Hello! It is not Wednesday but I am still back with another chapter. I didn't update yesterday because I've spent the week away from work and doing lots of work to my house which has taken most of my energy! I did plan to read through this and get it uploaded late last night but tiredness struck. Regardless, I am here now, and in spite of being written in November 2021, this didn't need too much editing which is unusual. Funnily enough, like last week's upload, this chapter also focuses on Justin being in the water. But this time, swimming lessons are taking place between him, his daughter, Layla, and Misty! However, halfway through, we start to wonder, is it Layla who will be taught some things, or Justin?! :P I hope you enjoy!

Ages:

Justin: 27

Misty: 41

Layla: 6 Months

Disclaimer: I own the story and the OCs mentioned!

"So if you want to get that sort of chime-y sound from the guitar you just have to…" Justin continued explaining, the invisible guitar between two hands and placed on his lap being used to demonstrate. "Keep your two fingers on the top strings right where they are but move your pinkie to the same string but two frets below."

He concluded, his fingers showing what exactly they were meant to be doing if a guitar was actually present and an airy smile forming on his lips. Misty couldn't find any words to say! They remained elusive to her for quite some time, her eyes fixed on the area between the younger male's two hands as if she could really see an instrument there.

Her eyes focused for a moment, her mind making out a curvaceous shape of a particular and the blushing of wood while an impromptu lesson was taking place. But then a second later, her expression faltered and her own contrasting expression softened her features.

Misty's legs splashing gently against the pool water below, her shoulder found the company of a narrower, bonier one.

"I don't think even after all these years, my hands will ever be strong enough to do that sort of thing." She admitted, the creasing on either side of her eyes altering so they weren't just fond anymore. Instead of her line of vision being filled with Justin on the poolside next to her, she started to see her own digits. "Or maybe they need to get bigger."

Justin must have been attuned to the alteration of her expression or the slight influx of her vocal chords. After feeling the sensation of her shoulder companionably pressing against his and swooshing his own feet through the pool water below, it was natural for him to offer her words of comfort.

"Mine aren't all that big. I just push them to the limits and end up paying for it." he spoke in a tone that was like a breeze making its way through a hot day and then once he peered at Misty taking in the sight of her ten digits and he had a moment to copy her, he mirrored her prior antics of allowing a little more touch between the two of them. "See?"

Before Misty could know what she was seeing, Justin lightly reached across and held her wrist between his fingers. Their hands were soon pressing together and attempting to be the twin of each other and from my position at the other end of the pool side; I could see that they were inadvertently doing a very good job at it.

Their pale, slender fingers and hands of a similar size were practically a reflection of each other without too much effort, in actual fact.

The older woman's bridge of her nose had an added streak of colour to it at her companionable closeness with the younger male but it must've been the sun. She didn't subtly or kindly wiggle her hand away from his. Together, they looked.

Misty was the next to break the small silence again.

"Well I can imagine that they're very strong." She said, the pads of her fingers only just beginning to add pressure to Justin's so he couldn't have a clue what she was embarking on doing. "After all the years of-"

For an occasion that was rare for him, he did not allow her to finish her sentence. He was the one to break the entirety of the touch between the both of them, his body longing to go elsewhere as his distracted eyes wandered and spotted something.

"Ooh, Layla." Was all he said, his full lips portraying a perfect o shape before he showed no remorse in being potentially rude. There weren't any sounds that followed after that and the only noise that he made was against the water and it returning making a sploshing sound as he dipped from the poolside into the water.

Misty with a knot tugging her eyebrows closer together watched as Justin dropped into the water of the Ketchum home pool before making a beeline for his daughter, clasping her by the hands as soon as he got near enough to her and then pulling her to his chest.

The other parent of her own right understood exactly what had happened. Her eyebrows stopped playing a tug of war match with each other and evened back to how they usually appeared, fondness washing over her expression once more as if her features were the sand and a sea of change was lapping at it.

The brown decking of the pool side felt the warmth and dampness of a palm from both sides and Misty formed words at the moment that Justin started to gingerly make his way back over with his daughter.

"She would have been fine, you know, Justin." She told him and after her words slipped out, her expression felt a lot of pressure to appear all the more airy and sunny in case it inwardly dawned on her that she might have sounded condescending towards him. "She's got her little neck float and that ain't leaving her."

Misty continued watching as since Justin had snatched Layla from floating blissfully out towards the deeper water of the pool, he was treading and hopping through the elixir of blue, apparently not trusting himself to swim with a baby in his hold.

His expression didn't resume it's usually accessible and carefree ways until he reached a level of water that could be stood up in and he set Layla free to float once more but this time under his supervision.

"She might have started to wonder where I was." Justin eventually answered, his hands reaching back out to his daughter once again in spite of the fact that he had only just set her back into the water to do her own thing. Layla aimlessly giggled towards the ceiling when she felt the tickling of a finger through her swim suit.

I was across the poolside from all three of them, it is true, but Misty and I still managed to share a look of fondness as after the light tickling that Layla received, she was pulled backwards towards her father yet again and she started to peer backwards to try and spot him while he leaned over her watchfully from his position.

No one could exactly blame Justin. It didn't matter how naturally you took to the water yourself, keeping your children safe was always your number priority and could turn the most animated and joyous of characters to smart and sensible.

