I will always come for you — pt 1

2019, December 5th

(Caines, Terres Somnia)

Aria woke up that morning not knowing what to do with herself. Maybe she shouldn’t have pushed that last button and told Aaron that Troy was her fiance. Did Troy consider what she said to be acceptance of his proposal? And if he did, what was wrong with that exactly?

Troy was a future king. He could protect her and her people. Aaron was the bastard son of a king who had yet to address the issue of his title as a prince being restored. Not that it mattered. He had no interest in marrying her, she had to keep reminding herself. This was all about him keeping Bart from her.

As thoughts of the former two men swirled round and round in her head, Aria didn’t have the energy to add Bart into the mix too. He had a fiancee with a birthday happening today, one Aria was supposed to be attending. Aria was decidedly not on the Bart bandwagon today. Especially since seeing him last night made her think of Ethan and Aria was not ready to think of Ethan. Not yet, not until she was safely married and her crown was secure.

Bart was waiting on a swing in the same park he first met her all those years ago, looking at the one next to it where she should be.They didn’t talk about what happened that night when CC came back to Caines. She was in front of him again and for the first time their families were on civil terms. He could have her and the rest wasn’t important. But it had been important after all. As he thought about what happened last night, he realized what an ass he’d been. He was the one that spent nine years telling her to find someone else and then when she did, when someone else was forced on her, he got mad about it, was still mad about it. It wasn’t fair and he knew it, but his mind would not let him erase the image of another man touching her, kissing her right in front of him and then having to see that man again, it just completely messed him up. She wasn’t even his then.

He’d spent two and a half years trying to get it out of his head and couldn’t quite say he had, but it no longer mattered. Because she wasn’t marrying some other guy, she was marrying him. For a moment, he had forgotten that no matter how hard he pushed back then, she always came for him. Even that night she was there just for him. For a moment, he had forgotten that when she said yes to marrying him, he promised himself he would spend forever going to her.

"Hi," said CC, sitting down on the swing next to him.

Neither of them slept a wink the night before. It was their first fight, the first time she didn’t hear him say "Goodnight Caroline", the first time she didn’t put her arms around him before he left for the night in almost a year. He took her hand and replaced the plastic bracelet around her wrist with a real gold one, a little blue diamond heart charm dangling from it.

"You’ve probably outgrown this one," he said, pocketing it. "Happy birthday."

She looked at her wrist with the same wonder that the girl from nine years ago had. His girl. Maybe she wasn’t always, but she sure as hell was now. And he meant to keep her. He’d already spent too much time without her.

"It’s lovely," she said, tearing up. "I like the old one though."

He laughed a little, got up, went to stand behind her and leaned over to put his arms around her.

"I don’t though and you never take the damn thing off. The kid who gave you that was an idiot, running from you for so long, when we both knew I was never going to get away from you, never going to want to. I’m sorry. What happened that night, your engagement to another man, all of it. It never should’ve happened. I never should have let it."

His arms closed around her and she felt her heart start beating again. He was here, saying he understood, holding her like she always wanted him to. Last night terrified her. It was like being right back there that night, when she felt Troy’s lips on hers, the moment she knew she’d lost him. But she found him again like she always had. She didn’t regret a second of waiting for him, going after him. It gave them the last year, this moment and every other perfect thing that would come afterwards.

"My engagement to Prince Troy was a nightmare. Aaron and I spent months in Warlanda, trying to figure a way out of it. It was never-"

"I know. I should have stayed, I should have been there with you. Things were so different back then. I couldn’t make myself fight for you, fight for us. I convinced myself I was doing the right thing for you, that you didn’t deserve the hardship being with me would bring. That was obviously idiotic, because you got hurt anyway. How could I not know being without me was hurting you just like not being with you was hurting me?"

She choked on a sob she was holding back. He spun her around and leaned in, wiping her tears away, a deep, tortured frown on his face as he looked at her.

"Forgive me Caroline. I swear you’ll never be alone in anything ever again. My life is yours. I swear that no matter what, I will always come for you, come running for you."

She jumped out of the swing and into his arms. He had to restrain himself to not hold on with everything in him like she was, lest he hurt her as she cried her heart out.

"Hey come on now," he said, sitting her back down in the swing, stealing a kiss. "Birthday girls can’t have puffy eyes."

"Maybe you should just say sorry like normal people then," she complained, laughing against his lips.

He laughed too, went to stand behind her again, pulled the swing back and pushed her forward.

"There’s nothing normal about how I feel about you, Caroline."

"Ditto."

He took her home so that she could get cleaned up for her video call with James and Zoey. They wanted to come out for her birthday, but CC assured them for the umpteeth time that she was doing okay, more than okay in fact. Bart wasn’t his normal, stoic self during the phone call today. He just couldn’t stop smiling at her. It was like a weight he didn’t know was there had been lifted.

They packed up everything CC would need to get ready, which was no small feat and slipped away quietly for the day. He took her to the Arden beach house wanting to be alone with her because he would have to share her with everyone all night. This was the wrong thing to do. High off of the feeling of just making up for the first time, CC was even worse than she had been the last few nights that they’d spent together. They’d spent time alone together many times before and his hands were always all over her, but CC had never been brave enough to initiate a full on make out session, not like now. He knew he was in trouble as she sat down on his lap. Something she’d done for eight months without kissing him like that, without looking at him like that. That look was dangerous. Did she always wear such plunging necklines? He couldn’t exactly control the way his body was responding to her, so he had to keep finding ways to get away from her, to keep her busy.

Being outside did nothing to deter her. It was a private beach, so they were the only ones there. After half an hour with her in the water, he was convinced inside had been safer after all. He told her he didn’t want her skin to burn or something, he couldn’t remember. She was making it difficult to think. Bart had helped CC get ready for countless balls, pulled up a hundred zippers, so why did it feel like the zipper was going the wrong way today as he pulled it up for her?