Hello! It is Wednesday and I am back with a new chapter. Another one that partially takes place surrounding a body of water! The summer vibes are strong at the moment apparently :D I wrote this one at the end of last year as well and it's a story that focuses on not only the dynamic of Morgan with her older brother, Jordan, but with their cousin, Eli as well. Morgan has always been one of those interesting characters that I should focus on more. Unfortunately she passed away when she was only four and Jordan was a teenager and he's always blamed himself for that. Thankfully, she is able to reunite with him on earth and begins ageing again. But as you can see here, ageing and becoming a teenager has it's difficulties too! I hope you enjoy :)
Ages:
Jordan: 32
Morgan: 16
Eli: 34
Disclaimer: I own the story and the OCs mentioned!
When the door was slammed shut behind the teenage girl, the world appeared to shudder in its wake. Two men who had just been previously lounging on a sofa together didn't need to share a glance. Immediately, one of them left the comfort of the cushions and the familiarity of a remote in hand. This remote was cast aside for something much more important.
The teenage girl with citrusy locks tumbling past her shoulders was approached before she could point her feet toward her bedroom and slam that door almost as hard as she had done to the entryway.
"Can I talk to you for a moment, Morgan, please?" Jordan tried with his sister, his stance still hunched as if he was finding something very interesting on the floor because he had only just removed himself from lounging on the sofa.
Other eyes in the room including mine tried to offer privacy. But nevertheless, we peeked. And we saw Morgan dumping her handbag down towards the ground in no particularly special spot before her fingers made their way to the bones of her narrow hips.
"Can't it wait?" Morgan replied to her brother, the sea green of her orbs in which they shared unable to look directly at the looming, large man and not because of the towering height he presented himself at. "I literally just got home." Fingers then slipped away from her hips and towards her fountain of locks. "And I'm about to go out again after a nap."
Eli, still on the sofa, found the discarded television remote making its way into his fingers and the buttons felt a staring gaze as if they were an artefact that begged for attention. I on the other hand couldn't help but fully observe the scene in between a flickering gaze.
Jordan became as statuesque as ever, looking down at his sister from an even fuller height. Instead of copying her gesticulations of hands roaming through hair, his fingers found themselves entwined over the width of his broad chest.
He attempted to give his sister the benefit of the doubt, that he could call upon her another time and they could converse then. But he knew Morgan all too well. Which was funny, really. Because in recent months, sometimes he felt like he hardly knew her at all.
"It will take just a moment." Jordan persisted, trying to encourage his voice to its usual jovial nature but his fingers found themselves departing each other at his pretence. Distance was broken between the two siblings. Morgan at least made the effort to look directly at him. "Where are you planning to go anyway?"
I'm sure that the teenage girl with hair the colour of a paling sun was regretful over her choice to look right at Jordan when she heard these words. And she couldn't hide her feelings as she looked away from him so fast it was almost as though she had stared directly at a sudden eclipse.
It was her turn to have her arms meeting over her chest but not in the same way. Immediately, her tone hardened.
"Just out with friends." She responded so curtly that the television remote suddenly felt very slippery in Eli's hold! But he managed to contain it. And he managed to keep up his show of nonchalantly studying it.
Jordan didn't take a leaf out of his cousin's book and at least pretend that he was minding his own business. From the second that he felt distance closing in between those two siblings even though no more steps closer or further together had been taken between them, he decided to talk to his little sister in the same manner.
They were then the mirror images of each other, same stance and same demeanour but they couldn't be further from being on the same page.
"Which-" Jordan's words escaped him. As deep inside he felt as though he was getting further and further away from his little sister which was funny because he knew what it was like to be physically absent from her – he contrasted this by leaning his head closer to her. And when he did this, something hit him that caused his nostrils to crinkle. "Have you been smoking?"
The yellow haired tower of a man didn't bother to revisit his previous question, let alone finish it at all. From lingering on the back of the sofa where two men had only just been relaxing, I felt a bubble forming in my throat and not for reasons you might think.
It's funny how in the most serious moments, laughter can almost occur! Of course, it wasn't the case for between Jordan and Morgan. The causation of my hidden amusement was when almost as soon as Eli heard the question in which Jordan actually did utter, he finally let go of the remote for good and tilted his head down, inhaling the scent of his own clothes.
All I could do was draw my laughter back inside in spite of it all and rest a careful paw on his shoulder. Jordan had the nose of a blood hound. And he would never mistake Eli's cigarette scent to be lingering on his sister instead.
Understandably, Morgan visibly grew all the more prickly. She attempted to step out of her brother's way, leaving her handbag on the carpet for good and intending on stomping off to her room. However, Jordan's continual countenance forced her to change her mind and she decided to counteract him.
He might as well have actually been shaking his head like a tree swaying in the breeze judging by how much Morgan could sense it within him.
"I've been around people who do smoke. That's not a crime, is it?" she quipped, those sea green of hers resembling a maelstrom as she forced herself to look directly at the man who was many years her senior. And then she changed tactic with a clear shake of her own head. "James doesn't breathe down my neck like this. You should take a leaf out of his book."
