It starts with the black hoodie, Seb wriggles out of it like it’s not his thing at all but Robert still carries on dressing him in the get up.
He’s also started to go down the route of rainbow baby-grows and Liv jokes that it’s because of Pride Month.
And Seb’s a fan of grey jumpers as well apparently.
Aaron finds it adorable, seeing Seb in the hoodie makes everyone seem to call him his ‘mini-me’ and that feels good.
He doesn’t even realise that Robert is doing it all on purpose until he’s called into the garage by Cain, lends a hand and is nearly late by Robert who can’t help but pounce on him in his get up.
It’s weird, he feels like he’s younger again in them, feels like he has a crush on Robert all over again. He’s in his thoughts when Robert comes and visits, Seb in toe of course.
“Couldn’t keep away?” Aaron’s got a pen in his mouth and Robert gets excited before he presents Seb like a prized fish.
“Seb wanted to say hi.” And Seb seems to have wanted to dress just like Aaron today as well.
Aaron pulls a hand over his mouth and can’t help but let out a breathless laugh as Seb wriggles about in his dungarees and giggles as Aaron pulls a face at him. Robert passes him over and this warmness spreads over Aaron’s chest as Seb tugs at his beard fondly. He knows him. He knows his fashion as well it seems.
“And he also wanted to dress like me, again.” Aaron arches an eyebrow and Robert shrugs.
“You’re a fashion icon.”
“And you’re full of -“ Aaron pulls a hand over Seb’s ears like he could even understand. “Bullshit.” He says and Robert is this soft sap isn’t he?
“He likes dressing like ya, you’re a good influence on him. What can I say?” And Robert can say a lot more, but Aaron already knows. He loves Aaron and he loves Seb and he’ll always want to keep them close, seeing like this is enough to make him nearly cry.
Aaron can tell clearly. “You’re a sap.” He says, leans in and kisses him though as Seb complains about being squished. Robert smiles back and Aaron rolls his eyes, pretends like he isn’t going to take a picture with the little man later and have it saved in his own file.
@littleatticboy because you talked about Robert, Aaron and bookshops. 💓
(Warning: this fic includes Seb so if that isn’t your cuppa…)
Sometimes the smallest things take the most room in your heart. ~ A. A. Milne
Aaron has never been a big reader. It’s not to say he doesn’t like it. He does. But he tends to be picky about what he reads due to the fact that most books do his head in. Aaron likes complex things though (look at his husband, so really). He’ll pick up books about little strange histories: footy, cars, boxing, mechanics. Every once in a while he’ll read a mystery. Not those cozy ones that his mum loves (and manages to talk Robert into reading if she really likes it and Robert will because he is a soft touch) but thrillers that leave him shook.
His family is a different story.
Robert likes to read…everything.
He hadn’t known that about Robert until the one week at Home Farm during their affair (the week that changed everything). They’d exhausted themselves from fucking everywhere they could those first two nights. Had ended up in Robert’s bed finally and Aaron had woken up, pressed against Robert’s side, one of Robert’s hands playing with the loose curls on Aaron’s head, and the other holding open a book.
Aaron stared at him, noticing how his face changed as he read, how he looked so at peace in this world he was in. Robert had caught him eventually, grinning at him as he took the time to save his page with a bookmark (something Aaron learned later Robert always did, bent pages in books drove him nutty) before rolling Aaron under him and taking him apart.
Later, when they became them, really and honestly, for the first time, Aaron would go with Robert to book shops, follow him around and try hard not to roll his eyes at Robert’s excitement when he found a new book to add to his ever growing collection.
When they’d got Liv, the trips had become longer because, it turned out, his little sister liked to read, too. Not the same as Robert (she teased him constantly about his Stephen King obsession) but she likes fantasy, horror, and eventually she and Robert found common ground when they discovered their mutual love for manga and graphic novels. He’d stood watching them for 15 mintues once as they pored over a copy of Watchmen (he’s still not sure what that’s all about and honestly that’s fine) and he’d had to turn away from what that did to his chest.
Usually Aaron went his way to look at magazines or some of the manuals he likes to find and leave them to it.
Then came Seb.
Having Seb changed so much and Robert wanted to instill a love of books into their son.
(Aaron had asked him once why he loved books so much.
Robert had shrugged, buried his face deeper in Aaron’s neck and mumbled a quiet, “They make me feel closer to my mum.”
Aaron had squeezed Robert tighter.)
When they took their first trip together to the bookshop on a day out in Leeds, Aaron had steered Robert to the new book section as Liv wondered off towards the back. He’d taken hold of Seb and walked with him toward the children’s section. The bright, happy colors made Seb clap a little and Aaron kissed his head, found the book his mum had read him a little boy, and sat down to read it.
He wasn’t sure he was any good at doing voices but Seb’s gaze never left Aaron’s face, blue and wide, as Aaron read him the story of the 1000 Acre Woods, a little lonely boy named Christopher and his friends.
By the time they got to Pooh Bear stuck in a tub of honey, Aaron’s voice was fading and Seb’s head had lulled to rest on Aaron’s shoulder. He shut the book quietly, turning to see Robert and Liv standing to the side. Liv gentle smile turning into a smirk and Robert looming at Aaron like he was the most amazing thing in the world.
“What? You said, didn’t ya?”
Robert had shaken his head, leaned down to kiss Aaron firmly as he took Seb and the book with him toward the till.
It became a tradition as their family grew, their kids got older, and Aaron found that he was a reader when properly motivated.
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