(TW: NSFW// Domestic Abuse)

After ensuring Juniper was comfortable and that Connor was allowed to stay in Kai’s place, Kai and I left the hospital to go to my apartment and save what I could.

When we arrived, I gasped softly at the sheer amount of fire trucks and police in front of the building.

“What in the world?” I whispered softly as I pulled into my parking spot.

An officer came to my driver's door and I rolled the window down, smiling at her.

“Sir. Are you a resident of the apartment?”

“Yes. That’s my unit,” I pointed to my front door, “I’m here to clear out what I can.”

“Very well. We are giving everyone two hours. The floors are unstable so please be careful.”

“Thank you.”

Kai came around and let me out and we headed into my apartment, both of us freezing as a knee-deep river of water began pouring from the door.

“Oh no,” Kai whispered, “oh this is worse than I thought. It must have burst in your bathroom and continued on.”

“Fuck,” I sighed.

We slowly went inside and started taking photos of the damage. My couch was completely destroyed along with my coffee table. Moving into the bedroom, I realized that the water had soaked into the bottom of my mattress and started to eat at the fabric of my bedframe. My television was fried due to the water getting into the outlets, and anything in the bottom drawer of my dresser was waterlogged.

“Shi, do you want to save any of these clothes?” Kai started going through the bottom 3 drawers of my dresser, “they reek babe.”

“N… no. No, it’s fine…”

“Oh honey,” he wiped his hands on his pants and wrapped me tightly in his arms, “we will replace what you need okay? It might take a little time, but I swear we will.”

“Right. I know,” nodding, I let go of him and opened my closet, crying softly when I laid eyes on the damage.

All of my books on the bottom 2 shelves were ruined, every bag I had spent years collecting was full of water and either fraying because they were vintage, made of silk, or stained due to being hand painted. The only salvageable items in my closet were my shoes, thanks to being set on a shelf at chest level for me.

Grabbing a few garbage bags from the kitchen, I gathered up anything in my bedroom I could save, Kai following around and doing the same. He took a seat at my computer before jumping up, his entire rear wet and making me laugh. He stuck his tongue out before he went to start my computer and I stopped him.

“No, don’t you’ll fry it. I can get a new cable so it doesn’t destroy it.”

“Ah sorry. I was just trying to make sure it was okay. I’m… I’m trying to think of what to do I just…”

“I know baby,” setting my bag back on the closet shelf, I wrapped my arms around his neck and kissed his cheek, “I’m trying not to focus on what’s been lost. I have no connection to material possessions. It hurts, but it’s not the end of the world. I have you and Juni and Connor. The family we’ve grown to be. The life we’re building together. It’s all I care about. So let’s gather up what we can, take pictures of everything else and I’ll head to the office to turn in my intent to vacate. I won’t be coming back here after all. Can you focus on the bathroom? If you don’t want to grab everything, at least get my medications and the stuff from the shower.”

“Okay,” he nodded and wiped his nose on his sweater, “whatever you need to replace, we can get tomorrow.”

“No we can’t,” shaking my head, I pushed a piece of his onyx hair behind his ear, “Juni will be in surgery. We’ll start replacing things when she’s home.”

“Right. Today is overwhelming. My brain is scattered and…”

“When we get home, we can order dinner, watch a movie, and cuddle on the couch for a while. It’s been an emotional day and I think a few moments alone, to celebrate getting together, is what we need okay? Don’t take my loss on for yourself. I may be your partner, but I’m not your responsibility. You don’t have to take care of me like you did Juniper until she was an adult. We support each other, Kai,” taking his hand, I softly kissed his palm and laid it on my cheek, “there’s a difference okay?”

“I know,” he whispered and kissed my forehead softly, “I lost sight of that for a moment. I’ve never been with someone like you. Who doesn’t need me to figure everything out for them. We figure things out totether. I appreciate that about you. I don’t want to be my partners' parent. I just want to support each other.”

“And we will. Always. Now go clean out my bathroom,” smiling, I kissed him again and when he started to leave, I spanked him softly.

“Shiloh!” he laughed and looked at me over his shoulder.

“You have the best ass.”

“Jesus Christ,” shaking his head, he left the bedroom and I went back to gathering what I could.

We finished up after an hour and once everything had been loaded into my car, Kai came with me to the apartment manager's office, his hand laced with mine as he swung our arms.

“Ms. Brandt?” I called softly.

She came from a small room in the back and smiled at me, “hi Shiloh. Did you get your apartment clear?”

“I got what I could save yes. But so much of it is waterlogged it’ll need to be tossed out. I took photos and tallied how much it’ll be roughly.”

