Aiden Brady

Jay stilled when he heard the bed sheets shift, he relaxed again when Aiden spoke. “I woke you,” he sighed, feeling guilty. He slid his hand away from his face to look at Aiden in the dark. He could just make out a few details from the light coming through the window. Jay slid down the pillows to be level with Aiden, getting a few more details closer like this. “The party sort of died after a water fight. I was tired anyway.. am tired.” he closed his eyes, inhaling deeply as he melted against his pillow. His everything was going to ache tomorrow. Slowly his eyes opened against, finding Aiden’s beautiful face in the shadows.

Aiden was exhausted. He didn’t want to think about anything, even less when he was already starting to feel the bothers and pain or a bad hangover that would get even worse by sunlight. Yet, judging by the worry and just the tone of voice Jayden used with just two words, Aiden knew this couldn’t wait till morning like he had told him to do so, and well.. after a few seconds of consideration he agreed. He let out a sigh as his eyes fell shut again, just listening to what Jay had to say and he had to admit he’d never considered how different this was from... say the bonfire at the lake. Not that Jay left a hickey on an almost stranger, but he was almost sure that even when he would’ve felt that pull of pain and jealousy if he saw him around someone else, because that had happened since the very first time they met again, but he would’ve laughed at it. Something had changed, and it wasn’t the fact that they were being ‘exclusive’ but probably more about the words exchanged.

“Hmm… ‘ow on earth is this popcorn taking so long?” Lucette sighed, staring intently at the popcorn maker in the White Oak building’s cinema. “I thought that, ah, these were supposed to be fast…”

“I think you’re supposed to plug the thing first.”

“I just got my tattoo and I already want another one. How is this even a thing?” Sam sighed, looking down at the tattoo on his arm. He knew people would give him a look for it, but he loved it. “Just looking at it makes me want to get another. Look at it!”

“Why are people in this building so obsessed with cats?”

“Dang, jetlag can be a pain,” Bella said, drinking a cup of hot chocolate in the local cafe.  She was primarily mumbling to herself and hadn’t realised that someone had been near her.

“Having a roommate back can be an even worse pain,” Aiden joked. “Where did you even go?”

“I just had the most relaxing bath with candles and a bath bomb…oh, and music, can’t forget music.” Dakota said, taking a deep breath. “I feel so feminine I feel like I need to balance it out somehow, like by shooting a gun or wrestling a bear or something.”

“Shooting a gun would only make you badass, not less feminine, which could probably make me angry because I doubt I’d look half as badass. Now wrestling a bear... Sorry, but you look nothing like Leo, friend.”

Jay got home later, shaking from the cold water. Of course he got into another water fight. He stopped into the shower, using hot water to heat himself up and keep himself from getting sick. Just as he got out of the shower there was a knock at his door - the pizza. Jay managed to eat a slide standing in the kitchen in a towel. He put the box aside fr the morning and walked into the bedroom where he’s found Aiden. Jay put some briefs on and went to take care of the other. He carefully moved him to a more comfortable position, stripping off his shoes and pants. He tucked Aiden in, pressed a kiss to his forehead, and went in search for some pain killers. Jay put a glass of water on both side tables with pain killers for the morning. He turned the lights off and climbed into bed, the whole time thinking Aiden was asleep. 

Alcohol was never a good idea for Aiden. Not that he was a bad or even a sad drunk. He could usually take his liquor pretty well, except on August nights, but it seemed almost a habit now to drink himself to sleep every August 27th by now. It was the only way he’d found to clear his head and get some sleep during that day, so he’d never really fought it. He’d fallen asleep instantly as his head hit the pillow and he knew nothing about life but the darkness inside his eyelids until a noise shook him awake. It took him a few minutes for him to realise where he was and what was happening, still out of himself due to the amount of alcohol in his bloodstream, but he had sobered up enough to speak. 

“I thought it was a bit desperate.” Lana shrugged without shame.

“I thought people found it hot.”

“Maybe. I’d miss annoying the hell out of your face. You do this frowny pouty thing... It kind of gives me life, to be honest.”

“You… you are making me cry Aiden,” he blurted out, blinking back tears as he was introduced to Aiden’s mother properly. He nosed the male’s cheek, laughing softly as Aiden noticed his nails. “Well yes it is, I wore all pink in the race. Must have missed that nail in the rush to get here to you.” Jay wanted to pull Aiden closer, so much closer. He wanted to hold him tight and help him through today so that tomorrow he was a little stronger, and could face the world with his head help high. Aiden took so much on by himself because of the distance he had with his family. Jay wondered what Aiden was like as a child, so innocent to the horrors of the world. He wished he could have sat down with Aiden’s mother one day to find out, and it saddened him that he never would.

