AN: No real comments here either...Other than sorry its such a long chapter. I didn't see a good place to break it up at.
It was so nice to be back in London where Aren had grown up, no offense to Ireland, but it was nice to be home where her friends and family were at. Cross had come along too but only because he had some business in London to manage so they had traveled together and were actually staying at Aren's grandfather's mansion in Aren's old room that was the exact same as she had left it. The room was mostly purple and had a sort of Gothic Victorian style to it, it had a balcony and a private bathroom as well.
"Oh hey look... you still have some clothes here..." Cross commented as he pulled out one of Aren's pieces of underwear from one of her dresser drawers. Aren snatched the underwear from Cross' hand blushing.
"It's not nice to go through a lady's undergarments. Pervert." Aren said still clearly embarrassed about certain things. They had been married for two months now and despite everything they had done together Aren was still very shy when it came to more private or intimate things.
"Really? I've removed your underwear how many times now and you're upset about me finding a pair in your dresser?" Cross replied shaking his head a little. Sometimes he really couldn't figure Aren out.
"Hush please. I don't want to think about all the times you've stolen my underwear..." Aren huffed stuffing her underwear back in to the dresser. Yes she termed it as him stealing them because sometimes she wouldn't be expecting it when he would come up and just reach under her skirt or dress pulling her underwear down. He had done it enough times that she learned to wear jeans when she didn't want him to do that. As a rather devout Catholic Aren was so used to wearing dresses as it said women should in the bible but with Cross she had to sort of put that rule off to the side. Especially after the time he tried to remove her underwear as she was trying to work in the kitchen where Jerry was too. Aren had quickly learned after that that Cross was rather kinky and perverted.
"I don't steal it..." Cross remarked as he unpacked his bag after Aren had made some room for his clothes in her dresser. They were staying for a month since Cross had kept Aren in Ireland longer than planned with no visits to her family.
"Right. Well I'm tired so I'm going to sleep." Aren commented as she started to change in to her night gown. It was about midnight so it made sense that she was tired. They had taken a late flight from Ireland to London which was a short hour and a half flight but they didn't want to fly in in the morning and have to deal with people. They would do all that tomorrow after settling in for the night. Getting in at half an hour before midnight let them come to the mansion without being harassed by Aren's family who was all asleep at the moment. Some staff had been nice enough to let them in without waking the family.
"What that's it?" Cross asked after having changed in to his pajama bottoms. He got in to the bed with Aren looking over at his wife who had her back to him. He was a little amused that Aren had such a large bed since it made her look so small as she laid in it.
"If your horny use your hand. I'm too tired." Aren replied leaving her head rested on her pillow. She was so ready to just go to sleep. It was no offense to Cross, she really just was that tired at the moment. Maybe if he hadn't kept her up all of last night for sex she wouldn't be so tired. So really it was Cross' fault he wouldn't be getting any.
"Not what I meant." Cross huffed as he reached down gently making Aren look over her shoulder at him. He leaned down kissing her on the lips for a moment. The kiss was long enough to cause Aren's eyes to slide close as she got a little lost in the kiss but then Cross pulled away causing her eyes to open as Cross settled down in to the bed.
"What was that?" Aren asked looking over her shoulder even more to look at Cross who now had his head on the second pillow on the bed. Cross had never really just kissed her like that for no reason so it threw her off.
"Good night kiss. You always do that. Don't want you being crabby because you didn't get one." Cross replied before turning over so his back was to Aren. Aren stared at Cross' back for a while before turning her head to look straight ahead again. After a while Aren closed her eyes to sleep. Cross was a complete mystery to Aren. He often acted cold and distant but then there were the times he seemed like he could actually care like right then when he had kissed her. But those times were so brief that Aren couldn't quite tell if she was just imagining it.
The next morning when Cross woke up he found himself alone in the bed. Looking to the clock on the night stand he was surprised to find that it was only about 5:30 in the morning and he was awake on his own without an alarm. Or without Aren waking him up. Aren was good for practically hitting him in the face in the mornings when the alarm would go off and she wasn't ready to be awake or to push him out of bed when she was already up and the alarm was going off but Cross was ignoring it. Aren was much stronger than she looked since she could manage to push someone as muscular as Cross out of bed in the mornings. As Cross was sitting up in bed Aren walked out of the bathroom that was attached to her room wrapped in a towel as she used a second towel to dry her hair.
"Oh hey. Good morning." Aren greeted Cross with a smile once she realized he was awake. Cross sort of grunted a response at her watching as she walked to the dresser pulling out a bra and underwear to put on before she put on a simple sweater dress with a pair of tights on underneath. Since it was winter now it was the perfect time for sweater dresses.
"Where are you going?" Cross asked noting that Aren was putting on her boots and checking her purse for her usual stuff like her cell phone, wallet, things like that. As Aren was putting her still slightly wet hair up in to a messy bun she stopped to look over at Cross.
"Well you have work so I was going to go meet up with some friends I haven't seen since before the wedding. Is that not okay?" Aren asked in complete innocence. She didn't think Cross would have a problem with it so she hadn't though to ask but now she was worried Cross would have an issue with her going out. She hadn't really gone out since she had moved in with Cross since she didn't know the area, or country... and she didn't have any friends there.
"No it's fine. I was just asking." Cross replied looking off to the side. Aren blinked a little confused before she walked over to Cross as he sat in bed.
