Hola everyone! This is a compilation of stories set in my tattoo artist and florist verse. You might want to check 'something so magic about you' and 'i know that you're scared because hearts get broken' before reading this.

IMPORTANT: the chapters are not in chronological order.

the sweetest devotion hit me like an explosion

"I love you." Aleksander says.

The first days of December had arrived with lower temperatures than she expected. Luckily, Aleksander had a fireplace and an enormous selection of alcohol for her to take her pick, which meant that more often than not, she could be found cuddling and drinking with him after Mila was asleep.

This Friday night didn't seem out of the ordinary. He gave her a glass of whiskey —he was trying to convert her, after all— and took a seat next to her on the couch. She had taken a sip of her and decided it wasn't that bad. She was about to tell him exactly that when his hand gently tucks some rebel strands of her hair behind her ear, as usual, she leaned on his touch. It was almost a reflex whenever he touched her. That's exactly the moment when he looks at her as if he's looking straight at her soul and, and he decides to declare his feelings for her.

As she listens to him, her first reaction is to say; "You what now?"

And Aleksander, the bastard, instead of being mad or annoyed at her because she's not reciprocating the feeling, does something she never thought he'd do in a million years. He snorts. He actually snorts. On top of it, he has the audacity of actually making a snort sound dignified.

She's scowling, which clearly does not help the situation.

"I'm sorry, I tell you that I love you and your response is 'You what now?'" He asks, and once again, she realizes he's not even offended by the situation. No, what she sees in his face is actual amusement, as if he was getting a kick out of the moment.

Well, she's glad at least someone is.

"I'm sorry, I just didn't see this coming." She says, being as honest as she can be, hoping he won't get upset at her brutal honesty. While he doesn't seem angry, the light atmosphere that had surrounded them until now seems to shift, making her feel uneasy.

"Really? You didn't see this coming." He repeats, making an emphasis on each word as if he's in disbelief. He still doesn't look mad per se, but his tone is no longer light, the disbelief now mixed with something else, bitterness if she had to guess.

"What?" She asks, feeling as if there's a piece of the information that she's missing.

"We oughta take you to the doctor because if you can't see that I love you, then you need glasses, Alinochka." It's all he says, and she crushes the urge to roll her eyes at him. Sarcasm has never been a good look on him. They were great communicators so, whenever sarcasm made some sort of appearance, Alina was thrown off. She didn't like that, their relationship was too precious to be sarcastic at each other when something serious was happening.

And yet, it was Alina who answered his love declaration with a 'you what now'. She's had better moments with Aleksander, she swears.

"This is not a joke, Sasha." She says, slightly offended at his comment.

To think, this whole exchange started with an 'I love you'. This is not what she expected to happen the first time they said those words to each other, but how many things in her life had actually happened as she expected?

Still, she wanted this to be the exception. Not the rule.

"Good thing I'm not joking then." He answers, all traces of disbelief and amusement have faded from his face. Now he just looks serious, in deep thought. There's a slight frown on his face, but it was the one that tended to appear when he was questioning something, not when he was mad.

No one says anything else, and although she worries what might be going through his head, she's busy trying to keep up with her own thoughts. Because, the thing is, Alina doesn't know much about love if she's being honest.

She loved her parents, incredibly so, and she loves Ana Kuya, but that love is a parental one; born from the ties that irremediably bound them. She loves her friends, the old ones and the new ones. Likewise, she loves her staff as well. But that wasn't romantic love. Not even the love she had for Sol or Mila could be compared to the love she felt for Aleksander.

Oh.

It must have snuck up on her. The feeling, that is. It must have settled itself in her heart when she wasn't paying attention, making a home for itself in between the beats that went faster when he was near her. Yeah, that must've been what happened.

Because if Alina is being honest, there's no way she can look back and think there was a moment in which she didn't love him. It had been there all along.

"Sasha…" She leaves her drink on the small table in front of them before scooting closer to him. Luckily, he doesn't move, she doesn't think she could handle it if he tried to stay away from her. Alina would understand because he declared his feelings for her, and she still hasn't reciprocated them, but she thinks it might kill her if he ever recoils from her.

