(Actual title of chapter: The One Where Jorginho Doesn't Miss A Thing. Had to change it due to length limit -.-)
Hello, it is Wednesday and I am back with a new chapter! This update is one of those stories where I was merely daydreaming and plotting for my own personal enjoyment and then I just thought to myself, why don't I actually just write it? And so I did! Unlike this story being nearly unintentional, the day of uploading is very intentional. In my headcanon, today is James' birthday! So, it felt only right to upload this. I hope you enjoy. For one particular birthday, Jorginho almost misses it. But in the end, he and James share a very wonderful moment :)
Ages:
James: 49
Jorginho: 49
Daisy: 47
Jessie: 49
This tale is a few different snapshots of one specific day. A day when the sun shone warmer and brighter in the sky than the previous months, and it would begin to set a little earlier each day. This tale is snapshots of moments. But that is all memories are, aren't they really?
Whether the memories jolt into action in your mind like the shutter of a camera, or they bleed into your head gently like film being developed. Memories can last for entire lifetimes. Sometimes even longer. This story is exactly that.
Daisy stopped lingering by the vast window and taking intermittent sips of the mug of tea in her hands in between watching the hustle and bustle of the city below. She moved to stand next to Jorginho as he sat on the ottoman at the end of their bed in the hotel room.
She did not need to say anything, she merely only needed to be there for him to look up at her, tossing his phone back behind him on the bed, relishing in the comfort that she brought him as the pads of her fingers still warmed from the tea tickled through the back of his hair before tracing in between his eyebrows.
Jorginho's frown did not dissipate like the sun melting frost on an icy morning. But he did feel his stomach unclenching at her touch. He was always going to explain his countenance to her. But Daisy knew anyway.
"I just sent James his birthday text." he said. Jorginho absentmindedly glanced backwards at the phone that had been tossed against a plush mattress while Daisy already nodded her head with understanding. "How lame."
His fuller bottom lip that dipped lightly in the middle appeared to bow even more like a ship surrendering to the ocean. Jorginho didn't need to say much at all for Daisy to understand. To empathize.
She rid herself of the tea in her hands and came to sit next to her fiancé, hip joining against his from the second that they were even nearer and her warm, soft hands encouraging his into hers. Her head tilted caringly.
"I'm so sorry this has happened, Jorginho." Daisy told him and that was that. More words didn't even bleed out of the squeeze in which she wrapped around his fingers because she felt that she didn't need to say anymore.
She didn't try to say that everything happened for a reason. She didn't wish to. She didn't try and tell him that it was okay. Clearly, it was not.
Jorginho unclenched even more at her holding space for him and although his intestines still plaited inside of him, he welcomed her peaceful touch, and he rested his cheek against the top of her head as she sat with him.
His gestures thanked her so that his words did not have to.
He was sorry too. So sorry.
He couldn't believe it when the airlines of the Unova Region had decided to strike suddenly on that day. April 3rd. James' birthday.
It would have been fine if he was in Kanto like he usually was. But Daisy had a film to direct in Castelia City and she would be absent from the region they called home for three months and he had decided to go with her.
They had only met three months ago for the first time. They had been engaged for less than three weeks! The whole notion would have been absurd to Jorginho in the past. But Daisy was his future. And he would've followed her anywhere that she went.
He didn't regret being by her side even on this April day. But goodness, he did feel like something was against him.
"I never said anything to him." Jorginho began, his cheek breaking away from Daisy's soft blonde hair and one of his hands moving out of hers to wriggle his glasses on his face. But it was soon engulfing around hers. "But when we were back in each other's lives again, I promised myself that I would be there for him every single day that counted. Every single day. No matter what." Jorginho set free a weighty exhale that had been rattling around inside of him. "I know that I didn't promise. But I still feel like I've broken one..."
