Liam would need to readjust to having someone intimately close to him again, but when he felt an urge to kiss Paxton, he didn't brush it off. Beneath the covers, he shuffled a little closer to Paxton's side and experimented with a kiss that wasn't emotional-fraught desperation to understand, wasn't confusion, wasn't even with intention of trying to take anything further. He just wanted to kiss him. So long ago, he enjoy the simple things like kisses and cuddles. He wanted to remember what it felt like, but he also wanted to testdrive how it felt with Paxton. No, they weren't foreign to affection. Not at all. But there was a massive difference between friendly affection and romantic affection. They shared a soft and gentle kiss, closely followed by a couple more, the next a little more confident than the one before. Then Liam rested his head down on Paxton's shoulder and wrapped his arm around his belly, below his chest where his ribs were healing.

His thumb brushed back and forth over the bare, pale skin of Paxton's torso. He had lain like this with others in the past, but now all he wanted was to lie close to Paxton and focus on what was happening here. Not the past, not the future... two of the biggest forces in depression and anxiety. "Were you angry at me? For the choices I made, for not knowing how the hell I was supposed to feel, and for who? Because no matter what happened, you were always there for me. Not in person, but emotionally. You were there for me when I was raped, and all those fucking horrible months after it. Do you think anything would have happened with us if I wasn't raped?" The question were painful, and he felt the twist in his gut as he asked them. Painful, but important. He wanted to understand so he could finally move beyond this dark phase of his life.