from combat had a hard time settling him back up against the wall, have a degree of paleness yet also warmth wash across his features.

He wanted to say more than he initially said. He wanted to be more. He wanted to have quicker reactions like how he knew that if it were him confessing something to Jorginho, he would no doubt have something of substance to say.

Or at least, he would reach his hand out to him. But James at that point couldn't predict how that would go down.

"It's fine." James began, having to be okay with the fact that their shoulders were at least level again even if he didn't exactly risk merging his bony one with Jorginho's, somehow still given the circumstances, sturdy one. "You don't have to make any sort of choice." Jorginho swallowed rather than nodded and it resulted in James fretting he was making a mess of it all. "If you think that I would care for a single second…"

James trailed off. He had to hope that the way that, for all his uncertain words and the thoughts that were racing through his own mind, the way that his head shook from side to side after his words ran away from him would say everything that he wanted to say.

And it did.

He witnessed the whites of Jorginho's eyes shrinking around his still very naturally large irises and then James' words dawned on him. He realized the person that he was and felt like a bit of a fool for not only letting any of his words slip but for thinking that they even had to be monumental.

For thinking that anybody would care.

Like James expressed about the dance, people liked to get in your business for the sake of it. It didn't mean that they really thought about you much at all beyond their own small lives.

"I know. Shit, I know that…" he said but his cheekbones hollowing out before his lips pressed together during the gaps in his sentences made it apparent that this was not a confidence that would be instilled in him over night. "I… I have been with guys before." He admitted. The flushed feeling inside Jorginho started to dissipate to James as he suddenly realized that he too had been foolish. "I never felt the need to explain. For some reason, this whole dance thing has confused me."

You and me both, James tried hard not to think!

Instead of expressing this and while he found the words that he did wish to say, James nodded, clearly listening. But processing as well.

Jorginho's eyes had sparkled for the women in Team Rocket and beyond, but they had twinkled for almost every kind of person too. That was just how he was. He had had to learn over the years that James wasn't the kind of person that you could grab and hug because, if he had his way, he would have been all over every single person with which he was engaging.

He usually always had his hand at least somewhere when in conversation, whether it was a playful shoulder bump or an amiable arm around the shoulder and most certainly a tight squeeze during moments of greeting and moments of parting as well.

James had seen with his own eyes the way that he leaned up against other men in the room during the parties that they actually had attended, and he would often disappear with a gaggle of people, some of them men and some not.

He knew that it meant something the way that he would without hesitation pursue something with a woman. But now he knew that it meant something else if he stumbled into a fellow Team Rocket man at a gathering and went off to his dorm room with him.

And the more that he thought about it, the more he simply did not care.

That was one of the reasons that James was quite content to miss any sort of event in the organization. He did what he did and what other people did in their time was their own business.

"You don't have to explain anything to anyone, and you don't need to pick a side." James finally answered while the pit of Jorginho's stomach had heated up again in the meantime and his Adam's apple had been bobbing up and down in his throat like it was Halloween. "I mean, c'mon." It was James' time to speak those words but during a heavily altered conversation. "You are free to do entirely as you please. That is one of the good things about this place."

Jorginho wondered why that lump in his throat kept coming back. But rather than ruminating on it too much, he decided to listen to his friend's words, and they positively melted into him, warming his belly in a different way how he was treating him, and it caused him to bravely force a smile stretching wide.

He let out a noise of panting breath that showed just how much he was trying to be okay.

His next words certainly proved this.

"I know. I think that's why I'm making a foolishly big deal out of it when I've been aware for years. I'm frustrated that I can't shake the feeling that it might not be okay." That pesky lump was back in his throat again, but he tried to speak through it when these words needed to come. "I guess there's some things from your upbringing that are harder to shake."

There was that smile again. That forced stretched smile that so wanted it to be real but a part of him was waiting for James to either tell him to grow a pair and stop making a big deal out of nothing or to tell him to stop talking about it entirely.

