Hello! It is Wednesday and I am back with a new chapter. Behind the scenes as it were, I've been developing a lot of Jorginho (Sammy's older brother and past Team Rocket friend of the trio) between creations of my own and discussions with Shannon. So it seemed only right to upload this one that I wrote a couple of months ago! In this chapter, we see Jorginho move forward in signing documents to leave Team Rocket with the support of Daisy, and later dicuss things with James that have clearly been on his mind for a while. I hope you enjoy! :)

Ages:

Jorginho: 49

Daisy: 48

James: 49

Disclaimer: I own the story and the OCs mentioned! While there is hints of drug use in the past, it does not take place in the chapter's present and I will say that it is stated that the herbs James is using to make a cigarette are the legal kind! But just letting you know in case you wish to avoid :P

With each second that passed, Jorginho's face edged closer and closer to the document in front of him on the coffee table. If time went any faster, his nose would have surely been firmly pressed up against it! That, however, wasn't what the document required.

A tentative wrist resting on the solid oak next to it twitched and writhed, the pen in his grasp crawling around as if it was a serpent. Just do it, he urged himself. Just do it. Get it over with. But for some reason this didn't come easily to him. Jorginho's lips pursed as he imagined spelling out the name that needed to be spelled out along the dotted line. He felt like he was in school again and the words would not come no matter how many great and intricate sentences floated through his mind.

Like within any loving relationship that I witnessed, this sort of turmoil just could not go unnoticed. And seeing her fiancé with an even stronger brow than usual, Daisy didn't bother to stop herself from coming to sit down on the green velvet sofa next to him, nudging her hip light-heartedly against his before both of her hands grew occupied, one in the hairs traipsing down his neck and the other under his taut chin.

"J, O, R…" she began, nestling closer to him as she teased him, making out it was his own name that he was struggling to spell rather than what was truthfully bugging him.

You would have thought from the concentrative motion that was tugging his eyebrows closer together in unison that he wouldn't have been so easily broken from his spell but, of course, love was its own kind of magic.

Jorginho's lips had a couple more seconds to muse to themselves, imagining his own name escaping from him like a wave that sent boats onto a sunny shore before they clamped together. In the immediate second that he was aware of Daisy's presence and her affection too, in spite of his previous anguish, he couldn't help but give her a gradual smile, shaking his head at the way she mocked him. And the way that his heart fluttered when she did this, too.

"Mi amor…" Was his reply to her and for a brief second, her own chin felt the touch of a strong hand cupping underneath it before it restlessly went back to a lap. He spoke no other words towards her teasing and certainly not to the fact that he had been caught in a contemplative state.

Never mind, Daisy was there to make it up for the both of them. Her own hand leaving his chin in the few seconds after his hand demonstrated this need, both of her hands then rested on a broad shoulder of his each, her body effortlessly melting into the side of his as if she was a key that had found the perfect lock to bury into.

Gentility filled her tone of voice at the best of times but certainly when she was speaking with her Jorginho. And certainly when she was trying to draw him out of a mood with her ebullience. Daisy squeezed both of his shoulders as the serpent in his grip continued a defiant display, resting her chin on him alongside her hand.

"You've got this document to sign and a wedding contract in the coming months. What a busy boy you are." Daisy fought his cogitation with a bit of chaff, immediately the noticing when he stared straight ahead at a blank wall with even blanker eyes, his way of responding to her attempts. "You'd better learn how to spell your name properly."

Apparently Daisy was not letting this joke go and he knew what his lover wanted. He remained unblinking as he stared straight ahead but when he could feel her thumb seeking refuge and hooking against her teeth in her mouth, he knew even more so that he couldn't dream of not giving her what he wanted.

The snake at last being set free from his old and rolling closer towards the document, Jorginho turned his whole body towards Daisy and he insisted.

"Jorginho Florenz. Jorginho Sastre. I know how to spell them both." He retorted in a way that he knew Daisy would like, watching the shade of her hair no longer being the only floral attribute of hers as her cheeks garnered a rosy blush. Oh, how she loved the way his accent rolled off his tongue when he spoke of his own name. Jorginho turned away from her, reluctantly back towards where the document would not take a hint and blow away in the breeze of his sigh. "I was so certain this is what I wanted. Of course, it's what I want. But I didn't anticipate that this could feel like such a hurdle."

Daisy had more mischief in her mind and certainly more goading words that she could offer her fiancé. But it goes without saying that she then heard his tone of voice as it inflected. Anybody could have noticed it as it was as plain as a nose on a face travelling into the ears of a lover. She nodded. Jorginho was on the cusp of making a huge sacrifice.

For this and so many reasons, her hands chose to rummage back through his cascading locks, to soothe him and because she also needed some way of getting out the gratitude which she then felt rushing through her heart and swimming along her veins.

"Is there something on your mind that is stopping you?" she inquired, her voice no longer filled with the high pitched trilling of a bird as she teased and becoming far more like the calm sea of a city that was once very much her home. After her fingers roamed to the front parts of Jorginho's deep brown locks, she changed her wording. "There's something on your mind."

Jorginho could no longer look straight ahead. He held reluctance in his shoulders as he wanted to portray a brave face but then he realised who he was in the company of. Who was embracing him. He didn't need to hide a single thing. He never had done.

He turned his body back towards hers, with a strong yet tender hand on the middle of her back drawing her in closer so she had no choice but to melt even further against him. And what a wonderful lack of choice it was.

The dip in his lower lip appeared more prominent than usual as another sigh escaped from him, taking a second or two to ponder his own truth before he shared it with his future wife. He did not need to run his fingers through his hair in turmoil because she was feathering her fingers through there with comfort.

"I gave James such shit when he quit for a better life for himself and his family and yet here I am doing the same." Jorginho painted a picture, trying to relax against Daisy's touch as both of her pointer fingers circled around both of his temples but he could not ignore the words from forming stiffness in his throat. "I think I owe him an apology."

