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Aaron’s suspicions began when he walked into their bedroom after showering and Robert stood there, hands behind his back, obviously hiding something.
He cocked one eyebrow at the older man and said, “You know you aren’t doing a good job, hiding whatever it is you’re hiding.” He paused, tried to look behind Robert’s back, but he was making sure to cover it up completely.
With only a towel wrapped around his waist, Aaron walked towards the wardrobe where he picked out his clothes. He glanced over at Robert, who had strategically moved along with him. Aaron faced him after dressing and asked, “What are you hiding exactly?”
“Nothing.” Robert replied instantly, raising Aaron’s interest.
Aaron hummed and then proceeded to make quick feints to throw Robert off. The blond yelped as he could hardly follow along with Aaron’s rapid manoeuvres from left to right, until he eventually pressed himself against the wall to keep the thing hidden from Aaron’s view.
With two hands bracketing Robert, the older would have no means to escape. Aaron pecked him softly and motioned down, “Still nothing?”
Robert accusingly glared at him and wrapped his hands tighter around the thing. Not willing to give up protecting it from Aaron’s curiosity. He was not going to ruin his surprise.
Aaron rolled his eyes and backed off. He walked to the door and grinned wickedly at Robert, “Make sure to hide it somewhere good, because I’m going to start searching later.”
He heard Robert cuss behind him as he closed the door. He shook his head and snickered on the way down. His mum stood in the kitchen with a cup of tea in his hands, she looked amusedly curious. “What has gotten you in a good mood so early in the morning?”
“Robert’s hiding something.” Only after he said it, he realized that it could’ve sounded a bit weird. His mum gave him a look. “Not like that, mum.” He said and could hardly contain his grin, “Robert’s bought something and I caught him hiding whatever it was behind his back.”
Chas’ smile was wide when she asked expectantly, “Do you know what it is?”
Aaron sat down at the kitchen table and tapped his fingers on the table top, “No, I don’t. He wouldn’t tell me.” He clicked his tongue before glancing over at his mum sheepishly, “Could you maybe… try to find out what it is?”
Chas resisted laughing at her son’s inability to handle surprises and nodded, “I’m not making any promises though, love.”
It was a few days later when Aaron was home earlier than Robert for a change that he made his move. He searched their entire bedroom but there was nothing suspiciously hidden under the bed or in the cupboards.
He groaned as he lifted their pillows for the untempt time and there was still nothing hidden under them. A cough made him look up in shock, pillows still clutched in his arms.
Luckily it was his mum and not Robert who found him snooping around. “I was just going to ask whether you wanted to wait until Robert returned, to eat.” She questioned and stifled a grin when she saw him trying to subtly lower the pillows without causing her to notice, but he was already too late.
Aaron fluffed up the pillows and absentmindedly answered, “I’ll wait for him.” He placed the pillows down with a bit more force and anger than necessary.
“Looking for something, son?” She teased and Aaron almost pouted in response.
He complained, “Robert knows I don’t like when he’s hiding something.”
“Oh, but he really just wants it to be a lovely surprise.” She reasoned and that told Aaron enough.
He frowned accusingly, “You know what it is, don’t ya? And he’s gotten you full on board not to tell me, no doubt.”
“He made me promise to keep it a secret and Aaron, it’s a really thoughtful wedding gift so let him hide it until then.” Chas argued, but Aaron had frozen in shock. His eyes widened like saucers.
“Wedding gift? Mum!” Chas saw that moment as a good time to flee back down to the kitchen. Aaron was hot on her heels.
He rounded the staircase right at the moment Robert walked in with the words, “Meeting was postponed.”
He got no ‘happy to see you’ or a welcome home kiss, instead Aaron was glowering at him. “What have I done now?” He decided to just ask instead of letting Aaron seethe any longer, that usually only made it worse.
“You bought a wedding gift, while we agreed not to do the whole gift exchange thing” Aaron hissed, heated gaze set on Robert.
Robert’s eyes landed on Chas who had stood frozen in the doorway to the backroom. She apologized soundlessly and Robert whined, “You promised not to tell him.”
She tried to reason with him, “I haven’t told him what it is. I wouldn’t do that.” She walked in the backroom, giving them space to argue in relative privacy – the walls definitely weren’t soundproof.
Aaron crossed his arms defensively and shied away when Robert leaned in for a kiss. “No. I told you I didn’t want a wedding gift, and you still went out and bought me something.”
“It’s nothing big, so don’t worry about it.” Robert replied, trying to soften Aaron up so he could wrap his arms around the younger without him constantly trying to push him off.
Aaron pretended to still be angry with Robert, but his feeling were transparent for Robert. He could see that Aaron wasn’t frustrated with the gift itself, but with the fact that he didn’t know what is was. He was madly curious. “Then tell me what it is.”
Robert finally succeeded in hugging Aaron and he squeezed the breath out of him. “It wouldn’t be a surprise if I told you, now would it?” He pecked Aaron’s nose gently, the brunette scrunched it up in response. The soft touch itched.
“Can you at least tell me where you hid it?” Aaron groaned, too stubborn to plead for it, but Robert saw the meek plea in his eyes.
He smirked in response, “Charity’s knickers drawer.” Aaron slapped Robert’s chest, cringing in disgust. Robert chuckled and pinched his cheek slightly.
“That’s not funny, Rob.” Aaron swatted Robert’s hand away but couldn’t keep a smile off of his face.
Robert’s eyes crinkled amused, “Oh, I think it’s hilarious. I’ll tell you one thing though, you don’t need to worry about the money. It cost me about 20 quid.”
