Golden Autumn - Part Three
This episode is part of a larger story, Soft Touch. If you haven’t yet, you can go back and read it from the beginning right here. This episode contains mature content.
Luna, the saucepan, and Jumble watch me curiously as I restlessly stride around the living room.
A fine, dense autumn rain has been falling nonstop since this morning. By comparison it’s infinitely cozy in here, with the fireplace burning cheerfully against the rainy night outside. The lamplight mixes in and creates a rich, rosy golden glow. The light moves against the walls whenever the flames flutter, breathing with the wind that sweeps softly in through the half-open windows.
My fingers are colorfully stained from all the plants they’ve touched today, the green scent of the flower shop clinging to them. But I’ve already almost forgotten about work. I’ve barely been able to hold onto a clear thought since I woke up this morning.
All day, I’ve been like this. Every time I caught a glimpse of myself in a mirror, the reflection looking back startled me. My eyes are feverishly overbright, my cheeks retaining a blush so deep and consistent that Kent noticed, and misunderstood what it was. As a result I was forced to suffer through a lengthy, severe, and completely undeserved lecture about the dangers of forgetting to wear sunscreen while camping.
I tried to use Destinee’s arrival at the shop as a means of escape, by immediately showering her with attention and concern about Rasheem being sick. Asking a bunch of questions about his condition, offering to help out in any way that I can until he gets better, reminding her we’re all there for her.
Given that all Destinee had said when she came in was that Rasheem’s throat was slightly sore this morning, and his voice showing signs of maybe getting a little scrapey, this caused her some confusion. And the whole thing was all in vain, because Kent waited patiently until I’d drawn out that conversation as far as I could take it, then launched right back into his lecture.
“I don’t even have to remind Ellen to wear sunscreen, Jamie, and she’s a child, I have to remind her not to jump headfirst into the shallow end at the pool. Are you a child? No. I don’t hire children at my shop. So there’s no reason you shouldn’t be able to remember-”
And so on and so forth, but honestly - I didn’t care. Not today. I didn’t even really hear a word.
I’ve been lost in the restless electricity that keeps sweeping through me. Taking me over again and again, in spontaneous, overwhelming waves. My body has been itching and burning and prickling all over. Like invisible showers of sparks are cascading over me, or like I’ve been rolling around in fire. My face is so hot that I’d think I had a fever, if I didn’t know better.
I’m familiar with these symptoms by now, even if the staggering power they hold over me catches me off-guard every time. There’s a hungry ache in my chest that it’s difficult to breathe around. The source of all the other symptoms. There’s no way to cure it or make it stop, besides the one.
I’m writhing within my soul with wanting him. With fathomless, endless hunger for him. It’s unbearable.
I keep lapsing into wondering where exactly he is right now, imagining what he might be doing, so it’s impossible to focus on anything for too long. I’m getting things done right now without thinking, practically flying from one thing to the next.
I finish checking up on the houseplants by the door, then take a moment to quickly and carefully rearrange them, so that they’ll look beautiful when he comes in. All the fullest, most lush flowers turned towards the door. The entryway becomes a rich profusion of leaves and velvet-soft petals, delicate shoots peeking up from tiny glass propagation vases.
That done, I pick up the sofreh that Aunt Sarah gave us and spread it out over the coffee table. Today isn’t technically a special occasion, but I feel like we should do something special to celebrate how well Aiden did. Putting his magic up against the Witch and coming away victorious was no small feat. I want him to know just how much I realize that.
I take my time to smooth out the creases, skating my fingers very carefully over the intricately designed cloth. I place a vase with a thick cluster of goldenrods at the center of the table.
I step back to sweep my eyes over everything, then turn to face the mirror over the bookshelf. I reflexively push my fingers through my hair, trying to make it cooperate, but it’s hopelessly wind-ruffled from being outside earlier. There’s nothing I can do about the burning in my cheeks or the blazing look in my eyes, either. That’s just something that happens once I hit a certain point of wanting him.
I try to breathe cool air into my cheeks as I wrestle with a strand of my hair, then stop and freeze, catching a glimpse of something reflected in the mirror.
What…? It’s Aiden. I can see him through the window. He’s outside, standing alone in the front garden, one hand holding tight to the strap of his work bag across his chest. Gazing in through the lighted windows, seemingly oblivious to the cold, the wind, and the rain.
Watching me, with a dreamy smile lighting up his face.
I blush even deeper, wondering how long he’s been there. He’s gotten pretty wet from the rain, like he’s been standing right where he is for a while. What is he doing?
I can’t begin to guess, but the radiant smile in his blue eyes makes my heart melt like hot wax. He’s holding so perfectly still, as if he’s anxious not to break a spell. So still that I wouldn’t have seen him if there wasn’t a glow of soft golden light emanating from him. His eyes are wide, warm with wonder.
I catch those eyes in the mirror, then spread my hands at him inquiringly, letting out a soft laugh. He gives a jolt and hastily looks away, clearing his throat.
I race across the living room, throw the front door open, and lean outside into the darkness.
“What are you doing, babe?” I laugh, stretching my arms out for him. “I’ve been waiting forever for you!”
