good morning (i love you)
aaron/robert, liv, gerry (no seb mentions). five mornings with the mill fam.
one.
The shrill alarm cuts through Robert’s dreams and he groans, reaching out a hand to grab for his phone. He misses a couple of times, mumbling curses into the pillow. There’s a heavy arm across his back, and a face pressed into the juncture of his neck. Said face moans something incoherent, but Robert finally manages to silence the phone and groans, pressing his face into the pillow.
“Don’t wanna get up,” Aaron says, arm shifting against Robert’s back as Aaron stretches.
“Let’s not,” Robert breathes, turning his face towards Aaron. Aaron’s bleary eyed, but smiling, and he leans in, touches their foreheads together.
It’s 6:30 and Robert knows they both have things to do; there’s a scrap run for Aaron, and an early meeting for Robert if he doesn’t want Home James to fold, and there’s the small matter of making sure Liv actually gets to school.
Aaron runs a hand through Robert’s hair, thumb brushing against his temple. “When d’you get home today?”
Robert shifts closer, leans in to press a kiss to Aaron’s forehead, mindful of the fact that he’s just woken and hasn’t brushed his teeth yet. Aaron settles back against him, head on his chest and Robert appreciates the fluff of his hair, playing with the soft curls. “About five. Want me to cook dinner?”
“I’ll be late.” Aaron says with a sigh. He’s brushing his hand over Robert’s stomach, not enough to start anything, but a comfort nonetheless. “I’ll grab something on the way home.”
“Don’t be stupid,” Robert tells him, kissing the top of his head. “I’ll cook dinner and save yours.”
Aaron shifts back, looks at him with a ridiculous amount of fondness and love, and Robert wonders if his heart will ever not skip when he sees it. He hopes not. “I love you.”
“I love you more,” Robert tells him, then rolls over, pinning Aaron beneath him with a grin. Aaron raises an eyebrow, smiles, but doesn’t make any move to shove him off. He shifts, aware of how close their bodies press together, wanting to start something and sure that they have just enough time. Even Aaron looks like he might be into it -
- when Liv starts thundering down the stairs, yelling for Gerry to get up.
Robert groans, dropping his head down to the pillow beside Aaron’s head. Aaron brushes a hand through the hairs at the nape of Robert’s neck, and huffs out a laugh. “One day I’ll get morning sex.”
Aaron gives him that one, presses a kiss to Robert’s chin and shoves him away, climbing out of bed.
two.
“Where’s Rob?” Liv asks, dropping her school bag on the sofa.
Aaron’s in the kitchen, throwing bacon into a pan, looking at ease with cooking despite how terrible he is at it. The table’s set for breakfast, but it looks suspiciously like Robert’s handiwork. Aaron looks back over his shoulder. “We’re out of ketchup.”
Liv makes a face as she slides into one of the chairs at the table. “Don’t know why he bothers. Doesn’t put enough on for it to matter.”
Aaron snorts. “He says the same about your brown stuff.”
“Whatever,” Liv mutters, and helps herself to some of the toast already on the table. She’s starving, and has enough time to wait for the bacon before she has to catch the bus.
“Robert’s taking ya this morning,” Aaron reminds her, finally plating up the bacon and sliding it onto the table. He rounds Liv’s chair and yells, “Gerry!” up the stairs. “Says he has a meeting in Hotten anyway.”
Liv shrugs, never really minds driving in with Robert because he always lets her fiddle with the radio. “He better hurry up then.”
“I’m here,” Robert says, slamming the door and tossing his keys on the table by the door. “That smells good.”
Aaron throws him a smile and starts piling up the bacon between two slices of toast.
“Uh,” Liv says, gesturing at him with her toast. “Save some for the rest of us, yeah?”
“Nice,” Gerry says, interrupting whatever Aaron was gonna say as he clambers down the stairs. Liv rolls her eyes as he barges past Robert and sits down next to her, grabbing at the bacon.
“Charming,” Robert mutters, and takes a seat next to Aaron, shrugging out of his jacket and throwing it over the back of the chair. He leans over, drawing Aaron in for a kiss and Liv and Gerry share grossed out looks. “What?”
Liv shrugs, but can’t keep the grin from her face. “Putting me off my brekkie, ain’t ya?”
Gerry fakes puking, and Aaron throws a piece of crust at him.
Robert doesn’t say anything, but he does meet Liv’s gaze and quirks his lips up. She complains all the time, but it’s like he knows she doesn’t mean it - that this is the closest to normal she’s ever had, and she wouldn’t give it up for anything.
three.
