Listen (Patrick Stump / Fall Out Boy Fanfic)

Chapter 12 - You Are What You Love

                  

The holidays eventually dissolved into a wonderful daze of romance. I know that makes me sound like a lovesick teenager, but again, Aria brought that out in me. We spend nearly every waking moment together. We spent New Year's Eve and New Year's Day together, most of it partying with Pete and Meagan. Then, throughout January, I dragged Aria along with me to the studio. The band had begun officially recording once our management okayed our album cover, and so far it was going great. In the last week of January, I did have to leave Aria for a short weekend to fly out for a meeting with Elton John. That's right. Elton John recorded on our album, and it was the most magical experience of my life, next to being with Aria, of course.

            Then, February rolled in with one snow storm after the next, keeping Aria and I holed up indoors either at her house or mine. For a few weeks, Aria sat down in my home studio with me, watching as I recorded my parts for a couple of songs, and then I would play for her. Singing for her was easily my favorite thing in the world to do with her. And the best part of all of this? I was still writing. We didn't need any more songs for the album, but I was already writing for the next. Pete was too, and even though we hadn't pitched anything to our management yet, we knew a follow-up record was guaranteed.

            Once February passed and winter began to let up, we started talking about videos. Pete had a rather ingenious idea to make a longform video encompassing every song on the record, and because we're all a bunch of masochistic idiots, we agreed with him. So now, after weeks of planning, we were in the middle of April and about to begin the longest video shoot of our lives. We had to travel to LA to start the shooting, and of course I brought Aria along with me. Pete brought Meagan, and we were all staying at Pete's second home in LA, since I had sold mine a few years ago and opted to stay in Chicago.

            Aria and I have been together for about five months now, and even though the pressure was on from Pete and Meagan's relationship, we still haven't slept together. She spends the night from time to time, quite often actually, and I've even crashed on their couch a few times, but I never made any further moves. To be honest, I was a little nervous after what happened on Christmas Eve. I was terrified that I wouldn't live up to whatever expectations she might have of me, and I was scared that if I tried to make a move and she wasn't ready for it, I'd scare her away. I didn't want to lose her, so I was going to take my time and do this right.

            Tonight, Pete, Meagan, Aria, and I were going out to dinner on a double date after we finish filming. We were set to finish a video with 2 Chainz today, which none of us really had to do anything for except sit in the back of a van with bags over our heads. Needless to say, it was the easiest shoot of the entire record. When all was said and done, we all went back to Pete's house, Joe and Andy included. They went off to watch Star Wars for the night, while I went to shower and scrub all of the fake blood out of my hair. We all got ready to leave, and we got into Pete's car to head for dinner. I sat in the back seat with Aria, our hands entwined together, and her head on my shoulder. She looked beautiful tonight, as she does every night, in a light pink off the shoulder sweater and a pair of skinny jeans, with the necklace I gave her for Christmas hanging from her neck. I was dressed in my usual; A t-shirt and black cardigan with black skinny jeans and my fedora.

            Pete brought us to a casual little Indian place just around the corner form his house, and as well we were led to our table, it felt like our first double date all over again. Except this time, I shared one side of the booth with Aria, while Pete sat beside Meagan. I kept one hand on Aria's knee under the table while we looked oat our menus. "So," Pete said suddenly, setting his menu down to look at me, "Done it yet?"

            "Done what yet?" I asked, confused.

            "Your girlfriend."

            "Pete!" Meagan gasped, slapping his arm. "Leave him alone, they're taking it slow."