We could stay outside, but Aiden is still recharging, and I don't want him to burn up all of his energy. So we find ourselves snuggled up together on the loft mattress. No Heliomancer heat, only the shared warmth of our bodies to keep us cozy.

It turns out to be more than enough. I feel warmed from within, my heart ignited.

I’m so ridiculously, unbelievably happy. And Aiden is, too, his entire face expressing it. Those fine lines at the corners of his eyes are deepened by his smile, thrown into sharp relief.

I lean up to kiss them, soft and slow. Aiden goes very still, the hand that was trailing up and down my spine coming to rest on my lower back. He closes his eyes.

When I pull back, I take a long look at him. The patchwork of light and shadow in the Ghost Office spills across his face and body, shifting with the movement of the sunlight through the tree boughs outside.

Aiden opens his eyes, then suddenly rolls us over - catching me by surprise, startling a laugh out of me - and presses me down into the mattress. Gently drags the tip of his nose down the bridge of mine.

I smile up at him, drinking in the sight.

After the ordeal I went through to get Aiden back, I think I'm entitled to take my time appreciating every fine detail of him, each and every little thing that I longed for when he was gone. I feel insatiable for all of it. The swell and fall of his chest with his breathing. The rough scratch of his beard, the velvet softness of his skin. The faint turquoise lines of his veins. I move my fingertips up and down them with featherlight touches, all the pathways of his body, the pathways of my home.

Aiden lets out a soft, happy little sigh. He tucks his face into my neck and settles down on top of me, sinking me deeper into the mattress. He’s either too tired or too comfortable to keep the full press of his weight off of me, but that’s fine. I don’t feel crushed by it, more - grounded. Secure, protected. Planted, right where I’m supposed to be.

I hope he never moves. After days of feeling uprooted and lost, this is exactly what I need.

We left the rolltop door of the Ghost Office pushed up. Cold winter air flows in from outside, carrying the sounds and scents of the trees and the river. Even held as I am beneath the weight of Aiden's body, my lungs feel expanded. The scary moment when I couldn’t get any air at all, when I was gasping for it, alone in Aiden’s bed - it feels distant, almost impossible. How could it have been possible, when I’m capable of breathing like this?

It’s because Aiden changes everything. Everything.

I think of how my apartment felt when he was gone. His absence killed all of the warmth, the light, the air itself. Things I have an abundance of, now that he’s back in my arms.

I feel warmth, but also a vivid sense of clarity from the cold air in my lungs. It's like I'm wrapped in sunlit clouds, right now. But even this morning, before we had talked and worked through everything that happened, the warmth was back in my apartment. Because Aiden was back.

And soon we’ll have the warmth of our own place, our own home together.

Smiling to myself, I work my fingers into Aiden’s chestnut hair. “What kind of place should we look for?”

Aiden doesn’t answer, and I can’t see his face, because it’s still nestled into my neck. I wait, but - nothing.

"Aiden?" I turn my head to try and see him better. "Did you fall asleep?"

He seems to feel the vibration of my voice through the contact of our intertwined bodies, and he lifts his head, blinking.

“Did you say something?” he asks.

I gaze up at him, concerned that maybe the noise in his head is getting loud again. “Yeah, didn’t you hear me?”

“I…” Aiden shrugs, a little abashed. “No. Sorry. I was just - listening. You sound really, really nice right now. We sound really nice. Guess I kinda got lost in it.” A shy smile pulls up the corners of his mouth. “I wish I could keep it. I’m trying to memorize what it sounds like.”

I bite down on my smile, but I'm sure that it's showing in my eyes.

“Well, I don’t know about you,” I answer, gently scratching my fingernails through Aiden's beard, “But once we move in together, I’m gonna sound this happy pretty often. So. You don't have to memorize it.”

Aiden bites his lip, staring down at me, his eyes suddenly even more radiant than they were a second ago. Aquamarine in their brightness. I have to take a moment to absorb the color before I can speak.

“What?” I ask, looping my arms around his neck.

“Nothing, just-” He shrugs his sculpted shoulders. “Just glad that this is something you really want. The last few days have been really, um..."

"Emotional?" I suggest.

"Hardcore," Aiden says, at the same time. "Oh. Yeah, that's pretty much what I meant. The point is, I was worried that maybe I caught you at a time when we were all worked up, and I - I want you to move in with me because you want to, not because I happened to ask right after we went through something really intense together-”

“Oh, my god.” I laugh so hard that I can feel my nose scrunching up. “Aiden! I want to move in with you. That's why I said yes, you dumb, stupid idiot.”

