Chapter Text
As Adi was changing into their nightwear, they could feel a burning gaze raking over their body. They knew it was with nothing but good intentions, but they still couldn't help the smirk that fell upon their face. “It’s rude to stare you know,” Adrian said, turning around to face the guilty party.
Their wife flushed the slightest bit at being caught, a smug smile on her face as she replied, “Please, my love, you say that as if you’ve never done the same.”
“Perhaps, can you blame me though?”
“Can you blame me?” she replied easily, used to your witty comebacks by now.
The brunette chuckled as they got into their shared bed, infinitely too big for just the human alone. Thankfully they had their darling lady there with them. Alci easily wrapped them around her strong arms and brought them close to her chest. “You’ve never asked.” Adrian said gently as a thought popped into their head.
“Hm?”
“About my scars, god knows I have plenty. But you’ve never asked about them.”
“Well of course I’ve noticed them. I've kissed each and every one a thousand times over, but their stories are yours and yours alone.” She replied with a soft smile, delicate fingers going to trace the thick, white scar spanning across their ribcage.
“You can if you want to. Ask, I mean.” Adrian said gently, meeting her gaze and relaxing under their darling wife's touch.
“There's really only one that I wonder about, my favourite of your collection.”
“Which one is that, Iubirea mea?”
The only response she gave was a gentle caress with her thumb over the marred skin on their lip. 'Ah, that one.'
The scar in question was displayed proudly on their pale face, spanning from their strong chin to a spot just to the right of the tip of their nose. There was a small gap between the line; the skin of the dip between their chin and lip left untouched.
They hummed, “That one is a bit of a long story.”
“I’d love to hear it, if you’d be comfortable telling me of course.”
Adi laughed breathlessly, even after all these years, Alcina’s infinite softness and love for them was still baffling. “Of course, my darling. Just a warning however, I doubt you’ll enjoy it.”
“I will always despise learning of all the different ways the world has been cruel to you, cel mic, but it is an ugly truth that I must face.”
They grinned at her theatrical dramatics. Oh, how they loved this woman. “Well you know of my mother, and our.. Differences.”
She nodded, a flash of anger in her golden eyes.
“It was one evening that I came home from work with Andrei. We had lost track of time on a project, and I had missed dinner. Sorina had been staying the night with a friend, thank goodness, but that meant mother was never served dinner.” Adrian took a deep breath, 'why is it so hard to remember the specifics?'
Alcina only held them tighter.
“When I got home, she was infuriated. She was claiming I had been trying to starve her, that I never loved her and only wanted to take whatever money we had left after father died. She was throwing anything and everything, smashing plates and mugs, throwing things at me. I tried to get her to calm down, to listen to what I had to say, but it only angered her more. She began to hit me, pull my hair, nothing I wasn’t used to already. We were well into the early hours of the morning when I finally had enough. I held her in my arms until she just… stopped. She stopped kicking and screaming and fighting back. Naturally, I thought something had happened to her, so I let her go." They took a breath, long and shaken.
"That’s when she grabbed me by the hair and slammed my face into the wall. Of course, I caught the corner of the room partition, and it basically split my face open. I don’t remember much else of the next two or three days, but Sorina had told me I was sleeping a lot, too much. And when I was awake I would just stare at the ceiling, unmoving. Mother never even apologized, she just looked at me with the same amount of discontent in her eyes and told me to put some makeup on before I went out so I wouldn't scare the kids.” There was a far off look in their gaze as they distantly recalled the weeks after the fight, a trembling hand coming up to stroke at the permanent reminder laying on their face.
Alcina just layed there beside her spouse, holding them. Anger, sadness, spite, and remorse flashing in her gaze. How dare someone lay a hand on her love. Her Adrian.
And how could they still be so perfect after living through all that? It was hard to believe Adi had the childhood they did when she was near them. Always happy and smiling, and the most loving parent to their girls. “I’m so sorry that happened to you, my love. I wish I could do something to help ease the pain. You never deserved any of this.”
Adrian turned their gaze to meet hers, both watered up with unshed tears. “But you are helping. You’re here. You’re holding me in your arms as if I am the most precious thing in the world. You made me fall for you and now here we are. I am blessed to have met you, Alcina. You have changed my world for the better and for that I am forever grateful. I love you more than words can say.”
Alcina had tears in her eyes as she held them impossibly tighter. “And I, you, my love.”
They both fell asleep easily that night, all too content to be in each other's embrace.