Justin wasn't just being sensible though, Misty would go on to tell me what she had been thinking on that day. She did not have a word for how else he was behaving, however.

For the time being, she allowed her expression to portray fondness. In fact, it did not have to be falsified when, a few seconds later, she plopped down into the water again and reassured the new father for a second time.

"She loves being in the water, don't you, little duckling?" Misty didn't bother to prevent herself from cooing and after her own fingers waded against the sunshine of Layla's swimming costume before squishing together chubby cheeks, the baby being spoken about cooed in her own way. "Just like my own girls."

Layla giggled, carefree, at the affection that she was receiving from Misty and peered forward to fill her entire line of vision with her, practically coming alive at the attention from a lady. Justin just had to allow his unsure expression to fade away like the Kanto sun hiding behind the trees of the garden that provided a wonderful, natural pool cover.

He watched his daughter's eyes continually searching for the older woman, her head steady in her neck pool floaty and her starfish hands wriggling under the water in an excitable fashion. Justin began to dote on her as well, in his own way.

"Just don't change the water so it matches your hair and little costume, Lays." He killed two birds with one stone, trying to humour Misty with his words and also entertain his daughter with the way that his voice rose in pitch to engage with her, his eyes swivelling around in their sockets and placing a flat palm over her rounded belly.

The two of us, Misty and I, looked at each other for a different reason that time and with very different expressions! Layla was none the wiser – or perhaps she enjoyed her father's less than demure sense of humour.

She continued cackling, just like a little duckling, and Misty also in the water managed to recover from her reaction and her countenance long enough to get an idea.

Soon enough, Misty could feel both of Layla's tiny fists tucked perfectly inside her hands.

"Why don't we play a little game of pushing this little one, floating her between us at either ends of the pool?" she suggested, then having to give Justin a bit of a look from the way that he looked doubtfully at her for a long period of time after looking between her and her daughter. He was bordering on being too sensible, even for him! "She'll love it just like my girls did. You go to the deeper end."

And if there was anything that Justin Morgan had a bit of a soft spot more of than when it came to (one in particular) Ketchum girl's then it was tradition!

After inwardly agreeing with the older woman's expression that he probably did need to let loose a bit, he was quick to comply but seemingly under the one condition.

"I can go the shallow end." He suggested with a shrug that sent his bare shoulders briefly dipping in and out of the water, like a cat daintily licking at milk from its bowl. Then, he started wading and hopping towards all the more shallower water before Misty could disagree.

She refrained from sharing a look with me that time, although I had a sixth sense like how in the same way you know when someone is staring at you without looking, I knew when someone felt compelled to look in my direction but didn't wholly act on it.

Misty did not look in my direction but she did hesitate. But she soon just went along with it, being the one to take Layla on her way and towards the deeper pool water. I had my own inclination to look over at my best friend's wife but I do did not follow through with it. I felt all the more of a need to do it when I saw Justin's cheekbones hollowing and his eyebrows forming a close alliance as he watched from his shallow end of the pool, his daughter being swam with towards deeper water.

The thoughts in my head on that day were merely that parenthood was giving Justin a distorted reality of things. In the same way that your eyes grow blurry and salt-stung after you dip your head under the ocean waters, parenthood and indeed fatherhood makes the littlest things seem massive.

I was compelled to go around to the pool side on the right there and then to be a bit nearer to Justin while the few metres between him and the two girls' in the water with him seemed like lightyears away. This was one instinct that I did go with.

"Oh you're ready for this little game, aren't you, duckling?" Misty spoke to Layla in her arms and despite there being no echo of an interior pool that was in actuality outside, Justin's ears pricked immediately and he listened to the words from lady to little lady. "Are you going to float over to your daddy?"

Ignorantly, I misread his expression that looked as though he had stepped in something icky at the bottom of the pool but was trying to be polite about it as still feeling unused to hearing that particular word being used to describe him.

He had been a guardian for a couple of years but being a father still felt very fresh to him. And I knew that because of his youthful and even occasionally child-like charm and spirit, he felt as though he could not live up to the hammer of justice and pillar of protection that came with being a father.

Of course, I thought he was doing a wonderful job, I spoke of it often. Misty thought it in equal amounts. I wondered if she needed to say it to him more.

"Come and float over to daddy." Justin encouraged from his end of the pool once Misty had set the little duckling free and with a gentle push, she was floating across the distance between the two adults. He spoke that parental name as if he had a seed stuck between his teeth but then straightened up when his daughter was within his reach. "Oh, you are enjoying it, aren't you?"

Justin picked Layla up and out of the water but naturally, the smile was wiped off her face and her gleeful giggles could no longer be heard when she could not feel the comforting bubble of the liquid lapping at her skin. Thankfully, her father got the hint! He swiftly put her back into the water and after a fond thigh grab of affection, he sent her on her way again, pushing her back towards Misty.

Justin tried to keep his body straight in the waist-deep water but his shoulders started to curve closer towards the lapping liquid once Layla was set free and this time, he remained in that posture even when the baby had reached the company of Misty. She was not reached out for. Instead, the pool virtuoso allowed the child to keep on floating and entertained her from above instead, doing starfish gestures with her fingers and even splashing her gently.

Justin grinned and bared it! And although he did a better job of concealing it in those circumstances, he grinned and bared it too when Layla was sent back and forth between the two of them, from shallow end to deep end of the pool, over and over again.

