Morning rituals were an odd thing to some people, some like early showers and a jog, other liked an hour of tv. Her ritual consisted of biking her way through the wintery streets of Forks, fingerless mittens allowing her to grip the handle bars better despite the way her digits turned pink and her face became wind burned.

Pedalling quick, bag thumping in the front basket, her jeans pulled and stretched against her legs as she carried herself away from school and toward the Swan residence.

Sitting there, outside, Roman was determined to actually get off the bike and knock on the door this time. She wouldn't wait out front for Charlie to come out to ask how she was doing. She was going to go up and knock herself, or even ring the doorbell.

And then she actually was getting out of the seat, forcing herself up the front path to the door — heart slamming in her chest as her hand hovered over the painted wood, anticipation earing at her.

Ready to knock, to make herself known, Roman was gazing at the floor, biting her lip when the door was open, and someone came crashing into her, feet slipping.

Her back hit the cool concrete, air whooshing from her lungs as both the knock and the person landing on top her.

"Oh my god, Roman?" The sweet, breathy voice of the girl that owned half her heart rang in her ears and her eyes snapped open, gazing up at the girl whose face was only inches from her own.

Blood rushed to her face, cheeks burning, and she hoped her face was still wind burnt to block the furious blush that took over her face.

"Are you okay? Oh, I'm sorry, so sorry, you're bleeding," the girl stammered, a panicked sound as she scrambled off her and knelt to her side.

Fingers brushed her lip, sparks of heat shooting through her at the innocent gesture, smearing warm liquid that brought the taste of iron to the tip of her tongue, exploding across her taste buds.

"I'm fine, I'm totally fine," Roman reassured, tongue darting out to collect the excessive amount of blood that was pooling on her bottom lip. "I might need some stitches though."

"I'm sorry," Bella gasped, red tipped fingers suspended in the space between them.

Tears pooled in the girl's eyes, collecting at the corners, and Roman thought for sure that her heart was being ripped from her chest, the pounding angry.

"It's fine, Bella, really! I'm always being told not to bite my lips, this isn't the first time," Roman insisted, mitten coming up to soak the blood that was there.

"But the blood, you . . . " the girl trailed off, looking at tips of her fingers in fascination.

Roman reached up, swiping Bella's fingers clean with her free hand, watching as she blinked in slow comprehension.

Pulling her hand away from her mouth, her tongue darted out to prod her bottom lip. "Does it look okay?"

The Swan girl winced, her own hand ghosting over her lips in the same place as her bite wound. The hesitation was clear, and Roman groaned as her imagination began to run wild.

"We should probably take you to the hospital," Bella admit sheepishly, long fingers playing with her hair.

She had never known that a person could be so distracting by simply movements, her lungs felt so tight, like they couldn't get enough air just from looking at her.

Being so close, just within reach, was killing her, having never been around the girl this long or having had a conversation that didn't concern school.

"We?" Roman parroted, pushing herself up so she was seated now, face ever closer to the enticing girl. "But what about school? You don't have to go with me anywhere, Bella, I can take my bike."

The door opened, both girls looking back as Charlie stepped out, freezing at the sight of both girls and the bloody mess that Roman had become.

"Again?" He asked, gruff voice lilting in humour. "You need to be more careful, Roman, but it is good to see you."

She chuckled, pinching her eyes closed as she beamed up at him. "It's good to see you, Chief Swan!"

He hummed, nodding awkwardly before passing by them to get to his cruiser. "Make sure that girl gets to the hospital, Bells," he called back to them.

Roman went to protest, saying she could get there herself, but Bella was shouting that she would easily agreeing and pulling herself to her feet - already moving to the bike that rested down by the street.

She groaned, pushing up to her feet, already feeling an ache in her rear and back from the tumble she took.

"Bella, you really don't have to," she protested, voice dying when she saw the way the girl was struggling to lift the bike into the bed of her truck.

Stretching with her arms high over her head, the jogged to Bella's side, helping the girl lift the bike easily and lay it down, snatching her bag from the basket to take into the cab with her.

So many times, she had dreamed of being in the truck with the girl, cuddled close and listening to the crappy Seattle indie station, warm and close in the constant downpour - never had she thought that she would be here, a distance away as her face bled into her favourite mittens and tasted iron down her throat.

"Did you, uh, come around often when . . . " the girl trailed off as she started her truck, the loud engine vibrating the entire vehicle.

Roman sighed, wiggling uncomfortably, and already she could feel her body heating up out of embarrassment. "Almost every morning to check to see how you were," she whispered her admittance.

The other girl didn't react, not openly, but Roman could practically see the cogs turning in the girl'syou head -working slowly over what had been said. She hoped beyond hope that Bella didn't pursue the conversation, that she let it be said so that she could hold this moment dear to her for the rest of forever because she didn't want to ruin this, what could be if she kept quiet.

"Did you have plans for tonight?" Bella finally asks. "I mean, if you want to do something together."

