(Author's Note: Prompt- "value me"- one character telling the other how they feel about them. Nine/Theron.)
Value Me
Nine practices when he's sleeping.
It's been easier for Theron, or at least it seems to be. They used to laugh at themselves, at how bad they both were at being sentimental, one of the many things they had in common; words were too difficult, so they together let their bodies say the things that caught behind their lips.
But then he said it first, there on the platform above the forest path, and ever since then the words roll off his tongue like water (and if his I love you's are water, she's Tatooine- he could say it a hundred thousand times and it would never be enough to soak in fully). She is learning their meanings. With the smallest shift in tone the same three words become be careful or I miss you or come to bed-
But most of the time Theron simply means I love you, and his face when he says it is the most beautiful thing she's ever seen.
She replies in kind, every time, because it's true. Force knows it took her long enough to admit it to herself, but it's true, and after five years and everything else he deserves to hear it.
He deserves to hear other things, too, but those are harder.
So she practices while he's sleeping, whispering I love you and I need you and if anything happens to you I don't know what I'll do into the quiet between his even breaths, muffled against the nape of his neck or the curve of his arm. She practices, night after night, different words each time, until she doesn't stutter over them, until she can say what she means to, if only when he doesn't hear.
Tomorrow, she thinks, she'll say them when he's awake.
Tonight, though, he's asleep, curled neat and noiseless with his head on her chest, and she brushes a kiss across his forehead. "Good night, darling," she murmurs, half-gone into dreams herself. "I love you."
-and, eyes still closed, his mouth curls into a smile she can feel against her bare skin. "I know."