Daisy listened to Jorginho, freeing her hand from being underneath his to comfortingly run over the wide breadth of his back while keeping her right hand wrapping around his much larger one. Her eyes met his doe, big brown ones from behind thick lenses and she wanted to cry.
But what she didn't want to do was waste time saying any more words. Even if they were words of comfort. Daisy didn't wish to tell him that he hadn't broken a promise to James. Would never do that. He had to see that for himself.
As his future wife, what she had to do was make sure that he still went after what he wanted. And nothing ever stood in his way.
"Jorginho..." she said his name, roaming her hand across his back one more time before suddenly standing up, taking both of his hands in hers before he could wonder what she was doing. "Go find a boat and get on it."
It was lucky that she was holding his hands, and he was not clutching hers because if it was the other way around then he would've surely dropped them! Though his knees felt weak beneath him and as if they did not belong to him, Jorginho couldn't stop himself from copying his fiancée. He stood on the carpet to join her.
Jorginho shook his head, his glasses sending white speckles of light prisms dancing all over the walls of their hotel.
"Daisy, what are you talking about, mi amor?" he had never looked so serious before. That frown was etching its lines as deep cuts in his brow as he didn't see how this was possible. He was meant to get a plane. There were no planes running. It was over. "I can't-"
Daisy didn't see things the way he did. She didn't usually like to cut him off. Cut anyone off. A small and breathy laugh couldn't help but decorate her words as even though he hadn't said anything, she believed that she knew why he wasn't being so resourceful in his thinking as usual.
"Yes, you can." she told him, squeezing his hands with her fingers one last time before her palms roamed over his shoulders. Her arms eventually crossed together behind his neck, scooting her body nearer to his with certainty. "Do what you must do. And be there for James on his special day."
Jorginho usually melted like butter on a summer's day when Daisy touched him in even the slightest of ways. And while part of him still felt like that as her arms wrapped around him and her body moved closer to his, he was far more occupied with seeing things the way that he once saw them.
Within the next year, he was going to be a husband. What kind of husband would abandon their future wife when they had decided to spend the next three months of their lives together in Unova?
Like his thing with James, Jorginho hadn't exactly promised to be there the whole time. But he took things with her very seriously. She made him the kind of man that he had always wanted to be. And he was never going to turn his back on the person that had given everything he had dreamed of in life and in love in the short space of three months.
"Daisy, I can't just go." Jorginho almost laughed himself of the absurdity of it all, more lines appearing on his forehead and crow's feet etching around the corners of his eyes though he was not filled with joy. "Even if I did somehow find a ship that was going to Kanto, I wouldn't even get there today. And I can't just-"
Daisy was learning more and more to feel comfortable cutting Jorginho off. Not that she used this as a ploy, but there was no way that he would've resisted being interjected by a kiss. The way that his hands instinctively cupped around her hips proved this.
Once she pulled away from him, she looked right into his eyes and stroked one of her hands along his neck, tracing the hairs that fell onto his skin.
"You must. I want you to be there." Daisy began. Jorginho had before seen things so differently to her. But seeing her knowing his reasons without addressing them and slicing them in half melted him just as much as her touch. His brown eyes suddenly puddled. "I care about James as much as you do." Her hand paused on his neck. But she concluded. "You need to be there as much as anybody else."
Daisy's voice quietened down at the end. And it wasn't because she changed her mind. It wasn't because she was about to admit that no way did she care about James even close to the way that he did because that wasn't the truth at all. It would have been a lie to say that Daisy cared less. She just cared differently. She had never really been able to voice her own affections for one reason or another.
But Jorginho could. And Jorginho could be there. One of them had to be.
Daisy's voice had softened down because she had leaned in to kiss Jorginho once more, this time their lips lingering on each other's and Jorginho's arms wrapping around her waist. And within that kiss, Jorginho relinquished. Daisy could feel it.
It made her heart beat in the shape of his sunny face knowing that she was the reason that he wished to say. That he was determined to prove that he was worthy of her time and her company, let alone her hand in marriage.
