Hello :P I know I said I would be uploading next Wednesday again but last night after a conversation with AAML-TAML, I came up with this story. As soon as I got the idea I knew I wanted to write it right away. Once it was written, I thought I would end up uploading it today and I am :P I'm pretty proud of this one and it might be one of my favourites so I hope you enjoy T.T

Ages:

Misty: 26

James: 33

Delia: 44

Ben: 6

Katie: 6

Disclaimer: I own only the story :3

"Thank you for apologising, Ben." Misty gave her son a smile and a sigh as she stood up from bending to his level. "Are you going to say sorry to Katie now for pouring flour in her hair?"

When the raven haired young boy sniffed and nodded at his mother, she took his hand and led him back downstairs.

It was a typical Saturday for us in the Ketchum household. Ash was away training with his other Pokemon and Misty was finding it hard to cope with the fact she was alone with the twins and seven months pregnant so decided to invite Delia over for the day. Both the older woman and the children were delighted and by the afternoon, they had begun baking cookies for when Ash returned. This all went slightly wrong, however, when Katie was fussing over her hair as it was when Ben decided to tip flour in her hair to give her an extra reason to fuss. Boy, that one was cheeky!

I couldn't help but smirk secretly remembering his actions but my expression soon changed when I noticed Ben's sorry expression had now gone sour. I followed his eyes and saw that James was now in the kitchen with Delia and Katie.

Ben looked at his mother and expected her to tell the older man off for intruding but she seemed to know about his visit all along. While Misty watched James help Katie cut even shapes in the cookie batter and continued nattering away to her best friend, Ben sat down at the kitchen table and began swinging his legs in a somewhat stroppy manner.

I was about to go over to him and ask him what the matter was when James' voice filled the Ketchum residence kitchen.

He rolled his sleeves further up his arms before turning to Delia and pointing to the carefully cut raw cookies on the kitchen counter.

"Are these alright, Delia?" he smiled at the older woman, holding up one to show her.

The woman with the chestnut hair looked up from preheating the oven before standing up, clapping her hands in a very pleased manner. The way her eyes squinted and head tilted was exactly the same way Ash smiled.

"They're absolutely perfect, James!" she beamed, leaning forward to brush the flour that was on his chest for him. "A bit like someone else we know…"

Upon hearing this, James pulled a slightly uncomfortable yet amused expression and turned his head to raise an eyebrow back at his red headed best friend. When Delia blushed slightly, James begun to play along but not in the way she hoped.

"Well I don't like to brag but my goddaughter is pretty perfect." He beamed, crouching on the floor next to Katie and wrapping his arms around her.

She was all too happy to hug him back and upon seeing this, Misty pulled a pretend hurt expression.

"Wow, James. I thought you were going to compliment your amazing best friend then."

James laughed and picked Katie up onto his hip before reaching out and squeezing Misty's hand, wrinkling his nose in a mock fond way.

"You know I'm pretty crazy about you too, munchkin."

Misty returned her best friend's words with a laugh and casually wrapped an arm around his neck while Delia fussed the man from behind, unhooking his hair that had got caught around his earring.

I smiled as James and the three girls all had a slightly awkward but happy embrace with one and other. What I saw was pure and innocent love and friendship but Ben clearly saw something else.

He loudly stood up from his chair, giving the leg a quick kick in the process to get everybody's attention. His eyes were full of rage and they were fixed upon the lavender haired male.

"All you do is steal people!" he hissed, his hands beginning to tremble with anger and his face reddening by the second. "First my mommy, then my sister and now my grammy!"

James' eyes were wide and beginning to shake at this point but he didn't move, just listening to his godson rant.

"Go back to your own family and leave mine alone…" he spat out angrily, suddenly reaching for an orange off the kitchen table and hurling it towards James. "You're a people stealer!"

When James dodged the orange and caught it instead, Ben shook his head in disgust at the man before sprinting back upstairs.

We all couldn't believe the scene but Misty most of all and she opened the kitchen door once Ben slammed it and yelled up the stairs.

"Benjamin Ketchum! Get back here and apologise to James right now!"

When the raven haired young man returned his mother's order with a raspberry and a slam of his door, she turned to James with an apologetic look on her face.

"I am so sorry, James. I did not see that coming."

