Mexico, 2017
A few hours later, Aiden pulls up to a small beach house in a small, seaside town in Mexico. Rio still snoozes in the passenger seat, and Aiden takes a moment to admire his stunning beauty before he gets out, grabbing their bags, and then scooping Rio back into his arms and carrying him into the beach house.
It smells like cigarettes and cheap air freshener, but other than that it's truly a beautiful place. The sun is starting to rise over the horizon, casting a pale blue light throughout the house, and Aiden carries Rio to the bed. He lays him down, helping to undress him, and then pulling the covers over him.
Aiden checks the house, locks the doors, and closes the windows before slipping into bed next to Rio, pulling him close, and letting sleep wash over him.
•••
When Aiden wakes up, the sun is high in the sky, and he checks his phone to see that it's a little after two in the afternoon. Along with the time are plenty of missed calls from his father, Michael, and surprisingly even one from Maria. Accompanying them are plenty of text messages. Aiden turns his phone off, putting it down, and completely shutting himself off from the outside world.
•••
After a shower and brushing his teeth, Aiden walks back out to see Rio still sleeping in the bed. Aiden hadn't realized how exhausted Rio truly was, everything he had been through, everything that was happening to him had to be incredibly draining.
He checks the bandages on his hands and sees that they're okay before finding a landline and ordering delivery.
•••
It's not until a couple of hours later that Rio finally stirs awake, rubbing his eyes groggily as he stretches beneath the sheets. He looks around, his eyes adjusting to the bright afternoon sunlight, and sits up.
"Where are we?" He asks, his voice gravelly from sleep.
"I don't really know." Aiden says, sitting at a table, the food spread out before him. "Some place in Mexico."
"How long have I been asleep?" Rio asks.
"Let's see, we left LA at around one this morning, it's currently 5:42, so sixteen hours give or take." Aiden says.
Rio sighs, rubbing his head before standing up and walking over to sit on the other side of the table. "I didn't realize I was that sleepy."
"Do you feel better?" Aiden asks.
"A little." Rio replies. "I'll probably feel even better when I eat this food."
"It's all yours." Aiden says. "I tried to wait on you but I couldn't."
"Weak." Rio says with a teasing grin as he starts to dig in, shoveling mouthfuls of food into his mouth at once, back to back, and moaning in pleasure as he allows the flavors to burst over his tastebuds.
Aiden looks at him with a grin and a chuckle.
"What?" Rio asks.
"You're beautiful. That's all." Aiden replies.
Rio blushes, but doesn't look away from Aiden.
•••
The next couple of days pass by without trouble. It's peaceful, the first time either of them have experienced peace in a long, long, time.
They nurture each other, hold each other, and remind each other why they were there. It's a centering time for them both. Rio is reminded that he's important, that he belongs on this earth, even if he doesn't feel like it sometimes. Aiden is reminded that he has a purpose, a calling to fulfill. Both of them are reminded that they can un-apologetically be themselves.
"Let's go to the beach." Rio says, stripping out of his shirt and tossing it to the floor. It was another lazy afternoon for the two of them, and they sit in the window seat, looking out at their private stretch of beach. "Come on, we've been here for three days and still haven't been. I'm going crazy in this house."
"You don't like spending time with me?" Aiden asks, putting a fake pout on his lips.
"Of course I do." Rio says, pecking his lips. "But I wanna spend time with you on the beach. Come on, it's a nice day outside."
"Okay," Aiden says.
"Yeah?" Rio asks excitedly.
"Yes." Aiden smiles, kissing Rio before standing up and taking his own shirt off.
He looks at Rio for a moment, and then he takes off running through the house, bursting out of the backdoor. Laughing, Rio follows him at full speed, both of them bounding out onto the sand and racing towards the water.
Aiden runs in, diving into a wave, and then resurfacing a few feet away. Rio dips under the water, feeling the currents of the cool water rushing around his body. When he resurfaced, his curls weighed down by the weight of the water, Aiden is right there in front of him, embracing him and pulling him close.