And with that, Morgan intended nothing more than leave loud footsteps in her wake, utterly ignoring the company of both Eli and I. For once; Jordan did not bother to correct her manners regarding this mistake. Instead, only one thing burnt brightly in his mind. And it was not the horror-filled image of his little sister putting a piece of paper in between her lips and lighting it.
Before Morgan could flee the scene with empty but clasped hands and a knot between her brows which could have given the ones tying her and her brother's boats a run for its money, Jordan stopped her. And he didn't just stop her with words. He very much took a hold of his little sister.
"Do not compare the two of us." Jordan retaliated, echoing aloud the words that Eli no doubt thought in his own mind about the situation as soon as he heard what was beginning to occur between his two cousins. A strong hand but one that lacked pressure clasping around his little sister's wrist, he added. "You should take a leaf out of his book if you're such a big fan of his. He would never be caught in a lie so easily."
These words slipped out and away from Jordan before he could snatch them back, burying them back down to the pit of his stomach. From the moment that they were set free and underneath her breath, Morgan started to snarl and snatch her hand away from her brother's hold, his face began to flush like he had been out in the sun too long.
He couldn't believe the words that he had uttered. He couldn't believe that he had been so careless. Jordan wasn't the only one who thought this. Eli could see that it was going to turn nasty if Morgan's two guardians were played off against one and other. He stopped finding it so easy to mind his own business.
"You obviously wish to communicate certain things to each other here but I don't think it's coming out in the best ways…" Eli began, feeling my paw leaving his shoulder as he leaned forward to address both of the other people in the room as they managed to look his way. However, he was left wishing that they had not looked his way from the way that their gazes wordlessly conveyed things to him! "…My mistake."
Eli sank back into the comfort of the two main sofa cushions, deciding that it would be best if he did keep himself to himself after all!
Jordan and Morgan might have been at loggerheads surrounding other areas but in this moment, they could not have been more alike with the way that they looked over at their cousin. Jordan was often the last person to lose his temper. But it seemed to me that the notion of being compared to someone else and now Eli trying to act as though he could be the peacemaker was too much for him.
Nevertheless, Jordan knew that he had to swallow all other feelings and focus on the subject at hand. No matter who was in her life and no matter who was in their lives trying to be the knight in shining armour, the important thing was his sister and not only her safety but the remainder of their good relationship with each other.
Jordan had taken a literal step back and inhaled air into his lungs to see things the way that they needed to be seen. I could see as I tried a bit harder to act as though I wasn't looking all that much, that Morgan wished that she had legged it when she had the chance while her brother was focusing on steadying himself so composedly.
"Morgan…" Jordan said her name and from the way that she didn't meet his gaze then, it was clear that she felt that this was the worst thing that he could possibly do. How could he speak her name in this manner when he was accusing her of such things? "I just don't want you making these mistakes because you think you have to fit in. You should feel and be accepted for who you are; you're too special to be dulled."
We had made a silent deal between each other that if we weren't going to mind our own business then we were going to continual our observations privately. However, it felt natural to have a change of heart and this caused us to look over at one and other when we heard these words.
Not for a single moment did we think these choices of words could ever be taken the wrong way. We thought they were kind of sweet. They showed the kind of man Jordan wanted to be and the kind of points he really wanted to make, regardless of the tumultuous, new level of their dynamic that Jordan and Morgan were embarking on.
Sometimes I forget how difficult it is to be a teenager. And I didn't give Morgan enough credit for the fact that it was even harder to be her at times.
For her, Jordan's choice of words was the worst thing that he could have possibly said. She then appeared to be the towering one of the two as her expression became glass and she spat over at her condescending brother.
"Stop acting like you know me. Stop acting like I need to be wrapped in cotton wool every second of my life!" Morgan raged while actually taking a leaf out of her brother's book and taking deep breaths in between to settle her fury. It did not work. "You don't know me. You don't know my friends. Are you worried that me trying to fit in is somehow going to kill me?" A brief pause in order to scoff. "Fat chance of that!"
And before Jordan could grab hold of her wrist again or worse – see the liquid pricking at her eyes in the seconds after that she had spat her own choice of words – with a shake of her head to rid herself from everything as well as the emotion, Morgan knew that she needed to stomp away for good. So she did.
The three of us were left with the world very much shaking as she slammed yet another door behind her. And I was left with a different sort of lump in my throat and eyes as wide as the silent ticking clocks on the wall as Jordan continually took me aback, responding rather quickly despite the fact that he had practically had the wind knocked out from him at the fit of his sister.
"Jesus Christ…" was all he spoke and truthfully, it was the way in which not only his hands but his muscular arms wrapped around his head in the wake of everything that had happened which conveyed far more.
Eli and I had another chance to look at one and other but it was all the more fleeting. In those few moments, it was hard to tell who had the widest eyes between us both. But it hardly mattered, did it? All that mattered was Jordan.
Nevertheless, Eli being Eli, initially, he too needed to speak his mind and say whatever it was that made its way into his brain and thus was sent out into the ether.
