#soueda

Komaeda and Souda lay entangled in their shared bed, one could say like a twice married couple-- a pair that was wed once, then again on their anniversary. Not geezers by any sort, but not exactly newlyweds, either.

They were older now, that much was true. Even if Komaeda woke up tomorrow and all of it was a simulation, even if he'd boarded a time machine and brought himself back, he would've still progressed, and any new him would just be the old him in different circumstances. The passage of time was convoluted and confusing, but at its base was a truth-- there is no true return to the past.

And for all it was worth? That was good.

He would rather be now. Hair a mess, white fading into pink and then pinker and then dark and then darker as it reached the roots of the person sharing his bed. Hands intertwined, his fingers clicked and clanked, clasped in the ones that made them. The feeling of hot breath on his neck, condensation clinging to the small hairs that were oh, so sensitive. All of him encompassed by another body, clutched to his form but through both of their volition.

What he would do to lay here, to freeze the now and stay encroached in the warm embrace of someone who had chosen to care for him despite his being. Despite the mishaps of the past. Despite the cycle of hurt he'd inflicted. For that very reason, however, is why he couldn't stay there. Time could not go backwards, not really, and even if he didn't break the seal of the moment it would be everchanging. So he opened the seal with verbalization that would be true for the now and any future nows that truly mattered--

"I love you."

Souda stirred, shifting ever so slightly. "hm?" He mumbled into Komaeda's neck. "whadju say?"

"I love you" Komaeda repeated, lightly amused by his partner's sleepy demeanor, which was deepening the sentiment by the second. He smiled, tilting his head in Souda's direction "I love you, I said."

"Mmm" Souda hummed. " M'love you too."

Komaeda's smile deepend, and he rolled over to meet Souda's face. Souda's eyes were closed, clearly wafting between the realms of sleeping and waking, clearly vulnerable. Vulnerable around Komaeda. Komaeda chuckled. In the past that statement would be nothing but a fantasy of his. A nightmare of others; maybe him still included. But they were in the now, and this was reality.