Hello! It is Wednesday and I am back with a new chapter. In some ways, this is a bit of a filler chapter but it also does serve a purpose. As well as seeing an earlier dynamic between Katie and Eli (who is actually a relation to her) but we see how she assists in the rebuilding of Justin and Eli at least being something to each other again in the years after their break up - and the years before they rekindle for good. Naturally, I enjoyed the implications of both the guys' relationship in this one, but also Justin's with Katie too! I hope you enjoy :)

Ages:

Eli: 34

Katie: 19

Justin: 25

Disclaimer: I own the story and the OCs mentioned!

A crane in my neck and the sun in my face, I watched as Katie and Eli practically tumbled out of the double doors, no sounds escaping from their throats but they might has well have been laughing out loud from their merry dispositions. Their company warmed me almost as much as the Sinnoh weather. I knew that it would continue to be a wonderful day.

Crossing the threshold from the building that was predominately glass but also layered with brick the hue of the rocky terrain of Route 228, Eli's arm fell from pushing the door open and moved so his finger could rattle inside his ear instead.

With an expression of crumpled paper, he let his voice be known almost as soon as Katie looked in his direction, her own arms falling to her sides.

"Jeeeeeez, those guitars of his certainly make an impact!" Eli announced, no doubt his burrowing motion of a worm-like finger in his ear making his supposed tinnitus from being inside the recording studio all the worse. "How are you not completely rattled by that?"

Nonetheless, while his actions didn't cease, his expression matched the weather once again. Katie's own demeanour was similar and shuffling her legs closer to me in order to include me too which I greatly appreciated, giggles could be heard behind a blanket hand.

Pushing her chin length locks away from her with a swaying motion of the head, it was her turn to crease her expression up and add a crease to the side of her nose. A shrug followed too.

"I don't know…" she began. Eli gave up rattling the inside of his ear for good and turned to his relative, then his hands not knowing what to do with themselves. I watched as they hooked through the loops of his black trousers before lightly grazing his own thighs. "I'm not sure if it's a good thing or a bad thing that I'm used to it."

After scooting near me so our company was a trio rather than a duo, Katie hung about and merely looked over at Eli as she interacted with him, not moving her feet anymore. She didn't head backwards into the building, nor did she head on to the parking lot of the recording studio.

The man native from Unova's digits remained restless. They altered once again, that time resting on his own hips. While his body seemed unable to make his mind up, Eli knew exactly what to say and conversation flowed freely with Katie.

"I'm inclined to agree with you." He replied to her words and his body finally able to go with the flow along with the rhythm of his speech, his entire short frame turned to Katie and his hand disappeared into his pocket. His upper arm, forearm and elbow too worked together to form a triangle. With a rose blush, his offer was accepted and Katie's hand slid in the crook. However, he still asked: "This okay?"

Her fingers were already comfortably nested in the crease of his arm; she was hardly going to say no at this point! And although she didn't say a word of unease, she didn't utter any of reassurance either. Katie simply allowed her actions to do the talking inside.

Her hand not leaving where it felt soothing to be, her head bobbed up and down and a flash of a smile was offered to Eli. She started walking away from the building with him and me as well.

Yes, it was very much okay. And she would be delighted to see more of the sights that Sinnoh had to offer with her hand lingering against the arm of her grandfather's cousin.

No sooner had Eli caught sight of Katie's close mouthed look towards him, he flashed his own smile that was very pearly white. His other hand no longer was clueless of what to do either.

Walking with us both, the palm of his hand rested in her own one which was still together. We moved away from the studio for good. But still didn't know where we were headed.

In that instance we were united by our desire to look outwards rather than at one and other or even inwards. The sky was so very blue and we were captured by all of the bird Pokémon flying over and chirping beautifully. It felt so long since I had heard the song of a Starly! And the distant noises of Kricketot brought me back to so many moments in time.

It was often hard to feel unrest in your soul when surrounded by nature and blessed by a sunny day. And that occasion was no exception. We felt lucky to once more see other parts of the region. And have them seemingly as glad to see us too!

"What lovely weather we're having." Eli commented, his hand breaking the contact with Katie's soft knuckles in order to shield his eyes from the persistent sun as he gazed upwards. I wondered if he had left his sunglasses in the cafeteria of the studio. "Have you visited here quite a lot aside from studio related trips?"

He kept his shield up next to his face even while looking at Katie rather than the sky of the region he was referring to, like she was a bright thing that couldn't be looked directly at as well. Not missing a beat or a step of their walking, Katie's first instinct was to shrug, a habit to buy herself some time so she could think about her answer before uttering it.

In the company of Eli, I noticed that she was quite able to say her answers and words of conversation without much pre-planning.

"I think apart from coming here for the occasional holiday or travelling with Jayden, most of the times have been studio or at least music related." She informed him to which she received a bob of the head from the male companion. Even with a hand acting as an umbrella to his face, he had the most unblinking and direct gaze. "Even though I say that, I have quite strong connections to here, you could say."