His ears were continually rattling from the sheer force in which Morgan had slammed her bedroom door. And when he turned back towards his remaining cousin from the door in which he was surprised to see still standing, he shook his own head for the first time on that day.
"Well it's a bittersweet thing to not be able to catch you fathering a teenage Misty but I see now that you have a chance to have a crack at it with Morgan…" Eli decided to break the silence, slowly wriggling his way out from between sofa cushions and with two clasped hands falling down onto a lap.
I watched as that, although Jordan did not remove his arms from away from his head and he did not stop wincing either, having a visible throb right in the middle of his temple, he no doubt heard everything that his cousin was saying. He was not the only one.
A sudden loud noise, one that paled to insignificance compared to the slamming of the door but still a vehement one came raging from the inside of a bedroom door.
Morgan let her opinions be known once last time.
"He will never be my father." Morgan spat in response to the words that she was not meant to hear and then following that, she knew that she would not speak to either of them ever again. She would not speak to anyone ever again!
It was a hard thing to be a teenager. I definitely would not wish to go through it. All I could do was hold hands and be there for the people who were going through it. And in that moment, I felt that I hadn't done my best in actually being there.
I wasn't the only one feeling the weight of the world suddenly tugging down my guts. Eli won the competition over who had the widest eyes in the room in the seconds after it became undoubted to him that his other cousin had caught on to the words that he muttered. His brown skin became very pale, his well-groomed eyebrows dancing on his face even if his mouth didn't speak of his regret straight away.
Words that he couldn't deny himself saying, however, soon made their way out into the either as well. Poor Jordan looked as though he wanted to hide away in the same way that his sister was doing with what had come next out of her. So Eli knew he couldn't leave things at that.
"Sorry…" he said, a single word doing their job even if it was in the simplest of ways. After budging some more towards the end of the sofa, Eli was finally standing and he broke the distance with his short height in comparison to his cousin's impressive looming stance in spite of the lingering turmoil. "It will be okay." He attempted to comfort, a hand reaching out and squeezing the curve of a bicep, residing there. "I can see that things are complicated. But you'll soon be how you always were."
The clasp of Eli's hand around Jordan's arm switched to a rubbing motion, trying to offer comfort there and tell the truth in which he saw it even though it hadn't been the wisest of choices previously. Nevertheless, Eli of course knew that there wasn't a way for the two siblings to be the way they always were. If they were ever that at all.
Things had to move on, didn't they? But I for one felt as though they did not need to move on so dramatically.
Jordan didn't say anything for quite a long time, even though he did start to reveal his head away from his arms again as his cousin continued to rub him, silently comforting him. Then, when he looked down at Eli and felt reassurance rushing through him even if it didn't pierce his heart in ways that it sometimes would. And he didn't convey it with words or a look either; he knew what he needed to do.
Furthermore, he knew what he needed to say.
Resisting looking over at the door that was somehow still standing like a building that had been caught in the middle of a hurricane, Jordan titled his head down towards his cousin and he mumbled under his breath but still in a way for Eli to clearly hear.
"You'll go and talk to her for me, won't you…?" Jordan asked. And instead of uttering words to the effect of the fact that Eli surely would never make such a mess as he felt as he had done, he chose different ones, his legs feeling not quite as stable as when the touch finally left him. "Please? You're basically a dad now, aren't you?"
Jordan ran the risk of his little sister hearing the word dad tumbling out from his parted lips as well and another wave of venom shooting out from her from behind her firmly closed bedroom door.
However, I figured that the return of stoicism to his voice made it so it couldn't be heard by anyone other than Eli and I. It was undoubted that his cousin heard exactly what he was saying from the way that his eyes appeared to grow wider than I had ever seen them. And that was saying something!
At that point, he almost wanted to return his touch to his cousin in order for the comfort and something to hold onto while he processed what exactly was being said.
"Don't go around telling people I'm a father, I beg you." Eli began with all of the seriousness in the world but when he felt his cousin's gaze flicking towards him, almost like a child who felt like he had done something wrong, his stance soon changed. It was funny how one of them always balanced the other out. "I'm just the cool boyfriend of the real dad and for now I plan on keeping it that way." his expression grew sunshiny and it was to try and ease things for Jordan as much as it was genuine. "Maybe you should give that a go."
Eli collided his elbow teasingly into the rib cage of Jordan but of course, he did no damage. It probably felt like a tickle to him. The Unovan man looked over at the native Johto one and continued to allow that smile tugging at the corner of his mouth, the contact of an elbow bone not breaking away from a singular rib.
Well, Eli didn't break his contact away from Jordan. Soon enough, though, it was forced to fall away when Jordan decided that enough was enough with regards to standing and he took a seat exactly where his cousin had been perched between the two sofa cushions.
In spite of it all and regardless of everything else that I could have been observing in that moment, I felt it kind of poignant that he needed to be there in order to feel okay. And when Eli looked down at him and followed him on his travels and eventually perched right back next to him too, his hands falling back down and clasped towards his lap, it seemed that even if Jordan didn't feel wholly okay – he then felt okay enough to speak.