She wanted a husband exactly like that. But she had dreamed of a husband that was connected to others beyond herself, and that was Jorginho too. He had to keep those bonds alive even if he was a fiancé. He had to keep on pouring into others. Certainly, he had to keep on pouring into those that were the reason that he had even been able to love Daisy in the first place.
Jorginho trusted that his future wife would never lie to him. That's why he knew that he could leave to be there for James for them both. That's why after kissing her he moved to the side of the bed to reach for his phone again to search for ferry trips to the Kanto Region.
And that is also why that the next day – on a Wednesday in spring – Jorginho was on board a ferry to the Kanto Region to surprise his oldest companion. He was catching a taxi from the port to the Morgan Household sometime around four o'clock in the afternoon. James' party was in full swing. And nobody knew that he would be arriving after all.
Well, maybe somebody knew.
James had never really liked birthdays. When he was a child, they had always ended in tears. He would go to bed that night with a very sore hand because he hadn't seemed grateful enough for the mountain of presents that he had received but the truth of the matter is that he would have much preferred his parents' time. Their company. Well, without their usual personalities getting in the way of course.
Birthdays in Team Rocket were much better but still not to his liking. He still felt they were more for other people rather than himself, but he had found a handful of people that he trusted enough to celebrate for him and that made him happy.
Over the years, he had gotten increasingly comfortable with the whole thing, and he didn't feel inferior the older that he got. He had never felt that way. He had been partially raised by grandparents who had always told him that it was a blessing to get older and since having a partner who had barely made it past thirty, he knew how true that this sentiment rung.
He still felt like birthdays were for other people. But that was okay. On that particular year, he was content for everybody to have a reason to gather. This was why that although the gathering in his household was meant to be for the benefit of him, he was a lot gladder to sit on the outskirts of it all and enjoy watching everybody enjoying themselves.
Everybody seemed to be having an enjoyable time on that day. Well, almost everybody! James would voice this eventually. But first, Jessie stopped topping up everyone's non-alcoholic drinks and like a moth to a flame, joined her husband by his side on the bench in the hallway, watching everyone bustle in and out, getting food from the kitchen before heading back to the living room where the music was playing.
She knew that look in his eye. And still a part of her existed that feared she had to stop it before it got too serious.
"Everything okay with you?" Jessie asked her husband, pretending that she needed to reach down and stop her knee-high socks from bunching at the ankle but her loyalty running deep in the question that she asked as well as her hip kissing against his.
Touched by her checking in with him, James couldn't stop his hands from roaming to her hips, squeezing them before reaching forward like she was doing. But he lifted his glass of grape juice off the floor and answered while cupping it in his hand, many silver rings touching against the glass bottom.
"Mmm, who needs a television set when you have all this?" James humored his wife, a smile curving on his face and causing ripples in his skin, one eye squinting as he gestured to all the guests. Or subjects of his observation, depending how you looked at it. "Poor Justin looks a little glum that Eli isn't here." he paused, taking a mouthful of drink before swallowing it as Jessie sat straighter. "And Sammy looks absolutely elated that he isn't!"
Before Jessie could wonder how her husband had deduced this theory (or blindly trusted it because it sounded likely!), Sammy disappeared back to the living room from the kitchen with a plate of food, cackling loudly like he had managed to sneak some alcohol into the party although that would never have been the case.
He had his spare arm wrapped around Katie's shoulders, so he must have been laughing at something that she had said.
Meanwhile, Justin went the opposite way and from a different door of the living room, left the music behind and went to fetch himself a snack. Not that he really felt like eating. It was weird because Eli never went to these types of events. But the hole of him was a noticeable, big, gaping gap.
Jessie showed off a thoughtful smile and exhaled out of her lips, nodding her head as she couldn't help but see that her husband was right. But then she tilted her head towards him, squinting her eye in return, and it wasn't because he had drained his glass of grape juice as quickly as he used to neck red wine when he was a lot younger.