Daisy watched as Jorginho's deep brown eyes became a pebble that sunk to the bottom of the ocean and they lost contact with her own eyes. It did not go unnoticed by her that she started to feel his body break the distance from her own one as well but she did not draw him back in, in order to comfort him or to satisfy her own ego or otherwise.

That was one of the reasons that he had felt so strongly about her from the moment that they learned each other's names before breathing them out shakily back to each other as strangers entwined and became far more than just that. She never expected anything from him other than his love. She was a complete entity all on her own and just so happened to want to entrust him with her own love.

Jorginho never needed to overthink his actions in case he offended her. She understood him. And there and then she understood his plight. Her hands would have liked to roam through his locks for hours as if they were a jungle that would never grow empty of things to discover.

But giving him more of the space that he then craved, they simply dropped down to his shoulders all over again. Daisy suggested.

"If you feel the need to say that to him then I would say go for it." she encouraged, earning a brief glance of her lover's eyes into hers before she lost him to cogitation all over again. She wasn't put off. Thoughtfully by her own accord, Daisy felt her chin with her fingers. "He would not shun you. James would probably be glad that you still think of things from the past and want to do better from it."

Daisy suggested as her fingers grazed her own chin, knowing exactly what to say to Jorginho not from hours of gruelling practice but knowing the stories from his lifetime almost as well as her own and therefore having the right kind of words to say back to him.

She had always known of the entwined paths of Jessie, James, Meowth and her Jorginho thanks to Team Rocket and knew exactly what had put a fork in that same road as well. There and then, she could still see the torment that ran through Jorginho when he took a minute to have a long hard think and it was often portrayed by the pucker that dipped between his strong eyebrows.

It was something that he carried with him. She, however, didn't realise that he carried quite such a groan with him and was surprised to hear it escape from him in the next couple of seconds, Jorginho getting used to the feeling of his own thick fingers roaming across his pulsing forehead rather than her flourishing touch.

"That's just the issue." He responded back to her, finding the truth in him and setting it free in barely a second that he could see the incline of her neck. "What if he doesn't think about it like I do, what if he never thinks of so far back anymore, and by bringing it up I put a really bad taste in his mouth?" Jorginho's throat shuddered at the thought even if he managed to control the rest of his body in not betraying himself. "I would not like to make him angry." He added.

Daisy couldn't help but smile even if it wasn't in an unkind way. Like she was observing slides from a movie, the image of the man they both knew couldn't help but dart through her mind's eye. She couldn't imagine James angry. She knew that when he felt frustrated, he usually retreated and spent lots of time alone, stewing in his own unhappiness like a bear in a cave preparing for hibernation.

Why was Jorginho so worried about an angry reaction from James? She knew that he could take on anyone if it came to hand to hand combat. And then she realised.

As she did this, she risked suffocating her fiancé because she couldn't resist cupping her hand back underneath his puckering chin, gently feeling the bristles that his beard offered.

"I think that sort of response from him would hurt you more than it would him." Daisy stated, trying not to sound to observational. One thing she could not hold back, though, was that hand of hers fluttering down from his chin and resting over his chest, where that beating thing of his that he was so concerned about wounding thumped in pride of place. "I would not overthink it. Just say the words as they come to you. Just say sorry in the way that you mean it."

Jorginho wasn't best pleased that this was the reaction that inched through him but he knew that he needed more space there and then, adding a few inches between him and his fiancée on the sofa before a broad, single hand of his managed to swipe down the bottom half of his face.

This time he actively shuddered all the way through him, admitting:

"I wouldn't know how." So few words came to say exactly how he was feeling and he believed that this would be the same thing that occurred if he was to get vulnerable with one of his oldest friends, bringing up something that had happened in the past.

Daisy watched Jorginho swipe his own face thoughtfully over and over again and although the incline was back in her neck and she could feel the disturbance within her own heart because both of theirs had only just freshly become one, as the seconds went by, the smallest of smiles gradually overtook the corners of her lips.

At first, she tried to tame it, knowing that Jorginho had a lot of other things occupying his mind and given her teasing nature to begin with, could have easily taken this the wrong way and become his own kind of bear all on his own.

Then, Daisy set it free on the condition that she would have to be quick with her words. She would have to be transparent with her own sentiment. She could not stop the twinkle in her eyes turning them from a meadow to a starlit sky in the moments that she held a single palm over her own beating heart.

"As I said, I wouldn't overthink it." Daisy began, Jorginho promptly showing not a lot of self-control at the way that he glanced over, even if the pen was back in his right hand and showing a more tamed serpent for the next few minutes. If she didn't hurry, he could soon be stamping his nose down against the document once more. "Next time you're together, if these thoughts flash across your mind again, bring it up and say what you need to say. If it doesn't then, well," Daisy trailed off for just a moment before she concluded; breaking the distance with their hips on the sofa even if she did not allow them to touch. "James is not meant to know."

Jorginho was prompt to respond, his broad shoulders hunching as he drew nearer to the document, reading over it for yet another time though it was practically burned into his eyelids from how many times he had poured over it.

"James is not meant to know that I'm a hypocrite, you mean." Jorginho answered for Daisy even though he knew as much as anybody that she wouldn't have dreamt of thinking such a thing, much less saying it.

His tongue lapped at the crevice in his lower lip with a scrunched up expression but it was for him and for him alone. And Daisy decided to just let choice do the talking as she watched how her fiancé would proceed. It would turn out that getting some of this off his chest would make him able to at least scribble his first name onto the dotted line of the Team Rocket document.

He was halfway there. Halfway there to what? Jorginho's mind couldn't help but wonder, thinking of so many things even if he tried to kid himself that he was reading the fine print and he was absorbing all of it perfectly well.