"I just didn't imagine that things would be like this when she was a teenager…" Jordan confessed, his head not quite being engulfed by the strength of his arms and his protection at that point but a hand colliding with his forehead having the same effect.
Eli practically had his knees touching with his cousins as they sat back on the sofa together but in that moment, he had never seen him more clearly and it wasn't because the lack of distance that they shared. He listened to the words that he uttered and then his gaze fell away.
He didn't want to speak for a couple of moments and I imagine that he was thinking of a great deal of things. Eli looked as though he was ruminating. But then, eventually, his head tilted on the one side and he looked back at his cousin again. He had a thoughtful dimple appearing in the moments before he had words to say and not one forming out of the display of happiness. More an elaboration of his honesty.
A light fist was punched against the sturdy knee of Jordan and then words were actually spoken. Words that took me a little by surprise.
"I will talk to her for you…" Eli agreed and he didn't need to bob his head up and down to offer any more confirmation of what he was complying with. The light punch against his knee cap which might have left his knuckles stinging did that so any other gesticulations did not need to be present.
Jordan knew that Eli understood the seriousness of what was going on in the past few months even if neither of them out-rightly conveyed as such. Moreover, he did not need to convey surprise that the other male agreed to have a conversation with someone who could be as temperamental as Morgan!
Surprise could have filled his own eyes and given his cousin a run for his money with his saucer-like appearance. But instead they were dulled down and it was his turn to offer a swift motion to the kneecap as a thank you. But it was left doing something of the opposite effect when it was the other way around!
"Sorry…" Jordan had to mutter, copying some of his cousin's previous words and feeling as though he might have to do even better than that from the way that he could read Eli's expression as clear as day. He was doing a good job at hiding his discomfort but Jordan could visibly read it. "You don't have to do it straight away. Just… whenever."
Reading each other like a book was something not at all new. It wasn't something that was crafted and practiced either. It was a natural born occurrence between the two of them.
Rubbing his kneecap in circular motions after the unintended blow from his cousin, Eli nodded his head, probably feeling very relieved that Jordan was telling him that he could do it at any point and not just on that day. I can't say that I blame him.
And I have to confess that I didn't feel jealous in the slightest that Eli was the one being chosen to do the honours. While I felt that I could have done more, I did have a bit of a feeling that he could get through to his cousin more than her older brother could do. And if all else failed, then at least he would let it be known that she was cared for.
It's funny how something like that makes teenagers squirm. Even ones like Morgan who had been around since a very long time ago but only just a teenager for the first time just a couple of years ago. Sometimes it felt too much to be in people's thoughts. She was already trying to learn how not only to be a teenager in that day and age but to simply be her. It was probably quite a lot to think that you could be letting someone down at any given moment.
And not just anybody, but your brother. Your brother who absolutely meant the world to you. In truth, Morgan hadn't spoken those words to him in a very long time.
"She's going to want to tread her own path, Jordan. Don't be too hard on her." Eli caught Jordan off guard and he did so even to himself by saying, moving away from recovering his swollen kneecap and that massaging hand reaching out lightly out to rest on a broad shoulder of his cousin. "And don't be too hard on yourself either."
An earnest smile tugged at the lips of Eli and despite it all, formed lines on the corners of his eyes. I for one felt the corner of my own mouth tugging outwards. What could I say; I was a sucker for a bit of reassurance and tenderness between people.
But it seemed to be that Jordan was not quite so aware of the similarities that were between him and his youngest sister on that day. It became undeniable that Jordan wanted to be done with that for the day and he wanted to go back to the relaxing that they had intended to be doing when Morgan slammed in through the door and Jordan needed to broach things that had been on his mind for a while.
"Let's watch something on TV, shall we?" Jordan changed the subject and he looked over at a face which wasn't the one of his cousin. He reached over that same man for the remote and before he could comply or before he could resist, the round of the big red button was pressed and the screen came to life.
Eli observed his cousin raising an arm closer to his face as he looked at the hands on his wristwatch. And he knew in that single, simple moment that words were going to escape from him so there was no point denying them of their right to.
"With what you usually subject me to, I would rather go and talk to Morgan…" Eli told him, the look in his eye and the level to his tone making it unclear whether he was joking or not! Apparently Jordan did not care either way. He instead looked at the face of his cousin rather than that of his watch. His expression was filled with the same lack of movement as Eli's tone. "…Fine."
Eli relinquished. And with that, he allowed Jordan to embrace the comfort of being in between the two sofa cushions and tucked firmly away because it seemed as though he needed that in his life during those moments. Truthfully, Eli was more than happy to lie against the arm of the chair and with his legs draped over the lack of his cousin.
With that position of their bodies, Eli could go on his phone more easily and discreetly while Jordan turned on whatever film or television series he would force the rest of us to ingest!
As for me, I continually perched on the back of the sofa and I observed, though there was not much for me to take in. And that was for the best, really. I could cast my mind backwards and I could think. Just like I am doing now as I recount this story and remember each and every detail – and as I remember the second half too.
