Hello :P It is Wednesday and I am back with a new chapter. I had fun writing this one and reading it also. It's a bit more of an insight into Justin and Katie's friendship when they're a slightly younger and she's suffering badly from her stutter. As you know, she's close with a good few of the Morgan male's. But here, you can see that one of them is especially beneficial to her and accepting of her also. I hope you enjoy :3

Ages:

Katie: 13

Justin: 19

Disclaimer: I own the story and the OCs mentioned :P

As the lavender haired male came out one of the rooms in his house, his hands in his pockets before one of them slid out to run worriedly through his hair, I knew it was bad news. I knew he hadn't been successful. I knew that Katie still wasn't talking.

James shut the door belonging to the room that the orange haired female stayed in when she slept over at her uncle's behind him with a quiet thud. He didn't look back. I didn't blame him. He had been unsuccessful. He wanted Katie to speak to him so badly, even if it was just a single word. And not even so he could feel good feeling that he had been the one to end her silence, I knew it. Just so he could hear her voice again and know things were going to be okay. But because she kept so quiet, for once, even he worried that things were going to get even worse for her.

My own heart clenched as I watched James depart from outside the room of Katie before he shuffled down the hallways, his hands going back into his pockets. I had decided to stay out there and out of the way and give the Ketchum's eldest daughter space in the hope that one to one with her uncle would end her decision to keep her mouth shut. But in that moment, I worried horribly that I had made the wrong choice.

I had gone on that sleepover with Katie on the second day of her being quiet and it was then the third. I had promised both Ash and Misty that I would watch over her and make sure she was okay at all times, even if she was speaking no words at all. I had always been there for her and always would be but I decided to give her space. But at that point, I decided I had made the wrong decision. So on top of that guilt causing my heart to clench, it was also breaking to how broken Katie was clearly feeling.

James pattered down the hallways of his own home and he walked straight past me, leaving me to feel even more concern for the orange haired female and the situation that had befallen not only her but all of us as well. It was sad. It was so sad. She was clearly so fed up with her stutter. She was clearly so very exhausted with knowing what words she wanted to say but somehow them getting lost on the way. She was so worn down by it all that a few days ago, she had decided to just give up and be quiet. I wondered whether she believed that would make things easier.

But the truth was, I believed that it would make things even worse. But I couldn't tell her that. No one could tell her that. No one wanted to make her feel punished. No one wanted to punish her at all. Seeing her upset and insecure about something that made her her beautiful and unique self was almost punishment for us all.

I was so deep in thought and feeling the pain of my heart continuing to jolt at how vulnerable sweet Katie was and how much I wanted to make things better for her. I was so deep in thought but I still heard James make some banging and light clattering noises of doors further on in the house. Then, I heard him softly knocking on someone's door. And then, I heard him murmuring to someone. I didn't know who. In fact, I didn't know where exactly in the house it was coming from. Truthfully, the only thing that I could pinpoint was the clenching of my heart and my head as I thought about how much I loved Katie and how much I wanted her to love every little bit of herself.

I looked back towards the door of the room that Katie was inside. I couldn't stop myself from building up a worrying picture in my head. I imagined her not talking and not looking at anything and wallowing in sadness for herself. I imagined her becoming engulfed with insecurity. I imagined her losing hope that things would ever get better. I imagined all of this and made the pain so much worse for myself. I almost winced. I almost doubled over. I was in that state of overthinking and anger with myself that I had left her alone when someone else came padding down the hall. And because I was so frustrated with the situation and the wrong choice I had made, I nearly took it out on them.

A strange bolt of protectiveness took over my entire body when Justin sauntered down the hallways of his home and after pushing his long and unusually unkempt locks out of his eyes; he seemed to know exactly what he was doing when he knocked on Katie's door. A flash of realisation took over my brain and caused me to piece together that James had probably been talking to him and asked him to sit in with the orange haired female while he took some time to gather his own anxious thoughts.

But for once, clarity wasn't the main detail of my brain and an odd lot of protectiveness took over it instead. When I saw Justin heading into Katie's room following a polite few second pause after knocking, my body lurched into action. I almost gritted my teeth. I hadn't been there for Katie before but I certainly would be then. I might have let overthinking and worry and sadness take over her before but I never would ever again. I would be right there. And so I was.