She explained her sigh before James' eyes could question what it was for, putting the glass on the sideboard next to the bench ahead of someone accidentally shattering it with their foot. Probably him.
"Your observational skills only get better with age." Jessie teased. James' eyebrow quirked up towards his still full hairline. But his hand was empty of a glass so his hand could wrap around her waist, cupping her curves. "You should still have noticed that I asked how you are doing though."
James drew his head slightly backwards, his hand that wasn't wrapped around his wife running a hand through his hair. His expression spoke an answer as much as words could do. But he still chatted to her.
He would never bore of talking to her.
"I thought I answered you?" he said, his hand fluttering through his locks a few more times before for once not residing in them for comfort, instead lulling against the back of the bench that husband and wife were both sitting on.
Jessie did not hesitate to shake her head. And, just like James, rather than letting gestures speak everything, she continued affirming how much she knew him with her words.
"Nuh uh." she said at first, watching James' mouth momentarily flick to an upside-down U shape in surprise. He really thought that his answer had been sufficient. This was the kind of thing that would have ticked off his parents as a child! But thankfully, Jessie was kinder. Her hand moved to rest on his thigh as she observed quite gently for her. "Your happiness is so closely tied in with others happiness, isn't it?"
James felt the need to draw his head backwards for the second time in a short space of time and this time, it was accompanied with his eyelashes fluttering together like butterfly wings behind his glasses as he set free quite the weighty sigh that he hadn't realized he had been holding onto.
Wow, he silently thought to himself. Jessie continued to read him perfectly.
James did not feel the need to deny her words. And he did not take offence to them either. This was proven by the way that he took hold of one of her hands rather than one of her hips as he still turned it into a bit of a joke.
Birthdays could be melancholic anyway. You didn't need to start trying to make sense of all the twisted sides of your mind!
"Isn't that better than my sadness being tied so closely with others?" James pointed out. But he privately knew that this was true for him as well, even if he didn't spell it out with words. Jessie either.
It was her turn to quirk her mouth into an upside-down U as James retaliated in a way that was very acceptable. But after a couple of moments of silence between the two, and as James watched some more people bustle in and out of various rooms of his house and he even winked at Lynne who strolled hand and hand with Jordan, quite attached so him even though it was his special day, Jessie made clear her real reason for being there.
It went beyond stalling James, making sure he remained near the front door so he could be the one to answer the doorbell when it rang.
"Are you finding it hard that Jorginho isn't here today?" Jessie didn't often beat around the bush. She had had to for the past couple of interactions. But she thought these words as much as she thought other things. So, she needed to say them.
She felt James' hand grip hers for comfort even though his face betrayed him, instinctively painting a smile onto his features. His shoulders shrugged upwards towards the different earrings poking holes in his left and right earlobes.
He felt the need to soften the truth a little bit even though Lynne and Jordan were no longer in earshot.
"It's not his fault that he isn't." James began and Jessie found her glossed lips pressing together at the emotions that she guessed were trapped inside of him although he didn't then feel it safe to set them free. "Jorginho is exactly where he is meant to be right now." James' own mouth pressed together. But he was still trying to smile. "There will be other birthdays."
Jessie nodded her head. Yes, there would. But she entwined her fingers with her husbands and squeezed the sides of her fingers against his and that said everything.
There would be other birthdays. But James was sad that Jorginho couldn't be there for that one.
Or could he?
That day wasn't even James' birthday. It was the next day. That was the day of the birthday gathering.
Jessie lingered on the bench with her husband for a good while longer, engaging in small talk after the conversation had taken the turn that it had. But eventually, she had to get up when James' energetic son, Johnny, had clamored for her attention and when she rushed off with that little boy, she had to trust that her husband would stay right there.
