All I Didn't Say ✧ Michael Jackson

Chapter 38 | Connections

"Thank you all for the support, guys. I don't know what I would do without you." Aria says while everyone starts to make their way to the door.

"No need to thank us, sister." Jackie reassures and hugs Aria one more time.

"And thank you for all the presents." She laughs, locking her eyes on the living room floor, full of unwrapped little packages. 

Usually, Michael and Janet are the only ones who offer Aria something on her birthday, mainly because the family doesn't celebrate birthdays. But this time it's way different - Aria is pregnant and because of the suffocating drama that surrounds the situation they all decided to pamper her for a change.

After kissing everyone goodbye Aria and Michael wave and close the door. This is her first night back at home since she was hospitalized. Doctor George put her through a bunch of exams to make one hundred percent sure that her and the baby were okay. Despite the fact that she's not in the safe gestation stage yet, the results showed that the life inside of her is here to stay.

The house embraces nothing but both of them. It feels cozy with all the lit candles around each room, Janet made sure to bring good energy to this place for when Aria came back.

"Well," Michael decides to step in and break the silence. "Alone, at last." He tries to shove his hands deeper in his pockets but it's impossible.

They're feeling nervous around each other, it's like the tension is growing by the second and not one of them can escape it. Aria spent three days laying on a hospital bed and Michael never left her side. Even so, it feels like they disconnected.

"It's strange, isn't it?" Aria is still facing the door. "This is the first time in three days that we're alone." She brings her arms to the front of her chest and crosses them. All of a sudden, she inhales desperately as if she had been dead for an eternity and she's now returning to the living. Her arms open wide and she pushes Michael against her body, holding him tightly. Too tightly to be honest.

"Whoa," he says when she finally exhales. His arms slowly get wrapped around her waist. "Wanna kill me woman?" He chuckles while looking down on her head which is strongly pressed against his chest.

"Just kiss me, dammit." Aria smiles and latches her arms around his exposed neck. Her gentle fingers run through his ponytail.

And as she requests, he does - he's kissing her like he's waving hello and goodbye at the same time; like he's crying of happiness and smiling with sorrow; like he is calmly passing through a hurricane and anxiously running on a sunny day. Plus she kisses him back with the same strength and yet softness as he does. It's a messed up kiss, just like he is at the moment. Just like they both are, actually.

Aria wants to ask him how he is feeling, how he is emotionally handling the things that happened. But this kiss says it all. The kiss is communication, it's vibration, it's energy and it's them. Finally, they're connected again.

"Damn," he breathes out.

"I know," Aria presses her face on his chest again only to feel his heart race getting faster. "I missed us." Michael gently grabs her arms and pushes her away from him, just enough to be able to take a glimpse at her. He smiles and brings her hands up to his lips, pecking them one at a time.

"I still have to give you you're present." Michael walks to the stairs before she could even try to retort. "Wait here."

Aria rolls her eyes and lets out the wide smile that had been imprisoned inside her face during the whole dinner. Let's just say that sitting next to a very grouchy Jermaine can never be a mood lifter. 'Why did he even bother to come?', she asks herself. "Okay," Michael's excited voice snaps her out of her thoughts.

"Michael, I told you I didn't want anything." Aria tries to wipe the smile off her face and look serious which she fails to do, of course.

"Well, I got this anyway." Michael giggles and hands her a red envelope. "Just open it and pretend that, out of all the gifts you got tonight, this is your favorite."

Aria smirks and starts to open the thin envelope. "Okay... this is hard." Michael had put so much glue on that thing that she's now finding it impossible to open. 

He laughs while lifting himself up from time to time by getting on the tip of his toes. He does that a lot and Aria can't help but find that to be the cutest thing - he stands tall with his hands behind his back and lifting up. It's like he's jumping but his feet don't leave the floor. 

"Oh, you think me struggling to open this thing is funny? I'll just rip it in half to make it easier,"

"No!" He takes the envelope from her hands as fast as thunder. "Are you nuts?" Slowly he starts opening it. "Here, for you."

Inside that envelope are two tickets for a trip. Aria runs her eyes through the matte paper and reads Africa. "What?" She gasps and chuckles at the same time. "Africa?!"

They haven't been there in so long and that country is their favorite place on earth. "Yeah, South Africa. I thought a vacation after this past few days would be nice for us." Michael takes a few steps in her direction. "Don't you agree?" His large hands land on top her shoulders and she feels herself letting go of all the tension that was kept in. 

She loves the way he draws little circles with his thumb, almost touching her collarbone, and how he softly presses the other four fingers against her neck.

"I couldn't agree more, Michael." Aria leans her head on his wrist and kisses it. "Thank you for thinking of this... for thinking about us." Michael uses the force of his thumb to start pushing her backwards. Aria begins to take a few steps back as Michael walks forward.

The only things that makes them stop is the hard wooden door and Aria's body compressed against it. "But?" He asks when he finds worry in her eyes.

Aria furrows her left brow. "How do you know there's a 'but' ?" She unlocks her arms from around his warm neck and bites her bottom lip.

"Well, there's this one with two t's," Michael drags his hands down to her butt cheeks and grabs on them blandly. "And there's another one which is about to come out from here," their lips meet once more and their tongues dance fiercely with each other. 

Not to mention that this kiss is not like the earlier one. Kisses, in general, are connections - first, they connected emotionally; now it's more like a physical connection.

"But," Aria continues and grins as she puts her index finger on top of his reddish lips. However, the worry her eyes show becomes more intense. "I don't know if I can travel after all of this and I don't want to risk it." As she speaks, her finger comes down from his lips to his chin. "Michael, if anything else happens I wouldn't be able to forgive myself-"

"You can travel," Michael's high pitched voice comes out in the air. "I spoke to George right before we left the hospital." He sighs and leads his hands to her face. "When you reach 20 weeks of pregnancy that's when you have to stay put and start your resting routine."

"That's good news then," she replies, feeling a shot of relief entering her body.

"Very good news."