Eliana wasn't the kind of person who strolled. Hence, wandering relatively aimlessly with her hand looped around Aro's arm was something that definitely felt unnatural for her to be doing. That pretty much explained the way she'd occasionally scuff her shoes against the ground and awkwardly glance around at anything but him.
Soon enough, they were outside in the gardens. The rainclouds that seemingly hadn't budged at all since the St. Marcus Day Festival hung heavy over their heads, but the umbrella Aro held over them ensured she missed the worst of the storm. Regardless, she could still feel the bitter chill of the wind that swept around them.
"You seem distracted, amore mio."
"Hm?" She glanced at him briefly, only to find his full attention on her and her alone. Her eyes scanned the ground by her feet as she feigned fascination in the slight imperfections in the cobblestone path. "No, I'm fine. Where were you all day by the way?"
Aro sighed. "Due to unfortunate circumstances, I was unable to see you today. But at least my brothers managed to negotiate their own ways out of it."
"Oh, so basically they just snuck out of work and left you to do the rest," Eliana concluded. "That sounds like something Caius would do, but not so much Marcus."
"Marcus is much more sly than you give him credit for," Aro countered, "but enough about that." They reached the end of the path, presumably near the end of the garden, where Aro motioned for her to sit beside him. Although she could feel the slight dampness of the bench on her jeans, the sudden feeling of Aro's arm around her shoulders made up for it. "How has your day been, cara mia?"
"Um, oh," she stammered as she came up with an answer, "it was okay. You didn't really miss anything. Except the wasp incident. That's about it."
"Ah yes, the wasp incident," Aro humoured quietly to himself with a laugh.
"You act like you already knew. How did you find out about that?" She narrowed her eyes at him. "Did Caius or Marcus tell you? Seriously?"
Aro went quiet. She felt him carefully withdraw his arm from her shoulders, and although he hadn't physically moved away, she still felt a slight feeling of emptiness.
She leant over a little to look up at his face. "Aro?" she asked again. "What? Did I do something-?"
"No, no, you did not, amore," Aro interjected quickly. "Please break that habit of automatically placing the blame on yourself. You have done nothing wrong."
"But if there's blame to be placed, and I'm not the one responsible . . ." Her eyebrows furrowed together in confusion. "What is it then?" When she received no reply again, she tugged a little on his sleeve, which was enough to immediately gain his attention. "Aro, tell me."
When he finally made eye contact with her, rather than being met with the usual softer smile, she was met with something that was alarmingly serious. "There is a reason I brought you out here. I have . . ." He sighed and rotated himself to face her better. "I should have explained this to you a lot sooner. When I was transformed, I developed the gift of tactile telepathy. This allows me to read and memorise every thought and memory a person has ever had with a single touch."
He paused his explanation right there for a moment, which was just long enough for her to immediately draw her arms closer to herself. "But you didn't . . . you . . ." she trailed off.
"It is . . ." He gritted his teeth together. This was something he had to do, and he knew it, no matter how much he'd rather leave this to a better day. ". . . It is uncontrollable. Your friend Isabella is the only being who has not been affected by my gift on contact."
Realisation slowly etched its way onto her face. She backed up further from him and then glanced down at her own hands. "So all this time you . . ."
Aro made no attempt to move any closer. He knew, if she needed space at any moment, this was the moment. "I know what you're thinking, but-"
"No." Eliana stood up, her hands clutched to her chest. "No, you don't know what I'm thinking . . . and frankly I wish you never did! Why would you . . ." She shook her head in disbelief, ". . . a-and without telling me? If I wanted you to know anything you've seen, I would've told you myself. I never wanted you to know every thought, every feeling, every private memory I've ever had!"
"Eliana, please." He stood up cautiously, as if too fast a movement would frighten her away. "Know that I would never intentionally infringe on your privacy."
"But you did," she argued. "By not telling me, you did. You now know everything about me, everything! Why didn't you tell me in the first place? Did you really think that I'd be okay with this?" She took a shaky step back. "I can't believe you've been reading my mind this whole time!"
"Cara mia . . ." Aro began to extend a hand towards her, not exactly expecting her to take it, but not expecting her to lean away from him entirely either.