Of course, that moment never occurred. But still, that smile wasn't ready to be the way it usually was just yet.

However, it was James' turn to feel his throat growing a lot tighter when he heard what Jorginho had needed to say. He knew that his chest was only tightening more with the urge that was taking over him, but he knew that he had to be true to what was being asked of him as well.

It was this urge that made him reach his hand out and rest on top of Jorginho's while his own ones were still in his lap, waiting to gain their strength back or wondering if for a rare occasion, someone was going to have to instill that back into him.

"Believe me, I know." James answered as the flat of his palm rested over his friend's hand. While he was able to look directly over at him because there was nothing to be hidden inside his own eyes, Jorginho's gaze travelled downwards, wondering whether his pinkie finger should move in response. He wondered whether he should touch James, or they should leave it at that.

Probably should leave it at that, Jorginho told himself.

James was touching him even after everything. James trusted him enough to comfort him in that way. He knew that he was going to be the last person to push him so much that he went the opposite way.

Once Jorginho had managed to lift his stare all over again, he realized the words that James had uttered, and they knocked the wind out of him equally as much as the sensation of his friend reaching his hand out to him.

Initially, he searched his eyes for an elaboration, but he got nothing. He had to ask with words, knowing that he was taking more of a risk than when he considered grazing him with the smallest of his fingers.

That lump was filling his throat further than ever.

"So, what's your deal then?" he asked, for a split second, his eyes dropping down to where he had still managed to resist not clasping a single finger around him after the kind of words, he had found just for him. "I mean," he started again, and for half a heartbeat, there was potential for a genuine grin to grow. "Apart from the painfully obvious crush on Jessie."

Apparently Jorginho was getting better and better at taking risks! Not that he would have snapped like he himself was known to do on occasion, he might still have been classed as shooting himself in the foot by joking around with the person that was still by his side, listening to it all.

Fortunately, James was just so glad to see the threat of a true smile washing over his friend that he took it once again in his stride, merely shaking his head and revolving his eyes inside their lids, then taking their own chance to look down at where their hands had not dared move.

For some reason, it was this sight that caused him to confess after remaining vague initially.

"Well, you know me." He started in a tone of voice that was as flat as the floor that was underneath them both, somehow the levelness cushioning them both. A breath and a smile occurred from Jorginho. Silence overcame James. But then he continued. Or he tried to. "I don't know."

It's funny how people say that when they really do know. Jorginho had only been curious and didn't really like to assume he knew certain things about anyone but in that instance, he started to understand why these words had catapulted out for James of all people and he saw so much of them both reflected between each other.

He had only been curious. But he supposed that was all James had been, hadn't he? That's all he had been before he opened a can of worms.

Jorginho could see that something was stopping James. And he hoped that this care would come across plain as plain could be, so he didn't get made to feel too uneasy if he crossed a line when he decided to leave one hand where it was, underneath James' one, and reach the other towards his shoulder, resting there.

Actually, it was closer to the side of his neck than it was the round bone of his frame.

"Honestly?" Jorginho encouraged, using this word to get James to spill the truth in the way that he had inadvertently got to ooze out of him.

Honesty was a word you did not expect to often use in a sentence when describing Team Rocket members, but it is the truth as well. For all their faults and for all the drama that they caused everybody including me, I couldn't deny that most of the ones previously in the organization that I knew were more likely to live their authentic selves than anybody else I knew.

And good on them. That was one thing I couldn't fault them for.

James' lower lip fell into his mouth, his shoulder warming under Jorginho's clasp and for the first time his hand growing very clammy as it rested over his other one. He hoped that he would not feel it!

But there was a chance that he would from the way that he sensed that he was going to say something of substance of last. Even if it wasn't the thing he was partly expecting.

"I'm not sure I'm built to be interested in anyone like that." James confessed. He could feel Jorginho's hand twitching underneath his own one and in response to both this and his own words, his palm burned like he had touched a raw flame. "I-I don't mean I'm like that." God, he needed more time still to figure out what he wanted to say but by then the party would surely be over and everyone would come flooding back, trampling him and Jorginho! "I've never had many friends before."

