Hello, it is Wednesday, and I am back with a new chapter! It feels like forever since I updated Pikachu Tales since on my hiatus I haven't really been reading or editing anything - only writing. I am back just once with this story this month and then will properly be back for PokeShipping Week updates in November and more uploads in December. For this one, I can't quite decide if it's an AU or James just has that much of a weak spot for anyone in Misty's family :D I just wanted to write something romantic. And I had been working a lot on Daisy in general and this just happened. I'm pleased it did, however. It's got quite old school vibes for me, plot-wise. I hope you enjoy! I might have invented a new ship here :P

Ages:

James: 25

Daisy: 23

As the sun rose higher into the sky and shared its warmth with the world below, James felt the heat reaching his temples and away melted all the troubles that usually plagued him. The absence of a wedding ring on his finger and how that digit would probably never be bejeweled. Memories of a bleak time when his premature son spent the first four weeks of life in hospital. All the clutter and the chaos that came with raising a family between two hotel rooms, let alone the agony of wondering if the month's paycheck would be able to keep them all going.

In those moments as he sat on the beach just outside of Cerulean City and could feel the hot sand underneath him, the bird Pokémon chirping merrily in the sky, he knew that he could relax at last. And when he turned his attention to look at the young woman frolicking carefreely in the sea, he wondered if he might be able to relax for good.

He felt it was possible if she continued being by his side.

James' neck inclining as he watched, he could not stop a smile from breaking the distance with his decorated earlobe, watching the way that Daisy hopped over each wave. Every few moments, she bent over to reach the cool water with her hand, stroking it, as if it were a pet to befriend, not a beast of mystery.

Lifting a ring clad right hand to shield his face to take an even closer look, he could not help but ponder silently to himself while Daisy did not realize that she was being watched so studiously. So adoringly. She was humming to herself as she frolicked, picking up seashells along the way and then tossing them back as if she could not bear to take any more of the ocean's friends away with her.

He wondered what it was about Williams' women and the sea. Why they were so drawn to it. Forgoing wondering why he was so pulled towards them; he figured that it was simply in the blood. He had heard quite a few tales of the Willams girls' parents, Jordan and Lynne, the former gym leaders of the Cerulean City gym. He had only seen a photograph once or twice.

Watching Daisy stumble as a particularly ardent wave hit her ankles before she regained her balance, serene again, he figured that it must have been mostly the mother to bestow the behavior on her daughters.

James could not imagine how someone so ursine, looming and with a face cast with shadows could lend genetics to someone to light and playful like Daisy. But stranger things had happened in the world of Pokémon.

Though the photo of Jordan he had seen was in black and white as he donned his proud uniform, he knew that the color of his yellow hair had bled into his daughter. And his eyes, while sunken and often quite interchangeable, had given their sea greenness to Daisy as well.

James sat further back on the picnic blanket that was separating his denim jeans from the sand of the beach below, his head still tilted as he could not tear his eyes away from Daisy. He very much hoped that the day they were sharing was not a one-time thing.

But he knew how fleeting everything was.

Preventing James feeling his mind wandering down this path, Daisy suddenly decided that she was done with what she was doing. After she had absentmindedly peered over the blue strap of her sundress and seen he had been watching her – even though he looked away as soon as she peered in return – she knew that the next exciting adventure was waiting for her on land.

She left the familiar, cool feeling of the sea lapping around her ankles and felt her lips parting in a smile as her feet made footprints in the sand in the direction of James, landing right in front of him. Her own hand had only just risen to shield her vision from the sun and as soon as she was stood near him, his head was peering back up at her once again. He smiled at her in that shy way that he did with one of his eyes squinting together and she knew that she wanted to lace her fingers through more than just the ocean.

Daisy reached down for James' hand, interlocking his fingers with hers. She gently pulled upon it, her left hand rising to sort her bangs out when a gentle gust of wind blew them.

They were blocking her line of vision. That was the last thing that she wanted.

"Come in the sea with me, James." she told rather than asked. This was not lost on James as he heard the words in a way that was as clear as the blue sky above and felt her fingers squeezing his, looking down at his lap bashfully.