Not that he was probably planning on looking away from her, but if Eli had decided to stop the eye contact then I'm guessing that he would've looked at her even more unfalteringly at that moment, and interestedly too.

He somehow was able to convey extra intrigue to her without looking away before looking back. Eli's body was turned towards her as much as his attention was. Katie was listened to in a focused manner and every word she had to say was heard when she elaborated.

"Well… This is the region that my dad was travelling through when other members of the Pokémon League still say to this day that he possessed one of his strongest teams." Katie told Eli and while he didn't rip apart the invisible string that was connecting their gazes, I found myself looking down at the tarmac of the parking lot. I would keep it quiet from my best friend's other Pokémon that people thought the collaboration of a certain bunch were most powerful. "He evolved a good amount of them for the Sinnoh League. And even gained one through a trade too."

Eli nodded his head. The Pokémon World was one not entirely his forte in spite of the fact that he very much lived within it too. His universe was the one of tech and computer and the future. There wasn't much room for battling creatures and Poké Balls in his life.

But that wasn't to say that he was clueless though, and he certainly had made friends of his own along the way. That's what they were, though. Friends. Not instruments to win battles.

"I see." He did a rare thing by replying out of curtesy rather than because he felt that he needed to. In hindsight, I understand that he was also doing it because he didn't want Katie to feel like she had been uttering word after word and he garnered no room to speak.

His words were to reassure the younger female but I noticed that then she took another few moments and a good amount of steps for her to find her voice once more. There was a chance that I was overthinking it.

Maybe she was simply and unconsciously showing that she did still think of her words before saying them, even if it was a far less of a priority than when she was younger.

"Then there's Uncle James, of course." She began again, the wind picking up a tad and that becoming obvious from not only the way we felt it tickling her own skin but she used her other hand that was not remaining tucked against Eli's arm to smooth down her sunset locks. "He had a summer house here as a child. Well, his parents did. His grandparents were definitely born over here. And even his mother too." A pause to which her smile matched the persevering weather. "Not that she would admit to that!"

From down on the ground and trotting by their sides, I chuckled and allowed those noises to be heard. While I didn't get a response from Eli, Katie turned that smile of hers down towards me and I was met with a friendly scrunch of her nose also.

I suspect that some people would have been put off by the Unovan man's next actions and it was probably a little frustrating at times from, out of all the words that Katie had spoken to him, he decided to focus on just the one thing.

His hand reaching to pat hers all over again and not so they could keep each other warm for the wind had since subsided, a gleaming, close mouthed smile came from him. Eli's eyes still didn't leave hers as he replied with words.

"I remember Noah." He put forth and while Katie's head did tilt at the way that out of everything, it was that that he had picked up on the most, her expression did not falter and the creases of her nose did not disappear like waves washing away names in the sand.

Looking over his face that had grown all the more rich in colour from the weather that we had been experiencing all week, she felt that he didn't need to say anymore words apart from those ones for him to convey how strongly he felt them.

James' grandfather had made an impact on him, it seemed. He had always enjoyed hearing his stories, even though during the times that they had actually met, his words often got jumbled and he lost his train of thought in an instance.

In that instance, Katie didn't lose her train of thought but she felt that she had lost her manners. When Eli at last gave his eyes a rest and gave respite to his vision with nature while our legs continued walking, her face screwed up in a different way and she inwardly scolded herself. Her hair bobbed around her face as his head shook.

Loosening the grip on Eli before going the opposite way and holding onto him more to get his attention, he was just swinging his focus back to her when her intention was made clear.

"What about you, Eli?" she asked, not oblivious to the fact that she had been the one doing all of the talking and not all that embarrassed by correcting the situation either. "Do you spend much time here? Have you spent much time here?"

I had gotten to know the man that was Jordan's cousin rather well over the course of many years and I knew I wasn't mistaken in thinking that not only had he probably not noticed that she was the one doing all of the talking, but he would be rather content to keep things that way himself.

Quite like his relative, they both lived within the paradoxes of having quite a lot of things to say and going between expressing them to a large degree and keeping them utterly hidden from everybody else.

Giving Katie another smile and patting her hand like he was going to bid farewell to her own digits even though this wasn't the case at all, he didn't need much time to concoct an answer because it was very straight forward.

And of course, he hardly held back his words at the best of times anyway! Well, apart from a certain few.

"Oh, my love, not so much actually." He told her and he would've gained another nose scrunch from Katie but she did a rare thing by holding it back, continuing to move her feet to the same rhythm as he and show that she was listening to him instead. "Believe it or not, for all of Sinnoh's innovation and forward thinking when it comes to music, they're pretty old-school in their approach to technology." He explained, a tilt of the head accompanying his words. "Minimal work here has meant minimal trips and I don't hate that."

