Hello, it is Wednesday, and I am back with a new chapter! Following another of the themes of PokeShipping Week on Tumblr, this chapter is "Rivalry". However, it also captures some of the other themes such as "Lovers and Best Friends" Delia once again plays a role in it too so is similar to the theme of last weeks! There are two stories in one in this chapter, both of them with their likeness. The similarities of the rival between Ash and James, and later, Jayden and Ben, is something that Shannon and I would discuss often in the past. So, it was fun to tackle all that in 2022! I hope you enjoy :)
Disclaimer: I own the story and the OCs mentioned!
It is believed that there are two kinds of people in the world but that is simply not the case. There are the charlatans. There are the innocents. There are the meddlers. There are the ones being meddled with. There are the ones to feel on the outskirts and for others, well, they feel as though they take center stage. There are the friends. There are the lovers.
There is no such thing as just two kinds of people. Most people, in fact, are all those things. And certainly, this story is about those last two types. The characteristics that can pit someone against one and other. But that conflict that results in great lessons. This is that type of story as well.
I only hope I can remember it all!
For a rare occasion, Ash could not care less what James was doing and the clanging and banging noises that he was making while he put together the first of the wooden cribs were insignificant to him. All that mattered was what was right in front of him. And what was right in front of him filled him with complete and utter joy, just as she had done from the moment that he first met her.
I wish that I had been around to see the expression on my best friend's face as his neck inclined to the side, his chocolate eyes melting far more than ever before.
He was so in love.
"Have you ever seen such a precious thing?" Ash spoke aloud. To himself. To the man clattering behind him. It wasn't exactly clear. He simply just needed to get these words out there. "Seriously. She is the loveliest thing in the world." His neck stopped inclining as his head swung from side to side in wonder.
And with that, Ash's hand softly shot out to stroke the hand of his newborn daughter who was currently sleeping in a bassinette since her Uncle James was busy constructing where she was going to have most of her dozes until she could toddle on her own.
For an equally rare occasion, James spoke of what he was doing rather than agreeing that somehow his addition of genes to the baby hadn't disrupted Misty's ones and yes, Katie was indeed one of the most beautiful babies that he had ever laid eyes upon.
Clattering a bit more to himself and having to hold back a curse word as he accidentally kneeled his bony knee into a nail on the carpet, James looked over at Ash's hand moving from the little starfish digits of baby Katie and to stroke her supple cheek.
"Ah, I see how it is. You get to dote on your little girl while I'm doing all the work that you should be doing." James commented and, despite his words, his tone of voice remained as flat as one of the slats that would eventually be the bottom of the crib. "Of course." He added.
You would think that nothing could break the spell that Katie had on her father but when James was concerned, this was not the case. Rather quickly albeit jerkily, Ash's head twitched behind him, and he didn't hesitate to narrow his eyes over at the older man, hand still against his daughter's cheek as if this would stop him from hissing too loudly.
James was already back to cracking on with constructing by the time that Ash found a suitable level to his voice.
"I kept offering to help and even insisted on you telling me what to do but you refused!" Ash argued, his own voice hardly changing from its usual sound in order not to disturb Katie from her slumber. She would eventually need to learn to get used to their bickering! "Did you expect me to beg?"
Eyes focused on grouping together the nails that were necessary and in the order that they would be needed, James didn't bother to look over at Ash as he continued kneeling on the carpet of the nursery.
But he was unusually quick to answer.
"No." he said, no ounce of his tone changing and clearly still continually doing the job that he had hinted should be the job of the father instead of anybody else. "I expected that you would have fixed these cribs up correctly the first time. You're lucky I even came round, or the poor babies would have ended up in a death trap!"
This stung. This stung badly and it was evident from the way that Ash sniffed and turned back to look at his infant daughter, so he did not have to look at James anymore. His cheeks burnt as red as the wispy locks on Katie's tiny head.
To soothe himself, Ash's gloveless hands trailed to hold both of her little ones in between his fingers, finding calm in how fragile she was and how much she needed him, as well as how much joy and clarity she offered him by not even needing to open her little eyes.
Both Katie and her twin brother, Benjamin, had inadvertently given that to him the moment that they arrived.
Still, just because he was in a state of nirvana since becoming a father, it didn't mean that James didn't get to him in the way that he always had! And so, after a second sniff, Ash replied to him all over again, showing that he was going to try his best not to get into some sort of contest with him.
If I had been there, I would have wondered how long that was going to last!
"Ugh yes, what would any of us do without you?" Ash's tongue swirled with vinegar as he muttered sarcastically, causing James to merely glance over at him once with eyebrows shooting up on his face before he merely continued doing what he had been doing. Time changed Ash's attitude more than was nearly possible. "But truly, what would anyone of us do without you?" It was evident who these words were for, and not just from the finger that lightly poked a porcelain, snub nose. "You are an angel."
And with that, Ash decided to forget anything else that could possibly bother him and melted all over again as he gazed at his sleeping child, one hand tucking underneath his chin and the other holding her tiny hand in his as if he could never bare to let her go.
How funny that once he had never known Katie or Benjamin before but, now that they were here, it caused a slashing sensation right to the heart to even think about a time before they arrived.
Time could change things for more than just Ash. Paired with his own pain as he accidentally kneeled once again against an annoying nail that had rolled underneath his knee, time caused James to have a change of heart as well as a change of attitude.
He rolled his eyes at the expression of Ash but deep in his heart he knew that he was being a hypocrite. He knew not only how it felt to be a first-time father, but he understood why the younger male felt this way when he gazed upon his daughter.
Katie really was an enchanting thing from the moment that she popped out.
And it was this notion that encouraged James to leave what he had been trying to crack on with for a couple of minutes and even join Ash by his side, standing over him with his hands on his hips as he didn't have the heart to disagree with him.
His own face altered from the second that he glanced down at the tiny sleeping beauty.
"Her face melts my heart." He agreed, his hands moving from holding onto his hips and his arms captured his slim chest as he leaned closer to the bassinet, as if his heart needed containing before it jumped with love from out of his rib cage. "You are a little darling, aren't you?"
