Hello! It is not Wednesday but I am back with a new chapter. I spent the entire week thinking every day was the day before so you can imagine my dismay when my alarm for work went today and I realised that I never uploaded this :D This one was a challenging one for me to tackle. The way in which Jordan (Misty's father) passed away was absolutely tragic but in ways, like many of the ways that alter paths and lead things to where they need to be, that event was indeed no different. In this chapter, we see Jordan in the early days following the passing of Lynne after her battle with breast cancer. We also get a feel for he and his cousin Eli's relationship in the midst of very sad times. I hope you still enjoy :)

Ages:

Eli: 24

Violet: 8

Lily: 6

Misty: 4

Jordan: 30

Disclaimer: I own the story and the OCs mentioned!

As Eli's bottom left the sofa, he was instead blessed with the knowledge that, although his nieces could ignore him for hours upon end, as soon as he prepared to leave them to it, they would have none of that. Such peculiarity, even hypocrisy, he felt. But that was the truth. And that was the exact position he found himself on that day.

Only just up from the couch in which he had previously resided, his open laptop was precariously balancing on the palm of his hand when, all of a sudden, he found two little girl's dancing around him, both of them clamouring for him not to go.

"But Uncle Eli!" Violet began, scarcely properly up off the floor from playing with her ornate doll's house but her doe eyes already searching and reaching for her relative. Her hands tried to cling onto him as much as her orbs did. "Don't go."

There was hardly a man who could appear sturdy under the wide and innocent gaze of Violet and the eight year old knew as much. Her stare was equally practiced as it was genuine. She still didn't let go of her uncle when he mumbled the word "jeez" from the corner of his mouth, trying not to allow her grip on his elbow to toss his laptop to the ground.

Eli was clutching his prized piece of technology with his other hand too when Lily displayed her plight also, standing equally as close to their uncle as her sister, already gesturing down to the blushing outfits that they were both wearing.

"We want to show you our new routine. You mustn't go." Lily insisted, a narrower gaze cutting a very different approach than her older sister, her touch not bothering reaching for her uncle and counting on her words doing the talking instead.

Though the deep violet haired male could recollect what they had both chosen to wear earlier on in the day, when they had both just risen, he did take the time to allow those sunken orbs of his to scan downwards, seeing for himself the hues of pink and sequins and understand what the two little girls were hinting towards.

Ah yes, Eli thought to himself, yet another of their dance routines that they still somehow had the energy to concoct. They were pretty cute displays, even he had to admit. But he had other, more important things to do on that day.

He went on to attempt to try and explain this to them.

Taking a moment to close his laptop shut with an unintentional snapping noise and placing it down on the coffee table before Violet and Lily's practicing twirling movements could knock it from his hold, he then tried to speak down to them as patiently as he could.

"Not now." He spoke to them, a monotone and crisp voice contradicting the bluntness of his words. Immediately, Lily's eyes became all the more angular, like her Uncle Eli's jawline. In return, tried to appear straighter, even taller, too. "I must speak with your father for a couple of moments. You understand, right?"

With a prompt quivering bottom lip, Violet was devastated but she couldn't help but understand. Pastel pink nail polish decorated fingers fell down towards her sides rather than bunching together in anguish.

Though she hadn't known it until her Uncle Eli was about to leave the room, but she wanted nothing more in the world than performing her new ballet routine with her sister. But she had to understand, didn't she? Even her young, airy fairy self, had to realise that if he was meant to be seeing to her father then it must be important. And she did.

Lily, on the other hand, was less inclined to understand. She didn't blink eyes of hers and nod her head understandingly when the deep violet haired male forced a patient smile himself and even bobbed that twitching head of his.

That became all the more crystal clear when, even though she did pretend to nod once, all of a sudden, the decorative musical box with a wooden ballerina crafted by hand was sent crashing from the eight year old girl's hands and straight down to Eli's foot.

He had barely enough time to moan out in pain and his face to contort downwards to his injured spot when Lily out of nowhere had a similarly doe eyed expression to her sister.

"Oops." She mumbled, forgoing looking at where the wooden box had crashed and splintered into separate pieces on the carpet surrounding her Uncle Eli's foot. Instead, those maroon hued orbs of hers travelled upwards, taking in each and every contortion that was then twisting on the male's expression.

Violet gasped immediately, a dramatic hand flying towards her hand and causing a gust of wind. Misty looked up herself from playing in another corner of the living room.

In spite of the fact that Eli must've been in great pain and he must have felt utter dismay rippling through him at the turn of events, he didn't have a greatly outward reaction at all. Instead, he merely clenched his jaw so it was sharper than ever, briefly looking down towards his sock covered foot and nursing it with his hand.

Then he let it go like it was a fish that belonged to swimming in the sea, placing his throbbing foot down on a batch of carpet that wasn't dusted with wood chippings and splinters.

Lily's expression didn't falter in being as wide eyed as Violet's but of course, for very different reasons. Eli was not ignorant to this. And he didn't stop words from rolling off his tongue as the pink haired child finally bent down to pick up two broken halves of her birthday present from the year prior.

"Charming." He uttered from out of a naturally clenched jaw, knowing all too well that Lily's mishap was hardly an accident. Somehow, he was able to quickly and quietly get over it, though, instructing her before speaking to both girls. "You're going to want to clean up this mess before someone gets all the more hurt." A pause. Misty dropped the figures of her own, hand-crafted doll house but by accident. "I will watch your ballet show when I return from what I need to do, okay?"

