He’d been stunned by his own response. By the depth of need. The way he hadn’t felt the impulse to pull away.
That’d snuck in eventually, once his brain had caught up and demanded to know what he thought he was doing and reminded him about bruises and big hands and pain. But even then it’d been more of a baffled confusion at himself than outright fear. He did trust Jason. And he liked Jason. He wanted to smile, around Jason.
He did not know how that’d happened, but somewhere between Will’s love and Stephen’s heart and careful boot-removal and gifts of food and Jason’s fond earth-brown gaze when Colby rambled about sky pirates or weather magic, he thought he’d become someone else yet again, or maybe he was still in the middle of becoming that person. Someone who could be comfortable in a
