aaron-monroe:

“I find it hard to picture Dex being anything but grumpy… well I guess, on occasion he can be surly, but that’s the only two emotions that I’ve seen from him.” He laughs a little to himself as he tries to actually picture Dex, all decked out, smiling like an idiot on his wedding day. “If I do it, it will certainly be a sight to behold.” Aaron surprises himself with his self-control because actually waits until he turns his head to look out the passenger window before rolling his eyes when Alexa says he deserves to be happy.  He’s heard that before from so many people and has yet to truly believe it, and this time is no exception. However, he does know that his sister means well, so he at least tries to acknowledge what she said by turning back towards her and giving her a slight nod.

Aaron lowers his head to hide his developing smile when Alexa starts her rambling. It’s just so Alexa. It’s immediately comforting and relaxing even though he knows she’s just doing it to try and pry something out of him. She may be a good detective, but he knows her far too well to fall for it.  Usually he just tunes her out when she really gets going like this, but apparently he’s really missed hearing her voice, because he ends up actually listening to her this time.  When she mentions his failing rock star dream, he feels a surprising reaction.  He dreamed of becoming big time rock star the minute he picked up his first guitar at the age of 8, but somehow, the fact that his musical dream never became a reality doesn’t hurt him as much as losing Tristan. “I’m alive.” Aaron decides to respond to her babbling just to make her feel like it actually paid off. “After everything I’ve done, the fact that I survived makes me happy enough.” 

She rolls her eyes, looking over at him, “You keep saying that,” she points out, her brow slightly furrowed, “and I know there are lots of reasons you wouldn’t have been alive when you were out here, but then things were good for a long time. Of course you’re alive,” she raises a brow at him, “is there any particular reason youwouldn’tbe?” She feels a strange sensation in her stomach, clutching and sitting in her lower abdomen like lead. There’s some kind of possibility here that she doesn’t even want to think about, and it’s making her skin crawl - but there’s no way it’s true, so she shakes it out of he head.

She finally (finally, god) pulls up to her street and manages to turn onto it. She pulls her car into an open spot, and things are suddenly quiet. She turns of the ignition - even quieter. She hits the door lock, hoping Aaron will get the message and stay in here with her for a minute, so she can make things right in her mind. “Just tell me,” she turns to Aaron, leveling him with a look, “if you…if you have something you need to tell me. Just do it, alright? Don’t make me all twisted up with worry for nothing.”

aaron-monroe:

Aaron can feel Alexa entering her detective mode and it makes him instantly tense up. If she wanted to, she could easily start interrogating Aaron, and he knows he’d be a blubbering, emotional wreck in a few seconds, easily spilling all his secrets.  He going to tell her everything at some point. Alexa, Tristan, and Eva were the only people that Aaron knew he could tell things too without fear of judgement. Eva finally has her life straighten out with Andy, and he doesn’t want to pull her back into a bad place by talking about drugs. Since Tristan’s no longer an option, Alexa is the only person he has left, but he doesn’t really want to have a meltdown in a car while stuck in New York City traffic. He’s so relieved when sister mode overrides her detective mode and she backs off. He looks over at her, trying to show how grateful he is as all he can do is nod slightly to show her that he’s willing to talk eventually, just not right now.

He relaxes back into his seat at the change in subject and lets out a hearty laugh when Alexa finally fesses up. It’s something he can totally see Lex pulling, and it’s actually quite comforting to realize that he’s sister hasn’t changed all that much. “Okay, but when isn’t Dex grumpy and please don’t say ‘during sex’ or something like that or I’m getting out of this car asap.” The ease at which they slide into their normal banter is a startling contrast to his awkward conversation with Tristan earlier. “Well I’m pretty sure that Dex is almost as stubborn as you are, so I’m thinking that nothing could have gotten him to purpose unless he really wanted to.” He laughs at the mental image of Alexa dating a hot dog vendor. “Well give me his number, I wouldn’t mind some free hot dogs.” Aaron’s laugh dies and he gives Alexa’s hand, which he still has a firm grip on, another squeeze. “I’m happy for you, Lex. Like really happy for you. If anyone deserves a happy ending, it’s definitely you.” 

