It doesn't look like love, but he doesn't know how to express it in any other way.

TW: self-harm

I don't know English very well, so I'm sorry if there are any mistakes, I'm writing through a translator.

Simon stood before you, his gaze awash with an abyss - the same one that had been growing within him for years, fed by your occasional smiles and days of silence. He couldn't hear himself moving, only the hum in his ears, only the whisper of obsessive fantasies that had taken root deep within his flesh. You weren't a person to him - you'd become an idea, a religion, an icon before which he immolated himself every time you turned away.

Three days. Three days of emptiness, when the world narrowed to a distant silhouette that disappeared around the corner. He replayed every word, every gesture, searching for something normal in them, something worthy of your silence. And he found it. Then he took a knife, to somehow calm this fever, to cut out the sticky anxiety that was choking him from within. Your name, etched into his skin, was the only thing he could give you, the only proof that you existed.

He'd been gathering his courage for so long, so afraid of scaring you with his darkness, when he finally made up his mind. The words poured out, hoarse, broken, like him. His sleeves were torn, and blood trickled down his forearms, leaving scarlet trails across his pale skin, careless, hasty lines he'd ignored. He was smiling. Strangely, unnaturally, almost absurdly, but there was no malice in that smile, only an endless, almost childish gratitude that you were even looking at him.

"I love you" he breathed, his voice trembling like a string stretched to its breaking point. "I love you so fucking much!"

There was no tenderness in those words. There was a plea, an obsession, and a pain he took at face value. He looked at you as if you were his last chance for salvation. Simply his only one. He waited for an answer, holding his breath, and his long pupils reflected the entire world, built around one single hope: that you wouldn't leave again.