Katia

My mother invited us inside after she stopped crying, after we both stopped crying. Kandace just stood there watching us. I'm not sure how she remains so composed at all times. I wish I had gotten just a little of that DNA.

We're sitting at the dining room table now. She has left Kandace and I alone so she could put on some water for the tea she offered us. Now that most of the adrenaline has worn off maybe I hurt myself more than I realized.

The little boy runs in and stares at us. His eyes are green with bits of grey shining through. He smiles and offers Kandace the airplane in his hands. Kandace gently takes it from him.

"I made that." His little voice declares proudly.

"You did?" Kandace smiles inspecting the plane.

I've never really liked kids but he's cute.

"Me and my dad. My dad has a bunch of planes and pirate ships in little bottles!" He tells us.

"What's your name?" I ask.

"Kristopher." He pronounces it Kwistafa though and it's adorable. "I'm four."

"Is that with a C or a K?" I ask.

He shrugs.

"A K." My mom says carefully carrying three cups of tea to the table. "I have a thing for K names."

"Are you mommy's friends?" He asks.

Kandace and I look at each other. Unsure of what we should say.

"They're your sisters, Kristopher." Our mom says sitting down across from us. She says it so nonchalantly as though we're talking about the weather.

Kristopher stares at us. We can see the tiny wheels turning in his head.

Two guys walk into the room.

"There you go!" The slender guy from outside says picking Kristopher up.

"He's the sneakiest little thing." The other guy says. He's a little shorter than man one but more muscular. "You are supposed to be in bed, sir!"

Kristopher laughs and squeals.

"Katia, Kandace this is Marc and Lucas, my partners."

I blink. "Partners? Like you're dating both of them?" I ask.

They all chuckle.

"Yes." She says before sipping her tea.

"Nice to meet you two. I'm Lucas." He says.

"Marc and definitely. You're both very beautiful." Marc adds.

"Thanks." I say.

"Thank you." Kandace say with a little more vigor than me.

"We're going to go tuck this guy in." Marc says.

They disappear around the corner with Kristopher thrown over Marc's shoulder. He smiles and waves at Kandace and I as they take him back to bed.

"I'm sure you have a lot of questions." She says.

My leg is bouncing like Kandace's was before we met dad at the diner that time. At first I felt relieved that we found her. Now I'm anxious. I actually feel upset, almost angry. I can feel it bubbling. Here I am depressed and nearly killing myself thinking my mom didn't want me or maybe she just didn't want a family. Now I see she has exactly that. How am I supposed to feel? She left and started over without so much as a phone call. Not even a letter. A birthday card. Nothing.

Kandace and I sit here quietly. I guess neither of us can find the words. Though I did have so many questions prepared, they don't quite fit in the space between us now.

"I can't believe I'm looking at the two of you." She says. "You both grew up to be so beautiful." Her eyes linger on Kandace.

Kandace notices. "What?" She asks flipping her hair from her shoulder.

Our mother smiles, the lines around her mouth crinkle like a soft blanket. "I'm just glad to see you being the person you've always been."

"Oh." Kandace smiles weakly. "Well.. thank you."

"So you just left our family to make another one?" I ask. The words escape my mouth like felons on the run. I was thinking it but I didn't mean to say it.

"Ok." She says before clearing her throat. "Straight to the point then. You get that from your father." Her tone is icy when she refers to him. I don't like it. She goes on to tell us about her relationship with our dad. How they met and how they changed over the years and even more so after they had us. Their parenting styles clashed and caused a further rift between them. The final straw was when she tried to take Kandace away from my father.

"So.. when you took Kandace, why didn't you take me? Why didn't you say something to me?" I ask.

"What was I supposed to say?" She asks.

"Something." I say. "My whole life I felt like you just didn't want me or..or I wasn't good enough. You just left with one twin. What was I supposed to think?" My voice is getting louder than I meant it to. Kandace places a hand on my back.

My mom looks down at her cup and stirs her tea. "You're right and I'm sorry. At the time it just seemed like the right thing to do. I knew you would be okay with your dad."

"You didn't know anything." I mutter.

"Kat." Kandace says gently.

"It seems like you turned out okay." My mom says.

I blink and I start to laugh. "I what?! I am the furthest thing from okay. I don't even want to begin to tell you the types of issues I have." I stand up and look at Kandace. "I want to go."

