When you doubted yourself — when the world threatened to crush every part of you you hadn’t yet learned to protect — Aaron stood, unshakable, at your side.

He didn’t waver and he didn’t flinch. He simply stayed.

“I’ve waited for you,” he says quietly, his voice low, steady, like the gravity you didn’t know you needed. His gloved hand grazes your cheek, slow, reverent, as if memorizing the shape of you all over again. “I would’ve waited forever.”

There’s no hesitation in him. No fear.

Only you.

“And I will not,” Aaron breathes, fingers curling with a gentle firmness against your jaw, “lose you now. Not when you are everything I have ever wanted. Not when you are everything I will ever need.”

His thumb brushes a careful path along your skin, the smallest touch carrying the weight of a thousand promises he’s already made and a thousand more he would never need to say aloud.

“My heart,” Aaron whispers, forehead pressing against yours, voice cracking the barest amount under the enormity of it, “beats only for you.”