“He’s way less grumpy,” she points out, after a few moments, “but you’ll see that soon enough…it’s not just me, who deserves it, though,” she peeks over at Aaron, squeezing his hand softly, “the happy ending? You deserve it too, Aaron. You deserve it more than I do, actually,” he gives him a smile, then lets out a breath. She can tell he’s really holding back here, and filling it all up with chatter isn’t going to do much, but it’s all she’s got, so she figures why not, just keep talking until he cracks and gives her something she can use to weasel her way into whatever his problem happens to be. She’s not a detective for nothing, after all.

“You know, I always thought you’d figure your whole happy ending out on your own, too,” she shrugs, “with the guitar and the singing, and the shows - all that, I thought you’d make something more of it, and be set, and we’d live in our big ol’ apartment with a thousand cats, but then…,” she smiles, a little wistfully, “we both kind of found something, you know? We both had something real, and there’s no reason you still shouldn’t have it. That’s all I want you to know - you deserve to be even happier than I do, and I deserve to get to watch, so don’t you dare let me down, okay? Just do what you have to and be happy and let me gloat about being right?” She gives his hand a squeeze - she knows it isn’t as simple as that, not by a long shot, but she hopes it’ll open something up, that he can tell her what happened and she can help him fix it, help him really be the happiest he can - and hopefully, in the process, she can help him find his way back home.

She can tell something’s up with Aaron - something bigger and craggier than what he’s telling her, and it’s making her jumpy. She doesn’t like it, but she’s not going to press him on it - the last thing he wants right now (or ever, honestly,) is her harping on him about his problems when she doesn’t even know precisely what they are. They’re both like this - if either of them want to share information, they’ll do it on their own terms. “Listen, okay? If,” she lets out a breath, which turns into a slight laugh before receding back into her throat, “if you want to talk about something, and you want to talk about it with me, you know I’m here. Whether you do it while you’re here, or while you’re there - whatever. Even if we haven’t spoken in five hundred years, and we’re both living in space stations,” she smiles softly, “you can call me, and tell me what you need to say, okay? I’m not gonna make you, but if you want to,” she shrugs a shoulder, “I’m here, alright?”She doesn’t much expect a reply, so she just shakes most of the subject off before she continues, after giving his hand another squeeze.

“By the way,” her voice is lighter now, which makes things a lot easier, “if you keep talking about Dex being blackmailed into giving me this,” she flashes her finger, wiggling it around for show as she careens into the far left lane and tries to overtake a limo, “someone’s going to think your right…which you might be, a little.” She laughs, smiling over at him, “I might’ve…set the ball rolling, a little, but I think it was really his idea, mostly. It had to be, or else he wouldn’t have done it - and I wouldn’t have said yes if he asked me all grumpily,” she slams down on the brake, rolling her eyes. “I might have made up a tiny lie about a hot dog vendor hitting on me,” she looks down, slightly bashful, “like, non-stop, and then said - totally under my breath,” she defends, “like he wasn’t even supposed to hear me, that someone should give them a reason to quit it, already? Like, it wasn’t a hint, but it was - I think he’d already been thinking about it, though. He got so mad about this poor old hot dog guy, too,” she shakes her head, “like I was really going to leave him for some fifty year old man peddling pig snouts on the corner. He can be so dumb sometimes,” she thinks, momentarily, “okay, like eighty nine percent of the time.”

aaron-monroe:

Yep! There was no way he was going to get through this reunion without some kind of physical violence, so he’s just glad that Lex got it out of the way within the first few minutes of their meeting (he chooses to ignore the fact that he kind of, sort of egged it on).

“Hello… don’t you have one of those police lights you can put on top of the car.” Aaron decides to state the obvious as he follows Alexa to the car. “What’s the point of being a cop if you can’t take advantage of it?” He knows that it’s pointless to even argue because for some reason his sister is one of those people who tends to do everything by the book, it’s just one of the many differences they have. 

