-

three weeks had passed since shawn got back home. he had recovered pretty well considering the circumstances between him and aria, however he still didn't understand why he said and did what he did.

shawn sat on the edge of the couch, ready for the day ahead. he was dressed in a black button up shirt, black trousers, and a denim jacket over that. he sat down, fiddling with the necklace around his milky skin, as he glared out of the window.

aria was gone.

she was still living in the condo, still muttering words to shawn every so often, but she was completely gone. it was like she was an alien to shawn; she only talked when she had to, but other than that she was completely silent to him.

it was fair though, and shawn knew it. he knew he was completely out of order to her, and it was fair for the way aria was reacting. she was hurt, she is hurt.

shawn sighs softly, standing up from the couch, and walking to the kitchen, slipping off his jacket, and instead starting on breakfast for the two of them. he must at least try to make things right between them, after all, they live together.

he prepares a quick breakfast of avocado on toast, and in addition makes two french press coffees, so as soon as aria is ready, they can have breakfast together, and possibly talk properly, since it's the first time shawns going out since after the accident.

aria steps out of their bedroom, fully dressed, but a towel on her head. shawn smiles sadly at her, as she notices the breakfast laid out on the island.

"you didn't have to make breakfast," she smiles gently at him, walking over, and greeting him with a sweet kiss. "morning."

"how was your sleep?" he asks back, shocked at the affection arias giving him. it's the first proper kiss he's been given by aria for the past three weeks.

"really good thanks, i rested well," she says softly. "how about you?"

"pretty restless," he shrugs, as aria frowns slightly, looking at shawn concerned.

"you haven't been sleeping well at all, shawn, go back to bed, you don't have to come with me to see my parents today," aria says gently to him, bring her hand to his head, brushing away the curl that has fallen down.

"no, it's fine," he mumbles, looking down at aria, who seems so effortlessly beautiful to him. "i want to go see your parents, i-i need to talk to them anyway."

"they can always come here, shawn, we don't have to go out," aria says to him. "have breakfast, forget the coffee, and go back to sleep," she says warmly. "come on, i want to show you something."

"aria?" shawn questions, as she sits down at the bar, opening up a book on the table.

"yeah?"

"are you okay?" he asks softly, looking at her with warm eyes.

"i'm great, shawn," she grins softly, making shawns anxiety settle completely. he smiles back at her, sitting down on the bar next to her. "so i was reading this yesterday, and i know it's a book about pop culture, but look," she turns to a random page, seeing an entire spread about the youth of the generation who are making an impact, and shawn notices a picture of himself, as well as a short description.

"no way, that's so cool," he grins, taking a closer look at something he's never seen before.

"and also," she pulls her phone from her pocket, going to her recent texts with her mum, looking at the photos she sent her. "my mum sent me these," she shows shawn a short collection of photos from when shawn invited them all to a show in toronto, just when aria and shawn both started to unknowingly like each other.

"i remember that day," he smiles, reflecting back on the memories. "and i also remember you spilling mustard on me literally minutes before i had to go on stage."

"that was funny," she chuckles softly to herself, smiling down at her phone, as she finishes up her breakfast. "thanks for breakfast, baby."

"no problem," he smiles back at her, as she grins again, kissing shawns cheek lightly. "aria, are we okay?"

"we're perfectly fine," she tells him. "we'll just forget about things, and talk when my parents have gone," she shrugs, leaning up and pressing her lips to his. "i love you, shawn."

"god, aria," he mumbles, bringing her in for a hug, and kissing her forehead over and over again. "you truly are the best person in the world, i love you so much." shawns eyes fill with tears yet again, as he hugs her close, holding her tightly so she'll never slip away from him again.

"okay, now you go get some sleep, and i'll come and wake you up before my parents arrive, is that okay?" aria asks, looking up from his chest.

"that's great," he replies, leaning down to kiss her softly. "i'll see you in a bit."
-
aria sat down nervously next to shawn, as her parents and liam, along with his girlfriend, willow, along with his daughter, jasmine who he only found out about a few weeks before, sat opposite them. he only found out about the three year old toddler when he ran into willow, an ex girlfriend of his at a supermarket. he managed to fit the pieces together, and found out that jasmine was in fact his daughter.

"so, where's the ring?" liam asks aria with a grin, as anxiety fills her. she gulps back her breath, trying to think of a quick excuse.

"it's being resized," shawn tells them. "it's too big apparently," he chuckles nervously, reaching under the table and holding onto arias hand. jasmines eyes go wide at the mysterious man next to aria, as she tries to work out who he is. she gets off of her dads lap, walking around the table, until she reaches aria. she pulls down on arias shirt, making aria look down at her.