Aiden comes directly to me through the rain. His cheeks are glowing with a deep blush of embarrassment, but an irrepressible smile is still quirking up his lips.
“I don’t know,” he stammers, turning all shy. “Nothing. I was - I w-was just-”
He breaks off as I come bounding out into the rain and eagerly throw myself into his arms, unable to wait any longer. I kiss him with hungry impatience, savoring everything. The feeling of my fingers buried in his chestnut hair, the intimately familiar taste of his lips, the deep breaths of vetiver.
He smiles at me with such a sweet, startled expression when I draw back that I nearly forget what I was going to say. I only barely manage to seize hold of it before all thoughts can flee my head.
“You!” I draw back to furiously slap at his chest, glaring up at him. “You and me, we’re gonna fight!”
This finally draws Aiden out of his smiling, transfixed daze. His eyebrows snap up in surprise, his blue eyes blinking fast.
“Gonna fight? Are we? Oh. Okay, just give me a second to switch gears completely. I thought you were gonna say - something else.”
“Oh my god, shut up!” I manage unsteadily, exasperated at the way he can make me laugh even when I’m furious with him. No other man I’ve been with has been able to do that, so it always throws me off. “Look, don’t think you’ll get out of trouble by being handsome! Even if you are, to a - a point I think is almost kind of excessive of you! So there!”
Aiden grins widely, a pleased blush coloring up his cheeks. “You threw that at me like an insult, but it sure felt nice like a compliment.”
“I’m yelling at you, angrily,” I clarify, seizing two fistfuls of his shirt to emphasize the point. “Just in case that’s somehow not coming across!”
“You are?” Aiden’s expression grows very solemn, but the disarming, laughing twinkle in his blue eyes grows deeper at the same time. “Does that mean the fight started? We’re fighting now?”
“Callahan!” I laugh helplessly, pleadingly, struggling to stay angry with him.
“You gotta warn me next time, Keane,” he goes on, very seriously. “I didn’t change gears yet. I’m still all ready to kiss you. More and more, the angrier you try to get. S’always so adorable.”
“No it isn’t! It’s scary, and it’s intimidating!”
Aiden hastily disguises a laugh with a cough, then asks, a little unsteadily - “Would you mind at least telling me what we’re fighting about, scary one?”
“You know what!” I answer heatedly, tightening my grasp on his shirt. “You let me get all worked up yesterday, then you fell asleep on top of me for ages and kept me pinned down all night, and then you left for work this morning before I even woke up, without doing anything about it! You left me to - to - go crazy all day, and spend my shift like a fucking wreck, while you just had a normal day at work! All chill, all fine!”
A huff of deep laughter breaks from Aiden. “Oh, is that what you think happened?”
“I know that’s what-”
I break off as Aiden catches my chin between his thumb and knuckle, then tilts my face up to his, so that I’m looking right into his eyes.
I blink hard at him, taken aback to see the same wild, liquid fire blazing there.
“Believe me, I wanted to wake you up,” his deep voice purrs softly, making my fluttering heart leap up to my throat. “So you think sleeping on you has no effect on me, huh? Only on you? I thought I was the one subjecting myself to a day of torture, letting you sleep in.”
“What - but I - yesterday, right before you fell asleep, I-”
“Yeah, and it was perfect,” Aiden murmurs, folding his arms around my waist and drawing me up against him. “But it wasn’t enough.”
“You - you - f-for-”
I stop myself from traveling further down the road of that flustered, tangled-up sentence. I was about to tell him for you, when it’s us, it’s never enough. But he could turn that one right back around on me and be completely right, so.
I blush as I take in the intensity of the heat in his eyes, seeing very clearly that he’s not exaggerating about it having been a day of torturous waiting for him, too. He has that same blushing glow burning across his nose and cheeks that I can feel in mine. His fingers have slid up to the back of my neck, where they’re softly tracing the lines of my tattoo from memory.
His fingertips are cold from being out in the autumn night. His skin is gradually growing warm from touching mine. I can feel it happening with powerful clarity.
I slowly release the tight fistfuls of his shirt that I was gripping, gently spread my hands on his chest instead, and breathe out a baffled laugh.
“But if you were feeling the same way, why were you just standing out here?” I ask, gazing up into his eyes. “Why didn’t you come in right away?”
“I…” Aiden blushes, suddenly as shy and flustered as I am. He takes my jaw in his hand again, smoothing his thumb over my red stubble beard. “It’s - sometimes I just still can’t - it’s - hard to explain-”
He breaks off with a gasp as a gust of sharp, frosty wind sweeps over us. It blasts through our clothes and hair, shaking every leaf in the garden. Sending up an icy wail, howling through the peach trees beyond the garden walls. At the same moment, the drizzle swells into thick, heavy rain. Luna and the saucepan, who had just wandered over to the door to see what we’re doing out here, turn right around and bolt back inside.
Aiden and I both instinctively seize hold of each other and bow our heads against the wind, then catch each other’s eyes and let out a simultaneous, startled laugh. I grab his hand, and we run for the door, already completely drenched.
But the raindrops turn into steam that rises up from us like smoke when Aiden kisses me, kicking the door shut behind himself. His Heliomancer heat sends the chill out of my body better than a hot shower or cup of coffee ever could. I let out a blissful sigh against his parted lips, tangling my hands in his hair.