You see, Eli did not decide to broach that subject with Morgan on that day or any subject at all. He didn't know why it happened when it happened. He didn't know what led him to do that. But it was obviously how it was meant to be. And sometimes that it the best way.
You can get yourself in such a state thinking of when the best moment is to talk. But sometimes you start and it all comes out. That is how it happened. But for the beginning, it was just an ordinary day. And the two of them felt so at peace with being outside of the house.
The sun was beaming. The gulls were crowing in the sky. The sky was big and blue and vast and that was such a pleasant thing to encounter towards the end of April in Kanto. Eli felt as though he was on holiday as he sprawled out on a picnic rug on the beach and was so warm that he was wearing shorts while reading a book on his blanket on the sand.
Morgan was just ahead, occupying herself with the sights and the rhythms of the ocean as she often was. And although Eli tried to kid himself that he was concentrating on reading the words on the page, he was of course far more occupied with what his younger cousin was doing. As he too often was.
She was crouching down in front of where the waves were just lapping at the sand and as she watched it coming and going, listening to the sound that it offered that brought her to peace from the moment that she heard it, her hands moved in time to the rhythm of the ocean.
For anybody looking onwards, one would think that she was the one mocking the way in which the ocean moved. But in truth, it was the other way about and Eli knew of such. He pushed his sunglasses further up his face and turned the page of his book, knowing deep inside that he hadn't taken in any of the sentences of the previous page!
How could he, really? It had always fascinated him when Morgan had done that. Not that he had ever really told anyone. Of his fascination or otherwise. He wondered how it could feel to be so in tune with nature. He had always had his own pension for surrounding himself with natural things, greenery and shrubbery even in his days when he was shrouded by mystery and living in the thick smoke of an overpopulated city.
But Morgan was of a whole different breed. He didn't want to seem as though he was staring at her. In truth, she knew from the moment that he casually glanced her way. She always did.
So when he decided to turn another page of his book in order to pretend that he wasn't looking at all, this was when she chose to lure in more than the ocean.
The shimmer of blue that had previously been etching towards the hands of Morgan moved away back towards of the horizon and those hands of hers fell towards her kneecaps as she turned towards her cousin.
Unlike him, she didn't bother to hide the fact that she was looking right over at him as she turned towards him on the beach.
"You coming in the water?" she questioned and no sooner had her eyes locked onto the silhouette of her cousin and she had directly made her intention clear to him, she looked away again as if she was the one with something to hide. As soon as her hands reached out once more, the ocean was back there again like a loyal friend.
You would have thought that with everything that Eli had been through in his life, that he would then be far better at hiding things! I supposed that it was a good thing that he had grown rusty from the way that, though he had been looking at his cousin through his sunglasses, he looked down at his book as if he had been reading through those brown rims all along.
Morgan didn't bother to roll her eyes at him – out of dismay at how he was acting or resentment bubbling up inside her from the way that he had seemingly sided with Jordan just a few days prior.
I understood that it was her turning back on him that allowed him to let go of his façade, marking the previous sentence on the page which he had kid himself that he had read before closing the book for good, leaving it lulling on the blanket on the sand. Initially, he just lowered his glasses down onto the bridge of his nose, not ridding himself of them from his face quite away.
"Nah." He responded, and he wasn't acting out of any sort of ulterior motive either. That became clear from the words that bubbled out of him next, like the little pools of water collecting around the rocks of the beach. "The water is a joy but the sand is not worth it to me."
And never mind his apparent hesitance to creep near to the water at all; he altered his position on his blanket on the sand, kneeling as though he was preparing for an afternoon tea. That time, Morgan didn't need to revolve her eyes even if she was longing to. And in addition to that, it was clear what her stance was from the way that her shoulders drew towards her ears and Eli could see this from a few metres back.
Morgan's hands still and placed palms downwards on top of the surface of the sea, it appeared to bubble and brew beneath her as if it was offended for her cousin's lack of compliance. It was this which caused her to utter to him next, not needing to look right at him because her words cut without her gaze having to do this as well.
"You're weird." She told him and the sea seemed as though it agreed and perhaps even the sun did too from the way that it temporarily stopped loitering behind a cloud and beat down all the more heavily on the world, the hue of the ocean twinkling back in return.
If Eli had longed to whip of his glasses previously then he surely would have wished to do there and then! However, he managed to resist. And he managed to resist feeling sorry for himself as well. Although his bottom lip fell into his mouth and then his top one did afterwards and his eyebrows danced around on his face, he recovered from this blow far quicker than he would have done when he was younger.
And unbeknownst to Morgan – or perhaps known to her because she often seemed to have eyes in the back of her head when it came to her cousin – his own shoulders moved and grooved on his being. But that was because he was slowly beginning to give in to her and prepare to join her in the water.
Not until he had uttered his own words though, of course.
"And you're not?" he retaliated in the same way in which his cousin had done and with no intent to harm either. He at last ripped his sunglasses away from his face and dropped them down onto his discarded book, their absence allowing anyone to see the way that his irises danced from side to side in the whites of his eyes, conveying all. "Ugh. This better be worth it. Sand is so powdery and pointless. It gets everywhere!"
