(Whoops I just realised I uploaded this story a week early xD The schedule was meant to be the 12th, 23rd and 28th this month - guess I was too eager :P)
Hello, it is Wednesday, and I am back with a new chapter! I tried to write in a different style for this one and to get straight to the point. Though it ended up still longer than I originally planned (that's always the way!) I wanted it to be a bit shorter. I remember getting the idea for this one and writing it too. Last summer, I replayed the LEGO Pirates Of The Caribbean game on Xbox and while playing the Isla Cruces level, I suddenly imagined a teenage Justin helping a young Katie with that level. And so, this story was born! A simple concept ended in something quite healing. I hope you enjoy :3
It was mid-morning on a Saturday. The kind of sunny Saturday in May where the light bleeds in through the curtains, warming everything that it touches. A knock sounded at the Ketchum household door. Misty was expecting it, so she put her book down, lips twitching into a smile and left the room to answer it, leaving Katie to do what she had been doing.
These Saturdays come around often in Kanto; the kind that begged little energetic children to play in the garden. The sun wants to beam down on little faces, you see. But after a while, it had gotten too noisy out there with her dad and her brothers, so Katie decided to come inside where it was a bit cooler too.
As Misty's answered the front door, she was greeted by another kind of face – the sort that the sun would be desperate to add a bit of color to! Justin smiled at once like he was posing for a photograph. But light poured out from his countenance all the same.
It was a wonder he could see who was answering the door to him given the fringe of hair hiding his porcelain features.
"Come in, Justin, come in." Misty encouraged, a far less concocted smile on her face as she stepped aside to welcome the teenager into her home. But then her lips altered, pressing together in a way that could only be read as apologetically. "Sorry." Her word matched her mouth. "I didn't know who else to call."
One football boot covered shoe planting on the welcome mat inside the hall, Justin answered Misty without hesitation despite his earlier stance being like that of a cardboard cutout.
"It's okay." Were the only words that came out of his sometimes-pouty lips. Justin had changed as he aged into teenagerhood. Not in a bad way. He just seemed to have less to say as all the words he might use ended up accompanying melodies.
Misty's expression freshened up as if she had taken an inhale of fragrant washing drying in the sunshine. She softened as if Justin had said everything in the world. To her, he had.
He was willing. And this was everything to her.
"I hope we're not ruining your Saturday." Misty began again. She noticed that Justin was just standing there so she gestured for him to make himself at home and take his boots off. He crouched to untie laces. "She usually gets your dad to fumble through her game with her. But he's not available, is he?"
Justin shook his head through his mop of shoulder length hair, listening while he took off his boots that were still muddy from a morning of playing. Misty's teeth sinking into her lower lip spoke of regret.
The last thing she wanted was for Justin to think that his company was a last resort. Teenagers were sensitive behind their often brash and loud demeanors.
She had been like that.
Misty welcomed a rejuvenating feeling all over again when Justin shook his head for a different reason this time, pushing his hair out of his face and finally revealing his eyes. As he stood up to his full height that had been towering over hers since he had been twelve years old, he offered her a real smile underneath his braces.
"The others wanted to see if we could get into a pub after the game." Justin began to explain. As Misty listened to him while half leaning up against the front door of their home, she silently wondered how she would cope if one day her sons ended up as tall as him. "I've got nothing better to do today."
Once Misty's emotions of preparing for the future had died down inside of her, she could not help but notice that Justin said others rather than friends or the lads like he often did. Part of her was touched that his vagueness spoke as if she too knew them – as if they were all part of the same circle.
But then it hit her – did Justin say others because he felt separate to the rest of the boys that he played football with?
Misty had been to a match or two of his after her eldest sister, Daisy, had told her that it would be fun. Begrudgingly, she had admitted that her sister had been right. It was there that she noticed that Justin was not like his teammates, or even members of the opposing team.
Apart from being a full head taller than most of them and as narrow as the lines marking the field, he held himself differently too. Friend or foe, he shook their hands or gave them a friendly fist bump. He did not make a point to interact with any of them first. But when they extended their inclusion to him, he came alive and became a right chatter box, even while passing the ball!
