The quiet that followed their declaration was different from the silences that had come before. It wasn't empty or tense, but filled with a new kind of understanding, fragile but real. They stood in the living room, the weight of their conversation settling between them, the scattered clothes on the floor now just a reminder of how far they'd come in the last hour.
Jay looked at Roman, at the slight softening around his eyes that hadn't been there earlier. He felt something shift inside him, a quiet certainty that they had crossed a threshold. But the outside world was waiting.
"Okay," Jay said finally, his voice steady. "It's time for you to go home."
Roman didn't move. His gaze remained fixed on Jay, intense and unwavering. "Home," he repeated, the word sounding foreign in his mouth. "But I'm home already."
