[The longer she speaks, the better he feels. His arms squeeze around her, tense hands at her back slowly loosening, uncurling to hold more gently. What she says is true, and he'd kind of started it with that, hadn't he? To call it selfish... it wasn't just a slight against his own heart, but hers as well. If she'd already been struggling with insecurities, there's no way that would have helped anything. They both failed, here. That, especially, is enough to finally quell the last of the anger he'd felt, leaving only embers and an edge of wariness that is for the moment easier to ignore. Slowly he unfurls himself from her just enough to press a kiss to her neck, then her cheek, backing up further as he moves to find her eyes, and finally he's smiling again, the curl of his lips small and simple but no longer just sadness.]
That's the most- [He leans in, helpless, catching her lips with his own so briefly.] The most you've ever said it. What you want, what you don't want. It feels good, right? [He doesn't let her answer yet, moving in- another kiss, broken off by a tiny burst of startled laughter.] You're right. All of it. You're right.
[He withdraws further to free his hands, lifting them to cup her face, his focus singular on her. His eyes are misted, not yet crying but just- relieved. So, so relieved. He'd never imagined such a sudden conversation could leave him so frightened, and his breath escapes in fits and trembles.]
I'm not selfish. It's just how I feel, I chose you, I'm choosing you, and if anyone judges me for it they can- [He pauses, reconsidering his own words a heartbeat before he says them. He does very much still love these people, so... maybe not too harshly.] -they can deal with it. [Good enough.
He leans in then, to kiss her properly, letting it linger a few seconds, so she can feel it: a palpable determination, relief, a shaken joy carefully rebuilding itself in his heart.] I love you. [Another kiss, stronger, fiercer.] I love you.
[No doubts, no hesitation. After all this, she deserves to hear it again, and again, and again, so she doesn't forget or think herself unworthy.]
no subject
That's the most- [He leans in, helpless, catching her lips with his own so briefly.] The most you've ever said it. What you want, what you don't want. It feels good, right? [He doesn't let her answer yet, moving in- another kiss, broken off by a tiny burst of startled laughter.] You're right. All of it. You're right.
[He withdraws further to free his hands, lifting them to cup her face, his focus singular on her. His eyes are misted, not yet crying but just- relieved. So, so relieved. He'd never imagined such a sudden conversation could leave him so frightened, and his breath escapes in fits and trembles.]
I'm not selfish. It's just how I feel, I chose you, I'm choosing you, and if anyone judges me for it they can- [He pauses, reconsidering his own words a heartbeat before he says them. He does very much still love these people, so... maybe not too harshly.] -they can deal with it. [Good enough.
He leans in then, to kiss her properly, letting it linger a few seconds, so she can feel it: a palpable determination, relief, a shaken joy carefully rebuilding itself in his heart.] I love you. [Another kiss, stronger, fiercer.] I love you.
[No doubts, no hesitation. After all this, she deserves to hear it again, and again, and again, so she doesn't forget or think herself unworthy.]