S A F E H A V E N : Summer

EPILOGUE.

ONE MONTH BEFORE THE RISING

P.O.V. – D'kala/Kia

D'kala walked into the gym with a towel slung over his shoulder, unsurprised to see someone had beat him to his favourite boxing spot but unable to hold back a smile.

Kia Sosoto—who had returned to Safe Haven the night prior—was unleashing the full force of her restrained emotions on the boxing bag, using both open- and close-handed strikes to claw and pummel it relentlessly.

D'kala glanced to his left, and his smile faltered slightly when he saw a familiar group in one of the rings, watching Kia attack the bag. They looked both amused and impressed, joking with each other while mimicking her moves.

D'kala shook his head and walked over to Kia, saying, "You know, I woke up thinking I'd find you eating my food in my kitchen as usual."

Kia paused and glanced at him over her shoulder, a familiar smirk on her face. "Thought about it. Figured I'd let you eat y'own cereal for once."

"How kind of you," D'kala said with a dry smile.

He stole a glance at the other group again.

Prez made a kissing face at him before grinning as the rest of the crew laughed.

"Who's that? New girlfriend?" Kia asked without even looking at them, continuing to punch the boxing back.

"Not a chance," D'kala replied immediately, rolling his eyes. "And for your information, that is a transgender man."

"Ah. No top surgery, huh?"

"It's a touchy subject."

"Y'all talkin' 'bout me again?" Prez called at them.

"Nah, we cool," Kia called back, waving a hand at him. "Nice tits, by the way," she added.

D'kala smacked himself in the forehead.

Prez immediately began to storm forward, but one of his groupies grabbed his arm and hissed something in his ear. Undeterred, Prez ripped his arm out of the woman's grip and snapped, "I do what I want. Back off."

Then Prez marched right up to Kia and grabbed the boxing bag with a hand, his talons digging into it and holding it fast. "So you and your p---y-boy get a kick outta being transphobes, right?" he snarled. "Well, guess what? Some of us kick back."

"I was just messin' with you, man. It ain't that serious," Kia replied casually.

"It is to me," Prez snapped.

"My bad, my bad!" Kia innocently raised her hands in surrender. "I didn't know. I won't mention it again, a'ight?"

Prez narrowed his eyes at her.

Kia raised an eyebrow. "We cool?"

Prez snorted and released the boxing bag (which he'd clearly been planning to swing directly into Kia's face). "Whatever." He glanced at D'kala, then said grudgingly to Kia, "At least you had the decency to apologize. This motherf***er"—he jerked a thumb at D'kala—"just spat his hateful rhetoric and dipped."

Kia lowered her arms and turned to D'kala, her eyebrow remaining raised.

"I was... having a bad day," D'kala responded in a defensive tone.

"A bad day?" Kia chuckled. "You ain't had a bad day since Nairobi. Must'a been tough without me, huh?"

D'kala smiled a bit at that. "You have no idea." Then he turned to Prez and took a deep breath before sighing and saying, "I apologize for making you feel antagonized, Prez. That was not Christlike of me, and for that, I am sorry. Please accept my apology and extend your forgiveness, if you are willing."