I didn't hesitate to push myself through the gap in the door and oversee every little thing. It's funny how differently things appear to look when you imagine them to be a certain way.

Instead of focusing on the deep purple haired male while he entered the room with me secretly following him and didn't shut the door behind him, I looked around for the orange haired female. I looked around for beloved Katie. I saw her right away. I found her right away.

I nearly had to blink and rub my eyes at how differently things looked compared to how I had imagined them. She was not crying. She was not curled up. In fact, she was barely even visibly upset. She looked a little paler than normal and her eyes more sunken but it was still her. It was still Katie and she was there. I nearly didn't believe it at first. I nearly waited for her to experience all of the things that I had feared. I watched and waited for Justin's presence to unsettle her.

"Hello, Katie." He greeted the younger female with a wave and he didn't hesitate to walk right over to her where she was sat up against the radiator and with a book in her hand, like she often did in her own home. I decided then to watch him intently, waiting for any clue that he might upset her. And because I finally decided to look at him, I noticed how limp and exhausted he looked. Far more than Katie did, in fact. He yawned and pushed his locks out of his eyes all over again as he hovered over her. "What's going on?"

Katie had stopped reading her book to look up at him when he entered the room and then she put her thumb inside the pages like a book mark and put it to one side to answer him. But needless to say, she didn't answer him with words. She simply looked up at him and shrugged before looking away.

But after just a few seconds, she looked back over at him and that time, she had a slight eyebrow raise. She didn't really need her mouth to convey anything. She could do it just as well with gesture. She raised her eyebrows even more and gestured to his attire. Justin yawned a second time and pushed his hair over his shoulder as he invited himself to sit on the floor next to her.

"I'm okay. I'm pretty jag legged." He mumbled and he greatly contrasted the reassuring first part of his words by pulling his legs to his chest and taking the time to rest his forehead against his knees. He managed to hold back another yawn out of politeness but he shut his eyes for just a second. "I didn't really believe that it was a real thing. I've definitely been proven wrong. I feel very ill in the eyes!"

Just like how Justin had resisted yawning for the benefit of Katie, the orange haired female held back a bit of a smirk. She kept holding one of her favourite books in her right hand and used the other to push her bangs out of her eyes. She still didn't reply to the deep purple haired male with words but once more, her expressions and gestures said everything she wanted to say. She tilted her head on one side and pointed to Justin's lower body.

"What? Oh yeah. My jammies are pretty nice." He murmured back without even having to see her and gave her a dimple showing smile despite the fact that he had stopped resting his head on his knees and was resting it on the wall behind him to try and get comfy. The more I decided to look at him, the more I could see just how fresh out of bed he looked. "I put on my fancy ones just for you."

I tilted my head on one side after Katie had stopped and picked her book back up once again for something to play with. I did my best to let go of all stubbornness and looked over Justin properly. I found myself raising an eyebrow. His pyjamas didn't look all that impressive to me! At that point, I was so worried about Katie and miffed that she was perkier than I had led myself to believe, I was taking everything literally.

The orange haired female let out a quiet cough and a sigh as if she was judging the older male's grey bed t shirt and checked bottoms that were a similar colour to the shade of purple that was his hair. Justin opened one eye and responded with a 'hey!' but it was half-hearted. He was tired. He was so very tired. But he made himself show off a slight smile for Katie and held in both hands something that I hadn't even noticed him carrying into the spare room that she was hanging out in. It was his notebook.

He moved closer to Katie and opened it up, using his fingers to flick to a page that he hadn't written on. And then he handed it to her. And as if she knew exactly what he was doing – and as if they had a bit of a secret language between them, the orange haired female took it off him and even let him take hold of her reading book for her while she searched for a pen.

At the same time that Justin's eyes scanned the pages of her book and looked at the cover to identify which story she had her nose in that day, the orange haired female found a pencil lulling under the radiator and pulled that out to write with. She scribbled down something while the deep purple haired male occupied himself with finding something to use a book mark to help Katie instead of using his finger.

When he was done with that, he had his notebook handed back to him. He didn't hesitate to read it and I didn't hesitate to barge forward and nose at it too. I knew that Ash and Misty would appreciate me for it, even if neither Justin nor Katie did.

I didn't know you were home.

