Page 57 of Aaron

From time to time, Aaron had wondered what his future with Brad was. But there had been so many other things to think about, his new career and then Ken and Justin’s wedding and of course Leah’s adoption. He had been swamped.

Every so often, Aaron had let himself think about it. What would it be like being married to Brad? But he had sort of assumed that he would have to wait to find out if it ever happened. He wasn’t sure that Brad was the sort of guy who got married, and the truth was, Aaron didn’t need the ring to know that he belonged to Brad and Brad belonged to him.

So this was actually a complete surprise to him. Because Aaron had been so determined not to think about it, he hadn’t seen any trace of this happening, had been utterly unprepared, and he stared down at the man on one knee in front of him, and for a long moment, he thought that he must be dreaming. Or imagining things.

Surely if Brad had been thinking about getting married, Aaron would have been the first one to know about it? He would have had some inkling? But he hadn’t, and looking around, all of their friends looked expectant, eager, but not surprised. They had known, or at least suspected, while he’d had no idea.

“Aaron!” Lance hissed, reaching out and poking at his shoulder as Aaron looked down at Brad, still kneeling on the ground. “This is where you say something. Anything!”

“Yeah, stop being a dick,” Jamie added, and Aaron blinked, only then realizing just how long he must have been standing there, looking down at Brad, unable to believe that this was happening. He must be freaking the poor guy out because Aaron knew Brad well enough to know that this was not something that it was easy for him to do, to humble himself, to go to his knees.

It was embarrassing, in a way, to have this happen in front of all of his friends, but it was also somehow perfect. These men had all, in one way or another, worked their way into his heart, and he was no longer alone. No matter how much he might sometimes want to be.

It was right that they were here to watch this.

Aaron tried to speak, he really did, but for a few moments, he couldn’t. But with them, actions had always spoken louder than words, and he held his left hand out, fingers spread, ring finger isolated, for Brad’s ring.

With a real, true, sincere grin, Brad slid the ring onto his finger, and once the cool metal of the band had warmed to the temperature of his body, Aaron found that he was able to speak, after all.

“Yes.”

It was all that he could say, but all that he needed to say. In a second, Brad was in his arms, and it was only a few seconds after that that all of their friends swarmed them. They were at the middle of a big group hug, not the sort of thing which Aaron had ever thought to be a part of at all, much less be the center of.

He looked up into Brad’s eyes, and let the golden shine there soothe him, calm him, center him. Then they were kissing, and it was like no one was there at all, with no awkwardness, no strain, no stress. Just pure love and celebration.

“I love you,” Aaron managed to whisper, and Brad smiled and echoed the words, the ones that Aaron would have been willing to lay odds on never hearing and never saying. But he’d been wrong, so very wrong, and never so happy to be wrong about anything.

“Oh my God, you guys,” Ken complained, but when Aaron looked over at him, Ken had his arm around Justin’s shoulders and was hugging him tightly against himself, every bit the euphoric newlywed, both of them. “Just get a room already.”

Everyone laughed, including Brad, and even Aaron couldn’t help the smile which tugged at the corners of his eyes and lips and the joy that blossomed in the center of his heart, so much that he felt like it might actually explode. No one should be able to handle being this happy. It was like it should be against the law. Or at the very least, it had always been against his rules.

“Well, my love?” Brad murmured, the lovely, old-fashioned statement sounding somehow perfect coming from his beautiful lips. And Brad meant them, too, that was the really amazing thing.

“Hmm?” Aaron murmured, his fingers linking behind Brad’s neck, their bodies pressed flush together along their lengths, all the way up to their chest, where they split apart a little and only so that they could gaze at each other.

“I think that Ken has a good idea, for once. What do you think?”

While Ken grumbled and made a big show of being offended, Aaron shot his boyfriend—no, his fiancé now—a secret little smile.

“I guess even Ken can have a good idea now and then,” he allowed, and buoyed up on the warm wave of the shared laughter of all of his friends, these people who, along with his sister, Leah, were the only ones in the world who mattered to him, he took Brad around the waist and led him off.

Finding a room, as it just so happened, sounded like an amazing idea to him.

The End