“Can you email the photos to me? How much do we owe you for the damage?”

“Based on the receipts I have saved, it comes out to around 3500. I’m not worried about compensation for the clothes, a lot of it was thrifted. I’m pretty upset about my books and vintage bags, but I can’t really give you a cost for all of that, unfortunately. I managed to save a big chunk of my clothes, shoes, and kitchen items. I’m going to toss all of the food. Oh! Wait it’s 3750. The outlet fried my television.”

“We’re giving everyone a solid 4 thousand. Anything above that we need proof for. Now, it’s going to take us around 2 months to properly dry out the apartments, replace carpets, flooring, all of that as well as wait to see if mold forms. We won’t be charging you for anything during that time.”

“Actually,” I looked over at Kai and he nodded, sliding his hand into my back pocket, “can I get an intent to vacate form? I’m going to move in with my boyfriend. The lease was month to month anyway.”

“Oh really? I’m so happy for you, but I will miss you. You were probably the sweetest tenant I’ve had. Never had any issues,” she grabbed the forms I needed and I filled them out before taking my apartment key off of my key ring and handing it to her, “I have one more form for you to sign. Stating that anything we find in the apartment is free to be sold or thrown away. Is that okay?”

“It’s fine. I have no connection to any of it and I grabbed everything important already. If there’s anything you’re unsure of, you have my phone number,” signing the last piece of paper, I handed it to her and smiled, “thank you. For making this easy on me. We had just gotten shocking news when you called and I was overwhelmed.”

Ms. Brandt shook her head and filled out a check, handing it to me, “if I find anything I think you might want back, I will call. Other than that, thank you, for taking care of the apartment. I’ll miss your cookies.”

“We own a cafe called Daily Grind,” Kai smiled, “it’s closed for the next 4 days as my baby sister has surgery, but when we’re open, come on by and get a drink and something from Shi’s bake case. It’s on us okay?”

“Oh,” she laughed softly, “yes thank you. Take care, Shiloh.”

“You as well,” I nodded and took Kai’s hand, leaving the office, “Kai,” I whispered.

“What’s up, baby?”

“My leg is killing me. I think the water got into some of the mechanics and I’m having to really force it to move.”

“Come here,” he turned his back to me and I hauled myself around him, letting him carry me to the car. He placed me in the passenger seat and looked over my prosthetic, before he slowly began to remove it, “it’s entirely waterlogged from mid-shin down. What do we do?”

“Place it somewhere dry and warm. It’ll dry out and then I can test it again. Unfortunately, this means a lot of moving this shit in means you have to do it. I can carry the smaller bags in my lap, but everything else will fall on you.”

“Anything for you, baby, you know that,” he leaned up and kissed me deeply, rubbing my thigh.

“Kai? Does… does my leg being like this bother you?”

“Huh?” he looked at me surprised, “no of course not.”

“R…really?”

“Yes?”

“Okay.”

“Why are you asking?” he wiped a small tear from my cheek.

“Will always said my leg didn’t bother him, but he’d get frustrated when I couldn’t do certain things because I was tired from using my crutches or something. I just… want to make sure that…”

“It doesn’t bother me,” he kissed me softly before whispering against my lips, “I adore you exactly how you came to me. There are certain things I can’t do either with my back. Yeah, it's getting better, but the only reason I can carry you is that you’re so light. You haven’t even seen how massively scarred I am. How bad they are. Because I was scared. But it’s okay. I care for who you are, not what you look like. I can find nothing wrong with you. We all have our flaws, but that doesn’t mean it’s an issue okay?”

“Okay… thank you, baby,” I cupped his chin and kissed him deeply, “I don’t know how I’ve gotten this far without you.”

“By being Shiloh. You’re so strong, babe. You always tell me I can’t see my own worth. Neither can you. You simply think it’s just you caring for us. But it’s beyond that. There aren’t many people like you in this world and I’m so glad I get to be the one who stands at your side. I am so proud of the man I call my boyfriend.”

“R… really?” I smiled.

“Always,” he laughed and kissed my nose, “come on. Let’s go home okay?”

“Okay.”

Kai closed the door and came around to drive my car, a small smile on his face.

“Babe you’re so happy,” I laughed.

“You… you are the first partner I’ve had that’s going to live with me. I know you’re at my house all the time, but I’m nervous that things will change with you being there. But at the same time, I know it’ll be the same. Because we work well together.”

“We definitely do.”