Aiden starts walking me backwards into the living room, kissing me eagerly. I pull back with difficulty, letting out a breathless laugh.
“Hey, Sugar Maple - your jacket, and your shoes!”
“Oh, right, yeah - sorry!”
Aiden flings his work bag onto the couch and rushes back to the door. He hangs up his soaked jacket, takes off one shoe, then stops to look at me, a little out of breath.
Without warning he strides up to me and pulls me into his arms. Presses me firmly to his warm, rain-dappled body. I go still in surprise for a moment, waiting to see what he’ll do.
He just goes on holding me tightly, and as good as that feels -
“Aiden!” I laugh, frenzied impatience swelling up within me as his body electrifies mine with desire. “You still have one shoe on! It’s preventing you from taking me upstairs!”
He loses the shoe with remarkable speed, without looking at it, then hurls it violently at the door like it personally wronged him. I fail to fight back a ripple of laughter, which makes Aiden start laughing breathlessly, too.
He glances down at the mug on the end table by the couch. “Aw, did you make tea for when I got home? That’s nice-”
“Forget the tea, dude!” I blurt out desperately.
“Okay,” he agrees, so immediately and readily that I dissolve into laughter again.
Smiling until the corners of his eyes crinkle up, Aiden sweeps me into his arms, lifting me until I instinctively wrap my legs around him. I drop my head to lick and nibble his neck as he swiftly takes me upstairs, sliding my hands up the back of his neck until I can tangle them in the glossy softness of his hair.
Everything around me besides him begins to melt away. I’m only distantly aware of the wind howling outside, a cozy sound when listened to from the warmth of his arms.
One arm, anyways. He only needs one to effortlessly hold me in place. His free hand is roving all over me, feeling my body through my clothes. His breathing is already picking up.
By the time he throws me down on our bed and climbs over me, that intoxicating heat is welling up in me, spreading out to spike my cheeks with a dark blush and make my breathing faster. I wind my arms around his neck as he eagerly starts undoing my belt, then the button of my jeans, then the zipper.
The soft zzzzip sound reaches my ears as Aiden brings his face down to mine, waiting for me to kiss him. Instead I stop with my lips posed very lightly against his.
“I missed you so much,” I sigh softly, into his mouth.
Aiden goes perfectly still. For a suspended moment he doesn’t answer at all, and a flutter of self-consciousness go through me. I’m half expecting him to point out that we were only apart for the length of one workday. Not a long time at all, decidedly not something I should be unused to by now.
Instead he slides his warm fingers beneath my boxers. Catching me unprepared, and I was already so turned on that I immediately let out a sharp, broken exhale into his mouth. A whimper falls from my lips as his hand begins to tease me, and his mouth finds the curve of my neck. The clicking of my undone belt buckle joins the muffled rush of the rain, the sound of our heightened breaths.
“I missed you so much, too,” Aiden’s deep voice whispers softly, as I begin to squirm and pant beneath him, grasping tight handfuls of his hair.
I let go only so that my trembling fingers can find the buttons of his dress shirt instead. I get through a few of them, then give up, seize two handfuls of the warm fabric and drag it up over his head. He sits up on his knees to pull it off, and I leap on the opportunity to undo his belt, his zipper. Licking my way down the smooth bronze of his lower stomach, lower and lower, my hands dragging his boxers down.
He groans and pushes a hand through my hair, cradling my head. He watches me, breathing harder and harder, until suddenly he draws me back by my hair. Before I can even catch my breath, he’s pushed me down, and he’s wrenching my jeans the rest of the way off.
The rest of our clothes come away piece by piece, until finally we’re naked. Aiden turns away to fling his work pants at the laundry basket, turns to face the bed again, and stops, panting.
His smoldering blue eyes - warm and dark from his pupils being so blown out - glitter with heat as he gazes down at me. I reach for him, and without a word, he climbs back onto the bed, climbs over me.
Balanced on his elbow, he catches my wrists. With one hand, he pins both of mine to the bedding above my head, letting my elbows fall open. He lets his other hand rove all over me, everywhere. Squeezing and rubbing and stroking me, making my head spin and my body shiver. His fingers stop for a moment on my lower stomach, then stop again lower than that.
I moan helplessly, arching towards his hand as he leans down again.
“So much,” he repeats, panting against my throat as his hand works lower.
I barely hear him. Warmed from the way he’s handling me, melting beneath his touch, I feel like I’m taking in huge gulps of some invisible aphrodisiac with every gasping breath. The heat and restlessness and wild hunger that had control of me all day - Aiden is working that into a raw frenzy, breaking down all the control I have over myself. He knows he is, too. That’s why he’s holding me down by my wrists to keep me in place. Because I’m twisting and jolting, increasingly frantic to have him.
I lose myself completely in the molten love-drunk haze, intoxicated, twitching and trembling with torture and pleasure all mingled together. Unaware to anything else in the world right now, even the breathless sounds spilling from my own lips, I let out a begging whimper and spread my thighs wide apart.
