It's not praise kink 2.0 fic but it is aftercare and I hope you like it ya big pain in my ass [and that it makes you smile a bit]. Also yes, I absolutely lied to you about who I got for this shindig xoxo

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When he’s at least somewhat coherent the first thing that manages to penetrate the fog he’s been floating contently in for the last few minutes is that one of Aaron’s hands - calloused from his years at the scrapyard - is gently working the knot loose at his wrists while the other is massaging his left shoulder. He can tell Aaron’s saying something but he can’t quite manage to focus enough to make it out, the other man's voice sounding like a muffled whisper from a room far away rather then just at his back....

#38 - “Take my hand.” “Why?” “I’m trying to ask you to marry me, so take my damn hand!”

Being in love with Aaron Dingle was equal parts the greatest aspect of Robert’s life, and the most frustrating. Loving someone as stubborn as Aaron came with it’s challenges - mostly his refusal to back down.

They were on holidays - their first proper holiday in ages, because life hadn’t been easy the past few years, and they hadn’t had the money for more than a day trip to Blackpool, but they were finally on a proper holiday now, ten days in a posh hotel in Greece.

Robert had planned their day down to the minute. They’d started their day with a lazy morning in bed, and a very late breakfast (or early lunch, depending on how you looked at it) and a few hours at the pool before Robert had convinced Aaron to go on a walk in the city.

There was a viewpoint, Robert had googled - one where you could see the entirety of Santorini, all the cliche blue roofs and white buildings - and it was only an hours walk from their hotel. It was going to be the perfect place to propose.

An hours walk if you didn’t get lost, more like.

So now Aaron was in a foul mood, and Robert’s plan was ruined.

The thing was - well, the thing was, Aaron was the best thing that had ever happened to Robert. He couldn’t oversell just how much he loved Aaron, how much better Aaron made his life (even if he was prone to throwing a fit every now and then), and he wanted this to be perfect.

Robert was only going to do this once.

Sighing, Robert started to jog to catch up to Aaron, his boyfriend stubbornly walking ahead on his own, his hands shoved deep in his pockets. On a normal day, he’d have stopped to admire the view, walking behind Aaron always a treat, Robert always the first to admire the spread of his shoulders, the curve of his arse.

He couldn’t even admire that, today.

“Aaron,” Robert huffed out a breath, falling into step beside his boyfriend. “I didn’t mean for us to get lost.”

“It’s the hottest day of the year here, apparently,” Aaron said, his gaze fixed on the horizon ahead of them. He was wearing a pair of Robert’s sunglasses, the frames perched on the bridge of his nose, a bead of sweat rolling down his forehead.

“Aaron.”

“It’d be nice to be by the pool,” Aaron continued, scuffing his new sneakers along the pavement, making Robert cringe as he ruined the once pristine white material. He was in a full blown mood now, and Robert wasn’t entirely sure if he could back-peddle enough to fix it - Aaron was famed for his huffs.

“Aaron, will you wait up a second?” Robert pleaded, tugging on Aaron’s elbow, forcing his boyfriend to stop, the two of them in some random back alley of the old town of Santorini, a child screaming down the ice-cream shop two days up.

Aaron folded his arms across his chest, giving Robert a withering look. “Has google maps started working again?”

“Could you stop being a mardy bastard for two minutes?” Robert couldn’t help but snap, Aaron’s mood rubbing him up the wrong way. They were a bad combination, sometimes. “I was trying to do something nice! It’s hardly my fault I got a bit lost, i’s not like I’ve ever been here before.”

Aaron stayed silent.

“It’s been really hard for us, the past few years - between me losing my job, and us moving in with your mam,” Robert continued, rocking on his heels slightly. “That’s why we’ve come on this holiday, isn’t it? To make up for all that.”

“I know why we’re here, Robert,” Aaron sighed, arms still folded across his chest. “I just don’t see why we couldn’t have stayed at the hotel, or gone to the beach. I’m hot, and I’m hungry, and you’re really pissing me off right now.”

“You’re really pissing me off right now,” Robert retorted, rooting in his pocket. “Give me your hand.”

“What? No, what are you doing?”

“Give me your hand!” Robert repeated, getting increasingly more annoyed at Aaron refusing to cooperate with him. He’d planned this epic sunset proposal, one they would remember forever, and now they were lost down a tiny alley, with a stray cat watching them and the dulcet tones of a child crying in the background.

It was hardly the stuff of romance novels.

“Aaron, take my hand.” Robert demanded, holding out his hand.

“Why?”

“Because I’m trying to ask you to marry me, so take my damn hand!” Robert half shouted, waving a ring box at Aaron. “You drive me absolutely mental, you know that? I planned this perfect proposal at sunset, with this great view, and we got lost, and now you’re in a shitty mood, and I just want to ask you to marry me, you idiot.”

Aaron’s stony expression began to cry, a smile appearing on his face. “I hope you had a better speech than that planned,” he joked, his nose crinkling up as he laughed. That was one of the things Robert loved most about Aaron, the way his face betrayed his every emotion, good or bad.

Aaron wore his heart on his sleeve, and it had made Robert become more open, over the years.

“I did,” Robert reassured, sliding his fingers between Aaron’s. “You’re the best thing that’s ever happened to me, you know. We’ve never had it easy, you and me, but love me through it all, you know? You loved me when I had a big fancy job in Manchester, and you loved me when I was washing dishes in your mums pub. You’ve never cared about all the things I thought were important, you just - you make me realise theres so much more to life, and I want to spend that life with you, Aaron.”

Aaron was chewing on the side of his mouth, a nervous habit that had drawn Robert to him, all those years ago, twenty four and with the ego the size of England, chatting up a snarky nineteen year old in Bar West, and taking him home a matter of hours later - and falling in love, despite his best efforts not to.

Aaron had always been inevitable.

“Will you marry me, Aaron?” Robert said, opening the ring box to show two simple, platinum rings - rings he’d saved pennies for, over the past year, rings that weren’t half as flashy as the ones Robert would have dreamed of, once upon a time, but rings that meant so much more than he could ever have imagined.

“Yes,” Aaron nodded, a grin about half a mile wide on his face as he embraced Robert. “Yes, Robert, I will.”

Being in love with Aaron Dingle was frustrating. It was frustrating because Robert hadn’t planned to ask the love of his life to marry him in a back-alley with a stray cat for company, but that’s how life went, sometimes.

its because danny and ryan are in love

how can they b dead if they were never alive to begin with ��

‘another shitty day in paradise’ is gonna be my first tattoo its so iconic