"who's that?" jasmine asks, pointing at shawn. the table lets out a small laugh, as aria grins, picking up jasmine, and holding her on her lap.

"this is uncle shawn," aria says, turning herself and jasmine towards shawn. "shawn, this is jasmine, my favourite person in the world," aria introduces the two of them, kissing jasmines cheek over and over again, making her giggle loudly.

"you have fuzzy hair," jasmine says to shawn, making him laugh.

"thank you," he says. "your hair is very pretty."

"aria? a word?" liam asks quickly, looking at shawn curiously, his eyes wandering to aria, and then arias hand. aria nods, putting jasmine down, and guiding liam to the main bedroom so they can talk.

"what is it?" aria asks him curiously, leaning back onto the dresser.

"is your ring really being resized?" he asks, folding his arms, and making aria feel a little bit more nervous. "what happened?" he asks gently, making aria bite her lip and look down at the floor.

"t-there was this video," she starts, reflecting back on the events. "and um, it was of a brunette girl who looked like me, doing things to brian, one of shawns friends who we've had a little trouble with before. a fan showed shawn or something like that and he thought it was me, so he got in the taxi demanding for the ring back. when we got back to toronto, he had the crash, and i thought i was going to lose him. i didn't like the feeling of being without him, so i stayed."

"what else did he say to you?" liam asks, knowing that there's more to the story. aria lets out a small sigh, her eyes burning with tears.

"he called me the biggest mistake of his life."

almost immediately, liam grows red with anger, and storms out of the bedroom, heading straight for shawn, who's chatting to arias mother. liam bursts with rage, and grabs shawn by the collar, and pushes him to the nearest wall, holding him up.

"liam!" willow gasps, picking jasmine up and taking a few steps back.

"say what you fucking did to the rest of them," liam sneers at shawn. "say it, you fucking dick!" he shouts, making shawns eyes go wide with fear.

"liam! let him go!" aria shouts, rushing over to them, and placing her hands on lim, pushing him away, but he refuses to let go. "liam! let go! he's still recovering!"

"tell them what you did!" he screams, not listening to aria at all. "you're a fucking disgrace, do you know that? i fucking trusted you to not break her heart!"

"what?" arias father asks, getting equally as annoyed as liam.

"leave it! please!" aria begs, still pushing at liam. "don't hurt him, please don't hurt him, he's done nothing wrong!" she lets the tears spill down her cheeks, and looks straight at liam, who pushes aria away effortlessly, and delivers punches and hits all over shawn.

shawn groans and aches with even more pain, the hits soon hurting him to the point he's seeing white. his injuries from the crash still haven't fully healed.

"stop liam! please!" aria yells, clawing at her mum who's holding her back, and letting liam punch and hit shawn to another level. "please, stop! he hasn't fully healed yet! stop!"

"liam, stop!" willow yells along with aria. "your sister is fucking begging you, stop!"

"stop, please stop!" aria screams, crying wildly, as she still continues to pull against her mums arms. "stop, liam!" shawns blood splatters over the floor, after liam had punched shawns face, cutting into the skin slightly. "stop! he's bleeding! stop!" shawns eyes go woozy, and he feels himself going dizzy, wanting nothing more than to simply go to sleep.

in the next few seconds, shawn passes out from the pain, and liam finally stops.

aria screams loudly, pushing herself out of her mums hold, and running over to shawn and liam, pushing liam off of shawns unconscious body. she claws at his arms, easing them off of shawns collar, whilst willow rushes over to take liam away, so aria can hold shawn up, and ease him down without hurting him more.

"tell them what he did, aria!" liam yells at her, completely red with rage.

"get the fuck out of here! don't ever talk to me again!" she screams back, tears rushing down her face. "get out! i'll call apartment security! get out!"

"aria-" her mother starts.

"no! get out! none of you apart from willow bothered to help! get out!" she shouts, looking at shawn, who's still passed out.

"let me help you get him to a room," willow says gently to aria, placing her hand on her shoulder.

"thank you," aria whispers back weakly, easing shawn up gently, with the help of willow, and taking him to their bedroom. they lay shawn down on the bed, and aria quickly hugs willow as a thank you. "you're the only decent one out of all of them," she sniffles, crying into her shoulder. "i never want to see liam again."

"don't say that, he's just being protective over you," willow tells her gently. "he'll feel bad about it later, and will come and apologise."

"i don't care," she cries. "i told him again and again to stop," she weeps, letting go of the hug. "tell jasmine i said bye, and i promise to try and have that tea party with her soon."

"what happened to uncle shawn?" jasmine runs into the room, jumping up into her mums arms. "is he dead?"

