My heart was pounding in my chest. Dear God, how long had they been here? I glanced at Adam, his face a mask of worry. But there was something else in his eyes; a different kind of fire burning within those cobalt orbs that I found reassuring. There was confidence. There was passion. There was this utter sense of win that I found to be beyond beautiful. He smiled at me and kissed me gently, that fire surging into my being and warming my soul and heart. As much as I feared stepping out of the bathroom and facing the rest of the band with Adam at my back, I knew that there would be questions and explanations. But all the same, what would there be to fear?

"C'mon baby…" He said, helping me to my feet. I cringed in pain, my backside exploding in white hot fury of aches and twitches. I hissed angrily, and Adam's hands gripped my own tightly. He lifted me out of the tub, kissing my forehead gently as I reached for a towel. Handing him one, I grabbed my own, slowly, painfully drying off before wrapping it around my waist. Adam did the same, shutting off the stereo. I stared at the door for a long moment, dreading going out into the open condo in nothing but a towel. But it had to be done. They'd see us anyway, trying to retreat to the bedroom for clothes. Clothes— my mind flashed to the night before; our clothes were still strewn about the living room. My face went scarlet and I was even more reluctant to open it.

"What is it, baby?" Adam whispered to me, placing his warm hand on my shoulder. I shifted, and my backside twitched angrily. I winced, finding it hard to stand, so I wrapped my arm around his waist to keep from falling.

"Our clothes are still out there…" I said softly. Adam sucked in a breath for a short moment and let it out slowly. His thoughts were that of my own, a solid and short 'crap'. He leaned over and kissed my forehead gently. We were both nervous of passing through that door, but we had no other choice. If we had any hope of getting out and getting dressed, we needed to face them. But then again, maybe only Monte was out there. But maybe Monte, Longineu, and Lisa were all out there. Oh God, what if they heard me and Adam? There was a part of me that didn't doubt that in the slightest… I shook my head, shaking my thoughts. I was confusing myself again. Great.

"C'mon…" I said, and Adam nodded, helping me to the door. He reached over and unlocked the knob, turning it slowly. The door swung open; the hall was empty from the bathroom view. Adam's hand dropped from my shoulder, mine fell from his waist. I was on my own for the time being. Not that this made anything better to be honest, but I wasn't sure that going out there, even hand in hand with Adam, would be the most appropriate thing to do in a situation such as this.

Adam touched the back of my hand as he walked forward, out into the frenzy first. His feet sunk into the soft carpet of the condo, and I stepped out after him. Turning my head to the right, I only saw Monte leaning against the wall in the living room. But he seemed to be staring at someone else, and I was fearful that other people were in the building. Sucking in a slow breath, I followed Adam towards the opening of the hallway, where we both had a clear view of the room. Monte still leaned against the wall, silent. Longineu was sitting on one end of the couch, Lisa on the other end; their backs were to us. The room was thick with a kind of tension that I found rather uncomfortable, and I wished that someone would just fucking talk and get it over with.

I shifted from one foot to the other, ignoring the throb in my back side as I glanced up through the veil of my wet hair at the band again. Monte's face was a wall of just nothing, his eyes dropping from Longineu to the floor. They were probably having a mental feud of who should speak first. Lisa was sitting up straight, her hands most likely resting in her lap, I couldn't really tell. I dropped my eyes to the floor, seeing that our clothes had been picked up and folded neatly, placed on one of the dining room chairs. I could only imagine that Lisa must have folded them for us, for Monte and Longineu were just as much of pigs as Adam and I were. Men— even the gay ones— typically weren't neat. Well… unless they were married.

I cleared my throat, and Lisa shot out of her seat, whirling around in a fury of blonde and placing her hands on her hips. I blinked, feeling Adam take a step back. He hadn't expected her to move that fast either. We both shrunk away slightly, fearful as her eyes were accusing and disappointed. I didn't like getting yelled at, that was a common fact known amongst the group. And I feared dearly for my life and Adam's, praying that we'd make it out alive. Lisa was about as white as anyone could get, but she had the soul of a raging, fat black woman.

"You couldn't have mentioned you were together?" She said in an angry huff. I felt my face go scarlet, and Adam's fingers brushed mine again. Stay strong, he seemed to tell me through his touch.

"I'm sorry, Lisa. It kind of just… happened." Adam said softly beside me. I was glad that he was the one talking. I couldn't trust my voice and I was sure that my tongue would roll over itself trying to get excuses out. Lisa scoffed, dropping her gaze to her shoes before looking back up at us again.