No, to Misty, Justin was very much an other. But she liked that about him.
What was the point in being like everybody else?
"Why don't you get settled in the living room with Katie, Justin?" Misty broke her reverie to encourage Justin. He did not need any more encouragement, though he did check that he was not sending flakes of mud from the field flying from him as he moved. "Can I get you a drink or anything for your troubles?"
Justin was just disappearing into the living room as Misty asked this second question, his hair falling back over his eyes once more. It might have been concealing his vision rather than his ears, but she wondered if her inquiry would go amiss.
It did not.
In the next heartbeat, his head appeared from the door that he had just disappeared into, a polite smile sending dimples slicing through his blemished cheeks.
"A cup of tea would be lovely please if it's not too much trouble?" Came Justin's reply. And Misty's heart positively melted as if one of her own children was being too darn sweet.
She forwent reacting in the way that she would have liked to have done. She could have reminded him that it was the least of her worries given that he was giving up his Saturday to help her daughter – even if it seemed like he quite wanted to!
Misty's gestures spoke instead, offering Justin a mere thumbs up before he disappeared back into the living room for good. An affectionate smile encompassed her actions as she made her way to the kitchen to make Justin his cup of tea how he liked it as well as top ups of juice for us lot playing in the garden.
Katie had not been left out of this either. She might not have been working up a sweat like us boys were as we played a game of football of our own under the sunshine, but her brow was knotted as she tried to figure out the tricks of the console.
Justin offered her a smile at once though at first, she did not look at him, sat on the sofa with Mr. Hugsy next to her and Misty's discarded book next to him.
Her beloved bear had an expression like he was solving an exceedingly difficult quadratic equation as he held a console controller in between his own paws.
"Hello, Katie." Justin greeted, still not breaking her out of her spell but he could tell that she could hear him from the way that her toes bunched together in her socks. "Having a difficult time making it past the level?"
Justin echoed the words that Misty had said on the phone to him after she had phoned Jessie to see if it was okay to reach out to him. She did not think that there was anybody else better to step in while her husband was at a conference in Johto.
These were the words that Katie needed to break her out of her spell. Or she could sense that Justin's own mind had gone towards his father and the man that Katie usually played this game with.
I did not know why but the presence of her Uncle James in any way seemed to have a magical effect on the little girl!
Katie momentarily left Mr. Hugsy to pause the game, hopping down from the sofa. Virtually wordlessly, she entrusted her controller into the hands of the teenage boy.
"Mm." she mumbled, watching him accept the controller but he stayed standing there for a couple of moments and not because he knew not to sit down on the sofa.
It was not because Katie was going to perch there and not even in case the back of his football shorts had smears of mud on them.
Justin could not work out if Mr. Hugsy's limp expression was because what he was displaying on his own face.
"Do you want to keep hold of the controller and I'll try and guide you through the level by watching you do it?" Justin suggested.
He forwent asking whether he should take hold of the bear's controller. He knew what answer would come from Katie – let alone from Mr. Hugsy's black stitched lips!
Katie was not usually so hurried to find her words. But on this Saturday, however, she knew exactly what she wished to say.
Her toes twiddled in her white socks once more as she sat back down next to her furry friend.
"No." she merely said, one hand disappearing into his plush, cream fur now that he did not have to concentrate so much since Justin was here to save the way.
Even against the touch of the person that he loved most in the world, Mr. Hugsy's features for the time being stayed ice cold.
Justin's own words fell out of his lips promptly.
"Oh." This single word sounded. But with a flick of his hair to reveal his eyes before he sat cross legged on the floor in front of the sofa, he relinquished into what Katie was hoping from him. "I only hope that I can help you, Katie." Justin began, unpausing the level to get a feel of what was needed from him. "I haven't played much of this game but hopefully I can figure it out."
Katie nodded and Mr. Hugsy did too. She hoped Justin could help as well. Mr. Hugsy did not know what he thought. He habitually mirrored the eight-year-old's motion of the head.
