[Scots_On_The_Rocks]

I studied you for countless moments as you slumbered, your short brown hair tousled from sleep.

I looked to the hardened and chisled features of your face, looking for the secrets they contained. The hint of a laugh, the shadow of a smile reflecting your love for me.

Here you lie on my sheets, in my bed, so far removed from the asphalt warrior that the world has forced you to be.

The world always viewed you as the "odd one out" The woman trying so hard to be a man. The fool in drag.

But I instead looked at you as the normal one in a world of oddities. The handsome amongst the profane.

I wonder as I look at your sleeping face, softened in the grip of slumber and wonder when did the hardening begin.

When did the stone form?

When did the gentleness take leave, only to be seen in rare glimpses on rare occasions?

And as I continue to peer at you, the answer comes to me.

It was when you first loved me.

When you first knew that you would have to fight with every breath to be able to love me in a world that doesn't allow for our kind of love.

And at that thought, my heart swells.