Derrick jumped, yelling, and landed in a heap of twisted sheets on the floor as he heard a crash from the living room. Something heavy had burst through the window, making the sound echo through the house. Ethan jumped from the bed, grabbing a nearby baseball bat and brandishing it at the dark night.

“When did you start sleeping with a baseball bat?” Derrick whispered. Ethan shushed him and began stalking around the room before peeking his head out the bedroom door. Derrick worked to untangle himself as Ethan stepped out the door and began tiptoeing down the hallway. He didn’t want to be left alone in the bedroom. Even if Ethan was carrying a weapon, he wanted to be right next to him if whoever was trying to break in or harm them decided to attack. Derrick tripped and slapped the wall with his palm to steady himself as he ran after his fiancé. The sound echoed around the room, making Derrick wince. Ethan glanced back, scowling at him, as he raced to catch up. He tried to slow his panting as adrenaline coursed through his body but what little comfort he could muster was from the contact with the skin at the small of Ethan’s back. He pressed his palm there, taking solace in the warmth at the hollow of his spine.

Ethan was taller than him by almost half a foot and definitely wider in the torso. Derrick felt like a bit of a wimp hiding behind his lover, but he didn’t have a weapon. Wasn’t this supposed to be one of those defining moments when, in the face of all odds, you stood up for your lover? Derrick felt the well of guilt and shame rise up in him. He had never been the kind of person to stand up for anything. It was one thing Ethan liked about Derrick, that he could protect him. At least, that’s what Ethan had told him. Derrick always wondered if it was just a nice way of saying he was a sissy, but Ethan had assured him that he hadn’t minded that Derrick was the submissive one in their relationship. He once told him it made him feel manlier.

Derrick wasn’t sure how he felt about needing to be manlier, but right now, he felt small and minuscule. This was like all the times he had been beaten up in school, and Ethan had saved the day. It had been easy to fall in love with his hero, and here they were, at it again. Only this time, the circumstances were vastly more dangerous.

As they rounded the corner into the living room, Derrick peeked out from under Ethan’s arm and saw that a brick had broken the window.

“Not another one!” he groaned.

“Shh!” Ethan admonished, pressing his fingers to his lips, scolding him like a child while still brandishing the bat.

Derrick rolled his eyes, reached over to the far wall in the hallway, and flipped on the light, illuminating their red, black, and beige living room. He didn’t like the color scheme. Ethan had picked it out. Derrick liked lighter, softer colors, but they had to compromise when they redecorated before moving in. It had only been a few weeks since they moved into the one-story house in the gated community of The Highland Estates. They were still working out a few kinks in the whole living together forever thing. The room had been decorated to Ethan’s tastes and, as they were to be married in two weeks, Derrick had convinced himself that this was how they would start their life together, able to make compromises for one another. It had all been going so smoothly—the move, the wedding planning, and even moving his veterinary clinic across the city. He had convinced most of his patients to bring their pets to him in his new facility, and he already had calls lined up for new patients. It had been going so well until the attacks began.

Ethan walked over to the brick cautiously, glancing out the busted window to see if anyone was lying in wait to throw something else at them or even take things to the next level. Derrick chewed his fingernails, a habit he had a hard time kicking, because he had done it since he was a kid when he was nervous. Ethan bent and scooped up the brick, unwrapping the note that was secured to it by an elastic band.

“What does it say?” Derrick asked quietly.

“It’s threatening, like the others, but there is no use reading this filth out loud. It’s worse than just telling us to leave, that we don’t belong,” Ethan said in disgust.

“Maybe we should think about—”

Ethan looked up sharply. “We’ve had this conversation before, Derrick. We are not leaving. We just moved in! You moved your practice, and we’ve settled. We’re staying, and that’s final!” He looked thunderous, which pissed Derrick off. It wasn’t his fault they were being harassed. But he had suggested it from the first time the window had been busted. He knew Ethan would take offense to the idea but, for him, it was just easier to place himself out of harm’s way.

“I know, babe, but don’t you think this is getting out of control? I mean, this is California, one of the most open and accepting states for gays in the U.S. And this trouble didn’t start until we moved into this neighborhood. I just wonder if we picked the wrong community, that’s all,” he said, looking at his bare toes. He had his Snoopy pajama pants on and nothing else. Ethan was in his boxers, black, as that was his style. It couldn’t be plainer, even from their underwear, how very different they were. Sometimes, Derrick felt like Ethan was the adult in their relationship, cut and dried and in charge, but Derrick still felt like his feelings had some merit when it came to the decision-making.

Ethan sighed and strode across the room. He placed the brick and note on the coffee table and leaned the bat against the leather couch. He pulled Derrick into his arms and Derrick laid his head against his chest, breathing in the scent of Ethan’s Calvin Klein aftershave and basking in the warmth of his body. Ethan had always run a little warmer than him, and he enjoyed being cocooned in his comforting arms. Derrick let his eyes flutter closed and wrapped his arms around Ethan.

“I’m not going to let anyone hurt you,” he heard Ethan say to the top of his head. “I promise you that. I won’t let them. You’re mine, and I love you, and we deserve this life. We’ve worked hard for it.”