And because Violet was quick to nod, immediately complying with what was being put forth to them both, Lily had no choice but to follow suit. This wasn't because the deep violet haired girl was the older of the two, no. It was because if she disagreed with her or put forth a different hope for the way that things turned out, it would be confirmed to Eli that her mishap wasn't strictly an accident.

Misty knew this. However, the four year old girl in the corner of the room somehow managed not to strike her second oldest sister in a fully intentional manner as she lifted herself up from playing on the floor. Before her Uncle Eli could leave the room for good, she made a beeline for him like Violet and Lily had previously done.

Unlike them, however, her approach was entirely opposite. Perhaps she had pent up adrenaline rushing through her due to the fact that it hadn't been released by giving Lily a good bashing for hurting their relative so.

Whatever the case, Misty had demurely left what she had been playing with in the corner of the living room before pouncing on Eli and then lunging at him, dropping straight to the floor and hooking both of her arms around his ankles so he couldn't even dream of leaving the living room where most of them were.

The four year old girl didn't bother whispering the words 'don't go' – she did not need to. Not unlike Lily, she preferred to allow her actions to speak rather than words. Misty was clinging onto Eli's leg very tightly when he decided to reach down to her, a look of softness taking over his angular, young features despite his throbbing pain.

"Maybe you're more like a jungle cat than a shimmering fish like your Daddy thinks." Eli saw Misty from an angle as he peered down at her and then he stopped seeing her entirely for a couple of seconds, his eyes falling shut as he winced. When he next saw her again, he was attempting to reach down to her, trying to unhook her from holding so tightly onto him. "Not there, kiddo. That's my sore spot."

Eyes didn't need to wander over to anybody in particular. Everybody knew what he meant. Nevertheless, Misty didn't want to hurt him but she didn't want to let go of him either. She decided to show her Uncle Eli that she could be a stealthy snake as much as anything else and she attempted to coil around him, being partially dragged across the living room carpet when the deep purple haired male moved a step or two.

"I mean it." Eli tried to tell her, in equal measures aiming to stop his mouth having an elevating curve to it but utterly failing. His hand resting on the crook of the child's arm for a couple of seconds as he gave up trying to unhook her, he found himself squatting down to her level as she refused to budge. "Leave me alone." He tried again, only realising that his bluntness had gotten the better of him and been misread when Misty's expression altered and her attachment grew limp. "Why don't you go and feed the fishies over there? I'll come get you when I'm done talking to your Daddy. You understand, right?"

Alas, the four year old girl seemed not to understand. And though Eli had tried his hardest to make up for the words that he had intended to set free but not exactly in that tone, it was to no avail. He just had to watch as Misty then granted his wish by unhooking herself from him but going the extra mile and having a neck craning so far downwards towards her chest that she might've been able to take a peek into the Fiore Region if she was lucky.

Eli felt his calve muscles growing as limp as his youngest niece's entire body had done in the moments before she let go but that still didn't stop him from being able to return back to his full height. A soft breeze escaped from his nostrils as after he looked at the forlorn silhouette that was Misty and shook his head to himself, he looked around the rest of the family room.

But again, that was to no avail. Daisy wasn't about to offer any comfort to any of her sisters, or reprimand the ones who needed a good telling off. It was becoming more and more frequent for her to be hiding away in her room and given the circumstances, Eli couldn't help but understand. She was not too dissimilar from their father in that way.

And after thinking of that yellow haired male and somehow successfully disappointing all of his nieces bar one, Eli decided to head out of the room for good and actually crack on with what he needed to do. And navigate his way to where he needed to be.

On his way, he wondered how on earth Jordan did that kind of thing every day. He was useless at dealing with them all, he felt. But in actuality, he never would have dreamed that the yellow haired male felt exactly the same way. And frequently so. Devastatingly so.

Eli didn't bother to knock on the door of where he knew his cousin to be but looking back, it probably would have been the polite thing to do. Nonetheless, he didn't feel the need to on that day and he headed straight in, his throbbing foot not hesitating to pass over the threshold and the other one following.

"Day" is a loose word, I am told. In the early weeks following Lynne's passing, it was hard to describe any whole twenty four hours as a day. They seemed to be just endless miserable and aching minutes blurring into one. And there were many parts of the house that didn't know how to behave normally either. The bedroom of Jordan and his newly passed wife were no exception.

Eli saw not a single drop of daylight filtering into the room where he knew his cousin to be but still was able to see perfectly easily with those wide eyes of his. On top of this, he always knew where to find Jordan.

Not sat on the edge of the bed, no, and certainly not under the covers either. The deep purple haired male knew that he didn't even lie upon there to go to sleep, understanding that he wanted the sheets to still smell of the love of his life rather than the stench of him – hollow and incomplete.

Heading into the room, Eli didn't hesitate to greet Jordan straight away when he made a beeline towards him sitting at the foot of the bed and on the floor. He had been into that bedroom and seen that sight so many times and he hated it more and more as he added an extra line to the invisible tally chart.

It was the place in the house where there was still a lingering wisp of life but in the same breath, it was where everything grew grave and silent. It was the room that time forgot and yet dually, the room that bled memories. It was a time trap. An eternal pit of time not moving forward.

