𝐂𝐫𝐢𝐦𝐢𝐧𝐚𝐥 𝐌𝐢𝐧𝐝𝐬 𝐈𝐦𝐚𝐠𝐢𝐧𝐞𝐬

real- aaron

Aaron was admittedly humoring you, not nearly as interested in your thousandth rewatch of Dirty Dancing as he seemed to be, truly just taking the chance to let his mind wander, his hands doing some wandering of their own. There was a nagging part of you that considered this a waste of your fleeting time, having him home early being something awfully rare, unheard of for the most part, and so laying on the couch barely watching a movie seemed unfitting.

But it wasn't the movie that had your attention, had you captivated- your focus had drifted shortly after Baby's first dance lesson-lost in your lover's features as you counted his lashes, connected the beauty marks like constellations, considered every little scar that remnants a quick shave before work. He was kind in pretending not to notice, not to feel the almost burning intensity of your gaze, though selfishly he allowed the distraction as it gave him the chance to appreciate you in his own way. It meant you wouldn't object to him moving you from beside him to on top of him, wouldn't shy away from him slipping one hand up your shirt, tracing slow, electrifying patterns into your back, relishing in soft skin without any objection. The other hand on your neck, keeping you still, bettering your view of him, your pulse under his fingertips beckoning him further away from his thoughts.

You couldn't quite believe it, how natural it all felt, how normal it seemed in all its entirety that this was something you got the chance to do, to feel, to be part of. Loving Aaron was easy, it came as natural as breathing, as living and you'd never allow yourself to forget how lucky you were, having spent so long without him, having been so painfully alone before him- it felt almost too good to be true, like a dream you'd be rudely shaken awake from at any second. Odder than anything was the fact that he loved you just as much, if not more, that was the part that felt most surreal, most dreamlike, that he in all of his perfection, all of his complicated existence deemed you loveable, worthy of doting on- it was absurd, so you thought, he would very dramatically disapprove of the notion had you ever brought it up, but even if you hadn't, he knew the idea grew like ivy through your thoughts.

Your fingers were delicate as they brushed over his cheek, pulling away just as quickly as they touched him, your brows furrowing as a result as you did the same to the other cheek, then his nose, his forehead, under his eyes, then slower and far too careful over his lips, lingering slightly as he hesitantly looked at you, knowing that breaking your trance would make you aware of his burning touch but he couldn't help himself.

"Still real?" he breathed and you nodded, entranced still, as if your mind hadn't caught up just yet to your reality as you looked him over for about the millionth time, impossible to get enough and you surprised him by shifting even closer to him, resting more of your weight on him.

"Just had to check," you explained and he hummed in understanding, squeezing your waist as his hand drifted lower, cupping a handful of the doughy flesh into his palm as you fought not to react to the gesture, not to pull away- if he was so surprisingly intent on loving you then it was only fair you let him, however way he pleased. You didn't expect him to lean forward to kiss you, the kiss almost as unreal as him as you breathed into his lips, smiling when he didn't pull away, instead moving his kisses all over your face, scattering them down the path of your cheekbone, to your throat, humming eagerly into your neck and managing to send a shiver right down your spine, coating your whole body in goosebumps and you smiled shyly into the air. "Aaron," you giggled and the sound tickled through his body, earning another breathy groan from him before he looked up at you.

"Still real?" he asked again and you wanted the couch to swallow you into it, because he was definitely starting to convince you that this wasn't some fever dream, but that you really were lost in his arms, in his love and you never wanted to be found, content in his wonderland.

"I think so," you whispered, and when your hands cupped his face this time you didn't let them fall away, thumb brushing over the stubble as you readied yourself to decipher the spots in his eyes, the strokes of color around his pupils, count the veins- he had other ideas.

"You don't sound convinced," he quipped and you wished he couldn't tell, wish he couldn't read you so well when you just barely managed past his front page, still digging through the pages, figuring out the world of him. "What's holding you up?"

"Everything," you admitted, hazel you realized, his eyes, the color was hazel in the light of the living room, specks of brown, hints of green, definitely hazel. "You're like something I made up," you explained to him, it wasn't the first time, he considered that it would hardly be the last. "Something I shouldn't have," you added and hummed, the other eye had a beauty mark just off the center, you'd not seen it before, too subtle, but it was more prominent this close.

"According to who?"

"Me," you deadpanned and you wanted to take it back, it made him frown, made his brows dip down and you couldn't focus on his eyes anymore, they held more than color, more than sight of the world but rather sight of you, your heart. "I want to take it all in," you breathed and his hold was tightening, desperate for more, desperate to steal you out of your head- you closed your eyes, sealing his features into a little folder in your mind.

"I want you to look at me," his voice was lower than before, briefly overpowered by the song playing on screen, but you didn't fight his request, looking at him just as eagerly as before and he melted, his heart soaring around in his ribcage. "I'm real, sweetheart," he promised and his hands had no shame as he gripped you, grounding you, grounding him. "We're real, you and I, don't get so lost in trying to remember it that you don't let yourself live it, feel it," he matched the words with another kiss, and you sighed into the feeling, desperate to deepen it as he pushed you against him, heartbeats syncing, bodies melting together.

"You're real," you agreed into his mouth, interrupted by his hungry lips as he leaned deeper into the kiss, stealing the oxygen from your lungs, robbing the sense from your head, claiming the feeling in your body, waking you up and hypnotizing you in the same sense.

"And all yours."