But then he realized that he did not want to look away. Not even for a minute.

Contradicting this, his head shook from side to side, but he did squeeze her hand in return.

"Oh, I'm happy right here, Daisy." he told her, his fingers clasping hers a second time before gently pushing her clutch away. But it was not until his thumb had brushed over her carefully painted nails. "I'm very happy here with all the rocks you collected for me."

A shy, girlish giggle filled the air as with James' hand empty of hers, he gestured to the shells, the rocks, and the bits of sea glass sat with him on the picnic rug that she had previously collected and bestowed upon him.

She wondered if he was teasing her. That he thought that she was silly. Maybe a bit childish. Even if he had carefully placed them all in one square of the gingham picnic rug.

Daisy pushed away any other thoughts along with a delicate motion of her hand that kept her bangs out of her eyes all over again. She never gave up on something that she really wanted. And his company was something that she really wished for.

"Please?" she did not need to bat her eyelashes at him, her sea green eyes locking onto his resembling a dew kissed meadow. But for good measure, she lifted her powder blue dress from hanging past her thighs and hitched it up slightly, going down onto her knees.

She missed James' expression and the way that his eyebrows, just for a moment, subtly twitched closer to his hairline. But then he was smiling again as her fingers reached for the laces on his black boots, beginning to untie them for him.

He could not give her the excuse that he was not dressed for the beach like she was! She was going to sort that problem out for him. James allowed Daisy to untie his boots and then with a soft puff of air escaping from his nostrils that told her everything, she stood back to her full height again and he began taking off his boots himself, leaving them on the picnic blanket along with her rocks.

Soon enough, he was rolling his stiff blue jeans up his ankles as much as he could. And she was hearing those words that made her heart flutter in her ribcage.

"Lead the way then, Daisy." James said. And with that, she managed to conceal an excited squeal, not hesitating to reach for his hand and pull him up even though he was effortlessly on his feet anyway.

He did not know why he tried to act as though he was content to be sitting there. He was. He had been. But if Daisy asked something of him then he suddenly was happy to do that instead. She had not really needed to ask a second time. But as he felt her fingers entwining with his all over again and the gentle tug of her arm as they left the rest of the world and the picnic blanket behind, he was so glad that she had.

He really needed her playfulness and her enthusiasm in his life. Part of him was beginning to wonder what on earth he had done without it.

Though Daisy had been so delighted to be holding his hand and leading him out towards the ocean, she dropped his digits from the second that she could feel the water swirling around her ankles all over again. James did not hear a call to be alone on the picnic blanket again. He could tell that she still wanted him to be there from the way that she smiled at him from over her shoulder before walking again, in a state of utter bliss to feel her feet sinking into the wet sand and the water moving from her ankles to her calves.

James paddled more carefully but in between taking fond looks over at Daisy, enjoyed the way that the cuffs of his blue jeans darkened with the movement of the refreshing sea water. Perhaps it was not just those Williams girls after all.

When his mind was twisting and turning into all sorts of places, he found that he was most soothed by the sun high in the sky, the bird Pokémon tweeting, and the familiar feeling of mud below him and the tickling of grass. That had always been his haven.

But with the sea swooshing all around him and making sounds as it moved against the sand, and with Daisy just a few feet in front of him, he was beginning to think that he had found a new happy place.

How pretty she looked, with the warm summer sun bleeding down onto her yellow hair and making her porcelain skin shimmer in a way that he had not seen before. As she moved another meter away from him and pushed all over her hair onto the one shoulder to try and keep it neat even though the wind was slowly beginning to pick up, James caught a glimpse of the creatures etched on the back of her shoulder and flapping their wings behind the strap of her blue dress.

His first reaction was to lift his face closer to the sky, wondering if the bird Pokémon singing their song up above had caught a glimpse of it too, accepting her as one of their own. A woman in tune with the nature that gave them all life.

But then he realized that nothing else was taking the time of day to breathe her in like he was.