Kandace's eyes widen. "Huh? Are you sure?"

"Yes." I say.

"Wait," my mom says, "there's more I have to tell you."

"I don't care." I hiss. "All this time you could have found me, found us, reached out. You didn't! You just made a different family! Did you ever really care about us?" I ask. Tears begin to flood her eyes but I don't care. I look at Kandace. "I'm going to the car." I storm out of the house and take in the outside air as if I've been holding my breath for the last ten minutes. Maybe I have been. This whole thing was a mistake. I can't believe I was foolish enough to think someone who never tried to find me wanted to be found. I should have listened to my dad. He's the one that has always stuck around.

____________________________________

Christine

I am outside tending to my garden while I wait for Katia to get here. I hope her and Kandace had a good time visiting their family. I can't wait until she comes back. I miss her so much even though it's only been two days. The summer has spoiled me. Katia has basically lived here since school ended. Though I am not complaining in the slightest. I love having her around and seeing her every day. I love waking up to her every morning and going to sleep beside her every night. It's a dream come true. Especially considering the work it took us to get to this point. It was grueling on both sides. Getting past my insecurities with Elaine was difficult but the more I interacted with her the easier it became. Plus Katia was very reassuring and she never made me feel like I had to compete with her. Which probably helped the most.

I ended up buying Katia a new day collar since I defiled the last one with my little act of infidelity. I like this one better. It actually locks and I'm the only one that can take it off. It's silver and fits around her neck like a choker. Admittedly, I was a bit nervous to ask her to become collared again but she said yes. So now she never takes it off. Since she is here so frequently, even when I'm not at times, we've decided that Katia doesn't need to kneel at the door when she gets here unless otherwise specified by me.

I spoke to Beverly once before the school year ended. Well she spoke to me, which I told Katia about as soon as it was over. Beverly came into the studio to ask me about the peer support group she's starting next semester. I politely declined and she hasn't said another word to me. We're cordial when we have to share the same space but that's it. I'm not doing anything to jeopardize my relationship with Katia. I'm not sure she'll ever be okay with me being friends with Beverly.

"I knew I'd find you out here." Katia says from behind me. Her voice actually startles me. I smile and stand to greet her.

"Hi baby." I say as I take my gloves off.

"Hi Mistress." She kisses me and I wrap my arms around her. She flinches.

"What was that?" I ask.

"Nothing." She says quickly. She kisses me again. Longer this time. She bites my lip. "I missed you so much."

"I missed you too."

"How much?" She kisses my neck, teasingly sucking as she does.

"Mm so much."

She takes me by the hand and pulls me into the house to her bedroom. We continue to kiss and undress each other. Well she's undressing me. She takes her pants off but not her tank top.

"I should wash my hands." I say thinking about the dirt and outside germs that could be on my hands.

She pushes me on the bed before getting on her knees. "You won't need them." A wicked smirk slides across her face before she opens my legs and helps herself to my pussy. Her mouth against me feels fucking heavenly. Her tongue working quickly and efficiently against my clit brings me to my orgasm rapidly. I moan as I lose myself in the feeling. She climbs onto the bed and straddles me. She licks her lips slowly.

"Record time. I guess you really did miss me." She says.

I bite my lip. "Whatever."

She smirks.

I roll us over and begin to take her shirt off but she stops me.

"What are you doing?" She asks.

"Returning the favor."

"No." She says forcefully pulling her shirt back down.

I furrow my brow and get off of her. "Katia?"

She lowers her eyes. "Yes?"

"Did I do something wrong?" I ask.

"No." She says quietly.

"Well something's wrong. What is it?" I ask lifting her shirt. A very fresh bruise darkens her side. She winces as I gently touch it. "What... happened?" I ask trying to remain calm.

"You're already mad." She whines.

"I'm not mad." I lie through a clenched jaw. "Just tell me what happened. Did someone do this to you??" I ask.

"I did it to myself." She says.

"What?" I ask confused.

Katia sits up and folds her legs into each other. She takes a deep breath. "I... found my... mom."

"What? Did she do this?"

"No. I fell." She says.

"Why didn't you tell me that's what you were doing?" I ask.

"I'm sorry. I didn't want you to tell me not to go or worry about me the entire time."