After about the fifth round and even Misty seeing Justin's shoulders rounding and curving so much that they were practically kissing the water, she got an idea that she believed was correct. She made an assumption and spoke of it, trying to alieve the younger male.

"If you're cold being half in and half out over there, Justin, you can come into the deep end if you want. We can get you over here as well." She suggested and his initial response was to, from his end of the pool, allow his eyes to give rubber rings a run for their money in the shape that they took on and cup his hand around his ear. Misty was not fooled. "Get here now."

Her tone was icier than pool water in the winter! Justin knew to comply. And quite the splashing and sloshing noises were made as he started to wade and hop into deeper water.

However, the time that he took in getting nearer to Misty and Layla's side and the way that he wasted it by not swimming made me apprehend the possibility that that tone of hers would appear yet again. But fortunately, even when Justin lurked in water that still allowed him to carefully stand up in it but with water covering his chest, she softened her voice all over again.

But then again, I supposed that it was because she was conversing with Layla rather than her father.

"Go ahead and float to your daddy." Misty encouraged, her own hands clasping over Layla's little ones before she set the child free yet once more, out against the unmoving and even pool water and towards her father.

But from the way that Justin reacted in not too many outward ways but in ways that were readable to those who knew him, it was like Misty had sent the poor child out towards the choppiest of oceans!

Regardless of it being his natural instinct to wade and hop across the bottom of the pool, he couldn't stop himself from making a clumsy attempt to swim before catching his daughter and holding her firmly towards his chest.

It was lucky Layla thought that this was a game and between the sensation of the neck floaty around her and his soft but firm hands around her middle too, she thought that she was in the middle of the best game of being the pray to Justin's slithering snake!

She laughed and she laughed and she laughed some more in his hold.

Misty looked as though she wanted to laugh the least in the world. Truthfully, her eyebrows had closely formed union yet again and her hands were itching to clasp onto her hips. But fate appeared to be in Justin's favour when, for a rare occasion, she was distracted from an outburst as she watched Layla's little bow head band floating along the water before beginning to dip below the surface.

"Well that was the least dainty thing I have ever seen and you may have cost your poor daughter her sweet little headband." Misty deadpanned but then as her fingers finally made contact with her hips through her own swim suit, she couldn't help but lighten up as the sun broke through the trees again and she saw Justin's expression that wasn't much but was naturally comical from her point of view. "You better go fetch it back."

And with that, she gestured to Justin with a wave of the hand before swimming towards the younger male in a far more graceful way and then holding both her arms out to accept the child all over again.

Though Layla was facing away from Misty and she still was seemingly finding such delight in being at her father's hold, she started to twitch and kick her little legs when Misty's arms were being held out towards her, almost as if she knew.

I watched as Justin squirmed for different reasons. But he made an attempt of composure, swivelling Layla around in his hold to face forward but still not letting her go.

"You said she was to float to her daddy and now she is here." Justin said, lifting Layla higher towards his chin and even softly nuzzling his nose against the velvet locks at the back of her head, the causation of this being her whining for a couple of moments before cooing at the affection. "It's your pool and you actually got her that nice little band." A smile was flashed and received by Misty.

Justin didn't dare actually say the words, telling the older woman to go and do it herself. But he might as well have actually come out and said it from the way that he only just skirted around the edge of it!

Misty's hips were wholeheartedly feeling the sensation of her own fingers that time. But it was not because she felt a hotness rising from the pit of her stomach towards her neck that not even a satiating splash in the pool could fix, oh no.

This warmth was the warmth of realisation as she started to piece together little things – little nuggets of information and possibilities – that had previously floated away from her like a paddleboard towards the horizon on the sea front.

The thing is, you see, in a fair few of her antics, Misty isn't nearly as subtle and – to put it bluntly – well mannered, as Justin. She does not beat around the bush and she does not skirt around things. Her words and her actions are alike in this way. On that day, her actions led her to swim closer towards Misty and then a hand shot out and swiped at Justin in not the way that he initially reacted to.

Justin dodged, like she was going to have a go at taking him down! The reality was that she made a grab for Layla's pacifier that was hanging on a loop attached to her neck floaty and with another swift arm moment, the pacifier flew through the air and landed in the water.

Plink. It began to float downwards.

Justin's eyes and eyelashes alike blinked together in unison with the sound that the plastic of the item and the rubber of the teat hit the water before plunging downwards. He apparently was copying a touch of Misty's antics, or moreover, actually possessed them too when he stopped being polite and set them free, as he looked over at the older woman with quite the look on his face.

"Well that was-" he began. The word that crossed his mind could not be uttered in front of a sweet and innocent baby! So with a clunking noise from his own jaw, he shut his mouth and gone was the carefree expression of his features that often was portrayed and the presence of a more rigid, unmoving side of his persona started to creep across his countenance. "Your loss."

He decided to let the situation go without uttering too many harsh words, or any at all. A shrug rolled off his shoulders and was properly lapped at by the water of the pool as he continued clutching his daughter to his chest and bobbed up and down in the water with her, just one of his legs stubborn enough to touch the bottom of the pool though it was quite a stretch.

Like was often the case between the two of them and even when it came to Misty and Justin's father, his lack of desire to engage and fight fire with fire made all attitudes diffuse very quickly. In fact, Misty began to see that her actions had been childish and it made her feel as warm if they had started fighting fire with fire.

