I wake up to the warmth of a huge, familiar hand pressed against my cheek.

I let out a soft sigh against it, nuzzle my face further into it. I could easily fall right back asleep, but I reach enough consciousness to recognize who this hand belongs to, and I’m gently lifted the rest of the way out of my dreams.

My eyes blink open to find Aiden in front of me, knelt down on the rug before my couch. He’s without a snapback, his chestnut hair dark and shiny and wet, like he just got out of the shower. He’s in his sweatpants and a soft black t-shirt, his jacket on over that.

Not even remotely warm enough clothes for the cold spring night outside - the edges of my rain-spotted windows are lightly dusted with white frost - but not a problem for a Heliomancer. He’s putting off such toasty warmth that I feel like I fell asleep beside a bonfire.

His blue eyes are glowing, but not with Guardian magic. This is the current of magic that comes right from him, the kind he would have even if the Guardian Tree hadn’t chosen him. His own magic, his own fire, his own light.

He smiles when he sees that I’m awake. The corners of his eyes crinkle up, and I resist the temptation to lean forward and kiss them.

“Hi.” His deep voice is a rich bass against the light, airy tapping of the raindrops against my windows. “Did you wait up for me, Keane? I told you not to. Said I was gonna be busy all night, remember?”

At first I’m not sure how Aiden knows that I waited up for him, but then I realize that he caught me passed out on my couch. Without a shirt, but still in my pajama pants, and with a mug of tea on the coffee table. The Xbox paused automatically when the controller went idle, but the screen is still lit up with the game I was playing, and the controller is still loosely held in one of my hands. It’s pretty obvious that I didn’t intend to go to sleep.

“Mmm.” I set the controller aside and sit up sleepily, knuckling my eyes. Aiden’s hand drops from my face to curl around my ankle. “Yeah, I remember. I know you told me not to.”

Aiden lets out a deep, rumbling little laugh. “And you just ignored those instructions?”

“I…” Couldn’t sleep without you. “It was barely even anything to do with you, man! Kasey was here, so I was already up late! Figured I may as well wait up, at that point. You were probably gonna wake me up by accident when you got here, anyways!”

Aiden huffs out another laugh, seeing right through my bad attempt at a lie. I thought maybe mixing it up with some truth might help - Kasey and I really were up super late, talking for hours until she left to go sleep at the Ghost Office - but it most definitely did not.

“Alright, whatever,” I groan, running a hand through my sleep-tousled hair. “I was waiting up for you ‘cause I missed you. Happy now?”

Aiden smiles, thumbs my cheek affectionately. “Was already.”

I can tell. There’s a gentle glow emanating from him right now, his bronze skin softly gilded with gold. He’s having to fight down more unintentional magic, too. He’s overflowing with happiness and energy. The golden shimmer haloing him can barely contain it all. Even as I watch, white-blue light starts pooling in his eyes, and he rapidly blinks it away, trying to stay in control.

I can’t help but pause to admire the unbelievable color of it. It makes me think of a deep, crystalline lake in the spring, just starting to unthaw. The blue of the water over submerged, pure white, daiquiri-textured ice. Glowing and shining, as if liquid diamonds had been stirred in.

It never fails to steal my breath away. And when the moonlight hits it, like right now...

My god, I think, helpless.

I’ve completely lost the thread of our conversation, looking into his eyes.

Aiden has let the room fall silent, didn’t follow up what he said with anything else, even though I never answered him. I sit up a little more, biting my lip. I touch my fingertip to his mouth. The smile there is so sweet that I just have to feel it for myself.

I lean forward to taste it, too. Aiden meets me halfway, and I kiss him deeply, slipping my tongue between his parted lips, breathing in vetiver.

“Why do you look like this, Sugar Maple?” I murmur afterwards, stroking my fingertips along his stubbled jaw.

“Like what?”

“So super happy?” I let out a soft laugh, then put my nose to his. “I love it, don’t get me wrong, but - did something happen, or...?”

Aiden draws back and smiles up at me, looking into my eyes.

“I can’t tell you about it just yet. Soon, though. Hang in there, Linden.”

“What-?” I blink down at him, confused. “This is because of the surprise? Or, I mean - the surprise that’s definitely not happening and that I definitely don’t know anything about?”

Aiden huffs out a laugh, then lets out a groan, then ruffles my hair. “It’s fucking fine, man. Just say it. The actual thing is the real surprise, anyways.”

“So, you’re this happy because of the thing you’re planning?” I arch an eyebrow at him. “Is the surprise for me or for you, dude?”