His cheeks began to warm further as he took another look, a private smile spreading his lips carefully and evenly as Daisy's fingers roamed over her own back, adjusting the strap against her skin so the third etching was revealed.

James could not help but wonder if she had been kissed there before. And as Daisy moved back to be closer to him again, lacing her fingers through his once more, he made a secret note to ask her – and to seize that newness if it was a no. And if it were a yes – he would still take the time to show his care there.

After her hand settled in his, he absentmindedly raised her fingers closer to his mouth and kissed her tenderly on the knuckles. They continued frolicking together in the sea together for quite some time, this time not breaking their digits away from each other as if the fleeting kiss had gelled them to one and other.

They only broke away from each other when they were traipsing back to their picnic blanket once more, the sun now in a different position in the sky above and the blanket warm and waiting for more company than just the rocks and the discarded boots.

James plopped himself down on the rug but for some reason, Daisy chose to perch herself on the mossy mound of rock that they had chosen to set up their little camp for the day near, fanning the skirt of her dress out so it could dry out, her eyes still not leaving the sea even if her limbs had done.

He wondered if it called to her by way of a silent song like he had heard that it did for some very select people. Or maybe she just felt her parents out there with every crash of the waves and every bubble of the creatures below. If that was the case, then he was touched that she had asked to be out there with him.

His smile of mystery and wondering had to alter to something else when Daisy turned to look over at him absentmindedly, her lips already smiling as she watched James look back at her before his gaze flickered to the blanket and then back to her.

She had not sat down across from him so that he would ask her these words. She did not like to play games. But the reassurance sure was sweet.

"Do you think maybe you'd like to come a bit closer?" James asked, his eyes flickering between a flash of black and red gingham before back at her, though he did not prematurely make even more room on the blanket just in case.

Instead, both of his hands moved to smooth down his hair back to its usual style since the sea breeze had given him a bit of a fresh look. Daisy tried to keep her shoulders steady for she had really liked its asymmetrical appearance. She allowed his words to melt into her skin like they were kisses and her cheeks showed off the delicate blush of a flower.

Daisy nodded her head. James moved to give her a bit more room once her sandy feet were placed on the blanket next to him and he felt her hand resting on his shoulder to keep her balance, using him as leverage to sit down.

It was this tiny gesture of touch shared between them both that gave him the drive to do what he did next. Before she could fully smile at him while sitting down next to him, her hand reaching to rest on his thigh as it often did, James broke the distance between them even further and he planted a long, lingering kiss to the top of her head.

Daisy's teeth bedded down on her lower lip from the second that she felt his affectionate touch and her eyes fluttered shut while his did, even more warmth bleeding into her porcelain cheeks when she felt both of his ring adorned hands reaching for the side of her face.

Part of her hoped that he could not feel how hot her cheeks were beneath his thumbs. But when he kissed her a second time, inhaling peacefully and enjoying the smell of the sea attaching itself to her roots, she knew that it was not possible that he could not feel the truth from within her.

She decided that she did not mind.

Daisy was left blushing and giggling in a different way when one of James' hands got to work and brushed her hair behind her right ear as his kiss moved to her forehead, planting one invisible mark of affection there before breaking away from her but not by very much so they were still awfully close to each other.

Though she did not mind, she found herself commenting on his actions, pushing his hands away from her and moving his face away from being so close to hers to give herself a bit of space. When she could look at him better, one of her eyes squinted and her nose scrunched up on her face.

She tried to not seem like she was scolding him.

"You always do that to me." Daisy told James who did not seem too offended by her gestures though he could not read them at first, keeping his face away from hers but still inclining his neck to the side. "Tuck my hair behind my ears." She clarified. "You always do that."

James was caught between the two feelings of the sweetness of being seen and the worry that he had displeased her. He was about to squint his one eye by way of an apology and swallow when he felt the hand that was resting on his own kneecap being reached for.

He watched Daisy's fingers melt against his like butter on a sweltering day. And then he found himself chuckling quietly, his first feeling winning the place in his being and he could not help but occupy both hands, his left with Daisy and her touch - the other in the same way that he had done so before.