"Oh yeah." Justin responded to his father's god-daughter with words and he went back to trying to lean back against the wall in a way that was comfortable. He rubbed his eye, trying to get the excess sleep out of it. He had a bit of a playful grin from the younger female despite his adjusting to a different time zone self. "Got back the early hours of the morning. My hat is still on the tour bus. I'm riding a huge wave of jetlag."

Katie resisted smirking a second time but she exhaled a little harder out of her nostrils as if she was amused. I was bewildered. I was nearly feeling very silly and maybe a little wounded that the orange haired female was okay without me after all. But that really was very silly! She was okay, that was the most important thing. I felt a little miffed, however, for the lavender haired male whose efforts had seemingly gone to waste.

The eldest Ketchum daughter took back Justin's notebook from him and didn't hesitate to write below her previous words. Needless to say, her writing was as neat and as easy as she liked everything to be.

Jetlag sucks.

"It does." Justin took back the book of paper from Katie and wrote those words down for her at the same time that he said them so she didn't begin to feel bad that she was the only one communicating in that way. He nodded his head at her too. I still felt a pang of protectiveness but I observed that his writing was messier than normal. He really was working through jetlag for her sake. "I was wide awake at 8am though. I couldn't get back to sleep even though I barely slept. I was a nightmare."

That time, Katie responded to the deep purple haired male with a gesture and a glance. She didn't need to write her words down to him – they were conveyed perfectly clearly. The eldest Ketchum female with her eyes and with her body told him:

You're always a nightmare. And I'm pretty sure I heard you playing records around that time so thanks for that.

"Sorry, Katie." Justin replied to her with words and with his teeth bore in an apologetic way but it was said earnestly all the same. He let her keep hold of his notebook but after rubbing some more sleep out of his other eye that time, he reached across and took the pencil from her hand to write some words down. It was at that point I began to feel as though my protectiveness was valid. Justin took the chance by writing down some words and asking them of her too. "Do you want to talk?"

I watched as the orange haired female paused. She really did seem to pause. I observed as her cheeks got a little paler and her eyes dropped down. She swallowed but it wasn't enough for Justin to notice. He was too busy looking right at her eyes. Bravely and admirably, she managed to meet them back. I wondered whether she would play naïve and act like she didn't know what he meant. But Katie was many things but she wasn't a liar. She didn't have an untruthful bone in her body. She openly shook her head because no, she didn't want to talk.

Following Justin looking down too, the orange haired female put his own notebook on his lap and edged away from him a little bit. She tried to pick up her book all over again and go back to reading but I knew that she was slightly embarrassed by the way that she was reacting. But that didn't make her put a stop to it. She stubbornly looked at the words on the page. I feared that things would go horribly downhill from that moment but after I let my own stubbornness slide, I realised why Justin was the perfect person to keep Katie company. And I understood why James had – in his own mind - failed.

The lavender haired male wanted Katie to talk and be okay so badly. So so badly, in fact, that it had made her even more reluctant. But Justin wasn't like that. Even though he loved Katie, he loved her in a completely different way than his father did. And even I had to admit that I had nothing to worry about with the way that after momentarily looking down and secretly regretting his actions, Justin calmly carried on. He lifted his notebook off his lap and didn't speak but wrote more words to Katie. He wanted her to talk. But he didn't care which way she did it.

If I had known you were awake I would have made you some cereal. I've got a new combination for you to try.

I was open to the possibility that the orange haired female could potentially ignore the deep purple haired male out of regret over how little she wanted to verbally talk. But I was gradually getting less and less expectant. I watched and waited for things to unfold whenever and however they were meant to do so.

Katie didn't look at Justin for a little bit longer. I had a little bit of concern in my throat when the non-fedora hat wearing male playfully but lightly bashed his notebook against the reading book in her hands to get her attention. But it actually worked. She gave him an eyebrow raise to show him that she was still herself though she was finding it hard to be exactly that but after not much time at all, she put her book down and accepted Justin's instead.

She read his message and right away she smiled at how he had drawn her a little bowl of breakfast cereal instead of writing the word. And that time, she finally smirked. She took the pencil back off him again and replied back.

No thanks. That stuff is made of shavings from a pencil sharpener, you know.

