#aiello

***You mooks wanted it, and I decided I’d do it for the fandom- Character x Reader stories. I do this very reluctantly, with Aiello being my first victim. Aiello has been in love with his female best friend (that’s you) for years, and has an inkling she feels the same. In an emotional moment while at home between Kasserine and Europe, he takes a leap of faith with the girl of his dreams. Also you are catholic in this story for plot purposes. Don’t worry if you’re not, neither am I. The story just works better that way.***

They were walking together to the ice cream shop on the corner, the way they’d done since they were kids every Friday afternoon. With him getting his double scoop of coffee and her with her plain vanilla- something he always teased her for. Usually about her being boring, which to him she could never be.

This time felt different, however. It was the last time he’d see her again for a while, as he was being shipped off into the war effort yet again.

She was quieter than usual today, which usually meant something was on her mind. He always knew when something was going on with her, she was his best friend after all. Although he’d be lying if he said he didn’t wish they could be more.

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(Y/N)(L/N)- Frank Aiello’s best friend since they were seven years old in Catholic school. She’d fallen down on the playground and he, the gentleman he was, picked her up and took her to the nuns to get patched up. They’d been inseparable ever since.

As they grew up, they did everything together. From their Friday ice cream outings (she refused to let him call them dates) to her attending all his baseball games, to hot-wiring her father’s car in high school for a joyride.

It was sometime after she got her first boyfriend when they were sixteen that he noticed the first inklings of stronger emotions bubbling to the surface. Whenever she’d bring her beau around, he’d be filled with seething jealousy. Although he’d certainly never tell her that. He didn’t want to ruin his friendship with her, so he buried the feelings under baseball and drumming- places two and three on the list of things he liked most about life.

He could deny them no longer when they boy she’d been seeing dumped her for another girl. She’s gone to his house sobbing and, being the friend he was, he held her in his arms as she cried, trying his best not to cry himself. He’d always hated seeing her upset.

It was then he knew. He was so hopelessly and madly in love with the girl crying in his arms. So much so it took every ounce of willpower not to kiss her there and then. This wasn’t the time. He was selfishly glad that that chucklehead had screwed up this bad. Maybe now she’d realize that she should be with him instead of that jerk. Unfortunately for him, she never did seem to realize just how deep his feelings for her went. At least not then.

When he was shipped off to Kasserine, she’d written him a letter every week. Telling him the most random bits of her everyday life while he was gone. He always wrote her back- hoping, praying, that maybe absence would make the heart grow fonder, and that maybe she’d finally give him a chance to love her right.

Eventually, her letters started started to revolve more around his absence rather than her own life. How much she missed him, how she couldn’t wait for him to be home, how she missed their ice cream dates. His heart had skipped a beat on the last one. She called it a date. Could it be? Could she finally be starting to feel the same feelings he had been feeling for so long?

He was back home for a brief furlough. He was being shipped off again in a couple of days, either to the Pacific or to Europe. He’d decided to spend it with her, not knowing if he’d ever see her in the flesh again, or if their next meeting would be at heaven’s gates after she’d lived a long life with some other man. Frank hated that thought. He wanted to be the one she spent her life with.

The night prior he’d decided to talk to Nonna about it. Nonna always had good advice for everyone about every subject on God’s green earth, so he figured maybe she’d have some for him too. What did he do with the all the love he had for this girl? Did he let her go and let her be happy with some other guy? Or did he pour his heart out to her and risk ruining their friendship for good?

He said as much to Nonna, who in response whacked him upside the head with her stirring spoon.

“How did I end up with such a stupid boy for a grandson? Are you blind, Francis?” She had yelled at him, whipping her spoon wildly through the air and getting her homemade vodka sauce on everything. He cringed at her usage if his first name. He much preferred to go by Frank, or as (Y/N) called him, Frankie.

“No, Nonna. Just confused.” He responded rubbing his head. “And concussed,” he thought to himself. She didn’t need to hit him to get her point across.

“Frankie, if you haven’t noticed by now, then you’re hopeless! Have you seen the way she looks at you? Have you seen the way she smiles when she’s with you? The way she acts around you? That girl is in love with you and you’re too blind and stupid to see it!” She yelled at him, pointing at him with the spoon and dripping more sauce on the floor and her grandson.

“Nonna, she doesn’t think of me that way. That’s my problem,” he said leaning against the kitchen counter.

“Oh mio Dio! Aiuta questo povero, stupido ragazzo!” Nonna yelled before taking another swing at the man with the sauce-covered spoon. This time he managed to duck out of the way. Why did this crazy lady keep trying to hit him?

“Frankie, Saint Valentine himself couldn’t put together a better match for you than (y/n). Tell her, before it’s too late. Take a leap of faith, Francis. She may surprise you.” Was that all? That wouldn’t help him anymore than another whack with the spoon. “And take a bath before you go. You are covered in sauce.”