He tucked her hair behind her ear all over again though it had been perfectly in place and then his fingers moved to her ear, circling the shape of it before tracing down and eventually seeing if he could poke his thumb through the silver hoop.

He could not. But Daisy's lower lip fell into the rest of her mouth at the touch.

"I'm sorry." he told Daisy with a gentle smile in a way that was the most perfect mix of sincerity and lie that she had ever seen. "You just look so pretty with your hair behind your ears." her lip was set free, and she smiled demurely as she hoped that this contained no essence of a lie. She trusted that it was without by the way that he continued. "I mean you're always pretty. But..."

James stumbled on his words and did not bother to finish his sentence, and it made Daisy chuckle fondly, biting her lower lip again one more time before smiling at him, completely unaware of all the other people on the beach.

She regretted pushing his face away – even if it had been a joke – because she wanted to pull it nearer to her all over again. She wanted to do to it even more than just that. But that would be a start.

Daisy began tracing his own warming but hollow cheek as he looked down at his drying jean cuffs, commenting on something that she had noticed within him as his eyes had widened, trying to make it up to her.

It suddenly dawned on her that she would not mind him saying the wrong thing again and again if he could apologize like that, and she could see that new glimmer in his gaze.

"Did you know you have a darker bit of green in your eyes right here? Right next to your pupil?" she told him, her touch on his face reaching beneath his chin so she could lift it up, her other hand gesturing but not breaking the distance with his eye.

She would not dare. She thought it bold enough that she was pointing it out. Like it would somehow go away. She did not dare imagine what would happen if she tried to get any nearer.

Daisy's fingers underneath James' chin was no match for his embarrassment. His own features crumpled up coyly on his face and he broke away from her touch, leaving her for half a moment wondering if she had gone too far. If she had said too much.

She had not said half of the things that she would have really liked to say so if this was the limit then she was glad that it had only been that!

Daisy wondered with warmth evaporating from her cheeks if she should have said anything. Or, alternatively, she should quickly think of something new to say. She prepared her words in her mind and her mouth.

But before she could set them free, James was suddenly smiling in the way that he often did. And unlike her, he was bold enough to reach his touch out to her.

His pinky finger very carefully brushed over the side of her mouth.

"Did you know you have the tiniest dimple here?" he asked her. The color began to bleed back into her porcelain cheeks as if she were a doll being painted in. James' own mouth smiled sheepishly. "You mostly see it right before you say something."

Daisy too was hit by the sweetness of being seen. Like James, she did not know what to do with it either. She did not know whether to make a dry, self-deprecating joke about it or hide her face with her palms or shove James' face away from her for good – though she would surely regret this even if he did not make her feel that way!

She did not know what to say in response and then she was left laughing contentedly when this made James point to her a second time, pressing another kiss to the top of her head, as this dimple that he had spied was indeed being revealed.

His lips brushing over the roots of her caused her to remember something. Daisy's fragment of a dimple disappeared as she knew exactly what to say. Her already soft voice honeyed more as her hands moved to point something out within him.

"Did you know that you have a very faded scar here close to your hairline?" Daisy wondered, her hands being the ones to move hair this time, brushing the longer, front part of James' hair back so she could run her fingers as well as her eyes over what she had seen before. "I noticed earlier when the wind blew your hair back."

James' head, peppered with Daisy's touch, bobbed subtly in a movement of agreement but he did not say anything more than that, not yet even something else that he had spied within her. Silence fell between the two of them but not an uncomfortable, icy one.

The silence spoke of tales yet to be shared. Memories yet to be visited.

Not yet.

The time was not then. Certainly not there. Certainly not yet.

Whether Daisy understood the silence to be this, James did not know. All he knew was that a soft, near silent gasp filled his throat and his eyes just had to shut as she brushed his hair back one more time and he felt her lips pressing against the faded mark in question.

He knew for a fact that he had never been kissed there. He could have melted so fully into her touch if they had been alone. But they were not.

As Daisy pulled away from him, carefully putting his hair back into place in the way that he seemed to like, James suddenly decided to counteract this strange melancholy at being so seen by posing something a little lighter.

