Epilogue
Three Years Later
After sleeping in later than expected, Kaiden woke up and went to wake Rus before he realized it was his day off. Somehow, Kaiden had gotten used to the chaos of their schedules. His, Rus’, Dylan’s, and making sure they all overlapped at some point or another.
Kaiden checked his phone to find a slew of messages from Cassie and Andy.
After reading through them all, he huffed.
Part of him was relieved to find Rus’ siblings so welcoming, while another part of him found it incredibly overwhelming to keep up with all the family expectations.
He and Dylan had found themselves roped into a welcoming family since their first visit.
Cassandra and Andromeda—both of whom didn’t seem to have a problem with their full names, unlike Rus—tended to arrange the family get-togethers the most, second only to their mother.
“Okay, your sisters are concerned that Dylan and I won’t be able to convince you to come home for your surprise birthday party without giving away the secret,” Kaiden said, standing beside Rus’ side of the bed.
Kaiden wasn’t ruining the surprise. Rus had forewarned that his sisters loved to plan surprise birthdays for everyone, not for the person being celebrated, but mainly as a testament to their party planning skills.
“What should I say?”
“Tell ‘em to get fucked,” Rus grumbled into his pillow.
Kaiden rolled his eyes. “Suppose I can figure something out later.”
While Kaiden found the idea of a surprise party sweet, he understood Rus’ disdain for such things. After all, he was born on a day with constant practical jokes and unwanted surprises. So, planning an April 1st surprise birthday clearly never sat well with Rus.
Kaiden sluggishly made his way to the kitchen, enjoying the lazy morning, and went to make breakfast. He was still the only one in the house who cooked, which he quite preferred.
Once he finished cooking, he fished out his phone again and texted Dylan.
Kaiden dropped a photo of his breakfast that he admittedly spent far too much time making look pretty.
True. Kaiden knew more than anything that Dylan had gone to great lengths to balance his much busier schedule. All the same, Kaiden liked sending little reminders, little check-ins. If anything, it gave him a reason to talk. Plus, it made Kaiden feel helpful, even in the tiniest of ways.
Dylan’s work continued playing a bigger role in his life, the more Jasmine stepped back.
Technically, she still ran Dorothy’s Home, but had gotten around to traveling more, helping others start up their own queer homes, whether it was for teens, homeless trans adults, disabled queer people, or just those in the community generally struggling to get by.
With Jasmine away to help these projects get up and running, that left Dylan to lead the helm and keep Dorothy’s Home afloat.
Which he did quite well. It seemed Dylan had learned everything over the last three years, and what he hadn’t learned, his enrollment in community college helped to fill in the gaps.
It didn’t surprise Kaiden that Dylan suggested Sakura, considering it was downtown and right around the corner from his job, and Dylan knew how much Kaiden hated abandoning decent parking downtown. Now, he could walk to meet them for lunch without losing his space.
Kaiden walked over to his bedroom and shook Rus before turning to step over to the closet.
“Breakfast is ready,” he said with a cheery lilt, then went to change.
Rus yawned and stretched until he shook away the sleep, groggily eyeing Kaiden as he changed out of his pajamas.
It’d taken a while, even after showing Dylan and Rus what he looked like without his corset vests or compression tanks, but he’d finally gotten comfortable enough to be himself entirely around them both.
Kaiden stripped down, taking his time as he rifled through the closet, deciding which corset vest he’d wear. Eventually, he settled on crimson red since it went with his nails, then he went over to his vanity to ensure his makeup matched his outfit.
“Looking cute.” Rus rolled out of bed and gave Kaiden a sloppy kiss on the cheek, intentionally smudging his makeup.
“Ass.” Kaiden glared, biting back a smirk.
“I am what I love.” Rus swaggered out of the bedroom and went to grab his breakfast. “Thank you, sweetie.”
“Uh-huh.” Kaiden fixed his face and went back to work.
Shortly after graduating, Rus had moved into the trailer, which made life easier for everyone.
They didn’t have to debate about whose place to go to.
Sure, they dropped by Dorothy’s Home from time to time to help organize donations, assist with a teen moving out, or just generally dropping by for dinner.
But when Dylan wasn’t running things at the home, he knew where to go for a little escape.
Plus, with the cost of Rus’ master’s program, even his shitty apartment seemed overly expensive, and his internships with local campaigns didn’t pay. But Rus didn’t really work on those for the salary, merely the chance to make the world a bit brighter without having to punch a bigot.
“We’re meeting at Sakura for sushi during lunch,” Kaiden said as he waltzed by Rus, who ate at the kitchen counter.
Though Kaiden never understood the purpose of dining rooms, he did settle on some barstools to make a tiny kitchenette or whatever for Rus’ convenience.
“Sounds good.”
Kaiden kissed Rus goodbye, the most casual and natural thing in the world, then left for work. Life with Dylan and Rus had changed Kaiden’s outlook a thousand different ways, altered his routine in every which way, but had also turned into a simple normality of everyday life.
The drive downtown was quick, and he breezed by Slayer’s Brush, eyeing the art gallery as he drove a few blocks away before arriving at his new job.
Wicked Ink tattoo shop was pretty empty this early.
Kaiden had fallen in love with this new chapter of his life, learning anything and everything he could about tattooing, even if that mostly involved grunt work right now.
