I love you too. Joy bursts in his chest like fireworks going off behind his ribcage. She loves him. She loves him! It confirms all those feelings of safety and devotion he's harbored for her. For all she tries to hold herself aloof and away, it means the world to him that she can love him in return.

There's nothing he can think to say that could ever encompass what he's thinking. But, that's okay. She can sense it, can't she? She can read his heart like an open book. His arms wrap tighter around her, possessive now. As if he's finally let himself believe he's allowed to have this. And he just... feels. Lets it wash over him, all the things he couldn't put into words. How being by her side makes him feel like he belongs, that he trusts her to respect him and not just use him. That she really does want only the best for him, unselfishly. He believes that, unwaveringly.