Butterflies exploded in her stomach, scattering around in a flurry that made her stomach twist and jump up into her throat.

For a moment her mind went blank, screeching into the heavens at the opportunity she was given. To hang out with her, to be by her side was all she really wanted and Roman was truly willing to take whatever the girl would give to her.

Because she was, one of the loves of her life, half the equation that made her implode and explode simultaneously. Bella and Edward, Edward and Bella, Roman had never fit in the equation, but now Edward was gone, half of her love gone with him and it was only fitting that she gave all that she had left to the girl that actually noticed her - whether she could return those feelings or not.

"Of course, I want to! What did you have in mind?" Roman could feel herself glowing with excitement, it was practically sickening.

Bella smiled, a thing sort of halfway between happiness and a grimace. "How about a movie? Is that alright?"

"Movie's are great! This sounds great Bella, thanks."

The girl did smile, honestly this time as she risked a glance away from the road at Roman in the passenger seat, mitten still pressed to her mouth.

"Maybe we can invite Jess or Angela, or something," Bella offers, attention dead on the road as even Roman knew the girl wasn't very committed to the idea of having a night out, and the blue-eyed girl wondered why the girl she loved was even forcing herself to commitments she didn't want.

It was like every part of her begged that she'd do anything to please Bella, the part of her that recognized the other girl's distress pushed her to erase all those negative emotions.

"You don't need to force yourself to go out with people if you aren't ready yet, Bella," Roman said, not looking away from the road in front of them. "I understand why you might not want to be around a bunch of happy people."

"You understand?" Bella whispered, voice tight as she stared straight ahead.

Roman smiled to herself, wincing at the pang of pain that came from the split in her lip at the action. "Yeah, I totally get what it's like not to be with the person you love. It'll get better to deal with eventually, but that doesn't mean your feelings will go away."

"Thanks, Roman," Bella whispered after a moment, and Roman wanted nothing more to crush her heart with the way it raced.

Antiseptic fought hard with the tang of iron to be the most prominent smell in her vicinity and Roman found it more than a little nauseating. It wasn't that she's ever had an issue with hospitals, but perhaps it was the nerves that accompanied her in the presence of the Swan girl.

Because sat beside her on a squeaky plastic chair, under florescent lights, Bella made herself as small as possible. Roman was a frequent flyer in Forks emergency, the girl being a magnet for accidents and ad luck, she was often sat on the paper covered gurney holding some kind of gauze or towel to one bleeding wound or another.

The Swan girl had been in he hospital her share of times, from what Roman heard and knew, but she didn't picture Bella being one to dislike the place. She wasn't sure what it was exactly, a mix of memories or maybe the knowledge that Dr. Cullen, her regular for stitches, was not going to be here, but it made Bella pale significantly the longer she sat in the chair – shoulders growing tense in preparation for something that Roman couldn't see.

It hurt her to know that the girl she loved was in so much distress, that Bella was pinning after the boy that left her and brought his family with him, the girl's closest friends. Roman knew better than anyone, always being aware of Bella to some point, that she hadn't really been friends with Jessica, Mike, Angela and the others since she started eating lunch with the Cullen's – and not once did she blame her. She would have done the same to sit with Bella or Edward.

Now, as it was, Roman spent most of her lunch hours alone, not that she didn't want to sit with her friends, just simply not wanting the distraction as she worked on one thing or another, pouring herself over homework and assignments with a startling amount of determination. They knew to avoid her when she didn't plop herself down beside them with a tray pilled high with food that she could have eaten but had intended to share.

Alone in the cafeteria, earbuds plugged into her ears, Roman had claimed her work table in a place where she could see the Cullen table clearly, could watch Edward and Bella together, and now just watch Bella with a bleeding heart that weighed down her chest painfully.

Sitting in the crappy chair, Roman wondered why the girl forced herself to stay when she could have just waited in her truck or have left Roman to her own devices until later when they would meet up for a movie in Port Angeles, but Bella had stubbornly marched ahead of her, leading her into emergency and had explained everything to the nurse sat behind the desk, had taken the papers and begun filling them out for her.

The white, cleanliness of the floor changed with the drops of red that Roman watched fall to the floor as each movement of her lips caused her to reopen any sort of scab that had worked itself in place, and Roman remembered that time in biology when they were testing blood types. How Bella had gotten faint and needed to be escorted out by Mike as Roman had sat in her seat, head spinning at the sight of the girl as concern flooded her. She had wanted to help, but she had sat there frozen, similarly to what she was doing now as she took in the possibility that it was the blood that was bothering the girl.

"You really don't have to stay Bella," Roman said, casting the girl a look. "I've gotten plenty of stitches and this isn't even the first time I've split my lip."

Bella shook her head, eyes slowly lighting, coming back into focus as she turned to look at Roman. "It's fine, really. I want to stay here," she winced at her own words, not noticing the way Roman knew her face had flushed, and eyes had come alive.

