No. No no no no no! This is not happening!

My anxious thoughts swirled in my head, and I dropped to my knees in the bathroom.

I had forgotten to lock the door, and Ezyn had walked in on me.

I looked in the mirror, the bandages around my chest loosened so I could change them. He definitely saw them, but I was glad I wasn’t naked. I hurriedly removed those bandages and bound my chest again, but was it necessary?

I sighed. Yes, of course it was necessary. After all, he might want me to stay this way…or maybe he’d just want me gone.

He knocked. “Nir, can I come in? Only if you want me to.”

I smiled at the use of my nickname, though I was positive it was a force of habit.

I saw no reason to deny him answers, or the opportunity to be angry with the way I’d lied to him.

“You can come in.”

He walked in, the beautiful man I’d had my eyes on since…well, I didn’t know when I fell in love with him.

His gaze fell to my bandaged chest, which I hadn’t bothered to cover with a shirt, but he didn’t come close. He sat next to the door, eyes filled with confusion.

“Nir, are you a woman?”

I crawled closer to him, wanting to see his reaction, but also wanting his arms to open up to me. He didn’t flinch. Instead, he watched me calmly and patiently, and when I extended my arm the slightest bit to reach towards him, he grasped my arm and drew me into his embrace.

Was it because he thought I was a woman that we had a chance?

That didn’t matter to me, for I simply wanted to savor the warmth of his arms before he pushed me away.

“Yes…and no.” Taking a deep breath, I confessed, “I’m…I’m a hermaphrodite, Esi.”

He didn’t say anything.

This is it. I’m completely --

“So…a hermaphrodite is someone who has both male and female se-”

“Yes, yes, that is a hermaphrodite,” I interrupted.

He laughed, beginning to stroke my hair.

I didn’t understand his response to all of this. Why didn’t he immediately hate me? I worried that he might have been after…something else this whole time. And if he was simply trying to take advantage of me, was I playing right into his hands?

But then again I was really enjoying this.

If he ever tried to hurt me, I’d think the worst of him. Right now, he was the epitome of comfort.

“You okay, Nir?” he asked, still stroking my hair.

“...Perfect. Why?” I snuggled deeper into his chest.

“You relaxed, tensed up, then relaxed again.”

“Just thinking. Kind of unrelated but I’m in love with you.”

I looked up at him while his hand moved from my head to my cheek.

“I am too, Nir.”

I giggled, leaning into his hand. “That’s good.”

~.~

Later, we were snuggling on the couch. Ezyn was reading a book, while I was about to fall asleep.

Suddenly, Ezyn asked, “Hey, Nir?”

“Yeah?”

“Are you a he, she, or they?”

“I don’t really care.”

“What should I call you then?”

“Nircoel, Nir, babe, honey, dear, my love --”

He turned red as a tomato.

“I meant pronouns!” After a moment, he admitted, “But I wouldn’t mind calling you any of those.”

“You can still refer to me as ‘he’ in front of others. But don’t call me your boyfriend or girlfriend. I wanna be your significant other, my love.”

Blushing harder, he asked, “You’re not against others knowing about us?”

“No, should I be?”

“I’m fine with it if you’re fine with it.”

“That means we can hold hands in the cafe, right?” I was still salty about that.

“Yes, Nir, we can hold hands in the cafe.”

“Yay!”

“Oh, Khlo has news for us. She wants us to meet her on the weekend.”

“What news?”

“Big news, apparently.”

Ezyn went back to reading, and I fell asleep beside him.

~.~

“Good morning, my love,” I called, greeting Ezyn from behind.

He spun around and gave me a hug. “Morning, babe. I have no clue what to make for breakfast…any ideas?”

Woah. He said it so naturally. Guess he didn't mind calling me that after all.

“I dunno eggs or something?”

“Well, I would, but we…uh…have no eggs.”

“Wha-? No eggs? When did we run out?”

He shrugged. “The past is in the past. But I foresee a store run in our future.”

“Well, we can grab some breakfast and then go to the store.”

“...I don’t really feel like going out today.”

A little strange, coming from the man who always wanted to drag me out the house.

“You’re not sick, are you?” I asked, reaching up to touch his forehead.

“No, but…” He bit his lip before finishing his sentence. “I wanted to spend more time at home with you.”

I smiled. “I would never say no, but how do you propose not getting on each other’s nerves while we starve?”

“We’ll just get delivery.”

We ordered what we got the day of my first -- and only -- case with him. 

While we waited, I asked, “So what exactly did you want to do?”

He looked at me, slightly confused. “Hang out like usual?”

I burst out laughing. “I thought you’d say kiss or something!”

He turned a wonderful shade of red. “Did you want to?”

“If you don’t mind.”

“I guess we can try,” he said, drawing me into his lap.

“Silence your phone first. We don’t need any of that cliche first-kiss-interrupted-by-a-call crap.”

“That’s a good idea.”

We both put our phones on silent and tucked them under a pillow.

Now, without any distractions, we faced each other.

He leaned in, and I leaned in, and we both kept our eyes open. 

Closing my eyes when our lips met, I relished the experience of our first kiss. It was gentle and tasted like mint. 

We both moved away after about a second.

I giggled and buried my face in his chest, aware I was blushing like mad.

He laughed and held me tighter, saying, “That was great for our first kiss.”

“Mhm,” I agreed.

We stayed like that until the doorbell rang, signaling the arrival of our breakfast.

~.~

The rest of the day was chill.

We didn’t kiss again, but we did snuggle up and binge a romcom together.

It was safe to say I was deeply, madly, hopelessly in love with Ezyn Brooks.