She subtly gulped like she had swallowed a mouthful of pool water. And unlike when she was ten years old, she was swift to put things right. She, however, squirmed and the water trembled around her, that stubborn streak still there as she knew she had to admit.

"I just wanted to see if you can actually swim." She confessed, the corner of her nose scrunching up and her body beginning to float backwards as she used her arms and legs to move in that direction.

From one particular end of the poolside, I watched, unable to take my eyes away from the scene as almost as soon as Misty's fire within herself had diminished, Justin's began to ignite. Naturally, it was in a rather feeble way! But nonetheless, he answered with his own, not exactly honesty, but he answered with his own promptness.

More slanted eyes than usual locked onto the being of Misty. He could not stand aspersions being cast.

"Of course I can swim, are you joking?" the part of his personality that was drawn to all things tangible began but then his differing one was apparently the stronger of the two as it won out and caused him to smirk slightly, though he did shake his head. "You oversee Layla doing it almost every week. You see me doing it too."

Misty had remained facing forward while swimming backwards to grow closer to where the headband and pacifier had both fallen to their deaths but still somehow looked as though she was turning her had back towards to Justin, from both his point of view and from mine too.

Hovering and floating in the water, no sense of lack of ease as she was unable to touch the bottom of the pool with her feet, she was perfectly comfortable with wading while conversing with Justin.

"I see Layla doing it almost every week." She pointed out, a levelness to her tone to contrast the pool water growing choppy and uneven from her hands as they broke the surface of the water and cut through it.

Misty was starting to be hit with an epiphany more and more as time went on and all the more after she said her own words too. Justin responded with an eye roll revolving towards the sky with plenty of cloud cover thanks to the month that everyone was experiencing.

His frustration was still painted with a light of ease to it.

"What about at the beach with you and Katie?" he hoped that this would speak for itself and even managed to convince himself to prove his point enough to let go of Layla and leave her contentedly floating just in front of him. "Do I just sit there like a lemon?"

Maybe the wrong choice for him to break his hold away from Layla. After Misty momentarily disappeared from sight in order to gracefully dip into the water and then back to the surface yet again, pacifier and (soggy) headband in tow, the water had obviously replenished her eyesight more than anything so she was able to look right at Justin, unfalteringly, as her hands shot out to clasp his daughter.

All he could do was half hang his mouth open.

"You get in the water." She conceded, her sturdy yet feminine hands under the armpits of Layla and in spite of the conversation that she was in the middle of, she momentarily softened at the way that the child positively lit up when they were close together yet again.

I continually observed as, apparently Layla's sunshine didn't cut straight through to the heart of everyone. Now that Justin was without his girl, while he could hardly keep just the one toe on the one foot clued to the bottom of the pool, he made a point of standing straighter up as well as his own stubbornness being made clear.

"And I swim!" He insisted, then his turn to feel warmth spreading over his upper body but it was due to the way that he had folded his arms over his chest and managed to look right back at Misty.

It was funny how it was often the case that it could only be up to one person to do the one thing at a time. As Justin's levels of rigidness started to creep up, Misty unconsciously knew that it was time for her levels to drop down. And with a sigh and after some swimming actions, Layla was popped out of her neck floaty and onto the pool side, in her little chair for some respite and relaxation time.

Misty swam back towards Justin. He appeared to be the opposite of relaxed at the seemingly permanent separation from his daughter, even though she had been given her headband back and her pacifier too before she was swum away from!

And as for Misty, well, she knew that it was a silly thing for them to be having a fight over. Never mind their rather prominent personalities; the truth was they hardly ever fought. So she for one did not want the occasion to be marked by something as foolish as that. But she did still want the truth.

"Just show me now how you swim, Justin." She started, and curiously, I immediately noticed how prompt Justin's shoulders were to twitch downwards when he was given more room to just be. And then I felt my own shoulders moving in similar ways when Misty found herself adding, as though the twenty seven year old man needed this reassurance. "I won't tell you off."

His bony shoulders threatened to flop so far into the pool water that they surely could've hit the bottom. After being so rigid and insistent when that attitude was demonstrated to him by the older woman, all of it melted away when she silently told herself that things must be the same way for her.

Residue of grins threatening to decorate his face out of habit and to hide his apprehension, Justin managed to focus on the task at hand by pushing his only just damp locks away from his features. He gave Misty a look that disagreed with her statement. But they both knew that felt the opposite. And they both knew that, just like she wanted from the younger male, she was telling the truth.

Another waving motion through his own locks, he appeared to rid himself of any underlying desire to keep his attitude in a corset. He knew he must take to things like he grabbed his guitar by the neck and took to the stage. Even if nothing felt as natural to him as that, he had to at least act in that manner. Because it was that act in which gave him confidence.

Thankfully all of his confidence was not kicked out of him when, after he eventually nodded his head at Misty's words and set forth to making a few strokes across the water in a way that was technically the front crawl technique, she gave him such a deadpan look that she did not to say anything else!

But she did. And fortunately further, he managed to hold his head up high all over again after he swam some more strokes to prove a point over to shallower water where he could successfully stand.

"Well that was utterly graceless. And I know your legs are long, poppet, but they went in all directions." She spoke bluntly, needless to say the pet name slipping out not adding any softness to the blow! Regardless, Justin's chin didn't falter. He knew that it couldn't. "Relieved that you can swim, though. I guess that you just take after your dad at that age when it comes to confidence in the water."

