After she and Ezra broke apart, Aria had a look of wonder on her face. "Wow, you're good. I can't believe you managed to plan this without me knowing."
A smile tugged at Ezra's lips, a mischievous look on his face. "I actually didn't plan this. I was informed this morning, so you can thank Spencer and Hanna for tonight." He reached down and entwined his fingers with hers. She kissed him again before responding.
"Better step it up, Fitz" She giggled, leading him towards the kitchen.
The apartment looked the same as it did the last time Aria had been there; same bed, same couch, even the typewriter was in the same place. The only difference is that there were a bunch of new books lining the bookshelves, and new pieces of art scattered here and there. Now standing in the kitchen, Aria noticed for the first time that it smelled amazing in the apartment.
"Ezra Fitz, are you actually cooking me dinner?" She exclaimed, poking fun at him.
"Believe it or not, I actually learned how to cook a couple things these past couple years. And by a couple I mean I managed to master the art of macaroni and cheese, and bought some cookbooks that I haven't opened until today." He grinned.
Aria smiled, playing with his fingers.
"Well what are you making tonight?" As she asked this, Aria grabbed an oven mitt from the counter with her free hand and lifted the lid off the pot closest to her. "Noodles," She quickly placed the lid back on and moved to the pan on the right side of the stove. "And sauce. So we're having some delicious pasta?" She quickly flipped the burner on under the noodles. "You know that you're supposed to boil the water, right?"
Ezra bit his lip, trying to fight back laughter. "Of course... I was just waiting. And you should be proud; I made the sauce from scratch." With their hands still together, Ezra slowly pushed Aria towards the counter. When Aria felt her back hit the edge of the counter, she let out a small gasp, and looked up at Ezra, who had a devilish glint in his eyes. He leaned down until his lips were at her ear. "Have I told you how absolutely drop dead gorgeous you look tonight?" He pulled away, and stood so close Aria could feel his breath. Satisfied with the reaction he got, Ezra started to back off a little.
"Tease." Aria whispered while grabbing the black tie around his neck and pulling him back towards her, so their lips were almost touching. They stay like that for a tense few seconds before Aria gently tugged on Ezra's tie, bringing their lips together. Aria felt Ezra's hands resting on her hips, and she quickly hopped up on the counter, bringing him closer as she did.
Their kisses quickly got more intense; Aria had her fingers grasping Ezra's hair, while he ran his tongue along her bottom lip, asking for entrance. Things heated up quickly, and ten minutes later the pair lay on the couch, just as enthralled with each other as ever. Finally Aria broke away, smiling.
"What are you smiling at?" Ezra mumbled while trailing kisses up her neck. She brought his head back up to look her in the eyes.
"I've missed this; I've missed you." Ezra sat up, pulling Aria with him. He rested his forehead against hers.
"You're lucky, because I'm not going anywhere." She placed a chaste kiss on his lips, and looked towards the kitchen where the pot of noodles was steaming.
Quickly she jumped off the couch and ran to the stove. "Shit." Grabbing the lid off the pot, she quickly emptied out the boiling water into the sink, and set the pot back on the burner. "Well, I hope you don't mind mushy noodles."
Ezra came over, and surveyed the damage. "Well it's clearly not my fault that our dinner is going to be served extra mushy." He joked.
Feigning mock hurt, Aria played along.
"Care to explain how this is my fault?"
"Well, if you hadn't have looked so gorgeous in this dress, I wouldn't have had to tease you, in which you wouldn't have kissed me to the point where we were too... preoccupied to think about dinner." Ezra retorted, an impish grin on his face.
Aria snorted, and began scooping the noodles onto plates. Just as quickly as she'd started, Ezra came up behind her, grabbing her waist. "I thought I was making dinner." He said, taking the spoon from her hand, and pushing her aside.
"I figured I'd better step in if we wanted to have any dinner at all." She shot back, planting a kiss on his cheek before going to sit on the couch.
Moments later Ezra brought two plates of pasta along with two glasses of wine and set them down on the table. "Dinner is served." Aria hesitantly took a forkful of pasta, and brought it up to her mouth, taking a bite.
