So...

Here's chapter 10. Sorry for the short-ish wait, but there was an incident at my job and I just so happened to hurt my slashin' hand pretty badly. By slashin' I mean writing, and by writing I mean my dominant typing hand. Ugh. It's still hurt and I am hoping it gets better, but I did work through the pain to bring you another installment in this epic-ly long fanfic.

I actually know how it will end and when it will end, so be amazed. I am not doing that thing where I just write and hope it goes somewhere and then end up quitting when it doesn't.

Love you all. Keep your hands safe, it sucks to have them working poorly.

(And can I express my amusement with the fact that fanfic is the only place on earth where it is acceptable for there to be an a/n at the top and/or bottom of every single chapter? Hilarious. I love it.)

Every morning Adam woke up he still thought that maybe the day before had been a dream. Not in that everything-is-oh-so-perfect sort of way, but in the are-you-fucking-serious sort of way. And then he'd walk out of his room, and there would be Lawrence, still sleeping on the couch and suddenly it seemed pretty real. If, during a too-normal conversation, he doubted any events further, they would soon be proven again as Lawrence roughly grabbed him closer or Adam felt compelled to dive on top of him. It was real, it was real, it was real. So why did it seem so weird?

Oh, yeah. Adam wasn't gay. And neither was Lawrence. Or…at least that's what Adam thought. He wasn't sure on both accounts.

They still hadn't talked about anything, even though they promised to almost every time they had one of their "occurrences." Adam couldn't take much more of the wondering.

"Uhh…hey." He approached Lawrence at the kitchen table. He was reading the back of a Cap'n Crunch box. "Good reading?"

Lawrence grunted. "No newspaper."

"Yeah…but there's a free edition on Saturday. They try to persuade us cheapskates to buy the real one."

Lawrence glanced up, nodded, and then looked up again. "How are you doing?" He seemed to realize Adam was standing there with purpose, probably due to the extreme awkwardness that seemed to follow Adam every time he had something important to say.

"Oh, I uh, thought we could, you know, talk. About us. I mean, it. Talk about…things."

"Okay, yeah, sure." Lawrence pushed the box aside and looked at Adam expectantly.

Adam hesitated for a moment and then looked confused. "Weren't you supposed to leave today?"

"Oh…that's today?" Lawrence glanced around the room for some sort of proof, but found none. "It's Wednesday?"

"Yeah…I think so. I mean…do you plan on staying?"

Lawrence looked at him with an expression Adam didn't recognize. "How about we talk about the other thing first?"

Adam nodded. "Yeah, that makes sense." He sat down at the table across from Lawrence. "So…you're…not…"

"Adam, can we please talk about this like it isn't terrifying, please?"

"It kind of is, though."

"I mean…I suppose I can understand that. It's…weird. I would say weird, not terrifying. But let's try to talk about it, though. Not skirt around it."

Adam sighed and nodded again. "Okay. So. You aren't…you don't like guys?"

"Well, I'm not gay."

"Yeah, but do you like guys?"

Lawrence shook his head a little. "Not that I've ever noticed. Until…recently."

"Recently as in since you've been here?"

Lawrence shook his head again. "I thought about it before I got here. Just a little weird idea here and there. I thought I was being crazy, I guess."

Adam stared at him. "Wait, before here. Like…in regards to…?"

Lawrence grinned, a little embarrassed. "Yeah, in regards to coming here."

"Oh. Okay, Whoa."

"Yeah. What about you?"

"Not gay. No, man, I love women. But I…I don't know. I've thought about it before. I guess I always just assumed it was normal. Curiosity, you know?"

"Yeah, it is normal. But acting on it isn't. Well, strike that. That's also pretty normal, but if you're feeling like…I don't know. Anything else. Connected to it or anyth-"

A pounding on the door interrupted Lawrence's thought and made both of them nearly fall out of their chairs in surprise. The pounding continued and Adam finally realized that he had to get up and answer it.

"Hold on a sec, I'm coming!" He walked to the door and unlatched the deadbolt. He opened the door to see who had been doing the pounding. "Oh…"

"Yeah, nice to see you too." David looked at him curiously. "So where have you been?"

Adam stammered a little, confused. "Oh, uh, I mean, it hasn't been…"

"It's been three days."

"Oh…sorry. I've been…preoccupied."

An odd expression crossed David's face, a mix of concern and anger with some disgust thrown in, maybe? Adam didn't know. It was gone before he could study it any further. "Is…Lawrence still here?"

"Yeah. He's…in the kitchen."

"Oh, okay. When's he leaving?"

Adam shook his head. "I'm not sure."

David seemed a little taken aback but got it together quickly as he always did. His emotions seemed a little bit more out of check than normal, however. "Well, uhh, stop by later, okay?"

"Yeah, I will."

"Seriously?"

"Yeah, I promise."

"Alright, later…"

Adam closed the door behind him, walked through the hall and leaned in the kitchen doorway looking at Lawrence. He shook his head. "Can we continue this later?"

Lawrence smiled. "Sure thing. I'm going to go watch the news. You know, actually care what's going on in the world?"

"Newspapers kill trees."

"Recycle."

Lawrence limped off to the living room with the help of his cane as Adam walked past and headed to his bedroom. He looked back at Lawrence, decided to say something, decided against it, and then decided for it again. "You know, I could, uh, I could grab a mattress to throw on floor in that extra room for you…"

Lawrence looked at him, almost confused. "Uhh…yeah. That would be cool." Adam nodded and returned to his room, deciding he need a few extra hours of sleep.