Author's note #1: I made a new cover for this book if some of you didn't notice, I hope you at least kind of like it.

Back to the story*

~~~~~~~~~

It was the next day and a Sunday evening when the group of friends were at Adrian's house, revising together to prepare themselves for the midterm exams that were in a few weeks time.

They had agreed to not get distracted and to focus on their work, their education being on the line if they continued avoiding their midterm exams.

At least that's what they agreed for Adrian's sake, since he was the only one who resented the idea to need to be babysat in order to revise.

At the moment, Adrian's whole house was full with people who had their heads down and were doing something productive.

Sitting next to him, Brody was writing on post it notes and sticking them over his book, summarising the chapter points in fewer and more understandable words.

Ashley was using flash cards to help with her revision, quietly reading them out loud before flipping them and testing herself.

Adam was paraphrasing and using diagrams to help illustrate what was on the page. Adrian was impressed how Adam was surprising creative and imaginative with his drawing, with it seemingly working for Adam since he always had decent grades in school.

Even Sally was occupied in the kitchen, writing down her shopping list for Thanksgiving which was in a few days time.

And what was Adrian doing? Doodling pictures of Ollie who was lying on his lap right now, ignoring the stack of revision resources that he was neglecting.

After an unimpressive drawing, Adrian put his pencil down and was placing loud kisses onto Ollie's nose, who was very happy and eager to receive the attention.

The loud noises got the attention of everyone else in the room, all silently judging Adrian for distracting them and not being able to stick to his study plan.

Adrian feigned ignorance at his disturbance as he spoke to Ollie out loud. "Aren't you just the cutest boy ever? Yes you are."

"Adrian, you're boyfriend is sitting right there." Adam joked.

Hearing them laugh in the background, Adrian continued to avoid revising by taking Ollie into the kitchen to give him a treat.

After listening to his commands, Ollie sat in his living room bed with the treat, as Adrian then poured himself a drink from the refrigerator.

"How's your revision going?" Sally asked her son. "You don't have long left until your exams."

"There's weeks until my exams so I've got plenty of time. Besides, it's going fine."

"He's lying!" Adam shouted from the other room.

Sally gave her son a look mixed with concern, pity and mild annoyance as Adrian sat down with her.

"Okay fine, I'm finding it a bit difficult and I needed a break before my brain ends up exploding and smeared all over the walls."

Sally put her hand on top of Adrian's and gave it a sympathetic squeeze. "Don't worry so much about it sweetie, we both know you're going to try your best and at least attempt to get back into it."

Adrian gave his best attempt at a smile, to at least reassure his mom and not add anymore stress onto her plate. He already had enough of his own problems, he didn't want to burden them on his mom either.

"Are you still writing the shopping list for thanksgiving?" Adrian saw that she was holding a pen and a long strip of paper, favouriting the old fashioned way rather than typing it on her phone.

"Yep, with us two, your grandparents, and your aunty's family, then there's the 8 of us in total."

Every year it was tradition for Sally and Adrian to have thanksgiving dinner with her parents. The hosting duties alternated every year and this time it was Sally's turn, catering for the same people who were at thanksgiving dinner together every year.

"Do you need help with anything? Like, I can help pay for some of it or something."

Sally had a warm smile at Adrian's generous offer, "Don't be silly, save your money for something nice. Besides I'm going to need your help on the day anyway, there's lots of food to cook and those twins are a handful."

Adrian laughed at remembering their last thanksgiving. The twins had started a food fight after constantly bickering with each other like usual. And their older sister ended up in the emergency room because of the massive turkey knocking her out during the food fight.

"Good thing Ollie's joined the family this year," Adrian called for Ollie from the other room as he whistled at the same time.

"Because he will keep them distracted from fighting?" Sally asked.

Ollie quickly sprinted towards Adrian and was given many cuddles and kisses.

"He can help clean up the mess."

~~~~~~~~~~

With it being late, Ashley and Adam went home together while Sally went to bed for an early night. Brody was staying over again so they both took their revision stuff upstairs.

Brody was helping Adrian draw out the pathway of how the brain processes dealing with stress. Adrian was thankful that it seemed a little bit easier to understand, with the help of his boyfriend making it more clear.

While Adrian was colouring the pictures he added onto the poster, he asked Brody about his Thanksgiving plans after sharing his own.

"We usually help out and volunteer at one of the shelters. It's feels good to help out, plus it's not worth cooking a massive thanksgiving dinner with all of the trimmings, just for the two of us."

Adrian looked back at Brody with fake disgust. "Way to look even more perfect, you jerk."

Brody silenced his own laughter by giving Adrian a chaste kiss on his lips. "Come on, you ready for bed now?"

Adrian nodded as he slightly tidied his desk before going under the covers in his bed. Brody was stripping himself down to his underwear, like he usually does when he sleeps, and noticed that Adrian was still dressed.

"You not getting changed?" Brody asked.

"Why would I? I wear a shirt all the time when I go to sleep."

Brody listened to what Adrian had said, and he didn't believe it. "Hmm, not really. A good 90% of the time you sleep in just your underwear. Plus the last couple of nights you didn't cover yourself up."