And with that, Eli looked away from Katie for a good few minutes as he grew occupied with craning his neck straight towards the sky which was not a dissimilar hue to a portion of his eyes, growing distracted by counting the parental flock of Staraptors that were followed by an entire nursery of baby Starlys.

We probably would have been a little more careful than usual, however, in that moment, Katie and I didn't conceal our glance towards each other and our secret look of amusement. For someone who proclaimed he wasn't fussed about visiting Sinnoh, he sure seemed enamoured now that he was in the water-rich region.

Katie would've usually hated tearing anyone away from their little moment with themselves but especially a companionable relative of hers. And while she did occupy her thoughts elsewhere for a good amount of time, she thought of words to say and she knew she could not resist uttering them.

Eli was a person who was a treasure to tease!

She stole his attention away from the flock of bird Pokémon by lightly tugging on the crook of his arm and no sooner had his entire body turned back to her, a fish hook pulled up her brow and she smiled a smirk that was most feline.

"So you haven't thought it appropriate to treat your lady to a nice holiday here? Eli, you're so inattentive." She ribbed him, the strength of her fingers making an impact in his arm to prove just so much that she was trying to light-heartedly irk him.

She was slightly taken aback to feel how sculpted he was, and the reason for which she would not only go on to learn but be a part of, too.

There was a second of innocence in Eli's naturally wide eyed yet sunken stare but then even he was not foolish enough to think that Katie was truly calling him out. In spite of his desire to tease her back and make his large eyes smaller and break their companionable contact also, the corner of his mouth couldn't help but quirk up and part, his teeth showing as he took being teased well.

A shake of his head occurred which Katie believed was going to be his only worded response to her. However, she was proven incorrect at the same moment that she decided to share a sly grin with me, bringing me into the humour also.

"Lucy is more of a Galarian countryside getaway kind of gal, believe me." He began and in the same way that he could not resist his mouth having a mind of its own and good-naturedly accepting the teasing and grinning in response, a fragment of light danced in his eye that was not merely due to the sun. "Not that I would take her anywhere." He added and for this comment, he earned a light shove in the chest and exclaiming of his own name which prompted him to elaborate. "What? She doesn't need me cramping her style."

And while in one eye of his he kept a twinkle of love for his lady life partner, the other glittered with good humour. Regardless, it didn't stop Katie from telling him off! I had a bubble of amusement in my throat as she felt inclined to defend her new friend.

"Eli, you are awful. And scarily good at saving your own skin." Katie told him, her hand leaving his chest after she had loosely shoved him. And at the same moment that her touch fell away from his plain white t-shirt, she saw the humorous glitter in his eye developing even more. I watched as she understood. "You really had me for a second there."

It seemed that two could play at the mischievous game! And just like his female relative, all mirth filled menace could dissipate in just a single second.

Eli had another, far different smile for Katie that time, his pearly white teeth disappearing and his lips pressing together. His shoulders that were broad for his short stature shrugged and somehow gave him an air of innocence.

He knew he was easily forgiven.

"Gotcha." He said with a continual smile and then the way that his hand grabbed for Katie's as it stayed hooked around his upper arm rather than nestling against his elbow made it seem like they were going to stay that way for good. "Justin's music is sounding different than I remembered."

And with this statement, I'm sure that both Katie and I were left wondering whether his contact with her hand had been intending judging by the words he would go on to say. Although of course, Eli wasn't the type of person to shy away from saying thoughts as soon as they popped into his mind and would soon be articulated via the tip of his tongue. But maybe he had somehow heard the musician's tunes ricocheting out and away from the studio.

Needless to say, we were both momentarily startled by the conversation taking a sudden turn. Katie reacted a lot better than me and while I continued viewing the scene through saucer eyes that seemed unable to shrink, she shrugged her shoulders and smiled at Eli.

If he stared even harder than usual, then he would see it was a polite smile compared to the easy-going ones of moments before.

"That's kind of the point though, isn't it? That's what he does." She began, her words coming out almost like a script along with her polite smile. Part of me wondered if she felt inclined to defend the purple haired musician, even in the presence of the man with a different hued 'bonce'. "It would be repetitive and a disservice to himself if he didn't push himself."

I couldn't help but notice more of a relaxed smile was developing on Katie's lips. Intriguingly to me, the moment that she appeared a little surer of herself and less taken aback by Justin finally being a subject of their conversation rather than just being hinted, it was Eli's turn to be restless.

While his digits didn't leave Katie's and his foot motions along the gravel did not inflect, the pads of his fingers danced over her knuckles, in backwards and forth motions. A shrug rolled off his shoulders and it was his turn to buy himself some time.

He couldn't stop himself from saying what he noticed. But in that moment, he wondered whether the shared of their mutual figure should not have been mentioned by he, even if he was going to come up eventually.