A smile tugged at James' mouth as one of his arms managed to contain his heart by itself and his hand reached forward, the pad of a finger trailing across that same soft cheek that Ash had only just doted upon.
For all their differences, both two men had the same look as they glanced down at Katie and that was everything. A similar smile began to be set free on Ash's face as his own hands could not stop from reaching out furthermore.
James would go on to realize it was him who needed restraining rather than his own thumping heart!
"I miss her so much when she's asleep. I just want those eyes to be looking at me always and for me to be always holding her. Talking to her." Ash gushed, his hands slipping away from any other part of his lovely young daughter and preparing to hook underneath her armpits concealed by a buzzy creature adorned sleepsuit.
James knew what was coming!
He had to do everything in his power not to slap Ash on the back of his hand to deter him because that surely would have snatched Katie from the land of nod. Instead, his hand reached to his shoulder, loosely yet pointedly pulling him back an inch or two.
"You can't wake up a sleeping baby!" James began, appalled. A frown rather than a smile started edging over his face from the second that Ash prepared to potentially do exactly this, let alone when he looked up at him from crouching in front of the bassinette, clearly offended. "She's so peaceful. You've got to add to her peace, not take it from her."
The seriousness that latched onto James' voice there and then caused Ash's irises to vehemently revolve in his sockets. Why did everything that came out of his mouth had to sound like some embarrassing life coach?!
There were a couple of things that ground my best friend's gears greatly and it shouldn't be a surprise when I say that most of them were qualities of James, or things that he did. Ash was growing tired of him acting like he always knew what he was doing or what he was talking about.
Thankfully, this feeling didn't cause his voice to harden, and, in fact, it softened with instance all over again once he looked back at his little girl.
"I am not going to wake her." Ash replied and, even though his hands were still reaching under Katie's armpits in the same way, James foolishly believed that things were safe and allowed his shoulders to twitch back closer to his hips. "I'm just going to give her a little hug…"
The way that Ash elongated the vowels on the word little told James everything that he needed to know. He knew that there was no way that the embrace was going to be little from a father that was as doting as Ash! And, as well as this, he knew that there was no way that he was going to be able to lift the little girl up without her sleepy eyes from springing open.
But for once, James decided to comply with the words that the younger male hadn't said and allowed him to do as he wished. He knew that he would eventually learn.
However, rather than stepping back and allowing the young father to simply learn on his own accord, James remained standing there with his arms folding back over his chest and watched as, as soon was the little baby was lifted barely an inch or two off the mattress of the bassinette let alone found herself in the crook of her father's arm, more than just her eyes pinged open.
Katie's mouth became a dramatic o shape while her eyes squeezed together after only just opening. The little girl let out a gasp. Which became a wail. Which became an extremely loud shriek!
James was the opposite of supportive as Ash decided to forgo his previous pride and look over at him helplessly, quickly trying to rock her back to sleep as if she was a computer that merely needed turning off and on again and everything would be as right as rain.
"You are such an idiot." James didn't bother to hold these words back in the presence of Katie, figuring that she was too busy screaming her lungs out to care what kind of names her father was being called. I hope in hindsight that she wouldn't have agreed! "You are so lucky that she fell asleep on her own in here. Misty is still in my apartment probably only just having settled Benny boy to sleep."
Standing anybody correct who would have assumed that Ash's eyes could not possibly yet any wider, the whites of his eyes were positively luminous, and they were as round as Katie's wailing mouth. One hand that wasn't soothing the baby slapped to his forehead as he remembered how long it usually took to settle them back to sleep.
James wondered how on earth he could have possibly forgotten. That was new levels of stupid, even for Ash!
He had to admit even in retrospect, however, that he was rather enjoying how flustered and helpless the younger male was appearing.
"Oh god!" Ash groaned out, the last of his unfaltering personality appearing before he decided to return to one of his previous attitudes, attempting to stand straight even if Katie's screaming made him want to curl up in a ball forever and wince for even longer. "Well, seeing as you know as much about babies as you do about bloody cribs, why don't you sort her out?"
And with that, Ash showed an attitude that couldn't have contrasted him wanting to dote upon his daughter for hours on end more! Before James could decide whether he even wanted to help or not, baby Katie was thrust into his arms and his body was moving thanks to muscle memory, holding her tenderly against him and swaying as he attempted not to torture Ash any further and at least be of service.
If Katie hadn't been getting herself in such a state, he would've forced Ash to do it on his own for the sake of it!
"Babies are very straight forward, aren't they, my love? It's when they get older that it gets trickier, isn't it?" James often rumbling voice portrayed the opposite by honeying as he spoke to Katie in his arms, bringing her closer to his face and kissing her tenderly on the hand. "You just needed to be treated with such gentility, don't you?"
Rather than feeling gratitude in his heart that James didn't hesitate to get down to helping even if it was for Katie's benefit, Ash had to positively hold back a wretch at not only the words that he was saying, but the way that he craned his neck further down to her, tickling his trailing hair against her hand and encouraging her to paw at it in the way that she often did.
He, however, was left with an entirely different feeling climbing up from the pit of his stomach when, Katie ignored her uncle's attempts for once and practically yanked on a strand of his hair rather than caressing it!
It was Ash's turn to fold his empty arms over his chest, sneering.
"You're upsetting her more." He goaded, experiencing great glee regarding the expression on James' face that read pure and utter dismay as Katie's lungs expanded as she drew breath before screeching harder. "She's probably wondering why you have that stupid backwards hat on your head."
If I had been present, I would have joined James in his deadpan! Even so, he recovered quickly and after the tips of his fingers on the one hand briefly touched up at the backwards baseball hat that was indeed concealing locks that he hadn't managed to get round to washing, he broke the distance with Ash and realized he had far greater things to worry about.
He felt so guilty about giving up on the little girl that he kissed her on the flushing forehead before trying to give her back to her father.
"Just take her back, will you?!" James suddenly snapped in between Katie's shrieks, leaving Ash who was rounding eyes as for half a second he was clueless about the outburst before it became perfectly obvious even to him. "You upset her, so you fix it. And you better to it before-"
It had previously been on Ash's mind more than it had been on James' that Katie's cries had gotten so loud that there was a chance that Misty could hear them from the apartment across the hall. At one point, he had forgotten that concern. But it had crept back on him.