Aiden could feel his heartbeat on his throat as Jay mentioned the test. Part of him was glad he’d taken it the right way, as an offer for peace and not just as a display of his pride and whims, or wanting to show him something other than his commitment to him. It helped that Jay knew about the August curse he went through every year, but still he wanted to do more. He wanted to say sorry and explain himself, his bad behaviour, but then it got him thinking about how much he knew... Had he seen the little letters in the very bottom? Aiden opened his mouth to say something, but Jay beat him to give him an answer. Of course he knew. The little bottle felt heavy in his pocket, but even then, Aiden made an effort to ignore it, ignore everything that wasn’t Jay and his sweetness, his words, his touch, his heat, his arms around him doing what no one else had done before, treat his wounds instead of just trying to patch him up. “I think... I think we have a lot of stories to tell our kids years from now, I mean.. painting my face red?” He said, chuckling through his tears, as usual trying to get out of serious conversations. “You are not just the life line, Jay. You are my whole life,” he managed to say, toying with the male’s fingers in his own, blushing, too bashful to look at him, saying words that seemed odd in his vocabulary. 

The story was so innocent, and so full of love, it brought tears to Jay’s eyes. He blinked them back. Aiden had been blessed with a mother who had never ending love for her little boy. He had gone through years with her, but not a lifetime. Jay had been born to negligent alcoholics who abused the fact they had kids yet never took responsibility for them. Jay didn’t know what state his parents were in, didn’t know if they were sober, but he seethed to think they lived whilst Aiden’s mother laid under his feet. “I love that… I wow. That is so beautiful,” he said, running his fingers through Aiden’s hair. He looked at the tomb stone, his eyes, though glistening with tears yet to spill, looked on in awe. “One day you can tell our kids that… or maybe they’ll have blue eyes and you can tell them they have the ocean, so much yet to be discovered… or green .. so full of life like the trees. Or all three, for each of our children,” he said. Jay was hoping to give Aiden a good image to focus on. Maybe it wont come true, maybe they’d do something different in their future than their silly fantasizes they mumble in the middle of the night. But still, there was hope there. Jay let a little time pass, holding Aiden close to him and listening to the sounds around him. The wind was tunneling around different crypts and graves, making a little whistling noise. There were birds not far away, and he could smell the newly mowed lawn. His eyes focused on the stone with Aiden’s mother’s name carved into it. The stone was beautiful, the craftsman ship was of high quality. 

Aiden felt a little bit more comfortable now that Jay was mentioning conversations they’d had in the middle of the night. Their future together, that no matter how impossible it might seem at the moment, Aiden would defend till his very last breath. He smiled through his tears and pressed himself closer against him, needing him even more. He thanked the silence, however. He remembered six years ago, on his mother’s funeral, everyone trying to say kind words to him and Scarlett, and he vividly remembered making even more harm than taking the pain away as they intended. They didn’t know her, they didn’t know what had happened, that the man who’d sent personalised invitations to a goddamned funeral was the one behind it. Who knows, maybe he’d even started organising the whole thing with months in advance, Aiden recalled thinking. His father was the one and only person he had left in his family, so he’d eventually decided to ignore his grudges, but had never gotten over it. Aiden felt his own rage arise once again, but all he had to do was remind himself of who he was leaning against and it was a matter of seconds before he felt like could breathe again. 

Jay tensed up as Aiden reacted to his arrival. He hadn’t meant to scare the other. For a moment he worried if he’d done the wrong thing. He didn’t ask Aiden if this was okay, because they weren’t talking. He’d never crossed this invisible line that separated Jay and his mother. Slow his hand rubbed at Aiden’s shoulder, hoping to ease the other. He gasped as the other looked up at him. It always shook him up when Aiden broke, no one would ever welcome such hurt on the male’s face. Jay wanted to take Aiden home and wrap him up in a roll of bubble wrap so nothing could hurt him. 

Aiden could barely make sense of what Jay was saying, but some part of his brain could and it was even more terrifying. Yes, he was there with him like he had always been. Yes, he’d just said he’d loved him back but after that nasty fight they’d just had days ago, it was obvious that it wasn’t hard to push him away from his side, right where he needed him to be and Aiden wasn’t that far from doing it. He wanted to blame it on August, on this day precisely, his behaviour, why he’d denied to talk to his father about Jay, but he was terrified. In the past few days, though, Aiden had been confused about what was more terrifying, losing his father, who’d barely been there for him through his life or losing Jayden, who kissed his cheeks covered in tears, who held him against his chest even after being so... well, him. 

Me. You love me and I’m not taking no for an answer.

I endure you. Don’t mix things up. There’s not much space in my heart to love that many people.

“Have you never heard that phrase?”

“I have. I’m just wondering why you choose to say it?”