Eliana shook her head and gulped back any tears that threatened to fall. "I'm going inside," she muttered, her hands in her pockets. She didn't so much as spare a glance at him. "Don't follow me."
Eliana paid no attention at all to the fact that she could almost feel the presence of someone, likely one of the guards, shadowing her distantly. She wasn't entirely certain if she knew the way back anyway, but fortunately it didn't take her nearly as long as she'd expected for her to locate her room, open the door, and lock herself inside.
She immediately removed her rain soaked clothes and replaced them for the first dry ones she could find. With her phone plugged into the wall, she climbed directly into her bed and tugged the sheets over her head. Was she pretty certain that her reaction was nothing but childish? Sure. But did she care in the very slightest? Not even a bit.
She was pretty certain that it was getting late in the evening anyway by that point. She restlessly turned from side to side in every sleeping position possible, trying to find just one single way that would allow her to actually be at peace.
What Aro had said replayed in her head. She thought back to each time he'd reached out for her hand, each time she'd thought he was just consoling her or comforting her, not realising that he was only taking the opportunity to monitor her own mental state and each and every thought she had about them.
She turned over again. Part of her wanted to convince herself that he hadn't had any malicious intent at all, hadn't intended to keep it from her, but if he had, then why hadn't he told her sooner? Given her a moment to even consent to the idea of it? The things he could've possibly seen could never be unseen. In theory, he already knew her far better than she even knew herself.
But if he had intended to monitor her secretly, then surely he would've kept it a secret for longer, far longer than he had. It didn't explain why he'd waited for so long in the first place, but maybe there was a chance that he'd wanted to tell her all along. But why hadn't he?
Again, she turned over, this time so that she was facing away from the door. She rubbed her temples in an attempt to dispel the growing headache that was forming and sighed. After a moment, she sat up a little against the pillows and absently traced lines along the duvet that was covering most of her body. At least not thinking about it was making things a little easier to deal with, if only a little.
In hindsight, Eliana should've expected the knock on the door. She refused to reply, knowing that whoever it was would not only already know that she was in there but be able to open it themselves if they wanted to, regardless of the lock she'd placed on it.
When the door opened and clicked closed again, she already had a good enough idea of who it was to avoid looking up. She folded her arms over her chest and slid down further.
"I thought I said "don't follow me"," she said evenly.
"You did." She felt the bed dip slightly as Aro sat himself beside her. "I wanted to apologise properly."
She didn't say anything, not even the slightest acknowledgement that he had spoken. Taking her silence as permission to speak, he continued.
"I never intended to hurt you, carina. I think you know that too. But, as the startlingly popular saying goes, the road to hell is paved with good intentions." He placed his hand on her leg gently. She glanced at it for long enough to see the black leather gloves he was wearing. "I didn't tell you sooner due to . . ." He sighed, "cowardice, really. You had every right to deny all physical contact with me, yet I didn't even provide you with said choice. That was a complete misjudgement on my part."
She remained quiet for some time, before eventually muttering, "I don't like secrets being kept from me. You know that by now. I don't like being left in the dark about anything. I get why you wouldn't tell me, but still, it hurts a little." She let out a shaky breath. "But I shouldn't have gotten so touchy about it. It wasn't your fault. Well, it . . . kinda was," she admitted hesitantly, "but I was still a little harsher than I should've been. Just, promise me you'll be honest from now on." Eliana finally moved her gaze to him, and found his eyes already transfixed on hers. "Please."
He nodded, a smile slowly returning to his face as he tucked a stray strand of her hair behind her ear. "I promise. No more unnecessary secrets."
"Unnecessary secrets?" She raised an eyebrow at him. "So there are secrets anyway?"
"Not secrets, only stories for another time," he clarified. "The only exception to my promise is if your own physical, mental, or emotional safety is concerned."
"I'm not a child," she reminded him.
He laughed under his breath. "That you are not. But you are not immortal either. Keeping you safe and happy will always be my priority, at least until you can defend yourself."
After a moment, she reluctantly nodded in agreement before reaching for his hands. She slid the gloves off, her fingers trembling a little, and tossed them across the room. "I don't mind," she told him, her gaze moving from their joined hands back up to his face. "Not really. Not now that I know."