You see, more than just the worry had crept up on him. That wasn't the only thing peering in on him from the doorway. Misty was then standing there, deadpan expression of her own laced across her face and an equally screaming child in her arms.
James winced at more than just the noise. A bead of sweat appeared on Ash's forehead, underneath his own backwards baseball cap. Misty took her turn to speak before her boyfriend's eyes could become rainbows close to his eyebrows and for him to place the blame on anything but himself.
Luckily for him and unluckily for James, Misty assumed from the minute that she stepped into the nursery.
"Really, James?" she began, looking at the way that her best friend had accepted that Ash wouldn't do him a solid one and take the child back off him so had drawn her close to his chest all over again to soothe. Misty managed to speak past a screeching Benjamin to shake her head from side to side in disappointment. "You couldn't just help me out by sorting the crib for me and letting her sleep?"
James was known to have quite the chameleonic face. It was interchangeable and able to mold to anything to fit any sort of situation. He often also sported quite warm undertones to his skin. However, from the second that Misty doubted him, any of that washed away like a tide running away from the shore.
Managing to break the distance with her despite it all, his eyebrows joined together at the same point on his face, visibly appalled by the accusation as he set out to defend himself.
"Misty, really?" he said back, taking his own turn to shake his head from side to side as he continually embraced her and Ash's newborn daughter. "Do you really think that I would wake her? I tried my best to stop your boyfriend from disturbing her."
I'm still not sure what pained James more, having to wrap his tongue around that word or having to defend himself when, from his point of view, it should have been perfectly clear who the culprit was.
Fortunately, although Misty was rather quick to cast aspersions, she was also pretty prompt to believe him. He wasn't a liar. Not really. And if Ash was anything, anything at all, then he was most definitely prompt!
From the second that his girlfriend's eyes moved over to him in order to search for the truth, he jumped into action, putting on an incredibly good show of attempting to rectify things.
"Don't stress about placing blame, let's just get things sorted, shall we?" Ash positively had ants in his pants as he bolted towards Misty, holding his hands out to try to take Ben off her so it was just the two males with an infant in their arms. "I'm sure we can get them both settled again way quicker than you managed to get little Ben-Ben off to sleep."
Ash's eyes were still rainbows as he successfully took the other wailing bundle off from his mother and it was indeed him and James holding a screaming child each. Misty's eyes, however, became opposing thunder, and she did not need to express a single word – booming or otherwise – for it to become clear how she was feeling.
Well, it was clear to one of the people in the room!
James no longer felt appalled at being blamed but he felt this sickly emotion rushing to his stomach at the words that Ash had chosen to stay. He had been standing between the young couple but was now scooting closer to Misty, giving the younger male quite a look at how tone deaf he was being.
"Ash, that is an awful thing to say to a devoted new mother." James reprimanded, wiping any previous expression off Ash's face as he wondered what on earth he had done to deserve these sorts of words. His expression was a clear, new one, as he watched the other male slink an arm over his girlfriend's shoulders. "Leave everything to me, Munchkin. I'll get both little ones back to sleep and their cribs sorted, no problem." Ash had the expression of a lemon! "You deserve to rest."
It's funny how words such as you deserve to rest can be misconstrued in such a way. You would think that that was impossible. But to a new mother, anything is possible. And to the new mother that was Misty, the combination of lack of sleep thanks to crying babies and crying babies becoming a factor during the day too, made her feel that James meant the opposite with these words.
She shoved his touch away from her and decided she didn't want to be near either of them if they felt like they could do a better job than her. But she made sure her opinion was made perfectly clear before she stomped off!
"Oh yes, I'll just leave everything to you two, shall I?!" Misty raged but still, thanks to the combination of Ben and Katie's shrieks like those belonging to a banshee, it didn't seem quite so loud as usual. "I might as well go and take a nap seeing as nobody needs me!"
And with that, Misty stomped away from the nursery and towards the comfort of the kitchen in her and Ash's new apartment to not only cool down but to get away from the screams of the little ones, leaving Ash and James blinking and having to work together for once.
Misty hated that this was the case, but it was easy to get sucked into the feeling that all her little babies did was cry and cry and cry, rather than focus on the moments of joy and calm that they often brought as well.
Of course, she loved them more than anything. She loved them more than anything she had loved before. But that extreme emotion was tiring sometimes. It led to other extreme emotions and outbursts too. Just like the one she just had.
Plonking herself down against a chair without fixing herself a snack or a drink, she felt that she had been out of line. She knew that she had been over the top. But she couldn't help herself. It had always gotten to her how Ash and James were with each other. And while she knew that she was partially to blame, she had foolishly believed that it would change in time.
She believed that it would have certainly changed when Ben and Katie came into the world, having something to share that connected them both. Apparently not. Apparently, the thing that connected them was that they didn't need her for anything and could sort everything out themselves. Imagine that! The two people who fought like cat and dog were more capable together than her on her own.
Misty began to feel quite sorry for herself. And Delia commented on such about fifteen minutes later when she stopped by to visit with a new vase of flowers for Misty from the florist rather than her garden since it was only March and not many of the buds had reared their head from the soil.
She did not hesitate to pull out a chair next to the young woman who she knew was certain to be her future daughter in law, doing some extra arrangement on the flowers while they were both seated.
And in the same way, Misty did not hesitate to say what was on her mind.
"They are both always so quick to one up each other that it does my head in sometimes. I wish that they would realize that the two of them working together is the thing that would help me the most." She began, not having a mug of tea in her hands as she explained but drawing her empty fingers together anyway. "That would help me nearly more than anything else they could do." Misty suddenly sighed, lifting her feet together on the seat of the chair long with her bottom, bringing her knees closer to her chest. "I don't know…"
It's so interesting – even incredibly endearing – how humans often speak these three words when they know more so than ever. Misty did there and then. She knew why her outburst had occurred. She knew that it was far more than the screaming children, though that certainly didn't help!