"Alright, just don't be surprised if my mom shows up to yell at me," she allows, waving a hand about dismissively. She tried hard to play it off like it was nothing, but even then, she had never introduced her mom to any of her friends and never thought in a million years that Bella would be the first.

It was, for her, all so intimate. The situation that had come to motion when that front door opened to her and Roman found herself sprawled on the front steps of the Swan house with a bleeding lip and the girl she loved on top of her. It was dizzying to imagine that her mother might show up to see them together, that someone would be able to confirm it all for her later to make sure she knew that it was real that it really happened and Roman had not lost her mind in a love-struck daydream like her mother teased her that she would. Even still, if Bella wasn't sitting so close she would have pinched herself to make sure that this was real.

Roman was turning, prepared to strike up a basic conversation just so she could hear the girl speak in that, hesitant, almost stutter of hers, when the thin curtain was drawn back in a quick whoosh that rattled from metal links on a metal pole. A nurse stood silently to the side, holding the curtain in a blue, latex gloved hand, a clipboard tucked under her arm as she smiled sheepishly at her in tired eyes.

The dread that ate at her was immediate as she recognized both the nurse and the doctor that stood at her side. Both were high school friends of her mother, pictures of them in their youth were strewn across photo albums and kept on a dresser in her mom's room with the rest of her things. Roman knew that she was in trouble as soon as they looked her way.

The doctor stepped forward, Lily Wells, a no nonsense, straight to the point kind of woman that would throw her to the wolves like it was no big deal. Just looking at her Roman knew that they had called her mother from work as soon as they had learnt that she was anywhere near the vicinity – even if she had requested that they didn't call and alert anyone.

Dr. Wells stepped forward, pulling a standard glove on with a jarring snap, and Roman shrunk at the sound. "What have you been told about biting your lip?"

"Not to, but really, its not that big a deal. Just a few stitches and I'm outta here," she laughed nervously, shuffling around where she sat to get comfortable. "Don't want me to miss anymore school, do you?"

Her mother's friend only looked at her unimpressed for a moment before sighing, motioning to the attending nurse, Rebecca Colson, to get the stuff she needed for a quick fix.

"What happened this time?" Rebecca asked as she took the blood-soaked gauze from her face and began to gently clean her face of blood, so Lily would be able to see.

"It's my fault actually," Bella told them. "I knocked her over on my way out the door this morning. I wasn't looking, so. . ."

Rebecca only hummed non-committedly, a twinkle in her eye that only Roman could see as the woman worked quietly. A little panicked, and very worried that either of them would say something about her mystery feelings and the way she was blushing terribly over a few simple words.

"I was biting my lip though, so it's actually, completely my fault. How many times have I turned up in her anyways? Shouldn't I get some type of discount by now?" she joked, chuckling nervously. It was at a moment like this that she would suck her lip in between her teeth, but Rebecca was standing in front her, the tang of blood sill in her mouth, and Roman opted out of her clung to safety blanket.

"You're lucky to have such good insurance, Ro, you would be in serious debt with all these visits otherwise," Lily told her seriously as she finished filling in a few things on her chart. "I'm going to use absorbable sutures. I know you prefer regular stitches, but my precision is no where near Dr. Cullen's so I'm not going to try anything like that near your face."

There was a clatter and a strangled gasp at her side from Bella and Roman literally felt like her heart was going to drop from her chest. She refused to look over, doubting she'd be capable of stomaching the thought of how upset Bella must be right now.

She couldn't piece together what it must be like to lose something she never had, having always suffered in silence with her feelings, but she knew that she never wanted to feel that way, not when Bella was so close to her and she never wished to risk losing her.

"It's fine. Let's just do this," Roman pinched her eyes shut expectantly, waiting for that familiar burning sensation that came with the adhesive. "We have big plans for tonight and a school to attend still, and I don't want to be walking around covered in blood all day."

"You just want out before your mom get's here," Rebecca observed with a small giggle, tugging a loose strand of hair playfully. "She was checking out one of your trails for reopening come spring, so she won't be back until much later. She did tell us to yell at you though, but that would be very unprofessional."

"Thank god for small victories," she grumbled, red stained fingers gripping into the cushioned mattress underneath her when Lily began to prod at her mouth.

Roman tried very hard not to embarrass herself when cool, shaky fingers intertwined with hers.

°°°
Vote,
Comment,
& follow me on wattpad

Right, so Roman is hopelessly in love with Bella and Edward and she knows it, but no one else knows. They just know that she likes a person, not plural or who. It's been a while since i wrote such a fluffy character.

Also, medical knowledge is not my forte. First aid is easy peasy but the stuff i wrote here was based on a memory from like 6 or 7 years ago when my sister split her chin being an idiot (funny story, maybe I'll tell it sometime), so a lot of this might not be correct or accurate.

Let me know what you think!!

Unedited

2018-06-01

repost 2019-06-12