Was it like this for Jessie, James and Meowth when they signed the leaving Team Rocket documents all those years before? Or was it much easier for them, he wondered, feeling perfectly natural that years upon years of service and memories and loyalty could be so easily surrendered by a simple signature on a dotted line?

It wasn't like that for him; even if he could trick himself that it was something that was done with little to no thought from the three of them. The organisation was all that he had ever known since he was pretty much a kid, that's what it felt like to him, anyway. He had betrayed the rules plenty. He had done more than that and had been downright disobedient on some occasions!

However, that twisted place had put a roof over his head since forever. It offered him lifelong friends and a kind of confidence that he had never been able to discover elsewhere. And now, he was giving all of that up.

Because it was Daisy and the chance to have a proper family of his own that was the reason for him forging a new path for himself, he didn't dwell on what he was leaving behind too much. He knew it was what he needed to do. Heck, after over three decades of needing to wear an R upon his chest rather than his heart upon his sleeve, it was what he wanted to do.

He just didn't want to feel like a hypocrite. And Daisy knew that this possibility was still niggling his mind and his chest too as it visibly heaved after he managed to scribble the first couple of letters of his mother's maiden name across the bottom of the document.

Jorginho felt her chin pressing down against his shoulder and immediately knew that this was the kind of thing weighing him down that he greatly enjoyed. His eyes searched for hers for more than just habit, quickly getting lost in the seaside green in which they offered.

"Don't beat yourself up over it too much, mi amor." Daisy consoled him by throwing his name for her back to him, both of them enjoying how much it felt on her tongue. Jorginho made a private note to place his lips upon hers later, for now merely reacted by his large eyes somehow widening further around his pupils. "If I overthought the things that I did in my 20s then I would never escape my own mind."

Daisy had tried to resist reaching out to him furthermore so as not to be like the women that had found themselves in a peculiar union with him over the years but when she gazed into those brown eyes, she couldn't help but feel like he was begging for exactly the thought.

In the end, Jorginho was left with a grin suddenly stretching out across his usually jovial features and it was unclear at first whether it was the words in which she had uttered or the touch that she was offering him, her finger taking great gladness in trailing down from his strong brow and down the sculpted, artefact of its own, nose of his.

He spoke past Daisy's affection though it was certain that he kept it within him in a special place for later on. He had never been that kind of man.

"Oh, well if that's the case then I only wish that we could've met sooner so we could have ventured through some of the craziness together." Jorginho bestowed Daisy with this answer before he realised that he would not be satisfied with a kiss later on and needed it now. After his lips had briefly found hers and a continual smile was still fluttering across her mouth, he realised a notion far bigger than this one. He was reaching for her hand as he began to make it clear. "Sign the document with me, my sweet love." It was hard to say a man that possessed such unfaltering stoicism at times as Jorginho could beg but this was certainly the closest that he had ever come. "This moment is going to change our lives. Our future family's. It only makes sense that we do it together."

And with this idea cascading through his mind and his truth being uttered out of his lips, the writhing pen got passed from Jorginho to Daisy with the vehemence of it all and to prove that he wholeheartedly meant his words even if they had done a good enough job all on their own, his hand couldn't stop from cupping around her belly.

Jorginho had great plans for there. He had great plans for them all. He had a chance to provide for more than an organisation that would only ever want more and more from him until he was depleted. At least this way, he could work himself bone dry and allow his love to run so deeply that his cup emptied yet he would always be satisfied. Soul deeply satisfied, too. Not any of the superficial shit.

Daisy took a couple of seconds to roam both her hands through the hairs cascading down some of Jorginho's neck, poised pen in her own hold as she offered him more and more affection in a way that never seemed to run dry. She then knew what she needed to do. She then knew who she needed to be. She then knew who she wanted to be.

Jorginho never would have imagined that he would ever allow a woman to take his pen from him and clamber between his legs, perching there as together, his hand clasped over hers they would begin to sign the last few letters of his name in order to break out of Team Rocket for good. But then again, he never would have imagined that Daisy would come along. And he would allow her to do all of these things.

He first signed the documents to join the organisation because he needed to find out who he was away from the hubbub of the people that he could scarcely breathe around, get alone call family. Now, he was beginning his departure away from there because he knew who he was without anyone at all. But he also knew himself a hell a lot better thanks to the woman whose hand perfectly fit inside his.

He expected almost more of a moment when their sculpting together of his last name came to an end – he imagined that the page would burst into flames, equally symbolising that he would never be able to go back to Team Rocket and simultaneously that he was trapped with them for good. Jorginho expected more of a moment than everything. He should have realised that Daisy was the moment.

He was half glad that she was turned away from him and with her own eyes taking another moment to look over all of the words written, and of course the second half of the name that she had helped etch across the sheet, so she wouldn't see the mottled appearance of his neck that was beginning to creep out of his shirt collar.

"Well, I guess that is that." he started rather lamely, suddenly feeling very unsettled without a pen in his hold or a document to sign or life decisions to mull over and he showed this by, from behind Daisy as she remained seated between his legs on the sofa, his hands travelled to her upper thighs for comfort, grazing the skirt of her dress against his bare skin and becoming hypnotised by the way it moved. "I guess I'm permanently a Sastre again rather than anything else." He still managed to add.

Daisy might have been unaware of the flushed nature that had crawled across Jorginho's skin and claimed it but he would go on to be aware of the same quality creeping across her in the seconds after that she heard him speak one of his names all over again and she knew that she would only be satisfied by looking and seeing the face of the person who owned this very name.

She turned around between his legs before seating herself once more on his lap, her thumb hooking back in between her teeth as he looked at him. He mirrored her gaze back at her, having no choice but to remove his touch from her legs but having no qualms about this because he could reach to stroke for her face instead, devoting hours to pouring all of his affection there.

He was so very glad that his signature was done and it had been dusted. It might still take him a lot of courage to actually post that document off but the worst part was over. Wasn't it…?