"I'm happy to be here with you." Rio says, circling his arms around Aiden's neck, leaning in close and kissing him deep, the taste of Aiden mingled with the salty taste of the sea water.
Aiden, too, was glad that they'd left Los Angeles behind for a while. It was exactly what they needed.
Rio spots a waterfall in a rock face a few yards away, and he pulls away from Aiden to swim towards it. Aiden follows him, propelling himself through the cool ocean water until he and Rio are beneath it, the water cascading down around them in the small tide pool.
"Look!" Rio exclaims, pointing to the assortment of fish swimming around their legs and feet. "I've always wanted to go snorkeling."
"This isn't technically snorkeling." Aiden says with a smile.
Rio rolls his eyes. "You know what I meant."
Rio moves closer to him, kissing him deeply, groaning softly into the kiss as he feels Aiden's hands on his ass, squeezing it possessively.
They pull away from each other, resting their foreheads together, and staring deeply into each other's eyes.
•••
A little while later, Aiden and Rio lie on a towel spread out on the beach. The sun is setting, and they lie there neck to each other in a small, chair-like hole that Aiden dug in the sand.
"I don't wanna go home." Rio says softly, breaking the comfortable silence the two of them had been sitting in for a while. "If you can even call if that."
"Yeah, I know." Aiden says. "I don't want to face what's waiting for us back in LA either."
Rio chews on his bottom lip. "Maybe we don't have to."
Aiden looks at him. "What?"
"Come on," Rio says, propping himself up on his elbow to get a better look at Aiden's face. "Why can't we? I mean, we can just stay here, just you and me. Away from the prying eyes of the rest of the world. Away from my mother, your father, the press, the public. God I can't even imagine what the public is saying about me right now. About us."
Aiden props himself up on his elbow so that he's eye-level with Rio. "Rio, baby, what do you think people think of you?"
"I don't know." Rio says. "I've tried not to think about it while we've been here, tried not to let it bother me, but I know they hate me. The real me. They probably think I'm just some fake wannabe celebrity who was too afraid to be himself, who was willing to hide behind a curtain for fame...because I was."
"You didn't choose to hide behind that curtain," Aiden says. "You were forced to."
"I allowed it to happen." Rio says with a sigh, shaking his head. "I should've never allowed it to happen. I know they hate me."
Aiden looks at him for a moment, seeing the pain, hurt, and fear etched into his beautiful features.
"Come on." Aiden says, standing up and extending his hand out for Rio to take.
Rio, confused, takes it. "Where are we going?"
"Just come on." Aiden says, leading him across the beach and back up to the house.
They walk inside, Rio still confused, as Aiden walks to the bedroom. He opens one of the drawers and takes out his phone.
"I haven't turned it on since we got here." Aiden says. "I wanted to stay cut off from the rest of the world. Figured it would be best to keep it hidden so we weren't tempted, I mean I know Daphne took yours."
"What are you doing with it?" Rio asks.
Aiden turns the phone on, and it starts vibrating immediately with messages, missed calls, and voicemails. However, he ignores them all, pulling up Google and clicking the first trending topic: Rio.
"Great. I'm trending on google." Rio sighs.
"Look," Aiden says, turning the phone around to show him the articles.
Rio looks at the screen, seeing the titles of the articles, his eyes widening with surprise.
RIO FORCED OUT OF THE CLOSET, FANS RALLY BEHIND HIM.
RIO & HERO COP: A MATCH MADE IN HEAVEN AND OUR NEW OTP.
WHY RIO BEING GAY IS A GOOD THING FOR THE MUSIC INDUSTRY
RIO BREAKS DOWN WALLS WITH THE SURFACING OF A NEW PICTURE.
Rio looks up from the screen to see Aiden's smiling face. "How did you know?"
"I peeked before I turned my phone off. It was all positive then, I was still hoping it would be now." Aiden says, before turning the phone back off. "See, they don't hate you Rio, if anything they love you even more."
Rio sits on the bed, a smile spreading across his face as Aiden puts the phone back in the drawer and sits down next to him.
"But if you're not ready to go back yet, then I understand." Aiden says. "Truth is I don't wanna see my dad yet."