Aiden eagerly moves between them, panting with mounting desperation in my ear. Something hot and hard brushes the sensitive skin of my inner thigh, making me shudder with longing against the rumpled bedding. My chest is heaving, my fingers curling around the hand he’s using to pin my wrists down. I’m shuddering with sweet shocks of desire so intense it hurts.
Breathing with difficulty, my lips slightly parted, I gaze up at Aiden with blazing, expectant eyes.
Aiden gazes deep into them, then shivers, like looking alone put him in ecstasy. His dark lashes flutter closed as he sinks down between my thighs, a deep, stuttering groan breaking from his lips.
I catch my breath unsteadily, gasping and letting my head fall back. Aiden releases my wrists so he can stroke my hair, and I cling tightly to him, my fingertips digging into the supple muscles of his shoulders. I open my hazy eyes so I can watch his face. His expression in moments like this easily outdoes the heights of my sexiest daydreams.
His breath hitches when my eyes meet his. Something somewhere shatters.
I moan gratefully as his hip bones press against me, our tangled bodies finally fused all the way together. Aiden breathes out a heavy, shaky rush of breath, lowering his face to mine until our lips are brushing.
We linger there in a motionless trance, taking time to swim deep in the sensation of this. Aiden on top of me, me beneath him, united bodies tensed, trembling. Our mouths half-open, passing a soft, panted breath back and forth.
“Fuck,” Aiden suddenly moans, his breathless voice tight and taut and rasping.
Fragmented, broken gasps of my moaning voice tumble from my lips as Aiden begins to move, instantly throwing me deep into the possession of the white heat taking over my body. What few remaining, fuzzy thoughts were left in my head go up in smoke. Pleasure rocks me as he does, unimaginable pleasure, overwhelming. I almost can’t bear it, but even so, I arch myself towards him to get it, open my mouth and my thighs to receive it.
Aiden kisses me deeply and hungrily, inhaling my breaths, rocking me deeper into the bed, panting, muscles straining.
My head falls to the side. Through my hazy vision I caught sight of something glittering in the corner of my eye.
I open them more and find myself gazing at the mirror on the far wall. From this angle the reflection is mostly of Aiden, his powerful bronze body laying over mine, hiding all but my knees on either side of him, my arms wound around him, and my trembling hands grasping at his back.
What caught my attention was the glowing, electric snap of golden Heliomancer lightning licking up and down our caught-together bodies. What locks up my attention is the sight of Aiden on top of me, the heaving of his powerful shoulders, the way his graceful, supple muscles ripple beneath his velvet skin as he moves. I watch the way his body rocks mine, how it curves, rolls, arches, straightens out, jolts with pleasure shocks. One of his huge hands is buried in my hair, his own fair falling down over his face, his head bowed over me.
My rapt, spellbound eyes fill up with the sight. Watching him, feeling him, and hearing his short, stuttering moans, all at once - it’s too much for me to take. I let my eyes fall closed before Aiden can see them roll back with ecstasy.
My feet flex, my fingernails digging into his skin and my face screwing up as I struggle to hold on. The gasping moans escaping me now don’t even reach my ears over the sweet sounds from Aiden’s lips.
My eyes flutter open again, to look up at him with a burning, smitten expression overflowing in them. I find him drinking in the expression on my face, devouring me with his breath-stealing blue eyes. Watching me with the same kind of rapture as I was lost in watching him.
Our eyes meet, and lock together. I vividly feel the kick of pleasure it sends through Aiden’s body, and I see it on his face. He lets out a sharp hiss through his teeth, then a soft, breathless curse. His movements pick up speed and raw urgency and desperation.
My body tenses and tenses. I find myself fallen silent aside from choked-off gasps, rocked with climbing, all-consuming pleasure, falling deeper and deeper into a swirling, phosphorescent haze through which I’m only aware of me and Aiden, and feel that I’m arching my back, gasping -
And then it’s heaven, it’s everything. My vision whites out, and I convulse in ecstasy, clinging tight to Aiden. Pure fire races through my veins and rends my body.
Aiden leans down to kiss me, stifling my wild cries in his mouth. Giving me no time to return the kiss before he shudders, then suddenly throws his head back with a broken groan. He desperately rocks me back and forth once, twice, then three times before he buries himself completely between my thighs - forcing one last whimpering cry from me - and stays there.
A long moment passes in near-silence, filled only with our ragged breathing.
“Holy fuck,” Aiden pants, closing his eyes and dropping his forehead to mine, his chest heaving against my chest. “How in the hell can it always be s-so - how…? You - you…”
He trails off and turns his face towards the always-open branch window. Gasping in big breaths of the rainy breeze, he starts stammering out a stream of dazed, whispered curses. What a reversal of the usual situation, with me lost in stunned silence and him letting out a nonstop flow of words.
His bronze skin is glowing golden with happiness, shining up to the ceiling of our bedroom.
Through the sparkling daze, I instinctively move to tighten my arms around his back, and to tighten my thighs around him. Making sure that he can’t go anywhere.
~~~~
It’s surprising how long the glowing haze of ecstasy takes to let me have my conscious self back. By the time I drift back down to the real world and real thoughts begin to reform in my head, Aiden and I have moved around. I find him laying back on the bed, holding me nestled to his side. One of his long fingers is having a playdate with one of my red curls.