While he never considered himself a very smart person, having barely passed any of his classes in high school, it turned out Kaiden was a quick study for all things tattoo-related.
The intrigue initially came when he joined Rus for one of his new tattoos from the popular artist Anna Rojas. With a bit of luck, some surprising passion, and a whole lot of persistence, Kaiden somehow landed an apprenticeship at the Wicked Ink tattoo shop.
What started as an apprenticeship had quickly evolved into helping around in every which way. It turned out he worked under one of the best artists in the state, but his new boss sort of lacked the basic skills of keeping her business books organized.
Thanks to the years Kaiden spent working under Alison at Slayer’s Brush, he knew how to manage accounting, scheduling, inventory, and everything in between with a breeze. He never intended to walk away from the gallery, but Alison sort of made it impossible to stay.
When she found out about how much time he planned to dedicate to his new apprenticeship, she fired him.
Not maliciously. It was her parting gift, or so she claimed when offering him a hefty severance and wishing him well on the next step in his artistic journey.
Kaiden actually had to look up what a severance was, never realizing there were actual jobs that paid people after canning them.
It kept him afloat during his transition to working more at the tattoo shop, and Kaiden remained grateful to everything Alison had done for him over the years.
The door alert chimed as someone stepped inside.
“Wow, your shop really is out in the middle of nowhere,” said a muscular guy in a ridiculous hoodie that said CLIT.
Kaiden rolled his eyes, assuming this obnoxious dude bro was their next appointment.
“Can I help you?”
“Oh, yeah.” He gave Kaiden a friendly smile. “I’m here to see Anna. We have a consult thingy. The tattoo planning stuff.”
His expression was goofy, but his eyes were a piercing green. Much brighter than Kaiden’s darker emerald. They caught his attention almost immediately since Kaiden rarely met someone else with green eyes.
Kaiden quickly reviewed the schedule, seeing the name Colton Lennox in the system.
“Colton, right?”
“Yep,” he answered with an excited shiver.
“First tattoo?”
“Oh no. The tattoo’s not for me. I don’t really do tattoos. I mean, there’s this one”—Colton adjusted his hood, revealing the word IMP scrawled in pink ink across his neck—“but that’s my boyfriend’s doing.”
Boyfriend? Okay, maybe there was more to the weirdo hoodie than Kaiden realized. As Colton rambled, Kaiden glimpsed the smaller text underneath the CLIT title. It read Clinton Lloyd Institute of Technology. What an absurd name for a college.
“He’s obsessed with tattoos,” Colton continued.
“Hell, he got a tramp stamp because of a bet. But that’s a whole other story.
Actually, I don’t really know the full story now that I think about it.
The point is, he loves ‘em. Probably more than me. Just kidding. Who could love anything more than me?”
Colton shot a minxy grin that reminded Kaiden of Dylan’s sass.
“But he really likes them. Hence the surprise,” Colton said. “We’re doing this whole road trip vacation thing—totally my idea, because if I left it up to Isaac, he’d hide in our place all day—but also it helped me set up the whole tattoo surprise.”
“I see.” Kaiden nodded politely.
It wasn’t uncommon for people to travel from other cities or even across state lines to work with Anna. She attended a lot of conventions and was pretty popular on social media. Chances were this Isaac guy had seen her style and mentioned it to his boyfriend, who ran with it as a surprise gift.
“You’re not worried he’d want to be at the consult?”
“Psht.” Colton waved a dismissive hand. “Please, Isaac gets tattoos on a whim. Trust me, he’s going to love it.”
With that, Colton made his way to the back of the studio to join Anna for the consultation. Kaiden continued working out front, reviewing files, and checking the schedule for the next appointment he’d observe.
After four months of working under Anna, he hadn’t been able to observe many tattoos. Mostly, he worked on keeping things clean and organized, along with some extra stuff he’d started to pick up the slack out of habit.
Kaiden went back to work and then let Anna know he was heading out for an hour. The cool air sent a chill through him, but he still decided to walk over to Sakura, enjoying the leisurely stroll downtown. When he arrived, he found Rus standing outside with a cigarette.
“How’s work?”
“Pretty good. Got this guy getting a consult for his boyfriend’s tattoo.”
“Oh?”
“Yep. Meaning his boyfriend is very trusting, or the guy gifting the tattoo is very controlling,” Kaiden explained, though from his brief encounter with Colton, the guy didn’t seem demanding in any way.
Just a chill, go with the flow kind of person.
Something Kaiden admittedly strived to accomplish for himself.
“I vote trusting,” Dylan called out from behind them, making his way from the alley.
He rested his hands on the small of Kaiden and Rus’ back, leading them each into the restaurant.
“So, are you going to be giving this mysterious and trusting boyfriend the new tattoo?” Dylan asked.
“Not a chance,” Kaiden said with a laugh. “Anna barely lets me sit in to observe her work. If I’m lucky, she might let me work on some design ideas in a month or seven thousand.”
The apprenticeship seemed like it’d last an eternity, but Kaiden didn’t mind. For the first time in his life, he found a job that didn’t feel like work. A career he could be happy in with a family he chose to support and be supported by.
Life was good. Simple and happy. Kaiden couldn’t ask for much more than that with the two men who meant more than the world to him.
THE END