And with that, even Justin from the other, shallower end of the pool to Misty and with water glittering in his eyes, still a bit of a spark that could be seen at the mention of his father was present. He would never have guessed that it would have been Misty that turned him from an incompetent swimmer to a water butterfly but that was the case!

And going in with the lines of tradition, Justin's eyes could not stop themselves from portraying the fact that he thought it was wicked that his father had been in Misty's hands and now he seemingly was too. He was in Misty's hands alright! He never would have dreamed that his daughter's swimming lesson with her would have turned into one of his own.

But with me then next to Layla in her seat by the pool side and the child contented enough to wave at and grab my tail as I wiggled it in front of her to entertain her, there appeared to be no time like the present.

After all, Justin did not need actual swimming lessons. He just needed confidence in swimming lessons. He hoped that Misty was up for the challenge. And he hoped that he was up for the challenge too. Because to tell you the truth, there was still the chance she would chip away at his confidence rather than add!

"Do your front crawl again, Justin." Misty suggested once the two of them had bickered and finally agreed on an area of the pool that was between the shallow end and the deep end, both of them compromising on where he should go. "And I'll just tweak you and show you what could be better."

Justin flashed a look that could not be described as other than wanly and wearily. He couldn't help but feel like she was going to tell him that every aspect of his swimming could be better! But what did he have to lose? He was in safe hands. And maybe he would be able to surprise Katie by joining in a whole lot more when she dragged him to the coast like she often did.

I tried to encourage my main focus to be on entertaining little Layla as she remained on the pool side but while I did this, I naturally couldn't convince my eyes not to wander elsewhere also. I watched as, after a couple of deep breaths for courage, Justin took to the water all over again. And with eyes squeezed shut despite the fact that he was not putting his head in the water, he started to demonstrate his front crawl.

Practically without hesitation following his quite a lot of splashing and limbs going everywhere, Misty was moving behind Justin and she started to grab hold of certain limbs of his, drawing them closer together and then lightly pushing on the back of his head – he knew what this meant.

"Your legs tighter together and with far more focus will be able to exude a lot more power." Misty instructed, him not seeming to mind her hands altering his legs but her fingers on the back of his head and pushing downwards being a different matter. "You can stick your head under, you know."

Misty being Misty, she accidentally went a bit far and pushed him too much. There was a chance that he would not listen to a word that she said again from the way that he reacted to her gesture. It was as if she had dunked his head completely under but she had only just gotten his chin and the tip of his nose wet.

"I don't need you to do that, jeez!" he suddenly erupted once his head had lifted from the water and now that his legs had been properly instructed just the once, he was able to volt away from Misty with a lot of power and a lot of speed.

However, all that Misty could really focus on was that he had raised his voice at her. But instead of being annoyed when he finally stopped swimming away from her and with a flip of his hair looked back at her from the deep end of the pool, flushed features from either the exercise or the explosion, all she could do was focus on the fact that he had improved already.

She could not ignore the tickling to her ego that he was a quick learner. But to prove a point that he had technically shouted at her, she decided to meet his fire with her own one.

"Jeez!" she retorted and underneath the water, hands splashed down to join against her hips and she shot Justin a look that, even if he had copious amounts of chlorine in his eyes, he would have still been able to catch onto. "I knew that you had lungs on you for singing, but damn."

The lightest of twitches performed in her right brow. The corner of her mouth elevated just so. She was only teasing him. She was only teasing him so he did not feel the need to apologise for getting loud with her. It had been a long time coming!

And he proved that he got her wordless message equally as much as he had received her worded – her loud, worded one – by the way that not only did he shorten the distance between the two of them all over again but he started to swim back towards her too, not fully getting his face wet but getting more into the zone and swimming far more competently.

Like I said, he just needed some more confidence. And apparently a screaming match was doing that for him!

"So let me guess, there's problems with my arms too if there's ones with my legs?" Justin initiated, swimming back towards Misty's side but still allowing there to be a sizeable amount of distance between them and not simply because of their previous ire.

A slant in my neck as I saw the scene from an angle and tried not to wince when Layla got two of her very strong grips around two points of my tail, I saw Misty swallow words along the lines that would have liked to jokingly point out that it didn't help having arms and legs that were equally as thin as each other. She managed to refrain and I was proud of her for that!

She was the one to break the distance between the two of them, becoming Justin's friend again more than his teacher. She was preparing to direct him again once he got back on his front. And after doing a couple of front strokes away from her and holding onto his wrists from behind and pulling them up in the air, her own hands fell back towards her hips for a different reason that time.

"Actually, your arms are looking pretty good." She began, her hips and her digits breaking apart from each other almost as quickly as they had united and holding back onto Justin's wrists yet again, though they probably didn't need to. "That's a good thing." She continued, Justin peering around to look at her because he figured that was better than dunking his head in the water. "You can just focus on keeping your legs closer together and more intentional."

A knot within his own brow as he absorbed these words, Justin was in the process of swimming around from his front to his back and Misty had just enough time to let go of his wrists in the mean time when the pool area of the Ketchum household was no longer left to it just being us.

And no, I know what you're thinking, but it wasn't Jordan who came bounding across the pool side and diving into the water, sending Justin flying with limbs in all directions as he hit the surface like a bomb!

