Standoff

|13| Family|

"We're home!" Aaron pokes his head in the door, Aphmau turns to him and smiles, before he pulls his head back outside.

He had the carcass tied to a tree to drain the blood from it, the only thing left was to skin the pelt and cut the meat.

"So, you managed?" She grins and leans on his shoulder, looking up at their meal for awhile.

"Yup." Instinctively, he wraps his arm around her, pulling her closer.

She looks over at him with a surprised expression, but relaxes into his hold, grinning.

"Good, I already have potatoes frying, once you clean it, bring it to the rack and I'll preserve it, I'll cook some too."

It takes around an hour but the meat is on the fire and and the makeshift family sits around the table, A quaint scene. Aphmau at the fire with Aaron laughing, telling tall tales and stories to the young Malachi who laughed a jibbed in a joke a time or two.

"Alright. Someone say prayer." Aphmau says from the fire, bringing the food to the table.

"I'll do it Mom." Malachi says, and bows his head.

"We gather here as a last meal before we go." Aaron feels his hands being grasped by two different people and immediately feels uncomfortable, but bows his head anyway.

"In remembrance of our brother now returned into your arms, God we thank you for the company and meal you have given us, Amen."

His hands were released and the sound of scraping plates graced his ears, the exchange only took a minute, but he, himself wasn't religious, not really, so it felt too long.

Aphmau sits down beside him and chuckles sighing inwardly.

"Your not religious, are you?" He was taken aback, how did she know? Was he that obvious?

"No, I'm not, I didn't want to-"

"Disrespect? Don't worry, it's fine, we usually aren't, but Levin was... so..."

"I see, just warn me next time you wanna hold my hand alright?" He smirks, and receives a glare but he ignores it and wolfs down an ungodly amount of food.

After thirty minutes of pure gluttony, Aaron leans back in his chair, hand on his stomach.

"Alright, I'm gonna bust." Malachi snickers only eating half of what Aaron has.

"You act like you never had home-cooked food before." Aphmau points out, Aaron slightly moving in his chair.

"'Cause I never, not like that at least." He groaned, both regretting and relishing that he ate so much in one sitting.

"Well, stick with me, I'll fix that." She smirks and wink, trying to tease him, instead she gets a very serious answer.

"I plan to." He turns his face to the ground with it red and hot, yet looks up at her to see her reaction.

She just stares, and smiles, her face a radiant shade of pink.

"Good. Dear." He pauses, his mouth hanging open, he had thought she hadn't heard him, but the sly look on her face told him it wasn't just a slip up.

Malachi looks between them, confused, but amused at their antics, he crosses his arms and watches intently.

It quickly became a battle of making the other blush, some were quite creative, others were perverse, and yet others were so bad that it made the other laugh.

Yet, there were three words left unsaid.

Finally, the end drew near, both of their faces a bright red from either blushing or laughing.

"Fine. You win." Aphmau heaves, out of breath, Aaron chuckles, half the things he had said he didn't even mean, but the other half.....

Well, he isn't going to admit anything, now, is he?

"You shoulda known better, I always win Princess." She glared once again but dissolved into laughter.

"Ugh! You make me so! Rahhr!" She collapses on the couch, burying her face in the pillow.

"Frustrated." She mumbles, the couch muffling her speech, Aaron sits on the couch beside her, humming a tune under his breath.

"Come here." She looks back to see Aaron holding out his hand and standing up, still humming the tune.

She slowly takes his hand, curious, yet trusting of the man in front of her.

"Dance with me?" She looks taken aback, never being asked to dance before, but smirks and nods.

"Of course sir." Aaron smirks, and while humming starts to twirl her around.

Neither of them are amazing dancers, Aaron only being slightly better than Aphmau. But they are at least, in tune with one another, and don't step on any toes.

Well, until Malachi barges downstairs to see them slowly dancing to some unheard music, with Aaron's hands on his mother's waist and their faces inches apart.

"Get a room!" He shouts before leaving the house with a cup of coffee in his hand, shutting the door securely behind him.

"Oh you are so grounded." Aaron mutters under his breath tipping his hat to Aphmau and following the young man outside.