As soon as we reached the house, Kai grabbed my wheelchair and started handing me easy things to carry before we brought it all inside, leaving it on the floor along the wall to the apartment stairs, wanting to make sure there was still a path for me and Juniper until we could get her room cleared out.

“I’ll stay in the apartment until Juniper is healed enough to start moving things,” I smiled, getting onto the couch.

Kai pushed my wheelchair away and climbed on top of me, laying his head on my chest, “alright.”

“You seem upset by that,” I whispered and ran my fingers through his hair.

“I want to sleep next to you,” he tilted his head to look up at me.

“I know. But I haven’t shared a bedroom with anyone in 2 years.”

“You were still with Will though, weren’t you?”

“I had moved into the spare bedroom because I knew he was cheating and I refused to share the bed with someone who would do that to me.”

“Ah… I can understand. Okay. Well… will you at least cuddle with me every night before we go to sleep?”

“Absolutely,” I snorted.

Kai placed his hands on either side of my head, his hips matching mine and leaned down to kiss me, far more aggressively than he had before. I panted quietly, wrapping my hands in his hair and he groaned softly, pressing flush against me before rocking his hips and making me jump.

“Whoa,” I groaned against his lips, “that… that felt good.”

“Yeah?” he bit my lip softly before hooking my leg around his waist, “I’m glad.”

He continued to rock his hips, now kissing my neck and leaving me a panting, moaning mess on the couch, my hands shaking as I pulled his hair.

“No,” he whispered before nipping me gently, “don’t pull my hair. It hurts me.”

“S… sorry,” releasing his hair, I gripped his shoulders tilting my head back, “Kai…”

“Yeah?” he laughed, “you feel so good against me… so warm.”

Kai slipped his hand under my shirt, gripping my side tightly, his nails digging into my skin and I whimpered, the pleasure of his lips as well as the stinging from his nails sent a shock down my spine and I closed my eyes, doing my best to calm my breathing.

“Shiloh… fuck…” Kai groaned before kissing my shoulder and freezing, “fuck…”

“Did you?” I panted softly.

“Mhm…”

“I… I haven’t yet…”

“I know,” he slowly climbed off of me and rolled me on my side before tucking himself behind me and wrapping his arm around my waist, “can I touch you?”

“Y… yes…”

“Are you sure? I don’t want you to panic again.”

“It’s okay,” I looked at him over my shoulder, “go ahead.”

He slipped his hand into my shorts and wrapped around me, rubbing quickly as he rocked me against him, his free arm sliding under my neck and I laced our fingers together, squeezing tightly.

“K… Kai…”

“Ah. I see,” he whispered softly in my ear, “you can’t get off without actually feeling me. I’ll keep it in mind.”

He continued on, teasing me from time to time by stopping and I would whimper, squeezing his hand. He suddenly pulled his hand out and I watched him wet his palm with his tongue before he took me back in his hand. I cried out quietly, the difference shocking me and I could feel my stomach tighten before I spilled over, my chest heaving.

“There we go,” Kai whispered, “you did fantastic.”

“God… that felt so good,” I panted, my eyes squeezed tight.

“I want to get you used to my touch without pushing you too far. I should have warned you when we first decided to be together. I have an insane drive. A few times a day. But I won’t put you through that. It helps to have someone else to touch. I don’t feel so alone.”

“I apparently do too. I didn’t think I did. Poor Juni and Connor. They’re gonna have to deal with us.”

“You don’t need to worry,” he kissed my neck softly, “the apartment is soundproof. We won’t hear them. They won’t hear us.”

“Thank God,” I laughed, “we should clean-”

My phone started to ring and Kai grabbed it from the table, handing it to me.

“Oh. It’s Isaac…” I whispered.

“Here,” he took my phone and answered on speaker, “Shiloh’s phone. This is Kai.”

“Kai? Hi, my name is Isaac. I… I need to talk to Shiloh… it’s important.”

“I can pass a message on.”

“It’s not something I feel comfortable sharing with his friend. I’m sorry.”

“I’m his boyfriend. But…” Kai looked at me and I nodded, taking the phone and gesturing for him to be quiet.

“Isaac?” I sighed.

“Shi... oh Shiloh,” he started to cry and I sat up quickly, “Shiloh… Will he… he hit me and I… I’m at the police station and I don’t want to call Ma and Pa and my nose and arm are broken and I don’t know what to do. I know you hate me, I… I’m so sorry for what I did but I need my brother and I don’t know what to do right now… help me…”

“What do you mean he hit you?” I looked at Kai, my eyes welling with tears and he wrapped me in a tight hug, both of us waiting for Isaac to continue.