♡ Bruno’s the kind of person who notices a person’s smile and their eyes and the lilt of their voice before he notices anything else - and honestly, when he does notice that his future boyfriend is a little softer than average around the edges, it’s absolutely not a deal-breaker. He notices beauty in small things - and the fact that his future boyfriend has soft arms and a round face and a stomach a little bigger than average doesn’t bother him. He can’t help but imagine how soft and warm they’d feel when he enveloped them in his embrace - and if he notices, too, that there’s insecurity fraying at the edges he’s even more charmed by it. Bruno thinks he’s incredibly handsome - and the fact that he doesn’t seem to notice just how handsome he is makes Bruno smile. Bruno needs to introduce himself, to get a date - and Bruno, handsome and charming and already falling a little bit in love with them, gets it. 

♡ Bruno is quick to kiss away any insecurities and reassure his boyfriend that he’s handsome, that he’s perfect, that Bruno adores him body and soul. He’s proud to be seen with him on his arm - he buys him clothes so the two of them can match, rests his head on his boyfriend’s shoulder, laughs and takes photographs. He does eventually tell him about his profession, afraid that it’s going to turn him away - but s/o nods, slowly, processing it. “I should have figured it would be something like that,” he says, but he tangles his fingers with Bruno’s anyway. “It doesn’t change how I feel about you. You make me feel whole.” Bruno’s insides feel like they could simply combust with happiness, but he settles for a slightly too manic smile and a drag of his boyfriend out to go and do something chaotic and fun to celebrate how much the two love one another. 

♡ Bruno notices little changes in his s/o as time goes on. He doesn’t seem to shy away from things that cling to his body more - he’s more likely to smile at strangers, to talk to new people. Fear no longer seems to stoop his shoulders and he stands straight up and has the strength in him to answer back when before he meeky accepted his lot. Bruno is so proud of him - and he’s more proud when his s/o squeezes his fingers and gives him a smile, and murmurs softly that it’s because of Bruno’s adoration.  

♡ He doesn’t realise what else comes with the territory until he notices someone else in a cafe checking out his boyfriend. Bruno and him are getting some gelato together, when Bruno sees the man opposite’s eyes travel up and down his boyfriend’s body - when he approaches, to ask for a number and flirt. Bruno feels his bones turn to ice even as his boyfriend laughs and motions at him, bashfully saying that he’s already taken. Because . . . perhaps Bruno is weighing him down? If he went with this man, instead - dated him and kissed him and loved him - he would not be in the line of fire of the mafia if anything went wrong. He would not have to fear for his life if Bruno defected, or even fear that perhaps Bruno would never come home again. Bruno feels the creeping taste that he’s selfish on his tongue, hot and sour. He goes a little quiet for the rest of the night, and when his boyfriend tries to give him a kiss that evening Bruno murmurs softly; “Not today. I think I’ll just go to bed.”

♡ His boyfriend notices that he seems kind of off, but he can’t see what’s going on in Bruno’s head. The constant warring that perhaps it would be kinder to break up, to let him live his life free of Bruno’s shadow. But then he does something that Bruno loves - laughs and throws his head back, cracks a joke that only he would make, brings Bruno breakfast in bed - and Bruno falls in love all over again. It doesn’t mean that his fears go away, though - and it doesn’t mean that his boyfriend doesn’t notice. Bruno has a tendency to hole things up because he thinks he should be the strong one. He’s so used to being the pillar for his gang that it’s only natural that he says nothing to his s/o--

♡ But his s/o knows him too well. It comes to a head when he sits Bruno down and fixes him with a calm, stern look - a look learned by watching Bruno for so long. As he tells Bruno to let go of what he’s worrying about - he’ll be there, he’ll support him, he just needs to know to help. And Bruno does not want to burden him with his problems but his eyes are so kind and he loves him so much - so out comes the fear that he is ruining his boyfriend’s life. That his boyfriend deserves a normal existence, that he shouldn’t have to be in fear - and through it all, he listens to Bruno with a troubled look on his face, even as Bruno finds that he’s started crying.