The bell on the door of the flower shop jingles. I glance over, see who’s there, and break into a smile, setting aside the plant I was trimming.

Sometimes Aiden unexpectedly shows up to walk me home from work. I was hoping this would be one of those nights, and here he is.

He shuts the door after himself, keeping back the chilly evening air. His chestnut hair is all fucked up from the wind, and the cold has put a slight red color in his cheeks, but that’s a very sexy look on him. Pair all this with the sweet, sly smile playing around his mouth, the stubble darkening the hard line of his jaw... whew.

Destinee catches my eye from across the shop. She fans her face, and mouths: oh my god.

Aiden stomps his Timbs on the doormat, shedding a light layer of powdery snow, then strides over to the counter. His blue gaze, glittering and coy, lingers on my mouth before going to my eyes.

“Hi,” he says softly, leaning his elbows on the glass.

I’m blushing already, for some damn reason. “Hi.”

“So, can I ask what happened last night?” Aiden gathers one of my hands into both of his, smoothing his thumb over my knuckles. “Don’t get me wrong, I’m not complaining. That’s my new favorite way to wake up, actually. By miles.”

“Um, babe,” I manage, my cheeks burning. “Destinee is here?”

Aiden stares at me, then straightens up and turns around. He spots Destinee in the back of the shop, where she was semi-hidden by some oversized Boston ferns. She has quite the grin on her face.

Now we’re both blushing.

“Oh - hey, Des!” Aiden says awkwardly. “How’s, um. How’s-?”

“Please, don’t stop on my account,” she giggles. “Go on, Jamie, answer the question. What happened last night?”

“Alright, okay!” I set my secateurs down on the counter with a much louder clatter than I intended. “Aiden? Should we-?”

“Yep, get your coat.”

“Mhm, got it. Later, Des!”

Aiden and I step out into the night and let the shop door swing shut behind us. We exchange a mortified glance, and burst into laughter.

“I’m so sorry,” he groans, pressing his hands over his mouth. “I didn’t hear her there!”

Most people would say they didn’t see her there, but not Aiden. Not my Guardian.

I reach for his hand, fold it into mine. We set off together down the sidewalk, the dim glow of the streetlights gliding over our shoulders.

“It’s okay, babe, honestly. I’m pretty sure that Destinee and Rasheem might be a thing, and if that happens, she’ll forget about anything going on with us, anyways.”

“What?” Aiden blinks down at me. “Rasheem is single? What happened to Keiko?”

I look up at him, surprised.

“Keiko? Oh, she and Rasheem broke up ages back. I think she got a really good job offer out of state, or something? I’m not sure. It was only a year or two after high school, though.”

“Oh.” Aiden turns forward again, his eyebrows furrowing. “Guess my information is pretty out of date.”

I sense him sinking into his thoughts. My natural instinct to fill the silence is always there, but it’s much easier to resist, with so much practice. I wait quietly, enjoying the warmth of his palm against mine.

“Sometimes I forget how long I was gone,” he finally says. “Eight fucking years. Just - can’t believe how much I missed.”

I catch a glimpse of the expression on his face, and my heart twists painfully.

“Well, I can’t believe you made it eight years with only one backpack,” I tell him, trying to lighten the mood.

This does get a laugh, but only a very soft one. More of an exhale than anything.

“I mean, yeah, I only had one backpack on me at any given time, but I actually went through three. The one I have now is my fourth.”

“Three!” I click my tongue, shaking my head at him. “That’s wild, the way you say it like that’s a lot. Over eight years. I’m stunned that they didn’t wear out more often than that.”

“Well, two of them wore out, but one of them…”

Aiden fades off, hesitating.

I hold my breath. It’s not often that he shares things from this piece of his life, and I don’t want to say or do anything to stop him.

Slowly, he starts to speak again.

“When I was traveling, I always tried to avoid sleeping in public. But I was constantly fucked up, and also constantly on the road, so I was getting little or no sleep, for days and days on end. Turns out you can only go so long like that. So I screwed up, and passed out on a bus. I had my backpack on my lap, and my arms around it...”

“You’re not going to tell me that someone stole your backpack right out of your arms?” I ask, unable to stop myself.

“No,” Aiden says. “They didn’t bother with that. They just cut the top open, and took everything out. I didn’t even wake up.” He lets out a heavy breath. “Left my mom’s gemstones, though, and the map. Guess they didn’t see any value in those.”

“Jesus!” I hear myself sputter, before I can find a more calm and considered reaction.

Aiden shrugs. “That’s the breaks.”

I stare at him, my steps slowing down. Aiden sees the look on my face, and slows down, too.