Aaron pondered for a second before a memory made him laugh, “It’s not shower gel, is it? Because I was kinda figuring you liked mine just the way it is.”
“I love the way you smell, Aaron. If that’s what you were getting at.” Robert leaned closer, nuzzled Aaron’s neck and inhaled deeply. Aaron let out a surprised gasp as Robert nipped his sensitive skin. “I’m addicted to you.”
Unfortunately Aaron’s stomach demanded food, putting a stop to their verbal foreplay. Robert chuckled as they walked into the kitchen, finding their food laid out for them.
Robert sat down in his seat and joked, “Sometimes I’m worried your mum may have slipped some poison in my food.”
“Stop saying shit and eat, Rob. My mum likes you more these days.” Aaron said amusedly, shaking his head at Robert’s foolishness.
The blond fake gasped, “So you’re saying she maybe tried to poison me before?”
“Maybe.” Aaron smirked. “Maybe not. Let’s eat.”
Weeks passed and the big day neared. Aaron was getting more antsy, in a good way. Robert tried to keep his emotions in check, but some days he needed to just hold Aaron, breathe him in and kiss him until he didn’t even remember his own name anymore.
Aaron hadn’t forgotten about his wedding gift. So far he had searched their bedroom thrice, bribed Robert with sex, threatened Robert with a sex-ban and even got Adam – and himself – drunk to maybe find out something about his gift. But with no success. His fiancé only looked on amused at his soon-to-be husband’s antics.
Robert had kept it under wraps, up until their actual wedding day. With so much going on around him on the big day, Aaron had forgotten all about the existence of the gift, until Robert led him away from the reception and handed him the present.
It had a rectangular shape and made a dull sound when Aaron knocked on the hard material. He frowned at Robert since he couldn’t figure out what it was. He unwrapped the gift quickly and turned it around in his hands.
It was just a book. With a simple light blue cover, no words or pictures on the front or back.
Aaron opened it and thumbed through the pages, they were all blank.
“It’s a scrapbook.” Robert supplied, looking actually nervous for once in his life. Aaron looked up at him, confused.
“Why are you giving me a scrapbook?”
“Remember when I asked you if you ever thought about the future and you said you didn’t.” Robert began, voice soft. Memories of a time when Aaron wasn’t the strong, brave man he was today flooded his mind.
Robert continued, “Well, I want you to want a future with me. We’re going to fight and we’ll probably hurt each other countless times, but when we do, I want you to be able to take this book and just see what we’ve already achieved, how much stronger we’ve become. How much we age, our first grey hairs. I want to experience it all with you.”
Aaron silenced Robert with a bone crushing embrace, the tears streaming down his face. If Robert went on for much longer, he wouldn’t be able to take it. He thought he had run out of tears at the ceremony when Robert said his vows, but his body had proven him wrong. Aaron sniffled softly as he buried his head in his chest. “I love you so much, Robert.”
He kept murmuring it over and over like a mantra. The one thing he won’t ever stop doing, was loving Robert. “I love you and I’m ruining your shirt. Damn, I like that shirt and I hate crying. My face gets all red and bloated like a balloon.”
Robert shushed Aaron with a kiss and grinned against his mouth. Their noses still touched. Robert felt the wetness of Aaron’s tears on his own cheeks. He spoke, “You’re babbling.”
“I know.” Aaron admitted breathlessly, “It feels like my brain has stopped functioning and I’m a mess around ya.”
“I told you, I want messed up with you, forever.” Robert repeated his words from months ago, when they made their engagement official. He continued less serious, “You know, you can put that in your scrapbook.”
Aaron glanced over at the light blue book and commented, “Am I not the one supposed to decide that?”
“Well, now we’re married what’s yours is mine isn’t it?” Robert laughed and cleared his throat, “so now I’ll read out and you’ll write.” He handed Aaron a pen that lay on the table, while the younger sat down, and he began, “’Dear diary, today my handsome, jaw-dropping, gorgeous Robert and I have gotten married.’ You can add as many hearts and exclamation marks around my name as you want.”
Aaron gave him a playful push and closed the book, laying the pen down, “You are so… unbelievable.” He groaned and pecked Robert’s lips lightly to show he was only joking. He couldn’t keep his eyes off the gift and bit his lip in thought, “Why is it light blue though? It’s not really my colour.”
“It reminded me of your eyes.”
“Soft…” Aaron rolled those beautiful blue eyes of him.
Robert was endearing in the way he blushed slightly – since he was a soft lad – and Aaron was completely enamoured and proper in love. He had never seen himself as the type to get married, many years ago he hadn’t even seen himself happy. He couldn’t think of the future without being scared, but now he had a whole future to look forward to. They had opened this new chapter in life and Aaron couldn’t wait, he was excited and he didn’t believe it was possible but he fell more in love with Robert each day.
He wasn’t ever going to write that in his scrapbook though, since he was 99 per cent sure Robert would open it once and see what he’d written and that would be embarrassing. Not because Robert didn’t feel the same, but because he did, and he would surely throw in some cheesy line to sweep Aaron off his feet – like always.
Aaron dragged Robert upstairs, to spend their wedding night just wrapped in each other’s arms. Both too tired to go further than slow and sensual snogs.
“I can hardly believe we’re married.” Aaron whispered.
“Well we are, so you better get used to it, husband.” Robert whispered back. Aaron felt his heart jump and his temperature rise. Aaron listened to Robert’s light snores and traced the freckles on his chest without actually touching him. He chuckled softly, “I think I know how I’m going to start my first entry…”
Dammit Robert.