As Misty went past the door on her way to deliver the drinks to us outside, her eyes creased in the corner thanks to the way that Justin was interacting with her daughter. She knew that one of his hobbies with the others was football, but he liked playing video games with them too. No doubt ones for his age range rather than Katie's. And he was probably good at them too.
Justin was good at most things.
But Misty appreciated that he did not make her feel silly for being so stuck that she suggested his name to help. Maybe she was making a big deal out of nothing, but she knew that Katie would get stuck repeatedly in life. She just hoped that she would always have kind people like Justin around to help her figure out the way.
"Mr... Mr. Hugsy thought that the skeletons over there might be able to help." Katie said timidly, speaking properly for the first time that Justin arrived at her house. She knew, however, that she had needed to find her voice.
Unlike her, her dear bear friend did not really speak to Justin unless her Uncle James was around. He had important things to say. He just needed her help to believe in himself.
Justin listened while running around the pixelated island on the television screen, taking the last couple of moments to figure out the controls and what the different buttons did. He might not have played this game, but he had played other ones similar where characters were made of different sized blocks.
Before he even found what Mr. Hugsy was referring to, he trusted Katie, figuring that she had been close to solving it herself but just needed one final eureka moment.
"Is that right?" Justin's tone of voice mirrored Katie's own one for a second but he was concentrating. After needing to take out the skeletons in quite the unusual way, he saw their bones jumping around on the floor and realized that she – or rather, Mr. Hugsy – was right. "Very clever."
Justin could not help but think that some of the steps of this game were a little unsettling in a humorous sort of way. Sort of how someone laughs with tears in the corners of their eyes after being spooked at a haunted house.
He imagined that Katie would not have liked it if it were not for the cartoonish style making it more palatable.
Then again, it was a game based on one of her and his dad's favorite films. And it must have been really thrilling for her to get to play as her beloved rogue of a pirate.
"Very clever." Katie echoed, reaching to pat Mr. Hugsy on the head before on the snout in the way that he liked best.
From in front of them both, Justin thought that he was the one being spoken to, so he paused the game, preparing to hand the controller back over to Katie. Pushing his hair out of his eyes and not to help with his gameplay, he turned over his shoulder to look at her rather than the snobbish bear.
"Are you ready to take over now, Katie?" he asked. The controller was nearly in the little girl's hands. At this point, it seemed more likely that Mr. Hugsy would take hold of it!
But his paws were full. His expression, especially when he looked over at Justin, unreadable.
Katie's twitch of her head spoke before her words came.
"I'm not ready." she echoed Justin's words again. The controller slipped back into his hold and for the next little while the game remained paused, him interacting with her rather than the engaging pirate island.
His head tilting on the one side revealed more of his face that usually hid behind his mop of hair. As his dimple appeared once more, this time, it was as his lips pressed together.
He was beginning to wonder why he had even been called over!
"Do you want to play at all, Katie?" Justin spoke again, leaving a small, secret smile threatening to twitch over the eight-year-old lips at how often he said her name.
It made her realize that all of this was real. He was there. He was helping her. He had come because she had asked.
Though the twitching of her ankles gave away that she knew what words – or rather, word – of hers was to come, Mr. Hugsy breaking away from the spare controller to sit on her lap said even more so.
Justin felt like he was being ganged up on. He swore that the bear's black stitched lips finally broke into a smirk at his foolishness!
"No, thank you." Katie answered at last. As much as Justin tried to keep a straight face, his lips could not help but twitch all around his braces at her response!
At least she was being polite.
Justin's head shook from side to side but not enough for his hair to hang back over his eyes. A firm pushing motion with his hand paired with the grease and grime from playing football had, for the time being, kept it in its place.
Justin had even more of his face than usual to express himself.
"Oh, I see." he began in mock curtness. He soon made his antics as clear as the skies above Pallet Town just in case the eight-year-old and her bear misconstrued it. Katie's feet needed to hide themselves underneath her as he smiled at her over his shoulder. "Guess I won't be able to say I haven't played this game much anymore."
And with that, he turned to un-pause the game to get stuck into it for good. But not until he had shaken his head a little more.
