Archive of Our Own ^beta

The last weeks had been hard. Robert had a lot of work to do, Aaron had a lot of business at the scrapyard, plus Liv had had trouble at school again. Robert and Aaron had seen each other in passing, or sometimes when Robert would just slip into Aaron’s room at night after a long day at work. He would just cuddle up to him, but when he would wake up Aaron was already gone or the other way around.

All in all they had not had any time just the two of them for quite some time now. Aaron felt bad, because most of this was down to him having to deal with Liv.

So he had decided to make up for it. He had Robert pick a date that he for sure was able to take the evening off and had organized a date. He had picked a very nice restaurant, one he knew Robert liked, and had made reservations, he had even found a small cinema that played old movies and had reserved some tickets, because Robert loved the old ones.

He had wanted all of this to be a surprise and so he just told Robert to be ready at seven and he would pick him up at Vic’s.

It started out great, Aaron had dressed up in a suit he knew Robert liked and the drive to the restaurant was fun. They talked and laughed, Robert tried more than once to make Aaron pull over, which he resisted because they needed to get to the restaurant on time.

When they pulled up, Robert beamed, he loved this place. They walked in and Aaron walked up to the girl at the entrance.

“Hey, I have a reservation for two, Aaron Dingle,” he said.

The girl looked in her book, looked at Aaron and then again at the book.

“I’m sorry, “ she said, “I have no reservations here under that name.”

Aaron shook his head. “Could you please check again, I called two weeks ago and then again one week ago to make sure. It has to be there.”

The girl sighed, looked again and shook her head. “I’m sorry, sir, there is no reservation.”

Robert stepped up, smiled at her and let his charm out. He slipped a note across the desk to her. “Could you maybe check again, or just give us any table that is available?”

Aaron looked at Robert, this Robert that was nice and charming and manipulative, and now, that he knew his other side, too, he actually kind of liked this side, too. Robert was in charge now, and Aaron admittedly liked it.

But the girl slipped the money back to him and shook her head. “There is nothing I can do, sir.”

Aaron cursed silently and without another word left the restaurant. Robert followed him.

“This is just great,” Aaron said, “tonight was supposed to be extra nice and the first thing goes wrong. Where are we gonna eat now?”

Robert opened his mouth to answer when Aaron’s mobile peeped. He looked at it and cursed.

“Damn it,” he said.

Robert looked at him questioningly: “What’s going on? Is it Liv?”

To Aaron’s surprise there was no annoyance in his voice, just worry.

“No,” Aaron said, “I had tickets to this cinema where they only showed old movies, because I know you like them and I had planned to take you there after dinner, but apparently tonight is cursed because they cancelled the showing today.”

He kicked an imaginary stone and looked at Robert.

“I’m so sorry, tonight was supposed to be about you and me and having a nice time. I planned this for you and now it all goes to shit.”

Robert looked at him and his heart just melted at how frustrated Aaron was about not giving him what he thought he deserved.

He stepped up and gave him a soft kiss. “Come on,” he said after, “I have an idea.”

He took the keys from Aaron, got in the car with him and just drove.

Aaron looked at him: “What are we doing?”

“Just wait,” Robert said and after a while he parked the car.

They both got out and Aaron was confused.

They had stopped at a quiet street; across the street was an entrance to a park.

“Why don’t you go over there and wait on that bench?” Robert asked, “I’ll be right back.”

“You do realize ho creepy that sounds, he?” Aaron asked with a raised eyebrow.

Robert just laughed, shrugged his shoulder and said. “I’ll be right back.”

Aaron sat on the par bench and waited for about twenty minutes until Robert reappeared with a take away pizza.

He sat down next to him and opened the box. “Got your favorite.”

Aaron laughed, “This is hardly the date I had planned.”

Robert looked at him and smiled sweetly.

“Aaron,” he said in his soft, only for Aaron voice, “I don’t care if we go to a fancy restaurant or eat at The Woolpack. I don’t care if we go watch a movie or watch a squirrel cross the street. All I want is spend time with you…preferably alone every once in a while.”

Aaron looked at him in total awe, closed the gap between them and gave him a sweet kiss.

“Thank you,” he said and leaned against him.

The pizza box was on both their laps and they both grabbed a slice.

“This is really nice,” Aaron said after a few bites.

“Yeah,” Robert said with a smile, “we should definitely remember this bench.”