"You're a menace!" Justin found himself exclaiming and in the exact same way that he was almost best at helping Katie by being casual and friendly but caring too, I noticed how he seemed to get over his tiredness and jet-lag the longer that he spent with the younger female. He stopped lulling up against the wall and moved to sit up on the window sill instead, his long legs draping. Katie looked up at him with innocent eyes while he pretended to fold his arms over his chest. "I fell for that once but I was very, very tired. It's not going to happen this time."

Katie didn't need to respond to him with an expression or actions or by writing words down. The light in her eyes said enough. And strangely, it was that that put a bit of a pang in my stomach. Misty had encouraged her best friend to invite her daughter round hers for a sleepover on the evening of day two of her verbal silence because she knew that if anyone got Katie to open up, then it would be James.

But as I watched and waited, I realised that it might not be just him who got her to break out of herself. Katie had a friend in all of the Morgan males. And for that, she was very very lucky. I hoped that she at the very least liked that about herself.

The joint eldest Ketchum child looked up at Justin on the window sill and after smiling a little bit to herself, she stood up to join him. She still felt a little apprehensive in case he tried to get her to speak properly all over again but after he simply turned his head towards her and gave her a nonchalant smile, she managed to push that concern out of her mind. She did something that sometimes took me a lot of effort and she focused on what was happening there and then. She stayed standing with Justin and looking out the window. The deep purple haired male commented as we all focused on the sights outside.

"It's a nice day out there. It's a shame that I've slept through a good chunk of it." Justin observed and while he peered and spoke, he began to use his fingers to sort out his hair parting and comb his locks so they fell neater around his face and shoulders. Katie resisted the urge of reaching out to his deep purple strands and assisting him. "We should go on a walk later, you and me. It looks a little bit cold out there though."

The eldest Morgan son was right. He was more right than he really realised it, in fact. He said that he had missed most of the day because of jetlag and sleeping but the truth was, I had missed most of it too. I hadn't physically slept through it but emotionally, I felt like I had. I was too busy worrying about Katie and worrying about whether or not I should give her space and worrying about whether it was the right decision to give her space that I had forgotten to appreciate the simple beauty of the morning. But not anymore.

I could see for myself that even though Katie was having a difficult time, she was having peaceful and even enjoying moments in the middle of it. So because of that, I could finally relax. I wanted to tell the lavender haired male and Ash and Misty that they could all relax too. But I knew that they would have to reach that realisation on their own, just as I had done.

I stopped thinking long enough to glance at Katie and see that she was communicating to Justin with gestures and expressions once more. I had trouble deciphering that one that time around but the deep purple haired male knew exactly what she was talking about.

He grinned and hopped down from the window sill, his hand moving up to run through the locks on the top of his head. He then put his hands on his hips, still nodding.

"Yeah, you're right about that. My head is going to be a little chilly without my hat." He almost hummed to himself and after Katie nodded and went back to looking out of the window, glad that they were on the same page, Justin took the time to do something else. Looking back, I realised that he was trying to get Katie to speak, though he was okay with whatever the outcome was going to be. "I might have to borrow one of yours."

And with that, Justin playfully moved over to the open bag that Katie had packed to stay over at her uncle's house. He knelt down beside it, pushing his hair from his eyes and after he only pretended to snoop in it, he picked up the beanie had that was residing on the floor beside it. I found myself smiling a little bit when I recognised it to be Jordan's passed onto Misty and then to Katie. It made me have a bigger understanding that she had lots of people looking out for her.

"This one will do." Justin told Katie and he barely had the chance to stretch it out just a little bit with his fingers when I observed the orange haired female shoot him a look that she most certainly got from her mother. I had seen Misty giving that same look to Ash and James but I had never seen Katie give it to any of the Morgan's before! I had to hold back a snicker. It felt good to be supressing laughter instead of worry. The deep purple haired male caught on right away and playfully pretended to recoil and then sniff. He went back to tapping at his own head. "I know, I know. I'll keep it off my dome head, don't you worry."

And just like that, Katie's expression softened completely from a firm warning look to a fond smirk. She nodded her head. She went back to looking out the window but she was no longer really focusing on the sights outside. She was too busy feeling somewhat special that Justin was taking time out of his catching up on sleep time to keep her company. I was glad that she felt that way. But I couldn't help but feel as though she would be annoyed and maybe even upset if she knew that James had been the one to send him her way.