"Seriously? It sort of 'just happened'. You sort of 'just had' sex?" I flinched. They had been here longer than I thought, but I guess the clothes all over the floor had been a dead giveaway too. Lisa's eyes were burning coldly and I didn't even have to look in her general direction to know that she was fuming. Monte and Longineu were uncomfortably silent, shifting and not looking at Adam or me. I felt my face flush and Adam sighed beside me, trying to find the words to piece together.

"I'm sorry, Lisa. We… we didn't know what you guys would say, and this wasn't exactly something we planned." Adam's voice was calm, though he was tense next to me. His fingers brushed mine again before trailing off. I wanted them to linger longer, I wanted him to keep his hand there, but that would have probably made the situation even more intense than it needed to be. Fucking hell. Lisa let out a long, exhausted breath. I guessed it was safe to assume that she hadn't gotten adequate sleep. I couldn't blame her, it'd been a strange journey since the AMA's. So, so strange.

I glanced up at her, seeing her run her fingers through her hair, pulling out the slight tangles here and there. She was a very beautiful woman, I wasn't going to lie, but seeing her angry or distressed or even just exhausted wasn't the greatest of things. I was half tempted to drag her by the hand and let her sleep in the spare room of the condo. She looked as if she needed it. Fuck, after this I needed it. But with Adam standing so close beside me (and the fact that we were only in towels, heh), sleeping wasn't exactly high on my list of things that I wanted to do. Though sex was also out of the question, I'd had enough of that for at least the next week.

"Look you guys, there's no point in really keeping secrets," Monte said softly. "For the mean time, go get cleaned up. Adam, you have an interview to do today, and Tommy, you're supposed to accompany Lisa, Longineu and myself in a conference with the manager." I looked over at the scruffy guitarist and I nodded once, not really wanting to look at anyone else. Adam and I shuffled together down the hall and towards the bedroom. I'd kept some clothes in his closet in case of days where I needed to crash at the condo, and usually on those days, sex wasn't included.

I walked into the bedroom first, Adam close behind. He shut the door softly and placed a palm on my shoulder. I turned instinctively and leaned in for a soft kiss, shivering as his tongue glided across my bottom lip. It was less of a passionate kiss and more of one to reassure me. He knew we'd be okay, but I was concerned with Lisa's wrath. She didn't look happy, but all the same she didn't understand that mine and Adam's relationship had quite seriously just happened. There was nothing prior to last night that hadn't been on stage.

"Don't worry, baby." Adam said into my mouth, kissing me gently once more before pulling away. His damp hair hung in scraggled curls around his face, and I smiled. Even freshly cleaned and unmade, he was still the most beautiful person I'd seen. I nodded once, thinking for a moment.

"Uh, do you mind if I borrow some of your clothes? The only ones I have are the ones out in the living room, and not only are they a few days old, but I really don't wanna go back out there again. Lisa might eat me." I said, and Adam laughed.

"Yeah. I don't know how the pants are gonna work out, though, since I'm like twice your fucking size. Seriously, Tommy, you need to eat more, you're thinner than a twig." Adam chuckled darkly at me and I flipped him the bird.

"You already know that I eat twice as much as you do. I just don't gain any weight from it. And pants? Would you mind getting mine from the living room?" I asked, scratching the back of my head gently. Cool, wet locks were pushed back and forth by my fingers and I sighed heavily, glancing around the room for anything I could wear. The bed was unmade from God knows how long ago, the nightstand holding a side-lamp, shut off. The carpet was plush, soft beneath my feet. Adam ventured into a walk-in closet, flipping on a light switch. I'd never really seen the inside of it, but I could only imagine it was brimming with leather and boots.

"I might have something you can use. Besides, your clothes are filthy. And you've gotta go with the group today to talk to the manager. You should at least be clean through and through." Adam called from the closet, shuffling around and cursing to himself now and then. I smiled, sitting down on the edge of the bed, staring at my feet. I wiggled my toes, before frowning. I needed to get a pedicure— oh, God! Adam was getting to me.

"Yeah, yeah, whatever." I said back, looking away from my feet again. The only thankful thing was that my ass had stopped burning. It was merely a dull ache at this point, of which I was glad. At least I could attempt to act normal.

Adam emerged from the closet with a few pairs of pants and an armful of God knew what else. He shuffled beside where I sat and dropped the clothes on the bed, pulling a pair of jeans from the bottom of the stack and handing them to me. I stood from the bed and unwound my towel, blushing as Adam smirked, but kept his eyes on what he was doing. I pulled the jeans up to my hips, buttoning and zipping them. They were loose compared to what I was used to, which was skin-fucking-tight. But they were nice, and they fit.

