A/N: Rewriting this as with many of the stories. Heh, it's my only T rated story after the story clean up... But even so, I shall keep it clean for everyone, so just enjoy~

"H-hey, F-Fel, I really need to tell y-you something... I-I kinda think I might sorta l-love you... B-be my V-Valentine?" my Lithuanian best friend stuttered as he shuffled awkwardly on the spot, his eyes glued to the floor by my shoes.

"Hahaha! Nice one, Tor, you almost got me there. Well, I'll be seeing you." Worst thing I've ever done to him, honestly. Toris threw a handmade card and a box of my favourite candies at me on that day, back when we were kids. The gifts were literally forced into my hands. I'd never forget the pained look he gave me, the way that the tears brimmed over the top of his eyes, how his bottom lip quivered as he threw everything towards me and ran away, tears rolling down his cheeks as he sobbed.

We were six years old then, and most people would argue that we wouldn't know what love was. Sure, we didn't understand intimate relationships, or kissing, or even the feelings required for marriage, but I remember laying there on my bed every night in tears as I reread the message in the card; "I luv you Fel, from Tor xxxxxxx". Written in a pink crayon, which was, at that time, my favourite colour. Written in his perfect scrawly handwriting, which has changed little over the years. It couldn't have been anything other than love. I remember sobbing each night for months because he wouldn't talk to me. I finally mustered up the courage to do something about it in late July that year, over five months after we stopped speaking.

Toris was about to leave the coat pegs the evening that we broke up from school for the summer holidays. I ensured that we were alone before grabbing his arm and spinning him around. If looks could kill, I would quite honestly have been doomed. "T-Tor, I have something to say to you..."

"What do you want?" said person muttered with a cold tone to his voice. His emerald eyes were locked on the floor.

"I'm really sorry about Valentine's Day, I thought you were just joking with me... You really are amazing and I love you." Tor's expression softened as his defence lowered. His eyes met mine for a long moment until he prepared to say the next words, during which he did anything possible to avoid eye contact.

"Oh. Well I love you, too, then." The tiny voice broke slightly on the last word, suddenly changing to a much higher pitch. His eyes glazed over then tears filled his eyes, much like how they had those months ago.

This time, he sobbed into my chest, seemingly unaware that my heart was racing. Two of my fingers rested under his chin and lifted it slightly; I very much liked the sight of his eyes and I had seen such a method many times before. We quickly pecked each other's lips, but pinky promised not to tell anyone about it, as they were sure to call us foul names. After all, children were cruel and cared little about the pain they inflicted. Our mothers were so proud that we had finally began talking again that they allowed us to play around each other's houses as often as we liked. To this day, I still have that card under my pillow so that if I'm sad, I can run the tips of my fingers over the crayon wax. Naturally, it's still rather comforting.

The next school year came quite quickly. Secretly, me and Toris would hold hands under the table, or give a gentle hug in the coatpegs when no one was around. We never thought twice about that sort of thing, because we were young and, in a way, together. We'd fight for each other like brother and sister, and remained as best friends through all of it. At that age, we didn't know what homosexuality was until we overheard our moms talking. It was just before Christmas and we were playing together at Tor's house. "May I ask a quick question, please?" my mother said.

"Sure thing, what's wrong?"

"Is it normal for a seven year old boy to ask for a pink leather miniskirt for Christmas? I mean, he's asked for other weird things in the past, like a pair of dolly shoes and a Flamenco dress, but I never took him that seriously until he asked with a straight face." My face burned. To me, it didn't seem like a big deal or anything, I just liked wearing girly clothes. I wasn' t embarrassed or anything, but...

"Hmm... Well, Fel can't really be... gay... at his age, can he? Tor has asked for weird things, too, but it's probably because they have a lot of female friends and relatives."

We snatched the dictionary from the bottom of the bookshelf and searched for the word 'gay'. That word led us to the word 'homosexual', which we then searched straight after. "Here it is..." I whispered. "Homosexual - a person who is attracted to members of the same sex." We then searched for the meaning of the word 'sex' to ensure that we could both understand what the word meant. "Sex - the state of being either female or male... So gay means if a boy loves a boy or a girl loves a girl?" We both looked up at each other. "A-are we... gay?"

That question stuck with us for a long time. In fact, our mothers' question seemed to stick with them, too. Anyway, we protected each other like siblings until we reached secondary school. It all changed then. To maintain the silky legs that made me look more feminine when I wear my pink leather miniskirt (that I finally bought out of my own money when my mother thought I was joking), I needed to take a little longer getting dressed after PE. I mean, it isn't easy to ensure that your legs stay soft and pale. The maintenence of my precious legs takes time, so I was always the last of the boys out of the changing rooms, and I was always the one to get moaned at (jokingly) by our sports teacher. She did give me a funny look once for telling her that playing rugby would ruin my knees, but we ended up spending the whole lesson discussing what to wear with jumpers, and what shoes are best with dresses, etc. It was rather nice to talk to someone who actually knew what she was talking about. So, as I was saying before I got distracted by the thought of miniskirts, one day, Toris waited inside the changing rooms with me.