She knew that it wasn't exactly just meant to be that Jorginho was preparing to attend the party because he had made the effort to be there. But she hoped that it was meant to be that James was the one to open the door.
Around a quarter to five o'clock in the evening, the doorbell finally rung. Jessie was in the kitchen stuffing treats into her mouth at that point, having a childish competition with Johnny Jinn but she heard the noise and she had to hope that James went beyond hearing it too.
He did.
He wondered who it was because to his knowledge, all the guests were then there. As if they knew even though Jessie was the only one with inside information, the hallway emptied while James moved towards the door.
The silhouette winking back at him from behind the other side of the frosted glass should have been familiar to him, but it was not. He should have felt the electricity of Jorginho's hand on the other side of the doorknob when his own hand wrapped around it.
He should have known that his dear companion didn't break promises to him. Didn't even break ones that hadn't been promised.
But all James did on that day was answer the door because it had been rung. And then he nearly fell to his knees when he swung the door open and Jorginho smiled back from the other side, his dimples practically splitting his cheeks in two and panting slightly.
You would have thought he had run all the way there from Unova! But the truth was, he had more than a full day to imagine that moment. And now that it was there, all his breath was getting away from him.
James felt the same. He needed to continue to clutch onto the doorknob as he recovered from Jorginho being there after all.
"Jorginho..." Was all he managed to blurt out at first, his eyes quickly dampening behind his glasses and at once, Jorginho's followed suit. He ran his hands through his hair. It was a mess. He had been on a boat and scarcely had time to freshen up. "What are you doing here?" For a horrible second, paranoia latched itself onto Jorginho like a horrible parasite and he agonized that he was unwelcome. "Your flight-"
Jorginho knew he had to wise up. James had no reason to be mad at him. He had no reason to be unwelcome. He had heard for himself his oldest friend bravely saying that it was okay when he had phoned him up the day before his birthday and told him that all the flights out of Unova had been cancelled.
"I took a ferry actually." Jorginho corrected, taking a step closer on the doorstep and for once didn't care that his hair was knotting into curls the more that seconds passed. Didn't care that he hadn't managed a shower, only a change of clothes on the boat. "Do you really think that I wasn't going to cross the sea to be with you today?"
His eyes glimmered from behind his glasses and not because of the lenses. His own hand pressed against the paneling of the side of James' house to prop himself up. He watched James absorbing all the information. He watched him processing everything.
And then, suddenly, a tearful grin crept across his now forty-nine-year-old face, and he collapsed into the other man's chest, his arms stretching across his wide back as much as he could manage.
Jorginho emotionally chuckled. And then he rid himself of his backpack, embracing the other man with the same vehemence in return and pulling him closer against him with all the might in the world. They hadn't held each other quite like that in quite some time.
It may have been James' birthday but a bit of Jorginho's wish had come true. And how funny it was that it was Jorginho who had come home by being back in Kanto but James was the one with the feeling in his heart that he was the one who was back where he belonged.
He was home in Jorginho's arms.
But that couldn't last much longer. He had questions to answer – he wished to know how on earth he had pulled all of that off! And other people wished to know that he was around too. James didn't mind sharing. Unlike Jorginho, James had never really minded sharing.
Jorginho left his luggage on the doorstep and the two of them had their arms around each other as they shut the door in the hallway behind them and Jorginho could begin greeting more people than just James.
Even after the other man had stopped wrapping his arms around him, James walked taller in his own house a few footsteps behind Jorginho. You see, walking anywhere near him was like walking alongside someone who could part the sea. Everybody wanted to know him. Everybody wanted to say hello to him. Everybody liked Jorginho.
Well, nearly everybody.
James was sat back on the bench, feeling like he had the best view in the world while he watched Sammy realize that his big brother was back in town. The two of them were embracing nearly as hard as he and James had been. And Sammy was grinning even wider than when he had for half a second speculated if he had sneaked in some wine after all!