"I guess." He replied. Another attempt to buy himself time. Katie's expression felt inclined to soften as she started to notice the surprise that he had actually taken their conversation that way himself starting to catch up with him. She found the contact of his fingers both welcomed and endearing. "He's different as a person too. But I suppose that's true to himself as well."

While it probably would've been best to keep moving forward and away from the recording studio, both Eli and Katie found it natural for their footsteps to draw to a halt in that moment. I was forced to do the same if I wanted to continue being a part of the trio.

Katie noticed the Unovan male's vagueness in his responses but she didn't speak of it. Instead, she answered in the only way that she knew best and that was of course out of honesty and through the lenses in which she saw things in the world.

Her gracefully long neck sloped. She had half a second to consider and then her lips pressed together all over again, appearing very mature as she replied.

"I can't say I see things the way you do." She told him and while his eyebrows rose upwards on his face in response, his subtly puckered up lips didn't utter his own words for the time being. "Justin will always be the same person to me. Even if he changes in other ways, I somehow always see the same essence of him." A pause came from Katie as she studied Eli and how continuously quiet he was being. She could practically feel his toes dancing in his black boots. "How are things between the two of you?"

A fraction of her was cautious about asking this sort of thing but she could almost tell that he needed her to ask him this from the way that he had introduced the subject in such an out of place manner.

I watched from the warm ground as minutes passed and all that was exuding from Eli was his eyebrows straightening out on his face and his lips continuing to appear fuller even if they didn't form words straight away.

Suspecting that he was feeling the aftermath of his own spontaneity, I tried to focus my attention on the hotness against the pads of my paws so he couldn't feel similarly having all eyes on him.

"How are things between us…?" he repeated, his hands not breaking away from Katie's although they'd have liked to act as a shield to the directness of the conversation rather than the directness of the sun. An empathetic slant was put in her neck all the more at the words that tumbled out next. "…Awkward." He put a label to the dynamic before shaking his head, one of the curls on his head unravelling and forming a ringlet down his forehead. "Awkward but not unbearably so. I guess things are going to take some time."

While Katie nodded, I found myself mesmerised by the way that despite us never walking into any shade or any trees providing some for us, Eli's eyes grew somewhat concealed. It was as though he had put sunglasses on after all.

He looked away. Not only Katie did this as I pressed my lips together as well. While he came out with words of vehemence, the actual sentences couldn't be further from solid. At that point, he didn't have a concrete conclusion about anything. And no wonder.

The orange haired female next to him found it natural to offer him comfort, her hand gripping onto his arm as if she needed some stability. Though she wasn't the one who needed that.

"These things do take time." She affirmed to him, her kind-hearted orbs surrounded by dual toned irises not occupying themselves with any view other than him even if he didn't feel able to reciprocate in that moment. Some of her fingers slipped back down to the crook of his arm. "Awkward… Awkward isn't the worst thing it could be. I think it's tolerable."

Eli's teeth appeared and were then hidden in an instant as he very purposefully pressed his lips together. Katie nodded her head like she understood. Unease could eat you up if exposed to it for too very long and while maybe in his position she would have less hope, she felt that things really would get better in time.

Once more, he did that thing where he focused on only one part of all of her words. Maybe it was for the best. And after all, they did take up a good chunk of what she said.

His lips still pressed together up until he decided to speak; afterwards he gave her a smile and looked for his actual fingers to entwine with hers while they still rested against his arm. Nevertheless, he found his eye contact further and further apart and fleeting too.

"I have more than enough time, don't you worry about that." he started, immediately garnering more contact from Katie who reached out and almost in a motherly way brushed along the five o'clock shadow of his face that would indeed remain youthful for a long time. "I just hope it's enough."

There was something about his latter words that, for all of the youthfulness that often did dance across his features, he seemed a strange paradox of innocence and weary as he felt the things that he said. I didn't need to press my lips together to feel sympathy towards him. I didn't need to stare that much either. And I didn't gathering that he should be the one to offer intense eye contact if any.

Katie's fingers matched the older male's strength in her grip. She couldn't help herself. When she knew exactly what she needed to say and felt every inch of her utterings, there was no hesitation within her.

"Trust me, it will be enough." She tried to instil in him first and foremost, her body edging closer to his rather than having little distance between her and I, and it wasn't because the light Sinnoh wind had started to pick up yet again. "I… I know what you went through made an impact and that kind of thing isn't so easily moved on from but truly, it won't always be this way."

Fragmented remnants of leaves that tumbled to the ground long ago whisked around our feet that had started to move yet again, albeit slowly. Once more, Eli's lips pressed together and within his eyes, he couldn't hide the look of the fact that although he wanted to believe Katie, there was part of him that couldn't.

He hadn't expressed even the tip of the iceberg of what he felt so how was she to know? He felt that he couldn't. But still, he thought that her determination to relate was endearing rather than tiresome.