In that moment, she'd never had such an insuppressible urge to kiss someone in her entire life. It wasn't like she'd ever even kissed someone before. She wouldn't know what to do anyway. She fruitlessly fought against the urge to glance down at his lips, and then back at his eyes. She was feeling dizzy. Was this normal? Was Aro's facing coming closer or her vision about to black out?
That question was only answered for her once Aro cupped her cheek with his hand and captured her lips with his. She froze for a moment in surprise, but it took her less than a few seconds for her to hesitantly kiss him back. It was obvious that she was unsure of herself, tense and a little awkward, but it was as he repositioned them so that he was hovering over her with an arm around her back that she let herself relax and attempt to enjoy the moment without letting her thoughts go haywire.
Eliana wasn't entirely sure how long it was until they pulled apart, but she guessed it had been no longer than a minute, considering how out of breath and flushed she was. She noticed that Aro's eyes had darkened considerably and the look he was giving her was . . . somewhat different.
His eyes drifted down from hers to her kiss-reddened lips, and then to her chest as she took quick and uneven breaths. Before he could let his thoughts go any further however, he allowed himself one more brief kiss before slipping under the covers beside her with his shoes removed, holding her close to him.
"I'm sorry," she whispered as she rested her forehead against his chest.
He shook his head at her. "You needn't apologise, Eliana."
"I-I know," she replied. "But still, I was unreasonable. I'm just . . ."
"If the next words to come out of that pretty little mouth of yours are "I'm sorry" then I don't want to hear it," he interrupted teasingly.
"Well actually I was going to say "really sorry", not "I'm sorry", I'll have you know," she retorted. "But I mean it."
He sighed. "I know you do, cara mia . . . You know, I do wish you shared this side of you more frequently."
Eliana looked up at him in confusion. "What side of me? I have a hidden side of me?"
"You seem to be so timid and shy most of the time," he told her. "It is just a relief to see you finally becoming more at ease around us—don't you dare apologise," he warned her. "I am beginning to wonder whether we should put a punishment system in place for each unneeded apology you deliver, but maybe that is an idea for another day."
"What did you have in mind?" she asked, not entirely sure if she wanted to know the answer.
Aro nodded and kissed her forehead. "That is not an answer you need to know just yet. But I can provide you with an answer to a previous internal question you had. Marcus theorises that-"
"You told Marcus about what happened?" she interjected.
He gave her a look. "Vampiric hearing, remember?"
She froze. "So everyone can hear us now? We might as well just have conversations through some kind of intercom system."
"This room, as well as a select few others, has been heavily soundproofed," he assured her. "It is perfectly possible that Caius and Marcus can just about hear us, but that is it. But as I was saying, Marcus theorises that the reason that your reaction seemed marginally on the irrational side was likely that you felt betrayed. A betrayal is strenuous for a mate bond as it is, but for a true mate bond, such a newly-formed and fragile one at that, it is no wonder that you felt the way you did. That coupled with the fact that I upset you in the first place."
After contemplating his words, she nodded. "That makes sense," she agreed. "It's . . . more than a little weird to think that those two are probably listening right now."
"They may not be," Aro reminded her, ". . . but I think they are. Would you prefer them not to?"
She sighed and shook her head, nuzzling closer to him. "I don't think I care."
He chuckled lightly, sending a slight rumble through his chest. "Fair enough. You'd best sleep now, cara mia." He ran his fingers through her hair slowly. "It's getting late."
Eliana exhaled heavily and shut her eyes. "Fine. But only because you asked me nicely."
"Yes, for only that reason and not because you are barely conscious anymore," he teased. "Buona notte, cara. Ti amo tanto."
All he received was a faint hum in response as her heartbeat gradually slowed and her breaths steadied out. He smiled at her, finally in a blissful state, pressing a kiss to the top of her head before softly purring against her ear.
⊱ ────── {.⋅ ✯ ⋅.} ────── ⊰
Author's note: I'm not 100% sure why I made it so that this argument both occurred and was resolved in the same chapter, but ah well, it saves extra hassle I suppose. I sort of just wanted to reiterate the fact that Aro's gift, seeing into people's heads, should absolutely be consensual, and honestly fanfics should really start normalising consent.
Anyway, thank you so much for reading, stay safe, and ily lots!
