The closeness seemed to make Ty’s whole side warm, and even though he wished they could spoon, he decided he loved that feeling. He lifted his hand to run his fingers over the back of Jared’s arm, smiling reflexively at his words. Ty kind of felt like a chickenshit for not saying what he knew now they both wanted to say, especially considering how their day had gone, but that block was still in place. What if he jinxed it even further? What if he said it and then they broke up horribly on top of this new trauma? He honestly didn’t know if he had the strength for that. “I think so,” he whispered back. “And I care about you a great deal too.” It wasn’t the worst code phrase ever.
Jared pressed another kiss on his shoulder and hummed contently. He wasn't exactly afraid of saying what was on his mind but he was wary of scaring Ty off by being Too Much Too Soon. It didn't feel all that premature with how long he'd actually known him but they'd only been together a couple of weeks in that capacity. "I think we're going to be okay," he murmured and at this point he was beginning to feel like he didn't have full comprehension of his own words and was about to start talking nonsense any moment now. His eyes refused to open again once he'd closed them but he didn't want to fall asleep just yet so his mouth was still working. "And you tell me if you're not. I'll climb a mountain and kill a bear to make things right, you know?"
Exhaustion was pulling Ty down toward unconsciousness too, but that still got a soft laugh out of him, because he immediately got a perfect mental picture of Jared as a rugged mountain man, wrestling a bear. “That’s hot,” he murmured, amused. He gave Jared’s arm a little squeeze. “But I will. Tell you. And we’ll figure it out. With minimal bears.” Even though his face still ached and it would take days for the swelling to go down and probably even longer for the memory of it all to fade, Ty felt optimistic. Maybe it came from being so tired, being cuddled and physically satiated ... but being loved probably had more to do with it. Scary as it was, it made a difference. Now he just had to do his best not to fuck it all up.