"Look at Justin and me now." She pointed out, no fool at any time in her life and certainly not blind to the fact that Eli was full of hesitation. Her grip faltered against his arm and this somehow garnered his attention all the more. Those disbelieving eyes of his didn't blink. "We don't all have half the conversations that we used to in the months after. And hardly any of the rocky moments either."

And smile came tugging at Eli's lips and even the Starly's in the sky could tell it was not one conveying reassurance. While he continually did not find her relating to him off-putting, they simply just didn't see things the same way.

And Eli being exactly Eli, he didn't prevent himself from pointing that out.

"Well, I'm glad that things aren't so tumultuous for you all now." He started and with only a second flickering of my gaze towards Katie, I could see that she partially believed he was going to change the subject from then on. I was inclined to agree. "But I can't for a second be reassured that our situations have any similarities whatsoever." Alas, more words came from him. He seemed not to suppress them either. "Correct me if I'm wrong, but it was you who walked away from him."

I clearly felt the defensiveness coursing through Katie's veins at that point and I knew that I would have been scalded by her if I had been holding onto her in the way that Eli had. I kidded myself that the increasing hotness of the pavement was that connection with her.

In spite of this, the defensiveness in her being and when it laced her tone as well as invisible to everyone but me. From Eli's point of view, she was very calm and collected, even if her nose did point a little more towards the sky.

"Because I knew where he really belonged and I had a relationship to return to also." She explained herself and I could see that while she was correct in saying things were hardly raw in the way that they used to be, that wound could always reappear if questioned too much. Eli's eyes expressed that he was only looking for a one worded answer. "Yes. I guess are correct."

He received more than he asked for. Both times. Katie's chest had started to move inwards and outwards a little more and along with a change in tone, she appeared to have more excess air in her lungs.

Eli nodded his head. He was shown to be correct. And he felt that every single part of what she had offered him, went along hand in hand with his own observations.

"Then you don't know what it's like to be walked away from. And how agonising it is to let go of it all." He pointed out, the prosaic manner of his words making me feel as though someone walked over my grave. I still have yet to find out if it was the same for Katie. "Especially the beauty of how it was in the beginning. And the person."

To tell you the truth, they were words that I thought about for a long time after they escaped from Eli's innards and towards the ether. I'm sure that it was the same for Katie too.

But moreover, they caused her to have her turn to look away, looking down at the place where they were connected in touch even though it seemed to Eli that they couldn't be further from being connected in circumstances.

I could see her swallowing a lump in her throat but she did not allow that to slow her down. She did not allow that to slow her thoughts down. With a privately racing heart thudding in her chest and a mouth that felt like sandpaper, while she respected Eli, there was a part of her that couldn't let him think he was the only person who felt that. For own sake far more than for her own.

"Okay…" she started. I was torn between whether her words were a beginning statement or they were her dismissing his accusation with a seemingly agreeing word. "Maybe… Maybe I was the person who walked away first. Maybe I put our separation into motion. But it was because I at the age of seventeen knew that there was someone else out there who had a whole story to be written with him rather than just one chapter. Not because I didn't love him."

I reaffirm to myself now that Eli is indeed the type of fellow to think things within his mind and then say them. He is also the type of guy to rigidly stick to something if he believes it to be that way. However, he is also no stranger to change. He is no stranger to saying sorry. And he is no stranger to owning up to the things that he might have down. And how he made people feel.

"Katie…" he showed his ability to mould by uttering her name rather than any sweet name that he might have picked to say to her there and then. It was futile regardless.

She had things to say and they might've surprisingly burst out of her at any other time if she didn't give them permission to be spoken at that point so she knew that she needed to express them.

A small shake of the head, Eli didn't bother to try and speak to her again until she was fully done. I could tell that he still didn't quite see in alignment to her. But he was learning that his opinion was not going to remain fixed.

"I'm not going to tell you the words you should or should not say to me. But I resent the fact that I know nothing about letting go." she started again and as she informed Eli, although his eyes longed to change their mind and go in between flickering and focusing, they remained fixed at the latter. His lips then not only appeared fuller again but softer too. More ready to change. "I know about it almost more than anyone. How painful it can be. But how rewarding too. And worthwhile."

Her voice was soft at the best of times. She was rare to raise her voice and she hardly ever spoke out of turn. Whether she was doing it purposefully so that her words flowed well or she wanted to make sure her words really were necessary, she often thought for a long time before saying anything.

And in that moment, as much as what she did say had quite the impact on Eli, what she didn't even bother to utter someone prevailed equally as much. Spoken within the silence as she and her grandfather's cousin looked at each other, united in their understanding of their situations and the secret whisperings of their hearts, words that she didn't say were made crystal clear.

She had let go of Justin over and over again because it and been the right – and undeniably worthwhile – thing to do.