As he spoke his own words, James had many a prediction for what Jorginho was going to go on to do, what he was going to go on to stay and he certainly had his guesses as to why he could feel his hand moving so much underneath his own one.

However, he hadn't envisioned the true outcome and that was, after he heard these words coming from James, he altered their position, so it was Jorginho with his hand on top of James' clasping it.

Alongside this gesture came these words:

"No?" he mumbled, and that was that. No other sentence of curiosity. No joke. To persist to get him to hurry along and give him the answers that he wanted to hear.

Merely this noise escaped from Jorginho, and it encouraged James' hand to almost melt under his, relinquishing into someone shielding him, echoing that same word back to him again.

"No." he continued to shake his head and alongside this gesture as well as Jorginho's one came the realization that he could take as long as he needed. Neither of them was going anywhere. "I feel like I'm only just learning how to be a friend and the thought of having someone as anything more scares me." Jorginho's stance straightened when he heard this. "Relationships are where expectations come in. And I'm not sure I could live up to anybody's."

Jorginho's stance had only just been straightened when he heard some of his friend's words. And now that he had heard his most previous musings, his shoulders could not help but sink downwards, with the understanding that he had seen so much of himself in James on that day and a lot of ones before that but not in the way that he had been anticipating.

But when he heard everything, it was undeniable. And it was this notion that would lead him on to do what he did in the next few moments.

"I know exactly how you feel." He said, and before he could talk himself out of the next action that longed to occur, his wrist bent ever so slightly and he took James' hand fully inside his own one, interlocking his fingers with his. He added while he began to gauge how he felt about this closeness. "For what it's worth, I don't think you could let anybody down, James. But in the meantime, anybody is lucky to have you as a friend."

James listened to these words, and he didn't know whether it was them that made his neck want to bed down into his own shoulder and never return or was Jorginho's hand intertwining with him! But for all the unease of being validated, of being complimented and of being held, it wasn't entirely unpleasant.

It was just something that he wasn't all that used to.

And it was the damaged child that still lives within James in varying degrees to this day that caused him to utter.

"Oh, you think you know me so well, don't you?" He humored Jorginho and in spite of where these words were coming from, he humored both of them in the way that they had matching grins as they peered at each other, still not pulling away from one and other.

And maybe it was this shared laughter or otherwise, but for some reason, Jorginho felt quick to add more words. But then again, he wasn't usually hesitant about sharing the ideas that he stumbled across to James.

He sat further upwards all over again, his shoulder towering over James' as his entire body had seemingly relinquished there and not just his hand inside Jorginho's.

"Do you know what we should do?" He began, looking over at James rather than down as they lingered against the door at that point because he had realized his poor posture in comparison to his friend and tried to straighten his spine some more.

After he had successfully done that, in the same manner that Jorginho had an idea and so put it out there, James had an answer of his own which he did not hesitate to hold back.

He deadpanned.

"Stop holding hands and head inside before somebody sees us?" Came his answer, his eyes absorbing a quality of Jorginho but being shown in his own way, the whites of his eyes shining as his mouth hung slightly open, not needing to flick his gaze down to where they were still intwined.

Out of offence to it all, Jorginho contrasted the answer that came by yanking his hand out of James' and using that unwanted hand to massage along the smoothness of his jaw. It would be years before that infamous beard of his joined his adored eyes, making up the entire picture that was that same man.

Now that he had spoken other words aloud and heard some from James too, he seemed far more willing to speak each and every thing that he felt like.

"No." he practically pouted, and it caused James' joking reluctant expression to soften, and he smirked, waiting for what kind of idea his friend was going to put forth to him. In a second, he felt he would comply with anything when he saw Jorginho's hands bunch together in a shy sort of way and his gaze flickered. "We should go to the dance together. You and me." He stated the softer side that lived inside of him making an appearance from the way he somewhat backtracked. "At least we'll have fun."