Daisy may have wanted to melt into the touch of her fiancé and relieve him of some of the tension that had been building up inside of him but after she heard his words and knew the truth of the matter, she couldn't help but burst his bubble.

However, she burst it in a way that was equal measures the kindest and most torturous of ways.

Jorginho already had two lines forming between his eyebrows and his lips puckering for a very different reason as she leaned into his ear, preparing to whisper into it. He did not go onto hear sweet nothings.

He instead heard the cold hard truth delivered in a way that sent shivers down his spine.

"You still need to be Jorginho Florenz for a little while longer, baby." She murmured to him and at first, the only thing that shot through his mind was that he would be anything that she wanted him to be! Jorginho was still clueless. So Daisy needed to be a little more obvious. While still facing forward on his lap, she reached backwards and Jorginho's breath halted in his throat. Somehow, he did this furthermore when she reached for the wad of papers, revealing the plethora of dotted lines still yet to be signed. "One signature down, about a dozen to go! You had better hope our wedding ones are far straighter forward."

And with that, not a groan of ecstasy tumbled out of the throat of Jorginho but a groan of sheer exhaustion. It had taken so much effort to build himself up to sign just one! And she was right, there were a dozen more!

Well, they would just have to wait. They would just simply have to wait. Jorginho instead wished to indulge his senses in something other than what he believed could be as tiresome as writing out lines. Daisy had got him to that point. And, well, she would just have to put up with him being in Team Rocket for a little while longer and doing a single signature per day before finally sending all of them off.

She would only have herself to blame. Or would she really? It seemed that she was rewarded for her mischief, as she often was, because Jorginho groaned so emphatically that he pretended to collapse down onto the sofa, pulling Daisy with him and deciding that he needed her up close to him to be able to recuperate.

The truth was, of course, that he needed her up close to him always, comforting, reassuring him, and reminding him not to overthink. Maybe she was the reason that he was able to get things fully off his chest in due course. But for the time being, however, he had most things on his chest and Daisy included!

He did not mind. They soon would be tied to only each other rather than any other obligations that hung over them both. They soon would be tied to each other via a knot and with wedding bands proudly upon their fingers. And they would be this way with not a single part of their pasts creeping up on them and haunting their happiest moments.

I was part of the next half of our story. And to tell you the truth, witnessing this kind of thing made me remember all of the times when I held myself back even though I knew better than to do this. And, like always, I vowed to do better in the coming occasions. That is all anybody can do after all, isn't it?

Regardless of if he was in his moody bear cave or not, I always thoroughly enjoyed watching James doing his thing. Whether it was tootling from room to room of his great household and watering all of his plants or it was plonking himself down in the middle of a different kind of nature to sketch, I always liked watching him.

It was riveting to see him etch permanent tattoos onto the skin of his many clients. It was thrilling to see him come up with a new riff on his guitar before recording it with his phone, no doubt to send to one of his son's or a plethora of his musical friends.

Yes, it might have been impossible to admit way back in the day but it was far easier now: I really enjoyed watching James do his thing. And I especially took pride in the fact that I was allowed to be there to observe even during his alone time.

His alone times were often far and few between and some days, he needed to make an effort to schedule it in because usually, sooner or later, somebody would seek out his company. It could have been one of his many sons in law's desperate for advice. It could have been Misty or Jordan, bashfully knowing that it was meant to be his time and his time alone but seeking comfort in the stability that he radiated. It could have been a number of people.

James still wouldn't dream of believing that he was popular. He was just needed, that was it. He was just helpful. He enjoyed being helpful. But he really did enjoy being alone. And he was revelling in this and just with me perched on his window sill watching the world outside of his office go by as he was on the floor up against the coffee table.

It was just him and the flowers that he had grown. Until it wasn't. Suddenly, along came a knock at the door. I immediately sprang into action. But with a look towards me that barely lasted a full and proper breath, I knew to let my guard down.

I might have been under strict instructions that day to be the gatekeeper of his peace but apparently an exception had made themselves known. Tilting my head, even I didn't have the slightest idea who it undoubtedly was, though there could have been a few possibilities.

When it came to James, however, there wasn't a single doubt in his mind. And he proceeded with stretching his legs out in front of him as dried herbs lay scattered about on his wooden floor and calling out to the person who had come to visit him.

"Come in, Gorjinho." He granted his access, not looking up and instead focusing on the organised chaos scattered all around him until the breeze from the door barging open whooshed some of the herbs sideways and he could also feel that person staring at him, halted with his hand hooked around the door even though he had passed the threshold. James met Jorginho's questioning gaze with an identical one before he answered his silent wondering. "Do you really think that different doors disguise that knock of yours?" He slyly pushed his glasses further up his nose. "I would know it anywhere."

Jorginho, as he was actually called rather than the nickname that had just been spoken, continued to pause and not make any further strides into the room with his friend for a couple of moments, contemplating the response and also making a point of tilting his head on the one side. Soon enough, James went back to what he was doing and it gave Jorginho the confidence to say what he really wanted to say.

Or rather, it gave him the desire too.

"You're very weird." He told him. Before James felt a desire bubble up within him and it was to look over at the man joining him in his office, shooting him a look, he could feel the humour radiating from his good friend without even needing to take another glance at him.

Furthermore, he could feel him positively beaming as he finally made strides properly into the room to join him. Yes, that was definitely Jorginho. If his sight had deceived him moments before then his other senses certainly had not.

James chose to look back up at him and retort to him when some of his naturally sunny disposition had died down, ridding himself of the cardigan that he was wearing so he was just down to a simple t-shirt and jeans. The unwanted item of clothing draped over the back of one of his chairs. Apparently he was staying for a while.

"Takes a weirdo to know a weirdo." James answered nonchalantly, again knowing the smile that tugged at Jorginho's lips and revealed a dimple like a segment of one of his favourite pieces of fruit because of familiarity while I knew it from looking in the reflection of the window. He could very much sense that he was being watched so he reached for another sheet of rolling paper, having no qualms about beginning his dividing process all over again if Jorginho accepted his offer. "Would you like one?"