The orange haired female's eyes remained looking out the window with her thoughts elsewhere but in a contented place. And because she wasn't looking at him, like it was often the case, Justin took the time to look at her. He found himself leaning up against a different wall while he stood. He pondered. He reflected.

He didn't have to dig very deep at all to know that he understood just how Katie felt. He had been concerned about his true self and his own emotions surrounding that for a very long time. And even though he had never gone completely mute, he certainly felt that way sometimes! He had music, though, and he expressed himself through that when he verbally could not. And this got Justin to thinking, I knew it.

He stood further up as he leaned against the wall of one of the spare rooms in his family home. Music had helped him. Music had helped him greatly. He tried his best to hide his smirk and grin when he had an idea in his brain and was so very excited to test it out. That made me feel a little bit more at home. I liked driven people. That's why I got on so well with my raven haired best friend. I got on with stubborn people too. Though it was difficult when that stubbornness caused them to be determined that being themselves was a bad thing like how it was for Katie.

The plait wearing female didn't notice as Justin took a bit of an inhalation of breath. He sucked in his cheekbones and forced his sunny grin to disappear. Just like how Katie's expression went from firm to gentle, I observed how quickly Justin's own one could go from friendly to serious. He had a bit of a frown between his eyes and he pretended to start organising Katie's things onto shelves for her while he purposely hummed.

Katie turned around immediately and I knew that it wasn't simply because it was coming from Justin's mouth. I hopped onto the window sill with her and waited for things to proceed. I sucked in my own cheeks to stop myself smiling hopefully that this would make Katie feel even more like herself. Straight away, the orange haired female shot Justin a look. When he looked at her innocently and continued tidying, she reached for the pencil and notebook all over again and wrote some words down. Katie rose a bit of an eyebrow as she held it up to him.

That's completely the wrong key to be singing that in.

The deep purple haired male widened his eyes further upon hearing this but in quite the animated way, he pretended to nod his head and click his fingers at Katie, as if he was really taking on her advice. The orange haired female wondered what all that was for but she let him get back to organising her things for her. It saved her from a job later on!

She began to relax a little bit more as she leaned against the window with me but that soon came to an abrupt stop when Justin held back more determined smirks and went back to humming. Katie didn't hesitate to sit up all over again and write to him a second time after letting out a loud sigh. She told him clearly what the problem was and used lots of exclamation points to prove her point.

Wrong again!

"Alright, alright, sorry! I think I got it this time. I won't mess it up." Justin told Katie with a serious face and a level tone and I watched as she slowly sunk back against the window sill. She kept hold of the notebook, however, and I knew that it was for the best. I knew that Justin wasn't going to give up with whatever he was trying to achieve.

The eldest Ketchum daughter nodded her head approvingly; for once completely unaware that Justin was playing a bit of a game with her and having her on. I thought that surely she would realise as he put her back-up books on the shelf for her in size order and though he finally sang in the right key, he purposely mixed the lyrics up.

Katie turned to give me a look. It was the first time she looked at me properly in a few days and I knew that I owed that to Justin. I forced myself not to well up. Instead, I gave her the same look back mixed with a little bit of amusement.

From just that look, I wasn't expecting anything to happen next. But it did. Something definitely did happen next. And it was something wonderful. I knew that I couldn't make a massive deal out of it when, once more, Katie pretended to let out a massive sigh at Justin and she purposely dropped his notebook to the floor. She sat up off the window sill and folded her arms, rolling her eyes in a light-hearted way. And she spoke.

"F-For good… For goodness sake, Justin. You'd… You'd have thought that it being your own… your own s-song and all that, you'd actually get the lyrics right." Katie uttered with a continuous eyebrow raise and after she bent over to pick his notebook back up off the floor and smooth down the covers, she looked right at him and sung the words back to him. Not only did she sing them correctly but she sang them faultlessly.

And I wondered if Justin wanted to react greatly to hearing Katie finally speak proper words to him. But he didn't. He didn't at all. First of all, he simply just tilted his head at her and smirked and in their own secret language, he playfully made a point that she was finally communicating with him. But she barely noticed. She was too busy singing back to him and because of that, second of all he just grinned hearing her sing his own song back to him without a single stutter. He felt a little bit giddy.

