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“I can’t do this anymore!”
His angry words stopped you mid sentence.
Your eyes grew wide and it felt like all of the air inside you had escaped.
I Can't. Do. This. Anymore.
The five words echoed around in the now empty space that was your head.
What had started out as a simple, really, really petty argument about how you arranged the dishes in the dishwasher tumbled into an hour long argument about how often he was gone to how messy you were to how checked out he seemed to how busy you had been to all of the many little things that had been bothering the two of you.
A minute had passed. He was staring at you with the same dumbfounded expression you could bet was on your face.
Suddenly all you could feel was the pain and the fear and the realization that your ‘perfect’ relationship wasn’t all that perfect and that it was most definitely coming to an end, and of course you had finally driven away the one good thing that you’d had and he was going to leave you and you would never feel him hug you again, and was that little peck you gave him on his cheek just a second before you started doing those darn dishes really the last time you two would kiss? And was the emperor’s new groove seriously the last movie you would watch together? And would really never feel the softest of his shirts or that hoodie you had stolen from him ever again and was that the last time you’d ever hear him laugh because of you; for you? And-
“Breathe. Sweetheart, just breathe” you don’t know how you got here but you’re on the kitchen floor, bundled into his lap, clutching his shirt and sobbing your eyes out, stuck in your thoughts and his words and oh his words, he was about to leav-
You could feel his voice before you could hear it, but his tears pressed into your skin is what finally snapped you out.
“I’m sorry,” he whispers.
“Please stay,” you whisper back between your slowing sobs, eyes scrunched up, too scared to look at him, your chest aching from the lack of air.
“Oh sweetheart. I love you.” His arms brace you tighter, and you are huddled closer into him, which you didn’t know was possible, trying to show you with his whole self how much he needed you close to him.
“I could never leave you,” he whispers into your body, “I love you,” he repeats, pressing kisses into your skin.
Your breathing slows down, and you slowly open your eyes and tilt your head to look at him. Your arms reach around his neck and you hold him tightly as you start whispering back your apologies. Aaron slowly gets up and carries you to your room, the mess of the dishes left to deal with the next morning.
You’re perched on your dressing table, your face now scrunched into his chest, the realization of just how quickly things had derailed striking you again.
“I’m sorry I’m so messy,” you whisper, knowing that it wasn’t the root cause of your fight, but certainly one of the things you hated about yourself. Aaron’s heart lurched in his chest. He hated how much he had hurt you and how small you looked in your frame.
“You’re not messy, sweetheart; you’re just full of life,” he kissed your forehead, then pulled your chin up, meeting your eyes with what he hoped was a teasing smile.
“Don’t patronize me, Aaron whatever-your-middle-name-is Hotchner!”
“Oh, I’ll admit, maybe if you weren’t so full of life you’d actually remember my middle name,” he chuckled, his smile widening as you closed your eyes and groaned in embarrassment.
“Well I do have to make up for how boring the rest of your life is, Mr. The-Dishes-Have-Their-Own-Place-In-The-Washing-Machine!” you grumble out, meeting his eyes again, trying (and failing) not to giggle as he resists the urge to correct you.
“You know that I love you, right?” his face becomes serious again. You nod, trying not to cry all over again.
“I didn’t mean any of what I said,” he continues. “No matter how much we fight, or how much we annoy or disappoint each other, even on our worst days, I will always want to be with you and do this with you.”
Snuggling yourself into him, you respond without words how much you love him, as he carries you into bed, and you hold each other tighter than ever while you drift to sleep, more certain than ever that everything would be okay as long as you were together.