Adrian felt like he was under interrogation and felt intimidated by the scrutinisation of his habits. "Well I did yesterday, and I'm actually a little bit cold tonight. Anyway can we just go to bed already?" Adrian asked in a rushed, impatient tone.

The lights were switched off but the moonlight beamed into the room still. Brody settled down in the same spot next to Adrian, like he did every night they were together.

And just like their usual routine, Brody went in close to circle his arms around Adrian's waist. "It's not even that cold tonight, but come here and let me warm you up"

Having Brody's hands around his waist made Adrian quickly flinch away as he pushed Brody's hands off him.

Alarmed at the unusual behaviour, Brody was going to ask him about it but Adrian spoke first. "It's actually really hot now, and I don't want us to get all sweaty if you're cuddling me. I mean you're like a freaking furnace Sinclair."

"But we always somewhat cuddle when we slee-."

"Well maybe I don't want to cuddle today, is it so much to ask?!" Adrian yelled out harshly.

The silence in the room was thick because of the tension, and it was made even worse when Adrian turned his back towards Brody. He covered the scar on his body with his hand, self-conscious about it being openly vulnerable.

Adrian immediately felt guilty after he said those words, saddened by his own actions of lashing out at Brody, and annoyed with himself for letting a small scar effect him so much.

"I'm sorry." Brody whispered.

Adrian wanted to smack his own forehead repeatedly, there was nothing Brody needed to apologise for. And now he was probably feeling guilty about something he doesn't even know about.

"Do you want me to leave?"

Adrian felt the heavy emotions in his throat and swallowed it down when he sat up to talk to Brody. "Of course I don't."

Brody sat up as well and was facing Adrian. He held his hand out and was waiting for Adrian to take it.

But Adrian didn't take it, because he didn't feel right with how Brody was being all supportive and sympathetic when Adrian felt like he was being stupid and ridiculous.

Adrian didn't miss the glint of a rejected look in Brody's eyes, and now Adrian felt even worse. "It's stupid, but I'm just feeling, really self-conscious about this."

Adrian lifted up his shirt slightly and quickly flashed Brody his scar. "I know it's small, and it could have been a lot worse. Other people have much bigger problems, and here's me being a big baby about a little prick on my body."

Pulling his shirt back down, Adrian unconsciously covered himself up with more of the blanket that they were sharing. He didn't want to look Brody in the eyes when he explained more about it.

"I just don't want you to see me with this horrible thing, and feel it when I can barely stand it. I mean if I can't bare to think about everything that happened that night, to touch or constantly be reminded of how much I hate this stupid scar, then why could you?"

Brody didn't want to leave Adrian with those overwhelming thoughts and beliefs. He was tender and soft spoken when he asked Adrian to let him see it.

Adrian wanted to say no, to rule it out as an option and pretend the last couple of minutes didn't happen. He wanted to say something but he was frozen, because with all of the saddening and worrying thoughts Adrian had about himself, he knew that Brody wouldn't judge him the same way Adrian felt.

Even though Adrian was still silent, Brody reached towards the hem of Adrian's shirt and looked up at him, meeting his eyes as he once again asked to see it.

When Adrian eventually and barely nodded once, Brody slowly lifted it to give Adrian time to change his mind. When he didn't, Brody looked at the scar that was causing Adrian's issues.

To Brody, the scar was barely noticeable. And when he ran his finger over it, the scar didn't feel as different to what Adrian was making it sound like.

Brody bent down to kiss the scar tenderly, to show Adrian that the thought of him not being able to stand it was wrong. Brody didn't care about this imperfection that Adrian thought it was, when Adrian was already perfect in Brody's eyes, that he still was perfect to him.

He moved Adrian's shirt back down and held his hand out again at an attempt to get Adrian to hold it. This time Adrian did reach out to Brody, having the warmth of Brody spread through his hand.

"I can't change the way you think about your scar, at least not straight away even. It's your body and if that's how you truly feel then there's not much else to it."

Brody lifted Adrian's chin up so that he could look at him, and know he meant every word of what he was about to say.

"But if I have to spend every waking minute telling you that this scar on you means nothing to me, then you're eventually going to get sick of seeing me every day. Because I will, if that's what it takes."

Adrian's heart felt very heavy, and his heart was racing a mile a minute after listening to Brody's words.

With Brody still looking at him with the warmest and kindest eyes, Adrian felt that no one was ever lucky as he was, because of the beautiful man in front of him.

No more words were needed to be said after that, those sweet words being the last one they heard that night was strong and impactful enough for the both of them.

Accepting the truth behind Brody's word, Adrian pushed the blanket away from him as he took his shirt off.

After tossing it aside, he looked at the scar and then looked back at Brody who was still offering a warm and sincere smile.

Lying back down together, Adrian let Brody hold him and welcomed it as he felt more safe and protected than ever.

==========

Author's note #2: I know that the fight and Adrian's problem might seem a bit silly or blown out of proportion, but I feel that it might be slightly relatable to some people - even myself. So I hope that some of you get where I kind of went with this chapter.

And sorry this chapter was a bit later than usual, it kind of went on longer than I imagined.

==========