Katie had been quick to take in his gesture as much as she noticed all the other messages that Justin purposefully and even inadvertently portrayed. Mr. Hugsy's furry round tail pressed against her lap made her brave.
A question of her own poured out of her.
"I-Is your hair bothering you?" she wondered. At this point, Justin was seizing the day for what it might as well be, and he was wheeling the contraption that he had made of bones thanks to the skeletons over to a part of machinery so he could move it round and around.
He had not noticed whether his hair was bothering him or not. In fact, for the first time that Saturday, the winged creatures that were usually a permanent fixture in his stomach had flown away for the time being.
For the first time in ages, he felt like the weekend was for being playful rather than for growing up too fast like some of his friends were keen to do.
"It's a little unkempt." Justin began, the clicking noise of the buttons for once not bothering Katie and instead reminding her of the company that was more than just her dear old bear. One more click so he could fix something on screen after finding the hammer, Justin admitted sheepishly: "I came straight here from playing football when I got your call."
Katie did not know why but she felt her cheeks warming up when she heard this. As the heat spread to the top of her scalp and the tips of her ears too, she felt that it was too warm for a lingering cuddle with Mr. Hugsy since summer was just around the corner.
The poor bear was po faced as he was left perching on Misty's book.
Moving her thoughts away from her cheeks glowing as brightly as mine, her gaze moved to the sight of Justin's tumbling locks. They did not seem all that grimy to her. In fact, it was a treat for her to see his hair down since whenever he waved at her across the school playground, he needed to keep it tied up to go along with their policies.
It was not clear to Katie why her hand was beginning to reach out to Justin as if she wanted to tame his locks into how they usually were. And she knew that she should not find her hand there without asking.
He was not Mr. Hugsy. He was not something better. Just different.
If she gave it much thought at all, she would realize that, like her mother, she thought of him as an other too.
Not separate. Strange was not the word. But he was something intriguing that she could not put her finger on.
"C... Can I d-do your hair for you?" Katie wondered. Her cheeks were aflame for a different reason as she stammered.
She wished that she had chosen different words. But then, one hand holding the controller for just a minute and still playing the game, eyes locked on the screen, Justin's hand broke the distance with her in the same way that she had been silently longing to reach out to him.
His wrist appeared over his shoulder, offering the hair tie on it. Breathing out quietly to add more of the usual color to her own cheeks, Katie relaxed on the sofa behind Justin. She felt the cushions propping her up disappearing from under her as her fingertips broke the distance with not yet his hair. The hair tie that had lingered against the bone of his wrist slid onto hers instead.
Thoughts whizzing around in her mind like a swarm of creatures, Katie wondered what style to do but as she instinctively separated his locks out into sections, her thoughts silenced. She began to go with the flow.
Whatever was usually bothering her disappeared when she was able to occupy her hands with styling hair. Her Uncle James was her favorite to practice on. His hair was so versatile; as voluminous as it was soft and silky, and she could practically fashion it to be whatever vision she had in her head.
As her fingers roamed through the strands of Justin's hair, she did feel the grease that he apologized for, but she did not mind. To her, it told a story. It was funny for her to think someone as dependable and gentle as him could dart around a pitch and sometimes ended up with cuts, scrapes and bruises.
Many different sides to him existed. At that tender age, she could not put a word to her feelings. But she just knew that, like the tactile treat of doing somebody's hair, Justin muted the overwhelming sensations of her mind.
He was more than someone to call when you got stuck. He was someone to call no matter what.
Suddenly, Misty breezed into the room. She did not feel that it was sudden given that she was painfully aware that she had offered Justin tea quite a while ago!
She apologized for this, running a spare hand through her bangs and feeling the way that the summer heat had set up a home inside her cheeks.
"I'm so sorry for the delay on the tea, Justin." she began, speaking to him straight away though it did not go unnoticed the way that Katie was styling his hair. She spoke through the inclination to smirk. "I went outside to give Ash, Ben and James a drink and one of them wanted to show off their skills." Misty's smirk fully revealed itself like a crescent moon sending a cloud away. "And it wasn't one of my little boys."