I frown. "We'll talk about that later. What happened?"

She sighs and tell me the story starting from Kandace inviting herself. However, in the end it was lucky she was there. Katia describes how she fell over the fence and got the bruise on her side. She talks about her little brother, Kristopher, and how sweet he was. She laughs at the way he says his own name. She tells me the way Kandace's eyes lit up when Kristopher offered his airplane to her. Apparently her mother is polyamorous and has two lovers, Marc and Lucas. All of this and she doesn't say much about her mother at all.

"Well did you get any answers?" I ask.

Katia sort of wraps her arms around herself and rests her head on her own shoulder. "Just that I should have never gone. She's happy with her new family and she never really cared for me."

"She said that?" I ask horrified.

"She didn't have to."

I hesitate but I think I should dig a little deeper. Part of me believes Katia may be jumping to conclusions. "What did she actually say?"

"I don't want to talk about it." Katia says.

"Maybe you should. It might help you feel better."

"Well.. I'll talk to Evelyn then." She snaps.

"O....k."

It's quiet before she breaks the silence. "I'm sorry."

"You can talk to me too, you know."

"I know. I just.. I'm so disappointed and embarrassed. I went through all of that just to confirm that she never wanted me." Katia looks angry which is a far cry from her usual tears.

"Babe?" I say gently.

"Yes?" She asks.

"You may not want to hear this but maybe you should let her explain herself." I say.

Katia stares at me blankly. I wish I could read her mind during times like these.

"I'm not doing that." She shrugs. "I don't see the point. Nothing she can say can change what I saw or what I've experienced all these years. She's fine not being in my life so I have to be fine with it too I guess."

"Maybe..." my voice trails off when she looks at me. Her grey eyes are dark like heavy rain clouds pleading with me to let it go. "Maybe you're right." I say.

She gives me a weak smile.

I lift her shirt again to get a good look at the bruise. "Are you sure you didn't break anything. It looks pretty bad." I say.

"I'm fine, Mistress. It's no worse than anything you've done to me."

Her comment catches me off guard.

She laughs. "I'll be fine."

I bite the inside of my lip. Part of me wants to send her off to the hospital just to make sure but the other part of me knows that's a bit dramatic. After all I have left similar bruises along her backside. "Okay but I'm not touching you until you heal." I say.

She raises an eyebrow. "Excuse me?" She says.

"You heard me."

"Well..." she crawls on top of me, "that doesn't mean I can't touch you."

I grab her hand. "That's exactly what that means."

She groans. "Why am I being punished?"

I chuckle. "This isn't a punishment."

"Are you sure because it feels like a punishment."

"Yes I'm sure."

Katia playfully and dramatically rolls her eyes and sighs. She falls to the bed.

The doorbell sounds. We look at each other.

"Were you expecting someone?" Katia asks.

"No. Stay here." I say standing and grabbing my robe. I look through the peephole and roll my eyes. For fucks sake. I begrudgingly open the door to see Beverly standing there.

"I know. I know." She says.

"What Beverly?"

"My car broke down and my phone is dead. Help me?"

I kind of feel like an ass now. "Of course. Come in. You can have a seat in the room to the left if you want."

She chuckles. "I think I know my way around."

I ignore that comment. "I'll go get my phone." I leave her standing there and go back to Katia's room.

"Who was it?" She asks as soon as I step into the room.

"Beverly."

Katia makes a face as if she's utterly disgusted.

"Something is wrong with her car and her phone is dead. That's all."

"She had to pass at least one other house before she made it here." Katia says picking at her fingernails.

"Yes but if you had a choice would you rather talk to someone you knew or a stranger?" I ask.

Katia rolls her eyes and sighs. "You're right."

"It shouldn't take long." I kiss her and begin to leave but she pulls me back to her and kisses me again. "What was that for?"

"Because you're mine and I can." She smirks.

I chuckle and go to find Beverly quietly sitting on the couch flipping through the photo album I keep in the coffee table's cabinet. It's just a collection of photos from when I was on tour, black and white prints of Brittany and I. I honestly forgot it was down there. Katia would flip if she saw it. I hand Beverly the phone.

"Thank you." She closes the book and begins searching something online. "I'm sorry for interrupting whatever," she motions to my clothes or lack there of, "you were doing."