She knew that there was a reason she had flown off the handle. And, in time, she would know why it felt so effortless for her to open her heart to Ash's mother when asked.
Delia didn't hesitate to listen keenly and smile sympathetically, abandoning titivating the flowers in the vase for a second to reach across the table to Misty, rubbing the side of her arm and warming her through far more than a mug of tea could have done.
"That sounds frustrating." She empathized. Misty didn't even need to nod to portray that this was indeed one of the words that she felt. Delia did not draw her touch away from the younger young woman, moving her head closer to her too in order to encourage out what she knew she needed to do. "Would you like me to have a word with my son?" she offered, finally pulling away from the skin of Misty but the way that she caressed the petal of a rose made it seem like that was meant for the young woman who was practically her daughter. "I know he's stubborn. But he does listen to me oftentimes."
As Misty swallowed, she realized that Delia was offering to do the same things that Ash and James often offered to do for her. But funnily enough, when it came to the older woman, she didn't feel stifled, and she didn't feel incompetent.
She felt… cared for?
She knew that she should have felt that way all the occasions that both her boyfriend and her best friend offered to step up, whether it was together or on separately. She knew that knowing this but not knowing how to fix it was another reason for her frustration!
Misty could see that Delia wanted to sort things for her as much as they did. She knew she didn't need to be mad at the two of them, not really. There was certainly no way that she could be mad at her future mother-in-law.
It was this notion that caused a wan smile to tug at her lips despite it all, her legs still pulled to her chest and an eye contact between them both that spoke of their bond that bloomed as much as the flowers being arranged.
"If you tell Ash to knock it off then you'll have to tell James as well." She began, slowly unfurling her legs from her chest and occupying her body with reaching her own hand out to the flowers in front of them both, watching as a daisy petal trickled down towards the table. "I think I'd quite like to see him worried that he had disappointed you."
Peculiarly, Misty's expression began to brighten already! Delia's, however, was the opposite. She nearly had to push the vase of flowers away from her as if it were a plate of food that she didn't want. Her eyes innocently resembled her son's and her plucked eyebrows joined together at the same point on her forehead.
"Oh, I wouldn't know how to tell James off. If I even could." She confessed, the brown of her eyes appearing like the soil in her garden underneath a vibrant sun and her eyebrows choosing to rise towards her hairline instead. "I don't know him in quite that way."
Misty was encouraged to suppress a giggle. She knew the way in which Delia knew James. He was indeed many different things to many different people. To Delia, he was a mysterious younger man with features she couldn't quite pinpoint but with a laid-back disposition. Helpful too. He was never shy about offering to help her about the house or indeed, the garden in which she adored so much.
Beginning to realize that she knew him too in a separate way, her suppressed giggle changed into a reflective smile. His rivalry with her boyfriend brought her frustration. But she knew that, like in the light Delia saw him in, any sort of bother he brought anyone was usually out of care. Deep and unfaltering care.
He was not unlike her boyfriend in that way.
Misty, still, decided to answer Delia's words rather than bringing any of this up.
"You need to spend as much time with him as I do." She suggested. And in the second before the second part of her words fully formed, that giggle that she had previously suppressed came back and allowed itself to be heard for real. "Believe me, then you'll find it easy to take him down a peg or two!"
A girlish hand flying towards her mouth, Delia shared in the chuckles of Misty. She so relished in her humor. It was refreshing to her! She felt that they could laugh about anything together. Talk about anything together.
This was the reason that she felt okay about addressing Misty's prior, reflective smile that she had inwardly acknowledged, without really needing to speak of it with words at all.
That caressing, comforting hand of Delia's moved back away from the flowers in the vase all over again and touched Misty on the side of her arm, leaving the young woman feeling more heard and seen than she had done on that day.
"It's easy to get upset about these sorts of things, dear. But it's important to remember that, in the end, what is comes down to is caring about you, and that is such a lovely thing." Delia began and Misty nodded but only by half. She had a feeling that there was more to hear. "They really do love you so much."
Delia affirmed, her hand brushing away from the side of Misty's arm and to reach for her hand, squeezing it instead. It's funny how she didn't need to speak of her reflective smile in order to point out that she had noticed it with what she had chosen to say.
And in the same way, she did not need to utter the words that both Ash and James weren't the only two who held her to dear to their hearts. Delia's words spoke of such. But the motherly gaze across to her and the squeeze of her hand spoke even more.
Like she managed to conceal her giggle, Misty suppressed much of her need to swallow. But she allowed other things to be set free.
"I know." Misty simply had to agree with a breath torrenting out from her parted lips in somewhat disbelief, not hesitating to reach out towards Delia's hand in return, clasping it tightly. This action was not too dissimilar to the way that Ash had reached out for his daughter's hold, treasuring it.
Misty was not Delia's daughter, but she sure had always felt like it. And it was because of this as well as so many things that, after a continual gaze between them both, of knowing the exact bond in which they shared as well as being touched at the possibility of how it could continue to blossom, Delia's touch stopped being directed towards Misty's own palm.
The older woman's fingertips spread. And then she traced a hand down Misty's own cheek, making sure to tell her these exact words.
"Remember that it all comes down to care, Misty." She reaffirmed. And Misty knew well enough to wait for the next words to come before fully nodding. "But remember to let them know that your words are important too, and that their voices towards each other should never overshadow yours."
It was hard to imagine that any sort of voices could ever overshadow Misty's. After all, the screaming babies got their lung capacity from somewhere and it wasn't exactly from Ash! But rather than speaking of this or even focusing on this at all, Misty allowed herself to fully nod. And she showed that she was so motivated by the way that Delia had made her feel important and listened to that she knew that she wanted to put it into practice.
No more would Ash and James' bickering speak over her own voice! No more would their fights be disguised as one upping each other rather than showing their true identity of both wanting to show her how much they cared.
With gladness in her own heart that she had been able to get through to the young woman, Delia watched as Misty left the table with new determination in her step. She knew that not for much longer would she be able to hear the wails of infants from the other room. She knew that there wouldn't be silence for much longer after that either. Misty was sure to put Ash and James in their place!
And why shouldn't she? Her voice was priceless too.