"jasmine!" willow gasps, looking at her. "you can't say that."

"why is he sleeping? is he okay?"

"he'll be okay," aria tells her, sniffling softly. "he's strong. he'll be okay."

"okay good," jasmine says. "i wanted to play princesses with him," aria chuckles through her tears, before leaning down to hug jasmine.

"i'll see you soon, okay baby?" aria whispers, kissing jasmines head softly. "will you promise me that we can have a tea party here? with shawn, when he gets better?"

"yeah!" she nods, smiling widely at aria. "don't cry, auntie aria. uncle shawn will be just fine," she tells her softly, holding onto her cheeks, and wiping away her tears.

"a-and i am fine," aria snaps her head around, seeing shawn awake, and weakly opening his eyes. "h-hi."

"shawn, oh my-"

"shh baby," shawn says to her, reaching out shakily with his hand to hold hers. "i-i'm okay. don't cry." she doesn't listen to him, and keeps crying and weeping, letting her head fall down to his chest, as she keeps sobbing. shawn sighs softly, bringing his hand to her hair, massaging her head softly.

"i'm so sorry," she whispers, crying into his chest. "i-i didn't know he was gonna do that."

"aria shh," shawn says softly. "i'm fine, it's only a little pain."

"l-let me get you some ice-" willow comes back in with a couple ice packs, and jasmine holding a blanket from the couch. aria chuckles softly at jasmine, taking it from her, and laying it over shawn, before thanking willow for the ice packs, and placing them on shawns face and chest. "shawn, i need to clean up your cut too."

"that can wait, you go freshen yourself up, say bye to your family, and go do something to calm yourself down. don't worry about me, please darling," he says gently to her, holding onto her hand. "i'm fine."

"but-"

"aria," shawn cuts her off, squeezing her hand gently. "i'm fine."

"okay," she sighs softly, walking out of the bedroom, and heading into the main room, seeing liam, and her parents.

"is he okay?" her mum asks her, as aria nods in response, folding her arms.

"luckily," she mumbles, softly glaring at liam. "my love life is none of your concern," she snaps at liam. "i can't fucking believe you."

"aria, language," her mum warns her.

"i can talk however the hell i want, he can't go round punching the person i love the most," liam looks down at the floor. "just all of you, get out, please." they all walk to the door, aria following them to lead them out.

"just so you know," her dad says to her, before they leave. "i gave him my trust for a reason. that reason is still there. don't give up, sweetie. please don't."

"thanks dad," aria mumbles, leaning up to hug him tightly.

"shawns a good kid, no matter what. don't forget that," her dad confirms. "let him fix things between you, i know he wants to." aria nods, letting go of her dad. "we'll see you soon, sweetheart."

"i love you," she smiles sadly, standing at the doorway, watching her dad follow the rest of her family away.

"i love you more, aria," he replies, before aria shuts the door, sighing softly and leaning against it. she strolls to the kitchen, finding the surgical spirit and some cotton, along with a plaster to clean up shawns cut with. she walks back into the bedroom, sitting next to shawn.

"hey baby," he says gently, placing his hand on her waist, squeezing it gently. "everything okay?"

"not really, but it's fine," she breathes out, pouring some of the surgical spirit onto some cotton to clean up shawns cut. she wipes away the blood and disinfects the area, before placing a white plaster on it.

"don't worry about me, i'm fine," shawn tells her gently. "don't worry about me at all."

"i can't not worry, shawn," aria whispers softly, fiddling with the curls on shawns head.

"why? i treat you like shit, aria. you shouldn't care about me," he admits, avoiding eye contact with her. "i don't treat you right at all."

"you do treat me right, shawn," aria urges, cupping his cheek softly. "we just make a big deal out of a lot of things. that's all."

"aria?" shawn questions softly, his eyes filling with tears.

"yeah?"

"why are you still here with me? after everything i did to hurt you?" he asks, a tear slipping out of his eye. "i deserved what happened today."

"don't say that," aria says quickly. "don't you fucking dare say that. and don't you think that, either. i love you, shawn. that's not gonna go away anytime soon." shawn stays silent, looking away from aria completely. "i'm here for the long run, shawn. i'm not leaving you."

"i'm such a burden to you," he mumbles, turning his head to the side. "look at me, i'm fucking weak all over again."

"stop," aria tells him firmly. "you are not a burden to me in the slightest, i love you shawn. i'm in love with you."

"i love you more, aria," he croaks out, sniffling softly after. aria sadly smiles at him, leaning down and pressing her lips to his, kissing him ever so gently.

things were at least looking up for the two of them, well, they hoped.

that was a problem they didn't want to face, but as always, reality can slap people back into time.