#leo: I love you [NOT CLICKBAIT THIS TIME I SWEAR]

[crookedghosts]

this is perhaps telling about where I am in my fic and how it's gonna be eventually written but if there's one thing that's canon to me about roommates/best friends to lovers Valgrace it is that they VERY liberally throw "I love you" around as friends. BUT. once they are romantically together, it takes them much longer to be comfortable with "I love you" declarations because it means that much more. they will grow into saying it casually/frequently again as their relationship progresses (married valgrace says it as a generic response to most things), but early-relationship valgrace puts so much weight on love that they can't make themselves say what they mean. I genuinely don't think the first "I love you" gets dropped until a little late into their early relationship and 50/50 whether from an impulsive "oh my god that's my boyfriend he's so cute oh my god I love him" moment or an emotional, crying-their-eyes-out declaration because they were so touched about something sweet that boyf did and then it's like "oh fuck now I'm crying no it's okay it's just that I love you and want exactly this forever please let me keep you I love you I want you I need you always I love you". before any of that it's all just "I want this. you and me. us. be mine. I really like you. I adore you. this is real. nothing has ever been more real to me than you and my feelings for you. I don't think I'll ever stop feeling this way about you and I don't mind that, actually. Not if you don't."

but yeah that's the valgrace that lives in my head