At the age of twelve the person who meant more to her was set free in a world that very much could've ruined him for being himself. A few years later at the age of fourteen, she encouraged him to spread his wings in a fickle world that might not have even deserved him.

The age of seventeen wasn't the first time that she let him go. So perhaps that was why she had been able to heal not exactly effortlessly but with the contentment in her heart that it was the thing that needed to be done. She was a virtuoso of letting go. So maybe Justin needed to dedicate that song of his to her more often, if not for the first time.

Nods of the head were omitted from Eli long before words actually escaped from him as well. Managing to turn a blind eye to his curls bobbing at the top of his head as well as the ringlet that had fallen down, Katie was able to look at him with a gaze that was as focused as his often was.

I wondered if it was this that finally urged him to speak. I really thought so. I really believed so as we finally slowly started walking again, and Eli's hand fell back against Katie's and patted it in a way that was coming full circle with the beginning of this tale.

"Fair enough…" he told her. If these were the only words that Eli would go on to utter in response to the sheer volume and depth of everything that she had opened up to him about, then she would actually be fine with that. Within two words were vulnerability and the ability to apologise. I was glad that she was a person who could acknowledge that. "I hope that I'm able to get to that place as well. I can tolerate the awkwardness for now. But I'm not sure I want it to last forever!"

And while I knew there was a part of Katie that wanted to bring back the teasing air to their dynamic and break her hand out from underneath his own one and to touch his face in a different way than before – telling him that he could very much be awkward end of – she refrained from doing so.

It was not because she had used all her teasing energy prior and it was not because she wanted him to be offended, even if he knew her well enough to gather that she could hardly point out that about him if it was the same within her!

Once more, she had other, more important words to say. I felt light on my feet that she found it so natural to offer support and comfort to people. I basked in her doing that for others as much as I was warmed by her actions towards me also.

"Trust me, I know that it's not a nice feeling and this might be the wrong thing to say but I'm sure Justin feels the same way as you." She told him and her self-awareness was proven valid when Eli's first inclination was to screw up one half of his face, thinking that it sounded like the advice Misty received with regards to bug Pokémon being more scared of her than she was of them. "There's a small part of him that's actually a little bit shy. And he hopes that people feel comfortable around him."

I watched from near the legs of them both as Eli's face continued being a half crumpled piece of paper for a few seconds longer and then he allowed himself to not appear so tense. He didn't quite allow the diamond to form in his eye when a past version of himself felt a fluttering within his core at Justin being spoken of so accurately and in the charming manner that he too came across.

He allowed himself to pick out a particular part of Katie's words and decided to respond to that part and that part alone. Although in actuality, he covered a good chunk with what he wanted to say as well.

Moving in yet another circle, Katie's knuckles felt the presence of Eli's short and wide yet well-intentioned fingers. That sparkle in his iris was able to appear for her at that point. Even if there was a guard when it came to others in his life - that in itself was lovely to see.

"I'm glad that Justin is lucky enough to have someone that knows him as well as you do." He complimented and he observed. Meanwhile, I observed that while certain things felt tricky at that point, he couldn't refrain from pointing out the things that Justin did have. And perhaps he didn't.

Immediately, there were stars in Katie's eyes and her pale cheeks matched the hue of some of the flowers that were then blooming in the Sinnoh region. Gripping onto Eli's arm all the more than ever before, I put this down to giddiness that she could not hide racing through her.

Even if she tried her best to be composed most of the time, there would always be a part of her that was twelve years old and in disbelief that her first love at that age had years down the line felt the same way about her in return.

"Oh, I'm… I'm almost certain that I'm the lucky one." She responded, a duck in her head occurring and then she felt able to look straight in Eli's direction, even if her gaze did endearingly flicker a handful of times. "He shares a lot of himself with the people that he loves. And his music too. That's why nothing that he does is ever futile."

Katie spoke and towards the ends of her sentences, blackcurrant pupils of hers became a whole lot steadier. In hindsight, I understand why and I kick myself for not realising sooner! I still hope that Eli was not as dense as I. But I'm sorry to say that I think he was.

He didn't absorb this hidden message and this hidden bit of comfort did not soothe him in any way until he realised it once many seasons had passed. Instead, he was far too busy noticing something and because they seemed important in his mind, he decided to say them.

However, just for a second or two, there was a moment that showed he was thinking about swallowing them back. But they cascaded out of him before he could stop them.

"I can see why Justin fell for you." He told her, only then giving credence to the fact that he really had thought about remaining silent by his eyes appearing all the more like full moons than ever to contrast the sun in the sky and hurriedly adding more words afterwards. "…If that's not too weird to say…"

Understandably, weirdness was not an unusual thing to run alongside Eli! Even so, it was quite charming that this moment was one of the rare occasions that he tried hard not to be perceived that way.

