Work Text:
Aelin was having a horrible day.
Actually, horrible might be an understatement.
The day started bright and beautiful, without a single cloud in sight, and so she decided she’d walk down to the local cafe to get some breakfast before heading into the subway for work.
It seemed like a great idea until some idiot almost ran over her with his bike, and she spilled her coffee all over the sidewalk.
Alright, that was still fine, she could deal. Sure she’d be half asleep, but she still had her apple turnover. That was enough sugar to get her through at least the first half of the day.
Except that once she got to work, she was so busy running around dealing with random stuff at work that she wasn’t even supposed to be dealing with. She was an editor for god’s sake, not an intern running around making copies and calling printer companies! It was not part of her job description, and it was not something she wanted to spend her time doing instead of the work she actually loved.
Finally, once she got around to going back to her desk to enjoy her wonderful, sweet, decadent apple turnover, Aelin was incredibly frustrated to realize that someone had picked it off her desk.
And ate it.
Aelin collapsed into her chair, absolutely exhausted, and now she didn’t even get to eat any part of her breakfast.
But that was still fine. It was okay. She still had lunch in half an hour, and she could deal with the rest of the work day.
Not a problem.
Unfortunately, it was a problem just being able to sit down and eat. Why was it so hard to get some food into her? Apparently the people she worked with just had no courtesy or decency to let her do her job in peace. Once Aelin was finally able to sit down and do her actual work, fifteen minutes later she was being pestered by her boss about edits she had done two months ago. And then it was about giving her more work. Followed by some more urgent work. Then it was asking her to do some work that needed to be done for someone else who was on vacation.
Aelin was desperately starting to feel like she needed to quit this job considering how overworked she was, but she also needed the job, needed to pay for her apartment, her bills, her student loans.
She knew she needed all those things, but what she wanted was her best friend to tell her she’d be okay. Aelin wanted Rowan to hug her and tell her that she’d be fine, that he’d have her back no matter what, and that she’d get through this job long enough for her to find a new, better one.
Chewing on her lip in the rare moment she’d had to herself in the entire day, she decided to pick up her phone and text Rowan. He didn’t need to know that she was having a shitty day and felt worthless. His presence itself would make her feel better.
Hey, can I come over for dinner?
His response came within a minute.
Sure. I’ll see you after work?
His casual response, just knowing that she’d want to come over right after work, made Aelin’s heart swell.
The rest of the day passed by with Aelin just desperately wanting to see Rowan’s face just for something good on this trashy day.
At exactly 4:43PM, she knocked on his apartment door, and it swung open to reveal Rowan’s bright smiling face. His hair was mussled as though he had run his hand through it several times, and he had his fancy apron on. Just looking at his face was as though she’d seen a ray of sunshine after a dark and rainy day. The wafting smell of chocolate hit her soon afterwards, and tears sprang to her eyes.
“Oh my god, what happened,” he asked, his smile dropping for a look of concern as he reached out for her. He pulled her into a warm hug and closed the door behind her.
“I love you so, so much,” she sobbed out into his chest, and in that moment, she knew she meant it. She loved Rowan.
“And I love you, Aelin, but do you want to tell me what happened?”
“I’m serious, Rowan,” she responded, still burying her face into his chest, “I’ve had the shittiest day ever, and I just looked at you and everything bad disappeared. You even made me chocolate cake, and you know me better than I know myself. You’re too good for me, and I love you. Like romantically.”
Rowan huffed out a laugh, and she slowly pulled away to see why he was laughing at her, but he was only looking down at her with a bright smile and the fondest look on his face.
“Do you know how long I’ve been waiting for you to say it and mean it?”
“Um,” she sniffled, wiping tears off her cheeks, “two seconds?”
“More like two years.”
“Oh my god, why didn’t you say anything?!”
“Because I’m pretty sure you just realized it two seconds ago, and that’s okay.”