Delia couldn't even smile with satisfaction that she had encouraged Misty to reach that kind of realization. That wasn't her style. But maybe she should have done. Maybe it would have stopped her wisdom from being needed again, lots of years later and in a similar scenario.
But who knows? Maybe it wouldn't have done. Sometimes lessons need to be repeated. Sometimes wisdom needs to be shared. Sometimes someone else needs to learn how important their voice is.
And someone else does indeed learn that in the second half of the story.
Although she could have stayed in her previous position for hours, Delia knew when to quit while she was ahead and stop flicking the snow around and making an angel shape on the ground. Leaving her eldest granddaughter still giggling there, she covered her mouth with her hand as she too tittered girlishly, before the other hand smoothed down her skirt, discarding sugary flakes as she did so.
As if her heart needed consoling before it jumped out of her chest in merriment, the hand that had been concealing her lips soon pressed against the center of her breast.
"Oh, this has been the most fun I've had in a while, but I really should make a start on dinner." Delia looked down at Katie who still had her back and legs pressed against the cushioning of white beneath her but was lifting her neck and her head as she knew she was being addressed. "Do you want to help me, or will you stay out here?"
Katie's cheeks flushed with the warmth of a rose bush from not only the chill of the weather but the enjoyment of the time that she had just shared with her grandmother, she clarified her answer after offering a vague shake of her head.
After snowflakes had tumbled out of Katie's locks with this motion, Delia prepared to bustle off to the kitchen that no doubt needed an extra clean to feel less cluttered before she indeed got down to preparing dinner. She headed off alone because the ten-year-old girl decided that she wanted to stay outside.
And no sooner had she felt contentment in her heart at the prospect of having a bit of alone time – not that she was really alone – swinging her arms up and down against the snow and making another angel shape while having time to think to herself, the two other people playing in Delia's front garden decided to loom over her.
They couldn't cast a shadow against the snow on the ground because the sun was hiding behind gloomy albeit rather picturesque clouds. Nevertheless, their presence quickly became apparent to Katie.
Ben didn't hesitate to interject his twin sister getting lost in thought whilst she was alone like she often did those days.
"Why don't you come and play with me?" his own offer came like Delia's had done, his snub nose wrinkling as he came close to sneezing while the snow continued tinkling down from the sky and tickled his nostril. In hindsight, I realize this wasn't the case. "I don't want to have to play with Jayden anymore."
In the same manner that her head and neck had broken the distance with the snow mattress beneath her as she interacted with her grandmother, Katie's eyebrows shot closer to her hairline when she heard these words coming from her brother.
He rarely sugarcoated his words!
However, even though Jayden's own eyebrows moved closer to his hairline but in a different way, he decided to ignore the younger male's attitude and instead, make the younger girl an offer he believed she couldn't refuse.
His hand swanned through his straightened locks as he smiled earnestly down at her.
"We can all play together. Would you like that?" his hand flitted out of his dual toned locks that resembled a lavender and magenta sunset and reached out in a manner that Ben believed he was reaching for Katie. He stiffened. "How about we make a snow version of Mr. Hugsy here, all three of us?"
Ben had to force his fists to unclench and his shoulders to even out again when Jayden did not reach for his sister's hand right in front of him and instead reached for the snowy weather loving bear who had been lounging on the snow next to them both while Delia and Katie had frolicked together.
Out of habit, Katie's stomach flipped over at her beloved bear being reached for. But then she reminded herself who Jayden was to her, and she portrayed her own smile, even if it was a little wobblier than his carefree one had been.
Even if his idea sounded like something she could really like, she just nodded and began sitting up off the ground, dusting herself off, copying the way in which her grandmother had done.
Meanwhile, just like before, Ben quickly found his voice. Katie's whites of her eyes became as luminous as the snow all around them all when she realized he was actually agreeing with Jayden for once!
"That does sound like a load of fun actually." Ben allowed his opinion to be known before even he recognized how eager his words sounded. He decided to rectify this with a cough tickling at the back of his throat and hands stuffing into his puffer jacket pockets but not just to keep warm. "I bet I could make one better than you."
This time as he was undoubtedly insulted, Jayden couldn't merely offer a look and decided to offer his own words, that time reaching to drape an arm around Katie while still holding Mr. Hugsy by the puffy paw.
It wasn't just Ben who stiffened this time.
"Doubt that." Jayden answered in a way that was as crisp as the December that they were all sharing. He could have just left it there. Maybe he should have left it there, focusing on Katie and making her happy. But he couldn't resist the urge of irking the younger boy who was trying to put him down for the second time. "Besides, we're doing this for Mr. Hugsy. And I think he would want us all working together as a team."
The snow continued to tinkle down from the sky and fall against Katie's hair rather than any place else but still, she blinked as if flakes had gotten into her eyes. When she had been laying against the ground, she thought that Jayden had suggested such a thing to make her happy.
Her shoulders twitched privately to herself.
Apparently, it was for her beloved bear's benefit after all. She reminded herself that that still could make her feel happy. All the same, she couldn't deny that the way that he was being held made her stomach experience the opposite of joy!
As tactfully as she could, she encouraged Mr. Hugsy back out of Jayden's clasp and embraced him caringly towards her chest, massaging the paw of his that had had to bear the brunt of his weight. She found her own voice from the moment that her furry companion was back in her arms.
"I h…hope that you make one that resembles him nicely." She told both Jayden and her brother with a speck of a smile tugging against her lips before she corrected herself, hugging Mr. Hugsy even closer to her by folding her arms together over both of their chests. "H-He hopes so."
Before Ben could even think of revolving his eyes in his sockets and reminding Katie that the bear didn't have a mind of his own like she had imagined since she was very little – he never would have dreamed of doing such a thing – Jayden hadn't taken a hint from Katie tugging Mr. Hugsy back away from him.
Upon future reflection, I can see why those two boys pitted themselves against each other as well. They shared more in common than they cared to admit!
Not bothering to refrain from performing these actions, Jayden's hand still smeared with dried paint grabbed Mr. Hugsy underneath his chin and a voice came out of him that was meant to belong to the bear.
