Falling | Mxm (Completed) Chapter 79

Edited

“It’s not fair. You said you’d come with us.” Edwin whined and tried to make Aiden stand up from his chair.

“Eddie, I have to finish this, baby. I’m sorry, okay? I promise I’ll make it up to you.” Aiden took Edwin’s hand that was pulling on his shirt and kissed the back of it before going back to his work.

“What’s the name of the song you’re working on?” He asked after slapping Aiden’s bicep.

“Hmmm, not sure yet but I’m thinking ‘goodbye’?” The other replied without looking up from his screen. “Why do you ask?” He asked after a moment, clicking through the many bars in the software.

“So that I will hate it when it gets released? You deserve it for ditching us last minute like this.” Edwin was upset. Really upset. They all had set their schedules such that they would be free on that day, but here Aiden was, canceling again. It wasn’t his first time.

Aiden laughed but stopped himself a second after, biting down on his lower lip that he sucked into his mouth to just control the laughter. Edwin was cute even if he was trying to appear angry, which was the exact thing the younger was going for at the moment, but no matter what he did, it was always super cute with how his lips got too pouty and his eyebrows raised more than usual.

The singer got out of his chair and hugged Edwin for a couple of seconds before letting go, cupping his face and pressing a gentle kiss on the delicious plump lips.

“Is my bluewin angry?” He caressed Edwin’s soft cheek and chuckled to himself. Edwin was frowning. “Baby, I swear I really wanna go too, but they told me to make a song for the drama that’s going to air in 12 days, a week ago. I have to finish it by tomorrow.” He pecked Edwin’s lips again. Still, Edwin didn’t react to any of the touches.

“Why is your company always throwing things at you at the last minute? Can’t they just, I don’t know, be a little punctual?” He sighed and set himself free from Aiden by taking his hands away from his face. “Whatever, I’m gonna be late. Have fun working.” Without any sign of a small smile or anything that showed Edwin had at least forgiven him a tiny bit or understood the situation, he left. Aiden looked at the now closed door of the studio and felt his heart ache, but there was nothing he could do. He had a deadline, and the melody was floating in his head and he needed to finish the song as fast as possible so that it would no longer repeat itself in his ears. Even if he had time, he probably would stay behind to finish it.

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“Why are you alone? Did he ditch us again?” Max asked as soon as he arrived at the place they had agreed to meet.

“Well, is there any other reason why I’m here and he’s not?” Edwin was still upset. He was upset that Aiden had to work without sleep for the past week and had barely gone home when the company could tell him to make a song way sooner or just use one of the many brilliant songs he had on his hard drive that had never been released.

“Don’t worry. You’ll start getting used to it in like, two years or so.” Ian patted his back strongly and snorted.

They got into the mini-van that Brad had rented and Edwin offered to be the driver to at least let his mind focus on something other than his boyfriend, mainly not hitting any animals that decided to randomly jump in front of the cars in the countryside.

The weekend turned out to be actually pretty fun. They met Finn’s cousins and spent their whole day outdoors, playing soccer and volleyball and other games under the sun, resulting in them all having a perfect tan. No one mentioned Aiden like he was some kind of taboo, and the singer never called. He’d just sent a ‘good morning’ to which Edwin replied to with the same two words. He just didn’t want to think about Aiden, cos thinking about him would result in him noticing that he wasn’t there while they were all having fun and laughing their asses off. Meanwhile, Aiden was at his studio, working. Something told him that the guy could even have orgasms from working on songs and him being absent didn’t mean he was being tortured. That he was maybe even having more fun than them with how in love with the whole producing process he was, but the guilt of being the only ones in the fresh air didn’t leave him be. That was why he tried not to think about him as much as possible.

No matter how much he forced himself to avoid the image and the desire to have his lover by his side the whole day, when they got back to the house and lay down in the darkness of the room to sleep, his mind flew right back to their apartment. He thought about how good it’d be if Aiden was there right now, holding him in his muscular arms, pressing his head to his chest, and placing endless kisses on his forehead. Giving up on his ‘ignoring’ game, he reached for his phone and unlocked it, and was about to call Aiden when his phone got snatched out of his hand.

“Hey!” Edwin almost cursed but stopped himself.