Unlike how it had occurred when Jorginho breezed into the room and sent small fragments and wisps of herbs in all directions of James' office floor, now that he had had a few moments to be present and see what he was doing on that particular day, he knew to make far more gentle movements.

He moved with ease and with a surprising amount of grace for such a broad male and he invited himself to perch night down next to James, running a hand through his hair before adjusting his glasses on his own, much more prominent nose.

However, gracefulness did not occupy his expression and after darting his bespectacled eyes from the raspberry leaves to the dried chamomile to the lavender all in various piles, he couldn't stop himself from scratching his head and making it perfectly clear what he thought.

He even tried to invite my reflection into his way of thinking with a puzzled stare but I returned it with only a lopsided smirk, not getting involved.

"Seriously?" Jorginho got his point across in a single word. James had since packed the dried flowers and herbs into the flavoured paper and was licking it closed with all the precision of a snake that possessed a deadly heart yet meant no harm all of the same. The brown haired male showed off his own wide, lopsided grin as he met James' eyes while he made this motion. "You are not the guy that I used to know."

For a good couple of seconds, James didn't say anything as his tongue made its entire way across all of the paper before rolling it shut in between skilful fingers, making sure that the ends touched and that the entire thing was enclosed.

Jorginho didn't exactly discover himself to be looking away but his thick rimmed black glasses bobbed up and down on his face and he acted as if his hair needed taming, but, the truth was, he was causing it to grow more unruly each time that his hands made their way up there.

Both Jorginho and I were on the same boat when we believed that, because so many moments had passed by that were only filled with the sound of the clock ticking on the wall, that James would never find an answer suitable to respond with.

The both of us went on to be stood corrected, though. James answered with the same nonchalance as he had replied with when he was accused of being weird. I quickly started to wonder if there was anything that Jorginho could say that would cause him to lose it.

Based on previous concerns, Jorginho had an idea but didn't wish to find out!

"Well thank God." James answered at long last, taking such a long time for such a short answer before he popped his hand crafted cigarette into his mouth, leading one to believe that no further answers would ever come. "The only guarantee in life is change, you of all people should know that." a smile formed around the cigarette in his mouth like sunlight basking a swaying tree in warmth. "Let me remind you that not all change is half bad."

And with that, the cigarette stopped lulling in the parted lips of James and was popped into the mouth of Jorginho instead, a very firm dimple immediately clamping onto the side of his mouth as he felt he needed to purse his lips in case a homemade cigarette was far flimsier than the kind he was used to and could fly out on its own accord.

James waited for permission before lighting it and he listened for Jorginho's stubborn grumble before he ignited the end of it for him, knowing that he had better get to work again and he had better get to work quickly if he wanted another one rolled in time to share with his friend.

Jorginho was right, he had changed. Once before taking pleasure in dulling the senses and inviting himself into worlds that could not be construed as reality were a thing of the past and now he took pride in listening to the advice of Delia Ketchum, discovering which herbs were easy to grow and easy to smoke with no adverse effects apart from a gentle hug from the cloud of smoke.

He wasn't exactly confident that Jorginho would come onto his way of thinking but he at least might have been able to understand it a bit better. He was a couple of drags in and James was halfway through packing a new one for himself when he decided to concede, finding it natural to lean up against while he did so, as if he really had discovered his socks to be knocked off by an ancient herb.

"I guess if you enjoy the ritual of smoking then you'll be down for this kind of thing." Jorginho said. This was as close as James would get of him approving a new variety of things to set alight so he decided to take it. He would be a little more reluctant with the next sentence he uttered! I couldn't help but turn to look with my own eyes rather than trust my reflection. "It tastes a bit like when you have aching muscles and you put a lavender wheat bag in the microwave."

I watched with my own, fresh eyes as Jorginho blew out a cloud of smoke that was far more wispy than he was used to and then his strong nose crinkled at the sides, just the tip of his tongue appearing in the seconds after he not only had a taste that his own choice of words felt correct but the new sensation in his mouth was growing stronger.

James' appearance of the tip of his tongue was for a different reason as all over again, it licked along the edge of rolling paper and sealed shut. He went on to show as much exasperation as possible for someone with the end of a herbal cigarette in his mouth and also someone who was often under the effects of chilling herbs.

"Relaxing. It tastes relaxing." He couldn't refrain from having the urge to insist yet the way that the corners of his mouth quirked upwards either side of the cigarette while he ignored his own one showed that he was amused by the words that Jorginho had chosen. James took his first drag at the same time that Jorginho helped himself to another one and then they exhaled at the same time, forming a bigger cloud than was capable by just the one. "You wait until your wedding day to Miss Daisy comes around. You'll be begging me to roll you one of these to settle the pre wedding jitters."

Perhaps James shouldn't have mentioned this subject. As I made my way from the window sill to the coffee table of James' that loitered behind him which contained some of his smoking and growing apparatus with as much ease as I could manage at that age (!), I saw the way that sunbeams stroked across the irises of Jorginho and it wasn't because the sun in the Kanto sky had streaked across his eyes.

Maybe this really was the wrong idea for a conversation! James would go on to learn that the giddiness that Jorginho felt when it came to that particular woman could not be dampened by any amount of herbs from his garden. At least Jorginho had found someone who would listen, no matter how many hours he went on to drone on.

James felt as if he himself had been married more than once thanks to the loves in which had entered his lives. And yet, he relished in the news of hearing other people had leaned into their own version of love. He never grew tired in hearing their tales.

I supposed that was one of the good things about being a person who was so open to love in their many forms. You appreciate each and every kind. And you appreciate everyone's each and individual stories. You always have time for them.

James and Jorginho were more than halfway through their shared herbal cigarettes when the slightly older of the two finally drew a breath that was for oxygen rather than the savoury and also floral taste that was tickling at his taste buds.