A deep shyness is gathering in his eyes and starting to show in the smile playing around his lips, which are swollen up from kisses. He looks so beautiful when he’s this happy, haloed in his golden glow. His eyes are shimmering like beautiful blue glass. I gaze deep into them with reverent, white-hot love in mine.
So it’s only when he abruptly stops speaking that I realize he was in the middle of saying something.
“What’d you say?” I murmur, finally finding my voice again. It’s still raspy with pleasure, rough around the edges. “Sorry, I didn’t hear you…”
“Shit, I don’t know.” Aiden lets out a shy laugh, blinking hard at me, a flamy blush spreading over his cheeks. “I was saying something, and then you looked at me like that, and now I - I don’t know. I forgot.”
“Oh, no!” I laugh breathlessly, hiding my face against his chest. “We both missed it!”
“Somehow, yeah.” A deep, soft huff of his laughter makes his chest rise and fall, and me with it. “Seems weird, because I’m the one who said it.”
“Listen, how can either of us be expected to remember anything right now? Except - I do remember hearing something break… oh, no, was it our tea mugs downstairs? If so it’s not my fault!” I lift my face to pout indignantly at Aiden. “You know, you didn’t warn me about sexual explosions being a permanent part of going out with you! I had no reason to expect that when I signed up to date you, Callahan!”
“Really?” Aiden smiles warmly at me. “I always knew those would always be part of it. Dreamed of ‘em well before we ever started going out, in fact.”
I let out a helpless laugh, struggling to keep a frown on my face. “That’s not what I meant! I meant the explosions that break our mugs and windows, and you know it, but okay.”
Aiden smiles radiantly, listening to my laughter, then abruptly catches my arm and pulls me forward until I’m balanced on my elbow over him.
“Forgive me?” he murmurs softly, pressing the tip of his nose to mine.
“For what?” I ask dreamily, stupidly.
Aiden raises his eyebrows, like that was a puzzling answer.
“I was informed we were having a fight,” he says gravely. “Apparently I committed some kind of crime leaving you here in that state this morning.”
“Oh, right.” I let out a weak laugh, then shake my head. “No, I’m never forgiving you for that.”
Those dark brows arch even higher as Aiden widens his eyes at me. “That? That’s where you’re drawing the line on stuff you’re willing to forgive me for?”
“Yes.”
“Wow. Okay.” Another soft huff of laughter breaks from Aiden, his playful grin fluttering my heart. He slips his arm around my waist, circles his fingertips around the dimples at the small of my back. “And that, what we just did? Was that all part of the fight? If so, I just gotta say that I love fighting you. Worlds apart from fighting anyone else, man, seriously. And you look so good when I fight you like that. I’m probably gonna have to fight you again tonight.”
I sit up with a sharp gasp of laughter, my eyes growing very large. “Dude!”
“Maybe fight you nice and slow on the couch. Or… you could fight me. That would be cool, too. I really liked the way you fought me last time.” His fingers softly stroke my inner thigh, dreamy memories dancing across his eyes. “You don’t forget being fought like that. Was the kind of fighting that stays in a man’s memory ‘til the day he dies.”
“Whoa - oh my god, Callahan!” I let out a sputter of flustered laughter, lifting my hands to my flaming cheeks. “Here I was getting accused of talking dirty just for bringing up megathrust earthquakes!”
Aiden grins brightly, catches me by my waist, and flips me onto my back. I let out a burst of startled laughter as he climbs over me.
“Mmm, yeah, say it again,” he purrs, putting his lips to my throat.
More laughter bubbles up within me, rising irrepressibly until it bursts from me.
“Aiden!” I laugh helplessly, overwhelmed with love for him.
Aiden suddenly lifts his head. A dazzled, spellbound smile falls over his face, his golden light brightening around him. He draws in a huge, shaky breath. With the exhale he lets out, the gravity shifts in our room. Everything becomes just a little lighter. Stuff on our night tables and the dresser and floor lift softly in Aiden’s glow. I feel myself rise an inch or two up from the bed beneath me.
I quickly tighten my grasp on Aiden, looking around in bewildered surprise. This happens sometimes when he’s happy, but I don’t know what prompted it this time.
“Wow,” Aiden sighs blissfully. He opens his beautiful blue eyes, smiles down at me with them like he’s gazing deep into heaven. “I heard that.”
It takes a second for me to understand. He means my laughter. He heard it in my note. I think that means - my soul laughed. I guess it sounded good to Aiden, based on the awed, shy way he’s suddenly gazing down at me.
The expression in his eyes undoes me completely. I’m blushing and stammering as I weakly try to explain.
“I’m - I’m happy.”
Aiden smiles down at me dreamily, speaking like he doesn’t realize he’s speaking. “I know. I love hearing you like this.”
I can’t find a word to say, but I’m spared from having to try. The wind howls against the windows again, rattling the panes. A sweep of cold air makes its way into our bedroom through the branch window.
Aiden and I both gasp. He instinctively seizes control of his magic again, and the gravity changes to drop the bed back onto the floor, then us back onto the bed. A blanket falls over us in a heap.