"Ooh, I had better be looking my best or I'll have your guts for garters." A fruity, rather animated sound was meant to escape from Mr. Hugsy's black stitched lips.
This time, Ben didn't bother to stop his eyes from rolling like ping pong balls dancing away from the table! And as for Katie, well, there might as well have been silence. That wasn't Mr. Hugsy's voice at all. She did not know who had been speaking and it certainly had not been her dear friend.
Jayden was none the wiser. Letting go of the bear's chin, he patted him on the head in an amiable way. Mr. Hugsy truly remained silent that time. Katie knew that she had to be the voice of them both and encourage them past whatever awkwardness they had both just experienced.
Her heart thumped a bit quicker in her chest at effort being made for her sake – their sake. But despite the flattery, she remained firm in her opinion that Mr. Hugsy could only speak when the one person was around.
And he wasn't.
"S-So how are you two going to endeavor to make sure he's l… looking his best?" Katie posed. From the get-go, Jayden's cheeks warmed with admiration at the long word that she had decided to express, and he might have possessed his own naïve streak, but he was savvy to why this occurred.
It wasn't merely the winter wind that had begun picking up.
Ben, on the other hand, was rendered clueless towards this sentence entirely thanks to the addition of the unfamiliar word that Katie had only just read in a book during the morning of the same day. But regardless of standing on the sidelines for a moment or two and with his hands still inside his jet-black jacket pockets, he knew he had to barge his way in to make sure the trio remained that rather than a duo. And barge he did!
He yanked himself back into the conversation in the way that Mr. Hugsy's paw had felt tugged upon before it had been soothed by Katie.
"Are you not making one as well?" Ben asked his sister, and the way that his hand glided out of his jacket pocket and patted Mr. Hugsy on the head was entirely different to the older male. He had shared a crib with that bear almost as many days as a newborn as his twin had done. "I'd like to see yours."
Feeling warmth rushing to her cheeks as if she were suddenly out of the cold and into a cozy room made even more homely thanks to the presence of a fire, a smile tugged at her lips when she heard these words from her brother.
See, he could use that mouth of his to uplift equally as much as he could use it to tear down!
Katie's lips prepared to do more than smile. However, before she could answer her twin, Jayden spoke her words for her.
Mr. Hugsy's own nose could have wrinkled when a snowflake trickled down onto the black button at the same time.
"She can referee. She knows him better than any of us." Jayden answered. It crossed Ben's mind that because this was true, it became clear to him that she could probably fashion the best snow creature out of all of them. He had to listen to more words from Jayden before he could do more than scowl. "And if you follow my lead, we can make something that will really impress her."
Katie watched as Jayden turned to her brother and, thanks to no longer having either of his hands occupied with her bear, was able to run both of his hands through his hair and push it out of the way of his eyes. She knew that she would much rather feel included than impressed. But before she could fully focus on this, Ben showed that he was in tune with his own feelings.
He had been brushed the wrong way exceedingly early into the three of them all interacting with each other. But Jayden acting like he was in charge and knew best after designating his sister to a mere referee really took the biscuit.
In the process of turning to the older boy in return, his shoulder collided with his. Ben's thick black eyebrows practically plaited together above narrowed eyes.
"Your idea had better be insanely good to warrant bossing me around." Ben warned. And from the second that this warning escaped from his throat that was bobbing up and down, Jayden followed suit and sent his own slitted eyes across to the younger male.
But, instead of speaking confidence across to Ben, he included Katie in the conversation all over again. After all, he might have mirrored Ben's expression back to him, but Katie's opinion and approval was the one that she cared about the most.
Far more than the bear that he had previously said he had been trying to impress.
"It does." That coolness like that of the wintery air blowing all around them appeared once again as Jayden's hands slid into his black school trousers that were speckled with now. A quietly confident smile tugged at his lips the more he glanced at Katie. "We need to take Mr. Hugsy and cover him in snow to get the shape and then when we're all done, we can tug him out again and the sculpture around him will remain standing." A breath escaped from Katie's mouth that was icier than the wind as Mr. Hugsy and her glanced at each other. "Think paper mache."
Ben's eyes wandered to the sky that was still spilling out snow as he tried to cast his mind back to the days where he was forced to participate in art lessons. Trying to focus on doing something else rather than let out uncertain breath alongside her beloved bear, Katie cast her own mind back and her brain offered her a slideshow of pictures.
She understood the picture that Jayden was trying to create. But doubt began to tickle at the lining of her stomach. More than just doubt. Both her and Mr. Hugsy's mouths wobbled with unease.
Fortunately, Ben's blankness encouraged him to pipe up, his eyebrows knotting together furthermore and forming a union as being unable to imagine how it would work filled his stomach with a different kind of doubt to his twin sister.
"And will that definitely work?" Ben questioned which led Jayden to repeat the word definitely in response. His promptness made Ben feel suspicious. Even more so than he usually did when it came to him. Two arms began to hug over his quilted black jacket which seemed darker than ever in contrast to the white snow. "What if we can't get him out again?"
Katie felt as if all the snow covering as far as the eye could see had made a pact to throttle into her throat and settle in the pit of her stomach. She told herself that she should feel comforted that somebody was voicing both her and Mr. Hugsy's concerns but when they were said aloud, somehow, she got the feeling that it didn't matter that the both of them were worried.
When it came down to it, they would rather prove themselves right – or worse, the person who cared for Katie more – than the fact that her poor bear could end up trapped in a snow-covered cocoon until the sun decided to make an appearance again in the coming days.
"We'll be able to get him out again just fine." Jayden insisted, and Katie tried to nod her head privately down to Mr. Hugsy to reassure him as well but his express remained stony. "Besides," Mr. Hugsy's stomach was very much alive in contrast to his face, backflipping when he heard this word. "If he remains stuck in there, I'm sure he's missing a bit of adventure!"
Katie could feel a well-meaning arm of Jayden draping around her shoulders again at this point but furthermore, she could feel the icily nauseous feeling slithering up from the pits of her stomach and up towards her throat as if it were a snake. She tried to wanly smile at him, but it was no use. The way that Mr. Hugsy was looking over at her was breaking her heart.