“Where are we?” Aaron groans, stretching out as much as the passenger seat will allow.
Robert flicks the indicator and slides into the fast line. The sun is just coming up over the horizon and he’s had to put his sunglasses on. “Somewhere outside of Béthune.”
The French countryside passes them by, and Aaron rests his head against the window, watching Robert from underneath his lashes. He doesn’t look tired even though he must be, barely snatching an hour or so in Dover while they waited for the train.
“Want me to take over?”
Robert spares him a glance and a soft smile. “Nah, I’m good. I’ll sleep when we get there.”
“Spoilsport,” Liv mumbles from the back. She stretches, kicking Gerry in the shin as she does. He grunts but doesn’t wake up. “I wanna go to the park straight away.”
“You’re old enough to go by yourself,” Robert tells her, rolling his neck.
Aaron meets Liv’s eyes in the rearview mirror.
“S’not the same if you’re sleeping the holiday away,” Liv says eventually, curling up back in the seat, her eyes on the landscape outside.
Robert’s face has gone all soft and sweet and Aaron can’t help the way his heart lurches when he looks at him. He’s happy and even spending the week with Liv and Gerry bickering every few hours isn’t enough to put him off this.
It was Robert’s idea to take them to Disneyland, considering they couldn’t get to America, and though she’d said something about not being a kid, she’d been talking nonstop about it ever since.
“How about I catch an hour or two, then I can just nap while you drag me around the stupid rides.”
“They’re not stupid,” Gerry chimes in.
“You can’t nap on rides,” Liv snaps, just as incredulous.
Aaron laughs at Robert’s expression, and he leans over, presses a kiss to Robert’s cheek. “You’re an idiot.”
“An idiot that just drove six hours to get you here, you ungrateful brats,” Robert says, without heat.
Liv throws her pillow at the back of his chair to a chorus of, “driving!” but then she sticks her tongue out at Robert through the mirror. “Whatever. Have your nap while Gerry and I check out the hotel stuff. I’m sure we can find something to do.”
“Yeah,” Robert sighs. “Costing me a fortune no doubt.”
Aaron places a hand on Robert’s thigh, squeezing gently but not making anything out of it. Just a touch to ground them both. Liv and Gerry have started arguing in the back over what they’re going to have for breakfast when they finally arrive, and Aaron lets it wash over him, though he rubs his thumb over the seam of Robert’s jeans. “You love it really.”
Robert doesn’t say anything for a while, but he’s smiling so wide Aaron feels sorry for his face. “It isn’t terrible.”
Robert code for I’m so happy I could cry.
Aaron’s embellishing a little, but the sentiment is the same.
four.
“Rob-”
“Can’t, I’m late!” Rob yells as he thunders down the stairs.
Liv half wonders how anyone can run down that staircase, and whether or not he realises he’s supposed to be driving her and she’s already missed the bus. “You said you’d take me in to college.”
Robert stands in the middle of the living room, one arm in a sleeve, the rest of the jacket hanging off his shoulder. His face cycles through about fifteen different expressions before he settles on irritation. “Dammit. I really need to get to this meeting.”
“Aaron’s not here,” Liv says slowly, like he’s somehow forgotten. Not that she thinks he really has because he’s fifteen different kinds of snippy when Aaron’s not around, he cries about lonely he is (ok, so he mopes) and he always seems millions of miles away. At least it’s not prison levels of scary, so Liv takes it in her stride.
“I know,” Robert snaps and then sighs, shrugging on the rest of his jacket. “Alright, eat your breakfast. I’ll call-”
“I can take her,” Gerry says, standing in the kitchen, munching on a piece of toast.
Robert eyes him as if he’s going to drive eighty over the speed limit and kill her or something. Liv would roll her eyes, but Robert’s unhinged enough without adding her sass. Aaron being gone is always a minefield.
“Aaron lets me drive the scrap van,” Gerry says, his hands held up in surrender. His toast is saturated in butter and half of it looks as if it’s about to topple over.
“Fine,” Robert says, begrudgingly. “But if you hurt her-”
“Rob,” Liv snaps, actually rolling her eyes this time. “Stop threatenin’ him and get to work. Go mope somewhere else.”
“I don’t mope,” Robert protests, but he actually puts his jacket on and grabs his keys from the coffee table. “I’ll be back about four so I’ll make dinner tonight.”
Liv makes a mental note to get Aaron to call after dinner because otherwise Robert will be a Mess and getting him to do anything will be too much to handle. “Right. Go.”
Robert goes, and Liv looks at Gerry.