Both Eli and Katie's cheeks matched each other's at that point and his brown skin had the pink blush of a flower as did her pale ones as she mirrored him. She could have given him a run for his money with the way that her eyes became the shape of discs that her best friend worked hard in producing.

However, they soon evened out. And they even fluttered shut for half a second. She remained pink but tickled so, her fingers fidgeting underneath Eli as, while she was taken aback, she couldn't stop the smile from gracing her lips.

She looked pretty when she was flattered. I was in agreement as to why Justin held a special place for her in his heart.

"I mean… It is a bit weird." Katie told him, contrasting her girlish expression with words so blunt that Eli might as well have said them. His eyes practically fell to the ground upon hearing this but thankfully, he was reassured by her touch before she had a chance to elaborate. "But only because I'm still trying to fathom out why, so I don't know why you would know."

That was the moment that Eli reacted for me so that I didn't have to. His body turning towards his female relative and his eyes appearing glossy as his head tilted on the one side, he clicked his teeth. With that single sound, he portrayed every ounce of disagreement that he felt. He might have not seen things the same way as Katie before but this was even truer in that moment! And I felt the same way.

She shouldn't have spoken about herself in that way, Eli thought to himself. Anybody who Justin bestowed his heart upon was a lucky thing and they should feel honoured that someone with high standards such as himself saw himself with them.

But of course, he too wouldn't have dreamt of knowing why on earth Justin had been with him either. So why would Katie? They were equally as unaware of how much of an impact they both had as well. But I think that was for the best.

Eli and Katie were both like lightning rods. Completely unassuming. But absolute mighty colours and electricity could be seen erupting from every angle of their wake.

Long after the clicking of teeth sounded from Eli, he started to shake his head. There would still be more time before he actually uttered words and between that silence, Katie's lips pressed together and she held onto his arm and she believed her own words.

She was not sunken by her own feeling, though. In fact, she was kept afloat by it. It would be a mystery that she could spend a lifetime solving and whether she finally understood the answer or not, it would be a damn good quest.

Regardless, answers could be heard there and then and in that moment and of course, Eli finally decided to break the silence. He had taken a leaf out of Katie's book and thought long and hard about his next words.

I'm sure they were what he had really wanted to say when he first found out about the little romance the two people he cared about had shared, in comparison to the way he actually reacted.

"You've always protected Justin's heart, Katie, and for that, whatever happens, I'll always be grateful." He spoke solemnly, his voice not elevating or declining in the slightest. His voice was a level line as were his lips in the moments in between speaking. "Among the things that I regrettably did, that was the one thing that I didn't do."

And with that, though Katie felt a great many things washing through her and during one moment, all of them might have erupted from her at once, after taking a small breath and looking into the eyes of Eli, all of that urgency subsided. And she was left with utter composure.

While she felt a wave of protection for him for how yet small and mighty in his heartbreak he seemed and a twitch of resonance that they did share the same feelings even if he didn't recognise it and a strangulation of utter love for him, in the end, she didn't actually say anything.

Instead, glossy eyes of her own and flower pink lips pressing together and forming a smile, her hand reached out and she simply cupped him under the chin. She didn't need to say a word. With a sincere uttering like that, she thought, Justin and he would create a new, more comfortable dynamic of their own in no time.

Even if they both spoke of these sorts of things to her rather than each other, there was a great deal of love there hidden beneath the previous heartache. And it would be this that would encourage a salvation of some sort. And a promise of better things to come.

A smile of his own tugged at Eli's lips when he felt Katie's touch and he followed suit by moving his hand away from hers for the first time and squeezing her shoulder instead. They looked right at each other and I had never felt more excluded. And I also really didn't care at all.

It was only as the look between the two relatives faltered and we prepared to stretch our legs and continue walking for yet another time that we realised that our surroundings looked awfully familiar. And we were struck with the reality of the fact that we had actually been walking in circles! Around and around the parking lot of the recording studio in Sinnoh we had been.

Differing expressions possessed Eli, Katie and I. Shaking my head like I had a fly buzzing around my ears, I simply couldn't believe it! The Unovan male's expression wanted to crumple up and his parted lips longed to groan out our foolishness. At our foolishness too, Katie wanted to laugh and so she did.

Differing reactions we all shared. But it appeared to me that along with most things, we ended up exactly where we needed to end up. A lesson learned that day was that going around in circles could somehow lead to new beginnings too. And that was something that I needed to remember.

All of a sudden, the double doors of the studio swung open and it was not because any of us headed in. Somebody was heading out. And that person seemed overjoyed at first that we were still loitering and then a very child-like expression took over his being.

A grin forming on Justin's face and shoulders hunching with mischief, he approached us all and spoke of what exactly caused his air of playfulness.

"I broke my guitar strings yet again. They're fixing them now!" he confessed, his mischief not leaving his body as he purposefully whispered even though nobody else could hear him to tell him off, nudging his hip against Katie's and bouncing her closer to me once more. "I've decided to make myself scarce. Where are you guys headed?"