“Hey, it’s alright,” he murmurs, and I could almost laugh. How is he the one comforting me after that story? It should be the other way around. I know that, and yet here we are. “S’all good, really,” Aiden says again. “Taught me the value of finding an actual mattress to lay down on, every once in a while.”

“But - it must have been scary, right? Jarring?” I bite my lip, then blurt out the question on my mind. “Was that the moment that got you thinking about getting sober, and coming home?”

Aiden falls silent, clearly trying to decide how much he wants to share.

“No, it wasn’t. The backpack thing happened before I even left the States. I think I was - nineteen, at the time? Twenty, tops.”

I don’t mean to - I don’t want to - but I picture it.

Aiden, still a teenager. Uprooted, adrift, sleep-deprived. Running on fumes. Passed out on the bus, the lights of town after lonely town sliding by beyond the windows. Someone silently taking a knife to the backpack cradled in his arms, slitting it open.

I imagine Aiden waking up, looking down into his lap, and finding his backpack - the only thing he had - emptied out, hollow.

It makes my heart ache for him, but also for the person who did the taking. I wonder how desperate you have to be, to do something like that. Especially to do it to Aiden, who even at nineteen, even asleep - cuts an extremely intimidating profile.

Present-day Aiden winds an arm around my shoulders.

“Hey,” he says gently. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to upset you. Should have kept it to myself.”

“No,” I protest, so forcefully that Aiden startles a little. “No, please don’t be sorry. I’m fine. I want to hear about your time away, honestly. It’s okay if you tell me in pieces, like you have been, but - I do want to hear all of it.”

Aiden’s blue eyes are searching my face for something.

“You’re really fine?” he asks.

“Yeah, I just… it’s hard for me to think about that happening to you, obviously.”

“Is that all?”

“Yep, that’s all,” I answer, then blow out a frustrated breath. Why can’t I just fucking lie? Even I can hear how false that sounded. It’s most definitely not going to be lost on Aiden.

He stops, folds his knuckles beneath my chin, and tilts my face up to his.

“Hey. What is it?”

“Nothing, man. Forget it. It’s embarrassing.”

“I don’t care.” Aiden bends to nuzzle his nose against mine. “What is it?”

I nibble my lip, staring over his shoulder. It’s much easier than looking at him.

“I - haven’t done a whole lot of traveling. It’s not really my thing. I went to visit Kasey once, when she was in New York City, and I was overwhelmed pretty much from minute one. Like, I stepped off of the train, and someone instantly backed me into a corner, very aggressively trying to sell me Rangers tickets.”

Aiden nods, biting back a smile. “Yep, sounds like New York.”

“But you’ve been everywhere, and been through so much, I just - I hope you don’t see me as someone with no - perspective? I guess?”

Aiden’s eyes widen. He tips his head to the side, and laughs.

I’m about to inform him that it’s rude to laugh at my legitimate goddamn concerns, but before I can, he brushes a kiss onto my lips. A soft kiss, slow and lingering.

The world briefly blurs around me.

“You have no idea,” he murmurs, “How much I fucking love seeing the world through your eyes.” He straightens up, ruffling my hair. “Companion Plant.”

I swallow hard, somewhat dazed. Aiden takes my hand, and gives it a gentle tug.

We start to walk. It’s a minute or two before I’m able to speak again.

“Here I was worried that you were looking at me like - I don’t know. A little kid, hanging from the monkey bars, thinking he knows about shit.”

“No. That is not how I see you. Not at all.”

He’s using that firm voice again, the one it’s impossible to argue with.

Smiling to myself, I lean my head against Aiden’s arm.

“Tell you one thing,” he says eventually. “After that incident on the bus, I went and found a hostel for the night. Got myself a room with a lock and key and an actual bed, then got six solid hours of sleep. After so long without it… man, it was heaven, in the form of the world’s tiniest twin-sized bed.”

I smile up at Aiden, and find him already smiling down at me.

“I’m glad you choose to spend so much time hanging out in my bed, these days,” I say, poking his chest.

“Yeah, heaven has been significantly upgraded since I was nineteen,” he answers, and I laugh.

We walk along in comfortable silence, until a flash of something bright catches my eye. I stop, peering into the window of the store we were about to walk past. It’s a vintage shop, and there’s a sleek silver picture frame in the display.

From behind me, Aiden twines his arms around my waist, then sets his chin on my shoulder.

“You want something?” he says softly, into my ear.

I turn my head to look at him, caught by surprise.

“I thought your entire paycheck disappears into your savings account, basically every time?”

“Yeah, but I got paid this morning. Haven’t transferred it yet.”

This offer makes my toes curl in my boots, even if I don’t intend to accept it.