Yet all Eli could do was for just a couple of seconds, pretend that everything was still the same and everything was fine. If not for Jordan, then he had to pretend for himself.

"Whatcha looking at?" he asked his cousin with wilting sunshine locks in the moments that he stood over him. Then, when he slid down from the foot of the bed and sat next to him, all became perfectly clear and he changed his tune. "Whatcha looking at?"

He did not change his tactic when he suddenly realised that his choice of language utterly went against his prestigious private school education. Eli had to alter his words when he saw his cousin with knees pulled close to his scarcely beating chest looking at a selection of photographs fanned out against his hand while the other hand of his was despairingly tugging at strands of his own hair.

Of course. Of course there were no prizes for what – or rather, who – Jordan was gazing upon. The head of the Williams' house hardly moved though he felt the presence of his cousin and his words could not be ignored.

Though he didn't appear to have been weeping, his eyes were bloodshot and raw and they were moist too. That was how he presented himself to the world each and every day that he had faced without Lynne. While he was rarely seen actually sobbing, his eyes were constantly wet, like how the shore was never left to dry, always having the ocean lapping against the sand.

Eli could never tell Jordan with words but it ripped him apart almost as much as facing as the death of Lynne himself; seeing his cousin in state of such utter despair. He had seen him heartbroken before, even completely and utterly with not much love left for the world.

But this was different. There was barely anything. Barely anything at all. He had become a hollow shell of the man that had once resided in there. Lynne took a piece of him with her when she had to go away. And then the only guaranteed constant in his life and the only true companion was her absence.

A grunt. A grunt at last erupted from the throat of Jordan and after he had done this, he attempted to straighten his back and tugged his hand away from his hair, clutching all of the photographs with two strong hands of his. Well, they were sturdy and unmoving for anybody to see. But inside, they felt numb and like they were hardly reacting to life at all.

Still, Jordan at least tried to put on a brave face and for the sake of his cousin, tried not to act like he had been discovered doing the same actions day after day. But certainly, Eli was no fool. Those sunken yet inquisitive young orbs of his could see through practically anyone and anything and they were particularly skilled at doing this with one of the few of his family members that he actually liked.

Eli didn't want Jordan to pretend with him, no matter how much he would go on to lay awake that night worrying about him. So because of this, he prompted him more, a hoodie covered shoulder colliding with a knitted sweater one – a gesture which could have gone down either way.

"Whatcha thinking about?" he wondered and in that moment, it was like it had actually been conveyed with words from Eli that he did not wish for Jordan to pretend around him. In an unspoken language, the yellow haired male knew this to be the truth so he faltered and properly this time.

The pictures of his late love and all of the times that they had shared floated like angels down towards the floor and not long after his digits were empty, all of them were occupied with the sensation of tickling strands of yellow locks and a forehead that had not stopped throbbing.

Eli watched his cousin behave in this manner for a couple of moments before he then watched him leaning back, his touch falling away from the top of his head and travelling downwards, attempting to massage over the corners of his nose and his own upper lip.

With a shake of his own head, Jordan finally wearily spoke to him.

"Everything." He told him initially and in a vocal tone that could often be heard growling from the throat of Eli. This wasn't what made the younger of the pair stare all the more with those fixated eyes of his. "Everything. And nothing." A shake of the head from Jordan like he was trying to rid himself of any thoughts that he might have had. "Sometimes I think that I'm going to wake up and this whole thing has just been a horrendous nightmare…"

He tried to chuckle from behind both of his wide-spread hands but it was no use. It came out more like a cough and then his eyes fell shut, his touch failing on his face and deciding to hug around his legs for extra support.

Eli stared at his cousin as he sat next to him for a couple of minutes, seemingly unblinking. For a rare occasion, he was pondering how he was going to proceed. And then after he actually acted upon the desire that took over him, he was left believing that perhaps he should have had a touch more patience.

Jordan's eyes opened back up again when he felt the sharp sensation plucking at the back of his upper arm and he immediately knew that Eli was pinching him, trying to help him by waking him up from his nightmare if he was actually indeed in one.

The deep purple haired of the two hoped that his cousin would reciprocate, feeling his far narrower arm being plucked and pinched and he too would wake back into a world where the orange haired female was still around and she could return to touching all of the lives that she once had reached out to.

But that in itself would have been a dream. You could not shut your eyes on reality, no matter how hard you tried. And Eli pinching on Jordan's arm only reminded him that he truly had to face day after day with the sunshine in his life and naturally, it caused him to become a rain cloud.

No sooner as he had tried to shrug his younger cousin's touch away, he grumbled, his hands resuming moving back up towards the top half of his face and going the extra mile by concealing his eyes too.

"Leave me alone." He hardly even managed to whisper, his upper lip feeling the attempt of a comforting touch of his lower lip before both of them pressed together in a firm line, determined to keep all other words and emotions in.

Eli's eyes were naturally wide at the best of the times but they took on a whole other quality in that second. Even so, it didn't last long because despite the aching, contorting and constricting of all of Jordan's inner organs and going against the words that he had spoken to him, he took his turn to lightly bash his shoulder against the younger males.

It goes without saying that a wholehearted gesture of this kind would've usually sent Eli flying. However, he had hardly any strength left in him so during those moments; it was just a comfortable bump.

