Breaking Barriers Ch. 13-Epilogue

His kiss was needy and passionate, smelling the completed arousal of his boyfriend as he took over jerking himself. He flipped himself to be mostly laying on Kip, pressing up against him with just enough room to stroke himself furiously, replaying the last few minutes in his head as Kip came on his hand. The smell of arousal was still strong and it didn't take long to bring himself to completion on Kip's stomach, spurting hot jets across the heaving skin as they both came down from their orgasms.

Kip looked down at himself and laughed. "Just had to make a mess on me, didn't you?" He collapsed back against the pillow, where Vale nuzzled him before holding up his sodden fingers.

"You started it."

"Fair enough." Kip kissed him, and they both panted for a moment, trying to catch their respective breaths.

"Anyway, you couldn't expect me to cum on the sheets like a savage, could you?" Vale asked, draping an arm over him, carefully avoiding his Jackson Pollack rendition.

"No, I'd never hear of it," Kip said through a yawn, his eyes fluttering closed. "Utter blasphemy."

"Exactly." Vale fought off his own yawn, burying it against Kip's shoulder quietly. "We can always shower."

"Can't wait," was the last thing Kip remembered saying before sleep overtook him in the overwhelming peace he felt in Vale's arms. Orgasms aside, at that moment, he realized he never wanted to fall asleep anywhere else that didn't have Vale. As Vale tightened his grip before his own sleep came, he knew that his boyfriend felt the same.

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Kip's Blog, Level 2:

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I always knew I was different growing up. Different in a dangerous way. Dangerous to my future happiness. My future self-worth. It was in the way I was treated by peers and adults alike, in an era where no one quite knew how to deal with me. My entire life was a compromise. I couldn't be myself, but I didn't really have to be her either, after a while. After enough protest. After enough struggle. But it was never a win. It was just a delay in what I really wanted - to be myself.

But it doesn't have to be like that anymore. It got better. Slowly. Painfully. But now I'm on the other side, and being different isn't the social death sentence it once was. I get to live my life for me. I get to be myself, and let others see who I really am. I don't have to hide anymore, and I don't have to explain or make excuses. I can just exist. Peacefully. With the one I love.

I didn't know I could be loved like this, or feel love like this. But he came into my life, and I have been blessed. I'm not going to take that lightly. In a relatively short time span, his loving presence and willing understanding has melted away so much past pain that I had let fester for far too long. The hurt still stings, but it lessens every day. With every touch of his hand, and every look filled with love - it heals.

Not every day is perfect, but he is a lens through which I can see the best parts of myself, and it gives me the power to love myself. It gave me the power to realize that I could have done that on my own, finding new parts of myself to love, but he is the catalyst and the amplifier that gives me the power to stand on my own.

Through him, I found the power I needed to love myself for myself, just as much as he loves me - something I had fallen into believing I'd never have.

So many people will never have to go through what I did my entire life, but for those of you who did, and still do, I just want you to know, it gets better. You are worthy of love, and the first step comes from within yourself.

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Author's Note:

Thank you to everyone who followed this book to the end and sorry it took so long. This was the most emotionally-taxing writing I've tackled, but I hope it brought something to the world. Feel free to comment or email, especially about which book to write next: Kip and Vale's sequel, Kent's story, or Leo's story.

Thank you for reading.