They had gone from reminiscing on the day in which Jorginho had first met Daisy to the fact that he had proposed in the same building in which they had first crossed paths thanks to a bit of help from James. They discussed plans for the wedding and how excited they were, how filled with belief they were that it was a chance for everyone to feel as though they all could be a family and be together in spite of it all.

Jorginho even confessed that he never believed that he would wed, never believed that he would find a woman that he would want to wake up to the very next morning after a night of passion, let alone have her silhouette be the first thing that he awoke to for the rest of his days.

However, it wasn't this that made him quieten down following his previously bubbling, elated speech and James knew as much. It always took a friend to take notice of truths brewing up inside of you and James was a very good friend.

He studied the way that the side of Jorginho's mouth presented a taut dimple long before his lips pursed together all over again as they anticipated the companion of the cigarette, sucking on it thoughtfully. He waited until he had exhaled all of the smoke out of his lungs and for that extra weight that he had noticed drooping down on his shoulders to leave him as well.

But it did not. Because of his thoughtfulness, Jorginho reached the end of his cigarette far quicker and he stubbed it out with the kind of reluctance of that of a child unwilling to disappear back into home on the last evening of summer, knowing that when they crossed the threshold, it would be time to begin preparing to go back to school.

Jorginho then did not want to think. Jorginho then did not want to feel. He was blessed with good fortune as for at least a couple of seconds, the only thing that he had a chance to focus on was James taking his cigarette out from between his lips and placing it into his, holding it there for him and allowing him to inhale.

He filled himself with more than smoke as he filled himself with gratitude. He could feel that rattling around his lungs as well. But one of the biggest things that were present was James' care. My eyes darted and it seemed as though I was watching the slowest of tennis matches as they flickered from person to person but I didn't care.

I watched James wait for Jorginho to be honest with him. And I waited for him to be this as well.

"There's something on your mind." he then observed out loud, not too dissimilar from the way that Daisy had sensed it from within her fiancé. Instead of concealing his own boldness with a brown wrapped paper tucking in between his lips, James managed to look right at Jorginho, cigarette continuing to smoulder between his forefinger and his middle finger. "What is it?"

James anticipated Jorginho's head swaying from side to side and I did too. He could have done this from dizziness at the new sensation gently coursing through him but we would have known differently.

Nonetheless, he didn't do this in the slightest. Jorginho didn't dream of asking James for another drag if he was seemingly just going to let the burning thing be another of the elephants of the room, even if he would have quite liked to and hated seeing something going to waste. Anything so he didn't have to speak. Anything so he didn't have to say the truth.

After Daisy had suggested to him that he not overthink things and just allow this subject to come up if it was meant to come up, he had made a private agreement with himself to only speak of it if James ever noticed that he was quiet. He convinced himself that James would have never noticed anyway. He had far too many other things to focus on than an unusual lack of words from one of his oldest friends.

But then again, Jorginho had walked himself right into that trap, he felt like. He might not have noticed if he was consistently quiet. But he had been very bubbly before gradually softening down to a complete halt. He had only himself to blame. Now it was only up to him and him alone to proceed.

Would he lie?

Jorginho at long last shook his head, answering that unspoken possibility rather than anything that James said. It would have been easy to not look at him from their close proximity of practically being shoulder to shoulder but he decided to make things harder for himself by turning his whole body around to face him, looking right at him.

He didn't know why he did that!

But one thing he knew was that he wouldn't lie. Couldn't lie. That kind of thing was a wordless agreement behind them both. Ironic given their pasts.

"I finally sent off the papers to officially resign from Team Rocket." Jorginho confessed. James was attuned to the way that his most dominant fingers pressed against his empty lips after he managed this so soon enough; the cigarette of his was no longer just left to stew and was completely handed over to him. He clearly needed it more. "It took me so long. Damn longer than I anticipated." He added, taking a moment to fill his lungs with more than just honesty. "But it's done. So Daisy and I can officially begin our lives as a normal couple."

I watched as James' immediate response was to reach out a congratulatory hand to Jorginho's shoulder and he squeezed it before that touch lingered there, not adding any words until the end of the cigarette in which the lines had become blurred to whom it belonged to, produced a thick clump of ash at the end.

James considered to himself, knowing that resigning from Team Rocket wouldn't have made them a normal couple because he wasn't sure that any of those actually existed. He understood where Jorginho was coming from, though. And while he would have understood if Jorginho continued having that as his calling while popping home every so often and he had faith that if any spouse of a Team Rocket member could be kept safe then it would be whoever wed Jorginho Florenz, this way set better on his heart because he related to it.

It was exactly what he had done. He had hung up the R upon his chest for good in order to make a better life for his new wife and their little family – Meowth too.

Funnily enough, while this put a sensation of peace buzzing through James' heart – far more than any herbal concoction could ever offer – this paralleling of paths caused Jorginho's shoulder to feel very stiff underneath the easy-going touch of a friend.

James was not oblivious to this and hoped that his words could at least take the edge off. It was clear he was worrying about something.

"You can begin your lives as the married couple you're destined to be and have your main focuses be each other than anything else." He agreed with Jorginho's words but also embellished them. But still, his shoulder did not soften underneath him.

If you took a snapshot of this exact moment, you could compare it to the times that they used to share in Team Rocket and from the outside; it would appear exactly the same. A smoke of something or other shared between them. Leaning up against a friend. Confessions of the heart.

The ones back in the day would have been light-hearted, though. Their smokes would have been filled with a smoky green haze that made them more than merry.

They were older now. Wiser too. But for some reason, Jorginho felt different from the inside and if he didn't hurry, it would show more on the outside. No, of course he knew what the reason was. And if he didn't hurry then James could speculate and ponder the wrong reason. He was intuitive but he wasn't completely immune to paranoia of his own, after all.

