Bread Rat

Adam first found out about your scoliosis after you were laying on your stomach in your shared bed talking about the most mundane things such as how both your days went either at your work with the bitchy coworker or him in the forest talking about how he saw a mother deer and her fawn entranced by him when he noticed that you were looking uncomfortable.

All of a sudden you rolled on your back, sat up, and began to rub your side. He asked what was wrong to which you explained to him that your spine had been curving since you were a teenager and that you might have to get it looked at since your back was starting to ache more.

He’s confused at first, how can a bone possibly curve without breaking? You smile softly and ask if he would be curious to see it, to which he clams up and sheepishly nods towards your direction.

With your back facing him you lift up your shirt like you’ve done countless times at the doctors office and slowly bend over your knees so he can see the curve more pronounced. He doesn’t say a word which makes you start to worry if maybe he thinks it’s weird or creepy that you look like that…bent and crooked.

However just as soon as the thought crosses your mind you feel his long, cold fingers ghost over your spine, making you shiver, as he slowly traces down the curve from the middle of your shoulder blades to just below your hips.

He then takes both of his hands, puts one in between your shoulders and his other just below it, his enormous skeletal hands nearing filling up the whole of your back and gently presses.

You feel the cold seep into your aches as you let out a a relieved sigh making you feel so much better than any type of pain medication you’ve taken to help get you through the day.

“Thank you, my darling” you say, softly melting into his touch. “Anything my love to see you feeling as wonderful as you make me feel every day” he replies as he leans down to pepper your back with kisses of the utmost affection.

When it gets time for your surgery date to approach your both a bundle of nerves but Adam tries to hide it so that he won’t worry you but nevertheless you try to reassure him that you’ll be alright in the long run even if you're scared as well.

When the day finally arrives he carries you into the hospital room to help you get ready for surgery.

When you have trouble putting on the hospital gown he helps you to gently tie the string on your back into a little bow. The waiting nurse was a bit surprised that his massive hands are able to tie the gown so delicately when even the other nurses couldn’t.

When the time finally comes to wheel you into surgery you both give each other a long hug pulling one another as close as you can and reassuring him that you’ll be alright as he holds back his tears for fear that something will happen to you to which you cup his face in your hands and kiss his tear stained cheeks prompting him to smile that sweet smile that you’ve always adored.

While he’s waiting hours for the surgery to be done his stomach is in knots and he can hardly sit still pacing up and down the area of the room like a caged animal and praying that nothing goes wrong to affect your movement or make you feel worse than you did before.

When you slowly awake in the hospital room the curtains are drawn and the room is bathed in a soft light, you look down and there are thin tubes running along the backs of your hands and along your arms. But just below your arms your draped in your favorite blanket from home, the one that you and Adam both used when you went to sleep in the warm bed of his arms, and insisted that you would pack for your stay at the hospital.

You reach down and gingerly pull it up towards your nose and take a deep breath…it still smells like him earthy and warm and so so alive.

He walks into the room and quickly sits by your bedside and asks a million questions a minute, How are you? Can you move your feet? Are you in any pain? Do I need to get a nurse?

You reach up and put the tips of your fingers up to his lips and he’s quiet, searching your face for a reaction with worried eyes that you always found so cute like a little puppy. “I’m fine love, I’m real sore right know but I’ll live,” you say, giving a tired smile and gazing up at him, his gaze softening under your reassuring touch, “All I need right now is you”

The first few days at the hospital were hell for you after the medication wore off. It hurt to sit upright and it hurt to lay on your back forcing you to have to lay on your side for a good while until that side got sore and you had to have help from either Adam or a nurse in order to be rearranged. Not once did Adam complain but you could tell that deep down he was scared for you so you would keep apologizing whenever you had to ask him to help you up to go to the bathroom, to roll over on your side, or to help you stand and walk around.

That was until he put up his index-finger to your lips in a shushing manner and sheepishly grinned, "That's enough, you don’t need to apologize not now not ever, let me take care of you like you’ve always taken care of me,” his words so deep and full of love cause your own eyes to water before you give him a smile and a kiss on his cheek as he carefully wraps his arms around your shoulders, careful to avoid the top of the bandages, into a gentle hug as you put your arms around him and gently rub circles into his own scarred back.

As the days pass in the hospital and you're finally able to go back home Adam dotes on you hand and foot more so than he did before!

He’s made sure to make the living room recliner as comfortable as possible and makes sure to clean everything so that you don’t get sick after coming home (you insisted he didn’t have to do that but he persisted saying how he wouldn’t know what to do if your pain was made worse by illness so you lamented)

When your too sore from sitting in the chair and walking around doesn’t help, Adam will slowly walk with you into your shared bedroom and help lower you down into the bed, helping you roll over to your side so that you can get the most amount of comfort however small in your situation, and will pull the blankets up towards your chin and let you get your needed rest. For a few weeks you have to sleep in separate rooms, with him using the guest room, to ensure that you get enough sleep to help you in your recovery.

This makes you both feel lonely despite being a door away from one another so when you're already asleep Adam will sneak into your room as quietly as his 8 foot frame will allow, carrying with him a pillow and blankets, and will lay on the floor next to your sleeping frame. After you wake up a few hours later and see him resting there, his chest slowly rising and falling with his hand curled around yours that you draped over the edge of the bed your own chest starts to swell with warmness that even outdoes the blanket.

He helps you walk up and down the stairs and will insist that you hold onto him no matter how many steps there are. Even when it’s only one or two steps that you need to climb🥲

When the time passes and the doctor says that you're able to step into a shower just as long as you don’t get your back wet Adam jumps at another chance to help you! He gently washes your legs and lets you hold onto his slender shoulders when you have to lift up one foot at a time for him to wash. While you insist that you can use the damp washcloth to clean your arms, torso and face yourself Adam will still insist that he be able to help you with that as well.

In truth you're honestly so happy when he gently takes the cloth and guides it along your body with such precision and smoothness it’s as if he’s cleaning the statue of a goddess himself.

When your back heals and the bandages come off Adam will always be asking to see your scar to marvel at the way it matches his own that he was once ashamed of but seeing you overcome the struggle it took to heal and recover inspires him to have some pride in his own scars as well.