Eli wouldn't have minded if Jordan would have gone on to bash into him so hard that he went whooshing through the window. At least he would be there with him and reacting. He knew that Lynne had taken a piece of Jordan with her. He just knew that he needed her to leave his cousin with some of his voice and some of his spirit as well.

Silence then passed between the two cousins as they sat next to each other on the floor. It could hardly be described as a comfortable silence but it was not exactly an uncomfortable one either. I supposed it was just exactly what it was. It was a silence. It was one that needed to happen. And it was one that needed to end too.

Robotically, Jordan's head rolled to the side of him and he watched as after the third hand movement on the clock on the bedside table had passed, Eli's hands grew restless and they reached for the photos on the carpet that had previously been discarded.

Although the faded yellow haired male didn't do anything to communicate how he felt to any degree, Eli garnered that it was okay to look and he garnered that it was okay to keep looking when he didn't feel another pressured sensation against the round of his shoulder.

Alternatively, after the deep violet haired male had shuffled through the photograph memories and he momentarily found his upper lip falling into his mouth before his lower one did and his nose scrunched, he discovered himself being spoken to.

At first, he could hardly be sure because the sounds blended into the background of his mind, behind all of the chatter through the swirls of his brains and the wondering of how he too would go through life without the knowledge that he still had Lynne in it.

And then it was undoubted. Eli looked away from the glossy yet well-thumbed and stared at photographs in his hands long enough to read Jordan's lips and hear the words being put forth to him a second time, repeated because his cousin had not replied to the first.

"Can you keep a secret…?" Jordan asked his cousin, somehow mumbling out in the same weary earnestness as the first time he had uttered it in spite of the fact that it was the second due to the younger male being in his own world.

Eli had indeed heard these words being spoken and had the ability to read them forming on his lips to boot but he still took a good moment or so to respond in the way that he would go on to do.

As his gaze travelled from the mouth of his cousin to the almost bruised eyes of his, he sure hoped that he could keep a secret because it would be mighty hypocritical if he couldn't do that for Jordan after he had kept hush about each and every thing that he had told him over the years.

For a simple second, Eli wondered if Jordan would gage this. But then he inwardly shook his head to himself, telling himself that they were far too intricate thoughts to be able to be laced on an expression lasting three seconds at the most.

"Mmm…" Eli at last replied out loud to his cousin's words. Or rather, he at last replied with sound. No one can be sure whether it was something to be grateful or not about how Jordan was far too lifeless to make his eyes blink and his neck crane as an outward display of wondering why he had taken so long to be acknowledged.

A burst of air erupted from the corner of Jordan's mouth and this was the only conveying gesture of the fact that he had been left waiting. Eli's widened eyes must've felt the breeze of his gesture. But perhaps, he was focused far too much on anticipating what his cousin would say next for him to understand such a sensation.

It was Eli's turn to be left waiting, another notion that went unnoticed by him. Yet if he had been able to clearly read his cousin's mind and hear each and every one of the chattering noises that accompanied it, he would have heard a cacophony of thoughts, all talking over each other and not letting the other finish.

Maybe Jordan blurted out in order to silence his own inner musings.

"Both of the girls' grandmothers think that their futures are anywhere other than here with me and believe that they could do a better job raising them going forward…" he told Eli, managing to wait until he was done with his words for his thumb to fall into his mouth and a loose flap of skin be nibbled upon by his front teeth.

Somehow mirroring this but doing it in his own way all the same, Eli listened to the words that were being put forth and chewed on a loose bit of skin inside his own mouth, two lines decorating above his nose like markings on a street and causing his eyebrows to seek solace closer together.

He looked away in order to give himself time to process what he was hearing but then after no more than a second or two, he looked back again and he couldn't act like he hadn't heard this kind of thing before. And Eli did not bother to hide this fact either.

"That's hardly a secret, Jordan…" he replied to him, choosing to attempt to sit straighter up and the reason for this being because hunching over a computer for hours on end did the opposite of wonders for his back. However, it did wonders in allowing him to see things clearer. And all of a sudden, he stopped wondering why his cousin was telling him things that he had already figured out himself. "Wait…"

One single word was all that he needed to utter. It goes without saying that years of each other's companionship and being the others only true friend in the world allowed them to share a secret language between them both. More often than not, they didn't need to say complete sentences because the other could always follow either way.

In that second, it didn't take much at all for Eli to figure out why Jordan had started telling him about this particular subject. And moreover, how he felt about the opinions of Janet and Florence respectively.

Jordan did not need Eli to add the words "and you're thinking about it" to the silence that passed after his one, single word. He did not need to nod either to confirm it.

"I'm thinking about it…" he confessed, going against Eli and sliding further down against the foot of the bed, and as if the carpet longed to swallow him whole so he would not have to face the reactions of his words. While he did not look back at his cousin in return, he could somehow guess his expression clear as day as it stared at him from the side. "Oh don't look at me like that."

The situation might have called for Jordan out of defensiveness to slide back up the foot of the bed, displaying an erecter spine and more confident posture. But these were yet more things that Lynne had taken with her on a journey to beyond. If there was such a place. Jordan at the time doubted it.

Among having a secret, hushed language between the two of them in which they sometimes didn't need to utter much at all, the duo were also unlikely to hold back from each other. This became clear from the way that Eli unfalteringly continued staring at the older male, his side profile appearing stronger and more defined than ever before.