With a swallow that was like he was trying to absorb the soothing taste of lavender into his throat rather than just his tongue, Jorginho couldn't help that he was a fool as he shrugged James' touch away from him before he turned to stare at him even more closely.

For such a lingering stare that Jorginho possessed through the ages, it wasn't often uncomfortable. And even if it was, it was soon glittered with words so any memory of that washed away like the sea lapping away footprints from the shore.

Before James could question him what was wrong, Jorginho asked a question of his own.

"Do you remember how much hell I gave you for quitting Team Rocket back in the day?" he posed and for some reason, his accent began to fluctuate towards more of his native tongue and for a bizarre split second, James could kid himself that it was the twenty year old version of Jorginho that he once knew asking him this. Through a daze that was not caused by the herbs, James knew he had to nod. It would have been a lie to shake his head and that wasn't encouraged between them. "Are you going to give me the same amount of hell in return now that I've done the exact same thing and for the exact same reasons?"

If it wasn't for the unswaying way in which Jorginho was looking right at him and it wasn't for the way that his vulnerable natural accent was peppering his words, James would have felt the inclination to smirk and nod his head, simply to tease him. Both James and Daisy were not dissimilar in that way. They found Jorginho an absolute delight to goad.

However, there was a time and a place for everything, James had learned that a very long time ago. Far longer ago than he learned of the information of how angry Jorginho was that he and the rest of their trio had decided to turn their back on the organisation.

I watched with baited breath, apparently absorbing some of Jorginho's feelings, as James might have been quicker to shake his head from side to side but he took his time in formulating the words that he wanted to say in return. It was probably hell for Jorginho. No, it was definitely hell for him.

But James couldn't hurry the truth. He was loathe to rush creation and sometimes he created masterpieces with speech, especially when he spoke from the heart.

"Is this your way of saying sorry…?" James inquired and in the seconds that Jorginho discovered his broad chest to be elevating outwards, he looked down at his lap with such a display of remorse that he prayed that James didn't feel the same but on the opposite end of the spectrum otherwise it would surely overwhelm them both. "You don't need to be sorry for that, let alone say it." he told Jorginho, wishing that he would look back at him again because he had a feeling that he would know that he was telling the truth. It probably sounded too good to be true without looking. "And you certainly don't need to be fretting over that all these years later."

Jorginho's eyes were then encouraged to look at the equally bespectacled face of his good friend there and then. The broad chest of him protruding out far more than James' felt like it was ignited rather than just the single cigarette and showed this in appearance too, the hue matching the kinds of flowers both of them were known to bestow upon the women in their lives.

This only appeared further still as Jorginho felt the touch under his chin lingering more than in just an act to lift him up to be bold enough to maintain eye contact. It was more than an act of forgiveness too. More than brotherhood. It was affection. And it rendered Jorginho oddly speechless as even though he touched his own chin back down into the hand of James out of grateful surprise, he closed his eyes from behind his glasses for a couple of moments before deciding that he needed to allow his actions to do some of the talking as well.

Jorginho took what he intended to be his final drag of the cigarette before still holding it in between his forefinger and middle finger but he flipped his wrist the other way, allowing James to smoke from it while the broader male controlled it. This was the only thing that was spoken between the two of them for a good while.

What a relief. Jorginho still felt like there was still time for James to remember that he actually was mad at him. But for the time being, he knew that he just had to believe him. He just had to believe that it was water under the bridge.

They had declared it as such when they first came back into each other's lives thanks to Sammy being the reason that their paths crossed once more. Truthfully, James had a bigger reason to be displeased with him than their silly twenty year old tiffs!

But the more that Jorginho started to see himself in the things that James had chosen to do all those years ago, guilt had begun to creep up him like a viciously creeping and binding plant that was entirely unwelcome. He didn't care who he was to a lot of people. He didn't care at all. But especially when it came to the people that he held closest to him, the last thing that he wanted was to be a hypocrite.

He did not want to become a husband as a hypocrite and he certainly didn't want to become one with remorse of the past weighing him down.

This was one of the reasons that he at long last replied to James' words, long after either him or I expected him to address that subject at least one more time.

"But I do feel sorry." Jorginho felt the need to let this be known, especially after his fingers grazed across James' chin in the process of allowing him to have another drag from the cigarette that they had been sharing. His head swayed from side to side, tendrils of his longer hair at the back traipsing further down his neck to display his vehemence. "You know… I was never upset with you for leaving the organisation." Jorginho prayed that his chest wouldn't become so aflame that he was rendered speechless. "I was upset that you were leaving me…"

Jorginho wished that James had latched his lips onto the cigarette on his own accord at that point because at least he would have had another good reason to be so silent for which felt like forever. In reality, it was merely only a breath or two. And in reality also, there was practically no way for him to have many more smokes at all. It was running desperately down towards the butt at this point.

He had watched his friend's eyes that reminded him of the meadow overlooking Cerulean Cape dilate straight away in response but still, no words came. Why were no words coming? He was about to get annoyed out of the embarrassment of it all.

But then James' voice soothed him.

"I know." He answered and it was Jorginho's turn to convey with his eyes. James had an answer for him as well. A crevice by the side of his own mouth started to appear as he tilted his head from side to side, considering before he too just came out with the truth. "I didn't realise until years later. And by then it was far too late to reach out again…"

That was that. Well, that could have been that. It could have been the end of the conversation. But as I watched James and Jorginho interact and I started to build a fuller picture of the kind of dynamic that they once had, they did have and would continue to have; I knew that there would always be more.

Whether it took some seconds. Whether it took some minutes. Whether it took more than twenty years like the time between James leaving Team Rocket with Jessie and Meowth, and Sammy forcing them to cross paths with Jorginho once more. Chapters never came to an end between the both of them. There would always be at least one more page to discover.

And like I would go on to learn, that new, undiscovered page could be quite a lot different from the rest!

