Chapter 19: Pink
For the next week, things were tense in the house. Quatre finally had to go back to run his business, but he left his well-wishes with the family and advised the distraught Relena to stay a little while longer and just weather things through. Even so, she was about ready to leave when there was a break in the storm. . . .
On the second week of Relena's visit, Aiden's family was out, leaving him and Relena alone in the house, watching the news. After a while, though, to avoid the building tension, Aiden went to bed early. He took off his shoes in his room outside, sitting on the edge of his bed in the dim lighting of the overhead. Normally, on nice days, he was either outside or left the door open for the sunlight to play in, as he had no windows. But that night was dark and he needed the faint yellow glow so that he wouldn't trip over something in the floor.
As he was about to slip off his shirt, a faint knock came on the door and he sighed softly, settling the dark cotton back onto his body. Opening the door, he let Relena in. She stepped in timidly, as this was different than every other time she had been in his room, and sat tensely on the edge of the bed.
"We need to talk," she said, not looking at him.
"We've talked," he told her stonily.
"Aiden," she started, spreading her hands wide, "I love you. Why can't you understand that?"
He looked away, arms folded. "I do. I'm just not going to do anything about it."
"Aiden. Please."
"You want me to leave my family?!" he burst out bitterly. "They're all I have!"
She leaned forward earnestly and whispered, "No, they're not."
He sank beside her and buried his head into his hands.
She slipped an arm awkwardly around his shoulders, as he was hunched over, and brought up the other, tightening both arms around his neck as he sat up and held her because there was nothing else he could do.
"I love you," he whispered, kissing her gently and giving in to a few of the emotions swirling through him. She pushed him back onto the bed and deepened the kiss, her hair falling around them, but he stopped her and lay her down beside him. "Please don't," he murmured as she snuggled into his side. "I don't want to take advantage of you."
"Mm," she relented absently, trailing her fingers across his abdomen, pushing his shirt up a little and moving them to bare skin.
Aiden drew a quick breath in when she did that and pulled her hand out. "Don't," he told her breathlessly.
"Why?" she gave him an impish smile. "Like it?"
He shook his head absently, blowing strands of her hair away from his face. "Tickles," he told her, smiling in a way that made her heart beat faster.
She leaned over and kissed him, her hand flat on his stomach and moving up under his shirt. "Sh," she told him when he tried to say something, and his eyes glazed over with something that earned him a deep, soft, sweet kiss. He pulled her on top of him and she sat up briefly to tug her shirt off.
Aiden drew in a sharp breath as she tossed the shirt beside them and lowered her mouth again to his.
There was a knock at the door.
They looked at each other in stunned alarm and Relena scrambled off the bed, gasping softly as someone tried the knob. Her knees went weak with relief as the slight rattling proved it to be locked. But then Aiden was grabbing her arm and shoving her into his bathroom and gave her terse, soft instructions to be quiet. The walls were very thin in there. He locked the bathroom door behind him and shut it firmly.
All this took only half a minute, but an excruciatingly long one, as Aiden's father was calling from outside. Aiden ruffled his hair and glanced around, seeing Relena's shirt on the bed, and grabbed it, throwing it under the bed in his haste.
He opened the door.
"What took you so long?" his father scowled at him, ushering Kia in. "Your sister has to use the bathroom and we forgot our house key." He bustled the girl toward the bathroom, but Aiden got in front of them.
"You can't," he told them hurriedly, "the – door is stuck!"
His father looked at it oddly as Kia danced in place, crossing and uncrossing her legs. "Maybe I can get it to open," he pondered.
"I have to go!" Kia replied, her face pained.
"Hn," his father murmured and grabbed the bathroom doorknob, jiggling it and pushing on the door. Aiden watched in horror.
"Dad, it's fine, I'll get it later!" he attempted, trying not to let on how frantic he actually was.
"Hey, Aiden, what's this?" Yamashi had spied something pink under his brother's bed and pulled it out curiously. He held up the shirt, which his mother, in the doorway, stared at and quickly took from her younger son.
"Honey, stop it," she ordered sharply, holding the shirt discreetly at her side. Aiden's father jiggled the door a little more.
"The problem is that it's locked," he muttered, not paying attention to his wife. "Get me some wire or something, I can have this opened in no time."
"Honey," she repeated, and grabbed his arm, pulling him away from the door. "Aiden, get your key and open the house for Kia. The rest of you go with them." As they left, his father still muttering about getting the bathroom door open, she caught Aiden and told him quietly, "Stay in the house for a while." He didn't look at her.
"Mom . . ." his voice was pained and guilty.
"Sh," she pushed him gently out the door. "Go on. Kia's about to pop."
"Yeah," he left, casting one agonized look back.
Aiden's mother closed the door behind her family and locked it. She walked thoughtfully over to the bathroom and knocked on the door. "Come on out, sweetie."
After a pause, the handle jiggled as it was unlocked and Relena opened it, coming out hesitantly with arms folded modestly over her chest. She was in a loose, knee-length skirt and her bra, blushing profusely as she was handed her shirt and slipped it on.
"Sit," Aiden's mother patted the spot beside her on the bed. Relena complied, but couldn't look at her.
"I'm sorry, ma'am," Relena murmured, tears blurring her vision. "It wasn't his fault, it was all mine. He said he didn't want to take advantage of me and I pushed it. I'm so sorry."
She sniffled and the tears fell.
Aiden's mother wrapped an arm around her shoulders. "Why?" She knew, but she wanted Relena to tell her.
"Because I love him," Relena traced the pattern of the comforter and sniffled again, "and we can't be together."
"Why not?"
"I can't leave my job, I care too much about earth and the colonies to quit, and he can't leave all of you." She shook her head, hair and tears flying.
"Why can't he?"
Relena blinked at her with red eyes. "Because he loves you. You're his family and he needs you."
The older woman sighed, pushing brown hair out of her face. "We're his family, yes. But that doesn't mean we don't want him to go and be happy – to get a job he enjoys, marry a girl he loves, and have children of his own."
"He doesn't want to leave you."
She smiled, but it was a sad smile. "And we don't want him to leave. No mother wants to see her children leave, but it would pain me to see him stay here and be unhappy because of a sense of obligation to us." She took Relena's hands earnestly. "I just want my children to be happy."
They were silent for a few moments, just sitting together and thinking. Aiden's mother finally broke the silence.
"I think you make him happy."
Relena looked at her, at the older woman's solemn face and the definite twinkle in her dark eyes. "So . . ."
"So, I intend to do something about it." She stood and pulled Relena with her. "Come dear, I'll settle you in for the night and have a long talk with my son tomorrow."