With the Commander-Director's intimidating presence and a slew of damning evidence pointing towards an impending judicial review and in-depth background checks of every individual within the Royal Army and their connected political sectors, Hurk barely made it out of his 'trial' with his skin intact.

After nearly five hours of uninterrupted debate involving legal terms flying over Hurk's head, he eventually was absolved of all criminal activity he'd conducted while acting as an undercover agent for the Commander-Director, but at the cost of his position as a Royal Army Intelligence agent and a court-mandated non-disclosure agreement barring him from talking about any information he'd taken from the fomors except for a few select individuals should he need to be called upon to confirm or deny anything in future investigations into the colossal wreck that was just dumped onto their laps.

Twelve unanimous decisions, a bang of a gavel, and he was free to leave.

Upon leaving the courtroom, Commander-Director Keaghan had clapped him on the shoulder and apologized for not entirely putting everything to rights. Hurk had honestly gaped at the man – he'd done all he could for him to get him as far away from the death penalty as possible (he'd been a traitor and a liar, for Morrighan's sake!), and he was the one apologizing?

Hurk turned down the offer of a ride back to Royal Army Intelligence Headquarters. He didn't have anything of actual or sentimental value in the office space he rarely used or in the dusty standard-issue quarters that he hadn't slept in for nearly three years. He didn't even care for his greatsword, which either had been retrieved and stored into the HQ's weapons locker or probably kept as some twisted trophy by some opportunistic fomor scavenging around.

Everything that ever really mattered to him could be found in a tiny, overheated apartment complex that he shared with the light of his life and their friends.

Which was why Hurk found himself hesitating outside of the door to Kai's (and his?) apartment, his fist raised up to the wood but not quite touching it.

"You're back. Did you walk all the way here in that?"

Hurk turned to see Fiona leaning casually against the doorframe of the apartment she shared with Lann. Her face was neither surprised nor particularly approving at his appearance.

He was still wearing the horrible maroon jumpsuit.

"Yeah. No cab would take me."

"Of course." Fiona rolled her eyes before schooling her face into a more serious look. "Are you planning to run?"

Hurk exhaled slowly, as if completely unsure. "It depends on whether or not any of you want me here, after what I've done."

"We know the truth, and we've been in the business long enough to know how to tell fact from fiction. That's enough for us. The real question is whether or not you want to stay, and if you can live with the choices you've made." Fiona stared at him with an exasperated look that basically said why are men such idiots before disappearing back into her apartment.

Hurk had no decent reply to that, except to swallow hard, wipe his sweaty palms on his pants, and knock on the door.

A muffled "Unlocked!" filtered past the door.

Hurk pushed the door open and was greeted with the sight of Kai (wearing just loose sweatpants) standing by the kitchenette counter with his .357 Magnum disassembled into pieces in front of him, along with two unopened bottles of Budweiser. The other man didn't bother to look up while in the midst of giving the parts of his pistol a much-needed deep clean.

Hurk shut the door behind him, took in a deep breath, and let the jumbled words that had been circling around in his mind for the past few hours fall out of his mouth. He was still uncertain of his standing in this relationship, even after that kiss they'd shared down in the cells. He needed to know if he was actually still welcome, or if he should start just packing his bags.

"I'll completely understand if you tell me to get out of your apartment right now and never show my face within a ten mile radius of you ever again."

Kai's hands paused for a brief second before returning to work.

Reading the hesitation as a turn for the worse, Hurk felt his insides liquefying into a wave of pure, unadulterated pain.

"Alright, I… I'll leave my keys for the apartment and my heart on the nightstand, and you can keep them. I just need the one for my bike."

The oven's timer dinged! cheerily and Hurk blinked in surprise.

After a moment of silence, Kai turned to look at Hurk with a raised eyebrow and a slight smile tugging at his lips.

"Aren't you going to get that? Wouldn't want the enchiladas to burn, after all."

With a bark of genuine laughter that trailed off into a sob of complete and utter relief, Hurk staggered back against the wall with a hand pressed up against his eyes. He took a minute to compose himself, wiping the back of his hand across his wet eyes, before walking over to oven with a trembling but quickly-growing smile on his face.

"'Course not, honeybee."