She had to protect him. She had to protect him from the what ifs. She wanted to open her mouth. She wanted to open her mouth and didn't care if her sentences were laced with a stammer. But for some reason, the words would not come.
Not for her best friend. Certainly not for herself.
Fortunately, Ben found his voice while she was rendered voiceless. His head swung from side to side as Jayden's arm stopped draping over his twin sister's shoulder and folded over his leather jacket in confidence.
"I don't believe you. But I'm willing to help you just to prove you wrong." Ben answered Jayden before he turned to his twin sister. Katie's own stomach backflipped inside of her. For a single, hopeful second, she believed that he was going to speak words that rescued both her and Mr. Hugsy from it all. "Why don't you go inside and see if Grammy has any blueberries we can use for eyes and maybe a blackberry for the nose?" he suggested. "Then you can referee!"
And with that, before Katie could discover her voice inside of her and tell him that her dear friend deserved something that wouldn't be pecked out by the birds in Delia's garden if he did have to remain outside all the night, Mr. Hugsy was slipped out of her hold by Jayden.
Her dear bear looked across at her blankly as the two boys bustled off with him to find the best snow. It was pointless. He just had to hope that he was up for a potential adventure after all. And she had to hope that she was okay with him having one without her.
But, to tell you the truth, even though they both were having a hiatus from their Pokémon Journey, she felt as if she had been through enough trials and tribulations lately.
And yet, Delia had a merry smile on her face still when Katie joined her in the kitchen after trudging into her house, expecting that her granddaughter was there to help her after all. She was always so helpful. However, her positive eyes altered with curiosity when she became informed of what she had been sent in for.
And then, those chocolate discs of hers melted with care when she wondered if her granddaughter and Mr. Hugsy were doing the right thing. Even though she was in the middle of chopping vegetables for a hearty tray bake meal, she reached her hand to Katie's shoulder, proving with more than just words how much she cared for her in return.
"And are you sure that you're both okay with this?" Delia questioned, knowing how much she liked to try to go with the flow and not let anybody down but realizing how harrowing the reality of a night in the cold would be. "If he gets too frozen and sodden, he'll have to sleep in the airing cupboard rather than with you."
Delia watched as her granddaughter's eyes dropped down. She realized immediately that she had considered this. However, before she could open her sympathetic mouth, stopping it from pressing together in a thoughtful line, Katie's own mouth pressed together in a way that told her that it was meant as a smile.
She really tried to mean her words. She held a packet of blackberries in her hands as sturdily as she could. But how cold it had been outside made it exceedingly difficult indeed.
"We could both use the adventure." Katie repeated words that were not her own and Delia could see right through her as if she was the bottom of a frozen lake. But she did not have the time to catch her by the arm and question whose idea all of this was.
She had a vague idea as she watched her granddaughter attempt to skip back out of the door and her suspicions were confirmed when she instead trudged back over to Jayden and Ben who were beginning to envelop Mr. Hugsy in the snow.
The two boys meant well; they meant so very well. But, just like Katie was savvy too, she knew how much their care and admiration for her granddaughter – whether she was a sibling or a childhood friend to them – made them think a little too much about themselves sometimes rather than the girl who meant so much to them.
Straight away she knew that she had seen that before. She made a note to pull Katie to the side later that day and tell her a story, hopefully teaching her a valuable lesson. But she knew that she would most likely get mislaid, and this made Delia sigh, forgetting all the merriment that had had together outside which had tugged her mind away from the situation that had befallen everybody.
She wondered if Katie needed a serious talk or if she just needed some fun. She settled on the latter as she resumed preparing dinner, still looking out of the window. And she would go on to realize why she had hesitated pulling Katie back to her all the moments before.
It became clear to her that she did have lessons to learn. But that day and unlike how it had been for Misty all those years back, the teachable moment was meant to come from somebody else.
You see, before Katie could fully trudge all the way back to her brother and her childhood friend and wonder how her poor bear was feeling, let alone if blackberries were going to be good enough for either of them, somebody coming up the path. Them accidentally slushing in a particular wet part of the snow on the yellow trail caught her attention.
To tell you the truth, he could have only breathed, and she would have spun around. Katie was always so very aware of everything.
She noticed the way that Justin didn't need to drop his girlfriend's hand in order to wave over at her, greeting her, because he had never been holding it in the first place. His pale hands slid into his school trouser pockets to keep warm as he spoke to her, his narrow shoulders sliding up towards his ears concealed by thick, almost blackberry colored hair in that particular light.
"Are you getting ready to build snow men? That sounds like fun." His teeth glistened as he smiled at the ten-year-old girl but then he worried how discolored they might seem in comparison to the dazzling snow to he feigned a close mouthed one instead.
After glancing at her boyfriend and listening to him speak, Eleanor next to him waved shyly across at Katie and she received an even shyer wave in return. However, for all her uncertainty, Katie's toes danced in her winter boots, and she couldn't stop her words to Justin.
She told him everything.
Well, nearly everything. She told him about Ben and Jayden's idea and how she had just been to Delia's kitchen for some berries, and she hoped that they would be okay.
Justin's expression brightened from the adolescent expression that he could sometimes possess during those times of his life. And to show just how enchanted he was by the whole idea; he did reach for Eleanor's hand and hold it clasped between two of his.
Part of her wondered if he had wished to do this to Katie, shaking her digits as a mark of admiration. But she decided to let this go and focus on the fact that Justin had reached for her. And forget all that they had been discussing seriously on the walk from the bus stop towards Delia's house.
"Oh, now that really sounds like fun." Justin couldn't help but enthuse, one hand breaking away from Eleanor but the other remaining as he ran his right hand over the parting of his locks, meaning to get the snowflakes out of it but accidentally blocking his vision until he rectified it. Katie's cheeks glowed. "And is Mr. Hugsy ready to see the creations?"
Katie's breath was snatched from her. She considered playing along with Justin's enthusiasm – this wouldn't have been all that hard really considering how infectious it was and how she clung onto any small bit of joy during those days.