“Oh, god!” I gasp, shivering in the sudden cold. “Aiden-”
My words melt off into a relieved sigh as he sweeps the blanket over us and begins to pour off warmth from his bronze skin.
“Oh, yes,” I sigh happily, wrapping my arms around him, melting beneath him. “Feeling much more helpful now than you were this morning, huh?”
Aiden, smiling against my neck, lets out a scoff of disbelieving laughter. “Shut up, Keane.”
And then, once I fall silent - “You don’t actually have to shut up.”
“No, I know, I was just…”
I was thinking. That shut up, Keane, said with such loving warmth in his deep voice… it struck me how different it sounds, compared to the way he’d throw those same words at me in high school. I can hardly believe the same person could say that same thing in two such startlingly different ways.
The memory I’ve been thinking about lately rises up in my mind. I hesitate, not sure whether to say anything about this to Aiden.
But he lifts his head to look at me questioningly, and I know he’s going to notice if I quickly change the subject. He’ll definitely notice if I try to lie. I think the only option is the truth.
“So, I’ve been thinking a lot about how I, um - recognized you, in some way, when my memories weren’t working,” I explain reluctantly. “For some reason that got me thinking about other memories of you, and… I remembered something I’d totally forgotten about before. Now I’m wondering if you remember it, too.”
Aiden’s brow furrows, his blue eyes full of curiosity. “Okay?”
“There was this one night, when we were in high school-”
“Oh, fuck,” Aiden cuts in, instantly sitting up to stare down at me in dismay. “Not a high school memory…”
“Yeah, no, it’s okay.” I sit up, too, brushing a reassuring kiss onto his lips. “Let’s not talk about this. I seriously doubt you’d even remember, anyways.”
“Well - but-” Aiden nibbles his lip, then lets out a sigh. “No, it’s gonna drive me crazy wondering. What is it?”
“Oh, god. Okay… so there was this soccer game at school. A night game against Greenrock. You played. And then I ran into you in the locker room at the gym afterw-”
I break off in surprise as Aiden lets out a soft, pained sound like I just sank a knife into his ribs.
“No!” He flattens me to the bed, then hides his face against my neck, startling a laugh out of me as his rich beard tickles my skin. “For fuck’s sake, Jamie! Don’t talk about that night!”
I open my mouth to answer, but Aiden sits up and wrenches me into his arms before I can, crushing me up against him. I land straddling his lap, my hands automatically catching two handfuls of his hair. Kisses start raining down on my face faster than I can hope to return them.
“I’m sorry!” Aiden says, drawing back to look at me, anguish tearing at his voice. “I didn’t mean it, anything I said! Shit, and you were being so sweet, too… you’re just like your mom, you know that?”
“I - I - you-”
“And you looked so handsome. The way your eyes flash when you get really mad…” Aiden gently pinches my cheek, his blue eyes full of agonized regret. “So cute, even had the colors right here…”
“Seriously, you remember all that?” I stare at him in astonishment, blushing deeply as what he said sinks in. “We talked for like three minutes, at most!”
“No, I know, but-” Aiden breaks off, blushing again. “Hey, sounds like you remember it pretty clearly, too!”
“I just thought you must have forgotten by now.” I rest my elbows on his shoulders and stroke my fingers through his hair, his beard brushing gently against my arms. “It was so long ago…”
“I had forgotten about it, yeah, chiefly because I went home that night and got blackout with that very aim in mind-”
“Aw, Aiden, no!”
“-and I totally - totally didn’t cry about it while doing that, or do anything else extremely pathetic, so don’t worry about that-”
“Oh!” I blurt out in dismay, pressing my fingertips to my face.
“-but I actually did manage to forget. I didn’t remember until my birthday party last year.”
“Wait, what?” My eyebrows drop low in confusion. “Your birthday party, why?”
“Because I - I noticed you didn’t invite Ethan,” Aiden says, blushing nervously. “You invited the whole rest of the soccer team, so it got me wondering, and - all of a sudden I remembered everything.”
“What…?” I let out a sharp, startled laugh. “Noah did invite Ethan, he just doesn’t live in Ketterbridge anymore! He couldn’t make it, that’s all!”
“Oh.” Aiden hesitates, then adds, kind of casually, “I thought maybe it was ‘cause you felt like it might be awkward, if he’d kissed you in the gym that night.”
“No. I didn’t even handle the invites for your birthday party. Not for the soccer team guys, that is. That was all Noah.”
“Oh. Okay.” Aiden nibbles his lip, then blurts out in a rush - “Did he, though? Kiss you? After I left? Ethan?”
I let out a disbelieving laugh, widening my eyes at Aiden. “Why are you asking like you’re gonna go beat him up if I say yes?”
“No, I won’t,” Aiden answers, through gritted teeth. “I mean. You said he doesn’t live in town anymore, right?”
“Oh, my god. No, he didn’t kiss me. He asked me to hang out, and I said no. There, are you happy now?”
Based on the infinitely relieved smile that takes over Aiden’s face, he is. He must know it’s not even worth trying to hide it.
“Sorry. I know I have no right to be, but yeah.”
I let out an incredulous laugh, then stop when Aiden catches my jaw in his warm hand and makes me look into his eyes.