“Okay, okay, I wanted to be sure, that's all-”

“Dumb. Stupid. Idiot.” I punctuate each word with a kiss. “Why don’t you understand how much I love you? Do you not believe me, when I tell you?”

“I’m sorry!” Aiden groans. “I don’t mean to be all insecure about it, it’s just…” His eyes travel slowly over my face, his pupils dilating until only thin blue rings remain around them. He gives his shoulders a helpless shrug. “Sometimes I can’t help but worry that I’m aiming too high. I mean - look at you.”

I feel the incendiary burst of a serious blush spreading across my face.

“Okay,” I groan, turning away from him. “Now I’m the one who can’t handle you. Shut up forever, please.”

Aiden laughs, and that sweet, bright huff hits me right in my heart.

“You don’t actually have to shut up forever,” I pin on. “Don’t do that. I was so scared when you couldn’t talk. I don’t know if I’ve ever said it to you before, but - I really love your voice, Aiden.”

He clearly had some teasing answer all lined up before I said this, but he swallows it instantly and looks down at me, his blue eyes soft and warm, shy again. I could swear I’ve caught him by surprise, which is odd. Doesn’t he know how he sounds? How much I love the deep richness of his voice, the huskiness it gets when we’re tangled up together in bed, the rough purr of it in the mornings?

I didn’t say it before now because I didn’t realize that it needed to be said. But going off the look on Aiden's face, maybe it did.

Instead of answering, he buries his face into my neck again, and I laugh, tickled by his beard.

“So,” I say, toying with his hair. “What kind of place do you want to get? That's what I asked, when you didn't realize I was talking.”

Aiden huffs out a soft laugh, a rush of warmth against my skin.

“Can’t believe we’re actually talking about this,” he murmurs, sounding a little dazed. “I’m gonna wake up any second, now. Like - pinch me, man, 'cause I must be dreaming.”

I oblige, and Aiden lets out a sharp, startled noise, jerks his head back to glare at me.

“Jamie!”

“What?” I ask innocently. “You said to pinch you.”

“I definitely didn’t mean on my ass, you goddamn little demon - how did you even do it that hard, with your hands like this?”

I shrug my shoulders, about to make some joke about how a few bruises aren’t about to slow me down - but before I can, Aiden lifts the borrowed sweater I’m wearing and sticks his head beneath it. It’s way too big on me, and there’s plenty of room for him to fit.

Aiden may only be ticklish on the back of his neck, but I can’t say the same, and his face unexpectedly pressed into my solar plexus draws a gasp of laughter from me. I shove him back out from beneath the sweater, scrambling to get away, but he immediately traps me with his body weight, pinning me in place with his hips while he starts feathering light, ticklish kisses all over my throat.

I laugh again, struggling to get out from beneath Aiden, as if the power of just one of those rock-hard biceps couldn’t hold me in place for days. He apparently thinks it's funny that I'd even try. He lets out a deep, rumbling laugh against my neck, which tickles me even more.

I’m doing everything I can to escape, writhing beneath him, holding two handfuls of his soft shirt, then flattening my palms on his chest to push at him, then trying to push my hips up into his to throw him off of me.

Although - I’m not sure that I actually want it to stop. I love hearing laughter pour from Aiden in waves like this. He has to worry about everything, all the time. I want to be the place where he can play, dream, unwind. And that huffing, happy laughter is my favorite sound in the world, next to the honey-smooth rumble of his voice.

But I do need to breathe.

His name rises from my mouth on a bubble of breathless laughter, my hands clutching at the solid muscle of his shoulders. “Aiden!”

He stops abruptly, draws back. I open my eyes, gasping for air, and find him staring down at me.

I’m sure I look like a complete fucking mess right now, my clothes all rumpled and my hair fucked up and my cheeks a burning shade of red from laughing so hard. I still have yet to get my breath back, or to stop smiling.

Aiden, though, suddenly looks very serious. He lifts one massive hand and cups my face with it, gently drags his thumb over my lips. His breathing is heavier than it was before, but I know it’s not from the effort of holding me down.

I find myself looking up at him with an equally serious expression. Something lights on fire in my chest, and a slow pulse of heat rolls out from it to every part of my body. I swallow, hoping that Aiden won’t notice, but his eyes flick to my throat and watch the movement of my adam’s apple.

I open my mouth, with no idea what I’m about to say to him. I end up saying nothing, because Aiden dips his head and stops with his lips only a breath away from mine. One lock of his glossy hair falls forward and brushes against my forehead.

