so, with this, she is in a bit of a mood and just not being very forthcoming with her emotions. he reaches a hand out for her to take, and she does, but she only traces his veins and knuckles while sitting in silence and getting really inside her own head. she keeps telling herself off for falling in love with him, then for telling him she loves him, and though she didn't regret it before, she does now

he can't quite understand her shift in mood because they were teasing each other while washing up and getting ready for bed, but he thinks about her behaviour as of late, and how she would sometimes tense up when he'd touch her, and it just hits him that although he's been in his own head about how to even say it back to her, to be that vulnerable, she actually remembers doing as such and it wasn't some half-asleep slip up that was forgotten the next morning

after a kind of awkward exchange, he does tell her he loves her back, and it's a very overwhelming moment for them both, especially because it's so strange for her to see him like this, and the adoration in his eyes is something she's not used to yet. and she keeps whispering between fleeting kisses across his cheek down to his lips that she loves him, and it's so sappy and soft, and i'm shaking them both for this