Morgan's body turned once again, hands still poised. Instead of focusing on a plethora of things that she wanted to say in response to Eli's peculiarity for his disdain of lingering in beach sand for too long, she decided to retort to just the one thing.
"The ocean is always worth it." she told him and with that, it wasn't calculated on her part to give up on her position of crouching by the shoreline and she stood up. Her white and cool sundress billowed around her ankles for a couple of moments before it was lifted up by her fingers so she could clamber her way properly into the company of the ocean.
Trying not to focus on the fact that soft and powdery sand was quickly making its way in between his toes, Eli observed Morgan as he walked, watching the way that she moved into the water with complete and utter ease. It was like she was making her way home. And it was always sublime to see.
It was so simply eye catching for Eli that he even lingered, his feet bedding well into the powder of the sand as he watched Morgan take more and more steps into the sea so that soon enough, she was thigh length deep. When the water was tickling against the back of her knees and teasing her with its friendship, she let go of her skirt completely and allowed it to sink against the sea, like a parachute that was overjoyed to make its way back to God's earth once more.
A part of Eli that wished he had a skirt of his own to clutch at demurely while he made his own way into the ocean. But alas, he had to do without and he had to be glad that his shorts were not white like Morgan's dress was.
A couple of moments later, both cousins were in the water together. But naturally, they went about things vastly differently.
Unconsciously mirroring Eli's previous stance it seemed, Morgan dropped down into the water and began to kneel. And no sooner had her pointer finger started to swirl in circles round and around and around, the water started to swivel against her command. It was gently at first and it was peaceful and Eli in the wake of it hardly noticed.
But as the sun shone on and Morgan grew more concentrative and the swirl of her finger sped up in face, even someone who was as bound to the sea in his own way as Eli found himself struggling to stand in the whirlpool that his cousin was creating!
"I thought you actually w-wanted me to be here with you!" Eli almost lost his footing as he accidently stepped against a particularly strong part of the whirlpool and it was lucky that you couldn't tell if the reddening of his cheeks was down to the spring sun of Kanto of otherwise.
Morgan looked over at her cousin and kept up her continual swirling motion of her finger but then she decided to do the right thing, slowing down her antics to a gradual and then a complete halt. She stood up out of the company of the ocean and straight away, the wet of her white sun dress lapped against and stuck to her legs like a limpet.
She could have done a great many things. She could have responded in a great many ways. Morgan might have been sunny and sweet as a child but she was pretty unpredictable as a teenager! But it appeared as though she kept her real wild and argumentative nature for her brother.
With Eli, she was free to be as soft as the sand that he had tolerated for her and now was enjoying feeling each spec wash away from his toes thanks to the ocean.
"I do want you here with me." She reassured him and she looked out into the horizon instead of the inviting nature of his gaze and before he could lose his balance thanks to a natural clumsiness that came with being himself, he felt a smaller, paler hand slipping into it.
Morgan held Eli's hand as she led him out further to the ocean. The Unovan native of the two didn't bother to look over at her because even he knew not to ruin those sorts of moments. But a feeling washed through him that was more than gratitude at the sea for lapping away his discomfort.
He didn't understand what Jordan was getting at, in truth. He believed Morgan was still there. It was only natural for her to want to appear different in the eyes of the authoritarian figure that was her older brother. His cousin just had to do a little digging. And he hoped they would both have patience with each other as they navigated this segment in their lives.
Apparently patience was going to be a learning curve for them both. Morgan tried her hardest not to drop Eli's hand as, despite their similarity in height, he started to lag behind the further and further she wandered into the depths of the ocean. And as for Eli, he would have to have patience and sit with the knowledge that that was simply in her nature!
But I knew it was him wanting to savour the moment that she reached for his hand as if she really was still that four year old child that Jordan held so dear – as so many people did – that led him to be lacking in the patience front on that day.
Morgan wandered further and further out with Eli, not caring when the ocean gleefully started to bob and dance just below the two of their bellybuttons and Eli knew that if they went any further then he would feel as light on his feet as if he was doing a pirouette.
A pirouette, however, that he wanted to put a stop to. Eli squeezed Morgan's hand in order to prepare to tell her something and it was this clamping down on her hand that made her long to pull away. Though she did manage to remain with her hand in his for a couple of moments longer.
"You just can't help yourself, can you?" Eli asked her, a jovial feeling being the driving force of his words but it was hard to tell from the way that he often could come across in such a stoic manner. Like Morgan and Jordan, the apple didn't fall too far from the tree with regards to him either. "I should have known you would prefer to be out there rather than here with me."
In the instant that Morgan dropped Eli's hand so quickly that it practically plopped down into the ocean like an unwanted shell, he knew that he had spoken out of turn. Still, he didn't have the urgency or even the time to apologise and correct the situation even if he wanted to.
His regretful albeit fixed, round and blinking eyes were met with a gaze from Morgan that she often saved just for her brother. It was the complete opposite of the way she would have looked when she really was four years old.
