aru shah fan fiction

soulmate au: twelve

Aiden POV

Aiden still remembered meeting Aru Shah for the first time.

He had recently moved into a new neighborhood and transferred schools. The whole thing felt bittersweet. While he was happy about starting a new life without his dad, he missed how things were before.

He missed having a complete family.

He plopped on the sidewalk, his thoughts flying in all sorts of directions.

"Ouch!" Someone yelped.

Aiden looked around. Behind him, a short Indian girl glared daggers at what seemed to be the sidewalk.

She had dark skin and even darker hair. Her back was hunched, a sagging backpack slung over her shoulder. She sported a gray Marvel t-shirt and comfortable-looking black sweatpants.

"Why do I keep tripping?" she grumbled.

She looked vaguely familiar; Aiden was pretty sure he had seen her at his new school before.

He contemplated approaching her. He wasn't super eager to socialize at the moment, but knew he would eventually have to start talking to people.

He walked over to her. "Hi," he said, displaying his white teeth in a smile. "Aiden Acharya. I'm the new neighbor."

The girl froze for a second, mouth wide open. Maybe she was bad at talking to people?

"What's your name?" asked Aiden.

"Uh, um . . ."

"Sorry, I didn't catch that."

"I KNOW WHERE YOU LIVE!" she blurted out.

He blinked. What did she just say? "Um, what?"

"Um-uhgah demons!" she ran—actually no—sprinted past him and onto the other street.

Aiden watched her run off, thoroughly confused, but also slightly amused. She was probably just socially awkward; a lot of people were.

Later, he found out her name was Aru Shah.

He liked it. When he said it, it rolled nicely off his tongue. Aru Shah.

At the time, he hadn't known how cool or how weird she was. He hadn't known anything, really.

He collapsed on his bed and sighed. Sometimes he wished he could go back to that time; the time when Aru Shah was just a girl. When things were simpler. When things were easier.

Because Aiden found himself noticing small details about her that he never really paid attention to before. Like the way she laughed or the comfortable way she dressed or how she smirked after a snarky comment. He found himself actually liking those things.

And that bothered him.

"Aiden, you suck," Aru noted.

He shot her a look. "That's encouraging."

She grinned. "I know."

Aiden rolled his eyes, but couldn't stop the twitch of his lips. "You have a twisted idea of encouragement." He redirected his attention back to the screen and lifted his gun.

He couldn't seem to stop smiling. Aru had asked Aiden to accompany her at the arcade, and he agreed to come without thinking twice.

He was just happy she had asked him.

The only bad part was discovering how terrible he was at Zombie Apocalypse.

Zombie Apocalypse was a popular shooting game where you tried to kill as many zombies as possible and stay alive. The zombies come in different waves and the more waves you complete, the more difficult the game gets.

Aru was frustratingly good at the game (even though Aiden would never admit that), getting all the way to Wave 57 while he was stuck on Wave 6.

Aiden died again. He put the gun down and groaned. "How are you so good at this Aru?"

She smirked. "I will not share my secrets."

Aiden crossed his arms. "Why not?"

"Because."

"Because what?"

"Just because."

"You're making no sense."

Aru huffed. "Fine, I'll help you out." She pressed START NEW GAME.

She came closer to the screen, standing right next to him. "Alright first wave coming in. This one is pretty easy, even for you. I think you should be able to do this one by yourself."

Aiden actually did manage to do it himself . . . kinda. He lost two out of five lives.

"Hold your gun up higher," Aru said. "You need to aim higher too. Aim higher than you think you have to."

Aiden tried to aim higher, but he felt awkward.

Aru shook her head. "Still too low. Do it like this," She lifted his wrists up until the gun was at the appropriate height, praying to every existing god that he wouldn't notice her blushing.

She let go and returned to her spot next to him. "Try it now. Keep your arms there."

Aiden, for some reason, could feel his cheeks burning. Like, they felt really hot.

What the heck? Aiden thought. Why does my face feel so hot?

He forced himself to focus on the game, trying to keep his arms where Aru had positioned them.

He fired away, nailing zombies in the head one by one.

Wave after wave of zombies attacked and soon, he had already reached Wave 30.

Unfortunately, he finally lost after Wave 32 when three zombies brutally murdered him at the same time. Insert sad Aiden noises.

Aru held her hand up for a high-five. "Dude, that was so much better than last time."

Aiden slapped his hand against hers. "Yeah, thanks for the help. But how are you so good at that game?"

"I guess I was just born to kill zombies."

Aiden laughed. "What an odd statement. Is there any game you wanna go to next?"

Aru pretended to think hard, raising her fingers up to her chin and humming. "Let's go to a game you won't suck at," she finally said.

"Wow, thanks."

"No problem." 

a/n i know i keep posting my chapters late, i apologize. i'll try my best to update earlier.

aiden pov for the first time in this chapter! what did you guys think? more aiden povs or more aru povs?

in other news, ya girl reached 33.9k reads. um . . . WHAT?! 

that is so freaking amazing, thank you guys from the bottom of my heart for all your support!!

love y'all 

-abbizzzz <3