“Forgive me?” he asks softly, for the second time tonight.
But this time he asks so seriously that it throws me off. His loving eyes are clearly earnest as they linger on mine.
“For what?” I breathe, gazing into them.
Aiden blinks hard, then slowly shakes his head in disbelief. “That night at the gym? The things I said to you…?”
“Oh,” I answer dreamily, twining my fingertips into his hair. “Yeah, of course. I already forgave you for all that stuff.”
Aiden stares at me with wide eyes. “I - okay, let me get this straight. The thing this morning, that I’m not forgiven for, but the thing after the game, I am?”
“Yes.”
Aiden narrows his eyes at me like he’s struggling to understand, then lets out a helpless laugh. “I… don’t get how you-”
“Although those were very mean things you said to me. You - you dumb jock.”
This devastating insult makes a smile flicker over Aiden’s face. His muscled shoulders shake with silent laughter, his eyebrows arching up. But he tries to pull an indignant, threatening scowl into place.
“I’m gonna let that one slide, Keane,” he growls, leaning forward to press his forehead against mine. “Only because I was all ready to beg for forgiveness on my knees, and you didn’t make me do that.”
He catches the back of my neck, softly kisses my forehead, then climbs out of bed. I watch him adoringly as he pulls on a pair of sweatpants, tossing a strand of chestnut out of his eyes. My heart flutters, sore with happiness.
“I didn’t even bring it up because I wanted you to apologize,” I add, stretching out across the bed. “I actually overheard some of the conversation you were having with Mr. Karison before. Sounded like-”
I break off abruptly, blinking hard. Aiden just turned to face me again and crossed his powerful arms over his chest. To my eyes, with the memory already on my mind - he looks just like himself in the soccer team picture that was up on the screen before the game. Only now he’s all grown up and filled out. Now he’s got a warm smile playing around his mouth, making fine lines at the corners of his eyes. The beard is a new addition, too.
I swallow dryly, suddenly feeling shy beneath his beautiful blue gaze. Especially because of the way he’s looking at me. I’m still laying naked in the ravaged bed, my lips puffy from him biting them, my hair all messed up from his grasping hands.
Aiden is looking down at me with a certain satisfaction in his eyes, which are slowly roving over me like he’s working on memorizing every detail of this sight.
“Sounded like what?” comes the quiet murmur of his deep voice.
God, why is he so… okay, it’s cool, I’m fine.
“Sounded like-” I stammer, struggling to recover my thoughts, “Like Mr. Karison was telling you that you had options for after high school. Some of them sounded like pretty good options, too. Once in a lifetime kind of options.”
Aiden raises his eyes to meet mine, waiting for the question.
“I mean, you just - you just turned them all down?” I gaze up into his eyes, trying to read answers from them. “Mr. Karison was just asking you to think about them. You didn’t even want to, like… give them any kind of consideration? Weren’t you worried that you might regret-?”
I stop, because Aiden is already shaking his head no.
“Had bigger dreams than what Coach wanted for me,” he murmurs, then leans down to stamp a kiss onto my forehead. His fingers roughly, playfully ruffle up my hair as he draws back. “I only wish I hadn’t gone after them the wrong way.”
I gaze up at him curiously, unable to stop myself. The fact that he still hasn’t told me the ultimate intention of the journey he went on after high school hangs unspoken between us for a moment.
“I’m sorry,” Aiden says quietly, reaching down to thumb my lip. He pushes a hand through his hair, then quickly turns away to find a shirt. “It’s hard to explain. I just… I love you so much. You - you’d probably think I was crazy, if you really knew how much.”
“No, I don’t think so,” I answer softly, earnestly. “I would understand. I love you the same way.”
Aiden goes still, steals a very swift glance at me over his shoulder, then slowly turns to face me.
“You really think so, huh?” he asks. Half-playful, half-serious.
I sit up in the bed, meeting his gaze. I know without glancing at the mirror that my love is glowing hot and bright in my eyes.
Aiden gazes into them, then slowly drops his shirt back onto the chair and sits down on the bed beside me.
I was just starting to get chilly, so I move over to wind my arms around him, wrapping myself around him like a climbing vine.
Aiden hesitates, then murmurs - “Why were you thinking of that night in high school, again?”
“Because - I don’t know. I was doing some heart-searching. Thinking about how I felt about you when I had no memories. Got me thinking about how I’d always try talk to you, like it would ever do either of us any good.”
Aiden smiles softly, his blue eyes full of pained love. “Yeah, you always just kept coming back. You made it real hard for me to keep us apart, doing that.”
“Well, I’m not sorry for that!” I answer, more fiercely than I meant to.
Aiden breathes out a laugh, reaching down to stroke my thigh.
“No, don’t be. You didn’t do anything wrong.”
He falls silent, absorbing everything I said for a long moment. I don’t rush him, just breathe quietly in the comfortable silence. Almost silence, anyways. The rain is falling thick and dense outside, and the wailing wind makes something bang against something else somewhere. A few amber leaves twist past our window in a flurry, rising up and away on the wind. I let out a cozy sigh, resting my cheek against Aiden’s shoulder, then lift my head to press a kiss onto it.
“Did you hear the Fling Thing got pushed back?” he asks suddenly.