"Did you know..." he paused, buying himself time to root around on the picnic blanket but he already had Daisy's full attention as she re-tucked her hair back behind her ear after the wind blew it free. "This is my favorite of the rocks that you gave me?" James held up a piece of sea glass in between their two faces. The sun winked down on it, and it shimmered in response. "It's the same color as your eyes."

Daisy's eyes moved to the side of her sockets as James edged the piece of green sea glass closer to her face but then she realized what he was doing so she knew that she needed to keep her irises straight ahead. He was about to let out a noise of confirmation when she playfully batted his hand away from being so close to her and took the rock back for herself.

James did not seem to mind. But she soon said the words just in case, beginning to break the distance between his face and her little bit of treasure instead.

"It's my favorite as well, James." she told him while holding the small piece of glass right next to his eyes, him struggling to keep his gaze fixed ahead when her voice softened down like the soft powder of the sand and melted him with how carefully she said his name. And how effortlessly it was bestowed from her to him. "But I chose it because it matches your eyes."

James continued to feel the same even when her voice hardened slightly with confident determination. He decided not to argue with her as he took from her fingers what was rightfully his and rolled it around in his touch before placing it neatly it with the rest of them.

That bit of sea glass might have been his favorite out of all the treasures that Daisy had collected for him on that day, but it was certainly not his favorite thing to hold. He wished for their little game to continue. Daisy realized this by the way that he emptied his fingers of the rock to fill them instead with her own fingers.

His lips once again pressed against them, this time to the pads of them rather than knuckles before he had more words of his own to say.

"Did you know this is my favorite nail color on you?" he told her, the end part of his words growing stifled with the kisses against her fingers as they started with her thumb and moved along before he had kissed every one of her digits on both hands at least once.

As James concentrated on finishing his affectionate display on Daisy, his mind told him that she had painted her nails to match his hair as she said that she was going to do sometime. But his gut told him otherwise. They had been swiped with baby blue! Her nails matched her dress more than his locks and this fact would have been proven if he cared enough to raise her hands closer to his hair.

But he did not have the energy to do that, even if he possessed the time. She was the first person where he did not mind that, when they first met, she could have sworn that it had been blue. As the days had gone by, she had admitted it had been the liquor from that party and ending up by the movement of the blue water of the Cerulean Gym pool.

James' hair was undoubtedly lavender. Daisy's hair was effortlessly as yellow as sunflowers that beamed in response to the sun in the sky. But in that moment in time, what could mostly be written across her face was affection.

She watched James move her fingers back away from his mouth all over again though she would have been content for him to keep his kisses up forever. But something else needed to take up that space. For a split second as James earnestly smiled at her and she looked at him in return, that fleck of a dimple made itself known.

Words soon fluttered out of her, reaching for James' hand this time even if she did not intend to place kisses there in return. She wished for kisses elsewhere. Kisses somewhere else entirely.

Her nose scrunched up and her cheeks reddened as she let this be known.

"Did you know..." Daisy began to buy herself time. But James was already listening, his finger once again tracing the shape of her ear before resting fondly against her hoop earring. "I've never been kissed in the ocean before?"

James' finger traced the curl of her ear and followed it down one more time before moving his hands from her entirely, tilting his head on the one side as he listened to her words and focused on the moments that followed.

He could see the blush that had lent itself to her cheeks had crept itself down to her neck and her collarbones too and he had never wanted to kiss her there more. But all in good time. She was speaking to him. In a small way, opening her heart to him.

Unlike the first time when she had invited him to the call of the ocean, he did not act like he had anything better to do. Because he did not. If Daisy had been so bold to make a wish known, then he knew that he would not be able to do anything else but grant it. As best as he could.

Daisy's heartrate fluttered with hope as he left her sitting alone on the picnic rug to stand. His smile and the dazzling twinkle of his eyes reached out to her before his touch even could.

But then his hand was held out to her.