"Thanks." I said. Adam nodded once, handing me a black t-shirt. I tugged it over my head, smoothing it out over my chest before glancing down. There were silver skulls starting from my right shoulder down to my left hip, with dark grey chain links running through the eye sockets, nose and mouth. It was a fucking dope shirt, and I wondered briefly why Adam would have something like this in his closet.

"Where'd you get this?" I asked him, and Adam glanced at the shirt.

"Oh, Hot Topic. I was gonna save it for your birthday, but I decided to give it to you now." He said with a gentle smile in my direction. I blinked in astonishment and grinned. I reached over and touched his shoulder. He turned toward me and I leaned forward, kissing him again. No tongue, no hair pulling, no dick grinding. Just a sweet kiss.

"Thank you, baby. It's wonderful." I whispered against his lips. He smiled.

"No problem, Tommy." He said, pulling away after kissing my cheek, and unwinding his own towel. Snatching mine again, I quickly dried what little hair I had. It was, more than anything, a way to cover my face. To hide my blush. Even though I didn't really look at it, I still got flushed at the idea of Adam standing naked beside me. I shouldn't have bothered me considering we'd already had sex twice (which I still got shivers about). But it did. I couldn't explain it though.

I sat down on the edge of the bed, wincing slightly and still massaging my scalp with the towel. I didn't know when Adam would be done dressing, but with the armful of clothes he brought out, I imagined that he would be taking a while. A soft breath escaped my lips and I felt Adam's hands slide over mine, and he pulled the towel off of my hand, guiding my palms the entire way. "Baby? Are you okay?" He asked me, his bright blue eyes concerned. His black jeans hung like a perfect glove off his hips, his toned and freckled chest gleaming with a thin layer of moisture. I smiled at him, and nodded once.

"Yeah, I'm fine. I'm just… I'm a little shook up, you know?" I said, gnawing on my bottom lip for a moment. He crouched down, our eye level roughly the same. He took my hands in his, tilting his head to the side.

"What for?" I chuckled.

"This. Us… It's so sudden, but I love every moment of it. I love being with you and being yours… but…" I paused, taking a deep breath and looking away. Adam reached up and cupped my face in his left palm, turning my head back so I looked at him.

"But what?" I exhaled softly. Fuck, why was it so hard to say how I felt. I loved Adam, I did! But I just couldn't piece together the fear. I couldn't, and that made me upset because if I couldn't tell him what was on my mind, then this was going to be hard.

"But I'm afraid that—"

"That it's not going to last?" I dropped my head slowly, and I nodded once. Adam sighed softly, standing and pulling me to my feet. He wrapped his arms around my waist and pulled me close to him. His chin rested against the top of my head at first, and then he kissed my forehead softly.

"Baby, don't worry. Everything's gonna work out fine, you'll see." He reassured me, and I smiled slightly, blinking slowly. I could hear his heart beating against my ear, and it was such a beautiful sound. I let my eyes slip shut for a moment before Adam's fingers brushed against my cheek, and I looked up at him in time to taste his kiss on my mouth. Soft, sweet, gentle. Deliciously Adam and I moaned quietly as he deepened it further, but keeping it from the brink of utterly sexual. Romantic. I loved it.

He pulled away, kissing my mouth again, before smiling down at me. "We should finish getting ready." He said, and I sighed. I wanted to just spend the day and relax with him. Especially with the pain in my back side, but fortunately that was beginning to fade to a dull ache. Adam let go of me, sifting through the pile of clothes before pulling out a dark blue and black plaid shirt and a short sleeved black, cotton shirt. Slipping the black shirt on first, he tugged the plaid shirt over it, smiling at me when he caught me staring at him. He walked briskly back into the closet, bringing out two pairs of socks, his boots and my Converse. Handing me my shoes, I unlaced them quickly, tugging the socks onto my feet and tying my shoes onto my feet. He shoved his feet into his boots, before tugging the ends of his pants over them. He turned and faced me, slipping his hand into mine and lacing our fingers together as he bent down and kissed me once again.

"C'mon." He said, tugging me out of the bedroom and back down the hallway. Someone must've turned on the TV out of boredom, because our three band mates were sitting around the living room, their eyes half glued to the screen. Adam cleared his throat quietly, and they turned their heads to face us. The TV was shut off and they all stood, ready to go. I felt my heart pounding in my chest as they each glanced at our hands, but none of them said a word. They followed us out of the door, where I let go of Adam's hand before we passed through the opening. I could feel his frown on the back of my neck.

