Chapter Twenty

Aiden

Could he do it? Could he open himself up like that, make himself that vulnerable? Somehow, Aiden thought that with Rocky it would be all too easy. He really was everything Aiden had ever dreamed of, everything he never thought he'd have and didn't think he deserved. Aiden had never trusted anyone as much as he'd come to trust Rocky in the short time they'd been together, which was all the answer he needed.

"I'd like to try. I don't know how easy it will be for me, but.."

"We'll take it at your pace. If anything becomes too much, say red and it all stops and we'll talk, okay?"

Aiden just nodded his head, nerves taking him over and stealing his voice. He could do this. He might never get another chance like this; he didn't want to waste it.

"I'd like to show you something. I hope you'll like it, but if not, we can try something else. Does that sound okay?"

Rocky's words made him freeze in surprise. Did Daddy have a playroom or something in the house? No, that didn't make sense. Rocky had shown him around and he hadn't seen one. Curiosity overcame Aiden and he found himself nodding his agreement. Anything that caused that rosy hue on Daddy's cheeks was something he wanted to see.

Daddy took his hand and led him up the stairs, then down the hall to a guest room he'd been shown in the initial tour. Curiosity was eating Aiden alive by the time Daddy reached for the door handle. What could possibly be in there that he hadn't already seen?

Rocky

Rocky's nerves were humming under his skin. He recognized that the outcome of this reveal was paramount. If he'd gotten it right, Aiden might very well get what he needed to finally let go. If it wasn't right however, it could seriously set back Aiden's progress in trusting him to know what the other man needed.

While Aiden had slept his long sleep, there hadn't been much for Rocky to do besides sit and watch his boy. He'd eased the boredom some by shopping online. Some items had arrived already. Some would take a bit longer. Between the online shopping and sending Collin on a hunt for what he didn't want to chance having to wait for, he hoped he had enough to at least be a good start.

Taking a deep breath, Rocky slowly opened the door and waited for Aiden's reaction.

Aiden

This was not the room that Aiden had seen on the initial tour of Rocky's house. As Aiden's eyes roamed the space they filled with tears. This wasn't some random setup for a generic Little, that much was more than obvious. This was planned down to the last detail and was meant to show that despite the short amount of time they'd been in a relationship, Rocky knew Aiden better than anyone else ever had.

An oversized, brightly colored, round table and chair set sat in one corner of the room. A small shelf by the table was filled with different LEGO sets. There looked to be a couple where he could build octopuses and underwater submarines, some were Star Wars themed, and yet more were just sets he could use to build whatever he fancied.

Another corner of the room was equipped with its own television and a gaming console. In front of the setup was another brightly colored, ergonomic gaming chair that looked like a dinosaur egg from the back. The gaming console sat on a set of shelves with a giant cubby on the bottom that held a giant gray octopus. Aiden walked over to give it closer inspection.

"I thought the chair might get boring after a while, so when Collin told me he found this octopus plush bean bag in the Little store, I had him pick one up."

"Collin?" Aiden really wanted to ask more about the Little store but for some reason, his brain had stuck on the name.

"He's a friend, and a Daddy, and the doctor who checked you over when you weren't waking up."

He'd called a doctor? Had them make a house call? Rocky hadn't mentioned that before and Aiden wasn't sure how he felt about someone examining him while he was unconscious, much less someone he didn't know. On the other hand, Rocky had obviously been extremely worried, and a house call was better than waking up in a hospital bed. Aiden decided to let that go and focused instead on the other part of the statement that had piqued his curiosity.

"There's a store for Littles around here?" As he asked the question, he ran his hands over the fur of the giant octopus and found it to be amazingly soft and soothing. Before he'd realized what he was doing he'd lowered himself to the floor and was rubbing one of the oversized tentacles along his cheek.

"There isn't one in Lilton, but there's one about twenty minutes from here." Rocky replied.

Aiden was so caught up in the soothing brush of fur along his cheek that he'd almost forgotten the question Daddy was answering. Almost . "I had no idea there was one so close."

"It's not a well-known fact. It's a locally owned small business that is completely word-of-mouth advertised. The only reason I know about it now is because of asking Collin to pick some things up for me."

By this point, Aiden's focus had completely been consumed by the texture of the beanbag. He leaned further into it and, without realizing he was doing it, his thumb made its way into his mouth. His eyes closed and he lost himself. Aiden wasn't sure how long he'd been cuddling with the octopus before Daddy interrupted.

"I take it that was a good choice." There was clear amusement in his voice but sometimes Aiden had trouble with social cues so he opened his eyes intent on checking to be sure he hadn't annoyed Daddy by getting lost in sensations, but his gaze landed on something on the other side of the room. It looked like an oversized window box for flowers, or one of those garden planters a person used outside when they thought they might want to rearrange the garden later or something.

What the heck is that?

Intrigued he made his way up to his hands and knees and crawled over to the large wooden object. When he reached his destination, every ounce of doubt that he'd held since day one that Rocky understood exactly who Aiden was, and how much work he could be, fled Aiden's mind.

It was an oversized indoor sandbox filled with a ridiculous amount of kinetic sand. Any man who would understand Aiden's obsession with the sticky sand and was willing to tackle the undoubtedly endless clean up duties associated with having a giant sandbox of it inside a house had more than enough patience and dedication to handle both Aiden's Little and Middle.

Could he let Rocky see his Little side? Before seeing this sandbox he wasn't so sure, but now he knew there was very little he couldn't trust Rocky with.

" Ohmygosh ! Daddy! This is ah-mazing !" The words tumbled out of Aiden without conscious thought as he dived basically headfirst into the box and scooped up huge handfuls of the sand.