I’m a little confused at the abrupt change of subject, but I brighten immediately.
“Yes! We didn’t miss it, after all! We’re lucky that storm hit Ketterbridge and not just Port Sitka. But… now what do we do about Ralph and Noah?”
Aiden and I specifically picked the Fling Thing weekend for our camping trip because of Ralph and Noah. Meant we had to skip it, too, but we wanted to keep their minds off of it. Both of them are still banned for life from the event for their bullshit in years past. That was plainly the right choice at the time, but it sucks now. Pretty much everyone can go except for them.
“Yeah, about that,” Aiden says, trailing his fingertips over my arm. “At work today I asked Gabby if there’s any way we can get them unbanned. She pointed out to me that the Fling Thing isn’t put on by the government. It’s actually completely against the law, given that nobody gets permits for anything.”
“Oh.” I blink in surprise, startled by this piece of information. “Wait, really? The whole thing is illegal? But we get away with it every year. Gabby came last year, and she’s the City Manager!”
“Yeah, seems that no one wants to be responsible for bringing down the party, and most people in this town have fond memories of going themselves, so it’s just kinda… overlooked.”
“Oh, my god.” I suppress a laugh, grinning widely. “I don’t even think anyone realizes that.”
“I didn’t, but the good news is it means there’s not any official organizers. Everybody just shows up. So I think what probably happened is that a bunch of guys got pissed off enough that they threw Ralph and Noah at the road and told them they’re banned. But those were just, like - some guys.”
“Oh… hey, yeah, now that I think about it there’s no cops or security at the Fling Thing. Who’s going to stop Ralph and Noah if they show up?”
Aiden nods, squeezing my thigh playfully. “Exactly.”
“So we can all go, now that it’s been pushed back!” I realize brightly, smiling at Aiden in surprised delight. “Ralph and Noah can come!”
“Mhm.”
I pause for a moment to think about that. “Hm. Could mean trouble later.”
“Admittedly,” Aiden laughs.
“But the point is, we can all make it!”
“Right. And I guess ‘cause it’s already fall, instead of the last day of summer like usual, everyone decided to do a fall-themed Fling Thing this year.” He breathes out a laugh when I make a soft clucking sound of pleased approval. “Mhm, sounds like fun. So - should we say fuck it and go? Bring Ralph and Noah and everybody?”
“Oh, yes!” I sigh happily. “Sounds great.”
“Cool,” Aiden murmurs. “Been a while since I spent some time with my Tree, anyways.”
I smile to myself, secretly pleased to discover that Aiden already planned for us to visit his Tree at the end of the night. Just like we did last year, when I kissed him for the first time.
I think that memory just fluttered through my mind and his. We both realize at the same time that we’re just sitting there motionless, sharing an intimate smile.
I quickly clear my throat, and Aiden blushes, glancing away to look at the leaves whirling past the windows.
I wonder why the Fling Thing came into his mind right now. We weren’t talking about it. We were talking about his plans for after he left high school, and how he still hasn’t told me the full story about it.
I look up at him curiously, hopefully.
He gets out of bed and reaches for his shirt again, prompting a wail of protest from me.
He lets out a huff of laughter, glancing at me over his shoulder. “Don’t you want dinner at some point, Linden?”
“Yes, but - it’s cold and windy, and - just come back here and snuggle me for a minute.”
Aiden pauses, smiling down at me, then tosses his shirt aside again and sprawls out over me. Flattening me to the bed so completely that he forces the breath out of my lungs. I let out a startled laugh as I wrap my arms around him, then a grateful sigh as the heat of him overtakes the cold breeze from the window. I inhale deep breaths of vetiver, my cheeks aching with a deep blush.
“You know, you’re right,” I tell him.
“About what?”
“I think we should fight again.”
Aiden lifts his head, grinning widely as he lets out a startled laugh. “Oh, yeah?”
“Yeah. Let’s have a fightfest tonight. You and me.”
“Holy shit, Keane,” he laughs, his golden light growing even brighter around him as the blush in his cheeks grows darker. “Sounds way dirtier when you say it!”
I reach up to push my palms over his beard, grinning right back at him.
“What did you think, by the way?” he asks shyly.
“About what?”
“The game,” he says, all casual. “D’you see me score right at the beginning?”
My fingers stop their slow twirling through his hair. “What - you want my opinion on this now?”
“I wanted it back then, too,” he murmurs, his warm blue eyes lingering on mine hopefully. “Did you see me make the goal? I thought I spotted you in the crowd right after. Did it look good?”
I twist my mouth to the side, but can’t help the adoring, disbelieving laugh that breaks from me. “Yes, you dumb jock, it looked good, and you looked good. Extremely good. Much to my annoyance at the time. And maybe still now?”
Aiden beams down at me so brightly that I can’t help but laugh again. He must hear that one with his Guardian hearing, like before. His eyes flutter closed again, his smile deepening as he listens.
I remember those striking blue eyes turning out to the crowd as he ran across the field after scoring. Searching the bleachers. Looking for… me?
I love you so much. You’d think I was crazy, if you really knew how much.
No. I wouldn’t. I understand completely what it is, to love someone that much.
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