If you’re still doing the ‘the way you said “I love you'” thing could you do 31 with Thomas and James please?

complaininginthedark:

31 – In awe, the first time you realised it

–

It was, Thomas thought, almost inevitable. After first meeting the Lieutenant they had spent almost every day in one another’s company. Eating, talking, arguing, sharing ideas day after day and night after night.

It was unavoidable for someone like Thomas; he formed attachments, deep ones, quickly. He was bound to fall for a man as sure and decent as James. 

The first moment he realised it, they were side by side looking down at a map of England to settle an argument about distances between points. It was a silly argument, one Thomas kept going out of sheer enjoyment of seeing James so riled up. He had a hand on his lover’s back and would lean in to kiss his neck just to see his skin darken. 

And it hit him. 

What would he feel if James were to leave him then? What would he feel if James were taken from him? He was sure that the sun would set, never to rise again. There would be an absence in his life he would never be able to fill. He loved James, undoubtedly. The feeling was not foreign, for he knew he loved Miranda, but this… it made his breath catch and his eyes water. Before he could gain control of himself, James touched his cheek.

“Thomas? Gods, Thomas what is it?” His voice was so gentle and Thomas felt a sob rising in his chest. James urged him to speak, to tell him what was wrong, panic clearly clawing at his own chest too. 

“I- I think I-” Thomas swallowed the lump in his throat, panic giving way to elation. “No, I’m quite sure I’m in love with you. Ridiculously and irrevocably in love with you!” A grin formed on his lips and spread wider as James returned it.

 The lieutenant dragged him into a kiss, more gentle and more perfect than any kiss Thomas had ever been given before. When he pulled away there was wetness on his cheeks, both from Thomas’ tears and his own. 

“I love you too, you buffoon.”

They laughed and kissed again, forgetting distances and maps and anything beyond one another. Thomas said the words again, breathed them into James’ mouth, onto his cheeks and neck, into the palms of his hands, to be kept there in James’ very being until there was nothing left of the universe.