Love means never having to say you’re sorry.

Dee didn’t know where that idea had come from, probably from some cheesy romance movie. What he DID know was that it was a crock. You did something wrong, you hurt someone, you apologised, and you meant it, whether that someone was the guy you were in love with or a complete stranger. If anything, loving someone should make a guy MORE willing to apologise when he did something crummy, otherwise it sent the wrong message, that he didn’t think he’d done anything wrong, that he didn’t value the one he loved as a person, that he’d do the same damn thing again… So yeah, the movie, or whatever, had gotten it ass backwards.

That was why, the next morning, after getting the brat fed and off to school, Dee reached out to his partner, the guy he loved, even if that love was so far not reciprocated, laid his hand on Ryo’s arm, just a touch, not a grab, and…

“Ryo, about last night… I’m sorry, I never should’a slapped you like that…” but Ryo cut him off.

“No, Dee, there’s nothing to apologise for, not on your part. I… I think I needed that, I was so messed up in my head that I wasn’t thinking straight, but you snapped me back to my senses, and I’m grateful for that. If anyone should be apologising, it’s me. The way I was behaving…”

Now it was Dee’s turn to cut his partner off. “That wasn’t you, bud. Leo Grant did a number on ya, and like you said, it messed with your head. I get it, for a while there you weren’t yourself, but you’re okay now, right?”

“I think so. Thanks to you.”

“I’ve always got your back.”

“I know,”


The End