"How could you…" the young self of Eli breathed out in more of a statement rather than a question and this paired with a dismayed shake of the head encouraged Jordan to set the record straight.

For a good while, he could not look directly at the older man, fearing the confused, moist rounded eyeballs of his that he guessed that he possessed.

"I didn't say that I was going to agree to it and send the girls to God knows where." Jordan snapped. And this was one of the few moments that could be counted on the one hand that he did this in between Lynne's passing and his own. "I said I'm thinking about it…" The energy of his voice had returned back to null. "How could I not at least think about it…? They're left with one living parent and unfortunately for them, it's me…"

And with that, any remainder of energy that he might have had, had been used up in the moment that he retorted to his cousin. That was undoubted when his spine became practically a curved shape, hugging his legs closer to his chest and only just managing not to rest his chin down on his knees.

Any other time, Eli would have softened immediately and he would have seen to his cousin's best interests and made sure that he was okay, understanding that continual silence from him usually meant that he was the opposite of okay.

However, like his own words had actually expressed in one way or another, Eli could not believe his cousin. Regardless of it all, he was in sheer disbelief. And he didn't stop himself from sharing this before reaching into the pockets of his midnight hued hoodie.

"I don't get you sometimes, man…" he spoke in a tone that was beyond his years yet before he could ruminate on the sensations then rushing through his own core, his hands disappeared into his pockets and he pulled an item or two out.

It was Eli's turn not to look at his cousin and instead only guess the blurry silhouette of a strong profile as it stared at him. Jordan stared at the younger male as he popped one of the cigarettes from the packet in his mouth and lifted a cupped hand and a lighter to the end of it, intent on bringing it to life.

These actions were brought to a swift end.

"Don't you dare do that in here." Jordan seemingly had some more fragments of gusto left over. His jaw clenched, giving his cousin's facial structure a run for its money and he slapped the cigarette out from his pursed lips, sending it cascading down towards where the photographs had previously fluttered too.

Eli's sunken eyes trickled down towards where the floating shape had abandoned him at the hand of Jordan rather than the suddenly intense gaze of his cousin. As the dual white and brown roll fell down to the ground and even flakes of tobacco littered themselves on the carpet too, he understood that it would have been disrespectful to go against Jordan's wishes for his own home.

But more importantly it would have been disrespectful – no, callous – of him to fill the room that was still lightly decorated with a lingering cloud of Lynne's perfume, with the throat tickling fog of his smoking habit instead.

Still not allowing his eyes to take in any part of his relative at all, Eli's eyelids momentarily clasped together before wordlessly, his packet of cigarettes snuck back into the front stomach pockets of his hoodie and the lighter went along with it.

The discarded one remained on the carpet, limp and lying there. A gift of an apology is what it was. Or a reminder of heatedness between two people before both of their lives grew a lot less colourful thanks to the loss of someone special to them both.

"I don't get you sometimes, man…" Eli broke the silence that hung around for them both, with a swift motion of his hand brushing over the curls which resided at the top of his head, a black veil concealing and cupping his face. Jordan couldn't look at him either and it made him easier to speak from his own damaged heart. "You know what a less than desirable father looks like. And you are the complete and utter opposite of one."

One cousin spoke to another cousin, both of their postures identical that time as their spines curved not under the weight of their own bodies but off the circumstances that had befallen them both. Even so, they did not feel the need to look at one and other. Or perhaps, they did not feel able to look at each other, at least not in those moments.

For two people who shared so much growing up, they never would have dreamed that they would have to deal with such a terrible dealing of the hand together. It was easy to say that at least they had each other. In truth, they wholeheartedly didn't wish it for the other person. And it made it so much worse at times.

Jordan shook his head with eyes that couldn't look over at the younger male and a mouth that tried its hardest to be a firm line but quivered, causing dimples like craters of a moon to bubble along the structure of his chin.

"They don't deserve to have been left with me…" another confession came, Jordan's eyelashes slowly drawing closer together and then entwining before any wetness that could be mustered could be set free from eyelids that longed to shut. "This can't be reality. It just can't be…"

Perhaps a wrong moment for that to be the one in which Eli finally chose to properly look at his cousin. But the truth was, it was this exact moment.

You see, life isn't perfect. And the moments of heartache and sorrow and utter despair naturally live up to this exact sentence. Within the chaos of it all, mistakes are made. But sometimes – not just sometimes and often a lot of the time – these errors lead you to a better place.

"Well it is reality and you can't shut your eyes to it." Eli looked at Jordan with unblinking yet not unkind eyes, staring into the flushed appearing and watery expression of his cousin while he understandably still could not look at him in return. Any harshness didn't last for much longer. The younger of the two suddenly sunk against the older of the two, patience lacing his train-track voice. "But no matter how much you try to convince yourself, you are not alone… You don't have to do this alone… It's so scary. But there is still life everywhere…"

That was the problem, Jordan thought to himself, with his eyes firmly squeezed shut and willing the tears to be absorbed back into his eyeballs before he opened his lids and they gushed out like a geyser in some corners of the region that he called a true home.

