1994~Kai Parker

In A Jam

   Another two days passed by painfully, with hardly a couple of words being exchanged between us. I still didn't know what to do about Kai, and I tried to refocus my energy on healing. I was back to walking around without too much discomfort, which cut down the Kai-interactions even more when he no longer had to care for me. Today had already moved into the dusky hours of evening, and I had only seen Kai once this morning when he had meandered into the kitchen, grabbed a Zima and gone back up to his room. Deciding to make myself a bowl of cereal, I got up and walked into the kitchen to see Kai leaning against the counter, hair slightly damp from what I was presuming was a shower, absentmindedly digging into a giant jar of strawberry jam with his fingers and eating it. He broke his zoned-out stare to look up at me, and I just shook my head at what was a purely Kai moment.

   "You know that's super gross, right?" I jabbed lightheartedly.

   "Uh huh." he replied, continuing to shovel jam into his mouth.

   It was at that moment, as I stared at him being so, well, himself, that I knew that any logic or circumstantial reasoning was futile when my heart had already declared the bottom line-I liked Kai. I hadn't been expecting to reach this conclusion, especially now, but it had come nonetheless. I slowly made my way over to him until I was right in front of him. He looked down at me and licked all of the jam off of his fingers before he screwed the lid back on the jar and set it down on the counter.

   "What is it, Sloane?" he asked, a hint of annoyance creeping into his voice.

I just kept standing there, staring at him, not knowing if I could build up the courage to do what I had been longing to do. Noting the expression on my face, he tilted his head a little at me.

   "Kai...you were right. I...I like you."

The words hung in the air between us as he just looked back down at me with widened eyes. Without a word, he abruptly picked up the jam jar and moved to put it back in the fridge. My heart sank at his odd reaction, and I prepared myself to walk out of the kitchen and pretend that nothing had been said at all. It was all probably some big game to get you to say something stupid like that. I cast my eyes down to the floor before I glanced back up to see that he was stepping towards me quickly, and before I could ask what he was doing, he rushed over to me, softly held the sides of my waist and kissed me. Before I knew it I was kissing him back, running my hands through his hair as his came up to hold the back of my head. I reveled in the closeness, in feeling his body heat against mine, in his gentle but firm grip. I drew back for a second and shot him a playful look before I motus'd him into the wall, strode over to him and kissed him with the entirety of the passion that I had been trying to bury for months now. The thrill of it all consumed me as I felt him return my kiss with an aching hunger that sent soft chills all over my body.

   He pulled back after a moment, gripped my wrist and said, "Mind if I borrow some?"

   "Go ahead."

When I was expecting it, him siphoning me wasn't as painful, and a devious grin spread across his face as he let go.

   He held his hand out and muttered, "Motus!"

I flew backwards into the opposite wall, slamming into it a little as he came up to me, lifted me up and held me against it. Pausing to stare at my face for a moment, he slowly brought his lips to my neck, and I let out a small sigh as he began kissing up until he met my mouth once again. My pulse was racing, and I was sure that he could feel the frantic pace of my heartbeat with his chest pressed up against mine. Lost in the moment, my mind was a blur, occupied by the repeating thought ohmygoshohmygoshohmygosh and little else. Lifting me away from the wall, he carried me over to the couch as we crashed onto it, and he straddled me, pulling back for a moment.

   "Are we doing this?" he asked, slightly out of breath.

   "Oh hell yeah," I replied before we got completely lost with one another.

  I stretched my arms put above my head, confused at first before I remembered the events of last night. I was in the room where Kai had been staying, and I sat up in the bed, smiling from ear to ear as it all came flooding back to me. Swinging my legs over the bed, I noticed that Kai had left one of his tees out on it for me, a soft, plain black one that I slipped over my head before I wandered downstairs. The smell of pancakes drew me into the kitchen, where I found Kai flipping chocolate chip pancakes in a pan.

   "Oh, you're up. Good morning." he greeted as he pulled me in by the waist for a small kiss.

I was pleased by the continued show of affection, and any doubts about what would happen post-last night were banished from my mind. 

   He glanced down at me in his clothes and said, "You look pretty sexy in that t-shirt. I mean, not sexier than me but still pretty sexy."

I playfully hit his arm as I made myself a plate of pancakes and sat down at the island, grabbing the syrup and watching as my semi-generous pour cascaded over the steaming stack. It all felt so normal, even though the entire situation was about as far removed from normal as one could get. Why on Earth did I wait this long to tell him? This is...amazing. We had obliterated the line, smashed it to pieces, and I couldn't be happier. Lost in thought, it took me a second before I noticed that Kai had made his plate and leaned over the counter to try and reach the syrup.

   "Motus." I said softly as I slid the bottle across the counter to rest by his plate.

   "Why thank you." he said before he picked it up and began to drown his pancakes in giant pools of the sweet substance.

   "How can you eat it with that much syrup on it?" I asked before I shoveled another huge bite of pancake into my mouth.

   "It's absolutely delicious this way, and I'm not going to take criticism from someone who puts mountains of butter on their toast."

   "I put an average amount."

   "Yeah, the average amount for like, a village of people."

   "Mhm, ok." I relented, smiling as he smiled back.

Sitting here in the kitchen, eating pancakes so divine they made my heart sing, sitting across from Kai while he was smiling at me like that, I was starting to think that eternity in the Prison World might not turn out to be so bad after all.