Aiden's pov

"Where's mom?" Aru asked as she licked her icecream. They had all agreed to be hers for the week because she came from the dead. It was the last day of that deal.

"Could I see your wristbands?" Aru asked Aiden, actually interested.

Aiden looked surprised, and said "No one actually looks at them. I'm surprised you noticed" and then he rolled up his sleeve to show them.

"About your mom" Said Brynne looking at Aru's hand on Aiden's wrists as she looked at the wristbands and smirking suggestively "She uh, didn't reply to our texts"

"Oh" Aru said, looking down to inspect the wristbands again. "She was probably busy"

"Who's mother would be busy enough to not come immediately when her daughter's injured?" Aiden asked.

Aru stiffened and dropped his wrist.

Rudy put a hand on his shoulder, and whispered into his ear 'she's gonna avoid you for a week now. No one talks about her mom like that'

Uh oh. What had he done? "Let's go" Aru said and she sauntered to the car.

Brynne looked at him once and said "Sorry about that. You touched a hard subject" And she and Mini caught up to Aru.

Aiden looked down.

Later that day, him and Rudy started to head back to the apartment. Aiden looked around for Aru until he finally found her coming up the stairs to second floor.

"You coming, Shah?" Aiden asked softly. He didn't want to scare her.

She looked up at him, a small smile gracing her features. She walked past him and opened the door.

"My parents are divorced"

His hand flew to his mouth. What had driven him to say that?

Her eyes widened. "Oh uhm, I'm sorry?"

Awkward!' He scolded himself.

Ting!

Pet snake 6:23 pm Dude that was so weird. I can feel the awkwardness radiating and I'm literally in my room

Shut up





"My dad" She started softly. "What?" Aiden asked gently.

"Let's go inside. I'll tell you there" She said. They went inside and into her room. She sat on her bed, and patted the space next to her. Aiden complied.

"So uh. My dad he left when I was pretty young, and he" She paused. "He took my real sister, Kara with him."

Aiden's eyebrows shot up. So that's why she didn't want to talk about her earlier.

"And well, It was like when he left, he took a piece of mom with him. She started leaving more and more" Aru looked at her hands. "Kara was the only person who had ever believed in me. She stood up for me, like you did back in Atlanta"

She looked at him. "Do you remember that?"

Of course he did. "So you really do remember that" He said quietly.

"Of course I did" She said, matching his volume. "I just didn't recognize you until Drew told me. Your face grew more mature, you know?"

"You know you," then she mumbled something.

"Huh? I didn't catch that" Aiden said kindly.

"You remind me a lot about Kara" She said looking right at him.

"That day in the snow...everything you said reminded me of her" Aru said quietly. "Actually that's probably why I'm telling you all this right now"

"Y'all getting awkward or something? Talking about me? What's going on?" Rudy called from the other room. Aiden and Aru flushed in embarrassment. "SHUT UP, RUDY!" Aru yelled.

"Anyway, she...when my dad took her, I felt so alone. That's when I met Mini" She chuckled and looked up at the ceiling as if reliving that moment. "I approached her when she was crying outside the museum"

"She said she was getting yelled at by her parents because her grade came down a notch" Aru smiled. "We hit off instantly. Later I met Brynne when she was pretending to be a jaguar"

"Oh I know this story!" Aiden exclaimed, remembering it. "When we were 8, I think. Brynne came over yelling something about a girl finding her roaring and on all fours. She was talking about how you looked at her weird"

"Okay, can you really blame me?" Aru threw up her hands defensively. "She was imitating a jaguar!"

"Anyway, she kept pushing me away when I tried to talk to her" Aru continued. "I was pretty stubborn. She just stopped trying one day, but ignored me still"

"I was casually complaining about my mom and how she kept leaving me, and the Brynne shot up and started yelling at little 7 year old me about how I at least had a mom and didn't have to live with my uncles because she didn't want me" Aru paused.

"I just pulled her hand and hugged her. She was shocked, and I half expected her to push me. But she didn't. She just started crying and clutching onto me hard like if she didn't I would drift away from her and never come back"

"That's when I realized how lucky I was. I never complained after that day" Aru said wistfully. "Brynne got introduced to Mini, and here we are. We're inseparable"

"I remember that day. Brynne came to me in tears about how she erupted in front of you and you hugged her. She was scared that she felt so happy about you hugging her. She was scared you thought that she was weird. She was scared she melted into your hug and she didn't even feel like fighting" Aiden said recalling that day.

Aru laughed weakly. "How did you and Brynne meet?"

"Oh well uh, there's not really a sentimental story behind it like yours" Aiden said laughing awkwardly. "A defended her when people bullied her. She was cold to me at first too, and then one day I was sad about my parents, uh, you know fighting, and she comforted me. We became best friends"

"Awwww" Aru said. "I can't believe we had a common best friend, lived across from each other, went to the same school, and even interacted once, but never became friends"

"Yeah" Aiden said, looking at her. "What a mistake. You're a really cool person"

"You too"

They smiled at each other for some more time.





Okkk

So I wanted to put some bonding time between the two because I felt like it was going a bit too fast so I put a hold on the plot and just elaborated.

Of course, there will be bonding time between the other ships, but not at the same time you know? It'll kinda spread through the story.



Also, don't y'all think that taylor swift's version of this love kinda fits Lightning smolder throughout books 4 and 5? I don't know---The bridge of the song reminded me of when Aiden sacrificed himself in the 5th book.



What do you think?



-Loife