Life went on. But life wasn't a life without Lynne. She gave him meaning from the moment that she walked past him on the dockyards, in her prissy school uniform and with her good-girl attitude. His life had been in greyscale before their paths crossed. And now that she was gone, he was doubtful that he would ever see rainbows yet again.

A loud sudden sniff and Jordan's eyes opened. He had managed to keep any leaking just for himself and completely invisible to everybody. Or so he thought. Eli had not seen them but he had sensed them.

Still, he looked over at his dear cousin as he attempted to compose himself. Eli didn't care that he was unable to. He had tried. And that was the bravest thing in the world.

That mouth of his becoming more of a wobbly line as time passed, one of Jordan's flat palms brushed over his eyes and through his hair in one. And then he admitted in a voice that was like a leaf in fall about to tumble towards the ground.

"I will always be alone without Lynne…" he told his truth, trying to encourage his lips to do something other than shaking in close proximity by forcing a smile. Eli was forced to subtly swallow at the gallant attempt. "It doesn't matter how many people are around. She isn't. So there will always be a loneliness everywhere I look…"

Sunken eyes of the younger male dropped down and away before they encouraged themselves to look back again, not wanting to turn their back on the displays of his relative as he confessed more and more things.

It could be worrying to hear such confessions of the heart. But in truth, Eli worried more when he wasn't hearing things. When they were spoken, they were shared and they were sent to the ether and weight wasn't quite so loaded on the shoulders of Jordan.

When they were kept inside though, they festered and they grew and they nipped. They nipped away at everything. The soul of a man. Eli could not let that happen.

"Don't allow your daughters to lose two parents at once… They need you looking back at them rather than back to the past…" Eli began and to counteract the beginning of a harsh truth yet again, instead of shoulder to shoulder bumping together, the curve of a hand cupped a broad shoulder; squeezing it and intending on not letting it go. "C'mon… You're the guy who protected me summer after summer on the docks of Johto and threw rocks and never let anybody get a hold of me…" Eli tried to remind. And then he encouraged, his touch somehow loosening yet reaching out further in one. "You can keep her memory alive while still living yourself…"

And it was this slight slumping of the touch and trailing of the words that captured Jordan and didn't let him go. He finally understood what his cousin was getting at. Though he wouldn't remember all of his wisdom forever and there would be parts of his words that would get lost as more time passed and he lost more of himself, he heard it in that moment. And he used it to be brave for at least one more day.

That time he didn't bother to hide the pools that swarmed at the back of his eyes. Eli could sense it with no more than a second glance back to him. But he didn't smother him either. His touch merely there if Jordan wanted it to be there, first and foremost he allowed Jordan to feel. And reveal.

A shake of the head rattled the pools of water behind his eyes. Then he shrugged and sniffed, trying to rid them for good and trying to live up to Eli's words for at least one day. After all, he owed the same person that after he went to the effort at trying to get through to him.

"Her memory burns brightly and beautifully all by itself without me tossing my coal onto the fire…" Jordan's lips scarcely appeared to move but these words were undoubted. Eli would have liked to linger on them more. But then he felt the sturdiness of a shoulder pressing into him and weakness being shown beneath it. "Are you sure the girls' wouldn't be better off with her Mom…? I want to do right by them… And after all, it was she who made and raised that unforgettable woman…"

This was one of the moments in Eli's life that he is most proud to say that he was able to hold his tongue. He refrained from saying "that strict old witch?" and instead took a moment to inhale and exhale, perhaps feeling the presence of Lynne rushing through him and encouraging to speak words that would make things better rather than make things worse.

He was encouraged to speak words that would make things seem clearer. And the last thing he wanted was to blur the other male's vision yet again so he went with it after an inward bob of the head to himself.

"An anomaly, I believe…" Eli started, quickly feeling the whites of Jordan's eyes scanning closer towards him. For half a second, he looked to the ceiling in order to figure out more of what he wanted to say before it appeared to effortlessly roll of his tongue. "Unforgettable despite the upbringing of her mother… You know what light that Lynne possessed and how best to instil it into the girls' that you share… I believe in you…"

And in that moment, all Jordan did was wordlessly nod his head and finally allow his chin to travel down towards his kneecaps, seeking refuge there and seeking refuge in the solace that memories of him and the love of his life brought to him after the initial tearing sensation in the heart.

In hindsight, maybe he should have pondered that this was the first time that Eli uttered actual words of pride and affirmation towards his cousin rather than skirting around it, saying them in not so many words and disguised words and sentences. But Jordan didn't focus on this. And that would have to be okay.

He would recall it. One day. Eventually.

For the time being, at the forefront of his mind was the person who had completed him all those years ago and actually discovered all those broken pieces of him and fixed them back together. He thought about all that they had created, the memories and the children too.

And then, of course, it was this moment that Misty decided to make her presence known for a second time during this tale. Just like her Uncle Eli, she didn't bother to knock either. She knew the insides and out of her parents' bedroom and how it had been before and how it could be typically found during those moments of her life.

No daylight was still making its way into the room. Yet regardless, she made her way right over to her father and collided right into his arms before he had a say in whether he wanted her to appear there or not.

Eli, however, was the one to speak words of her sudden and perhaps inappropriate appearance.

"Didn't I tell you to leave me alone?" he spoke these formidable words a second time but despite this, he made sure to put on a tone that allowed the four year old child to understand that it was all in jest. It was water under the bridge for him and he hoped it was for her too. "I said I would come find you after I was done with your Daddy."