I let out a loud noise of frustration when Aiden gives me only a silent smile in answer. I’ve been trying to be patient, but my curiosity about the surprise is starting to get the better of me. Seeing Aiden like this over it, how can I not want to know what it is?

“Come on, when do I get to know?” I lean down from the couch and take Aiden’s face in my hands. “Just tell me right now.”

“Fuck no, absolutely not.”

“I’ll make you tell me, Callahan.”

“Yeah? How you gonna do that?”

I try to pull a threatening, intimidating look onto my face, an effort so hopelessly doomed that it has the exact opposite effect of what I was going for. Aiden instantly lets out a burst of huffing laughter, his eyes lit from within with warmth and affection as he gazes up at me.

“Okay!” I toss my hands up in the air, then get up off of the couch. “I’m out of here, and I mean forever.”

I gasp as Aiden straightens up to his full height, locks his arms around me, and lifts me off the ground.

“What - Aiden!”

“Let’s go to bed,” he rumbles, nuzzling his nose into the sensitive skin just behind my ear.

I laugh, then reach around to push his face away, my cheeks on fire. Aiden sets me down, smiling, and catches my hand when I whip around to smack his chest. He threads his fingers through mine, chuckling softly.

“Bed?” he suggests again, smoothing his thumb over my knuckles.

I intended to tell him off, but all my words dissolve in my mouth when I look up into the brilliance of his blue eyes. I press my lips together, then turn silently and lead the way to my room.

I stop before my bed, waiting while Aiden drops his jacket on my desk, then pulls off his shirt, his socks. The soft rain thrums against the windows, streams down the glass in icy rivers. A few stray droplets blow in through the one I left open, knowing that Aiden would be here eventually.

“Come on, when do I get my surprise?” I turn away to slip out of my pajama pants, then toss them aside and stretch my arms up over my head, sore from sleeping on the couch. “Can I at least know the when, if not the wh-?”

I break off as Aiden - who somehow already got all the rest of his clothes off - eagerly throws his arms around me from behind and sends us both falling forward into the bed. Our bare bodies tangle together, his laughter rising up with mine.

Aiden lands on top of me, then rubs himself against me, lets out a soft purr of pleasure directly into my ear. My cheeks start on fire instantly, goosebumps spreading over my body.

I force myself to roll over and look up into his face, to not get distracted.

“When do I get to know?” I insist, wrapping my arms around Aiden’s neck. “Just tell me that and I won’t ask any more questions. I swear.”

Aiden tosses his hair out of his face, then looks down at me, all smirky. “You honestly think you can get any information out of me, Keane?”

I read that as a challenge. Correctly, I think, because as soon as the competitive fire flares in my eyes, I see it matched in Aiden’s.

“Bet you I can,” I tell him. “I’ll get the day and time out of you. Watch me.”

“Mkay.” Aiden rolls off of me, stretches out comfortably on his back, and folds his muscled arms behind his head. “Good luck with that.”

Oh, it’s so on.

I turn onto my side, take a second to admire the moonlight flowing down Aiden’s bronze body. He’s closed his eyes, so I let mine roam slowly, lingering wherever they want. Warmth and want begin to spread through me, slowly flooding my whole body, making my toes curl.

Aiden hasn’t opened his eyes, but he must feel my gaze on him, must sense what the sight of him is doing to me. His teasing smile grows more serious, but also deeper.

He holds his breath as I reach out for him.

I pass my fingers over his body so softly, gliding them down, then back up. So lightly, so slowly. Once, then twice, only the very tips of my fingers touching him.

Aiden shivers, but holds still.

I lean forward to put my mouth to his neck, then move to close the space between us, to press my body against his side. My hand I leave on his chest, stroking him gently. His arms are still tucked behind his head, so it’s easy for me to move my lips from his throat to his rounded bicep. I start paying slow, loving attention to it with my mouth while my wandering hand pays slow, loving attention to the rest of his body.

Only very light, teasing touches, but all of them unwaveringly, achingly slow.

Aiden seems to fall into a kind of trance. His body lifts towards my touch, his breaths starting to grow deeper and heavier. His dark eyelashes flutter, his feet flexing. He takes his arms out from beneath his head and grips a tight handful of the sheets, sinks his fingers into my hair.

Heat and electricity and desire are rolling through me in delicious waves. Aiden can sense it, and he loves it. I see it in the response of his body, feel it in his pulse beneath my lips, hear it in the heightened breaths escaping from his mouth. We’re feeding off of each other, each surge of pleasure more intense, more vivid and all-consuming.