"Go and fully live your desire of being the clone of my brother if you're such a fan of his." Morgan hissed and in that moment, it passed over her head that she was essentially mirroring the words from Jordan that she had so despised hearing. Nothing stopped her from adding. "Stop me from enjoying it out here, why don't you? He would never pass up this chance."
Eli tilted his body and he looked as his hand plinked down into the ocean, the rounds of his knuckles being licked at by the sea. Instead of reacting in any other way, initially, all he did was spread out his fingers wide and reveal his palm to the rest of the sea, all of it completely submerged by water.
Maybe he was imagining what it would like to be so moved by the ocean that in turn you could move it yourself. Maybe was imagining what it would be like to be Morgan. And then, he knew what it was like to be him. It was because of this final thing that led him to part his lips after a good few minutes, as well as continuing to part his fingers against the beat of the ocean.
Because he didn't look over at his cousin, he did not see the way her already pale cheeks were like the white dust of the sand at the way that she snapped at the last person she usually snapped towards.
"I don't think I could stop anyone from doing anything. I can barely resist desires inside of myself." He admitted to Morgan with a voice that was as flat as the pathway which had led them towards the ocean. And before he could focus on the expression that had previously washed over her face or even another one could settle there, he took his turn in reaching for her hand.
If they were going to wander off into the distance then they would wander off together.
Morgan was utterly taken aback. It wasn't because she had led them towards a particularly chilly part of the ocean because it was pretty much the same temperature all the way through. And it wasn't because she didn't have the confidence to wander further and further out.
When her fingers pressed against her cousin's and she heard the confession oozing out from him, it was the first time that she had felt understood by anyone in a very long time. In hindsight, I knew this was why, in her own time, she spoke with the same honesty.
"I can kind of see where Jordan is coming from when he doesn't want me to travel the regions on my own." She admitted, one of her hands tucked safely away in the hand of Eli as if he was the oyster and she was the pearl. The other hand of hers dipped down into the ocean. She knew the violent twists and turns of it, even if it was her greatest companion. "I just don't see why he has to judge when I try to have other adventures like other kids are doing. Sometimes I think he has lost his mind."
With a silent torrent of air escaping from Eli's nostrils and the gentlest of slopes forming in his neck, he was considering. It wasn't unusual for children far younger than Morgan to travel the regions on their own with their Pokémon pals. It was less heard of to do it on your very own sailing ship. And it was practically not heard of to do it when on the outside you were young but on the inside you had been around almost as long as some of the oldest people in your life.
Every day with Morgan and Jordan was new territory. They had at least agreed that if Morgan couldn't travel on her own then they could travel together during the summer holidays away from school so at least there was that.
But now, just like Morgan was saying, Jordan was seemingly trying to control other things as well. But was that really the case?
Eli was there to play devil's advocate.
"I don't think Jordan could ever lose his mind, not really…" he said and with a look garnered from Morgan and a nonchalant hand travelling to the base of his own neck and rubbing, he stood firm with that opinion of his cousin in spite of the thoughts that he was reminded of. "But he could think a bit more with his mind, granted." Eli continued by telling Morgan, relishing the fact that the teenagers hand was still in his hold. "When it comes to you, he just thinks with his heart, you know? He just doesn't want anything to happen to you."
Eli was blessed by the continual presence of Morgan's digits tucked securely away in his own hold. However, there and then, he lost the privilege of looking into her sea green eyes. That knot forming in between her two brows was back yet again.
Like her cousin had previously been doing, she was considering. But it just didn't make sense to her. It didn't make sense to her at all. Jordan knew what it was like to have a childhood of restriction and beyond that, a childhood of misery as far as expectations of parents were concerned.
So why was he doing that to her? If he knew what that was like, why wasn't he going the opposite way? Why wasn't he being like James?
Morgan finally asked Eli a question. And it wasn't one of these other ones.
"But is he like that with you too? Why isn't he like that with too…?" Morgan changed her words when without Eli having to alter his expression at all; she gathered that she already knew the answer. Not long after, he started to feel his hand being discarded yet again. But he would soon learn why. "Surely he blames himself for the things you went through too…"
And with that, the gazing of eyes did not need to be shared between the two cousins. The two of them had been standing practically shoulder to shoulder, the ocean puddling all around them and offering their company during the time of their discussion.
Then, Morgan turned barely a second after she let go of the older male's hand and her hand wandered elsewhere instead. Eli started to feel a touch tracing along the canvas of his face and it promptly made a stinging sensation rise to the surface and he imagined it lighting up, red, like a road mapped.
His eye contact dipped further, not that it had been prevailing in the moments before anywhere. He did not, however, encourage Morgan to look away when he felt her gaze back on him. He knew he was appearing as aflame as he felt inside. But he did not deny it. If he was going to teach his cousin to go with the flow, then he must as well.