There are many parts of Misty that make up the fabric her DNA and, to be sure, there were segments of her Uncle Eli that made their way in there. Entwined by their directness, they both were.

And this was wholeheartedly proven in the moment that while the four year old's face was squished against her father's hard yet inviting chest and he was inhaling her ever closer to him, she made a clear gaze right to the deep violet haired male and she replied to him without a moment of hesitation.

"I came to see my Daddy, not you." She told him and with that, contrasting her father whose eyes had fluttered shut at the closeness with his youngest girl, her eyes fell shut against him in the moment that his sprung open with surprise. However, this didn't last for long. And then she was mirroring her idol of a father and she was speaking to Eli a second time. "How long are you staying here…?"

Thanks to the previous burn of the bluntness of the words that Misty had initially come out with, this paired with the widened look of Jordan and the smile that longed to stretch open but still didn't manage to could've given the deep violet haired male the impression that he was unwelcome. But this was hardly the case. In fact, it was the exact opposite. But not something that Misty outwardly or verbally explained.

"Oh, as long as I need to be here, I should think…" Eli decided in those few seconds to think about his words before saying them and think how he was going to say them too. His reply was no doubt true too. He really did not want his cousin to think that he could not be left alone. But he also understood how hard it would be for him when he finally sent himself packing too.

Jordan felt an up and down movement through his jumper and against his chest and he knew that it was his daughter nodding against him. He drew her closer still. It was the kind of suffocation that she did not mind. In fact, it was the type that she needed. It often knocked the wind out of her. And sometimes sent thoughts rushing through her mind too.

This was the case on that day and during those few moments. After a couple of clock ticking motions of otherwise silence, she thought to herself all the more. And then she asked; a kind of innocence bubbling through her that made it heart-breaking to know she had dealt with such a devastating loss.

"Are you going to be my Mommy now?" she asked Eli seriously, a shake of the head and a struggling action of the rest of her body indicating that she wanted just a little bit of space from the hug so she could converse with Eli and get the record set straight.

A jolt erupted through Jordan that was not laughter. It was not horror. It was somehow a mix of the two. Misty looked up at him with a frown linking the two of her brows before back over at the person who she had actually been talking to.

Despite that he was probably due to answer and he couldn't at least spluttered and choked out a "no!" sound or an incomprehensible one that meant the same thing, it was actually Jordan who decided to speak.

He could've squeaked out in the same imagined manner as Eli. But he refrained, instead taking a leaf out of Misty's book and by becoming serious, lifting the four year old girl up underneath the armpits and crossing one leg of his other the other so she could reside there. Her hands instantly reached out to his arms for comfort.

"No, you will only ever have one Mommy. Even if you can't see her…" Jordan informed her and he tried to muster a smile of the mouth but that kind of thing was hard to manage. He did well enough by a lightness decorating his eyes, even if wetness threatened to prick too. "Even…"

Misty had tried her hardest to listen. Yet when her father who always had an answer for all of her questions and always had something to say in response to her words was rendered a little bit wordless, it caused her eyebrows to draw all the closer together as an act of companionship.

Moreover, one of her hands left the largely curved bicep of her father and it reached for his index finger to hold onto, an even closer act of companionship.

Still somehow surprising him never mind their many years side by side, Eli felt it appropriate to continue Jordan's words for him when he could not do it, even reaching a ginger hand out and tufting bangs of the same colour that hung about his niece's young face.

"Even if you can't see her…" Eli agreed and he would go on to continue. Jordan felt his daughter's grip clutching his finger all the more as she looked over at her Uncle Eli so he knew that she was still there. What a great kid, he thought. "You can feel her everywhere, can you not? Because she has touched so many, countless lives…"

And at last, it was Eli's turn to trail off a touch more than usual. For most of the part, regardless of the attachment that he had once felt for Lynne, he then felt her loss through the eyes of his cousin and his nieces most of all.

However in that moment, he was realising what a blow that he was going to feel when he too finally allowed himself to process it. It was an understatement to say that it was rare to meet someone like Lynne. She had swept Eli off his feet almost as much as she had swept Jordan. She had always accepted him. Never judged. Never questioned him.

A bit of a trio, they had once been. Back to a duo, they were. But a duo with memories of the highest order. Memories that would prevail even once the kindest of hearts had turned to ice.

The deep violet haired male was brought back to the reality which he had kept insisting upon to Jordan by not any noises of emotion from that same cousin of his but instead the unmistakable touch of a four year old child.

In the one hand, Misty did not let go of her father's finger and in the other, she was tugging on the drawstring of Eli's hoodie and secretly tugging on his heartstring too. It was while she did this to the both of them that she spoke again, rising above any lingering emotions of the room.

"Is she back home where you live too…?" she questioned. And then at her own idea and the sheer possibility of it all, she lifted her own head high upon her neck and it would surely encourage Jordan to do the same in moments that he longed to agonise down at his feet. Perhaps Eli too! "Can I see you there before we say bye-bye?"

Eli was hardly likely to let down such a small child, was he? It was true that his bluntness and his honesty often had no limits; he was rather reluctant to break the hearts of such small things. Least of all his niece. Least of all a niece which happened to belong to his cousin that was his beloved Jordan!