Gerry is experiencing his first Aaronless Robert and she’s kind of fascinated with the emotions he’s been cycling through. “Honestly, if Aaron doesn’t come back soon-”
“He’ll learn to cope with it eventually.” Liv’s not entirely sure she believes herself, but part of her wants to stick up for Rob. He’s not all bad. Most of the time.
“No offence,” Gerry says, around a mouthful of toast, and probably about to say something offensive. “I thought your brother was mental without Robert, but he’s summat else.”
Liv snorts.
“Though,” Gerry continues, tossing the crusts in the bin. “Kinda nice to love someone that much one day though, right?”
“Gross,” Liv says, but she does kind of want it. Watching her brother and Robert in love is nauseating and heartwarming in equal measure. Still. “Come on, or I’ll be late.”
Liv shoots of a text to Aaron while she’s waiting for Gerry to start the van. day three in the mill house and robert is still pining away for aaron. liv hopes he’s not gonna call until after 6 because she’s starving and robert fails at life post phonecalls.
Later, during her lunchbreak, she grins at Aaron’s response. Not my fault he’s a nutter and then fine, but only if you stop texting me like you’re on bloody big brother and later, just after she finishes for the day, never mind coming home tonight.
Liv makes a mental note to sleep downstairs with headphones and the tv on.
five.
“‘morning Mr. Sugden,” Robert says, pressing a line of kisses to Aaron’s neck.
Aaron grins up at the ceiling, one hand twisted in Robert’s hair, the other brushing down the skin of Robert’s back. His ring glints in the sunlight streaming through their windows. He wonders if you can be too happy. “Mr. Dingle.”
Robert doesn’t comment on the way Aaron’s voice hitches, or the way his nails dig into Robert’s back as Robert rolls his hips, a slow thrust that only serves to send a shiver down Aaron’s back.
“Rob,” Aaron bites out, heels digging into the mattress as Robert bites at the juncture of Aaron’s neck, teeth grazing the skin beneath his lips. “Come on.”
Robert says nothing, just breathes against Aaron’s skin, his fingers curled in Aaron’s hair, face hovering above his as he pulls back to look Aaron in the eye. “I love you.”
Aaron swallows once, twice, and lets out a soft groan as Robert thrusts again, adjusting the angle in the way he always does, just perfect and Aaron can’t breathe for a moment or two. Sound gives way to the feel of Robert’s skin on his, how full he feels, how easily Robert can make his body sing.
This isn’t their first honeymoon, but it feels like the most important; Robert’s eyes are wet with emotion, his thumb brushing over Aaron’s cheekbone, his lips. Aaron doesn’t know how his chest can contain so much love, but it does, and he grips Robert’s back, urges him deeper, faster, and Robert obliges. He thrusts harder, breathless moans and words whispered in Aaron’s ear that Aaron doesn’t really hear, everything is just white noise because Robert’s brushing against his prostate and they’re married and Aaron can’t help but think of the endless moments they’ll have together after this because they’ve made it here, now, and Robert loves him and he loves Robert and -
Robert kisses him, hungry and wet and needy, and Aaron arches his back, yells Robert’s name as he comes, unashamed to be as loud and wanton as he wants. The sex has always been good, always, but when Robert presses a kiss to Aaron’s hand, his ring-finger, Aaron can’t help but pull him in, body oversensitive and shivering, but desperate for everything Robert wants to give.
the golden rule of spying: you never underestimate robert sugden. he’d been the best in the business, until he’d gone rogue - and well, aaron just wanted to know why the pride and joy of her majestys secret service had turned his back on his country.
written for robron week day six.
ao3 link
The snow was getting worse.
It was the ultimate, James Bond style cliche, wasn’t it? Aaron was neck deep in a mission that had consumed his life for close to three years now, finally nearing the end point of it, and he was getting a real Hollywood style setting for it - a log cabin, deep in the depths of the Ural mountains.
It was always Russia, wasn’t it?
In every spy movie ever made, there was always a scene up a snowy mountain, somewhere in Russia.
Aaron hadn’t thought cliche was Robert’s style, but this is where he’d tracked him down to - a log cabin in the depths of the Ural mountains. Hardly the most creative place to hide, but after two years of searching for Robert, Aaron didn’t much care - he’d finally found him, and that’s what mattered.
Finally, they were at the end of a very long, complicated story.
Robert Sugden, the crowing glory of the organisation. He’d joined her Majesty’s Secret Service at eighteen, and he’d been recruited into the secret service of the secret service at twenty one.
They didn’t have a name.
