The Districts

CHAPTER 20

The following day comes and Kenny makes sure to check in on Craig and see how he's doing. He's quiet for most of the day but seems to be doing alright compared to the day prior to Kenny. It's not not until the day that follows, in the evening time, does Kenny discard of the blanket from Damien's place and starts to notice something is wrong when he finds Craig lying in bed clutching his stomach.

"Craig?" he asks, "You alright? Your heat isn't bothering you too much is it?" But Craig doesn't reply and instead just buries his face into the pillow more with a small groan of some sort. "I'm sorry we couldn't get a hold of any suppressants for you, but you should only have one more day left, right? Think you'll be able to hang in there until then?"

There's another muffled groan from Craig at that.

"I know it's hard," Kenny says, "I'll let you rest some more," he adds, figuring that Craig probably wasn't in much of a talking mood right now.

"Wait," Craig says, turning his head to the side, his breathing heavy. There's a bit of a pause before he slowly sits up onto his knees, "mate with me."

"What?!" Kenny says, shocked.

"I... I want to see if we can get our bond back," he says.

"Craig..." Kenny says quietly, "I can't... your body it... it wouldn't be a good idea."

"Please," Craig pleads, "I want to try. I need to know if there's some way, somehow, we can return what was taken."

"Craig..." Kenny trails off.

Craig's eyes start to water and before Kenny can say anything, Craig is standing up and rushing at him. It happens so fast and sudden, that it catches him off guard and causes him to fall down backwards from the impact of the other crashing into him.

"Wh-what are you—"

"I need this," Craig says and starts to grab at the bottom of his shirt.

"Wait—Craig, stop that! It's not good for you to be this close to me right—"

"I want it gone!" Craig yells and Kenny stops, "The bond I have with Damien, if there's some way that it can be replaced with our old one again, then I want it gone," he shakes.

"I don't think it will..."

"I don't want to feel..." Craig whispers out, then looks at him, tears now starting to pool in his eyes. "Please, I don't want to feel him anymore. Please..." and he brings his head down to Kenny's chest, gripping harder at the shirt's fabric in his hands. "All I want is to feel you. Only you," he sobs softly.

Kenny's heart can't help but ache. He wanted so much to give Craig what he desired, but didn't want to cause him pain. He could tell that Craig was having a hard enough time already, with trying to force himself to stay this close to him.

"Craig, I can hardly even touch you without your body trying to reject me," Kenny says quietly and places a light touch onto his back, causing the other to flinch. "See?"

"It doesn't matter," Craig says and looks back up at him, "I still want to try."

"I don't want to hurt you," Kenny tells him.

Craig's brows furrowed together, as if trying to hold back his bubbling emotions from all spilling over. The look in his eyes breaks Kenny's heart and he has to glance away.

"Please..." Craig begs, "please, for me. Just try it... please Kenny."

There's a long pause.

"I... okay," Kenny says, giving in, "we can try, but it's not going to be easy."