Ian, who was the intruder, locked his phone again and lay down next to him on his stomach, holding himself up on his elbows, looking at him. “Don’t give in that easily. Don’t repeat my mistakes. You’re gonna have to demand time and attention from him or else he’ll never know. I told you before as well, you have to put everything you expect from him into words cos he’s really bad at assuming.”

“How am I supposed to do that when you take my phone away?” Edwin turned to his side, facing Ian completely.

“It’s not a good time to call now. He’s been working all day and is tired and cranky as hell. You never wanna push a tired, sleepless, stressed, on a deadline Aiden. Trust me!”

Edwin had seen a tiny bit of what Ian described before, but not to the extent the man next to him must have been talking about. He sometimes got quite curious about the side of Aiden everyone seemed to have seen. The sassy, asshole, short-tempered side. He had never seen it. Aiden had always found a way to make himself cool down right before things could get messy around Edwin. Sometimes he didn’t know how to feel about it. It could either mean that he was loved so much that his boyfriend couldn’t get mad at him the way he did at others on occasions, or that Aiden simply wasn’t comfortable enough around him to show all of himself.

He was drowned in his thoughts when he felt an arm around his neck as Ian hugged him closely and nuzzled his head in the crook of his neck.

“Let’s just sleep now. You can talk to him when we get back.”

Edwin smiled and circled his arm around Ian’s waist, pressing him closer. “Isn’t Joe gonna get sulky if you leave him alone like this?”

“Piglet has a koala Max attached to him right now. There’s no hope of separating those two when they’re together.”

“I just really wanna see the look on BradFinn’s faces right now. Two straight awkward men having to sleep next to each other on a double bed.” Edwin said and chuckled at the thought alone.

Ian laughed rather loud before pressing his mouth into Edwin’s neck further to make himself stop. “Oh my god! I don’t even wanna imagine being in that room right now! I bet the air could be cut by a knife. They won’t be able to sleep!” They laughed some more silently before finally closing their eyes and falling asleep.

In the other room, though, the two mentioned men were sleeping soundly, sharing a blanket and not minding the other’s presence at all.

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Three months, two weeks and… 19 hours.

Edwin let his hand fall on the silky covers of his bed. Their bed. He had been wearing Aiden’s favorite watch for a while now, counting every minute. These days he usually found himself recalling every little memory, every tiny moment they had spent together. And whether sad or happy, he cherished it all. Because there was a slight chance he would never experience any of it again.

Looking at the watch, he knew he had to get ready to go to the hospital. Edward had specifically told him to be there today since they had another session with Hector.

Speaking of, they had become a bit friendly. Not friends, but not strangers/enemies they used to be. They could hang around each other and talk like civilized human beings now.

He forced himself to get out of bed and put on his clothes. Right before he was about to exit, he remembered that Luis had told him to make Hector take a selfie so that they could upload it on Aiden’s social media, to tell the fans that he was doing okay. It was ridiculous, but Den’s fans were going absolutely insane from worry and it was the least they could do.

Edwin took his shoes off and walked back to their bedroom, grabbing the phone that had been turned off and left on the nightstand, pushing it into his jeans pocket. When they found out about Hector, they had taken the phone from him. The guy didn’t seem to be interested in modern technology one bit, anyway. In fact, he was like a grandpa time traveling from a century ago sometimes. He didn’t know the most basic stuff about so many things. He just knew how to be a rascal, as it appeared.

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Aiden was dead asleep when Edwin entered the bedroom. The older must have been really tired cos even though he accidentally hit his foot on the chair and stumped, the man didn’t move at all. Edwin decided to take a shower before sleeping as well, cos if Aiden found him lying in bed with a body that had been spending time in the woods, sweaty and all, he knew he would get scolded.

Washing himself first, cos he liked it this way better, he filled the tub. It had been nearly three days of constant hiking, running, and playing, and his body was quite sore. Sitting in the tub, he went underwater and closed his eyes. It was something he really enjoyed doing. It made his head clear a bit, and that was what he needed. Like Ian said, he had to talk to Aiden. It was not healthy to work like that at this point anymore.

As soon as he went back up, steps echoed in the bathroom. Before he could turn around, he was pushed forward gently as his boyfriend slid behind him in the tub, pulled him back to his chest, and hugged him as tight as possible.

Aiden nuzzled his head in Edwin’s hair at his nape and inhaled his scent as he hummed in pleasure. “I missed you so much. I thought I was going crazy.” The older whispered as he circled his arms around him tighter.

