The cruelty is more than deserved from the boy who lay bleeding on the sloping floor while he and Louis worked out twenty-something years of resentment on each other. Armand wants to look down at their hands, but Daniel's touch is softer and steadier than he deserves, and he's drowning in those misfit eyes.

"They loved you anyway. Both of them." Confidence from a man who knows more than he's supposed to, who knows how difficult it is to stop loving Daniel.

Something vulnerable crowds up into Armand's mind, something sad and lost and terrified of being alone. He feels the nervousness catch in his throat, making him dig his fingernails lightly into Daniel's chest. Afraid of the inevitable.

"I would love you anyway, Daniel Molloy."