I’m aching for him, desperate, but I make no move to do anything more than this. I don’t even kiss Aiden’s mouth. I just keep touching him ever so lightly, trailing my fingertips over him, nibbling and licking his neck, his chest, his sculpted arms. Teasing and tantalizing him. I want every atom in Aiden’s body awake. I want his every nerve crying out for more -

Aiden makes a soft, begging noise, almost a whimper.

I lift my head, look into his incendiary eyes, and slowly put my mouth to his. He waits, expecting me to kiss him softly and gently, the way I’ve been doing everything so far tonight.

Instead, I take his lip between my teeth, then give him a sharp, hard bite.

Aiden lets out a staggering gasp, the crimson blush in his cheeks instantly growing deeper. I sit up and throw my leg over him, pouncing on him just in time to feel his body react. He was already worked up, but it’s like the bite sent a thrust of blazing fire roaring through his veins. His heels dig down into the mattress, his breaths heaving, his eyebrows drawing up and together. He suppresses a moan when I straddle him, lets his head fall to the side, presses the back of his wrist over his mouth.

I stop to catch my breath, my cheeks burning just as hot as his. Aiden opens his hazy blue eyes and stares up at me, lovedrunk, panting.

I smile at him, then pin his hands down above his head, and get to work winning the bet.

~~~~

“Holy shit,” Aiden stammers, some time later. “What just happened?”

Neither of us has recovered yet. His fingers are loosely wound into my hair, my cheek resting against his chest. My knees are still sunk deep in the bed on either side of him.

“That was - my brain stopped working.” Aiden runs a hand through his hair, breathing hard. “Did I lose the bet? I didn’t tell you anything, did I?”

“No, um - not really.” I’m reeling, too, trembling with pleasure, unable to move. “On an unrelated note, I’m excited for the surprise I’m gonna get the day after tomorrow, in the afternoon.”

Aiden freezes, then props himself up on his elbows. He looks up at me, and I sit up to look down at him.

We stare at each other for a short, silent moment. Then I burst into laughter, and Aiden starts yelling.

“Goddamn you, Keane! How do you do that, seriously? And why did I make that fucking bet? I should’ve known better - when did I even say-?”

He breaks off sharply, his cheeks reddening again as he remembers.

More, please more…

Yeah, you want more? Gonna need you to tell me something first.

Anything, fucking anything, whatever you want, Jamie, just please...

“Be glad I didn’t ask you what the actual surprise is,” I tell him, giving his nose a tap with my fingertip.

“Yeah, that was nice of you,” he grumbles, and I laugh, then brush another kiss onto his mouth.

Aiden groans deeply as I drop into the bed by his side. He makes a face like he’s ready to kill me, but then immediately and tenderly gathers me up into his warm arms.

“Fuck. Fine! Alright.” He shakes his head, lets out a deep growl of frustration. “Guess the actual surprise is now literally the only thing about this that’s actually going to be surprising.”

“Fine with me.” I trail my fingertips along Aiden’s collarbone, let out a happy sigh. “So long as it’s a good surprise.”

All attempts at looking disgruntled fall apart at my words. Aiden smiles radiantly, his blue eyes overflowing with warmth.

He doesn’t answer me, just kisses the top of my head.

“Why the day after tomorrow?” I ask, my fingertips pausing in their movements. “Why not tomorrow?”

“Because I need one more day to work on it.” Aiden’s low voice is still all rough and husky. He stretches his legs out, his big body growing languid. “Got a little bit more to do.”

“Wow.” I look up at him, taken aback. “This kinda sounds like a lot of work, man. You guys were gone all night, and you still have more to do?”

Aiden draws me closer to him, buries his nose into my hair. “It’ll be worth it, Linden.”

I fall asleep with my head on Aiden’s chest, his hand resting on my lower back. Just before I pass out, I take a deep breath of him, and recognize something. That green, fresh smell that had been clinging to him the last time he came back from hanging out with Noah and without me. It’s there again, even though he showered before he came over to my place.

Whatever that smell is, I love it. Especially the way it mixes with the vetiver scent of Aiden. It reminds me of the way the flower shop smells, only richer and wilder.

I fall asleep breathing it, and have dreams of someplace beautiful.

I don’t know where I am, but I feel safe there. Happy, calm, secure. I hear the wind in the trees, the bright little voices of birds, the whispering of long stalks of grass. I feel the sunlight on my face. I’m with someone. I have a warm, oversized hand held in mine, our fingers intertwined. We walk together through pools of golden light, havens of cool green shadows.

I can’t see where we’re going, but I have the feeling that we’re almost home.