[Those few words are enough to lift a great weight from him; it feels as though he's been holding his breath for weeks on end and suddenly he can breathe freely once more, now that he knows for certain. She shifts to face him, and he gently squeezes her hand as she curls her fingers against his, giving a shake of his head as he leans in just a bit closer, the space between them already having narrowed without his realizing.]

No— I'll do all I can to ensure you'll never feel alone again. I think we've both endured more than our share of loneliness and heartbreak.

[It was almost poetic, that they'd found one another when they did. If not for that night, would they be here now? Would they have come to know one another as well as they have in the aftermath, or would she have come to the university for them to simply exist just beyond one another's orbits, never quite intersecting?

He doesn't want to imagine that. Knowing her as he has come to, he thinks that even if they had met under entirely different circumstances— he still would have come to feel this way about her.

The steady drumming of the rain is near deafening in the moments of silence that follow, everything amplified, but he leans in and brings one hand to rest gently against the side of her face as he tips his head to kiss her for the first time since learning her real name.]