Kept

Thank you to my darling rainbowsraging for betaing this as I went along and worked out all the kinks (ha)!

Mitch is vibrating with nerves. It might also be the caffeine pumping through his veins, but he's been given a lot of responsibility today, and he needs everything to go smoothly. Scott put him in charge of the movers, and now all these big, burly men are looking to him for direction, and Mitch can't let Scott down. It's not just the coffee and the movers and the mountains of boxes and the giant mansion that are peaking Mitch's stress levels, though. Today is also the first time he's meeting two of Scott's contracted submissives. They're not here yet, which means they could arrive at any moment, and Mitch has to be calm and confident and in control.

He's very much not any of those things.

He bites the ragged edge of his thumbnail and stares at the grand foyer from his perch on the front step. This house is too big. It's too much. It's more extravagant than anywhere he's lived in his whole life. Even Scott's swanky penthouse apartment didn't make Mitch feel this small and out of place.

The head moving guy, the biggest and burliest of the men, is named Joe, and he comes up to Mitch with a clipboard. "All the boxes and furniture are labeled," he says. "Just tell us where it goes."

Mitch looks at the list. Cara's room is first, alphabetically. He stares at her name for a long moment. This is his job today. Everything has to go well. He pulls a stack of post-it notes and a pen from his bag, then gestures for Joe to follow him inside.

They walk through the giant house together and Mitch sticks a note to the door of each room, labeling it to match the boxes on Joe's list. Cara's room, the dining room, the two guest rooms, the kitchen, the library, the living room, the exercise room, the movie room—the movie room, Mitch rolls his eyes—Nathan's room, Scott's office, the studio, the wine cellar. The master suite. The playroom. "And the pool house is out back," Mitch adds when they've toured the whole place. There are too many rooms in this goddamn house. It's too big.

"We'll start with the furniture," Joe tells him. "It's best if you stay out of the way."

"Yes, sir, of course," Mitch replies. "I'll be out on the patio. Yell if you need me."

"I'll find you when we start bringing in the boxes."

Mitch stuffs his organizational supplies back in his bag and goes out to the pool. There's a built-in couch curved around a fire pit, and it's one of the things Mitch loves about this place. He can just picture cuddling up with Scott at night, under the stars, a fire crackling in front of them. The pool, the patio, the balcony outside the master suite upstairs, these were the things that got Mitch excited about moving out of his cramped downtown apartment. He's thrilled to finally have spacious rooms and closet doors that aren't falling off their creaky hinges.

All the rest of these rooms are just too overwhelming. What are they going to do with two additional guest rooms? Why do they need a wine cellar?

His phone buzzes with a text from Scott: How's it going?

Mitch bites the inside of his lower lip until it welts. They're moving in furniture now. Boxes soon. I'm staying out of the way.

Good, Scott replies. Cara and Nathan will be there soon to help unpack. I'll let you know when I'm done at work.

Mitch taps out a message. I miss my apartment. He erases it immediately, because it's not actually true, then writes, I miss your apartment. He deletes that too. He does miss Scott's apartment, which felt like home, but it's not fair to say that to Scott, who's doing this for him, for all of them. He finally settles on, I miss you.