And although Katie who had just received the hip bump off her chest friend and was then being towered next to and eye contact was shared between us three equally, Eli decided that it should be him to answer.

Running a hand through his hair and at last putting that loose ringlet back in its place, Justin's stature appeared a little smaller as he watched and listened and the rest of us did this as well.

"We've been running in circles of where to go." Eli's one tone and level voice once more made its appearance and Justin was none the wiser of his pun while the rest of us looked at each other and giggled.

Nevertheless, he showed that he wanted to be a part of things and allowed himself to laugh too, steading himself by resting a loose hand on Katie's shoulder. He looked right at Eli. He gave me a glance too and then he looked at the person that he was comfortably leaning against.

Because she didn't utter words and didn't offer anything other than a smile to which his demeanour grew all the brighter and dimple decorated, he decided that he could be the one to take action.

"Well… The really cool record shop is still open around the corner." He spoke. I watched as though he didn't falter his knuckles against Katie's shoulders, he might as well have pressed his fingers together from the way that his words were blatantly obvious. "You know, the one with the record presser where you can make your own."

Light danced off his eyes and it wasn't due to the sun being at the centre of the sky during that moment in time. It was interesting to me as I'm sure it was to everyone how his eyes appeared so animated yet still all in one.

Still, his words were as clear as the cloudless sky on that day in Sinnoh. Managing to resist looking at each other at that time and it wordlessly being made clear who was to speak next, Katie shrugged her shoulder, purposefully no longer allowing her best friend to lounge there.

For a split second, he feared it was bad news. He should have known he was mistaken.

"Well…" Katie copied the beginning of Justin's own sentence before properly piping up, not oblivious to the way that a smile was tugging at Eli's lips and the deep purple haired male was not allowing himself to look in that direction. "You'd better show us then."

And going against her prior judgement that he was secretly on the shy side, Justin burst into reaction there and then. I could've put it down to being in the studio for too long or hiding from the producers in the building even though they can't have been mad at him for long!

All the same, I knew it was simply Justin being Justin. And while he had playfully been shrugged away from Katie previously, he wrapped his entire arm around her that time. And we knew that his lanky legs would soon be used to take us to the record shop he was referring to.

"Let's go then!" he encouraged, an arm draping around Katie like it often could be found as he did indeed start taking motions towards the correct direction. He had a bit of hesitance, showing that his best friend might have been right after all, but then his actions and his forward-moving side took over.

Eli tried to hide it but extra glassiness was added to his eyes when after Justin's arm wrapped around Katie, he scooted between the both of them and nudged him in the right direction to. His eyes didn't falter their size and their appearance even when his own motions took over. And he tried not to look away too much when he could see the surprise clenching at Justin's own jaw even if he didn't look in his direction.

Katie and I watched as after a second or two of Justin lingering between both her and Eli, the Unovan male not only draped one arm loosely around him in return but he patted him once on the chest also. I tried to put it down to the fact that he was patting him to make up with how less easy it was for him holding Justin from the difference in their height!

But I knew Eli was making contact with Justin in the same way that he had made it with Katie. He found it natural to bring people that he cared about all the nearer to him. And I was softened by that. For I knew that there had been a time when that love had caused him to push him away.

"Glad to be aiding you in your string snapping shenanigans." Eli murmured to Justin before he could stop himself and all guards momentarily falling down, he was shot a look from that deep purple haired male whose corners of his eyes creased and mouth grinned.

And then their expressions faded away, looking down at the ground and making their way to where they needed to be!

Katie didn't look in my direction though she probably would've liked to. For the time being, she simply let them be themselves, how they needed to be in that moment and how they needed to build their dynamic moving forward. She knew things wouldn't always be that way. So she knew to make the most of them while they were that way.

Weirdly, there would be a time in their lives where they looked back on the awkwardness with fond memories. And there would definitely be a time that they felt united that Katie had been a huge part in elevating them towards they needed to go.

I say a lot of people are the glue that holds our wide ranging family together and Katie was certainly one of these people. When Justin and Eli showed her cracks from their once upon a time romance, she was there to not only mend it, but encourage that that had once been broken should be left alone.

Sometimes shattered pieces fell together in a whole new way and formed a different, equally beautiful piece of art. That was something that we all learned together.

The End.

There you go! Thanks so much for reading and I hope you enjoyed :) So yeah, I call this a filler one because it shows the important part that Katie plays in healing Justin and Eli's relationship. I can't wait to start uploading chapters of their lives together, both revolving around them but also what becomes of everyone else! I know that, funnily enough, Katie and Eli have such a close relationship and not just because they are actually related. I think Eli might feel like the older brother that Katie never had. And he appreciates her kind and caring nature :) Thanks again and I will be back next Wednesday so see you then!

Amy signing out :3