It had been a week since Kiara shut down after our talk about our relationship and intimacy. We cuddled that day and we watched a movie and ate popcorn together. But Kiara never seemed to get out of her head. She was constantly somewhere else in her head.

I found myself in the kitchen trying to help Kiara bake a cake. She wasn't very talkative at the moment. In fact, I'd asked her what to do next about ten times and she was still mindlessly stirring the chocolate cake batter.

"Kiara, I bought you a bunny." I said to her, watching her remain perfectly unbothered because she clearly hadn't heard a word I said.

I walked over to her and I wrapped my arms around her from behind. I planted kisses on her cheek from behind and tried to think why she was so distant lately.

"Come back to me, Kiwi." I said softly.

"B-but I'm right here." She said.

"Yeah. Except I'm talking to you and you aren't responding." I said to her.

"Oh, sorry." She said, looking embarrassed about it.

"What's going on? You don't talk to me much anymore." I said to her, trying to hide how much that hurt.

"That's not true, Vivi, I talk to you." She said, turning and wrapping her arms around my neck.

"You talk to me. But not like usual. You're always so lost in thought." I told her.

She sighed and looked down as she thought about it.

"I just have a lot going on inside my head." She told me.

"Do you want to share it?" I asked her.

"Uhm.... no." She said softly, trying not to hurt my feelings.

"Why not?" I asked her.

"Because.... it's not something that's ready to be shared. I just need time to get through some stuff." She told me.

"Is this about what I said about our relationship?" I asked her.

"I just.... I don't know anything about relationships. I guess I realize now that you're right. We aren't ready for that." She said to me.

I nodded, pushing her hair behind her shoulders.

"I want to be happy. I want to forget my worries, but it's hard, Vivi. I just feel down and I don't necessarily have a reason." She told me.

"I know how you feel. That happens to me too sometimes." I told her.

"Really?" She asked me.

"Yup." I told her.

"What do you do to make it better?" She asked me.

"I go on a walk or a hike. It's good to just get some fresh air sometimes. We haven't been anywhere outdoors in a while. What do you say we do that today after we finish this cake?" I asked her.

"Really? We can go on a walk?" She asked me.

"Of course we can." I smiled.

So after the cake was baked and out of the oven. Kiara put on a pair of leggings and threw on one of my sweaters and we were off. We walked around the neighbourhood until we reached a cute little trail and we took that trail all the way down to a little pond.

"Vivi!" Kiara squealed when she saw the pond. She definitely felt better.

"Yes, Kiwi?" I asked with a chuckle.

"Look how cute!" She giggled bouncing up and down.

There were tiny blue flowers all along the sides of the pond and the trees were tall and very green. The sun was shining through them and it was just so beautiful. I sat down on a nice flat rock and Kiara walked along the pond, looking at the cute blue flowers.

She walked over to me after a little while and she pushed me back so she could sit between my legs, then she grabbed my hands and made them wrap around her. She was getting used to just getting whatever she wanted for me. My spoiled little Kiwi.

"Can we come here a lot?" She asked me.

"Yes, whenever you feel like you just need a breather, we'll come here." I said to her.

"And you. Whenever you just want some fresh air we can come." She smiled.

"Agreed." I smiled, kissing her head.

"I like it here. It's peaceful." She said to me.

"It is." I smiled, kissing her repeatedly on her forehead, cheeks and the top of her head. She started giggling and claiming that the speed of my kisses was tickling her.

I pulled her into me and squeezed her a little. She made me so happy. She was the single best thing that had ever happened to me in my life.

"Vivi. My hair is getting really long.... I was wondering if... if you'd give me permission to cut it." She said softly.

"You don't need my permission to cut your hair, Kiara. You can do whatever you want. It's your hair, not mine." I told her, kissing her cheek.

"But you have to look at it." She shrugged.

"Kiwi. Remember what I said about you being beautiful no matter what changed about you? You're always going to be beautiful, do whatever you want to your hair." I said to her, kissing her forehead.

I just couldn't keep my lips off her.

"I want to cut it, but not a lot." She said.

"Alright. We'll get it cut. Any chance you know how to cut hair?" I asked her.

"No." She said, shaking her head.

"Well, neither do I..... but my momma cuts everyone's hair in the family. Is it alright if I call her over for it later?" I asked Kiara.

"Mhm." She nodded, not seeming bothered by outsider intrusion anymore.

She was much more accepting of the fact that we were going to see people when we went out and people were going to visit and come see us. She was fine with it now. She liked Aunt Sophie enough to cuddle with her, hopefully now she could find that same connection with my mother.

"Fifi never came back so we could bake a cake... can she come later?" Kiara asked me.

"Yeah, I'll call her and see when she can come." I said, kissing my girl on her head.