“You are crazy if you come into the tub with your clothes on. What the hell?” He was dying to hug him back. To turn around and kiss his lover, but he had to be strong. He had to stand his ground this time. For both of their sakes.

Right now, he was basking in the feeling of Aiden’s wet, clothed chest pressing to his naked back and the arms that were caressing him like a feather.

“I didn’t have the energy for that.” Even his voice was so tired, Edwin could barely hear him. “Besides, I couldn’t waste time on undressing when I knew you were home.” He felt hot lips pressing against the skin of his neck for several seconds. His whole body got covered in goosebumps as he tried really hard to keep his hands from touching Aiden.

“Is the song at least worth it?” He cursed himself in his head. He was supposed to be angry at the older, not ask if the song he had been dumped for was any good. But it was too late now, and he was kind of dying to hear it.

“Hmmm, you’re gonna love it. I changed it a bit so that it fits the kind of vibe you enjoy.” The lips didn’t leave his neck. Aiden kept pressing pecks on his skin, continuing the firework in his heart.

“I said I’d hate the song, remember? Changing it into my taste won’t change anything.” He leaned back on Aiden’s chest a bit to get more comfortable, and let his head rest on his shoulder as his hands gave in and he took Aiden’s in his, fiddling with the older’s fingers.

“You said you’ll hate it once it gets released. It’s not released yet. And they have actually pushed the date of the drama back a couple of weeks, so you’ll have plenty of time to enjoy it before hating it.”

Edwin had never turned around that fast in a tub before in his entire life. His anger went from 0 to 100 in a millisecond. The sudden move made the older shocked as his eyes widened in surprise, but didn’t move at all as he really didn’t have that much energy left.

“WHAT?” Edwin yelled. “First, they make you produce a song with a deadline, keeping you from proper sleep, and then they push back the date? What the fuck is wrong with them? I hate your company!” He was furious. He was actually this close to running all the way to the company, preferably after putting some clothes on, and burning the whole damn place to the ground.

“It wasn’t the company’s fault. The drama is for a platform that had to postpone it due to some incidents. The main actor had an accident or something. And they only offered me the contract. I could reject it. They didn’t force me. The company is not that bad, really.” Aiden said as he caressed the younger’s arm up and down. When he was finished, he turned Edwin’s body into the previous position again, having to use a bit of force cos the thin body was stiff due to the current anger.

“So you accepted it knowing that you’d have to ditch us. Perfect.” He crossed his arms and let his whole weight rest on Aiden’s chest as he looked to the side, biting on his cheek.

Strong arms circled around him again as he felt a kiss on the top of his hair. “I thought I’d finish it by then. It was my own fault for being lazy and not working fast enough. I’m sorry I couldn’t come.”

“Lazy?!” Edwin didn’t turn his body around this time and just tilted his head a bit to be able to see Aiden’s face behind himself. “Aiden, you didn’t sleep for like three days straight at first, wanting to come up with the perfect melody after reading the whole damn script! You may be a number of things, but lazy is not one of them!” His voice was louder than usual. He wanted to kick Aiden in the gut for calling himself lazy when he was there, with little to no energy, literally on the edge of falling asleep any second now.

“Can you scold me later? I just wanna stay like this with you for now.” Aiden tightened his arms again and sunk a bit lower in the tub.

Edwin’s head was on the same level as the older’s and he felt the man’s face, nuzzling into the crook of his neck. The familiar lips pressed on his skin and stayed there. Not even a couple of minutes later, the arms loosened as the older’s breathing pattern became slower. He had fallen asleep in the tub with Edwin in his arms just like that.

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It was hell. Seeing Hector as soon as he step foot in the hospital after remembering very vividly how their bodies felt against each other in the tub hurt. Before, when he hated Hector, it was easier. Now that he was looking at things from his perspective a bit though, it was not. He couldn’t even wish for Hector’s disappearance anymore since the other, despite being created by Aiden, was a person as well.

Hector was leaning on the wall, talking with Joe. No, actually, he was listening to Joe talk. Like always. Edwin was surprised to see Joe alone, but as soon as he got closer to them, he saw Max sitting at the small table by the window, playing monopoly with… Joshua!