The interruption was far daintier, in truth. But they still made their presence known in their own way.

After letting herself back into her parent's house and knowing where to find both her mother and Justin with Layla on a Wednesday afternoon, Katie joined the pool side and she came in tow with a child of her own.

Alice ran ahead and breathed out words of excitement as she saw the water. But cautious and obedient as well as exuberant, she soon ran back to hide behind her mother's leg before she got into danger.

"Well what is going on here?" Katie wondered, her eyebrows rising close to her hairline when she saw that on Layla's swimming day, that blonde haired child of her best friend was lounging on the pool side with me and it was actually Justin and her mother in the water.

Misty couldn't stop a chuckle of amusement catching at her throat and then erupting when, utterly contrasting the usual manner in which Justin reacted to his best friend's presence, he became quite flustered tried to stand up in the water before he realised that he had swum to the deep end couldn't reach the comfort of the bottom of the pool.

The noise of a throat then came from Justin as he threatened to choke. Thankfully, he felt a stable hand on the middle of his back and it grounded him more than the pool's base. And he was able to swallow and merely grin while Katie's mother answered for them both.

"Just Layla's swimming lesson has turned into a brush up of Justin's skills in case you finally do send him walking the plank off The Valentine." Misty decided to answer truthfully but humorously all the same. Justin tittered. Out of politeness at first, Justin tittered. But that he actually absorbed the words and grounded himself enough to properly laugh.

Katie was equally as carefree in her own manner to laugh and with Alice gone to wave hello to Layla and even start to dangle some toys in front of her face, giving my tail a bit of a break, the younger of the orange haired women decided that she could get stuck in on the action too. After all, that was why she was there!

"Ooh, well I wanna help." Her words caused me to smile because once upon a time, she wouldn't have dreamed to dare be so bold. Insinuating that she had her costume already under her clothes, her arms started to cross together and prepare to lift her dress over her head while Alice was occupied.

And for a very rare occasion indeed, it seemed as though the last thing Justin wanted was her company while his swimming skills were being perfected. However to still make a bit of a joke about it and before Katie could properly dive-bomb in with not the sheer energy of her Granddad Jordan but the same level of skill all the same, Justin purposely crossed his eyes together and bucked his teeth out, looking at Katie as he got his confidence up wading in the deeper water.

"But how am I gonna surprise you with my new skills if you hang around and teach me?" Justin didn't put on a purposefully humorous voice to go along with his comical expression but it inadvertently rose to give it a bit of a comedic edge.

Giggles tumbled out of the lips of Katie all the more and even from Alice and of course Layla too, not that she really knew what she was laughing at, at that point. The orange haired young woman that was Katie only had enough time to stop preparing to underdress of her top layer and loosely rest her hands on her hips and begin to make a face of her own when her mother chimed in.

"Give us a minute, won't you, love?" Misty asked and the sound of her mother's voice and the way that she worded it told Katie everything that she needed to hear. And immediately, she understood.

Katie couldn't help but give me a bit of a look, out of habit, finding comfort in my gaze to allow her to freely feel before going on and accepting things the way that they needed to be.

She was no fool. She knew that her best friend and her mother needed to be left to it in order for the elder Ketchum to offer knew skills and the deep purple haired male to learn them. She would have liked to stick around. But she understood the situation.

With a smile and a nod, she scooted over to give Layla a wave that was a hello and potentially not a goodbye from the way that the situation played out. Katie's expression was as gentle as could be at her daughter engaging with Layla, but she still held her hand out to her own child.

"That's cool. We'll go and see James and find out how things are going with Henry." She impressed me with her expression that managed to be equal parts reassuring towards Justin and encouraging to Alice. "Shall we take Layla off with us so you can really focus?"

And from being in the water with Justin, Misty's mouth initially felt the urge to open and it was not because she had swallowed chlorine riddled water. She then knew that it had to be his decision and continuing his wading in the water but dying down the goofy expressions that danced across his face, Justin flashed his best friend a look that she would catch onto in the same way that he caught hers in the air and left it tucked in a special place in his heart.

"That's cool." He began, subconsciously mirroring Katie's words and seemingly getting confidence in his own legs from the way that both hands went behind his head as he continued wading. "She's gotta realise that her super cool daddy is not actually such eventually."

And after Katie heard these good-natured words and received the lingering wave of the hand that Justin offered to her, softness was the action that encouraged her lip to elevate and after she reached for Alice's hand, the two of them padded off to do their own thing. We would see each other later.

But instead of focusing on that as you may think, I couldn't help but feel smugness widening my own mouth as I realised that Justin was happy to have me there rather than his very own friend! I felt that I was moving up in the world. But in hindsight, he probably just wanted a babysitter that didn't charge him.

With Katie and Alice too out of sight, the rest of the swimming lesson could commence. And with it back to just being the core group, Misty wanted Justin to get used to properly dunking his head under the water. To introduce him – or rather, to test him – Misty might have chosen to do the wrong thing. And what she did, in my opinion, was less than cool!

As Justin was watching the footsteps of his dear friend disappearing and the sensation of his heart that a part of him would have liked her to teach him as well, out of nowhere, he felt a torrent of water hitting him in the face!

