@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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