"Mmm... It's not as bad as you think it'd be. The sauce is actually good. Good job, baby." The pair dined while making small talk; discussing how Aria still had to run and grab school supplies for James or talked about recent books they'd read.
With dinner finished, they lay on the couch with Aria leaning against Ezra's chest, who was absent-mindedly fiddling with her hair.
She could feel him stop for a moment, and felt his breath at her ear.
"As sexy as you look in that dress, what do you say we change into something more comfortable?" He suggested, placing his wine glass on the coffee table. Aria nodded, and Ezra went over to his dresser and grabbed a pair of pyjamas and an old Hollis hoodie. He tossed them both to Aria before turning to grab himself something.
Aria inhaled the scent from the hoodie; she was sure it was one that she'd worn hundreds of times before, lounging around the apartment on a lazy Saturday. She quickly hopped out of her dress and managed to pull on the bottoms before Ezra turned around; who was now changed out of his white dress shirt and black pants into an old baby blue tee and an old pair of pyjama bottoms.
He stood there for a fraction of a second, his mouth slightly ajar. "Uhm... okay." Was all he could muster as a response.
Aria pulled the hoodie over her head while striding towards him. "Nothing you haven't seen before." She said, a coy smile spreading across her face. Ezra let out an exasperated gasp, before playfully grabbing Aria by the shoulders and twisting so she landed on top of him while he fell onto his unmade bed.
"Now who's the tease?" He whispered jokingly.
While their tongues danced, a brief flicker of worry went through Aria's mind; but she dismissed it. She was pretty sure that she and Ezra knew each other's boundaries; there was no need for a repeat of what had happened last time. She could feel Ezra's hands gently running across the bottom of his Hollis sweater, and Aria was finding her hands were starting to drift as well.
Pausing for a second the both pulled back to look at each other. A silent conversation transpired, and they both came to a non-verbal agreement. Ezra leaned forward and placed a sweet kiss on her forehead.
"Come here." He said, pulling her up off the bed with him. He walked over to the couch, and brought her back into his arms. He never wanted this moment to end, to feel like things had finally clicked back into place after five years of feeling wrong.
His apartment seemed to come alive again with Aria's presence.
"I've missed you." He murmured into her hair.
"I've missed you too Ezra. So much."
I don't deserve someone so amazing. Aria thought to herself; but before she could let her thoughts take control, she thought of what Spencer had told her earlier that day.
It's just me and Ezra right now, and I won't feel guilty right now. I can feel guilty in the morning. To block her thoughts out, she just leaned her head on Ezra's shoulder, grateful for the comfort she got from such a simple action.
She could feel Ezra's mouth at her ear, as if he were going to tell her something. Instead of provoking him to tell her, she waited, enjoying the silence. It was nice to be able to share silence with someone. Being able to talk for hours was nice, but being able to just sit and enjoy each other's presence... that was something that was hard to find.
"I don't know if I'm allowed to say this-"
Ezra cut her off.
"You're allowed to say whatever you need to, Aria."
She felt his thumb graze the back of her hand, moving in slow circles, comforting her.
"I'm sorry-"
"You're not allowed to say that."
She twisted around to look at him, desperate to get him to understand. 'I'm sorry' wasn't just an idol apology, she felt like she had to say that to him every day for as long as he'd let her. Even then it wouldn't be enough. 'I'm sorry' wouldn't bring five years back, the five years that she'd taken away.
"Look at me, Aria Montgomery." He took her face in his hands. "I don't ever want to hear you say you're sorry again." He pressed his lips to her with such fervour it surprised her.
He pulled away a second later, leaving her breathless.
"I lov- care about you so much Aria, please, don't do this to yourself. I won't let you."
He held her close, savouring the moment.
"Haven't I told you that you're not allowed to do this?" She muttered, leaning her head into his chest. "You say all these sweet things to me Ezra, when I've told you I don't deserve them."
Ezra wrapped his arms around Aria's small frame, holding her close. "I don't just say them, I mean them as well. That's another thing we're adding to the list of things you're not allowed to say."
To see her like this killed Ezra inside, to think that she didn't deserve love and happiness. If Ezra could have his way, he'd go through anything just to see her smile. To him, she deserved that at least.