Justin flashed a grin though he hardly took his eyes off the screen, needing to keep his head straight so Katie could do a specific kind of plait on him. He could hardly laugh at Ash. If someone important enough showed up to watch him play, then he too was infected by the kind of desire to make sure that he was remembered!
In the middle of slashing his sword against the titular character in a vigorous match, Justin made sure to nod at Misty and thank her as she momentarily moved in front of the screen to put the drinks tray down.
There was more than just his cup of tea. On the tray sat a glass of juice for Katie too. His favorite biscuits were spread in a neat circle on a blue plate dotted with anchors.
"No worries." Justin merely said but it did not go amiss thanks to his expression that he had heard every one of Misty's words and was amused by them as well.
Misty had joy tucked inside her own heart also. She stood away from the screen to not distract Justin again but could not help but comment on what she saw, fondly noticing the way that her child resembled her father with her tiny pink tongue poking out her lips as she concentrated on what she was doing.
Her husband, Ash, might have chased Pokémon at that age and their daughter chased creation but they were not as dissimilar as they sometimes felt.
Misty stood with her arms crossed over her chest to resist resting a hand over her heart.
"Is it hairdressing time instead of gaming time now, Katie?" Misty wondered. Katie, unaware that this was a fond remark to the way that she jumped from task to task just nodded, unable to be torn away from what she was doing. Misty tried to humor her more. "You'd be first in line to go to school if you could learn to do hairdressing there, wouldn't you?"
It had only been a joke. A lighthearted remark. Justin may have still been trying to bring the rogue pirate down to the last red heart on the screen, but he felt Katie's hands falter doing her plait.
He always felt a heaviness dragging down his stomach when he spotted her in the nurse's office, scolded yet again for bringing Mr. Hugsy into lessons and allowing him to talk while she stood back, silent.
As Justin heard Misty's words, he did not remain silent. He briefly paused the game, looking over at her with his fully revealed face smiling at her before guilt could wash over her own features thanks to Katie's stinging cheeks.
"I would be first in line if she could." Justin humored them both. But he was not really doing that. It had not been quite so obvious with him, but he had felt alone too at Katie's age. Had always felt so different though the way he presented himself made people swarm to him.
Misty welcomed having a reason to not look at her daughter's wounded face as she tried to continue concentrating. The stomach burning guilt that she had caused this gnawed her in a manner that she could not easily ignore. She hoped that Justin's words would relax that knot in her child's brow.
It did.
Misty gradually unclenched as well. She could not stop herself from conversing with Justin as he continued playing because she genuinely did want an insight into his world.
Being a child was tricky. A teenager even tricker.
The most world flipping thing could be happening to you and people did not care because it was supposed to be the greatest, most carefree times of all.
Misty asked Justin how he was getting on at school as he was nearing the end of another year there. Katie's nose scrunched up at once, wondering why her mother was so keen on talking about this sort of thing.
But her face softened and not because she got near a particularly challenging part of the plait and the effort that it needed from her thrilled her.
Justin's answer was like music to her. His smile would have been too, but he was not facing her.
"School is school." he began with lips pressed together in a polite smile that Mr. Hugsy believed was rebellious. He was still a little glum at sitting on Misty's book rather than a soft lap! Katie only had eight years on her side, but she understood what he meant. Her hands moved as Justin briefly turned to look at her. "I don't really like going either all the time, Katie." he said her name though he was meant to be talking with Misty. "But I've found things that make it more positive. Hopefully, you find that too."
In the same small moment, Katie's heartrate both skipped a beat and plummeted so deep inside of her that she was not sure that she would find it again. Mr. Hugsy was tugged against her lap after Katie finished with Justin's plait, but he could not ignore it because he could feel the sinking feeling of her stomach as his back pressed against her belly.
The whole conversation was beginning to make her feel like she was underneath the sun beating down on the pirate island. The words inside of her own mind even more so. She did not want to say them. Did not want to give them power. But they spewed out of her like she was being sick.
"I found that, but they don't let me bring him." Katie muttered with a vinegary taste in her mouth. She did not stammer and if she had been at school, she would have silently applauded herself for a job well done.