"Alina, it's okay if you don't love me, I can live with that. But please do not insult me by saying that you didn't see it coming, when it's always been out there in the open."

Aleksander is right, of course, he's right. He dropped all his walls ages ago, even before they started dating he had started to open up, to share more about himself with her. By the time they were actually together, she was actually surprised by how much he had changed. He had gone from stranger, neighbor, and Mila's dad to slowly becoming her friend and later becoming her Sasha.

The same Sasha, who now looks at her intently. His face holds nothing because everything is out there. He has bared his heart and soul to her. In return, she had said nothing; worse, at least if she had at least kept quiet it wouldn't have derived in this conversation. But this is the conversation that makes her look back and re-examine every interaction they ever had.

Her question not only had been insulting, but it was also completely ridiculous.

'You what now?'

What a thing to ask the man who more often than not was the root where all of her smiles were born. The man who made her happy simply with his presence. It was so silly how happy she was just looking at him. But it was more than that, far more.

Aleksander was the person she leaned on, nowadays. If her day was good, bad, or just okay, she'd share that with him, not looking for something in particular, just to talk to him, and he would always pay attention to her. When he listened, it seemed like the world stopped spinning because every fiber of his self was focused on her. No one had ever done that for her and by all means, it should've been unsettling the way he devoted his attention to her before they were even together. But that was who Aleksander was, he didn't do things halfway when it came to the people he loved.

And she was one of the people he loved, there was just no way of denying it, of questioning it, of thinking that he feels any other way about her.

He listened, but he also talked. He had progressively become more open with her, not only about things related to his late wife, but also about his life in general. She had listened to the stories about his childhood, about his less than ideal mother, about how he found relief in art. Alina had seen pictures, and she had wanted to hug that boy and promise that everything would be alright, but because that was impossible, she had hugged the man, holding him as tight as she could.

She had also listened to stories about his university years, pursuing business and minoring in art; looking for peace before finding it in Shu Han. He had talked about his year in Shu Han so passionately, so immersed in the memories of the place where he discovered what he wanted to do with his life. She saw pictures of him, young, impossibly young with long hair and black painted nails showing his first tattoo proudly. She hugged him again, happy just to see him happy.

Aleksander had also talked about his first years with Luda. He had been a little nervous about that, and she had reminded him that it was okay if he didn't share right away, if he took his time. And he did, but eventually, he told her everything about a shy girl in nursing school that was friends with Fedyor and how he had taken an instant liking to her. He had told her everything, he had taken Alina's hand and walked her through the early stages of his relationship with Luda to the eventual marriage, not shying away from the bad and the ugly. But he always highlighted the good parts, like moving in together and trying for a baby.

She hears him and silently thanks that he has loved, that he loved someone else so fiercely, that he had been happy, that he had known peace. Even if that same happiness it's what causes him to break down when sharing with her the dreams and plans he and Luda had for their future, including expanding their little family.

Alina had held him, she thought at that moment that it was because she cared, but she was wrong. She held him tightly against her body because she loved him. She knows this now, as she remembers how she had silently promised she'd never leave him. Alina knew that she'd never leave of her own volition, she thought the world of him before they started dating and after the fact, she had just corroborated that thought. But still, she promised that it didn't matter if something happened to her, something beyond their control, an accident, or anything of the sort, she promised that she'd never leave him. Damned be the laws of the universe, she would crawl back to him, she would find a way, because she would not allow him to be alone, to face yet another tragedy.

That was not a promise born out of care, that was a promise born out of love. She just didn't realize that back then. But she does now.

"Sasha, I love you."

She means what she says, how could she not?

"Alinochka, you don't have to say it just because I did. I really don't mind." He says, looking at her with all the adoration in the world contained in his eyes. He means it, he wouldn't love her any less if she weren't able to reciprocate his feelings.