Everything was confusing these days. He couldn’t get his brain to work. For someone who had finished his Ph.D. and had started working as a doctor at the age other people usually entered university, he felt quite dumb. He didn’t know what was going on. He had seen Finn exiting his restaurant with his assistant, who was actually prettier than the photos he had seen on Instagram. Finn had avoided them for ages now, such that Ian threatened to kill him when he got back which seemed to be in a faraway future, cos he had been assigned to work with a European facility for like 6 months. He had seen Brad waiting outside of the hospital once, thinking he was there to see him or Hector, but no! He was there to pick up Mia. They had met on tinder, apparently. Which was weird as fuck cos none of them seemed like a tinder kind of person.

And now, he was seeing Max playing happily with Joshua when they all kind of knew Max was all ‘Science comes first. Romance is a waste of time and not logical.’ type of guy.

Shaking his head to get rid of the thought, cos come on Edwin! since when is playing monopoly something romantic that indicates two people are attracted to each other?!

He literally facepalmed as he cursed his brain for the bullshit it was coming up with. Walking the rest of the way to Hector and Joe, he lifted his hand as he was not in the mood of talking words.

“Edwin!” Hector’s face lit up upon seeing him with a giant smile that looked exactly like Aiden’s.

He stopped and froze on his spot. For a second, he was thinking, what if this was Aiden? What if he was finally back? But the moment didn’t last long as he found himself bent in half, his head locked between Hector’s arm and the other’s body. It was something he loved doing. Tapping Hector’s thigh in surrender cos he wasn’t able to breathe from the pressure on his throat, the older laughed like the devil himself and let him go. Frowning, he took the phone out and stretched his hand toward the literal 2-year-old that was still laughing his ass off.

“Why?” Hector asked in between, tilting his head in question a bit.

“Why what?” Edwin asked, a bit annoyed cos his neck felt like it had been broken.

“Why are you giving me Aiden’s phone?” The laughter finally stopped as Hector circled his arm around Joe’s waist, who was just watching them unbothered.

“You have to take a selfie so that we can upload it on Aiden’s social media.”

“Why?” The question didn’t seem to be teasing. Hector was actually curious.

“Because, Hector! Aiden’s fans are used to him uploading selfies or other stuff every day and he’s been MIA for months now.” Edwin huffed and took his hand back cos it was getting tired of hanging in the air.

Hector hummed. “But I’m not Aiden!” His voice was a bit lower than a second ago and he kept the eye contact with Edwin firmly.

“Yes, you’re not, but you both share the same face, so could you please take one photo?”

Hector kept staring at him, and he could swear he saw a sparkle in his eyes. The happy face from before disappeared as Hector held out his hand. “Alright then. Give me the phone.”

Edwin did so, but Hector just kept turning the device around and staring at it like a fool.

“What are you doing?!” Joe asked, chuckling.

“I don’t know how to work with a phone!” He said with raised eyebrows.

“What the fuck?! You’re almost 30! How can you not know how to use a phone?!” Edwin pursed his lips and took the phone back, unlocking it and opening the camera, before handing it to Hector.

“Last time, and the only time I was out, I was 9. There were no smartphones back then.” He looked at his own image curiously, changing the angle several times and giggling like a kid.

“Just press that volume button and it’ll snap the photo.” Joe explained to him and patted his back in a friendly way.

A few seconds later, the photo was taken. Hector stepped closer to Edwin, grabbed his hand, and put the phone in it, smiling. He didn’t let go and just kept Edwin’s between his own two palms. They spent quite a number of seconds staring at each other before Edwin finally snapped out of it.

“Didn’t you say you observed Aiden’s life? How come you didn’t learn this stuff while observing?” He didn’t try to take his hand away. It felt nice. He didn’t know why. He knew it wasn’t Aiden touching him, but the hands felt so familiar that he wanted to just bring them to his lips and shower them with endless kisses.

“I didn’t observe everything! It would be really tiresome!!” Hector let go and took a step back. “I was aware of the stuff happening in his life when he was in pain. And that’s only because he kept calling for me unconsciously at those moments. I can’t stand awake all the time. It’s depressing to watch without being able to participate!” He shrugged and started chewing on his gum again.

Right when Edwin was trying to come up with something to break the heavy atmosphere, cos he kind of — not kind of but surely — was feeling bad for Hector, they heard a scream from the side of the hall where he saw Max and Joshua before.