"I'll see you later." Aren said with a soft smile kissing his cheek before leaving the room. Aren had originally planned to just stay home today but once her friends were able to get ahold of her they demanded that she go hang out with them. So Aren was off to go meet her long time friends at a cafe before they went off to do whatever they decided would be fun to do.
"Hey guys!" Aren greeted as she found her friends at a table in the cafe they used to always meet up at after school to talk and just hang out. Her friends were Lavi, Lenalee, Kanda, and Alma but it seemed Lavi had a new girlfriend, one that Aren knew. It was her cousin Road who was only a few years younger than Aren. As Aren was sitting down Lenalee gasped noting something that was way out of the ordinary for Aren.
"Aren... Is that a hickey?" Lenalee asked pointing to a mark on Aren's neck that was clearly a bruise. Aren blushed a little since she hadn't realized she had a mark on her neck. Usually Cross didn't leave hickies so she hadn't thought to check for any before leaving the house.
"Is it...?" Aren truly pondered covering the side of her neck with her left hand not sure if it really was a hickey.
"Um...Aren...when did you get engaged...or married!?" Lavi pointed out as he saw the rings on her ring finger. Aren blinked pulling her hand away from her neck to look at her rings. Hadn't she told them about it...? Oh... no she hadn't...she had been so caught up in everything she hadn't had thought about it.
"Oh... um... I got married two months ago and moved to Ireland... funny right?" Aren replied laughing nervously since she realized her slip up. "Sorry guys... It was a sort of family only affair and after... I had been so busy I forgot to call and tell you guys... But I have a question... Road does Sheryl know about him?" Aren asked her cousin pointing to Lavi. Sheryl was Road's very over protective father who wasn't too keen on the idea of his precious princess dating anyone.
"Yes he knows. He met Lavi a couple days ago. How was your honeymoon?" Road asked causing Aren to blush at the thought of her honeymoon.
"It um... It was good." Aren chuckled softly. She was so embarrassed since she of course first thought of her wedding night which was when she had lost her virginity.
"Wait wait wait... so you are seriously married?" Lavi asked unable to believe Aren had just run off and got married and no one but Road had known. They had known Aren since like kindergarten so it was a little insulting she hadn't told them.
"Yeah. My name is now legally Aren Cross." Aren replied a little guilty. She had really meant to tell her friends it had just slipped her mind because of everything else. "Look I really meant to tell you guys but before the wedding I had been so nervous about it...for reasons. And after the wedding was the honeymoon, I didn't really even talk to my family because I was on vacation and trying to adjust to the fact that I am married. And then I have been trying to adjust to my new life in Ireland and to my husband..." Aren said apologetically so they could know that she really hadn't meant to leave them out of the loop.
"Be nice guys. I'm sure it was very hard for Aren to adjust to her married life. If you think about it...she had to be so nervous. Knowing men... her husband probably wanted sex... and poor innocent Aren knows...or knew nothing of it." Alma said trying to defend Aren.
"Thanks Alma..." Aren said trying not to cry since that was sort of a jab at Aren. Alma was Kanda's girlfriend of like forever. They had been dating since like middle school, well it had been since they were like little kids but you couldn't really count that since they were too little to realize that they had basically been acting like a couple. Kanda was always so protective of Alma and supportive of her too. One time all a kid did was pull on Alma's hair teasingly and Kanda beat the crap out of the kid. No one ever messed with Alma after that, or Kanda for that matter.
"So wait... That means dear Lord praising Aren has finally given up her purity?" Lenalee asked trying to sound like she was kidding but Aren knew that she was being sarcastic. Aren and Lenalee never really got along ever since they were kids. Aren just couldn't stand how Lenalee always basically demanded to be the center of attention and was so fake. But Aren was raised to be kind to even those who you didn't like, so she never really confronted Lenalee about her personality.
"That's none of anyone's business. What I do in my married life is between myself and my hus...band..." Aren trailed off as she pulled her phone out of her purse and realized Cross was texting her. Speak of the devil. He was just texting her to tell her to go to his office in London later when she was done with her friends. She replied to him real quick before putting her phone away.
"Sorry that was Marian..." Aren replied after putting her phone away.
"He came with you right?" Road asked since she had heard he might have come with Aren but hadn't seen him yet.
"Yeah. He's at work right now though. He figured he could do some work at his London branch while he was here." Aren answered as she started to look at the menu so she could figure out what she wanted to order for breakfast. After they ordered and ate the group left the cafe sort of just walking around town at first like they used to always do. They ended up at the mall which made Lenalee quite happy since she loved to shop spending a good portion of her brother's hard earned money. But Komui loved to spoil Lenalee so he never complained. As they walked around the mall Aren was a little distracted by her phone since Cross kept texting her.
"Here Aren. Maybe your husband would like a few toys to play with you with." Lenalee said teasingly as she held up a packaged vibrator. Aren had been so distracted by her phone she didn't realize they had wandered into a store in the mall that sold all sorts of things from jewelry, clothing, mock merchandise that was mainly for comedic affect, dirty joke items, and a variety of lewd toys or kinky outfits and such.
"Lena!" Alma hissed at Lenalee taking the vibrator away from the Chinese girl putting it back where it had come from. Aren ignored Lenalee returning her attention back to her phone. She had never used toys of any sort and had no intention of ever doing so. Cross pleased her well enough that she felt she didn't need toys. Maybe Lenalee needed one since she always had a hard time keeping a boyfriend...