But she was at home. She still minded when she stammered at home. But she could not feel excited by her own success.
Mr. Hugsy was limp against her, not talking, and her brow felt clammy underneath her own bangs. Her words had done more than what she feared. She could not only feel them ringing in her own ears, but she heard the silence that followed.
Especially from Justin.
Fortunately, her mother suddenly spoke to at least give her something different to focus on. Her clammy forehead was suddenly offered the cooling touch of affection. Katie's peaky expression brightened a little when her believed bear was touched and acknowledged also.
"Oh, I don't think they understand him like you do, my love." Misty said. And with that, as much as she wanted to stick around to converse with them both or even sit there in silence as she read her book, she knew that things had been better before.
Somehow, she took it on the chin that it was better before she had joined the room. After all, was that not exactly what Katie's brow furrowed teachers had always been encouraging? Her asking for help? Speaking up? Her talking. Mr. Hugsy had scarcely spoken to Justin. It had all been Katie.
As far as Misty was concerned and Ash too, Katie was wonderful exactly as she was. And not that they liked to express it, but they felt as bad shipping her off to school every day as she did reluctantly sitting on the bottom of the stairs and slipping her black patent shoes on.
Katie considered picking up Justin's new plait for something to do. But instead, she sat on the other side of the sofa but behind him, Mr. Hugsy in her hold and mirroring the way that one of his legs crossed over the other.
The silly old bear mocked the way that he tilted his head on one side. He was caught in the act when Justin suddenly turned over his shoulder! But he did not look offended though he pointed it out with a quizzical look.
Then he ignored the bear. He spoke to Katie who thought that he had forgotten all about their conversation.
She wished that she could!
"I think that Mr. Hugsy should focus on where he fits in rather than where he doesn't." he told them both. And with that, he shrugged his narrow shoulders as if it did not matter what he thought and then he went back to gladly absorbing himself in the game.
Katie thought to herself for a minute, at first distracted by the way that Mr. Hugsy copied Justin, leaning forward as the sun shone in the window so he could still see the screen without it being drowned out by the light.
She could not help herself, but her words sounded limply.
"Mm." she murmured. That is all she could say to stop her cheeks from burning from the inside out all over again, feeling the blush for both her and Mr. Hugsy because his furry cheeks decided to still be stubbornly snowy.
But Katie agreed. As she gazed upon her dear old bear as he imitated Justin's every move – he told her that it was mocking rather than like that of an artist so enthralled by his creation that he wanted to become it – she knew that Justin was right.
Trying to fit into unwelcome places was the kind of tiring that left your head spinning at night and your bones weary. She wished that people loved Mr. Hugsy like she did. Wished that he could speak for her forever. He usually went silent without Uncle James around but at school he was a chatterbox and that made other children and sometimes the teachers laugh.
She wanted him to fit in as much as she wished that he could fit discreetly in her school bag. But her love made him massive. He burst out. He wanted to protect her. Mr. Hugsy did not seem to care as long as she was okay.
She was okay. Now, at least. Justin was here. And it was Saturday.
She would very quickly forget feeling fine as Sunday came and she realized that a week of school would happen all over again.
Justin suddenly turned over his shoulder mid game, spying Mr. Hugsy's antics, and fortunately it stopped Katie from worrying about Sunday because of Monday on that Saturday.
The way that he smiled at her intrigued even the loudest corners of her mind. His nose scrunched up and his dimples appeared, his hair sleek out of his face that was able to show the kind of things that usually went amiss.
"I think Mr. Hugsy would make a good pirate instead of a good Justin." his mouth closed, and he continued to smile after he said these words. The mimicking bear only needed to take one look at the screen to know how to behave. Justin needed to stifle his chuckles. "There you go. Very convincing."
Katie was dragged up off the sofa by Mr. Hugsy. Gone was his usual gentlemanly demeanor and out of nowhere he was staggering, climbing along the fireplace as if it was the destroyed church of the pirate island.
Justin could have sworn that he had donned black kohl and a plaited goatee beard to match! Katie knew that she had the same vision as Justin. But she knew that she had to make sure that Mr. Hugsy was really doing this because he wanted to do it and not because it had been suggested to him.