He tried to keep his eyes focused when Jordan and Lynne strolled into his peripheral vision, hands clutching each other tighter than ever, and no doubt on their way to find Jessie. Their heads craned over their shoulders before moving on.
James moved on too. He moved beyond their disappointed looks. Their skeptical looks. He smiled to himself and kept one hand against his lap and the other stretched along the back of the bench, knee bent, and leg stretched wide as his ankle rested on his opposite knee.
Jorginho had been exactly where he had been meant to be. But he knew that Daisy must have deemed his party to be the place to be. And that made his heart explode. He did not need any party poppers to feel as if all his organs were exploding inside of him.
And that didn't cease as he saw Jorginho move on from greeting his baby brother to noticing Katie shyly strolling near to him in the hall, not hesitating to give her a big embrace either. Katie looked as if birthday wishes of her own had come true!
What a perfect partner he was for Daisy, she often mused. She knew that he had been this in many ways to her Uncle James as well. So, she made sure not to be one of the people to occupy him for long.
But because everybody wanted to say hello to Jorginho, it was quite a while longer before Jorginho could join James again, sitting down with him on the bench. But he got there eventually. He had had to play some games with Johnny and Jorgie first and of course give Jorgie a lot of attention because she was equally as enamored with him as anybody else.
At long last, his time with James again came. To tell you the truth, he wished that he could get straight to that bit. But he was touched by all the attention. He had always longed to be part of a family. And now he felt like he had won the lottery because a lot of Daisy's family were also connected to James.
Jorginho's dimples winked at James from the second that he sat down with him. And the way that his whole body turned to focus on him, made it clear that he wasn't going to allow any more interruptions.
"James..." he began a little like he was out of breath again but then he smiled some more and made that quality disappear from him. It, however, had the potential to find James instead. "How has the party been so far?"
Jorginho, much like Jessie did, knew that James wasn't really the type for parties anyway, let alone birthday ones. He did them for others. He still trusted that he would have found some enjoyment in it all.
James found himself smiling in return. That was no surprise. Jorginho always elicited this reaction from him. And he often elicited him telling the truth too. He did not try and hide anything, even though his hand momentarily hid in his hair as he ran his digits through his locks.
"Oh, it's been quite enjoyable." he said. Jorginho nodded his head straight away, briefly flicking his gaze from his face to where some of James' older children were standing in a circle, laughing about something or other. His full attention, however, was back on him when James' shoulder nudged against his. "I think it's about to get even better, though."
James' eyes smiled as much as his mouth did in all their dew kissed meadow goodness. Jorginho chuckled and looked down at his lap, his dimple like a ripe segment of fruit blessing the gaze of anybody who looked over.
But it was like they were in their own world.
Jorginho looked back at James. He thought about raising his arm towards the bench but then saw his lulling there still. He needed to keep his hands in his lap even if he did not keep his words to himself either.
"I feel very foolish that I for some reason thought that my only option was to stay in Unova." Jorginho began. James' eyelashes clapped together. He figured that Daisy must have been a huge catalyst for Jorginho's unexpected arrival. A big part of him wished that she had been on his doorstep too. "Thank goodness for her selflessness. Not being here would have ended up bringing old wounds to light. I wasn't so strong before her."
James watched as a blush began to creep up the neck of his companion from hiding underneath his collarbones and eventually tinged his cheeks too. He also observed the way that his lips parted, and his eyes dropped down as if he had been meaning to say the truth but not that much.
James' neck tilted to the side, removing his arm from the bench and, inadvertently copying Jorginho, his own hands fell into his lap. For a rare occasion, he couldn't read Jorginho's mind – couldn't piece together what he was trying to say.
"What do you mean...?" James wondered. Although his hands had only just fallen there, one of them rose from his lap and adjusted his glasses on his face.
He could already see Jorginho quite clearly. He watched a dimple slice a hole in his cheek again as he looked down but this time, he was trying to find the bravery to keep being honest. Or to remind himself that it was okay to be truthful. It didn't mean anything. It wasn't meant to hurt anybody.