The older man's face was slightly pale and blank and he just shrugged, putting the orange back in the fruit bowl.

"Yeah, whatever." He mumbled before clearing his throat and glancing over at Delia and Katie, but his eyes were full of hurt rather than the softness that graced them before. "Thanks for inviting me to cook with you but I think it really upset Ben."

He just nodded apologetically and continued frowning at the pair before turning to walk towards the front door.

Misty and I shared a worried glance and the red haired female followed James into the hall as he hastily tugged his jacket back on.

"James, listen, you don't have to go-" she began but he cut her off with a short reply.

"Yes I do."

James was never normally that short and abrupt with her so Misty blinked and it took her a few moments before she spoke again.

"Listen, what Ben said-" she began once again but like before, James interrupted her.

"Is true." He finished her sentence for her, opening the front door to leave.

Misty frowned and couldn't believe the way he was acting and shook her head at him, reaching to shut the door again so he couldn't leave.

"No of course it's not. He just got upset that he was sent upstairs and he came back to you backing with his grandma instead."

James just let out a sigh and shook his head, stuffing his hands into his jacket pocket. The red haired female looked at me before back at James, wondering what to say.

"You're not exactly one to care about other people's opinions anymore. You're married and you have a family. You said to me why would you care about other people's petty comments when you have so many blessings?"

James just sighed again, not looking his best friend in the eye. His brow was furrowed and he was biting his lip. He looked somewhat fierce but deep down I knew he was close to tears.

"I care because he's a kid. Kids are always brutally honest." He played with his hair, just staring blankly at the front door. "And he's right."

Misty just let out a scoff to show him that she thought the complete opposite, leaning up against the wall casually even though she desperately wanted to comfort her best friend.

"You're not a thief anymore. You haven't been since you quit you know what."

The gym leader chewed her own lip when James just let out a grunt, wondering which path to take next.

"You're not like that, James, believe me. I'm brutally honest too. I would tell you."

Misty let out a groan and tangled her hands in her hair when James just let out yet another quiet grunting noise in response. She took a deep breath, knowing the right way to deal with James was with a mixture of love and by being direct.

"So you believe you're a thief? You believe what my stroppy son said and that you've stolen not only me from him but also his twin sister and his grandmother?"

Misty said this as a joke but she didn't get the reaction she was hoping for. James just turned to his best friend, tears glistening in his hurt green orbs. He only muttered one word as he opened the door and took off towards his car.

"Yeah."

Misty just watched her best friend leave while wiping his nose with his arm, one of her hands tangled in her orange locks. What started off as a seemingly normal Saturday ended in disaster.

She turned to me after letting out an exhausted sigh, rubbing her forehead worriedly.

"This isn't going to be it, right? If we lose him, we lose his whole family and a whole lot of craziness and love from our lives…" she mumbled, moving her hand to tangle them both in her hair. "He won't stay away, will he?"

I did my best to convince her that of course it wasn't the end and that we were all going to always have each other. I convinced her until I was blue in the face and she felt much better. I didn't. For the rest of that day and into the night, I thought about James.

That man was a lot of things but a thief wasn't one of them. He may have stolen a few valuable things in the past but that's where he left it. In the past. James had always been sensitive and it was moments like these that despite all the success and luck he had had in recent years, he was still the same underneath. James was loyal and funny and sarcastic and so kind-hearted. He was patient with Ben and still treated him with the same love as Katie, even if he didn't want to accept it right now. He was doing his best to make a bond with him, even if Ben was afraid of James becoming his knew father figure. Ben didn't have to worry and neither did James. Neither did I, for that matter.

I knew we were all going to be fine if we all stuck together. And we did stick together. And we were more than fine.

The End.

There you go! Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoyed :3 I've written about James and Ben's relationship once or twice now (and a few others I never got round to uploading) but this one is the most angsty. Poor James is so good to Ash and Misty's family (and everyone else of course) but Ben worries that Ash is going to be tossed out the picture. Ben of course has moments with James where he let's him in but if Ash isn't around or Ash is "threatened", he won't take it too well :P Thanks again and I hope you enjoyed because I loved writing it T.T I will definitely be back on Wednesday next so see you soon!

AmyBieberKetchum signing out :P