"Jordan blames himself for a lot of things, Morgan." Eli told her and he felt her thumb tracing over his jawline for a little bit longer before, with a shake of the head and a sigh, she let go of that part of him and reached for his hand again. "Sometimes it controls the way he acts, sometimes it doesn't. Sometimes he is too protective…" Eli trailed off for a moment. Morgan heard words from him saying he wished Jordan protected more even if these words were not even said on his lips. "He is learning just as much as you are. Don't forget that."
Eli concluded his mini lesson with a squeeze of the hand, not just glad that her fingers were tucked back in between his because they were no longer reaching for his face. He looked out towards the horizon. It was so long and lingering and beckoning that he hardly blamed Morgan for wanting to explore every inch of it.
But he knew that there was a time and a place for it. He knew good things came to those who waited. And he knew that adventures were always right under your nose, not just in the places that were seemingly out of reach.
For the mean time, Morgan was at least in Eli's reach. As she contemplated to herself and looked out at the horizon on her own accord, she also focused on the feeling of her cousin's hand surrounding hers.
He had been through so much, hadn't he? He had experienced every up and down in life that anyone could practically experience. He knew what it was like to have urgency bubbling up inside of him and wanting – no, absolutely needing – to find some way of sanctification before you positively burst to the point of no return.
So why was he insisting on a go with the flow attitude? Why was he giving his cousin such grace? Why wasn't he mad that he hadn't been protected more?
"I just wish-"
Morgan started. But she couldn't finish. It wasn't Eli's turn to drop her hold away from him because he kept hold of it in his hand while with the other, he took his moment to reach his own hand out to her face and lightly stroke the side of her cheek just once with the long part of the back of his pointer finger.
She was offered a smile. And she was offered words too. Words of wisdom.
"You don't need to wish, my love. If you talk to Jordan, he will listen. He has always been good at that almost as much if not more as being a protector." Eli reminded Morgan in a partial stoic manner to contrast the way in which he had caressed her. Then, his countenance switched up. "But we don't need to talk about him now, do we? In fact, I don't think we need to talk at all." Both hands were clasping her one hand there and then. "The moment is here so we should enjoy that, I think. How often do you get an angel and a cursed fool in the same stretch of ocean?"
It was another moment where Morgan could consider. For the first second, her head tilted so vehemently and her eyebrow formed such a shape that it gave the fish hooks left discarded at the bottom of the ocean a run for their money!
But then she looked out. She looked out towards the sun lapped horizon. She looked down. She looked down towards the companion of the sea. She glanced across. At Eli. The same man she had always known in spite the many names he had taken on in his time.
Then it dawned on her. He had been everyone. He had been a chameleon of life, blending in to his surroundings to be who he needed to be and survive as the man who simply needed to get by. So if even he had reached a place where he could not only be his truest self but he could take peace in the moment, then she could at least try too.
She had never meant it as a bad thing when she called him weird. She knew that she was too and that was why they had always bonded. The two outsiders, always longing for more than what was offered on their plate. Sometimes that was okay. But it was important to accept the present with both hands as well.
So in that moment, Morgan at long last nodded and she switched it up so it was her holding a single hand of Eli in both of her hands instead. But then she rid herself of that posture completely. As if she was turning a new page or stepping into a new day, she moved onto the next thing.
Eli knew that she was going to step further out into the ocean and he also knew that he would have been a fool to stop her. And so, he just watched, with his hands on his hips, knowing that anything she wanted was out there for her too. It was under her nose too. And it was inside of her as well.
It was a pleasure to watch her grow after she had been stuck in the one place for so long. And not only that, but it was the same way for Jordan too. And speaking of Jordan, it was ironic that he had asked his cousin to talk to his sister for him and in the end, he had done the opposite of that. But that was Eli!
When it came down to it, he felt that it was better to not talk at all. For you see, he had faith that the really important things would make their way to Jordan from the mouth of Morgan instead. She didn't need anybody else's advice. The world was her oyster. Everything was up to her. She just needed to reassure her brother that she wouldn't forget him along the way. And she needed him to know that he didn't have to protect her forever.
He could guide her, to be sure. And he could comfort her as well. But it was time for her to take her own leap of faith, just like he had done when he decided to not only live again but live well again.
Jordan, Morgan and Eli really were the apples that didn't fall far from the tree. The trio who perhaps needed the same lessons over and over and in lifetimes over and over. But that was okay. Eventually, they would learn to go with the flow. And it was that letting go of the reins that would somehow bring everything that they needed to them.
I was thankful to always be there all along. To see the ups. To see the downs. To see the wave crashing and drowning moments! It was all life. And they certainly did wonderful things with theirs.
The End.
There you go! Thanks so much for reading and I hope you enjoyed :) I think this is one of the few chapters that actually focuses on Morgan, even though I have her character developed quite heavily. As you can tell from the second half, thanks to being passed on, she does have some special abilities. But I think - and as Eli knows - they might have actually been present long before that. I liked showing that James and Jordan are both her guardians, as well as the fact there's some potential tension there because of their differing personalities! That's a rarity between those two. Maybe I should tackle it more one day :P Thanks again for reading and I will see you on the 28th for Dear Darlings so see you then :)
Amy signing out!