"That's the last time that you'll be able to say that." he said. There was somewhat teasing in his tone and Daisy acknowledged this. But there was sincerity too. And she knew that she would follow him anywhere with the words that breezed out of him next. "Come with me, Daisy."

Her name floated out of him like the wind that blew the petals of her name across the meadow as if it were confetti. She could not hide the fluttering gasp that escaped from her as he began to walk backwards down towards the sea, his hand still stretched out to her.

Daisy did not hesitate to link her hand with his, following him the right way down while he continued to walk backwards as if he did not dare turn around because that meant that he was not looking at her any longer.

James' smile widened and appeared more relaxed than it had been in an exceedingly long time when he felt the sea sloshing around his ankles and he could see Daisy breaking the distance with him, not bothering to hitch her dress up and just following him where she most wanted to be.

Where they both most wanted to be.

Though a gasp had been set freely from Daisy like a gift that always meant to be bestowed, she had all sorts of words in her mind that she wished to say as she stood with the sea beginning to embrace her into its beauty as well. She had all kinds of things that she wanted to say. She did not know where to start.

In the end, she did not need to. Did not need to worry about beginning or otherwise. Daisy had stayed put with her feet bedding into the wet sand and James had walked a few more paces. He had been walking backwards and still facing her so he could see her stop. He could see her thinking. He decided to walk back towards her again, wondering what was on her mind.

But rather than asking, he set about granting her wish. He set about changing everything for her. But first, an observant smile on his face that stretched his mouth closer to his earlobe, his ring clad right pointer finger reached out to her face.

That dimple that was the width of a hangnail was brushed against. James was definitely teasing her. But he was seeing her. And it made Daisy not hesitate to move closer to him again, both hands already on his shoulders just to make sure that he was not going anywhere.

"There it is. Just in case you had any doubts." James told her, his pinky finger covering the entirety of the crevice in her skin and then it drew away from her, both hands cupping both sides of her face after brushing all her hair behind her ears.

Daisy's fragment of a dimple was covered all over again. A gasp hitched in her throat as this time it was James' lips that concealed the mark that he had pointed out. Another place that she had not been kissed.

After pulling away, he lightly touched his nose against hers and his lips moved against hers, kissing her with even more intention than the feather light peck that had been placed previously. Immediately, Daisy's hands brushed along the white material of t shirt covering his shoulders and wrapped around him, pulling him closer as they kissed one another.

The sea sloshed around them both as if it knew that its presence was important, but the movement grew calmer as if it knew that it did not need to interrupt. Not that anything could stop the two of them. Not that anything could pull them away from each other until the time was right.

After the time was right, they finished their passionate and lingering kiss with one peck on the lips, both their eyes shut and then once their lids had fluttered open, they were soon falling against each other in a different kind of way.

Daisy's arms had been embracing around James in the middle of her wish being fulfilled and now that it was over, she still did not let him go and in fact pulled her even closer to him. In return, James planted a kiss to her soft cheek before happily melting into her arms, his cheek resting against hers and enjoying the embrace as much as the kiss.

And as for the sea, it continued to swim softly around their ankles, trusting that it needed not to interrupt. Their little moment would be interrupted eventually. Their little summer romance would be halted imminently.

But for the time being, it felt like just them in a world full of possibility. It felt like them in a world full of stillness. Just them in a world full of hope.

In the end, it was not the two of them at all. Not even close.

But it was a happy albeit brief chapter. And worth still getting its time in the sun. And kiss in the sea.

The End.

There you go! Thanks so much for reading and I hope you enjoyed :) So yeah, guess we will find out if this just stays an AU or James can't keep away from anyone in Misty's family xD I do genuinely like James and Daisy together anyway and have done for a while, even if it's only platonic. The way I write Daisy, they have very similar wounds and therefore senses of humour and I just really enjoy the way they pop up in each others lives through Misty and other characters. I dare say I will write more about them in the future. I love when a character or a pairing comes alive on the page effortlessly for me. As much as I enjoy a challenge, that is how I know I'm onto something special :P Thanks again and I will be back on the 28th to update Misty's Memoirs so perhaps I'll see you there!

Amy signing out :)