Both of those cousins then shared a wordless look following Misty's proposition, each other's reflection as they tilted their heads on the one side and their lips puckered, silently surveying it with each other. And then the one of them spoke, agreeing. It was Eli again. And Jordan was more than relieved to have plans on the horizon beyond merely staring into the distance.

"Well of course, my love." He agreed, the four year old child immediately brightening although she had hardly been a thunderstorm before. Well, apart from when she had initially decided to burn her Uncle Eli. "We can all go. You can have the special tour edition where I show you all the places that your Daddy and I had the most fun when we were young."

There weren't really many words that Misty's young self could say following this agreement from her Uncle Eli and at first, it became a possibility that she wouldn't move past her first, single uttering and the way that she had drawn closer to them both, trying to rest her head on both of their opposite shoulders at the same time.

"Yay." Misty began, though the both of them expected this to be the only thing to come out of her. They should have expected the unexpected. Yet, they could never have dreamed that they would be united in a moist feeling in the corner of both of their eyes. "Wherever you go, I want to go."

The four year old girl sweetly but genuinely spoke and though she did not let go of the drawstring of her Uncle Eli's hoodie, pulling on it contentedly like it was her own personal church bell, her head then ducked closer to her father so she could nuzzle him all the more so.

Tears pooled Jordan's eyes without a moment of hesitation and couldn't be stopped, turning sea green orbs into the oceans that they looked like under the right light. That time, he did not bother to swallow or sniff or shut his eyes and pretend as though they didn't exist.

Pure and unrelenting love for his daughter wholeheartedly existed. And it would be this that would go on to keep him going throughout all of his lives.

However, as much as Eli detected this unconditional love between the two of them and enjoyed silently observing it as he sat as close to them as he could possibly find himself, he then realised that Jordan had snuck off to the room which he had once shared with his love for some quiet time and probably had not had enough of that.

So despite the fact that he could see Jordan clinging onto his daughter equally as much as she was doing to him, he decided to lightly suggest, taking his turn to nudge his shoulder against the four year old girl's one that time.

Once her attention was garnered, Eli mentioned something about ice cream in the ice pack freezer of the gym part of the Cerulean building that none of her other sisters knew about and he wondered if Misty fancied sneaking off to try some with him.

Understandably, while she was more than happy in her happy place and snuggled right up close to her father, there was still a part of her that could not be stopped when it came to the mention of an ice cream. She quickly complied, reaching upwards for Eli's hand when he stood up with her, intending on allowing her to follow him out of a room that time on that day.

Still of course, there was one person that Misty could not forget about even with such sweetness in her mind. Her whole fist wrapped around Eli's thumb, she turned back to her father who had his chin back on his knees again, grateful for a cousin that knew him well and granted him alone time, but also wondering whether their joint agreement was for the best.

Any fretting vanished as soon as Jordan heard words from his youngest child. And it was her voice that was sweeter than ice cream that made him smile for the first time properly since Lynne's passing.

"You coming, Daddy?" she asked him and with a hand still latched onto Eli's thumb, her other hand reached back out for Jordan's index finger before he could say yes to going with them or otherwise.

The deep violet haired male tried not to look as best as he could but from the corner of his wide eyes, he gauged all and it caused his chest to elevate and then inflate in the same second. Shoulders lifted high under his hoodie.

How could Jordan think he was alone? He never was. With a daughter like Misty, he could be kept afloat forever, Eli felt.

Misty then felt other fingers squeezing against the entirety of a closed fist around her father's one index finger. Before words of compliance were actually uttered, she knew what was going to happen from this gesture alone. She believed that she could not feel more afloat. She was stood corrected.

The room did not need daylight anymore. A real smile from Jordan was like a thousand bulbs glittering in every corner of the room.

"Wherever you go, I want to go." Jordan replied and then with that, his fingers brushed further over Misty's hand and he stood up for good, leaving photographs of memories discarded on the carpet and Eli's abandoned cigarette too.

The three of them including two men with a four year old child holding onto both of them left prints on the carpet in their wake too. Remnants of moments together. Remnants of conversations. Words and feelings that they would carry them beyond. Beyond that day. Beyond that life.

Into the Cerulean Gym they went. To find ice cream. To make new memories. Ones that would last beyond just the one lifetime. For them all.

And maybe Lynne had not reached that time in her life at that point but still, I knew that she was looking down upon them all. For it is within the greatest tragedies that we form the closest bonds. It is during moments of intense separation that we discover who we never want to be apart from. It is in the moments that tear our souls apart that teach us why we keep going.

It is only because of Jordan's admirable determination to keep focusing on the better days that this story is even here for me to not only remember but share too. He didn't realise that his path towards enjoyment of life could become a beacon of light for those that wished to follow. That's what makes him a hero. Not just to Misty. But to me too.

The End.

There you go! Thanks so much for reading and I hope you enjoyed :) Yeah, this was a hard one. Jordan is such a devloped character for me but I tend to focus on the strength of his character and when he finds love for his new, second life. Here we see the strength of his character during moments he would rather forget. But as you can see, he still has the devotion of the people around him. It was important adding little details of his character which eventually add to the full picture of how and why he ended up leaving in the way that he did. Again, it was challenging! But that is his life. I'm glad he falls in love with living again :) Thanks again and I will be back again next on the 28th with Dear Darlings so see you then!

Amy signing out :P