Jorginho didn't know if he could say it if he looked up from his lap and into James' eyes again. But he just had to try. You would think that the lenses of their glasses would offer some protection. But they did not. They were clear.
And besides, removing their armor for each other was something they hadn't done in their twenties. But was something that they had vowed to learn from.
"To tell you the truth, James..." Jorginho began. He was trying to buy himself more time while remembered the way that the other man's green eyes darkened until the edges of them were like that of a forest. But this sentence made him need to move things along. "I once hoped we could have spent this birthday together." It was Jorginho's eyes that physically darkened. Meanwhile James felt like his heart had been snatched out of his chest. "I mean... Last year we came so close." Jorginho licked his lips. But it was his mouth that was dry. "But..."
Jorginho didn't know how to finish his musings off. Part of him felt the need to say that it wasn't good enough, but he couldn't break his own heart anymore, let alone James'. They had moved on from then. They had moved on from that. They had moved on from them.
It wasn't like Jorginho still wanted James and he hoped with all his heart that nobody thought that. They had called it quits and then a month later he had met Daisy and fell head over heels in love with her. It was like all of that misplaced love that he had for James could go into the right person when she finally found him – and he found her.
Jorginho didn't want anybody else other than Daisy. She was his future. She was going to be his wife. They could have children together. A life together. James could never offer that. Not really. His love always came with the price of other people. His love was always going to be shared with other people.
It wasn't like Jorginho still wanted James in the way that he once had. Any ending was just sad. It was sad that they hadn't worked out even though Daisy had proven why it never stood a chance. It was even worse that Jorginho had almost subjected himself to not seeing James on his birthday at all. He could make peace with the other loss. But this one would have cut a new hole in him.
Jorginho had watched James react to all of this. His own face flushed with surprise, and he felt the need to adjust his own glasses on his face even though he was seeing perfectly clearly. Hearing without fault.
James swallowed, his own throat suddenly feeling very dry. He did not know what to say but he opened his mouth anyway. He was afraid that the opportunity would cease to exist for some reason or another and he would be unable to say anything at all. That had happened before.
Because of that, he figured that anything was better than nothing.
What he did not know, however, is that Jorginho was inwardly praying that he was going to be kind to him. He did not know if he could handle this moment being soured.
"Well..." James began with a sigh, trying to buy himself time as well but he could feel Jorginho's eyes setting up a home inside of his own gaze. And words spilled out of him. "I didn't know that." Jorginho's eyes dipped. He flushed very warm. But then James' conclusion was like a cooling dip in the sea. "I'm just happy that you're here with me today at all..."
There had been part of Jorginho that was convinced that James would have said something non-committal like the dreadful phrase of it is what it is. You know that one. You've heard it before. The one that you say when you really long to scream out how little that you wished things were the way that they were.
But he didn't. James didn't. Even though they had almost been on the tip of Jorginho's tongue too.
With the words that had oozed out of him, he proved that they were okay. That they had been through so much. Still could continue to go through much more. But it was okay. Their detour hadn't divided their paths. In some ways, the foundation laid stronger than ever.
James' words had been like the refreshing spray of the sea. But they had also knocked the wind out of Jorginho. They had given him life. But taken something away from him too. His breath.
Jorginho suddenly gasped for air. But before James could wonder whether it was relief or it was frustration or old memories haunting him or he needed to call someone to remind him to breathe, it was his turn to collapse against him.
James pulled Jorginho into his arms this time. And though Jorginho had expressed things that he hadn't even thought of – for he knew that the two of them had once had finite time together – he felt sad that he didn't know all the answers to that potential chapter.
But then another, bigger emotion washed through him as he remained in his arms, and they squeezed each other tight and remembered that neither of them was going anywhere. No matter what.
