[Love is a terrifying thing. So fickle, so fragile, that even saying it seems like it could shatter anything it's attached to. At one point, when he was young, he thought loved Terezi. Even more recently, he'd thought he loved Dirk. While the former and the latter are incomparable, they both ended badly, in some way or another. And maybe that's why he's so hesitant to say it now, so scared to lose what he has. But, does it matter? He has him here, and he'll have him even when he goes back home. Despite them not remembering their time here, the stupid times they've been through and will go through, he'll still have him. But... for how long? Neither of them can predict the outcome of the upcoming battles, if Shades will survive, or if Vance will make it back in time before everything's over. It's terrifying, and yet, he knows how stupid he's being.

Arms tighten around the older boy, pulling him closer, almost desperately, before the kiss breaks and Shades starts to speak again. No. He can't let him slip away from him, can't ruin everything. But, shit. It doesn't seem like the right time. He doesn't want the words to seem like an afterthought, like they weren't as important as they were meant to be. So, for a bit longer, he withholds them.

Be it for the warmth or merely for his own sake, Vance rubs his cheek against the other's, and is careful and slow in his movements as he presses a kiss to the bite mark, another apology for it.]

You're more than fucking welcome in my room. Hell, none of my roommates would even judge us. Two of them practically share a fucking futon every night as it is. No one would say a fucking word to us, and we can spend all day tomorrow in bed watching shitty movies.