No, the February weather had not turned on them and a classic Kanto rain storm was not brewing. A face dripping with water and eyes stinging as well as blurring, Justin could still see Misty with a slight raised arm. Of course she was the culprit. And then Layla was equally as guilty when she burst into cackles and that time, I knew that she knew why she was laughing!

"You two… rotters." Was Justin's reaction as he wiped the chorine from stinging his eyes and he felt the rush of water that had hit him was causing his hair to unravel and flop like curtains in front of his purposefully narrowed eyes.

I wondered if Misty felt herself stopping for a moment, as it was such a throwback to her youth and spending hours getting James more confident in the pool while can't helping but torment him as well. But I would go on to realise was that she was stopping in her tracks because she was awaiting an equally vengeful water attack from Justin.

But this did not come. Perhaps he considered what he own father would have down. And when he inwardly decided that he would have turned the other cheek, he decided to mirror the exact same actions that he imagined that he would do. He had no idea that the display was so uncanny that this time, this was the reason that Misty did indeed stop in her tracks for just a moment.

Justin resumed wading, indeed growing more confident and not minding so much that he was in the deeper parts of the ocean. As his body leaned a touch backwards and his arms and legs too assisted him in wading, with dripping hair that had since been pushed back, he smiled a smile at Misty that could have only been labelled as one thing.

Smug. Misty had indeed been taken back.

Still, she was then shown that she was in the present involving Justin rather than the past and the antics of his father when, as Justin grew tired of squinting his eyes and elevating his mouth with all of his might, he dipped his chin into the water and started to blow bubbles. He blew them with all of his strength!

And in between a long row of them, he caught Misty's eye and gave her a look that she could not resist.

"I bet I can blow better ones than you." He enticed her into a competition and he didn't have to try very hard at all. In fact, all it took were these words and the slightly closed corner of his eye and it was on.

The orange haired woman with a child-like streak coursing through her own veins twitched the opposite eye to Justin's and after brushing her own hair out of her face, she dipped her chin into the water and started forming bubbles herself.

Eventually, the two of them invited me into the competition too! They had me calling out like a referee to start the war and of course, when I said the word that would initiate it all, they had a battle of who could blow bubbles for longest. Justin won. And then it goes without saying that it turned into a best of three. With a mighty inhale beforehand, it caused Misty to be the victor of the second round.

It was time for the last one. I was calling out my choice words. The competitors were both looking at each other dead in the eye and inhaling as though they were a creature from a well-known tale that huffed and puffed and blew poor little houses down.

I uttered the last word. Breathing stopped occurring. Faces dipped towards the water. Bubbles started forming and foam too. It was like a torrent! If Layla had been in the middle of it then she would have been sent spinning round and round and giggling for all to hear. As if this was the case and as if not being in the midst of it was equally as funny, she was cackling to herself anyway and wriggling her toes too.

In the moment that it occurred, I can't really tell you what went on. But in hindsight, I know exactly of such.

You see, in the middle of blowing with all of his might and concentrating his lungs so that they did not run out of air, it dawned on Justin that with his mind occupied and his head tilted, Misty would take advantage and properly do what she attempted to do for. She was going to dunk him in the water, wasn't she?

And funnily enough, in the same exact moments that these thoughts rain through the wires of Justin's brain like a runner on a track race that could not be stopped, this notion popped into Misty's mind as well. She had the potentially to be fully occupied, both mind and lungs. He was going to dunk her in the water, wasn't he?

Not on their watch. On neither of their watches was this going to occur. They took a sudden respite in their blowing bubbles into the pool water. And before either of them could capture that split second and use it to realise what the other person was doing, they both made a perfect lunge for each other. And they both attempted to pull each other under. They succeeded!

Air still longing to rush into their lungs following how much they had previously worked, they gasped with their entire beings just before they went under. When they were below the surface, they pretended to jab at each other with their hands, Justin's eyes squeezed tightly shut and Misty's eyes looking right at him through blue lenses of chlorine and water.

Regardless of their oppositions in this area, they were soon enough united by the way that they stopped jabbing at each other. And at the same time that they decided to make a swim back for the surface, they both held onto each other's wrists so they were soon interlinked in a lock that could not be unpicked.

They had words for each other when the water dripped out from their eyes once they had gasped for air at the surface and they could see each other better once more. Or rather, they had the one word for each other. And I am not repeating what was said!

I will recount the noise that occurred afterwards, though: it was laughter. And laughter with the stinging of chlorine and pool water rushing out from nostrils had simply never felt better.

And yes, both Justin and Misty were laughing when they had finally finished being in the pool with one and other and Layla had drifted off to sleep in her seat and I at last could wander a bit closer to them both.

They were since not both in towels because only one had been brought so they were huddled under the same one. It was fortunate that Justin had those narrow shoulders. As one of his pressed against and dug into the shoulder of Misty's it gave her a lot of towel and a lot of warmth.

I'm not sure she actually told Justin in these words but she told me in hindsight that she could have been securely wrapped in all of the towels in the world and even turned on the pool side heated decking but nothing could have prepared her for the sensation igniting in her belly that kept her radiating for the rest of the day.

In her own words, though, she did at least try and tackle somewhat of it. And she did so while gripping locks of her hair together in two of her hands, trying to ring all of the wetness out to no avail.

