[Love...]

Temenos...

[Is that what this is? This fullness in his chest combating the demands of his stomach, the warmth in his limbs, the pound of his pulse. He looks at this man and the world seems to stop.

...

Something passes over him - the same hesitance that kept him from their first kiss, a guilty and almost mournful cloud, and it holds the silence. But Beelzebub lifts a hand to break it, to brush against Temenos's jawline, to look at him fully and feel that intense desire for protection.]

...I love you, too.

[The statement is sure, but there's a fragility, an uncertainty in his eyes that thankfully he lets tumble out his mouth. ]

I... didn't know if you felt that way at all. I've never heard you say anything. So I... I got worried about what I felt. I wondered if it was all just... another lesson.

[It wasn't worth getting mad about, or interrupting what time he had enjoyed despite his hesitancy. But now he wonders if he had been the fool.]

...Could you let me know your feelings, Temenos? The ones you trust?

And... could you call me Beel?