When In Rome

Chapter 8

Adam slowly opened his eyes, smiling when he saw Fiona asleep on his shoulder. His smile quickly faded though. "Shit," he mumbled. He quickly unwound her arms from around him and moved off of the bed.

"Adam?" she asked, the careful movement enough to wake her.

"Sorry," he said quickly as he moved to the bathroom. "I didn't mean to wake you up. Go back to sleep."

"What…" she began as the bathroom door closed.

"Can you get my boxers, please?" he called from the other room.

She blinked in confusion then leaned over to the other side of the bed to retrieve his boxers from the floor, when she spotted a tiny blood stain on the sheets. Her breath caught in her chest and she quickly jumped off the bed and ran to the bathroom door. "Adam, what's wrong?"

"Nothing," he said. "Do you have my boxers?"

"Y-yeah."

He opened the door just enough to put his hand out, she gave them to him. After a moment, he walked out of the room, his head down.

"Are you ok?" she asked.

He nodded, still not looking at her.

"Adam, you were bleeding. What happened?"

His jaw tightened as he shook his head. "It's my… my period," he mumbled, keeping his head down.

She let out a quick sigh of relief. Somehow, she had forgotten that he gets a period. He was extremely skilled at hiding every aspect of his femaleness from people. Including her. She had noted that he would act a bit shifty at some point in months past, but had never put two and two together.

"It's nothing to be embarrassed about," she told him, taking his hand.

He still didn't look at her as he pulled his hand out of hers. He'd only been caught like this once before and it wasn't an experience he wanted to relive. He knew Fiona wouldn't throw him through a plate glass door, but what she could do was much worse.

Keeping his head down, he walked away from her and began getting dressed.

"It's ok," she said, slowly walking over to him and touching his back.

He shook his head. "It's not ok," he said, his voice breaking. "I'm a freak."

"Yeah, but you're my freak," she said lightly.

He finally looked up at her, his eyes red. "You think I'm a freak?"

Her smile faded as she quickly shook her head. What had she done? "No, Adam. Oh God, I..."

He shook his head as well. "I am." He quickly pulled his jeans on.

"You are not a freak," she told him, moving to stand before him.

"You just said…"

"I didn't mean it like that. I'm sorry." She carefully took his face in her hands, forcing him to look at her. "You are not a freak," she said again. "You're Adam. My Adam."

"I'm disgusting," he mumbled.

She shook her head again. "You're beautiful."

He gave her a look, his eyes watery.

"You're handsome," she corrected, with a tiny smile. "And you're amazing. You're an amazing person. And you're amazing boyfriend and lover," she told him, tears falling from her own eyes as she tried to convince him to see in himself what she saw. "There is no one in the world I would rather be with. I love you."

He finally smiled, though it didn't quite reach his eyes.

"It's early," she told him, carefully taking his hand. "Why don't we go back to bed?"

He nodded and followed her back to the bed. He stepped out of his jeans before he joined her. She pulled him close to her, holding him tightly as she stroked his hair until he went back to sleep.

To be continued…