"I love you," Justin said, and swallowed hard. "But maybe...maybe love, maybe you're right. I think we both...did it out of fear and comfort and...perhaps we..." He closed his eyes. "Perhaps we're not...perhaps we're more..." For Justin, this level of inarticulateness was absurd. He gathered his thoughts, knew them to be true, and figured it best he spoke them now. "I love you. I always will, but not as passionately as I once did. Our time apart it...changed things between us, and I don't think either of us wanted to see it, because we love each other too much to hurt, but not enough to...to persist."