"Well I hope that you enjoyed that, Justin." She began, deciding to give up ringing her hair out almost as swiftly as she started and succumbing to the notion that the February sun would soon send its rays down to dry it strand by strand. "As much as you could enjoy being moulded and bossed around, anyway…"

Misty gave Justin a look with a quality of eyelashes that were grooving together. Regardless of how close they were in proximity, no doubt would have Justin still garnered this look from her. After recent years, he had snatched enough practice in saying exactly what he thought. So because of this, and perhaps paired with the way that he felt a light tugging of his hair as Misty yanked on it to get water out from it for him too, she was soon met with a smile.

"Are you kidding me?" And for a second, Misty was a little bit naïve to not his words exactly, but his tone. From her point of view, neither of them went hand in hand with each other. All would become clear once she stopped ringing out his locks and absentmindedly combed her fingers through the back of them. "How could I not enjoy seeing you in your element?" These words were sweet. Misty was right not to trust them immediately. "Your element of whipping me into shape?"

Utterly contrasting the words of mischief that tumbled out of the lips of Justin, the smile that was portrayed by him there and then was not an act of smugness but was actually a bit of a sugary smile. All the same, Misty knew to narrow her eyes and shake her head at him, forgoing continually combing her fingers through his locks for a couple of seconds.

But then when he chuckled to himself and looked away, growing distracted by swirling his finger around and around the circle of the tie of his swim shorts and as his feet bobbed companionably in the stable surface of the pool water, a wave of honesty washed over Misty and she proved this with her words and her actions.

"It was nice teaching you something for once." She confessed, her finger resuming through and down and out of the back of Justin's hairs and slowing down as if she needed this contact between them both to be able to be truthful with him. "It feels like you're always teaching me stuff."

And with that, I knew it was the way that the two of them met each other's eyes after Misty sheepishly confessed these words but still managed to maintain eye contact that caused her fingers to trail back out of the locks of Justin.

And funnily enough, I think it was this momentary separation between the two of them that allowed Justin to snatch a bit of Misty's realness for himself, his own hand inadvertently reaching and caressing just where that almost motherly touch had previously been.

"Are you kidding me?" he repeated his words from just moments before and although Misty had only just looked down at her bare thighs and the way that water droplets from the pool were only just sinking and dissolving into her porcelain flesh, it was this beginning that reeled her eye contact back to him yet again. "You have no idea."

The second uttering could have caused her gaze to drop down like a rock falling from a cliff and plonking down into the ocean below. But it did not. Somehow, in these few words, Misty understood everything. A small smile threatened to take over her lips. Their hands were close to touching with the way that her fingers went back to the back of his head in the same second that his own touch fell away.

The two of them looked away for a good handful of moments. But they were united in their knowing. They should learn to speak of it more. But for the time being, they were both entirely instrumental in each other's growth, both musically and in character. They uplifted each other more than they could share.

And I thought of this in the moments that their chins uplifted towards each other together yet again, and Misty decided to be the one to speak, the corner of her mouth quirking up as if her lips had been caught with the same reel that had previously lured her gaze towards Justin's.

"I'm going to dunk you like that in the sea, you better watch out." She playfully warned him. Instead of being disappointed when her competitive almond shape of the eye was not reciprocated, she was left feeling far more warmed from the inside to the out with what actually happened.

Looking down at his lap for a couple of second and feeling the same towel swamping them both, Justin merely chuckled. Then, he looked at Misty just once as he looked at her for a fleeting moment and then she felt sturdy yet soft pressure against her shoulder.

He smiled and he shut his eyes, not fearing being pushed in because not only did he have new courage, but he knew Misty just that little bit more than before. She would not break their moment.

"If anyone could get away with it, then it would be you." He told her and as his eyes clasped shut like the wings of a butterfly as it searched for respite on the bud of a flower, his head sunk against her shoulder and he leaned there, sharing not only the towel with Misty but the moment too.

And beyond this, they shared the same feeling too. Maybe Misty realised why, beyond the understandable reasons too, she had found it so hard to allow JJ to fit himself into the space in her heart that was reserved for a little brother. Justin was already there, silent and waiting. He had filled it.

And as for Justin, well, he knew what it was like to have a sister. He had so many of them. But still, a special slot was saved for Misty as well. No matter what. Their bond was something that could not be denied, and in time, they would speak of it often to each other.

Maybe not with great monologues and heartfelt words, no. It was spoken differently but precisely as it needed to be for them. It was shared by a coy look. It was offered by fixing strings of a guitar no matter how many times one was taught. It was expressed by cups of tea as the sun came up during the winter time and it was told by glasses of pink wine on a summer evening.

It was told in these ways. It was told in their own way. There are many ways to hear that you are held dear, after all. You just have to look for the signs. But once you know, you hold these little jots of information dear. And moreover, you never let them go. Just like the person that you are so fortunate to have in your life. And share these not so little moments with.

The End.

There you go! Thanks so much for reading and I hope you enjoyed :3 Justin and Misty is a dynamic so close to my heart and one I would love to tackle more and more! As it states at the end, they definitely teach each other a lot, beyond their love of music and in this one, learning to love the water. The little details in this one mean the most. Things like Layla being infatuated with Misty because she is raised in a household of two fathers and also Justin's lack of confidence in the water. Even I'm not sure where it stems from. Maybe there's a story there. But maybe it's just him :) Thanks again for reading and I will be back again on Wednesday with another chapter so see you then!

Amy signing out :)