Continuing the way that James knew he was likely to comply from the second that he saw more of the Jorginho that was reserved for a select few, he couldn't deny that he was likely to say yes without too much hesitation.

Yet however much there wasn't a single part of him that really liked to do too much for a reaction, there was an urge that rushed through him that wanted to play hard to get just to see Jorginho laugh.

Hopefully, it would result in that! It could be either sunshine or showers when it came to him.

"Now who is sounding like everybody else?" James teased him and in the next split second, he saw that amiable expression threatened to change and he couldn't keep his façade up much longer, laughing while Jorginho did not, changing his tune because it would have been unnatural not to do so. "Two lone wolves together sounds pretty good." He agreed. But this still wasn't good enough, not even when he wrapped his arm around Jorginho and nudged his other side! "Will you buy me flowers?"

If anybody else had been onlooking the scene then they would have noticed the way that Jorginho tried to encourage his hollow face to keep up his own deadpan expression but then, the combination of James' arm around him and the joking mention of flowers was too much for him to continue it any longer!

He might have shrugged his friend's half embrace off from around him but that was in order to grab him around the shoulders all over again, squeezing one of them as he knew that he too would comply to whatever he wished.

It was so good to see that smile again, James thought. It was really the kind of one that encouraged the best in every person that the beams washed across.

"Of course, I'll by you flowers." His clasp dropped down from the ball of James' single shoulder and snuck around the hand of James once again, holding him there while his arm still draped around him. "Any kind you want."

And hearing that made James chuckle! He knew as well as anybody what kind that he had always been drawn to since he was a little boy playing amongst his grandmother's rose bushes, but instead of speaking of this and indeed, speaking anything else, James merely decided to smirk and briefly rest his head down on Jorginho's shoulder as they knew that any time spent together was far better than any sort of party Team Rocket could hold.

As I said, this gesture was brief. However, it was for once not down to the student of affection that was James but because they both heard the way that those double doors at the end of the hall swung open and those friends of Jorginho that he had abandoned to saunter off elsewhere had finally decided to find him, calling his name.

As both of their heads looked up, James recognized some of the older Team Rocket members that he knew Jorginho was close to like Attila and Hun but as for the rest of them, well, they were just vaguely familiar faces to him rather than names.

Funnily enough, as James scooted away from Jorginho to give him the space to stand up, he looked almost as blank as he did to see them and he would explain of such once he had waved a hand over to them in the distance, gesturing that they should go back in because he would go and join them after he said goodbye.

He would. But before the goodbye, he needed to speak of his look towards James who was then standing as well, shaking his legs out after standing for so long.

Jorginho expressed his demeanor humorously enough. But hesitance existed there. If there had been a clock loitering on the wall, he would have surely glanced towards it, not wanting to go.

"Just so we both know, none of those guys are my type of guys." He flashed James with a smile, that element of falsehood returning as he knew that he was bringing up a subject that had not exactly been forgotten about but had been deemed something to dig up again if need be.

But still, because he had spent that time with James, there was no way his smile could be as forced as before. And because James believed that these words had no ulterior motive – he would have said this kind of thing long before that night – he didn't hesitate to chuckle in return, answering in the same way that he would normally.

Now that his legs were feeling more used to standing all over again, he decided that he would at least walk Jorginho back to the party. At least he could be happy knowing he got him there and Jessie would be too knowing he had done more than just linger in his dorm room alone!

James lifted his hand up to the place on Jorginho's back, right between the back of his shoulder blades, and he pushed him forward, encouraging him to walk with him. Then, he couldn't help but utter the words that he simply wanted to say, responding to what had previously been spoken.

"And just so we both know, what is your type?" He poked him in that same place on his back before his touch intended to move to his shoulder, giving him a light shove but something stopped him. And that something was not yet regretted.