"Fel, I need to tell you something." he said as he grabbed my hand and intertwined his fingers between mine. My heartbeat quickly rose as he took a deep breath, his thumb slowly running over my knuckles. "I think that I actually might love you for more than a friend. Infact, more than a best friend, too. I was thinking... Would you be my boyfriend?" I smiled and drew a heart over a spot on his blazer with my fingertip.

"Oh my gosh, Tor, haven't we been together for, like, six years already?"

"And we've only kissed once? And not even declared any sort of affection whatsoever? Wow, we're ridiculous!" he exclaimed as he moved his lips closer to mine and touched them together. He quickly changed his head position so that we were on an angle, which made it much easier for both of us. The kiss quickly deepened and his arms wrapped around me as we pressed close in the most loving way possible.

Everything was okay for a while from then, until I noticed that Toris was throwing up everything that he ate at school. He always looked tired and his eyes were sunken into pale skin. For some crazy reason, though, he would try to act like nothing had happened and that everything was alright. After several sessions of the silence treatment, Tor eventually gave in and told me what was wrong. He said how some kid was pushing him around, calling him 'a bender', and occasionally whipping him with wet towels. I didn't fully believe that someone would do such a heartless thing to him until I saw the rashes and bruises covering his back.

So, what did I do? I only tracked that guy down. To this day, I swear to any God with believer, I've never punched someone quite as hard as that in my entire life. Which is probably why I got excluded from school and put into anger management classes. However, they didn't last long, as I described the situation several times and wasn't listened to once. "Feeeel... Why do you have to get into so much trouble all the time?" Tor once asked me with a cute half smile whilst he played with my hand, flicking it back and forth between his. To be honest, I didn't even know why myself at that time, but soon found out that it was because I would easily flip whenever someone spoke badly of Toris. Strangely, though, after finding this out, he still stayed as my boyfriend for a further four years, which I didn't expect at all.

We were sixteen when I was finally told that getting excluded again would mean that I'd have to get sent to a different school. They told me this as I got excluded. Suprise, suprise. Anyway, our mothers both agreed that Toris could stay at my house over the end half of the week as long as we both went to school (the exclusion ended on a Wednesday). I thanked them both, which appeared to make Tor curious. We had been allowed such privileges before, but never for quite so long.

As he sat on the end of my bed, I moved slightly closer to where he was sitting. "What's wrong?" he asked. I shook my head and looked down at the bed sheets. Typically dramatic, as expected from a cross dressing actor-slash-actress. Suddenly, a thumb and two fingers grabbed my chin and pulled it up, forcing me to look into concerned eyes. He repeated the question slower and gave me the look that showed he wasn't up for any messing around. "Well, I was just thinking... I don't think I want you to be my boyfriend anymore."

"Oh." Toris stood up, grabbed his bag and headed towards the door. As usual, it didn't go as planned, just like everything else that I had planned in the past. I grabbed his hand and knelt on the floor before he could leave, careful not to mess up my knees. Our eyes met, and his seemed unusually cold for once, as if his heart had broken and each word was a bullet to his chest.

"I would much prefer it if you were my husband."

His expression was totally unreadable, which scared me beyond belief until he nodded. Just once. I slid the gold ring that I had saved up all of my money for weeks to buy onto his finger, and waited patiently while he read the inscriptions. "'I'll love you always' in Lithuanian? How did you...?"

"I asked your mom if there was any language or any symbol that could be put on it that most people from school wouldn't understand." Toris hugged me before trying out something that we hadn't tried until then.

As we kissed, his tongue slowly crept forwards and touched mine, causing both to retract quickly before slipping back out again. The sensation was a rather strange one, but even so it was pleasant. Small hands grabbed the waistband of my skirt and pulled it up towards my chest. He pulled away slightly and stared into my eyes. "Do you want to?"

"I-if you're ready..." He put his hands on the bed on either side of my chest and propped himself up.

"No, unless you're ready, we won't. It's not like it'll change our relationship or anything, I mean, we're engaged already." I nodded and smiled.

~x~x~x~x~x~

About an hour later, we went downstairs to get something to eat and drink. As we passed the main room, a feminine giggle could be heard from inside. Curiously, we walked in to see my mother and cousin sitting on the sofa. "Have fun banging?" my cousin said, now laughing hysterically. Toris turned bright red. "We could hear you from down here." This time, I felt myself turning red. She would probably tell all of her friends at school about this, and trust my luck for us to go to the same place! I cleared my throat and grabbed Tor's hand before leaving the room. Not that we particularly cared much, but the thought of everyone finding out about our private life was daunting.

Obviously, it got out to the whole year. We spent days showing the engagement ring to people, admitting the truth, and showing that we weren't just joking around. I seriously wanted to kill my cousin for that, but suprisingly, she came out less than a week later. Pretty much all of us were shocked about it, but no one dared start on any of us. Especially with the new sexually tolerance project.

Seven years later and we're married with three beautiful kids (all grown in my cousin's womb). They all know what's happened through the years for some reason, and to be honest, we couldn't ask for anything better. Our eldest, a boy with dark hair and eyes, is the sweetest and protects his two sisters with everything he has. They're both cute and gentle too, the younger with slightly paler blonde hair than her sister, and they have Toris' calm temperament. There's everything we'll ever need and all five of us are happy, so we're hoping to be together for the rest of our lives as a family. Like, totally.