He placed a loving kiss on her forehead. "You think you don't deserve happiness, but you're wrong. If there's anyone who deserves it it's you. If you're happy, then so am I; and you're not allowed to fight me on that point, because I will win." Aria opened her mouth to say something, but Ezra stopped her before she could start by placing a kiss on her lips.
Sighing in defeat, Aria nuzzled up to Ezra. "Tell me something I don't know about you."
Confused, Ezra asked what she meant. "There has to be things we don't know about each other, Ezra. In five years something has to have changed. One thing, that's all you have to think of."
Ezra scanned the room, trying to think of something that had changed. His eyes landed on the old typewriter. "You know the old typewriter I have over there? That I use as a paper weight?"
Aria nodded.
"Mhm. I used it." He took a breath. "To write, I mean. Just everything. Anything really. If it captivated my interest, I recorded it. Just observations, but they all had some kind of impact on me. I had no intentions to publish or do anything with what I'd written; the excerpts were just for me."
He swallowed hard, trying to weigh her reaction. He'd never told anyone that. Not even Hardy.
"If you're writing for yourself, it's pure passion." Aria recited, remembering how Ezra had told her that the first time they'd met in the bar.
Ezra raised an eyebrow, a wistful expression crossing his face.
"But one day the typewriter broke. The keys stopped working, and I haven't written anything since." He reached over to the coffee table and grabbed an old bottle of water. "How's that for something you didn't know?"
"I bet it was good." She said, but then noted the puzzled expression on Ezra's face. "You're writing. When you talk about it, you have an expression that I only see under a few circumstances: When you're talking about something you love when you teach, when you read a really good book, or when you look at James. All things that you care deeply about."
Ezra gazed at Aria, reveling in the fact that she'd missed one major thing. "You're missing one thing though, you."
He was surprised that she'd skip over herself.
Aria shook her head, trying to keep back a smile, and ended up having to bite her lip to stop herself.
"Nope. I get a different expression all together." She said, allowing her smile to break through, and she leaned up and kissed him. "My turn."
"For what?"
Aria giggled. "For you to ask me a question. I have things you don't know about me too, you know." She teased.
"I can pin-point exactly how you've changed. You're stronger, having to raise James. You're more resilient than ever, after having to push through challenges." He paused, thinking about his words carefully before continuing. "But you're also broken, and I'm not one hundred percent sure why; nor am I going to ask you. I don't know if it's because of me, or has to do with you forgiving yourself... But if you ever want to tell me, you know that I'm here."
Aria just stared, dumbstruck. He'd been able to hit those points in a second, while she was having trouble picking out things after being around him for over two weeks. He was right, she was broken, and she knew it. But in Aria's mind, she was better off not dwelling on that fact.
Seeing that he was triumphant, Ezra wore a cocky grin. "Anything else you'd like to add?"
Aria crinkled her nose. "You just ruined a perfectly sweet moment by being a smart-ass." The both laughed, and then stayed up until nearly one in the morning telling each other stories about things they'd missed in each other's lives. The discussed little things, such as Ezra adding a new book to his all time favourites, to bigger things such as Aria telling her parents when she found out she was pregnant with James.
"I found a guy who went to Hollis with the same last name as you, just on Facebook. I told them he was the father. You two looked remarkably similar, he could pass as James' father. That's how they never realized. It took a lot of convincing, and I'm not sure they ever fully believed me." She brushed a piece of hair out of his eyes; not a necessary action, one of comfort and care. "But I suppose ignorance is bliss."
The pair's idle chatter slowed as the night faded into the early hours of the morning.
Both Aria and Ezra were starting to drift off to sleep when Aria had the sense to get off the couch. Two nights in a row sleeping on a couch couldn't be comfortable. She dragged Ezra by his arm along with her.
"Come sleep with me." She mumbled while lifting the comforter up for her to crawl in.
Ezra had a mischievous expression on his face. "If you insist..." He began kissing down Aria's neck as they crawled into bed. Playfully Aria smacked his chest.
"Smart-ass. You know what I mean."
Ezra let out a tired laugh. "I know. Come here."
Aria curled up against his chest, and Ezra clicked off the lamp beside them, and they started to drift off to sleep.
What a perfect night. Was Ezra's last thought before he fell into a deep slumber, holding Aria close in his arms.