“Yeah. No thanks to you, Nonna,” he thought. Could she be right? Did he have a chance? Could she possibly feel the same way about him? He’d have to think about that while he washed the sauce out of his hair.

When he finally got out of the bath and returned to his room, he found that Nonna had left a small box along with a note on his pillow.

“Take the leap” was all the note said, and inside the box was her own engagement ring. The one his grandfather had given her nearly 60 years before. Was she serious? He couldn’t just propose to her out of the blue like this! He’d scare her off for sure. But if Nonna was sure….

He was taking her out on one of their ice cream dates tomorrow. May God and Saint Valentine help him. He was probably out of his mind for doing this. But if it went well, it would all be worth it.

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“What’s wrong, (n/n)?” He asked her, stopping abruptly in the middle of the sidewalk and turning to face her. She looked ready to burst into tears, from what he couldn’t imagine.

“Nothing. I’m fine,” came the abrupt reply. Yep. Something was wrong, and her response said she didn’t want to talk about it.

“I know you better than that. What’s wrong? You know can tell me anything,” he pressed, brushing a rogue lock of (h/c) hair away from her forehead.

“Just lay off, Frank! I’m fine! Just stop!” She yelled at him, batting his hands away. She’d never yelled at him like that before in all the years he’d known her. Not even when his mischievous schemes got them both into trouble. Something was eating at her.

“No you’re not,” he said, grabbing her by the hand and pulling her back in the direction of his house. “We’re not going anywhere until you tell me what on earth is going on.”

She remained quiet as he dragged her back down the block to his house. He turned to look at her before unlocking his front door. Were those tears in her (e/c) eyes? What could possibly be causing her this much emotional turmoil?

What if…? No. It couldn’t be. She’d been fine when he left for basic before Kasserine. She’d given him a hug and sent him on his way with a promise to write to him as often as she could. She hadn’t even shown up to the train station to say goodbye. But what if?

“What is wrong? Please! Tell me what’s wrong, (y/n)! You’re scaring me!” He told her, closing the door behind them and grabbing her by the shoulders. She looked around the room, looking anywhere but his eyes, her hands shoved into her coat pockets. She was beginning to break, a few tears slipping down her cheeks.

“Please. Just tell me what’s wrong. Please, (n/n). I can’t help you unless you tell me what’s wrong.” He could hear the tears in his own voice as he spoke. Damn it! If there was one person who could make him cry, it was (Y/N). She’d never done this. She always told him everything no matter how difficult it was. What was so wrong that she was refusing to tell him this? What if…?

He shook the thought out of his head. This wasn’t the time to be thinking of his own feelings. He pulled her over to the couch and sat down, pulling her down with him.

“Please, just talk to me, (n/n). You’re scaring me,” he told her again, pulling her head to his chest and wrapping his arms around her. It wasn’t lost on him that this was the same position they were in when he first realized how deep his feelings for her went. She was crying into his chest now, and he could feel a few of his own tears beginning to slip over. What if?

He couldn’t. Could he? Was it worth the risk? What was the harm? What if that’s what it’s all been leading to? What if? What if that’s what was bothering her? What if? What if this was the moment for that leap of faith Nonna had told him to take? He took a deep breath, trying to stop his own silent tears. Leap of faith…

“You know I love you, (y/n). I know you do. And I think you love me too. And I think you don’t want me to leave without knowing, but you’re too afraid to say it out loud.”

His feelings were out in the open now, and there was no taking it back. He stroked her hair, hoping and praying that she’d be receptive. If she wasn’t, he’d respect it. It would hurt, but he’d let her go if that’s what she wanted. This girl he knew everything about, he’d love to be the one by her side through all of life’s trials and celebrations.

He rested his head on hers, still softly crying. He rubbed circles on her back, each one speaking a silent ‘I love you.’ Was she holding onto him even tighter now? He held her closer to him, whispering his love into the top of her head, praying that it would sink in. That maybe she’d realize he meant every word. That maybe she’d share his feelings. That maybe they’d have a future together after this cruel war was over. Suddenly he heard her muffled voice in his arms:

“I love you, too.”

Finally. The words he had longed to hear for so many years had escaped her lips. He could cry from the joy he felt in this moment. He would do anything for this girl. He’d swim across the ocean if she wanted him to, she need only speak the word.

Should he? Did he dare? They loved each other already. And they already knew everything there was to know about the other. There was nothing that could be discovered in a courtship that he didn’t already know about her. Would she give him the answer he longed to hear? Leap of faith…

He pulled the ring box out of his pocket. He didn’t know how to ask her. He was risking everything with this one move.

“Wait for me,” he told her, presenting her with the jewelry. “Wait for me, and when I get home we’ll go to the priest and have him marry us. We can have a life together.”

His answer was given to him in the form of a passionate kiss. Fireworks went off in his head as the moment he’d imagined for so long played out better than in his daydreams.

His girl in his arms, a ring on her finger, a future full of promise to come home to. The one leap of faith had paid off.