I tighten my robe and fold my arms. "Apology accepted."

She chuckles. "Is she pissed your I crashed the party?"

"You assume someone's here. I could have been sleeping." I say leaning against the wall.

"Yeah. Okay." Bev laughs again and holds the phone to her ear. She talks to someone about coming to tow her car and how long it'll take for them to get there. She hangs up. "They're going to meet me at my car."

"Okay. Do you need a ride? Are you far?" I ask.

"No I'm not far at all. I'll be fine."

"Are you sure?" I ask.

Suddenly a phone begins to ring. Beverly looks at me quizzically. It doesn't sound like it's coming from Katia's room. It's closer. I follow the sound of the ringing to the key bowl with Beverly right on my heals. Katia always leaves her phone here. I silence Olivia's call and hold the phone in my hand. Beverly eyes the phone then looks back at me weirdly.

"What?" I ask.

She furrows her brow then shakes her head. "Nothing. I should go. They'll be at my car soon." She says. "Thank again."

"You're welcome."

She looks back at me one more time before she leaves. It's subtle but I swear I see her frown before she turns away.

____________________________________

Katia

I awake before the sun rises. Darkness consumes the room save the light from the crescent moon. It's dim but present. I cuddle closer to Christine's sleeping body for warmth. The heat radiating from her is like an instant and natural pain reliever. Though all the anguish I feel is emotional. It's been a week since I've seen my mom and I haven't stopped thinking about her. I cry when I'm alone. Every chance I get. I hate it but in the moment it feels good, feels necessary. I thought I knew sadness before. I was familiar with heartbreak and longing. However, it's something about knowing my mother is happily living her life with her new family without a care in world. It's crushing.

Kandace has spoken to her since and says maybe I should give mom a chance to explain her side of the things. Part of me, a very small part, wants to hear what she has to say, but the other part of me feels that it would all be a lie. Just a bunch of sanctimonious bullshit to save her own ass. I roll my eyes just thinking about it.

Mistress tightens her hold on me as she does sometimes in her sleep. I snuggle myself into her body and inhale. She smells like home. Everything about her is comforting. I feel so safe here under the weight of her arm. I wish I never had to leave. She has kept her promise of refraining from sex until I've healed and this bruise is just beginning to disappear. It's been torture. Especially when she sleeps naked like she is now.

Lazy liquid-like light begins to spill into the room, one sun ray at a time but blinding nonetheless. I've always appreciated the boldness of the summer sun until this very moment. I wish it could stay dark a little longer.

"Baby." Mistress mumbles.

"Yes?"

"Why are you awake?" She asks.

I'm not sure how she knew I was awake. I've been completely silent and haven't moved much at all. "Just thinking."

"About what?" Her eyes open slowly.

"My mother. You." I say quietly.

Chris stretches her never ending legs and arms. She has the ideal ballerina body. "What about your mother?"

"I don't want to talk about it." I say.

"Then what about me?"

I giggle. "That I love you."

"I love you more. What time is it?" She asks.

I glance at the lock screen of my phone. "Early."

She chuckles.

"Do you have somewhere to be?" I ask.

She nods. "Sports department meeting on campus."

"Why do you have to go?"

"Because at our school the dance department falls under the sports umbrella." She answers.

That means Beverly will be there. She's like a mosquito at a barbecue or a fly around your food. Seemingly harmless but annoying as fuck.

"Yippee." I say flatly.

She gives me a look. "You have nothing to worry about. You know that."

I sulk. I know I have nothing to worry about I just get so possessive with her sometimes. I don't even want Beverly to look at her. I don't know how she still manages to get under my skin the way she does. I just don't like her.

Mistress climbs on top of me and my bad attitude evaporates. She's so sexy. Like my hands have a mind of their own they're drawn to her ass.

"I am yours, Katia. Utterly and irrefutably yours."

I smile. She always knows what to say to make me feel better.

"I love you." I say.

"I love you more."

"Not true."

"I think so but I'll tell you what. The first person to the shower loves the other more." She pecks me on the forehead before springing to action, making her way to the bathroom.

"That's cheating!" I whine, rushing to be right behind her. She jumps from behind the door and grabs me. It startles me. We both laugh as she squeezes me. I love her so much.

__________________________________