Our breaths mingle in the fractional space between us. My heart begins to pound hard and fast, my body heating up more and more the longer that Aiden keeps me suspended in expectancy.

Very slowly, Aiden coaxes my lips all the way open with his, then slips his tongue into my mouth. He sinks his weight into me again, pressing our bodies together. One hand moves to grasp me by the back of my neck, holding me still.

I melt beneath his touch.

My fingers start to roam, skimming slowly over Aiden’s face, then up inside of his shirt, then down to dip beneath the waistband of his jeans. I’m not consciously guiding my movements, only following what I feel. He's suddenly throwing off heat again, and it seeps into the sore joints and muscles of my hands, soothing them.

Delicious textures meet my fingertips. The scratch of Aiden’s beard, the intimate tickle of his body hair, the softness of his skin, the hard curves of his hip bones.

Aiden's body responds to what I'm doing, but our mouths don’t break apart. Aiden is still working his tongue against mine at that achingly slow pace, like he needs time to savor every taste he takes of it. I wrap my arms around him, slip my fingers beneath his shirt, and lightly ghost them up his spine, trailing only the very tips of them against his skin.

Aiden shivers, then lets out a heavy, shuddering breath. It spills into my mouth and over my lips, sending a wave of goosebumps down my body.

He sits back, pulling me upright, too. Careful to take me by my wrists, not my injured hands.

“You wanna go home?” he asks.

The husky purr of his voice tells me everything about what he wants to do when we get there.

I smile at him, my cheeks still on fire. “Your place or mine?”

“Mine,” he says firmly, getting to his feet, taking me with him. “I can already tell that I’m gonna explode stuff, and I’d rather break my things than y-”

He stops mid-sentence, his blue eyes getting very bright again.

“What?” I ask softly, curling my fingers beneath his chin.

“Nothing.” Aiden huffs out a quiet laugh. “Just... soon it won’t be your place or mine. It’ll be ours.”

I match his smile, and we laugh together, both of us still kind of in disbelief.

“Cool,” I manage. “Can’t wait for us to have our own spot, so you can explode all of the windows and demolish the whole kitchen. Not really an option at Kent’s house, is it?”

Aiden tries to look insulted.

“My control is a little better than that, okay? It would take a lot to make me slip up badly enough to break all of the windows and everything in the kitchen of our brand new place.”

I hook a finger into the waistband of Aiden's jeans, fix him with a devious smile. “Is that a challenge?”

“No, man,” he begins, then stops immediately, looking at me with eager eyes. “I mean - yeah, definitely, that’s absolutely what it is.”

I laugh and swat my hand at Aiden’s head, but he ducks it easily and locks his arms around me.

“Last chance to back out, Keane,” he murmurs, pressing his nose against mine.

“No, thank you.” I brush a kiss onto his lips. “Not gonna happen. We're moving in together, dummy. Get it through your head."

“Honestly,” Aiden says, drawing back, “It's hard for me, dude. Sometimes I still can’t believe that you and I… I just - for so long, I never thought there was any chance that we - like, much less than moving in together, I never even thought - and now, we…”

Aiden pauses, nibbles his lip. I wait, looking up at him affectionately, hoping that he can see in my eyes that I’m happy to be patient while he figures out how to say what he’s trying to say.

But apparently Aiden can’t quite get this one into words. Instead, he bites down on his smile, gently threads his fingers through mine.

“C’mon,” he says, and leads me to the loft stairs.

I follow after him, thinking that I can’t understand how he could possibly think that I’d want him less, after what happened with his Tree.

I see the realities of being with a Guardian. I've lived through them, now. I know that there will be times when things won’t be easy for us. But my love for Aiden isn’t conditional on things being easy.

I don’t only love him in peaceful candlelight. In harsh situations, against stormy backgrounds, when Aiden is upset or in trouble or crushed beneath the weight of being a Guardian - I won’t love him any less. That would never lead me to abandon him, never.

I know that Aiden hasn’t quite wrapped his head around that yet. It’s hard for him to believe, especially with everything his mom said working against him. So I intend to show him, over and over again. Every time that we have to ride out a rough moment in his Guardianship. We’ll come out on the other side, together. I can’t speak for him, but I know that my love won't be diminished by those moments.

I sense a deep conviction embedded in my heart, one that I’m more sure of with every passing second.

There’s no limit to how far I would go to keep Aiden safe. To keep him smiling, like he is right now.

To keep him with me, close enough to reach out and touch.