"I want a bunny." Kiara randomly said.

"And we talked about that already." I said.

"I know. I just felt like you should be reminded." She said, smiling up at me.

I grabbed her and tickled her before she could escape. She was really becoming spoiled, but I liked that. She deserved it.

Once she began getting tired, I took her back home and watched her in the kitchen cleaning things up in there. Kiara was a neat freak, which was really unexpected actually. If anything was out of place she just had to fix it.

But as I watched her prance around the kitchen, I decided some music might be nice, so I turned some on and I watched as Kiara's hips began to sway.

Did the woman have to be so perfect? I just wanted to grab her and kiss the life out of her. She was definitely doing a good job at teasing me.

It didn't take long before she was breaking into a full on dance. She was adorable. Somehow she lost the leggings when we got back to the house, leaving her in nothing but my sweater. I didn't necessarily approve of her legs being on display for me, since I was struggling with my self control lately.

"Kiara, come here." I said, getting up.

I took her hand and spun her around, bringing her to my chest and dancing with her in hopes it would calm me down. It did quite the opposite though. I felt more of an urge to connect our lips and it wasn't good at all.

How did people do this? Live with someone they love without constantly making out with them. Maybe it was just me being way too hyped up for some reason.

"Vivi. Do you think I'll ever be comfortable enough with your family that you won't have to be around?" She asked me.

"Are you trying to get rid of me?" I teased.

"Maybe." She giggled. "No. I just think it would be nice to hang out with Arabella sometimes... and to get to know everyone. I know they're all super sweet and I like Remi. I just wish we could hang out more, but I get scared so easily." She explained.

"We can have visits, one person at a time, how does that sound? I'll just invite one person at a time over here and I know you'll slowly get used to them all and you'll love them." He said.

"I want Dad to come first." She said.

"Alright. Dad it is." I smiled, loving how she called him her dad before even being completely comfortable with him.

"Can he come now? He can taste the cake." She said to me.

"I'm sure he'd love to. Should I call him?" I asked her.

"Yes please." She smiled.

I smiled and pulled my phone out, calling my dad and telling him to come over. He immediately accepted, eager to see Kiara after quite a while of not seeing her. She was already his daughter and he wanted to see her on a daily basis.

It took him five minutes to arrive and he was super excited, but so was Kiara. She was trying to make everything perfect. First she had to cut perfect slices of cake for us and then she had to make tea and she made me taste it fifty times to tell her if my dad would like it. And then she went and changed into something of her own, and she even tied her hair up, which did things to me that I didn't expect.

She had never tied her hair up in my presence and now her neck was on display for me and my desires were getting harder to control. My dad arrived quickly though which killed my desires before I could act on them and Kiara hid behind me when I opened the door.

"Hey. Where's my little bunny?" He asked, coming into the apartment ready to see Kiara.

She peaked out from behind my arm and he caught a glimpse of her.

"There she is." He smiled.

"She made us some cake and tea." I said.

"Oh wow. That's great! Did she bake the cake?" He asked.

"Yeah." I smiled.

"And Vivi helped." She said ever so softly from behind me.

"Oh... he's not the best baker though, should I be concerned about this cake?" My dad asked.

"No. I made sure he didn't do anything stupid." She giggled.

"That's a relief." He said and she slipped out from behind me and she inches closer to him, giving him a very short hug and then taking my hand and tugging me to the couches.

My father followed, clearly very amused by her timid behaviour and he sat down in the other side of me. Kiara ran to the kitchen and she came back with the cake and the tea. She then took a seat beside my dad, but she was visibly shaking.

She really wanted to be comfortable around him. She was pushing herself to get comfortable with him. My dad could tell that she really wanted to break the barrier between them, but that she didn't know how. So he just started talking.

"I heard that Sophie and Rico came over." He said.

"Yeah. And Fifi promised she would bake a cake with me." Kiara said very quietly.

"Hm... are you teaching her? Because this cake is delicious!" He said.

"Really?" She asked my father, looking overjoyed that someone liked her cake.

"Yes really. Is there a chance I could get another slice?" He asked her, handing her the plate.

She giggled and nodded, rushing to the kitchen to get some more cake for him. My father looked so happy about the smile on her face. He turned to me and he smiled.

"She's doing great." He said to me.

I nodded my head with a smile.

"I'm proud of you, Vidal." He said to me, smiling at me.

It suddenly occurred to me that I was partially responsible for how good she was doing. Without me, she may not have had that pretty smile on her face. I usually spent my time worrying about her and thinking about my failures. But my girl was happy, she was smiling and she was much more comfortable seeing other people, and that meant that I'd succeeded. I wasn't a horrible caregiver after all.