Hector was the first one to run to them. This kind of screaming was for when Joshua was having an episode. Joe and Edwin followed next. The older hugged Joshua strongly to keep him from thrashing around and hurting himself till the nurses would arrive. He kept whispering in the boy’s ear, who was just shouting and crying, trying to break free nonstop. Lucas arrived not long after, along with two more nurses, but they just stood there watching them.

“Why are you not injecting him?!” Edwin yelled at them. Joshua was not stable at the moment and he could hurt himself or others unintentionally.

“Wait for it.” Lucas replied without looking away from Hector and the boy in his arms. Edwin looked at them as well to see what Lucas was talking about. As a former doctor, he knew if this went on for a bit longer, it would be really bad for Joshua’s body cos the amount of pain, emotional pain, while having an episode was destructive.

To his surprise, a couple of minutes later, the boy started calming down a bit. Joshua wrapped his arms around Hector tightly and cried in fear instead this time. The other started caressing his long hair as gently as possible while still whispering things none of them could hear but the boy, who was calming down by the second in his embrace. This was the first time Edwin had seen this. He had never been around when Joshua would have this bad of an attack before, and he wondered if this was how it went every time. It must have been, since Lucas and others knew Hector would be able to calm the boy by now.

As soon as the crying turned into silent whimpers and sniffling, Lucas walked to them.

“Let’s get Joshua to his room, okay?”

Hector nodded and helped the boy up the stairs. When they disappeared from their sight, Edwin turned to Max, who was still looking terrified as hell. He looked like he had just witnessed someone being murdered.

“It’s okay now. He’s gonna be fine.” He said softly, putting his hand on the younger’s shoulder.

Max looked up at him with tears in his eyes. “What happened? Did I do this? Why did he panic like that? Oh my god, what did I do?” The younger grabbed his wrist, and he looked like he would burst into tears any second now.

Edwin crouched down in front of him and cupped his face with his other palm.

“Would you tell me what happened right before his episode?” His eyes didn’t lose the tiny tear that ran down Max’s eye.

“He… I won and-” He sniffled “I wanted to tease him, to cheer him up a bit, I pointed at him and laughed, and then he froze and-… and then he covered his ears and—” He paused, looking down as his fingers tightened around Edwin’s wrist. “You were here for the rest of it… I triggered it, didn’t I? I’m such an asshole.” He let go of Edwin and buried his face in his own palms, groaning in frustration.

“Hey, it wasn’t your fault, baby. He is sensitive to people’s reactions.” Edwin patted the younger’s hair several times till Joe came to them and hugged Max tightly.

Edwin stood back up and approached Lucas, who was standing there silently.

“Had this happened before?” He whispered.

“Yeah. Hector is a cure for Joshua, I tell you that! He can always calm him down. I don’t know how he does it, but I’m very thankful.”

Edwin bit the inside of his lip, looking at the stairs that the duo had walked up a few minutes ago. Lucas must have felt his uneasiness as he put a hand on his shoulder in reassurance.

“Hey, Aiden will come back. Hector may be around Joshua now, but when Aiden’s back, it will be the two of you again.”

“Yeah… but… what will happen to Joshua?…” He heard himself saying. Doctoral side or whatever it was, he couldn’t think of Joshua losing the only person that could manage to stabilize him. He couldn’t be that selfish. And if what Hector said was true, if Aiden had been so in pain that he had called Hector out and was now unconscious peacefully, who was Edwin to want him back to a life that was clearly full of sorrow for the older? He couldn’t help but feel like a failure. He had failed at being a comfort zone for Aiden like Hector was to Joshua. Sure, he had done the exact same thing a number of times when his lover had experienced attacks, but they had been useless obviously, only calming him momentarily. Maybe it was best to let things go… Maybe, just maybe, Hector being around was a better choice for both Aiden and Joshua. He could deal with loneliness. He had lived with that for years already before Aiden came along.

His phone buzzed, and it was Luis asking if he had taken the photo. He hesitated. What was the point of giving hope to the fans if Aiden was not coming back anymore? He decided to just not think and do whatever he was told, so he uploaded it with the caption the manager had sent him. A short ‘I’m fine, babies. Don’t worry!’

Edwin put his headphones on and played the song he was supposed to hate. He couldn’t hate it. Not when it was Aiden who made it, and not when it matched the situation so well.