“No, thank you, but that was very cute of you.” I press a kiss onto his cheek. “I don’t want anything, I was just thinking - maybe we should print out that picture I took at the hospital. The one of Noah, Raj, and Mel, with Nik? We could put it in a frame and give it to them, I bet they’d love it. The picture is so sweet, did I show you?”

I pull my phone out and find the photo of Noah holding Nik, with Raj and Mel on either side of him. They all look so radiantly happy, Raj’s head tipped in towards Noah, Melanie’s hand on his arm.

“Aw, that is sweet,” Aiden says.

He’s smiling, but his eyes slowly narrow, and his expression turns thoughtful.

“What?” I ask.

Aiden plucks the phone from my hand and examines the picture more closely.

“Almost - kinda seems like…” He trails off, shaking his head. “I don’t know. Nevermind.” He hands me back my phone, and we start walking again. “Nice to see Noah looking so happy, though. You remember what he looked like when he first showed up at your place with that shiner Ralph gave him?”

“Seriously. He barely looks like the same person.”

Aiden and I come to a stop. We can either walk one block further to my apartment, or turn left and head towards Kent’s house.

“My place, or yours?” Aiden asks, then hastily pins on - “Or I can just walk you home, if you don’t want me to stay. I know we didn’t have plans tonight.”

“Okay,” I scoff. “You’re really gonna text me the way you have been all day, then send me home by myself? Like a mean, sadistic bastard?”

Aiden laughs, and gives my shoulder a shove. It was obviously intended to be playful, but it nearly knocks me on my ass, especially with the snow and ice beneath my boots.

Aiden catches me before I can fall, in the same movement pulling me up close to him. I had a whole torrent of Bicep-Boy-related insults I was prepared to let out, but seeing the look in his eyes, I go perfectly still and silent.

“Should I not have texted you like that all day?” His voice has dropped to that low, husky rumble, the one that always makes me melt. “I’m sorry,” he purrs, like he’s not sorry at all. “It’s just that I had this really hot dream last night, where you woke me up out of nowhere, and then-”

“Okay, we both know that wasn’t a dream,” I laugh, and Aiden grins.

“Really? Felt like one.”

I stare up at him, officially in full hopeless-heart-eyed-idiot mode.

“My place,” I say firmly, taking his hand.

Aiden smiles, then sets off again, leading the way.

“So you still love me, despite learning that I'm a Guardian who couldn't even successfully guard a backpack? That’s cool of you, dude. Thanks.”

“Stop it,” I laugh. God, Aiden is killing me tonight. My heart is going to pop. I need to calm down. “Let’s, um. Let’s get back to how we want to frame that picture? We should pick something that’ll go with the photo.”

“Oh, then can I see it again?”

I pull my phone from my jacket pocket and hand it to Aiden, who puts in my passcode and takes a close look at the picture. He taps his thumb on the screen to keep it from going dark, and accidentally scrolls to the previous photo.

It’s the one I took in the hallway outside of Melanie’s hospital room. Raj, with his head resting on Noah’s shoulder.

Aiden stops, staring at it. His eyes cut sharply up to mine.

“Snagged that at the hospital,” I explain. “I thought Melanie would think it was cute.”

Aiden’s gaze drops back down to the picture.

“Yeah, bet she would,” he says slowly.

It’s occurring to me that even if I don’t say anything to Aiden about what’s going on, there’s a very real chance that he’s going to figure it out on his own. I really want him to, because I don't like keeping things from him, but... I also know that I shouldn’t do anything to nudge him towards the answer. That’s basically the same as telling him, at least in my mind.

He hands me back my phone without further comment, and we start walking again, our breaths misting in the cold.

I unlock the door of my building and step inside, but Aiden pauses on the steps. I stop, too, watching him.

“Hey,” I say quietly, leaning back out. “Did you change your mind? It’s fine if you don’t want to stay over tonight. I was totally joking about you being a mean sadistic bastard. I mean, you are, but not because of that.”

Aiden lets out a snort of laughter.

“No, I definitely didn’t change my mind. I’m just taking a second to look before we go inside. Did you not notice?”

He grabs my hand, pulls me back out onto the steps. I follow his gaze to the sky, and freeze.

The heavy grey snow clouds have completely dissipated, and the night is perfectly clear. The sky is thick with stars, in every direction. Glowing and shimmering, like all those floating pieces of glass, that night in the Ghost Office.

“Whoa,” I manage.

“Yeah,” Aiden agrees.

I can’t believe I didn’t notice, but now that I think about it, it makes sense.

Easy to forget about all the millions of other stars, with the sun himself walking by your side.