He grabbed his briefs off the floor and joined her in the kitchen, squinting against the bright kitchen lights. He watched as she grabbed his T-shirt off the ground and slipped it on, fishing around in the fridge for food. Seb simply couldn’t believe that he got to touch her. He’d been waiting for her for so long that it still almost didn’t seem real.

Seb took a seat at the barstool and watched while she started making pancakes. He could watch her clean a toilet, and he’d still be amazed at her grace. It felt strange to be anywhere but the bedroom. But especially in the kitchen, after their conversation there. The intensity of it still rang in the air.

“How are you feeling?” she asked him, apparently sensing the same thing. “After all, you know, that?”

“All what? The sex?”

“Uh, sure. But I also meant after my total and complete freak-out.”

He rose and went to her, standing behind her while she flipped pancakes at the griddle. His hands slid under the T-shirt she wore and he hugged her back against him. “You weren’t the only one that freaked out. And I feel...like I just ran a race. You know that loose feeling in your chest? Relieved and tired and healthy.”

She turned to him, her eyes cautious. “It’s not going to be the last time that happens, Seb. I’m not always happy. And I’ve been lonely for so long that it’s changed me. Made a real impact on who I am. It won’t always be as fun to be with me as it might feel right now.”

Seb reached out and flipped off the stove. He picked her up by the hips and walked her into the living room. He sat her down on the couch and crouched in front of her. “Via, I can’t help but feel like you’re stating the obvious here. Let me just be really clear, okay? I understand that you are a complete human being, with a lifetime of complications going on inside you. I’m not looking to carve away the hard parts. I’m not looking for three-quarters of a person to be with. I want the whole thing. All of you. I want a real relationship. Where sometimes your shit gets in the way and sometimes mine does, and we’re patient and we talk about it. I don’t expect you to be issue-free. And I definitely don’t expect our love for each other to just magically dissolve our respective hang-ups. All I want is to keep growing. To keep growing alongside someone I can lean on and who leans on me. And to argue and hold each other accountable and celebrate the good stuff with and make love to and come home to.”

He was breathing hard and gripping her knees. She reached forward and just like that, she was the one comforting him.

She slid forward so that she was wrapped around him, mostly in his arms and mostly off the couch. “You said love.”