I loved him. I did. Truly. But I wasn't ready for the public to know. I wasn't sure if I would ever be ready for the public to know about us. The idea of the paparazzi trying to get anything and everything, the controversy (not that I really cared about that), the… God. It made me feel sick to my stomach just trying to think about it all at once. Not that I expected to digest it easily, I knew I wouldn't. But if made me want to bend over and vomit on the ground or something. It made my head spin. And the only thing keeping me upright was Adam's firm hand on the small of my back. Thank you.

The limo was waiting for us when we reached the sidewalk in front of the condo. Monte, Longineu and Lisa slipped inside first; the boys automatically reaching for the sodas in the mini bar tucked into the side of the wall. Lisa was staring lazily out the window when Adam slipped in beside me, closing the door. The limo rolled forward, and at first it was nothing but silence among us. Adam took my hand in his again, our fingers laced. Monte was smirking and Longineu's mouth curled into a small smile at the corner. They approved, that was nice.

"So…" Monte said after swallowing a drink of his Coke. "How about them Red Sox?" I glanced over at him before laughing. Typical Monte.

"Oh, Adam?" Lisa turned her head, her eyes alight with curiosity. "When do we begin rehearsals for Gridlock?" Gridlock? Oh, the New Year's show we were scheduled to do. I looked over at Adam, quite curious myself.

"I'm not sure. I figured you guys would go over that today while I was out. Talk about the schedule and the songs we're gonna be doing." He said simply, giving my hand a gentle squeeze as the limo turned various corners and rolled along several streets. I never really got used to the layout of Los Angeles, and quite frankly it confused me greatly. Thankfully, I never really had to navigate myself through the city streets, which meant I never had to worry about getting lost. Yay!

"Alright, Mr. Lambert, here's your stop." The driver called from the front of the limo. We stopped beside a large building, and Adam opened the door, giving me a quick kiss before getting out and closing the door. My lips were burning and my face was flushing hot as Monte made baby coos at me, with a few little "aww's" mixed in for good measure. I took a cube of ice from the tray in the mini bar and chucked it at him, pegging him between the eyes. Score one for Tommy, zero for Monte.

"Oh c'mon, it was cute." Lisa said with a smile, her eyes grinning brighter than her mouth. I smiled shyly, my bangs falling over my face to hide my scarlet face. Maybe so, but it was a little embarrassing to have the band teasing me about my relationship Adam. However short it may have been.

Conversation was minimal, but Monte and Longineu were chatting up storms. Lisa kept to herself most of the time, staring out the window in silence. I texted Adam on occasion, reassuring him that he would survive the shitty interview he had to do. "It's all about the AMA shit still. They're greedy bastards, wanting the same thing but rephrased every time." Adam had said. Tommy felt bad that he couldn't be there to keep his baby company. But that would have caused a bigger shit storm. Awesome.

When the limo rolled to a stop again, Monte and Longineu moved to get out, but Lisa stayed. Why? I frowned, eyeing her for a moment before I started to follow the guys out, expecting her to follow me at any moment. "Tommy, stay here." She said, and I froze, half way out of my seat and towards the door. I nodded, and Monte shut the door softly. The limo pulled away and I sat down firmly, wondering why we were leaving the guys and not wanting to fall over in the event we were to hit a pothole in the street. Why had she made me stay when the guys got out?

"You do realize what this could mean for you." She stated after a few minutes of silent driving. I frowned for a moment, before sighing. But I didn't speak. "If something goes wrong between you and Adam, it could mean a lot of trouble for the band, for our careers. Are you willing to risk that?" I didn't really want to think about the possibility that Adam and I wouldn't work out. It would be awkward, even a little tense. But I cared about Adam. I would do anything to stay with him and stay in the band, but she was right. If it didn't work, things would be difficult between us. I had seen how he was with his exes, and he got along with them just fine. But he didn't have to work with them on a daily basis. It would be nightmarish for us.

"Lisa— let's say, hypothetically, of course, that you were the one in the relationship with Adam. That you cared deeply about him and you wanted to be with him, no matter what. Wouldn't you risk it to be happy?" I asked her firmly, my hands shaking slightly in my lap as I spoke. I had to ask her, even though it was in reference to a situation that would never happen. But Lisa's eyes were downcast as she thought, and she exhaled softly.

"Yes."

"Then you already know my answer." I told her. She was silent for a moment longer, before speaking again.

"I just… I don't want to see either of you getting hurt. You boys are my family, and I care about you. And even though it doesn't seem like it, I even care about the knuckle heads. But you and Adam are young, Tommy. Please, be careful." She pleaded with her eyes, and I felt my heart swell and expel a painful beat. Sincere. She really didn't want us to end up badly. It would mean the end of our careers. It would mean the end of Adam. The end of our family.

"I will, I promise." I told her.