A name meant admitting they existed, admitting there was a layer of secrecy and spying that went deeper than the MI5 everyone knew about. You could search through every piece of legislation, everything pertaining to MI5, and you’d never find a single mention of the organisation Aaron worked for - not even an illusion to its existence.
They were the black ops of the British secret service.
Robert Sugden had been the golden boy, once. He had more successful missions under his belt than Aaron had even been on, his career. He was ruthless, efficient, everything a secret agent should be.
A real life James Bond.
Until he’d gone rogue.
Robert had been sent on a mission to Crimea, and he’d missed his first check in, and then his second, and then they’d sent Aaron in, to find him, and then they’d discovered he’d gone rogue.
Defected.
Aaron remembered the exact moment he’d been told to call off the search. He’d been so determined to find him, had been so convinced Robert must have been kidnapped, that there was no way Robert would betray their country, betray him.
He’d been wrong.
Aaron had been standing on a street corner in Crimea when the call had come through.
It’s still light when he gets home, just. The change in clocks meaning a bit more daylight and his work days feeling that much shorter. He hated winter, the short days making working outside depressing. He’s hoping the house is peaceful, he just wants a quiet night in with no hassle.
He can feel the warmth as he opens the door, one of the advantages of Robert always feeling the cold, but the place is quiet. He toes off his boots and hangs up his jacket before opening the ornate door to the living room. The sight before him makes him smile. Robert is stretched out on the sofa seemingly fast asleep, Seb sleeping on his chest, tiny hands clutching at Robert’s shirt.
He quietly climbs the stairs to take a shower, wanting to wash the day away. He doesn’t want to wake them. Seb’s been waking almost hourly the past few nights and Robert’s been the one getting up, letting Aaron sleep but it’s obviously taken its toll. There’s still no sounds from downstairs when he’s changed and rubbing his hair vigorously with a towel. He gets downstairs and kneels beside the sofa beside the two of them, hand running over Seb’s soft hair.
“You’re home.”
“I am.” He drags his gaze from the baby, to his husband and smiles. He can never decide which Robert is his favourite, but sleepy is definitely up there. “He’s finally sleeping?”
“Think he’s worn himself out. There’s another tooth coming through.”
“Want me to stick the teething thing in the freezer?” Robert shakes his head. “Where is everyone?”
“Liv’s doing homework with Jacob, and Gerry’s somewhere with Zak. I thought it best not to ask too many questions.” Aaron snorts a little and leans in for a kiss, smiling as Seb lets out a tiny snore. “I’m going to go put him down then I’ll make tea.”
“Stay there, I’ll make something.” Despite the jokes he’s adequately capable in the kitchen, as long as it’s simple but Robert makes a face anyway. “Don’t look like that. There’s leftovers in the fridge.”
“I have the best husband.”
“Yes you do.” He gets to his feet, ignoring the crack from his knees and wanders into the kitchen, fetching himself a beer and the leftovers from the fridge while Robert takes Seb up the stairs. He can’t help the admiring gaze at his husband in those tight jeans that he’s always liked. He’s just reheating them and boiling some pasta when Robert comes down the stairs.
“He’s out. Let’s hope it lasts.” His arms wind round Aaron’s waist, settling on his stomach under his t-shirt. “Want me to finish that?”
“I’m beginning to think you don’t like my cooking.”
“You’ve been at work all day and I’ve been laying on the couch.” His chin settles on Aaron’s shoulder and it’s nice, just the two of them, nothing bothering them. It’s all too rare and he savours every second.
“So what else did you do today?” He knows better, Robert isn’t one for lazing about, even when he’s got Seb.
“Called in to see Vic at work, rescued Seb from your Gran, nothing much.”
“Vic alright?” He asks, turning down the heat and turning round in Robert’s arms so he’s facing him.
“Yeah. It’s er, it’s Mum’s birthday today.” Aaron rubs his back, can hear the slight tremor in his voice. “I took Seb to see her. I know he doesn’t know, but…”
“You’ll tell him. He’ll know his Gran because you’ll tell him how wonderful she was, and how much she would love him.” Sometimes he doesn’t know what to say, doesn’t understand the loss that Robert must feel and all he can do is be there to hold him when he needs.
“You fancy going to the pub instead of this?” He nods towards the cooker.
“Oi, my cooking isn’t that bad.”
“No, I know...just feel like being around people I suppose.”
“Come on then.” He says, with a kiss to his neck. “Go get the kid.”
They’ll spend the evening in the pub, surrounded by family and Robert will be smiling by the time they head home to find Gerry and Liv arguing over the games console and as the two of them take Seb up to bed everything feels just about perfect.