"But Sasha, I love you. I'm sorry for what I said earlier, I didn't mean it. Don't you see that I love you?" She asks, and for a second she's tempted to tell him he's the one who actually needs glasses, call him an old man even, but no. Now is not the time for that, so she puts a hand on his chest and looks at him before resuming. "The truth is, I said that because I don't think I've ever loved or loved someone, not like this. I loved my parents, I love Ana Kuya and my friends. I love Sol and Mila, Saints, how I love them. But it's nothing compared to how I feel for you, Sasha because what I feel for you has always been there, and I didn't realize it until now. "

Aleksander had shown her what an actual partnership looked like. Before Aleksander appeared, she hadn't experienced what it was to have a supportive partner, someone who asked her if he could offer advice and experience, who didn't try to force her to do anything, but instead was simply glad to be of help. Alina now had someone to rely on when shit got hard, someone who had her back, someone who let her rant about clients and customers that drove her up the wall.

But it was more than that. It was the fact that he made her laugh constantly, that he continuously surprised her, that he seemed devoted to making her happy in the smallest of ways, in the biggest ways, in the important ways. She had thought that somehow she could settle for less than this, how wrong had she been.

He had shown her love, real love, in just a few months of dating. Passionate, all consuming love that she thought could only be experienced if she was a heroine in a romance novel. And yet, this was real life, and it was happening to her. Aleksander had shown her what it was to break a dam, because once he stopped with the walls and made it clear he wanted to be with her, all his feelings for her flooded her senses. He knew no middle ground in many things, and love was one of them.

Ironically enough, Aleksander had also shown her that real love was also in the small, quiet details. Because of him, she had learned about the importance of the little things, like the squeeze of a hand, an encouraging message, a quick call just to hear the other one's voice. Like simply sharing a space together, although she loved talking to him, the silence was comfortable as well, she loved to share that with him.

It was funny how sometimes his desire for him threatened to burn her insides completely, and yet other times what he felt was pure and undeniable adoration.

She had never felt anything like that before, and she never would, at least not with someone else. As far as she knew Aleksander was the man of her life, she had no plans of letting him go, and she knew he thought the same.

"I love you. I do. I guess I always have, because how could I not?" She says, before deciding to sit in his lap, for once and for all. As his hands settled on her lower back, she had her hand under his chin so that they could see each other clearly. Because of that, she's able to see how his dark eyes fill with love, just for her. She's about to repeat that she loves him when one of his hands moves to her hair, grabbing it before kissing her.

By now she's used to the way he kisses, all-consuming, passionate, and sweet. Because he was sweet, with her mostly, and she loved that. She also loved that they knew each other's bodies by now, so kissing him was no longer a new and surprising thing, but rather a familiar one. His lips against hers felt like a 'welcome home' of sorts, making her feel warm and fuzzy all over. She loved kissing him, she loved that even though it was familiar, it was not boring. Nothing was ever boring with Sasha, who expertly knew what buttons to push to drive her over the edge.

That's not what he's doing now, though. No, right now he's not looking to get her all hot and bothered, he's just sealing her words. Aleksander's just savoring the words she just said, he's just reveling in the fact that their love is mutual.

"I love you, moya lyubov." He whispers when they separate, just barely, just enough so that they can breathe a little. Her forehead rests against his, and she smiles at his words, wondering for how long had he wanted to tell her that. There's no need for that now, everything is out in the open, they won't ever have to hide anything from each other.

"I love you too, lyubov' moya." She echoes, smiling at him. It feels so great to actually say it, to reciprocate him.

"Can you repeat that?"

She'll repeat it for as long as he needs to hear it, and even if he doesn't need to. She'll say it forever until they are old and gray because even then she'll love him.

"I love you, Sasha. I love you."

"You what now? I didn't see that coming!" He repeats, mischief all over his features. For a second Alina is frozen, hearing him repeat what she said, it's almost an out-of-body experience. But then, she starts laughing, completely uninhibited. Of course he would do that, joke about what just happened.

He joins in and laughs with her, and as he does, she thinks that before tonight she was completely convinced his laugh was the best sound ever.

Alina knows the best sound is to hear him say that he loves her. And she'll never get tired of hearing it, but better yet, she'll never get tired of feeling it. Because he has loved her for a long time, and she had not only felt it, but reciprocated it. Now they just can use the words as well.

That night they end up getting drunk on their love, whiskey completely forgotten.