Jorginho might have liked to act with seriousness. After all, his chest still felt aflame like it had been stung by nettles and there was an unease in his heart like he had opened so much of himself up in recent years and he just was not used to it! But then I supposed, it was because of these feelings that he decided to go a different way.

They might have been silently agreeing to do better than they once had done, but Jorginho still proved that he still wanted their wide eyed twenty year old humour racing through them as if they were still that tender age and only just going out into the world.

After moments of tenderness, Jorginho decided to bump his shoulder against James' but rather than sending him flying, he somehow absorbed the motion and the two of them bedded against each other.

Some bonds were going to prevail no matter what you did or how you behaved.

"I'm upset that we missed all of those years in between." Jorginho announced and he squinted at James, this gesture and the hairs hanging around his neck beginning to slowly curl being an indicator that he should watch out for what kind of words were to come. "I would have liked to witness the James over the years." With a single swipe, the cigarette was claimed back by him. It was hard to differentiate who it belonged to at that point and it was hard to separate whose Team Rocket path belonged to whom as well. "I would have whooped his ass for some of the things that he did."

And with that and with merriment tugging at his lips, that was still the case even as they puckered to welcome the brown paper back in between them, smoking as much as the weary old thing was going to allow.

James shot him a very clear look, a much arched eyebrow adored look. But nevertheless, it was not for the herbal concoction that he had made so he did not steal it back.

"Yeah, well, hearing you say that makes me glad that you weren't around." He humoured him in return but you could not tell so immediately from his tone. His lips curled as if he was the one smoking. However, when he saw Jorginho saw right through him and saw a diamond in his eye that was not a loose ember from the flame floating up towards him, he knew that he had to take a leaf out of his book and say more of what he really wanted to say. "At least we have now, don't we?"

A bob of the head told James exactly what Jorginho's answer was going to be in the split second before it came.

"We do." He agreed, his two words muffled as his lips were taut around the cigarette and acting like it really was something out of his own creation from the way that he bled it dry.

He might have been a man of few words when he wasn't being a man of every word under the sun but the thing that joined together these two extremes was that he rarely didn't speak from the heart. Sometimes it felt a curse to feel so deeply and to feel so much all at once. But once he surrounded himself with people who would never leave him high and dry, he knew that he could always fly.

James responded his few words with more of words that he wanted to say. It's funny how he didn't realise that all of this was rattling around inside him until Jorginho's honesty had encouraged it out of him as well. James didn't realise that he needed to say all of this to one of his oldest friends.

But there and then he did. A weight that he hadn't realised he had been carrying about was lifted.

"I'll get your brother to thank God for me that you came back to all of us." James began and already, Jorginho was squinting playfully and it was unclear whether it was the words that had been put forth or the fact that he was stealing another sneaky inhale, clearly a converted man from the way that he smoked it right down to the tip. "Because I don't know how I've done the last twenty years without you. So I most certainly want the next twenty years to be the opposite of that."

And with that, Jorginho's head was forced to steady from its tilted position and his eyes were encouraged to show more of their naturally rounded state. He exhaled such an exhale that it was as if he was ridding himself of everything that was inside of him, not just the smoke that he had previously drawn inwards.

He studied James' shy expression. He was no longer alone in possessing a rose creeping blush traipsing up his chest and because James wanted to shy away from it, Jorginho knew that he had never had more fondness for him in his life.

He thought it was far easier for James to be honest than it was for him but it seemed that they both had their hesitance about it. And yet, they still did it. For each other, especially, they still did it.

Two pairs of glasses bobbed up and down on individual noses. Jorginho knew that he wanted to respond with something. He wanted to respond with something. Anything. But exactly what, he didn't now.

He had come up against that dreadful lesson in life all over again. He was again realising that sometimes the words you chose would never have the correct meaning because it was the unspoken things that held the most depth.

Jorginho considered. He considered without much consideration at all. In fact, he did what felt natural to him. With a flicking motion of his wrist and then a bashing movement downwards, the cigarette was snubbed out. It didn't matter. Brotherhood was alight and that was the only thing that mattered.

And then, the paths that connected them positively lit up too as Jorginho decided to say everything without saying anything at all. In those few moments, the silent soul of him won out in battle against the chatty side and it had never felt more right.

James might have liked to lean up against him while they smoked with each other back in the day but now it was time for the other way around. It seemed only fair now that Jorginho was the one to throw in his metaphorical Team Rocket towel.

Jorginho didn't say a single word as his eyes fluttered shut, resting back against the shoulder of his good friend and kidding himself that the peaceful feeling surrounding them both like a bubble that couldn't be popped was the cigarettes rather than the closeness.

No matter what it was and no matter what they told themselves, I knew one thing was absolutely for certain:

You might have been able to take the Team Rocket members out of the organisation but you were never able to take the rocketeers away from each other. Decisions would get in the way. Life choices. Other commitments. Even betrayal. But in the end, like Meowth once said a very long time ago, they could flourish if they focused on what was the same still rather than what was different.

Everybody can flourish if they do that too.

In James and Jorginho's case, it was always the similarities that bound them from the beginning. They had come such a long way. But where would they go? Well, I'm still finding out, so we had all better sit tight and just enjoy the rocket fuelled ride!

The End.

There you go! Thanks so much for reading and I hope you enjoyed :) So yeah, as well as learning more about James and Jorginho in the time that this story takes place as well as the past, I believe it's the first proper time we get to see the relationship between Jorginho and Daisy. It's appeared a lot in my writing lately but I have yet to upload them all. I'll get there! I'm a bit fan of the trope of someone coming along and completely exceeding your expectations and falling deeply in love. That's definitely Jorginho and Daisy and I cannot wait to continue developing them. Shannon and I have done pretty well lately getting to know who James and Jorginho are when they are together. That's something to write more about and upload too! :P Thanks again for reading and I will be back again next Wednesday with another chapter so see you then!

Amy signing out :)