Their presence in each other's lives was wholly meant to be. Yes, they sometimes took actions to make things be how they turned out but a lot of the time they didn't have any control at all. They just went with it. They just went with the flow. And how fortunate they were to end up at the same place.
At James' party, all his guests and his wife that was the host of it all hadn't yet gathered around him and lit candles on a cake and told him to make a wish. But still, from the moment that Daisy told Jorginho to go and find him, his wish had come true.
Jorginho's wish had come to fruition too, of course.
And funnily enough, Daisy's had as well. She was engaged to a man whose love had once had so many bounds. But because of the lessons that he had learned from James and a few others, his love was not restricted anymore and could go anywhere.
It had chosen to go right to her. That was why she knew that Jorginho could go anywhere. He would always come right back. His heart was a winged creature who always found its way home.
Jorginho chuckled tearfully with his chin pressing down against James' shoulder and oh how he wished he could say more words. Wished he could say something more powerful like James had. But in the end. He could only say one thing.
At least he meant it.
"Happy Birthday, James." Jorginho told him. His words were simple, but they said a lot. It was; however, his actions then went on to say even more.
His chin found the courage to lift off his shoulder and almost as soon as his face was gazing eye level at James', it was like a particular part of him was a magnet and Jorginho was leaning in. His strong nose speaking of his past and where he hailed from brushed against the skin of James' forehead. And then he kissed him right in the center of his head.
It wasn't a kiss that they used to share. But it was very much the next best thing. James' forehead blushed the same shade of a coy rose around Jorginho's mouth and though he didn't say anything with words, his whole face smiled, and his arms gripped back around him, hugging him tighter.
The two of them had found homes within their significant others. But they had also found a refuge within each other. Whether they were two young ones in the organization of Team Rocket and realizing that they weren't so alone in the world or were two middle aged men giving each other butterflies like they were still in their twenties.
Or whether they were married – bound to other people but still attached to each other in a different way.
The whole purpose of love is to be strong enough to be soft. And oh, how James taught Jorginho that this is exactly the case. But Jorginho reaffirmed it to him in return. There was beauty in gentility. Courage in vulnerability. And grace in letting go when the time was right.
The only thing that they would let go of on that day was each other and their embrace. But not for long. Their affection lived beyond being in the same proximity. It lived in the small smiles that they gave each other across the room. It lived in the wisp of the flame of James' birthday candles.
It lived within them both. And other people.
You see, James and Jorginho's journey connected more people than just each other. And that is something that you will go on to hear about. You will go on to learn about these snapshots of memories.
But to tell you the truth, these ones are so colorful, they are more like whole canvases!
The End.
There you go, thanks so much for reading and I hope you enjoyed :) I really enjoyed editing this one so it's funny to think that it could have been a mere daydream that I would have forgotten about! I can't wait to upload more of Jorginho and James' relationship - it features here even though it's retrospective, and you can see how lucky they are to turn a bit of an unexpected path into an even deepened friendship. I often think that there's a key theme in a lot of my chapters - and that is transformative love stories. Sometimes these love stories/relationships don't last very long. But the lessons you take with you continue forever. James x Jorginho encompass that message wholly :3 Like I said in the first author's note, April 3rd is James' birthday so I knew I had to upload it today. Funnily enough, yesterday was Pedro Pascal's birthday and he influences Jorginho heavily so I'm glad everyone is getting a little nod :P Another silly little anecdote is that the name of the chapter is just pretty random although it does have a funny reference now that I'm remembering it - I make playlists for different characters/pairings and the songs usually give me ideas. Well, Shannon once joked years ago when we first made Jorginho that Aerosmith's song I Don't Want To Miss A Thing should be on James and Jorginho's playlist. It's still not, but maybe it needs to be after this chapter :D Enough rambling from me! Thanks again and I shall be back next Wednesday with more Pikachu Tales so see you there and then perhaps!
Amy signing out :)