Derrick nodded into his chest. “Why did you bring a baseball bat to bed?” he asked. His voice was muffled, and the light smattering of hair on Ethan’s chest was tickling his cheek.

“Because I get that this is escalating. I wouldn’t put it past whoever is doing it to try something else. I wanted to be safe rather than sorry,” he admitted.

“Don’t you think it’s time to go back to the police?” Derrick asked.

“And have them do what? Fill out another form? More paperwork with a ‘Thank you, sir, but, without any evidence, we can’t help you’?”

“Well, we have the new note now. We could take it to them,” Derrick said. He leaned back and picked up the brick and paper. The words filled him with disgust, but the brick was what made him gasp in horror as he rubbed his fingers together. There was blood on it. Fresh blood.

“Where is Sunshine?” he asked, looking around frantically. Sunshine was his other pride and joy, a Dachshund he’d had since before he and Ethan decided to buy the house together. Derrick searched her basket over by the window, but it was empty. Her favorite stuffed pig, Hubert, was lying there, abandoned. His floppy head and torso had been half-dragged out of the basket in Sunshine’s hasty escape. Derrick ran to the basket, looking for evidence or any indication that she burrowed under the many blankets, even though he knew she wasn’t there. There was a spot of blood on the edge of the basket that made him cry out.

“Sunshine!” he shrieked, looking around the room frantically. “They’ve taken her!” he cried to Ethan, who was already looking under the couch.

“Easy, babe. Calm down. No one has been in the house except the brick. Most likely she got clipped, hon. But we’ll find her,” Ethan assured him.

Derrick barely registered his words as he began looking in, under, and behind every bit of furniture in the living room. Next, he moved to search behind the big island in the kitchen, which was set at the far back of the huge room. It wasn’t until they searched the bathroom that they found her. She had buried herself in the dirty laundry pile, in one of Derrick’s shirts that he had worn the day before.

“Sunshine, baby, are you okay?” He scooped her up, shirt and all, and rocked her quaking form in his arms. Four years of veterinary school seemed to go out the window when he noticed she had a cut on the side of her tiny body. She wiggled in his arms when he started to cry. Ethan came up behind him, making him jump, as she tried to lick his face and lap up his tears.

“Come on, Derrick, let’s go to your office and get her taken care of,” he said softly.

“No!” Derrick yelled. “You stay here, with your baseball bat and your stubbornness that this hasn’t gone far enough! You told me she would be fine sleeping in the basket out here. She’s always slept in my room, but you said—you said no pets in the bedroom, that it was our space! Now look at what’s happened!” He was hollering so loud he was sure he would wake the neighbors, but he didn’t care.

“Derrick, honey, please,” Ethan pleaded.

“I’ve had enough, Ethan. I want to move. Back to the apartment. At least there we weren’t being attacked with bricks through the windows every other night. I want to move back to a neighborhood where being gay isn’t being treated like this. Where they know us and they accept us!” he insisted.

“Derrick, you’re being unreasonable. We can’t just pack up and move now. The wedding is in two weeks and we’ve got our jobs to think about and—”

“I don’t care!” Derrick shouted. He had never been so upset in his entire life. He loved Ethan. Worshipped and adored the very ground he walked on. But when Ethan dug his heels in, he couldn’t see past his own stubborn pride to do what was in the best interest of others.

Derrick was even more upset because this wasn't only affecting him and Ethan. Now it was affecting his animals, too. He had always been attached to animals, which was why he had decided to become a vet. Animals didn’t have a penchant for malicious cruelty, unless bred into them by the influence of humans. They were, at their very core, innocent and pure. He loved that about them, and now someone had gone and hurt his Sunshine.

She wasn’t badly injured, as he discovered in his office. He saw Ethan standing in the doorway as he cleaned and bandaged her up, but he was just so angry, he couldn’t look at Ethan as he snuggled her to his chest when he was done.

“Derrick…” Ethan sighed. He sounded exhausted, and there was a hint of something in his voice that Derrick had never heard before. He looked up into the weary face of his fiancé. “Give me two weeks. Please? I’m sorry they hurt your baby. She can come in the room, okay? Please, babe? I need this for us, this place,” he said.

Derrick looked deep into his gray eyes. There was something about being able to have this house for them that was important to Ethan. He understood that. Ethan hadn’t come from much, so this was essential to his inner need to provide for his family. They were a family, after all, if not a traditional one.

“It’s just a house, Ethan,” he said. “We can find a different one.”

“It’s not about that,” Ethan said. “It’s about standing up for what you believe in and not letting them win.”

“You have two weeks. If it doesn’t stop, I’m done. I’m not going to live like this,” Derrick said. He pushed past Ethan and stood in the doorway of their bedroom. “If it doesn’t stop, I’m moving back to my old apartment. Do whatever you think is necessary, but I’m just done with it.” He stepped into their bedroom and closed the door, Sunshine tucked under his arm. He sank onto the bed, tears streaming down his cheeks as Sunshine lapped them off his face. He had never shut the door on Ethan and, in all the time they had been together, they had never slept apart. But Ethan was right. He had to stand up for what he believed in. Not living a life in fear and terror for the sake of a stupid house was what he believed in. Even if it meant he would be without the love of his life.