"It's mad that you can do that." He told her and in his own way, he told her how cool he thought it was that when she sung, she didn't stammer at all. But he was busy focusing on not making a big deal out of it, though he was very proud of that fact. I was thankful for him for that. All my protectiveness went away for good. He moved back over to her and stood with her and while his hands reached out to take the notebook back from her, he spoke once more. "Guess we don't need this. I wanted you to talk properly anyway." Justin admitted and from bemusement at him, Katie's demeanour suddenly changed to embarrassment that he had been purposely trying to get her to talk. Her face flickered with annoyance. Her eyes flickered with hurt. She almost tried to snatch the notebook back from him but Justin stopped her. He stopped her right away and he didn't hesitate to tell her. He reached for her hand too. "No, no, Katie. I like hearing you talk. And I like talking to you."

I didn't believe that I could love Katie anymore but I knew that I did as I watched her react to everything. I witnessed her go from abrupt hurt at thinking that Justin was just playing with her and using her to try and succeed at making her talk. I witnessed her go from that to her cheeks reddening hearing his words and feeling his hand holding hers as he spoke to her truthfully.

She looked right up at him and looked at his face, searching for honesty there too. She found that. He smiled at her. He didn't smile at her intensely; he smiled at her softly and genuinely. He was telling the truth and nothing but the truth. He really did like their conversations when they shared them.

Katie breathed out and she ducked her head shyly, letting go of Justin's hand and the notebook too. He watched her. He watched her and he waited but soon enough, he got a proper reaction out of her. And he got even more words out of her too.

"W-Well… Well if that's… that's the case and you're t-telling the truth, then I'm sure you'd like to… to hear me read and as… as it happens, I have a book filled with all k-kinds of new facts that you don't know." The orange haired female told Justin and she moved away from him to reach for the autobiography that she had just purchased a few days ago. She waited for an eye roll or a grimace from the older male. She didn't get much of one. He was too busy being glad that she was talking even more and she was still talking to him.

Though he did roll his eyes softly, Justin then nodded eagerly and he didn't hesitate to move back down to the ground and lean up against the wall that he had been doing so earlier on in the day. He invited me down to his lap and then put his hands by his side. He sat. And he waited. He smiled at Katie after encouraging her to sit with him too. He accepted many, many things and he certainly accepted her just the way he was.

"As you wish. Read away to me." He told her and after she had sat down next to him and made herself comfy and I decided to go and sit by her side instead and make the most of her company and her voice, he even stretched out his legs so they were resting on hers. He leaned his head back against the wall. He shut his eyes. "Read to me, Katie. I'm listening."

So read Katie did. And listen Justin did too. He didn't just listen to her read; he listened to everything. He listened to the way that her words got quicker when she was reading something she was really enthusiastic about. He listened to the way that she found herself doing different accents just for him. He listened to the way that she read quietly and carefully, wanting to savour each and every word. And not only did he listen, but he enjoyed every moment of it too. Because the truth was, he barely noticed her stammer nor did he care about it. And I hoped that would be a valuable lesson to Katie – the right people would care and not care all in one.

And one person that needed to not care was James. One person that needed to not worry – along with myself – was James. For when he returned back to Katie less than an hour later, not only did he find her talking but he found her being okay with it too. Her son had brought that out of her and for that, he was entirely grateful. He wasn't jealous at all. He was moved. He knew that slowly but surely Katie would accept herself. And he knew she would continue to move forward too, not only because he had taught her to do that but Justin did as well. He reassured her with words and lead by example also. And Katie made her own path but followed his too. Because if there was another person that she looked up to in her life, it was most certainly Justin.

The End.

There you go! Thanks so much for reading and I hope you enjoyed :3 This story pretty much sums up Justin and Katie's relationship. They certainly have a laugh together and accept one and other and share their struggles together. Even if when they're younger, they don't really talk about them. They just laugh their way through them. I like that no matter what happens between them and who they end up dating and where they go in their lives, the root of their relationship is acceptance. And not only that, I think that Justin probably will miss when Katie's stutter disappears for good. He views it as a part of her and wouldn't want to change it about her, though he'd probably like to help her accept it a bit more. Thanks again for reading and I'll be back next Wednesday with another chapter so see you then!

AmyBieberKetchum signing out :P