And wasn’t that the understatement of the year, actually. All of the drama, all of the shit that they’d put themselves through, it could have easily been cleared up if they had just used their words like adults.
“I’m in if you are,” Logan replied, a huge grin breaking over his face. He hadn’t smiled, not really, truly, with complete joy, since Derrick had left, and it had been too long. It was such a relief just to feel happy again, to feel hope, like some sort of crushing weight had been taken off of him.
The sad thing was, that weight had all been self-imposed.
“So you’re my boyfriend now?” Derrick asked, and Logan didn’t hesitate, not even for the smallest fraction of a second.
“Yeah. That’s what I’ve wanted all along,” Logan confessed, and Derrick smiled at him. This being honest thing wasn’t so bad, now that he was actually doing it. He could get used to it.
“We should go tell Malcolm,” Derrick said. “He’ll be waiting to find out how this goes, if I know him.”
Logan knew it was true, but he also knew something else, and that was that Malcolm, who was head over heels in love with Kyle, would understand if they didn’t make it for a little while longer.
“He can wait,” Logan insisted, as he shifted his position so that he was straddling Derrick’s lap. It felt so incredibly, perfectly, amazingly good to be like this again. So good to wrap his arms around Derrick’s body and feel his warmth, smell his scent as it rose around them both.
They kissed, and it was like the first time all over again. No, it was better than that, because the first time they had kissed, it had all been confusion and reluctant desire. This was anything but that. The desire was there, but neither of them fought it anymore. And this was about a promise that they were both making to each other, about open communication, about no more secrets, no more things kept hidden so that everything was confusing.
“I love you,” Derrick murmured, as he moved his beautiful body under Logan, his arms coming up to welcome Logan into his lap again. It was really more than just the three words that he was saying, though, and Logan, who seemed to be getting better attuned to Derrick’s communication style, understood.
I love you, I’m sorry, I need you, I forgive you.
Logan smiled, and when he spoke, he meant everything that he was picking up from Derrick.
“I love you, too,” he murmured, and then he leaned down to kiss the man that he had somehow managed to keep, despite it all.