However, as if the cold were beginning to get to her, the hairs on her arms and the back of her neck erected and she knew that she shouldn't lie. Couldn't lie.
She turned back behind her to where Jayden and Ben were still smearing Mr. Hugsy's fur with snow, trying to get it to stick to form some sort of shell for him that he would eventually be freed from.
"He… He's being used as a template. Ben didn't think it would work b… but it was Jayden's idea." Katie explained, watching not only as Justin's head turned as she could see he was surveying the situation for himself, but Eleanor was as well. She couldn't help but wince as she mimicked more words. "Think paper mache."
Justin didn't have to think hard at all to understand what Katie meant and, why his little brother would think that this would work. Furthermore, he knew why Ben was convinced that it would fail. He had to agree with him!
But Delia would go onto believe in retrospect that stars were aligning when Justin didn't decide to focus on agreeing with Ben. He didn't decide to pinpoint on his little brother and his idea being right or wrong either.
With a gentle squeeze, Justin's hand left Eleanor's all over again and that stance of his was making an appearance once more. As he stood in front of Katie, his hands concealed themselves in his school trousers and his shoulders rose towards his ears with the addition of a head tilt.
Katie was rendered breathless all over again. She was rendered breathless as she knew she was being saw all the way through. They were both being seen all the way through. Both her and Mr. Hugsy.
Justin posed to her.
"And how does Mr. Hugsy feel about dealing with conditions that he has grown unused to over all the years of living with you?" he asked. The pit of Katie's stomach twitched with bemusement as he decided to word his question in this way.
Eleanor couldn't deny to herself that she found it endearing as well.
Yet she was left as the one wholly thinking this as Katie decided to move on. She decided to move on towards telling Justin the truth again. Even though her own hands slid into her skirt pockets and her shoulders hunched, she had no qualms about admitting to him.
She told herself that she did it for her friend. But not too deep down she knew that it was an urge not worth fighting or even questioning.
"He… He would rather observe. You know how he is." Katie said. Justin nodded. She went on to feel a gentle touch on the shoulder that would feel like all the chilly weather had melted away when he made contact with her before breaking the distance with both her and his girlfriend.
His hunched posture had disappeared, and he strode with the same confidence as his younger brother as he marched away.
"He'll be incredibly happy that you're standing up for him. I'll have a chat with him." He reassured her, and then he headed off to where he needed to be and to where Mr. Hugsy not only wanted him but needed him.
It goes without saying that Ben and Jayden were once again united for all their unlikeness with the scowls that etched over their faces as Justin put an end to the idea and freed a freezingly wet Mr. Hugsy from his encasement and rubbed him as dry as he could with the tail of his blazer before handing him back to a very grateful Katie.
They tried to protest. But they were again joined in their knowing of when to not only not argue with just Justin, but certainly not to argue against him when he was arguing using words of Katie that she just needed a little help expressing.
Once Mr. Hugsy was back in the arms in which he belonged and Katie didn't care how wet or crystalized he felt and nuzzled her chin against the top of his sodden head, in the same way that Jayden had done, Justin reached a hand to his chin that was a gentle one and heard the bear converse back to him.
Once again, Katie knew that this wasn't his voice! But in the same way that Justin had heard her, she heard what he was trying to say through Justin. This was the reason that she allowed her sigh like a warmer breath of wind to go free and share a sheepish smile with Eleanor when they met a gaze.
The two of them went on to watch as Justin needed to step in all over again when Jayden and Ben couldn't decide what to do now that plan had gone down the drain. Funnily enough, Justin ended up suggesting what Katie had hoped for all along.
And when Katie, after giving Mr. Hugsy a kiss on the wet nose handed him back over to a highly trustworthy Justin so she could join in with Ben and Jayden's competition of constructing the best bear sculpture from memory, it seemed that she wasn't the only one to discover her voice.
As Justin sidled back next to her all over again with one hand in his pocket and one hand wondering whether to reach for her for a second time, Eleanor reached for him in her own way, by nudging her shoulder against his and by opening her mouth.
She suggested.
"Go and join them, Justin." She told him, nudging her shoulder against his for a second time before deciding she didn't want to go on her tip toes to reach this point on him for a third time and briefly rested her cheek against the side of his arm instead. "I'd like to see what you make. You seem to know him very well." Her eyes began to dazzle as the snow flowed down in heavier chunks from the sky.
For half a second, Justin turned to look at his girlfriend, quizzically, wondering if she was pulling his leg! But she was not. And after realizing that she was not, he showed the gratitude by briefly resting his head against hers and then he dashed off, certainly not too tall or too leggy to honor the child that was still inside of him. The child that so wanted to join in!
Eleanor stood back and she could not help but smile, for once happy to let things go and go with the flow. I might have done the same if I had been there. Delia certainly did when she came to join Eleanor by her side, a mug of tea for her to drink before dinner and the knowing in her heart that things had been resolved without her needing to get involved.
Or had they?
Humans were humans after all. And they would always run into similar problems. But it was how you dealt with them that was important. And I have to say, for all the hardship involved, I do love witnessing the people that I love the most discovering their powerful voices.
Whether their words move you. Anger you. Change you. Reveal you. Harden you. Soften you. Everybody deserves to be heard. That is one of the reasons that I tell these stories.
It's amazing how the lessons often repeat. But they would do, wouldn't they? That's human life. They will never know all. But they do the best with what they do know and have. Doesn't everybody?
The End.
There you go, thanks so much for reading and I hope you enjoyed :) It was fun getting to tackle all sorts of subjects in this story aside from the obvious, especially in the second part. That half takes place during the darkness saga where Ash is absent, and Misty is in hospital. I'm glad the snow brings Katie some fun during that time in her life, Delia too of course, and all of the others. I simply couldn't help Justin cropping up at the end either! It's funny how he could play the part of a bit of a rival as well but, like is mentioned, he's more bothered by Katie's comfortability than one upping somebody else. I suppose it was only right that he would learn that lesson thanks to growing up with Ash and James bickering! :P Thanks again and I will be back on the 28th to update Letters That Changed Everything and focusing one more time on Ash x Misty. See you soon!
Amy signing out :3