A Series of Aru Shah Oneshots

Lightning Smolder scene

A/N Yeah, I tried. Hopefully you all like it!

Aiden leaned back in the vimana's backseat, fiddling with Shadowfax. He glanced out the window. The evening sky was a shimmering curtain of black, stars dotting the horizon like sequins. He raised his camera and snapped a picture.

The lighting's all wrong, Aiden thought, sighing. He settled for looking outside again and capturing the scene in his memory.

Someone slid into the seat next to him. Aru. She draped an arm on the armrest and held up a box of Skittles with the other. "Want any?"

Aiden stared at her. "You're eating candy at--" he checked the timestamp on the picture, "nine-fifty at night?"

"Fine, Ammamma," Aru said, elbowing him playfully and leaning forward to tuck it in the seat pocket. The light of the moon caught her hair and turned it slightly silvery. The side of her face was half-illuminated in a soft glow. Aiden realized he was staring and glanced away quickly.

"There. Better?"

"Yup."

"You seem pretty quiet," she noted, leaning back and surveying him. "Is everything okay? Like, really okay?"

Aiden blew out a breath, remembering when she'd first asked him that, nearly a year ago in the Ocean of Milk. They'd grown a lot closer since then. He answered truthfully, "I don't know."

"You can talk to me," Aru said gently. "You know that, right?"

Aiden looked into her warm brown eyes. "Yeah," he replied softly. "I do."

But not for everything. She would laugh at him if he told her all the stuff he was thinking about. She could never like him in the same way he did her. He didn't remember when it had happened. Aru had always been a friend to him. And then little by little he'd found himself admiring her smile, her laugh, her words, and her.

"I'm just...tired, I guess," Aiden said, looking down at Shadowfax in his lap. "Tired of doing the devas' bidding all the time. Tired of not being able to speak for ourselves. Tired...of not being able to say what I  feel."

It wasn't the whole truth, but enough of it.

Aru nodded, her eyes darkening. She crossed her arms across her chest like she was cold. "I'm sorry. I'll get us out of the mess I made." She lowered her head, her hair covering her face.

To anyone else, she would have sounded determined. But Aiden heard a quiver in her voice, a catch. He reached over and touched Aru's shoulder. "Shah, you did the best you could. It wasn't your fault. None of it is."

Aru sighed and looked at him. He blushed and quickly withdrew his hand. She didn't seem to notice how flustered he was as she perched back, deep in thought. A little smile crept onto her face. "Thanks. I really needed to hear that. I guess I just need to know...someone believes in me." She clasped her hands together. For a few more moments, they sat in silence.

"Well, I'm tired," Aru said, yawning.

"I'll bet. Two near-death chases in one day does that to a person."

"I've never liked sleeping on chairs. You don't happen to have a pillow or something in your bag, do you?"

"A pillow?" He ran through his knapsack's inventory in his head. "Um...nope."

"That's too bad. Although, you're here anyway, so..."

Aru rested her head on his shoulder. She smelled like rain--subtle but slightly sweet. Fitting, since Indra was her soul father.

There was no way this was real. Aiden carefully pinched his left arm. "Ouch!"

Aru half-raised her head. "Sorry! Am I digging into your shoulder or something? I can move--"

"No, no, it's fine," he said quickly. "I don't mind if you stay."

"Oh. All right." Aru settled back onto him. "Well, good night."

He cleared his throat awkwardly. "Good night."

"Wake me up when we get off." She was quiet for a moment. Aiden could hear her breathing slow down. He thought she was asleep until she spoke again, more quietly.

"I'm not really looking forward to tomorrow. Let's hope I don't dig our hole deeper."

Aiden was silent, thinking. How could he make Aru understand how much she meant to them, to him? Without her, the Potatoes would have failed many times over. Without her...he was lost.

"Shah...you've gotten us this far. You're the best person to lead us. I trust you, completely. And...you're not in this alone. It's not on your shoulders to fix every one of our problems. You can't expect to support all of us at once. We're here for each other. And I'm always here...for you."

He carefully turned his head to look at Aru. But she didn't answer. She'd already fallen asleep.