You see, as soon as Jorginho heard these words, he stopped being alongside James and altered his position entirely, moving in front of him with a slope in his neck. For half a second, James stopped in his tracks in return, unable to gauge the reason for this alteration. He was left wondering if he had taken it a step too far.

He wondered if Jorginho thought that he was mocking him. He would never do that.

He experienced the paradoxical sensation of the hollow bones of his cheeks paling while pricking from the inside and out, his lips threatening to part, uttering an apology.

But he couldn't get fully there. He couldn't even get partly there.

Suddenly, warmth spread across Jorginho's cheeks. It wasn't a regretful heat like it was with James. That lightness was back, and it was back brighter than ever.

Before James could wholly adjust to what was going on, one of those hollowed out cheeks of his were held by his friend Jorginho and the other felt a lingering kiss planting against it, warming his skin in a way that he hadn't felt before.

Their noses nearly bumped as Jorginho pulled away again. He seemed to have no qualms about his own gesture. And he showed this by his hands clasping over both James' shoulders, squeezing them, and bidding him goodnight in his own way before heading back off to the party to give his friends a second chance.

"I'll let you know." Jorginho told James before he saw the back of him, leaving him standing there with the lights from the distant party streaking across his face and then darkening it again over and over but the main thing that was coloring him was a taste of something new.

He hadn't been expecting that!

He did not know what on earth Jorginho was playing at. That had never happened before and part of him wanted to chase after him to find out why. But the other, fuller part of him just wanted to stand there, raising his fingers towards his cheek, and wondering whether that really happened.

He went through their entire conversation and eventually found nothing other than what had been hinted at but not ever really spoken was that they were becoming very good friends. And they might have shied away from other kinds of relationships, but it seemed that friendship was something that they both flourished in.

So be it, James finally decided to feebly shrug, allowing the kiss and everything that had occurred on that night to sink into him. But even so, he muttered to himself as he headed off.

He really wasn't used to this kind of thing!

"I need to talk to Meowth…" he mumbled with a shake of the head and a discarded hand of his pointing all around as he wondered where he was likely to be before deciding to head in the direction of the kitchen, realizing that he was probably ordering people about in there.

Searching for Meowth after receiving a peck on the cheek from one of your new friends wasn't exactly what I would have had in mind for that particular moment for James but that was the truth! And honestly, I don't think I can think of anything that sums up moments between him and Jorginho more.

To tell you the truth as well, I still don't know how to make sense of the bond that they have. But maybe it isn't for me to figure out. Maybe it is merely for me to accept, looking onwards and seeing what I can learn from their stories.

I have never been able to make out whether they are just friends, more than friends, or something different than merely friends. In the end, I don't think it matters. Whatever they share, they really do have friendship at the very core. And it's that essence which has made them grow together along the same path. Even when the roads separated them entirely. They had something that not a lot of people have.

For me, I don't need to search for it. It is everywhere. It is theirs. It is mine. It is all of ours together. Just like all of these tales I so enjoy recounting.

The End.

There you go, thanks so much for reading and I hope you enjoyed! :) I never really intended to have a chapter with Jorginho struggling to come to terms with his sexuality - or even stating it. In my mind, he was always going to be one of those characters who was unapologetically himself and had relations with everyone and was happy to admit that. And, to some degree, he is still that. But I realised that because of his life in foster care - and later, as a teenager, the religious influences that Sammy has also grown up around - then he would have some struggle coming to terms with that aspect of his life, big or small. As much as we learn about Jorginho here, we learn about James too. I really do envision him as being completely disinterested in getting into a relationship thanks to his ex-fiancee, and it's not until trusting Jessie enough for their relationship to head that way for things to click for him. It's kind of funny when you think he goes on to have a wife and a girlfriend! I think he is definitely demisexual but doesn't really label himself. Jorginho is wonderfully unlabeled too. And in the future, we might see him gain more of that confidence we know he has in later years, and really own the person that he is regarding his sexuality :) Thanks again for reading and I will be back on the 28th to update Letters That Changed Everything, so see you there perhaps!

Amy signing out :P