"I still wanna stay here with you forever." Rio says, pulling Aiden close to him and kissing him deeply on the lips.
Aiden returns the kiss, gently lying Rio back against the bed, moving to hover over him, their lips never parting. Rio's hands stretch out along the expanse of Aiden's muscular back, reaching down to untie his swim shorts. Aiden slides out of them, kicking them to the floor.
Rio lifts his own hips to help Aiden take off his own pair, and finally their naked with one another.
"Aiden," Rio gasps softly as Aiden's lips find his neck, sucking and nipping at the skin gently, meanwhile he slowly grinds their erections together. "Babe..."
"Baby," Aiden replies softly, looking down into Rio's eyes.
Rio reaches up, pulling Aiden's face closer to his own until they're kissing again. Blindly, Aiden reaches for the lube that was almost empty on the bedside table. He sticks himself, Rio wrapping his legs around his waist and pulling him even closer.
Aiden pulls away from him, staring deeply into his eyes. "Baby," He says softly, his fingers brushing Rio's damp curls off of his forehead, the head of his dick nudged against his entrance. "I love you."
Rio looks at him, his eyes wide as he searches Aiden's, looking for something behind them, something that tells him what's happening is real, but he see nothing but genuine affection...genuine love.
"I love you, too." Rio says, and for the first time he realizes that he does, for the first time he experiences what true love feels like. True love is Aiden.
Aiden smiles, sealing their confession with a kiss, kissing him deeply, and then slowly pushing himself deep within Rio's velvety warm depths.
Rio moans into the kiss, because no matter how many times they do this, it'll never stop being so pleasurable for Rio. This time, though, it's different. This time, it's not just sex this time, this time it's different...this time they're making love.
It's slower, more passionate than any time before, and for some reason it's the best they've ever had. Rio gasps, grabbing at Aiden's muscular back, trying to pull him even closer—though it's not possible.
Aiden's breath is short in Rio's ear, gasps of pleasure escaping him as he rocks his hips, his hands on Rio's hips.
"I love you so much," Aiden breathes into his ear; and it's the truth. Aiden's never felt a love like this before either, and it's something that consumes ever fiber of his body. A fire he doesn't want to put out.
"I love you," Rio replies, nails digging into Aiden's shoulders as he feels himself getting closer and closer to the edge.
Aiden continues to make love to him, Rio's goes curling behind Aiden's back as his gasps of pleasure grows louder.
Without much warning, Rio cums between their bodies, tightening around Aiden's length. As Rio cums, Aiden cums as well, pumping his seed deep into Rio, the first time they've ever had sex raw.
As Rio comes down from his orgasm, he feels a few tears slipping from the corners of his eyes, and Aiden leans down and kisses them away.
Slowly, he pulls out of Rio.
"How about I draw us a bath, baby?" Aiden whispers into Rio's ear a few minutes later.
Rio nods his head, feeling extremely fatigued.
•••
Aiden and Rio sit in the bath a few moments later, the smell of jasmine wafting up around them, just like it was that night in Rio's house.
"I never knew my father." Rio says softly, his head rested back on Aiden's chest. "My mother never mentioned him, never talks about him, it's just like he never existed."
"I'm sorry." Aiden says, kissing his shoulder.
"It's not your fault." Rio says, looking down at the water where their legs intertwine. There's a moment of brief silence between them. "Can we go out town tomorrow?"
"Are you sure you want to?" Aiden asks.
Rio nods his head. "Yeah, we could use the fresh air and new surroundings."
"Okay." Aiden says. "If you want to, baby, we can go."
Rio nods, bringing Aiden's knuckles up to his lips for a kiss.
Rio hasn't been happier than he is in this moment, hasn't felt lighter, and he most definitely hasn't felt more love.
He knows that Aiden is his one.
✨Beyond the Lights✨
{A/N: This chapter was more or less a filler chapter, and a super short chapter by my standards. Anyway, next chapter the story is going to pick back up a bit. There's only three chapters left. As always, I'd love to know what you guys think! XOXO! -C.K.}