The words were out of his mouth so fast he didn't know he'd spoken them. 'How can you possibly think that I would be? Or that Susan would be?' he asked his eyes suddenly burning with an anger that surprised him in its strength. Turning his head too sharply and feeling it throb in response, he moved his head from Percy's touch, shied away from it as if every stroke had been a blow. How could Percy possibly even suggest..?
'Your perfect solution wouldn't leave anyone happy. Not you, not me, definitely not Susan. She doesn't love me, not that way, I most definitely don't love her and love was never an issue when it came to sex for me, you know that! I love you, I have only ever loved you and I have never had any desire to be in any other relationship but the one with you. You changed me, my priorities, who I am and now you try to tell me to forget all of it because it would be safer?'
He was nearly shaking with anger, with shock, with pain. He could have handled rejection, but this, this was far more than he was prepared for.
'The safe solution would have been for my father never to follow his heart and be with my mother, but to marry a wealthy pureblood and have legitimate pureblood sons. The safe solution would have been for me to forget my convictions and never joined the Aurors but pretended to agree with the Death Eaters in order to get my grandfather's money. The safe solution is not the right one, it's the one that makes you miserable!'
Collapsing back down, barely aware of how high he had raised his head over the pillow, he was still shaking. 'I never pegged you for a coward,' he whispered.
'Did you mean nothing of what you told me?' he then asked, his voice almost deflated now. 'When you spoke of your parents, of what you saw between them, what you wanted? You said you wanted it all, and you thought I couldn't understand. But I could, because I saw it too, in my parents. I just never thought I'd feel it myself. I could never settle for less than you - I would not be all right.'