Title: Kids
Part 1 of hopefully a 3-parter. Hope you like!
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Emily told him to go but Aiden couldn't stay away. It's two days before the wedding and he's holed up in one of Nolan's nicer guestrooms. She should be with Daniel right now, but she fed him an excuse about last minute wedding details she has to go over with Nolan.
It affords her at least a few hours with Aiden. It's enough.
She lies beside him in his charcoal shirt, in the dark. He's a lot more tired than she is but he's still awake. He'll stay up until she goes, he always does. She places a hand over his scar, feelings of anger and relief all mixed up, rising when she dwells on it too much. He puts his hand on top of hers almost like he knows. Like he can feel her heart quicken against his chest and is trying to calm her.
In the dark like this, with him only barely awake, it's easier to talk. Even after everything, she still sometimes needs that—the dark, the feel of him—to talk about her true feelings. "I don't want to go," she whispers.
"Then stay."
She smiles against his chest. "I mean the Hamptons. When this is all done."
Aiden doesn't say anything and though she can't see his face, she knows it's not because he's finally fallen asleep. "Because of your friends?"
He could've just said "Because of Nolan?" and that would've been true, but he included Jack in there too, the only other person in her life who could be considered her friend. She sighs deeply and spreads her arm over him, holding him a little tighter. Sometimes she forgets how well Aiden knows her. When he reminds her, in the smallest ways and most random moments, she feels so thankful for him. So lucky.
She nods and he kisses the top of her head.
"Things'll be different in a few years," he says in his low, rumbling voice, lower now on the brink of sleep. "The dust will settle and the world will forget about Emily Thorne. And you'll be able to make contact with Nolan if you want to. We could call him up whenever we need a babysitter. And he'll fly over to wherever we are and take our kid shopping. Probably bring him home wearing an ascot."
A laugh bubbles up in her throat, unbidden, accompanied by a tear that she catches with her hand before it has the chance to roll down.
"Alright?" Aiden asks. He asks it like the question is much bigger than that. It feels monumental. Emily never allows herself to think about those things, the future. It's too much. Too big, too scary. But when he talks about it her heart feels tight, like it's expanding, and she feels so full of… hope.
"Alright," she says.