summary: part 2 to previous one shot "I can carry you"
Aaron watched the light come back in your eyes slowly over the next 7 months. You hadn't even noticed, but Aaron was paying such close attention, drinking in every detail he could.
He couldn't blame you, he knew that it was different when you're the person clouded with such deep, heavy emotion. It was harder for you to see. Sometimes when the emotional load was too heavy you just stopped checking in with yourself completely, and this was one of those periods. You had become so entrenched in the negative feelings that you didn't even know you weren't feeling them anymore. You didn't even realize that day by day, kiss by kiss, you were coming back to life again.
Aaron was patiently waiting for you to say something about feeling better. He knew that healing isn't linear so he couldn't be the one to bring it up. Only you could know when things truly were better.
The first time he saw a change was just a month and a half after you'd had that deep conversation in his office. He held his tongue, in case things weren't truly on the upswing but he couldn't help but feel excited.
The two of you were on a walk in his favorite park. You'd called him on a random Saturday, hoping that he was free to go on a walk. Walks were a great way for you to clear your head, and helped produce some endorphins. Lucky for you, Jack was spending the night at a friend's and Aaron had finished the work he brought home in the morning.
Both of you were still feeling the other out and taking things slow; you were shy and cautious, given your emotional state. You were quiet for most of the walk, but the silence was comfortable and he knew that you were struggling so it was fine. You were swinging your arms, looking up at the canopy of trees above you when he grabbed your hand unexpectedly. You had looked down at your hand and then up into his eyes. He couldn't explain the swell of emotion in his chest when he saw the dimmest of lights in your sad eyes.
The second time was two months later. He had invited you over to properly meet Jack, told him that you were "his person". Neither of you was rushing to put a label on it, so his person worked for you. Somehow that title felt even better than being his girlfriend or the woman he was dating.
You'd won Jack over immediately, taking him out on the balcony after dinner to look at the stars before his bedtime. He'd asked you to tell him a story and you offered him a poem. The feeling Aaron had as he watched Jack snuggle into your lap was similar to the one in the park that day.
Stars are dropping thick as stones into the twiggy
Picket of trees whose silhouette is darker
Than the dark of the sky because it is quite starless.
The woods are a well. The stars drop silently.
They seem large, yet they drop, and no gap is visible.
Nor do they send up fires where they fall
Or any signal of distress or anxiousness.
They are eaten immediately by the pines.
Where I am at home, only the sparsest stars
Arrive at twilight, and then after some effort.
And they are wan, dulled by much travelling.
The smaller and more timid never arrive at all
But stay, sitting far out, in their own dust.
They are orphans. I cannot see them. They are lost.
But tonight they have discovered this river with no trouble,
They are scrubbed and self-assured as the great planets.
When you pause to glance down at him, Jack is fast asleep, his mouth slightly ajar. When you look up at Aaron, he sees it again. It's like a bit of the light from the stars has slipped into those sad eyes of yours. He had scooped Jack out of your arms and put him to bed before the two of you cuddled and made out on the couch.
There are a few other times where Aaron sees the light in your eyes grow. There's a time where the two of you attempt to make a cake together from scratch. Aaron has somehow managed to get some frosting on his nose and he notices it when you wipe it away. Another is when you do a celebratory dance with Jack after he made a goal at a soccer game. He could swear then that you're almost as bright as you were when you two first met.