The foolish bear was already giving her a look of his eyebrow quirking up above his charcoal-colored lids.
"Y-You usually like mash potatoes rather than rum, Mr. Hugsy!" she informed him. The bear, having long forgotten his antics of mocking Justin, managed to steady his swagger enough to keep looking at Katie, acting as if she was the silly one.
As Justin finished that scene of the level and with one more pointer from Katie (or rather, Mr. Hugsy) and realized that he needed to navigate a fast-spinning wheel to help the pirate that the bear was mocking, he could not help but think of words of his own.
The twitching sensation in his concave stomach told him that he was amused by his own words before he got them out there. He hoped that it had the same effect on Katie! And that Mr. Hugsy was not offended.
"If you're my dad then you like both." Justin smirked. He should not have worried. Mr. Hugsy's world used to be James before Katie came along decades later. The spark of inspiration in Katie's little flushed face gave him an idea too. His smirk disappeared and an earnest smile took its place. "Does Mr. Hugsy have a story about being a swashbuckler?"
How funny that James being away on business was the reason that Justin had stepped in to help Katie with his game. But Justin was missing his father as much as the eight-year-old girl was.
It always made him smile to walk past the door when James was putting Katie to bed on one of her sleepovers in the Morgan household and heard the tales that he told her like he used to tell him and his siblings when they were that age.
James' flair for storytelling had gone right into the heart of the little girl and now bled out of her. The look on her face after she heard these words reminded him that this was true. And the way that she too copied his stance, suddenly sitting cross legged on the carpet, imagining the way that Mr. Hugsy would take center stage and tell all a tale.
He did exactly that.
But what crossed through Misty's mind and heart when she could not help but poke her head around the room as much as she tried to keep away was more than just a mere story. It was an inkling. It was a possibility, like the story was a seed that had been planted.
Misty knew that it would grow. Because she could not ignore that it was a time for a change.
She had never seen her daughter so bubbling with sunshine. So enthralled. In between Mr. Hugsy's story, she became as talkative as her dear old bear. She had heard Justin's words, you see. She and Ash had been putting her for far too long into a place that she did not belong. And because of that, all Katie could think about was where she did not fit in rather than where she did.
Katie slotted in right there perfectly. What a funny little group – the storytelling bear with eyeliner and the teenage boy and the little girl.
In time Justin would realize as he made it to the end of the game that it had already been completed once before, so Katie had wanted him around for a different reason instead. Katie had wanted him. His company.
How wonderful that felt when he too spent a lot of the time trying to fit into boxes that he had never meant to shrink himself into.
As Justin sat cross legged on the floor with Katie and her bear, he did not realize that he would become such a massive part of her own story one day. With all these little moments that he shared with her and so much mor
They were not so little after all. Like even the smallest of creatures could be mighty, even the littlest of days could change everything.
That day changed everything for Katie.
Mr. Hugsy's stitched lips must have surely twitched into a smile. He wanted nothing more than to see his favorite person soar. Even if she flew in the footsteps of Justin rather than him!
The End.
There you go, thanks so much for reading and I hope you enjoyed :3 I love writing the dynamic of teenage Justin and little Katie. Mr. Hugsy made a comeback too and I always find him fun to include. I was telling my mum the other day that Mr Hugsy is a mix of the penguin of the same name belonging to Joey in Friends, Anouk's invisible kangaroo friend, Pantoufle, in the Chocolat film from 2000 and a story that my dear friend once told me. As a little girl she too believed that her bear only spoke when her dad was around :3 I love that after this story takes place, Ash and Misty decide to pull Katie out of school and to homeschool her. Though it would take a very long time for her to be diagnosed with autism, this was the first mini glimpse of Katie forging the path meant for her. I like that Justin helped with that without even realising. And though it is not alluded to here, he is at the age where he begins realizing he is gay. He needed that Saturday as much as Katie :3 Thanks again for reading and I will be back again on the 23rd with a special update so see you then perhaps!
Amy signing out :)