When they pull out into traffic - with no light or sirens on - he realizes that he’s essentially trapped, which was probably Alexa’s plan to begin with. He figures that talking about Tristan is going to be easier than admitting some certain bad habits that he’s picked back up, so he decides for once not to avoid the topic.  “Umm… I was coming to visit you, actually, but I ran into him outside a coffee shop.” He pauses as he tries to figure out just how much he wants to reveal. “We’re both still alive, so I guess things went okay.”

This is why Lex is the better of the two, she tends to know just what to say as Aaron reaches up and squeezes her hand quickly.  “I know sis…” Aaron returns the smile before turning his head to stare out the window, looking at the city he so desperately missed. “Some stuff is going to have to wait until I know you’re unarmed, but fuck Lex… I’ve missed him so much and you, by the way.” 

She fixes him with a stern glare for a moment, shaking her head, “You never change, you know that - I didn’t use the lights when I got the job, I’m not usin’ ‘em now,” she drops the subject as they crawl through the traffic, and she listens to him talk. He squeezes her hand and she squeezes back. She sighs, lurching to a stop and then looking over at him, “I missed you too,” she smiles, and then her face turns sour, “and so did Tristan. Didn’t you see him, Aaron? He’s a mess. He’s been a mess for,” she stops, biting down on her lip - as much as she wished it true, this wasn’t her place. It had never been, really - things between Aaron and Tristan had been helped along through her a bit, sure, but they hadn’t been her responsibility then, and they weren’t now. She couldn’t do as much as she wanted - basic stuff, like forcing them to get back together and move in and be happy for once in both their lives - and so she decided powerless was probably her best cover.

“I really wish you hadn’t waited so long to come back,” she says, her voice quiet after a few long moments of silence, “it was weird to be without you - it’d been a long time since I’d done that, y’know? I mean,” she brushes her hair away from her face, the ring on her finger bumping against her forehead, “sometimes I think it was good, for us to branch a little bit, but,” she shrugs, “I wouldn’t have wanted to if I’d known it would mean us not seeing each other for so long.”

She reaches her hand back over, taking his, and then peeks at him before turning back to the cars in front of her, “I hope things can work out with you two,” she mumbles, “because I don’t like you running away to the other side of the country just because of a guy. It’s not fair,” she pinches his palm, “and trust me when I say this, okay? Things can work out - it’s not too late,” she raises a brow, “I know you think it is - but it’s not. You two can fix this whole thing if you just,” she rolls his eyes, feeling how much he doesn’t want her to say any of this, “fine, fine. I’ll shut up…but you’re gonna have to talk a little, because I refuse to sit in a silent car for the next seventy years of my life.”

alexa-monroe:

She’s been stuck in like, thick afternoon traffic with her head halfway out the window (to yell at passing cars and stupid pedestrians, obviously) for about twenty minutes when she sees the giant red ‘R’ glowing above her. She hasn’t seen Aaron in a while (years? Had it…

She punches him hard in the arm and shoots him a glare, “I’m not pregnant, you ass,” she glowers, then looks up at him, narrowing her eyes, “what’s up with you…you look,” she has to think for a long moment to put her finger on it, and when she does, she’s pretty sure it’s not worth even half of the effort she’s put into it, “different.” She shakes her head, “forget it, come on,” she nods toward the street, “we’ll have hours to talk in this stupid traffic, let’s go.” She leads him to her car and pops the trunk, watching him stuff his bags in before ducking to the drivers side and sliding in. She drums her fingers on the wheel as she waits for him to get in, then puts her blinker on and squints into the line of cars that seems to be at a standstill before glancing over at her brother, “okay, serious question time,” she decides, then takes her foot off the brake to seize the opportunity for an opening, slamming back down on it when she misses it, “what happened with Tristan? I mean…are you okay?” She looks over at him, easing back in her seat - they were going to be here a while, anyway.

She reaches over the console and grabs his forearm, squeezing it, “and I know just because we haven’t talked in awhile, you might feel like…you can’t tell me, or something, but you’re my brother, first. That’s what matters, you know?” She gives him a tiny smile, then lurches forward into the traffic, securing them a spot amidst all the honking cars and yelling people, “And I’ve missed you, by the way…now,” she peeks over at him, raising her brows, “it’s your turn to talk.”