She wasn’t offended, maybe, but she was emotional about it. Theo couldn’t place it until she added love exists, is all – and then it hit him, washed over him all at once and made his shoulders slump with the force of it. He might have never enjoyed Valentine’s day for what it was, and he might not even count himself lucky, but – he understood now. He might have only said as much that night a month ago, but he had loved Cash for longer than that, and he had lost him too. Maybe he wasn’t bitter or rueful about it, actually – maybe he was just mourning it instead.

“Yeah,” Theo said quietly, in an entirely different tone. He felt his ribcage deflate as the sigh left him before he could quite stop it. I know. “Yeah. You’re right.” Those people were lucky, so lucky he almost hated them for it.

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